Heirot

Vlad pulled them up, hand over hand, along the side of the tree. His limbs were stiff, but the movement kept them flexible. He didn't let himself think too hard about the soft groans of pain coming from Tenele every time he had to switch hands to rise a peg higher. It took a good five minutes of violent winds to finally start to rise above the storm. The elves had their own ways of defending their city, and apparently localized acts of god were among them. Vlad pulled himself a few dozen more feet, until the winds and temperatures had definitely died down to the normal coldness of the forest in winter. He held them there for a moment, gathering his strength and wishing he'd taken blood while he had the chance during the battle. He'd been too engrossed in the thrill of kicking ass to attend to business.

"Tenele," he called to her, a little worried she would let herself fall asleep while her body was this cold. That could be a deadly luxury. His voice was a bit strangled with Erom latched onto his neck.

Tenele was nearly asleep, but the pain in her leg kept her just to the side of letting the urge to sleep take her. She heard her name, but was sluggish to react to hearing it. Several seconds of delay later her frozen lips parted. "I'm... awake," she chattered. She smirked, despite the situation. "Are we there yet?"

Vlad smirked. If she could joke, he knew she could get past this. "Almost." He pulled himself higher and tried to ignore the soft sobs of the boy against his neck. He was almost to the platform, which formed a huge ceiling above them, but he hadn't quite worked up how he was going to get onto it.

"Eram!" A woman's voice cried out. Ilthe was flying toward them, nervously stepping past the defensive barriers of the city. "Oh goddess, Eram!"

She approached Vlad carefully and tried to take the boy from him. Eram latched on tightly. "Them too!" he whimpered.

With no other choice and no time to waste, Ilthe reluctantly touched Vlad's back. The vampire levitated along with her away from the edge of the tree. It was a relief to finally let his claws retract. Within seconds, they were landing on the surface of the platform. Elves were everywhere, gathered at the edges of the platform to watch the battle below. At first, no one even really noticed they were there.

Vlad knelt down and carefully set Tenele down on her back, while Ilthe scooped Eram desperately off his back. "You're hurt, my poor boy," she murmured to him, giving him a fierce hug.

Vlad focused on his wife, running a cold hand along her icy cheek. He reached to his waist and undid her coat, throwing it across her arms and tugging it in close against her skin.

"My god! Athraka, your clothes!" demanded Ilthe.

"Damn, woman! Get me some blankets and I'll put on some damned clothes!" Vlad snapped at her. Worked up, who, him?

Tenele blinked her eyes open, suddenly finding that she was lying on her back. The winter air was still cold, not as cold as she'd been, but just so that there was little hope of warming up unless she went inside or near a fire. She shivered beneath the cloak. The cold had kept her jaw from swelling from the hit she took, but her lip was puffy and stained red in the corner. She ran a hand down her leg, her fingers too numb to feel what the problem was.

She gasped ragged when she touched the issue. Tenele tried to recall what had happened, but her brain felt all sorts of fuzzy. She remembered the kick, remembered seeing something glint off his boot. But, she'd never bothered to check what had caused the pain. She'd been too busy. The folds of her dress kept the object hidden. A small blade, like that which would be concealed in a boot, had snapped off in her leg. It had burrowed deep from abuse, but its presence acted as a plug to keep the wound from bleeding profusely. Light red patches stained the pale fabric around her thigh.

"You burned him," Tenele chattered. "Cotton isn't as prone to surviving flames as he is. I guess you think he could regenerate pants too?"

"Please go," Tenele told Vlad, finding her voice easier to come by now that ice wasn't cutting into her skin. "They'll hurt you. Please go. I'll find you, I promise. I'll be right behind you. Don't worry about me. I'm fine. Go."

Vlad frowned at her leg. His slowly thawing lungs made it possible now to smell what he should have sensed a long time ago. "You're bleeding", he said, grasping her hand to keep her from touching it further.

"If you value her safety, step away from her," Hakom said, stwpping up from the growing attention of the crowd to approach them. "Let us protect the daughter of Attara." The words brought a rush of whispers from the crowd.

Vlad rose and took a step back from Tenele. Several elves cautiously approached, watching his every move. The furthere he retreated, the more confident they grew, until they reached her side. Vlad watched without resistance as they carefully lifted her body. The crowd folded in to watch her as she was carried toward the nearest building. There was already an air of admiration in the way their gazes followed her, after Hakom's declaration.

Tenele tried to keep her eyes on Vlad, but the crowd closed in and she couldn't see him anymore. She frowned, trying to see around the person carrying her. "Don't hurt him," Tenele warned.

The color was slowly returning to her cheeks, and the blue in her lips was slowly transforming into a pale rose. The figure carrying her laid her gently on a straw bed tucked into the corner of the shelter. It was warm from fires and torches.

She'd been fighting so well, and then fighting the cold had stolen her energy. She felt it slowly returning to her the warmer she got. Even though the elf tending to her wanted Tenele to be still, the Queen's Maiden was reluctant to do so in hostile territory. And, since they saw fit to burn Vlad she considered them all enemies.

Tenele hated being wounded. She hated being weak, wanting more than anything to be able to keep up with Vlad. Deep down she knew she couldn't. She was mortal. Weak. And it burned her to no end.

"The boy," Tenele murmured, remembering the hurt elf that had guided them to the forest floor. "I can heal him. Bring him to me."

"Heal him? Impossible. Even for our kind, such magics are extremely taxing. Such a risk is unnecessary on a non-lethal wound. Even if you could survive a healing act, you could not perform one now, injured as you are. You should rest," the elf leaning over her said.

Vlad took a good look at the unfriendly crowd that was edging toward him. He scanned the faces indifferently until he found the one he wanted. "Hey!" he shouted to Hakom, pushing lightly through the elves standing around him to approach the elder elf. Hakom's eyes widened, but he didn't run away as the vampire stopped firmly in front of him.

"You don't want me here, and I get that. But if you know a way to save Tenele's brother, tell her!"

"It is not for you to command me, Athraka. Be grateful our men are too taxed from summoning the storm to attack you, for now."

As Hakom began to turn away, Vlad grabbed his shoulder harshly and turned him back around. "She is the daughter of your Goddess and has done only kindness to you. She just fought for you with her life, even after you turned her away. Do not turn her away again now!"

Hakom looked ready to swat the vampire's hand off his shoulder, but the words caught his attention. "You are correct. She is to be protected. But her brother is out of our hands. No magic can cure what nature has forbidden." His expression grew more hostile as he glanced over the vampire. "Nature finds a way to destroy that which is unnatural," he said meaningfully.

"So it can't be done," Vlad called after the man as he started to turn away. "That's what you're saying. With all your thousands of years of prayer and knowledge, you can do absolutely nothing about this?"

The voice that returned was stern, but sad. "The young man must die. There is no other way."

Tenele pushed at the elf until she forced him away. "I'll show you impossible," Tenele muttered. She hobbled to her feet, limping towards Erom where Ilthe was cradling him. The Queen's Maiden dropped harshly to her knees next to him and reached out her hands. "Thank you for what you did," she told Erom. "I mean, for being so easy to kidnap." The half-elf winked at the boy as a faint white glow started under her fingertips and spreading across his skin. Seconds later the light faded, and Tenele slowly withdrew her hand.

She pressed her palms against the wooden floor and pushed up to her feet. She managed to hobble a distance away, a little more than half-way towards the straw bed before her energy level's drop and she started crumpling to the floor. She fell into the trunk of the tree going up through the room, resting against it as her already weakened body protested her use of magic.

The elves around Tenele burst into a frenzy of chatter and motion as she began to collapse. In no time, hands were cradling her and drawing her back into the bed, while Erom just stared in shock.

"It...doesn't hurt," the boy murmured. "She healed me!"

The elves seemed more fervent in their care of her after that, as if they expected her to die at any moment. But instead, she only seemed dazed. The whispered among themselves while a nurse placed warm towels across her forehead to help warm her.

They gave Tenele some sort of warm tea that Tenele drank eagerly. Minutes later Tenele was feeling very relaxed, warm, and a little numb. So numb that she didn't feel the nurse working on the blade burrowed in her leg. The nurse had to work her fingers into the skin and grab the blade to pull it out. She dropped it on a rag and went about sealing the wound and bandaging it up.

When the nurse was through she pulled warm blankets over Tenele.

Tenele blinked her eyes open lazily, glancing around the room. "The Athraka," she muttered. "My husband. Please, let him in."

Vlad was still studying Hakom, eyes narrowed, and struggling to tell if the elf was truly serious when a pair of women approached them from the direction of Tenele's hut.

"Um... the lady wishes to see this Athraka," one of the elves murmured uncertainly, keeping a wide berth from the vampire.

"He is not welcome," Hakom insisted. "You will leave. This village does not tolerate your kind, even if you have manipulated Tenele into doing so. Let her be with her people."

Vlad's expression soured, and he enunciated each word with venom. "You are not her people. I am her people. The brother you refuse to help is her people. You're just a bunch of zealots hiding in trees while the rest of the world crumbles under the weight of war. You are on the sidelines. You do not get to comment on how we play the game."

The elves were still absorbing the full impact of his rant as Vlad walked sternly toward Tenele's tent. Bodies scattered out of the way as he stepped into the room. He ignored their scornful looks and knelt next to Tenele. "Warmer?" he asked her quietly.

Tenele blinked her eyes at him. "I am," she responded in a slur. She shifted on the straw mat. "I was checking to make sure they hadn't thrown you over the railing." Tenele reached out and took his cold hand in her warming fingers. "It will make them angry, but I want to hold onto you. I don't trust them. I don't want them hurting you again. Stay here with me, please? I drank something that is making me very sleepy..." Tenele blinked her eyes closed, and then open again. "I wish I could keep up with you, that I was as strong as you."

Tenele nestled back into the covers, letting out a heavy sigh.

Vlad didn't shift or even breathe as he sat next to his wife. The only movement that proved he was more than a statue was the way his fingers closed around hers, returning her grasp. The elves watched his deathlike stillness in nervous fascination as he held the hand of the daughter of Life.

"Rest. Sometimes I need to be slowed down," he said to her, his red gaze razing over the onlookers meaningfully.

Tenele didn't need to be told twice. She faded off almost instantly, tugging his hand closer to her chest and holding it there. Some hour or more later Tenele blinked her eyes open with a heavy groan. The tea and its numbing effect had worn off, so she was left to feel the soreness in her leg. It wasn't crippling, but it wasn't comfortable either.

She shifted on the bed of straw, pushing herself to sit up.

Vlad's fingers slipped away from hers as she sat up. His movement startled the nurse who'd stayed behind to watch them, after he'd sat so still for so long. She glanced to Tenele. "It's apt to still be sore, my lady. I've prepared some more-"

"No," Vlad stopped her coldly. His mood hadn't much improved over the past hour; it rarely did without Tenele's company. "No more sedatives. We're leaving."