Emerald was pacing back and forth in the room when Nightstar entered. She was wearing a simple blue nightgown that ended just above her ankles. Nightstar wore her purple cloak and a deep green vest underneath, her wings were partly extended. Both women were barefoot.
"Something is wrong." Nightstar stated as she could tell the Immortal was upset at something. "Have I done something to upset you?"
"No." Emerald stopped pacing and turned to face her. "I apologize, I should have asked first." She put her hands behind her back and waited for the response.
"Asked first?" Nightstar inquired. "Asked before what? What have you done?"
"I should have asked you before I told Rayfolk and the others that your city is under my protection." Emerald told her, she did not move nor turn away from Nightstar's gaze.
"Asked me?" Nightstar was still confused. "What are you talking about Amaechkan?" She took two tenative steps towards the Immortal shapeshifter, who currently appeared in her form as a Dahron woman with blond hair about 180cm tall.
"It occurred to me later that I might be overstepping" Emerald explained. "It's what I thought you would want and what I see as the best option for you. But you are not a child; I should have asked if that is what you wanted before I did it." Nightstar's green hair was tied in a loose pony tail, it stretched down to the small of her back.
"Amaechkan?" Nightstar asked tentatively. When the other woman neither spoke nor turned away, she continued. "You put your tens of thousands of years of reputation between me and the who knows how old goddess that created you and told an empire of thousands of systems that tried to exile you to break their rules of engagement for me, but you're worried that I might be cross with you?"
"Yes, Tanjriel." The blond woman responded. Her own hair was braided in a simple braid and did not reach beyond the bottom of her scapula. "I no longer care about crossing my sire where you are concerned. The rest can thrive or fall without me if you need me here. But you have your own ways of doing things, and I should have consulted you before I made pronouncements about your city."
"I told you" Nightstar reminded her. "If you bring Moonshadow back nothing else matters. Nothing." Though Emerald's face did not change nor did she move, Nightstar suddenly took two steps to her and wrapped her wings around the both of them. "I didn't mean that Amaechkan! You know I didn't, you matter to me also." A single tear ran from Nightstar's eye. "That's why I asked if your Queen would punish you; because I care about you and I want you to stay here with me."
"So you forgive me?" Emerald asked her.
"Of course I do!" Nightstar answered. She pulled her wrings tight nudging Emerald into her arms; Emerald did not resist and fell onto the slightly taller woman's chest. "Whatever it takes. If we have to give the city to Rayfolk then we, the three of us, can go to Valluman, or somewhere else where they can't find us. It doesn't matter as long as we're together Amaechkan!" She relaxed her wings and Emerald stood as she took a few steps back. "But I need to apologize to you as well. Ever since you came back, I've treated you coldly. You gave me a precious gift and I called you names and you responded by offering to save Moonshadow for me. That's not the person I want to be; especially with you. Will you forgive me, Self Forged."
"I forgive you, Angel of Aspen" Emerald answered. "You have offered me one thing I do not have; you have offered me a place to call home. And I love you, Tanjriel. For that, I will forgive almost anything."
"Angel of Aspen?" Nightstar questioned. "You've never called me that before." It was true, for all Nightstar knew Emerald had made up the name just now.
"It fits you." Emerald told her. "But if you don't like it, I will not call you it again."
"It's beautiful." Nightstar informed her. "You can call me whatever you like, Self Forged."
"As you know, I don't fancy elaborate names or titles." The Immortal told the half-sylvan-half-angel. "But you yourself may call me simply Lady if it pleases you."
Emerald and Nightstar sat at a oak table in Nightstar's tower. They had just finished reviewing plans to hire a ship to take Emerald to Stillabyr to join with Moonshadow's forces on the planet.
"There's one last thing I want to ask you before you go, Amaechkan" Nightstar said.
"Anything for you, Tanjriel" Emerald answered her, noticing the change to personal names.
"If you would," Nightstar lowered her voice. "I want you to take some of my blood, my essence, Amaechkan." The Immortal's expression changed instantly. They both knew that Immortals could feed on both angels and sylvans, so there was no reason why Emerald couldn't feed on Nightstar.
"I am not sure you know what you're asking, Tanjriel." Emerald spoke flatly.
"I'm quite sure that I do not." The half-sylvan-half-angel confirmed. "But you say it's an intimate experience. You told me you have nothing to offer but your service; and I am grateful for your service in rescuing Moonshadow. I have nothing to offer you in return, except for this."
"There are things you should know" Emerald explained.
"Then tell me." Nightstar asked her.
"The first is that it will change you." Emerald elaborated. "It will change how you feel about me. I cannot promise how, it is different for everyone." Nightstar nodded slowly, digesting the information she was being given. "While I feed on you, I will have access to your entire mind and memories. You will not have any secrets from me in that moment. The last is most important for you to consider. The experience is very addictive. You will want me to feed on you again and I will have to deny you. You will, in a very real sense, beg me to destroy you by feeding on you. I will stop before that happens, but you will want it to happen."
"You don't tell many people that, do you?" Nightstar observed.
"No. No I don't." Emerald confirmed. "It's been over a generation since I've fed without killing my food." A generation was 2048 years, the time it took for a 'vampire' to be considered an Immortal. "I'm confident I will be able to stop before you expire, but you should know there's a possibility I won't."
"Why haven't you done it before now?" Nightstar asked seriously. "If could make me infatuated with you, that would be what you want from me, wouldn't it?"
"The addiction is real, Tanjriel" Emerald cautioned her. "Presumably it's to encourage you to be food again, some sort of primal evolutionary trait of my kind. But you will do or say anything to have me feed on you again. Do not underestimate that."
"I guess you won't have to worry about me sending you away, then" Nightstar tried to jest. Emerald smiled at her, the way a parent might smile at a child asking to do something silly like fly a plane. "Will you do this for me? I told you that I don't love you, but I want to love you Emerald, Amaechkan. Give me this chance? Please?"
"Think about it first." Emerald told her. Nightstar's wings shrugged and hung low. "Just for a few moments without me here. I will do this for you, if it is what you truly want, my Angel of Aspen. Do not feel obliged to do this; I will go to Moonshadow regardless of your choice. It will be harder for you because you will ask me to stay even though it's not what you really want. I will wait for you in the bedroom on the fourth floor. Find me there, regardless of what you decide. If it is still what you want, wear red. If you decide to wait, wear another color." Emerald stood and walked towards the door.
"Hey!" Nightstar called out. "The bedroom on the fourth floor is my bedroom!" Emerald smiled and left the room.
Emerald the Self Forged lay on the large bed at the back of Nightstar's personal bedroom on the fourth floor of the tower. She wore a black satin nightgown as she removed the ring from her right middle finger and set it on the nightstand.
Nightstar entered the room, she was wearing a red dress that ended just below her knees and nothing else. Her hair was down and she slowly walked towards the bed.
"Are you ready?" Emerald asked her one last time.
"No." Nightstar confessed. "I don't think I can ever be ready for something like this. But please proceed anyway, My Lady." Emerald stood and walked towards the winged woman with green hair in the red dress.
"Where would you like me to bite you, my Angel?" Emerald inquired as she put her hand in the other woman's hair, behind her head.
"Wherever you'd like" she responded. Her neck exploded with euphoria; it spread to her whole body in an instant. She saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing but the overwhelming sensation of joy and rapture coming from her neck. She could feel herself becoming weaker, but it was glorious! Her very essence was being sucked out of her neck and she yearned with every atom of her being and every drop of her soul for it to continue for the rest of her existence.
Then it was over. She fell backwards. Somehow she had been turned around so when she fell, she landed on the bed. She was looking up at the Immortal, who had just a drop of blood on her cheek. She wanted to speak, but no words could describe the experience she just had. After a long moment of silence, as she stared up into Emerald's eyes, words came.
"I understand now." She told Emerald. Emerald was right, she did feel different about the Immortal who just almost ended her. She never understood why the middle ones would drink alcohol to excess, sometimes enough to kill themselves. Now she understood. If drink made them feel even a tenth of what she felt in that moment, she'd happily drink all the booze in the city chasing that high. And somehow she understood that it would never be as good as the first time; maybe that's how drugs were to the middle ones too. "You were there" The words came quicker now. "Inside my mind. Inside my soul. You were everywhere. And I felt."
"Safe." They both answered in unison.
"Yes, safe." Nightstar confirmed. She never really felt safe before. Being born to a nature spirit from the Wylds and an Angel from the Celestial Cities she never fit in anywhere. And by some quirk of her birth she was tied to the material plane; she couldn't survive for more than a year with either of her parents. Of course her magic and lore helped her survive; but there was always someone or something that wanted what she had, or wanted what they thought she had. She had never been safe until that moment; and Emerald knew this because she was there in each of Nightstar's memories. A lifetime was transferred to Emerald in a moment. "How close was I to the end, Amaechkan?" Emerald sat on the bed beside her.
"Not close at all." Emerald stated as she smiled. Emerald wrapped her arms around the winged woman on the bed next to her. "You should recover what I took in a day, three at the most."
"You could have gotten closer?" Nightstar questioned. "Why didn't you?"
"Perhaps I was saving that for next time?" Emerald teased.
"There will be a next time?" Nightstar gasped. "I thought you said" the words would not come to her.
"Only if you want there to be, my Angel." Emerald confessed. "But you do want there to be; I can see it." They laid on the bed in each others arms.
"You were right" Nightstar mused. "I don't want you to go to Moonshadow. Or if you do, incapacitate her and bring her back here as soon as you can."
