Zagreus woke to every muscle throbbing and burning. He groaned. His body ached and his mind felt heavy. A soft fleshy mass shifted against him. Every touch seared. He groaned again. He lifted his head to see Cinder wrapped tenderly under his right arm like the previous morning. Her arm, wing and leg draped over him. I think she likes that spot.

She looked up and kissed him softly. “Was it good for you?”

“Oh, you steal my jokes now?”

“Well it was that, or a murderous rage.”

“Ok. Steal all the jokes you want.”

“How are you?”

“I feel violated. Dirty. I need mouthwash and body wash and ball wash.”

“I mean, are you ok?”

He sighed. “I’ll live. Probably.”

“You really pushed your limits. We can put you in a healing tank to speed your recovery. It’s still before midnight. You have a busy day tomorrow.”

“Healing sounds good. No offense, but sleeping while floating in a liquid sounds down right delightful.”

She sat up, careful to not put pressure on him. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“You did that for me. I appreciate it. I mean it.”

“Don’t mention it. I mean it.”

She nodded then spawned a medical kit. She put a bandage and ward over her love mark to protect it.

It was strange seeing Cinder being tender and caring. He could sense the swirling emotions in her. Or maybe those were his own feelings. He was so tired and sore he could barely think.

Cinder got him into a hover chair and to the healing tank room. She hooked him up then kissed his forehead before he sank into the murky liquid.

She stood in front of him with her hand pressed against the glass.

He was lost to darkness before she left.

***

He woke to Lilithana’s nude form, swimming in front of him, working on removing the wires and other annoying connections. They hadn’t spent any time together since before his mission to meet Queen Gwenyr. She lifted him out of the tank and helped dry him without a word.

“You ok?” He said.

“I’m fine.” She said. There was no tone, just a blank statement. But this was Lilithana in dead mode. Emotional responses took willful effort. She could claim ‘fine’ with the exact same tone, while standing in a fire.

“Lilithana. Talk to me.”

“You have a mission. Go meet Rezu in his tailor workshop. I will find you later.

“I guess you know Cinder is talking about marriage.”

“Karimere asked you as well. Do you plan to marry all of us?”

Is she serious or joking or pissed? No, I’ll have to deal with that later. “No plans. I am having enough trouble talking about the one right now.”

“Then nothing has changed. I stand by my claim on you and by my previous statement. I am willing to share you with Cinder but I refuse to surrender you. I will extract a suitable compensation from Karimere for her violation. It was part of a punishment, but still a violation.”

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Calm, cold, efficient. Lilithana’s dead mode had it all settled in a few moments. He wasn’t sure her alive mode was going to be so accommodating. “Ok. We will talk later.”

“You have a dinner date with the Queen.”

“What do you mean date?”

“You were seen in her quarters. You are either a criminal or her lover. Images must be maintained. The fact that she carries your child will not go unnoticed either. Do you want rumors started that she was raped by an intruder?”

‘…child…’ Oh. Right. I’m having a kid with Queen Gwenyr. How could I forget that? I mean, I don’t have anything else important going on.

“It is a remnant girl.”

“Is she a shadowcat too?”

“No. I explained the problems you and Jade had, and she chose a pure remnant. Now go, see Rezu.”

“Ok.” He gave Lilithana a quick kiss. Then he went down the metal stairs, to the floor, and headed for the door.

A nearby presence focused on him. It felt dirty, greasy, lustful.

He spun to see Karimere floating in a tank.

Spending hours in there had washed away the minor wounds but she still looked like she had been beaten and violated in a dark alley.

*Are you ok?* He sent.

*I…am…here.* Karimere sent.

*Did I get my god favor?*

*Yes. Yes. More.* The thoughts were longing, hungry.

*Ok. I have to go. I will check on you later.*

*Shadowbane. Make promise.* It felt desperate. Like talking to a half starved shadowcat.

*Promise? What promise?*

*Promise. No. Promise. No.*

What? I think I broke her. *Get some rest. I will talk to you when I get back from my mission-date.*

A small light and dull alarm went off on the machine. Lilithana ran over to the control panel. In a few moments he sensed Kari’s presence fade a bit. She was unconscious again.

Zagreus about jumped out of his skin when Rezu whistled behind him.

“Damn Shadowbane. Were you trying to kill her?” Rezu said. His tone was calm and sounded more concerned than anything.

“She kept begging for more. She kept changing how much protection she had. One moment I would be gripping her tight, the next her bone would snap. I only did what she wanted.”

“I think what she wanted and what she needed were two different things.” He shook his head slowly. “You two had more arcane flowing than a damned death battle. I had to get my golems to pack everything up before something got broke.”

“I…”

Rezu said, “Come on. Let’s walk and talk. We have a real schedule today, and you walk slow.”

Zagreus went with him. “Real schedule? I thought you said you didn’t get involved.”

“I still have to follow orders. Karimere ordered me to continue my work on your wardrobe. I knew it was purely to get you on that hall, but that was not the order. Warning you would have gotten me involved. It’s a delicate balance to stay out of their games.”

“I see.”

Rezu continued, “Karimere is sick and twisted and a colossal pain but I still consider her a… friend? Associate…? Um…? Sociopathic defender of my life and property. I don’t like to see her in that condition.”

“I didn’t want to take it that far. I didn’t want to do it at all.”

“Yea. Shit. I’m Sorry.” Rezu sighed. “I don’t mean to add to your pressure. This is one of those things that once you cross the first line, it’s hard to know where the borders are anymore. She manipulated you into it and was driving you the whole time. The blame is all on her. She is old enough to know better. It was insane to push you to use that much arcane.”

“Why?”

“You haven’t trained enough. It can be dangerous. Arcane doesn’t have a mind of its own but it feeds on emotions. That can be good and bad. Your emotions can cloud your ability to focus and work arcane. But at the same time your emotions can give the arcane a clear focus and allow you to do some crazy shit, sometimes without realizing it. I got upset and flashstepped a whole fortress once. Damn near killed me.”

He nodded.

“I need to tell you, if you push too far past your limits you can fall into arcane madness. Your arcane starts feeding on your baser emotions and you become little more than a feral animal of arcane and destruction.”

“Why wouldn’t they tell me about this?”

“They don’t want you too scared to train properly. It’s not a danger until you reach a certain skill level. But after this, you must be told.”

“Is the madness permanent?”

“Some say it is possible to recover. But every record I have seen said the person had to be killed. Only really powerful arcane users, like Mecromancers, can get the madness so they are like a natural disaster when they go out of control.”

“Thanks for telling me.”

Rezu shook his head, “Back to the demented cause of this problem. I don’t want to see her like that again. And I don’t want you to do that again. It will change you. If you screw her again, give her chances to stop. Or make her stop. Tell her it’s for the mission. She will listen. Her being out of commission for days is dangerous to us all.”

Zagreus nodded, “You got one thing right. I burnt off a lot of frustration. I feel like everything is good.”

“That’s partly from the healing tanks. They leave you hyped up for a bit. You have to be careful using those things. Healing tanks patch you together but your body needs time to complete the process. You are still weak. If you try using arcane now it will end badly. With your condition you should probably spend a couple days resting.”

“Yea. They covered that before.”

“They covered it for me too, but I still damn near got myself killed. Figured I would warn you again, so you remember. Death tends to stick.”

“Ok. Thanks.”

“If we can make it through this next mission, without you passing out, it will be an accomplishment.”