<span style="font-family: 'Arial'"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#666600">It was a ploy he used, and one used often enough when confronted with one who joined the House with more than a spark in their spirit. Viktor, despite his presence, was a calculating man. Even though those freshly under his service felt slighted if they entered it by unfavorable means, it was always best to teach them a different way than the lash of a whip or a cruel hand. What he had built rested on the shoulders of loyalty, not fear or hatred. True to the original House, these were servants of themselves, while he merely played the role of guiding hand.<br/>
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Viktor breathed in deep from the wood smoke that drifted from the bonfire that the boy circled, skeptically at first, then with more grace, while Sienne continued her tireless undulating whirls in the sand, the fire whipping around her like a phoenix in full flight. A knowing smile played still across his face as he eased his stance on the edge of the ring, arms folding loosely across his torso so that his hands rested on his elbows, cradling there.<br/>
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She only slowed when her eye caught the boy that had joined her in the spinning circle, her bare feet dancing over one another as she made her way closer to where his arms awkwardly spun the poi in slow circles. Her own arms slowed in their winged arcs, the whips flickering deliciously close to her sun golden skin until the flames hissed and sizzled in the sand at her sides like two vipers. <br/>
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“Listen to the music,” she intoned softly, her smile warm as her sights settled on his pale form, already glistening with sweat where the flames came to close. The oils may offer protection, but the heat was still there, emanating, and no one was immune to its wild seduction. Her hips swiveled, the lean muscle of her arms picking up a pace again, only this time she moved slow, languid, following the pace of the boy as he tried to find his stride. “Dance with me,” she chimed lastly, her features erupting in a grin.<br/>
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She sidled closer still, moving in a semi-circle around his form. The twin flames sashayed with her motions, trailing like a pair of blazes, or a shooting star, or a phoenix tail. “Follow my feet,” she instructed again, her own pair pushing up on her toes, then down again onto her heels, only to lift up by the balls of her feet and turn enough that her hip popped and the flames went flying, snapping through the air to flick on one side of him, then the other. It was a saucy dance she created, snapping fire on either side of him as her hips commanded her motion backwards, back around the circle, goading him to follow in her footsteps.<br/>
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All the while Viktor watched the dance between the two, observing how Sienne handled the ocean boy, but really with his eyes locked on the rippling muscles of Mischa’s back, until his own feet carried him around the half circle, stalking on the fringes, but not yet joining into what was transpiring. </span></span>