The Princess and the Blade

[Emora Deen]

Tenara looked at her father. “No,” she said, shaking her head. She didn’t feel hurt. She felt drained, like she always did after using magic. Only, maybe slightly better, which should have been impossible given all the magic she had used… Maybe it was adrenaline still shoving her forward, or perhaps because her father helped her. “I’m fine, but Havitharon…” She reached for her sword, fingers grasping at the air. Her mother stooped and picked it up, hissing at how hot it felt in her hand.

Laurius weakly pulled Ren into his arms and curled over him. “You bastard. You fool. I thought I lost you! What if…” Laurius, for some reason, couldn’t finish the words. He didn’t even worry about why the giant god had—

Well, that did take his attention for a moment. He rolled his eyes up to the tall, impossibly beautiful being with hair of midnight and mismatched eyes.

“I have three fathers…” Tenara’s voice echoed in his head. She wasn’t lying. She wasn’t crazy. She did have three fathers—and one of them was a god and all of them were going to kill him.

He sighed and melted down along Ren’s side. At least Ren was here. At least he wasn’t there or gone. He eyed the red orbs still hanging around Ren, like flies around food. He frowned at them, but pressed his cheek to Ren’s. “You’re a fool,” he muttered. “But you are my fool.”

It occurred to the merchant that he still hadn’t found Ren’s blade, but he was certain it had to be somewhere around them. After all, Ren was here.

[Soran Nightblade]

You are my fool.

"Ass," he scoffed. He was happy. He was so happy he'd gotten them back here. He closed his eyes and relished the man's weight along his side, even as his nerves spat out warnings at him. The air felt hot and then cold, back and forth. He was too tired to even have questions about the stranger who had saved them. He could hear Tenara speaking quietly with her mother, and that had to be enough for now. He closed his eyes to a fresh wave of dizziness. He wanted nothing more than to lay on the ground like this until his master found rest.

But, it would probably be best to confess the situation sooner rather than later. "Master. I apologize, but... I couldn't retrieve your knife."

Knight frowned at the weapon, reaching out to lift it safely from his wife's hands. "What has happened to your guard? Why does the metal burn?"

[Emora Deen]

Laurius frowned, not sure he heard Ren right. He didn’t have the dagger? How could he be here without it?

“Oooo,” a musical voice said from above them, followed by the rush of fabric as someone knelt. “I haven’t seen shattered soul stones like this. So pretty.” Lelana reached out a hand to tap one, and it danced along her finger. “Poor thing. If you don’t find a place to store these then they—and you—are going to putter out of existence. Hmmm… Be right back.”

Lelana disappeared, leaving Laurius dizzy and bewildered. He sat up on shaking arms, turning his attention more fully on Ren and the swirling, flickering red orbs. He turned his attention to the woman, and found her raiding a pile of corpses nearby—the bodies of the ones Elias had slain for the spell that took them to Ren’s world.

A moment later, the strange woman returned with a collection of stolen items—a gold ring with a ruby, a sapphire amulet, a well-carved flute, a boot, a wooden leg, and a gold tooth. “Take your pick! If you don’t like these there’s more where this came from. I think I saw a glass eye.”

—-

Tenara struggled with a way to explain to her father what was wrong with Havitharon, and what she could do to help him. “He was drugged and injured, and the medicine he was given is conflicting with the substance.” She sat up in her father’s arms, reaching trembling hands out for the sword. “I can help him but I… I have to go. I have to do it alone.”

She had only just gotten back, just found them, just found safety. They wouldn’t let her leave. She didn’t want to leave. But she wanted to help Havitharon more than anything else.

[Soran Nightblade]

Knight tilted his head at his daughter's words, evaluating the sword in his hand. *What is this about, guardian?*

Havi voice was strained as it reached Knight's mind. *If she tries to help, it will place a huge strain on her. My problem will pass on its own.*

The god nodded his understanding of the words he alone had heard. "Child of my blood, Havitharon declares himself safe. I must ask you to entrust him to me for a short while. You have just suffered a dangerous journey that could shock even the strongest of souls."

__________

Ren lay still in Laurius's lap. He couldn't follow what was going on. His thoughts were too blurry to truly panic at the way his limbs were gradually going numb. "I meant to hold you as you rested... why is it the opposite?" His thoughts meandered dizzily. "You valued that knife," he mumbled.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara began to shake her head, frustrated tears burning her eyes because she had already anticipated her father’s disagreement. But then, his words filtered through her barely prepared protest.

Havitharon declares himself safe.

She thought about his burning skin, the sounds he made, the touch of his hand on her neck and his song… But he didn’t want her to help him. He was in rut and he didn’t want her.

“Safe…” she said, her voice tight. Inside the sword, he couldn’t do whatever it was that Ivis did when they were in rut and untamed. He didn’t need her to help him. Why did that hurt so badly?

Tenara cleared her throat, turning her flustered gaze away and finally taking in where they were. Her gaze locked on a tent a short distance away, her face growing paler.

“Tenara,” her mother whispered, brushing her hair from her face. “Rest. You can tend to your sword when you aren’t the same color as the snow.”

—

“It’s not the blade I’m fond of, you—“

“Pick pick pick!” Lelana chittered above them. “Before he goes poof.” She exaggerated the possibility with a fluttering explosion of fingers. “Oh, maybe we should see if the ring fits fir—“

“The amulet!”

“Oh, lovely choice,” Lelana said, scooping up the gold necklace with the sapphire.

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren pressed his face deeper against Laurius's leg. It was getting harder to feel things. He wanted to feel him for as long as possible. He had the vague awareness that Laurius and the strange Yurivis were looking for something. The knife again? He should explain that it was gone. Had he done that yet? He should comfort him. "Lost the knife," he muttered into the fabric. "You're back. Safe."

___________________

Havi's senses were so heightened they were painful. He hung on their words, his soul clenching when Tenele said Tenara was the same color as the snow. The need to kneel before her, to warm her and soothe her, was like a blade between his ribs.

That was what HE needed. What she needed was safety and rest. His Yurivis was what mattered. The only thing that mattered.

But he'd never ridden out a rut from inside the sword before. In this form, he was just a swarm of nerves and sensations with no outlet to pursue or relieve himself.

He must have made some sort of noise, because Knight's grip tightened on the sword. "Guardian?" the god asked, peering at the smoldering weapon in confusion. Knight looked at Tenara and the blatant worry on her face, and wondered if he could trust any of them at their word about their needs. "What care does he require? Whatever it is, I will provide it."

[Emora Deen]

Lelana laid the amulet in the snow next to Ren, chuckling at his apparent delirium. She sat back on her heels and rested her palms flat on her legs. “It’s been a while since I did any soul work, but… It shouldn’t be too hard. Worst case, he’ll flutter out of existence either way.”

Laurius snatched her wrist. “I will give you whatever you ask, just put him somewhere safe.” Laurius barely believed the words leaving his lips. Who had he become?

Lelana’s eyes brightened, a wicked grin springing to her face. “Oh, that was a mistake, Mr. Merchant, but I will do as you ask.” The sorceress slit her palm open with a small knife dangling like a charm from a bracelet, and squeezed drops of blood in a circle on the snow around the amulet. As she did, she began to chant. Her chanting grew rhythmic, like the beating of drums, and she beckoned the fading lights towards her, and then down into the amulet. At first, they skittered over its surface, and she frowned disapprovingly at them. They seemed to shy away from her, and then like obedient children, went to bed within the sapphire, turning it the color of blood.

Lelana sighed, smiling as she reached down and plucked the amulet from the snow. She held it up to her chest, admiring how the new jewelry might look on her. “Can I have it after Vlad eats you?”

—-

Her father’s question snatched her attention from the tent. “I… You can’t provide it and I can’t tell you what it is.”

Tenele bristled. “He said he was safe. There is no care to be given. Rest.”

Tenara shook her head, managing to clamor up from her parents and take a step back. She held out her hand. “Please, let me have the sword.”

Tenele rested her hand in Knight’s arm. “You need to rest, Tenara. We just pulled you from another world! After you were taken by Arken—again. You can’t run from one thing to the next like the other hasn’t happened.”

“I can!” Tenara shouted, red flashing in her eyes. The moment it did, her knees wobbled and she sank down in the snow. The silence was a painful weight crushing her into the cold. Of course she wanted to run from one thing to the next. She needed to. It was how she survived. How she kept from falling apart—always torn between wanting to be still and wanting to come out of her skin. Especially when the place where Elias had abused her was little more than fifteen feet away, feeling like a living thing, a predator prowling at the edge of her safety.

“What does he need?” Tenele finally asked, her voice soft and sympathetic—as if she understood her daughter’s mania to some degree. And that’s what it was, wasn’t it? Mania. Panic. “We can provide it, or some measure of it.”

Tenara bent forward and put her face in her hands and laughed sadly. “I can’t tell you.” Oh, well, she could. But then, she would fade out of existence from embarrassment—hi, yes, unfortunately the only way to fix my guardian is to fuck him into oblivion.

“Commands,” Laurius said, reaching out for the amulet Lelana was teasing him with. “Commands will suffice until she’s well.”

Commands. Why couldn’t she have thought of “commands” instead of having a meltdown and sounding like a child? Because there was commanding Havitharon and commanding Havitharon, and her mind always went to the latter.

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren jerked, his hands fisting in Laurius's clothes. His skull pounded, and he had the strangest sense of being swallowed whole. Whatever they were talking about, it became a soup of noise in his head. He clenched his eyes and wondered if he was dying.

But a moment later, whatever was consuming him seemed to change its mind. His senses trickled back to him in waves, and Laurius's presence became solid and real over him. His body felt like a whipped rag, but the numbness was gone. "I'm. How did you..." he croaked.

___________

Knight blinked at his daughter. "Commands?" He glanced down at the sword. How could an object with no agency fulfill commands? *"Alright. Explain how you ended up in that portal."* he ordered the sword.

Havi's temper flared. He should want to give Tenara's family information that could help her. But enmity boiled up in him at the thought of this man controlling him.... of anyone but Tenara even touching him. Nevertheless, the sword's rules were in play whether he liked them or not, which outraged him further. "Arken came to Laurius's manor. They took Tenara and Artisuren, and left us for dead in a fire."

He paused to gather his focus. The thought of it just made him angrier. It was difficult to form words. "Artisuren persuaded Elias to let him open the portal because he knew Tenara would be safer on our world." The words carried loathing, even accusation, as if everyone here was complicit in creating this abominable place that allowed males to mistreat Yurivie so.

[Emora Deen]

Lelana reluctantly handed over the amulet to Laurius as the man smoothed his other hand across Ren’s forehead. “You were lucky I’m here,” she said to the adorable horned man, tapping him on the nose. “But your boyfriend’s luck might run out very soon. His note was incredibly vague on how he lost a princess entrusted into his care…”

Laurius ignored the witch. All he really wanted to do was sleep, but he couldn’t. They weren’t safe here. “There was a sorceress here when I left—a Black Sister. Did you dispatch her, or was she gone when you arrived? There may have been two of them.”

“The other was sent out by Elias to…” Tenara faded off. “To clean up my breadcrumbs.” The princess was eyeing her third father, her hands twisting in her lap. She seemed to long to know what was going on between her father and the sword until she said, “What are you asking of him?”

[Soran Nightblade]

"I ordered him to explain what happened to you. He's doing a rather shallow job," Knight noted.

Ren's countenance changed when Lelana implied what might happen to Laurius. "Thank you for helping me," he said, shoving himself up to his feet. He stared her down like he was about to try to wrestle a tornado. There was no physical threat in his posture, but his eyes held a firm challenge. "But you need get back from him now. Please."

His heart pounded in his ears. He was directly challenging a Yurivis for the third time in as many hours.

[Emora Deen]

Lelana grinned at Ren. “I like you,” she said. “But it’s not me you should worry about…”

“No one has answered my question,” Laurius said, reaching out to grip Ren’s hand. “Did you see her?”

“No one was here but the boy who followed you through the mountain,” Tenele said.

The boy. Laurius had forgotten about him in all that happened. He looked around, unease pushing aside where relief had found a home.

“Is there a problem?” Tenele asked, her gaze finally leaving her daughter to settle on him.

Laurius glanced at Ren, then Tenara. None of them were in any shape to flee. “The Black Sisters are dangerous. Just… be alert. If one of them saw you arrive, they may have gone for reinforcements.” Laurius could only imagine the glee Milandra felt at realizing she had a chance to capture Tenara’s infamous parents. It would certainly help her survive when explaining to Shea how she had lost a second son—unloved though he might be.

Laurius looked to Tenara’s true father, and decided there was little need to worry. The being looked like he could snap his finger and crush the stars from the sky.

Tenara was still focused on her father, even if her eyes had grown heavy and the urge to lie down in the snow had settled deep in her bones. The adrenaline had burned itself out, quick as a match, and the price for the magic she’d used would be steep once she gave in. There was a bud of panic at the thought of him asking, in the privacy of communing with the sword, a question Havi would be unable to resist answering… But, then, she found she was too tired to worry about that too. “He prefers—his kind, the males that is….” Tenara leaned into her mother, and felt sadness choke her. The world was quieting, the fever in her head and heart mellowing, and she felt shame replace the panic as exhaustion crushed her down. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry I yelled at you both. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I love you. You saved us, and I—“

Tenara went limp in Tenele’s arms, with her aunt drawing her hand away from the girl’s temple.

“Lelana!”

“What? The poor thing was spinning like a top. I just put her to sleep so she can reset, I didn’t trap her in a realm of nightmares.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Knight cast a critical look at Lelana. "That wasn't your call to make," he said, though he couldn't disagree with her logic. There were times where the mind was simply too overloaded to function, and the most merciful option was to turn it off and on again. He scanned the scene around him.

The unfamiliar male who had been disintegrating while trying to usher Tenara through the portal was standing before Laurius Marr like he expected a slew of arrows to come at him. Laurius was rambling about some sisters he'd never heard of, and Tenara's guardian was apparently on a bad drug trip and barely verbal. It was clear that they were missing large chunks of the story behind his daughter's current emotional state. He didn't have enough information to decide what to do with any of them.

"You," he called to Ren. He seemed to be the least incapacitated of the group, not that that was saying much. "Stand down."

"Do not harm him," the Ivis warned, not budging. "You must swear."

"I cannot promise his safety. You, on the other hand, I have no quarrel with. Come here and explain what's going on. I swear to listen to you first."

Ren shook his head, not even bothering to bluff that he could win against the strange male. "You will not harm him today," he negotiated, despite clearly having no upper hand.

Knight eyed him curiously. "I will not harm him today," he acquiesced.

Ren lowered his fighting stance with a shaky breath.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius held the amulet tight in his hand as watched Ren negotiate with the god. He wondered if the amulet worked the same way as the sword, if he could communicate through it, or if he could call Ren into it to preserve him from any harm should the god grow irritated with him. How would he call him back out if he could get into the amulet? There was no blade to slice his hand. No easy way to offer his life force as payment. The merchant glanced to the sorceress standing over the queen and her daughter.

Tenele eyed Ren and his similarities to the being trapped in Tenara's sword. She had not met him at the palace, but had remembered Tenara telling them she had seen him. At the time, he had been invisible to their eyes. But now, he was as real as the last one.

"Havitharon promised me he would abandon Tenele if his presence caused her danger..." she said, but didn't expect the horned man to know of her request of his brethren.

"They were not after the sword when they took her," Laurius said without realizing it, then clamped his mouth shut. Ren had just negotiated a momentary period of safety for him, and he knew if he kept talking he risked that safety. So, he let Ren speak, and trusted the being to paint things in a light that would not get him killed.

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren swallowed, gathering his nerves. "Thvoros? Abandon the princess? I don't believe you. Why would he promise such a thing?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenele bristled at this stranger questioning whether what she said was true. She met his eyes. "He said, if his presence put her in danger, he would leave her. I never asked how he planned to, only that he had conviction to keep her safe. This is not safe. What happened?"