The Princess and the Blade

[Emora Deen]

"Burnt out?" she asked, touching his horn a moment longer before pulling her hand away. "Is that what happens if you don't find a Yurivis while in rut?" Tenara frowned. She couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for the poor Ivis. He had no control over what was done to him, and no way to fulfill the obligations of his biology as an incorporeal being. "What exactly is burning out?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi resisted the temptation to follow her hand as it left his horn. "The flame goes untamed, and burns out from within." He shrugged as if it were something normal. "He will be desperate to return before that happens. Physical discomfort aside, it is a mark of shame for a bonded Ivis to go untamed. It means he has lost favor, or is being punished. With horns like his, he's been bonded since puberty. He's never burned out before; he'll want to avoid a black ring at all costs."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara pursed her lips. He wouldn't be able to avoid it as a ghost... Even if he could be corporeal, would Laurius understand what the being needed or let him find it? Tenara looked at Havitharon's horns again. She wondered what his life had been like on his world, walking around with black horns instead of gold. He'd likely held his head high. No one had been able to tame him. Would he still hold it high if he were there now, after being with her?

Bonded... Was that what they would be after his next rut? He said there was a way to make their connection permanent...

Tenara smoothed a hand over her face, slipping back down into bed. "I should sleep... Just a little bit longer. We don't have to meet him until noon. Will you hold me?"

----

Two hours later, Tenara dragged herself out of Havitharon's arms and showered. She told the maids who brought them breakfast to ready the rose garden's solarium for their lunchtime meeting with Laurius and his employer, and to have the guards direct them to it once they arrived.

At noon, Tenara walked through the garden wearing a dusty rose, off-the-shoulder dress. Her silver hair was twisted up, pinned with a gold hairpin in such a way as to look relaxed—effortless. Strands of silver tickled along her neck as the wind blew through the garden, smelling of sea salt and flowers. She was alluring, a pretty rose to take from a pretty garden, and might have seemed easy to pluck if not for the black belt looped around her waist and the sword bumping along her thigh. She appeared alone, sweeping through the garden towards the solarium at its center, but Havitharon treaded just at her side.

No one could see him but her. It remained to be seen if Laurius would be able to do the same. She would watch his eyes. If he looked Havi's way...

Tenara would indulge his employer, and then try and pawn his attention off on one of her parents for him to make his business proposition... Then, she'd ask Laurius to linger behind, maybe to take a stroll through the garden, and she'd get the answers they needed about the sword. Perhaps Havi would get his own answers as to how the Ivis knew him.

[Soran Nightblade]

Laurius Mar and Jim Preshton had already been seated at a gazebo overlooking the garden pond and fountain. Laurius rose as soon as he noticed her presence, with Lord Preshton ambling up a moment later, his older bones moving slowly. Mar stepped forward to kiss her hand in greeting, his red hair aflame in the sunlight. "Princess," he greeted. He gave no indication of noticing the spirit at her side. "You remember my Patron, Jim," he introduced Preshton again.

Havi studied them both from behind Tenara's shoulder. He didn't see any sign of the other Ivis. "I don't think he's wearing the knife," he said beside her ear.

"You look radiant, my dear," Preshton gushed as he took her hand lightly in greeting. "Will your father be joining us?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenara smiled at both Mar and Preshton despite the uncertainty Havitharon's observation bloomed in her. "Yes," she said. "One of them should be along soon. If both of them are tied up, then they might send my mother, if that's alright."

The princess's gaze swept to Laurius and over him. To anyone else, it might have appeared flirtatious, but Tenara was trying to assess if Havitharon was correct in his assertion that the dagger was not on the mysterious bodyguard.

A minute later Atul swept into the garden, flanked by two guards who took up a post far enough away to offer some measure of privacy but close enough to spook any potential threats on his life. "You'll have to forgive me," he said as he settled at the table. "My advisor double-booked me, and I need to meet with the Sable dignitaries before they head home. If it seems your proposal is running over, would you care to join me on the walk down to the docks to see them off? That is, if your guard thinks you'd be safe within the care of my own?" Atul glanced at Laurius.

[Soran Nightblade]

Preshton's eyes lit up at the idea of a private walk with the king. "I should be very pleased to go, if you'd excuse me," he grinned at Laurius.

"I'm hardly your keeper," Mar said with a smile, waving them off.

When the king and lord had departed, he returned to his seat at the table with Tenara. "A beautiful garden," he admired, crossing his legs and looking out at the pond. We have few like this where I hail from. The Border is rather more... rustic." He turned to his host and appraised her. "Quite a reversal from last night; you, armed, and I emptyhanded."

[Emora Deen]

"Well, last night, I was obeying the rules and you weren't," she said, grinning. "And, as you can see, my weapon of choice can't be hidden beneath my clothes." She took up a piece of melon and popped it into her mouth. "It's nice you feel so comfortable in my home to leave your weapon behind. I hope he isn't too lonely where you've tucked him away."

[Soran Nightblade]

Laurius smiled. "Phage welcomes the privacy, I'm sure. Not that I know his mind particularly well. He doesn't express himself quite as... openly as your guard. I'm surprised he's not here; hopefully he wasn't too harshly punished after last night's debacle." He clicked his teeth. "Whatever the Arken prince said, it certainly seemed to provoke him. Manners and royalty do not always make a kind pair."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara smiled genuinely at his takedown of Elias, so pleased he thought ill of the Arken prince that she almost forgot his admittance to not being able to see Havitharon. She glanced in Havitharon's direction, but it was like she was admiring the glint of the sun on the fountain.

She plucked a grape and ate it as she filled his glass with white wine. Tenara mulled what to say to the strange man who made a dagger with a soul inside it and acted as if he had no magic. "I'm sure my guard was justified in his anger towards Prince Elias. Unfortunately, the Prince is a diplomatic guest in our home and is protected. I feel for Havitharon. He was only trying to protect me..." Tenara brushed a loose strand of silver behind her ear. "This... Phage," she said softly. "He was a prototype, you said? You're not a mage, but you summoned him? It boggles my mind how such a thing is done."

[Soran Nightblade]

Laurius's wine glass hesitated as it reached his lips. "The method is proprietary, but I suspect you're already aware that magic is an ingredient in a recipe. The caster needs only to stir." He looked at Tenara pointedly, but didn't look pleased. "And regardless of one's culinary prowess, the outcome of a recipe is only as good as the quality of its ingredients."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara bristled. She wasn't certain what he was implying. Did he know she had been an ingredient in the spell he sold? Her jaw tightened and she counted to herself, easing the anger. "I didn't mean to offend," she said, shifting uncomfortably in her seat and blushing. She needed to calm him. He wouldn't tell her anything if she made him upset. "I just... My family, as you can imagine, is full of magic. It is hard for me to see a way through things without it being explicitly entangled with someone... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to steer the conversation here. I am curious, but let's talk about something more enjoyable to you? You wanted to get to know me as much as I wanted to know you, correct?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Laurius studied her for a few moments too long to be by mistake. "Perhaps we are both guilty of finding more interest in one another's weapons than personalities," he mused, eyes sparkling. "But every flame must start with some spark, mustn't it?" He threw back a generous sip of wine and smiled. "Lord Preshton is currently seeking favor with your father to expand trade with his metalworks at the border. It's no doubt a risky proposition... the area is politically turbulent, at best. Perhaps you'd like to accompany us there for a time. Verify the security of the routes and broker a deal personally? I live nearby to the ironworks. My guest wing is not as grand as your palace, but it is quite a bit less.... stifling. And we could get to know one another at our leisure."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara tried to hide her surprise. She glanced at Havitharon again. It was... a lot... for him to ask her to stay in his home. "I do like travel," she admitted, smiling. Tenara refilled his glass and her own. "Can I ask... and I'm not trying to seem ungrateful for your offer. I am very interested. Can I ask... why you would want to get to know me?" She met his gaze, a glint of mischief in her eye. "There are five hundred letters in my father's office from men who want to marry me. Is that your intention? Do you want to be a king?"

[Soran Nightblade]

He chuckled gently. "Not I. Kings are like slaves. You've played chess. Sure, they possess power, but they have too much to protect. They can never move freely. I prefer to be a rook.
No one stifles the rook. They can bide their time, and navigate the board freely when opportunity suits them." He shrugged. "As for my interest in you... you don't make sense. It is rare for the chef to lay dead while his main ingredient walks free with fork and knife in hand."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara paled, her face falling slightly as she met his eyes. He... knew. The scar on her chest, the mark that spoke of Havitharon's entry into the world, ached with the memory of the sword. For a second, she was back in Arken, sword through her, power bounding out of her—dying and remaking all at once.

Tenara lost all sense of playing coy. "The chef underestimated his abilities in the kitchen," Tenara said, her voice like ice. "Is your interest in me experimentation, then? Did you tell Arken's Crown Prince to use me specifically, or did I fit your criteria? What is it, I wonder, that makes me the perfect ingredient in your little recipe?"