Sunset ^beta

There was still a little bit of magic left in the forests of Ahiranya, where no mortals could tread. The trees could still speak to those even just once-born, only a whisper, sharing memories of joy and suffering, of the yaksa who had loved and destroyed. Here, the leaves didn’t wither and die, like a moment frozen in time, outside of mortals and their world. Priya missed that world, of course, but as she had told Bhumika, she wasn’t alone.

“I will love you and marry you,” Priya had told Malini on that beautiful day. “I will stay with you until time ends, and the green is no more, and there’s nothing but cold stars left.”

Once, Priya and Malini had been mortal, but now they were something else, but not lesser or greater. They had eternity together, more than Priya had ever dared hope for.

They lay together beneath the trees, the rays of the sun warm against their nude bodies. They traveled, both for the joy of simply being together and eliminating what remained of the rot, and they returned here whenever they could, near this lake where they had made their promise. Malini slipped her fingers beneath Priya’s chin to lift her gaze. “Priya,” she said, speaking Priya’s name with those beautiful, strong lips of hers.

“Malini,” Priya whispered, and still felt how her heart raced. They could see how the world was changing around them, and the gradual reform of the empire. Maybe someday they would see a world born anew, and whether it was hatched from a great egg or risen from the ashes of a burning world.

Malini smiled, the slow, yearning smile that only Priya had ever seen. She bent to kiss Priya, her lips greedy and eager, the lips of a woman who no longer cared to hide her desires, who never cared if others thought her “pure” or not. Priya welcomed that kiss, putting her arms around Malini to draw her closer, and felt how Malini’s own heart raced as well. Once, they had both been human, after all, and even now they could enjoy this intimate pleasure.

Priya drew her hands to Malini’s front, over soft breasts and feeling hardening nipples against her palms. Malini’s own hands were eager too, her fingers curling tightly around Priya’s thick hair. Breathless, Priya lowered her lips from Malini’s and dipped lower, pressing a gentle kiss to the scar on Malini’s chest, from which flowers still sometimes bloomed, and Malini shuddered against her.

“The first time you sent me a flower,” Malini said in low voice, “perhaps I should’ve known then our names would be forever entwined.”

“I’ll send you as many flowers as you want, if it’ll get you to look my way,” Priya muttered against Malini’s skin.

Malini chuckled darkly. “Always, my love,” she whispered as she traced her finger along the base of Priya’s neck. “And I’ll garland you as much as you desire.”

Priya could only shiver at Malini’s touch as she usually did, as if they were making love for the first time. Even now, touching Malini so intimately like this still felt much like a dream. Perhaps in a way they were beings of dreams now. She left a trail of kisses over Malini’s belly, and Malini began to spread her legs in both anticipation and command, and Priya was always happy to oblige.

Happy, she thought idly. After all that had happened, the joy and the pain, love and betrayal, grief and reform, she could truly say that she was happy now, couldn’t she?

Malini laid back on the soft ground as Priya ran her hands over Malini’s hips and cupped her rear. Dark curls greeted Priya as she lay on her front, and she pressed her face against Malini’s thighs. She let her fingers glide across the warm skin, coaxing sweet moans from Malini, and pressed a firm kiss against the inside of Malini’s thigh. She tasted sweat against her lips and kissed the skin again, this time a little more inward.

“Priya,” Malini breathed, and again her fingers grew tangled in Priya’s hair. Priya stole a glance upward, just barely able to make out Malini’s expression. Malini’s chest rose and fell with every breath she took, and Priya drew her hands up Malini’s hips and toward her waist with a light, teasing touch, and saw how Malini’s breath hitched. She knew all the curves and valleys of Malini’s body, knew all of where she was most sensitive.

And Malini’s thighs were especially sensitive, Priya had discovered, and she left another line of kisses along Malini’s inner thigh, kisses both gentle and firm. Malini’s body shivered beneath her touch, her lips drawing ever closer to Malini’s sex, but not quite yet. She knew how much she could tease Malini, after all. She shifted to Malini’s other thigh, slipping her hand beneath Malini’s knee to lift that leg, and kissed and nipped at the tender flesh, and Malini grew more and more aroused. Malini’s fingers tightened around her hair, almost painfully, and urged her further.

They loved each other, beautiful and ugly, devoted and desperate, gentle and possessive. Priya brushed her teeth against Malini’s skin, and Malini’s fingernails scraped across Priya’s scalp. They had hurt and loved each other, used each other to their own ends, and found eternity together. They had no regrets, and their choices, often hard and painful, had led to these moments. Priya left another kiss on Malini’s thigh, and dark curls brushed against her cheek.

It was a different kind of devotion she felt toward Malini than for Ahiranya and the yaksa, not greater or lesser, but perhaps she was selfish enough to say more fulfilling. She pressed her nose more into Malini’s dark curls, and Malini moaned loudly as she threw her head back. Malini had grown less restrained, as if throwing away any sense of shame once forced upon her. Priya could almost taste Malini’s arousal on her lips, and she pressed her tongue to Malini’s swollen clit.

She felt the jolt that shot through Malini’s body, and Malini’s fingers twisted more in her hair. Gently she closed her lips around Malini’s clit, and more soft moans fell from Malini’s own lips. “Priya,” she said again, her feet scrambling to find purchase on the grass. Priya gave Malini’s clit a teasing suck, and she gripped Malini’s thighs tighter, fingertips digging into the flesh. She might leave bruises, as Malini often encouraged her to, and no one would see but the two of them. Priya’s own arousal grew stronger, and her tongue prodded at Malini’s sex, and she loved the sounds of Malini’s honest, shameless moans.

Malini soon came with a delightful cry, and a thin sheen of sweat covered her warm skin. Her fingers relaxed their tight hold on Priya’s hair, and her body began to calm as she inhaled deeply. Priya licked her lips as she glanced up at Malini, and suddenly she was on her back with Malini on top of her.

“Now it’s my turn,” Malini murmured, her lips curling into a teasing smirk, and she slid her hand between Priya’s thighs. Priya gasped, and she could not help but smile either. She should’ve expected this, she knew.

Malini’s fingers were as precise and teasing as ever, slipping inside Priya without even an ounce of hesitation. Priya’s body arched beneath hers, and she pressed her face to the juncture of Priya’s neck and shoulder and bit into the tender flesh. Priya gasped breathlessly; Malini’s teeth always promised her such sweet pain, and no longer did she have to worry about leaving visible marks. Malini pressed her fingers more inside Priya, and aroused as Priya already was, she came soon enough, delighting in how the pleasure Malini had given her shuddered throughout her body. They were no longer quite mortal, but still they could enjoy this too-human intimacy.

They lay together a while beneath the trees, and Malini held Priya tightly, possessively. Gently Priya raised her hand to Malini’s chest, touching the flower-shaped scar between her breasts. “Are you happy?” she asked in a quiet voice.

“Of course,” Malini answered without hesitation. “I reigned as empress for a good fifteen years and I now have an eternity with you. Even one as greedy as I am can hardly imagine anything greater.”

Priya shut her eyes a moment, and thought of Bhumika and Jeevan and Padma, Rukh and Ganam, Sima and Ashtok, and all her other temple siblings and the yaksa. She’d helped Mani Ara find rest, and little by little this world kept turning. “That’s good to hear.”

“And what about you?”

Priya opened her eyes and smiled. Even once the rot was fully cured, she and Malini still had a world beyond the empire to see. She remembered when first they met in the Hirana and Malini had asked, “Are you real?” With another kiss to Malini’s scar, she whispered, “More than words can say.”