A Court of Song and Shadow

A Touch of Calm

Gwyn collapsed in her bed just as the sun was just starting to kiss the horizon.

They had trained together the whole night.

Their bodies both drained by the end.

They had laid on their mats after cooling down, staring at the night sky in total silence.

How odd it was to be so quiet in the presence of another, but feel no need or desire to speak just to fill the void.

The silence with Azriel felt more meaningful to her than any conversation that could be had.

She had laid there, basking in the presence of one of the only men she truly trusted, thinking of his ability with a blade, with his body.

Azriel had lifetimes worth of knowledge when it came to combat.

And she wanted to learn it all. She wanted him to be the one to teach her.

She shook her head and laughed to herself, bringing herself back to reality.

He was in love with another. And everyone but Elain could see it so clearly.

Azriel was her trainer and nothing more. Not even a friend.

But he has been her savior.

He had come that night, when no one else had, and slaughtered the legion of Hybern soldiers.

The soldiers who had completely brutalized her.

And if he had not appeared, like an angel of darkness, they would have...

She pulled her mind from her spiraling thoughts.

He was a good man. And having one good man in her life, even as her trainer... it was more than she had ever expected to have in this cruel world.

And as she thought of him, and all he had done for her, her mind quieted and she fell asleep.

----------------------

Azriel sat on the balcony of his room, pouring a touch of whiskey into his early morning coffee.

He had elected to stay awake to watch the sunrise, as he knew sleep would not find him.

As the light slowly trickled over the mountain top and crawled up his bare chest he closed his eyes, savoring the warmth.

It reminded him of Gwyn. In a court of darkness and nightmares, she was light and warmth. Too bright for any of them.

Too bright for a man riddled with shadows and scars.

She was remarkable. The way she trained, with the passion and precision of an Illyrian who had been fighting for ages.

He smiled to himself thinking of how quickly she always rose to her feet when she was knocked down.

How deep her potential ran. His shadows always seemed to bow like waves at her fierceness.

He knew she saw herself as something broken to be fixed.

But to him, she was wild power waiting to be unleashed.

Gods. He was spending an embarrassing amount of time thinking of a woman who never gave him a second thought.

A woman he would never dare lay a single mauled finger upon out of fear of tainting something so pure and precious.

He knew he had to rid himself of his foolish affections for Elain.

But Gwyn deserved to be so much more than some kind of distraction.

And that's all these thoughts of were right? A sweet distraction.

They could never be more than that.

He was determined to let go of the need for a woman, for a partner, for a mate.

He should go back to sleeping with the woman whose arms he drunkenly stumbled into.

Who he tied up to his bedposts and fucked until he was numb.

Their screams of pleasure drowning out his miserable thoughts.

They were a drug to ease the loneliness. They meant nothing.

And nothing was exactly what he knew he deserved.

The sunrise hit his face and for just a moment, it was Gwyn. Holding his face in her hands.

And for just a moment he felt... calm.

Cassian landed with all the grace of a dragon on the balcony and Azriel cracked one eye to greet him.

"Good morning, Brother!"

Azriel took a deep breath, his brother smelled more of Nesta than he did himself. Newlywed bastard.

"Morning, Cassian. Lovely to see you so... early."

Azriel knew that his brother would normally be bedding his mate late in the afternoon.

"What urgency is worthy of leavening the warmth of your mate for, Cass?"

"Ah yes well, she left the bed first, otherwise you would have had another hour or two to bask in whatever horny daydream I interrupted," he said with a knowing grin.

Hundreds of years spent together and it never grew old, the deep understanding that came so effortlessly between the brothers.

"Rhys has requested our presence at breakfast. It seems... urgent."

"Isn't it always."

Cassian chuckled, "Yes well, he is requesting the presence of our Valkyrie commanders as well."

Az eyed the hulking male, his interest officially peaked.

Gwyn and Emerie hadn't been summoned for any official court business.

After the Blood Rite, they had gone back to their training. There was still so much for them to learn.

Their greatest obstacle to overcome, their most formidable foe, was the reality of the cruel world they lived in.

Gwyn still spent most of her days in the library and Emerie, in her shop.

They had defeated the mountain and survived amongst a horde of crude Illyrian warriors, but confronting the real world meant confronting their past.

And Azriel knew better than most, there was rarely a more frightening foe to face.

"Nesta has gone to inform Emerie, I will leave it to you to bring our warrior librarian," Cassian said with a note of affection in his voice.

It was no secret that Cassian held a tender place in his heart for the friends who had to help him bring his mate back from the pits of despair. Azriel knew his brother would be forever in their debt for that kindness.

"We'll see you at breakfast then, brother. Try to refrain from fucking on the table beforehand."

"You know that's a promise I could never make, brother," Cassian said with a glint in his eye as he dove off the balcony.

Azriel smiled to himself, pulled on a thin linen shirt, and left for the library.