A follower in the night

Kairios

I knew that there would be no better time than to leave my gift for her. From the moment that Aurelia walked down those stairs in her dress that showed off so much of her skin, I felt this was a mistake. The cloak I gave her was hanging on her arm. Why would she choose to wear such a dress? This man was clearing showing his interest in making her his, and she choose to wear that! I was so angry at her!

She was so beautiful and I had never seen her look this way, it was hard to ignore the arousal that I felt. She would be the death of me! The entire time we were in the carriage on the way to the ship, I went from looking at her with affection to looking at her in anger. This was going to be a long dinner.

When we finally made it to the pier the sunlight made it easier to see all the ships docked here. There wasn’t as many as I had expected and they were all unloading, not a single ship was loading any cargo. It was a good time to try and get a better count of the war ships that the Queen had commissioned to be built. Unfortunately, that even when on the deck I couldn’t see around the ridge. My attention was then pulled in another direction.

“Welcome my lady, your dress is breathtaking.”

There at the top of the one set of stairs was the man I most hated, and he looked ridiculous. I figured he was dressed as nice as a pretty lady with his long flowing coat and feathers atop his hat. The whole time we stood on that deck; he was standing very close to Aurelia. Rage was building within and reached a peak when he blocked my way through a doorway, separating me from her in a way. My control as again tested when she signaled me to stay back and away from her.

The entire time we were in the cabin, I had to fight my feet from moving forward and closer to them. I wanted to wrap my hands around that fool's neck! Eventually after some back and forth from them, it was finally time to leave. It was now dark as we walked onto the deck of the ship. The wagon was ready to take us home and the end of the ramp.

“I hope we can see each other soon, my lady.” he grabbed her hand and planted a way to long kiss on her skin.

My first instinct was to pull her hand away from his greedy fingers; however, I didn’t have to. She pulled her own hand away before saying,

“You can see me again when you have news about the slaves.” With that she turned to walk away and down the ramp to the pier. She did not look back; I however couldn’t help but see the shocked look on the Captain’s face. His hand was still out stretched to her and his mouth was hanging open while he watched her walk away. I couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction as I walked away after Aurelia.

Once on the pier, Aurelia was telling the driver that she wouldn’t be needing his services and continued walking towards the main road. When we were out of sight I caught up and walked beside her.

“That was the worst time I have ever had at a dinner.” It was the truth but she didn’t answer right away.

“I’m sorry, that must have been so hard for you to endure. He was so bold and clear of his intentions. It was becoming overwhelming.”

“To be honest, I had sort of a black out. I got so angry when you signaled me to stay back. Are you really going to see hm again?”

That was one thing I wanted least of all! Why was she making this deal with him? They would all be free when she took the throne, or there had to be a way to help them in the meantime. In reality there wasn’t much time left for the Queen to do these practices.

“I hope to at least save a few more before I stop my Aunt. You don’t know what it is like to live that life. Every single minute they spend in those conditions is a minute to long. I can't wait any longer. Every second I feel their pain, I want it to stop.” The pains of her past were still so engrained into her.

“Do you want to go back home, or would you like to go for a walk? We can spend some alone time together.” Each moment alone together was hard to find and something I desired each day.

“Let's go for a walk together. It’s a warm night and I have this wonderful cloak to keep me warm.” She took my hand and looked me in the eyes.

“I love it so much. I know we didn’t have much time to talk about it before we had to leave.”

“I was bothered by that yes, but I am glad that you like it. It's a rare animal, fitting for such a rare beauty. I have only even seen it in pictures. I can't believe it was here and hunting me.” We both laughed at the irony of that.

As we walked along the roadway, we talked about some of the things we wanted to change. The streets needed to be cleaned up, there was so much build up in the streets. This would be a good way to create some jobs and entice people to return to a newly cleaned City.

We needed to fill the City back up again. Food and housing were the first things we needed to provide. There were many abandoned homes. We could give them away conditionally that they would be fixed up before any tax was implemented. Others would need to be fixed up before they could be filled. We felt it was a good place to start.

“When we get into the castle, we will have more information and help in making this work.”

“I hope it won't be long before we hear something back from Lyanna’s spy. Each day its harder to not take care of this problem right now. Lyanna will be the best to help us get this city back on its feet.”

We walked awhile longer with no destination or direction in mind. It was starting to get later than I would have expected. We both we thinking the same thing when I noticed it. Behind us I could see that we were being followed! Each time we turned a corner, the follower would do the same.

“We are being followed.” I warned Aurelia.

“Can you tell who?”

“No, their face seems to be covered.”

We continued to walk around to see how invested this follower was. Hopefully it was some poor person with the thought of stealing from us. We were very well dressed, I guess that was a mistake. It was almost like we were rubbing it in their faces that they were poor.

We had no choice; we would have to lose this person. We couldn’t risk them finding out Aurelia’s true identity. He was also to far back that if we tried to attack them, they would have too much time to get away. It was too bad, I was so curios to see who it was and to find out who set them on us, if that was the case.

“When we turn that corner, we run until the next turn. Let's loose this follower.”

She nodded in response to my directions. When we were hidden by the wall as we rounded the corner, we both broke into a run as quietly as possible. With luck we were close to another corner and took it just as quickly. We didn’t stop running.

It honestly felt good to be moving like this, the burn in my muscles and the air in my chest was electrifying! When I looked over at Aurelia, I could tell she was feeling the same way. She looked like a goddess as she ran. Her hair, dress and gifted cloak flowed behind her. Her legs were shorter than mine, but she had no trouble keeping up with my stride.

We weren't being followed any longer but we continued to run.

We found what was possibly the only place that wasn’t tainted by the degrade of the city. We walked into the backyard and were both shocked at the beauty. The trees and grass were both green and lush with fresh flowers growing here and there. The gate was broken and the back door was broken in as well. While the outside of the house was in amazing condition, the inside was abandoned and dirty.

“The owners of this house had to be Elvish or at least they had Elvish attendants. I can still feel the magic they used.”

“I wonder what happened to them. It looks like it's been years since the house was occupied.”

I turned to face her, the expression she had was one of sadness. Seeing that look always made me hate the world a little bit more. I put my hand on the side of her face to lift her face to look at me. She leaned into the contact and put her one hand on my chest. It filled me with such desire that it was like a flame that burned through me. I pulled her closer and kissed her gently.

She returned my kiss, gentle at first, then slowly growing with our passion. I took off her cloak and laid it down for us. Her body was warm under me, so much of her skin was available to my lips. I took advantage of each opportunity. Her hands ran up and down my back and sides slowly removing my armor and some clothing.

The moon moved across the night sky as we continued to find peace in each other's touch. Our bodies were completely in sync and the feeling of being inside her was all consuming. We both hovered on the edge of full release, both unwilling for this night to end. But end it did and it was magnificent. I was leaning up against the tree and she was sitting astride me.

She was so perfect with her hands on my thighs as her back arched and she tossed her head back. I grabbed her hips and drove deeper in as my own pleasure exploded into her. We stayed sitting like that for a while as we both fought to catch our breaths. The night was almost over and the sun would soon rise.

“We should head back soon, we stayed out all night.” I didn’t want to leave but the others would be worried.

“This was so wonderful, I needed this. How will we ever be able to continue all this when we take over the throne?”

“We will just have to take the time. No one will be able to tell us how we spend our time together.”

We both got up and started to dress. Soon after we were on our way home, leaving our little place of peace left behind. No one was in the streets at this time and we had no one following us. It was an eerie quiet throughout the Capitol. When we walked up to the house, I was surprised to see a light still on in the front and on the second floor. Was every one still really awake?

Aurelia looked at me with the same question on her face. We rushed to the front door and found that it was completely empty! There was no maid or attendant in sight, I was confused at first until I heard hushed voices coming from the kitchens. When we both walked in, every eye in the room was on us.

There was one pair however that I did not recognize.

“What’s going on?” asked Aurelia.

“It's good you are finally back.” Lyanna said in a disapproving tone, not quiet looking at us.

“This young girl is one of the maids that was sent to the castle to get your information.” Acantha thankfully broke the silence. I could see it bothered Aurelia to be criticized by Lyanna.

“There isn't as much as we hoped for, but it is a good start.”