It was another late night for Tharja, studying in her room. She'd purchased a few tomes from a travelling Anna, which the merchant had claimed to contain 'secrets of dark magic.' Tharja's curiosity had been piqued, and, after getting the merchant to let her skim through them, she had determined that, while some of their 'secrets' were really just the basics of hexing and enchanting, there was also some new theory and a few interesting spells buried in them as well. And so she left that caravan with a substantially lighter coin purse and several new books to pore over.
Right now, Tharja was reading the most promising book. Ironically, it had been the one she'd been the most on-the-fence about buying, since it had been the one with the most fundamentals woven into its pages. But once she'd sat down to read through the tome, she'd discovered that those fundamentals were used to good effect: Whoever had written this book had gone to great lengths to detail exactly how the spells, hexes, enchantments and potions it covered worked, what materials were required to perform them, possible substitutes, the exact procedure for performing the spell or rite, or exact instructions for preparing and mixing the potion, and what their effects were. Tharja had only attempted a few of the techniques she'd read in the tome, and she'd found herself easily understanding how she was supposed to go about them, and appreciating the detail and minutiae. It was a far cry from some of the other tomes she'd read on the subject, which were perilously dense with ideas like the "feel" of a spell, loose on measurements for reagents, and lacking in descriptions of technique. While Tharja had certainly gotten good at trial and error, she certainly prefered having the guesswork cut out of her magic.
She turned the page, leaving behind a dense, if interesting, section on manipulating plants with magic, and was ready to finally turn in for the night, when she saw the heading for the next section. Written in bold red letters at the top of the next page were the words "Magical Methods of Coercion." That renewed Tharja's interest in a heartbeat. There weren't many tomes that she'd seen which discussed such magic to begin with, much less in the detail that this tome promised to. She looked at the table of contents under the heading, and a smile grew on her face. Potions, enchantments, hexes, curses… ooh, it made her head spin with the possibilities. She summoned a pen, ink, and parchment. She was making an all-nighter out of this section, and she was going to take detailed notes…
*** The Next Day ***
Robin was eating supper in the mess hall when Tharja walked in. This was the first time that he'd seen her today, and that surprised him. Normally, she'd be the first person that he saw every day: if not in his room, watching him sleep, then waiting outside his door. And she'd normally follow him for much of the day afterwards. But today, he'd woken up, eaten breakfast, done his morning training routine, showered, taken lunch, worked on battlefield tactics… all without so much as a glimpse of the dark mage.
She grabbed a plate, and sat down across from him. They were alone at their table.
"Robin, might I have a lock of your hair?" Tharja asked.
Robin smiled. "That's a funny way to say hello, Tharja."
Tharja rolled her eyes. "Hello, Robin. Might I have a lock of your hair?"
Robin sighed. It still felt so odd for her to ask such a question of him. He'd had one too many scares coming back to a room that had been broken into, but nothing of value stolen, and one day, after deciding that things were just too muddy on the practice field to be worth it, he came back to his room to catch her in the act. She had apologized profusely for causing him distress, of course. She had merely wanted to get some of his hair from his pillow. Well, in the moment, he'd told her to simply ask him if she wanted something from him. She had agreed, and, to her credit, the break-ins had stopped afterwards, though she definitely took him up on his offer.
They had an interesting relationship.
"I guess, but what for?" Robin asked. "Usually, when you need a lock of my hair or some such, it's because your plans involve me."
Tharja nodded. "They do. I got some new tomes recently, and one of them's been really interesting. I found a lot of new things that I want to try out." She took a bite of her food. "I was up all night last night studying and making notes."
Robin smiled. "Ah, so that's why I didn't see you today." He took a bite. "So, what are we talking about? Wards from colds? A new morning pick-me-up?"
"Well, I did find some fascinating research on helping plants grow, if you ever start a garden, but the stuff that kept me up all night had more to do with, well, keeping us up all night."
Robin coughed on a half-chewed roll. "A- *hack* ah. I… I see."
They had, since the break-in incident, grown rather close to each other. Something about how often they saw each other, or, as Robin sometimes joked, how often Tharja saw him. Between the time they'd spent together around the Order's facilities, and their track record when it came to deployments for Askr, they'd grown familiar, then friendly, and, eventually, intimate. They'd shared a bed plenty of times now, enough times to be familiar with what the other liked, and enough times to experiment a little.
They had a very interesting relationship.
"So, what are we talking about?" Robin asked, looking around to make sure that they were, indeed, still alone at the table. "Is this like the potions we drank a few weeks ago? The aphrodisiacs? Or are we talking about another body modification hex?"
"Mmm, a little bit of both, I guess." Tharja supplied. "It's a bunch of stuff to manipulate a person's mind."
Robin perked up at that. In the bedroom, they both took turns taking the lead, and each of them was happy to either lead or follow. But Robin had admitted, after a particularly adventurous session - one which involved a few more accessories than normal - that he loved it when Tharja took control. Tharja had apparently remembered that comment. But he had to admit, this was definitely something that intrigued him. For a moment, he allowed his mind to wander at the possibilities, and a smile steadily grew on his face.
"Mmm, I think you like that idea very much." Tharja purred.
Robin nodded. "I'm definitely interested in trying something out." Robin admitted. He took one of her hands in his, and rubbed the back of it with his thumb. "I have a few concerns about being able to stop things if they get too intense: if you're messing with my mind, I don't exactly have the ability to tell you that in the moment. But I am interested."
Tharja nodded, her face twisted in thought. "Hmm… that could be an issue…" she tilted her head this way and that. Finally, she stopped, and looked Robin in the eyes, deadly serious. "How about this. We talk beforehand about everything I plan to do to you. We'll plan our sessions together, from start to finish. What you want, what you don't want. Nothing as loose as some of our nights together. No surprises." She smiled, and chuckled, sending shivers up Robin's spine. "Unless you want them." Then the serious look came back. "I should be able leave you with full memories of what happened, so that, afterwards, we can talk about our night. And if you don't like something, or it turns out that this isn't what you thought it was, our first try can be our last, too." The playful glint returned to her eye, and Robin felt her foot graze his calf under the table. "And if it turns out that you do enjoy how it goes, I'm sure we can add it to the list." She winked, Robin blushed, and the serious look returned. "Does that sound alright?"
Robin considered her thoughts, then leaned across the table, and kissed Tharja on the lips, a quick, chaste peck. "I think that sounds lovely. I trust you not to go too far."
Tharja smiled broadly. "Wonderful. I'm glad we could come up with something." She stood, and picked up her plate. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some more research to do, and then some prep work to take care of." She winked at him. "You probably won't see me much for a little while. Please make sure you bring your hair by later today. I'm going to need it."
And she walked away, adding a little sway to her hips as she walked that Robin was happy to watch until she left the mess hall. She was so good to him, Robin thought, returning to his supper. He'd have to find a way to thank her for the effort…