by Noah Layton
‘You never felt the need to do this on any other occasion that we’ve met,’ I smiled.
‘Okay, perhaps I am simply eager to indulge in this steaming water. We have no such delights upon our land beyond the baths in our homes. This is a true treasure.’
I had thought weeks ago that she viewed us simply as allies, but this was a different turn entirely.
Maybe this was just a custom of the sun-elves. They were proud beings, but so were the Ancient Romans, and they were perfectly content with disrobing in bathhouses together.
Any semblance of a logical thought went out the window when Mariana pulled her undershirt over her head. She was wearing nothing beneath it but a red, lacy bra, its edges lined with gold as they gently gripped her perky breasts and her slender, defined shoulders.
She cast her shirt aside and closed her eyes, stretching her arms up gracefully over her head and sighing happily. She shook her head lightly, her luscious golden hair falling over her shoulders.
That wasn’t nearly the end of it, though.
After sliding out of her boots, she pressed her gentle fingers into the waist of her pants and pulled them down over her legs, stepping out of them to reveal the rest of her incredibly body.
Damn…
I barely managed to pick my jaw up off the floor in time when she turned back to me with a frown.
‘You’re not… Anxious to do so, are you?’ She asked curiously.
‘Me, anxious?’ I replied. ‘You’re talking to the wrong guy.’
‘I hear many words but see few actions,’ she said, bending over gracefully and sliding her pants slowly down her long, slender legs. ‘Why don’t you join me for a swim?’
Her tall, magnificent body presented itself before me, her pert behind gripped by red laced underwear that matched her bra.
Her long, slender legs were like that of supermodel’s. Alongside my wives she was one of the most stunning women I had ever seen.
I had spent more than a few occasions wondering what she looked like beneath the various elaborate floral dresses and pieces of armor that I had seen her in since we had first met, but the reality was so much more impressive.
Our relationship was supposed to be strictly platonic – two allied tribe masters who weren’t willing to give up power to the other, but led a similar way of life within their tribes and were willing to support each other when the occasion arose.
Mariana stepped down into the blue water and sank beneath its surface completely. She returned a moment later, her face pointed to the air and her eyes closed as water streamed over her skin and down her golden hair.
She looked right at me with her startling blue eyes and drew a deep sigh of joy.
‘This water is delightful, Jack. It has been such a time since I have enjoyed a hot spring like this. Won’t you join me?’
It didn’t take long for me to realize what her real game was.
We might have been allies, but Mariana had been raised in the constant eye of power and relations.
I had little doubt that she would use her incredible beauty to try and seduce me.
Amongst spies back on Earth there was a name for such a woman.
Honeypot.
The act of achieving something with your sexuality was the honeytrap.
Is that seriously what she’s trying to do right now?
Male tribe masters didn’t have much of an advantage in attempting to seduce powerful women like her – she knew how the game was played.
And that was what made her just as deadly, if not deadlier.
Even if I considered her an ally, I had to be on my guard.
I stood confidently from the sandy bank and unbuttoned my shirt. Mariana eyed me ambiguously the entire time as she treaded the water gracefully.
I pulled off my shirt, exposing my scarred, chiseled torso, my defined pecs and my abs.
Don’t tense – that’ll only prove to yourself that you want her more.
Holy crap, did I actually just think that?
Mariana didn’t react in any way to the sight of my body, but simply minded herself, looking away and swimming in slow strokes through the glimmering blue water.
I could already feel the anticipation growing within me. My women had no problem with me being with another woman, especially those that would likely be brought into my harem.
But Mariana was an intoxicating force.
I could already feel myself becoming harder. I could avoid her gaze, avoid her beauty drawing me in, but she was the kind of woman that set every willing man off – captivating, dangerous and unattainable.
And this was the worst kind of unattainable – it wasn’t that I couldn’t have her, it was that she was off limits because of the power that she wielded and the politics that stood between us.
Hopefully the water will cool me off…
I sat upon the bank and pulled off my pants, shifting my hardness out of view, setting my clothes aside before sinking waist deep into the water and wading forwards to where it became deeper.
‘See?’ She said. ‘A fitting way to calm our minds and bodies when discussing a matter that holds such seriousness.’
‘Oh, so we are here on matters of tribal warfare,’ I remarked with a smirk.
‘Of course,’ Mariana said with a sudden tone of seriousness. ‘What other matters would we possibly be here to discuss?’
She knew how to play the game, if that’s what she really was doing.
Or was this really just a normal custom for her?
Either way, this was a fight – we were just sparring with words rather than blades.
‘Nothing at all,’ I countered, ‘I’m usually just used to engaging in discussions with other tribes when surrounded by guards and with weapons at my side that are ready to be drawn.’
‘Perhaps, but we are allies, Jack. We don’t have to worry about such dangers.’
‘Of course we don’t,’ I replied with overt sincerity. ‘So what did you think of the letter I sent to you?’
‘I think that the sun-elves of Morelia will support you in the face of any such threat. Especially one that is already known to my people…’
Despite the pleasurable warm water, I suddenly felt a chill rush up my spine.
‘Wait… You already know who Garrison is?’
‘Not this man in particular,’ Mariana replied, ‘but the dark-elves, yes. My people have a long and… Complicated history with their kind.’
‘Is that so?’ I asked. ‘Matters to do with your father?’
‘My father maintained our practices, but it did not begin with his generation, nor the one before his. The elves have been in conflict for hundreds of years. Our legends tell that when the gods birthed our kind to the land, the dark-elves immediately attempted to enslave our people.
‘The sun-elves fought back against their ways, and from that moment on a division was sewn between the two tribes, one that persists to this very day.’
‘You don’t think it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy?
‘Every dark-elf tribe that I have ever known in my time in this world – and our people have come into contact with several – have attempted to instigate war in an effort to enslave our people and take what is ours. This Garrison that you speak of sounds no different. What do you know of his fighting forces?’
‘I know that he’s got a small group of highly-regimented guards that take care of him, and that they’re damn good with weapons. I also know that he’s got an abundance of dark-elf soldiers that have no qualms with enslaving members of peaceful tribes and killing those who refuse to submit. I’ve seen it for myself.’
‘Then he is likely to be in possession of a strong fighting force,’ Mariana pondered. ‘But the sun-elves of Morelia no longer shrink away from forces that seek to challenge our way of life.’
‘I appreciate your support,’ I nodded.
‘I would give nothing less,’ she replied. ‘Those of us in Agraria that are good must stand by each other’s side
s in times of hardship. There are too many beings in this world capable of great evil who commit terrible acts in an effort to take everything for themselves. I’ve no doubt that many would be content with enslaving the whole world if it meant they could sit atop it all and call it their own. But the people of Agraria must be free to live their lives how they desire.’
‘I knew that you and I were on the same level,’ I smiled. ‘You’re a good leader, Mariana.’
‘As are you, Jack.’ She swam closer to me, so slowly that I barely noticed her movements until she was a few feet away from me. She gazed into my eyes and smiled with ethereal beauty. ‘You know, in ancient tribal times, when two tribes came together, there was a custom that was followed to cement relations.’
‘Swimming together?’ I commented, refusing to let my gaze falter from her eyes or show any sign of weakness.
‘Sometimes,’ she laughed. ‘Relations would usually be cemented by the coming-together of high-ranking members of the tribe, so that a new generation could be… Conceived.’
As her full lips uttered that final word, she raised her hand through the water and pressed a single fingertip to my chest. She traced her gentle hand up to my shoulder, up my neck and along the edge of my jaw.
Is she really trying to seduce me?
Because it’s working.
I knew this hand at my neck was feminine, soft, gentle… And yet I had to remind myself that it could kill.
Mariana was a beauty and a warrior.
These hands were deadly.
But already I could see myself taking her in my arms, becoming wrapped up in each other’s bodies, tasting every bit of her, ripping those final coverings from her breasts and her waist and taking her on the embankment by the pool.
She was a ferocious woman, so ferocious that I didn’t even know if she would take a husband.
I quelled a shiver that rose at her touch.
Fuck it… If she goes any further I’m going for it. I have to have her…
Mariana eyed me in the quiet of the cave, her eyes tracing between mine and my lips.
At any moment I expected her to lean closer to me.
What more of a signal did I need?
But then-
‘So we are in agreement,’ she smiled, drawing her hand away from me promptly. ‘If war is on the cards, then you have my support.’ She withdrew from me and stood suddenly, exposing her slim, toned body.
‘Uhh…’ I started like a moron. It was the first time a woman had made me do that in a while, discounting the bedroom of course. ‘Yeah. Yes. I appreciate your support.’
‘We must find out exactly what forces this villain has at his disposal. If he is as much of a threat as you say, then he will likely have further forces prepared to defend his land and his possessions.’
‘Of course,’ I said. ‘We’ll figure that out – just as soon as we figure out where his land is.’
‘I shall muster scouts to head north. We will find him.’
‘Right,’ I agreed, standing from the water as she climbed onto the embankment and dried herself off. ‘So… That’s everything.’
‘Of course. Unless there was something else that you wished to discuss, Jack?’
There was no way that I was going to mention the existence of the agrarium – that knowledge had to remain close to my chest.
She was giving me an oblivious, ambiguous look, as if she couldn’t possibly conceive of anything else that we might want to talk about.
But deep in those bright, wide eyes of hers, I could see what she was getting at.
She was using her beauty to manipulate me. She knew exactly what she was doing. She would be more than happy for me to drop to my knees before her and beg to have her, likely just like every sun-elf suitor that wanted to take her hand in marriage.
But there was no way that I was going to rise to it. One part of me had definitely risen in response to her astonishing beauty, but I wouldn’t let my mind submit to it.
‘Not at all,’ I said with a resolute nod. ‘That’s everything.’
‘Excellent. Let us get back to the land.’
Did… Did she seriously just do that to me?
She did. I just got blue-balled by a flirtatious supermodel sun-elf.
Chapter Thirteen
After bidding farewell to Mariana and her guards, I retrieved the silver orb from my inventory and climbed the steps into the northern guard tower to meet with Alorion.
‘What an unexpected visit,’ he started, watching them disappear into the forest atop their steeds.
‘Unexpected is right,’ I remarked, taking a seat next to him. ‘Everything about her was unexpected.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘We’re allies, and she knows that we need her support, but…’
‘She was using her womanly ways to try and seduce you?’
I turned to look at Alorion sharply.
‘How did you know that?’
‘It is not uncommon for tribe masters to do such things. She is a beautiful woman, after all, and a powerful one at that.’
‘You can say that again… I just hope that she doesn’t think she can wrap me around her finger.’
‘Many a tribe master has been betrayed by the thing hanging between his legs,’ Alorion spoke frankly. ‘Master Mariana may be an ally to us, but among allies there is still one who holds some power over the other. In this world there can be no room for leaders who exist at harmonious levels of power. One must take power over the other in some way, even if blades must eventually be drawn.
‘The great war that rocked the land decades ago was just the latest of many. It was the end of a cycle. Afterwards the power was split and separated into thousands of pieces. But one day, as the more powerful tribes become bigger, a battle will rage once again for the heart of Agraria.’
I looked Alorion up and down as he gazed into the snowy forest.
‘You really think so?’ I asked genuinely.
‘It is the only way that power knows how to exist. Many men have come close to controlling it all, but none have succeeded.’
‘Judging by the tribe masters that I’ve met since arriving here that’s probably a good thing,’ I smiled, holding up the silver orb. ‘I’m guessing the one who would love to get his hands on this would fall firmly into that category.’
‘Have you discovered its secrets yet?’
‘Not yet.’ I crossed to the edge of the watchtower platform and held it out over the barrier, where it glimmered in the sunlight. ‘It seems to reflect the light of the sun, which lines up with the riddle, but it hasn’t done anything else. It didn’t unlock or explode like the one in the fields… Hey, Alorion?’
‘Yes, Master Jack?’
‘Where’s the first orb? The bronze one?’
‘Beneath the metal tree, I assume.’
‘Okay, so where’s the metal tree?’
‘What do you mean?’ He asked, looking over his shoulder. ‘It’s right over th-…’
My imp rushed to my side and looked out into the field.
He witnessed the same scene as me.
The tree had vanished.
I rushed down the steps with Alorion closely in tow, then sprinted across the field to the spot where the tree had first emerged.
‘It was right here,’ I said, scrambling about in the dirt with my hands. ‘Where the hell did it… Ow!’
I suddenly felt a sharp jab into my hand from something within the dirt. I withdrew my hand and saw a small, clean cut on my fingertip.
There was something sharp down there.
After a quick trip to the storage structure I returned with a shovel and promptly jammed its blade into the frozen dirt.
It took a few minutes of struggling and grunting, but after finally getting enough leverage on the handle the orb reappeared.
The problem was that orb wasn’t a great term for it now. This was a jagged, spiked mess of an object, looking like a fossilized rock formation.
&n
bsp; With a little water from the well I wiped the mud away and set the object down upon the snow, careful not to cut myself in the process.
‘There has to be a reason that the metal tree returned to the orb,’ I said, pulling up my inventory and retrieving the silver orb. ‘It’s like it… Detected the presence of this new orb.’
Clouds had pushed in overhead now, and the silver orb was no longer lighting up.
‘They could be linked somehow,’ Alorion commented. ‘If they both possess some kind of substance that could-’
The sun finally peaked through the clouds for a few brief moments. The silver orb lit up suddenly, but this time something else happened too; its light immediately channeled to the fractured orb set upon the ground.
The fractured orb gave off a beam of light, aimed straight at me.
‘Gods…’ Alorion whispered in awe.
I looked down at the beam casting itself upon me, but it wasn’t proclaiming me as some kind of chosen savior.
Upon further inspection, it wasn’t projecting a beam of light.
The orb was projecting an image onto me.
For a second it looked like trees and some kind of building, but a moment later the sun fell back behind the clouds and the beams quickly vanished.
‘Holy crap,’ I exclaimed, turning to Alorion. ‘We need walls – or something that we can cast this image onto.’
Alorion took command of the silver orb while I wrapped up the jagged remains of the first in a blanket. He scrambled up to the roof of the Harvesting Building outside of my land while I headed into the treehouse and pushed the door wide, setting the fractured orb down on the ground.
‘What are you doing, Jack?’ Santana asked from a chair, setting aside her book.
The rest of my wives all joined her look of confusion.
‘I’m not sure,’ I said. ‘Maybe nothing… But maybe we’ve cracked this thing.’ I looked up to where Alorion resided atop the roof. ‘How are we doing, bud?’
‘Just a moment, Master Jack. A beam is about to come through… Now!’
Light filled the bronze orb outside. It channeled its beam towards the jagged piece, and the treehouse walls suddenly lit up with images.