Private Tales The Past Returns

[Tal]

Talmanese let out a loud sigh. "Oh please."

His fingers rang out in a loud snap, and in an instant a strange blue wave flickered into being. It dashed through the room, surrounding Calliope's bed and cutting off the Guardsmen that stalked towards him. The man almost immediately drew his blade, it's steel clashing against the arcane wall with a bright spark. As though the metal had touched steel.

"Your Seneschall is not here, your Majesty, and I can kill everyone in this room before you can even call for him." Bright yellow eyes set upon the King. "Your daughter took my blood, traveled half-way around the world for it."

Surprisingly, the words were true, at least in a way. Calliope had come to him for a way to unseat his father, and here he was. "This is a consequence of that choice."

The King was practically raging, though held his tongue as he knew Talmanes threat rang true. The Guardsmen on the other hand continued to cut at the barrier between himself and the royal family. Single-minded determination driving him as he sought to protect his charge.

The Blood Witch, for her part, paid no mind at all to the bickering royals. Instead she watched Calliope in utter fascination.

"Let's not play this game anymore." A glow slowly began to trail down his arms. "You have your throne, and I want mine."

 

[Calliope]

Calliope's cheeks burned as Tal made her sound like some sort of desperate addict of some drug. She had travelled to find Talmanes, hoping he could help set their kingdoms right. She hadn't meant for any of this to happen. Of course, now that it had, she was bound by him by her very life. She felt sick with rage and shame, and the voices around her caused her hands to fist into her blankets..

"Enough." she snapped, her crimson eyes lifting to glare between her father and the Prince. "We have to at least try to work together.." her jaw clenched. Whilst she and her family were in favour of the greater good of their people, Talmanes was more like his own father than she had ever realised. He would do whatever it took to get whatever he wanted. She knew he wouldn't think twice of murdering her entire family if they stood in his way.

"Everyone, out. Please." she requested sternly.. "Except, you.. I would like you to stay." she said, looking to the blood witch.

 

[Tal]

For a moment it seemed as though the King were about to press, and then Calliope finally snapped. Her voice bellowed through the room, loud enough for nearly everyone to turn their heads. A snap of the finger rang out, and the Death Watch guardsmen ceased his assault.

Talmanes' fingers snapped, the barrier disappearing a second later. "We will speak later."

The King said, staring at Talmanes before he leaned down and gently grasped Calliope's hand. A soft squeezed pressed into her palm, both of her parents offering quiet whispers of comfort before they did as their daughter had bade them.

For a moment the Prince seemed to linger, staring at Calliope before he shook his head.

His head shook, and then he too left. Though kept his distance from the King and Queen as he did so.

All that was left behind was the Blood Witch, her oddly painted face having watched the intrigue and drama with all the amusement of a detached matriarch. When the door fell closed behind Tal, her head turned back towards the Princess.

Watching Expectantly.

 

[Calliope]

Calliope nodded in assurance to her parents, and her gaze followed Talmanes as he left too. She appreciated the silence for a moment before turning her attention to the crone who stood staring at her from the foot of her bed.

"I owe you my thanks for discovering what ailed me." she said firstly, throwing back her blankets and slipping out of bed, gesturing to a comfortable armchair by the large, arched window. Calliope took the other, and politely offered the woman some tea.

"I'm not quite sure what the Prince's blood has done to me. I know that I feel stronger now, and that I have never felt quite so weak as I did before..." she cut herself off, her brow knit with discomfort.

"I do not wish for this dependency.. Can I survive without it?" she asked, her eyes lifting hesitantly to the witch's painted face.

 

[Tal]

The Witch answered only with a shake of the head as tea was offered. Not too much of an oddity, considering that most rumored the women drank only blood as sustenance. Though whether or not that was actually true no one could actually say.

Asking never even occurred to most. "Perhaps."

She hissed as Calliope asked her question, though the painted lines of her face did not give away much confidence in the answer.

"Powerful blood." The Blood Witch mused. "Both yours and his."

Her head shook as she clarified. "The resonance has set in. Difficult to break, and hardly seen before."

 

[Calliope]

Calliope's jaw clenched. "Hardly seen? But it has been seen?" the Princess frowned. She had said difficult, but not impossible.

"If there is a way I wish to know it. I will not see my life put into the hands of any, let alone Talmanes Al'Vere. Please, if you can find a way to help me, whatever your price, I will pay it."

 

[Tal]

The Witch seemed to consider for a moment, thinking upon the words of the Princess. "I must search."

It was not what Calliope would want to hear, but it was the best the witch had to offer in that moment.

"Consult with my sisters." The ancient hag continued. "Perhaps I will find you an answer."

There were never any guarantees with magics that were so old. Though the Witches knew the most of the Blood, they did not know everything. There were things lost to history that even their ancient order had long forgotten. Even if they did not want to admit it to be so.

The woman's painted face shifted. "But we warned, the price may be worse than your fate in his hands."

She said with a low cackle.

 

[Calliope]

There was little worse she could think of than having her life held over her by Talmanes. She knew how cruel he could be, and she had a difficult enough time as it was ensuring she did not appear weak at his side. She would not resort to begging for his blood. She would rather death took her than her life be owned like some slave.

But he could not let her die. Not yet.

"Search quickly, please. Talmanes will likely try to convince you otherwise - I trust you will not let him manipulate you." she frowned and sipped at her tea.

 

[Tal]

The Witch scoffed. "The boy is as subtle as a fire-giant's boot."

Which was to say, not at all.

Though there seemed a flicker of hesitation over the woman's face for a brief moment. Her lips seemed to purse together, and then she narrowed her eyes. Slowly the crone leaned forward, this time whispering to Calliope. As though the walls might be listening.

"Do not underestimate him." She hissed. "He knows much of the old ways, and more since his fathers folly."

There was something...uncomfortable about the way she spoke. As though she were almost sure that she should not have said anything at all.

As she finished speaking, the Witch pulled herself up. "I will return, when I have what you desire."

 

[Calliope]

Calliope was under no illusion of how powerful Talmanes was, but the years following his family's betrayal had twisted him into something cold and calculating, and she couldn't suppress the shudder that trickled down her spine in the wake of the woman's hissed warning. Her chin dipped in acknowledgement, and she stood as the witch did, walking her to the door at a slow pace.

"Thank you, Seidr.. Your assistance and discretion is appreciated. My handmaiden, Vasra will see you to a carriage." she said as she opened the door, and said handmaiden stepped forward with a curtsy. "Vasra, please ensure the lady is shown whatever hospitality she desires before she departs." Calliope asked.

She glanced up and down the grand hallways of dark stone dimly lit by braziers and sconces. The second handmaiden that stood in wait outside her door was invited into the room the moment the witch had stepped out.

"I have a task for you." she whispered.

 

[Tal]

The Servant's head came up as soon as Calliope spoke. She took slow sweeping steps, almost seeming to float as she approached Calliope. Wide eyes looked down at the Princess.

It was rare that the royal family had Tyrian servants. Most tended to be slaves brought from the city. Tyrian's themselves only entered the service when there were debts to be paid, or someone had committed capital murder.

The girl looked down at Calliope. "Yes, Princess?"

She asked softly.

 

[Calliope]

Calliope ushered the girl in and closed the door behind her before turning to rush to her desk by the window. "I need you to to take this across the city, to Prince Luthair." she told her as she hurriedly penned the parchment.


'Luthair,

I am sure the news of your brother’s return has already reached you. I’m afraid I’ve done something terrible, but please understand that it wasn’t my intention, and I am trying to find a way to undo it, somehow...

Talmanes is more dangerous than ever. He is coming for your father’s throne, and your life is in danger. Please, do what you must to remain safe, even if it means fleeing Tyr. Do not come for me. I am safe, for now.

Yours,
Calliope.’

"Leave through the north gate, you mustn't be seen. Do you understand? This must be put into the hands of Luthair and no other. Have his guards escort you to him on my insistence."

She folded the note and slipped it into a blank envelope before pouring crimson hot wax and stamping the seal with her family crest. "Go, as quickly as you can."

 

[Tal]

The girl did not hesitate.

By Tyrian custom alone, the Handmaiden was as faithful as any other. The nobility had long ago ceased even attempting to buy the favor of servants and slaves within the Royal Palaces. Loyalty was tantamount within the service of the Royal Family.

Spies most often instead took the form of Soldiers, Cooks, and other ancillary more jobs. The Tyrians of old having long since instilled a tradition of duty within the servants that held close to the noble families.

Thus, when Calliope handed over her note in secret, it was almost entirely assured that it would stay that way. At least, unless it was whispered about by one of the Guards she would speak to or Luthair himself. Nevertheless, the girl rushed over to the Palace of the Al'vere family.

Doing exactly as Calliope had bade her.

 

[Calliope]

Calli’s head pressed against the door as it closed, her eyes closed as she breathed long and deep. She could feel her blood, or his, thrum through her veins, giving her strength. The thought of her newly discovered addiction made her skin crawl, and rage rise in her throat like bile. She could still taste it, and it disgusted her how pleasant she found it, and how she already craved more.

She hit the door, and what would normally have been a dull thud on the thick, dark wood, was instead a loud crack as it splintered under the heel of her palm. Calliope flinched, and sunk to the floor in a flood of tears which she so desperately needed to cry now that she was alone.

 

[Tal]

Talmanes stood in the empty throne room, staring at the pillar of the Kings authority.

For nearly a decade he had waited to get back home. For nearly a decade he had learned, plotted, and schemed. Every waking hour spent trying to reach this point.

Had it been worth it?

Maybe he'd rushed things. Maybe he should have simply sent Calli back home, but no. There had been too much risk in that. She would have kept fighting, and eventually Luthair or Eren would have figured out a way to rid themselves of their father.

He'd needed to move now. He'd needed to come back. Otherwise a piece of his vengeance would have been taken from him, snatched away before he even had a chance.

A frown pulled at his lips, fingers tugging free a cigar from a small leather pouch. "What do you think?"

He asked the looming figure behind him.

"Too soon?" The figure seemed to shift in the darkness, and then disappear. "Yeah."

Tal commented, lighting the cigar. "You never were much for conversation."

 

[Calliope]

Calli bathed in her granite tub until the water was cold. She had washed any sign of tears from her face, and scrubbed unnecessarily hard at the runes she now wore. She dressed in a heavy, black leather dress imprinted with dragon scales, hiding whatever sign of her husband's marks she could, swept her hair back from her face, adorned herself in weighty, gold jewellery and applied dark coal to her eyes and smeared a dark, red blood over her lips and in a line down her chin after consuming a few drops of it.

This was her home, and she would withstand this. With any luck, the blood witch would find the solution she'd asked for soon, and Luthair would heed the warning she had sent. She would gather her strength, and the strengths of others to her side, and do what she could to ensure her family's safety whilst the snake coiled within their nest.

After a firm knock at her door, Calliope half expected to see Talmanes' smug grin as she opened it. What she had not expected was to see Xander stood there with a look of fury. He pushed past her before she could say anything, and she glanced up and down the dim hallways before closing the door behind them.

"I know you don't want to see me, b--" he started, but she frowned at him.

"It's not that I don't want to see you, Xander. You're my frien--"

"DON'T...Say 'friend.'" he interrupted her with a growl, but the anger faded a little from his face when he noticed the hurt on her face. "I love you."

"I know.." she dropped her gaze, avoiding his as she did each time he told her that. "I didn't mean to insult you.. But we both know how this works, whether its once prince or another, I cannot..."

"I don't need to hear it, Calli. I'm well aware. I just want to know what you were thinking.. Why him? Luthair was difficult enough to deal with but Talmanes? He's as demented as his father is and far more dangerous. Did you.. choose this?"

Calli's lack of an answer was clearly answer enough. Xander's face flooded with white hot rage and he made for the door. Calliope didn't mean to push him as hard as she did, but with a single hand he was thrown back against the wall, much to his shock.

"If you face him, you will die. Do you not understand why I wanted you out of the way?" she snapped at him and strode to help him to his feet. The confusion on his face was a question she didn't answer, and anything else he had to say was silenced with a kiss.

 

[Tal]

He was growing tired of speaking with shadows.

A prisoner of the palace, Talmanes was more than aware that he was being watched. No one within the walls of his new 'home' had even an ounce of trust in him. Everyone from his beloved wife to the Captain of the Guard were having him watched.

It wouldn't have been so annoying weren't it so obvious.

They thought themselves clever, likely, but all it really did was inconvenience him. Nearly a week returned to Tyr and he had still accomplished everything he desired. Yet the constant over-hang, the watching eyes within the corridors.

It was growing so tiresome.

Thus he had no choice but to do something drastic.

As Calliope embraced her love, as her lips met Xander's, she would hear a clattering echo. The sound of distant doors being thrown open, shouts of protests from Guards and servants. "No more!"

He shouted. "I'll have no more."

Talmanes shouted.

"I won't be separated from my wife a minute more!" As he called, as his voice echoed down the hall. Calliope would realize one thing; he would never let her have a moment of peace. Whether intentionally or not.

 

[Calliope]

The kiss only had a moment to deepen before interruption trembled through the palace. She flinched slightly, and she saw how it caused Xander's ire to flare in his eyes as he stared at her. "Go. Don't argue, just do as I say." she frowned at him. He may have grown close to her over the years they'd spent together, and she may have freed him from slavery, but she was still his Princess and though it tested his self restraint to do so, he dipped his chin and let his hand slip from her face, smearing the bloody streak on her chin.

He left through the door behind her tapestry, a passage known by few. Calli sneered, turning to throw open the door to her chambers and march out into the hallway. "What is going on!?" she barked, her voice echoing atop his.

"I am here. I had no idea my absence from you grieved you so much." her brow furrowed and her arms folded.

 

[Tal]

"I simply cannot bear it any more!" Tal said rather dramatically.

Behind him were an array of handmaidens, servants, soldiers, and noble courtiers who had 'accidentally' followed the Prince through the palace. Talmanes, of course, was hyper aware of all of them. Knowing that scattered in their number were the same spies that he hoped to rid himself of.

"It's painful being away from your side." He declared. "Your father is being ludicrous."

Slowly Tal moved closer, as though he were trying to keep the conversation quiet. "Does he expect to kee-"

The Prince stopped suddenly, his voice dropping as he noticed a resonance within the air. Yellow eyes narrowed almost immediately, his gaze flickering to center of Calli directly. A small amused smile played over his lips.

"Keep us apart forever?" He finished. "You would think he would be eager to see us together."

He pressed, slowly sowing the rumor.

 

[Calliope]

Calliope set one foot behind her as Talmanes approached her, shame creeping up her neck. Knowing what they now both knew about her condition made her even more vulnerable, and until the blood witch found some way out of this for her, he would hold this over her.

Her slender brow arched when he interrupted himself. She did not enjoy the way he looked at her then, but she painted on a warm smile with a glance behind him to the number of people who'd been keeping an eye on him. "Go back to work, now." she dismissed them, quirking a brow at their hesitance. They dispersed, and her gaze returned to Tal as she gestured to her chambers with a clench of her jaw.

"You wish to speak with me, then do so."

 

[Tal]

For a moment Talmanes did not move, though his eye danced around the room as though he were searching for something. After a moment his gaze landed back on Calliope. "I thought it would be for the best if we had a conversation about our new..."

He mused over the word, slowly beginning to wander around the room until he found a large chair to perch himself upon.

Sitting himself there and looking her up and down before finally continuing.

"Circumstances." Tal smiled wide, slowly reaching into his inner coat pocket and retrieving a well rolled cigar. "I can honestly say I didn't see this coming."

He told her as he began to search through his pockets for some matches. "But it seems now there are a few things we need to address, no?"

Briefly he let his gaze flicker. "Not the least of which would be those dastardly enough to try and take you away from me."

The words sprang into the air, and Talmanes kept his face even. Letting the vagueness simply sit in the air. Allowing the questions and paranoia in Calliope's mind to fester.

 

[Calliope]

Calliope's scarlet eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly on him as he scanned her room, no doubt in search of her secrets, of which she had many. She waited impatiently for him to get to the point, and her jaw clenched as he grinned at her, like he had her life in his hands. It made her skin crawl and her blood boil beneath it.

She had been about to answer him, but her mouth closed abruptly at his comment.

He couldn't know..

She met his gaze directly, her eyes filled with a mix of determination and caution.. "I'm certain that news of our marriage has spread far and wide now, and more certain still that none would be foolish enough to think of such things." she growled quietly. Xander should have known better than to come looking for her, but guilt settled like a rock in her chest as she realised the danger she'd put him in by not slamming the door in his face. She hadn't expected anyone to want her now, not even him. Regardless, it had to end..

Anger sparked in her eyes and she folded her arms across her chest with a frown. "I'd appreciate if you didn't smoke that in here. It makes me sick." she frowned. "Now what exactly is there to discuss? Are you here to gloat, to remind me that I need you? I think a few drops of blood now and then is the least you could do given the part I've been forced to play here. You are a loving husband, after all, are you not?"

 

[Tal]

Talmanes frowned, but surprisingly did not light the cigar. Instead he simply stared at her, as if weighing the words that had slipped passed her lips. For a moment it would seem as though he would offer yet another confrontation, but instead he only shrugged.

"I don't want to be your enemy, Calli." All evidence to the contrary.

"I did what I had to do to get what I want." Slowly his fingers drew into his lap, slowly interlacing. As though he were trying his best not to be aggressive or harmful. "I won't deny I'm selfish. I won't deny I used you, and will continue to do so."

His gaze slowly trailed around the room for a moment, as if he were looking for something. "But, that doesn't mean you have to fight me."

Tal's thumbs flipped over one another.

"The gains I make can be as much yours as they are mine." He said, his eyes landing upon his wife once more. "I'm sure we can come to a reasonable arrangement."

 

[Calliope]

"I don't have to fight you?..." she asked with an incredulous laugh under her breath as she sat opposite him, her eyes bright with hatred. "We were never enemies until the day you took what you wanted." she growled at him. "You took my future from me. You stole my freedom, you degraded me and you used me to take a life that was not mine to take. That is more than selfish that is fucking heinous. I will never love you, I will never trust you, and I will never stop fighting you." she frowned at him.

"The reasonable arrangement is that you give me the blood I need because it's the very least you can fucking do, and otherwise you leave me and mine alone."

 

[Tal]

"Oh." Tal's voice sounded genuinely disappointed, as though he's actually been expecting Calliope to come around.

An utterly ridiculous projection, of course, given what he had done to her and what he was in many ways still doing. The cruelty in him seemed to have no bounds, and he clicked his tongue as he shook his head and chewed the end of his cigar. A long, deep breath flowed into his lungs and slowly he shook his head.

"That's a shame." He said, slowly standing. "But I suppose not unexpected."

Talmanes slowly pushed himself up and out of the chair. "Of course I'll give you my blood "

He said rather chirpily, apparently intending to make no arguments.

"Of course, I'll be leaving soon." Tal continued as he began to meander about, looking around the small sitting room with Interest. A painting on one of the walls seemed to catch his interest for a moment, as if he had spotted something. "So we'll need to account for that."

His gaze flickered over towards her.