Finally, after deciding the Euphoria was at last due too end, I slowly turned the spigots and let the spray of water turn to a faint trickle, standing for a moment there as I envisioned myself, different from as I had seen myself in the mirror. Not covered in blood and gore of a past life but...

Clean.

It was with a smile that I left the stone chamber and gently dried myself with pale linen, not realizing until now how truely large my body had become. Still with "Sleek" form, but now broader, more thickly muscled, and with those odd horns now too compensate for, a strange unbalance upon my head.

I finished my own drying, but today, instead of taking up my old knot, let my mane of white flow free over my shoulders, down my back and over my torso.

I wrapped the linen about my waist, a faint attempt at holding modesty, even before one who had seen me essentially bared in all my "glory".

"There you are." I said as I exited. "And what is it that... oh my..." I was momentarily breathtaken, looking at the work of art that I could only assume was made for me.

I crossed the room slowly too stand before the bed, amazed by it, "dazzled" as most would put it. "Tis a beautiful thing..." I murmured, suddenly oblivious too all things about me.

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"If you are to become the Dark Lord of the Warriors, you must look the part, my dear fiance," she whispered, her voice suddenly low and sultry, bearing unseen but not unnoticeable pheromones upon their silken backs.

"From this day forth you are Cult Assassin no longer, by what means only the gods themselves know, but are Lord and Heir Apparent to the title. This is shown not only by the tattoo upon your wrist, but now by what I give to you this day."

Waiting no longer, she suddenly reached out and took up that wrist between her hands. Turning it upward so that the tattoo was fully exposed, she cradled it in one hand while the other reached toward it, claws fully bared. That of the forefinger touched the tattoo, pressed hard, harder, sinking into the new Sith flesh, slicing now and slicking it once more with welling blood. But the blood now seeping forth was not red but purple; smiling with delight she quickly finished the task of completely tracing the tattoo with her claw until it stood out in sanguine splendor upon his wrist.

Then she did the same with her own, holding it out to him when finished.

"It is our way, my Lord," she said simply. "One does not need to parade that before others which is most sacred and intimate to our hearts. By now mingling our blood and the Claims to Titlement, we become bonded as one, mate and mate, both heir to the Dark Lordship and Ladyship of the Warriors.

"United until death does us part."

Stopping there she waited, for the remainder of the personal ceremony was indeed in Rykounagin's hands.

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Then, orthodox or not, I gently leaned across the small space between us, where arms met and blood mingled, and kissed her in the faintest and slightest of ways, before gently pulling back from it to look into those ever odd eyes of hers.

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Greater was her surprise when, in seeking inward, she found no reactive malice therein.

When did this happen? How had her father ever known...?

Hers was not to wonder why. How was she to know the drive of genetics, how would she care to understand the fact that she was indeed her mother's daughter.

It was of no importance. What was of importance was the simple fact that hatred had been thoroughly and effectively squelched, and replaced by a love which while not perhaps of the wildly devoted variety, at least dared raise a trembling head to announce it's presence to her.

She found that surprisingly pleasing as well.

A rare and genuine laugh bubbled from her lips, and she hefted up the rich robes of State.

"Please, my husband," she said, drawing out the word with another shiver of delight.

"Dress yourself, that we might go out and present you not only to those within this Temple, but to Phrinnchatka as well. For this is the first of two great days: the day you became true Heir to the Title...

"...followed, hopefully in short order, by the Day you become Dark Lord of the Warriors. And I, your Dark Lady."

[ 02-13-2006 01:42 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by ShaRhylla ]

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Snarling, I threw the Sith's equivalent of a bar of soap at the grinning imp, then turned and pressed the front of my body up against Terrin. After all, there are parts of a lady's anatomy nobody should see but those most intimate to her, and a drooling, slobbering, grinning poison-tailed thing most assuredly did not qualify for that luxury.

Even if I hardly considered myself a lady.

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