Deliberately she forced the subject from her mind, turning her attention back to her book.

Y'Roden tossed the curry comb back on the shelf and unsnapped Losse's leads. The stallion had been delivered that morning, a gift from The Sand Shadow, Malik Faris. The two had developed a friendship a few centuries ago while Ro had been in the Obsidian Basin to purchase a stallion. Ziv had been the horse he had chosen at the time, but Malik had promised the Prince of Corin an Obsidian white to be delivered when a suitable one was foaled. It had taken awhile, but it had been worth the wait. Losse was an extremely rare gift, an Obsidian White-Gold Stallion, almost unheard of.

The half-elf would have been more exhuberant about the entire thing, but his mind was on other things. His wife, for one, and the shadows in her eyes. Ro knew he had hurt her, and he hated it ... unintentional or not, he couldn't forgive himself for betraying the woman he loved more than life. Then there was this ... thing with the woman Linnis, as well as the memories of Silverthorn's time in the asylum that had started to resurface. What was that his Father always said? It never rains but it pours?

Something had been on his mind for awhile now, a subject he dreaded bringing up with Arianne. The pain in her eyes everytime Ghetsuhm was mentioned was bad enough ... but how could she understand what Ro needed to do. His wife was not S'Hean, she didn't feel things as he did. How could she possibly understand the instincts that drove him?

Losse whickered softly as Ro slid the stall door shut and latched it. He rubbed the Obsidian's soft muzzle affectionatly for a moment, then turned and made his way out of the stable. It was drawing close to Zenith now, which meant Brunch with Silverthorn in their private courtyard. He needed to wash up first ... he smelled like horse.

It took him awhile to actually get to the chambers he shared with Silverthorn. He ran into Imoreki and Y'Roce on the way and sent them off to see the new horse before finally making it up the final set of stairs, then was delayed once again by his Amil who fussed a bit over him. Se'Liene was well aware that something wasn't right with her son, but he avoided the topic neatly and slipped away. Grateful at long last to strip off his clothing and immerse himself in the warm water of the bath.

The smell of horse was replaced by the scent of strawberry and Ro pulled on a clean set of trousers, forgoing the shirt, before heading out towards the stairs that lead to the courtyard. He was a little surprised to find Silverthorn still seated near the window, her head bent over a book. "Melda? Are you joining me for Brunch?"

His wife's dark-haired head jerked up in startlement, her jade green eyes a little wide as she looked at him. Lost in her own thoughts she had not been aware of his approach. "Brunch?" she said, glancing automatically out of the window. Surprise showed in her gaze as she saw how high the suns were in the sky. "I must have lost track of time. I hadn't realised it was that late."

Putting the book to one side, Silverthorn rose to her feet. "What do you make of the horse now that you've seen him?" she asked conversationally. It was almost possible to see her visibly drawing herself back together again, covering her abstraction with polite enquiry. She did not want Ro to see quite how low her mood was at present. Things were hard enough as it was without her dragging everyone down again and so she did her best to conceal the shadows that lurked in the depths of her gaze. "Is he as good as Malik said he was?"

Ro took Thorn's hand in his and brought it to his lips, kissing her fingers as they walked towards the door together. No matter how hard she tried, Silverthorn could never truly hide what she was feeling from him. Their souls were too closely linked, their lifelines one. "Losse is perfect," he told her, a bit of a gleam in his eye, "Everything Malik claimed. Deep chest, sound legs, once I have him trained he'll be one hell of a war horse."

Holding the door open for his wife he escorted her onto the stairs and wrapped his arm around her waist as they descended. "What were you reading?" He knew he would eventually have to broach the subject on his mind ... but for some reason his mouth kept putting it off.

Silverthorn gave a quiet sigh, aware that he was not fooled by her act. Then again he rarely was. "Just a treatise on fire magics" she replied as they entered the courtyard garden where they ate many of their meals. "I couldn't seem to get into it though. I suppose I wasn't really in the mood to concentrate properly."

Jade green eyes studied emerald green as the dark-haired elf took her seat at the table. Something seemed to be troubling him she thought, perhaps not all that surprising given recent circumstances but she thought it was something other than the usual. For a moment she was silent and then, reaching for an apple from the fruitbowl, she asked softly "What's wrong?"

Ro sat back in his chair, intense green eyes studying his wife for a moment as he pondered how to broach the subject. He lifted his glass of Mai'Tus juice and took a drink, though he really didn't taste it. A sigh accompanied the clink of glass on the table when he set it back down and he let his gaze find hers.

"Ghet ... when she is due." He let that sentence just sort of hang between them for a moment as he struggled to put his feelings into words. "She ... well, she will be following S'Hean tradition. I need to know. Gods ... you are not S'Hean Arianne, so I don't expect you to fully understand. But I need to be there, for my son, when he comes into the world. I don't mean I want, I mean ... I need. It is as essential as breathing. I missed that with Y'Roce and I know it affected him adversely ... it affected ME adversely ..."

Shutting up was probably a good idea at that point.

His wife's fingers tightened around the piece of fruit she had just picked up. "No." The word escaped without any conscious thought. There was no anger in Silverthorn's tone, just a flat note of finality. She sat back again and took a bite out of the apple. During all this she had not looked at him and even now her dark lashes shielded her downturned gaze from view.

Inwardly her thoughts raced around her mind in confusing circles. Her flat denial had been an instinctive response to a notion that she found repellant. He didn't expect her to fully understand it? Gods, she didn't understand it at all... or perhaps she understood it all too well. But, even if she understood it, could she accept it?

"No?" Ro's hands clamped down on the edge of the table as he stared at his wife in disbelief. "NO!?! That's all you have to say?" The half-elf stood abruptly, the table upending when he forgot to let go. Shoving it aside he stepped back, a blank expression in his eyes. "Fine. Whatever you want Arianne." His spine was rigid when he turned away, heading for the stairs.

A sudden surge of fury shot through her. "What the hell did you expect me to say, Ro?" she demanded as she got abruptly to her feet. "You honestly expected me to just turn around and say fine, go ahead? You knew what my response was likely to be or why else would you have hesitated about bringing the subject up."

The Prince wheeled around on his heel and stepped towards his wife, close enough to force her to look up. "You are my wife. Was it to much to expect you to know me better than anyone else does? And even if you do, should I not be hurt by the fact that you obviously just don't care? You seem to forget, I didn't ask for any of this either Arianne. I can't change the fact that someone else is carrying my child, but I'll not traumatize that child just because his existence is inconvenient to some." There was undisguised rage mixed with pain in the depths of his emerald greens, a small amount of crimson bleeding into the iris.

"Inconvenient? I could drop both mother and child off the edge of the nearest cliff and not feel the slightest shred of remorse" Silverthorn snapped back. She was too angry to be bothered by his apparent attempt at intimidation. Instead she jabbed him in the chest with a finger.

"As for claiming I don't care... how dare you?! I have compromised what I believe in gods know how many times recently and why? because of you. I'll be damned before I make any more compromises though."

His hand automatically came up to grab Silverthorn's wrist, his eyes going completely red for a frightening moment. "That is my son you are referring to," Ro growled. "Fine, keep your compromises. I'm sorry to have been such a burden to you. I'll have to reread the marriage handbook because I could have sworn it said something about supporting your spouse no matter what. I must have misread. I'll remember that the next time you do something I'm not entirely ecstatic over."

"But he is not mine" Silverthorn shot back, "so why the hell would you expect me to care? because he's yours? I was under the impression you weren't that stupid." Jade green eyes blazed with anger, the cold shell she usually presented to the world lost in the heat of temper. "If you had wanted someone to agree with everything you suggest then you should have married someone else. I'm starting to think it might have been better for all of us if you had. There's obviously some fairly important issues that we don't even come close to agreeing on."

"I don't want you to agree with everything," the half-elf snapped, "I want a woman, not a puppet. And YES because he is mine! If you do not accept him, you do not accept a part of me. Don't you see that?" Ro's arm had wrapped around Silverthorn's waist by this point, pulling her up against him. "I love you, Arianne. I married you for love, not to form a gods damn debate team!"

Those eyes were a riot of emotion now, anger, hurt, pain, and a growing arousal he didn't want to admit to at the moment. Silverthorn's temper in full display had the most fascinating effects on Y'Roden, even when he was mad enough to snap her pretty neck.

"How much more accepting do you want me to be?" his wife retorted, his closeness doing nothing to curb the emotions that stormed through her. "Have I done anything unpleasant to anyone? No. Have I said anything to anyone? No. I'll even put up with the idea of him coming here because I know that is likely to happen at some point. But I will not.. cannot.. accept this as well."

The dark-haired elf pulled away from him and shook her head, "I'm sorry" she said softly, the anger that drove her dying a little although the tempest raged unabated within her, "I can't. I just... can't." She was starting to feel just a little sick, her head pounding as she headed towards the stairs.

In typical Ro fashion he reached out and grabbed her again, pulling his wife in to his chest and refusing to let go. "No walking out. I tried that already, remember? This isn't something that is going to go away. Not for me. You are asking me to be someone I'm not. Is that what you really want Arianne? To change me? To make me go against the instincts I was born with?"

"How many times must I deny that before you believe me?" Silverthorn asked, "and how many times will you refuse to compromise on what you think is right whilst asking me to do exactly that?"

The beginnings of a massive headache was building at the back of the dark-haired elf's skull. Lately it seemed that everything was starting to get on top of her as the stress began to take its toll physically as well as mentally. She knew she had lost weight she had not really needed to lose, her appetite was gone and she was sleeping badly. She did not need this argument as well, she wasn't sure she had the strength for it.

"Is that what you want from me? To accept something I consider unacceptable? To be someone I'm not."

"No," he said flatly, "But it isn't just you and me I have to worry about. There is an unborn child to think about, and how he will be affected. If I'm not there, he will experience an extreme sense of abandonment. He will be lost and disconnected from the S'Hean link to the land and the D'Riel web. I can't do that to a child of mine. Not even for you."

Ro shifted his grip on his wife and hooked a finger under her chin, making her look up at him. "Aminmela lle, more than life. It is slowly killing me, seeing the pain in your eyes ... feeling it in my soul. I wouldn't hurt you, not for the world. But I can't change what has been done, no matter how much I want to. And I wouldn't wish away my son, I can't ... not now. Gods .. you consider who I am to be unacceptable?" He sighed and released her. "Maybe you're right, maybe my entire race are a bunch of cretins," he shrugged, "That doesn't change the instinct, or the physical and emotional effects."

"You wouldn't hurt me? But isn't that precisely what you're planning to do anyway?" Silverthorn said in a broken whisper. "You promised me once that you would never hurt me deliberately. Then again you also promised that another woman would never share your bed either and that one could be considered to be broken technically at least given that another woman is carrying your child. Promises are nothing more than just pretty words without anything to back them up. At what point do I stop believing them? When should I decide that they don't mean anything?"

Her gaze dropped. She didn't want to look at him any more, it hurt too much. She was a hair's breadth away from breaking into tears and only pride was stopping her from doing exactly that. She knew how important his children were to him. Why then did it hurt to discover that when it came to it his unborn son came before all other considerations? She knew how selfish that thought was but she couldn't help feeling slightly betrayed, that her feelings were of so little importance to him that he was not prepared to even consider some sort of compromise.

A completely horrified expression took over Ro's expression and he stared blankly at Silverthorn for a moment. "Oh my Gods," he breathed, "You think I did it! You think it was me!" The pain in his eyes was immeasurable and if felt as if someone had tightened a metal band around his heart. "Arianne.." The capability for speech seemed to leave him at that moment and he simply shook his head.

Her gaze jerked back up to his and she shook her head instinctively, "No! no, I've never thought that" she protested, but then she sighed, "but what difference does it make in the end anyway? It's still your child Ghet is carrying. The end result is the same."

The pounding in her head was getting worse. It felt as if her skull was going to explode. Wanting to get away, to end this whilst she still had some semblance of self-control left, she tried to pull away from him again. "It doesn't matter. You're going to do what you think is right anyway. I don't know why you bothered speaking to me about it at all."

Lights seemed to be flashing in front of her eyes and she couldn't seem to focus properly. The dark-haired elf felt far too cold, almost frozen, and yet it was a gloriously sunny day out in the garden.

The steel manacles burnt into her flesh...

Blood poured from her wrists as she struggled to escape...

Blue eyes regarded her intently...

"You can't get away so you needn't try."

"...perhaps you should be more careful with your tone in future"

"...it can be quite easy for people to misunderstand each other and that can have unfortunate consequences."

Voices and images whirled through her mind, a confusing welter of sight and sound that caused her to stagger slightly. Overwhelmed, it was almost a blessed relief when the darkness of unconsciousness claimed her. As she faded away the last thing she remembered was a young woman's voice,

"...everything is your fault. Everything is always your fault."

Y'Roden was still stinging, there was an open wound in his soul now that her words of protest did nothing to fix. No difference? There was a hell of a big difference, to him anyway.

Then he was catching his collapsing wife and his world narrowed down to Silverthorn alone. "Oh for Arminiea's sake! Why can't I ever finish a conversation with anyone!" He started muttering then, something about a Terran Doctor that needed to be torn apart ... slowly, limb by limb and how much pleasure he was going to take in doing it.

He lifted the dark haired elf easily into his arms and started up the stairs. Part of him was angry because she was right, he was going to be part of his son's birth whether Arianne liked it or not. His wife was putting him in an impossible position and he didn't deal well with being cornered.

The door slammed as Ro kicked it closed with his heel and strode across the chamber to lay Silverthorn down on the bed. Worry had bled through the anger by now and he settled on the comforter next to her, stroking long dark strands of hair away from his wife's face. Arianne....

It seemed almost as if she was enveloped in a thick fog, dark and with sounds oddly muffled. The memory of Fionna's words echoed around her head, re-opening the wound that had created when they had been originally spoken.

"I can make it go away, if you want me to." The voice was soft, almost seductive.

"Get the hell out of my head." There was a tinge of fear in the angry words as the battle goddess drew closer.

"Now why would I want to do that? I'm quite at home here. There is so much that is familiar after all."

"There is nothing familiar. I am nothing like you. Go AWAY!"

Nuuruhuine's laugh sent a chill down the elf's spine. "You are more like me than you would ever admit but, deny it as much as you might, it is still true." Her breath seemed to wash across Silverthorn's cheek as she whispered, "just one... more... step."

"No! I am not. I..."

"Arianne..." The familiar voice halted Silverthorn in mid sentence. The gentle tug of recognition along the bond they shared enough to distract her, to draw her away from the goddess.

"Ro..." Dark lashes fluttered open to reveal dazed green eyes. "What happened? I..."

Shadowed emerald eyes studied the depths of Silverthorn's and Ro sighed. He felt caught between a rock and a hard place. The discussion was obviously over for now, maybe for good. His wife was obviously in to fragile a state to take much more. "Shhh... don't worry about it. Everything is ok."

Sliding his arm beneath her, the half-elf drew his wife into his arms and buried his face in her hair. "Everything is going to be just fine." Internally something cracked, but he ignored it. Pain, both physical and emotional, was familiar territory for Y'Roden. He was in his element now ... he would deal with things as they came.

Don't worry about it? That was a bit like asking the tide not to turn. "I'm sorry" Silverthorn whispered, burying her face against his shoulder, "I'm so sorry. I can't... I just..." Tears began to trickle down her cheeks and she bit back a sob. "Sometimes it feels like everything I do is wrong, that I break everything I touch, and I don't mean to..."

"Don't say that," Ro murmured, rocking his wife gently and stroking her hair. "It isn't you my love. We have both made difficult choices over the years in situations that were not of our making. Mine tend to be more on the stupid side, but I'm a man, and thats to be expected right? I'm sorry ... I'm sorry I've messed everything up for us."

He drew back a little and cupped her face with one hand, leaning in to kiss away her tears. "I'll do whatever you want me too ... I'm sorry." His heart cracked ... he couldn't hurt her anymore, it just wasn't in him. A sacrifice was going to have to be made ... and it looked as if he was the one that was going to have to make it.

"You didn't... It's not your fault... I never blamed you. You have to believe me" Silverthorn said incoherently in a tear-choked voice. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I was just so angry and..." She wrapped her arms around him tightly as if to reassure herself that he was still there, that she hadn't said anything so dreadful that he had gone away.

"Its alright," Ro murmured, "Nothing you could say would ever drive me away. You know that right? Gods I love you." He fairly crushed his wife up against himself and sighed. "I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to make you angry. I ... Nevermind. We will be alright." The half-elf shook slightly. He was being forced to choose. Either he messed up his marriage ... or he messed up his child.

"I love you. I couldn't bear it if I drove you away" Silverthorn said with a catch in her voice, sliding her hands into his hair and kissing him. "I'm not sure I even know what I'm doing any more. I can't seem to think straight. Just please don't leave me." That last was probably her worst fear.

Ro kissed her back, fiercely, a little of his frustration coming through in the intensity of it. "I'm not going to leave you," he breathed raggedly against her mouth. "No matter how crazy you make me. Gods woman, can't you see that? You have me mind, body and soul."

It was nothing but the truth. Ro was wound so deeply into her it hurt in the sweetest way. Something deep within him rebelled at what he was doing. Putting her before his innocent unborn son. It was Galainish, something he strove NOT to be. But she was fragile ... something no one else could know. In his way of thinking, it was up to him to sheild her, to absorb the pain and hurt from the outside world. No matter what it cost him internally.

Emotions blended and crashed off one another, the scent of Arianne filling his senses as he kissed her again. Before he knew what he was doing the half-elf had torn his wife's shirt, the ripping sound of material bringing a distinct flash to his eyes in a frighteningly forceful moment that left Silverthorn bared to the waist. A low growl resonated against her lips as his hands slid over her skin, an almost predatory sound that had nothing to do with the Demon.

Perhaps she should have been afraid but fear was the last thing she was feeling at the moment. The low growl sent a rush of heat through her, a soft gasp escaping her as she arched into his touch in a movement that somehow managed to be an offering, plea and demand all at the same time. No matter how much they might argue or how insane he could make her she would still love him. She was his completely and always would be.

The fierceness with which he touched her sparked an answering passion, her fingers tightening in his hair as she kissed him with a hunger that matched his own. The dark-haired elf didn't think the issue was done with, how could it be, but right now discussing it didn't seem to be the main priority.

That one response trigged something in Y'Roden he usually kept locked tightly away. Fear of himself generally kept him fairly restrained, especially during the last few months. It all came flooding through the gates now, the hard passion that was distinctly Ro. Love had always kept him fairly gentle with his wife, now frustration added another element. Fortunately Silverthorn had a warriors body, hard muscled, though still softly curved, strong enough to stand up to her husband's fire.

A physcially more fragile woman might have broken where Arianne bruised as Ro roughly divested her of clothing. Every dagger on Silverthorn's person ended up embedded somewhere in the room, one slamming up to the hilt in the wall. The half-elf slid down her body, torturing with biting kisses and fingers that brought almost as much pain as pleasure.

Her body arched, a low moan escaping her lips as her mind slipped away from her. Flames burnt in her jade green eyes as the dark-haired elf twisted in her husband's grip, his touch seeming to almost brand her skin. "Gods... Ro..." she gasped, her hands running over his shoulders.

Something close to a growl escaped her as her fingers slid over the heat of his skin, her nails digging into his flesh. The bruises didn't matter to her, she wasn't even aware of them. All that mattered at this moment was her husband... and that he didn't stop. It was quite possible she'd do him some sort of injury if he did.

Pain and the scent of his own blood sent Y'Roden's senses reeling. He was to far gone to feel any of the fear that had haunted him of late. His world had narrowed down to action and response. Silverthorn's encouragement fueled his desire and his teeth broke through her skin, the taste of his wife's coppery blood making the world go dark for a brief moment.

When awareness clicked back in his lips were on hers again, their bodies joining in a rough connection between Arianne's thighs. A rib snapped under the pressure of his fingers and warning bells went off in Ro's head. Somewhere in his soul he blocked off the Demon before it roared though the gates, and just barely managed to cling to his sanity.

Silverthorn's head fell back, the dark-haired elf dragged in a desperate ragged breath as her body arched into his. Her arms and legs wound around Ro, pulling him up hard against her. She was lost somewhere in a sea of sensation, so overwhelmed she was no longer able to differentiate one from another. Somewhere at the back of her mind a little voice screamed out a warning but it was too faint to be heeded. A fierce passion drowned out all other considerations. No longer really aware of what she was doing, her lips trailed heated kisses across his skin. As the rib cracked her teeth sank into his shoulder.

The half-elf's head snapped back, blood red eyes caught somewhere between surprise and ecstasy, mirroring the cry that ripped from his chest. He leaned into the pressure of her teeth, the last vestige of sanity eluding Ro's grasp as he drove hard into his wife. The crack of bone beneath the thrust of his hips was a shock he wasn't prepared for. A gasped out apology lost itself in the exclamation accompanying his release, the Demon flickering in the depths of his eyes.

Silverthorn was too far gone to do anything but shudder helplessly beneath him, that last thrust triggering her release so that the pain of the broken bones blended with the pleasure of his touch. Her scream was muffled against his shoulder, her nails scoring his skin as her hands tightened reflexively against him.

Y'Roden's head dropped into the crook of Silverthorn's shoulder, his breathing irregular, warming the soft skin of her neck. His hands moved almost on their own, a reflex reaction born of centuries habit. The Aethyr tingled on his fingertips, knitting back together torn flesh and broken bone on and within Silverthorn's body. A short gasp announced the breaking of his own pelvic bone, and he tensed slightly until it healed. His own wounds remained as they were, left to heal with time.

"I'm sorry," he managed finally, though he still hadn't disconnected from her. "I ... oh Gods..."

"Hush, love." Silverthorn's voice was little more than a breathless whisper. "There's no need to apologise." Her hands stroked soothingly over his hair, the warm skin of his back but there was still a slight tremor in the fingers that caressed him. She couldn't seem to think straight yet, her mind still foggy and dazed.

A sigh shook Ro's body and he nuzzled closer in to his wife's neck. "I didn't mean ... Gods, I shouldn't .. are you ok?" He lifted his head, eyes still slightly stained with crimson studying the fading flames within the jade of Silverthorn's. Part of him was horrified at what he had done, the other aroused and surprised by the fact that Arianne had held up beneath him as well as she had. Even without the Demon in play, Ro could be a rather dangerous fellow.

"Hmmm... probably" Silverthorn said, "you'll have to wait until my brain re-engages for a more definite answer on the subject." A faint smile curved her lips. "Don't look so worried, melda. I'm not that easy to break." Her fingers curled into his chestnut hair, tugged him down to her again. "Aminmela ile" she murmured as she brushed a kiss across his lips.

Y'Roden's eyes widened a little in surprise, though he was hardly protesting. "Aminmela lle ana," he murmured against her lips. His brain was reeling, and any arguments they had been having were completely off his radar for the moment. She was not easy to break, but she had broken. Gods ... what had he done? Why wasn't she stabbing him with the nearest sharp object? He hadn't deserved that smile, no matter how faint.

"I shouldn't have done that ... You DID break ... gods, I'm sorry. I thought I had better control than that."

"Y'roden D'riel... stop that right now!" Silverthorn fixed him with a stern expression, "I will not have you beating yourself up over this. Nobody's self-control is perfect and I should know that better than anyone, don't you think? It happened. End of story." She gave a faint sigh and traced the line of his jaw with a finger, "there were two of us in this bed, not one. I was hardly complaining and you know it."

The half-elf looked rather taken aback for a moment, then he laughed despite himself. "No, I didn't hear any complaining come to think of it." Ro grinned and settled his weight back down on her again, "You know ... stern just doesn't work in the nude. Maybe you can try that again dressed ... with a whip... no wait, there goes my imagination again." He shut himself up with Silverthorn's lips before he got himself into any further trouble.

"There's nothing wrong with a little imagination" Silverthorn murmured against his lips in an amused tone, "and you always insist that you're the persuasive type." Wicked laughter gleamed in her jade green eyes for a moment before she gave up on the idea of conversation for awhile. Kisses were far more interesting.