Lore: Upon The Heels of War

Post by **Soran Nightblade** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 10:21 pm

Soran disrobed and turned the water on, jumping in without waiting for it to heat up. As soon as a sense of privacy came over him, though, he took on a serious look. He washed his skin and hair briskly, then leaned forward on his palms against the shower wall and let the water fall over him. Closing his eyes, he just stayed there for about ten minutes. The water heated up and grew cold again by the time he twisted it off. With a deep breath, he toweled off and, like Rai and Mizuki, ran into the dilemma of having nothing clean to wear. Clean wasn't normally an issue to him, but he was interacting with royalty here.

In the end, he wrapped one of the dry towels around his waist. It hung to about his knee, and seemed suitable for now. With a click, he turned the know and walked back out into the main room to find Rai and Mizuki cuddled up on the couch. "We may need some clothes tomorrow," he said.

Mizuki · Post by **Mizuki** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 10:30 pm

Mizuki smiled, admiring Soran's form and the tantalzingly low towel wrapped about his waist. And yet such things must be ignored. Her cheeks reddened and she turned her face away modestly. 'You're the same way,' she told herself, 'No reason it get all jumpy when Soran's like that as well.' She motioned for him to sit beside her as Rai cuddled up in her own lap.

"I'll see to the new clothing tomorrow morning," Mizuki said idly, admiring Soran with a sidelong glance.

Post by **Soran Nightblade** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:28 pm

Soran wanted to ask how Mizuki intended to find them clothing, but didn't push it. The space next to her on the couch looked a lot more intriguing. He sat down next to her, and though it took a moment's conscious thought to decide how, his arm found its way around her shoulder and his body fit in against hers. For the elf who was for once, too exhausted to have the slightest hesitation about such intimacy, the position was almost too comfortable to be real. He leaned his head so that his cheek brushed her hair, taking in the familiar scent and presence of the people he loved.

Soran looked over and noticed the book he'd taken before sitting on the end table next to him. It had slipped his mind completely, but now he reached for it, tracing his thumb across the cover to observe its title. It appeared to be a biography, though not of anyone he'd ever heard of. Ighten's history was difficult to learn from Arken's libraries, no matter how many books he'd read. A woman wearing a warrior's suit of arms stood valiantly on the inside cover, her long sword pointing to the table of contents on the next page.

Mizuki · Post by **Mizuki** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:28 pm

Mizuki looked inside the book, staring at the front page while she stroked Rai's head comfortingly. "The Queen?" Mizuki inquired. It would've had to had been a younger portrait of her, but it did in fact look like her.

Post by **Soran Nightblade** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:45 pm

"Not the current Queen..." Soran mused as he analyzed the prologue. "Her grandmother. Queen Ighten." She seemed interested in it, but it was hard to read from the same book. He glanced at Mizuki as if considering something, and cleared his throat quietly. He began reading, in a calm, steady voice.

"Queen Ighten was a woman who had been bred for royalty. She did not know how to get her hands dirty. Nonetheless, she herself walked and lived among the peasants, lifting stone after stone to build a wall around the city and raising the confidence and morale of her people. She also helped build the Palace, half of which still stands today.

"Since a good number of Ighten’s soldiers had been killed in the war, Queen Ighten reformed the laws and created a division in the army for women, previously banned from military service, to fight. It was called the Queen’s Maidens. Originally, it was open to any woman old enough to fight. But thanks to the war, there were plenty of orphan girls and there had to be a place for them, so the orphans were sheltered in the castle and trained to fight from a very early age, becoming what amounted to the Queen’s highly loyal personal guard."

Mizuki · Post by **Mizuki** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:56 pm

Mizuki felt Rai's body slacken and relax with sleep, her own body was doing it was well as she listened to Soran's voice. She lay her head on his shoulder gently and closed her eyes, just listening and with her other hand, trailing back and forth on Soran's thigh sleepily. Soran's voice was like a lullaby and it soon sent her into a dream where she experienced the past. She saw the old Queen building alongside peasants, then a devastating war and suddenly herself she saw. She was pointing her father's sword towards the sun and black winged people flew overhead, blotting out the sun. Soran was there, and Rai... but it wasn't Rai, she was much older. And Blade, who fought off the vicious onslaught of the Arken army with a reckless abandon. Then suddenly nothing.

...But she would not remember this dream in all entirety when she awoke...

Post by **Emora Deen** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:33 pm

Rai yawned and stretched for a moment as she had come back awake. She glanced around the room, at first she didn't know where she was. Then, she remembered and with a sigh rested back against her mother, falling gently a sleep again.

* * *

Tenele's eyes felt heavy and she blinked slowly as she stared up at the ceiling with the strongest urge to take a nap. However, she wanted to find clothes first, something to sleep in besides just the cotton robe that was wrapped around her.

Too tired to even move she settled with the fact she would find the clothes later. She rolled over onto her side, hugging Vlad's arm to her gently, forgetting about the new rule that they were not allowed to be near one another.

Post by **Soran Nightblade** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:01 am

Soran Read out loud until he realized that the rest of his family had fallen asleep. He slowly lowered the book and looked around at Rai and Mizuki, his family, and couldn't help being briefly amazed. He wanted to stay with these people forever. It wasn't something he'd thought about until now. Knowing that nothing could be done until the next morning, he shifted back just enough to rest his head on the back of the couch. It didn't take much effort for the exhausted elf to fall asleep.

Vlad's fingers played idly with a stray lock of bangs on Tenele's forehead. They'd been resting there quietly for some time, and the no-life king was in a fairly serious mood. They'd spent the day fooling around and ignoring reality, but the Queen's disapproval was a fact that he couldn't ignore forever. As strong as he was, Sinead was the one person who could command his absolute obedience at the drop of a hat. How long could he defy her before one or both of them payed for his frivolity? Why was Tenele so important to him anyway...for obedience to even be a question was almost unheard of. He wondered if Tenele was still awake, but didn't say anything.

"Vladimir Dracul," a stern voice pounded into his head. Ah. So she hadn't forgotten.

"Yes, Sinead," his mental voice inquired, carefully witholding his dread. Wait, dread?

"A word with you and my Maiden. Now."

"Whichever maiden do you mean?" Vladimir teased.

"I know you are with her. You've both been missing all day. In my throne room, Now."

"She's asleep, your majesty," he said sourly.

With that, the door to the room burst open in a harsh clatter and Sinead strode fiercely into the room. "Do NOT defy me, Dracul. Remember who you serve!" she commanded.

Vlad started at the Queen's entrance, for once truly startled. His hands instinctively closed hard around Tenele's. Then his brain kicked in, and he shifted quickly off the bed and up onto his feet. He took a solid step back, staring at her with a stiff frown. His eyes were glowing as they often did when he was excited about something, which made it hard to distinguish any detailed emotion in his gaze.

Post by **Emora Deen** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:09 am

Tenele screamed in startled fear as she sat up quickly. She had just drifted off when the loud clatter filled her ears suddenly and Vlad moved away quickly. She almost expected to have someone attack her suddenly... however it was just Sinead looking rather feirce. Tenele looked at her questioningly, her appearance disheveled and drousy.

"My queen?" Tenele asked softly, putting a hand to her forhead and blinking her eyes rapidly in the hopes of waking herself up quickly to discern the situation. Tenele made haste to modestly adjust the bathrobe that she still wore. It had gotten slightly rearranged in her slumber.

Tenele knew that this probably wasn't going to be a pretty conversation. The queen was hell bent on forcing her and Vlad apart and for the life of Tenele she still didn't understand why. Unless the Queen, though married, harbored some secret lust of the vampire. Tenele literally shook the horrid thought from her mind. No... the Queen was only watching after Tenele like a mother. A rather overbearing and over-protective mother.

Post by **Soran Nightblade** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:19 am

"Lord Dracul, fetch Tenele a garment from my quarters. Immediately," Sinead ordered. Vlad bent one arm in front of his chest and bowed slightly - a submissive gesture. He disappeared without rising.

"Tenele. your actions have abused my good faith," she said when he'd left.

Post by **Emora Deen** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:30 am

Tenele lowered her head, however said nothing. She moved slowly and stiffly from where she had been lying, leaving the warm bed behind. She stepped towards the window, peering out and down at the gardens as she thought of a good excuse. She found only one and knew the Queen would not want to hear it.

"I'm sorry, my Queen..." Tenele said. She knew she should feel sorry, though not a bone in her body did feel truely sorry. Sure, she felt horrible for defying the queen. She felt horrible for proving herself to be defiant... However she could not deny the feeling that overpowered her reasoning and drove her to be the thing she was at the moment. A disloyal, disobediant, and dishonoring woman. "I am sorry that I have fallen from your favor.... and know that I must work hard to earn it back." She figured she had too. Trust was something that, once lost, was hard to earn back... if it ever was earned back.

She did well to hide the drone like sound in her voice. She winced, glancing away from the garden at the memory she drew up of the first time she had met Vlad. She had to swallow to think clearly. Tenele knew what was coming. She would be punished for disobeying orders. Told never to see Vlad again. Told never to speak with him. Told never to be with him. Told never to... love him. The thought of not hearing his voice every day, not having the pranks he played on her happen, not having him next to her... it was painfully unbearable and she almost screamed in the agony of it.

Instead the beautiful silver haired maiden clenched her jaw tightly. She lowered her eyes and turned gracefully, yet slowly, towards her queen. With slow shameful steps, her hands clasped before her in generous modesty she bowed her head.

"Forgive me... my head has lost all reason," she whispered hoarsly, trying to hide the emotion that wished to explode outwards.

Post by **Soran Nightblade** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:51 am

Sinead was not blind to the suffering in her maiden's eyes. She gave the girl time to think at the window and make her apology. In a slightly more tender voice, she said, "I can see that you love him, my dear. But tell me, can he? That man is not as you think he is. He is a talented warrior and clever servant, but though I've known him for many long years, I have never seem him act as a fitting lover. I regret that it's partially my own fault; we all know the procedure that made him a no life king had severe effects on his mind, but even with his best intentions at heart, that man can not love you properly."

Post by **Emora Deen** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:07 am

Tenele stared continuously at the floor as she listened to the queen tell her about how Vlad would never be a fitting lover. Her mind raced with all the memories of Vlad and how she longed for her to treat her as a lover. How he had treated her when she confessed her feelings to him. How he had made her feel as though she were dirt beneath his feat. Not fit to be a lover for him. She was after all, only human.

Half-human, she had to remind even herself at the moment.

She closed her eyes tightly and held the tears that wished to fall at bay. "I..." She swallowed and looked up at Sinead, her face riggid with the strain of withholding her emotions. "I know."

"Though... I can't deny my heart." Wildly she glanced around, searching almost for an escape. "I can't just stop loving someone. I've tried. I want nothing more than to be in his arms. I want nothing more than to feel his kiss...."

She realized she was pooring her heart out to Sinead. Quickly she moved to sit in a chair next to the window. For a moment she sat there quietly.

"I want nothing more than to be his... if only for night... Though, improper it may be... He is like a drug... His presence to me is intoxicating. I know this sounds ridiculous. Even now I think I shoud be committed for letting all reason go. Have I gone mad, my Queen? Or is love always like this..."

She glanced away and stared once more at the garden.

"My Queen.... Sinead... You are the only mother I have ever known... I respect you above any other.... I don't know what to do..." Tenele could no longer hold back those tears that she had fought to keep in. "I don't know which will hurt me more... loving a man that will never love me in return... Or being seperated from the only man I've ever loved." And her heart already ached.

Post by **Soran Nightblade** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 8:31 am

Sinead frowned, her chest aching for her maiden. Had she only known it had gone this far, she could have stopped it sooner, before it became this serious. "Human love is blind, my child," she said. "It always is, for better or for worse. But the man you've chosen is not human." Sinead's head snapped to the side as she noticed Vlad had returned to the room, standing straight in the same place he'd gone from. He had appeared in the middle of her last sentence, holding a silver robe.

Vlad tried to take in the situation. "Not human," was all he'd caught from Sinead. Tenele was sitting down...crying? He had an intense urge to go to her, or if not, to crack some joke. Instead he turned a hard eye on Sinead. "What did you say to her?" he asked his queen, almost demanding.

"Go to my throne room, directly," Sinead said, ignoring his question. "Leave the robe on the chair."

Vlad narrowed his fiery eyes. He didn't have a choice. With an angry breath, he collected himself and was once more gone from the room.

Sinead turned to Tenele, handing her the long robe and helping her gently into it. "Let us go there as well," she said, and gestured for Sinead to follow her down the hall.

Post by **Emora Deen** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 7:49 pm

Tenele glanced at Vlad quickly when he asked what Sinead had said to her. She hadn't even noticed he was in the room until that moment and feared just what he might have overheard.

When Vlad had left Sinead helped her into the robe and Tenele dried her eyes, thanking the Queen kindly for the help. However, she really didn't wish to leave her room... She would much rather stay in the room alone to think for a while.

There seemed to be somthing urgent about the way the Queen wanted them both in the throne room. Maybe something was bothering her more than just the unatural relationship between the vampire and the half-elf. Something to do with her kingdom?

So Tenele followed the Queen and once they arrived in the throne room she tried her best to keep her focus on something other than wanting to run to Vlad. She glanced at him momentarily, however kept her gaze lowered as she followed close behind the Queen.