"Love comes when manipulation stops; when you think more about the other person than about his or her reactions to you. When you dare to reveal yourself fully. When you dare to be vulnerable."
Dr. Joyce Brothers quotes (American Psychologist, Columnist and Author, b.1928)
The dull throb of grey light peaking through the shut windows pricked and stung her eyes. She was tired of the constant remembrance that she was not home. She was alone. It did not matter how many of the people curled their bodies and awareness around hers. No amount of comforting purrs and friendly chirps could correct the wrongness her life had turned to. The very air floating thickly above her head seemed weighted as it pressed against her chest. She could feel her ribs protesting the ever increasing pressure, but maybe, a part of her mind argued, she deserved this. Maybe every horrific dream of fire and bones melting beneath its loving caress was meant for her to suffer. Somehow the thought of deserving the torture of glowing, colorless eyes and the stench of decaying flesh made it easier to bear. Her eyes filled with cold tears as she looked toward the windows. There was no one she loved waiting for her just beyond the sparkling glass window pane.
A soft knock startled her from her lonely thoughts. The sound echoed hauntingly in her mind and caressed her own sadness. It was heavy and desperate like the touch of gull's wing as it sailed and wheeled in the clouds pregnant with unbridled rage. Pulling her hair from her eyes, she moved to the door on feet as silent as dove's wings. She wrapped a soft hand around the cool flesh of the door as she swung it slowly open.
Arram stood framed in the early morning grey with a single, black curl falling listlessly into his eyes. Without thinking, Daine reached forward and tucked it away. His eyes pierced into hers, and she felt like weeping. She was a strong girl, but the desperate pain and sinister confusion roiling in his dark orbs was enough to make her a small girl again. Something in him had changed.
He wrapped a long, cool arm around her waist and drew her close to him. His voice was harsh as he asked to come into her rooms thick with tortured sleep. Not once did his eyes leave hers. The door shut with a dull thud as it sank once more into the wall's waiting embrace. Arram's face was dark and thunderous, but the soft lines between his eyes spoke of insecurity. She could feel his words rumble from the depths of his chest, "Promise me, Sarra, that you will never forget me. Even though you will leave me, you will always remember that I loved you."
His eyes were darker than she had ever seen. "I could never forget," she whispered in the quiet abyss between them in the brief moment before he pulled her lips against his. His hands crushed her to him and his arms held her safe from the dreams of fire and ever changing smiles. He was consuming her soul; she was burying herself deep inside his heart so that neither would ever be the same again. Every place their bodies touched burned with a white hot voracity that threatened to obliterate their very memories. She curled her fingers reflexively in his hair as her nerve endings spasmed as they surrendered to the flaming inferno beckoning her ever further from sanity.
The sudden contact of her hands against his flesh pulled her back to reality. Somehow, she had managed to untie his tunic and was in the process to pulling it from his shoulders. His skin was hot and dark with a sun-kissed glow; her hands seemed impossibly small and white against him. His heart throbbed against her palm, and she looked deeper into his eyes black with a flame she had not seen before. She whimpered softly and promptly jerked at his tunic, demanding that he shed it. He laughed. He threw back his head and let loose a deafening roar that shook his entire body until he was leaning against her. Still laughing, he lifted her up into his arms and spun her toward her bed. Gently, he laid her on the bed and joined her. Their lips found each other again and she could taste his laughter still bubbling up from somewhere deep inside him. His hands untangled her sash and pushed her nightclothes aside. Their hands wandered lazily over each other's bodies evoking an all encompassing whirlwind of flame and wind. It was a dance no one knew until it had begun.
Sighing, Arram buried his face in the mass of curls trailing gentle fingers over Daine's throat. Her clothes were knotted around her waist and her breast band clung to her like a second skin. Its straps were resting haphazardly; one was somewhere near her elbow, but she did not care. She lovingly stroked the contours of his face with a small smile on her lips. Moments passed and within those pauses between each breath, the world was spread before them. Tangled together in a mass of limbs and knotted clothing, the world waited for them. She could let it wait long. "How is that you love me, Arram? Why?"
His eyes were hard with a thoughtfulness she was far more accustomed to. "You have heard then of Varice." It was not a question. He did not wait for an answer, "It is true. I do love her, but times are changing. I will always love her, but our love is fading into the memory of what we once held. Neither of us saw it coming, but then again does anyone ever see the impending death of their love? No, no one ever looks for it. I can feel the decay of it around me whenever I look at her, but I still love her. I cannot change that."
He looked into Daine's swirling eyes. He sighed and pressed his lips to hers before murmuring against her flesh, "I love you with a love that is new and blossoming. It is like the middle of spring where Varice is the beginning of fall. I love you because I see something in you that sees me as who I am. I see someone I will long for all my life, but you will never let me have you. It is alright. I can tell." His eyes held a sadness she had not anticipated. His lips were tilted in a crooked smile that held more wistfulness than anything else.
"No," she sighed as she ran one long finger over his lips. "I never will. It will make it easier for the both of us." His resounding silence was more of an answer than she could bear. "Promise me though, you will never forget that I love you, and I always will."
She untangled herself from his arms and began her search for clean clothes. The soft moan of the bed made it clear that he was following her example. The cool breath of air against her exposed back taunted her as he passed her. She looked into the mirror resting against the wall above her bureau. Her eyes were wide and slanted with a mysterious darkness that lingered near her lashes. Her hair was wilder than ever. She was falling apart; love was ripping her to shreds, and the only way she could imagine escape was death. She dared not die. She dared not leave him. She would do so anyway. The faithful glass shimmered and laughed at her wild thoughts. It reflected her face back at her as tears filled her eyes and threatened to fall. He had not promised her anything, but she had already promised him.
She turned to find Arram leaning against her door. His hair was just as chaotic as the first day she had seen him, and his smile has just as bright. She could not help but smile back at him. She twirled on her toes once in a quick circle; she was rewarded with a laugh that sprang unbidden from his lips. "I wanted to take you to see a friend I made." She pointed at the sleek, black cat crouched daintily beneath the small bedside table, "Seqhen said that you were talking to a Banjiku man about wild magic. My friend can help you with your questions, too." Her radiant smile made him agree to accompany her before her words truly sank in.
As she stepped close to the door to swing it open into the desolate corridor, he wrapped one hand softly around her small wrist. "I promise," he whispered against her ear with his lips brushing her wild curls she had not bothered to tame.
Daine danced across the smooth floors cool with morning's promise. Not a single light shone upon these floors as she led Arram along by the hand. He questioned in a low voice so as not to disturb the pressing silence, "How can you see where you are taking me in this darkness? I can light one of the lanterns or set up a mage light."
"That's not necessary, Arram. I can see fine. Cat's eyes, you know? Just follow me."
"Oh, well then…"
She bit her lip to keep from giggling at the curiosity in his voice. He was desperate to see what she looked like. Suddenly, she stopped. She raised her hand slowly to the hard wood door before her and smiled. She pounded upon the door while sending a silent message to Asha to answer the door. Professor Akuji would come quickly, she was sure.
Before she even suspected, the door was flung open wide to reveal rooms filled with warm, golden sunshine. Professor Akuji stood with the sunlight crowning him fully dressed and donning a disgruntled smile as he welcomed her. He did not seem surprised to see Arram with her, but Asha let Daine know of his heightened curiosity. Just what I need, she thought to herself, more curious men.
Gracefully and lithely, the professor led his two visitors to his study full of earth browns and dignified reds with a soft turn of his dark hand. Once everyone settled into chairs hard with an unusual softness, the professor turned to Daine with a hard look in his eye and asked in a voice deep, but welcoming, "Why is it, my dear, that you have brought Master Draper with you this morning?" His one, dark eyebrow arched inquisitively as he waited until he knew what alias, what life, this strange girl sitting before him lived today. It did not take long for Asha's croon to appease his curiosity.
"Professor Chiamaka, I did not know Sarra was bringing me to see a professor. I thought, when she said she wanted to introduce me to a friend, she meant one of the Banjiku people. I have been studying their power, sir," Arram concluded almost sheepishly as the last word rolled from his tongue.
As Asha twined about his ankles with a deep, vibrating purr, Professor Akuji leaned over his desk to rest the bulk of his weight upon his elbows. Arram could not help but stare into the black eyes before him. They were too dark, poisoned by some unknown pain that he did not wish to bleed away. No, that pain, that darkness was a part of his soul now, Arram realized as he saw something thick and even darker roll slowly through the professor's gaze. Here was a man sold body and soul to his past indiscretions. Arram could empathize with him, to a certain extent. After all, times were changing, and darkness was ever nearing.
Professor Akuji watched as fear then apprehension and suddenly understanding and acceptance flashed through the dark haired youth's soft brown eyes. This young man sitting before him was different than the one that attended his classes with a studious rigidity that promised he would not see the truth hidden just behind the words. This man was older, more alone than ever before. However, this man could stand alone without fear because he knew it was time to change. Life was ever moving. It could never stay still.
"Yes, she did bring you to me then, for that purpose. Did you not, Sarra?" he rumbled with a hint of life beneath his words. It was time he entrusted yet another to help him. He was not long for this world; he could feel it in his blood. He was so weary of it all that he had to flee. Soon, it would be time for him to answer to his nightmares.
Sarra beamed at Arram as he looked slightly perplexed. It was time he learned about what was to become of these people. Both of these men needed each other. They needed someone as alone as themselves to hold onto when the next great chasm bloomed before their feet with an ever widening, gaping grin. "Professor Akuji is part Banjiku, sweetling. He can answer any of your questions without fear of a beating at the Emperor's hands, so long as you keep it a secret. No one else knows of his heritage," she prodded. They needed each other, but they seemed incapable of speaking to one another. That is way there are women, she chuckled secretly to Asha, we are far more practical. The rumbling purr took on a new pattern; the sound of a cat's laughter.
Arram gazed unperplexed at the still man looking back at him with suspicion only a cat could muster. "Sir, if you are half Banjiku, do you have the power as well?"
"Yes," he almost hissed. He was waiting for the boy's response. Black eyes narrowed in the sunlight flooding and drowning all wrapped within the close confines of civilization. "I am a cat-man. You have heard of Sarra's talent, yes?"
She watched them both and her eyes flashed briefly with annoyance. He was attempting to punish her for telling Arram his secret by telling an identical one of hers. She had expected it, but they were being difficult.
"Yes, yes, of course; that is why I am trying to find the reasoning behind it. Surely one with such a gift is not born inherently knowing how to control and use it? Not even the carefully confined and controlled Gift is so well tamed. I want to know everything about this wild magic, professor. Can you teach me?" His eyes burned with a ravenous intensity that seemed to make the very air before him crackle and hiss with his overwhelming desire to know. Still, Professor Akuji was unwilling to jeopardize himself and all the others bowing with the intensity of their burdens. It was only Asha that made him change his mind. What is it you fear? Is it removing a burden from your own shoulders, or letting another see the faults within you? All he wishes is to know. You are the same way yourself.
With a sigh speaking of relief and terrible distress, the professor met Arram's eyes once more. "The world I know is not an easy place to travel. Perhaps it is time others knew of this world laced with magic of every kind as well." Times were changing. Now, the walls were falling down with it.
In the gleaming halls of gold and white, a green eyed man bowed elegantly at his waist before a vision in gold. His blood red cloak spun about him as though it were a cloud of doom heralded by many as death. "My lord, something has changed Draper. He is no longer afraid, Your Highness."
"Then, Marlon, it is time you taught him what it means to fear before I show you the full horrors hiding behind the crown."
The brown and green blanket stretched elegantly beneath her aged and timeless eyes. Clouds the color of ivory swam in lazy circles above her land of love and death. Horrors only she knew slept peacefully in their graves; until she beckoned them, that is. The Graveyard Hag reclined in her swirling mist as she gazed upon her people, her land. With a small frown, she peered closer at her lovely new emperor as he ordered, in secret, the demise of one of hers. Normally, she would not mind, but this time, she knew promise when she saw it. In the young Arram Draper, there was glory she had not known in a very long time. It would not do to have it stolen from her. What trickeries was her boy up to now as he sat upon his regal throne of gold?
She clucked her tongue like a patient mother and turned her gaze toward Draper. She cackled unpleasantly as she watched his delight spread across his face. Yes, he was the promise for her land. With a golden emperor and a black robe mage, who would dare stand against her might?
Once more, she turned her gaze. Beside her promise-child reclined a girl with untold mystery. She was the one, then. The one her rats had whispered to her about; the gods-born girl with hair like wild thistles and eyes like stormy seas. What was she doing here, in her realm of might, tainted with the stench of chaos?
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