Back to the Beginning

[Cameron Centurion]

Two Hundred Kilometers Outside Al-Zeresh
Endelaan
Occurs 5 Months Prior to A Promise is a Promise

Aiden practically bolted from the Delta-class shuttle as it landed on the largest stretch of flat, dry land the Sith could locate. Ordinarily, he had a crew to operate the vessel for him, but he was not so foolish as to engage in such a pursuit when traveling to his ancestral homeworld. In over eight centuries of life, the Sith Lord had never set foot on the planet. He wasn't really...sure why he had traveled there now. Would things be different on the world since the stories he'd been told by the oldest known maternal and paternal progenitors of his family? How had the Gulag affected such an isolated location?

Perhaps if you weren't the most untalented pilot you know, you could have surveyed the planet from the sky first, Aiden. The internal chastisement...really did not last very long. The art of aviation was one that he continued to maintain was...largely unnecessary. There never seemed to be a shortage of pilots, and most vessels had such sophisticated navicomputers that they could fly themselves if you simply knew how to follow a few procedures and plot a course.

Those thoughts melted to the background however as Aiden's silver-green gaze rolled over the horizon. There was a...sense of something. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he knew it was there, buried deep into the very core of the planet. Dropping to a knee, the Sith Lord gently placed a hand to the cool, long grass. His form partially obscured by the tall stalks, Aiden closed his eyes and allowed his presence to expand.

At first, the expansion was slowly, meticulous even. However, with each passing moment, Aiden found that the planet seemed to react and shift to his presence. The sensation was...invigorating, and it begged him to go further, to unleash more of himself unto the environment. Overhead, what few clouds existed seemed not to build but...abate. The intensity of the sun pulsing down to the surface warmed his exposed back as a soft breeze began to ripple through the air until it had built into something that was nearly a full fledged gale-force wind. Oddly enough, Aiden's own body seemed immovable.

In the next moment, something Aiden had not expected happened. On the air he heard a whisper...or rather he thought it was on the air. "My son..."

Aiden's eyelids shot open, but it was not the form of his birth mother's body. Instead it appeared to be the actual body of Boadicea. "Boadicea...?"

"You finally made your way home."

Aiden's eyes narrowed, only now aware of the strong wind ripping through the area and causing his hair to ripple violently behind him though his body did not move at all. "You told me I was not to journey here until you deemed me ready."

"You were told many things, sweet boy. Some you needed to hear, others you needed to head."

He probably shouldn't have been surprised that a dead woman never changed. "I wasted centuries being your loyal pawn."

Boadicea seemed to smile even broader at the surge in her descendant's anger. "Mmm...my how you have grown. You remind me of your father."

Aiden rolled his eyes. "Cameron Centurion and I share blood, nothing else."

A giggle, this time. "Oh I think you'll come to find that you share much more, but you are correct. He was not truly your father. Regardless, all the men of this family share several...similar traits. This is not necessarily inherently bad or good. It is simply a truth. What you do with this truth...will determine the type of man you are remembered as."

Slowly, Aiden came to his feet. "What do you want?"

"I do believe that I have missed quite a few birthdays. Let me make up for it..." The form of Boadicea, whether she was truly there or merely a figment of Aiden's imagination, surged forward in that moment. Delicate fingers were brought to the large Sith Lord's temples and then...an onslaught of information, knowledge, and memories.

Pain seared through Aiden's body at the contact and lingered for what seemed like hours. In truth it was little more than five minutes. The instant the pain receded, the Warrior collapsed to his knees, hands planted firmly in the grass. When he looked up, vibrant silver-green eyes saw nobody.

Slowly, Aiden came back to his feet and began to walk forward. Images and memories of a life and time on Endelaan he'd never seen now drifted through his mind. He could see the reign of Nessarose and Diomedes - more so than he had seen when they had both been here, actively ruling. Similarly, he could see all that had transpired in the absent years, the growth and change. By the time he had finished recounting the new memories, he arrived at a cliff that overlooked a sprawling, sandy shoreline.

For a moment, Aiden's eyes cast down towards the water. So much of the planet seemed alive. It was as if he could feel it pulsing beneath his feet. Allowing a thin smile to touch his features, Aiden jumped from the cliff, allowing his body to fall down towards the sandy shore below.

[member="Nareen"]

 

[Saraya Arenais]

Nareen inhaled deeply. Without any intention of exhaling she allowed the sweet sea air to fill her lungs to bursting point. Standing with sand between her toes wasn't ordinary behaviour for Nareen, nor was it ordinary of any member of Clan Zeresh, but it felt soothing. She had loathed the idea of a break when Dastan had first suggested it and refused it firmly, but the man was stubborn. He was immovable object and she an unstoppable force, though on this occasion the immovable object appeared to have won. Nareen might as well enjoy herself as long as she was here. With the sun beating down on her fiery hair the notion of a dip in the sea briefly crossed her mind. Milk bottle fingers had barely freed her first shoulder of the wispy yellow material when something caught her attention.

A shift in the already ever changing force that travelled the length of her spine with an electric energy that couldn't be ignored, even if she had wanted to. Ordinarily she would have thought nothing of it, but she had been sure the stretch of sandy beach had been empty when she arrived. Nareen turned her head, glancing her glassy blue eyes up and down the length of the sprawling coastline. Just as before it appeared to be entirely void of anyone. As if someone had fired a blaster into the calm morning air she found herself scanning the cliff that overlooked the shores. She found herself momentarily surprised to see a figure standing by the edge. One eyebrow cocked curiously, already aware that whoever it was was in no danger, Nareen simply watched.

The figure jumped. More out of instinct than fear Nareen found herself taking a step back as they fell, though the sharp bottle blue orbs remained trained on the descending form. A flash of tanned skin and a glint of silver-green caught her eye. She felt her heart skip a beat, then spring back to life with a few powerful beats against her ribcage. What on earth was a member of the Royal Family doing here?

[member=Aiden]

 

[Cameron Centurion]

The sound and feel of air rushing by his head filled Aiden's ears as his body plummeted towards the shoreline. With a few largely benign applications of the Force, Aiden managed to control his descent rate in such a manner that he landed very softly on the soft-packed, dry portion of the beach. Booted feet sank into the sand ever so slightly due to the bulk and weight of his frame. Long strands of hair settled around his shoulders just before the Sith Lord ran a hand through the naturally highlighted streaks of hair.

For a moment, the Sith allowed himself to ignore the presence he sensed lingering just at the edge of his peripheral vision. Silver-green eyes focused out over the crystalline waters of one of Endelaan's oceans. Quietly, the formerly errant Prince stepped towards the gently rolling waves. The smell of sea salt filled Aiden's nostrils, playing against the sounds of rumbling waves as they crashed against a handful of rock outcroppings nestled in the shallows.

At that precise moment, something stirred within Aiden. It was something...intrinsic to his entire being that reached for the soul of the planet just as that soul reached for him. Allowing a subtle smirk to settle over his lips, Aiden actually laughed at himself momentarily. He had lived long enough not to place much stock in any one entity's ability to manipulate an entire family throughout the ages. However, he did think that tradition and history had a tendency to...mold certain individuals in a certain way. As Endelaan had evolved in the past, so to would Aiden. This was not the world he had been trained to conquer in the past, his family not necessarily the disjointed mess.

Slowly, Aiden turned his head in the direction of [member="Nareen"] as his smile faded into a more neutral expression. The very instant his gaze caught sight of the yellow fabric that clung loosely to the fire-maned woman's skin and fluttered lightly in the soft breeze, any thoughts of family and purpose seemed to fade...near instantly. Beauty was a seemingly ever-increasing commodity in the galaxy. Aiden had...been in the company of plenty of attractive women. This, however, seemed altogether different.

In typical fashion, Aiden allowed his presence to stretch and roll across the expanse between them. There was no muting of a quality that spoke to precisely who and what he was. However, what he'd not expected was for it to crash against a presence of equal strength. In fact it seemed stronger given the simple reality it held a much more intimate connection to the Force and the planet that it saturated.

A Sorceress... He had met them before but never one of Endelaan. In fact his only real exposure had been Boadicea. Long, casual strides carried the Warrior towards the Sorceress with purpose. Yet - he reached out to her mind, communicating in the tongue of the Ancient Sith, all the same. Who...are you? The closer Aiden's body drew to the curious stranger's, the more something hidden tugged at the core of his being. Naturally, the Sith Lord temporarily dismissed it as little more than physical attraction.

There were so many things, however, that he just...didn't know. There was even more that he simply wouldn't accept until...many months from that moment on the beach.

 

[Saraya Arenais]

Now she was aware of exactly who was plummeting to an otherwise rather grisly death, she didn't feel the sudden urge to save him. Every member of the royal family was gifted in the force beyond words, and if there were words they would be beyond Nareen's ability to comprehend. Still, as the tanned Goliath drew nearer and nearer to the sandy shore Nareen had to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat. It had been centuries since anyone had seen royalty on Endenlaan, and she was about to meet one on a desolate beach miles away from anywhere. It came as no surprise to watch him land on the ground with as much natural grace and elegance as a Prince could muster. Sky blue eyes simply watched his towering form as it drew deep breaths of the refreshing sea air and scanned the length of the crashing waves. Mild confusion crossed her expression as the silver-green royalty smiled, though the emotion was quickly squashed when she felt the ever moving soul of the planet call out. After that Nareen found her eyes closing and a smile of her own forming, though she couldn't tell if it was from the call of the inexplicable magic that blanketed Endelaan or the soothing laugh that flew from his mouth like a bird taking flight. The brief moment of peace was over too soon, even in the darkness created by azure eyes disappearing behind milk-bottle lids, she could feel the heavy weight of his gaze.

What could she do?

In those few split seconds where her eyes met his Nareen seemed to forget everything she ever knew about the complex dance you were supposed to begin when in the presence of royalty. Instead she felt enthralled by him, neither voluntarily or forcibly trapped by the flickering silver-green that seemed to catch the light no matter which way they turned. The sensation took her so quickly and without warning that her mind was elsewhere when the Prince reached out to explore the extent of her powers. Her own substantial force clashed with his, performing a complicated, playful array of steps as it wound in and around his own presence. She should have kept still and allowed him to uncover her down to the last atoms, but she was so taken with his gaze it never occurred to her. When she came to her senses, spurred on by the not so subtle movements of the Prince, Nareen withdrew herself quickly both in step and in power. Almost as if she had placed her pure white palm onto a molten hot surface.

Flaming red strands of hair briefly caught the wind as she shook her head a fraction of an inch. There was little she could do to pull herself together except break her stare and firmly tell herself to get a grip. He was a Prince, yes, but she knew the form. There was no reason for the millions of butterflies that crashed against the lining of her stomach. There was no need for her heart to work double time and threaten to break free from her ribs. All the emotion swirling together was strange, an unknown area that she hadn't had the chance to explore. Lust, perhaps? Desire? Longing? Either way, the suddenness of it caught her off guard, and it showed. Nareen pursed her lips and exhaled gently, breathing out one long, slow, steadying breath. It worked. Nareen took the smallest step forward to meet him, though she tried her best to keep her eyes focused on the yellow dust serving as a floor beneath them and not on the muscles in his chest that seemed to ripple with each movement.

A rumbling voice caught her attention, it came from the core of her mind instead of floating into her ears as normal. The language it spoke in was as familiar to Nareen as the back of her hand, but the sith words no longer tugged at her frayed soul like they once had when she was a child. The Prince somehow made them sound comforting and melodic, like his voice was always meant to be heart in the harsh tongue of the ancient ones. She pressed her coloured lips together softly. Like his, her reply would be speechless. In the aged tongue he had used moments ago she floated her presence into his mind and spoke. My name is Nareen, daughter of Uma, daughter of Deborah, of Clan Zaresh. She risked a glance in his direction and was left breathless by his closeness and the sudden realisation that her cheeks were flushing. Your highness. Nareen added quickly on the end, remembering herself a moment later. It was better late than never. Her lilting words were accompanied by a subtle curtsy that saw the edge of her dress briefly blend in with the sand around them.

[member=Aiden]

 

[Cameron Centurion]

Unlike the vast majority of his family, Aiden had been awake and living every single moment of his life since the day he was born. Centuries had not past while he slept contentedly or lived a tortured existence in some kind of awkward purgatory. For this reason, there was little about the galaxy that genuinely surprised him. He had seen so many things, so many countless times. Yet, it seemed as if his first trip to Endelaan was destined to shatter the mold of his conceptual understanding.

While Nareen attempted to divert her gaze from his, the elder Prince did no such thing. Bright eyes remained seemingly locked on her form, studying her with a mixture of curiosity and what he had no shame in calling lust. The Sith Lord's life had been one of passion. True, Aiden was often very tranquil and pensive on the surface. However, his mind was rather constantly working at a pace that had been exhausting in his youth. When he did do something, he did it definitively and without hesitation. His life was that of a warrior, rotating between cunning manipulation, controlled violence of action, feeding, and when so motivated - sins of the flesh.

When the Warrior felt the Sorceress recoil her presence just before responding to his query in the ancient language, Aiden allowed a subtle smirk to touch his lips. Eventually, his own presence receded, turning into something more akin to warming ember as opposed to a raging inferno. Once the turbulence of the Force's currents around them abated, Aiden was...admittedly surprised to still sense a strong magnetic pull. He was no seer, and he did not spend hours a day attempting to study and understand the nature of the Force's ebb and flow. That was a pursuit that could certainly drive him mad.

However, Aiden respected the strength of the Force enough to understand that it nearly always knew better than he. The Sith Lord just was not a fan of being controlled in any right, so he struggled against the knowledge rather routinely. "Your highness," Aiden started in a verbal basic, satisfied that Nareen was of a definite quality. "I think we can dispense with that, Nareen." His spoken voice lost none of the deep baritone that his mind projected into Nareen's but a few moments prior. "You may call me Aiden." The Sith Lord knew the proper forms of address, but the reality of who his parents were was a...complicated matter. For the time being, he would give her the much simpler version. Certainly, she would recognize the names anyways as he was descended from the male line of the Family of Darkness. "Son of Cameron, son of Alathor."

The Prince offered the alluring woman a polite half-bow at the end of his statement. No sooner had his lips stopped moving, than Aiden set them to purpose once more. "You must forgive my staring. You are the most beautiful creature that I have ever seen, and I have traveled much of the galaxy." While the wayward Prince knew and had employed flattery to get what he really wanted in the past, it was usually half-hearted and repeated through the ages. Though he would not admit to anyone and barely admitted it to himself, the compliment he had just paid Nareen was all too real. As if he had simply told her the color of the sky, Aiden moved on to another topic. "Zeresh. If memory of my training and education serves, they do not tend to produce many force users and in the past killed most of them."

The recent information seared into his mind by Boadicea completed the broken picture she had painted centuries ago when he was but a child. "I hear that times have changed. Still...it must be quite a thing to be such an obviously powerful Sorceress from the center of Endelaan's scientific hub." For the moment, Aiden assumed a woman of her...caliber...and strength was either a member of the Council or perhaps even a Raven. The Prince's comments were mostly designed to keep the thoughts surging through his mind at bay. However, he made no effort to hide his...desire, and he quickly decided that pretense was a virtue he would never be genuinely good at faking.

Stepping inside of Nareen's arm's reach, Aiden allowed his silver-green gaze to search Nareen's deep blue eyes. It seemed as though he could get lost in that gaze. Like the planet upon which they both stood, Nareen's blue orbs seemed to hold all of the mystery and wonder of the galaxy wrapped into a beautifully dressed package designed to incite and engender the desire that was rapidly pumping through the arteries of Aiden's body. Was he under some sort of spell or trick of the Force? He hadn't sensed such a manipulation, but he had seen enough not to underestimate anyone with whom he came into contact. The more important question was...did he care?

No.

As was the quality of his life, Aiden played a hunch, an impulse. He would be on this soil but a week, and as of right now, he had little intention of meeting with anyone beyond the woman standing before him. With his right hand, the large Sith gently reached up to tuck an errant strand of hair behind the woman's left ear. Rather than drop his hand completely, it rested gently against her cheek, thumb light grazing the woman's milky skin. "Yet you seem to possess the unique talent to weaken the defenses of any in your presence."

Words failed in that moment as whatever distance that remained between them...completely evaporated.

[member="Nareen"]

 

[Saraya Arenais]

His bright eyes travelled over her body, each moment they bore into her felt like a hot coal had escaped the embers and found a home on the curves of her figure. Nareen wasn't sure what to do with herself. All in all it felt rather like a personal inspection, though she couldn't find a single reason for why it excited her so. Though her head remained firmly trained on the ground there was little to hide when it came to her presence. It still ran wild and free, not caring who it bumped into or where it ended up. Rumbling emotions from both souls poured out and met in the middle, crashing together in a torrent of intense feeling. Suddenly his presence receded, it felt rather like someone pulling a chair from underneath you just as you sat on it. Nareen found herself taking a single step forward to steady herself.

'Aiden...' She tested the name on her tongue, delighting in the way it rolled in her mouth and taking solace in the fact that he seemed to be completely unperturbed by his standing on Endelaan. All the while, the more she dared to flick her crystal tinted eyes up toward the royal, the more she fell into a world that was entirely unmapped. A world full of brief chances of heated passion and unbridled desire. A world that flickered and startled with every move, if Nareen dared to hesitate it would be gone in an instant. Beside the princes obviously impressive structure, the man beneath held as much appeal to Nareen as a centuries untouched library would. Each glance was a book discovered, every subtle movement on his expression was a page turned. Soon enough she found herself staring at him just as plainly as he stared at her.

A grin appeared on her face, flashing stark white teeth to the burning yellow sun. 'I can forgive you for staring.' Nareen spoke, barely a whisper against the gentle breeze that rolled through the beach. Once she had taken a few moments to recover from the way his voice made her muscles tremble, Nareen let out a sweet laugh at his next words. The compliment had originally taken her by surprise, but she recovered quickly. 'But I'm not sure I can forgive you for that cheesy line. How many women in the Galaxy have been wooed with it, I wonder?' The grin dropped, only to be replaced moments later by the bright red flush of her cheeks. She wasn't standing in some bar being courted by a stranger with too much alcohol educed courage. Nareen was being courted by a member of the royal family, he probably wasn't used to women rebuffing him so quickly and so brashly. Laughing at herself was the only way she could take any control of the situation.

'Time's have changed indeed, Aiden. Perhaps I can show you just how much.' Her words were still littered with her tinkling laughter. 'I dare say it's probably as big a deal being a Sorceress from Endelaan as it is being a Prince anywhere else in the Galaxy.' Nareen did not pretend she couldn't feel his desire. It matched her own in terms of strength and intensity, which in turn spurred on minor waves of confusion. Nareen had never been interested in fleeting interactions, especially in regard to romance and passion. Not once in her life had she longed for someone as badly as she did now. So new and fresh were the sensations that coursed through her body, she almost missed the fact that he was now just a stretch away. For a fleeting moment she was trapped in the confines of his silver-green gaze. Her skin flushed and her heart thumped. Somewhere deep down inside her the spark of a fire had started and, in his gaze, it was growing steadily into a blazing inferno.

Aiden stepped closer again and Nareen felt the breath she had been taking cut short. Ordinarily she would have scrambled to inhale again, but in the moment Nareen couldn't find the ability to care. The heat radiating off his body enveloped her in a blanket, it tormented her to reach out and explore the contours of his frame. Fortunately, her breath came back moments later with the tender touch of his tanned fingers against her cheek. She could feel it shuddering and clawing to fill her lungs with the salty air once more. Almost as if she weren't in control of her own mind, her head lent against his fingers. They relished in his touch and the way it sent electric shivers through her entire body. Nareen clawed to find something witty to say, something that would enable her to hear his thundering laugh again, but she could find nothing.

An invisible hand pushed and tugged at her, though she needed little convincing to step forward and press herself against the gargantuan Prince.

[member=Aiden]

 

[Cameron Centurion]

Time had slipped from them on that beach. Though many of [member="Nareen"]'s comments had drawn a small smirk to his lips, Aiden only made one direct statement in response. There was only one point worth making with the woman. Yes, Aiden could have confirmed her suspicion, ensuring she knew that it rarely took much of any verbal persuasion to engage the females of the galaxy. However, she had made one mistake. Aiden was quite accustom to being rebuffed or challenged by his sexual interests. It was certainly the case in the greater galaxy that men and women alike seemed to think there was some need of or charm in pretense. Aiden had always found it curious how people denied what they knew they truly wanted because of some arcane concept of...decorum?

The Sith Lord standing before Nareen had been raised by ancestors that had a near-legendary proclivity for sexual activity whenever it suited their fancy. As he matured and grew through the centuries, Aiden realized that simply running around sleeping with anything and anyone was counterproductive at best. This was not the Empire of Eternal Darkness. In fact, there was no government that even remotely hinted at the entity which had started his family's legacy. The reason for that? People were entirely different. However, the general idea and concept of seizing that which you desired when you desired was...a talent that required some amount of finesse. It wasn't about force or ownership. Quite to the contrary, it was about seduction, enticement. The process of making someone else realize there was no harm in entertaining every one of their hidden desires. To this end...it required the creation of an aura of comfort and intrigue.

Aiden had no political ambitions, spoke plainly, and was very definitive in everything he did. He supposed that was intriguing enough in a galaxy increasingly populated by over-emotional entities that simply wanted to posture and drivel until their last breath. "Words are the weapon of con artists and politicians." As their bodies lingered against each other, Aiden smoothly seized Nareen's in his hands, pressing her against him even firmer. The Warrior parted his lips as if he were about to continue his statement, but no words fell from Aiden's lips. Instead they were sent to a much more definitive, pleasurable purpose.

Every fiber of his being soon followed.

----------
Edge of Lake Agam, Outskirts of Edom Town
Sunset

Aiden's caramel-colored limbs were tangled intimately about the milky limbs of Nareen, his new fiery acquaintance. Nestled on top of several plush blankets upon the short grass which encircled Lake Agam, the wayward Prince's silver-green eyes began to glow with a vibrant intensity as the sun set. In silence, he watched as the fading rays of the day reflected off Nareen's skin as it did the surface of the water. In that moment, Aiden had a thought that betrayed his otherwise fly-by-night personality and lifestyle. He, quite truthfully, had never gazed upon something so beautiful, so immaculately irresistible as the woman in his arms.

However, the thought was chased around his own mind by the knowledge that...he would have to leave her. Did he simply disappear in a week's time, never to speak to her again? Certainly, Aiden had no present desire to be a part of Boadicea or Maximus' plans. The last several hundred years had soured him away from caring much about Endelaan, its people, or his family. To be certain, the overwhelming majority of the ones he had discovered and watched over the years had been varying levels of disappointment.

Or...did he come clean with Nareen? Inform her about everything and how he...never had an intention to return? Aiden was fully aware that no matter what he decided, this had to end. This feeling would have to fade, and he would have to potentially damage someone innocent in his machinations. The mental struggle is what should have spoke volumes about what his heart truly wanted, but Aiden decided to...push the thoughts aside entirely. Leaning forward, he deposited a soft kiss on the woman's forehead.

Live in the moment Aiden...

No sooner had his own voice echoed through his mind than it was joined by what was rapidly becoming an almost irritatingly familiar presence. My son. Is it possible you have discovered that which has waited for you? The soul linked, unknown to you, to your own across the ages?

Forcing himself not to have a visible reaction, Aiden briefly closed his eyes. After several moments of him not responding to the sound of his ancestor's voice, it faded with a familiar amused laugh. Your great, great grandfather was equally stubborn. Oh the lives he destroyed and the blood he spilled trying to fight the inevitable. How many people will you destroy before you see?

With the last mental word, Boadicea's strength surged through Aiden's mind like a flash-typhoon. It was so strong that one of his hands immediately went to cradle his head, and he was certain that even Nareen would have felt the strength of the foreign entity until...evaporated just as instantaneously.

 

[Saraya Arenais]

She couldn't take her eyes of him, or didn't want too. Either way she was entirely entranced by the tanned man standing before her. His thought process showed clearly on his face. There were no words shared between them after that, but she knew what was coming. She knew from the moment his feet touched the sand, she knew the second he laid his silver-green eyes on her and if she didn't know then she could have guessed from the way he stared. Nareen dared to breath, and it was a good job she did because moments later the swell of the Prince's lips found her own and left her entirely without. The kiss told her one thing, no matter what she thought previously, this would be a week to remember.

---

---

---

​

---

Nareen's painted nail traced miniscule circles on the muscles in Aiden's tanned chest. Her own chest was still heaving and aching from the exertion of the day, but the sensation wasn't unpleasant. If she had the ability to pause time she would have done so. To live in this moment forever would have been bliss beyond compare. Not for the first time, Nareen had to firmly remind herself that this was all temporary. He had said nothing so far, but she wasn't blind to the situation. The fleeting Prince would soon be gone and she wasn't exactly sure he'd be back. The thought made her shudder involuntarily, so she tucked herself a little tighter under the weight of his arm. His gaze was heavy, but by now she had grown accustomed to the feeling of it. At first it had forced a painfully obvious rose red blush on her cheeks, and it still did, but now it came with the overwhelming feeling of safety. There was something else as well, something Nareen couldn't quite put her finger on. A shuddering breath escaped her lungs as she nuzzled into the warmth of his skin.

Something in the air stirred and disturbed the little bit of serenity they had created for themselves. At first it was barely noticeable, Nareen paid it little attention as her fingers continued on with the intricate drawings on his chest. As it grew and filled the air around them she found herself hard pressed to ignore it. It wasn't upsetting, or angry, but whatever was there wanted to be acknowledged badly. Nareen lifted herself up on one elbow with every intention of asking Aiden if he felt it too, but what she was met with pushed the thought to the back of her mind. Crystal blue eyes traversed the smallest details in the Prince's face. Her firey red brows furrowed for a brief moment as she reached for the hand placed on his head. Her paper white fingers entangled themselves into his and gingerly peeled them away from his head. Without hesitation, or real thought put behind her actions, Nareen brought his hand to her lips and kissed the tip of each finger in turn. 'What is it, Aiden? I felt...' What did she feel? It was too difficult to describe. '...Something.'

[member=Aiden]

 

[Cameron Centurion]

The sensation of Nareen's warm lips against his skin was more than enough to draw the Sith Lord out of his moment of introspection in the wake of Boadicea's presence brushing against his mind. Managing a genuinely warm smile that was utterly uncharacteristic of him, Aiden simply allowed the alluring Sorceress to manipulate his digits as she saw fit. Rather than rattle off some contrived form of misdirection, the Prince chose to answer Nareen's question very directly. Unlike most of his family, he neither saw a reason nor had a purpose in hiding who and what he was. He simply did not choose to volunteer more information than was necessary to accommodate his present state of conversation at any given point in time.

"You felt Boadicea." Turning his body slightly, Aiden allowed his free hand to run gently through Nareen's wavy mane of hair. The smile still played softly on the Sith Warrior's lips as he expanded upon the topic of Boadicea. Naturally, Nareen would know the woman's name all too well - there were none on Endelaan that did not. Similarly, she would already know full well of the relationship between them...or at least...that dictated by the simple reality of blood.

"I told you earlier that I was the son of Cameron and grandson of Alathor. That is true on an almost exclusively technical level. In his relative youth, Cameron's body and that of his lover at the time, Alia Ravyns, were possessed by Maximus and Boadicea respectively. In this state, they completely suppressed the conscious and subconscious minds of Cameron and Alia. They forced them into what was, effectively, little more than a fantasy of a life lived together.

While Cameron and Alia were without any control of their bodies, Maximus and Boadicea set out to conceive a child. I was that child. It did not stop there, however. Boadicea remained in my mother's body until I was fourteen. At that point, she forced Alia to kill herself...never having known she'd given birth to a child. I was sent to train with Maximus whom had long since abandoned Cameron and moved on to a different body. I remained with Maximus for much longer. He did not leave this plane of existence until I was nearly in my fifties. Cameron never knew that Alia had become pregnant or given birth to a child. He thought simply that the woman had abandoned him for a better, more pleasing life."

Pausing for a moment, Aiden added a shrug to indicate that, truth be told, it wasn't a wild reality for him. He found that many people thought the concept of being so manipulated for so long somehow made him...less than adequate or tainted. Those opinions were aggressively far from the truth. "I think much would be different had Cameron lived a happy, full life with Alia. However, we all have our paths. Maximus and Boadicea had hoped to reorient what they believe to be a wayward and decadent bloodline by injecting their own specific personalities and manipulations. Though I developed in Alia's womb, much about me was altered through the Force by Boadicea. There is another created in a relatively simple matter. My youngest sister, Elora. However, Maximus and Boadicea permitted Cameron and Shery deWinter to brith and raise the child together. I suppose they were...accepted in that regard."

For a moment, Aiden's smile broadened and shifted into something more mischievous. "Boadicea thinks that I am going to purge my family tree and bring Endelaan back to its glory days of the Empire of Eternal Darkness. She, however, is delusional if she thinks in my eight centuries of life, I have not learned much about who I choose to be and how to mitigate her influence. I am my own man, and she will one day come to understand that the decisions I make in any life will be my own." Lifting his head slightly, Aiden pressed a soft, passionate kiss to Nareen's lips, but the embrace was broken ever so slightly a few moments later. "Right now I just choose to be with you...while I can." Silver-green eyes searched Nareen's deep blue for understanding and some level of acknowledgment. It was not his intent to hurt the woman, but he'd decided honesty was the best policy. "I have not come here to claim some throne or integrate into Endelaan society. I made the journey simply to see the world for my own eyes...to see what it has become. I will have to return to other affairs abroad by week's end."

Not exactly romantic, but perhaps it was Aiden's way of trying to convince himself...that a piece of his heart was not already aching at the mere thought of having to leave.

[member="Nareen"]