The disappointment I feel is sharp and keen as I come up from the water with burning nostrils and an empty jaw. I almost want to pout and cry at the water, demanding it deliver up the goods I know it carries, but instead I rapidly shake my head free of the water and snort to get it all out. I had heard Exodus answer my call and had felt a burning sense of excitement at the prospect of seeing him again. He had told me he would wait and indeed he had. He had told me he would always come for me and indeed he would. It felt strange to be wanted so fervently. Usually I was the one begging for the other to stay, doing whatever was necessary, debasing myself so that they would not leave me. Would continue to help shelter and care for me because I was so inept at it.

That he would easily offer his help, his devotion, without demanding a contract in return.... it is why I had begun to fantasize about us. About how much better, freer, my future would become. I had felt a moment of loss when Aranck had died but not really for him. For the power and prestige he had brought me, but it had come at a steep price. It had left me empty and full of a dark, roiling anger that seemed unable to be quenched. Did Exodus realize yet what a deceptive individual I could be? The craving in me that is for power. But I would set that aside as best I could for him. For a taste of his untainted and pure love.

So when his voice startles me from my concentration on the water I find that the sudden thu-thump in my heart isn't from fear but from exhilaration. Pink eyes with red flecks snap up to him and I grin suddenly, his words easing my tension. I splash through the water quickly to be at his side, pressing into him in relief. It isn't the same way I coiled around Carnifex or Aranck - I had moved in the ways of seduction for them. For Exodus I could be me, and even if coy is part of my nature, my freedom is too great to spoil with such things.

"Exodus," I breath, burrowing my head into his side for a moment before side stepping and smiling prettily at him. "Show me. Show me everything you know because now I am all yours. There is no other."

And in one fell swoop I offer him my devotion while revealing that my bonds were gone and instead replaced with newer, lighter ones. Ones of my own making.