Heart of Leoth: [HAITUS]

Part X ~ Theodan

Everything in his body told him he was going in the wrong direction. Every sinew strained and pulled at him, urging him to turn around. Fara needed him. She was in danger. Could be in pain right now and he was doing nothing to stop it. He'd cause it.

Pain clawed at his chest, his fists curling around Nux's rein. He must focus on what the succession would mean. His power as High Visier was far greater than his power as Theodan of Teredia. If he could finally claim what had been given him he would have the power to bring peace to Ethis, not war. He would have the power to give back what he had taken from Azura - not its king or queen or its heir, but he could install a better ruler. A fairer ruler. One with the heart of a warrior and the soul of a goddess. She was brave and smart and had survived her brother once, she could do it again. He had to believe that.

Otherwise, he would go mad.

He would not survive it were she to be taken from the mortal realm. Would not survive without that which made his heartbeat and gave light to his soul. He would be the destruction his mother had foreseen and no one would be safe from the wrath he would unleash upon this world.

He'd dreamed of her again last night. Like the night in Teredia and the skin tent atop the Gelder. A vision of something to come or which had already passed. The pain and rage it wrought through him was the same, but he hoped beyond hope for it to be the former. That he could prevent what he'd seen. He thought on it again now, detail by detail, act by act - for if she suffered now then he should too. Fara stood, gripping the post of a large ornate bed frame. Her dress of gold silk was torn open, bloodied welts lashed across her bronzed skin. Her brother stood behind her, chest bare and sweat-licked and his eyes black as night as he brought a belt of black leather down upon her skin again and again. She didn't cry out. Didn't flinch. She stood tall and straight and looked as though she were completely removed from her body. When he was finished he dropped the whip, breathing hard.

"Look at me," he commanded.

She obeyed, turning to face her brother. Her expression was a blank page, devoid of anything. She looked empty. A vessel.

He took a step towards her and fell to his knees at her feet.

"My love, you must forgive me. You know how crazed it makes me to think of you with him. With anyone but I..." Valdr wrapped his arms around her legs and sobbed. It was not quiet or restrained, true pain rocking his entire frame. Fara remained unmoved for some time before she settled a hand atop his hair, her fingers moving through the dark strands with tenderness. Soon, his sobs eased and his breathing slowed. He sat back and took hold of Fara's other hand, bringing it to his mouth to kiss it softly, before pressing it to his head as one may do before a priest or priestess.

"Say it, say you forgive me," he whispered, gazing up at her. Tears shone in his eyes. "It is you and this or it is him and death... I will not lose you to another. I will not." He kissed her wrist. Pushed up the sleeve of her gown and turned her arm to kiss the inside. Slow drags of his lips across her skin. When he reached her elbow he stood and gently urged her to turn away from him. Then he pushed her forward onto the bed and covered her with his body, tracing his mouth over the broken skin of her back. "Say it... say that you forgive me." He raised her skirts and freed himself from his robe, before spreading the work of his whip down her back and between her legs. As he pushed inside her, Fara made no sound. Barely flinching at the intrusion. So familiar to her. She showed no emotion at all as her brother committed another atrocity upon her body.

"I forgive you," she said, her voice hollow.

The roar he let out was carried off by the wind as he spurred Nux into a western swell. He could feel her body beginning to tire, her wings beating hard against the wind that tried to push him back. Back to Fara.