Cadmon's shrewd gaze narrowed, following gentle fingers enlaced amid flagons' foam-slicked tails regaling patrons through each eve's waxing. For many a year he'd tracked subtleties painting portraits where guilelessness saw but surface bravadoes.
Now it was intimacy he spied, kindling tinder beneath ash of nonchalance so meticulously spread. Yet embers glowed fiercely where youths inclined, spilling souls one into the other across warped wooden plains bearing legions of bygone confidants. Their eyes spoke volumes beyond bards' art, limning souls' capes hidden to coarser perceptions.
Cadmon smiled mirthlessly, recalling tones between the twain whenever paths diverged, if only briefly. Worry, care, commitment - emotions writ palpably yet seldom articulated this boldly without cords ardent as any binding flesh to spirit transcending mere camaraderie. Nay, here was love in full efflorescence nourished within solitude and trials overcoming all together as one.
A suspicion took seed, foliage rustling darkly within mind's wildernesses. Now their rapport was unveiled, once private sanctum despoiled by eyes which pierced illusion like shafts of dawn dispelling shadows. What depths lay beneath benign surfaces, through years concealing passion's full-blossomed fruit? Several evenings' stalking would suffice unveiling all, he mused, lips curving a predatory smile beneath amber's warm glow. Cadmon watched and smiled, secrets unfurling beneath the keen hunter's gaze where innocence perceived but paltry game. Soon, all masks would fall, every intimacy bared for judgment of one who grinned knowing such power. The woods darkened swiftly as gloaming's shroud enveloped gnarled boles creaking mournfully upon wind's anthem. Rowan and Cadmon's heavy footfalls crackled amid carpeted needles and loam bearing tales of eons collating beneath bare branches swaying skittish silhouettes.
Upon this errand tracking foul stirrings emanating from gloom's shrouded fastnesses, Cadmon finally spied opportunity. His assault began casually yet probing, flint-eyed gaze noting telling's sneaking past levied guards containing truth's magnates. "You and that maid grow close over years, hmm? Shared joys, sorrows...dreams, perchance?"
Rowan stiffened imperceptibly, mantling answers giving nothing. Cadmon sneered knowingly. "Come now, youth! Among veterans, there's no blushing. Love is life's richest sustenance, is it not?" A noncommittal shrug met his jeers. Undeterred, Cadmon pressed his advantage.
"The way she watches you, cares...protects. Why, 'tis tantamount devotion! Does she sigh your name upon downy pillow, clinging as waves fade?" Silence, yet within eyes' shadowed groves writhed fury barely contained. Cadmon grinned wolfishly into gathering gloom.
At last, footsteps halted upon barren plain where flickers betrayed camp ahead. Cadmon's whisper rasped like knives scraping bone. "You love her. Admit it!" Rowan whirled, stared at flaying voids where once mirth danced. "And if I do? Her heart is not your plaything!" With that, righteous wrath propelled strides towards firelight and comrades, secrets revealed at hunter's whim. Cadmon watched Rowan storm ahead, uttering a low chuckle resonating amid rustling gloam. "Ah, to stir such passions with but whispers! Love was a pliant tool, wielding immense destruction in the wrong palms."
And destruction was his arts' fruit, sown where innocence yet thrived beyond corrosive experience coloring his soul black as any void. Here was candid trust emboldening defiance, begging sabotage by hands well-versed in men's frailties and women's fickleness.
The game had only begun. Within refrain's rhythm he schemed his opening gambits, fingering gnarled oak boughs rising like gallows against darkening firmament. Discord would be sown to fullest, tender hopes trampled beneath merciless games consuming each pawn but those overseeing chaos unleashed.
Elia's beauty marked her prime target, virtue assailable through subtle barbs piercing trust's shields. And Rowan - why, fury and jealousy were demons he knew well harnessing for ruin. His smile grew feral envisioning cracks appearing within once unbreakable unity, splintering their souls long after parting inevitably as sunset.
Such was an old campaigner's due, making beasts of dreams while dancing amid ruination wrought by talons sharper than any steel. With mordant laughter rippling away into gathering night, Cadmon stalked towards fire's glow anticipating first moves upon this new gameboard.
Cadmon threw wide the tavern door, bellowing for flagons' deliverance upon this eve of conquest. Gleefully he made for his corner, fixating instantly upon Elia pouring forth wisdom amid pupils enrapt. His approach rang tactical, circling prey soon falling before charms refined through seasons of slaughter both carnal and visceral.
"My dear Elia, ever spinning tales to ensnare even hardest hearts!" Cadmon's booming disrupted lessons unfolding like silken tapestries beneath flickering spheres. Elia stiffened warily at his approach, yet manners bid continuation, steel beneath velvet composing her every nuance.
"Sir Cadmon, you flatter where none is due. I but share gleanings hoping to kindle others as yourselves were kindled - through education, not ephemeral pleasures." Her rebuff fell upon deaf ears as Cadmon prowled nearer, uncaring of ARROW Soup now quivering beneath drips of rigidity infusing atmosphere formerly festive.
"Pleasures are life's sole truths, do they not say? And among all vibrant blossoms enlivening drear halls, none outshine your radiance!" Before Elia could parry this bold opening salvo, Cadmon grasped her wrist boldly. "Say you'll go away with this old campaigner, basking where passion and glory entwine beyond musty pages impressing but faintest souls!"
A hush fell heavily as all anticipated her response, stirring of chaos's première beneath amber's warm glow. Rowan sat rigid, dread mounting what ensued would rip asunder foundations whereupon hope was built.
Elia extricated herself calmly, pride lending steel to gems hardened by seasons beyond her years.
"Sir Cadmon, passions kindle where trusted, not imposed thus. My heart belongs unconditionally to Rowan alone, as you've long known."
Her proclamation rang summarily across revelers rapt yet gleamed no satisfaction in triumph writ so palpably upon proud features. Still Cadmon smirked, unfazed by rejection countless campaigns taught evading, or prey lighter snared through guile than force.
"Ah, but is one so young fit guardian of such radiance? Gifts neither book nor blade afford, solely pleasures of flesh surpassing fancies kindled by ash and parchment! Why cleave to libraries' dust when heroism's songs could immortalize beyond musty pages?"
His insinuations roused rumblings malignant as thunderheads on distant horizons, raging beasts demanding release. But pride yet curbed fury's reins, discipline instilled through trials elevating Elia beyond goads' reach, though turmoil raged beneath stoic composure.
Her answer came soft yet final. "My heart knows its master, as I strive knowing yours. Pray trouble us no more this eve." With graceful retirement Elia took leave, disciples gathering protectively about maidenhood's beacon undimmed despite shadows massing on portents' winds. The game had begun in earnest, first pieces poised upon turbulent field where chaos held dominion.
Cadmon rounded upon Rowan, grinning savagely. "Ah, but how fulfill one so exquisite beyond tomes and wooden swords, boy? Youth and innocence suffice not for proven souls demanding truer mettle!"
Rowan sat white-lipped, barely containing inferno's swell demanding release through tightly reined fists. But Cadmon pressed his assault without mercy, relishing each crack appearing within crumbling facades. "Pretty speeches will not suffice where passion calls! Admit you're an unfit guardian to her radiance - release Elia to destinies grander than milking cows or mending farmer's squabbles!"
The final barb proved too much, surmountable walls crumbling before pent fury's inexorable tide. Rowan erupted with a guttural cry, overturning bench hurtling towards hated figure jeering triumphantly.
But Cadmon sidestepped with grace belying bulk, gloating over bristling form quivering with impotent wrath. "Fight me if you dare, you coward - or accept her beauty outshines your humble station! After tonight she'll want a hero's fire, not scholar's books to warm her bed!"
Rowan buckled beneath each blow striking deeper than flesh, sanity unthreading with each laugh reveling in ruins wrought. Pride demanded satisfaction for insults none could endure silently, yet violence solved naught, only deepening preying talons' hooks festering malignancy beneath once tranquil visages. The room held collective breath, awaiting conflagration's deluge none seemed able forestalling.
Rowan quaked, wrath's tempest whipping mind to frenzied heights beyond rationale's grasp. Each jeer flayed remnants of self-restraint, unleashing demons imploring sanguine release through merciful steel.
Yet still his voice remained level, pride supplying armor whose alloys transcended base impulses. "You know not of what speaks, sir. Our bond was forged through faith resisting tempests many as this - its making was not yours."
Cadmon snorted derisively. "Faith is but embers guttering beneath passions' all-consuming fire! Once Its sanctity is profaned, all crumbles as certainly as farmer's hovels beneath dragon's wrath. Mark me well, boy - this night, her eyes will open to manhood's truth beyond innocence's veil. Tomorrow, you'll be but memory slowly fading..."
This final taunt broke damming final constraints. With the bellow of anguished fury Rowan launched himself at smirking tormentor, fists flailing wildly amid dampened triumph ringing jeers inciting ruination's precipice. Cadmon dodged nimbly, relishing each miss fueling apoplectic frenzy sealing doom securing through measures vile as any Dark Lord's machinations.
Just as calamity seemed guaranteed, booming interrupted frenzied breaths resounding amid jeers and coin changing palms. The Guild master's arrival parted seas of revelers cumulative, bearing missives demanding utmost discretions.
At once tensions dissipated beneath authority's mantle, though rancor smoldered ready rekindling at slightest provocation. Rowan staggered back, madness receding behind walls lest deeper shames be courted through acts begot by bestial lusts alone.
Cadmon straightened with a sneer, mission's summons lone dampening triumph swelling within gorge lavishly glutting on fragments of dignity and trust shattered this eve. Their exchange was not finished, that gleamed clear as daggers within his mien composed yet hinting retribution's delicious flavors soon sampling fuller.
Elia exited discreetly upon diversion, spared witnessing beloved degraded so. Rowan longed for confession's solace yet dared not endanger further through shows of frailty. Only beneath the skies' watch did emotion breach crumbling bulwarks, weeping silently for innocence profaned beyond all reconsecration's.
Thus, a triangle was born, points fractured yet destiny bound through cords twisted as briars snaking souls towards consummation hidden, for weal or woe unknown. What trials lay ahead, malice slumbering or erupting afresh at dawn? Alone night held answers veiled as shadows sheltering hopes from daylight's searing's soon coming all too swiftly.