The room was quiet, save for the slow crackle of the hearth fire and the soft rustle of sheets.
Mother lay half-curled beside me. A light sheen of sweat still clung to her skin, catching bits of the crystal light. My arm was draped lazily over her, my hand resting on the full swell of her naked breast—not with urgency, but with the idle claim of a man too satisfied to move. My fingers pulsed there now and then, kneading her softly, more out of instinct than thought.
I didn't have anything to say, but the quiet felt burdened and it created some form of discomfort in me. We've never had this for a long time.
"Is there anything on your mind?" I asked.
"No" she replied after a pause.
A moment later, she turned a little, her voice measured. "Levi has taken interest in the silver, he believes he could be of use"
Levi. I didn't recognize the name, but it sounded like someone close to her.
"What do you think?" I asked.
"I don't care for it" she said coolly. "It is your decision"
"Yes," I murmured, leaned closer, brushing a kiss against lips. "But if I agree… would it make you happy?"
She chuckled softly, accepting the kiss. "Yes"
"It is settled then" I replied, giving her deeper kiss. "Have him meet me"
She looked at me with what I made to be playful suspicious look. "And will you kill him?"
I laughed, rolling atop her, my weight pinning her gently. "Not if he watches his mouth."
She laughed too, wrapping her arms around my neck, legs weakly locking around my waist.
"I can't believe how healthy you are" she said inbetween strained moans as I was forcing her sore pussy to stretch out over the incredibly thick hardness.
We lost ourselves again. My hips slammed into her with frantic rhythm, too loud for the early morning. I flipped her over and pulled her up onto her knees. She arched her back, and I kneeling behind her, hands clasping on her shoulders was penetrating her sensuously. She whimpers inbetween moans whenever I grab her by the throats, making my dick to jerk inside her.
I was pounding away when a knock came to the door.
What the fuck. There's no way they can't hear the sounds of sex from there.
A second knock came.
I gave Ophelia a look, where she was seated across the room on the velvet chaise lounge. She already knew what it meant. I watch her cross the room, my strokes never faltering, even when the doors opened.
It closed back again, but Ophelia didn't return to where she was. She came over to me as I was plowing mother from behind.
"What?"
She had said something that I didn't hear, partly from the loud pounding, but chiefly from her accent.
She sighed, irritated, but came closer by the side, and I heard something like, "The witch says it is very important, that she was waiting."
Helene? What does she want?
Mother collapsed onto her belly with a shuddering moan, and I followed her down, not relenting for a second. I grabbed her hips, dragged her back to meet me mid-thrust, and buried myself so deep she clawed at the sheets and let out a long, broken howl.
I pounded until I collapsed atop her, trembling as I emptied myself inside her. I lingered there a moment before rolling off and climbing from the bed. I pulled on trousers, ignoring a shirt, and strode to the door. It opened as I approached, and I stepped past the knights to where Helene waited down the hall. She wasn't elegantly dressed, like she usually was.
"I greet your majesty" she bowed, impatiently.
She had a smudge stick in hand, and an old stone bowl with water in it.
"What is so important that you dragged me off bed?" I said.
"I apologize" she said, but it didn't sound like an apology. "Can we go inside?"
I shook my head, arms folding across my chest. "Now's not a good time."
"I know about your mother" she said, without reservations. "I need to talk to you somewhere secure"
I looked at her, more curious. It's not very surprising that someone like her would know, but she didn't need me to know that she knew. We could easily secure another room. Unless the problem is very time sensitive, which I found unlikely. She just wanted to put it out there. Why?
I gestured with a tilt of my head. She followed me in.
Mother remained under the sheets, still naked. Ophelia had returned to her wine.
Helene looked at me, silently asking to speak in private, but I didn't feel comfortable with that.
"Anything you want to tell me you can say before them" I told her.
"I can only read one of you" she insisted.
"Read us for what?" I asked.
She sighed, but didn't respond. She wasn't acting like her usual collected self.
"You got anything from the knight?"
"No" she replied. "He refused to talk, and is now unable to do so. His mind is beyond broken. Going further is a waste of time"
"Hmm" I muttered like I didn't care, and truly I didn't really care for the knight. It went on this far because I wasn't the one doing it, if not I would have tired. "Do what you want with him," I dismissed, walking to bed where mother still laid.
I sat, facing Helene. "But if you got nothing from the knight, what is it you have that is so important?"
She approached. "Do you mind standing, Your Majesty?"
Mother shifted behind me. I stood, and she asked me to strip. I scoffed but complied.
She began scrubbing my body with the smudge stick, with careless detail and in about a minute, she was done. She turned away from me, and though I couldn't see what she was doing I saw her hand moving over the bowl she was with. Few moments later she went and drop the bowl on my desk, her face carrying no message.
"There's a war coming," she began, stepping closer. "The attacks on you are part of a larger purpose, one that began long before you were born."
I felt disappointed and Helene picked up on it immediately.
"You know of it?" she asked, surprised.
I sighed, picking up my trousers.
"Yes" I confirmed, putting on my trousers. "The druids told me."
"Wait..." I said, giving it a quick thought as I pulled up the trousers and began strapping. "I guess the elf was the first person to tell me"
"How? What did they say?" she pressed, stepping closer, her curiosity palpable.
"Nothing much" I shrugged, sitting back on the bed. "Something about a god coming here, and the expectation that I should face him or he will destroy the whole continent"
"How long have you known this?"
"Long enough" I answered simply, meeting her gaze.
"And you didn't see fit to bring it to anyone's attention?!" she said, with a bit of raised voice, uncharacteristic of her.
"I am not a very trusting person, Helene" I said to her. "Even now"
She swallowed back whatever she wanted to say and waited a moment to calm down.
"All of existence is in trouble, and the only reason you are still alive, Your Majesty, " she said the last bit with a bit of sarcasm. "is because they have not figured out how important you are in the grand scheme"
She got my attention. "What are you talking about? Who?"
"Your castle has being compromised" she said angrily, but then her face contorted more. "You already knew that?"
"Yes" I said. "Who?"
She sighed, frustrated, then turned back to me. "Sable Vyrnmont" she said. "His name is Sable Vyrnmont, and he is the—"
"Father-in-law of Ulric," I cut in softly, my mind drifting to the party. The old man.
"...You know him?"
"No" I replied simply. "But he came to me at the party"
"Came to you? What did he do?"
"Nothing" I said. "He didn't even introduced himself, but something about him felt off so he stood out for me. He also seemed very interested in me"
Helene stared at me like she couldn't believe it.
"He is the emissary of the god" Helene said. "And he is behind everything that has being going on in the continent...including your father's death"
When she said that, she glanced at mother, who was now sitting, and quietly listening to us. If either of them expected me to have an emotional reaction to that, they didn't show. I was thinking about the old man. I didn't feel no threat for him when we met but now I felt betrayed by my senses and he felt twice as dangerous. If he comes for me, what are my chances? Can the elf girl stand a chance? Why didn't he come for me then? There's no way Mittelreich deterred him. Either he is not that evil, or his mission is not that important? Or maybe, like Helene said, they are not sure about me? Even though they've being trying to kill me for a long time now? Why did Rowena give me the potion? So much was going through my mind that I couldn't even track.
"We don't have time on our side" said Helene. "For the continent to have a chance, we need to find out what they are planning, and how to fight back, and for that we must buy time"
I stared at her, suspicious. "Seems to me like you already have a plan in mind."
"Yes" she said, and then went on to tell me about Erik and moonwolf curse.
I just looked at her, with no judgements or reaction.
"How much time will it buy?" I asked when she was done.
"I don't know" she said, "But any—"
"How sure are you it will buy any at all?"
"Your majesty," she began, "we don't have many optioms"
"No" I said, standing up and crossing to my desk where her stone bowl sat, the water sparkling, I reached across for an apple from my bowl of fruits.
"Your Majesty—"
"If the archer's curse activating is the problem ," I said, turning to face her, tossing up the apple lightly. "then you just have to make sure it doesn't come to that"
"Your Majesty you are not thinking rationally" she protested.
"Perhaps" I bit into my apple. "But it is my call to make. He stays alive."
She turned and looked at mother, but mother said nothing, so she turned back at me with a sigh.
"As you wish" she said, and bowed. "That will be all"
I said nothing, biting into my apple as I watch her leave.
"She will not obey" Mother warned when the doors slammed shut.
"I know" I told her.
I guess I have to prepare for war then.