"Is there something you want to ask?" Tala asked Wren as the man lingered more than he usually did. When he spoke, Wren's grey eyes darkened, and he turned from him with annoyance. It had been a few months with the man by his side, and each day the man seemed to be getting more frustrated with something, but he wasn't saying what.
"It's nothing," Wren said quietly, and that had Tala moving within inches of him to try and figure it out. The man pressed to the wall to get further away, but Wren hadn't been so fearful of him since they'd started sleeping side by side. That had dispelled most of the man's fear in regards to Talamayas touching him, yet something still lingered.
"Talk to me," Tala insisted, placing a hand on the wall to keep Wren from escaping.
Just as the man opened his mouth to respond, Shan walked in on them.
"Talamayas, you have a visitor," Shan said, undoubtedly intentional on his general's part to keep them from getting any closer. The man hated the way he clung to Wren Song.
"Tell them to leave," Tala growled at Shan.
His general planted his feet, squared his shoulders, and cocked an eyebrow. "Very well. I will tell Neil you're busy. Have him come back next century." Shan lowered his gaze, and Tala reluctantly left Wren to go to Shan's side.
"Why didn't you say it was Neil first?" Tala asked as he hurried out of the room, and Shan followed shoulder to shoulder with him.
"Like I'd interrupt your interrogation of Wren Song for another reason," Shan retorted, and Tala would have socked him if he was anyone else. No one else would dare say anything to him though, so it left Shan with at least that much protection. Tala needed honest advisors who looked out for his best interests.
"Has he said anything?" Tala asked, and Shan shook his head.
"It is customary for visitors to wait in the throne room to greet the house head of the area, Talamayas. Neil is a leader of his people now, so he is doing what is expected of him." Shan explaining it to him just ground it in that Neil was no longer the seven-year-old he used to lift in his arms and hold to make sure he felt safe.
It had been so long since he'd seen him, and Talamayas knew that after he'd marred the woman he cared about, this wasn't going to be a pleasant visit. The fear of the way the man might look at him now, kept his eyes averted as he walked around the outside of the throne room, feeling the pleasant roll of Arc magic that announced his presence. It wasn't until he was seated in his throne and he had composed himself into the epitome of indifference, that he lifted his eyes up and met Neil's.
Neil stood tall, his expression the same, the one worn by a leader of his people here to converse with another on an equal level. It was, however, not as hostile as Tala had expected, and as soon as Neil saw how Tala was facing him, he looked around to the other guards remaining at the ready to kill him if he moved wrong. Nervousness overtook the man, and his eyes fell to the floor.
In that moment, Talamayas realized that Neil intended to observe the formalities required of him–to bow and dip his head to the leader of this territory. It would make Talamayas sick if he did so, considering how close they had been, but it wasn't in his position to stop him as his knees bent.
Thankfully, his shadow did it for him. Vice yanked Neil back up to his feet the instant his knees dipped an inch, and Neil jumped and spun around with confusion. Vice occurred to him only after the initial fear, and Neil straightened up with an embarrassed expression that finally cracked a smile on Tala's face. Just that eased Neil and he returned it in a way that lit the man up.
Neil was happy.
Tala had expected the man to come here spitting profanities and demanding he answer for what he'd done to Silvia Copse, but he looked excited. That meant he didn't know. How was that possible?
"Welcome, Neil Arc," Talamayas said, and Neil stiffened from his full name. "You needn't stand on occasion, if that is your concern. You are welcome in my territory any time you please, and if you have to wait and kneel each time, that's just a waste of time, honestly." Tala really smiled, and Neil fiddled with his fingers.
"Thank you, Tala–mayas." Neil added at the end, unsure how he should refer to him, and Tala chuckled.
"What is it you need, Neil?" Tala asked, and the man straightened up again. That meant this was more than a social visit.
"I'm in a bit of hot water," Neil said, his smiled dipping and his shoulders slumping. "I know you usually have your... head in the sand... so I am unsure if you know what I'm speaking of."
Shan snorted laughter off to the side of the throne room, and it drew Neil's eyes to where he was standing with Wren now leaning against a wall in curiosity as well. The sight of the Song mage standing free had Neil cringing back for a moment, but he quickly focused back on Tala.
"You mean over Angelus' fall. I am aware of the tension concerning how you killed your own people without cause by vampire law," Talamayas said with a pitying smile of his own. While Tala had helped, that was not known because Vice was invisible and a no one in the vampire world. Only Neil's hands had gotten dirty when it had been both of them who'd taken down the corrupt legacy of his father.
"Yes, well I need to grow, Talamayas. I want to be stronger, able to fight on my own, control myself, and protect and lead my people. I can't do that if I'm isolated in the Arc territory, and I was hoping you might help with my progression. I need to grow, as quickly as possible because this will come to a head after the unity gathering, when the council meets to speak to the people. They will ask for my head, and I need to be able to hold my house up."
"Neil, I would be happy to help the Arcs in any manner I can."
"But?" Neil asked, hearing the change in his tone at the end.
"There are just things we must discuss in private first. Please, come to the drawing room." Talamayas stood from his throne and headed out the far door, and Neil followed after.
It wasn't far down and they both knew that way, at least if Neil still remembered his castle. Mostly, Talamayas just wanted Neil sitting when he told him what he'd done to Silvia. They couldn't continue relations hiding things, and it appeared Silvia Copse hadn't told him. They found seats near the small coffee table rather than behind his desk, so it was less formal, and Neil plopped down with renewed comfort now that he wasn't surrounded by guards he didn't know as well.
Before they could speak, the door latch clacked, and Neil turned back. Wren walked in like he owned the place and sat in a chair by Talamayas desk, tossing his feet up on it, and Neil gave him a long look of fear before he turned back to Tala for answers.
"You can just pretend he isn't there," Tala said with a groan.
Neil sputtered a breath. "That's a new way of interacting with mages," Neil managed out when his other words failed him.
"It's exclusive to Wren," Tala assured Neil, and he still turned his head as if he were lost. "That said, I am willing to help you in any way you need, Neil. I had something else we needed to discuss first before I can know that you'll want that."
"Why wouldn't I want your help?" Neil asked innocently, and Tala rubbed a hand over his face.
"I... had something else I needed to bring up as well," Neil said, reading Tala's reluctance to speak. "I know your stance on mages, but I wanted to bring a few here for training. I won't learn as much from just fighting against vampires, and Forest and Tide have agreed to work here if you would allow it. They weren't enthusiastic, but they were also curious and willing if it would benefit them too."
"Forest Copse and Tide Cascade?" Tala asked incredulously, and Neil flinched back. "Generals, Neil? You want to bring generals here?"
"I realize it's... strange but..."
"Strange, Neil? That's unprecedented. Why would they agree to go anywhere with you, let alone be in the same room?"
"Well, uh..." Neil blushed while Tala tried to figure out just what this man had been doing in the years he'd not been by his side. "I have a treaty with the Copses for peace in the battlegrounds, and we have been entertaining peaceful exchanges of our people between territories. It is pretty under the radar for the rest of the mage order and vampire society, but it has been beneficial."
"Why?" Tala asked with a low growl of suspicion. There was no reason for mage generals to work with vampires unless they were infiltrating, and he would crush them if they thought they could prey on Neil's naivety.
"S-Silvia is Forest's daughter, and he has accepted that we are together. It has opened a door for peaceful relations that were not possible before."
"Silvia Copse is the general's daughter?" Tala groaned and rubbed his face with his hands. No wonder the man wanted to come here, likely to slit his throat and get revenge for what he'd done to his daughter.
Wren laughed, and both of them looked over to where he was now leaning on Tala's desk with an elbow and playing with his pen holder.
"Forest has always been very open-minded," Wren said, his laughter bringing a softness to his voice that Tala hadn't heard before. "I did not know Silvia was his, but I knew the man back when he was coming up. I'm a little older than him, so he was always just some brat teenager at my feet, but the Copses have the capacity to see past what they are told and what they see as truth. Most mages have a staunch hatred of vampires, but the Copses just want peace, and I doubt they are manipulating Neil, Tala." Wren's sharp look, told Tala that the man knew what he'd been thinking.
"Manipulating?" Neil asked, and then he flinched his gaze to Tala's with concern. "Tala, they're sincere. I didn't realize you'd jump to that conclusion so fast." Neil rubbed his temples, and Tala grit his teeth. "Forest has been... kind in Silvia's absence. I know you might not understand because he's a mage and I'm a vampire, but he's been there for me when I thought I was sinking into the depths of hell. I owe him and I trust him. While Tide might be rough around the edges and appearedly hostile, he follows Forest and is also genuine."
"Absence?" Talamayas asked with concern. If she wasn't there, no wonder she hadn't told Neil what had happened.
"Yes, after everything that happened, Silvia was outed as an infiltrator class mage. Apparently, that was why her magic was so weak and Forest had been trying to hide it from the mage order. As such, they required her to be properly trained if she wanted to stay within the mage order. She wants to be a part of it, even if the mages treat her poorly, and I am unable to see her while she is isolated up in the northern Void territory."
"You know where they are training her?" Tala said with genuine surprise. The mage order rotated were and when they trained their assassins and a vampire leader getting their hands on that information meant they would be killed before they reached maturity.
"Well, Forest knows, even though he isn't supposed to, and he told me," Neil said slowly as if that were not uncanny enough. "As such, Silvia will be gone for a while and when she gets back, I want to be able to control myself, to not hurt her again. I need you for that Tala."
Tala was silent. Neil was so devoted to the woman, even working with her father and the mages, all so he could keep her safe and unharmed. No one had hurt Silvia worse than Tala had himself, and he wasn't sure he was the one who should be holding the man's hand through growing into someone worthy of respecting.
"What?" Neil asked, and Tala was trying to sort out how to fix this. How to make it okay. Nothing seemed to be viable to say, and he wanted to just tear his own heart out so it didn't hurt the way it did. Neil had trusted him, still trusted him, and he didn't know how to tell him that he'd betrayed that trust and hurt the one he loved most.
"Talamayas hurt Silvia last time she was here, Neil," Wren said, and Talamayas turned to him with rage that he could barely contain.
Neil's pallor fell to a sickly milk color as he looked to Wren as well. "What do you mean hurt?" Neil asked to Wren, unable to look at Tala for reasons he well knew.
"It's not like I was topside for it," Wren said with an awkward shrug. "Apparently, Silvia said she was from Angelus before she mentioned you, and Tala snapped. I was hauled out of the dungeons to heal her once he realized she belonged to you, but I refused because I thought she was Tala's prisoner. I didn't want to revive her to more torture.
"It took Tala agreeing to free me and Silvia, promised in blood writ, before I would revive her. Even after I healed her, she still has a nice pair of hand prints on her sides from where Tala burned her. Talamayas wants to help you, but he doesn't think will accept it any longer."
"That is why you came with Silvia to Angelus," Neil said to the floor at Wren's feet. "Why you are free... Silvia said nothing about any of that." Neil growled, dark energy growing around him in the rage Talamayas had been expecting.
"Silvia understood," Wren said, and it pulled Neil's gaze up and lessened his anger. "Tala thought she was a remnant of your father's, and he would do anything to protect you. It was an unfortunate crossing of wires, but she didn't want this to tear a rift between you and Tala. The man apologized as best he could, and she accepted it, but it doesn't change what happened."
"Why are you here, Wren Song?" Neil changed the subject as he tried to understand the full situation. "Are you not free?"
Wren raised an eyebrow and then really smiled. "I'm never free, Neil Arc. Yes, I'm free to walk out of the Sol castle at any time, and then I'm also free to throw up blood until I come back. My body was inadvertently poisoned over the decades and is now dependent of the hum of Sol magic to function. So, I'm stuck here."
"Still, Tala doesn't have to let you walk around wherever you please," Neil continued, flicking a frustrated look over to Tala, and he sank back.
"No of course not. I'm required to be at his side at all times. I may take that command a little liberally, as I don't think he wants me here now. We both get a pleasant shiver from subtly torturing each other daily when neither of us can harm one another because of the blood writ."
"I see." Neil turned away and looked at the floor.
"Neil, I–"
"No, Talamayas," Neil growled, cutting him off. "I don't want to hear it. I have no way of figuring out how Silvia feels because I can't see for nearly another year."
Talamayas shrank further into his chair from Neil's bared fangs, but he lowered them not a moment later as he folded in agony.
"Neil," Wren spoke to cut the silence, and the man lifted his gaze, guarded by his anger and fear of the man. "Tala did do all that he could to apologize. I've never seen the man cry before, but he did so when he realized what he'd done. He begged on his knees with his face nearly touching the floor for her to forgive him. Silvia didn't look enthusiastic for doing so, but she's strong. I don't think you need to fear her harboring any animosity if you and Tala are still friends. She did mention how few you have and that she didn't want to split you up."
"Why are you still defending him?" Neil asked, running his hands up through his hair with a frustrated growl.
"Well, if he's not burning my flesh off, I have respect for the man that Talamayas is. I would even say that I like him a bit, something he would have never known if Vice had kept his mouth shut. There is no "in confidence" talking with that man. Fair warning." Wren sat up and leaned back in his chair with a slow sigh. "Train with Tala. Let him prune you into the warrior you want, and force him to allow your mages here. I see no better penance on his end than to make you stronger for the woman he harmed. There is no shame in that, using Talamayas to become better for her."
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