Gu Cheng slid a knife from a thigh sheath and pressed himself to the side of the door. Every time the duke came down to drop off food, he was forced back against the far wall by a pulse of energy and held in place until the last tray was removed and the door closed again. Then he dropped down firmly on his feet as the energy was released. Over the few days he was alone in the little dungeon cell, he had come to terms with seeing magic. His best bet was going to be to choose his moment and try to surprise the man before it could be used.

From down the hall, he could hear footsteps, muffled through the heavy door, but approaching steadily. As soon as the door opened, he was in motion, his hand lashing out and chopping straight into the neck of his captor. Then he was slipping behind the man and pressing his knife against the thin flesh over the windpipe.

"Take me to her, now!" He ordered. His hand pressed the knife closer, and a tiny bead of blood dropped down the taller man's throat.

The duke let out a bored sigh and wrapped his energy around the blade, yanking it away from his neck and twisting it out of the other man's hand. He sent a surge of electricity back, walking into the room to set the tray down as Gu Cheng convulsed on the ground behind him.

"Well, that was anticlimactic, but not unexpected," he said, wrapping the dark bands around the gasping form and dragging him back into the room.

Once Gu Cheng was able to glare at him with bared teeth, the duke continued. "My concubine is almost recovered from her foray into the world, and I grow tired of chaining her to the bed all the time. I could start working on our child at any time, but I have been advised by the duchess that if the stress is too high, she might lose the baby before we even realize she has gotten pregnant. The Saintess would know about these things. The church is very involved in the field of medicines. I would like to wait until she has accepted the situation."

He wrapped a dark band around the younger man's mouth to cut off the litany of curses that spewed forth. "She does appear almost docile these last few days, and I should thank you for that. Knowing how weak she was when she was trying to fight with me in her tent, I thought at most she would last a day before giving in, but if you had not appeared when you did she might have allowed herself to slip away just to spite me. With you," he laughed aloud, "With you, she has something to protect, even if she still swears that you can't be the person that I know you are. So she has agreed to settle down and do her duties as long as I don't hurt you."

Gu Cheng fought against the pain and the magic, muscles defined distinctly in his neck as he strained against the restraints. The temperature in the room dropped as it often did when the duke showed up, but this time, frost began to form over the surfaces around him, spreading outward and creating fractal patterns on the stone. The duke smiled and spread the band to cover his nose as well, and the frost slowed and melted as Gu Cheng began to lose consciousness due to lack of oxygen. "Oh ho! I thought I sensed magic in you! But you have no control over it, so how do you think you will be able to defeat me with just that?" The band shrank down again, and deep breaths were pulled in.

"This makes it all even better. You really had no idea what was happening, or you would have shown that little trick much earlier on. I find it amusing to educate you. My concubine, the lady Zaria, absorbs magic naturally and constantly." He smiled and bent over at the waist to watch the other man's expressions more closely.

He could see rage and confusion, warring in his eyes. "She agreed to hold onto me every night to help me find relief from the curse that was placed on my bloodline, absorbing all the pain so that I would not have to bear it. When I was forced to marry the Saintess," the words were spit out, as thought filthy," it was suggested by my new wife that if children were carried in her womb they would still bear the curse, since she could only purify some of the effects. But if my former maid were to do it, she could absorb the curse itself from them before it had taken hold. My children would be safe and free. As an added bonus, I would never have to touch that awful woman again after our consummation night. If I had to choose to touch a body nightly, it would not be her."

He shuddered and stood upright. "Now with my concubine, it turns out, I find myself much more open to the idea than I thought I would be. That was quite a surprise. She is a rude woman."

The band grew over Gu Cheng's nose again when not just frost raced across the floor, but ice formed in the cup of water sitting on the tray. When the frost stopped, he could breathe, but a bolt of lightning came with the oxygen, and he lost consciousness for a minute. The duke waited until his eyes opened before finishing his thought.

"My concubine asked me this morning before I left, if I would let you go. She has been so docile these last few days that I was concerned she was planning something, but when I told her that I would do so if she kept her end of the agreement there was so much relief on her face that I fear that I misjudged her. She would do anything I asked of her right now if she thought that it would save you. The problem is, I worry that if I let you go, she will be thinking of you, and I refuse to have my woman thinking of another man. But if I just kill you, then she will hate me more, which only bothers me because she might try to escape again. Do you see the problem?"

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He sighed and looked at Gu Cheng with pursed lips. "Don't worry, I won't kill you right now. She will figure out that anything that happens tonight is because you tried to hurt me even though it would mean hurting her. Eventually, she may begin to hate you as well, and the problem might go away on its own. So I will leave your little knife right there. Please do attack me again next time. If I look good in comparison to your selfishness, she will melt into my arms. So do make her beg for my attention and protection." He kicked the knife closer to Gu Cheng's limp form and walked into the hallway. "Thank you for listening, I did need to talk it out aloud, it seems."

The door closed, leaving Gu Cheng in darkness.

*****

Not long after Duke Berber left the beaten man in his cell, he walked into his bedroom with a pained look on his face. Without saying a word, he walked to where Zaria lay on the bed and removed her shackles. She watched as his hands sparked a bit of magic into the locks, sitting on the edge of the bed and staring out the window after she was free. Her eyes followed a small trail of blood on his neck. When he spoke, it was in a hushed tone, his eyes heavy with guilt.

"That man tried to kill me today when I went to take him his food. I almost admired him for his commitment to you, but he told me to set him free. He told me I could have you, you had betrayed him by agreeing to be my concubine, and he had to get home alive." He looked at her, his brows furrowed. "And that is the one you can't let go of in your heart?"

Zaria sat still against the headboard and tried to keep her face blank. In the world Gu Cheng came from,just laying in another man's bed and holding his hand would have been an unforgivable thing, and she would have been cast aside in a heartbeat. Agreeing to be another man's...mistress? It was not even a tiny stretch to believe that.

"I let him go," he said, turning back toward the window. "I wanted to kill him. I have pushed you so hard because I need you here, and I was jealous that you wanted to be with another man, so I let my anger make my decisions. I even kept the bracelet he gave you because I didn't want you to think about him anymore. I am sorry."

He looked back at her again earnestly. "I will bring the bracelet to you tomorrow. It is in a safe in my office."

Zaria met his eyes, her jaw clenched. He looked at her hopefully for a moment, his expression falling when she did not respond, and then looked back toward the window. Without another word, he stood up and walked to the bathroom, closing the door behind him. She could hear the water running as he prepared his own bath without asking her for help.

His words were...confusing, the emotions he showed raw. She didn't believe them for a second. But the part about Gu Cheng leaving...her heart told her that it was possible. He somehow found her, and then was electrocuted repeatedly and told she agreed to be some man's mistress. Why would he stay? He had only suggested they try things out back in City C because he was trying to help her take responsibility for her drunken actions. How had he even been pulled into the world she was in? Was it his connection with the bracelet? Duke Berber used his magic to pull himself to her using it and somehow pulled Gu Cheng in as well?

She could not explain to herself why her chest hurt so much, but she knew that the tears that leaked from her eyes were because she had felt hope when she realized that it was really him, and now that he was gone the hope was gone as well. When the bathroom door opened, she was still in the same propped up position on the bed, sneakily trying to wipe away the wet evidence on her cheeks. The duke said nothing about it, walking across to the wardrobe and taking a set of sleep clothes to the bathroom to change. When he came back, she could see that blood was still dripping down his neck, light pink against his moist skin.

"Are you going to keep chaining me to the bed so that I don't get away?"

He sighed and sat back against the bed next to her. "I don't want to hurt you like he did. If you are not ready to consider helping out with the children part yet, would you stay to help me with my own curse for a while more?"

Zaria narrowed her eyes. "You would really back off about using me to have children?"

He rolled his eyes. "I was never going to force you. I thought you would realize it was worth it for all the benefits you would receive because most women would if they were in your position. I would still like it, but I am willing to go at your pace."

She sighed and pulled herself off the bed unaided. She walked to the bathroom to relieve herself and then stopped just inside the bedroom. "Do you have any bandages in here?"

He shook his head no, not very succesfully fighting back a smirk. She walked to the door to the hallway and opened it a crack to ask the guard to have someone bring some up. A runner came back quickly, and she took the white cloth strips and handed them to the duke. He looked at them confused and wadded one of the strips up and held it to his neck.

Zaria sighed again and took the strips from him. The one he was already using was folded with another to create a thin pad and she had him hold his hair out of the way so she could wrap the rest around his neck to hold them in place. As she stood over him and bandaged his neck, she said in a low voice, "I am not interested in children, and not just because the idea is being forced on me. The only reason I ran was because you were telling me that I had to have them for you, whether I wanted them or not. And you hurt me. You hit me when I made you angry about it."

"I'm sorry -"

"Please, stop. I do feel bad for you, but that does not forgive you for your actions. I will not run if you do not chain me up tonight, but if you try to force yourself on me tonight or any other time as long as I am here, I will kill you." She tucked the end of the strip down so that it would not come apart easily and then went to the other side of the bed and laid down. She moved her hand and leg toward the edge so that he could attach the manacles.

She was still exhausted and weak, only just getting to solid foods that evening. If he was going to chain her, she was not going to fight him yet. Only the metal band that held their hands together was snapped in place, and with a wave of his hand, the lights were out. The two laid next to each other in the dark without speaking.