Accepting what Vincent said without being certain of it was hard at first, but then they stepped out into the cave that she recognised as his and she sighed, relieved that he hadn't tried to abuse her trust.
Her eyes immediately went to the opening of the room and then back to Vincent.
"Bath?" she asked, making Hunter laugh.
He headed to look at the paper and books that were piled on every available surface. She was more interested in a bath than what the Hunter had been up to, and she followed the Hunter eagerly from the room and down the hall while Malik padded along behind her, not trusting the man to protect her.
"You'll have to stay here almost entirely. I think I have it figured out but I'm not entirely certain."
"What is it you have been working on?" she asked, following along close behind him, and looking around curiously, her fingers making quick work of the gag in Malik's mouth.
"It was initially to get more power, but then it became getting you your magic back."
She froze, her eyes locked on his back and it took him a few beats to realise, turning to look at her.
"You said you weren't going to let anyone abuse me…" Her voice was accusatory, a fear going through her as she pictured him and Hunter holding her, trapped and unable to escape in the labyrinth caves the Hunters lived in.
There would be nothing she could do to stop him—or both of them—from taking what they wanted.
"It's not what you think. I wasn't going to abuse you," he said, seeing her hesitation and the fear flowing through her. "Etani, I swear, I had no intention of forcing myself on you. I desire you like no other, but I will not betray you like that."
There was an inflection on his word choice that made her think he was taking about another betrayal.
She nodded slowly, still not entirely sure, but she took him at his word. It still took him another minute to coax her with the promise of a bath and she finally broke and followed after him, the need to be clean too great.
"Then how?" she asked finally, unsure of what she could do, and so she motioned for Malik to move forward, and as he walked ahead of her, she worked on releasing the ropes that bound him so effectively.
"By getting you to create a second Faerie."
"What?" She had no idea what he was talking about, and when she hesitated, he took her by the hand and pulled her along into the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. A steady supply of water was falling from a spot on the ceiling and had formed a pool in the middle of the room, not enough to bathe in, but the dropping water would be enough to clean herself. She immediately shook his hand off hers, forgot Malik, and her clothes dropped onto the floor. She was under the water in record time. She didn't even care that they were seeing her naked, though it wasn't the first time either of them had.
"It's speculation right now, just theories on what the Creators had been intending to do with the human world. My theory is, you should be able to sort of... replicate Faerie. Take a mould of it and duplicate it, then feed it into the current one. Still, it's just speculation at this point, but there doesn't appear to be a reason why it wouldn't work, at least until the Gods did what they did, and then Sobek came along for round two." He sounded bitter.
She agreed with his mood, looking around to find a small alcove with a bar of soap, a little ball of something and a minimal selection of oils.
"You think I can create a new Faerie? We don't know what, if anything, created the current one," she said, studying the little ball that was rock hard until she touched it and it started to inflate while pulling every hint of moisture from her skin.
"Sea sponge, you use it to scrub your skin," he said to her confusion, and she was sceptical.
It really was no wonder they were such a hostile bunch, with their lack of possessions, living in a cave with just soap to clean themselves, and on top of that, cleaning themselves with rocks.
Pulling the rock out of the alcove, she watched in fascination as it swelled up under the flow of water and when she squeezed it, it was soft and squishy.
Making a sound of pleasure, she rubbed the soap onto it and started scrubbing at her skin furiously, working off the dried blood.
"I believe that you can, yes. That's what they were trying to do with the creation of the human world, isn't it?"
"So, they say," she murmured. The water was freezing, and it was amazing for her, though she felt a little bad for the men who lived there. "Are there no female Hunters?"
"No, we procreate through other species," he said calmly.
She nodded, searching her body for more blood, then wringing out the sponge before sorting through the oils. There was nothing feminine, and she sighed, going with the most neutral smelling she could find which turned out to smell oddly like a pine tree.
"So, the plan now is to break the binding of the Gods? With Sobek's binding coming first?" she asked, rubbing the oil into her hair and scrubbing at her scalp.
"Basically, yes."
"How is it my creating a second Faerie will help you?" she asked, thinking over the conversation. She smiled, noticing he hadn't wanted her to ask that.
"Excluding the fact that I'll have been the one who enabled you to do it? I believe you will still need another to complete the task."
"I'm not going to have sex with you," she said simply.
"I'm not so sure that is a requirement…" he said, and she made a mental note of his uncertainty on the matter.
"Vincent..." she said in a warning tone.
"I will not force you to do anything you do not wish to do," he said simply.
She nodded slowly, rinsing out her hair, and doing one last check, she stepped out of the water and accepted a large rectangle of cotton. It wasn't a towel, but it would do.
"So, you wish to be the father of another world?" she asked, smiling at Malik who had been following the conversation carefully while watching her every move.
"Basically."
"Do you think it will change you?"
"It changed Daemon."
"What do you mean?" she demanded, but he only smirked, refusing to tell her.
"You can use some robes while your clothes are cleaned," he said.
She nodded, drying herself off then wrapping the little towel around her hair, pulling on one of the robes while he collected her clothes from the floor.