Feel That Fire

’Patterns get you killed.’ His own voice played quietly in his mind, and the slightest hint of a smirk played on his lips for a brief moment. Kalt glanced gently at Ashe while they walked, his hand place on the small of her back. There had been a second shrine discovered in the Glade, of all places. Not like he had made it his business to investigate the first shrine just yet...deities weren’t exactly his specialty.       As they approached the outdoor shrine, Kalt narrowed his eyes at the pattern of the rocks. It was enchanting and beautiful and all of that nonsense, but patterns never had a place in his life, which made him instantly feel slightly on edge about standing around a massive one dedicated to the unknown gods of an unknown world.       He wondered briefly if they should have brought something as tribute, but decided they were better off traveling light. The symbols on the shrine intrigued him, though. He committed them to memory and decided that he would try to find matching or at least similar scripture in an Atheneum book or tome.       He had been spending a decent amount of time in Atheneum, probably a little more than he should have been, but the literary resources there seemed virtually endless. One such scroll he was able to mostly decipher seemed to reference a deity, or at least a being of great power. The details around the being he hadn’t been able to figure out from the scroll, but it piqued his interest. When Ashetta came home from the border with the name Frey after seeing Remi and a duchess from Northaven, Kalt decided it he needed to know more. Of course Ashe was coming with him because far be it him to be able to handle anything like this without fucking something up. He would almost be offended if he didn’t love her company.       Prayer. It was such a strange concept. Faith in some mysterious higher power... He had met a higher power in this world, one by the name of Ludo, but he wasn’t focused on Ludo at that moment. In truth, he wanted to put some things together in his mind before attempting to contact that deity. Not that he had control over who showed up, if anyone did.       His eyes landed on Ashe once again, and he gave her a reassuring grin. It might have also been partially for himself, as he really had no idea what he was doing. ”Whoever has their ears on up there,” he started, glancing up at the sky, his breath clouding in front of his face, ”we were hoping for an audience with the one called Frey.” Was that formal enough? He supposed they would find out sooner or later. Kalt I  am flesh and I am bone, i rise up, ting ting, like glitter and gold i've got fire in my soul

Kalt's hand on her back was warm through her cloak, and it seemed to keep her steady as they approached the shrine. The asshole couldn't let it go, hell-bent on talking to the one that Cel had told her about: Frey. Why he was so interested in a god like that wasn't tough to figure out, but what of the other two? Safrin. ... Ludo. She wondered if all three would show up when summoned, and as she regarded the strange stone full of patterns and symbols, she decided she didn't want to find out.    Ashe definitely wasn't going to be letting Kalt do this alone - absolutely not. Too many unknowns, too powerful of foes to be taken on. If they were foes, of course. So far, it seemed the gods wanted nothing more than to work against their mortal counterparts - other than that Safrin one that her brother was so passionate about, and even still she was leery. But were they connected to the barrier? Did they at least know more of it, what it was, how to topple it? Or were they its creators?    The raven-haired girl felt her gut knot uncomfortably as she looked up at that patterned rock, at this earthy shrine tucked into the snowy glade. There had been none of the divine in Northaven or Northwind. There had been churches and religions and and ceremonies - she'd seen them all in her travels. But to encounter real gods... She took a deep breath. Kalt would no doubt want to speak to Ludo at some point, something she didn't like but understood... but for now?    Ashe looked over to Kalt in time to catch his smile, and she gave him a half-smirk in return. He was confident, and while she wanted to take comfort in that, she still found herself pressing close to his side and watching the way he called upon Frey. Whoever has their ears on up there. Honestly? She quirked a brow up at him with the words in her eyes. She wondered who would show, if anything happened at all. Some part of her hoped there would be no answer, that the gods would be content ignoring the pair of assassins... but things rarely worked out so easily for them.    Well, she supposed she had questions anyways. Ashe bundled further into his warmth against the cold, and her fire-blue eyes flickered across that patterned stone. "We have questions for you," Ashe prayed in followup to Kalt, her voice hushed. "And we hope for answers." ashe When all the days go by in the firelight We'll never fade out in the night

Frey Beholders beware, there are no safe words What an interesting pair of supplicants. So young, so in ... love, is it? Or just lust? Or just a mutual tail-spin into destruction? It was hard to say, but Frey was certainly interested. Not so much in the outcome—that was death, it was always death with the mortals—but with the journey.  They were like pheonixes that way; so bright while they burned, but always headed towards death. Would these two be reborn? Appearing in the grass on their back, Frey gazed languidly up at the sky. They were completely in the nude, and as always their body was a kaleidoscope of changing features, never settling on one palette or sex, but always appearing as a heightened depiction of whatever Kalt and Ashe's most desirable physical form might be. Lazily they stretched, supple limbs moving of their head to reveal taught muscles and vivacious curves in all the right places. At once both the man and woman would feel an overwhelming sense of attraction to the being, so strong that it thrummed in their bones. Moving over to their side, Frey gazed at the couple through impossibly alluring eyes with a sensuous smile on their lips. Lazily placing a finger in their mouth to nibble on, their gaze moved from man to woman and then back again, their tongue flicking out of their mouth around their finger before darting back in again. "What an attractive couple you make. Bodies like that I'm surprised that you come up for air at all, or why you bother to hide them—" With a wink Kalt and Ashette would find themselves as naked as the god, though they'd feel absolutely no cold or chills upon their skin, but find themselves quite comfortable. "That seems much better." Frey purred, their words like honey on lace as they ran their hand through the grasses untouched by the snow. "Now. Why have you come here?"

Intrigue and fascination swept over Kalt as the being appeared on the grass, completely naked. Now, Kalt had absolutely no problem with seeing a naked form on display, but he was captivated by how the figure in front of him seemed to continuously change and alter their features. Fascinating, indeed…       The assassin observed carefully, feeling an undeniable attraction towards them, and he was slightly confused, yet willingly allowing the feeling to wash through him.       ’Bodies like that I’m surprised that you come up for air at all.’       A smirk was pressed to Kalt’s lips, as he glanced at Ashetta with a slightly teasing grin. ”Well, we don’t really,” he muttered with a breathy laugh. The deity winked, and suddenly, he and Ashe were standing without clothing. His brow raised, but he made no move to cover himself.       The two mortals were covered in scars, their bodies marred unlike the god’s. The life of an assassin was nothing easy, but each and every scar was earned. Kalt, for one, wore his with pride. He briefly wondered what Frey knew about their lives, how much they knew of the Assassin in Blue and Silver Wing. Were they omnipotent? Or did they only have access to mortals’ direct thoughts? Or was it something completely different? Northwind and Northaven didn’t exactly have gods, so this was a whole new situation for the man.       He cleared his throat, giving the deity a crooked grin. ”We were hoping to find out if you were able to answer some things for us about this place we’ve been brought to?” Kalt said with just the slightest bit of hesitation. He wasn’t necessarily afraid of Frey – he had learned to deny fear at a young age – but he wasn’t exactly looking to anger them in any way. He had a feeling there would be some kind of price to pay, as things never were given for free, but he needed to know if Frey even had the information before offering some kind of payment for it. Maybe he was overestimating the deity’s willingness to play along, but he supposed they would find out. Kalt I  am flesh and I am bone, i rise up, ting ting, like glitter and gold i've got fire in my soul

Ashe had thought she’d had some sort of idea what to expect. While she had never met a god, had never wanted to meet a god, she at least thought she had gathered enough information to be prepared for Frey.    She really fucking wasn’t.    They appeared in a patch of grass now untouched by snow, soft like it had never seen deepfrost. The being was stunning, and the overwhelming presence of them yanked the air from Ashe’s lungs all at once. She pushed her shoulders back, stood straighter, but it wasn’t fear she was fighting against (though it did ping in the back of her head like a warning bell). It was desire.    She near trembled with it, and her brow furrowed with confusion as she watched them stretch and then turn their attention upon the pair of assassins. A god. She was face to face with a god. Their features shifted, or it seemed like they did the longer she stared at them. She kept her jaws clamped firmly shut, and she tried to make sense of whatever magic was at work here, tried to make sense of herself. Physical attraction was not something she experienced with those she didn’t have some kind of feelings for first, and to feel it for a god? It took all of her willpower not to turn on her heel and get the fuck out of there. Kalt’s voice, at least, had her flicking her gaze up at him - a grounding sight. Though when he said wormed under her skin so much easier than it normally would have, bringing a blazing flush to her cheeks.    Then her clothes were gone - Kalt’s too. She sucked in a sharp breath, but otherwise did not move. It was a blessing right then that things like modesty and privacy were a foreign concept in the guild. She had grown used to naked bodies and her own scarred form being exposed at a young age. Still, with the magic at work, Ashe reached out her hand to hook her finger’s loosely around Kalt’s as she moved closer to him. Mistake. Her skin was fire where it touched him, and she suddenly wanted every exposed bit of him. Her eyes were locked on the sensual deity in the grass, and for just a moment her senses left her.    ’Now. Why have you come here?’    She was pretty sure she’d nearly forgotten, but the question jarred her enough to make her think twice about replying with ’I already fucking said why when I prayed.’ Ashe took a steadying breath and looked up at Kalt when he spoke. Vague and careful wording - they had talked about that. Ashe was hesitant to ask for anything without knowing what would be asked for in return. Or taken... but her brain was addled with the near-painful pull of desire. ”We want out of this place, to the other side of that barrier,” Ashe made herself say, and she was grateful that her voice did not shake the same way her traitorous body trembled. Ashe was tired of being trapped, and now that she and Kalt had each other again? She needed way for them to be free the way they always had wanted. She forced herself to focus through the roiling heat in her as she pressed just slightly closer to Kalt. ”I know the ascended are involved, the spire, the demon that will die. But three centuries of that spire and the barrier standing, and no one has figured it out.”    Ashe.. she dared a step forward in the grass, keeping her eyes on the alluring god and her hand linked with Kalt’s. She looked back at him, hoping the sight of him would ground her once more. Nope. Her mouth went dry when she realized he most definitely was feeling the effects of the magic too, and she tried to pretend her skin didn’t flush and that her eyes didn’t go down as she returned her attention to Frey with a thrumming pulse. ”Kalt and I want to know how we can succeed where everyone else has failed,” she made herself go on. Is that why such a large group of people were yanked from Northaven and plopped here? For fresh minds to look at the problem? ”Can you help us?” ashe When all the days go by in the firelight We'll never fade out in the night

Frey Beholders beware, there are no safe words Their reactions were the same even though they were different. Predictable. Bland. Boring. He exuded confidence, she tried to hide her fire and wavering thoughts on whether or not remaining was a good idea. Kalt's response drew the deity's gaze and for a moment it pinned him.  "I guess I should count myself flattered that you'd bother to draw breath on my account." They mused, plucking a perfectly ripe and robust grape out of thin are and sensually popping it into their mouth with a decided popping sound as it squished between their teeth. However as the man mentioned questions, Frey's tactile sexuality slackened slightly and for a moment the brilliant kaleidoscope of their gaze turned hot and tense. Just as quickly though the shadow passed and they smiled a dazzlingly white smile, rolling onto their stomach and gently etching the air with their feet in lazy and languid circles. "The other side of the barrier?" Frey repeated turning to Ashetta now and licking their lips—a tingling sensation that Ashe would feel against the pink flesh of her lips as well. Both sets of them. "And what will that accomplish? You'll find only another bubble of sorts. The bubble of the world. Your feeling of being trapped won't go away, your cage will just be a little bigger. Is size really all that matters to you, hon?" Frey asked with a wink, knowing full well the size-range that the assassin was currently working with. Lazily the being listened, but as Ashetta moved towards them, Frey rose off the ground like water flowing backwards into a vessel which had just poured it. Reaching forward she gently touched Ashe's face, the other hand slinking around the girls waist. Though Frey's touch was tender, if Ashe tried to resist she'd find the being's arms as immovable as stone. Were Kalt to try and interfere, he'd find himself bound and gagged. But if he simply stood and watched? Well Frey had no problems with that. "Help you?" Frey simpered, their voice like a bow on violin strings, echoing off satin. "In more ways than you know." For both Kalt and Ashe the world would sink away into a thermal of maroons and blacks. They'd find their bodies enraptured with passion as if unseen hands and tongues and fingers poked and prodded in the ways they could only imagine in their dreams. Even their mortal fumbling and fucking would seem like a whisper compared to the scream of ecstasy the god broiled in their bodies. "But you misunderstand." They would hear through their moans and the pulsing of their own heartbeats in their ears. "Why would I help you when you are right where I want you? All of you contained here, begging and pleading with your hearts on your sleeves, ignorance on your lips, and passion in your eyes?" With a triumphant peel of laughter, Ashe and Kalt would find themselves riding the crest of a powerful orgasm. Falling icily off their dual climaxes, they would find themselves quite alone in the glade.

The interaction was intriguing to the man’s ever-curious mind. Never had he dreamed of meeting an actual god. Before coming to this place, he hadn’t even believed such things existed. Back in Northwind, magic users were even revered as being close to gods, but that’s about as much religion as the people had. And even then, as a magic user, he never thought anything of worship. Kalt smirked, watching the deity’s ever movement. The attraction he felt to the deity was like nothing he expected to feel, but it was more than pleasant, so he wasn’t fighting it. As Frey rose from their lounging position and moved towards Ashetta with a touch to her face and a hand around her waist, Kalt narrowed his eyes slightly. He didn’t try to interfere, knowing full well he couldn’t be aware of the power a deity possessed, but he reached towards Ashe, his fingers brushing against her wrist with a soft smile. ”Got you,” he whispered to her mind. He felt the discomfort and multitude of other feels she experienced with Frey’s touch, and he wanted to stop it, to pull her away, but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to. A deity was more powerful than either one of them, and he would need an actual plan to act against them. Besides, acting against a god wasn’t on his to do list for the day. They were enveloped into a world of passion, taking over their senses, but as Kalt began to feel phantom touch, unseen hands on bare skin, he wasn’t filled with ecstasy or pleasure or anything like that. The man was nearly paralyzed with fear and fury. He could only remember the touch of four people in his entire life; Ashe, Theea, Orynth, and the fucking bastard who began Kalt’s intense fear of touch. Count Stefan Westbourne. That piece of shit took Kalt’s identity when he was eight years old, so Kalt took his in Northaven. While Frey’s sensual tricks may have been the most incredible experience of most people’s lives, they had a numbing effect on the assassin. His mind was hazy, unable to think straight and instantly thrust deeply into his survival instincts. He couldn’t feel the sensations that Frey was giving him at first, but as they crept into his mind again, it wasn’t ecstasy, but an agonizing and overwhelming sensory overload that almost had pain replacing pleasure. His legs were numb, and he thought to try to clear his mind, but it was futile, until the deity vanished with laughter. Once they were alone, Kalt ran his fingers through his hair. He was out of breath, and the sound of his own heartbeat was drowning out anything else. There was likely about a minute before he was able to sort through his thoughts with any kind of success, but when he did, he would reach out and laced his fingers with Ashe’s, forcing his body to remember what safe touch felt like. Even then, he forced himself not to shudder. ”Is this your game?” Kalt spat to the empty air. ”Getting your pleasure from forcing people through hell?” He couldn’t breathe. A deity was supposed to be all-knowing, all-powerful. If that was so, wouldn’t they be aware of the sexual trauma that the assassins endured? And if they did know about it, was it just that they didn’t care? Or did they not have the gall to witness the aftermath? KALT falling apart, barely breathing broken heart, that’s still beating in the pain, there is healing

Ashe felt it when Frey licked their own lips, and she had to fight against her shudder. This was a mistake. She had been wary of speaking with any gods before, but she hadn't been prepared for this. Goosebumps rippled over her bare skin, and as Frey rose to their feet as fluidly as a breeze, as silk, as the divine, she stopped feeling her hands. Even still, she didn't move back as they approached, she wouldn't. She had questions, she wanted out, no matter what they said about more cages and barriers -    The god touched her then. Her spine locked and their hand tenderly touched her face, the other sliding over her bare waist. Her breathing kicked into high gear as her mind warred with her body, with this magic at work. No, no, no, she had come here for answers, not… not the wordless want that pulsed in her veins. ”Kalt.” She felt callused fingers brush her wrist, felt him.. but it seemed in the very same moment, Frey cooed down at her and the world disappeared.    Some part of her had to shut down for the things the God did next. She had to shut down the part of her that didn't want to cope with this, and she lost herself in the ecstasy. She moved and shook and moaned at the phantom hands and tongues and lips upon her, the sound of her own heart drowning out all else.. all but their voice. She tried to reason, tried to grasp anything beyond the mounting pleasure that overwhelmed everything - further, further further, and -    She shattered apart with laughter ringing in her ears, she couldn't tell if she was gasping or near sobbing with the force of that climax. Her vision pulsed black and…    And then all was quiet. All was still. Ashe and Kalt were alone at the shrine.    The assassin trembled on the ground as her body curled inwards, gasping in the absence of that heavy and hot magic filling every part of her. Ashe gulped down air as she pushed herself to all fours, her knees and bare hands crunching in snow she couldn't feel now. She dimly registered Kalt's voice, his fury, as her mind tried to scrape together the tatters of her thoughts.. what had happened..    Ashe’s weak hands curled into fists and sank further to the ground, unable to muster up the strength to stand on her legs she knew would shake too much to support her. They had gotten nothing, no answers, just.. just toyed with. And she had.. she had enjoyed it. Her body still pulsed with the aftershock of it, and veins of lightning flickered across her skin in time with it. She squeezed her eyes shut as a deep and sharp sense of shame twisted in her chest, and she slammed a frustrated fist down on the ground. ”Fuck the gods,” she spat at the ground.    She felt Kalt's hand close around her fist, and she leaned her forehead down against his knuckles as she opened her hand to take his. Ashe took a moment to try and breathe, and she took that shame, the disgust at herself, the fear, and she throttled it. Idiot girl, came the snarl from the back of her mind. She shoved it down and down and down until she could feel nothing beyond a burning anger and her own body still shaking. Ashe squeezed Kalt's hand, but she still couldn't lift her head. ”Just me,” she told him gently, her sweat-slick brow pressing down on his hand as she fought the nausea curling in her stomach. ”Just us.”    She had to pull it together, process what Frey had said to them.. but she scarcely even dared to move.