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At long last, she heard a knock on her window.
The moon shone brightly on the sky, casting a gentle glow over the desk where Isobel had been willing away the hours. The day had been stiflingly hot and dry, as most days that summer, but during the nights there was a faint breeze making the trees sway and rendering the outside bearable for a while.
Isobel didn’t even know how long she had spent looking at the same page in her new book of prayers without taking in the words while the world outside slowly darkened. All she knew were the butterflies fluttering in her stomach, that her heart felt fit to burst with the promise she had received, hidden among the book’s pages.
She sprang up from the chair as soon as she heard the first knock, nearly upsetting an inkwell in the process. The book slipped off the edge of the table and fell face-down to the floor. Isobel felt a distant pang of guilt over it, but she couldn't delay for another second, now that the time for their rendezvous was finally here.
Her hands were shaking with jittery anticipation when she reached for the latch; it took her two tries to manage to unlock the window. As soon as she did she wasted no time in stepping onto the balcony, where her beloved waited for her.
Dame Aylin looked resplendent, as always. Her golden hair seemed to have a glow of its own, rivaling that of the moon. Her pure white wings stretched behind her, fluttering and twitching. Isobel wanted so badly to sink her hands into them and feel the soft feathers brushing against her skin that her voice caught in her throat, and she could do nothing but stare.
"My love,” Aylin greeted, and her deep voice resonated down to Isobel’s bones, making her feel faint. The handsome paladin gently took Isobel’s hand, bending down to kiss her knuckles like a knight out of a fairytale.
Isobel felt her cheeks become warm at the simple contact. She was a grown woman now, and yet the beautiful aasimar could so easily reduce her to this blushing state.
"I missed you,” she said, not ashamed of the note of reverence creeping into her voice. “Every hour that you’ve been gone, I have missed you.”
Aylin's warm hand cupped her cheek. Isobel lifted her hand as well, pressing against it.
“I’ve longed for you as well, my Isobel,” Aylin said. The possessive pronoun and the way her name sounded on her tongue was enough to make fire pool down on Isobel’s belly. “I’ve yearned for your smile, and I’ve dreamed of your touch.”
Isobel’s heart galloped wildly inside her chest. She had dreamed of it too. In the cold, lonely silence of her chambers, she had pleasured herself until she came to the memory of her angel’s piercing gaze, wishing so fervently that the fingers breaching her belonged to Dame Aylin.
It felt so impossible to hear that she was just as desired that for a second she wondered if she had nodded off at her desk after all, and this was all a dream.
Isobel stepped forward, helplessly caught in Aylin’s magnetic pull like a satellite in orbit. She reached up, brushing a few strands of flaxen hair behind her ears. Standing on her tiptoes, she laced her fingers behind Aylin’s neck, and pressed their lips together.
Every sound was drowned by the rush of blood in her ears. Her thin silver nightgown did little to protect her from the coolness of Aylin’s breastplate, making her nipples harden where they pressed against the unyielding steel.
The moment stretched for an eternity; her heart skipped a beat. Then, Aylin began kissing her back. Her teeth scraped gently against Isobel's bottom limp, asking for entrance, and she could only open her mouth and let her in.
Aylin’s hands caressed her flank, from her shoulders down to her hips. Without breaking her intoxicating kiss, she grabbed Isobel’s rear and hoisted her up in her arms.
Isobel yelped, instinctively hooking her legs around her beloved’s waist. Aylin used her exhalation of surprise to deepen the kiss, swirling her tongue over Isobel’s until she felt stars burst behind her eyelids.
“My… Aylin,” she gasped when they finally parted for air.
“Yours,” Aylin purred, peppering her jaw and throat with open-mouthed kisses. Isobel shivered, melting into her touch until Aylin was holding most of her weight.
She rested her hand on Aylin’s chest, frowning when it only met with metal. She wanted to feel her heartbeat, sink into her warmth and for a moment she fiercely hated the barrier between them.
"Should we go in?” Aylin teased her gently, though her gaze was heated and intent, making clear what she was truly offering.
Isobel bit her lip. She looked back to her bedroom, feeling a pang of apprehension. For the first time in her life, she regretted the fact that the master bedrooms were connected to each other.
It had been reassuring as a young, motherless child to know that her father was only a door removed, ready to chase her nightmares away. He had even given her a key to the lock on her sixteenth birthday, along with a promise to never intrude in her space without permission.
Yet, it didn't feel right to invite Aylin in when she could still see the candlelight filtering through the cracks of the connecting door. The thought of engaging in the passion she had so longed for where he had a chance, however small, of hearing her… no, it was quite beyond question.
"Take me somewhere else? Anywhere else,” she pleaded.
"Do you trust me?” Aylin asked after a moment of thought.
"With all my heart,” Isobel responded without hesitation. She trusted Aylin with her life, with her soul, with every fiber of her being.
One of Aylin's hands pressed against her shoulder, the other trailed towards her knee. In the span of a breath, she maneuvered Isobel close to her chest, holding her like she weighed nothing. Like a bride, her mind traitorously supplied and she blushed violently.
Aylin spread her magnificent white wings behind her. Even in the low light they caught the moon’s glow, creating a soft aura of gentle light all around them.
Realizing what was about to happen, Isobel threw her arms over Aylin's shoulders.
“Will you catch me should I fall?” Isobel asked breathlessly, quoting a half-remembered poem, but the tremors racking down her body had nothing to do with fear.
“I shall never let you fall,” Aylin vowed, indomitable as a lightning storm, just before she pushed off from the ramparts, flying up and up towards the stars.
The wind made her hair whip into her face and Isobel pressed closer to her angel when a shiver of cold went through her. One of her slippers lost the fight against gravity, and she followed its path down with her eyes, watching in wonder as the fortress became small, no longer the looming mistress of the land.
Despite being a servant of Selûne, Lady of Silver, Isobel had never quite realized just how beautiful the night could be. The trees were a sea of muted darkness and the paths a web of possibilities carved by unknown people, as valuable as the indomitable spirit of mankind yet as inconsequential as a child’s drawing.
The moon alone ruled over the night sky, wearing the silver clouds as a mantle. The stars seemed to glow a little brighter, away from the concerns of the surface world where Isobel had been rooted, up to this moment.
Aylin coasted in the winds, steady as an arrow, and Isobel drank it all in. The village of Reithwin, where a guard’s lantern was the only movement in the dark. Further still, the gentle curves of the land, the vegetation over the hills and the valleys.
Eventually, Aylin began to descend towards a warm light near the ground. As they came closer, Isobel realized that it was an inn nested on a lake’s shore.
Instead of flying over the courtyard, Aylin circled the building from the back, taking them to a narrow balcony on the second floor. Her landing was so steady that Isobel barely felt the jolt.
“Welcome to my humble temporary abode,” Aylin exclaimed grandiosely. She approached the balcony's door but stopped, stumped, as she realized that she couldn't open it with Isobel still carried in her arms.
When her face scrunched up in determination, Isobel hurried to stretch her arm and reach for the latch before the paladin decided to expedite matters by kicking the door off its hinges. Aylin's grateful smile lit her face up from the inside out, and Isobel had to fight hard the urge to kiss her again.
“This is where you’ve been staying?” she asked as Aylin deposited gently on top of the covers.
It was a large, well-appointed room to be sure, tastefully decorated. There was a vase of lavender and weavemoss shoots on the table, and the bed was softer than she expected; still, Isobel couldn’t help but feel her heart sink over the insult her father gave by refusing to house Aylin under his roof.
“The innkeeper is a good man. He’s proud to host the daughter of the Moonmaiden, and he refuses to hear of being paid.” Aylin replied, unperturbed by Ketheric’s slight. Her lips twisted up in an impish smile, “I try to help the children and the stable boys with their chores anyway, when I am able.”
Isobel smiled back, charmed by the way the hint of mischief seemed to take years off of her angel’s face. This is what had made her fall in love with Aylin, in the end: not her radiance, but the moments where the veil of divinity was pulled away and she got a glimpse of the sweet woman underneath.
"Aren’t you going to get comfortable?” Isobel asked, emboldened by the adrenaline from the flight and the rush of the forbidden meeting.
“Indeed, I should,” Aylin said, putting a fist to her chest and bowing playfully. She walked intently to the armor stand.
Isobel tucked her legs under her, watching as Aylin slowly took her armor off. Each piece came out with maddening deliberation.
By the time the vambraces were deposited on the stand with a soft clink, she was vibrating out of her skin. The pauldrons and cuirass followed, and Isobel groaned in desperate need when Aylin fastidiously aligned the pieces on their proper places.
When she bent down to take the right shin guard off, Isobel was ready to spring up and tear the rest of the armor away with her teeth if that was what it took to unveil her beloved’s skin. Judging by the teasing grin flitting on Aylin's lips, she was well aware of the reaction she was provoking.
After an age, Aylin finally stood in just her inner tunic and leggings. Her fingers hooked around the upper garment and she pulled it quickly over her head.
Isobel’s mouth dried and she let out a strangled sound. Aylin's stomach was flat and firm, and she could see the faint but unmistakable hint of abdominals under the creamy skin. Her biceps, free from the confines of fabric and metal, were cords of pure muscle.
Isobel was aware that she was a beautiful woman, as her mother had been; and yet Aylin's perfect body made her feel small. No one else, not the young knights who professed their undying love or the servant girls whose dimples showed when they smiled had ever made Isobel want to drop to her knees in worship like her angel did.
Aylin walked to her side, resting one knee on the mattress. Her wings fluttered behind her without conscious thought, making the flowers on the bed stand sway. She reached for her hand, cradling it gently between both of hers.
"Do you want me, my Isobel? I burn for your love; but I shall not think less of you, if you’re not yet ready.”
Isobel's breath caught in her lungs. Her heart pounded so fiercely that she was sure Aylin could feel it reverberating in her palms. This was it, the moment that had occupied her every dream since Dame Aylin, Daughter of the Moonmaiden, first crashed into her life and smiled in her direction.
And yet…
"I do. I want you, I need you. I’ve just never... I don't know how,” she confessed miserably. She felt like a fool, worse, like a child. How could she ever be worthy of her radiant lover, if this was enough to make her stomach twist with fear?
Aylin's left hand ghosted up, her touch making goosebumps rise in Isobel's skin even through the nightgown. She cupped her cheek, pulling her short hair back and leant in, so close that Isobel could count her eyelashes and lose herself in her eyes.
“Let me show you, dear heart,” Aylin breathed, an inch away from her lips.
Her kiss was sweeter this time, slower and all-encompassing, driving away all her thoughts and doubts. Aylin explored her mouth with single-minded determination, mapping it with her tongue, stoking the embers of Isobel's desire until it felt like a wildfire roaring through her body.
Isobel's free hand flew up to Aylin's nape, needing her closer. She did her best to kiss back, learning quickly from her beloved’s actions. She advanced on her knees until she could straddle her, pressing their bodies together. Aylin moved to kneel fully on the mattress, lowering one hand to Isobel's hip to steady her without needing to make them part.
"My moonlight, my love,” Aylin murmured between kisses. Her powerful hand dragged down Isobel's leg, moving under the nightgown and rucking it up to her waist.
Isobel gasped, arching into the touch. It was only on her inner thigh, almost to her knee, and yet it was already so much more intense than her fumbles in the dark, sending shocks of pleasure to her groin.
"Aylin, my Aylin,” she groaned, grinding against her stomach and dragging a low, needy moan from her lover without meaning to. Emboldened by eliciting such a reaction, Isobel reached for the bindings still covering Aylin's chest, undoing them with clumsy but quick fingers even as her angel kept tracing maddening slow circles on her thighs.
Refusing to doubt anymore, Isobel let instinct drive her actions. She bent down, took one of the pale pink nipples in her mouth and sucked, carefully to keep her teeth away from the delicate flesh.
The bed rocked under them. There was the loud crash of ceramic breaking against stone. Isobel straightened, wide eyes scanning for danger.
The only thing out of place was the flower vase, now laying in several pieces on the floor. A branch of purple weavemoss clung determinedly to Aylin's extended wing, still twitching and shuddering.
A laugh bubbled unbidden to Isobel's lips, and suddenly it felt foolish to have ever been anxious about this night. She reached up, pressing a hand on Aylin's shoulder and stretching against her body so she could pluck it from its precarious perch.
Two powerful arms reached around her waist, and before she knew it she was lying on her back, the wildflower held tightly to her chest. Aylin’s hair fell like a curtain around her face, the wings curved over them like a white dome, making the world outside their confines seem irrelevant.
Isobel thought that she had never felt safer than she did at that moment, in her angel’s arms.
“I love you,” she blurted out, feeling the truth of the words ring in the air and resonate down to her soul. No matter what happened, no matter what her father tried to separate them, Isobel would love Aylin every day of her life.
“I love you too,” Aylin said, her eyes softening around the corners. “I will love you until the sun burns out and the stars collapse.”
Her heart painfully lurched at the reminder of Aylin’s immortality. Then, she forcibly pushed the burst of sadness away. She had accepted the imbalance in their relationship early on, and she was determined to keep loving Aylin for as long as she could, to make her life brighter in whatever small way she was able within her lifespan.
Perhaps sensing her mood, or just wanting to drive the same dark thought away, Aylin broke the stillness that had settled around them. She pressed a kiss to her forehead, under her eyes, on her lips.
Isobel arched her hips to help her pull the nightgown up and out of the way. She grabbed fistfuls of the covers, letting the touch ground her in the moment.
Aylin's warm hands caressed her body with the same care she showed in every task. She trailed up, cupping her breasts and gently squeezing them. Isobel shivered at the sensation of her calloused hands; a warrior's hands, so different from her unblemished ones.
But for all that Aylin was prone to forgetting her own strength during the day, there was nothing but tenderness in her touch now. She handled Isobel like she was a treasure, not necessarily fragile but worthy of being admired.
Her hand trailed down again, pressing for a moment against her stomach before nudging her to open her legs, baring her sex to her. Even through the growing haze of desire, Isobel heard the bit-off groan, and knew Aylin was just as affected.
Aylin’s hand followed the valley of her hips, lower and lower to her core. When Aylin finally touched her, it felt like an electric shock, driving all the air out of her lungs. Isobel rocked against the sensation, dragging the heel of a foot against the covers. Aylin’s hand slid into her wet folds easily and Isobel needed her more than she needed light, more than she needed air.
Each caress, each pass was stoking the embers of her desire impossibly higher. Isobel arched her back, closing her eyes and losing herself in the feeling. Aylin shifted her weight, her hair tickling Isobel’s hips and brushing against her navel, then she shifted again.
"This won't work… I need…” Aylin muttered, unexpectedly tongue-tied. "Can you… sit up, my love?”
Though she felt frustrated by the interruption, so pent-up that she felt like she might scream if they stopped now, curiosity and trust were stronger. Isobel let Aylin pull her up and direct her to sit on the edge of the bed.
Aylin knelt on the ground, one hand on each of Isobel's knees. Isobel knew that she should protest, that the daughter of a goddess ought not kneel for one of Her clerics— oh, but it was so hard to find the words when all she wanted was to love and be loved in every way a woman could.
Then Aylin bent down, her tongue was on her and every remaining shred of coherence was driven out of her mind.
Isobel bent forward, bowled over by the wave of pleasure. It felt so much more intense than fingers ever had that she feared she would be driven mad by it. Overcome as she was she nearly lost her balance and automatically gripped Aylin’s wings to avoid collapsing on top of her.
A moment after, her fingers twitched, a single thought piercing through the haze. Could she hurt Aylin doing this?
It was hard to remember how to move, how to react. Isobel started to retract her arms when a hand momentarily curled around her wrist before returning to her thigh, as if granting her permission.
Gratefully, she sank her fingers in the white feathers. They were warmer than she expected, but just as soft. Aylin’s head was vowed but Isobel could feel every trailing pass of her tongue, every sucking motion. The searing heat was spreading throughout her body until she was sure she would burn, that she could soar without wings.
The orgasm slammed into her, and she couldn’t stop her moan as the world dissolved in light and time lost all meaning. For one precious moment there was no past or future, nothing but her and her angel, suspended in a sliver of eternity.
After it passed, she slid down into Aylin’s arms, barely noticing the cold stone floor against her legs. Aylin caught her, as she always did, but she didn’t seem any more willing to move. Instead, she rearranged her more comfortably on her lap. Her wings curled around them, almost of their own volition.
Isobel breathed in. Still lying boneless against Aylin’s body, she extended her hand to run trembling fingers over the quivering feathers. When Aylin whimpered, she followed the curve of the wing until she could cup her cheek. Her golden eyes were soft with love and leftover arousal and she couldn’t help reaching up to kiss the corner of her mouth, sweetly, just to feel her close.
“I don’t want to leave you,” Isobel said softly. Only partially teasing she added, “Should we run away together?”
And for a moment it was so tempting that she could almost see that future unfolding. Leaving their old lives and all they knew behind, flying to a place where no one cared for their names. A place where they could be together openly, hold hands under the sunlight without having to sneak away and where they didn’t have to steal snatches of passion in the dead of night.
But on the next heartbeat, the vision vanished. No matter how aggravating they could be, she loved her family as fiercely as she loved Aylin. She’d never be able to abandon her father and brothers; not when she knew it would break their hearts.
“I would run away with you,” Aylin said, but her voice was resigned too; she knew her too well to entertain the thought any longer than Isobel had. “But I will stay for you too, my Isobel, for as long as you love me.”
Isobel laid her head against Aylin’s chest, letting her quieting heartbeat lull her back into this sweet calm they were sharing. The night was still young, after all. There would be time for loving again, time for talking and laughing. For the moment she pressed her body against the soft, warm weight of Aylin’s wings and let the promise fill her soul with contentment.
“Forever, then,” she said. She tried to make her voice sound light and teasing, but deep down, she knew it was true. She would love Aylin in this life and the next, for as long as a trace of who she was remained in the world.
“Forever,” Aylin echoed, firmly like a promise.
Outside, the Moon battled Darkness in her inexorable journey towards the next dawn.