The River of Time (The Shiva XIV Series Book 4)

by Lyra Shanti

  “Excuse me?” Darvis replied, genuinely confused.

  “I know about you two being lovers, and it’s alright. I forgive you.”

  Shocked at her candidness, Darvis cleared his throat and looked at Jin for help. Jin shook his head and shrugged.

  “You told her?” asked Darvis, who was clearly worried.

  “I had to, I’m sorry,” said Jin. “She is my best friend, and deserved to know. Besides, I’m sick of hiding it. I doubt very much that your political life would be over if you were to let our relationship be known. I’m sure even Minister Baran agrees with me.”

  Baran raised his left brow and took a sip from a glass of sweet, red Sirini wine. “Unfortunately, I am not so certain that I do, Jin,” he replied in his deep, warm voice. “You see, as much as I consider myself a modern, open-minded man, I realize we are in a state of change on Kri. We have only just recently changed from a dying monarch to a true republic, and many minds here are stuck in the past. If we are to change the tides successfully, I believe we must do it slowly... without rocking the boat which carries our newfound equality.”

  Jin tried to hold back a sneer, but couldn’t. “Well, that’s a wonderful speech, Minister, but with all due respect…”

  “Jin, please…” Darvis interjected.

  “No, I need to say this.” said Jin, heatedly, “I respectfully disagree, Baran. I think one must rock the boat at times to make the tides change accordingly to how you see fit. Too much caution, and you risk inertia!”

  “True,” smiled Baran, “but… by the same token, too much carelessness, and you risk disaster.”

  “Oh, shut up, all of you!” blurted Iliya. “I just want to eat a yummy dessert! Why do you men always have to talk about such annoying things?! Let’s just eat!”

  Baran gave an amused smile, then said, “On that note, I would like you both to know, even though I do not think Kri is ready for an openly gay councilman, I am personally fine with it. In fact, I think this is the first time Darvis has smiled in nearly three years, so… I am rather pleased for you both.”

  Jin wanted to say something more, but like so many who had gotten into a debate with the always charming Krian minister, he found himself tongue-tied. All he could do was thank Baran and quietly nod.

  Iliya was glad that Baran had quieted Jin down. She wasn’t against two men loving each other. She was just against her man loving another man.

  Trying not to fall back into self-pity, she dug into her cheese pie with vigor, not caring how it looked to anyone nearby.

  “So, Iliya…” said Baran, “how is your mother?”

  “Well…” she said with a mouth full of pie, “she’s still not marrying you, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Jin and Darvis quietly snickered while Baran sneered, slightly embarrassed.

  “I didn’t mean that, but…”

  “How many times have you asked her now anyway?” said Iliya, wiping her mouth. “Trust me, Baran, my stupid adoptive mother doesn’t deserve you. Why don’t you ask me instead? I’d say yes in a heartbeat!”

  Baran leaned in close and smelled Iliya’s breath. Realizing she had been drinking his wine without him looking, he casually said, “Because, obviously, you are a drunk in the making. Now, when did I say that you could drink my wine? Do you have any idea how strong Sirini wine is, silly girl?”

  “I’m not silly!” she yelped with a hiccup. “I’m a princess! And I’m going to turn you inside out with my plasmic powers!”

  Baran smirked, then said, “Well, before you do that, I suppose I better take you home. I’m sorry, Darvis… Jin… but I must take the all-powerful princess home, and before her mother slices me open with her Viha.”

  Laughing, Jin said, “We completely understand.”

  Darvis smiled and said, “I will speak with you tomorrow, Minister. It was good having dinner with you.”

  “Likewise,” said Baran as he helped Iliya to her feet.

  Wobbling, Ilya looked up at Baran, who appeared glossy and glowing as he helped her out of the restaurant.

  “You’re my shiny, shiny protector!” she announced, slurring her words.

  Baran laughed as he helped her into his hover-car.

  “Wait! Where’s your horse?”

  “I left him at home,” he replied, nonchalant.

  “Oh…” she said in a daze.

  Baran then told the driver to take them to her boarding home, which was located near the Dryndi School of Healing Arts.

  All of the sudden, she giggled profusely.

  “What is it? What’s so funny?” asked Baran.

  “My mother…”

  “What about her?”

  “She’s visiting me… and she’s been so evil lately. She’s probably gonna smell my breath, look at you, and then chop your man bits off! Ha! Bye-bye man bits!”

  Baran squirmed and grimaced as Iliya, drunk as can be, waved at Baran’s lap, as if saying a final farewell.

  “Driver…” said Baran, “on second thought, take us to my place… at the palace.”

  “Yay!” squealed Iliya. “Man bits be saved!”

  Baran watched as Iliya passed out on his lap. He couldn’t help but feel bad for the rebellious young lady he had grown quite fond of over the last few years. She wasn’t exactly like a daughter to him, but something similar. He had tried to prove to Reese he could be a good role model for Iliya, who was now Reese’s officially adopted daughter, but he wasn’t sure he was doing the best job.

  “Oh, Gods,” he said in a sigh, watching Iliya as she softly snored on him. He had no idea how he was going to explain this awkward situation to Reese, but he had a feeling his ‘man bits’ were not entirely safe after all.

  Chapter 3: Couples

  Ona yawned as she reached for Ayn’s back. He sat bare-chested on the bed beside her while playing a lavender-colored elenon. Ona had bought him the elenon for his twentieth birthday, and he seemed to love it, which made her ecstatic. It was hard to please her husband, not because he was ungrateful, but because he was always stressed about his kingdom, especially when it came to solving the riddle of Undaniasis, a disease Ona was dedicated to understanding as well. Having taken up her studies directly under Dr. Lius Hessen - the most renowned scientist on Deius, if not the galaxy - Ona hoped they would soon find a cure.

  Despite their best efforts, they hadn’t gotten any closer to a cure, and Ayn had a way of taking everything on his shoulders, which often rendered him exhausted. Ona was glad to see him enjoying the moment with her. He seemed relaxed and free, and lost in expressing the music within his soul. She loved his music, and she loved how confident he seemed these days, even about being shirtless.

  In the beginning of their marriage, Ayn would cover himself almost all the time, for fear a servant would walk in unexpectedly. His behavior baffled her, especially since his chest was very manly and not at all something to be ashamed of. She could understand his fears if his lower half had been exposed, for his intersex body was still a secret between them, and only a select, trusted few. However, his paranoia loomed large, even though she often gave him words of support and love. However, he did seem a little more confident these days, though not completely, and she worried she could never help him to fully accept himself.

  After the first year of their marriage, she grew to understand his upbringing, and how shy Ayn could be because of his embarrassment over the female part of his genitalia. She loved every part of him, but Ayn still had a difficult time accepting his body. Ona didn’t mind; she adored him for who he was. Even if it meant waiting forever, she vowed to be patient with him, until he loved himself as much as she loved him.

  She gently stroked his back with her nails and sighed, breathing in his music and the moment. She briefly fell into a dream where she saw stars in the darkness… yet there was a dim beam of light coming from a swirling galaxy somewhere off in the distance. She knew that galaxy well. It was her own soul’s galaxy, full of creation, song, and possibility. Fe
eling open and completely relaxed, she slowly woke from her vision and smiled.

  Still touching Ayn’s naked, olive-skinned back, she began humming with the melody he strummed on the elenon. It made Ayn smile as he turned to look at her. She was completely naked on her back, and the sight of her made his heart race.

  “Oh, Gods,” he said as he stopped playing, “how can such a beautiful woman be all mine?”

  “You must be blessed,” she answered, beckoning him with her finger.

  He couldn’t resist as he gently put down the elenon on the side of their grand-sized bed. His heart throbbing, he crawled on top of her, then cupped her breasts. Reaching for his back, she moaned and wrapped her legs around him.

  Wanting her more than life itself, Ayn kissed her neck, and for a moment, he forgot all his woes and worries.

  “Oh, Ayn…” she moaned, “make love to me.”

  “Yes…” he whispered in reply.

  “I love you so much,” she nearly sang.

  “I love you too, my sweet Ona!”

  “You’re everything to me!” she yelped in ecstasy.

  “You’re everything to me as well, my beautiful, brilliant wife!” he exclaimed, about to go inside of her.

  “And now is a perfect time too,” she added… “because I’m ovulating.”

  He stopped and looked at her. “What?” he asked with a confused face.

  “Well,” she replied, “you know how I’m taking the hormone injections Lius suggested… and I’m ovulating, so it’s a perfect time to try again.”

  “Oh, Gods, Ona,” he groaned as he sat up, no longer in the mood.

  “What?” she said with a furrowed brow.

  “You know I don’t believe in that stuff,” he replied, annoyed. He stood up and put on his favorite silken blue robe.

  “Well, I don’t understand why you’re so against it,” she said, getting to her feet, trying to stop him from walking away. She blocked the door with her naked body. Pressing herself up against him, she added, “You’re the one who said that we should forget the past and embrace the future.”

  “I never said that,” Ayn rebutted, trying not to be excited by her body, but failing terribly.

  Feeling his excitement, she held him, playfully petting his lower back. “Yes, you did,” she whispered into his ear with a teasing smile. “You said it at your last address to the people. You said, and I quote, that we should ‘embrace the future with a new sense of exploration,’ and that Deius should be a planet full of new ideas with a love for science while respecting all religions, though never at the expense of progress.”

  “Wow, Ona, you have a perfect memory! Look, what I meant was-”

  “I know what you meant, Ayn. I helped you write it!” she snapped, pulling away from him.

  “Fine, yes, but… I didn’t mean that I want you to take these stupid hormones! It’s unnatural, and I don’t like it!”

  Ona folded her arms and looked at him with a stern frown.

  Ayn sighed, pushing back his long, black hair. “What I mean is…”

  “You’re a damned hypocrite sometimes, you know that?”

  Taken aback by her blunt words, he said, “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me,” she replied, turning on her heels and briskly walking to the bathing area of their large, royal quarters.

  “Ona!” he shouted. He tried to stop her in time, but she slammed the bathroom door on him. “Oh, come on, Ona! Look, I… I just don’t agree with it, I’m sorry! I mean, if the Gods want us to have a child, we will. And if they don’t, then it’s just not meant to be.”

  “Screw you! And your Gods!” she yelled.

  Ayn sighed in frustration as he leaned his forehead up against the bathroom door. This wasn’t the first time they had this argument, and he feared it wouldn’t be the last. He couldn’t help feeling it was all his fault; if only they’d been able to have children naturally in the first year of their marriage. He knew they’d have trouble though, even before Lius told them about Ayn’s low sperm count, or Ona’s benign ovarian cysts; it was his instinct that told him the Gods wouldn’t allow him to have children. He felt cursed his whole life when it came to his manhood. Lack of fertility seemed like yet another inevitable turn of events on his strange journey.

  He wished Ona didn’t have to go through his difficult path as well. He hated that she now appeared to be blaming herself. Ayn knew it wasn’t her fault. If anything, he blamed his own strange, mixed up body. With both sperm and dormant ovaries inside different parts of his sexual organs, he couldn’t imagine how he’d ever make children.

  Despite his own doubts, Ona never stopped believing or trying, even if he didn’t want to try anymore. He felt obligated to do it, however, for her sake. It seemed to him that Ona needed to have children to compensate for the loss of her father. Also, he felt she wanted to prove to him that he was a real man after all. Ayn’s happiness and confidence seemed to directly affect Ona’s, and he both loved and hated that fact.

  “Ona…” he begged at the door, “please talk to me.” He could hear her crying, and it tore at his heart. “Please, Ona… let’s talk. I promise not to yell. I just wish we could make love and not try to make a baby. I mean, we’re both so young yet. We have time, right?” He could hear her mumble something, but he wasn’t able to distinguish the words. “What, my love?” he asked through the door. There was silence in return. “Come on, Ona… talk to me. Please?”

  After a few seconds, the door opened, and he saw her tear-stained face as she stood in a peach-colored and floral, silk robe. She sniffed and nodded, letting him approach her.

  “You know how much I adore you, right?” he asked as he walked into the bathroom, gently touching the side of her arm.

  She took a deep breath and said, “Yes, Ayn, but you don’t understand how I feel, and I don’t think you want to try.”

  “That’s not true, Ona,” he said, shaking his head. “I want to know… more than you think. I just…”

  “Don’t want to hear it?”

  “No, Gods… Ona, please stop that, and just let me talk!”

  “Ayn, look…” she said, crossing her arms, “obviously you don’t want children as much as I do, and you’re using the ‘it’s not natural’ excuse to hide that fact.”

  “No, that’s not-”

  “Yes, it is! I know you don’t care what it takes to find a cure for Undaniasis. You love genetics and testing new procedures when it comes to that issue, but if it’s to help me become more fertile, then you go Dei priest on me for some odd reason, claiming that it’s not what the Gods want. I’m not stupid. I know it’s that you just don’t want kids with me. I guess I’m alone in this.”

  “Ona! Stop it! That’s not true!”

  Turning her back to him, she dropped her robe and slid open the shower door. Stepping inside, she turned on the water, and said, “I’m taking a shower. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

  Stunned, Ayn didn’t know how to feel. He was both sad and angry, and had no idea what to say to make her realize the truth of his feelings. He wanted to explain everything. He wanted to tell her words that would calm her. Instead, his mind became a furious, spark-plug of thoughts.

  Shoving open the shower door, he looked at her with intense, blue eyes. She looked at him in return with a raised brow, almost daring his anger to unleash from his usual self-control.

  He stood, watching his naked wife with fixated, hungry eyes. She slowly shook her head scornfully, then continued to wash herself with a pink sponge.

  “Ona…” he said with a low, steady voice.

  “Yes?” she replied as she washed, not looking at him.

  “I’m… going to take a walk,” he muttered, turning away from her. “I’ll be back later.”

  With that, Ona knew the beast side of her husband had been quelled once again. She had come to know that side of him through the last three years, but only when he was frustrated with others, never with her. However, she still remem
bered her recurring dreams about him, before they had married, and she knew that such anger and darkness existed within his psyche… somewhere deep inside, perhaps where his plasma-induced power lurked as well.

  For the most part, though, she trusted her husband. Ayn’s heart was pure, and she knew he meant well. Ayn, however, wasn’t always so sure.

  --

  Axis tried his best to convince Srah that his doubts about Zasaban were justified and real, but she didn’t seem to believe him. Smirking, she put away Rax and Thali’s cat and horse dolls and nonchalantly said, “Yes, love, you’ve already told me about this… at least a hundred times.”

  “Then why don’t you use your psychic-empathy ability thing, and tell me if I’m right!”

  “Axis... you know I can’t do that.”

  “You mean you won’t,” he said, grimacing, following her into their bedroom.

  “I mean I can’t! Look, it doesn’t work like that for me. I can’t turn my empathy on and off at will. You should know that.”

  “But… why can’t you at least talk to him and feel it out? Srah, I know he’s hiding something. I can feel it.”

  “And do you know if it’s something harmful to any of us?” she asked, taking off her shoes to rub her aching feet. She had been running around with the twins, playing their game of Animals versus Gods, and she was exhausted. The last thing she wanted to do was argue with Axis about his paranoid fears.

  “No,” he quietly replied, “but I know it’s… something secret, and I don’t like it.”

  “You just don’t like him,” she calmly stated. “That’s the truth of it, dear. You’re jealous of him because-”

  “No, I’m not!” he proudly denied, placing his fists on his hips. “I’m just worried about Ayn! Why can’t you see that?”

  “Axis, please stop shouting,” she hushed. “You’ll wake the children.”

  He pursed his lips and knotted his brow. “Sorry,” he grumbled, “but why doesn’t anyone believe me? That wizard just… smells wrong.”