The Last Flame - Crystal Bow

Chapter 15

Saphaer walked into the dining room where Naireth had sat.

"I moved my prisoner to another cell." He said conversationally. Naireth looked over at him. "Are you pampering your pet?"

"You could say that, yeah." The fae yawned in boredom. Buckie still refused any of his requests, but that was fire. He'd seen the tumble the boy had taken and he'd seen how much blood stained the floor. If the pain didn't get to him, exhaustion would. Saphaer would make sure that the boy would never forget his mistake.

"How is your pet?" Naireth asked, flicking his fingers. Saphaer blinked. "He's gone and broke his ankle. I want to see if he can fix it himself or if he'll make himself a cripple."

"You're a lot colder than when I left." Naireth looked over at Saphaer in surprise.

"The world gets a lot colder when you're two-thousand and the king of the Fae." Saphaer shook his head. Naireth nodded. "That makes sense. We really have been gone for a while, have we?"

"Long enough to be dismissed as a myth by the humans." Saphaer flicked his wrist and stared into his ale before taking a sip. 

"Hmm." Naireth looked angry for a few moments before he, too, drank his drink. He glared at it long after it was done. "What is this piss you call ale?"

"It's not very strong, I agree." Saphaer nodded and looked up at the bartender. "Hey! You!"

The man looked up from cleaning the counter, eyes wide.

"Bring us your strongest drinks!" Saphaer decided. The bartender nodded and rushed off. Saphaer pushed his mug away. 

"I'm glad that your subjects obey you, for the most part." Naireth huffed. "Mine are starting to grow the ballsacks to question me."

"At least they have a ballsack at all." Saphaer watched as the bartender brought him his drink. "I'm starting to grow tired of people running away as soon as they see me."

"Here, here!" Naireth rose his ale and began to down his ale. "Now this..this is good."

Saphaer nodded and agreed as he began to down his drink. Once he was finished, he pushed it away and sat down as a few things began to swim in his peripheral vision. Ah, that was the spot.

"The first attempt was a bit sad, but you fae have good ale otherwise." Naireth grinned. "I might go for another."

"Go light on the drinks," Saphaer recommended. "The ale is two times greater and the rebound is two times worse."

"Ah, there's always a drawback." Naireth bellowed a laugh but ordered another drink anyways. Saphaer found himself hiccuping and jumped as Naireth clapped a hand on his back. "Ah, you're just like your father. Never really had the bladder to handle Ale, did he?"

"I'll be fine." Saphaer wanted to throw up. Ale usually circulated pretty quickly with him, giving him a few minutes of mirth before leaving him practically destroyed; he got a fourth of the effect but four times the aftereffect.

"Go up to the washroom, relieve youself. I'll be having my second drink-likely third when you get down." Naireth grinned as the astounded bartender brung the dragon another ale. He chugged it and slammed the mug to the table. "Ha! Your father never took me out to ale."

"I'm not my father." Saphaer noticed how the dragon' words slurred as he headed to the washroom. After relieving himself and washing up, he returned and sat beside him. As promised, Naireth was on his third drunk.

Now the dragon was hiccuping, his face filled with delighted mirth. "Oh, joy! Saphaer, you may be my favorite."

Saphaer blinked as the bartender brought him another drink, but he politely refused. His head still swam from the last, so Naireth gleefully downed both of them.

"Aaright, I'mma done for the night." The Dragon King's words were so slurred that they bled into each other. "I'mma...fuck-" He stumbled getting up and gripped the chair so much that it cracked. "I'mma head to my quarters...go to fuckin...gotobed..."

"Alright." Saphaer sighed. "Pray to the Gods that you sleep off the effects."

"Seeya round, thinblood!" Naireth cackled before he retreated to his sleeping quarters, leaving Saphaer alone.