The Princess and the Blade

[Emora Deen]

"It's okay. Take your time," she whispered. "I'm sorry. We can test your theory another time."

Elias's hand snaked around her arm again and hauled her up. She thrashed. "Come," he said. "We're almost there."

"He needs rest. We should stand here for a moment," she said and Elias wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her against his side as he pulled her down the street. "I will break your fucking toes if you don't put me down."

"I don't need a drink for that sedative to work," he threatened.

Tenara looked back at Havitharon, but then Elias made a sharp turn into a building with a sign hanging over the door: The Red Thorn Inn

[Soran Nightblade]

Havitharon snarled as the prince hauled Tenara away. He had to move. He didn't know what that guy was planning. He scrambled to his feet, took a few steps, and stumbled heavily into a lamp post. Shit, they were getting away. What if he couldn't phase through the door? He held on to the post, heaved a tight breath into his lungs, and ran forward after them.

[Emora Deen]

They entered as another person exited, and he paused at the open door, looking at them with a puzzled expression as they passed.

The inside was lavish, something she hadn't expected to find on this side of town. They breezed into the common space as if he owned the building, and maybe he did. It was warm and oddly decorated compared to what she'd seen outside. The space was bright, with rich wood and red velvet furniture. The people in the space were upper class, reserved but happy. Likely merchants or wealthy travelers. Some were attended to by pretty faces draped across their laps, which only seemed odd because it was so early in the morning. The patrons paid them no mind as they entered, and Elias approached the front desk. His hand remained around her arm while his other reached out. "My usual, Alice," he said, and the woman behind the desk pulled a gold key from a hook and pressed it into his palm.

"Do you usually drag women in here?" she asked, glowering at him. "If you don't let my arm go, I swear I will take your other fingers."

He hesitated before releasing her. She turned for the door and he fisted her hood and hair to keep her from leaving. She was only looking for Havitharon, to see if he had been able to follow.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havitharon half-fell up the steps to the building, his long limbs too tired to manage his usual graceful movement. The door closed before he could reach it, but thankfully, someone else wandered out. He slipped in around them, eyes scanning the new space for danger. He took in the people and things going on, and went stiff and still. His drunken thoughts felt suddenly stone-cold sober. Woman, draped luxuriously... sexually... across the men. None of them had horns. An entirely new unease froze him where he stood.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara let the relief of seeing Havitharon come through the door distract her from Elias pulling her towards the stairs. She reached behind her for his hand and caught the sword. She tried to pull it free, but the angle was wrong and she just jerked the blade until it nicked her neck. He seemed to understand the threat, though, and released her.

"This way," he said, pushing her gently down a hall to the room at the back. He unlocked the door and ushered her in, pausing long enough for what he assumed to be time for Havitharon to enter.

[Soran Nightblade]

It took a while for Havi to tear his eyes from the scene around him and really look for Tenara and Elias. He didn't see them. Then he noticed the backs of Tenara's boots winking out of sight up the stairwell. She looked like she was struggling.

He was taking her upstairs... forcing her... in this place. He bolted for the stairs and climbed them as fast as he could. When he reached the top, he saw him trying to lead her into a room. "No!" he shouted. Fury brought new strength to his voice. Did she understand what this place was? He thought about all those dehorned females downstairs. Was Elias about to make Tenara like one of them? "Don't go in! Tenara!" he snarled.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara saw Havitharon in the dark hall. Heard him yelling for her. Why didn't he want her to go in? And she was already in. Elias was standing in the doorway. He was waiting for Havitharon. She took a step forward to leave and Elias put out his hand, shoving her back into the room. He stepped inside.

"Wait!" Tenara said. "He isn't in!"

"He can come through the wall like a good ghost," Elias said, moving to pull the door closed.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havitharon burst into a weary sprint, but didn't make it to the door in time. He tried to shove himself through it, and it repelled him. He felt at the wood, sending up weak purple sparks wherever his fingers attempted to cross into it. Elias was alone in there with her. He had all his poisons. "Damn it," he hissed. He drew his hand back and tried to slam it through the wood. His fist beat a loud, angry knock against the wood. Elias blinked. He'd actually touched it. He'd made a bang that could have woken most of the inn from a dead sleep. It wasn't clear how, but if he could touch the door, then... He immediately reached down and tried to grab the knob. His hand went straight through this time. A numbness started up his spine, some sort of consequence for whatever law of nature he'd just broken. Then he felt himself begin to sink through the floor.

Well, if he was able to sink through the floor, then...

He tried again and shoved forward, through the wall and into the room with Tenara. His feet had sunk up to his shins through the floorboards, but it seemed like it was slowing. At least he wasn't going to fall all the way through the floor and back to that room below. This world made no fucking sense. Panting, he looked up at Tenara with wild eyes.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara sank next to Havitharon. "Are you... stuck?" she asked. She reached down, instinctively trying to pull him up from the floor so he could stand.

The room Elias had led them to was spacious and ornate, with a thick, carved, covered four-poster bed, rich and plush embroidered covers, and a velvet upholstered headboard. The wood floor was layered with a heavy carpet, and the walls draped in linen, patterned wallpaper. An intricate design of thorny vines, blood-colored roses, and pale nude figures tangled together over a green-black textured backdrop. There was a single door open to a bathroom with a copper tub and candle-lit vanity. A fire roared in a hearth off to the side, and a row of windows lined its opposing wall, with a single balcony door set into the center. A red-velvet lounge sat on one side of the balcony door, and a writing desk on the other.

It seemed prepared, as if they'd known someone would be staying in it.

"Why didn't you want me to come in?" she asked, her voice low, but it was impossible to keep Elias from hearing when he was standing right over her.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havitharon glanced up at her, staring at her hair. He didn't see any blood, though it was hard to be sure. He couldn't have done anything that fast, could he? "Those women downstairs," he held back an instinct to try to touch her. "He's going to cut away your horns to take your strength, and make you..." His gold eyes flashed with hatred. He despised places like this more than anything else.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara's smile softened sympathetically. "I don't have horns, Thvoros," she said. "It's okay. He's not going to cut them off. I don't have them. No human has them."

"What did he say?" Elias asks.

"He thinks your going to cut off my horns," she said. "And make me... Make me what?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Havitharon stared at her, looking completely lost. He slowly reached up toward the place just above her ears. Long gray fingers whispered through her hair, unable to really touch her, looking for the small points that should be there. "You said everything here is the opposite of my world," he whispered. "Then those females... will be bred to the most powerful bidder." The words sounded ridiculous to him. It was such a reversal that he couldn't have imagined it without seeing it himself.

[Emora Deen]

"Bred?" she said, trying not to laugh at his wording. "We're not horses, Thvoros... and... those ladies do that for a living. It's... their job." Tenara paused. They weren't in her kingdom. She'd heard Arken was fond of slave labor, so she turned her face up to Elias. "Those ladies down there want to be here, right?"

Elias scoffed. "Okay. You two wait here. I have to go visit Emil, attend my brother's funeral, make up some excuse for why I'll be gone for a while, and purchase passage on a ship headed across the sea. I will tell them I'm finally taking that desired trip to Ongoreth."

"You're leaving us here?" Tenara felt a bit of relief coupled with dread at the idea. He knew this city, and she didn't. But it sounded as if he planned to come back. "And you didn't answer my question."

Tenara tried to fight the sense of dread filling her as the Arken prince edged to the door. If he was meeting with his brother, would let it slip he had her squirreled away in his little love nest. How would he explain his missing fingers? She almost asked him not to go but that felt too much like she needed him, or wanted him, and she didn't. Not really. Right? She could book her own passage. Make her own way, if he didn't return. If he betrayed her.

"I'll be back tonight."

He was gone, and the room was quiet save for the crackling fire. She looked about as if the thorny paper vines on the wall would spring forth and tangle around her and drag her into darkness. The room felt like a very pretty cage. Then, she heard it. The sound of the gold key slipping back into the door, and the lock clicking into place. Tenara rushed forward, grabbed the handle, and pulled.

"You fucking bastard! Let me out!"

"It's for your own good! I'll be back tonight."

"Let me the fuck out!"

[Soran Nightblade]

Havitharon didn't feel particularly reassured of Tenara's safety, despite the answer she'd just given. Then Elias locked them in. Havi placed his hands on the floor around him, and wondered if he should be trying to pull himself up out of the floor, or try to get the other way through the ceiling. He finally pulled with all he could and managed to sludge back up out of the woodwork. Exhausted, he leaned against the side of the bed while Tenara and Elias argued.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara heard Elias disappear down the hall as his steps grew quiet. "Fuck!!!" She screamed, beat her hand into the door and then whirled on a table along the wall, slinging the vase on it to the floor. It shattered across the pretty carpet.

She took several loud breaths, turning her eyes back on Havitharon. She stared at him until her breathing calmed. This is fine. She was fine. She'd get out. There was a whole wall of windows and a balcony door and she'd jump from this high if she had to. They were not trapped. She took one more calming breath and sighed out, "Well... at least you're out of the floor. You look... sick."

She moved forward, sitting on the floor in front of him. She shifted the sword off her back, resting it along her lap. She eyed him and then the sword. "Do you need to rest? Is there... something I can do?"

She thought about the sword and her blood and how it healed her when she cut herself. Was that a means of passing some energy to him? It had brought him into the world. She shifted the other bag off her shoulder and dragged out the book. Maybe there was an answer there. At least they had the room, if he needed to rest. Whether she liked being trapped in it or not.