Aren took the hand and shook it.
He looked better up close and before this, she would have sworn that was impossible. Was it because of the scene he had made and how he had carried himself? What was it, Aren wondered, that made this man feel so magnetic?
"It's nice to meet you as well," Evian told her gently.
Aren took a few seconds to calm herself and made it seem so natural that there seemed to be no break in the conversation when she did decide to speak,
"I can't help but notice that you are without a drink," she said as she and Evian's hands separated, "We should fix that."
"Lead the way," Evian told her with the graceful demeanor of a gentleman.
It put Aren at ease. Even more at ease than she had managed to put herself already. She chuckled and intertwined their arms and led the way into the crowd proper while men among the Knight Entourage standing apart from the celebrations in the hall looked on with Envy.
Dislike they might have for Arcanist but they would be blind not to acknowledge good —even sexy— looks.
Aren and Evian walked together with almost synchronized steps and as they did, the woman wracked her mind for a conversation starter while Evian waited for a question to inevitably be posed. He knew the game well enough to realize when he had been scouted.
Aren's face and gaze had been lost in the sea of looks he had gotten since he made his entrance into the hall and if she had, herself taken the first step in approaching him in an obvious bid to get closer to him, she should be in charge of the more awkward part of the conversation and making it less so.
"So, where are you from?" Aren eventually asked.
"Verdelen City," Evian answered, "Not sure if you'd have heard of it."
"Actually, I have."
"You have?" Evian said and his tone sounded more surprised than it probably should have.
At least that was what Aren thought as she chuckled,
"It's not that unheard of. Arcanists visit Martial Cities all the time. One of the many rights of passage in the Arcane Church is helping the less fortunate after all," Aren said.
"And we are the less fortunate?" Evian asked, looking down at her, not with an accusatory stare but an inquisitive one.
Aren looked up at him (he stood about nine inches above her even with her high-heeled shoes), and smiled before her light green eyes became almost lost in his grey ones and she had to look away.
"Well... yes."
"Ouch," Evian said.
"Sorry," Aren said with a small laugh but she didn't sound all that sorry,
"It's just, according to our Faith, the ultimate goal of every being should be Spiritual enlightenment. With Spiritual enlightenment, everything else comes naturally. It is the first to strive for and everything else will be added onto you.
You members of the Martial Temple don't believe the same. You believe an enhancement of muscles and an exertion of Physical Might will solve every problem. That's a flawed ideology and you're all heading down the wrong path."
"So you're saying, we're doomed to hell?" Evian asked, finding similarities between Aren's speech and the ones he had received from religious missionaries back on Earth.
Aren laughed again as though the concept of hell was amusing to her,
"Not exactly," she eventually said, "But according to the Arcane Faith, you lot count as less privileged, and by 'serving time' at a Martial City, an Arcanist can get a step closer to Priesthood."
"So are you a Priestess now?" Evian asked.
Aren looked to the side at Evian then.
"What gave it away?" She asked with a smile like she expected that fact to have been clear to him already.
Aren smiled,
"Residual anger, I guess. Fundamentally clashing ideologies and different backgrounds so It was never going to work. You would think I would have learned that before trying two more times back then. But I was young and not yet wiser."
"But now?" Evian asked, "Are you wiser now?"
At this point, the two were facing each other at an angle and a few seconds passed while Aren searched Evian's eyes. She knew what he was referring to. She knew he meant she was repeating 'past mistakes' by engaging in this conversation with him.
She smiled,
"Yes. At the very least, I've learned a few new things."
"New tricks?" Evian asked and the two laughed.
"No. Seriously though," Aren said, "I know what I'm doing."
Evian paused and then shook his head before then letting out a sigh without loosing his smile,
"If you say so," he said.
His words sounded ominous to Aren but she did not understand why and was worried to ask so she simply raised her goblet and took a drink.
As she brought it down, she caught sight of her friend Priscilla out of the corner of her eyes giving her a thumbs up. She sent a smile back but a fear was starting to creep up on her.
She approached Evian with confidence that her age and experience would grant her the upper hand so why was she now feeling like a sheep being eyed by a wolf?
"Let's go somewhere else," she said suddenly, "Somewhere private. For a bit?"
Evian raised a brow at first, surprised. Was she that eager?
"Sure," he answered and with their arms still interlocked, Aren guided him out.
She led him out a tall glass-pane door onto the terrace and then up a staircase that led them to another terrace that was out of direct sight from those inside the party hall.
There, Aren let go of Evian's arm and turned around to face him squarely. Her jaw was set in confidence and the moon casting down its glow from above gave it all a serene mood but Evian just kept searching her eyes.
Then she got closer and leaned in.
Evian knew immediately; This was a test.
This was Aren attempting to decipher just what she was in for. She remained confident even as she leaned in.
"Are you sure?" Evian asked.
"I told you," Aren said, "I know what I'm doing."
'Oh, but you don't," Evian thought but did not say. Rather he leaned in to close the rest of the distance between them both until their lips pressed together and immediately, Aren realized why he had asked if she was so sure.
She understood the look he had had in his eyes.
She understood why she had felt like a sheep in front of this wolf.
But despite all that, for the life of her and for all that she believed in, she did not understand why her brain lost all reasoning almost instantly their lips touched.
She did not understand why she trembled,
And she sure as hell did not understand why a sudden need grew inside and caused her to wrap her arms tight around this stranger's neck to lock it in place and refuse to let go!