Luc–Malthios relationship

Luc–Malthios relationship is an uneasy bond formed through Theo, the person whose body Luc loves and Malthios inhabits. At first, Luc sees Malthios as a threat to Theo’s safety and autonomy; Malthios sees Luc’s fear as understandable, given Luc’s history with Eliza. Their eventual accommodation does not erase the danger or the strain of sharing a body. Instead, it rests on a crucial recognition: Theo remains able to choose, and neither of the other two is alone in the arrangement.

A relationship mediated by Theo

Luc and Malthios do not begin as a conventional pair. Their connection is shaped by Theo’s place between them: Luc is his lover, while Malthios shares his body. That structure makes any disagreement about risk or control immediately intimate. Luc’s concern is not abstract distrust of demons; it is fear for the person he loves, while Malthios must negotiate a life inside a body that is not his alone.

The arrangement also asks Luc to treat Malthios as more than an intruder. When Luc finally gives voice to the problem, he admits that he does not trust Malthios. Malthios accepts this without demanding immediate faith, recognizing that Luc was raised by Eliza, who hates him most. Luc’s response suggests that Eliza’s hostility has not left him untouched, but that he is no longer simply acting within her loyalties: he remarks that she does not seem to like him much now either.

Luc’s chosen future

Luc’s commitment to Theo has already required him to confront the future others expected him to serve. Recalling his earlier relationships, he describes a maid in training from their youth and a squire who ended their relationship when Luc was announced as leaving; the squire had refused Luc’s request to come with him. Later relationships during stays in other towns could not last. Luc calls this the fate of the Hero, a pattern of temporary intimacy shaped by a life of constant departure.

That pattern is challenged by his promise to Theo. At a moment of commitment, Theo touches the pendant and reminds Luc that he promised to wait, however long it took. Luc answers with his father’s ring: a silver band textured like scales, set with a dark sapphire. He explains that it is all he has of his father, who died after saving his adventuring party from a demon attack. Luc places it on Theo’s marriage finger, and the ring fits snugly. The inherited object connects Luc’s past to the future he is choosing with Theo; it carries a family history of loss, but Luc uses it to make a commitment of his own.

That choice stands against Eliza’s pressure to continue the Hero’s bloodline and sire the next Hero. Julius tells Theo that Eliza had threatened him to make him refuse Luc’s invitation to join the party, because she wanted no distractions from Luc’s duty. Luc’s response to the prospect of losing Theo is resolute: he has no intention of letting him go. Later, when Eliza challenges Luc for choosing a life with the man he loves over his training and bloodline, he calls it the only choice he has ever made for himself. He wants a quiet, peaceful life with Theo and a world in which people born with the Hero’s gift can choose their fate rather than be bound to duty. His decision gives the relationship with Theo a political and familial dimension, while also clarifying why Malthios’s presence matters: Luc is defending a future founded on choice, not inherited obligation.

Conflict over danger and control

The sharpest confrontation between Luc and Malthios comes when Malthios lands by the Watchtower, where the Leafel adventurer party, Luc, Khal, and Veiv are preparing for an assault. Luc sees them arrive and storms over, his magic responding to his anger. He demands to know why Malthios put Theo in danger. Malthios counters that Theo could take control at any time and had thought it best for them to handle the situation. The two are arguing over more than a tactical decision: Luc treats Malthios’s action as a risk imposed on Theo, while Malthios insists that Theo’s judgment was involved.

Luc restrains himself from saying more and asks for Theo to be returned to them. The request exposes how little comfort the shared body offers when Theo is absent from conscious control. Malthios then tells Luc that Theo is refusing to take over until they work something out. Frustrated, Malthios describes them as stuck together until they talk. The delay forces Luc and Malthios to address their conflict directly instead of treating Theo’s return as a substitute for resolving it.

At home, their silence continues through dinner. Malthios does the washing up that Theo usually does after his lover cooks, while Luc goes to clean himself. In the loft bedroom, Malthios has to lie on his side so his wings will not touch Luc; Luc lies on his back, glaring at the ceiling. The close quarters make their unresolved distrust impossible to ignore. Luc finally explains that he does not distrust Malthios because he doubts his love for Theo; rather, he cannot trust Theo to anyone. Malthios challenges the implication that Theo is powerless, pointing out that Theo still makes the choices and can take control whenever he wishes. He would not do anything Theo did not want.

Recognition and uneasy trust

Luc’s answer is blunt: he guesses that he does not trust Malthios, then. Malthios does not claim that this is unfair. Instead, he understands the history behind it: Luc was raised by the person who hates him most. The exchange shifts their conflict from accusation to explanation. Luc’s fear remains, but Malthios recognizes its source rather than dismissing it; Luc, in turn, begins to see the person sharing Theo’s body as someone caught in the same circumstance.

That recognition becomes explicit when Luc reaches toward Malthios’s wings. Malthios hesitates, explaining that the last person to touch them was Aym, with whom he used to groom feathers after sex; demon wings are sensitive, and the gesture had been intimate. He says the wings are all he has left that is his, and Luc withdraws his hand. Luc then acknowledges that Theo is not the only one trapped. Malthios answers that Theo did not choose the situation. Their exchange does not make the conditions equal: Malthios’s concern includes his own loss, while Theo did not choose to share his body. But Luc’s recognition opens a path toward compassion without erasing that distinction.

Luc promises to try to trust Malthios for Theo’s sake. Malthios promises, in turn, to remember that they are not alone anymore. Theo then takes control, and Luc’s face lights up as he pulls him into an intense kiss. Malthios does not object; after a difficult day and awkward evening, he is glad to rest. He reflects that he had never been sociable and that friends, as well as the people of Leafel and Luc, had to force their way into his life. The closing note frames his new connection not as a victory over Luc but as a return to companionship and a purpose not stained with blood. Their trust remains a promise to try, but it changes the shared-body bond from a contest over Theo into a relationship in which all three can begin to make room for one another.