The sun had long set and the rain fell upon the Kingdom of Askr and on the steps of the castle, drenched to the bone, was a solemn woman, staring out in the black expanse of night. Her lavender hair was matted against her face as the elements seemed to shed her tears for her; she long had none of own left to weep. Barren of expression, her beautifully soft features looked hollowed by time and suffering and even though she couldn't remember most of her life before being conjured here, the weight still stuck nonetheless.

She could not bare to enter the crowded hall. Laughs of mirth, boisterous bickering, smiles, the seeds of love between reunited Heroes and ones whom only now met, the threat of war running like an undercurrent through it all, a fact of life cemented by armor, swords, spears, tomes, axes and tears. The cries of her comrades falling in battle around her haunted her each night after a mission.

It was the Summoner, Keiran, who suggested trying to summon her lost love, Sigurd. To hear that name again and the tiny glimmer of hope presented in the power of the Breidablik made her feel something close to happiness, a feeling that forever eluded her like her memories, like her person. There was always that anchor holding her down so she wouldn't drift in the oceans of despair.

Sigurd.

With each pull, her resolve and hope dwindled. Deirdre tried to hold onto the will and desire that had kept her going through all her trials of the previous world.

Sigurd never came.

So after the last summoning session, she had told him to stop. Stop before she could be crushed anymore than she already was. Thus here she found herself since.

She didn't hear the footsteps coming up behind her and she flinched when Keiran rested his hand on her shoulder.

"You can't do this to yourself, Deirdre. He wouldn't want this. Come inside, please."

Her voice shook in her reply and not from the cold.

"How..." she started, her voice trembling with the heaving of her chest. "How would you know?! HOW?" She had spun around and Keiran recoiled at the look in her eyes. He took on step back and nearly stumbled on his cloak.

"Your words are HOLLOW! Your promises HOLLOW! And you put words in the mouth of the dead that even your "divine toy" could not bring back to me."

Keiran hung his head in silence and then put his arms around her. She thrashed and beat against his back.

"I tried, Deirdre. I tried. I'll keep trying."

She screamed into the void, damning it and him and all and everything. He could feel the many eyes of his army behind him and he lifted one hand so as to signal them to give the two space as Deirdre heaved into his shoulder.

Keiran sighed as his body finally hit his bed. He laid there and thought back to the events plaguing the already stormy evening. He felt for Deirdre. His knowledge of her plight and tribulations only made his guilt set deep into his bones from not fulfilling his promise to her. It was arrogant to think he could solve her problems as easily as he thought he could and such heavy burdens to bear too.

He shut his eyes. With the help of the commander and Sharena, he had calmed her enough to get her to bed at the very least. He didn't disclose what had caused the outburst directly but gave them vague terms that they could be content with for the time being. It was a mess of his doing. He decided that he would check on her in the morning and apologize for what that may be worth.

Keiran fell asleep, more exhausted than he had been in recent memory.

...

..

.

It was late when Keiran awoke to knocking on his door. It was light but nonetheless firm. Not even Alphonse would knock at this ungodly hour. He staggered out of bed, wiping his eyes of cold, and lit the room lantern before opening the door. Who stood there when he opened the door surprised him.

"Deirdre? What are you doing up? You should be resting."

The lavender-haired shaman looked apologetic and looked past him into the room, avoiding his eyes.

"I know and yes, I know the hour is rather...inconvenient but may I come in? I cannot return to sleep alone."

Keiran gave her a quick once over and nodded, holding the door open.

"Thank you, Summoner." Keiran shut the door behind her as she entered. "Keiran is fine. No need to go by titles here."

"Keiran then..." Deirdre sat on his bed, the only space available. Keiran couldn't help but swallow hard with her sitting there but he directed his thoughts elsewhere. Silence fell between the two.

"Listen, Deirdre-"

"Keiran, I-"

They had spoken at the same time and Keiran gestured for her to go first.

"I-I just wanted to apologize. Earlier this evening, I let my emotions cloud my behavior and let out my frustrations on you. I feel awful..."

"You don't need to apologize. I shouldn't have promised something so sacred that I couldn't deliver with certainty. It was stupid of me to do that and downright disrespectful to you."

"Still-"

Keiran held his hand up. "Don't feel that you need to feel bad for my mistakes. Your responses, your emotions are valid and will be in mind for the future. So something like this doesn't happen."

"Keiran...I appreciated all you did regardless." Deirdre rose from the bed and went over to him. "Even if it was misguided, you still tried to help me out of good intentions. That alone is more than I was given in the few memories of my previous life I still hold."

"Deirdre, you-"

She placed a finger on his lips to hush him; then she leaned forward and kissed him.

Keiran gasped into the kiss, his eyes going wide out of shock, and he pushed her away, backing to the other side of the room.

Deirdre stared at him with that same vacant-eyed look she gave the night though this time a small, sad smile adorned her fragile features. She shed her dress like autumn leaves and as the clouds shifted in the overcast sky, a stray beam of lunar light struck her, casting her looming shadow over him as her body was adorned in a chrysalis of light.

"I know this is wrong. But my intentions were made clear when I said that I could not bear to sleep alone tonight." She slowly made her way over to him. She noticed his eyes falling to her body: her shapely legs, her hourglass waist and hips, her breasts, more than a handful but not too large, and her plump ass - all finished with flawless porcelain skin.

"I used to believe that my body was cursed. I still believe it is. I may not remember my life but the feeling of defilement and decadence has never left it. But if I have a choice..." Deirdre stopped before him, looking up at him with her hypnotic, sleepy violeteyes.

Keiran didn't know what to say or think. On one hand, this was Deirdre, the wife of the Holy Knight Sigurd, both of whom he respected immensely and sympathized with, but on the other, this was woman whose beauty bared no words good enough for description and was nude before his very eyes, baring not only her body but her heart to him. Conflicted was an understatement to the feelings going through his mind.

He gasped and was pulled out of his thoughts by her slender, deft fingers going down his chest. "If I have a choice, I wish you to make me forget at least for tonight." She moaned as laid her head on his chest and all his sense of ethics eroded in the blink of an eye. He tilted her head upwards and kissed her with as much passion as he could muster; it was only dwarfed by Deirdre's own longing and hunger. She pushed into him, guiding them to the bed, until they broke for air.

"Deirdre, are you sure about th-mmpff!" She lips met his roughly, tongues clashing for dominance. The summoner pulled the older woman down to the bed with him and she broke free from their lip-lock, struggling to remove his night clothes in desperation. He tried to assist but she lightly but with firm intent, slapped his hands away, pulling his pants down hard enough to have his hard cock spring from their confines and hit her on the mouth. She gave a silent "oh!" of surprise and glanced up at him. He was about to say her name but his words caught in his throat when she took him into her warm, wet mouth without warning.

"G-Gods...!" Keiran had never experienced pleasure remotely close to this. Deirdre had only just begun and he already felt as if he was at his limit. He put his hands into her hair, holding on tightly to her locks before pushing her down and forcing her to take his length into her throat.

"Grk!" Deirdre gave a slight gag but nonetheless stayed motionless for a few seconds before placing her hand on his. He let her up and her eyes gained some semblance of focus as she took in much needed oxygen. "M-More..."

He complied and shoved his cock deep into her mouth, gritting his teeth as the sensation was starting to become overbearing. He couldn't help but begin thrusting into the lavender maiden's mouth, copious amounts of spit dripped from her lips with each thrust until he gave one last, hard thrust and pulled her up before blowing the hardest load of his life onto her face, breasts and hair with a muffled cry of ecstasy. Deirdre all the while had been furiously pumping her free fingers in and out her drenched folds, cumming from the rough treatment and degradation. An uncharacteristic scream of vulgarity was quickly muffled by her partner's lips so as not to wake up the whole castle as she squirted all over the bed.

They parted and the room was filled with nothing but their ragged breathing.

"...Wow. Just..."

"Shhhhh." Deirdre hushed him and wasted no time spinning around with her ass facing Keiran. "Hold my head down and-and do as you did." She couldn't say the words but she very knew what she wanted. Keiran followed and put his cock to her cunt only to be stopped. "No...The other..."

He looked at her with a brief moment of incredulity that someone usually so mild-mannered and reserved could be so unbound sexually but followed her instruction nonetheless. Deirdre let out a low hiss before sighing as his length entered her ass fully.

"Hard. Keep going."

Keiran started to speed up holding on to her ass for leverage as he pulled out and slammed back in, causing the shaman to bite the quim soaked sheets to muffle her shriek of pain and pleasure. He forced her head into the bedding as he fucked her harder and faster, her screams becoming more and more unhinged. With a raise of his hand, the summoner brought down a hard slap on her rump, eliciting another scream of masochistic pleasure. It was as if years of frustrations, needs and increasingly warped inclinations were spilling out of her in this night alone like some sort of sexually induced exorcism.

He slapped one part of her ass and then the other. Eventually, removing his hand from her head, he started slapping both of them in tandem as hard as he could. Deirdre suddenly clenched and luckily, the orgasm rippling through her was so intense that only fragments of strangled words could get out. The tightening of her ass brought Keiran to completion as he filled her ass with cum until it leaked out of her gaping hole when he was finally able to pull out. Deirdre had collapsed on the bed and was already unconscious, energy fully expended by their vicious love-making, and soon Keiran followed her into the abyss of sleep.

She was still there when he awoke. His limbs felt sore but overall, he felt immensely satisfied that is until the gravity of what he had done and who he had done it with took precedent in his mind. His eyes drifted over to the Breidablik and then to Deirdre. With a long sigh, he cleaned himself off and got dressed. Before he could go out of the door, a weak voice asked him, "Where are you going?"

The summoner turned to see Deirdre laying in the same position but with her head turned to him and her eyes half-opened.

"To try again... What we did... Last night it was..."

She put her fingers to her lips and gave him one of her patented "shhhh"s, then beckoned him to the bed. "Stay with me. That is all I want. Stay with me here and keep me in your thoughts as you lay beside me."

He blinked and then shut the door, placing the divine weapon back upon his desk. He sat on the bed and ran his hand through her locks as the first beams of dawn filtered in through the window. Deirdre sat up slightly and let the warmth of the rising sun color her face with its caress.