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Amath’s eyes opened to Yuval’s worried face. The first thing he said was “... Can we go home?”
Yuval let a sigh of relief and smiled. “Soon,” he promised.
He pushed himself up to sit and Yuval reached to help him. He lifted his left hand and moved his fingers. The cut on his wrist was bandaged, his hand felt weak and stiff, but he could move it. He looked up when Yuval’s hands forced him to, and leaned in for a hungry kiss.
Yuval climbed on the bed over him, straddled his hips.
“They’re making food for you.” He whispered against his lips.
Amath nodded against him, kissing him again, hands slipping his trousers down firm buttocks.
“Do you have enough blood to be doing this?” Yuval half-joked.
“I might faint,” Amath mumbled, nipping his lips.
“You better not.” Yuval’s hands came down to stroke him through his own trousers, slowly pulled him out when he grew hard in response.
“Hmm,” Amath let him take care of the usual magic, and this time let him take care of any other preparations too, Yuval doing all the work, even guiding his need to that tight heat. He moaned in response. “Val... ”
Yuval moved against him, with him, arms wrapped tight around his lover.
His energy was exquisite, even more so as Amath felt so drained. It surged within him and filled him with life. Amath’s lips sought his for a passionate kiss as reward for this gift. They thrust together to completion, the urgency of their joining making the session shorter than usual, but the exchange always seemed stronger.
***
“I don’t know if I should feel proud or worried that you actually fainted,” Yuval drawled. He was sitting on an armchair, elbow on the armrest, cheek resting on a fist, watching him devour the meat he’d been brought.
“Mh, thish ish gooh,” Amath said with a mouthful, holding out a piece of meat his way, even as he bit on another.
“Ah, I might just puke.” The wizard complained, more so because he was still a little bit delicate from all the portals, than actually finding the meat gross.
Amath shrugged and bit into that second piece of meat as well.
“The duke has taken care of everything,” Yuval announced. “But he’s asked a hefty price in return.”
Amath looked his way, but didn’t stop eating.
“He wants me to try to summon one of your people.”
Amath continued chewing on his meat, watching Yuval, even when he started fidgeting.
“Well? What do you have to say to this?”
“Can you do it?”
Yuval sighed. “I don’t know. It’s possible.” The wizard paused, licked his lips. “Yes, it’s possible, but not guaranteed.”
Amath considered this. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it. What would one of his people think of this? They wouldn’t like it at first, that was for sure. But wasn’t this better? He’d be saving one of them, saving them from what was to be the sure outcome of their people: their complete extinction once there were no more fertile lands, once the desert overtook it all.
“Could you summon someone specific?”
Yuval raised a brow. “Someone like whom?”
It was Amath’s turn to hesitate.
“Come on, Amath,” Yuval said, pulling away from the fist to lean back. “Who did you have in mind?”
“My son.”
He watched Yuval startle. His brow furrowed in thought.
Amath had told him before of his child, had told him how he was not supposed to see him grow up anyway, but he was sure Yuval knew that for all his words, he still missed his son... and he did. Even if he wasn’t supposed to see him for years, even if he wasn’t sure the child would survive the training. Even then, with all those ifs... he had wanted nothing more than to hold his boy.
“You realize, if this were at all possible,” Yuval said softly, “That Vikar wants me to bind him to whomever, or whatever, I summon?”
Amath shrugged, pretending he cared less than he did. “He’d be safer here,” he reasoned, but couldn’t hold back the hopefulness from his tone. “And you wanted to work for him, did you not? I could still see him...? And this duke... he’s your friend... you know if he is a good person...?”
“I don’t think he would mistreat him, no. Use him to his advantage perhaps, but not mistreat. Vikar is a good man despite it all.” Yuval mused. “It could be possible, not certain but just possible, that if I used your blood, I might call someone from your bloodline. I couldn’t ensure it’d be your child, though, if you have other living relatives. And even if you didn’t... ”
Yuval sighed and rubbed his face. “It’s possible.” He repeated.
“Then do it.”
