Darkthorn’s Blog

Elves were scattered in and around the bathing pools, lounging in the patches of sun that peeped in through the thick branches of the trees. Blackmain skirted his way carefully around the slippery rocks, trying to avoid stepping on any out-flung limbs. Elves, so messy he thought quietly, under tight shield. It was never predictable what some would take offence to, even if it wasn’t If he remembered correctly, Ishton would be right at the top, in the hottest possible pool. Blackmain didn’t feel quite up to boiling himself, but lying on the cool stone next to the steaming bath would be lovely. Moreover, if that involved a massage, well, he wouldn’t object.

As predicted, Ishton was relaxing in the hottest pool, alone except for a couple of other Adepts. Blackmain wondered if Ishton’s main reason for choosing that particular heat had anything to do with the flocks of elves that seemed to want to surround him if he chose anywhere else. From the look on his face, he was deep in discussion with the other elves. Blackmain didn’t want to interfere, so he sat on the edge and gingerly trailed his toes into the water, enjoying the quiet. One of the advantages of mind speech was no voices to break the silence of the woods, only the sounds of the birds and the animals.

Blackmain was suddenly reminded of the little lizard that had given him away to Cimon when he was rescuing Julia. He regretted letting the man go now, it would have been far better to destroy him early. With the other Queen on the throne instead, and Julia with a male heir to the throne it would have been relatively simple to knock the Queen off and allow Julia to be acting regent. On second thoughts, Julia might not be content to just let her son to take the throne, she might want to have proper power for a time, to set things right. It wouldn’t be a bad thing, especially if she was Kolark’s daughter. Nevertheless, as the elves said, everything happened for a reason. Things would work out in the end, because it had been foretold that there would be an upheaval. One could never expect things to happen on their own though, some pushing forwards never caused any harm.

Ishton looked up at Blackmain, hopped out of the glorified bathtub and gestured with his hands. He was stark naked, his rippling muscles stretching out beneath his tanned skin as he stretched. Blackmain removed his own clothes, and laid them in Ishton’s lap, then put his own head down. The elves sent a shiver of laughter around, human’s modesty always amused them. Blackmain didn’t flinch, he wasn’t ruining his own values for them, it was more comfortable and less distracting this way anyway.

Massage came easily to Ishton, he gently tousled Blackmain’s hair and settled into an almost-rhythm. His fingers took away the ache in Blackmain’s head as time wore on and night settled in. The lack of lights lulled Blackmain back to sleep and his pleasant dreams returned, much to the further amusement of the elves. Ishton continued to massage his head and neck, gradually turning the entire situation into a performance.

When Blackmain woke a couple of hours later, it was to the sighs of disappointment from the other elves. He sat up quickly, glaring at Ishton, who only smiled and laughed with the rest of them.

~ Sorry old friend, they wanted something to amuse them. ~

~ You could have found something else. Other than me. ~

~ Why? When I know you will forgive me. ~

Blackmain growled inaudibly, Ishton was right as always. The massage had loosened all his limbs and he was feeling more relaxed than he had been in quite a while. Moving seemed like a bad option, lying here where he didn’t have to worry about anything else was so peaceful He should have known that it wouldn’t last however, as the silence was broken by the running of feet and a general mind-surge.

~ A meeting is called. All are expected to attend. ~

The message was filled with underlying images of what would be done to those who didn’t go to it. Blackmain wondered if that included him too. Most of those inventive tortures would have him dead in half the time it took the elves to set up the equipment.