The Princess and the Blade

[Emora Deen]

“I demand to deliver it by my own hands and in private. In his quarters…” She swallowed, squaring her shoulders. “I want him to remember it every time he’s in the solitude of his space.” She felt like a monster saying such a thing, but she had thought of what a monster would say and Elias’s words spilled out.

She was thankful for Havitharon’s oversized clothes to hide the slight tremble in her legs. This could all go wrong. Horribly wrong.

[Soran Nightblade]

A guard on Heirot might have doubted her accusation or questioned her intentions in seeing the Ivis privately. On this world, the guards looked somewhat surprised by her choice of method, but there was no suspicion in the reaction. Instead, their fierce expressions suggested that she had somehow earned their respect. "As you choose, Princess. We will arrange an escort immediately." The guard shut the door again, but the sound of activity and voices outside suggested they were acting on their promise.

Ren was watching with bated breath. "Very well done," he said with soft ferocity when the door had closed. He looked at the box still sitting where he'd dropped it on the floor. "Shit, we need to put that back in the wall." He lurched forward dizzily to confiscate the evidence of their discovery.

[Emora Deen]

“Stay down,” Laurius said, not wanting Ren to hurt himself. He’d just been seizing on the floor, after all. He still had black blood under his nose.

He scooped the box up, snapped the lid shut, and pushed it back into the narrow opening between the bricks. He then bent and grabbed the brick and slowly, carefully wiggled it back into place.

It wasn’t until after he’d wedged the brick into place that Tenara realized she was still holding the silver ring. She tucked the cold, smooth metal into one of Havi’s large pockets.

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren grudgingly accepted Laurius sidelining him. The way his vision swam whenever he moved his head reinforced that he still wasn't in great shape. He rubbed the space between his eyes. It was bad enough that he didn't know how to get them back, but now he was a physical encumbrance as well. If he could just remember that grimoire.

He went suddenly still. The grimoire... it was there. Every page he'd seen, even the ones he hadn't bother to decode, was clear as day in his memory. He squinted at something that wasn't in front of him. "The book. I remember the book!" Then what Laurius had said earlier came to mind. There was no telling if this ability was temporary or permanent. He climbed to his feet and a wave of dizziness dropped him back to his knees. "Paper... I need paper and ink," he panted.

[Emora Deen]

"Will they let us have some?" Tenara asked, going to the only other piece of furniture in the room, a small writing desk. She opened up a drawer, and found what looked to be pale gray, fibrous paper. She searched for a pen of some sort, but only found a cluster of charcoal sticks. "Will this do?"

Laurius bent and gathered Ren, hauling him up from the floor and guiding him into the stiff chair at the desk. "Do not push yourself, and don't worry if it doesn't all come back. Before Havi and I left to find you, I sent word to Tenara's family. If we cannot find our way home, I'm sure they will figure it out once they find the camp and the book."

Tenara imagined her father stomping through the forest, hunting them. Hadn't that been why she left the trail of blood and tattered cloth? And Vardner... She felt ill thinking of the man, as if he'd landed another blow in her stomach the instant he came into focus. She shoved him out of her mind. Narissa had probably burned him along with all of her breadcrumbs... But her father wouldn't stop hunting, and if the camp were still there by the time he arrived, he would put it together. Sinead would help him figure out what spell they'd used...

But, how long would that take? And could they survive here for that long?

[Soran Nightblade]

Ren bent over the paper, his vision swirling the harder he thought about the spell. What if it was wearing off already? The fact he was forgetting to breathe was playing a not-insignificant role in his focus as well.

There was a knock at the door, and he looked up blearily. The escort had arrived.
"Yurivis," he pleaded to Tenara. "Please convince him to lose tomorrow, no matter what. I will find a way to send you home."

[Emora Deen]

Tenara stared into Ren's strange eyes. Convince him. Would he need convincing? She had assumed he would know what he needed to do to be with them—with her.

"Of course," she said, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze and offering a smile. "Havi's probably already thinking of ways to lose with grace." She met Laurius's eyes and hesitated only a moment more before heading to the door.

The only problem Tenara saw with their little plan was the Healer that had been in her room that morning. The one that had explained what Havitharon had done, and how she had, at the time, acted unbothered. As long as no one spoke to her, this should all go fine.

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi jerked at the knock on his door. His muscles were all wound too tight, watching for threats. His initial response of irritation suddenly morphed into hope. He rose for the door, wondering if Tenara could actually be on the other side.

"Open up, dear Brother."

The hard voice stopped him in his tracks along with any interest he might have had in opening the door. "Enter yourself."

Cera did as he suggested and met his glare with one of her own. "Come now, I hardly deserve that look from you. You have a lot to explain to me, Havitharon."

"I have nothing to say to someone who treats my Yurivis with such stark disrespect."

"If I have treated her in a way she did not deserve, it is because YOU misled her into thinking you were hers to claim. Dozens of matches I arranged for you, and you defied me at every contest. Now, you humiliate me and all who've courted you by running away and throwing yourself at an outsider I've never heard of?"

"I did not run away, and I did not throw myself at her. I was aflame, and she tempered me."

"Don't insult my intelligence. After all these years of obstinance, you want me to believe you just happened to regain your flame again after randomly being spirited away to another land."

"Call off the challenge tomorrow. I won't injure my own bondmates."

Cera's posture drew up, and he recognized the danger in her angry eyes. "They are your nothing until I say so. If they want you, let them earn you." She leaned in close to him, glaring up fiercely into his matching gold eyes. "And don't even think about throwing that fight. Be grateful I'm even giving her the chance to claim you, and honor your pact. I won't be humiliated any further than this."

"Our pact does not outweigh a bond. I am hers to call. I will win or lose by her will only," he growled.

"We shall see the strength of that bond tomorrow, then," his sister smiled with too much teeth.

"Goodnight, Sister."

She looked ready to challenge him for his behavior, but surprisingly, she turned for the door instead. "Rest well, Brother. You shall need it."

As soon as the door closed behind her, Havi cursed beneath his breath and paced to the fireplace. He looked ready to punch the fire itself, but instead he rested his forearm against the mantle and released a huff of frustration. That is, until another knock came at the door. Patience spent, he stormed toward it and threw it wide, a curse on his tongue.

But instead of his sister, there was one of the guards. The woman was rather anxiously guarding the figure behind her. "Sir," she sputtered, trying to read his posture and decide if she was in danger.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara lifted her gaze from the guards back to Havitharon's seething form. To spare the woman whatever rage Havi seemed to be coiled to unleash, she stepped up and slid between them. "I'll handle this," she said to the guards, reaching up to place her hand on Havitharon's chest and press him back into his room. "When I am finished, I will open the door." Then, she slammed it shut behind her.

When the door was closed, her gaze drifted from the hand on his chest to the wild look still blazing in his strange, alien eyes. "I'm supposed to be punishing you..." The words were barely above a whisper. "It was... Ren's idea. So I could see you."

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi's brain took several tense breaths to catch up to his eyes and ears. When her words finally sank in, he placed his hands over hers on his chest like he was sheltering a delicate creature. "I am sorry. You have been gravely mistreated here," he said.

[Emora Deen]

"You did warn me," she said, smiling softly. "I suppose your sister and I will not be friends..." Her gaze wondered over him, her mind trying to decide in what order to bring up the many topic swirling through her mind. "Ren and Laurius want me to convince you to throw the fight tomorrow. I tried to tell them you would, because... well, of course you will. They—Ren—doesn't have much faith you will find a way."

[Soran Nightblade]

Havi shook his head. "Artisuren and Cera both overestimate how much I care for my reputation here. The only purpose of winning those battles was to defy my sister's plans and remain my own." He guided her to sit on the edge of his bed and knelt before her, still holding her hand. "I clearly told my sister that I will win or lose the challenge according to your will alone, but Cera's world revolves around pride. It is not in her to understand why I could cast mine aside, and she is so convinced of my hatred of women that she believes our bond is a ruse for me to escape her control. She probably thinks the fight will show my true colors."

"She is wrong. I have chosen to serve you." He looked up at her with intent golden eyes. "Who will you send to challenge me tomorrow? What do you wish me to do?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenara reached up and brushed her fingers along Havitharon's cheek, trying to understand the strange anxiety tangling in in her chest at the mention of the bond. "I... I hadn't thought of who, yet. Ren took something we found in our cell, left there by a sorcerer. It's made his mind... wide. He can remember every little detail of every interaction or experience. Its helping him remember the spell that got us here, and maybe can take us home. So, perhaps Laurius. His current occupation is making Ren uncomfortable by reference his many climaxes for him to remember... So, its safe to say his time could be better spent."

She mulled the words over in her mouth before saying, "I'm not really your Yurivis, am I?" She felt a knot in her throat and whispered, "What happens when they figure that out?"

[Soran Nightblade]

"His... c..climaxes?"

Havi was so confused that her next question went straight over his head at first. An ache in her words made him sure there was more on her mind than just whether Cera would accept them. "You have not Bonded me, no," he said slowly, "but it is not that simple." He struggled for an explanation. "Your parents... the three of them, before they were "married", weren't they..." He struggled for words that would match his culture. "I wish to serve you. Even if you do not claim me, I will still serve you in any way you allow."

[Emora Deen]

"I know you will," she said, not doubting that he intended to serve her in the way he had chosen. But he had told her she would never bond him, and if she didn't, what would happen if they found out? She glanced around the room, her mind counting days, and weeks, and months. Four times a year, isn't that what he'd said? Then by that math, he would be going into a rut soon at some point. Tenara frowned. "What if they take you from me? Because we aren't bound. I don't know how, but they do, don't they? Could they bind to you against your will? You don't have your magic mark to hold back your ruts. Maybe if you tell me how its done... I could..."