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‘Feyre is Feyre. Is it so strange to have a Made friend?’
Jurian huffed. ‘Nature knows they’re getting more and more common these days.’
Lucien couldn’t help but notice his term of expression, how staunchly he’d remained opposed to Fae customs, despite over 500 years of being trapped among them. He admired it. What made his chest turn was his dig at the others. At Elain.
Luckily, he also spotted Vassa’s small smirk at Julien as he spoke. Thank the Cauldron for her.
Julien arched an eyebrow. ‘Oh alright, my queen. The irony isn’t lost on me.’
Lucien chuckled in relief.
‘My Commander,’ she addressed him with a wry smile. ‘How are you finding that new body of yours?’
‘Very much like the old one, thanks. Though perhaps without a few ancient aches and pains.’
Although he said it in jest, the others understood how he really felt to have been remade into an imitation of his old body. And what he had endured between the wars.
It may have been why Lucien felt inclined to add, ‘I think we all have changing relationships with our bodies nowadays.’
Both of them stopped dead in their tracks and whirled at him.
‘Speak for yourself! Becoming a man at last, eh Lucien?’ snickered Jurian.
Suddenly, the innuendo dawned on him.
‘Excuse me– that’s not what I…’
‘It’s okay to be going through changes,’ chimed in Vassa. ‘It’s a difficult time.’
Lucien balked, still responding to the male in front of him.
‘You know I have twenty years on you, at least!’ He knew it didn't sound much, even as he said it.
‘Ah, but it’s different for that lot, isn’t it Vassa?’ Jurian smiled at her wickedly. ‘Elvish idiot.’
‘Quite,’ Vassa sighed. ‘He’s just like a colt. So easy to rile.’
Lucien's cheeks turned warm and they all laughed.
She added tentatively, ‘Though, I might deign to understand what he meant.’
She looked him up and down, then glanced to Jurian.
‘Transformation past.’
She gestured to herself, the night pooled around them in the woods.
‘Transformation present.’
She looked to Lucien, with full eyes and a smile that only betrayed sadness. She didn’t need to say it.
Transformation future. In other words: stagnation.
His purpose was elsewhere, but could not even be broached until time deemed it so. His torture was the waiting itself and being doomed to wait, indefinitely. His punishment was not being able to enjoy the present, and present company, as much as he truly wished to.
So it was here, in these woods around the estate, that he made his decision.
‘There’s something I need to talk to you about, back at the house.’
Nobody said a word, but Vassa gently offered him a guiding hand and Jurian’s own was a grounding presence at his back.
Lucien accepted both, gratefully.
+
‘I want to… nullify the mating bond.’
Vassa did nothing but blink at him once from over the rim of her teacup. Jurian stayed exceedingly stiff and didn’t move an inch, as if doing so might summon something evil listening just outside the drawing room.
‘I mean, dampen it,’ Lucien clarified, desperately. ‘At least… postpone it. Is there a way to enact that?’
Silence.
He continued, ‘Elain is… Fae now, so should in theory live as long as I might.’
‘In theory, Lucien?’ asked Vassa. ‘I need not remind you that this peace is tenuous, in a positive light. Are you willing to barter your mate’s life on strategy?’
‘Elain is a seer. I have already agreed not to interact with her, or seek her out. I will allow her to come to me, if she so needs. Or perhaps one day, wishes.’
‘It’s a fool’s errand,’ cut in Jurian.
His brown eyes met Lucien’s, and he added, 'I say so with love.' Lucien, for one, knew it to be true.
Jurian continued.
‘Locating a magical source for such a spell, let alone casting it, would attract too much ire.
‘Plus, who’s to say she can just find you whenever she wants and steal you away?’ He settled back a little and tilted his head to Vassa. ‘We can’t have that, now can we?’
'No,' she smiled. 'We cannot.'
She said, to the three of them, 'Lucien Vanserra, you are bound to the Band of Exiles. With or without magic, you are now one of us.'