It's a Seeker's Game

The brute’s features froze as the sadness in her voice reached his ears, eyes searching hers as he recognized something. He did not like the sound of sorrow in her melodious tones. But what she said struck him. What did he believe he deserved? As a Saxe, the answers were power and bloodshed. As Caedes? He only knew he wanted her. "Pain," He mused with a grim smirk, crafting his reply as he studied her face. "Is but one facet of life. And while it may hold a certain allure, it is not all that I desire, nor all that I believe I deserve." His words were a confession, even to himself, as he shared a small glimpse into his soul that he rarely allowed others to see. It was not something the brute did. But with her? Naturally.

As Mariah demanded his honesty, Caedes felt a surge of relief coursing through him. He hadn’t realized how… closely he had been clinging onto her every word until now, anticipating her acceptance or rejection of him. The ferocity of her gaze, the resolve – it threatened to consume him. He wanted to let it. "You have it," He rumbled out, his voice thick with desperate emotion that was strange to hear from himself. But he pressed on anyway, unwilling to lose the glimmer of hope her words had planted. "My honesty, my truth, laid bare – for you." Caedes’s spoke lowly, features softening as he assured her, intensity burning in his gaze. A mix of passion and tenacity, all in one heavily scarred package. At her words of caution and fear, the brute only listened. This devilish woman, how she tempted him even with her cutting words. It came easily, the reverence that settled over his features, watching as every word left her lips. Memorizing each movement so that even if he were deaf and mute he would know what she was saying.

It was after his kisses, his whispered proclamations that she spoke again. He shuddered as her voice caressed his mind, drugged by the sensation of her breath against his ear. His own breathing seemed to stop as Mariah's words washed over him like a tidal wave, each syllable carrying the weight of her resolve. Her challenge. He itched as she stood her ground against him, and he knew she would take nothing else - nothing less than his entire soul. She was a tempest, a force of nature unto herself, and he was drawn to her with a ferocity that defied reason. Again, she had robbed him of his sanity. He had the proof in the way her body could push and pull him, that hulking framework instantly adapting to obey – indeed like waves on the beach. Her words echoed in his mind for a moment or two, a tantalizing invitation to the obsidian beast. It was earth shattering, hearing her promise. Her plans for him, for them. "The storm, the tempest, is yet another thing I crave." Caedes murmured, voice tinged with longing, drawn out of him so exquisitely in the way only she was seemingly capable of. "So have me." The words were a declaration of devotion, leaving nothing to doubt. He couldn’t have sounded uncertain even if he tried. In fact, he sounded as utterly transfixed as he felt.

As Mariah revealed the intricacies of her family's beliefs, Caedes listened intently, his curiosity piqued by the glimpse into her world. He wanted more of her, her life, her past, her present, her future.  "Loyalty," He repeated, his voice heavy with understanding. "As it happens, is all I know." The brute grinned, a wicked thing playing on his lips as he mulled over her words of ancestors and spirits. Her family had no gods, nothing to worship – ah, but she seemed… to have a slight detachment. He wanted to ask her why, but he chose to be a very good, quiet, attentive student as she explained her heritage. The importance was clear, her family meant everything to her.