“I challenge you to a mage dual!” Some random man said to the red haired goddess who was visiting with those near the college. Her eyes moved over to the man and studied him. People whispered if he was mad but all the same he was staring at her like she was a demon of some sort. “Gods don't exist and I can prove it.”

Ah those types. A smile curved on her lips as she strutted closer. Her dress was rather bad for this dual but it would have to do. It was green and deeply cut down her cleavage. A golden rope was around her waist. Her red curls were hanging down her sides. “Let's then. I won't even use earth but maybe I should since you disrespect my title so easily.” The man growled at her still. “Though I will respect the rules of this dual. Being on Pravpora makes me weaker but I think I can do just fine.” It wasn't that she was cocky it was just that she was more than just an earth mage.

She had learned to work around her element. He made the first move as he started flinging spells towards her. Waving her hand a blast of wind sent it away. He wasn't that strong, it was a damn shame for how much he was running his mouth. She ran up to him with incredible speed. Unfortunately for him agility and strength were as much magical abilities as something like a fireball. She kneed him hard in his gut and he fell to the ground. “Come back when you can make a threat.” Her words would kill any mage. 

“You are nothing but a damn liar. Your powers are not real.” For a moment there was a glint of anger in her eyes as the earth came around one of his legs and crushed all the bones in them. It was enough to sever the legs completely off as blood started to pour out. The man was in agony.

“Do not tempt me. I may be known for my kindness but I don't like being talked to like that. I ended it early to save you from being a fool. I do not owe you anymore kindness. Take what you have left of your pitiful body and learn more. A mage is more then just tossing elements. Learn what you can do with your body.” She moved her hand and his wounds closed. An earthen leg formed on the one she had cut off. “Get out of here.”

She turned her back to him and perhaps she shouldn't have but the fool wouldn't know a problem if it hit him on the head.

Drae had been on his way to tend to some business at the docks when the commotion had erupted. While duels were commonplace in Wyllmochvar, especially the ones of the magical variety, Drae found himself slowing to join the gathering crowd to see what was going on. The steely gazed half-elf tucked a stray black lock of hair behind this slightly pointed ears before he settled into a thoughtful pose, surveying the duel participants.

He rubbed his chin slightly as he looked at the participant closest to him. She radiated power, that was for sure, and not the kind that was common around these parts. And judging by what her opponent was saying, Drae had to guess that she was a Goddess. If he remembered his Lore correctly, he would have said that the woman with the radiant red tresses was more than likely the Goddess of Earth. She had many other names he recalled, but Earth was definitely the more common one. She apparently hadn't been there searching for a fight, otherwise she might have worn something a little more fitted to magical combat, though from his place in the crowd behind her, Drae couldn't complain of the view. The dress certainly flattered her curves more than any arcane robes ever would. 

The mage who had called for the duel, however, Drae was not impressed with. The warlock had seen him around Wyllmochvar, but he had never been one of particular standing that would have impressed Drae with the need to learn the mage's name. Compared to the aura that the Goddess was giving off, even with her diminished capacity here in Pravpora, the man was a mere apprentice. Drae wondered if the man had even thought through his challenge. 

Drae wrapped his left arm around his chest and braced up his elbow as he stroked his chin thoughtfully as the duel commenced. There really wasn't any challenge in it, and Drae found himself almost hoping that the Goddess would drive the other mage into the ground. His spell execution was sloppy and he was using spells even a neophyte to magic could block or dispel. He winced as Earth used simple buffing magic to raise her speed and strength before she kneed the man in the stomach, stunning and dropping him to the ground. Drae hoped the man would have the sense to know that he was beaten. 

"You are nothing but at damn liar! Your powers are not real!"

Drae's face found the palm of his hand and he shook his head. The man was definitely much more of an idiot than Drae had given him credit for. The Goddess didn't seem to find his words kind, and punished him by crushing and severing his leg. Drae made a face, though part of him deep down inside was enjoying the scene. 

The man was screaming in agony now, clutching the stump of his leg as blood spilled all over the cobblestone. Drae took a step forward as Earth moved over and chastised the man for his words, and her words were ones that burned themselves upon even Drae's psyche. He watched as the wound was closed and the Goddess formed them amputated man a new limb from the stones themselves. She ordered him away and turned her back on him.

Drae's steely gray eyes met her green ones, and he found himself almost drowning in the deep emerald pools. He broke out long enough to see the mage stagger to his feet, a knife in one hand as he tried to limp towards Earth. Drae's fingers flicked out, and a layer of black grease coated the ground in front of the man as he walked forward. Unsteady as he was with his new heavy earthen limb, the grease did its job and he slipped, and landed in a heap on the ground, the blade clattering harmlessly away. 

"Just admit your done, moron. She's beaten you fair and square!" Drae yelled at the fallen mage with a roll of his eyes before he turned to leave. He cast a quick glance back at the Goddess of Earth and gave her a brief nod before he went to go back about his business at the docks.

Angela's eyes were not deceived by the man she had her back to. It was more like the man's eyes were deceived. Her powers while weakened did not diminish her relationship with the earth beneath her feet or how she knew the mind of the man would not let it die that simple. The red head watched slyly as her rescuer made the man back down. A smile came across her lips as her curiosity was perked. He was a handsome little thing in the face but that wasn't the thing that normally attracted the goddess.

Looking towards the people who accompanied her she started to laugh. “Oh yes, what were we talking about.” She kept an eye on the young man and continued her conversation until he was well out of sight. “Follow him please.” An earth elemental maybe the size of a rabbit followed him. She would be able to track his presence so she could continue her business for a little while longer.

“I will have one of my daughters bring what I have studied and researched down to the school. It should not be that hard to get through my paperwork though I will admit sometimes I do switch to the Arriese Language.” They laughed and told her it was no problem that someone could translate for them. Finally she separated and melded into the earth combining with her elemental her green eyes watched playfully. Maybe she could spy on something interesting for once.

The entire event that had transpired during the duel was quickly put aside in Drae's mind. After all, such duels were common place in Wyllmochvar, especially when dealing with philosophical and theological debates. Drae himself avoided such petty arguments, simply because he liked to maintain a low, if not memorable, profile. After all, in his business, not having a reputation was actually a rather good thing. Clients had a tendency to be skittish when their fence had a reputation with starting fights over petty nonsense.

That, in fact, was the reason he was headed to the enclosed docks of the anti-deist city. He had already kept his client waiting with his delay at the duel, and that was bad business. He wasn't even aware that he was being followed. The warlock pushed a stray lock of his long black hair out of his gray eyes yet again, and tossed his rather stylish cloak over his shoulder, revealing a rather flamboyant scarlet silk vest over a loose billowy black linen shirt, that had a rather high, stiff necked collar. His shiny black boot clicked down the clean cobblestones as he walked through the streets, his arcane staff slung across his back, clearly more for show than for use.

He reached the docks before too long, and he met up with his client. The fat merchant showed Drae what he was supposed to be selling: illegally obtained spell components of the very rare type. Drae's eyes actually lit up. This was definitely something he could sell there in Wyllmochvar, and he would get a very nice piece of the action. Powdered tiefling horn and wyrm's gall was actually in high demand right now. Drae couldn't help but grin devilishly. Oh yes, this would be a most lucrative venture. 

In the matter of an hour, Drae was shaking hands with his client and was telling him where to have the shipment sent, and when he could expect to get a return on his investment. 

As he disembarked the ship he had been on while looking over the shipment, and walking past the fish vendors, a sailor carrying a large crate slipped on spilled fish innards, and reeled backwards. He staggered into Drae, and the half-elf was rather unceremoniously knocked into a fish stand. 

"GAH!" Drae growled, and it took all of his patience not to blast the sailor into the ocean for his incompetence. Fish spilled into Drae's arms and lap as he hit the ground, and the rank smell assaulted his nose. He liked cooked seafood just fine, but the smell of fresh fish made him gag. This was his best vest too. The warlock stood up, shaking the fish from off him before shooting a deadly glare at the imbecile who had knocked into him before he turned and stormed off, shaking fish scales and other slime from his clothes as he went. 

"Just fantastic," Drae muttered as he headed back into town, trying the wipe the slime from his vest. He sniffed his shirt and wrinkled his nose. "I guess that I will be asking for her help after all…" he said to himself. He actually smirked at this. Maybe if he was lucky, her husband might not be in when he took his clothes to his neighbor to be cleaned. She specialized in fancy clothing, especially when it came to helping take it off. 

As he walked, Drae noticed the elemental. He turned and looked at it curiously. He hadn't seen elementals running about the town in a while. This one must have been running errands for its master. Such a homunculus must have belonged to a recluse who did not wish to stir out of doors. It was well made, he had to admit. He shrugged after a moment and walked back through the city quite quickly, ignoring the vast amounts of vendors and shops selling books and all sorts of magical trinkets until he reached his rather plush living quarters. He went inside and up to the second level where his neighbor lived. He rapped twice upon her door before he proceeded up to his own apartment on the third floor and let himself inside. 

He unslung his staff and leaned it against the wall near the door and pulled off his cloak. It had come out of the ordeal rather well, but the smell of fish still clung to the garment. There was a soft knock upon his door and Drae opened it to let in his dark eyed, lithe limbed neighbor. 

"What on earth did you get on your clothes?" she demanded, looking rather dismayed at the state of his vest and shirt.
"I had a little misadventure while conducting business at the docks. Would it be too much to ask you to save my favorite vest and shirt for me?" Drae asked, pretending to pout. 

The woman rolled her eyes and held out a hand, indicating that he was to give her the dirtied garments. Drae smirked and proceeded to undo the buttons on his vest and handed it to her before pulling his shirt over his head and depositing it into her arms, showing off a remarkably toned physique despite him being of the more sneaky and underhanded variety of individual. The woman couldn't help but admire for a moment before she turned to the wash basin there in the kitchen area and began to work on cleaning the clothes for Drae. 

The warlock, still smirking, moved up behind the woman and put his hands on her waist, and leaned his face into her neck. She giggled and tried to shake him away, trying to give the excuse that she was trying to clean his clothes, but this only made Drae more persistent in his attentions, slipping his arms tightly about her waist and kissing her neck. 

The elemental watched him just like the half elf watched it. It flickered its leaf like tail and made its whiskers twitch. Before long they were on the move again. Though after everything it had seen and relayed back to its mistress it was quite out of time. Before long Angela became a part of it and flowed through the earth playing attention to what the warlock did.

She flowed through the tables and the walls watching this very smooth man. Humming softly to herself she moved and catch the woman's wedding band. It tarnished a bit on her touch and she chuckled as she watched him undressed in all his glory. She felt him pressed up against the woman and found herself amused.

Trying to help him out she moved the metal wash bin and caused it to spill all over his naughty little mistress. Angela was almost rolling trying to not make too much noise as she spilled out of the building. She found one of her clergy members and sent him back to the house. Soon her clergy member knocked on the door.

“Mister. Mister, please open up. My Lady wishes an audience with you. She says you helped her earlier. I will give you details of where she is.” Having no idea what his goddess had actually sent him into she was laughing back at the inn.

“My lady you really should be careful being mischievous like that.” A small woman was brushing Angela's long red hair. A bath was being prepared for her and she fully intended on them meeting at the bathhouse. 

“Lust is not my responsibility. I was just trying to help the poor boy out,” Angela said as she got up and slipped out of her dress and into a set of cream colored silk robes with a gold design all down them. “I am going to the bathhouse for my bath.. If anyone needs me that's where I'll be.” She left and found her private room ready. Slipping off her robe she slipped in the bath and lounged. All she needed to do was wait.

With that she closed her ivy eyes.

Water sloshed out of the wash bin onto her dress and she gasped in surprise as the water soaked through clothes. Drae chuckled as he kissed her neck again.

"Here, let me help you with that," he whispered in her ear before he turned her around and began unlacing the front of her dress, still kissing at her neck. She gasped and giggled as he pushed her dress down around her shoulders and slowly began trailing kisses down to her collar bone. He pushed her back against the counter until he was leaning over her. He felt her hands pressing against his chest and sliding up over his shoulders as he kissed her. 

He was rather irked when he heard someone pounding at the door. He looked up at his companion.
"Your husband?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. She shook her head vigorously. 

The pounding persisted and was soon joined by a voice. Drae rolled his eyes and pushed off the counter before he walked over to the door and threw it open. 
"Can I help you?" he asked. The man at the door proceeded to explain why he was there. Drae's eyes narrowed as he thought back. Who had he helped again? 

It hit him quite suddenly, the red hair shining in the sunlight, eyes like emeralds, and a figure that would send a man dreaming. Drae smiled at the man and took the invitation he was offering.
"Thank you very much," he said as he opened the invitation and read over the instructions. "Tell your Lady that I will be there presently," he said before he closed the door. 

He didn't even look back over at his current guest before he went into his sleeping chamber and found a fresh shirt and vest and threw them on. He checked himself in the mirror and straightened his hair before he turned and headed for the door.
"Just hang them up when they are done," he told his neighbor, who looked very upset as he walked out of the door and closed it behind him with a thump. 

Drae left his building, invitation in hand and turned towards the direction that the invitation had instructed. He knew the address. He had been looking to get into this private bath for weeks now. The place was supposed to be the most luxurious bath house and spa in all of the city, but it was incredibly exclusive, even for him. 

His boots clicked on the cobblestones as he moved swiftly towards the swanky section of Wyllmochvar until he came to the place he had been requested to come to. He smirked and straightened his vest before he strode inside and headed for the front desk area. 

"Excuse me, I have an invitation," he said, presenting the note he had received to the robed woman at the front. She looked over the note and her eyes went wide. 

"Yes, of course sir. Right this way," she said quickly and motioned for Drae to follow her. She took him to a changing room, where she gave him a nice plush robe and asked him to undress. Drae did so without complaint, and slipped out of his clothes and put on the robe. Once he was ready, he was guided into an already prepared bath. The massive pool was filled with steamy water that created a thick mist, and the smell of herbs and fragrant soaps filled his nose. 

There, through the mist, he could see his hostess, lounging in the herb murky water, her red hair glistening with the damp, and skin rosy from the water temperature. 

"Lady Earth, I presume?" Drae asked with a flourishing bow. "To what do I owe the honor of the invitation to join you today?" he asked with a charming smile as he straightened up. 

Closing her eyes she lost herself in thought. She had been alive long enough to have many good memories but the bad ones always weaseled their way in once in a while. She thought about all of her children and all of the moments when she held onto them at birth. They were her precious presents that the tree had given her knowing that the one hole in Angela's heart could never be fixed. A smile crossed her lips as she heard the door creak open.

She pushed herself up and let her green eyes peer over the steam towards him. “Aye among many other names. You may call me Angela though if you really wish to get comfortable here.” She swam over to the other side where two glasses and a bottle of wine were. She popped the cork and poured the contains of the bottle into the glasses.

“You helped me and then you entertained me. Tell me,” she said as she came up and out of the pool and walked closer to him. “Is it often that you fool around with women who are married.” She undid his robe. “You'll bath with me yes? These are the finest herbs and I guarantee you will have never had a better bath in your life.” She left him there as she got back into the water and put her red curls up.

Drae smirked as she waded out of the water, his eyes evaluating every inch of her as she walked up to him. She was definitely one of the finest creatures he had ever laid eyes on. 

"Entertained you, did I?" he asked with a slight chuckle. He stroked his chin and lightly licked his lips as she came up and grabbed the sash of his robe and undid it. He chuckled softly again at her question and considered his answer for a moment as he shed his robe and waded after her into the water. While he was physically toned and quite fit, he bore scars that hinted at some sort of cruelty that had happened to him in the past. Most notable was the scar on his neck, a pristine line that by all accounts could have easily proved fatal.

"If I had realized you were watching, I might have put on a real show," he said with a smirk. "As for my preference, I simply like women. Especially the pretty ones. And if they are married, they present a challenge, and have a tendency to be a bit more… adventurous. It seems that they enjoy someone who can break up the monotony of their boring marriages," he answered her, as if boasting about it. He watched as she pulled her long, luscious red curls up off of her back and twisted them up around her head like a crown, and his eyes traced the contours of her neck, shoulders, back and hips. 

She was beautiful, there was no denying it, and Drae couldn't help but feel that every title he had heard her called by, didn't do her enough credit. 

The water was up to his hips now, and he slipped his arms into the warm water and felt the properties of the herbs in the water soaking into his skin already. He waded in further and proceeded to swim up to Angela before he stood before her and ran his hands through his longish black hair, pushing stray locks out of his steely eyes. 

She liked the way his eyes seemed glued to her. It was the way she caught her prey and she did have a tendency to like the pretty ones. “Aye.” She said it simply as she undid his robe and locked eyes with him for a moment. “You did.” Like that she was gone. The goddess looked over his body and studied each scar and noted them for later. Rosenites loved their stories and most nights around the camps they spent time pointing their scars out. The goddess wasn't without a few scars herself.

“I don't know if she would have liked that if she knew I was watching.” She chuckled. “Women have a tendency to be a bit more vicious over their men. Should see Arri sometime, they have some of the most beautiful women but do you know why most are lonely?” She gave him a moment to think before answering. “We're dangerous and strong. Most men cannot stand that. Or they get in the middle of a cat fight and they simply bleed out.” She loved how he boasted about it and she chuckled to herself.

When he got up to her she moved forward and ran her hands through his hair. “When I was a girl. I was sent out on a recover mission with the army. All those who graduated the academy that year were.” She got a cloth and ran it over his shoulders before stopping at the scar on his neck. “Watched a lot of my friends die that summer.” There was sadness in her eyes. “That is where this one came from.” She lifted her left arm and there was a rather large gash there. “Took a spear in my side trying to get across the field to assist another healer. Slavers thought they were being funny. They all died but we lost a lot of new healers that day. That was when I trained to learn the sword and magic. Wasn't very good.”

She washed down his arms. “The scar on my right hand near my wrist was from my sister Cathrine. She got me with her bow. She was very good and fast. Never have sisters they are terrible individuals.” She chuckled a bit. “What about you. You have a name right? When I was watching you through my elemental a name never came up. I know you certainly have stories to tell.” She placed her hands at his hips.


“You don't get scars and not have stories to tell.”

"Most men don't know better than to not get involved in a fight between two women. After all, they think it is their job to fix things," he smirked as she told him about the women from her homeland. "As for me, I like strong women. The timid ones are fun to play with, but the strong ones know what they want, and have to make a man work to satisfy. And I like the challenge…"

He made a sound in his throat, a bit like a cat's purr as she came up and ran her fingers through his hair, then proceeded to rub a soft cloth over his shoulders and arms. He listened and surveyed her scars as she told the stories. 
"And yet, despite your scars, you are still soft, with all the appearance of delicateness that your sex should have," he purred at her. "As I see it, it is probably too late for me to have any sisters," he added. 

He smirked when she asked him his name. "Adraejen Porthyrius. You, my dear lovely Angela, may call me Drae," he told her as he let his hands press against hers where they rested beneath the water on his hips. Slowly he slid his once callused hands up her arms to her shoulders. 

"You are absolutely right. I do have stories," he said said, his voice low as he looked her in the eye. "Most of these scars came from a single event," he said as he lifted a hand to her cheek and caressed her face softly before his fingers trailed down her neck to her collar bones. 

"I became a business partner with a very dangerous man… and I was fool enough to fall in love…" he told her, his eyes betraying the hurt and anger he still harbored deep in his soul.