Heirot

Tenara had fallen asleep during her attempt to wipe down the sword. It was half-clean, still marred in some areas by her blood and dirt. The edge of her dressing gown was rust-colored from using it to wipe the steel. She was curled around it, her hand loose but ready at the hilt.

She was vaguely aware of a thumping sound, but too deep in drowsiness to register it as a knock. In her dream state, she heard it as the thump of boots on a ship deck. She was trapped in the dark, unable to open her eyes or move her limbs or part her lips to scream. Someone was there with her in the dark…

Tenara woke with a sharp cry, her arm sweeping the sword out in an arch before she could bottle her fear and see the world for what it was.

She was safe.

She was safe.

Havitharon hadn't fully realized just how lethargic he was feeling, or how his skin felt uncomfortably hot and raw, until the sensations began fading away. He was used to tuning out small discomforts, but it was rare to feel them so noticeably scrubbed away. He raised an arm and inspected his now-soothed skin with curiosity. Maybe the girl's powers from the night before were still healing him?

A sharp cry from one of the rooms upstairs stopped him in his tracks. He looked up to the ceiling. That sounded like the girl's voice. Had one of her enemies somehow gotten in past his watch? He ran up the stairs, knowing full well there wasn't much he could do for her in his current state even if he wanted to.

* * * * *

"Tenara, it's me," Vlad was calling to the girl, his hand squeezed over the end of the sword securely. It seemed like he'd caught the blade when it swung at him. "Wake up, Snack."

Tenara was staring at her father, but her vision didn’t really focus on him until after he said her name. She nodded, pulling the sword gently away and laying it back down on the mattress next to her. “Sorry…”

"Don't apologize. That's a smart instinct," Vlad smirked. He held the small blue stone out to her. "Here. Queeny will zip you over to Ighten and help get to the bottom of all this with the sword. I have a few errands I need to run first, and I need to update the others that you're safe. I'll catch up with you in a few days, okay?"

Havitharon leaned against the doorway and observed them coolly.

Tenara shook her head. She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, she would be safe with her grandmother, but she didn’t want to be parted from her father. “But…” All her protests died in the back of her throat. It made her feel Iike a frightened child to beg him to stay with her, even if they’d only just found each other again and she felt safest in all the world when he was near.

Her gaze flicked to the door, to where Thvoros had come to lean against the frame.

“Okay,” she finally—reluctantly—agreed, taking the blue stone from him.

Vlad squeezed her hand in both of his. "Sinead is the strongest mage I've ever known. Of the very short list of people I trust to keep you safe, she is the best for the job right now." He placed a doting kiss on her forehead. "My brave and brilliant girl. I'll be there as soon as I can."

Havitharon stepped in warily, none too pleased by the situation. He was far less confident about how this queen might choose to solve their "problem". But being left behind could be just as dangerous, so he came to close proximity of the girl's bed.

Tenara smoothed her hand at the corner of her eyes to rid herself of the water clouding her vision. She cleared her throat and slipped to the edge of the bed, but didn’t try to stand. Instead, she pulled the sword into her lap.

“Thvoros is here,” she told her father, because he couldn’t see. Her gaze met the alien’s. “We’re going to visit my grandmother. She might be able to help us separate from the sword and maybe find you a way home. I think… I don’t know how it works or if I should try to make you whole again to travel.”

Havitharon proceeded past the vampire to the girl's side. He met her gaze with distant yellow eyes. "So far, there has been proximity limit. If you exceed it, I will most likely materialize beside you wherever you end up. Most likely."

A wash of light flooded around them then. Sinead was already summoning them. For a few moments, the area around them was too bright to look at. Then, Tenara was suddenly lying on one of the tufted couches in her grandmother's parlor.

"Welcome, darling. Don't move too quickly; give your head a moment to settle," Sinead said gently. The queen was standing a few feet away, her blue eyes twinkling with affection for her granddaughter.

Havitharon flickered into existence a moment later, standing just beside her. He put a hand to his head and squeezed the area in front of his horns. As predicted, the sword had dragged him here, but it was the first time he'd been in "transit" that long. It felt like something dissolved him into tiny pieces and then just funneled them all back together again.

Tenara melted into the cushions, groaning as her head swam and stomach churned. After a minute she sighed, clawing at the back of the lounge to drag herself up. “Hello, Grandmother,” she said, swallowing. “I said I’d visit soon, and it seems I have—though I wish it were under better circumstances…”

She looked up to Thvoros. “Are you okay?” He looked all together. Two arms and two legs, horns and all.

Havitharon winced down at her. His head didn't feel right, but he showed her a nod. It seemed critical that he appear strong and focused in the presence of the powerful female that just summoned them.

"Interesting," Sinead frowned. She stared at the space Tenara seemed to be talking to. "The being that was bound to you, I trust he is here?"

Tenara nodded. "He is." She slipped to the edge of the lounge, placing her bare feet on the cool marble floor beneath her. She rested the blade over her lap, still gripping the hilt of it. "Perhaps you should sit?" she asked him, patting the lounge next to her.

Havitharon looked at the seat, but instead took a wary step back, shaking his head. "I'll stand..."

"Fascinating," Sinead observed. "From your father's account, I had not expected you to be this casual with him." She raised a hand toward the alien being, and a blue glow filtered through the air. "Hm, no. Let's try this." She dismissed the blue glow with a swish of her arm and summoned a different energy, green and flickering. That approach didn't seem to achieve her goal either. She dismissed the energy again and thought for a moment. "Just for the heck of it, let's try this one." She closed her eyes and summoned what looked like a red shield in front of her chest. She pushed it outward, and it flowed over Havitharon. A flickering red aura attached itself to his silhouette like a second skin.

Havitharon took another step back, raising his hands as if he could swat the chaotic energy off of him.

"Ah. Very interesting," Sinead observed.

"What is this?" Havitharon demanded, squinting at his glowing red skin flickering like a hologram.

"I suppose you can hear him, too?" Sinead asked her granddaughter.

Tenara nodded. "I think she's just trying to see how you fit in the world," she told him, and then looking to her grandmother said, "I don't think he likes that." She angled the sword up. "If you want to see and hear him, I can try and make him corporeal again. I'm not sure what I did last time, exactly, but I can try..."

Sinead raised an eyebrow at her seeming protectiveness. "Your father said you used your own blood to give him form and heal him. Don't do it now, but talk me through how you approached it." She lowered a hand, and the red light scanning over him dimmed slightly, but she did not disperse it entirely. She wanted to be able to keep an eye on him.

Tenara bit her lip a moment. She turned her palms out towards her grandmother. "We're tangled up in this sword. Its connected to both of us. When either of us get too far away from it, something happens. For him... he disappears. For me, these cuts open up. Starting with the last one and working back to the first. The first..." She touched her chest. "Is what brought him here. When I cut myself with the sword, it heals..." She showed her grandmother the pale, iridescent scars glittering in the light like thin threads of opal woven across her sun-kissed skin. "I'm not certain, but I think the sword absorbed my magic, and I feel it when I cut myself with this. I haven't tried to call my power without it..." Part of Tenara was afraid to experiment with calling it at all, for fear it would burst out of her, uncontrolled and vengeful. "When I made him corporeal, I cut myself and... let myself have a taste of my power. When I cut myself to heal him, I didn't focus much. I was too out of it. I just cut myself and covered the blade in my blood. I drew on more of my power, held it a little longer..." Her cheeks burned at the memory of that feeling. "And then, I blacked out."