He’s at the end of his rope.
Drafty couldn’t think of any better way to phrase it as she watched Lex stalk toward a house across the street. She didn’t know why he’d targeted that particular building, but he made his way toward it with single-minded determination, black crystals sprouting around him as he approached it.
That the dark stalagmites were forming around him was just the latest in a series of bad signs. Drafty had known Lex long enough to recognize that they were expressions of rage, and even if she hadn’t known that, it wasn’t as though he was making any effort to hide his anger. Ever since earlier in the evening, when he’d ordered her and Solvei to stand watch while he gestured and chanted – she still wasn’t sure what he’d been doing – Lex had been in an extremely foul mood.
No, she corrected herself silently, wincing as she remembered how he’d screamed at her a few days prior when he’d thought she was taking their current situation too lightly. He was angry even before that. And it’s partially my fault…
The recognition brought a rush of guilt with it. She’d destroyed the contract she’d signed with Prevarius, consigning her soul to oblivion if she died, because she’d wanted Lex to know how much confidence she had that he’d find a way to fix things. But over the last few hours, she’d begun wondering if she’d only put more pressure on him instead. He was already dealing with how to get them home in the face of a relentlessly hostile world, all while having no idea what had happened to Sonata and Aria and everyone else; being responsible for the precarious state of her soul – something that wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t let Prevarius talk her into signing that contract – surely wasn’t helping.
“What’s he doing…?”
The comment came from the group of mares who’d rushed out to take on the yetis, now huddled a short distance away, looking like they weren’t sure what to do with themselves now that the fighting was over. Although they hadn’t been talking to her, Drafty found herself frowning anyway; they might not be bad ponies – they’d tried to apologize for what had happened back at the inn, not to mentioning helped out against those monsters – but she still couldn’t help but feel sore at them. Though I can understand why they’re confused now, she silently admitted. What exactly is Lex-
She got her answer as he reached the front of the house, turning to shadow without breaking his stride and passing right through the wall.
“…what just happened?” murmured the mare in the leaf-and-feather robe.
“I think that was like that flickering magic he was using before,” answered Mystaria. “Except that time he was completely incorporeal without changing back.”
“Forget what he did, there are people in there!” The voice of the shield-toting mare with the blue mane and tail – Valor, Drafty remembered – was thick with tension. “Is he going there to shake them down? Is that why he was defending this place?”
She didn’t wait for an answer, jogging toward the house Lex had vanished into. But she hadn’t gotten more than two steps before the door to the building swung open, a middle-aged earth stallion – it took Drafty a moment to identify him as the guy who’d been managing the inn they’d just vacated – came rushing out, slipping and falling as his hooves hit the snow. “NO! Get away!”
His terrified scream gave everyone pause, but the stallion didn’t wait for a reaction, frantically picking himself up and stumbling further away from the door.
Behind him, the mass of darkness with the glowing eyes that was Lex’s shadow-form emerged from the doorway. “You lured those creatures here!” he thundered, floating after the fleeing pony with menacing slowness. “The red light you set signaled them! That makes you an accomplice to their actions!”
“It’s not true!” wailed the stallion, clearly terrified. “I didn’t do anything! I didn’t-”
He couldn’t finish as, stumbling down the street, he came upon what was left of the yetis that Solvei had slaughtered. The sight stopped him dead in his tracks, staring at the massive patch of scattered body parts in a field of crimson snow. Although the storm was already covering the worst of the carnage with fresh flakes, the sight was still a grisly one, and the old stallion could only stare with wide eyes, his jaw working silently.
“Tell me what you know of those creatures!” roared Lex, continuing to advance on his quarry. “Tell me, or I swear I’ll put a curse on you that’s so horrible you’ll NEVER KNOW PEACE AGAIN!!!”
“STOP IT!”
Rushing forward, Valor put herself between the dark cloud that was Lex and the trembling stallion, who’d sunk to his knees, squeezing his eyes shut as he quivered in terror. “Are you crazy?! This old guy didn’t do anything! He’s just an innkeeper! Why would he want to call a bunch of monsters into his home?!”
“Maybe we should all calm down,” offered Mystaria, keeping her voice as soothing as possible as she walked forward, giving Lex a pleading look before giving Valor a pointed one. “I’m sure the last thing any of us want right now is to get into another pointless fight.”
“I’m a bit curious as to why you’re so sure this pony sold us out,” added Spinner, and although her words were directed at Lex, her eyes sent an inquisitive glance Drafty’s way.
But she didn’t have a chance to answer – not that she would have been able to anyway – as Lex spoke again. “None of you have the right to challenge my decisions!” he snarled, his eyes glowing brighter with fury. “This stallion’s guilt has already been established! The only question now is what punishment he deserves!”
That was enough to break what little remained of the innkeeper’s courage, snapping him out of his stupor as he turned to run again. But he’d barely moved when the purple aura of Lex’s telekinesis surrounded him, yanking his legs out from under him and dragging him closer to the bloody remains of the yetis. “Your confederates are all dead or in hiding,” he hissed, the black mass of his insubstantial form drawing closer to the whimpering stallion. “No one is coming to rescue you. Your only recourse is to confess to your crimes, and hope that my pity for you overcomes my disgust! NOW TELL ME WHAT I WANT TO KNOW!!!”
“He’s lost it!” growled Shadow Star. “Woodheart, hit him with-”
“I had to!” wailed the innkeeper suddenly, tears falling from his eyes as he dug his hooves into the ground, trying to stop Lex from dragging him further toward the pile of corpses. “I didn’t want to do it, but I had to! They made me! I swear!”
That was enough to make everyone else pause, exchanging uncertain looks as Lex released the stallion from his telekinetic grasp. “Continue,” he ordered, and the quiet menace in his voice was just as intimidating as when he’d been screaming.
“It…it happened a little while back, after the blizzard started,” blubbered the innkeeper. “They came in the middle of the night. We didn’t know what was happening at first. We’d just wake up and see homes that had been broken into, entire families gone. They got the Plowwrights, the Cartwheels, the Knittingfurs…” He started to shake harder than before, a sob escaping from his throat. “They got my nephew! He-, he was barely out of his teens! He’d offered to stay over at the Knittingfurs; he was sweet on their girl, and he was…he was just gone, and…”
He couldn’t continue, putting his face into his hooves and bawling. The sight was heartbreaking, or at least Drafty thought so. Apparently she wasn’t the only one, as Mystaria and Woodheart started to step toward the distraught pony.
But Lex heard their hoofprints, his glowing eyes turning to face them. “Stay back!” he ordered.
The command made both mares wince, with Mystaria looking particularly conflicted. “But-”
“DO AS I TELL YOU!” bellowed Lex, making both mares jump before he turned back toward the innkeeper. “How did you come to reach an accord with those creatures?”
Hiccupping, the stallion lifted his head, his expression miserable. “We…we drew lots,” he sobbed. “Loser had to stay out, try to bargain for our lives. We’d figured whatever was doing this had to be intelligent, since they didn’t seem to tear through stuff like an animal would’ve. I drew the short straw.”
“Why didn’t you send for help?” blurted Shadow Star. “You could have sent a messenger to Bright Night, or to Viljatown, or someone!”
“We tried,” moaned the stallion. “We asked Bright Night for help, but they said they were a school, not an adventurer’s guild, and told us to seek help elsewhere.”
For some reason, Mystaria winced at that. “Of course they did,” she muttered, her voice uncharacteristically dark.
“After that, we sent word to Viljatown, but we never heard back,” continued the innkeeper. “That’s when we decided our only chance was to beg whatever was attacking us for our lives!”
“And in exchange for them, you offered to sacrifice those of other ponies who stayed at your inn.” The rage was still present in Lex’s voice, but this time it was mixed with a thick layer of disgust.
The weeping stallion cringed at the tone, but when he spoke next his voice was defeated. “I didn’t know what else to do. When they came back, there was a couple of ponies staying at the inn. No one we knew, just some prospectors from outta town, saying they wanted to poke around in the mountains for ore. Someone was going to be taken, why should it have been my friends and neighbors?” He gave Valor and the others a pleading look. “What would you have done, if you had to choose between some strangers and the people you care about?”
None of them had an answer for that, and when they couldn’t meet his gaze, the innkeeper turned back toward Lex, shaking again as he looked into those glowing green eyes. “That’s all I know, I swear! I swear to all the gods!”
Drafty held her breath as she waited for Lex’s reaction. But she was the only one who stood still; out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Mystaria was gripping her holy symbol again, while Woodheart pushed the hem of her robe up. The others were similarly readying themselves, and Drafty bit her lip, getting ready for another fight when Lex cursed the old stallion for what he’d done.
But that wasn’t what happened.
Instead, Lex turned away from the quivering pony without another word.
“L-Lex?” called Drafty, confused. But he didn’t answer her, instead moving back toward the inn where they’d been staying. Even more confusingly, he turned back into a pony halfway through, his steps slower now, lacking the furious focus that he’d had when’d gone to fetch the innkeeper.
Sharing a baffled look with the others as it became clear that the unicorn wasn’t coming back, Thermal Draft flapped her wings, moving to follow him. By the time she reached the inn, he’d already made it inside, and she pushed the door closed behind her just in time to see him make his way up the stairs to the second floor. “Lex? Are you alr-”
The sound of a door slamming shut was her answer.
Sighing, Drafty couldn’t keep her wings from drooping as she dragged herself over to a table that was still upright, most of the rest of the common room still a mess after the fight that had happened there only a few minutes ago. Picking up a fallen chair, she plunked herself onto it, putting her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her hooves. I wish Cloudy was here.
It was a thought she’d been having more and more often over the last few days, ever since they’d left the den that was the home of Solvei’s family. As much as Drafty wanted to focus on the good parts of what was happening – getting to go on an adventure with Lex, earning magic and beauty and a lovely singing voice, becoming friends with Solvei – it was getting harder and harder to ignore the drawbacks of everything that had happened. The constant danger. Becoming nothing if she died. Not knowing what was going on back home. And now the fact that Lex was quite clearly hurting, and she didn’t know how to help him.
Cloudy would know what to do. Of that, Drafty felt certain. Her girlfriend had managed to stay focused even while Vanhoover had been falling down around them, keeping them alive and even relatively safe even after the city had become a deathtrap. It was no coincidence that – although they’d gotten off to a rocky start – Lex had chosen Cloudbank to wield Severance when they’d fought against the sea monsters, and then to subsequently lead the trip into the bank. Cloudbank was a skilled flier, an accomplished cloud-architect, and now a disciple of the same goddess that Lex followed, the Night Mare.
And I can’t even get in touch with Kara anymore, groaned Drafty inwardly, before half-heartedly gathering some magic, trying once again to break the spell that Prevarius had used to keep her from being able to hear the love goddess’s voice. She had no idea if what she was trying would even work, particularly since it had already failed quite a few times now, but she didn’t know what else to do. “C’mon Kara,” she huffed as she discharged the spell. “Tell me I’m getting through.”
You were always getting through, sweetheart. It was just that you couldn’t hear my replies.
The voice made Drafty sit up so fast that she fell over, landing in a heap before leaping to her hooves. “Kara!”
Shh, not so loud. Lex isn’t that far away, and I doubt the walls in this rickety old inn are very thick, answered the goddess.
“K-Kara, can you help us?” The question spilled from Drafty’s lips immediately, hope rushing through her. “I mean, I know you said before you couldn’t, but a lot of stuff’s happened-”
I know, sweetheart, replied Kara evenly. I’ve still been able to observe you, and I know everything that’s happened. But things haven’t changed on my end. You’re not one of my worshipers, which means that I can’t fix what you’ve done to your soul.
Drafty slumped in place, her hopes dashed. “So there’s nothing you can do?”
I said that my situation hasn’t changed, answered the goddess, a teasing tone entering her voice. But that doesn’t mean I can’t offer you some advice. With Lex, for instance.
That was enough to make Drafty bite her lip. “I don’t know…I mean, I helped out a little during that last fight, but I mostly just seem to make things worse. I got kidnapped, signed that contract like an idiot, and put the burden of breaking it all on him.”
Then help relieve that burden, purred Kara. Or at least, make it easier for him to bear.
“How?”
I’m glad you asked…
Drafty knocked softly on the door, and when no reply came, let herself in.
It was the fourth room she’d tried, and this time she found who she was looking for, with Lex sitting across from the door. He barely glanced at her as she closed the door behind her, looking at her only in passing before returning his gaze to the opposite wall, staring at it as if trying to bore a hole through it with his glare.
Despite the fact that his eyes weren’t glowing, it was immediately obvious to Drafty that he hadn’t calmed down much, if at all. His body was stiff with tension, from his clenched jaw to his rigid posture to the harsh way he was breathing. It was enough to make her hesitate, sensing that he would go off if provoked.
Of course, that was her intention.
Following Kara’s advice, Drafty didn’t say a word as she put down the lit candle she’d been carrying, placing the brass holder on a small table near the door. She’d scrounged both from the back of the inn, and the candle itself had marks on the side of it, indicating how much time had passed by how far down the flame had burned, with the very bottom of it indicating an hour’s passage.
But that was a while away, since she’d only lit it a few minutes ago, and in the small confines of the room the tiny flame seemed to burn brightly, casting plenty of light over two chairs, a simple dresser, and a single bed. On the other side of the room, near Lex, the curtains had been drawn over the single window. Nor was there a closet or any other exit to be found.
Quietly locking the door behind her, Drafty put the key next to the candle, stepping toward the middle of the room so that she wouldn’t knock it over when she moved.
Then she began taking her clothes off.
Although she’d used magic to prevent the cold from reaching her, that didn’t change the fact that her outfit was soaked due to being out in the snow. As such, taking it off now brought a low groan of relief from her, shuddering in the soft light as she slowly disrobed.
Each motion was languid, not trying to call attention to herself, but making no effort to be discreet either. First her cloak came off, and she flared her wings for a long moment once they were free of it, the silence making the catch of her breath seem loud. Her shirt was next, causing her to stretch her back, a quiet grunt escaping her lips as she slid the protective amulet Lex had given her over her head, laying it next to the key and candle.
Her pants were last, and she wriggled as she worked the them over her hips, the material having become clinging in its dampness. Giving her tail a wriggle, she deposited them on the floor in the corner of the room.
Then she turned to Lex.
He hadn’t moved, or even given any indication that he was aware of her presence, still staring at the far wall in stern silence. But neither did he react when Drafty stepped closer to him, her movements slow and without hesitation, her breathing steady as she gently reached up and removed his mask.
With almost reverential slowness, she gently laid it on the dresser, then moved behind him to undo his cloak, wings reaching around to undo the clasp, her lips brushing the side of his neck as she took the hem of it in her teeth and put it aside. Then her foreleg came around to relieve him of his own amulet, her hoof brushing over his chest before she lifted the talisman up and over his head. Then she circled back around to his front, kneeling in front of him as she took off his robe…
She continued until he was as devoid of clothing as she was, and while his eyes remained fixed on the wall, Drafty didn’t miss how his breathing had changed, becoming slower and deeper than when she’d walked in. As had her own.
He was still tense, though. Drafty felt it as she moved to sit alongside him, letting her hip lightly press against his own. She felt it again when she leaned her head over and nuzzled him. And when she planted a kiss against the underside of his jaw, she felt a shudder pass through him. It was followed by another when she kissed his neck, and yet another when she moved to press her lips to his shoulder.
His tension was still there, but as she moved further down his body, she knew that it wasn’t from anger anymore.
She was on her knees again when Lex finally snapped.
He gave Drafty no warning as he suddenly grabbed her, not bothering to use his horn as he lifted her up and threw her onto the bed. Nor was there any tenderness in how he handled her next, roughly pinning her in place once he’d turned her onto her front, yanking her tail upward even as he pushed her head down. The harsh treatment drew gasps from her, but she didn’t fight him, instead spreading her hind legs to brace herself, arching her back in a silent show of willful submission.
She heard a murmur from him then, recognizing his spell to make sure there’d be no consequences from what was about to happen. Then she felt his hooves slip down to her waist, gripping her hips as he held her steady. And then it was her voice that rang out, no longer able to remain silent as Lex began taking what he wanted from her.
The candle on the nearby table burned out long before he was finally satisfied.