The bedroom was dark, the candles blown out. Moonlight from the high arched window filled the room with a faint silvery gleam. Tynan lay in the large round bed in the middle of the room alone, looking up at the mural on the round corniced cieling above. It showed Kiraha's copulation with Shinistra and Mezen amidst clouds of gold. For some reason, that didn't surprise him, considering his teacher. He heard her come in as he kept his eyes fixed on the cieling. The bed moved slightly with her weight.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" the Kiraha of the Oaks purred as she lay next to him, resting her head on his shoulder and her hand on his chest. "It's been a while for you, hasn't it, Tynan?"

"Not as long as you think," Tynan said softly, hie eyes never meeting hers.

She chuckled. "With her?" she asked, mockery in her voice. "She's young and knows nothing." He felt her move, her lips drawing close to his ear. "You remember, do you not?" came her hungry whisper. "I made you reel with desire even as your vigor enflamed me..." Her hand moved on his chest, lowering to the leather thong that held his vest closed. He clenched his jaw. "...we drowned, you and I... lost ourselves in the fiery tempest of passion..." She didn't untie the knotted thong, but snapped it as she drew her finger down the parting of the vest, the tip of it caressing his bare abdomen. He lay still, and he could almost hear her lips curl back into a smile as her finger moved to the top of his pants.

Tynan's hand took her wrist gently but firmly, stopping her advance. "No." he said in his soft deep voice.

She raised herself onto her elbow as he held her other wrist still. "What did you say?" she replied, her voice ominously soft.

"I will not, Kiraha," he told her, turning to look at her as the moonlight glinted in his eyes. His face was sombre.

"You will not?" Kiraha scoffed as she sat up. He saw her garb for the first time, a flowing silken robe that luxuriously sheathed her body loosely, falling in a deep v at her chest. "You have no will, Tynan. Or have you forgotten?"

"I am not one of your Araawan, Kiraha." he said calmly to her, even as he curled up in fear inside. "I'm a human. You took me in and taught me, for that I am grateful. But I am not Araawan."

Her free hand moved like a whip, her fingers curling around his neck like the grip of a python. She snarled, her fangs unfolding from her mouth pallete as rage flared in her eyes. Tynan gasped and choked, his grip tightening on her wrist as the other helplessly tried to pull the hand around his neck away. "I sssshould kill you for your dissssresspect..." she hissed furiously.

"I was - am nothing but a thing to you," Tynan choked. Eventhough I loved you! The thought speared through his mind, crystalized in the fires of the pain of knowing he was nothing to her but a plaything despite the fact that he cared for her from the bottom of his heart.

Kiraha gasped, seeing the shape of the thought. Crystal clear, stark and glimmering in the light of Tynan's fire. In disbelief, she stared down at him, her grip lessening on his neck. She pulled her hand back, as if he was hot to the touch and he curled up coughing air back into his lungs. Her lustrous silver hair shadowed her face, veiling her eyes from him. "Get out." she said, her voice empty of emotion.

Without a word, Tynan rose from the bed, leaving her sitting still on the bed.