The Princess and the Blade

[Soran Nightblade]

"Laurius!" Havi gasped, but it was too late. Shit. What would the medicine even do to a male not from this world?

"I will not take it," he challenged Cera fiercely.

"You will, if you wish to have this fight."

"I will burn for no one but her!" His roar growled through the stone walls.

"At this rate, that seems unlikely," his sister smiled. "Do it and fight, or refuse and remain here. It makes no difference to me."

Havi glanced back at Laurius. "You would have me in an induced rut, before all your guests?" he said, this time for Laurius's benefit. "Do these people believe you can keep them safe?"

Cera flinched for the first time in the conversation, but didn't back down. "Make your choice, brother."

[Emora Deen]

Laurius looked at the cup in his hand with widening eyes. "A what? What the fuck did I drink?" he asked. He looked down at his crotch, expecting some monstrous, out of control bulge in his trousers. He didn't feel any different. He didn't even know how he should feel. But he remembered Ren's rut in the cave on the island. "Look, you can punch me but you can't fuck me, got it?" He was trying to be lighthearted, but it was also very serious. He reached out for Havitharon's cup and lifted it off the tray, passing it towards him. "We've got this. Tenara's waiting for you. Let's go home."

[Soran Nightblade]

"You idiot, a rut won't make you a woman to me, it makes you a rival," Havitharon hissed. Fuck. Fuck! He snatched the cup. "Listen to me if you want to live. Don't hold back, and don't play fair," he whispered fiercely. He glared up at the people watching him. Their curious eyes missed nothing. He had to drink. He braced himself, swallowed the cup's contents, and threw it to shatter against the wall.

Above them, someone yelled, "That's more like it!"

[Emora Deen]

Laurius didn't really understand what it meant to be a rival to Havitharon, at least not in the way he meant it. But the warning—don't hold back, and don't play fair—put him on edge. He took a slow step back, feeling a strange tingling sensation humming through his body. What was he supposed to do? Throw the first punch? He wasn't a fighter, and he had to take more than he gave to make this look real.

Don't hold back...

Laurius took a deep breath, a step forward, and threw his fist into Havitharon's jaw. Then, he promptly doubled over, clutching his hand. "Fuck! Are you made of stone?!"

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi grimaced at the pathetic excuse for a punch. Shit, he was going to kill him. Maybe if the merchant knocked him outcold before the medicine set in..."

His thoughts were interrupted by a spike of pain in his temples. He stumbled back as the pressure blurred his vision. Something ripped at the insides of his skull, his horns pounding with new growth his body wasn't supposed to be ready to supply yet. A slim gold ridge glowed around the base of all four horns, tinted orange by an ooze of blood. Blazing heat burned through his muscles and lungs. Heat that could only be settled by the one he served. In a few moments, he be too mad to tell friend from foe. He roared and staggered backward. "Hit me like I am," he strained. "Like I'm stone."

[Emora Deen]

Laurius gawked at him. What did that mean?! Hit him like he's stone? Feet. His feet. Laurius took a step back and then launched himself at Havitharon, bringing his boot up to strike the man in the stomach. He was not practiced in hand-to-hand combat. Laurius was an inventor. A weapons maker. He knew how weapons worked, how they functioned, how to wield them on a scientific level. But he did not know how to fight beyond the casual drunken, blind brawl—and really, he'd had few and far between experience in that. Drunk? Yes. Fighting? No. He wanted this over as soon as possible... He struck Havi once. It felt as useful as kicking a pillar. He reared back to deliver another kick.

A rush of heat burned through him, a flush turning his pale cheeks as rosy as a pretty sunburn. He didn't feel violent, but he felt manic, and perhaps that was the same thing to these people.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi barely felt the man's kick. Despair set into his bones. This wasn't going to work.

Then, the despair twisted into resentment. What had this asshole ever done right? Thanks to him, he was back in his own personal hell, and Tenara was...

The thought of Tenara sent rage twisting in his veins. When this asshole lost, he could return to her. Meanwhile, Havitharon would rot away in this place, fighting and fucking whoever his sister pleased. All because of this piece of human trash. Like hell he would just send him back to her. He reached out and caught Laurius's next kick, then twisted his leg ruthlessly to the side.

[Emora Deen]

One moment Laurius was on his feet and the next he was face-down on the rough stone floor beneath him with a screaming ache in his hip. Its okay, he told himself. Havitharon had to make this look real. He had to take the licks, the punches, and then he could... Well, win. Make it look like he'd won. He scrambled to his feet quickly, and whirled toward Havitharon. He saw the blood now, around his horns, and the wild look in his eyes. Did he feel as manic as Laurius felt? Laurius felt like he could run a thousand miles, leap a mountain, and fuck until the stars died out. He felt amazing. He couldn't even feel the ache in his hip anymore as he took a lunging step forward and planted his fist in the general direction of Havitharon's face.

---

The door had closed a while ago, and Tenara took up her perch on the edge of the couch. She watched the door for a while, looking as if she'd come out of her skin if even a pin dropped. She wondered how long it would take. It couldn't be too long, right? How long did fights usually last? A couple of minutes, perhaps? And then she and Havitharon could be together, and his sister could go kick some rocks. Of course, she did promise to patch Laurius up...

Tenara was up, pacing the room, forcing herself to think about something other than healing Laurius's broken nose. She glanced at the crevice in the wall wehre the silver box was hidden and her eyes flashed a dull red. The brick wobbled out of the hole and clattered to the stone floor. The nap, it seemed, had been good for her magic. She went to the silver box and pulled it from the hole, returning to the couch to root through its contents. It was filled with so many random things. A few objects that looked like gems, a gold ring that looked like it had been made from a spoon, vials of powders, a lock of Havitharon's hair—which still seemed odd for her to find in something so far removed from him. Then, she plucked a lone earring from the collection. It was long, but thin, a silver sword hanging from what looked to be a rough-cut sapphire, or this world's equivalent. She tucked it into her pocket, glancing at Ren as she did. "Thank you... for staying. I know you'd rather be out there with him. He'll be back soon."

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi threw a hand up and caught Laurius's punch, less easily than he expected. This one felt like it had strength behind it, compared with the previous attempts, but it wasn't enough to just be strong. Havi's grip on his fist tightened until the bones crunched under his long fingers. He used the arm to draw him forward, off balance, then released him and struck with both fists between his shoulders, slamming him to the stone floor again. He glared at the man's back, panting though he'd barely exerted himself. He was so hot. His burning muscles wanted to climb from his flesh.

______________

Ren sat close to the princess, watching her movements in quiet concern from the couch. She was so clearly distressed, and yet she was offering comfort to him. The more time he spent around her, the more he thought he understood why even the infamous Thvoros wanted to serve her. "Even if he is not back," he swallowed, "I brought you here. I will never leave you alone in this place." He held out a hand to her hesitantly, pale gray fingers awaiting hers.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius lost the air in his lungs, and the world went flashed bright. He found himself face down on the floor again, struggling to take a breath. His hand had burned—screamed, in fact—but then the feeling humming through him sort of dulled it. He grunted and rolled onto his back, looking up at Havitharon. He lifted his hand, looking at the way his fingers seemed to bend awkwardly, hang a little limp from his knuckles. He remembered how easily Havitharon had snapped Tenara’s wrist at Elias’s command, like breaking a matchstick. Real anger burned in the being’s eyes, and it was dawning on Laurius that he might truly be in trouble.

Laurius clamored to his feet, sucking a wheezing breath into his lungs. Don’t hold back, don’t fight fair. He kicked his leg out again, this time aiming for the sensitive place between the Ivis’s legs. At least, it was sensitive to humans.

——


Tenara looked at Ren’s outstretched hand, hesitating a moment before she slowly placed her smaller one in his. She wondered how much of his kindness was his instincts as an Ivis to serve a woman, and how much of it was friendly fondness. “He will be back,” she said softly, looking at their hands. “Havi promised…”

But what if something happened? His sister wouldn’t let Havi go so easily, would she? Tenara glanced at the door. “If… if his sister does something to rig the match…” Panic began to bloom in her chest, tightness curling around her heart. “Would she do something like that?”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren shook his head gently. "Marquess Ruthe is among the most powerful houses, and she built her reputation on the rule of law. Traditions and pacts are strictly followed. She will surrender Havi, provided that Laurius wins and no one from either house provides unfair interference in the match. Everyone from your house is currently in this room, and nobody in house Ruthe would...."

The rest of the sentence dissolved in his throat. Thvoros... Thvoros was still part of house Ruthe. His fingers twitched around hers. "Princess," he whispered. "There is something she might try."

_______________

Havi blinked as the merchant once again stood faster than he would have believed possible. The new challenge brought a yellow glow to his eyes. If Laurius could put up a proper fight, then he wouldn't hold back, either. The back of thoughts warned him of something, like a flag waving in his peripheral vision, but it seemed to vanish every time he tried to focus directly on it. The distraction cost him. His underestimated foe's next blow caught him straight between the legs. Havi stumbled backward, gasping back rage and nausea.

There was murmuring at the edge of the room at the strange tactic, but this was not to be a refereed fight. There were no illegal moves, and no one to step in if they went too far.

Whatever warning his mind had been trying to give Havi was drowned out now by his growing fury. He wanted to kill everyone in this room. The ones who drugged and baited him into this match, the ones who had forced him to end one life after another in this disgusting chamber, the one who had taken his Yurivis from her home and forced him back into all of it.

"Hands up, you piece of shit," he snarled at Laurius, and launched in with a heavy punch.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara didn’t like the look on Ren’s face. “What? What would she try?”

—

Laurius hit the ground, his head swimming. He tasted blood and spit it on the ground as it swelled in his mouth. He felt it run hot from his nose, and over his lips.

“Fuck, Havitharon,” he spat, pushing up to his hands and knees. Again, the pain seemed to dull, but the dizziness didn’t. He swept his eyes up to the being, seeing two of him.

Rival. Havitharon saw him as a rival because of whatever he drank? Laurius tucked his broken hand close and launched himself at the being, trying to come up behind him and get his arm around Havi’s throat. It was a poor attempt to put Havitharon into a headlock, mostly because he was absurdly tall. Laurius felt a little like he was climbing a mountain, made even more difficult by the fact he now only had one working hand.

He slid down Havi’s back as he lost his grip, imagining he looked rather pathetic. Havi was going to squish him like a little bug, and Laurius couldn’t argue with him for it. He deserved to be squished after what had happened to Tenara and Ren. He thought, for a moment, about lying down and giving up before Havitharon could crush his sternum and heart. But then, that would leave Ren to the woman sitting next to Havitharon’s sister. He wasn’t just fighting for Havitharon to be with Tenara—he was fighting to be with Ren, too.

Laurius grunted and launched himself at Havitharon again, this time hauling himself up by grabbing one of Havitharon’s larger horns with his remaining functional hand, and curling his damaged arm tight around Havitharon’s neck.

“Get a grip,” he snarled in Havitharon’s ear. He pressed his dizzy head into Havitharon’s temple, an intimate looking gesture. “Kneel. Give up.” He spat blood again, a molar clattering to the stone. “If you kill me, you lose her, and while that will be awful for you, it might destroy her.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi was ready to try ripping Laurius's arm off when the man took hold of his horn. His battle instincts didn't prepare him for that.... it was one type of attack that just was not done. A male did not touch another male's horns, because they were the property of his Yurivis. Sudden numbness wrenched the Ivis to his knees. He stared into Laurius's eyes with wild rage, but he was too startled to regain control of his limbs and overpower him... yet.

"Kneel. Give up."

The flags were there again in the corners of his mind, trying to tell him something while Laurius's words came in and out. "If you kill.... -stroy her...."

Above them, the spectators were openly exclaiming to each other about the direction the fight had taken. To them, it was a shocking sight. To Havi, it was a source of newly budding relief. Some of Laurius's words had gotten through. It felt fucking awful, but it gave him just enough forced stillness to think straight. "Good," he wheezed, even as he struggled in the man's grip. "Don't...let go. I'll kill you. Rip it off if you have to."

His hands clamped around the man's arm, claws digging in and trying to pull him away, but there was less strength than he'd had before. The normal Laurius shouldn't have been able to outmuscle him, even in this state, but there was something different about the merchant as well.

_____________

Ren stumbled over his thoughts as his anxiety redoubled. "If she does not believe Thvoros will fight in good faith, there are ways to strip him of his reason." He met her eyes, wide with alarm. "Until now, he has had a clear motivation to win. But if she believes that he actually wishes to stay with you..."

[Emora Deen]

Laurius knew he should be screaming. That was the right thing to do when razor-like claws were digging into your arm and separating muscle from bone, but it felt like a scratch. An itch. He clutched Havitharon’s horn harder, pulling back at the same time he dug his knees into the man’s back. “Just give up!” Laurius wheezed. For some reason air was getting hard to come by, and when he breathed he made a rattling sound deep in his lungs. He’d sort it out later. “Focus. You have to lose. You have to lose!” He pulled harder on Havi’s horn, not believing he had the strength to tear it from his head, and not that he wanted to. Tenara already hated him, what would she think if he mutilated the creature she loved?

—

Tenara was shaking her head, not understanding what he was trying to say, and feeling a weight grow in her belly. Of course his sister believed he would side with her—he had never accepted a female until she came along. “What did she do, Ren?”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren grimaced, no longer meeting her eyes. "If it was me, I would induce a rut. It's not good for the male's body, but it can be done. The pain could be enough to drive him from his senses, and if he was trapped with another male...one that had already hurt his Yurivis..."

Was that why they hadn't allowed her to watch? Because only his Yurivis could calm him?