just seren

@serendane

Indie Account for Seren Dane, an AU OC for the Black Jewels Series.

37 posts

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the night grows dark

Daemon fought a brief, brutal war within himself to allow Seren’s statement to stand, but she was right. The Red was drained. He needed to keep what little strength he had left to protect her on their way to the Altar, and as they transitioned to Kaeleer. He took her things and vanished them, and followed her outside. It was strange, sensing her fully at the depth of the Sapphire, but the webs were shattered now. There was no going back. She was free from deception.

As soon as they were clear of the house and the protections there, they caught the Sapphire Wind and headed for Cassandra’s Altar. They landed, and Daemon tucked Seren close in to his side, needing that contact and to know that she was safe, that she was here.

They met Lucivar and Ben in the Altar, with a very tired looking Priestess who lit the candles and sent them on their way, through the Gate into Kaeleer.

They’d made it.

Seren has been relieved when he had agreed on going along with her on the Sapphire Winds. She imagine it was more he was exhausted, the signs were blatently obviously. She was sure to make no mistake in regards to riding those Winds to Cassandra's Altar. She had been surprised at who was joining them, an Eyrien named Lucivar, and someone that felt Landen to her senses. She knew the name Lucivar Yaslana just as people had known the name Daemon Sadi.

Seren accpeted the contact, by nature she hungered for the physical contact. She didn't pull away from it. If anything she held on to Daemon. She ignored any looks she may have received. To an outsider, it may have looked strange, but to Seren she was comfortable and she felt safe for once.

Seren was relieved when they passed through the Gate. "What happens now?" She asked trying to think of anywhere they could possibly go.

#sdsadi #v: bloodletting

The Harvest Festival

It was one of the biggest celebrations in Tacea next to Winsol and the annual Masquerade. The Harvest was more relaxed of the three celebrations. The servants would hear none of it that Seren be working at the festival. She had made much of the festival possible and had helped bring the harvest in bescause she was one stubborn witch. Everyone was unamious in saying she deserved to celebrate with others. Eat, drink, partake in everything. There were all sorts of things set up, even a haunted cornfield.

Seren laughed at the idea mentally. She had made it to one of the tables and was having her plate filled with all sorts of food and a mug of spiced Ale. She had noticed not far away she could Bethany, and she tried her best ignore the women. Though her eyes drift towards Daemon who was accompanying Bethany apparently. While she didn't mind the man's company, okay she enjoyed his company however brief it was, she loathed Bethany and if something tragic happened to Bethany she wouldn't have shed a tear.

Seren returned her attention to her food and drink as she made her way to one of the long wooden tables. She wasn't entirely sure she cared for some of the looks people gave her but that was the curse of the deception. She was someone that was prey or someone to be pitied. None of them realized she was a Black Widow and it was never wise to anger anyone like that.

#v: bloodletting #background #sdsadi

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The Light Behind Your Eyes

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the night grows dark

There was treachery in Tacea; a taint that needed to be lanced. His gold eyes were distant and cold, and even though Seren was here and safe for the moment, the fact that someone had hurt her, had intentionally enacted violence upon her, was enough for the blood in his veins to sing with ice.

"We’re leaving. Pack what things you value. Be ready to go when I come back." his voice was like dark silk, smooth and rich in the air. He shifted away from her, a dark little smile for her. "I have an appointment with Lady Bennett."

He glided out of the room and through the servants’ quarters. No violence here, they had done nothing wrong. He moved up the stairs without a sound, wrapping himself in layer upon layer of tightly knit shields. When he reached the residential quarter of the home, he let tendrils of power lick at the doors as he passed. He sensed the Warlord’s bed chamber, and the room where his slut of a daughter slept. He marked that one and moved on.

He found the guest’s room without a lot of trouble. He recognized the scent of her. Soleil. A Queen. Ah, well, it wasn’t the first time, though he had hoped those days were behind him. He didn’t bother to open the door, passing right through it.

She was asleep, far too soundly for his presence to wake her. The Summer sky she wore was nothing compared to the Red around his neck; he wouldn’t need to try and channel the power of the Black here.

She woke screaming. The screaming continued long after her vocal cords were gone. The carpets were soaked with her blood, and her broken body lay twitching before him, fully alive, for long after her mind had succumbed to the pain and broken.

What he left for Lady Bethany to find in the morning was horrific, and the door was keyed so that only she might open it.

When he returned to Seren’s room, he hadn’t warmed. But he was pristine. She would never know what he’d done. He wouldn’t allow it. He simply looked at her with that glazed look in his eye. “We’re headed to Cassandra’s Altar.”

This was it. This was the end. The end of illusions and webs. They had protected her and she knew that for once in a long time it was time to be the Black Widow Queen she was meant to be. She turned a blind eye to what he was sure to do. She had no intention of asking what he had done afterwards.

She had opted to not change her clothes at all. What she had chosen was to don her Birthright once more. She felt relieved for once in years. Carefully she placed the Hourglass pin on her collar after placing items that she held to great importance to her in her cabinet.

When she saw Daemon, she felt his exhaustion and considered it, the uncut Sapphire's power that she had once used. "We should take the Sapphire Winds there," she told in as matter factly tone. Seren could feel that he was still cold but she would do her best to not waver. Daemon was still a Predator and you never showed fear regardless of what she felt.

the night grows dark

She rushed into his arms, which he hadn’t suspected. It took him twice to try and summon a witchlight, and then looked down at her, a hand running the length of long brown hair, and then frowned. Something was wrong. She looked up at him and he saw something that made him go very, very cold. He tilted her chin up and turned her face to the side. A bruise darkening her cheek, and not a superficial one. He’d tended the likes before among servants.

"Who?" he crooned. She wouldn’t know that was the voice of death, or maybe she would. She was a Queen. His. The possessive jealousy and rage that sang through him cleared through a mind made foggy by exhaustion.

He would make the walls ring with blood and the screams of those responsible. He’d done worse. So so much worse. “Who did it, Lady?”

Seren by nature who found comfort in physical contact, but only in certain forms that were wanted and freely given. She was happy to feel the contact of Daemon touch her hair but then she felt it long before he spoke. She had been hit, she had been nursing a bruise that had been given to her for trying to save Lord Charlus's life. A man that had been protecting her the only way he knew how to. It was only recently that he had explained that he had been friends with her father and why he had given her the land as her's. Why he never punished her.

Every lesson she had learned so far had told her that Daemon was hers as much as she belonged to him. The sound of his voice sent chils through her and not in the ways that it would have another Queen. There were going to be a pile of dead bodies tonight. Seren couldn't feel afraid of him in that moment. She knew what he was asking for and why, a Warlord Prince was a predator especially when it came to protecting what was their's.

"Lady Bennet," she spoke clearly. "But Prince, why are you here? If you were returning, it would have been announced. Why did you come back?" It was dangerous ground and she knew not to get into his way, his temper was ice cold and there was no way to stop it or soothed him. Right now she was speaking to the Sadist, she could feel it.

#sdsadi #v: blood letting

the night grows dark

Pruul had taken more out of him that he wanted to admit. The fighting, the desperation with which he’d broken his restraining ring, and that glorious feeling of openly wearing the Black for just a few moments while they escaped. Lucivar was with Ben, and they were waiting for him at Cassandra’s Altar, north of here at the other end of the island. They were trying to find a Priestess who could open the Gate, so that they might escape to Kaeleer.

He had something else to do first. He couldn’t leave without Seren. It was long after dark when he made his way onto the estate grounds. He wore the Red, and even that was hardly a whisper of power. He should have taken more care, and rested for awhile. There was a strange hush over the land, like something poised and waiting to strike.

He noticed there were more people in residence than had been when he was here. He recognized Bethany’s distinctive scent and scowled, but there were other women here, too, and a contingent of guards. He didn’t know them, but he hoped not to have to tangle with anyone. He made his way into the servants’ quarters. He didn’t know which door was to Seren’s room, though, so he found himself sneaking along and pressing hands to doors, trying to sense what was going on inside.

Eventually he found her. He passed right through her door, and stood for a moment, adjusting to the dark, before he spoke directly into her mind.

*Lady Seren, please, don’t panic.*

Seren had been nursing a bruise. She had to be careful, now more than ever. One of the Bennets would be staying here longer and she knew that there were more bruises coming. She had to take it because from her point of view there was no other option. Seren had no options, Lord Charlus had been taken ill and Seren suspected poison. Thankfully she had found a cure and administer it only to be caught after the fact by the Bennet-bitch and Bethany.

Whatever Black Widow the Bennets had, their poison hadn't been as good as it should have been. Seren expected things would get worse tomorrow morning or whenever Lord Charlus recovered. She didn't know what to do, running away was an option but she was loathe to go that route.

Seren stood straight when someone walked through solid wall into the room. "Daemon?" She asked and she couldn't have been happier to see him especially now. She didn't think about Protocol, she rushed to his side and embraced him forgetting one very important thing, her cheek with a newly forming bruise across her cheek.

Plans of Mice and Men (Seren, Daemon)

She listed off more vegetables to harvest, but the whole garden just looked like a neat tangle of green things to him. He followed her lead, picking and snipping and taking what he was directed to do, and never letting the basket too far from his notice.

Her words were dark, sobering things, but they weren’t inaccurate. She was lucky. This bit of garden, the world beyond the walls… she was lucky to be safe here, even if she was a servant. No one needed to know she was more than she appeared.

Something in him quieted. She was safe. That was important to him.

"I think we’re done here, Lady." he said respectfully. He could sense movement up at the house. "I’ll be missed." he said by way of apology. Still, he carried the basket up to the kitchen door, and left it on the counter. The cook gave him an odd look, but he gave her a polite nod.

He had a lot to think about.

Seren nodded to Prince Sadi, "Thank you for accompanying me." She knew there would be questions and she saw the Cook's odd expression as she watched the both of them. She had an odd sense of what just happened was important but she didn't know exactly what is.

"What happened?" Matilda asked.

Seren let out an exasperated sigh. "He helped me garden," she told her simply. She couldn't explain the relief she felt that she wasn't alone in her secret, to have someone that knew about her. Seren felt she could trust him with her secret, he hadn't been the kind of man the stories painted but he had supposedly killed Queens that served Dorthea and couldn't bring herself to care about them. She knew exactly the kind of women they were, running in similiar veins as the Bennets.

"He was polite, that's it." Seren told her.

"Well, you should go get cleaned up, it is almost dinner, it wouldn't do for you to collapse later. Get some rest."

Seren shook her and said, "Fine." She knew she had things to think about and journals to look through any references to interaction with Warlord Princes beyond Protocol.

#end of rp #for reference #sdsadi

Plans of Mice and Men (Seren, Daemon)

The moment passed on and became something else. Daemon studied the thing that she offered him and he frowned. A cabbage? He’d certainly eaten cabbage, it was a cheap filler vegetable and it had been the en vogue vegetable a few decades ago in Hayll. Chefs had been trying to make it into just about anything edible. The Courts of Hayll had been very gassy for awhile.

He knelt and harvested two more before setting them in the basket, and moving further on down the row. “What else do we need?” He asked. He studied her out of the corner of his eye. She was laughing at him. Usually that would have incited his temper, but her laughter was musical and he couldn’t help but felt a small smile growing somewhere within him. He resisted that urge, though, not quite capable of letting himself feel hopeful or joyous. Not even now.

*Who knows about you?* he asked along the Sapphire. That strange mental connection was one he shared with very few. Occasionally when he could steal a few moments alone, he’d speak to Lucivar. But they were both closely watched, and it never ended well. He saved those conversations for when he was desperately lonely, or had something important to say.

Here, though, with such a dark connection and no one looking very closely at either of them… he thought the risk might be worth it.

"I want to check on the carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and cucumbers," She admitted. The rest she would leave for the next few weeks, it wouldn't be that long for the full harvest. There had been so much planted that it would be able to be taken care of. She chose to continue to ignore the overprotective males beyond the wall. Seren hoped they didn't piss off the spells that only allowed certain parites inside. She pointed out the rows had the various vegetables.

*No one.* Despite she wasn't speaking with her voice, her mind still relayed the guilt she felt for misleading people for this. *I hope if they ever find out I'm not broken they will forgive me for not correcting them on their beliefs.* It was her only path she could take, the Bennets, the ones who controlled this island would destroy her if they had the chance, most especially if they knew her connection to her Sapphire Birthright was intact and that she was a fully trained Black Widow Queen, though her training as a Queen was limited to the lessons she gained from the books.

*I was lucky the Coven protecting me like they did.* She sent along the psychic thread as began to pull the carrots up and to be careful with her nails as well as pushing herself too hard. She was certain everyone would give her a hard time if she came back exhausted.

The vegetables had all grown strong with the old practices she had done, buckets filled with drops of her blood to nourish the land. Not that she told anyone of it. There were some things she kept to herself.

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Plans of Mice and Men (Seren, Daemon)

Daemon recovered as quickly as he could. No one in the house wore darker than the Green. He was so very tempted to brush against those inner barriers and whisper into her very mind. They couldn’t be caught… but it was still so remarkably dangerous. He reached a hand out and his fingers touched soft, brown hair. His mind touched hers, oh so gently. He tried the strength of the Red at first, but that seemed… a spell, not her own strength. He tried a step lighter, the Sapphire, and felt the pull at that strength.

*Lady…* he purred. Pleased with himself, he plucked her basket out of her hands and preceded her into the garden. He stepped carefully, as not to trample anything, but he couldn’t help feeling like a cat who’d gotten into the cream. Her secret was so terribly, horribly dangerous to her, and those that served her. He felt that danger like a tangible thing, and wasn’t sure why. She wasn’t tainted, but he’d never cared about the welfare of a Queen before, and it was strange.

He looked back at her, couldn’t help the quirk at the corner of his mouth. *Your secret is safe with me, Lady Seren.* he promised. He looked down at the… leafy green things… and realized he had very little idea of what he was doing. His eyes narrowed, and he fought the urge to tilt his head to the side. He was too dignified for that, even standing in a garden in dress shoes.

"What is it?"

Seren was startled when he touched her hair. She wasn't sure what to make of him when his eyes lost the icey look to them. She felt the brush against her mind, she felt the thrum of her Sapphire. He knew, mother night he knew she wasn't Broken. How? She wasn't comfortable with asking but she knew the tangled webs were still in place.

Outwardly she raised an eyebrow at him, inwardly, she panicked at the purr. A part of her knew that he wouldn't hurt her and she couldn't understand it. It was kept her calm as he plucked the basket out of her hands. She maintained her control like she taught to never show fear when confronted with a Predator and Daemon Sadi was most definitely a predator, but one she could sense had no intention of harming her, at least at this moment.

His continued words soothed her in way that she could exactly comprehend. *Thank you Prince Sadi.* She spoke along the distaff to spear sapphire thread. Seren bit her lip to keep from laughing. "Haven't you ever seen a cabbage Prince?" She asked completely serious and bent down to check in it. "This one is just ripe." She said and pulled a blade from the basket and beheaded it. "We just need a few of these Prince. The Harvesting will be soon and there will be men who will be harvesting the rest for the Festival as well as going to market."

#sdsadi #v: bloodletting

Plans of Mice and Men (Seren, Daemon)

Daemon thought for a moment that being out in a garden might be nice. He enjoyed parks and small, controlled bits of woodland well enough; as well with most of the Blood, he liked being out on the land. Then she mentioned he might need to change, and well… he didn’t know if he had other clothes. A glance down and he frowned, then looked back at her. It would have been comical, surely, to an onlooker who wasn’t terrified of drawing his ill will.

"I will… change." he said kind of stiffly. He couldn’t refuse a request from a Queen like this, there was some part of him that was itching at the prospect, but he also had no idea how to work in a garden. He returned to his rooms and called in the trunks of clothes he had to work with. An older pair of pants, and a white button up that was fraying a little at the cuff. They would have to do. He didn’t have work shoes, but a close shield should keep the worst of the muck off of his regular ones. He changed quickly and returned to the kitchen, where the Queen seemed to have been waiting patiently.

"Lead the way." he said with a polite inclination of his head. He followed her out into the "garden" and stared. Garden wasn’t the right term, and part of him wanted to point that out to the Lady, but she hadn’t stopped and was headed out onto the expansive field. He frowned and trotted after her, feeling a little bit like a puppy or a stuffy.

"What do you need me to do?" he asked her. There was that feeling again, when he stood too close. Cob webby. Something wasn’t right here. He almost reached out with his mind to see if he could sense where the cobwebs were when the Queen stumbled, nearly dropping her basket. He reached out to steady her, an involuntary action. When his hand touched her elbow, the skin began to burn.

He hissed, but made sure she was table before yanking his hand away. No physical damage. Some kind of spell was protecting her, though. He looked at her with something dark in his eyes. A broken witch couldn’t manage such a powerful spell. That had been the strength of darker Jewels… Red? The resonation had touched him at the strength of his Birthright.

His mind raced with possibilities. What he kept coming back to made him kind of cold to consider. She wasn’t broken. Mother Night. An untainted unbroken Queen, right under their noses.

Seren didn't laugh, she couldn't bring herself to do it. She nodded to him and smiled as he left and put her cloak up and removed her leather gloves revealing long black nails. She always painted her nails black and kept them long for one reason. It was considered a style and best way to hide her Black Widow status from everyone. Though on occassion she yearned to wear her pin, she was a fully trained member of the hourglass.

"Not what I was expecting," Matilda admitted.

Seren shook her head, "I don't think he's what anyone was expecting." She pulled a few items from her pocket and pinned her hair up in a bun. "Can you try to at least tell the others that the only one we need to worry about is Bethany?"

"I can try," Matilda replied as she worked on dinner. "Though George is probably lurking around outside to keep an eye out for you.

Seren groaned, were all men like that around Queens, not just Warlord Princes? She didn't have time to contemplate it when Daemon returned to the kitchen which looked a bit more casual.

Seren smiled at him and grabbed a few things out of the shed. She had grabbed two pairs of working gloves just in case. However once she got out of it to head towards the field. She had had found a decent back inside. She chuckled once she straightened out but when he had helped her and yanked his hand away, it concerned her. Maybe he wasn't as comfortable in her presence as she had thought. She would do her best to make sure of no physical contact.

"We just need to check the rows to see if any of them are ripe for picking." Seren explained trying to stay firm as she noticed the cold look in his eyes. "If you prefer, just hold the basket. Do you know how to tell if the vegetables and fruits are ready?"

Over the fence she could see George and Darius watching them, she chose to ignore the both of them.

Plans of Mice and Men (Seren, Daemon)

Seren was as polite a young Queen as he’d ever met, and that troubled him. She kept her actions purposeful and something in the way she talked was soothing some part of him that he didn’t know had been ruffled. It was… pleasant… to be around a Queen who wasn’t busy throwing herself at him, and who seemed to be interested in and careful about the feelings of those around her. It was a terrible pity she was broken. She could have been a good ruling Queen, but without the physical strength to take power back from those who choked the very life out of the land… well, that was an impossible thought.

Daemon was used to the initial reaction that the staff of a house was likely to have of him, and used to winning them over to his side with cordiality and favors early on. He had met with a stronger resistance this time already, but he suspected he was looking at the reason why. Lady Seren Dane. Their precious secret that wasn’t a secret.

"They have been fine, thank you." He replied. He wouldn’t fault the icy welcome he’d had so far; perhaps the situation would change in his favor now that he’d met their Lady and been met with some measure of approval. This whole situation was very strange, Daemon mused. He’d expected to come woo the cook out of a late lunch, not meet a young Queen who worked as a housekeeper.

Sadi felt a smirk quirk at his lips, which surprised even him. “Lady Bethany was encouraged to do so, yes.” She’d made some very pointed suggestions about having a bedpartner retire with her, but her father had looked vaguely scandalized that she’d been so forward about it, and Daemon had slipped away in the chaos. He’d service her, he knew, but he could put off the time of it until later at least.

He felt a wave of revulsion wash over him, but he was too well trained to let it show on his face. “Do you or the Lady here need any assistance?” He nodded to the cook, then looked back to Seren.

Seren was relieved that she wasn't going to have deal with Bethany until dinner at least and even then she would making herself scarce. She wasn't sure she would be able to restrain herself from killing Bethany. Not that the bitch didn't deserve it but she didn't doubt that the Bennetts would demand Blood Price if it was discovered especially when it was learned Seren was a Black Widow as well as a Queen.

Matilda was relieved at the interaction between Prince Sadi and Seren. He had been different than the staff expected, he seemed to genuinely have no ill will towards the Queen. She felt relieved.

Seren would have to talk to the rest of the staff to make sure Prince Sadi wasn't being nice and that they had been polite even if it had been cold. Though she doubted the staff would know what to do when someone did go cold. Even if knew what it meant she wasn't sure what she knew what to do if she herself was confronted with someone's icey rage.

A thought occurred to Seren. "Well I need to check on the vegetable garden, if you don't mind getting your hands dirty, I could use your help." She suggested. She thought of it as vegetable garden, considering it was an acre of farmland, it was an expansive garden that Seren had come to call her own. It wasn't near harvest time but some of the vegetation might be ready especially for dinner.

"However, you might want to change clothes. I wouldn't want you to get your clothes dirty." Seren told him with a smile, almost teasing. He did look too pristine. Everything was in perfect shape, a gentleman's gentleman she supposed.

Before having layers of tangled webs placed on her, Seren completed her Hourglass training. She had to put her pin with her Birthright in her personal cabinet out of necessity.

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Plans of Mice and Men (Seren, Daemon)

Daemon sensed her approach and kept his thoughts and feelings firmly leashed. He’d never encountered anything like this, and he didn’t know how to respond. When she entered, all dark hair and more than a hint of exhaustion in her eyes, he felt something that surprised him greatly: a swell of concern for her. He was the Queen-killer; they were supposed to fear him, and he loathed them. This one, though… the possessive concern of the cook told him volumes about her.

Heal the land. It was a miracle that anyone even remembered that Queens were meant to do that. Perhaps that was why the estate felt healthier than many others he’d visited. He’d doubted it had anything to do with the Lord and his Lady daughter.

"I am, Lady…" He prompted. He wanted to know her name. He didn’t even know why. So perhaps he would know the name of the witch who caused him to kill those who lived in this house. A Queen was no servant. Should never be, could never be. Especially a Queen who was untainted.

How had a Queen remained untainted? Was it because she was broken? Dorothea did not understand power in a less than literal way. The power a Queen could command had little to do with her Jewel strength, but more with the light of her soul. He’d never met a Queen who had retained that light; either broken and beaten out of her, or tainted by Dorothea and her ways.

He felt refreshed, and oddly afraid of her. For her. Perhaps they were the same thing. He didn’t know entirely what to say, though. He looked from the cook to the Queen, and narrowed his eyes.

Something felt wrong. Something felt… cob-webby. There was Craft at work here, of that he was sure.

Prince Sadi wasn't like like anything she had expected and the walk had helped clear her thoughts, she would judge him by how he acted here before she let any of the rumors and stories to fighten her from someone that could be a potential acquaintance. So she would be as polite as she could under the circumstances of how they were meeting. "Oh where are my manners, I'm Seren Dane. It's a pleasure to meet you Prince Sadi."

"I'm fine Seren, I thought the marketplace would have kept you longer," Matilda said, a resigned sigh escaped from her lips. Though she was relieved the Warlord Prince had nothing against Seren hadn't shown any malice toward the young woman.

Seren passed the basket filled with food and numerous of other things though she kept her attention on the Warlord Prince in question. She was trying to remember every protocol she had learned from her ancestors, how it was supposed to work. "I hope the rest of the staff has been hospitable?" Though considering how paranoid Alastair, Darius, and George were, she was concerned they were going to prick the Prince Sadi's temper.

Something told her from their reaction earlier that they hadn't looked at this with any sense. They probably thought Prince Sadi would hurt her just as he had those Queens that served Hayll.

A thought had occurred to her, "Also if you don't mind me asking, has Lady Bethany retired until dinner?" She hoped a thousand yesses. Though she could hear Matilda chopping harder, the old Cook's temper had to be frayed but no one who served Lord Charlus liked Lady Bethany. Personally Seren was surprised Matilda hadn't poisoned her yet.

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