Of Bonds Forged Ch. 07 - Epilogue

Epilogue

Vale was happy to be home. Vale was happy to be in the place that gave her the most peace. It was late, but not too. There were still initiates and a few others milling about. Some specifically liked to study and practice during the quieter hours and she found that beneficial herself at first. It helped her focus solely on the work. Later though, Mistress had insisted on whatever distractions she could create. "There weren't often times," Mistress told her, "where the situation will allow you the ideal calm to do what needs to be done, so you have to create a place within yourself that it always there no matter what goes on around you."

And she was right. Crafting that place and building upon it over years had saved her life. She was awake now because there was so much to explore for her that she was genuinely restless. So restless that she wasn't sure where to begin, Find the smallest steps first and climb from there. Such worked for many things and she saw no reason not to begin with one of the issues closest to her.

It had to be done though. Sylanna had avoided her with zeal. That was fine in those first days because Vale had been in something of a state of confusion regarding recent events since their return, but it couldn't be allowed to fester, particularly now that she had some clarity and because Sylanna had expanded the scope of her avoidance to everyone. No one much lamented that, but there were louder whispers of her leaving and, worse, that she was engaging in the darker arts once again.

That was impossible, Vale knew, as she was part of her being taken and changed. Sylanna couldn't go back, but the why wasn't any student's business. General knowledge of the particulars would have only made her life here a different kind of difficult. Rumors festering didn't help either.

She resolved that now was the time to deal with what she could. Making her way to the farthest of quarters, she paused as she passed one of the larger study rooms to see Delvine at work. She watched her dust the books by rhythm and rote and then proceed to wipe down the tables and Vale could not help but be touched by sadness as she approached. The others had been returned home in the days that followed, convinced that it had all been a fever dream, their minds eager to latch onto such a notion so that the hazy recollections made any sort of sense.

This one though, was all but lost. Deres and Mistress had done their best, but there wasn't much to salvage. "Hello, Delvine."

She stopped what she was doing and turned. "Hello, Vale. Is there something I can do for you?"

She waved that away. "Not at all. It's late and I saw you working is all."

She looked around the room, her confusion evident. "Yes. Things need to be done." Delvine looked suddenly hesitant. "Is that all right?"

Vale was quick to reassure her. "It's fine. I just wanted to make sure you weren't working too hard."

Delvine looked away to appraise herself again in detached fashion. "I'm not tired." Looking at Vale again, "Things need to be done. Is there something I can do for you?"

The talisman was secured and the depths of its power would be explored in careful fashion. That was its future, such as it was, and this was about it for her as well. This was all she would be now. After the talisman finished with her, directed by someone with nothing but anger, rage, need, or whatever it was that drove him and no sense of the power he had, there was precious little left to rebuild. There were fragments of memories and the sense of self that a child had. She could only function in a world that asked little of her. She would need care and direction her entire life. Vale only hoped that somewhere within, was that sense of wonder that came with innocence and few cares. She hoped that somewhere there was some fragment of honest satisfaction with what her life was now.

"Don't stay up too late. You need your rest."

"I understand, Vale. Thank you. I'm going to go back to work. Things need to be done and I'm not tired."

Her expression mostly blanked before she turned back to the tables. Vale let her be and moved through the corridor until she was truly alone and she spent those few dozen steps contemplating where to begin, and resolved that she'd taken the first steps, literally, and she'd let Sylanna take the next.

She looked down to see light flickering from the bottom of the door before she bothered to knock. Even so, the silence that followed lingered so long Vale almost decided she was being ignored.

"Come."

She opened the door to find the blonde look that was her current preference. No one here, save Vale and Bryana knew her true appearance, and that was the way she preferred it. It invited talk as to what was beneath, but she could handle whispers and rumor. It was better that way.

The room was quite bare, which didn't surprise because, to Vale, Sylanna never seemed the type for conspicuous consumption There were no pictures or other decorations on the walls. There was a desk and the bed, though the quilt was quite ornate and, Vale, supposed, qualified as decoration. There was a mirror that took up much of the wall over the desk She did seem to mix various herbs and spices into the lamp oil to create scents and this one was a woodland spice and not at all unpleasant. Some used scents to help in meditation and it did not at all surprise that she was one of those that would.

She took a deep breath. "I like it."

"Mokshul root and Kabin spice." Another pause. "I like it, too," she said before trying not to wince at the awkwardness of the statement. "Obviously."

"May I come in?"

Sylanna nodded and, as Vale turned to close the door, Sylanna moved to sit on the bed so as to yield the seat, turning it toward the bed. Sylanna found the sense awkwardness only escalating, feeling a growing desire to flee the room; anything to avoid being where she was and feeling what she felt. Even so, dancing around the situation was cowardly and she had thought herself cowardly enough of late for holing up in her room in regards to Vale. She deserved better.

So when Vale was settled, Sylanna was succinct. "I am ashamed of my conduct in the cabin. I took advantage. So, how ever you feel I might properly atone for my conduct, it will be done."

"Perhaps you could tell me why, and we could go from there."

"It was a moment of weakness," she spat, thinking back on it. "You were under the influence of magic. My rational mind knew that. I wanted to clear it from you. I offered to. In the end I begged to. But the words you spoke and the look in your eyes and I..."

"What was it?"

Her mind was back there. "Your touch was so gentle. You told me that you didn't care about the spell. You asked me to show you my true face. You said you wanted me. And...I knew it was fake. I knew it was a product of the spell. But I was weak. I allowed myself to believe that there was truth in that moment for no other reason than..."

Her voice was soft so that she might not break what waited at the edge, "Sylanna?"

"I wanted to feel wanted. For a moment, I could lie to myself and tell myself that I was. I regret my weakness, and while I often consider apologies meaningless social niceties because they do not undo the damage done, I am sorry, and I leave it to you to decide what the penance should be. What do you wish me to do so that you may feel whole and at peace about what happened between us because I very much value your presence."

That did surprise Vale and she made no effort to hide it. "Seemed to me that all we have done is annoy one another."

"Yes," she admitted. "But we have a passable working relationship. More so, I think, after recent events. I know that there is no one else here, save Mistress Lia, that would be open to a working relationship of any kind, and she has enough responsibilities to contend with in addition to having no particular fondness for me, with good reason."

"Playing a role in kidnapping a child she loves will do that."

"Granted. My position here would be completely untenable without...someone."

"No one else will have you, is that it?"

"Essentially."

"Thank you?" A grin found Vale's round cheeks thinking of their first meeting. When she noticed Sylanna looking at her in somewhat bewildered fashion, "I'm not sure how desirable I should feel given that you made a point of calling me a little sow the first time we met."

"Please," Sylanna groaned, "The comment was meaningless beyond its intent to vex you and take you off balance so that I might escape."

"And you thought it would because...?"

"You know how the world works. It tries to suggest that only certain types of people are desirable. Blue eyes. Blonde. Thin. Breasts that make it almost impossible to walk. Depending on the part of the world, the ideal may change a bit, but the result is the same. If people don't fit that ideal and they know it, they don't like it pointed out to them."

"I suppose that's true."

"You know it is and you use it yourself when it suits you."

"And when was that?"

"Do you not recall a magic-drunk slave trader?" Her voice went to exaggerated highs, "Oh, my, yes, Lord Solos. I will let you lead me anywhere and do anything so long as you fuck me because obviously I can't get any on my own."

Vale blushed as Sylanna continued. "You used his perception to get closer and do what needed doing when you know the truth: that there is almost always someone who wants what you have to offer. You seem to never have any problem finding men that like what you have, and that seem to suit your own particular needs."

"To begin with, it's not as if there have been many men. Beyond that, what would those 'needs' be, and how would you know about them in any case?"

"Initiates talk, not that I give credence to any such gossip. All guilds thrive on it and it travels with the air. But I hear your suitors of the moment seem to have a commonality when it comes to a substantial endowment."

Vale burned.

Sylanna enjoyed the sight. "You know that you are attractive in your own right even if men don't always turn when you walk by, and you don't seem to need them to."

"And I am attractive to you?"

"You are," she said definitively. "For me, sexual release was in some ways like seeing to my other needs in the most expeditious, practical manner possible. As long as the other met certain basic requirements, such as an affinity for soap on their bodies, I was and am very open when it comes to particulars."

There crept into her voice, an uncharacteristic tenderness. "But you are wholly attractive. Your eyes are bright and have a depth. The softness within you extends to your body. It is a pleasure to touch and your full lips a pleasure to kiss."

"I remember you being quite fond of me. I believe the first thing I was more or less aware of was your fondness for my...rump, was it?"

Sylanna's eyes went wide and it was her turn to burn, but Vale had no desire to watch her squirm on top of it. "I was not out of the haze, but I believe you shared your own awareness when you..."

"When I touched your runes," she finished. She should have known. She would have known if she had been in complete hold of her own faculties. "If you had said something, I would have..."

"I didn't want you to. In the moment, I didn't, and hindsight hasn't changed that. Perhaps I found you attractive as well."

She decided that there was no room for playing with words. "I found you attractive as well. Your body is beautiful, if unconventionally so. You're intelligent. You're strong-willed. You're just strong and I respect that. I like that. You're comfortable with your power. And, with that, in that haze, there was your desire and your touch that came with the magic filling me with an aching desire for sex, and I had no desire to stop you."

"I realize why it's uncomfortable for you, but, when it's just us alone, and only if you like, you can surrender the veil spells. As I believe I've made clear, I like how you look."

She hesitated. "If you're certain."

"I am," she said, taking hold of her hand. "Show me."

With a flutter, that hand took a bone white pallor with a gray contrast as the rest of her shifted to her true appearance.. "Happy now?"

"I said you didn't have to."

"I know." The hand came away. "Speaking of power, have you discussed with Mistress what happened with you and the talisman? It speaks of a great gift and a great power. Mistress told me that it wasn't your first experience with memories and dreams."

That was true. She very much remembered being on the floor of a small home, half dead because enemies of a potential client decided to send a message and Vale just happened to be there. She remembered trying to weave a spell upon the man that set the attack into motion. Lust, confusion, and fear at facing the man who almost killed her combined and twisted to make him a prisoner in his own mind, destined to relive every vile act he'd ever committed from the victim's point of view unless he had the strength and self-awareness to repent and free himself. So far he had not and no one in the asylum he called home now expected him free himself from his prison even if they'd understood its nature.

"No," was all she actually said to that. "When Mistress returns, she wants to begin to explore the depth and breadth of what happened in earnest."

"There are many avenues to that level of the mind. I can teach you all I know of how to entwine magic such as mine with your own skills as you did with Solos. But the will to bind so many suggests great talent in that regard, and talent well beyond mine."

"Bother you much?" she joked.

"Denna Vale, it would be my honor to teach you what I know and explore your power with you, if you would have my help."

"I'd like that." Another decision made, she pressed forward. "With all of that out of the way, would you like me to stay?"

She liked the notion. "Would you like to begin now? Like you, I enjoy working at night."

"I mean, that I like the men that I like, but, I can be attracted to anyone that can be attracted to me. What I remember of the night in the shack was enjoyable, and I believe that perhaps I might like to remember the whole of the experience, particularly when you are the first woman I've been with. Sylanna, I would like to stay."

She punctuated the next question by dropping her gown over her body to display her breasts and their softness in full. "Would you like me to stay?"

She was at a loss just then. She enjoyed the experience and that had indeed been part of what fed her shame afterward, but, she had tried her best to bury her feelings and believing that that might be possible when Vale knocked on her door. Now there was the same need that she felt in that little shack in the nothing. "I...Are..."

Vale finished for her, "I'm sure. I want to stay. Do you want me to stay?"

She looked upon that body, and felt stirrings within that had nothing to do with practicality. It wasn't just a basic need to be sated in an almost clinical fashion. And there was nothing within those currents roiling within that wanted to be calmed quickly. She ached for it all to last.

Sylanna extended her hand. "Very much."

Vale took her hand, noting that it was cool to the touch in a way that she hadn't remembered before, not that she remembered much from that night beyond a seemingly endless rush of sensation. Sylanna took note of it, "Another of my...differences."

"It's not unpleasant." And it wasn't. It set the nerves to singing in that welcome way of stepping from your stuffy home into a gentle, cool breeze. It was surprising, and welcome. The differences added excitement to the moment, as though there wasn't enough that came with leaning into another woman for the first time in memory. Indeed, it added to the moment.

Their lips met and their tongues entwined, the gentle pops of their lips parting before coming back together the only sound in the room beyond their breathing as Vale settled against her. This part was one of the parts of now that was beyond Sylanna's experience. Sating her desires was often a fierce, fast experience, her body wanting to reach that peak quickly so she could move on. Not that she was ever selfish in that regard. Even seeing it as clinical, she was always fair in the exchange, as she left them satisfied as well, if for no other reason than, if she passed through that way again, they would be a reliable outlet.

But Vale settled over her with the intent to stay awhile and it thrilled Sylanna more than any of the frantic trysts of before. Sylanna's hands were there to meet her just under her breasts before bringing them up to make her jump by flicking her nails at each nipple, making her jump. She watched the other simply feel. "Nervous?"

Vale quivered again, "Worrying about the claws."

"They aren't exactly claws, dear," hearing her words as the tease that they were. "And, I've seen the squirming before, you like it." The playful look that Vale gave her in response that compelled another kiss, "Again, you are not my first woman."

Vale pounced, coming forward nibbling roughly at Sylanna's neck while her short fingers made shorter work of the ties at Sylanna's gown, so that she could heft those full tits, flicks of Sylanna's nails inviting squeezes and bites from her in return. She moaned, "Leave marks, Vale. Leave them and leave as many as you like."

Vale pulled back so that they were nose to nose, "We both seem to like to nip, but, Mistress of the Veils, who will see?"

"No one will see," she said softly but firmly as she ran her fingers through Vale's brown hair. "Only I will know. They will be mine."

"And mine." They kissed as Denna's hand slid down the cool skin, feeling the dense muscle beneath. "How will you stand knowing I have marked you?"

"I will thrill at looking upon them. I will thrill at knowing you left them to me." Sylanna's eyes, more reminiscent of feline than fully human, widened as she felt Vale's palm press against her clit. Her hips thrust to meet the presseure almost of their own accord. She looked down to see the bulge of her hand under the fabric as it began to make small circles against her engorged clit, then threw her head back in lust, her hips lifting in rhythm giving herself to Vale's fingers.

The lines her body made in that pose reminded Vale of a lewd sculpture, and that was all the temptation she needed, though the wanton, weak look that came with her surrendering herself to that rhythm was a lovely addition.

Vale's lips met hers again before drifting left and, over her jaw and down her neck to find the spot that called to her. Feeling it, her teeth touched the skin with more than a little force and the piercing whimper Sylanna let loose made her nip again and again as the thrusting of her hips made the bed creak, the sounds together filthy in her ear, made all the more so by the fact that her hand was so wet now it felt like there was no friction between it and Sylanna's mound.

There were the sounds of the bed straining, Sylanna's pleasure, and wet on wet as Vale sucked and nipped and bit her way down the slowly. Vale added obscene sucking to the chorus, taking her time. When her mouth followed the outer curve of her left breast and worked to leave another mark of her passing, Sylanna surrendered with a wail Vale, for a moment, feared could have woken the dead, and it turned out to be quite a benefit for Vale to be in the most remote part of the hold.

Her hand rose from Sylanna's pussy and she ran her hand over the other's face and Sylanna grabbed it and cleaned it with her long tongue took while Vale's drew a serpentine path down the cool skin, imagining that the contrast of temperature was even more compelling to Sylanna just then.