The Conjured and the exiles

Eyes to the future


Daen had gone to the palace that first night, wondering through the rooms which bereft of his presence were large and empty. She lay on their bed, rolling over to his side seeking out where his sent was strongest, lingering still on the sheets and pillows. If she could not be with him then for that night at least she would surround herself with the ghost of him.

The next morning she woke early, before dawn when the evening star her namesake still glittered in the sky awaiting dawns first light so that it could lay off its vigil. As she lay in his bed watching the sun rise golden and orange, she laid awake thinking of all those who had journey with her along the twisting trails of her life so far and wondering how they were. Daen could count on her fingers the people who meant the world to her, a short list but it made them only dearer not less so. Koto her child hood friend who she doubted that she would ever see again, and his mother who had loved her like the daughter she had never had.

Somehow Daen had adopted herself a family to replace the blood relatives she had lost. Little Cira who had silently adopted her as a guardian, though goddesses knew Daen had no clue how to raise a child, perhaps it was because they were both orphans. The captain’s and their family’s had welcomed Daen to their ranks, and despite being brought to Bala against her will it was her friendships with men like Veoine, Kef and Timor as well as the companionship of women like Avis and even her rivalries with Vespa that had made this place a home to her. Perhaps that was one of the most frightening things about falling out with Lord Darcia, he could send her away, Daen did not think that she could survive losing her home once again. Just the thought of being alone again made her feel half dead.


As ever her brother was on her mind. She hoped that he was alright; he had not told her where he was going, and she had not asked. Likely as not he would be going back to regain control over his men the very thing she had pleaded with him not to do. She found that she could not ask him what he meant to do the last time that she had seen him, she was afraid to as it would only drive another wedge in their already distancing relationship. She had left many things unsaid to him. Many warnings she did not speak because she knew they would go unheeded, no she had only said what she had to, hoping that he would then give it more weight. Apart from telling Leoff to be carful, she had told him one thing and that was to be wary of his sword. Deep in her very bones she knew that Loke was trouble of the most dangerous kind, like a volcano or a flood. He was not something to be taken lightly; she just hoped Leoff would realize this. Her only comfort was that his companion Vas would remain by his side.

She smiled to herself thinking of her brothers swarthy friend. He was a very hansom young man with a voice as smooth and rich as molasses. Of course he would never look twice at any woman. It was such a pity, though not as much as a pity that of all the men to fall for Vas had fallen for her dense brother. She doubted that Leoff even knew that Vas stared longingly at him for hours at a time. It’s not meant to be she had thought when she had seen them together, though whether that was her precognition speaking or just her knowledge of her brother she did not know. In any case she thought that Vas knew it would probably never work, though some little voice made her cross her fingers and hope that Leoff did find love somewhere, and he could do worse them look for it with Vas.

Foremost in Daen’s mind however was the figure that had dominated her waking and often sleeping mind from the minuet that she had first laid eyes upon him. She remembered that first time they met, the first time she had felt the burn of his cool gray eyes. The eyes are the windows of the soul she had once herd someone say, well in Darcia’s case Daen thought that they were wrong. His eyes were never windows, they beams of light like swords that pieced you through. Daen though she had been loathe admitting it, but from as early as the afternoon where he had rescued her from clinging precariously on that cliff face she had known that what she felt fro him was different to any other thing that walked the face of the world. He had in that first meeting taken her breath away, not because she had wanted him to, but because he had, just as he had taken that kiss.

From the very first he had touched her like she had known her. Always he had known just where to touch her to drive her instate with desire. Never had it been like that with her before, yes sex had been enjoyable but with her dark lord just his breath across the back of her neck was enough to set her quivering. No not even that, she became a trembling mess when he looked at her with his eyes dark as pewter and that very slight lifting of the corner of his haughty lips in a sultry smirk. He knew that she could not resist him; through sometimes she did put up a fight it never lasted long. After all seduction isn’t making someone do what they don’t want to do. Seduction is enticing someone into doing what they secretly wanted to do already.

Daen after struggling for so long to control her own life found it a relief to be able to let go. Darcia seemed to know this instinctively, he pushed her, and he made demands expecting her to rise to the challenge. She remembered the dark promise he had made her when he had first cornered her. ‘You will find me a stark master but we shall deal well together no?’ And dealt well together they had.


You cannot separate light from its shadow; an old saying sprang to Daen’s mind unbidden. It was a phrase she often had herd used by her family in connection with herself but it fit Lord Darcia better. Daen had thought on the darkness that haunted her past. Last night open to him she had been immersed in his emotions, his mind and she realized that he had his own secrets and a past as black and shadowy as the ravens that adorned his family’s ancestral crest. To be with him she would have to be able to cope with that. Something about the whole situation bespoke of fate if Daen was willing to believe for one minuet in such a thing. At work were feelings so powerful it was if some force beyond her control was guiding her to him.

Daen felt that she had lived many life’s so far. She was no longer the girl who had been orphaned, nor was she the child of the Helge, she was not the lost wonderer, or the guild apprentice. Sometimes she looked back at the person she had been then and she did not understand herself. Fate was a riddle, how few clues there were with which to explain the random ways in which her life seemed to begin and end, to love and lose, to succeed and fail, each of their individual destinies visibly interweaving with the next fashioning the beautiful and yet terrifying tapestry of the goddess Daer’s as they shaped their destinies by the indulging or denying of their passions.

The sun suddenly broke from behind the tree line, and suddenly it did not matter, all that matter was living in today. Daen like a sun flower turned her face towards absorbing its warming rays like strength itself. She smiled, fate could take care of itself, and all she could do was decide what to do with the day before her. She got out of bed and stood on the balcony like windows, letting the morning breeze caress her skin like a lover and she came to a decision. It was about time that she got to know herself better, no more hiding.




The story continues in Rebels and renegades…….


‘Who knows what may lie ahead as our desires begin to extract such strange and unexpected prices. Our dreams all have a cost as in order that one man’s might flourish another’s must perish.’


Lord Darcia rides to battle only to find that he must fight not only the rebels of his south but is also forced to face a past he hoped lay dead and buried with the bodies he had to climb over to secure his inheritance.

The high priestess offers Daen a tempting choice, but can she chose between a peaceful life her hearts desire, and the love of her dark lord knowing that a life spent with him will not guarantee her happiness let alone her safety?

Leoff travels back to Sidana and his men warring not only with his conscious but the demon sword Loke who wants nothing more than to unleash the darkness in the young man’s heart. Vas his faithful companion swards come demons or disaster that he will stay by Leoff’s side, wondering will that stubborn worrier ever see him as more than just a friend? To complicate matters a face Leoff would be happy never to see again is hunting him down once more, and hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.


http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600096939

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Author’s note:

I have chosen to end this story at this point as it’s getting a bit unwieldy and there is a change in the atmosphere. As well as working on rebels and renegades the continuation of this I will be working through this story to sort out spelling and grammar issues with help from Hils who has very kindly agreed to look over it. More than likely I will give it a huge overhaul, but perhaps not in the very near future.

Thanks’ to everyone who had read and enjoyed this story, even more so to those who have left comment or rated.