To Be Chosen By A God

Chapter 14

                The weeks flew by and soon enough it was the Winter Solstice.  The evening before they had placed their gifts to each other on the sitting chairs they used and had placed blankets over them so they couldn’t see what was already on their own chair waiting for them.  They had made promises that they wouldn’t peek.

                 It was now morning and Micah was getting up for his shower.  “Hey, wait for me up here and we’ll go down together.”  He said to Chelsea as she was getting up as well.  She nodded and headed to the other shower instead of heading down to make breakfast.

                When her shower was done, she reentered the bedroom and waited for him to exit the shower and get dressed.  As usual, he came out in just his towel but this no longer caused Chelsea to blush.  Sometimes, like today, she would covertly watch him dress.  She didn’t really see much as he dressed facing away from her, but she got a good look at his rear and back and she had to admit, he had a nice body.  She hadn’t been paying enough attention to what he was doing so when he turned around, he caught her staring and grinned.  This did cause her to blush.

                “You can look at me whenever you want, Chelsea.  I’m yours.”  He strode over to where she was sitting on the bed waiting for him and leaned down to kiss her brow.  She loved these kind of kisses.  They were like a protective kind of kiss that showed how much he loved her without having to proclaim it.  “Now, let’s go up to the attic and I’ll send down that basket of Solstice gifts you made for your family down to Darius.  Then we can go down and make breakfast together.”  She nodded her agreement to this plan and they walked together up to his work space.

                Once they were there, she noticed an addition to the basket.  She pointed to it and asked, “Why are there tools in this basket?”

                “They are for Davis.”  He saw the confused look on Chelsea’s face.  “You must not know.  He has never wanted to be a logger.  He was working with your dad so that he could save money for the tools he would need to apprentice to the carpenter but he is now in a dilemma.  He almost has the money to commission the tools, but he also wants to be able to marry that girl he likes once they are both of age to marry and to be able to move into a home of their own.  I need you to write his name on this tag and to say they are from you.  I can’t be seen to show favoritism.”  He had told Chelsea about the relationship when he found out about it.  He kept closer tabs on her family for her than he would any of his other followers.

                “But how did you learn about my brother wanting to apprentice to the carpenter?”  She asked while she filled out the tag.

                “He has been praying about it lately.  He said he didn’t want to burden his parents or sisters about it and felt that at least he could talk to someone about it without it being spread through the village and his parents hearing it from someone else.”  He smiled and when she finished with the tag, contacted Darius to let him know there were gifts for Chelsea’s family arriving and to let him know when they’ve arrived so that Chelsea can watch them receive the baskets.  He transported the baskets to the temple and when they were satisfied that everything had been sent down, they went to the kitchen to make breakfast together.  As Chelsea had guessed, they made pancakes.  While she worked on the pancakes, he worked on the orange juice.

                They ate together and he cleaned the dishes when they were done.  He had told her the day previous that she would not have to worry about any chores.  The Winter Solstice would just be the two of them enjoying each other’s company.

                “Are you ready to open your gifts?”  He asked her.  An excited sparkle entered her eyes as she grinned and nodded.  He let her lead him to the sitting room.

                “You first!” She demanded, gesturing to his chair with the blanket draped over it, hiding the gifts underneath.

                He pulled the blanket away and revealed a pile of assorted items.  He took his time looking them over and marveling in Chelsea’s talent.  She had made him a new set of clothing.  The pants were a dark brown and the shirt was orange.  Neither of these items had any embroidery.  He refolded the items and set them aside.  There were also a new set of leather bracers and a new sword belt as well as a new every day belt.  She had tooled the bracers and sword belt in a maze design and had dyed the tooling in red.

                “These are so amazing, Chelsea.  When did you have a chance to see my sword belt and bracers to know how worn out they were?”

                “When you fought the demon.  I had to remove your bracers and sword belt along with your clothing so I saw them then.”  She had been noticing how worn his normal belt had been becoming which was why she had made him one of those too.

                The next item he picked up was a small scent bottle.  He opened the stopper and took a sniff.  It was a cologne similar to the bath oil she made for him that he loved using.  She must have noticed how often she had to replace that particular bottle.  He immediately tipped the bottle over his finger that was over the opening so that some of the liquid would go on it and rubbed the oil at the crook of his neck.

                “I see you’ve noticed how much I enjoy that body oil you make me.  It’s the same scent that’s in the soap you make me, isn’t it?”

                “It is.  I really like the way this scent combines with your skin’s own natural scent.”  She saw he had yet to touch one of the larger of the items on the chair and had been avoiding it.  “I see you’re avoiding the honey cakes.  I hope you haven’t lost your taste for them.”  She was teasing him in this.  She had seen the sparkle in his eye when he removed the blanket covering the items.

                He picked up the plate and dispelled the stasis bubble over it.  He snatched up one of the cakes and stuffed it in his mouth and then comically used his other hand to hover protectively around the plate and then made a growl like a dog would if someone tried to take away it’s food.  She laughed at his antics and when his mouth was clear again, he joined in the laughter.

                “You really are going to make me fat.”  He set the plate back down on the chair and then walked over to Chelsea to wrap her in a hug.  “Thank you for the gifts, Chelsea.  Your talent amazes me and I’m so happy that you share your talent so freely with me.”  He kissed her deeply and when she was nearly out of breath, he released her.  “Your turn.”  He gestured to her chair.

                She removed the blanket and the sight she was met with brought her to her knees.  It was a wooden carving that had been painted with such lifelike colors, she almost expected it to move.  The carving was about a foot high and was shaped in a wide arch.  Micah had expertly carved each of her family members standing next to each other.  Some had an arm around the waist of the person next to them and some were waving.  As she was looking at them, tears sprang from her eyes and began rolling down her cheeks. 

                Micah knelt down next to her and wrapped his arms around her.  She leaned her head against his chest as she continued to look at the statue.  “I didn’t mean to make you cry.  I know you don’t get to see them as much as you probably would like to living here with me, so I wanted to make it so you could.”  He picked up a crystal that was among her presents.  “Darius has been helping me with this one.  Let’s watch it together, ok?”  She nodded and they walked over to the couch so they could watch the viewing crystal easier.  She snuggled up to him and he wrapped an arm around her.  With the other, he made the crystal play.  He held it steady while they watched the scenes it held inside.

                “Darius asked them to talk to him as if he were you and I used his view as the focus.  He won’t be talking much, but that’s how this was done in you’re wondering.”  He whispered as the crystal started up.

                The first person she saw was her mother.  She was in the kitchen making a meal.  “Oh, there you are!  I’ve missed you so much, but I hope you’ve been having a good time.  Here, help me cut these vegetables.”  A knife was passed over and the view switched between looking at her mother and looking down at the vegetables as they were cut.  “I hate to steal Abigail’s story before she gets a chance to tell you, but she’s pregnant!  I’m going to be a grandmother!  Shhh!  Don’t tell her I told you.  She’s just barely showing, but she’s so excited.   The baby should be due a month or so after the autumn equinox.”  The excitement on her face was evident.  “How have things been going for you?  Your last letter said you were learning how to make leather items.  Are you planning on learning any other crafts?  Or are there any other trades you’re able to learn?  I’m sorry, I don’t really know what a Haven is like.  Tell me, are there a lot of people there?  Thanks for the help, but I know you need to go.  Don’t forget to see Sophia before you leave!”

                Sophia was next.  She was kneeling in the garden she loved to care for and was weeding the beds.  She looked up as Darius approached.  “Hi Chelsea.  I’ve really missed you, but it’s been nice getting to hear from you every now and then.  It’s also nice having a whole bedroom to myself.”  She laughed.  “Did you hear that my twin brother of all people is actually seeing someone?  We never thought he’d get up the nerve, but apparently he has.  The snot did it all in secret too.  Remember how he would say he needed to go take a walk or get some fresh air or go hang out with the guys?  He was actually seeing Samantha all that time!  At least it’s not someone like Rebecca.  Oh, and by the way, I really hate knitting socks.  I think part of it is because mom doesn’t keep the same thickness on the yarn so you get these odd thick sections.”  She shrugged.  “Oh well.  At least she doesn’t have me spin, but I think it’s because I take forever to do one spindle full.  I miss you Chelsea, but I really hope you’re having a good time.  I guess when you do finally get married to Micah, I’ll have a god for a brother-in-law.  How neat will that be?”  She turned away and continued weeding and the view changed as Darius must have got up, turned and walked away.

                The view changed as Darius walked up to a small house.  He took a moment to look around at it and then knocked on the door.  Abigail opened the door and said, “Oh, are we doing that today?”  The picture moved up and down as Darius nodded, but didn’t say anything.  “Come on in.  I’m just working on dinner.  Mom always made it look so easy and Chelsea was the one that usually helped out with the cooking.  Now I wish I had helped mom with the cooking more.  I’m sorry, I’m supposed to be doing this differently.”

                “It’s ok.  You can talk to me as myself or you can pretend I’m Chelsea; whichever is easier for you.”  Darius replied.

                “Well, I do have news for her.  I’m pregnant and the baby is due a month or so after the Autumn Equinox.”  She smiled.  “Mother said she still has the clothes she wore when she was pregnant with us so I won’t have to worry about making more clothes just for the pregnancy.”  She got up and moved around the house.  “I don’t think you’ve ever had the chance to come see the house.  The choosing happened so soon after my marriage and then you were always so busy with me gone.  Let me show you around the house.  It’s isn’t much, but we can always add on to it like mother and father did their house.”  She showed them around the house.  There were two bedrooms and then the main kitchen and dining area.  There was even a small Micah altar on one of the walls in the dining room.  “It’s weird, you know.”  She said as she looked at the statue.  “I knew we had an active god.  I knew he existed but the way I see him and think of him changed after he chose you.  It was like he was suddenly more real.  It’s silly, isn’t it?  You never thought of him like that, did you, Chelsea?  He was always as real to you as the rest of us.  Is it weird now that you live with him?  Someone you worshiped so fiercely and devotedly?”  She seemed to shake herself as if to shake away the thoughts.  “I’m sorry, Darius.  That must have sounded horrible to you and to Micah who will probably see this too.”

                He sat down with her and took her hands in his.  “Abigail, it’s fine.  It really and truly is.  Micah won’t think poorly of you for being honest.  And it’s true, what you said.  Most people feel that way because they have never seen him with their own eyes or heard him with their own ears.  It’s part of being mortal.  Sometimes I felt that way before I became a priest.”

                “You don’t anymore?”

                “It’s our devotion to him, I think, that allows him to speak to us.  It’s not like I’m speaking to you now, but he does speak to me and asks after all of you because he knows he’s taken someone from you all that you love and still care about.”

                “Thank you, Darius.  I don’t think I can do this anymore, I hope she doesn’t hate me for it.”

                “When have you known Chelsea to hate anyone?”  She smiled and nodded agreement.  The view changed as he got up and left.

                The scene changed again as Darius walked into a building.  There were various vats and rectangular screens with white gloop on them.  Jeffrim, Abigail’s husband strode up to Darius and shook his hand.  “Hey, Darius.  It’s good to see you.  I take it this is for Micah’s thing he wants to do with all of us for Chelsea?”  The view rose and fell as Darius nodded.  “Well, I don’t know what to say, Chelsea.  We really didn’t get a chance to get to know each other.  As you probably know, my job is to turn wood pulp into paper and it gets shipped out all over.”  He smiled with pride.  His face suddenly lit up.  “Oh!  You know Abigail is pregnant, right?  Of course you know.  Either Micah has told you or Abigail’s told you.  My mother still has the baby clothing from when my sister and I were babies, so regardless of whether it’s a girl or a boy we’ll be covered.  I’m sure your mother still has clothes from when all of you were little too.”  They walked over to a vat and Chelsea watched as Jeffrim ladled the white pasty gloop onto a screen and then used another tool to spread the mixture over the screen evenly.  “How is life with Micah?  Is it what you expected?  No… wait, you said before that it wasn’t quite what you expected when you wrote the family the first time.  Um….are there other people in Micah’s Haven?  What are they like?  Your family misses you so much, but I get that you have to live apart from us all.  I guess I just wish I had gotten to know you before you left.”  He shook Darius’ hand again and the scene shifted again.

                Darius was now walking through the forest and the sounds of axes biting into trees could be heard as well as the calls of men in warning as trees came crashing down in carefully choreographed fellings.  Her father, Jonathan was the first of the two men Darius encountered.  Jonathan waved and called out to him.  “Hey Darius, what brings you out here?”

                “I’m here for that thing for Micah.  Are you ready or do you want me to start with Davis?”

                He looked around to be sure he wasn’t needed.  “No, I can start.  I pretend you’re Chelsea, right?”  Darius nodded and the view on the crystal bobbed up and down, making Chelsea giggle.  Her father looked a little awkward as he tried to get in the right mindset.  “Um… ok…. Here goes.  I miss you.  I know I’m not the most….expressive of people, and I can seem unfeeling or stoic, but I really do miss you and care about you.  How is Micah treating you?  You know that if you are unhappy you have every right to demand he let you come home.”  He was entering the father as protector role, making Micah smile.  “He hasn’t…..forced relations on you or made you do anything you don’t want to, has he?”  His energy seemed to change.  “I’m sorry, I’m just….worried about you.  He’s a god, so who would hold him in check if he decided he wanted to do something?  How can I even know that the letters you send are from you and not from him making us think you’re still alive and unharmed?  I know Micah will see this too, but he has to understand a father will always have his doubts and worries.”  Someone called out to him and he called back over his shoulder that he was on his way.  “I’m sorry, Darius.  I’ve got to go.  I’ll call Davis over to you, He should almost be done with the tree he’s working on.”

                Darius stayed where he was and Jonathan turned and walked away and soon enough, Davis walked up, wiping his hands on a rag.  “Good to see you, Darius.  Are we doing the thing?”  The view made the familiar up and down movement, indicating that Darius was doing his best to do as Micah had asked him to do for this.  “So, Chelsea, how are things with Micah?  Are you married yet?  Darius told us that we would find out when it happened, but maybe you just haven’t had enough time to let us know?  Mother would be upset if you got married before you came of age regardless of marrying a god.”  He shook his finger at her but a smile soon crept across his face.  “I’ve met someone too, Chelsea.  Her name is Samantha and I think I want to marry her.  We’ll have to wait two years yet and that should be enough time to save up enough money…..I hope…”  His face fell and he looked back over at the other men as if he were seeing a life he didn’t want.  “I….I’ve got to get back.  I’m sorry, Chelsea.  I’m sorry, Darius.”  He turned away and the images on the crystal ended.

                “So that’s it.  At least of the viewing crystal.”  Micah said.  “Are you ready to look at the rest of your gifts?”  She looked over at him and he could see she had been silently crying as tears continued to run down her face.  “I never intended to make you cry.”  He used his thumb to wipe away her tears.  She twisted and hugged him.

                “Thank you.”  She whispered.  He held her for a little while and then rubbed her arm briskly. 

                “Come on.  There’s more.”  He urged.  He used his power to pull her chair over to them, ensuring that nothing fell over.  There was another set of ivory hair combs, this time with lilies along the bridge instead of peacocks.  He set them in her hand, wanting to pull her out of her sadness.

                “They’re beautiful, Micah.  You’re so talented.  You carve so realistically.  How do you do it?”

                “One of the hardest things about war is the waiting.  As a general, you get a lot of time to second guess yourself, so you can either tear apart all of your plans, and you will, given enough down time, or you can take up a hobby to occupy that waiting time.  I took up carving to keep myself from second and third guessing myself.”

                She set the combs back on the chair’s seat and lifted the last item in her hands.  It was an intricately braided leather bracelet.  He placed it on her wrist as she looked up at him oddly.  He smirked as he explained, “Remember when I said a handmade gift such as a simple braided leather bracelet would mean more to me than something you bought at a shop?”  She nodded and smiled, understanding the gift.

                “I need to write another letter.  My father needs to be put at ease.”  He made a gesture and a lap desk along with pen, ink, and paper appeared in his hands.  He handed the items to her.  “Thank you, Micah.”  She thought for a moment and then began writing while he looked over her shoulder, offering words when she couldn’t find the one she wanted.

                “Dear Father, and I supposed everyone else as Darius will likely be reading this to you all.

Micah just finished showing me what all of you sent to me.  I hope I have enough time to write everything I want to say before Darius tells us that you are at the temple opening the gifts I sent you.  Most of you asked about Micah’s Haven.  There are a lot of people that live here; enough to fill four whole villages!  In order to have enough people to work the fields and care for all of the animals needed to feed everyone, it takes a surprisingly large number of people.  Among them, they also have every trade you can think of, so yes, learning other trades are a possibility.  As you’ll see, I’ve been working on learning leatherworking, and I still have a lot to learn about it.  Barnabus tells me it just takes a lot of practice.

What do you think I should learn next?

Oh!  I want to put some of your minds at ease.  Micah told me months ago that choosing me was not the end of that decision.  It was just the end of his decision.  I still have a choice on whether I want to be with him too, which I do.  He’s been the perfect gentleman, Father.  I would not be able to come home if this didn’t work out.  Just because I don’t know the location of Micah’s Haven wouldn’t stop another god from abducting me and trying to get me to give up that information so that they could take over his lands.  I doubt it would be pleasant.  So, I’m sorry, I can never come home.  I really didn’t want to make this a sad letter.  I love Micah, Father, and no, he would never force relations on me and he would never marry me before I was old enough to marry.  He knows how important that is to both you and mother.  I’ll make sure you all hear about it before it happens.

It’s getting late and I want to make sure Darius can read this to you.  I love you all and I really hope you all like your presents!

Love,

Chelsea”

                “Did you bring down any sand to help this dry?”

                “No.”  He held out his hand over the paper and after a few moments, said, “It’s dry now.  Come on, let’s get upstairs and send that to Darius.”  He stood up and she followed.  He lifted her into his arms and watched as she took a deep breath in.  As she did so, he Stepped into the attic and set her back on her feet.  He quickly contacted Darius and held out his hand for the letter.  She placed it in his hand and it soon disappeared as he sent it down to Darius.  It was now close to midday so they headed down to the kitchen to make lunch together.  It was shortly after lunch when Micah received Darius’ prayer that Chelsea’s family had arrived at the temple.

                Micah made it so that she could see the inside of the temple and then adjusted the view so that they weren’t looking at them all from above.

                “You asked us to come after our morning festivities?”  Andrea asked Darius.  He had told her husband, but was worried that Jonathan may have heard wrong or remembered wrong.

                “Yes.  Micah didn’t want to detract from your own Winter Solstice morning.  He and Chelsea would have been celebrating the Solstice as well, so felt that after your own celebration would be a good time to ask you here.  He sent down the things Chelsea wanted to give you.  If you give me a moment, I’ll bring out the baskets to you.  Please, have a seat.”  He gestured to the many benches scattered throughout the temple. 

                Chelsea noticed how everyone was bundled up against the cold.  It had been that way in the viewing crystal too.  Where she had lived was sheltered from most bad weather because of the mountains, but the ground still frosted and snow still sometimes fell.  She rubbed her arms in sympathy for how cold it must be there.  Seeing her rub her arms in what he thought was a chill, he wrapped his arms around her, crossing his arms in front of her to offer her his own body heat.  Heat and cold didn’t affect him that way and if she continued to feel cold, he would simply raise the temperature in the manor.

                Soon enough, Darius came out bearing a basket, set it down and returned for another.  There were four baskets in all along with several short notes and the longer one she had just written.

                “Micah?  You didn’t give me any order to this.  What does Chelsea want me to read first?”  Micah quickly answered him and so he read the letter she had just written first.  Faces of worry eased.  She had not realized how worried for her, her family had become.  After the first letter, Micah let Darius know that two of the baskets were general items and contained identical items for her parent’s household and for Abigail and Jeffrim’s household.  The rest of the items each had tags saying who they belonged to.  Her father received the leather belt and bracers, as did Davis who also received the carpentry tools.  Jeffrim also received a belt and bracers, but Chelsea apologized to him in the note she sent him explaining that she never learned his measurements so had guessed by making his items a little larger than Davis’ but smaller than her father’s items.  They turned out to fit rather well and Chelsea was relieved. 

                Chelsea had memorized her mother’s and sister’s measurements and had allowed for a little growth in Sophia.  Darius had helped with some of it by letting her know that while her mother hadn’t changed a bit, Sophia had grown by a good inch or so and that Abigail had gained a little weight.  At the time, he had not known she was pregnant so had assumed that married life was suiting her well.  Margaret had shown her a dress pattern that would take in to account the changes in her sisters’ bodies without needing specific measurements.  It was called a wrap dress and because it was made with extra fabric, could accommodate most sizes.  She had also hemmed in extra length in the bottom hem of the dress so if need be, her mother could remove the stitching and lower the length to an appropriate length should Sophia have grown more than Darius had thought.  The dresses were each a different color.  Her mother had a light yellow, Sophia had a light green and Abigail had a light blue.  She hadn’t done any embroidery on the dresses, but knew they would still look very good on each of them.  The men had not received any clothing, but the notes to her family indicated that the extra cloth that was in the baskets was intended for clothing for them.  Davis’ body had changed so much in the six months she was gone, that she wasn’t comfortable making him any clothing and didn’t have any of Jeffrim’s measurements.  Her mother had always made her father’s clothing, so she didn’t have anything to work off of for him either.

                Eventually it was time for her family to return to their homes and for Micah and Chelsea to continue with their day.  While he was up here in the attic, he did a quick check of his lands and eased his own mind that no demons had entered them.  They went back downstairs and he set a fire in the fireplace of their sitting room and lowered the temperature in the room so that the fire would feel comfortable to her.  They used what they had come to call “The Dream Couch” to lay together and enjoy each other’s closeness.  She had long since grown comfortable resting with him like this and his occasional erections no longer caused her to blush.  She still never adjusted him, but when he reached down to do it himself, it didn’t bother her or make her self-conscious about where his hand was.  They talked and dozed until it was time for dinner.  They made it together and then ate quietly.

                Micah broke the comfortable silence.  “What do you want to do after dinner?  We could take a walk or…..I know what to do.”

                “Oh?”

                “Over the years I have made viewing crystals of plays and songs, so we could watch one of the plays or if you want to learn how to dance, we can do that too.”  He took her hand in his and kissed it.

                “I’ve never seen a play before.  I’ve heard of them, but our village is so small that the troupes that put on those plays never came to visit us.  What are they like?” 

                She sounded interested and not just politely interested in the plays so explained, “Well, you have actors and actresses playing the various roles on a stage.  They do their best to make you think they are in the place the scene is supposed to take place so if it’s a forest, they will have a large basic painting of a forest behind them and maybe even a few mock trees to give the scene some depth, or if it’s in a castle, they will take a large canvas and paint it to look like stone walls.  You’ll see.  I’ll grab a couple of the plays after dinner and you can choose which story we view.”

                Chelsea grinned like a little girl getting a surprise.  “Ok!”  When dinner was over, Chelsea cleared the table while Micah went up to the room he kept all the various entertainment crystals.  Chelsea did know about this room, but had never shown any interest in them due to everything else she had wanted to complete, like the table cloth she had made a couple months back or the placemats she had finished the month before.  There was a sideboard in the dining room that she was currently working on a table runner for and expected to be finished in a few days.  It was taking her some time, but she was slowly starting to decorate the manor.  By the time she was ready to start heading towards the sitting room, he was back with a couple crystals in his hands and a small stand that looked like a crystal would fit perfectly in it.

                “It’s so I don’t have to hold it.  Are you ready?”  She nodded so he held out his free hand to her.  She took it in hers and they strolled to the sitting room.  He moved their presents to their bedroom with a thought and then positioned their chairs so that they faced an end table that usually was between the chairs.  This was where he usually placed the book he was reading at the time.  He placed the holder on the center of the end table and set the viewing crystals in a line next to it.  “Alright.  What kind of play would you like to watch?  I brought down a comedy, a romance and a tragedy.  The tragedy also has some action in the form of a couple sword fights.”

                “Sword fights, you say?”  She knew he would want to watch that one.  For the last several months he had been training with his sword against several of the village masters due to feeling he had somehow failed as a god by getting injured.  She thought it was a little silly, but had noticed that his muscles seemed to be even more defined lately and it must make him feel better to be doing it.  She would usually hear the sounds of metal on metal in the afternoons after lunch and would sometimes peek in to watch him.  The way his body moved was amazing to her and watching him like that when he wasn’t aware she was watching was a little treat for her.

                “It won’t be very true to a real fight, but it will at least look complicated.”

                “Let’s do the tragedy then.”

                He set that crystal in the holder and tapped it to get the crystal to begin showing it’s contents.  He sat back in his chair and they held hands while they watched it.  Without the end table between the chairs, they had scooted them close together just for this purpose.

                Chelsea had never heard of this story before.  Somethings she understood right away, and other things she was confused about until the big reveal happened.  It was a very different experience for her, but she found she preferred watching and having people act out the parts over reading.  The main character was named Donna.  She was the only child of a noble couple and lived in luxury.  Her mother dies of a mysterious cause that isn’t explained until much later in the story.  Her father is then seduced by a much younger woman who turns out to be some strange creature the author made up which he calls a succubus who sucks away the life force of mortals.  As Donna’s father also becomes ill and weakens, Donna discovers the cause and has to fight the succubus using the fencing skills she had learned along with all the other children of the noble class.  Her father ends up dying as well and she becomes queen.

                “What did you think of it?”

                “It didn’t seem very realistic.  Do people really use such flimsy looking swords?”

                He laughed.  “Not if they want to survive the fight!”  He finally got out.  “I suppose for you, never having a king, the concept of a noble class would be an odd thing.”

                “What does a king do?”  Micah’s lands were not held under any ruler.  Each village was on its own and other kingdoms simply didn’t have the resources to conquer those lands when they had demons and dragons to deal with in their own lands.  Each village had it’s own militia if needed and no one had decided that they wanted to be the one in charge of multiple villages, especially when there could be a day of travel apart from each other.  Her village had a magistrate and a council of elders that took care of trade and day to day issues or disagreements between villagers.  Darius was a member of that council as well.

                Micah knew how her village was ran as most of the villages in his lands were ran this way.  The ones that weren’t had a mayor who did much of the same thing.  He thought of how to explain it.  “Sometimes a threat comes that causes multiple villages to band together.  Usually, they will want one person to make all the decisions to make it so that decisions can be made quicker.  Sometimes this person is appointed, and other times it is through political machinations that this person comes to power.  Once you have someone making all the big decisions for a village, it can be hard to go back and to be fair, that person in power rarely wants to give that power up.  But, a king’s job is to protect their lands from harm.  If a drought comes, it is their responsibility to make trade agreements with other kingdoms to meet his people’s needs.  They are also in charge of making laws and rules to help keep his people safe.  The job is usually hereditary and a noble class usually starts as either the people with money being elevated over everyone else or they are a part of the royal family but are not in a direct line to the throne, such as cousins and uncles and aunts.”

                “That’s just weird to have one person like that making all the decisions.”  He chuckled because he agreed.  His clergy would have a much harder time if they had to keep clearing things with a king like his mother’s clergy had to.  She often threatened to put an end to the monarchy in her lands but had yet to do so.  She understood the good it did too.  “What if they make a mistake?”

                “Then the mistake is usually blamed on someone else and the kingdom goes about it’s business as though nothing happened.”  She shook her head, clearly against the concept of a king or queen.

                “You watch over all of us and make sure we’re safe from harm.  Does that make you our king too?”

                “Being a god is taxing enough.”  He chuckled.  “No.  I make no laws and I collect no taxes.  I am far from being a king despite the similarities.”  He looked over at the viewing crystals.  “Did you want to watch another?  I brought down a comedy and a romance as well.”

                “Sure.  How about the comedy?”  He nodded and set it up.  The story didn’t seem to have any unifying concept other than the court jester making fools of everyone without anyone in the story realizing it.  It was certainly funny and peals of laughter filled the room frequently enough.  Micah had to stop the play in the beginning to explain the purpose of the jester, but after that, they were able to watch it without incident.  The king and queen eventually ended up making fools of themselves to the point that everyone in the play realized it and it ended with them being ousted from the town and a new king and queen being appointed with the jester making an aside to the audience, “Here we go again.”

                By the time the play ended, it was close to the time they usually headed up to bed, so he gathered up the viewing crystals and the holder while she straightened the room.  They headed up to the bedroom and he dropped off the crystals on the way.  In the bedroom, the gifts they had given each other were laid on the bed where Micah had transported them after lunch.  They put away the clothing and the other smaller items.  There was a plain jewelry box on the vanity so she put the hair combs and bracelet in it.  The statue, she had no idea where to put, so left it on the dresser until she could decide where she wanted it.  The viewing crystal, she put with the other he had given her in the jewelry box as well as she had no other safe place to put them.

                “I should make you something to keep those in.”  He remarked as he looked over at her as she tried to think of where to put the crystals and had finally decided on the jewelry box.

                “This will do.”

                “For now.  Perhaps one day I will have to make you another jewelry box to hold everything.”  He had walked over to her and was hugging her from behind.  He kissed her temple and then released her so that she could get ready for bed.