by B J Hanlon
All Edin wanted was to sleep. Edin closed his eyes and swayed on his feet. A moment later, he realized her hands were tugging at the bottom of his tunic. His trousers were so badly torn that with a quick jerk, they split and dropped to the ground.
Arianne’s lips were on his, her hands on his waist steering him toward the bed. “I’m sorry…” She said through quick breaths.
What was happening slowly began to form in his mind. They’d spent many nights together. They’d kissed, but now he felt something else was happening.
His hands finally responded, reaching for the back of her tunic and pulling it up over her head. She pressed her body to his. Her warm breasts sticking to him. The backs of his knees clambered into the bed and with her insistence he sat, bouncing slightly.
Their lips never parted. Arianne’s hand reached down and touched him. Tender but rough at the same moment with a thrill rolling through his body like a wave.
Edin slipped his hands down and began to pull at the belt around her waist. He fumbled slightly, but with her help, it came undone and she lay on top of him, straddling his groin as she rubbed against him.
She kissed him again and leaned back to look into his eyes. They were wet, almost to tears but not there. They stared at each other for a long gaze when he felt her grab him and lower herself.
He’d heard stories, men telling how it felt, some rather disturbing similes, others in a way that caused a yearning like no other. It was said by some to be perfect when a man and woman were together in a moment of ecstasy.
It wasn’t that. At least not at first. Arianne grimaced slightly, moving up and down slowly, sliding a little further each time. Gradually, she moved. Edin placed one hand on her hip and the other to her perfectly formed breast feeling the firmness of her nipple. He squeezed both as she went all the way down. Her taking him in the way he’d dreamed since first hearing those stories.
She moved, biting her lip and staring into his eyes. Then she moaned with him, she shuddered as she began moving back and forth in a soft rhythm. Arianne cried out as he convulsed and he felt like he’d seen the gods.
Edin really wanted to sleep afterwards. If he had anything left after the morning, it had been taken out and thrown over the side of a steep cliff never to be seen again.
Arianne at first didn’t want to, she wanted to talk, which would’ve been fine if it was about something else. But she wanted to discuss exactly how it happened, why it was so difficult at first and why it ended so quickly...
The last part caused him to nearly cough, but then she grinned. “You just need practice.” She said and then quickly added. “We both do.”
“Have you…”
“No… I was a princess remember, we save ourselves for marriage…”
“What about your fiancé?”
“If he doesn’t know it’s off, he’s an idiot.” She snorted then lifted her head up looking down at him with a bemused look. “You’re wondering if he and I did that?”
“You spent a lot of time at the castle…”
“You’re almost as dumb as him sometimes. Do you really think I cared about him? I’ve been in… I care about you more than anyone.” She dropped her lips to his and gave him a long, wet kiss. “You infuriate me with your naiveté sometimes, your stubbornness at other times.”
“But you got engaged.”
“I’m a princess remember. Men were always trying to win my favor.” She paused. “I’ve known for a long time that if I had the choice… I’d choose you.”
“So you didn’t have a choice?”
Arianne smiled wanly. “In some ways. Our goals were aligned…”
“You chose him because you wanted the world.” Edin felt sick suddenly, his stomach churning but he was too tired to move. “I was nothing… insignificant.”
“You’ve screwed up enough for both of us. But I can make mistakes too Edin.” She leaned forward and kissed him and Edin was too tired to fight it. “Right?”
Edin nodded but the sick feeling didn’t leave him.
Arianne snuggled her head into his chest and soon she drifted off.
Edin laid awake and despite her presence, he felt alone again. Eventually he slept a little. He woke in fits and then disappeared into dreamless sleeps.
There was no way for him to tell the time when he fully awoke again. The shaded windows offered little light.
Arianne was still cuddling him, her face unseen beneath her hair. Long shadows of some large tree fell upon the shade. Edin stared up into the plastered white ceiling with large beams. Edin was warm and his body felt rested, at least partially but there was a general feeling of soreness that ran through him and a twisting of his heart.
Edin brushed her hair back slightly and she offered a satisfied sigh. He hoped she was having good dreams. Did Edin have any? If he did, he couldn’t remember. The Inquisitor de Demar didn’t summon him. He was certain of that.
He tried to fall back asleep, but found little success. The ringing of some far away bell dug into his brain enough to completely rouse him.
Edin slowly extracted himself from Arianne’s grasp and stood. He offered the smallest ethereal light he could make and looked around the room. A slight breeze buffeted the shade over the window. It felt like a servant’s room and that suited him just fine.
He felt a tinge of embarrassment as he noticed two pairs of folded clothes sitting on a table near the door. Beneath it were boots. Someone came in while they slept sans clothes.
Edin covered himself, and then moved toward Arianne and pulled up the blanket so it covered her. But before he covered her, Edin stared. He’d seen her before, briefly, and then during the act he couldn’t marvel at her. But now he had a moment to enjoy its beauty.
A feeling arose in his trousers and the thought came to his head. He wanted to slowly wake her, kiss her entire body and feel themselves joining again.
Arianne muttered something in her sleep, snorted, and rolled over.
Edin dressed, then slipped from the room quietly and made his way toward the stairs. Edin had a want… a need to get outside. The need to get air like when too much whiskey hit him and his stomach was riled. Edin reached the first floor, shiny golds and luxurious greens and purples were the theme. As elegant as the place was, he did not care.
He fumbled around slightly, the glow of the sphere casting humanoid shadows on things that didn’t resemble a human in the least when he focused on them.
Eventually, he reached a large veranda at the rear of the building and took a step outside. A cold wind blew over him sending shivers and causing him to rub his hands together. On it, was carried a scent of the sea colliding with a rich petrichor odor.
“Colder than I ever remember.” It was an old voice coming from his right. The flare up of a pipe showed the glow of Le Fie’s father. It reminded him of the first time he properly met Mersett.
Was this what all the older generations of magi did? If so, at what age would he be issued a pipe?
Edin smiled, hoping it didn’t look too spooky in the ethereal light.
“I suppose that’s my fault.” Edin said jokingly, “everything here seems to be.”
“It most certainly is.”
Edin felt his face turn warm and let loose the ethereal light.
“And my sons of course. When you freed the keeper… you seemingly exposed us to the natural climate of this place and released us from our prison. Granted it was one of our own making.”
Edin snorted. “Prison… that was my thought of this place too.”
“A wise one… surprising of someone so,” He paused staring out over the dark garden before him. “So young.”
Edin had a feeling the man was sparing his real thoughts.
“Alas, it is come to pass. The foretelling will be realized in my lifetime.”
“What is this foretelling? This prophecy.”
“Please have a seat,” the man said pointing his pipe toward a chair next to him. “I am Yentored by the way t
hough most call me Tor or Master Tor.”
Edin sat.
“We only have rumors… never the actual prophecy… so we call it the foretelling. I’m sure you’ve heard parts, possibly more than any alive…”
Edin said nothing.
“Well it was prophesized a long time ago, far before the fall of the kingdom… which I believe had something to do with how it all came to pass. The keeper, the stones.” He waived his hand.
“The keeper? You mean Edin Harlscot?”
He nodded, “It is a long and sad story. Edin was the eldest of the Harlscots and the strongest. When the isle received word of the rising up of the nobles and the Vestion, he wanted to head directly into the fray. The head of the isles, ruled at the time by Oliiantal Gray forbade it. Of course, he was quickly overruled but the war was so swift that even using the transmelter would have been folly.”
“Transmelter?”
“An ancient device said to be able to send people to different locations. Like a Relay…” he turned to Edin, “do you know about those?”
Edin nodded.
“Right, so it still takes time to go through, some people it was said took more than a year to appear, others, barely an hour… alas, every known transmelter was destroyed save one. The one in the mountain.” He pointed up with his pipe toward the dark shadow.
“That was when we received a messenger via the relay and a stone from the transmelter. Sending things seemed to be much easier… the message was that the world as we know it was over. The royal family was dead, and you are on your own. ‘You’ meaning ‘us’ of course.”
Edin nodded but felt a chill rolling up his spine. He thought of Arianne upstairs alone in the room, she was said to have been killed and instead woke up alone. Her life, everything and everyone she’d known had been gone for a thousand years. Could he blame her for trying to find her place?
“The message was to use the prophecy of Vestor and prepare. It was barely a prophecy that is why we call it a foretelling of when the magi fall and the mundane take power.” He cleared his throat. Ecta Mastrino will rise in the west, he will fight like the wind and defeat the stone. He will bring together the six and be like no one the world has ever known.”
“What is the six and why do people think the Ecta Mastrino will have all the talents?”
“Ecta Mastrino means Master of All. The six clearly was assumed to be the talents… and there was a legend that the Ballast Stones were all descended from the gods and each portrayed one of the talents.”
Edin thought for a moment staring out toward the dark sky above the mountain. “So how did Edin Harlscot get one? How did he form the shield?”
“I am unsure of the exact spell. But he sacrificed his life for the isle. Few knew of what he did though none named their children after him again. Until you.”
“Why?” Edin asked but the old man just shrugged. They were quiet for a while. Edin tried to process everything in his mind. The question as to why his parents named him Edin circled but didn’t matter much.
“It is late, and I have much need for sleep. Soon the fate of many of our people will be decided and we will all have a role in what will happen.”
Edin stood and moved forward. He leaned against a stone balustrade and stared out over the dark lawn.
“The war is coming, men and dematians. We must make allies with our enemies I think, but will it be enough?” Tor stood and disappeared into the house.
Edin sat down again and stared out into the darkness. Ahead of them, a harvest moon glowed in the night’s sky. Edin wasn’t sure when he’d last looked at the glowing orb, when he’d noticed its size. It seemed to be huge, larger here than anywhere he’d ever seen.
In a half trance, almost a meditative state, he stayed awake for the remainder of the night. The start of the prophecy floated in his mind. What was it that his ancestor wanted him to know before he turned to bone and dust? It came.
The west rises in darkness
The land will cover of shade
They swarm, the locusts of Volor
And all will be unmade
Then something else moved through. Another verse. Edin blinked as the words floated through his brain.
With rebirth comes destruction
The power of a rising tide
Those have once before
Must again be allied
Edin blinked. The words sat there on his mind like they’d been imprinted in stone. But there was more… he knew it. How much though…
“Just tell me…” he said and slammed his palm into his forehead. But nothing else would come.
There was a rhythm to the words, it seemed to be on the tip of his mind or just beneath the surface of a murky pond. It was like trying to remember a name when seeing a long-forgotten face.
Edin stayed that way until the sun was up but the porch remained in a cool shade behind a tree.
Then a door opened and he heard a woman’s voice saying something about breakfast.
Edin turned and saw a serving girl with a thin mousy look. “Nice night?” She winked at him and then looked inside. Her face went red, she bowed her head and stepped back as Arianne came out.
“Good morning,” Arianne said stepping into the shade.
Edin stood. Still not certain what to say or how he felt about Arianne... That night… them together was the most amazing feeling. But after everything, did she really care or was she just hitching herself to a possible man of a prophecy now.
He had to admit, she looked amazing, even in used clothes, and though his brain hurt with the thoughts, his heart didn’t.
Arianne shivered and crossed her arms.
A moment later, Le Fie appeared, looked at the two of them. He wasn’t as pale as before, he had a few cuts down his cheek and there were thick bandages on his fingers.
Edin was relieved to see him. “Good morning, how are…”
He raised his hands. “They’ve felt better, Caesum will be over later.”
Le Fie looked at Arianne, then back at Edin. “I do not want to interrupt.” Le Fie said, “But breakfast will be served shortly.” He sidled back into the house.
“What’s wrong?” Arianne said moving closer. She reached out and Edin fought himself from recoiling. He let her take his hand.
“Nothing,” Edin finally choked out. “You look nice.”
She kissed him. In his dreams, ones where Arianne and he woke together every day, she looked like this, acted like this. She would lean into him and he’d hold her as they watched the sunrise over some distant vista that would tickle the soul.
She pulled away and looked down on him. “Are you sure?”
Edin nodded, keeping his eyes toward the slow-moving shadow.
The breakfast table could’ve easily fit twenty people and it seemed to have been whittled from a single humongous tree. Some of the veins of the piece were as thick as his little finger. The room was airy and odorous and let in the diffused morning light through thin tan curtains.
Dorset arrived and gave Edin a curt nod. The woman Edin assumed was Mersett’s wife hugged Edin. Two other members of the entourage, a man and a woman, thanked him. Dorset’s parents.
Belo and Cannopina arrived, the latter sat next to Dorset and gave him a kiss on the cheek which made the large councilman man turn pink. But he said nothing.
They sat and ate. It was a feast: pancakes, bacon, eggs. There were fruits that tasted sweet and acidic at the same time. At first, the room felt sullen and the air felt thick.
Le Fie sliced that with a joke about a priest, a noble, and a fisherman walking into the bar. Another variation of one he’d heard before.
Conversations began around the room, it was almost as if it were just a normal day and cares outside of this place were naught but a nuisance.
Slowly though as the meal died down, Tor cleared his throat. When he had their attention, he began. “My house is open to all of you. Tomorrow, the forum will begin and I expect much vitriol from the house
of Otembo. I will be attending as will Belothann and Lady Bolisona. Our houses have seats on the old council. The rest of you will stay here. Placisus will guard you with men still loyal to the council and not this abomination…”
Edin looked down at the half-eaten pancake. In the orange light, he saw the flames of the manor and Berka trying to call him an abomination.
Tor continued. “It is unknown what will happen so I want you all here and guarded. I have a Praesidium under-scribe coming… I will request each of you to speak with me about your experiences and he will transcribe them. Hopefully, this will negate the necessity of you needing to testify.”
“With Pharont gone, this may work to our advantage. Few like his son,” Belo said.
“Yes, but he is grieving the loss of his father and sympathy is sometimes as strong as loyalty.”
“Casitas killed him,” Edin said. He glanced up to see the others looking at him. Only Le Fie was nodding. “Or one of his men. He was alive when I fled.”
“That may be, but you were seen with a bloody blade when fleeing.”
“I will not stand by and let that little weasel take control of the isles,” Belo said. “We will need to rally people to our side.”
“We have but a day,” Lady Bolisona said. “There is much known about Casitas, much that is considered uncouth, but still–”
“Then I will start now.” He pushed his girth from the table and bowed his head.
“I will as well” Lady Bolisona said. “That blotard imprisoned my husband and grandnephew. Maybe Laural has worked some magic with the Harlscots.”
Edin snorted, the irony of her words were not lost on him. If the confrontation with his uncle were anything to go on, magic would be needed.
The dishes were removed and nearly the same moment, a bell rang from the front of the house. A lanky man with a shaved head introduced himself as Liert, the under-scribe.
He and Tor disappeared into an office. A quick glimpse inside showed deep stained wooden bookcases brimming with material. There were chairs, couches, and a desk at one end.