Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1) by Grayson Sinclair (black authors fiction txt) 📕

my head. I couldn’t think of one good reason to bear such a noticeable scar, especially since I had yet to see her wear any clothing that could reasonably be considered modest.

“Mind explaining why?” I asked.

Eris stopped and looked down, blushing at the question. She fidgeted with her hands, as I went in the bathroom in the hall and cleaned myself off. She’d wiped away most of the blood, but there were still some trouble spots. I cleaned myself off as best I could with the bucket of water next to me and went back into the room to change clothes.

I was out of fresh clothes, so I chose the cleanest shirt I had, a dark burgundy that clung tight to my chest and my black canvas pants. They’ll just get dirty from the East Kingdom roads, but I’ll buy some new clothes when we get to Central.

By the time I’d dressed, Eris had picked up all of our stuff and handed it out to me. I stowed it in my inventory, and we left the safe house. We were only a few miles from the Compass Kingdom, and breakfast could wait.

I saddled Lacuna, and we set off, Eris in front as usual. She didn’t say anything for a little while, and she hadn’t answered the question I’d asked her. I was beyond curious, so I nudged her a bit.

“Got an answer?”

“Well, yes, I do…it’s because you’re my husband and bond-mate. You’re the person I’ve pledged myself to, and bearing this scar is proof of that. I am yours, as you are mine. Until eternity,” she said, smiling.

I leaned down and kissed her cheek. “You’re weird, y’know that?”

She laughed, her whole body shaking as we rode. “You’re not the first person to tell me that, and you can blame my parents.”

Oh, right. I really need to talk to her about that. “Hey, so, we need to talk,” I said with hesitation.

Eris tilted her head to stare at me with one eye. “What about?”

“After what happened last night, when I woke up, I had your blood in my mouth. I passed out, and I think I experienced your memories.”

Her breath hitched in her throat. “What?”

I didn’t really know what to say, and I really didn’t want to bring up what I’d seen. I wanted nothing more than for Eris to wipe those feelings, every one of those awful memories away. I had too many of them myself to carry any more.

But I can’t do that, not to her.

I could never let myself forget the torment and misery that she’d gone through. If she could go through that and still have the strength to smile, then the very least I could do was help to shoulder some of her pain.

Fear and apprehension drifted from Eris, along with curiosity. She wanted to know what I’d seen but was a little afraid of the answers.

“I saw your childhood. How your father treated you...and I saw your mother’s coronation.”

Eris winced at that, knowing exactly what I’d seen. She sighed and nodded. “Was that all you saw?”

“No,” I said, refusing to elaborate.

“What else?” she prompted.

I didn’t want to answer her; the sights in the Mnemosyne were too vivid. It lingered still in my eyes. Eris suffering as she watched her mother die was one of the worse sights I’d seen. At least Micah hadn’t suffered. It’d been quick.

“Sam?” she asked, her voice stretched tight with worry. I let go of the reins for a moment, and Lacuna slowed to a stop. I held Eris and rested my chin on her shoulder and whispered, “I…saw the price you had to pay.”

I left the rest alone, and she didn’t need the details. I just held her closer, trying to push away both of our pain. She relaxed at my touch, melting into me. There was an unvoiced fear spiking through her that needed an answer.

“You don’t have to be afraid. Nothing I saw could ever scare me away.”

“So, you can feel my emotions too,” she said, not asking, just confirming.

“If I concentrate hard enough, yeah. Why? Is that a problem?”

Eris threw back her head and laughed at that, leaning on me as she shook. It was a laugh filled with warmth. The sound was addicting, and I’d have paid every gold I owned to hear it again.

“Problem? No, of course not. It’s just surprising. You shouldn’t be able to. I’d have said it was impossible. And you definitely shouldn’t be able to access the Mnemosyne since you’re not an entomancer. I don’t see how, but I like it,” she said, giving me a radiant smile.

 Eris started humming softly as I pushed Lacuna to a walk. Having a deeper connection through our bond made her incredibly happy.

As we rode, Lacuna's hooves plodding through the dirt joined Eris’s humming and formed an offbeat song as we passed endless trees and green fields. We both enjoyed the presence of each other and didn’t ruin the moment with our words.

When we entered the outskirts of Grange, we passed an Alliance patrol. The first of many.

They patrolled on a frequent, infrequent schedule, never making the same loop twice. It, more than anything else, deterred banditry and thuggery in the area. You could never predict when the next patrol would pass by, and one shout would have the whole territory alert in seconds.

A rash of cattle mutilations and arson several years ago cost the Merchants Guild some serious coin, enough that they strong-armed the Alliance to devise new routes and schedules.

As it was, this area was as safe as we were likely to find. It wasn’t quite midday, and thousands of farmers were toiling away in their fields under the harsh light of the sun. In under an hour, they would flock by the hundreds to the dozen or