Blurb: Noako Emerald, though skeptical about the entire idea, has finally agreed to marry her lover, Thei ran Yaian. 'Romantic' that he is, Thei has decided that they need an ancient relic to solidify their marriage vows, and is dragging Noako all over the world looking for said relic. Noako, to say the least, is less than thrilled... 

Written in response to a writing prompt for the "Wonderland War" forum, this contains characters from a story in TPC called "Goldfinger". The prompt, which gave a setting, gave me an idea for how Noako and Thei got their hands on a relic that Noako carries with her in the story. This is set over a million years before the timeline of "Goldfinger", and depicts the beginnings of their journey to retrieve the Oe'thvaren.

*****

Milorn 8, 31458 KE XIV (in the world of Zar)

Unknown Location

'Eerie' is not a word that often passes through Noako's mind. Generally speaking, she laughs at fear and toasts the idea of danger. Death is a shadowy friend who keeps her company on nights when the world is too full of light for her sanity.

So for Noako to think that a place is eerie, one can generally figure that it's a place most people wouldn't want to find themselves.

Which begs the question: why is she here?

Oh, right. Because Thei got it into his head that this would be 'romantic'. Noako smiles ruefully as she glances around the space at the bottom of the cramped, crumbling staircase she's been trekking down for the last hour.

She's really just glad to be free of the scent of mold, but the change in scenery isn't bad. The creepy feeling it gives off sends a little thrill through her blood, something like excitement--not an easy feeling to come by at her age.

The temple--she doesn't know how else to think of it, even if she does think that the very ideas of 'worship' and 'religion' are ridiculous wastes of time--is ancient, perhaps even older than Noako herself. The walls are white, the pillars tall and buried halfway into the smooth, painted limestone. The entire temple gives off a hollow feeling, mostly thanks to the echoing silence and the knowledge that she's far underground. This is a place most people would avoid, if for no other reason than the way the air seems to hum and vibrate with an energy that comes from nowhere and everywhere at once.

"So, where to, fearless leader?" Noako asks, glancing at the man crouched beside one of the pillars, fingering the marble. She wouldn't be surprised if he was determining how old it is and how much it would be worth if he broke it down and sold it.

She really doesn't see the point in stealing an entire pillar, though.

"So impatient, maa'eni chare," Thei murmurs, running his fingers along the thin veins of silver in the cream colored pillar.

"You can't steal an entire pillar," Noako says dryly, folding her arms over her chest. "It's impractical and too big to carry up the stairs. Besides, I thought we were here for the Oe'thvaren."

"We are," Thei replies, standing with an almost inaudible sigh that most people might have missed--it's little more than a slight twitch of his shoulders, a nearly imperceptible downward tilt to his chin. He brushes his palms together absently before moving toward her, his steps sure and graceful. In the shadows of the temple, his black clothes create extra shadows around his lean, muscled form. When he stops before her, he leans down--she's tall, but he's taller--and places a soft kiss on her forehead.

Noako tries to be annoyed by the contact, as it really should feel condescending. Instead she finds herself leaning into him. Being annoyed by Thei is difficult and exhausting. It's much more fun to just enjoy his company.

"Maa'eni chare," Thei says fondly, tapping her chin with the bent knuckle of his pointer. It's as if he thinks calling her his 'sweet wife' will make her actually want to be here instead of back home in their very comfortable bed, where clothes and sobriety are not required. "We don't have to keep going."

Noako rolls her eyes at the ridiculous insinuation. "You want the Oe'thvaren, we'll get the Oe'thvaren," she says, lifting her hands in an expressive shrug as she turns away from him. "Even if I think it's ridiculous."

Thei chuckles, following after her down the long hall. After a moment, he reaches out and takes her hand, tucking her scarred, calloused fingers into his warm palm. She finds herself smiling, entwining her fingers with his. It's been just under a decade now since she stumbled, wounded and being chased by a bunch of idiots, through his door. Over nine years since she began to realize that the quiet, withdrawn man she'd known for centuries was actually made of much stronger stuff than shadows and cobwebs.

Nine years, and she still feels warm inside when he looks at her like that with those deep brown eyes. It's almost strange. Never in her life did Noako think that she could act like a chit fresh out of braids--but one of Thei's rare smiles, better yet, his laugh...

She isn't sure if it's amusing or exasperating that he makes her feel like a schoolgirl, like something fresh and new when in fact she's worn and very, very old. Then again, he's older than she is, so she supposes that it doesn't matter.

She likes holding his hand. Even if it's something idiot mortals do. Even if it's something she's always thought lovesick children looked foolish doing.

Noako has been thinking for awhile now that she ought to change her way of thinking about love.

"Do you hear water?" Thei asks after a moment, tilting his head toward the right. Noako glances that way, down another white hall lined with pillars, the ceiling so far above them that it disappears into the darkness.

"No," she says, but turns that way anyway. Her hearing isn't nearly as good as Thei's, so she doesn't know why he even asked. It could be miles away, knowing him and his enhanced Fae senses.

Sometimes she loathes the fact that she was born human all those millennia ago. Other days she doesn't mind so much, since it means she doesn't have to deal with pesky Fae things like needing to shift into another form to eat enough or having a peculiar fondness for the taste of charred dandelions.

The last bit might just be... Thei.

He follows silently, his hand still entwined with hers comfortably. Noako considers his warmth and his callouses and the silent stillness of him, and that while she likes holding his hand, she likes having his hands on other parts of her body even better. This, of course, really isn't the time or place to be thinking about that, but the novelty of the eerie feeling is wearing off and she's rather bored.

They turn down another hallway and the sound of trickling water reaches Noako's ears, distant and faint but somehow loud in the silence. It makes the whole temple feel even stranger, that sudden sound after so much quiet. A subtle sort of anticipation begins to build in Noako's gut--one she tries to squash, but it persists, pushing away at the boredom.

A moment later they turn a corner, and the whole world opens up into a massive room, the sound of water echoing off the walls. In the center are a pair of fountains, vastly different from each other, on either side of a dragon statue. The fixtures are the first color other than white that Noako has seen since stepping off that last stair.

The dragon is easily the most interesting part of the display--coiled and twisting, it stands atop a pedestal of granite, its aquamarine eyes glaring out at the room. The fountain to the glaring dragon's left is made of brick, or perhaps blocked clay. It has a simple spout gushing nasty-looking brown water into its pool.

The fountain on the right, however, is made of clear crystal, carved in what Noako assumes is a form of 'art'. She's never really understood mortals and their pictures or why they think those things are interesting. At the top of the fountain is a pair of carved crystal wings which reflect the torchlight into the pool at its base. Unlike the water in the left fountain, the water in the right fountain is clear and spurts out of a pretty, glass-like spigot.

"Look at that," Noako says dryly. "Someone forgot to hire a competent interior decorator. I hope they didn't pay for that mismatched set."

Thei snorts, shooting her an amused glance as he pulls her toward the fountains. Upon closer inspection, Noako notices that the glaring dragon is holding a wooden cup in its claws, and there are words carved upon its pedestal. She squints at them, but she's still too far away to make them out.

"'Drink of the fountain, traveller,'" Thei recites, probably noticing her failure to read the words. With his dragon eyes, it's no trouble for him to see from this distance. "'The gate will open only to those with true wisdom'."

Noako glances around, but there's no gate. There's not even a door, and save for the archway they came through at the bottom of the staircase in the first room, Noako hasn't seen anything even resembling an entrance or exit.

She arches a brow as Thei stops a foot from the dragon, bringing her to a halt as well. "Sounds ridiculous to me. 'True wisdom', really?"

Thei shrugs, leaning forward to inspect the dragon statue more closely.

"You can't steal it," Noako says automatically, thumping his arm with her free hand.

Thei shoots her a smirk over his shoulder--a look that instantly makes her want to kiss him. "I can steal anything," he says simply, and looks back at the dragon.

Noako would argue, but she knows that it's true. Thei didn't become the Delegate god of thieves by being unable to steal things.

"And where will you put it?" She asks, arching a brow at the back of his head. His long black ponytail has fallen over his left shoulder, displaying more fully the fact that the sides of his head are shaved. She considers running her fingers over the prickles, but she figures it will distract him, and he isn't fond of being distracted--even by her.

Of course, sometimes she does it just for that fact... but right now she's feeling slightly invested in this little mystery.

"It will scare away customers with that nasty glare," she adds, her gaze sliding back to the aquamarine eyes of the dragon statue. It looks like the sea dragons from the Salan Isles--short legs, a long, serpentine body, a hairy mane around its horned head. Its maw is open, fangs bared.

Noako prefers Thei's dragon form. The sea dragons may look sleeker, but sky dragons were made for power, and she sometimes thinks that when he shifts, Thei looks like thunder made flesh and bone--which is incredibly sexy.

Thei laughs softly at her words, straightening to send her an amused glance. Noako's stomach does a little flip at the sound, as always. She's grown more used to it lately, that reaction. She even thinks she might like it. "Since when do you care about customers, maa'eni chare?"

She smirks, not deigning to answer that--because she doesn't actually care. "I'm not sweet," she says instead, pointing out the obvious. "And we aren't married yet."

Thei laughs, a true laugh this time, one that booms into the world bright and deep, prickling over her skin. Noako looks at him--at the light in his warm brown eyes, the smile etched onto his face. Thei isn't conventionally handsome, really. Noako remembers a time when she thought he was quite plain, actually--unremarkable, invisible.

Now she doesn't know how she missed the way his eyes crinkle at the corners when he smiles, the way his mouth quirks to the left when he's thinking very hard, the way the preternatural stillness that clings to him like a cloak disappears when he laughs, suddenly making him look full of life. Thei is beautiful.

And now she's being sentimental. This being-engaged thing is turning her into quite the mushy idiot. She can't say that she minds. It's good, she thinks, to have moments in which she can still feel... young. New. Like a stranger in the skin she's worn for thousands of years.

Noako finds that she's staring up at Thei, a smile on her face. She has no desire to look away.

He brushes a few stray hairs out of her eyes, still smiling himself. "If you'd like me to forestall my expressions of affection, Ako, you need only ask. Though," he tilts his head, his voice sliding into a slightly deeper octave as his eyes glimmer teasingly, "I thought you rather liked it when I called you mine."

Noako finds it hard to swallow, suddenly--hard to breathe through the rush. It's still strange to her, even though she's been with Thei for almost a decade now. Before him, Noako was no blushing maiden. She's been with countless men... but none of them have ever made her stomach flutter or her heart race like Thei does. There was a time when she laughed at foolish girls who sighed over males as if they were intoxicating. There was a time when she swore she'd never fall in love--that she didn't believe in love.

Looking at Thei now, Noako mocks the idiot girl she was back then.

"You know something? I love you," she says, smiling at him. It's a smile that rarely comes out, one that holds softness and even a hint of girlishness. It's a smile Noako has only ever given Thei. It's a smile she didn't know she had in her until the day she looked at him and realized that he was all she really wanted in the world, and that she didn't care about anything else so long as she could have him.

Thei's smile widens, his fingers still smoothing back her hair. "I am very aware of that, yes, maa'eni chare," he says, amused. He leans down and places a kiss on the tip of her nose--which is not, she must admit, where she wants his mouth to be. "I love you, too," he adds, tugging on a strand of her hair.

Sometimes it's incredibly annoying, the way he treats her like a five year old. But she can't be upset with him when he's saying things like that, with that look on his face.

So she just turns back to the fountain and huffs out a breath. "So, what are we doing? We have to get this gate thing to open, or what?"

Thei nods. "If the Oe'thvaren is here, it will be within the room behind this gate."

"Why do we need the Oe'thvaren again?" Noako asks, shoving her hands into her pockets. "We can get married without it, can't we?"

"Well, yes," Thei agrees, sounding amused again. "But it's rather romantic to involve a relic from the history of my race."

Noako rolls her eyes. "Thei, which one of us is the female in this relationship?" She pokes his side. "Honestly."

Thei just smiles and reaches out, taking the wooden cup from the dragon's claws. Those aquamarine eyes shimmer as if reacting to Thei's touch. Noako finds herself studying those eyes, curious. At a certain angle, she'd almost swear the statue is... alive. Which wouldn't be all that surprising, actually, in a place like this.

"I suppose we have to pick," Thei says, turning the cup over in his hands.

"I vote for the nasty water." Noako points to the left fountain.

Thei arches a black brow curiously, silently prodding her to elaborate in that wordless way he has.

Noako smirks. "If it looks like poison, it probably isn't. First rule of murder."

She receives a dry glance in response. "Who says someone is trying to murder us?"

"Well, 'wise' people avoid dying, right?"

"Not necessarily."

"Fine," she says with a small laugh. She waves a hand. "You pick then, Oh Wise One. Unless I'm allowed to cheat?"

Thei gives her a wry look and lifts her hand to kiss it. He doesn't bother to answer her question--of course she can't cheat. Cheating would be beside the point.

Even if it would be a simple matter for Noako to figure out where the gate is hidden and get it open. She is, after all, the Delegate goddess of hidden things.

She won't cheat, though. This is Thei's quest, and if he wants to do things the hard way, she won't argue.

"We are looking for a relic created by the Dragon Court," Thei muses, his tone almost inaudible--as if he'd rather be thinking the words, but says them aloud for her benefit. He's studying the fountains again. "They were not known for being clever."

He ought to know, since he served one of their monarchs for sixty thousand years. Noako arches a brow at a stray thought. "I thought Sel' Thenarin ended up with all the treasure from the Court coffers after the Faen War. How do we know she doesn't have it?"

"Mm, because I already asked her," Thei murmurs distractedly, once again turning the cup over in his hands.

"She could have lied," Noako points out reasonably.

"No one lies to me."

The simple statement is spoken so absently that Noako can't help but roll her eyes. She knows it's true, though. Thei is not known for being kind to those who trick or betray him, and he's had a great many years to perfect his preferred method of punishment. He's even older than Noako herself is.

"Alright, so let's assume this is a place made by the Dragon Court however many hundreds of thousands of years ago," Noako says, waving a hand. "If they weren't clever, it ought to be the clear water, yes?"

Thei releases a soft breath and straightens, tossing the cup from hand to hand. Normally he's nothing but stillness and shadow, a creature made of cobwebs and whispers. She's noticed lately that he's begun to come alive as soon as they're no longer around other people, though. Some of the stillness, the carefully cultivated quiet, fades away, as if he no longer feels the need to be anyone but himself when he's with her.

It gives Noako a very warm feeling in the strange, foreign, wonderful vicinity of her chest.

"We could each drink from a different fountain and see what happens," Thei suggests after a moment of deliberation. He doesn't sound enamored of the idea. There's a small furrow between his black brows that Noako knows means he's scanning ideas and options, his brilliant mind whirling to come up with something better.

Noako arches a brow, offering her two pence to the process. "And if one of them is poison? I'm not marrying a corpse. And 'dead fish white' won't go well with my dress." She's teasing more than anything, trying to lighten the load on his lean shoulders. She ignores the stab in her chest at the idea of Thei dying. They've been through a million scrapes together, and she never worried about him before. Back when they were both Delegates working under Dmarco, death was a very real possibility, lurking around every corner.

Only now, when things are actually peaceful, does she find herself worried. It's idiotic, really, though she understands well enough why it's happening.

Allowing herself to accept that Thei is what she wants also means accepting that if she loses him, she loses a part of herself. Noako has never given of herself easily. In fact, she's never given of herself at all--never trusted anyone that much.

Now she does, and she's found that it can be a bit unnerving at times.

Thei gives her a rueful smile. "We're here for a lust relic, Ako. The likelihood of the water killing one of us is slim to none."

She shrugs. "And the likelihood of me falling for you was almost zero."

"Why thank you," he says dryly, the sarcasm spoken in a tone most would miss--but Noako isn't 'most', and she finds her lips tipping upward into a small smile at the joke. Thei dips the wooden cup into the clear stream. She half expects him to hand it to her or drink from it himself, as per his plan, but instead he dips it into the dirty stream a moment later, so that the cup is half full of each type of water. It's a strange color once they mix--like red tea that hasn't quite steeped long enough.

Noako wrinkles her nose at it and the awful smell coming from the liquid. She prefers good, strong mashagri. None of this watery dirt.

"We'll drink both," Thei says simply.

Noako just nods, accepting his decision without complaint or question. Usually, when Thei comes up with a plan, it's best to act first and ask later. Generally speaking, the questions she'd have asked are answered in the time between.

Thei gives her a small smile and takes a deep drink from the cup. His mouth twists in disgust at the taste before he hands it to Noako. She knocks back the rest of it, not waiting to see if it has adverse effects on Thei first. The taste is, indeed, thistling awful. Noako lets loose with a string of foul curses, working spit around her mouth to try and get rid of the aftertaste. It doesn't really work.

She looks at Thei to see if there have been any effects. There haven't been, so they just stand there, waiting for something to happen. One minute passes. Two.

Nothing occurs.

"Could be someone's idea of a practical joke," Noako points out finally.

But it's almost as if the dragon was just waiting for her to speak, because the moment the words are out of her mouth, its eyes begin to glow, as do the two spigots and then the water itself.

"Why did you drink from both fountains?" A voice asks, booming from every part of the temple at once. It sounds old and cranky. Noako arches a sardonic brow at the dragon. So it is alive.

"If given two options, take two paths," Thei says calmly, sliding his hands into the wide sleeves of his black jacket, "and you will determine which one is correct."

"You took only one path," the dragon thunders. "You cheated."

"I did not like either option presented to me," Thei returns calmly. "So I made my own."

"That is the same as cheating."

"No, it's the same as strategizing," Noako points out, folding her arms over her chest. "Why bother finding a way under, over, or around a burning bridge when you can just put the fire out and stroll across like you own it?"

Thei smiles faintly. Noako smirks in response.

The dragon is silent for a moment. Then a heavy sigh echoes through the temple, like a gust of mausoleum air. "Very well. You may enter the gate."

Thei's smirk mirrors Noako's as a shimmering aquamarine gate appears on the other side of the fountains.

Naoko takes a moment to wonder what they'll do if the Oe'thvaren isn't there, then decides that she doesn't care.

Going on a treasure hunt with Thei suddenly sounds like a lot more fun than it did when they were trekking down those stairs, and she really does like the eerie feel of this place. If she can figure out what's causing it, she might be able to recreate it back home and finally perfect the aura in her office.

She can already imagine the blanched faces of the people who'll have to come and go. The thought brings her no small amount of satisfaction, and she finds herself smirking again. Finding Thei's 'love relic' might be fun, too. She has to admit that she does find it endearing, the fact that he wants their wedding to be romantic.

Well, Noako finds the idea of 'romance' old-fashioned and pointless, but... she can concede every once in awhile, if it makes Thei happy.

"Let's go," she says, smiling at him. Thei returns the expression, and offers her his hand. Noako closes her fingers over his.

The dragon sighs heavily. "Go on, get off with you. You're keeping me from my nap."

Noako laughs and shoots the cranky statue a vulgar gesture. Then Thei pulls her into the darkness beyond the gate, and they've left the world of whitewashed halls and mismatched fountains behind them.