#Every time T.histle was coming back home after running around the dungeon doing maintainance or something

[villain-in-love]

So. The kinda-kidnapping incident. The one I talked about in the last ask.

So, maybe three years since they first met, Thistle no longer wants to kill Kiera. Our boy is in love and desperately wants to have her by his side. The problem is: she’s still highly dangerous. So his solution is to seal away her magic and lock her up in his house.

He thought about it for a long time, trying to rationalize why would he need to execute this idea that spontaneously appeared in his head – why would he actually need Kiera? How is she useful to the Golden Kingdom? I think this is the time when Thistle finally admits to himself that he’s in love with Kiera, and perhaps there is one selfish thing he wants to do. He still came to a conclusion that he’s doing a good thing – he wants to take care of his beloved and keep her safe from danger, is there’s anything bad about it? …that, and he also wants her to become less dangerous to his dungeon and the Golden Kingdom.

I think that if he somehow managed to trick the Winged Lion to seal it into the book, he should be able to do so with Kiera. Though the plan he came up with flusters him to no end, this is his best idea. It relies a bit on a shock factor, and for the first time in a while, he will need his ritual knife (he most likely never uses actual weapons, but Marcille also suddenly pulled out a knife when she had to perform a bloody ancient magic ritual. So I guess Thistle would also have a blade for similar purposes).

The plan is to throw Kiera into the earlier prepared magic circle during another fight. Pin her to the ground with the knife, and kiss her to distract her. While she’s dazed from a kiss and pain combined, get away from her and read the incantation.

It worked, but it was stressful – in Thistle’s calculations, if he didn’t do things swiftly enough, she really would kill him in retaliation with his own ritual blade. She dropped to the ground powerless mere seconds before she could get out of the magic circle.

When she woke up, she was in an unfamiliar dusty mess of a house, with a wound on her palm by which she was pinned completely healed, and all of her weapons missing. Lying in bed with a blanket put over her, no less. The situation was shocking, but it was enough to look at the books and the clothes that were lying around to figure out who is the owner of the house.

In the process of figuring what has happened, she found out that she is also magically tied to this house, and physically cannot walk further than a specific perimeter around it.

It's been a long while since the last time Kiera was this angry. Absolutely livid and murderous, cursing Thistle out in every language she knows, and trying to kill him. However, without her magic and regeneration factor, she can’t quite keep up with a dungeon lord, especially the one who is an experienced mage. The fact that Thistle stayed completely calm while deflecting her attacks, and was just trying to convince her to calm down without hurting her made Kiera feel even worse.

The first week was the most intense, obviously. Then Kiera calmed down a little bit and decided that she might as well take this as a chance to get more information on Thistle, since she is obsessed with him as well, at the end of the day… also he has an entire small library in his house, with books you won’t be able to find anywhere anymore. That's an opportunity it would be a shame to miss.

She proceeded to thoroughly investigate his house.

And so, for some time they settled in a bizarre parody of a domestic life. Thistle is happy his beloved is by his side and he can take care of her, Kiera is going crazy stuck in one place without being able to run around and fight. She was seriously doing her best to be a nuisance. But what really takes her out is how sweet and attentive Thistle was towards her now, when he finally has things going his way and he doesn’t consider her to be that much of a threat. Even her regular attempts to murder him don’t help with that.

One specific moment I imagine is a scene in which Kiera is cooking something for herself (still debating whether to share with Thistle), and accidentally cuts her hand with a knife, since she’s not used to cooking. She stares in horror at the wound that doesn’t just immediately heal, so Thistle notices that something is wrong. He takes her hand in his to heal it, and then remarks that from now on, if she accidentally injures herself again, she can always ask him to heal her. Kiera is both struck with existential dread at these words, but also can’t stop thinking about Thistle holding her hand gently to heal her.

I think Kiera will spend about a half of the year in his house before she designs a (bloody and unpleasant) ritual to get her magic back and breaks out. Thistle will be heartbroken and maybe a bit mad, because to him it felt like a declaration of “I don’t love you back”, like he was truly abandoned, she doesn’t want him and doesn’t want a happy life with him, and it just doesn’t feel the same now, to be alone, and he’s also so damn offended…

Overall, I created this situation for a temporary change of pace. To see how they would function in a different environment/situation. Also, most of their interactions happen how Kiera wants it – she prefers this game of fighting and running around, stalking and trying to kill each other. So I decided that it’s only fair to do things that way Thistle wants, for once.

Also both got hurt emotionally – Kiera was starting to fall back into depression while stuck in Thistle’s house, going mad from powerlessness and boredom. And after she runs away, it’s time for Thistle to feel terrible.