The Princess and the Blade

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren sighed, rubbing between his horns. So this asshole had said something obnoxious to his Yurivis. Why was he not surprised? Laurius seemed fine, so he ought to simply return to his room. However, something about the other Ivis's condition didn't sit right with him. Maybe it was just the irony of the famed Thvoros falling apart over a Yurivis. The man annoyed him slightly less than usual at the moment.

He sighed and went to the decanter the maids provided in the living area. He poured an obscenely huge glass and returned to the Ivis's side. "Quit hugging the toilet," he said, pulling Thvoros upright. His muscular form was obnoxiously heavy. "Drink this."

"Get out," Havi said, swatting at him. "I need to think."

"For fuck's sake, how much thinking can you do like this? Drink so you can sleep it off."

Thvoros snatched the glass. "If I drink, you'll go away?"

Ren watched the Ivis clutch the glass in both shaking hands. Tears were rolling silently over his sun-darkened cheeks. "No."

Thvoros glared at him, but he'd run out of fight. He raised the glass and downed the entire thing like it was cough syrup. The alcohol churned in his empty stomach. He was vaguely aware of Artisuren tugging him to his feet, calling him "too Fucking heavy," and dumping him in a chair. His mind was still in the other room, reliving the interaction, trying to make sense of it.

______

Havi muttered a curse as his body came around the next morning. The sun through the window felt like a nail being driven between his eyes. He'd slept upright in a low-backed chair, his tall form hanging awkwardly over the side. His neck and back voiced their offense at the awkward position. He blinked the room into focus, and cursed again. A carafe of water was on the table next to him. He sat up and held his breath as nausea swept through him again. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been hung over, and at first, he couldn't even remember why.

Then the night before came back to him, and it felt like all the blood rushed from his body at once. He sagged back into the chair, white as a ghost.

"Finally," said a voice behind him.

He spun toward the sound, and immediately regretted it. "Why the hell are you still here?"

"I had no fucking choice. You were acting bond-broken."

"I can't be bond-broken," Havi grimaced, clutching his head.

"Well, you were acting like it. Are you going to off yourself if I go now and eat my fucking breakfast?"

Havi shook his head slowly, wondering if any of this was real or if he was trapped in one of his worst nightmares. "No. Go," he groaned.

"Great." Ren stretched with relief and went to the door.

"Thanks."

Ren's hand had been on the knob when the small word reached his ears. "Whatever," he muttered, blushing, and fled.

He went straight to the dining room, looking for Laurius.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius was waiting impatiently at the table with breakfast all around him but not the stomach for it. Every time a noise passed the door his attention jerked up to it. He hoped to see Tenara and Havitharon enter, hand in hand, having made up in the night. He wasn’t disappointed to see Ren enter. In fact, he felt this odd relief unspool some of the tension.

A maid breezed in just behind Ren, swooping around him to bend low and speak in his ear. Tenara’s excuse whispered in, and he scowled. He knew enough about the poison and antidote to know it couldn’t still be bothering her. She just didn’t want the awkwardness of being face to face with Havitharon. So they hadn’t patched things after some time to cool…

Then, something else she said…

“Fever? Really?”

The maid nodded.

“Send for the physician, then. Have him take a look.” Then, she was gone and Laurius put his face in his hands. “Morning, Ren. Did you sleep well? Have you seen Havitharon, by any chance?”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren's spirits lifted as he spotted Laurius at the table. He didn't make out what the maid said into his ear, but he clearly heard Laurius's response. A fever? So the princess was sick? Or had Thvoros injured her? The thought made him regret tending to him.

"He's in his room" he answered. "I stayed there last night." He looked more closely at his master and stiffened. "What happened to your neck?"

He already knew, just by looking. Each of Havi's long fingers had left a separate purpling imprint on Laurius's skin.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius adjusted his collar, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “I’m uncertain if he was jealous or thought I was harming her. I don’t know what he thinks he heard through the door,” he said, taking up his coffee and trying to move about to busy himself. “He was upset at me, and then at her. I had gone there to…” He hesitated, remembering Havitharon’s words regarding Ren’s rut. “I went to get more guidance on Yurivises from Tenara but I think she is just as confused as I am. I asked her—I pressured her—to test a theory with the Yurivi bond and now Havitharon doesn’t want anything to do with her. At least, I assume that’s what one means when they say they’ll never bond with you. For Tenara it was probably the equivalent of a breakup.” He rubbed his temples again and sighed, trying to move onto breakfast. “I’m sure it will work itself out.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Artisuren tilted his head. It was rare to see the man so uncertain. Protective anger tingled through him at the thought of Thvoros attacking him. "If that's what she was expecting, she likely had her hopes up for nothing. Thvoros is notorious for refusing the bond. It was a shock to see him even wearing a gold ring when we first encountered him. What theory were you testing, anyway?"

[Emora Deen]

Laurius poked at his breakfast. “She had uncertainties where his feelings were concerned, and thought that he would feel differently about her if she hadn’t become his Yurivis. She feared he had a compulsion to serve now, and that if she asked him anything, he would give it, even if it was a request for harm. I argued that he cared too much for her and such a thing was impossible.” He drank his coffee like he drank wine, but caffeine was probably the last thing he needed. “Anyway, she was wrong and I was sort of right. He didn’t hurt her because she commanded. Well, not in the way she’d asked.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Artisuren stopped serving himself, poised with the fork in his hand. "She commanded him to hurt her?"

[Emora Deen]

“Well, yes. Her fear was that being his Yurivis took his free will, and I argued he had all of his will and that a Yurivis is simply just a biological mating partner. She didn’t believe me, and I didn’t believe her and one thing led to another,” Laurius said. “I sometimes get carried away with needing to know an answer and this time I should have kept my fucking mouth shut.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren glanced at his food. "She was correct. It's nearly impossible for an Ivis to refuse a direct command from his Yurivis, once he is bonded. Once we commit ourselves to serve, our master's wishes are more important than anything else. Whether it's killing her, or letting her kill him, he would do it.

He glanced down at his place. "However, you are correct as well. Regardless of our compliance, we still have our own will. An Ivie who hates physical pain could abide it for his master's sake, but it does not mean he suddenly enjoys it. Commands like that twist the mind. Ivie who are pushed too far against their nature grow unsound over time."

"A Yurivis is not a mate," he clarified. "Yurivie with large harems often tame their less favored Ivie without ever using sex. A Yurivis is...." he pondered how to describe the concept. "Like a home for your soul. She defines where you start and end. He stared at the dishes on the table and picked up a boiled egg. "Like this shell," he said without much confidence.

[Emora Deen]

“I don’t know if he explained to her what a Yurivis is or what they do, at least not properly.” He said, admiring Ren’s example. “You say he had no intentions of tying himself to her?”

Now, Laurius was angry. Havitharon had given her the vaguest sense of what she was to him, and allowed her foolish heart to grow around that idea, and he had never intended to stay with her?

“Love is such a foolish thing,” he said. “I suppose it’s best to be heartbroken now, and not later. Maybe the experiment just moved the inevitable along faster.” He sighed. “She still has the sword, though. Even if he doesn’t want her anymore, he can’t escape her. I’m sure it will be difficult for Tenara. Hopefully we can continue the study…” It was selfish of him to think in such a way, but they had come so far and everything seemed to be getting in the way of knowing more. “A few days of space maybe…”

[Soran Nightblade]

Artisuren grimaced. "I don't have a clue what that guy's intentions were. On our world, he never let anyone close to tame him. He would take on their Ivie in duels and send them home in body bags until they gave up. Maybe she used the sword to force him to wear her rings?"

[Emora Deen]

Laurius frowned. “We don’t know them well enough, but I don’t think that is in her nature, Ren. Especially given what happened to her…” He shoved his food away, losing his appetite entirely. “A woman who’s been forced upon is unlikely to force herself on another.” Then, a thought came to him, along with the memory of her magic like a fever dream. “Maybe her power poisoned both of them into thinking they wanted the other.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren swallowed as he recalled what it felt like to have Tenara's power wash through him. "I felt arousal when she healed me, but it didn't feel especially personal to her," he said vaguely. At the time, it had been Laurius's body that he'd been drawn to, rather than hers, but he wasn't sure he wanted to say so. It felt strange to wonder if his attraction to Laurius had originated with Tenara's power, and not his broken bond.

[Emora Deen]

“True,” he said, nodding. “It doesn’t seem like those sensations are meant to make you want her specifically. I guess, it doesn’t matter how it happened. She developed feelings for him and he seems to dismiss her easily. It’s a mess either way.”

—

Tenara watched the sun cross the sky from her bed. She felt pathetic doing it, but had burned so much energy trying not to combust inside Laurius’s home that her limbs felt as heavy as her lead heart. She tried not to think about last night, because it seemed to start the cycle over.

She couldn’t figure out if she had broken something between her and Havi or if it had always been broken and she hadn’t been able to see it. Everything got twisted up in her head. The only thing she was certain of was, whatever had happened, it was her fault.

She stared at her arm stretched over the bed, at the glinting iridescent scars cross crossing her arms, markings where she’d used her connection with the sword to make Havi whole or to access her power faster. If only it could be used to shut it down just as easily as it conjured it up. She traced the scars, feeling sick at the idea of using that power now, imparting those feelings on him when he wouldn’t want them anymore.

The maids came and went, exchanging uneaten breakfast for uneaten lunch, until the afternoon when a man with thick-rimmed glasses asked to evaluate her. He made it as far as feeling her forehead and having his hand scalded before she shouted him out of the room so fiercely he cried that she was a demon and fled. Her door finally split in two at that point, leaving a half-opening into the hall.

[Soran Nightblade]

Once Havi was awake, he couldn't think of sleeping again, no matter how shitty his body felt. He had just finished forcing himself through a bath, and no longer reeked of tears and vomit. As much as he wanted to blame Ren for the epic hangover, it had the thankful side effect of preventing him from stringing two thoughts together about the night before. Every time he attempted to think it through, his head spun and threatened to send him back to the bathroom. It was nearly lunchtime when he heard shouting across the hall.
Concern welled up in him, and he felt himself rushing into the hall despite his better judgment. Tenara's door was in shambles, and a man was disappearing down the end of the hall.

"Havitharon, thank god you're up," Merry shout-whispered, peeking out from a few doors down.

Havi confirmed the man had left before turning to approach Merry. "What's going on?" he whispered back to her

"Where have you been! The princess is in an awful state."

His eyes flared wide. "What?"

"She's been hot as a lantern all morning, and no one can bring it down," she said, wringing her hands. "That was Laurius's personal physician that just ran off."

Havi cringed. Was it because of him? Guilt and hurt wheezed through him, crowding each other out until he could barely breathe. "I don't know how to help her."

Merry's eyes said that she'd caught on that something more had happened between them. "Well, get in there, first of all, and ask."

He looked at her with such hopelessness that she amended her tone. "Whatever you two fought about, it can wait until after you're both feeling better." She poked at one of the dark rings under his bloodshot eyes.

He set his jaw. She wasn't wrong, but he wasn't sure he could stand to see her yet. Merry seemed to think he was taking too long, because she pointed him back toward Tenara's door like a wind-up toy and swatted him on the back.

He marched uneasily to the ruined door and peered through it. "Tenara?" he called.