The Princess and the Blade

[Soran Nightblade]

*Tenara!* At the tone in her voice, Ren scrambled to his feet in a flurry of snow. She wasn't outside. She sounded frightened. Something was wrong. He burst back inside, forgetting to be afraid of the vampire suddenly staring at him, and rushed towards her cot.

Vlad noticed what he was doing and his attention snapped to Tenara. He crossed toward her, but Ren was faster.

The cat on her chest hissed and bolted as Ren approached, its claws digging into her clothes. "Tenara, you're safe. You're inside with me. Your parents are here too," Ren called to her without touching her.

[Emora Deen]

The urge to throttle Ren dissipated like sparks from a fire when Tenele realized he was trying to comfort her daughter. She edged closer, standing over him. The moment the cat bolted, and its claws scraped over her, Tenara jerked up, screaming like hell, loud enough to rattle the glass on the wall nearby. She grabbed at her chest, heaving air and searching the room. She looked terrified, and Tenele saw red blooming in her eyes.

Tenele brushed past Ren to sit next to Tenara, pulling the girl into her arms. She didn’t seem to want to be there, and fought for freedom, to look the room over one more time for something or someone. Her daughter felt uncomfortably warm to the touch, but it wasn’t fever. Wrathful magic bubbled to the surface, ready to lash out at whatever had frightened her. Luckily for them all, Tenara was too burned out, and the magic never rose above a smolder until it snuffed out.

“It was just a bad dream,” Tenele said. Tenara shook her head, kneading at her chest where the cat’s claws had caught in Havi’s borrowed clothes and skin. Tenele appraised Ren quietly. “You knew she was having a nightmare?” And he had tried to help comfort her… Tenele pursed her lips. The gratitude was in her eyes, even if it never made it past her lips.

—-


Laurius was in the middle of describing how uncomfortably hot the Citadel was, given its proximity to the volcano’s active mouth, when a terrified scream rattled through the air from the opposite side of his conservatory. He sat up on his bench, looking back down to the dull glow of lamps some hundred yards away.

“A nightmare,” he said, because there was no way any harm had come to her in the room with her family, in this place. No one would come looking for them here—yet.

Lelana had come up from the fountain, wet feet dripping onto the marble floors, ready to run back towards her family. The mention of the nightmare seemed to have reminded Lelana that they weren’t here chatting for no reason at all. Her attention snapped back to the merchant, a darkness stealing the mischief from her eyes. Her hand flexed up, red magic twining like snakes around long fingers.

The next thing Laurius knew, he and Havi were burning in his dining room again.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi had launched to his feet, same as the others, at the sound of Tenara's scream. Just a nightmare? Even if it was just a dream, wasn't it his job to reassure and protect...

A dark weight smothered his chest as he realized that wasn't his privilege anymore. He swallowed hard, glaring at the door, but something red distracted him. He turned toward the strange light to find Tenara's aunt standing over Laurius with magic weaving around her hands. Neither her nor Laurius's expressions looked right.

"What are you doing?" he asked the woman sharply.

_____________

Ren looked down at the floor, unsure what response Tenara's mother desired from him. Better not to hide anything... right? "She wears my pendant," he said carefully. He retreated several respectful steps back while the woman soothed her daughter.

[Emora Deen]

Lelana didn’t look at Havi. “None of your concern, Spiky, unless you want me in your head too.” Her gaze slowly slid to him, a warning. “He doesn’t deserve your sympathy.”

—-

Tenele held Tenara close, admiring Ren. She was reluctant to assign her daughter anymore otherworldly body guards—even in the realm of dreams. But the look in Ren’s eyes told her he would likely watch out for her daughter whether she asked him to or not.

“Havi,” Tenara murmured against her shoulder. “Is he okay? The… he was ill.”

Tenele looked to the sword sitting on the table and then her husband.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi hesitated. He didn't fully understand what was happening, but it sounded like she was saying she was hurting his mind. "He doesn't deserve your cruelty either," he said with less force than he'd intended. Normally, he could abuse his instincts without hesitation, to the point where he'd even attacked females who did things the wrong way at the wrong time. But it was so difficult to be harsh with her with the Hydris still wearing off inside him. Some part of him wanted to soothe the darkness in her eyes. Damn it!

"Let him go." The command cost him, like bending a mental finger against the direction of the joint.

____________________

Vlad held back a groan at his daughter's fixation on her bodyguard. "Spiky's grouchy, but fine. Your softhearted mother repaired him. He is making a plan with Marr in the other wing."

[Emora Deen]

Lelana snarled at the command, her gaze locking on the slack-jawed, glassy-eyed merchant where he stood. There was something in her eyes—a feverish, vengeful type of pain. Then, she growled and put her hand down. The spell on Laurius broke, and he wobbled on his feet before falling down on the bench.

He looked like he’d come out of something awful, his eyes wide and his body trembling. His gaze swept up to Lelana, and he shrank back from her.

“You are lucky Vlad has given you a task I am sure you’re not to return from,” she said, and stepped toward the far corner of the room. “Make your plans and be on your way.”

—-

Tenara nodded with relief, her arms tightening around her mother. Of course, she didn’t know about Knight’s treatment of the blade, or his order for the Ivis to not touch or speak to her again. And, she was still so tired. Much too tired to wonder, right now, what he was planning with Laurius. Her mother stroked her hair, and the gentle repetition of it was enough to lull her close to sleep again.

“I want to go home,” she whispered to her mother.

“In the morning. Your father just needs to rest,” Tenele replied. “You are safe here, even if it isn’t home.”

Tenara stared out the window, at the glint of falling snow. She wanted sun and sand. Home.

Somewhere along the way, she found sleep again.

[Soran Nightblade]

Laurius's panicked state was a bucket of icy water poured over what remained of the Hydris in Havi's system. He leveled a sharp glare on Lelana and was suddenly in no mood to appease her. "You promised a night's rest and supplies. This is not rest," he growled. The Ivis had moved to stand strategically between the woman and Laurius.

[Emora Deen]

Lelana turned sharply on them, and her side of the room seemed to grow darker. “Rest,” she said, spitting the word like a threat. She could put them out, if she wanted. Laurius knew that now. He put his hand on Havi’s shoulder, a tremble in his grip.

“Don’t anger her,” he warned, but it sounded more like a plea. The man melted into the bench. “We’ll rest.”

The darkness surrounding Lelana didn’t ebb. She sat down and watched them, a hawk seeing prey.

Laurius looked at Havitharon. “Tomorrow Vlad can drop us in the volcanic region of Arken, and we will make our way where we need to go from there.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi was a bit startled by Laurius's plea. He hadn't heard the man's voice like that, not even when they'd woken from the fire. "You have been there yourself, so you likely have some idea what supplies would be necessary to reach the Citadel," he spoke with deliberate civility to Lelana. "We will need clothes that are.... not these." He didn't even bother looking down at himself. By weight, he and Laurius were both likely wearing more of their own blood than fabric at this point.

"And, if the citadel is indeed rife with magic users like you, our chances of success would increase if we have a method of defense against magic." He thought it charitable that he didn't choose the word 'lunatics' instead of magic users. "At the very least, Laurius must have the sword... ideally with a failsafe should it leave his possession, if you are capable of engineering one."

[Emora Deen]

Lelana’s jaw set. “I should be able to manage such a thing.” She seemed offended by the suggestion, as if it irked her that she had not thought of such a thing first. Tenara likely wouldn’t have been injured by Havitharon if she had.

“We will need water. We can melt the snow into canteens to take with us. Water is scarce in the north west, and if you find it, it’s often poisoned by volcanic acid or sulfur,” Laurius added. Speaking on task seem to shake the ghost from him a little more, and he fell into the practical side of himself. “Plenty of water, clothes, money—if you have any—and a failsafe for the sword.”

“Maybe I should just come with you? I can protect the sword…”

“I think it risks us being recognized, your majesty,” Laurius said, too sweet. He did not want her as an adventure partner.

“We’ll see,” the woman said and stood and swayed toward the hall. “I’ll alert Vladimir to your list and work on your failsafe. You rest.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi held his tongue as the woman left the room. Having a powerful mage with them could aid their chances, but he doubted the benefits outweighed the liabilities of her mercurial nature. As soon as she was out of their presence, he whirled to inspect Laurius. "What happened just now?" He didn't know the man well enough to be sure how he would react to the concern, so he kept his tone analytical.

He was concerned, he realized. At some point, Laurius had become more than a necessary evil in their company. Maybe it was inevitable to have some sentimentality after dragging each other along the verge of death in their pursuit of Tenara and Ren.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius’s gaze shot up, looking like a man who had been caught stealing. He appeared like he wouldn’t answer, and then his shoulder’s slumped and the story tumbled out. “I don’t know. I was… I was in a nightmare. All the terrible things I had done or had not done by my own hands but were done because of me… It was so real, and somehow I was on fire the whole time. Which, in retrospect, makes no sense and should have told me it was a dream, but I could… feel the flames on my nerves. Only, it wasn’t real. Unless this is the dream. Part of the dream,” he said, looking up and around the room, searching for a flaw or a clue that this was his waking reality and not whatever Lelana had infected his mind with. “The strange thing is… I could tell she was holding back. That… it could be worse. So much worse…” Laurius didn’t understand if it was pity for him, or mercy for herself. “It would be helpful if she came but she seems unstable and vengeful and I have no desire to ever have her in my head again.”

He rubbed his head and eyes, looking fatigued but afraid to sleep.

[Soran Nightblade]

"You did not deserve that, whether she made you feel so or not," Havi growled. The nerve at the edge of his jaw twitched as he wrestled with his anger. He was feeling better, but there was still Hydris in his system. He couldn't let his emotions rule too heavily.

"Do not think of it," he ordered quietly. "Think of what is real. Think of how to retrieve the book. Think of what you will do after you return here." He almost didn't continue, unsure he knew the man's heart well enough to say it. But Laurius seemed truly desolate. "When Ren is at your side again, perhaps you will rebuild this place."

[Emora Deen]

Laurius nodded, and still seemed so far away. He looked around the conservatory, the only thing left of the estate he had built besides the groundskeeper’s cottage. Rebuilding would require money, and the only way he knew how to make money was by making dangerous things that dangerous people bought. It had never bothered him before—knowing his inventions went on to hurt or kill. Once they left his hands it left his mind, and he went on to the next project, and collected the next fee, and bought the next extravagant thing. But now he knew the face of hurt well, having seen the damage his business did on Tenara and her family. And how that damage had spread like disease, infecting Havitharon’s life, and then his own, and by connection, Ren’s.

“Maybe I’ll give it up,” he said aloud, shrugging. “Being rich was nice. Debauchery aside, expensive sheets and servants are luxuries I will miss. But maybe I was meant to be a pauper, or live in a whore house.” He snorted, leaning back and draping his arm over his eyes. “I’d make a good one.” It was mostly a joke, but he thought of Ren living alongside him as he rebuilt his wealth the old way, and how it would weave him in to every dark contract he made. “One bridge at a time,” he said. “Who knows how the future will go. Perhaps Ren is better off in Tenara’s hands than mine. He might enjoy the life she lives far better than mine. You and he can keep her company, and I will go back to my orgies and experiments.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi had begun feeding logs into the hearth from the container beside it. His posture stiffened at Laurius's last idea, his fingers gripping sharply into the log he was holding. "I keep forgetting that people on this world can throw partners away without a fuss. If that guy heard you say that, he'd probably beg you to do as you please." He turned on Laurius, looming over him. "But if you plan to discard him like that, you may as well slit his wrists for him and save him the trouble."

He snorted in disgust and chucked the log into the fireplace hard enough to shake old soot loose from the flu in a small cloud. "Have you not learned shit about him, or is it that he just never told you anything?"