Heirot

Havi shook his head. "There's a chance Tenara can help, but he's different from me. I was unbonded. It's possible for the bond-broken to accept a new Yurivis, but it's rare. If the compatibility is wrong, Tenara could be in danger too. The link with the knife complicates things as well. I don't know how he'll perceive you." He sighed.

"He might not be in rut at all. If he attacks you, find a way to get the knife from him. Knock him out if you have to, and get him back to camp.

If he's still alive. He imagined the other Ivis searching the island for a quiet place to die. He kept the thought to himself as he turned to search in the other direction.

Laurius frowned at Havi as he walked away. He glanced at the sword in his hand, his frown deepening. He did not want to hurt Ren… He didn’t even know where to begin looking.

“Fuck,” he muttered and stalked off in the opposite direction as Havi. He wandered the path, thinking he should call out for Ren and worried to try. What if the man had gone mad with rut? He was big enough and strong enough to snap Laurius’s neck before he could react,

As Laurius walked he noticed a strange track in the dirt. A sharp, single line. He had never seen an animal make such a thing. He wasn’t certain why he decided to follow it. He just did.

When the path led him to a narrow crevice and rocks. It ended there, the ground to hard and rocky to leave a mark. He almost abandoned the way, turning back to the woods.

“Ren!!” He called into the air, listening. “Ren!!

"FUCK!" Artisuren released his hand from his aching cock, panting. His fingers just felt like cold sandpaper on the sensitive skin. Nature had a way of preventing Ivie from wasting their seed during rut. His pulse rang in his ears, and he could swear he heard Laurius's voice. It echoed with the other voices scathing his thoughts.

"If he could see you right now, he'd be repulsed. You're not fit to serve anybody like this. He could sell that defective knife in a heartbeat, and you'd be the next unsuspecting schmuck's problem."

"It would be no use to be at home, either. Porsorian and Kerberon go into rut at the same time. She'd sooner choose them, or most any of the others, before tending to you. Not with just 5 orbs.

He looked bitterly at the tattoo on the back of his hand. 5 filled in, 5 empty.

"Maybe if you talked less, and embraced pain more. You're pretty, if only you could just shut up."

"Broken."

"Broken."

"So fucking broken."

Artisuren screamed to silence the voices. He dug his claws into his tattoo and scratched at it, sobbing.

Laurius was walking away from the path that led through a narrow strip of cliff and out to the ocean when he heard what sounded like a man screaming. It warred with a wave crashing against the shore, the water spilling through the gap.

“Ren?” He asked, hesitating before squeezing through the space. Another wave assaulted the shore, and smashed him up against the rocks. It nearly swept him out, but he clawed the rocks with one hand and wedged the sword between them.

Laurius climbed a little higher before the next wave hit. It skirted his ankles and splashed over him in a mist.

He couldn’t go left. That way was a sheer drop. The waves would have pummeled someone to death. He could go right. It was a rocky shore and ledge along the cliffs. Had Ren gone up and fallen over the edge?

“Ren?!! Gods damn you, answer me. There’s a ship! We’re being rescued!”

He crept on, climbing and slipping along the slick rocky surface. The sword he held would be duller than wood by the time he reached wherever he intended to go. He wasn’t certain where that should be. Maybe he should turn back…

"...Ren!"

Ren squinted at the strange voice, dipping back into consciousness. His bleary eyes looked down at his hand, which was a raw mess. The pain must have made him pass out. He smiled ruefully. He couldn't see the tattoo through the blood. Maybe he'd managed to scratch it off entirely.

"It was all you had left of her. Now you have nothing."

"Shut up!" he snapped dizzily.

"Gods damn you, answer me!"

The voice conjured an image of lying in Laurius's lap and feeling whole. Wanted. Accepted.

"Wishful thinking. You've always interpreted things however you wanted to hear them. You've always gotten too attached."

He held onto the image desperately. "Yeah. Maybe I was made wrong. Then I may as well be wishful now, too," he told the voice. If he was going to end here, he could remember things how he wanted, damn it.

His horns felt like they were on fire, and his skin stung. He looked over at the knife, still knotted between the rocks. His shaking fingers unknotted the rope, and the knife fell loose on the floor, saltwater sloshing over it. He remembered what it felt like when Laurius polished it the day before, the phantom sense of being stroked clean and made whole.

"I'm glad. I'll take better care of you." Ren tore a scrap of fabric off what remained of his pants, and slid it along the blade. The buzz of nausea was just white noise when his body already felt this awful. "I'll give you a good spitshine every night. A nice rub down before bed." He remembered the words from last night, and choked out a sobbing laugh.

"Maybe if it was someone like you. If only it could have been you," he said, tears streaming down his face. He wiped the blade again, and then wrapped the fabric around the hilt. He took deep breaths as he lifted it up and pressed the tip to the center of his chest.

Laurius heard a voice inside a narrow cave. A wave roared up, splashing inside as he slipped in. It washed around his ankles.

He spotted Ren almost immediately. The Phage was on his knees. Naked. His body fully at attention, and that might have interested Laurius, might have tempted him to distraction, if it weren’t for the dagger he had pressed to his chest.

He said nothing. He charged forward and dove down. He pushed the knife away from the man’s chest at the same time his body tackled him to the saltwater floor. He wrestled the man’s hand under his knee, tried to wrench the blade from him.

“Ren! What are you doing?? We can help you. I can help you. Tenara can help you!”

Ren grunted as he hit the floor. He was too startled to bother holding on to the blade, and it spun loose as Laurius grabbed his good hand. He looked up at Laurius blearily, only half registering his words. He couldn't be real. He couldn't be here.

"No, no, no, no..." he wheezed, trying and failing to retreat against the wall of the narrow space. His instincts rose up, livid at the intrusion and ready to tear into him. His arms shot up at the smaller man. "No, not you," he sobbed.

But instead of tearing into him, his arms changed trajectory and wrapped around Laurius's back, pulling him into a tight embrace. "No," he begged, burying his face in his shoulder. He was real. He was really here. He had to go. Ren's bloody hand cradled the back of Laurius's neck as his whole body shook with sobs.

Laurius's arms hung out at his sides as the man embraced him. He was so confused. The words spilling from him, this terrible "no" did not match the embrace pulling him in. A second more, and Laurius's arms curled around the sobbing man, holding him in turn. "It's alright," he said, curling his fingers at the back of Ren's neck. "It's alright, Ren. I'll help you. We'll help you. Anything that you need. We will get it. You are not hopeless." The words just spilled out of him. He wasn't even sure they were true, but he wanted them to be. "You are not alone."

The phage hung to every word like he was suspended over an abyss. It was agony to be touched, but it felt worse to let go. He wanted so badly to believe him.

"It'll never work."
"The bond-broken never survive their first rut."
"You're nothing. You can't live without her."
"He's already seen you like this."
"You may as well beg him to end it."
"You can't do this."
"Broken."

You are not hopeless. You are not alone.

Could he really help?

"Help. I c-can't do this," Artisuren panted. "I'm going to burn out." The fresh rings on his horns were like wild embers in the dim space, and steam was filling the cave from where they dipped into the water. He held onto Laurius tightly.

Laurius racked his brain for what to do. He was an intelligent man. He could rationalize. He could decipher and understand. He could experiment and he could remember.

He called all the knowledge he had gleaned from talking with Tenele, Havitharon, and Ren—what little either of the phages was willing to share. If he looked at what Ren was experiencing from an animalistic standpoint, he needed to mate. He was biologically driven to mate, and he was suffering from the inability to fulfill that need. He needed to be claimed. He needed to be fucked. Specifically, Laurius imagined, he needed to be fucked by a woman.

But Tabetha, Merry, and Tenara were far away. Getting him back to camp in his current state felt like an impossibility. Convincing Tabetha or Merry to martyr themselves for Ren would be difficult. Okay. Convincing Merry to martyr herself would be difficult. Tabetha would be intrigued, and he sensed Tenara was the type of person to throw herself on a sword if it meant saving a fly. The options didn't help, though, if they were far away.

Laurius scooped up the dagger and rose. "Get up," he said, his tone firm. "You can do this. It will pass. It all passes. Burn out or not, you're mine. So walk it off."

Ren's vision tunneled as he felt Laurius pull away.

"He's leaving you."
"You knew this. It's for the best."

He clenched his eyes.

"Get up."

The command was a block of ice to his spine. He wondered what the man wanted, but it didn't matter. He collected his legs under him and forced his body to stand. His head felt like it would split in two.

"You can do this. It will pass. It all passes. Burn out or not, you're mine. So walk it off."

Walk it off? Animalistic fury welled up in him, but also faint relief. The difference was small, like an ice cube thrown into a vat of soup, but he could tell the command took root properly. He obeyed with an involuntary step forward, but he was horrified of what he might do if the rut overpowered the knife. How was Laurius acting so sure there would be anything left of him to own after this?

He walked to the end of the cave, sucking in labored breaths, then looked back at Laurius. He was coated in sweat, and his usually green eyes blazed like white gold. The man just gestured for him to turn and walk the other way. Damnit, he was making him pace. "Fucking... asshole..." he complained, complying with shaky steps. Truth be told, he was a little shocked his body could move at all.

Laurius leaned against the craggy wall, another round of saltwater blasting in through the opening and rushing over his feet. “How long does it take to finish?” He asked, wondering how long he needed to keep him moving—distracted. Would the ship wait for them?

It would wait if Tenara had any say. He knew she wouldn’t let them get left behind.

But what if she didn’t have a say?

“Keep walking. Twenty laps.”

"At least a day. Maybe two," he ground out, straining with each step. He couldn't imagine making it that long, but thanks to the commands, he didn't have the mental focus for the voices to tell him the gory alternatives, either. His mind began to shut down everything that wasn't needed for the function of walking across the cave.

_______________

Lee squinted at the ship. A blue flag with a white heron, and a small orange standard. "Trade ship. Looks like Ongoreth. With this wind, she'll be here by noon."

Laurius watched Ren walk for twenty paces. He was nude. The merchant wasn’t sure what had become of the man’s ragged cut-off shorts, and, unfortunately they were on low supply for fabric. He would need to make him some sort of leaf skirt for modesty.

Though, that wouldn’t do him much good. Modesty would be hard to come by with the state his body was in.

He was beautiful. Even in his weary, stilted walking, the muscles of his form glided elegantly along his frame. Too bad he hated men at the moment. This would be a lot easier if he could be what Tenara was for Havitharon.

When twenty paces finished, Laurius ordered him to rest a minute. He was afraid to offer him much more than that. “You like to garden,” Laurius said, remembering it from some conversation or another. “Recite the planting seasons on your world and what plants grow best in each one.”

Ren shivered and looked at him. He'd dropped to a seat against the wall. "You h-have to be kidding," he strained, but the man's face, and the command itself, seemed serious. It seemed the stupidest thing in the world right now, but he tried to think of the garden he tended in Kishva's estate. The closest thing he had to a hobby. There was nothing sexy about it, so why was his dick throbbing at the command?

He took a deep breath and slowly explained the foods he knew how to grow, and how he planted them. After a few minutes, the words sounded more like a recitation of an erotic novel than farming advice. He shifted uncomfortably, trying to get some kind of contact between his legs without touching himself.