Missed (Tasa, Gregor)

[Lovely]

November 26, 2009
evening
Devhano Palace


Gregor had come to share the brilliant news, his heart beating quickly in anticipation of Taisian's shared excitement. The moons' light had flickered across his footsteps as he strode quickly along the corridor past the high windows to her quarters and now he stood in shadow admiring their glimmer over her and her courtly attire. He latched the door and stepped forward, knowing he hadn't startled her as he emerged quietly behind her. "Nice dress," he remarked, stepping around her to more admire the wearer.

She knew he was there and it pleased her greatly that he'd come to her, his compliments drawing a small sweetly teasing smile from her lips. Her eyes watched him as he stepped around her to admire, her hips shifted slightly as if posing for his viewing pleasure. "You like it?" Her grin was slightly wicked as she winked at him. "Because if you didn't.. I'd have to take it off and find something else to wear.." She teased him and perhaps invited him with such a suggestion.

He stopped to fold an arm across his chest to prop the other and consider which he preferred. She certainly had other gowns, but tonight...? He grinned and reached for her. "I hate it. Take it off," he said, though he didn't suggest she change into a new one as he pulled her closer.

Tasa's smile continued to shine soft and inviting as she let him pull her closer, her hands reaching to tug at her laces which broke. With her strength and a small movement the dress began to slide down, the silk flowing over her smooth skin to rest at her feet.

Gregor pulled off his gloves and gauntlets to feel her skin. "Beautiful. Just wear this tonight," he suggested, tossing the bits of armor to the floor to ignore as he watched the moonlight glisten off her under his touch. He offered a sweet kiss as further suggestion of what she might continue to wear for the rest of their evening.

She was not nor did she pretend to be shy when she was alone with him, Tasa was not ashamed to let him admire her like this and leaned to return his kiss. When she pulled back, she smiled again, her eyebrow arching up a little. "..and what will you be wearing?"

He chuckled and moved her back to the draped cushions in her chamber to stretch out alongside her. He still wore his boots and tunic that advertised his station, though he discarded the weaponry piece by piece at her bedside.

She lounged comfortably with him beside her, as she always did when he could find the opprotunity to be there. Her fingers stroked affectionately over his cheek. "Do you think we'll be missed?" She asked and reached for more of his kisses, not caring at all if they would be missed.

"If we are, we are," he stated, quite clear that he had little concern over what his guardsmen were doing tonight. "Rumor has it, I won't be going anywhere for a long while. They're offering..," he paused with a giddy chuckle, tackling her gently. "... a gift, it seems."

She was glad he agreed with how she felt about being missed, she did not wish him to have to run off soon. "Oh?" The prospect of him not going anywhere for a long time was even more appealing and she giggled as he tackled her back to the pillows. ".. and oh?.. tell me.. not nice to tease me like that.." She tried to pull more details from him, since she had not heard of any such thing.

[Lovely]

"No swords...," he explained with a kiss to each of his points. "No shields...," he kissed her neck. "... and no more war," he said with a aching desire for it to be true. He kissed her deeply for a moment then smiled. "And more of this. Of course, this is assuming just having a naked nymph planted in his room doesn't kill their king outright."

"A naked nymph? who gave a naked nymph.. and tell me not to that sickly King?"

"They're just rumors. Something about making an offering... something something... one of ours to appease the king and make him see reason, though I don't think peace is so reasonable. "

"One of ours!? What fool would willingly send one of ours to that filth.. it's ludicrous!"

"I told you, it's only a rumor, but... " brushes nose and moves to the side. ".. seems he has some notion about wrapping up one of your 'virginal' blonde sisters as a present for Onmadia to fawn over..."

"You.. who told you this? Onmadia can't fawn.. I hear he sits in his own filth until they send the maid to change him.. none of my sisters will be exposed to such degredation!"

"Your father sees it differently. Ability to fawn is not his concern. He's setting her up on a plate with an apple in her mouth and a key to her chastity belt. All he has to do is drool on her to accept and peace is won. I didn't make it up, I just pass it along."

Her hands gripped his shoulders forcefully and she growled out her seething rage. "I'll kill him.. Which of my sisters is being offered up?"

"How should I know? I only got the rumor part, sister part and peace part. You want me to know everything? I know it's not you. Isn't that good enough?"

"Better that it were me.. at least then I could gut the disgusting beast when I got there and take as many sons as I could on my way down.." Her eyes flared slightly with the seed of her anger planted deeply -how dare her father do this!

He eyed her warily and sat up, a little more out of reach. "Better that it's not. To kill the king outright would seal the war for an eternity. Think this out, just a little. One sister... one... against how many decades and lives and soldiers and brothers and other sisters who have no life to give voice about this new attempt at peace. Onmadia snaps soldiers and family like flies. This is a chance to end that. Let him have her... let her endure it and stay alive... rescue her when the king dies happy and the world can change."

"..and if it were me.. who was chosen for this most horrible of sentences.. would you let me go so easily?" She asked him softly, half afraid of the answer he would give and thinking she already knew.

"If it were you, I'd follow you there and kill the king in his sleep, then take you with me to the coast and points beyond. That's different."

She smiled faintly. "Why?" Her whisper was like her smile as she shifted closer to him, her eyes meeting his gaze directly and her fingers reaching to brush his cheek in a most tender show of affection.

"What did I just say about killing kings? If they found me, they'd find you and they'd behead us both. That... is a price too high to pay. I want you to stay with me and it's easier to do that if we're both alive... well, more or less. Unless you had something or someone else in mind to love you the rest of your days... well.. mine, actually... then you can whoever you want."

[Lovely]

She chuckled ever so softly and pushed his shoulder in a gentle way. "How could I ever want anyone else.. when it's you who has my heart?" Her slender curved leg curled up and she set her chin to her knee, regarding him silently for a moment. ".. I love my sisters and I can not just sit here knowing one of them shall suffer.. what would you have me do?"

"Can't you ask me that at third moon? I didn't come here to talk tonight," he sighed, running a finger up her leg to her chin. "I want to keep you safe and your happiness means the moons to me. If you want to track after her, I'll do what I need to to see that you are happy."

"Of course I want to track after her!" Her expression was as if to say 'I can't believe you had to ask'. She leaned toward him, letting herself sort of fall into him. "I suppose we have to wait for there to be a trail to follow then.."

"Get dressed," he said after a moment, reluctantly. "It is to happen before third moon and the messenger has already been sent.. though not heard from."

"You seem to have all the details.. are you sure you don't know which sister?" Her eyebrow arched sharply as she stretched in a graceful motion and the shifted off the bed to gather her clothes. "Are you going to be cross with me now?"

"I only saw the messenger on his way and what details I have are from the rest of the guard, but there were bets being placed that it's Azure. I have half a quellen riding on that myself... was planning on buying you something nice ... to wear... if I won," he said, reaching for her hand before she slipped to far out of reach.

"I guess we'll find out if you've won... and you can still buy me something nice.. promise." She let him catch her hand and granted him a genuine smile, he was very dear to her and she did adore him, even if she did not often tell him so. "Azure is most virginal.. so pure and spirited at once.. I don't believe she's even allowed anyone to court her.. Remind me to strangle my father when we get back."

His fingers wrapped warmly and strongly, pulling her back or pulling himself toward her whichever was least resilient as he tugged a little. "Just one more thing before we go," he grinned.

A bit of both as she came closer to him and he to her, meeting closely with a sweet and curious smile. "Yes?" Her arms came naturally to rest around his, her hands curling to his shoulder.

He slid off the cushions into her embrace, wanting to feel her in these moments so much closer, but conceding to suffer having only the pale blue light over her skin and the feel of it in his fingers for just a moment as his fingers fanned over her back. He offered a lingering kiss for perhaps the last moment they would have.

The way he kissed her, she could feel it, like it was the last kiss they would ever share. Her arms brought him into a tightly clinging embrace that promised she wasn't 'leaving', her kiss tenderly telling him that she wanted him with her always. "Don't.." She whispered to him, a single tear sliding down her cheek. "Don't think such things.. " She scolded him softly.

[Lovely]

He tasted the salt of it as the tear brushed over his lip and pulled away to hear her whispers. He kissed the trail of the tear off her cheek and nestled her closer and maybe she'd 'hear' him think how he insisted that he wouldn't 'let' go. "We should be on our way then."

She didn't move away for a few moments, staying curled against him with her head on his chest. "Sooner gone.. sooner to return.. " and not leave again for a good long time. "I think I'll have you confined to quarters for a season after this.. my quarters of course." She teased him lightly but meant it as a promise of bliss to come later.

"Our... quarters," he teased softly. "Maybe I'll let you make some changes to keep me even longer." He remained thoroughly mortal, though had tasted the tang and metal of her royal blood on occasion.

The soft smile tugged on her lips which she in turn brought to tug on his, clinging gently. "Ours.." She agreed, her fingers brushing through his short hair. "Find me a cleric and I'll make you mine by all rights." Her eyes shone with the sincerity of her statement, though started in teasing was meant from the heart.

"You have already.. and if we don't go," he sighed, not wanting to leave the embrace. "The trail will be cold and your sister... remember her?... will be lost... or may have gruel or worse spattered on her... by the time we arrive."

"That's right.. I was getting dressed and ready to charge off when you distracted me." She nuzzled to his neck for a brief moment and then pulled away to resume dressing. The dress was left in a heap of silk on the floor as she slid into cloth and leather more fitting to her task.

He watched her as she put on her thin armor, resecuring his boots and putting his gloves back on, belt and sword at the ready. "Hopefully I'll be able to drive you to that distraction again... and again.. soon."

Her weapons were fetched from their resting places and swiftly strapped to their proper positions as she watched him with a small smile. "I do enjoy the way you distract me.." Her hair was done as she crossed the room, a simple, functional braid. She held out her hand to him when she was ready, her fingers anxious for his comforting grasp.

Though it was gloved, his hand took hers, holding it out for him to admire her poise, and the poison that was her ability, grace and weaponry combined, both what she wore and what was herself, dangerous and beautiful. "Maybe we'll discuss what you do to me... when we get back," he smiled.

"Maybe?" She pouted slightly, giving him a wink and then tugging gently for them to be on their way down the corridors to the stables.

"Oh I'll definitely show you... it was the discussion that's a maybe," he teased. He followed quietly after that through the halls and to the horses, his still saddled and at the ready.

[Lovely]

Her chuckle floated quietly in the air between them and her eyes shone with the joy such thoughts caused within her. Once at the stable her hand left his to retrieve and saddle her horse a fine and dark creature much like it's rider. She stood with the reins in her hand, looking out in the direction of Onmadia's castle. "I suppose we know which direction they headed.."

"Most likely the king is not traveling too far to lose track of.. just follow the smell. Sorry... I suppose that is a problem for you. Ride behind me.. it may be more pleasant?"

"Hoping to find my sister and the messenger before that filthy king ever knows she's been offered.. " She hissed softly, swinging herself into her saddle. "No word has come back, so a small hope resides that our messenger has not made it there yet or perhaps was slain before the offer could be spoken of."

"Or, by the moons, he'd better have a cleric that can restore the dead. It wasn't a jest. Have you seen the lands to the South? I hear there's a place that outshines all the moons' light combined... for hours."

"Perhaps one day we will adventure there.. but we will not flee this night.. there is something in the air.. The fates are up to something.. my skin tingles from it.."

"Fates can't go ignored. Care to share your tingle with me?" He cast her a glance as he lifted himself back into his saddle. Already tall and his horse just as stalwart, he was a formidable soldier to behold. Both figures fell into shadow, hardly any metal gleaming, having been burnished to hide from the moons.

She paused her horse and turned to face him, tipping her head to look up at him, smiling softly at how beautiful and proud he appeared.. "It nearly makes me turn back.. there is something greater brewing.. ancient voices stir of ancestors long past.. calling and guiding the path for another.. " She shook her head, letting her eyes cast about, deeper into the shadows as if there might be something lurking there.

He wasn't one to ignore the sensations of intuition her blood gave her. It had saved his life once or twice already and he loved her more for her warnings. "Almost... then you're not turning back," he nodded. "Stay close and wary. Any sign, tell me." He clicked at his horse that they were off and the discussion was over. Some part of him sensed it as well, but only the barest hint that something in the winds was changing, but he was no cleric to decipher it and no Chosen to hear it clearly.

She followed only slightly behind him, her horse keeping pace beside his. She used the quiet moments to study him from this angle, wondering as she often did what was going through his mind at this moment. They had gone some way in silence, only the sound of hooves and fallen leaves crunching beneath them to break the still air. It was then that she felt the chill walk over her skin, deep enough to cause a shiver and she lifted her hand to call his attention and signal him to change direction slightly.

The sensation was with him again, something warning and telling, though the wind that brought it to him brought no other news or explanation. He followed her now... the princess was captain over him. Black knight on blacker horse, he leaned himself down on the shadowy mane as well and stayed close. He'd learned he didn't have to speak loudly for her to hear him. "He was two hours ahead, but one of the slower horses we have. Even so, he's likely to have arrived."

Her eyes narrowed at his words and she hissed softly, her fingers curling around the leather and she dug into the horse urging it to speed on. "Best they cut off his head before he makes the offer then."

[Lovely]

The image his mind held of such a thing upest him in a different way. The messenger was an innocent bystander, a commoner, not a man of their military and likely without defenses beyond the cloth on his back. Such atrocity of striking down such a man set the fury in his eyes to a cool burn, nearly visible against the steam of his horse's breath. "Best we get there before they drink his blood."

If she'd not been in such an upset and hurry she might have noticed the fury of his eyes and guessed the true cause, but she was absorbed in her own worry and anger for the moment. Intent on her course and with her vivid imagination at work of what terrors and injustices would befall her sister at the hands of Onmadia, Tasa tore through the night, the hooves of the horse beating the soft earth along the way.

He stayed silent, as he often did, though she would hear him, feel him near and 'with' her, not just close to her. At times, though he'd sworn to protect her, she rarely needed it and wondered how much was meant to protect himself instead, nestling beneath the royal wing she lovingly offered him. Should anything or anyone rise against Tasa, he intended to take the blow in her stead, but tonight the thought chilled him more than ever it had as if he saw the shadow of it swinging a clawed and gripping hand closer to him. He didn't share any more of the thought with her. He'd said enough and seen her tears and worry - most he hoped had been for her sister and not for him. The frail line between kingdoms loomed quickly. The lands were not vast, but they were also not simple. The marshes lay before them still as well as the possible delay of highwaymen, nothing more than hotheaded beggars, who may stand in their path. Everyone needed their living and he wouldn't argue that, but tonight, they would regret their passtime if they got in the way.

The marshes would slow them down and make them heavy with dampness, but attempting to go north to a more solid pass would take much longer and time was scarse if she wished to prevent the 'fall' of her precious sister. Tasa slowed as the vegetatian grew thicker, the lush graases springing up as they came closer to the marshes. A chill ran through her again and her attention shifted, attempting to 'hear' what warnings the winds might bring her, she could already hear the change in Luskavia's songs.. she was worried, concerned.. a bit frightened as she did not know what was happening that could be big enough to alter the land itself.

This area he'd patrolled often and now he took the lead. What way he didn't know, his horse did. The underbrush was thick and the ground hard to see or sense and a possible stumble could be tragic for the rider and worse for the animal. They would need to slow down, but only for a short while.

Now that they went slower she took the chance to ride beside him again for awhile, at first she was silent, her face shadowed with worry. After a few minutes she spoke quietly, the gentle lilt of teasing only he would recognise. "Tell me what you're thinking or risk my wrath, love."

"Thinking I should have taken a p*ss before we left," he teased in return. He knew she wanted truth from him, but the deeper truths that strangled his thoughts, not the simple ones. He turned to catch her gaze only enough to feel it stinging him as she awaited his words. "You don't want to know."

"Of course I want to know.. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't." He knew this about her, princess -poise, grace, and manners but she was not one to chatter or ask something she did not want the answer to. She did not make small talk with many at social gatherings but would ramble or with him for hours or curl up and listen to him. Taisian opened her mind, her world, and her heart to him and invited him to share in her secret self -the girl beyond the regal and royal station. Once he'd spoken his first words to her she'd not cared what his station was or where he'd come from in the ranks below hers. "Gregor.. tell me." She pleaded slightly, her senses aware and alert around them, though her attention was focused on him.

"I have. You've not been hearing me," he grinned, though there was little humor in his words. "Death wants me. I'm a soldier. I'm not exactly in a position to argue." He spoke to her but stared ahead into the fog that was thickening over the damp earth and ponds around them as their horses stepped, carefully guided by him. "By third moon rise, maybe later, maybe I'm altogether wrong."

[Lovely]

She swore the cracking of her heart could be heard echoing through the land for miles and perhaps the sailors on the sea would be swallowed by the waves of her pain crashing out. "How dare you say such a thing.. how dare you think it!" The sting of tears in her eyes was angrily blinked away, though evidence was left to sparkle on her cheek. "I would step into a blade at my throat before I allowed one to take you.. " She halted the steps of her horse, staring at Gregor with a determined and stubborn gaze, the one she often showed when her ire had risen and she about to charge off into something defiant and hard headed.

Hearing only his own set of steps on the ground, he too halted and turned to see her, pale against the inky backdrop they'd come through. He shrugged a little. "You wanted to know. Now you do. I hope you're ready to do something about it, then." He was a mortal man and had never asked to be anything more. "Soldiers live and die by the sword. That's what I am, that's what I do. I've just not been chosen yet to fall. When I do, I do. Now are you coming along to keep others from falling as well or do I face this night alone?"

Her chin tilted and her lids seemed heavy -three fourths open, but her gaze still piercing through the darkness and distance between them. "I have been ready to do something about it since the first night I spent in your arms... you took my breath away." Her voice carried the emotion of her words to him. "I thought you would ask if you wanted.. I never .. I didn't want you to think that you were not enough for me. That you had to be something more for me.. I love you as the man you are. I would give you every drop of me.."

"Then don't let me fall," he smirked. "Or fail. A Devhanan sister needs you." He turned himself and the horse, readying to move quickly out of the marshes before the fog became thicker. "So do I."

"As I need you." She whispered, only a moment behind in urging her horse to follow his again. The fog would soon grow too thick to see, though it only lasted a few hours at most they would not be able to pass through the marshes during that time. "Let us hasten to find the messenger.. I fear those savages would not show him much kindness or mercy."

"They're Onmadian, once mad, always mad. You expect anything less?" He seemed to jeer and laugh at once, then again fell silent. Not many would be in the marshes to hinder them, but the paths ahead would tell a different story. He leaned to the mane of his horse and seemed to share his secrets now with the animal alone, though he wondered if her hearing would still catch the tones. A moment later the footfalls of the horse themselves were barely audible, the animal seeming to understand to trot quietly and mind the twigs beneath.

No, she didn't expect anything from the filthy Omadians.. she knew better than that, Tasa remembered the last offer of peace her father had made. The remains of that messenger were barely identifiable when they were 'delivered' back to the Devhano court. Her horse was as intune with her as she was with the land, the animal seemed to naturally react to what she wanted without much outward guidance. The pace was kept carefully quiet and the dark haired beauty who rode proudly upon the animal's back curved to shadow along it now. Her cloak was pulled over her face to hide her further and keep her beauty from being temptation for scourge to sieze upon them.

Out into the clearing and up on more solid ground, he led them down a short length of 'shore' that was more of a wash from a long-dead river that once fed the marshes. A short distance more would have them on the main road that lined the border between the kingdoms - the safer path for traders, but also the more-traveled path for thieves for the same reason. He could smell the torches that lined the roadway at intervals, marking the dark path.

"Is the main road a wise choice?" She kept her voice lowered, barely above a whisper but willed it to reach his ears, speaking more with her thoughts than her voice. Tasa had never simply entered his mind with her words or will, it was a gift many of her kind had and most of those abused the power. She respected and cared for Gregor and would not invade him like that, though if he wanted to let her in or share with her, she wouldn't deny him.

"Only to cross it and continue on, but we need to go down the road a short distance or we'll have to cross the new river. Speed over safety tonight," he said, half under his breath, feeling the chill again, though his fate was not meant to be sealed here on the open road. It seemed as though her hand reached out to his heart to keep it warm with her thoughts and worry. He slowed to allow her to ride beside him. "We'll be fine," he grinned, speaking softly for her, reassuring her.

The night was cooling more quickly than it usually did and it was too early in the seasons for it to be as chilled as it seemed. Tasa offered him a smile that was likely not very reassuring, though it attempted to be. Her eyes whispered to him to be careful and that she would die for him or with him if that was truly his fate.