Private Tales Read between the lines

[Talus]

Talus didn't care about impossibilities. He didn't care about how hard it would be, he had said it and it would be done.

In his mind it was now set.

As their lips met once again Talus wrapped his arms tightly around her body. His biceps flexed, and she would suddenly feel herself lifted from her place in his lap. With one swift motion Talus pulled Zana off of himself and practically threw her onto the bed behind them.

Before she could argue or even make a noise he was on top of her, one hand slowly sliding into the locks of her hair as his lips crashed against hers.

His heart raced for her, thundered in his chest again and again as he felt himself overcome with a simple need to touch and feel her.

 

[Zana]

So much bolder than last time.

Last time it had almost been a game of who would go further first and then it had been a night of discovery. Awkward. Hesitant. But that was most certainly gone now. She was indeed surprised as he threw her boldly across the bed, the squeal that was halfway up her throat was silenced however by the crush of his body against her and his hungry kiss. She melted into it with a groan. Zana wasn't used to being the one who was in a position of less power but he made her crave the feeling of powerlessness. It was the thrill of choosing to allow him to do it.

His fingers in her hair made her back arch slightly, her right leg bending up to frame itself against his hip and thigh, her booted foot resting against the flat of his bed for she hadn't yet had a chance to take it off. Her hands had found their way under his shirt as soon as he had laid himself on top of her and now she tugged desperately at the hem to pull it up and off him between their writhing bodies.

His name was a soft plead against her lips.

 

[Talus]

Talus let her fingers flitter over his body, feeling the shirt on his back drag upwards and over his head.

The garment was discarded against the wall, falling to the floor as Talus' own hands began to slowly sail down Zana's body. Fingers slid down her form, slipping beneath the hem of her tunic as he pulled it away and over her head.

He stopped just short of stripping off the top completely, leaving her eyes covered for just a minute as he leaned down into a passionate kiss. "I've thought about you every minute you've been gone."

Talus whispered as his lips slowly floated down her cheek and jaw, planting kisses along her neck as he held her tunic like a blindfold.

He felt almost drunk as his free hand floated down her body, gently grasping her boots to pull them free and toss them onto the floor. Nothing else mattered in that moment. Not the dangers they still faced, not the tasks they still had in front of them.

Only her.

 

[Zana]

Zana hadn't been wrong about how tired she was from her month long trip. She had barely grabbed more than a few hours a night whilst she had been out there and even that had been fitful at best with the threat of assassination and trouble visions of the impending invasion. So when her head hit the pillow on Talus' bed she was dead to the world for hours. At one point Grey had crawled into bed with her to lay his head across her stomach.

She went most of the evening and night before a vision finally made her stir in the early hours. Talus was still asleep so she quietly peeled herself out of the bed, stole his shirt from the floor and then quietly slipped out of the room.

She collected a blanket from the living room, a book, and then went and curled up on the swing outside. Grey joined her a moment or two later and jumped up onto the seat beside her to rest his head in her lap. She absent mindedly rubbed at his ears as she settled into her book as the sun rose.

 

[Talus]

It was after another hour that Talus stepped outside onto the porch.

He wore trousers, though no shirt adorned his chest. A smile was on his face as he moved outside, gaze falling on the open field that lay before his open. He then slowly glanced to the left, smiling even wider as he saw Zana. "Comfortable?"

Talus asked as he took quick steps over towards her, leaning down to kiss her forehead as soon as he reached her.

"Couldn't find my shirt this morning..." He commented quietly with a grin.

 

[Zana]

Zana was engrossed in her book, so much so she didn't notice Talus appear until he was was doting a kiss on her. She looked up at him with a bright smiled and closed her book.

"Very," she caught his hand and pulled him back down for a proper kiss, her hand sliding up to cup his cheek. "And I cannot seem to find... any of my clothes. I don't suppose you know where they all went?" Both brows raised.

Grey yawned but as Talus appeared he had stretched and now hopped down on to the floor to lay at Zana's feet. She patted the bench next to her.

 

[Talus]

"Huh." He said with a certain amount of fake shock. "No I haven't."

As he lowered himself onto the bench Talus patted the dogs head, scratching behind his ears with a smile. "Must be those damned wolves again."

He shook his head.

"They're always coming around here and taking stuff." A shrug rolled over his shoulders as he reached out and gently rested a hand on her thigh.

 

[Zana]

"Uh huh," Zana narrowed her eyes at him and then shifted her position so that she was was leaning against him rather than the swing itself. Grey sat up when Talus patted his lap and shuffled over to put his head in the mans lap, looking up at the pair with innocent sky blue eyes.

"Look at him, how could you blame it on his family?" Even in the light she still looked tired. There were smudges under her eyes and her body would feel heavy against him.

 

[Talus]

His arm wrapped around her slowly, gently stroking his thumb over her skin as he smiled down at her.

She looked tired. "Easy, I've seen him destroy your book case."

Of course, most of the destruction that had happened over the last day or so was not the fault of Grey, but a certain someone else that sat on the swing with him. A smile touched his lips as he leaned down and kissed the top of her head.

"Maybe you should stay longer than a week." He said quietly. "You look tired."

Something he didn't like.

 

[Zana]

Zana's lips curved at the memory of Grey careening into the bookcase after the ball Talus had thrown for him. She ruffled the wolf's scruff and he rolled his eyes shut with a happy hrumph, content not knowing people were attempting to blame him for nefarious things.

"I am, the trip hit me harder than I thought," her voice sounded just as tired as she looked and she curled her legs up so she was comfortably tucked against his side. "If I could stay longer I would but I have this really annoying job I have to do next... something about smelly Guards and whipping them into shape..."

 

[Talus]

He smirked. "Well that's not so bad."

Though he was still tempted to just say they should both stay.

It was then that the thought hit him. He wanted her here with him, even at the expense of the Guard. The realization of that fell on him like a ton of bricks. It was a sudden shock that came to him, and he stared blankly for a moment before slowly shaking his head.

"Suppose I'll just have to sneak into your tent at night." He mused out loud. "Make sure you're actually sleeping."

 

[Zana]

She gave a soft chuckle and watched as Grey finally grew bored and went off exploring up the garden, nose to the ground. Her horse cast the wolf a suspicious look but the two seemed quite content with one another; wary respect between the two. It felt surreal her life slotted in so easily to his out here.

"I definitely won't be sleeping if you're creeping into my tent at night," she shook her head a little, her fingers tracing patterns down his thigh.

"You didn't have to get up, I know my sleep pattern is odd."

 

[Talus]

"I have only a week with you." Talus said, half turning to her so that he could more comfortably hold her close.

A day of that week was already gone now. They had most certainly not wasted it, but Talus wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. Particularly because the Guard might send for him at any time."You think I'm gonna spend it sleeping?"

He squeezed her gently.

"I want to spend every minute I can..." Talus grabbed her hand and gently kissed her knuckle. "Just enjoying our time together."

 

[Zana]

As he turned she sat up so he could comfortably turn, nudging him so that he stretched a leg out along the bench and so she could lean her whole back against the front of his body. She carefully arranged the blankets over her bare legs to keep out the chill of the morning air and then settled in against him.

"Then you can watch me read, I've just got to the bit Lucius is kidnapped by the evil pirates," she opened her book and settled snugly back against him.

 

[Talus]

For a time they simply sat there, Zana reading her book and Talus staring out into the gardens of his home.

There was a calmness to it, something he appreciated.

Quiet was so difficult to find in their lives, and that was a large part of why he had wanted a home out here instead of in the city. He wouldn't have gotten anything fancy like Zana, but officers quarters in the Guard Keep wouldn't have been out of the question.

Still, he liked this, and as the time passed he found true joy in simply sitting.

After a while though Zana finished her book, and the two of them went about a simple day. They ate breakfast, cleaned up the rest of the destruction from the night before, and then they found themselves quietly walking the wood around his home.

It was serene, peaceful. The two Dreadlords walked hand in hand.

 

[Zana]

Grey dropped a stick at her feet expectantly.

"You're meant to be a wolf. Fierce, scary, tough," his tongue lulled out and he danced back to give the pair a play bow. Zana rolled her eyes but bent to pick it up anyway and threw it. When it began to curve down she nudged it with a little magic to send it flying twice the distance and the wolf vanished into the undergrowth.

The hand holding had taken her a while to get used to but now she felt like she never wanted to let it go. There was a odd comfort to it. As she had pointed out in their heated debate earlier she couldn't have gone for a walk in just his shirt so she had been gifted with some of her clothes back. He had chosen a dress she had picked up in the Empire and she was rather glad for the lighter fabric in the heat of the sun.

She gently bumped her shoulder against his.

"It's beautiful out here I can see why you like it so much."

 

[Talus]

"He's plenty tough." Talus said with a smile on his face, looking around the empty path with a smile.

He'd lost the argument of returning her clothes, though he thought some of the points he'd made had been quite good. 'It'll be very hot today', 'The breeze might be nice', 'Not like there's anyone around for the next ten miles'.

Zana hadn't gone for any of them. It was a shame really, he supposed he could understand it. From a certain point of view anyway.

He smiled as she spoke. "It is."

Talus had chosen this place because it was calm, peaceful. There was no noise, and it took nearly a days ride to reach him from Vel Anir. That was the crux really, isolation. It was something he'd never been allowed before.

"Would you..." He trailed off for a second. "Would you like to see it the way I do?"

They had talked yesterday about his magic, about him showing her what he could do. He figured that now was just a good as time as any.

 

[Zana]

Zana could hear Grey somewhere way off in the distance and her attention was half on him when Talus made his offer. It made her pause mid stride and turn to look at him with open curiosity. It wasn't very often Dreadlords shared these things, even amongst their own Houses. It was hard to know when one of them might turn on you.

Zana would take her own life before betraying him.

"You show me yours I'll show you mine," she winked. There was still a few things he didn't know about her magic.

 

[Talus]

He smiled. "Don't let go."

Talus wasn't entirely sure what would happen if she did. His expression didn't change as he turned to her, his other hand gently reaching out and wrapping around hers. For a few seconds he stood there, staring at her, and then suddenly there would be a shift.

The process wasn't gradual, it never was. Instead it was like someone flipped a switch.

One second they stood in one reality, and then in the next they were somewhere else completely different. The world flickered, and suddenly everything was washed in a blue ethereal light. The trees seemed to flicker and wave, birds flew disjointed through the air, even insects could be seen more clearly, burning with bright ethereal fire.

All of it surrounded them, more visible in this world than the other. Life bloomed, though it was a strange sort of life. In the middle of it all they stood, and Zana would see Talus differently than she ever had before.

His very soul was bared to her, the slashes of sin upon it, the sparks of passion that erupted from him, and the righteousness at his very core.

 

[Zana]

Zana thought she was going to lose her breakfast as the whole world went inside out. Her hands tightened on his as she sucked in a breath and tried to push down the nauseated feeling that had risen. The world took on a whole new feeling as she looked around, her eyes widening bit by bit by bit. It was...

"Wow," Zana breathed out slowly with her exclamation of awe. His descriptions had done this no justice. Tentatively she reached out and gently ran her fingers over his form until her eyes were as round as coins.

"This... is... you see like this all the time?"

 

[Talus]

"Not all the time." There was distortion to their voices here, something that seemed to shift the way their voices sounded.

It was difficult to tell if it was the lack of air or the place itself, but it was different. Even Talus seemed a bit shocked. He had never spoken in this world before, never had the opportunity to. She was the first person he had taken here when in a moment of peace.

"I have to concentrate not to see it." For Talus it had now become second nature, but when the Proctors had first triggered it...

The sight had taken years to get used to.

 

[Zana]

Zana nodded as she listened and brought their joined hands up curiously to look at her own 'skin', turning their hands this way and that to see the colours move. It was hypnotic in a way. She wanted to see what the rest of her soul looked like and yet... thinking of what he had said about how part of it was missing and there was another piggy backing on to it she decided it was perhaps best not. She almost let go of his hands to rub subconsciously at her back as if there were indeed someone there.

"So how does this actually help you?" she was curious what advantages it gave him. "Wait, is this how someone else can see us right now?" Zana thought back to the time he had walked through her wall and out into the city after the first night they had spent together. "Can I walk through a tree right now?" she would be lying if she said she wasn't at least a little excited about the prospect.

 

[Talus]

"Yes." He told her with a smile and nod of his head.

Nothing here could really be touched without you wanting to touch it. The only way to effect objects in this world was by willing yourself to effect them. That meant if you wanted to walk through something...you could just by not thinking about it.

The trick had been a bitch to learn. "You can also..."

Quickly he reached over to her, sweeping her off her legs and pulling her into his arms to cradle her like a princess.

Then he jumped.

Talus and Zana shot off the ground in an instant, leaping a hundred feet in the air and rushing above the tree line.

 

[Zana]

Her nose scrunched up a little bit as she thought about what he said and eyed a nearby tree, intending to practise what she had asked. Instead her feet were robbed from her.

Zana screamed as they jumped. It was perhaps one of the most lady like things she had actually done since meeting him. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and clung to him for dear life. She could levitate objects and walk upon them with ease and it didn't bother her but this was something entirely different. To... rely solely on him to keep them safe was so against her training she wasn't sure what she should do.

Could her magic even work in this form?

 

[Talus]

As the momentum from their leap slowly began to drop Talus tightened his grip on Zana ever so slightly. He had to stifle a laugh as she screamed. "Just hold on."

He yelled to her, and then suddenly there was a shift.

Two grand wings suddenly erupted from his upper back, each of them created of a lattice of a thousand different interweaving webs. There were no feathers like a bird nor the stretched leather of a bat, but all together something different.

They extended from him, and seemingly caught the 'wind' of his realm. Instead of falling back down to the earth, Talus and Zana floated lazily through the 'air'. Such notions really did not exist here, but it helped him move through the realm even faster than he usually did.

He had done this but once before, and it drained his stamina more than running did...but a little part him wanted to impress her.

Wanted her to see just what he could do.