Careful step after careful step, carefully timed with his breathing and the low chant of the spell of Sense Earth. Which was currently a delicate balancing act as Omid stepped through the courtyard, knowing that Sareen was somewhere down beneath the surface waiting to strike. As soon as he tried to clarify what ‘strike’ meant, she smiled and vanished into the ground like it was water.

And so he kept his metered rhythm.

Inhale and raise foot, exhale the word into a spell chant as your boot touches ground, feel the magic leave your body and extend into the ground as you step, sense all that was below you out to a certain depth.

No, he was not allowed to get a feel for this with his boots off. He had, afterall, proven himself quite capable and Sareen was all too happy to put that even further to the test.

Though their dynamic had changed in a so far unnamed way, Omid placed no confidence in that precluding him from bodily harm at this point in their relationship.

His chanted spell stopped as he mentally tripped over that word. Only for a moment, only enough that when he refocused and started his rhythm again he sensed it. Deep down, about one story below he could feel the slight movement. It was faint and the soles of his boot dulled it somewhat but he still felt a sensation not unlike wet sand squishing between one’s toes on the beach.

Sand that moved on its own.

Omid kept moving, kept up his chanting step rhythm as he kept an ‘eye’ on Sareen down there. He missed not a step from when he first sensed that movement, and kept onward towards the exit of the courtyard. And as he expected the movement down there followed just on the edge of his expanded magical senses.

Not for long as Sareen decided to strike as she rapidly rose through the earth at incredible speeds.

Which Omid decided to assist in.

Having already discerned her location in the ground, once she was near enough to the surface he shouted out a spell of Control Earth as he made a sweeping motion with his arm and open hand to command a pillar of earth to propel the Kirzallan even faster out of the ground as he leapt out of the way.

Completely caught off guard by the increase in speed and the sudden ascent beyond what she expected, Sareen flailed as the pillar came to an abrupt halt and she achieved liftoff into the air. Watching her flail in confusion, Omid commanded another pillar to lift him up just high enough and at the right angle to catch her just after she hit the apex of her flight and started to descend. She was, perhaps unsurprisingly given her nature, heavier than all outward appearances might indicate. And despite being a being of earth, the rage burning in her eyes was palpable as Omid set her down on her feet a moment later upon the pillar before he commanded the pair back down to ground level.

“Do you always attempt such tricks upon your teachers, Omid?” Sareen growled out from grit teeth and a dangerous smile, hands balled into fists at her side.

Omid let the smallest of his own smiles creep over his face as he locked eyes with the deadly woman, neither of them daring to blink. “Only when I believe my life is on the line.”

The danger vanished in an instant from her smile, and what remained appeared to be curriosity. “You believe I would kill you?”

He finally blinked while still searching her eyes, finding something approaching confusion or possibly even hurt down in the indigo. “No, I believe I’ve shown you I have enough value alive and not in statue or glass form.”

The Kirzallan stepped closer, looking up at him with a returning smile that for a moment looked to bear too many teeth. Teeth that looked a bit too sharp. “Bold is a good look on you, on the condition you can back up your words with actions.”

“Before actions must come planning.” Omid kept his tone even as he looked back down to her, feeling a bit of warmth from her in the cool air of the moon. “And to plan, knowledge is needed. I believe we both promised one another a certain amount of knowledge?”

Sareen’s toothy smile settled into a far less threatening one that hid all teeth as she gave a nod and took Omid’s hand in her own. She turned on her heels and started dragging Omid along towards the exit and down a vaguely familiar series of twisting corridors. In following, Omid noticed that despite having just burst from the ground, Sareen was still free of any dust or small debris. He also noticed that as they passed a familiar vast tapestry depicting what Omid assumed to be history, Sareen wove their fingers together and squeezed his hand a bit tighter.

This was a detail that should have sent his mind racing. At the moment it was a secondary concern to following Sareen, and enjoying a small moment of relative calm after another harrowing experience had led to an increased sense of safety with her. And the softness of her hand. And her-

Omid recognized the unsuspecting storeroom that was actually something of a portal to her own private quarters, bringing his attention back down to Kir. Or the moon. Possibly both, but firmly rooted in the present as the short ritual was once again completed before his eyes and they were passing into Sareen’s private hall of curiosities and that grand staircase leading up somewhere.

“How is it you do that?” Omid’s curiosity finally overtook him as he gawked at all the treasured artifacts, including his gift of a flower to her.

Sareen didn’t look back as she dragged the two towards the grand spiral staircase. “A threshold of stone is still stone. It is mine to control. As is any room of stone. If I so desire to have it connect in a more agreeable way, is it in any position to argue?”

“None at all, I would imagine.” Omid resisted commenting on how it seemed that she was leaving out many details and focused instead on making it up the stairs while processing that revelation. They were all ornate darkened metal, carved pale stone, leading ever upward in a disorienting spiral that felt like it went on forever as the light at the top of the stairs always seemed to be but a few steps away and unreachable.

Curiosity got the better of him and he chanced another question. “If I attempted a Sense spell here, how poorly would that go for me?”

“Very!” Sareen said as she spun on her heel to face him, coming to a stop at a landing that had seemingly come out of nowhere while Omid was distracted. “Far too much information for one so new to seeing the world in a new way!”

Omid cast a final look over his shoulder at the staircase that had taken so little time to ascend, that had felt like it took a lifetime, and that by all rights should have been unremarkable before looking back to Sareen and the doorway she stood in that opened into a large circular room.

“Am I correct in assuming you brought me to this specific room for a reason?” He asked as he looked just beyond her. The circular room was uncharacteristically comfy, filled with cushions, pillows, plush rugs, and silken blankets on nearly every bit of the floor that wasn’t occupied by low tables that amazingly appeared to bear no corners sharp enough to kill. Only silver decanters and pitchers., along with a glass tray of…something blocky and blue that defied any real greater description.

Sareen dragged him further in as she spoke. “Not this room in particular, but this entire section of the palace may only be entered on my will alone.”

She released her hand from his, sitting down upon a heap of cushions and silks in a single neat motion as Omid quickly found a closeby heap of his own to rest upon. Her smile remained. “None shall see us, none shall hear us, none shall interrupt us.”

“A good place to kill me and not worry about the screams?” Omid asked with an uneasy grin as he reclined on the soft cushions.

Sareen gave the smallest of laughs, holding a hand up to her mouth as she did. “There is no place where I would worry about such a thing!”

“But you won’t.” Omid said with a calm smile as his own laughter subsided. “Because you have plans for me. Plans that would be better accomplished if I knew them.”

The Kirzallan’s smile remained as she remained sitting straight up, eyes busy assessing Omid. “You are quite adept at exceeding expectations. At first I thought I had merely set those expectations too low, but I am no fool.”

The human kept up a polite smile, waiting for her to continue as her gaze didn’t meet his as she continued her visual assessment.

“As time went on, I came to a realization.” Her brow furrowed slightly. “How many others could know you like I do? Know what you are capable of? What you could grow into under the right conditions?”

Her smile returned in an instant, and she leaned ever so slightly closer to Omid.. “Not. Enough. So many lack the vision I possess. So many would refuse to see what could be. They would look at you as nothing. A human. Not even a mage. Just a human, far beneath their notice.”

Omid didn’t flinch as her eyes of indigo finally met his eyes of deep brown. A slight smile was his shield to be held up under all costs, as she had so clearly outlined why faltering now was to lose value. He had to keep it going, or perish. He had to continue, for this was...exciting?

Exciting was troubling, for who wouldn’t want a far more peaceful life in this situation? Omid’s lack of internal response to this internal question didn’t have the time to register as her smile grew sharper.

“They won’t see you like I see you, Omid.” Sareen’s voice was disarming in how gentle it was. “An unknown variable, potential unlimited. And you asked me for that greater relationship.”

She said as she pointed first from herself and then to him. As if he needed any reminder of a decision he was still figuring out.

“Because it excites you, and you want more.” The Kirzallan said with that same sharp smile as she rested her hand on his, having leaned ever closer.

Which was absurd, Omid thought. This was pragmatism. Simply doing what he had to. And sating his curiosity of a world far beyond the mundane along the way.

“I don’t even fully know what hidden plans you have for me to play such a large part in.” He defended, not pulling his hand away from her touch.

“That’s the best part!” Her indigo eyes burned hotter than the suns combined as she grew closer to his face. “It won’t matter to you, will it?”

Though his thin lips moved to immediately contradict such an absurd claim, not even so much as a syllable was formed before he scoffed and shook his head. It was a claim that was beneath words. To give it even a gesture of his head was treating it with far more gravity than it could ever dream of. Omid shook his head again, scoffing once more for good measure as the sheer levels of ridiculousness brought an amused smile to his face.

Just to be certain though, to make things absolutely clear, and to leave no doubt, he deigned a verbal response. “If your plans were for some truly heinous act then my only course of action would be-”

“To stay with me and try to change my mind.” It wasn’t a question, which would imply uncertainty. It was a statement of knowledge that brought Omid’s thoughts to an abrupt halt and Sareen’s smile to even more amusement. “If were to give a plan of, for example, trying to use this war party to advance my own position and establish authority over my kin, what would you have me attempt instead that none of them would ever expect?”

The light of this room was the same white light of everything else under Sareen’s power, though slightly dimmed out of some attempt at increased comfort. The sconces that bore light were limited in number upon the walls, and all of them paled in radiance before the piercing light of Sareen’s eyes staring right through Omid. Sound was a stranger to this room, smothered amongst the fabric and soft surfaces, perhaps too afraid to intrude upon the Kirzallan’s apparent sanctum. Which left Omid’s heartbeat to ring in his ears like a slow temple bell that had log ago broken and become corrupted into a metal shell that produced nothing but a slow, dull thump in his ears with every pulse.

Like almost every other word out of her mouth, her latest question could be taken as something of a threat. A temptation and a test to prove the folly of man.

A new thought bobbed above the white capped waves in the ocean of Omid’s mind. An island in a storm, and refuge to be taken out of equal parts desperation and hope. A hand reaching out and pulling him to safety. The possibility that those same threats and temptations were a challenge.

“They call you princess. A princess must have an army, especially for war.” Omid spoke, feeling a rough and disorienting return to reality. “You have one?”

Sareen nodded. “I can make more guards as needed, and I have a number of connections and favors to call upon. A number that has grown one larger thanks to you.” Her smile was once again that of delight and danger.

“And what if I were to help you get even more?” Omid continued, fully aware of the fine line he was treading between confidence and caution with a pinch of probable madness thrown in.

The woman raised a brow, tapping a finger along the bones in Omid’s hand. “More?”

Omid pursed his lips, throwing all caution to the wind and hoping it would not immediately blow back into his face. “More subjects would mean more prestige. Think of all those desperate to avoid the end of the world, more willing to turn to a leader who could provide that salvation. And after the dust settles and the end of the world has been prevented, they would be eternally grateful. Eternally yours.”

“My subjects are personally selected.” Sareen noted, matter of fact. “To play conqueror to…humans is beneath us. There is no joy to be found in such a direct endeavor.”

“I didn’t say direct conquest.” Omid held up a hand, smile more defensive than genuine. “What if they wanted a ruler such as you? Could any other claim such a title? Could any other stand to not have what you have?”

Sareen blinked, smile returning as she silently gave something between a scoff and a chuckle. “You are good at impressing me. Impress me at the party and we shall discuss this topic further. I believe it is my turn for a question?”

Having to come up with the finer details of a plan to save the world and all of humanity later was perfectly acceptable to Omid, as were any questions Sareen may have for him. So he answered with a nod before he could start thinking about how that might not actually be true at all.

“If you had the kind of power I do, what would you do?” The question came with a smile on full lips and a shine in eyes that wouldn’t let him go.

That question was not for today, Omid thought.

That question was quite possibly for never.

“Wouldn’t you rather see what I would do?” The young man said with the smallest of smiles, already missing when a majority of his smiles did not exist for the primary purpose of self-preservation.

Sareen tilted her head, but seemed to accept the answer with a small nod. “You had something you wanted to tell me, did you not?”

Omid pawed at that pouch on his belt holding the obsidian disk, ever so finely polished like that of a small mirror. Keeping his hand in place, he cleared his throat and steeled himself. “When we were making our dramatic exit from your declaration of intentions to The Old Men, I took a stumble. A man handed me something that I dropped as I was climbing to my feet and racing off. It was only later that I discovered it was something I had never seen before in my life, and that I...could not remember what the man looked like. Nothing at all aside from the fact that he was a man.”

All amusement and playfulness had gone from Sareen’s face, leaving behind a blank expression and pupils that grew smaller as her grip on Omid’s hand grew tighter. Omid knew there was no backing down from whatever this was, and withdrew the disk from his pocket.

“He gave me thi-”

Her other hand clamped down on his the moment the disk came into view, hiding it away as Omid caught a look in her eye that he had never seen before. Something he wasn’t certain he had even seen now. A spark of something that had to be a trick of the light for the alternative was not possible.

Fear.

It was all then replaced by something too familiar as his eyes locked with hers yet again. A smile that was hoisted up as a shield, and eyes that couldn’t quite carry their weight in faking it. It was all a mirror he was getting far too uncomfortable with seeing.

“Should I ask why you have that look about you?” Omid asked, concern growing by the moment.

“Only if I should ask the same about you whenever you bear the same face.” Came her response, a simple yet decisive strike that reminded him that she was indeed paying attention.

And against the better judgments of a version of himself that was still locked in fear, he pressed on. “For me, it’s fear that I am being judged. That to fail that judgment is to bring death.”

“Then we share that in common.” She said, as Omid detested this dark mirror of his own situation with ever increasing intensity.

Omid shifted his hand, curling his fingers around the disk as he pulled away from a reluctant to let go Sareen and pocketed the obsidian disk once more. “Do you have your own being of unimaginably greater power testing you?”

“It seems I do.” Her tone was even, devoid of emotion.

“And you have not yet improved relations with them to the point where they see you as a valuable companion?”

“Such a thing would not be possible.”

“Have you tried giving them a flower?” Omid asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning in with an all too serious face.

Sareen’s trance of suspected fear began to chip and break like glass. Bewildered eyebrows pressing together, followed by a small frown that grew larger and more incredulous as she shook her head and stared at Omid while scoffing and sputtering. Each time shaking her head and trying to focus in on Omid’s still serious expression and failing as she once again scoffed until the glass finally broke entirely and she relented into the smallest chuckle.

Followed immediately by laughter as her grip on Omid’s hands tightened to pull him closer. Dangerously close enough to feel her breath as she stared two holes right through his eyes and she bared her teeth in a wide grin. Her voice dripped with a sweet poison as she spoke.

“I know of only one such rare and precious treasure.” She said, teeth looking hungrier and sharper. “I shall be keeping it all to myself.”

Omid was not new to being in over his head, technically speaking. He had been digging himself deeper and deeper for some time now. His plan at this point could quite possibly be summed up as digging all the way through as an escape. Best to continue with such a task before confidence is lost. “I believe I-”

That thought could wait for later, as would all other higher thoughts as she pressed her lips to his.

Shock, fear, and pleasure mixed together as her arms were around him, and his around her. Somewhere there screaming at the back of Omid’s mind was the thought of this being a terrible idea that brought certain death. Sareen biting at his lip a bit too hard before pushing him down should have told him to run. Turning the tables on her and flipping the pair so he was now perched above her, staring down into intense eyes that had killed and would kill as she licked a bit of his blood off her lip was now the perfect opportunity to run. Omid’s hand was along her neck as she was pinned down, and all he had to do was bolt out of here. Just turn away from those indigo eyes and run.

He dove down to crush his lips against hers, biting at her lip in turn to claim his own taste of blood.