A Dragon's Tale Ch. 57

She was gorgeous.

Perfection itself.

Okay, on some level Alana realized that Rachel wasn't actually physically perfect, but in the wood elf's totally biased opinion, she was perfect. She was absolutely perfect in body as well as in both her hesitation and bravery. She had one arm and hand over her breasts and the other covering the area between her legs, but she was voluntarily standing in front of her naked.

"Mmm." Alana sighed, a dopy grin spreading on her face.

"I... I'm okay?" The redhead asked, then bit her lip and trembled slightly.

"Rachel, like I said before, you're easily more beautiful than Selene, or Myla, or Victoria." The brunette replied.

"That's not true." Rachel said quietly.

"Well, to be fair I haven't seen any of them naked, but judging from what I have seen and in my totally biased opinion, it's not even close."

"You're biased." Rachel mumbled, though a small smile was playing around the edge of her lips.

Alana chuckled. "I just said that. Now please, just let me enjoy this." She rested her chin in her hands and looked her best friend up and down. Well, Rachel was more than her best friend but she didn't think there was a word for what they were. She thought there should be though.

"Enjoy?" The redhead seemed to relax a little. She shifted her weight to the other foot and that smile playing around her lips widened.

"Absolutely."

Rachel hesitated, then lowered the arm in front of her breasts fractionally, took a deep breath, then lowered it completely so Alana could see her. She had the prettiest pink nipples sitting at the perfect angle atop her shapely breasts. Her breathing slowly made them rise and fall and the subtle movement was entrancing, but only because it was Rachel.

"Perfection." Alana said dreamily after a moment. "Thank you for trusting me. I know this is really hard for you and I appreciate how much you're trusting me."

Rachel bit her lip, then she moved her other hand too.

She had a slightly wild tuft of red hair above her slit that was the exact same shade as her roots. Her outer lips were slightly spread and her inner lips protruded slightly. The wood elf's eyes could clearly see more than a little wetness there too. More importantly, Rachel was voluntarily showing herself to her.

"Thank you for not being..." The redhead bit her lip. "Well, thank you for being you."

Alana slipped off the bed and wrapped her arms around Rachel. "You're welcome."

Rachel reciprocated, holding her tightly and lovingly for almost a minute before speaking without letting go nor loosening her grip. "Um, someday, maybe someday soon, could... could we..."

Rachel swallowed hard.

"Yes." Alana whispered back softly. "I can't wait."

Rachel made a sound that was halfway between a sigh and a soft moan and then snuggled a little closer in their naked hug. They stayed like that for some time, simply holding each other and enjoying the exquisite sensation of bare skin in their long embrace.

* * *

Fiona had once gone fishing with her father in her youth. He loved fishing and he always brought a small open-topped net that he would put his catches into so they could stay alive until he was finished. She had noticed that once in the small net, the fish seemed to be very confused in the small space and ended up looking around seeming like they had no idea how to react or respond.

Right now, she knew exactly how they felt.

She was in the Narlotten Council chambers with all of the most important, influential, and powerful people in the lorddom and she was a widowed cook. If any of them needed some food, she could help. Otherwise...

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"It will get better."

She jumped slightly at the voice coming from beside her, which belonged to Mage Weston.

"I remember my first day in this room." He spoke with the air of someone reminiscing as he looked around the room. "I looked around and thought: 'what am I doing here? Is this some kind of mistake? I feel like it's a mistake'."

"I'm knowing the feeling." She replied vehemently.

"It will get better." The mage repeated. "I wasn't on the council when Helene was alive, but Lord Delmar did something rather unusual for a lord in the Ten Kingdoms, though I hear Lord Kalus does the same."

"What's that?"

"Invite his wife -- 'wives' in the case of Lord Kalus -- into the council chambers." Mage Weston said then looked around at the others. "Don't let their titles or influence intimidate you; we are all fallible men here and none is perfect. Endeavor to be the most mature version of yourself while you are here and I think you shall not disappoint."

"Thank you." She breathed a sigh of relief.

The door opened and Lord Delmar strode in.

Her fiancé.

It just felt too strange; she was engaged to the Lord Delmar.

"Call to order." He said without preamble.

"Oh tosh now." General Carrow replied as he made his way to a seat. "Shouldn't we at least take a moment to celebrate the pending nuptials before getting down to business?"

"The 'pending nuptials' are the first order of business." Lord Delmar replied as he sat down on what could only be described as the head seat at the round table, though mostly because it was slightly larger than the others. Not by much, but a little

"Behold, Lord Delmar the great romantic." Mage Weston chuckled as he also headed for an open seat.

Fiona hesitated a moment, not wanting to take someone else's seat. It appeared that there were exactly two chairs more than there were people. The one chair was on Lord Delmar's left side and it was the one that looked slightly more feminine and clearly hadn't been used in years, though it was obviously well cared for. The other empty seat was between Sir Warrick and General Carrow, which he assumed was normally Lady Ekthros's seat.

She opted for that one.

"Trade seats with me." Sir Warrick said before she could sit down. "I would love to see you put another smile onto our dear lord's face."

"Good luck." General Carrow said jovially. "Even the great jester Lady Ekthros hasn't been able to do that."

Fiona didn't say this out loud, but she found herself wondering why everyone seemed to think that Lady Ekthros was funny. She had never heard that before nor witnessed it. Still, she sat down between Lord Delmar and Sir Warrick, hoping that she wouldn't make a fool of herself.

"Please begin." Lord Delmar said to one of the men that she didn't know when everyone was seated.

He was sitting on General Carrow's other side and he bowed his head and everyone else followed suit while he said an opening prayer asking for wisdom and guidance from Illuminar for the council's business.

When he had finished, Lord Delmar addressed the room. "The first item of business is the wedding. I propose a public announcement at noon today followed by a wedding this evening."

"Absolutely not!" Sir Warrick laughed. "The people have been waiting forever for this my lord; they will need a grand royal wedding to equal the last one."

"Sir Warrick is right." General Carrow said. "I understand your desire to marry quickly, but it will seem rushed and that will invite speculation of a scandal where none exists."

Several others voiced similar sentiments for various reasons.

"There is little reason to wait." Lord Delmar replied. "Narlotten needs an heir and a legitimate one cannot be produced without a marriage. Given that there is no heir as of now, chaos would ensue should something happen to me. The Emperor would be forced to step in to appoint a new lord and the people will certainly not prefer that."

"Only because the new lord wouldn't be your son." Sir Warrick said. "If you wish it to be soon, perhaps a grand wedding could be pulled quickly?" He looked at the fellow who prayed to open the meeting.

"It could be done." The man frowned. "Two months should be a minimum and three would be better, though that would be a tight timetable."

"The royal wedding shouldn't be 'tight'." Sir Warrick countered. "It should be a grand affair, not hastily thrown together."

For the next few minutes, most of the council debated how long it would take to plan a grand wedding. The general consensus was three or four months minimum, though many said that six months would be better. A few of the members and the Lord Delmar himself were wanting a wedding within a fortnight, preferably within a few days. Eventually, after several minutes of discussion, Lord Delmar looked at the castle's mage.

"Mage Weston, you have thoughts." Lord Delmar addressed him, likely because he had his head cocked to one side like he was thinking and hadn't yet weighed in.

"I was thinking that since she is here, perhaps the bride might like to weigh in."

Everyone looked at Fiona.

She hesitated a moment before speaking. "Um, I'm thinking: why can't it be both?"

"Explain." Lord Delmar said. It wasn't quite a command, though it was stronger than a request.

She took a deep breath before speaking. "Well, I'm knowing that the people are wanting a grand wedding since everyone has been wanting you to be getting married for a long time now. But I'm also understanding how the people are wanting an heir. I'm hearing the talk in the kitchens and elsewhere and many are worrying about that. So if we were wanting to make the people happy, we could be having two weddings. One could be small and private quite soon as the Lord Delmar was saying for an heir, and then we could be having another wedding many months from now so the people will be having their grand wedding later."

She paused, then added. "It's like when a lord dies and his son is becoming the new lord immediately, but then they're having a grand coronation later. We could be doing the same with two weddings."

There was a collective nodding of heads around the room and several of the older members were looking at her as if they had never seen something like her before.

Mage Weston smiled at her. "The most impressive thing about your response was not that it perfectly accommodated the two sides of the debate." His smile widened. "The most impressive thing is that you talked solely about what the people of Narlotten would want and didn't voice your own personal opinion about your own wedding." He looked at Lord Delmar. "I do believe your taste in women is entirely impeccable; she appears to be a rare gem who is more concerned for others than herself."

Fiona felt her cheeks grow warm and knew the blush would be obvious on her very pale cheeks, heavily freckled though they were.

"Sir Warrick was right." One of the older ones mused as he stroked his white beard. "You remind me a little of Helene my lady. You are different of course, but not so different that one who knew her couldn't see a slight similarity of spirit."

The older members all nodded their heads.

"Very well, it shall be two weddings." Lord Delmar said.

"I suggest making an announcement at noon today." Sir Warrick said. "Perhaps the grand wedding could be moved to next year in the spring? It will already be winter in a few months and that would bode poorly for the wedding; spring is more agreeable for weddings."

There was a general chorus of agreement at that, except for Lord Delmar who looked at her. "Would that be agreeable?"

"Aye milord."

"Then all that's left for today is to decide when we shall be married." The lord said to everyone, though he did end looking at her.

"I'm thinking the people will be preferring if the news about you being engaged had spread before you were suddenly married." She said.

"Perhaps at sundown tomorrow?" Sir Warrick suggested. "That will be enough time for the news to spread to everyone in the city. Anyone who doesn't know at that point will have had ample opportunity and his friends will look at him strangely for not knowing."

"That is acceptable, see to it Sir Warrick." Lord Delmar nodded once. "Now, the next order of business is the ongoing negotiations with Marcadia."

Fiona listened to the rest of the council meeting without speaking up since she had very little idea what was going on. It was obvious that she was listening to important conversations that had been going on for some time now and so she lacked the context to properly understand them. It was interesting to see her fiancé interact with his council though. He treated them no differently than he treated her, listening carefully and making decisions with authority while never ignoring input, but somehow he always remained somewhat aloof.

That put her in mind of Lady Ekthros and what she knew of her from Sarah. She took a deep breath, realizing that she really needed to talk to him about that soon.

"Milord." She said when the meeting had ended.

"Yes Fiona." He replied as everyone stood and began to file out of the room.

"Might I be talking to you for a few minutes privately?"

He frowned slightly, but Sir Warrick spoke up. "No one will think you two are losing control if you have the council chambers alone for a few minutes. Please take the room; you can't go up to the Helene every time you want to talk."

"Very well." He nodded once. Once everyone else had left, he looked at her. "Proceed."

"I think you should be knowing something that Sarah was telling me about Lady Ekthros." She then told him about Lady Ekthros reading Sarah's mind while Sarah was recounting the story of her possession, and that she and Sarah suspected Lady Ekthros was trying to create demon-possessed soldiers.

He listened without interruption until she was done and then spoke. "The Book of Light requires two or three witnesses; do you have another?"

"No milord." She admitted.

He made a thoughtful sound that definitely had a slightly negative tone to it. "Lady Ekthros did tell me that she looked into Sarah's mind to see about her possession. She said her primary purpose was to know if that memory was at all connected to the false prophet, who she believes is attempting to do just as you say; create demon-possessed soldiers."

Fiona frowned.

"Lady Ekthros also said that she saw evidence that the false prophet -- who I might remind you is a dragon -- had begun to install some subtle and permanent compulsions in Sarah's mind. Lady Ekthros also said that she believed that these compulsions were responsible for Sarah not trusting her anymore, since she was trying to convince Sarah not to trust Ethan."

Fiona's frown deepened, but that did make some sense. Not perfect sense, but some sense. That damn false prophet had killed her husband and while she certainly had no love for Lady Ekthros, she did find it easier to believe that the false prophet was up to no good. That went double because Lord Delmar was trusting Lady Ekthros so much.

Hmm.

"Can I be asking why you are trusting Lady Ekthros so much?" The copper-haired woman asked after a moment.

"She and her husband saved Helene's life during an assassination attempt on me near the very beginning of my reign." Lord Delmar replied. "Lady Ekthros was grievously injured protecting Helene and almost died. She would have died if the court mage at that time hadn't acted so quickly to save her."

"Her husband?" Fiona felt her jaw drop. "Lady Ekthros is married?"

He nodded once. "I have not seen him for many years, but she has not initiated a divorce despite his abandonment of her providing ample cause according to the Book of Light. Thus, she is still married."

Fiona stared.

Wow; she would never have guessed that.

Still, her mind swung around to what Lord Delmar had told her about Lady Ekthros having been saved by the previous court mage. "Are you sure the previous court mage wasn't working with her?" She finally asked.

"Yes." He replied simply, then lowered his voice. "Mage Weston's predecessor -- Illuminar rest his soul -- was the one who created my disguise enchantment for me at the behest of Helene and her father, the former lord of Narlotten."

"Helene's father was knowing that you're a dra--" She stopped. "That you're a... you know?" She whispered so quietly that no one besides him could've heard, even if they were in the room.

He nodded once.

She stared at him for a moment before finding her voice. "One day, you'll have to be telling me that story."

"Perhaps." He replied in an even tone.

"I'm still not trusting Lady Ekthros." Fiona said after a moment.

"You are letting your emotions cloud your judgement in this case." He replied.

"Cloud my--" She glared at him. "On the day you and I met, she was saying that you were wasting your time visiting me and Conner because my Sean dying was part of a soldier's duty!"

"Fiona." He looked into her eyes and suddenly she felt somewhat like a misbehaving child. "Change your tone."

"Yes milord." She took a deep breath and continued more calmly. "I'm sorry, but anyone who is thinking that men who are giving their lives defending Narlotten aren't worth your time is someone I can't be trusting." The widows of Narlotten soldiers were taken care of, but Lord Delmar visiting her personally was something that Fiona had never expected.

"She was mistaken of course." He said. "However, your response did not improve the situation. To call the verbal tirade that you directed at her 'uncivil' would be a near-criminal understatement."

"Every word I was saying was true." Fiona with a veneer of calm to her voice.

"Just because something is true does not mean that it needs to be said." He replied calmly. "As the Book of Light says: A fool continually says all that is on his mind, but a wise man holds his tongue until it is prudent to speak."

Fiona bristled, but she couldn't argue with that.

She waited, but he didn't continue.

The seconds stretched out to almost a minute of silence before it grew uncomfortable enough that Fiona spoke again. "I'm seeing your point. I'm still not liking Lady Ekthros though."

"That is your prerogative." He replied. "However, you should know that no one -- possibly including myself -- has worked harder or longer for the good of Narlotten."

"I keep hearing that, but what is she doing?"

"It was her suggestion to require a trial by jury for all criminal courts." He replied. "She suggested improvements to irrigation that greatly increased crop production and thus the general wealth. She also wrote the Narlotten Charter of Rights, which guarantees certain basic rights for all citizens regardless of circumstance or wealth, among many other contributions."

Fiona inclined her head in concession. "I can't be denying that those are good things, but I'm still not liking her."

"That is your prerogative."

"I'm sorry I was losing my temper earlier." She said after a moment.

"Then you are forgiven." He replied. "However, we should not tarry too long alone together in a room until we are wed lest we create a scandal."

"Aye milord." She nodded.

"Come, you should attend to your son for a time while the announcement is being written." He said as he strode towards the door. "I will have your things moved to one of the castle's guest rooms until our wedding night."

"You don't need to be doing that." She replied, knowing that the castle's guest rooms were fit for visiting dignitaries and even kings. She wasn't needing anything that grand.

He opened the door for her and held it open. "It is for security reasons, not comfort reasons. You should well know that your room isn't secure given that someone ransacked it recently."

She stopped in her tracks halfway through the door and looked at him. "You were knowing about that?"

He didn't reply, he just looked at her.

That's when it hit her; of course he knew. "Are you knowing who it was?"

"Not with two or three witnesses."

She smiled; he did know. Perhaps he couldn't prove it, but he did know.