kinkfest | Embers of the Heart [Odin Sphere, Onyx/Gwendolyn, T] (Reply)

Title: Embers of the Heart
Rating: T
Warning: spoilers for 'Valkyrie' , 'Black Sword' and ' Armageddon' books
Words: 866
Prompt: 19 - Odin Sphere, Onyx/Gwendolyn: arranged marriage - She would grow to love him, she supposed, the same as she would anyone else
Summary: Onyx isn't quite expecting Gwendolyn to be his wife anymore, but fate has another path laid before for him.

Odin had posed this question when he promised his youngest daughter’s hand to Onyx: what is the opposite of love?

Brushing off the question with a derisive laugh that reverberated within the craters and caves of his kingdom, Onyx had answered with Hate. His reply had made Odin’s giant features trembled with suppressed laughter, amusement dancing in his eyes, long white beard swishing along with his cape.

The Inferno King never found the answer until much later.

They found the remains of the Shadow Knight long before Gwendolyn reached there, the baby dragon has flown to safety, his Belderiver laid broken on the grounds of Volkenon lava pit.

Onyx never quite reached a simpler and easier conclusion than this—Gwendolyn was finally free again, out of her father’s iron rules, her valkyrian duties and the prison her husband has created in the old castle, into the chains of his arms.

She quickly changed hands—Onyx was sure he never saw the Demon King arriving in such haste to gain another ally, telling her daughter she’s now married to the Fire Lord. Gwendolyn now sat beside him on the throne of his Kingdom as his Queen, but more than ever, she never felt farther. She never blamed Onyx for her husband’s death, as she never spoke, never smiled and never truly lived anymore.

Most of the time, she spent her time caressing the mark that Titrel had left on her finger, a phantom reminder of the Shadow Knight’s gift for her. At night, he caught her face in his hands, hard enough not to make her bleed, and pressed his lips to hers. Her lips remained cold, chapped and unmoving despite his efforts, despite how gentle he undressed her afterwards, despite how rough he took her, leaving his tell tale marks on her neck, hips, belly and thighs.

Weeks after their wedding, she was gone from the origin of fire’s Sanctuary. In his wrath, Onyx torched the ill-timed Vulcan that reported about the disappearance to him into ash, and ordered the rest to search until the ends of Erion.

One of the servants finally found Gwendolyn in the inner most sanctum of the Fire Kingdom before dusk, eyes fixated on a black spot on the ground. The Shadow Knight’s blood had stubbornly seeped on the particular place, and even time couldn’t remove it well. When Onyx embraced her in relief, she finally showed a sign of life again, after weeks of silence. His hope was somehow short lived, as tears streamed out of her, like she’s been holding it for years, as if she finally got her soul back.

“I never told him,” she sobbed out, voice choking with tears, shoulders shaking with each weep. “I-I never told him that I lo-”

That night he didn’t touch her and listened to his wife’s ragged breath against the pillow, pretending he didn’t hear her whisper another man’s name in her sleep.

“’Tis indifference, isn’t it.”

When her coughing fit finally stopped, Queen Mercedes lifted her head to stare at him incuriously, the battle and fading phozons had finally left her powerless, sucking in breath. Her fists scrapped at the burnt forest’s floor. Her body started quaking in sobs, but she forced herself to her feet, balancing precariously with her bow.

“The opposite of love is indifference,” Onyx’s real form was slowly decaying under the bow’s rapid firing, his knees wobbled under his tremendous weight. The world around them burned along with his limbs and throat. His estranged wife sat numbly at the edge of the forest, her empty eyes reflecting the world’s chaos. Her body had weaken terribly under the spell.

There’s a beast inside my heart—a beast called love. I cannot attempt to leash it.

He never did tell Gwendolyn what made him, the Inferno King; fell head over heels for her. Because despite all the flame he ever consumed, in spite of having every heat source that he could get, the flame in her eyes had rattled even his very core. He yearned desperately for that flame for years, obliging to Odin’s greed, catering to his thirst for jewels.

After the years, for all his efforts of clinging to Odin’s words, the Demon Lord finally gave her to someone else.

“You did not love her enough to let her go,” The fairy queen’s voice was shaking and hoarse from too much smoke, her cheeks soiled with soot and tears, yet she boldly raised her psypher at him. “Farewell, King Onyx.”

He did see the psypher’s phozon arrow coming, had actually enough time to react, but Mercedes’ words grew indistinct and Gwendolyn, oh Gwendolyn filled his vision, and her face was the last thing he saw. In spite of the blow, Onyx managed not to scream in anguish, he bid his wife goodbye, reaching out a hand to her, mouthing words for her freedom.

For a short fleeting moment she gave him a weak smile and all of her, her entire being was finally his.

But even before he could feel any bliss coursing through his corroding state, even before he breathed his last, Gwendolyn closed her eyes before him, leaving him broken forever.