her body is not her own. it never has been. birthed to a mother too weak to survive childbirth, fashioned by a man too weak to stand his ground, she has never lived with strength. her heart, her resolve, her justice had been her pillars, her rocksteady foundation, and yet now she stands on legs that are not her own and she feels more herself than ever before. 

the water hisses and its heat draws her in. her skin has been colder lately; she's been craving sun, and has taken to wearing garments unbecoming of the summer heat. 

her gaze darts to fernando, at his bare chest sitting above the water, and she licks her lips. she sheds her own layers like a snake and steps daintily into the bath, toes flexing, feeling the strength of her body, of her agility, as she does this one simple act of entering the bath.

"i'm not as fragile as you'd have me believe," she says with a half-smile, though she accepts his hand. he dotes upon her as he might a pet. 

this makes sense to her. 

she shivers happily as the heat envelops her and she sinks her shoulders down into the water. "i feel...warm," she says, as though that is the only thing she might ever want in this world.

FERNANDO SILPH


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HEAT POINTS: 957

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and she was changed. waking up in that hospital bed with the news of her hometown fallen, with the histories of her people gone from the silver spire and replaced with another worldly obelisk. fury had consumed her. introspection brought the realization that it was not anger at her loss, at the ruin of knowledge, but the fact that what was hers was taken. that her territory had been encroached, that her dens had been ransacked, safe haven caverns left empty, eggs broken. 

she exhales. steam curls upward from the heat of her breath. 

she does not blame fernando for sootopolis' fall. she cannot. and her every instinct to purge the city of its parasites is smothered by something, rewritten and transcribed and replaced with the need for warmth. 

she extends herself in the spring and grins at him. "funny. that is the moment where i have learned to strike hardest." 

FERNANDO SILPH


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HEAT POINTS: 888

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she presses her tongue to her canines. she can hear the sizzling, simmering of the water around her like a waterfall in her ears. every movement, light and delicate, that fernando makes, she feels reverberate through the water. and so she is wrapped in this environment, enraptured by the newness/nostalgia of it all. 

her lips part under the water. she tastes minerals from the rocks, the scent that is fernando, familiar to her though she's never truly tasted it upon her tongue. 

she comes back up when he speaks. "a cornered animal will fight with every fiber in its being. nothing is more terrifying than an animal with nothing left to lose." 

she tilts her head. "do you think me the cornered prey? or the predator?"

FERNANDO SILPH


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HEAT POINTS: 887

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one would think that with her recovery from her surgery, she'd still be the thin waif of a woman she was when ALEXANDER STONE pulled her from her beachside isolation. but she's been ravenous since fernando's gift; her legs are strong, arms round with her building muscles. 

her arrows have flown with more power as of late. 

she bares glittering teeth and laughs. "mine won't anymore," she says. fernando granted her that much; she knows her place, unwaveringly so. 

"you've always seemed so resolute to me. tell me, how often does fernando silph's perspective change?"

FERNANDO SILPH


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HEAT POINTS: 803

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"i'm dangerous," she rebuttals. she flicks her tongue out again and grins wickedly as she drifts nearer to him. "you've been seeing that woman again, the one you never told me about. i can taste her on you." 

she shivers and wraps her arms around herself, though the bath still simmers with heat. 

"and my perspective has not changed. i know my place." she blinks at him, wades closer with a curiosity that is almost animal in nature. and without warning, she tucks herself neatly against him, drapes her arm over his bare chest. 

"mm, you're warm," she says. "would you turn up the heat?" she asks, head tilting. 

FERNANDO SILPH


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HEAT POINTS: 728

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"mm, sorry, but you don't quite do it for me in that department," she says with a grin. but now that she's closer, now that she's talking, she breathes him in. and yes, there is more than one scent that lingers against his skin. she can't pick them apart, though, because the sauna is cleansing him. 

he draws her into the water. she stretches and then folds her legs, curling to trap the heat. i feel so cold, she wants to say, but she knows that is not what he's asking.

the mist coils around her and she says, "thankful." 

this power he's gifted her, wild and untamed, has changed her. she would disagree with him, say it was more/less than being put back together. because something is still missing, but she doesn't know what, and whenever she tries to grasp it, it slips away from her. 

she cranes her neck back, teethes at his jaw. "i thought i understood them, but he has lived my several lifetimes over. and now i share his hurt. i share his sadness. i share his strength." she exhales and her breath is hot, stinging.

"was this power yours to give?"

FERNANDO SILPH


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HEAT POINTS: 642

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heat rises to fernando's cheeks. his skin warms. she touches his chest, over his beating heart, and then her own, and she shivers at the chillness of her skin. still, she's warmer now with the steam curling around them, with fernando's arms encircling her, embracing her. 

she calls herself his arrow, his protector, and yet here she is being cradled like a babe, shielded from the world by wooden walls and mist. 

"i ask because i will not give it back so easily," she says. 

FERNANDO SILPH


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HEAT POINTS: 590

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