Chapter Five
Trill
Trill tried to stay away from the pub for a few days, but it was harder to do than he expected.
He didn’t like to be away from the pretty man and his partner, which he recognized was probably him being ridiculous because he didn’t know them.
But Trill had always gone with how he felt about things.
His mother had said that made him infuriating, but Trill liked to think it helped make him happier than she had been.
Where was the joy in dwelling on things from the past that you couldn’t change?
Where was the pleasure in staring into the future, demanding it be one way, and then getting frustrated when it wasn’t like that?
He couldn’t believe that his mother’s instincts had really been telling her to make herself and everyone around her miserable.
He thought that maybe her bad feelings had gotten so loud that they’d drowned everything else out.
He didn’t want to be like that. So he helped where he could, and surely it didn’t do any harm to simply see his pretty Mage Warriors.
(Apart from the fact that they were Mage Warriors, and that meant they were dangerous to him.
But he wasn’t seeing them in the castle.
He was being careful. He just… didn’t like that pain.
It skittered along his skin. It couldn’t be wrong to want to make it better, could it?)
So he lurked. But it was a pub, and basically everyone lurked. The pretty man seemed to be there by himself. Trill scanned the pub several times, but he didn’t see his partner. Arvus, the pretty man had said. Where was Arvus, and why was the pretty man here alone?
Oh, Trill didn’t like that. Was everything all right?
He continued to look anxiously, and then he saw that the pretty man had company who’d just come from the bar: two women, one fierce-looking, and the other older and with a no-nonsense look about her.
At least he had friends with him. Maybe Arvus wasn’t feeling well, so the pretty man had come with his friends?
This didn’t really make Trill feel any better, because if Arvus was ill, then he needed to be made well, and Trill couldn’t do that if he wasn’t here.
Could he go up to the table and ask the pretty man if his partner was sick?
No, no, he knew that wouldn’t sound very normal.
He needed to know the other man better first.
Trill reminded himself that he needed to be careful.
Even though every part of him was saying that he should go ask to join them, Trill didn’t let himself do it.
He continued to lurk—just spending time in the pub, everyone did it!
—and eventually, he went to the dance floor for a little while, because then he could more easily refill on energy.
He garnered some interest on the dance floor, though, and since he found someone who was not a Mage Warrior, he decided to let them take him home for the night. That was not what he wanted, but it would do for the moment.
Better than sleeping outside, he reminded himself. It would give him energy, and he needed energy to come back here and make sure Arvus was all right.
Trill returned the next night and didn’t see either of them, but he reminded himself that was normal and they didn’t come every night. He went to another pub and went home with someone else.
The next night was the same, but the one after, thank goodness, they were back, and Trill could relax again.
They even went out on the dance floor together!
It didn’t look like anything was wrong. And it meant that Trill could follow them there.
He just had to be careful when he approached them.
They weren’t dancing strenuously. It was more like standing and swaying, really, but Arvus had his hand on the pretty man’s hips, was carefully cradling him and clearly supporting him, looking like he was ready to ward anyone off.
But they were dancing, and when Trill did a careful loop around them, he could see that the pretty man had his eyes closed and was resting his head on Arvus’s shoulder.
His expression was… happiness mixed with pain.
Trill was pretty sure this was a pain he couldn’t touch, because the man’s body was loose.
Trill sniffed and had to look away. They were all right.
He could keep coming back. He didn’t have to worry about getting into the castle just yet; there wasn’t a deadline to see his uncle.
It hadn’t happened yet, and maybe it wouldn’t happen at all.
He found that now that he was here and he’d found the pretty man and his partner, it seemed more important to focus on them.
If he healed the man a tiny bit each time he saw them, then they wouldn’t realize anything out of the ordinary had happened, right?
Yannoma had been very clear that if he committed any extraordinary healings, he was going to get caught and would probably be killed.
But like everything, she didn’t actually forbid him to do it.
She’d always told him he was free to make his own choices, even dumb ones.
Trill watched the pretty man and his partner out on the dance floor.
It was clearly a bit painful to be out there again.
(Was it the first time since whatever had injured him?) But even though there was some pain, there was happiness as well.
It was clear they loved to dance. He could feel the desire and affection running through them, and that was a beautiful thing to witness.
Trill brushed up against the pretty man a few more times, which was probably not a great idea when he was trying to be careful, but it was a crowded dance floor.
Plus, the man had his eyes shut, which meant Trill was able to do it once from behind Arvus’s back, just touching the other man’s arm, so he could be sure that Arvus didn’t see him either.
He’d managed it once with his back to them, like he’d been dancing and happened to press briefly into them.
He thought he’d done a pretty good job of being casual.
They were swaying a little, and it was entirely possible that would loosen up the muscle and his leg would feel better on its own, right?
That was what Trill told himself, anyway. He was pretty sure Yannoma would have an opinion on the matter that didn’t agree with his own, but she wasn’t here.
Trill felt like these two might be worth making a mess over.
And then he watched with huge eyes as the two of them pulled a third into their little dance, watched as the pretty man got to be the sandwich in the middle with two men dancing pressed up against him, moving carefully but oh, so obviously bringing one another pleasure.
Trill blinked, mesmerized. Was that an option?
Because Trill was always very careful about this.
He was happy to join more than one person if more than one person was happy to join him.
But everyone had to be interested. He’d made the mistake just once, soon after he’d started living with Yannoma, when he hadn’t known the importance of checking.
He’d made people unhappy, and he never meant to do that!
He knew people could lie, that they could come alone and say they were alone when they really weren’t, but for the most part, Trill could tell about that.
Sometimes, it was like they had a bit of a feeling of someone else’s energy clinging to them, and then Trill would steer clear.
Or it would be clear that they felt guilty, an expression or a feeling, and then Trill knew to stay away from them, too.
If there was an obvious partner, then Trill’s assumption was always that these people were off-limits.
There were people who were interested in more, but they had to demonstrate it.
Back home, he’d seen someone assume that just because three people were together, they must automatically want more.
Despite the possible risk, Trill had felt no compunction about tugging enough energy out of the man who’d been bothering the triad that he faltered and had to go sit down.
Not enough to kill, of course, but certainly enough to make him feel ill.
It wasn’t the sort of desire that Trill was particularly satisfied by, but it had been worth it to see the three partners go back to enjoying themselves.
And now he was watching three people all clearly into this, and that meant that maybe another option had opened up to him.
Oh, not right now, of course. That third man pressed up against the pretty man was the one they’d chosen today.
No dirty tricks for Trill; he would have to wait and see if he had a chance another day.
He watched with avid eyes as they left the dance floor together and it became clear they were leaving.
Yes! Even better than sexy dancing, it looked like they sometimes took people home.
The fact that home was the castle caused Trill a momentary hesitation, but he ignored it.
He both very much wanted to get into the castle and knew that getting into the castle would probably not give him what he wanted.
And there was a small chance that it was exactly the excuse that he needed.
If he succeeded, he would prioritize the pretty man and his partner without question, but perhaps before he left, he could figure out how to see his uncle?
But first, they had to play with their partner for today, and then they had to come back, and then they had to pick Trill. But now that Trill knew that it was all right to play, he was reasonably confident that he could catch their interest.
Trill could usually catch the interest of anyone he wanted. But sometimes their tastes didn’t seem to be compatible with Trill. Yannoma insisted that there should be no qualifier, that he should be able to attract anyone if he put his mind to it.
Trill wasn’t entirely convinced that it worked that way for him. Yannoma seemed to think that he just wasn’t trying hard enough.
But he’d never been this motivated before.