Eoh
12-03-2005, 01:14 AM
Exhausted and grateful for the small inn, and a real bed, Eohlwyn closed the door with less than a glance at Ao and Arhela, locking it to keep that crazy girl out and afford some true privacy for a night. Shuffling off her outer gown, she sighed, and pulled an elvan comb from her satchel to brush out her long red hair, sitting on the edge of the down bed. The night air could be felt through the thin glass paned windows.. and from the second story window the late winter rooftops were a glistening sight, almost peaceful if they weren't so eiry. Finishing brushing out her braids and letting her hair loose, she adjusted her light and long white under dress, the soft bottice forming a belt just under her maiden bust, and settled into the thick quilt of the bed with a sigh.
The night drifted onwards.. Ao and Arhela outside the door.. Eohlwyn lying like a pale godess on the warm pillow,.. candles burning down to near thier base.
Avarian had been tracking Eohlwyn and the boy since the soldiers had reported the encounter with them at the miner's village, weeks before. The men had been battered and bruised, and sent out of the city with their tails tucked between their legs. Avarian had also entered the city to search for clues on where the pair might have fled to when he encountered Ao's grandfather Remo.
The snow frosted mountain city would have been the ideal setting for an epic battle, as neither the skills of the son of Gar nor the legendary knight, Remodan went unreputed. However, the old man was not so anxious to fight as he had been when he was younger, and Avarian could not risk so serious of injures as he might have likely incured in such a battle, so he moved onwards.
The following weeks took him through the caves behind the mining city, as the only path that Eoh and the boy could have taken that would lead them to saftey was through the elven forest. That was no place he wished to track them through, however, and the trip through the caves had actually brought him to the coastal city two weeks before they arrived.
He spent his time in the taverns, listening to the rumors of the time, and establishing his plan to intercept the girl. He had not expected her bring so much company with her, however. The bartender had been bribed, of course, and the group was given rooms on the southern wing of the Inn, where the windows faced the ajoining stables, and the market beyond that.
He had gotten an odd job in the stables, feeding the animals, though it was clear that the creatures were not so fond of him. It suited the purpose, however, and on the night of their arrival, after all was quiet and late into the night, he stood leaning to the balcony railing of Eohlwyn's room, the candles burning inside making the window a polished black mirror, masking him while he watched her.
Eohlwyn glanced at the black window and exhaled.. settling in and drifting softly into slumber, the warmth of the small inn a haven, she didn't bother blowing out the candles and pulled the thick comforter to her neck, her face tilting on the pillow, her left wrist limp beside her face, her body soft beneath the quilt, as the candlelight reflected in her pale copper hair and porcelain skin.
Avarian observed her as she drifted into sleep, but did not enter her room for quite some time after she had fallen into slumber. He had seen her many times through the years, when she was a girl, and then a budding teenager, but now in her 18th year she seemed somehow changed. It could have been attributed to the charming light of the candles, which seems inclined to make both men and women more beautiful under its copper light. He looked upon her with a fascination that he spared for few women, and he began to wonder what role the young beauty would play in the events to come. She was, after all, the only person that could save their city from the Dragoon...
Silently, he opened the window.
He stepped inside with not a sound, and was careful to close the window behind him, not out of necessity, but to be polite and not disturb her too much, while she slept. He closed the curtains as well, and then stepped to the edge of her bed.
Eohlwyn sighed in her sleep. It was the first warm bed she had had since the elvan villiage, the first pillows and blankets she had felt in over a month of traveling through Ganareth's steep winter cold. Shifting slightly below the quilt, he could see her chest rise and fall in regular rythm, her hair obscuring strands of her face in coppery red whisps. Her face turned briefly as if to face him.
Avarian glanced toward the door, the pair of shadows just beneath it revealing the guards that stood outside. It seems the Count's daughter was well traveled, even when escaping from the dungeons of her own city, such was the mark of royal breeding. He touched her cheek and lead a few threads of crimson hair from her face, before he began to unclasp the cloak that hung about his shoulders, and unbind the straps of his leather armor. He folded the fabric and set it neatly into a neat chair, his armor joining it piece by piece.
Eohlwyn inhaled softly.. shifting again in her sleep, flinching a bit as if from an unsettling dream that drifted beneath her eyes.
He leaned forward and let a single breath blow out the candle near the bed stand, leaving the one at the far side of the room the only source of illumination. Then he leaned across that girl, one hand on the bed to support his weight, while the other was quite careful in drawing the quilt down. She was beautiful, a rare and delicate beauty that could not so easily be attributed to any particular feature, but was stark and radiant in a way that went without explaination. He leaned down enough to breathe in the scent of her, before his eyes slid up her body to watch her while she slept.
Eohlwyn shifted slightly more both with the dream and the light touch. Her breathing began to draw somewhat lighter as he could tell her stirring towards consciousness.
The gentle stirring of her body drew his gaze up toward her face, and he peered at her with a subtle cant of his head, fascinated and predatory, lupine in nature. One of his hands moved beside the bed to where his belongings had been stowed, and he pulled a dagger from his belt quite slowly.
Eohlwyn whimpered something soft, her shoulders stirring as her eyes fluttered softly.. not quite awake but close, and breath came faster a moment as she noted with confusion the prescence over her.
Avarian crawled up the length of her body as she began to stir and rouse from her sleep. The motion was not fast, but it was simple, he pressed the curved blade of the knife against the underside of her chin, and leaned up enough to whisper against her ear so very gently. "If you scream... your friends will come to save you, and I will kill them all."
Eohlwyn gasped softly... her eyes going wide and face even paler as she swallowed and woke quickly.. the pressure of his form over her alarming..... as she became aware and recognized the face now hovering over her. The Marquis' brother. Instead of screaming, which her fear would not allow her to do besides.. she only mouthed.. terrified.. "Avarian..." as her heart lept to her throat.
"You got rather far, Eohlwyn... I would not have thought that a polished young lady like you would survive on the road and in the wild." His voice was gentle, much different from his brother's, whose always seemed to carry an intrinsic condescending quality. No, his voice was genuine and quiet, the voice of a man that was either not versed in the rhetoric of politics, or simply did not care for it. He brushed his cheek to hers, breathed in the scent of her hair, before he drew back once more to stare down onto the beauty of her face, and stare into her eyes. "You've grown up to become so beautiful... I remember when you were just a girl..."
"What do you want?..." she breathed silently.. he could feel her heart racing below him, and see the terror in her eyes. Her face lifted slightly to bring her chin farther away from the edge of the knife.. yet despite her terror she held an air of silent dignity.. vulnerable as she was beneath him. "Please.. please don't take me back there.. " she pleaded simply.
"You are the only one that can save our Kingdom from the Dragoon. I don't know if it's the right thing to do... but I do know that all of this is larger than you and I." He said this in a very quiet voice, while the fingers of his other hand brushed over the front of her shoulder, while he leaned down enough to whisper very softly to her lips, feeling her breath on his face. "It is our home isn't it?"
Eohlwyn's eyes shifted.. inhaling as they widened, a squeek held back by the knife at her throat.. as the realization of his other intent sent color to her cheeks, and creased her young and frightened brow.
"You have a purpose to serve in all of this, Eohlwyn. I will take you back to our kingdom and we will see where this all leads. It would be easier if you went willingly... but perhaps that's too much to ask of you." He tasted her lower lip for a moment, before he tipped his head down enough to cast his eyes down her body.
"Please..." her eyes begged.. knowing the plea to be a waste as water lit the corner of her eyes. Ao and Arhela were so close... but neither could best the knight before her and she knew it. They would be dead before any help could arrive.
"The Dragoon will crush Dusha Ogohn if you are not returned... all of the people that you know, all of your friends will be slaughtered. You beg me to allow this to happen?" he asked in her in that quiet voice that did not raise, despite the nature of the question. He tipped his mouth to hers and he let his eyes fix upon the blurred image of her own for a moment, before he whispered to her lips.
"You know that I have no other choice, Eohlwyn..."
Eohlwyn held back a gasp and stared into his eyes.. fear not abating tho her voice was calm.. earnest, as she breathed... "You brother is mad.. he will be the ruin of our home. He thinks I am something I am not... without armies, without the counsel I can do nothing to save our home from Dragoon. He means my eventual death. I will not marry him." Her features turned to anger a moment as she stared at this man so bound by lies. Her eyes looked at him in terror but also pity... he was somehow.. strangely calming to her at once as he was terrifying. His hand moved and her thoughts shifted. "Why are you doing this?" her thoughts of politics dropped as his fingers caressed her, and for a long moment, she was only a woman. Only a maiden beneath a familiar yet imposing man.
Avarian whispered near her mouth, the cerulean of his eyes glinting in the candles, sharply. "Your fate is something that has been decided... whether fair otherwise, you will return to Dusha Ogohn. However... there is a more terrible fate that awaits you there, something worse than death, something worse than what I will do to you here tonight. I felt your soul scream to wake up when I saw you... to know the difference between waking and sleep. It is a rare thing... to leave the gentle warmth of dreams to the terrors of reality... and so I will save you from another dream, a dream from which you would never wake... but instead be an obedient queen, happy and oblivious to all the world."
Eohlwyn's body trembled beneath his touch.. her eyes sinking into the realization of what was to happen.. a single tear escaping her eyes as she paused a moment in fear.. then firmed in fear, and the flames of her defiance.. and inner strength. She whispered softly.. "Only the gods know my fate." And she grabbed for the knife.
She might have been able to grasp the knife, had that gentle flare of teal fire in her eyes not told the story of her growing defiance, before she reached for it. He used his elbow to catch the inside of her own, and being that his forearm was just a little longer than hers, she would not quite be able to grasp it. His other hand captured her other wrist, as it was certain to join the struggle, and pinned it against the bed above and beside her shoulder. He pressed the blade tighter to her throat, enough to force her to arch her head back into the pillow or have her flesh cut. His nostrils flared, his eyes alive and alert like an animal. It had taken all of his concentration not to kill her in that moment when the body thought before the mind.
Her eyes widened alertly.. the slip of the knife so close her heart was almost audible in it's fluttering beat. Her neck arced open and held there as the blade firmed against it.. her breathing made a soft struggled sound in the brief battle.. as if waking from a nightmare.
Outside the door, feet shuffled, the elvan girl having heard what she thought a gasp. Arhela knocked on the door quietly and called in in her not so subtle way.. "Hey your highness, you alright in there?"
Avarian stared down at Eoh in her posture, her slender back arched, and her head arced back into the pillow, that crimson hair a halo about her beautiful throat. A glance slid to the corners of his eyes toward the door, and he leaned down to whisper to her. "If you warn them, they will die."
Her eyes furrowed with her brow.. as she opened her mouth.. her tongue heavy.. but her mind knew best. She would not let her friends die, not like this. Her voice came out clear.. tense.. but simple. "Just a bad dream. Go away." she stated.. tears rolling out the corners of her eyes as she cried silently.. saving her friends.. forfeiting herself.
Outside the door Arhela shrugged and tugged Ao away. "Alright.. whatever. Hey Ao did I show you how......" the voice faded down the hall as Eohlwyn's tearstained eyes opened again and met Avarians plain. Anger. Fire. Hatred. Confusion. Sensation. Defiance. Passion. Sorrow. All fighting in the depths of those teal pools. Her voice lowered again to near breath, and she stated simply, "Do what you will." before her face folded in the beauty of her sorrowfilled youth.
The cerulean blue of his gaze remained fixed onto her eyes, somehow soft, caring, and his whisper came gentle against her mouth. "Don't make a sound..."
And with that, Avarian kissed her, passionately, his words against her lips. "Beautiful girl... this is what you were born for."
The world changed....
Any of magical or other mystical allignment might have felt something strange stirring that night in Grisahm. A thing of magic, of beauty, of danger.
A thing of immense power, awakened.
An echo of fire seared through the night, silent, so silent in the soft candle lit room. The lights of the magical flames flailed intensely about the young couple inside. The mark, the mark left no trace visible upon her flesh as it burned into her skin, the pulses of fire fading with the tail end of her youth.
After all was done, neither knew what to make of it. Eohlwyn's eyes met his with silent alarm, and he kissed her knowingly, tho the event had indeed puzzled him as well. Yet whatever magical occurance it was, had passed, and there were events yet to play.
Letting her pack a small satchel and cloak, Avarian escorted Eohlwyn away to the east, deep in the night as if nothing had happened, as if two lovers were merely tucking themselves away to elope.
The night drifted onwards.. Ao and Arhela outside the door.. Eohlwyn lying like a pale godess on the warm pillow,.. candles burning down to near thier base.
Avarian had been tracking Eohlwyn and the boy since the soldiers had reported the encounter with them at the miner's village, weeks before. The men had been battered and bruised, and sent out of the city with their tails tucked between their legs. Avarian had also entered the city to search for clues on where the pair might have fled to when he encountered Ao's grandfather Remo.
The snow frosted mountain city would have been the ideal setting for an epic battle, as neither the skills of the son of Gar nor the legendary knight, Remodan went unreputed. However, the old man was not so anxious to fight as he had been when he was younger, and Avarian could not risk so serious of injures as he might have likely incured in such a battle, so he moved onwards.
The following weeks took him through the caves behind the mining city, as the only path that Eoh and the boy could have taken that would lead them to saftey was through the elven forest. That was no place he wished to track them through, however, and the trip through the caves had actually brought him to the coastal city two weeks before they arrived.
He spent his time in the taverns, listening to the rumors of the time, and establishing his plan to intercept the girl. He had not expected her bring so much company with her, however. The bartender had been bribed, of course, and the group was given rooms on the southern wing of the Inn, where the windows faced the ajoining stables, and the market beyond that.
He had gotten an odd job in the stables, feeding the animals, though it was clear that the creatures were not so fond of him. It suited the purpose, however, and on the night of their arrival, after all was quiet and late into the night, he stood leaning to the balcony railing of Eohlwyn's room, the candles burning inside making the window a polished black mirror, masking him while he watched her.
Eohlwyn glanced at the black window and exhaled.. settling in and drifting softly into slumber, the warmth of the small inn a haven, she didn't bother blowing out the candles and pulled the thick comforter to her neck, her face tilting on the pillow, her left wrist limp beside her face, her body soft beneath the quilt, as the candlelight reflected in her pale copper hair and porcelain skin.
Avarian observed her as she drifted into sleep, but did not enter her room for quite some time after she had fallen into slumber. He had seen her many times through the years, when she was a girl, and then a budding teenager, but now in her 18th year she seemed somehow changed. It could have been attributed to the charming light of the candles, which seems inclined to make both men and women more beautiful under its copper light. He looked upon her with a fascination that he spared for few women, and he began to wonder what role the young beauty would play in the events to come. She was, after all, the only person that could save their city from the Dragoon...
Silently, he opened the window.
He stepped inside with not a sound, and was careful to close the window behind him, not out of necessity, but to be polite and not disturb her too much, while she slept. He closed the curtains as well, and then stepped to the edge of her bed.
Eohlwyn sighed in her sleep. It was the first warm bed she had had since the elvan villiage, the first pillows and blankets she had felt in over a month of traveling through Ganareth's steep winter cold. Shifting slightly below the quilt, he could see her chest rise and fall in regular rythm, her hair obscuring strands of her face in coppery red whisps. Her face turned briefly as if to face him.
Avarian glanced toward the door, the pair of shadows just beneath it revealing the guards that stood outside. It seems the Count's daughter was well traveled, even when escaping from the dungeons of her own city, such was the mark of royal breeding. He touched her cheek and lead a few threads of crimson hair from her face, before he began to unclasp the cloak that hung about his shoulders, and unbind the straps of his leather armor. He folded the fabric and set it neatly into a neat chair, his armor joining it piece by piece.
Eohlwyn inhaled softly.. shifting again in her sleep, flinching a bit as if from an unsettling dream that drifted beneath her eyes.
He leaned forward and let a single breath blow out the candle near the bed stand, leaving the one at the far side of the room the only source of illumination. Then he leaned across that girl, one hand on the bed to support his weight, while the other was quite careful in drawing the quilt down. She was beautiful, a rare and delicate beauty that could not so easily be attributed to any particular feature, but was stark and radiant in a way that went without explaination. He leaned down enough to breathe in the scent of her, before his eyes slid up her body to watch her while she slept.
Eohlwyn shifted slightly more both with the dream and the light touch. Her breathing began to draw somewhat lighter as he could tell her stirring towards consciousness.
The gentle stirring of her body drew his gaze up toward her face, and he peered at her with a subtle cant of his head, fascinated and predatory, lupine in nature. One of his hands moved beside the bed to where his belongings had been stowed, and he pulled a dagger from his belt quite slowly.
Eohlwyn whimpered something soft, her shoulders stirring as her eyes fluttered softly.. not quite awake but close, and breath came faster a moment as she noted with confusion the prescence over her.
Avarian crawled up the length of her body as she began to stir and rouse from her sleep. The motion was not fast, but it was simple, he pressed the curved blade of the knife against the underside of her chin, and leaned up enough to whisper against her ear so very gently. "If you scream... your friends will come to save you, and I will kill them all."
Eohlwyn gasped softly... her eyes going wide and face even paler as she swallowed and woke quickly.. the pressure of his form over her alarming..... as she became aware and recognized the face now hovering over her. The Marquis' brother. Instead of screaming, which her fear would not allow her to do besides.. she only mouthed.. terrified.. "Avarian..." as her heart lept to her throat.
"You got rather far, Eohlwyn... I would not have thought that a polished young lady like you would survive on the road and in the wild." His voice was gentle, much different from his brother's, whose always seemed to carry an intrinsic condescending quality. No, his voice was genuine and quiet, the voice of a man that was either not versed in the rhetoric of politics, or simply did not care for it. He brushed his cheek to hers, breathed in the scent of her hair, before he drew back once more to stare down onto the beauty of her face, and stare into her eyes. "You've grown up to become so beautiful... I remember when you were just a girl..."
"What do you want?..." she breathed silently.. he could feel her heart racing below him, and see the terror in her eyes. Her face lifted slightly to bring her chin farther away from the edge of the knife.. yet despite her terror she held an air of silent dignity.. vulnerable as she was beneath him. "Please.. please don't take me back there.. " she pleaded simply.
"You are the only one that can save our Kingdom from the Dragoon. I don't know if it's the right thing to do... but I do know that all of this is larger than you and I." He said this in a very quiet voice, while the fingers of his other hand brushed over the front of her shoulder, while he leaned down enough to whisper very softly to her lips, feeling her breath on his face. "It is our home isn't it?"
Eohlwyn's eyes shifted.. inhaling as they widened, a squeek held back by the knife at her throat.. as the realization of his other intent sent color to her cheeks, and creased her young and frightened brow.
"You have a purpose to serve in all of this, Eohlwyn. I will take you back to our kingdom and we will see where this all leads. It would be easier if you went willingly... but perhaps that's too much to ask of you." He tasted her lower lip for a moment, before he tipped his head down enough to cast his eyes down her body.
"Please..." her eyes begged.. knowing the plea to be a waste as water lit the corner of her eyes. Ao and Arhela were so close... but neither could best the knight before her and she knew it. They would be dead before any help could arrive.
"The Dragoon will crush Dusha Ogohn if you are not returned... all of the people that you know, all of your friends will be slaughtered. You beg me to allow this to happen?" he asked in her in that quiet voice that did not raise, despite the nature of the question. He tipped his mouth to hers and he let his eyes fix upon the blurred image of her own for a moment, before he whispered to her lips.
"You know that I have no other choice, Eohlwyn..."
Eohlwyn held back a gasp and stared into his eyes.. fear not abating tho her voice was calm.. earnest, as she breathed... "You brother is mad.. he will be the ruin of our home. He thinks I am something I am not... without armies, without the counsel I can do nothing to save our home from Dragoon. He means my eventual death. I will not marry him." Her features turned to anger a moment as she stared at this man so bound by lies. Her eyes looked at him in terror but also pity... he was somehow.. strangely calming to her at once as he was terrifying. His hand moved and her thoughts shifted. "Why are you doing this?" her thoughts of politics dropped as his fingers caressed her, and for a long moment, she was only a woman. Only a maiden beneath a familiar yet imposing man.
Avarian whispered near her mouth, the cerulean of his eyes glinting in the candles, sharply. "Your fate is something that has been decided... whether fair otherwise, you will return to Dusha Ogohn. However... there is a more terrible fate that awaits you there, something worse than death, something worse than what I will do to you here tonight. I felt your soul scream to wake up when I saw you... to know the difference between waking and sleep. It is a rare thing... to leave the gentle warmth of dreams to the terrors of reality... and so I will save you from another dream, a dream from which you would never wake... but instead be an obedient queen, happy and oblivious to all the world."
Eohlwyn's body trembled beneath his touch.. her eyes sinking into the realization of what was to happen.. a single tear escaping her eyes as she paused a moment in fear.. then firmed in fear, and the flames of her defiance.. and inner strength. She whispered softly.. "Only the gods know my fate." And she grabbed for the knife.
She might have been able to grasp the knife, had that gentle flare of teal fire in her eyes not told the story of her growing defiance, before she reached for it. He used his elbow to catch the inside of her own, and being that his forearm was just a little longer than hers, she would not quite be able to grasp it. His other hand captured her other wrist, as it was certain to join the struggle, and pinned it against the bed above and beside her shoulder. He pressed the blade tighter to her throat, enough to force her to arch her head back into the pillow or have her flesh cut. His nostrils flared, his eyes alive and alert like an animal. It had taken all of his concentration not to kill her in that moment when the body thought before the mind.
Her eyes widened alertly.. the slip of the knife so close her heart was almost audible in it's fluttering beat. Her neck arced open and held there as the blade firmed against it.. her breathing made a soft struggled sound in the brief battle.. as if waking from a nightmare.
Outside the door, feet shuffled, the elvan girl having heard what she thought a gasp. Arhela knocked on the door quietly and called in in her not so subtle way.. "Hey your highness, you alright in there?"
Avarian stared down at Eoh in her posture, her slender back arched, and her head arced back into the pillow, that crimson hair a halo about her beautiful throat. A glance slid to the corners of his eyes toward the door, and he leaned down to whisper to her. "If you warn them, they will die."
Her eyes furrowed with her brow.. as she opened her mouth.. her tongue heavy.. but her mind knew best. She would not let her friends die, not like this. Her voice came out clear.. tense.. but simple. "Just a bad dream. Go away." she stated.. tears rolling out the corners of her eyes as she cried silently.. saving her friends.. forfeiting herself.
Outside the door Arhela shrugged and tugged Ao away. "Alright.. whatever. Hey Ao did I show you how......" the voice faded down the hall as Eohlwyn's tearstained eyes opened again and met Avarians plain. Anger. Fire. Hatred. Confusion. Sensation. Defiance. Passion. Sorrow. All fighting in the depths of those teal pools. Her voice lowered again to near breath, and she stated simply, "Do what you will." before her face folded in the beauty of her sorrowfilled youth.
The cerulean blue of his gaze remained fixed onto her eyes, somehow soft, caring, and his whisper came gentle against her mouth. "Don't make a sound..."
And with that, Avarian kissed her, passionately, his words against her lips. "Beautiful girl... this is what you were born for."
The world changed....
Any of magical or other mystical allignment might have felt something strange stirring that night in Grisahm. A thing of magic, of beauty, of danger.
A thing of immense power, awakened.
An echo of fire seared through the night, silent, so silent in the soft candle lit room. The lights of the magical flames flailed intensely about the young couple inside. The mark, the mark left no trace visible upon her flesh as it burned into her skin, the pulses of fire fading with the tail end of her youth.
After all was done, neither knew what to make of it. Eohlwyn's eyes met his with silent alarm, and he kissed her knowingly, tho the event had indeed puzzled him as well. Yet whatever magical occurance it was, had passed, and there were events yet to play.
Letting her pack a small satchel and cloak, Avarian escorted Eohlwyn away to the east, deep in the night as if nothing had happened, as if two lovers were merely tucking themselves away to elope.