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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura


    stillwater;
    #1
    She spun the stars on her fingernails
    It seems wrong to be going to Sylva. The memories harbored in these stark woods haunted her for weeks, months. Images flashed across her closed eyes like lightning, replaying that could have been and what truly happened. Her body quaked then everything went black. Where he had touched her burned like liquid fire, melting through her skin and seeping into her veins, painful, agonizing.

    It awakens that subdued creature inside of her, the one that she tethered to the dark crevices of her soul when she last left these shadowed woods.

    In reality, her visit has a purpose: to advise of political ties. She needs to update her subkingdom on their diplomacy and to see for herself how they are surviving under the watchful eye of the faeries. This is what she tells herself, but Nayl also understands how precarious this venture may become, as it always becomes. The beat of her heart thunders against her chest. She isn’t afraid, is she? She can’t help but question the storm of emotions that are sinking rusty nails into her thoughts, poisoning her. Anger, excitement, elation, dread, hesitation. To claim only one is impossible. Each corner of her mind – and heart – are screaming and rattling their cages. In reality, she doesn’t know how to think or how to feel, but she is here.

    During her musings, Nayl traversed across sand dunes and grassy hills and barren plains until arriving here. The trees tower high above her and she shudders as an autumn breeze whispers across her skin the instant she steps into the shadows.

    But, of course, she doesn’t stop there.

    This is one of two subkingdoms – her subkingdoms – forged by friends and trustees. Her relations are spreading their hands across Beqanna slowly, taking more influence and a stronger grasp on this renovated world. It electrifies her and empowers her, and so she doesn’t stop at the edge of this second home. Instead, she ventures far deeper than she had before. This time, she follows the pungent odor that she had nearly forgotten. Djinni had visited her in Nerine, but there was still the matter of Stillwater whose water wasn’t actually very still during the previous breeding season.

    His cave looms ahead and she can hear the faint drip… drop of water against the pool’s surface. She doesn’t step in. She stops yards away from the mouth as it yawns open for her, luring her into more mistakes and regrets.




    Nayl
    covet and myrina's creation
    Reply
    #2
    Stillwater
    I must be dreaming.

    Barely a hushed murmur in wonder as he slid from the shadows behind her, trailed so slowly down her body with a bare inch between her hot skin and his mouth. He took his time, sucking in that scent that had been missing from his life for so long now. Intoxicating, that sense of remembering just how close they'd come to something powerful and explosive. He didn't touch her now, as he hadn't touched her then, ghosting over her hip, lingering in the soft hollow beside it. Why he bothered respecting that unspoken rule of hers after he knew she'd had a man, was beyond him. Had a child. Old habits, and all. Or amusement. Or the tease to his senses.

    She'd always been such a damn tease.

    A dream wouldn't be this real, he thought dimly as his mouth drifted to her shoulder, the low start of her hair. A vision wouldn't have a pulse so tempting, ticking in the graceful neck he hovered over, wisely avoiding the temptation of her throat as he lingered at her cheek, the curve of her jaw. So close. He should just touch her, just finally touch her for the first time. But that hadn't been his obstacle to overcome, but hers. One she'd clearly managed to work out for herself. With another man. One he knew, even. One he'd lived near for a time. Did she know?

    It amused him. To think, that in some ways, she had taken his likeness to her bed. The full black of her man that preferred the darkness of a cave, his solitude, his quiet and steady presence. Didn't that bother her at all? Or did she imagine it was him riding her hips instead?

    He smiled smoothly, a perfect curve on a flawless mouth, as was the attractive nature of his creature. How good to see you, he commented quietly, adding an emphasis on the word. Good to see her, but so much better to smell her, feel her heat again, taste her fragrance in the air. He'd forgotten until just that very moment that they had parted on bad terms. It had slipped his mind completely, so focused and intent on drinking her in without touching her. Ah well, this was better than trying to remember what had gone wrong so long ago.

    Something I can help you with? he asked kindly, only the barest hint of suggestion, his deepwater eyes diving into the wildfire of hers. She had come to him rather than Djinni. Perhaps there was more than just politics in this clandestine visit.
    come down to the black sea swimming with me
    go down with me, fall with me, lets make it worth it
    Reply
    #3
    She spun the stars on her fingernails
    She didn’t forget; she couldn’t forget. That turbulent farewell that left fire in the pit of her stomach and poison embedded on her tongue. It was a memory that still frequented her mind – angered her – but she always found ways to subdue it. The last time she saw Sylva’s trees was the first time she touched a male – enjoyed him – and curled into him. Her manner to cope with the rage had been to melt into Lior, to satisfy that thirst and curiosity. When his skin warmed hers, she wondered briefly if she would regret the decision, but she hadn’t. She still doesn’t. They’ve since coupled again, crumbling in the face of temptation to give birth to a female heir. The fleeting thought sends a chill down her spine, but when she blinks, she sees Stillwater and she contemplates whether it was his hovering breath that actually incited the shiver.

    He doesn’t hesitate to approach her and to breathe her in. Nayl’s own nostrils quiver when she draws in the scent that has been gone for so long. Years. She avoided him for two years after leaving Sylva’s borders.

    The smell of him is a raging memory. It stabs into her again and again. At first there is happiness, trust, temptation, but then it swirls into anger and frustration. It fuels her to almost leave, to leave him forever with a bitter memory, but then she remembers why she is here, and she reminds herself that she came to him and not Djinni. He has seemingly forgotten their last meeting. His lips are dangerously close to her skin, feeding her with the allure he once had on her.

    Another tremble traces down her body, her autumn eyes staring ahead, not yet having even looked at him. ”Unlikely,” she responds with a voice of hardened steel, ”I would think I’d be the last one you’d ever want to see.” For a long few breaths, she lets him nearly taste her. His lungs drunkenly swallow her scent. She almost leans into the touch, almost sates the underlying curiosity that has been submerged beneath the surface for years.

    Something I can help you with? He asks, and suddenly she cranes away from him and nips the air next to his face.

    Nerine. Politics. That’s why she is here.
    But is she lying to herself?

    Castile. Lior.
    She is wanting to be touched, but now she wonders by whom.

    ”I’m checking on my subkingdom,” she forces herself to say before she can take it back and hesitate under his heavy stare. ”And to advise you that I have a second. They will be another alliance for you.” Politics, she reaffirms to herself. That’s why she is here. Politics.


    Nayl
    covet and myrina's creation




    I just... don't even know lmao
    Reply
    #4
    Stillwater
    "Unlikely,"  her steely voice commented, standing stiff and still as she refused to look at him. He continued his trail of her body, her scent, aching to reach out and finally touch her. But he wouldn't. What had started as a weird little quirk of hers, a self-imposed wall of safety, was now the fence he held to keep them apart from each other. "I would think I'd be the last one you'd ever want to see."

    You'd be wrong, he said simply without looking to her face, his voice hard and eyes still drinking in this sculpted body before him that he hadn't seen for years now. Even after childbirth, she remained as smooth and firm and captivating as she had been before. It wasn't that way for all women, her knew, but it figured that it would be for her. Typical.

    Or immortal.
    Hm, curious.

    Something I can help you with, he asked as he leveled with her, shoulder-to-shoulder with a gap of space between them. She reeled back and away, her teeth snapping at the air next to his face. He remained where he was without flinching, his smile growing and eyes darkening. He wasn't afraid she would bite him, he knew she wouldn't. That would require touching him, and she'd never do that. Amusement glittered in his dark eyes but he said nothing.

    "I'm checking on my subkingdom. And to advise you that I have a second. They will be another alliance for you."

    Boring.

    He was bored already and reminded of the time he'd followed her to Pangea to witness just the same dull chatter. These creatures loved to speak of kingdoms and politics, as if such things made them superior to their peers that all talked and acted just like them. They were all the same. Just fodder, really. Talking fodder.

    He peered at her with his perfect smile, indulging her need to raise herself above others where she was untouchable, always untouchable. A queen, an empress, a ruler of many now. It didn't make a difference to him, he could still never have her. So he stood complacent and still, played his part as some sort of king in the palm of her hand at least for the time being. Did she know he'd been trapped here, or did she think he went willingly to be at Djinni's every beck and call?

    That didn't matter either, though. Djinni got lucky -or unlucky- and captured far more than she had thought. She knew it now, to some extent. So rarely came near him, it felt like. He'd bred a monster into her and tried to kill her all in the same day. Captured more than she bargained for with this decorative chain at his wrist.

    Does this new kingdom have a name? Has Djinni already become familiar with them?

    He didn't step toward her, though it was tempting. How interesting it would be to drift closer and closer until she forced them apart again. Maybe one day she wouldn't fight it anymore. Maybe one day she would take it herself. His heart tripped eagerly at the idea of it, but he knew it would probably never happen. She hadn't passed that invisible barrier before when they were so much closer, more intimate with each other, and she never would. Disappointing.

    Was this really all she wanted to talk about? She had always been so much deeper than this, and why not just reach out to Djinni? A game in patience, then, to see where he falls in this.
    come down to the black sea swimming with me
    go down with me, fall with me, lets make it worth it
    Reply
    #5
    She spun the stars on her fingernails
    The muted hints of age don’t escape her notice. It’s in the way he looks at her, the way his chiseled muscles ripple beneath his skin as he edges tantalizingly close. ”Stillwater,” she breathes his name unconsciously, her eyes shutting beneath the veil of hair – her facial shield in times like this. Unfortunately, Nayl cannot hide the quickening of her pulse, but she can easily mask what curiosity branches through her behind a face of steel. Her lips are pursed into a thin line and her eyes flash ravenously as he looks at her, taking in the sight of her hungrily, and drunkenly breathing in her scent. She had already done that when she first arrived.

    ”No name that I know of yet, but soon it will be announced, I imagine,” his question pulls her from the lull of her thoughts where something much darker lurks. The ferocity that she shared with him has been suppressed in the dark crevices of her mind for the last couple of years. It growls to life now as his hot breath fans across her skin, distracting her from the matter of diplomacy.

    His musky scent reminds her of what they were, of the tumultuous storm they were together, all while still in the confines of Nerine. They were dangerous then, even without ever having touched. She wants to be powerful, to be dominant, but so does he. Had they held one another – fucked one another – it would not have been a passionate love; it would have been an atomic bomb, destructive. They would have hurt each other trying to overpower the other.

    But she didn’t have her magic back like she does now.

    Her tongue rolls across her lips thoughtfully, and then, as quick as a heartbeat, she is facing him. ”At times I’ve wondered what would have happened had you not come here with Djinni,” at first she was angry, but then she was forgiving to have had him stolen from her grasp. ”But I’m more powerful now,” she finds enjoyment in admitting this. A fleeting grin touches the edges of her mouth. ”More dangerous.” But a part of her knows that he is, too. There is a reason that he smells faintly of women, but more strongly of himself. They’ve come and gone like the seasons, much like her.


    Nayl
    covet and myrina's creation
    Reply
    #6
    Stillwater
    She breathed his name.
    Her pulse quickened.
    He was attracted to it all, and he tried to meet her eyes behind that curtain of dark hair.

    "No name that I know of yet, but soon it will be announced, I imagine."
    Her heart really wasn't in this conversation, was it? It was terribly boring. Not at all like their other talks, but he could play. For a while, maybe.

    He took another step closer, his breath rolling across the curve of her bare shoulder. Couldn't help it, really. He would swear she reflected his lure back at him somehow. It was maddening, and yet somehow amusing. Bittersweet, in its way. Like a game. As though he were trying to outwit himself. Then she swerved to face him and he straightened.

    "At times I've wondered what would have happened had you not come here with Djinni."  He was annoyed at the implication that he'd had a choice, but she must not have known the truth. So he said nothing. Maybe that knowledge would be of use someday, but it wasn't time to play that card just yet. "But I'm more powerful now." A brief smile flashed across her lips, while his face remained expressionless, watching indifferently as he tried to puzzle out her angle. "More dangerous," she added.

    Ah, a threat.

    His lips curved in a slow smile, and his head tilted just slightly, black hair falling over one eye. Something you'd like to do to me, then? he asked smoothly, such a quietly sweet challenge. He stepped deliberately forward again, his head reaching precariously towards her neck and shoulder as her body heat warmed the space at his chest. So close to touching. Why did he push them this way? Couldn't help it. Curiosity. Intrigue. He still couldn't take her, so why not?

    Got something on your mind, Nayl?
    come down to the black sea swimming with me
    go down with me, fall with me, lets make it worth it
    Reply
    #7
    She spun the stars on her fingernails
    He knows that she isn’t here for solely political reasons. When he looks at her he can see her wall begin to crumble – pebbles fall away, nothing yet larger – and her eyes flicker away in attempt to conceal what truly ravages her mind.

    Naturally, she had been angry when his post in Nerine was abandoned. Djinni had told her the news, but Nayl didn’t question whether it was his motives or hers; she trusts the genie and her decisions. It was a benefit for the kingdom, no? Days had often passed that the Queen contemplated whether it was his choosing to leave or not.

    But she is too proud – too arrogant – to want the answer. Even in this moment, years later, she doesn’t know the truth.

    While her thoughts wax and wane with her steadied breaths, Nayl reminisces of the sexual tension that bound her to Stillwater. Something was there, lurking beneath the surface, but she had been too afraid to exploit it. Now, now when she is fearless, she finds herself tethered to Lior. Of course, he crosses her mind, even now. When she looks toward her exit it’s as though she can smell him, feel him, taste him. But then with another breath, he is gone, and Stillwater is in his place.

    His hot breath pulls her from her musings. With a mild stare, she regards him with a half-hearted grin. ”Perhaps,” she whispers into the space between them, quiet enough to not disturb the world around them. His lips hover along her shoulder – wanting, threatening – and she shudders with a slow blink, but then her gaze levels on his again, fire licking her irises. ”You’ve hurt some women,” she remembers the metallic odor that lingered on Djinni; it was blood – perhaps both of theirs mixed together – but Nayl didn’t pay it any mind. His scent enveloped her, smothered her, and it churned the gears in the Queen’s mind, but still, she said nothing until now.

    ”I wonder how well you are able to tolerate pain,” she murmurs, her forelock cascading down the length of her pretty face, ”if you can handle repercussions.” A cruel smile touches her lips then and a new blaze of fire gleams in her eyes.



    Nayl
    covet and myrina's creation
    Reply
    #8
    Stillwater
    She looked to the exit, her mind a little too distant for his liking.

    "Perhaps," she whispered, turning back to him. His mouth drifted closer, closer to that seductive curve of shoulder, his breath warm against her skin. Mmm, he loved the heat rising from her, reaching for him. Wanting him.

    Doesn't it affect her? Being so near to each other again. Did she miss it? Hadn't it been the two of them from the start? When he'd returned to Nerine just as the castle fell, as he'd predicted it would. He watched her challenge for her crown, and win it. Stood behind her rise to power, comfortably in the background until she was blatantly disrespected by her own people. And now they were here again, alone together again. So close it was pulling at him. Was that her pulse ticking just a little quicker?

    Or his?

    The fire of her eyes locked to the deepwater of his, practically hissing with steam every time they met this way. With a hunger driving him closer, and a perfect smile arching flawless lips, water slipping silently down his sides, dripping from his curled hair.

    "You've hurt some women."

    Have I, he asked absently, his deep voice low and smooth as his eyes traced down her face. Did she mean their hearts, or the taste of them? His Luster was gone, and he doubted Nayl knew of her. Wasn't coming back, a truth that irritated the dark spirit in him to a tight anger, pushing on him from the inside, expanding and expanding and barely contained. Frustrated with himself. For letting her go? For not killing her? For not keeping her? Didn't matter.

    Dark blue gaze explored her cheek, her attractive mouth, her tasteful lips. Did it bother her that she was taken now? Claimed by some man. She'd never wanted that for herself before. Could she even sense his-- No, that didn't matter either.

    And then the others. He shouldn't even have to wonder if she meant his craving. They should never have lived for it to even be a flicker of thought in anyone's minds. You bite, you kill. That was the way it worked. And yet he'd broken that for so many as of late. Remedying that meant he'd have to kill Djinni. Have to kill Luster. Have to kill Karaugh. Although undoubtedly delicious, none of that sounded all that appealing to him. Not yet.

    "I wonder how well you are able to tolerate pain. If you can handle repercussions."
    He stared at those lips as they snaked into something dark and dangerous. Back to the threats, then, was it? Lazily, leisurely, his gaze slowly wandered back up her face to her fire-eyes again. His mouth slowly curved into it's own smile, decidedly sweeter than hers, softer. Nayl.. he whispered, a familiar heat in his eyes despite the fact she was threatening him. He gravitated a single step closer, but stopped.

    His expression blanked and his eyes dimmed as he searched her face silently. Whatever they once had seemed to be withered and gone, dried up and crushed to dust. It was a long moment before he took a small, deliberate step back, opening himself. So you've come to hurt me then, he stated quietly. Not a question. She had made it clear enough, hadn't she? There was nothing left between them, and she hadn't come for politics. She'd come for this, to hurt him. Punish him for things she believed he did, and it probably didn't matter what he said on the matter.

    So he waited for it to come.
    come down to the black sea swimming with me
    go down with me, fall with me, lets make it worth it
    Reply




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