Alys, King’s witch, had been rather occupied as of late. Losing Logan months prior (even if she had only learned about it two months ago herself) had left a rift in her world. She had a home that she had yet to go back to until a week or so earlier. Finally finding it within herself to gather a few things that held meaning to her before the home was sold. The twins and herself lived up at the castle at this point, between the Delaney’s helping secure the best of tutors to Alys pulling them under her wing with the military, they were well settled into the life Cassian had allowed them there.

Then there was her usual duties between the military she helped train and the hard witchcraft she sculpted day in and out, then her worrying over Cassian who had fallen ill. And squeezing in visits to a certain Dresmondi who was still around, though it wasn’t as often as her instincts wanted.

She often slipped by to kiss her twins goodnight before she was back to the hall and up into her own office. Several tables now occupied the room. One was clearly a place for her to hold papers and meetings over, a few scattered things on top. A chair sitting across from it and then a settee that often doubled as a bed was in front of a fireplace that had a steady flame in it now to warm the room against the biting winter wind outside. Another smaller table was pushed against the wall with shelving stretching high above it, a bookcase ladder attached to a metal railing so she could reach it all. All being the different ingredients and supplies to make cursed items or potions.

And the smallest table? Held the empty plate of her meal that she had finished a while before and an almost empty decanter of wine. Her curls were wild and loose, opting for a cozy sweater and tight cotton pants. But her feet bare. She often times could be found like that at this time of night. Not that many sought her out after the moon had risen. But the knock to her door told her that was not the case this evening. With a small hesitation, she stared at the crack under the door, noting the shadows were odd until she realized…

With a few swift steps, she crossed the distance and opened the door. Cheeks naturally flushed from the wine as she tilted her head almost in question as she glanced between Zevran and Rune. “Hello you two.” She greeted, glancing behind them as if there would be someone else but there wasn’t. So she stepped aside just enough so both could enter. “A bit late for a stroll isn’t it?”

The door opened and on the other side stood Alys. He was used to seeing Alys in an all business sort of manner, but the woman who stood across from him was anything but that serious Nevermerean soldier he'd grown to know.

He stared at her, taking in her wild curls, the slight color on her cheeks, down to the extremely form fitting pants she was wearing. Alys had always been beautiful, but seeing her now, relaxed and in her element, there was something... more to her.

Unbeknownst to him, his jaw had fallen open at first sight of her. He registered her speaking to them, but continued staring at her slack-jawed until a sharp mental poke from Rune had him snapping his mouth shut and clearing his throat as they shuffled passed her and into her room.

Quickly shaking off his blunder, her turned back to her with a bright smile, "It is a bit late, I hope we weren't disturbing you. I just... I spoke with the Captain Commander yesterday and I realized I needed to share the news with you." His eyes were bright, still clinging to the hope that the conversation had brought him. A different type of dread lingered on the fringes, but with the assistance of the alcohol he was still able to ignore it.

It had been a long while since she had seen someone look at her the way Zevran was. The almost shocked, but not in a horrified way. Not in an ‘afraid of her authority’ way as she walked into the training ring. It was something else as his eyes traveled down her and back up, her brows lifting a touch as he seemed to have to shake himself out of it before strolling into her office, a small lick of heat shooting down her spine. The door shut with a soft click before she turned to him and that bright smile she was sure she had never seen before.

She almost returned it, her own flicking upwards as her eyes held question in them. She pushed away from the door and welcomed him further into her room, gesturing to the settee with the warm fire in front of it. “Oh?” She glanced at the two before she picked up a blanket that was tossed on it and hung it on the back of the settee before she took a seat herself. She grabbed a pillow and held it questionably towards Rune, an offering as she placed it on the floor, closer to Zevran before she focused back on the one she could actually understand.

“And what did the Captain Commander have to share with you?”

'You're certainly off to a great start,' Rune grumbled, even as her ears perked forward at the soft pillow Alys offered her. She promptly trotted over and curled into a tight ball on top of it. Unable to stop himself, he rolled his eyes at the fox before sliding onto the small couch on the other side and turning his attention to Alys.

"He asked me many, many questions about Dresmond and the Eldouirs. Questions he would only have need to ask if... if the King had decided to help us." The happy gleam came to his eye again as he spoke and he shifted on the couch, leaning towards her a bit. "It had been so long since we'd arrived and I hadn't been told anything. I was starting to think that he was going to deny me."

Alys watched with a small smile as the fox found herself on the pillow and seemed to make herself comfortable. She hadn't meant it in a way that Rune wasn't welcome to join them, but from what she had learn, she knew touching a dyr was only to be between the Dresmondi and the dyr unless there was a special bond between them. She didn't think so highly of herself to think that she could be looked at in anyway as such a thing.

She softened at how truly happy he looked at what he was sharing with her. How he leaned into her as he gave the information, making the air thicker with how much space was easily eaten up with the lean. "That's good." She breathed the answer before nodding her head, a few curls bouncing with the action. "Very good for Dresmond. If..." She looked towards the fire and it hit her that it would be her... it would be her people heading into war if that was true. The heaviness of the situation settling on her then. "If we go. That's... good." Because fighting them in Dresmond was better than letting them come to Nevermere.

That thought snapped her out of it immediately. Knowing she'd be protecting those here. The smile came back to her as she turned back into him, her eyes flickering over his firelight highlighted features. Her hand reached for his, giving it a tight squeeze to reassure him. "I know you didn't plan to be away for so long. But I think it's been the best... with you here..." Perhaps for her own selfish reasons mixed with the fact that he was able to answer anything that might be thrown at him better than anyone else.

He nodded along with her, clasping her hand and squeezing tightly when she reached for his. "I'm sure there are other Dresmondi who could have accomplished what I did in a much better manner. But I'm glad I was able to come here and ask the King for help either way."

Without much thought he reached forward and grabbed her other hand, his gaze turning to a more serious look as he held tightly to her. "And I don't think we ever would have come to this if we hadn't run into you and Grant in those woods... If you hadn't convinced me to come back here with you. It'd still just be my little group struggling against all of the Eldouirs."

He was gripping to her as if she was his lifeline, as if she was the only thing binding him to this place. "It may not all turn out how I had hoped. We may not be totally free in the end, but we will at least be free of the Eldouirs and for that I have you to thank."

She gave a little breathless laugh. “Maybe. But you were the Dresmondi who finally came.” She answered. She knew that she had met one other once, remembered their spar in Coheed and had urged him to meet with Cassian. But then a lot happened from there and she didn’t think it actually happened.

Zevran took her other had, dragging her back to the present and the warmth that poured from where he touched her. Even to the way her heart beat wildly in her chest as he grew more serious and thankful, thankful to her and Grant for pushing the idea that they act and go with them now. Heat rushed to her cheeks, her brown eyes scanning him as he clung to her hand and she gave his hand a squeeze in return.

“Truthfully,” she breathed, unable to draw her mind to anything else besides the man in front of her. “I was trusting my instinct. We had gone there to observe, collect information to return with. Kill any Eldouir’s if we had the opportunity.” Perhaps that hadn’t been told to Grant, but she knew the order. And knew the younger Delaney would have easily backed her up. “But when we found you… when I saw you…” she slowly let her words fade.

How could she put together that her inner beast had yelled for him, had been the reason she stepped out from behind the tree at hearing his voice? She barely made any sense of it. “When we saw how you four were preparing to make a stand… it made sense to bring you back and let you tell your story. First hand. Rather than second hand accounts if we got in and out.”

Zevran was well versed in reading women. Men too, for that matter. So many nights he had spent next to campfires, paying close attention to who returned his desires. And there had always been someone. There was something about a campfire, the way its flickering light caught and danced among someone's hair, the way it made eyes sparkle even in the darkness, that always left you wanting.

Just as the fire in the room was currently doing to Alys's eyes. And the way it was currently traveling across her curls as she moved her head. He knew there was something here. He could feel it, just as he had felt it in the woods on their way to Nevermere. She had denied him then and he was not one to push boundaries once they were known.

But he found his hand lifting to those curls, gently twining his finger around one of them and studying the dark hair. He had promised Rune he'd behave, but his emotions were already running high, the alcohol buzzing in his veins and muffling any reasonable voice in his mind. He truly had not come here for any other reason than to share the news with her, but...

He huffed a short laugh, "But you could have chosen any of us to bring with you."

He tucked the curl behind her ear and brought his hand to rest against her face, lightly holding her chin. Would she run from him this time? "Instead, you picked me," he breathed quietly, then closed the distance and softly pressed his lips against hers.

She didn’t miss a movement of his, like she was finely tuned into him as a default. His hand raised to her hair and she turned into him further, watching his face as he seemed almost entranced by the curl he currently twirled before brushing back behind her ear. A lick of electric ran across her skin where he touched her and held her face.

“I did,” she breathed the answer. Because she had not been able to just walk away and leave him there. Not when everything felt so right. It was why she didn’t lean away as he went in to place his mouth over hers, why she barely hesitated in returning the kiss as she leaned forward into him. She had felt butterflies before, had felt instant lust, instant desire. But this was new. Entirely new.

Which is why she reached up and laced her fingers through his dark hair and pulled him closer to her. No rejection, no doubts. Every cell in her body suddenly buzzing and alive.

There was a small amount of relief that she didn't push him away, and then an even greater amount of pleasure as her fingers laced through his hair and pulled him to her, a quiet groan sounding from deep in his chest as his free hand came around to the small of her back and held her firmly against him.

It had been so long since he'd sought the comfort of another person, he assured himself as he tried to unravel this intensity that stretched between them. He was tipsy and emotional, and Alys was such a strong, beautiful person. He was bound to feel a bit breathless as they finally clashed together.

He would have to ponder that all out later. Right now, he was simply trying to keep his head above the wave of need crashing into him. Alys deserved grace and he could not simply devour her like his body was screaming at him to do.

He broke away from the kiss, dropping his hands to her hips as he sat back against the small couch, pulling her onto his lap so that she was facing him. He marveled at her for a moment, now backlit by the fire. Her hair glowed softly around her face, the light dancing as the fire crackled.

Swallowing hard, he reached for her again, pulling her to him until she was pressed firmly against him, their bodies molded together. He pressed a soft kiss against her mouth before feathering more down her jaw to her neck, then up to her ear where he paused, his voice hoarse as he murmured, "You're so beautiful."

It had been a while for her, especially with someone new. All she has know the past seven years was two men… and really only one of them in the last five. Her hands shook as she reached for Zevran, as she pulled him into her just as much as his arm wrapping her was pulling her to him. He made her feel alive, like every part of her was finally able to breathe. A missing piece she had never even known to look for.

The moment he shifted back, she finally took a breath, her eyes fluttering open to catch sight of him. She expected that to be it, even as her hands on him curled to pull him closer. It would seem he wasn’t done yet, not as he shifted back and then pulled her into his lap, something she handled with ease as she shifted herself just enough to place a knee on other side of him. He didn’t seem to hesitate in closing the distance again, and she let out a breath that could’ve been taken as one of relief.

Kissing him was easy, and in the firelight, gold touched small curls on his head and his whispered compliment made goosebumps bloom across her shoulders and arms. “Zevran,” his name a prayer of its own as she turned her face to press a kiss just in front of his ear. “Kiss me again.” A small, gentle ask. One hand curling back into the soft hair as the back of his head and the other around the front of his collar. Pulling him closer to her as if she needed more.

Hearing his name uttered in such a way sent a thrill through him, the light touch of her lips against his face another test of his self control. A wolfish grin spread across his face at her request, desire gleaming in his eyes. He felt her hand fist in the front of his shirt and it only intensified the fire in his eyes as he allowed her to drag him in. Two people who wanted control would make for a fun night.

His hands came up into her hair, honoring her request as he threaded his fingers through her curls. He tugged lightly, tipping her head back slightly before finally giving her what she wanted and finding her lips again. He let his desire off its leash just a bit and poured it into the kiss in a clash of teeth and tongues.

One of his hands unraveled itself and traveled to her lower back, pulling her against him as tight as he could. He wanted to be closer to her, wanted to completely envelop himself in her if he could, and there would be no hiding just how much he desired the woman in his arms.

Alys was pliable in his hands, the moment he tugged to angle her head she followed as her eyes lowered and she watched him through her dark lashes. This kiss wasn’t reserved or unsure, this one was claiming and testing out the new layout that they had been given. He tasted like wine… or perhaps that was her… but it was intoxicating nonetheless.

Every hard line of his was met with the soft curves of her chest and hips, but a strength lingered in the rest of her. Not to be forgotten that she was as much a warrior as she was a woman. And the small noise that left her throat and was swallowed by his mouth was very feminine as her body was pulled flush against his and his own desire was felt. One that was very much mutual.

With quick hands, she moved from his collar, to the hem of his shirt and gave a small, testing pull. One that if wasn’t objected against, her hand would find the warm skin of his stomach and chest and take her time exploring him as much as her mouth was exploring his.