Chapter Text
« Father, stop this ! He's gonna die ! »
Seleg didn't shown an ounce of interest in her daugter's plea.
« Please, Father. Please ! »
« Silence Liriel. »
The young woman send the tall blond man a hateful look, not that it had any use, then moved swiftly to spare the last lashe on the man's back. It struck her face and neck, and the strong guard who was using the whip stopped and apologise to not have seen her coming in the way.
« It's okay Fenier. Liriel has chosen to. Ignore her. »
« Master ? »
« You heard me, ignore her. If my daughter is stupid enough to stay in your way, she'll learn the price of her idiocy. »
« Get away Li. » croaked the prisonner, and Liriel was surprised Oreg could still speak with how raw his throat sounded.
« No. »
Reluctantly, the guard lifted his whip, and she braced herself for the blow. The shock and the pain on her chest nearly made her fell on her knees, but she stood straight to protect her friend, despite the tears on her face. She understood better why the prisonners were always turning their back to the whip. To see the lashe coming was nearly as painful. She fell with the third, but rose even without her breath back. Her hand grazed the torn tunic of her friend behind her, and she watched the next one coming. Then, her sight become troubled for a minute, and she was transported in the caves under the castle. Even from there, she heard the screams of her friend.
« Oreg, stupborn beast, why did you do that ! »
The cave wasn't one she was familliar with, and it was closed on each sides, merely lightened by a fluoroche. The only passage had to be above, because she was unable to see any limit there. She wouldn't be able to get out without Oreg's help.
At least, it wasn't bare. Liriel wondered if it was the mage's room, because it scented like him, and she knew no-one else who would feel comfortable enough to sleep in the cave, or even would be able to found the room. She used the running water on the opposite side of the carved in the stone bed to clean herself.
The three lashes hurted, but only the one on her face had bleed. She wasn't vain, and hoped she would keep a scar, to remind daily her father of his acts. Not that she expected a lot of remorses from the man who had used her gift to emprison a dragon under the dungeon.
It felt like an eternity before the screams above stopped and the foetal form of Oreg appeared on the bed, bleeding and nearly unconscious. She ran to him, carefull to not touch him.
« Silly boy. »
« Li... »
« Hush. You don't need to speak. And don't send me back. Let me take care of you for once. »
He sighed, not in shape to say anything, and she tore another bit of her dress to wet and clean his wounds. He hissed in pain, but she had nothing to help him with that.
« You don't... »
This time, she took the risk to press her fingers to his lips, feeling the cracks brought by the pain.
« I need to do it Oreg. You should have let me take the blows for you. »
She felt the pain it took him to push her hand away, and let him.
« Only the Hurogmeistre can kill me, Li. You have not such luck, and Seleg would still have me beaten. There are clean sheets in the chest. »
It had taken painfully long for the man to be able to say this, being cut by several gasps, and she knelt by the chest, retrieving a sheet and a bowl she filled at the source.
« That is not luck to suffer like you have today. You know I'll die a thousand time for you. Drink. »
He obeyed, leaning heavily on her as he tried to sit.
« I'll have to peel your tunic off and clean the wounds. »
« Do it. »
He did what he could to help her, but she had to do most of the work and helped him to lie on his stomach. And she felt slightly dizzy because his back was worse than she had thought. But she began to sing, a healing song, despite having sworn to never use again the gift that give her voice the power of calling in Hurog's magic.
« Li, don't... »
She ignored the mage, and hoped he wouldn't send her away with his magic like he had done it earlier, and grazed his back with her hand, directing the flux of magic on the bloody mess. She saw the flesh knit itself together as the man sometimes whimpered from the pain. The healing was doing in minutes what should have taken days, but she ignored how to make it painless.
She stopped her threnody when most of the wounds were healed, her own energy fleeing her. Oreg was either sleeping or passed out, the healing taking a worse tool on him. She looked at his delicates features, and caressed his cheek.
« I'll free you my friend. When I'll be the Hurogmeistre, I'll end your servitude. »
After whispering her promise, Liriel settled to sleep in the man's arms. It was the only place she felt safe, and she couldn't remember a night she hadn't slept with him at her side. Not since she had been three year old, dragged out of her bed by an ennemy of her father, tortured and only alive because the mage had rescued her. Since, she had only been able to sleep when he was there, and the dragon had liked to spoil the little girl who always seemed to see him.
And she felt that he too liked the moment where he sat on her bed and told her stories about the past time and the dragons. About flying through the sky, and diving into water. She was the only one here to listen to him, and as she was getting older, there was only the sanctity of her room that allowed their friendship, because she was too old to speak to invisible people.
So Oreg always slept in her bed, even now she was nearing her seventeenth birthday. And as innocently as he did when she was three. She loved him, but she was realistic. He probably only saw her like a child, having seen her from birth. In add, Oreg was Hurog's slave, bound to the castle, bound to the Hurogmeistre. And he wasn't real for most people.
Even the man who had wipped him earlier had no idea who he was beating. With her intervention, he was probably thinking Oreg was her lover, and would know he was a wizard after her disappearance, but he would forget. And she couldn't marry a man who wouldn't age, nor gave her a child to inherit the domain after her. Her duty toward Hurog said otherwise, and she was dreading the day Seleg would find a man good enough to marry her.
At least, Oreg had promised her a husband could only be Hurogmeistre in name, but that it would be to her the land would answer, and the ring go after her father's death. The despised silver band was the reason her friend was trapped here, but it would give her the power to break the spell. She longed for the day the dragon would be able to fly again.
Still cracked lips pressed against her forehead, in the gentle and chaste kiss to reassure a child there was no monsters around Oreg always used and she fell asleep.