ᴀꜱʜᴇɴ ꜰʟᴏᴡᴇʀ || ᴘᴀꜱꜱɪᴏɴ & ᴅᴇᴠ

Devils Temptation · Oct 6, 2024

Land of Flowers

Here, the earth breathes softly,
its skin covered in a living tapestry of color.
Each blossom opens like a whispered secret,
revealing its heart to the sky.

The air is thick with the scent of life,
wild and unashamed,
and the wind moves gently,
as if careful not to disturb the fragile beauty.

In this place, time forgets to move.
The petals fall slowly,
not as endings, but as beginnings—
a cycle of quiet rebirth.

This is a land where sorrow cannot root,
where even the stones are cradled
by the soft embrace of green,
and all that blooms, blooms forever.

Ash, blood, and the sounds of pleading screams. There were few hallmarks as potent in war as the scent of death. Oftentimes, that stench and noise clung so tightly to the survivors that it followed their every movement and thought until their very last dying days. Unfortunately, that was hardly the worst aspect of it all. Those who perished in a battle were oftentimes the lucky ones. Those that remained? Soldiers that lived were a commodity. Refined gradually through one Hell-like battle after another... each and every single one culling off more and more. Some might have described it as a blessing to make it from one battle to the next, others would refer to it as a curse. Everyone that fell lingered somewhat on the people who remained. Every ally, every family member, every life taken hung on like a ghoul to the backs of those who treaded onto the next day. With everyone single departed, that weight only grew heavier and more bitter.

That desire for revenge only grew stronger.

The hatred only seemed to seethe more, as if everyone taken had collectively aimed their grievances into the remaining few that survived.

If he closed his eyes, he could remember them. Those flowers. Clouds above like pure wisps of sugary floss. Brisk, chilled that slipped into his lungs like a fresh sip of cold water on a hot day. If he kept his eyes closed for too long, that sight was inevitably replaced by the sight of something else -

-

Ash, blood, and the sounds of pleading screams.

"You must understand, don't you?! Just like with us, that foul bitch stole everything that was precious to us! You must have been a good man once, you must have seen what the Empire leaves in its fucking warpath!" Pleading words from a hoarse throat, the palm of an older man clenching the chest plate atop himself. Numerous scarring had woven down the entirety of his facial features, a carve to his lip, a nick to his ear... an eyepatch lingering over his left eye likely after being lost in battle. Saddled against the right half of his chest were numerous medals and honorable accolades from his time in battle, but in that moment he had been steadily tearing them off one by one. Each and every single one was cast onto the ground with another thrust.

Each one at the foot of those black greaves that stood right in front of him. Torn and shattered apart. Stomped furiously as if every shove of his heel would smother the actions that had awarded him those medals in the first place. Pleadingly, he wrapped his hands together and lowered his forehead to the younger raven-haired knight in front of him.

"Why are you throwing all your awards onto the ground? They're the evidence that your loyalty belongs to the Empire. In this world, where the Empire is the one faction that rises above all... you're casting away everything that gives you value." Calmly, with a tone like pure ice, the younger man knelt and picked up the stomped down medals. Five of them that had been torn off the side of the older soldier's jacket. Nestling them into his grip like a delicate bouquet of flowers, he shoved one back onto the man's chest.

"Battle of Nightfall Creek. You bravely lead your cavalry amongst a larger force of infantry and completely eradicated every man in the platoon. To the point that the entirety of that tribal nation's population collapsed and was assimilated over night." One instance of genocide. Not too unusual, for the Empire's tactics. Feeling through the other medals, he picked up another and smashed it next to the first - right back on top of the knight's chest.

"The Siege of Kyraust. For fourteen days and fourteen nights, you sat valiantly at the gates of the fortress city and starved out every man, woman, and child within those walls until - by the end of the siege - the city you entered was so famished and broken that you could count the number of families that survived could be counted on one hand." Smudged the medal with his thumb, he moved to a ribbon next... preparing to award it back to the night once again before his wrist was clenched.

"Please... you know. You know why it had to be done. I live with those mistakes every day of my life... I have had enough. We need to stop the destruction - the loss of life. Somewhere, deep down, you know that too! Do you remember?!" One more plead to the younger knight's sensibilities... a tremor of happiness flickering along the older man's expression when he saw the knight's eyes flutter close and that faint hint of stress to clench against his jawline in a look that was equal parts pensive as it was introspective. Yes. He understood it well... the Empire was the strongest of all the nations on the continent. Spearheaded by an Empress with ultimate control and power over the whole of her empire, they operated through a system of warfare and assimilation. Neighbors and borders were constantly being raided and overtaken. Those who survived the bloodshed were given a place in the Empire - after all, it was a society that put strength above all else.

Former royalty. Generals. Anyone who could have even an ounce of value to the Empire was inevitably assimilated into their territory and their political system. They were given a place in the machine that continued to devour and take in all of those around them who were too weak to defend themselves. He was no different. The former prince of a small, mostly passive nation in the North - a place known for its flowers and a holy site for many. The type of country that one would have never expected to be raided and razed. He remembered it clear as day, when the first regiment of cavalry trampled past those meadows and set one of his villages aflame. The first of many. No amount of pleading or diplomacy would have absolved them - the Empire needed complete control of that small little nation in order to solidify a glaring hole within their borders... and so? They killed everyone that had once been in charge, they left no one but those that could be incorporated.

Out of the nearly fifty-thousand that had been living in the Principality of Floara, one hundred and fifty people survived.

Out of those one hundred and fifty who survived, one hundred and thirty were enslaved.

Nineteen were conscripted into the Empire's army.

One had been given a place among the generals of that Empire.

Prince Tyre Floara VII

A young man that had risen staggeringly quickly amongst the ranks of the Empire as a genius tactician and a fearsome general in war - capable of employing both brutal and courageous tactics while also handling himself with grace and eloquence. Soft spoken at the right times but strong and firm in the others.

When his gaze fluttered open once more, a bittersweet look lingered in his inky black eyes while his gaze remained cast down to the remaining medals on the ground. "You asked me if I remember... I do. Every time I close my eyes, I remember." Solemn, soft words that dripped a sense of understanding at the man's plight. ...And, for just a few moments, there was such an overwhelming look of relief atop the man's expression until the sudden --

CRUNCH.
SPLATTER.
SMACK.

One smooth draw of the sword at his hip, drawing one slice vertically along the man's neck to cut straight through his throat and decapitate him cleanly. A faint splash of blood danced along the tip of that blackened blade to dust Tyre's right cheek and before the head had fully rolled atop the ground, he would catch it by the hair to hold it in front of himself all while that splatter of blood wasted all over the discarded medals below.

"It is precisely because I remember that injustice that I cannot let a sloppy rodent like you get in the way. Do you understand that? You and I are not the same. You lost the moment you tried to strike at the pillars supporting this Empire." Dropping the head atop that fallen body, Tyre would let out an all too gentle laugh for how brutally he had offed the man beneath him.

"There is only one thing that you should've struck. Her Highness, the Empress." That was the only damage that would do anything worthwhile. Swiping his blade off to the side, he let a slick arc of blood splatter onto the ground off his weapon before he sheathed the sword and turned around with one flourish of his cape to make his way out of the barracks where the two had been speaking to one another. It was a simple, poorly thought out plot from one of the more senior generals to recruit Tyre into a coup to overthrow the Empress.

One that failed miserably because of how laughably sloppy it was...

Seemingly from the loyalty of one of her subjects.

But...

That could not be further from the truth.

Tyre would not bother to report this incident to the Empress, however. Something so insignificant was not ultimately worth her time, he had deemed. Indeed, there were countless attempts at rebellion from within the Empire that assimilated all those that it had once declared war on and crushed beneath its boot. In that sea of those who it took under its mantle, there were many who wished to enact revenge. The larger the Empire grew, the more unstable it became. The more common these attempts had become.

Every day was another attempt to overthrow the Empire and the powers that sat atop the throne...

Every day was another failure.

They were sloppy. Their resolve was not ironclad enough. He would show them what it really meant to overthrow an Empire.

There were many pitiful attempts that oftentimes missed the ears of the Empress, but the one Tyre thwarted a few days prior was too momentous to not be heard of, whether through advisors or through traveling gossip - he would've inevitably been summoned to the royal capital to explain why he had kept secret his merciless execution of a senior general. The Royal Capital was a bastion of a city, built atop such profound hordes of gold and riches that some described it as the cradle of Heaven. No less was expected of the one woman who forged the entirety of the Empire, who ensured that all those riches - all that power - all the talent would funnel back into that one city that sat at the very center of the empire.

Tyre had arrived immediately upon being sent the letter demanding his audience to the Empress. Fresh-dressed in similarly dark colors, not a single blemish or hint of mess anywhere along his faintly pale features. Nor was there any type of concern on his expression. Keeping such information from his superior officers, in itself, could have been seen as treason. That he merely killed an accomplice that had gotten too sloppy. Treason was met swiftly with execution. In spite of it all? He merely lifted his index finer within the handle of that tea cup, bringing it to his lips for another leisurely sip until an attendant entered the waiting lounge and gave him a brief salute before announcing firmly.

"The Empress will see you now. Please leave any weapons within the lounge. They will be handled delicately and given to you upon your return!" To which Tyre had grasped the sash holding his sword to his hip and lifted it high enough to sling his arm underneath it and settle it down atop the table. With that, he followed the attendant as he was lead through those massive halls. Past several lines of infantry and numerous royal guards... and then finally brought to the towering red gates of her Highness' throne room.

He had seen those gates only once before. One mere week after his country had been razed to charcoal. When he was forced to meet the Empress' summons and she immediately took him within her army and her country... a night that replayed in his head time and time again. Silently, he treaded towards those gates to push them open with one hand and proceed into the throne room. Exactly five steps. No more, no less, before he settled into a kneel atop that red carpet and in front of the throne.

"My Empress. You have called and I have answered. Please allow me to apologize for keeping the execution of General Garm from you - I wished to lessen your work by keeping the squashing of an insignificant bug from your attention." Holding his head low, he kept his fist on the carpet and kept his other arm folded behind his back - not daring to raise his head to her. "I will accept any punishment you deem fit for my actions." Insignificant. To describe the killing of one of the most affluent and powerful generals of the Empire insignificant was nothing short of amusing. Yet, he had always been like that. No matter what problem she may have had - no matter how overwhelming or how soul-crushing it felt to resolve... he always remained in her shadows and swept it all up. Every single time.

Even this coup was no different. All of it was resolved before she even had a chance to lose a single second of sleep to the thought of it...

Passion · Dec 10, 2024

It was baffling; she couldn't get herself to stop crying. Shameful. Weak. A lack of control. At one point she growled in deep frustration at her sea of emotions. "Augh!!!!" She didn't know what to do with these feelings, nor did she understand them as she closed off many facets of herself. She did not shed a tear when her army set innocent villages ablaze. She didn't think twice about killing off some of her most loyal and long-running advisors even after rather mild misunderstandings. She refused to get attached to anyone, as all she ever knew was betrayal and a lack of love. That was reflected in her cruel rule. She struggled to trust and grew used to the fear and bitterness that surrounded her.

He told her to hold her tongue, and she did end up hiding her face in his chest. Veah continued to cry, and so she kept her face buried against his chest to hide away when usually she was beaming with confidence; she didn't want another soul seeing her in such a state. It was only for him to see.

She was brought up to her chambers, which was an isolated room on the very top of the eastern tower. It was not where the original royal bedroom was, but she had it moved to be further away from everyone in the castle. It was for her safety, but it also fit Veah's closed-off nature.

If Tyre was in his right mind, after tucking her in, he would have run for his life. To take advantage of her exhaustion and make a run for it, but he would instead prove his bravery and loyalty to her by promising to stay. After being left for dead before her innocent hands even spilled a drop of crimson blood, she expected people to leave even when she needed them the most. Her bitter view of the world and others turned her into the monster that she was today, but as she tried to piece herself back together, it could be seen that Veah was not born evil; she was simply a cursed woman who had nothing but her own demons to rely on.

At that moment, not even she knew how she would wake up. Her ears were still ringing when he said her titleless name. She was being seen as the woman she was, not for the crown she wore. It made her feel naked beyond her flesh.

He is a threat, my child.
He knows how to break and melt ice.
My coldness protects you in a way promises and shields cannot.
Xemva is the only one you can trust.
You must kill him.

The voice ringing in her mind made her claw at one of her cheeks. It was far too dangerous for her to be undone like this.

"Stay… or I'm alone in the chaos you surfaced and Xemva's voice." She rarely talked about Xemva beyond being her being the only god the empire would serve and worship. No one quite understood her connection to the dark god, as she did not speak about it often.

It was a mystery what goals and intentions Xemva had with Veah beyond spreading death and misery in exchange for making Veah the most powerful woman known. While there were a lot of unknowns, it was that often cold and malicious aura she had that was enough proof of her connection; she was supernatural, and she was to be feared.

Despite her alignment with the dark goddess, she would give Tyre a warning. "She wants me to kill you." To kill the only one who managed to put a crack in her barrier.

However, Tyre was a man without fear. With a tender kiss and caress, he tucked in the overwhelmed and exhausted empress for the night. Sleep was for the best as she was running off of drunken fumes.

A New Day

With the sunlight and a familiar voice, the empress' eyes would flutter open. She would spend a few long seconds piecing together how she got here and why he was in her room. "It's like that on purpose…," she sleepily whispered regarding her isolating room and the lack of warmth it had. Part of the reason why it felt so empty was the fact the empress didn't spend much time in her room. She hardly slept or even rested, always planning her next battle and listening to endless reports on her army and the lands she had conquered.

Sitting up slowly, she looked down at her torn dress before looking at the man who caused it sitting on the windowsill. Just seeing him then threw her mind into chaos. Anger, yearning, curiosity, an attraction that she couldn't help, and so on… What was she to do? Why was it even a fucking question? She attempted to brush back her hair with her fingertips, only for them to get caught in a few loose knots more than likely caused by how he grabbed her by the hair the night before and the deep slumber he lulled her into.

Her eyes narrowed on his form as he kneeled before her bed. Showing respect that he had lost the night before, but it would be short-lived. He would find his feet once more and dare to touch the woman of many nightmares. The warmth he had gifted her had been stolen away, and he would find that her coldness was back, emitting from her like crisp night air.

Reaching up, her fingertips trailed up his forearm to his wrist, which she would abruptly squeeze. "First of all... do NOT call me Veah without a title attached." She was proud of her accomplishments; she had already said she refused to be seen as a normal woman. But there was more to it. "The only people who called me Veah were my parents and my siblings." They were literally dead to her in every way possible. With the only people who called her Veah being those she was born to love who deeply betrayed her, she struggled to hear her own name. Could that change over time? Maybe if she ever learned to let go of the bitterness that caused her to stain streets red.

"Next, you aren't to dare speak to others about my tears." She wouldn't say anything else about it. She was still baffled and embarrassed that he had even made her shed a tear. It was WEAK to cry, and the empress wouldn't believe she was WEAK.

"Moving on…," her voice lingered; clearly she was still tired, but she was already handling this personal affair as business. "You have offered now multiple times to give me anything I want. I can already get whatever I want. I have so much land, riches, resources, and power. My empire grows by the day, and you speak as if one man alone, you, could move a mountain for me." He could provide aid with icy terrain and as a general, but that was minor in the grand scheme of things.

"I've grown to admire your bravery, but you have to see things from my point of view. You should at least be exiled." The grip on his wrist lessened. "At this point, I question why I have not acted against you more than I question your disrespectful actions." As an empress, she couldn't support the behavior, but she seemed to like it enough that he kept getting away with it with little correction; he was her spice in her dull castle.

"So, I have to think. What is it that I want? Why have I not killed you myself?" Both of them wanted to kill each other and… hadn't. Veah was unaware of how much loathing the general carried for her, but he had plenty of opportunities, and Veah also had plenty of reasons. "You had told me you wanted to get to know me as the woman I am, and not just your empress, which I feel is foolish, as it is little different than getting to know a corpse, but I think that is the direction that you could offer me something."

Her hand slid back up his arm, smoothing its way to his shoulder, up the side of his neck, before settling on to his face. Her touch felt like a lover's as she tapped into the attraction that she had for him. "I'm attracted to the power you have inside of you. I see it, I feel it."

She took a subtle but sharp inhale, feeling a spark just thinking about it. "I usually don't mingle with any of my soldiers or any men who have valiant traits, as they come with risk, but… now that I had a taste of one… and how you can make me melt just enough to make me feel warmth…" Her statement lingered, only for her to cut herself off.

Last night replayed in her mind:
I refuse to lose this heat. I want to bathe in flames.

"...Or was it just the nectar talking?"

Curious to find out, she guided his face to level with hers so she could kiss him. While the kiss wasn't overly steamy, it was deep. While lip-locked and not under the influence, she was searching for a spark that would bring her clarity when in reality, it would bring her more obscurity.

Devils Temptation · Dec 10, 2024

There was no point in speaking. Even if she were to rake her nails down his flesh, there was hardly anything more than a muted response. Tyre's eyes wandered along the length of her milky, pale figure absentmindedly. Such a shame. She had a lovely name and yet hated to use it. Names were important, particularly in his culture. Whatever she so strictly demanded, he would just passively accept with a single, lukewarm nod. Almost as if he had not even accepted what she was saying. It would not be the last time he used her name. Nor would it be the last time that he would continue to promise her everything. There was so much still remaining to tempt her with, but at the core of it all... he was a soldier. Those fantasies she possessed of power and grandeur, she seemed mistaken in the notion that he was merely assuring her of trifling, empty words. No. He was coaxing her constantly to send him onto the battlefield to prove himself. His track record had already assured the Empress that he was a skilled general...

The only thing remaining was to give him a proper stage. A proper battle. A proper conquest to shatter and crush even when the odds were against him.

He was not like the others. That raw craving for power, it was demonic how strongly it radiated in them both.

What is it that I want? Why have I not killed you myself?

Pure amusement spread across his feature, smirk stretching at the sharper jawline as soon as he leaned closer in to lock eyes with the woman. "You are welcome to end me whenever you please. You know that well. Genuinely, my Empress... I wish you luck. The more time you take -" A grasp of his hand over her jaw, caressing it in nice, slow, leisurely drags of the tip of his thumb. If only she knew just how true those words could have been for her. "-the harder it will become for you. The more I will adore you. And the more obvious the answer to this question will become..." Why? Why was he not dead? If she searched a little deeper, maybe she would have already come to realize how messy her attraction to him had become... the full width and range of low-simmer adoration that had begun to build between the two of them.

It was too messy.

It would be her undoing.

I usually don't mingle with any of my soldiers or any men who have valiant traits...
but… now that I have a taste of one…

Something in him told him to keep away from that kiss she was clearly guiding him into. That curious gaze of hers that wished to peel back more layers about him. To keep his distance, to seduce her with more riches and territory... there was no reason to go for her body, or the pleasure she could offer him, or to lay with the enemy he so deeply despised. But - far stronger than the rationality was the overwhelming storm of emotions he felt whenever he was with her. As if his heart was going to explode at any given moment with a mixture of attraction and pure disgust. And, so, though she had initiated the kiss? Very quickly, it slipped between her fingers. Grabbing at her jaw and chin firmly, he tilted her head back and buried his mouth against her own with a much firmer embrace of their mouths. Certainly not the same spark as when she had the nectar... everything felt a little more dull.

Only if he had left it right there, of course.

Soft, firm squeezes of her neck would guide her to roll her mouth against his own in eager little locks of their lips. Any time she would dare to even try and pull away, the harsh catch of his teeth on her lower lip would pull her back into the kiss. Back and forth, until their lungs started to ache and their lips started to grow a little more red and raw from the intimacy. Tyre did not ask for permission. He took what was his. And so with one more nip of her lower lip, she would find his taste buried into her mouth all over again. Laps of his warm, wet tongue while the two exchanged a much deeper passion than anyone would have been allowed to with her.

Concubines could kiss.

But it was always, always for sexual satisfaction. To worship her like a Goddess. To pay attention to every inch of her body.

The way he kissed?

It felt like he was breaking, pounding into her mind that she belonged to him. That her lips were his. That he could kiss her and take her however, whenever he so wished. That was not a kiss of a man whose sole intent was to arouse her. That was the kiss of a man who sought to dominate every last thought into her mind until the only thing she could do was melt against his body. Low pants and heaves of breath along her lips would have him finally pulling away. Throughout the kissing, his eyes had grown narrowed and hooded, glaring upon her with such intense bedroom eyes.

When was the last time anyone looked at her like that...?

Equal parts terrifying, as it would've been stimulating. Tyre had no intention of just leaving her at a pretty face. His attraction to her was far more vile and warped, far more intense than an ordinary man could achieve solely because of what she and her filthy Empire had done to him.

"Stop talking like I give a damn about your threats. Don't make me fucking laugh..." Forehead to forehead, the intensity of his glare shimmered with utterly turbulent emotions - hand remaining on her thigh to ensure they were as close to one another as he could manage. "...your tears? They're only for me. I'll fucking kill anyone who takes that from me. You shared them with me. They are mine. Your name? Fine. I will concede to not call you that... but do not compare me to that family of yours. The depth of my feelings runs far deeper than theirs ever could or ever will." Not in the way she might've hoped either, but it was easy to fall into his false promise of such strong, vivid emotions. His rage, his anger at her - it was far stronger and far more superior to the pathetic, squealing way her family was dispatched upon trying to end her life.

"I can give you whatever you wish. The only thing remaining is your own reluctance, my Empress. Put me to work. Give me a task that cannot be accomplished. I am happy to show you." Heat pulsed at his temple. Every day of his life was a struggle, to fight a battle that he was constantly on the verge of losing. What was a few more 'impossible' tasks. If she wanted him to clear a mountain to allow him close enough to cleave her head from her shoulders... then so be it. If he failed , it merely meant that his revenge and his rage was not strong enough.

It is little different than getting to know a corpse

The memory of those words would make him finally falter. Expression momentarily falling downcast. They had so much in common, despite sitting so opposite one another in life. He, too, was nothing more than a husk. What would his comrades have thought when seeing him? Tyre stood for nothing, stopped at nothing. He merely marched forward endlessly. "You are something to me, Veah... I will tell you that as many times as I wish. You and I, we have more in common than you could ever dare to know. And, even after all that has transpired and all that I have gone through for this -" A hand drew back to the counter to pick up the one item he had left on it. A single, white Everwinter Blossom. No nectar to extract from it and it had long since been deceased. Reaching back towards her, he tucked the white flower behind her ear.

"-I still cannot help but think, if given the opportunity, I would make you feel the same intensity every... single... time." One last kiss against her forehead, hair parted and with that he drew back entirely. The warmth that lingered between them was slowly starting to fade. Melting away into an icier, unpleasant chill. Not just for her - but for him as well. Very quickly, he had started to realize just how much he savored the warmth he created with her.

How fucking dangerous...

Falling to a proper kneel, this time, in front of her door - he would press his fist down on the ground and wrapped his hand behind his back. "Is there anything else I may do for you, my Empress?" He had to leave soon. She knew that as well. Whispers would start to circulate in her court that she had begun to grow favor with a man. Even more so, Tyre needed a long, warm bath to cleanse his mind of all of this. Of the thought of her, of how she was mingling with his vendetta to create something far more sick.

He needed to separate from her.

Passion · Dec 14, 2024

Her lips were sweet; after all, poison wasn't always bitter.

They indulged in a kiss that both of them desperately wished to hate. She was the woman who burned his origins and the life he built in the North to the ground, and he could brave through some of the coldest terrains, even her icy defenses that risked a vulnerability that she couldn't afford. There was no time for personal pleasures beyond a bottle of wine every now and again; she had a world to conquer, but Tyre was becoming one of those foreign luxuries she struggled to reject. It was what was keeping him alive, but it was also wrapping him in the web of the one he hated most.

While the kiss was meant to be a fleeting experiment, her general took control of the kiss, deepening it until they both felt the embers of warmth. A small fire that reminded the icy souls that they were still alive, they still could burn with life. If it was out of greed, lust, or hate, they were both not merely corpses as much as the cruelty of the world had made them feel such a way. They had found vitality in each other, which was a nightmare to be tangled in.

She placed a hand on his wrist as if she was going to rip it away with her hand, but her hand twitched against his as the sensations he gave her were too delightful to halt. The empress didn't want to control that kiss at that moment; it felt so surreal to give in to the feelings and warmth fluttering in her, all these wonderful and foreign sensations that he alone gave to her. She couldn't help but whimper during the kiss, her nails lightly clawing into the back of his hand as the impact he made on her resonated throughout her icy inner fortress.

No man had ever made her feel this way before, although part of the reason was that she never allowed it; Tyre didn't give her a choice. He would make his point by deepening the kiss, his tongue finding hers to kiss her with depths and passion that her concubines would never. While she was a fairly experienced woman, he made her feel like she had been untouched until now. The kiss was piercing, blaring out thoughts in her mind, and made a hefty dent in her defenses. A clueless yet impulsive part of her wanted to get lost in this, to allow him to stain and shape every thought of hers. To forget everything but this kindling passion.

When the kiss broke, she snapped back into reality. It felt like a splash of cold water. It was no wonder why Xemva advised that she kill him. He was a threat, a bigger one than she wanted to admit. Of how protective she was, it baffled her that she wanted to explore more than she wanted to extinguish. It was as if a spell had been put upon her, but... she wasn't dealing with a wizard, now was she?

They lingered close after the kiss broke, and Tyre spoke boldly as he always did. As much as his blunt words made her want to murder him, they made her long for him more. He was confident enough to claim both her and her unheard-of tears. His possessiveness mixed with a hint of a willingness to protect her, to protect what he had 'claimed' as his own. She was still unaware of how many bitter feelings he carried for her, but he was able to successfully tap into his intensity to coax the mystified empress into believing in his strong feelings.

He agreed not to say her name without a title, but he would soon fail to do so. Hearing her name made her tense, yet she did not interrupt when he spoke of her worth to him. He would gift her with another flower, tucking it in her light hair, giving her an innocent look to the woman whose hands were dyed crimson countless times. Perhaps she had a lot in common with the Everwinters.

"We will have to see, now will we?"

She would allude to the idea that there would be another opportunity to test his theory regarding intensity in the future. He opened the can of worms of sleeping with the enemy, while Veah unknowingly was risking becoming deeply compromised. Still, he breathed forgotten life into the cold woman; she couldn't ignore that fact.

He would back away, and the space between them would feel like an unwelcomed void. However, even the empress knew it was for the best. These feelings needed to simmer down, even better if they died, but deep down, they both knew it wouldn't be that easy.

She would get to her feet, watching him fall into the socially proper position, kneeling before her. This was the first time it felt strange to have someone kneeling. She couldn't put her finger on why, but the truth is she had never had anyone successfully steal some form of control from her. Also, it had been the first and probably the last time someone was brave enough to claim her, her thoughts, and her tears.

"You have been itching to prove yourself or make some kind of difference for the empire, and so I will grant you that wish." There was a pause as she considered the situation. "I am sure you know of the rebel group called The Shattered Oaths." It was a known group that was against the empress. A group that no matter how many times she squashed, kept coming back like cockroaches. Originally, they started in the western nation of Olyth, survivors of one of the first massive crimson waves the empress issued upon innocent lands. It was far away from the hub of the empire that the survivors were able to gather each other and resources from under the Red Army's nose to become quite a threat when they were in the shadows. It was unknown how strong they were or what their plans were. The empress was best at conquering massive battlefields but did struggle with the rats and roaches that existed in her empire.

"I heard some of them are right here in Caldara." The capital city was massive. They could be anywhere, but there were reports of whispers of them in taverns, often wearing midnight blue cloaks. "They have been spotted, and we captured a few, but they won't talk." Her eyes narrowed at the thought. "I want them dragged out of hiding and dealt with. I can't tell you if there are 5 of them or 50, but you can do just about anything for me, right?" It would be hard to double-check his work if all were removed, but surely, he could leave a blunt enough message to the rebel group that they would not be tolerated, couldn't he?

Devils Temptation · Dec 17, 2024

I am sure you know of the rebel group called The Shattered Oaths.
I want them dragged out of hiding and dealt with. I can't tell you if there are 5 of them or 50, but you can do just about anything for me, right?

Perhaps in her head, she had already resolved that a mere general - a man raised and born into royalty would not have the capacity or nature to infiltrate and root out rebels... but that was where the mistake started and ended. There was no one who understood despising the Empire more than he had. Rising to his full height without being prompted, Tyre would stare straight into Veah's eyes. "I want my prize when I finish my task. And I do not mean reputation, wealth, or power. I will have you when - when I return. Not if." Momentarily, that gaze would linger onto her own. There was no need to be explicit about what his 'prize' was. She knew it was well as he had. Turning away, he cast one last glare over his shoulder along with a final command - one final reminder of the sort of power he had so fleetingly held over her. "Keep me in your thoughts. Take care, Empress." Spoken not as some sort of parting prayer, nor as some sort of sweet love letter. He spoke it as if it were a command that she could not... would not forget about him while he was gone.

Just like that, she was left alone in her room. No longer in the presence of his voice, or his warmth, or that corruptive way he stole control from her. Once again, they were alone. How ironic, had it been, that the man who had everything torn from him and the woman who tore everything from herself in pursuit of power would find solace in each other's presence. Maybe it would be better if he had failed on that quest. Nothing more than a passing memory, a foolish little flicker of love that would be mercilessly crushed underfoot.

Soldiers, generals, citizens. They were like pawns on a chess board for someone like the Empress. Every detail down to how many breaths they took in a day was something she could observe through her network of spies... but not when it came to Tyre. Surveillance upon him produced the same results, that he had left the palace that day - ventured into the capital city and was never again spotted. Seemingly, he had left out of his official attire, blending into the community as a mere citizen. No different than the various others that had composed the Empire. There was no one 'look' to the monster that was the Nyxoria Empire. They consumed and devoured countries to the point that not one single individual looked quite the same as the next. Picking out a man like him in the crowd, subsequently, had been a nightmare in its own right. It was just as she had assumed. The capital was utterly massive and he had gone to a place even she could not reach.

Even if that thought might've grated on her horribly, it was necessary. The same reason those people were a thorn in her side was the same reason she could no longer have her hand grasped around Tyre - they hid in the cracks, in places even her influence had trouble reaching.

"They tell me that this is a mistake, general. Do you know why it is that I chose to do this anyways?" A metal cup had been pushed up towards the cloaked Tyre, cool amber liquid filled to the brim. He would wrap a hand around the cup, raising it to his lips before taking a moment to take the scent. Alcohol. If it was laced, it was with something he couldn't detect. Sitting across from him had been a similarly young man. Well-dressed with gelled blonde hair. Lacking a tan or any serious scarring over his body would give the impression that he was well-educated or at the very least, the son of someone influential. Hard work seemed to not have passed through him very often.

Taking a sip, Tyre would give a gesture to the man in front of him to allow him to continue speaking. He looked to be a man that enjoyed the sound of his own voice.

"That look in your eyes. How many people do you believe the Empire has in its borders? Far more than any country it could dare to border... the reasons to despise this nation are so readily abundant that it is no surprise organizations like mine, or various others exist. But what distinguishes them from us? Why have we evaded capture? The reason is simple. Our grudges run much deeper than everyone else. You have that look in your eyes. Seemingly empty and calm, but with a rage so strong it could tear this world apart. So - I want to know... and please forgive me." Tapping his fingertip along the table, he leaned in close and 'comfortingly' wrapped his hand over Tyre's own with an assuring squeeze.

"Why do you want to join the Shattered Oath?" A sickening sensation would start to bubble in the general's core. Why? WHY? That was the question everyone always wanted to know and it was always the same. It did not matter what rebels tried to recruit him, it did not matter what their end goal was. Everyone wished to know why. As if that would, for even a moment, change what had come to pass. People sympathized with those that went through something they had... but in Tyre, there was a personal disgust. Every single time, he was forced to tell the same story. Every single time, he was made to cope and pretend as if off-loading it did anything for him. Or perhaps it was just a reminder. Of the anger. The grief. The empty, hollow feeling of knowing there was nothing that could be done again. Taking another sip from the cup, he set it down and took a deep breath...

"I was the prince of a nation once... betrothed to a woman that I could only describe as a ray of sunshine bundled and tucked within a blessing too good for this world... she was a woman that taught me much about myself, about what it means to genuinely adore someone with all your heart. In every way she was..." Beautiful. Someone who did not belong in this world. Someone who was promptly taken out of it without a shred of mercy.

"Oh dear! Should I bow since you are a prince? Will you be mean to me? I'm fragile country dandelion, you know? I'll cry. You wouldn't make a girl cry, would you?"

"Most people don't walk up to a prince and start yapping away like a fool, quite frankly. Seeing as how you lack the shame, I will just let you do as you please."

"Aw, but... you look so lonely out here, just mumbling to your flowers like some sort of little weirdo. But! If you're with me, then it's a date, isn't it? Plus - I love the flowers here too, so why don't we love them together?"

"...You really are shameless. I don't come here because I like flowers. They're an important export of this country so I need to ensure they are maintained. Nothing more, nothing less."

"That's not true! We both know it isn't. You always go to the same types, in the same meadows, of the same colors. What's next? Are you gonna tell me that the color makes twice the money?"

"Stop watching me. It's a nuisance."

"Oh. I wasn't insulting you. I think your choices are wonderful. What do you think, your Highness?"

A small, plucked white blossom nestled behind her left ear and a smile so honey sweet that it made heat flush to his cheeks mere moments after laying eyes on her.

"Do you still think flowers aren't pretty?"

...

This one was the most beautiful, he decided on that day.

"...perfect. I was built to be a political tool myself. In a land without very much power or influence, she was the one that taught me how to live and gave me larger aspirations beyond merely fulfilling some ridiculous, broken duty to further the power of my nation. Things I would never have even thought about, I did with her -"

"When are we going to have a baby together, Tyre? You know I always wanted to be a mother, right?"

"You remind me every day of that fact, Marisol. Either way, families are complicated affairs in royalty. We need to prepare and have you turned into royalty so we can --"

"I don't care about any of that. Besides, they'll always think even with a tiara, that a country sow is just that, a sow in a tiara. I want babies with you. Not so they can do something elaborate like turn into heirs. That'd be nice to give you too. I want to take them to our flower fields. I want to tell them the exact moment their daddy fell in love with me. I want to show them all the love letters he's buried me in. I want to raise them in love. I think they'd be the sweetest, most precious little things in the world. Don't you? So who cares about any of that? Let's make a family already, Tyre."

"...Look. Your introduction into the royal family is basically ensured at this point, sweetheart. Beyond that, we are already trying every night... by the time you show, you'll already be a princess."

"Aw, darling... your ears are doing that thing where they turn red. So cute..."

"You are infuriating in the worst ways, Marisol."

"Oh, hush... you make me the happiest woman in the world, so you can't blame me for wanting to return the favor. I look forward to you tonight, your Highness."

"I love you, Tyre. Think of a name for our baby, please. I want you to name our first."

...

"I love you too, Marisol. I promise to give them a wonderful name."

"- she was my future. Had I not met her, I would have fallen during the invasion of Floara. I fought until my fingernails were bloody, until my sword was chipped and broken - I took down countless of the Empire's men... but it was for absolutely nothing. I wanted to reunite with her one more time. If I was to die, I wanted it to be beside her. More than even that, I had something to tell her. Just one simple thing..." He desperately wished she had heard it... that she had not run off during that final battle. Marisol had put too much trust in him. That he would not lose, nor that he would fail. In moments of pure crisis, where others were giving up and surrendering, she held firm with a love of that nation that rallied so many behind her. If only she knew it put a target on her back. The resistance. The pride imbued into his people... it was the exact reason they were mercilessly genocided in the final invasion - and she? She was made as an example, hung right in the plaza in front of all remaining survivors.

If only he had reached her in time. If only they had run away. If only the Empire did not exist.

This man was right.

TYRE FELT RAGE WELL BEYOND ANYTHING THAT ANY OTHER REBEL WOULD EVEN FATHOM IN THEIR FUCKING LIVES.

If only, IF ONLY he could have told her the name. The first one he wanted to give. IF ONLY he had properly died beside her during that invasion. Something had died. Left behind was the remnants of a cold, merciless soldier - a cold, tactical beast that the Empire struggled so overwhelmingly to take down. It was the only reason he had been spared, put into their employment. His strength was recognized. The one aspect of him that Marisol seemed to not care about or for.

"I am your ally. We are brothers. I have also had family torn from me... this must end. The reign of the Empress leaves a sadistic, cruel warpath. Join us. We have quite a few influential roots in this capital city, just not one in the military. With your backing... we could march on the palace tomorrow, Tyre." He was right. Tyre had an army close enough to stage an insurrection. They obeyed his command, would follow him wherever he so pleased... and with the proper influence from nobility - all the elements clicked into place.

All he needed to do was agree. To turn tail right here.

He could see the fall of the Empress right then and there --

That was not how it had come to pass.

A mere week before news arrived right atop Veah's lap.

Exactly what had been harshly demanded by her had been given to her. A public execution, a dozen ringleaders were slaughtered in plain view of everyone as traitors of the Empire. Noblemen, senators, merchants, clergymen - alongside handfuls of more grunts that were not even given the time of day before being killed on the spot. Effectively, Shattered Oath had been infiltrated and dismantled over a week, even more concerning was just how powerful some of the men and women had been in that organization... clearly a seed waiting to take root to the point it festered so harshly that the Empress herself would have an agonizing time rooting out the corruption. But...

It wasn't Tyre who delivered the news to her.

Advisors spoke of it into her ears, presenting the executions to her and the list compiled by Tyre - along with their involvements in undermining the Empire. All of it was meticulously put together, but there was just one thing missing. Him. After such a blatant, brave proclamation that he would 'claim his prize immediately' after finishing his task - he was nowhere to be found in her throne room. The general had not scheduled a meeting with her, nor had he made his presence known upon entering the palace grounds. Merely, he relayed the news and had someone else deliver it to the Empress.

Had he lost interest in her?

Why was he not coming to take her as he promised?

Had she not been worth even a meeting at this point?

Whatever at that point had been running through her head, there was no one to rectify it. Just her own thoughts. Whatever conclusion she came to, there was only one person who could verify or deny it. Now that he had returned and was stationed in the palace, his every routine could be observed... and one thing seemed to stand out the most. "Empress... he is once again in the gardens. The general has completed his task well, but he looks to be completely unresponsive when not given an order. The other nobility residing in the outer palace have started to complain that his presence is a little unsettling and unwelcome in the royal gardens... shall we give him another order? He has proven himself to be a capable asset that can be put to good work. If you say the word, I shall draft a plan to utilize him in proper." One advisor assured her... but ultimately the final decision was hers.

Absent-minded... contrary to how he usually had been. Sharp-witted and constantly craving the next step of his revenge. It had not been the betrayal of Shattered Oath that had his mind spinning. No. The memory of his beloved had another thought resurfacing to his head, not the bitter - raw sensation in his mouth. A specific thought that flashed in his mind in the most infuriating, disgusting way he could. God, he despised that thought. HE HATED EVEN CONSIDERING IT.

But every time, he would come back to these gardens, to stare at the same white flowers.

Every time, he was reminded of the utterly crippling realization that...

She looked like you when she had that flower in her hair.

Clenching fists had his knuckles turning completely white and in that moment, he wanted nothing more than to contemplate death by the very same guillotine that he had sent those near dozen to. Tyre, more than anything, DID NOT WANT TO FEEL THAT WAY TOWARDS THAT FUCKING WOMAN.

Affection. Love. Lust.

A clench of his hand had his palm covering the side of his face. Why couldn't he just face her? To take her in that rush of passion he did the night prior? To him, it was growing increasingly more obvious. The absence had started to make him crave her. His obsession had started to make him savor her. The pain had made him cling to someone that resembled his past lover. All of it was messy. All of it fueled an increasingly addictive craving of the Empress. He could not -

He would not face her right now.

That gnawing in his mind and in his heart made it a struggle to so much as push the thought of her out of his head.

"...I'm going to lose my fucking mind at this rate..." An order. He needed an order. He needed to be sent far away from her and to cool his head. Anything at all to have him leave - anything at all to stop him from digging his fangs into that temptation, allowing that obsession of his to fester.

Passion · Dec 21, 2024

He didn't have to command it; it was impossible to get the events of what had happened out of her mind.

It wasn't very pleasant to be in the middle of meetings with her mind reflecting on the kisses and tears she shared with the general. It filled her with mixed emotions. She enjoyed the high, the warmth that he had shown her. It had melted through her defenses enough to bring tears to her eyes as he breached beyond her icy fortress. At the same time, it was pointless or even harmful for Veah to fixate on it.

Personal affairs did not line up well with her goals of conquering. Sex, passion, relationships, and love would not help her achieve her goals. Just like him, the only thing known to fuel her was getting her own twisted form of revenge. Hers on this very world cursed her existence since the day she was born and yet gifted her the strength of Xemva.

However, no matter how much she tried to dismiss the thoughts, the general's face flooded her mind even while she tried to sleep. She longed to experience him more while sober. There was no way he would make her melt again, would he? It was a question that haunted her, wondering if she would get her answer when he returned for his reward, but… he wouldn't come to claim what was his.

It was a week after her eighteenth birthday that she rode up on a stolen horse to the castle gates. She wore nothing but a stained sack, her blonde hair caked with dried mud. It wasn't the first time she survived and made it all the way back 'home'. She used to return with tears in her eyes or with the flames of anger, but this time in particular there was a cold void. She had learned the only people she could count on were herself and the voice of Xemva. For the longest time, she had avoided Xemva like she was told to; after all, it was because of the dark goddess that she wasn't accepted. However, it was only Xemva who listened and comforted her.

No one will ever love you besides ME, Veah.
Your family, your kingdom, and the entire world hate you.
Your only saving grace has been your parents not wanting to get their hands dirty with your blood,
but we both know that would be a better fate than to be left to DIE…
OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
COMING BACK LIKE A STRAY, DISEASED DOG.
What crimes have you committed? Being born?
If they want to believe you are a monster, then become one.
There is no love for you in this world. Use their hate to FUEL YOU.
USE YOUR HATE TO ASCEND BEYOND THEIR WILDEST IMAGINATION.
THIS WORLD IS OURS.

Thank you for believing in me when no one else has...

This was the belief Veah carried. If she couldn't have love, then she would have power. Driven by an insatiable hunger for power, her heart and mind grew dark. With the cold resolve of Xemva and a sword she had mastered to survive, she turned on her own family, cutting them down and seizing control. Her reign of pain and misery knew no bounds, as she sought to etch her own suffering into the fabric of the world and its history. But... would it ever be enough? Could she ever be sated? She was caught in a void of violent whispers and cold emptiness that only seemed to grow.

Almost all morality was ripped from the empress at a young age, with the only hints of humanity that remained in her were hidden behind the influence of Xemva and just knowing everyone hated her anyway. She made sure of it. She wasn't just slaughtering and taking over nations that were innocent; THEY HATED HER, AND SO SHE WOULD SHOW THEM THE REAL WRATH OF HATE.

Floara also fell victim to the empress' hate. Everyone was a foe; everyone was born with seeds of hate for her, so she had no problem sending her army to turn Floara's streets and fields red with blood and fire.

She was also there to help paint it all red. While too valuable to be on the front lines, Veah had a taste for blood ever since she slaughtered her family. So, every so often she joined her army on the battlefield in an attempt to feel something. To help fill that aching emptiness and to appease the goddess, who would tap on her brain if she were to ignore her call for too long.

Only those that were spared were those that could provide worth to the empire. Those with skills, knowledge, or even political pull. However, the rest were useless. If anything, keeping them alive would only be keeping more soon-to-be rebels alive. No one accepted Veah in any sense of the way besides the loyalists and those who wanted to keep their lives, so she would need to influence the next generation. A generation born to fear her and worship Xemva. She didn't even want the love of her people, but she would make sure that she had the upper hand and RESPECT in a world full of hate and pain.

A heavy sigh escaped the empress when given the newest report about her general. After she heard about his success, she was pleased to know that the matter was handled as he promised. He sent a clear message that rebels would not be tolerated, especially in the capital. She had figured after he had already taken down one general who had gone rogue, he might as well expand and continue to deal with those who were trying to betray her.

She had been wondering if he would be too bold again about his prize; how she could prevent him from bringing tears to her eyes once more, but it would be something she didn't have to worry about; he never came for any kind of reward. Not even a material request; it was strange. It went against human nature. The fact he went against so many different expectations and assumptions continued to drive her interest in him. She couldn't figure him out… and she loved it as much as she hated it.

But...
Did he really think he could get away from her?
He would have to face her if he was ready to or not.
HE HAD NO CHOICE.

"Draft a plan, but you are to run it by me first." She rose from her seat, smoothing out her black dress with open slits that showed off her shapely thighs and legs. "I will go to the gardens and speak to him myself." She bit the inside of her cheek. "I should slaughter him for making ME go to HIM." For a moment, she saw red, and Xemva's desire for pain and death toyed with her impulses. If she brought a weapon with her, she might actually slit his throat.

"Clear the gardens when I speak to him." She ordered before taking her leave towards the well-maintained gardens. She hadn't lied when she said she liked flowers as well. Her garden had many flowers from different regions that could survive in a different temperament. Many flowers represented different lands she had taken over. She enjoyed how, despite how beautiful and delicate flowers were, they could also be fatal, piercing, and survive harsh conditions. She found them inspiring and even relatable. Some flowers only bloomed when they suffered, which reminded her of her growth as she went from rags to riches.

He would know she was near, not only from the click of her heels but also the strange billow of cold air that usually followed her. "Tyre, you are quite good at infuriating me." She crossed her arms under her bust, her weight shifting to her left foot. "You were successful in your mission, proving it was an even more critical one than I had even thought, and then you insult me by not accepting any reward from me? Not gold, wine, a request, or passion?" While she was a cruel woman, she did intend to reward him; she wanted him to continue to exercise and prove his loyalty to her.

"Explain yourself." Her eyes narrowed on his form. "What is it that you want, Tyre? Truly." The more she understood this man, the more she could use him properly. The more she could reward him. Predict him. Control him.

Devils Temptation · Dec 22, 2024

The chill was terrifying to most that had lived in the healthy embrace of sunlight, a presence of something otherworldly. For him? It was home. A slow sense of comfort would start to creep up along Tyre's mind just as the CRACK of her heel would come to a complete halt directly in front of him. His gaze remained downcast on the flowers beside her feet, neither rising to acknowledge her nor to immediately respond to what she had begun with. He understood what she was saying. It was no different than spitting at her good will to ignore her like this but by a similar vein, the fact that she had even come out this way for someone that should have been insignificant to her was the most surprising of all. An Empress lived on a plane different from others of her empire. They were pieces to be moved. She was the hand moving them against the board. "Why do I need a reward? Is serving you not enough of a reward?" He asked, not in some attempt to ease her irritation. Rather... he wanted to fuel it. Someone like her would never be satisfied unless she felt like she had the leverage on another human being. True loyalty? Of course that didn't fucking exist for someone so pitifully distrustful. Why would anyone dare to go through that grueling work for someone so harsh and merciless?

Explain yourself.

"Why should I? Why does my desire even matter to someone like you? Will keeping a leash around my throat keep you happy and make you feel safe? It won't." Wandering eyes traced over to a small white bloom right behind her heel. Laurel flowers. They signified victory, achievement, and honor. Three things that most warriors chased like they were in a high. The general may have been just one of those - another fool who salivated over his next win... but there was no reason to speak so boldly to her if he was. Out of the loud-mouthed, boisterous but useful idiots who remained in her army for only the next thrill of their battle - they only spoke loudly of the inhuman levels of achievement they'd have on the battlefield. Not of... how defenseless she was. "But you're mistaken if you think I am doing this to sabotage you or irritate you. Or even to hurt you." Not this act in particular. There were many in the future where he sought to crack her in two until she was so painfully vulnerable that it felt lie her heart was clawing at her core.

Standing to his full height, he approached until they were face to face with one another. Had she been a little less cautious? There were not guards overlooking their every little action now... but no matter. He had no plans to hurt her right now. Only a single sweep of his palm over her jaw and cheek to reintroduce the flare of warmth from his fingertips to her body. "Truthfully, I rather dislike conflict. In many ways, I consider myself a gardener forced to be a warrior. I'd much rather cultivate gorgeous blooms rather than plunge swords into rambling men. So, you cannot really blame me for feeling a little downcast in the aftermath, can you? It's been a difficult week of work and I have been buried in my own mind throughout my entire absence from you. But I suppose..." With her ivory hair snuck behind her ear, he revealed the curve of her ear and with another step forward, his warm breath brushed against her ear in low, heated growls. "...I am not the only one, Veah. Am I?"

Another deep breath. There was no point in even trying to escape and he was tired of coming out here every day just to feel like he wanted to tear his insides out with his bare fingers. It went quiet when she was with him. Arms draped around her waist and she would be brought to the warmth of his chest, that protective hint of notable power in his arms when he enveloped all of her lithe, feminine physique in one hug. Chin tucked to her shoulder and turned just enough to speak low and soft to her -- "Consider this my reward then, my little winter blossom. There is nothing that matters more to me than to know you are safe and well. I wonder how long it will take for you to understand the depth of my feelings towards you?" The wrap of his palm over her left cheek, turning her enough to press one final kiss right to the center of her right cheek.

Just like that, they were separate once more and he had gotten his 'reward' - something that most in his position and role would scoff at as a reward. "I have no interest in dangling you in front of myself like a hunk of meat as a prize. You are coveted by many. Not like how I covet you. My Empress... would you like to burn again tonight? I am in a rather intimate mood so I have to warn you -" Walking past her, he knelt at a nearby purple bloom, the laurel was the only mountain flower in these gardens. What a shame. Grazing his fingertips over the edges of the petals, his thumb would grip against the tip of it before leisurely stroking in small little grinds. "- I won't be nearly as easy for you and I won't be nearly as keen to separate so quickly from you." Commitment terrified her, hadn't it? But this was the path they were done. If she fell for the warmth and temptation, they would inevitably end up even closer to one another...

...and there was no doubting that, just like for him, for her - a single hug and a kiss was not enough to satisfy what they had been waiting for. Not after an agonizing week long wait.

"If not..." On one final turn back around to meet her eyes, it was all gone. The warmth, the intimacy, all that was left was a piercing, cold gaze that looked even more icy than her own could be. "...please send me out quickly once more. If not with you, I have no further desire to sit here and just feel day after day."

Passion · Dec 22, 2024

She would correct him. "It isn't your desire that I'm concerned with, but your motives." What he wanted as a reward was telling regarding who he was as a man. His lack of response had left her in the dark and made her realize that what she thought she understood about him was quickly unraveling into more confusion than answers. Why was she so interested? It was that distrust, her paranoia. In a world where everyone let her down other than the ones who licked her boots (even then it was questionable), Tyre was seen as a threat, and yet… he possibly offered the empress something that no raid or adventure could offer her.

"I don't need you to feel safe," at least not in the way she was thinking. He neared her, and she kept her arms crossed over her chest. Her body language was aligned with being closed off and protective, but her very action of meeting him here spoke differently. Her icy gaze darted up to his face, searching for intent and unspoken truths. He dared to touch her, which made the empress flinch subtly; she still wasn't used to being casually touched, and she was a bit on edge.

"With your skills, I would think you would want to be a warrior, but at times we have to do what is necessary." Just like her. She would have been fine with the fate of a beautiful princess under her father's and eventually brother's rule, never lifting a sword, but instead, she had to conquer and slaughter to survive.

He then alluded to her mind also being wrapped up in thoughts after their last encounter. It was something she kept trying to reject: the pestering thoughts of a warmth she did not know she was capable of. A warmth that was as alluring as it was threatening. They were better off in their stone-cold lives, but yet as much as they tried to deny it, that yearning for more had them pulling each other back in. "Yes, I've been wondering why you wouldn't come to me proudly." Her wonder was a bit more complex and personal than that, but it was also tied to truth. She was still quite irritated she had to go to him to get answers, but possibly she was more annoyed that he had her requiring closure.

When he wrapped his arms around her, she uncrossed her arms to loop them around his neck. While receptive, her gaze hadn't yet softened. He pulled her in tighter, wrapping her up in an embrace. At first, she felt nothing; if anything, she was irritated that he thought he could treat her like some normal woman, but there was a small flicker of warmth. No one had embraced her growing up, and even when she mingled with others, it was just for pleasure with affection lacking. However, what was most impactful was what he told her during the embrace.

What did he mean?

They had just started to work closely together, and there was much they didn't know about each other.

Yet... he spoke of care and feelings?

NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE YOU BESIDES ME, VEAH!

The thought made her mind burn. He was lying. He had to be!

Veah could spot a liar. So many times it was critical, but the way he spoke with resolve told her that he wasn't. It didn't make sense. He would have to keep proving and reassuring her it was not an act until he rewrote her perception, and she gave in. Yet despite this disbelief, she didn't pull away. She wanted to see these feelings for herself as well as cure her of the restlessness he left her with. However, that was just short-term thinking; a mere fix of curiosity and yearning; she could tell by his tone he spoke of something more profound. It only deepened her curiosity.

Her hands curled up into fists from the tension she felt blooming between them. Her silence spoke volumes as her mind buzzed for a proper response. It was the fact she didn't instantly bark back that was telling. Now she was pissing herself off. The last time they had sex, he had disgraced her and her throne. He should be DEAD, and instead, she was standing there debating.

What is wrong with me?!
Why do my lips freeze each time I know I should sentence him to death?

He wasn't the only one who had insanity knocking over this ordeal.

"I… I need to know, Tyre."

She tensed so tight that her body trembled. A rather bold confession, but the empress was now fixated on grasping whatever this was. Whenever the empress' mind was fixed on something, she would make sure it happened. It was one reason why she was so successful, and now he had her full attention, for better or worse. "You will not disgrace me. We will not battle; we will explore." Her heart sank from her own words. Was that too soft? Could she even disarm herself enough to explore? Did he even know that the empress being willing to attempt was significant?

She now was the one to close the gap between them as if pulled in by an invisible force. Cupping the side of his face, her wordless lips caught his for an impulsive yet tender kiss. One that wasn't just fueled by lust, but the warmth he could somehow kindle in her icy core. When the kiss broke, she kept her forehead against his as she softly panted against his face. "Come to my chambers at sundown. I'll let my guards know you are allowed entry." Her guards would surely start talking at this point, but as much as she threatened Tyre with death, the same went for anyone who dared step between their budding passion.

Devils Temptation · Dec 29, 2024

You will not disgrace me. We will not battle; we will explore.

Disgrace...? There was a moment of conflict spreading over his features... and then a shake of his head. Tyre had not been denying her request, it was rather -- "I will push your limits all the same. Not to disrespect you. But because there is no point in tonight if you are not aching and drooling in delight. I adore the pleasure you can give me... but unless reciprocated, it is empty." He had to see her gaze grow hazy, he had to see her core clench in such overwhelming delight. The general was happy to explore, but there was no mistake to be made - she would be pushed right back to that edge of vulnerability just like the night prior. It was in that overwhelming rush that he found her head going most empty, that there was only the sheer reminder that there were no ranks and no roles, only a man with a woman and all the delight and pleasure in the world that one could offer the other.

That kiss.

That kiss made the indecision still fluttering in his core grow completely still.

Fluttering lashes had a deep exhale leaving his lips and the drape of his arms over her hips would lock their mouths together for a few more moments longer than merely showing favor or passing affection. Tyre savored her lips as if in that moment there was nothing else worth paying attention to in that moment but the blossoming adoration between one another. When they parted from one another, a faint glisten lingered atop her lower lip and those darker eyes were momentarily stunned. "One more." Spoken as a request but he had taken her as a demand. Once more, the impulse between them had Tyre locking another kiss against her mouth - this time the bite of his lower lip and trace of his tongue slipped along the confines of her lips, subjecting the entire warmth of that addictive mouth to the taste of a man that, though he knew she would vehemently deny, she had missed. Just as much as he had missed her. One more split between them had heat pooling between their features, tension thick enough to cut with a knife but he would adhere to her request though some stroke of willpower. A single step back, thumb brushing over her lower lip to swipe away the evidence of their passion and then finally taking a knee in front of her.

"Yes, my Empress." Ah. How warped that it was the woman that had broken his life to once again give him the motivation to move forward for a different prize... how infuriating... and how addictive could one person be?

He wanted to find out.

All princes of his nation, though he was the only one of his generation, underwent rigorous schooling to become skilled in wartime capabilities. In some ways, the thorns were more important than the petals of royalty in Floara. Tyre had been a soldier and a general before he was a prince but all the same, one could not take a person's pedigree out from them. That evening, though every hour felt like an excruciating wait, the young man had spent time preparing for the Empress. Leisurely, longer baths were not something he bothered to partake in - a few minutes to wash up was all a soldier should have been accustomed to. He would have much rather slept, ate, and lived as his men had - after all, he was no different than the other foot soldiers of the Empire. An autocratic meritocracy where the strongest stood at the top, if they rose to the occasion they would be bestowed with the same rank he possessed.

"...Absurd. This is far too big..." Warm water dripped off his bare figure, back pressed to the wall of the bath while strands of wet warmth trailed down along those inkier locks of his hair. By design, according to Veah. He could hardly understand why someone would go to these lengths to isolate themselves. If not for him, would it truly be so unusual for the Empress to end up face down in a pool of her own blood at a place as isolated as this? Some rooms and hallways felt as if they stretched for an eternity, just to cater to a handful of people at most. Pulling his hand through his hair, he would sweep back the darker hair out of his eyes to stare dead ahead in silence. Why was he here? Why had he not just taken the audience and excused himself from falling ever deeper into their affection? She would not have denied him if he asked for a traditional reward. So why?

Why had he stayed? Why had he let himself be seduced by her like that?

Did he want this? To sleep with the fucking demon that tore his life apart?

What was his revenge? To kill her? At the tail end of it all, there was no denying that ultimately Veah was not important. The Empire would continue to slaughter and wage war all the same even without her presence - but did he even care about what happened to anyone else? His position was stripped and his beloved was dead. If the world burned in Hell, why would he give a damn in the first place? There was a lot he could say he wanted.

He wanted to fuck her. He wanted her to fall madly in love with him. He wanted the heartbreak of his beloved Marisol to wash away.

But there were far more manic, overwhelming desires even beyond that.

HE WANTED TO HUMILIATE HER. HE WANTED HER POWER. HE WANTED HER TO PERSONALLY HAND THE CROWN AND THRONE TO HIM AND FOR THE ONE ENTITY IN THE WORLD THAT STILL FAVORED HER TO INSTEAD FALL FOR HIM.

If he tore the one thing from her that she still clung to... would she understand him better? Would she become broken and reliant on him?

"General, you asked that I notify you when sundown approaches." The soft, hushed voice of an attendant would knock him out of his daydreaming. The knelt figure by Tyre would offer him a towel before bowing and finally leaving the man to the remainder of his bath. Even if he wanted the bitterness to take root, there was a much stronger emotion rushing through him in that moment. He was craving her so fucking much it hurt. All he could think about in that moment was her... he would have her.

Tyre decided against wearing military attire to her quarters, dressing in a somewhat more regal look befitting a prince. Tucked in, dark tunic held down by a belted trouser. Hair dampened from the fresh bath and the entirety of his appearance giving off the looks of a glistening onyx rather than the grittier, ash black of a wandering, looming shadow. The guards did not bother to stop him, merely parting in his presence for the man to rasp his knuckles against the door. "May I enter?" A moment of pause before he stepped into her bedroom once again and pressed the door close with his back. "Veah. I..." Soft, not loud enough that the guards could overhear but just to be extra safe he would have approached her first, hand reaching out to raise just high enough to press his lips against the back of her knuckles. "...I apologize for avoiding you. Truthfully, and though it is awfully messy, I have lingering feelings for my deceased betrothed. For just a moment, you reminded me of that. Isn't that strange? You are nothing like her - I may not be anything like those that you shunned in the past but we still show caution against the connection and attraction. I just found it rather amusing."

"Now... you said you wanted to experiment. I do too. I have to ask, just one more time..." One hand slipped around her waist, cupping against her rear with a possessive grope. The other wrapped against the back of her hair to tilt just enough so the trail of those tingling kisses along the back of her neck would reach all over her body. The embrace was lustful... but it was also intimate. There was no more hesitation in him when he moved to hold her, nor was there any urgency in taking her in that moment. That was why he was there. To have sex with her. To make her feel good. There was no need to hold her like this. Thoughts like those were naive. He was not just here because he lusted for her and she was not the type of women merely interested in some halfway skilled sexual technique - the reason she melted so hard for him ran much deeper into their intimacy. Tyre knew he handled her in a way that made her heart ache and throb.

"...will you trust me once again tonight to make you burn and feel in that way only I can?" Trust...? A word like that must have been so foreign to the Empress. To a woman so utterly betrayed by those closest to her. Tyre even had a feeling that the mere mention of that word was enough to make a person enraged - but not in this context. Veah had already trusted him once when she took that nectar, when she was brought to the bedroom... the opportunity to take her life was there. He never did.

But Tyre still knew it was terrifying all the same. Never in his life had he ever experienced a woman as cautious or distrustful as she had been. "It doesn't need to be today, or in a week, or even a month... I will always hold you like this if you just ask of me." Nothing good could have come of this... but he would always make her think that there was no pressure to fall into his arms. Just the option. The option of warmth, affection, and happiness.

Passion · Dec 31, 2024

Given Veah's eccentric life, she experienced events many had never dreamed of. At the same time, she missed out on many subtleties and simple pleasures as well. Tyre was becoming a symbol of what she did not have or know. It didn't matter if she had many nations under her thumb; they could not provide her with what he was offering.

As a substitute, maybe she could give some of her fleeting lovers a little more control, but she couldn't get herself to actually do it. It was Tyre's fearlessness, his boldness even in front of the fatal empress, that allowed it to happen. It had her attracted to him in a way she had never experienced. Their first time she tried to deny it, she was overwhelmed by how he made her feel while she was intoxicated. It was frightening, foreign, and, as she saw it, degrading of her high position, but she was moved by the experience and sensed the sparks of it even when sober.

He made her realize that she was starved on a personal level. She had been blind; her empire grew quicker than she could keep up with, and she hardly knew what not the empress but Veah wanted and needed. Instead, she was forced to keep her cool under crushing pressure under the countless matters that required her focus and command. In fact, she was so busy that it was utterly ridiculous that she was playing games with this man. She shouldn't even be entertaining this!

Yet there she was...

...standing alone with the man, surrounded by flowers. Heated words and sweet kisses were exchanged. He would feel the unspoken truth through their kisses. She did not only miss him; she longed for him. She wanted to experience him once more, as the tension between them made her higher and higher. He was a new kind of drug, proving that what she felt couldn't all be the necter. It was him.

She took a deep breath before grinning. "If I didn't know better, I would say you laced your lips with Everwinter nectar."

"As I told you, I need to know, so I'll allow you to push me." Dangerous words, but the empress had endured many hardships and usually feared the soft compared to the hard. "I'll allow you to explore me." She ran her fingers through her blonde roots, tousling her naturally wavy hair that usually looked slightly unkempt as the empress moved throughout her busy day. It was subtle, but the empress did fidget quite a bit. She didn't like holding still; there was always something that needed to be attended to, something to be concerned with, a threat knocking on her castle door; there was always something, but she just needed to stop... and time felt like it stopped when she was with him.

"I will see you tonight," she confirmed before fighting against the magnetic pull that would lead her right back to him.

While she could be using her night to draft proposals, she instead agreed to share the night with her general, who happened to give her warm feelings and a sense of escape from her duties and her bitterly cold goddess. It was weak, but Veah couldn't deny that there was some powerful yearning in her. She was sure if she could just get this out of her system, out of her mind, she could go back to focusing solely on being an empress instead of an aching woman.

She would sure hope so since most of her day was wasted on daydreams and reflections. She kept drowning in thoughts about how she might bloom while in his grasp. Veah pictured their lips shamelessly kissing, their bodies pressed up tight against each other, how pleasantly dizzy she could become in his embrace... but then when she caught herself fantasizing about how handsomely powerful he felt when she was weak or him bringing her to tears again... she stopped herself. She would try to pick and choose her daydreams and what would happen, as she was used to having control. Handing control over could set her free, but it was still foreign and felt wrong given her position. However, that was where her deepest self lay.

The empress would return to her chambers an hour before sundown to bathe and change. While the highest floor of the castle echoed with emptiness, it was well guarded. No one was easily getting to the top floor without her guards being noticed. While Tyre had the honor of often being close enough to touch her, Veah still was a paranoid woman. Enough that guards would check Tyre for weapons, and she was often more guarded than it seemed. Not only that, but Veah often knew how to protect herself. However, no battle could prepare her for what was to come.

Knock, knock.

Her icy heart fluttered.

"You may enter." She welcomed him in, and he would find her standing there in her roomy bedroom. She was dressed in nothing but a black robe made of some of the finest silk, and with the sash pulled tight around her narrow waist, which accented the beautiful figure she had underneath. He was well dressed compared to her, but she had the privilege of comfort due to them meeting in her chambers. She gave him a lookover as her usual coldness hung in the air. "You look quite handsome."

Hearing her name, she held her breath for a moment, but she did not speak. He would take her hand and finally apologize as well as explain himself. Deceased betrothed. Huh, she truly didn't know anything about his background, and gathering information on him had been almost fruitless. Most in the empire had some connections to a tragic story, mostly by her hands. She was fated to be hated; she was simply doing her part. But... why would she remind him of what was probably an angel in his mind?

Because he was beautifully broken.

She reached out to cup his face as if he were a precious gem that she couldn't keep her greedy hands off of.

"Tyre..."

"Do not avoid me. Do not run for me,
or my wrath will find you next time."

She emitted a melodeic hum in thought. "It is quite strange that I would remind you of anyone, but maybe it is just the power of a woman's touch." Had he had a lover since? She could be the missing piece of feminine energy that he might be missing, but one problem was that Veah didn't align well with the delicacy of femininity. Still, he treated her like a fragile and precious doll. His hold on her was firm and possessive, while his kisses along her neck were little teasing sparks of what might await. With her arms wrapped around his neck, she listened closely and hung on his every word.

Was he truly the only one like he said? Only one so far, so... this had to be rare. Veah had an eye for rarities, but the idea of needing to depend on him... the only one who could make her feel this way, was a terrifying thought. After all, no one in Veah's life stayed. They died, they ran, they betrayed.

HE COULDN'T BE THE ONLY ONE.
That was far too much power.

Trust was tricky, and yet she trusted him enough that she was alone with him, but they both knew he needed a deeper trust. One that she could fall into while sober to experience him, to give up some of her control. That he would keep any tears or unflattering outcomes in this room. "I will trust you as much as I can." Her deepening trust was part of his reward. She trusted him up to a certain point, but not even she knew where that line was. "I will trust you with my body tonight." Little did she know that she was trusting him with more than that. While she didn't consciously know it, her subconscious sure did. It was why she was so anxious beneath her poker-faced surface.

"When we are alone like this, I will allow you to say my name. It makes me feel... strange to hear it, but when you say it...-" She let her unfinished statement linger; she didn't have the vocabulary to describe it. So, instead, she showed it. One of her hands cupped the back of his head, and she pulled him down towards her face as she got on her tiptoes to capture his lips for a kiss. The kiss was fleeting, but it was deep. It was personal.

She took a heavy breath. "I need to get this out of my system so I can focus again." If only it was that easy. Little did she know that shaking him probably wouldn't be that easy. However, it was hard not to think short-term. The woman had been quietly simmering for him.

Devils Temptation · Jan 2, 2025

Do not avoid me. Do not run for me,
or my wrath will find you next time.

There was no running. He had bit off that delectable, addictive taste and now it had been time to take responsibility for it. A single, solemn nod was her only reply and then an all too incredulous scoff at the mention of a 'womans' touch being his undoing. Hardly. "There are plenty that have tried with me." Tyre had been a general. He had been young. There was no lack of women that sought to marry him to consolidate their power... attempted desperately to try and seduce him with their bodies or their wiles. That was the most frustrating of all. Why had it been just her - the Empress - that had such a profound effect on him? The why had not mattered, there was no changing how he had already felt at this point. Only to accept it as it was. Leaning closer, he pressed another kiss to her jawline and allowed the room to sit in silence.

There was much more that he could have done for her. Victories and challenges on the battlefield... to slaughter her enemies... but the best thing he could have possibly done for a shunned young woman like her was prove somehow that he would not leave her. Tyre wished. He wished she could have seen what was inside his head, if just for a moment. The obsession he had for her was crazed - sick in a sense of the word... and while surely he was not the only man to see her like this, he was only one powerful enough to remain by her side and hold those feelings of obsession all the same.

I will trust you as much as I can
I will trust you with my body tonight.

Did she think he couldn't tell? The way she was uncertain and fraying? That she wanted to pull back but could not - and only buried forward against him? Did she think that she could fucking hide? Her expression gave nothing away, but her body could not lie. It could not hide the way she trembled in his arms or how her features heated on the slightest hint of affection. She was starved of those fundamental intimacies that a person needed to feel alive. Tyre was happy to make her burn all over again in ways that she had forsaken. To him, it hardly mattered what her past was. Right now, in this moment, he desired her and he would take her. Anyone that tried to get in his way would learn harshly that the only life he was going to bother keeping alive was Veah. Dessert had to be devoured at the right time, after all.

That kiss had his thoughts pausing once again, lips wrapped and the light tug of her lower lip to coax her head to lean back enough for him to take control of even that kiss. The man caressed against her jawline to hold her in place, "Veah... do you think you can orgasm once or twice and just get rid of me after? That I won't be in your head constantly? Veah..." For a woman that constantly surrounded her in paranoid knowledge... she was so naive. His expression shifted from that softer affection to something momentarily harsh. A show of force that pushed her onto the bed sheets and slammed his hand down on the silken covers beside her head - bringing them dangerously close to one another once more. Softer, smaller frame curled up just right beneath his body such that the only thing she could feel was the masculine warmth and firmness of his chest. "...has anyone told you that you are a very stubborn woman? I wonder how long it will take until you admit you need to take me as your lover in proper. I don't give a damn about a heir, or the public reputation. Keep me secret if you so wish. But you are MY WOMAN. I will NEVER leave your head - and whenever you need to feel that heat again -" Grabbing at her collar suddenly, he yanked her in for a deep, hungry kiss.

Wet laps of his tongue would lock and drape over her own - stealing both her taste and her breath in the same few moments of connecting intimacy. "- you will return to me all the same." She would. There was no need for him to push her, just to offer the constant option. The blooming feels of an obsessive love were not something that needed anything but modest fanning. Grasping against her hip, he guided the woman upright once more and gently fixed up her collar and wrinkled dress. "I'm not interested in being your concubine. In here - I don't like taking orders from you. You moan much more sweetly when you take them from me. You tighten more firmly. You orgasm harder when I fuck you. All when I have a tight grasp, a tight control over you..." The general hardly knew of her experience with her concubines but judging by how brief it was - they hardly invoked the same reaction he had. Sitting her atop his lap, he would pry her thighs apart before possessively wrapping his palm against her clothed pussy. The rolling knead of his firmer, more calloused hand would apply just a faint hint of friction...

Tyre had himself settled right against her ear, speaking in hot, low breaths.

"You said we could experiment... and so --" Before he dipped into the thin fabric of her panties and slid his finger inside of her pussy, palm still flattening against her clit with the delectable arch of friction. Much rougher, much more firmly than those utterly softened skin and flesh of her harem that worked for only the sole goal of feeling like the best lay. "-- you will orgasm when I let you orgasm. Not one second earlier... you can be a good girl and do that for me, can't you?" It should have been demeaning to be called that... it was beneath her to be a mere woman but both she and him had already relented and admitted it. Right now, behind these doors, she was just Veah to him. Just a woman to her man and vice versa. Those fingers buried deeper into her, slipping an additional inch or so in until his knuckles had buried right against her outer lips and the deliberate grind of his fingertips would start to carve and drag soft little etches of pleasure all along her inner walls.

Not enough.

He hit so much deeper when it was his cock - he could make her feel much better but even that was deliberate. He wanted that heat to build and pool in her core until she was aching for it. "Shhh... let your reservations go... I am the only sensation - the only thought that should be in your head right now..."

Passion · Jan 5, 2025

She didn't doubt that many women were interested in Tyre. After all, he was handsome, held powerful positions, and was healthy. However, he seemed too cold and distant to take advantage, yet around her, he was the opposite. He made fiery statements and actions that reflected their blooming desires. He acted with certainty, even though merely touching the empress without permission could be fatal. He crossed every line in the sand she drew, but that was the only way to get to the overprotective empress. One of the hardest aspects of all this would be her agreement to not battle with him for control and to avoid vulnerability. It wasn't just because it was difficult, but how confident he was about doing it. It was a form of overthrowing her, and yet she kept entertaining it…

Every time he said her name, her heart skipped a beat, and she felt a light wave of dizziness. It hadn't been since she killed her family that she heard her name without a title or simply being called 'empress', so it continued to impact her more than a typical person. "I have too many important matters to think about. The last thing I need is my mind preoccupied with fruitless thoughts." Him being one since she knew in the big picture, this mattered little. It would not help her take over the world. Still, his presence tapped into such an instinctive and yearning part of herself that she couldn't ignore its calling.

She was pushed onto her bed, and her body tensed up. She was ready to fight, as everyone around her often was, but having him so close to her was making her bubble up with that foreign warmth again. Her icy blue eyes searched his face for a motive beyond the obvious. His words were sharp and rang with his usual conviction. She would not argue with the fact she was stubborn, but she had to be due to her position and even as a form of protection. However, while she couldn't deny these sparks between them, why did he think after one passionate session that she would need to take him as a lover, that he could claim her? Her eyes narrowed on him in disbelief, now questioning her own general's sanity, but he couldn't be very sane to be stirring this up to begin with.

He would kiss her deeply, enough that she felt her icy fortress tremble. Her eyes fell half shut as the physical and emotional sensations his lips caused could easily lock her in a trance. One that she wanted to experience to forget about her duties and soothe an inner part of her. When the kiss broke, what he said afterward was haunting. Would she return to him or would she be sated enough this session to move on? She hoped for the latter and silently feared the former.

WHY WON'T YOU JUST KILL HIM ALREADY?!
I can't... I need something here you can't provide me, Xemva...

He pulled her back up and smoothed out her silky robe.. "You know nothing about my affairs with my concubines to judge." How did she know she was more vivid with him? He wouldn't, but many things could be assumed based on her personality, how she ruled, and the lack of interpersonal connections she had. "I do not like the idea of giving you control, but I do like the thought of giving it up to focus on pleasure…" and whatever this was. It was the only way she could embrace these feelings.

Pulled onto his lap, he wasted no time finding his hand between her thighs. She bit her lower lip after taking a subtle but deep breath. He would whisper heated words into her ear while he slipped his hand inside of her dark panties. She would let a faint whimper out of her as his finger slipped into the depths that had been aching for him since they parted. "Shut up, Tyre… I warned you," she whispered back with a hint of her coldness, and while she said she wouldn't battle him... she couldn't help but resist. She was not yet intoxicated enough by the moment to allow any form of degradation, as it felt like he was disgracing the position she worked so hard for. The position that was so heavily tied to her identity, but would he be able to bring more aspects of Veah to light? Clearly, the empress was still struggling to leave her title at the door.

Her breathing became heavier as his fingers sunk into her deeper. While she was already wet enough to accept his fingers, she seemed to be getting wetter by the second while in his grasp. She leaned her head back against his chest and forced her body to relax as much as she could. She didn't want just pleasure, but she could tell something was sparking up that she wanted to explore.

Her heart fluttered at the thought of letting go of all her duties to get lost in this moment with him. It aligned with her fantasies of having him drown out everything but their intense bliss. However, Veah had a hard time thinking beyond this moment. He was right to assume that she had the mindset of getting a fix and leaving this behind. Who could blame her? She was such a busy and important woman. Also, with how ingrained it was in her that she was hated and cursed, she never had any type of relationship or even friendship. She didn't even trust her more loyal followers in many situations.

"I will try…" She kept her thighs spread wide for him, and her eyes closed to focus on his presence and the pleasure between her legs. "I want to let it all go and just be with you right now, Tyre..." Between her mind and her body, she didn't realize how truly vulnerable she was becoming to him. "I like your touch inside of me. I can't help but want more…" She accepted him, which was a victory all on its own, but would she obey him?

"Say my name again...."

Devils Temptation · Jan 5, 2025

I will try…

"That is all anyone can ask of you, Veah... just like that." His assuring, sweet words would promise her that there was doing perfect. There was no need to conform to what either of them thought a proper relationship had been - for her to act in that perfect cookie-cutter way that a woman was expected to be. Kisses slipped down her ear and jawline, teeth gently nipping against the curve of her jaw just so he could speak those searing words right against her ear in unison with the plunge of his flattened fingertips all over her sweet spot. "There is no conquest... no responsibilities. Stop fucking thinking. Focus on me." Once she left her chambers perhaps the weight of the world would start to crush down on her shoulders once again but just for these fleeting few hours, he would make sure that all of those concerns would never once pass through her mind. That one last demand of his was followed by a brief period of silence where everything would start to feel increasingly warmer. Tyre's fingers fucked into her with an increasingly faster pace, never once missing a single beat on coiling that warmth in her core. Just as she had pleaded with him, every moan, every jerk of her hips, every pant of pure exertion was met with praise. A kiss against the back of her neck, the husky way he called her name, or how he deliberately applied more pressure to that sensitive patch of nerves in her core - there was nothing but positive reinforcement for the neglected woman.

Positive reinforcement that quickly turned to Tyre tightening his grip on the reigns he had on her. The rising heat in her body would be denied from her with the pull of his digits out of her. Slick, wet mess dripping down his fingertips and the utterly hollow sensation of her entrance quickly dampening the climax that was soon approaching. Grasping her by the throat, Tyre pulled her around to lock eyes with him. Intense, dark gaze forcing her to come to terms with the fact that he controlled her pleasure in that moment. She hit her satisfaction when he allowed her to. Gentle kneads of his thumb continued along her clit to keep her warmed up and drooling against the sheets, but nothing remotely enough to allow her core to ache like it was before.

"Look at what a mess you made on my fingers, Veah... are you that needy right now? How adorable. But... don't you think it is a waste? Orgasming to my fingers just like that..." Leisurely, he would release her jaw to slip his fingers past her shoulder and into his lips. A slow, sensual lap of his tongue traced against the length of his digits, returning to the tip of each and every single one to enjoy the taste of her while she was forced to agonizingly wait. "...wouldn't it feel so much better with my tip smashing the back of this drooling pussy instead?" Calm, confident little smirk as if he already had the answer. She did too. That night from a week prior was so rich in both of their fantasies that he would be lying if he said he did not replay how she felt around him night after night. Had she been the same? There was no doubt she was.

The obsession would not run so red and hot otherwise.

There was so much from that night that he wished he had the memory of... what little control she still possessed denied him of that complete control, of witnessing her at her most vulnerable. When she teared up, she buried her face in his chest. When she orgasmed, her eyes closed or her face turned away. Why? Why did she fucking hide that? Did she not know how gorgeous she looked when she was on the tip of that pleasure? It was fucking infuriating to think that would've been snatched from him again - he would not let her hide this time. Pressing her body back down onto the sheets, his hands slid up her hips and waist, in a slow caress - catching along her nightgown to pull it up and over her shoulders before tossing it off to the side impatiently. "I will not even let you have the chance to look away from me. Look at me, Veah." Tyre's grip would squeeze around her wrists, yanking them above her head and snatching the bulk of his leather belt to wrap around them in a tight crease - buckle barely grazing against her wrist until it was tight enough that her wrists were locked against one another, behind her body.

"I am going to fuck you... not once, not twice..." Pulling his trousers down fully, his tip would press against her entrance - deliberately grazing down her clit in the process. Her taste would make his mouth water... almost tempting him into forcing her to scream his name until she orgasmed on his tongue but this was far more lucrative. "...AS MANY TIMES AS IT TAKES FOR YOU TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR CONSTANTLY BEING IN MY FUCKING HEAD -" God, he fucking despised it. How she took such a tight root in his every thought. It was just as she had said, he would not dare to run or hide. Even in his mind, he could not escape her. Her smile, her moans, the blush of her body as he drove pure fire along her veins. The way she cried his name in pure, needy anticipation... it was all too much. The throb of his tip against her lower lips would transmit that utter greed he had for her - all up until one thrust back would SMASH forward to start rocking into her tight core. A week had been enough absence to force him to stretch her all over again... but that was no problem.

A hand wrapped tight around the curve of her ass, forcing her into the perfect position for thunderous strikes of his hips to harshly collide with her thighs in one smash after another. That thread of her climax that he had allowed to slip through his fingertips, he'd furiously start to chase once more. Every spot his fingers could have grazed against, his tip would strike against without an ounce of restraint - jerking her dainty, small little body back and forth atop the sheets just for his arms to drag her by the hips back into their original position. "...Are you afraid?" Hushed, breathless whisper against her ear - Tyre's firmer body flattening atop her own while his tip buried to the very back of her pussy. "Of what I can do in this position... with this power? If I came inside you? What if I tried to harm you...? Consider all of what I could do to destroy you right now..." Why...? Why now? Why was he saying this here? To prove a point.

Regardless of her reply, something else would be stolen from her soon after. Her gaze would go completely black with a seam of blackened silk covering her eyes - a blindfold. Pulled tight around her hair to ensure she could neither see him nor resist him in that moment -

"I told you to stop thinking. Who gave you permission to worry? I am the ONLY sensation you should even feel in this moment - there is nothing to be afraid of. Be a good girl and submit everything to me." It was hardly to terrify her. Only to remind her that he wanted her to stop thinking entirely - to hand over everything to him and he would offer her the pleasure, the satisfaction of a woman she never realized that she could become. Every individual smash forward after he blindfolded her felt so much more vibrant. Whether because of her deprivation of her senses or because he was deliberately being more cruel and sadistic to her... that was up for her own interpretation.

All that was absolute was how he had no intention of slowing down or denying her on whatever earth-shattering finish she was building up to. Instead of the practiced, restrained manner that his fingertips prevented her from losing her thoughts entirely - his girth was nowhere near as tempered. The throb and heft of that thickness would have sparks of pure bliss striking both of them on every single individual smother of his tip to the back of her pussy. Satisfying, firm claps of his palm would strike against her rear on the same unison of his hefty, full balls. Would he really keep his promise and pull out of her at the end of this all...?

There was nothing stopping him from finishing inside of her now.

...Nothing but the trust she was putting in him.

"Veah, sweetheart... my love. The way your body shakes in delight is so... addictive. Haah... so fucking tight - your pussy needs to be broken in far more often than a week or two... do you think I'll let you forget my shape? My size? NEVER." Another thrust forward, burying his body atop her own so that she could feel every individual inch and vein filling herself up to the utter brim.

"Ask... Veah." For how roughly he fucked her, his voice was nothing but sweet and gentle against her ear in the sea of brutal, firm claps of their bodies striking against one another.

"Ask me for what you want most in this moment, Veah." One last hot blow against her ear, coaxing her - an Empress... the RULER of a nation to beg for from HIM of all people...

Passion · Jan 5, 2025

If only she could follow his demand with ease. "Then you make me stop thinking!" She would try to aid the process, but it was difficult considering her position and the feeling that she always needed to be aware and paranoid to protect herself. If she could just stop, there would be more quiet in her life. She was attracted to the idea of how he consumed her perception last time. It had stilled her mind… He allowed her emotions to run free, or... maybe it was the nectar. If it was the nectar, his new life purpose would be to deliver plenty to her, but if he was the case then...- There was still so much she needed to find out, and as she said, explore with him.

Pleasure helped numb her mind, as she filled the silence between them with sweet and wet sounds. Her lower half trembling, and her hips rolling towards and at times away from his hand to indirectly aid him in finding the perfect pace for her. He would praise how she accepted the pleasure he gave to her. Every little kiss, whisper, and thoughtful touch kept making her even more heated. She could already feel an orgasm building in her from his fingers. The heavenly sensation in her core kept building and building and then… he denied her. Her eyes widened as he left her on the edge of pleasure and left her core feeling painfully empty. Before she could protest, he grabbed her by the throat, and she glanced back at him with a pained irritation in her eyes as he showed her a taste of the critical control he had over her. Anyone else she could order, but she already knew Tyre wouldn't obey. Not in this setting. He would not let her even baseline; he teased her button enough to keep the fires kindling hot.

Her nails sank into his forearm with enough pressure to bite at his skin. He fueled her mind with thoughts of how deeply he touched her last time. "Haing you properly inside of me probably will feel better, but we going to have to test it. Could have been the Everwinters talking last time." She dared to challenge him while she was the one aching. However, what was most important to her was to see how he made her mind, body, and emotions soar was just a fluke or not. She sure hoped it was, since if not, she wasn't sure how she would cope with needing him.

He would lead her back down to the bed with her blonde hair sprawled out around her. He would disrobe her, revealing her ivory skin and delicate flesh. It wasn't just their high last time; the evil empress had the body of a goddess. He was focused on stealing her complete attention. Her mind, her sight, her body… and Veah found herself allured by the idea. Yet… when he grabbed her wrists to pin them above her head, she had a shiver of sickening fear rush through her.

Her cool confidence started to become flimsy. "Wait…!" He would tie her wrists together with his belt and it felt like her heart was about ready to pound out of her chest. Bondage was a very blunt symbol of a lack of control. It scared her. He could slit her throat, set her on fire, torture her, plant his seed inside of her, or do god knew what with her.

Her breathing increased in a state of panic yet desire as he aligned their bodies. "Tyre…!" She couldn't get any words out to express the chaotic feelings that she was drowning in that he so easily stirred up inside of her. He would solidify their intense connection by claiming he would ravish her until he was sated. "Untie me! This is too risky!" Making demands was simply in her nature at this point, but the way her lower lips drooled communicated a much different demand. "You are the one who should take responsibility! You've been in my head distracting me, and I'm an empress who has-…!" She was cut off by a loud cry as he aggressively pushed himself into her tight depths.

Just like that… he made her mind fade to black, and the coldness in her eyes started to melt.

"Haaa…ahh!~" She couldn't help but squirm as jolts of pleasure shot through her. It felt so heavenly to be filled with him again despite it being an almost painful tight fit. She would clamp down on him even harder when he questioned her fear; when he suggested how he could harm her. "Don't you not want me to think?!" Then why would he stir up fearful thoughts as he continued to try to control her? Even going so far as to blindfold her, and that was when Veah's fear started to really grip at her. She couldn't stop herself from trembling and softly panting as he stole over even more of her control.

Just as he stirred up her paranoid thoughts, he would use them as an example of what was not allowed. While he more than likely wanted her of her own free will to release those thoughts, it was easier said than done. However, that didn't mean he himself didn't have the power to control and influence her thinking. While he pounded into her, he would also pound away her thoughts. Her eyes rolled under the blindfold as she had her first sweet taste of submission. Her blinded sight, darkened mind, and bounded body allowed him to make an impact that would ripple through her whole existence. This was far too dangerous, but Veah was without control of her will or her mind as she neared the edge of extreme bliss.

She didn't know what to do; she couldn't think about what to do… and so the empress would submit. She would sing for him as their bodies clapped around in the rhythm he set. His voice sounded divine while lost in the darkness physically and in a sense of self. Her helplessness made every word louder, every thrust and touch stronger, his scent even more intoxicating. It felt as if she could overdose on him, but she foolishly and obsessively wanted more and more and MORE… it was like the nectar, but she couldn't blame it any longer as much as she wanted to. She could get addicted to this sinfully compromising position, as she felt a bittersweet liberation while completely at his mercy. She hated how much she liked this... how much she needed him.

Her ears rang when he said her name in the same sentence as love. A bit ago, she would have laughed at the idea of holding back an orgasm for him. She would have just let it happen, but there was some switch in her head that flipped off. One that felt like she couldn't orgasm or at least, it wouldn't be as satisfied without his approval. His control over her felt this good so far; why wouldn't he know the best time for her orgasm? Or maybe it was just a lust-fueled delusion.

What she wanted....? "Tell me… I can… cum!" He could probably feel her quivering even internally as she sat on a delicate edge of pleasure. "Pl-please! Let me.... force me to cum!" She pulled at her binds, and her legs wrapped around his hips to squeeze him close to her. "You are so fucking deep…" She took a shaken breath, extremely aroused by how deep he touched her, how hard he fucked her, and, as she was learning to accept, how he could take profound control over her. "Please let me cum while I'm stuffed with you!" If he gave her permission, she would have cummed hard enough to gush out from around his girth while shamelessly screaming out his name.

Devils Temptation · Jan 8, 2025

Beg. Beg. BEG. There was nothing else he could even think about in that moment but that sweet, delectable moment that the most powerful woman in all the world - the one he so thoroughly despised -finally cracked and BEGGED to him for relief. Relief that only he could provide, an orgasm that only he could provide her. Nothing made him feel more in control, more powerful than that moment. Veah took EVERYTHING from him and here he was now, buried inside of her, with such a tight grip on her every thought and movement that he practically controlled her. Her every breath, her every pulse of pleasure, her every word. More violent, surging thoughts hit him in that moment - of how good it would feel to wrap both his hands around her throat and wring her neck right then and there, or to drag himself out of her painstakingly slowly while she cried and begged him to remain in like some sort of drooling, needy whore. One hand started to reach forward, palm opening up to cup against her neck. Four, maybe five minutes was all it took... four, five minutes to end her miserable little life.

...

CLENCH.

Cold, sadistic stare glared down in her direction - the psychotic smirk washing away entirely to something mercilessly methodical. Harsh, firm smashes forward while the curve of his palm flattened against the right edge of her throat. He constricted her airway slowly, so she could feel that satisfying crush that tore away much needed breath from her after all the panting, moaning, and screaming in pure delight. The way he fucked her ensured that any breath she tried to desperately choke back in would be fucked right out of her in another rough smash forward. Four minutes to kill her. It only required close to fifteen seconds to cause her to pass out entirely. Tyre said nothing in that moment. Only the squeeze of his thumb against the side of her neck, grip so harsh that it would leave a red streak against the side of her throat.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five...

As the seconds marched on and the inevitably squeeze of her pussy only grew tighter around him with the asphyxiation, he was quickly approaching the point of no return. So fucking overstimulated at that point that the slightest breath on her neck or the most bare minimum graze against her nipples could have made her shatter right then and there... but the command had not reached her ears yet. Had she been feeling light-headed? Dizzy? Maybe her head had gone completely blank in that moment and she was not thinking at all. How pitiful that she would not be in her last few moments... how adorable that she would end up passing on without reaching that rich pleasure of an orgasm she so desperately wished for. Maybe then she would understand... maybe then she would come to terms with what she had done to him, tearing him just at the crux of happiness in her life. He, too, would take so much joy in tearing her from the verge of the highest pleasure, the most earth-shattering climax that needy, neglected young woman had ever tasted in her fucking life.

Five... six... seven... eight... nine... TEN.

... ... ...

"Orgasm, Veah." But that day would not be today. The moment his command hit her ears, his grip loosened just enough with his thumb grazing off her throat to let a low stream of air hit her lungs and throat. Not enough to make the haze leave her mind but enough to let her SCREAM out harder than she ever had before in her life. Tyre had not given her a smooth, adoring finish like her concubines might have. He fucked her through it. Overstimulated, splattered mess while driving into the spasming woman beneath him. It was only once he felt his own climax rapidly crashing into him a mere few seconds later that he dragged himself out of her body - flattening his girth against her throbbing, reddened core before splattering thick ropes of hot seed all over her once again... but this time, it had not been over her body. Tyre deliberately raised himself just high enough, splattering a thick, messy load of cum over Veah's face and hair. Soon, the drip reached down to her lips and then her breasts. Utterly defiled in that moment but it was the best middle-ground he could manage.

To humiliate her instead of killing her right then and there. For as strongly as he felt intimacy for her, he felt hatred just as distinctly. Breathless pants had the general pulling away from her face finally, one hand grasping her jaw once again. More roughness would surely shatter her in that moment, there was only one reason he bothered to spare her. If she was so soft and vulnerable now... he could make her whatever he wished. To take her where he wanted, to do to her as he wished. Killing her did nothing. He would just be forced to commit suicide soon after or face the guillotine himself. Adoring, soft caresses of his thumb and palm would stroke down the line of her jaw, undoing her blindfold soon after and her wrist restraints immediately after those. "Come here... you fall asleep in my arms, you will wake up in them too. You did very well -" So utterly ruined in that moment... he decided the exact moment she orgasmed, he painted her gorgeous body in his seed, he had even choked her out to force her onto a verge of arousal no one had ever in her life pushed her.

"-good girl, Veah." ...But instead of degradation and further humiliation, what she received was those soft, sweet words in his labored, deeper rumble of a voice and the brush of his palm over her forehead before he pressed a kiss to her forehead. Her expression. The mess. The satisfaction of having fucked her once again... all of it was starting to settle over him in waves. That craving for her only grew where his desperate anger and rage should have. Turning her away from himself, he pulled the covers over them and curled one arm around her waist before wrapping one hand over her breast and burying his girth between her softer, nectar-clad thighs. "I wonder... am I just here for your satisfaction? Sexual relief... is that all it is? Let's try something softer before sleep inevitably steals you from me --" Slowly, he began to grind between her thighs - not quite slipping into her but always brushing her stimulated lower lips with his length. On occasion, the brush against her clit would have him throbbing in delight. The hand over her breast lazily rolled that mound between his fingertips all while he kissed down her neck and shoulder from behind.

"...Do you feel safe in my arms?" A gentle clench of his bicep around her slender, small waist.

"...Do you feel wanted when we indulge in each other like this?" The thrust of his hips, grinding harder against her pussy.

"...You work too much. There's too much pressure in your shoulders, too much anxiety in your eyes. Delay your work tomorrow and spend it with me. You aren't ready to let go either, are you...?" Intimately, the arm around her waist would squeeze over her own free palm, Tyre's lips tracing over her jawline before finding her lips and locking against them in a deep, domineering kiss."...Give me half your duties, my love... just for one day. Let me see this Veah for just a little longer, when the pressure of the world isn't on her. You can do that for me, can't you...?" Sensual, dulcet words dripped into her ear and the throb of his length between her thighs had already felt so achingly hot and needy as if he was going to make yet another mess against her once pristine body.

Her submission... now her power. How much was she willing to offload to the man that was quickly consuming everything about her? For him, it did not matter if it was today, or tomorrow, or even a year from now. The pleasure that erased her stresses, her fears, her anxieties completely for those brief few moments - he would always offer it to her until she accepted that she could not live without him.

Passion · Jan 8, 2025

She had done what he asked. She held back her climax and even begged him for a release. It was unlike her; it was uncalled for, and yet she did it. Instead of giving her his blessing, he suddenly gripped her throat and really put in perspective how much control and power he had over her. As an empress, it was nothing short of a baffling experience. Her mind failed to register how fucked up this all was, as in this very moment all she could think about was how she needed to breathe and orgasm. It made every city she had conquered, every declaration she had written, every impulse and intrusive thought stirred up by Xemva, and overall every ounce of effort put into her feel like nothing. There—blindfolded, bound, and on the edge, she didn't lie there as an empress but as a fractured woman—deemed cursed even to be born.

… And that was exactly what she was. She was a reflection of what everyone feared and hated about her before she could even talk.

A sense of instinctive panic washed over her, which put her in a chaotic state due to her desire to survive mixed with potent ecstasy. It wasn't only Veah who was concerned with how easily someone she was still learning to trust took complete control over her. Her very life was in his hands like he was her GOD, but... he wasn't the god she prayed to.

While she couldn't see that maddening look on his face through her tear-stained blindfold, there was another pair of eyes on him—Although the room was hot with their lust and colliding bodies, an abrupt coldness filled the room. Cold enough it made their built-up sweat all the more obvious. It was the type of coldness they both knew—Tyre from his homeland and Veah from her curse. There was only one person who was always there for Veah, and even though that was the exact reason why everyone hated her, it was the only person Veah could truly count on.

He was probably too focused in the heat of the moment to notice a towering darkness looming behind him or the way Veah breathlessly mouthed the name of her goddess. However, there wasn't any ignoring the heavy, dark, and divine presence beyond mortal understanding behind him. As the dark goddess stood between the physical realm and beyond, nothing would happen, and yet it would feel like Xemva had her own chokehold on the entire room as if time had stopped; it hinted at the weight that Veah was forced to carry every day of her life on top of an entire empire Her appearance was a warning for now and in the future. If he killed her, he would face divine punishment beyond this realm.

When he released her throat, she took a sharp inhale, and the looming presence abruptly disappeared as quickly as it appeared. The being seemed to only care that Veah breathed. The warmth would return to the room again as Veah obeyed while screaming out of pure bliss and instinct while tears continued to saturate her blindfold. While she couldn't verbalize his name, they both knew who she was screaming for. Her sweetness squirted out of her while her body twisted and jerked from overstimulation while he kept fucking her without mercy. She had never felt like this before. She had never come this hard nor did she even know it was possible. Her body trembled excessively as she nearly passed out during release purely due to its physical and mental intensity. This high was so much stronger than any drug she had ever dabbled with. He would pull out and she would feel his seed land on her face, and she was far too out of it to complain.

It must have been a sight to see the empress so helpless and defiled. No one would ever believe Tyre if he told the story, and yet he did the impossible as he was known to do. He would keep aiming for the stars, as after he freed her from her restraints and blindfold, he offered her sweetness that Veah would have usually rejected. However, she didn't have it in her to protest what had just happened; she felt so grossly and yet beautifully fragile. The man who broke her now was the one offering to soothe her. Usually, only Xemva was there to comfort her, but just like she was forced to accept his lustful wrath, she would be subjected to his softness, which in some aspects was a lot harder for her to handle from her bittersweet lover.

She stirred when he praised her; the look in her eyes hinted at how dazed she still was. Getting praised for enduring abuse? She softly groaned in response; it was hard to tell if it was a positive or negative sound at that moment, but not even Veah knew. It was confusing how conflicting this all was, and so due to mental and physical fatigue, she surrendered her mind once more. It was a good sign that she wasn't thinking much, but she would soon ground herself in her hectic reality once more.

He turned her away only to tuck them in as he held her. She knew she should be on her toes, but at that very moment, Veah wanted to rest. He had praised her, but she sighed. "You made me cry again..." Her voice was both soft and sweet. She didn't seem to like the fact he had brought her to tears again even though it was very relieving to release cries and screams, but tapping into her vulnerability was a profound experience as an overprotective woman. Was he here just for sexual relief? "That is all it should be," she whispered to him and herself. But… was it all it was?

Still very sensitive, she shivered a bit when he rubbed himself between her thighs. Her body was so tired and he crossed many lines, and yet it still wasn't enough for her to dismiss him. She wanted to be here, in his arms. She didn't realize it until he started to question her, and he made her tired brain start to flutter with thoughts that favored him. He could have killed her again, yet he didn't, and while she felt so weak, she did desire a place… a person she felt safe with. One that was flesh and blood like her. Xemva did so much for her, but Veah was being shown how she still needed a human connection, that while she had been thriving as an empress, she had been barren as a woman. She still didn't know how to accept this, but at this moment… she needed him.

She didn't answer the questions he knew the answers to, although they were successful in making her think about him in a positive light. Her body would tense up in his embrace when he mentioned her work. She didn't want to think about it all, at least not yet. Part of the reason why she had so much work was that she didn't trust others with her projects, just like she didn't trust anyone else in any facet of her life.

Finally, he would get an answer out of her. "No…" There was a hint of pain in her voice; she wasn't ready to go back to reality... she wasn't ready to let go. He would soothe her again, this time with a deep kiss that reminded her to stay present with him; only this mattered right now. She would kiss him back with a hint of her passion, an unspoken statement that she was still happily his for the night.

Being here with him wrapped up in the calm after the storm might have been the most peaceful she had ever felt. She didn't want to reward some of his behaviors, and she was sickened by her own contentment, but.... even though he broke her, it almost felt like he was healing her—or it was nothing more than a warped delusion....

"We will figure it out in the morning…" Rather telling compared to bold rejection from the empress. She would postpone figuring that out since it would be taxing in her current state to figure out what she should/could hand over to him. At least he used to be a prince, and so he knew something about ruling, maybe he could be helpful beyond his current usages, but little did Veah know that having him help with her matters could lead to him having even more power.

"I want to stay like this." She sighed happily. "Don't let me go…," an order, but with how delicately she said it, she might as well have begged.

The way he pressed up against her teased the idea of their bodies aligning once more. Even though she was exhausted, she felt receptive… This really could become an addiction… if it hadn't already. "I wonder how many ways you can make me feel amazing…" Something to daydream about.

With a sleepy exhale, she confessed, "I feel so… peaceful." Which was something the paranoid and haunted empress thought she never would say, especially in the arms of a man. The same arms that she would drift off into a rare deep slumber with her guard down and without a worry in her mind. However, not even in her sleep she could escape him. She would find his face that was invading her psyche in the most tantalizing ways possible.

Devils Temptation · Jan 11, 2025

When she had fallen asleep on their first night of carnal enjoyment together... she had not known what happened in that window of time that she had woken up to the sight of Tyre sitting against the windowsill - but those memories had replayed in his head near instantly as she felt her breath deepening and her eyes fluttering close. The way he looked over her, the faint urge to wrap a hand around her throat and another voice in his head coaxing him to graze against her jawline lovingly. Why? Why were both voices in his head? What did she offer him that made him so conflicted on how to face her? Nothing made sense in that moment and all he could really do was agonize over it. Tonight, he understood a little bit more. When he reduced her to just this... a satisfied, peaceful woman - he already destroyed what he sought to destroy. Right now, tucked under those covers and within his arms had not been the woman that slaughtered his nation. Not in a literal sense. What she had been left with, instead, had been a scared, vulnerable young lady. It felt wrong. It felt so mindlessly stupid... but his rage flared the hottest when she assumed the mantle of the merciless tyrant that sat atop the throne of the Empire. Not when she was curled against his chest like this.

"How fucking pointless... if only you could see how pretty you looked when you are like this. I wonder if anyone knows. So beautiful..." A stroke of his fingertip over the ridge of her hair, guiding a few strands behind her ear before pressing an intimate kiss to the curve. There was one other that had known. Tyre had been agonizingly close to meeting her, perhaps she still lingered on the back of his psyche at that moment as well. That chill. The feeling that there was an icy hand on his heart. It did not terrify him. Moments like these had him seeing only one woman... but the aftermath left him deeply unsettled. Divine intervention could easily see through the type of man he was-- but that was just a myth, wasn't it? A curse. Gritting his teeth, the temptation to leave her was starting to pool in his chest again. He hated seeing her in this state.

Strong, shameless, disgusting like some sort of ravaging boar that drooled and tore the ground asunder --

It would be easier if that was all he could see.

It was easier if he could just shut his mind off...

When the sun rose on the next day, a foreign sensation would have enveloped Veah's bed. Mornings were so achingly cold and lonely, to the point that breath could frost over a moment after stepping into the room. Rather than that, she was enveloped in warmth. Pure, aching warmth. Her hand that had been tightly woven against Tyre's forearm would feel exactly that snugly around her waist, palm possessively nestled over her thigh to keep her in a loving embrace. His scent covered her, so too had his warmth. He chose not to leave her that night... or maybe he could not leave her that night. It was hard for him to tell or to process. At some point he had fallen asleep embracing her. Warm breath splashed against her neck and shoulder from behind, the tilt of the larger body of Tyre leaning over her. "You were moaning in your sleep, Veah." Tyre bluntly pointed out, grasping her chin to pull her into a sudden kiss. Both hands grabbed at her wrists to deepen it and he would push himself over top of her suddenly - the first moment that they were up and awake.

"I have a demand to make of you." No doubt that flare of vulnerability would not have lasted this far into the morning... he had already planted the seed in her head, however, and he knew that something like demanding something of her would hardly get him in hot waters. "I want to bathe together in mornings after we sleep together... and I always want you to part from me with a kiss. You may go back to being the Empress the moment you leave these doors... but right now, you are just my Veah. Do you understand?" Tyre's tone had not been harsh or booming. Not overtly loud but there was a firmness to it, the same firmness he held when he gripped her hair tight or wrapped his palm around her throat. A tone that would remind her that no matter what, he would find a way to make her submit to him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Pulling away from her, the moment that he was not gripping onto her in some capacity... arm around her waist or over her wrist, that familiar chill would start to linger between the two of them. The bite of her Goddess could only be dissuaded with constant warmth and affection. Tyre's broader, scar-lined back would take up the entirety of her view as he stared towards the door. Years of hardened battle stories driving in winding rakes down his back, she knew very little of him aside from what her advisors fed her. Just like he knew very little of her, aside from what the propaganda and rumors fed to her. "Eventually..." He broke the quiet once more. "...you will have to send me back to the battlefield, Veah. Your enemies are numerous and there is always more territory to collect." ...If he cultivated that disgusting, foul conqueror that he so dearly despised, would it be easier to one day end her permanently? Or... was he just running again? He did not feel when he fought and marched. There was nothing. Only a hollow, empty chill in his core.

"Keep me by your side or send me away, the choice is yours. Just remember something for me, my love. Whatever your desires are..." A glance over his shoulder, settling into that momentary, intense and hungering glare. "...I will always satisfy you." Carnal desires, martial desires... he would make sure that he was the only man in the world that she would one day come to obsess over constantly.

Passion · Jan 15, 2025

She had slept in later than she usually did. Like on a cold winter night, the warmth of the bed had kept her prisoner. She wasn't used to such a gripping and comforting warmth. Alone, she was lucky if she became lukewarm after hours wrapped up under her covers, but with him, another direct heat source so close to her, she could escape the chill with the man who could bear the cold.

Her eyes fluttered open, squinting at the morning sun peaking through the curtains. "Mmm… warm…" Maybe she was making odd sounds in her sleep since she was like a sponge trying to make up for the years that she was left in the cold. This was the first time she fell asleep with someone. She had concubines pass out in her bed before, but she never snuggled with them to slumber. Even if they tried, they met the empress' frozen heart. However, her time with Tyre brought to life new experiences and warmth. Ones that went against her domineering coldness, but how could she argue when she felt this comfortable… this at peace?

When sleeping, was she actually making sounds? Before she could question him, he turned her head to steal her lips. He would then catch her off-guard by rolling on top of her. Her eyes widened and her face turned a shade or two pinker while they were lip-locked. Still, she couldn't help herself to ease into that sweet kiss. His lips had a way of giving her feelings... feelings that still confused the wise yet inexperienced empress.

That was one way to wake her up; she gave him her attention when he decided to start their day with demands. Demands that… she could visualize. Demands that made her heart skip a beat. As she gazed up at his handsome visage, she couldn't help but wonder why she was so attracted to him. While he hated her even more than she knew, Veah should also hate him for interfering with the coldness that protected her and gave her power. Instead, she was drawn to him, and after waking up in his arms after he had made her submit in ways she didn't know were possible and needed… she was deeply infatuated. She didn't know how to stop it; she didn't know how to embrace it; she didn't understand it…

Yet...

"I understand," she echoed back.

Why was she mindlessly agreeing as if caught under a spell? Her words came out so quickly without even a thought. His demands were doable and sounded rather nice. Too nice…

He had pulled away, and as soon as he did, she sat up, and her arm raised towards him, reaching for the one who made her warm beyond the physical. A kind of warmth that she didn't know existed, and she was becoming dangerously fixated on him practically overnight. She had been a step behind him, but now she was the one who knew he should probably get away from her, as she felt herself falling into this deeper than she meant. Catching herself, she tensed up and dropped her hand, accepting the familiar coldness on her skin and inside of her with every inhale.

"We should probably save the bathing for next time." She couldn't subject herself to more of his warmth right now. "I already am behind on my duties for the day." Maybe he could still help her out, but Veah was the type who didn't trust others to handle her work.

"My army is vast. I do not need to send you to the battlefield unless I wish it. At this point, I believe your mind is more useful to me than your sword." While he was capable of great things, he was only one man. A man who could make a bigger impact on a war by sharing his insight compared to a single sword. "I will be sending you away from my presence for a bit." She needed to get her head on straight and let these feelings simmer down before they took over more of her mental space. "But you are not to avoid me like you did in the past." Her eyes narrowed on him.

So… what next?
What did she desire besides being consumed by his warmth?

"You are to prepare to travel to Zyrris with me and a few of my men by tomorrow. We might have to camp, but I do plan on stopping by a few inns." Zyrris was a faraway city that was recently raided by Veah's army half a year ago. It would take them a few days just to get there. A decent amount of the empire's soldiers were stationed there, and it was an off-and-on battlefield. "I will be making an appearance to try to quell the flames so we can stop wasting resources. If that doesn't work, you will help me use the soldiers we have to officially eliminate the stubborn idiots who seem to be begging for punishment." She sighed; if only everyone submitted to her cruel rule. "It is hard for me to travel these days, so I have a few matters I have to attend to first." She had to trust her advisors to handle the empire while she was gone, and she knew having days to plan would be best but... she would overplan, overthink it… then probably never leave. It was best she just focused on a few critical things. After all, they should be back in about a week or so.

She stood from the bed, standing there naked without shame, although she would have some if she remembered she carried the stains of his seed. "You will help me, spend time with me, and possibly show me what you look like when you slaughter." She bit her lower lip, quietly fantasizing about his power. Wait… why? She had a sea of men in her army, and yet he was the only one she was fantasizing about like this. A man's power shouldn't mean anything to her. It was HER power that mattered. Nonetheless, she would get what she wanted.

"Although, as much as I want to see it and take part, I am going there to try to prevent more bloodshed. I've learned that I need to have more people alive to repopulate and more buildings standing so they can work instead of rebuilding." Her wrath and greed for power were blinding, especially when she first rose to power; oops. If only she had the same mercy on his homeland… Maybe at least a few of those he loved would have survived. She stepped closer with a questionable grin on her face. "Maybe we can even find some fun on the way." The hint of the monster he hated was in her voice; the sadistic empress that learned to take pleasure in suffering since she was so familiar with it. Only her dark goddess knew what twisted thoughts she was having, now with him at her side.

Devils Temptation · Jan 16, 2025

To think... that she had been getting soft to even refer to him as just one lone man. How long had it been since she was on the battlefield? One good general could turn the tide of a war with staggering results, to the point that some work could even be called miraculous. A small twinge of irritation would twist in his core at the thought of that. The fact that she seemed to reduce him to a mere footsoldier. It was not just his mind. It was the union with his steel and his mind that made him so dangerous on the battlefield. Why, after all, would someone follow a general into crippling odds time and time again? Because he rode in front of them, without fear, believing in his own plan more than anyone else would dare to. A brief exhale would have him pulling those thoughts back. It was baffling he already seemed to think of serving her this much... and so he would merely give a single, muted nod to her demand to not avoid her.

You are to prepare to travel to Zyrris with me and a few of my men by tomorrow.
We might have to camp, but I do plan on stopping by a few inns.

...A campaign alongside her? After everything she had said, his brow would arch in surprise and he would stare deep into the Empress' eyes, as if searching for something. Softer orbs grazed over her own for a few moments until a harsh reality would sting him. Cold water thrown onto his conscious when her tone started to grow a little more guttural and brutal. The very same woman that coaxed him, goaded him to hang her enemies and humiliate anyone who dared to go against her. The very same that would have happily made an example of anyone he adored. Subconsciously a tremble slipped through him. Teeth gritting under the veneer of a calmer expression. Conflict pooled up inside of him in that moment. To perform as she asked or to drag his feet and try drawing back the softer, sweeter Veah that cozied up along his side. Vulnerable, defenseless, not at all concerned with crushing others beneath her heel.

Those thoughts swirled in his head, eyes drawing up at her bare physique once more... and her next words made that sick knot twisted in his core. What a fucking fool he was. There was no way to separate the woman from the tyrant. That was her. For him to delude himself for even a moment that the panting, moaning, pleading Veah that seemed no more than a vulnerable young woman was inevitably different than the one that stood in front of her now. "...And? Will I be rewarded when my carnage makes you so soaked that you start drooling between your thighs?" Husky, low tone blew against her ear with his own rise - coming to a halt right in front of her. How fucking filthy... to turn into exactly that which he hated. Holding her by the chin, their eyes would lock for those aching few moments and then finally he would release her after pressing one lone, fleeting kiss to her forehead.

Maybe we can even find some fun on the way.

Sick and vile. As he drew away, he only cast one final glance over his shoulder at her. "...Yes. Maybe we can. I must go prepare. Please send for me when it is time." Quiet, hushed tone and the faint embers of a smile before he grasped at his trousers to preserve some hint of modesty before he left her. Near immediately, the smile seemed to fall over his features when he left her room. Passive, empty expression while he lurked through the halls before arriving at his assigned room. Had it been tapped...? Why wouldn't it be? But in that moment he could not even bring himself to hold a modicum of care. Swinging the door up, he set pushed it close with his back and then, without warning -

CRUNCH. SMACK. CRACK.

"Fuck... fuck-- FUCK--!" Everything snapped all at once, knee crashing into the bed's side with one crack of wood after another - even as reddened, harsh streaks ran over his leg. "There for peace...?! You fucking... HOW DARE YOU...!" Smashes would continue in violent streaks, nightstand, bed, walls, floors -- he just did not care anymore. Tyre tore up sheets and shattered foundations, leaving scraps of wood scattered along and hints of his own blood with the copious slams of his fist against walls and floors alike. Did she know...? Did she fucking know and that was why she chose her words like that?! SHE FUCKING KNEW -- it felt like he was going to lose his mind. That moment of unhinged rage only ended when he caught his reflection in the mirror that he was about to SMASH into hundreds of pieces. Unhinged, widened, feral eyes with those bared teeth like some sort of bloodthirsty wolf whose only thought in that moment was tearing apart his prey. This was what he was becoming...?

...No matter. It did not matter how beautiful Veah was to him. He would drag out her ugliest sides and force her to stare right upon that unlovable, DISGUSTING SIDE OF HERS. One last glance over the demolished room before he would leave to prepare...

Just as demanded, Tyre would have accompanied Veah on her departure in a day to Zyrris. Not directly beside her, of course, he remained a healthy distance away practically blending into the company of her most loyal men and made no attempt to get any closer... though nor had he run from her if she approached him. News of his 'tantrum' would have surely been brought to her ears as well though at a glance he looked as calm and collected as he usually had. A few attendants would have run them down on the state of affairs in the city that they sought to head to in the meantime, that small rebel group had suddenly shot into popularity, stealing the allegiance of nearby villages and the larger city itself. Supposedly, it was spearheaded by a former hero of the Empire. A war-decorated veteran that abruptly betrayed the Empire.

That had been the only reason the uprising had not been culled. A skilled, battle-hardened veteran who seemed to know the armies of the Empire better than they had known even themselves. While betrayal was punishable by death, the other faction had promised that they merely wanted certain demands to be met before falling back to peace... or at least that was the rumor. Advisors would assure her that her troops would meet at least a few ambushes from more extremist sides of that faction before they made it to the city. Whatever the case was, the outcome was inevitable. Those territories would return to being loyal and subjugated - either with the traitorous hero alive or his head speared atop a stake to be shown to everyone. Knowing the ways of the Empire, undoubtedly it would be the latter.

Once their march started, it would not stop for anyone. Soldiers closest to her were expected to be the best of the best. Men and women who would not tire and would not slow her down. Tyre's addition to the corps had a chance of going terribly... but as if a man possessed, he showed no signs of fatigue and no signs of slowing down. Effortlessly integrated, he was just as much an icon of strength as any of the others seemed to be. While they had their formation, men were allowed to relay messages to her by riding up. It would have been a few hours into their march that Tyre had broken ranks to approach her from the left. Low, quiet tone met her ear - "I have a request to make, my Empress. If it boils down to a battle, why not end this cleanly? Allow me to duel the hero in return for your willingness to listen to his demands. If I fail... it won't particularly matter, the weak are culled. But -" The snake dripping venom against her ear... "- don't you think allowing the people their beloved local hero will undermine your authority? Let me make an example of him." There was no telling how powerful his opponent was but that hardly mattered. Every time he went to the battlefield, there was the constant threat of death.

Only a fool ran with his tail between his legs at the fear of a strong opponent in war of all places.

Passion · Jan 18, 2025

Veah had known that something wasn't quite right. It was his own demands that they parted with a kiss, and yet he was quick to leave her with her alone violent fantasies. He could hide the truth from her, but it didn't mean she couldn't sense something was amiss. As a woman who was paranoid, his shift in behavior, in the air around him did not go unnoticed. It was unweaving her fixation to pay closer attention... to chip away at the trust she was forming with him.

She would find out that she was correct in thinking something wasn't quite right. Reports of what Tyre had done to his room right after his visit with her did find her. He slept with a beautiful woman; she allowed him to do things she would never let another, and THIS is how he behaved?! He trashed the room she provided him. It wasn't lining up with his actions and words when he was near her, and Veah did NOT like it one bit for more reasons than one.

While many marched, Veah was in her black armor up on a chocolate brown steed. She was focused on the matter at hand. She didn't allow silly feminine thoughts to fill her mind, as they were unproductive and distracting. It was easier to do after what she had heard about Tyre. There were only about fifty men with them, as there were plenty stationed in Zyrris. Honestly, she thought there would have even been less even with the threats of some small rebel groups. She originally was hoping to spend this time getting to know her general better, but her coldness had become extra sharp.

He approached her while she was up on her horse, and she hardly looked at him. "I will not take advice or listen to a man without self-control, nor will I let him lead my men. I strip you of your title of General until further notice." She officially reduced him to a foot soldier, and it seemed she discarded the personal warmth she was finding with him. Just like that, he was left with her bitter cold as he no longer fit the mold that she was attracted to and was a perceived threat. Indeed, she was stubborn and difficult to please, but what was she to think after getting news that as soon as she dismissed him from her chambers after a seemingly good night in which she even AGREED WITH HIS DEMANDS, he had destroyed his room? It was childish, unhinged, disrespectful, and suspicious. Clearly, he hated her just like everyone else and was silly to think that maybe there was more. Perhaps, he only wished to get close to her to lessen her connection with the only one truly there for her, Xemva.

"I was the idiot for thinking we could use this time to get to know each other better, but your mental fortitude is weak." That was rich coming from the woman who snuffed out everything he loved. If anything, Tyre was extremely strong for keeping up this facade and pushing on after all she had done to him. At the same time, Veah kept herself under strict control despite the hardships and hate she faced. Sure, she had a questionable taste for violence and power that could make her manic at times, but no one had ever heard of her destroying her room, screaming like a madwoman, nothing… at least outside of the battlefield; she would suppress it before she became a victim of it like Tyre had.

"You know what I think about the weak.
You are lucky I'm giving you a chance instead of ordering you to
jump off a fucking cliff."

What…? It was as if she completely forgot how close she was to finding her heart. However, the situation was even more delicate than Tyre probably knew, and now she was upset that she had been growing feelings for some man who couldn't control himself.

WEAK.
THEY ARE ALL WEAK COMPARED TO US.
ALL YOU NEED IS ME.

Using her reigns, she directed her horse away from him to continue to push northeast with the rest of the troops. His suggestion now without weight as the empress would continue on with her plans. Giving up on the dream that she would find a deep warmth; it had to be nothing but a fluke. There was a chance she may even sentence Tyre to death after the confusion he caused within her, how he nearly led her away from the cold of her goddess. However, she would have done herself a favor if she had killed him. She still had not connected the dots that his aggression and madness were tied to his hate for her. However, she was surely getting the hint. Instead of going to his room to daydream about the time they had shared and how their trip would go, he instead lost his mind.

Her goal was to reach the town of Kyrel before sundown to properly eat and rest. Everyone else could camp for all that she cared, but the empress did prefer a comfortable bed and warm food when she could have it. Originally, she had planned to spend time with Tyre on such nights, but she would not seek him. - These feelings needed to DIE for both of their sakes... didn't they?

Devils Temptation · Jan 19, 2025

I will not take advice or listen to a man without self-control, nor will I let him lead my men.

Self-control...? She would lecture him on self-control? A woman who knew nothing of how to feel or how to handle her own unhinged cravings to cling to satisfaction and warmth... someone who mistook running from her own desires as some poor excuse for self-control? It was hardly the fact that she had so coldly demoted him, he already knew that the hyper-vigilant Empress would know if so much as a fly had been buzzing in his room, it was more the reasoning that she had taken for it. "I find it hard to believe this is what has you displeased at me, my Empress. It is so easy to reduce others to mere vehicles of what they can offer you, isn't it...? A soldier fights in battle. A concubine satisfies you in bed. What do I do for you? Am I here just to fight? Am I here just to satisfy you? I already told you I did not want that and that you should send me away if you did not want yourself... us to feel. You did not. So why is it so surprising now that you make me feel? Did you really think that you are the only one that felt something overwhelming and foreign those nights?" Maybe she had. He would not put it past someone so merciless to see any other human in this world as below her - cattle to be lead and slaughtered by a proper human. Tyre was beyond groveling for his position, there was no real difference between a general and a foot soldier. No one in the Empire merely was handed a rank because of past accomplishment, they proved themselves through the battlefield. Those that rose to the occasion were the ones that lead others. Those who had not were decomposing in the dirt with the other weaklings of the Empire.

He was still alive even after all this time. That should have already told her everything she needed to know about whether or not he would perish on the battlefield.

I was the idiot for thinking we could use this time to get to know each other better, but your mental fortitude is weak.

"You aren't interested in that." Calm, blunt words would respond to her. Polite, practiced smile as his side-eye met her for one final time. Only a few moments to let the moment sink in between the two of them - even if this had ended up being the last time they would regard each other with affection, he wanted one thing to be clear between the two of them. "I saw the worst of what you were afraid to show others and I accepted you. You saw a scratch on the surface of what torments me and you ran. We are not the same. Remember that." How hollow... some part of him had wished that he had felt some betrayal, some anger in how she had treated him, how quickly she was to turn away from him but the more he thought of it, the more that it became so blatantly obvious that this was the type of person the Empress was. Scared. Cautious. Anxious. So utterly afraid that he was going to do something to her when in reality he was just abhorred to have feed that filthier side of her bloodlust.

You know what I think about the weak.
You are lucky I'm giving you a chance instead of ordering you to
jump off a fucking cliff.

"Thank you for your mercy, Empress. Glory to the Empire." Dry, brief response to her words before he pulled against his reigns back and fell back into line along the remainder of the troop. There was hardly a need for him to offer her counsel as a foot soldier. Tyre took his position further back against the rearguard of the troop without another word of complaint.

Marching as long as she had wanted without rest, while just barely possible in reasonable conditions would turn into nothing short of a nightmare - no soldier in an army directed by her would have been willing to slow down and camp without her presence. Weakness was the key signifier of who was to be killed off and who would survive. No one wanted to be seen as weak... but no one seemed willing to confront the Empress. Not with the uneasy air hanging in the air. Frost and chill from a colder snap had made the air feel like it was frosting in the lungs of her soldiers. It would not be too much longer until a few had fallen off... the supply line would not manage to keep up nearly as quickly either. Tyre had taken note of the more closer soldiers to the woman not mentioning either.

Everyone was afraid.

Had their lives mattered to them that much? He wondered how many people in this army had a family, people to return to - it was no real wonder that the one of the only two who had their entire lineage scorched out would be the ones that would press forward so much more easily. Tyre had no desire to see the army half-dead on the street due to the irritation he caused in her. They could camp but no one would make the decision without her order.

"Move aside. I will ask her to camp." Tyre spoke up against one of the guards riding besides Veah, a man who seemed unresponsive at first even with frosted breathing oozing out from his lips until a warmer hand settled on his shoulder. "Relax. If she is irritated, that irritation will turn on me. You will not feel any of it. Move aside." Softer, more accommodating voice that inevitably lead to him caving. Everyone was travel weary and there was still quite a few more hours until they reached any warm beds or food. Pulling back, the man would allow Tyre to make his way up to the Empress once more.

"We are marching too much for one day. We cannot reach the city before the temperature drops to a dangerous amount. Stop and camp now. I can brace this cold with you. You know that. But they cannot and there is no point if they are on the brink of exhaustion when we arrive at a potential battle. If you're set on arriving, give your men the order to rest and allow me to escort you the remainder of the way... perhaps a little bit of privacy will allow our unresolved hearts to soothe a little more... Veah." A twinge of tenderness in his last word to her as he took her name soft and subtle against her ear. Genuinely, it was not the top brass of the Empire that he cared about. It was the soldiers that fought beside him on the battlefield who he sympathized most heavily with. To others, they were dispensable resources - a reality of war when the casualties piled high... for him, they were alive. Lives, stories, futures. Choking out a death toll on a brutal battle was a necessity of battle and so it was easy to run from those decisions that indiscriminately slaughtered others. This? This did nothing.

The two of them needed to speak to each other in proper. Sooner, rather than later.

Passion · Jan 19, 2025

She stopped her steed and looked back at him. Her icy eyes narrowed with a piercing intensity. "I invited you here BEFORE you acted like a fool. I had thought we could possibly form some kind of partnership." As an empress, she didn't even need to explain herself, but she was anyway. "I should have filled you with feelings of bliss, not RAGE." That was what was concerning. She was aware that they both had empty cores, and it was overwhelming for them to feel anything but a cold void, but she read this reaction as a threat. Funny enough, her instincts were right, although she didn't have proof of it beyond his behavior. "Your purpose has been to lead my men to bring as many victories to the empire. Now you are without one other than to obey and fight." It was so simple… but the feelings and desires he brought out of her did make things complicated and not as black and white as they should be.

"Excuse me?" She turned right around to face him when he made incorrect assumptions. "I WAS interested." She wanted to know why he, this man she knew so little about, was the one who made her feel this way. Why he was special. How he was different from the rest. What turned him into the man who could boldly speak to the empress and still not be sent to death?

"Oh, how can I not see destroying your room after spending time with ME as nothing short of an insult or at least a threat? How the hell does sleeping with me and me being gracious about it cause you 'personal torment'? How can I allow you to take the lead again if you show a lack of restraint when things get too emotional?" She was upset at him, but the empress was more disappointed than anything. It was strange that she even cared about how he perceived her. She saw him as more than just meat, and so she held him to higher, if not impossible standards. Still, for how much she caved... what she allowed him to do to her... from her point of view, he should be grateful, not distressed. Again, the empress did not know of Tyre's darkness, she could only see this as an insult or a warning sign when really, she had secretly (not so secretly) enjoyed being able to let her guard down around him. It felt like his actions stripped that relaxing privilege away from her. It pissed her off that she had to be on edge once more.

"You are right; we are not the same. I am not running, I am protecting myself. My life is more valuable than yours." The empire needed her. As cruel as she was, she was the one who kept them safe, fed, paid and gave them a chance at a new life. She had a goddess counting on her as well.

Not only that, but Tyre didn't care if he died; he risked his life each and every time he spoke back to her and that was why he never worried about her threats. However, Veah was a survivor; she would fight to keep going. She would protect herself from the mindless and sudden aggression communicated by his actions that were tied to her right after she allowed herself to be beautiful and fragile.

She was missing pieces of the puzzle. She had no idea that he didn't like her brutality and how it devasted his life, and so she drew her own conclusions. She didn't even ask why he had done it, not trusting the sweet lies he might tell.

"You are cute if you truly think you saw and accepted the worst of me." There was much the pair didn't know about each other. So many scars, desires, dreams.... He had only scratched the surface too... but just a bit deeper.

Veah always hated traveling north.
That was why she had burned down Flora so viciously.

Her endurance to the cold was beyond human thanks to Xemva, but she still hated it. It was an unpleasant sensation that she just couldn't escape, and the chill of the north only lessened her chances of having a moment away from the cold. She had hoped to get to Kyrel, to sleep near a fireplace after a bowl of hot stew, but time was not on their side. She could have kept going, but her men could not. They were not all on horseback nor could they endure the cold night without camping. They were not cursed like her. She still wanted them to push. If they could march a few more hours, then maybe…

He approached, and she refused to look at him as he spoke, but he would get a glance when he said her name with tenderness. She shouldn't allow it, but for as sharp as her tongue was, it froze. She liked it when he said her name... "I said I would not take advice from you, but even my horse has slowed." She then turned her head towards a group of her men. "Are you all really that tired already, or just THAT incompetent?! If you all were as strong as me, we would already be Kyrel eating stew!" She turned her head and spat into the snow. It was fair to say the empress was not in a good mood.

Just like she had learned that she couldn't kill everyone in the communities she conquered, it would be worthless if she only had an army of frozen corpses; pushing them would hurt more than help at this point. "Halt!" Everyone stopped moving, and a few fell forward and onto the ground, as it was the first time their tied and frozen feet had stopped. "I am highly disappointed in you all." Between the weather and not being able to keep up the pace due to a lack of breaks, she had been expecting the impossible. "You are to camp, and at sunrise, meet me in Kyrel." She hopped off her horse and allowed one of the soldiers to take it to be fed.

"Do you really think you can march a few more hours?" She gave Tyre a look over. With him being a trained northerner, he was a rarity who had a chance of handling the cold much like her. She also would rather not camp here or make the march alone. Not only that, but she still felt like she needed some kind of closure or solution; she couldn't have this personal matter distracting her.

"I am determined to get to Kyrel, so we will go." The empress was not one to give up on her goals, even the small ones, and it was what made her so successful. It was an admirable trait if used for the right reason. "Just in case you have another uncalled-for fit, you are to walk in front of me so I can keep my eyes on you." She didn't like the idea of him leading her, but if he was going to try something, she wanted to be ready. Clearly, she was a lot more paranoid of him compared to the night before when she peacefully slept at his side. They were both so warm and now they were both marching in the bitter cold with heavy hearts and minds.

Devils Temptation · Wednesday at 2:27 AM

Do you really think you can march a few more hours?

No reply. Only a stare dead into her eyes and those few moments to allow her to look him over and confirm for herself whether or not he was capable of making the voyage. After she had confirmed on her own whether or not he was strong enough to make the trip alongside her, he would settle a few paces in front of her just as she had asked until the two of them were off once more. Hands squeezed onto the reigns tightly enough to make his knuckles white - out of her vision, of course, at the mention of the fit being uncalled for. Only the steady crunch of hooves on ice while the two broke away from the larger encampment. There were enough resources on his horse to camp out for the night if necessary but the main supply line would need to be reestablished... hopefully with a more modest pace to the battle. While those who chased glory might have thought wars were won with overwhelming strength - the reality was much more boring. The battlefield was a game of logistics, nothing more - nothing less.

"Veah." Once they were sufficiently far out of earshot from the soldiers behind, Tyre would call her name once more - throwing one glance over his shoulder at the woman. "Why are you so upset at me?" As if it weren't already immediately obvious in the mercilessly cold way she spoke to him prior... but he wanted something a little more. To really get at the core of why it left her unsettled. Had she wanted someone who could control their emotions to the point of being mindlessly cold and empty outside of her presence? For Tyre, there was something a little more fundamental that left him feeling deeply unhinged in moments that he was not with her. As if living two very different lives, the charming general that seduced and warmly embraced the love-scorned Empress... and the bloodthirsty former prince whose only thought was to remove her head from her shoulders.

It was hard to figure which one had been real, which had been fake.

It was hard to tell when she was openly antagonizing him, or if that was just who she was at her core.

It was hard to tell whether the love blossoming had been real or if it was just a delusion that warped him to his core.

Defying her orders could have been a one way ticket to execution when she had the power to do anything but right now... it was just the two of them. If he was going to face judgement, this was the window that she could ultimately do nothing against him. And, so, he broke convention once more and defied her orders. Slowly pulling back, until his horse was trotting right besides her once more and the faint brush of his warmer arm nestled against her own while they trudged forward. "I will be honest with you - I do not like war. I am skilled at it in every capacity but I do not like the type of person it turns me into. Even more so, I do not think you will come to enjoy the type of person I am in the heat of it." The crux of his problem had always been the seething reminder of how utterly inhumane his actions became when the only thing that mattered was victory on the battlefield.

"Methodical. Cold. Merciless. Everything I was not in the bedroom with you. That is what you will see. I have done things in battle that no other man would - and I would do them again for you in a heartbeat... but I wonder, can you really blame me? To be forced to show the woman I am coming to adore just how ugly I can be? Wouldn't it have been so much sweeter to live an idyllic fantasy? A perfect little romance where I provide you everything you need, with none of the vices I possess." But then she made the mistake of bringing him with her onto the battlefield. To trigger that uglier wolf that was waiting in his core. He despised war but there was no denying it... he was battle-hardened. He had a mind for it. Taking the lives of other humans came naturally to him.

Another pause, hand reaching over to gently slide over her forearm to squeeze down on her knuckles. "I am sorry, Veah. I did not want to show you something you already began to show me. I have no intention of running. Whatever you wish to see... I will show you. Just know one thing -" Tender. Soft, low words. Caresses so sweet that they almost chased the chill of winter. It was easy to disillusion oneself that honeyed words and a warm, protective embrace could hide something so supposedly terrifying. The Empress would have heard nothing about it, just that he was a skilled general that provided results.

Nothing of the... type of monstrosity he seemed to be describing himself as. That, too, was by design. There was nothing flashy in his style nor grandiose in his strategies.

The true, unsettling nature of how he fought on the battlefield was only something those that fought alongside him would ever be exposed to... there was good reason that very few dared to have Tyre on their bad side after sharing even one battle with him. "If that is weakness to you, so be it. Nothing I feel towards you has changed. You will have me on the battlefield... and I will happily grant whatever it is you desire." No matter how it would change her outlook on him. Squeezing along his reigns once more, he picked the pace up once more to make his way in front of her to cut through iced ground and snow-clad paths.

Passion · Wednesday at 11:42 PM

Why did her ears strain every time he said her name? It had a way of annoying but intriguing her to the point she often caught herself holding her breath. He had asked her a simple but deep question. One that she realized she didn't entirely have the answer to herself.

Why was she so upset?

His outburst did not alter any of her plans nor directly put her in harm's way. Still, in her cold core was an ache, an ache she learned he could soothe. "I am upset because I wanted you to be happy with me." That sounded a bit too cheerful coming from the cold empress, but it was true. "You had left without even a kiss goodbye, and then you expressed anger behind my back." She didn't want him to be so cold he was void, but she wanted to feel safe when he made her whole world blur. Again, she still didn't know about his traumas, so she could only see this upset being inspired by their shared passion.

In other words, the empress' feelings were hurt, and she had expressed it as the bitter and broken woman that she was.

"It is insulting after all I showed you, let you do, and even agreed to your own rules." He somehow made her bend. "I had thought you would be happy, but you weren't." Ever since the day she was born, her existence had brought upset. No one was ever happy with her other than fleeting or fake moments. He had triggered the cursed girl that everyone hated, and so she gave them something to hate. Tyre was no different. It was why she had spoken without mercy. It was 'normal' for people to be displeased and avoid her, but the way she emotionally lingered around him spoke of a desire to connect beyond hate, but she was too broken to know how to do it.

"I… I have this desire to grow closer to you, but how can I when you aren't even happy? When even when I'm compliant." It frustrated her on a deep level, a struggle she had known since her earliest memories. "I did everything you had asked and opened up to you in ways I have never with another, and from my point of view, you lost control instead of seizing it. It is why I called you weak because I need you to be strong if we were to embrace this. As I told you, Tyre, you have not seen the worst of me." In the end, they were both triggered by each other. She was by feeling that her efforts still brought displeasure from someone she admired, and him for her desire to see his bloodlust that made him sick.

They needed to get to know each other better, and luckily, he would provide her with more of the missing information that better painted a picture. He would defy her, and she would knowingly narrow her eyes at him. He would open up to her, paired with a gentle touch.

She would remain quiet, letting him speak as she took in each and every word before he rode back in front of her. "Tyre, you said you will do whatever I wish, and I've asked you to help bring me victory and to show me your strength. You know how I fight, and yet you have been a general leading such battles?" It was a tad confusing for someone who didn't like war, but she understood the core of the issue. "I see battle as a chance to be free, and murder can be an art." Maybe Xemva had influenced her a bit too much. "I wanted to see your strength for myself. Was I wrong in that?" The empress was 'never' wrong, but he knew how to fight and make miracles happen, and she wanted to see it for herself.

"After this, how about you retire from the battlefield?" Her tone was light. Such a statement could be cold, especially given how the empress was, but there was a hint of compassion in her words. "You could still help with strategy from my castle without marching on the battlefield." An idea, one she wondered if he would take to get a little more relaxation in his damaged life.

"I… can't explain why… but... I want you to be happy, Tyre." It was twisted. She wanted him to be happy to the point she... stripped him of his title? That she would suggest he jump off a cliff? Yeah... it confused her too, but if he was going to be unhappy like the rest... break like the rest.... her feelings getting involved and relying on the breathtaking warmth he gave her inside and out only put her at risk of pain and distraction. - Veah was a cold woman who ruined the lives of countless people. She never cared about the happiness of others unless it benefited not her personally, but the empire. However, with Tyre, it was personal. Perhaps at least on Veah's side, while she didn't understand them, these feelings were not a delusion and despite her blunt words earlier, they would not easily fizzle out. She was even more impacted than she realized.

Devils Temptation · Friday at 6:18 PM

I… I have this desire to grow closer to you, but how can I when you aren't even happy?
When even when I'm compliant.

To think that was why she felt hurt... if only she had known that it was nothing she could have done now, or in that moment, that would ever outweigh the deep loathing she had grown inside of him from before they had ever met. Rather, it was much of the opposite. The more he learned about the Empress, the more turmoil that vendetta inspired within Tyre. To despise her. Or to adore her. Every day she seemed to claim that she had not seen the worst of her - perhaps directly he had not, but he had seen far more of the ugliest of her actions and their results on those around her. Families, countries torn apart and for what? Just to take an inch of land at most? Everything was so much better when she was a defenseless, vulnerable girl. Easily moldable, easily dissociated with the tyrant that had torn his life apart... but that could have gone for either of them. Whatever he had become now, he already knew that it would have made his Marisol sick to her stomach -- but what about her? How would she feel, seeing how he behaved on the battlefield? Disgust? Terror? Or elation that dug deep into that sick sense of joy she got out of violence?

I see battle as a chance to be free, and murder can be an art.

"I do not agree. It is nothing more than a means to an end. The most effective battles are those that are single-mindedly efficient. Brutal, one-sided cullings. There might be some that savor those moments but I am not one of them. I complete my task. Nothing more, nothing less." Precisely the reason why words like honor and glory meant nothing to him in the battlefield. Just for a faint few moments, his expression would soften as she asked him for consolation - to tell her that she was not wrong, to assure her that she was not losing her mind and, in the process, someone she had come to care for. "If you want to see my strength, I will show it to you... but I ask of you to keep my concerns in mind." Momentary pause as she dropped words upon him that he would never fathom leaving the lips of a woman such as herself. ...Retirement? Off the battlefield? One of her generals, in a country like this? There were any number of ways to say it where the true meaning was merely to get lost - to leave her sight and never return...

Until she had said those few words to him.

I want you to be happy, Tyre.

SQUEEZE.

His knuckles would turn white at how harshly he had gripped his reigns. Why...? Why could she not have had that heart for the rest of the people around her? How could she be so hypocritical? So fearful and merciless of those that did nothing to her? Why was he the only one graced with this Veah? They halted one final time, Tyre's expression sinking all the same as if she had, yet again, disappointed him. Grasping the lead of his horse, he wrapped it around his wrist and slipped off to approach her. One step at a time until he was dangerously close into her personal space, beside her horse. "Get off." Soft. Had her concern been of his anger spiking, the gentle flutter of his tone - faintly frosted by the cold would help to set that notion to ease. Both hands held out for her to gracefully receive the assistance and be helped off her horse. Of course she had not needed it, he provided it only so his hands could wrap against her hips... and bring her achingly cold body right into his embrace, one palm pressing against her jawline to bury a kiss against her lips. Deep, invigorating warmth and those stronger arms draping around her to cloak both herself and him in the warmth of his body.

Tyre would rest his chin atop her head and for a few moments, merely remained there to savor her scent and her warmth. "I cannot leave the battlefield." Spoken even softer than before, low rumble right against her ear with a handful of her hair spilling between his fingertips to stroke down her scalp. "Do you know why that is, Veah?" Ah - what a disaster this had become... for those words to even leave his lips - for him to even consider them. "I have come to start loving you very dearly. If I do not fight, someone else will. If that someone else loses, you will be in more danger. And so, I will fight - because the woman I care for will be in danger if I do not. Now, look at me." Thumb tracing over her jawline, he lifted her gaze up one more time to nestle his forehead against her own. Shadowy, darker eyes staring dead into her orbs. As piercing and terrifying as her gaze could be...

"You grow more beautiful every time I see you... but all too fussy as well. Will you have me executed one of these days? You taunt me with the option, as if it is anything frightening. Being separated from you is the only thing that worries me at this point." For better... or for worse - she was his only reason for living. Both palms tucked against her cheeks, driving more of that aching chill away and for him to press one final kiss to her forehead before tightening his hand over her palm to tug her towards him.

"Now... we can march for the next four hours and be miserable... of which if we do, you will be riding with me so I can hold you -- or we can camp here and share our warmth again while we talk on more... vulnerable and intimate matters. The choice is yours my fussy, bratty little winter blossom." Had he been running? Delaying being on the battlefield for longer to delude himself into savoring whom Veah... who he was outside of it? Maybe. At the end of the day, it did not matter. He wanted to hold her in that moment, to comfort and console her, and to also hear from her... that she would not turn her back on him when she saw what he could offer her in the fields of battle.

Passion · Saturday at 12:03 AM

It was no surprise that they didn't see eye to eye. Not many saw life through the same dark lens as Veah or had to face the same heart-wrenching experiences as Tyre. It still puzzled her why he was so concerned, especially regarding what she thought. There were many ruthless men in her forces, and she supported it. The bloodthirsty nature of her men and her generals' smarts brought many victoriously brutal battles. What could he possibly do when she was desensitized to such horrors? If only she could also be numb to these longing and growing feelings inside her.

It irritated her that she couldn't shake these feelings for him. It was making her act and feel so… strange. Her only focus should be what she was going to do when they arrived in Zyrris. However, what actually felt most pressing to her was this heavy ache in her heart for him. One that had her acting cruelly and now expressing herself. She felt like she was on the cusp of some great unknown, but she had her whole empire to worry about, not these stupid butterflies… but…

Get off.

She looked at him for a few long seconds. Her cool eyes read him closely, hesitant after confessing how she felt. Taking his hand to prevent slipping from her slightly stiff legs from the grueling cold, she dismounted her horse. His hand found its way right below her armor to find a much more feminine hip as she wrapped her arms around his neck to secure the embrace. "Tyre…" She whispered against his lips right before they touched. For a moment, they were locked in a bubble of warmth of body and emotion as she kissed him back, using her yearning to help fuel the impassioned kiss. She had thought she wouldn't experience a drop of warmth until they reached Kyrel, but there she found it with him. His lips renewed her body and spirit some from the taxing venture.

When the kiss naturally broke, she was breathing a bit harder as her emotions were now simmering. "Sometimes I want to kiss you until I'm breathless and my lips are numb." Still, it was hard to wrap her mind around the fact she couldn't blame something like the nectar for these overwhelming and foreign feelings.

Her arms remained locked around his neck as he explained why he couldn't leave the battlefield. His words touched her more than she wanted to. So many would do whatever she wished, but she knew they did it out of fear. Tyre did not fear her, and yet he still wished to protect her. Not only that, he spoke of amorous feelings. Ones that caused her whole body to tense.

He had to be lying or insane, right? Who would develop loving feelings towards a girl who everyone hated? A girl that never had love given to her, and so she never gave it back. If it hadn't been for the fact that her feelings for him had blossomed too much for her to deny that something deep was taking place, she would have called him a liar. She would have told him to fuck right, but…

She couldn't explain away why it felt like her core glowed whenever he was close or she looked at him...?
Why did it upset her so much when he seemed displeased....?
Why did she worry about him... ?
Why did she catch herself daydreaming about him again and again...?

WHY DID HE HAVE THIS EFFECT ON HER?

WHY?!?!

It drove her CRAZY, but also made her heart soar.~
It was so much easier, safer, and more productive to not care,
but she was aching for a resonant connection.

"I don't need you to protect me on the battlefield as much as I need you to protect me when I sleep beside you." She had a whole army and a cursed god on her side, and often she didn't join in battle unless she wanted/needed to. "You could still help me with tactics or as a guard back at the castle. You don't need to be front and center to help me. If anything, I probably prefer you not." She nuzzled her face into his torso a little more to greedily take in his presence and warmth. "Accidents happen, and if you were to perish without my say or if you leave me with no choice…" She let her words linger with a heavy heart. the empress wanted to protect him too. To care about his happiness… to worry about his safety…

"If you fear being separated from me, then you should value your life. As in death, we part." From not testing the empress beyond a certain limit to any recklessness out of a lack of care for his own life if he wished to stay with her. While he stated their options, it was the words he had used to describe her that she hung on. "I am not fussy, nor am I bratty." No matter what word one wanted to use, the empress sure was a difficult woman, but those words she wouldn't use to describe herself.

"I am bitter at this entire world and my fate." She paused to let the weight of her intense words sink in. Strange how she cursed her fate given she was the most powerful woman in the world. "I never had the chance to ripen sweetly before I matured into someone bitter, but at least I have survived."

A soft sigh escaped her. "I've been focused on getting to our checkpoint in Kyrel. A warm bed and meal are waiting for us when we arrive." That was motivating enough for her to brave the cold that was even starting to gnaw at her. While her tolerance was above human, Veah still had a limit. "While we are behind schedule, we can set up camp for a break, but after a nap and some rations, we should continue on after a few hours." She didn't know how much it was worrying Tyre about seeing him on the battlefield since she was a monster herself, but at that moment, being close to him and chasing after shared warmth sounded more tempting and worth the delay. She would go to her horse and take off a bag of her own supplies. "Even with our closeness, I don't know if we will be fortunate enough to chase away this cold. I feel it in my bones."

She briefly brushed her gloved fingertips against her lower lip in reflection of a recent memory. "I also... want to kiss you more." That want to keep exploring and unknowingly feed her addiction to him was turning into an impulse. A warm fantasy popped up in her mind, one that caused a rare smile to curl upon her lips. "Maybe one day we can rest by a roaring fireplace." Such a peaceful thought for the crimson tyrant. She then grumbled, "We probably could if we were in fucking Kyrel like we should be." Okay, maybe she was a little fussy, but she would help him set up camp. After how magical it felt to rest in his arms last time, she was rather eager to experience a taste of it again.

ᴀꜱʜᴇɴ ꜰʟᴏᴡᴇʀ || ᴘᴀꜱꜱɪᴏɴ & ᴅᴇᴠ

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