“I’m still confused by how I feel,” she finally said. “I didn’t know what to say on that first night when you, you know. Said what you said.”
Ari nodded slowly, wincing at the memory of her silence, which still stung a bit.
“I’d always seen you as a friend,” said Kerys. “A close one. Someone who I could be myself around. Not someone who would court me for marriage.”
“Who said anything about marriage?” asked Ari, in a halfway teasing tone.
Kerys scowled at him. “Let me finish. I was unsure, Ari, and I still am. The reason why I let you kiss me, and touch me, and do all of that stuff was because I genuinely thought that we were going to die within a day or two.”
Ari felt his heart sink at that, but she gave his hand a quick, reassuring squeeze.
“But then, you went to such great lengths to save me,” she said. “We discovered Eva. And you and Eva… discovered each other. I was watching last night, Ari. Seeing the two of you, like that… it stirred up something inside of me.”
It took all of the willpower that Ari had to keep from making another joke about her peeping, but he somehow managed it.
“I do have feelings for you,” said Kerys. “I just haven’t worked out what they are yet.”
“To be honest,” said Ari, “that’s good enough for me.”
He leaned in closer, and Kerys didn’t pull back. He gave her a soft, slow kiss, feeling the difference between her lips and Eva’s. She didn’t seem to know what to do with her mouth while he was kissing her. Ari tried to guide her along by making the movements of his lips more exaggerated, but Kerys didn’t take the hint, which was somehow just as irresistibly cute in its own right.
He leaned her back on the bed and kissed her again, letting his body press down on hers. Kerys ran her hands through his hair and shifted in a way that caused her dress to slide up, and her thighs to open for him.
“You aren’t taking my virginity tonight, Aristial,” she whispered.
“I’ll do my best not to,” said Ari, with a smirk.
“Aristial…” said Kerys. “Promise me. I’ve decided that if we aren’t going to die, I’d like to stay true to tradition and hold onto my virginity until I’m properly married.”
Ari rolled his eyes. “I promise that I’ll try not to take your virginity.”
“Aristial Stoneblood!” snapped Kerys. “Promise me, or—”
Ari tried to cut her off with a kiss, but she turned her head to the side and crossed her legs, preventing the encounter from going any further.
“Fine,” said Ari. “I promise I won’t take your virginity tonight, Kerys.”
She seemed satisfied by that, and Ari was glad that she hadn’t taken exception to the fact that he’d added on the qualifier of “tonight,” rather than making it an open-ended promise. He kissed her again before she could notice, and then the two of them were in their own, personal realm of soft intimacy.
He could sense that she was unsure with what to do with her hands and body, even as he began to kiss her neck and feel her up. She wasn’t nearly as active of a lover as Eva had been. Ari felt a little guilty for making the comparison, but it basically came to his mind unbidden.
But still, she was Kerys Weaver. She was the girl he’d cherished from afar for years. He’d never being able to express his feelings outright as an orphan, at least not until they’d come to the surface. Ari ran a hand through her silky blonde hair and cupped one of her breasts. In that capacity, she most definitely had Eva beat.
“Oh,” whispered Kerys. “Aristial…”
“I know,” he said. “I’m just touching.”
Touching and grinding into her. Touching and imagining what it would feel like to sink his hard cock as deep into her as it would go. Touching and wondering if she’d have the willpower to stop him if he tried, despite her earlier protestations.
No, he told himself. He wouldn’t go down that road. Kerys was tugging at the bottom of his tunic, and he took a slow, calming breath as he pulled it up and over his head. He kissed her again, hurrying to take his trousers off, but leaving the final barrier of his underwear in place.
Kerys didn’t object as he pulled her dress off. Her amazing breasts bounced as the bottom hem of it pulled loose from him, and the two stared at each other for a heated, primed moment.
Ari kissed her again, and Kerys let out a soft moan. He ran his thumb over one of her nipples and then planted a kiss on it, sucking slightly. Kerys gasped and threaded her fingers through his hair. Ari shifted to kissing her neck, letting his hard and currently confined cock press into her crotch. It felt hot enough to burn a hole through both their underwear, almost.
“We… should slow down,” whispered Kerys.
“Should we?” asked Ari.
He ran a hand up her thigh and across the fabric of her panties. Kerys shivered and twisted, closing her legs.
“That tickles,” she said.
“In a good way?” asked Ari.
He tried again, and she shifted away again. Kerys was blushing, and she shifted so she was sitting on her knees, with her legs underneath her.
“It isn’t just because I’m afraid of what Dormiar, or my parents, might think,” she said. “I just… I’m not comfortable with the idea of you putting your thing into me yet.”
“My thing?” Ari smiled at her and pulled his underwear down, enjoying her reaction to his hardness as it snapped free. “You mean this?”
Kerys was already on her knees. Ari shifted so that he was higher up and let his cock stand at attention in front of her blushing face.
“We can do other stuff, even if you don’t want to go all the way,” said Ari. He reached down and ran a hand through her golden blonde hair.
“Can I… watch you?” asked Kerys.
“What?” He raised an eyebrow at her.
“You know…” She set a hand on his cock and gave it a single, insanely pleasurable stroke. “Doing this. I want to see how you do it.”
She was blushing so fiercely that Ari worried if he said no, she’d develop a new insecurity or hang-up relating to sex beyond the ones she already had. So he reached down, took hold of his cock, and slowly began to stroke.
Kerys’ reaction was not what he was expecting. She seemed transfixed, rather than curious. Her face was still flushed, but her eyes were completely locked onto his cock, watching with rapt attention. Ari couldn’t deny how much of a turn on it was.
“Kerys,” he said. “I want to look at you. All of you.”
She nodded slowly, leaning back on the bed and pulling her underwear off. She didn’t shave down there, but her silky blonde hair fell in a straight, neat pattern. Ari really wanted to know what it would feel like against him, during the moment.
“Do you like my body?” asked Kerys.
Ari nodded dumbly, staring at her as she shifted so that her legs were spread, and cupping an arm underneath her breasts. His hand was moving faster now, stroking with a mind of its own. It would be so simple to fall forward onto her, pinning her underneath him and taking her with a single, deliberate thrust.
Kerys was still watching him, her eyes locked on his member as he touched it. Ari saw one of her hands shift down between her legs and listened to her excited breathing as she began to do the same. It was weird, and a little sterile, but it was undeniably hot to masturbate with her, so close and yet so far from what he wanted most.
“Kerys,” he whispered.
“Oh, Aristial!” She shuddered and tensed up, exhaling sharply and biting her lip.
“Kerys!” he said. He was close, and she seemed to sense it, bringing her face in closer and opening her mouth. Ari saw her sticking her tongue out, and then felt the wetness of it pressing against the underside of his shaft.
That was all he could take. He let out a small groan as he unloaded, his seed splashing into Kerys’ mouth, but mostly onto her lips and chin. She made a surprised noise and pulled back, which only allowed more of his hot stickiness to sp
urt onto her. It reminded him a little of their last day in the Hollow and how she’d been doused by the silkworm.
“Aristial Stoneblood!” snapped Kerys. “Warn me next time!”
“I thought you knew,” said Ari. “Wasn’t that why you… Oh, never mind.”
He laid down next to her in bed, and she leaned her head against his shoulder.
“But… That was nice,” whispered Kerys. “Just because I don’t want to go all the way doesn’t mean we still can’t have fun.”
“True,” said Ari. He chewed on his lip, hating what he had to bring up next, but knowing that he didn’t have a choice. “Listen… About the bond, and Eva.”
Kerys sighed. “Do we have to talk about this now?”
“Yeah,” said Ari. “I don’t want to end up hurting you, Kerys. But I don’t know if there’s any other way then for me and Eva to continue with it.”
Kerys was silent for a long moment.
“I understand why you have to do it,” she whispered. “But I still don’t like it.”
“Does that mean you’ll at least tolerate it?” asked Ari.
“I guess, for now,” she said. “If it means the difference between life and death. But that doesn’t mean I’m giving you permission to… fall in love with her, or anything like that.”
Ari could feel the muscles in Kerys body stiffening as she spoke the final sentence.
“No falling in love,” said Ari. “I don’t think that will be a problem.”
“If we ever were to get, you know, more serious than we are now,” said Kerys, “then it would only be if you also changed your relationship with Eva. I don’t think I’d be comfortable with it continuing if we decided to be devoted to each other or got married.”
“Who said anything about marriage?” asked Ari, with a somewhat forced laugh. Kerys didn’t say anything, and he got the sense from her lack of reaction that she understood his feelings for her better than he understood hers for him.
“I imagined a lot of different ways that the surface might be,” said Kerys. “But I never thought it would be this complicated.”
Ari nodded, and ran a hand through her hair. “You should talk to Eva. It feels like she might have something to add to this conversation.”
He could sense Kerys’ skepticism in the silence that followed.
“Maybe,” she said. “Anyway, I’m going to take a shower before bed.”
“Another shower?” asked Ari.
“You can’t expect me to sleep with your dried seed stuck to my face, can you?”
Ari shrugged. “I think it makes you look pretty.”
“Aristial Stoneblood!”
Ari chuckled and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead.
INTERLUDE (JARVIS)
Jarvis listened as the two self-appointed leaders of what remained of the survivors argued with each other. It was the same stupid argument he’d heard for the past two days. An argument fueled by cowardice and paranoia.
“It might rain,” said Smalls. “I ain’t taking the chance. Piss on that.”
“We don’t have any fucking food left, you laggard,” snapped Kevo. “If we keep hiding, we’ll be dead all the same. Don’t matter if it’s from the monsters or starvation or a combination of the two.”
“Are you questioning me?” Smalls rose to his full height over the other man, brandishing a small, makeshift rock club. “I ain’t going out there. Let’s send one of the others. The silent one.”
Jarvis was lying with his back to them, but he could still feel their combined gaze as they turned their attention his way.
“Which one?” asked Kevo. “The Chosen boy, or Ingrid?”
“The boy,” said Smalls. “Obviously. Still a chance Ingrid might come to her senses and decide to warm one of our bedrolls.”
“We don’t have bedrolls,” said Kevo. “Unless you’re talking about your own rolls of fat.”
“You shut your dirty, piss gargling mouth before I shut it for you!” snapped Smalls.
There was a pause, and Jarvis let himself hope that the situation would play itself out through violence that didn’t involve him. Rough hands seized him by the shoulders a few seconds later, pulling him to his feet.
“We got a special mission for you,” said Kevo. “You’re going outside the cave. Looking for food. You can do that, right?”
Jarvis didn’t say anything. He could still talk, when he wanted to. But usually, he chose not to. It was the lesson that the fishers had taught him. Words were for polite society, for places backed by the rule of tradition and elders. Places with consequences.
The surface was not one of those places. Jarvis could beg, plead, or lie. He could make friends. Maybe not friends like Harris had been his friend, but he could still form connections to people. But those connections would become a liability the instant the monsters decided to assert their rule.
Byron screaming. Byron with blood dripping from his eyes and nose. Byron’s body shielding his, as the fishers tore into it.
“He’s a retard,” said Smalls. “You have to talk slow for him to understand what you’re saying and use simple sentences. Go… out. Find… food… to eat. Okay?”
Jarvis stayed where he was, tamping down on his fresh, simmering, and utterly useless anger. He had no real interest in helping the group survive, if what they were could even be called that. He would have already gone his own way if not for the simple, easy momentum that sticking with the others had carried with it.
“Pull him upright,” snapped Smalls. “He needs to be taught a lesson.”
Jarvis moved before anyone could touch him, surging forward and slamming a fist into Kevo’s gut. There was another reason why he hadn’t left the group, though it felt like dancing with the darkness to admit it to himself.
The fishers were a test. Each time they came, those that could survive were separated from those who couldn’t. The survivors, back when they’d still been led by Jed, had numbered over a dozen. Now, they were down to four, Smalls and Kevo, himself, and Ingrid the tongue-less. And all of them, in their own way, were survivors. Would Harris have been one, too?
Kevo reeled backward from Jarvis’ punch, but his back had been to the cave wall, and he fell against it to regain his balance. Jarvis threw a jab at him, which Kevo dodged. Someone shouted from behind him, and Jarvis felt an arm wrap around his neck before he could react.
“You got some long hair,” whispered Smalls, as he gave Jarvis’ overgrown blond locks a sniff. “Almost like a girl!”
Kevo punched him in the stomach, which was a revenge blow if Jarvis had ever taken one. His memory flashed back to when he and Harris had done something similar to the stupid orphan, back in the Hollow. He remembered the walk he and Harris had taken after, and them sharing lunch together up on the glowmoss cliffs.
“You’re going out to forage for food,” said Kevo, speaking slowly as Smalls had before. “Do you understand? Come back with food for all of us, or don’t come back at all!”
Kevo and Smalls took him by the shoulders and heaved him out of the cave’s entrance. Jarvis tumbled as he landed, almost rolling into the oddly dressed skeleton they’d cleared out of the small, rocky chamber upon first finding it.
He had less than zero interest in complying with the demands of Kevo and Smalls. Those two would be as much of a threat to any of the group’s slim hopes of survival as any of the monsters would be.
Was it time for him to finally go his own way? The answer came without much need for consideration. Of course it was. It had been that time since he’d first pulled a black stone in the Choosing, and especially since Harris had gleefully revealed that the orphan had given him a reprieve from banishment.
His chest still burned with the outrage of it. It could have been him and Harris, surviving together. Exploring together. Experiencing both the good and the bad that the Dormiar forsaken surface had to offer. But of course, Aristial Stoneblood, the orphan, the bastard, the whipping boy of the Hollow, had to go the ext
ra length to spite him.
Jarvis spit on the sand as he slowly stood up. He walked along the river, each step aimless and plodding. There was a surprising amount of illumination, even though it was the middle of the night. Both moons were out overhead, Lumas and the unfamiliar, blue-green one.
Something glimmered in the water, reflecting moonlight in a manner that made it seem to protrude slightly from the river basin. Jarvis stared for a couple of seconds before stomping forward through the current. He accidentally kicked up a small cloud of sand, which forced him to dip his head underwater and feel with his hands to find whatever the hidden object was.
It was longer than he’d been expecting and firmly stuck in the mud. He went up for a breath before dunking his head again, digging his fingers in for purchase until he finally managed to work it free. He carried it to the shore and turned it over in his hands.
It was a sword. A long, two handed greatsword encrusted with mud and gunk and firmly stuck in its scabbard. It had a slight curve to it, and though it was dirty, Jarvis got the sense that it had once been a magnificent weapon. He brushed mud from its pommel stone and revealed a deep red ruby that gleamed like fresh blood in the moonlight.
“Are your ears broken, you little pissant?” snapped Smalls. “We said to go looking for food! You about to turn around and show me a fish, mud sucker?”
Smalls was an impatient man, and he gave Jarvis a hard shove before even giving him a chance to turn around or plead his case. Jarvis landed on his hands and knees, sword still tightly clutched within his grip.
“I think you need to be taught a lesson,” said Smalls, reaching for his belt. “Ingrid being so particular about who gets to lie with her has me all sorts of backed up. But you got long hair. Almost like a girl’s.”
Jarvis gritted his teeth. He grabbed the sword’s hilt and pulled as hard as he could. He felt it catch against something within the scabbard for a moment before finally coming loose. There was a ringing noise as he revealed it, along with a peculiar flash of white light.
“What in the name of…” Smalls trailed off as he took a step back. His pants were already around his ankles, and there was basically nothing he could do as Jarvis closed on him.
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