Keen sense

[Lovely]

December 24, 2009
4 a.m.
Onmadia
follows: In shadows

The last moon had set before she returned. He watched intently as the light of the fire dimmed, ember by ember, the coals shifting under the weight of the newest piece of timber he added to prolong the warmth and glow, waiting for it to burst and crackle with flame like his thoughts. It was the only light and he sat close, still cloaked, his soft boots still knotted as if he intended to turn himself out once again, if only to bring her back to her room, himself. He grew tired of waiting, but would wait for her, knowing what she did could not be rushed. The flames stirred from the breeze he did not feel through the layers that covered him and the grin curled with his fist... anticipation rewarded! Hopefully it was her that opened the door. He listened...

She was relieved to finally be able to make her way to her chambers, the night had been long and filled with important tasks. She was happy to do them as they would help bring about the future she was set on seeing, one that would raise a well deserving man to his proper place while bringing down a vile creature who was undeserving of the rank he held. The princess, Alessandra, was now in the care of her new husband. The whispers and promises for his future had been revealed and that knowledge would hopefully bring him to plant the seed for that future within his lovely young wife.

Lyeal't stepped into her rooms, seeing the glow of the flames and the shape of the figure who waited for her and had been thoughtful enough to tend a fire to keep her chambers warm. She smiled just a little as she secured the door and reached to slip her ceremonial cloak from her shoulders and hang it on a hook. "Should I be frightened of the figure cloaked in shadows?" She teased lightly, knowing him even in darkness and without him needing to utter a single word.

"Only if you were not who I've been expecting," he said softly, rolling the quiver of bolts aside and letting the bow he'd been leaning on drop atop them as he stood to receive her. His own hood was pushed back now as he stood proudly, hands outstretched to her. "So it is done? He has her and she's taken to him?"

Lyeal't eyed the bow and the man as he stood proudly and reached for her, she pouted a little at seeing him still wrapped in his cloak and with his boots on. Her thoughts drifting to the possibility that he intended to leave soon. "It's done. He has her and I do hope she's taking him as we speak." She chuckled as she stepped up to him, there was a tension in her that only came when her thoughts turned to the memories of a most unpleasant experience from her youth. Her fingers brushed over his hands but she seemed hesitant to get too close to him.

"You hope? If he's anything at all like me, he won't let opportunities slip from his fingers.. her either. You hesitate, however? What is it you see?" His head tilted with the chuckle that cut short, watching her as he grabbed for her hands.

"Things of the past.." She shook her head at his concern over her hesitation and what she saw. "I hope your influence over him has been enough to make him more like you than the monster.." She shook her head and sighed, begining to turn into herself and away from him. ".. I feel.. anxious tonight."

He grasped for her to keep her close, though he felt the tremor of her nerves in the air. "Lyeal't, face me. You feel anxious? Whatever for? My aim set him in motion as we planned it would. He is in motion, in fact quite the sway in her arms and her in his if you are here. Our mission... our hopes... are nearly complete and you're anxious now? Why?"

He should know why she felt anxious, what Alos had done to her, even though it was long ago, had become a set of memories that still caused her pain. It was his words about aim and setting things in motion that brought her to focus and she stared at him in surprise. "Your aim?.. Are you saying that it was you who.. nearly killed that girl?"

[Lovely]

"That 'girl' is likely the only blood worthy for that boy to have in his veins," he remarked coldly, holding back any harsh retort for her reaction to what he'd done. "You're not pleased? Show me a more worthy princess. Show me another he'd pull the moon from the sky for. Show me another and another and I will gladly lay them out for him to take as his queen, but I will not sit idle waiting for him to choose it for himself because he does not know that he needs it... or did not until tonight."

Now she did pull away from him, upset at how he reacted to her being surprised, she hadn't been angry or harsh in how she responded yet he seemed to bite at her. She stepped toward the hearth, keeping her back to him as her arms folded around herself. Perhaps his intent was not to be harsh but he was cold and his words seemed defensive as if she'd shown some kind of anger at him. She started to speak several times but the words would not form and her thoughts kept scattering, nothing seemed right and she was at a loss. She didn't want to fight with him or exchange harsh words.. all she'd done was ask him a question.

"Nearly... means I did not kill her. It was a test for him, one which he's passed," he said quietly now as he had spoken when she arrived. He slipped behind her, his hands covering hers over her arms. "Lyeal't, I watched over him. I could not allow him to pursue me. I was not part of the test, only the catalyst."

"I know you didn't kill her.. I also know you and your aim, had you truly wanted her to die, she would have." She didn't move away from him but stared into the coals below the flames which licked at the log he'd added. "I only asked if it was you. I was not angry only surprised to find that you were the mysterious assasin."

"Once I was sure he rode to find you, I came here and waited. Had I told you, he'd have sensed it. He's grown keen... very. He's grown into all his talents and used them each exceptionally tonight. His eyes trained on me the instant she was struck," he explained, slowly guiding his embrace around her to watch the flames over her shoulder.

She smiled, feeling the sting of tears in her eyes, she was proud of the boy and how talented he'd become. She shifted to help Tripp wrap around her and leaned back against his chest. "I hate keeping secrets from him.. so much I wish we could tell him. I wish he could know how proud we are.. how much he is loved. I fear he will hate me, should he ever come to know the truth.. of who I am." She sighed softly, blinking away the sting and finding his hands to lace into his fingers with hers. "He did not see you, though.. you're positive?"

"I am positive he did not see my face, only this cloak which will need to be disposed or he will surely become suspicious. The bow is common but the bolts also will need to burn. Care to help me stoke the fire?"

His lack of comment on what else she'd said, the out pourings from her heart served to make her believe even deeper that Venge would surely hate her if ever told the truth. That was a sadness she would carry with her for all of her days, a regret and a 'what if'.. What if she'd chosen to keep him with her.. longer than she had dared? The anxiety started to rise again, with it a restlessness and she shifted a step away from Tripp, turning to reach for the ties of his cloak. "Of course."

[Lovely]

Again his head tipped, seeing her expression as she turned to face him. He clasped around her fingers and brought them a tender kiss and a smile he nuzzled against them. "He could no sooner hate you than I could. Never. The moons would fall out of the sky first."

"Of course you can't hate me.. you love me enough to shoot innocent girls to make me happy.." She teased but the smile didn't light up her eyes the way it normally would. Her fingers gripped his tightly and she stepped back to him, reching a kiss to his hand and looking at him over their clasped fingers. "How can you be so sure.. that he wouldn't?"

"Everything he's learned has been from one or the both of us, above all that you are always to be loved," he chuckled, thinking a moment later on just how keen the boy's senses may have become to learn more than he'd intended.

"I knew there was a reason I was so fond of you." Her laugh was soft and this time her eyes did sparkle a little and she bestowed another light kiss to his fingers. She untangled their hands and reached again for the cloak so that they could dispose of the evidence that might give away his part in tonight's events.

He unhooked the pin that held the heavy fabric over his shoulders that seemed so slight and narrow under the weight of the large hood hiding his dark curls. The pin itself glimmered regally, catching the fire's glow in the fixed piece of amber that appeared to dance in its setting of rune-marked silver as he pulled it free. "Only one reason?" He smirked though it seemed to be just as much a pout as he watched the sparkles dance in her eyes. She gathered the woolen cloth and he bowed beneath it, curling away to tend to the bolts in the quiver, taking one out to snap in pieces and toss into the fire to keep it hot. "It should not take long. The coals are still quite warm and the night quite young. You're certain his attention is solely on her that we won't be disturbed by his ramblings?"

"Were your eyes closed when you fired at her?" She chuckled softly, approving of the beauty that had completely entranced the prince and would most certainly have his full attention for some time. "We won't be disturbed tonight by him crawling beneath our blankets to sleep between us or to ramble on endlessly because he can't sleep." She assured him as she used her knife to cut his cloak into strips and place them in the fire.

"Not entirely sure we shouldn't change his name to Rover," he chuckled as she described the intrusion in amusing details, though he had done similar enough for the recount to be sadly truthful. "I could have... had my eyes closed, that is. Perhaps next time I'll try it just to entertain me. For a prince, he does need to learn better to watch his backside. I could have easily meant to hit or kill him had my intention been to kill anyone. He's too trusting, Lyeal't."

"Are we talking about the same man? Venge is not trusting at all.. not that he has much reason to be. He was abandoned and raised by strangers.. with two pushy, dark, meddling clerics hovering over him.. then of course Alos took a liking to him.. and we all know how cruel that man can be." Her knife was abandoned as her fingers grasped the cloth and she began tearing it.

[Lovely]

Tripp smirked as she pulled her frustrations against the fabric in her fingers. "Very much the same man, one distracted by a dark princess," he pointed out as making all the difference in the boy's judgement. A moment later he pulled his shoulders back, defiant against her remark. "Since when am I 'pushy'?"

"Would you not be distracted if a beautiful woman you desired above all others was so close to you?" She glanced up at him, the barest of amused smiles twitching at her lips. "..and you've been pushy since I met you, love... had you not been, we would not be together now." She countered, throwing another strip into the fire.

"I would be distracted... and frequently am," he said, crawling nearer to her and settling down beside her with the quiver still in reach. "Distracted and bewitched... I'll concede to meddling, but I'm not pushy," he pouted, reaching out another bolt to snap. "Insistent perhaps, but not pushy.'

"I'll remember you said that next time I'm giving birth to one of our children." She leaned to kiss him lightly now that he'd crawled closer to her and she could reach him. "Mmm don't forget dark.. strong... charming.. handsome.. "

"Feel free to continue," he sighed, delighting in the compliments and dismissing the arrows in favor of attending her instead. He reached for the kiss and tried to pull the cloth out of her hands. "I didn't forget and I'm glad you haven't, eith-... next time? Do you have news you'd care to share, then?"

She held onto the cloth, they needed to dispose of it and it was important that they do so, but once that was done... Lyeal't promised him with her kiss that their night was far from over. "Perhaps.. it's just the wishful thinking of an old woman."

"Careful what you wish for in front of a meddling cleric," he grinned, using the cloth to pull himself up and closer if she would not let go. He could tear off half to help her rend and burn it quicker. "One who rather enjoys shooting in the dark, hm?"

"And.. if I don't want to be careful around this particular cleric? What if I want to wish for something.. only he give me?" She asked in a softly empassioned voice as she drew him closer and leaned to meet him with a deep kiss. When she shifted back for a breath, her smile was nearly shy, one hand lifting to cup his cheek. "Marry me, Tripp?" She asked and told him of her wish at once, her gaze holding steady to his face, wondering how he might answer her.

He steadied himself against the unexpected query, marveling at the woman who sat with him, she who'd sat beside him for so many years though without such bonds. He turned a kiss into her hand at his cheek and reached to pull her into his arms, again tugging the cloak to free her hands. "Because you may well get your wish," he said softly, almost cooing in delight of the idea, and moreso that she'd been the one to inquire of him, freeing him of doubt of his place in her thoughts. The fabric in his hand began to smoulder as much as his gaze, smoke rising in both as he nodded. His attention turned to the cloak briefly as he willed it to destroy itself, though knowing the power he guided to it to do so would tire him... not so much he could not still enjoy her company completely.

This time when he tugged, she released the cloak, only barely glancing at it again when the smoke began to rise from it. With that destroying itself, it left only the arrows which she used her own gifts to snap and then tossed them all into the fire. She rose and reached for Tripp, beckoning him away from the hearth and to someplace much softer where they could enjoy each other's company. He'd caught her eye when she was just a young girl, and she'd been fond of him from the first moment. She'd loved him since he lifted her from the floor where Alos had left her after the attack, but because of what Alos had done to her she had often times kept a distance between herself and Tripp. It wasn't fair to him, yet he'd always been understanding and taken care of her when she would let no other do such a thing. She'd thought of marrying him many times in their years together but had always hoped he would ask her and had not been brave enough until now to ask him herself.