< atton revisited > The information page for Atton has been fully revised and updated with the new map!
< updated calendar > The Fortuna calendar has been updated in the "Other" lore section! This includes a document which displays the calendar for you to see, making it much easier to understand.
< moving map > The first functional map has been released in the News section! This map is also interactive, allowing you to drag and drop between points in order to determine distances. This is the first iteration, and there's more and better to come!
< first annual awards > The results for the First Annual Fortuna Year-End Awards have been posted! Go and take a look at who the finalists were, and who took home the big prizes!
< new default skin > Our new skin has passed the beta test, and is now the new Default for the forums! If you have any issues with this skin, send a PM or Discord to Mellie.
< human lore update > Humans have been updated with TWENTY-FIVE subraces/subcultures which add numerous options, and a little extra lore and flavour.
< magic lore update > Magical Lore has been enhanced with the addition of a post on Magical Education. From Beginner to Expert, this is how you learn the spells.
< a change to member groups > Member groups are now based on storyline! You can change your displayed storyline by editing the settings in your profile.
Welcome to the world of Fortuna, a land of fantastic proportions. This is an original fantasy roleplay that takes place in a world developed over nearly a decade of work and collaboration. We aim to encourage all participants to have a hand in the stories of the characters here, and the world around them. Your choices are key - so make them with pride. You decide who wins the wars, you decide who becomes King, the world is ours, and together we will bring it to life!
Post by Tehodis Kitai on Jan 7, 2018 21:53:44 GMT -7
Several hours past the final stroke of midnight in the dead of winter there was rarely anyone in the halls of the Eight Veils Academy, let alone in the courtyard. Yes, there were evokers who could create a blast of fire to keep themselves cozy as they stalked the snow; yes, there were transmutationists who could make heat out of cold and with enough effort wouldn't be bothered by the chill; yes, there were illusionists who, if nothing else, could convince their skin that it was not getting frostbite, but no one wanted to put in that kind of effort. Not when class was cancelled due to the cold, not when you could cuddle under a pile of blankets and not think about school for a few wonderful days.
Tehodis Kitai was not just anyone. She was the top of her class, and only somewhat because she was naturally 'Gifted'. Tehodis Kitai was a hard worker. She took every lesson to heart and practiced it to perfection, and she never stopped until she succeeded. Those were the reasons why Tehodis Kitai was great at forming relationships with just about everyone, and they were the reason why she was the top of her class. Best diviner in her school, best diviner of her age. In due time, many thought, she could be the best diviner in Rielcia. Given another couple of decades, anyways.
This work ethic was what drove Tehodis Kitai to be out in the freezing cold on a night before cancelled classes. She was cooped in a stone gazebo with nothing but a small warming charm to keep her going, standing over a pool of water too magical to turn to ice, practicing. Her class had been attempting, that truly being the operative word, to predict the future. It was incredibly difficult, most diviners in the class would never succeed, and that made Tehodis want to do it. Not just do it, but be the first to do it, and the best at doing it. Which meant practice-practice-practice, which meant using every opportunity, which meant: Yes, even though it was a deadly temperature outside, she would work and she would succeed.
Because that's how it always went for Tehodis.
Tonight wasn't going quite as well, of course. She had bundled herself up as much as possible: Long coverings underneath, woolen pants, thick tunic, heavy sweater, brightly coloured mitts, several scarves and a jacket that hardly fit over it all. Warmth wasn't the problem, even if she was shivering. The problem was that she could see nothing in the pool. No matter the method of meditation attempted, no matter how she fought through the fog of her veil, nothing but wisps would catch her eye. Things were supposed to look clear, their instructor had told them. Like when you walked through the early morning fog, and the closer you got to something, the more the rest of the world faded away.
All she had were fades on fades.
"Show me something, anything!" She had finally fallen to 'begging', which was pathetic, but no one was around to hear it, and so she begged, "Show me what they'll serve for breakfast in the morning. Or... Or the colour of small-clothes Demetra will put on in the morning. Something stupid, something useless, just show me something I can prove. Have pity, Quindo, have pity on me before my toes freeze right off!"
Quindo was not feeling empathy, however, he rarely did. If he was watching, he was playful. He wouldn't give Tehodis what she was looking for, but something far less... Expected. A visitor who would alter her fate disastrously.
No one was walking around this courtyard in the dead of winter, several hours past the stroke of midnight, but Tristan Cowell was not no one. He was someone, and he was very important.
Post by Tristan Cowell on Jan 15, 2018 15:24:15 GMT -7
[attr="class","tcowell"]
[attr="class","tcowell2"]
[attr="class","tcowell3"]REFLECTIONS ON THE MOON
[attr="class","tcowell4"]OF A HEART TORN IN TWO
[attr="class","tcowell5"] While his time at the Eight Veils Academy had been less impressive than his studies under Elaina Nemu'uri, Tristan could not say they had been completely worthless.
The motives of the higher-ups had been to curb his progression towards a double-mastery by sending him here, but they had instead given a unique look into the exact skills he needed to succeed. This school was not made for illusionists, or evokers, or diviners, or any other single school of magic. It was a place to learn it all, whether or not you were capable of casting it. Transmutationists would hear the lectures and attempt the practice of conjuration. Necromancers would be tested on Divination, and would learn about the differences in the veil, learning how to sense those differences. An abjurer would learn how to dispel those differences in every school possible. They would learn magic in it's most archaic form. It was not how Tristan learned magic, but it was how he would now relearn it.
If he was going to master Evocation, after all, he would need to understand why magic even was.
As much as he appreciated the school, however, he was little of a fit. He was in his forties now, though he looked to be in his early twenties, which meant that the petty squabbles of adolescent youth were of no interest to him. Their parties were things he was welcome to join, but that he felt altogether too old for. All said, he did little with fellow students. His instructors were event worse. Faculty knew of his status as a master Illusionist and would invite him to their own gatherings, but in those he suddenly felt dwarfed by the size of their much more lived experience.
He was caught in between two very different worlds, and so he was a distinguished loner. Not a creep, not a pariah, just... Someone who wasn't a part of this fabric. Others looked at him with respect and reverence. He was an enigma. A mystery others loved to solve. The subject of girlhood and boyhood crushes. The vision of what hard work could net you. He was powerful, rich, and charming.
And bored.
And lonely.
And that was why he walked the courtyard when it was far too dark, and far too cold for most anyone else. Out here alone with the moon and his thoughts he felt less solitary, as if he were convening with a secret friend. Though of course, he wasn't alone, and that was something he would soon realize.
Tehodis Kitai, he had seen her and heard of her, was standing in the stone gazebo over the looking pool: mumbling, casting, and shivering. If he were not such a similar person he would have wondered why she was out here, but he knew. She was studying, getting a leg-up on the competition of her schoolmates. That was how he knew of her, of course. She was the best in her class. Adept at the basics of numerous schools, but well on her way to mastering Divination. This was just the way he would have done it when he was at her stage, which was downright charming to him.
He considered, then, striking up a conversation with the girl who took a leaf from his page... But she looked so focused. Teeth chattering, not hearing the crunch of his feet in the snow despite the otherwise silent air. It was... His heart pounded a little in a way he hadn't really felt before, and his chest warmed him in a way different than the little fire he held in his palm. It was... Cute, he realized. He didn't just want to talk to her, now. He wanted to play, and he had just the power to do it.
With the trace of a smirk on his lips he joined his hands together, the magical flame melting into them and giving him a jolt of heat to last him a few minutes. He held his palms clasped together like that for a moment as he thought about how to best tease the 'Queen Bee', and then as he came up with the idea he pulled his hands apart.
By magic, two images appeared. One between his palms as if it had been concealed by them before, and one developing in the pool before Tehodis' eyes. A bat. It was a small and simple creature to create by illusion. He was familiar with them in Malscure as many made his home their's as well. He invented the image from his memory, let it flutter in the pool for a minute and then...
He made it disappear from the pool, and the one from his hand fluttered free and bolted through the air towards the bundle of clothes that was hiding Tehodis Kitai... Barreling from behind with the intent of brushing her cheek and offering a little scare.
Post by Tehodis Kitai on Jan 18, 2018 20:52:15 GMT -7
Tehodis was just about to give up. She had been out here for, what, five hours? Four, at least. She was shaking and shivering with the cold, and knew that if this kind of extreme condition couldn't have pulled the magic out of her by now, that it likely wouldn't. Maybe, just maybe, she wasn't quite ready.
She could try again tomorrow.
As she settled into that resolve, however, something flitted in through the veil of fog that had settled on the looking pool. A bat. "A bat?" She reached out a tentative, gloved hand, scared that the thing was real. Her hand passed through the image, however, making it clear that what she saw was only in the fog. "A bat!" She cheered, gripping the edge of the looking pool and shaking her head in disbelief.
"Now what next, what next?" She called to mind her lessons, and knew that she would now interpret the meaning of the vision. It could be a symbol, or it could be literal, and learning the difference would take time. On a night as cold as this, though, she assumed it was more likely to be symbolic.
She ducked down to grasp the book of symbols at her feet, and when she came back up to look once more upon her vision, it was gone. She shook her head briefly, still over-excited from the success, and worked to flip through pages until she heard a small screeching sound, and then it hit her. A bat. A real bat. The thought came before it did, and so she ducked out of the way just before it could brush her. Instead, it swooped overhead, chattered in the way bats did, and she shrieked in response to it, seeming to scare it off enough that it continued it's flight into the stone pathways of the courtyard.
At some point she had found herself sitting, knees to her chest, book outstretched as a makeshift weapon, and back to the cold of the looking pool's stone pedestal. A shiver crept up her spine, but it was so quickly replaced with excitement. "A literal bat!" She managed, her voice an out-of-breath whisper. She had done it, first of all, and the vision had been so clear, so perfect that she had predicted an actual bat flying out of nowhere. Something so unpredictable! She laughed, sighed, wheezed a little in the harsh cold that made breathing a triumph, and then got herself back up to look into the pool.
"Alright, first, the bat. Now... Show me something else."
Post by Tristan Cowell on Jan 24, 2018 21:18:20 GMT -7
[attr="class","tcowell"]
[attr="class","tcowell2"]
[attr="class","tcowell3"]REFLECTIONS ON THE MOON
[attr="class","tcowell4"]OF A HEART TORN IN TWO
[attr="class","tcowell5"] Her reaction was priceless, and he had no regrets about what some might call 'bullying'. It might have been a tad cruel, especially as she celebrated her success, but the girl could use some fun, and so could he. Besides, she never had to find out it was a lie, and if what he had heard about Tehodis Kitai was true, she would master this spell eventually. This might even help her get up the confidence needed to do just that. So he would keep going.
She celebrated, she was so excited, and all the noise she made gave him perfect cover to sneak closer. He moved at least ten feet across the courtyard before stopping behind a dramatic bit of statuary, some old Supreme or some such who had founded the school. Tristan couldn't get up the care for who it was, because she was so captivating. Her laugh, her light, he didn't want to look at some old bit of stone when Tehodis Kitai was in sight.
"Now, show me something else," She commanded the pool, and Tristan would obey. First, however, he had to think of exactly what to show her. He wanted something fun like the bat, or at least something that could keep her excited like she was. He also needed something he could create from memory, which wasn't too difficult for him as a Master Illusionist, but the simpler the creation the more utterly convincing it would be. Finally, it had to be symbolic. A random happenstance was believable, but two in quick succession would give him away. No more bat flying through her hair, now it was time to send a message.
The book in her hands had somewhat jogged his memory, which would be useful. He had sat in on a Divination class where they spoke of the symbolism that was common in the artform. Tea leaves, clouds, stars, shapes in fog, whatever the source it had a meaning you could trace back to some collective consciousness. He didn't have the same massive text that she had, but he did recall some of the lecture. Three symbols in particular.
Teeth was one of them. They had been told they were symbols of repression, and feeling trapped. Your teeth fell out of your head and it meant someone was controlling you. It sounded like a ridiculous symbol to him when you could replace it with being tied up, or being in a locked room, but he wasn't meant to question a magic he did not have. Was Tehodis repressed? He couldn't say. She certainly seemed somewhat uptight, but he couldn't help but think it was by choice. That one was out.
Then there was money, which had stood out to him as someone who had dreamt of that often. Money was said to be something that represented self-worth. If you had plenty of money in your dream, you likely saw yourself in higher esteem than others; if you were reasonably wealthy and content, you had confidence without cockiness; in poverty you were likely full of self-doubt. He would not admit to what he dreamed of, but he imagined that she had self-worth in spades. She carried herself with the utmost confidence, and seemed certain that she was meant to succeed. Period. It didn't matter that she was so driven to work harder, because it just made him assume it was because she thought she was the best. He wouldn't want to knock her down any pegs, since he found that superiority utterly charming. That one was out.
That left one last symbol he could recall: Fire. He had grown familiar with it in his learning of evocation, and had become fond of it. He could see a spark of it in her, maybe, but not enough. He wasn't surprised in that lecture to learn what fire was intended to symbolise: Freedom, and passion. He quite liked that, and even more liked the idea of her thinking she might need a little more freedom and passion in her life. If she was following the train of thought, and then he happened to walk through the courtyard and strike up a conversation? Perhaps she'd be especially receptive. Perhaps she would be prepared to take a chance simply because the looking pool told her to. It was perfect.
And if not... If she did find out what he was doing, he could play it off like he wanted her to let her hair down and relax. He would hope she could take a joke. Tristan mentally crossed his fingers that this wasn't a mistake.
He waited just a bit longer to make her work for it, and then he pulled another image out of the pool. This one he made less clear, a little shimmer to it as if it was under the surface of the water but still well-within the perceived fog Diviners might see. An image of a match being struck by hands unseen, lighting a candle of shimmering white. He made it burn hot and beautiful then, the flame climbing excitedly higher. Then the image of a glass dome being placed over the fire, stifling it. Using his memory of the small fires he had been creating for the last several years, Tristan massaged the image to a near snuff of the flame...
But then the pies de resistance. A hammer cracking down and breaking the glass cover (he had to fight his every urge to pair it with sound, but he could not determine whether there should be in a vision such as this). Then he let the fire be fed, growing, burning, surviving. He held the image there, giving it enough concentration to hold it for as long as Tehodis needed to interpret it the way he truly hoped she would.
Post by Tehodis Kitai on Feb 1, 2018 19:18:30 GMT -7
It took time before the next image began to show itself, but not nearly as long as the first. No, she knew exactly how to conjure the images now - sort of - and with enough focus the twists of fog could shape into pictures. This time it wasn't so simple as the bat. This time, it was more like a dream.
A candle. She was familiar with that symbol. She saw unlit candles in her dreams all the time, and knew what they represented: Disappointment in herself for not being better than she was. This candle however, while unlit, became lit. With a match. "Someone is lighting the candle," She was almost shocked as she watched this, so unfamiliar with a lit candle in her dreams. It had to mean something better than it remaining unlit but she couldn't--
The thought was short lived as a glass dome was placed over the candle. It was pretty for a moment, but it soon became clear that the object was actually stifling the flame within. "Just because it looks nice, doesn't mean it's safe," She nodded, not bothering to check her text to see if that was what a glass dome represented. It just felt right. Instinctual. Hadn't one of her instructors told her that you could document every meaning of every symbol, but it could never replace your gut feeling? Particularly not in Tehodis' case, where her magic lived and died on a heightened intuition.
It was sad to watch the flame die, in a way. She had seen the candle unlit for so long, that the flame was a welcome change -- a ray of hope. As she was ready to give up on this being anything other a dour prediction of her continued failings, the hammer came. The sight shocked her, rocked her, and the growing of the flame even moreso. The image didn't disappear as swiftly as any other. It just remained there, burning. She felt tempted to reach out and touch it, but knew it would not help her understand better. It would not help her clear her head of the one word that kept repeating itself: Freedom.
Freedom from expectations, freedom from the disappointment she forced herself to live with. Freedom from a future that had yet to define itself, and from a past she had yet to regret. Freedom was not the most tempting thing she could imagine at eighteen, standing in the courtyard of a magical academy, dreaming of the perfect path ahead. Freedom felt scary, too undefined, too risky.
Was this vision trying to tell her that she was the glass dome? Was she supposed to break it, or was she supposed to let it live? One way, the candle would survive. The other, the flame would die. Which was better? "Now I know why Diviners deal with mental illness at seven times the national average," She sighed, and pulled a mitten off to press fingers into her temple. It was headache inducing. It was confusing. The excitement at seeing a vision was beginning to wane with the frustration of the lack of sense it all made.
"Can you show me something literal?" She asked with a sigh, leaning over the pool and staring down the burning candle, "The bat thing was very, very cool. Can I ask a question? Will it be answered? This isn't a yes-no kind of thing, is it? Of course it isn't. That'd be too easy. Ugh. I should have taken the runic course."
The candle was still there, still burning, and it was almost taunting her. "Can't you show me anything else?"
Post by Tristan Cowell on Feb 2, 2018 23:02:56 GMT -7
[attr="class","tcowell"]
[attr="class","tcowell2"]
[attr="class","tcowell3"]REFLECTIONS ON THE MOON
[attr="class","tcowell4"]OF A HEART TORN IN TWO
[attr="class","tcowell5"] Tristan couldn't be sure if he was downright wrong about Tehodis Kitai, or if she was just too stuck within her own mind to make out the symbols clearly laid before her. It was almost infuriating watching as she pined for the pool to show her something more akin to the bat. It was a little bit of a slap in the face to his artistic abilities. In Tristan's opinion, his vision had been a perfect depiction of Tehodis letting herself go and enjoying a little freedom and passion. In Tehodis' opinion... It seemed like she wanted the easy way out.
Tristan could do that. Give her the easy way out. He could conjure a likeness of himself, have it walk through the fog, and then he could walk through the courtyard and catch her attention. She'd appreciate the prediction but... Would she not need to learn symbology for her class? Tehodis Kitai, He thought, edging closer to her once again, Master Diviner in the making. I know you may be cold, but the least you can do is try.
He decided not to drop the flame after all. No, he would change it into something else. A clearer message. Not quite literal, not quite symbolic. He just needed to find a vantage point where he could see her face. He hoped that she was still too busy begging the pool for clearer answers that she would not notice as he cut behind her, across the snowy path and behind a pillar to the side of her. His eyes pierced the darkness and made out her features - striking in a way. Her eyes especially, bright circles of sapphire blue set within the milling brightness of her stark-white flesh? He enjoyed the defined, and he knew that he could conjure something like that out of illusions.
So Tristan set to work once more. He turned the flames into two humanoid bodies, neither male nor female as he could not be certain where her true interests laid. One figure formed behind the other, and the front figure formed from the hottest of the flames where they burned closer to blue than red. It was an embrace of a kind, flaming arms wrapped around and caressing what could be interpreted as hips, two faces turning to meet one another. That was not the image he was trying to make, however.
He increased the image of hotness in the candle's everburning flame and it turned blue-white, and the figure at the forefront became almost the only thing visible. Orange flames licked around what could be seen as the figure's hair, and pulled forth curls before cutting them off, letting them burn into red and then disappear. Let your hair down, let it out, cut it off, whatever message he was trying to send it came down to: Don't take yourself too seriously. Get out of your own head.
To cap off the illusion, he used her own face. The figure in the fire turned, and then opened her eyes, and when she did she looked mirror-perfect to the Tehodis Kitai he was seeing right now. Only this Tehodis Kitai had softer eyes touched by a smile. This Tehodis Kitai was relaxed, and happy.
The image burned for a moment, and then disappeared from existence. Tristan truly hoped she got the message this time.
Post by Tehodis Kitai on Feb 20, 2018 11:44:18 GMT -7
Tehodis felt a tugging in her mind, like she often did. It was that little sense of instinct that had heralded the coming of her magic. It was a mere moment of future sense that was never crystal clear, but defined enough that she would know what to do. This instinct told her turn around, and normally she would have. If she had, she would have seen Tristan sneaking around her. If Tehodis had not been so consumed by pulling an image from the fog, she most certainly would have done both of those things. However, what she did was ignore it entirely.
Then, the fog changed. The flame remained, but turned into something new. Two bodies -- man and woman? Woman and woman? Man and man? No, one was certainly a woman -- formed in fire, and embraced in such a way that Tehodis' lips pursed and her cheeks greyed with something not quite embarrassment.
The vision was clearly something romantic, if not intimate, which was a something that Tehodis had doggedly avoided in her time at this school. It wasn't that she had no interest in romance -- to the contrary, she often found her heart lifting and stomach filling with butterflies whenever someone particularly sweet gave her notice -- it was that she was terrified of what such a thing could truly be like.
Yet here was the fog, showing it to her like a prediction. A command? Not an issue to go and accept that date request from Finnian Allbright, but perhaps to relax a little, and explore the possibility of a normal teenager's life.
No, no, no, no, no. Even as she watched the flames perform another act of rebellion (cut her hair? No way!), she refused. She was in school to become a Master Diviner. She was not here to 'date'. That was a surefire way to start making mistakes. After all, Nathaniel had begun to date and hadn't continued on to apprenticing a Master for his Enchantment skills. She was not going to disappoint her mother like that.
Then, the flame turned into her. As it did, she felt a tugging at the front of her mind not dissimilar to when she performed certain feats of Divination. She would not know it, but as she felt the tug, her eyes turned to stark white and her face lost all expression. It was like the fog in the looking pool had become twice as thick and twice as bright. White blindness set in quickly, and she could only see that flame of herself, but it was distant. Like a dream. And behind it... There was another face. This one was not her's, nor was it wreathed in flame.
The face was a man's, young and smiling. It was somewhat teal, no... Green, clearly a lamini. The face was smooth and sharp all at once, and they held dark eyes that pierced her with a gasp. She recognized the man. She had seen him before, because he was here learning, and also because he was downright famous. She had never once spoken to him, and yet as clear as day she heard his voice echo in her mind: Don't you feel it?
"Tristan Cowell," Tehodis breathed. Her eyes returned to normal, and as they did she turned -- and now pierced him with her own stare.
Post by Tristan Cowell on May 3, 2018 13:36:49 GMT -7
[attr="class","tcowell"]
[attr="class","tcowell2"]
[attr="class","tcowell3"]REFLECTIONS ON THE MOON
[attr="class","tcowell4"]OF A HEART TORN IN TWO
[attr="class","tcowell5"] Something strange happened with Tehodis as she watched his illusion. Something strange... And massively interesting... And incredibly alluring all at one time. Her eyes turned a bright white, and she, for a moment, fell into mere existence. It was a calmness he had not seen in her all night, nor ever before. It was the calm and clarity of a magical entity embracing its natural power. He was quite certain that in this moment, he was watching Tehodis Kitai succeed at what she came out here to do.
He would never take credit for such a thing, of course, but he would always remember that he had helped. He thought perhaps his work was done here, and that he could step out and approach her now. Or rather, not approach her: But approach the gazebo and simply happen to find her. He considered what kind of amazing mood she would be in with the success she had experienced, and how she would be so much more receptive to a friendly interaction.
His assuredness in those thoughts floundered, though. He took one step forward, and she turned to pierce him with a fierce stare. She said his name, and he might have well been flattered she knew who was if he: Weren't famous, and, if she weren't a diviner. Well damn, He thought, She saw me in that vision? He thought. Perhaps that was flattering.
Tristan continued his approach, now wearing a paper smile and holding his hands out as if to say he meant no harm to her. "Tehodis Kitai, isn't it?" He asked, not needing to wait for an answer as he crunched through the snow, "A bit of a cold night for outdoor study, is it not?"
Post by Tehodis Kitai on May 3, 2018 15:10:28 GMT -7
Tristan Cowell was famous for being a world-class Illusionist, and one of the youngest Masters of magic in the world. With his presence at the school, it was clear he was now aiming for a second mastery, something that no one really thought would be possible -- Tehodis certainly didn't.
What was most important was that mastery of Illusion. Tehodis had not been given a conclusive, clear-cut answer from the fog about who he was or what he had been doing here... But she did have an image, shimmering and grand, paired with her natural, magically-enhanced instinct -- both of which told her more than enough.
She had been played.
Her face screwed with anger and she met his slower steps with quicker ones, coming nearly chest-to-chest with him and pressing her finger against the surprising warm of his jacket. "You think you're clever?" She accused, her cheeks grey not with embarrassment now, but with fury, "You've got your success, so you aim to halt the progress of others? Play tricks on people in the dark? Is that a good time for you?"
Post by Tristan Cowell on May 8, 2018 21:38:57 GMT -7
[attr="class","tcowell"]
[attr="class","tcowell2"]
[attr="class","tcowell3"]REFLECTIONS ON THE MOON
[attr="class","tcowell4"]OF A HEART TORN IN TWO
[attr="class","tcowell5"] She was unexpected. In all honesty, Tristan likely should have predicted this outcome. Or, if not this particular result, at least the idea that she would figure him out so quickly. Maybe he had underestimated her divining skills. Or maybe he just hadn't quite thought of how difficult it would be to play a prank on someone with those skills. Despite what he likely should have, and would have done, he hadn't, and in all honesty... He was glad for it, because the woman before him was so entirely captivating.
"My apologies," He smiled with a small chuckle, his own cheeks flushing from something other than the cold, and he grasped her finger that pressed so roughly into his chest. She was cool to the touch, and refreshing in the way that Kina always were to Lamini of his kind.
She was refreshing in another way, however. Her fury at him gave him a burst of energy. Her eyes were narrowed, her face discoloured, her attitude rightly peeved. Tristan felt something in himself he hadn't felt before as he looked down at her, something distinct and important: A tug. It was upon on his finger, the one bound to Khades, and it was like a string had been tied round the digit and someone was pulling him towards the silvery Kina. His hand wrapping around her finger only intensified the feeling, and he knew precisely what it was that was hailing his attention. It had been described to him by his parents, by the priests of Errance and Khades, and by the minister of the ceremony that had bound him to his betrothed. It was a celestial call that told him all he needed to know about the woman simmering before him.
Tehodis Kitai was his soulmate. Khades was choosing her for him specifically, and him for her in return. He was not one to refute his deity's wishes, and with how his heart swelled as she levelled him with sharp blue eyes - he wouldn't want to. Yes, she was perfect. He knew it in a single instant.
"You're quite right that I've been toying with you, Miss Kitai. I didn't intend it out of malice, I can promise you as much, and I hope that your powers will see that it's true. I simply... Well, I find you quite intriguing," It was an understatement, the greatest of his life to the date, but it was still fraught with honesty. He was interested in Tehodis Kitai. No, enamoured with her. He was in love. He released her finger (perhaps a touch unwillingly) and continued, "And, to be entirely truthful with you, as I assume you shall divine it either way, I could not think of a proper way to strike up a conversation. Evidently I am an abject failure within the school of flirtations."
The skin OTHERWORLD was made by JAWN of WICKED WONDERLAND.
FORTUNA-RPG was created by MELLIE. Images belong to their respective artists. All codes and scripts belong to their respective coders. Please DO NOT take anything without the owners' permission.
