Yun Hee P.O.V.
I was listening attentively to every word of my unsatisfied swain. I wasn’t sure if he was very smart or very crazy.
“Intense pure emotion increases and refines the energy received through any blessing. The better the quality, the better it is for me. How we feel about things determines the deepness of the connection and the energy transfer. In short, our souls must have a compatible relative perception of things. They say, beastmasters differ greatly due to how they commune with their spirit animals. Asking a demonic cultivator and a malgrunian to accept my understanding of love is a bridge too far. The key here is intensity. So, we can try just learning to be the horniest cultivator couple of this generation.”
‘What? How old is he, really?!’
“Where do you get this knowledge?” My curiosity was increasing.
“300000 Ucra, remember? I have some great teachers and a good memory.” He pointed towards his temple.
“How certain are you that the true dual cultivation will work with the added seal?”
“I feel a lot better ever since we started our intimate exchange. The probabilities are good; it is my life we are talking about here.” An awkward smile appeared.
“The seal of true dual cultivation, the Heart of Malgrun is one of the last things I have. I need guarantees. Can you pay the price?” I spoke coldly.
“If I don’t I am as good as dead. I’ll do anything as long as it doesn’t involve marriage nor falling in love.” He sounded resolute.
‘Here it is, again. The insane portion of my swain.’
“How can you ask for “love” when you are unwilling to give it?” I was getting irritated.
“I said I need someone to love me, not that I could love in return similarly. These are needs to increase my chances to the upmost. What you value and what I value is vastly different. Even if I say love, our interpretation of it is not the same. I’ll settle for the true dual cultivation with the unique seal, if you please.”
I peered, gazed and even walked around him for almost an hour. His eyes firm and unchanging, a strange person. I was no longer a virgin and if I was going to entertain this nonsense I was going to push it. In the end, I decided to see possibilities.
“There is someone I need to deal with, it will be exacerbating and miserly even. I plan to use the Andurin order’s name to further my goals, you will do so on my behalf. Also, I need the resources given by the agreement but they’ll run out by the end of the fourth year. You will need to be stronger than me by then. The resources needed for my continued development must be secured by you. Furthermore, you need to reach Nascent Soul stage 9, preferably half step if possible, within your proposed ten years. In return, you get me, your private power source to Malgrun. It sounds crazy, the connection might drive you insane.”
I laid my terms.
‘No tricks, just the truth. I wasn’t going to go easy here.’
He sat there pondering, holding his ketar.
“If we do this, there will be an oath. You will either fulfill it or you will die. Either in four years if you haven’t progressed to my liking the oath will kill you or if you are deemed suitable you will aid me when you reach the necessary realm by the prescribed time. If you fail, you will die. I will use your order’s name to open certain avenues, subtly. This is an oath with of a demonic cultivator and a malgrunian blessed by Malgrun directly, there is no escape. In exchange, once the oath is fulfilled your strength will rise even more dramatically as long as you can take it. Your oath will not be wasted.”
The stillness felt heavy, it was better to shatter this boy now than to waste any more time.
‘I just need to hold out for four years, an acceptable trade off.’
A long time later…
“An unreasonable task for an unreasonable need…I’ll do it, just learn to love me the malgrunian way, you can do that, right?” His eyes mirrored the stillness of the room.
“The seal will transfer plenty of more power already. You want all of it? Do you know what you are asking? Magrunian women will kill, lie, steal, debase themselves for their man. They can also kill their man if they are not “loved”. Didn’t you just say that you won’t fall in love? Do you even understand our nature?” I was seriously amused.
“I’ll be great, great enough to accomplish your impossible test. The lie becomes the truth through our desire. You fall in love with me, I’ll desire you with unrestrained passion. A man can be lustful without love, a Malgrunian cannot love without lust. A win-win in my book.”
‘That gaze, where does he get that confidence?!’
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“Strong enough to dominate, clever enough to be an undying flame?” I questioned.
“Moths to the flame, right?” He answered dismissively.
“Ha, ha, ha, ha!” My laughter made the windows in the atrium shake, I lost control of my energy with the absurd situation.
“Hazu, what do you think? Give me your honest opinion.” I asked our pervading shadow.
“Comparing the investment of the Andurin order in your lord with your proposed task, it is insufficient by a considerable margin. But he is friends with a beloved one, historically their close acquaintances are never simple.” She answered like a floating whisper, invisible.
“Very well, very well…I am an easterner, Ikrei. I have shown you mine; it is time to show me your sincerity. Let me see. How can you seduce a seductress? I assume you have a little more than just words, right?” I imitated him a little.
‘Let’s see what you got, little man.’
“I was planning a little something in a month’s time or so but, I guess, this is as good a time as any. Apologies my paramour.”
His runic ring shone its typical golden light, mine reacted. Dual cultivation. The chant went forth from my lips, my eyes turning red.
“ARLUN DESIR AUMERSH SPHORIUM!”
The command jolted me up to a standing position.
‘We are having sex right here? Right now? Using the ring is a sign of weakness. Disappointing!’
A gentle music sounded from the strings of the ketar. The sounds felt like they were in between my ears, inside me. He was using our connection as the power conduit.
‘Soul music, the real thing! The Andurian art! I’ll have you teach me that.’
The gentle strokes continued…his voice entered my mind while reverberating outside.
“♪It might be hard to be lovers; it will be harder to be friends.
Pull down your covers, won’t you let me in?
Light a couple candles, while I go on ahead and close the door.
And just talk to me baby, ‘til we ain’t strangers anymore♪”
“ARLUN DESIR AUMERSH SPHORIUM!” The chanted mixed with the melody harmoniously.
I felt his reservations towards me, he felt mine. Then the moments of blissful intercourse we had shared these past days. The image of my back contorting as I moaned was vivid.
‘This is so humiliating!’
“♪Lay your head down on my pillow, I’ll sit beside you on the bed.
Don’t you think is time we say, things you dare not say?
It’s not too late to go back to that place; there, where things used to be before?
And just look at me yeah, ‘til we ain’t strangers anymore. ♪”
“ARLUN DESIR AUMERSH SPHORIUM!”
His eyes became deeper for a moment I even thought, they turned blue. I saw images of his childhood, running around chasing rabbits with his father and the empty feeling left by his passing. I saw the silhouette of my mother, the feeling of the last time she held me and the dread, the abject fear that the presence of my father caused within me. Ikrei felt it too, this was a two-way connection.
‘Don’t look, I don’t approve of this!’
“♪It will be hard to love me; it will be hard to love you too.
It is a lie to go on believing that love can pull us through.
And it can be so easy to live your life with one foot out the door.
You just got to hold me baby, ‘til we ain’t strangers anymore♪”
“ARLUN DESIR AUMERSH SPHORIUM!”
He didn’t love me; he couldn’t love me. I didn’t love him either. I saw and felt his thoughts when he held me, he saw mine when I touched him. There was no separation, raw truth. I saw him fighting hundreds of spiders and the enormous Spider Queen. He saw me training in a lonely corner in my father’s castle. The seemingly endless toil and suffering.
‘He did fight a Spider Queen?! At the Qi gathering stage? You are truly insane!’
His eyes were levelled with mine. I felt suffocated.
“♪It is hard to find forgiveness, when you are running out of lies.
It is hard to say you are sorry, when you can’t tell wrong from right.
It would be so easy to live your whole life just trying to keep the score. ♪”
“ARLUN DESIR AUMERSH SPHORIUM!”
I felt how this whole thing was just a web of intrigues. I didn’t see the details; he didn’t probe into mine. There was no need to. We were guilty of playing cards and hurting each other for conveniences, crucial, important but conveniences nonetheless.
I saw how we played, ate, talked and even laughed together a couple of times. Then I felt it, his fear of death. Immense, compulsive, a deep trauma hidden behind. The spiders in the cave swallowing him whole. Then, revenge, hatred, conviction and bloodshot eyes willing to tear the world apart. The image of his eyes superimposing itself in a single frame with the reality of the boy in front of me.
The soul connection ended but the melody from the ketar kept going, mutedly.
“♪So, let’s get down to it baby, there ain’t no need to lie.
Tell me who you think you see when you look me in the eye.
We can put our hearts back together, leave the broken pieces on the floor.
Make love with me baby, ‘til we ain’t strangers anymore. ♪”
His eyes, they were overwhelming. I was the prey. The song ended, the ketar disappeared into his ring.
“I meant it.” He told me turning his back to me.
He took of his runic ring and placed it on the table were my brushes were.
“I will grant your desire, grant me your heart. We are imposing truly heavy loads on each other. You don’t have to decide now, just think about it.” He left.
I kept looking at the runic ring on the small table. My heart, my mind and my soul where in a whirlwind. The soul music connection felt strange, really strange.
“That song was beautiful, so touching. I’ve never heard it before.”
‘He truly is not simple. He is special. He is going to be strong.’
“Am I getting aroused?”
----------------------------------------
It was midnight, it took a long time for me to make peace with everything that had transpired. I violently pushed his doors open. I was lured.
‘Can he do it? Really?’
He only smiled with that confidence of his upon my arrival, unwarranted yet irresistible.
“If you can withstand what is about to happen, I’ll think about it.”
Ikrei swallowed an alchemical product.
‘A pill? You were playing me?’
“You’ll need more than that to make it through the night.”
My Qi exploded with my blessing, my hair extending and floating as self-conscious threads. I threw his ring back at him. He placed it in the furniture next to his bed.
“Good start.” I was pleased.
“Love, desire, greatness, eternity. Let’s open the bet with an unforgettable moment.” I told him.
My eyes shone blood red. All the power I could infuse and yet somehow I felt the blessing magnifying by itself, overbearing. My clothes disappeared into my ring. I tore his clothes in the space of four breaths with my powered nails. A breath later, I held his chin with my index and middle finger. I gave him the eagle eye, just as he did before.
“Dalkomhan mal-eul boyeojuseyo!”