agameoftangledwebs-blog

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#20 Tone and Saturation

It was going to be a late lunch or early dinner when Brother Edward Fairgold arrived as a guest in their house. Elru had warned Saeros two days prior of the impending arrival of the clergyman she had bought the house from, as well as roughly what to expect of the man if Saeros deigned to be present. By now the first floor has been completely finished, done in soft tones of blue and violet, with occasional gold and silver filigree and a lightly colored stone tile floor which meshed well with the marble kitchen. Chairs and couches were cushioned and made to match the floor. Elru had been practicing her cooking and made decent use of the oven, once she decided there needed to be a small oven, and had a rotisserie chicken started for the occasion.

Elru certainly didn't make it easy for Saeros to fit in to their home's natural surroundings, his dark coloring and hair made pastel a certain mistake, but he'd dredged up a tunic, pants, and boots of lighter gray felt and gold accents that provided a tolerable contrast. He was reclinging back on the couch he'd had Elru shape during their first night here and watching her when she came into view through low-lidded eyes. Waiting was something he was familiar with even if it wasn't his preference. He was certainly waiting now.

Elru is certainly no master of interior design and every so often she'll glance about with some measure of dissatisfaction, especially with how much it sometimes clashed with Saeros. Little matter as colors were easily changed, and a bit late now. For his faults, the corpulent human had impeccable timing. Not one minute after the chicken had finished resting Saeros could almost hear let alone sense the shuffling of a human coming upon their doorstep. Elru would catch it after he does as she tilts her head up. "Time to entertain the human." She looks to Saeros almost in apology. "You need not stay long at all, of course."

"I need to size him up if he's to be more than a one time aquaintence. Can't let anyone get any ideas." His words were just as lazy as his posture.

"Of course." Elru brings the chicken over onto the table, which is already set with plates, utensils and napkins. She rests the chicken atop its bed of seasoned rice and vegetables, then brings out the wine. Actual wine this time, one that is adequate for the purpose of entertaining mundane guests. The door knocks and Elru is already there. Elru has a preemptive smile pasted on when she opens the door to the house to greet the clergyman. "You arrived just in time. Welcome, Brother Fairgold. I trust you arrived with no incident?" It was an onerous and odd question to ask given he'd supposedly come from within the same district but even if he had come from the far end he still had a light sheen on his brow. Smiling at the greeting he helps himself past the threshold as his eyes pan around in wonderment. "Oh no, no incident at all, of course not. Smells wonderful, and my lady, I love what you have done with the place! I barely recognize it, but that is not a bad thing, no certainly not. And all the paperwork is of course in order." He notices Saeros just then with a light start, then smiles wide as he shuffles over closer. "And you must be the Lord Kir-Moldir to the fair Lady Kir-Moldir, I presume?"

Saeros had magically come to his feet (likely not literally, he did have quick reflexes) so by the time the Brother got an eye on him he was straight up and down infront of the couch with his hands behind his back. He gives a slight bow at the waist for the acknowledgement. "That I am. I hope she hasn't been telling tales about me?" There was humor there.

"Oh no, nothing of the sort, my good sir!" He gives a deeper bow of his own before standing straight again. Elru's description of the man matched pretty well, given that he was once again wearing robes that seemed too small for him. He dabbed away at his face with a hankerchief as he spoke. "We did not get to speak often after she had purchased this property, but she did tell me of her marriage to a distinguished. Well statured as well I see!" He laughs and waves at the table, "But please, no need to stand up on my account, come, come, let us sit, relax and eat. What is this I see?" As Elru closed the door she managed an exhale before smiling over at Saeros and giving a light beckon to his seat before she started cutting into the chicken, going into what the meal was and how it came to be. Elru seems to have become very proficient at separating a chicken into its parts with a serrated blade, with little to no mess, juices running into the bed of rice and vegetables.

Saeros takes a seat and waits for Elru to serve them all while he split his attention between watching her with the knife and the man beside them. "How are things at the Cathedral in these quiet times? Hopefully more managable with Draenor under control."

"It is as you say, good sir, quiet indeed. Oh we get the occasional rouser or naysayer coming in to speak out about some corruption or imagined plight, but with the campaign in Draenor managed Cathedral matters are resettling back into how things should be. Why thank you, my lady." Both Saeros and Brother Fairgold have their plates of chicken, rice and vegetables along with glasses of wine just poured by Elru. Immediately taking a sip his expression lights up and he grins at Elru. "Why my dear, hard as it may be to believe I think this wine is even better than the first you served!" Elru simply smiles back and bows her head briefly as she gets her own plate and wine in order as she says, "I could serve no less for one as generous as you." "Oh you flatter me, my dear." He begins cutting into his chicken and looks back at Saeros, "But yes, matters in the Cathedral are business as usual I would say. It is interesting you bring up the Draenor campaign, were you a part of that?"

"Not me, thankfully, but a sizable number of aquaintences interested in what magical knowledge they could glean." With knife and fork in hand Saeros strips the meat from his own portion of bones and further into manageably small bites. "In all honesty, I'm just happy to start my retirement."

"Ahhh, and what a well deserved retirement it must be! And with such a beautiful wife to tend to your home and needs no less!" The human's cut bites are not as small, and he dribbles every so often, resulting in him dabbing himself with his napkin a lot. Elru for her part gives a light chuckle as she slowly politely eats. "Lord Kir-Moldir certainly deserves it," to which Fairgold gives another chuckle and bright smile at Elru. "I will take your word for it. Now are either of you in the business of magical knowledge? Not that I presume anything, and not that I seek such knowledge myself, but your home just seems to have that quality to it, like with those mages over at the next district, but with much finer taste."

He was cutting a steady swath through his meal with a pace that Elru's attentive eye could practically pace with a rhythm. After his next bite he replies, "We're both Highborne, actually. Arcane comes to us as naturally as breathing."

His brow goes up a bit. "Highborne you say? Well that is a mild surprise, but in hindsight it should not be, given how adept at magic Lady Kir-Moldir here seems to be." He takes another thorough bite and chewing. "My brothers and peers hear many an awful thing about Highborne, but clearly that was all simply heresay, as you two are clearly very wonderful and accommodating people. Broad-minded as well, to be willing to settle here in our fine capital!"

"What minority doesn't face ridicule these days? We're a curious people seeking out our way in a world we used to know." Saeros tilts back in his chair with his glass of wine in hand.

Fairgold for his part has been steadily enjoying his wine alongside his meal, and Elru, like the accommodating hostess she is, is ready to refill his glass. "Thank you, my dear! So, Lord Kir-Moldir," He turns back to Saeros, "Now that you are beginning to enjoy your retirement as you say, what is it you do for leisure in this city?"

"I'm afraid I haven't had much time to look into what could occupy my time between my wife and consolidating my finances." He absently sips on his wine at a far more sedate pace than their company.

"Well, absolutely humble as they may be in this city, there are a number of gardens and public estates one may tour and enjoy in this wonderful city of ours, paid and cared for in good part by those in this very district, yes!" he says with no small measure of pride, pausing to savor a particularly tender bit of his chicken. "Also paid in part by many a donation and esteemed patron. Which, come to think of it, would now come to include both the Lord and Lady Kir-Moldir!" He raises his glass briefly to the two of them.

"I've heard a fair bit about Dalaran's own services though Stormwind certainly has its own charm. Are there any sponsored events held at these places? I'd like to meet the other Patrons to the Cathedral."

Fairgold straightens up at that and dabs away at his lower face before speaking. "Actually, we are in the midst of organizing such an event as we speak. A small affair, mind you, but just for patrons and select members of the Clergy, myself included. If you so desire, I would be more than happy to put in a word to have either or both of you present to such an event! Not that I would impose, but as you asked I could not help myself."

"If you think such a venture would be well-recieved I'll gladly take you up on that offer. Any reason to get my wife in her finery." Saeros tilts the rim of his glass towards Elru.

Elru tilts her head down in an act of modesty as she smiles. "Well, I do have few such occasions to dress well." His eyes twinkle at Saeros' words as he grins wide and clasps his hands together, passing his gaze back and forth between the two. "Wonderful, yes, this is wonderful! I could not be more happy and proud to introduce you both to all my colleagues and brothers." He chuckles and resumes his meal. He's much further into his than either Saeros or Elru.

Saeros also continues with his own meal until he cleans his plate or he's interrupted.

As Fairgold nears completion of his meal Elru speaks up then. "As I have taken to regular walks and sit-downs around the city I do hope to run into you again so that you may keep me regularly posted on said event. Such is not objectionable, yes?" Fairgold, in the midst of polishing off his wine, waves Elru off with a furrowed brow, setting his glass down. "Oh no no, certainly not! I quite look forward to seeing you again, Lady Kir-Moldir, and perhaps even you yourself Lord Kir-Moldir should you happen to wander the Cathedral district yourself." he says as he sets his cutlery down on his plate.

"I spend much of my time between the capitals still but with luck I can find the time."

"Of course, of course." Elru is already up to take away the guest's plate as she says, "One last glass of wine before you go?" Fairgold seems to consider it for a second then shakes his head in mild admonishment. "Oh no, no, I best not. Wonderful wine it may be, I should not relish it to the point of excess. Unbefitting a man of the cloth such as I. But my dear, thank you deeply for preparing this meal for one such as I, and thank you both," waving a stubby hand between the two, "for your excellent company. You do me much pleasure, truly."

"The pleasure is ours. It's been some time since we've been able to host the appropriate company. We appreciate the opportunity to share our way of life with you even over dinner."

"I look forward to such an occasion, Lord Kir-Moldir, truly. It would do me well to further my own understanding and knowledge of outside cultures, yes. Thank you, dear," he offhandedly remarks as Elru finishes clearing his side of the table, then looks to Saeros if he needs anything cleared.

He offers her his finished plate. "Was there anything further we could do for you, Brother Fairgold?"

"Well, there is one small matter. A formality, really. As the both of you are now official owners of this property here in the Cathedral district, I just need a simple rough list of general assets and furnishings. Nothing so intrusive as values and numbers, really, just a basic list of what you've done with the place. For records and census sake. However, that can be submitted at any time during the duration of your ownership and patronage." Elru goes about clearing the table as he speaks in a neat and tidy manner, finally taking the center dish with the remains of the chicken away. "Otherwise, I could not ask anything more from such esteemed elves as yourselves."

"I'll have one written up for you that Elru can deliver on the next time you two meet if that's agreeable."

"Of course, of course." In short order Fairgold is up and ready to be seen off. "I quite look forward to seeing you again, Lord and Lady Kir-Moldir. You do me such pleasure and honor having me over." Elru smiles and has the door ready for him. "The honor and pleasure is all ours, Brother Fairgold."

Saeros had gotten up behind him with a leisurely pace, leading him to the door when he choses to go that way. "Don't make yourself a stranger."

"Oh, certainly not, definitely not. Have a good rest of the day, both of you." Elru bows her head slightly with a warm smile. "But of course, Brother Fairgold." And he's off. Once he's a good number of paces away Elru closes the door.

Saeros watched as the door is opened and closed behind the Priest, pausing a moment or three for him to leave the immediate presence of the house before focusing his attention on Elru. Silence was his dominant state and now was no different until, "You thought this was worth some time?"

"I did not think this was worth some time. Or at least not as much time as was allotted." She turns to the table and goes about dismissing and putting away the fine table coverings and furnishings. "However, he expressed repeat desire to see the home and dine in with me, and I decided it was better done on my terms than his."

"Expressed in what fashion?" He makes his way back to their table as well, lifting up the platter with the remnants of their chicken and taking it back to the kitchen.

"More curious than I would expect given this property is ours now. Particularly excited to spend time in my company regardless of capacity. Asked about you, but only in the most general." Elru would go about doing dishes.

Leans over and around her every once in awhile to sneak a few more bits of chicken off the bones with bare fingers before she throws them away or gets rid of them in some other capacity. "Are his questions to you of a personal nature?"

Elru makes note of that behavior and makes sure to toss out chicken bits and bones last. She tilts her head and furrows her brow slightly as she recollects what she was asked of her in the past. "Perhaps? What sights of the city I have enjoyed. My preferences in food and drink. I tend to keep my answers short with him, but he does not seem to care either way, full of platitudes and flattery he is."

The most that information earns from him is a grunt and once the chicken is gone he gives her some space, sucking the grease from his fingers. "Dinner was good. Thank you."

Elru blinks at him then manages a genuine smile. "I shall practice to make sure dinner stays good and varied."

"Was there anything further you needed from me?"

"Other than your opinion of that man, if any. Otherwise, no. I was glad to have you present."

"It wouldn't do to allow you to be alone in our home with a man we hardly know. We've appearances to keep. He's a man and I've as little interest in him as he does exercise. Neutral on the matter."

"Understood. For the time being he does strike me as fairly harmless. Perhaps time will tell." She goes about finishing dishes and cleaning. Elru's gotten better at not doing every little thing by magic. Not that she did before, but having an actual home to care for seems to have brought out that bit of hands on caretaker in her.

After a few moments of pause and her silence--Saeros leaves her to it.

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#19 Domestic Cannibalism

When Saeros goes to check in on Elru he'll find her at the south edge of the Cathedral district, trimming and adjusting the branches of a tree with an intent look of purpose.

He came as he usually did, silent of step but with that ever present swaying shift of magic betraying his presence to the part of Elru that was tuned to him. He simply watched for a moment and then, "What am I looking at?"

While Elru is of course aware of Saeros' presence she's also of the narrow-focused mindset she gets into when she's focused on a project. "This tree is obscuring this window excessively," she indicates with a hand back at the window of the house behind her, not looking away from her trim and alteration job of the tree, which seems near completion, as the tree is now significantly less leafy, though not so much as to be so noticeable compared to the other planters around, "which I found unacceptable as at least a marginal amount of light should be allowed through. I purchased this house."

Another pause, "Just one?"

She in turn pauses. "Just one. I only felt like managing one housing space." She stops her tree work and glances back at the home, then to Saeros as she tries to gauge his thoughts and feelings. "Should... I have bought more than one?"

"I expected a little more when forty thousand gold was withdrawn from our accounts. You could have had three houses."

"Even in this district? Is that so? Hm." She taps her chin. "It's good I kept records. It seems I have purchased myself more favor and weight than expected." She makes a face, as if the mention of weight made her remember something unpleasant.

"I assume there's some sort of inside." It was a pointed comment.

"Of course, yes, let me show you." She takes the lead and leaves the door open for Saeros, shutting it quickly once he passes the threshold. Inside is a mix of bare stone, bare wood and stand-in white blank wallpaper of her own creation. It's lit and not at all quiet as wood paneling and stones are set, rearranged and at times outright removed to be replaced by something else. Largely cosmetic, though, as the foundation and flooring is largely still intact and fortified. A standing table is centered by a pile of raw material, and three different home repair texts are hanging open. Saeros can see the bare front room, the stairs to a second floor, a closet that's being put in, and the near completed back kitchenette that's been redone in smoother stone, with its narrow window revealing the back garden space. Likely marble, about the best to be expected around. Elru nods upstairs. "There are three rooms and a closet upstairs, as well as an attic space. Below us is a basement space roughly the same size as this room here. A latch under the stairs leads to it. There are a large number of minor valuables in the basement, the gold purchased those as well."

Saeros followed after her but as he crossed the threshold his normally disruptive.. aura, for lack of a better term, turned far more delicate so as not to unsettle the active magics laced throughout the room. That wasn't to say his magical focus didn't travel along the floors and the walls to sense out the truth of Elru's statements for himself. For now he simply wanders through this front room, likely looking with both a metaphysical and all too real eye for detail.

Elru follows along at his side as she watches him wander and observe. Saeros would easily discern what Elru's own eyes had guessed at, that this home, while no Highborne home, was of a higher quality make than the homes of other districts. Certainly more solid, private and quiet than their inn room. The newer wood and stone that's being installed makes this more so, and deliberately or not, the new material is slightly more conducive to rune-work. The basement, once Saeros gives it a look, had more of a direct hand by Elru as she firmly fortified and repaired the stone and mortar basement earlier. There are also indeed minor valuables in the basement, mostly of the gold, silver and finery variety. Upstairs there are three rooms and closet, though two rooms are large closets in and of themselves while the third room passes for a master bedroom. The roofing needs some work, and the attic hasn't seen refurbishing yet.

And he passes through all this like a gilded ghost from middle to bottom to top, taking his time with evaluating the stock of what was around him. In his own time he makes his way back to that first floor where he stops. "Well done."

She raises her brow and allows herself a small smile as her expression lightens. It was clear from the shift that she was hoping for some acknowledgement while bracing for disappointment. "I am glad you say so. Though, if I may ask, where does the praise lie and where may things be better?"

"Location and status are appropriate, though we'll need to curb the appetite of whoever you bought off. When you finish with the.. aesthetics I'll add my own touches where runic protection and strengthening are concerned." His attention shifts back towards her. "And since you seem to be so entrenched in your interior design--make me a low couch with arms but no back."

Elru doesn't even question as a long sheet of paper just extends from the wall and drafting of such a couch begins, Elru simply nodding her affirmative as this happens. "Easily done, though I will give it proper focus."

He simply nods, "Do so."

She nods back and focuses on her drafting, creating a checklist of local materials for such a couch that would do while maintaining the slow steady refurbishing of the house around them. Certainly much less chaotic and more meaningfully productive than the paper room she had once occupied. "Would you like anything else for the moment?"

"No, just that for now." There were notes of humor in his tone. "I did mean now, Elru. Must I conjure one for you?"

She pauses, blinks a couple of times, then looks briefly and genuinely startled and flustered as she immediately clears a proper space and works out a series of conjurations and manipulations. "Right, right, foolish of me, I'm sorry!" It might take longer than Saeros would prefer, but for the moment he does in fact get his low couch with armrests and no back crafted before his eyes. She even gets a pair of paper arms at work in addition to her own.

Saeros idles by till what she creates is at least firm enough for his liking, enough to support his weight, and he straddles the furniture and leans back in a lazy slouch against one of its arms. "Function over fashion. You can detail it later." He offers one hand out to her in a clear beckon.

She cants her head but is automatically coming his way anyway, taking his hand if he keeps it extended for her and taking up a spot on the couch beside him.

Once she's in range Saeros has a way of positioning her in situations like this, namely in ways she hadn't already set herself. This time his warm, leather coated hands draw her close enough to grab her firmly around the thighs and with a more powerful flex of his body, he lifts and sets her to straddle his hips while he reclines back. "I am impressed that you went so far out of your own way."

She gives a little noise of surprise and a wider-eyed expression as she's lifted up and settled into a straddle over him. Taken aback, but not for too long she settles down against him comfortably, lightly resting her hands on his stomach. "It was half compulsive, but there was a reason. You said that I should live more according to my status, and that your wealth was my wealth. Under those criteria I did not think it suited us to rent inn rooms daily."

"Anything else that doesn't suit us?" Was the next mild question.

She tilts her head as she considers the question at length. "Nothing comes to mind, per se. But during those times when you're on a mission or when we need to be discreet I think you and I should have our own dedicated mounts or transports. I rather enjoyed those times we had sabers."

"I've noticed some self-absorbed little thing circling around me at the Mage Quarter my other Eldre'Thalas contacts passed along is a saber breeder." The inflection there was painfully absent.

She raises her brow some. "Doesn't necessarily need to be a saber. Especially one from someone who displeases you so."

"I know her type. They're too good for anyone else aside from those they see as worthy. Once they make that leap they either have to have you or no one can."

"Am I sensing correctly that when they say they must have you or no one can they mean that quite definitively?"

"Of course."

"Is this archetype of women common? They sound exceedingly unpleasant."

Saeros actually smirks at her, even if it wasn't entirely that pleasant of an expression. "Welcome to Highborne women."

Her face literally sours as if she were eating a lemon raw. "What a thing to be proud of. Goodness."

"And they are. Entirely self-centered and driven by their vices just like the opposite sex." He lolls his head to the other side. "But thankfully we dodged that bullet with you."

"Some standards of measurement would argue I have a whole other set of problems, but you seem very accepting." It wasn't an accusatory statement or self-depreciating in the least. It's about the closest she seems to come to being wry.

"It's what I wanted after all."

"Indeed. And I like to think the pride I have in what I am is of more substance than the pride most Highborne women seem to have of themselves."

"All things in moderation can be pleasing." He lifts one hand from her thigh to make a loose gesture over himself. "Explore me." There couldn't be a more plain invitation.

She looks mildly surprised but does not hesitate at the invitation. Instead, she pans her eyes down from his eyes to his torso as she slides her hands down the material of his front to slide them back up over his bare stomach, lifting his top as she does. Not all the way, but enough to bare his stomach and ribs. That done she'll run her fingertips and thumbs along those ribs, over muscles and the seams in-between. She's not drooling, but she doesn't look bored in the least.

Each inch of bare skin she smooths her hands over was warm to the touch and once he caught on to what she wanted in particular his fingers still on her thigh make a dancing gesture that loosens the leather enough for her to have her way mostly unhindered. He'd taken to wearing that bold statement of wealth that was the green and gold leather but those metallic edges were just that, edged and slightly sharp. It wouldn't be Elru's first time noticing that tiny runes were scrawled across most of the available surface and she could feel the hum of his own magic behind them as close as they were.

Not necessarily at a steady rate but in due time she'll have him topless as she continues to explore the muscles along his chest and arms, occasionally raising one arm or the other to get a more thorough feel and look. At a glance it'd look like she was mapping his skin, but the way she rubs her thumbs and fingertips in, giving squeezes here and there, communicates a more clear interest than she usually does in most things. On one occasion she'll have his hand curled and flexed and brought near to her face as she feels him, his fingertips briefly brushing against her chin and nose. "In public, what is an acceptable amount of physical contact?"

He wasn't entirely passive under her hands and when she brings his hand to her face he moves just enough more to cup one cheek. "That depends on the situation and what you're trying to convey."

She comfortably rests her cheek in his hand as she leans into it, pressing his hand up in turn with her own hand as she looks at him. "I mean in public as husband and wife, but you raise a good point. What is the appropriate difference between casual contact between us in front of friendly company, and say casual contact between us in from of an ambitious would-be suitor?"

His touch turns a little more direct as he angles her face with a light grip, the result of a finger hooking under the tip of her chin to draw her to his liking. "Again--it's all in the message. Newly weds are notorious for being unable to keep their hands off one another. Some well established couples rarely touch, if at all, in public settings but their attention to one another and body language from a distance generally give it away. I've seen women openly try to ride their clothed mates to make statements to the women taking interest in them, vice versa for men."

She gives a pensive hum as she rubs her thumb against his fingers, nodding against his hand. "I will take this into consideration. Thank you, Kir-Moldir."

He simply watches her, "Anything else?"

To finish off she lightly bites and nibbles on a few fingertips followed by briefly intertwining her fingers with his free ones. "Nothing else for now, except my asking if you have encountered any other stresses or annoyances as of late."

"Much to my tolerance's relief--no. I don't play the games these women expect me to engage in once they've shown interest. Being neither desperate or wanting like they depend upon." His other hand wraps around Elru's waist and tucks her in tighter against him in an all too teasing fashion that pressed her firm into slowly rolled hips. "Though at times I do have to wonder after you."

"Wonder after me?" She rests her hands back on his bare torso as her hips roll slightly with his, cheeks flushing just slightly.

"It's not the first time I've found you trying to bite off more than you can chew." With her hands on him Saeros's newly freed digits are soon enough wrapping tight into the base of Elru's hair and drawing her forward, down closer to where he lay with half-lidded eyes.

She peers closely at him, arms folding up as she's brought down to him, palms flat on his shoulders. "Regarding the house purchase, or something else?"

"Me, of course. The only thing that should be occupying your thoughts right now." His eyes had quickly lost interest in her own while they roamed across the rest of her facial features and settled on her lips. There wouldn't be much of a chance for her to get more than a few words in with how quickly the arm around her waist coils higher around her chest as he brings her in for a forceful, bruising kiss.

She makes a brief noise of surprise and slight pain, but does not resist, nor does she press in to meet the strength of his kiss. Hands firmer on his chest, she settles in, having Saeros do as he will.

Her passiveness doesn't seem to save her this time as the arm around her chest constricts tighter and tighter while Saeros busies himself with that kiss. He was so forceful that there might be a few lines being crossed somewhere given that he was slowly suffocating her at the same time their unkind kiss was pushing past bruising and into cutting her lips against the fangs in her own mouth.

She'll shift and push just slightly if only to adjust her face such she can breathe through her nose, unable to help a little whine from escaping but otherwise staying where she is, her blood smearing against and leaking into his mouth.

She wouldn't be so lucky. Between the hand in her hair and his arm around her--Elru wasn't going to be able to draw in anything more substantial.

At this rate as she'll probably slowly suffocate. Her eyes are half-lidden and there is a bit of fear there, her nails lightly raking his chest.

That was the point after all. It was rare that Saeros gave so freely without taking something back.

The dimming of her eyes indicates that she is certainly heading there.

He'd wait till she was out for those few brief seconds before sealing what ever fate he had in store for her with a whispered word and a gesture to tie the rune to her for a few hours.

For however long it takes for Saeros' runes to run their course and keep Elru asleep she'll be none the wiser for her fate, but at least she's not dead. Once they finish she'll blearily blink her eyes open from wherever or however she is left laying in the house.

Elru had since been relocated after her trip into unconsciousness and would be currently staring up at folds of dark cloth where the ceiling should be. A turn of her head or more attention to what her bare hands and feet are feeling would reveal that she was likely laying down on some sort of bed with a thick fur thrown over her for good measure. Until she moved--that would be all that was revealed to her.

Elru takes a moment to assess these surroundings with minor curiosity. She certainly didn't bring these here, but logic assumes that means it was Saeros' doing. Running bare hands and feet over the thick furs she'd carefully ease up into a sitting position to better look around.

She'd certainly been laying down on a bed, one far more suited to Kaldorei proportions and Highborne tastes if the faint hum of remnant magic was anything to go by. It was a four-poster bed with a matching canopy that had first greeted her eyes. The supports at each corner were twined spirals, hollow in the middle, but the material wasn't immediately recognizable as either wood or metal. Beyond her the room had a full compliment of furniture in the form of two bedside tables on either side, a trunk at the end of the bed, a pair of chairs and low table with a chessboard inlaid into the red wood in black and white stone tiles. There was a wardrobe nearby in the same darker red-ish tones that drew the eye down to the floor where a few plush rugs could allow the inhabitant to dance from one to the other without touching the cold wooden floor with reasonable distance between. It certainly wasn't a room that white and pastel tones would find an easy home in. Though speaking of home.. now that she was upright there was a scent higher in the air from where she'd been laying, certainly smells like someone has food somewhere.

All the luxury, quality and clearly Highborne tones were quite obvious and unexpected so soon, as her brows raise and her gaze pans around at each detail. Giving the air a whiff as she eases out of the bed, she gives pause as she steps near and runs her fingertips along the inlaid chessboard, inspecting and feeling each detail. Satisfied and pleased with a small smile on her face, she'll step lightly out the door if able, searching the source of the smell.

The interior design stopped at the door as she continues following her nose through the house. It would be easier as she went to pick apart what she smelled with those superior senses--it had to be some sort of white meat with the more delicate citrus scents layered above a hint of fat.

Descending the steps with light quick steps she'd turn her head immediately to the marble kitchen with all the curiosity and hunger that would be expected and moderated by grace. This much time after she would be hungry after all, and wanted to catch sight of Saeros and if he was in fact cooking.

Saeros seemed to have timed things just right so when Elru catches sight of him he's washing his hands in the sink. The smell is clearly stronger here and identifiable as fish as it wafts around from a small oven that may or may not have been there before. The dish was currently served up on two plates and consisted of one filet each on a bed of rice and sauce paired with a side of tossed salad greens.

"Did you cook all this yourself on the spot, Kir-Moldir?" Her voice carried impressed tones as she stepped to the table, inspecting the oven from afar as it meets her approval with a slight nod.

"You've been out for a few hours. I had the time." He was rather thorough in scrubbing his hands with a small hand brush before rinsing them off. "Set the table."

"Of course." She had not had the chance to get the house a cutlery set yet but it was a simple matter conjuring a set for two. She'd conjure napkins as well, but set and folded them properly herself at each respective side.

Once he was done and his hands were dry he picks up both plates and sets them down on the table before taking his own seat with a reactionary sigh. There's no prayer to Elune before he digs in--he simply starts eating.

Elru follows suit and also begins eating with care and manners. She's always been one that gave such prayers in an obligatory sense anyway. She'll lightly hum in pleasant approval of what she was eating, in response to all components present, fish, rice and greens.

It certainly wasn't restaurant quality but it was filling, warm, and tasty enough that it couldn't be called bland. In between bites Saeros speaks up, "If you wanted to have a dedicated washroom you'll need to decide which adjacent room to sacrifice for it."

"I have been debating which of the two rooms to devote to just that, and it amounts to whether the washroom should have outside light or not." Another thorough bite and chew and she remarks, "You may not consider such a comment necessary, but I feel compelled to say this is good cooking."

"It's palatable. I'd suggest the one with a window."

"A washroom with window it is. Shall I make that one more akin to the aesthetics of the master bedroom?"

"Make your own choices on interior design."

"Very well. I will. Thank you for the meal, Kir-Moldir. And thank you for the thorough work on the master bedroom."

"Like the look?"

"I do. I did not realize I had missed the home look until I had seen it again. It is very absent everywhere else."

"Feel free to make the rest of it look like whatever suits you best."

"Why did you choose the look of the master bedroom specifically?"

"Its what suited me."

"Of course. And there's nothing else in the house that you need to your specific suiting? Aside from that long couch back there." She looks at the functional one in question.

"I don't need much space. What I've already done is enough to my liking. The rest I leave for you to explore."

"Thank you for allowing me such, Kir-Moldir." She pauses. "Do you play chess?"

"I do."

"Would you like to play with me sometime?"

"Not with the set you've made."

"That set was not meant for you."

"I've yet to see you use it. Who is it intended for?"

"Anyone who displeases me and who is prideful enough to be willing to play."

"You think you'll have the self-control to endure a full game?" Around this time Saeros was scraping up the last bits of fish and rice.

"I think by the time I've perfected the set I'll have the self-control to endure a full game." She wasn't quite done yet with her dish but she was getting there.

"Have you practiced?"

She nods, raising a pair of fingers showing the almost healed fine pricks in her fingertips.

"I'd caution you against blood magic at length. It's a school with easily re-purposed elements."

"I imagined as such, with all the backfiring potential. The coral chess pieces do not require thaumaturgy to function."

"Hemalurgy doesn't function entirely in the same manner as general Arcane."

"Mmm, is that right? I see." She finishes and cleans her plate now. "I will take your word for it, as you advise against my studying it at length."

"You'd need a proper teacher."

"It's just as well. My talents are better practiced focused on fine-tuning my strengths at this time."

He nods.

She eases out of her seat and gets started on clearing the table, first piling the dishes together, then the utensils followed by the napkins on top. "Refreshment?"

"If you'd like." He leans back in his chair while she started to pick up.

She takes a moment to conjure chilled glasses of wine, ones made with more care than that she had given to the house's benefactor. Not drinking her's yet she goes about disposing waste and washing the dishes herself.

Saeros remains at the table, he'd cooked after all, and draws the glass over to him though doesn't quite start drinking yet. He's only looking at it for now.

She washes up and cleans up in decent time, drying her hands with a fresh cloth before returning to the table and sitting back down to her own glass. Taking hold of hers, she watches him, then takes a sip first.

Once she sits back down and settles some he lightly drones, "Do you prefer conjured food and drink?"

She shakes her head after her sip. "No. I have not had the chance to bring in proper food and drink for storage."

"I find it to be similar to cannibalism." There was no reproach to his voice, only a dull observation.

"I haven't thought of it that way, but it makes sense, as you are essentially consuming yourself."

"Or others."

"Or others," she says in assent. "If you prefer, I do have a small tap of clean drinking water present."

"No, I need nothing more at the moment." His attention shifts from the glass he'd been toying with between the tips of bare fingers to her face. "If you'd wanted me to eat you there are more efficient ways of doing so."

She stares blankly at him uncomprehending for a few seconds before alternate meanings of his words registered and her brow went up slightly and her lips parted. "Oh. Well. Fair point, that."

He'd been waiting to see just what her response would be before his physical attention drifts off once more. "Everything has a price."

"Of course.. As it always does." She seems pensive as she mulls over thoughts in her mind, eyes also drifting.

Saeros takes one last look at the glass in his hands before making a gesture, unraveling the enchantment that brought the liquid into existence before that too disappears, drawn into his hands. "I need to be up early in the morning." He stands, "I'm going to break in the new bed."

She nods, standing with him. "Would you like me to join you? If not, I will continue work on the house."

He hesitates in his turning to look back at her. It wasn't often that Saeros didn't have a perfectly groomed manner, even in private, but it seemed today would be the exception. There were several faces and aspects of himself that Elru had seen so far but none quite touched on what lay beneath the layers of facade until he lifted it up himself. There was a more.. animated energy to the way he watched her even if he was standing still, a thick expectance that could explode into movement given the right provocation. He hadn't been quite like this since Elru had her lesson with the late Lord Starshatter and that too was a hint in and of itself, "Are you interested in paying the price for following along with me?"

She considers his words and his shift in stance with a little trepidation, a dash of excitement, and that ever present curiosity. She remembers that time, even if all the meanings and ramifications at the time weren't clear to her then. She considers her own words and stance with some thought before she decides, "Yes. I am interested."

Saeros comes closer to her but that proximity carries a literal edge. He'd reached for her hand but with a length of familiar runed knife palmed along his own with the edge pressed knowledgeably into her palm to draw the limb up with a long slice. He shifts the knife in his grasp to get a better grip on her wrist. The gesture carries through until Saeros rubs her wound against the side of his face in macabre paint, "In finding out how much of a masochist you can tolerate to be? Don't confuse this with proving yourself to me. The two are separate."

She took an instinctual step back at the knife gesture, though not nearly far enough to escape, not that she could or intended to. With a wince and slight hiss as her palm is cut she stares at him as her blood is dragged across his face. "How much of a masochist I can tolerate myself to be..." She mouths out the words to better process their meaning, expression clouding over with a small frown as she thinks a moment more, then looks up at Saeros. "This is going to sound more clinical than you may prefer, but... I think It would suit both you and I in the long run if it is established how willing I am to go."

"You haven't earned a safe-word from me, Elru."

She considers the statement. "And what would I have to do to earn that much?"

"How much are you willing to give?"

"What -can- I give?"

He takes a moment to angle her hand in his to move it back towards her and allow it to drip across her own face. "Consent is a formality. I already own every part of you that has value. But there's something to be said about those who willingly go into the jaws of a beast knowing that there's no safety there."

She blinks to prevent blood from getting in her eyes as the fluid is coated on her face in turn. Her hand stings a great deal but she makes no complaint of it. "The world is full of beasts and monsters. Your jaws are the only ones I'd willingly go into. Safe or no."

"What have I done to inspire such.. trust?" He finally lets go of her hand though that long knife remained fully corporeal from where ever he'd drawn it.

She cradles her hand carefully to have the wound point up, gingerly testing and clenching her hand even as it still bleeds and works to heal. Her eyes take on a distant recollection kind of quality as she speaks. "I don't know if I would call it trust. It's just that, I have been reminding myself that I would be dead many times over if it were not for you, Kir-Moldir. Even if it is just to use me. But isn't that the base foundation of any relationship anyway? Using? But, I also remind myself that just because I am alive because of you doesn't mean I can depend solely on you to remain alive. I need to be able to live and survive on my own merits, regardless of your power over me. And if I am to grow, in a way, it has to be through you." She looks to him. "It is not a very refined thought process, this. I still have many things to figure out."

"It is also a very real possibility that I could break you before you truly start to grow into your own. It would serve my purposes just the same if I effectively 'capped' your potential."

"It's certainly not a preferred outcome for me but I recognize it as a real one should you one day decide I've grown quite enough. I do not want to stunt myself out of simple fear of that outcome, however."

"And you think now is the time to test your mettle?"

"I don't know if it is the right time, I just know it has to happen."

"I'm asking now. Is this the right time?"

She thinks and ponders on this for a time, eyes closed, brow furrowed, before allowing her face to relax and sighing as she opens her eyes looking disappointed, though not at Saeros, more at herself. "I'm still too soft. This is a poor time to test my mettle, as you say." She quickly adds. "I am sorry if you consider this a waste of time and words, but I do not consider it a waste."

"And how are you going to judge when you're ready?"

"When I know my desire to attack and to hurt others is stronger than my desire to defend myself."

"Ah, no." Saeros moves in closer then and actually wraps his arms around Elru's waist with the knife still in hand though not angled to prick or cut. "That's when you start letting your desires take hold of you and make mistakes."

She tilts her head up at him and blinks, not moving away from his grip but not resting her hands atop him. "Ah, I see.. Hrm." She furrows her brow a bit. "I need to rethink my criteria."

"Highborne have a long, storied history of being efficient murderers, Elru. That makes us selfish, vicious, and cunning on top of all the other vices we've tried to drown lingering morals in over the span-less years. If you want to truly help yourself along the path--find a way to rid yourself of the idea of good and evil." His following amusement was a soft quirk of the lips.

She words out his words for herself, "Rid myself of the idea of good and evil... Mm. I see." She looks at him carefully, particularly looking at his smile. "It is something I'll need to ponder. It sounds simple in theory, but such notions are often a firm fundamental of mindsets."

"We're wired to think of things in terms of good and bad. It helps to stop thinking of others along the way aside from what uses they possess--cover, aid, and as raw material. You can rationalize your budding relationships here in Stormwind in the same manner. Learn how to get them to trust you. Learn what makes a good 'friend'. People are sheep and will cower together around the wolf as long as its in sheep's clothing when strange dogs come barking." Saeros releases her then and turns towards the stairs at a leisurely pace. "Make sure you finish cleaning up. A house should have a lived in smell."

She considers his words, and once Saeros is up a few steps she responds, "Of course, Kir-Moldir. Thank you." And she'll go about doing so, cleaning the house up and continuing, quietly, renovations. It'll occur to her at some point that she's still got blood on her face and she'll clean up after that as well.

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#18 A Modest Purchase

“You see in this illustrious district, the very center of our city, many diverse members of the Alliance spend extended time within its walls, much as you clearly have been doing for the past days, perhaps weeks.”

“Weeks indeed, yes. It has been a fruitful stay.”

The city in question was Stormwind, what I am told is one of the oldest and most prominent cities of human culture. After spending the time I have in this stone stacked establishment I came to appreciate the odd irony such a city presented. Like how could such a metropolitan city be both so young and yet look so worn, not unlike a blade you kept repeatedly using on blunt surfaces without sharpening. And also how despite being a human city in some places it often felt as if humans were barely a majority. Either this city was evolving before my eyes in a strange way that makes no sense due to my observing mid-transformation, or this pinnacle of the Alliance was merely a tourist trap.

“And it is more than understandable that one such as yourself would desire a place of your very own, here in the shade and splendor of the Cathedral of Light. And we do have many such homes like this one here within and near this district that many have an eye on.”

“As I saw. I cannot agree more with what you say.”

The property in question sat roughly over a hundred meters away from the nearest leyline and not too far from a prominent source of Light energy. Physically, the property was a house that sat next to a canal in the city of Stormwind in the same block of space as the Cathedral of Light and facing a ruined run-off cliff where great destruction had been wrought. Even now it still stank of fire and brimstone, but if I concentrated hard enough I could guess and see a rough outline of how that part of the city may have been according to how the rest of the city was laid out. I’m told it was once a park. A shame.

“However, such as it is, we are not like other districts, and the Clergy of the Church of the Holy Light are not businessmen. As I explained earlier during my initial surprise, homes such as these are generally not for open sale.”

“But it is available for sale in some fashion, from what you say?”

The corpulent man in question in front of me was dressed in priestly robes that stretched around his belly. Even with my short and simple statements he loved to respond and speak in so many words. He gestured and returned to recounting the history of the property I currently had my interest in, again reiterating its value and again reminding me that it was not a mere property to buy, regardless of my question. At least I think that’s what he was currently doing. Once his circular logic and onerous train of words began, regarding how the house was of course for sale but how it was mainly reserved for certain members of Stormwind’s class and character but of course it was for sale, I began to tune him out. Further attempts to make fuller sense of his words left me beginning to see the folds and creases in the the corpulent man’s face as his words became only so much shuffling to my ears, and I turned away to opt to look back at the property I was looking to purchase.

Outwardly I could tell the house was better kept than homes in other districts of the city. Yes, it was made of the same stone, clay and wood as every other home here, but it was much less shoddily done, and people have bothered to make repairs on this house as well. It was one of a handful of homes that shared a small garden space sequestered and hidden between walls with a small passage that led to it.  From what few facts I could garner from the corpulent human’s words homes like these were often reserved for either members of the Cathedral’s clergy, or noblemen and women who held the clergy’s work in high regard by contributing to their coffers. As a true home, this hardly compared to what wealthy living I was marginally exposed to. As a private place to stay that wasn’t an inn, it was more than adequate for Kir-Moldir and I.

It didn’t matter if we weren’t truly living here in this city. Kir-Moldir and I can only rent out rooms in inns for so long. Regular time spent in the city doesn’t hold strongly the illusion of a couple on an extended stay. Even with how we were outwardly it also wouldn’t do to have the two of us regularly occupying and sharing spaces with other people. There was value in privacy, or what approximated privacy in this city. He did say that his wealth was mine, and this seemed a fairly practical purchase in my mind.

And if Kir-Moldir found himself unsatisfied with the purchase, well, then that would be a lesson, too.

“Was adding your tithe and contribution to the Church something you wished to do, as other patrons do? Such contributors often have easy access to usage of the homes in the district. My lady?”

It just then occurred to me that I had neglected to give an immediate response to the last inquiry, but the human was still talking at me with the same rate of words as before. I looked at him and saw what might have been expectation in his eyes. Expectation, something approximating concern, and a slight look in his eye that I have come to recognize in the more naked Highborne I have been near, a look I have come to associate with greed. There might have been respect, too, though I could not tell to what degree. I did not come dressed in my best, but I did dress closer to my station like Kir-Moldir said I should. If such a home was truly meant for those associated with the clergy and noblemen of this city, then this man on principle should have dismissed me right away. The fact that I was still being spoken to and assured and reassured constantly of its worth and place in society left me feeling annoyed.

I didn’t want to draw out this script any longer, and I didn’t want to expend more thought on this man than I had to, so I made for as swift a conclusion as I could with a blunt ploy that I would not be able to get away with anywhere else except here.

“I will pay twenty thousand gold for this property.”

The surprise was evident as his rate of words diminished significantly. “T-Twenty thousand?”

“Is that too little? My apologies. Forty thousand gold, paid directly to the Clergy, for the property and all its assets within. To be paid in four hours.” A hand gesture, a conjuration and the scribbling of a pen, all within a span of time less than a minute, and I had a rough contract ready for the man to sign. He made no mention of any formal contract in any of his words so I simply drafted my own.

Through his remarkably restrained sputtering and shock, I could see the true way his folded creases in his brain were crinkling. That knee-jerk reaction of greed, with the calculating contemplation of more material greed. It was a possible outcome, my ploy encouraging this human to make me pay even more with how freely I was paying to begin with. If he went that way, that is when he’d find I don’t bend quite so pliantly and would merit a stern scolding that I thought would not look too out of character for someone in my position.

Fortunately it did not come to that and the human broke out his smile, not even looking at the contract he held in his hands and signed. I started tuning him out again but made the appropriate eye contact and head motions as he continued to thank me profusely for my contribution to the church coffers and assurances that he would be able to convince his fellows to accept an offer of such.

I helped myself to the door once he was out of sight. I did not have the gold ready yet but I saw no need to wait even that long to begin proper ownership of the property. Hand resting on the door handle, despite looking so bulky, the door opened with remarkable ease as I stepped inside into the shadowed walls.

I had no strong grasp of human aesthetic but I couldn’t help but feel this house was horribly outdated, and marginally lived in given the dust in some places, yet not others. How some furniture has clearly seen use, yet others looked no different from decoration. Clergy, noble or no, this property was used no differently than the inn rooms Kir-Moldir and I occupied. It rankled me that the human would spend so much time proclaiming the praises of what amounted to a subpar guest house. It took me no time at all to pan my eyes over the immediately visible features of the interior, the dining table, the bear rug, the mahogany chairs and feather cushions, the back kitchenette with a narrow window that showed the vines and trees of a back garden and the railings leading up the stairs that then keep in the second floor. My magic took my senses where my eyes can’t go, through the termite ridden walls, a latch leading to the roomy basement, the small but functional rooms tucked away upstairs, and the roof rats living all too comfortably in the attic. One look was all I needed to tell me this space would do.

Taking a breath and closing my eyes I see the house in its bare dimensions, each corner, panel and tile. Like so many pages of filler I cleared away all the many unnecessary components in my mind, the rugs, the cutlery, the furniture, all the human furnishings and decoration. All of it was going to go away. With a muttered spell I began doing just that as the bear rugs became to shrivel and become nothing but ash, most of the furniture slowly following suit, the wallpaper and painting flaking away to piles of dust.

The termites and rats had to go and most of the walls need to be replaced. Before I finished that thought my mouth had already begun a simple incantation setting a spell in place to clear pests. The rats, clever things, knew something was changing and immediately fled for adjacent properties but the termites could do no such thing. I allowed myself some pleasant leisure time as I watched in my mind’s eye the termite colony begin to die en mass before I worked to assess the wood damage. Repairs are very doable, but will take time. Or at least that was my estimation. I knew little about house furnishing, but I was a quick study.

Idly I stepped past the decomposing furnishings and made for the basement latch just underneath the intact stairwell. It took a bit of effort on my part, but I managed to lift it and prop it open with enough confidence that it wouldn’t shut closed behind me. Descending the stairs I raised my hand to emit a bright light as I assessed the basement contents.

I don’t know what I was expecting, really. I was hoping for a room of illicit secrets or a room with a higher purpose such as those devoted to politics or war, but the stone brick basement was nothing more than expensive yet still plain storage for more valuable furnishings and kitchenware. Picking up a dusty shining goblet I debated the merit of disposing of so much metal when a faint reflected glimmer caught my eye. It wasn’t the glimmer of anything valuable, but of moisture.

I sighed, and wondered if the corpulent man I handed off my contract to was aware that this basement was one or two hammer strikes away from taking on canal water. I had a lot more work to do here than I thought.

Most of an hour later I returned from my unscheduled home repair sojourn into the basement to stand in the middle of the property to take a long look around in all directions.

The home was nearly down to its stone foundations with how much of the older wood had to go away. There was nothing left of any of the antiquated furnishings or decorations, and even the dust piles have been properly disposed of. Just to make sure I stepped to the stairway and pressed a hand to the stone and wood. Some of the pieces need replacing.

I was about to leave to retrieve the gold payment when I noticed something off about the now equally bare kitchenette. The activity of my spellwork dirtied up the window to the outside and was allowing significantly less light through. I don’t know why that bothered me a great deal but it did.

With a careful stroll over the now uneven flooring I stood by the narrow window to the back garden and with careful application of water cleaned off the murky glass until I could see through it clearly once again.

“This will do,” I said aloud to myself.

I then abruptly turned back towards the door because right then that corpulent man returned and he did a double take at what was happening inside the home. Rather, he was startled and downcast at how quickly the property had emptied of nearly all furnishings, and how some of it was even evaporating right before his eyes under my guiding magic.

“Oh, oh my.. This, well.. While your contribution and means to stay are not in question, not at all, this is highly irregular.. Oh, I don’t know about this, oh...”

Watching him fidget and sweat was making my fingers itch and my hearing distort in uncomfortably familiar ways as the features and edges of the human started to blend and blank out. It’d be so easy to keep looking, letting the creases and folds show to reveal what the man truly was, to fold him back to the blank pages he’d come from.

But I had my mind still, and my mind remembered this was to be a Kir-Moldir property. I was not going to mar it.

Instead I strolled to the man as he continued to pan around, fidgeting and sweating in nervousness, until he stepped back in surprise again as I was once again near him. It was no weapon or spell I brought to bear, but a glass and chilled refreshment conjured in hand, and the best disarming smile I could muster.

“You look parched and overworked, dear sir. Please, enjoy this drink, courtesy of my home back in Kalimdor.”

Clearly the sweat from this human was not solely from nerves because he perked up right away as he accepted the chilled drink from my hand and began guzzling with only marginal grace. The highborne I am familiar with wouldn’t deign to taste the generic wine I just conjured but if the way the human’s face lit up was any indication this was quite likely the most flavorful and refreshing wine he has ever drank. “What is your name, sir?”

“My name? Oh, Fairgold. Brother Edward Fairgold, just like my father before me and his father before him.”

He spoke the name with such pride. I measured out approximately the same amount of pride in my own voice as I enunciated his full name in turn. “Brother Edward Fairgold. I apologize for my earlier curtness, I was simply overwhelmed by your generosity and the generosity of the church. I have a place now, and it is thanks to you.” I plaster on a smile directed at the bewildered man. “When renovations are complete I would like to show you what I’ve done.” Refilling his glass to his delight I conclude with, “I look forward to continuing my patronage and contribution with the Church, especially if it’s through a fine gentleman such as yourself.”

I just wanted to get back to my work on the house, but he opened his mouth again. This was unpleasant.

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#17 Winter’s Veil

It would be particularly hard for Elru to miss the ongoing festivities of the city around her or the purpose of the season. The shorter lived races seemed to have a monthly occasion to give gifts to one another in some fashion though this one topped it all. Packages wrapped in brightly colored paper and sweets enough to rot out teeth entire are only the beginning. People sang carols at one another at random and decorated trees. It didn't need to be said that this wasn't a Kaldorei festival by any means but racial divides seemed to fall apart at this point in the year. Saeros himself had never truly observed any of these events by his participation, so when Elru returns to their room that night to find a rather sizable white box wrapped in delicate gold ribbon it might just catch her off guard. He was in the habits of giving her gifts, reminders, but not actual -gifts-. The man in mention sat in one of the cushioned chairs in their apartment in clear display of having waited for her. "Evening, Elru."

"Evening, Kir-Moldir," came the automatic response, though her attention was still on the present in an almost but not quite bewildered fashion. The fact that it was resting in range of Saeros and their things meant that there wasn't anything physically dangerous with it, in theory, and this thought process was naked on her face. "Uhm. Is that for me?"

"That it is."

"But.. why? I mean, I know it is appropriate for the.. festivities, but what brought this on?"

His response was simple, as most of his replies were. "I felt like it."

She blinks at him. "Oh... I see... Well... Thank you, Kir-Moldir. Truly." She looks awkward giving a bowing of the head with a small smile. The surprise was obvious, but the small if notable amount of excitement was easily betrayed. "I have never received this manner of gift before."

"You don't even know what it is yet. Thank me after."

"Just the gesture and package alone has me taken aback." She looks at said package. "Do I open it right now?"

"I am told this is the day for it. Go ahead." He nods passively.

She remains reserved in physical movement and gesture but her eyes were fairly bright as she meticulously and carefully undid the ribbons without ripping or breaking them. She opened the box in no time.

What she found within was a full set of carefully folded garments of a previously yet unknown quality. It was decorated in deep blues, pure whites, and shimmering golds that even a Highborne of high breeding would take a second glance at. The material was deceptively light but also maintained a certain strength one wouldn't expect from such fine silk. At a far closer look Elru would be able to see patterns woven into the material, tiny runes created by the manner of weaving it had been brought together in. Compared to Saeros's own armors this was almost obscenely fine in craftsmanship, the kind one holds up as an example of their finest life's work. Saeros meanwhile simply watched where he sat with a predictably unreadable expression. He was waiting for her own, after all.

It's been a while, but for the time being Saeros got to see that girl again in Elru as she quietly gasped, staring wide-eyed at this present that was ostensibly for her. They'd both know damn well that Elru had never been given anything worth a fraction of the value and craftsmanship present in this garment. Even after witnessing the Alliance festivities she was currently quite literally a child experiencing her first Winter's Veil. Unlike most children, though, there might as well have been a glass wall between her and the garment with how much willingness she showed to even touch the piece, as if touching the garment would somehow ruin or diminish the worth.

Whatever he saw in her face tilts his head as he inquires, "Is it not to your liking?"

She starts and whirls to him with an earnest, "No no, of course it is to my liking! It is the one of the highest quality garments I have ever seen if not THE highest quality!" Even raising her hands defensively a touch, then lowering them as she answers slightly more evenly with a bit more collected thought. "A part of me is just disbelieving that something this nice would be given to me."

A single long eyebrow lofts at her display. "You needed something befitting your station. Believe in the surety of that."

"I-" she cuts herself off as she looks to him still flustered, then with deliberate care and measure she closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, lets it out, then looks to Saeros far more composed, but eyes still lit with excitement. "You are absolutely right. This is appropriate wear for my station. Even so, thank you, Kir-Moldir." She smiles as she looks to the garment again but this time gently pressing a hand against the material, running fingertips along it.

It feels like a whisper against her skin even now, runes within reacting to her touch with a slight tug of Arcane. She could feel it, this was not just for appearances but for armor of her own as well, focusing her Arcane just a little more to augement her skill. "You're welcome. You can thank me by modeling it promptly."

She gave a firm nod and stood up to begin stripping without ceremony, setting her robe and pieces aside on a chair before going about carefully taking out and pulling on each expensive piece, taking enough time to appreciate the feel but not too long as to waste time, smiling all the while.

There was as full set in there to compliment the prominent robes. Pants, bracers, gloves, belt, and even a pair of sturdy slippers and spaulders that all matched. Saeros must have been paying rather close attention to Elru's figure over the time they've been in close quarters because what she wore fit her as well, if not better, than her own current clothing. It was elegant without being overly gaudy and he watches her with a keen eye to see just how well he'd matched her size to her body type, just in case.

By the time she has her full set on she's almost short of breath in contained excitement that she does a better job of not showing in a dignified manner. Now that it's fully on her she takes her time to appreciate and assess the craftsmanship and runes etched into the material, gazing at her hem, arms and herself off whatever reflective surface was available. It fit her quite well with little to no drag as she tested various movements moving about the room.

"Anything too tight or too loose?"

Repeating testing motions of raising her arms high and raising her knees, she shakes her head. "Nothing too tight or too loose. Only if I were doing acrobatics while wearing this, which is not something I should be doing. If I were to be especially critical the heels of the slippers should be slightly tighter and the shoulders should be slightly looser where the sleeve meets the torso, but this is a truly remarkable fit."

"I'll have it adjusted after you go to sleep." All in all Saeros was remarkably passive over the whole affair.

She looks to Saeros and fidgets and frowns a bit. "I apologize that I do not have such a gift prepared for yourself... Especially when you had such a wonderful gift made just for me..."

A bemused hint quirks his lips. "What do you own that I do not?"

She pouts a bit. "Well. Nothing. But the gesture would be made."

"Empty gestures are still just as empty; are they not?

"Well, what if one truly desired to gift you something? Wouldn't be so empty then, would it?"

"I also don't generally own someone's assets either. It would be like gifting myself." He'd yet to lose his smirk.

She opens her mouth then closes it, then crosses her arms looking slightly and almost petulantly put out. "And what happens if you actually do receive a gift, empty gesture or no?"

"Depends on the gift, of course."

"And how often have you received a gift worth any notice?"

"Seldom."

She briefly runs her palms over her dress to feel again. "Well, that is something I will certainly keep in mind." She looks at herself one more time then to him. "On what occasion would this wear be most appropriate?"

"Public events or other such statements."

"Noted. I look forward to the next such occasion."

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#16 Social Doldrums

By the time Saeros got around to moving Elru back into a room with him after the prior attack on their last inn they'd merely relocated to another, smaller room and board in the Trade district. More private. It was warded similarly to their last but with a few extra.. traps should certain wards be dispelled or other circumstances present themselves. As it often was Saeros didn't return for the night until the early morning. She could sense him coming from nearly half the district away through the link they shared, shifting in thinly veiled aggitation that didn't show on his face as he stepped through the doorway and closed it behind him.

Elru had been indulging in one of her older more habitual pastimes in the form of reading, this one a collection of accounts of the Northrend campaign. However she lifts her gaze to be at the ready to meet his once he enters the room. "What was it tonight?"

Saeros didn't direct his attention to her immediately, he could sense her in other ways and that seemed to be enough for him. He set about shrugging out of his armor with a certain haste, starting with his pauldrons and gloves before continuing on with the rest. "I'm not sure why but I always find myself surprised when a different society acts in the exact same ways as another with thousands of years between them." Despite the expense that must have gone into his wardrobe Saeros tosses it disdainfully to the floor as if tainted or corrupted. It wasn't his favored armor after all.

She watches him carefully as he discards his clothing with haste, pursing her lips at the manner in which he does so as they collect on the floor. "This should be good... In what manner do you mean specifically?"

"I've a habit of collecting admirers and building a harem when I have to play such a public face." In a surprisingly short amount of time Saeros was only clothed in cloth, his brace of weapons are deposited with more care to lean against a wall before he adds as an after-thought, "I met Melaran tonight. He was terribly displeased to hear who I was though his approach to turning a crowd against someone leaves much to be desired."

Her brow lifts up in mild surprise as she closes her reading and sets it aside. "I know Melaran. I was wondering when you would run into him. However your assessment does not surprise me. He does not strike me as a very socially adept man."

"That he isn't. If anything, he only solidified me as a martyr suffering his abuse."

Her mouth and eyes crinkles in amusement at the statement. "Saeros Kir-Moldir, martyr of the people. And what were the circumstances for this meeting?"

"He happened to be sitting across from me while I was entertaining this Kaldorei-Highborne whore."

"Just how blatant was she being to earn such high esteem from you?"

"She intentionally inebriated herself and 'subtley' invited me to her room."

"What is she, an adolescent?"

"Who thinks her blood makes her worth my notice."

"Now I understand what you meant. Some things truly never seem to change."

"Just so." There was only one bed to their room. They were 'married' after all so it wouldn't do to not share. He stretches out on top of the sheets with a pillow beneath his head, low-lidded eyes focused upon her. "Clearly you should meet her at some point and stake your claim." It was light but given how toneless Saeros's true voice was he was positively dripping with the sarcasm.

"I see no need to feel competitive with this woman, but I will accompany you more often if my presence will provide deterrant to more onerous social interactions. And being invited to bedchambers. Hmph."

"She thinks herself worthy of the honor." Humor now.

"Of my presence or the right to invite you to her bed?"

"The latter; after she was made aware that I am 'married'."

"Forgive me if my estimation is naive, but to my knowledge not even most highborne back home are that audacious."

"They're certainly far more subtle. These new times have made people forgetful. It's not enough to be of the proper bloodlines--power and intellect are also required to make one a suitable candidate."

"Power and intellect are in short supply among the women of this city."

"Spread legs are enough to entice the general populace. Why should it cross their minds that they're selling temselves as cheap sluts?"

"These women you affectionately call your harem. Do they have -any- merits?"

"Of course not."

"That is incredibly unfortunate. You should get -something- for these interactions."

"Together they -do- provide enough social cover to carry on the idea of the noble but reticent Saeros."

"And what happens should you encounter a woman who oversteps her bounds?"

"I can spin it any way I'd like now. It depends on the severity of her forcefulness. Murder would be an inconvenient draw of attention but I'd be doing their society a favor. For their sake I do hope none of them try to accept that potential abuse as a sign of favor. I might not be able to control myself then." In a lazy shift he offers his open hand out towards her, clearly seeking to draw her to him.

She eases up and makes her way to him without hesitation, taking up her place beside him on the bed, already in her bed robe. "Who knows, one of them might even like it. At first."

"I react rather strongly to those who accept intended punishment as a sexual hors d'oeuvre." Saeros ennunciates the Thalassian word with a slow drawl. "It's not wise to challenge an all too obvious threat to the point where you won't survive the consequences." Once she was down beside him Saeros rolls in towards her to run bare fingertips over the shoulder nearest him. He'd been making an effort lately to make small touches more casual though it was likely more for his own benefit than hers. Reconditioning himself one tiny step at a time to not find constant revulsion in physical contact.

Elru for her part did not shy away or question Saeros' practicing motions on her that have become more common as of late, having him approach and touch as he so desired and no more. Laying beside him she turns her head to watch him for a moment before speaking. "I suspect at some point in the future you will have to inflict a consequence of some degree if these women are truly as persistent as you paint them."

His attention flicks briefly up to her face before easing back down to his fingers when he inquires, "Interested?"

She blinks once then lifts her brow slightly as she continues to watch him and his fingers at work. "Perhaps, but I don't know how I would. I am not a good judge of appropriate degrees."

"Which you'll never learn without practice." Saeros remains placidly still aside from the movements of one arm in a picture of absent thought. Despite the repetitive motion he never seemed to touch the same exact place twice as if he could learn every dimension of her skin and retain a perfect memory of it for later.

"Some practice is due, you are correct." She turns her gaze to the ceiling as she continues to lay still for his benefit. "Perhaps I'll visit you more often and see one of these harem members for myself."

"As you said you would earlier. You must feel guilty then; offering me two of the same promise in a handspan of minutes." There was only the standard lack of inflection to his voice now.

"It was a reiteration of the same promise, but the second time had more meaning and understanding behind it." She hums. "How defensive of her husband is a wife supposed to be?"

"What do you feel?"

"I feel a good wife would respect her husband's comfort with other people but still carry some possessiveness on their sleeve, metaphorically speaking. I am not certain."

"I don't want what you think is expected of you. What society expects of one in such a circumstance. Do you feel anything genuine when you consider what you know?"

She considers his words then closes her eyes. "Hmph. These women have no right to be so brazen and slovenly with you. Especially if it's unwanted. That is how I feel."

"That's a thought, not a feeling." He lightly chides her.

She purses her lips and takes a moment to answer more accurately. "When I hear about these women and how they behave with you, I feel like how I do with ants. I don't hate them, but I feel no less desire to pick them apart and toss them to their demise."

"For your sake, I would suggest holding onto that light interest and not deepening it into more. If they decide to push their luck past shaming themselves then I'll consider guiding you in using one as your first social object lesson."

She nods in understnding and agreement, and if the shift in her facial muscles is any indication, a small amount of eagerness.

Saeros had since mapped out the length of her arm from shoulder to elbow by the time she flashes that hint of emotion. It draws his notice and his hand drifts to her face for fingertips to trail from the point of her jaw to her chin, "How much of your confidence in me is skewed with that forced loyalty? I wonder."

She turns her face to blink at him again, but not by much so as to not interrupt his fingertips on her face. "I don't know what to tell you, Kir-Moldir."

"I wasn't expecting a response. No loss." He breathes out as he takes his hand away and lolls more firmly on his back with his eyes closed, clearly settling in to sleep.

Elru has nothing else to say but does turn on her side to watch him settle in to sleep. She doesn't touch him like he did her but she does eye his arm, body and facial features for a time. Eventually she too falls asleep on her side.

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#15 Tightening the Noose

"On the one hand, it's a rather pleasing idea, a city so much closer to the stars above the ground. But wouldn't this be an awfully large target?" Elru keeps near to Idril, practically keeping a hand on her as she immediately takes in the architecture upon stepping out of the teleportation chamber.

It was early in the morning, far too early for Kaldorei, but that was half the point. Dalaran practically glowed in the early morning light as the pair passed subtly placed warming runes that kept the sharpest chills of Northrend at bay even in doors. Idril herself seemed in higher spirits or at least invigorated by the cold as she loops her arm through Elru's own as they make their way down the stairs and into Dalarans central courtyard. "Dalaran is both mobile and heavily warded. Much like Eldre'Thalas before the lack of magic began to fail it."

Despite Elru never having been much impressed with human architecture, even human mage architecture, she seems at least marginally impressed despite herself. She loops her arm with Idril's gladly, looking left and right less for threats and more to take in sights. "Mobile, too. How is this city powered? Even if it is one city, its needs must be substantial."

An unassuming elf, unrecognizable to the two, sat on a nearby bench with a book in his lap.

Idril smiled indulgingly at her while she steered Elru out into Dalaran's ring. "I'm sure if you enrolled in a class here they'd be overjoyed in explaining with great enthusiasm. I've not been so interested myself so I couldn't tell you." It was a city of scholars but even so only the most sadistic of teachers demanded classes so early in the Northrend morning. They passed quite a few hurrying along. For their first destination Idril guides them to the nearest bookshop. Knowing Elru, her newly filled wallet was already in trouble.

It really didn't matter where the book came from, it could have been scribbles on bark from a furbolg for all she cared, Elru loved her reading. Sensibilities and upbringing get set aside for just a moment as she lets an innocent beam shine from her face as she immediately begins perusing so many titles she likely didn't know.

Immediately upon entering the shop there was a soft, musical jingle from further along the way to a large countertop in the back where a Dwarf and Gnome pair both sat, intensely debating in quieter tones. There were books from floor to ceiling in tightly packed, warren like fashion. At times there were even books within books. Books floating through the air with frantic flutters. Books fighting other books in aggressive aerial snaps of rustling paper. "Good morning!" Idril calls back to the keepers in the back but only receives a distracted wave in response.

Elru bothers with no such greetings and instead begins perusing right away, reading or deciphering the foreign scripts with ease. Elru's spirits were high, and the book shop, so much more light in tone and disposition, was very refreshing to her, as opposed to the stifling and musty archives of her place of birth. She's particularly tickled pink by the books competing with each other.

The same elf appeared as inconspicuously as possible--his colors matched that of the floating city, anyway. He seemed right in place.

She could easily find books of history, biology, astronomy, and metaphysicality. There were books on obscure topics like the minor casting abilities of murlocs that could only serve the purpose of torturing students in a classroom. Some were locked and chained in a newer isle in the store and the sense from them creeped along the back of the neck. If a class could be taught on it there was likely a textbook to match. "Don't go too far. It's bigger on the inside that out and I've never truly explored from top to bottom." The musical door chime from someone else entering the store registers distantly with Idril but she doesn't pay much mind to it.

The elf in question nods in acknowledgement to the storekeepers as he enters the labyrinth of aisles.

Elru makes a half-hearted respond of acknowledgement to Idril's warning, "I'll be careful." though she cannot help but drift slowly further in, keeping half a mind to have Idril be in view, though it's harder with each tome she peruses. Hell, she even looks at the murloc one.

Idril knows well enough to follow her at an indulgent distance. There were books on magical properties of seemingly innane Azerothian rocks, the volcanic hot spots and lines of tectonic plates, in depth rules and regulations among the gentry and the differences between Stormwind and the rest of the Human kingdoms of which some were now defunct. There were books on comparisons between the Light of the Church and that of Elune and the Naaru, a biography bearing an official golden seal of an entwined wreath of antlers on a day in the life of the Dream, and a tattered thing on the particular brewing habits for rum favored between the differing pirating companies that sailed Azeroth's seas.

Elru decides that she'll devote more of her attention and energy on absorbing more about the comparisons between the Light, Elune and the Naaru, though she keeps a tab on that book on Azerothian rocks for good measure. She settles in comfortably between two wide book shelves planting herself on what's supposed to be a footstool.

Idril had been momentarily distracted by a particular book herself, which was far too easy in a store this size, to get to Elru before a fluttering book did. It promptly collided with her head and attempted to maul her long enough to get her attention. Once it had it it opens to a specific page -with large, bold, letters that read LOITERING STRICTLY PROHIBITED. BOOKS MUST BE PURCHASED. THIS MEANS YOU TOO JAMES SHUMACKER The last clearly wasn't directed at Elru but the first part of the message was.

A light laugh sounded from beside her from the elf in question--one that knew his way around this maze and had an affinity for appearing just when he wanted. "New here, hm?"

"OW!" She scowls at the offending book, shuts the book with a harumph, then closes her current book to set into her lap, communicating the clear intent that she did in fact want to buy that one, before going on to flip through others she had gathered. She blinks as she glances up midway through her rummagings and book impact to blink at the light laugh, just now registering there was a person speaking directly at her. She gives a tentative nod. "I am."

Idril draws her attention back towards where Elru had seated herself, a more pointed glance to the clearly Kaldorei man who spoke to her, but no sense of alarm goes up. There wasn't a need for her to jump in these days to protect Elru from anyone who spoke to her which was especially true in Dalaran. She idles down along the isle to go about searching for that book she'd -just- had her eye upon..

"Everyone learns that lesson the hard way." Dull eyes looked the woman over appraisingly, but ended up focused on the book she had in hand. "Ah--and I don't blame you for learning it with that one."

Elru glances down then back up. "The comparisons between the Light, Elune and the Naaru?"

"Of course. It's a matter of hot debate within Darnassus...But you don't strike me as being from there."

She sets her books down in an orderly fashion before standing up straight before the man. "How do I give that impression?"

"Don't seem to be the 'earthy' sort. More.. civilized. And this city tends to draw that."

Idril had managed to track down the piece she wanted, something on hot crystal shaping, before she starts wandering back, thumbing through in a brief flip.

"Well. In that case, your observation is perhaps a welcome one. And this city does seem to have that sort of disposition, yes. Do you come here often?"

"Of course. Stormwind can only entertain for so long."

Tucking her choice under one arm Idril stops a proper distance away in the isle. Her smile was warm when she looked to her sister and then more reserved when directed to who spoke to her. "Making friends, Elru?"

Elru scrunches her nose a bit at the mention of Stormwind. "Such a rowdy place." She perks up just slightly as she turns her head away from the man to look back at Elru with a smile. "Of sorts. We were merely getting acquainted. Apparently he comes here often." She looks to the man. "And who might you be?"

His friendly demeanor then becomes slightly more wry. "Someone you may know. Eclo Ilthilor."

Idril freezes, almost rather literally, as the air around her suddenly becomes more biting. It was a reaction that even the books above them took notice of and pause, the natural fluttering coming to a sudden and empty stop. "Elru. Come here." It wasn't a tone Elru heard often from her but she'd recognize the urgency in it.

Elru frowns and takes cautious steps back away from Eclo and towards Idril, her face a mixed expression of confused, alarmed, wary and a touch bitter. She had never met the man Eclo Ilthilor, but she knew of him very, very well.

"Your reaction answers any questions I may have had. That makes things easier. Perhaps you know of the man that decided to attack me at my home the other day."

"Wh-What man attacked you and what does that have anything to do with either of us?"

"You tell me. You share a room with him."

Idril's gaze turns flinty and she snaps out as she reaches for Elru's hand to draw her in closer. "Stay away from us. Oathbreaker. Traitor. We've no business here."

"Oathbreaker? Traitor? That's new. But answer my question."

Elru doesn't resist Idril's hand, taking comfort in the close contact with her sister. Upon realizing who he means her face becomes a neutral indifferent mask. "I see. Whatever may be going on between you and him I am confident that it can be settled between you two without our input."

It's at that point Idril starts pulling her back and towards the front of the store.

"Alas, I've just made it your problem."

"Is this a matter you insist on pressing..?" Elru doesn't immediately follow Idril's guiding hand as her eyes flare at Eclo in a subtle half-door invite to challenge, her stance tensing and her voice dipping down lower. It's that combination of little things but most especially that dipping of her voice that Idril would have come to recognize their years together.

"Let me remind you that you're new here. I'm not." He paused, casually leaning against the shelves as he smiled and nodded towards the distant storekeepers once more. "You'll find it in your best interest to relieve me of this problem. I've nothing to lose from making it bigger."

Idril wasn't going to be denied in where she wanted to move Elru and her grasp moves further up on her arm. Their books are either forgotten or dropped. "She is, but not I. We're leaving, Elru."

"If you're trying to protect her, you're doing the worst thing possible."

Elru narrows her eyes at the man, before turning her face away entirely to practically hide against Idril's body, tensing easing out of her, but not entirely. "Okay, let's leave."

"I won't hesitate to do the same to you as I did to Ravenwind, Ithilior. Keep your distance from us." She icily warns. With that, they back out of the shop entirely. The books start to flutter once more when they cross the threshold.

Of course, Eclo's out there waiting for them. "Last chance."

Elru whips her head to stare at Eclo and tenses up all over again, speaking quietly and hoarsely, "Just leave us alone. If I have to take you to the authorities for stalking, I'll do so."

"I'm sure you would. If I was stalking you. Make my problem disappear and you'll not have one yourselves. I think that's easy to understand."

"Threatening us won't go over well with the guard either. We've no business in whatever is going on. I suggest you go your own way before an official has to get involved and this is passed to the local Shen'dralar who you won't find favor with either."

Elru simply clutches tighter at Idril's hand and robes, keeping her narrow eyes on Eclo.

He barked out a hollow and thoroughly demeaning cackle. "Shen'dralar? Those that I've thwarted not once but twice? You're delusional, and you'll pay the price for it."

"I hope he gets his hands on you for what you've done. If there's a reason as to why Elune's grace left us they needn't look far from you." She pointedly turns and guides Elru towards the heart of the city.

Elru gives Eclo one last look of anger but also a touch of confusion before she allows herself to be led off. "Sister? Let's get something warm and calming to drink. Preferably someplace very public." She looks forward along with Idril. "I don’t want our time here entirely to waste."

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#14 Yet another back half of an RP

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

And then Eclo reappeared, perched comfortably upon the rim of his porch with a hand beneath his pauldron. The features of his shadowed face were indiscernible, save for rapidly moving lips.

Saeros watches him for a long moment with ears perked before giving a short laugh. "Not even casting?"

Eclo holds his free hand up, finger extended skyward as he motioned for pause.

"This is an awfully long lead up." It's plainly obvious that Eclo had done, or was doing something, and with a half-whispered string of his own words Saeros casts something of his own. The drop of temperature even at Eclo's distance was noticable.

That same hand swipes horizontally across the air as its fingers adopt an odd formation. A pocket of emptiness manifests in front of Saeros's mouth to give his words no medium to travel through to thusly keep his spell from going off.

For as casual as Saeros had been thus far he went from stillness to action at the start of Eclo's gesture. He'd had two decorative swords lining his back and suddenly one was gone, the whole thing having been thrown at the Priest's center mass as his mouth snaps shut.

Eclo reacts accordingly but altogether absently. His fingers adopt a new formation--a simple flattening of his palm towards the incoming blade, which is thusly caught against a golden, oily barrier that cracks beneath the pressure. "I am trying to have a talk with your assassin," Eclo snaps with measurable annoyance.

With that alteration, Eclo turning his magic upon himself for the protection it offered, things became very suddenly wrong. His cast certainly completed but before it takes hold as it ought the energy and magic that it was is jerked away with the flashing of runes and the familiarly unfamiliar gestures Saeros had just about been waiting to use. In one terrible moment--Eclo's shield had simply been stolen and it settles around Saeros instead.

Eclo's confidence thusly betrayed him as the blade flew further than anticipated. It sliced through his hand, along his arm, and even past some of his chest as it passed by him. The shock resulted in the elf jerking against the pillar behind him before he gathered himself and stared on with disbelief.

With his first sword likely buried into the wood of Eclo's support beam Saeros was still armed with his second that is drawn and held at the ready. He doesn't throw it yet but makes a more plain gesture with his free hand while his mouth was firmly closed. It was offered up as if he were asking, "Need this continue?" while the stolen shield held around him.

Eclo's constant practice in suppressing pain made itself evident with how quickly he was able to regain his composure--though the pained quivering of his arm was impossible to fully subdue. "Leave," he demanded in a grave tone.

Saeros shakes his head and gestures more emphatically while the silence begins to fade. Its clear he still wanted his answers.

"They are already on their way. You won't kill me between now and then."

Finally managing to pry his jaws apart his words were thick. "I don't want your life. Damn your pride for what you're bringing upon yourself." It had the not so subtle tones of a potential threat.

"I want yours." There was nothing potential there.

"Have you lost your mind?" Is the rough response. "Here I thought it was the damn girl alone-" A finger was stabbed back at the door to Eclo's house where Amyren had stayed. "-and I'm finding you practically rolling in it. There is nothing sensible about making this stretch beyond the two of us. You've barely a handful to call on and no more--which you should be grateful for! A sizeable force and you'd have more than me knocking on your door to make an example of it. There is no more Korlyn to hide behind and us to overlook. Have you lost all sense of reason for pure folly?"

"And I've been hunted by the Shen'dralar. They, you, were a problem I thought had been squashed. Why do you so desperately cling to your defunct society? Your collective of wash-ups? It is -your- pride that makes you think the world still cares about Highborne. It is -your- pride that makes you think you are anything more than dust under a rug."

"And yet I am the one who hasn't had to resort to calling for aid. Would you like me to? There are still great shapers who owe me more than the life they have left to live." Its then that Saeros steps forward and closes in, though likely it was more to retrieve his sword. "Do not mistake that embarassment of blood you called a brother for the true strength of what it means to be Highborne. Ours is the will that nearly destroyed the world, earned and bled for pride. Are you still intent on acting the part of a child?"

"Then I'll relieve them of their apparently useless lives, too." He abruptly stands up, placing himself between the elf and his weapon. "Your name carries no weight outside of your pathetic pit. Mine does. And I've had time to adjust to the real world--time you and my brother spent believing your tortured spirits, crumbling ruins, and detrimental hedonism were the pinnacle of society."

Saeros gives Eclo a rather pointed look and simply reaches out his empty hand and says a word. The weapon appears in his hand with runes flashing along the hilt. With both in hand Saeros returns them to his back. "Save me the bravado. Though, please, keep living in this pleasant, forgetful fantasy world you've constructed for yourself. If I'm not shot in the next minute or so--expect me back tomorrow. I entreat you to consider what you're doing with an eye to keeping your life."

"You're the one forgetting that the rest of the world happened while you stubbornly held onto archaic beliefs. Go away."

"Ilthilor, at this rate I'm firmly doubting your ability to grasp what I believe. But, fine. Tend your wounds. I never found it sporting to corner an opponent who's pride led to festering."

"You know I won't be changing my mind. Take all the risks you want; it makes things easier for me."

"What risks need I take aside from continuing to stand here?" He was all too obviously genuine with that question.

"Oh, nothing." With that, Eclo disappears once more.

His deed--in his mind--done for the evening, Saeros turns to leave.

"Get home safely," cooed a sourceless voice before the door behind him shut of its own accord.

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#13 The Warden and the Highborne

In the deterioration of Highborne Society those of Eldre'Thalas found themselves and their unique skills in an.. interesting position. Most of the leadership, and those who Saeros at least listened to, had done their political work well in convincing the Kaldorei that they needed them in these new and dangerous times. The world had changed for the worse yet again as the Aspect of Death roamed the skies unchallenged in his madness, scorching and breaking the land. Even with all the change some things simply didn't and requests for the acquisition of powerful, magical artifacts kept the few Shen'dralar that worked with their hands busy across one corner of Azeroth to the other. Some tools shouldn't be allowed out into the world either having been long ago plundered from ancient Highborne vaults or created anew and so they searched with ears to the ground for tales of such artifacts. Saeros and Elru had just returned from across the seas to Lor'Danel and then down into Ashenvale after one such scouring search in one of the Twilight Hammer's holdings in the Twilight Highlands. Saeros had stopped them and their sabers around a familiar lake to the Northwest of the newly built Stardust Spire for the evening to start their trip to the outpost tomorrow while they would be more likely to trade cat for Hippogryph in the daylight. Those magical artifacts lay in a solid wooden chest carved with runes by their campfire for the night while Saeros had stepped away, seeking a bath down by the lake before he needed to be appropriately more civilized in the nearer future.

Elru by now knew how to tend to a camp and was currently doing so while keeping an eye on their belongings and sabers. The swift, large changes in the world were jarring but her young, intelligent, and curious mind was able to take it all in and adapt as she saw fit but also as Saeros trained her. It could be as early as when Saeros is in the middle of dressing down, or a bit later after he's stepped into the waters to clean, but he'll get the sense that he's not alone, and that this is no mere wildlife, either.

It hadn't been the first time in his life or even on this short trip where Saeros had had both curious and malicious attention upon him when he took a few brief moments to himself. Until he was forced to act, he ignored it, and that set of gilded leather was unlatched and unbuckled as he set it off to a dry side along with his weaponry. One would expect scars with his age but oddly enough none were immediately apparent on his dark, muscled skin. Starkly naked he padded down to the shore and wadded into the lake up to his waist with a bar of crude soap in hand as he set about his task.

It was at this time as he washed that she appeared. One moment nothing, then the next pass over of his gaze and there she was standing at the water's edge in the same wear as Saeros had seen her before. Warden Lanath. No apparent hostility, as her ring blade was resting at her side with a slight dig into the dirt. Her gaze was as blank as ever, and if she was impressed with the quality of his physique she didn't show it.

Saeros didn't immediately acknowledge her, soaping up his hands and arms well to scrape off the nigh invisible layer of grime that covered him and his flesh did well to hide. A moment later proves that he'd simply been contemplating on what to say. "Some of us had wondered what became of those noble houses that carried our blood through newly Druidic veins.  I can see that the Warden's took their fair cut of those who could be controlled, trained, and made utterly loyal."

If he were looking right at her he'd notice the first real reaction she'd ever made around him, just a slight, brief tightening of the eyes and lips before it was gone. She drones, "I would have thought such lines of thinking were beneath those of the Highborne, self contained as you were."

"You'd be surprised how un-ignorant we were. Even when the War of the Shifting Sands upon the Kaldorei doorstep we knew of the blood spilled upon the sands and the clicking, chittering language that was Qiraji. We've several books on the subject."

"Ever opportunistic, but at least among you there are those who regularly maintain their knowledge and wisdom of the world. Some of you."

"More than the Wardens it would seem. How undyingly grateful you must be that Tyrande saved your miserable lives after Maiev so utterly shattered the trust held by your kind." He glances her way with an easy smirk while lathering up his chest and neck.

She remained impassive to that barb. "There is no trust lost, because such trust is irrelevant. Regardless of whether Maiev was right or wrong, the Warden's purpose remains. Innocent deaths, as they are referred, do not invalidate the existence of infractions, Saeros."

"Ah, and what such infraction have I performed to warrant this visit? Come to murder me on the excuse that by the virtue of my blood and talents I must be a power-hungry danger to the Kaldorei people?"

"This is merely that, Saeros, a visit. And to see how well you and your partner fare in your reintegration. There are others, I am told, who did not make the transition so.. seamlessly."

"And so as opposed to approaching me out in the open I find you here spying upon me and taking full advantage of my nakedness." His comments were all idle but they had steadily grown to have that teasing edge of laughter to them. He takes a moment to douse himself and slick off what suds were still clinging to him.

It was then that something wry seemed to slip into her otherwise dull tone. "You did not seem like someone favorably disposed towards tea."

"And how exactly am I expected to interpret your observation, Warden? Is that a not so subtle request?" A few steps are taken backwards to bring the level of the water to his knees while he goes about cleaning the more interesting rest of him.

"Don't speak such nonsense, Saeros. And how you interpret my observation is irrelevant to me." Her gaze remains the same, pointed in his general direction, irregardless of his cleaning.

"I wouldn't blame you. I can't imagine too many men willing to allow a Warden into their beds." Even as he spoke Saeros took advantage of the water and suds he coated himself with. Slicking one hand with its long fingers over the soft length in a leisurely fashion was slowly stirring him to a visible hardness. If he was more of a grower than a shower.. Elru was going to have a lofty task by the time Saeros got around to making a woman out of her.

Though her expression remained blank the specific point of her stare was fairly obvious. The corner of her mouth twitched as he continued to stroke to hardness, until she exhaled slightly and looked at Saeros proper. "I do not accept propositions regardless, Saeros. And I think my time spent here is sufficient for my visit's purpose. Next time I'll keep a mind not to disturb you during your... bath."

"Which in turn makes me wonder if you've ever had one at all."

"A simple visit to see that two of our returning Highborne are integrating as well as they should. It was not to watch you bathe."

"Two birds and one stone, Warden. Somehow I don't think you remember -every- Kaldorei who you fancy as strange that comes through Ashenvale."

"No. I do not. And I was not wrong to give you that regard, Saeros."

"Would you have killed us had you known for certain?"

"A possible outcome. I have been told by my sisters that there have been Highborne who roamed the world without desire to draw attention and without ill intent. I have had yet to meet such Highborne."

"The most likely. See--that too is something we knew of, Warden. We knew that your kind would circle around us and pick us off as a pack had you known we left Eldre'Thalas at all during the Long Vigil. Deception and redirection are necessary to live. I'd even venture that you shaped us into.. dysfunctional members of Kaldorei society."

"I cannot speak for that. I merely maintain vigil and be sent where my sisters have need of me."

"Ah, yes. Entirely guiltless aren't you? How about you tell me why you're here if it's not to.. take advantage of my charms or muscle your way through an intimidation." All the while Saeros continued to stroke his length, drawing back the foreskin to flick an index finger over the bright flash of silver pierced through the head of his shaft.

Her gaze drifted back to his working hand and the corner of her mouth twitched again. "It most certainly is not the former. And there's less point to the latter." She looks back up to him. "And you are not wrong. If I wanted to merely check on you I'd have remained hidden. I suppose I wanted to hear what you had to say for yourself if anything."

"I should have known you liked it better when they beg."

"... Your implicit teasing is unwarranted, Saeros."

"Elune forbid the day when a Warden incarcerates someone for the mistake of flirtation."

"If only," with extra drollness. Bout as close of a joke as she'll crack at the moment it seems.

"Do you find my unrepentant attitude over the manner of my birth to be in poor taste?"

She pauses a moment before responding. "... No. If I am to be fair, I suppose not. Pride is not exclusive to Highborne."

"And neither is bigotry."

A slight curl of her lip. "Neither is bigotry, if one is to call it bigotry."

"Racism then, if my heritage so offends you."

"I prefer simple intolerance."

"A light word for genocide."

"Of which there has been precedence time and time again, we both know this."

"With that logic, I'm surprised the entire Kaldorei population hasn't been put away. They just might.. make wrong choices and all become Demon Hunters."

"Our sense of self-preservation is a touch higher than that."

"Ah, so if you -could- you would. I understand now." His tone had become increasingly thick with edged humor.

Her eyes lift upward for a moment. "Warden reach is limited, and even if it weren't, no, we would not seek genocide on the Kaldorei."

"And I am not Kaldorei."

"Ostensibly, you are now."

"Then why the need to check up on me if I am Kaldorei?"

"Because doubts remain if Highborne do, in fact, desire to be Kaldorei."

"Unfortunately, Warden, you can't call a spade a shovel and then a spade again when its more convenient. Either we are or we are not. The middle ground is over-used and pointless."

"That is true of shovels and spades, but it appears in these times our roles and titles are not so set in stone. Regardless, if I were so swift in judgement as you say then we would not be having this conversation."

"Is that what this is?" Saeros muses aloud, releasing his grip on himself as he turns to face her more fully. "Now it seems to me that this is motivated by loneliness. When was the last time you were more Kaldorei than Warden, Lanath?"

"Apparently a conversation is what this is now as this is far more dialogue than is necessary. Loneliness is a non-factor and non-existent." She lifts her chin slightly. "And how would you define a Kaldorei in itself, Saeros?"

"In relation to you?"

"I suppose that would be most applicable here."

"Don't suppose. Tell me what you mean." His own tone had turned droning as he slowly wades through the knee-high water in her direction.

"You're the one I asked to define a what a Kaldorei is with the presumption that I am less of one." She doesn't appear threatened by his approaching closer.

"There we go. That's what I wanted. Tell me how its in any sense of the word 'healthy' that an individual sacrifices their time and talent to imprison countless individuals to maintain a constant watch over them, or wanders the lands in search of more to drag away to your vaults?"

"It can't always be about each and every individual. My 'sacrifice' of my time and talent as you call it differs little from the sacrifice of time and talent towards any societal need."

Saeros waves a loose hand as he steps entirely out of the water on his way over to her. "The last thing I want to do is get into a debate about the functions of society. If you're like any other of your kind you've accepted it on what morals you carry and won't see things any other way."

In a non-threatening but steady gesture she lifts her ring blade from her side and sets it in the dirt as a thin barrier between the two. "And you consider such morals flawed and lacking in basis?"

He doesn't seem to mind the gesture and he continues his pace till he's just about a yard from her, still fully naked and unarmed. Not a terribly smart idea given the size of her own weapon. "I believe every moral should be given as much thought as we give to our monetary investments--with every angle and advantage considered."

"I do not find the balancing of morality equatable to the checks and balances of monetary investments. If morals were to be scrutinized for advantages and disadvantages their purpose and point becomes lost over time."

"At my age, everything is simply varying shades of gray."

"If everything were but a shade of grey, everything would be permissible and nothing would be true."

"Then tell me something 'true'."

"Foremost, we are mortal. Even with extended lives, we're going to die."

"Correction. The Kaldorei are going to die."

"The Highborne are no less mortal. Unless this is a mistaken notion?"

"It would be, yes."

"What makes it a mistaken notion?"

"Do you understand the means behind why the Priestesses of Elune always establish moonwells at Kaldorei encampments first?"

"They are a foundation of our material and magical society, if not the primary one. Their presence is a necessity where Kaldorei reside in numbers. What of it?"

"Why is it a necessity? What purpose do the moonwells actually serve?"

"They empower and nourish us, regardless of magical talent."

"They are the means to which the Kaldorei have enjoyed their immortality. Tiny reflections of the Well of Eternity your Nordrassil has capped. Unless I missed something.. Where was the Moonwell for the Highborne in Eldre'Thalas?"

"I was not aware there was one in Eldre'Thalas, but that is a place I am not well informed on."

"There wasn't, Warden. That's the point I'm making."

She considers his words and offers only a cold, "I see. A compelling if unwelcome point, that you Highborne would do just as well without."

"Don't be so cross, Warden. It's unbecoming."

"Don't feign concern over my disposition, Saeros, it's unseemly from where I stand."

"You've made me care by forcing yourself onto my tolerance."

"You're the one so open to engaging. I did not need stay."

"And yet you are." Is his pointed response.

"Don't you have a bath to finish? Clothes to get dressed back in?" She says with a pointed glance down at him before looking back up impassive.

"I didn't think you were finished with me just yet."

"You look done and my curiosity has been adequately sated for the time being."

"Am I to be at your beck and call?"

"You need not be at my beck and call for me to be present."

"I meant it in the sense that your comment implied you'd be returning to me once your curisoity has been piqued once more."

"Who's to say if it will or not. It is part of my duties to give all those passing through a cursory glance. You may or may not give me reason the next time you pass through, if you do."

"I'd be wary about the why and who you focus upon in days like these with Maiev tarnishing that credibility."

"There may be others who think so, but those of us in the Wardens know better than to think our role and need is in any way diminished."

"Also not the implication. A little to focused on convincing me of that fact."

"I haven't the slightest idea what you mean, as there is nothing else to be concerned with."

"Then continue on in your blissful ignorance."

"If that is what you insist on calling where I stand." She lifts and brings her blade back to her side. "May Elune look on you with some kindness, Saeros."

"I lost faith with her around the time when her Priestesses were bought. Often."

"During your time perhaps. But it is not your views and experience that are my purview as a Warden. Simply actions."

"Please, Warden. You make this too easy."

"Do not call me easy, Saeros."

"Then try to act your part. I do believe you were leaving."

She hmphs but cants her head regardless before turning away with a loose sweep of her bladed cape. "Goodbye, Saeros."

He doesn't bother with a farewell, turning around to collect his things.

Nothing will interrupt his bath further, though once he returns to camp he'll find an Elru that is straighter, curious and a touch on edge. "It was harder to tell from here, but did you have a visitor?"

Saeros was fully dressed by the time he returned to her, wringing out the worst of the water from his long hair. "Only our neighborhood Warden."

She was briefly confused but caught on quick as the memory returned, her expression souring. "Oh. Warden Lanath. What did she want?"

"I'm not certain even she knew."

"Maybe she was trying to scare you. It's not like we've done anything wrong by their standard."

"No. I prefer to give her a little more credit than her trying that against a Highborne."

"Mmm. Making her presence clear like that. Will you be seeing her again?"

"If she decides to press me again, yes."

"Are you going to kill her if that happens?"

"Perhaps."

"Good. She discomforts me greatly."

"Why is that?"

She thinks a moment. "I'm not sure how I can best describe it." She looks to Saeros. "She's like... less a Kaldorei, more a weapon. A tool fully and utterly embracing her role as a tool."

"On top of being a half-trained Arcanist."

"Half trained Arcanist, you say?"

"Think of them on the level as a Human Mage."

"Ahh. It is a rather broad and complementary skillset they carry, these Wardens."

"They hunt cunning prey."

She hums at that. "Do you think it's safe for me to take my turn at bathing now?"

"Should be safe enough."

She nods and moves to do so, going back the way Saeros came, though working more to maintain area awareness than Saeros needed to.

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#12 Where Past Meets Future

Their travels held true to Saeros's statement in that this was far from any sort of pleasurable camping trip; though their mistsabers proved invaluable in making good time. He took them up through Feralas and into a wasteland of ash and decay that was Desolace and even further to the mountains of Stonetalon where they were bedded down this evening. Along the way Saeros didn't speak much aside from explaining basic facts. This included their navigational settings, how he knew which direction to take them in, and the various beasts one should be wary of in the lands they crossed. He didn't tend to make a true camp every time they stopped to sleep, as fire would be too clear a sign in some of the more dangerous open areas, but tonight stuck out as an exception. He was busy kindling a small blaze he had set upon a stack of dry branches while he left Elru to her own devices. Normally she'd be expected to pitch in but.. Arcane made her contributions not entirely necessary.

Elru was always hungry for new sights and new information and took both when she could without slowing them down or making Saeros speak more than was necessary. After taking one last look around the Desolace horizon she eventually settles down to sit once the fire starts going, watching Saeros work.

His actions were efficient if brisk as he tends it into a stable light that feeds on larger bits of wood. Tonight, as with all nights before since they'd left Eldre'Thalas, Saeros had a strong habit of preferring travel rations or what he could quickly catch compared to something he could conjure. It was only a handful of eggs, some herbs, and a rabbit he'd managed to collect along the way but as he worked to clean the latter he asks without looking up, "Care to eat real food tonight?"

Elru considers that question, particularly since she hasn't had much in the way of real food for awhile. She doesn't want to make Saeros wait on an answer, so after a moment she gives a light nod and lightly answers, "I would, yes. Thank you, Kir-Moldir."

He takes her answer without any form of confirmation as he strips the wet hide from the rabbit, wrapping the offal within and setting it aside. Saeros wasn't shy about using those long runic knives for more basic tasks as he was doing now. "We'll be coming across the Kaldorei soon. I suggest you treat them with all the deference you'd show to me. It'll be something easy for them to believe."

She hums an affirmation as she watches him work with a small amount of interest. "I can do that. How similar and different are we from these Kaldorei far from Eldre'thalas?"

"Physically we look the same. The main difference is in attitude and bearing. I'm sure they'll remind you of Idril."

She frowns at him for that, though there's no real irritation or resentment behind it. "They are a people of morality?"

"Intensely so."

"We share a common history that dates back to the Well, no? It's interesting that their culture would turn so different from that of Highborne."

"They want nothing to do with the power of Arcane and have turned heavily to nature."

Elru blinks at that. "They have power over nature of all things?"

"They call themselves Druids and are capable of changing their physical shapes into that of beasts."

"How curious. Is it a capable power, this Druidic power?"

"They are formidable in their own right."

"This will be something I'll have to see for myself. Why are we going to meet the Kaldorei in this particular instance?"

"It's not intentional. We just happen to be passing through their territory."

"Understood. What is your overall take of Kaldorei as a whole?"

"Their only advantage is in numbers. Otherwise they are fairly weak."

"I see. I will remember this. Would they know that we are Highborne?"

"They can make educated guesses which wouldn't be to our advantage. The Highborne have yet to be welcomed back into Kaldorei society."

"Their loss." It was a half unintentional slip of the tongue. "I will be cautious and act as you say I should."

He doesn't respond but their dinner was well on its way to being done. He'd spitted and roasted the rabbit while the eggs had been cracked and were sizzling on a slightly bowled rock smeared with rabbit grease. "If you've questions it would be best to get them over now. Their topic is irrelevant."

She lifts her eyes from the food to take a good look at Saeros with a curious expression. "How old are you?"

Saeros's eyes flick up to her then with the briefest glint of humor. "I remember life far before the Well was taken from us. Suitable?"

Elru doesn't react much but the widening of her eyes and slight intensifying of her stare makes her surprise pretty clear. "You're... That's impressive, yes."

"Wintercrest is even older but among us it's not something of much note."

"Just how many around Eldre'thalas are from that time?"

"Most of the remaining Shen'Dralar, which was intentional."

"Why was that intentional?"

"Because our knowledge is far more valuable than what children born into Eldre'Thalas come to know. It made them suitable candidates for the Pylons."

"What becomes of former candidates now that feeding the Pylons are no longer as necessary?"

"I suspect they will live. We've no need to cull them any longer."

"I wonder how well they'll do now in these changing times..." She sighs a little, shifting her seating. "I suppose instead of being afraid of being culled, they'll simply have to just be afraid of each other. And people like you, Kir-Moldir."

"They are our offspring. It's natural they should fear their betters. It pushes them to become more powerful than we are."

"Have any ever succeeded in reaching such a place?"

"Less than a handful. Their trials have been in some ways far harsher than your own."

"I believe it." She tilts her head to look at Saeros from another angle. "What harsh trials did you have to endure when you were around my age?"

His response time didn't change but Elru could sense how Saeros's naturally searching magic suddenly doubled back on itself, coiling. "A systematic purging of my own family tree."

She frowns a little. "That sounds... unpleasant. Was it necessary for your survival?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes."

"I see... So you are the only one left of your family then?"

"Of my direct tree, yes."

She ponders this for a few moments, shifting in her seat again. "By how much do you seek to expand that lineage from yourself? Or I guess put more bluntly, how many children do you want?"

"Enough that fate and time won't be able to put an early end to it." Certainly unspecific.

She stares at him for a bit, then kinda sighs and rubs at her arms. "But of course. Lets do our best then."

Their simple meal had finished and Saeros carelessly crafts a plate and fork for Elru's share which he hands to her. "Disheartened by the idea?"

She accepts it graciously and sets the place in her lap before eating. "No, I was never disheartened by my role of bearing children. Intimidated, but never disheartened. At this point even a touch glad."

"Why is that?"

She nibbles on a piece of the rabbit testingly before speaking. "You've allowed me to live this long, so I've at least a little merit of worth for such a role. And, well, you are a very strong and desirable male."

The rabbit was charred on the outside but cooked all the way through. It would serve its purpose. Saeros set into his own meal with the single-minded intensity he carried with all necessary tasks but pausing to ask, "Is that your own personal impression or that of Eldre'Thalas?"

"My own. I'm well aware of my own mortality now and how it's only by your will I'm still here." She takes a small bite, chews and swallows. "And the sheer... difference in power and bearing between us doesn't take away from the fact that you're incredibly competent, intelligent, and handsome." More forthcoming with internal thoughts she may be but, she doesn't look any less shy about it, paying more attention to her food than him at the moment.

His voice was noticeably dry then, "So glad that I meet your standards." He just might be teasing her.

She frowns a little. "I'm still grateful you would lower yours, you know."

"You discredit yourself."

"I do? How?"

His reply took some time in coming but that had more to do with his interest in eating his dinner while it was hot. "Understand that what I see as valuable has very little to do with appearances, though those features are suitable enough to attract others." Saeros gestures up towards a temple, "My interest is here. I have pushed you far faster through your conditioning than most could survive and yet you have. Inner strength that isn't shattered by sudden circumstances is a rarity."

Elru doesn't respond, though she does allow a tiny smile on her face in the face of that praise.

Their meal continued on in silence from there until Saeros finished and his plate disappeared. There was a long uprooted tree that he had set them against that he shuffles back to lean against now. As an after-thought he flicked his fingers at the remnants of the rabbit which too disappeared and not too far away the soft snarls of their mistsabers could be heard.

Elru took that time to finish her own meal and after watching Saeros take his place to lean against that uprooted tree she scoots around the fire closer to him, not quite against the tree and not too close to Saeros. Without prompt she keeps the fire going. "How did you become the Fang of Eldre'Thalas?"

Saeros wasn't generally a man of long winded speeches but as he shifts in place for a more comfortable lean against the rotting log he sets his attention on the gloom outside the circle of light that was their fire before focusing exclusively upon Elru with all the weight of that amber regard. It was then he spun his tale. "In the height of Highborne influence and power, as Azshara herself had just ascended the throne by the grace of Elune, I was in disfavor among the rest of my kin. In the short years before--I was a rebellious young man who dug in against the wishes of his family and dishonored the name Kir-Moldir despite my prowess with Arcane. As in the way of most Highborne, we who were young were simply expendable pawns used at the best possible advantage of our elders. I had many cousins who took to this idea like ducks to water but their familial requirements were never as stringent as my own. Ever since my earliest memories of adulthood I'd been on a near constant parade among the elite, unknowingly solicited in discrete inquiries to my familial patriarch as to who would claim the honor of not just breeding thick Highborne blood into their lines but also my genetic trait of amber eyes. The fact that I excelled at my studies in Arcane only worsened the attention. Over time I came to know just about every Highborne line that had women with white hair in a manner not of my own choosing. In the beginning things began as all courtships do--in a mixture between parental force and other such manipulations that are enough to chain a young man to a task he steadily grew to resent. I had little desire to do as I was bid, to act as stud to this near endless procession of women. For a short time my refusal was entertained as boyish defiance until I struck a suitor to the point of scarring for drawing me aside and being too forceful with her touch. There exists a number of ways that Arcane ability can be chained by another and at the behest of my family I was so bound and put to the yoke. At my age and paired with inexperience there was little to be done aside from submit. But with each new partner that forced me first to heel and then their bed I remembered their faces, their names. I kept careful track of who caught and eventually gave birth. All the while I fed that boyish resentment into an adult's iron will. At that point I wasn't certain how but that I would, I must, find a way out from under the thumbs of those above me. When I behaved I was rewarded access to my chosen tutor but even then it took a span of years for me to discover Wintercrest. At the time I wasn't aware of his hatred for a branch of my family tree but only that he was learned and began to teach me a form of magic not spoken but etched with will or hand. Arcane that didn't require the casting I was barred from. I learned to be cautious with my talents and hid them from all but from the one that taught me until a time when I knew enough that I could successfully defy and reclaim my agency. My first target was a woman I can't recall the name of but had already gotten herself two offspring off of me and had was in the process of a third. She was far older than I so her heart giving out was strange but no due cause for alarm. I had power to my name but knew it wouldn't be enough for the rest so I began training in the manner of the Moon Guard, exercising my body in their way as supplied by Wintercrest until he pressed one into our service. I learned several ways with various weapons, studied how to apply my runic power to their edges to cut down spells midair until I fought my teacher to yielding. At first, the string of murders drew the attention of the Moon Guard who assumed a Kaldorei was targeting the Highborne given that the deaths were accomplished by blade-work rather than magic. But in looking for a connection between them the investigation was quickly called off. Murder among the Highborne wasn't an uncommon occurrence in those days and it was expected from one's enemies. As word got around in various circles and my once-upon-a-time mates learned I was hunting them down rather effectively they made attempts in warding off their fates. They entrenched themselves in wards and other magical forces. Some even went to such lengths as being buried alive in small suites deep beneath the earth with their entrances blocked by earth. The harder my kills became to achieve the more violent I was in how their deaths would come. It is a difficult thing to intimidate the Highborne but I stumbled upon it rather by accident. I remember her smile, the mocking tone in which she voiced some of my deepest fears, that I would not succeed in purging all who had used me. She was Shen'dralar. To experience hatred in such a strength that the heat of it frosts into an icy calm was new to me but it brought a sorely needed clarity. I was feared because I could circumvent defenses that most Highborne couldn't, but that was the worst of it. You would simply die. She was the first in which I truly tortured, though my knowledge of anatomy was sorely lacking, and she died before I delivered her into a public place where she would be quickly found. Both her upper and lower jaw reduced to nothing more than shards of stained bone clinging to a mangled skull. Soon after I was approached by other Shen'dralar and offered a position within them plus an added measure of autonomy. As long as I honed my craft and applied it where occasionally requested I would be allowed my own murderous devices. My title came far later as I gained a taste for intimidation." He'd been speaking for some time and with a quick gesture Saeros conjures a small glass of water to sip on as he waited for Elru's own response.

It takes a minute for Elru to process the whole story as she watches him stop to drink his water. Though her expression was subdued, she was clearly engrossed in the tale. Finally she first says, "You were very forthcoming with that recount and response. I'm rather surprised and taken aback."

"I'm capable of many things when I'm in the mood for them. Your question was expected."

She scoots around to face him proper, back to the fire as she brings her knees to her chest. "You said you've hunted your family tree down. Is there anyone left still that hides or opposes you? Directly or otherwise."

"Not to my knowledge."

"That.. that sounds like a very excellent place to be, if I can be frank."

His words were slow, "In lacking any familial ties?"

"In being so completely unopposed. To have intimidated enough people that you need not fear for your life so immediately."

"It's a time passed. I'm not so blind as to believe that in this changed world I am more than just another face."

"If I can also be complimentary, your story has the making of a narrative epic to it."

Saeros gives her a long, flat look.

She blinks once. "I'm not saying anything was embellished. Nor was I implicating that it should actually be written as such. I just really like my stories."

Saeros simply looks beyond her then and keeps his silence.

She looks at the ground near him for a time before looking up at him. "Do you think if I manage to live long enough, and become powerful enough, I can one day be where you are?"

His answer came in a quick, "No."

"Well, why not?"

Instead of answering with words Saeros flexes up from where he'd been reclining against the log. His movements were slow and deliberate as he pitches forward and leans in towards Elru until he has to brace himself with an arm, which he does, and then begins to slink towards her.

Elru was only the slightest bit alarmed, but she doesn't shy away so much, only leaning back a bit on her own hands. Leaning back too far would bring her too close to the fire, after all. She keeps her eyes on his but is very conscious of his increasing close proximity.

He solves that problem with a gloved hand on her leg that drags her a short distance and puts Elru on her back with Saeros above her. His expression was almost textbook condescension except that it didn't reach all the way to his eyes. The tone he used was soft, "I've half a mind to punish you. So tactless as you are. Thoughtless even."

She looks up at him for a short while, letting out a soft exhale. "I do not understand."

"Of course you don't. I've taken it from you."

She stares for a while, then slumps a bit. "Ah. Indeed."

Saeros doesn't stop there and the hand on her leg slides further to the hem of her robes and with a casual efficiency flips the material higher up. The warm leather of his pliable gauntlets smooth up her exposed flesh until he could hold her with his thumb on the sensitive front part of the joint where hip and thigh met and wrapped around with his long fingers gripping as much of her butt that was manageable. "I've a feeling that I need to take a more active role in making sure you remember to think through before opening your mouth."

She doesn't move, blushing a bit at the blatant exposure and contact, but allows him to touch as he will. "I guess that particular line of question wasn't all that relevant or necessary after all.. I'm sorry for being too curious." She was less defensive and guarded, more resigned and disappointed.

He remains braced above her with the same stillness she'd seen countless times, "How disappointing. Even Idril gave me more fire when she was in your place."

She furrows her brow at him for that remark and takes on an almost petulant pout. "I'm demoralized from my verbal misstep, not from you coming on to me..."

"And still you don't understand." He quips patiently. "You can't hope to come close to where I am. Can't you guess why, Elru?"

She hums and closes her eyes as she thinks, her physical predicament set aside in her mind.  "I can think of possible likely reasons. I won't have the freedom you did. My trials compared to yours leave me practically pampered. And I am unwilling to cut ties so thoroughly and absolutely as you did."

His already low voice drops to a croon, "You don't know the first thing about true hatred." The hand at her hip suddenly grips the bunched shirt of her robe and with a harsh jerk he rips the conjured cloth at its seams. "I'll compare you to a songbird; in a cage I've fashioned for you. You beat your wings at the bars and when you were struck back you ceased that struggling. But, you still keep singing as its the only thing you know how to do. Even now I can feel it." And she certainly felt something within her too, the very real part of Saeros that had been sewn so deliberately into her writhes with a sensation that wasn't quite pain but perhaps even pleasure. "You cheep at me with a girl's desires and a child's thoughts, caught between not knowing if what you want is to be freed from your circumstances or consumed by them."

She squirms a bit then at the unfamiliar sensation deep within her, face scrunched in a scowl at the comparison Saeros makes of her. An involuntary shiver passes through her body at her complete exposure under him. Still, she has no retort to give.

"Though it's no fault of your own," He continues, "That I find most things about the female form to be absolutely repulsive and see this way."  In one moment Saeros had been hovering oh-so-stiffly above her and in the next he'd dropped with a careless grace to have their faces and bodies so close to one another. She could find his lips on her jaw soon after. "I know so many tastes for your mouths, your bodies, and between sweet thighs. A parade of never-ending scents, sights, and sounds all so carefully tailored to catch male interest."

Elru blinks rapidly and lays stiffly at that point, more bewildered than anything, though nerves were certainly present.

"I have to remind myself that I shouldn't ready runes that would punch through joints to cripple you. That when the day grows late and you struggle to sleep that its through no fault of your own that you've thought about me. But hatred is such a fine companion, Elru. I've lived to extract it and be consumed by it." His lips had moved to hover above her own so that with each word spoken she can feel his shaping of it directly.

She is silent and unmoving as he speaks, and when he is done she quietly asks, also against his lips from his close proximity, "Is it my hatred you want, Kir-Moldir?"

His breath huffs out in a silent laugh, "No. It's far too likely for me to be the target. I would kill you for it." Even so matter of fact Saeros presses his lips more firmly to her own with a force that was hard to deny as he sucks in her bottom lip. There was no lingering space between them then, settling his body far more solidly to her own with a controlled flex of muscle that had his hips grinding low into hers.

She closes her eyes with a shudder, trembling under him as her hands grasp at dirt and ripped cloth, her own hips involuntarily flexing in response to his grinds. She reciprocates the kiss, but only so much as to meet midway, never to push back into.

Saeros draws back only to separate their lips while he rolls up in against her with that steady glide hard muscle provided. Those amber eyes were lidded low as they look down to her own, "Is this what you want from me?" His next thrust was a harsh jerk to draw her attention.

She gasps audibly then, tensing up at that harsh jerk leaving her shaking a little as she stares at him, biting her lip. "I.. I don't know." It wasn't an evasion, but rather an honest response, for better or for worse.

"Think harder." He chides her as the hand that had been at her hip draws up with a heavy drag of fingertips, catching but not truly dragging her clothing higher. The goal then was clear as he palms one breast with a slow, kneading touch and his thumb flicked against the nipple on the other side of her robes. Throughout his teasing Saeros kept up those tireless rocks of his hips that had hard leather grinding into her far more supple flesh.

Her brow furrows as she maintains an unsteady stream of soft gasps and whimpers from the blatant and unfamiliar sexual contact. Her hips move gently in time with his, and her breath particularly hitches when he palm massages her breast in the way that he is doing. "This, does feel nice..." Her face sobers for a moment and her movements falter briefly, and she next speaks in as careful and as steady a voice as she can muster. "... The pleasure is nice, welcome even, but pleasure is not what I want most from you, Kir-Moldir."

"What do you want most?" He presses.

Her response comes reluctantly, almost timidly, but it comes after another couple of hitches in her breath. "Your acceptance."

All of his actions ceased on a dime, as motionless as any serpent or statue. "Elaborate."

She wasn't expecting this response, blinking in surprise, but as she was prompted so she would rise, turning her face straight to peer at him head on. "It's the difference between being endured and being welcomed. I am fine with your reasons for using me, my duties as a wife, and even my role as a tool. One can still have a favored tool above others. Not to say I seek that esteem. I just.." She pauses for a moment, briefly looking anguished but only for a moment. "I just want you to one day look at me without an eye or ear for what I need next be punished for. Much of that depends on experience, and me. But it's what I want."

"And your learning of me." Saeros adds. Then he draws back from her to sit on his haunches, looking out to the gathering daylight past the dying embers of their campfire. It doesn't take long for him to find his way back to his spot on the log and for him to motion Elru to him with a wave. "You ask a tall order."

She sits up carefully and moves to sit beside him. She doesn't bother with the robe anymore. "I'm young. I have the advantage of time and the capacity to grow."

"You've the possibility of time. One cannot say if you'll be allowed to put it to use." As she comes closer Saeros murmurs a low phrase, procuring a thick woolen blanket he hands over to her. There was still noticeable tension Elru could sense on the edges but her eyes told her otherwise as he leans back and closes his own.

The next evening has them leaving behind camp. It's an uphill trek the rest of the night for the mistsabers and their riders. The different tiers of flora held Elru's interest less than the occasional worked stone and ancient tower that peaked out every so often. Ruins of ancient Kaldorei culture. It's quite possible Saeros would have remembered what these crags and canyons once were, now overtaken by nature for the most part. Not too far from their location is rising smoke and strong smells of ash. Saeros and Elru would both be able to recognize an area where the barriers were thin and elemental roamed rampant. Evidence abounds of scouts and patrols in passing, likely from Tauren. For the moment, however, except for the occasional foolish harpy, nothing harasses them.

Saeros seemed familiar with the area, at least well enough to be knowledgeable of current borders and steer them away from pushing into a canyon they'd never walk out from again. He doesn't hold up much of a conversation and spends most of his time with his eyes on their surroundings.

For her part Elru doesn't have much in the way of conversational topics regardless, apart from just bare functional questions here and there. After a time however she does frown and wrinkle her nose a moment. The scent would have reached Saeros' nose first but only now is she noticing scents very unfamiliar to her. Crude oil, hot grease, wood dust, and course ore. They are downwind of the nearest Venture co. operation. "What, is that?"

"Some would call it the smell of money. It's from a goblin logging and drilling camp."

It takes Elru a few moments to process and draw out the explanation in her mind. Whether she found it interesting, droll, or ludicrous is unclear, but she does let curiosity show. "Is it safe to observe for a moment, or is it best move on swiftly?"

"If our path sets us to see them from a distance." Saeros keeps with his forward momentum. Certainly no need to stop.

Elru nods and accepts that. As it turns out she does get a few brief glimpses alongside a high path cliff where the trees thin. Seeing the large swath of felled trees, rising smoke plumes, and crude industry, her outward expression seemed confused and mixed. She doesn't comment on it but she doesn't stop stealing glances in that direction. Even if she were paying more attention to the path and environment she wouldn't notice what Saeros may notice. That subtle shift and rise in vibration when there's a martial force on the move, except this one is good at hiding it.

He could surely feel whatever approached them but Saeros doesn't desert the middle of the road. He does however slow down with his mistsaber hissing anxiously beneath him. Whatever advantage Saeros believed he had must have them where they were and so they stayed with eyes and ears alert.

Elru follows suit, though not as gracefully, and takes position behind him and slightly to his left. The force in question is plainly accustomed to moving stealthily through the trees, so this must be a Kaldorei force. Sentinels more than likely. The closer they get, and they get close, there are about four or five of them. A random explosive goes off to their right. Elru mutters a quiet, "Deference, yes?"

Saeros jerks his attention towards the explosion, concern immediately upon his features as the mistsaber beneath him shies away from the sudden sound. He doesn't reply to Elru directly but she feels almost.. pet on the inside as that part of him actively makes the odd gesture. His voice was low, hushed, as the Sentinels finally come into range as his message was for them. "Is the trail ahead safe or should we take another route?"

The explosion came from the cliff-side immediate to their right, and jarred a few boulders loose. The four mistsabers come within immediate range carrying four sentinels and one priestess in varying states of health. The priestess is riding with the lead and is currently in the process of mending heavy wounds in her right side. Their stares are severe, but not suspicious or judgmental. The lead sentinel with the priestess quickly remarks, "The trail ahead is safe, but you should not be here. The goblins are expanding in an unfavorable direction so conflict will be high for the foreseeable future." Their mistsabers give them each testing sniffs. Elru keeps her gaze down, but not so down as to hide her face, looking timid. The lead sentinel does a slight double take as she gives Saeros a second look over. "Why -are- you here?"

"We came from Desolace, visiting family, and now on to Auberdine." Saeros keeps casting anxious glances over towards where the explosions were coming from. "We'll make haste from here."

The accompanying sentinels also glance over at the explosions with their own anxiety, and begin to edge their way around the two of them, away from the ledge and further down the path. The lead sentinel gives a nod as she too guides their saber around. "Make haste then. Avoid this area for the foreseeable future."

"Good hunting, Sister. Elune guide you." And with that Saeros urges his twitchy mount forward, trusting in Elru to follow along behind.

Elru did follow along behind, and their sabers make a couple paces up the path until they hear a soft but stern, "Hold." The lead sentinel pauses her steed curiously as the priestess adjusts in her seat to peer back less curiously over at Saeros and Elru, first seeing if they stop.

Saeros draws them to a stop and turns in the saddle to look back.

The priestess held herself straighter with a steadying hand on the sentinel's back as she narrowed her eyes at Saeros. "Where in Desolace is this family you speak of?" The question is innocuous enough, but Saeros can feel the inquiring brush-over of her magical third eye.

His reply was prompt and respectful, "Nigel's Point. I've a sister studying in the area." That inspection was.. odd but not alarming. The sense she gets from Saeros and Elru as well is a vacant oiliness as if she'd tried to lift a smooth stone slicked in the stuff. "I appreciate the inquiry but this isn't the safest place, Sister."

The priestess looks like she wants to question further, particularly with an eye to the quiet Elru, but the verbal prompting by Saeros as well as the non-verbal nudging by the sentinel leads to the priestess giving a curt nod and the both of them turn back to their original path. "Elune guide your path." They ride off swiftly to catch up with the rest of the sentinels. A couple of explosions and crumbling rock rolls further away in the quarry.

"Let us move quickly." He quips back to Elru as he nudges his saber into a rolling lope.

Elru does the same, nudging her mount forward. Further up the track the path narrows as the trees become more closely clustered. "If they did not have more pressing concerns I suspect we've have undergone a lot more scrutiny."

"Likely. My runes have held up against worse but I'd not want to expend so much effort between the two of us before we're even in Ashenvale."

Elru hums then quiets, seeming to want to ask something but deciding in her head it's not a vital question. Light becomes more dim and sounds become more muffled, but it's clear that there's growing fighting here and there below them, and if the twang of arrows is any indication a few conflicts occurring on the higher crag levels. That whine of machinery is not subtle, and Saeros can hear the propellers of crude flying machines at work. "Should I be aware of or prepared for anything in Ashenvale?"

"More Horde activity and then more Kaldorei. The paths ahead are dangerous so don't get attached to your mount. We might need to lose them." Saeros was in near constant motion then in a magical sense, entirely alert and looking with both eyes, ears, and his metaphysical ability while their surroundings only became more hazardous.

They did in fact become more dangerous as rough gaps appear in the treeline from where past explosives had been set off. There's also discarded and used weapons and ammo strewn about, as well as bodies that haven't been recovered yet. The path that was once rising is now turning more level. One of the flying machines is coming at them fast, perpendicular to their heading. Whether it spotted them or not is unclear but from about a hundred meters away it begins dropping a series of explosives in its wake.

Things moved quickly from there, blurring into a smear of action until Elru was still and on the ground of all things with Saeros's firm grip on her arm. He'd drawn up his saber and once in range of her own had taken Elru to the ground with him as the large cats rush on without them, spurred by their own fear. Any outsider would find that the pair had vanished from sight though from their own perspective nothing within had changed aside from the stern firmness on Saeros's features as he waits just a moment to judge where the machine was going.

Elru is a bit dazed by how quickly everything happened with Saeros but has the sense to not ask or wonder, keeping very still on her spot on the ground by Saeros. The goblin flying machine shifts its course slightly in the direction of where the sabers went but otherwise remains mostly straight in its bombing strafe. About ten meters ahead of them between the two of them and the fleeing sabers the area lights up in fiery explosions that are soon obscured by dirt, dust and splinters of wood that coat the area, but once past the flying machine continues on. At worst they'll be pelted by larger sharp chunks of woods that come flying overhead.

Even that much doesn't reach them as Elru's suddenly several yards ahead, the tear in her aching with tension as she was pulled along in tow. Clearly they'd blinked further into the field and the average spectator would see them appear, blink, and then disappear once more. If Elru wasn't quick enough Saeros might just be pulling her bodily along with him and his tone was terse, all business. "Blink when I tell you to."

Elru is jarred and and shaken from the spontaneous blinking for the first couple of times but not for long, even with the tension in her tear. Now wasn't the time to wonder but the time to obey. She Blinks when instructed. So long as Saeros can see where to Blink to, nothing impedes their forward momentum. Each Blink is a snapshot of either past conflict or one in the making not too far from where they are.

The pair trades off their work until they'd crossed the entire field and Saeros draws them bodily behind a stack of boulders at the treeline for a brief respite. "Are you alright?"

Having made the distance they have, they've left much of what's going on behind them. The air smells more like the woods and less like industry, and in the distance the high lush canopy of Ashenvale is visibly peaking over gaps in the cliffs. Elru seems, at worst, dizzy but as she steadies herself with a hand against a boulder with deep breaths she gives a couple nods. "I am fine. I am holding up." She fumbles into her robes a moment before popping a strip of jerky into her mouth before straightening, ready to go.

The tension around them suddenly lifts and Saeros straightens from some unforeseen weight he'd been carrying, likely the magic he'd been using to keep them hidden from sight. "Don't linger." He leads further into the trees.

Elru follows after, keeping the distance between them short without being all up in his business. She has a couple difficulties navigating the trees, roots, and uneven ground without her saber. But, she makes no complaint, making up for her lack of steady footing in stubbornness and speed. Ashenvale is closer, but there's one last steep trek to go. Midway up there are hunter traps laid out, mostly old, but a few new. Enough to indicate that individuals have and do make their way through here.

Saeros edges them closer the the older traps rather than the new while scanning the forest around them. Traps were often watched by those who laid them. He calls back to Elru. "Step where I step."

Elru does so. This slows her pace a little, but she steps exactly where Saeros does. The older traps remain undisturbed so long as they were not stepped too close to. Even so, attention is clearly directed their way. Up on higher ground from a boulder Saeros can hear before he sees arrows released in their direction. Though the trees here are closer, they're also thinner and don't make for the best cover.

Arrows certainly weren't bullets and the axes Saeros carried with him make a sudden reappearance in his hands, using their broad surfaces to deflect one should they come his way. Hopefully there weren't too many. He was looking to see the fletching. Kaldorei certainly didn't look like an orc's.

The jagged style cut of the arrowheads indicated these were definitely orc arrows, and upon deflection of those arrows harsh Orcish is barked from the high ground as the next volley flies their way a moment after, as well as a couple of rolled explosives colored the same as the earth around them. There are four of them judging by shot volley, but only one of them seems to be a true proper huntsman by the skill of shots. Elru takes a defensive stance behind Saeros but raises an arcane shield regardless.

Saeros only waits long enough for this next volley of arrows to be deflected by their various means before he lunges for her, hissing with a palpable frustration. "Dispel that." Once he has her in hand they're off once more in a Blink, though this time Elru was certainly being carried. Should they blink into a trap Saeros wanted his feet in them, not hers. He wore leather to her cloth after all.

Elru dispelled her shield immediately though she kept her magic at ready, though she blinked rapidly as she was bodily carried. Them moving means that the arrow volleys have a harder time hitting them, though the one hunter in the group does shoot such that Saeros may have to deflect once or twice. With enough haste the line of traps can be left behind, though there are a couple bear trap and one gas trap before they do make it there, stuck in between trees where most steps may have to go.

Saeros doesn't worry about the tree cover once he has a clear line between himself and the end of the orc's range. Predictably, he blinks.

Elru has an easier time keeping righted and steady after that blink, though being carried may help with that. The orcs are on the move once they're out of range, but Saeros is faster than they are.

He continues up the path without pausing to glance behind, it would only serve to eat up time. Between one patch of scrub brush and the next Saeros puts Elru down and hurries her up with him behind. The blinking had ceased. "Don't stop. Just keep going forward." It could almost be called coaching.

Elru almost stumbles and trips but catching her hand on a tree she manages to right herself and keep going forward to match Saeros' quicker pace, jogging at times if she has to. Fortunately for her the ground gets less steep and more soft with the shifting change in flora around them. The orcs are no longer heard behind them, and there are no immediate disturbances ahead that Saeros can sense.

He doesn't stop driving her until Elru's own physical endurance starts to wane before slowing them down to a walk. Saeros's own breath was coming in heavy draws that hadn't quite made it to pants, likely from all the magical expenditure. "Are you well?"

Elru doesn't respond right away before she manages a heavy voiced 'yes'. "That was the most physical exercise I've had... well, ever. I'm glad I regularly stretched and exercised back home," She manages out between breaths. Wiping at her brow she looks to Saeros. "On the slope with the hunters, we made haste and fled due to our disadvantageous position and a desire to not draw more attention?"

Saeros looks around them briefly before lowering his voice and leaning in just for her ears. "You give yourself away. Should any Kaldorei be watching its not hard to tell what you are if you're slinging Arcane around." He leans back up, "So, yes."

Elru blinks, then frowns at the realization and her mistake as they walk along. "Sloppy of me. You are absolutely right. It was habit, but a potentially disastrous one."

"I'm surprised we haven't run into any Sentinels yet. This path can't be unguarded." His tone was terribly dry.

"Perhaps they are there up ahead, while the ones more south are currently occupied in Stonetalon."

"Perhaps. Though I believe we're being watched." Even with his statement Saeros continues leading the way. The axes in his hands find their way back along his broad shoulders.

Elru pans her gaze around with a frown and says nothing more. It's not like the woods were silent and still, but the idle breezes through the leaves and branches, and the noises of local fauna, could easily mask silent watching sentinels. Once they are in the Ashenvale forests proper there is a definite tension in the air. Such has always been the case in the horde run areas of Ashenvale but lately it seems even more so. Similar to the smells of Stonetalon, there is metallurgy at work somewhere not far, its contrast with the natural forest air almost sour. It is also clearer to Saeros that they are at least noticed and being kept an eye on.

Saeros led them as far away from those more dangerous areas as he could manage and still keep them on the proper path. He didn't seem overly bothered by the attention, he'd expected it, but he was absolutely silent here. No time for words.

Elru for her part kept quiet as well, picking up on the fact that his utter silence was probably a cue for her to do the same. As they steer clear of the more dangerous areas subtle Kaldorei guiding symbols, both physical and magical, become more apparent and are clearly meant to guide those Kaldorei who are passing through the area. Up ahead near a stream a Sentinel shifts out of the shadows waiting in plain sight for the pair.

Predictably, Saeros heads straight towards her.

The sentinel nods at them and steps aside, moving a hand to part some brush. "Best to stay off the main paths further up. We have opened some of our supply routes for Alliance passing through. There is an encampment not far down this way. Where do you wish to head?"

Saeros gifts her with a relieved smile. "We're on our way to Auberdine. Any chance of supplies we can purchase as well? Stonetalon.. wasn't kind."

"If you have things to trade then there are a few Alliance at the encampment down the hidden paths. For a proper set of supplies and rest we have sisters at the encampment that can guide travelers to the Astranaar while keeping off the main paths."

"Are you to lead us or should we follow the paths on our own?"

"This immediate path is safe. I am to remain here at the edges for orc scouts."

He nods. "Elune guide you." And then off in the indicated direction.

The sentinel keeps an eye on their backs before returning forward and stepping back into the shadows. The off path is similarly marked as the previous main stretch was though to the naked, untrained eye it would appear to be the same thick brush as elsewhere. Elru glances back every so often, but keeps quiet in this new environment and circumstance. After travelling several meters Saeros can pick up the faint sounds of a camp that sound more clear until they abruptly step into a small clearing. It's a natural space between trees, but with a small fire set up in the middle, a few crates and burlap sacks, and a good dozen or so Alliance members and sentinels mingling. Though this was not without some wary tension as they eye the new arrivals. Once they get a good look at them they turn back to their own business and a couple sentinels eye them expectantly by the controlled fire. Up top, Saeros may notice sentinel sentries atop remarkably well placed tree branches and leaf cover. It's quite possible they were deliberately grown that way. "Greetings. As you can see, we are guiding allied travelers off the main roads. The Warsong have been arming and reinforcing themselves at an alarming speed. This can only mean a heavy offensive is to begin."

Saeros looks to the women who addressed him, drawing closer just for convenience's sake. "So we've been experiencing. Are the paths to Darkshore still open then or are even they rough for travelling?"

"The paths to Darkshore are as yet still open. There is a roughly parallel detour one of our sisters can guide you through on the way to Astranaar. Once there you are free to take the main path as you so desire, or perhaps even take faster means of transport."

"We'd like to put the violence firmly behind us. Would there be a sister available to take us soon?"

"You catch us at a good time. None of our other guests have need to leave just yet, and so we would be happy to-" "I will do it." The second quieter, yet firmer voice came up from behind Saeros and Elru, and it's quite possible that not even Saeros would have noticed her approach from outside the outpost ring. Elru outright jumped a little as she turned. The sentinels immediately straighten, and the one who spoke to Saeros held clear surprise on her features. "Warden Lanath... Pardon me, but isn't this task beneath you...?"

Saeros turns to meet the newest addition with half of a bow and relief in his tone. "It would be an honor to travel even briefly with a Warden. Elune favors us."

Elru does her best to not let her intimidation show. This is the first time she's seen a Warden in their iconic gear. This Warden's armor has the dust and wear of one who does a lot of travelling. And probably hunting. Her gaze through her helmet is blank, deliberately so, and she barely moves where she stands. She hardly looks at Elru and instead focuses her gaze on Saeros to consider his words. "Elune favors all her children in equal esteem, traveler." She turns to the sentinel at the fire. "They came from Stonetalon and I have desire to question them on the state of affairs there as my rounds do not extend so far." The sentinel nods and assents. "But of course, Warden." Ring shaped Moon Glaive kept to her front the Warden steps evenly and soundlessly  off to the side, stepping into a hidden path like before. "This way."

Saeros glances back at Elru to make sure she was paying attention and then falls into the Warden's wake.

Elru is only a few seconds slow on the uptake but immediately follows at that glance, taking up Saeros' rear while the Warden took point. She doesn't move too swiftly, as if keeping in mind Elru's pace, but also because there are a few roots and pits one must watch out for. There is silence until they come to an area with a small lake to their left and a smaller island to its center. "Some of my sisters are preparing for an offensive in Stonetalon. How many scouting parties did you happen across on your way here, if any?" Her tone had a mere outward iota of concern and curiosity.

Saeros answers her promptly. "We didn't have much contact with the Horde until the middle of Stonetalon where a full-scale conflict was taking place. Goblins taking bombing runs. Our sabers didn't survive. We had to skirt the edges as much as we could and kept to the shadows to get past. We met one Sentinel party that had recently seen combat and were changing positions who advised us on a safer path. Four Orcs currently defend the border between Stonetalon and Ashenvale but they seemed more interested in bigger game than making a serious run at a lone pair without supplies or mounts."

"A very thorough briefing. It is appreciated." They continue their detour, taking a slight left to skirt the edges of the small lake. "I will corroborate your report of the four orcs later. If nothing else, it will serve as an update. How many to the Sentinel party you encountered?"

"Five, on four sabers. A Priestess rode double with one of the Sentinels." Saeros follows dutifully along behind her, taking the time to check on Elru every now and then to make sure nothing had happened to her.

Elru was outwardly taking in the new sights and sounds, but her focus never left the Warden. Neither did she stray far. This path had no markers unlike the previous paths, and best as Saeros can tell they had no tails or eyes on them. "I know the party of which you speak. It is good that they were alive. When you found them. But why were you in Stonetalon?"

"Travelling through as well. We came from Desolace, Nigel's Point. Unfortunately they didn't have Hippogryphs to spare and so here we are now." He gives a short, humorless laugh.

"Unfortunate. And what business do you have travelling in the direction of Darkshore?" She pauses at a point of higher ground, then swiftly steps up along protruding root holds. She waits at the edge until both Saeros and Elru are both up.

He doesn't speak until he'd helped Elru up along after him. "Taking a ship back to Menethil Harbor, hopefully. At this rate we might just be destitute by the time we get there. We'll get by either way."

"You do not look destitute." The statement was both an observation and a question. Once Elru has climbed up Warden Lanath once again turns to take point. "Fortunately for you two supplies are easy to come by in Auberdine. They are more slim in Astranaar."

"It's still yet a long way to Auberdine and I'd rather not have to pawn off our essentials." He follows along behind.

"You do seem to be travelling very light. It is unfortunate you lost your sabers. What are you in need of?" They continue to detour slightly leftward once well north of the small lake. As the trees get thicker the Warden slows her pace.

"Food, water, and packs to hold it in for a start."

The Warden takes pause at a break in the treeline to rest a sharp gauntlet against the tree to peer out for a moment. "Is your companion well? She's very quiet and appears ill-suited to travel." Elru frowns a little and stiffens but doesn't open her mouth. She -is- a little roughed up travelling through the brush.

"Her first time, I'm afraid. Her sister loved to coddle her even after taking her in tow for her research." He laughs and looks back at Elru with a grin although he spoke to the Warden, "I'm Saeros and she's-" He trails off, pointedly waiting for Elru to supply her own name.

"Elru." She manages a shy smile and bows her head in the Warden's direction as she gazes at the two of them. "He is right. I am quite sheltered and this is my first time travelling on foot." The Warden gives a nod, turning to face them properly with hardly a ruffle of her razor cape. "I am Warden Lanath, as you no doubt heard." She gives a slight gesture of her head. "We are half a mile from Astranaar now, give or take."

Saeros looks in the direction she indicates. "As before, it is an honor Warden Lanath, and that is heartening news."

"Perhaps." She still stands facing them with her flat expression through her helmet, and makes no movement, or indication that she is going to move or lead them further.

Saeros waits a moment or two before venturing, "Something the matter, Warden?"

"That's what I am debating in my mind, Saeros, Elru," she idly responds, almost cordially, though her expression doesn't change, and the only movement is a light tap and shift of an armored finger brushing over her Moon Glaive.

Saeros frowns, glances back at Elru once more, and then back to her, "I'm not sure we understand."

Elru is all frowns now and the Warden continues to stare and stand still for a pregnant pause until she speaks once more. "I can be fair. Three inklings persist in my mind that keep me back from leading you to civilization. But you seem reasonable, so perhaps you can explain. My first inkling has to do with the fact that Nigel's Point should not be short of hippogryphs, as some of Astranaar's have been roosting there to rest, due to longer flights over the Stonetalon region."

"I only know what I was told, Warden. If that is true then I can't explain why we were denied." Saeros offers, clearly at a loss.

She moves on. "My second inkling has to do with you, Saeros. You are clearly a Kaldorei of respectable age and competence, but even so... Much of my time is spent merely watching people. Those who stand out, and those who don't. You distinctly do not stand out to a fault. No matter how hard I look at you I have trouble discerning qualities I seek." A pause. "It is possible, of course, that I am mistaken. This one time."

The longer she spoke the more baffled Saeros became before that expression began to turn a little more bleak. "I see. And the third?"

Warden Lanath stared at Saeros for another pause before her gaze distinctly and deliberately panned over to Elru, though her words were more directed at Saeros. "My third inkling isn't so much an inkling. You may have little to nothing on you and I may see no magic at work... But I know chains when I see them." Her eyes return to Saeros.

"Chains, Warden?"

"More specifically, I know how a Kaldorei walks who is not free. Who, if they were to walk otherwise, would face death."

Saeros makes as if he were to look back at Elru then, but refrains. "Warden. All I know is that when I was asked by a friend to escort her sister to the Eastern Kingdoms and help her set out on her own. Perhaps you should question her directly as I have no excuse for what you see."

The Warden stares at Saeros with the same blank one she's been carrying the entire time, then imperceptibly she shifts her body stance as she glances Elru's way, who had been slowly but steadily starting to fail at not looking too stiff. "Elru, girl, do you know what I am?" The question is asked with patience and with time to answer, but Elru's answer is not immediately forthcoming which elicits a gentle tap of an armored finger on her blade, until Elru bows her head a little while biting her lip. "I.. have never seen a Warden personally before, but I have been told enough to know how much respect they are to be afforded..."

Saeros pointedly looks away from her and keeps his attention on the Warden. He certainly doesn't interrupt.

"And do you know what I do, Elru, girl?" Elru's silence is longer this time, and the slowly growing oppressive aura of the Warden waxes thicker, until Elru replies simply, "You hunt." Elru clears her throat, then speaks more clearly and confidently, "You hunt, the enemies of the Kaldorei." the Warden stares at Elru for a time, then pans her gaze back to Saeros to stare at him in turn. "Well, Saeros. She's not wrong, is she?"

Saeros bows at the neck, head lowering. "That she isn't, Warden."

"And neither of you are my enemies. Are you?"

"No, Warden."

The Warden's stare pans back to Elru, who also responds with, "No, we are not, Warden." Looking back at Saeros for another pause her body stance shifts again, and then slowly she turns her back on them once more. "I will escort you the rest of the way to Astranaar now. Do watch your step from here on out."

Saeros breathes out a subtle sigh of relief but even still it was likely she'd hear. "We certainly intend to."

The Warden steps over more partly hidden roots as she resumes guiding them. "This way." The path resumes, and begins to turn slightly more towards the right.

Once more does Saeros fall in step behind her.

Elru follows in step behind Saeros, and the Warden resumes her steady step as their guide. After a short time the path they follow begins to have markers again, until the silent trip finally ends with them at the edge of a lake facing the town of Astranaar at the center. "This is as far as I will escort you, Saeros, Elru."

"We appreciate the guidance, Warden. Thank you for your time." It was a more reserved farewell but given the circumstances it was expected.

"Of course. And do remember what I have said, Saeros, Elru." She'll watch them leave her company and head to Astranaar. Once both Saeros and Elru have their eyes off her, she'll be gone without notice.

Saeros leads them on without further incident and into Astranaar, securing a room and some dinner for the both of them in one of the less open rooms the Kaldorei favored. After they'd eaten and settled in silence Saeros leans forward onto their small table and draws with a light finger on the smooth wood. No mark was left but some part of Saeros himself remained, painted into the pattern he'd created. Even still his voice remains low when he speaks, "What do you understand about what happened today?"

Elru takes a deep breath and then lets it out slowly, "Where to begin? We Highborne clearly are among the ranks of those less... welcome among Kaldorei society. Said society has a branch of warriors devoted to hunting and rooting out enemies from without and within. Said branch of Wardens are not to be underestimated or treated lightly, given your care in interaction. Also we are clearly going to remain under some degree of scrutiny." She pauses. "And I need to take extra care in how I carry myself and what I use."

"What do you perceive as possible outcomes to how today could have ended differently?"

"We could have drawn hostile attention from sentinels, orcs, or much more immediate and likely from that Warden. We run, then we become wanted. We fight and kill the Warden, we become wanted. We fight and are unable to kill the Warden, then you sacrifice me to preserve yourself to either flee or kill the Warden, and then you become wanted."

"Do you understand why I have yet to treat you higher than I have been?"

"Is it because ultimately when it becomes a matter of life and death I am expendable?"

"Wrong."

"Then please enlighten me, Kir-Moldir."

"The world you will be living in, interacting in, requires more than you've been exposed to. There are those who look at you and simply wait for that mistake. You think me inconsiderate of your progress when in truth I know precisely how high you must climb to survive. Today, had you answered wrong, that Warden would probably have incarcerated us both had we not resisted. Those who go into the Wardens' custody are seldom seen again."

Elru closes her eyes and swallows, then gives a couple of nods. "Consider me more enlightened."

"They follow no law aside from the imperative to protect the Kaldorei populace from itself at all costs and -that- dictated by Maiev Shadowsong. You can trust her hatred of the Highborne has not waned over the years."

"I am not familiar with this name, but it is one I will thoroughly educate myself on once I have the material. It seems I will have to if I am to better my chances at survival."

"Do you understand that my treatment of you has only been to push you to be able to subsist on limited information and still manage yourself in an advantageous manner?"

She gives a firm nod.

Saeros drags his finger along the table once more, in reverse of the prior motion, and stands. Their room had two beds and after dismantling a healthy portion of his own leather armor Saeros stretches out upon one and closes his eyes.

Elru sits in contemplation for a time, but in time enough she too sheds her outer robes and takes to her own bed.

When she lays down, for the first time in a long time that tear within her that Saeros created finally ceased to ache. It wasn't too unlike the ringing silence after a sudden shock of sound, a static void empty of pain. Should she explore it Elru would clearly find that they were still attached and that Saeros hadn't.. expired in his sleep but there was no active magic on his side of the link. Pure quiet.

That jarring absence would keep Elru awake for a time, even as she tentatively explores it. She doesn't move or look at Saeros. Neither smiling nor frowning she simply lays in the pure quiet and absence, until eventually she drifts off to sleep.

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#11 Sins of the Blood

Compared to how long Elru had been dealing with isolation a week wasn't too long to be alone, especially when one had company. However, even Saeros's wrath didn't remain eternal when the world, and the Highborne, were clearly needing to move more quickly within it. That also included his plans with Elru. There were no sounds of stone being drawn back and the door opening but between one moment and the next there was a figure standing in Elru's 'playroom'. It looked like Saeros but.. not quite. The facial features were softened and distorted. One could easily confuse it for some sort of trick had it not flickered in place, the magic that sustained it apparent in that moment. A little more investigation provides a predictable answer. What had invaded Elru's space was a mirror image.

Elru is understandably wary of this Saeros that seemed off, but calms once she realizes what it is and makes sense of it. She wasn't too out of sorts, though she still looked a touch sullen. Her occupant currently in another sustained state of unconsciousness, by now kept alive by what seemed like air and food tubes along with his restraints. Elru got to practice the more practical sides of biology and anatomy in her time there. She faces the mirror image expectantly.

The eyes were certainly different and lacked the Amber hue in favor of a pinkish Arcane as they size up their surroundings. Things were brief from there. The mirror image carried a small bundle in its hand with a letter in the other. It moves forward, lacking weight, and extends the paper towards her.

Elru steps close and leans over to read the extended paper in detail, knowing better than to grasp for a mirror image.

The writing within was unfamiliar to her and in a hand that carried strange flourishes that could easily have come from millennium in the past. "You are to attend the fête tonight that heralds the Highborne's departure from Eldre'Thalas. You have not been invited and should you be discovered the likelihood of you being the evening's blood sport are certain. To help prevent you from losing your life you will be inscribed by runes in this order--a shroud against outward magical perception, the oversight of accidental physical contact, to be seen but one's presence not acknowledged, not give off scent, and for sound to not reach far from your lips. You will allow all of this to be done and to forego any other additional articles aside from what is provided." It wasn't signed but.. There was truly little need to.

Elru purses her lips as she tries to process what this will all mean, but at least one part was immediately apparent and clear to her. So with an idle nod she begins stripping down in preparation for the runes and whatever else may be provided.

The mirror image moves forward as so makes to comply with the instructions that likely matched its own. From the bundle that it sets on the floor it draws out a porcelain jar with a lid and a series of various sized paint brushes. The color of the paint was a bright nearly glowing silver and the first dip and stroke of the brush begins at her breasts. Overall it was a rather complex set of lines that decorate across from her left to right as if to clothe her in art. The image motioned for her to tilt her head up for the next set that stretched across her throat from collarbone to just below each ear. The next was an odd placement where the specter kneels to reach her inner thighs one at a time and as highly placed to provoke ideas of indecency. Her stomach and where the top of her butt met her lower back is where the final runes were placed.

By the time it's all over Elru is blushing a bit from all the contact, but she doesn't shy away from any of it, keeping still like a good sport. She'd check the runes that she could see herself for their validity and strength, but not alter them in any way.

Runes carried power by the very nature of their shapes and in the perfection of the application of their truest forms and with that cursory inspection Elru could tell these had indeed been well drawn. When she finished her snooping the Mirror image was holding a singular object up for her to take, the last of what it had carried with it. A mask. It was artful as most things the Highborne touched turned out to be and likely crafted in pure silver for how delicate and pliable it felt in her hands. Even so, it wouldn't do much to hide her identity for long should the most dire of circumstances, the runes failing, occur. But, it was better than nothing. A pair of ribbons decorated its sides that would allow it to be tied to her face.

Elru carefully takes hold of the mask in both hands with a small frown, turning it this way and that to inspect, but she complies and makes sure to apply and tie the mask on firmly so that it'll stay, leaving her bare and in only runes and a mask.

And that seemed to be exactly the state she was required to go in. The Mirror Image turned and waited just before the door before it slowly grinds open and it walks outside, waiting for her. Clearly it was to be her guide.

Elru stands in place for two seconds before she takes a breath and promptly follows. So be it. She'll walk out naked. At least she had cleaned not long ago. She won't cower but she will dip her head a bit down as it's hard to not be somewhat self conscious.

Their trip was a long one but one that put them back closer into more familiar territory within Eldre'Thalas. The city had its own grand stadiums, openings that at one point let in the moonlight so all could be bathed in the Light of Elune, until even the pride of the Highborne had tainted those practices and those Priestesses that associated closely with them. It was to one of these older atriums she was led to in following the distant sounds of raucous laughter and the drone of public conversation. The room might have once been open to the elements but its roof was now blanketed by stained glass, illuminating the scenes below in almost a carnival array of light. Her guide simply faded out from existence before it was noticed. There were dozens and dozens of gathered Shen'dralar here in their brightly flamboyant robes, dresses, and often even less that could make a rainbow weep for such sharp purity in color. Men and women moved effortlessly and with the ease of long practice among one another and the clumped groups around the room. A thick haze rose up from the crowd to collect under the roof above that a sniff could identify as the smoke from some sort of drug they were indulging in. The amount of sensory input here was extensive as music spread throughout, pierced through with crows of delight, and the heavy wafts of food Elru likely had not had the pleasure of experiencing before. Perhaps -this- was a taste of what it meant to be truly Highborne. As far as she could tell, no one noticed her, and she was left at the edges of the gathering without further instruction.

For a while she stayed at the edges uncertain, her face so blank it could have been a mask itself. She did her best to control her breathing. Handling her own amateur attempts at drugs she knew better than to recklessly inhale that she did not intend to. Still, even though she thought it best to exercise caution she figured it wouldn't be best suited of her presence to just remain in one spot at the very edges. Looking around with an analytical eye she tried to spot a good place to head to that would give her a better eye of what was going on, if she wasn't going to be noticed. As she does this she'll skirt along the edges mindful to avoid other people and even walls. She's long grown to distrust the walls of Eldre'Thalas.

Her progress allowed her to view several things. As the crowd shifted and moved like a living beast she caught glimpses of the various activities they were involved in. There were flashes of gambling, of coin and gemstones piled carelessly on tables while those surrounding them played strange games that seemed to require Arcane and wit in equal measure. Long tables of delicacies that the world likely hadn't seen since olden times flanked by a large gathering around where one could see drinks were being made. Elru could sense the raw magical essence from where she stood, a shock from the general deprivation of Eldre'Thalas itself. Still even more were there parties around large hookahs that filled the air with their colorful fumes as their users exhaled them. The thickest of the Highborne were centered around a small platform that held a short, thin woman of golden hair bound down with runic chains and already slicked with -crimson- blood. From her distance Elru couldn't discern more. All the while there was a hungry edge to the very air that those attending felt affected by in the way they eyed one another and some were already escalating with forceful kisses and groping, mindless in their pursuits as some of these were even spectated upon. It was a demonstration in sin. There was no other way to describe the excess happening in the room.

It was near impossible to tell what Elru thought just by looking at her face, though flickers would leak through every so often at each new display of wanton sin. Curiosity, excitement, revulsion, and fear would pass through her mind. Even so, as the displays piled on one after the other in each new display, displays that Elru always made sure to stop by and get a good long look at, Elru just felt herself further removed from the dripping excess. Even if she weren't an uninvited voyeur she couldn't bring herself to join in on the mingling desires of the room. The only thing that seemed to give her an interest that was more than academic was that thick throng of Highborne clustered around the one that bled crimson. She had never seen red blood before.

As she nears no one takes note of her. But thankfully the gathered spectators started to drift away, if but for the moment, as the rounds of gambling grew to more interesting heights. On the slab of solid stone lay a woman as naked as Elru herself but tense with visible pain. Her skin was a rich cream that matched well with the gold on her head but the ears were the dead giveaway. They weren't Kaldorei ears. These were more upright and dagger thin that tensed in time with whatever agony she was in the grips in until she cried out, screaming in a language that sounded like Darnassian but too far removed to be the same. The tone however could project that desperate, begging edge. The runic shackles binding her had shifted with a life of their own, coiling up further on her arms and legs to hook into her flesh like living, barbed serpents before they settled once more. It flashed her eyes wide that certainly weren't the traditional silver or amber of Elru's people. They were a powerful hue of vibrant green. This person was something else entirely.

Eru couldn't help but watch fascinated. This was something entirely new after all. Sure she's read of many races, and can speak all their languages, but she'd never actually SEEN another race before. Even so, she'd certainly never read anything like this peculiar elf. One more careful glance around her, and then her attention would then draw to the chains and their nature, and any other latent magic nearby.

As she paused and stared, Elru would feel another presence uncomfortably close and just off one shoulder before a head lowers near to her own. Enough to drape her in long, dark green hair. "They call themselves Sin'dorei." She knew that voice. It could only be Saeros.

She doesn't turn to look or otherwise react in surprise. Keeping her attention forward she mouths out the new term before speaking quietly. "Sin'dorei. Are they... cousins, or some such?"

"Old blood that forsook commonsense in favor of pride. They were once us. Powerful, proud, and perfect. Yet when the Kaldorei demanded that we shrink back from the old-ways, those of the Arcane, they rebelled and were banished. We assumed them lost long ago." As he spoke Elru could feel bare fingertips sliding up the backs of her hands, trailing higher and higher with that feather-light touch.

Elru can't help but tremble just slightly at the touch of his fingertips on her skin. "Why is one here?"

He doesn't stop as he answers her, "We required entertainment and it has its own warnings. To resist what we are to the point of folly will revert us down into.. -this-." His touch climbs higher and higher on her arms till his hands reach her shoulders. One long ear had his touch upon it next with a lingering brush.

Elru gives a more overt shiver at that. It was a combination of her completely bare state as well as being particularly weak to Saeros' touch. "To resist what we are, huh?" She looks about again with her eyes.

His low chuckle is right below her ear. "Not particularly impressed?" When one touched stopped another simply began so when his fingers reached the tip of her ear there was another at the point of her chin. A steady pressure with an aim for her angling up.

Elru blinks rapidly a moment but allows Saeros to aim her face as he pleases.

"Well?" He prompts her. The previous action simply bared her throat in a fashion that suited him. She could feel the heat of him long before his free hand draws her hair to one side and his lips were on the side of her neck. They trailed closer and closer to where the runes began.

She gives a quiet gasp and shivers, but didn't dare move away from him. She collected her thoughts before she answered. "Not once have I lived a life of wealth and excess. So much of this is foreign to me. On the one hand there is much I feel drawn to. But on the other hand I feel adverse to the people partaking. There is much to admire and yet dislike. I do not know where I am to fall."

"Explore all of it. Learn every inch. It is as much in your blood as mine." Saeros's words were hard to catch, half-slurred as they were by his lips growing more forceful upon her. She could feel it on the edge of her senses once his touch began to disrupt the edges of her protections. Elru could feel the cracking, almost shattering as the binding along her neck became more and more distorted as he smeared the silver along her skin.

"Explore... all of it?" The question was an earnest probing one. She was more anxious and fearful of the cracking of her protective runes, but she did not protest.

He pauses long enough to get out, "The party." Before she feels the sharp scrape of fangs against her throat and the runes reacted like fine glass, vibrating as they began to fracture.. "The one we're at where you shouldn't be. Unless you've a death wish, of course." The content of his words were entirely serious but his actions simply didn't match.

Another light audible gasp as she rapidly blinks and takes a look down at the runes over her bare body, the ones that were now fracturing. Out of sheer reflex at the growing sense of exposure a little ridged bundle of paper sprouts from her back like a vaguely stylish rumpled cape. Once it registers that it's there Elru forces her paper, and anxieties, away for now.

The hand at her jaw vanishes in favor of rather forcefully clenching and tearing the paper away from her body before she remove it herself. "Think carefully now, Elru. What do you know about the state you're in?" It was softly crooned and should have been comforting but.. she'd heard that tone before. It's a memory colored by sadistic pain, a man's choked screams, and her gift of a bloody tooth. "Are you more than a puppet I sink my hands up into?"

She certainly remembers that tone. As she mulls over that memory she answers, "I am naked, covered in runes about to go away, in the middle of a party that I was not invited to, and that my being here alone could lead to my death."

"And so your reaction is.." The hand that had crumpled and torn her paper suddenly rakes blunt nails halfway down her back. "To allow yourself to wallow in your lust until the satiation peaks with your death?" There was humor now.

She hisses with the raking of nails and with it comes her response of, "Of course not."

"Then why are you letting it happen when you've other things to explore here?"

She blinks and goes blank faced a moment as she stills, and then straightens, turning a face and a more sure foot towards one of the more clustered and drug addled gambling tables. "You are absolutely right." She'll take drifting steps toward the crowd she was looking at, not being too hasty in case she was stopped.

The gambling seemed to be in full swing and as Elru reaches close enough to catch a glimpse she was able to see that it was some sort of game that depended upon both cards and dice, the latter altered with delicate touches of Arcane as the pair currently playing fought against one another's will to have the roll settle to their own advantages without jerking them out of the narrow, lined square they rolled in. On the table there was a pile of currently wagered valuables in the traditional forms of coined metals and cut gems but also preciously worked jewelry and Arcane artifacts worked upon by masterful hands. Still, she was ignored.

Rather than give a cursory glance she lingers a long while, circling the table, weaving in and out of people if necessary, long enough to get a firm grasp of the game, allowing herself a growing small smile as she reaches the point where she's confident she could manage to hold her own in the game if the occasion ever called for it. And though she started it, now she focused fully on getting to know the players themselves. Who played, who dealt, who bid from afar and who merely spectated, who seemed to have the most and least to lose, and who paid most or least attention to the game. Stepping lightly around on her front soles like a delicate raptor she'd steadily weave around, never close enough to touch, but occasionally close enough to see faces and catch scented whiffs.

For those looking, there was a wealth of information to be had here. She caught names, snippets of conversation, and the underlying tones of excitement. Everyone seemed to be mentioning in some form or another about the delegation sent to both 'Darnassus' and 'Dalaran' which were clearly words for places Elru had yet to learn about. About some sort of 'Alliance' and 'Horde' interspersed with mentions of the 'Sin'dorei'. The games didn't seem to be too serious, simply those of wealth passing it around to pass the time with their favored vices, but as time goes on the haze in the room grows stronger and more dense. It relaxed the limbs and tongues as well, giving one an almost hyper-awareness of the magic at their fingertips tonight.

She lingered till she felt she gathered all she could, and then she allowed herself to drift away and move more slowly among a stretch of empty space, testingly taking stronger sniffs as she panned her eyes to the hookahs, breaking apart the components of the drugs in her nostrils, on her tongue, in her mind, by the minute quality of the smoke, the perceived effect it had on her mind and body, and the effect it had on those closest to the hookahs. One, maybe two heavy breaths and no more in total before she controlled her breathing, and with the slightest touch of her own magic she'd keep her sinuses clear. Here, too, she'd pay attention to the faces and words of those Highborne who would sit directly at the source of chemical pleasure.

She'd find more of the same but.. with an added twist. Those who entertained themselves here sprawled across low couches, thick pillows and plush rugs as they too went on about the changing state of things. Elru quickly learned several things at once. Immol'Thar was dead and the need for the sacrificial pylons had vanished along with it. It was here that the more sensual exchanges began to grow into far more physical activities. She'd quickly come across a threesome happening in the middle of a spectating ring where two men were relentlessly demanding the attention of the woman between them who was on her back and spread to the best possible view for those around. She currently had one of the men's lengths down her throat while the other was pushed up into her with her legs wide to flash every inch of that part of their exchange. Whatever qualified as decency--it was absent here.

These were some revelations to be had here leaving Elru wide-eyed. It was a toss-up between whether it was the demon's demise or her first visceral threesome sight that was leaving her gawking. But she'd linger a while to watch the carnal display of wanton lust before she gulped, stepped away, paused, then stepped back forward closer to look over and then down at herself to briefly compare assets. Seemingly satisfied by some unknown standard, she'd drift away, this time to one of the long stretches of Highborne cuisine, still lightly padding along on the fronts of her soles. She'd listen for gossip, but mostly she'd analyze the magic and mana at work here to provide all this food, food that she'd likely have never seen in her life.

What was prepared here wasn't from an Arcane origin but a more mundane one, that much was evident by the strict lack of magic laced through anything down the banquet table. Things were fried, powdered, served raw, and in more variety than necessary for anyone to truly need. But that wasn't the point. There were no -fat- Highborne here but they certainly indulged their tastes to the extents that pleased them, too often feeding one another by hand themselves, or simply eating or licking something off their various friendly parties. The main attraction here was the large, clear bowl filled with equally clear liquid, but it glowed with its own inner light. It tugged at the senses and ignited a hunger Elru wouldn't likely have had too much of before. One that lay heavily on her own magical ability. It was served in concert with other varieties of fluids but also simply straight and left out along the counter for others who were too addled to be trusted with a ladle. Open for the taking.

Elru would have been idly trailing her fingertips along the table. Only when she was safe and confident in her immediate sight and surroundings and addledness of the guests did she steal bites, each bite bringing more delight to her expression than the last. Even before her isolated exile she'd never been a glutton for taste and flavor, but she didn't know taste and flavor till now it seemed. Soon she'd make it to that open clear bowl reaching towards it but then she stopped. Her face flickered as a number of emotions flashed through her face before she settled on cautious restraint, pulling back a moment and waiting till she saw someone else take a drink from the bowl, settling into her blank face once more. Mundane, if exquisite food was one thing, but she wasn't going to dive unknowing into something that had a clear magical draw.

Plenty passed between her and the drinks, picking up one or two at a time as they moved about their business no worse for wear. If she was curious enough it seemed she'd have to try for herself.

After a moment's consideration she'd wait for the opportunity to not be noticed as she'd dip a finger into the drink and suck on it.

The effect was immediate as if Elru had grasped a powerline instead. It wasn't strictly pain but neither was it pleasure, a mix of both that drowned her senses. She could taste the raw alcohol in the mixture but it was only a base for the truer substance within. It was power, raw, unfiltered energy that she'd just put into her mouth that awoke a knowledge she'd not known. Eldre'Thalas was fueled by Demonic magic filtered back into Arcane but this.. this had never been tainted to begin with. It was as pure a source as one could imagine.

Elru stands there dumbfounded for a moment just staring and briefly losing herself before she returns to reality and her situation. Closing her eyes and taking a steady breath she opens them clearheaded once more as she takes another look at the Highborne around here, really looking at them and how they mingle carefree and indulgent. Checking to make sure her runes were in place once more, and waiting again for the right opportunity, she'd snatch a cup, stand away from traffic, and take a steady gulp. Not too fast lest she overwhelm herself, not to slow lest she diminish the intended experience.

Just as before Saeros appeared as if by magic, never in front of her but always off to one side, or preferably, behind her. This time was to the side and it allowed her to get a good look at him. Gone were the armored leathers he favored but in their place was leather of a sort. The pants were suede, black, and looked poured upon him and his long-sleeved shirt was a strange, two-hued creation that flickered between the rich green of his hair to a near black to match below. He leans in to idly comment. "Even diluted twice it still has a powerful lure. Don't you agree?"

Elru finishes her gulp and brings her cup down level as she holds it with a brief tremble and a long exhale, eyes half-lidden as she side glances over to Saeros, running her eyes over suede curves and over his chest for a moment before looking back down at her cup with a curiosity-laden intensity. "Yes. I agree. What is this?"

"It too is an all too pointed reminder of folly. Of loss. It only reflects what we once possessed with the Well of Eternity. The Kaldorei would call it Moonwell water." He was certainly pleasing enough to the eye but.. that was the point of the entire event. Everyone looked their best.

"Moonwell water..." She swirls her cup, bringing it up to her face to sniff carefully, observe, and to touch her tongue to the rim of the glass where a droplet remains, mulling over that tiny taste. "Even with the amount that is so casually carried around at this event, this can't be all that common a commodity, can it?"

"Certainly not. They also guard sources particularly well for reasons that should be obvious to you. If I recall correctly, those that retrieved what you're indulging in tonight had to space their thefts over the course of several months."

"I see. Makes perfect sense." Elru would carefully finish the drink she had in hand with the same steady pace as before until she held but an empty cup, standing there to watch the party. "Unless you would have me do more, there is one last thing I want to partake in here, Kir-Moldir." She says this as her eyes return once more to the chained Sin'dorei.

The backs of his fingers brush across the cheek nearest him in an idle gesture, "Which would be?"

She lets him brush her cheek before giving a light nod over at the Sin'dorei. "She is bleeding. I want to see if her blood tastes any different."

Saeros lifts both of his eyebrows. "By all means then."

Elru will drift her way back to that center prominent display weaving in and out until she was once more by the platform by the elf. Before getting too close she'd get a second look at the platform, those chains, and to see if any blood has by now leaked to the edges.

In the time Elru had been gone the Sin'dorei's magical chains had crawled all the way up her arms and halfway up her legs though most of her bodily fluids were pooled directly under her. Here and there are a few smears where she'd been struggling. Saeros lags along behind but pauses as a couple approaches him, distracting his attention away from Elru.

Elru's main concern are those chains, specifically if they were going to turn on her, too. Even so, checking her surroundings and runes again, up she goes on the stage peering at the strange elf of the red blood. She'd take a testing step forward.

The chains seem utterly focused on their current target and ignore her entirely.

Still, to be safe, she has some preparatory magic at ready, glancing at her surroundings once more before reaching to dab her fingertips in the blood puddle and quickly withdraw in haste.

Nothing followed her. She'd get away with her prize just fine.

Quickly she'd retreat off the stage and into a place away from traffic and crowds, glancing around again and then dips her fingertips into her mouth to taste, as she said.

The blood was rich in copper with a vague taste that reminded her of her own blood but that wasn't all. Laced within the fluid was a taint, a corruption that reminded her so potently of twisted Arcane, the type Idril might have warned her a time or two about. It prickled within her in an uncomfortable fashion before it vanished. She'd only taken a small taste after all.

She'd scrunch her face a little as she swirled her tongue around in her mouth testingly, even sticking her tongue out a moment as if tasting something bitter.

Nothing more revealing was forthcoming except the fact that Saeros had yet to join her.

She'd look to see what Saeros was up to, weaving back the way she'd come.

He was currently.. engaged with the couple that had stopped him before not too far of a distance from where they'd attracted his attention in the first place. The three of them were sprawled across a couch with the woman behind, Saeros in the middle, and the man in front of him. The female was currently in the process of braiding his hair in neat, delicate lengths while the man before him worked upon the tassels that held his silk shirt closed. The man and woman looked similar enough to be siblings or cousins at least. Saeros seemed to be enduring the attention with all the calm perfection that trained stillness could offer. But Elru caught his notice, dragging his focus away from his immediate circle to eye her across the distance. There was nothing friendly in that gaze and it was a sentiment rudimentally projected through the part of him within her. Hatred was there, but not directed at Elru.

Elru found so many things about this peculiar, but the hate was a clear message, and with careful circling strides she'd take closer assessments of these two that have so earned Saeros' ire, a continuation of her practice of reading people at this event.

There was nothing out of place aside from the fact that they were utterly intent upon their hands on Saeros that steadily became more. It wasn't unlike how the event had been progressing and compared to the rest was modest. The woman braiding his hair had taken to rubbing her cheek and face along the back of Saeros's shoulders as her arms wrapped around to feel the exposed flesh of his chest. It was the male that took things further than that once the shirt had been undone. He reached for those leather pants next, but not to remove them, and perhaps he knew better. Elru knew what he had to be doing thanks to her limited experience with the awful fluff novels. He was stroking Saeros through the material with a rhythmic pace. They weren't so focused upon their tasks that they didn't follow Saeros's gaze once or twice and trying to read it at their angle but gaining little. With her runes, those he'd placed upon her, only he could see Elru. His expression didn't beg but a heavy weight started to build on their connection. As if he were getting tighter and tighter in preparation to spring.

Elru narrowed her eyes at the two, part of it from the bond she shared with Saeros another part of it her own growing irritation at these two. Glancing around quickly with some rapid thought she quickly pads over to a gambling table, specifically the one she had so thoroughly assessed. Without missing a beat in step she bends over behind one player with such excess wealth that they don't even care to miss single coins or gem bits that drop to the floor, just bending, snatching and moving on. Planting herself at the right angle and position next to one of the more volatile players, rolls the tiny valuable between her palms, wrapping illusion around it to be unnoticed for but a second. Timing it until the raucous and laughter hits a pitch, that valuable goes flying to pelt the back of the male nuisance's head.

The object hits him and he jerks upright, looking around with quickly assessing silver eyes. As soon as his attention was away from Saeros directly that gaze visibly loses some of its sharpness. He seemed hooked, for lack of a better term. When he does turn back to Saeros and his relative he didn't seem to notice the former, reaching for and drawing the latter's head over Saeros's shoulder for a deep kiss. She struggles, flailing against the unexpected contact before squealing with more distress. Saeros was simply.. pushed aside by that point while the man grabbed at the woman with more force and jerking her beneath him once Saeros stands. The scene drew some attention but most of it was in whispers. Hints of 'Should know better' and 'To be expected' passed between the few who felt the need to mention the occurrence. He didn't bother re-buttoning his shirt as he drifts back out of the crowd and around the same edges that Elru herself favored. There's no backwards glance to catch her attention but.. without Saeros, why should she remain?

Elru gives the two one last look of disdain before she drifts to the edges and quickly takes up Saeros' rear without a word or a backward glance.

He didn't slow for her but Elru had experience with the pace he preferred. They left behind the haze and excess of the other Shen'dralar as they passed deep into the rest of Eldre'Thalas. It was a long walk, but not nearly as long as crossing across into another district of the city. They eventually come out into another open space but something more private and actually open to the sky, which seemed to be what Saeros was after as he draws in deep breaths of air. The action reminded one of drawing deeply enough that the lingering, clinging stench might finally leave though a series of subtle runes actively saw to that. He glances back, as if he'd forgotten that Elru had come along with him. His tone was flat, "What was your overall impression?"

"My impression has been rebalanced somewhat. There is less to admire, more to be disdainful of." She glances back the way they came a moment before looking forward. "I know it is not in my place to be so candid, but there's indulging in pleasure and then there's existing for nothing but shallow vices. And the place was smelling more foul by the minute."

"I'd forgotten how the scent of power mingled in such places and how it remains for far too long after it should." A brief pause. "I intend to take my leave of Eldre'Thalas once more. You will join me."

"Of course I will join you." Elru straightened, clearly shocked and surprised. Of course she was shaken by the very idea of leaving Eldre'thalas with Saeros, but she knew better by now than to start with needless questioning. "How am I to prepare?"

"This will not be a pleasure jaunt. Prepare in the manner that best suits your ability to defend yourself. Have you a true need, ask for it, and I will see it delivered." The longer he stood there the more clear a tone in his voice threads in. Its hard to discern between weariness and apathy at times.

"I will return to my suite then, if you allow it." She turns, takes a step, pauses. "What of my, ah, gift in residence?"

"Kill him in whatever manner you deem suitable."

She nods and proceeds to leave proper. The temptation to drift off the path and visit other places enters her mind once or twice, but she dutifully returns to the familiar hall.

The room she entered, and it didn't truly matter if that meant her captive's room or her own private suite, there was a present waiting for her. In the middle of the floor lay Elru's chess set with all her coral pieces accounted for, plus one uncut specimen of pale, ghostly coral that had simple twine and a slip of paper tied to one rough edge that read 'From Northrend'.

Try as she might Elru would be hit with a lot of emotions for a time, secluding herself in her suite until Saeros came for her. By that time she'd be dressed in mobile functional robes and armed with a wand of her creation. Jalus would be laying dead a couple rooms over from no discernible wound. It was a quiet, boring, but functional kill.

He'd lead her the next night out into the upper most courtyards of Eldre'Thalas where the Maul stood a shadowed, broken shell of itself but two mistsabers awaited them in that heavy silence. Saeros made sure she mounted and was situated firmly before he urges his cat forward with the familiarity of old practice and exits the city, leading the way.

Elru had very little Mistsaber experience, but followed Saeros' lead well enough to keep up with him, keeping her weight low and gripping tight. All she had was what was on her body, so she had less to worry about while travelling. When it was safe to she'd close her eyes for moments to appreciate the feel of the free open breeze outside of Eldre'Thalas. They'd be short window moments but she'd take them.

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#10 A First Gift

In the span of how the Kaldorei judge time Elru wasn't likely to find her reintroduction to Highborne Society to be a slow one. As soon as she was awake next she'd be confronted with books and attending Saeros on what he'd blithely describe as his 'rounds'. Magic was a rather valuable resource and when possible things were done by hand rather than magic alone which put the pair from one side of Eldre'Thalas to the other over hours of constant walking. The empty city was a warren of halls and corridors and hidden places that would be far too easy to get lost in--proven as they came across the errant corpse of an Ogre or Satyrs who had moved in to the more open areas and thusly gotten lost--but Saeros seemed to know them all.      For the most part it seemed to be a gathering of information, thick letters being exchanged between Saeros and the various singles and couples that they visited, but other times it was subtle intimidation. He'd mentioned once before how his current purpose was to be a tool and by the shocked faces and the odd comments of welcoming him back to Eldre'Thalas from abroad punctuated how formal all of this conversation seemed to be. Its clear among the eldest Highborne there were no 'friends'.      This pattern went on for several days until Saeros finally relents and brings Elru to a small library she'd never been to before but passed through several times on their walks. The most noticeable nature of the room was the scent of new paper and freshly dried ink that followed after them like clawing fingers, beckoning them to stay when they'd only gone on before. He takes a sudden stop in the middle of the room, surveying the spines of its contents lining the walls with a casual scan before looking to Elru. "This is some of Eldre'Thalas's newest acquisitions from across-" He pauses for a moment to recall the foreign word before translating it twice into Darnassian for her benefit, "-Azeroth. That first shelf contains all you will need to begin studying the Common language. Questions?"

"No questions. I will absorb all these immediately." Her response is prompt, but not for lack of small amount of awe and wonder as she idly brushes her fingertips across pages and edges of fresh printed paper and ink. It would be obvious to Saeros, but to the casual observer she'd be impassive as she always has been on each of Saeros' rounds that he took her on. Her robe is a practical one, with a touch of aesthetic that seemed to be a requirement of Highborne fashion. She has two new additions to herself whenever she heads out. A large journal book she clutches to herself and every so often opens to scribble notes in, and a sort of... thick ridged short cape of thick paper from her room that hangs from her neck by strings of twine. "Azeroth." She practices the word itself as well. "I will remain within the vicinity until you return, barring unwelcome circumstance."

"See that you do." He leaves without further detail or explanation.

And so Elru would collect a few books, find herself a corner in the library with her back to the corner, sit there, and begin reading. Looking carefully behind and around her as she settles she allows herself a moment to relax, though not entirely. A hum of magic persists around her, as it often does now whenever Elru leaves her suite.

For the most part this was a quiet library, even among the Highborne, though strange considering how valuable fresh information must be. Elru's allowed a few hours of peace before the murmuring of low voices echoes down the hall. Its clear the voices are young and male before the come around the corner into the library. They seemed to be around Elru's own age, though looks are often deceiving among Kaldorei, and modestly dressed even among Highborne. The next interesting fact was that they looked to be identical twins. If one had to guess they were likely pages of some sort, going about doing the bidding of whoever was over them. The one closest to Elru notices her first and elbows his brother before coming closer. "Who are you?" The lagging twin demands, already growing irritated in both tone and posture.

Elru lifts her eyes from her pages and just stares at the two blankly for a moment before she responds aloud, matching the volume though not the tone of the male. "Pardon me, but who is asking?" She glances behind the twins before refocusing back at the two. Her large journal book is being used as a lap-rest for her current book on Common.

"The apprentices of Lord Wintercrest--whose library you're sitting in." His voice had turned sharper while the other pipes in after with an almost beseeching lilt, "You'd best leave. Thieving books can get you sent to the pylons." The pair comes to a stop maybe five yards from her. A proper distance between casters.

She stares at them blankly again, then slowly, deliberately, lowers her eyes back to her book. "I am not thieving. I am sitting here reading. I am here to do so by the bidding of Saeros Kir-Moldir, whose authority I recognize over that of your Lord Wintercrest. If you or your Lord truly take issue with my presence then take it up with Kir-Moldir."

She'd feel and hear him get close before he actually does, further given away by the brother's anxious, "Jalus-" Before Elru would likely have to do -something- to keep hold of her book. Otherwise, it's being taken right out of her hands. "I think you need a lesson in recognizing your betters. It wasn't a request. Get lost."

The book would indeed leave her grip but for only a moment, but mid-withdrawal from her grip her hands shoot out and take firm grip of the tome, eyes wide and staring hard at the man as if he had committed a mortal offense in taking her reading from her. The bags from her time of isolation have not completely gone away. The hum of magic around her becomes more erratic and sharp, like a disturbed nest of bees. Quietly and slowly she speaks, "If you want me to leave, get your Lord. Now let go of my reading."

While the Highborne were the epitome of Arcane breeding they're still not so far from other more.. uncultured Kaldorei. They can sense blood in the water perhaps far faster than any animal. They needed to to be able to survive among their peers. The young man on the other end of her book gives her a smile that in a few centuries would have a cutting edge of cruelty attached to it. "While you run? I don't think so. Nasris and I should educate you while you're here like good hosts. Won't we?" Despite the fact that the more reserved of the twins, Nasris, had hung back thus far there was no sympathy in his face. More wariness, eagerness even.

Unblinking she stares right back as she slowly stands up from her corner seating, hands still on her side of the book as she lets her journal book fall to the floor to lay open to blank pages, pages that don't quite sit still. Any blank sheaves of paper or unenchanted book pages in the immediate vicinity will also rustle and refuse to sit still. Such a smile and threat from the elf may have unnerved her once, but she's been on the receiving end of looks much more menacing and cruel, followed by threats that actually were carried out. Maintaining that unblinking stare an odd sound not unlike shears begins subtly ringing in the ears of the men, men she eyes with a distant intensity as if they were merely something to be studied.

They were still Magi at their cores and as the book drops both men draw back for space, leaving her with her book but with their arms out and at the ready for casting. "Don't even think about it." Nasris warns while Jalus picks up the thought, as twins do. "There's two of us and one of you."

She cocks her head slightly to the side as she eyes them, as if suddenly them speaking, drawing back for room and casting their arms out were some of the most peculiar things she's seen. Still holding the book, though now by its closed spine as it hangs at her side. "Two of you? Don't speak such nonsense out of those shoddily folded creases you call lips. One, two or twelve, it's all the same thing to me." She takes one slow stride forward, if only to set the book down on the nearest end table, stepping over her restless large journal book on the way. Her hands are at her sides, but that magical hum around her is almost distracting as she takes a second stride forward closer to the two.

And just like that Jalus flings out a hand for a blast of Arcane while his twin channels another Arcane spell,  one of the classic projectiles. Both are obviously aimed for her.

Elru simply... takes the attacks with gasps and grunts, jerking almost rag-doll like at the two impacts, nearly losing her balance. The arcane blast catches her in the chest and jaw jerking her upper body back while the following projectile lands heavily in her gut immediately doubling her back over. Robes ruined in those places, and now bleeding from the gut, neck and chin, she stares at the two with open naked perplexion. Not pain, shock, fear or anger, just simple mildly perplexed surprise as she stands there.

The brothers grin in unison before casting as one. The tones of the spell might ring a few bells for Elru, this one had to do with time, particularly the stopping of it. For her.

The moment of curious surprise is over for her as her open confusion becomes an expression that's nothing but empty and cold as she audibly mutters and mimics word for word the channeling spell the brothers are performing, indicating her own strong grasp on the magic of time. No spell is forthcoming, though. A third stride forward and the next thing the brothers notice is multiple snap and creak noises as multi-jointed multi-fingered paper limbs immediately go for their necks, clamping around them like pincers should they unwisely choose not to move.

Their spell is cut short as they both jerk backwards, gaining more distance from Elru's artificial limbs and yet the more brash brother is caught up but the pincers, having thrown up his arm into it. Within the next moment he attempts to light it. Its only paper after all.

That limb squeezes with far more strength than paper should be allowed, bruising to the bone, but it does light on fire, forcing its withdrawal. As parts of it crumble off with its burning components it merely unfolds and refolds into its former shape like regenerative origami, her other two arms stretching and elongating by the joints as they fill her side of the room, fingers snipping together with audible shearing sounds. And yet she pays attention to nothing her arms are doing. Hands planting on her bleeding face and the wound over her gut she grips, squeezes, and with the sharp sound of tearing paper and peeling tape tears apart and discards a layer of herself onto the floor, revealing an unharmed and predatory Elru underneath as she stalks forward two more strides, artificial arms reaching. "Oxygen, one hundred seventy two kilograms. Carbon, sixty four kilograms. Hydrogen, twenty eight kilograms. Nitrogen, seven point two kilograms. Calcium, four kilograms. Phosphorus, three point one two kilograms. Potassium, point five six kilograms. Sulfur..." The physical elemental composition of the male elven body by component. Times two.

Jalus straightens, cradling his wounded arm with his better and looking to Nasris. Although he was the more brash of the twins he clearly relied upon his brother's more level stability. He instructs him immediately. "Go get Wintercrest." And so it was that Nasris stays while his brother blinks away back the way they'd come almost instantly. Now that they're alone Nasris was only concerned with keeping a safe distance.

Safe distance that Elru wasn't going to allow him. She didn't run, but she didn't take it easy, continuing her strides forward that get incrementally quicker, artificial arms pushing and clamping and grasping at the environment as if to help her along. Elru herself keeps her eye contact on the one remaining brother, real arms at her sides still as she continues to mutter off elemental components till she finishes. "That is all you are made of, little ANT." Her arms will jerk forward, not aiming at him, but attempting to block his escape, crossing his paths, snicking at his boots. "Gas and DIRT."

"Shut up!" It was a risk he took in such a priceless room but when life and limb are on the line there's little reason to back it. A wave of uncontrolled fire washes up before him with a gesture, entirely lacking the finesse of his Arcane mastery, as he aims to consume whatever gets too close to him.

Elru doesn't rush headlong into the wave of fire but neither does she slow down. One of her artificial arms, singeing at the edges, takes grasp of a sturdy end table or small shelf and throws it bodily in front of her at the source of the flame, following the minor respite the gap brings as she continues to stalk forward, artificial arms crumbling away.

Her table would soon find itself shattered by a more precise strike of Arcane. "What do you hope to accomplish here aside from embarrassment?" He spits out with all the loathing someone of higher breeding could fit into their words.

Her reply was an almost innocent one as she raises one of her real hands to about waist level as she brings a countering chill to the heat around her, still stepping closer to the man. "I have nothing to be embarrassed about. All I wanted to do was read. Then in came a pair of paper pests who felt the need to peacock."

Now that they were closer to the middle of the room the twin creates and sends off in the same word-gesture a ball of twisting, writhing Arcane straight for her. "You'll be sacrificed alone on how much magic you've -wasted- here today!"

Elru Blinks forward bringing her almost behind and to the side of the twin, staring sideways at him as she clasps her hands behind her, her arms reforming and folding back into existence out of her back folded up like a giant curled up insect. "This from -you-," as she pointedly eyes the lingering bits of singe here and there in the room. She'd manage to get that in before that ball of arcane impacted on something that wasn't on her.

Just before the ball hits Nasris makes a desperate gesture, redirecting the spell and dragging it into the floor and not into the bookcase it'd been so close to destroying. He whirls on her with a snarl, teeth bared, when another voice breaks in. "That is -quite- enough." Elru could keenly feel any active arcane she held being dragged down into various cardinal points in the room, preventing any more spell-casting, or paper-arm bending from continuing on. Jalus stood in the doorway just off to one side of a truly -old- Highborne. Not only was his hair white from age but face lined heavily and sagging from the years pressed upon him, blurring his eyes with a thin layer of white haze. Despite the obvious physical imperfections those silver eyes were set on Elru as he challenges her, "Who are you and why are you here?"

She turns her head to better eye the Highborne with half-lidden baggy eyes on such a youthful face, her feet and body following as she turns to face him full bodily, hands still clasped behind her back where her artificial arms remain folded up. "Elru Relgim, future Elru Kir-Moldir. I was assigned by Saeros Kir-Moldir to read up on newly printed texts on language when these... two," she glances at the twins each before looking back at the aging Highborne, "saw fit to assault me."

The pause between when she finishes speaking and when the old man gives some sort of acknowledgement that he'd heard her could easily lead one to believe he was hard of hearing or a little slow in the head. "Hmn." He grunts. "Kir'Moldir's you say. He would leave you in the middle of my treasury with no thought to the outcome. Come here, girl." He holds out a weathered hand. "Let me get a proper look at you."

The narrowing of her eyes made clear her distrust of his intent but she obeyed, albeit reluctantly, as she made slow strides towards him till she was within his reach, tense all the while. She didn't shy though. If anything, she lifted her chin to make her features more clear to him.

He doesn't peer at her but waves his loose, bony hand over her outline. He was frail physically but its clearly not the case when it comes to magic. There was a depth to the power that brushed against her own that seemed even more vast than anything she'd come to know before. There was great potential for harm from this man and yet all he did was rifle through her 'pages' of her own personal power on a respectably topical level. Even so, it makes the tear in her twitch in brief response. "More final than any ceremony before Elune." He comments with a dry humor as the hand falls. His near-sighted attention focuses on Jalus and Nasris with a directional jerk of his head. "Go stand out of the way over there. The Fang will be joining us promptly." They follow his instructions obediently and with obvious sulking dread.

In the middle of his instruction to the twins she turns her head and a foot back down the way she had come earlier. "I am to return to my assignment now, please."

He continues to eye her with some amusement at least as well as he was able to in her general direction. "Kir-Moldir can understand a delay in obedience if its for a good cause. Such as now."

She seems to assent to this as she doesn't move, turning her face and foot back to face the elder, but clinically replies, "With all due respect, my Lord, only Kir-Moldir can say what Kir-Moldir understands or allows."

"Does a Master entirely forget a Student across the eons?" He politely counters.

A slight lift of her brow indicating surprise at this new knowledge, followed by a pause and ending with, "Only so long as a student remains, in fact, a student."

"Take a moment to consider the how and why you have turned up in my private library today out of all Eldre'Thalas." He suggests while hunching forward, hands laced at his back as he too, waited.

She does so, keeping her stance and hands clasped as she has been, facing the elder as she waited patiently with an impassive face.

Thankfully for them all, they wouldn't have to wait long, as Saeros comes up from the opposite hallway where he'd disappeared down earlier. Although he must have been interrupted there was no air of terse patience about him. Business as usual. "Wintercrest." He gives in a way that contained both a question and a greeting. The elder nods in his direction before speaking, "I found something of yours hidden away in my library with more teeth than my apprentices were expecting to meet." Saeros was already inspecting the room's damage as well as the twins while the old man spoke and when he stops he picks up. "I'd left her here to study what you had on Common." "Without my knowledge." "Yes." Wintercrest shifts in place. "There's a matter to be settled seeing as yours attacked mine first." "As yours instigated." Listening the the back and forth between them had an odd.. cadence. As if there was far more being said here than what was verbalized aloud. Not to mention that Saeros had no business knowing what had happened in his absence. Things clearly aren't adding up.

If this disjointed imbalance of words bothered Elru she didn't show it, but she certainly was listening with intent, making a note of the pauses, shifts and tones when she could. She paid no mind to the room or the two apprentices, only on the Lord and Saeros.

"Seeing as they both made their own advances I see no reason as to why you shouldn't be allowed to chose." That comment had the twins all too stiff, both staring hard at the floor just before them. Saeros looks to Elru directly then, nodding her over towards the twins. "Who offends you the most?"

Elru doesn't move or look anywhere in particular for a moment before responding, "It hardly matters. They both look the same to me." She levels a half-lidden look at the twins. "... If admissible I want to see them decide who gets chosen. Who they settle on will determine who offends me the most."

While this cases the twins to stiffen even more Saeros simply levels Elru with a flat stare. He repeats only one word. "Choose."

Elru gives a settling nod at that and looks right at the brash one who got all up in her face.

"Jalus. Go with Kir-Moldir." Wintercrest instructs, spurring Nasris to blurt out. "Is he coming back alive?" Saeros answers with a shrug which the elder interprets aloud. "That depends entirely on Jalus." It would be hard to watch, if anyone who had a heart was still in the room to see how leaden Jalus's feet moved to comply with the command as he fell in line a short distance away from Saeros who addresses Elru then as well. "Your current studies are on hold. You'll return when proper. Come along--both of you." Saeros leads the way forward, back into the warren of Eldre'Thalas with Jalus dragging along behind him while both Nasris and Wintercrest watch on in silence.

Elru follows on command falling in step behind Saeros at an appropriate distance not looking at Jalus.

And so they go back the way they came, deeper into the older sections of Eldre'Thalas where Elru's room was kept with their mightily reluctant detainee trailing behind but not daring to stray. They get -rather- close to Elru's own room in fact before Saeros stops them two doors short, opening the heavy stone door with a touch. The area within is.. sadly lacking and dusty from disuse and contained no furniture of any kind. What it did contain were fresh runes Elru could sense along the walls, the floor, and the ceiling. After everyone filed in the door closes once more to seal them within and only mage-light illuminated the room with white light. "I suppose this will do." Saeros idly murmurs before turning back to Elru and Jalus who hugged a little too tightly to the door. For the latter Saeros waved a gestured hand before beginning, "He won't hear us for the moment." The slightest pause for emphasis, "He is my first gift to you."

It took Elru a second to register that they wouldn't be heard by Jalus, and it took another second to register the idea that she was being given a gift, and it throws her off. Blinking rapidly at Saeros she glances over at the other and speaks back at Saeros. "Please, elaborate."

He watches her placidly, "Its exactly as it sounds. You're free to do with him as you will--as long as it excludes a sexual capacity."

Elru glances at Jalus again with pursed lips, brow furrowing. "Free to do with as I will... for how long?"

"As long as he lasts."

Elru's feelings and expressions seem rather mixed and myriad. This was new and almost frightening to her. Still, thoughts and possibilities flashed through her mind as she stares. "... I'll need a little time to prepare."

"You've had plenty of time to prepare for whatever I've had next for you. In fact, I've been rather generous in allowing you these few days to think and operate on your own without demands from me. Now is the time to act even if you are not prepared." The words are given passively and without reproach. It was a simple statement of fact, after all.

Elru looks at Saeros for a moment as if wondering if he were going to remain, before looking back at Jalus and letting her arms at her back unfold, limbs and digits flexing. Her real palms spread and point flat at the ground as she adds her own additional runes to the room, creeping outward from her feet. Swiftly following those runes are sheets and sheets of paper.

Saeros takes this as his cue to edge over towards one wall. A brief tug has him conjuring a simple three-legged stool which he sits on and using the stone behind to lean against. Jalus was quickly glancing between Saeros and Elru at that point and overly mindful of the former's presence as he keeps himself so close to the wall that he might as well be a fixture. There was a corner furthest away from both of them that he starts to shuffle towards.

Elru watches Jalus impassively as she backs up towards her own wall as paper steadily coats every inch of the interior, briefly and only slightly unsettling the stool Saeros sits on, and the feet Jalus stands on. Paradoxically the room remains lit despite the coating, and as the paper finally finishes coating the room Elru presses back against the wall as she seems to meld right into the paper, disappearing from sight.

Despite the obvious threat that Saeros presents in the room Jalus wasn't so afraid of his situation that he wouldn't resist. It wasn't an outward attack so much as protecting his little corner of the room with a wave of fire cast down from his hand around his feet. It singes his robes but fashion was of little consequence when charring up all the paper nearest him was the goal.

Jalus accomplishes setting his immediate area on fire, charring up the place and likely making flames lick at his robes and feet. This effort does not seem to reveal the room proper, and once those flames spread and die down after spreading to a quarter of the room there's a rustling and a flipping of pages as the charred parts are tugged out of sight and fresh paper is laid around Jalus.

As new paper is laid out Jalus reels back into his corner with more fire pouring out around him with a reckless, wide-eyed abandon. He had no idea what awaited him but the only thing he could fight at that moment--and live--was the paper trying to surround him. The longer this process of charring and replacement went on the more fire would lick at the floors and walls. It wasn't a very big room but as more and more fire is used the air starts to grow thin, straining whatever maintenance runes that kept airflow passing in and out of the basically sealed chamber.

Air remains thin, but it doesn't dip down too far below the lethal threshold. Even so, Jalus is welcome to keep burning as he likes, though it will push him to the point of fainting and choking as he starts to see less of the room and more of his smoke and flames. In fact obfuscation of the room seems to be the point as Elru does nothing to make the smoke go away. In this room, suffocation and obfuscation wouldn't be an issue for Saeros. With Jalus' panic and loss of air he probably wouldn't notice Elru delicately making the smoke her own.

People rarely make smart choices when faced with worse fates and the fire continues to spread and grow to the point where not just the paper was on fire but Jalus's robes as well. He was too panicked to realize that he was soon about to go up in flames himself and unless something intervened Elru was about to lose her first 'gift'.

Before Jalus burns up entirely the smoke, ash and flames disperse entirely to nothing revealing an accurate facsimile of her room a couple doors over. Her craft has improved incredibly as it's almost indistinguishable from a real suite. It's simpler, however, as there is simply a couch a little off center in the room. Air should be returning to Jalus' lungs and he'll find himself shuffled towards the center of the room from where he was before. Each wall is identical with its expensive wallpaper. Elru sits lounging in the chair watching Jalus impassively in a clean simple robe, contrasting with Jalus' near nonexistent robes.

While still on fire--Jalus just aims even more flames directly at Elru and the paper surrounding him, refusing to be moved while he had the ability to fight back with a rather effective weapon.

Elru flicks a hand sharply outward at the room as the room itself seems to immediately cave in on Jalus, practically flying as his casting hand, his entirely body is immediately smothered by layers upon layers of paper, too many to burn through at once before he's smothered entirely in an airtight coffin suspended before Elru's seated form.

She'd feel those first layers crisp up within before the fire abruptly chokes itself out and likely the young man within along with it if she left him without air too long. The fire was out--but something needed to be done about the casting part if this process wasn't just about to repeat itself all over again.

Elru furrows her brow with a note of irritation as she raises her hands and takes more active direction in her paper-craft, the layers upon layers of paper withdrawing back to where they had been drawn from. As Elru's fingers work with visible magic to her fingertips Jalus is revealed, but this time chained to the ceiling and shackled at the wrists, with his hands coated still. The shackles and gloves are inscribed, glow slightly and have a chill about them. Elru huffs slightly as if annoyed at the extra work she's putting in. "Your fire is a nuisance."

Jalus is promptly struggling in his bonds like any properly hooked fish as he literally spits fire up at the chains holding his hands above his head with little effect. He could do little else but respond with the absolute venom he felt, "And you're nothing but a puppet dancing on the strings of another marionette." Fear and hate make one say the most dangerous things. Saeros himself was unmoved by the accusation, clearly a pure spectator. "Training to become a new perfect little tool?"

"So what if I'm a tool? We're all tools here." The inscriptions and chill on the chains and shackles become less pronounced but still evident and present as the effect seems to spread out evenly from Jalus to the rest of the room. "Particularly weak tools, even, if you think about it. We need to still be alive to be tools, after all, and I don't want you dead. Not yet anyway."

"What's the point?" He demands. "What's the point of dragging this out? Eager to put on a good show for a pat on the head afterwards?"

"No. If I had my way I would have torn you in half at the library, but now that you're here I want to test your limits. And mine." His chains will slacken enough for him to stand and move a few paces, and his hands will even be free, but he will remain shackled for the time being. Arms unfold from the back wall to flex and extend forward on either side of Elru. One thin bony hand carries a trio of syringes. The other carries a set of blades. "Either I test some drugs on you, or you can keep trying to fight your way out of here." She folds her hands in her lap. "Or I can just kill you."

He draws his head up proudly, "Or I can kill myself and deny you the pleasure."

Elru actually smiles at that, and abruptly his shackles release him. At the same time several more arms unfold from the room walls as they reach for him, aiming to grip his wrists, elbows,  knees, ankles, and head. They're quick and persistent things, and there's little doubt that Jalus will manage to inflict some self harm if he truly desired to, but ultimately it'll be clear that the arms work to restrain and suspend him entirely.

There's more fire this time but not enough before he's subdued--the Highborne craft was focused upon Arcane and skill in the other schools wasn't something of a priority. He'd likely have a flame or two licking up the charred remains of his robes that would need putting out.

A paper arm would deftly scuff and pat away the fire on his robes as if doing him a friendly favor. Not nearly as much damage is done to the paper as by now it seems to have adapted to outright fire. The arms will stretch his arms and legs wide and in opposite directions, splaying him like one giant bug as he's tugged painfully. In fact he's probably meant to be tugged like a bug as Elru seems to be paying particularly rapt attention to this part of her playtime with the apprentice.

His discomfort was plain on his face but that doesn't entirely stop that persistent air of stubborn pride. He even goes so far as to clench his jaw stubbornly shut, denying her his speech.

She'll continue to stretch him out painfully, to the point of popping joints out of sockets if it gets that far. She leans forward in her seat watching this, the ways his muscles tense, how tight his jaw clenches, and in anticipation for... something. it's unclear what, but it could be just as simple as a cry of pain.

Jalus's eyes progressively grow wider as he's very literally starting to be pulled apart. It's not until muscles and the tendons beneath stretch to tearing that he cries out, head shaking back and forth. "Stop! For Elune's sake, stop!"

That seemed to satisfy her mostly as the tugging eases up just slightly to stop the worst of the pain. he'll get only a moment of respite before he'll feel a syringe stick into his leg.

It's hard for him not to jerk at the sudden stick. His chest heaves with the half-panicked gasps he made for his breaths as he waited with agonizing dread of what would happen to him next.

If anything he'll feel better, almost refreshed but not quite, as his joints still ache like no other. He'll feel more hyper aware of his joint pain, as well as his physical and mental state in general. It'll hurt when he's abruptly dropped bodily on the ground. A creak, a breeze fanned on him, and if he looks at the source he'll see an open door, as well as dimly hear Elru's voice. "Better run along home before the effect finishes." Elru eyed the prone Jalus as he laid there for several long moments before speaking  aloud. "Better run along home before the effect finishes." A paper fan blows a breeze across at Jalus' form as the facsimile of an open door is etched on a wall.

As he's dropped Jalus freezes, gasping past the screaming nerves all alerting  him to the fact parts of him were damaged. Looking up towards the door Jalus crawls on all fours towards it with a limping stride, clearly hurt but the lure of freedom too great.

It'll become more clear to him that he's been drugged in some way as the crawl to the open door takes much more distance than it should, but slow steady progress does he make.      It's simple enough to shift and slide the paper ground underneath Jalus with a light twirl of her finger, making his crawl to the door crawling a slow one. Then the game becomes clear. An open door frame extends out from the door drawing, as other similar drawings are etched and formed at the sides to be used when ready. Turns. Hallways. Archways. Simple panoramas. A far, far more elaborate setup of a rat on a running wheel.

He crawls, and crawls, and crawls until he exhausts himself with chest rattling pants. Slumping to the group he lays relatively limp, curled inwards against the pulse and throb his joints flared with in time to the beat of his heart.

Elru does some work with her paper and crafts a giant dark colored spider above Jalus, bigger than he was. By the time it was complete she injects two more syringes in at once right on Jalus' other leg, shooting his adrenaline high and narrowing his perception. If he looks back at what stabbed him, he'll be greeted by clacking spider face.

Pain had a way of drawing someone's attention and his head whips around, craning back to see what had harmed him now. An undignified squeal bursts from him as he kicks, straining away from the 'spider' with a burst of focused Arcane directed at it. He doesn't look up, utterly focused on the one that had injured him, as his heart pounds erratically as it was fueled even further by fear.

To give him a touch of hope for the encounter Elru lets her spider take the hit, blowing off a pedipalp with an accompanying synthetic shriek as the spider rears back, then jabs forward with two legs as if to pin him, though Elru doesn't really try. She'll have the spider withdraw and dodge every other attack, but the point was not to win. The point was to watch the two dance. Elru's enjoying this part way too much, having a satisfied blissed expression not altogether different from when Saeros first happened upon Elru manipulating spiders and ants.

It was a plainly losing battle as Jalus was already exhausted both physically and magically at this point. His crawls become desperate lunges, flashes of Arcane become flickers--he even cries for help a couple of times, reaching out in odd ways that react with the wards in the room as if he were calling to another. Still he struggled, straining against his own limitations.

Elru would keep this up forcing Jalus to exhaust himself to collapse once again, patiently, happily even waiting it out. Once prone Jalus would find himself being wrapped up immobile full body by the war-torn spider in a silk that felt more like firm twine.

Which was accompanied by his weak cries. With so much running through his system he wasn't likely to notice the difference in texture. There was nothing left for him to do at this rate aside from give in.

Once wrapped, the spider would drag him, and the rat wheel runs in reverse as the progress he had seemingly made in his crawl to freedom is undone before his eyes till eventually he's brought back to the main door.

Where he lays trussed up as he was and limp as a boneless fish.

Elru stands and wanders over to stand almost but not quite above Jalus at this time to check on the elf for how aware or awake he was, simulating another breeze and creaking noise of door.

As she nears him his eyes weakly track her progress. He was there--although intensely dazed.

Elru huffs lightly down at him, and regardless of whether he'd remain fooled or not she still asks, "And just what are you doing back in this part of Eldre'thalas?"

He opens his mouth to respond but the only thing that comes out is a croak.

A light wave of a hand, keeping the man trussed up, she'd have him suspended in a corner upside down making the blood rush to his head. She'd dismiss the spider, which would fold back into the paper walls, and she would stare at the man a while. The exhaustion, and the relatively short lived drugs running their course, would no doubt knock him out sooner rather than later.

And it was so. With his face a bright purple Jalus is soon no longer conscious as exhaustion drags him under.

Elru would keep standing there, even as she withdrew and dismissed most of the paper except this corner, and seemingly forgot about Saeros being there until she replied aloud in an almost resigned tone, "I'm sick."

He answers her regardless, "Elaborate."

She hangs her head slightly not facing him. "Finding such satisfaction with such manipulation. Whether it is playing God with spiders and ants or playing God with a helpless elf the reaction is the same. Releasing of endorphin. Stress relief. Heightened breath and eye dilation. This is not how a normal elf is supposed to be." It was a candid confession lacking all dancing around the edges that was once her norm. She hugs herself slightly with a soft unhappy noise. "I always knew there was something... off. Different about my mind. Even though I barely spent time around other elves I could still notice it. All this, everything, just makes it more clear."

There's a pregnant pause that drags on before being abruptly broken with a low chuckle. It wasn't mocking but carried the pure tones of genuine humor. Should Elru turn to look Saeros's lips were quirked up into a depreciating smirk. "Take 'comfort' in the knowledge that this strangeness about yourself isn't so alien to those around you. It's not even uncommon."

She did indeed turn her head to see this and she's just plain frowning at him now, though she still carried hints of that morality-laced sadness to her features. "So what you mean to say is that in actuality I 'fit in' more than I was told I did?"

"Idril is -not- an appropriate representation of 'normal'." Was his first flat remark. "Look around you. Aside from her--how have you been treated? How do Highborne treat other Highborne? They're all spiders sitting in their carefully spun webs waiting for a hapless meal to lure in and when nothing is forthcoming.. trickery and deception. Cannibalism."

She flinches at the call out to Idril and her raising, but does not argue, the shift in her expression signifies her seeing truth in his words. "What a wretched way to live... How am I to survive in such a world for so long, let alone thrive?" It's a question she should have asked aloud sooner, but better late than never. "As capable as you are, Kir-Moldir, you're not always going to be there to prolong my life."

"A little slow, but correct. I cannot be there to hold your hand against every starving newcomer but I can equip you to handle as much as you are able and increase those chances. As I have been doing." He tacks on with pointed dryness.

She looks at him in long consideration of his words. "... How'd I do today?"

"In a word--ignorantly."

She turns to face him. "Elaborate, please. I want to do better."

Saeros draws in a slow breath that carried an air of patient suffering. "Do you recall your first choice today?"

"I remember where I chose to take my assigned reading, and how I, chose to react to the two apprentices." She frowns a little eyeing the floor as if just remembering the incident in its entirety and unpleasantly.

"Describe the personalities of both twins."

"One was brash, hot-headed, prideful, didn't think his actions through. The other was more withdrawn, collected, thoughtful, cautious."

"If I were to kill or otherwise irreparably harm Idril would I not gain your ire?"

"You would."

"Do you think the bond between twins would be even stronger, causing a more potent reaction?"

She purses her lips a bit. "You are right, it would be. Such would have been true regardless of which brother I chose, though."

"And still, you've made a choice in which enemy you preferred. Which of the two brothers do you believe would be the worst of the two to face?"

It dawns on Elru then as she gives a disappointed sigh. "If I had a clearer mind as I do now I'd have noticed sooner to be more wary of the cautious one. How foolish of me."

"If we could all have clear minds to make our judgments then people would be far more cunning than any of us could survive."

She looks back up at Saeros as she more quietly recounts, "Back at the library... When this one suddenly went aggressive on me, I forgot I was in the library. All I saw was paper."

You defended yourself." He confirms.

She opens her mouth, then shuts it, then nods. "I defended myself."

"You've something very few at your age have cultivated and survived. Its an additional aspect that can be used but when not--leashed. You'll find it very hard, if not impossible, to do away with entirely so I suggest you not make the attempt. It'll only handicap you further."

She looks almost uncomprehending at him though a part of her seems to, as she goes through a similar mixture of clashing emotions like she was wont to do back when Saeros returned to her life until her face settles on a kind of numbness. Absentmindedly she rests her hand on her cheek and jaw, and grips, and squeezes, and then tears off a layer of paper that comes off more wetly and sticky than before, tainted underneath with blood, before she sheds herself of it entirely. The wounds on her body, on her jaw, neck, chest and gut, have mostly healed by now but despite that she rubs and presses at an exposed cut on her chin. "It barely hurt, you know. Compared to our bond, this was nothing."

"Coincidence?"

"Confirmation. I can be wary of the world. But I have a little less reason to be afraid of it."

He raises a long eyebrow at her before he repeats himself with a little more added on, "Do you believe your higher threshold of pain to be a happy coincidence?"

"No. No, I don't. I should thank you, but I don't know if you'd accept thanks from me."

His next question might come out of left field for her. "How would you show your appreciation?" The tone and eye contact with the question were level.

She blinks once, peering at him. "I'd show it however you deem fit and in a way that pleases you, but..." At this point she's a little shy, but a more plain shyness of youth rather than a wariness of him. "I don't know what you like or derive pleasure from. Aside from your job as The Fang." Then a weak but still self-humoring chuckle. "And I somehow doubt you'd be impressed by any attempts of mine to try to mimic you."

"Do I want to be impressed?"

"Well I know you don't want to be bored."

He doesn't say anything but looks towards her with that expectant air he managed to convey when he wanted her to continue.

She wasn't expecting that, but she tries regardless. "You don't, expect to be impressed. Very little would impress you at this age. But you do have standards. Standards that are well above mediocrity, with no tolerance for anything lackluster. Any appreciation I show you you'd eye with the same judgement as you would any action I do as part of my growth. I think."

"Does this dissuade you?"

She shakes her head.

Instead of quirking up Saeros's lips gain this.. strange sort of half-smile if one could both frown and smile at the same time. "I suppose that's a fair enough answer."

She stares at him a moment before something seems to perk up within her as she straightens a bit. "May I attempt a small gesture of appreciation right now?"

His expression smooths back into a more normal layer of passivity in response. "Proceed."

For a moment she's immobile as if from nerves, but she approaches him without wariness or fear until she was right up in front of him, practically against him. If he would allow it she'd reach up to almost wrap her arms around his neck but it was less a hug and more a gesture meant to tilt his head down, though she'd lean up on toes if needed. After gazing at his features like this for a split second she'd close her eyes and press her lips to his slightly parted. It'd all be so completely ordinary and mundane if not for the fact that her tongue and the inside of her mouth was bloody. She'd bitten her tongue at some point without flinching before kissing him with an open mouth.

As was the way of anything Saeros had a hand in, it was entirely in the way he wanted it--or not at all. Either he recognized her intent or defended himself from it was difficult to discern at first. She'd intended to wrap her arms around him, that was true, but they certainly didn't end up there by the time she finished the gesture.      There was obvious pain to the suddenness in which both arms end up behind her, held tightly by the wrists and pulled up to the middle of her back where the joints in her shoulders would strain. If her intent was still on kissing him he met it with a casual sense of interest with eyes not closed but lowly lidded and focused upon her.      What he'd not expected was the taste of blood in her mouth, drawing a sharp inhale and the hand holding both wrists tightening to the point of nearly cutting off circulation. His tongue delicately sifts through her mouth to find exactly where she'd bitten herself with more interest than someone rightly should have in such a thing. After he had his 'answers' their kiss became something more heavy in the way his lips moved against her own and teased out responses with frustratingly slow strokes and brushes.

She gave a surprised grunt in pain as she tensed up at the sudden way her wrists were pinned behind her but she did not resist it, simply went with it as this was how Saeros willed it, and once Saeros began kissing heavily and in somewhat approaching earnestness she'd meet his lips and tongue with her own. She'd bitten through her tongue with a fang creating a rough cut, creating a steady bleed that she does not shy from, that she made for him. While she's no kisser, there's a willingness, perhaps even expectation to learn. The slow strokes and brushes do indeed cause a little frustration, as she furrows her brow and slips in gentle growls in between heated contacts of their lips. She even dips her tongue into his mouth in turn, staining the outside of his lips slightly with her own blood. It would almost be cute, as it was textbook Elru in how she'd respond negatively to teasing and how she'd refuse to fail at a task, even if that was kissing.

A pain she'd find steadily increasing as the contact drew on to reach a peak by the time she made her own advances on him. It wasn't entirely coincidence, rarely anything seemed to be with Saeros, that the muscles in her shoulders began to strain to the point of tearing and where the bone was in clear danger of being popped out of socket as he drew back. There was no smiling now nor words of praise but a sense of growing stillness she had a chance at shifting one way or the other in the silence it took to grow.

She's trembling slightly, from the heated contact and from the pain in her shoulders and arm sockets. Panting softly as sweat beads on her forehead she eyes his impassive silence with her own strain with her heavy lids, lips parted as she takes a moment to lick her own lips clean. She doesn't shy away or cringe from the pain. Rather she seems to deliberately hold herself at that strained peak where it hurts the most. It could be masochism, or it could be indecisiveness, but whereas Elru always shied away before, she refused to now. Maintaining eye contact all the while, with a slight whimper followed by a quiet gasp, she pushed. One arm out of her socket she was now closer to him. She breathed heavily on him, but there was no gritting of teeth, no tears.

Elru would find her arms released but.. very abruptly not where she expected herself to be. It had to be some trick of bent time--if not for the fact that her chest hurt so much as she lay on the floor nearly in the very middle of the room. The reality was that Saeros had pushed her, though pushing was a kind word for the strike of his palm to her chest, away from him to have her where she was now. Somewhere above her felt like ice that made the floor and her papers a warm comfort. "And we had just had this conversation." It was Saeros's voice but.. there was a 'more' to it.

She clutched at her chest, eyes clenched tight, breathing raggedly as she half curled up. "Wh-Which conversation..."

"About clear minds."

She pants, and heaves, then manages a self-depreciating chuckle as she rolls onto her back staring upward. "Yes.. So we did.."

There's a shuffling as Saeros makes his way over to her where he can stand above Elru with one long length of runed dagger in one hand. "Be wary in how far you take eagerness with me. I won't be played." Everything was still calm and casual aside from that odd note and the obvious threat of a weapon.

She eyes the dagger, then drags her eyes to meet his again, her breathe steadying, but just barely. "How am I supposed to respond to pain, big or small, Kir-Moldir?"

He gives a singular shake of his head to indicate she was on the wrong track. Instead he gives, "Offer. Never take."

A furrowing of her brow shows her struggle in understanding, though she tries. "Offer. Never take."

He simply looks at her before adding on with a slow drawl. "Yourself."

She stares at him a while longer, gulping, then gives a nod of affirmation. "Forgive me for overstepping my boundaries, Kir-Moldir. I was a little too eager."

He gives her one last, lingering stare before moving on towards the door where it opens and closes behind him in a manner she'd be accustomed to. Seems she'd be staying with her 'toy' for now.

Elru will settle for napping on the floor for now.

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#9 Turn the Page

For the Kaldorei, time didn't have the same meaning as it did for the lesser races, but even they had to obey the same day and night cycle the world was ruled by. Under the earth and surrounded by stone time blurs together and becomes next to meaningless. It wasn't until a year had passed that Saeros makes his was back to Elru's gilded prison, the stone of the door drawing back with a rumbling grind. As always, he surveyed the room first before looking for its occupant if he was able.

Long before Saeros makes it to the room he can feel it, that low but steady frequency of arcane use, as if numerous basic rituals and channelings were occurring all at once. Long before Saeros even opens the stone doors he can hear it. The incessant scribbling and shuffling of paper, barely audible except to the most trained. If it were just a single sheaf being worked on even he wouldn’t notice, but the hum of it seemed to indicate that there was a lot more at work than it would seem. Upon seeing the room, that conception would very sorely be an understatement. The room that Saeros left Elru behind in isn’t even there. In its place is layers upon layers of paper, of different shades, serving as cover for the floors, walls and ceiling. The room wasn’t covered haphazardly, but rather it’s all integrated and held together so seamlessly one would have to squint to notice it isn’t just one single covering. The paper wasn’t blank, either. Seams, designs and details are drawn in giving the place the facsimile of an actual furbished room with wallpaper, architecture, even flooring, covering even the doorways to the other actual rooms. And fake doorways that don’t seem to go anywhere, creating what amount to open closet spaces. One thing that doesn’t quite fit in is a huge black ink splotch with cracks around it on one wall, about the size of a decent window.      Above from the ceiling where the light would be, shadows are cast as a slowly rotating, spinning and crackling contraption of hard folded paper circles and shapes. The form is composed of slightly uneven rods likely meant to be straight, oval gears probably meant to be circular, and scribbled numbers that indicate that the whole contraption is a mechanical clock. It even ticks. It’s a pretty ingenious paper clock creation if not for the fact that each second was a little over two and a half seconds long, with every ninth second four seconds long as the mechanism whirred and struggled as if confused. There is a long table, made of paper. Chairs, made of paper. Even a planter and plant both made of paper and green ink. However, the general room format, as it is at the moment, seems to be that of a laboratory. Most of a wall has been converted to a periodic table of elements, with room for hypothetical substances as well. Formulae, some finished some not, cover a lot of space around that side of the room, filling open sheets of paper and journal books. Actual vials, beakers and bottles lay strewn here and there, some used for storage, but most of them seemingly discarded. Broken useless ones, as Saeros sees at the moment, are being collected and discarded by arms. Of sorts.      There are a number of these arms, and they are the source of all the paper shuffling sounds as they move. Elongated, thin, multi-jointed and multi-fingered at the hands, these paper arms were nothing less than very dedicated and demented origami, pivoting and turning about from hard-points here and there in the room, acting as if extensions of the room itself. A few of them draw in incomplete designs to the room, designs that occasionally change midway. A few work to keep furniture and furnishings neat and tidy. Three of said paper arms, differing from the others in that these incorporate long broken splinters of wood, spawn from the elf Saeros is here to visit.      Elru sits hunched over at her lab desk, sitting in a paper chair, dressed in a slim form fitting robe, slippers and hair ties. She’s kept clean and presentable, very immaculately so, though she’s thinner now, a touch more haggard, and with deep dark bags under her wide eyes that barely blink. Her legs are tucked tight together, and her arms are wrapped defensively around her torso, though every so often she raises a trembling hand to nibble on a biscuit. Though she herself was doing very little, she wasn’t inactive. Seemingly extending right out from her back through the dress, her own three personal arms were hard at work. Two of them were scribbling, editing and working on whatever project was her current focus, while the third filled in a journal page by page, each hand working just as precisely but a lot more faster than her own handwriting. One arm pauses in its work to gently scratch an itch just below her scalp, her own two arms staying right where they are. She hasn’t noticed Saeros’ arrival.

As there was so much to take in Saeros takes a lengthy space of time examining all he could see before moving forward. His steps are careful but the stride that went along with them confident though potentially destructive. Most of the man's power lay in subtlety and with each step a form of invisible 'pulse' went out from his feet. Should any of Elru's magic be laid upon the floor or in the air directly in his path it would find itself dispelled if the first or disrupted with the latter. He kept an eye on her for now but was more interested in what her isolation had driven her to create. It wasn't every day one was able to witness madness firsthand, after all.

The paper coverings would lose some of their luster and the furniture not appear quite as stable upon him making close contact but otherwise all remains intact for the most part. There is magic in the air, certainly. Low frequency, but utterly pervasive. It would even just start to gradually return in the spaces Saeros would leave. The arms, it's not certain if they are autonomous or act as one, come near at the approach of the outsider in inquiry, stretching or unfolding to be able to reach Saeros from their hard-points, but once one of them comes a little too near and starts to lose form, the rest shy away and keep a distance. The "hurt" arm withdraws to press close against its wall, where small vaguely insectoid five legged origami creatures literally unfold out and from the wall to repair the damaged arm. Saeros' disruption seems to cause visible agitation in Elru as she trembles a bit and her arms, real and fake, become more tense, but she remains focused on her work. As if responding to her sudden stress, something occurs.      Back where that gaping black ink hole is, tearing and unfolding from the cracks and edges of the hole, comes a thin gangly paper elf, almost full sized, as if coming out of the hole. The figure makes it only three feet from the ink hole until with a sharp twang sharp appendages like spider legs, also paper, unfold and spring into action, curling in to skewer the paper elf, who leaks purple ink as it slumps. The arms and small paper creatures immediately get to work to cleaning the mess. Elru's stress is immediately released and she sits hunched as normal.      Elru's work is broad, covering things like expanding the use and efficiency of constructs, a very long and prolific list of what appears to be drugs judging by the mostly complete chemical compounds scribbled, continuation of her time and space manipulation from before she had arrived, biological manipulation and replication, the feasibility of artificial souls, permanent mana storage, the list goes on and on of things practical to esoteric, but none of it complete and almost all theoretical. Whether from madness or lack of focus is unclear.      What Elru is most intently focused on however, is the groundwork and creation of a physical fluid substance. Odorless, tasteless, near but not quite the same consistency as water, and seemingly serving no purpose. However, the point is apparently not in what it does, but how long it lasts. Elru's work on this substance seems to be going toward increasing its degradation rate and half life higher, and higher, as if creating a chemical that would not break down.

Saeros comes to a stop before crossing in front of the void that was the black ink hole along one wall. His tone was firm but certainly no shout, "Elru."

Elru doesn't respond at first, as if ignoring or not hearing him. But five seconds later she does pause, her paper extendable arms pausing with, as she lifts her head up with a creased brow, though still not quite looking at him. Her voice is a little hoarse, clearly from lack of practice, but she still has a grasp of words. "Kir-Moldir." Abruptly she stands up, dropping her biscuit, which immediately gets caught midair by one of her arms coming out of her back and set on the table. "You've been arriving with increasing frequency, Kir-Moldir. Shit, I'm not done here. This place is a mess, I'm a mess, I didn't want him to come so soon to see what I did with the extra space. But I've stayed, made no attempt to escape. Kept invaders out, as he instructed. Shit, I'm a mess, too. Don't keep him waiting, Elru, go greet him. Right, right." She mutters quickly and as if he were not right there, and while she does her biological arms are rubbing down her dress while her three arms coming out her back quickly undo, work, and redo her hair ties and hairstyle with a speed and nimbleness not normal to hands, and not a single strand of hair is left out of place. Swiftly she steps to the nearest false doorway, stepping into the space of seemingly pointless nothing. But, the moment she does the whole room abruptly changes and shifts. Every sheet, crease and line of paper flipping and folding like an entire library of books flapping its pages all at once, creating an actual breeze in the room. Labwork, arms and furniture tucking and folding out of sight, the entire paper room re-configures into a paper facsimile of the main room that the room was originally supposed to be, complete with the furniture. The space around Saeros, however, did not move, leaving some room configurations struggling. This all took only a handful of seconds, and once nearly done Elru merely turns around and steps out, her three arms folding and tucking away against her back, muttering all the while before she stands before Saeros and raising her eyes to him with a quiet, "Welcome back. Forgive my tardiness- "she pauses, brow furrowing a touch, but face otherwise kept neutral, if failing to hide the fact that she felt something was very different.

A difference she'd likely hear in tone before registering the content of his words. He was clearly amused, "I have been visiting you often?"

If anything the amusement made her flinch slightly, her folded up paper arms flexing and unfurling to hang more loosely behind her as she wraps her actual arms around her torso again in that guarded nervous stance. "Well... I think it's often. Not that I mind the visits, even with the open communication."

"And what have we been talking about in these visits?" Despite her nervousness Saeros doesn't do anything more threatening aside from stand in place and speak.

She hangs her head a bit but keeps her eyes towards him. "About my health. Questions of my sanity. My health. Ever since those people," she speaks the term tersely while glancing at a black ink hole, a returning feature to this paper room as well, "managed to find ways in. I asked if I could work and update the defensive runes of the room, but you kept telling me no. So I've been defending myself. I'd hand you reports of such." And as she mentions such one of her extendable paper arms would reach over to retrieve a thin journal from atop a paper dresser, the same arm and hand flipping the book open. "No less than seventeen attempts by intruders. Curiously, they never try the front door."

"What sort of intruders?" He asks curiously.

"All manner of elves, from Shen'dralar mages to plain low lives. I don't understand the diversity, but what else could they be after if not my life and my future. They all die. Though my self-defense is somewhat without grace, and I am still full of so many questions. But you said they needed to die immediately."

He thinks that over for a moment before he motions her closer with a one-handed gesture. "Come here, Elru. Come stand in front of me."

She steps forward, more like a shuffle, but she straightens her stance and raises her hand to look at him more properly. She stops at a couple meters in front of him and waits.

Saeros pointedly eyes the distance between them. "That's not what I asked for."

"Apologies." She immediately closes the distance to stand directly in front of him by only a foot of distance, but once she nears him and his latent anti-magic her extra arms immediately go limp and hang draped to the floor, making her immediately break into a silent, anguished expression as her physical hands wring together rapidly. Her rate of breathing increasing. From the way one would look at her, one would think she'd just lost actual limbs.

Saeros takes a moment to loosen and strip the gilded leather gauntlets from his hands and tuck them into his belt before lifting both for Elru's head. The touch was warm, firm, and very much real as he cupped her face and tilted it up to get a better look at what he held in a way that -wasn't- reminiscent of surveying property. No words were immediately forthcoming.

Her face was very cold, and a touch more bony than a year ago. She freezes up at the contact, still looking frightened and hurt with rapid breathing and dilated pupils, but the warmth of his hands and their very real touch seemed to incrementally calm her down the longer they hold her face. After she's mostly calmed she opens her lips as if to say something but then holds her tongue. Her hands no longer quite wring together so much.

"I am no trick of the mind nor-" He pauses for an unsubtle glance around the room. "-a creation of your loneliness." A moment's given for that to sink in, if it does, before he goes on. "Is there anything left here or is it all paper?"

"Wh-What do you mean?" Though she glances around with her eyes as well with uncertainty, looking around, and again, and again, as if Saeros' very presence and touch created confusion in her now, though more like a touch of reality. It's as if Elru were seeing the room, and her creation, for the first time, though she responds to his question. "Bedroom... bathroom.. some furniture... some pieces of furniture... None of the novels, I got so sick of them, fed them to my war room... I, war room..."

"There was a couch. Find it for me." His touch on her face loosens but doesn't leave entirely if she moved to comply with his demand.

"Couch.... Yes, couch, that thing.." She turns her head a bit, taking a step back away from him but not quite leaving his reach. The room comes alive and with some shuffling and flipping of pages upon pages of paper the couch eventually gets dragged out, but it's not  nearly as immersive or as seamless as before, appearing more broken and alien as the real furniture intrudes on the false room.

Saeros allows his hands to drop as he eyes the furniture with an obvious eye to its durability. He moves over towards it and tests it first with a booted foot and his weight behind it. Should it hold up he trusts his body to sit on it and draws her over with another gesture. "Sit with me however you find it most comfortable."

Though the floor was paper it surprisingly help up very well under the weight of the couch and Saeros, at the very least indicating numerous layers of the stuff. Curling her false arms around her almost like a cradle she sits on the cushion adjacent to him, looking to him.

There was no obvious hurry in the way the silence is allowed to be drawn out in what Elru might remember as a 'companionable' quiet. "Do you know how long you've been here?"

"Of course I do, I've been here..." What started as a confident response became another moment of confusion and uncertainty. "It's... it's been... I need to consult my timepiece to count the years."

"Feel free to do so."

Elru looks up and at the ceiling the ill made and mismatched clock unfolded out of the ceiling, bringing that uneven ticking to the room. Elru eyes the numbers, gears and rods with quiet muttering and recounts, "Eleven years and two months. ... This clock is supposed to be in the lab." She frowns.

"Its been one year since I've seen you last."

Gently, if bordering on disrespectful, she replies, "Nonsense, there was no way I spent a mere year in this place. I couldn't have done all I did in a year." She pauses. She looks to him uncertainly and nervously, "And it was much less than a year since I saw you last, wasn't it?"

He simply repeats, "I left you here one month alone after initially taking you from Idril and when you asked me to put you upon the rack. Between then and today it has been one year and a hand-span of hours since I've visited you."

She wrings and picks at her false arms wrapped around her, which themselves are made of sterner stuff than the standard paper-craft around them, incorporating more solid supports from whatever piece of minor furniture got broken down. Her face switches and mixes between confusion, anger and doubt, and the strain of trying to remember things.

For as long as it takes--Saeros waits.

It takes some time, but Elru does get there, though not without some resistance. The very room itself seems to shift and react in a agitated manner but eventually all Elru can do is sit with her hands folded in her lap, eyes closed and face impassive with lingering touches of despair. The paper room seems to feel much less lively, missing much luster, though her three false arms have wrapped themselves around her defensively by this point.

"What would you have me do?" He inquires.

Her brow furrows a moment, though it isn't clear if it was because of her struggling to pick one response, or to muster any response at all. Eventually she replies with a quiet and clinical, "If it is alright, I would like your hand on her face again. For just a moment."

Lips quirk up but smooth just as suddenly into a passive line. "Her?" Saeros shifts on the couch, changing the angle at which he sat to something more at ease and nearly reclining. He reaches out with a long arm, waiting for her hand to be placed in his own.

It takes a bit for her to notice the hand, but when she does she settles her own hand into his before glancing over at him neutrally.

With a firm tug he draws her over towards him at a speed she wouldn't be too rushed to adapt to. In the end its certainly more than a hand on her face but Saeros fits her back to the front of him in utter laze. He was a contrast to the dry coldness of the world Elru had created for herself and despite the fact that he was armored, as well as armed, heat eases through the leather well enough to seep into her. Thankfully, or perhaps not, he goes no further than that in allowing her a closeness she'd been denied here entirely.

Despite how nervous or uneasy she felt for a multitude of reasons, or how alarmed she was, or how much despair lingered in her, she welcomed the warmth. She'd been cold too long. Her stiff posture and back incrementally relax. Never completely relaxes, but just enough to appreciate the warmth, and the gesture. Closing her eyes she settles like that for however long it was allowed, until she was told otherwise. Her false arms dig into her back a bit but she seems to pay them no mind. However she does quietly let out, without thought, "It still hurts."

He seemed in no hurry to remove her. "The tear?"

She gives a slight nod.

"It wouldn't be a consequence if it was over quickly, if at all."

"This is a true statement." She shifts a bit and stares up at her strange misshapen clock on the ceiling for a time.

Still he remains. Nothing more forthcoming aside from the steady rise and fall of his chest, the beating heart beneath, and the idle manner in which Elru could sense Saeros's magic edging around them through that connection.

She lays there on him quietly, idly feeling Saeros' magic, comparing the feeling from him to the feeling from the tear inside her, though she doesn't comment on it, nor does she try to touch or manipulate it. Eventually she'll ask, "When do you next leave?"

"That's not the question you should be asking."

"When do I leave? Assuming one day I get to leave." Though her anxiety seems to rise just a touch at the prospect of leaving. Not from a desire to remain inside, but it may have to do with her clear paranoia given how indiscriminately she'd killed her "invaders."

"A dangerous question. Chose another." His tone was idle.

She shifts her head and thinks a moment. "In turn, what would you have me do?"

"Explain this world you created to me."

"As I knew then, or as I know now?" She tilts her head a bit. "Or do you ask how I, literally, created it."

"The former."

She takes a breath while reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "It hurt so much, but I did not want my magic to stagnate. So I regularly practiced testing my limits. One day I managed to conjure permanent paper and ink, and simply kept conjuring it, with the intention to write and keep records. Anything that wasn't those novels.      Conjuring the paper and ink was easy, easier than food and water. I wrote notes, theories, ideas, experiments, thoughts, and doodles. I grew bored. But the writing, the paper, I thought it kept my mind sharp. At the very least it was a distraction from the pain."

"And did it?"

She takes a moment to think long and hard. "I don't know. In some ways it did. The freedom of thought. Made me ambitious, of a sorts. Made me pursue ideas and theories I didn't think of before. But that freedom of thought was detrimental as well, as I now see. Lost sight of boundaries, of goals. Made me forget that I only have so much space, so much freedom. Once I thought I was under attack, I suppose that's where all this.. came to be." She waves a thin hand around her paper world. "Once I thought, once my mind thought I had real outlet, my work just, took a life of its own. Sharp in some ways. Dull to the broad picture." Glancing to the walls she exhales through her nose. "It's still all just one room."

"I'm still curious as to how I fit into all this."

It takes her a while to answer this one. "I thought you spoke to me. It hurt, but it was you in a way. I could feel you doing, whatever it was you have been doing, through your magic. The pain, insufferable as it was at times, was my only consistent companion. In the ways it would motivate me it could even be considered a partner. In time, I think I identified it with you yourself."

"I'll take that you not cringing back when you caught sight of me to be a good sign."

She's quiet for a while before speaking simply. "Welcome or unwelcome is irrelevant. You are security."

"Mmn." He hums, "An appropriate way to see it I suppose."

She massages her eyelids with fingertips from a hand. "I'm tired." As well she should be. Low maintenance her little world may have been, it still required allocation of a steady constant of focus and mana.

"Then let it go and rest."

And with that given permission to rest she almost immediately drifts to sleep, and the world around her promptly begins to crumble, literally. Like large, lazy confetti shreds and pieces of paper drift and fall from the ceilings and walls, the floor crumbling as the couch sinks further into the ground, revealing that at some point Elru had undone the wooden paneling entirely. A few lingering creations, an arm and some five legged creatures, even try to flee the destruction before they too crumble apart. The clock breaks apart into its crafted pieces, but barely causing notice should they touch Elru or Saeros. False walls, false doorways, even that black ink hole goes away. Eventually all that remains is what was real. Worn doorways to a rarely used bedroom and bathroom, ruined floors, ruined furniture, conjured bits like her meager lab equipment and a few metal pieces, makeshift shoddy runes carved into the suite wall foundations meant to constantly restore and replenish paper and ink, and just tons of base paper, used and unused.

Saeros watches all this with a keen, knowing eye before he settles in without so much as a shift. This did appear to be his first experience with madness but perhaps even something well-known to him. One could never tell. Even so, he sets his gaze on the far wall and looks into a distance only he could see with the constant sway of energy searching back and forth--the only clue that gave lie to his utter stillness.

Elru would sleep unless heavily disturbed, practically blanketed by the remains of the paper world. Her three arms, no longer quite attached to her, still remain the most intact creations as they hold up under their own craft and engineering though they are inanimate paper and wood and nothing more at the moment.

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#8 Left to Simmer

It's been about a month or so since she'd last seen Saeros but just as quickly as he was out of her life he walks back into it with the scrape and grind of her stone door drawing back from Elru's veritable prison. He was as armored as she'd last seen him with runed weaponry to boot. He looks around the room before eventually getting to her with a dulled, nearly disinterested attention.

She set down the book she had been flipping through to look back at him quickly, briefly alarmed, then relieved, then tense, though not so much from fear as something immediately on her mind. Her brow is creased and looks like it has had a habit of doing that now. Rather than dressed in anything the place had available, she was dressed in a fairly simple yet form fitting robe of magical creation. Her weight seems not to have changed much. Stepping around a cleaned couch in her slippers she steps closer to him till she's a couple of strides away. "You've returned. What have you been doing?"

As she closes that distance his attention sharpens to its more 'normal' intensity, "What makes you think you've earned the privilege of knowing?" He doesn't seem to take much notice of her attire.

"I was merely asking." She takes him in a moment and meets his gaze. "Though you did come back here for a purpose. Or an expectation."

"That's what happens when someone is responsible for another living thing. Should I leave?" His words were dry enough to snap with too hard of a next step.

"No," she replies a little quickly, followed by a more even, "No, not yet. I.." a brief pause as her form freezes up a moment, her brow furrows further and her lip twitches as a reaction to pain. It passes and she stares at him. "I have a request. If I am allowed to ask for brief consideration of such."

"Lets hear it."

"In regards to that time, when you showed me why you are called The Fang. I've changed my mind. Please put me on the rack."

There were likely a dozen different responses and expressions he could have given to that but the only one he gave her was a dull impassiveness before he asks, "Why?"

She collects her thoughts a moment. "A number of reasons. This pain in my chest is the biggest aggravation and obstacle of my life current that I need to conquer, and you are a master of pain. I aspired to not be an ant, but in my arrogance and naivety I did not comprehend what it really meant to be an ant. I want to complete my understanding of what that means, because I'm done being one. I want to use the experience as a reference for the kind of suffering I want to one day instill into my enemies, those who'd threaten me and my family, present and future, and those enemies are never going to stop existing. Also, because it may please you." After that long winded explanation, finally, "Also, it's a change in scenery."

"What do I get out of this directly? Skip the assumptions."

"Pleasure in the short term, I suppose. Long term.. One day i want to help you with your work. For that to be possible, I think I need to be less... wary of it."

Saeros abruptly switches tracks like he's ought to do. "Tell me why you are here."

She's not thrown off by the abrupt switch, just going with it, especially since this is a question she's thought about.  "I am here because I chose to act in opposition to you. It may not have been my idea to leave, but I still chose to pack my bag when pressed to. I could have chosen not to. I could have told you what was transpiring, but I didn't." She scowls and looks glum a moment. "I had a lot of freedom I took for granted. I see that now."

Her answer earns her a flat look before he sternly corrects, "Why did I place you here."

"To separate me from my sister, and the outside world. Because it is your right to do with me as you please." She glances around a moment. "I am not certain, but I also have the suspicion that this arrangement is not temporary."

"It's unfortunate how your youth shows so strongly in this. What is the direct purpose as to why you are here in this place under these circumstances."

She pauses then, then admits, "I do not know."

"Then I'm not inclined to indulge your frivolous requests."

"Is it a matter of adaptation?"

"I believe I'm asking the questions."

She glances to the side a moment then looks back forward. "You left me here to see if there would be any point or use to my existence beyond keeping tucked away out of sight until you decide to use me for breeding."

"Wrong."

"Then since I managed to survive that ritual, it was to be seen if I could continue to survive, adapt and grow beyond that."

"Wrong again."

"This was purely punishment then."

"I'm going to run out of ways to say wrong at this rate."

She closes her eyes and exhales a bit, disappointment on her face. "A matter of learning and accepting my place, perhaps, which is still clearly in doubt."

"Do you ever tire of thinking exclusively about you?"

She raises a brow at that. "You put me here to keep me secure while you dealt with business then."

"You grasp at everything but the core."

"The core. I do not understand."

"I forget that I have to spoon-feed you." He drones tonelessly, "What happens when you isolate someone for lengths of time?"

She blinks. "Effects vary. Distorted sense of time. Severe self reflection. Reduction of motivation. Increased difficulty interacting with others. It is not a topic I explored beyond more than a glance."

"Sanity is a more tenuous state than most seem to believe. Eldre'Thalas is simply a greater reflection of this truth. I'm not interested in negotiations when easier means are available to me in the form of a few years."

"So this isolation, periods of it, are meant to break down my sanity?"

"Condition."

"Condition my sanity. ... Because it is in doubt, or because you have need for it to be more secure?"

"To whatever I deem suits my purposes for you most."

"Very well." She seems fine with that.

If she had nothing more to say or add after that Saeros turns to leave.

She'll go back to reading and tidying and slowly molding the suite to better suite her needs and wants.

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#7 To Burn and Build a Bridge

In all the time since Elru could recollect there haven't been instances of true stress that she'd have seen from Idril. Her sister was as level and dependable as one could be and rarely deviated from that solid foundation of expectations. In these more current days, however, it would begin to change. In the few years after Elru had been drawn aside by Saeros and comes back bloody with someone's tooth in hand Idril had left their small apartments more and more, disappearing for long stretches of time that she refused to speak on in full detail. It wasn't until a week ago that Idril had demanded Elru to pack her things, namely the essentials, and prepare herself to leave Eldre'Thalas. It wasn't a command she would have debated with Elru for long, if at all.

Elru wouldn't have debated the decision much at all, but her reluctance was clear. It's not that she wanted to stay, but it was the uncertainty of where she would go, and the potentially disastrous consequences. Even so, Elru trusted Idril, and having known her as long as she had and was becoming just as distressed watching her sister be as strained and absent as she has. As such, Elru did pack her essentials, which all fit inside a very small pack, one that can hang from her side and would seem unobtrusive at a casual glance. Much as she loved her books she knew they were not essentials, not for leaving. So her room was largely left as it was like any other day, though Elru did look upon her coral chess set with some regret. It still had one piece to go.

It was late in the afternoon when Elru felt something amiss. By all rights--she should have been asleep but today the late summer heat was absolutely punishing and the stone walls had just seemed to soak it all up instead of warded it away. It began with a shatter of a dropped plate and the start of low tones in their main room.

Elru bolts up, frowning, eyes wide and extremely nervous. Slowly, and on soft soles she makes her way closer to the main room, sneaking her way past her door to get near and listen.

At that distance the voices were audible and its terse Idril's she hears first. "-what you're talking about." And Saeros's next. There was no idle taunting to his voice this time but as succinct as Idril's own voice was Saeros's reflected that in hard, almost too quiet tones. "Then tell me why the name of my property is on a piece of paper in a man's office who has been helping those escape from Eldre'Thalas."

Elru frowns as she listens, staying very still where she was out of sight, hand against the wall. She also looks downcast and cold, realizing that with Saeros here saying what he was, there was most likely no leaving possible.

"He wasn't sane, Kir-Moldir." Idril insists. "You're jumpi-" He cuts her off sharply. "There is no possible way Ithilior would have known her name had he not been told it directly. Don't treat me like a fool, Idril. Shall I see what she squeals out if I squeeze her? See what you've told her?" It's then Idril actually snaps, "Stay aw-" Things didn't get further than that though Elru's senses could tell magic was being drawn. The air chilled immediately followed by several heavy, weighted breaks. Her eyes could likely tell her more--things were moving too quickly for Elru to tell otherwise.

Elru was frozen momentarily with indecision and fear by the sudden shift and action, but it passed before she quietly and quickly drew some spellwork about her, keeping magic at the ready as she kept to the far wall and stepped barely in view of the main room to see.

And as soon as she drew around the corner Elru lost that gathered magic. At first it wasn't clear why. She'd seen Saeros in his full armor before but never truly armed. There were slots on his spaulders that held long, runed knives while his hands were busy with a pair of axes. They weren't graceful things, far too thick for that, but the runes they too bore flashed as Saeros used them to parry and cleave through actual spells might forgive them that slight. Ice was scattered across the floor in long shards that leaped up with Idril's direction that had been ripped from the near liquid membrane that floated around her as her only means of defense. There wasn't much opportunity to see true sparring or fighting of any kind in Eldre'Thalas with how favored trickery was but between them both they could create an odd form of art, if only for a brief few moments. In Idril's hand she had her long sword but Saeros's ferocity and how quickly he either bulled past her gathering spells with an overwhelming flex of directed counter-spelling shifted that to have her sister reeling. Where once there was frost there was the sharp gain of heat and a gap between the change where Saeros shoves his way in and disarms her with one clanging ring of metal to metal and then metal on stone right next to Elru's ear. One of the long knives that had rested on Saeros's person had embedded itself close to Elru's head in the wall beside her, disrupting her magic. The runes in the weapon itself flash blue with the reaction.

Elru is frozen, all too aware of her mortality, the blade, and the fact that there would be no winning this even if she tried. Resigned, she stands straight arms at her side where she is, not moving away from the blade, but looking worryingly at her sister, a part of her still tensed for her behalf.

Her neutrality at this point wouldn't earn her any favors as things heat up both figuratively and literally. Elru knew that Idril's most favored aspect of Arcane was fire and if she'd not seen or known why before it becomes obvious now. The heat from the day was nothing from what was being put off now and between one breath and the next it was a winter's night, a summer's day, and standing right next to a forge. The change was -fast- but not fast enough with Saeros's blades near dancing in Idril's face at the loss of her sword. The edge of an axe cleaves down and rips through the dress she wore to draw a long line of blood while the other hooks higher up on her thigh, tripping her stance. The next strike was aimed for Idril's core as Saeros draws his arm up. It's abundantly clear that this was no spar. Someone's life was about to end here.

Elru dashes forward a few strides into the main room just out of reach of the two as she clenches her fists and screams out a "STOP!"

Saeros's axe had swung down, there's no stopping that vicious strike once it's started, but there's a following scream of metal on stone as he redirects the action into the floor instead of in Elru's sister. Idril's eyes were wide and she didn't look to be breathing in that moment, frozen with Saeros waiting above her. What follows is an expectant silence that Elru's likely expected to fill.

Elru takes a moment to breathe, momentarily disbelieving but relieved that Idril was spared for now. Shaking all over and gripping her robes to steady her hands she manages out, "Don't kill my sister. Don't fight. I'll do whatever and answer whatever you ask, but killing my sister is unacceptable."

"You're not in a position to tell me what is and isn't acceptable." Is Saeros's blunt reply.

"You're right. I'm not. But please do not kill Idril." It was a soft spoken, simple and rather pathetic plea, but a plea nonetheless, struggling to get out even that much through the mad turmoil, eyes downcast and hands at her sides.

"What do I gain from letting her live."

"My eternal gratitude. My will to live. My loyalty, not the half-hearted motions I've been going through. Whatever else I may have to offer, as you already own my life to begin with."

There's a long moment of silence of consideration before with a smooth motion Saeros steps back and sheathes his weapons over his shoulders and makes a gesture that returns his knife into his hand. "I've been too lenient." He turns towards Elru and within three steps or so is within arm's reach with a length of strong cord in hand. Should she not resist--Elru will be bound wrist to ankle.

Elru doesn't resist or make protest, letting Saeros do as he will to her in binding her. She looks over at Idril as if to reassure herself that she was fine.

Idril had done her best to collect herself and stem her bleeding. It doesn't look life threatening but there wouldn't be even footing if she made another go at Saeros now. He shoves a vial to Elru's lips and demands, "Drink."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

By the time Elru comes to she was motionless and cold on a stone floor. Limbs by this point would be numb from lack of blood as they were still tied in the position Saeros had set them in. When she gets around to opening her eyes the room she's in is lit with low, violet light that lengthened the shadows far more than giving definition to their surroundings.           Even still, there's a noticeable glow rising up from the stone around her and with a little head lifting the thick, perfect lines she laid upon piece together into the shape of a rune. Not just one--but several. More than one kept going and going out until even those became part of a larger rune. The amount of time this must have taken was staggering but.. perhaps not. This wasn't something painted upon the floor but carved. This room had seen multiple uses.

Elru was uncomfortable, but not complaining, at least verbally. Turning her head carefully this way and that she takes a look and tries to discern what purpose these runes serve from what little she can see. She shifts and adjusts her limbs as best she can to get feeling back into them, but does not attempt to move or stand otherwise.

"Tell me what the Highborne value most.. Elru." Saeros's voice was heard from behind her.

She turns her head forward, facing upward. "Blood, and the magic therein."

"And how much do you value yours? Magic--that is."

She blinks then. "I put a lot of value into mine. It is what I am best at."

"Then it suits that I'll take it from you. For it to be on loan back to you for the most part." His tone was a normal, disinterested drone as he drifted around the outside of her circle.

Elru widens her eyes as she watches him, quiet a moment before giving an uncertain, "You can do that?"

Looking over towards him reveals a sight Elru's not seen yet before. Saeros was bare from the waist up. The nakedness wasn't so surprising as the fact that he glowed in much the same manner as the runic circle Elru laid upon with delicate, spiraling runes that were etched into his own body giving off that trailing light. There was hardly a bit of him that wasn't marked and with Elru's eye she could find half a dozen that warded, strengthened, or responded to specific intended commands. "I could do more than that. But since you've done yourself the favor of aspiring to the goals of an ant it's about the time I treated you on the same level."

"I see," is Elru's soft, defeated response as she drifts her gaze from him to the ceiling with a heavy exhale. "I suppose you are not wrong.. Despite my reservations and doubts over my sister's intent I did ultimately choose to follow them."

"I do ever so hate my generosity being flung back into my face. Too little, too late I suppose. Ah, well." He sighs as he takes his place with a pointed step into the lines of their circle. "This won't be over quickly and nor will it be painless. I'll be interested to see if you survive when many of your elders can't withstand the strain."

"The strain, you say. What will happen to me?" She looks back at him as she braces herself.

Her watches her blandly. "I'm not about to go into how your magical capability and your soul are rather intertwined."

"So this is a taking of my soul as well? Or a flaying, rather."

"If I die--You'll be coming with me, dearest." His words twisted the endearment into a snide remark.

Elru raises a brow at that, watching him more intently, the question unspoken.

With an unspoken question she wasn't all that likely to get an answer and so Saeros simply began. Elru had felt something vaguely similar to this starting sensation when Idril's iceblock had been shattered long ago. A weight pressed down on her, forcing the air from her lungs and making each subsequent draw raw agony to perform. Unfortunately, the body loved to live and fought that weight with a primal desperation. Not too long after that sight vanishes all together though sound remained entirely unaffected to catch snippets of the spell Saeros carefully, but quickly enunciated his way through in a blatant casting.

The panic sets in then, making Elru squirm while desperately trying to keep her breath with minimal pain, eyes wide and gasping at nothing. Even so that more higher self of her couldn't help but listen to the spell being cast.

It was in a tongue recognizable as Darnassian but the accent was strange.. Archaic. Similar but not. From there on the runes around her begin to shift and move, despite the fact they were carvings on the floor beneath her. Some faded from view, others raced towards their counterparts and meshed together--becoming something else entirely, and even some purely created. It was at this stage what felt like a hand reached up through Elru's back and gripped just behind her heart and started drawing backwards. The sensation of tearing wouldn't be missed. It wasn't simple physical pain but paralysis of both mind and body with stiff response. Perhaps this is what the sacrifices to Immol'Thar felt just before misting into less than nothing.

Elru stared wide eyed at the ceiling, tearing at the corners of her eyes as she clamped her lips shut, whole body tensed even without the effect drawing on her. Still, she did not whimper. Despite her choice and where she was she wanted to maintain some semblance of face.

The hand inside of her only kept drawing back and back, ripping and tearing with a force that wasn't all in the mind. At the point where she nearly felt torn in half liquid bubbled up in her throat with the distinct taste of blood. In the half of her where there was this raw, open wound acid washes over the torn edges with the tastes of foreign energy. It moved with its own purpose in soaking up through where it could touch but at this rate.. it's hard to tell whether or not it was doing far more damage than slowing the tide of some sort of bleed-out.

Try as she might, Elru did start screaming from the pain at some point, thrashing more out of instinct than intent, clinging to her magic and her sense of being for as much as she could. One relatively young as her probably wouldn't put up much of a fight, but she wasn't going to just passively let this spell take her wholesale.

Her reaching and clinging only caused her more pain as it tugged on the parts currently torn halfway out of her, Her struggling seemed fruitless in the face of her current situation and as she 'filled up' with that invasive fluid or whatever burned her so those fractured parts of herself are sewn back together.. with an addition. For this current situation there was little that could be deciphered from what was being added to her, forever keeping a part of her sundered and not a smooth, streamlined 'piece' but it beat counter to her own blood thudding through her veins with spikes of agony not unlike she'd been run through with a long, sharp shard of metal in her core where each movement, every breath, and even her twitches jostled it.

Elru was a wreck of heaving gasps and pants, fists clenched and feet curled as she kept herself as still as she could, heart beating as it was, body as wired as it was, eyes clenched as she tried to block out the pain.

The weight upon her breathing slowly lightened and the energy holding her down faded back into the floor as the 'hand' released her. Even now, the shard remained somewhere just below her heart. Physical movements still certainly hurt but the worst would be when she grabbed for her magic. The flow of her body was entirely different now with something in the way and it pushed that foreign fire through her veins that nearly had the ability to white out her sight from the strength of that reaction on her newly torn bits.

That white vision was what greeted her at that moment as she let out a hiss, clenching her teeth, curling up slightly on her side if that were possible.

Her limbs were still bound but she could move as much as that allowed her. Faint footsteps come closer to her and stop just short of her head. "Congratulations. You didn't die." There was a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

She breathes ever so carefully, and despite how much she desperately wanted to she avoided drawing on her magic a second time. "Was my death.. a desired outcome?"

"It was expected."

"I failed to meet that expectation, then."She straightens some, opening her eyes to Saeros then. "What now?"

"Now--you decide whether or not if I have to leave you here or if you can get up on your own."

Elru stares at him for a little while, but right before he gets the idea to just leave her she hisses, grunts and groans so that she rolls over onto her front. Taking careful breaths and making careful movements she manages to curl to rest her weight on her knees, then her soles, and after a while after that she very shakily manages to stand straight, though not without a wobble or nearly losing her balance once or twice. She looks at the floor and runes where she laid, then at him.

A smooth, hidden gesture is made that releases the cord that held her wrists to her ankles so she doesn't fall back on her face once upright. When she was up Saeros simply turns and recollects his loosely folded shirt he'd set aside and dons it before moving towards the only exit of the room. "Come along." It was an odd sensation as that foreign shard within her moved with a jerk and stride that wasn't her own.

Elru does so, frowning at the sensation of the shard, but more downcast at her current circumstances in general now.

The way was long, too long for such a fresh wound through the tunnels of Eldre'Thalas but eventually they come to another stone doorway in another far older part of the city. The door swings open to reveal a terrible waste of wealth in wall hangings, rugs, and furniture in various states of gild or edged in silver of an already lit entry room to some series of suites. Saeros pointedly remains in the hallway side of the threshold, "You are to remain here until I get around to you."

Elru looks to him and gives a slight nod, then steps past the threshold, picking out a non-offensive non-painful place to sit.

As soon as she's in the door closes behind her and with a sharp tug on the shard through her its clear it must have been locked in some magical fashion. Further exploration reveals a similarly decorated bedroom and other necessities but the most notable feature was a fine layer of dust that coated every surface. Its clear that this was little more than a pretty gilded cage and whoever had once owned these apartments likely wouldn't be back.

Elru largely takes the time to simply recuperate and to take assessment of her current bodily and magical state, dusting off a bed to use for her purposes, but otherwise being very inactive and emotionally absent.

There wouldn't be anything to disturb her thoughts for a long, long time.

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#6 A Duty To Our People

These days Idril kept her distance on the outskirts of Eldre'Thalas without being so much at risk of being attacked by their new ogre neighbors. Her being so deep within the maze that the Shen'Dralar held their own appartments in was a rarity that put her on edge. There were no simple blue robes she favored more for comfort here but the Frostfire that was her inheritance and far older than even the woman who wore them. At a quick glance it's clear the woman was almost prepared for war. Even still, she did her best to skirt around the more travelled pathways until she deposited herself at the closed stone door of her reason for risking anything at all. She doesn't knock but places her hand just off to one side where she rung the 'doorbell' that was a simple rune. Knocking on stone doors wasn't practical.

Eclo's hollow voice sounded from the other side, thoroughly muffled by the thick stone slab that sat between them. "Come in," was his irritated reply as the door cracked open.

Idril does just that, pushing the door open just enough to get by.

Eclo's residence was more akin to an office--though one grand in scope. Shelves covered each wall and towered over them, with papers and books fluttering overhead like busy birds. Her host was sitting at a desk, quill in hand and scribbling over a scroll. A mound of tomes sat behind him. "What is it?" He was eternally busy.

She knew better than to go exploring and settled for remaining close to the door with her hands loose at her sides. "I need your help. A favor. I need you to get someone out of Eldre'Thalas."

In that moment, all the hustle and bustle of the room came to an abrupt halt. All the books, all the parchment, and the elf's own eyes regarded her with a gaze so pointed that it was a wonder she didn't start bleeding. "Close that door immediately."

Idril had already done just that.

"Just what do you think I'm running here? And who are you to come in and not only ask a -favor- of me, but inadvertently accuse me of -treason-?"

"What I know is that your current track record for bringing back those who are slated for the pylons has been growing more and more faulty these days. That the rumors are you've been letting them go on purpose. As of yet these whisperings haven't reached the ears of anyone with the ability to more fully investigate." She pauses and her tone becomes hard. "I don't know why you've done it, Lord Ilthilor, but who I ask on the behalf of isn't someone in line for the pylon."

"Then let them leave. See how they fare in a world that hates them. I've no reason to stick my neck out any further."

"They're not capable of leaving on their own and nor am I able to guide them. You know how to get them away from Kalimdor. I'm asking that you do."

"Why? Why should I take such a risk? You should've known what questions I'd ask before you even showed up at my door."

"Because you know your remaining time here is limited. I do not want to have to resort to threats but if I must, I will."

"You ask me to help someone you care about in one sentence and threaten me in the next. How about I threaten you? All I need is a body to prove my innocence."

"And all I need is to not return in a timely manner before a handful of letters make their way across Eldre'Thalas. I promise you that what is written within them will attract far more attention than you would like." Her tone turns imploring then. "Please, whatever you require in payment I'll find a way to aquire quickly and quietly. She needs a life outside of the reach of Eldre'Thalas. I don't want to resort to threats. Please, just help us and I'll help you any way I can."

"You should've thought of helping me before you thought of harming me. I'm -much- less inclined to assist you now." He dismisses her with a flick of the wrist before he resumes his writing. "You act as if your words have weight. You killed a few children in an arena."

Idril only pauses for a moment before she kneels before the doorway in silence, still facing him.

He paused to look up. "What're you doing?"

"Please." It's then that she bows with hands pressed neatly to the floor infront of her.

The quill is slammed against the desk in irritation. "Stop. Stop that right now."

She doesn't lift up from from her bow but remains in that perfectly still position.

"Displays of humility might work with the majority of our haughty people, but.." He exhaled sharply and summoned a fluttering piece of parchment down with a beckoning curl of his finger. "I am cut from a different cloth. Stand up. Come here."

Idril lifts up from her kneeling position and nears Eclo's table with tentative steps where she waits.

"Our nation is dying. It is an inevitability, for we are simply unsustainable. We were once the pinnacle of civilization and we've since been reduced to killing ourselves to further.. what? The Highborne agenda? For all the nobility we claim to possess, there is nothing noble about us. We're all rats scrambling to get in the back of the line--the line to meet our maker. The line that's getting shorter by the day."

"A fact we're all very aware of these days."

"A fact we're all aware of but too afraid to acknowledge. We'd rather die slowly than face Tortheldrin." He mirthlessly snickers. "Have you ever wondered how prisons work? How one guard can keep ten, twenty people in line? It's through fear. Twenty people can easily overtake one man--but not if all twenty are afraid to pay the price. We all lament our fate but nobody's willing to change it."

Idril simply bows her head to his words this time. She knew well enough when someone was lecturing.

"Our nation is a prison, with Tortheldrin the guard. And I am tired of being a prisoner--a rat. I'll not wait for the day collectors barge through my door and sacrifice me." He dipped his quill in a nearby ink well. "Why do you think I 'potentially' let people escape?"

"I'd assume two reasons. One, you've obviously ceased to believe in the cause you've been charged with. Two, those you aid escape, should they survive, provide an opportunity for aid for yourself on the outside when the time comes."

"You think us all so selfish." He paused. "But I don't blame you. I have.. shifted in my priorities, yes. My duty was once to my nation, but is now to its people. Truly? All I am trying to do is disperse what seeds remain from our withering tree before it finally dies. A tree that was once splendid and glorious. -That- is the only reason I'm willing to entertain your request. So I hope the seed in question will bear fruit. My days of sewing are numbered."

"If she's able to escape she has many years in front of her. She's not yet reached her first thousand yet." The only way to describe Idril's tone now was demure.

He wets his lips as he prepares to write. "Tell me their name. If I die, it is for the only cause remaining that matters."

Her hesitation was almost imperceptible but it was there before she says, "Elru Relgim."

The name is thusly scrawled upon the parchment before it is thrown off the desk. Rather than flutter to the ground, it returns to the flock above. "So be it."

"What else needs to be done?"

"Nothing from you," he says pointedly as he returns to business as usual.

She's still yet to move. "I need to know a when and where I should have her."

"No you don't."

"Then how will you perform your end of the bargain?"

"I didn't need you before, did I?"

"And how many have come to you before seeking your aid for another you've not seen?"

The elf abruptly stood up, flattening both palms upon the table as his voice took on a much harsher tone. "This conversation is concluded. Not just concluded--but never happened. You are dismissed."

Idril stiffens and she gives a practiced bow. "Elune have mercy up you and everyone else you've touched should you prove yourself false." She lifts up and turns to leave.

"Elune's grace left us long ago," he said as he sat back down. The door opened on its own.

Out she goes.

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#5 The Fang

This particular night Elru was honing her arcane, standing and just barely levitating an inch off the ground, a large rune underneath her and a large rune above her, tracing practical spellwork in the airspace around her, but not casting the actual spells in her enclosed space of a room. Books remain aplenty in her room, largely devoted to her craft but a few odd ones here and there around the fringes.

It'd been quite some time since the attempt on Elru's life and as of yet--none had tried to repeat the process that she was aware of. The moons on this night were both dark and it left a sharp absence that the stars strained to fill. Its in this near darkness that Saeros appears, as was his habit, on Elru's doorway between the outdoors and her room. There was no showmanship tonight. He simply walked up from the courtyard and leaned in a manner likely most comfortable to him in his gilded lower leathers and that white shirt.

Elru tensed up and gripped at her spellwork the moment she had an inkling that someone not Idril was near, but two seconds later she relaxed her hand, as well as her spells, the runes fading out and her bare feet gently landing on the floor. Hands clasping in front of her she turns to face him with a neutral but less wary expression than typical. "Good evening, Kir-Moldir."

As was Saeros's typical attitude he doesn't immediately answer her first, taking his time in looking over what he'd caught her doing though for once he doesn't comment on it. Instead, he looks to her after, "Dress yourself. You're to come with me."

She nods and proceeds to do so, opening her dresser to pick out something appropriate, glancing at Saeros every so often. She doesn't dilly dally, instead grateful that she's allowed to even dress, though if he insists on watching the whole time she'll have her back to him as she gets dressed.

Even while one would expect him to leer or make some sort of a jab as Highborne were ought to do, he spends the time waiting inspecting her rooms' remnant runes.

She doesn't make comment or look wary of him checking those runes, finishing getting dressed in a decent time. The runes are rudimentary practice and foundation for more advanced arcane work, higher applications of manipulating space and the beginnings of manipulating time. The application and inscribing of the runes are a bit shoddy, lacking the perfection that comes from centuries of practice, but they're sound enough that in said centuries that perfection will come.

Once he'd gleaned all he could from them his attention was back on her. It was more than obvious in the lingering silence that Saeros wasn't used to or cared to wait.

Saeros didn't have to wait long and Elru stood before him in a tasteful violet and blue pattern robe, dress slippers and gloves.

He gives her a cursory once over that sized her up in one gesture before he lifted up from the doorway and led the way through Elru and Idril's apartments with what could be considered.. experience. Nevertheless while his strides didn't rush her Saeros doesn't stop once they enter the proper hallways of Eldre'Thalas nor does he wait for her when he happens to take none too few turns into 'solid' walls, some of which tingled restlessly along her skin with the power used to maintain them and to keep those who needn't use them, away.

Elru keeps up with Saeros without complaint and without difficulty. She's not a speed walker, but she's fit enough to keep up with quick strides for a time. She barely falters at having to enter so many false walls, but having been forced through one not long ago the novelty has worn off. Still she casts a wary eye about when she can, as if doubting she has a right to be going where she is, wherever that may be.

Where he led her carried the ever increasing scents of age. Of disuse. The stone here was long cold and they had gone further into the depths of Eldre'Thalas than Elru might have known, or even suspected existed. They pass rooms with their stone doorways long since sealed and yet here the quality of what they walked upon was evident. The walls and floors ceased to be plain stone and gained gilded edges that caught the eye in the few spots where dust had been displaced but eventually the pair comes to their presumed destination in front of one such sealed doors where Saeros smooths bare fingertips over a rune in its arch. It flashes at his touch. Clearly this bit of magic was maintained or simply hadn't deteriorated with age and the massively heavy door swings open at that silent command. The first thing to greet Elru were the sounds of muffled screaming but the next was a near suffocating warmth that beat back the chill in the halls outside. The room was perfectly clean and was a simple square with ample space for long lengths of tables to eat up a full half of the walls, covered in plain sheets to hide bulges that rested on their surfaces beneath. In the middle of the room and suspended from a set of padded manacles bolted into the ceiling with a matching set on the floor was a Kaldorei man, the source of the rhythmic shouting that could only be him trying to speak. As they pass the threshold Saeros's stride loses its urgency and he takes his time moving around the back of the man to retrieve a chair from a small group that had been set off to one side. "I do hope you appreciate the demonstration. I've had to wait a century for the dissenters to finally rally together and chose a leader. I got my go-ahead this morning."

"I.. I see." Elru is slightly disorientated from the long stretch of chill followed by the sudden warmth and well used room, passing her eyes around the area and its features carefully before settling on the man suspended in the middle of the room. "What do you mean dissenters?"

Saeros brings the chair around to where the man was directly facing and sets it, taking a moment to straighten the furniture to his liking before gesturing over with one hand. "I should hope you remember the pylon. There are always those who go against the grain of the powerful and strive to make changes that they don't fully comprehend. Those who do not agree. Unfortunately for them they are on a quickly losing side. Come, sit. Make yourself comfortable."

Elru looks anything but comfortable, not knowing what to expect, but does as suggested, carefully taking a seat and adjusting her legs and hips to indeed be prepared to sit a while. Her life wasn't in danger, so that much tension was absent in her. Still, she frowns at this man, yet another strange man. The last strange man she was this close to she stabbed.

"Meet Lord Ghedian Starsplinter. He has the most fortunate circumstance of being made an example of for his followers." Saeros had wandered off yet again and even with their scant few meetings Elru could tell he was far more animated in the way he was offering her information without her needing to ask. He'd traveled the short distance to one of the covered tables and delicately folded back the cloth that covered this one's surface. What she saw there were.. things she had only read about, if at all. There were devices here that only held one purpose; if how they operated looked more complex. These tools were meant to cause pain. Each was pristine and absolutely clean. "Tell me. What do you think would be the worst fate of a man?"

She frowns deeper at the table and its tools, wide-eyed and a touch frightened, but still she remains where she's seated, glancing up at the man before looking back at Saeros. The fact that Saeros was so forthcoming and at ease was also a little worrisome. "Until I saw what you have there I thought it was death."

"Death, while so potently final, also does not truly inspire fear. When you need to control the actions of the many with the strength of just a few there is little like fear that can achieve that goal. We Highborne are even more intensely selfish with our time and our lives. There is a pride to us that none other can truly match and yet.." He trails off as he goes down the line of tables to carefully expose what remained. There were knives, needles, hammers and chisels. All manner of objects that one could imagine to inflict damage with Saeros had collected into this one space. "We are so easily cowed by our fears. The fear of death, the fear of pain, the fear of change all eat away at what makes us who we are. Has both driven us and forced us to sever our most valuable assets."

"Our... Sever our most valuable assets? What do you mean?" From her tone of voice and speed of speech it could be discerned that Elru didn't want to sound too foolish or dumb, but there was also an openness to whatever the answer may be. Part of it is her never ending thirst to know, but also because of this rare forthcoming opportunity with Saeros. She had certainly never heard him speak like this before.

"In our refusal to give up our addiction for Arcane we've forced ourselves into an impossible situation. We know true greed, true sin, in its myriad forms. There was a choice to be made years ago about the state of Immol'thar, the source of our magic and immortality in Eldre'Thalas, that we wanted for too much and there were so many of us then. A city and all its people still in truth. There is no concept of 'share' among the Shen'Dralar and with stagnation the drive against losing what we were in truth and becoming a lesser people soured into fear. Our own kind became expendable. Those who refused to conform were killed and their magics funneled. Our most valuable asset in these modern days was our strength as a people, a group. Something that was easily sacrificed." Even as Saeros talks Starsplinter turns unnaturally still. His eyes were uncovered and while he'd been looking to Elru he now stares blankly before him. It was a look of a man who are severely miscalculated his situation, and the knowledge of it filled him with a bleak awareness.

Elru fidgets, frowning at the ground slightly near Saeros' feet, taking less heed of the man suspended in front of her. "That is the most critical I have ever heard anyone speak aloud of our society. It is, surprising."

"I occupy a rather unique niche and I do not voice my opinions as openly as I have here. As things stand I am a tool in an arsenal of terror and I've little issue with performing my duties." Saeros had cherry-picked through the tools available to him and brought them close on a low table. "While there are parts of Highborne society I have revered and supported there's just one niggling problem that likes to force its way in any possible direction it can where I'm concerned." He moves in front of Starsplinter then and sharply pats his face with a bare hand. "Don't think I've forgotten how you 'encouraged' your daughter and son both to try and draw my eye." He glances over his shoulder then to look at Elru with an unpleasant smile curving his lips. "If you throw up while this is being done I'll take that as an invitation."

Elru asks with clear uncertainty and apprehension at what was about to happen in front of her. "Invitation to.. what?"

"To join our Lord here."

"You would do that to me for throwing up?"

"Its interesting that you seem to believe that's harsh."

"If that isn't harsh, then what -is- harsh?"

His smile turns up just a bit more at the corners. "Would you like a demonstration?"

Elru opens her mouth, then closes it, then responds. "Preferably not on me."

"Of course not. That would be a waste." He brushes his hand down the front of the hanging Lord. "I'd like a yes."

She looks at the man, and for a moment a bit of pity shows through. "Is he deserving?"

"A false sense of justice doesn't become you, Elru. Let's not play those games."

She almost glares at Saeros, but not quite, taking a breath and letting it out. "Very well. A demonstration."

He didn't need any further encouragement. When Elru had come in Starsplinter had been fully clothed but with small, sharp knife that was quickly a thing of the past. Beneath the robes the man had been sweating and Saeros takes a moment to brush an index finger along the small of his back to catch a drop or two that he brings to his lips for a taste as he restlessly paces around his soon to be victim; as if considering the angle. Even still, Starsplinter shrunk back at any contact, straining to hide his nakedness as so many try to do when both bare and afraid. After a moment's consideration Saeros turns to his 'work table' and retrieves a metal contraption in the shape of a pear. "Appreciate the gag. Otherwise, I let them scream as they will."

Elru finds it difficult to enjoy the anticipation for the display, but she doesn't hide her gaze from what's happening. "This is something you do regularly." It wasn't a question. "Do you enjoy what you do?"

"Astute observation and yes. Sincerely, in fact." There wasn't much grace to the actions from here on out. Saeros knew his craft well and brute force saw that the object he held was shoved up into the man's rear suspended before them. There was no such thing as 'lube' here. Pain -was- the point. And while Starsplinter truly begins to writhe and scream in pitches Elru might not be familiar with coming from a man Saeros kept that near passive enjoyment that one far more expected from one upon hearing a joke told too many times while those around laughed. There was a crank on the end of the device and with a steady hand Saeros turned it quarter by quarter turn.

Elru was only a young lady and even after ripping a woman apart this was something else for her. She cringes and grits her teeth at that most unpleasant of things shoved up the man's rectum. She knew what the pear of agony was, as a passing footnote, but now it was all too real for her. Even so, no bile was rising. If anything she was just as fixated on how pleasant Saeros was being.

He didn't seem intent on stopping even as blood began to drip and then ooze down his hands and the pear finally made a 'click click click' of it having reached its furthest stretching point. An attempt is made to draw the device out but Saeros eventually has to sigh and jerk hard to rip it from the man's body to get the tool free. With hands coated he tosses the device down onto a lower part of the small table he'd brought and picks up a towel that was yellow with age.. or was it? "As I said--It would be a waste to need to use this on you." He wipes the worst of the blood from his hands on the fabric.

"I, er, please explain the logic to me how it would be a waste. ... No demonstration on me, please, just... By Elune." Elru is feeling some sympathetic pain here at seeing that jerked out of the man's rectum. Saeros probably doesn't need to look to know that she's got a clenched ass right now.

He could likely hear it in her voice. Thankfully, the bulk of Saeros's attention was on the wailing and thrashing man before him as he returned, intent on continuing his process, and retrieved a few thin chisels and a hammer. "I'd gone through all the trouble of waiting for you to come of age, sheltered you and your sister from most of the Shen'Dralar plotting on top of providing for your combined needs. To need to discipline you for not being able to keep your gorge down would be terribly disappointing."

"Is this a demonstration of the discipline you would bring on me for that?" Elru doesn't like this room, and doesn't like those thin chisels and hammer, but she still pays attention, if somewhat unhappily.

"The pear was." He looks directly at her then with a smile that flashed white teeth. On any other face and any other situation it was a chiding look.

Elru just stares back balking at the thought. She was looking at Saeros with an unmasked 'Are you shitting me?' expression. She wets her lips and asks evenly, "Would that even heal at all?"

"Its rarely been fatal with a potion involved." He was absolutely unphased by her revulsion.

"A potion. Right, right, a potion..." She nods at the chisels and hammer. "And now what?"

"I go about making an example for Lord Starsplinters' followers to see."

"Well then, carry on." It might be Elru's bundled nerves, it might be an attempt to hold onto some sort of normalcy, or it might be telling of something about Elru's mindset. Whichever it may be, Elru seems more aggrieved and bothered by Saeros' jovial nonchalant take on his task than the actual task subject itself.

From there on things don't improve for both Saeros's victim and likely for Elru's sensibilities. Kaldorei possessed toenails and fingernails both. Long splinters of those metal chisels were hammered beneath the nails before they were slowly ripped out on all twenty locations. The reason for the heat of the room became noticeably apparent when Saeros retrieved a smaller shaker that carried a molten metal that he splattered upon the Lord with a delicate but accurate hand as the droplets seared through, melting into his body. There were whips involved that carried razors on the ends but by the time Saeros finished what was left of what had been a man hung limply in his bonds, numb with agony. And yet.. he didn't seem done. Wiping his hands once more Saeros moves to take the gag from Starsplinter's mouth and while the man was unresponsive--fitted him with another device, one that held his jaws apart. "You do recall the purpose of you witnessing this entire spectacle, do you not?"

Elru has her hands beneath her butt and her feet tucked back under the chair as she looks ill and sweaty, but she did not in fact throw up. Finding herself at a loss for words she shakes her head a bit to answer a tentative no.

He tsks his tongue. "I'm disappointed, Elru. I've a title. Tell me what it is." He lines up a whole new row of tools now. These seemed far different and the metal itself glowed with an inner light. After a few long moments she just might recognize the metal these new tools are made of to be Elunite.

Elru recognizes the Elunite though she doesn't quite parse the tools just yet. She looks to Saeros. "Your title. You are called the Fang. Oh." It dawns on her when she looks at the tools a second time and at the apparatus holding open the man's mouth. "Oh dear."

That spurs a genuine chuckle from him and he spares valuable time on watching her reaction and realization every few moments. "I hope you've got it?"

Oh Elru's got it, and he can see every click and turn of gear as the whole picture sets into place. Little slow on the uptake but Elru's a bright bulb most of the time. "That I did, Kir-Moldir. ... Is this your favorite part?"

"It is my signature." He gives as way of explanation. Things progress quickly and efficiently from there. At one point Starsplinter had possessed a complete face but by the time Saeros was done the lower half of his head was nothing but a wet red-violet ruin lacking a bottom jaw that refused to bleed as one might expect. The floor was smeared in blood but for all the damage Saeros has performed there wasn't -enough- of a bodily response. Perhaps its clear now that he must have drugged the man beforehand. As his final action the Lord's two fangs are gripped with crude pliers, torn out, and Saeros turns towards Elru to offer one of the teeth with the root still attached. "Perhaps you'd like another memento from this."

Elru's got a fist resting over her mouth as Saeros went through the task of removing all those teeth. She blinks at the fang, then looks up at Saeros. "Is this going to be a tradition of ours?"

"Me inviting you to spectate and for you to take a tooth?"

"I meant being given mementos of our times out together, but I suppose that's a more specific qualifier, yes. Odd mementos for odd times out."

"To answer the latter, no. Generally I keep one and deliver the other to a public location. For the former, perhaps." His hands were nothing but slick blood then and the tooth that rested within his cupped palm was none better.

Elru doesn't have a comment for that, but after a moment's silence she offers a palm up. "... What will become of this man now?"

"He'll be dragged to and sacrificed to one of the pylons deeper in the city."

"Publicly, I imagine? He needs to be an example, after all."

Saeros tips the tooth into her hand. "You're thousands of years too late on how to coach me on how best to make a spectacle of this, Elru." He bends at the waist then to put them at a more even height with his once white shirt clinging to his chest where blood has soaked through and stuck.

"I wasn't coaching you, it was a question..." She eyes the tooth in her hand with distaste, but doesn't throw it away or even seem to consider it. "... I'm going to clean this if that's alright."

Saeros nods to her statement but his actions didn't follow along with allowing her to leave just yet. He moves with a deliberate intent to grasp Elru by the face but it wasn't with an expected force, far more gentle than she'd come to expect of him. But perhaps that was the point. With deliberate care he swipes his bloodied thumb over her lips and pauses with the digit frozen there as if hushing her. His attention upon her was noticeably intense.

Elru blinks at Saeros in alarm before maintaining that stare as if blinking would offend him. She doesn't move away or look terribly disgusted at having strange blood smeared over her lips. She simply sits still, frozen under that intensity, waiting, and not speaking while that thumb is pressed there.

After waiting for her response Saeros starts to smirk. This was also before his thumb twitches with movement and parts her lips to slide into her mouth. The taste of blood was immediate and still he waits, likely wanting to see if she could stand the flavor added without heaving.

Elru tenses up as her face scrunches just a tad at the forcing of the taste of blood on her. She looks for a brief moment like she would be sick, throat clenching to indicate such, but a moment was all it was. Distaste was all she had. And still she sits and after this particular experience she goes back to staring right back.

But then Saeros does something she'd probably least expect. He moves in impossibly close and with his finger still in her mouth he kisses her. For a young woman with little to no experience in this particular field it's still clear that he held a particular skill even here. His lips practically melt against her own and his tongue darts out to clean the mess he'd directly left on her face before pressing deeper. He wanted that taste in her mouth for himself.

Elru froze up wide-eyed staring at Saeros and what he was doing, an altogether different kind of tense now. Less disgust and horror and more simply dumbfounded. Also despite the situation it -was- a damn good kiss, even if she never had one like this before. She didn't dare move away, but she didn't have it in her to touch him either. As such, she doesn't stop him from licking her lips clean, or pressing his tongue to mingle with hers. She doesn't quite reciprocate the kiss, but when he does her lips do part the slightest.

Saeros took his time in long, thorough laps of his tongue along just about everywhere one could reach in another's mouth comfortably until he was satisfied there was nothing left. He leans back before removing his thumb and idly sucks that clean too in a brief suckle as he remarks to her. "Go clean the tooth if you must."

Elru stares blankly at Saeros not answering or responding, cheeks flushed, till she gets her wits back and jerks into a straight sitting stance, having been slipping into a more relaxed one in the past few moments for some odd reason. "Right, right, cleaning the tooth..." She clears her throat and stands back up, clutching the tooth with a shaky hand. "Will I be able to make it back out unmolested?"

"Leaving me entirely so soon?" He asks with one eyebrow lifted.

"Er... I don't mean to offend, but what more is there for us to do? The demonstration is over, is it not?" She doesn't quite look at him.

There's a long silence between them until Saeros eventually muses, "I suppose it is. Run along then--and try not to stray."

"Of course, of course.." She turns and takes a few steps out the way they came, pauses, then turns back to face Saeros fully and inclines her head just slightly with a neutral expression, though still slightly shaken at the edges, and still a flush to her cheeks. "Thank you again for educating me, Kir-Moldir."

He'd already turned towards his victim and for all intents and purposes dismissed her. There's no response.

She glances at the victim again, then at Saeros' back, then leaves at a steady pace. She cleans the tooth eventually.

[agameoftangledwebs-blog]

#4 Cutting One’s Teeth

Elru's trips to the various libraries available to her have increased in number ever since becoming better acquainted with Saeros. Tonight was a night she was finally returning a larger stack of books and tomes, ideally in exchange for more. She headed down an open walkway more hurried than usual today, keeping the books floating aloft beside her as she briskly strolled. She'd been down these halls before and their worn stone was a familiar sight. What was also familiar was the fact that there were no places hide along the way, no strange bends or corners. That's what made Elru being jerked to such a sudden stop by a clawed hand clenched into her hair such a shock. The arm that held her quickly jerked her back off her feet and -into- the wall. Elru gives a startled scream that may have been cut off by the time she got pulled into the wall. Completely unprepared she likely couldn't muster up a proper defense but in the back of her mind she always did suspect that such an attack would come, just not so soon. Flaring up in arcane she lashed back at her assailant with broad blasts of arcane while trying to resist being dragged. Elru's quick flashes of Arcane glance off similar sparks of wards that were floating invisibly around her assailant who hisses and viciously kicks her in the lower back with a pointed shoe. "-Stupid- fucking chattel!" Clearly it was a feminine voice she wouldn't recognize. Despite her struggling she's hauled further back into the side hallway they were in that was lit with an eerie, source-less, blue light. Elru arcs her back and shrieks at the pointed kick digging into her lower back, but something the voice said set off something inside her. Giving a very unladylike growl she digs her heels into the ground best she can and lets out a more crude but more concentrated outlet of arcane that spreads out from a lower center of gravity, forcing them both up from the force. "I am NOT chattel!" With that the hand in her hair is ripped away, likely with a few strands to a clump at most as they're separated. A snarled string of curses is heard down the hallway where the woman, when Elru looks it's clear by her dress she was Shen'Dralar, was gaining her feet with fury painted thick across her aristocratic features. She wouldn't have long to react as in the next moment where one woman stood there were four, all identical, all starting to cast at the same time. Half laying on the ground clutching at her head she glares back with a fury matching the other's. She didn't care at this moment if this woman was Shen'Dralar, so angry and wired has she been these past weeks. Seeing the one woman become four, herself an open target she lets off two arcane spells down the hall, but not directly at the four, rather to pulverize the marble walls, pelting with broken bits and briefly creating an obscuring dust. It was as straight as hallways got and despite the fact that the woman's vision was obscured her spells, and those of her mirror images, head straight for where Elru last was laying on the ground before her in four precise blasts. Those four precise blasts didn't even hit her as her body faded in motes of arcane, briefly shifting to the nether for precious few seconds as she got her bearings and charged her own spell. Regardless, as the fury begins to fade she does take a cautious step back. With the lack of any significant cries of pain dozens of smaller arcane missiles make their way from the other side of the clearing haze of stone dust that coat the tunnel from the head down. It's obviously clear now. This woman wasn't under some sort of order to bring her unharmed--this was an attempt on her life. Elru didn't know if her phasing into the nether would last long enough to avoid all the missiles headed her way. Doubtless she'd get hurt by some. Regardless, after another moment she unleashes her spell, an arcane orb that fills most the hallway headed down the way of the other caster. She'd be rewarded with the sounds of multiple screams as her orb finds a couple targets and brings them down. Unfortunately, it was impossible to tell if it was the one she most needed put to the ground. Elru could have taken this moment to run, as the false wall couldn't have been that far off, but the adrenaline from the forced battle on top of the rage-driven bloodlust, and the fatigue from a week of hard studying, has her forgoing the conventional cautious way of battle. Knowing where she heard the scream from she takes another couple steps back, then activates a Blink spell, not back the way she came, but directly forward right on top where she calculates the other to be. Where Elru comes throat to cold edge of a blade. A sword to be exact. The now rather haggard looking woman was breathing hard but her grip and the resolve Elru could see in her silver eyes was frighteningly steady. Elru stares back wide-eyed and still, but to her credit didn't collapse or do anything further rash. However one of her hands and her magic are already flexed and at the ready to unleash more magic up close and personal, her other hand resting tightly against her robe on her side towards her back. Elru was afraid, but she wasn't going to give in to that. Gritting her teeth and slowly settling into a glare again she quietly says, "Go ahead and cut. If you dare." And somehow, she grows a grin, almost maddened. "Cause do I have a surprise for you if you do." Instead of cutting the woman narrows her eyes at the challenge and jerks forward. With surprising finesse the motion doesn't jiggle the weapon at Elru's throat but as a cold clasp of metal locks onto her forearm an icy lack of magic seeps up from her limb. It might be dangerous to look but by assumption alone.. what she'd been fixed with was some form of anti-magic cuff. That doesn't seem to bother Elru that much, though her eyes do flick briefly to her forearm before looking right back at the other woman. Up close it's also clear how much Elru is sweating from all this. Still she maintains that grin, and leans away ever so slightly and slowly. Only to find the sword following closer, pressing harder. "You don't even know why you're here and what's happening. Do you?" The Shen'Dralar mocked. "Your intention is more than clear by now. It's almost childish. But, I'm also actually relieved." And she does tense up a little bit less, looking more tired now, still clutching her side a bit, letting the blade follow her neck, not that she had a choice, as she eased back and to the side a step nearer to a wall. "If you keep shuffling I'll run you entirely through and spill that -filthy- half-blood across the walls." She hisses. "The fact that you're allowed to breathe insults everything it means to be Highborne. You should have been sacrificed to the pylons in your mother's belly." She stops shuffling, but just stares at the woman for a moment with a mixed expression, followed by a stifled snort and a strained not-smile. Nerves, adrenaline, and anxiety towards impending death aside, in a brief moment Elru genuinely found something funny. Which only seemed to anger her further. "Laugh at your death if you want, filth. I do all Highborne a great service by stopping your bloodline here. What a great mockery that is! A Peasant with mud following through her veins to breed with near gold." Just over the woman's shoulder and quite a ways down the hall does a figure appear from around one of the side entrances. Even at the corner of Elru's eyes those gilded leathers are familiar, gold indeed. However.. the figure stops and likely stares. Not immediately offering aid. Elru can't help it now. She lets those little chuckles out, grinning still. "And yet, this -peasant-, with mud flowing through her veins, as you say, is apparently worth enough time and energy for you to commit common back alley skulduggery no different from that the peasants do. Someone with more grace would have finished this much, much sooner." "Even bitches with broken back legs know how to bite. It's a peculiar type of irony, don't you think? You weren't selected for any further purpose other than to grind a knife further into an already festering wound. Idril was lucky she didn't face the Fang in his entirety but became a game that kept us entertained for a few thousand years. That was until she snapped and charred one of our own alive." As she spoke the figure takes a few utterly silent, measured steps towards them, walking with an oddly patterned gait as if he were stepping over cracks on the floor in some child's game. "It's time for the distraction to end and for you to face your fate with Immol'thar." Elru lets her chuckles die away as she straightens a bit, that blade tipped uncomfortably pressed to her neck but not so much to pierce. A dying grin which settles into a humored if bitter smirk at the woman that becomes clear Elru holds in more and more little regard. "You're probably completely right, but you've forgotten something important. An irrefutable fact of reality, actually." "Which is what, slave?" "This distraction? This slave? This knife in my sister's side? Is also the property of Saeros Kir-Moldir. I do not live, or die, without his say." "What the Fang does not know will not hurt him. When he's surrounded by his brood of pure blooded children he'll forget this shameful little experiment in slumming around with the unworthy." By now, the distance between the pair and their added watcher had become increasingly short. "Oh, he'll know." Her face screwed up with a sneer only to freeze when Saeros's voice came from behind her. "Nsaora," Even to Elru's ears it was strange. He practically crooned the words like one would to a lover. "I'd no idea you'd felt so strongly for me." Wisely or not she doesn't move to look at him but holds her stance. "My Lord. I'd advise you not to come any closer." "Why is that?" "I am prepared to die to finish my task." "I see. I take it that you are here at another's behest. It doesn't seem very advantageous to you, Nsaora. Such a long life to end here for the cause of another?" Elru also doesn't look to Saeros but keeps her eyes on the woman Nsaora as well as maintaining her own stance. Her lips murmur and move and her throat constricts as if she's itching to say something, but doesn't. Nsaora's eyes narrow on Elru's trembling lips as she replies. "The only reason I haven't slain her where she stands is because I want Thelora to suffer. She is who put me up to this. I believe in the ideal but not in that fat whore's gain from it." "I'll remember. But, before you dirty yourself why don't you look at me while I'm speaking to you? I know how you've watched me during ritual." For any sane individual the words were entirely irrational. Look away when you were prepared to die? And yet she does. Albeit it's with great hesitance and visible confusion. On the edge of Elru's senses she can feel the rune so close to her feet and gather tastes of it's lure. It wasn't quite lust, no, but it was heavy infatuation. "P-Perhaps.. One last look. Something to savor." It's when Nsaora's face is turned away that Elru gives form to her words, if not sound, lips moving to those of a foreign tongue, but one articulated much more clearly, and with a hate directed at the women before her. "Fool I may be, still I ask for the honor." Saeros doesn't so much as look at Elru as he replies, smiling softly at Nsaora in a way that eased his stern visage and could almost convince one that he might be capable of true emotion such as joy, love, or laughter. His words and their intent spat in the face of all that as he replies. "Any night now." And with that the hand that was clutching Elru's side whipped out in front of her in a close arc before she lunged forward and hammer-fist drove her keepsake dagger right into the woman's chest. Graceless but still fast from lack of hesitation, she would drive that blade in again and again if she were allowed to, heedless of all the blood it spilled, giving a little spiteful cry each time the dagger goes. A rune of such insubstantial strength as the one Saeros had apparently created from a distance breaks immediately upon those first stabs of pain. Nsaora turns with blade in hand with a screech of her own before the strikes fumble her aim and give Elru a long slice from the side of her ribs down to the outside of her thigh. She tries to cast, manages the words that might have saved her, only to find them lacking any sort of strength. Saeros had just finished a gesture. Elru doesn't fall back from the slice along her side, maybe doesn't even notice it, as she practically tackles the woman, pinning her down in a straddle, staring down at the woman with near manic glee and grin as she grips and leans into the woman's throat while stabbing her with more steady but just as harsh stabs over and over. She keeps eye contact with the Highborne all the while, making it clear it was this peasant that was doing this to her, punctuating the point. Attempts by Nsaora to resist or push back are overpowered by this point. Acting as physical as she is, Saeros would probably notice the slightly less soft build on Elru. She's added exercise to her daily routine. Unfortunately for the Highborne there wouldn't be much more opportunity to resist even as she tries to buck and struggle. The actions grow weaker as her violet blood blends in with her robes and smears across the floor. If Elru kept going no doubt the meat she was turning Nsaora into would splatter her entirely. Saeros kept his distance. Elru is relentless. Even once the point of death is reached she doesn't quite stop. Her neck gets slashed, her guts ripped one way then the other, sending blood streaks three different ways. Finally she loses grip on her blade from the slickness of all the blood and gives the corpse a few pounds of her fist, heaving breaths from the moment's exertion and from the overall attempt on her life. Hunching over, her whole body trembling, she briefly looks like she wants to vomit but holds it back somehow. Instead she settles for sobbing, hands gripping the dead woman's robes for purchase. It's not till that point when Saeros speaks up. "Well, I wasn't expecting you to become an animal." There was no emotion in his voice now. Sniffling, struggling with words a moment as she clears her throat and settles herself down as she stares down at the mess she made, she manages to respond, "I wasn't expecting it, either. ... How embarrassing." And with that moment over there is in fact shame displayed on her face. Shame, though not regret. Saeros gives a low, guttural sound in his throat that was nearly a hum. "See to cleaning yourself up. And don't forget about those books you scattered in the hallway. Some of them are rather hard to replicate." Elru takes a couple seconds to respond and take a deep shaky breath before she gives a nod. "Of course, Kir-Moldir. This won't take long." Closing her eyes, an orb of enchanted cleansing water forms into being just beside her, growing in size and volume as she carefully stands up, her robes aglow as her stains start to flake and dissipate. "Idril can patch up the rest. Leave the body for me, mind you. I'll see to it that it gets to the right place." She nods again, cleaning herself and the corridor up, not even taking half a minute to do so as she applies the water in quick precise applications. For good measure she even runs it over herself, giving her form and hair a drifting underwater look for just a couple seconds, less to clean and more for a dunking head in water of sorts before she near finishes. "You were right, Kir-Moldir." "About what in particular?" "A dagger IS a terrible weapon for a magus." He lifts both his eyebrows. "I'm so glad you see the obvious logic to it now." "If only I had enough wisdom to not have to take such lessons to heart the hard way. Tch! I'm tired of..." she trails off and the heated glare directed at nothing trails off as well. She picks up her dagger and tucks it away, giving the body one last glance before turning to look the way she had first come. She takes a step, then pauses, stops, and turns to look back at Saeros. "Even if it wasn't for my sake, thank you for saving me." "I've a need for you." Is his only reply. She hums at that, then moves to leave. Uninterrupted, she'd pick the books up and return them, though, not take out any new books just yet. That waits till the following evening. Should she go back to check the corpse and all traces are gone.