Maerad & Arkan // Epsilon
Fandom: Books of Pellinor
Couple: Maerad x Arkan
Theme set: Epsilon
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: They all Belongs to Alison Croggon... though I'm sure she doesn't mind me borrowing them for the afternoon. Quotes in Picture and Ghost are from The Riddle by Alison Croggon, p 395 and p 404 respectively.
Last
They were doomed from the start, star-crossed some would say, a love bound by hate and betrayal, it could never last.
God
Maerad would never forget the first time she saw on Arkan, the vitality of his face paired with the ageless depths of his eyes lent him an intoxicating omnipotence.
Wall
She stood before him, stiff, implacable as steel almost, he’d smiled at her imperviousness and she’d almost returned the gesture.
Young
White like the snows that bound his home, Arkan reflected as he surveyed her skin- and young, so very young.
Naked
She felt naked before his gaze, as though he’d stripped her very flesh away and looked upon her barest self.
Wait
Arkan had time, time to make her succumb, he thought as he studied her straight backed, prideful form, she would fall; he would make sure of it.
Motion
He filled her with a strange feeling; an endless motion that flipped somewhere in the region of her stomach.
One
Alone for so long he yearns for another, he yearns for the completeness he feels it will bring him and she seems so perfect for the part.
Blur
She was the firelily, he the Icewitch, fire and ice, two polar opposites; would fire melt ice to quench the flame?
Power
In knowing her Truename he was able to keep her powerless, pliable and so he was able to mold her to his wishes.
Wrong
Maerad thought there was something unsettling about Arkan's home as she wandered its halls; then he found her, and all she could think of was him.
Soul
The faint shudder Arkan felt as he took Maerad’s arm pleased him no end, she was falling- fast- she would soon be his.
Cool
She often flinched under his gaze and the endless power behind it, the features of his face so harsh yet so alluring.
Mad
Anger consumed him when she suggested that he knew nothing of love or grief, he knew well enough of the pain they brought, that they would bring again.
Learn
There was still dissent in her eyes and, most pleasingly, fear, but she will come to obedience in time Arkan mused.
Stop
Despite all that he had taken from her, all the pain he had caused, there was still that wanting, even as she riled against it, she could not deny it.
Precious
Always he watched her, guarding her like some priceless treasure.
Gentle
His hand was soft as it held her face, she couldn’t hide the desire that his touch sparked: neither could she hide her humiliation over his triumph when he recognized it.
Now
With his touch Maerad forgot all that had gone before, all that mattered was this very moment.
Hold
On the worst of nights, when the memories were almost too much, he would fantasise about her touch; about merely having someone to hold, it had been so long.
King
He offered her a kingdom, a place by his side, a part of her wanted to accept.
Wash
The searing heat of the water was welcome on her skin, scorching away the dirt of her recent past, but it was unable to remove the trace of his icy touch.
Torn
They had both lost things dear to them, had both been betrayed, maybe it was that common pain that connected them is such strangely profound ways.
Change
In time Maerad learned to observe him, to use his seesawing moods to her advantage, to use Arkan as he sought to use her.
Need
There was a pull within her; a desire for him, she cursed her treacherous heart.
Book
Arkan called her a liar, named her various faults, her weaknesses, it scared her that he could reads her so deeply.
Fortune
It was some cruel twist of fate that she was the foretold, but would he still have cared for her if she had been a mere bard, she thought not.
Sudden
The return of her magery filled her with surprise and the hope of escape, and she shielded it from Arkan's constant vigilance; but still, deeper, there was the guilt of wanting to go.
Bothered
It bothered him that she would shield her presence from him, what could she have to hide?
Picture
“To Kiss him would be like kissing a river,” Maerad thought, she would surely drown in it; consumed by his power.
Sing
Love was needed to sing the Treesong he told her, was it then love that he offered?
History
As he spoke of Nelsor and the Treesong, he revealed a deeper side of himself that Maerad thought not to exist; a part stung by the cruelties of the world.
Safe
She knew that she would never be safe with Arkan, he was too wild, too bound by his elemental side, that was why she had to leave, she reasoned, why she could never stay.
Attention
He had never imagined there would come a day when she would command his sense, when he would treasure the warmth of her skin against his.
Thousand
She paused counting the heartbeats, cursing her inability to decide and her deeper knowledge that she would indeed leave when a part of her so desperately wanted to stay.
Vision
“None of this is real,” She reminding herself as she stumbled from Arkan-da, “What he offered wasn’t real,” she muttered through her fears, fighting the urge to turn back.
Ghost
“I am the hinge of every question” was all she wrote as goodbye, all that she would leave him to find and ponder over in her absence.
Harm
He could understand how he had hurt her, betrayed her even, but he still raged that she had the impunity to try and run.
Command
The world was being torn apart around her, his anger thickened the air, his voice commanded her return; Maerad found herself on the edge of compliance.
Never
He hadn’t thought her capable of escaping, had thought her too deeply ensorcelled to even attempt it, the knowledge that she had deceived him tore his heart afresh.
Shadow
He was surprised by the sorrow that overcame him when he found her beyond the mountains, when he knew she would not be coming back.
Eye
Her choice to leave was irrevocable, she knew that, could see it and it hurt, yet it also brought a strange lightness, a release, to have finally chosen.
Goodbye
There was always apart of Maerad lingering in his abode, a feeling that would not pass, that would not let him forget.
Hunger
Each had hungered in their own way for things the other could never give.
Hide
There were moments when she would regret what had happened, but she would bury these feelings deep and smile, reassuring herself that everything was just fine, that she was fine.
Child
He watched her as she moved trough life, a habit he could not cease; he witnessed her built a family, a home; felt the jealousy her happiness without him brought, felt forgotten; but mostly, he waited, waited for her to pass on, waited to be free.
Drive
During the long hours spent riding between schools Maerad would sometimes let her mind wander to Arkan and the dull ache he’d left in her heart, he was now one love among many, but he always bore the distinction of being the first.
Time
He was a creature beyond time, never aging, never changing; locked forever in a single state, she would eventually be worn down by it, her elemental blood could not prevent that.
Believe
In her waning years she came to the belief that he had loved her, that he had never meant to hurt her, it was comforting to be able to forgive.
Fool
There came a day when he could no longer feel the distinctive print she made on his mind; she had departed the world and he wept for the grief flowering within him, for freedom could not be bought with death.