The Birth of Freedom

Soothsayer

LEVI

I arrived at the stables with the sun rising to find Aurora seeing to her horse, unaware of my presence, the sight of her in the early morning light and her off guard manner was enough to take my breath away. Dressed in a brown cloak, a simple cream blouse and an ankle-length green skirt with her wild hair loose she was every inch the divine being she was named for.

I wonder if the people of Trost will recognise their battle angel like this.

Coming up behind her, I wrapped my arms around her waist and deeply inhaled the smell of hair before placing a kiss by the shell of her ear. It was surprising how easily the intimacy came to me whenever she was near, of how easily the whole world fell away to just the two of us.

Twisting around in my arms, Aurora smiled widely before she leaned forward to place her lips to my own but before we could connect, the large head of her horse forced itself in-between, breaking us apart before she could seal the morning with a kiss.

"I don't think Kano likes you." she laughed happily as she came forward to grip the horse's reins and run a soothing hand down his neck and following the path her hand trailed along with the chestnut hair, I couldn't help but picture that hand running along my spine as I lay her down on my bed.

"Seems to be the running theme with the men in your life." I quipped trying to contain the shivers of excitement that raced down my spine at the mental image of her hand running along my spine as I lay above her.

"Rian." Aurora groaned in frustration as she rested her head against Kano's flank, breaking my mind free of the fantasy, "He seems to think I'm his responsibility and I believe he thinks you're a bad influence on me".

"Is that so." I deadpanned, entirely aware that Rian did not want me anywhere near his twin sister, not that I gave a shit what he wanted. I only cared about what Aurora wanted, and if she wanted me then I wasn't going to push her away, I had already made that mistake once, and I wasn't going to do it again.

"You don't challenge the darker side of my nature," Aurora said wistfully as she continued to stroke Kano's mane. "I think he believes you enable me to commit more sins."

"Sins? Are you referring to the cutthroats?" I asked incredulously, and her silence was my answer. Sighing in frustration, I placed a hand on Aurora's shoulder and gently turned her towards me but she refused to lift her eyes, staring only at the hay covered floor as she fidgeted with the side of her skirt.

Is she ashamed?

"Aurora, that man gave you no choice." I said intently as I tilted her chin upwards so she would look at me "He would have killed you".

"I could have disabled him, taken him in for questioning" she said, unsure of herself "I didn't have to kill him"

"Do you regret killing him?" I asked gently though I already knew the answer. After all, I was drawn to her for a reason, because deep down, we both knew the price of freedom. The difference between Aurora and me was that I didn't care what people thought of me. In contrast, Aurora cared too much, especially when it came to her family, though she would never freely admit that.

"I regret that we didn't learn who sent him," she said murmured as she averted her eyes from my gaze. Self-hatred did not suit her; it didn't suit anyone. Aurora is what she is, and the sooner she comes to terms with that, the happier she will be for it.

And fuck her brother and his self-righteous opinions.

"That's not what I asked," I replied, tightening my grip on her chin and anger flared in her eyes as she pushed my hand away, meeting me as my equal.