Mature: Desert Moon

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad spun and fell with the impact. The blade had split his flesh wide, and blood spilled freely across the floor while his body began the process of stitching itself back together. His gaze locked on his opponent, and he rose to his feet.

That had been a foolish mistake. He'd wasted the blood that girl had given him. He needed to win this fight quickly. Luckily, he was pissed.

He ran at the sorceress and roared, driving to stab her a second time.

[Emora Deen]

Lelana, still in the guise of Tenele, rolled sideways quickly, and spun back behind him. She lifted her hands, and chains sprouted from the ceiling and descended to cuff around his wrists. "It was worth taking the hit to see the fear in your eyes," Lelana told him in Tenele's voice, admiring the newly healed wound on her chest.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad snarled as the cuffs tugged him up off his feet. He swung his legs upward and wrapped his ankles around the chain as he strained to cut free of the shackles. He tried not to watch Tenele too hard....no, Lelana. He hissed as he successfully cracked one cuff free. Hanging by his other arm, he swung down and threw a solid kick at Lelana's chest.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele flew across the room into the wall, crumpling to the floor. Her green eyes dragged upwards dizzily. Confused, Tenele looked at him like she couldn't understand why he was hurting her. Broken hearted, pained, she struggled to push herself up. "Vlad..." When she couldn't manage to kneel, she cracked with a sob, her arms quivering. "Please..."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad tugged at his chain, that look on her face making him want to tear Lelana apart. At the same time, the visual chaffed at his insides. He wanted to be sick. But he needed to kill her. Kill her, and break out of this ridiculous asylum. It bothered him that she seemed healed so quickly. He might have underestimated her magical strength. But if she was anything like Atul, it had to run out sometime.

He glanced up at the chain holding his arm and thrashed at it. Why did it seem like this one was stronger?

Was she messing around with him?

[Emora Deen]

Tenele managed to pull herself up to her feet wearily. She limped towards him curling her injured arm towards her chest. Drying blood caked her chin, and around her lips and nose. She wanted him to have a good look at his wife's face, at her injured body, and for him to see what his strength had done to the woman he loved.

When she knew that he had looked hard and long at her, she extended one arm down at her side. The long black blade returned. She reared back with her good arm and sliced towards his legs, meaning to lop them off just above the knees.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad tugged himself up by his trapped arm and struggled to dodge her strike, but with the limited space available, there wasn't much he could do. The knife caught just behind his knee and ripped out near the middle of his shin, the other leg, escaping with a graze. Vlad choked back a sound as the lower half of his shin hung by a strap of flesh. His other leg managed to swing up and cuff her across the side of the head, throwing her down again. He slammed her head into the floor with a bleary burst of telekinesis for good measure.

The pain began to catch up with him. His focus got worse. Why couldn't he teleport out of this cuff? He sliced at the chains with his opposite hand. The effort was clumsy. He needed to stop and hold still a minute, but he couldn't afford to.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele struggled on the floor, bleeding from the head. She lifted a hand dizzily. Her green eyes sought him out, trying to keep an eye on him as she drug herself across the floor.

Odeb stepped up from the wall, seeing his mistress's distress. He knelt next to her and collected her in his arms. Somewhere in the time that he gathered her and stood the Queen lost consciousness. Tenele hung limp in his arms. He carried her from the room, the power draining already bleeding her silver hair black and turning her skin darker. The guards outside the room closed the door behind him.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad dragged in deep, shaking breaths as he composed himself in the silent room. The silence felt so good. He lifted his bad leg slowly until his knee reached his chest. Hanging by one arm, he used his free hand to hold the severed limb against its point of origin. His magic filtered very, very slowly, like it was passing through some sort of sieve. He had to hold the agonizing wound for a good twenty minutes before it felt glued on well enough to trust. Another hour later, the feeling slowly made it back to his toes, while it was now totally absent from the arm he hung by. He managed enough telekinesis to drag a chair under him and stand on his one good leg.

By then, the strain of using any magic was becoming exhausting, and it wasn't just his body's limits doing it. He wondered if the chains were composed partly of the material Maxwell had used to restrain him.

[Emora Deen]

Lelana left Vlad there for several days while she recovered. No one visited him. The stench of blood and the woman decomposing on the floor filled the dining room. The candles had long burned out. Then, one morning the door groaned open and she stepped in. It wasn't with the usual sauntering cocky grace she normally possessed. This seemed less bravado, and more serious.

"I sent your wife a lovely letter for you," she sighed, pressing her fingers under her nose to block the smell. "It was very sweet. I'm sure it will reach her soon."

[Soran Nightblade]

"Is that so," Vlad muttered, his voice dry from lack of use.

[Emora Deen]

Lelana nodded. "You are enjoying your stay here, but unfortunately, haven't managed to acquire what you need to recover her memories. I didn't want her to worry with no word from you." She narrowed her eyes on him. "I'm sorry, you must be uncomfortable." She waved her arm and the clasp on the chain clicked open.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad fell onto the chair below him and crashed through it into the floor, his legs rejecting his weight. "Much better," he grunted, lying stiffly on the ground while he felt out his limbs for usefulness.

He peered up at her. "You look terrible," he gloated.

[Emora Deen]

Lelana smirked. "You look worst," she replied, kneeling down next to him. "I'm sure you're hungry..." The Queen rolled up the sheer sleeve and took her nail, dragging it across her wrist. She tilted the wrist towards his lips, the blood dripping into his mouth. "I think we got off on the wrong foot."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad's tongue stretched out over her skin, and her blood set fire to his starved veins.

She was offering, and he couldn't be picky at the moment. His teeth drove in with a tight grip, sealing around her flesh. He had no intention of stopping. Maybe she'd let him drain her until she dropped dead. That would be fun.