Luc and Malthios Reconcile

Luc and Malthios Reconcile turns a dispute over Theo’s safety into the beginning of a difficult, chosen trust. After Malthios returns with Theo, Luc’s anger makes plain that love for Theo has not yet become confidence in the Demon King sharing his body. Theo refuses to take control until the two men address that conflict; the forced conversation at home brings their separate fears into view and ends with a promise of trust, a kiss between Luc and Theo, and Malthios’s first sense that connection might give his life a purpose beyond bloodshed.

Causes and Background

Theo’s shared body with Malthios is not a simple partnership between equals. Earlier, Theo refused to follow Malthios’s suggestions because he resented being told what to do, not because he claimed a higher moral standing. Malthios responded with threats and belittlement, and his fits left Theo bedridden with severe headaches. Their dependence ran both ways: Malthios was a prisoner in Theo’s mind and body, while Theo could not keep his thoughts or feelings from him. This history makes the question of trust more complicated than whether Malthios can be kind. It concerns autonomy, coercion, and the fact that neither can simply leave the other behind.

Theo also had reason to expect that intimacy could be taken from him. He knew friendship might not save him if others discovered that he was the Demon King’s host, and his first response to that danger was to prepare to run. Luc’s commitment offered another kind of security: Theo had promised to wait for him, and Luc placed his father’s ring on Theo’s marriage finger. But their bond existed alongside external pressure. Luc’s former lover Julius told Theo that Hero Eliza had ordered him to refuse Luc’s invitation to join the party, threatening to take everything from him if he did not. Julius believed Eliza wanted Luc to continue the bloodline and sire the next Hero, a future incompatible with either Julius or Theo. The couple’s chosen life therefore stood against both the Hero’s inherited duty and the expectation that Luc’s future should serve a lineage.

That tension became public when Theo’s identity was exposed at his trial. The court agreed that Healer Theo was guilty of protecting Malthios, and Theo was taken to the dungeon. In response, the people of Leafel appeared through a mirror spell and demanded his release. Their action countered Theo’s fear that discovery would leave him alone, but it did not automatically settle the more intimate problem between Luc and Malthios: how Luc could love Theo while sharing his life with the Demon King.

The Dispute at the Watchtower

The reconciliation begins at the Leafel Adventurers’ Guild Watchtower, where the Leafel adventuring party, Luc, Khal, and Veiv are preparing for an assault. Malthios lands there with Theo, and Luc confronts him before their boots have touched the ground. His anger is directed at the danger Malthios has put Theo in. Malthios answers that Luc is speaking as though Theo could not take control whenever he chose; according to Malthios, Theo thought letting them handle the situation was best.

Luc restrains himself from continuing the argument and runs his fingers through his messy dark hair. His request is not for Malthios to defend himself or explain the wider situation, but to give Theo back to them. The wording exposes the immediate emotional divide: Luc experiences the shared body as a possible loss of the person he loves, while Malthios understands Theo’s choice as evidence that Theo still retains agency. Neither interpretation is wholly dismissed by the scene. Malthios can speak for Theo’s ability to take control, but Luc’s fear shows that knowing this does not yet make him feel safe.

When Luc asks where Theo is, Malthios says that his lover is being stubborn. Theo then sets a condition from within: he will not take control again until Luc and Malthios work something out. Malthios tells Luc that Theo intends to keep them together until they talk. Theo’s refusal makes the conflict impossible to evade. Rather than resolve it by taking over, he uses his control to require a conversation between the two people whose relationship has become part of his daily life.

A Difficult Evening at Home

Luc agrees to go home, and the setting shifts from the confrontation at the Watchtower to the potion-room kitchen of the healer’s cottage. The domestic scene does not soften the disagreement at once. Malthios sits backwards on a chair while Luc angrily makes dinner; neither speaks. Theo’s impatience is perceptible to Malthios, but Theo still makes no attempt to resume control. Malthios considers provoking him into doing so, then stops short because he does not want to worsen Theo’s anger.

The meal gives their silence a concrete shape. Luc serves steak with roasted potatoes, carrots, and beets. Malthios answers with a growled thanks; they eat without conversation, accompanied only by cutlery and the crackle of the fire. Afterward, Malthios does the washing-up that Theo usually handles because Luc has cooked. Luc allows this small exchange of care without comment, then goes to clean up. Their cooperation is not yet reconciliation, but it disrupts the assumption that every interaction must become another contest.

The strain follows them upstairs to the loft bedroom and its single large bed. Malthios’s wings make their arrangement awkward, forcing him to lie on his side facing Luc so they will not touch. Luc stares at the ceiling before admitting the heart of his fear: he does not distrust Luc’s love, but he does not trust Theo to anyone. Malthios asks whether that includes Theo himself. He explains that Theo still makes the choices and can take control whenever he wishes; Theo would not permit Malthios to do anything he did not want. Luc then identifies his actual suspicion: he does not trust Malthios.

Tentative Trust and a Shared Future

The turning point comes when Luc reaches toward Malthios’s wings. Their sensitivity makes the gesture intimate, and Malthios hesitates because the last person to touch them was Aym, with whom he had once shared the mutual grooming of feathers after sex. Malthios says the wings are all he has left that is his, and Luc withdraws his hand. The exchange briefly exposes a past and a vulnerability that are Malthios’s, not Theo’s. Luc recognizes that Theo is not the only one trapped. Malthios agrees, while distinguishing their circumstances: Theo did not choose this shared body.

That recognition allows each man to acknowledge the other without pretending their positions are identical. Luc says he will try to trust Malthios for Theo’s sake. Malthios, in turn, says he will try to remember that they are no longer alone. The promises are deliberately limited: neither claims that suspicion has vanished, only that each will attempt a different response to it. Theo then takes control again, and Luc’s face lights up before he pulls Theo into an intense kiss. Malthios does not complain about the change. Instead, he is grateful to rest after the day and the awkward evening.

The scene closes by widening the meaning of reconciliation beyond a private truce. Malthios recalls that he had never been sociable and that his friends once had to force their way into his life; now the people of Leafel and Luc have done something similar for Theo. He recognizes that connection has returned to his life and that its purpose need not be stained with blood. The final possibility—that even the Demon King might receive a happily ever after—does not erase the danger or the history between them. It makes happiness imaginable through shared boundaries, Theo’s continuing agency, and the imperfect willingness of Luc and Malthios to trust one another.