"I'm going to assume the maiming was unintended, right?" he looked to Nik as he spoke, before turning back to glaring at Seren. "And if this is about revenge on Nik," he was speaking to Seren, "Then why not kill me instead of capturing me, and why bother with the camp??"
Nik nodded. "It was."
"Ah, but it isn't just revenge." Seren replied, studying them. "You see…I have a far better plan. Of course, telling it to you would take too long." he stood up, and poured himself a cup of tea. "I would offer tea to you two, but I would have to untie you to serve it, and then you would kill me."
Eclipse frowned, glaring at him. He didn't say anything more, his eyes instead studying the other intently. He knew there had to be a second motive in play, but what?
Seren saw Eclipse's glare, and smirked. "Don't worry, most of it involves your soulmate, not you." He chuckled quietly, taking a sip of his tea. He looked at Nik. "Have you ever considered how good a weapon you are?"
Nik blinked, but didn't otherwise move or respond.
Eclipse tensed at the mention of Soulmates. Only their parents had known about that, so how did Seren know? What made him really mad though, was the thought of Nik being used like that, and what would happen if they figured out that he was a wolf shifter. Would they try to use him too?
"How did you know we're soulmates?" Nik finally asked, slowly.
"I have spies everywhere." Seren replied, waving a hand. "It doesn't matter how, just that I do. I also know you both will cooperate with me, unless you want the other to pay for it." he smirked, and it looked grotesque on his scarred, mutilated face.
Eclipse growled softly at that, disliking this guy more and more by the second. He stayed silent only by force of will, knowing that if he said something, it would be insulting. And that could cost Nik, and the other was already in too much pain for his comfort.
Seren smiled. "That's more like it." he said, watching them. "Now then. I'm sure you're curious about why you're here, yes? Well." he paused for a long moment. "You both are now the sole heirs to your respective thrones. With both kings out of the way, the only people standing in the way of myself and my group are…you two."
Nik flinched slightly. He had known his father was dead, but…part of him had hoped that maybe…that maybe King Crowe had managed to escape. "You loved him." he finally said, slowly. "My father. You loved him. How could you?"
Eclipse shook his head, "You might have a problem on my end.." he said with a sigh, not bothering to elaborate on the fact that because of his father's unpopularity, it was very likely that by the time he got back to take over as the heir, someone else may have already taken control, and he'd be out of a title.
Seren grinned wolfishly. "Wrong." he told Eclipse. He sneered at Nik. "Loved him? I suppose I did. Just as I thought he cared for me. But then I found out the secret he'd been hiding about his son. You should have been killed at birth like the rest, Nikolas. And since someone decided not to…look what's happened. Your mother, dead. Your father, dead. Whose fault?"
Nik started to shake a little bit, leaning against Eclipse and closing his eyes. "No, that's…that's not my fault." he protested weakly.
Eclipse kept his features stiff, stifling a low growl of protectiveness. He knew he should be helping and comforting Nik, but right now he couldn't risk showing Seren any weakness. Well at least he doesn't know the Nightfang's secret… he thought, thinking of how many of his family were wolf shifters, and how it'd been that way for generations…
"Yes, I loved him. I shared his bed and his heart for a few years. But then you attacked me, and he decided that hiding the truth was better than keeping me and everyone else safe." Seren shook his head. "That's your fault too." he sneered slightly at the two. "So now I'm going to tear his kingdom apart, and we're going to build a new one on its ashes. Where creatures like you are where they belong. Caged."
Nik flinched, shaking.
Eclipse couldn't help letting out another low growl at him, pained that the other was hurting and there wasn't much he could do about it. "Nik is not a monster. None of us are." he said flatly, not even thinking about the implications of what he said as he tugged on the ropes that bound him, wanting nothing more than to shift and tear this guy apart.
Seren raised his eyebrows. "Us? Are you saying you're like him, prince of Tesh?" he asked, turning his attention to Eclipse. "And how much do you really know about your Nik?" he smirked slightly. "Are you aware that he attacked, tore apart, and ate half of his mother before they managed to stop him? Are you aware that in Kevra, children with curses like his are supposed to be killed at birth before they can do harm? Do you know how many have died because his father couldn't follow his own law?"
Nik was shaking harder, his eyes shut tight.
Eclipse didn't respond to the question towards his own secret, but he also didn't respond to the description of how his soulmate's mother died. "I don't care what he's done. I don't care why he did it. I don't care how. I don't care what he is. I will be there for him, and I couldn't care less that he and his country are the ones responsible for my father's neglect of his own kingdom." he said flatly. "And seriously? You have no idea how funny that last one is for me." Especially since we have a similar law, and my father and I, are in direct violation of it.
Seren shook his head. "You don't understand." he said. "Ah well. You will eventually." he stood up, and cracked his knuckles. "Now. You two tried to escape, and you need to learn that there are consequences for disobedience." he called out, and a few men came into the tent.
Nik was silent, eyes shut tightly.
Eclipse glared at all of them, covering his fear with a surly disposition, and his worry with sarcasm and grumpiness. "You really think your men are supposed to scare me?" he asked, "My father's done worse." he subtly pressed closer to Nik, trying to calm him a little, knowing he was both emotionally and physically injured.
"Ah, but you haven't been a prisoner of war before, have you?" Seren looked at Nik. "What do you think, should they do to him what the Tesh did to Lieze when they captured her?" he smirked. "Should we strip him and leave him tied in the center of camp for the men to take as they wish?"
Nik shuddered, eyes flaring wide. "No, don't…don't hurt him."
Eclipse tensed at that, not wanting to even think about that. More so, he didn't want to think about the fact that it had been his people that did that, that sparked the idea, in retrospect, it would only be right…. at least… in a twisted sort of way. He shook of his fear again, burying it deep, as he glared Seren down.
(BYE!! Also if the torture part gets sexual we may wanna take it to PM Be back after I get home!)
(bye! I wasn't planning on that actually happening, but I mean…torture might get sexual idk yet. All I know is torture, not specifics lol)
"Who says it would hurt?" Seren countered, smirking cruelly.
"Don't touch him." Nik snarled, swallowing his fear as best he could.
"Then cooperate." Seren smirked again, tipping his head a little.
(I'm back! And honestly I've written torture before, but more the magical cosmic kind that happens on another plane of reality……. (Don't ask) so I'll nly do as much detail as you do when/if we get into that,)
Eclipse listened to his soulmate attempt to defend him, and wondered for a moment why he hadn't done the same. Wait a minute, why hadn't he? Was this another thing he was just going to fuck up?
(alright! Uhhm alright. Alright coolio)
Nik bit his lip slightly, taking a deep breath.
"Now then. Your punishment for escaping. As I heard, it was both of your idea, though you both came up with separate ones. Therefore, you will both be punished." he waved a hand at the men. "Make sure they can't see each other. But I want them to be able to hear each other scream." The men picked up Nik and Eclipse, not bothering to be gentle.
Eclipse tensed as he was picked up, not bothering to look back at Nik, knowing he'd inevitably see the other again eventually, instead focusing on staying calm in the face of a beating. This is probably gonna add a few dozen more scars to my collection…. he thought wryly.
(Which character we focusing on? I find writing torture doesn't work so well when I'm doing it for my boys, or someone else's, (It's a skill I'm working on, as I'm better at emotional torture) so I'm thinking we pick a character and torture them, skip the other's until they meet up again? Unless we're skipping it entirely)
Nik took a deep breath, and didn't struggle. He hoped they wouldn't do to Eclipse as Seren had threatened. He didn't want to have to see that done to someone he cared about again. It had been horrible, when he found Lieze the way he did. He didn't want to see Eclipse like that too
(honestly, i was planning on doing a timeskip for now, unless you wanna focus on someone specific? idc, it's up to you)