AN: Chapter requested by Anno1701. Sorry it took me so long to come out with it.
Warning: This chapter contains mention of torture in the third section. Please don't read if you don't want to.
Chapter 37 Memory in Thorin's POV
The monotonous swing of his hammer was the only thing that kept Thorin calm as he formed yet another crown for his beloved One. At one point he would have taken his frustration out on the dummies in the practice rooms, but now he found that making things for Haran had a far more calming effect. Anything to do with his husband usually did. Yet he would soon have to give up his work on this particular crown. He was at the point that he needed to take it for the more detailed weaving works that required steady hands and focused sight and he certainly was not in the mood to focus solely on that.
Especially not when there was someone after Haran's life.
The hammer fell hard and with a sharp ting the thin crown cracked, losing a large chunk of its side. Thorin sighed, throwing the now useless crown to the side. He didn't have the mind for this at the moment and there was no use trying to make another.
It had been a week since he had almost lost Haran to that cave in and yet there was still no sign of the ones that had orchestrated it. They couldn't even locate the dwarf that had led Haran to the trap even with Loni and Floi searching both day and night. Nor could any of his other guards find any other leads. It was more frustrating than he cared to admit and he was growing more and more concerned that something might happen to Haran whenever he was out of his sight. It had even gotten to the point that he assigned several guards to Haran despite knowing how much Haran hated having them there. It was a good thing that Haran was a patient dwarf because Thorin was sure he would have thrown a fit about this whole thing before now.
Thorin sighed again. If only they could have some good luck. Just one single good lead that they could trace to its source.
Suddenly, a dwarf burst through the door. Thorin jumped to his feet, pulling his sword from its scabbard and pointing it at him, completely ready to defend himself from any attack. "My lord!" the dwarf said. "We have caught an assassin in Prince Haran's room!"
"What?!" Thorin roared. "Was my husband injured?"
The dwarf hesitated, his face paling.
"What happened to my husband?" Thorin said, advancing on the dwarf with a growl.
"Prince Haran received a wound in his shoulder," the dwarf said nervously, "while he was subduing the assassin."
"And why was it him that subdued the assassin and not one of the guards that I assigned to him?" Thorin said even as he passed the dwarf to head towards their rooms. He would deal with the guards later. After he dealt with the dwarf who would dare attempt to harm his husband. But first he needed to check on Haran. Even if it had been a minor injury, which was doubtful, there was a chance that the dagger had been poisoned and Haran could still be in danger.
"Prince Haran requested that we leave him alone in your rooms," the dwarf said. "The doctor Oin has already been called for and should be checking on him now."
When Thorin got to his rooms he found the whole gaggle of guards he had assigned to Haran standing antsily around his door. Not one of them was missing, which was good, but that also meant that not one of them was inside with Haran. "Where is he?" he growled.
The guards immediately moved to the side and one of them even opened the door for Thorin to see. There, sitting in his favorite chair across from the fire, was Haran. Oin sat next to him on one of their stools fiddling with bandages so that they would sit just right. The only other dwarf in the room was, surprisingly, Dwalin who stood against the wall with his arms crossed and a glower on his face. Dwalin had been taking part in the investigations to the point of overworking himself so Thorin had ordered him to take the day off. Still, he was grateful that Dwalin came now. There was no dwarf that Thorin trust more.
"Thorin," Haran said, reaching out a hand to him with a content smile on his face.
Thorin sighed, all tension suddenly melting from his shoulders. It wasn't fair that he couldn't keep his anger when faced with his husband's happy expression.
"How are you my One?" Thorin asked, taking the hand offered and bringing it to his lips.
"It's only a flesh wound," Haran said. "Isn't that right Oin?"
"Yea yea," Oin said, waving him off as he continued to focus on his work. "Didn't hit anything important. Still needed some stitches, though. Can't be moving that arm for a bit."
"See," Haran said. "Nothing too dangerous. So don't be mad at my guards. I asked them to leave me alone. It wasn't their fault."
Thorin sighed again. He should have known this would happen from the very beginning. Vorin had warned him that Haran had learned from a young age to fight alone. His precious husband was under the assumption that he had to do everything on his own. Everyone else would just get in his way or be in danger. Thorin, of course, was determined to rid him of that notion, but his husband was stubborn and they had only been together for a short time. It wasn't something that he could fix so easily.
"I assigned them to you to keep you safe," Thorin said, crouching next to his husband. "They failed to do their duty."
"That's not true," Haran said, moving his hand to caress thorin's beard at his jaw line. "They have been doing a good job. They haven't left me alone this whole time."
Although it was said kindly, Thorin could tell that it must have been annoying his husband greatly. Haran was the type of dwarf who prized his solitude. Though no one would guess that by how friendly he was and how easily he inserted himself into a group of people. He probably hated this whole thing more than anyone else.
"Besides," Haran continued. "Now I've got you a lead. Perhaps we can figure something out from that assassin who hired him and finally put a rest to this whole thing. I think my brother has already gone to stare the interrogation. Along with Loni and Floi. And probably Nori too."
Of course all those people would be the ones to go. Each of them were fiercely protective of Haran and had been itching to hurt someone ever since Haran had gotten injured in that collapse. Even if Thorin were to go now, that dwarf would probably be unrecognizable, though he would surely be far from death. Nori would not let him die so easily.
They sat for a minute just the two of them staring into each other's eyes before Haran finally patted Thorin's face softly. "I swear I'm okay."
"I know," Thorin said. "I would have burned this whole mountain to the ground to find these criminals if you weren't."
"Don't do that!" Haran laughed. "I like this mountain."
"Then I shall at least leave it standing." Thorin agreed with a nod. "But I swear that I will track down whoever has done this and make them pay."
"Don't overwork yourself for my sake," Haran said.
"I would do anything for you," Thorin replied.
"Then I wish to sleep with my husband tonight," Haran said. "Make sure you come back in time to have dinner with me."
"Very well," Thorin said, standing up. "I will return for dinner. We shall have your favorite tonight and I will even see that the cook sends us cake."
"I should like that very much," Haran said. "Now go on. Let's take care of this problem before it gets out of hand."
In Thorin's opinion, it had gotten out of hand as soon as Haran had gotten injured for the first time. But his husband was right. It was better to take care of this quickly before his One did something that got himself killed.
Thorin nodded and turned to leave. He glanced once at Dwalin who only nodded at him and he nodded back. As much as Dwalin probably wanted to give that assassin a good beating, he was probably the only guard that Haran was friendly enough that he would be willing to allow to stay in their rooms with him. Not to mention, Dwalin probably saw this as a failure on his part and would be overprotective of them for some time to come.
"Your highness," Nori said with a short nod of his head, completely unfazed by the screams coming from one of the cells down the hallway. Taran, Loni, and Floi who sat at a table, hands bloody and faces scowling, looked up and gave Thorin a nod as well.
"How is the interrogation going?" Thorin asked.
"We're just taking a break now," Nori said with a wicked smile. He was cleaning a small dagger of blood, slowly and deliberately. "Gave the assassin a nice drink to enjoy on his own while we're away, though. Don't want him to miss any of the fun."
So that's why there was so much screaming. Thorin nodded. Nori was not kind with his poisons and he had probably brought out the worst of his undeadly stash to use.
"We were ordered, after all," Nori continued, "not to show him any mercy."
"Who ordered that?" Thorin asked. Of course he would have ordered the same, but he wondered who would have done so before him. Other than Haran and himself only his father and grandfather really had the right to order Nori around and he didn't think that they would have heard about this before him.
"Apparently, the assassin had the gall to accuse you of hiring him," Nori said without looking up. "Prince Haran was none too happy with that."
"Haran?" Thorin asked with a raised brow. His husband was never one to forgo forgiveness. Even if it was him that got hurt, he always begged for leniency on the other's behalf. Thorin had never thought he would see the day when Haran was angered to the point of asking for something like this. Thorin grinned of course Haran would only get this angry for the sake of his family. The self-sacrificing dwarf that was.
"Well," Thorin said, "when will his drink wear off? I want to see if I might get some information from him. And I think Dwalin would want me to get some in on his behalf."
"Of course, my lord," Nori said. "The drink will wear off whenever you say it will." Nori picked up a vial filled with a disgusting looking greenish liquid and shook it before him. Probably the antidote to the poison.
"Then we'll wait a bit longer," Thorin said. This would be a good tactic.
If they continued to have the dwarf drink poison when they left and give him the antidote when they came back he would always want them there even if they were hurting him. Sooner or later, he would look forward to their coming and then start to trust them. Then they would be more important than even his connections with the assassin's guild. He would give them the information then. It would start slow. Something minor that would barely help them, but they would lighten the poison. Give him less pain. Sooner or later he would learn that every time he gave them the information, his pain would lessen. At least until he finally gave them the information that they needed. Then he would be sentenced to death for trying to kill one of the royal family along with those that had hired him.
AN: Thank you all for reading! As always, if you have any requests of another chapter that you'd like to see in the extras please let me know!