VORACITY

" Oh, you're no fun tonight , " The vampire spawn rolled his vermillion vicious hues at Erris , " What you thought I was going to do it for the sake of your pretty eyes? ... I sure shan't kill one more druid, in proximity of their own grove, darling."

Akin Shadowheart, he rarely showed a sincere smile, using his mouth instead to flash a practiced, manipulative smirk .

" Tav? I thought you was happy with our little arrangement. Their blood is not half as delicious as yours," The vampire shook his head at the other male, sharp and enunciated, before clicking his tongue. He could be a messy eater , a trickle of blood visible on his lips and chin.

"You, of all people, won't kill a Druid? Now who's the one not being fun tonight." Erris smirked, an impish glint in his dark eyes, before he returned to the digging.

"I am, I'm just letting you know I won't help you if the rest of the camp find out what you'll inevitably do. I'll simply watch, preferably with something to eat so I can watch the show." Erris shrugged, again with the nonchalant grin. It was hard to tell whether he was being sarcastic, or whether he truly meant it.

There has been, one hefty fight after another — no sleep, no rest for the wicked, for the pair of outcasts , who siphoned darkness and power off each other.

"I rejected the Raven Queen, and I besmirched Bhaal's name just for the chance to be in your presence." Erris spoke softly, the yearning devotion plain on every syllable. "I lust for murder, certainly, but only on those that get in your way or sully your name. Otherwise my mind is yours and yours alone." As well as everything else.

Astarion traced the tattoos with his fingers and thought about asking. In the end he didn't however since perhaps if he didn't ask then Erris wouldn't either when the scars on Astarion's back were inevitably noticed. Not that he was ashamed of whatever poem had been carved into his back but he'd rather not remember the night it was done.

When Erris did look up Astarion smirked before the expression seemed to freeze in place for a moment. That reaction. Erris was reacting far too closely to the way Astarion himself did during sex. It was clear to him that a mask had slid into place but he didn't know what that meant.

Should he stop? Continue? He didn't know. He'd never had any of his previous partners react quite like this. He didn't know what the right thing to do was. But... Erris still wanted this didn't he? He still seemed to. Maybe... Maybe it was alright to continue and the mask was just part of a game Astarion had accidentally started?

He laid where he was guided. Kissed when told. Touched where instructed - and how to touch. Gently. Firmly. However he needed to. With each order fulfilled, he felt satisfied. To hear his correct actions brought about pleasure brought Erris his own. He corrected himself accordingly until, eventually, there was that final satisfaction.

Erris lay on the grass, panting slightly as the adrenaline settled, coming down from the high. For a quiet moment, he was at peace. The long grass tickled his cheek as it moved, his eyes fixed on the trees rustling and parting occasionally in the breeze to view the starry night above. For a moment...things were beautiful.

"Oh it most certainly is. Theirs that is. I'm well aware that the only ruffian between the two of us is me." Astarion replied dramatically while smirking. He could see that no offense had been taken but he still wanted to make it clear that he didn't see the other Elf that way.

"I knew you were doing something but I had no idea what exactly. And now I'm curious if you could take someone with you when you did that. Might be a good way to get out of trouble if things go south while it's just us." He replied with a wave of his hand although he was genuinely curious about how it worked and if there was a way he could learn to do it without being what Erris was.

When it came time for their shopping trip Astarion listened to the conversation just to make sure he wouldn't get spotted. He noted the items of interest and it wouldn't be long before he had everything they needed. At that point he caught the other elf's eye for a moment and winked before slipping away.

Erris kept the shop-keep busy, tolerating her worries for husband's trove for longer than he could bare just to buy Astarion the time. Eventually he caught the signal and wrapped up the horrendously awkward small talk and walked away, acting casual and in no rush as he rearranged his pack initially to stave off suspicion as he made his way to where he saw Astarion skulk off to.

Whisper replied before cringing. At least, she knew what the real her was. It was the Whisper who fought to resist Bhaal. Who disappointed Bhaal so much he created a brother to replace her. Who loved her brother fiercely despite how bloodthirsty he was. Who never stopped believing he could be saved until they fought to the death, like he always promised they would. The Whisper who was hurting herself, telling herself she was trying to redirect her urges on herself when in reality, she was punishing herself for all the awful things Bhaal and her urge had her do. The Whisper who lied to people, pretending to love them when she didn't, so she could feel loved, because she couldn't love herself.

She remembered it all. She was free in-between her urges. Erris never had that. He wasn't free to be the real Erris. Only to search who it was.

"I wasn't saying the others shun violence. But they do shun violence without purpose. The definition of violence with purpose is where disagreement will strike."

She added those last words with an amused smile. Then, she leaned forward and added more seriously.

"But listen to yourself. You're not bloodthirsty anymore. You standed before Bhaal and stand up to him! To the cost of your very own life. They saw that too. I'm sure they respect that. Even if they're still a bit awkward, they know just as much as we do this happens. They might not know the changes it brought to the same extent we do, but they have to recognize what it took to do it in the first place."

If they had to hate someone, surely they would hate her. She did some terrible things while not under the impulses of her urges, knowing full well the implications of her actions. And she didn't have Erris excuse of being a different person back then. Because of what? Selfishness? Weakness?

She brought back her attention on the Shadar-Kai.

Those words echoed in Erris' skull. Because...what was the real him? Had there ever been an Erris Mestar without the Raven Queen caressing his soul or Bhaal bleeding form his veins? Did he like decorating his body in tattoos and jewels or was that the Raven Queen's influence? Did he actually like red meat cooked rare - or was the taste of blood on his tongue intoxicating because of Bhaal?

Who was he? This new chance should liberate him. But instead, it terrified him.

He glanced down at his arms, snaked in black tattoos following them down to his wrists as he let his arms fall to his side, holding up his hands as if the answers would be written in his palm. "Shadar-Kai are meant to be the heralds of bad tidings. To siphon all the pain and suffering and intoxicate our Queen with it. Despite being surrounded by so many changes to siphon and indulge in all of your grief... I don't want to. For the first time ever, I don't want to learn about all the miseries. I want to know what life is even about, for people to grieve it so when it's taken from them..."

He took a deep breath. "I suppose that doesn't make me a Shadar-Kai anymore. Perhaps that's even for the best. I'm just Erris now... Erris Mestar, an elf. Guess I better start finding out what I want..." He sighed, but it already seemed a lot lighter compared to how the conversation started.

cont'd with @corvus-bound

As much as she wished to siphon more warmth into Erris , Shadowheart's brow was cold with beaded sweat , exertion to pull him back into her world threatening to take over the petite cleric - yet she was agile, not letting him slip away from her grip and give into the Raven Queen's grave pull.

Withers had brought him back to the world of living and yet she was so wrathful - towards the Gods, but more over towards herself.

She had succumb to the Dark Lady and misery has become her behest - at least things would've been different for him, if he hadn't met her. Maybe he would've been happier, if he weren't stripped off his devotion .

" I.. wished you didn't have to lose yourself in this gamble of life and death, because of me. I wish you didn't have to lose him," Her rueful words paired with her expression of gloom , and her dark greens conveyed even more chagrin than her words, for the day she was born. Perhaps she was the root of all things going grim, perhaps it was better to disappear.

Neither Erris nor Branoc had a chance to find out what life was all about. All they knew was violence and death. So they both had to learn - and they learned together. Now Branoc was gone, and it felt as though Erris was missing a piece of himself.

"I can't go back now..." Erris muttered. "If I step foot in the Shadowfell, the Queen will find me. The other Shadar-Kai will hunt me down and deem me traitor. They'll end this last life I have before I have a chance to experience it." He sighed, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. "I don't even know if she'll let him live... He didn't exactly stop me."

Erris didn't necessarily choose between Branoc and Shadowheart. In truth, he had no idea Branoc would be taken from him as well. He was so used to his presence he thought it impossible they'd be torn apart.

In truth, she knew little of the shadow elves. She had not really had reason to delve into their history til now. She perhaps would have to learn more when she could contact the hive mind once again. Perks of being in touch with the alien beings was information was at her fingertips.

You will have to tell me about your brand of fun sometime.

Surely his hopes and aspirations of a calm evening , were destined to be perished with a companion such as Erris , who's incessantly pushed into the mouth of madness by Bhaal's violent urge. As much as he loved a good murder, there's nothing Astarion loved more than saving his own skin, hence annoyance perpetually growing on the pale elf's pointy face.

“Oh, darling, haven't you heard? We dig our own graves around here- no pun intended ”, Well of course it was- every word of Astarion's tended to be a sharpened dagger .

A brief chuckle followed an eloquent glance on the rogue's behalf cast towards the murderer engaged in dragging the accidental cadaver. His bloodred hues shifted from the Shadar Kai to his own fashionable leather gloves , and back to the other.

"I'll remember that next time you drain Tav a little too much and almost kill them." Erris raised a brow. Yes. He knew. At least when Erris tore Alfira asunder, he was able to blame the beasts. Now, he was in the clear since no-one knew the Druid had been sniffing around. Anything could happen out in the wilds, after all...

And should word spread? He knew from whom's mouth it came.

"What was it you said? 'Not a chance, darling'? Well, right back at you. Kill your own druid if you want payment." Though as he slumped the corpse to the side of a dig spot that had only just started to blend in with the earth around it, he swiped the chain from her neck and looked it out. The metal was cheap and tarnished and the jewels dull. With a frown, he tossed it Astarion's way. "This seems more your thing than mine, darling." Branoc, who had been watching from an above branch, started to give out a resemblance of a cackle.

He was perhaps, sardonic in this situation but Shadowheart wasn't going to falter before the attitude of the Shadar Kai.

" That's quite the welcoming offer from someone who's bound to appear themselves as cold," The priestess quipped, as she got closer peering at Erris, " But before I take a seat on such a divine spot, I have to be sure I'm offered a proper throne, and one more fitting of a queen - not a princess. "

"I thought it better to keep you off the ground." Erris shrugged slightly. He was cross legged on a ragged, thread-bare mat on the dirt. Was the nickname a simple callback to how he referred to her since they met? Yes, but it held more meaning now she was on her way to absolute dominion.

She peered back at him with her darkened greens - averting satisfactory look from the ruins of the moon witch's church at her feet. Shadowheart was the type of woman that could take a sailor away from the sea, or in this case - a Shadar Kai away from his Raven Queen. Bhaal however was a name much bigger than a church, more grandeur than a forlorn bone temple .

With sacrifice towards his father interwoven in his being , he had to denounce himself from his incestious bloodline , and become more of a dangerous weapon . She leaned to grasp the handle of her dagger, tossing it between her fingers , before making a small cut on her wrist.

" I wouldn't want you to destroy yourself , because I shall lose you then. Being devoted to me is plenty enough, and strong devotion is only proven through ultimate sacrifice, " The priestess replied knowingly,

" I shall require of you to destroy your faith in others, and swear your vows in blood to me . "

Astarion noticed the anxiety and dare he think it, shyness, that the other was expressing as they undressed. That wouldn't do. Fortunately he was well practiced at luring in skittish lovers so once his own clothing was removed he moved closer once more.

"You can look. We're both men after all, we have the same parts. We're even both Elves. Not so different all things considered." He murmured as he gently guided the other's hands back to his body, pretending his shiver was purely from enjoyment. "And remember, I told you I'd explain how things work."

Perhaps a risk?

"Just be a good little soldier and follow my lead."

Erris' eyes followed where his hands trailed. He always thought he was a pale grey, but compared to Astarion's alabaster skin, he seemed so much darker. Erris himself was far more tattooed that it first appeared. The solid black lines that snaked over his arms and across his chest in a very particular, uniform way also crawled their way down his sides, hips and outside of his legs, ending at the ankle. A deliberate, painful tattoo no doubt. All with a meaning that escaped Erris currently. It all certainly made his skin seem all the darker for it.

"Of course not. I'll simply be... 'browsing' like any good upstanding Elvish citizen might. And if things end up in my pockets because the merchant was too busy keeping an eye on a certain dark, suspicious ruffian then it's really their own fault." Astarion answered with a perfectly innocent smile.

"I... Didn't know you could actually do that. I vaguely remember hearing something to that effect but it's hard to know what is true about your kind and what is myth. I'll certainly be keeping that in mind and have several questions for you when we're done shopping." He said as he processed that bit of information. He wasn't surprised to find out that the Shadar-Kai could do that, just taking a moment to process the implications of that fact.

Erris looked back at Astarion, dumbfounded. "So you just thought I was lightning quick when I got here-there-and-everywhere on a dark battlefield? I only walk as much as I do because I'd be leagues ahead of you lot otherwise, especially down here. Branoc and I both." The mention of Branoc made his slow heart seem to stop for a moment. As irksome as the bird was, Erris did hope he was alright... Surely he would feel if something had happened to his avian companion, right?

" I understand that they attacked first, but violence for violence is the rule for beasts, dear, " The pale elf replied in a high pitched timber, shaking his head at Erris. Truth was, condoning violence wasn't something against his own moral code, more likely he was a bit intimidated with the consequences of killing Kagha in cold blood, nonetheless.

Astarion hadn't quite figured out that the other elf liked to be commanded yet but he did note the easy way control was handed over to him. If they had another encounter like this then perhaps he would test to see exactly how much control Erris was willing to give up. But for tonight Astarion was focused on more educational commands and ensuring that neither of them were injured more than was pleasureable.

The he felt the hand cupping him and pressed into it with a soft groan. His body still needed a bit more time for his sluggish blood to get to the right places but it still felt good and he was clearly reacting.

There was a slight hitch in Erris' breathing as their groins pressed together for a moment before Astarion stepped back a little to undress himself. Almost unnoticeable. As if he was refraining from making too much noise - from giving in too easy. This was already a dangerous gamble, no use in sounding too needy in the process...