Heirot

Her words were a sweet tether rooting him to the earth. To himself. The arm she'd released ceased its convulsions, only shivering slightly as he reached for her. His large palm cupped the side of her neck, fingertips tracing over the tender skin. He wanted to lick her there. He wanted to lick her everywhere.

The abrupt sense of purpose and safety made him feel delirious. He arched his back, hips meeting hers through their clothes. This time, his moan was most definitely not one of pain. "Yurivis..."

Tenara made a soft sound at the contact, her magic-hypersensitive nerves arching like static to his touch. She ground low over him, forgetting everyone else in the room for a moment, and rocked against the hardness pressing into her.

Her hand was still outstretched toward the door, pressure and heat holding it closed as it wobbled in the frame.

But her magic shifted a hair more towards Havi’s attention. Her hand slid up his chest, a finger gliding along his throat and under his chin. Invisible hands snaked under him, caressing and grabbing, hoisting him up ever so slightly sit. She tilted his face with the finger under his chin, even as those same invisible hands tangled around his horns and tugged his head back. “Sing for me.” The command slipped out, a strange mixture of her voice and something darker, haunting and beautiful.

Havi's body registered the command as if she had wrapped her hand around him and squeezed. He wanted to sing for her. The desire to grant her wish far outweighed the situation surrounding them. The unfamiliar darkness in her voice made no difference to him. Everything about her was beautiful, and exactly as it should be.

His blurry vision cleared and fixed on her. He brought his heaving breaths forcibly back under control, his focus narrowing to this one task, this one act of worship. He drew breath and sang. There were no words to his song this time. His voice was a soft, sultry baritone. The melody swelled full of adoration with each rise, and the low runs dripped hot with need.

It was enough to disrupt the pounding on the door as the guards were dumbstruck by their ferocious, Yurivis-hating Marquis's song of devotion. Cera occasionally required Havitharon to sing at court events and gatherings, and his voice was known for its dark beauty and undertone of malice. But none of them had ever heard it like this.

Ren had been beginning to panic as the door gave way, but now that the world had narrowed to Havi's voice and the ink on his hands, he regained enough composure to focus again. He went on scrawling sigils on the stone, but his bottom half couldn't help responding to the song. For fuck's sake, of all the times to be hard... He ignored his reaction and drew the final sigil. He began the incantation in a murmur, matching the cadence of the ancient words to the rhythm of Havi's song.

Havi’s voice stole Tenara’s focus. The magic pressing the door up, holding the fragments like a shield to keep people out fell away, and the door came clattering down loud enough to shake Laurius awake.

His eyes dizzily took in the room, and the broken door to his right. He clutched the handle on the dagger, told himself to rise, but his legs ignored him. He slung himself forward and crawled on his elbows, shoving his feet weakly into the floor to make his way to Ren.

Tenara curled her fingers along Havitharon’s cheeks, her magic and her focus solely on him. The world fell away. Everything fell away. Heat and pressure were a spiral around them, tendrils of flame dancing along the stone.

Then, someone moved. A shadow shifting from the door, a sword raising above their head as they barreled into the room.

“Tenara!” Laurius roared.

Tenara’s attention broke, red eyes flashing towards the shape, the sword rocketing down toward her. Havi’s sword was in her hand a moment later, as if she’d conjured it out of thin air. But, from the dark circles growing under her eyes, and the shake in her arms, she wasn’t strong enough to hold the blow coming toward her.

Tenara was the only thing Havi could see at the moment.

And what he saw was the fear and alarm in her eyes as she stared at something beyond him. He felt her sudden grip on the sword tug at his other self. She needed him, not as a lover right now but as a weapon and shield. His eyes flared with purpose, and his body swirled apart into violet sparks.

The sword in Tenara's hand pulsed, and then his psyche stood behind hers like a bolster. Her mind felt different from usual. This time, it was like diving into hot liquid. It scalded at his edges, but that did nothing to dim his resolve to protect her. Her leg swept up like a sprung arrow and blew across the guard's wrist, blowing the descending sword out of her grip. Tenara's other hand rose up and caught the loose weapon, and then she rolled back and flipped to her feet, a sword in each hand. Havi hesitated as they faced down the guard. He had harmed Yurivie before, but doing so while in rut was a different matter. He retreated instead, holding the guards at bay as he guided her backward toward Ren's circle.

Ren spoke the last words of his ritual and spared just enough focus to check what was happening in the room. He found Tenara holding their pursuers at bay, but they wouldn't hesitate for long. Meanwhile, Laurius was crawling to him. The ritual sucked at him, hungry for the power it needed, and he had nothing to offer it.

His magically augmented brain ran through their options, one after another.

They couldn't do it.

There was no way to get the souls they needed. No matter how he calculated it, at least one of them would be lost. His brain made a decision, and he didn't allow his heart time to question it. He rose, stiff with the effort of containing the suspended ritual, and closed the last few steps between him and Laurius. His master was desperately crawling toward him, knife in hand. Ren knelt before the man slowly and offered him a shallow smile. He cupped Laurius's cheek in his shaking hand. "It will be okay," he said gently.

"I'm sorry."

He kicked the knife loose from Laurius's grip, and it skittered into the center of the circle. His eyes lit as there was lightning in his skull, and the sigils on the floor bloomed bright enough to make the dark-accustomed residents of House Marr shield their eyes. Ren wrapped his arms around himself, as if trying to hold in the power squirming through him. "It's time," he shouted to them.

Tenara felt Havi’s presence in her bones, in her muscles. She relinquished to his expert control, feeling a disorienting comfort in watching her body move, parry, and block of its own volition.

“It’s time!”

Tenara spared a glance at the sigils and Ren, his eyes ablaze, doubled over in pain, and Laurius, half-crawling through the circle to chase the dagger, screaming, “No, Ren! I can’t fix it! I can’t fix it!”

“Ren? What did you do?” Tenara asked but then, she understood and saw the portal opening. Tenara shoved the person she was fighting back—or maybe it was Havi’s strength behind her arms that did it—and whirled towards the portal to chase Ren and Laurius into it.

Just as Laurius's fingers were about to reach the knife, the light took him. Tenara, too, along with her sword, were gone the moment they crossed the threshold of the circle. Ren waited for them to go, ensuring there was still enough energy for one more.

"Artie! What the hell have you done?!" He looked back with glowing eyes at Kishva, who was struggling to the front of the pack in the doorway. It was odd. She normally appeared like a goddess to him, but today she just looked childish. He had no interest in placating or dealing with her. He didn't even feel compelled to answer her.

"I asked you a question! Artie!"

He turned his back and walked into the spell, wondering how much time he would have once he reached the other side. Would it be immediate? If it was slow, would it be better to go somewhere private?

The light flooded up around him, and the icy cold of Between stole his senses.

_____________________________

"It's them," Lelana shouted. "She's coming."

Vlad leapt awake, rising from his wife's bedroll. They had been waiting days now in the ruined Arken camp where Tenara had been last sighted. Taken turns, they kept vigil at the scorched ring of earth where the ritual had taken place. A young boy who claimed to have guided Laurius Marr through the mountains had seen the strange portal take them, after letting his curiosity overtake his better judgment and following him here.

Even Lelana could not identify where the spell had taken Tenara. They had no choice but to wait, and pray that it reopened.

"My Love," Vlad said urgently, placing a hand on his wife's shoulder as he noticed the circle. Several small red lights had begun coalescing at its center, weaving in slow circles. It reminded Vlad of dull embers attempting to restart a fresh fire.

Tenele sat up, and scurried off the bedroll, up to her feet. She shifted nervously from foot to foot, her hands writhing together. There really wasn’t any way to tell if this was them… It could be anyone. But Tenele’s heart swelled with hope anyway.

Laurius was the first to appear, half rolling out of the red shifting light, and sinking into the stained snow. He was still for several moments before he gasped himself awake and struggled to turn back towards the light.

Tenara stumbled out next, carrying two swords, with one being much heavier than the other. Her eyes were glowing as red and angry as the portal when she hit her knees on the other side.

She was too disoriented to understand what was happening or where she was, so when the shadows began to move in her wobbling vision she snarled and lifted Havi’s sword up in defense, swiping the air to keep them back.

The arm wielding Havi's sword obeyed Tenara, but there was no extra strength bolstering it this time. *Tenara, it's your mother,* Havi's presence rumbled gently in her mind.

Vlad could tell his daughter was disoriented, so he stayed a step back and resisted every instinct to tackle her with a bone-crushing hug.

"Brother," Lelana warned. His tone made the vampire pause. "Something's wrong with this spell." She was eyeing the red embers that swirled with what seemed to be increasing sluggishness. As they dulled, Tenara and Laurius's forms took on a vague translucent quality. "I don't understand the mechanics, but I think it's powered incorrectly."

Laurius was trying to reach back through the portal for something, and Tenara curled in on herself, trying to cram her carnal magic back down after letting it run so wild and free. “Souls. There aren’t enough. The dagger isn’t enough to power it.”

Were they going to be sucked back to Havi’s world? Or caught somewhere in between?

“Ren!” Laurius clawed, digging through the burned ground and newly fallen snow for the dagger. It had to be here. It had to have come through too.

Vlad stared at their daughter's fading form. "Tenele," he said urgently. They'd discussed this during their long wait. The possibility that "he" might be able to guide their daughter's light back home. After all, Knight was not of this plane either.

He ignored Laurius for the time being, not caring one lick what he was rambling about. There would be plenty of time to kill him later, after his daughter was safe.

Tenele hesitated only a moment. They had discussed this. She knew she might need to call him… But there was no way of knowing how it would work or what he would do or if she would trade her daughter for both her husbands—and of course she would. She would. But she wanted a moment to say goodbye, just in case, and there wasn’t a moment. Just now. Just her daughter fading, fading… She met Vlad’s eyes, a thousand things spoken in a single stare, and said, “Sagra reion, Knight.”

Tenara clutched Havitharon’s sword for dear life. If they were going to fade away, it would be together. But she noticed, through her narrowed vision of the world, it didn’t seem to be fading, unless it was a trick of her eye. Perhaps it was the compartmental nature of the sword, his soul being bound to an object rather than flesh. If she got sucked back, would they be separated? Or would she pull him with her, back to that place where they would take him and use him like Arken had used her? Tenara winced a breath and uncurled a finger from the hilt, then another…

Knight's body took form before Tenele, his long hair billowing around him. He normally came to her adorned in dark clothing, but this time his entire form seemed made of black shadows. He knew exactly what was needed, and he would not need a physical form in the place Between. He didn't spare the time to bow before her as he usually did, either. His mismatched eyes glowed as they sought hers just long enough to convey in a glance that he was prepared. He whirled toward the portal and dove into it, his shadowy form warping as it slid from their world.

The familiar cold of Between greeted him as he surveyed what was happening to his daughter's soul. Tenara's soul looked like it was bursting with sunlight, her full power on display in the darkness between worlds. He didn't expect to see the second form behind her, pushing her forward. The other spirit seemed made up of a cluster of ruby orbs. It was clearly a single entity, but looked like no soul he'd ever seen before. The orbs flickered, their power dimming in and out. He could vaguely make out the spirit belonging to the orbs, a male form leaning into Tenara with all his might. It noticed him and immediately grasped at his mind through the nothingness. *Help her, please!*

There wasn't time to ask for an explanation. He reached out and took hold of them both. He hadn't planned on delivering two souls, but if this spirit was truly attempting to help his daughter, he wouldn't leave it trapped here. He closed his eyes, and for moment, the darkness flared deeper around them both. Knight's soul was always tethered to Heirot's realm, where his hosts were. He used that lifeline to pull them back. He stepped out into daylight, with his daughter secured in one arm and an unfamiliar male's body limp in the other.

When the rest of Tenara’s soul connected to her body, a pulse rippled through the air. She went limp for a moment, losing track of the sword in the process. The world came back to her, blurry and cold. A woman’s frantic hands were on her cheeks, hurried voices swirling in the air, and someone warm and strong was holding her tightly.

“Ren?” Laurius’s voice dragged her eyes open. The merchant drunkenly stumbled toward them and tried to pull the limp form down into his lap. “Ren? Come on.”

Tenara’s gaze slipped up to the face of her father, then to her mother, who had hold of both cheeks, and finally to her aunt, who hovered nearby—concern carefully hidden behind her stoicism.

“You found us…” Tenara struggled to keep from bursting into tears, taking a ragged, deep breath. “You found me.”

Laurius's tugging drew Knight's attention down to him. The guardian's expression was drawn with concern for his daughter, but hardened as he noted the merchant's presence. "Laurius Marr. You will stay still until I get to you." It was only then that he noticed the red orbs still hovering around the body of the man hanging under his arm. Who is this? he wondered, but it wasn't important enough to ask right now. After a moment's deliberation, he released the body into Marr's lap to free up his hands.

The clang of Tenara's sword on the ground brought him back to his first priority. "Of course we found you," he smiled and kissed her hair. "Your soul seems to be intact. Does anything hurt?"

Ren's body tumbled into Laurius's arms. His green eyes were completely dilated as they slid up to take in the wide blue sky of the alien world. "Fuckin...worked..." he tried to laugh, but only achieved a weak grin. His head felt like it was full of lightning. The red orbs hovering around him shone dully.