Chapter 352: Consequences.

Chapter 352: Chapter 352: Consequences.

It takes all night, but eventually the storm finally wears itself out, and the winter morning that follows dawns clear, and fresh and cloudless.

For how violently it raged, but for the rain water dripping from the eaves and the puddles pooling in the streets, there’s no sign now that it had ever passed this way at all.

​Inside Khobi’s bedroom it’s a different story.

Here, the tempest is evident in all things; in the clothes strewn across the floor and the blankets and furniture all spun wildly out of place.

Here, the storm raged longest and loudest and most violent of all; consuming all in its path, everything it touched.

Turning the world upside down.

​But it’s quiet now. Oddly peaceful, disturbed only by the slivers of dawn that trickle in through the cracks of the shutters.

​Amidst the wreckage lies a single figure; completely motionless, and completely, utterly spent.

​It’s Khobi’s stomach that wakes him. If it hadn’t, who knows just how long or how deeply he would’ve slept.

The bed is warm, and his mind is pleasantly fogged, and all the tension that’s been plaguing his body –winding him tight and taut has just, in the span of a single night... evaporated .

​In short, he feels good .

​Hungry – starving , even –but really fucking good.

​Until he tries to move, that is. That’s when the aches set in, and they set in everywhere ; in his arms and his legs and his hips and his back, and when he tries to stretch out amid the chaotic tangles of his bedsheets, even the slightest shift sparks twinges of discomfort.

​It’s...oddly satisfying.

​A low groan escapes him, and he buries his face in his pillow to muffle the sound.

​Fighting then fucking probably wasn’t the best idea. Then again, he hadn’t really been thinking, had he? How could he, with Loac looking at him like that? Kissing him like that? It’s hard enough to resist the hypnotic sway he has over him at the best of times, and last night Khobi hadn’t just been caught up; he’d been swept out to sea and had let the tide take him wherever and however it would.

​And gods , if it hadn’t been everything he’d been craving, and more. The aching thighs and burning hips are a small price to pay. It had been a long time –years, even; maybe even never –since he’d let loose like that.

And it had felt good . Really fucking good, if he’s being honest.

​(Still does. He’s feeling a little loose, but the aches make him feel like he’s still full. Like somehow Loac’s still there, pressed up inside him.)

​But he’s not, and when Khobi cracks an eye to glance across the bed, he finds it already empty.

​Huh , he thinks dimly, grazing the space where Loac usually sleeps and finding it cold, Guess he’s already up .

​Weirder things have happened, he supposes.

​(The entirety of yesterday, for one.)

​Yawning, he slowly levers himself upright, ignoring the feeble protests of his body to stop as he takes stock of the damages.

And they are...considerable. The room for one, is an absolute shambles ; pillows scattered to the winds and clothes strewn haphazardly where they fell, and given how wrecked he feels , he probably looks no better.

A quick glance down at his naked body has him grimacing –Loac had helped him clean up some in the moments before they finally passed out but he’s still a sticky mess.

And starving or not, there’s absolutely no way he’s going to breakfast like this.

Stomach whining, desperate to be the centre of attention, Khobi gingerly drags himself to the edge of the bed and has to swallow a hiss as a low jolt of pain shoots up his spine.

​"Yeah, sounds like he’s finally up."

​"Montrel?" Khobi growls, knocking on the wood. It doesn’t budge. "...What’re you doin’ out there? There’s something wrong with the door."

​"...There’s nothing wrong with the door," Montrel’s voice drawls back, slightly muffled. "It’s just locked."

​"Well yeah , I can see that," Khobi huffs, rolling his eyes, " Why ?"

​"Because you and Loac snuck out of the castle is why," Gandy’s voice chimes, "And this --" he punctuates his point by rattling the door from the other side" --Is what happens when you break the rules."

​"... Ah ," Khobi mutters after a moment. He doesn’t bother denying it; doesn’t really see the point. "...So he found out about that."

​" Yeah ," Gandy huffs, "He did . You two got spotted sneaking back in last night.

Seriously , what were you thinking?"

​That’s the thing. He wasn’t.

When Loac had asked, he hadn’t been thinking of what might happen should they get caught; should the king find out that he’d willfully done one of the things he, as a prisoner was expressly forbidden to do, and left the walls. He’d just been thinking of the wind in his hair and a taste of freedom.

​He doesn’t say that, but Gandy and Montrel probably hear it anyways.

​And now he’s back to being locked up all over again.

Which means no training. No kitchens. No open air and open sky. No sparring.

​That last one hurts the most.

​"...So how long am I gonna be stuck in here for this time?" Khobi grumbles, giving the door a loose kick with his foot. He’s pretty sure it doesn’t give an inch.

​"Not long," Gandy assures him, although it quickly becomes apparent that that’s not meant to be a good thing, "I’m sure Gurdet’s gonna find you a nice, dark, uncomfy cell to lock you up in instead. Real damp-like.

Probably with rats."

​"Hey, Gandy –"

​"What, I’m just bein’ honest," Gandy cuts in.

​Dammit, Khobi thinks, suddenly furious with himself for not having thought it through; for having been so easily caught up in Loac’s easy offer.

He’s really grown complacent, hasn’t he? In Briyagi he had always known not to take things for granted; that those same things could be so easily taken away.

​Here, it’s so easy to forget that, because all those little things have started to feel like they’re really his .

​"...This fucking sucks ," he curses, slumping back against the door to lessen some of the strain on his legs.

He didn’t think it was possible but he’s suddenly even more exhausted than when he woke up.

​"Hey, we don’t like it either," Montrel grumbles, and it sounds a little like he kicks it from his side, too. "...Wherever you guys went I hope it was worth it."

​Dimly, Khobi raises a hand to trace one of the marks just above his collarbone, and he instinctively drifts back to the quiet of that place, with the wind on his skin, and snow in his hair, and of mountain air upon a sea of white that somehow smelled of green but was filled with endless, glistening blue.

The curl of his scowl starts to soften.

​Hoofbeats, racing thunder.

​Two white birds. Two swords. Two voices.

​Perfection .

​As far as last tastes of freedom go, he could have done worse.

​( If only it had been summer .)

​"...So what are you guys doing out there?" he eventually sighs, when it becomes clear that he’s not leaving, and neither are they.

​"We’re here to make sure you don’t y’know, try to leave ," Montrel informs him dryly, and then chuckles, "...Just like old times, eh?" Despite himself. Khobi chuckles along with him. It feels like it’s been forever since then.

"Just...if you’re gonna break out again, can you leave my face alone?"

​"No promises," Khobi snorts, and grins to himself a little as Gandy makes a jab that another broken nose would probably be an improvement.

It’s hard to tell from this side of the door, but he thinks Montrel punches him.

​Just like old times, eh? Some things never change.

​"Dammit, and I was hungry, too," he complains aloud as his stomach makes its thoughts on the situation known; loud enough that they probably hear it through the door.

Since there’s no helping it, and he’s apparently stuck here for now with no breakfast and no training to go to, he pushes off the wall and turns to address the sorry state of the room.

The relief his aching body felt at learning it would not be subjected to Drogger’s cruel and unusual breed of punishment today, quickly starts to wither.

​"Oh for fuck’s sake Khobi," Gandy cackles, like he can’t believe how high lunch is on his list of priorities right now, "You’re always hungry."