Livinia ran her palms down her thighs nervously as she rushed towards the Court of the Sun. It had been four days since she had seen Belcarm and she was running terribly late. She had sent him a letter the day before to confirm that she would still be meeting him, but she hadn't foreseen that her business at Mount Hyjall would run so late. She hadn't gotten back to Silvermoon until just before she was meant to meet up with him, and the last thing she wanted to do was greet him while covered in blood and smeared with mud. She knew that he had seen her in worse states, but when he was in Dalaran he loved to dress up, so she could only imagine that he had pulled out his finest for his beloved Silvermoon.
Livinia peered around the rim of the grand fountain outside the front of Sunfury Spire and, through the throng of people, could see the quick flashes of emerald green and jet black as someone paced along the waterfall, disappearing behind the groups of mingling Sin'dorei. Livinia bit her lip and pushed her way through the crowd.
"Bel!" Livinia said when she reached the space that he had been using to pace. He stopped in his tracks and turned to face her, a confused smile on his face.
"Liv?"
"Well I'm certainly not Alexstraza." Livinia said, eyebrows knitting together.
Belcarm's confusion turned to a grin. One moment he was a few feet away from her, the next he had his arms wrapped around her waist and was kissing her hair softly.
"You came!" He said, stepping back and holding her at arms length to inspect her properly. "You look incredible." He said, his eyes raking over her form fitting black silk gown.
"I sent you a letter yesterday... I told you I was still coming." Livinia said with a frown.
"Yes, I know, but..." He trailed off and Livinia reached up and put her hand on his chest. Livinia had been right about him pulling out of the stops for Silvermoon. His tunic was deep emerald green and his breeches and boots were midnight black. They weren't overly fancy or intricately adorned garments, but the fabric itself needed no dressing up. The garments were perfectly cut to complement his stunning physique. As Livinia held her hand against his chest she could feel the tone of his muscles and the warmth of his skin, and her insides tightened.
"I said I would come and here I am." She told him with a reassuring smile.
"Does that mean that you've made up your mind?" He asked hopefully. Livinia bit her lip and looked away.
She had thought that the time away from Belcarm and Kalendras would help her clear her mind enough to make a decisions. She had been wrong. The only thing that the added time and space had done was confuse her more. She missed Belcarm just as much as she missed Kalendras, and the thought of losing one of them was too much to bear. She had given herself to that very morning to make a decision, and then when she had woken up in her cold bed roll she decided that she would wait until after the Diplomat's Ball. She had promised to meet Belcarm for the exhibition, and she had promised to go to the ball with Kalendras. Any decision she made would likely make her break one promise, and she didn't want to get into that sort of habit.
"I wish I had something to tell you, Bel." Livinia said "But I really don't know what to do. I still haven't made a decision. I understand if you want to call all this off. " Livinia gestured around her dismissively.
Belcarm looked at her thoughtfully for a moment before giving her a winning smile.
"We're both finally in Silvermoon -- together- at the same time. I want to enjoy this." He said, grasping her hand and bringing it to his lips. The feeling of his skin against hers, his hot lips pressed against her knuckles, made Livinia's knees weak. "Let's forget about everything else and enjoy ourselves, yes?"
"Sounds good to me." Livinia replied with a relieved smile. "What shall we do?" She asked, looking around their beautiful surroundings with apprehension. It had been months since she had been in Silvermoon for more than a couple of hours, and even longer still since she had spent the night at her childhood home.
"I have plans if you are happy to trust me." Belcarm said with a sly smile, offering her his arm.
"Please don't tell me that we'll be spending the afternoon discussing the curvaceous yet refined lines of the Sunfury Spire in the differing lights of the sun..." Livinia said good naturedly as he let her around the edge of the giant fountain.
"No, we'll be discussing the artistic representation of the Walk of Elders as it pertains to the historical culture of the Sin'dorei." Belcarm replied, Livinia's mouth dropped open and she looked at him.
"You can't be serious!" Livinia said, surpised.
"Well, that is what we will be discussing if you don't wait patiently to discover the true nature of my plans." He told her.
"Patient? Me? Remind me Bel, how long have we known each other for?" Livinia asked with an eyebrow cocked, Belcarm laughed and kissed her on the forehead, and Livinia's fears that he would still be angry with her drifted away on the light autumn breeze.
~*~
"You've got to be kidding me!" Livinia said, craning her neck to look at the white marble building in front of her.
"Why?" Belcarm asked.
"I think I'd rather talk about architecture than come here." Livinia said, gesturing to the blazing red phoenix carved into the plaque above the door of the building. Belcarm looked down at her again, but this time he just rolled his eyes.
"Come on, we're going in." He said, grabbing her hand and almost dragging her through the open door.
As soon as they had turned down the street Livinia had feared that he would be bringing her here. The Hall of Blood in Farstrider's Square was the headquarters of the Blood Knights and the last place she had expected him to bring her. Not only was it full of prissy Blood Knights (Livinia could only handle one of the up-jumped Paladins- and that was Belcarm) but there was absolutely nothing interesting about the Order. At least, nothing Livinia cared to hear about again.
Despite her protest, Belcarm led her confidently up the grand staircase, stopping occasionally to say hello to another Blood Knight, or to point introduce Livinia to one of his comrades. When they reached the fifth floor he took the corridor to the left rather than continuing up and then pushed gently on a blank space of wall at the end of the corridor. Livinia had to admit to him that she was impressed when the inconspicuous slab of marble noiselessly slid aside to reveal a well worn wooden staircase. "Come on, I don't want to be late." He said excitedly, and Livinia couldn't help but wonder what they were going to do. For a few moments she was concerned that he was going to take her to his room, but then she remembered that he preferred to stay with his Father when he was in Silvermoon.
The sun was beating down on the rooftop as they emerged from the relatively dark staircase.
"BELCARM!" A few voices cheered in concert as Livinia blinked furiously, trying to adjust to the sheer brightness of the sunlight reflecting off the surrounding white buildings.
"Hey! Hope we're not late." Belcarm said, putting his hand on the small of Livinia's back and leaving her forward. They stepped into a patch of shade cast by some sort of sun shelter and Livinia could finally get a better look around.
The rooftop had several chairs of all different styles set around it. There was a fire pit, a few very worn training dummies, some arrow filled targets and a long table in the middle of the roof. They had come out at the side of the building that joined to the neighboring one which had a slopes roof tiled with blinding white shingles. In addition to all of the furniture there were six other people. They were wearing differing amounts of armor, but the one thing that they all had in common was the black and red colors of the Blood Knights.
"Just on time actually." Said a particularly pretty woman standing beside a tall male. "We thought we'd wait for you two to get here before we started, so you could have taken another hour and you'd have still been on time." The woman said with a grin.
"Great." Belcarm returned, beaming.
"Livinia I presume?" The woman said, stepping forward and offering Livinia her hand. Livinia took it and shook it. "I'm Tirenna, this" she gestured the male she was standing beside moments earlier "is my husband Lionél."
Tirenna continued the introductions until Livinia had met each and every one of the other Blood Elves. When they were done Tirenna said something about getting ready and led Lionél off to one corner of the roof while the male that had been introduced as Kelthro stalked off into the opposite corner somewhat grumpily.
"What's going on?" Livinia asked, turning back to Belcarm.
"When we were out on our rounds Tirenna and Kelthro had a bit of a... hmm, disagreement?" Belcarm said.
"A bit of a disagreement?" Laughed a blonde-haired male standing nearby them, Livinia remembered that his name was Michel. "Kelthro and Tirenna almost tore each other to shreds!"
"Either way," Belcarm said with an indifferent shrug, "the Blood Knights do not tolerate in-fighting. If we draw arms against each other without suspicion of treason or serious insubordination we can be excommunicated from the order."
"So we solve our problems other ways!" Michel said with an enigmatic grin. "Observe." Said Belcarm, gesturing over to Tirenna and Lionél's corner.
Tirenna turned around with a pleased smile on her face, her hands were side by side, open and palm up, at waist level. Hovering just above them was an ethereal lion cub made entirely of light magic. Livinia gasped and then laughed as the cub shook its head and then sneezed. She felt a tug on her sleeve and turned to see Belcarm pointing to Kelthro's corner. Hovering above his hands was a large rabbit with extremely twitchy ears and a glowing light-made nose to match.
"You can use your magic for that?" Livinia asked, eyebrows raised curiously. She had always held great respect for magic of all kinds, only using it when needed and never for fun or show.
"We vow never to use our magic for selfish or frivolous purposes..." Michel trailed off.
"But for this, we make an exception." Belcarm said, winking at her and settling one arm around her waist.
