Three days passed before Nefertem came down from his rooms to seek out Seth, still bruised and aching but feeling alive again, his skin no longer burning, cooling to it’s usual low temperature. He went first to Seth’s rooms, but upon finding them empty, made his way downstairs into the pit. His seal was there, in the locked casket beside Seth’s, locked and sealed away where he couldn’t steal it back, but Seth himself was nowhere to be found. Growing curious, Nefertem searched the house, to no avail, then threw his senses out in an ever-increasing arc, expecting to find him at some party, in some noble’s ear, as always.

(more…)

Weeks passed. The town was slowly repaired, travellers started coming through again, rumours started running the rounds as they always had, people were smiling, roofs over their heads again and apparently a new Lord was being sent to oversee the area. Sahriel didn’t care, he was too absorbed in his own small world, of serving in the inn at night and creeping off to see Connor in the early hours of the morning before he rose for work. Of dinners in Miriam’s cute little cottage, and Akhenti’s occasional visits. Of sex and kisses unlike any he’d had before, that sank into his soul and melded it into something a little human, saturating him until he almost forgot what he was. He was happy, for the first time in his long existence. Truly, impossibly happy.

(more…)