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The heart of Midas was the Great Tree, a huge white trunk that nearly scratched the heavens with its tallest branches. The golden leaves were visible anywhere in Topside, gleaming like a second sun beneath the violet sky. It gave life to Midas itself and kept the asteroid world in careful balance. Faith in the Great Tree was rooted in all of its creatures without question. Without it, all would perish.

Below its lofting branches were the interlocking streets of Topside, winding in lazy circles away from the heart like ripples in a pond and intersected at random intervals by smaller thoroughfares that connected one district to the next. At the base were the temples that the founders had built against the trunk itself - beautiful buildings, gleaming gold and white among the Great Tree's roots. One, larger than the others, had been empty for some time. The great palace of the world's senshi was kept in working order by her guard, now considered men dedicated to little more than a fable.

The second ring held the political buildings, all similar in nature but not as uniform as the regal white and gold of the heart. It was also home to politicians, leaders that sat the council and citizens who enjoyed a lavish life. They lived in luxury and spent most of their gold outdoing one another in extravagance. Kytos, the head of the council, laid claim to a home larger than any other building in the district. Gardens lined the streets and spilled over the walled-in private properties, bathing the entire district in greenery.

The third ring was the realm of the Night Court, home to courtesans practiced in companionship. They were a revered part of the Midan culture, treated with respect and awe despite many having been sold as children to pay off the debts of their parents. Buildings in the Night Court varied from large, sprawling complexes of interconnected rooms to the smaller but more private domus that many of the great courtesans had bought with the favors of their patrons. These buildings were less uniform than the first two districts before, varying in size and shape to reflect the courtesans they housed within.

Beyond the third circle were the homes of the upper class, dotted with shops and trade booths. The outer streets gave way to gardens and forests on the outer edges of Topside. Hidden among these were the entrances to the Inner City - a place mostly ignored by the high class of Topside. They were more beautiful than the world they kept, but not always open for free travel.

Ione had passed through those gates once, and now she stood among the roots of the Great Tree. Bright gold eyes stared up into the leaves overhead, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't mimic their color to the right hue. It was perfect. She would have been more disappointed to know she had it right. With a soft smile she leaned her head forward and pressed it against the cool bark. With one deep breath she drew in the scent, tasting the earth on her tongue. This was a blessing few of the Inner City were ever granted and there was not a day that she took her position for granted. To walk among the Great Roots had once been a far away dream.

Her smile remained as she turned away with peace in her heart, making room for the next pilgrim come to pay homage. Ione picked her way through the moist earth with bare feet and knelt as she reached the courtyard, tilting her head back to stare up into the face of a gnarled old priest. His face was leathery and weather beaten, but the peace she kept only in these brief moments was always present in those eyes. He pressed his thumb against her forehead and smudged one perfect golden teardrop between her dark brows. It stood out against her pale skin and the deep brown locks she always wore into the heart. The paint of the fallen leaves was a mark of favor, today she had the Great Tree's blessing.

Today she would need it.

As she gathered herself and made her journey back to the third ring, she held fast to the peace she had gathered for herself. Midas was privy to a visitor who had, until now, spent the majority of his time in the second ring. As she passed through the streets, she refused to allow herself to look anxious. Her eyes remained dead ahead, ever looking toward the Court of Amaranthus. She trusted that her letter had been received, but if he chose the visit was up to him alone. She could only have faith.

As she arrived back at the Court she was met with silence, a common formality paid to any pilgrim. Ione passed through the door to her chambers without a word to break her serenity, immediately at ease within her own space. The indoor courtyard was not as large as those in a private domus, but there was a grand pool in the center and an abundance of the flowers for which the court had been named. The roof overhead had been cut back to shower the interior in a splash of sunlight and torches stood unlit in corners, ready for the fall of dusk. Her inner chambers were separated only by a veil of translucent drapes, hiding the sitting area littered with a myriad of pillows. Books sat in haphazard stacks and to one side a gilded table sported whatever dinner the staff had brought by for the night.

The sight of it made her stomach clench. No food, not now.

Ione passed it in favor of changing out of her white pilgrim's clothes and into a dress of draped, shimmering jade. She had let her skin warm to a soft olive and her hair fell in rich auburn red curls around her shoulders. The gold of her eyes remained the same, mimicking her pilgrim's tear. To wash it off was unthinkable.

As she retreated to her sitting area, she looked up at the sky through her courtyard in an attempt to measure the time. It was late afternoon, but not dusk, not yet. It wasn't quite time. With an impatient sigh, she reclined into a pile of pillows and picked up a book that she had abandoned earlier in the day. It was the tale of a great warrior from another world, as many of her books seemed to be. Ione had carved out a peaceful, lavish life for herself here among the Court. It was a feat for any Innercity child, but it wasn't all that Ione craved. There were other worlds beyond the Great Tree.

With its blessing, she could see the universe but first she needed the right connections and the right patrons. She just had to have faith.

Ione heard the soft turn of the door handle before the door swung open, though she did not move from where she was reclined behind her drapes. She simply let her golden eyes rise above the brim of her book and waited. The man that passed into her atrium was a.. pleasant surprise. Part of her had wanted to believe the impossibility that all great leaders were attractive, but reason (and Kytos) had taught her otherwise. At least this mission could be one she remembered fondly.

She rose gracefully from her bed of pillows and crossed the floor as he was speaking, amused by the hesitance in his voice. Many outsiders seemed confused by their first visit to the Night Court, but she knew how to soothe those souls. She reached out and carefully pulled one side of the drapes back, pinning them against a tall column so that her sitting area was partially exposed. He could see it was nothing to fear from where he stood. It was fairly normal by Midan standards.

"So you did, I was almost worried you wouldn't come" she replied calmly, once she'd revealed herself. Her golden eyes rose up to meet the cool blues that stared back at her and a smile curled the corners of her lips just so. She was confident but inviting, she couldn't scare him away when he'd barely stepped foot inside her door. Her slippered feet barely made a sound on the cool tile of the atrium floor as she stepped away from her sitting room and crossed to meet him where he waited. As she reached him she inclined her head, letting her eyes break contact only long enough to be polite.

"My name is Ione," she pronounced her own name with a practiced lilt, though her words flowed to soothe. Her mannerisms had been trained to entice, from the set of her shoulders down to sway of her walk. There had not been a day in her life that she hadn't sought to be the best at her practice, for there was only success here or struggle in the Inner City. It was a great motivation.

"Please, do come in." She turned the angle of her body halfway towards the cushioned room and brought her forward arm out in a sweeping motion. "I promise, I have only the best intentions." A pause, and a half-step back in the direction she'd come. "I have a bit of a fascination with the world outside Midas."

"Leander," she repeated slowly after him, as if she were tasting the syllables as she spoke. A gentle smile split her lips and she offered a single, quick wink. It was playful, a small tease. "My lips are sealed." She brought one finger up and pressed them against her pursed lips for emphasis, though all it really meant to do was draw his eyes where she wanted them. Enticing aside, political currents were not above her comprehension. Ione wouldn't have been a part of the Courts if she hadn't learned how to keep valuable information to herself - nor would she have been as well off as she was if she shared her secrets with the competing ladies.

She turned towards her sitting room as he finally brought himself fully into her apartments, hiding the small triumph in her eyes. She was listening as he described his world - a dust-covered rock. With one graceful lean, she reached down for a book among the pile she'd picked from earlier, gathering a newer, leather-bound edition into her arms. The drapes of her dress shifted over her shoulders, exposing the skin of her long neck to the sunlight filtering through her skylight. She stood and turned back to him, brushing the auburn curls over one shoulder so her throat remained exposed from chin to dipping neckline - right where the edge of the book was pressed to her chest.

"Oh, I'm surprised." She laughed then. It was an honest sound, as if she hadn't truly expected him to know that the tear drop was anything more than a silly custom. "Most visitors think it foolish, but the Great Tree keeps us all alive. It's never invasive to visit the heart of a world, is it?" Her head tilted slightly to the side and one hand rose to touch the space between her brows gingerly with delicate fingers, as if she were afraid to smudge the mark. "Without it, we would all perish here on this rock."

Ione crossed back to where he stood, still apprehensive and lingering just outside of where she needed him to be. This time she drew closer than she had the first time, opening the book and displaying a page for him. She leaned in so he could see, letting her shoulder brush his just slightly. The page showed a diagram of a giant worm, something he would have been all too familiar with, and her excitement was present in her words as she spoke again. "Are these real? Can you actually ride them?"

As Leander's fingers brushed hers, Ione felt a shiver of excitement crawl up to settle between her shoulder blades. This was a careful dance, the most exhilarating part, and every partner had their own ebb and flow. Learning to ride the tides was an art form itself, one that thrilled her as surely as the knowledge and wealth she walked away with.

Slowly, she relaxed her hands from the book and let him hold it in his own strong fingers. Her eyes alternated from the pages she had studied to the way his eyes scanned the images and their neatly penned text. He was truly a learned man, well spoken and different from the gluttonous souls that passed through her doors from this world. He wasn't here for the same reasons, she realized, which meant she had to find out why. What ache could such a man have need to soothe and, more, how could she do it?

Her fingers slipped from where they'd brushed against his own, trailing down one wrist until she could settle a hand gently in the crook of his arm.

"Our worlds are not so different, I think." Ione's voice was tender then, lower as she leaned into his arm and closed the proximity between them. Her skin brushed the exposed flesh there, one of the few parts of his body not covered in the layers of his uniform. Then she smiled, and laughed gently, as if she had only realized the folly in her own words. "At least in our dependency on something greater than ourselves." Her eyes caught his as he glanced up at her, brightening beneath his gaze like a flower blooming beneath the sun. The hue shifted in a single breath, warming from gold to a sunset yellow. It was a show for a man that she now knew he was - someone intrigued by an alien culture, simply for the differences. She knew that hunger.

"We have different rites of passage here, but one day I'd love to see them." Her eyes dropped to the page he still held open in his hands and lingered for a moment. Her words were honest. Nothing like those worms existed on her tiny asteroid, though they had their own gifts. With the hand settled in the crook of his elbow, she began to pull slightly, urging him to walk. Those changeling's eyes slipped up to his and then away, toward the sitting room beyond the drapes. It was not as bold a suggestion as the more private room beyond that, but they could relax among the pillows without so much.. formality.

Ione seemed pleased when he relaxed into the cushions with her. She curled her legs up beneath her and turned on her side to stare at him, propping one elbow against a thick pillow and planting her chin in her palm. At his question she laughed softly and distracted herself while she considered where to begin, using her free hand to toy with the end of his sash where it crumpled on the floor between them.

"That's a hard question, Leander." There were many and they depended on who you were and where you were from. She knew what was relevant to her, however, and what was relevant to now. Dredging up her past wasn't going to get this meeting where she wanted it to go.

All at once she seemed to find an idea of where to start. The courtesan sat up and swiveled where she sat, turning her back to him, then reached up with delicate hands to sweep her hair away from the nape of her neck. The drapes of her dress had been attached low across her back, revealing an unfinished tattoo along her spine. "The Marque of the Courtesan," she said softly, turning her head just enough to see him from her peripherals. The image was of a fairly decorative sword, completed in great detail, with a blade wrapped in vines and flowers that were nearly done - they lacked color and shading in some places. "When you finish it, your debt to your court is repaid. You can leave then, if you wish, and work only for yourself." By her tone, it implied that not everyone left. Many Courtesans liked the protection.

Ione turned her torso partially toward him, so she could actually see his face and how he was reacting. Her back was still exposed in case he was still studying it - and because it was a good excuse to show a great deal of taunting skin.

"It has been easier for me than others, I am very skilled with the Fade."

As Leander's fingers brushed across the flower, Ione's back arched and a small, pleased smile spread her lips. It was a genuine emotion, born from the touch of a strong hand against her soft skin. Ione was a great courtesan for many reasons, one being that she seldom had to fake her enthusiasm. For the space of a few breaths she didn't answer him, but simply listened as his fingers sent a tingling across her dark flesh.

"It is," she said gently, low beneath her breath. She didn't offer any more than he'd asked. She knew that Leander was intelligent, he could infer what that meant without her having to say it aloud.

His next question was the important one anyway. She'd set up the trap and he'd taken the bait.

"The Fade is a natural gift in the people of Midas," she began as she turned more toward him, letting her eyes lock with his brighter ones. The mild shift before was nothing compared to what she was truly capable of and she showed him then, letting her eyes fade from yellow to a bright fuchsia. Her tone shifted from history lesson into something more sensual, enticing. "Some Midans can only produce a few different shades, but there are those of us that can do so much more."

As she emphasized her last word, she turned fully toward him and pushed herself up onto her knees. One hand curled into the drapes of her skirt and held them off the floor as she edged towards him, making it clear that Ione was about to abandon all politeness and sense of personal bubbles. She stopped only when she was at risk of falling right into his lap, still on her knees and looming above him where he sat among the pillows. Her free hand reached out to press flat to his cheek and forced his eyes to stay locked on her as she let her hair fade from the deep auburn and into a bright, fiery orange.

Ione's fingers slipped down to brush softly along his jawline and as she spoke this time, her eyes lidded and her lips leaned down closer to his ear.

"I can be anyone you want, Leander." Her voice was a breathy whisper, softer than her gentle fingers against his warm skin.

The hand that grasped her wrist was sudden, though the surprise sent an electric shiver up her arm. She flexed her fingers but obliged, letting him hold her in place and stare deeply into her colorful eyes. Ione was suddenly aware of the overwhelming strength the Senshi of Taranis possessed as she realized how he was applying the right pressure, just so, and she'd be lying if she didn't admit that it thrilled her to consider it. If she were untruthful, he could have broken her right then. Yet there was no lie to be seen in the depths of those eyes, as Ione did not harbor any ill will toward him - nor would she have shown it if she did.

She watched him untangle himself from her grasp and followed him with a curious tilt to her head, relaxing back onto her heels among the drapes of her dress where they had pooled beneath her on the floor. When he grabbed a volume she recognized she lifted a thin brow, but smoothed the motion out before he had ever turned back to face her.

Anyone in that book was important. That was intriguing.

Ione shifted to let him reclaim his place among the pillows and tried not to appear over-eager as he flipped through the pages. Her eyes grasped images as they passed, waiting to see if he would pick the woman with long green curls or the one staring out from impossibly black eyes. When he finally stopped on a page, she leaned forward to get a better look - then let her eyes travel up to his face. The longing in his gaze was so strong that Ione felt her own heart jump to her throat. She knew what it was like to be touched by a man in love, though never touched by a man that truly loved her. It was both heart-breaking and intoxicating. It was as surely a strong a drug as anything she'd ever encountered in her short life.

Before that moment was lost to her, Ione had cooled her hair to pale blue. Suddenly jade eyes stared out of a face still Ione's, but paler, gentler and even her lips had tinged a perfect shade of rosy pink.

Those same fingers reached out once more and brushed gently beneath the Senshi's chin, forcing him to look up at her. She wanted to be the center of that affection, if only for a little while. Her eyes fell away from his gaze and down to his lips as she leaned in, closer to him.

"Kiss me, Leander."