GoldenCat/PassionEchoes

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Echoes of Passion

Cael: Cael reaches his room, and shuts the door behind him, unbuttoning his long jacket and throwing it to the bed, unbuttoning his shirt, as he stands before the mirror, looking once more at the binds that wrap around him, tracing his fingers over the pattern before he lifts his chin, studying the wound on his neck..
This shouldn't have happened.
It was far to close to being a lot worse.
Try something like that Cael, when you're facing someone like the Disciple, and he will split you in two.
He completes the disrobing, walking through to the bath room, sinking down into the warmth bath that is waiting for him. He lets out a pleasant sigh as he does.
"Thank you Calisara dear." he whispers, as he closes his eyes, gasping a little as the water washes into the wound, then relaxing again.
And what am I going to do with you, Anne? And Alex for that matter ... No ... worry about that later ... Now, just relax

Shame there is no-one to relax with....

????: Calisara does not reply.

Suddenly, everything goes dark.

The lights fade out, leaving Cael on his own on the luxurious bathroom, the dimmest light of late dusk coming through the window. He begun to feel the scent then.

Camelias.

A Shadow detached itself from somewhere. A shadow of ice-blue eyes that glittered on the dark. The shadow begins to grow... to change... the eyes, still there. The figure walks towards Cael, and somehow... he cannot see it. He sees it, but cannot focus, as if the world insisted the figure is a blur even if looked directly.

It stands there, watching....

Cael: Cael lets out the smallest of sighs, his body shimmering slightly as he prepares to follow like blood, even as he sits up a little straighter in the bath.

"Hello."
One simple word, filled with a thousand questions.

????: "Hello, Lover. It has been a long time."

The voice, playful... giggling. She giggles as she walks towards Cael, her movements hypnotic. Nothing can be made from her but the blur, everything around the sillhouette a blur...

"Please, do not get up." She says, the giggle in the voice so alike that of tricksters, of the faerie... "I am not here to harm you, Lover. Relax."

Her voice... like the scent of Camelias.

Like Blood. It had always been like blood.

Earlier, Cael felt it. During the battle, amidst the blood... blood reminded him of something. He had not known what. He did now. Camelias. The scent around him, as he traveled with her at his side. Seeing enemies rent from limb to limb by her, touching her blood-covered form, kissing her still with blood on her mouth, over the corpses of enemies... blood.

It was him, even if he did not remember ever doing it on his life...

The scent of Camelias and blood.

Cael: Cael remains lying in the bath.
No need to get up when I can defend myself just as well in here ... the water is warm.

"It has been a long time, if my memories do not play me false."

Kissing in blood?
Camelias and blood...
Camelias and blood ...
Why does that seem so right?

????: "Long, long time. An age was not yet past."

"I missed you, Lover. I missed you. I am glad to see you are still so handsome."

Sati, Daughter of Destruction on his arms, he saw her. For a moment, there was a tinge of fear. For Sati was a Solar Exalted, powerful as he. A member of their Circle There was no jealously with so many others below his station, but her, who was more powerful than even his wife...

'Tahira'... he had said then. She had just smiled, a finger to his lips. Her eyes... what color were her eyes? The blur was on past and present and future..

A finger to his lips, then, and a smile. 'No matter. No care. Alpha. You do as you wish.' And so do I? A wicked smile then. Not even her alpha could stop her from playing her tricks.

Cael opens his eyes and sees... so many conflicting emotions on her. Curiosity. Devotion. Mostly she is curious. She wants to see. To touch. To feel. She feels a devotion, but... not quite for him. Not quite.

She stands above the tub then. And drips. It falls on the water, darker, darker than the water...

Cael: Cael watches the drop of blood fall to the crystal clear water, watches the reddess spread, then watches it fall like rain on the bathwater, slowly spreading through the water.

... Tahira ... Sati ...

Cael considers the brief fleeting vision
I was with someone not my wife ...
My wife did not care ...
She is my wife.
She was my wife.
The thoughts play slowly across his mind, as he considers the time before ...
And now she is curious.
"Tahira." he breathes the name "That who you were when I knew you last."

Tahira: "You remember me. How sweet, Husband." Her hand moves to the water, dripping again. "I would imagine you had forgotten... so many lives ago, for me. You... it was only one life ago for you, was it not? Locked for so long beneath the waves... I missed you then."

A feet in the water. And another. "You were handsome today. And naughty. Destroying such sweet death. Devoid of class, devoid of beauty, but still, a sweet death."

She feels... sympathy? For the undead. A little bit of disappointment. As if she wished they would destroy all in their path...

Cael: "I was away for a long time, yes. It's not what I would have wanted, but I don't think it was something I had a choice in."

Do I miss you?
Do I even know you?
I am I the one you knew?

He smiles at the mention of hansome.
"She lacked elegance and grace and charm. She sought to tear things down, not build things up. She is working for my foe. That left her very little reason to be let to live."

Tahira: "Your foe? Our poor violet friend is probably wounded by such words. And he was so fond of you..." She giggles. So playful, so carefree.... walking in the water towards him. Another droplet. And yet another... a giggle that makes Cael remember arguments. Snide remarks. Their bone-masked crow. So polite, so scholarly... No sense of humor. He so loved to tease him... "You have returned, husband. Why?"

He remembers someone. Shining in violet, sword in hand, no sense of humor at all. He used to tease the guy alot. Guy used to grumble with him alot... is what comes to mind...

Cael: "Quite." he says simply, lying back into the bath a little as she steps towards him.
And I remember almost nothing of him. Perhaps more will come when I meet him.

"I returned. I returned when I stole this skyship. I returned and I am here because I do not intend to go away." he smiles at the shadow and the blur "I could ask the same of you ... why have you come here? Why do you hide your face ... hide your form from me ... I can remember you were beautiful once. Now all I see are your eyes."

Tahira: She touches him then. Her hands running over his chest, touching the binds... and feeling a thrill. "They are still the same... gold immaculate. So beautiful. She really did a masterwork with this, did she not? They still look wonderful, wrappng you. Beauty of sun. Beauty of death."

He sees her thoughts, he feels them behind her words...

Here once again. We have the key again. We can finally continue

"Survival, my dear. After all, I had to evade your Calisara. I had to kept you blinded." The hands on his chest become lithe then, young, and then, it is Anne holding close to him. Anne, but not Anne, with pale golden ears of a fox, and a playful grin. "The face of your new pet is any better, then?"

Cael: Cael lets out a small sigh as the hands move over his skin, tracing out the patterns in the binds, the slight sensation of the slick of blood on his skin ... unfamiliar and yet so familiar he wondered how he had never felt it before.
Why does her touch feel so right? What are the binds that wrap me?
Beauty of Sun? I can see that ...
Beauty of Death? They can bring death, and the death can have a beauty to it ... but do I think that is not what you mean ...

The key to what?

His face looks mildy disapproving as he sees her new form.
"Ah. Survival I can understand. You are mistaken if you think her my pet, though her form is easier on my eyes than your shadows, so yes, her form is better. That still doesn't tell me why you came here... "

Tahira: Her hands keep running above his tatoos, leaving blood on his skin... and the smell of Camelias. She smiles, with Anne's lips. "I wanted to see you again. I said I missed you, did I not? I wanted to touch you again. To feel you again." She leans foward, kisssing... white fox ears with jet-black tips shivering just slightly as she does. Cael can see inside her soul, and see that... she is honest.

Cael: Cael finds himself slipping his arms around her as she kisses him, pulling Anne ... her ... to him, smelling the camelias and the blood, tasting them on her lips, a part of him wondering why this doesn't feel strange, a part of him wondering why he is ever doubting it. He kisses her for a while, before he breaks the kiss, pulling back a little, licking the blood off his lips, revulsed and content at the same time.

"I think I missed you too." ... somehow.
Though like everyone I see in visions such as those you gave me ... You leave me far too many questions.
Perhaps I should ask some.</i>

He traces out Tahira in the air above the bath, the words shimmering with gold. "That is what they do. With each mention of them, I think less that that is what they were made to do."

Tahira: She moves down, and licks the binds... "They are the Empyrean Binds, husband. They are what they are. They are what their name means. Her masterwork. The Mother of Shadows'"

As she says so, the visions come again...

She dressed in violet robes. Her hair, pale and blonde, fell about her shoulders, voluptuous. Turquoise eyes shone at Cael as she walked, small translucent wings of light on her back, six of them. The words out of her mouth came to Cael, broken... 'I understood .... e code .... told me the words he used to write in .... aven, and the Loom.... deciphred it... I can encode it now. On Orichalcum.... n your shard.... ome here...' Myria was her name. Moranine she became when it was eaten.

"You do not remember? I am mistaken that she is your pet, yes. You would not desire a pet so much. I was never your pet, after all..."

My Alpha

Cael: Empyrean Binds.
Heaven's Chains.
That is what they are the-

The vision rolls over him. Her again ... this time before her ... change.
The code he used to write in heaven? the Loom? What was the Loom?
And now they were grafted onto his shard...

Pet? ... Why do you feel so much about that ...
Cael catches her eyes with his own, looking at them, looking through them, through the barriers, through the deceptions, all the things that would stop him knowing her feelings on this, knowing how she worked.

Tahira: Cael can see, looking inside her soul as she speaks... the meaning beneath the words.

The binds are perfect, as they should be.

So we can use it. On the right time, we will use it. Use it to hold heaven on bondage. Use it to hold the Gods on bondage.

Use it for our lord.

In some ways, she feels like a pet. the way she licks the the tatoos on Cael's chest... yet, she rebels against it. She is a trickster. A rebel. And she is somewhat... jealous? Of Anne? No, not jealous... curious. She wants to know what pleases Cael. But at the same time, she has no intention to get too close. Because she will not be reined in.

Before, you never saw me as your pet, you would never feel attracted to one. But if you are now, and you try as some of your peers did, I shall rend you, husband... the plan be damned.

Cael: Cael gently holds her head to his chest as she licks along the lines of the binds, feeling the sparks, stroking his hands through her hair as he thinks about the things she has said to him, and about the things she has told him and about the memories she stirred up. He lets out a small sigh as she does that.

So you are not a pet then? Or are you? Do you even know how your mind works? Do I?
And this plan ... to hold heaven in bondage ... for a lord that I do not think is the sun ... What is this plan?!

He smiles down at her, on his chest "No, I've no desire for a pet." he trails a finger down her back "Leastwise no desire to make a pet out of someone who doesn't feel that way already ..." He says. a slightly teasing tone to his voice, watching for her reaction.

Tahira: "But you do desire her." She says, her eyes changing them... every bit like Anne's, as the moonlight hits them. She is silver under the moonlight, everything blue or silver in the darkness....

... the darkness that comes from her.

That darkness that stirs in his chest, in his binds, every time she touches them.

No pets out of mortals... or out of me...?

"What, then? A lover? So young...?"

Cael: Cael studies ..Anne's face in the darkness and the moonlight, as he strokes her hair. "I desire her, yes. She is a creature of beauty and joy but just because I desire her, doesn't mean I will act on that desire ..."

And what is this darkness that surrounds her ... echoes in me ...

"Not a lover. Not yet. Maybe not ever. My interest in Anne is how she will grow, and the world she will grow into."

Tahira: She coos as she is stroked, softly, coming down at his chest once again... a snow-white fox tail coming out of the water, its tip jet-black as the tip of her ears.. "You will not? Such restraint with a mere mortal, husband."

She listens to the rest..."And an interesting one...to make things grow? So much changed, on you. The world... it is still ours, husband. Do you remember the Underworld? The Chaos? ours" She says... her voice determination and delight

Cael: Cael twists his hands through her hair, playing with her ear in his hands, studying the texture."Restraint is half the fun, sometimes." His other hand traces up and down her side, gentle carresses and subtle patterns traced on her skin.

The World? The Underworld? The Chaos?

"It is something to do to pass the time. A hobby, if you will." He says with a half shrug, his body moving below hers. "I remember little of the time before ... nothing about the Underworld or the Chaos as it was then ... Nothing."

Tahira: "Hmmm.... yes... it is. It is a game, then. To cook her up, spice the dish, make it pretty... and then eat. Hmmm... I wonder what will be her taste then." She says, licking off her fingers... all washed of the blood now, the waters cleaning it all up around them... the smell of camelias sticking.

Her Anne demeanor was complete now, and despite the wicked words, she did not falter from speaking like the girl would. "Yes... you changed much, do you know? You changed much..."

"What do you think about the Underworld?"

Cael: Cael smiles at her as she mentions the game, watching her lick her fingers with a slightly predatory expression on his face, nodding slowy, licking her own lips. Then he stops ... studying her face ... looking at her eyes .... listening to her voice ... he studies them for a time. She was good, he had to admit.
And that is something else to remember for the future.
"I imagine I have ..." he shrugs again.?
"The Underworld? ... The underworld is darkness and it is death." he continues to stroke, waiting for a reaction, looking for one on her face, seeking one in her eyes, feeling for one below his fingers. "It has little beauty, and that which it has seems to be static, unchanging ... It has no life."

Tahira: She looks at him then. Blank.

"You have changed."

"It is also ours. We carved a rule there when it was still young. Ours to play games with, to irate those old men. Like those unshaped things. Ours to play with."

She rubs against him them, the budding flesh of the body she wears against his mature one, Anne's body, still developing, so petite and cute, and yet rubbing with desire... "Such delightful games to play. And now you play with mere Mortals."

Cael: "That is not the underworld I know. The underworld I know seems old, and it cares naught for this world, and the destruction it causes here. Its creations by and large lack grace. That is why I do not approve of it." Cael trails his fingers over her skin in a sweet carress.

"I don't play with just mortals, though. Whatever gave you that impression?"

Tahira: "You used to. We played wonderful games... diplomacy was a game. Romance was a game. All a wonderful game, husband..."

She shivers under his fingers, and just stands there.. stopping the robbing, just close to him, letting him act on her. "You knew how to play then. But yet..."

"... today showed me you have came back. On scope. Not small... no. We are never small."

"And the Underworld... sometime, I will show it to you. But it is what you are. What I am. What your binds are. The dead have forsook grace because we are not there, lover. That is our second home. As is the Wyld. The great game goes farther than the north."

Cael: Cael laughs softly, his hands tracing over the sides of her small breasts as she lies on top of him "There is a little bit of a game in everything. If there wasn't I never would have become who I am now. Somethings require a certain seriousness though. The death of an Exalt, even one such as the Celebrant is not a game."

His fingers continue thier subtle dance over Anne's skin ... over the skin his lover was wearing.

"I will look forward to that, I think ... when the time is right."

... She is so strange. Alien almost.

Tahira: "Death? Deaths are the sweetest parts of the game." She says, rubing a little more... kissing his neck, the lower of his jaw... biting him. Softly, almost rupturing the skin... but not "Yes... when the time is right, you shall be part of the game. When the time is right, you shall know what your binds stand for. When the time is right, we shall let the words out in the world, to do what they were inscribed to do."

She kisses him, a long kiss then, and strong... then backs off... walking back on the tub, and then out of it... beggining to... shed herself, in cherry blossoms... a cascade of camelia blossoms coming from her, and on a moment, he sees her... a petite woman... slim, beautiful... beautiful as a faerie princess. Pale Blond hair falling over her shoulders and back, same color as the tails of a fox... and being unmade in cherry blossoms... until only emerald eyes are left... and not even that...

And amidst all that, he only hears her playful voice...

"Welcome back to the big game, lover..."

Cael: Cael shudders softly below her as she bites, letting out a small gasp, a pleasant gasp. He hadn't had someone like this in a while ... though ... Scarlet promised to be close. His hands start to move with more purpose as she talked.
Just what is that, though?
That is what I will know before I unleash anything.
He kisses her then, melting into it, feeling her young tongue, with far more skill than it had any right to have ... and then it stopped.
He watched her walk away, watched her dissolve into cherry blossoms, hears the voice. And then she is gone.
Farewell then, Tahira.
Maybe beore I see you again I'll have some answer to the question that you are. And the question that is wrapped about my body.
Cael sinks back into the bathwater, and closes his eyes for the moment.

"Calisara?"

Calisara: She appears around him, shortly thereafter, facing the other way. Nothing she had not seen before, nothing she had not rubbed against, but yet, she felt like being coy at times. "Called, Cael?"

Cael: Cael admires her back for a while, as he speaks "Did you notice anything ... odd?"

Calisara: "Odd? Me? No... nothing odd." She focus for a moment... then her eyes open wide. "Anne!"

And then, in a desperate hurry, she vanishes.

Cael:...Anne!

Cael leaps from the bath, the water drying instantaly, siezing up a bathrobe as he runs, slipping it about him as he makes for Anne's room.
If she has harmed her ...

Calisara: Cael moves on the corridors of the ship, and as he arrives to Anne's room... he sees the faint trail of blood on the floor. As he gets there, he sees Anne on the ground... pale. A little too pale.

Her pulse ruptured, tore open, but already bandaged. Calisara, already materialized, holds the girl... baffled. Shocked. Confused. "She... she is... how.... how... how...."

Cael: "... go and get Alex." he says as he races to Calisara's side, putting his hands on Anne, gathering her in his arms, holding her body for the second time today. He gently strokes her arms, willing the warmth back into them.

You will pay for this, Tahira.
You might not pay much, not if she doesn't die.
But you will pay.

Cael holds the young girl tighter, and hugs her to him.
As his mind flashes back to the time in the bath.

Calisara: "How... how... I never saw... I never saw.... I...." Calisara, for the first time since Cael had seen her, stands there in shock. Then she nods, going to look for Alex, her mind still more on the shock than anything else.

Her nature is to keep vigil over the Zephyr, and on that, she failed.

And Anne paid the price.

Anne's pulse is... weak. But she is alive. distinctly, distinctly alive, but... weakened.

Cael: I'll tell you when Anne is fine. he thinks after the spirit as he holds the weakened Anne to his body, smoothing the hair away from her face, looking down at her with concern.

Yes, you're going to pay for this, Tahira.
Becuase you hurt something I promised to protect.
Because you hurt something I said I would keep safe.

"I'm sorry, Anne."

Alexander: Alexander walks in, the cuts on his face mostly dry now, as are the ones on his arms, but walking more slowly and painfully than normal, his wings limp, hurt, all bandaged... and going wide-eyed as he goes into the room, rushing to Anne, almost stumbling as he touches her... "How did this happen, Cael? Who did this?!?"

All was safe. This was their day of victory.

They had won!
This was simply... not fair.
Not fair at all.

Cael: Cael looks up as the Prince walks in. "Tahira."

Alexander: He touches her forearm, and begins to absorb it... so much... and he is so hurt... he begins to cry then.

This should not happen today.
Not today.

He begins to pull it off her... and then, color returns to her. And then, he takes her bandages off, showing an immaculately whole wrist where it was tore open before.

And then, Anne opens her eyes,
And then Alex passes out, on the ground near her.

Cael: "Welcome back, Anne." He kisses her forehead. "I'm sorry for what happened to you."
He looks down at the prince, comatose on the floor.
Alex, Alex, you must learn not to strain yourself too much.
Not that I am ungrateful that you did.

Anne: Anne opens her eyes... looking up at Cael...

And for a moment, She is Tahira. For a moment, she is rubbing against him and speaking in playful words. Same face, same eyes. Same mien.

"Cael... lord Cael... what...?"

Cael: Cael blinks at the superpostion of the images. His face betrays no such confusion to Anne though, and he smiles apologetically down at her. "Someone I once knew ... a long, long time ago ... Long before I was born. They did something to you that they should not have. You're safe now though." He hugs her.

Anne: Anne hugs him. As tightly as her weakened, numb limbs allow. She saw a shadow. She saw a myriad of colors, a blur, a blur, and then nothing. But she still felt drained. Ravaged. She clings. "Don't leave me alone..."

Cael: Cael gently picks her up in his arms, and sets her on the bed, lifting the covers up over her, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "I won't leave you alone. Not tonight." He sits on the bed, looking down at the Prince. "If Calisara will stay with you, can I carry Alex to his cabin?" He asks softly of her.

Anne: Her eyes tremble looking at him... such a display of frailty... "Y-yes... just... be quick, please?" She says, as Calisara holds her, the Zephyr spirit still shocked with the intrusion to her charge, the hurt she could not see...

Cael: Tahira. You will have to learn to not break what is mine.
Cael leans down and picks the prince up, carrying through the corridoors of the Zephyr to his cabin, undressing him and laying him out on the bed, covering him and then turning the light out. "Thank you Alex.", he whispers to the unconcious boy.

Then he sweeps back through the ship to Anne's cabin, sitting himself down on the bed, smiling up at Calisara. His eyes convey to her that he doesn't hold her responsible for this, that there was nothing she could have done, that Anne is fine, the Prince is fine and that she should calm down.
"Thank you, Calisara." he says warmly I'll speak to you later.
He turns back Anne, and speaks to her warmly "Now, what are we going to do? I'm not sure that I can teach you to fold paper in bed ... so perhaps I'll have to read to you...." And so the night passes.

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