The Princess and the Blade

[Emora Deen]

Tenara arched a brow. “He’s nice looking,” she murmured, feeling a little flustered by Havi’s assertion. She had taken any flirtations from Laurius as attempts to get closer to knowledge of the sword. She doubted he wanted anything from her beyond that. “I don’t trust him, and I’m certain he just wants to know more about the sword. This agreement we have is for the exchange of information. Once he has what he wants, he’ll end the ruse of a courtship. He wouldn’t ask me to be his wife, even if he wanted one, and he’s smart to not want to be a king.”

She traced the scabbard. “It’s not a bad idea, though… Finding a husband would keep all those power-hungry nobles away. As long as I’m unmarried, people will create any manner of situation or reason to manipulate me into a marriage contract.” She looked at Havitharon, feeling a strange pull on her heart. It would be easy if she could choose him. She… cared for him. But, he wasn’t exactly a person. She’d be marrying a soul with a sword for a body, and he’d never be able to perform the duties of a king… not travel without her, or maintain his form, or father children. “It would be nice to not have Elias threaten to trap me in a marriage to him. At least this ruse with Laurius will shut him and Arken up for the moment.”

Tenara slowly drew the blade from its sheath, hesitating for a second. She wanted him whole, but felt queasy at the coming reaction. “Let’s get you back solid…”

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi reached out with a hand that couldn't actually touch her. "I would prefer to remain like this. It is safer for you." He looked at her wrist, floating his fingers just over it. The logic didn't quite make sense, even to him. He would need a body before they embarked for Mar's estate, or else they'd need to explain why he wasn't in her company. He huffed out a tense breath, unsure what to say to prevent her from growing weaker.

A firm knock at the door broke up their discussion. Havi took a step toward it before remembering his condition.

"Princess Tenara," one of her regular guards called through the door. "There's-"

The words were immediately followed by the sound of argument on the other side, too muffled to hear.

[Emora Deen]

She wanted to protest Havitharon's view that keeping him as a ghost was safer for her. He was her guard, after all—well, that is the excuse she would use. Then, the knock came and Tenara's brow furrowed. She slipped the sword back into its sheath, carrying it with her towards the door. She glanced back at Havitharon one second more before she opened the door to see who was on the other side.

[Soran Nightblade]

Tenara's regular guard was just outside the door, distracted by something going on at the far end of the hall, where the stairwell met from the main level. He held a palm out protectively, preventing her from stepping outside. "Princess, please stay for a minute. There's a small issue," the man said, looking ready to guard her but not truly worried.

Two additional guards were having a heated discussion with a third figure at the stairway landing.

"Will you let her know that it's urgent."

"As we said, you can see her after you've stated your business, IF she wants to see YOU."

"And as I said, it's a private matter that I must share with her directly," Laurius said with cool resolve. "If you just let me speak to her."

The guards squared off, uninterested in being pushed around, even if he was a royal guest.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara peered around the guard to the end of the hall, spotting Laurius. She'd only just left him. What could be so urgent? "Please," Tenara called. "He's a very welcome guest... My suitor, in fact. Let him through." Tenara hesitated on saying that he had the freedom to come and go at will, in case his will led him to her chambers in the middle of the night with his heart set on taking Havitharon away.

The guard hesitated and reluctantly allowed Laurius to pass. Tenele stepped aside, motioning for him to step into her chambers where they could have some privacy. Once inside, she closed the door behind him, placing her back against the wood.

"Have you changed your mind so quickly? Did word get out and my father threaten to tear out your throat?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Laurius gave the guards a haughty look as he made his way into her chambers. "Nothing so amusing, I'm afraid," he chuckled dryly. His forehead was creased with concern, a look he hadn't presented to her before. "Forgive the sudden intrusion, but something is wrong with my Phage. I can't communicate with him as you seem to, and his language is beyond me. Will you come take a look?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenara glanced at Havitharon, hesitating in her agreement. "I can," she finally said. Laurius seemed extremely concerned, and he also seemed like a man who kept his true emotions hidden when necessary. "Can you tell me what's happening while we walk? Speak to me as if you're talking about your brother." Tenara opened the door again, clipping the sword sheath to her belt again.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi skipped up behind Tenara as Laurius set a brisk pace back to the stairway. "As you know, I left the knife behind today. No one seems to have entered my inn room, and the blade was secured behind one of the drawers for safe keeping." He paused to trot down the steps to the main level. "When I returned, the room was beginning to fill with smoke. I followed the smoke to its source, and found the knife so hot that it had begun to sear the wood backing of the bureau. It was too hot to carry, even with towels, so I half-filled the tub and put it there, left the windows open before the innkeep could throw a fit, then came for you."

He ignored the guards who bowed to them as they left the palace gates. "It's a bit of a walk. As a lord, Jim received guest accommodations at the palace, but I'm just an escort. My inn is on Dartmoor Street."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara frowned as they practically jogged down the street, taking just a second to look back at Havi to see if his expression would tell her if her suspicions were correct. His expression was too hard to read, and she was too busy not running into someone to give him a longer glance.

They had left so fast, Tenara hadn't bothered to grab a scarf or anything to to cover her head. People watched them curiously as they wove their way towards the inn. A few even followed them, too curious to let them go without knowing where exactly they were running off to. She didn't think about how improper it would seem for her to be heading into an inn with an unknown man, and it wasn't until they were inside, heading up the stairs, that Tenara thought to wonder if Laurius had lied to her...

She paused at the door, her heart racing from their jog. She looked at him, waiting for him to unlock the door, and prayed that this wasn't a mistake... That there weren't men on the other side who would cover her mouth with chorril and steal her away on a ship to sacrifice for another sword.

Even if that wasn't true, even if Laurius was perfectly safe... If what was wrong with his Phage was what she thought, going into the room was likely still a very bad idea. But she had helped Havitharon. Perhaps she could help this Ivis too.

"Can you call him out of the dagger, so I can have a look at him and we can speak?" she asked Laurius. To Havitharon she said, *Is it his rut? What do we do if it’s that?*

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi kept pace at her side, his incorporeal body still feeling strangely winded. He'd known when Tenara struck the deal earlier that trusting this stranger was an inevitable risk, but part of him had written it off. Now it was happening, so soon. He'd assumed they would have a little more time, before... Dread felt like it was piling high on his chest, the further they followed this stranger. He was busy extending his senses in every way he knew how, waiting for something to confirm the unease he felt.

Tenara's question drew him, at least momentarily, back to his more typical logical cool. His Yurivis was asking the right questions, and he was no help to her upset. He could figure out why he was upset later. "Even if it is a rut... he will not be able to harm you," he said cautiously. "But if you're asking if you can... tame him, that Ivis is already..." His brows knitted together as he considered it. Did the rules he understood on his world apply here? Tenara had already bent several of them.

"I hope you will do only that which you want," he said carefully. "What do you want?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenara made the mistake of looking at Havitharon a little too long as she considered his question. What did she want? She thought of Havitharon and the pain he'd seemed in the day they were together for the first time. She had... tamed his flame, become his Yurivis. She still had very little idea what exactly that meant, but she knew she likely would not be able to do the same for this Ivis. At least, she didn't think so. She wasn't sure why she had felt so comfortable with Havitharon—to slip into the lust and want of him so easily. She had wanted to please him, to make him happy, to give him the pleasure denied him all his life by cruel women who would have wanted to control him rather than love him.

*I don't know, Havi,* she thought to him. *I don't want him to suffer. It's not his fault he's here, and away from his Yurivis... It's...* Laurius's...

The door to Laurius's room was swinging open. A flash of memory burned through Tenara. She was opening Rami's door, stepping into his room. There was a stranger on his bed, and one behind his door. She didn't see him. She tried to back out of the room and their arms pulled her into a painful embrace. Cloth covered her face, and an acrid scent filled her nose and mouth, turning the world black. 

Tenara's heart thudded in her chest, dizzying as her gaze fell on Laurius's seemingly empty room. She hesitated before taking a step inside, immediately twisting on her heels to see if anyone was in the corner of the room or wedged behind the door. She didn't know how pale and scared she looked, but felt it in the tremble of her knees. 

"No smoke," she said, clearing her throat. "That's good."

[Soran Nightblade]

Laurius moved quickly across the wood floor toward the bathroom. As soon as he opened the door, steam wofted out in damp plumes. He disappeared into the steam for a minute, then called "It's here."

He crouched in front of the tub, waving his hand to clear the steam from his line of sight. The knife sat at the base of the few inches of water that remained in the tub. It wasn't quite red-hot, but it was glowing slightly, the effect blurred by the steam. "It seems worse than before. I could add more water. Or perhaps fish it out so you can inspect it." Laurius reached to the side and grabbed a pair of fire tongs that he'd presumably used before.

In the corner of the room, tucked against the wall as if trying to disappear into it, was the faintest shade of the Ivis from the night before. His translucent form gazed at them vacantly through the steam.

Havi eyed the spectral form warily. "Tenara," he said, nodding toward it.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara swallowed her wariness and focused her attention where Havi was guiding it. She entered the bathroom, keeping her eyes on the Ivis, studying him. He didn't seem violent or feral, as Havi had described Ivises going through a rut untamed. Perhaps the dagger was keeping him in check?

"I can see him," Tenara said, nodding to the corner of the room. Tenara moved past Laurius to approach the Ivis. She wasn't certain if Havi's spells would work, if she'd be able to speak to him as he spoke to her. "What's your name?" she asked, wondering if he would lie as Havi had. "Can you understand me?"

[Soran Nightblade]

"You see him? Where?" Laurius squinted where Tenara had indicated, but apparently couldn't see what they could.

The Ivis startled. His pale eyes cast to Tenara and squinted, as if a too-bright light had been shone in his face. If her words made sense to him, nothing in his behavior showed it. He seemed dazed and barely alert, until something made him jerk back against the wall with a tight groan. He arched over himself and withered to the floor, growling.

"Got it," Laurius said, clamping the dagger up out of the tub with the tongs. Like Tenara's sword, the weapon had been encrusted with deep red jewels, though they were much smaller than the ones that summoned Havi. As the dagger steamed and smoked, it became apparent that most of the strange gems had begun to darken and crumble.

"Let it burn," the Iris seethed, speaking for the first time. His voice was hoarse, barely a whisper.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara frowned at the blade and then at the Ivis. She was certain letting it burn destroy it and him. "It will probably kill you if it burns," she said to him. But maybe he wanted that. Maybe he wanted to be free of it. Would Havi want that someday too?

Tenara glanced at Havitharon, uncertain what she should do.

"Your... phage is in a rut. I think. It's... It's complicated and I don't entirely understand it myself, but he needs a Yurivis to tame it or he'll burn out. I think, if he had a body, it would just happen and he'd be okay when it passes, but I don't think the dagger would survive it. It's not built for his... needs." Tenara glanced at Laurius. "He wants it to burn."