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Oriel sank onto a couch with Roth who rubbed his back. Aspen huddled in an armchair with a pinched expression as he stared at his lap.
“No,” he said. “Not like that. We don’t need a physician.”
Asara always seemed so composed and regal from her letters and what he’d heard from his parents. Right now, she looked like someone had pulled a rug out from under her feet as she brought over pitchers and cups. Oriel accepted a glass of watered wine.
“I wrote to King Taven to try and get you released. I said to name any price, but I didn’t have high hopes if a response came, and I really didn't think you'd escape. Obviously, you’re here now, thank Elira, but I was planning to go to war to get you back.”
He almost choked on his wine. She really would have done it for him if he hadn’t been able to escape. “But his army is much larger than yours.”
“You’re family, and I have someone that might help. They owe my family, but I want to know what happened unless it’s too much right now.”
His first instinct was to ask for a day. They had just gotten here which was a huge thing to cross off of his list, and it’d be nice to sleep for a night without worrying about traveling tomorrow.
He thought of the portrait in the hall. His younger brothers had always been more immature than him. He figured it was because they weren’t directly in line. That had fallen to Oriel since he happened to come out first by pure chance.
Still, if the situation was reversed, and they needed to avenge him, they’d get on with it.
The sun had set by the time Asara knew everything that happened. Aspen looked ready to fall asleep from the amount of wine that he’d had, but Oriel didn’t have the energy to tell him to stop or argue. Maybe he needed a night to dull everything since part of the story had involved him in the hold, although Oriel hadn’t gone into heavy details. He couldn’t complain anyway since he’d had a bit too much himself.
The note Asara had received lay on the table, and Oriel didn’t recognize the handwriting. Whoever had put quill to pen had been shaky as if traumatized by that night. It simply said West Bay had fallen, and the whole family was dead except for Oriel who had been taken as a slave. It wasn't signed. Oriel assumed that a lord had managed to escape that night. Perhaps a servant had, although the cost of a dove to fly a message so far would have been quite costly.
“Who would help?” asked Oriel.
“King Kalen and King Rhys of East Forest.” Asara didn’t seem to be at her best, but after hearing of so much death and what the survivors had suffered, he didn’t blame her when she reached for her wine again. "My husband, Elira rest his soul, met Nemyr. This was after Kalen’s parents were dead, and the traitor had been put to death.”
Oriel had heard of that. Kalen’s Uncle Harren had tried to suffocate him in his sleep. By chance, a playmate of his who should have been in bed came to see him. Her screams had alerted someone and saved him.
“Nemyr went to some lord’s home on business. My husband was there too. I don’t even remember where they had gone exactly since it was so long ago, but Nemyr slipped out in the back garden. It had rained earlier, and the stone pathways were slick. Thankfully, my husband found him out there and he could heal broken bones because Nemyr had cracked his skull. He was fine after my husband healed him.”
Oriel’s eyes widened. “I never heard of that.”
“Nemyr said to keep quiet about it. I think he wanted to make sure no word of the incident ever got back to Kalen. The poor boy had already lost his parents and a traitorous Uncle. Imagine if his remaining Uncle went on a trip and didn’t come back alive. Even though he lived, if Kalen heard of it, it likely would have scared him to no end. He surely had already figured out that no one is invincible.”
“Oh. That makes sense.”
“My husband told me everything, of course, but I kept the secret. Nemyr said that if our family needed anything at all, even an alliance, we could always ask the Valentine family. He said it was a small price for his life and stability for his nephew.”
“What caring words. And then he locked up his nephew.” Roth threw back what was left in his glass.
Oriel had heard about that and never really got a straight answer from anyone about it. Then again, how would locals know? All he knew was that Kalen had been locked up for ten years, apparently of his own accord because he didn’t know how to love and had to learn.
He must have known how to love since he had a husband now who used to be a human. Besides, how could someone not know how to love? None of it made sense, and it had all sounded quite suspicious to Oriel. Nemyr had died after an incident with a demon when he got caught tampering with his wife’s body.
Oriel didn’t have the energy to wonder about that. “They’d help us?”
“I’m sure Kalen would keep such a promise and lend us his army. Nemyr said the Valentine family, not just himself, and they’re not the sort to forget debts and such. If you want, I can send out a dove first thing tomorrow when I can think straighter and ask. The wine’s gone to my head, but with our combined armies, we’d certainly have a chance.”
“Okay.”
They could really do this and have a chance. Oriel had worried himself sick, and now, he already had a yes from his cousin plopped in his lap. Beyond that, he needed to sleep and give his mind a break from the past. Reliving everything had taken a lot out of him.
Asara seemed to know that they needed time to get settled. The servants had prepped separate rooms, but Roth simply fetched his stuff and came to his. Dinner was brought, although he had no appetite. He went to check on Aspen who had fallen asleep while fully dressed on top of his bed.
Oriel slid off his boots and pulled the blanket over him before he sat on the edge of the bed and placed his hand on Aspen’s arm. Asara said a blacksmith would come with a cutting tool for the collar, but he had a few minutes.
Besides that, he needed this. Even with Roth, he still craved touch from Aspen. He knew Roth would say to not do it, but he ran through all his failures again.
He’d never get what he wanted from Aspen. A smile, his laugh, his hands, a kiss. He’d fucking ruined it all. He stood, kissed Aspen’s temple, and left the room after he found the dagger he'd given him and slipped it into his belt.
