The Princess and the Blade

[Soran Nightblade]

After several minutes of terrible spasms, Ren finally fell still. His nose had begun to bleed somewhere along the way, but thanks to the others restraining him, his thrashing hadn't caused any injuries.
In the brightness of his mind, Ren was vaguely aware of his body existing in the unclear distance. He used it as a handhold, trying to tether himself back to his senses. His body was tired. It tasted of copper. His face was wet. A voice was shouting.

"Fuck," he groaned, clawing through the memory/dream soup and returning to his panting body. The burning muscles and exhaustion throughout his body baffled him. It felt like he'd been running from a bear. He blinked dizzily, tempted to fall asleep.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius shot up straight when spotted Ren’s eyes fluttering open. “Ren!” He cupped his hands on either side of Ren’s face gently and turned it up to him. “Ren…” He smoothed his thumb beneath the man’s nose, smearing away the blood. “Can you hear me?” Please, be okay.

[Soran Nightblade]

The Ivis rolled his eyes up toward the voice. Dozens like it echoed in his consciousness, as if every time Laurius had ever called his name had been montaged together. He grinned weakly at the sense of security the mental scrapbook awakened in him. "Master," he answered, blinking him into focus. He was growing more aware of the warm hands on his cheeks, of the residual splitting headache, the smell and temperature of the room. "Don't think... it did anything..." he joked blearily.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius punched his hand down on Ren’s arm lightly. “You bastard, you’re lucky you’re gorgeous!” He pulled Ren into his arms and held him in his lap. “Perhaps we shouldn’t put things from a strange sorcerer’s box in our mouth…”

Tenara scowled at him, folding her arms. “I told you.”

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren didn't fight Laurius's coddling. If he was being honest, he quite enjoyed it. Gorgeous. He ran the word over in his chaotic thoughts, examining it on all sides like a puzzle box. No matching memories came up, from him or anyone else. An odd fact struck him. "No one has ever called me that," he mumbled to himself, hoarse from the blood in the back of his throat.

[Emora Deen]

“Well that’s because this world is very dark and your people are obviously blind,” Laurius muttered, running a hand along Ren’s head and over one of his horns.

Tenara felt a pang in her chest watching them. She thought of Havitharon, and wanted so much to be near him, to run her fingers through his hair like Laurius did to Ren. A strange heaviness settled in her chest. She wasn’t his. He wasn’t hers. This could all end with her losing him… If she’d ever had him to begin with. He had told her she was his Yurivis, but Ren had made it sound like she was a facade of one. A placeholder.

Temporary.

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren's eyes fell half shut at the soft fingers on his scalp and horns. He had just enough sense left to realize what was bothering him about his thoughts. "It's not... I mean that I'm certain no one has said it before. Overly certain, like I would definitely know if someone had." He glanced up at them, realizing his words made no sense. "My memory is too clear," he realized. He reached up and barely touched Laurius's burnt hair. "I can picture exactly what your hair looked like before. Your expression when it was less gaunt, no dark circles. Your eyes when you look at the princess. Your expression when you're close to climax," he stumbled, blushing. "I mean that I remember it perfectly."

[Emora Deen]

Laurius blinked at Ren, then glanced at Tenara. She averted her eyes, as if she did not want to understand or see the look Ren described when his gaze fell on her. He didn’t even know what it looked like himself. He swallowed and turned his attention back to Ren. “If you talk anymore of climaxes, I’ll make another memory for you,” he said, a roguish smile springing to his lips. He combed fingers through Ren’s hair again. “It sounds like whatever you’ve taken has altered your cognitive abilities in some way. It could be only memory related or more. It also could be temporary or… permanent. Time will tell. Give yourself a moment to adjust. Don’t think too hard about my hair or face or climaxes.”

[Soran Nightblade]

"Stop saying climaxes," Ren growled, even as his mind treated him to a colorful selection of memories and sounds. Things that even in the moment, he'd been too heated to pay real attention to. He thought of Laurius's voice, his lustful whispers, his face drawn in tightly as he released inside him. Ren's belly suddenly throbbed with need, and he drew his knees up toward him to hide his reaction. "Shit," he shivered.

[Emora Deen]

Laurius chuckled and bent low, put his lips near Ren’s ear, and like the sadist he was, whispered, “Climaxes.”

Tenara sighed and stood, leaving them to their corner of the room. She studied the furniture on the other side, and then the hinges on the door, and wished very much she could give them space.

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren twitched his knees a bit closer to his chest. His pants felt painfully tight, and this time his memories weren't to blame. He breathed a curse to himself. Kishva had always complained that he was too sensitive. He couldn't afford to get any worse than he was already, but just the feel of Laurius's breath in his ear canal was melting his senses. Was it really okay to be thinking of such things at a time like this? Tomorrow, one of them would have to fight Thvoros and they couldn't even...

He blinked and reached his hands out to the sides, as if expecting the earth to move if he didn't hold on. His eyes flashed up to Tenara. "Thvoros fed you Toothsbane last night?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenara turned from where she was admiring the door, curling a hand over one of her arms. “He did,” she said hesitantly and then added in a hurry. “I asked for it because… I was in pain.” She didn’t want Ren to think of the other reason she had asked for it.

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren remembered, perfectly, the questions Laurius had asked him the night before. Hindsight made it perfectly clear what Tenara had intended. The thought of her suffering to the point of doing such a thing made his heart ache. When he brought his eyes back up to Tenara's, he spoke pointedly. "No. You were delirious, and he did it without your permission. He could not bear the sight of your pain, and he panicked. As the harmed party and a guest of house Ruthe, it is your right to demand a punishment of your choice. You may demand to deliver it to him personally. The rules of hospitality require the Marquess to grant you this right."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara shook her head, her face paling. His instructions made her instantly panic because she did not want to think of anyone punishing Havitharon for her choice, and she was so blinded by that fear that she didn’t understand what he was hinting at.

“He’s giving you a way to see him, Tenara,” Laurius said. “You don’t have to actually punish him.”

“Oh,” she whispered, relieved.

“Make your demands, and plot our way out of this with him,” Laurius said. “We’ll work on Ren’s new library of a memory while you’re gone.”

Tenara looked at the door again, and pressed her hand to it. Her heart thumped in her chest. If she said the wrong thing…

“I demand to see my Ivis, Havitharon Ruthe,” she said, her voice stronger than she’d expected. “I arrived injured last night, and he gave me Toothsbane. As a guest of House Ruthe, I demand to exact my punishment for it being done without my permission…”

She held her breath, praying to any gods that could still hear them she made the right choice.

[Soran Nightblade]

One of the guards swung the door open, a look of shock on her face. "Can you prove this accusation?"

The second guard touched her on the shoulder and whispered something in her ear. Ren remembered her face. She had been there when they arrived last night. She had seen Tenara's injuries firsthand.

Ren's eyes sharpened fiercely. It would work.

After conferring briefly, both women turned back to Tenara, aghast. "Your retribution will be granted, of course," the first said, actually looking angry, though it didn't seem aimed at Tenara. "What punishment do you demand?"