"What?!" I said shocked, but the sinking feeling I felt inside told me that I shouldn't have been.
"Oh, she thinks she's being coy about it, and that no one knows, but she's still as young and clueless as ever."
"I guess I better go see Rachel right away then."
Narasamman sighed, "As much as I'd like to delay you a while, yes, you had best get going. She's on a short fuse right now."
"Rachel is the love of my life. She should know better than to think I'd toss her over for Goth. Hell, I've cut back on ... well let's just say that I don't warm that many beds anymore." I said with a suddenly blush.
Narasamman eyed me over, "Oh really now, Will?"
"Ask Fel, he knows exactly how many women I'm bedding,"
"It's depressing," Fel's voice surrounded us, "the opportunities he turns down."
"Well, that's surprising," Narasamman said.
"What's even more surprising is that my own god encourages me to do these things," I said a bit guiltily.
"That's because you're one of my finest creations, William! I don't want all that breeding potential to go to waste!" Fel said laughing.
I could feel all the fur on my face standing straight up as my ears went flat in complete embarrassment.
"I think I'm done here," I mumbled, and grabbing a tunic from the chair I hurried out of the temple, via the back door I often used when trying to come and go unseen, with Fel and Narasamman's laughter echoing in the room behind me.
I pulled the tunic over my head and jogged straight to the castle. I found Rachel almost immediately; she was sitting in council with most of the council members. She looked up at me when I came into the room, and I could see that she was definitely not happy.
"Meeting adjourned, family stuff," I said loudly and I grabbed Rachel and kissed the hell out of her, while holding her close.
I think the fact that she was growling loudly did more to empty the room than my word had.
"Where. The. Hell. Have. You. Been!" She snarled at me when I stopped kissing her, and took a swing at me. I winced, because she had her claws out and she laid a nice set of bloody stripes across my face.
"I'm sorry, Hon. I couldn't come home, and I have to leave again soon as well." I pulled her close and then stared her right back down, "But don't you ever think that I don't love you more than anybody else in my life!" And I kissed her hard again.
She was still mad, I got bit, clawed, kicked, slapped, and punched, all the way back to our rooms in the castle. I'd seen Rachel mad before, but I'd never seen her quite this furious. I don't know what Goth had been doing, but whatever it was, it was going to have to stop.
"You're bleeding all over everything," Rachel growled when I finally tossed her onto the bed in our bedroom.
"Whose fault is that?" I said looking back at her.
"Yours! Heal yourself already!"
"So you can cut me some more? I'm not immune to pain, Hon, besides; I thought you might want to enjoy your handiwork for a while."
Rachel stopped and suddenly looked both sad and embarrassed. "Are you mad at me?"
I looked up rolling my eyes, "How could I be mad at you? I've been gone for almost a year, left you by yourself, and I should be mad? You're my wife, I missed you, Rachel, I missed you tremendously. I don't care if you pull out a knife and stab me! I'm just so happy to see you again, to hold you! Whatever I did to piss you off, I'm sorry! But I don't always control my own life, you know that, dear."
"It isn't you. It's that girl you rescued." Rachel sighed and looked up at me, "I'd have her whipped, but I know it would make you mad."
I stopped and blinked, "You'd whip her? What the hell has she been doing?"
"She thinks I'm too old for you, that you deserve a younger, prettier wife. That I haven't paid enough attention to you, or you wouldn't be away so much. That I should give you more children."
I could feel my jaw drop as my eyes got wide and I just stared at Rachel as she said these things.
"She said that?" I gasped.
"Well, not to my face, but she's been saying things like it to everyone else. She's a veritable gossip factory, that one!" Rachel said looking close to tears.
I walked over to her and leaning over I put an arm around her and pulled her to me and kissed her again. "Those are all terrible and nasty lies, and I'll punish her for saying them. But first," I crawled onto the bed, pulling Rachel along with me, holding her close, "I want to spend my time with the woman I love."
I kissed her again, and she relaxed against me. "Did you really mean the bit about the knife?"
"Please don't go and make me prove it," I sighed and she giggled.
"Well then, why don't you stop bleeding all over the bed, and you can show me just how much you missed me?"
I did, and I most definitely did.
Several times one of the maids tried to interrupt, we both growled at them, and Rachel said if the kingdom wasn't under attack, it could wait. After I started to growl really loudly with my ears back on the third interruption, they stopped trying to bother us.
But at least they left us some food.
Two days later we emerged and apparently there were quite a few people cooling their heels outside waiting for their queen to make her appearance. They were mostly her ministers, Narasamman of all people, and of course, Goth.
Goth had definitely grown up alright. The last time I'd seen her, which was probably ten months ago, she'd been cute. Now that she was all grown up, she was definitely hot. Hotter than her mom, hot. Oh, not as hot as Rachel was when we first met, and to be fair, Rachel was still hotter by far. But if she wasn't my adopted daughter, and if I didn't have Rachel, yeah, I'd bed her.
But she was my daughter, and Rachel did mean a hell of a lot more to me. So I really wasn't interested, quite the opposite in fact.
I smiled at Goth, which was about all I could do because Rachel and I were being rather clingy with each other.
"Goth, I'm surprised you're here."
"You promised me you'd come see me whenever you were here!" She said pouting.
I nodded, "And I will, but you have to understand that Rachel comes first, she's my mate. I'll visit you tomorrow, okay?"
"Will..." She started and pouted some more. I was impressed, she had that look down pretty good, I wondered if she practiced it in front of a mirror, because it was sexy as hell and I bet there wasn't a guy in the city that'd resist it.
"Goth," I interrupted, growling softly, "I will see you tomorrow, and you are going to behave between now and then. You are going to stay out of trouble and be the perfect little girl, or it will be a week before you get to see me again. Am I clear?"
"Willll..." she started.
"Am I clear?" I said loudly with more than a hint of a growl while giving her a dark look and pulling Rachel closer, causing Rachel to purr rather happily.
"Yes, Will." Goth said and flounced out of the room looking rather unhappy.
"The rest of you can leave," Rachel said with a dismissive wave to the ministers. "We'll be busy with other matters today. If it's really important, you can leave the scrolls on the table, over there."
Several of them did drop scrolls on the table, but they all beat a hasty retreat after Goth. From the grins on the faces of a few of the female ministers, I think they could tell the boom was about to get lowered on Goth. This made me worry even more about what Goth must have up to during my absence.
Narasamman didn't depart with the other ministers and earned a look from Rachel while I sent one of the maids off to gather up our children.
"And what do you want?" Rachel sighed.
"Hey, don't complain, I could have waylaid him, instead I sent him right up here to you, first."
Rachel looked at me, "Honestly, hon?"
I smiled and hugged her again, "Did I tell you just how much I missed you? I don't know if she could have this time, but she didn't even try, and she warned me about Goth."
Rachel relaxed against me, "Okay, so?
" she asked Narasamman.
"I want Goth sent to the temple," Narasamman said smiling.
"Oh ho!" Rachel laughed, "That would be wonderful!"
"Why are you asking us?" I asked.
"Because you're her father, you have parental rights. So you can send her to us and make it stick." Narasamman said rubbing her hands together while she smiled.
It wasn't a pleasant smile either.
"I thought Jezza was her father now?"
"Nope. Everyone recognizes it as you, even she does."
"Then why is she trying to get me in bed?" I sighed.
"Ah, you noticed!" Rachel teased.
"I may be slow, but I'm not an idiot," I said and sighed again. "But that act of hers, and the things she's been saying. Yeah, it's obvious. But why me?"
"Cause you saved her," Narasamman said, "because you're the big tough warrior. Surely you've noticed the way females look at you around here?" She smirked at me, her own tail curling.
"So what are you going to do to her?"
"Yes, what do you have planned for her?" Rachel asked, looking rather predatory herself.
"Well, I just happen to think she'll be a great candidate for Fordessa, don't you, Will?"
I blinked, "Fordessa? Has Goth shown any interest in music? Or even singing?"
Narasamman gave a very slow predatory grin of her own then. "Felecia has guaranteed me that it will take at least a year to really assess Goth's talents. Even if she doesn't have any."
"And that's good because?" Rachel asked curious.
"Because Fordessa's main temple is in Marland, over a week's travel from here," I said.
Rachel leaned into me and purred, "Nara, you really should come over for dinner tomorrow night!"
Narasamman laughed, "Think you'll be done with him by then?"
"For this, I'll make time!" Rachel said smirking.
"Don't I get a say in this?" I sighed.
"No!" They both said in unison.
"If we could trust your judgment, you wouldn't get into this kind of trouble in the first place," Rachel said and whacked my butt with her tail.
I decided my best option was to keep my mouth shut.
The maid brought our children in then, and I was surprised that the two children I'd had with Narasamman were there as well. Rachel didn't complain, and in fact even invited Narasamman to stay for lunch, while I spent the rest of the day getting reacquainted with my children.
I slept in a little with Rachel the next morning, and then had a leisurely breakfast, with her and our children, Baron, Suisan, and our youngest who had been named after Diament to honor his sacrifice.
"So, what are you going to do to her?" Rachel asked.
I shook my head, "I don't really know. I do care about her; she's like one of my own children. But she can't go spreading lies, and she can't have me," I shook my head, "it would be like sleeping with my own child."
"Make her start calling you 'Dad' again," Rachel said, "That should get the point across."
I nodded slowly, "Maybe that would do it."
"She needs more exposure to males her own age, hopefully being sent off to Fordessa's temple will help with that."
"I can just imagine how she's going to take that!" I sighed.
"She's an adult now; she needs to start doing adult things."
I nodded.
"So when are you leaving again?"
I flinched; I couldn't believe that wasn't foremost in my mind!
"Well, that's not a pleasant expression," Rachel said looking at me rather curiously.
"Because I have to go deal with something very unpleasant," I growled.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Rachel asked.
I almost started to growl again, just thinking about it, but I stopped myself. "I don't know how much I can tell you."
"Feliogustus's stuff?"
I shook my head, "Not exactly. Back when I first became Feliogustus's champion, I had to go do a thing for an ally of his."
Rachel nodded, "I remember that."
"Well, things happened, that weren't part of why we were there. Those things had consequences. I spent the last six months dealing with those consequences." I sighed and looked down at my plate.
"Didn't work out the way you expected it to?"
"Up until the last minute, it was working out alright. Then it got all screwed up."
"There's more to it than just that, isn't there?" Rachel asked probing.
"Yeah, there is. It's very personal for me."
"So, tell me about it."
I stopped and looked at her, "I'm not sure you'd understand. The things that the gods have us do, these are not things that are easy understand, the places we go, are just, different. I don't even understand it all, and I deal with it all the time."
Rachel nodded, "Well try anyway."
"I had something stolen from me, something that was like a part of me, something I created from my being with the help of another, who has passed on to the next stage in their life."
"They died?"
"No, I wouldn't call it that. They became something greater than what they were."
"Will that happen to you?" Rachel asked concerned.
I laughed, "No, it won't happen to me." I reached across the table and took her hand, "I have every intention of meeting up with you in the afterlife, in heaven, when my days are done. Even if it may take me a little longer to get there."
Rachel's eyes got a little misty when I said that, and her face softened. "You have no idea how much that comforts me, to hear that you want to do that."
I smiled at her, "Which is why I always make sure you know how I feel about you, so you'll be there for me, when I show up."
"Ah, I'll be sure to make sure I use that information to my advantage then!" She teased. "So, you had something stolen?"
I nodded, "And I have to go get it back."
"Sounds easy enough."
"A god took it, Rachel."
"You'd think they'd know better than to steal something from the 'god slayer', wouldn't you?"
I gave a small laugh, "Yeah, you'd think."
Rachel gave my hand a squeeze. "Well, you do what you have to do, and don't show them any mercy, or think twice about doing what needs to be done," She growled. "You make them suffer, and you make them pay."
I blinked, surprised.
"They're taking you away from spending time with me, that alone demands the most severe punishment!" Rachel said a little haughtily, with a smile.
"I'll see to it that they're most harshly punished, Your Majesty!" I said with a smile.
I was joking of course, but I wasn't so sure that she was, Rachel was quite the bloodthirsty little queen at heart.
I finished up and left not long after that, as Rachel went to go meet with her ministers and council members, to discuss those things that she'd been ignoring for the last few days.
It didn't take me long to find Goth, she was at Jezza's house waiting patiently for me.
"Will!" She said and ran up to me, hugging me.
I gave her a hug back and then slowly peeled her off, as she didn't seem to want to let go. I looked over her outfit, or rather lack of one. While there wasn't much of a nudity taboo, what with the fur and all, there were still standards of what to wear, and how to wear it. In the tradition of young women everywhere, Goth was definitely beyond what was tasteful.
"Is that any way to dress for your father?" I asked her with a critical eye.
"Oh, Will," She said and smiled, "I'm not a child anymore."
"To me you are, and further, you're my child. Go back inside and put on something a bit more appropriate."
"Will!" She said and stamped her foot.
"And stop calling me 'Will,' I'm your father, Goth," I said and gave her a stern look and a warning growl.
"You're not really my father!" She complained rebelliously, but dropping her eyes to look at her feet.
"I'm not in the mood to argue with you, Goth. Do you want
to spend the day with me, or not?"
Goth gulped, I didn't press my authority often, and perhaps that was my problem with her. But she knew well enough that when I did make an issue of something, I meant it.
"Yes, Father," She said contritely.
"Good. Now go inside and put on something a bit more suitable to be seen with your father."
Goth nodded, and went back inside, ears down and tail lashing.
Sara came over to say hello while Goth was changing.
"Hello, William."
"Hello, Sara, is she always this bad?"
"Only when you're involved," Sara said grinning.
"Do your daughters dress like that?" I asked curious.
"Mara does, when she thinks we don't know what she's up to."
"Poor Jezza must have a fit."
Sara laughed, "Not really. Oh he'd never let Mara, or Goth know, as far as they're concerned, he's an old uptight male with no idea of what it's like to be young."
I nodded, "If she wasn't trying to get my attention with it, I wouldn't care either," I sighed. "Rachel's at her wit's end with her, I don't think Goth has realized just how thin the ice she's walking on is."
Sara nodded and sighed, "She won't even look at the males her own age, and quite a few have tried to court her."
I shook my head, "I should have set her up with a family in another town."
"Oh, don't say that, Will. She's a nice girl; she just has a bad case of hero worship is all." Sara looked up at me; I was a good two feet taller than her. "She told me once what her life was like before you saved her."
"Well, she's not going to be very happy when I pack her off to a nunnery."
Sara looked at me, "What's a 'nunnery'?"
I laughed, "Old expression. She's going to be apprenticed to the temple."
"Oh! You're right; she's not going to like that at all. But I'm surprised the local high priestess agreed to it."
"It was her idea," I said.
"You're kidding me!" Sara said shocked.
"Yup, the high priestess at Fordessa's temple in Marland is more than happy to help out with Nara's little problem."
Sara laughed a moment and then covered her mouth. "I shouldn't laugh, but I'm sure it will be for the best. Now excuse me while I go prepare the house for the inevitable explosion."
Portals of Infinity: Book Five: Demigods and Deities Page 8