Heirot

Laurius nodded, carefully chewing and swallowing before speaking. "After breakfast, I'll give a tour, and we'll head to the laboratory." Breakfast moved at a pleasant pace, with Laurius bringing up historical facts about the home. He'd bought it a few years ago. It had been abandoned after its owner was killed mysteriously, and he took it upon himself to restore it.

After breakfast, Laurius gave them a tour of the house, letting them know where all the important rooms were—at least on the first floor. After the tour, they dawned coats and boots and headed into the cold.

The laboratory, as Laurius called it, was inside of a large glass and stone conservatory that seemed almost as big as the house itself. They crossed a garden to get there, following a snow-laden path dotted by snow-covered shrubs. When they reached the conservatory, the inside was brimming with warmth—almost as hot as the island they'd come from. Tenara wasn't certain if that was because it was actually that warm, or because they had come in from the cold.

Sections of the conservatory were still very much dedicated to plants, and plants of all types. Orchids, roses, palms, cacti, irises, and vegetables grew beneath glass ceilings and walls. Floral vines twined around marble columns. There were two fountains and an entire pool. A wing of the conservatory, though, was very much a laboratory. A massive table that might have, at one point, been dedicated to the potting of plants had been converted into a place to conduct experiments. The top was sectioned off for different purposes, with one end being dedicated to a tangle of glass instruments, beakers, and burners. Tubes of liquids, vials, and jars of powders were clustered on fine racks. Another section of the table was void of anything. The perfect place for sacrifices, Tenara thought darkly. On the ppposite end of the table was covered in parchment rolls and stacks of paper. Books were stacked on shelves around the room, with potted trees placed between them. A small sitting area with two chairs sat tucked in the corner and several stools were pulled up to the table.

"And this is where I work," Laurius said, holding his arms out as he showed them the room.

"It's... lovely," Tenara said, tracing the edge of a leaf.

"We shall work here. It is far enough away from the house that if anything were to go wrong, no one would get hurt. I've already sent for the materials you and I discussed for making the device that would temper your abilities, should they get out of control. We can officially begin our experimentations in a day or two. If that is agreeable with you all?"

Tenara nodded, already hating the idea of the bind she'd instructed Laurius to acquire. She did not want to hurt him again, but most importantly, she did not want to hurt his people. "Can we see the book?"

Laurius hesitated. "A moment."

He disappeared, leaving Tenara, Havitharon, and Ren alone in the brightly lit chamber. Morning sun burned down on them, and Tenara shucked her coat, fanning herself as she wandered the room, appraising the office. Sweat clung to her neck and chest, and she pinched the fabric of her blouse, shaking it to draw some air into her clothes.

Havitharon was in Laurius's bookcases the moment he left, scouring them to see what types of things the man owned. Meanwhile, Ren walked slowly around the room, looking at each of the plants. "Princess," he addressed Tenara quietly, not wanting to draw Thvoros's attention. "What kind of plants are these?"

Tenara stopped fussing with her clothes, smiling at Ren as he inquired about the plants. "Um... These are elephant ears, and that is some sort of potted palm. The corner one is maybe a banana tree? I wonder if it makes fruit..." She traced the palm's sharp leaves. "I think I saw some fruit trees lining one of the halls leading to another wing. Do you want to go with me to see if there are any oranges?"

Ren hung on each word as she introduced the plants to him. They were totally unlike his world's plants, and more colorful than the ones on the island. He wondered if Laurius cared for any of them himself. He got a brief image of Laurius with dirt on his manicured hands, carefully repotting an elephant ear. The chest discomfort he was becoming used to lately clenched beneath his ribs at the thought.

"Yes, please," he answered her honestly. He wanted to see everything about this place. He followed her quietly as they left to investigate the other wing. His temperament was totally different with her than with Laurius - more subdued and careful. When they reached the orchard Tenara had mentioned, he stared at the trees. The nearest one had several fruits hanging from its lower branches. He cradled his palm beneath one of them. The scent brought back a memory of scrambling through the narrow smokestack of the ship, encumbered by the bag of food he couldn't help but cling on to. Of finally breaching the end of the tunnel to see flames all around, a blurry speck of a lifeboat disappearing on the edge of the flickering sea.

And for some reason, as he was about to drown, all he could think of was that they would all starve because he hadn't brought the food.

He squeezed the fruit a little tighter, and it came free in his hand. "Are these difficult to grow?" he asked Tenara.

Tenara inspected a lemon tree. "I'm not sure," she said. "I don't have experience with trees. I sometimes help the gardeners with maintaining the roses. They can be temperamental. The soil has to be just right and Hajara's soil is unforgiving." She spotted a strange fruit tree. It looked very much like an apple but it was deep purple, almost the color of a plum. "Strange." She pulled it free, admiring it in her hand.

Ren roamed the small orchard, investigating each tree with her. He sometimes knelt to pinch the soil between his fingers and smell it, or scratch a small scar in the bark to see the color of the pulp. "Laurius seems to like plants," he said.

Tenara nodded. "He does seem to like being surrounded by them, at least. Maybe they help him think clearly," she said, taking a bite of the purple apple. It tasted so sweet in her mouth, almost like a strawberry. She made a soft sound, and examined the flesh. It appeared no different than any other apple she'd ever eaten.

She watched Ren examine the trees and then peeked out into the main room to see if Laurius was returning. She looped around the space and looked out the windows at the snowy landscape.

She felt hot again. So hot. And the world seemed to warp together, turning a shade of purple. Her brow furrowed. She held her hand in front of her face, waved it around, and watched as twenty hands followed it in succession. She glanced at the half-eaten apple in her hand. The pulp inside had gone black as night.

"Havi..." she murmured, with the soft sound of her crumpling to the marble following.

"Princess!" Artisuren had been watching the woman act strangely, but he hadn't expected her to collapse. He was at her side instantly, lifting her up against him. A strange black fruit rolled out of her hand. What....

He pulled her into his arms and ran back toward the main study. "Thvoros!" he shouted.

Havi turned in confusion. He was perched on a ladder, holding several books in his arms, when Ren came running into the room with Tenara cradled against him. The books fell to the floor. "What happened," he breathed, making it across the room in a blink.

"What is this?" Ren demanded, pulling the strange fruit from his pocket as soon as Thvoros took possession of his Yurivis.

Havi stared at the black fruit, noting the bitten spot. "I don't know," he said, dread building. "How long ago did she eat it?"

"An instant ago. She fell almost immediately," Ren said. Within moments, the two had slide Laurius's lounge chairs together and rested Tenara down flat. There was no bickering and no discussion, just two Ivie whose world narrowed down to Tenara and nothing else.

*Laurius!* Ren called for his master, monitoring Tenara while Havi rushed to the fountain to soak his handkerchief in cold water. *What is the purple fruit?*

Laurius was coming back in from the cold, a gust of frigid wind chasing him inside. He held the book under his arm as he ensured the door was secure and wouldn't blow open. Seemed another blizzard was going to be passing through.

He turned to head back to his office when Ren's voice filtered into his mind. *I've been experimenting with... You didn't eat it, did you?* Laurius's pace picked up, his boots thunking against the stone as he ran towards his lab.

"Did you eat—" He saw Ren and Havitharon standing, and felt a flood of relief, but then his gaze fell downward. "Fuck."

He slammed the book on the table and went to his collection of vials, shaking hands skimming over ingredients. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

He plucked a beaker and began pouring powders and liquids together, mixing feverishly. "Ugh... Bucket. We need a bucket." He scooped up a bucket in the corner and then came to them, kneeling on the ground. Laurious grabbed Tenara's face, his hand pinching her jaw open and pouring his mixture into her mouth. "Swallow... swallow, swallow..." He saw her throat shift, the subtle reflex sending the antidote down. A minute later—honestly, it felt like hours to Laurius—Tenara's eyes fluttered open. She looked around, confusion furrowing her brow. Then, she bolted up, and Laurius seemed to know exactly what would happen next because he guided her over onto her side, her head pointed towards the floor, her face over the bucket. She retched into it, black pulp and bile spilling inside. "I leave you lot alone for five minutes. Five minutes! Don't eat weird-looking fruit! Especially in an alchemist's house! Are you suicidal?"

Tenara lifted her head to him, half-focused eyes glowering at him before she bent again to empty the last of the poison apple from her gut. "Who... makes... poison fruit?" she asked, her voice hoarse.

"People who make sociopathic daggers," Havi said sharply, his eyes stabbing at Laurius while he stroked Tenara's hair back from her face.

Ren had stepped back to let the other two work. Laurius's desperation to help Tenara seemed perfectly natural to him. It was what any Ivis would do when a female was hurt. Instead, he was focused on how quickly Laurius had known where to find his tools, how effectively he'd used his knowledge in a pinch. He understood now why the man had been so desperate to get home to this place. This was more than his estate. It was a seat of power, an arsenal of everything he'd ever learned or collected. Suddenly the idea of such a man trapped in the wilderness seemed completely absurd.

His chest clenched up again. He took a deep breath and thumped a fist against his heart, as if that would set the pounding rhythm straight.

Laurius scoffed at Havitharon, going to a pitcher of water one of his servants had delivered before they arrived. He poured her a glass and passed it into her hand. She sat up, leaning into the back of one of the chairs they'd pushed together. "The good news is, you aren't dead," he said. "The bad news is you're going to be high for a few minutes."

"High?"

"Ever done hard drugs, Princess?"

She shook her head.

"Well, you just took a lovely dose of speckled mushroom to counteract the bloodrot in the apple. Soo... just sit back. Enjoy the ride..." His voice faded off as he noticed Ren thumping his chest.

"Bloodrot?" Tenara asked, nursing her glass of water.

"A client wanted a poisoned fruit, but I never got it right. The goal was to create something that couldn't be detected by magic, but I never got it to visually look like an apple. No matter the splicing..." She was glowering at him and he knew she didn't care about the details surrounding the fruit's existence.

Laurius held out his arms, hands up. "No one put anything else in your mouth unless I tell you to."

"That's what she said," Tenara said, and he arched a brow at her. She was smiling dreamily, her hands cupped around the glass.

"And, there's the spotted mushrooms, all is right in the world," he said, then glanced at Havitharon. "She'll be fine in about thirty minutes." He lifted the bucket and tucked it near the door for the maids to get later, then went to Ren. "You didn't eat anything either, did you?" He touched his chest where Ren had thumped himself.

Ren tensed and took a careful step back. "No. I only smelled the dirt and scraped a few stems."

Laurius's fingers flexed at his sides, keeping his face unreadable. There was something... off in his reaction. The retreat. The merchant had thought that he and Ren were making progress together... growing closer. Especially after helping him through the rut but...

He cleared his throat. "Good," he said and went to the table. He opened the book, flipping through the pages before sliding it toward Havitharon. "This is a copy of the original book. I have the original tucked someplace safe. This is the spell I used to make the dagger and the spell Edan used to forge the sword." The illustrations depicted soul stones and sacrifices. The language had small translation notes, but not word-for-word inscriptions. "The more soul stones, the more powerful the weapon. The final sacrifice is what opens the door and draws the soul into the weapon. The stones lock it in place. I used a wolf to bring Ren into the world, and Arken used..." He glanced over at where Tenara was smiling up at the glimmer of light pouring in through the glass, shining around her outstretched hand. He chuckled a little because it was amusing to him that someone with parents like hers—someone so powerful and so beautiful—could be so innocent and trusting. He couldn't see the white scar between her breasts. Her winter clothes covered her chest, but he had seen it plenty while they were marooned.

He turned his attention back to the book. "The spell, as I've translated it, simply requires a life as payment for opening the connection between our worlds. I chose a wolf. I could have chosen a man, a woman, a cat, a pig. I don't know if it would change anything, but maybe it does. There has to be something that Arken knows that we don't. Because they went through an awful lot of trouble to take her and use her to bring you into this world. They could have used anyone, right? Any woman or man in Arken would have served as a conduit. But, they used her and... somehow she survived. If we can come to understand that, then we can understand how you connect with her, and how the sword connects with her. That key will help me understand Ren's dagger more."

"A wolf..." Havi said. He glanced at Artisuren. He couldn't say there was no resemblance. "Perhaps the sacrifice calls to a like soul."

"Are you calling me a dog?" Ren snarled.

"Not a tame one," Havi noted. "Dogs don't bite their masters all the time."

"I don't bite anyone!"

"It's a metaphor. Too much for a canine imagination?"

"Then what exactly are you saying makes you a 'like soul' to the princess?"

Havi pondered that a second. "Untapped potential?"

"Oh, just shut the fuck up."

Laurius arched a brow at the two of them bickering. "Wolves are pack animals. They have a hierarchy to them. They are intelligent, social, and family-oriented." He appraised Ren. "I wouldn't call you social, but you are a stickler for the rules. You enjoy structure. You want to be led. You require an alpha of some sort. I would say you are very like a wolf, Ren."

His gaze swept to Havi. He knew precious little about the phage other than he had, according to Tenara, hated women at some point. He looked different from Ren, his horns were more straight than curved. They were black rather than gold. What other differences... Ren was a father. Havi was not. "The sacrifice to bring you into the world was human. Maybe not spirit calling to spirit, then. Maybe intention. Need. Desire."

"Not human," Tenara said, holding her glass up and watching how the sun reflected off the angles in the crystal.

"I'm sorry?" Laurius asked. "Oh. Not human. Yes. Your mother is half-elf. Your father is... a demon? What is the king exactly?"

"A demi-god," she said wistfully.

Laurius tilted his head. "I'm sorry, a what?"

"Half god." She set the glass down and stood up. She swayed, but it was more of a dance rather than a fall. Her pupils were so dilated the blue had nearly disappeared altogether. She was high-high. "Verin's his father," she finished, spinning in a slow circle as she took in the ray of light.

Laurius sank over the table, putting his face in his hands. Possibilities bloomed in his mind. "A demi-god?"

"And a famire. Vampire."

"Vampires can't have children. And you can't have two fathers. So which is it?" Laurius asked. "You know, maybe we should have this discussion when you're not counting the dust wafting in the air..."

"I have two fathers. And one father. I have three fathers," she sighed, climbing to stand on the lounge as she pulled the blouse loose from her skirt, fingers tangling with the buttons. "I want to bathe in sunlight."

"Perhaps I was a little heavy-handed in my antidote," he admitted, turning his attention back on Havitharon as Tenara began shedding her clothes. A moment later, her blouse flopped over his head.