Men who play games of war and soldiers born from circumstance...
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Scroll 03 : 08
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Mismatched eyes slowly open, greeting a dawn that has yet to break over the horizon. Bal’thial remains where he is, simply laying on his stomach with his head held in-between strong arms. His men had cleaned the room in that evening prior and the Harbinger’s blood no longer stains the floor, though with another day finding its way towards them, it will have most likely been a pointless venture in the end. Sav’real’s… observations of his supposed feelings towards Kso’ppghiel are as dangerous as his own interest. He knows the small creature to be tight lipped and prudent, but should even a rumor of this reach his Mistress’s ears, over thirty years of service will most likely come to an agonizing end. Yet that fact does little to quell his thoughts and the unsettled feeling he has at doing what he’s being ordered to do. He is not enjoying this any more than he’s sure the blonde is and he hopes that he will find it in him to play their Queen’s game, to allow her to feel she has her control even if the truth is far from the matter so that this ridiculous punishment can end. With a sigh, the white haired man slips his arms from beneath his chin to slide himself up, twisting fluidly to the side and touching bare feet to the cold marble floor in order to find his clothing and retrieve the Harbinger from his gilded prison on the level just above.
 The contact jolts the Harbinger awake, mask immediately brought up over his mouth to muzzle and subdue him. “I leave him in your charge.” Io’fayl stands, allowing her Captain access to the feebly struggling man on the bed. Nodding towards his Mistress with the all too familiar distance in his eyes, Bal’thial steps forward and leans down to retrieve the metal collar left directly to the Harbinger’s side. Long braided plaits spill over his shoulders as he moves to slip the item around Kso’ppghiel’s neck, his mismatched gaze meeting glazed white only to have those same eyes shift slowly over when Io’fayl steps up behind. Clawed fingers travel across long winding horns as the collar is clicked into place and a moment later he slides his hands down to grasp roughly around the other man’s wrists and pull him forcibly up. A sly sort of smile graces the Queen’s lips as metal enchantments clink together and she takes a step back, allowing the tall Captain to hoist the injured man over his shoulder and turn, blue and green eyes lowered and head bowed in respect. “As before, Mistress.” Bal’thial says quietly. “I will return him without permanent damage.” “Your dedication to your work pleases me.” Io’fayl watches as the Captain carries her Harbinger away, closing the door soon after. She will wear him down. Kso’ppghiel will break.
 Bal’thial says nothing at first, simply staring down into the Harbinger’s tired white gaze while their faces remain locked close before he pulls back enough to slide himself onto the bed next to the other man with a sigh. “She will continue to do this until she has thought to have broken you.” And even though he knows this, there’s a part of him that’s glad to hear she has of yet to have actually done it. Without much thought lent to his actions, the white haired man reaches over and motions to slip a clawed hand beneath the blonde’s neck in order to lift him up only to have his wrist once again caught. The Captain’s mismatched gaze narrows and travels over to Kso’ppghiel’s hand as it remains locked, his words spoken equally low soon after. “You must heal yourself…” “There is little point when the marks will only be returned.” The Harbinger forces Bal’thial’s wrist away before pulling his elbows under and slowly attempting to push himself up, gritting in pain with every movement. The Captain tries once more to help only to have Kso’ppghiel bare his fangs in warning. “I have been touched enough…” His words are filled with pain as he finally manages to sit, taking a moment to let the worst of it subside. “Then it will continue. I cannot pretend to give her control she does not have. When she attempts to take what she wants of my flesh, the truth will be apparent, as I will not react favorably to her desires. That is not something I can force or control.” His eyes close as he hangs his head, simply attempting to stay still. “How she was able to do what she has claimed, I do not know. I do not have those thoughts or desires, I never have.” The slightest traces of an incredulous look crosses the tall Captain’s features before he leans back on the bed a little, crossing his arms just beneath his chest. “You have said this already and yet I still find it hard to believe. You are a man are you not?” pupiless white eyes reopen and slowly shift back to meet his mismatched gaze, a frown forming on Kso’ppghiel’s lips. “Those thoughts and desires are buried beneath the surface somewhere Harbinger, otherwise our Queen never would have been able to pull any reaction from you at all. Even if your mind refuses to accept that you can, and will function normally, your body obviously does not.” “I have never had voluntary relations with anyone after I started out on my own. No point. I think I have spoken more in your presence than I have in the past ten years to anyone. I did not expect to live this long.” Kso’ppghiel pulls his gaze away and sighs. “My mother died in childbirth with my sister. It was very hard on my father even though he did his best to hide it, as it was on myself. Then after experiencing that loss again…” He shakes his head. “It is far easier to simply not become involved with anyone on any level. I do not doubt there are natural instincts, but they are not conscious because I do not want them. It only clouds the minds of men, causes them to do stupid things.” Why is he even talking to this man? Why is he talking to anyone? He’s simply tired and worn down. Gritting his teeth, the Harbinger pushes himself off the bed, walking out to Bal’thial’s terrace and looking out over the horizon as the suns begin to crawl high in the sky, illuminating the mountains and desert below. Mismatched eyes get caught for a moment when the oncoming light that illuminates his broad frame casts a shadowing silhouette of a man who has seen far too many days in battle before his time. He grips hard on the railing to balance himself. “I do not need you to understand, it is fact, a fact that woman cannot change.” Blinking a few moments later, the white haired man pulls his eyes away and slides free of the bed himself, moving out into the thick surrounding air behind him. Bal’thial reaches out, clawed fingers moving to touch in strands of white gold hair before he manages to catch himself, curling those same fingers back with a frown and shifting himself fluidly to the Harbinger’s side. Turning his back on the scenery beyond the fortress walls, the tall Captain leans himself back against the railing and crosses muscular arms over his chest. “My own family is lost to me as well…” he says softly with a sigh. “Perhaps not in the same manner as yours is to you, but lost all the same. I understand the hurt this causes, and it is a hurt that will never truly go away.” No matter how desperately you try to drown the pain in blood, or run yourself so far past the breaking point in your attempts to purge the loss from your mind… “But you cannot simply wall yourself off from the world, it never works for very long and eventually you will have to face what you try to bury and learn to accept and move on. Hatred will only carry you so far.” Kso’ppghiel shakes his head. “And do what? Return to a village, find a wife, have a child, become a farmer? These are not things I am capable of doing now, even if I wanted to.” He turns to face the Captain. “If your family is not dead, they are not lost to you; there is always a chance for reconciliation. I do not have such a luxury and I envy you for that. All I have is the memory of what was taken away and that is what continues to drive me.” His voice turns cold. “I will find the one who took my life from me, and I will take theirs in compensation.” “It is… the only fair compensation.” Bal’thial says quietly, turning his had away from the Kso’ppghiel’s gaze and allowing it to shift back into the room. He wonders if his Queen has thought of what would happen if her newest prize were to ever make the connections between himself and her by way of his father, or have those connections made for him. She is a force to be reckoned with, stronger physically than either he or the blonde… but hatred and loss and no fear of losing one’s life make for a formidable foe and the Captain isn’t so sure she’s accounted for this or even thought on it at all. “My family is not dead to me.” He says a moment later. “But there is nothing to envy, Harbinger. There is no chance of reconciliation, not even if I were to go back and follow the wishes of my father. It is me who is dead to them and so I am left with only memory as well…” mismatched eyes slide back to meet pupiless white and a smirks forms on his lips soon after. “Only my memory is not of the loving eyes of those dear to me, just their hatred for what I chose to become.” “I would still choose looks of hated over that of my sister’s as she died in terror.” That day is still etched so vividly in Kso’ppghiel’s memory, as if it were yesterday. It haunts his dreams. “I have a promise to keep to them, one that must be fulfilled. Being here is standing in the way of that. Nothing that woman can ever give me will substitute for that promise. I cannot stay, I cannot stop, and I cannot think of my own wants or needs because I do not have them.” Bal’thial looks on for only a moment before he uncrosses his arms and pushes himself away from the marbled railing, turning to face the one at his right while stepping in close. “And what promise is that, Kso’ppghiel?” blue and green eyes slide briefly away from pupiless white to sweep over the other man’s features and before he has time to react, the tall Captain’s fingers are reaching out to trace along the tip of a spiraled horn. “To care so little about your own body that you would run yourself so far down until you are sure to follow them into death?” pulling his hand quickly away, the white haired man’s gaze once again meets the other’s and he frowns. “Were they living, would your sister want to see these eyes I see now? Hardened and so full of hated that it is a miracle you have not been blinded…” “Again, what would you have me do? Live falsely, pretend to enjoy the things they no longer can? This is my life, I have no other. As I have said, I did not expect to live this long. I cannot simply lie down and die while there is fight left in me.” Which is what the blonde feels he is doing here. He is wasting time. But he has nothing else, should he fulfill his goal. Kso’ppghiel looks away sadly. He doesn’t want to think about how empty his life has become. It’s not what he father would have wanted for him. He kept him from war for a purpose, because the man had done enough fighting for both of them he had once said. “I feel nothing anymore.” Something twists inside of the white haired man when the hatred he’s seen in the Kso’ppghiel’s gaze so completely since the first day he’d been instructed to bring him in changes to take on a sad sort of distance he doesn’t like much at all. Reaching out, clawed fingers touch near the Harbinger’s cheek and he shifts his face back so that their gazes meet once again, the tall Captain’s tone serious and low. “Nothing? Then why is this look in your eyes now?” “Because I am tired, beaten, hungry and chained. This is not me.” The words leave Kso’ppghiel’s lips in a whisper before he realizes where the Captain’s hand is, the warm touch on the side of his face almost soothing. He jerks away, the familiar anger and hate returns to him, masking any other emotions he may feel, there are no other emotions he wants to feel. White eyes divert from the ones looking at him so intently. “Do not touch me.” Anger, rage and pain he can handle from another, kindness he can’t. Bal’thial frowns as hatred once again fills the blonde’s eyes before he reaches swiftly out to latch onto the Harbinger’s wrist and before Kso’ppghiel has time to realize it’s happening, the tall Captain has yanked him towards himself and spun his body around. In one fluid twist, his back meets the white haired man’s chest and full lips are speaking directly into his ear. “Then what is you, Harbinger?” the shorter man bares sharp fangs, his free hand brought instantly back and just as quick as the movement made before, his wrist is once again caught. “Where are you then inside this bruised and battered flesh?” Kso’ppghiel struggles in the hold but he is too weak and unhealed where as the Captain is not, the grip on his wrists unwavering. “Do not touch me!” He growls out. “I feel nothing, I am nothing. I am a worthless dog, is that what you want to hear? I do not know what you want from me.” He is tired and in pain and he cannot keep this up. Everything the Captain does switches and the lack of consistency only angers him further. Streaming words leave his mouth, causing his wounds to heal and giving him a small amount of strength back. Kso’ppghiel rips himself free of Bal’thial’s grip and turns to face the Captain, his clawed grip going right towards the taller man’s throat and backing him up against the wall as he holds him there. A hurt and confused rage shows clearly in his white gaze. “What. do. you. want. from. me.” Mismatched eyes never waver from white even when his back hits the marble wall behind. The grip is firm, yet unlike the last time the Harbinger’s hand was around his neck, there is no damage being done. The Captain spends a moment simply staring deep into confused and anger filled white before his own hand quickly slides up to wrap around the wrist that holds him and with one sudden movement, he rips Kso’ppghiel’s fingers free and takes a step forward. His other soon wraps around the blonde’s jaw and he wrenches his face towards him before Bal’thial leans in until their mouths nearly meet. But just before their lips would contact, the white haired man turns the Harbinger’s head to the side and slides his mouth over to his ear to whisper directly within. “I want you to find a reason to live again.” The shorter man tenses immediately and before he can pull away the white haired Captain lets go, the soft chime of decorative metal capping long horns shifting as he steps back and turns towards the terrace doors behind to move back into his room, speaking as he goes. “…You are far from a worthless dog, Harbinger, the attentions of … our Queen alone should tell you that.” Kso’ppghiel turns to grip onto the terrace railing to steady himself, his head spinning. Everything is confusing him, wearing him down, upsetting him. They are getting what they want from him and he can’t stop it which only serves to upset him even more. There is no purpose or direction and he feels he’s collapsing under his own hysteria. If he could heal his wings enough to fly, he’d jump off right now and go far away from this. “I had a reason… you are taking it from me…” This man is causing it all in him and part of him would rather go back to that woman where he at least knows how to react and what to expect. He would rather hate her than be forced to question everything he has done for the past decade. He would rather be beaten. “How-?” Bal’thial starts with a slight incredulous laugh, stopping in his tracks and turning back around to face the one currently turned away from him. “How am I taking your reason from you, Harbinger?” Moving back towards the blonde, the tall Captain stops directly behind the distraught figure. “-By giving you a relatively safe place to spend your days while you are charged to my care? By allowing you the freedom of movement without collar or mask? By attempting to get you to see past that blinding hatred held so deeply in your eyes so that you might live long enough to extract that revenge you clearly hold so dear? How is anything I am doing taking your reason? Would you honestly say that you’d prefer to be treated like the dog our Mistress claims you to be?!” Kso’ppghiel turns around annoyed by the fact that the Captain is close once more. White eyes narrow as they lock with mismatched blue and green. “At least with her I know what to expect, there are definitive boundaries I can handle. She is not making be question my entire existence. I can take pain and anger and hatred. I cannot take this.” He pushes Bal’thial roughly back. “How can I take any revenge unless I am free? And how can I get free when that driving force is faltering?” He closes the gap between them and pushes the Captain back again. “How can I bide my time finding meaning when it can never be actualized here? Roaming freely in your bedchamber does not make me free in the slightest. I want no illusions, Captain, I want things that are real.” The Harbinger closes the gap once more. “Blood, scars and pain, those are real.” Anger flashes hard inside the tall Captain at the Harbinger’s words and mismatched eyes soon narrow while they remain locked close with pupiless white. “If that is how you feel then so be it.” Bal’thial reaches suddenly down and latches onto the other man’s wrist before he turns and throws him off towards the bed waiting behind. The force and momentum of the movement sends Kso’ppghiel face first against silken fabric and an instant later the white haired man has planted a knee hard against the center of his back, gripped onto a large chunk of hair and has ripped his head back. “The only illusions you have upon you are self made and no doing of my own. Unless you get this through your thick skull, you will waste away in her hands and rot within these walls.” The Harbinger’s eyes snap open the moment shifting metal reaches his ears and just as he makes a motion to throw the man free of him, the mask is slipped back into place. A soft stream of words secures it back into place, his white gaze glazing immediately before the one behind him has pulled his knee away and torn him from the bed by the maintained grip in light blonde hair. Bal’thial drags the shorter man across the cold marble before throwing him hard towards the far wall, turning the instant he’s in motion to retrieve the collar as well. Only the slightest of sounds leaves Kso’ppghiel’s lips the moment his back contacts with cold marble and a second later the white haired figure is upon him, squatting over his prone form and wrapping the enchanted restraint around his neck. “If back in her presence is where you would rather be-” He says through gritted teeth when the shorter man’s glazed over gaze rises up to meet fire filled green and blue just as a soft clicking of latches secures the collar back in its place. “-then there is little point to delay.” The Harbinger shuts down, he doesn’t move, he doesn’t speak. Bal’thial attempts to pull him up by the chain to stand and he simply hangs, not meeting the other’s eyes. He barely flinches as the Captain kicks him hard in the side out of frustration before he is picked up and hauled over the taller man’s shoulder. The rest of the way back barely registers to him so much so that he doesn’t even realize they have returned until his head hits Io’fayl’s silken sheets. Everything is distant and he doesn’t even know why he feels… hurt. No matter the reason, the Captain is the cause and being removed from his presence should cease it. Io’fayl returns, somewhat surprised to see both her Captain and Harbinger returned before the day is out. “Bal’thial, why is he returned?” Straightening and turning away from the blonde below him, the white haired man turns to face his Queen, eyes lowered and head bowed in respect. “Forgive me, Mistress… but your pet’s injuries are proving… problematic.” His voice is kept quiet and low as he continues. “If he is not tended to and allowed to heal, I will not be able to guarantee the damage not be permanent.” “Then he shall be tended to so that your… training can be continued.” Io’fayl muses while walking up to her Captain, claw tipped fingers running over the dangling charms on his horns as he passes and moves to her Harbinger. “Thank you, Captain.” Bal’thial bows slightly before turning and taking his leave. The Queen looks over Kso’ppghiel’s face. Though he would not look at her his expression was… off. She turns his head to face her. “Kincaid…” The instant the word leaves her, his familiar anger returns, causing her to smile before she removes his collar, unknowingly sending him back into subdued sedation that he actually welcomes.
 The other man’s words hurt him, deeper than he’s comfortable with, deeper than he’d even realized at the time they’d been said. He’s been working to give Kso’ppghiel allowances, find ways to give him freedoms he otherwise wouldn’t have, even gone against his Queen’s orders and allowed him to roam free inside of his own room and for what? To be accused of stealing the very life he’s seen deep inside of the man, a life he wants the Harbinger to see as well. To be told their Mistress’s presence, a presence the other man hates with every fiber of his being is preferred to that of his own. It struck him deep to the bone and as Bal’thial’s teeth grit and he takes another fluid twist to swing the jagged end of his weapon so hard against the marbled wall, the booming impact that shakes him can’t even touch the anger swirling around inside. Breathing heavily, the clawed fingers wrapped securely around the hilt rip his blade free before turning around and throwing his sword at the far end of the vast room with a frustrated growl. Turning instantly back, he slams his fist against the damaged wall before one hit after another spills into the echoing air, each new strike sending shards of splintered stone raining down to the floor. Moments after his anger begins to calm, he sinks down into a squat and pulls bloodied fingers up to plaited strands of white, raking his claws back and lowering his head with a sigh. He’d been upset… and he delivered Kso’ppghiel back into Io’fayl’s hands before their time had even been up. In the end, it’s probably better this way because he’s beginning to think his interest in the blonde is going too far. Blood… pain… scars, as the other man had said, that’s all that should be between them…
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