The Queen's Offer

Cierra gave a wicked chuckle as she took long strides down the hallway, a nasty little grin on her lips.

She had her oracle and now it was time to try and get the information that she wanted. She had the boy locked away in a large room, where all the furniture and decorations had been removed, leaving him a large, empty void, alone.

The Necromancer was in the cell down in her dungeon, for now she would keep them separated, the boy took too much comfort in his pet, best to leave him on edge and afraid.

Her best guards, stood watch at the door and unlocked it as she approach, she slipped inside and saw the boy sitting on the floor, pressed up in the corner of the room, clearly trying to avoid being snuck up on.

“Good evening, Elleon.”

She cooed, glad that her son had sense enough to find out the boy’s name. The oracle jumped in place at the sound of her voice and curled in against himself, pulling his cloak tighter in against him.

“You don’t need to be afraid, I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”
That he didn’t believe for one second, he knew what they had done to Garen, violence was their way.

“Well…You they won’t hurt, but I can’t make any guarantees for your necromancer, unless you cooperate.”

He stiffened at that, he cared more about Garen’s safety than he did his own, and she knew it.

“If you have a vision for me, one little vision telling me what the lycans are up to, I could have him returned to you.”

That was a tempting offer, far too tempting, but he shook his head.

She gave him the same offer every day, she wore him down slowly by shifting the room in which he was kept, allowing him to sleep for only short periods of time and feeding him less and less each day.

It took three weeks before he cracked, giving in on the condition that he got to see Garen before he gave up the vision it was agreed upon, and if Elleon failed to give her a vision, she would kill the man on the spot, right in front of the oracle.

With that guards were sent down the gather up the necromancer.

Garen rattled the heavy chains around his wrists, trying unsuccessfully to break the rusted old chains from the wall bracket above his head.

He'd been left in the same state that he had been bought to the castle in: naked and covered in crusted blood that had been spilled from the numerous wounds Sigil had inflicted upon him.

And for the past week, his arms had been numb. Held above his head like this constantly had drained a good amount of blood from them.

The Necromancer tried to break the cuffs from the wall bracket yet again.

The door to the dungeon swung open, letting in the only source of light into the room.

Four armed guards entered and unlocked Garen's cell door.

Without a word of explanation they grabbed onto the Necromancer, keeping the chains around his ankles and unbinding his arms from the wall, instead locking them in place around his back and forcefully pulling him to his feet, each on keeping a firm hold on him as they shoved him toward the door.

Garen hissed and growled in his native tongue as the guards entered his cell.

He hadn't spoken in the language that this continent spoke in weeks. In his anger with the situation, he had reverted back to his first language.

The thrashed in the guard's grip, growling and spitting out insults.

One of the guards struck him roughly on the back of his head to silence him a little, they were not in any mood to put up with the Necromancer.

In the weeks locked in the cell very few people had entered, no one wanted to deal with him.

Despite his thrashing they did manage to half carry, half drag the man up two flights of stairs.

The other set of guards held the doors open as the man was dragged into the large, empty space, Elleon sat on the floor against the back wall, his head resting on his bent knees.

He wasn't bound but he did not look well, the lack of sleep had left dark circles beneath his eyes and his slender frame was even slimmer, his pale cheeks looking hollow.

The sound of cursing in a foreign tongue made him rise his head, a spark of life entering his unseeing eyes.

"Garen?"

He whimpered, moving to get up but Cierra put a hand on his shoulder keeping him down, only the space of the room keeping them apart.

Garen's eyes widened when he finaly settled his eyes on Elleon.

What had they done to the poor boy?

He lunged forwards, a babble of worried questions in that same foreign language bubbling up from his throat.

"Give him to the boy, as promised."

She instructed as she stepped away from Elleon, moving to stand beside her guards and Garen was shoved forward and pushed to the ground, bound but still able to move.

As soon as he heard the thud of Garen hitting the floor Elleon was moving, scrambling forward to grab onto the man, his small hands holding onto the Necromancer's upper arm, his head resting on his shoulder as he let out a soft sob.

He had tried to resist her for as long as possible but he couldn't handle this any more.

Garen leaned into Elle's gentle touch.

He turned his head, the facial hair that he hadn't been able to save scratching against the boy's pale skin as he peppered kisses wherever he could reach.

He murmured Elle's name over and over again, relieved to finally be able to see him again.

Elleon sobbed and sniffed as he was kissed, pressing kisses to Garen's neck and when he could catch his breath, muttered to the man that he was sorry, repeatedly.

He had resisted telling Cierra anything for weeks causing them to remain separated, he had no idea what they had done to Garen in that time.

His hands stroked over the man's torso and arms, searching for any new wounds.

It was only when they were finally reuniting that Elleon was forcefully pulled away from Garen by one of the guards.

"No!"

He screamed, thrashing in the man's arms and Garen was gripped onto as well, a sword put to his throat.

"Now now Elleon, we made a deal, now deliver on your end, or we slice his throat."

The small oracle was forced onto his knees in front of the Queen, looking up at her with bloodshot, tear soaked eyes that made a satisfied smirk grace her lips.

Garen hissed another curse as he was yanked back again.

He exhaled heavily through his teeth, his shoulders tensed as the sword pressed to his throat. He hated being so damned useless.

But between losing all that blood a few weeks ago and not actually getting any rest or proper food, he was weak. He couldn't do anything.

"Tick tock Elleon, I am not a patient woman, tell me what I want to know."

It took a few long moments of Elleon trying to calm his breathing down, he couldn't do this when he was panicking.

Then he went rigid.

His eyes darted around, staring at things the other could not see, he was in this trance for an excessively long time, until he knew he had enough to satisfy the Queen and stop her from killing Garen.

By the time his body relaxed he flopped uselessly to the floor, laying limply on his side panting as his body weakened from the strain.

His lips moved in almost silent murmured, causing Cierra to lean down on her knees to listen to him.

A look of concern came over her features, then anger, then a smug, victorious smirk.

"Unchain his arms, leave his legs chained and guard the door, he is staying with the boy, for now."

She explained as she exited the room hastily, the guards did as they were instructed before exiting also, locking the door behind them, their shadows beneath the door showed that they were not far away.

Garen's body slumped when the sword was removed from his throat at the guards left the room.

His pale eyes turned up to Elle and he gave a tiny half smile. He was with Elle again. Oh how he missed the boy.

He muttered softly in that foreign language, before clearing his throat and translating. "C'mere, lad."

Elle looked up sluggishly when Garen spoke, it was pure will power that drove him to crawl over to the man.

His body was tired but managed to move enough that he could feel the brush of the man's skin against his finger tips.

"Garen..."

He murmured with a tired, but no less happy smile as he curled in against the man and wrapped his arms around him.

Garen's arms wrapped tightly around Elle when the boy pressed against him.

He pulled the boy flush against him and peppered kisses over his skin again.

"Are you okay?" he asked. His accent was thick, thicker even than when he had first met Elle. With speaking his native language so much over the past few weeks, he'd lost the Kennedrick accent that he'd picked up from Elle.

Elle nodded slowly, enjoying the kisses he was receiving as he snuggled in against the man.

"They haven't been letting me sleep."

He murmured, he knew they had been wearing him down but knowing that didn't make the treatment any easier, he had only been around and hour or two if he was lucky.

That paired with the tiny amount of food they gave him was enough to leave him like this.

"Did they treat you badly?"

He muttered, more concerned for Garen's well being, looking up at the man his hands ran over the Necromancer's face, taking in the new details, crusty blood here, large amounts of facial hair there.

"I can see that, lad.

He ran his thumb gently over the apple of Elle's cheek, just under the large back bags under his eyes.

Poor thing.

"Not really." They didn't treat him good, of course, but they'd just left him there with only enough food to keep him somewhat alive. They could have treated him much worse. He was thanking his stars for that, at least.

Elle gave him a tired little smile, leaning up to press a kiss to his lips as his cheek was stroked.

He didn't care what they did to him now that he had Garen with him, he simply hoped that they let them stay together if he did what she told him to do.

"I'm glad your alright."

He had been worried that they may have already killed Garen and were just lying to him.

"Do think that....that they'll let us stay together if I just keep having visions for her?"

"I don't know, lad."

Garen moved to lay down carefully, holding Elle firmly against his chest.

He kissed the crown of the boy's head.

"What did you tell her?"

He wrapped his arms around Garen and lay down with him, curling in against the man's bare chest, smiling gently as the crown of his head was kissed.

His smile wavered a little as Garen asked him about what he had said to the Queen.

"She wanted to know what they are doing in Kenndrick at the moment, so I told her..."

He faulted for a moment, from what he had seen of both sides of this war he knew one thing, he wasn't on the Vampire's side, yet he was helping them.

"They were trying to sneak into Nalithia and undo the enchantment that was done on the land so that the Vampire's would have to endure sunlight, it would have wiped out most of them, but now they won't succeed."

Garen pursed his lips.

Right now he wasn't exactly pro-Vampire, either. The thought of helping them out with this war was not a pleasant one to the Necromancer.

His fingers ran through Elle's long hair.

"Wolves aren't always stupid. I' sure they'll find a way to do something in the war, even with you here."

"I hope so."

He muttered as he nestled in against Garen's chest, reaching up to grip the man's hair gently, just making sure that the man didn't slip away without him.

"A future where the Lycans win will be a far better one."

No one except the Vampires wanted to live in constant darkness, he didn't, even if he couldn't see the light, he could feel it on his skin and it was a feeling he was missing greatly.

Garen peeked over his shoulder at the guards then lowered his voice to barely a breath in Elle's ear.

"Try and be selective about what you tell her."

If he could miss out a few details of his visions, that could give the Wolves some leeway. It may even give them that little edge they need to be able to fight back.

Elleon stayed quiet as Garen whispered into his ear, nodding softly at the words.

If he could twist it a little or leave things out in order to give the Lycans a fighting chance then he would.

He hoped beyond anything that they would realise that Cierra knowing all of their plans wasn't a coincidence, maybe they would realise that the Queen had captured him.

If they didn't make any solid plans, if they kept changing their minds then he wouldn't be able to see into their future.

He knew Cierra would be able to tell if he lied to her, his heart rate would give it away so he needed to find a way out that was truthful.

Garen's fingers ran gently through Elle's hair as he pulled the boy closer.

He was so thankful that he had Elle back in his grasp again. The past few weeks had been difficult for Garen. To not know whether Elle was okay or not...

It had scared him.

His lips once again pressed to the crown of Elle's head.

Elle wrapped his arms around Garen's neck and nestled in against him, pressing little kisses to his cheek and lips.

He didn't want to stop touching the man, Garen was the only person he had in this world, and the only one in this place that could bring him any sense of comfort or calm.

A sad little smile graced the oracles lips.

"I'm sorry I got you into this...I never should have invited you into my house."

If he had sent Garen away then he would be off fighting and having his own brand of fun.