His breath caught, and suddenly his tail was frozen to the ground. It didn't hurt, but also didn't have the same reaction as it would had Darren touched it with bare skin. It was about time he figured it out, anyway. He growled lightly as the shoe increased its pressure, though. "I don't require it to survive." He muttered. "I need it to focus. To sleep without waking lethargic. I could go forever without it, but I'd become ill." But now Darren had some type of bargaining chip. He wouldn't use his knife, or his hands, or any sticks or switches on Felix at all... But what did he have to lose? Wasn't Darren working for the king? That meant the others were the ones looking to uproot his rule.

"I..." He sighed, wiggling slightly at the sharp blade just barely pressed against his back. "I... suppose I will. I've reviewed all the documents they ever gave me, stared at them for hours. By now I could replicate them precisely without their copies, but... it'll take time. And I may not recall everything of the last copy I was given, because I... was interrupted." He regarded Darren squarely when he said this.

Felix only huffed slightly in reply. At least he was sure who was who now, but it meant he'd been supplying the enemy with copied documents written in a possible code... He opened his mouth to reply, though the words dwindled into a shaky moan. Why did he have to make it so... obvious? Could he had calmed himself down a little? Act as if the knife actually pained him instead of excited him? But he'd have been a lost cause if Darren had done to his tail what he had before... That feeling was indescribable, like crashing waves one couldn't fight, electrical shocks, like someone had grabbed hold of him in an extremely intimate way and just wouldn't let go...

He arched his back, breathing shallowly through his teeth each time the knife made a line in his back and released a little blood. He instinctively let himself go backward when it didn't run the risk of hitting important bones or nerves, digging his nails into the nearest living thing---Darren's knee.

Felix almost choked on a swallowed cry, which emerged as a strangled yell, and his body reflexively clenched into a ball. This time Darren just wouldn't stop---it ballooned the rush inside him and expanded it out until it was unbearable, and then... a sudden weakness that slid into him as the balloon burst, and with the burst, an explosion of sound, his voice, startling a nearby quail out of a patch of tall grass as he cried, his tail flailing as if on its own accord, writhing in Darren's hands and squirming as if it didn't know what to do with so much electricity, so many awakened nerves.

With shivering hands Felix found his wet clothes and pulled them to him as if they were some poor excuse for a blanket, placing them over his front and holding them there. Their cool, damp cloth at least helped the situation as he pulled his tail away from the human and curled it to his other side. He stared at Darren with slightly watering eyes, opening his mouth as if to say something but only managing a shaking sound that didn't relate to any language.

Felix's hands grabbed the cloak weakly and threw it over himself, clutching it tightly and finding it difficult to actually stand on his own---but he managed, though it was still a bit uncomfortable to really straighten himself up. He was shaking still, a bit weak in the knees, and his tail automatically curled around one of his legs as if in protection. He didn't think he could handle another instance like that, not so soon... He would probably pass out...

Taking half a step toward Darren, he gathered his damp clothes. They might as well follow so no random traveler or animal decided they would suit them better and steal them away. They were most likely his only clothes still in existence. He glanced sideways, holding his clothes in front of him, low. "S-so... Do you really work for the interests of the king, or are you trying to play me over?" He didn't expect a straight answer---no doubt a lie, but he didn't find much use in the knowledge either way. He was a captive, after all, even if he did have a strange set of circumstances holding him to his 'duty'.

Felix gasped at the way the gold seal gleamed in the sun. He would see that emblem sometimes, with men and women that wore the emblem sewn on their clothes or worn around their necks. So this one was with the king, and he’d been helping the opposition for... over five years...

He pursed his lips, following along willingly, if a little slowly. “I’ll need... a lot of paper. And sharp quills. A lot of them, because they break. And candles, to light up the area well... And... Ink. An overabundance. And time. A lot of time. I’ve copied so many documents for them over the years... it’ll take a long time to get them all sorted so I won’t... combine one with another.” He didn’t quite know what Darren wanted with the old documents. Most he hadn’t been able to understand, but he wasn’t overly interested in what they said as much as getting them done.

Felix hurried inside, glancing back to see Darren walking out again. He could run... could take off and... The thought was quick, and he shook his head. He didn't have a home to get back to, and he wasn't going against the king's rule staying here any longer. He sighed, dropping his damp clothes and spreading them out on the ground, and turning the cloak into a wrap around his waist so his arms were free. The desk. It had some candles, but not too many, there would be a few shadows he'd have to work through. Some quills, only two were sharp enough for those especially thin lines and they dulled very fast. Rolled up parchments, but not very many. If he made mistakes too often he'd run through these very quickly. A few rags, those could be useful for certain portions of text where the lettering looked a bit shaded. A few bottles of ink at the back of one drawer.

Darren didn't seem especially prepared for a scribe's kidnapping, it seemed. Maybe he didn't do his research beforehand. Felix sighed, pulling a stool nearby over to the desk and using some of the flint on the tabletop to light the candles. Felix breathed in deeply, uncapping a bottle of ink and poising a quill over one of the flattened rolls, which he'd weighted down to keep flat. It was pretty quiet, and he'd started the first line when something made Felix look up and around. Was that... Darren? It took a moment to register, and immediately Felix's face turned bright red in a blush. He breathed in quickly, turning back to his work and squinting, but it was hard to steady his quivering hand. He slammed down the quill and cradled his head.

Felix calmed his racing heart as Darren returned, and scooped up the quill, using a rag to clean the tip and put it back in the ink. "No problem. I... have so much to sort through. It's hard to remember the first document I copied." How much of a lie that was... But he let it go as the through and bent low over the paper, working on the first character despite feeling Darren's gaze on him.

He paused at the first curved line. "Tomorrow?" He asked, and instinctively looked around. "Why? What's so special about tomorrow?" Where would he be going? To town? Would they be moving to a more secure place? That was plausible, at least.

Felix's hand shivered a little over his paper, and he took a little longer to understand what Darren had said. And it took even longer to understand how close he'd gotten. He turned away quickly, breathing in and staring at his work as he continued creating each little character. "I have... have to focus." He said bluntly. In the back of his mind he could see the document, the characters he couldn't read. One that looked vaguely as if it could be a blade, but it was grouped together with other sharp and blunt and rounded ones, that made up a word. A cottage did sound nice, though. Nicer than a rough little cave in the middle of nowhere. He'd have a more secure place to work.

He couldn't help but breathe a little shakily. Darren's heat radiated off of him, like a living furnace, as he leaned so close to Felix. And Felix felt so revealed wearing nothing but a cloak tied around his waist, like a makeshift skirt. He got close to the paper, with one hand grasping his hair to keep it from falling and smearing the ink.

Felix paused in his scratching of the paper, lifting the quill enough to study his work, but not really. He couldn't help but feel that Darren might be trying to put him into some type of security... Perhaps he had ideas in mind and felt that giving Felix a little humanity by using his name would let him sleep easily, or feel welcome in this place. But whatever those ideas were, Felix couldn't tell---Darren's face was far too closed off, too placid. He was a pretty good spy, even if he seemed to give in to certain unknowns relatively easily.

Felix screwed up his nose, twitching his tail to wrap around his leg as he went on. He had six characters done already, but from there they got terribly difficult and intricate, as if the document's creator wanted to force copiers into a true corner if they weren't an accomplished scribe. Felix sighed. At least tomorrow he would have a more comfortable working environment...

Felix sighed, studying the parchment hard. He couldn't reply while he focused on this character, similar to a snake but with so many small, nearly impossible lines. He had to be cautious with this or the whole document would be worthless and he'd have to begin again. He pursed his lips, twisting his hair as he worked and ignored Darren's words for far too long. But he finished the character with a swift motion and turned on the stool. "You could have asked." He said bluntly. "Asked about what I did. Gathered information that way. You didn't have to make the situation... so difficult." He grimaced at the thought that brought the words around.

"But I guess spies don't really like to take the more reasonable route..." Felix sighed, turning around again and picking up the quill. It was already beginning to dull, the needle-fine point slowly breaking away with each stroke.

Felix growled quietly, twisting his hair harder as if Darren was the one that could feel it. But he went on as Darren busied himself elsewhere, and paused from time to time as he regarded the spy from the corner of his eye. He'd been pretty confident before, and seemed to have enjoyed Felix's reactions. Which he'd not been able to control, now that he thought about it. Not when Darren had touched his tail. Out of desperation some years back, he'd cut it off, several times in a row when he grew frustrated at it. But now he'd grown accustomed to it, just not the immediate reaction it gave when a human touched it.

When Darren approached, he paused to flex his fingers and fight off a cramp that would take over if he didn't. "Who's to say I wasn't being held under them?" He asked. "Being forced to do what I did for fear of death?" He wouldn't have known anything like that anyway. For all Darren knew, the men that came to him so often would have carried a threat with them as well to keep him quiet and compliant.

"Yes!" The word was out before Felix could stop himself, having ignored most of what Darren had said. He didn't want the man nearing his tail again, and at the thought, it reflexively curled tighter around his leg, like a snake escaping a threat on the ground. He might as well have died if Darren touched him again. Human skin felt indescribably amazing to his kind, and without his tail he felt odd. True he hated how sensitive it was, but it did feel a bit off balance without it. As if he were a cat with vertigo.

He sighed, nodding as Darren spoke and glad he changed the subject. While he would originally have worked late into the night, but he was so distracted now. Part of that he credited to Darren, but the rest to the stress of being abducted from his home and knowing it had burnt down. Not long after Darren spoke, Felix was putting down his quill and blowing out the candles, grabbing the cloak in case it wanted to fall and taking it to the pallet, sitting and staring around the cave. Why hadn't he found that stranger a risk? Just by the way he looked... Shaking his head, Felix untied the cloak and used it as a blanket. Despite not having anything to eat or drink since early in the morning, he didn't feel like he needed to. He sighed, lying down and curling up to the wall behind him.

Felix twitched at the slightest sound and slightest draft that moved its way through the cave. He was only ever half asleep, and when he did manage to dream, it was only ever obsessive dreams of Darren. While he hated the fact that his demon blood would obsess over anyone, he didn't curse it entirely. Sometimes it was nice, especially if he saw an angel on his way home. Often he was too nervous to approach, but he could dream about them. And he did, though the lucidity of the dreams could be finicky and they'd get away from him, rolling on their own wild tangent he couldn't really control.

He jolted awake at one point, turning over and hiding himself the best he could. But the cloak was rather bunched up around his head and didn't do well to hide his legs. The mouth of the cave was slightly lit up by the sun, but Felix still felt so tired. He sighed, suddenly caring far less about his state of undress or that his somewhat-clean clothes lay somewhere nearby. they were probably clean by now. But getting up required energy, something he had yet to regain.