"There is only one thing I want right now," she gasped as he kissed her neck. "Even if our children ended up being more like you, I won't be disappointed. You are beautiful in your own right," she purred as she settled down on his lap in compliance with his pulling her hips towards him. "With your beautiful pale hair…" she whispered as her fingers brushed through his long locks. "…and your flawless skin…" she added as her fingertips trailed down his throat to his exposed chest. She pushed his robe back further as the thin strap of her silk gown slipped over her shoulder. "I do hope that there is plenty of you in them…" 

There was plenty of christening in the next few hours. The throne room, and in their own chambers. His darkness completely enveloped her, and she loved every minute of it. When all was done, she lie upon their bed, skin and hair damp and body alight with the fire of their shared passion. She smiled as relaxed upon him, and placed gentle kisses upon his collar bones. 

Xunatar reclined in his throne with his soon to be wife perched on top of him. There would have to be a few changes made in this particular room, but her lovely words filled his mind and thoughts were directed elsewhere. Someplace more…pleasurable. “You’re right, we have plenty of time to worry about them.” He felt her warm hand against him and started to expose more of him from his robe and in turn, he savored feeling her body against the thin, silky gown right before they indulge in one another for hours and hours.

When they were through with the throne room, they only moved their play into their bedroom and continued from where they left off. She was the only ray of light that he would allow into his darkened heart, at least until they had children of their own, of course. Their scents mingled together along with the smell of sex throughout the room. Xunatar laid on the bed, silent and content with their series of lovemaking, as always. His hand brushed against her hair mindlessly, ivy eyes watched her savor his flesh with her lips. Scarlett was as much his as he was hers and should anything happen to her…he wouldn’t stop until his newfound wrath would tear the realm asunder if needed.

“What projects have you been up, my fiery dove? We’ve talked enough about me, and I’ve been curious as to what’s been occupying your time as of late.”

While he waited for her answer, the demon king smirked and continued to caress her body with a gentle hand. “As terrible as I can, you do know that I love you, right? That part hasn’t changed at all, I can assure you.”

She sighed in contentment as he pet her hair, and she was in the process of stretching when he asked her about she was working on. It surprised her, but pleasantly. He hadn't asked that before, he had really just left her to her work. This made her smile. She propped herself on her elbows and looked up at him and smiled. 

"I just finished a bag that will hold an endless amount of items. I sewed it into my satchel so I will never run out of room inside it to carry components for crafting and alchemy. It knows automatically what I am looking for so I don't have to search the bag constantly," she said as she tucked her curls behind her ear. "And I just finished some enchanted dragon claw gauntlets that are capable of igniting anything they touch into flames. I had to build them in the volcano directly and dare a dragons wrath to obtain the blood I needed to craft them," she boasted. "Now I am working on a blade that holds the essence of a dying phoenix. When I am done, the blade should be bathed in fire when it is drawn, and put off a heat so intense it can melt through any substance," she said. "Clearly I enjoy building things that work with my element," she grinned. "But I have been toying with a few ideas of what I could build for you as well…" she said as she traced a circle upon his belly with her finger tips. 

"Of course I do," she smiled. "And I know that you would tear the world apart if it meant taking care of me and our future children," she added. She leaned in and kissed him deeply. "It has always been a philosophy of mine that the closer you are to danger, the further away you are from harm," she chuckled. She looked at him fondly. 

"Tell me… what could I craft for you that you would consider a worthy gift?"

Xunatar listened attentively towards his soon-to-be bride’s works as of late. Many of which he hadn’t had the pleasure of knowing about. Relics of the old days were more of his forte, but new creations weren’t completely far from him. No, he could imagine just how effective these things could be in this day and age, especially if they were crafted by her hands. “I’d imagine you keep your favorites with you, of course.” He chuckled softly, letting his chest rise and fall slowly while Scarlett was pressed up against him. Gods her warmth was so comforting against the god’s skin as he wrapped his arm around her.

When the subject of making him something came to mind, he looked at her with a rather stunned look. He hadn’t expected for her to craft him anything and to be honest, he wasn’t quite sure what she could make to appeal to him. Not that he didn’t welcome the challenge. “I’d look forward to it, my dearheart.” A thought did cross his mind as to what he could have her work on but then her kiss stole his thoughts away as his lips pressed against hers. “Of course. Hell nor Heaven could stop me from that. In my hands, you will be safe, just as our children would be.” His eyes flickered lightly and soon he slowly rose to sit up on the bed and brought out his hand. Within moments a strange dark metal settled into his palm and he brought it over for her to see. It looked like pure darkness that had been forced into a solid state.
Despite its size, it was far denser and heavier than what one would believe to be possible.

“I think you’d find this as a worthy challenge. Not too long ago, I had found samples of this…ore around Discordia’s coastlines. Very sturdy yet malleable enough under the right heat temperatures. Aside from that, even I do not know of its true potential. This is something first of its name and I’m sure that in your profession, you can see the importance it could yield. I want you to be the first to be able to craft something out of it. As to what, I’ll let your imagination run wild.”

She pouted softly as he removed himself from her, but he caught her interest when he clearly seemed to be summoning something from somewhere in his vaults. She crawled across the bed and lay on her belly, watching him intently as the strange solid shadow material appeared in his hand. She puckered her lips thoughtfully as he showed her the strange metallic substance. She plucked it up from his hand and was surprised how heavy it was despite its relatively small size. It was smooth, organically shaped, and filled most of her palm, which immediately fell to the bed due to the unforeseen weight of the stuff. Her eyebrows were in danger of disappearing into her curls as she looked up at Xunatar as he told her about the unknown metal. 

"It's beautiful," she mused softly as she lifted it to the firelight to see it better. She pressed a fingernail and found that it was indeed incredibly soft and malleable, not unlike gold. "Soft, though. Like gold, which is interesting. Paradoxical, really if it is suppose to temper well," she said thoughtfully. She closed her fingers around the material and noticed a faint hum to the stuff. "It's charged with magic too. Interesting… kinda like lacriamium," she got up off the bed and walked over to the desk. 

"You said it had a name?" she asked. "What is it called? I haven't seen anything like it before. And it can only be found in Discordia?" She pulled out her field journal and began scratching notes on the pages. "Has anyone else tried to forge with it?"

It was like luring a moth to the flame; he knew that his love would savor such a material that had been untouched by any other mortal. Only the two of them actually knew of its existence and Discordia was the only place in the realm to find it. “Yes, this island does at times have a sense of humor. But I think the joke was on it this time around.” Xunatar turned towards Scarlett and smirked as he too had felt the marvelous power behind it too. It was a rather nice surprise when he had discovered and felt it. “Perhaps, though I’m fairly sure that Lacriamium is still stronger than it. But I could also be wrong about it. It would be wonderful to find out more of it."

He leaned on his elbow and watched with the smirk growing wider as she took off and felt into her habit of work. First of which was to gather as much information as possible, which she did through the barrage of questions. It made him chuckle as he laid there. She was hardly one with idle hands, ever.

“I’d go with something like Noxytine; has a nice ring to it, darling.” It wasn’t long before he slipped out of bed himself and into a comfortable black robe so that he could join her at the desk. He turned his back towards it and leaned back, his head lifted up to the ceiling as he went to answer the rest of her questions. “I believe that it can only be found here, but I’d hardly be surprised if small amounts of the ore were about, here and there. Most people probably won’t recognize it for what it’s worth and leave it be. Assuming that Noxytine wasn’t only on the island, that was. “No, I have told no one other than you. I, myself, don’t have the talent to forge it into something. You are far greater at that craft than I am”, he spoke bluntly. That was certainly more of her strength and his eyes shifted down enough to see what she was scribbling down in her book. “I’d just imagine that it could have promising potential and only one that is a master can bring it out.”

"I am fairly confident that if I can forge something out of Lacriamium, I should be able to forge something out of this," she said as she looked up at Xunatar from where she was scribbling her notes. She pouted slightly as she watched Xunatar pull on a robe, but turned back to her notes. "I'll need more of it though, it will take some experimenting in the forge to really get a feel for it," she mused. She thought about the name. "Noxytine. Yeah, I agree, that's a good one," she mused. She finished scribbling down her initial thoughts on the metal and possible ideas for what she could use the metal to forge. 

She smirked as he praised her crafting abilities. "Yes, yes I am," she agreed. "Though there are some things I can't craft on my own," she said coyly. "Oh, I will be teasing the potential out of it soon enough," she said with a grin. She put down her pen and sat back down on the edge of the bed and stretched. "I trust you are off to do some work yourself now?" she asked as she lay back down on the bed and looked up at him with her chin resting on her propped up palm. "I've never asked before, but what sort of things does the God of Darkness have to tend to?" she asked him curiously.

Work?

Xunatar tilted his head, slightly puzzled by the comparison of his status and having some sort of labor follow it. In truth, his position wasn’t like those of Angela and Dalanesca who were wardens of life and death, having to watch over the world and decide where people ended up in the end upon reaching them. No, his seemed more abstract like the rest of the pantheon, at least in his own opinion. “Work seems like an out of place word for me. Truthful, aside from listening to the drones of prayers I receive- for assassins to be one with the shadows and hide until the time is right, to the creatures of the night asking me for a bountiful hunt, I am left with my own devices. I do as I please and so far the Voice, Tree, whatever it wants to call itself knew what sort of creature I was prior to becoming a divine.”

He gave it some more thinking, the question was certainly food for thought. Yes, he was awarded his domains for a reason, but even so, he was at times kept on a tight leash. “I suppose that I do bring in the night, or at least people believe I do because of Darkness, but even before Dalanesca had taken it, hadn’t it came to us on time each time the day ended? As for Chaos, I can make it my own but really it does have its way of being uncontrolled even by yours truly. I suppose that I do master it enough to not let it swallow the world, as tempting as it sounds. I do make it a point to use my powers to serve as lessons to our fellow man. I suppose that’s the goal I see each day- to enlighten them all on many things. Sometimes they get it…and others….they simply don’t.”

His head was lifted as a calling came to him. The prayer was loud enough for his ears only and he sighed. “What irks me the most about these prayers is that they expect me to do everything for them. One of them had just been afflicted with lycanthropy and believe that I can cure it with a whim.” Perhaps he could, but he wasn’t going to do it for free. That, and it would simply coddle the fool instead of him trying to solve things himself. “I am perhaps the most disliked deity on the pantheon because of my activities to try and teach them. And as I’m finding out the hard way, the grand schemer behind the wall that strings us along like puppets doesn’t seem too pleased with me either. Ultimately I will have to obey or the strings will be cut and I come crashing down.”

He waved it off with a bored look as the prayer of the lycan continued to flood his mind. It was nigh insufferable to hear him whine and complain, but Xunatar managed to keep his stoic look and drew closer to her. She couldn’t help being herself any more than he could help to be him. Give her a tool, and she would craft to her heart’s desire; give him his own tools, and he could lie, manipulate, and control the situation he faced against.

“But, like I said before, it knows what kind of person I can be, so it will have to take that with a grain of salt. None the less, I won’t do anything that would actively place you or our family in danger. You can rest assure, my sweet Scarlett.”

Scarlett chuckled softly, and rolled seductively on the bed while stretching before she reached down to the floor and grabbed her shirt and pulled it on. "Even if you did, my Love, I am personally of the belief that the closer you are to danger, the further away you are from harm," she said. "Why do you think I work in the maw of a sleeping dragon? Or work with dangerous materials?" she asked him. 

"I guess it never occurred to me that there would be little you would actually consider work as a god. Knowing YOU as you are, it makes sense though," she chuckled. "Though I am sure some of those prayers get quite tedious," she added. "Especially from the whiny ones. You are not exactly patient when it comes to the pathetic. Fortunately, there are few if any around you that actually qualify as pathetic." 

She slid off the bed and went to the side table and poured herself a glass of wine. 

"It's nice to know that your calling as a deity does not take up a whole lot of your time. It means that I can have you to myself whenever you deem it," she chuckled. "You know, we should go on holiday. See what shenanigans we can get into out in the world of mortals. Too many deities hide in their domains, as the god of Chaos you should get out and spread a little discord here and there," she smiled. 

“I could question either one of those decisions, though the one that I ponder from time to time is why you found yourself with me.” Xunatar chuckled darkly. It was hardly a secret that he was one that stirred up the trouble in these parts, even in his youth, many didn’t trust the then demon prince. She had been warned of what he was, yet here they were.

“A good deal of them are, but there are some that I take interest in. For instance, there was a man looking to avenge his wife’s murder. Apparently his own best friend who he served in the army up northern Canelux coveted her. Like a good woman, she refused and he stole her life. A shame, but he knew what needed to be done and I gave him a bit of shadows to help cover him through the night over to this friend’s place and well…he avenged her all right.” His eyes watched Scarlett with hungry eyes, akin to a predator of a different sort. She was right though- he had no time for weakness and most sadly fit that category. “Right you are. Aside from you, my brother and his son, and a few of my own children, I don’t waste much time with others, let alone trust them as much.”

He waited until she slipped away from the bed before creeping up behind and wrapping his fingers delicately around either side of her hips. His face leaning up to her fiery hair without worry. “Like that would be a problem”, he laughed. “All you would have to do would be snap your fingers, if you even need to do so much to call me.” It honestly wouldn’t take much for her to allure him away from his “duties”. He was already preferring for her to snatch him away from such again.

“Hm, I suppose we should. It has been a while since we were by ourselves outside my domains. Hiding isn’t really my forte unless there’s a point to it. So we should take this in consideration and say “to hell with it”. Have any places in mind in your devious and crafty mind, love?”