History of Beauty

by Meraki P. Lyhne

  “A needlessly worried man. We are mainly a…loving people.” Elakdon smirked at the human, who snorted, matching the grin.

  “I’ve heard.”

  “And I understand why you wouldn’t consider our needs since we’ve never been close to you. You’re not dependent on us the way we are humans, and had you not been forthcoming, worry would have been a valid emotion.”

  The King nodded, staring at the advancing mass of Cubi. “Fresh eyes. The night provided that as you said.”

  Elakdon felt hope.

  “But I need more time and more knowledge. I think we all do.”

  Elakdon couldn’t disagree with that, so he nodded, looking on as the Cubi reached the gate and was let through. Finally, he recognized faces, and moments later, the beautiful golden eyes of two Royals stood out in a sea of purple and green.

  The Queen smiled at Elakdon as she and Nol-Plydon stopped. Guards helped them off their horses, and Nil-Savadin graciously made her way to Elakdon, spreading her arms for a hug. He gave her one, holding on tight.

  “I see you fared well,” she whispered.

  He pulled back, nodding. He then turned to face Harald. “May I introduce Nil-Savadin, Queen of the Cubi people of the South.”

  Harald dipped his head in respect, yet his gaze didn’t break away from hers.

  “And Nol-Plydon, King of the Cubi people to the East.”

  “I must say,” Harald said, turning to greet the old King. Again, his gaze was glued to their eyes. Finally, he looked at Elakdon. “Your eyes will carry that color, too?”

  Elakdon nodded.

  Harald smiled. “Welcome. May you find comfort in your stay in my home.”

  “Thank you, King Harald, your hospitality is received gratefully,” Nil-Savadin said. “Myself and Nol-Plydon will have to excuse ourselves for a few hours, though, we are very hungry.”

  “I understand. I hope the area I have prepared for you covers all needs.”

  Elakdon expected it to be like what the King had offered him and his closest, and that had so far been more than adequate.

  Harald motioned for a thrall to show them the way.

  “We will find you shortly,” Nil-Savadin said, then dashed off with a Guard in each hand, both with a sexy smirk on their face.

  Harald looked at the two Royals retiring quickly. “I guess I have time to finish my project, then. Or would you like to play Tafl with me while we wait?”

  “I will let you return to your project and tend to my duties before my allies are ready. We should be about the same time.”

  “Considering, then I agree.” The human King returned to his seat.

  Elakdon went to grab both Foldon and Randr’s hands. He then looked from one to the other to see if hunger rose in either of them. Foldon’s bedroom eyes were instantaneous. Randr’s blush took a little while and some sexy smirking on Elakdon’s behalf.

  “Trydon. Considering we have to finish around the same time as Nil and Nol, I need you to help me. You, too, Styrk.”

  “My cock is at your command, Nol.” Styrk stood, grinning.

  “Your ass,” Foldon whispered loudly.

  “And my ass.”

  Randr’s blush deepened.

  Trydon put his arm around Randr’s stomach. “My ass is definitely up for that sweet curve.” He then let go and dashed ahead.

  Randr preceded Elakdon to the feeding enclosure.

  It was apparently right next to where Nil-Savadin and Nol-Plydon were feeding, and they were loud. Well, so were Elakdon and his company, but it was a first that they’d had anyone that noisy that close to them.

  “Allon,” Elakdon said, stepping up close to Randr. “This is a quick and effective feeding. We must be ready to talk to my allies very soon.”

  Randr smiled and took Elakdon’s wrist, raised his hand, then placed his palm against Elakdon’s. A reminder of their special something. “I know the difference now.”

  Elakdon wiggled his fingers against Randr’s a few times, making his unattractive lover smile wider. It gave Elakdon peace of mind. Enough for a quick feeding.

  The moaning on the other side of the wall had stopped when Elakdon and his party finished. Returning to the great hall, Elakdon found King Harald sitting with Father, Nil-Savadin, and Nol-Plydon.

  “Hurry up, My King,” Randr said, pointing.

  Elakdon did, not happy that Randr stayed behind with Styrk and Foldon. But it was probably his place at that moment. He didn’t have the insight needed. Elakdon stopped dead in his tracks. Of course he did. He was the closest they got to a freeman’s perspective of human society in their shared Kingdom. Elakdon turned. “Randr! I need you with me.”

  “Yes, My King!” Randr hurried to his side. “Why?” he whispered.

  “Because of the question you asked the human King. Because of the perspective you offered with your predominantly human life experience.”

  “I see. I shall try to see everything from that point of view and tell you if what I hear provokes something there.”

  “Thank you.”

  They took a seat, and Elakdon wasn’t surprised at finding disapproval on Nol-Plydon’s face. Father merely looked puzzled—enough for Elakdon to find it a silent question.

  “We each have a perspective. Randr offers the insight of a human freeman. A Karl. None other at this table can.”

  “He has proven that,” King Harald said.

  Father smiled and winked at Elakdon, while Nol-Plydon merely nodded sharply and put the opening matter forth.

  “The new human religion is threatening the well-being of the Cubi people you share a Kingdom with.”

  “Yes, it does. It threatens humans, too. I have converted to create peace.”

  “The problem remains for the Cubi people,” Nil-Savadin said.

  “It does. Nol-Elakdon and his councilor on all matters regarding humans have brought forth why. I forgot you exist because I have not seen magical eyes since I was a child.”

  Nol-Plydon sat back, thinking. He then looked at Nil-Savadin. “Too few,” he said in Cubi. “Did we place too many closer to ourselves to dose as we must? Or are we too few?”

  “Both,” she said, not looking happy about the realization either. She then turned her attention on Harald. “And now that you are aware of the consequences of your actions? What will you do?”

  Harald turned a golden ring on his right index finger. “This is worn due to age. It is a promise ring handed down to me, and it was handed down to my father, too. It was exchanged at Ting several hundred years ago between the then King and Nol-Graydon.” He took it off and held it up for them all to see. “Never turn away a son or daughter from your door, never turn a son or daughter away from a bed, and never turn down a son or a daughter’s request to be fed by those they find pleasing.” He placed it on the table. “I have not broken this vow, but I see that I will if I let what else I have promised unfold as things are now. That shame is not one I want staining my name.”

  “Had I asked you to accompany me to my bed, would you have?” Elakdon asked, curiously.

  “No. The promise goes for…how did he phrase it?” He thought for a moment. “If my blood didn’t pump faster at the sight of you and my member didn’t fill with need for your touch, then I should excuse myself and offer the prettiest I have.”

  Pure energy, Elakdon suspected. If the King couldn’t produce pure energy, then he was allowed to say no. That made sense.

  “Never turn a son or daughter away from a bed…” Father left it there for the human King to pick up on.

  Harald sighed. “God will make me do that, yes.”

  “Will your God force you to soil your honor?”

  “I must not lie, so…I have asked what to do in this case, and I was not fond of the answer. Which is why the priest is not attending this meeting, by the way. He insisted upon it, yet I said he didn’t belong by a table full of Kings and Queens and children of gods. The latter was probably not the best thing to say.”

  F
ather smiled.

  “You presented us with a…thought to be furthered,” Father said. “I have taken the liberty to share it with my Nol’s allies. I said I even expect you to have an idea.”

  “I do,” Harald said. “But I fear your reaction to it. I would very much welcome your ideas first as it is your needs, needs I know too little about, that must be considered here.”

  “Our need for humans to feed upon is at the utmost center of concern,” Elakdon said. “But your new God has proven to cause trouble for Succubi to feed. Nil-Savadin?”

  “It is true,” she said.

  Harald’s full attention was on her. “How?”

  “Succubi have become sick from human men laying with her, thinking her…I don’t even know the words, but they think her dirty and an object to be used or punished by their touches.”

  “Harlot. An unclean woman,” Harald said.

  “You see the problem then?”

  “Sick? How?”

  “It has been described to me by a blue-eye who nurtured me back to health when we feared the thread of Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld had run out,” Randr said. He then stood and removed enough fabric of his torso to show off the still angrily red and bulging scars from having caught an axe and held it inside himself to be able to deliver the fatal blow.

  King Harald stared at the scar. He then looked up. “And your face?”

  “My eye was lost in that battle, too, yes. But my point is that the pain I felt here and the pain I was in while healing is nothing compared to what she felt. As the ointments burned in my wounds like they were salt, she described the feeling of salt coursing through her veins and ripping her up from the inside in every limb at the same time until it became so overwhelming that she could only pass out. Only to wake up to her body still being ravished from the inside out until she would pass out again since no one heard her plea to kill her and spare her further anguish. I dared not whimper after that.” Randr straightened his shirt and sat.

  “Salt in a wound,” Father mumbled. “Have you tried that, King Harald?”

  “Yes.”

  “The analogy is good, but it is like calling water wine, or a single piece of barley dropped in water for beer. It can kill us. Slowly.”

  Elakdon wondered why that secret was shared, yet Harald seemed a man of his word. He was trying to save his honor as he had apparently sworn the original oath to receive the ring. The horrified expression on the human’s face soon changed to one of determination, and Elakdon was not the only one visibly pleased by the change.

  “Tell me what you need so I may honor the promise all Kings have since it was made because Graydon never went back on his word.” Harald looked at Elakdon. “And I continue honoring the agreement, so I expect you to, as well.”

  “He will, but for now I am the one honoring it,” Nol-Plydon said, holding up his hand. A gold ring adorned his right index finger. “In return for the goodwill the sons and daughters may always find anywhere in the shared Kingdoms, no sovereign Cubi ruler of the North shall ever challenge a human King for sole dominion over their shared land and no sovereign Cubi ruler of the North shall ever hoard humans and must only house one human for one Cubus.” Nol-Plydon looked at Elakdon. “This promise is one I took upon myself as Nol-Graydon died, and his Ilkil-Nol handed it to me. I will pass it to you when you are ready.” Nol-Plydon looked at King Harald again. “I do, however, still see the promise you have made this new God to be against what you have promised us, so maybe terms should be renegotiated now that the promise is to be given by your new shared King?”

  Both Elakdon and Harald stared at the table between them as Nol-Plydon took off the other golden promise ring and placed it next to the one Harald had put there.

  “Our goal is to live in peace, correct?” King Harald asked.

  “Correct,” Elakdon answered. “And our goal is to prosper together, not at the cost of each other, correct?”

  “Correct,” Harald said.

  “So…for the details…” Father said. He placed a stack of thin skins and pulled out the writing equipment Elakdon had seen him write upon always. High Mother did, too. “This first edition will be written in our language. I will then write one in this language for you. They will be worded identically and remind both of you of the promises made here today. As I imagine you will not be calling upon Vår, is a promise to your new God something that binds you equally?”

  “Either or, I will swear on my honor, and I will do it in blood.”

  Father gave a sharp nod and looked at Elakdon.

  Now came the hard part, and Elakdon was nowhere near ready for it. His allies and Father were, though.

  Halfway through the second day, Elakdon was cranky and in need of intimacy. Harald just needed the priest out of his hair. The entire ambiance in the hall grew more and more negative.

  King Harald feared the strength of the purple-eyes, and he kept trying to get them to back him if he went to war. Every detail decided upon kept going back to the King wanting to make sure that if shit ever hit the fan, an army of purple-eyed would come out and kick ass.

  Elakdon noticed that Father kept focusing on denying that, yet Elakdon was stuck at the only possibility for his people. To hide. It felt like a defeat, and the very thought made it feel like his stomach was boiling, leaving him with a constant fire in the back of his throat and a severely sour taste in his mouth. Like bile. And he couldn’t focus.

  “My King, may I suggest fresh air?” Randr asked.

  “What?”

  “Now?” Father asked. He then looked at Elakdon, a sad smile spreading on his face. “I think your love sees your needs before you’re aware of them yourself. I, too, need to stretch my legs. And find someone to feed on.” Father rose. “Do you mind, Harald?”

  “No, I need a break, too.”

  They all rose, Nil-Savadin and Nol-Plydon remaining at the table.

  Elakdon was more than aware that he had her attention, and he knew he’d soon have to talk to her. However, how was he supposed to word that he couldn’t agree to terms that made him feel like he placed himself and his people on the same level as rats scurrying into holes in the ground because a new cat had moved in next door.

  Randr kept walking, and Elakdon followed, not really thinking until he saw that they were headed for the waterfront. Randr spread out a few skins and took a seat by a tree, his back to it. He spread his legs and planted his feet flat in the snow, then patted the skins between his legs.

  Elakdon took a seat and enjoyed the feel of Randr’s arms around him. “What do you think?”

  “I think you need something other than words from me now, My King.”

  Elakdon chuckled and leaned his head back further to get a kiss. Just one kiss, and then Randr bundled him up in his arms again and stayed quiet. The sound of the wind whistling in the crowns above, the sound of waves coming in, but hitting the icy shores.

  As always, Randr’s silent presence left room for so many thoughts, and Elakdon let them wander.

  He couldn’t hide. Or was it because he saw it as hiding that it became something cowardice in his eyes?

  Too few. He remembered Nil-Savadin and Nol-Plydon having agreed upon that, and he had since been quietly reminded that he, at one point, had an idea when he’d stared at the big Yggdrasil in his Hall.

  Populate. When he’d whispered that word in Cubi, both the old King and Queen had looked determined and…well, Nil-Savadin had looked sneaky.

  Populate. How many could they force? How many Changelings could they find if he sent out Cubi to visit all the towns? Then again, if they were mere myths to more and more humans, then now, at the dawn of a new and not exactly Cubi friendly God was probably not the time to make a stand and a rise.

  Unless they didn’t hide.

  Again, the only way around that was war, and they were not enough. Nol-Plydon and Father had relayed more details about the war in the time of Nil-Kardin where the strength of the purple-eyes was not enough to lay waste the numbe
rs of humans moving in. They’d learned from it, and Elakdon had better listen. That was more or less the phrasing used.

  Populate. It kept ringing in the back of Elakdon’s head.

  He felt a bit tired as he sat somewhat warm but definitely comfortable against his lover.

  A raven squawked. Then again, and this time, it was answered. The wind changed direction, and when he looked that way, he saw a man walking their way, slowly, with a staff. He stopped three meters away and turned to stand with his back to them so that he stared out over the waters. A raven set off from a branch nearby and landed on his shoulder.

  “Memory teaches so much,” the old man said.

  “What?” Elakdon asked.

  “Memory.” The old man turned and looked at Elakdon with only one eye. “He teaches Thought, too.”

  A raven landed right next to Elakdon and squawked him in the face, making him jump awake. “Odin.”

  “What?” Randr asked. “My King, what was that?”

  “Odin.” Elakdon pointed to where the wanderer had stood. Two blackbirds took off from a tree and flew past them. “Memory teaches so much, even Thought.”

  “Memory is the past,” Randr said.

  “Yes. And in it, we find mistakes we should have learned from.” And Elakdon hated that he had to think about those because those thoughts were the ones used as the basis for them hiding and not fighting. But Memory could also teach by reminding people of something they were supposed to think about.

  “I find it difficult to think about…” Randr said.

  “What, Allon?”

  “Time. Once, as a child, I thought I should live forever. Then I saw death in abundance as my village caught a fever, and I knew I was a mortal man. Then not long ago, I knew I was going to die soon. And now I shall live for hundreds of years with a King in my arms. I cannot understand such numbers. I cannot grasp the time and what could change. How it will all change. But it must. Like the wheel, it keeps turning, and the seasons keep changing. What will one hundred years of the wheel look like?”

  Elakdon smiled as the three questions Nil-Savadin had asked in his bed came back to him. He was master of all that would happen. “Different,” he whispered, then got up. He reached for Randr and pulled him to his feet.