Mature: Desert Moon

[Soran Nightblade]

Knight went quiet, his posture a little straighter. "I would prefer to take you directly, and send help for the King. Sinead may be able to assist, not to mention Vlad. They'll reach him in no time. For you, it will mean a great deal of pain and exhaustion." He looked at her tenderly. "Let me bring you to safety. Atul would surely prefer it."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele shook her head. "No, I'm going to travel back with him. That is what I would prefer. I'll be fine. My arm doesn't hurt so much." She shrugged her shoulders, to show him, gritting her teeth as it set fire to the nerves.

"Sho is in here. Take her. She's smaller and will be less strain to port," Tenele lifted her good arm and pointed with the wood to where Sho was sleeping.

[Soran Nightblade]

Knight stayed still in front of her. "The child needs safety, and I will provide it... but I am not here because of Sho. I am here for you," he argued.

[Emora Deen]

"Yes," Tenele nodded. She was tired and hurt too much to argue with him. "You are here because of me and I told you to take her to safety, so take her and go." Tenele almost winced at the authoritative and cold tone her voice had taken in its haste to get the ball rolling.

[Soran Nightblade]

Knight bristled, his tall posture gone rigid. He looked ready to speak, but in the end he couldn't say anything. The guardian's throat worked as he looked at the hut. "Yes. Be safe, Tenele." His unmatched eyes glowed with power as he walked past her to the hut and shut the gate behind him.

He stood inside the door several more seconds, reviewing what she'd just said to him. He did exist for her. He'd told her so plenty of times. But this was the first time she'd acknowledged it, or taken advantage of it by denying his will. Suddenly, he realized how prideful he'd been to indulge in frivolous rides across the sands and the various other luxuries she'd offered to him. At her heart, perhaps it was not really love that drove her to spoil him that way. It was the guilt of a master, pitying her servant. She'd called it a half-life once, the reality he led. That was why she indulged him, humored him as if he were a husband. She cared for him, even above her own safety at times. Just as she did for everyone else, including this child she'd summoned him to save. The kindness was simply who she was, nothing more. He couldn't possibly be equal to her mortal lovers.

"How are you, child?" he asked the girl gently as he crossed the room to her side to collect her. He lifted her up against him, bundled tightly in her blankets.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele stared at the door, wanting to go in and apologise for being so cold. But, what if he argued with her more? She understood his concern. He was created to protect her, and so of course he wanted to make sure she was some place out of harms way and not in pain. But, this was hardly life-threatening... and Atul would be very weak when she returned Knight. He had to understand that she couldn't leave her husband to lie in the desert alone and vulnerable....

Tenele paced back and forth outside the hut, wondering if she'd hurt his feelings. She had, not once, given him true orders. She'd always asked him for help. There was no need to order him, when he always was eager to help her. But, this time she'd treated him like a slave.

He did know that she didn't think of him like that, didn't he? He understood she cared for him.... Right?

* * *

"Something for your fever," Espha sighed, placing a cool rag over Talon's head. Talon didn't say anything to her. He shook on the bed, his fingers clasped together, his jaw clenched tight. The smell of her so close to him made his mouth water. Was he even really hungry?

He'd never bitten her, mostly out of fear that he wouldn't be able to stop. Even when the idea of bringing her pleasure through the bite sprouted in his mind he always pushed it aside, and instead offered her a more human lover.

"You are a fool to be in this room so close to me when I could easily tear you apart," he spat. "Go away before you get hurt."

"Vlad asked me to look after you, I will look after you. You can argue all you like, but I'm here."

Talon reached up as her hand drew away. He grasped her wrist tightly, sitting up out of bed and drawing her towards the door.

"Ow," Espha cringed. "You're grip... What are you doing. You are not throwing me out. This isn't you, Talon. This is-"

"This is me," Talon told her, shivering. "This is me. Look, look at me. I'm a monster. Look at my eyes, Espha. I'm a monster."

Espha shook her head. "No. You are a good man. I know you are a good-"

"I am NOT a good man. Stop saying that. You don't know anything about me." He shook her, pushed her forward to the door. "I am done terrible things."

Espha turned, head held high, and stepped back to him. "Well, it doesn't matter. I'm not leaving. I told Vlad I would watch you. You should get back to bed." Espha turned him gently, guiding him back to his bed.

Talon grew angry. It boiled over before he could get any control of it. He pushed her hard. Harder than he'd meant to. Espha went well across the room and crashed over a small table with a vase. The whole thing collapsed and shattered.

His heart stopped when Espha didn't move. He knew she wasn't dead, he heard her heart beating. She shifted, lifting her bleeding arm from the broken clay. It quivered as she stared it, tears in her eyes. Then, she turned that horrified look on the man who'd been her lover.

[Soran Nightblade]

Knight emerged with Sho a minute later. His expression was calm and blank. It was nearly the same expression as the first time they'd met, the same mix of silent and undemanding affection in his unmatched eyes as they met hers. The perfect guardian.

"I will return with help shortly. Please dismiss me then." With a graceful half-bow, he disappeared from his place before her, and was off with the young girl across the sands.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele frowned when he disappeared. He was upset... not... upset like one would normally get. But, she knew that he was upset for Knights version of upset, at least where she was concerned.

Tenele paced furiouser across the sand before the hut, cradling her injured arm. The idea that she'd hurt him, it made her want to call him back immediately and apologise, but there was no way to do that and she needed Sho safe. She decided that the moment he returned she'd apologise to him.

* * *

"Espha," Talon whispered, staring at her blood. He went to her, faster than he should. Espha's fear spiked, and it called to him like a love song. She shrank back, drawing her bleeding arm to her chest and pinning her back against the wall.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered, kneeling in front of her.

She nodded, turning her eyes on the floor. "Is this how it will be?" she asked him softly, taking her skirt and drawing it up to her knees. She wrapped it around her arm to stop the bleeding while she gathered her thoughts enough to stand. "If I stay with you, will you throw me into walls and choke me?" Her eyes burned. "This is why I chose to marry the King instead of that awful Baron..."

"I told you..." Talon justified. "I told you that I'd hurt you."

Espha nodded.

Talon's throat closed. "I-"

"I will watch you," Espha told him, her voice quivering. "Vlad asked me to. But, after that... We shouldn't see each other anymore."

Talon's jaw set and, though the idea made him sad, he nodded. "That is for the best."

[Soran Nightblade]

Knight made it across the desert in long hops, correcting course continuously as the sands worked their un-magic and distorted his intended landing place again and again. They were halfway home when the trembling of the girl in his arms told him he would need to proceed on foot.

"I am sorry. You are hurt, so these jumps must be hard on you."

Sho shook her head stubbornly, teeth chattering. "Sho wants to go to T-talon," she chattered.

"And go we shall," he said kindly, holding her close against the heat of his chest. The planar jumping was too draining for her, as eager as she might be. "Let's run, then?"

Her eyes lit up. "Yes. But...the horses?"

He smirked one of Vlad's smirks. "They couldn't keep up."

Sho smirked back at him, and he secured her in his arms as he took off at a superhuman pace across the sands.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele destroyed the fire in the hut so it would cool down. It felt like a very long time sense Knight left, at least a lot longer than she thought it would take him. She grew concerned, but there was nothing she could do to make sure he was alright. All she could do was wait.

So while she was waiting she thought of ways that she could show Knight affection, and let him know how important he was to her.

She sat in the shade, her legs stretched out and her arm curled up against her chest. It throbbed, sometimes sharp and to the point it was distracting. She knew that helping bury the dead had aggravated it, but she wasn't going to make Atul do that terrible task alone.

[Soran Nightblade]

Knight reached the foothills of the city about an hour later, Sho secure against his chest. The ride hadn't been perfectly smooth, but it was steadier than horseback, and the girl was asleep. At the momentary stop of movement, she raised her head groggily and focused her slitted pupils on the city ahead of them.

"One more jump," Knight consoled the child.

"To where Talon is?" she demanded, raising her eyebrows.

"First to a friend," he smiled at the serious-minded girl.

She did not look pleased with the delay. "What friend?"

He closed his eyes to concentrate on their destination, and murmured, "A queen."

They reappeared just outside the guest quarters Sinead had taken up until the wedding. "Is Queen Sinead here?" he asked of the guard, who jerked back against the wall at his sudden appearance.

"Who wants to know?" the man demanded.

"I'm her ally. I just need to speak with her."

"Well, she isn't h-"

"Knight?" Sinead's curious voice carried along with approaching footsteps down the hall. The queen paused in front of him. "I was just returning... has something happened to Tenele?" she demanded, motherly.

"She is injured, but safe," Knight said, falling straight into the topic at hand and grateful for her efficiency. "She is waiting someplace secure for my return. It would make her journey back with Atul much easier on them both if I were to return to her with...help."

Sinead reassessed him then, studying the shadows around his eyes and the mirthless set of his jaw. "You have traveled far already. Show me where they are, and I will go to them."

"The sands here are tricky, Lady Sinead," he warned.

Sinead's shoulders perked at that form of address. No one had called her Lady Sinead now for hundreds of years. She either found it grossly disrespectful, or entirely refreshing that he seemed to think himself her peer, but she couldn't settle on which. "I can contend with the sands. I have practiced, Knight," she reaffirmed at the near-brotherly concern in his eyes. Refreshing. "Show me the place."

"My mind is my own," he said warily.

"I will only look for the place," she reassured. "I will see nothing else." She touched his temples lightly and drew his forehead down to touch hers. He felt her look for passage in his thoughts, and he allowed it grudgingly. A moment later, she released him and blinked at the ground, eyes shining.

"Sinead?"

"I've seen the place. Rest here. Atul will be stronger if you don't exert yourself any further. You can wait in my rooms."

Knight studied her, hearing the meaning behind that offer. Wait in my rooms so you can cease to exist in privacy. He appreciated the option immensely, and let himself in past her displeased guards without a word.

Sinead blinked at the floor as her own door shut in her face. She'd lied. She'd seen more, plenty more. Her heart ached as she drew a symbol in the air and muttered an incantation in a silvery, musical voice. A second later, she was standing in the sands amidst a ring of mud houses. Two Hajaran steeds were tied off at a stake in the open, and the smell of wood fire was in the air.

"Tenele?" she called, stepping toward the huts.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele blinked, hearing a voice she hadn't expected. She was half-asleep and the voice felt like a dream at first, until she opened her eyes and saw the woman standing there. "My queen," Tenele greeted, the dutiful servant that she was. She wondered for a second, if that greeting would change when she herself became a queen.

Tenele rolled in the sand and pushed up to her feet. "Is everything okay? Did Knight make it? Is he feeling well?" She looked around, not seeing him worried her. It had taken him so long...

[Soran Nightblade]

"I don't think I've ever seen that man unwell," Sinead chuckled. "He is with the girl called Sho, waiting to be dismissed. He did not want to weaken your fiance further by returning here."

Well, technically, he hadn't said that part. But she had seen it.

"You're hurt," she observed, focused intently on the arm she'd favored when she rose. "Is Atul the same?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenele nodded. "I tried healing him, but it is holy wounds and I can't," she said, holding out her arm. She unwrapped the bandage slowly, but kept pressure on it so it did not gush blood. "We were shot at, accidentally I think, but maybe not. At least, they didn't mean to shoot me."

Tenele was disappointed, and it showed in her eyes. She really wanted to speak to Knight and let him know that she hadn't meant to be so cold."Should I dismiss him?" she asked Sinead, staring down at the sands.

[Soran Nightblade]

"If you mean me to bring King Atul home with us, then we'll need to do that," she said with a gently teasing smile. She could see how exhausted her adopted daughter looked, and was beginning to understand how the conversation that had been bursting at the surface of Knight's thoughts might have taken place. "May I see to your arm?"