Meandering marshlands (Anora please)

[Anora Eventide]

Anora nodded lightly to Toasi, then resumed her pose of balancing some invisible object on the tip of her nose. The rest of her was arranged in a posture of feline indolence.

Cinnamon smoke made a pale film on the air and seeped into her violet scented hair, sharpening the vanilla undertones of her fragrance. She sighed in the smoke silently, as she listened to Dimitri speak of the desert kingdom. A private smirk crossed her mouth as she thought of Barra's pavilion, an imitation of a wealthy, Arakmatian trader's. Yes, the gray land did admire the gold. It struck her as a stifling clime, but there was an attraction to rolling dunes. Peaceful, barren hills, tawny like a resting lion's back.

When Dimitri kneeled beside Anora, her heavy-lidded look hinted at indifference. An expression as alluring as it was cruel.
His young face pleased her a moment. It was a little fiction of youthful love: a crouching suppliant beside her instead of a bear looming over her. She kept her eyes on the smooth skin and passionate sparks, pretending the other disfigured patch did not exist. It occurred to her briefly that she occasionally worked the same tactic on his heart.

His hand on her neck coaxed a low and thrilling hum. Anora could take her leave of emotional reactions, but she was never beyond the pleasures of the body. As he took her hand, there was an initial flinch of resistance, but she gave in to his guidance. So this was her purpose for the evening.

Dimitri's declaration was met with a cunning smile and sinuous reply.
"Desperate, hm?"

Her freed hand slid downward, mimicking his habit of stroking her stomach, and she leaned into his kisses. His advances, thus far, met no reluctance at her soft mouth. Rather, she shut her eyes and basked in the ruddy gloam of his desire.

After a few moments of tasting one another, Anora drew back a space, asking in her caramel voice, "And what would such desperation look like, my good Duke?"

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

"I am caught between animal and man, without you I would thrash against my cage" he grinned, "And of course I would stare at the stars and think of you." If there was one thing the two shared it was cynicism, such dreary sentiment had no place between them, raw emotion and etiquette bound them and like briars dug into their creamy flesh till it was gloriously red.

He remained there letting her stroke him and gently kneading the skin of her neck, he almost studied her as an aesthete studied a work of art as though trying to find a small point in the work only he had noticed. A spare freckle or another tiny blemish that he could call his own. "I want a portrait of you before we go, something I can hang in my home next to my forebears," he smiled, "Perhaps you would pose in my cloak."

A simple sentance followed by a little more looking and yet more stroking, when next he spoke his voice was hushed as though he had some great secret only she would hear, "Do you love me Anora? Or do you at least trust me?"

[Anora Eventide]

The woman smiled at Dimitri's answer, they both knew it was a bit of a game. Dashes of sincerity mingled with fanciful turns of phrase. But the farce was enjoyable and Anora harbored hopes of her strange romance crudely resembling what the young and enamored experienced. Dimitri was a better sport than she in regards to such things. Poetry came to him more easily as he was still anchored to his passions. Maybe her youth still prevailed and she wanted words to recollect, as she entertained such sentiments as true.

Anora shifted under such deep observation, displacing her hair so it covered some of her, a shield to searching eyes.
"A portrait, dear Dimitri?" The idea both pleased her and turned her shy. Anora took great care with her looks but did not fancy herself an object of art.
"My sister and I had some done at Cloudkiss. She could barely sit still for it."
Her voice was soft and obedient when she spoke again.
"If such a thing would please you. I will pose for it."
The child-like tone slipped from her voice when she resumed her speech again. "However, I ask some discretion as to where it will be placed," her eyes glanced modestly downward, "Some pieces ought to remain in more personal spaces."

Love and trust? Suddenly, Anora wished she had half sunk in the marsh over the course of their walk.
"What questions, Dimitri."
Anora made no answer but kissed his mouth lustily. When finished, she pulled back with a rare, full smile, finding something both humorous and charming to the inquiry.
"I love you more than I trust you, my dear."
The smile mellowed, "But why do you ask?"

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

"Arakmat appeals to me for many reasons." It was a rather strange start to his answer, "The golden heat and the intrigue of the court, the mystery of the sand. Like my own lands somehow the desert seems more primal and untouched, like the world always should have been." He grinned and planted a kiss on he cheek as he spoke, his nose nuzzled the side of her face quietly for a moment, "I have ever been a seeker of thrills, my position and my wealth have afforded me the luxury of being an aesthete" he giggled gently and found her lips which he teased for a moment before pulling away.

"You may not accept my words my dear, but I want more from this than to touch you and kiss you, I want you to be mine in every way and I shall be yours." He moved his hand from her neck and carefully traced a hand along her forehead, "I want to be in here all the time."

Carefully he moved his hand down her face, his fingertips lightly brushing the flesh, "You and your sister used to be a single unit no? Now you are in the twilight of your youth, your sister and Drega form a bond in Natura." He paused and brushed the stray hair from her face so he could look at her, "I think it is time you chose which path you wish to take in life" he leaned into her again and pressed his lips to hers for a moment, he drew away with a careful smile concealing his teeth, "I think it is time to decie if you want to be by my side in the future, pleasures in the present can only go so far in this rotten age."

[Anora Eventide]

Held aloft in soft breathing and feminine hums, Anora trespassed through the rare patches of this crimson mood. Of hands softly pressing, her lashes fluttering against skin, a breath stolen from another's mouth.
It was Dim that interrupted this passing mood of darting indulgences. His voice spread with real questions beneath its warm rumble. An odd gesture on his part. Anora's frolicsome moods were few and far between, and here he was filling her pockets with stones and diverting her fingertips.

His hand on her brow caused a shadow that did not dispel when the true shade departed. Anora was struck both grave and amused. She had expected something slightly more "amorous" than a desire to know what passed through her mind.
"In there? My thoughts?" She smiled, an enigma crouching in her eyes.
"They are mostly dour, Dimitri, and if not oddly gloomy a little rigid."

Her eyes closed passively as his hand trailed down her face.
"My sister?" Slightly widened eyes opened, startling for the sudden flash of blue. When he spoke of the distance and of her sisters nigh sacred intimacy with the paladin, Anora turned her face away. In the catacombs of her mind dusty fears creaked from their corners. It was not difficult to replace what Anora brought to Avrie, care, attention, and the willingness to bear secret troubles to keep Avrie's feet light and her songs clear. Venn could give her this in spades. Or perhaps, that dreadful perhaps, Avrie did not need or want such things anymore. She had broken ways with Anora none too long ago, maybe looking for her own troubles not diluted by her brooding older sister.
What talk might have turned blood warm and thoughts dear, were little fingers of dismay glancing Anora's thoughts.

A kiss pressed through the gray cobwebs, and Anora was summoned from her windings to the tent. Cinnamon flavored air stung her nose and Dimitri's nearness almost made her start.

It took her a moment to feel the shape of such declarations and pressing phrases. More stones for her pockets, but the weight was comforting and their edges smooth.

"By your side in the future, Dimitri?"

Anora sank a little back into the cot, her hands wilted into her lap, and her expression was even. In her first betrayal of girlish concentration, Anora bit her lower lip. For a while she said nothing, only staring at her useless hands. Hands that were still clean, but not as pristine as most would like from their little brides.

"You are not like other men, and I am not like other women. Or even women of your acquaintance. If you can accept that and show my scruples some kindness."
Her starling crowned head raised.
"I could stay." And then a sad smile, that looked heartbreakingly lovely on her face. "Partly because I dread what will come if I go."
Anora leaned in and kissed Dimitri adoringly on the brow. Kisses and pomegranate seeds, so sweet, so brief and keeping her there.

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

Dimitri's caeful hand with the forgotten dexterity of a locksmith moved slowly along her face, he hooked a little finger under her chin and made sure her face was raised to him. In a moment he somehow seemed cooler as though soft malleable iron so raw and hot gone straight to steel, cold and severe with an icy tone to his voice.

"The time of Cloudkiss is over my precious Morwen, blue skies and crushed grapes are glorious memory." He smiled, "Surely you felt such a change in Natura as the clouds gathered, in cold Arium it is time for you my little seed to grow roots and prosper." His voice slipped with alarming ease back into smooth indolence, his tongue seemed to carefully spin each word as it slipped from his mouth.

"You know we are a perfect match Morwen, you have the breeding and manners of a nobles wife but your prospects are limited to Daltina landowners." he smiled and moved a hand to her cheek which he carefully rubbed, "How monotonous it would be for you breeding with such consistent stock, you need Arium my dear, no man besides me will give you as much freedom as I, who else will let you persue your necromantic studies." He grinned carefully and resumed, "Avrie has her Paladin Anora, you shall ever be close but there are two now who rest deeply within her heart, yor little blood-pump must now turn its attention elsewhere. And no man shall ever love you with such ferocious intensity as I."

With practiced ease Dimitri a small plain bandand held it before him, carefully upon one knee he moved and spoke in a voice unburdened by worry or faltering in distress, "First I apologise for my sparse ring, upon our return to Vortex I will have the largest jewel known to the Great Mountains mined and set in a ring for you." He paused and resumed, "Anora Morwen Eventide, like many before you will you take the ancient name of Wladisyaw and accept the glorious touch of history, will you bear the seed of the bear and take the titles afforded." A pause, "Will you become my wife Morwen?"

[Anora Eventide]

Anora had left her life, tried on his shadows and fenced with his opinions. Some shades had stuck as they fit her figure so well, but few new opinions were given access. Conveniently, they agreed on enough things to make a fair enough match.

At the end of the encounter, Anora's moral rectitude was not as strong as most had guessed, but it was only a mild surprise to herself. When one's sense of goodness was mostly imposed from the outside, it was difficult to not be colored by what surrounded her. What made Anora occasionally good was her stubborn willingness to contort her habits to the standards she had evaluated as logical and proper.

Now she had to consider more than the mere idea of remaining in such climes. Vortex had suited her to a degree, allowing her freedoms and happily flinging open black doors that would shame her family. But it had also cloistered her from things she had grown to love in her childhood: cerulean mornings, her sister's hair raining down from tree branches, the young green shade beneath the grape leaves, Austin chasing some stallion that had broken free.

But this little fellowship had begun to fracture as the eras thawed the crystalline paradise. The Eventides were being flung from Cloudkiss and Anora could not bar time with wishing. Her neat little oasis was bearing its heart to the world and changing the color and pace of its clouds.

Cold Arium would never change, though. If Dimitri strayed from its intemperate soil, every cycle away would be a held breath. Winter would come and Anora would sleep at peace in a scape that finally reflected her heart. Often, she felt an imposter at beautiful Cloudkiss.

The land and the man seemed almost one in the same. Even stony Arium had passions like Dimitri, sudden and violent. The marsh would snuff a soul in a breath, the chasms of Har'oloth were discovered too late in the dark, Vortex's greedy hands were well armed.

And Anora had found herself cautiously embracing both.

"Yes," she smiled faintly but honestly.
"I will willingly wear your ring and its promise, Dimitri. But I would like my father to approve the match for propriety's sake."

Anora let the pale band be slid onto her finger. She looked at her splayed hand for a moment overtaken by girlish vanity. What manner of stone would he choose to reflect her, she wondered.

Parting from her lighter thoughts she stole a heady kiss from Dimitri, her face was close enough to feel her lightest breaths.
"A ferocious love. I could fathom such a thing from you."

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

"I shall write to your father my love, I am sure the Eventide family will not be displeased by the match, you marry well, both in breeding and for love." He assumed as much from her, she could never feel for another like she felt for him, wrapped up in the secrets of his faults and ensconsed in the warm bosom of his lies.

With her face by his, he smiled and cast his glance away shyly for a moment, his voice now trembled and perhaps had once genuinely lost its confidence, a moment of weakness at last. "One cannot fathom love, even one so raw as mine, it is not hunger Anora it is not thirst, we cannot feel our need directly, but let it inside you and perhaps it does become a desire." He rubbed a hand along her cheek and greedily stole a deep kiss back from her.

With a careful force he kept her near him now, his lips only an inch from hers. Carefully his hands moved as though guided by hidden strands so seamless was their movement. One went behind her back and pulled her into him so their bodies were against each other, the other found the nape of her neck again and lavished it with a tender rubbing.

"We will have such beautiful children." A look of mild amusement followed this sudden statement, clearly the mind of Dimitri so prone to weaving intrigue in the future was performing a similar task with his new fiancee. "How rare experience is, I never expected such a woman as you. Throwing my plans into disarray." A small kiss accompanied his words before he resumed, "To show my respec for you Morwen, one request you may ask of your husband to be, do you have anything in mind?"

[Anora Eventide]

"Write him? I would prefer if you ask in person." Anora added a little wryly, "It is common to meet the groom before the wedding."
But this protest was lost in Dimitri's raggedly breathed proclamation. Even with his promise banding her finger, she wondered at such things. That a creature as winter touched as she could be grasped at with such fevered hunger.
Despite her thoughts, her flesh was tempted. Physical desire awakened independent of her understanding, but understanding could bar it from shucking its chains. Dimitri's greedy kiss was met with eagerness.

The woman rested her head on his shoulder, tickling his skin with her unbound hair. Her arms welcomed his nearness, her hands pressing on his low back. It seemed she was sinking into the gathering warmth between their bodies.
She laughed softly at the thought of beautiful children, and dared a tease, "If their mother's influence prevails, yes. But you press us too far into the future."

Balmy summer's heat rose from the earth and caught itself in Dimitri's touch. In the nearness, the bear of Arium sweltered with the familiar smell of cloves and passions that could devour the winter lily. Anora recalled a past season where she had been caught thus, but the coolness of her desire and the evening had preserved her. Now she had neither to frost her skin and settle what stirred.

Anora lifted her head, "Anything?" Her look softened, turning indulgent, "A word too broad for what you mean. You will not stop your slaving, if I requested."
She sighed without sound, only the gentle expanding of her ribs, "So I will not ask such things and ruin your moment of being magnanimous. It is a pleasant offer even with its invisible reins."

The slope of his neck was dotted with pretty little kisses, almost demure. In this pleasant show of affection, the last kiss lingered and finished with a gentle but disarming bite.
Her request was completed as a soft whisper towards his ear, "Blood my dear. A vial of yours. What I do with it is my concern."

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

"A vial of blood hmm?" He kept her close and pressed his lips to hers indulgently before speaking, "I think that could be arranged, though I expected something a little more refined." He smiled as he teased her and continued in a soft voice, "My bad habits will make sure you live in prfect luxury for the rest of your life Morwen." He smiled and nuzzled his face into her beck and enjoyed the sensation of her loose hair flowing over him, "Morality is a virtue I dont admire, right and wrong are concepts and I merely play a game of balance, money I make makes the lives of the citizens of Vortex better."

He was confident now, she wore his band and soon would be seduced by a large priceless stone also, the promise was better than all the ropes and chains in Vortex for keeping her here, he had won his prize after some seasons, a wife befitting his station and his intellect. "Do you recall when we first met?" He giggled gently at the memory and pulled her even closer looking into her eyes as he did so, "When you made me do your chores, what did you think of me then?"

[Anora Eventide]

"Refined? Dear Dimitri, you make me feel a fraction guilty for asking for a strange thing." Guilt was a unique creature in Anora; her guilt was more a painstakingly learned reaction than a purely instinctual reply.
Her half revealed smile was vulpine, "I suppose it struck me as wiser to ask for something peculiar. Refined things between us are expected in the course of things."
His explanation met with a gray look and a soft answer, "There are other less dangerous ways to live well."
She did not broach morality with him, but fixed on the logical side of her contention.
"Ways that will not sully a name or earn the punishment of the Empire."
The slave business continued to trigger her habit of responding with chagrin to certain trespasses, but it also made her nervous in a more visceral way. Her name would now be intermingled with his, and this jeopardized her meticulously maintained reputation as an upstanding lady, or even the façade thereof.

His question was an attempt to distract her mind, but it was engaging to think on her past opinions.
"I had thought you a little exotic in your appearance." She had almost said "eccentric" but he had not been entirely strange.
"Natura and Daltina did not encourage such manners of dress with hats, veils and masks. I prefer you now," Her hand and eyes passed over his chest, "A rich simplicity."
Moving beyond the petty concerns of a Daltinan lady she added, "By your speech, I thought you would be a dreaded bard. And you were quite taken with yourself to so boldly assume I was immediately enamored of you."
A soft kiss on his cheek, no longer playful.
"My opinion has improved, in those regards, with further acquaintance. And you were a gentleman then to help me despite a design or two on my part."

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

(ooc: Sorries lovely!)

"I like to cultivate the mystique of the exotic, my blood longs for Arium and yet I find myself drawn to foreign culture." He smiled and held her still, his warm embrace somehow protective and precarious at once. "You can dress any man up in silks and velvet and yet he will have the flesh as any other, the mind though can move apart and no mans mind is the same." He paused for a moment and smirked, "No womans mind is alike either, yours remains a book I have yet to read my love."

He grinned as she spoke further carefully controlling his baser side that urged him now to couple with her, she would not respond well. The light trickle of affection she allowed to flow from her would perhaps gush forth in later times when a large stone adorned her finger and a title crept carefully before her name but for now he would merely indulge in her taste and her warmth, this dalliance was the closest he would get to her bed. "I only persued you because in my arrogance I knew you found me alluring." He smiled and winked playfully, "I would not have made the confounded trip to Natura for no reason, I placed much stock on my instinct which was as usual proved correct." Closer he held her for a moment as though whenever he revealed a truth about himself he expected her to kick away and flee, "I consider myself fortunate that I balance the two traits vital in a marriage, love and station." he grinned, "My stepmother was never loved by my father, my mother was of a more dubious profession, some sort of courtesan and a aristocrat of Jaedaxia." He smiled, "A little of the finery runs in me too my Daltinan gem, not all tough Vortexian granite." Adopting a foreign accent akin to the powdered and spoilt Lord of Jaedaxia he spoke restraining a broad smile, "Will m'Lady please lie and partake of such enamored conversation, I fear my tongue does bewitch as it feeds the ideals from my brain, a perfect instrument of a deities glamour." He purred softly, and then his face returned to polished neutrality, "I am having Barra find her, I am sure she is alive still somewhere."

A look to her again, slightly shy but still endearing, "There is a matter I find myself somewhat ashamed to lay at your door but it must be done. Your cousins husband the regent, I shall need to speak with him soon." He smiled, "When we first met you told me you were no help on this front and I have never considered you a stepping stone, rather I feel my own station and contacts would easily ensure an interview. However for the matters on my agenda a more informal meeting is needed, perhaps he might attend our wedding or I might bump into him before hmm?" He had a wicked glint in his eyes, though neither good nor bad, "After all....we will be practically family."

[Anora Eventide]

(OOC: Happy to see you back.)

Anora laughed amusedly at the foppish turns of Jaedaxienne phrase.
"I'm thoroughly impressed, my dear. I feel quite the rube."
It was an uncanny adoption of the accent, Dimitri's swimming words lingering in the back of his mouth. For all her coldness, Anora appreciated dissembling bits of humor. Much of her focus was spent in observation, so it was impossible to not occasionally smirk at life's follies.
The woman's amusement tapered as her fiancé mentioned the necromancer's search for his mother.
"Ah Barra, my teacher. For all the pain of my graceless unbinding, I am partial to him." A pause as she pulled a strand of hair slowly between her fingertips, "It would be pleasing if your mother could attend the wedding."

In her thoughts this adored one, the rival to the proper wife, was raven haired like Dimitri and refined. A woman who would resemble the mother Anora should have known herself: a dark, noble creature, neither a wild barbari seer nor a lady washed in spring. It was a strange conclusion, but created to assure Anora she was the sort of women to keep a Wladisyaw's love.

When Dimitri expressed a wish to meet with her cousin's spouse, Anora's dark eyebrow raised. It was not pleasant news to her ears. Subtle as mist, the woman slinked out from his embrace, and stood to take a brief walk within the tent. By her quietness, it was obvious she was thinking on the matter, even as she eyed Drego's "treat" with a measure of scrutiny.
Amidst her sinuous pacing, a winsome little idea sprouted in her mind. She smiled benignly and her eyes glanced down diffidently, when she flicked them back to Dimitri, they rung with a tiny peal of triumph. Her bait had been found.
"Well then I suppose you will have to accompany me to the harvest celebration in Cloudkiss the last cycle of fall."
Drawing near the cot again, Anora did not sit on it but respectfully petitioned Dimitri to sit with her hand and glance.
"My family will likely invite the regent and his wife. Whether they attend is a different matter."
Anora's pleased air dampened a little. "Do I dare ask what you need to speak with him about?"

For once, Anora's stiletto fine thoughts were sheathed. A sadly whimsical portion of her wanted to indulge her continuing fiction of an engagement's afterglow. She had pantomimed other benchmarks in her life, and by doing so had gradually acted herself into a semblance of normal feeling. This would be approached no differently, especially since Dimitri was in fine form.

With a care made soft by shy inexperience, Anora sat on Dimitri's lap. It was a mildly disarming gesture of vulnerability, as she melted her regal bearing and curled against the man.
"Or shall I be blissfully ignorant and put off such inquiries until morning?"

[Dimitri Wladisyaw]

Dimitri smiled to himself as she slipped away from him and buried his head in the warm fabric of the cot for a moment. Carefully and languidly like some great cat he rose and sat upon it, looking at her move. He heard her words with a small smile and a twinkle in his eyes and as she sat upon his lap his experience shone. His arms seemingly in a moment moved round her waist holding her to him and for perhaps a brief moment protecting her from the world.

"Things are never as easy as you assume Morwen, to drop my affairs and attend your family gathering would be...." he trailed off wary about offending her, instead he resumed on a different tack, "I would sooner have careful introductions, perhaps in my own lands but certainly in a more relaxed atmosphere." He smiled carefully and resumed, "As for what the regent and I must discuss, I as always act as the custodian of my city, we are neither a part of the empire nor far from it, I feel only through us bypassing the govenor can progress be made, gentleman to gentleman." He sighed and rubbed his face into her hair, kissing her scalp carefully and taking a deep nostrul-full of her hair. She always smelt so pristine, he loved her smell.

"Consider my home as yours from now, perhaps you might extend invitations to your extended family. I can pay for accomodation if you feel they are to be somewhat overawed by my home, perhaps in such a gentle trickle I can bathe in your families approval no?" He drew her head back with a hand and worked his mouth against hers for a brief moment, attempting to express his affection that transcended boundries into a physical gesture, it was a failure but a glorious one perhaps. When he had drawn away he smiled ruefully, "To be so fantastically happy for a moment such as this, is more glorious than all the worlds gold." He leant in and kissed her forehead, "Man is selfish, but he craves love more than gold..." He paused for a moment as though thinking, "Are you scared? Giving yourself to one person forever? Choosing a dish before you have tasted all the worlds flavours?"

[Anora Eventide]

Anora said nothing, at first, but nestled into Dimitri's chest. His kiss was a warm disruption to her accruing thoughts and her awakening body was glad to shake off the gloomy mind.

The nearer she moved to him physically, the less sufficient it seemed. He breathed her in and cloaked her in his arms. His scent and scarred skin were all the tactile sensations she was permitted. And his voice, it was to her ears what a thick fur would be to her fingers. He kept her in a heady prison, that barred little outer influence. She intuitively understood why he was the bear of Arium: Dreadful near its claws but lulling in its possessive shadow.