Chapter Sixteen

Devona was going to kill her.

At least, that was the thought on Mhenlo's mind as he watched Cynn saunter up very suggestively towards his friend and soon to be king as they began partaking of the evening meal. The fire magic coursing through her veins must have fried her brain… what was she thinking?

Across the loose gathering of people, not even five yards away from Coran and Cynn, was Devona, glaring daggers at the elementalist, her mind no doubt entertaining a multitude of different tortures that would suit her tastes.

Mhenlo couldn't hear what Cynn was saying, but there was no denying her body language… it almost had an audible voice of its own. Her right arm slid around Coran's shoulders, and she whispered something into the prince's ear that made him flush vividly even from where Mhenlo was standing.

The monk turned around, and stormed off behind a rocky outcropping to finish eating. He was suddenly feeling sick…

"What in the depths of the Underworld has possessed you, Cynn?" Coran asked in flustered confusion, gently trying to slide away from the lithe form that was pressing up against his arm.

"I heard what happened…" Cynn said, her voice soft and husky as she ran her left index finger up and down the prince's forearm, "I just want you to know that I am more than willing to comfort you in any way you need."

"That's good to know." Coran replied, gulping as he tried to gently pull his arm away, then regretting it as Cynn crushed her chest against his shoulder. "If I ever need such comfort, I'll be sure to let you know…"

"I can be so much more fun than that droll, mean Devona, and I won't get scared by a crown either." Cynn replied, casting a glance in said warrior's direction. Cynn knew Devona could hear every word being uttered, and the look on the warrior's face told Cynn that everything was progressing exactly as she planned. "Plus, I'm sure I'm much better at pleasing a man…"

At that point, Devona swiftly stood, her entire body trembling ever so slightly from barely restrained rage. She tossed a casual, "I shall grant you both some time alone…" and then stomped away from the pair towards where Yuu, Idori, and Grazz were discussing something with Aiden, likely the next step in their journey.

However, with Devona gone, Coran suddenly morphed into something Cynn wasn't expecting. He went from flustered to furious with the blink of an eye, and roughly shrugged Cynn away, causing her to very nearly lose her balance.

"I will ask you one more time, what in Grenth's name was that… lewd and unwelcome display about?" The prince hissed quietly, but there was no mistaking the livid anger in his voice.

Cynn's plan suddenly looked a lot less sound in her mind. "I was just... trying to make Devona jealous…"

"And for what gods forsaken reason would you want to do that? Please tell me, I could use a good laugh right about now."

"I thought that if I could get her jealous… she'd… rethink her decision to call off your wedding…"

"And so that gave you the right to act like a sex-starved prostitute?" Coran snarled, standing and looking down on the elementalist distastefully. Cynn was suddenly starting to feel very, very small… and she could now clearly see the father in the son.

Coran's eyes narrowed even further, and his jaw clenched tightly before he snapped, "I will have you know that I have the issue with my bondmate quite well in hand, and I do not need the assistance of some whorish little girl who thinks she's a woman. Now get out of my sight before I leave you to the Charr's mercies. Ask Yuu sometime how it feels to be at their hands."

Cynn did just that, stumbling to her feet before slinking away in the first direction that came to mind. But as the stunned fear of the recent exchange began to melt away, it was replaced by a bit of an insulted humiliation.

It wasn't the fact that she was rejected. She had been expecting that. It hadn't taken long for Cynn to know that Coran was smitten with Devona, and nothing short of the warrior stabbing him in his manhood with a dull knife was likely to change that.

But what really stung was the dismissive way the Prince shrugged her off. He claimed she was a "little girl who thinks she's a woman". That struck a nerve. Granted, she had never tried to really apply her feminine wiles seriously, but she had figured that it wouldn't take much. She was an attractive girl, after all… or was she?

Cynn suddenly had an urge to find out… and knew just where to go to do so... but where did he get off to?

Mhenlo suddenly did not feel terribly hungry. He felt like he wanted to throw up, but also knew that it wouldn't solve the aching sting in his stomach.

These feelings really weren't news to him. He had come to accept a while ago that he had fallen for the elementalist with an attitude of acid and a manner that could change with the wind. Dwayna help him, he couldn't figure out why, but he had.

Maybe it was those moments where she would drop the spiny armor she wrapped around her personality, and revealed the vulnerable young woman she really was; a lady who had lost everything and everyone she loved in the Searing, thus reluctant to allow anyone to care for her out of the terror of being left alone in this world once more.

This was the same woman who lent an ear whenever Mhenlo struggled with his unique blessing of having the favor of two gods, who occasionally require that he act in two very different ways in the same situation. This was the same woman who eventually "advised" him (accompanied with a slap to the back of his head), that if the gods were really so insistent that he act a very specific way, they'd find a more overt way to tell him they were displeased. In that same breath, she declared she had faith in him, and that he'd know the right way to proceed, and if he made a mistake, so what? Everyone did.

Every so often, Mhenlo entertained the thought that Cynn had started to develop similar feelings for him. He knew for a fact that she had never shown the deeply hidden, scared and hurt side of her to anyone else… he had thought that might have been a sign that she was at least feeling closer to him than anyone else.

That all went out the window, obviously. The moment a more appealing option opened to her ambitions, she was all over it like a wolf on a moa bird. Granted, Mhenlo admitted that Coran would be a more appealing option. The chance to be a queen? What woman would be foolish enough (outside of Devona, the monk mused with a roll of his eyes) to pass that up? And it certainly wasn't that the prince was a poor sample of human kind… where Rurik had definitely taken after his father's rugged, angular looks, Coran had inherited an exceptional balance of that and his mother's smoother, more elegant, features. Granted, Mhenlo was a man, and likely not completely in tune with what women desired, but he would think he would find Coran to be remarkably attractive.

But the way she was touching him… flirting… had Mhenlo acted that way to Cynn, she would have slapped him clear back over the wall into Ascalon. It all led to the conclusion that he had been grossly incorrect about her feelings…

"Do you think I'm beautiful?" Cynn's voice asked from behind him.

The monk jolted with a start, and saw the elementalist standing behind him, toying with the neck clasp of her vest and blouse.

"Why should my opinion matter? Doesn't Coran find you quite lovely?" The monk asked with a bitter snort.

"I don't know… he didn't seem to."

"So, I'm your fall back option, am I?" Mhenlo snarled, and Cynn reared back with something resembling fear in her eyes. "Your second choice?"

What was going on with the men in this camp? Cynn wondered as the normally unflappable Mhenlo snapped at her violently. "What are you talking about?" She asked.

"Dear Prince Coran rejected your advances outright, didn't he? And now since the avenue of queen has been shut, you've decided that I'd at least do for whatever desires you might have? I'm just a paltry monk, though… are you sure there isn't some duke or lord back in Ascalon you can seduce? I don't want you to close off all your routes for advancement so quickly."

Suddenly Cynn laughed, finally getting to the brunt of the poor little monk's issues. The boy was sweet, and she had to admit, rather cute when jealous. Her plan had worked, after all… just not on the target she had intended. "Mhenlo…" She began, having to fight back some giggles in order to finish her thoughts. "I have no desires towards Prince Coran, nor do I desire the crown."

"Then why were you pasting yourself on top of him?"

"That was my attempt to get Devona jealous… to make her think that if she might lose Coran, to rethink her decision to break off the bonding between them." She remarked with an amused, playful smirk. "Coran made it quite clear that he didn't want my help in that regard in the future."

However, rather than calming the monk, that merely seemed to give him another reason to be sore at her. "So, you're not being loose, just merely being manipulative." He said coldly. "You have done some nasty things, Cynn… but this is exceptional even for you. I had always figured you didn't fully realize the emotions you were toying with in others, now I see you are quite well aware of your antics indeed."

Now Cynn was speechless, and once again, she began to think that maybe there was something in the air making everyone of the male gender irritable.

"Don't approach me again until you grow up." Mhenlo growled, intentionally using a variation of her own words, before turning full about, and leaving her completely to herself.

Cynn was not one for crying. In fact, she last time she had done so was when she had pulled her mother's lifeless body from the remains of their home in Surmia after she had fought off the Charr that had pulled Cynn from the rubble. The toils of life since then had tempered her from such a weak display... but as the first few pools of moisture appeared on her cheeks, she realized just how hurtful the words Mhenlo had said were to her, and what they meant.

She had really screwed up this time, and had no idea how she could fix it…