Love's Labours Renewed

"Love is a fickle beast for mortality. Love rises to the hunt, ravages its prey, and moves along to its next victim. Rarely does the beast savor its meal. Rarely does the beast languish in the bliss of a single taste. The beast is forever hungry, and is never satisfied. Love is nothing more than quenching a hunger that never dies. Love is the ultimate act of selfishness. That is why I teach all of my children to love with all of their dark hearts, but to only love one person, so that they can fully consume each other into Oblivion while within the arms of someone they would welcome into the depths of nothingness. It makes the descent all the more enjoyable."

Mystra, from her lecture "To Quench The Soul's Longing"

---------- Kyoko thumbed her way through the ragged book with gentle passion. The worn pages showed an aged appearance that defied its relatively short existence. The book had passed through many hands before reaching her own, many of these hands being squelched of life before their due time during the Apathy Wars. Constant exposure to strife, death, and nonexistence has aged the book considerably, despite the fact that the book was published not even 100 years ago. Specks of paper and ink would flake off in any other hands but the delicate, refined hands of Kyoko. Her mannerism allowed for her to turn each page, read each word, savor each thought without crumbling the manuscript any further. As she finished the last words of the book, steam arose in the distance. The Amber Express was arriving.

---------- Devyn and the Angel stared at one another. Devyn kept his stare slightly away from direct contact with the Angel, fixing his view upon the collar that adorns her neck rather than her face. His eyes never deviate from the piece of eternal bondage, even as the Angel's eyes fixate themselves upon Devyn.

"Love. That is why I do it."

"Do what?"

"Allow for this collar to adorn my body. Allow him to treat me like a toy. Allow him to slaughter my kin as I watch and aid him. I do it for Love."

"Lovely."

"I have watched my brothers and sisters, both fallen and ascended, wretch in agony as Aluko tortures them before finally tearing out their hearts with his bare hands and devouring it while it still beats. I hear their screams as they can still feel their heart despite it being severed from their body. The ascended ones scream the scream of an angel being cast from the eyes of God into Hell. The fallen ones scream the scream of a demon shown the eternal light of salvation, only to be obliterated from reality. I have watches as Aluko grows ever more powerful with each feast, coming closer and closer until the day when he will achieve his quest. And I Love every minute of his debautcherous, heathen quest. I Love the look in his eyes as he imagines his final angelic feast. I Love the look in his eyes as he imagines God falling to his might. I Love the look in his eyes as his quest is won. I Love knowing that my own heart will become yet another feast. His purity of devotion to his cause. That is what I Love. There is no doubt in his heart. Just as their is no doubt in my own duties, there are no doubts in his. We are like souls, Aluko and I, and I Love him for being a mirror to myself."

Devyn made no indication of his listening to the angel, or whether he agreed with her or considered her ramblings nothing more than servitude-induced rationalization.

"The Love you hold, Devyn Soyokaze, is just like mine. Both of the hearts that beat to the rhythm of your desire mirror something within yourself. Which will you choose? Which mirror will you allow into your heart, and which will you abandon?"

Devyn's gaze fell from the Angel's collar, and down to his own hands, each of which rested on their corresponding knee. On each of his hands was a ring. On the left, was a ring cast of gold and ruby. On the right, was a ring cast of silver and onyx. He has worn each of these rings since his days at Inusaka High.

Devyn rested his eyes on each ring, pondering what they meant, and then left the room as the train came to a stop at its final destination before Khazan.

---------- "Union."

"What is this?" Toc asked of Camille.

Camille brandished her right hand out to Toc, clasped as if she is holding something within it.

"Union. Take my hand."

"Cease the riddles, Camille, you are not Ravenna."

Camille smiles warmly, countering the coldness of the room she and Toc shared. She opened her clenched fist, exposing a ring. A simple silver band. No visual design noticeable. She gestured for Toc to take the ring.

Toc took the ring and slipped it onto his left ring finger. A slight bluish glow shimmered about the ring for a moment, and a cold whisp emitted into the air. As the dramatics dissipated, a faint glow remained visual in the darkened room. A simple coil circled around the ring, visible only through exposure to Toc's frigid biology.

"Now, you are mine." Camille said half growlingly, half playfully as she slowly leaned towards Toc and kissed him upon his artic lips.

---------- Kyoko glided along the hallway inside the Amber Express, searching for her room. She was both calm and frantic. Her heart raced for no reason. She felt the past chasing her down, as if time had stopped and only now was attempting to catch back up to her. The door in front of her opened.

The room number was her own.

The door closed.

Before her were the most beloved eyes she had ever seen.

Devyn and Kyoko stood in the hallway, watching one another for many an hour. Neither one moved until the Expressed reached Khazan.