Guarded Love (COMPLETED)

A Big Break

The days were long, but the nights even longer as Reiss found herself studying every line of Alistair's body. The taut muscles that curved into flat plains, fluffy white blonde hair across his body that was both exotic and enticing to an elf. He had a strange mole on the top of his right buttock. When she informed him of it, he spun around fully naked to try and get a glimpse, while asking if the damn thing was a crown or other portent sign of his birthright. Reiss wasn't 100% certain what it looked like, it kind of reminded her of a bear with a credenza crashed on its head.

She also learned more about herself in their exploring. In particular, she found she far preferred to be below, all of his best bits striking the perfect chord against hers with each thrust. Ethan had considered it a rudimentary and worthless position, preferring her on top doing all the work. Seeming to have no opinion, Alistair always clapped his hands in joy and dove straight in, ecstatic to be doing anything with her. Her first time taking him into her mouth, he began to giggle in total excitement before a never ending moan replaced the laughs. It continued so quickly, he began to sway and nearly passed out from lack of air. Reiss wasn't certain if that was the kind of thing she should be proud or ashamed of.

Every night, after she'd stored away her armor, he'd knock upon her door and present her with a new flower. By eight days she had a bright bouquet of no two alike flowers blooming in her water cup. Whenever she was getting dressed she'd glance over at the spray of green, yellow, blue, and purple petals all competing for space and remember each moment that came after. The dark part of her that silently counted down the days until this stopped pointed out that the flowers would begin to die and all she'd have to stare at were dried out stems. Then how would she feel when the luster wore off and nothing fresh would replace the desiccated husks?

But Reiss shook most of the dour fears off, a dangerous skip in her step as she finished knotting her hair around the sheath and inserting the dagger. The King had another of his Chancellor meetings, and he entrusted her to meet with Spymaster Harding. After revealing her findings on the poison, Alistair suggested Reiss be the one to keep working close with Harding on it. They seemed to be the only two in the entire palace taking it seriously.

She found Harding not in the old Spymaster's tower -- she cursed out the steps in four languages after scaling it to comb Ghaleb's records and refused to return -- but down by the salon. It was colloquially called the blue room because whoever put it in fashioned nothing but bright blue windows against the eastern wall. When the sun was high, it cast a crisp azure glow to everything in the room. To amplify it, all the stones and furniture were white. Coincidentally, when the sun was blocked by clouds, a dark and morose color overtook the room -- rendering it down to a depressed mess. That was what Reiss walked into, greys merging into every corner while Harding sat upon a table that on a good day glittered like sapphires. Today it looked as if it grew so morose it intended to throw itself onto a lumberjack's axe.

Reiss barely stepped into the room before Harding tossed down her paperwork, "Glad you're here. I've got some interesting developments."

"So the King informed me of," Reiss said. She stood at full attention above the dwarf, her arms behind her back.

Harding eyed her up and down before snickering, "At ease there recruit, we're not about to be set upon by a horde of red templars."

"Maker's sake, I hope not," Reiss breathed while sagging down.

Harding laughed at that and unearthed a yellow sheet. Seemed she kept some of Ghaleb's coding system after all. "I looked into the two alchemical reagents you caught on to. Confirmed that combined they made a nasty poison. Oh," she paused at running a finger down it and smiled, "it's not that I didn't believe you, just having to be thorough to have something to toss into the tall ones face when we raid their home to go searching for any ingredients to brew poisons."