The Princess and the Blade

[Emora Deen]

Tenara grinned at him. "Oh, private lessons from the master?" she replied, tapping his chest with a finger. "I should be so lucky." She lifted her hand to take a peak at where the sun was in the sky.

Lelana strolled across the lawn, a parasol balanced over her head blocking out the desert heat. She looked like a gorgeous shadow breezing into the space, sucking out the light around her. "I hear far too much laughter coming from this side of the garden," she announced. "How is anyone supposed to nap with you lot are giggling like fools."

"Perhaps nap inside," Tenara offered, curling her fingers in Havitharon's hand and leading him back to the table.

"Alright mother, you're turn."

Tenele proved not as easy to beat as her daughter, but Havitharon's speed wasn't too be matched. The game was amusing, but not nearly as giggle-inducing as the match with Tenara.

Afterwards, Atul presented Tenara with Havitharon's sheathed sword. He remarked about the leather, and a special treatment on the interior to help limit rusting on the blade. He supplied her with a leather belt, and looped it around her waist, clasping the sheath to it so that the sword could hang at her side. It was heavy against her hip, but it felt... right there.

The day wore on. Mid-morning bleeding into lunch, then walks in the garden, a few more lawn games, and dinner of roasted boar and fruits. At the end, they gathered around the table, heavily into wine and dessert and chatting.

Tenara glanced over at Havitharon, admiring him while he listened intently and patiently with every new topic. She wondered if he were bored, or if he was happy, or if he was counting down the seconds until they could be alone together again. She reached beneath the table and wrapped her fingers around his, holding his hand while she drank with the other, and faded back into the discussion about some ball her father's advisors wanted to throw as an apology to all the houses they'd offended during their search for Tenara.

"I'll take a banquet over a war," Tenara said. "Besides, it would be fun to teach Havitharon to waltz."

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi studied each topic of conversation, gleaning as much as he could about this place and its customs. He mostly kept silent. If he asked a question for every time they said something that confused him, the conversation would never flow properly. He observed that as well; the dynamics of the banter between Tenara's family members, how they addressed or teased or expressed affection to each other, how they backtracked when the teasing went too far. His eyes kept trailing back to the black scabbard at Tenara's hip. Would this place actually become his home? Of course, Atul had given his conditions, but nothing in life was unconditional. He still hadn't talked to Tenara about the new quarters Atul had suggested, apart from hers. Would she decide to agree to it? He shook the thought from his head. It was absurd to be sullen over such a thing, when they'd gone out of their way to accept him here. It was for her to decide.

"..would be fun to teach Havitharon to waltz."

His attention lurched back to the conversation at hand. "A dance?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenara nodded, taking a sip of wine. "Do you dance where you're from?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Havitharon slowly spun the wine glass he was holding between his thumb and pointer. "I do," he acknowledged while side-eyeing Tenara's aunt. Dances could mean many things where he was from. If this place was the same, he felt confident Lelana would make a show of pointing it out, so he monitored her reaction.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara’s eyes brightened. “Maybe we could teach each other to dance? I could learn the way you do, and I can teach you ours.”

Lelana smiled, well into her drink. “I could show him a traditional lijarin dance.”

Tenele choked on her wine.

Tenara scowled at her aunt. “No you won’t.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad snorted, earning a sharp look from his wife.

Ah, there it was. Apparently such dances did exist here. Havi smirked slightly into his wine. "I shall learn or teach any dance you wish," he said warmly to Tenara, pointedly ignoring whatever Lelana and Tenele were on about.

The clock at the corner of the room chimed the hour for the 3rd or 4th time since they'd sat down. Havi couldn't tell if his exhaustion was due to yesterday's events, or just the byproduct of navigating social norms all day. Tenara's vampiric father looked tired as well, though he seemed to be doing his best to mask it. Havitharon had fought in the arena long enough to recognize injured breathing patterns when he saw them. "It seems to have grown late," he observed.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara sighed. It had grown late. “Off to bed then,” she said, rising from her seat. She rounded the table and gave each of her parents a kiss. She wrapped her arms around her aunt’s neck, catching her in something between a hug and a headlock. “Good night you wicked woman.”

“Do try to get some sleep tonight,” her aunt replied. She gave Havitharon a wicked wink that Tenara couldn’t see but, unfortunately, the rest of her family could.

Tenara looped back around the table and gently pulled Havitharon from his seat and towards the door. “Good night,” she said a final time.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havitharon gratefully accepted the opportunity to depart, nodding briefly to the rest of her family before following Tenara. He paused briefly as they passed the door just before her quarters. Most likely, the unused apartment her father mentioned was here. He wondered if, while he'd been walking with Atul, Tenele and Vladimir had held the same discussion with their daughter. On the other hand, Lelana had cracked a joke about their intimacy right in front of the others, and no one had jumped in. He followed a bit slower behind Tenara as they proceeded to her room. When the door was closed behind them, his nerves loosened enough that he fought off an impulse to stretch. They'd had a few brief moments alone that day, but it was barely enough to exchange a meaningful look or brief question. He leaned casually on the door, absorbing the peaceful quiet of the room. "I never would have imagined that being alone with a female would put me so quickly at ease," he mused with the ghost of a smile.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara swayed further into her room, looking relaxed and, perhaps, a little sleepy. She sank down onto a lounge, kicking off her shoes so forcefully that they sailed across the room. "I'm glad I make you feel comfortable," she said, stretching her arms above her head and curling them over the back of the lounge. "Today was a lot, wasn't it? I'm sure it must be dull to be pulled too and fro at the whims of someone else's life. When the new of me being home has warn off, I'm sure we'll get a break to do things on our own. Until then, tomorrow you can show me that trick of yours with the paddle. I'm sure my father would love to see you royally crush me again."

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi scoffed, making his way to the wingbacked chair across from her chaise and sinking into it. "It is because you all grip it as if it were an ice cream cone," he muttered without sarcasm. The chair wasn't tall enough to use the headrest, but he let his head hang back anyway, his horns arching behind the seat. "Atul asked me to become your guard. And to sleep in the other room."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara perked up at the news. "Oh," she said, sitting straighter and drawing her legs until they crossed in front of her. "Well, you can definitely guard me, and he can try to force you to sleep in another room." She rose out of the chair, unbuckling the leather belt around her waist and draping the sword across the lounge. She went to his chair and slowly crawled into it with him, until she sat across his lap. She rested her hands on his chest, playing with the design on his collar. "But, he can't make me sleep in mine. If you move to another room, I'll just find my way into your bed every night."

[Soran Nightblade]

That earned a low chuckle from the alien. "Your strategic thinking astounds me." He encircled her in his arms and huffed a soft breath that fanned across the tip of her nose. "I told him that I couldn't promise him my role. I only serve you."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara's gaze appraised his alien features. "Serve..." she said, her voice soft, mulling over his words. She still only had the vaguest understanding of a Yurivis. She thought that he enjoyed being told what to do in the bedroom as a sexual kink, but it seemed he was, quite literally, moved to obey her. She bit her lip slightly. She wanted him to enjoy being with her, not to feel obligated to it. Hadn't he just said how relaxed he was in her presence? Didn't that mean he enjoyed being with her?

"Well," she said, tapping his nose. "A lot of nefarious things can happen in the night. Its probably best if you stay in my bed. To guard me, you see. It only makes sense. What if someone climbed into my room and you were all the way in yours? See? He's not thinking rationally. A guard should be near their ward. A servant, near their..." She stopped. She couldn't bring herself to say she was his master.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havitharon might have noticed her hesitation had they been face to face, instead, he just closed his eyes. "Yes, it's probably best," he said, imitating her. "Besides, that very thing has already happened to us before," he murmured.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara huffed softly, suddenly having the vivid image of the thieves from Sinead's palace—the sound of shattering bones and screaming—burst through her mind. She shook her head and leaned forward, burrowing her face into the crook of his neck. "Its settled then," she murmured against his skin, nuzzling him.

He hadn't trusted her back then, and he'd protected her still. It was staggering to think back on their relationship and its growth from the sacrificial altar, their journey across Arken, and then briefly in Sinead's palace before seeing Rami and running away to the forest of the kingdom north of Hajara. She'd thought he'd hated her after Rami… Now, she was curled against him, trusted and cared for. Safe.

"I should get out of this dress and into something else." She shifted back to slide out of his lap.