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Treason	By : Dagian Category: +G through L > Lineage 2 Views: 832 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I own nothing, NCSoft regrettably does, I make no profit off of this story that is based on Lineage2.

Chapter List
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Caellia stared at the blade dancer with curiosity before looking back at Kattath. She had never seen anyone rattle Kattath so much, and he didn’t even seem to be trying. He had barely spoken a word to her, except to tell her his name and explain why he was there. While he had barely paid attention to her, the same could not be said for Kattath. He made it a point to speak to Kattath every chance he got, even going so far as to break into conversations that did not necessarily need his input. All of it seemingly just to annoy Kattath.

            “Caellia,” Kattath started, trying to keep her voice from becoming a growl of irritation, “the wedding will take place in the afternoon hours. You must be up at sunrise to allow proper time to get ready.” She waited until she saw Caellia nod her head in acknowledgement. “The wedding will take place in the main throne room rather than the town temple.”

            Caellia broke in curiously. “Why?”

            “It is safer here in the castle than it is in town, my Queen.” Zarvynaar smoothly interjected, ignoring the aggravated look Kattath sent him.

            Frowning slightly, Caellia muttered uncomfortably, “I’m not your Queen, yet.”

            “You will be tomorrow.” Zarvynaar replied, his gaze finally turning from Kattath to Caellia curiously. “Does that bother you?”

            “Whether it bothers her or not is none of your concern.” Kattath snapped at him. “Your only concern is her safety.”

            Caellia waved Kattath aside while speaking to Zarvynaar. “His question is valid.”

            “Valid maybe, inappropriate definitely,” huffed Kattath as she cut Caellia off. “To bring the conversation back on topic, the wedding is being held here at the castle because it is indeed safer than the town.”

            Frowning, Caellia let Zarvynaar’s question go unanswered. Why was Kattath being so blatantly hostile toward him? Though he had admittedly put his own comments in where they were not necessarily needed, he had not gone out of his way to be rude to her. Rather the opposite in fact.

Sighing, she walked over to a nearby chair and sat down; effectively ignoring Kattath’s bickering with Zarvynaar as her thoughts drifted. Tomorrow she would be married. The thought alone was enough to make her nervous. She mentally visualized herself walking the length of the throne room and making her way up the long ramp to the dais at the top. She knew that Nathavin would be waiting at the top of the dais for her and she tried to envision what he might look like standing there. As she visualized him, she felt a warmth bloom low in her belly as her heartbeat sped up. She was oblivious to the fact that her mouth had parted slightly and a low blush had risen on her cheeks.

Kattath paused in mid argument with Zarvynaar and blinked rapidly. Caellia’s aura was pushing throughout the room. Turning to face her, Kattath didn’t have to work hard to read her aura. Actually, just looking at her face, one didn’t need to read aura’s to see what was happening. But, just what, exactly, was the girl thinking? “Caellia?” Kattath softly called out, trying to pull her out of her daydream.

Zarvynaar took the opportunity to gracefully leave the two women in peace and left the room.

Startled, Caellia’s eyes flew open and stared at Kattath’s smirking face. Her own face colored as she realized that Kattath had caught her daydreaming.

With the smirk still on her face, Kattath informed her. “I will be here early to collect you for breakfast. After that, you will be prepared for the wedding. Have a goodnight.” Turning swiftly, she left the room before the moment became too embarrassing for Caellia.

*****

            Nathavin prowled through the darkened castle. It was late, or early, depending on how one chose to look at it. Unable to sleep, he had chosen to quietly survey the castle. He had already made two full circuits of the entire castle and was working on his third. Irritated, he snorted angrily, why couldn’t he sleep? With a light growl, he stormed up a set of nearby stairs. Flinging open the last door, an iron grate really, he walked into the light of the full moon. Silently he stalked all the way to the end of the walled-in balcony. This balcony was rarely used. Most didn’t even know that there was a way to get onto it and he liked it that way, it was private, safe. He looked downward for a fleeting instant. He could see the two lower balconies beneath him, one on either side, flanking the center top balcony, the one he was currently on.

            Standing still, he gazed up at the moon as the wind blew through his hair, causing it to lift and fall across his eyes repeatedly. His ears caught the sound of the wyvern in its pen above him. It was restless and pulled at its chains in a constant effort to be free of them. The great winged beast would never be free though; the wyvern manager was far too skilled to let the beast get away. But the cries of the giant beast were unsettling. Long ear piercing shrieks that cut through the air like swords could be heard coming from the top of the castle.

            An indeterminable amount of time passed before the beast quieted down and Nathavin was left once more in the cool silence of the night. Gripping the railing lightly for balance, he closed his eyes and breathed deeply, focusing his thoughts on Caellia, trying to imagine her presence near him. He always felt calmer when he was near her. The scent of her hair could always calm him down, no matter the reason for his distress. If he concentrated hard enough, he could almost convince himself that he could actually smell her hair, even though she was nowhere near. Within minutes, he was calm enough to try to sleep.

*****

            Caellia awoke early to the sound of Kattath noisily bursting into the room. Sleepily, she stretched and sat up. As she came more fully awake, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and gracefully stood up.

            Kattath eyed Caellia as she stood up; clearly Caellia had not heard a single word she’d said. She snapped her fingers lightly to draw Caellia’s focus. When she was sure she had it, she continued. “There is much to be done Caellia. You must hurry up and eat. There is still quite a lot that must be done today.”

            Nodding, Caellia quickly began to get dressed, only to stop curiously at Kattath’s request.

            “No, today you must not wear armor of any sort.” She turned to a crate she had brought in with her and began pulling out the white material. “I realize that these are magician’s robes and not what you are accustomed to wearing, but we do not have anything else that you would deem to be ‘appropriate’.”

            Looking at the robes askance, Caellia asked in a mildly put out tone. “Why must I wear those?”

            “A bride must be pampered on her wedding day. Robes are far more comfortable than armor. They are far more delicate and better at enhancing your natural grace and beauty.” Kattath, sensing an outburst from Caellia, continued in a slight rush. “It is also tradition among the dark elves that the bride wears something other than her usual daily attire on the day of her wedding.”

            A disbelieving snort issued from Caellia. “Isn’t that supposed to be the wedding gown?”

            “The wedding gown has its own tradition entirely, but we are following the light elven customs regarding it.” Kattath smirked, leaving Caellia to come up with her own ideas for what ‘traditions’ the dark elves had regarding the wedding gown.

            Caellia shook her head to herself; she was not going to question Kattath any further on the matter. Some things were better left unanswered.

*****

            Nathavin strode through the castle tensely, making sure to stay well away from where he knew Kattath and Caellia were so that they could prepare in relative peace. It did nothing to soothe his frayed nerves though. He wanted to see Caellia, wanted to reassure himself that she was not planning to renege on her pledge. It was his worst fear. Though he knew that if that happened, Kattath would inform him immediately. Still, the thought persisted and he was irate and anxious because of it and the lack of sleep the previous night did not help matters. He knew he would not be calm until after the vows had been exchanged.

            Paying no heed to the scurrying servants, he strode resolutely to the throne room. Once there, he gazed at it in wonder. The austere room had been transformed. The massive dark blue banners displaying the symbol of the dark elven race had been washed and re-hung and the gigantic chandelier had been polished until the dark material seemed to gleam.

            A multitude of servants were still in the process of scrubbing down the floor and the great throne itself. Some were noisily rolling out the red carpet that led to the dais. Others were busily tucking echo crystals into small nooks in the wall where they could be heard, but not seen. Still more were hanging brightly colored ribbons and flowers throughout the room. Nathavin assumed that the ribbons and flowers had been taken from the humans’ tradition but couldn’t be sure.

A sudden crash and lots of shouting to one side of the massive room drew his attention. As he watched, a male dwarf popped up from the wreckage of what appeared to be a small trolley cart frequently used to help transport goods too heavy or bulky to carry inside the castle by hand.

“I told you to look out!” The dwarf ranted as he leaned to one side with his right hand fisted up, ready to do battle with an unseen opponent.

An unseen servant shot back in a high pitched voice. “And I told you that the cart was too large to fit through the archway!”

“Excuse me!?” The dwarf thumped his chest proudly. “I have created hundreds, no, thousands, of masterpieces! I believe I can accurately gauge the size of a mere cart! There was plenty of room for my cart to fit! If only you hadn’t cluttered the passageway up with your useless plants!” He pointed irritably to a few decorative green plants that were in rather large ornate pots that had apparently been placed between the stone pillars of the archway. The servant wailed in a mix of indignation over the proclamation of the plants being ‘useless’ and the fact that they and their pots lay broken in the middle of the floor.

Nathavin watched a bit longer as the servant scrambled to pick up the broken pieces of pottery and called in help to try to put the plants in other containers. All the while both he and the dwarf rained insults down upon one another. Deciding that he’d seen enough, he simply turned his back on them and strode out. He knew that the great hall would be ready in time. It was time for him to start his own preparations.

*****

            Caellia leaned back in the warm water and let a deep sigh blow past her lips. She had finished the most wonderful breakfast and was now relaxing in the most luxurious bath she could ever remember having. Lifting one leg gracefully out of the water and slowly raising it, she watched the pearlescent water sluice down its length before she lowered it back into the white colored water. Kattath had insisted on adding milk and honey to her bath water and the result was a highly relaxing mixture that smelled heavenly. Another contented sigh escaped her. Why hadn’t anyone told her of this sooner? She sunk lower into the water and allowed it to calm her rapidly fraying nerves.

            All too soon though, five chambermaids, led by Kattath, swarmed the bathing room. In a matter of seconds Caellia found herself whisked out of the basin while the water was exchanged. As her confused eyes flew around the room, she noticed one of the women setting up small jars of different colored liquid while the others rapidly poured fresh water into the now empty wash basin.

            As she was preparing to ask what the jars were, she was pushed once more into the wash basin with the new, clear water. It was then that all five of the women set upon her scrubbing vigorously while Kattath watched with an ill hidden smirk.

            Caellia bit back acidic retorts as the women went to work scrubbing her. Her eyes flashed blue fire in anger as they relentlessly scrubbed her hair, dunking her under the water several times to rinse out the suds. Spluttering as she came up from underneath the water, Caellia snatched one of their hands and in a low hiss, enunciated very clearly. “Be. More. Careful.”

            “Now, now Caellia. They are only doing their jobs.” Kattath said with a twisted grin. However she did motion the women to back away from the irritated light elf for a moment. Caellia was getting more nervous, and as a result more hostile, as the time drew nearer. “Caellia,” she stated calmly as she came close to the wash basin, “there isn’t much time left. I’ve allowed you to relax as long as I can, too long in fact. We must hurry so that we aren’t any later than what we are.”

            Caellia sucked in a breath and nodded. The rest of the preparations went by in a dazzling blur to her. Her hair had been meticulously dried and brushed till it shone brightly. And a light application of colored powders had been applied to her face briefly before Kattath had deemed that it was simply too much and had ordered the maids to remove it.

            After several hours, Caellia stood in front of a floor length mirror and observed herself for the first time all day. She was surprised to find that she didn’t recognize the beauty that stared back at her from its gilded depths. Though she had seen herself in the wedding gown before, she had not been prepared for the full effect.

            The gown fit her exquisitely, as she had known it would. It clung to every curve and flared out from her hips in a perfect sweeping circle. Her eyes were drawn to the bodice, it was still tighter than she wanted, but for some reason, she was fine with that today. The gloves on her hands accentuated her delicate wrists and arms. Looking at them, one would never know how much strength lay hidden beneath the gloves.

            She was pulled from her contemplation by Kattath as she slowly stepped behind Caellia. “This suits you perfectly.” She showed Caellia a beautiful hair pin. It was silver and shaped in the fashion of a butterfly with brilliant blue wings.

            “Kattath, that is beautiful! I couldn’t…” Caellia started but stopped at Kattath’s upraised hand.

            “I am not done. Nathavin gave me something to give you, in the hopes that you would wear it for him at the wedding.” She pinned Caellia with a serious look. “This belongs not only to him, but to his entire family line Caellia. Wearing this will mean very much to him.” She waited until Caellia nodded to her. “Close your eyes and turn around so that your back is to me.”

            Caellia did as Kattath bid. She could sense the necklace being slowly lowered to her neck. As it touched her neck, she realized that the necklace was heavy and seemed to be a bit warm, almost hot. Once she felt Kattath step away, she opened her eyes and gasped. The red and gold teardrop necklace shone brightly on her neck, contrasting spectacularly with her ivory skin. “This…this is…”

            “A necklace fashioned from the fire of Valakas.” Kattath confirmed to her.

            Caellia was astonished to say the least. “It’s so warm.” She said finally as she gently picked it up in her hands.

            “That is because the jewel was created using the fire of Valakas himself.” Kattath informed her quietly. “It is said that the necklace was not only made from the fire of Valakas, but also houses Valakas fire within it.”

            Caellia could only stare at the necklace in shock. It was an enormous gift. The value of the item was staggering. Very few could boast of having entered the lair of the powerful dragon and even fewer had come out alive. Incredibly rare, the necklace was as beautiful as it was priceless. Caellia was deeply touched that Nathavin had chosen to let her wear the necklace.

            “Caellia?” Kattath asked, gaining the light elf’s attention. “It’s time.”

            Nodding wordlessly, Caellia followed Kattath out of the room and down the hall. Her thoughts centered on one thing: Soon, she would be married to Lord Nathavin of the Dark Elves.
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Treason