No. 29 - ALL WORK AND NO PLAY
“You’re still not dead?” | too weak to move | overworked
Riven/Delethil requested by @zacksfairest
Including a special guest star~
*
Even coughing hurt, but how else was Delethil going to shake loose the blood in his mouth? He spat, the coppery glob landing a few inches away from his prone form on the floor of the cell, yet the metallic taste remained. This time, his drow captives had left him with no water, no bandages, no food, and even if he had them, he was too weak to reach for them.
His back was bleeding with five open lashes, at least one rib was broken, and bruises were blooming on his face, torso, arms—
“You’re still not dead?” a sharp, surprised voice said in heavily-accented elven from outside his cell. There was a quality of sweetness to the voice that only Delethil heard. Maybe even he was imagining it simply because he liked the sound of this drowess.
Delethil cracked his eyes open.
It was the daughter of his torturer. Delethil felt a hint of surprise himself that she’d returned again, even as he gave her a barely-there smile. She was not lording over him, giving him a view of polished boots and nothing else, but rather was crouched down so their eyes could meet.
Avenzi would not like that if she saw, which meant Riven had dismissed or distracted the guards. They were alone.
“Come to check on me, lass?” Delethil spoke a bit slower than normal, his voice gravelly, but he could manage.
“No,” Riven denied too quickly, too vehemently. “Just… If you were dead, we’d have an open cell, is all.”
“Ah!” Delethil said with a sprightliness he didn’t feel. “So she’s efficient along with being kind and beautiful.”
Even though the effort of speaking pained him, it was worth it to see a drowess blush. This drowess in particular. Despite her white hair and red eyes, she was paler than her mother and her other countrymen, her skin a unique shade of lavender with gray undertones. When she blushed, it turned her cheeks and pointed ears an interesting shade of mauve.
She also looked at him like his flattery was equivalent to spewed acid. “Maybe you are broken, if you think that about her after what she’s done to you.”
Merciful Forest Father, she thought he was talking about Avenzi. He would laugh if the sensation didn’t make him feel like he was dying. His expression turned flinty. “No, lass, I’d never believe her capable of benevolence. You, on the other hand, I think more highly of.”
Riven rocked back on her heels, a full retreat as her entire face turned mauve. Her fingers clung around the iron bars, which she peered past to glare at him. “Making fun of me won’t win you any favors.”
“Did I sound insincere? Forgive a poor, injured man, milady.” His green eyes held hers as he smiled a rueful smile to blunt his sarcasm. “I’d do more, darling, but I can’t rightly move.”
He didn’t have to add why. Riven had been there when Avenzi had ordered the beating, then the lashing, Delethil’s limbs restrained the whole time so he couldn’t flee or fight back. Riven hadn’t spoken up in his favor, which Delethil had learned earlier was a form of kindness on the young drowess’ part.
Riven bared her teeth and stuck her face between the bars. “I told you to stop it with the names. Do you want your tongue cut out?”
Even now, Delethil wasn’t sure if Riven was warning him against what she was capable of or of what Avenzi would do if she ever overheard how he was talking to her daughter.
“So much culture shock between us, aye? If we were in Aeranth, I’d trip over my own nimble feet to tell ya what a gorgeous lass ya are. While here, your mother has me whipped just for lookin’ too long at ya, and then ya threaten me with more bodily harm besides.” He clicked his still-working tongue. “None of the great romances covered the two of us, did they?”
“There is no us,” she hissed. “I’m only here because—” She stopped, clenching her jaw shut.
Delethil waited, hoping she would finally reveal her hand. He knew she hadn’t started to covertly visit him, to sneak him items to keep him alive for his own sake. Riven wanted something from him, just like he wanted something from her and was working hard to stay in her good graces. Regardless of the fact that most of the flattery he paid her was true, it was all aimed at one goal: his freedom out of Cicecta. If she happened to fall for him in the process, well, he’d gladly have her before he left.
But whatever Riven’s end goal was, it continued to elude Delethil to his immense frustration. All she said was, “Pour this down your back, so those don’t get infected.” The drowess passed a glass bottle of clear liquid through the bars.
He couldn’t lift it, but it was in eyesight. The liquid was so clear that, when it stopped moving, the bottle appeared to be empty. “I take it this isn’t alcohol.”
“No,” Riven gravely responded. “And it’ll hurt worse.”
Naturally. Everything hurt in this place.
“I’m sure I’ll regret saying it, but thank ya.” Their conversation was reaching a clear end, but Delethil sought to delay her departure, asking, “So when is Avenzi going to begin interrogating me properly?”
Her eyes flickered over him, taking in the state of his injuries. His dirty, tangled auburn hair. Lingering on his tattered, bloody shirt. “When you do finally break.”
“She’s wasting her time. There really isn’t much I can tell her about Luntower’s plans.”
“Don’t let her know that,” Riven advised him, then her eyes narrowed. “But… If that were really true, you wouldn’t still be alive.”
“Not one for wasting time, she.” Darkly, Delethil wondered how long he had been watched, and how many drow operatives were still in Lunhaven.
“You should have a few days to recover at least,” Riven said, rising to her full height. “Mother has business with the empress, and I… might be able to stretch it out longer.”
“What are ya planning, lass?”
Riven didn’t answer. Her boots left his line of sight.
He raised his voice to call after her. It was scratchy after all the screaming he’d done. “Ya have a look of moon elf about ya, y’know.”
Her footsteps came to an abrupt stop. When she replied, her voice was strained. “What makes you say such stupid things?”
“Not as they are now,” Delethil clarified, “but as they once were. A long, long time ago.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not entirely sure, lass. All we have are stories, but… Us elves were all once fae, just spawned from different kinds. Moon elves in particular were described as being celestial.” He paused for effect, counting five bricks on the far wall of his cell before continuing. “Once, they all had hair either black as night or pale as starlight. Skin in shades of pale blue or purple, glowing with the reflected light of the moon. I thought it when I first saw ya, that ya look just like how they used to. Their goddess Sehanine, reborn.”
Shocked silence met his bold claim, then Riven snorted. “Bet none of them had red eyes, though. Especially not some fancy moon goddess.”
“Aye, maybe not, if the Circle has any say in their history.” Delethil closed his eyes, fatigue setting in at last. “But maybe they’re wrong about that, too.”
As Riven left, Delethil told himself that that particular come-on hadn’t been too much too soon, that he hadn’t scared her off. But days passed with no word from her. He regained the strength to move and nearly passed out again when he treated his back with the mystery concoction Riven had left him, his back experiencing renewed agony for an entire day as it healed. He survived on the meager once-a-day rations the guards threw at him, which didn’t seem to be on any schedule. Mentally, he prepared himself for Avenzi’s next summons, for her next round of torture.
Yet more days passed, and he was not summoned.
Riven had planned something, and she must have carried it out. Instead of being relieved at the extra time to rest, Delethil found he was growing restless with increasing anxiety.
When a male drow with dark skin, long white hair, and shocking blue eyes appeared at his cell, Delethil’s stomach flipped with foreboding and nerves both. Riven’s descriptions of her stepbrother had not done him justice. Zaresh was as attractive as Szez was cold, and he leveled Delethil a look of disgust that so far only Avenzi could match. But whereas Avenzi’s disgust had been pure, Zaresh’s was laced with anger.
“If I discover this has all been your influence,” Zaresh threatened with clipped precision, “there will be nothing left of you for Riven or my bitch of a stepmother to find.”
Delethil wasn’t in the mood for such pleasantries. He approached the bars. “Enough riddling. You lot are worse than sphinxes. What’s happening?”
Maddeningly, Zaresh remained reticent, giving him a cool, cruel smile. “Why don’t you come and see for yourself?”
Then, in a move that rendered Delethil speechless, Zaresh produced a set of keys and deftly unlocked his cell. Delethil understood then that this was some sort of trap, and he didn’t want to know what was beyond these four, tight walls. Zaresh didn’t give him the choice. The drow drew a hidden dagger and introduced the sharp blade to Delethil’s back, threatening to cut open the scabs there or create new wounds from which to bleed.
At this moment, the two of them were breaking so many stringent Cicectan laws that if they were caught, everything would be over. At the same time, Delethil recognized the quiet step and clever hand of a fellow rogue, if not by profession then by necessity. Stealth would not be an issue between them. The problem would be how perceptive the remaining drow in Avenzi’s estate were. Either Zaresh earnestly cared about Riven to do all this, or there was some other play at work; likely, it was the latter.
Not seeing a way out, Delethil walked where Zaresh bade, death only ever a shadow away.
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