119 Ashan 716
It came to him like a dream during sleep, her body warm against his own, moving in sync to the sound of the pouring rain on an old tin roof, clothes and covers abandoned, rules and responsibilities checked at the doors. It had been such a torrid love affair, over too soon, and while all physical aspects had been stripped away, the feelings still remained. There was a connection between them far deeper than Malcolm had allowed himself to acknowledge until his Mortalborn ability saw him wake with a start, gasping and confused by the falling rain that had soaked through his blanket and left his clothes feeling damp and skin cold.As the unwelcome visions played out in his head, even in his now conscious state, Malcolm knew that this was no dream but a real life event taking place far from his current location. Somewhere out of the rain, with crisp, fresh sheets tangled beneath warm, willing bodies, and the taste of courage on one's tongue, Elyna was making love to another man, but not just any man, one tied to Malcolm by blood. At first it had confused him, perhaps it was the binding with his son that allowed him this sneak peek into the intimate display, but it was Elyna's pulse he felt beating in his chest, the same drumming he had inspired many times before, or set his head against her breast to listen to.
An emptiness settled in the pit of his belly, and where Malcolm thought heartache and disdain might rule, there was only a numb, foreign feeling he himself would have found difficult to put into words. So she was to marry Marcus after all... For a while he sat alone in the dark, letting the rain seep into his clothing, trying to feel anything but this strange nothingness. His body began to shiver and his warm breath breasted the air, a silver wisp curling skyward towards the starless night, taking with it any fantasies, hopes, or misguided trust he had been naive enough to hold onto.
