Orc Dominion: Elfin Descent Ch. 01

"Well, if you would take your nose out of your books and spend some time in the lists becoming a warrior like our King, I'm sure he'd find something suitable for you."

Trogar rose to his feet as the crowd began to clap. Except for his younger siblings and the other children, he was easily the shortest orc present. While large for a human, he couldn't match most other orcs in height or width. "Agmar doesn't look too pleased to see Grotok wearing the crown either." Trogar nodded at the massive, green skinned orc who was glowering up at the dais.

"He's not our real brother, he doesn't count. Besides, he's a green skin and everyone knows they can't be trusted."

Trogar rolled his eyes and then looked back to Agmar. The trembling human serving girl at his side gave a sharp cry as Agmar grabbed her by the hair and angrily stormed out of the hall. A pretty matron with a kind smile tried to stop him, but he brushed her aside impatiently.

"You'll have to forgive Agmar, Aunt Susannah. He's as bleak about his prospects as I am."

Dowager Duchess Susannah Welton of the Duchy of Braden hugged Trogar tightly. "I know, dear. It's hard on him being so different. Not being recognized as the son of the Queen is hard enough, but everyone can see he is different just by looking at him." An air of moroseness hung about the Dowager Duchess. Her son was all she had left, after the death of her husband, her father, and the exile of her brothers following the first Noble Rebellion during the Second Hesten War.

"With Heste finally crushed, opportunities for rank and land are going to be much harder to find. On that score, how is the young Duke?" Trogar knelt down to smile at the ten year old half-orc standing besides Susannah. The young Duke still had many human features, his orc side not having asserted itself yet.

"I am doing good cousin. Things are quiet now that Heste has finally been reunited. The people have finally accepted that they are going to live under orc rule."

"If they didn't learn that after what my father did to them after they killed your dad, they never would. Even though I was only five years old, I still remember the rage he went into when he was told that his brother had been killed."

Susannah wrapped her arm around the young Duke of Braden and hugged him close. "That is all in the past now. It is good to see you again, Trogar. Come, let us go congratulate our new King." Trogar left the great room, strolling through the halls of the castle as he pondered what to do. Three great kingdoms remained that might provide an opportunity for him to obtain rank and title. Sandora and the Elven Isles each had a princess of marriageable age, and Thesta had a ruling Queen in need of a husband, though it was assumed she would choose a Thestan noble or a Sandoran match to shore up their alliance. It wasn't likely that any of them would want an orc groom though. As bloodthirsty and aggressive as Grotok is, he didn't think his mother would allow him to go to war against Thesta and Sandora, not so soon after they supported Zentara in the war with Heste. Thanks to the orcs, the population of Zentara had exploded in the last twenty one years. With an orc on the throne of Heste, they would be able to challenge the combined might of Thesta and Sandora, though it would be a bloody, violent, and ruinous war.

That left the Elfish Isles. As slight as the elfs were, they were fierce fighters. Their rocky isles were extremely defensible, and the large ships needed to carry soldiers across the ocean would not be able to navigate the rocky shoals and waterways between each island. Zentara didn't even have enough ships to carry a force large enough, and building such a navy would be more expensive than either his brother or mother would want to pay for. No, military conquest was not the other. Some other way to capture a throne must be found.

****

The stars glittered like diamonds as she gazed out over Yemora, the crystal city. She loved the view from her balcony, the way the spires reached up to the heavens, as if daring to touch the sky. To Lyriena, it perfectly captured the spirit of the elfen people. Lyriena reached out, extending a hand over the city as if to pluck out that sense of hope before it all disappeared. Standing so high above the city, she felt like she had the power to do even that.

"My Lady?" Lyriena's handmaiden stepped out onto the balcony to stand beside her. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"There is nothing, Elenorei. There is nothing any of us can do. The humans, or rather, the orc beasts masquerading as humans have crippled us."

Elfs were master craftsmen, and the Gods had blessed them with plentiful mines containing emeralds and rubies and diamonds, as well quarries of marble and fields of silk worms. The elfs knew the secrets of the indigo dyes, and how to combine all of these into exquisite luxury items that fed the desires of the human kingdoms. Human gold and silver poured back into Deznessuian, and all profited.

"They have stopped allowing our ships into their kingdom, and they have stopped buying our gems and our silks. Our people grow poor, and if we don't convince them to resume trade, we shall be finished." Lyriena sighed softly, turning towards her handmaiden.

Elenorei looked troubled, and bit her lip in consternation. "My cousin Mariettea made dresses, My Lady, but two weeks ago she lost her position. She went to Ruar, in the Zentaran Kingdom to find work and we haven't heard from her since."

Lyriena nodded, a look of resignation on her face. "More and more elfs are emigrating to Zentara, looking for work. From what I hear, they do find jobs and positions, but it is not the honest, meaningful work they have here. They live in ghettos and slums and scrape by. But even that is better than what awaits them here. I do not have the wealth to support a whole city on charity."

"You do more than enough already, Princess! Everyone knows that you and your father the king do all you can to help out the people."

Lyriena had nothing to say to that. There was more she could do, though it wasn't a task she relished. Elenorei continued, "Why are the humans doing this, My Lady? Are they unhappy with what we've been trading them?"

Lyriena shrugged her shoulders. "I have no answer for you, my dear. They have not offered us any explanation, nor have they given any demands or solutions. They are as silent as death. Our death." Silence descended on the balcony, interrupted only by the sound of the gentle summer breeze. She realized that she needed to say something, to reassure and inspire her handmaiden. "But there is one more thing I can do. Come, I need to see my father."

Elenorei followed the Lyriena Eomowien, Princess of Deznessuian through the palace to the King's solar. Lyriena found her father sitting before a fireplace, quietly sipping wine from a crystal goblet. She watched him a moment before entering, noting how sad and defeated her seemed. His shoulders sagged beneath the weight of the poverty crushing his kingdom. She turned to Elenorei, and waved her hand to dismiss the handmaiden, leaving them alone in the room.

"Good evening, Your Highness."

Coron Eomowien, King of the Deznessuian, turned towards Lyriena, his face lighting up with joy. "Beloved daughter! Come, sit with me by the fire. Join me, for what time we have left."

Lyriena sat beside her father, looping her arm through his. "It is not as grim as all that, father. You still have many years ahead of you."

"Many years of what? Poverty, starvation, ruin...I shall be remembered as the king who began the elfen twilight, the descent of our kingdom into ignominy."

"There might be a way to prevent that, father. I had an idea." Lyriena looked at her father with trepidation, sure that he was not going to like what she had in mind.

"Yes, my dear? What is it?" The king sounded hopeful, but beneath that there was resignation in his voice.

"I thought that I might travel to Ruar, and appeal to the King of the Zentarans directly. Discover why they have cut off trade, and find the price they desire for resuming it."

"Absolutely not! Those savages are not to be trusted, and their court is no place for a maiden such as yourself." Coron rose from his chair to cup Lyriena's face, and brush her golden hair back behind her pointed ears. "Send the Sun of Deznessuian into that den of debauchery? Never! Besides, we've sent countless emissaries, and all have been turned away without audience."

The Princess blushed at the pet name. Her father, and many of her subjects called her the Sun of Deznessuian due to her golden hair, and the fact that she was the 'son' of the King, who stood to inherit the throne. This wasn't the time to be the golden child the people loved in her youth, but it was time to be her father's son. So Lyriena steeled herself and pressed on. "They will not turn me away, father. I am a Princess. They will have to treat with me. Besides, if the stories are true, father, then they will welcome an Elfen Princess to their court. But do not be alarmed, I will not let their wicked ways get to me. I am an Eomowien, I know my place, and my duty."

"I know you do, my darling, but those orcs and humans are savages. They won't ask if you want to participate, you'll be forced. They'll do things, show you things. You'll be exposed to, well, things a maiden should not be." The King sunk back into his chair under the weight of the possibilities, the thoughts haunting him.

"They wouldn't dare, father. They've just finished conquering Heste, putting Thesta and Sandora on edge. If they start abusing a Princess of Deznessuian, it will set those Kingdoms against them. If nothing else, they will not stand idly by, they cannot afford to, now that Zentara has combined their own wealth with Heste's military power."

Coron considered this, and Lyriena let him sit in silence for several moments, before speaking again. "I want to do this, father. I look out my window, and I see what is happening to our people. This is something I can do. How can I look at them, talk to them, ever hope to lead them if there was something I could do to help them, and I didn't?"

"The loss of trade, the poverty, is only the beginning of our problems my dear. Even if you manage it, our people are still dying. Every generation is less than the one before it. Once our people flourished across the Isles, and now our cities are becoming barren."

"When we bring the trade back we'll bring the people back, father. All those who left will come home again, when better jobs are available." She hated seeing her father like this, her father who had been so strong and resolute after her mother died. She had been her anchor, a pillar to keep her grounded through the grief. Now the death of their people was doing what the loss of her mother couldn't.

"It's not just the trade, Bright Sun. Our birth rates have been declining for years. You were our little miracle, our only child after decades of trying. We so wanted to give you a little brother or sister..."

Lyriena leaned in to kiss her father's cheek. "We must not despair, nor give in to things beyond our control. We can fix this dispute with the humans. The rest will have to come later. Perhaps when our people return from the continent they will be reinvigorated. I do not know, father. All I know is that I can try to fix this one thing oppressing our people.

The force of the argument impressed itself on Coron, and it really did seem to be the only way out of their predicament. He was too old now to go himself, as much as he wanted to spare his daughter the danger. "You shall be protected on every step of the journey. Captain Goriel of the Royal Guard will escort you, along with a score of his best men. You shall have all the entourage a Princess and emissary of Deznessuian deserves, and will display to them all the wealth and luxury they are denying themselves."

Lyriena smiled sadly at her father. "Thank you. Do not worry, father, I will find out why they are doing this, and convince them to stop. Trade will resume and prosperity will return to our people, I swear it!" With the blessing of her royal father, Lyriena now needed to tell her betrothed that she was going to Zentara to treat with the humans.

****

As Lyriena and her honor guard walked through the city, it appeared much less glamorous than it did from her balcony. While the tips of the spires may have kissed the sky and caught the light of the sun and moon, here at the bottom they were base and dirty. The streets smelled of garbage, blood, desperation, and fear. As employment fell, more and more elfs turned to the vices of alcohol, gambling, and loose women. Though it was a short walk from Lyriena's palace to the apartments her fiancé owned in the city, evidence of the growing dissolution of her people was everywhere.

Duke Datoran Stohlnoth was about Lyriena's age, which was young to be the duke of such a powerful family. The Stohlnoths were the second most powerful family in the Isles, and it was hoped that by joining Lyriena and Datoran that they could centralize enough power to allow the elfs to better handle Zentara, and to firm up the prosperity of the islands.

Her people needed all the prosperity she could bring them. The only ones who seemed to be making any money were the tavern keepers, who kept the elfs besotted with wine to help them forget their troubles. Many gambled as well, hoping to win big and reverse their fortunes. Even women weren't spared, she realized, as a drunk young elfen woman stumbled out of a bar. The woman wasn't even wearing a veil! Was it any wonder that lewdness ran the streets when women wouldn't even keep the most basic of proprieties? The elf woman quickly fell into the arms of a young man and the pair set off down the road together, their hands already running all over each other.

Lyriena, Elenorei, and her two guards turned down a side street to avoid the licentiousness of the main boulevard. The side street wasn't much better, however, and here the princess stood out even more. Her long, silk purple dress set her apart, and the diamonds she wore around her neck, finger, and atop her head seemed to draw in the moonlight and capture the attention of the drunks stumbling through the streets.

"Oy but there's a fine piece of ass! Coming to troll down here in the slums?"

"Seems like even the quality ain't above coming down in the muck."

"Fallen on hard times my lady? I got something here to cheer you up!"

Lyriena blushed beneath her veil, grateful for the custom that now hid how mortified she was. She had to place her hand on her guards' arms to hold them back from punishing the louts. This wasn't the time or place to start a fight. Her party continued on their way, but the sounds of grunting and moaning coming from a nearby alley made her pause. Even though they had tried to avoid the major road with the gaming halls, taverns and brothels, they still managed to find lewd and depraved behavior. Lyriena stopped at the entrance to the alley, intent on scolding the couple for their public display. Her dressing down stalled in her throat as she saw the slender figure of an elfen man pressing up against a woman from behind. Her dress had been pulled off her shoulders, leaving her small breasts partially exposed as they rubbed up against the side of the building.

Lyriena watched the pair, entranced by their coupling. The elfen princess was still a maid, and curious about the ways of men and women. Hearing the tales of wickedness in the city had inflamed her imagination, and now she was seeing for herself what they were all about. The man was thrusting vigorously into the woman, slapping their hips sharply together in a way that looked quite uncomfortable. Nonetheless, the woman's moans told Lyriena that she was quite enjoying the treatment.

A shiver ran down the Princess' spine as her nipples hardened and rubbed against the silk fabric of her dress. She ran her hands over the small mounds, wondering if they were bigger than the woman in the alley, and what they would feel like after getting pushed up against the side of the wall like that.

"Your Highness..."

She glanced down to where their bodies were becoming one, but with the poor lighting of the alleyway she couldn't see the man's member. She knew in theory how the coupling worked, but she hadn't seen a man's shaft before. Warmth spread between her legs as she imagined what it must feel like to have something pushing inside of her. As the woman's cries grew louder, Lyriena thought that it must feel very pleasant indeed.

"Your Highness..."

It was a strange thing to be watching so intimate and personal an act. Even though it was being performed here in public, she felt like she was peering into the private lives of her subjects. It was as if by seeing them at their most intimate, she was seeing their souls and completely knowing them, inside and out. It made her feel powerful; a different sort of power than when she looked out over the city from her balcony. Now she was down among them, invading their lives and not ruling over them from above.

"Your Higness..."

She wondered what Datoran's member was like. Would it make her squeal the way the woman in the alley did? Was he an energetic lover? She tried to picture him taking her there in the alley, but she couldn't. Her fiancé wasn't like that; he was a gentlemen. He would make love to her on their wedding night, on a soft bed surrounded by candles. They would explore each other's bodies for the first time, and learn the secrets of passion and love together. Lyriena pressed her thighs together, quivering at the thought of them together for the first time. But, she was going into the unknown. What if the beasts in Zentara manhandled her? What if they robbed Datoran of the opportunity to explore their passion together for the first time? Her wedding wasn't schedule for another year, after all.

"Princess..."

The slapping and moaning from the alley got louder. Is he going to spill himself inside her? What if she gets pregnant? Are they even married? Lyriena watched with wide eyes as the elf's hips became a blur of motion, pumping into the woman faster and harder. She was torn on where to look; should she watch the place where their bodies united, or watch the way the woman's breasts bounced and smacked against the wall? Or maybe she should watch their faces twist in pleasure, watch their mouths press together as they kiss? Oh why can't I watch them all at once?

The woman began to shudder violently and press herself back tightly into the man. He cried out and pulled her hips tightly, holding himself deep inside her as he released. Lyriena bit her lower lip, her heart racing as she watched them spasm in joy.

"Princess Lyriena!"

The Princess jumped and spun around, mortified to see Elenorei and her guards looking right at her. I can't believe they saw me peeping!

"Your Highness, we should go, this really isn't appropriate for a maiden of high birth. We should get to Duke Stohlnoth's house as quickly as possible."

"Of course, you're right of course. Come, let's be off. We shouldn't spend another minute among these...degenerates."

****

Duke Stohlnoth's Manse rose twice as high above the neighboring buildings, with thick crystal columns that supported gold plated arches that streaked across the night sky like shooting stars. A strong wall of crystal bars surrounded his property, and the spires were capped with torches that held the darkness at bay. As she approached the front gate, Lyriena saw a pair of peacocks strolling over the grass, and further on a bird with ridiculously long legs and vibrant plumage drank from a marble fountain.

Her fiancé had placed two guards in front of his manor, and they bowed low when they recognized her. "Good evening Your Highness. His Grace will meet you in the foyer. It is an honor to have you among us this evening."