Anya Surprised

Location: Sharaton-Charlottesville, Kingdom of Tildor Date: June 21, 2101

Novella length; tale is complete. There is some sex at the beginning and at the end. The sex at the beginning borders on non-consent from an unexpected source, and the bulk of the story is how she copes with what happens. All individuals particing in sex in this story are over eighteen.

With a hearty thank you to gyfurune for his able assistance!

* * * * * * * Chapter 1 * * * * * * *

"She's going to participate in the Solstice celebration? Huh!" Captain Jannon Fisher turned his chair and stared out from his second-story window, watching the holiday crowds bustle along Snapdragon Street. Some went east to the nearby markets, but most headed west to the festivities. "When did you find out?"

"Just a little bit ago." Jaima Starshine, Lieutenant of the Household Guard, watched her captain sympathetically. His voice was calm, but Jaima wasn't fooled. Brown hair, brown eyes, clean-shaven, and middling height, he easily passed as average, even forgettable, but that blending into the background was deliberate. Often the most effective guard is the one you didn't see. When he gave orders, people obeyed, and when there was trouble, there was no mistaking his authority. Jannon had command presence. Yet when the situation called for stealth, she had seen him be unobtrusive, or when necessary, fast and lethal. She knew he was older than the thirty years he looked, but she was not sure just how many had been erased by magic. Jaima continued her report. "At first, Her Ladyship wanted to go alone, but I convinced her it wasn't a good idea. Sometimes the foreigners don't take 'no' for an answer. Chanli Carpenter is going with her."

Jannon jumped up, turning on her. "Chanli! She's militia, with only a year's worth of decent training. It's Summer Solstice in the capital and the biggest holiday of the year! All the vermin in the city will be out!"

"If she wasn't qualified, you wouldn't have hired her. She might lose her wallet, but she will protect the sin-Duchess, the heir apparent, with her life." Jaima was unfazed by either his glare or his outburst. "I think Her Ladyship suspects you intimidated the last few men she was interested in."

"I did not."

"You did so! I was there when you delivered her gift to the last one, remember? Polite, you were. Then you shattered the statue in his foyer with a single strike of your hand. 'I would take a dim view of anyone who hurt this woman.' The man pissed his pants!"

"So he did." A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, ruining his bluster. "You're sure she's going to wear the dress?"

"I saw her pull it from the storage chest myself."

Jannon moved back to his desk and put away the log books, scowling. "I can't protect her if she won't tell me where she's going. Thank you, Lieutenant. That will be all."

He looked up when she didn't leave, his eyebrows raised.

"Captain . . . Jannon, why don't you tell her how you feel?"

"What are you talking about?"

"For the past year you two have been fighting a lot. And not just the kind of squabbles that sometimes happen between friends, either. At least, it's not that way anymore. It's getting tiresome having to tiptoe around here. I'm not the only one who's noticed, either. I've served with you for seven years now, and we've survived some pretty tight situations. That trip to the catacombs still makes me cold to my bones, and you brushed it off like it was nothing. But when it comes to telling her your feelings, you hesitate. Why? You love her. Tell her how you feel!"

"It's not that simple."

"Why not? Because she's Duke Thorband's daughter? Because she's a mage? Titles be damned. Underneath, she's a woman and you are a man. She deserves to know how you feel."

Jannon stared at her. "All right," he said at last. "I'll talk to her. Tell Chanli our discussion may take a while, so if Lady Anya doesn't show up right away, not to come looking for her, but to be available when she calls."

* * * * * * * Chapter 2 * * * * * * *

Sharaton-Charlottesville. Twin bustling cities separated by Lucky Man River, a northward flowing lazy waterway spanned numerous times by wide bridges before it joined the much larger Crescent River just as it turned east toward the ocean. The cities were founded in 2020 by Prince Caernach Moramorian and his two wives, Shara and Charlotte. The small homestead was transformed when the two women were declared saints by their goddess and Lawgiver, Rena. Once, far to the north, far beyond the Skyreach Mountains lived thousands of nomadic Ba'lorians – the people of dalendan Bannan Lorrie or the sacred Earth Mother. They gathered at the summons of their Lawgiver, and in a great migration lasting a year, headed south. That these same thousands arrived within days of the main house being completed was taken as part of the wisdom of their goddess. The chiefs of the Great Houses pledged their fealty to House Moramorian, marked out pastures for their herds, tilled new farms, and filled the new cities of Sharaton and Charlottesville with artisans and workers.

Within twenty years, other cities were as enthusiastically hewn from the wilderness. Ramez and Crystal Tide to the northeast within the Duchy of Atansha, Rondar and Barter Town in the Duchy of Beyjure Keen toward the center. Dragon Keep in the Principality of Brotava to the northwest. Goodfellow Keep and City of the Suns in the Duchy of Biyandi. Southeast, on the mouth of the Crescent, emptying into the Great Eastern Ocean, was Portsmouth in the Duchy of Zashandi. Tildor became a vigorous young kingdom carved out of the wilderness, and Sharaton-Charlottesville its bustling capital.

The Ba'lorians built huge temple compounds in Charlottesville, mini-cities in themselves, dedicated to the four members of the holy family. Rena, wind goddess and Lawgiver, whom they venerated most, was given a simple open-air stone-covered pavilion. Her father, Auros, master of time, had a small shrine adjacent. To Li Var Dayanna, earth goddess and Rena's mother, and also to Rena's younger brother, Osh Mayan, god of waters, fertility, and healing, they dedicated huge sprawling structures. The Laws commanded respect for the Earth Mother, and Her people obeyed. The Temple of Osh Mayan oversaw the Rites of Adulthood, provided sexual services for a nominal fee, and were known as dedicated healers of mind, body, and spirit.

As the years passed, the nation of Tildor thrived. Attracted by the wealth and vitality, Hellenic and Kemetic immigrants from the distant, western Caloren States, and Celts from the southern wilderlands trickled in for their share. A mutual defense treaty was reached with Woodhaven, their nearest neighbor and home of the sylvan elves.

For many years, caravans plied the Royal Roads, bringing the kingdom ever greater growth and prosperity. Herds and farms flourished, and after the second decade, crafts and arts and then precious metals were to be found in abundance. In the second year of the twenty-second century, the combined population of the capital totaled nearly a hundred thousand, most of whom were human.

Throughout the year, the temples of Osh Mayan provided healing and sexual services in return for donations. 'Temple-born' children resulting from these unions were legitimate, both by custom and law, each child adding to the House Rolls of their mother's clan.

Summer solstice was the biggest holiday, with ten days of festivities dedicated to the event. The foreigners in the city all had their own solstice celebrations – the Kemetics with the Bull of Abydos and festival of Osiris, the Hellenes with the festival of Demeter and the Bacchanale, and the Celts with their bonfires, their singing and dancing. The Ba'lorians honored their earth goddess for Her role as provider and as the epitome of motherhood. It was also a chance to pay homage to the male principle as the source of maternity. During summer solstice, a woman interested in childbearing did not have to go to the Son's temple. Rather, by tradition, she wore a bright blue dress and a wide red sash to display her sexual availability. Those not interested in such activities avoided wearing blue dresses during the festival or risked being accosted by males attracted by the garb.

Men who enjoyed these liaisons were on their honor to make a donation afterward to the temple. Most did, for it was considered bad luck to slight the gods. The woman always had the right to refuse coupling with anyone or under any circumstances she didn't like.

No meant no. The law was very strict on that. Rape under Ba'lorian law, unless the victim chose otherwise, carried a death sentence, and it was rare for the clanswomen, who enforced the law, to settle for less.

Ten years earlier, in an effort to reduce the incidence of rape, especially from foreigners who didn't understand the solstice customs or the law, Queen Dorothy had limited the sexual festivities to a ten-square block area in the downtown district. To reinforce the well-armed constabulary, both the army and militia supplemented the frequent patrols, and were bolstered by young priests and warrior monks from the Ba'lorian temples. The success of this change resulted in fewer assaults, and soon similar restrictions were put in place throughout the kingdom.

When she was eighteen, Anya Starshine, third daughter of Duke Thorband Starshine, underwent her Rite of Adulthood. For two weeks she learned the varieties and complexities of sex, pleasuring, and how to regulate pregnancy at the temple of Osh Mayan along with the other young Ba'lorians of her age group. Survival was the second part of the Ritual. Like many other pairs, Anya and her partner, Dalyan Dawnslight, armed and supplied only with what they could carry, went into the wilderness for the next thirty days. Anya survived. Dalyan Dawnslight, her lover, did not.

Shortly after her return and before her mourning was over, Anya petitioned to become her mother's arcane apprentice. Duchess Dianne Starshine, a high priestess of Rena as well as a master in the Northern Star Order of Magic, was surprised by the request. Nonetheless she accepted her daughter as apprentice.

The following six years of Anya's life were intensely consumed with the long hours necessary to learning magic, for the duchess was both unstinting and demanding in her role as teacher. Just before her studies were completed, however, and against the advice of her parents, Anya put on the blue dress and red sash and spent all ten of the Solstice holidays in wild celebration. Anya's daughter, named Dalyanni after her lost lover, was born nine months later. Like Anya, the child was smooth-skinned, bronzed, blonde, with large green eyes.

When her studies were completed, Anya undertook some dangerous missions for her father, Duke Thorband, ruler of Biyandi. These adventures increased her skill and understanding of magic, with the added benefit of greatly enlarging her own personal wealth.

Yet within four years she began to feel restless, feeling the need to become more independent. Anya gathered up her daughter and growing personal household and set off for the capital and the royal court, ruled by her mother's older sister, Queen Dorothy. Her parents encouraged her, insisting only that she write often and that she make regular return visits with their granddaughter.

On her mother's recommendation, Anya and her household traveled with a young half-elf recently married to three sisters, Tia, Tahna, and Mindal Landers. The handsome half-elf, Reison Whisper Wind, was terribly young and inexperienced, but he was obviously devoted to his new brides. Mindal, the youngest, a bard of great talent and rather famous, entertained them as they traveled. Tia, the oldest, was a high priestess to Rena and of church rank nearly equal to Duchess Dianne herself. Tahna, the remaining sister, was a warrior monk of great skill, known for bringing criminals to justice. Tia and Tahna were less well known to the general public, but both had reputations within the church for fixing difficult problems.

Little Dalyanni was delighted with the trip to the capital, but even more so with Reison. At camp each night, she hovered around the young half-elf, plying him with questions until her eyes could no longer stay open. Anya tried to discourage Dalyanni's attachment, but Reison treated her daughter's attentions with respect and kindness.

Halfway through their journey, the four-year-old girl boldly asked Reison to add Anya as his fourth wife so that he could become her father. Anya nearly died from embarrassment. Reison politely but firmly declined. The three sisters, for their part, reacted with great amusement, but it was a wake-up call for Anya. She realized how much a void her magical studies and adventuring had left in her little girl's life. From then on, she resolved to spend at least an hour each day of personal time with her child.

A friendship blossomed between the travelers, and to their mutual delight, the Whisper Wind newlyweds found a place within a kilometer of Anya's new manor in Sharaton-Charlottesville. Both were within a short distance of the Sandhurst College of Music, the eventual goal of Reison Whisper Wind.

As Dalyanni grew older, the daily time Anya spent with her successfully strengthened the bond between them. Despite this, however, Dalyanni's craving for a father only increased as the years passed. Within the past year, Reison informed Anya that her ten-year-old daughter was stopping by after school to visit him – still fixated on his parental possibilities.

Compounding matters for Anya, after six years of marriage, the three sisters had several happy children, and Reison openly doted on his wives and his children. When Reison adopted the daughter of their governess, Dalyanni was ecstatic. On their next visit to the Whisper Wind household some days later, Dalyanni approached Reison for the same privilege. He generously agreed, but only if Anya was willing.

For Anya, as tempting as it might have been to give her daughter the father figure she so obviously needed, the prospect was daunting. Even if Reison's full house could have added in her own household, she had no interest in being involved in a complicated marital arrangement.

Multiple marriage arrangements could work and even be happy most of the time, and the Whisper Wind household itself was just such an example. It helped, though, that the three sisters had not only grown up in such a household themselves, but that they were also truly devoted to each other. Not everyone adjusted well to sharing spouses, however, and the more partners in the relationship, the more fragile it was.

Complicating matters further, Tia Whisper Wind had become Anya's confidant and priest confessor. Tahna, while no longer a warrior monk, had since become a colleague with whom she pursued arcane research. Despite her friendships with the three sisters – she liked them immensely – Anya wasn't interested in becoming Reison's fourth wife. While she doubted they would treat her poorly, it would place her lowest in rank. More, she liked Reison well enough but was not attracted to him. And none of that even considered that Anya would one day inherit the Duchy of Biyandi and City of the Suns, its thriving capital.

She was also unwilling to accept the other alternative, for adoption would mean Dalyanni leaving her home and moving in with the Whisper Wind family. Anya found the thought of her daughter leaving unbearable, and denied the request.

Dalyanni wept for days.

While Anya fretted over what to do, Captain Jannon Fisher stepped into the troubled girl's life, spending hours at a time with Dalyanni, even personally escorting her to and from school. Anya was relieved, for it also ended Dalyanni's unauthorized after-school jaunts. Soon, the hollow eyes disappeared and her constant chattering returned.

Some weeks later, curious, Anya broached the matter with her daughter.

"I'm fine, Mother," Dalyanni answered. "I didn't like it, but you are the parent. I understand that now." Her matter-of-fact reply pleased Anya greatly. "Besides," her ten-year-old daughter continued, "I figured out how Reison Whisper Wind can still become my Dad. When I grow up, I'll marry his son, Steve."

"Dalyanni," Anya managed to choke out, "that's not a good reason to get married. Besides, it's not fair to Steve."

"Why not?"

"Well, there are many reasons to get married, but the best one is for love. But if you can't marry for love, at least marry someone who will be good to you and your children, and who will be a good provider."

"But I do like Steve. And Mr. Whisper Wind will teach Steve how to be a good Dad."

Impressed with her logic, Anya let the matter drop. Nonetheless, she later passed on the revelation to Steve's parents. It was the decent thing to do, she thought. When Dalyanni was older and if she still had plans for the Whisper Wind boy, he was going to need all the help he could get!

Events of the previous winter, however, reinforced upon Anya the fragility of life, and how children were even more delicate than they often appeared. Healers, physicians, and even the awesome power of the priests to raise the dead did not always keep people from premature death, nor did it guarantee life could be restored once lost. Even for those who could afford the enormous costs charged by the temples – children, especially those younger than their fifth year, were notoriously difficult to bring back from the dead.

The most recent winter had seen a series of hard storms blanket Sharaton-Charlottesville under several feet of snow. Within a week of the storm, an outbreak of Aurora Madness swept through several neighborhoods, including their own. Highly contagious and magical in nature, it wracked the victim with intense bone pain for as long as a month, while rainbow colors shimmered across their skin. Priests of sufficient experience could cure the disease, but for most, treatment was limited to keeping them hydrated and fed. Even so, it killed many, and sometimes those who survived were broken in mind, becoming either utterly passive or raving mad and dangerous. To keep the disease from spreading to other cities in the kingdom or to other nations, a quarantine spell from the Queen's Lord High Wizard nullified all travel magic within the city. All forms of magical gates, portals and the like simply ceased to function within a day's travel. When Dalyanni caught the Madness, Anya was unable to teleport her child to her mother in the City of the Suns for healing.

Between the disease and the almost continuous onslaught of further snowstorms, Anya became frantic waiting for physicians and priests that never arrived. By the end of the second day of illness, Dalyanni worsened, the child's cries reduced to a constant, hoarse croaking. Anya ordered the servants to bundle up her daughter for the trip to the temple. Jannon calmly reminded her that Tia Whisper Wind was capable of curing her, and that she lived a good deal closer. While Anya followed behind, her magic protecting them from the bitter, stabbing-cold winds and blinding flurries, Jannon carried Dalyanni, paving their way through streets that were chest-deep with snow.

And just that Spring, Dalyanni attended her Tenth Year training at the temple. The graduation ceremony was marred by a major earthquake that not only shook the entire city, but the entire continent as well. Thousands died in Sharaton-Charlottesville, and many more injured, including hundreds of children and their families attending temple. Once her own daughter was safe, Anya and her staff spent several days helping to rescue the trapped and injured, and then later, recovering the dead, and with clean up.

When the emergency was over and her own home repaired, Anya took Dalyanni for a short visit to her parents. The rationale was to get away from the still-fresh memories of the mangled bodies. However, as they worked in her mother's extensive gardens, the duchess discreetly asked Anya what troubled her. Anya confessed her loneliness and Dalyanni's desire for a father. Anya also wanted more children, and a husband to help raise them. Her own efforts, she admitted, had failed.