Magic, he says teasingly.

I love you so much, he says. You know me so well. This is amazing, it's like that time after the identity song but better, I am so completely fucking helpless and I love it, I love you, you're terrifying in the best way, you make me so happy.

Another feather? That sounds fun.

It hurts, it hurts really intensely, and there's nothing getting in the way of him paying attention to how much it hurts, there's just his body and his senses, no need to spend the slightest fraction of a thought on what to do because he can't do anything... oh yes, he likes his song. He likes this song a lot. He is so fragile, so helpless, so utterly at Maitimo's mercy, and there is absolutely nowhere he'd rather be.

Awww. He kisses him and ruffles his hair and tortures him and it's lovely.

It is lovely. It's incredibly lovely. It's awful and terrifying and agonizing and wonderful and peaceful and safe, and he is crying with pain and joy.

I love you so much, he says, you're so good at this, it's everything I wanted, it's better than I could've imagined, I'm so glad I'm yours.

His thoughts are dreamy, scattered, wrapped in a haze of pain. He's so happy. Maitimo makes him so, so happy, he really wants Maitimo to know that, if he could move he'd hand Maitimo his soul again to communicate it as clearly as possible.

Maitimo can read his mind, and it is communicated very clearly. He doesn't want to take his soul again, though, that'd make it harder to torture him.

An entirely reasonable set of priorities.

His eyes sting with tears and his breath comes in quiet sobs and he can't move, can't do anything - he doesn't actually know if he could put away his wings, he's certainly not going to try it, not when Maitimo is doing such wonderful things with them - Maitimo could do anything to him right now, anything at all, but he feels so safe, terrified and delighted and completely, perfectly safe.

And lit up like a bonfire, that too. Being Maitimo's helpless toy is incredibly hot. He kind of really hopes Maitimo is going to fuck him at some point during all this, preferably while he is still a helpless crying terrified mess with half his feathers torn out, that would be amazing.

That does sound lovely.

Raika-seren loves his favourite Maitimo so much.

Also, as much as he enjoys being tortured, all crying and terrified and loving it anyway, he also really appreciates the kinds of pain that are just thoroughly nice. Like when Maitimo was choking him, or any other time Maitimo's hands are on him with enough pressure to leave a bruise - it's pure bliss, it's like trust songs, it's like he's going to melt. He is delighted beyond measure that this is a reaction he can have now.

It is very convenient. Kiss.

Kisses are lovely. Maitimo is lovely. Being helpless in Maitimo's hands is lovely. Everything is lovely. But Maitimo is definitely the loveliest.

He lets the song fade.

His Taliar grins at him the very moment he is able to do so.

"I love you," he says, stretching his tattered wings just to feel them leave glittering trails of agony in his mind. "And I love that song. Wow."

"You are fascinatingly easy to please," he says, and kisses him, and takes his soul again.

Love. Endless oceans of love. And trust and joy and contentment and - the feeling of being welcome, the feeling of being home. Maitimo makes him so very happy, and he is so very glad that Maitimo finds that a worthwhile pursuit. There is nowhere he'd rather be, no one he'd rather be with.

He pockets the soul and leaves Taliar crumpled there dizzy with delight and goes off to shower and get back to work.

And Taliar, of course, stays right where Maitimo left him, happily drowning in more love and trust and intimacy than his mind can hold. Soul contact is such a good thing for Maitimo to be able to do to him.

Eventually he'll put Taliar's soul around his neck where he's not touching it. Can you heal yourself from there?

Technically yes.

The healing aura always starts from his soul, though, so healing himself from here would involve expanding his healing aura until it reaches him. And he could avoid that by popping into his Sphere, which has a permanent healing aura in it, but someone took away his eidetic memory necklace and he's not making a portal to his Sphere from Maitimo's bedroom without being explicitly invited to do so.

Seems like a perfectly good place for one.

Okay then.

He makes a portal directly into his castle, and steps through, and shivers as the golden glow wraps him up and soothes away all his pain. His feathers are good as new after a few seconds.

I love you.

And he definitely does not remember where that necklace got to.

Left it with your clothes.

Thank you.

In which case he should probably find his clothes and his necklace and get back to work himself. Always something more to be done around here.

And also that was nearly twelve hours. You don't have much sense of time when I'm holding your soul, and I suspect it's off even when I'm merely torturing you.