It's the Bane Sin Bin

I got back to working with Gortash thanks to dear Lore (@gortashsrighthand 🤍) — she commissioned a scene and I had to prepare him for it. Just couldn't help it, I wanted a portrait first. I love this genre — micro face posing, expressions, experiments, eyes...

Then I wanted to find the previous portrait. And it took me a while to dig it up — almost a year ago.

Almost a year apart. Going back to old work is bittersweet in the best way — I had no idea what I was doing, and I loved it. Still so much to figure out.

To me, here he even looks younger (and attractive — which I never expected to say, but here we are. I bet you can guess why :)

What do you think?

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Nothing could have prepared Tav for what she felt the next day, waking up alone. A bottomless pit in her stomach, making her wonder if she made a terrible mistake. Regret, constricting her throat. And, worst of all: longing.  

As soon as she woke up, before even opening her eyes, she saw him. Saw him with his stupid mask, smirking at her. Heard him speak to her in that annoying voice, nasal and arrogant. Felt him, not even his cock, but his lips on her neck and his tongue on her skin. She desperately sat up, looked around and tried to focus on anything but the memory of that damn encounter, but found that she couldn’t. Like a vortex, the thought of him kept pulling her back. It took everything in her not to simply get up and walk back to that estate, trying to find him. 

I probably don’t even have to try. He acted like he owned the place. Wait… FUCK.

That realization was sobering enough. It had to be Gortash. Had to be. Not that the description of “charming” and “handsome” was particularly fitting, at least not for that man that had fucked her against the wall as if his life depended on it. He wasn’t exactly beautiful by Sword Coast standards, but she found his dark hair and grueling eyes captivating. Besides … those lips. Those hands. 

Groaning, Tav shook her head trying to clear it. Maybe there was a way to use what happened to her advantage? Then again, he’d called for the guards. Had looked her in the eyes, had felt what she felt, and then … 

What did I feel, exactly?

It was disturbing. Never before had she felt such a pull towards a complete stranger. Of course she’d found herself intrigued by people before, but Tav wasn’t one to bend over and let a random man fuck her in the middle of his house, all while his guests were present. Guests that could have recognized her as the daughter of – 

“Tav darling, are you joining us for breakfast? We’re terribly curious to hear news of Lord Gortash’s masquerade.” 

Speak of the devil. 

“I’ll be right there”, Tav called back to her mother. 

But first, she needed to take a bath. Remnants of that … gods, that grifter and slaver and potentially even murderer were probably still smeared between her legs. Washing him off of her would be almost as important as trying to figure out how to tell her mother that she couldn’t get any intel last night because she’d been too busy getting fucked. 

************

“So she lives”, Jaheira said from behind a cup of tea as soon as Tav appeared in the dining room. 

“I do indeed”, Tav replied, now freshly bathed, hair still damp and pulled back into a bun, wearing a pair of soft cotton pants and a double-woven linen shirt. She walked around the table and took a seat to her mother’s left, offering the two older women a small smile. “Apologies. It got late last night.”

“We can see that.” Her mother, ever the cheerful schemer, chuckled lightly. “Combining business with pleasure then?”

Tav tried to hide the confusion on her face, but before she could ask whatever her parent meant by that, Jaheira cleared her throat and spoke.

“She means to ask where you got that hickey on your neck, child.”

All color drained from Tav’s face. Awkwardly, and completely unbecoming of her third decade of living, she brought up her hands as if she could feel the mark Gortash left on her. 

“I had this before last night”, she quickly clarified, annoyed that she was such a bad liar. Maybe that was why Gortash had seduced her. Lured her in after immediately identifying her for the snooping intruder she was, rather than a guest. 

“And I’m the Empress of Amn”, Jaheira said sternly, corners of her mouth twitching. “Nevermind that. Did you find the documents?”

Tav tried to swallow the lump in her throat. “I found my way around the estate and confirmed the escape route through the basement. Beyond that I couldn’t get the plan in motion. Gortash spotted me snooping around and called for the guards.”

All technically true. 

The Harper cursed out quietly, earning her a disapproving look from Tav’s mother. 

“I don’t think he recognized me”, she quickly added. “So I could make contact again.”

“Are you quite sure?” Her mother’s soft eyes fixated on her. 

“Yes.” 

There was no way he would know who she was. She had only recognized him from the context clues he’d left her, and even during their time together, most of it she’d spent facing the wall. 

“Well, good”, her mother nodded. “Because your father and I talked. We’re going to officially petition for you to take our family’s seat in the Parliament. It should be a formality. As a newcomer your onboarding will be done by the rule of last.”

The rule of last was an informality that ran through most of the Sword Coast’s politics and economies: Last person to join trains the newest member. 

Gortash.

Tav felt a small flutter in her chest, sighing at the blatant display of nerves. 

“I won’t screw this up”, she replied quickly. “Though I have to wonder why you didn’t send me to the masquerade to secure an introduction instead. I could have had him wrapped around–“

Jaheira snorted. “That man has been seducing half the city. You think he wouldn’t recognize his favorite game when a new round starts?”

“I’m not some older woman with no prospec-“

“Exactly. You’re the shiny new toy, exactly the kind of honeypot we’d use on a man like him. Except we won’t. We want him to think he’s seducing you. We want him to feel in control. Until you’re in so deep you’ll drag him down with you, should he attempt to get rid of you.”

“A double agent, so to say”, her mother smiled.

Oh. So all of this was just a test.

One she had spectacularly failed. 

“Fine”, Tav replied. “I’ll just act like I hate him. Shouldn’t be a problem at all.”

None. At all.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Wet sounds … a mouth around his cock. Teeth grazing his skin, a hand wrapped around his base, squeezing. 

Fuck.

Gortash wasn’t questioning where that stranger had come back from. How she’d found his room, entered, and then slipped into his bed to suck him off. All that mattered as he slowly came to was that warm, wet feeling. 

“Gods”, he groaned, still groggy, hands slipping underneath the blanket to reach her. Maybe the guards got to her after all. Maybe she wanted to make it up to him. “I’ll come all over your face and then I’ll let you sit there, unable to clean yourself off”, he sighed, his fingers tangling in her hair. “No mask? Good … I can’t wait to see that face soiled …”

One hand in her hair, he pulled on her head, hard, while the other threw back the blanket. 

Oh.

Red eyes stared back at him. Silver hair. The features of his favorite assassin. There was a moment of silence as he watched Daria with his cock in her mouth, eyes sparkling, her mouth twisted into a smirk. 

“What are you doing?”, Gortash asked, a bit more annoyed than he wanted to let on. 

The Dark Urge pulled back, sitting up with a mischievous grin. “She tastes good. Didn’t even clean her off, hm? Want to taste her? Say please like the pathetic dog that you are and maybe I’ll give you a kiss.”

He rolled his eyes and straightened up, moving away from his partner. “How did you get in?”, he demanded to know instead, now more level-headed than in his half-asleep state. 

“No ‘Lovely to see you my dear’ or ‘please Daria, get me off so I can moan another woman’s name’? Not even a ‘Good morning how are you’?” 

Gortash paused. “Fine. Good morning, dear. How are you?”

“Fucking fantastic. Found these sweethearts down by the harbor. Romantic picnic. Ate her heart first and made him watch, than ate his for dessert.”

He’d learned not to question her too deeply about what she was up to on her own whenever she was serving Bhaal. In fact, he’d asked her many times before not to complicate matters by leaving evidence or risking people finding out about anything that could be traced back to him. He found her particular need for violence and debauchery … unbecoming. Still, he enjoyed her. Maybe even her company. 

“So you’re mad”, he gathered, swinging his legs over to the side of his bed. “There is no need for that, dear. Our shared plan is still my first priority.”

Daria threw her head back and laughed, loudly, her grey-blue skin glowing in the soft morning light. “I’m not mad about some random cunt you got to fuck”, she giggled. “I’m mad because we should be moving towards the next phase of our plan, not dilly dally around at a masquerade.”

“I’m not in the mood to continue our prolonged arguments, dear”, Gortash declared, standing up. “The party already happened. We’ll be testing the modified tadpoles soon. I can assume you’re still with me, yes?”

Back when they started out as partners, they’d settled on a very simple rule: They would be honest with each other in their alliance. And he was. But lately Daria had been distracted, her attention fractured by an ongoing fight with her own sister, Orin. Daria showing up here was a display of power. She never showed up uninvited. Had never dared to simply break into his bedroom. And while she’d woken him up with his cock in her throat before, that had always happened after they’d fallen asleep together. 

Daria now climbed down from the bed as well and crossed her arms in front of her. “I will not honor such a lousy question with a reply. What I want are your assurances that we will, in fact, move on with the plan. This week.”

“We are not misaligned, Daria.”

She had her knife at his throat before he could even move. 

“You’re starting to piss me off with your evasion and arrogance”, she hissed, grinding her knee between his legs where it found his still half-hard cock. Gortash winced from the pain. 

“We shall move on this week”, he growled, now equally as angry. 

“Good boy.” Daria dragged the knife down towards his cock and smiled, far more forgiving than before. “I have some time if you’d like to play.”

“I do. But I have too much work today. Especially with that commitment I just made.” 

She rolled her eyes again. “Have it your way.”

Just before she turned to leave, he grabbed her neck and pulled her into a deep kiss. There was no trace of that woman left, only Daria’s own saliva, somehow always tasting like flesh and blood. Disappointed, he let her go. 

“I lied”, she smiled sweetly. “No taste of wherever your cock was last night left.” Then, with an intent stare, she bit her lip. “But good to know someone got you all fluttery and excited. About time the grand Enver Gortash showed some weakness.”

Damned bitch.

He chuckled, trying to let the remarks wash over him. Fluttery? Him? Ridiculous.