Ahh … these headaches. Sitting in a comfortable armchair, I read a book about the history of races while holding my head which hurt a lot.
I already knew the reason for this headache, but it was hard to imagine how they came to be. Turning my whole focus onwards, I inspected my soul, felt every bit of damage and tried to gauge where it came from.
Most of the cracks on my soul were from the constant use of my magic, which worked around the clock to resurrect everything dying right away. A small portion of the damage came from the system itself, but that was minimal in comparison to the parts of my soul which had little holes in them.
I couldn’t tell where these holes came from, but they stopped me from using my magic easily. I had already cancelled it as soon as I noticed, but these holes kept popping up regardless of what I did. They were slowly out healed by my natural healing, but it was still odd.
A few hours later, the holes in my soul had completely disappeared and the attack on my soul had stopped. I couldn’t tell who it was that attacked me, nor what his motives where. Even if that person managed to split my soul into fragments, they would quickly assemble back together in purgatory and be sent back to Solaris … so it was hard to imagine what this attack was for.
I didn’t have any way of actually countering it, so I pushed the phenomenon into the back of the line of a multitude of problems I was facing.
Sighing quietly, I stood up a few minutes before sunrise and looked into the corners of the room. Searching for my magical glasses was always an interesting endeavour. They would always follow me, but sometimes appear in places I wouldn’t even think about.
Luckily, I found them underneath a wardrobe and put them on my nose before the sun rose above the horizon. As I sat down on the chair once more though, I quickly realised I must have woken Charles up. It was exactly at that moment my headaches vanished completely.
“You are still here?” King Charles asked, slowly sitting up on his bed, but still tired thanks to being awake that long. Looking outside, my guess was that he had around seven in the morning gauging by how the sun stood on the horizon.
“Isn’t it customary for the newly wed couple to spent their honeymoon together?” I asked and tilted my head a little. Yawning a bit with my hand in front of my mouth, I showed him a bit of my fake human side as a precaution.
“So you are one of those? Prude and always following the rules?” He asked, letting his gaze wander through the room until he stopped at the oven I lit with magical stones.
“I would call it pure and considerate.” I explained a bit unhappy about being called out like this.
“You will lose that purity eventually.” He claimed, which nearly made me chuckle involuntarily.
“That highly depends. I have found a rather interesting book about all the things a queen should do. Here, take a look.” I answered and stood up to retrieve another book I had read through the night. After opening it on page forty two in the chapter about the role of the king, there was a small paragraph about the role of the queen. “… the queens are there to make the work of the king easier. They are supposed to help whenever it is necessary, but also need to make sure that funds for the palace are allocated properly. Additionally, they are responsible for the education of their children, and need to settle family matters without bothering the king.” I explained, reciting the passage word by word.
“That book is two hundred years old.” It certainly was. But it was a book I had read before marrying king Alphonso and was thus familiar with it.
“This was what I signed up to. These are norms and traditions of the kingdom two hundred years ago.” I explained, closed the book and presented him the title ‘How the kingdom works – approved by King Alohonso’.
“So what?” Charles asked, crossing his arms in front of his naked chest.
“I am supposed to educate my children, not to indulge in indecent behaviour with you.” I said, slowly strolling over to the oven and putting a few more magical stones into it in an attempt to heat the room up considerably.
“That’s the same.” He said, still not convinced about the point I was trying to make.
“Technically, it isn’t. Educating is not the same as giving birth.” I said and knelt down in front of the fire to watch it a little.
“But you need to give birth to educate them … this is just splitting hairs.” He said, rustling behind me as he stood up from the bed.
“Usually I would agree with your logic … so do you want to use educating my unborn children as a justification to sleep with me?” I asked quite brazenly without a care about him repeating what I have just told him to someone else. I would just say that he attempted to rape me afterwards and was trying to save his skin. And who would the majority believe then?
“You said you would be fulfilling the duties of the queen. And there you have it, raising children is one of them.” That was a logical conclusion, I had a hard time denying that fact.
“Okay … sadly I must inform you about my infertility.” I said, ripping his logic into pieces right away.
“What?” He asked in disbelief and nearly toppled over as he tried to put his pants on.
“I am infertile.” I repeated calmly and faced him once more. He looked stunned, confused and as if I had just ruined his life planning.
“You are lying.” He said a bit angrily.
“I never had any period in my life. I cannot get pregnant and therefore we don’t have any reason to sleep with each other.” I explained calmly and crossed my arms in front of my chest.
“Girl, get down from your high horse.” He said, but I managed to ignore his disrespect easily.
“Charles, I thought long about what you did yesterday. Just in case you don’t remember, you tried to rape me. Which is not nice by the way.” I said with a hint of a smile on my face.
“So what?” Nothing. Nobody could indite him, and not even I could do anything to him at this point. Theoretically I could kill him, but then I would have to deal with his children all fighting for the throne. Surely the demons in the north would smell their chance and possibly ruin everything I had worked on so far.
“I am jut saying that this behaviour is deeply disrespectful.” I said swiftly. I couldn’t harm him, but I could ruin his reputation easily. It wouldn’t look good for him to lay his hand on the saint without my approval after all.
“And?” Sadly, he didn’t get it. I wouldn’t call him dumb … but he didn’t consider that I would act differently than other woman at all.
“… you are a conqueror, aren’t you?” I asked and tilted my head to the side a little, deeply interested in his personality.
“What?” He asked a bit stunned.
“The type of man who likes to sleep with woman as he sees fit, and then drops them afterwards.” I explained calmly and thought about everything I knew about him. He preferred blondes and young but mature girls who were a bit naïve. And I fell right into that category, at least in his view.
“So the pope did tell you some things about me.” Charles muttered and squinted his eyes a little. He really didn’t get along with the pope.
“Quite the contrary. I was awake since around three months already and used that time to study history and society at large, including you.” I admitted, which did surprise him a little, but not by that much. Scheming was an integral part of court politics after all. “You have nine, now ten wives which had around two children each. Additionally, you have impregnated at least fourty two more woman, making you the father of sixty two children.” I said quite impressed. The amount he laid with other woman was astonishing for a human.
“Where are you going with this?” He asked a bit suspicious.
“You have enough woman in your life who take care of your other needs. I’m sure you can ask anyone on the street and they would gladly oblige all your requests. So there really is no need for me to step in from the very beginning. You just saw me as a target, and probably still do, but I do have an issue with that.” I just wanted to clarify that sleeping with him wasn’t my task as the first queen, goddamn it! Why didn’t it get into his skull?
“How much?” He asked confusing me completely.
“What?” I asked, furrowing my brows a little.
“How much money do you want?” Eww. Did he really put me on the same pedestal as the whore stood on? I wouldn’t sleep with him for money, that was for sure.
“… you really want to sleep with me badly, don’t you?” I asked a bit interested and stepped closer to him.
“The most beautiful person in the whole kingdom, the saint herself and my wife in one person. There is no way I wouldn’t want to.” He admitted truthfully. For someone like him, I really had to be the ultimate target.
“I see.” I answered, finally having established it was not my task to sleep with him, nor in my interest.
“You are the saint so you are preaching the word of every god, including the goddess of lust.” He said, but I could see that argument coming from miles away.
“… interesting argument which I can hardly deny. It is sadly ignoring that there is also a goddess of purity. I am supposed to be objective in what I preach, but not in what I think. How about this … and trust me, it is not something I can offer easily, but I will need your support for certain things. I will sleep with you behind closed doors, as long as you fulfil a request of mine each time we do so.” I proposed, stunning him somewhat. I must have seemed like a real whore for a few seconds, but that would quickly change anyway.
“And if I don’t want to fulfil one of your requests?” He asked highly suspicious. It was obvious he wanted to hear about the requests I had beforehand and I actually didn’t mind it.
“Then we will not share a bed that night.” I explained and gave him my saintliest smile.
“I see you do like mutually beneficial agreements.” And mutually destructive ones … if it came to light that I carried sexual favours with him, it would be hard to explain. But on the other hand, it would also ruin him in the process as that was really nothing a king should do with one of his wives.
“I do believe that agreements can only work if both sides benefit.” I said happily and took one step closer to him. The room had heated up enough so that he wouldn’t notice anything anyway, so I wasn’t worried he would find out my real race.
“So, is there anything I can do for you?” He said, stepping towards me as well and drawing me into an one sided embrace.
“Certainly. There is a boy called Schwarz in one of your death row cells. I want you to let me decide what happened to him.” I said, still not doing anything so far as he didn’t agree yet.
“He is a murderer.” Charles whispered into my ears, his hands roaming my whole back, but had yet to touch anything indecent.
“I believe he is innocent.” I claimed right away and touched his chest with my fingers, circling around the contours of his muscles, still visible despite his age.
“And to save an innocent man from death, you would sleep with me?” No. But I would sleep with him to save in of my pawns and make Luna happy.
“You wouldn’t agree otherwise, would you?” I asked rhetorically. There was no way I could coax him into freeing Schwarz any other way, except I missed something the whole time I thought about it. The queens didn’t have the authority to stop an ongoing process and pardon someone. I could try to threaten the king, but I would like to know him on my side.
“No …” He said and leaned further down until his hands touched my butt.
“What do you say?” I asked one last time, already sure I wouldn’t be disappointed by his answer.
“I agree … but we only have an hour until breakfast.” Huh? Was that a challenge? Even if I wouldn’t be able to feel any lust during our lovemaking, I knew exactly what he wanted.
Ahh … these headaches. Sitting in a comfortable armchair, I read a book about the history of races while holding my head which hurt a lot.
I already knew the reason for this headache, but it was hard to imagine how they came to be. Turning my whole focus onwards, I inspected my soul, felt every bit of damage and tried to gauge where it came from.
Most of the cracks on my soul were from the constant use of my magic, which worked around the clock to resurrect everything dying right away. A small portion of the damage came from the system itself, but that was minimal in comparison to the parts of my soul which had little holes in them.
I couldn’t tell where these holes came from, but they stopped me from using my magic easily. I had already cancelled it as soon as I noticed, but these holes kept popping up regardless of what I did. They were slowly out healed by my natural healing, but it was still odd.
A few hours later, the holes in my soul had completely disappeared and the attack on my soul had stopped. I couldn’t tell who it was that attacked me, nor what his motives where. Even if that person managed to split my soul into fragments, they would quickly assemble back together in purgatory and be sent back to Solaris … so it was hard to imagine what this attack was for.
I didn’t have any way of actually countering it, so I pushed the phenomenon into the back of the line of a multitude of problems I was facing.
Sighing quietly, I stood up a few minutes before sunrise and looked into the corners of the room. Searching for my magical glasses was always an interesting endeavour. They would always follow me, but sometimes appear in places I wouldn’t even think about.
Luckily, I found them underneath a wardrobe and put them on my nose before the sun rose above the horizon. As I sat down on the chair once more though, I quickly realised I must have woken Charles up. It was exactly at that moment my headaches vanished completely.
“You are still here?” King Charles asked, slowly sitting up on his bed, but still tired thanks to being awake that long. Looking outside, my guess was that he had around seven in the morning gauging by how the sun stood on the horizon.
“Isn’t it customary for the newly wed couple to spent their honeymoon together?” I asked and tilted my head a little. Yawning a bit with my hand in front of my mouth, I showed him a bit of my fake human side as a precaution.
“So you are one of those? Prude and always following the rules?” He asked, letting his gaze wander through the room until he stopped at the oven I lit with magical stones.
“I would call it pure and considerate.” I explained a bit unhappy about being called out like this.
“You will lose that purity eventually.” He claimed, which nearly made me chuckle involuntarily.
“That highly depends. I have found a rather interesting book about all the things a queen should do. Here, take a look.” I answered and stood up to retrieve another book I had read through the night. After opening it on page forty two in the chapter about the role of the king, there was a small paragraph about the role of the queen. “… the queens are there to make the work of the king easier. They are supposed to help whenever it is necessary, but also need to make sure that funds for the palace are allocated properly. Additionally, they are responsible for the education of their children, and need to settle family matters without bothering the king.” I explained, reciting the passage word by word.
“That book is two hundred years old.” It certainly was. But it was a book I had read before marrying king Alphonso and was thus familiar with it.
“This was what I signed up to. These are norms and traditions of the kingdom two hundred years ago.” I explained, closed the book and presented him the title ‘How the kingdom works – approved by King Alohonso’.
“So what?” Charles asked, crossing his arms in front of his naked chest.
“I am supposed to educate my children, not to indulge in indecent behaviour with you.” I said, slowly strolling over to the oven and putting a few more magical stones into it in an attempt to heat the room up considerably.
“That’s the same.” He said, still not convinced about the point I was trying to make.
“Technically, it isn’t. Educating is not the same as giving birth.” I said and knelt down in front of the fire to watch it a little.
“But you need to give birth to educate them … this is just splitting hairs.” He said, rustling behind me as he stood up from the bed.
“Usually I would agree with your logic … so do you want to use educating my unborn children as a justification to sleep with me?” I asked quite brazenly without a care about him repeating what I have just told him to someone else. I would just say that he attempted to rape me afterwards and was trying to save his skin. And who would the majority believe then?
“You said you would be fulfilling the duties of the queen. And there you have it, raising children is one of them.” That was a logical conclusion, I had a hard time denying that fact.
“Okay … sadly I must inform you about my infertility.” I said, ripping his logic into pieces right away.
“What?” He asked in disbelief and nearly toppled over as he tried to put his pants on.
“I am infertile.” I repeated calmly and faced him once more. He looked stunned, confused and as if I had just ruined his life planning.
“You are lying.” He said a bit angrily.
“I never had any period in my life. I cannot get pregnant and therefore we don’t have any reason to sleep with each other.” I explained calmly and crossed my arms in front of my chest.
“Girl, get down from your high horse.” He said, but I managed to ignore his disrespect easily.
“Charles, I thought long about what you did yesterday. Just in case you don’t remember, you tried to rape me. Which is not nice by the way.” I said with a hint of a smile on my face.
“So what?” Nothing. Nobody could indite him, and not even I could do anything to him at this point. Theoretically I could kill him, but then I would have to deal with his children all fighting for the throne. Surely the demons in the north would smell their chance and possibly ruin everything I had worked on so far.
“I am jut saying that this behaviour is deeply disrespectful.” I said swiftly. I couldn’t harm him, but I could ruin his reputation easily. It wouldn’t look good for him to lay his hand on the saint without my approval after all.
“And?” Sadly, he didn’t get it. I wouldn’t call him dumb … but he didn’t consider that I would act differently than other woman at all.
“… you are a conqueror, aren’t you?” I asked and tilted my head to the side a little, deeply interested in his personality.
“What?” He asked a bit stunned.
“The type of man who likes to sleep with woman as he sees fit, and then drops them afterwards.” I explained calmly and thought about everything I knew about him. He preferred blondes and young but mature girls who were a bit naïve. And I fell right into that category, at least in his view.
“So the pope did tell you some things about me.” Charles muttered and squinted his eyes a little. He really didn’t get along with the pope.
“Quite the contrary. I was awake since around three months already and used that time to study history and society at large, including you.” I admitted, which did surprise him a little, but not by that much. Scheming was an integral part of court politics after all. “You have nine, now ten wives which had around two children each. Additionally, you have impregnated at least fourty two more woman, making you the father of sixty two children.” I said quite impressed. The amount he laid with other woman was astonishing for a human.
“Where are you going with this?” He asked a bit suspicious.
“You have enough woman in your life who take care of your other needs. I’m sure you can ask anyone on the street and they would gladly oblige all your requests. So there really is no need for me to step in from the very beginning. You just saw me as a target, and probably still do, but I do have an issue with that.” I just wanted to clarify that sleeping with him wasn’t my task as the first queen, goddamn it! Why didn’t it get into his skull?
“How much?” He asked confusing me completely.
“What?” I asked, furrowing my brows a little.
“How much money do you want?” Eww. Did he really put me on the same pedestal as the whore stood on? I wouldn’t sleep with him for money, that was for sure.
“… you really want to sleep with me badly, don’t you?” I asked a bit interested and stepped closer to him.
“The most beautiful person in the whole kingdom, the saint herself and my wife in one person. There is no way I wouldn’t want to.” He admitted truthfully. For someone like him, I really had to be the ultimate target.
“I see.” I answered, finally having established it was not my task to sleep with him, nor in my interest.
“You are the saint so you are preaching the word of every god, including the goddess of lust.” He said, but I could see that argument coming from miles away.
“… interesting argument which I can hardly deny. It is sadly ignoring that there is also a goddess of purity. I am supposed to be objective in what I preach, but not in what I think. How about this … and trust me, it is not something I can offer easily, but I will need your support for certain things. I will sleep with you behind closed doors, as long as you fulfil a request of mine each time we do so.” I proposed, stunning him somewhat. I must have seemed like a real whore for a few seconds, but that would quickly change anyway.
“And if I don’t want to fulfil one of your requests?” He asked highly suspicious. It was obvious he wanted to hear about the requests I had beforehand and I actually didn’t mind it.
“Then we will not share a bed that night.” I explained and gave him my saintliest smile.
“I see you do like mutually beneficial agreements.” And mutually destructive ones … if it came to light that I carried sexual favours with him, it would be hard to explain. But on the other hand, it would also ruin him in the process as that was really nothing a king should do with one of his wives.
“I do believe that agreements can only work if both sides benefit.” I said happily and took one step closer to him. The room had heated up enough so that he wouldn’t notice anything anyway, so I wasn’t worried he would find out my real race.
“So, is there anything I can do for you?” He said, stepping towards me as well and drawing me into an one sided embrace.
“Certainly. There is a boy called Schwarz in one of your death row cells. I want you to let me decide what happened to him.” I said, still not doing anything so far as he didn’t agree yet.
“He is a murderer.” Charles whispered into my ears, his hands roaming my whole back, but had yet to touch anything indecent.
“I believe he is innocent.” I claimed right away and touched his chest with my fingers, circling around the contours of his muscles, still visible despite his age.
“And to save an innocent man from death, you would sleep with me?” No. But I would sleep with him to save in of my pawns and make Luna happy.
“You wouldn’t agree otherwise, would you?” I asked rhetorically. There was no way I could coax him into freeing Schwarz any other way, except I missed something the whole time I thought about it. The queens didn’t have the authority to stop an ongoing process and pardon someone. I could try to threaten the king, but I would like to know him on my side.
“No …” He said and leaned further down until his hands touched my butt.
“What do you say?” I asked one last time, already sure I wouldn’t be disappointed by his answer.
“I agree … but we only have an hour until breakfast.” Huh? Was that a challenge? Even if I wouldn’t be able to feel any lust during our lovemaking, I knew exactly what he wanted.
