No wonder the Emperor was drinking again. His own children and grandchildren might be plotting against him.
“Are they angling to replace him or…” Nathan trailed off.
“Maybe, but anybody working with the Nationalists will never become Emperor. The issue is that while he is Emperor Gorthal, he was born Gorthal von Arangar. His Majesty has many powerful enemies in politics, and they’ll happily assault his family.”
Nathan sighed. “In other words, his family either supports the political opponents of the Emperor or they lose everything. They won’t ever become Emperor, so they can’t gain anything by helping him.” He frowned. “What about Princess Alice? Isn’t she still supporting her grandfather?”
Leopold stopped suddenly and gave Nathan a sharp look. “Where did you hear about that?”
One day, Nathan would stop stepping in metaphorical piles of shit that he had transported back in time.
It wasn’t as though Nathan could admit that he had heard about Alice’s loyalty to Emperor Gorthal from his time with Falmir’s princess. The two had been close friends prior to the fall of the Empire in his timeline.
“It was sometimes gossiped about back… I want to say home, but I suppose it’s not home anymore,” Nathan said, pretending that his slow reaction was because he felt uncomfortable talking about being disowned by his family.
“I can’t say that makes me feel better,” Leopold muttered. He drummed his fingers on his leg and stared into the distance for several long seconds. “Her Imperial Highness has been kept as a secret from most nobility for some time. That she’s been involved with His Majesty is something that few people are supposed to know.”
Oh. Wonderful.
“Which means…” Nathan lowered the tone of his voice.
“I have a few inquiries to make,” Leopold said, his gaze distant. “Particularly given something else that is currently happening.”
He shook his head. “But if nothing has happened yet, it can wait a few hours. You trust the fox enough to organize negotiations?”
“There’s already been a letter back from King George, one of the Federation regents. He won’t be there, but will send a representative,” Nathan said. “Seraph says it’s legitimate, and he is the regent with the greatest interest in peace.”
Leopold gave Nathan an odd look. “Seraph says so, does she?”
“You don’t trust her, either?”
“That’s not it. You’ve bound her using the binding stone. But I expected her to cause you more difficulty, not to roll over and become your loyal dog.” The old man scratched at his sideburns. “You have a knack for building loyalty and trust in people that I wish I had. Or perhaps I did have it, and years of politics have worn it away.”
A wind blew past them, and both of them huddled behind a storehouse while it passed. Their tankards were empty, and the front courtyard was still a few minutes’ walk away.
“I’ll have Anna help with negotiations,” Leopold said.
“Is that important?” Nathan asked.
“Very. Like I said, His Majesty only asked me to handle negotiations as a symbolic gesture. Both of us are Bastions. Soldiers in the Imperial Army. We don’t have the authority to conduct diplomacy.”
“You say that now, but I’m pretty sure we started a war,” Nathan said.
“Technically, Anna started a war.”
“Ah. No wonder she’s grumpy. I get all the kudos, and everybody blames her.”
The two men chuckled in the empty, cold shadow of the keep.
“Archduke von Milgar should be willing to back her, so that will give her enough authority to negotiate with the Federation without returning to the Diet,” Leopold said. “We just need to make sure that this isn’t a trap, and that Torneus shows up. Without him, it will be a waste of time.”
Nathan got the message. He needed to know that Narime was trustworthy.
Fortunately, he already knew that. Or he thought he did.
Chapter 10
It didn’t take long for Nathan to find out that he was dreaming.
Faded sandstone walls towered over him. The floor was a deep, dark slate that was so cold that the chill wormed its way through Nathan’s boots. Numerous balconies hung from the walls, and they were a patchwork of different types of sandstone and marble. Jewels of all shapes and colors glittered from the walls.
Behind Nathan was a void. No, not a void. Just a very long drop.
Dozens of similar towers rose from the ground, although none of them were as tall as the one that Nathan stood on. The ground was so far below him that the farmland looked like a painting. A nightmarish sprawl of buildings stretched out for miles from the towers, before slowly petering out into paddocks and villages.
If Nathan had the ability to look around the tower, he knew that he would see a mountain range. The northern end of the Gharrick Mountains, in fact.
He was standing atop the Capitol Spire in the largest city in Doumahr. Given the people standing near him, he recognized this memory.
The Aurelian Spires were a city-state, but not just any city-state. It was one built from some of the oldest, largest buildings in the world. The sandstone towers were older than the Anfang Empire and believed to be built by the First Peoples.
Now, the Spires were occupied almost exclusively by dark elves. Hundreds of them crowded the viewing balconies and hallways. Their skin ran the gamut from a soft brown that could be mistaken for a tan, to black ash. Human artists preferred to depict dark elves as either chocolate-skinned or with skin so gray they appeared undead, but reality was, as always, more complicated.
Five of the balconies were different to the others. They contained only a few dark elves, and each had a bored-looking noble sitting in an ostentatious throne. Jewelry hung from almost every part of their faces, and its worth was high enough that somebody could probably buy an estate with the head of one of these dark elves. Almost every dark elf had piercings of some form, and Nathan knew that there were far more piercings than could be seen. Particularly as the dark elf nobility were rather conservative in their clothing choices.
Beside Nathan were three people, none of whom he had met in his new timeline.
At the front stood a young woman with brown, curly hair that stretched to her waist. Her elegant blue and black dress hid most of her curves beneath frills, but no quantity of frills could hide the sheer size of her chest. Even Fei’s breasts couldn’t compete.
She was Princess Charlotte, the only daughter of Falmir’s king, and presently second-in-line for the throne.
Right now, she was giving a polished speech to the assembled dark elves. Nathan didn’t pay attention, as he knew the words by heart. Charlotte had forced him to listen to it at least a hundred times while she practiced it, and he couldn’t forget it even if he tried.
But the dark elves didn’t appear to care. A man stood to the side of Nathan’s party and spoke every time Charlotte paused. She let him finish each time, before continuing. The man was a translator. At least officially.
In truth, the dark elf councilors—and probably every other dark elf in this spire—spoke perfect Imperial, which was the language of diplomacy and trade. The translator was an insult, and also a reminder that they weren’t dark elves. The councilors sitting in the balconies never reacted to Charlotte’s words, but they sometimes nodded when the translator spoke.
Another dark elf stood next to Charlotte, although this one was underdressed compared to every other dark elf in the hall. Her name was Nurevia, and she was the only dark elf openly supporting Charlotte and Nathan. A pair of amethysts sat in her collarbone, and she wore more than a dozen empty sheathes of all shapes and sizes. Her weapons had been placed in safekeeping prior to entering the hall.
Behind Charlotte, and next to Nathan, stood an older man. He persistently lied about his age but had eventually revealed it to Nathan over drinks years later. This was Gareth, a Bastion in his early forties who was considered one of Falmir’s greatest Bastion
s. Or at least, he was now. Until the fall of the Empire, he had been assigned to the middle of nowhere.
Nathan counted Gareth as one of his closest friends. His death in Trafaumh still haunted Nathan. For everything that Nathan learned from Gareth, it hadn’t been enough in the end.
Eventually, Charlotte’s speech wound down. The councilors remained silent. The dark elves in the crowd began to jeer in their native tongue. Nurevia scowled, and her fingers absently ran over her empty weapon sheathes. Laughter rained down on them as the silence from the councilors continued.
Nathan ignored the crowd. Or at least, he did mentally. His past self was furious, and he heard himself muttering to Gareth about what to do next.
“Stay calm. We knew this would happen,” Gareth muttered back.
Ah, youth. This trip to the Spires was Nathan’s first taste of true politics, and it hurt to see how stupid he had been. The signs were all there, but he had missed them in the midst of the crowd’s mocking.
The councilors looked at each other. One or two whispered to aides and confidants. None of them spoke aloud or backed the crowd. These dark elves were some of the wealthiest individuals in the Spires, but they were also elected to their positions by the dark elves.
One of the councilors gestured in the air. The crowd didn’t respond, but the dozens of guards posted in the hall did.
“The One True Council of Aurelia will have silence,” a guard bellowed. Every other guard slammed the hilts of their spears into the ground at the same time, the sound echoing off the stone and out into space.
The crowd shut up. Many glared at the guards for ruining their fun, and the guards glared back.
“The council will deliberate on the message from the Kingdom of Falmir. Anything less would be inconsiderate toward Champion Nurevia, and her contributions to the Watcher Omria. We shall deliver our decision directly to the petitioner once our deliberations are complete,” the central councilor stated.
“Such is the will of the One True Council of Aurelia,” the guards shouted, their voices synchronized with far too much precision. How many hours a day did they practice saying that line?
The crowd grumbled as the council left and the guards shooed them away. Their fun had been ruined. Sometimes, the guards forced people off the edge of the spire if the council was annoyed enough.
“That was a huge waste of time,” the young Nathan spat once they were alone. The four of them walked along a hallway toward their accommodation within the spire. Until the council made their decision, none of them could leave.
Charlotte sighed. “I had hoped that they would see reason but…”
“You’re giving up too quickly,” Gareth said. “If it was a waste of time, they would have joined the crowd in calling us idiots and thrown us out. You’re a princess, and as always, it’s protected you. I’ve said it before: use your position as a sword and shield. Right now, it’s forcing the council to listen. They’re not about to toss the Princess of Falmir off a spire.”
“Really? Because they didn’t really give a shit, Pike,” Nurevia said, calling Gareth by his surname. “I’ve seen more emotion from farm animals.”
“I’m not going to ask where a Champion like you has run into farm animals. Let alone sparked emotion from one,” Gareth said, a grin crossing his face.
“Fuck you.”
“I was implying something like that happened, yes.”
“Double fuck you.”
“Enough,” Charlotte said, shaking her head. “We don’t really have a choice, do we? We can’t leave, and even if we did, we can’t stop the Federation without their help. Trafaumh has refused to help. Arcadia is in the middle of a civil war as the elves and beastkin try to overthrow the fairies. The dark elves are the only nation with a trigem Champion that can still help us stop High Lord Torneus.”
Even in the past, Torneus had been the greatest threat. Nathan wanted him out of the picture for good reason.
Nathan said goodbye to Charlotte as she entered her room, which was large enough to house a family. Gareth split off a moment later with a wave, rolling his eyes at Nurevia.
His reasoning became clear a moment later, as the dark elf pinned Nathan to the wall.
“Now that we’re all alone, why don’t we finish off where we started this morning,” Nurevia purred into Nathan’s ear. Her hand reached into his pants and began stroking his cock, which rapidly hardened.
“This really isn’t the place,” young Nathan grunted out. Magic surged in his arms and he pushed her off him.
“My bedroom’s right here. I can’t see there being a better place.” Nurevia giggled.
She didn’t give up and pushed him toward the door. Before he could react, she snapped the door open with a foot and rushed him inside. The door slammed shut behind them, and Nurevia fell to her knees in front of him.
Normally, Nathan would enjoy this part of the dream. Nurevia wasn’t his favorite Champion, given her odd predilections and personality, but he wouldn’t say no to sliding his length down her throat or enjoying her curvy, dark-skinned body. Her shoulder-length hair shimmered in the light of the room and left Nathan guessing whether it was lavender or light gray. She grinned up at him with sparkling purple eyes as his tip slipped inside her mouth.
“Ahem,” another voice said.
Nurevia popped Nathan out of her mouth and cursed. “You bitch. This is my bedroom. Stay in your own.”
“You’re rather transparent in your desires, so I waited for you here,” Narime said. Her seven silver tails weaved patterns behind her, and her blue eyes narrowed. “I figured you would at least wait until he was inside before starting.”
“He is inside,” Nurevia said, pointing at the door. “And you shouldn’t be. Get out.”
“Nurevia,” young Nathan tried to say.
“Not you,” Nurevia said. “I want you inside, in more ways than one.”
“You are incorrigible,” Narime said. “You aren’t even his Champion yet. And no, you weren’t inside. He’s rock hard. Nathan’s responsive, but even he wouldn’t be at full mast without help.”
Narime glared at him, and his younger self winced.
Personally, the current Nathan liked the attention. But handling the attention of multiple women was new to his younger self. Vala had only caved to the constant pressure of his beastkin Champions a few months earlier, and Narime was a newcomer into his life.
The two women continued to bicker and argue. The result of this argument was a frustrating one. At some point, the young Nathan would slip away and join Vala in his room.
Then again, Nathan hadn’t seen his original Champion for a long time. Maybe an erotic dream about her wouldn’t be so bad. But he hated his past self for refusing to simply accept the attention he was receiving and take control.
He wished he could say something like, “Why don’t you both stay here? I’m the Bastion, aren’t I?”
Suddenly, both women fell silent. They looked at Nathan oddly. Then the pair grinned and sunk to their knees in front of him. Their tongues ran along each side of his shaft, saliva dripping onto the floor.
This wasn’t how his memory went, which was probably a sign that this dream was no longer playing out as he remembered it.
Nathan reached out with his hands and pushed both women against his crotch. They moaned and suckled against him, their eyes looking up at him with expressions of ecstasy. He ran his ringers through Narime’s silky hair and fluffy ears as she swallowed his tip with her mouth. A moan escaped her lips.
A moan that sounded a lot like a certain catgirl in Nathan’s life.
He woke up, vision hazy at first. Something warm and wet was wrapped around his prick. Moans reached his ears, along with slick, wet noises.
When his vision cleared, he saw a very enthusiastic Fei clinging to him. He was in bed, and she lay naked along his legs. Her cat ears flattened against her head as she lapped up the pre that dripped from his tip, and her tongue ran along his entire length.
But three things differed this time.
The first was the time. It couldn’t be later than two or three in the morning. The moon was still out, and everything was pitch black.
Second, it wasn’t Fei’s turn. Another naked figure cuddled up to Nathan, her arms across his bare chest and head nestled in the crook of his neck. Sen had spent the night with Nathan after a vigorous session of “exercise.” The two women normally had no issues rotating with each other and Sunstorm.
Finally, Fei’s expression was warped with pleasure. Her eyes were glazed over. Her face flushed. Drool oozed onto Nathan’s balls as she licked and sucked at him. Moans escaped the catgirl every few seconds, and she twitched with pleasure at his touch.
Nathan had a solid idea what was happening. The fact that the room smelled as though he had been having sex with Fei for a week straight sealed the deal.
Fei’s rutting had finally begun. He had the medicine to suppress it, but this was the first time he’d seen it in action. Plenty of experience with beastkin in his original timeline allowed him to identify that this was probably the first occurrence.
He’d deal with the consequences later. For now, he needed to settle her down. The easiest way to do that was to indulge her until her libido calmed down and her brain thought about something other than mating.
His fingers tickled her ears, and she moaned around his shaft. With just a little coaxing, he pushed her against him. Her eyes curved and his entire length vanished into her mouth. He tickled the back of her throat while he groaned. She bobbed up and down rapidly, making loud slurping noises and pleasuring herself at the same time.
Heat burst from him, and he crushed her head against his crotch. She moaned against him even as he flooded her stomach. When he popped out of her, she focused on sucking up every drop. She almost went cross-eyed with how hard she stared at his cock.
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