Chapter 4
Days passed, and they practiced.
Or perhaps more accurately, they played.
Theira stood in the back of her underground, watching as Varius' golem army tore through the shield-wall of opponents she'd animated for him. Her side didn't do anything but stand and punch on repeat, a pattern she could activate and then leave off controlling.
They were a delaying tactic for the real setup.
As one of his golems breached the line, it set off one of her spells, which detonated, sending a spray of rock and dirt into the air.
The sorcery-resistant golem was unaffected, but Varius' vision wasn't.
He'd learned to arrange formations around one golem—not the one he was inside—to give himself a point of focus, a way to help him filter and process the information. And now, when that golem ran into difficulty, he rapidly chose a golem in another position and switched.
They could only practice for so long before he was too mentally exhausted to continue, but it took longer every day, and they were able to get more and more sessions in.
Theira, frankly, was still astonished not even just that Varius could control all the golems, but at his level of sophistication.
One of his golems hurled one of hers across the room—which required Varius to manipulate clay arms and use them in a way unlike a human's—at the same moment another kicked debris out of the way and yet another advanced.
He didn't make each of them do complex motions simultaneously, but instead batched them, with either multiple teams of golems collectively doing the same maneuver or different sections of his army executing particular tasks.
And while Varius exulted in personally controlling an invincible army that would do whatever he wanted exactly to his own limits and he never had to worry about their injuries or death, Theira got to play.
No risk of hurting Varius, let alone the golems or her house.
So she unleashed explosions to blot Varius' vision, or triggered illusions to turn the hall black as night, or launched bombs that filled the room with acidic haze.
She caught golems in traps of vines or her new sticky glue, while others arrested mid-step to change direction.
She drowned one in a pool of hot clay only to realize she'd melted the golem, so that wasn't one to repeat except for extraordinary circumstances.
They had always been each other's best match.
Sometimes Theira won, or Varius tired before they could finish. Some days his sorcery-invincible golems plowed through all her improvisations, or her newest experiments failed spectacularly.
But no matter the outcome, every time ended with Theira's blood singing.
She thought Varius loved it too, but though she'd catch heat in his gaze and he'd flirt, he hadn't made a move toward anything more.
Now that he'd finally seen a way to end the war, she guessed he was imagining the life he could go back to in the Aurelian Empire. Varius was an all-or-nothing sort, so she should be glad he cared enough not to start something he didn't intend to finish.
So Theira would be his friend, and his accomplice, and if together they could end a war and then perhaps meet occasionally for dinner, she could live with that. It wasn't what she wanted, but it was more than she'd had before, and she would survive.
But her heart still raced when Varius climbed golems on top of golems, balancing them to make a tower to reach the sorcerous construct she'd been using to spray sticky goo all over the field as well as covering their 'eyes', and pulled it from the air.
Theira was already launching her next attack and had to quickly deactivate it when Varius popped open his golem's top and lifted himself out.
Shirtless, as he always practiced, and she could not decide whether he was taunting her on purpose.
"That's it for me right now," he said.
Shorter than she'd expected, but he'd tried several new things; that probably wore on him. She couldn't be too disappointed when she was having more fun now than she'd had... perhaps ever.
"Your control of their movements is even better than yesterday," Theira said as he landed and walked toward her. "I'm amazed you can direct them all to make minute adjustments while the rest of your army still accomplishes multiple tasks."
"It's the balance that's the tricky part," Varius agreed. "The golems aren't all the same shape on the outside, which I don't really feel through my awareness. I have to adapt."
Hmm. Maybe she could use that next time.
Varius grinned at her. "Yes, make me practice. I don't want you to get too bored with all the same things. I'm amazed how quickly you can come up with new ideas."
"I've always had plenty of ideas," Theira said. "Testing was the limiting factor."
He laughed, running a hand through his curls. "Well, I'm glad to assist you with some real-time feedback."
It was useful. Theira judged her success rate by how quickly Varius could counter her, and in what way.
If he relied on invincibility, she had a winner.
If a spell worked on him once, another general would struggle with it.
If he countered immediately, it wasn't worth investing time into, even if it was only because he knew her well.
If she went back to war, it would only be once.
"I want to show you something," Varius said.
Theira raised her eyebrows and gestured for him to hop back in the golem.
"Upstairs," he amended. Even more curious. "Let's get something to eat."
He kept doing that. Knocking on the door to her lab and bringing her water when she'd been focused on her experiments for too long. Cleaning up dishes after she cooked. Asking her if he could wash her blankets while he was doing his.
Every time, it startled her, and made her feel... soft, perhaps. She shouldn't get used to it. He'd make some Aurelian woman a fantastic husband, and she tried not to resent that but didn't succeed.
Theira followed him to the kitchen, but he stopped before they got there. She raised her eyebrows again, and Varius shifted on his feet and took a breath.
He was nervous?
He angled toward the wall and Theira followed his gaze, only then noticing what he wanted to show her, so intent she'd been on watching the line of his back.
Her breath caught.
Her painting of the sky above the Tridentis was mounted on the wall, and she recognized the wooden frame. Varius had been busy cutting, sanding, carving, and staining bits of wood for days.
Right in front of her, and she hadn't understood.
"I loved this painting first." Varius' voice was rough. "It's so full of color and life, and I can practically feel your wonder looking up into the sky. And selfishly, it's a place where our paths didn't quite cross, but were still entwined. My world, with you always moving through it."
Theira couldn't say anything around the lump in her throat.
Varius swallowed. "You deserve for your home to be beautiful, Theira. And for it to be your home, your mark should be all the way through it. Even if you think it's messy. I know my frame here isn't perfect either—"
"It is."
Varius stepped forward and took her unresisting hand.
"Exactly. We made this. We made this. It would be beautiful anyway, but it's also beautiful because of that, and every time I see it you remind me to dream bigger.
So I put it on the wall, and I hope, in the future, I can keep covering this house with more of us. If you want."
In the future.
Keep.
Oh, she'd been wrong. He wasn't saving himself at all.
The general was biding his time until he had the perfect play.
And he had absolutely been torturing her on purpose.
Theira's hand tightened on his, and she took a step closer to him too.
All the way closer, pressing her body flush against his naked, sweaty muscles.
Turnabout, enemy mine.
Varius' pupils darkened.
Theira put her other hand against his chest, feeling his racing heart. And he let her.
But he also wrapped his other arm around her back, holding her close. Holding her there, with him.
Theira tilted her head and whispered into his ear as he shuddered, her blood singing for an entirely different reason. "You didn't call a halt because you were tired, did you."
His thumb stroked hers in small circles and his other hand mimicked it on her back.
As he stroked down, and down.
Maybe her blood sang for the same reason.
"I wanted to be sure," Varius murmured, "I had enough energy for whatever you might have in mind. I'm all warmed up for you."
Gaia, so was she.
Varius' voice was a low, delicious rumble as he asked, "Are you hungry, Theira?"
In answer, Theira snaked the hand on his chest up around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss.
His lips met hers, then his tongue, the kiss as fierce as she felt and growing ever hotter.
Theira wrapped her legs around him, and with his ridiculous muscles he supported her effortlessly—and then he turned and pushed her into the wall, right underneath their framed painting.
Theira grinned against his lips and pushed his face back, just for a moment, so she could watch his reaction.
As she levitated them both.
"Ever had magical sex, Varius?" Theira purred. "Because you're about to."
The unbridled delight in his gaze—for her—was everything. "Only in my dreams," he said. "I'd be happy to show you what I've imagined."
"Let's see what we can do together," Theira said.
She teleported them to her bedroom, and let the world vanish for a little while.
As Varius stirred the paint for a new frame, he watched Theira across the art room.
Usually her movements were smooth and deliberate, but here, she played.
She flicked the brush, she zig-zagged it quickly.
She studied what she'd done and switched to the reverse end of her brush to scrape a line through the paint, just to see what it would do.
Varius smiled to see it. She could do whatever struck her, and she did, without fear or self-consciousness. Even knowing he was in the same room and could see her.
She let him see all of her.