Strain
Masterpost | Read on Ao3
Elze'ith is a masterful healer. Lord Denholm helps him test some of his limits.
For BTHB: Impaled Palm
Contains: Intimate whump, captivity/gilded cage, restraint, knives/stabbing, painful magical healing, hand whump (impaled palm), broken bones
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The chill of the dungeon seemed to seep into his very bones. Elze’ith couldn’t quite manage to stop shivering as Lord Denholm moved around him, utterly serene as he restrained him to the stone table. If he was being honest, Elze’ith wasn’t sure how much of his shudders were due to the cold, and how much were due to the situation and his trepidation about what was to come. Not that it mattered, because he was very cold, and very afraid.
“You rely so much on your hands to use your healing magic,” Lord Denholm had said earlier that evening. “I think it would be good to know if you are capable of healing yourself when your hands are unavailable, don’t you agree?”
Maybe Elze’ith would have agreed, in another time and place. Maybe he still did. But regardless of what he thought, it all led to the same place: him restrained in the dungeons as Lord Denholm prepared to test him once again.
“There,” Lord Denholm said once Elze’ith was firmly chained to the cold stone table. He pulled a knife from his belt, the blade glinting in the low torchlight. His other hand briefly cupped Elze’ith’s face, and Elze’ith leaned desperately into the comforting touch. “We will start small, and then work our way up. Are you ready?”
He wasn’t. But he nodded anyway.
The knife pressed against his skin, just above his sternum. With agonizing consideration and precision Lord Denholm pushed the knife down, causing blood to well up around the blade. It was far from the worst pain Elze’ith had felt, only a small sting, but Elze’ith’s breath still caught in his chest. The corner of Lord Denholm’s lips twitched up in a smile as he drew the blade further down to create a small red line of blood before pulling away.
“That should suffice to start,” Lord Denholm said. “A wound this small should be easy for a man of your skill and power, should it not?”
Elze’ith shivered, not entirely from the cold. Lord Denholm had so much faith in him. How could Elze’ith possibly let him down?
Closing his eyes, he focused his magic. It flowed to his hands, as it always did, the natural conduit for directing his power to the outside world. He furrowed his brow as he focused, pulling his magic back into his body and to his chest, where it was actually needed. It resisted him a bit, but he was able to coax it to the wound, and felt the familiar ache as his skin sealed itself shut. The process was somehow easier and more difficult than he had expected. He was panting a bit when he opened his eyes, but sure enough, his chest was completely healed.
“Impressive as always, my light,” Lord Denholm purred, idly stroking Elze’ith’s hair. Elze’ith let out a soft sigh of relief, only to have his breath catch when Lord Denholm brought the knife back to his ribs. “Now let’s try something a little more difficult.”
The knife sunk in slowly, parting his flesh with ease. A thin whine left Elze’ith’s lips as bright, shooting pain bloomed in his chest. He didn’t bother to try and bite back the noise; hiding it wouldn’t do any good, and he knew Lord Denholm liked to bear witness to his pain. Nor did he hold back his shocked, wordless cry as Lord Denholm suddenly twisted the blade when it was halfway embedded in his chest. For a moment he couldn’t breathe around the bitter, cutting agony in his chest.
And then the knife was drawn away, and Elze’ith was left panting, sweat dripping down his face. Lord Denholm didn’t even have to instruct him this time; Elze’ith immediately reached deep to summon his magic, because a wound of this nature needed healing and needed it quickly. It was harder than before to fight through the pain and force his magic away from the path it wanted to travel and towards his chest where he needed it, and harder still to maintain it once he finally managed to start restoring himself. His hands clenched and unclenched as he strained, purely on instinct, as he fought himself to close the wound in his chest, his blood roaring with adrenaline and magic and pain. By the time he was done he was exhausted and breathless and covered in sweat, silently praying that it would be over now.
By the keen, hungry look in Lord Denholm’s eye, though, he got the dreadful sense that he wasn’t done yet.
“Beautiful,” Lord Denholm said, and Elze’ith wasn’t sure if he was talking about his performance or the way he looked like this or both. The word seemed to echo in the cold room as Lord Denholm languidly licked the blood off the knife’s blade. Elze’ith felt his stomach turn at the sight, yet he couldn’t look away. His eyes almost seemed to flash as he lowered the blade and smiled. “Now, my light, there’s just one more thing I want to have you try.”
And before Elze’ith could even wonder what he meant, Lord Denholm stabbed the knife into Elze’ith’s left hand.
A ragged yell tore itself from him before Elze’ith properly processed the pain. He instinctively tried to jerk away, but his bonds held fast, and the motion only tore his palm further open on the knife’s sharp edge. His fingers spasmed, muscles and nerves trying to work through the sudden rupture. He knew, implicitly, that the knife had gone straight through, though it was hard to think about the ramifications of that through the thunderous agony that boomed in his hand with every heartbeat.
“I know, light,” Lord Denholm said lowly. Elze’ith clung to the voice like a lifeline even as Lord Denholm released the knife and stepped around the table, toward Elze’ith’s legs. There was a jolt of fear in Elze’ith’s mind— he wasn’t taking the knife out— but mostly he was relieved to have any shred of comfort. Lord Denholm skimmed a finger down Elze’ith’s leg, making him shiver. “But I need to know if you can heal if your hands are truly incapacitated.”
Perhaps it was a small mercy that, when Lord Denholm seized Elze’ith’s ankle and broke it, it was just as quick as when he had stabbed his hand. Mostly it was just another cascade of pain that had Elze’ith reeling, eyes clenching shut and body spasming in a futile attempt to make it stop.
Lord Denholm gave him several lord moments to lay there, muscles tensed and breathing heavy, before he spoke up again. “Light. You know what you need to do.”
He did. Elze’ith needed to heal himself. But the pain was overwhelming; he could feel the knife in his hand, the blood draining from the wound, as well as the inherent wrongness of the break in his ankle, the deep, dull agony of the fracture. It was nothing he couldn’t fix, but like this? It would be difficult, but he had no choice.
His right hand formed a tight fist as he focused, summoning forth his healing magic once again. As always it gravitated towards his hands, especially now that there was a wound there. He let out a low whimper as his magic tried to mend the hold in his hand, only to be met with the blade still embedded in the stone. It was like being stabbed and healed perpetually, the pain compounding on itself without limit. Tears sprung to his eyes, and he briefly let his magic fade just to get a moment of relief. But he could feel Lord Denholm watching him, so after taking a steadying breath, he tried again.
The starburst of agony still erupted in his hand, but he grit his teeth and focused on redirecting his magic down towards his ankle, where it could actually help. His entire body tensed and strained with the effort, but soon the pain in his ankle flared as his magic began to work. It took longer than normal, given the distance his magic had to travel down his body and the focus it took just to keep from healing his hand, but within a minute, he was collapsing limply back on the table, his ankle fully healed.
When he opened his eyes, Lord Denholm was above him. “My light, you did wonderfully.” One hand reached down to cradle Elze’ith’s face while the other smoothly withdrew the knife. Elze’ith leaned into the touch even as he whimpered from the way the act seemed to send lightning through his already pained limb. He smiled up weakly at Lord Denholm, summoning the last dregs of his magic to heal his hand. The way the pain increased made him flinch in fear, but it was just the normal course of his magic, and the pain quickly subsided as it should.
“You displayed your abilities quite well, my light,” Lord Denholm said. Warmth bloomed in Elze’ith’s chest. Tucking the knife away, Lord Denholm quickly set about undoing Elze’ith’s restraints. It seemed like mere moments later that Lord Denholm was sweeping Elze’ith into his arms. Elze’ith, utterly exhausted, felt nothing but relief as he pressed his face into Lord Denholm’s chest. He had done well, and now it was over. “Let me take you back to your chambers. You’ve earned a chance to rest after this. You’ve shown me exactly what I needed to see.”
Even if Elze’ith had managed to hold onto the flicker of confusion-laced dread he felt for more than a moment, he was too weary to be able to make much sense of it. All he needed to do was be glad that Lord Denholm was happy with him. That was enough.
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SUPER IN LOVE with this new Theocracy album *-* Mosaic
Matt Smith is a amazing songwriter🥹🥰 7 years waiting for one more masterpiece 🙏🏽😍
“I don't belong here
I don't belong here
Pleasure slaves indulging every manner of perversion
If technology's the god we feed
Our sacrifice is full submersion
Life and friendships ended over stupid politicians
All the rhetoric and superstitions
Life on a screen
A simulated world that buried Mozart in a pauper's grave
And said, "Give us Barabbas"
Crucified Christ and turned away
This world feels so synthetic
Lost apathetic
While tragedy vampires drink blood of the fallen
Out of place and out of time
Oh tell me, what's the value of a life
In a modern day and age
Where monsters cling to evil ways
I can't shake the feeling I just don't belong
But we flicker for a moment
Flicker for a moment, then we're gone” 🎶🎶✝️ Flicker - Theocracy 🤍
Sleepy haha Bom dia☕🙏🏽🌞
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