Xishan's Phoenix [Sekah & Oropherion]

[Sekah]

It was good he wasn't looking at Taiga the first time the former lord saw him in the courtyard. Taiga's face twisted up into a downright ugly expression.

The last time he had seen that face, he'd been in the process of being dragged down the line to the rostrum where Lord Balthier had set up a chair lined with furs to resemble a throne.

"Surrender," Balthier had said.

"Make me," Taiga had hissed.

So they'd pulled off his silk doublet, unbuttoned his fine shirt, ripped off his calfskin breeches, and forced him to his knees, bare. Tied him there.

Balthier'd never fucked him, but Taiga had been raped there, in the ashes, his nose full of burning and the rot of opened bowels from all his people who died that day.

All those deemed too loyal or too dangerous who weren't good for slave stock were being put to the sword, as Taiga was humiliated, publicly and punitively. Soldiers had done it, common beasts, while men looked on and mocked the fall of the famous Tiger—men who Taiga had danced with at parties, traded cutting insults with over hors d'oeuvres, men who had known his father or married a daughter to his brother or slept with Taiga in a teenage tryst.

He'd been bleeding badly and barely conscious when he was clapped in irons and dragged away.

But war is expensive (that was why they hadn't ripped his raiments stripping him—such finery would sell well), and the lord decided after some mysterious urge to sell Taiga instead of executing him.

To make a slave of him was dangerous. As long as he wasn't definitively gone, someone could easily use him as a banner in rebellion to Whitehall's new baron. Even if Taiga died still in bonds, if he had a son or even a daughter, the Hisoka line lived on, and his children could be ousted and used as a banner just as easily.

Taiga fully intended to leave dozens of children somehow, just to spite them.

But it didn't change the fact that on that day, of fire and ash and the stench of roasting flesh, amid the sounds of screams, none of them Taiga's, Taiga had seen this man.

And he would have his revenge.

"Chakra," he called, lounging, the brutal look erased from his expression. He walked up to the man as if they were equals, as if Chakra didn't find him inside a cage. He slid his lips to Chakra's ear, purposefully letting his breath wash the sensitive shell. "Have they gotten the smoke out of Whitehall yet? I'm afraid their shipments will be delayed for some time."

Taiga had broken bottles and dumped wine by the gallon in order to cripple Balthier's finances, when it was clear he was going to lose.

He'd paid men to burn the grape crops and the orchards, to make it even harder for Balthier to turn an easy profit. Never let it be said Taiga wasn't spiteful.

 

[oropherion]

News ran quick of fresh new slaves being brought to the complex after a successful raid on Hisoka's lands. Lord Balthier had succeeded in his coalition and though Chakra's people had not been involved, they were still aware of the events. The fact that Taiga Hisoka had fallen to Lord Balthier and had been enslaved left a satisfying taste in Chakra's mouth, though it would not nearly be as satisfying for what he wished to do the man that was involved in the loss of his beloved king and lover, Jahka. The knowledge was enough for him to excuse himself from his current lord's presence. Sadmira had not been officially crowned yet, but the ceremony was well in order to happen soon and the shaman's would see that the lord would have what it took to rule the naga's of Whitehall.

The halls of the trading complex echoed the sounds of scales sliding across the smooth, marble floor as Chakra followed the guards and trader's through the complex passageways to the cages they kept their slaves. There were a variety of slaves, men and women alike, trapped within small cages of all shapes and sizes and races. None of them called to him, though they might prove useful for other means in regards to help rebuild the crops burned by Taiga.

A hot breathe against his ear had Chakra hissing as he snatched away, eyes narrowing in revulsion at who exactly had dared approach him in such a manner. Bitterness and hatred gripped his heart as he stared at the very man whose family had enjoyed raping and torturing his king before assassinating him. "Smoke always dissipates." He spoke as he regained his composure, thick chords of his tail curling underneath his torso and allowing him to stare down upon the captured Hisoka, hood flared out as his lips curled into a cruel smile. "And from the ashes we will build anew and better. It will be only a temporary blow." His deft, ring-bedecked fingers pulled open a satchel at his waist to draw out a bag of coin that he tossed to the trader. "He's mine. Have his papers and belongings sent to the palace." He ordered as he returned his piercing gaze upon his new captive.

The exchange took little time and Chakra grasped the chain hooked to Taiga's cuffs with the knowledge that revenge was now his own to take. It no longer had to be dreams, but reality as he led his new slave from the complex and through the busy streets to the palace. Guards were informed to keep surveillance upon his slave, but no one but himself were to touch him. Unless instructed otherwise of course, and he smirked at the thought as he led Taiga to his chambers. "Who would've thought the notorious Hisoka heir was so easy to defeat? I would have thought you would've put up a better fight."

 

[Sekah]

It's fun to see someone lose their composure, and Chakra certainly had. That pull away, the way his snake bits bunched in offense, it was absolute music to Taiga's ears. A smile curled along his teeth. A little pathetic, maybe—he was just glad he could scare him.

But Chakra buying him—that was not in the plans. Not something he—anticipated, though he should have, after how that supple king of the nagas had been left, guts spilled by a sword after being—well—filled earlier. Taiga had amused himself, back then, in wondering if he saw a little white among the red. Now he was faced with the unenviable idea of his own guts being examined for a similar stain of color.

Wiped the smile right off his face.

Gods damn it. Chakra grabbed his shackles and led the young former-lord away. The Tiger of Xishan had to trot to keep up with Chakra's slithering, his arms pulled up like a zombie's as they exited the slave complex, and headed for the palace.

It was a damned annoying situation, and Taiga didn't see much but Chakra's back, even though he spent some time being alert for chances to slip away.

Well, Gods be damned, he would slip away in the end. THere were umpteen places a man of his talents could find in the world, and many of them would be a chance to build up wealth and influence to take down Balthier and Sadmira and anyone else in his way.

So, at least, he told himself.

Still, they were too quickly at the palace. Too quickly under the worryingly sharp gaze of Chakra's guards.

When his shackles were finally dropped, Taiga slid them an inch up his wrist and rubbed pointedly at the sores his restraint had caused, including a large blister on the knobby bone of his right wrist.

"A shock to me as well, I assure you, Chakra," he informed him, flashing a wolfish smile. "So. What's the gameplan? If you say something cliché like to regret the day you were born I'll laugh."

He had quite a front up, did the young Hisoka boy, trying to telegraph himself as untouchable when he knew—all too well, in his heart—that he was very touchable.

Taiga turned his back on his new master, as if dismissing him, and reached for a glass and a nearby decanter of wine, as if daring Chakra to stop him.