With his sun whitened hair and molten steel grey eyes, Fairsh towered well over Ahriana. Standing next to most Elderalds, she would never be called small, standing next to Fairsh everyone was small. His body rippled with muscles from sparring every day, scars shined silver against his golden brown skin, lacing up his arms and back. Despite having been on the front lines of this never ending battle with Demunik his smile was quick and breath taking, it slid onto his face with the smallest provocation. Like honey, so sweet and enticing, his smile drew you in and left you with a sugar high that was delightfully mind numbing. He was Ahriana's best friend other than Meekah, even though she had begun to look at him as more years ago, and so she had begun to keep secrets from him. Things Kynzi knew but Fairsh, being a male did not. One of which being the longing in her heart. she was never going to bond, and neither would Fairsh, and by some blessing of the magic, which were few in Ahriana's life, he was who she had fallen in love with. No one seemed to know, as she kept her feelings locked up tight inside her chest. She made sure never to gaze too long into his eyes, and resisted the urge to grab his hand or throw herself into his arms, no matter how strong the urge was. Meekah nearly always was in a fit of laughter at her efforts. She only thought she hid her desire well, but her looks were in fact too long, and her hand twitched with a need to grab his whenever they stood close. Though she had not leaped into his arms since she became a woman, she would catch herself bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet when she waited for him at the lake after lessons.
Fairsh was nearly fifteen years older than Ahriana and was still alone; and so she began to hope that they were meant to be together. In the beginning when the feelings had first stirred she reminded herself of the prophecy. It clearly stated she would not have love. So she brushed the feelings aside and focused on her lessons and training. Soon the feelings doubled instead of slipping away quietly, and when she finally admitted to herself a deep pit emerged in her stomach and corrected that original warning thought. It said she would have a broken heart.
Fairsh was irresistible though, he made her laugh at times when she thought the entire world hated her and she should just run away for the rest of her life. If he wasn't making her laugh he was making her so angry that she wished she did actually carry a sword so she could stab him in his leg, nothing fatal, but painful. Then in the next moment he made her think that she could not bear to live without him. In short, Ahriana was madly in love with Fairsh, and had been in one form or another all her life. She knew that it would only cause pain, but she couldn't stop herself. He was one of those people that if you stood close enough to, you felt the need to just rest your head on his shoulder. Even Kynzi had looked to him for love and support most of her life. She had never had feelings for him as Ahriana had, but she was also bonded for nearly half their lives. Still she had understood, and had gently reminded her of the complications.
Fairsh for his part, showed not one sign of feeling the same about Ahriana. Not that she could tell anyways, though her experience with the matter was limited to none. All she knew was what she had witnessed with others, which was tainted by the fact that they had all been bonded. The moment it happened they all had this particular look on their faces, and had been completely enraptured for months.
Still there was this tiny ray of hope in her soul because of one dream she had so many years ago, Ahriana had gotten the feeling that she would in fact find love.
It had been nearly twelve years from the night she had the dream about the human woman. Ahriana had long since forgotten her words, and all the cryptic warnings she had spoken. For a long time she had thought only about what she had said for days, thinking it had to be more than a dream. She had read every book she could find, and had talked of nothing else for days. Nothing had come from her efforts, the books were the same they had always been, and so was the population count of Imerald. It was so far from her mind after all those years, that it was no longer a memory, just a feeling. That feeling implied she would fall in love, so she found hope in that, ignoring the nagging knowledge that the warning had applied directly to that exact occurrence. Any love she found, unbonded, spelled doom. But, loneliness and longing had quieted the warnings. She was going to be courageous, though Meekah thought she was confusing courage with foolishness. She knew the outcome of any relationship outside of a bond, and yet she continued to think about Fairsh as more than a friend should.
This of course was the time period when Nira had enough and cornered Ahriana in her bedroom one night, having cleared the wing of all staff, Nira was ending the rumors, and stopping the prophecy right there .
Nira had stared at the grounds surrounding their large home, out the bedroom of Ahriana's room while she waited for her daughter to come home. Brooding, and plotting her face pinched with distaste. With the moon high in the sky, the gardens glowed almost white. The low marble walls shining so brightly under the moon that there was more than enough light to see by. The bushes sparkled with white flowers, and the dew on the grass made them glitter. The beauty Ahriana always found in the garden was completely lost on Nira. Ahriana had even requested this room for the view, causing a great disruption when she was a child demanding all her things be moved.
Many years ago, Ahriana had taken to wandering in the garden as a child, her father fearing for her safety had all the flowers ripped up and replaced with white ones that would guide his little princess under the moonlight. He had all the walls replaced with marble enhancing the effect; Nira had been infuriated, since the previous design had been her own. Kieven would hear nothing of it, even after Nira accused him of pampering Ahriana; he had simply waved her off.
Nira's shoulders were stiff when her daughter entered that night. Thoughts of just where Ahriana had been and with her drove her into a rage long before her daughter even returned to the Royal Quarters. She heard her coming down the hall laughing with Meekah and making plans for the following day, and she heard her daughter groan as she swung her heavy door open and saw her mother standing there waiting .
Ahriana knew she was standing in the moonlight at the window for dramatic effect and nothing more. The garden angered Nira every time she so much as glimpsed it, and as guests praised its beauty through the years she had destroyed it in anger more than once. It had always resisted her magic, definitely growing back more beautiful than before. If she was standing there at the window staring out at the garden she hated, it was to fan the flames of her anger. She had done this so many times now Meekah's hackles raised, and Ahriana braced for battle.