Legend of Ransera

Below Kilvin's Forge
25th of Glade, Year 122 Steel

Torin knew where he was. It had seemed prudent given the trap Torin had walked into that they warn each other if they were going down into the hidden basement. It would be more hidden sooner or later, when he could partner with Torin to use his glamour trick to help make something to hide the entrance from view. He hoped the runesmith might partner with Finn to work on something to encourage the mind to avoid the entrance or looking down with any sort of magical sense. Torin had several friendships which might prove advantageous to Aurin.

For the time being, however, he was practicing his bequest from Talon Novalys, who was still missing. He wondered if he would feel it if the man-cum-demigod expired. He certainly felt more connected to his boys since inscribing his runes into their skin, but he might just have been imagining that. If he was honest with himself, he allowed that he wanted to feel more connected to his boys. When the time came, Timon might do well with both of his well-established tricks, though he wanted to ensure he knew how to do everything in his power to prevent another spiritual walkabout like Torin had undergone.

It wasn't exactly searing above ground, and it was always cool down here, but he had stripped his shirt off and was sweating from the effort. It would take more than one session to ward the entire basement, so he was focused on the wall that was nearest the street, spreading aether like jam over toast. The aetheric energy was similarly clumpy and sticky, difficult to work with. Like a bratty lover, it wasn't cooperating as much as he would like. It was a testament to his skill with his other tricks, though. He hadn't realized how deft he had become at using them given he had no proper schooling.

The Shinsei hadn't offered training, only initiation. He supposed that was a godly thing to do—the fucker.

Aurin's shoulders didn't hitch at the footsteps. Even if he hadn't had his trick, he would have known it was Aurin from the way he walked to the faint hint of his scent on the air. But there was also the trick. He was keeping a little bit of aether running through his Rune most of the time now in order to be on the same page as his boy. He was even starting to process some of his guilt when he saw how the gift of the Rune had helped Torin make sense of the world, feel more comfortable with his place in it. It had been worth the danger, then. It was also gratifying to see how many people showed up for Torin, that they recognized his worth, and that he had other people to depend on when needs arose that Aurin couldn't really help him with.

"I don't actually know," he said, chuckling at his own expense as he wiped perspiration from his brow with the back of his wrist. "Feels like I'm spreading wallpaper and just... willing it to stick to the wall. His Royal Divinityship didn't really leave instructions, though at least I got to see him work when he drew it on me. Who knew you could just draw Runes on people? Not me."

There was a faint bite to that. He knew Torin liked pain in some ways—needed it, even. But Arry was a more delicate flower, and Aurin didn't like the idea of hurting him, even for a purpose.

"Might nose around for a book about it or something," he continued. "I don't want to go to the Circle library... I believe it's open to the public with some... you know, documentation. In case you want to go to them. But I don't want them registering me on their rolls or anything."

He paused, stepped back, and observed his work. He could sense it through one trick, but he was also primed to sense it from the Rune that gave him access to it, which was a strange doubling. Of course, his glamouring trick worked like that as well, so he wasn't surprised.

"I think that's about all I can manage without some rest, though," he admitted. Torin was allowed to see him weakened, tired. "First I'll make it as impervious as possible, then worry about hiding it from anyone with the Semblance Rune. Going to have to layer things separately, though it seemed as though Talon could just weave multiple tasks into one. But, you know, magical family. Divine bloodline. All that."

Aurin certainly didn't have those.

Glancing sidelong at his boy, he took him by the back of the neck and pulled him in, tucking Torin's nose into the crease between his arm and his chest. Torin didn't mind him sweaty. In fact, he enjoyed it. So he was rewarded for descending with a whiff of his musk.

The fox didn't balk at Torin's ministrations, but rather seemed almost to preen under them. If Torin was in touch with his animal nature, Aurin responded properly. The things the smith needed weren't new to him now, and if he ever thought they were strange, they were long past that now. Eventually, he claimed that tongue with his mouth and pushed his lover against the wall with his weight holding him there. The wards almost sang at the contact, resonating through two of his runes—the one that sensed and the one that created.

He kissed him long and hard, and while there was a hunger to it, there wasn't the sudden foxfire that would push a casual conversation into sex.

Perhaps later.

Torin's face was pink from the abrasion of Aurin's kisses, the bristling of his short beard. Aurin held him firmly by the jaw, hazel eyes peering into blue, those pools of reactive lust.

"I'll ask Renalt about it the next time he's here," he said, his voice a husky whisper of hot air that caressed Torin's skin. "And you can bring me books." He nipped Torin's lower lip between his teeth, then sucked it between his lips. Then he trailed kisses along his jaw before whispering several terrible things he was going to do to him later. And then he eased back, stepped away, and found his shirt, pulling it on before he caught a chill.

Then he turned back to see how his boy was recovering from the sudden fire between them, and the absence as Aurin banked it for later. He smirked. While he had sussed Torin out as a submissive from the beginning, it still pleased him to overwhelm the young man with things, leaving him off balance, the better to have him fall into his arms for support. No, he amended, Torin wasn't submissive—he just needed to submit to Aurin.

Perhaps there were things that were meant to be.

"No, I think you have the right idea," he said, pleased that for all the effect he had on Torin, the man could find equilibrium again quickly. A man had to be ready for whatever life threw at him, and life rarely waited for one to be ready.

"We can be slow about carving this place out for ourselves." The were in many ways a we now, so whatever they built would be for them. "I'll be slowly adding to the warding, and we can clean the place up." He seemed conflicted, but he added, "Perhaps your patrons might work the earth into supports or... your friend's elementals. You said his earth demons were slowly remodeling his house? The fewer people that know about it the better, of course, but it could be a safehouse if the Zaichaeri invade. A place where we can do things we don't want other people to know about..."

There might have been a wicked, lascivious barb in that, but he would do things to Torin where they could be heard—he didn't care if Torin's people knew what they did together. He only cared that Torin not become a public target to any enemies Aurin might have.

"Might be some time before my wards can hide the cursed key, so I'll keep that on me for the time being." He might not be sure of the gift Talon had given him, but he was more certain of his ability to slip out of dangerous situations, all the more so now that he had those bracers from Torin. It occurred to him that he ought to do some training with them so the first time he fell from a height wasn't an untested feat. But he wondered whether he ought to do that where Torin could witness it, whether the man would have faith in his enchantments or if seeing Aurin fall would be too traumatic for him. Aurin trusted Torin and his enchantments, anyway, and that was something extraordinary. He didn't know if the younger man understood how rare trust was for his fox.

Lore: 8 each

Points: 10 each,
Torin may use for Semblance
Aurin may use for Semblance or Negation

Injuries/Ailments: None

Loot: None

Notes: