Heirot

Ren looked up at Laurius and what he was about to do. For him. Again. His eyes took on a wild look, and he turned away as if that would stop it from happening.

*Not again. Please!*

For a moment, something invisible physically stopped Laurius's hand from finishing the cut.

Havitharon's gaze flashed to Ren. The man was shaking with some immense effort. Havi's thoughts worked quickly, and he immediately slapped the Ivis across the face. Laurius's hand came back under his control as Ren staggered sideways. Havi caught and steadied him with a firm hand. "Never try that when they're awake. It'll fuck you both up," he snapped at Ren.

Ren pressed a hand to his throbbing head and stared at Havi in genuine confusion. He obviously did something, but he didn't know what.

Laurius paused. “Try what?”

Tenara shifted on her feet hesitantly. Had Artisuren tried to possess a part of Laurius?

The businessman looked at Tenara. “Never try what?”

“Ugh… they can possess us. Havi has done it a few times, but only when necessary.” She glanced at the Ivi.

Laurius looked at the beings with a new wariness. “How did you discover this ability?”

“Elias drugged me, and I lost control of my body. It was by accident. I think Havi was just trying to help… and he just, well, slipped in.” It was all fuzzy. She just remembered the terror of not being in control, of possibly never being in control again.

Laurius pinched the bridge of his nose. “I need paper and the book. There is so much we should document.” He paced back and forth, a sort of existential need washing over his face. He settled, as if coming to some internal understanding, and looked at Ren as he drew the blade across his palm.

Ren twitched as Laurius's power carved through him, commanding him whole. The energy was familiar this time, the same that had called to him when he was lost in the sea. The ache in his skull faded so quickly that it was euphoric. He threw off Havi's hand and pushed back up to his feet. He wasn't crazy enough to slap the larger Ivis back, but he clearly wanted to.

Laurius hissed, squeezing his hand shut before pressing it against the fabric of his tattered cutoff trousers.

“Let me see it,” Tenara sighed, gently reaching for his hand. He relinquished it to her, and she tsked at it. “If we experiment often, you’re going to have as many scars as me.”

“Though, not as lovely,” he admitted, glancing at her iridescent markings.

She hesitated at his choice of words. “We don’t have enough bandages to keep you out together,” she warned again. “Maybe we should—“

“Find a different way to summon them?”

Tenara pursed her lips. She knew no other way. “I could…” She bit her lip, uncertain. “You wouldn’t need bandages if I healed you.”

Havi listened soberly as they brainstormed the most efficient way to damage themselves. He crossed his arms and waited beside Artisuren. It wasn't like he couldn't relate to what the other Ivis had tried. But Tenara's goals were important, too. He was at least reassured that she was properly thinking through her priorities. "Don't get carried away. These sacrifices are theirs to make," he said quietly to Ren.

Ren snorted. "They can do whatever they want."

Laurius appraised Tenara. “You said you wouldn’t,” he countered.

“Well, that was before we were marooned on an island without antibiotics,” Tenara replied, but didn’t meet his eyes. She didn’t even glance at Havi, who she assumed was straining to hold back a disapproving frown. “I don’t know what else to do. You don’t heal when it cuts you, and you will only tolerate so many cuts. It will slow progress if we have to wait for you to heal…”

“We have all the time in the world… We’re never getting off this island, Princess.”

She shot him a look, as if his words had stabbed her. Her eyes burned. They should be at his estate by now, doing these experiments in the comfort of his mansion. He could likely afford a healer to tend his wounds. Instead, they were here. My fault. They were stuck here because she couldn’t keep it together. “Give me your hand again,” she whispered, holding hers out for him. He placed his in her palm. She closed her other hand over the wound. “I don’t even know if this will work. I’ve only tried healing Havi. I don’t know if it’s the sword. But we are here because of me, so I will do this if I can.” Penance. She had to pay for what she’d done… somehow. Tears brimmed her eyes. Her heart thudded in her ears. She was terrified of this, of making him feel what Havi felt and him not understanding it was the magic. Havi had years and years of reigning in himself, of understanding what being under the influence of a drug like her magic felt like. He had tolerance and self-control and she loved him, so she would take him and let him satisfy the demands her body made of them… But Laurius was… not Havi. Then again, maybe he wouldn’t feel anything at all… “Just stop, please… If I ask you to.”

Laurius’s brow furrowed with confusion. “Stop wha—“

Her eyes bloomed with red light and ecstasy burned wild, like the first blaze of a lit match. She flourished, stretching as it filled her, while Laurius’s legs gave out. He fell to his knees in the sand and huffed a ragged moan. “Oh, fuck.” The sudden drop tugged Tenara forward, but not quite down into the sand with him.

She closed her eyes, relishing the feel of her power coursing free. The ache of want was a poison elixir in her veins. She wanted his lips on her skin, his hands on her chest, his—

Tenara cut the flow of magic with great effort. It seemed to rage as she stuffed it back down, hating that she was tucking it away again after it had tasted sweet freedom a few weeks ago. She felt an ache in her chest when it didn't want to go quietly back to where it belonged. The world blurred as the rush ebbed, and she felt hands tug her down into the sand. She hit her knees, unfocused eyes looking at Laurius but not really seeing him. This felt different from healing Havi. It felt easier to heal him, like she didn't lose so much of herself in the act. She desperately scraped to pull her focus together, but the hard hands on her felt so good.

Fingers brushed her cheeks, her lips, her neck, her waist. Lips melded hungrily to hers, and then they were on her jaw, her neck. Teeth pinched her skin, and she sucked in a pleased breath. She thought of Havi and the ache of desire responded, pleased to have its wants met.

No. Wait. She was missing something. They were doing something before this...

Tenara blinked her eyes open, and the sky was above her, blue and speckled with the clouds. Damp, warming sand pressed into her back. Laurius was over her, hands sliding beneath her slip, lips on her skin.

"S-stop," she murmured. Panic pushed through the delirium, and she was on the ship, on her back, Pete wedged between her flailing legs, pressing himself to—“Stop!”

Laurius froze and began to draw away at the same time her magic flared vengefully. He was climbing off, a string of dizzy apologies flying from his lips, when it caught him. He was jerked off his feet, rising into the air, legs and arms stretched away from his body. Heat and pressure pulsed through the air, rippling through the sand.

—-

Laurius struggled to make sense of what was happening. He didn’t entirely know. He was hard as a rock, filled with an untold amount of need, and he’d been giving into her. She had pushed those feelings into him, called them, and had seemed to want them in turn. Then, he lost himself. Like falling into a bottle or a dream. One moment he was his level-headed self, and the next he was on her, kissing her, and—

His arms and legs stretched away from him, like she was going to pull them off with a thought. He was going to die… His gaze darted to Ren, pleading eyes wide. “H-help.”

The sudden intimacy between Tenara and Laurius left both Ivie rooted to their spots.

Havi had known what might happen. He watched with vigilance for any sign of things becoming nonconsensual. He tried not to hate the sight of them together. It wasn't his place to monopolize her, any more than someone could own the moon, but nauseous disappointment swelled up in him anyway.

Ren's throat went dry as he watched Laurius fall upon the princess and bite nearly the same place he'd bitten him. It excited him. So this was what Laurius looked like when he was with a proper female. It looked much more natural. Come to think of it, earlier in the woods, it was the princess's voice that had seemed to rile Laurius up in the first place. He'd even suggested going to watch them.

Then, as quickly as it had begun, the sensual moment transformed into a battle. Ren and Havi shielded their eyes from the swirling sands, both looking stunned for a moment.

"H-help!" Laurius called, looking right at Ren. Ren didn't understand how, but the princess was hurting him. Would she tear him apart like she had the ship. He pivoted in the sand and dashed toward Tenara. He'd never in his life interfered with the will of a Yurivis, but he latched onto her arm to keep from getting blown away and tugged it. "Stop!" *Stop!* He squeezed against the powerful magic blazing around her and tried to remember how he'd stopped Laurius's hand earlier. He clenched his eyes, and it was like he could see the supernova that was her mind, energy convulsing around her. He reached for it.

A hard form knocked him back, like a protective shell. The energy had a bluish hue. He recognized it, somehow. *Out of my way, Thvoros!*

*Try to touch her will right now, and you die where you stand,* Havi's voice pounded against his mind. It wasn't clear if it was a threat that he'd do it himself, or a warning of what Ren kind of knew already: Trying to control this would be like grabbing onto a bolt of lightning.

*Make her stop, or I will!* he shouted anyway, punching with his thoughts at the shieldlike barrier. He clung to her arm and shoved her backwards.

Havi pressed in close to Tenara, but given what he thought was happening, it seemed like a bad idea to try to restrain or enclose her. "Pull her on top of me, and get away," Havi shouted. He couldn't tell if Tenara's power was actually loud, or if it was just the roar of it in her head he had to shout over. He pressed himself chest to chest with her and twisted sideways.

Ren reluctantly followed instructions, tugging her arm so that she wound up on her hands and knees with Thvoros pinned beneath her. He let go of her hand, hoping she would squeeze him to death instead of ripping his master limb from limb.

The dramatic shift in position served to snap Tenara's concentration on Laurius. The invisible force pulling on his limbs, suspending him above the sands, let go. He dropped to the shore as a wave swept up, soaking him in cool water.

Tenara's magic had a tight hold on her psyche. Her eyes burned like hellfire, seeming so far removed from the gentle woman she was known to be. Her mind felt pulled—stretched into multiple plains of existence. One of them on the beach, one of them on a throne, one of them in a dark, cold world.

She appraised Havitharon with the focus of a goddess considering an insect until it seemed to register who she was looking at now. Havi.

*Havi.*

Her hands skimmed overhis chest, his shoulders, his neck, his face. She took hold of one of his horns and pressed it into the earth. This. Him. Yes. Not the other. It was him. He could touch her fire. He could tame her body. He could claim her soul, if he wanted. But, he didn't feel right beneath her.

He was half here. Half there. His horn felt malleable in her palm, as if it might dissipate entirely with a sweep of the wind.

Her vicelike grip drove his horn down into the sand, squeezing with crushing force. Pain lit up his body. Havi gritted his teeth with a tight grunt, but managed not to scream. That glow was in her eyes again, the same mad look she'd had on the ship. This time, he wasn't afraid of it. She wouldn't erase him. Not on purpose. *I'm here. It's safe now. Come back, please,* he said, trying to cocoon her blazing mind. Attempting psychic connection was as foolish for him as it had been for Ren. Not only was she fully conscious, but she was upset. He tried to step in amidst the chaos without attempting to control any of it. He just waded through it like a ghost, looking for her amidst all that power.

Ren darted to his master's fallen form and dropped to his knees in the shallows beside him. "Laurius!" he called, checking to see if he was breathing while the waves lapped around them.

*...here....safe...Come back, please.*

Certainties rushed back to her. She was not on the ship. The pirate was dead. She wasn't in danger. No one was hurting her... Mistake. It was a mistake. She was doing it again. Losing control again.

She forced the magic back down, and it was like cramming water into a broken vase. As much as she pushed it in, it spilled out, and it hurt. It didn't want to be tamed, or slink into the shadows.

Her mind was a torrent of flames and unbridled pleasure and she was trying desperately to put it all back together. This. This is why they locked it away. This is why you need to be locked away! You are dangerous. You are broken. You are weak.

She spotted a shape move in the fire, and she remembered where she was supposed to be.

"Havi," she said again, her voice cracking. The power snapped. The pressure in the air broke swiftly, and the torrent of sand fluttered to the earth. The roar ebbed until the only one left was the sound of the sea rushing to the shore.

Tenara sat back on her heels, shaking.

—-

Laurius dragged himself up, looking at Ren. He ran his hands over his shoulders and legs and sagged with relief. “I’m okay. I’m okay…”

And he was. Despite being startled, he was okay. Unhurt. Even his hand was completely healed. Whatever pleasure he’d felt at the flood of her magic was gone, and replaced by unsettling fear.

His gaze swept up to Tenara and Havitharon as she curled in on herself and began to cry.

“I’m sorry,” she said, cupping Havi’s face.

Havi leaned into her soft hands on his face, and rested his head on her knees. "You're okay," he whispered, hands gently brushing up and down her legs. "You did so well. See? No one is hurt."

Artisuren was still inspecting his master, trying to gauge if the man's words were true, or if there was a hole in him somewhere he was too in shock to notice. He followed Laurius's gaze as the princess cried and Thvoros attended to her. He was very sensitive to Yurivis's emotions, so he had to resist an impulse to go lay his own horns in her lap as well. Instead, a sense of wariness won dominance in his heart. She had attacked his master. Laurius was the one he served, and the one who needed his attention right now. He'd never seen the man this shaken up.

He stood slowly next to his master and held his arm ready for Laurius to take when he felt ready to stand up. He didn't coddle or try to lift him.

Tenara brushed her hand over his head, into his hair. The run of his hands on her legs was soothing, but seeing Laurius so rattled did little to cool the shame in her heart.

Laurius took Ren’s arm and help to his feet. He stumbled a little, grasping Ren with two hands as his legs managed to understand how to work again.

“She did well?” Laurius snapped. “She nearly killed me! I could feel her pulling me apart like a bug!”

“I’m—“

“I don’t understand,” Laurius said, his gaze hard. “I don’t understand what happened.”

“I didn’t… My mind. I lost the thread and I fell into a memory and I’m sorry.”

Laurius’s jaw seemed to work as he mulled words over. “Fell into a memory?” He asked, and there was anger in his voice. “You shouldn’t have offered to heal me if you could easily fall into such things. I was stopping. I heard you. I was—“

“I know,” she whispered. “I’m—“

“Sorry,” Laurius finished, holding Ren’s hand.
Tenara clutched Havi to her legs. “I think our experiments are done for today,” he said evenly. He began to lead Artisuren away.

Tenara looked down at Havitharon, apology in her eyes.

Havi cast Laurius a look that said he'd like to 'experiment' with his face, but didn't move a muscle away from Tenara. "He doesn't know," he said, looking up at her. "He just doesn't know."

Ren was as startled by the man's anger as he was by his grip on his hand. They didn't normally walk hand in hand. He didn't hate it. He could feel Laurius's pulse through his palms, and the way his legs didn't quite seem steady yet. He stuck close, letting his master lead him even though he wasn't sure if they had a destination in mind. He might have suggested the man have a seat, but it seemed best to just let him move or even pace until his adrenaline lessened.

Tenara watched Laurius walk away, and when he was a speck down the beach, nearer their camp, she looked at the ocean and the waves crashing against the shore. She stroked fingers through Havi's hair, watching the waves break one after another.

"He's the reason we're in this mess," she said, trying to turn her shame into anger. "If he hadn't sold Arken that book, they wouldn't have taken me and..." She paused stroking Havi's hair. Havitharon wouldn't be here, if that were the case, and claiming to be unhappy about all that had transpired felt like saying she was unhappy to have Havi in her life. The two events were bound together, now—her greatest suffering and the being she loved.

Laurius kept his distance the rest of the day, and, as a result, so did Ren. The anger seemed to have faded off of him, but the fear and unease remained. He skirted them like he expected her to lash out and tear him apart.

Tenara went to the edge of the ocean at night, like she usually did, to hold some silent vigil for the ship she'd sunk. Tonight, the guilt was a fresh wound, and she tried very hard not to cry as she watched the stars wink along the horizon. She reached up to dry her tears when she heard someone approaching, and, thinking it was Havitharon coming back from feeding the fire, she turned her face up to him with a smile.

It cracked when Laurius plopped into the sand with her. He drew his knees up, resting his arms across them. They sat in agonizing silence, but at least it seemed he was brave enough to sit near her.

"I can still fill your power—the oppressive pressure of it—in memory alone. It was fierce, demanding everything bow to it," he said, watching the sky. "How did Arken take you? I cannot fathom it being possible. I've been turning it over and over in my mind all day."

Tenara rubbed her chest. Her throat felt tight, and she looked for a way to escape the conversation, glancing to the fire for Havi.

"How, Tenara." He seemed so confused, as if he could not work some equation out.

"I was drugged," she said, rubbing her wrists feverishly, feeling her breath quicken. "For three or four weeks... That's how long I was on the ship."

His brows raised, understanding washing over his face. "That's why you don't like them..."

Her eyes burned, and she was so, so tired of being on the verge of tears. She nodded, feeling a hard knot swelling in her throat. Tenara coughed, and waved her hand, as if the subject was nothing at all to talk about, but he caught it and held it. She was shocked by the touch, that he would be willing to touch her after what she'd done, and the words spilled out of her. She needed him to understand she wasn't a monster. "It was like a nightmare. Lucid enough to swallow water or bone broth... Deep enough not to feel fear or understanding. In and out. In and out... for weeks. For a while afterwards, I didn't remember anything, but it's been coming back in pieces. Mostly senses. Sounds... Some blurred images. T-they used m..." She couldn't finish. The words locked up in her throat. So, they sat in silence for what felt like eons. "When the pirates attacked us, one of them..." Her throat locked up again, and she almost cried with frustration. "I wanted to hate you," she whispered. "You sold Arken the knowledge that led to my suffering..."

"Tenara..."

"But, I can't hate you! I've tried... Why do you have to be so charming? So easy to like. Why can't you be the villain I need to blame?"

Laurius held her hand between them, lacing his fingers with hers. "If you need to hate me to feel comfort, then do it. I'm a businessman. I'm used to ill feelings in partnerships. Take Jim, for example. But, if you want a true villain, Tenara, then it is Elias. He's the only one talented and knowledgeable enough to keep you sedated so precisely as to not trigger your magic or cause you to drown on your food. To do it for a day is one thing, but to keep you in that state for weeks..." Anger lit in his voice.

Tenara's brow furrowed. "He..." What Laurius spoke sounded so much like the truth but it didn't align with meeting Elias on Edan's boat, or how he'd spoke about her confinement... He'd made it sound like he'd not been involved—that he sat in on meetings and hadn't had an active hand in her abuse. But he was a liar. Of course, he was a liar. They were all liars.

"The memory you fell into today..." Laurius began.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't mean to hurt you..."

He squeezed her hand. "I didn’t understand."

"You didn't know."

"I’m also sorry for my... openness with Ren. I don't want to make you uncomfortable, Tenara. If I knew, I wouldn't have..." His jaw tightened. "You are beautiful... and I can't deny I don't have some attraction for you, but I'm not that sort of man..."

Tenara nodded, and again, they sat in silence, listening to the sea. She cleared her throat. "I don't mind it," she said softly. "The openness you share with Ren. I don't know why, but... It doesn't bother me. You don't bother me. I wasn't even afraid of you today, I was... I am fucked up. I'm broken. My magic is a nightmare. On some level, I know the differences in intentions and... I don't know. I can't explain it."

"There's no need to explain, Princess," Laurius said. "People react to experiences differently." His hand squeezed over hers. "Can I hold—hug you. Can I hug you?"

Tenara nodded, and Laurius curled his arm around her shoulder, pulling her against his side.

Havi and Ren sat at the fire, their attentions glued to the figures silhouetted against the shore line.

"So... Merry and I found almost 30 clams off the rocks today," Tabetha said, a bit too sunnily.

The black-horned male pulled his gaze away from the couple embracing on the shore and turned to her. "Good work," he told her.

Tabetha gulped at the midnight stillness of the man's demeanor. It was her intention to distract him, but having the being's full attention on her was a little more than she'd bargained for. She couldn't even tell if he was upset at the romance that seemed to be developing between their masters. "Do you know how to cook clams?"

Havitharon threw another stick into the fire. "You work in a kitchen on a ship. Have you not cooked them?"

"O-of course I have! I'm trying to make conversation. Sometimes you two are so dense," she sighed.

"Thanks for your concern, but you don't need to worry. I hold no claim over her."

"That so? And what about you?" she snorted at Ren.

The other phage didn't look away from the shoreline. "Your concern is misplaced. Our culture is polygamous," he echoed Havi's cool tone.

"Your expression doesn't look very polygamous right now to me," she said, tossing up her hands.

Ren pressed a hand between his gold horns, as if squeezing back a headache.

"Are you-"

"Tabby. Leave them be, and go get some rest in the tent," Merry sighed, giving the girl's arm a squeeze. "You two as well. It's my night to keep watch. Get some rest."

Havi wanted to continue his watch over the pair on the beach, but he also didn't want to reinforce the girls' assumptions. He rose, towering over the girls on the ground. "Good night," he said, and made his way toward the tents.

Another set of footsteps joined his in the sandy grass. "What's wrong with your head?" he asked without turning.

"None of your fucking business," Ren said flatly.

"If you're going into rut, say something." Havi looked over his shoulder. "I'm serious."

"Fuck off," Ren said, and ducked into his tent.

Havi rolled his eyes and turned to his own shelter. He tried to glance back at the shore again, but Merry and Tabetha were watching them with worried eyes from the fire. He settled down onto the mat of leaves and closed his eyes stubbornly.

Two tents over, Ren glowered at the ceiling. He thought of the 'revisiting our time together' Laurius had suggested for that evening. Perhaps his master would no longer need it. Perhaps he would not return at all, and instead would make off with the princess to the springs for privacy.

It was none of his business. His head throbbed at him, and he rolled onto his side to shove it down into the mat. He hadn't had many headaches in his life. He'd heard of some Ivie getting them before their rut, but it wasn't a symptom he recognized. Then again, he'd never been in rut while bond-broken before. He still hadn't worked out how he would deal with it when the time came, but his rut was another problem for another day.

He couldn't think of sleep, so he waited in stillness, listening to every sound from the other tents and the approaching path.