Aftermath

After writing this, I'm thinking Raya is actually poking Durth to MAKE him more of a smart alec. And, yes, to get his point across. While writing this I wondered how exactly Raya is doing it. He's got no healing power of his own and those who have read Sequel know the effects of Tahluen drugs on a body. So I'm just like. How is he doing it?

Raya won't exactly be forthcoming with that information, considering no one is ever in the room with him when he does it and the 'patient' is always unconcious.

Ah well.

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When Durth awoke he expected a million things. Pain, for starters. The loss of an eye or teeth or something for a second item. To be left alone or to find himself still laying in the small clearing also occurred to him.

He was inside the cave, bundled up under a blanket, fire going beside him and not a pain in his body. Not a single one.

Well, besides that rock digging into his kidneys, but it was a far cry from a broken bone.

Cousin sat to one side of the fire, his woman on the other. The woman was stirring a pot that sat at the edge of the fire, Cousin was staring into the flames as if entranced in thought. As Durth shifted under the blankets, assessing the damage to his leg and his face, Cousin shifted his attention from the flames and to his apprentice.

“You will find no damages.” Cousin murmured, “I demand perfect obedience, failure is never an option and you cannot escape me, even unto death. If you die on the battlefield I have the means to bring you back to life and then I will beat you until you learn. You cannot win against me and I am your lord and master. And yes, I can do it indefinitely.”

Impossible. No one had that kind of magic any more. Certainly, before the world ended the priest lines had a kind of magic like that, but it would have been destroyed in the fall, or would have had a limited supply at the very least.

“And if you think I lie, by all means, try and escape as much as you wish. You will find, each time, yourself awakening back in my care and I will be even crueller to you.”

“And if I escape?” Durth croaked.

Cousin laughed, “that would never happen, but should it occur, then you would be free. Until someone else catches you.”

“Oh.”

“Come here,” Raya beckoned to Durth.

Obedience. Feck. Durth cringed at the thought of pain but sat up only to find there wasn’t even a twinge in his muscles. When he stood, put his full weight on his feet and on the leg there was stiff feeling into his hip, as if he had twisted the wrong way or walked funnily for an entire day. Durth moved from the blankets and to Cousin. Raya moved back, away from the fire, and patted the hard packed ground in front of him. Durth sat there, facing Raya.

“Turn around.”

Confused, Durth turned to face the flames, tucking one leg under him and allowing the healed leg to lay to the side. The idea of crossing his legs seemed more painful than sitting in such a position, stretching the muscles along the inside of his thigh.

Raya slid up against Durth’s back, fingers of one hand feeling along Durth’s thigh. Durth was surprised at his body’s lack of reaction. Usually another male got close to him and it was arousal. Not, have sex arousal, not for all of them, but a craving for the touch of a lover. He didn’t mind Raya touching him, but it was like being touched by… by his mother or something.

“Ah,” Durth snapped out of his thought and tried to pull away as Raya’s fingers found a sore spot.

“Easy,” Raya’s other arm was wrapped around Durth instantly, “have to work that out, least it harden in your leg and lame you. Let me-”

Durth whimpered as Raya drew the smaller man tight against his chest. The Cousin’s breath came right at the crook of Durth’s neck, lips right there.

Why in the name of the gods wasn’t his body reacting?

Raya concentrated on the spot where his fingers were kneading, loosening up the muscle slowly but surely. Seemingly satisfied, Raya made a grunting sound and stopped massaging Durth’s thigh. Durth, still not understanding his own reaction to the male, was quite caught up in thought.

“So,” Raya murmured, “are you going to sleep with me?”

“What?” Durth cringed and turned as his face heated up.

“You’re gay.”

“Am not.”

“Come on, Durth, I know a gay man when I see one. My very existence relies heavily on who I can seduce. We could have a little tumble, get it out of your system.”

“No!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!” thank the gods, yes, yes he was very certain he didn’t want to sleep with Raya.

“Too bad. Because I would… how did people say it before the end of the world… tap that?” Raya looked to his woman, who smiled for once and gave a small nod, “Her name, by the way, is Tah. And if you touch her, I will hurt you.”

“Yes, Cousin.”

“No.” Raya took firm hold of Durth’s chin and drew the other man’s face back towards him, “not yes Cousin. A Cousin wouldn’t care, once his woman is seeded, if his apprentice has a go at her. When I say I will hurt you, I mean me, the man that I am. I will not permit you to touch her, you do not disrespect her either. And that is for your own safety.”

“I will not disrespect her.”

“Good. Because she’s one of those women.”

“Those… women?”

Tah smiled again, “those women. The ones from movies and shows who have no problem cuffing the powerful lord upside the head or twisting the ear of the highest ranking generals. A Vera.”

“Oh,” he had been learning about mythological figures in school right before everything went to pieces. He knew of the figure of Vera and how women after her, who fit the description, were often described as being ‘a Vera’ in literature.

As in. Don’t mess with her.

“Oh.” he muttered again.

“Food is ready,” Tah said cheerfully, “hope you’re hungry for some rabbit stew.”

Didn’t that same description also imply several things about if a man wanted to keep his head he nodded along to the woman and agreed with everything she said? Durth swallowed hard and gave a quick nod. If he thought Cousin was a prickly bastard, what exactly would he think of Cousin’s woman if he ever accidentally insulted her?

.