Consequences

Unyielding, unadulterated rage. Vandrad had given himself over to his emotions and had become nearly lost in them. Something in him had snapped and his transformation had risen to a level he’d never experienced before. It’s strength was unique and chaotic but at the same time, calm. It was like he had become the eye of a very tumultuous, very dangerous storm. How he had unlocked it, he couldn’t quite tell. Perhaps it had been a mixture of his will power and his desire to enact punishment on… well, pretty much everyone. Or maybe something had awakened in him after his magic power had been sapped and refilled. There was no telling and frankly, it didn’t matter in the long run anyways. He had done what he set out to do before his untimely kidnapping.

But it wasn’t enough. No, his rage had evolved with his change and it had overwhelmed his rationale thought or at least very nearly. He’d managed to control himself when he spotted Mercury fleeing, only for the sake of Morli being rescued. But the minute she was gone, he had ignited a new attack that had swallowed up and vaporized the arena built into the sand. Everyone that had remained in their seats was gone; turned to ash by the sheer strength of the Prince’s attack. There were only a handful of survivors; the slaves that were locked away underneath the arena itself. How he had managed to focus his attack to only destroy part of the Ring of Blood was even beyond him. But as he marched into the lower pits, crushing chains and breaking locks with his bare hands, he also knew that this area wouldn’t stand for much longer either. He freed everyone he could or hadn’t been accidentally gobbled up by the freed animals. And then he had incinerated that too.

There was no counting the dead. Hundreds, possibly somewhere in the thousands even. But he didn’t feel one ounce of pity for any of them; they had come here to bask in the glory of violence and he had given them exactly what they wanted. If anything, he had given them a death worthy of their aspirations. But it still wasn’t enough. No, there was still the one that had brought all this down upon his and everyone else’s head. And despite his carnal instincts, he had let her go before. He had reached into his tattered and nearly disintegrated loin cloth, the very action of sliding his hand in there causing the leather to fall apart. It was some kind of device… a blinking radar of sorts that seemed to activate when pointed in a certain direction.

A tracker. Was she that bold that she had handed him a means of finding her? It was like she took the threat on her life as a joke, like he wasn’t someone to truly be concerned with. The very thought churned his blood more, his hand nearly tightening hard enough on the tracker to break it. But somehow he resisted, if only for his own sake. The truth of the matter was, if she hadn’t given him a means and a direction, his next stop would be Silver Wolf. And he wouldn’t be asking for her nicely. The last thing he needed was to be responsible for the dissolving of the alliance, even if she did technically start it.

Off he went, burning through the sky like a bloody comet. She had time on him, as he had taken time to revitalize his energy before leaving. No doubt she was probably prepared for him by now but frankly, he didn’t care. He wanted her to fight back, to think she could simply knock him aside like she had before; that would make the kill that much sweeter. By the time he spotted the jet black establishment near the oasis, the sun was already leaning towards the horizon, its shift coming to an end. He came down to the ground abruptly, the impact causing the sand to quake and shift. His crimson aura billowed around him furiously, whipping at the air furiously as he stared daggers at the makeshift shelter. As naked as the day he was born and not giving one damn, Vandrad narrowed his eyes as he raised a hand and launched a blast right through the opening, looking to either get her attention or give her quite the welcoming burn as it exploded in the heart of her black metal home.

No doubt she would be able to tell that his attack was meant to send a signal. He wasn’t here to chat or to play games – he was here for one thing and one thing only. Or so the anger told him. He watched with careful, steady gaze as Mercury swung her blade and sliced his attack in twine, sending it careening off to separate walls to explode. Pitch and sand spiraled inside the black home as the detonation settled, giving her a moment’s reprieve from his heavy stare. Surely she was waiting for the right moment to strike.

And so she was. A moment later and she was bursting through the smoke, her speed greatly amplified in comparison to her usual movement. Her weapon was drawn and smoking through the air, the blade as white as the sun itself and damn near as hot. Yet still he brought his arm up to block it, his aura swirling and rushing up to meet the weapon, catching it before it could truly make contact with his flesh. On and on he met her attacks with blocks, his aura chafing away slightly with each strike. But despite all of her attempts to make him move, he stayed grounded in his landing spot. And the crimson orbs stared back at her evenly, studying her, analyzing her. Gone was the woman of mirth who seemed to have a joke or quip about anything and everything. No sly or devious comment about the state of his form either. She understood he was angry. And for the first time since their meeting, Vandrad felt she was truly taking him seriously.

Good. His strength buffeted as he began to counter her sword swings with attacks of his own. Punches rushed in to meet her slashes and stabs, the energy rippling off of him so intense that it provided its own pressure. He started to slip in other attacks as well, punches that never truly stretched out to hit her body. Yet the strength behind them still sent the damage forward, energy waves passing through the air with the same brutish power.

At one point he caught her sword in his hand. A thin layer of magic covered his flesh enough to keep her from easily slicing the limb in half but it wasn’t enough to keep the sharpened and heated blade from biting through his skin. As blood dripped down from his palm, he shifted his body and thrust his other hand at her, palm flat, releasing yet another energy blast towards her mid-section.

He had been testing her – curious to see what happened the minute her sword was removed from the situation. And as he expected, she had prepared for this. Vandrad could only imagine the sheer number of people that had thought the same as him, had acted in such a manner in hopes of gaining ground. Considering she was here and still very much alive, he also assumed that doing so didn’t get them very far. But the Prince was not most people and he wasn’t about to bank all his attempts on one simple move. No, she was far more skilled than that.

His fingers wrapped tightly around the blade as she moved away, essentially arming himself with it now. She dashed around him, her weapon now fitted with its ranged setting. A blast from it caught him in the side, burning through his defenses and leaving a scorch mark on his flesh. He grimaced slightly but only slightly, his body acclimating to the new strategy and building a counter to it. The black residue remained on his skin but the burn began to heal, sealing itself up as his magic coursed through his veins. Spinning around, he flung the blade back at her, adding his own strength into it to maximize its speed. At the same time, his energy spiked and he disappeared from where he was standing, causing the sand to kick up violently from the sudden duress.

He reappeared for only a moment, several meters away and facing her. It was a moment for him to tap into his limit breaker, further pushing his transformation beyond what it had already transcended. The color of his hair and eyes darkened, practically turning metallic and reflecting the sunlight with its harshness. And then he lurched at her, only to disappear again. But this time he didn’t wait to even a beat before he was behind her, cocked and ready to strike. But that was a feint and the image of him splintered nearly as quickly as it had appeared while he seamlessly moved through the air and reappeared to her side. He threw a punch at her, still aiming far enough away from her body that he wouldn’t strike her physically. But the pressure in the air came even harsher this time, his magic boosting the strike.

He teleported again, this time appearing in front of her. Another punch, somehow passing the strength of the previous one. The very sand beneath their feet shifted from the force of the wind, digging a divet. He twisted and sent another punch from the same position, yet another strike that passed beyond the previous in terms of strength. He teleported once more to her other side and spun a kick in her direction, the air billowing from the force behind it and the sand spraying to all sides. One final teleport that brought him above her, falling down towards her but stopping altogether when he punched one final time, the most devastating one of them all. This one sent the sand spraying in all directions, clearing away the area down to the hardened, compacted sand that had been buried for ages.

He teleported once more out of range, leaving several meters between himself and her and once again taking up a stance of observing her.

If her counter to his attack caused any pain, Vandrad didn’t show it. The pistol hit true and a small cut opened right on his head, blood leaking out from it. It seemed he was dedicated to taking any injuries she would throw back at him, much like she had made the sacrifice to cause said injury in the first place. His attack combination continued until its end, cratering the ground beneath her and forcing her to stand her ground in resistance to it.

As he came back into existence, he managed just in time to see her with her weapon drawn. Energy funneled out of his body and launched him upwards into the sky, just in time to avoid the major damage that would have swallowed him up in the fire. But he wasn’t quick enough to escape the full shockwave from the impact, his body knocked around in the air from it. He focused his magic as best he could to align his body with the ground, keeping him from spiraling out of control. As he did so, he managed to see the ground suddenly and aggressively part as stakes thrust themselves out of the sand. He twisted violently to the side to avoid them impaling him, flipping through the air and landing on the flat edge of one of them.

From there, his head snapped up to see her rushing at him hard. Focusing all of his magic forwards and into his aura, he pushed off the stake and back towards her, countering her body check with one of his own. The impact sent ripples through his energy dispersal, the magic cover bending from the durability of her metal flesh. He sent another punch in her direction, lashing more energy-charged air in an attempt to knock her back. His teleportation came out once more and zapped him down to the ground, far enough away from her and her stakes for a moment.

But once he was there, the air around him seemed to settle. His aura slowed its swift and hectic flow, pulling in closer to his body. And his gaze softened as he stared up at her. For the moment, it seemed his rage was settling and his desire to fight was lowering. He simply waited there for her, carefully watching her to see if she would continue to fight him or if she would take the invitation to pause their melee.

No matter how many times he ran the scenarios in his head, he came to the same conclusion.

Vandrad prided himself on his quickness in calculating tactics and strategies, especially in the heat of battle. A part of that went into figuring out different results to every move, every spell, every wayward strikes. Even now, when his anger was at levels he had truly never felt before, he was still able to keep a byline on what he had to do to beat her. He’d tested her strengths and weaknesses like never before; personally getting a chance to see exactly what she was capable of. The realization in the caves hadn’t been folly; she was well trained and capable of handling herself and her magic meticulously. If he were to wager a guess, he would say that she had probably seen harsher times than him.

But that hadn’t convinced him she was unbeatable. Even now, he believed through time and effort, he could overwhelm her and bring her down. But the chances were slim and it was a very close  the other way too -- that she would be able to counter and bury him. The numbers ran through his head like mad and it really came down to time and energy. Based on the little bit of fighting they had done already, it was clear this was not going to be a short fight. In fact, it could carry on until the sun was rising on the opposing side of the horizon. They were matched together and, like two rock giants hitting one another, it was about wearing down the cracks over and over again.

It wasn’t that he was against the idea; in fact, such a fight was something he had always looked forward to. But therein lied the rub; in all of his life, Vandrad had never met a person that could stand toe to toe with him. Sure, there were more powerful wizards in the world and they could easily vanquish him with a flick of their wrist. But she was on his same level; she fought tooth and nail to prove herself against a harsh world that never let anyone catch a break. Vandrad, for all his royalty and riches, spent most of his life down in the trenches with the rest of the soldiers. He’d seen war and carnage and the worst that life could bring to a person. He knew what it was like – not as intimately, but he did know. She calculated the same way, she operated in the same fashion… two soldiers from the same cloth.

In a sick twisted way, he respected her. And an even more depraved way, he found himself attracted to her. Memories of her fighting in the caves flashed through his mind as he stared back into her cold, nearly frozen gaze. The hardness in her soul, outmatched by the speed of her wit and her humor. It infuriated him and aroused him all at the same time, just as it had been at the Silent Glaciers. And indeed, there was no doubt that the thoughts were having the same effect now, to which she would definitely be able to see.

A carnal, animal instinct had sprung a leak somewhere in his mind and overflowed over his other thoughts. It felt wrong but he couldn’t deny the sick excitement of it either. The way they had teased one another, saying things that were perverted and shameful, according to everything he knew. Slowly he began to walk towards her, his steps careful and lacking the same danger they held before. He kept his eyes locked with hers as the better part of his mind tried to overwhelm the invading one and found itself in a losing battle. His stare was losing its coldness and was gaining traction in its heat, in its arousal. He would walk until he was standing right before her, waiting until she would get up from her crouch to meet him face to face.

“My prize.” He said through an animalistic growl. He reached out slowly, his body doing its best to show that he didn’t mean to continue the battle – at least, the way they had already started it. If she’d allowed him, he’d pressed his hand against her chest, right where he had once pushed her up against that wall. His eyes left hers for a moment, actually taking their time to look over her and apparently check her out.

“I want it.” He would move to rip open her shirt in one swift gesture, the action of a man with only one thing in mind. The fight had evolved and it was about to become even more physical.

---

---

A grump all the time. He snorted and chuckled softly at that. Vandrad stood there as she slowly rose up to meet him face to face, returning her kiss as deep as he could energetically manage. There was a rousing in his core but it never went farther than that – he was officially tapped out. “Careful now; I may take you up on that, he said, flashing his smirk back at her as he did his best to stay on his feet. Oh how he needed to rest now; after all the anger and fighting and fucking, he was barely able to stay on his own two feet.

And it seemed she was feeling the same way; voicing her intent to pass right out. As he slowly made his way over to her, now needing the canteen more than ever, she went on to say that the shelter would be safe enough for the two of them to stay in for the morning. Though the catch was she only had one sleeping bag so if they were sharing, they were going to be close. “Wow, cuddling. How absolutely the worst physical touching we’ve made today, he joked as he took the canteen from her offered hand and took several deep swallows.

She prepared the bed by shaking out the blanket that had somehow survived his original attack and then tossing it to him as she got the sleeping bag out and unzipped. He snorted once more, though his eyes were starting to fall and exhaustion starting to weigh down on his shoulders. With the pack open, he laid himself down, only to find the Silver Wolf wizard wiggling her way over to snuggle onto him. As she claimed it was just for warmth, he raised a single brow at her and shook his head before he simply throw an arm around her, clearly accepting what was going to happen. It took only seconds before everything he knew faded into darkness.

--

And from the darkness Vandrad roused again. His mind quickly tried to catch back up, as if it had been shut down suddenly for a decent amount of time and now was running again after a reboot. And there was no greater imagery than that as it was far more true than perhaps even Mercury realized. The last thing the Prince of Bellum could recall was walking out of the slave pens, the people rushing out around him. That and the burning desire to find Mercury and cut her head clean off.

After that, a complete blank. As he rolled over onto his back, apparently back in his bed, he let out an audible groan as he let his body and mind wake up once more.

Vandrad was still in the midst of waking up, still in the middle of his mind trying to recuperate all the memories that had seemingly been locked behind an impenetrable wall. He was barely aware of the world around him, only that he was lying down and there was a blanket over him. The body next to him rolled over and tucked itself against him, an arm coming over and holding him close to them. He sighed softly at the warm and soft feeling, reaching down with his arm to pull the person closer and let his hand touch their back too.

Wait. A person? Someone holding him? Cuddling?!

His eyes snapped open instantly, the rude awakening of sudden awareness pulling him from drowsy to alarm. He didn’t find the ceiling he knew inside of Fairy Tail awaiting him – there was a pitch black ceiling, made of some kind of metal. And even from where he was laying, he caught a glimpse of the chains dangling from the ceiling. But that, ironically, wasn’t the most terrifying part. No, his utter shock hit its peak as he slowly turned his head to find out who the hell was practically on top of him and found the tussled, wild hair of Mercury.

Ice water ran through his veins as he stared down at the messy follicles of lavender. Shifting his body slightly away, he was suddenly made very aware of just how absolutely naked she was. Heat rushed to his cheeks, causing the Prince to take on the oddest of looks with a dense blush. His hand immediately retracted as he realized he was practically fully grabbing her ass, nearly launching itself off his rotator cuff with wild abandon. His first instinct was to get away and he figured he would just throw her off of him and get to his feet. No, instead for some strange unexplainable reason, he gently eased himself away from her, picking up her arm and letting it carefully drop so that he could wiggle out.

What the hell was happening?! How had he gotten here? His eyes scanned the room quickly as he pushed himself up into a sitting position, looking for answers. There was a lot of evidence left about the place and it took him a minute to put some of the pieces together. There were burn marks on the sand and depressions in the ground; signs that there had been blasts from a battle. A sound in the back of his mind played much like a record, of an explosion and what seemed like effects from physical combat. Her clothes were strewn near the entryway in torn, jagged pieces – as if they had been aggressively torn off of her body. Then there were the chains; literal black chains and cuffs were all over the room, like some kind of perverted dungeon that was just out in the open. Another sound that sounded terrifyingly like a moan replayed in his mind.

This couldn’t have happened. There had to be a rationale answer. He’d definitely wanted to kill her after everything with the enslavement so he wasn’t surprised that he found her. But the fact that she was still alive and – perhaps worse – that desire to end her life seemed as distant as Fiore itself. He tried to force himself to his feet but found his legs complete and utter jelly, also making the discovery that he was well and fully naked as well. A man and a woman naked and cuddling together. Two plus two makes four and yet he still railed against the rationality.

Sliding over towards her, he reached out and gave her a shake. “Hey! HEY!” he hissed at her, not bothering to wake her in any kind of calm or caring fashion. “What the hell is all this?!” he asked, waving to the entirety of… well, everything. Now was the time for answers.

Mercury was clearly not a morning person. As he started nudging her, she complained and dismissed him, asking for additional twenty more minutes of rest. But there was no way he was going to sit here and wait for her to get anymore sleep when he had burning questions that needed to be answered damn near right away. So rather than just nudging her, he decided to speak right at her to wake her the hell up. That seemed to do the trick, as she rolled onto her back and he was once again overwhelmed by a blush at the sight of her topless form. He looked away quickly, patting at his cheeks in an attempt to calm them down as she started to truly wake up. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d showered with women in the military – this shouldn’t be bothering him!

She irritably remarked about him being a morning person with such disdain. Truth was he was a morning person; he had no problem waking early and getting to work before the sun had truly come up. A freak day like this, where the sun was already above the horizon and the heat of the day was starting to seep out of the sands outside, didn’t happen often. His question about the room didn’t seem to truly register in her at first, as she looked around in confusion. To her, it looked exactly the same as it had been when they went to sleep. So there was no reason for him to be freaking out, right?

Wrong. And as she finally looked at him studiously, it seemed like the facts were finally starting to hit her. Oh and how she started to grin that smug, stupid smile of hers as realization dawned on her hard and quick. She asked him flat out if he remembered, surmising that his anger had clearly overrode his rational thinking and created a blank slate. She giggled wildly as she asked him the last thing he did remember.

He was too busy trying to process everything that he didn’t have the wit to snap back at her amusement. Answers were far more important. “I had destroyed the coliseum and was walking outside with the freed slaves. I remember that I just had this burning rage that just… wouldn’t cool down. And it was directed at you. I wanted to tear you limb from limb and then beat you to death with those torn off limbs. I…” He really took stock of the blast marks now, glancing around. “I… I attacked you?” That’s the only thing that made sense.

He turned to look at her and then very quickly stiffened his neck, forcing himself to meet her gaze and not drift down below her neck with his vision… as much as he apparently felt inclined to.

This was just what he needed. He was once again at a disadvantage to her, giving her the high ground of both knowledge and memory. And unlike a lot of other people who would simply give him the facts and let him deal with them, she had to open the wound and rub as much salt in it as possible. His anger flared as she laughed at his misfortune, the Prince of Bellum growling impatiently. In truth, he didn’t expect anything less from her – give a woman like Mercury enough ammo and she would find some intricate and creative ways to use it. Apparently his reinforcing of his attentive gaze was firm enough that she caught on almost instantly. She told him to take it easy and then to bullet her point, she stood up and stretched right in front of him, giving him a full view of everything she had. His eyes snapped down and to the side briefly before she mentioned that he hadn’t been shy last night. Goddamnit – somehow he already knew it. And his eyes betrayed him, turning to watch her walk to her pack and take a good hard look at her ass.

He’d give her this; she gave him options. The first option allowed him to live in a fantasy world of ignorance and denial that he could build up walls behind forever. The second was the cold hard truth that was probably going to detail every single thing they had done to and with one another. And oh how badly he wanted to pick the first option, if only so he could build a comfortable platform on it. But he knew he would never, ever be sated with a half-truth when he knew there was more to the story. “Tsk,” he shot out as she retrieved her cigarette box and pulled one for herself. When she offered one to him, he reached over and yanked one out. If that wasn’t enough of a verbal decision of what he was choosing, he spoke up. “Just rip the damn band aid off already, woman. I asked to know what happened and I meant it. For good or for worse, I’ll hear the whole truth.” He snapped his fingers and created a spark of energy, lighting his cigarette and taking a preparative drag. Finding his better manners, he held his hand out for her and, if she took it, he’d snap to light hers as well.

He pulled the billowing stick from his mouth and set his gaze on her, the smoke calming his nerves for a bit. Despite being on the ground and looking up at literally all of her, he relaxed himself as best he could. Frankly, he felt that looking at her nude form was going to pale in comparison to what she was about to tell him anyways. “Go.”

Vandrad prepared himself as best he could, though how could anyone be prepared for such gravitational realizations? He watched her carefully as she came over and got herself comfortable on the bedroll, taking his offered hand gesture and taking a good drag from her cigarette. With his demand for the whole truth, she revealed that he had come here with the intent of killing her and had apparently tried. But as she turned to shoot him a wicked grin, she continued to explain that his attempts hadn’t worked so he had apparently, of his own volition, had forcibly removed her clothes and had sex with her. Multiple times. Including things he did with his hand or hands.

Well, there was the truth of it all. He’d held out a slight bit of hope that the truth bomb would be something else, denying all the evidence up until that point. But it was straight from the whore’s mouth at this point. He took a couple of breaths, his mind processing all of that information as best it could while trying not to shut down. He pulled the cigarette up to his mouth and took a long, deep drag before blowing it out. He’d initiated it. How was that possible?

Luckily for him, she was inclined to explain to him. She went over what she could remember; how the coliseum had been blown skyhigh, taking Morli back to his family and then heading off into the desert to build a little home and await his return. She’d predicted he would come for her and he had, completely lacking clothes. He remembered that the blast had nearly vaporized the leather thing she had put on him but he hadn’t remembered it falling to pieces. She continued, summarizing over their fight in very little detail at first, connecting with him in terms of how battles went. Indeed, life-threatening combat seemed to always take place in its own realm of time and space, moving both quicker and slower than the real world. She admitted that the battle had been down the middle, saying she hadn’t been using all of her magic but she had figured he wasn’t using all of his either. He honestly couldn’t recall what he had used at all so he couldn’t confirm or deny.

But then he had stopped, apparently realizing the futility of it all. That or, as she pointed out, he had a thing for woman that knew how to fight. He opted to leave the assumption alone as she continued, saying that he came over to her carefully, showing that he wasn’t intending to continue fighting. And then with an annoying giggle and smug grin, she threw his own words in his face. He wanted his prize. He closed his eyes and sighed heavily, his head dropping slightly. The prize from their stupid little bet back in Silent Glaciers. And then, to ensure she understood what he meant, he ripped her shirt off.

Well this was just a living nightmare. “I’d ask if you were capable of not being so goddamned smug but I have a feeling that is impossible for you,” he said with a sideways glance at her as he took another drag off the cigarette. Flicking some of the ashes away, he sighed once more. “Alright. What else?” He honestly wasn’t sure he wanted to hear all the details but the whole truth meant the whole truth. In for a penny…

Things got worse but he knew they would. Every opportunity he had to take the exit and stop the flow of information he simply passed by and kept on going forward. He remarked about her reining in her pride but even he knew that was a long shot and she told him as much. Why should he have expected anything else? Whatever the case, he had asked her to continue and she went on with it. She gestured to the chains all along the walls and ceiling, explaining that she had used her magic to forge them as a means of repaying her own time of ensnaring him. Apparently he was quite intrigued and smitten with the idea. No surprise – even in his right mindset, treating her the same way she had him sounded satisfying. Just not in the same way apparently, as he had hung her up and then… well, played with her.

Oh it was getting so much worse. He reached up with his free hand and rubbed his forehead, in agitation. The first time he managed to have sex and it was with this… this… undeniably infuriating harlot. He kept hoping that he was suddenly going to jerk awake and be in his bed, alone, with no sign of Mercury or any woman near him. But with every passing second, the nightmare continued on and on. She mused for a moment as she thought to bring up some of the highlights. She started with perhaps the worst; apparently, in his black out, he had ordered her to call him Vandaddy. The look of astonishment and anger on his face was probably delicious to the woman and as he opened his mouth to tell her that whatever he said in his fit wasn’t his conscious thinking, she shot it down. It wouldn’t have mattered anyways. There were no real rules save for her own personal guidelines and, in them, she was perfectly content watching him squirm every time she referred to him as Vandaddy.

She piled on further, explaining that he was apparently a tease, was so kinky that other sexual conquests of hers paled in comparison in the area of filthy. It had impressed her, enough so that she had wished she had tried it sooner. Choking, slapping, dirty talk – it was like everything that made him him had been flushed out and been replaced with some beer-swilling sailor. He hissed between clenched teeth in utter disgust with himself, taking a drag from his cigarette that nearly melted the entire stick. But then the rotten cherry on the top of the hell sundae; she apparently had video.

"No,” he said adamantly, pushing himself to his feet through sheer willpower. Of course he realized he was still naked and tried to cover himself up. But that didn’t matter because they had done worse things, right? Oh hell, that didn’t matter, did it?! He bent down and went to grab the blanket, wrapping it around his waist aggressively as he spoke. "That’s where I draw the line, woman. Words are one thing but I will not lower myself to watching movie clips of our… our… reprehensible tryst.” Flicking the worn cigarette into the sand, he stomped out of the house to get some fresh air.

By the heavens, what had he done? As he came to a stop several feet away from the black building, his gaze lifted skyward. He’d been angry before – hell, most people figured he was angry all the time. But he had never entered such a state of rage that he forgot everything that happened. Had she awakened some primal fury inside of him, buried inside his genetic make up? His mother could raise hell when she got angry, that was sure. And his father… who knew what his emotional turbulence was or wasn’t. On top of everything going on in his life, this mess was the absolute last thing he needed.

Yet here he was. Standing in the desert, with a blanket half-wrapped around his naked body, with a naked woman who he had aggressively had sex with probably giggling to herself in the building. Vandrad had truly never reached a lower point in his life. But as he stood there for a moment, reflecting on it, he realized a few things. For one, it seemed his hatred of her was… quelled, at least temporarily. She still made his heart beat just a bit faster and crafted thoughts of wringing necks but he didn’t seem interested in blasting her to smithereens. And there was the fact that despite the way she went about it, she had gone on a job to save a child. Reward or not, the gumption it took to wager her jewel on him creating enough of an opening to risk her life by saving a wayward Bellum youngling was… noble. Honorable even.

Oh gods, it couldn’t get worse. All this shit and he actually respected her.

There were a lot of things that should have stuck out to Vandrad – and would have, were he in a more sensible state of mind. There was the possibility of everything she was saying being a lie; a made up tale just to mess with him a bit more. She’d certainly led him on yesterday, as she was dragging him through the desert by chains. So it wasn’t beyond the scope of her schemes to make up them having sex for the sake of freaking him out when they may have just battled and ended up calling it a draw. Then, being late at night, they decided to lay down and sleep. It didn’t explain the torn clothes but then again, she could have gotten up, torn her clothes asunder and then come back. Would she really go that far for a prank?

Remember Vandrad; she did strip you naked and cross a desert with you.

The daunting realization that he should probably confirm what she was saying hit like a boulder. For the only way to confirm any of that was to see her video proof. That was another thing; she claimed to have their session recorded but with what cameras? He hadn’t seen any about the room so unless she had one stowed away in her pack and she had put it back once they were finished… Too many questions, not enough answers. And he needed them – he needed them if he wanted to move forward with his life without looking and wondering about the full truth. He may have some respect for her but he still didn’t trust her. He scoffed in annoyance, further annoyance even.

As the man stood there and sorted through the mess that was now his life, he barely noticed Mercury leaving the building to go and wash up. It wasn’t until she exclaimed about the water’s temperature that he turned to look at her, immediately turning his gaze away at her still nude form. She’s begun to wash, which wasn’t altogether a bad idea. But he had absolutely no intention of partaking in cleaning himself while she was doing so at the same time. He’d apparently, or allegedly, done enough with her. So he waited, crossed arms and staring out at the horizon like an ever-present statue. He would wait until she had toweled herself off before he would remove himself from his placement, walking over to the pond himself. He tore off the blanket and tossed it aside, not even bothering to pause in case she looked. She’d already seen all of him at this point.

No doubt it was cold – her exclamation had said as much. With a deep inhale, he walked into the water and then allowed himself to fall forward, completely submerging. There he stayed, completely overwhelmed by the cold water as he sunk a few inches into it. He stared up at the water’s surface, the liquid shimmering in the morning sunlight as it settled after his splash. A minute would tick by… then a second. Finally he pulled himself up, standing to his feet once more and giving his hair a quick shake. It wasn’t a full clean but it at least got most of… whatever… off of him. He walked back onto the sand and tucked his hands closed to his sides as he allowed his magic to flow out of him. The intensity of it immediately dried off his wet flesh, leaving only his hair still dripping with moisture.
He grabbed the blanket and paused before wrapping it back around himself. Now Vandrad was starting to look more like himself, his mind coming to grips with all the information and a cold wash dulling the shock and awe. "Tsk,” he hissed before he simply walked in with the towel in hand. What did he care if she looked at him? What did he care if he looked at her? They’d been lying together naked all night and had talked shortly after that. He was done freaking out – at least at the moment.

"Alright,” he said as he entered the abode, tossing the blanket onto the bedroll and standing there in all his naked glory, confidence returned. "This video you claim to have. Show it to me. If what you’re saying is true, that’ll back it up. And I’ll only believe it’s true if I see it with my own eyes.” His decision had been made, the firm stance batting away the squeamish thoughts. If he had done this with her, then he needed to take responsibility for it. Time to stop acting like a teenager with a freshly pickled sex life.

He’d called her bluff. And much to his own surprise, she actually looked surprised by it – if only for a brief moment. Perhaps she never thought he would follow through on watching anything so vile. Given the way he had acted and spoke, it was understandable that she thought such an act would disgust him to his core. And there was no way he was going to tell her that he was pretty sure it would too. But he needed to see the evidence; he needed to prove to himself the truth and, perhaps, grant her a modicum of trust for telling him the truth… even if she did take an annoying pleasure out of it.

She agreed to show him, though the lack of flair was noted. She had been all too keen to tease him and prod him with the information before but now it was all business. With a simple gesture, the tablet appeared before him, hovering of its own, or rather her, volition. He glanced at her briefly before taking it in grip. He tapped the power button and was immediately treated to the beginning of their battle. But already something was suspicious; this wasn’t recorded via outside cameras that she had posted. Nor did it seem to be coming from some kind of device similar to the ones she used at the Sun Tower. No, this was coming from her perspective. He was watching himself attack her, watching as she countered and block and fought back as if it was him living through her eyes. Vandrad had heard of ocular lenses before and truthfully, she seemed to have a penchant for technology that mixed with her magic.

But a lot of things started to glue together in a picture that wasn’t quite clear. Back when they had first met, she had mentioned about magic being new to her – that she was a newcomer to practicing. There was also the unmistakable fact that her strength rivaled his; one who had been using his magic since childhood. And now this recording playing right through her own vision. Pieces of a shattered puzzle lay on the board of his mind, hints at something deeper he couldn’t quite figure out. But rather than ask her, he simply made a mental note about it. Given the track record of their meetings, he was sure that more information would come out sooner rather than later and help unblur the mystery further.

He was so caught up in his own musings that by the time he mentally checked back in, the battle was over and he was watching himself chain Mercury up. What followed was an explicit continuous film that he was sure even the filthiest of people would blush at. The words, the actions, the sheer atmosphere of the entire tryst was just so… perverse. His stoic face slowly melted as he heard and witnessed more and more of the action before he finally had enough and turned the screen off. Well, it was safe to say that she was telling the truth. "To think that I…” He muttered to himself loudly, irritated once more.

His first inclination was to blame her. But all the evidence was to the contrary. He’d gone to her, he’d opened the door for her. It wasn’t her fault for deciding to take him up on the offer. For once, she was almost completely guiltless, save for the fact that if she hadn’t kidnapped him in the first place, he may have never snapped at such intensity. He thought about throwing that in her face but even that felt weak and flat. He tossed the tablet onto the bedroll and walked a bit away, though not necessarily from her. "I’ve never… had a bout of rage like that before,” he admitted to her, though he dared not look at her. "I pride myself in being control of my actions and it seems there is something inside of me that abhors and rebels against that. It’s…” Terrifying… but he would never say that out loud. His tone was enough to convey what he was trying to say.

Another thought popped into his head, since he was being brazenly honest. Witnessing himself out of control had humbled him temporarily, enough that he could speak above his normal attitude. "That boy we saved is… I’ve known him since he was a baby. Decent kid – a bit of a dreamer and he lacks courage. I imagine this was a hard lesson for him at just how cruel the world is. It’s not easy realizing that the world isn’t sunshine and happy faces everywhere, especially when that’s all he ever hoped for. People like us – true soldiers – we know that almost from the beginning. We can sense the corruption from the first moment we draw breath and it disgusts us so that we nearly lose all sense of feeling, of emotion. The number of times I’ve been called heartless… I can’t even count.”

He sighed softly through his nostrils and turned to face her, his face stern but lacking its normal sharpness. It showed a serious sincerity that probably looked alien to his features. "But he was still one of my people. I don’t know if you took that job for any other reason beyond jewel; if it was some way of slightly twisting a knife in me about things you may have heard me say. It doesn’t matter. While I don’t condone your method for doing it, I appreciate what you did to help save him. So this is me saying… thank you. For bringing him home.”