As it all happened, Aurora began to feel as if she was drifting away, outside her own body, looking down with cool disinterest at the scene beneath her.  She had, that is, her body had, stopped struggling, as her fine clothing was ravaged by Harrick's strong hands, as her creamy flesh was revealed in the morning light, from her blue eyes tears flowing, even though there was no pain, not here, not in the place where the shock had forced her.<br/><br/><em>I really am nothing more than a mare to him</em>she realized.<em>He will use me, here, in dreams, he will do anything it will take to come back and rule.  He doesn't mean for me to have the Sun Throne, of if he does, it will only be because he will be the power behind the throne.</em><br/><br/>It was then that Aurora's destiny came to a shatterpoint, a break in the straight path her life had followed until then, and she made her first real decision that would shape the course of the future.  On the one hand, she could repent of what she had plotted with Balthazar, pray to the Sun and Moon, and perhaps find a way to end the evil of the lich-king that should have been undone when his body was burnt a century ago.<br/><br/>But she did not choose that path.<br/><br/><em>Do what you will with me, grandsire,</em>she thought as she saw her bush, breasts, and belly revealed by Balthazar's assault.  "Rape me, here and there, and I will cooperate, because I believe you mean to have the Throne through me.  But mark me, lich-king.  You will pay for this, one day.  For assaulting me, and even more, for so contemptuously underestimating me; I will grind you into dust.[/i]<br/><br/>With that thought, she fell back from the serene place where she'd contemplated what happened, awareness sharp in her eye as she watched Herrick unlace his trousers.