The tavern was still standing when he awoke again, which could only be a good thing. No matter what had happened between the two women, at least it hadn't affected the structure of the building they were staying in. Kyran lived in fear that one day Tomoko's antics would leave them both with a hefty bill for the reconstruction of some unfortunate tavern or house that they could neither well afford. Considering the kinds of things Tomoko did once she was drunk, and the frequency with which that occurred, it was all too likely a conclusion to some event that she caused.

He sat in the golden half light of winter dusk that streamed through the window, making the dirt of the glass cast interest patterns on where the light hit, and ran slim fingers through his long silver hair as he thought on the occurrence of the previous night. He was beginning to regret his actions now. Had either he or Erelvayas been human, then there would not likely be any repercussions from it, but they were both Drow and he was a mere male. Erelvayas already ranked more highly than him in the societal structure simply by virtue of being born female. The fact she was a Priestess did not do much to help matters, and combined with the fact that the female Drow knew perfectly well her place and would be bound to enforce it over Kyran at any opportunity she got.

He sighed heavily. If he was lucky, she would have left. But he knew his luck well. It was the same luck that had given him Tomoko for a travelling partner and a pseudo-wife. He shut his eyes and groaned. Erelvayas would not have left.

The Priestess, now clad in a delicate and incredibly revealing silver dress, was standing at the bottom of the stairs when he descended them, holding that cruel looking snake headed whip in her right hand as if she would use it at a moment's notice. Her expression was unreadable. "I trust you slept well?"

Kyran frowned slightly. "It was okay," he said cautiously. "I've slept in worse places."

"That is good." For a moment, Erelvayas looked as though she meant the complete opposite of what she said. "Now I believe you should come to reclaim this elf thing of yours." She spun on her heel and walked briskly away from the startled Drow.

After eyeing her slim back for a moment, Kyran followed.

Tomoko was sprawled over the table they had been drinking at the night before, snoring loudly and dribbling on the scuffed wood, occasionally receiving looks of annoyed worry from the barmaids. She was laying in a decidedly unladylike position, and Kyran looked away from her, embarrassed.

Erelvayas's lip curled in disgust at the sight of the red haired woman. "What are you going to do about that?" she snarled. "It is your property, after all."

"Mine?" The Drow male's face was a picture of confusion. "What makes her mine?"

"Your marriage to such a foul thing," the Priestess glared at him. "She screamed it loudly at me last night, whilst in her drunken state. It was such an embarrassing thing. That she could even think she would ever be a threat to me..."

"Oh. That." He sighed, opened his mouth to add something, then closed it again abruptly. Explaining the circumstances and why they weren't actually married would be a Very Bad Idea, he decided. Anything that could keep Erelvayas at arms' length from him could only ever be a good thing, on the other hand. "I'll deal with her."

As Kyran approached the gurgling elf, Erelvayas frowned disapprovingly. "I had always known that you would never amount to anything, male, but I had never realised that you could fall so low as to marry an elf, of all things."

"You are always so kind to me," the male murmured as he shook Tomoko gently - more gently than he usually would, but he knew it would be wise to play up to Erelvayas's opinion.

Tomoko grumbled something unintelligible as she began to wake, trying to roll over and away from Kyran's hands. Unfortunately, she found the edge of the table instead and hit the floor with quite an impressive thud. "Owwwww."

Kyran bit back his instinctive response of 'stop whining', and walked around the table, reaching down and offering his hand to the elf woman to help her stand.

It took the red haired mage a moment or two to focus on the hand itself, and a few moments more to recognise who it belonged to. As the fog cleared from her eyes, she leapt to her feet and slapped the surprised male across the face. "You stole my room last night!"

"You appeared perfectly happy on the table just now, my love." He hissed the last bit, knowing that it was futile trying subtlety with her, but having to try it anyway just in case the fall had knocked that idea back into her head. He pressed his left hand to his sore cheek and continued, "I didn't think I should wake you."

"'My love'?" She echoed, looking lost. "What have you been sniffing?"

"Darling, you have such a peculiar sense of humour," Kyran smiled through gritted teeth. "I hope you're feeling better now though." He patted her hand in a way that indicated to the elf that he really rather would not touch her.

Her expression mirrored his. "Yeah. Much better."

Erelvayas's expression had changed to one of bemusement as she watched the Drow and elf talking. "You are both very strange creatures." Then she scowled as Tomoko shot her a dirty look. "And as I am sure you do not wish to lose your 'husband', you foul thing, I think you may wish to listen to a proposition I have. And that goes for you too," she turned to Kyran. A cruel smile flitted across her face. "Perhaps if you were to succeed in my proposition, then your matron may not learn of where you are. After all, messengers can be ki-" pause, "...die."

Tomoko looked sidelong at Kyran and whispered, "you never told me about your mother."

Kyran bared his teeth a little in an approximation of a smile, as much aimed as Tomoko as at Erelvayas. "That is very kind of you, Priestess Erelvayas," he intoned.

The Priestess inclined her head a little, giving him a watchful look. "You are beginning to remember your manners, young Kyran."

"I don't know how I could ever have forgotten them in your presence, Priestess."

Tomoko glanced from one to the other, now as bemused as Erelvayas had appeared to have been earlier, when faced with the way Kyran and Tomoko interacted. She could tell that there was some minor war being fought in the flat and empty words being passed from one to the other, but she couldn't understand what it was or why it was occurring. Shrugging her shoulders slightly, she turned from them and began to walk towards the bar. However, her progress was stopped abruptly when Kyran caught her arm in a tight grip. She turned and opened her mouth to say something loud and angry.

Hurriedly, Kyran interjected, "darling, don't you think that it's a little early for that?" His grip on her arm didn't loosen - if anything, it got tighter - and he grinned at her in a way that a skull would have envied.

Seeing that something was obviously wrong now with the annoying little Drow, Tomoko glared at him. "Okay, dear." She allowed herself to be pulled so that she was again facing Erelvayas.

The Priestess was now unsure what to make of the situation in general, and that scene in particular. On the one hand, seeing any mere male tell a female what to do went completely against her principals and upbringing. But on the other hand, that was an elf, the lowest of the low, one of those that had stolen the lands above from the superior Drow. And it didn't matter that it was hardly Tomoko herself who had cast the Drow underground, she still detested the little creature with a passion. A brief and hopeless internal struggle ensued as Erelvayas tried desperately to work out what it would be best to do. It seemed that maybe getting these two to do this task for her could perhaps not have been the clever idea she had previously thought. Finally, her shoulders slumped a little. "Please come this way, we shall discuss my proposition." She turned and, without even checking to see if they were following her (and possibly hoping that they weren't), walked towards the obligatory 'small table in dark corner' that most taverns traditionally had.

Kyran and Tomoko glanced at one another, not so much the knowing look of two adults who was trying to understand what they were letting themselves in for, as the looks of those who were a pair of children at heart and were not at all happy with one another right then.

For appearances sake, Kyran made a great show of sitting beside the red haired mage, facing Erelvayas, and placing his arm pointedly around her shoulder. He knew that the Priestess was not holding off making a play for him because she thought he was married; he knew that that had never stopped her before and doubtless would not stop her now if he was really what she wanted. He had to admit to himself that he was simply doing it to see that expression of disgust in the Drow Priestess's eyes. And it was quite a pleasant feeling.

Tomoko, on the other hand, looked uncomfortable and embarrassed, occasionally glancing at Kyran's delicate face and then looking away again with a slight expression of nausea. The affectionate gesture of arm around shoulder was not returned.

Erelvayas rose one neatly plucked white eyebrow at this. After a moment scrutinising the pair in front of them, she began to speak. "I have no doubt that you are curious why I asked for your help."

Before she could continue, Tomoko snapped, "well, 'ask' is a nice way of putting it. From where I'm sat, it looks like blackmail." Her bright green eyes held as much contempt for the Drow Priestess as she knew Erelvayas had for her.

The Drow woman glared at Tomoko. "It was merely a suggestion for you both to help me. I did not say that it was compulsory."

"You just made it inescapable, you bitch!"

Erelvayas's eyes widened in shock, then narrowed to barely slits. Kyran could foresee something horrible about to happen and, considering that it was inevitable it would involve his own life, realised that he had best do something to part these women. "Uh. I don't think fighting gets either of you anywhere."

"I don't care!" The ever feisty Tomoko leapt to her feet and out of Kyran's arm, pointing directly at the Priestess in her fury. "I really do not like being forced to do something I don't want to, and that's entirely what she's making me do!"

Before the somewhat stunned Erelvayas could say a word in response, Kyran grinned that awful unpractised smile at her again and nearly literally dragged Tomoko away from the table. "Look. Just shut up. For once in your life, just shut up."

The elf's eyes widened in surprise as if Kyran had physically slapped her. "You're going to defend that... that..." For a moment it seemed that she couldn't find a word strong enough to convey all of her hate and disgust for the Dark Elf, then finally, one came to her, "...that Drow!"

Kyran barely even noticed her vitriolic usage of the word. "No, I'm not. But I don't want to die, do you understand me?"

For the second time in two days, Tomoko was surprised to find herself facing a quite visibly angry Kyran. For the past few years he had existed in a kind of semi-state of life, never feeling anything beyond the occasional hunger, thirst and mild annoyance. So see him so obviously riled up was a new and definitely interesting experience for the elfin fire mage. "What do you mean you don't want to die?"

He sighed, exasperated. "I mean what I said. I don't want to die. Can't you understand that?"

Tomoko frowned at him disapprovingly. "You don't have to take it out on me. Why would you die?"

"Because if she tells my matron where I am, then my matron will try to have me killed. And knowing her, she will also succeed." Kyran's black eyes were fixed on Tomoko's own.

"Why would she do that?" Her voice sounded confused.

He shut his eyes briefly. "It's a long story. Maybe I'll tell you later, or something."

"She seems very interested in you," Tomoko murmured thoughtfully. "Maybe if you give her what she wants and sleep with her, she won't tell your 'matron' and you can live." Then she added, "and I won't have to go and do what she wants."

Kyran's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "That's another great way to die. I may as well go and leap from a cliff, it'd be safer." He sighed again, the movement going through his entire body.

Tomoko scowled at him, then stamped her foot like a child in a temper. "You have all the sexuality of a cabbage!" She snapped. A few of the customers nearby turned and looked at the pair of them at that, with raised eyebrows and sniggers.

The Drow male's face flushed with anger and embarrassment. "Will you just shut up. Come on, I'll do the talking now before you get yourself killed as well."

"Awwww, you care about me now?" The elf's voice held deep sarcasm.

Kyran didn't even notice.