Just like his father Vri, Malcolm was fascinated by mortals, leaning what made people tick was something be had believed was easy enough to master until her. He was married, mortalborn, and in charge; were those all faults or unavoidable obstacles Elyna felt she had to work around before anything between them could happen? He took two measured steps closer to the woman, eliminating the space between them. It was impossible for him to change the first of her issues, there was no such thing as divorce in Rynmere. "I'm married," he acknowledge with a slow nod of his head, "but the rest I can give up,"'he told her, implying that forever was only for the lonely, and that he wore a title he would happily strip hisself of if it meant things could change, that they could be easier for her to accept.
"Elyna," Malcolm closed his hands against the Skyrider's face and brushed his right hand over her hair.
Malcolm knew she didn't really want him to change anything about himself then, they were just ideas too large to imagine that they would ever be able to overcome. He looked down into her eyes and realised that the woman in front of him didn't need convincing, she just needed time, it was all a lot to take in. The captain bowed his head and pressed a slow, lingering kiss to the noble woman's lips before straightening up again. "Can I walk you home?"
Last edited by Malcolm on Tue Oct 08, 2019 11:52 am, edited 1 time in total. word count: 251
It was something else she couldn't avoid. The skyrider knew it, and Malcolm knew it to; with every motion towards him she tried to push him away. A tiny voice warned that if she kept trying to shut him out, she would eventually succeed and he would give up with her. Why not? There was no reason that the Mortalborn should remain in her life, he could simply chose to leave it, like a leaf in the wind.
So she didn't retreat when he advanced and instead tilted her head back. Elyna found herself drowning in the dark green gaze and wondered what it was he saw in reflection. Was it simply fear? Or could he see the desperate longing to? She curled her fingers around his hands and it was a relief when he broke their gaze and his kiss fell.
It was brief, but still left her balancing on her toes and clinging to him. His words traveled over her head and she nodded, quiet agreement. The city was still busy, people moving to and fro and all those that were planning to spend the night in revelry were only just getting started. She could hear people talking from nearer the market place, the voices carrying in the night.
The kiss had been different and it left her feeling awash with sadness. She turned for home but found she didn't want to walk. Elyna pushed her fingers through her hair. He was married. Oddly, the one thing he couldn't change was the arrow that stung most. That at least was a path she'd trodden before, the one she was most weary of.
She looked sidelong at the mortalborn, biting hard on her bottom lip to stop everything from spilling out. All the truth and all of the past. But without saying anything, she was just standing opposite him in the dark. Elyna turned and smiled to herself, stupid really. If anyone was watching they'd see her spinning in circles.
The skyrider let out a slow breath and looked skyward as she started walking towards home, "...I was in the practice courts one day," she lifted a shoulder in a shrug, "I was...not quite at my twenty first arc," the rueful smile spread. How many decades had he lived? She peeked at him as they moved. How many centuries? She must seem like a child. She folded her arms under her chest and looked ahead again.
"I...we didn't..." the words ceased and she stopped walking. Elyna looked around for inspiration and she gave up "we never should have fallen in love," she finally admitted, "and then...when my brother found out I learnt that he had married someone else, behind my back. He'd...he'd had children with her in the arcs that we'd spent together..." she felt her voice crack and she gripped her arms tighter to her chest, trying to hold everything in so that the words could come out. "When his ship sank...it didn't matter how...none of it mattered anymore. I always...I just couldn't help but believe that I'd rather be with him at the bottom of the ocean...rather than anywhere else in the world," she forced herself to look up at him.
Last edited by Elyna on Fri Jun 03, 2016 4:17 pm, edited 1 time in total. word count: 555
Against Elyna's better judgement no doubt, Malcolm managed to get the woman to come inside and sit, the streets still a little busy for the two of them to speak outside without interruption, especially about something that visibly seemed to upset the woman. With the temperature cooling down for the night, the captain had managed to convince Elyna to come in with the promise of a warm fire and meal. He got the fire going and put a pot down to boil some water for the left over tea Elyna had brought round a few days prior before joining her at the table to sit with his hand over hers. "It will get warmer soon," he smiled and rubbed the edge of her hand with his thumb.
It took a little while for his thoughts to stop racing and his ears to drown out the clip-clop of hooves outside and the ringing sensation that had followed him out of the busy inn. It had been a silly idea to take her there really, but he understood how strange it must feel for her to be inside the house that had belonged to Malcolm and his wife Vanessa for the last couple of years. Soon the fire was burning well and the small living space started to heat up. The place didn't look quite as empty as it had after Vanessa had gone, the shelves filled with books on loan from the library once more, and a hand-drawn map had been left out, rolled across one side of the table with a compass acting as a makeshift paperweight. Everything looked clean and organised as if it all had a place and to a certain extent this spoke of the man's character.
Settled finally, Malcolm reached back behind him for the pot of boiled water and carefully poured it into the mugs he had set up with the dried tea leaves already in them. He didn't look at Elyna when he spoke but instead concentrated on his pouring. "Love makes us do strange things and has the ability to teach us who we really are, what it means to fully submit to our own desire and grasp with both hands." Something about Elyna's partnership with this sailor confused him though. "Did you ever find out why he married and kept things going with you?" The captain thought it was odd that someone would pass up on marrying a noble woman, unless the other woman had been of noble birth too, in which case Malcolm could only imagine that the power at play here was greed rather than love.
Last edited by Malcolm on Tue Oct 08, 2019 11:52 am, edited 1 time in total. word count: 443
Elyna had hoped that the words would give her power. Finally letting them out and trying to explain, at least in part how she felt and the problems she was struggling with. Instead, Elyna felt numb and agreed without much fuss to follow Malcolm into his home. She sat in the chair and rested an elbow on the table, scanning the map that was half rolled up to one side. She tried to pick out familiar features and tucked one leg up, beneath her.
She’d been building walls inside herself for so long, that she could see the rushing ride of emotion on the other side of the barriers. The waters were painful, deadly and best kept at a distance. But shutting herself off meant that she was once more detached and felt listless. Like a puppet with the strings cut. With the captain, she could feel him coaxing her out from behind the barricades, but did he realise how much she’d have to swim through, to reach the surface again. He kept throwing her a line, and it was easier to let him miss.
The skyrider examined the table in detail, the warm grains of wood the intertwined. It wasn’t comfortable to be back here, where they’d first met. She had too many clear memories of Vanessa sweeping in. The house had a different feel, with Malcolms books and choice of items surrounding them, but she was still a presence. She still existed. There would always be a part of the captain’s heart, reserved solely for his wife. Elyna realised though that, it was something she wouldn’t want to change. She couldn’t exactly free her own heart of the past. Perhaps, all that mattered was the future. She cleared her throat and took a sip of the tea, careful to cool it first so it didn’t burn her tongue.
“I found out the morning of their departure,” she spoke carefully, pulling small threads of memory up, examining them before setting them aside, “I told him to get on his ship, and to never come back; and he didn’t.”
She watched the water swirl within the mug, “so no…I just that he betrayed me and all the…all the dreams we’d started building together. And I don’t know why. I don’t know really…if anything was real or true or what was a lie,” she felt the lump catch in her throat and took another small drink.
“Ed wrote to me a few trials later. Yorath is dead. The ocean claimed his bones,” she scowled. It had been the last communication she’d received from her brother. She wasn’t sure if it was that she hadn’t forgiven him, or if she suspected him…or if Eddie had trouble approaching her after some of the things he’d said. Their parents didn’t know that anything was amiss, after all it was unusual for them all to be in the same place at the same time and had become easier and easier to avoid.
The words though, the last words she’d said to Yorath were seared in her mind. They’d never leave her. What if she had said something else, what if she’d begged for him to stay?
She blinked suddenly and looked up, as though truly realising where they were. Elyna gulped, “thank you for the tea.”
Malcolm held the warm mug of tea but it was never raised to his lips, instead he sat staring at the woman, wondering what thought inside the storm of her mind had her looking so far away. When Elyna mentioned the last words she had said to her old flame, Malcolm found himself trying and failing to recall his final words to Vanessa. He couldn't imagine that they had been anything but kind, but did recall an argument, one they had been having for many, many years. Somewhat new to the capital and its latest generation, Malcolm couldn't say that he knew of the man Elyna spoke of, at least not by that name, but her brother on the other hand rang a bell, a name he could have sworn his son Marcus had brought up at one time or another.
Blinking out of his stupor, Malcolm offered a slow, tired smile to the woman as she thanked him for the tea. It was probably getting a little late to go to the trouble of cooking anything, but Malcolm decided to busy his hands all the same, taking an apple from the fruit basket and a blade from his belt, he start peeling the apple, cutting the thick skin away from the white flesh until it looking like a long, green tree-snake. His brow knotted as he thought more about a conversation his son Marcus had shared with him some time ago and couldn't help but feel that he had heard this story before. "What did you say his second name was?" Malcolm piped up all of the sudden, cutting the apple into thin slices to line the pot with.
A few more apples went into the cooking pot before Malcolm added some water and put it back on the hot plate above the fireplace to boil away. In the meantime he would make a dry crumble for the top and wait until the water had all but evaporated before covering the apples with the mixture. It wasn't much, but Malcolm was quite fond of a bit of apple crumble every now and then.
Last edited by Malcolm on Tue Oct 08, 2019 11:53 am, edited 1 time in total. word count: 359
“Blackwood,” Elyna replied quietly. She took a few more sips of the tea before folding her arms on the table and resting her head on them. Deflated she watched Malcolm work and the calm, confident way that he dealt with the skin. Elyna had been reliable informed that she was a danger to herself and others when it came to culinary tasks.
“Why?” She looked up after a pause and ran her hands over her forehead. A crowd of revellers wandered past a nearer street and her mouth pulled in a half-smile, “seems we made the right choice to abandon the Inn…”
“How were they…Ben and Heath?” she sat up again. At least one thing was clear, “I guess it’s unlikely I’ll be joining your crew on any new assignments,” that was a regret. It was more professional and there were probably rules about not working together and sleeping together. She took a final gulp of tea and tried to steady the tremble in her fingertips.
Malcolm felt the blood drain from his face and sink all the way down to his feet. Now he remembered, Blackwood, the story Marcus had told him which had seemed silly at the time, now made perfect sense. "Oh, no reason," Malcolm shook his head slowly and smiled, "I think my son works with your brother." Small world, he thought to himself then, though it hadn't always been that way. Perhaps, Malcolm mused, his path hadn't been crossed with Elyna's in hope of the two finding love, but closure. Cruel fate. He closed his eyes and tipped his head back, it isn't my place to tell her.
Blackwood, the name bounced around in his head and suddenly it seemed only yesterday that Marcus had told him the story of a young noble man helping a high ranking sailor fake his own death after discovering that the man was involved with his younger sister. Marcus had only found out by accident in a letter he had picked up and read only to find out that it wasn't intended for his eyes, and later confronted his friend, only to be sworn to secrecy. But where had he gone? Malcolm was sure Marcus had mentioned that the letter had been sent from Ne'haer, but couldn't be positive all this time later. "Do you know what became of his family?" Malcolm inquired, had Elyna learned of the man's wife and child packing up and moving abroad?
The captain dropped the subject as soon as Elyna brought up Heath and Benjamin and her concerns about being able to join them on any more of their crusades across country. "They were fine," he smiled reassuringly, "amused more than anything, especially Benjamin," Malcolm added, "he's a rather straight up and down fellow, doesn't joke around like the others and I suspect I'm the last person he expected to run into tonight, at least put in that situation," he laughed lightly, but a small voice in the back of his mind scolded and pushed for him to explain what he knew.
Malcolm put his fingers through his hair, the past should stay in the past, he tried to convince himself but what if later on down the line Elyna met Marcus and the truth mistakenly came out? He would have to sleep on it... That seemed the most logical thing to do.
Last edited by Malcolm on Tue Oct 08, 2019 11:53 am, edited 1 time in total. word count: 405
“I don’t know…I never wanted to know who she was, or where they were,” she shrugged, “I…didn’t…I haven’t dealt with it very well,” she admitted. But then he knew that. He knew about all of the bruises. The recent ones anyway. He knew about a part of the reckless behaviour, though in her defence, the night he’d been stabbed she had been trying to start a new and start fresh. She moved her fingers along the woodgrain, “just seemed best to bury it. Funny though…the more you try to push it away, the more everything just…threatens to come back and bite you.”
Elyna offered a shy smile across the table. The ‘situation’ had been the pair of them trying to race up to the nearest private space to relive their night in Krom. She found herself biting on her bottom lip again, tinged with regret. In many ways it was a shame they’d been interrupted, but the appearance of Ben and Heath had had the effect of an ice cold shower and doused their giddy passions. Malcolm hadn’t exactly reacted well to their appearance. She watched him across the table. The firelight casting him part into shadow as she found herself staring and once more, simply appreciating the man before her. He was usually so steadfast and calm, she wondered what turmoil lurked beneath. He looked pale.
“Are you feeling alright?” she asked quietly and reached out to press her fingertips against his arm. The skin was almost hot to the touch, but she quite liked the sensation. As he had done so many times to offer her comfort, she moved her thumb carefully over the bare skin, savoring the simple touch.
People, always saying one thing an thinking another. His mind was a battlefield, fear pit against reason. Elyna had said that with the news of Blackwood's death, she had longed to join him at the bottom of the ocean, even after hearing of his betrayal, leading Malcolm to assume that whatever they had shared was strong. It all came down to whether or not he would want to know if stood in her shoes. "Elyna, I don't know if I'm the best person to tell you this," so much for sleeping on it, "but I recall my son Marcus talking about a man that went by the name Blackwood, fearsome in his field and rather famous amongst the younger sailors."
The captain made the mistake then of looking across at Elyna, there would be no getting out of this now. "He found a letter, addressed to one of the men who had helped arrange..." Malcolm blinked, he couldn't bear to upset the woman and her large, doe-like eyes were looking at him like she feared he was about to push her backwards off her chair into the fireplace. "To... Elyna I think Blackwood is still alive, and that your brother knows more than he has let on."
Malcolm swallowed, not sure what the woman's reaction would be, though it seemed he would have little time to find out as the pot on the hot plate started to hiss and boil over. The tall male jumped to his feet and removed it from the heat, setting it down in the table quickly as the heated handle burned against the skin of his hand. He sucked in a breath and bit his lower lip, suppressing a few choice words before going to the basin in the kitchen to pick up a wet cloth and hold it in his hand. The pot hissed against the tabletop where it was burning a ring into the stained wood. Malcolm returned to lift the pot again, this time with the cloth to keep him from burning himself. He stared at the charred ring burnt into the tabletop and couldn't help but feel that it was somehow symbolic, had their time together come full circle?
Last edited by Malcolm on Tue Oct 08, 2019 11:53 am, edited 1 time in total. word count: 383
He looked up at her and her ears were roaring before the final blow even fell. She felt herself flinch as though he’d physically pushed her and she stared at him, dumbstruck. Why would he say that? Why would he say something so…awful? The skyrider was on her feet. She watched him trying to deal with the burn to his hand and then to the table. Silently she collected a second cloth, folded it into a neat square and set it down on the surface. She gestured for Malcolm to put the pot down again and walked through to the kitchen. She collected the water pitcher and a second bowl and bought them back.
“Running water,” she told him quietly, “you want running water on a burn.”
With the pot set and the bowl beside it on the table, she reached out and pulled his injury over it, holding it in place as she peeled back the cloth and instead poured the cold water over the burn, taking care to watch his expression and trying not to hurt him.
Finally she stepped away and smoothed down her skirts. The roaring in her ears hadn’t subsidised and she swayed. It couldn’t be true.
Elyna looked up at him, searching his expression helplessly. Tears pricked the back of her eyes and she felt too hot, “why would you lie? Why would you tell me something like that?”
