The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 88

Part 14

Having finalized the design, they set themselves the goal of building another complete craft in the three months remaining before the call to the gods. They succeeded, but barely.

Those three months passed amid a building sense of expectation among those who would be leaving, and a building sense of impending loss for the rest of them.

With fifteen days to go, Mark’s family began preparing their possessions for their impending move back to Hilia. Mark knew something was up that day because Talia and Alilia had been giggling together at every opportunity while blocking him from their minds.

After supper that evening, the children were in the living room using Mark’s crown to project a scale model Illusion of Hilia on the floor so they could familiarize themselves with the place, and Karzog had joined them in his ‘cute and fuzzy’ simulacrum. Mark, Talia, and Alilia were relaxing with a cup of spiced tea. Mark endured the occasional smirks of his wives with a patient smile, knowing that they’d enlighten him when they were ready, and not before.

Then Balen arrived. The elven young woman was dressed quite provocatively, being clad only in a short and supple skirt and sandals, all in red that matched the color of her long flowing hair. Her shining red tresses were the only thing covering her from the waist up, and as she moved they sometimes failed to do so. She wore an intoxicating scent and her blue eyes sparkled with mischief, though her manner was that of a penitent. She accepted a cup of tea and held it in her lap as she sat with a demure posture, gazing at Mark with intensity from beneath lowered lashes.

“Go ahead dear.” Alilia told her with an encouraging smile.

“My Lord, we who voluntarily swore to your service with binding oaths and spells, and who love you very much, have had difficulties in your service. Frankly, because you ask far too little of us, and because there’s far too many of us. You can’t spend very much time with each of us as individuals because there’s eighty-four of us. And ever since we swore to you, we’ve realized that quite often the very best way we could serve you was to leave you alone and let you live your life without being constantly distracted by us. We fought for you when we could, we’ve watched over you from a distance, we’ve helped you whenever we could do so without being pests, we’ve taken part in building this community and preparing to defend it, and we’ve made good contributions to the projects that we’ve undertaken here. But mostly, we’ve very carefully left you alone and stayed away from you, and it’s been so hard, so very hard.

“We’re going to stay here when you go. We’re sure that what we’re doing here serves your aims at least as well as anything we could do for you out there, and the fact still stands that we can accomplish far more in seventeen years here than we could in a month and a half out there. We’re building your realm and its capabilities and its population, and that’s important work, and that comforts us. And without you here, we won’t have to face the constant temptation and need to be with you and serve you directly, or just share your time and your company.

“But we will miss you so terribly while you’re separated from us. And so we ask a boon of you, My Lord. We ask that before you go, that you spend one hour with each of us, each of us alone. That would take you eighty-four hours, and Talia assures us that you can fit that into your schedule in the time remaining to us.

“The forty-one males among us would like to spend their hour with you doing various things; hiking or fishing or playing with magic or whatever, but most of them just want to be able to sit with you for an hour and talk over a mug of mead or a tea.

“But to be honest, being in your service has been far more frustrating for the forty-three females among us. Along with everything that the males feel for you, all of us desire you very powerfully. And those of us of The Devoted feel that we’re deeply in love with you. It frustrates us a great deal that we buried our desire for you so that you could bond with your new wife Talia for a few years, but then Alilia succeeded in becoming part of your relationship. Every one of us have thought to ourselves at least once; ‘If I’d acted before Alilia, maybe it would be me sharing Mark’s bed every night.’

“Anyway, every female among us wants to spend our hour alone with you in your bed. Most of us want your tender lovemaking, some want to be vigorously ravished by you, but all of us want to be your lover for that hour. We’ve spoken to Yzell about it, and she said she’ll give us the spells that Talia carries in her engagement ring that make it practical to be with you that way, so you can enjoy us as fully as you wish. She also gave us a spell to ensure that your performance won’t be degraded by fatigue or diminished physical resources. I doubt you’d need such a thing under normal circumstances, but there are forty-three of us.

“And all of us, male and female, ask that you take detailed Readings of us, and of yourself, for the hour that you spend with us, and give them to us. We recognize that you can take far better-quality Readings than we can. We’ll have them to comfort us while you’re gone. It’ll be seventeen years away from you, but we’ll each have our perfect memories of the time we had alone with you, to re-live whenever we want.”