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exhausted-archivist · 9 months

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The Reign of Divine Justinia V - 9:34-9:41 Dragon

Divine Justinia V ruled for just a little over 6 years. One of the shortest known reign for a divine in Chantry history.

I would like to note that due to the nature of BioWare and the awareness of their timeline, travel times, and storylines, not all the events in the same year have a clear order of which came first.

Here is the general timeline of what occurred since her coronation to her death:

9:34 Dragon

Ascends as Divine of the Orlesian Chantry, formerly known as Revered Mother Dorthea.

Rejects Ser Otto Alrik's request for the Tranquil Solution in Kirkwall.

9:35 Dragon

Justinia makes a pilgrimage to the Temple of Sacred Ashes, passing through Haven. She announces that Haven shall be restored and rededicated to the service of Andraste.

Asks Pharamond to look into the nature of Tranquility, to discover if there is a way to "restrict magic without neutralizing the mind." She does so without the knowledge of Lord Seeker Lambert.

9:37 Dragon

Sends Leliana to Kirkwall to gather information on the threats occurring in Kirkwall, believing it to be from outside groups.

Divine Justinia tells Elthina to leave Kirkwall as it is no longer safe. Elthina declines.

Objects to Lady Seeker Nicoline's appointment of Seeker Lambert, citing that she found him too conservative during her interview with him.

9:38 Dragon

Published the Abridged Edition of the Chant of Light on 12 Harvestmere 9:38. The focus was to bring back the beauty of the original dialects and languages of the canticles.*

9:40 Dragon

(These following events are in order of how they happened as they take place over the course of the novel Asunder. Except for the where Justinia sends Cassandra and Leliana to Kirkwall. That takes place after the events of Asunder.)

Justinia sends Leliana to the University of Orlais to speak with Empress Celene about the state of instability in the empire's politics. During this meeting, Leliana makes a deal with Celene on Justinia's behalf; Justinia deals with the instability of the mages and templars in the wake of Anders attack on Kirkwall, while Celene deals with the unrest with Halamshiral/Orlais elves.

As part of the deal with Celene, Justinia is delivering a speech at a ball Celene threw for her (Celene doesn't make an appearance as she is marching on the elves in Halamshiral). The speech she is about to deliver is in support of mages. Though she is interrupted as Jeannot, a Libertarian Senior Enchanter from the White Spire, attempts to assassinate her.

Justinia authorizes Wynne to go rescue Pharamond, a Tranquil mage who has become possessed during his experiments into tranquility at Adamant fortress. Wynne brings Rhys, Evangaline, Shale, and Rhy's friend. Unknowing to all but Rhys, Cole tags along.

Justinia authorizes Pharamond to be made tranquil again at the advice of Lord Seeker Lambert, despite the protest of Wynne and Rhys.

Justinia sends Leliana to the White Spire to aid the mages in their revolt while calling Lord Seeker Lambert to her side to distract him.

Cassandra, Leliana, and a group of Seekers still loyal to the Divine are sent to Kirkwall to recruit Hawke for the role of leader of the Inquisition; believing that they will have influence to reach a resolution between the mages and templars.

9:41 Dragon

Divine Justinia calls for the Conclave one year after the start of the Mage-Templar War.**

In the summer, Justinia travels to Serault to determine if Serault should have the Shame lifted and the Chantry reopened. Depending on the player, determines if it is or not.

Justinia dies in the explosion at the Conclave at Corypheus' hand. This starts the events of Inquisition, presumably taking place in late autumn since the Conclave happens a year after the events of Asunder and after Justinia's visit to Serault.

Notes:

*Originally, in Origins, it was said the Chant of Light was written only in Tevene. As of 2014/Inquisition era lore, the Chant is now a collection of canticles from various languages.

**There is conflict on when this happens as her journal entry says she called for it a year after the start of the Mage-Templar war, which starts in late autumn. But the Conclave is known about during her visit to Serault which takes place in the summer. Suggesting the journal entry is referring more towards when the Conclave was scheduled then when she announced it. To add to this, Lord Seeker Lucius agrees to the Conclave before he meets with Corypheus and submits to Envy, presumably in the early months of 9:41; however, this is speculation.

Sources:

Dragon Age 2 Dragon Age Inquisition World of Thedas Vol. 1 World of Thedas Vol. 2 Dragon Age Asunder Dragon Age: The Last Court Codex: The Conclave Divine Justina V Haven Ser Alrik's Letter

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#dragon age #dragon age lore #justinia v #Divine Justinia V #dorthea #dragon age 2 #dragon age asunder #the last court #dragon age inquisition #da2 #asunder #da:tlc #dai #long post

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ghostwise · 1 year

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What do they say in neighboring provinces? That Serault's children are born with mismatched eyes and spells on their lips. That her calves grow two heads, and eating them awakes a hunger that can only be sated by the blood of your own family. That as the sun sets each day, it weeps tears of fire, for fear it won't rise again.

Dragon Age, The Last Court

#dragon age #remember the last court!? ough so good #i miss this fucking game some of the best lore in the series tbh

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ninapedia · 2 years

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The Unsung Heroes of Thedas

the player characters I made for my “canon” play through of non-mainline games.

Farvia - Castless Dwarven, dual wield rogue from a A Tale of Orzammar

Cara Lynne Storm - Elven Circle mage from Dragon Age: Journeys

Odile Andras - Orlaisian Elven Warden Acolyte from Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening

Vala Wynter - Elven mage from Dragon Age: Legends

Remy Valentine - Marquis of Serault, Human Huntress from The Last Court

#dragon age #the last court #dao #elf #dwarf #my art #my characters

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bluupxels · 1 year

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not even giving da: absolution time to marinate

#i watched it all last night...PHEWWWWW #absolutely bollocks luv #its all i can think about #i love dragon age so much i want to start biting and scratchig thigns #the way no one will care about this except me and maybe 3 other people #court rambles

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ripflemeth · 1 year

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#the last court #tho #dragon age things #life of a roleplayer

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silvanils · 1 year

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Summary: A guide to the plot of Dragon Age: The Last Court, a text-based game that was deactivated on November 17th, 2020. This work is intended to be used as a resource to help fans both new and old enjoy the content this game had to offer, and I claim no ownership of the original game. (I have also included a link to the screenshot database gathered by fans in the months prior to the deactivation.)

The next-to-last section of my guide, which covers the remaining major events that can happen before the Feast of the Divine and a few other details!

#the last court #dragon age the last court #serault #saveserault #dragon age meta #dragon age

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crossdressingdeath · 1 year

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@v-arbellanaris's excellent Justinia metas have me thinking about The Last Court again and how completely bullshit the whole setup is.

I mean, The Last Court takes place basically on the eve of the Conclave. Justinia went there on her way to the Conclave, going well out of her way to do so and presumably bringing her retinue with her, because she was considering lifting Serault's shame. The shame of a man who ruled three generations ago. And to "prove" they deserve to be graciously allowed back into Orlesian society the current marquis (the Shame's great-grandchild who was born well after he died) has to host Justinia and her retinue on a week's notice with the resources of a tiny marquisate in the ass-end of Orlais that's been all but completely cut off from the rest of Orlais for three generations. I mean, first, why is Justinia doing this now? It feels important that Justinia went so far out of her way to do this during such a serious situation, but the game doesn't really get into that beyond the vaguest "Serault's weird and something weird has happened to the emissary you sent there, let's never talk about it again". What was so important about Serault that Justinia likely delayed the Conclave so she could go there first?

And second... what does this prove? Sure, the marquis can scrape together enough of a party to please the Divine, but why would she demand that of them? Especially since it ultimately just comes down to the Divine's personal satisfaction; you can have maxed out Dignity, Freedom and Prosperity, dealt with the Horned Knight so he doesn't even try to present his gift, and never touched the Chantry, but if you don't have enough of a party to make the Divine happy then sorry, the Shame continues. Serault can be running beautifully, you can be adored by the whole town, you can have everything totally under control... but if you don't successfully impress, bribe or blackmail the Divine with your treatment of her personally you get fuck all. And again: Serault is in the ass-end of Orlais. It's right up against the Tirashan, merchants passing through have an unfortunate tendency to get robbed or disappeared, the surrounding area is cursed as fuck, and basically everything about this place makes keeping things under control basically impossible. The marquis can with a great deal of effort maintain equilibrium, but that's about it! And Justinia expects them to not just host her and her retinue, but to throw a party she deems worthy of her? I just... why? How is this proof that Serault is redeemed while evidence that they've done the best they can for their people isn't? And conversely your Freedom can be at zero and your Rumours of Revolution can be at a hundred and you can still win, so apparently Justinia gives zero shits about the wellbeing of Serault's people. Was she just checking to make sure the marquis grovelled appropriately?

But I do love how even the "failure" endings where you don't win over the Divine are phrased more as "Well, fuck her and the horse she rode in on anyway, we don't need her" than "Oh Maker forgive me for failing to give the Divine everything I have as is right and proper". Especially the endings for proudly admitting to opening the Sealed Chantry (side note, they actually sealed the whole Chantry because of the Shame...? The fuck was that about) and letting the Horned Knight deliver his gift, where the marquis seems almost pleased with the result. The impression is very much that the marquis wants to win over the Divine for the benefits being allowed back into Orlesian society will give Serault, not because they actually care about the approval of the Chantry. Which does fit the ruler of a place where the main religion is actually an obscure heretical offshoot of Andrastianism... Anyway, maybe the real reason we weren't allowed to go to Serault in DAI was because they were too anti-Chantry for DAI's message.

#dragon age the last court #it's missing serault hours here #(it's always missing serault hours here)#@bioware PUT THE LAST COURT BACK #...unless you intend to release it as a full game with proper gameplay instead of just cards...?#that would be nice please do that bioware

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felassan · 6 months

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[source (Senior Reporter at Kotaku), linked Kotaku article, two, 'FC 24's performance link', three, four, @/N7SeveranceDay (source of the last two images, "Account supporting BioWare employees laid off in 2023."), five, six, Polygon tweet, Polygon article]

"BioWare Continues to Refuse to Pay Severance" statement transcript:

“BioWare Continues to Refuse to Pay Severance On August 23 of this year, BioWare eliminated “approximately 50 roles at BioWare”. Following the layoffs, seven ex-BioWare employees engaged the services of R. Alex Kennedy to represent their interests, stating that the amount of severance offered was insufficient under Alberta common law. Counsel for the employees has attempted to reach a compromise that would avoid requiring lengthy court proceedings, but BioWare’s lawyers refused any offers to negotiate and settle out of court. The basis of Kennedy’s claim is that according to Alberta precedents and under Canadian law, these employees should be receiving approximately 1.7 months of severance per year of service they gave to BioWare. BioWare has now filed a Statement of Defence, which argues that the seven terminated employees are only entitled to two weeks of severance per year spent in service to BioWare, because of a contract provision that Kennedy says is not enforceable. The filing means BioWare will be taking these former employees to court rather than working towards finding an out of court resolution. The developers involved in the suit have expressed their disappointment: - “We are disappointed that BioWare prefers stalling and intimidation tactics to fair dealing with people who have given years, and in some cases decades, of dedication and hard work to the company.” - “We believe they are using intimidation and stalling tactics to try and get us to drop out. A lot of the more junior employees and those with families, who had more monetary pressure on them, could not risk waiting on a court case that may take many months more to resolve, and have already had to drop out.” - “At the time of the layoffs, BioWare offered us professional assistance in finding new employment, and an additional payment, but ONLY on the condition that we signed an agreement saying we cannot talk about any details of the settlement, and that we would completely waive any right to legal action or even to complain in any way about anyone associated with BioWare now or ever in the future. Tactics like that sure make me think that BioWare knows it is in the wrong.” - “Despite what they publicly announced when they laid us off, this process has been anything but empathetic, respectful, and communicative.” The latest BioWare layoffs were the third round so far this year, and many of the developers affected even in earlier rounds are still searching for work, though some have started to find new positions. Regardless of employment status, the members of the current lawsuit state they remain determined to pursue BioWare in court, regardless of their employment status: - “We strongly believe that if Dragon Age: Dreadwolf does not do as well as BioWare or EA wants at launch, there will be more, even larger layoffs. Therefore, regardless of our own well-being, we believe it is important to hold BioWare responsible and get a clear decision on what settlement amount is legal. We’re no longer part of the development team, so the best way we can help our former teammates now is to hold BioWare accountable and ensure that the next group who is laid off are not treated as poorly as we were.” November 7th marks “N7 Day”, which is a fan celebration of BioWare’s Mass Effect games featuring Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy. The developers involved in the lawsuit are hoping N7 Day this year will be a reminder to BioWare of the importance of loyalty to your crew, and hope fans can have a little fun and help express their support with memes and images using an #N7SeveranceDay hashtag. The ex-employees involved in the suit are all based in Canada and have an average of 14 years at BioWare.”

[source]

You can express your support using the hashtag #N7SeveranceDay.

Edit: [Part 2/update] [more on the Keywords topic]

#dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #mass effect #video games #long post #longpost #mj best of #next mass effect #signal boost #N7SeveranceDay #worker solidarity #labor rights #pls note that i did not create any of the images in this post #or the N7Severance twitter account. pls see source links

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scribendis · 4 months

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𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝

Aemond Targaryen x female reader (third person perspective) ❖ husband & wife

Warnings: smut, dry humping, p in v sex, semi-public sex, newlyweds being horny, little bit of profanity, breeding kink if you squint really, really hard Rating: 18+ MDNI Word count: ~3,500

Summary: Upon returning to camp from a hunt in the Kingswood, Aemond looks for a way to keep his wife warm on a bitterly cold night.

A/N: Serendipitously conceptualized ages ago but written (very late!) for the first week of the @hotd-bigbang winter word prompts challenge - Fire | Furs | Forest

Dividers by @saradika | AO3 link

The setting sun cast long shadows across the small city of tents that made up the hunting camp in the Kingswood. While the men had spent the day combing the forest for boars, stags, and other game, the women had occupied the main tent. They gorged themselves on cakes and other sweets, all the while indulging in gossip that ranged from the salacious to the downright treasonous.

And, much to the chagrin of the new wife of Prince Aemond Targaryen, they pestered her endlessly about the burgeoning love life of her and her husband. She quickly learned that, to be a woman in the king’s court meant sharing every last, excruciating detail of one’s “wifely duties” so that the others could compare them with their own. So that they could all know whose husbands fucked them the best and complain about their own lackluster experiences.

They questioned her until she was beet-red in the face and one of the older women finally called for an end to her torment. Still, it would taste a lie for her to say that all their titillating conversation about lovemaking had not made her ache desperately for her husband.

But by the time that night finally claimed the sprawling camp, the men had still not returned from the hunt. It signaled to the waiting wives that their husbands would come back without their prize, frustrated and exhausted - and that they would later fall into their beds reeking of wine.

The call of horns and the distant sound of barking hounds was their cue to don their furs and exit the tent to greet the arriving men. The prince’s wife was glad for the fur-lined cloak that her husband had procured for her for just such an occasion as this. She was even more grateful for the garment as she exited the tent only to be met with the sting of the cold night air on her cheek. The women elected to wait for their husbands by the bonfire that raged in the middle of the camp, its light their only source of warmth as frost began to settle on the Kingswood.

It was easy for her to spot her husband among the group of riders, his long silver hair unmistakable in the light of the rising moon. Whatever otherworldly quality his Valyrian features gave him seemed amplified tonight - and it made the sight of him astride a horse even more odd to her. Were her husband any other lord of the realm, his approach on horseback would not have seemed out of place. But Targaryens were no horse riders. Still, Aemond effortlessly commanded the steed beneath him, his mastery reminiscent of the way he would handle a dragon.

As the crowd of riders began to disperse, her eyes remained fixed on her husband. Amid the thundering of horses’ hooves and the raucous laughter of the noble lords, Aemond's attention, too, was solely focused on her. The intensity of his gaze only intensified her excitement, eliciting a gentle flutter in her belly.

With grace and ease, Aemond slipped off of the horse’s back. A waiting servant took his leather riding gloves from him, but Aemond could very well have let them fall to the dirt for as little attention as he paid to anyone but her.

Aemond was always loath to indulge in any public affection, aside from the occasional hand at the small of his wife’s back or a brief touch upon her cheek. Even now that he was reunited with her after such a long day apart, his restraint came in the form of a soft kiss brushed against her temple and nothing more. But the way that his arm wrapped around her and his hand dared to wander much lower than her waist - and the way his eye held hers so intently - told her just how much he had missed her. How much he needed her.

Given Aemond’s usually stoic demeanor, she had never thought that he would be needy, but he had proven to be just that in the few weeks since they had been wed. They had already made love in the depths of the palace library more times than she could count, and discovered countless other hidden places throughout the Keep where his hands had found their way up her skirts and his lips had left marks on her neck. Some mornings, he would forego training altogether to stay in bed with her with his face between her legs or his cock buried inside her.

And he had not heard a single complaint from her yet.

“Ābrazȳrys, your skin is cold to the touch,” Aemond commented, a hint of concern lacing his soft voice. His lips lingered at her temple for a moment longer before he withdrew, taking one of her hands in his. “As are your fingers.” (wife)

She smiled. His own hand was as warm as ever. “I am no dragon like you, dear husband. The cold night air chills me to the bone.”

“And the furs I gave you do not suffice?” he asked, quirking a brow.

She shook her head. “Nor the bonfire.”

Aemond hummed, his displeasure at such an assurance quite clear. He brought her fingers to his lips, blowing warm air on them before kissing them. “Come, jorrāeliarza. I have another idea for how we might offer you some warmth on such a cold night.” (beloved)

Still with an arm drawn around her, he swiftly guided her around the bonfire and, to her surprise, past the royal tent where food, wine, and music awaited them. She glanced over her shoulder questioningly at the entrance to the tent, from which poured an inviting golden light, but Aemond seemed determined on his path.

“Aemond, are we… not going inside?”

A smirk tugged at his lips, and she noticed a mischievous twinkle in his eye as they passed a flickering torch. “I thought I would spare you any further conversation with the ladies of the court.”

“And I thank you for that, dear husband,” she said with a laugh, her words falling from her lips in fleeting clouds of mist that looked like she was breathing smoke. “But I do not think–”

Aemond stopped them in their tracks and turned to her, staying any further words by sweeping in to press his lips firmly against hers. “Lykirī.” (Be calm.)

Once freed from his bruising kiss, she stood, dazed, for a moment before any further thoughts could come to her - something that her husband had certainly noticed given the grin that spread across his lips. She pushed him away playfully with a little scoff and an over-exaggerated look of annoyance that drew a rare chuckle from him.

“I am not one of your Targaryen dragons,” she protested, drawing her furs tighter around herself. “Those… dragon commands won’t work on me.”

Aemond leaned in to meet her at eye level, offering an arm to her that she took. “But it did work, did it not?”

She was still none the wiser about their destination as her husband quickly guided them beyond the boundaries of the camp and toward the treeline. The leaves had taken on stunning hues of red, orange, and yellow, a sight that she had marveled at from within the wheelhouse on their way into the Kingswood that morning. But in the cover of night, that beauty was lost to the pitch-black darkness. Not even the light of the moon could permeate the thick canopy of trees, leaving the forest an endless void.

She did not fear the darkness, only the occasional sound of a twig snapping or the call of some unknown creature. As husband and wife disappeared from the sight of the camp, she found herself clutching onto him more tightly.

“Aemond, where are we going?” she whispered as though speaking at full volume would topple one of the mighty trees.

“Patience, jorrāeliarza.”

“What if there are wolves out here, Aemond–”

“There are no predators in the Kingswood. And, if there were,” Aemond turned to her and took her chin between his thumb and forefinger, brushing the pad of his thumb across her bottom lip, “do you think that I would let them harm even a single hair on your head?” He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead before releasing her. “Do not worry. We can stop here.”

She glanced around, seeing the pleasant glow of the camp in the near distance and nothing but darkness everywhere else. “Here?”

“I thought, perhaps, you would want to be a bit further from camp…” he purred. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness enough to see him lean in. One of his hands reached up to pull her furs aside and his lips found her neck, warm and soft as they began to kiss her skin. She felt his hum vibrate against her pulse point, where her heartbeat fluttered wildly. “Given how loud you can be, dōna ābrazȳrys.”

A gasp left her and her head tilted away from his lips, begging silently for more. Tomorrow would call for yet another dress with a high neckline, she thought.

“I’ve… I’ve not heard that one before…” He regularly called her all manner of names in High Valyrian. She often found him muttering to himself in his ancestral tongue. One night, he had even spoken it in his sleep. She knew a small handful of words, but only those few. “What does that mean?”

“Sweet wife,” Aemond breathed against her neck, leaving a bit of warmth behind before his lips captured hers once again. “You taste sweet tonight, too.”

“It must be the… the wine, I think,” she gasped. “Or the lemon cakes…”

But the growing hunger inside him was not for the sweetness of cakes or Arbor gold.

He kissed her more deeply this time, lips coaxing hers apart to taste her tongue for himself. His hands fell to her hips, fingers digging into her soft flesh to draw her body against his. And, in doing so, he finally offered her the warmth he had previously promised her - one that not even the hottest bonfire could provide.

As his fingers began to deftly ruck up her skirts, she felt her skin prickle. At the same time, an entirely different kind of heat began to spread through her until it found its familiar place between her legs. Moaning softly into their continued kiss, she dropped her hands to the closure of his trousers, where his obvious arousal strained against the dark fabric.

“Gods, Aemond, you're so hard and I've barely touched you," she breathed against his lips. “Did you miss me?” But she knew the answer, and how pleasing it was to know just how badly she had been missed that day.

His only reply was a grunt that rose in his throat as his hands slipped beneath her smallclothes and all but tore them from her. Despite the rough, calloused spots on his palms and fingers, his warm touch was a balm against the cold night air. In a swift, almost aggressive motion, he lifted her by her arse so that she had no choice but to envelop his hips with her legs. It taunted her, the feeling of his hard cock pressing against her wet entrance. His trousers were a tedious, unwanted barrier between them.

Their passionate embrace only became more heated as Aemond pinned her to the trunk of one of the trees and his body pressed firmly against hers. She squirmed, inadvertently causing friction between her clit and his still-clothed hardness that was too delicious to keep a moan from stuttering past her lips.

“It would seem that you missed me as well, jorrāeliarza,” he rasped with a playful smirk. Teasingly, he rolled his hips against hers to coax another one of those sweet sounds from her. “Come on. Take what you need.”

She needed no further convincing, as great as the ache between her legs had grown. Her grip on the collar of his longcoat tightened and she took over, rocking her hips against his at a slow, but steady, pace. Each gasp and moan that left her lips billowed from them in a smoke-like mist, until she tucked her head into the crook of her husband’s neck and the sounds became muffled against his throat. He smelled of horse and sweat and, if she searched for it, the soap he had used the night before. But he tasted divine as her lips began to pepper open-mouthed kisses against his skin.

Judging by the trembling breaths that she felt against her hair, this teasing was just as pleasurable for her husband as it was for her. His own grip on her arse tightened, as though he was fighting to hold on. Knowing him, he wanted only the satisfaction of spilling himself inside her.

But his own torture would not go on for much longer, as her rutting against him was quickly bringing her to the brink of release. Her pace quickened, desperate as she was to reach it. Finally, the pleasure inside her began to unfurl and its warmth spread through her. From head to toe, it enveloped her completely as though she had been submerged into a hot bath.

It was exactly as Aemond had promised. In the grips of her climax, the frigid air mattered little, if at all.

Gasping for breath as she came down again, she pressed her lips to his and he received her kiss greedily. No doubt he was desperate for his own release after watching her come apart - and how could she refuse him?

“You know,” she began as her hands fell to his trousers once again. Only, this time, her fingers made quick work of the closures. “Earlier, all the women wanted to know how good you are in bed.”

Their gazes locked and, even in the darkness of the forest, she could see the almost animalistic desire in his one good eye. But as desperate as he was to be inside her, he seemed almost equally as intrigued by her words. She freed his cock from the confines of his trousers and took it into her hand. Her simple act of stroking him once was enough to draw a low groan out of him.

“Fucking gossips,” Aemond replied huskily. His lips drew close to hers but did not quite meet them. “Do I wish to know what you told them?”

She grinned. Her fingers guided his cock to her slick entrance but stopped there momentarily. “I told them–” Her words were cut off by a moan as he buried himself inside her quickly and without warning. “Oh, fuck…”

“Oh, fuck?” Aemond repeated teasingly, raising a brow. “Am I so bad at it, jorrāeliarza?” The smug look of satisfaction on his face belied any attempts at fooling her into thinking that he believed that to be her true confession earlier that day.

Too impatient, he began to move his hips against hers - and she met each of his slow, steady thrusts with movements of her own. Misty air surrounded them amid their shared panting, both of them relishing in the sensation of becoming one again after such a long day apart.

She allowed her head to fall back against the tree, where strands of her hair began to tangle in its rough bark. But she hardly noticed or cared at all, especially as her husband’s lips reclaimed her neck and his hot breaths swept along the contours of her jaw.

“Ābrazȳrys.”

She became so lost in the carnal pleasure of his cock sliding in and out of her that Aemond’s voice barely reached her. It did not help at all that his pace began to quicken as the heat between them grew to a simmer. The cry of pleasure that left her mingled with the sounds of the forest, joining the nighttime symphony of hooting owls and the rustling of the crisp underbrush.

“What did you tell them?” Aemond pressed. His own composure was starting to fail him and his words came out strained.

A breathy laugh left her. He always purported to care little about what the members of his father’s court thought of him. But, evidently, that sentiment did not extend to his wife and her opinions.

She placed a hand on his cheek to pull his lips to hers, kissing him deeply as pleasure began to coil inside her anew. “I told them,” she panted, her eyes opening to meet his, “that my husband is not the one riding the largest dragon in the world.”

Whatever Aemond had expected her to say, it clearly was not that. For a moment, his hips stilled and he looked as stunned as the ladies had been when she had uttered those same words that morning. One of them had even spilled a full cup of wine down her pale blue dress as she stared at her like some startled animal.

“My, my…” he purred.

But his look of shock fell away just as quickly. Replacing it was a ferocity that she had never seen from him before. A hunger that her words had awakened inside him which only she could satiate. There were no more soft words of love, or the usual names he called her while making love to her. His fingers dug almost painfully into her hips and he resumed his movements against her.

Aemond quickly built up a brutal pace, the head of his cock hitting that spot inside her that made her toes curl inside her shoes. Any thoughts or complaints about how bitterly cold it was outside had been long forgotten, drunk as she was on the intensity of the pleasure he was fucking into her her. Even her moans began to leave her in choked gasps and broken mewls that, if anyone in the hunting camp heard her, would have sounded no different than the calls of some creature of the forest.

She could feel it, the straining of her muscles and the tightening of her insides. The tremble that overtook her as she hurtled toward the edge along with him. She felt like a handkerchief being squeezed of water, and he would not stop his tightening of her until he had wrung her of every last drop.

Her eyes fluttering, she leaned in to capture Aemond’s lips in a kiss that he did not reciprocate in his own carnal pursuit of release. “Aemond…” “Mm-mm,” he chided, his tone gruffer and far lower than she had ever heard it. “I want to see you.”

One of his hands released its grip on her arse and moved to the nape of her neck to hold her firmly and ensure she could not look away. As he watched her, he groaned deeply in his own fight to hold on until he could get precisely what he wanted.

And it only took three simple words from him to finish her at last.

“Cum for me.”

Like a dam breaking, all the building pleasure that had been twisting inside her released. Coaxed by the continued pounding of his hips against hers, it spread into every extremity as her body shuddered and her cries of ecstasy filled the dense, frosty air. The fluttering of her walls around him soon spelled the end for him, too. With a few more ragged thrusts, he found his release inside her.

His eye squeezed shut. His lips, kiss-swollen, parted. And then, a certain look of peace overtook him.

Although still lost in her own haze of pleasure, she watched him closely - and she decided that he had never looked more beautiful.

They remained in their loving embrace, neither one wanting to pull away from the other just yet. Her, with her legs still encircling his hips, and him, with one hand holding her up and the other at her neck. Aemond pressed his forehead to hers and his thumb began to caress her cheek tenderly.

She hadn’t spoken of these moments to the women of the court that day. About how her husband could fuck her within an inch of her life and, immediately thereafter, treat her with such affection and softness. With such devotion in each caress of his fingers and every soft word he uttered.

Their breathing soon began to slow once again and the world around them finally came back into view. Smiling, she brushed the tip of her nose against his before kissing him so deeply that he hummed in surprise. But he reciprocated earnestly, slowly setting her back down on the ground but never quite letting her go.

“We should return to the camp,” Aemond said as he re-adjusted her furs on her shoulders. “I would not have you catch your death out here in the cold, jorrāeliarza.”

A sweet grin spread across her lips, but something wicked glistened in her eyes. “Oh, but my husband has already given me all the warmth I require.”

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