A Most Clever & Poignant Post Title [Attn: Ravak Darrow Gaidin]

Hama Valon, the city around the Grey Tower.
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Welcome to Hama Valon! The aptly named 'mountain guard' is the city that has grown up at the gates of the Grey Tower at the western edge of the Two Rivers. Like all cities, there are quiet quarters with pleasant inns, such as Elman's Creek, which used to be the nearest village when the Tower was young, but was absorbed as the new city grew; its Band of Brothers Inn is still a favorite relaxation spot for many of the Tower's denizens. And again, like all cities the world over, there are less pleasant places--narrow, nameless streets that house hells and other houses of ill repute. Most of the city falls somewhere in between, with hawkers crying their wares in the streets, respectable shopkeepers ready to serve you, and petty cutpurses happy to follow you.

Novices, Soldiers, and drin'far'ji must be accompanied by a chaperon when outside Tower walls or they risk being picked up as runaways and duly punished.
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Bella
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Location: New England

Re: A Most Clever & Poignant Post Title [Attn: Ravak Darrow Gaidin]

Post by Bella » March 2nd, 2017, 1:08 am

Oh yes. He could dance.

It had been a very long time since she could recall dancing with a partner quite so skilled. Ravak Darrow was quickly putting past dancers to shame and she was, indeed, amazed. It hadn't been that she doubted him, but he reminded her of what it was like to truly put music into motion with another person.

She picked up on the cues of his hands and feet with the barest indication, feeling his thighs press lightly against her as she flowed into the steps and their feet moved in time.

The music was both leading score and afterthought. Miahala's expressions, while they had been many things beyond impassive, had pretty much been consistently controlled. She had it ingrained in her over the decades to do so. She was Aes Sedai, after all. Now, though, as he stepped and turned her around the floor, her face and eyes became wholly unguarded.

His hand at her waist lightened its grip and she felt them parting just enough to know she was about to spin, which she did effortlessly before being brought back into his hold.

The song rose and fell on its way to its final dramatic notes, and the floor had almost cleared around the pair of them. She barely noticed. All she knew was that she...

And there the song hit it its final crescendo. The gleam in his eyes signaled just before the movement. His hands shifted on her bodice and dipped her back, and when she came back up, he stepped back--his hands were suddenly higher on her sides and she was lifted into the air. It was just for a moment, but she gasped softly and looked down into his pale blue eyes with, yes, amazement.

She was suddenly transported to a life decades earlier, another moment in the Band of Brothers, when she had been young and in love and danced without care.

It was only for a moment before he lowered her back to her feet, but still she stared. The dancers that had abandoned the floor on their behalf laughed, and clapped, but she hardly heard them. She tried to blink away the seeming haze that had enveloped her, but she found herself unable to on her power.

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Craig
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Re: A Most Clever & Poignant Post Title [Attn: Ravak Darrow Gaidin]

Post by Craig » March 2nd, 2017, 1:27 am

Ravak
The clapping was unexpected, and honestly even a little unwelcome. He hadn't been looking for the approval of the crowds, nor even explicitly for Miahala's admiration. The good lady wanted a dance and I made good on my promise to deliver. His motivation within those minutes had been pure; to please, to entertain, and to make minor reparations for his bluster at the start of the night.

Pulling his eyes away from hers for only a scant moment, Ravak noted that even the musicians were clapping. That put a crimp in any plans to move onto a second dance, because the moment would no longer be theirs alone. Rav didn't want to share Mia with anyone else; he wanted everything to himself.

He placed his damaged hand on the side of her face, giving her cheek a light caress. "Shall we depart?" he asked tenderly. The promised exchange was near the back of the Gaidin's thoughts, but it was still towards the stairs he guided her. "I would like another dance, but without the spectators."
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Elan wrote:Of course, the problems with observing a chain of command arise when the one in command decides to do something unspeakably idiotic, like taking off on his own for no discernible reason in the middle of enemy territory.

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Location: New England

Re: A Most Clever & Poignant Post Title [Attn: Ravak Darrow Gaidin]

Post by Bella » March 2nd, 2017, 3:37 am

His touch and his voice were at least enough to clear the fog from her mind and her eyes. Miahala was able to regain some control over herself, for which she was grateful. She was not a woman who liked to lose her composure in any measure, no matter to source or the effect. She was a woman who was always in possession of herself.

Had she not just made that point very strongly to Ravak not so very long ago? And yet here on the dance floor, she had almost become giddy with the moment.

"Yes, I think it best to vacate the crowd," she agreed, her voice just enough for him to hear. She leaned into his touch ever so slightly, wanting to acknowledge the feeling but not wanting to add to the spectacle that their fellow inn-goers had already made of them. Not that she was a woman who shunned attention, but neither did she seek it. And at that moment, she only wanted the attention of one.

The crowd had already begun to retake the dance floor as he turned. She still had her hand in his as he cut his way through the people lingering at the edges or meandering their way back to their own evenings, while the musicians struck up their next tune. Mia was only dimly aware of the music playing. It drifted along behind them as they walked up the stairs.

Quiet excitement fluttered in her chest, a feeling that she'd not had the last time...during their trip to the Blightborder. That had been one thing, and a good thing, but this...was something else.

By the time they reached the top of the stairs, the sound of their shoes was louder than the music and the chatter. The last of the daze dissipated and there was peace around them, but there was not peace within her. She barely knew herself. Or that was to say, she found in herself an earlier incarnation of Miahala.

She liked it, but was glad to only allow Ravak to witness it.

In the empty hallway, those slender fingers were all but claws as she grabbed the front of his uniform and pulled him against her, even closer than when they had been dancing, and kissed him.

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Re: A Most Clever & Poignant Post Title [Attn: Ravak Darrow Gaidin]

Post by Craig » March 2nd, 2017, 8:35 pm

Ravak
Trapped between a Green and a hard place. Ravak couldn't chuckle with his lips interlocked with Mia's, but he still smiled as their tongues played with one another's. The door handle pressed painfully against his back but he didn't stop her. In fact, he wrapped an arm around her torso and pulled her in tighter. For weeks he had dreamt of this happening, and he had no patience now that the moment had arrived. With his free arm he reached into his pocket to extract the key to the room. It was a challenge, unlocking a door behind your back with one hand, whilst using the rest of your body to please the enchantress before you.

Click.

Rav shoved the handle down forcefully and was carried halfway into the room by Mia's momentum. Turning them both on the spot as if they were dancing again, Ravak booted the door behind them shut, then got down to the important business of helping Mia tear his shirt off.
---- Ravak awoke to the unfamiliar presence of another person sharing the same sheets as himself. Unfamiliar, yet far from unwelcome. Oh yes. We never did get back to the Tower last night.

Unlike the last time he had woken up next to Miahala, he had nowhere urgent to go. He twisted in the bed to face her. Last night he had once again felt marks on her back, but only in the morning's light did the scars become apparent. Tiredness muted his surprise, not that there should have been any. She was a Green, and she had literally died. Of course she's going to have a few battle scars. Still, he hadn't accounted for how bad they would seem; a dozen or so claw marks crisscrossed the Saldaean's back, visible but long faded. How old was she when that happened? he wondered. How old is she? Not quite a coherent line of thought, and actually not a question that bothered him. Miahala was an Aes Sedai, who had undoubtedly been born long before he was, and would outlive him by several generations. That was the inevitable fate of the Gaidin, never to outlive the person who had placed their safety in your hands.

Rav caught himself thinking of a different woman then, with darker skin and raven-black hair. Another beauty in her own right, but never one he had laid with. Never one who he had... He rolled onto his back to stare at the ceiling. No. He wasn't about to go down the same route he'd taken too many times before. Two too many times.

Before he progressed any further with that line of thinking, Miahala stirred. Rav turned back to hold her before she moved, pressing his lips to the back of her shoulder briefly. "Morning. I hope you slept well."
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Elan wrote:Of course, the problems with observing a chain of command arise when the one in command decides to do something unspeakably idiotic, like taking off on his own for no discernible reason in the middle of enemy territory.

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Location: New England

Re: A Most Clever & Poignant Post Title [Attn: Ravak Darrow Gaidin]

Post by Bella » March 2nd, 2017, 9:03 pm

The night was a sequence of vibrant instances and blurred moments, but all them pleasurable. Nothing about her, for the remainder of the darkness, had remained guarded once she had been unfurled upon the dance floor. Until morning come, she had been determined to not let the woman who was there be sent away again.

As they had laid amidst the tangled sheets, she with her cheek pressed to his chest, it had taken her a while to fall asleep. Too many thoughts...no. That was inaccurate. Too many feelings swirled in her mind, and all the lively sensations that had been visited upon her made her feel as though she was full of lightning.

Do you think... She stopped herself before giving voice to any words. What words could she put to anything now? Her fingers had traced invisible patterns over his skin as she willed herself to sleep. Circles within circles formed within her mind, wondering if she was a fool for the things she was considering.

Eventually, sleep did claim her.

Do you think...
* * * Morning came, and light spilled through the curtains. Her eyes fluttered open as it took her a moment to remember where she was, and who she was with... Feeling his lips on her shoulder brought that into sharp focus, and she closed her eyes again for a moment with a smile. If she had any self-consciousness about the scars on her back, it was long gone.

"Good morning," she replied, taking a slow, deep breath. "I did. As I hope you did."

Rolling her shoulders slightly, she lifted her body up slightly so she could turn to face him. Somewhere during the night, they had shifted and she turned to reclaim the position she'd had before. Now in the faint light of morning, the other scar came into stark focus. It was far less faded than the ones on her back. Singular, jagged, thick, and angry.

Her years since returning to life, and to the Tower, had not done nearly as much as she might like to make it fade too.

Normally suspended over it was a long, thin leather string bearing many rings. Somehow, through life and death and life, it had not been taken from her. But last night, as she remembered now, she had taken it off. It glinted from the nightstand, but she left it there. The past was the past.

Turned round and facing him now, she settled back down and leaned into him. She enjoyed the warmth that remained around them, and was happy to shield herself from the day to come. She had vaunted her plan to only be missing from the Tower for "a couple of hours" the night before, and that clearly had not played out.

They would have to return...at some point. And then what would happen?

Would it be like when they had returned from Shienar? Both back to their lives, only returning when happenstance suggested it?

Mia put her head back so she could look up into his face, that open, vulnerable look still in her eyes as she looked steadily into his eyes. Were there answers there?

Do you think...

She took a soft breath and opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She closed it again and her brows knit slightly in consternation, not used to words not coming when she willed them. "Ravak," she finally began after another moment. "Do you think..." She stopped herself, although even she wasn't sure why.

Are you afraid?

"I..." Again, she failed.

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Re: A Most Clever & Poignant Post Title [Attn: Ravak Darrow Gaidin]

Post by Craig » March 3rd, 2017, 12:14 am

Ravak
Ravak's intuition once more sought to soothe Miahala with his lips. That was because he didn't have much luck when it came to using words to reassure others. Yet this time, it wasn't he who was having trouble getting his words in order.

"Do you think?" Do I think about what?

Her eyes looked so different in the clear morning light. Last night she had been so passionate, driven, and certain of herself. Mia did not fumble with words, ever. So what was this? What had changed? Last night had been joyous, certainly, but so had their last encounter, hadn't it? Ravak wasn't sure what to make of this.

Well, there were things he could do without understanding. Like taking one of her hands in his, and holding it gently. Like saying "Mia, whatever it is, you can say it." He smiled, but it didn't touch his eyes. It was a sad smile, because this was so not the morning after the night before he'd hoped for.

He kissed her hand and held it close to his lips as he spoke. "I haven't ran away yet, so whatever it is that you want to ask me, you can ask me it. I..."

And then it was Ravak's turn to fail with words. So he kissed her hand again, before holding it against his heart. "If you're afraid of something, then feel my heart. Know that it beats for you alone in this moment, just as I'm here for you in this moment."
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Elan wrote:Of course, the problems with observing a chain of command arise when the one in command decides to do something unspeakably idiotic, like taking off on his own for no discernible reason in the middle of enemy territory.

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Bella
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Location: New England

Re: A Most Clever & Poignant Post Title [Attn: Ravak Darrow Gaidin]

Post by Bella » March 3rd, 2017, 12:27 am

There had been no ice left in her after their night before, and whatever had remained now found a way to melt as well. New warmth flooded through her, starting at the point where their hands met. She could feel his heart beating against her hand, and felt like perhaps hers was beating in time to it.

"Ravak," she said, just shy of breathless. She felt whatever flutters of anxiety there had been ease and she smiled, almost a little embarrassed for what she had felt moments before; for her lapse in courage.

"Ravak," she said his name again, this time a little more strongly. "I don't want to leave here and return to the Tower, to return to our separate existences like we did after we came back from Shienar. There is something...here. In this moment. Something in all the moments since you showed up at my office door."

She paused and took a short breath. "Something more than just what it was in that time. I don't want to let it go. Life is too short and too long to let things pass. Do you think..." There was that phrase again, but this time she finished it. "...you would want to remain with me? As my warder when I choose to dive headlong at things, and as more besides?"

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Re: A Most Clever & Poignant Post Title [Attn: Ravak Darrow Gaidin]

Post by Craig » March 3rd, 2017, 12:58 am

Ravak
This transcended all of his hopes. All of them. His stomach rose to meet his throat, rendering him incapable of speech. Instead he just held her hand tightly against his body.

Inside his chest, Ravak's heart pumped away like mad. He came close to feeling sick from the elation that consumed him. Mia wants me to be her Warder? 'More besides'? He threaded his fingers between hers, closing his hold around her. He didn't want to ever let her go. And I never have to.

Eventually the lump in his throat cleared and he found himself able to speak again. "Mia, I want nothing more in my life than to have the honour of sharing it with you." His voice faltered at the end as just the raw emotion of it all burst through the surface. He pulled her in to embrace her, even as his frame shook from the effort of trying to keep himself from crying. Not that it worked; the Shienaran's tears fell into the Saldaean's auburn hair.

Ravak got his external emotions under control after a short moment, but instead he was still awash with excitement and hope and... And the other thing. The only problem with 'the other thing' is that Mia would soon find out how he felt. She would soon find out everything about him, more or less. With the bond came an intimacy that would eclipse anything they have shared with one another so far, but that only strengthened his resolve. This time, if he was going to be someone's Warder, he was going to dedicate himself to them fully.

The embrace came to an end, with the Gaidin's teary-eyed glare returning to look into his soon-to-be bondmate's ocean blue eyes. There was only one question on his mind in that instant. "When?"
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Elan wrote:Of course, the problems with observing a chain of command arise when the one in command decides to do something unspeakably idiotic, like taking off on his own for no discernible reason in the middle of enemy territory.

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Bella
Female Channeller Representative
Posts: 5615
Joined: April 14th, 2015, 11:28 pm
PC: Miahala Darrow Sedai
SC: Lysira Viathene Gaidin
TC: Gareth Tomosan Asha'man
QC: Natlya Cade Gaidin
QC: Andraste Alhandra Sedai
Location: New England

Re: A Most Clever & Poignant Post Title [Attn: Ravak Darrow Gaidin]

Post by Bella » March 3rd, 2017, 1:11 am

His reaction was not what she expected... It was better. It proved to her that what she had felt and thought was not wildly out of the realm of reality, as she occasionally worried about herself slipping to. It showed her that she herself felt was not...wrong. It was a strange thing for her to think that she might be, when in every other moment, she was so assured of herself.

Now, though...with him, she worried she wasn't reading their moments properly. That he did not wish such a tie to her; that he would not wish anything more than what they had shared already. To not have it go on beyond this.

But the way he squeezed her hand, and the way his heart pounded with new fervor, and then his words themselves... They all spoke of the truth she had not imagined, and relief flooded her. When he pulled her close, she held him. The wealth of his emotion for her question was something of a surprise, in a way, but she accepted it all.

After all, she wanted to bond him. That meant everything, from her to him and him to her. She was glad to accept that knowledge.

When he pulled back, she looked up into his eyes and saw the silver glimmering across them. Mia tilted her head slightly with a tender smile, reaching up with her free hand to stroke his cheek with the back of her fingers. As she touched him, she embraced Saidar and let its sweet tidal wave fill her.

"Now," she whispered, lifting her face to kiss him softly. And as she did, she wove the familiar Spirit filaments and let it settle between them; bind them.

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Craig
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Re: A Most Clever & Poignant Post Title [Attn: Ravak Darrow Gaidin]

Post by Craig » March 3rd, 2017, 2:13 pm

Ravak
For a brief yet eternal moment, everything ceased to be. Sight; Sound; Touch; even his sense of being all vanished into a white oblivion.

Then there were her lips pressed against his.

Ravak broke the kiss as a new awareness seemed to form in his mind. He could still feel the Green's trepidation from earlier, but now it was being inched out by other emotions: apprehension, surprise, trust, euphoria. He thought the same mix of feelings were washing through him as well, but the bond had a way of mirroring each other's state of mind.

It didn't matter though. What mattered was that whatever connection had been growing between them now had a name. He hadn't acknowledged the anxiety that would have arisen on their return to the Grey Tower, and now he didn't have to. He could feel a warmth crossing between them, building as it flowed back and forth. As Mia herself had said, they were no longer separate.

They were now Miahala and Ravak.

He kissed her again, briefly, before pulling back slightly. There was a playfulness to his fast grin. "I suppose you'll want your new warder to move in with you? Can't burden the servants with two tents now, can we?"
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Elan wrote:Of course, the problems with observing a chain of command arise when the one in command decides to do something unspeakably idiotic, like taking off on his own for no discernible reason in the middle of enemy territory.

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