Legends of Osaire Box Set

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3Four days of tailors, plans, meetings, and details had worn Vius down. It was a tiresome marathon, despite Solna’s absolute insistence that he rest between tasks to be done. The slight drag of his body was a nuisance, but Vius bore it because he had to. His marriage to Solna that evening was too important to waste time sleeping off the drain from healing magic. Once he was home, he could.

Instead, he refocused his attention to his general. Ilul had burst into Solna’s parlor in an aggravated huff, with Cia at his heels and an apology to Vius for the general’s intrusion. Vius would have reassured her if Ilul hadn’t started his litany of complaints at the sight of him.

“The Quartermaster is demanding that I give her a list of the items I need to replace.” Then Ilul started to pace in front of Vius’ chair, completely oblivious to Vius’ valiant effort to keep from sagging into the luxurious chair or his half-open eyes. His general even ignored the fact that Vius wasn’t properly dressed, wrapped in a robe and nothing else.

Vius did not want to deal with this. “So give her one.”

“I haven’t had the time…” Ilul’s rant continued on, but Vius’ attention was drawn to the door Cia stood against. It cracked open with a tiny squeak. She stepped out of the way and their eyes met for a brief second of shared relief. And then Vius’ breath hitched.

Solna stepped through the door, regal in a way Vius had not yet seen. His riotous dark and curly red hair, cut close to the head at a scandalous length by elven standards, gleamed like blood in the light. The color only sharpened Solna’s storm gray eyes and dark, tanned skin. A square face gave his intended an uncompromising air, but then he smiled at Vius, wide and lovely. Solna’s was a face made for happiness.

Tall and broad, heavily muscled like any warrior that wielded a broadsword, Solna was too big to step silent into a space. But he could move so slow that it would fool others to thinking he had, a devouring glacier of flesh and bone. When Solna brought a finger to his lips in a request for silence, Vius flicked his eyes down for a moment in acknowledgement. Ilul was deep in his complaints by then.

Vius watched the human’s slow stalk of Ilul with appreciation. Solna was already dressed for later in a gray shirt and breeches that matched his eyes, and one of the royal colors incidentally, which flowed loose over his thick arms and hard thighs. Over that was a silver-blue, soft leather jerkin; the stylized great roaring bear of Sumentan was burned into the left breast. All Solna was missing was a black cloak and the wide circlet of hammered silver that served as his crown.

“Why,” Solna started as soon as he was directly behind Ilul, the boom of his voice brought low in an obvious effort at quiet, “couldn’t you delegate the task of logistics to a lieutenant?”

Ilul startled so bad that he came near missing a step when he turned to face Solna and Vius quickly brought a hand to cover his chuckle. By the pinched look that flitted across Ilul’s face, he was not amused at all. “I didn’t have time to find one. As you are surely aware, my King’s army is in disarray.”

Solna hummed as though to himself. “And you failed to think that you could recruit a large number of your regular soldiers to get an accounting from their units?”

Ilul glared up at Solna. “I did.”

“I see.” Solna met Ilul’s glare with a hard look and a subtle jerk of his head towards the exit. “Perhaps you should do so now?”

Vius gave Ilul an equally hard look when his general glanced at him. “What are you waiting for?”

“But Sire,” Ilul started.

Vius rose from his chair, too tired for this, and stepped over to Solna. His human reached for him and placed a discreet, supportive hand against the middle of his back as Vius glared at Ilul. “My Consort gave you an order, did he not?”

Ilul opened his mouth and Vius tensed. Instead, Ilul snapped it shut and stormed out, Cia sidestepping to avoid a collision. She followed him out with a shake of her head and Vius heard her quiet grumble about brats and elves as she shut the door behind her.

With a nudge, Solna guided Vius back to the bedroom once more. “So, are all your generals as Ilul, or is he special?”

Vius groaned and rubbed at his suddenly aching temples. He closed his eyes against the sunlight that flooded the large room and let Solna move him blindly. It was simply too much to ask that Ilul’s recent strangeness would go uncommented on. “No. This,” Vius paused, the word he wanted subsumed beneath the headache that brewed behind his eyes. “This issue with his attitude is new.”

Careful hands encircled his wrists. “I have this strange urge to run a sword through his belly,” Solna said as he drew Vius’ hands away from his head. Vius was about to protest, but then Solna took over, hands cradling his nape and thumbs ghosting tight circles over his brow and temples.

Vius hummed, content as the pain started to fade away. A chuckle whispered across his lips and Vius forced his eyes open. Without him knowing, Solna had moved far into his space, nearly towering over him. But Solna wore a smile, small and crooked and his eyes were lighter than Vius had seen them so far. At a loss of what question he was supposed ask, Vius hummed again instead.

“I was wondering if I could kiss you?” The smile faded away as Vius stared at him. “I don’t want our first intimacy to be at the altar, or during consummation.”

Just the mention of their consummation, and the public spectacle it was supposed to be, dropped his galloping heart into his stomach. It just wasn’t done in his land, but here, it was time-honored tradition that spanned generations uncounted. From what Vius could gather, it was a test of grace and strength and devotion, though he didn’t see it that way. To expose so private an act was anathema, but a small sacrifice in the face of all Solna was giving up to end so much bloodshed.

At least this one act could be kept theirs and theirs alone. “Please.”

Solna smiled and tipped Vius’ chin up with the barest pressure of warm palms that cupped his jaw. A couple of scant inches difference and Solna bridged the gap between them with an equally warm look in his eyes.

The first tentative press of Solna’s soft lips to his was sweet. Vius sighed, relieved. He had heard humans tended to be reckless with their lovers, but he hadn’t expected this. Solna kissed like he moved, slow and solid, the plush bottom lip resting firm and languid against Vius’ own, a nice contrast to the stern razor of an upper lip. Vius pushed up to his toes in search of a harder kiss and Solna obliged.

Vius clutched at Solna’s waist at the first teasing swipe of the human’s tongue against the seam of his lips. A fierce riot of buzzing sensation chased down his spine and his lips tingled as he opened up for Solna immediately. Then Solna dove further, passed his lips to flick just the tip against Vius’ own tongue, an invitation that Vius shyly accepted.

It was just a little taste of passion, really, a quick sample before Solna broke off with one last, gentle, chaste peck to Vius’ mouth. “Thank you,” he breathed.

Vius nodded and eased back, but Solna didn’t let him go quite yet. Instead, he swept his thumbs slowly over Vius’ cheekbones, heat springing up in their wake. Then, Solna released him, hands caressing his throat and jaw along the way. Vius flashed a tentative smile at his intended and climbed up into the monstrous bed.

* * * *

Hours may have passed while Vius slept, but it seemed as if he had only shut his eyes for moments. He gathered his strength and slid out if bed. Of course, Solna was nowhere in the lustrous bedchamber, nor in the bath or front rooms. So much yet to be done and only a couple of marks until sundown, so Vius was not surprised. The faint disappointment was buried deep in his mind.

He scrubbed himself down quickly in the perfumed bath water that was already drawn and dried as fast as he could move. The wounds on his body were all but gone when he looked at himself, but even the best of healers couldn’t remove the marks completely and the fresh scars shone vividly against his porcelain skin. Just more additions to the ragged collection he had from battles and training. He wasn’t a well-heeled beauty, but maybe Solna would not be repulsed.

When he came back into the bedroom, Vius was happy to see his stately, if he said so himself, black Mage robes in a careful bundle placed precisely on the now fresh made bed. Cia must have been in to do so, since his intended rarely seemed to have anyone other than her and Vius inside his quarters. He chuckled at the thought of mousy, plain Cia tearing through his army to find his robes. Ilul must have enjoyed that.

The drying sheet slipped off his shoulders in a heavy rush of fabric and he pulled the pieces of his robes apart. The simple under robe in the pristine white linen of a novice would go on over his small clothes. After would come the blood red one, his journeyman’s. Lastly, was the heavy black of his master robe, golden runes proclaiming his status of Archmage saturating the wide cuffs and plunging collar, down the front opening edges to circle the thick hem around the bottom. Unfortunately, his boots were still being seen to, so he was forced to go barefooted through the ceremony.

But there was a glaring error on Cia’s part. Where were his under things?

Vius rifled through the laid out clothes one more time, just to make sure he hadn’t missed them. Nothing. Damn. The door in the front room creaked and Vius hurried into his white robe.

“Vius?” Solna’s voice floated through the closed bedroom door. “Are you awake?”

“Yes,” he shouted back, then flung his red one over his shoulders. He buttoned up as quickly as possible, and was just finishing the last one when Solna cracked the door open. “Is it time?”

Solna watched him with a strange look in his eyes, then shook his head, curls turning into a halo of blood and leaned against the entrance. “You have time.”

“Good.” His fingers flew down the length of the robe, fastening the onyx buttons in place with long practiced efficiency. He could feel Solna’s stormy eyes on him, and the urge to ask for his under things vanished. This human was to engage him in s****l congress in less than three hours and Vius was reluctant to admit he wanted the added barrier to bolster his courage. It seemed an insult. “Are we arriving at the feast hall on foot, or horseback?”

Vius glanced up and, sure enough, caught Solna’s eyes on him. Solna blinked hard and his eyes sharpened on Vius’ face. “Horseback. It gives us time for any last minute issues.”

Vius nodded and finished the last half of the buttons. So many of the damned things. With a spark of inspiration, Vius backtracked, unbuttoning as he went, until the only ones still fastened spanned from his heart to his waist. Then he did the same with the red, but left that one closed down to his thighs. Satisfied, he went back to the bathroom, still under Solna’s heavy eyes, and brushed his long hair out until it shone.

Per elven customs, Vius left his hair loose and unadorned, but tucked it behind his ears. There wasn’t a looking glass to be found anywhere in Solna’s rooms, so he headed back to his waiting intended. “Acceptable?”

Solna’s pink tongue briefly passed over his lips and Vius held still as Solna took his time, eyes roaming from head to toe and back again. Nothing else before had made Vius feel so naked until Solna’s slow scrutiny. The tips of his ears burned hot as his c**k stirred. Thank the gods for voluminous robes.

“If a more stunning sight than you exists, it is could only be a god,” Solna said, quiet and husky. The burn spread from Vius’ ears to his cheeks. A crooked grin suddenly appeared on Solna’s lips. “Does that answer your question?”