Darkness is all that is left for a while as she lay there drifting away. Only after what seems like forever does Fei come back to her.

You escaped the beasts in the abyss? she whispers towards the pale face of Fei hovering in the void. Fei?

He does not answer, but moves closer. His emerald eyes hold a strange fire and his hair flows around him, looking so much like shining threads of spider’s silk. Without warning, he lunges at her and knocks her back. Pinned by his strength, she holds her breath and closes her eyes. The sound of a snarl makes her eyes fly open, but it is too late. His fangs are bared and lowering to the smoothness of her neck.

Fei, please, her voice sounds small and useless even to herself.

A cry emerges from her throat as he strikes, but it is surprisingly gentle and the pain does not last. The pain soon becomes almost pleasure. Her arms are released and she can run her fingers through the softness of his hair and over the coolness of his back. She squirms under the weight of his chest and hips pushing her against the ground (if there is ground), and brings her right leg up to twine around his left. His own hands push her curls away from where he feeds and then cradle her head and upper back. His mouth stays tight to her neck with a bruising pressure.

Flashes of heat turn the void around them into an orange and red blaze. She shudders beneath him and stares over the curve of his back into the flames. The sound of a roaring fire buzzes in her ears and through the brightness of the flames she can see the faint outline of the purplish shadowed letters J N. Suffocating heat washes over her, making her gasp for breath.

Fei! Stop!

The whole scene begins to spin as if she is going faint, but inside of her own mind? And in a matter of moments, things go black once more...

Tamrissa opens her eyes to see the face of Naraka too close to her own. He has her pinned much like Fei did in her mind, mouth on her own instead of on her neck. The heat of the hearth beside them still washes over her and she finds herself lying on the rug in front of that fire. She puts her hands on his bare tanned shoulders and with a rough push he breaks the kiss. He stares down at her with a hand on either side of her, breathing heavily and looking glassy-eyed.

“What the hell are you doing??” she gives her words the right emphasis with a slap across his face that doesn’t seem to faze him.

Naraka reaches up and grabs both of her arms, knees on either side of her hips. He slams her hands above her head on the rug and rounds his back, bending to bury his face in her hair and trail wet kisses down her neck and over her collarbone.

“You salivating cur! Get off of me!” she finds that only one of his hands is holding her own and still she can’t move, which enrages her. “Fei will kill you!”

“Shut up, woman, I am helping you,” he suddenly mutters, voice filled with more heat than the meaning of the words is meant to have.

“Helping me my a..!” she is cut off as he brings his lips back to hers.

Her eyes widen and her jaw moves as he half-swallows her. He stretches his legs behind him and subdues hers, which have been kicking at him since she woke. She suddenly grabs hold of his lip between her teeth and clamps down. He stops and rolls his eyes in annoyance.

“Tamrissa, leaph go. I am taking the excess of puhwer from you, because it is too much for you to deal with,” he tries to speak while she holds on, failing to even bite through his lip.

She lets go of his lip, eyes narrowed in a death glare.

“ This is how you take power, you pig?” she growls out and tries to break free once again. “I can give it to you in a less…humiliating way! And I am not suffering from power overload, I took myself into that state to try and contact Fei after he called to me!”

“I must come in contact with the host to perform this spell. With females it seems to end up looking too sensual…”

“This is downright X-rated! Let me up!”

“My Lady, I will not! You calm down first and let me explain! I had only started the spell, but you hold a strange sway over me. I was driven by madness,” he says it with all sincerity, sighing and bowing his head once more to place his forehead on her collarbone. “I do think you are mistaken on the overload of power. I believe you need to either stop taking so much at once or allow me to take some from you after each ritual. It is taking it's toll on you.”

“If I may do it willingly and in a different manner…fine!” she stares at the ceiling, still bristling with anger. “How did I get in your chamber in the first place? And why am I laid out on a fire lit rug with my robe showing more skin than I’d like and you with your britches almost open!”

“I told you that you hold strange sway over me. I thought it best to perform the spell out of sight of the palace inhabitants, hmm? Then the mere sight of you and the anticipation of having to touch you,” he tenses and lowers his mouth to the warmth of her skin.

“No!” she wriggles until he stops. “You are sick! Let me up! Now!”

“The power is also unbelievable,” he whispers. “Yours and his mixed together make it hard to stop taking.”

“That is part of the reason you want to take from me after each ritual,” she sneers and jerks at her hands and legs.

“I will not lie, it is,” he carefully takes his hand from her wrists.

She brings them forward and gives him a swift punch to the nose. A trail of blood is left running from his left nostril after he starts back onto his heels. He curses as she pulls herself out from under him and crab walks backwards.

“If you ever touch me in such a way again, I will make sure you lose all ability to have pleasure in your…personal areas!” she spits out and stands, closing her robe completely and walking towards his bed.

“I believe you,” Naraka mumbles to himself, eyes twinkling viciously as he watches her retreating back. “Tell me why you did not stay asleep where you could be with him.”

Her hands are on one of his fancy jackets strewn across his bed when he says the last and she clutches the material in her fists.

“You think your mind games work on me?” she picks the jacket up and throws it over her shoulders, the tails of it hitting her at the calves of her legs. “I did not believe it to be him from the moment I saw him. You are not good with illusions, Naraka. If you wish to keep me occupied that much, you must find something more creative.”

The moment she says it, she wishes she hadn’t. Her eyes go to where he stands now, sipping at a wine-filled goblet and staring at the fire. The look in his eyes is rage, but he hides it so well. She has struck a nerve with her comment about him not being good with illusions. A sharp tap on the door interrupts the silence her comment creates. He goes to get it and she sits down on the edge of the bed to wait.

“Sweetness, I am needed at the outskirts of the city. The building crew is wanting my council,” he smiles at her as she whirls around and finds the door wide open, a group of three of Naraka’s councilors staring at her half-dressed form on their master’s bed.

Naraka walks to her and she stands, glaring at him. He puts his hands on her shoulders and looks down at her.

“There is something to keep you occupied,” he rips his jacket down her arms drawing a gasp from her, then places a light peck on her nose. “And there’s another.”

“Son of a bitch,” she hisses quietly at him.

“Yes,” he replies simply and continues. “But I want to help you with this, Tamrissa. Instead of sending priests, I want to be there from now on. We two can do more than thirty of my priests now that I know your strength and power. If we can’t bring him back then no one can.”

“I will bring him back!” she opposes and he nods.

“I know, but if not…I would hope you would remember who cares for you. Even if I must be second best, I want to be next in line to him.”

“I do not…”

“…love him,” he closes his eyes and nods again, then opens his lids slightly. “But no other holds a place in your heart.”

“I will remember,” her eyes are still defiant, but she slips off the jacket the rest of the way and turns away, letting him go to his business.

Tamrissa listens to the door close as Naraka exits, then she steps over to the fireplace. Her fingers go to Naraka’s crystal glass on the mantel and she takes it down, smelling the liquid that she thought was wine. A feeling of nausea washes over her as a familiar feeling seeps back into her. She falls to her knees on the rug and the glass goes tumbling, scarlet fluid staining the intricate patterns of the carpet. The sound of Fei’s voice makes her clasp her hands over her mouth.

“Naraka,” she whispers as she grasps every word that she can make out. “Naraka is holding him back.”

Her face twists in a sudden spurt of anger and she stands, going to her false friend’s closet. Ripping out a long cloak, she throws it around her and runs from the room.

“I will kill him,” she mutters as she runs down the hall, cloak billowing. “I will bring Fei back and then kill that fiend who kept him locked in the abyss!”

The presence of Fei helps only to calm her a little. She grabs hold of one of the servants hurrying past her.

“Go get me a dagger from the armory and a non-silver bowl from the kitchens,” she drags the woman along with her. “Also, bring my sword…Kurusunami. Meet me in the cellars of the temple.”

She shoves her forward and then takes a sharp turn, slippered feet making only a slight sound as she runs.

[OOC: I’ll post more later this evening.]

The chamber is still as it was left. All the candles are out, it is dark and the altar bowl is cracked in two and lying half-buried in the reddish mud at the foot of the Tomb of Ancients…

Tamrissa removes her slippers and casts them aside, her bare feet padding carefully across the dirt floor. Just outside of the circle of stones, she brings her arms up and a sheen or iridescent rises up in a column from the circle of stones. Her lips mouth a few arcane words and then the sheen disappears.

“Mistress,” a small female voice echoes from the stairwell leading down to the chamber.

“Yes, down here,” she calls in a whisper. “Come quietly.”

The woman finally appears at the foot of the stair and walks meekly towards her, eyes roaming over the chamber in wonder and in fear. In one arm are a large bronze bowl and a decorative dagger in a jeweled sheath. Under the other arm she carries a long case, which Tam can feel the magick flowing from.

“Do not be frightened,” Tamrissa smiles slightly. “Just set those things down right here and go stand by the wall. Warn me if anyone should come down those stairs, but do not leave until I finish. I do not trust your mouth.”

She cuts off the protest of the girl with a wave of her hand and watches her go to stand at the wall. Bending down, she picks up the bowl and the dagger. Her eyes go to the circle of stones and she silently walks inside. The iridescent sheen immediately flares back into its column.

“Fei, be ready,” she whispers and stoops to pick up the forgotten amulet.

She places the new bowl on the altar and the dagger beside it. Her lips part and whispers of arcane words curl out, building until it seems like many voices. The candles burst alight and the two dead priests, still lying where they fell, are thrown outside of the circle.
Her hands go to the cloak and push it from her shoulders, the white of her robes bright with the candle flame and against the darkness behind her.

“Demons of the abyss stand back. The soul you clutch so desperately is no longer yours,” she unsheathes the dagger, the whispers still chanting around her like the priests were there. “Release Fei Serumen or suffer my wrath!”

The dagger slips across her wrist and she holds it to the bowl. Wind streaks suddenly from the bowl lifting the curls around her face. Her hands softly glow bluish-green and illuminate her face. Just as the amulet begins to rise from her swirling blood, a muffled scream is heard at the far end of the chamber.

Naraka walks towards her, shaking his finger and making a tsk sound.

“No, no, Tamrissa…I never expected you to make such a bad decision,” he says as he stops just outside of the glimmering circle.

He mumbles a few words and the bowl flies from the altar, spilling it’s contents and cracking. Her wrist heals and the dagger flies past her to stick in the stone of the wall. She cries out as the amulet rises from the mud and zips towards his open palm.

“No!” she lets the shield around the altar fall and runs towards the Kurusunami’s case.

Naraka grins and begins laughing and then clicks his fingers. She immediately stops as the floor becomes like glue, holding her feet tight.

“Your friends will be disappointed to not see you when we invite them to our wedding,” he shakes his head and walks a circle around her. “You’ve ruined everything.”

“Good! Then I have won!” she sneers at him.

“Ah, but contrary to what you think…I am a Master of Illusion.”