Heirot

Vlad sat up slowly and looked at the glass next to him. "The spell will work, regardless of where we are. The version of us will be able to find and reach you, anyplace in the world, without breaking a sweat. I'm not sure where he would start out, but he would be at your command within moments if you called upon him. You are undeniably safe."

He was satisfied with the spell, but his voice was cold. "What does he hope to accomplish by sending this?" he said, too quietly.

"I'm not sure," she muttered, taking another long sip of wine. "But, I plan on drinking it. Its a terrible apology. Or maybe it isn't. So what if we rolled around in the sheets together? It was business I guess. We just... facilitated a transaction." Saying it like that diminished the romanticism of it greatly. Tenele wasn't sure why it bothered her to be basically ignored after that, but it did. In Tenele's mind it was the equivalent of having a one night stand with a crush and being ignored the next day, and she knew she shouldn't feel that way. It wasn't like she was after Atul, but that had been too intimate to be casual.

"Transaction..." Vlad muttered. His eyes began to glow like embers. He clenched the glass in his fist and hurled it across the room. It shattered against the stone wall. His eyes shot to the bottle, and it flew from the table into his hand. "I'll break this over his damned head," he snarled, rising to his feet and storming toward the door.

Tenele jumped up, running to her husband. She grabbed his arm and tugged him back as much as she could, but when Vlad wanted to go somewhere there was little she could do to stop him. "Don't do anything foolish! He's a diplomatic guest. Sinead will have you whipped again if you hurt him. Will you just cool your head. Its nothing. Its over. You get to sleep better at night knowing I'm safe. I'm sure Atul has his reasons..."

"I did not bring him to our bed as a transaction!" Vlad seethed. "Sinead can tell her goon to come at me with that pathetic toy all she likes, after she explains what the hell is going on here!"

Tenele stood in front of the door (like that would ever work with someone who can port anywhere he pleases). "Vlad," Tenele replied sternly. "Its okay. It doesn't matter anymore, okay?" She reached out for his face. "I understand that you don't share me lightly... But, we never have to do something like that again. And he didn't actually get to have me, that was you. So, that's okay."

Vlad stopped just in front of his wife, frowning down at her. "You would have me just leave him to his own decisions and disappear with tomorrow's ships, and accept a glass of wine as proxy for his friendship?"

Tenele shook her head "No," she muttered. "I'm not saying that. I'm just saying calm down before you go. So when you do see him you act rationally and not get into a fight." Tenele grabbed the front of his coat. "I don't want you to be punished again. So just breathe, and then we can go see him together?"

Vlad paused, staring at his wife. "I'm sorry, Tenele. I can't ignore this, even for you. And I don't want you to have to watch." He teleported away from her, the bottle gripped fiercely in his hand.

Unfortunately, Atul wasn't in his quarters. Vlad began porting around the castle in search of his so-called friend.

Tenele growled. Glaring at the place where her husband had momentarily been standing. She fumed as she stepped over to the wine glass that had shattered on the floor after he through it against the wall. She began picking up the pieces of glass, all the while growing angrier and angrier. He never listened to her. Never.

She could say she was sorry for something a thousand times and it took pulling teeth for him to forgive her. And then, when she tried to reason with him, to get him to calm his anger, he ported away. Yet, when she felt upset and wanted to get air and to be alone he threatened her.

Tenele's lost her balance while sitting on her heels to pick up the glass and pressed her hand into the floor to catch it. She hissed, drawing back her hand to find a sliver of glass trapped inside and red blood swelling around it.

Another aggravated growl rumbled through her, this being the last straw. If she couldn't get her husband to listen to her, maybe she could get them together a different way. One that wouldn't involve wiping Vlad's lash wounds in the morning.

She cradled her bleeding hand, mindful of the glass and stepped over to her side of the bed where the parchment laid open on the table. "Sagra ne reion."

Vlad was halfway across the grand corridor outside the conference hall and had just caught the sound of the demigod's voice inside when the spell took effect. "Oh no," he warned no one in particular before his form flickered and disappeared completely. Inside the conference hall, Atul was in the middle of a heated debate with Sinead and a ring of her advisors, when the same thing happened to him. The room was left mystified and staring at an empty chair.

The united identity of the two men took form before Tenele rather innocuously, surrounded by a faint blue glow as he first appeared. The magic faded off quickly and left him watching Tenele with a slightly tilted head. "I am here," he said to her. "I was not expecting to be summoned again so soon?"

Tenele couldn't answer him at first. She was too upset. So, instead she just huffed while holding her injured hand over a basin of water. She washed the blood away so she could get to the glass wedged inside.

"I'm sorry for calling you..." She glanced up to his perfect face and then back down at her hand. "I just didn't know what else to do. He infuriates me. He never listens. Never. Not once. He just goes off half-cocked. That's exactly why I didn't want him dealing with Verin, because of things like this." She reached for the glass trying to pinch it out and ended up wedging it deeper. "Ow!" She stomped her foot, huffing. "Then, he throws tantrums like a child and breaks things before storming out!"

He knelt in front of her as she worked at her injured hand and gently spread his fingers above hers. "Let me," he said quietly. The shard rose slowly from her skin until it was loose, then flew across the room into the fireplace. He took the small hand cloth from next to the basin and gave it to her to hold tightly around the cut. "I am not sure trying to clean glass with your bare hands is a healthy response to frustration, either. But we are all inclined to be drastic, when the conflict involves love."

Tenele pressed the cloth to her hand. "Thank you," she whispered, wrapping the cloth around her palm. "I lost my balance and caught myself on the floor, a part I hadn't cleaned yet. There wouldn't have been glass on the damned floor if he'd breathe before letting his anger swallow him."

She shook her head with a frown. "I shouldn't be venting to you. You don't deserve it," she muttered, shaking her head. "And I feel terrible that I used you to get them here."

He raised his eyebrows at her, his mouth twitching upward. "I don't mind," he said. "Though I doubt summoning me will easily resolve this issue. He reached a hand out, and all the glass, including each individual droplet of wine, rose up from the floor and confiscated itself in the fireplace.

"Now that your husband has behaved against your wishes, how do you plan to address this when he is returned to you?"