Tali slipped one hand upward and curled it into Tarlyn's hair as they embraced. The kiss was tentative at first, undemanding, then melting stronger as both grew more confident. When they drew apart, breathless and trembling, several minutes later, she smiled shakily and murmured, "Perhaps we should go someplace a bit more… private…"
Tarlyn simply nodded mutely, his heart pounding. He wondered for a moment if he hadn't died after all, but he couldn't think of a thing he'd done to merit a reward like this. Gods alone knew what had possessed him, he thought, then stopped and laughed at himself silently. Gods knew, indeed.
Easing up to her feet, Tali reluctantly let him go. Once she was standing, she reached out and took his hand. Her smile was no longer shy as she whispered, "Come with me…" and led him inside. They went through a sitting room, then out into the center of one of the stalactites that formed the ends of the terrace. Instead of the traditional bare levitation tube of Drow architecture, this one was wide and open, with a staircase spiraling up along the wall.
"Some of my friends don't levitate so well…" she chuckled, "…so there are stairs." She shrugged and grinned playfully. "Me… I prefer the old fashioned way," she said with a wink, then wrapped an arm around his waist and leapt off the stairs.
Still silent and lost in wonder, Tarlyn just blinked and stared as she led him inside. "It's beautiful," he finally murmured, then smiled and stepped off the stairs with her. "You built this just like the towers surface-side…" He slipped his arm around her waist as well, and watched the floor fall away from them as they rose, then came to rest on the highest landing of the spiral stair.
With a flushed, excited smile, Tali opened the door and led him inside, then gestured around with her free hand. "Home sweet home," she commented. 'Home' was a high-ceilinged room carved into the stone, with another unusual bit of architecture: windows that overlooked the city. The furniture, too, was unusual, in the style of the surface people, and the bed was clearly made for regular use by someone quite a bit larger than a Drow. Candles flickered dimly on almost every flat surface, and a pile of unusual-looking cushions dominated one corner.
"It's so… comfortable looking!" Tarlyn exclaimed, and smiled approvingly. "I always thought the Academy receiving room looked so cold and unwelcoming…" He shrugged and chuckled. "…but come to think of it, so did much of the city, back then." He regarded the pile of cushions with a raised eyebrow, then shook his head, deciding not to ask. "A bedroom… a place to sleep… It really isn't so different, and we're still in the city, aren't we?"
"We are," Tali confirmed. "Take a look outside. Beautiful, isn't it, in its way?" She chuckled and looked around at the room. "It's a luxury I got used to, over the years. It's nice to be able to have a real room again, not just a deep, dark hole with no light and no view…" She smirked a little. "…for all that we're still underground, at least here there's something to see." Her smile softened again as she watched him staring out the window at the glimmering magical lights of the city. "It's even nicer to have someone special here to share it with," she whispered.
"It's beautiful," Tarlyn said again as he watched the city moving about far below. Even as it neared midnight, the streets were busy. "You're opening it up," he commented. "All these windows… it feels like Cormyr." He blinked then, blushing a little, and turned back to her, lowering his eyes and bowing his head in a half-bow before he looked up at her again. "My lady, you must have so many special people to share this with… surely there would be lines?"
Tali shook her head and laughed quietly, then walked over to the pile of cushions and fell back into them. They made a strange, soft crunching noise as she landed. "Beanbags…" she explained. "A vice I picked up in my travels." She patted a spot next to her and grinned up at him invitingly.
Her voice was soft and a little sad when she spoke again. "Sure… the city's full of men who'd love to be where you are right now. The thing is, the ones who would seek me out are the ones who would do it for their own ends, for their own ambitions… not because they wanted to listen, or because they really cared about me. They understand power and lust, not love." She gazed quietly into his eyes for a few seconds, then smiled and murmured, "That's what makes you the special one."
Tarlyn watched her lay down, then when she beckoned him, knelt and curiously tested the surface of the beanbags. His eyes widened for a moment as he felt them shift beneath him, then he regained his balance and settled down comfortably next to her on his side. "Do that many really look at you and see only a force in need of their shaping?" he asked sadly, then shook his head slowly. "I guess our brothers aren't really any better than our sisters, Lady. That's a shame."
He rose to a half-kneel, gathered one of her thighs across his knee, and began to stroke, long, smooth, even caresses of his long, dark fingers, just firm enough to ask the muscle away from the bone beneath, just light enough to feel like a caress. "I guess I got the hubris out of my system early." He grinned ruefully. "It's hard to be arrogant when you're standing in front of an ogre...and hard to think you're all that clever in the presence of a dragon."
She wriggled a little and nestled down into the beanbag, settling her thigh across his knee comfortably. Her head tilted back, eyes half-closed, with a delighted little shiver. "Oh... oh, that's so nice... I'd almost forgotten what it was like, to be with one of my own and not be on my guard every moment..." She sighed a little and spread her hair out behind her.
"And any power is one to be turned to your own best ends," she said with a faint little shrug. "That's the way we were raised... all of us were. It's the reason so few ever learned to trust. I want to teach them that... but it's going to be slow. Generations, probably. The old ways don't change overnight. I'm finding the people I can trust, and who I can teach to trust, but there aren't many of them... yet." She reached over and traced a fingertip in soft little swirls along his forearm. "And none of them have made me feel as good as you do."
Tarlyn flushed warm at the compliment, smile spreading wide. His fingertips, bunched together, scalloped the inside of her thigh, dragging tightly against the grain of her muscle, tugging fiber by fiber loose from the tight clutch against the bone, then smoothing lightly downward to her knee again with his palm.
"Perhaps that's another advantage you have." he murmured. "You live forever, don't you? You'll be here long after the current matrons have been forgotten. You'll be there when all of living history falls into darkness."
Tali smiled warmly, slid an arm around him again, and trailed the tip of a single fingernail from his waist upward along his spine. "I've got time. I'll be here when they're all gone. And someday..." She sighed blissfully and squirmed a little, tucking her free foot between his. "Someday, there will be a day when the life you and I were raised in is nothing more than a history lesson to warn our children."
Tarlyn shivered, lifting up into her touch and arching his back as her fingernail rose. A little less tentatively, he curled a knee over hers, and squeezed her leg between his. "It's beautiful. Your vision is beautiful...my lady, how could anyone not be moved by it?"
Tali sighed softly, and her fingernail traced a line upward, parting Tarlyn's hair to trail up the back of his neck, then stroke a gentle, spread hand downward again. "I just want things to be better..." she whispered sadly. "I don't want our people to have to suffer anymore."
Watching her move, watching her breathe, Tarlyn was breathless. He simply gazed at her for a moment, again gathering his courage, then leaned forward, brushed his parted lips over the sharp edge of her lower jawline, and whispered, "You're hungry. Have your beloved ones been away long?"
Trembling a little, Tali bit her lip and smiled a fond little smile. "A while," she admitted, then touched the fingertips of her free hand under his chin to raise his eyes to hers again. She held his eyes with hers as she said slowly and deliberately, "…but that's not why I need, or why I'm happy that you're here."
Still stroking his back, without breaking the gaze, she let go of his chin and curled her hand into his hair, ruffling it gently. "You're not filling someone else's place, Tarlyn. I don't work that way. I told you how I feel and how I live, and you're very quickly making a place in my heart that's all your own."
Tarlyn blinked wide, startled blue eyes up at her, and his fingers faltered as he massaged her thigh. "You mean I… we…" He looked downward, caught himself as his eyes fell to her breasts, then lifted them again – and found himself staring into her eyes once more, purely accidentally. "…but I'm… I couldn't… possibly…" He trailed off into silence, both lost and more than a little self-conscious.
For a silent moment he simply stared, trying to decide whether this could be happening or not, then his eyes drifted closed and he slipped his arms around her once more. He brushed a feather-light kiss just beneath her chin, and then relaxed and let himself lay against her, his long, pale hair spilling across her cheek and her shoulder.
Tali curled both arms around him now, one hand resting easily at the small of his back while the other traced a gentle arc between his shoulders. "I'm not like that…" she whispered in his ear as she held him. "You're not a plaything, or someone to fill my empty time. You're a brilliant, beautiful man who found out everything I was and everything I am…"
She kissed the small, dark point of his ear, and smiled. "…and you didn't ask for a single thing but to listen and understand who I am and what I believe in." Turning her head a little, she touched her lips gently to the center of his forehead, then leaned down to touch her head to his and gaze silently into his eyes.
Stunned, shaking his head slowly and grinning crookedly, Tarlyn breathed, "I can't believe this is happening…" He held her that way for a moment, perfectly still, their foreheads touching, eyes locked. "You…" he whispered in quiet wonder, "…well, if you want me, then you have me. It's that simple."
He gazed at her a moment longer, as he slipped a hand free and stroked the length of her hair between his fingers. So this was how it felt to touch a god… had any of the priests, with all their vehement sermons, ever felt this way? His next words spilled out before he realized he had spoken them, with all the reverence of a prayer. "I love you…" He blinked, startled at himself… then bit his lip, holding his breath as he waited to see what she would say.
Equally startled by his sudden confession, Tali just stared for a moment, then her crimson eyes began to sparkle with unshed tears as she felt the words again in her mind. They echoed, not just with the shock of confession, but with the force of a true prayer. She closed her eyes, and a single teardrop trickled down her cheek. "You do…?" she asked at first, not quite believing it, then softer, in a voice filled with wonder, "You do…"She reached up and stroked one hand through his hair gently, just as he did to hers, and looked deeply into his eyes as she searched her soul, and his.
Silently, she questioned her own motives. In the centuries she and Dusty had been married, she had indeed loved others, but it had never taken this path. In the end, the ache in her heart for one of her own, who truly understood her, would not be denied. When at last she whispered, "…and I love you…" it was no less than certain truth. The words spoken, she pulled him down to her before he could respond, and kissed him hungrily, holding his body tightly against hers in the dim candlelight.
Tarlyn simply nodded mutely, his heart pounding. He wondered for a moment if he hadn't died after all, but he couldn't think of a thing he'd done to merit a reward like this. Gods alone knew what had possessed him, he thought, then stopped and laughed at himself silently. Gods knew, indeed.
Easing up to her feet, Tali reluctantly let him go. Once she was standing, she reached out and took his hand. Her smile was no longer shy as she whispered, "Come with me…" and led him inside. They went through a sitting room, then out into the center of one of the stalactites that formed the ends of the terrace. Instead of the traditional bare levitation tube of Drow architecture, this one was wide and open, with a staircase spiraling up along the wall.
"Some of my friends don't levitate so well…" she chuckled, "…so there are stairs." She shrugged and grinned playfully. "Me… I prefer the old fashioned way," she said with a wink, then wrapped an arm around his waist and leapt off the stairs.
Still silent and lost in wonder, Tarlyn just blinked and stared as she led him inside. "It's beautiful," he finally murmured, then smiled and stepped off the stairs with her. "You built this just like the towers surface-side…" He slipped his arm around her waist as well, and watched the floor fall away from them as they rose, then came to rest on the highest landing of the spiral stair.
With a flushed, excited smile, Tali opened the door and led him inside, then gestured around with her free hand. "Home sweet home," she commented. 'Home' was a high-ceilinged room carved into the stone, with another unusual bit of architecture: windows that overlooked the city. The furniture, too, was unusual, in the style of the surface people, and the bed was clearly made for regular use by someone quite a bit larger than a Drow. Candles flickered dimly on almost every flat surface, and a pile of unusual-looking cushions dominated one corner.
"It's so… comfortable looking!" Tarlyn exclaimed, and smiled approvingly. "I always thought the Academy receiving room looked so cold and unwelcoming…" He shrugged and chuckled. "…but come to think of it, so did much of the city, back then." He regarded the pile of cushions with a raised eyebrow, then shook his head, deciding not to ask. "A bedroom… a place to sleep… It really isn't so different, and we're still in the city, aren't we?"
"We are," Tali confirmed. "Take a look outside. Beautiful, isn't it, in its way?" She chuckled and looked around at the room. "It's a luxury I got used to, over the years. It's nice to be able to have a real room again, not just a deep, dark hole with no light and no view…" She smirked a little. "…for all that we're still underground, at least here there's something to see." Her smile softened again as she watched him staring out the window at the glimmering magical lights of the city. "It's even nicer to have someone special here to share it with," she whispered.
"It's beautiful," Tarlyn said again as he watched the city moving about far below. Even as it neared midnight, the streets were busy. "You're opening it up," he commented. "All these windows… it feels like Cormyr." He blinked then, blushing a little, and turned back to her, lowering his eyes and bowing his head in a half-bow before he looked up at her again. "My lady, you must have so many special people to share this with… surely there would be lines?"
Tali shook her head and laughed quietly, then walked over to the pile of cushions and fell back into them. They made a strange, soft crunching noise as she landed. "Beanbags…" she explained. "A vice I picked up in my travels." She patted a spot next to her and grinned up at him invitingly.
Her voice was soft and a little sad when she spoke again. "Sure… the city's full of men who'd love to be where you are right now. The thing is, the ones who would seek me out are the ones who would do it for their own ends, for their own ambitions… not because they wanted to listen, or because they really cared about me. They understand power and lust, not love." She gazed quietly into his eyes for a few seconds, then smiled and murmured, "That's what makes you the special one."
Tarlyn watched her lay down, then when she beckoned him, knelt and curiously tested the surface of the beanbags. His eyes widened for a moment as he felt them shift beneath him, then he regained his balance and settled down comfortably next to her on his side. "Do that many really look at you and see only a force in need of their shaping?" he asked sadly, then shook his head slowly. "I guess our brothers aren't really any better than our sisters, Lady. That's a shame."
He rose to a half-kneel, gathered one of her thighs across his knee, and began to stroke, long, smooth, even caresses of his long, dark fingers, just firm enough to ask the muscle away from the bone beneath, just light enough to feel like a caress. "I guess I got the hubris out of my system early." He grinned ruefully. "It's hard to be arrogant when you're standing in front of an ogre...and hard to think you're all that clever in the presence of a dragon."
She wriggled a little and nestled down into the beanbag, settling her thigh across his knee comfortably. Her head tilted back, eyes half-closed, with a delighted little shiver. "Oh... oh, that's so nice... I'd almost forgotten what it was like, to be with one of my own and not be on my guard every moment..." She sighed a little and spread her hair out behind her.
"And any power is one to be turned to your own best ends," she said with a faint little shrug. "That's the way we were raised... all of us were. It's the reason so few ever learned to trust. I want to teach them that... but it's going to be slow. Generations, probably. The old ways don't change overnight. I'm finding the people I can trust, and who I can teach to trust, but there aren't many of them... yet." She reached over and traced a fingertip in soft little swirls along his forearm. "And none of them have made me feel as good as you do."
Tarlyn flushed warm at the compliment, smile spreading wide. His fingertips, bunched together, scalloped the inside of her thigh, dragging tightly against the grain of her muscle, tugging fiber by fiber loose from the tight clutch against the bone, then smoothing lightly downward to her knee again with his palm.
"Perhaps that's another advantage you have." he murmured. "You live forever, don't you? You'll be here long after the current matrons have been forgotten. You'll be there when all of living history falls into darkness."
Tali smiled warmly, slid an arm around him again, and trailed the tip of a single fingernail from his waist upward along his spine. "I've got time. I'll be here when they're all gone. And someday..." She sighed blissfully and squirmed a little, tucking her free foot between his. "Someday, there will be a day when the life you and I were raised in is nothing more than a history lesson to warn our children."
Tarlyn shivered, lifting up into her touch and arching his back as her fingernail rose. A little less tentatively, he curled a knee over hers, and squeezed her leg between his. "It's beautiful. Your vision is beautiful...my lady, how could anyone not be moved by it?"
Tali sighed softly, and her fingernail traced a line upward, parting Tarlyn's hair to trail up the back of his neck, then stroke a gentle, spread hand downward again. "I just want things to be better..." she whispered sadly. "I don't want our people to have to suffer anymore."
Watching her move, watching her breathe, Tarlyn was breathless. He simply gazed at her for a moment, again gathering his courage, then leaned forward, brushed his parted lips over the sharp edge of her lower jawline, and whispered, "You're hungry. Have your beloved ones been away long?"
Trembling a little, Tali bit her lip and smiled a fond little smile. "A while," she admitted, then touched the fingertips of her free hand under his chin to raise his eyes to hers again. She held his eyes with hers as she said slowly and deliberately, "…but that's not why I need, or why I'm happy that you're here."
Still stroking his back, without breaking the gaze, she let go of his chin and curled her hand into his hair, ruffling it gently. "You're not filling someone else's place, Tarlyn. I don't work that way. I told you how I feel and how I live, and you're very quickly making a place in my heart that's all your own."
Tarlyn blinked wide, startled blue eyes up at her, and his fingers faltered as he massaged her thigh. "You mean I… we…" He looked downward, caught himself as his eyes fell to her breasts, then lifted them again – and found himself staring into her eyes once more, purely accidentally. "…but I'm… I couldn't… possibly…" He trailed off into silence, both lost and more than a little self-conscious.
For a silent moment he simply stared, trying to decide whether this could be happening or not, then his eyes drifted closed and he slipped his arms around her once more. He brushed a feather-light kiss just beneath her chin, and then relaxed and let himself lay against her, his long, pale hair spilling across her cheek and her shoulder.
Tali curled both arms around him now, one hand resting easily at the small of his back while the other traced a gentle arc between his shoulders. "I'm not like that…" she whispered in his ear as she held him. "You're not a plaything, or someone to fill my empty time. You're a brilliant, beautiful man who found out everything I was and everything I am…"
She kissed the small, dark point of his ear, and smiled. "…and you didn't ask for a single thing but to listen and understand who I am and what I believe in." Turning her head a little, she touched her lips gently to the center of his forehead, then leaned down to touch her head to his and gaze silently into his eyes.
Stunned, shaking his head slowly and grinning crookedly, Tarlyn breathed, "I can't believe this is happening…" He held her that way for a moment, perfectly still, their foreheads touching, eyes locked. "You…" he whispered in quiet wonder, "…well, if you want me, then you have me. It's that simple."
He gazed at her a moment longer, as he slipped a hand free and stroked the length of her hair between his fingers. So this was how it felt to touch a god… had any of the priests, with all their vehement sermons, ever felt this way? His next words spilled out before he realized he had spoken them, with all the reverence of a prayer. "I love you…" He blinked, startled at himself… then bit his lip, holding his breath as he waited to see what she would say.
Equally startled by his sudden confession, Tali just stared for a moment, then her crimson eyes began to sparkle with unshed tears as she felt the words again in her mind. They echoed, not just with the shock of confession, but with the force of a true prayer. She closed her eyes, and a single teardrop trickled down her cheek. "You do…?" she asked at first, not quite believing it, then softer, in a voice filled with wonder, "You do…"She reached up and stroked one hand through his hair gently, just as he did to hers, and looked deeply into his eyes as she searched her soul, and his.
Silently, she questioned her own motives. In the centuries she and Dusty had been married, she had indeed loved others, but it had never taken this path. In the end, the ache in her heart for one of her own, who truly understood her, would not be denied. When at last she whispered, "…and I love you…" it was no less than certain truth. The words spoken, she pulled him down to her before he could respond, and kissed him hungrily, holding his body tightly against hers in the dim candlelight.