Horizon Ridge pride comes before the fall

Akhlut's ears flicked back in mild embarassment as Pied named his pleasing attributes; he liked to hear them from her lips, though he wasn't certain of their veracity, but he didn't like that she would play matchmaker for him. As far as he (and his hormones) were concerned, she would make a fine match for him, if she weren't so damnably taken by his earnest, if plain and typical, subordinate. Still, Akhlut would try to accept her offer. "My mothers were a love match," he said quietly, with a moment of silence in which he recalled the small displays of affection that Nanuq and Aktaie permitted their children to see. Every touch between them was one of utter devotion. Their love was like an iceberg -- the few niceties they let the world see were gentle and chaste, and beneath the surface, each woman was a firestorm of passionate romance, attached and intertwined to the other inexorably. "But I know the value of a compatability match as well, a bond of convenience or political expedience." He shrugged. They were often separate things, love and compatability, and even love and sexuality. He recalled, unbidden, Amekaze's face; they had not dallied, instead sharing a stroll along the shore and speaking of the sea, but his want for her had been one of lust and of the sensibilities of procreation. She could have borne him fine children. And yet he did not think he could love her mysterious self. They did not have that sort of fire between them.

Before he could censor himself, Akhlut asked with a tilted head, "Is there... passion, between you and Kisu?" Passion was the right word, wasn't it, for there were so many brands of love and affection. Was it a love born of care and concern for one another? A dedication that would bond them through fire and ice, to hell and back? Somehow, Akhlut did not think that Kisu had that sort of depth and strength in him; perhaps that was an entirely unfair assumption. Yet maybe Pied was a simple enough girl, easy to please and looking only for straightforward companionship without a passion for the ages. Akhlut told himself firmly that she was entirely happy in her relationship and this line of inquiry would only serve to disquiet the woman and make her uncomfortable with him, so he drew back physically, and drew back verbally, saying, "I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that. I was only... wondering." He didn't know if he was wondering about the strength of their relationship, or simply the nature of it; he wasn't sure if he wanted Pied for himself, or if he only liked the idea of having a relationship like that of Pied and Kisu and would be placated with a mate of his own. Things in Akhlut's mind were quite disheveled.