Border Crossing

First topic message reminder :

Richard took the pair of pants and nodded, dropping his others on the floor without a thought. He had never been shy . being a prince, he'd never been given that option. "I am a little put out that I was unable to protect you when the mermaid queen became upset. But I am not angry with you."

The woman held her dress against her breasts and backed toward the door, feeling for the handle on the wall. "I did what I was told. Even your slave knew her place and left when she was told. I am not stupid enough to disobey the king's captain of the guard!"

"We have a few days until the blood moon." Kane said, glancing toward Garrik. "You need to show me a bit of faith on your part, my dear. We cannot get married until then." He said evenly. "Fine. Don't put the blade down. Just...return it to where it was." He sighed after a moment. The next few days were going to be long ones. He was sure of it. 

Yena returned to her digging, his words stinging much more than she'd thought they should. "Leave me be. Go back and look at shiny things. That's what pack animals like to do anyway." She muttered, swallowing past the lump in her throat.

Alice's gaze briefly glanced to Garrik before she shook her head. "Faith? After what you've done to me?" She scoffed. "What's the matter? Afraid I'll castrate you while you sleep?"

Every word just seemed to hurt Auron that much worse. "Can't be a pack animal... without a pack." He whispered before turning to do as Yena had sneered and head back into the village.

Kane laughed, shaking his head. "Oh hardly. You'd have done it by now if you could. You'll learn to love and obey me. The knife doesn't scare me any more than your toy or your father does." He turned his back on her and looked toward the cloaked figure. "So...is he healed enough to survive until the ritual? I like the idea of making him the blood sacrifice." 

Yena gave up on the pastries. She left them where they were and climbed the tree, desperate to get away from everything as quickly as she could.

"I can keep him alive until you need him." The priestess assured Kane. "What about her?" She asked, pointing a slender finger in Alice's direction. "She's reckless enough to try something stupid."

In the village Auron gave his apologies, claiming the thief had had a horse waiting in the forest and managed to elude him.

Kane laughed again and shook his head. "I'm not worried about her. She knows what will happen if she tries anything." His voice was no long jovial and he turned his head, narrowing his eyes at her. "Your pet likes to keep his body unbroken, doesn't he?" He hissed. "You cannot save anyone else. But you can certainly save your first mate. Unless you cross me." 

"You're so brave." A young woman purred, sliding her fingers down his chest in awe. "Can I buy you a drink to say thanks for trying?"

Alice didn't say anything for a painfully long moment. She had several days to figure something out. A something that would save Garrik and Richard, after all... she had a great many questions for the man who claimed he was her father. "Last time I trusted your word, I lost a husband as you violated me on the floor of a carriage."

Auron looked down at the slender fingers stroking his chest, then carefully removed them. "I don't drink." He lied.

Kane's grin once again turned wolfish as he nodded. He remembered that night very well. "Indeed." He purred. "But I don't remember asking you to trust me. I remember forcing myself on you while you screamed and begged me to stop." He chuckled. "I think you also promised to kill me." 
Richard was barely able to focus but he lifted his head, blood pouring from his nose. "I'll rip...your heart...out..." He wheezed. "I swear it..." 
"You said that when I did the same to her mother. Remember?" Kane laughed. "You took Alice down to christen her in secret according to our customs and while you were gone..." His grin widened. "Like mother like daughter is certainly a truth." 
"Fuck you!" Richard roared, using the last of his strength to pull on his chains. "I'll murderer you!" 

"All right then...How about dinner?" The little red head asked with a smile that revealed charming dimples. "I make a lovely lamb stew that no one can resist. Please? I feel that I must thank you somehow."

Alice was shaking her head, violent tears welling up to collect on her dark lashes. "I'm sorry Garrik... I don't know any other way..." The young woman held her lover's gaze as she plunged his dagger into her chest.
The priestess sighed rather heavily, though found it all rather amusing.

"I've already eaten." Again it was a lie, though this time Auron's stomach betrayed him by growling rather loudly.

Garrik had been through months of torture but this was true agony. His insides were being ripped out while he could do nothing but watch. This was worse than when his father had told him Alice no longer wanted to be near him. This was proof. He was silent as he watched her lifeless body slump to the ground. It was Richard's wails of pain that broke through. But still...it meant nothing...She'd rather die than figure out a way to fight with him...After everything he'd gone through for her she was so willing to end it this way...
Kane was smiling as he watched the darkness coming over the first mate's face. "That's right, boy. Death is better than you. You are worthless. She'd rather die than fight beside you. Maybe you should die too. Worthless, unwanted, useless being that you are..." He purred, pouring the poison in deep.
 As Garrik began to shut down Kane turned to the priestess and hissed in her ear. "Fix this. My bride doesn't get to say when she dies. I get to tell her when she dies." 

"You can smell it, can't you?" The young woman asked with a smile, taking his large hand and pulling him toward her home. "It's okay. I'm not asking you to eat the whole thing, just a bowl full will do." She added with a laugh. "I'm sure a powerful man like you has room for that."

Alice had been truly desperate to do what she had. She had heard Kane and Richard speak of her mother, of the Fae. Her unconscious mind had been recalling everything she knew about creatures she thought to be nothing more than myth, and one thing forced its way into the forefront of her thoughts; they were so powerful the fade couldn't contain them, their after life was spent somewhere entirely different. It was more than a massive gamble, given that Alice herself was only half Fae, there was every chance her soul would simply have entered the fade.
The priestess was kneeling over Alice, touching her forehead with cool fingers. "You don't feel that? she isn't there..." She murmured.

"No, you don't understand. My wife, she..." Auron let his voice trail off. What did Yena think of him? Clearly not enough to spare him her acidic tongue.

"Get it over with, you bastard. You've won." Richard whispered. He could barely force himself to keep going. Like Garrik he had little left to fight for. Everything he'd been crusading for was gone. He'd gone to war for his daughter, his father, his kingdom. It was all in Kane's hands. "What more can you take away from us? You have it all. Come here and..." Kane took the bait like his elder brother knew he would. He came closer to gloat and Richard slammed his forehead into the younger man's nose, splattering them both with his blood. Then as if he'd never been chained at all, he took his restraints and looped them around the king's neck, pulling tight. "Die, you son of a bitch." Richard hissed in his ear. 

"Will get mad at you?" The red head asked with a smile. "I hardly think so." She laughed, pulling him inside and shutting the door. "How selfish can she be?"

"If he dies, nothing can keep him from her." The priestess warned from where she still crouched beside Alice. "And if you get yourselves killed, what then? Death is so linear to you people."

"I think you are over confident, girl." Auron snorted. "No womans cooking is good enough to tear a man from his wife."

"What would you know?" Richard demanded, still strangling his brother. "What does it matter? Nothing matters anymore! I swear it I will tear him apart! god or no!"

"Where is your wife?" The girl shot back. "If you cared so much for her, she would be here with you now but she is not."

"As it stands, he is a god contained within the limits of human flesh." The priestess remarked, though it was unclear at this point which side she was actually on. "Kill him, and all that power and rage will have to go somewhere... Like following your daughter's soul, perhaps?"

"My wife is not my pet, I don't expect her to follow me like a mindless pup." Auron replied rather thinly.

"You don't know anything."  Richard snapped, kerning Kane back hard against his chest. "Besides, ill be going with him. He has no choice where we go!"

"Something tells me she doesn't feel the same way." The young woman pointed out the window to the little elf the was peering at them from the tree nearby

The priestess watched Richard for a moment, then almost seemed to smile. "What would Marisol say?"

Auron inwardly groaned, not needing to turn around. He knew there was nothing to be ashamed of, but he knew Yena wouldn't see it that way.

"Marisol left me. I do not care what a slave girl would think anymore than she cared for me." Richard growled. 

"Something the matter?" /the woman asked him.

"What a typically male and royal response." The priestess replied. "How someone such as you earned the love of a Fae utterly baffles me."

"As I already told you, I want nothing from you. I think it best you turn your attention elsewhere, girl." Auron told the young woman rather bluntly as he turned for the door.

"She was lonely." Richard said softly, letting go of Kane and letting him drop to the floor. "She had no other choice. It was my father, my brother or me, what choice would you have made?" 

The young woman looked hurt. "I heard the terrible thing she said to you. She doesn't deserve you." 
Yena was watching now from the open doorway behind Auron. Her stomach was churning.  Why was this bothering her so much. He seemed to hate her. He would never forgive her. 
"You should taste her, wolf. There is no sense in not taking her up when she is so eager. After all, she didn't kill you family." The little elf said darkly.

"You made the choice to abandon your offspring and allow her to live a lie, and now you cry crocodile tears of pain when she tried to fix your mistake herself?" The priestess snorted. "Perhaps Kane is what is best for her." She added, now leaning down to help the injured younger brother to his feet.

There is was again, that perfectly placed knife through his heart. Auron was beginning to feel he was fighting for the love of a woman who simply wanted him out of her life. "Would that finally make you happy?" He asked quietly.

"I was talking about the reason a Fae chose me as her mate. Not the foolish, short sighted choice my daughter made." Richard said through grinding teeth.
"It would seem I don't owe the bitch a wedding gift. Kill the first mate. Leave nothing but his entrails and head to display outside the city walls." Kane ordered the demon to his left, leaning on the priestess.

"You are the one who reminded me, yet again, that I am nothing but a murderer." Yena said softly. "I'm struggling to see why you fight so hard to have me near you when I am the source of such pain to you."

"Don't be hasty." The priestess told Kane softly. "He may still have some use if I can get the girl back to you."

"Funny... But no matter what I say, you find a way to hate me." Auron replied. "I guess I can't help who I love, despite the pain you cause me. If that makes me an idiot... I can't help it.

"No. I want him dead. Get rid of him." Kane snarled, waving a hand at Garrik. "I only need my brother's blood. The rest is useless."

"You seem to want to me to hate you." Yena said, chewing on her bottom lip. "I don't think you'd know what to do if I threw myself at your feet. Any more than if you did it to me. What if...what if I told I was sorry? It won't change anything but...I can try. I..I love you..." she confessed.

"You don't know what he is, do you?" the priestess asked, smirking slightly. "Nevermind, do as you will."

"You can say it, but it doesn't change much really, does it?" Auron asked sadly. "You don't trust me, Yena. You never have, and I doubt you ever will."

"He is worthless. Unless he can bring her back to me. He is worth nothing. " Kane spat. "Can he do that, witch?" His eyes were practically every color of fire one could imagine. 

"I don't know how." Yena whispered, physically hurt by his words. "I...I think you want me to go...I should go... I should never...they are...Dread Wolf curse you! " she shouted,  turning to once again run from him. Being alone was best. It had to be.

The priestess looked Garrik over, then her lips stretched into her usual barely there smile. "Should we put him to the test?" She suggested.

Yena wouldn't get the chance this time, Auron caught her slender hand in his own. "Has running really solved anything for you? Why are you so afraid of how I feel about you?"

Kane cocked his head to the side, his neck already showing signs of the nasty bruises his brother had left him with. "All right then. I'm going to trust you on this. But fail me...and I will make you suffer. I'm sure you have seen that I am capable of it."
"You are capable of nothing except being a whiny jealous bitch." Richard snapped. 

"Because I will fail you with every breath you take. You must know that. Look back over my life. I have done nothing but fail. Your feelings...I don't understand them and they scare me." Yena admitted. 
Across the room the red headed woman watched them, a strange smile on her face. This had been so easy. Like fish in a barrel. Perhaps she should listen to her master more often.

The priestess hid her quiet chuckle behind her hand when Richard commented. "Very well, what if I send him to wherever her soul went, and we simply see if either of them return?"

"If I was scared by everything I didn't understand, I would never open my eyes!" Auron responded hotly. "Can you not just take a leap every once in a while?"

"Send me."  Kane instructed. "Forget the boy. I will fetch her myself." He gave his brother a triumphant look, sure she wouldn't turn him down.

"All right." Yena offered her lover a gentle smile. "How do I take the leap? I am ready." She squeezed his hand, hoping he believed her. "Can we start over?"

Kane would find himself rather disappointed. "No." the priestess replied rather bluntly. "You are a creature of the fade, you rule the Black City. Had she gone there, you would know. Clearly the girl is elsewhere, the kind of elsewhere that would smell the fade on you in an instant."

"Starting over means we would have to make the same mistakes all over again." Auron replied, offering her a smile and a squeeze in return. "How about we learn our lesson and keep going?"