Iloam

Was it something about her?

They thought she was too weak to handle it, probably.

Or, they simply didn't trust her.

How was she supposed to lead a people who could not confide in her?

Who am I to guide the young?

When did I become...responsible?

The skinny blonde flopped back onto the rented bed – sending a pile of paperwork fluttering like frightened doves. 

Sitting target
Sitting waiting
Anticipating
Nothing
Nothing

 ((I had so much fun with this one, http://www.rp-haven.com/blog/lilliana/perchance_dream that I felt a throwback was in due order. A perversion of it, if you will.))

Nothing, no one...

They all stood at a distance now, those masked people that had so enjoyed the dance.

The chestnut-haired elf in the elegant dress glanced around hurriedly at those gathered.

The tempo was heart-breakingly frantic, as she was swallowed by the crowd suddenly. They pressed, and writhed against her...all these nameless, face-less bodies. The dragon's maw here, a frog there, and a gnoll next to a grim fairy.

 Where...?

The dark-plated paladin...he'd left her here alone, hadn't he?

Of course, she'd known all along that accepting her station wasn't going to be all peaches and cream.

But she hadn't expected Iloam to avoid her like...a pile of kodo dung.

Well that wasn't my original intention.

And it SURELY wasn't Ael's intention when she suggested I go socialize.

Not like you're complaining...

Light! That's...her talking. Not me. The lioness is blunt. She's that damnable voice in the back of my head that's unafraid to be brutal, and straight forward.

She gets things done.

I should leave.

I shouldn't have come.

It isn't fair.

They don't deserve this.

None of them.

I lit votive after votive in the tiny chapel that sat flanked by tall, pruned trees. At each flicker of a new flame's life, I saw the face of another friend...another Sin'dorei.

“Regardless of the interactions performed tonight, the Silver Cross will not be held accountable for aiding you. I will be held accountable, that is all.” The words were stern as they left her lips and she had meant them to be. The exiled man nodded, looking over towards his boss for conformation.

There was a momentarily look of confusion that spread across Iloam's face- one that Caleigh caught and quickly allowed to fade. “The Silver Cross will not be responsible for aiding an exiled member of society, nor will they be held accountable for his actions. I will take responsibility for cleansing his wounds, and resetting his leg.” The words hung in the air for a long moment before the two men nodded.

My boss's brogue- concerned, wafted from the box...then not all of his emotions were gone?

 “Anyone seen Lily since this afternoon?”

The Marquis' rich bass, stretched taut over the comm that I could not see,

 “Do you need my aid?”

Kharris' shock, at hearing of demons on their own ship...

His brogue is back...again, and again. Only the voices, and this damned succubus to keep me company.

Her fingers raked through my hair, almost rough in her need.

She awakened slowly...painfully. The lean blonde was shackled to a wall- unable to move much at all, much less find a more comfortable position...and gods, was she weak.

But hadn't Asarel told her that her luck would run out, eventually?

Why, why have I given my word to try and save the life of one I so loathe?

 Petitioned first by the Marquis, who wouldn't give me any solid details as to what the issue was...

 “Lilliana, I am an enemy of the Horde, due to the Forsaken. It would be remiss of me to explain. If your employer thinks you ought to know, then he shall tell you if you ask. Your skills would be useful in this instance.”

"The future is stardust because you can dream it. The present is clay because you can mold it. But the past is stone because you can never change it."

  Our pasts are such delicate things, the passing whirl of butterflies, distant calls of ravens and shadows at the corner of our eyes.  When born to darkness it is that shadow that follows you, it whispers sweet nightmares as a sword slides against another’s neck, when frost over takes their veins or corruption blackens their skin.  One can ignore it, hide from it, but they can never escape it.  The light itself breeds shadows, and I have seen some that are a deeper black then anything spawned in the edges of night.  We live in a war glutted world, one swelled to the brim with hatred, prejudice and unearthly hungers.  A world that rises the evil as much as the good, it is a fine line, for those who chose to walk the middle.

She's exhausted finally.

  Sometimes I forget what it is to be a friend to another.  Then there comes the times the reminder is a brick wall to the very fragile parts of my face.  My doses of reality and the roles I should be playing are never kind when they see fit to remind me of my duties.

I had, indeed, betrayed one of my own.

For a human.

For a Death Knight.

I had justified it. I still feel right for the course of action I took- if the betrayal itself still glares at me. Still makes my stomach turn.

I don't lie unless I have to. And I do not betray trust. But I had- and I'd done it without a second thought.

Love.

Many claim to know it.

I am not one of them.

The crimson-haired, amber-eyed elf watched the slender blonde toss and turn fitfully in sleep- the covers forgotten, the sheets twisting around her legs, clinging to her lean curves as she scowled at whatever dream didn't seem sit right with her.

Swallowed in the bed's luxurious mounds of comforter and pillows, such a scowl – or look of utter worry - shouldn't be playing across the dainty girl's face.

Eryth's lips tilted down a moment- should he wake her? No, she needed her rest. Even if it was fitful.

"It's very painful, I know personally."

"The restraints are for your own protection."

"It appears we got it all."

Aelberyn's voice resonated ethereally in my mind as light-headed and dizzy I quickly darted from the room.

"Things are not always what they seem - the first appearance deceives many;the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden..."

Lily lay in her hammock, curled in the blanket that Aelberyn had gifted her. She reached a slender hand down to scratch behind her kitten's ears, smiling as the mottled calico purred loudly, resting in her elf's lap. She then slid her scarred hand behind her head -tugging her white-blonde hair out of her ponytail in a languid motion, catching Asarel's soft voice wafting out of her comm again.

The knight smiled to herself – this one made her think.

She liked that.

They are gone, leaving me with my Lady.

The boy sleeps I am certain. The servants have washed him. They will be returning from a day's rest I'd given them, weary of feeling like an invalid, weary of their whispers when I came to myself after a lapse of memory and mind.

She was always genuinely happy to see the Ranger-Lord.

And maybe that's what worried her.

I'd do anything

They say I love him-

((Here we go again. Slow connections beware, this installment's twice as long as Book One.))

At least Tess was going to get some rest tonight watching her after putting down the report after reading it for the third time.   She slept soundly on the bed with her arms wrapped around one of the large pillows like it was a giant stuffed animal.

Sadly sleep was escaping me tonight even after a few bottles of wine.  It wasn’t enough to overcome the aches from bruises from the fighting earlier in the day.

Nor was it helping me relax from the jumble of emotions I had been dealing with over the last couple of days

Concern