Page 116 of The Sundered Realms

She also wasn’t going to miss a chance to get her hands all over him, and if he was going to spend his turn keeping it professional, that was his loss.

“You don’t believe me,” Vhannor noted. “About serving Serenthuar.”

Is that why he thought she was coiled now? Well, maybe it was part of it.

“I’d like to believe that,” Liris said. “It seems too convenient. I did always wonder about the people putting on a show for me that day, though.”

He stayed quiet, listening but not pushing, while his hands continued working her muscles.

Liris slowly let go.

“Maybe they really were proud of their work and of Serenthuar. But maybe, like me, they’d learned to say the right thing because they knew it could be worse, so I could never ask.”

Vhannor’s hands made their way up to her neck, and as her muscles turned liquid under his ministrations, heat built inside her further down.

Liris swallowed, holding the thread of her point. “I’d have loved to learn more first-hand, and to go out more. But knowing that every interaction would probably be feigned, and that my selfish request would force more work on them, force them to have to perform for me the way I performed for the elders—I couldn’t do it.”

Vhannor rested his chin on her head and offered, “I can relate to the isolation, in a way. I’ve never formed real connections easily—the power of my position prevents casualness.”

His thumbs worked lower, and lower, and Liris warmed with every touch.

“I’ve chosen to throw my inherited power toward making Special Operations more sustainable, but that doesn’t make it easier for anyone to talk to me like... a person, rather than a figure. It’s not at all the same, of course—I had responsibilities, but I had choice, and you didn’t—“

As much as she was enjoying this, Liris wasn’t willing to let him go further down this path, turning in his arms to interrupt him with a wry look. “Even I don’t feel the need to compete at who has had the harder life.”

Vhannor let out a breath and said dryly, “And I don’t think either of us needs to compete at who is more driven to make the most of what they’ve been given.”

Hmph.

Liris settled back in his arms, softer now.

And although she hadn’t gotten to work on him yet, the palpable feeling of her relaxation had made his arms around her softer, too.

Somehow he could make even huddling in the cold rain into a warm place she wanted to stay.

“I don’t want to lose that, either,” Liris said, “so perhaps we can rely on each other to point out when the other needs to take a nap.”

Vhannor’s breath hitched for a moment before he said, “Yes.”

Then he handed Liris a water bottle.

Once she’d finished snickering and drinking, she said, “I guess my point is, I would love to be able to someday take for granted the feeling of not being trapped, of not feeling like the doors could shut on me at any moment. I don’t want to always be so afraid of being trapped I trap myself in that cycle.”

“How did you break out of it today?” Vhannor asked. He was touching her again, but more lazily, not so much exploring as just wanting to touch her. Liris decided she was fine with that course, at least for now, and relaxed into him. “You went from a deep certainty that your only option was sacrifice to throwing the idea of sacrifice in your enemies’ faces... abruptly.”

“I’ve worked too hard to throw my life away because it’s become inconvenient to someone else,” Liris said. “What a waste. I refuse with everything that I am. Jadrhun’s not hunting me anymore. I’m hunting him.”

His hands stilled. “Liris.”

“I’m only sort of kidding,” she said. “I’m changing the pattern. It’s not just that I’m the only one who can stop him. It’s that I can stop him.”

“Framing matters,” Vhannor murmured, gathering her close again. “And you know it’s true because Jadrhun believes it.”

“Right. It makes me wonder if it really is just knowledge of Thyrasel, now that we figured out the geographical connection. I’ve been wracking my brain, trying to think of what else I might have said that’s made him so convinced I’m a threat worth neutralizing. I can’t think of anything specific in Thyrasel itself, beyond its inherent complexity for facilitating spell power.”

“But you knew that even before you knew more than basics about spellcraft, didn’t you?” Vhannor asked. “Perhaps that was enough.”

Liris shifted so she could look up at him. “How do you mean?”

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