"Now, please explain clearly." I took a deep breath before continuing "what happened, why are you like this, why am I here and injured and finally where is my master?"
She looked at me almost as if unsure of how to begin. "Lalie right?"
I rolled my eyes, "it doesn't matter what you call me does it."
For the first time since I woke her smile disappears "well bad news first, they've taken little Moira, a terrorist group that goes by the name of -rain-." She sighed shaking her head "it's a group obsessing over the relations the monarchs have with our people, for them the monarchs are gods which is ridiculous if you know the actual truth. Regardless, they made a public announcement that in two days they are going to hand Moira over to the monarchs. You already know what happens when they do." She paused. "I don't blame you for that either."
She must have noticed the sorrow in my eyes, the fact was that leaving Moira there alone wasn't the best thing to do and the whole reason we were in the mess we were now. She genuinely didn't seem to blame me either. Instead she placed her hand on my cheek. "you're not to blame for this its all my fault, I'm so sorry." With this a tear rolled from her eyes and across her nose. before falling silently to the bed below.
"what?" I asked, this confused me.
"if I hadn't tried so hard to hold onto the title of vehatra, then I wouldn't have been tempted by Jiya, this existence has always only been temporary and I knew that when I came here." she shed a another silent tear. "My greed and fear caused you to be in pain and for that I'm truly sorry."
"Then, couldn't we both be vehatra?" she shook her head in response.
"Even if there was a way, I had long since lost the blessings of vehatra, I'm only holding onto it now because I refused to give up my life for yours not to mention the abilities I gained from it are slowly waning." she smiled through her tears at me "You deserve this so much more than I do you're stronger, braver, more decisive and you care about everyone far more than I ever could. And even though you are -"
"-Stop!" I cut in. this speech was really starting to annoy me especially how she was avoiding the real elephant in the room despite having just said it. "For me to become vehatra, you would have to what, die?"
She smiled weakly and nodded.
"Then what the hell are you sorry about?" I tried saying it in the calmest way I could "By coming here I put you this situation and you should never have had to choose."
"lalie you don't need to comfort me, the things I did because of Jiya were..."
I shook my head "I've also done things I'm not proud of, I've killed many because of power or maybe it was my anger towards... Jiya, I really don't know. What I do know is whatever you did can't be any worse than what I've done. The real culprit is the person who kidnapped me and brought me here." I looked at her beauty which even shone through her sorrow. "I never wanted to be vehatra I just wanted a normal life and now I cant even remember my family or any one I was ever close with before coming here."
I took her hand in mine, "Aurelia, what you've done to me, none of that matters just, my master. please tell me where she is."
"Yes, right... well she, she's in the pit."
"what?" I asked softly.
"The deepest part of the iron region a valley so dangerous that many who go there never return and there are many stories told of this place about the ghosts that haunt it but really the reason why its dangerous to go there is because of the naturally poisonous nature of the the hou there."
"then... She, master is..."
"She's ok your master is immortal after-all."
I smiled and then cried hearing this.
Master is alive, thank goodness. I wept audibly, for the first time in two whole years I had finally begun to feel something I thought I'd lost, I felt hope. Hope that everything could be right again and the relief that came with it was so great that the tears wouldn't stop flowing.
Aurelia pulled me into her embrace once again and I wept into her bosom crying until I fell asleep.
All this time I'd blamed her, Aurelia. When she was just doing what anyone would've done, she simply didn't want to die she was just, afraid.
I had been hating her all this time, simply because she wanted to live.
How could I have been so cruel? When did I become such a cold person?
I, this... everything is my fault. Master wouldn't be in the position she's in now if I hadn't insisted that.... that I could help break the seal.
Now look at what I've done, what I did... those people I've hurt, Aurelia who I hated so deeply....
Jiya oh, Jiya. Why did YOU have to be the one who hurt my master?
Out of the many here, why oh why did it have to be you?
I wish it had been someone else because then, maybe then. Even after abandoning me maybe I would've been able to, forgive you even if the truth was that you had someone else. I could still love you but... now...
Doing what you did.... you must really hate me to do something like that....
*****************************_____________****^*******
I remember the soft pulsing of her heart beat as she softly inhaled then exhaled rhythmically her warmth something I'd grown used to my head resting on her chest. was she asleep?
I let my hand wonder under her shirt my middle finger circling the small depression which was her belly button my finger circling it methodically. I don't know why but it felt good. With the lights off it felt like this person was someone I could just be with.
This was something I could get used to, I let my hand rest on her stomach.
"If I started liking you too would you break my heart like Jiya did?" I whispered not wanting to wake her and not expecting an answer.
Her slow breathing continued and I smiled before lifting my head and resting it on the pillow beside her.
looking at her, lips slightly parted and her eyes closed her hair neatly pulled to one side.
"Aurelia... "
Her eyes opened slowly and she turned to look at me. The soft pulsing blue against the inky darkness making her faint smile barely visible and her sharp eyes locking with mine look even more fierce than before. "Lalie," She paused and I got my answer before she even said it.
"Jo-a-hae-yo."
"Eh?"
"It means 'I like you' where I come from."
Then...
"I really do like you, but I can't be with you."
There it is...
"Then, What you did, what we did in the hot spring."
She shook her head softly a gesture that was so faint that I wanted to act like I hadn't seen it.
"Women like us are attracted to power instinctively." And for us it's hard to control.... its the one thing I hate about being vehatra."
She paused again.
"It felt good, at the time it felt so good." She bit her lower lip "even now I'm having a hard time controlling myself but you need to be aware of this, we are attracted to each other not only because of our respective power but even more because we are two sides of the same coin, the reason we feel like this is because of hou and how our bodies react to it."
She propped herself up on her elbow and lean forward kissing my lips briefly.
"Do you feel that?"
She was right, a gentle warmth coursed down my midsection leaving me panting. I was aroused? But that....
My heart had begun to beat several times faster than
before.
"We channel hou differently than the dragon born do, and our meridians," she placed a hand on my stomach and I flinched pulling back.
"What are you-"
"-It's ok." She cut me off before slowly trying again.
This time I held my ground as she traced from my belly button then down a few centimeters.
"Right here are four meridians which carry hou through our bodies, that feeling you get is nothing more than the movement of hou so really it's not something you should call love."
I sighed smiling a little and she notices asking "w...what?"
"Aurelia, then what is love?" I leaned forward and kissed her "isn't it just our bodies reacting to that which our hearts crave?" I made my way over her pining her down in the process kissing her repeatedly " isn't your body yearning for this?"
I pulled my top off and leaned in for another kiss.
"Stop." She looked at me with tiger eyes ready gobble me up entirely. Her body giving a totally different message compared to what her words implied her hands already feeling me up.
"You're not very honest are you?" I whispered softly beside her ear before helping her undress.
"Why are you so forward?" She asked her blushing barely noticeable in the faint pulsing blue.
I smiled while sitting up peering down at her. Leaning back and taking a breath "Aurelia since you've come here I've decided to accept your advances, so tonight ill ravish you and tomorrow we rescue Moira and my master! No backing out now~."