Sebastien interferes

Just as Allura was about to announce her decision, the sound of the door on the other side of the coach being opened cut through the cool air of the evening, prompting Allura to bereave William of the opportunity to continue gawking the striking beauty of her surreally beautiful face by ducking back into the coach cabin and prompting him to lean across the coach box just in time to see the mysterious warrior that had accompanied Allura on the journey step out onto the uneven surface of the path that they had been following as they travelled up into the mountains.

“Pet, what are you doing?” William could hear the intoxicating sound of his mistress’ voice coming from inside the cabin, and the young man held his breath as he waited to see if she would once more appear out into the open, squirming awkwardly in his seat from his body’s reaction to the thought of her nimbly climbing out of it to join the warrior by the side of the path.

“Nothing much,” Sebastien replied, unsure of what to call her back and not entirely convinced that he liked how she addressed him, as he chose to ignore the youngster on the coach box as he stared at the point where Allura might appear and instead made a show out of stretching his back and thrusting up his shoulders while raising his arms at the same time, as though he was weary from a day spent travelling by coach. And he was weary, but not from the travel of and in itself, as even the monotony of it was something that he could quite easily shrug off and push back by slipping into the state of deep, fleeting thought that he’d accessed during his years travelling to one battlefield or another or some besieged city or town, though that state had become harder to achieve now that his mind was constantly troubled by the thoughts of his wife and children and the wretched king that had snatched them from him.

Instead, the weariness had come from spending the day so close to Allura without ever getting the release that his body cried out for every time that he looked upon her, with her seemingly being intent on seeing if she couldn’t wrap him round her finger by refusing to treat as forwardly as she had the night before and instead choosing to draw his gaze towards her by engaging him in a conversation that had continued on throughout the day, with even the most innocent questions and comments from her being delivered with a look that appeared purpose made to enflame a man’s desires. Her beauty then was of an entirely different nature than that of Anyra, for whom he felt something that was much more than the primeval lust that was imposed on him whenever he glanced at Allura.

“Just want to get a glimpse of what is going on,” Sebastien continued as he trundled along the side of the coach and up in front of the horses, a thin smile which was possession of a dreamy character appearing on his lips as he thought back to how the innocent beauty that his wife had exuded in public had contrasted with the wild, passionate love with which the two of them had created their children, though his smile soon faded away as any thought of his wife always led him to think of how the king had betrayed him and left his every memory of her tainted with hate and bitterness.

“Ah, and what do you make of it?” Allura paid little notice to how the young man driving the coach, William, essentially threw himself back across the coach box to ogle her as her head once more appeared out of the coach cabin and instead admired the back of Sebastien as he stood facing the thick pillar of smoke that stretched itself up towards the skies, a strange mixture of frustration and excitement filling her as she looked at her new companion.

For while Sebastien’s ability to withstand her influence was certainly frustrating to her, particularly when compared to the ease with which she could conquer any normal man, and here she stopped to throw William a glance that almost led the young man to plummet down onto the ground, it was also strangely intriguing to her.

As they had set out on their southbound journey, Allura had decided that she would attempt to seduce him through more subtle means, relying on glances and smiles rather than the aggressive manner in which she’d made him take her the night before, and had found that particular approach to be a complete and utter failure in every conceivable way, managing only to get him to a point where he had now abandoned the coach in an attempt to escape her influence for a short time but failing in driving him to throw himself at her and ravage her.

And while she was certain that she could easily have seduced him in just a few moments by switching back to a more aggressive mode of behaviour, her pride, along with her growing fascination at the tension and the thrill which her failure to get him under her spell had brought about had meant that she’d been unwilling to do so.

“Well,” Allura could hear Sebastien begin over the low groan that spilled out of William’s throat in response to how she leaned herself further out from the opened door of the coach so that her ample chest became visible to him, “it’s too big to be a normal fire, or even a funeral pyre.”

“So,” Sebastien could tell from the disgusted huff coming from the boy on the coach box that he’d come to a similar conclusion, but again he chose to ignore him and continued with what he had to say, “it might be that a battle’s raging, these hill people have a few settlements on this side of the mountains, as well as a tendency of fighting each other when there’s no one else around, if we could help the defenders then we might end up with soldiers more loyal than mere mercenaries.”

“Do you really think that the two of us could determine the outcome of a battle?” Allura asked as William was dazzled by another one of her smiles, though this one was intrigued rather than wilfully seductive.

“I’m certain that a few stirring words from you could work wonders on men,” Sebastien allowed himself to utter a dry joke as he opted for keeping a secret his ulterior motive for guiding Allura towards the pillar of smoke. If there was a battle raging there, then he wanted to see her reaction to it. From what he knew about Enchantresses, though he would have to admit that his knowledge was more superficial than he would have liked it to, they were usually involved in areas such as espionage and seduction, and **** was perhaps not something to which they were accustomed. So, Sebastien hoped that making Allura witness to a battle, even if it was just a relatively small one, would allow him to get a better measure of her character.

If she showed no signs of being fazed at suddenly finding herself confronted with the carnage of men trying to kill each other while women and children were caught in the fray, then he could expect her to display the same callousness if the time ever came when she might betray him. But on the other hand, if there was at least a fleeting display of some sort of humanity in her reaction to the savagery of a pitched battle, then he might just allow himself to trust her at least a little.

“I take it you want us to head in that direction,” Allura’s remark was met with a nod from Sebastien.