Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn From: penny@agora.rain.com (Penny Hutchison) Subject: [OFFER] (ar'Elya/Kadrys) Message-ID: References: Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 04:33:18 GMT [ADMIN] This post was written 60% by Andrea Evans and the rest by me. Previously: ar'Elya has invited Kadrys to her private resting place and has asked his help in putting together a child. He has just finished a liturgical dance with El'n ... He watched her out of sight, then kicked back to the centre of the pool, floated on his back in the middle of the steaming water. Basking in this gentle counterfeit of sunlight. Smiling drowsily. Satiated. Filled with pulsing life, listening to the sound of the blood of four women rushing through his veins. "I'm glad you're enjoying it so much..." A voice as warm as the water and the sun. He opened his eyes, and looked up straight into ar'Elya's smile, and returned it. She was kneeling beside him, in what he thought of, probably incorrectly, as her true shape: a woman with shortish auburn hair and brilliant silver eyes. Then he noticed that all the surroundings were gone. He was lying flat, relative to her, but lying on nothing. Featureless darkness surrounded them on all sides. He gave her a wry grin. "Ah well, I bet you're going to tell me it's all over..." he sighed with whimsical regret. She laughed, shook her head. "Far from it!" Then she sobered. "You have drunk deep from each of my female selves. Even now their blood mingles within you. I will need the return of that gift, for my child's sake. And my selves have each learned what they needed from your memories. But I have not yet taken my copy of _you_." She moved, until she was kneeling astride him. Slowly, slowly, she lowered herself. They moaned in unison at the contact, staring into each others' faces. Kadrys' eyes widened at what her cry of pleasure had revealed. Fangs, as long and white and deadly as his own, now gleamed behind ar'Elya's lips. She grinned wickedly at him as their bodies began to move, his desire rising higher, fiercer, raging in him, as hot and as absolute as anything he had ever known in his long long life. The position was eerily similar to that he had known with the vampire who had taken his life. But there could not have been less similarity for him. The lust, the need he felt now was utterly his own, and he surrendered to it, revelled in it. Willingly, as his pleasure rose to an intolerable peak, he threw his head back, turned his chin aside to give her the pulsing veins in his throat. As he cried in release, she lunged for him, sank her fangs in his flesh. As the blood burst from his throat, ultimate ecstasy seized him, threw him beyond all control. His cry rose to a scream, inhumanly high and piercing, with the unbearable perfect pitch of a bat's shriek. No earthly ear, no ordinary glass could have survived such an onslaught of sound. Somewhere, very extraordinary crystal vanes vibrated to his scream, to the pure bliss behind it, their shivering adding a delicate harmonic hum of pleasure to the sound, blending with it to make the music of the spheres. Somewhere, his spirit floated, borne out of himself on an endless rising surge of ecstasy. And she rose to meet him. She was Ale, and Aree, and Leah, and El'n, and more. She was ar'Elya. She came to meet him, soul to soul, naked in her true form. And, unlike 'Raelf, her trueshape was not even remotely human. A delicate, gleaming pinwheel sculpted from eight crystal mirrors. ...Silver. She shone like the hearts of galaxies. Mirrors, wide enough to reflect worlds. And all of them angled to reflect him. Vampire. Thief. Loner. Lover. Fighter. Philosopher. Ascetic. Sensualist. Cynic. Empath. Brooder. Joker. And more. Roles. So many many roles, flashing by in endless pinsharp portraits. She neared him, and her eight vanes tilted further, reaching for him, bending to fold themselves over, embracing him delicately, as a carnivorous flower enfolds the insect it will absorb into itself. For a moment, he saw the images all coalesce into one. He saw himself, all at once, entire and unique. Then the image was lost in the light of her as it reflected on itself, fed back, built until all sight was washed away in that supernal silver radiance. And then he felt the gleaming surfaces of her vanes touch his skin. Shining like liquid silver, they dissolved into his body, dissolved his body. Her crystal, his flesh, her true self, his true self, melting into one. Light. Darkness. Unity, transcending thought and self and existence. *** And then, after a time beyond time, her vanes started to open, lifting slowly away from him with a wet, slick tearing sensation. Carrying the same flickering images of his roles. Slowly, their separate selves returned. - ar'Elya had known that the web of Kadrys' curse would find no hold in her silver smoothness. But she had to protect Kadrys' self that had merged with her. She angled the sharp edges of her vanes, slashed the barbed talons of the curse as it stretched out from him to attack her newborn self. She severed the curse before it could take hold, until it finally drew back as the distance between them increased. - Light. All around him. Silver filling his sight. Gradually he returned to a sense of self, of existence distinct from that radiance. The light drew back a little but it did not fade. He was still within it, still surrounded by it on all sides. Slowly he became aware of his familiar body once more. And then, the sudden shock as the realisation hit. His hands flew to his mouth. But he had not been mistaken. Ahh Gods! The fangs were gone. He was free. At long last, he was _free_! For a moment, a spasm of weeping swept over him. Tears of joy spilled, warm and human, down his face. Gradually, shadows appeared in the silver, resolved themselves into two human forms. An old man with a kindly face and flowing white hair and beard. A younger man, tonsured and in priestly robes, but with an indefinable raffish air. They held out their arms to him, gathered him into their midst in a brief, companionable embrace before speaking. The old man nodded to him. "My name is Delalle. I used to be Generica's Supreme Archmage." Kadrys flashed him a brief, sharp grin. "Ah. I've met your replacement Dasham." He opened his mind to Delalle, showed him the memories. Delalle sighed. "She always was the uninhibited type. I'm glad you've shown her some restraint." Kadrys nodded. "She didn't seem universally liked. I think they remember you with great fondness. But nobody told me just what had happened to you." Delalle grinned, savouring the memory. "'Raelf and ar'Elya consumed me, shared me between them, to save me from Mar, who would otherwise have destroyed me." Kadrys peered at Delalle with interest. "Shared you?" He grinned whitely. "Well, well, it seems the - permutations - are endless, with 'kan." Delalle chuckled in reply. "Oh yes. Always, endless possibilities." Kadrys nodded slowly. "So I begin to see." The younger man faced him, smiled at him. "My name is Kachin. I used to be a brigand. I was caught in a pit trap, died of thirst." Kadrys winced instinctively. He knew the terror of that death. Kachin's grin was undisturbed. "I was held by my delirium to the place of my death, until Father Howard, (you haven't met him yet, but you will), opened my eyes, saved me, made me his disciple." Kachin's smile widened into a beam at the memory. Delalle spoke again. "You're wondering about all this. About us. We are part of ar'Elya now, but we won't be forever. She's gathering us for the future. Together we will be the male half of her new child. She mingled her female selves within your veins. All that remains is for her to find her Warrior, then for us to have that experience, to go from her and merge with each other within another's body, to be given back to her, integrated into a new whole." Delalle glanced around, smiling secretly. "Judging by ar'Elya's increasing radiance, that time cannot be long delayed." As Kadrys followed Delalle's glance, looking at ar'Elya's surrounding glow, he doubled over, hands clutching at his heart, his head. He felt a sudden profound wrenching, a tearing throughout the depths of his being. Somehow, he realised that the meeting with the others here had taken no time at all. He knew that he was only now completely separate from his other self. He straightened, staring outward, and the light in front of him dimmed, drawing away to the edges of his sight, leaving an opening, a gap in the enfolding light, right in front of him. He stared into it, and saw himself, his original, solitary self. The sight wrung his heart. In ar'Elya's light he could _see_ the cruel barbed talons of the curse, the net of hooks entangling his spirit, tying it down to his corpse, tearing at his soul. Standing there, alone, so very very alone. Their eyes met and he felt an intolerable mingling of emotions: an aching pity for his solitude, his curse; and a burning pride in his spirit that could stand alone and strong beneath such terrible burdens. - Kadrys returned to himself, staring into the heart of ar'Elya's shining self. He was beyond words, utterly unable to express how deeply their union had moved him. And then, what he saw in her wrung a wordless cry of surprise from him. Once more, the multitude of roles had coalesced, stabilised into a single image. But somehow he knew that this image was no longer, quite, a simple reflection of himself. It was himself. But himself, as a part of ar'Elya. Free of his ancient curse. Together they beheld each other. Held immobile in that timeless moment. And then, as Kadrys stared, stunned, at this vision, a rush of exquisite pleasure swept over him, and the image blurred away. *** His eyes focused slowly as her fangs withdrew from his throat, and he stared up into the silver of ar'Elya's human eyes, as she lay on his chest, spent, flushed with his blood. She smiled softly at him, the fangs gone. He gazed into her eyes, torn between desires, between reactions to the image he had seen in the heart of her true self. He wanted to shout in triumph at this fulfilment of his ancient dream, this new life, this self, this son. He wanted to weep in grief for what he himself might have been and could never be. He wanted to do both so much, that he could do neither. All he could do was stare at her, knowing that every nuance of his most secret soul was understood, and sigh softly into the silence. "Thank you." "Thank you." she smiled in gentle reply. "Your gift will live on in honour, as long as 'kan of my line shall exist." She shifted her weight off his chest, grinned teasingly at him, "Who knows, he just _may_ even outlive you!" An answering chuckle, as he rose to his feet, offered his arm to her with a slight, courtly bow. She grinned and took it. They started to leave her private place, when ar'Elya turned to him and placed his hand over her heart. "Remember, dear Kadrys, that you will always be welcome here, whenever you wish, whenever you need." Her serious expression melted away into a brilliant smile. "We 'kan delight in all sorts of...communication!" [ADMIN] This article and all characters are copyright 1993 by Andrea Evans and Penny Hutchison.