[Between clenched teeth, Eridanus sucks in a sharp breath as those claws shift across his skin. They trace the arch of bone and dip of muscle, and despite the fact that his skin has once more become the unforgiving density of stone, he swears he can almost feel them draw blood beneath their adulating weight. His gaze never leaves the visage of his Eternal despite them, though. Rather, he's content in watching how that lipless mouth delivers each syllable, carefully cradled by a serpentine tongue.

He imagines that pain—nails tearing through his flesh, flensing meat from bone until there is nothing left but a bare soul in all of its vulnerability before the eyes of oblivion. To claim such an experience as judgment would be silly, by the sound of it, as fate is decided for any who step into the realm of the Prince... unless that person is Lucius. Once more his lungs are breathless, crushed beneath the magnanimity of his consort's prowess—and in the space of that breathlessness, Eridanus finds his chest swell to bursting with adoration.

A smile splits his face behind the guard of his opal maw, and he turns his cheek into the hand that caresses it. A warmth just for him, he thinks, a pleasure meant only for the one who is Champion of a demi-god. In the cloistered space between them, Eridanus shifts so that he hooks his foot against the hock of Lucius' bull-leg.]

You are incredible, my love. [He whispers sweetly,] I am still virginal to the pleasures of damnation. I will not lie, it scares me. If only I could have a fraction of your courage...

[Eridanus pauses to lift one of his glittering, opal talons to trace incomplete patterns over the expanse of Lucius' chest.]

I wonder, then — if the day we join our souls together — will I, too, venture to see the Prince's realm? Will I enjoy that agony beside you, each and every time you are pulled down into the abyss? Just the thought of it is enough to shiver excitement down my spine...