Part of him was angry as he lay in some lower store room, just healing and absorbing the dark energy around him. In all the clutter of shelves, papers, and bins of old maps and weapons, a bed lay perfectly in the middle, nothing more than a cot wrapped in poorly sized drapes. Perhaps this was the only place Tala had thought acceptable to leave him, and the man was no longer lying at his side and holding him as he had been before he'd passed out again.
All it had taken was being in the castle and he was back to his normal self. Tala so close had expedited the process, but now he didn't know what the hell he was supposed to do with himself. Wren doubted the Sol leader would humor him coming and going to see if he could ween himself off of the dependency of their dark magic, nor was he sure if it would even work.
Vampires did not normally keep prisoners for as long term as Tala had, and something about the Sol dungeons had warped the way his body processed and filtered magic. This wasn't like a heroin addiction where he just went through a rough withdrawal that had to be eased by smaller and smaller doses. This was fifty years of Sol magic coursing through his blood, caressing his skin with pain, and eating him alive.
What did he even do?
They wouldn't tolerate him walking around, but if he left, he could very well die. Was that what his life was left with, either leaving to spend his last days in freedom before he perished or groveling at Talamayas feet just for what seemed like life? It didn't take anyone any real effort to see how absorbed Talamayas was in him, but it was just to use him as an outlet for his anger, sadness, or to feel pleasure.
Wren wanted to scream, just grab anything within reach and crush it, but that would end him up half dead. While he couldn't hurt these people, they also didn't have an obligation to protect him, which left him at a crossroads that frightened him. What did he do if Talamayas kicked him out as Shan had said? Did he have it in him to beg Talamayas to cage him again just to live?
A knock on the door had him jumping up in the bed, and he stared at it with fear that Tala had only wanted him conscious before he left him on his own to die. The door opened, and Wren leered at a cart of food as it rolled itself in with a platter covered by a metal lid. After a moment, Vice shifted into view in a black body suit, and Wren's tense shoulders sank into a calm as Vice cast his empty eyes over him, pulling down his face covering. Only once had the man come down to the dungeons in the last few decades to speak to him, and merely to thank and tell him that he had a home now, a name, and a family.
"Hey stranger." Wren smiled, and Vice returned it. Though they'd barely talked to each other, Wren felt a sort of kinship with the vampire that he couldn't say he shared with Tala. Vice had been alone, frightened, tortured by vampire kind, and yet he had conquered that to create his own place. If only Wren could do that now.
"Tala wants you to eat," Vice said, his voice just as soft as it had been when they'd met, but Wren crossed his arms and turned away from it. "I must warn you that he will come and shove the food down your throat if you don't eat on your own. You should see him pacing around the greeting room and wanting to come in here every second. My brother and I have barely been able to keep him out, at his own command of course."
"I bet he would get joy out of watching me choke on his food," Wren growled, and Vice took a seat next to him on the bed.
"Do you hate Tala?" Vice asked, and Wren whipped his eyes over to the man with uncertainty. Those grey eyes were so gentle as he inquired about the master that he was now fully devoted to.
This was the only man here who knew that he didn't hate Talamayas, that he respected him despite his capture. Freedom being snatched from him made him angry, and not knowing what Talamayas wanted now that he couldn't hurt him filled him with fear. That still did not mean that he loathed the man who was now his permanent keeper.
If he pushed Talamayas away, it could very well end up worse, and he took a deep breath as he hatched a plan that would hopefully lead to peace. In order for him to stay here, he had to make Talamayas think that he wanted or needed to be here. That meant keeping Talamayas close, sating his desire to have control of him.
"I'll eat. Just please give me some time to myself," Wren mumbled, and Vice nodded before disappearing. Part of him was glad that Vice had found a place for himself and his brother to be happy, and part of him was jealous that the man had one at all. It was petty to be envious of another's happiness when they'd suffered so much, and yet Wren didn't know if he'd ever live a day without agony.
Wren ate the food in a sour mood, some soft meat, soup, and plenty of water to keep him hydrated, but he couldn't bring himself to leave his room for most of the night. It wasn't until the sun had risen and the vampires would be going to sleep, fading under its light, that he got up. Wren left his room and eased himself along the walls, searching out Tala's dark energy.
It wasn't hard to find with the way his body hungered for it, and he found himself not a door down in the same hallway he'd been. It was outside the dungeons, he realized, and he trembled with terror as he looked at that door. The longer he looked, the worse it got, so he turned away to the room he felt Talamayas in. Placing his hands on the wood, he prepared himself for the lies he would have to spit to keep himself alive. Dark magic surged into him abruptly, and his nails dug into the door. Talamayas had sensed him and moved to the other side of it.
The door creaked as it swung open, and Wren's eyes sunk in as he faced Talamayas' dark crimson. The man looked as tired and wary as Wren himself was, and it clawed into him in a way that it shouldn't have. What if Talamayas was in the same predicament as him? Wondering what he was supposed to do with him and losing sleep over it. That would mean that he only had to take the lie so far, didn't it? Why was he hesitating now that he was so close to him?
Did it bother him to lie to Talamayas?
Light energy coursed along the outside of his room, and Tala sat up in bed. Wren song was outside of his new room. It was the other storeroom. Tala hadn't felt good about intruding on Wren nor leaving him completely isolated, so he'd set up a cot in this one as well.
Moving to the other side of the wood with curiosity, Tala lay his fingers on it to feel the man's energy. The last thing Wren had done was cry because he would never be free of him, and then beg in a hysteria for Tala to make sense of things. Both of them wanted that, but Tala couldn't even to himself.
What could Wren possibly desire that would bring him close again?
Opening the door, Tala came face to face with those grey eyes and Wren hunched in fear, but Tala himself wasn't pretty to look at. Sleep had been scarce since Wren had left him, and it wasn't an exaggeration to say that he slept easier with Wren here, in the dungeons or not. As Tala watched him, something softened in Wren's eyes, and Tala couldn't tear his gaze away from the man as he tried to understand. What about him interested this mage?
Hell, he wanted to touch him.
Tala reached out his hand for him, desperate to feel the warmth of his skin against his skin, but before he made contact, Wren flinched. The man was terrified of him. Why wouldn't he be? Tala dropped his hand away, and as Wren opened his eyes to meet his gaze again, Tala slammed the door in his face. It wasn't like he was angry, just frustrated with his urge to be so close to a man who found him incorrigible.
It was worse knowing the man respected him, as Vice had said, and also that Tala knew his accepting side, the one that had allowed him close in his dreams. Somewhere buried under Wren's fear of him, there was a possibility for them to be close, to be amiable with each other. It was just under so many walls for Wren, and it was not in Tala to drop his own aggression to ask for such things.
Falling back into his bed, he ran his hands up through his hair and tried to shake some sense into himself. Wren Song drove him a little crazy, and it had not gone unnoticed by his generals or Vice. At least one of those people was silent about it, because Tala could explain himself to neither.
The door groaned on its hinges, and Tala didn't have to move his hands to know Wren had taken a step in and closed the door behind him. Why was he still here? What did he want? It certainly wasn't to be around him. He scared the man shitless, and with his rejuvenated condition, he doubted the man was here to snuggle him.
"What?" Talamayas asked, frustration saturating his voice that he couldn't quell. Why couldn't Wren just be straight with him? Why did he have such a repulsion to him whenever they faced each other, but an openness to him as well that shouldn't be there even in a mage's dreams?
"It feels... better when I'm closer to you," Wren lied.
While the man's fear was so thick that it was suffocating, Tala knew when someone was bending the truth or lying all together. Torturing men and learning what was fabrication to save them and what was truth in desperation did that to his perception.
A huff of amusement pushed through Tala's lips. Was Wren Song trying to find a way to stay here safe through subterfuge? The man knew that if he kicked him out, he'd die slowly, but Wren didn't want to end back up in the dungeons just to live. This was his solution? Staying close to him? Well, who was he to complain?
"Sure," Talamayas said, unable to keep the skepticism out of his voice.
"Look, I don't know what you want form me, but my body is dependent upon your energy, so like it or not, I'm sticking close to you," Wren growled, fear making him tremble terribly. Was Wren afraid that he was going to deny him?
"Okay," Talamayas said, turning on his side. "I'm sleeping at the moment, but you can accompany me as I go about my evening tomorrow. Will that satisfy you?" Tala asked, and Wren's expression jumped as if he had not expected such an offer.
"You needn't..." Wren mumbled off, and Tala had no idea what had upset him now.
"Nonsense. I'd rather you not be out of my sight anyway, Wren Song. If you wish to be conscious during the night, you might want to get some rest now. Vice can show you the way."
It was no surprise to him that Wren knew about Vice's ability even though most of his men didn't even know Vice existed. For some reason, it didn't bother him to have the two men closest to him knowing about each other, even if one of them had been a resident of his dungeons for decades. There was a sort of deranged comfort in having both of them all to himself, and he watched Wren turn and leave the room, escorted by Vice. The half that drank his blood remained and curled up next to him. Neither had left his side much after Wren had left, seeing that he needed comfort, and he fell back onto the bed and embraced his shadow.
It had been days since he'd gotten sleep, and he faded off to the slow roll of Wren's light magic just close enough that he could sense it. Whatever this deception was that Wren Song thought he needed, Talamayas would sort it out and crush him if he thought to do anything to harm his people.
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