AUTHORS NOTES:

Slyksylva - Me either! I miss her so much, but she's off doing important things for the future of the story :/

Archer1eye - Ooooh…. I'm sure the Inquisitors of Light will show up at some point ;-)

Chapter 48

30th Day of Early Spring 768 n.c

Alladrial was indeed waiting for us, in the sitting room on the ground floor. I couldn't be sure that he hadn't been standing there tapping his foot the entire time, but he definitely was when we entered. He took one look at Malkarov and let out an exceedingly dramatic sigh.

"You can walk yourself?" he asked.

"Of course I can walk myself," Malkarov decried, "I'm not some sort of infant or invalid!"

"Good!" Allardrial retorted, "then you shall walk yourself up to our room which you shall not exit for the rest of the day lest you inflict your annoying intoxicated self upon your poor apprentice!"

Malkarov was about to march himself up the stairs but he abruptly turned around with a huge smile on his face and pointed his finger straight at his love, "You said our room!"

Alladrial let out a sigh, "you're drunk," he said, "I most certainly did not."

"Yes you did!" Malkarov responded.

"No I didn't." Allardrial replied.

"Sharein!" Malkarov announced much too loudly, "Sharein, he did, didn't he?"

I rolled my eyes at his pleading and looked at the elf, "you did," I stated simply.

Alladrial rolled his eyes back at me, "you're drunk too," he replied as he turned back to Malkarov, "enough of this nonsense, get yourself up to your room."

Malkarov bent down and kissed the elf on the end of his nose with an exaggerated "mwah!" before he began skipping up the stairs.

Alladrial turned back to me and said goodnaturedly, "traitor," before he sighed and followed the wizard up the stone steps.

A thump and a loud "Oof!" echoed down the steps before Malkarov's shout of "I'm okay!"

I sighed myself and allowed another small measure of time to pass before I headed up the stairs myself to go to my room. A bath sounded like a wonderful idea and I was eager to continue reading An investigation on stylus materials in effective rune creation.

I ran the bath, got undressed and selected the book from the bookshelf. After using the in-house, I gently lowered myself into the steaming water. I was half-way through the book and the water was decidedly cooler than it was when I first entered when I found myself debating over whether to just get out or let some more hot water in. Curious sounds from outside my door made the decision for me, I let out the water and began to dry off. I walked over to my door and pressed my ear against it, trying to ascertain the nature of the noises. They sounded like grunting noises, as if Malkarov or Alladrial were trying to open a jar lid that had seized. I stood there a moment, far longer than I probably should have before I realised what the noises meant.

"Oh," I said aloud, though quietly and followed by quickly admonishing myself. In my embarrassment I became a little muddled and indecisive; and was just about to leave my room to go and sit in a comfy armchair in the sitting room when I realised that I was not yet dressed.

'Silly Sharein,' I thought to myself, 'why are you so befuddled?'

It was a natural thing, similar to what Shard and I had done… or was it? I didn't really want to think about what those two were getting up to in there, or how they were. The mechanics both intrigued me and slightly disgusted me at the same time. I frowned at my own reaction, it wasn't like those mechanics involved me, did they? If they didn't involve me then what reason had I to be disgusted by them. I wondered whether Malkarov would be disgusted by the things Shard and I had done. The things that brought such pleasure? The noises that I was hearing didn't really sound that full of pleasure though, they sounded rough and forceful.

"Allavaer!" I heard Alladrial shout in an exhausted but bliss-filled tone and had to re-evaluate my opinion.

Perhaps there was some measure of pleasure? I went to sit down on my bed, thinking in the now silence; of the shared love between Alladrial and Malkarov. I was torn between running my hand down to my velvety wetness in an effort of recapturing some of that joy and ecstatic pleasure shared between me and my love; and just falling into a dark melancholy at our separation. How I longed to feel her body against mine once more! To hear the sounds of our tender noises, shared blessings to the love we shared. It was that longing that brought the tears to my eyes, the harsh gasping of air in great sobs of pain. I cried into my pillow at the loss I was feeling, at the dark and heavy blanket of desolation.

I felt the darkness surround me, suffocatingly pressing in. I sat up in sudden shock. There was nothing but darkness around me, as If I had been suddenly struck blind. I looked down and could see my body. Not blind. Asleep.

I looked around hopefully and there she was, somehow standing in front of me as if she had been there all along.

"Allavaer!" I cried as I rushed into her arms. We crashed together and her arms wrapped around me, providing me such a feeling of security and safety, love and warmth that all of the feelings of despair left me in an instant. I felt movement and tilted me head up to look at her as she captured my lips with her own. I melted into her, all thought fleeing from the feelings of pleasure bursting inside of me. I felt her hand move and brush my hair behind my ear and my eyes flickered open only to be filled by her Winter's Heart eyes.

"How long have you been studying elvish?" she whispered with a cocky smile.

I blushed a little, "It was the last word that Alladrial said… uh, shouted, afore I fell asleep."

"Oh?" she questioned, with a raised eyebrow.

"Why are you?" I began, desperate to change the subject, "not that I'm complaining of course, very much the opposite. In the whole time you've been gone I haven't needed you more than I did just now."

"Well…" she said with a slight smile that made my heart flutter, "I'm on my way back to you."

Excitement welled up inside me, any remaining shred of sadness removed in an instant.

"Does that mean?" I asked and she was so quick to reply, "yes. Tenebrae has granted our request."

My eyes widened in surprise and I let out a joyous whoop of excitement. We crashed together once more, our lips joined and our bodies slotted in perfectly against each other. I became a concentrated mush of feelings of love, excitement, elation, lust; no acknowledgement of the non-corporeal form that was me in that dreamscape but a manifestation of my baser emotions. I couldn't feel her hands upon my skin, my dream-skin, but I felt the building and intense pleasure ripple all through my very form that was surely the result. There was no exhaustion, no requirement to catch my breath, just an ever growing feeling soaring me higher and higher with each passing moment until the darkness of our dream-scape was lit up with an explosion of dark light. The purple lightning that always manifested wrapped itself around me and shot out in all directions as I called her name in a voiceless exhortation of ecstasy. In that timeless void that feeling both continued forever and ended instantly and when I looked back to Shard it was a look of pure adoration.

"I love you," I whispered, "more than anything. I'm yours."

"And I'm yours, my love," she whispered back, "forever and always."

"When?" I asked, "when will you be back?"

She looked away for a moment before stating, "within the ten-day, I think."

Excitement welled once more, Shard would be back with me so soon!

"Oh," I whispered, remembering the events earlier, "Father Mattias suspects… he tricked me into admitting that I knew about the Tenebrae cultists. That I know about Tenebrae."

Shard hummed, "concerning, but not overly worrying. If he was intending to do something, I don't doubt that he would have done it before now. He will have questions though, once you dedicate yourself."

"When?" I asked, "when will I be able to dedicate myself? Will it be on the Long Night?"

"Normally, yes it would," Shard informed me, "but Tenebrae decided that as you will be her chosen, there is no tradition to stick to. It will involve the loss of sight for a time, but not for the year she traditionally holds it for. For a regular priest, the year is a test to ensure that they are completely willing to abide by her will. For you, however… you will be her will. She likes the symbolism of the sacrifice and it is a requirement for her to bestow her gifts, but you will be the first; and possibly only. So… as for when to hold the dedication? On this coming nine-day, if that suits?"

"Oh yes!" I exclaimed, "yes indeed, that suits me very much."

We came together once more, a melding of shared ecstatic pleasure that ended when I opened my eyes, my screams of "yes! Yes, Allavaer!" echoing inside my mind. I was lying on my back, on my bed with a wet, sticky hand still resting between my legs.

'Just a dream?' I thought, momentarily before I dismissed it, "not just a dream."

I washed up quickly and got dressed before I headed upstairs to see if there was something to eat.

Alladrial was there and he blushed furiously as soon as he saw me, which confused me a little.

He coughed a little before he spoke, "my apologies Sharein, if we disturbed you earlier."

Now it was my turn to blush, embarrassedly. I didn't really want to acknowledge what I had heard, "not at all."

Malkarov came up the stairs just then as Alladrial said, "Malkarov really should figure out some way to stop the sound travelling out the bedroom doors."

"There's no need," I stammered, "I didn't hear anything."

Malkarov let out a barking laugh, "so it's just a coincidence that you screamed exactly the same thing he did just a little after?"

The elf shot Malkarov an extremely dirty look as I felt my face catch fire, how mortifying! I tried to compose myself as I walked past him to flee back to my room.

"If," I said, pausing briefly at the top of the steps, "if I had… shouted something like that. Which I did not. I remind you, that you would not at all be the cause of it."

I fled to the sound of Alladrial's laughter.