@0    = ~*You open your eyes. The dawn is nearing, but the sky above you is still dark, and dotted with a myriad of shining stars. The air is laden with sleepy calm. For a moment you lie, listening to the silence and wondering what had woken you... A strange foreboding... not one of foes coming from the darkness, or the restless dreams of late, but a feeling that something wonderful is afoot, and you would be a fool to sleep through it. On nights like this, the Magical Weave of Toril seems to be as tangible as your own body. Not a sound touches the forest canopy.*~
@1    = ~*Finally, a peculiar spot of light beyond the hanging branches of the great tree, under which you had settled for the night, attracts your attention. You push the dark foliage aside and see a statue of an elf, where there was none before. It moves... and you suddenly recognize Coran. His smooth skin has taken on a silvery hue in the soft glow of the starlight, the same as the sparkling dew on the dark grass, where his bare feet left no trail.*~
@2    = ~*As the stars fade, Coran dances alone. It is an ancient dance, both overt and taxing. He arches backward, as nimble and naked as only an elf could be in the night. He touches the grass just barely, with his fingers. His muscles strain and relax as Coran rises - a rippling wave on the river water. In a fluid and rapid motion, his left leg and two arms stretch upward, and join in a tight bud above his head. The elf's knee presses against his face. The bud opens and two slender arms extend toward the sky. The night is the elf's lover, and he embraces it, before kneeling.*~
@3    = ~*Slowly Coran lifts himself on tip-toe and stretches upward. His calves bulge from the effort, but the movement is as natural as the swaying of the reeds. Unheard song pushes him along and, as if barely containing himself, Coran dances in small steps, then breaks free and runs. Three times he stops, each time for an ever more passionate and long fouette. He is the wind, the cruel wind, that blows away the mists of the night. Then, he is a bud again. Waving gracefully with his torso as the song's pre-dawn wind blows, he opens up to the sun. To the real sun... for the first pale-green light invades the sky.*~
@4    = ~*Coran breathes deeply and throws the dark ringlets of his hair away from his eyes tiredly. But he smiles as a dancer always should... even if none watches him. Suddenly, you realize that he had noticed you long ago, and that this wide, content smile is directed at you. His excitement, perhaps, is only partially due to the passionate dance, and the night might not have been the lover that the elf desired.*~
@5    = ~*You blush and hide.*~
@6    = ~*You smile back at Coran and return to your bedroll with your head full of memories.*~
@7    = ~*You lower your eyes and cough uncomfortably...*~
@8    = ~*You whisper* It was just a dream... * and, as on a cue, Coran gathers his clothes from the ground and walks away*~
@9    = ~*You walk boldly toward Coran, and as the sun rises, you two greet it with the most ancient dance of all.*~
@10   = ~*Your lover's body is sparkling with the morning dew, and his mouth covers yours every time you are about to moan with pleasure. Not a sound touches the forest canopy... until the morning birds wake and fill the air with what now feels to you as an impossible racket. Coran leaves you and lies on the grass repeating your name. You loved each other for mere minutes, and it all could have been a dream, except that your body still trembles with the memory of the urgent passion of the lovemaking.*~
@11   = ~*The campfire's flames dwindled until there was naught but black ashes left, with ruby-red splashes here and there. The conversation died down, and, one by one, your companions retired to their bedrolls. Coran was watching you all night from under his long lashes, smiling warmly each time your eyes met.*~
@12   = ~*As you move to rise and follow their suit, Coran quickly gets up to his feet and walks over to you.*~
@13   = ~*Encouraging you to sit back on the ground, he wraps a blanket around your shoulders and explains:*~
@14   = ~I have noticed a nightingale in the bushes. Stay with me, sweetling, let us listen for a while.~
@15   = ~*For a few moments, you huddle together in silence, Coran's arms lying comfortably about you. Then, as if on command, the bird starts to sing. As the ringing notes blend into a sweet tune, Coran nuzzles your neck and covers it with fleeting kisses.*~
@16   = ~*You raise abruptly, freeing yourself from Coran's embrace, and walk away.*~
@17   = ~*You let Coran kiss you while the bird's song lasts and then go to sleep, dizzied by the experience.*~
@18   = ~*You arch back, freeing yourself from the blankets.*~
@19   = ~*Coran gently traces a hot line down your neck with his tongue, while his nimble fingers undo the laces of your garment, skillfully baring you to the waist. The elf's teasing mouth wanders even lower, his lips and hands eagerly exploring the uncharted territory. He pinches your skin gently with his teeth, when the nightingale's voice grows louder, then his velvet lips barely touch you. The invisible singer launches into throaty chirping between the silvery chimes. The caresses and the bird's song become a perfect harmony.*~
@20   = ~*The rain and the mist color the world in gray. The air, the grass, the trees, the ground and yourself - all are soaked through, it seems. Coran appears by your side, a mischievous grin on his face.*~
@21   = ~Let me teach you to hide in the mist...~
@22   = ~*He motions for you to stop, and steps closer to you.*~
@23   = ~The secret is to stand very still.~
@24   = ~*And so you do, listening to the murmuring water. A small rivulet descends from Coran's high brow down his cheek, and he catches it with a quick motion of his tongue.*~
@25   = ~*He says quietly:* We are hidden from everyone's eyes.~
@26   = ~*You start trembling with cold, and tell Coran to get moving.*~
@27   = ~*You lift your face and close your eyes. The water pours on your face...*~
@28   = ~*You approach Coran, so that your bodies almost touch and mouth soundlessly:* Warm me up...~
@29   = ~*When you open your eyes again, Coran is watching hungrily as the water disappears under the collar of your cloak. You guess that tonight you will share your blankets with a very passionate lover.*~
@30   = ~*Coran presses you tightly against his body, then cups your face with his palms. As the heat of his body starts reaching you through the woolens, Coran lowers his face to yours. He gently touches your lips with his tongue, praying for them to open. As your lips part, it finds its way down, pulsing in your mouth, echoing the motions of Coran's hips. A wonderful feeling of warmth starts in the very depth of your being, in the same way that stroking two flints against each other kindles the fire.*~
@31   = ~*The tiny room is just too stuffy to fall asleep. Perhaps the owners of the countless cheap inns across the Sword Coast belong to an organization more secretive than the Cowled Wizards, each vowed to suffocate their customers. Coran must have the same feeling, for he releases you from his embrace and gets up from the bed you share.*~
@32   = ~*He pushes the window open and sticks his head out, taking great pleasure in the warm, salty wind of Baldur's Gate that rushes into the room. Satisfied, Coran steps back from the window and pulls off his shirt.*~
@33   = ~*The wind plays with his hair, brushing disarrayed strands against his bare shoulders. Coran walks towards the bed and lifts you from the blankets with ease. The elf carries you toward the window and gently sits you on the sill.*~
@34   = ~*The image of your silhouette against the moonlit square of the window causes Coran to swallow hard. His eyes follow the curves, with his gaze lingering where the playful wind pulled the thin fabric of your garment tight against your body.*~
@35   = ~*Coran reaches for you, caressing your flesh through the wispy fabric, and explains in a low voice...*~
@36   = ~Too beautiful, too beautiful to simply watch...~
@37   = ~<CHARNAME>, you step out of a bloodbath on the carpet of rose hips, naked and tender. Your foe's blood could be flower petals clinging to your body enviously, or a sensual pattern drawn in henna dye by a frivolous hand, or claret spilled in abandon, enticing a thirsty mouth to drink of it...~ [CORANB]
@38   = ~Coran, are you feverish? I've not bathed... yet. Moreover, not in blood.~
@39   = ~Stop it, you are scaring me!~
@40   = ~What...what are you talking about?~
@41   = ~Have you listened to some grim bard? One who sings that love and death are two sides of the same coin?~
@42   = ~I see that the song Eldoth sang yestereve, glancing at you and me ever so suggestively, touched your heart.~
@43   = ~*quietly* That is how you imagine me now? For many years I puzzled over my true heritage. Now, knowing it, I wish that I did not.~
@44   = ~Oh, honey-tongue, you turn the most ominous thing into an exhilarating one.~
@45   = ~We will explore this new facet of our passion, my beloved. There is danger in it, but there is also something so titillating, so -~
@46   = ~It was a metaphor. I alluded to the slaughter of those who oppose you that we engage in daily.~
@47   = ~Oh? Well, very elaborate.~
@48   = ~Metaphor? *quietly* That is how you imagine me now? For many years I puzzled over my true heritage. Now, knowing it, I wish that I did not.~
@49   = ~Are you trying to tell me that kissing an heiress to the Lord of Murder is titillating?~
@50   = ~And what you are makes me fearful, and yet attracts me.~
@51   = ~Your passionate nature I have enjoyed so is now taking on a new meaning, a dangerous one. Each facet of it alone would plunge me into a liaison, but the two combined... My head spins as if it would take flight, and my heart pounds, nearly breaking within my chest, when I think of you like this...~
@52   = ~Hanali Celanil teaches us that love is warm and golden. From you, my woman, another passion, dark and red cometh, and dizzies a man.~
@53   = ~I... I'd rather have it warm and golden.~
@54   = ~You sound insane, Coran, and that gleam in your eyes puts me ill at ease.~
@55   = ~What have you done to the lighthearted Coran I cherished, monster?~
@56   = ~*sigh* Whatever.~
@57   = ~I never saw anyone in whom love and death are so intermingled, and so... seductive. Carnage turns into a thrill in your presence. You have shown me the new meaning of love, which I but guessed at previously. When I loved the strongest, I found myself on the brink of death, almost, in pain from pleasure. Now I know why.~
@58   = ~I do not think I like the idea overly much. I was always dreaming of a tender and happy kind of love.~
@59   = ~Yet you cannot unlearn it, and moreover, you cannot stop being who you are.~
@60   = ~Ah, the passions in you rarely find an exodus in words. But the way you love...~
@61   = ~You devoured him, sweetling, and the specter which stands before you is overtaken by new passions you have sparked in him.~
@62   = ~I turned you into a monster! No, my accursed sire did! And I thought that being an orphan, I'd have the advantage of relatives not interfering with my love life!~
@63   = ~I will fight to change you back, Coran. I do not want an obsessive lover. I want a tender beloved who lives through my kisses, not dies drinking them in.~
@64   = ~I would be damned if I understood a word of what you were saying!~
@65   = ~I think it's one of your "moods". I hope that this new emotional toy will be forgotten in a week.~
@66   = ~Soft and sweet love is attractive, especially to ones who have loved little before. If you try to love me like that, I would accept it. But I would be swept away if you stopped controlling your nature.~
@67   = ~Is that so, sweetling? Your poor head is not catching up to the happenings as fast as your sword hand, then. No matter. Your blood will understand what I was saying in time. ~
@68   = ~I do not know the future, sweetling. Neither do you. Let us just see it through. ~
@69   = ~I but turned a page, sweetling, and found the new song of passion. Let it be frightening, let it be wild, let it be unconventional. It is the empty pages that scare me.~
@70   = ~So sublimely erotic. I have read many books where the bards told me that a woman need be a pure maiden for a man to find his 'true love', but I don't believe these books. Desire, which only grows in quenching, bravery and sincerity - that's love. Where love walks, purity, faithfulness, duty, honor - they all sooner or later become excuses for those who search control in everything.~
@71   = ~There is no control. Only intoxication and longing. Only love.~
@72   = ~*The glance of bright, tilted, teasing elven eyes stops at you.*~ [X#BLANK]
@73   = ~*Coran whistles approvingly if softly, as you walk by him.*~
@74   = ~By Hanali, I have never seen a more radiant pair of eyes.~
@75   = ~You are a work of art, sweetling. Why, I would not mind having thousands of paintings and statuettes of you in my cabin.~
@76   = ~What a sight for sore eyes and aching heart! Do not turn away, sweetling, it'll give me a... a... melancholy.~
@77   = ~*Coran puts his narrow palm over his heart.* It skipped a beat just now, <CHARNAME>.~
@78   = ~Oh, fair maiden, I am smitten and lie in ruins by your feet.~
@79   = ~And crumbling further into dust. Will your walk over it, or will you kneel by what's left of me, mix it with the healing waters of love and reshape me anew?~
@80   = ~I know not how feet so light can leave the prints so deep on my heart.~
@81   = ~Your ankles are divine, sweetling. Divine.~
@82   = ~*Coran sighs.*~
@83   = ~I can't say that knowing you made me fearless of death - I was never one to be afraid to die - but I am starting to understand the sentiment.~
@84   = ~You are Hanali made flesh, <CHARNAME>, but more and more often, when you speak, I find myself listening, not looking.~
@85   = ~A wise elf once told me that once you learn to organize and manage four, it means that you can organize and manage any number of people.~
@86   = ~I've never learned to lead, but you, sweetling, you could lead an army.~
@87   = ~*Coran opens his palm, and you can see a few sparkling gems from your loot.*~
@88   = ~You are a gem, <CHARNAME>, bright and precious.~
@89   = ~*He thumbs the gems and then spills them back into a pouch - a rainbow of color and light.*~
@90   = ~You are the most perfect jewel, cut by the most artful master - yourself.~
@91   = ~One facet only is missing - love, sweetling. I would give everything to be the jeweler who'd add it.~
@92   = ~Your lips are a rose forever in bloom.~
@93   = ~Not fully opened, no. A teasing bud that unfolded just enough to promise the full beauty of the ripe flower.~
@94   = ~And it is a kiss.~
@95   = ~Do not look for love everywhere, but always be ready to find it, <CHARNAME>.~
@96   = ~I think that you shall forever live on in songs, <CHARNAME>.~
@97   = ~No, you are a song...~
@98   = ~Your left eye is my moon, and your right one is my sun. So, I walk in the light in the darkest places.~
@99   = ~Your ears are perfect, but for one thing - they do not seem to hear my pleas.~
@100  = ~I wrote a poem about your neck. Then I burned it.~
@101  = ~I wrote a tome about your neck. Then I burned it.~
@102  = ~I founded a library and every book was about your neck.~
@103  = ~I've burned it, too.~
@104  = ~Why wrestle with imperfect words, when one can gaze upon perfection?~
@105  = ~*Coran's gaze, daring and bright, follows the curves of your bosom.*~
@106  = ~*Coran slides his finger down the length of your nose.*~
@107  = ~*It tarries at the very tip, but withdraws, without descending on your lips.*~
@108  = ~When your eyelashes flutter like this, I think of butterfly wings... and before I know, my heart is full of these living trembling rainbows.~
@109  = ~Your voice births gentle echoes in my heart even when you holler a battle cry, <CHARNAME>.~
@110  = ~*He takes your hands in his, and sets them so your palms are cupped, as if you were going to draw water from a stream.*~
@111  = ~*He points inside.*~
@112  = ~Here rests my soul.~
@113  = ~I envy your belt. If only I could wrap my arms around your waist just like it does...~
@114  = ~*Your lover, Coran, is never far away from you, always seeking an opportunity to kiss, to touch, to hold. Just like now.*~ [X#BLANK]
@115  = ~*He wraps his arm about your waist and pulls you as close to him as possible.*~
@116  = ~*A lazy, content smile appears on Coran's face, as he eyes you approvingly.*~
@117  = ~*He touches your cheek and murmurs:*~
@118  = ~Softer than feathers, smoother than silk.~
@119  = ~*He presses you tightly against his chest.* Sweetling...~
@120  = ~*His palm caresses your bottom.*~
@121  = ~*He kisses the nape of your neck, and his lips travel lower, and to the side, and by your ear, growing more and more insistent.*~
@122  = ~*Coran lifts you into his arms and kisses you.*~
@123  = ~If only there was a silk-covered bed, or a meadow of spring flowers nearby...~
@124  = ~*His lips touch the very tip of your nose.*~
@125  = ~Marvelous...~
@126  = ~*His fingers march aptly up your lower back.*~
@127  = ~The conquest has began, my General.~
@128  = ~*He leans over to you and whispers into your ear, his warm breath tickling your skin:*~
@129  = ~Sweetling, I yearn for you.~
@130  = ~Stars, my love, are the only fitting beads to make a necklace for you.~
@131  = ~*grins self-ironically* Such strange and sweet thoughts I have, when I look at you.~
@132  = ~*He kisses you slowly, tasting every hidden corner of your mouth.*~
@133  = ~Hmmm... It's jasmine. How do you do that - a different taste every single time?~
@134  = ~*A delighted smile curves his lips.*~
@135  = ~We will dance beautifully tonight, sweetling, you and me, while a flute and a violin sing of passion.~
@136  = ~*Apparently, he was holding a dandelion behind his back, and before you know it, he had blown on it, and you are standing in a cloud of fluffy seeds.*~
@137  = ~*He takes your hand and brings it up to his lips.*~
@138  = ~Exquisite.~
@139  = ~*Two kisses follow: one on the outer and the other on the inner side of your palm.*~
@140  = ~As I said: "Exquisite." *He seems to be reluctant to let go off your hand.*~
@141  = ~*chuckles* They say it is romantic to save fair maidens... and I would, sweetling, if you ever needed saving.~
@142  = ~So far it's me who is all but lost to love.~
@143  = ~Oh, save me, fair maiden.~
@144  = ~I loved many women, <CHARNAME>.~
@145  = ~Do not be afraid of it - you've captured my heart like no one before.~
@146  = ~I pray every night to Hanali that my happiness lasts till the dawn. And every morning I pray that it lasts till the nightfall.~
@147  = ~I know what they say about me, and about the wise smirks behind my back...~
@148  = ~I don't care. Let them say that we'll part before the rising of the new moon.~
@149  = ~I'm not going to let you slip away, now that I have you.~
@150  = ~They say that a spoken word is a lie.~
@151  = ~How true. I say: 'I love you, <CHARNAME>,' and it does not describe a tithe of how I feel.~
@152  = ~*He throws his cloak in front of you.*~
@153  = ~A beauty should walk without muddying her feet.~
@154  = ~*His tongue briefly touches your ear.*~
@155  = ~*He just stands and stares, a sheepish smile on his lips.*~
@156  = ~*He catches you in his arms, twirls you around in a crazed dance, and showers you with kisses. All in the space of a brief moment.*~
@157  = ~*A sad look comes over his face. He turns away quickly, muttering. You think that you have heard: 'Who would believe a buffoon...'*~
@158  = ~Dreams, <CHARNAME>, are voracious creatures.~
@159  = ~They only grow greedier, hungrier from feasting on the sweetmeats of the reality.~
@160  = ~Yet, here is a paradox. I dreamt up an ideal woman, the most beautiful one, the most exciting. I thought I would be forever looking for her, and would never find her.~
@161  = ~And she stands before me, and does not disappear in a puff of smoke when I touch her.~
@162  = ~*Coran settles you on his lap, and wraps his arms around your waist. He kisses your on the neck under the ear.*~
@163  = ~You've asked that I teach you the runes of passion, my beautiful. Here is the first rune.~
@164  = ~*He puts a wide velvet ribbon around the base of your neck and fastens it. A pendant - a white pebble with a red rune - flutters under your throat with your every intake of breath. It is warm against your skin, like his fingers. The token is shaped like half of a heart; Coran wears the second half.*~
@165  = ~First rune is for Love-Hope, the expectation of love, the fanciful dream. It happens to young men and women when they first meet someone who makes them realize that love exists, and that they are susceptible to Hanali's charms. Sometimes, people wizen in their years, and after having sampled of Hanali's other wines, would love that way again, and some could only love like this.~
@166  = ~Tonight, <CHARNAME>, we go to sleep in different beds, and dream of each-other, or remain awake, savoring the first touch of desire.~
@167  = ~*As the last watch draws to its end, Coran slides under your blankets and uncovers you to the waist. With a start you realize that the rune necklace is gone.*~
@168  = ~Blessed Hanali Celanil had accepted you in her fold.... ~
@169  = ~I was sent a dream that I had before my first lover, sweetling, of a huntress dressed in shadows walking toward me through a glade. Inching closer and closer, but never within a reach. Sometimes, I could glimpse her glittering eyes, or the proud set of her jaw, as she turned her head. I half-guessed, half-recognized you.~
@170  = ~*As Coran whispers, his fingers find their way into the secret cove of your body.*~
@171  = ~I can ease the tension brought upon by your own dreams, sweetling, if you wish.~
@172  = ~No... I want it there until we have time to come together in love.~
@173  = ~Do it, my love, and I will tell you what I saw....~
@174  = ~*trembling* Please, Coran....~
@175  = ~O, Hanali! I'm going to find ice... cold water... somewhere...~
@176  = ~*Softly, you tell him your own visions, as he sets you free.*~
@177  = ~*Amid the silence, save for your sighs, he sets you free.*~
@178  = ~*Coran smiles and gives you a quick peck on your cheek, as he loosely winds a leather cord with Hanali's rune around your wrist like a bracelet.*~
@179  = ~The second rune is for flirtatious love, the one without looking back and regrets, when the lovers come together and part in an instant, go their separate ways, take on other lovers, and then are together again, laughing and teasing.~
@180  = ~*He stretches by your side and pulls you on top of himself.*~
@181  = ~Ride me tonight, sweetling, smile at me knowingly, readily, because you are aware that tomorrow you might change your mount, or you might not...~
@182  = ~*Coran smiles at you pleasantly and sets on the ground a basin of scented water. Upon his command you let him undress you. He gathers water with a large sea-sponge and wrings it over your head. The warm streams wash over your body, filling the air with the fragrance of lavender and sandalwood.*~
@183  = ~*After you are soaked and rubbed clean of the day's dirt and grime to his satisfaction, Coran dries you off with a large towel.*~
@184  = ~*It seems that his earlier affirmations of memorizing every inch of your body are true, judging by how perfectly a dress that he'd brought along is fitting. Flowing silk, soft lace and fanciful embroidery - the gown is beautifully made for a woman of high station and taste. Coran fixes a string of gems in your hair, the rune stone in the middle of it.*~
@185  = ~*He backs away a few steps and gracefully sinks to one knee, hand on his heart.*~
@186  = ~My lady, the third rune of Hanali stands for the Love-of-Station, when your beloved's social status is a part of the romance. I bow to you, my High Lady of the Court of Love, and to what you have achieved in your chosen field. I hope that my talents did not go unnoticed by you. I lay my prowess at your feet, and I hope that you will notice that I am the best of the best, even if I say so myself.~
@187  = ~*Coran approaches and drops the fourth rune on the floor by your feet. He starts talking addressing himself to the air above your shoulder.*~
@188  = ~Another form of love, is the Love-Longing for a forbidden, inaccessible mate.~
@189  = ~*He walks away then, and when you pick up the token, you see that there is a note under it. It reads: "Think of all the barriers that separate us, and all the good reasons why we should not be together. Let us see which one of us will first tire of staying away from one another.*~
@190  = ~*Coran touches your wrist discreetly and whispers, lips to your ear*~
@191  = ~What did you decide, sweetling? Shall we from now on but dream of holding each-other in a passionate embrace?~
@192  = ~Coran, I thought long and hard. You are a rogue and a vagabond, and up to no good. My duty to my foster father and my quest ought to have wholly consumed me. And yet, I have never ceased thinking of you, and it was painful when you walked so near me, and yet so far. Coran, I think, I've learned the meaning of Hanali's fourth rune.~
@193  = ~*You free your hand and walk away from Coran.* ~
@194  = ~*When you both are concealed behind the overhanging branches and foliage, Coran lifts you and sets you against the smooth trunk, touching and kissing you feverishly.*~
@195  = ~O, Hanali, I was afraid you would not come back to me...~
@196  = ~*Your garments ride down your hips, as easily, as if they sense your impatience. Coran thrusts into you, and all the happenings in the world become trivial compared to the movements you make together.*~
@197  = ~*When he finds a safe nook, Coran lifts you and sets you on some ledge, touching and kissing you feverishly.*~
@198  = ~O, Hanali, you do like it dangerous....~
@199  = ~*Your garments ride down your hips, as easily as if they sense your impatience. Coran thrusts into you, and all the happenings in the world become trivial compared to the movements you make together.*~
@200  = ~*Coran settles the fifth rune between your breasts, and his hand does not leave, cupping the swell. A couple of teasing kisses descend on your flesh, his cheek pressed against your thigh.*~
@201  = ~*He gives you an asking glance, and there is no explanation needed. The fifth rune of Hanali is for the desire of the loins, for the passion of sex, for physical love, and you celebrate its powerful call till you sleep, still entwined, exhausted.*~
@202  = ~*Coran sets himself carefully by your side and takes your hand in his. He puts the rune around your finger.*~
@203  = ~Sixth rune of Hanali is for the love of the hearth, when the lovers include the family, home, and future generations in their relationship. It's a complex rune, and a complex feeling. It's deep friendship and solidarity, a union.~
@204  = ~*He squeezes your fingers softly* But, sweetling, I'm not the best person to talk about it.~
@205  = ~*Coran cradles you in his arms and you go to sleep in a quiet mood, nested against his chest.*~
@206  = ~*Coran's nail traces a line along your spine. As you shiver instinctively he ties Hanali's seventh token around your knee. It is just possible that his hands tremble.*~
@207  = ~*He sits in silence for a while, before biting you lightly on the earlobe and speaking quietly*~
@208  = ~The seventh rune of Hanali is the darkest, and it is for Love-Torment. Some poor souls even wrote of Love-Hate, even Love-Death, painful, devouring and merciless. But even in the untainted scrolls of Hanali, they talk of love full of suspicions, attacks and counterattacks, of excessive pride.... Such love, they say, causes suicides among N'Tel'Quess, and we fair folk should search for enlightenment and trust in communal spirit when we are poisoned by it, and the lover is of our own kin.~
@209  = ~My love, the proper way of learning this rune, I was told, was by searching for a trace of it in the harmony of the love song, and replacing it with one of the other six runes. That is why it is the last rune of Hanali.~
@210  = ~Name, now, one of the six you wish to use to shield from the seventh' torment.~
@211  = ~Love-Hope.~
@212  = ~Love-Flirt.~
@213  = ~Love-of-Station.~
@214  = ~Love-Longing.~
@215  = ~Love-Passion.~
@216  = ~Love-of-the-Hearth.~
@217  = ~I need no defense. This is the only kind of love there is.~
@218  = ~*Coran is caught by your eyes, seeing sharp desire and red bloodlust reflected there.*~
@219  = ~Then you understand nothing. Well, you are not the first, and you will not be the last, sweetling. Come here, and let's forget the whole thing.~
@220  = ~*This night you dream of a sea of molten blood, the well-spring of lust and desire. Waves lap towards you with fierce intent, their fiery caresses burning your flesh and tearing at your soul. Coran is on the far shore. You reach out to him, watching as your hand becomes flame and he melts into silver, which you drink greedily, thirstily. You feel the dream slip away, as you slowly dissolve into anger, desire, pain... *~
@221  = ~This is your strongest rune, <CHARNAME>. It's not to say that you will only love that way, but these are the loves in which you heart and your spirit revel.~
@222  = ~*You ride along a wide lane, bordered on both sides by the linden trees in their gold-and-honey bloom. Up above, on the hill, there stands the spacious manor, tall windows opened to the spring wind and sun. It's a place reigned by music, laughter, beauty and, above all, by love. With pride, you think that your own children will never be tormented by the thought of who and where their parents were, would never journey not knowing what place to call home, would never have to resign themselves to the fact that love and warmth reside far from home in the world. To think of it, you had long overcome these painful thoughts and desperate solitude.*~
@223  = ~*Coran and you find little sleep that night, coming together in passion, waking readily to each-other's caress, laughing breathlessly at the shining world. When you do sleep, your dreams are bright and fleeting, but full of the same breathless laughter and soft moans as your waking hours that night.*~
@224  = ~*This night you dream of the bustle of a King's Tournament, where the favors are given to the brave knights and where the winner gives a rose to the loveliest lady of all. But your mind is not on the man whom you are linked to in the eyes of the world, nor on the trophy, for you know it will be yours, nor on anything that is happening now. Your thoughts are of a traveler from a far away land, a stranger, who'd passed you a goblet before the trumpets sounded the opening of the festivities. Your fingers touched... your fingers touched for the eighth time in as many years, and you recognize someone who'd returned again and again, killing horses and men to touch your gloved fingers.*~
@225  = ~*This night you dream of the crowds on the tall galleries cheering for you, the most celebrated hero in the realms. The wealthiest and the noblest bow to you and throw speculative looks. They whisper about a man, whose fame equals yours, and of the things you two had done in a flamboyant courtship. You smile to yourself. The world likes to dream and breed rumors, but it is you who knows the truth.*~
@226  = ~*This night you dream of a carnival, wild fun, music and wine pouring out on the streets. Masked and dressed in bright finery, you dance in the crowd, and man after man vies for your attention, merry kisses and laughter. One of your suitors looks taller and more tireless than the rest. It's to him that you send not-too-subtle glances from behind your feathered mask, glances he eagerly returns. The night promises to be long, and the morning will find you feeling the familiar excitement of taking a new lover.*~
@227  = ~*This night you dream of a moonlit lake between the silvery dunes. Lilies rise from the sand, the flowers swaying slowly in the wind. Across the lake, on the distant shore, someone is building a boat. You look at the protruding ragnauts, and a sigh escapes your lips. For many more nights you will sit here, before this ship would unfurl its sail and cross the lake. For many more nights you will see a handsome shipwright in your dreams.*~

