Rejoined... (Private; Alicia)

[Motito Gil'dae]

Timestamp: Early Morning of the Last Brightening of the First Cycle of Spring of Era I of the Celestine Mandate (current Pattern), Era XIII Post Fractum. Intandancy of Milo the Fair.
Paradigm: New Nation Discovered



The Gil'dae Estate of Starshadow Manor that lay nestled within Diana in the Carmelyn Sodality was having a lazy brightening. Rightfully so, considering. It was a brightening that he was taking off, and was forcing Alicia to do the same--not like it too much--so that the pair could just relax and enjoy eachother's company. It had been some time since such had happened, and the elven sorcerer wanted merely to enjoy his time with his fiancee. He'd told her, warned her that he might soon begin to move wheels of his own volition, not trusting the wheels of the--well, of any, really--government to take care of the small things. It wasn't that he distrusted Milo. In fact, he held great respect for the man, and hoped dearly that he was able to turn things around. As it stood, though, the government was lame and inept; so filled with in-fighting and wheedling for political positioning, power, and prescedence that little actually got accomplished on the larger matters. Only on things that the different divisions were allowed to enact by themselves did anything seem to get done, and even that was frequently of questionable effectiveness.

On this particular brightening, The elf was laying back in the luxurious four-poster bed in the master suite, glancing over at his bride-to-be. Alicia was an enchantingly beautiful and strikingly intelligent woman, and any man would be lucky to be with her. And yet, somehow, he'd managed to accquire her heart and keep it for good. After what they'd been through, Motito was confident that they could weather anything.

Really, both of them were quite prosperous. While Alicia now made more money then him, he wasn't particular about that fact, given how extravegant he'd grown used to living. He made enough to support his lifestyle, and was left wanting for little. He glanced over at his raven-haired beauty, smiling contentedly as the sunlight gently caressed her face. Reaching out a hand, he did it himself, his thin, nimble fingers ever so gently caressing her delicate skin. He leaned in closely, kissing the temple right above her eye, smiling warmly.

"Good morning, Sunshine," he whispered quietly into her ear, laying back down. He himself having only just awoken was bare-chested, and wore only light sleeping trousers. He continued to carefully trail his fingers along her supple, smooth flesh even as he propped his head up with a hand, gazing down at her lovingly, as though she were a work of art, her form sculpted with mastwork precision by Phedos himself. He smiled lazily at just how lucky he was to have her. He had a lot, but without her, it would all be meaningless.

[Alicia Elsdragon]

Sleep was such a nice thing to have, and she knew that there was waking up to be done, but this dream was something that she just wanted to hold on to for a while. In the dream she and Motito were once more together, and she was... happy. Warm and safe in his arms, she curled into him, in her dream, and then felt a gentle hand whispering over her cheek. She opened one eye lazily as he kissed her and felt a rush of warmth overcome her at the sight of him.

"Mmmm... I was just dreaming about you" she said, with a small smile and looked up at him with a still-a-little-asleep expression on her face. "It was a nice dream and I didn't really want to wake up from it, but then I did and it's better awake... how nice is that?" she nestled gently into his chest, enjoying the feel of his skin, the way that his hand traced gently over her arm and as she looked up at him, she felt her breathing stop for just a moment at the way that he looked at her.

She lay there, in the early brightening sun and the dark black of her night-gown stood in stark contrast to her pale skin, the satin material clinging to her form as she shifted her position slightly to snuggle in next to him.

"I feel very lazy taking the brightening off. What if the Empire falls down without me there to save it?" she mulled quietly and then looked up at him and raised a hand to stroke his cheek. "Hmm... let it" she murmered quietly "I can't find it in me to care right now... "

She leant up and kissed him gently, softly exploring his so-familiar lips and then nestled contentedly back into his arms, her mind running through the happenings of the last few brightenings. She was starting to believe that it was really real and she smiled gently at that thought, contentment causing her to get a rather smug expression on her face as she lay in her loves arms and considered that she was a very lucky woman indeed.

[Motito Gil'dae]

As she awoke next to him, he heard her speak with the lazy 'I just woke up' slur--which, to him, was actually rather adorable at that moment, but there was hardly a single thing about her that wasn't to him--and listened to her speech. It caused his lazy grin to blossom into a full-grown smile, as his eyes soaked in every detail of her adorable flesh.

"Well good, I'm not the only one, then," he smirked, indicating that he too had been in a dream of her before waking, "and if this is still the dream, then I wish never to wake up..." He continued to trace her creamy skin as she spoke of feeling lazy at which point he gave her a mischevious wink.

"I guess if it all falls down we'll just have to put it back together again, like we always do..." She leaned up and kissed him, and he kissed back with a gentle passion, his lips meeting hers in a familiar and yet missed embrace, despite having done so before falling asleep. He felt her curl up to him and ensnared her in his arms, folding her into his body. As he held her, he gazed down at his beloved, kissing her forehead as he held her lithe form in his.

"So," he spoke with a slightly leading tone of voice. They'd spent a lot of time together in the past cycle, pretty much every waking, non-working minute, but usually it was just to try and make sure eachother wouldn't disappear in a puff of smoke. Now that both were finally beginning to believe that perhaps this was something that really wasn't going to fade from reality but was permanent, it was a good time to actually get caught up on eachother's lives.

"What's happened in the few months that we were apart? Don't think I've really heard from you on that count." He smiled down at her, partly wanting to get filled in on how her life has been, and partly just because he loved listening to her smooth, soothing voice.

[Alicia Elsdragon]

Warm and safe, she considered to herself. That was how she felt right now, warm and safe and loved. She nestled into his encircling arms and her smile deepened at the kiss on her forehead. This was nice, just being together and not worrying over whether he would be there the next moment. She knew that he had the same worry for her and as those concerns faded into the pleasant current reality, Alicia found herself relaxing more into what was becoming their life together. The children seemed content and Tito seemed.... well, younger, lighter... more himself.

She looked up as he asked his question, though and she chewed her lip thinking "Well, I got made Chancellor" she smiled gently, stating the obvious in a rather teasing manner, but then she answered seriously, focusing on her answer, which was difficult to do when his hands kept gently moving, his arms encircling her and holding her safe. "That was hard at first, but I seem to be getting into the swing of it now. I had to overcome some trouble with some of the Consuls who disliked the fact that I got the job. But that's led to a very firm friendship with Palacrisis, actually I went on holiday with him and his daughter. That was lovely, a couple of brightenings away was nice. I've gotten to know Faust quite a lot better, too, which is lovely. The children are growing so much, and it seems like every brightening they learn something new. They have that twin-communication thing going for them. They've missed you" she said, quietly, looking up at him and gently tracing a finger down his cheekbone "We've missed you.Umm... I suppose other than that I've just been trying to get to grips with the new job, and the fact that somewhere along the line I got on first name terms with the Regent....."

She shrugged slightly, and looked up at him with interest in her eyes "What about you, Heru? Is everything alright with you and Cala?" He hadn't mentioned his twin and things had been so intense with her, so very intense for Tito that Alicia found that both surprising and a little disconcerting. The small voice that Alicia tried not to listen to blamed Cala and the link that Tito had with her for their splitting up, but Alicia knew that was neither true nor fair. It didn't make it something that she could silence, though, and she wanted to be fair to Motito's sister, who had been nothing but kind and gentle to her.

[Motito Gil'dae]

The elven sorcerer listened to her speak, her soft voice music to his ears. As she described her friendship with Pala and having gotten to know Faust, he felt a mild pang of jealousy that he knew was ludicrous, but felt anyway. She'd said it herself...she was in love with him. He believed her, did not doubt her for an instant. But still, he couldn't help but feel a rediculous pang of jealousy at the mention of other men's names. She mentioned the twin-communication and chuckled softly, knowing all too well that experience that had awakened since finding his own twin. As she spoke of them missing him, he simply smiled and made a lazy figure-eight with his fingers on her bare arm.

"Well, I've missed you three too. A job on the Imperial level can be a lot to handle. It's good that you're on first-name terms with Milo though. He's a great guy. I didn't have a lot of interaction with him before I left, but what little I did have was pretty positive. I hope he'll turn out to be just what the Empire needs." He sighed and shrugged back, then glanced back at her as she spoke of things with Cala. He shrugged, smiling weakly.

"First off, I'm not a Heru anymore. I'm just a commoner. And second, everything's...alright. Not great, but not terrible. I mean, she obviously wasn't happy with your return and with my being so welcome of it, mostly due to that potshot in the Herald-" his eyes glimmered with humor, showing Alicia he didn't take it personally, "-but, even before that...something was going on." He quieted for a long moment, curious on how to describe it. "It's like there's something she knows that I don't...something she's keeping from me. For some reason, she's put some distance between myself and her and I don't really understand why. I was about to the point where I was going to ask what was going on, but then you came home with news you were dying. That kind of took precedence." He chuckled at the fact, shrugging mildly.

"I suppose I'll give her a few cycles to get used to being the Lady Gil'dae, and then once she's settled in a bit after a month or two I'll swing by and see how she's doing...maybe get a few answers as to why she's being so obstinant about avoiding me lately." He shrugged, showing it wasn't the first time the two had dealt with differences, and smiled slightly.

"As for us..." he began with a grin, "...what do you feel like doing this brightening?" He didn't mention the last time they'd been in Diana before they'd moved here. There had been quite a strange occurance with a rather odd minotaur abducting her, but that too was long in the past.

In reality, Cala hadn't been responsible for their break up so much as just a catalyst for the confusion that for some time had reigned in Motito's life. Everything had been crazy for him ever since Eri had left, and he'd not had a chance to sit down and sort himself out. Their time apart had given him the chance to do just that, and in doing so, Both the titles he wore began to weigh heavily on him, especially considering he began to endure attacks for his work with both. Now that both were off his shoulders, however, he was feeling better then she could possibly imagine. He hadn't been this free since...well...since his father had died and he'd gone to Prime to join the military, really. Patterns upon patterns of past finally came to a crescendo, allowing him to live comfortably and with quite the series of experiences under his belt.

As much as he was loathe to admit it, he now felt a certain appeal in the way of life Aderyn had chosen for himself, and understood it completely. Motito wanted little to do with power any sort of political power, elven or otherwise...and he would be quite happy if it did not seek him out...and he would no longer do so in kind, as he once had.

[Alicia Elsdragon]

A lazy brightening listening to her love speak was something that she could quite happily live with, and she lay there lost in his words, and his voice. The situation with Calariel was surprising to her, although she rather supposed that if she'd thought about it she should have expected it, but nonetheless, Alicia was rather surprised that Cala had taken her "potshot" as Motito put it quite so personally, but then she considered that she didn't really know the young woman. As she remembered said article, however she had the good grace to flush slightly and looked at him contritely as he continued.

"What do I feel like doing with this brightening? Oh, there are a thousand possibilities, I suppose. I could lay here all brightening and listen to you talk quite happily, but I think that the children will have something to say about that, frankly" she smiled slightly, her eyes taking on the expression that they always did when she talked about her children "I certainly do not want to find myself in a strange place with a large minotaur who thinks I'm his play thing, that's for sure" she smiled gently and shrugged her shoulders lightly "I think I'd like to eat something light and then? Well, I really don't know, my love, whatever takes your fancy, really"

Alicia smiled as she realised that there had been a time that she would have had to have plans for the brightening, would have had questions to ask about their future and would have needed to "have a talk". That was no longer the case and she felt a sense of contentment well up inside her at that realisation. She knew that at some point questions would come about the future, but they would come in their own time and space, and right now they were here and they were together. She had no need of anything else, and that was something rather rare in the young Syl'rosyan's life.

[Motito Gil'dae]

It wasn't that Cala had taken the potshot personally, so much as felt that Alicia's lack of backing for her House and her Lord, despite their tiff, was unbecoming, rude, and insulting to the respect of both the House and Tito as a person. Alas, Cala did not truly understand the fight they'd had, nor did she understand, the elf suspected, what it meant to really be in love. Because, just as she'd said, try as he could, he couldn't hate or even be mad at Alicia for what she'd done and said. They didn't expound on the topic, however, and it the conversation moved on to the next. He grinned at her words and lifted a brow, amused that she remembered the escapde as he did.

"Are you sure?" he replied with a smirk, "Because I know how to find a certain minotaur who'd love to have you for his play thing." He grinned, tickling her lightly, "But then, I suppose I'd prefer for you to be my play thing." He tickled her more ferociously as he leaned in to kiss her, and his kiss surprised even himself at its ferocity.

He too was enjoying not having a plan. He was enjoying simply being with her and not having to worry about the future or anything else except simply enjoying the company of Alicia and the twins. As for what to do with the brightening...surprisingly the platinum-haired elf didn't know, nor did he care. 'whatever took his fancy' could just as easily be a brightening out at a park as a brightening spent at home. That decision would come later, though. For now he was simply enjoying the taste of her.