Navaar Family/Lucius/Navaar and Storme Family/The Long Afternoon

The Long Afternoon

Content Tags

Violence	Sexual Content	Other	Spoilers
	Implied Sex
	Nudity

Golden Farrow

“It’s here~” A singsong voice called out to Svari as the Marshals ship appeared on the horizon, the sound of dishes rattling as Svari Stood up so quickly she knocked the tabletop and brought all attention to her. Not much notice was taken as she fled the scene swiftly planning to wait at the dock for him as she had promised, out of uniform for the first time in a long time.

When finally Lucius disembarked the ship he would not have to look for long, Svari is conspicuous on a good day and after so many early afternoon drinks even less so. She walks the decks as if she is the only one there, oblivious to the work going on around her as she spots the man she has been waiting to see for days.

“You’re finally here!” The crew milling around behind him seem annoyed by the interruption as tall Svari, breath smelling heavily of wine, hugs their Marshal tight around the shoulders kissing him three times in quick succession before her demeanor changes at once.

“Ough you stink.” Her greeting doesn’t last much longer as she pushes him away. Snickers from his crew abound behind them, one crooning daringly that she doesn’t smell like a daisy after a week at sea either. “Heh, let’s go home.”

Lucius barely had time to react before he was swept up in Svari’s momentum. For all the privacy they usually kept, it was nice to have her welcoming him home. Their last trip to Dizeddo had definitely altered their relationship. You did agree to marry her. Why wouldn’t it change? he asked himself as she took the lead back home. He at least managed an “I missed you too,” before she was already pulling him along.

The familiar, comfortable silence as they took the usual back roads to the small merchant estate was welcoming for the weary Marshal. He couldn’t help looking at her as they walked, causing him to stumble at least once as his eyes were on Svari rather than where he was going. If he let her out of his sight he might realize it was a dream, and he was still sitting in the forts of Dizeddo once again.

As his gates, their gates, came into view the world seemed to settle. A few swift words and Lucius sent someone ahead to start getting the bath ready. “I guess that should be my first order of business if I want you to stand any closer,” he suggested with a laugh.

As he orders his staff, Svari stands beside him and agreeing “Absolutely” on the subject of a bath.

Walking with one arm around Lucius’ middle like a lovesick teenager, she could hardly keep her hands off him even if he did smell like sweat, and blood and salt. The walk up to the house had become familiar to her, over the past few days she had been staying there alone, coming and going from the tavern and the church- where her only other friends were most often found. Sometimes she wondered if it was more a home for herself than for him, but daydreamed often about both being there more often.

Over the months the place has grown less empty, being filled with the implements of life and comfort as well as their personal things. Things svari had made, or that they had both found particularly attractive while looting hung on the walls as if it were a magpie nest and made the place seem like it was truly theirs. Up the stairs, and into their chamber while Lucius strips off his gear Svari dives onto his bed with a sigh, she looks happy even if a little off kilter laying among the heaps of furs thrown onto the bed to keep her warm on those lonely autumn nights. A look of mischief appears on her face as she rolls over to her stomach and watches Lucius as he goes about what he needs to do around the room. “We won’t need all of these tonight” she points out cheekily, while tugging at the heavy fox fur blanket pinned underneath her.

Lucius flashed her a grin and tossed a towel over his shoulder. “I hope not. You’re always welcome to join me,” he suggested, feigning innocence as he looked back at her. After everything, part of him couldn’t believe she was still here, let alone wanted to marry him. He leaned over the bed and kissed her before making his way to the bath.

The bath was intended to be short but his drunken lady seemed to have other plans as shortly after he lowered himself into the warm tub she slipped into the room behind him. She insisted that his stench was a ‘two person job’ and he’d already spent so long away from her that he had no protest to staying there as long as she liked. When she had finished with him they finally returned to the bed chamber both smelling slightly of whatever fragrances the servant had put in the water. Svari is looking for a wine glass on the sideboard before her next set of clothes, and clutches a clean shirt to her chest while drinking, one of his.

“Are you in need of anything else my love?” She asks, as if she is in any state to provide anything of use. “Hungry, thirsty?” she waggles her glass temptingly at him “A warmer fire, a few more ladies?” The last one is a joke she doesn’t realize is unfunny till a few sips of wine later. “Ah, Never mind.”

Lucius shook his head. “Just come here,” he told her, drawing her into an embrace. He gently took her wine glass and set it down to hold her tightly. “I missed you, Ri. I really did.” As the moment stretched out, he could feel weeks of stress slipping away.

His first mistake was the kiss. Mistake being a relative term to getting sleep. Whatever modesty they were attempting was promptly ignored. He scooped her up in his arms, pausing only to let her grab and finish her wine before he set her down and joined her on the bed.

“Soon, we can say we’re married, and we don’t have to be so far apart ever again,” he commented as he leaned in and kissed her. He craved her warmth, and she was there for the first time in weeks. “But..” Svari protests halfheartedly against his kiss, and pulled him down onto the bed where she loomed over him, admiring what she saw for a short moment before lying on his chest to explain “We have so much to talk about before then.”

Something about her tone rings false as she traces her fingers over his chest, and then his arm “I want to know everything about you. For example this” her index finger traces a long, light scar- her expertise tells her “It’s a blade, not an arrow, not a claw…” and it went without saying he hadn’t gotten them while fighting with her.

“Mysteries, I suppose it’s rude to ask? I suppose you will have a rude wife.” She lifts herself a bit more, pulling at the shiny scar tissue in what little light the setting sun allowed the room, noisy inspecting their extent “I have wondered for a while. Bites, I have them too. Arrows- I have had a few of those as well...All my blade wounds are from duels.”

“It’s not rude. Not from you,” he told her, but Lucius glanced away. “I… was rebellious… growing up.” He hated talking about his time with the Tower, but if she wanted to know, he wouldn’t lie. He owed her everything. “There was a time when I realized what I was being asked to do… To go out to villages, root out Daimon worshipers… I was killing with no real authority behind me… I refused, finally, and that was the price I paid.” He gestured down both arms, and his legs at the series of smaller cuts. “Most of the others my age didn’t want to hurt me, but I had to pay for putting them at risk. One of them got a lucky, deep cut,” he finished.

He pointed to a puncture mark that looked awkward for an arrow wound. It was easier to explain all of them than have to remember them all over and over again. “A few months later a child got me. He concealed part of an arrow and stabbed me.... I wasn’t a good person, Ri,” he said quietly, not detailing that he killed the kid. “I was punished for that too. Got to fight an undead champion, bare handed. I never did lie about that,” he added with an awkward laugh, and pointing in the general direction of the claw marks that scarred his back. “No room for failures.”

The horizontal mark was a pirate back-swing that neither realized was coming. He was able to quickly cut down the surprised marauder, but his shield arm was useless for a couple of weeks to make sure there was no permanent damage. From there his smaller scars were less impressive, but as he finished, he realized she was looking down at a mistake prone fool, and looked away again.

As he tells his tales Svari stares down at the marks made by men decidedly more evil then either of them… Anger boils up within her, and after so much wine she cannot help but glower as he explains on an on about a past she already found difficult to imagine. Her upbringing was blessed compared to his, and she didn’t consider hers pleasant. Her father had a cruel streak but what Lucius had experienced was something on an entirely different level. The only thing she felt when listening to anything he told her about ‘the tower’ just made her blood boil, and she wished she could sail back to Beluaterra just to find someone to kill over it.

But Svari senses shame, not anger to match hers as he looks away from her and stops her inspection instead lying back down on his chest stating “I told you it’s rude to ask…” An attempt at humor again, she presses her face into her forearms resting on his chest. Svari pauses there, both understanding and wishing she could understand what he went through when the subject came up, his reaction is something she cannot put her finger on. She tilts her chin back up, peering at him again “Lucy what are you thinking when you look away from me?”

Lucius wanted to sigh, but instead, he made himself meet her eyes, and gently ran his fingers through her hair. She hadn’t betrayed him. She loved him. She deserved to know anything she asked, “Sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve you,” he admitted with an awkward smile. “I hate admitting to the things I’ve done because I desperately don’t want to be that person… You don’t treat me like that person either. When you ask me about those days, I worry you’ll just have a disappointed expression and I have to look away just to work myself up to talk to you.”

“I feel I could tell you stories that can make your toes curl and skin crawl, stories that might make you afraid to sleep beside me” A finger traces his jaw ominously, Svari admires the awkward smile as she speaks. “Stories that would make you ashamed and wonder who raised me, ones that I don’t know if I could get through telling you. You shouldn’t worry about what I think.”

She grabs the hand that stroked her hair so gently and sits up unpinning him at last, bare before him in both the literal and figurative sense and holds his palm to her chest, letting him feel the heart beating beneath. “I wanted to change before I met you. Being with you has made me realize there is more that needs changing still. You deserve someone who serves and lives for you, not gold and greed.” Eventually she lifts his hand to her lips and kisses his hand, as if he were a King “If I cannot get control of the situation, then I will wash my hands of it- and focus on us.”

Lucius couldn’t look away from her. She always said too much when it came to loyalty to him. He was never sure how to respond to it except with equal loyalty. She was still holding his hand when he pulled her back into his arms. “I remember agreeing to be your Marshal. I kept it up because you wanted to improve things at the core of the realm, and so do I. If you’re going to stand aside for us, then so will I.”

He paused for a moment, enjoying her warmth against him.“Ri, I don’t want someone to serve me though. Just to love me, and be there for me. You already do that. Don’t change yourself for me. I’m happy with you as you are, and I hope that you can see that.”

“I’m not standing aside, I’m taking a stand” though she sounds agitated Svari doesn’t move from her spot pressed against him. “I am not giving up on Tol Goldera, things only ever change when Solomon feels pressure. Whether or not he has an easy time replacing me does not matter...I would’ve done anything to see him succeed in these goals. He will see my resignation for what it is. The only way I have ever been able to get his attention...I feel sorry for his children. They will have to burn wings of the palace down to get him to look at them....”

That was unkind, she shifts in his arms to lie on her back and stare at the ceiling above their bed. "Who I am is someone who wants, needs something to believe in. Telling me not to serve is changing me." Lucius couldn't help the short chuckle, not at her expense. "I guess there's no arguing with that." Still, he thought. He knew all too well wanting something to believe in. Could he give her anything to believe in? His life was a mess of contradictions. A Marshal that couldn't sleep because his orders put the deaths in his hands. A faithless follower of a Church. A man that would probably have drowned in a cup without her.

"I believe that we're better together. At everything." Even being people, he added for himself. He reached over and pulled one of the fur blankets over their bodies, holding her warmth closer. "I have one more story for you," he admitted. "There was a boy that told his friends what to do. It didn't matter what, or why, just that they had to be done. Most days, they were successful. Others, not. Usually, success didn't matter. If one of his friends messed up there were always more friends."

Subtly, he squeezed Svari in his arms. "As he grew up, he started to realize that it wasn't just his friends messing up that made them leave, it was his decisions. Then the nightmares came." He shook his head. "I got seventeen children killed, all because I was a poor commander back then. Now, I see their faces when I sleep. Every battle is a reminder that there are more deaths on my shoulders just like theirs."

He'd never gone into detail before as to why he never slept except when she was around or when he was drunk, but here was the reason. "I don't know the moral here. Just, that I need you in my life, Ri, and you can believe that I'll always stand with you."

He doesn’t get it, she knows that and struggles against the urge to snap at him. Instead she pulls the blankets up to her chin and lets them linger in quiet for a moment as she ponders his words, then herself. “It’s not the same, you were a boy” Her voice is flat, hiding her despair “You said yourself ‘there was a /boy/’ you are the victim. You’re, how old now? Look back at a boy whatever age you were, put him through what you were then blame him. You wouldn’t.”

Unlike her, who had been a full grown adult when she started down her path of reaving, and of domination.

“You put me on a pedestal, we will always stand together, the both of us but you need to see that you are -better than me. Everything I've done has been as an adult, I gave everything of myself to all that is evil in this world in the name of revenge. I avenged nothing, and I became the villain instead. When you mourn and tell me these things you did as a child as it just makes me want revenge on your behalf. I do not see you as the one to blame.” She continues on, breathing the words “Not like me” out with a sigh. “But I know that letting go of the past is not that easy, regardless of who is to blame.”

Lucius sighed. "Of course I hold you up high! You keep yourself like a rock, and after all you've done to pull me out of this hole, you can still see what a mess I am if I open up even a little." He shook his head. "And no matter how bad you say you were, it just makes me wish I'd met you sooner. We were probably cutting throats in the same regions and never knew."

He rolled onto his side, still holding her in his arms, but wanting to look at her. "We both ended up here though. The land of second, third, and fourth chances, I believe you called it."

“If we were cutting throats in the same regions you would have one of these or be dead” she says while flashing the ugly X shaped scar on her forearm which neither of them ever spoke about. “And what do you mean I keep myself like rock?” there is a small laugh of amusement in her voice as she asks.

“Is that a joke about my face? So what if I don’t” she searches for the word, it had been thrown at her more than once “Emote much. I’m not a rock.”

Lucius laughed and hugged her tight in his arms. "You're the most beautiful woman I've ever met. Definitely not a rock. I mean you don't easily show what bothers you, and I feel like I can always rely on you. Goddess, am I this bad? My humor must be rubbing off on you." He leaned over and kissed her cheek. He loved her reactions, and that she didn't, as she put it, emote much, meant he got most of them to himself.

As always when he says she blushes, and tries to hide in the covers but knows as his lips hit her cheek he will feel them burning even if he didn’t see. “Not much bothers me” she admits, letting go of the furs again, the list of things that did bother her flashed in her mind but she didn’t voice them at all- much like a rock might.

“I wish your humor was rubbing off. Sometimes when I’m alone I think about things you’ve said before and laugh again. I tried telling your jokes to Rebecca and she just looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. She said I don’t have a comedic face.”

She had lied, and corrected herself.

“Actually, she said I didn’t always look as grim as a crow I might make a deaf man laugh...” a small snort escapes her as she tries to stifle a laugh and only makes her laugh more, at her own expense. Lucius laughed with her. As always when her expression broke, a blush, a laugh, he fell for her a little more. They stayed like that for a long time, giggling like children at each other, almost innocent again.

He knew it was dangerous to ask, but she had prodded him before. He took her hand and kissed the back of it, like she had done to him before, and then her wrist, and down her arm to the scar. "Will you tell me about this one?"

For a moment life was perfect, she had him with her, both satisfied and warm- laughing about their friends...It was the most normal she had felt in a long time. As Lucius kisses her fingers, hand, and arm Svari feels she knows what to expect and lets him continue, watching his movements until his eyes settle on -the scar- and suddenly it is dread that fills her instead of anticipation. Her left arm is the focus, with its ugly X shaped scar with deep jagged edges and lumpy, gnarled tissue that would never heal right no matter how much time passed. “It’s his mark” She hopes he will understand who, as she does not want to say his name. “With a special blade, ugly, cruel...He did this, he did it to all of us; His property. In turn I did the same to many more...” She has a look of deep contemplation, of all the people she marked one comes to mind right away- another regret buried deep inside her heart. “I hate it. If it wasn’t my sword arm i’d have cut it off” She sounds serious.

Lucius decided not to pry further at the moment and instead kissed the mark. Not that he knew who He was, or all the things she'd done. "Forgive my sentimental foolishness for a moment," he said quietly. "Without it, I feel we would never have met. To your point, we've been through different storms, and somehow washed up on the same beach."

His smile was probably the most off-putting expression he could have. There was no judgment, but some curiosity, as if he had come to terms with something. "I guess, looking at my own scars, it takes a lot of the power away from them to know they came from trying to be better. And yours hopefully lead you to being happy."

“I don’t know...I am happy, that is true.” Like him she wants to get away from this dark subject, but it is one that Svari has been stuck lamenting for many years and finds difficult to simply push away. A swift roll away from him and she is back on her feet still nude, looking for more wine. On the way she finds his shirt on the floor again and pulls it over her head before sorting out another cup full for herself.

“I want to write my letter right before we go. But, We need to see Ede before we leave.”

"Yeah, Ede." He agreed easily enough. He'd written the Tidespeaker a couple of times since Svari’s proposal in Dizeddo, though it was more about discussion between councils than anything else. Thinking back only egged him on to follow in Svari's steps to resign. He pushed that thought out of his mind. The next election would likely decide for him.

"You already spoke to Ede about… all of this, right?" he asked, unsure of how much he wanted to know. "Did anything interesting come up?"

“Yes, Ede knows everything is left up to you. She is fine with it. She wants to come with us to Mech Alb if it is alright with you too” A long drink of wine and Svari feels better, returning to sit on the side of the bed with her drink with his long shirt quickly tugged down to cover herself. “And, she said wants to perform the ceremony- whenever we decide to hold it.”

Lucius sat up, covered by the blanket, and put an arm around Svari's waist while they spoke unlike they ever really had before. "To Mech Alb?" He hesitated for a moment, weighing the prospect between worries and friendship. He did trust them both, and having another buffer between himself and Svari's family would be nice, as flimsy as it would be against people wanting to know more about the man marrying into their family. "I don't see why she can't, unless you have a reason for her to stay behind?"

The surprising part was that she wanted to perform the ceremony herself, though now that he thought about it, what was a Tidemother ceremony even supposed to be like? He realized he should look into it more. "Edelyn is too good to us. I wish I could do something… something else for her," he corrected as he wanted to mull over that without his future wife's input.

A comment is withheld, and Svari instead just leans into his embrace “Edelyn just needs support, I can see that. I’ve wished often that I could give her more of it. Since that day she got captured…. She never joined me in the field again.” Svari reaches up to push her mane of chestnut waves back out of her face. “She just feels lonely to me; Some people just need family...I have a cousin like that, you know the one.”

A frown, As she considers her own words “I think taking her away from the city with us will be a good start at doing more for Edelyn”

Lucius nodded. “And sometimes they need a swift kick,” he added with a grin. “She does deserve a break, and some time among friends. You’re right. It’s what I would need after dealing with Solomon and being left alone all day. He thought back to having to curb that woman’s anger. “She’s almost as much of a storm as you are when she’s angry,” he continued with a laugh. He hugged her tighter as she leaned into him and pressed a kiss to her shoulder, getting a stray hair in his mouth. He ignored it and rested his head in the crook of her neck. “I should probably tell you that Edelyn and I started getting along after we drew blades on each other. A bit of bruised egos, but we get along better than ever now.” He pulled his head back and gave her a nervous smile. “She had to focus her anger on something. Might as well let it be someone that gives a damn about her and can defend himself. I’d rather you heard it from me than from her though.” He managed to transition that nervous look into a half-smile. “There’s no hate from me.”

“You drew blades on each other is that a -joke-?” she doesn’t look like she believes him, but his nervous smile doesn’t ring false and as it shifts again she feels something in her give way. “Who won!? Did you hurt her? She didn’t tell me about it. Did she hurt you? You need to be careful! Edelyn is- she’s... When did this even happen?-”

All her questions culminate into one outrage “How could you duel her after what happened with us, Lucy? Are you not afraid? You tried to kill me.”

Lucius managed a shrug as he tried to organize her questions in his mind. "I won. No one got hurt. It was between the last couple of campaigns. I visited the temple for myself and ran into Ede."

He didn't want to spill all of their meeting. He would keep their conversations to himself at least, not that he didn't suspect that Svari had similar ones with the Tidespeaker since then. Instead he answered her outrage with a single, shameful truth. "For all that I called her a friend, I never truly treated her as one until then."

He shook his head. "As for that… behavior… I'm pretty sure you scared the absolute worst of it out of me," he said solemnly. "I actively try not to get in that mindset. That was…" It was what? Stupid? Dangerous? She wasn't wrong. That entire night twisted his stomach in knots as he recalled the worst parts of it. Just the memory was enough to keep that mindset at bay. He had no excuses though. "I didn't know what else to do."

Quickly Svari scoots away from him up from the side of the bed and puts her drink aside, visibility agitated as she puts her drunken head in her hands and considers all the possible outcomes. "You both are alright" she says it out loud, trying to reason with herself for wanting to slap him upside the head. Something occurs to her and she sits up, one hand extended in exasperation "How can -I'll bloody fight ya- be all you knew what to do? You're so; sweet with me. Not a hug not a, let's talk about it or, I'll take you to the tavern" she she says it out loud it makes more sense to her. Edelyn is indeed, a more complex person than the Countess who just needed a good drink to make her smile on a hard day.

"Nevermind...I see your point. Edelyn has a lot of aggression she can't work out" Svari says cheekily. "I bet Aiden never knocked her around as well as you" she covers her eyes, embarrassed by her own joke. "I've been drinking all day you'll need to work to catch up."

Lucius gets up from the bed at last and finds something to throw on at last before making his way over to the sideboard with the bedroom liquor, not to be mistaken for the living room liquor, the dining liquor, dessert liquor, optional cooking brandy, or the celebratory good stuff in storage. He grabs a glass and starts to pour himself some. "Are we alright, Ri? This definitely became a more serious afternoon than I had planned."

“It’s my fault.” She is quick to accept blame for how their evening has gone “I should know better, the scars.” she pulls back the sleeve of his stolen shirt to peer down at the ugly slash on her forearm, and drops it again with a huff “Nothing ruins a mood quite like it. I am fine if you are, I've had days to” Drink “Think things through, rest. We can do whatever you want to do. . . I can stuff you some rabbits~” she offers temptingly.

Lucius took a sip from his glass and let pass the opportunity for some innuendo involving stuffing, rabbits, and the rest of the night. Instead, he smiled. “No one’s to blame, Ri. You should know I’ll never try to hide anything from you, and it was always a matter of when, not if you asked.” He tipped back his glass and started to pour the next. She did say he had to catch up. “And rabbits sound wonderful.” He leaned over and with a playful look whispered his suggestive joke to her anyway, wanting to see if he could make her blush again with thoughts of after dinner, and kissed her cheek.

No blush appears for him, just a mischievous look characterized by narrowing bright green eyes, as he kisses her cheek she stands and clips his cheek saucily in response before getting dressed in front of him.