Hexblade's Charm

Three and then some - Tonight, There's Three Of Us

He blinked and slowly, the blurred vision of a room came back into view. The light was dim, and flickering – he thought it was weird until he realised it was coming from dozens of apparently magically created pumpkins with candles on them, lining the walls. It was pleasantly warm. A dangling figure in front of him cast a dark dancing shadow on the wall. The figure was sky blue, covered in leaves, breathtakingly beautiful and not moving, their chin slumped onto their chest, their arms tied up over their head with magically glowing chains.

He shook his head slowly, feeling his body change shape briefly and then back to what it had been. His hands were also tied above his head, he realised when he tried to scratch it. He turned around as well as he could to see the rest of the room, but it was empty. The floor was covered in soft carpet he buried his toes in. Now he noticed he was completely naked, as was the figure dangling over there, who he had a weird thought he should recognise...

Then, like a lightning bolt, the cotton candy in his head disappeared, and Hexi gasped as his memories came flooding back to him.

"Malyck! Malyck, are you okay? Wake up! Malyck!"

The Sylvari's head twitched, and his eyes opened slowly. He made a move as if to try and change the position of his arms, then noticed his predicament and immediately, his eyes widened and his face paled.

"Hexi? What is going on?"

"Thorn", Hexi practically spit the word on the carpet. "He fucking got us. I knew I was too careless, I knew I should never have trusted this stupid mission – all we did was help him create a weapon, and now he's going to do whatever –"

He saw Malyck's lip quiver in fear and instinctively tried to strain against his bonds to reach him, but to no avail.

"Don't. Worry", he said with determination, locking red eyes with his scared lover. "I'll fix it. We will be fine. I will, I don't know, persuade him somehow, fight him. We will get out of this."

"What if he hurts you?", Malyck said, his voice choking on panic.

"Then he would deserve it, I suppose", came a voice from the doorway, and the Mad King strode confidently into the room, hitting a small straight black whip repeatedly against the walls with a crack. His dark curls were held back in the back of his neck, he was wearing black leather pants and a matching open vest that showed off his muscles, and he was not smiling.

"Let him go", Hexi growled. "If you want to play your perverse games again, you can take me, but let Malyck go."

The Mad King's eyes flashed orange as the whip in his hand suddenly struck Hexi's back. He gritted his teeth, but managed to not make a sound as the white-hot pain shot through his body.

"I make the rules here, Heximander", Thorn said calmly, "and you would be wise to comply."

Hexi spit in front of him. "Never."

With a flash, the Mad King was suddenly behind Malyck who tried to jerk away in panic, only to be yanked back by the magical chains. The Mad King grabbed Malyck's throat with one hand from behind, forcing his chin up and tracing the whip horizontally against it, verrrry slowly. His eyes were fixed on Hexi's.

"I thought you might say that. But please do remember that tonight, there is three of us. You are not alone, and I do think we should try our very best to give our guest a satisfying show, don't you?"

Hexi ripped at his chains, desperate, but they held. "NO!"

Oswald smirked. The whip danced around and hit Malyck's leg; the leaves crumpled up with the pain of where it had struck, and Malyck screamed, as did Hexi.