The Princess and the Blade

[Emora Deen]

Laurius thought for a minute and nodded. “It’s probably how the connection works. If you feel some pull to help or are resisting a pull, stop resisting and follow your instincts.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi nodded. It was odd, but he could feel a pathway waiting for him to join the sword. It wasn't exactly tugging at him, but it felt like a logical place to go, like a sheath custom-built for his soul.

The Ivis closed his eyes and let his focus go there. His body flickered out of existence, and his senses faded to black. He'd gone into the sword with his own will before, but in moments where Tenara was in danger. He'd been hasty, and he had lost much of his strength in the process. This time felt more efficient, like he was able to make the transition without slicing off huge chunks of himself to fit.

When his senses were entirely offline, he awakened to the bizarre state he occupied when inside the sword. He could sense everything in the room as vibrations in the air, a strange 6th sense he only had when he was like this. *I am here,* he communicated quietly into the darkness, knowing Tenara was connected to it somewhere.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara’s tense muscles relaxed at the sound of his voice. Her grip curled a little tighter over the hilt, as if she were squeezing his hand.

“There,” she said. “He and the sword are one.”

“Good. Let’s give it a few minutes,” Laurius said, tapping his foot against the floor. “While we wait, ask him what control, if any, he has in there.”

Tenara repeated the question the way only Havi could hear.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi hesitated. He carefully sent his consciousness up into the neurological circuitry of Tenara's mind. It was easy to find her when she was touching the sword. He moved like a ghost among her neurons. *I can sense where all your muscles are, and what they're doing,* he observed.

Actually, it was more than that. He focused harder. *Your left knee has an itch. Your right pointer finger is tapping against your belt.* He tried to listen harder. *I can't access your thoughts, but your sensations are there if I look for them. I can also feel the cat thumping its tail against the seat cushion, eight... no, nine feet behind you. Laurius is tapping his foot from off to your left. Artisuren is standing too still. Is he hiding some sort of injury?*

[Emora Deen]

Tenara arched a brow, judging the distance to Colonel. That was… impressive. She was glad he couldn’t see her thoughts, though. Tenara explained what Havitharon was saying to her seconds after it was said, and then she looked at Ren, worried. “Are you hurt?”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren's eyes went wide with embarrassment. "No, it's nothing like... Tell that punk to mind his own business...please," he snipped. "Don't make a fuss over nothing," he snarled directly at the sword.

Havi put two and two together and mentally sighed. *Never mind. I'm sorry I asked.*

Behind her, Colonel hopped to the floor and began walking toward Tenara. Havi sensed the movement, but it was outside her line of sight. It made him want to test something. He reached his thoughts out along Tenara's, as if moving an invisible body of his own, and tried to convey his awareness of the cat that was preparing to leap up into her skirts. Without a word, he tried to give her the information about its size and location.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara was suddenly away for the car, and she was moving, twisting to look at it. She wasn’t certain if Havi was doing that or if she had instinctively followed the information. “Not now, silly,” she said as he meowed loudly. She hadn’t paid him nearly enough attention in the last hour. Maybe he was hungry. He swooped against her skirts, pressed into them and clawing at them for attention.

“Hey,” she said, trying to tug them out of his claws.

Laurius snorted and scribbled something into his journal. “Alright, let’s bring him out of the sword. Now, you aren’t using your magic and we have no way of knowing if the sword will heal you as it has done before. As we both know, it requires sacrifice—blood and intention. Unlike putting him in the sword, you only really have one chance at this. I prefer you not have to make more than one cut. Focus, then do it.”

Tenara swallowed and angled the blade into her scarred palm. Maybe that was why Colonel liked her.

Tenara focused. She was practiced at willing him into existence more so than sending him out of it. She knew the desire of wanting him like she knew the sound of her name. She pulled the blade along her hand, cutting deep.

Pain splintered up her arm and she hissed. Usually, the pain dissipated into mind-bending need and pleasure but now it was just blinding discomfort. Blood dripped between her fingers and over the edge of her palm, smearing along the blade and dripping to the marble. Her will faltered a second, but she held the thread. She couldn’t cut again. Once was deep enough.

[Soran Nightblade]

Without the impact of Tenara's magic coursing through him, Havi's senses were free to notice other things about Tenara's body and the sword when she cut herself. He could feel her hand open and wounded, and he hated it. He also sensed each drop of blood as it made contact with the blade. He could feel each soulstone on his hilt resonate with the same frequency - something he'd never sensed before. The blood called to the gems, and they echoed the same energy back, completing a loop between the physical and the spiritual. A familiar sensation tugged at him, trying to thrust him back into the light and noise of existence. He didn't know it was something he'd felt before at first. It was so different without Tenara's magic screaming into him.

Before he could analyze it further, the tug grew too strong. He gave in to the summoning and let the sword pull him back into his body. He appeared beside her, then put a hand to the desk to be sure he stayed upright while he reoriented himself. Once he realized he was in one piece, he whipped his attention to Tenara. "Do you always cut it that deep?" he murmured, staring at her gushing cut.

[Emora Deen]

"Not always," Tenara said, placing his blood-slicked blade on the long desk. Her hand trembled, blood dripping like water onto her skirts and the floor. Colonel licked curiously at where it landed near his paw. "I thought I'd go deep for good measure so I didn't have to try more than once." Her voice quivered out of her as Laurius took a rag from the table and pressed it against her palm, forcing her hand up into the air, above her heart.

"Hold it up," he instructed, and then put his hands on the bind around her neck. It clicked open, and Tenara felt a world of sensations come back to her in a dizzying rush. Even the pain seemed worse.

Laurius took the rag from her hand, admiring the wound with a frown. It didn't seal shut as all the others that came before it. He pressed the rag back into the gash and she made a choked sound.

"Go to Dr. Crofford," he said, his task-focused voice lacking any compassion, and moved to write something in his journal.

Tenara hesitated, gaze drifting to Havitharon. "I'll... be back," she said, and turned to head off to the otherside of the conservatory and Dr. Crofford's makeshift office.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi couldn't take his eyes off her bleeding cut, and it was all he could do not to jump in when Laurius touched her. He'd managed a straight face while Tenara was there, but as soon as she left for the doctor, he turned on Laurius with darkness in his eyes. "You said you would design experiments that do not cause her injury," he snapped, his imposing height backing the man against his own desk.

[Emora Deen]

“It is impossible to guarantee she will be completely unscathed during this process, and I did promise to have a healer on-hand should anyone be injured,” he said, chin lifting defiantly even if his hands gripped the table to still their nervous jitter. “There was a chance the wound would seal shut when the bind was off her neck, but it didn’t. Dr. Crofford will fix her up and we’ll be back to work in no time.” He reached out for the journal. “Until then, let’s get some notes down on your experience…”

—-

Dr. Crofford was drinking a large cup of tea when she entered the square room. Night was starting to glint on the horizon and candles in sconces lit the space. A table had been cleared for work, and he had two wooden chairs.

“Ah,” he said as she came in. His gaze went to her cradled hand. “Well, that didn’t take long at all. Here. Have a seat.” He motioned to the table. Tenara had to hop clumsily onto it, shimmying to get into a more comfortable position.

He took her hand and tsked at the site before quickly covering it before more blood could spill onto the floor. “Let’s see…” He rummaged through his bag and pulled out glass bottles, lining them on the table. “Lie down before you faint, dear.”

“I’m not going to…” But her hand was shaking and, now that he mentioned it, she was feeling a little woozy. She did as he asked.

He poured liquid into a cloth. “We’ll get you fixed up, don’t worry. In and out before you know it.” He came at her with the cloth and she expected it to go over her hand but then it was over her face, and the familiar scent knocked her back into the Indigo House, to a faceless Arken man behind her, and then… darkness.



——-

Choose your own adventure:

When Tenara woke, she wasn’t aware of how much time had passed or what had happened before. Her mind felt groggy, like she was pulling herself up from a thick fog.

“All done,” Dr. Crofford said as he tied the bandage. “Don’t remove it until in the morning.”

“Did I faint…?” She rubbed her face.

“Your hand should be good as new tomorrow, as long as you keep the bandage on. The poultice application can be extremely painful, so I gave you a sedative. Now that it’s settled into the wound, it will be numb for several hours. You’ll feel more yourself in a minute. Have a glass of water and sit up.” He pulled her upright and pressed a glass into uninjured hand. “You are a loud dreamer. I know a herb for that too, if you’re interested…”

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi clenched his teeth. He wanted to rip into the man for handling this so lightly. Back to work in no time? He didn't want her to go back to this at all! But if he ruined things now by refusing to cooperate with Laurius, all of Tenara's sacrifice would be wasted. What's more, despite his outrage, it was he and the sword that posed the greatest danger to Tenara right now, not Laurius. Who was he to judge the man's methods when he was putting off what he'd promised her mother he would do? If Laurius didn't find a way around this blood ritual nonsense, he would need to destroy the sword with his own hands.

He realized Laurius was still waiting for him. The man was focused when he wanted something; that much was clear. Havi sighed and sat across from the man, and explained for his notes exactly what he'd sensed and which senses he'd been able to share with Tenara while in the sword. He described the 'flow' state he'd been in once before with Tenara, where his instincts and senses had fed into hers during a battle and guided her attacks. He also explained less successful attempts at mental cooperation, like how he'd sought to pry information from an unconscious man in Arken. The man had woken up suddenly, and Havi nearly ended up trapped in his mind.

[Emora Deen]

Colonel met Tenara halfway back to Laurius’s side of the conservatory, swooping around her legs again. He trotted after her as she came into their space. Havitharon was speaking to Laurius and Laurius was writing feverishly.

It was night now. The world beyond the glass was pitch black, and candles warmed the space. Her tummy grumbled. She had eaten so little today, and now they were working through dinner it seemed.

“All done,” she said, showing off her bandage. “Your doctor should warn someone before he sedates them, though…”

Laurius set his quill down. “Are we good to continue?”

“I’m fine, thanks for asking. Doesn’t even hurt anymore…”

Laurius sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s just… we are behind. I need to collect as much data as possible…”

Tenara came closer to them. She picked up Havitharon’s sword and grabbed her skirts and began cleaning it. “Got a deadline to meet? We have no set return date…”

“I just need to know more,” he said, and edge of exasperation in his voice.

The next test was with magic… Which meant exposing Havitharon to her power and all the feelings that came with it. Yesterday, she would have never worried about what he would think of her magic rushing through him. But that was before last night… Her gaze drifted to him. She swallowed. “Do you feel… comfortable with the next tests?”

[Soran Nightblade]

Havitharon turned to her, looking at her bandage instead of meeting her eyes. "I think we should wait until you're fully rested," he admitted. "Especially if the doctor had you sedated, your body should have time to recover." He knew he was being overprotective, but he was allowed that much, wasn't he? He was still her designated bodyguard. He turned to Laurius like he was about to take a bone out of a dog's mouth. "We've covered a lot of ground already. Is there a specific stopping point you're hoping to reach tonight?"

[Emora Deen]

“I want to repeat the test with Tenara using magic, and then I will have collected enough data for today, Laurius said. “Half your days are going to be spent with Mrs. Felicity, reading. We should make use of the time we have.”

Tenara stiffened at the mention of the tutor. She balanced the sword against her uninjured palm, suddenly wanting a distraction. “One more test. At least we know I’ll sleep well afterwards,” she said, trying to make light of the fact the experiment would likely make her comatose at the end.

Laurius smiled as if he’s won some quiet war between him and Havitharon, settling back on his chair. “We’re in agreement, then?”