Dark Armor: Priorities

So... sometimes in the process of writing you pull together a scene -- maybe even one that you've been looking forward to -- and then when you go back and read it, it just... doesn't work. It's the wrong point in the plot, or it doesn't come together well, or both. (Usually both.) But the main issue here is that neither Pallian nor Amedin would allow the Black Knight to vanish just as second-prince Pallian turned up; part of the mystique associated with the Champion of Teregor is that nobody is supposed to know quite what it really is. So the Black Knight would need to either depart for battle or return to the Crypt, and then after enough of an interval to obfuscate their connection, Pallian could return. That being the case, the There's Only One Bed trope will have to wait.

"This is your room?" asked third-princess Ashmiren. 

Pallian looked around, trying to imagine how the obsidian walls and darkwood furniture would look to someone unfamiliar with them. "It was," he said. "I didn't get a lot of choices about the appointments. My room in the crypt is more mine than this is."

"I mean, it isn't bad," Ashmiren observed. "It's just... bland."

"Clearly you don't share my deep-seated appreciation for obsidian as an aesthetic in its own right," Pallian told her. He had the helmet off, and was willing the dark armor to assemble itself on the wooden training dummy that he'd used for practicing Tan-Si after hours. 

"Is it usual to have a room of one's own?" asked Ember. 

"It was usual for me," Pallian told it. He turned to look at Ashmiren. "Do you want to go look for your family?"

"I do," she said, but then she hesitated. "...But the Shadow of Edrias does not move quickly over long distances, and I have no good way to get back to Marinul. And I might be the last survivor of the House of Edrias, just as you might be the last survivor of the House of Teres. I am not eager to throw myself into battle against one of the Second without support."

She did not add, Especially after he dropped a building on me, but then again she didn't have to. Pallian nodded his understanding. He didn't think that the half-dead priest Amedin had realized that the Shadow of Edrias and the Nightmare Lord Ember had taken part in the battle and were still in the citadel, which was why he had them gathered in his room: he knew the wards here, had set most of them himself, and could tell if anything was out of place. Outside of the crypt, this was the safest place in all of Teregor for them to talk. 

"So stay with me," he said, hoping his tone remained casual. "Let us rest, and learn what Amedin has discovered come morning." The armor rebuilt itself around the practice dummy, leaving Pallian in only his pants and shirt. Without it he was nearly swaying with exhaustion, and the bed looked better and better. 

"You would have us lay with you?" asked Ember.

Pallian turned to look at the nightmare lord. "If you need sleep," he said. "If you do not, there are books and the chair at the desk is not uncomfortable." 

There was a momentary pause, as the pale figure considered. "It is not a large bed," the nightmare said, "but I would prefer to lay beside you."

Ashmiren had her mask and hood off, though the rest of her body appeared to be cloaked in shadows. She swallowed, then said: "I would, too."