A Paladin's War Ch. 11

"It's for making a fire," Aran said, standing and turning to face her. "See?" He offered them up to show her, and in a flash she snatched them away and tossed them over her shoulder into the pool.

"What did you do that for?" he demanded, more taken aback than angry. He'd been looking forward to a hot tea, and now he could sense his flint and steel dropping to the bottom of the pool.

"No fire!" she shouted, her eyes as hot as the very thing she was forbidding.

Aran wondered if he should leave. He had given his word he would stay, though, provided she held up her end of the bargain.

"Alright," Aran said soothingly, spreading his hands. "No fire. May I ask why?"

Nymra stepped closer, until their bodies were almost touching. He felt no heat from her. "He listens through the fire. He watches." Her voice was low, almost inaudible.

"Who?" Aran asked in a near-whisper.

"Agni." The name made Aran's eyebrows climb. Agni was the fire Titan, the most destructive of them all. The other guardians all had many aspects, nourishing life, harbouring balance, creating as well as destroying, yet fire created nothing. Fire only destroyed. A chill ran up Aran's spine at the thought of Agni under Maharad's control. He hoped it was not too late. Surely the world would already be burning it if were so.

Without thinking, Aran seized Nymra by her slim shoulders and bent his head toward hers. "You know of him? Where is he? I must know!"

"You seek your own death, arohim," she replied evenly, unconcerned with his grip on her. "Do you wish it so readily?" Aran stared into her eyes. This close, they were like pools as deep as the one behind her. Were her eyes just that? Pools of water? Or was it a trick of the shadows? There was ancient knowledge in those eyes, he knew. Knowledge he needed.

"I do not wish to die," he answered after taking a deep breath. Relinquishing his hold on her, he went on more calmly. "But I do need to get to Agni. If you know where he is, it would help me greatly to know."

"You seek blindly, Aran." This time it was her hands that held his shoulders. "You may stumble over what is beneath your feet if you do not take care."

He wished she would stop speaking in bloody riddles. Did she not understand how important this was? "Please, Nymra. I will give you anything in my power if you will just help me."

"Done." There was a foreboding sense of finality in the word, as if Aran had just agreed to something momentous. "The guardians are everywhere, and nowhere. You must know this." More riddles, then.

"And Agni?"

"Is no different."

Aran wanted to throw his hands up. "I do not understand, Nymra!"

She was moving away from him, then, backing into the pool. Well, onto the pool, really; her feet never sunk below the surface as she walked slowly backward. Stopping in the centre, she spoke. "Hear me, arohim, and watch." She lifted slim arms and watery shapes began to form, rising from the glimmering surface and twisting, undulating, growing until Nymra was surrounded by six figures, all larger than Aran, some bigger than the others. He recognised Vasuda right away, the tall, muscular form unmistakable with those horns curling out from the front of his head. The other figures were no doubt the other Titans, two male and four female.

"At the beginning," Nymra began in a deeper, more commanding tone than he'd heard from her yet. "The guardians moved in harmony, each balancing against the other, the lesser and the greater." Aran already knew this much; Sadani, Vasuda and Agni were greater guardians, their dominions - water, earth and fire - the foundation upon which the others worked, while Rava, Vayani and Ranada were the lesser, their domains being weather, forests and beasts respectively. None of the lesser could exist without the greater.

"The balance became disrupted when Maharad was allowed to enter this world," she went on. The figures moved on the water, some shifting into a fighting stance, others looking as if to flee. "And the world began to fracture." The surface of the pool rippled violently and became a miniaturised display of crashing waves, cracking earth and raging storms, all somehow perfectly discernible despite being formed out of nothing but water.

None of this was new to Aran, thus far, but he kept his patience and watched. "Some fled to safety," as she spoke, Ranada - a feminine figure with pointed ears and a tail - and Vayani - also female, with a crown of leaves on her brow - vanished, dropping into the water. "While others, succumbed to Maharad's promises of greater power." Vasuda remained, somehow appearing darker, more sinister, though nothing tangible changed about his form. The same for the tall, slender one with clouds circling her fluid form. That had to be Rava.

"Agni and Sadani clashed," Nymra continued. "Neither one joining Maharad or those who fought under the banner of Aros." The two remaining forms met savagely, each trying to get a hold of the other as they wrestled, though neither got the upper hand. "But Agni grew weary, his power drained, for fire cannot withstand water." Agni began to shrink. "And Maharad's whispers were strong." The water-depiction of the fire guardian clutched his head and fell to his knees. "Rather than give in to Maharad and lose himself, Agni exiled himself into slumber, until his strength restored." Agni vanished into the water.

Nymra went quiet then, looking at the place where Agni last was, then turning her gaze to Aran. The last remaining figure - Sadani, statuesque and proud - stood directly behind her, towering head and shoulders above her.

"And what of Sadani?" Aran asked softly.

It took a few moments for her to answer. A heavy silence had settled over the oasis. Leaves shifting in the light wind sounded too loud. "Sadani watches, and waits." That appeared to be all the answer she was willing to give on the matter.

"When will Agni awake?"

"That time draws near," Nymra replied. "Very near. He is already listening to the world again. The one you call Maloth seeks Sadani, though she has not come to him, yet."

That was troubling, to say the least. "Rava is with him as well as Vasuda, yes?" He didn't need Nymra's nod to know it for true. The storms were proof enough. "What can you tell me about her?"

"She desires what all the guardians desire," Nymra replied coolly. "She hates Sadani, for storms cannot be without water."

"Sadani could stop Rava, could she not?" Aran hadn't considered this.

Nymra nodded. "Though she will not. The balance must be maintained."

"Even if she cannot be turned away from Maharad?"

"Without the balance, nothing can exist," Nymra replied solemnly. Well, that meant there wasn't much he could do about Vasuda or Rava right now.

"What about Vayani?"

In answer, Nymra's head turned to look at the nearest tree, and Aran thought he caught the ghost of a smile on her lips. "She listens." She cocked her head as if hearing something inaudible to Aran. Whatever is was, she did not bother sharing it.

"Does Maharad have her, too?" He exhaled in relief when she shook her head.

"He does not," she said.

"Where is she?" Nymra's slim arm lifted to point west. West was good; perhaps Smythe or Elaina could find her. When he asked Nymra if she could be more specific, her head swung. Even my abilities have limits, arohim."

"What of Ranada?" Again she pointed, this time north, but offered no further information when Aran pried.

"I suppose I should thank you," he said as graciously as he could. "I wished for more, but you have given me more than I had."

"Yes," Nymra replied. "I will accept your offer, now." Aran opened his mouth to ask what that meant, but she added, "Anything in your power is what you offered." She walked toward him slowly, suddenly seeming taller, more full-figured than before. No, she was such, and the water-image of Sadani behind her was now streaming forward, pouring into her. Oh, you fire-blinded fool! Aran cursed himself for being too stupid to see it earlier.

"Perhaps Vayani is right," Nymra - Sadani - murmured softly as she came to stand before him in her real form. "I wish to know." He couldn't help but feel a sense of awe as he regarded her perfect feminine shape, tall and voluptuous, with thick, flowing hair down to ample hips. Now that she wasn't disguised, he sensed her power, too, deep and eternal. How had she hidden herself from him so easily?

"Know what?" Aran asked as his mind spun, trying to figure a way out of this. He could flee, but he doubted she'd let him go.

"I offer you something no mortal has been offered before," she said, her eyes of pure water glimmering in the moonlight. As she spoke, tendrils lifted off the pond and encircled his wrists and ankles, then wound up his arms and legs. He tried to pull away, but she held him fast. "You will give me a child."

Aran gaped. How was that even possible? Before he could protest, the tendrils were lifting him, carrying him out over the pond. A moment later he was lying on his back on the pool's surface, staring up at the sky through the ring of trees, much as he had been when Sadani had first come upon him. "You cannot force me to this," he told her, drawing on his vala as deeply as he could, not expanding it, but concentrating it all within his body. An immense amount of power flooded into him, filling him, brilliant heat suffusing every muscle, every tendon, every bone. He'd never held this much before; he hadn't even known that he could. It was as if he was vibrating all over. What had changed? Was he naturally growing stronger, or had his time with the Orcs made him this way?

Whatever the answer, he had little time to ponder it, for Sadani was now standing over him, one foot on each side of his waist. It was clear what she planned. She looked down at him impassively, a beautiful, implacable force. She held him fast even now, with him brimming with power, and he saw no sign of strain on her face. The watery ropes may as well have been vala-forged steel.

"I will not allow this," he told her firmly. "You may hold me, Sadani, but I will not be forced."

"Is that so?" she replied coolly. The water between his legs shifted and began to caress him down there, in the most sensitive places. He ignored it.

"Are you aware of your position in all this, Anarion?" She began to lower herself down slowly. "I have decided what I want. That is all there is to the matter."

Gritting his teeth, he pulled at his bonds, but they yielded not an inch. "I will die first, Sadani!" He growled vehemently. A part of him wanted to laugh maniacally. A beautiful creature wanted to mate with him; in itself, that was not such a problem, but to force him to give her a child was insane. Not to mention he had no idea what such a child would be capable of, or how she would raise it. For all he knew, whatever progeny Sadani produced could be the doom of the world.

"No, you will not," she retorted in that same, cool voice, like snow melt trickling down a mountainside. "You will not abandon the world."

She was right, but he didn't like hearing it. "My body will not give you what you want," he said. "I will not allow it." Indeed, despite her attempts at exciting him, he offered no response.

A smile curved her lush lips as she descended ever lower, until he felt the heat of her smooth sex just above his cock. Of it's own volition, it began to lift, lengthening, thickening until it strained to reach her. Aran looked down in shock. Intense training had given him exquisite control over his body, his impulses, his physical responses, but somehow, Sadani had made him hard against his will. Heat washed through him as she dropped the final inch and sheathed him in her body, though he remained stoic, giving her no indication he felt pleasure. He would have happily lain with her if she had but asked. Perhaps he would even have acquiesced to giving her the child she wanted, had she but requested it instead of trussing him up like a puppet and taking advantage of him.

"I had forgotten the sensation," Sadani breathed as her hips came to rest firmly upon him. "It is most welcome." Saying nothing, Aran held himself stiff as a board, blocking out the delicious warmth surrounding his cock. As she began to grind against him, he took a deep breath and focused, searching for a way to free himself. Sadani's soft moans grew slowly louder, echoing through the oasis. As her pleasure mounted, Aran began to feel something, an echo, a flicker, something recognisable in the infinite enigma that was Sadani's life force. He seized it with a fist of his vala, encasing it, trapping it. So, he thought triumphantly, there is your weakness, Titan.

Sadani's face had been turned to the stars as she undulated atop him, but her eyes snapped down at once, twin endless oceans boring into him. "What is-" she cut off with a sharp cry as Aran penetrated that flickering familiarity with his vala, once, twice, ten times, a hundred hot needles that sent her into a flurry of convulsions. The tendrils unwrapped themselves from his wrists and ankles and he sunk into the pool, free of his bonds.

Wasting no time - there was no telling how long he could hold her - he swam to the edge and pulled himself out onto the sand. Sadani was still in the same position, kneeling on the water as she shook. "How - is - this - possible!?" she cried, stammering as her own form betrayed her. Aran would never have done this to any lover - it might very well have driven them mad - but Sadani was a different matter. She fell back onto her hands, still shaking like a leaf. The pose was highly erotic, the way her knees were spread wide and her hips were bucking spasmodically.

"The form you assumed has a weakness," Aran explained as he lessened the assault a little. Her quivering settled some, and she was able to straighten herself, resting with hands on knees, head down, hair dipping into the water. "And I exploited it."

"You - should not - be able-" she cut off as a sharp shiver ran through her body.

"And you should not have forced me," Aran countered.

"Balance," she said between panting breaths. "I only wanted-" Another shudder.

Aran frowned. "How does the two of us creating a child affect the balance?" He lessened his effect further, giving her space to speak.

"It is the way forward," she replied, slowly getting to her feet and turning to him. "All things must change, without exception." She came forward, her demeanour somewhat different from before. Her eyes still met his levelly, though now without the superiority. Shockingly, she knelt before him, hands on knees, head bowed. Aran stepped back, ready for a surprise attack, but none came. "I have erred in my judgement of you, arohim," she said, lifting her face. "I offer whatever you require in exchange for what I ask."

Right then, Aran could have been knocked down with a feather. Smythe and Elaina will never believe this, he thought incredulously. "The balance," he repeated to Sadani. "How does the child affect it?"

"I... Can no longer hold my dominion alone," she admitted as if the words were being dragged from her mouth. If Titans were capable of pride - and Aran knew they were - then Sadani was no exception. "Rava and Vasuda have become too strong, and if Agni joins them... I have already lost too much control. A child with at least some of my own power would help keep the balance. If that child possesses your powers, too..."

Aran thought he understood. "Why did you not just ask me?"

"The same reason I have never before knelt to a Human. Or any creature."

"I see," he said flatly. She was going to take what she wanted because she could, but perhaps also because she was desperate. Taking a deep breath, he made his decision. "Stand, Sadani." When she was upright again, he continued. "I will give you your child," he began. Fire and fury, this is bloody insane! How many children will I sire before this is all over? And what under Aros' gaze will a half-Titan, half-arohim be capable of? "But you will pledge your full power and abilities to me until I release you from my service. For my part, I pledge to release you once the threat of Maharad and Maloth has been extinguished. If I die before this, your allegiance is to the arohim Henley Smythe, Elaina Fairborn and Amina Moonsong, until they say otherwise or the threat of Maharad and Maloth is extinguished. Are we in agreement?"

Sadani nodded. "I agree, Aran."

Well, he thought with a sense of relief. That went altogether better than it looked five minutes ago. He met the Titan's eyes. A long silence stretched out between them. "I suppose we should be about it then," he said with a grin. Would she uphold her end of the bargain? Could he take her at her word? Only time would tell.

He thought her cheeks coloured slightly. "Will you... Do as you did before?" She looked almost shy, all of a sudden. It's the female aspect, he realised. World guardian or no, water is a feminine element. Fascinating. As interesting as the discovery was, there was no time to ruminate on it now, for Sadani was moving forward, arms outstretched...

Aran lay on his back on the sand, watching the sky as it slowly turned from grey to orange with the dawn. Beside him, Sadani sat silently, back straight, long legs folded beneath her as she watched the waters of the pool rippling gently in the wind. He had been right about her hair; it was a shimmering dark blue, almost like Evoni's, though lighter than her cobalt. Her skin was pale but tinged with a lighter blue hue. Their time together had been... Memorable. In fact, Aran had rather enjoyed using his abilities to their full extent during their lovemaking. Often, he had to restrain himself.

Without saying a word, she stood and moved toward the pool. Aran sat up and watched her lush form, admiring it; he suspected he would not be seeing her for some time. When she was knee-deep, she turned to face him. "Call upon me when you require, Anarion, and I will come."

"How?" he asked, getting to his feet. "How do I summon you?"

She smiled. "You will know." She backed further into the pool, the water now just beneath her breasts.

"Do not leave yet," he commanded, testing their agreement. She made no further movement, watching him expectantly. It was a mystery how her eyes could be so intense despite their apparent emptiness. "I will need your help with Agni."

"Yes," she agreed. "But I must recede for now, until the child is born, or the balance will be threatened further."

"You are sure that you are with child?" he enquired, wishing she had informed him beforehand that she would be unable to aid him until the child was born.

"Yes," she replied smoothly. "Our union was successful, and surprisingly enjoyable."

"When will the child be born?"

"That is uncertain," she said after a moment. "She will arrive when she arrives."

"She?" he repeated, his eyebrows lifting. "You already know this?"

"Yes. It is past time for me to be away from here, Anarion, if there is nothing else you require?"

Well, she is at least pretending to be obedient. That's something. When he shook his head, she said, "Until we meet again," and at that, she disappeared beneath the surface. Aran stood there for a time, staring at the place where she'd vanished. Conflicting feelings moved through him. He was glad to have made a bargain with Sadani, but how could he know she would honour it? Child or no, she could betray him whenever she chose; there was no way to bind her to her word.

At least she's not been turned by Maharad, he thought. I would've sensed it. Aside from that, he was not sure how he felt about the Titan. She was so different to any other being he'd encountered. As intense and pleasurable as her company had been, he did not think he could grow to love her, not in the way he loved Jeira, or Sorla, or Elaina. Well, what's done is done. No point standing around wasting more time. Truthfully, his time here had certainly not been for nothing, especially if Sadani did indeed keep her word. She would be most useful when he crossed paths with Agni, which was bound to happen sooner or later. Sooner, I hope.