The Contest Ch. 16

Winter was peeking out from behind the blanket of autumn. The soil was cold and stern. The air was like ice. That didn't matter much for Rellenora. There was always a lit brazier for her. Not only that, in private moments, there were often two men cuddling with her.

Those men were very, very useful in making her feel much more comfortable.

There were certainly changes in her body. She was so much more tired than usual. She needed a chamber pot almost twice as normal. Almost every morning had a bit of vomit. Piled on top of all that, she had moments of unnecessary crabbiness and stupid yearnings for foods she hadn't particularly liked before. Oana Nidi had basically confirmed it. The Empress was pregnant. Her husband would soon have an heir, and his legacy would hopefully be secure.

On a chilly evening, Rellenora sat down on a large rug of silky fur. All she had on was a large, silk robe that belonged to Antonai. The loose, drooping sleeves kept her fingers cozy. There were several braziers in the room and a few lit candles, putting orange and yellow glows in the air. Behind the Empress, Antonai took a spot, his legs bent. His hand slid under the robe, warming her belly. There was only a slight curve there.

Yban knelt to one side, opening a box of treats. Then, he held one of the treats up to Rellenora's mouth, saying something with a light and questioning tone. As Rellenora chewed on the fruity, doughy thing, she soon understood that Yban had asked her, "What do you think of this?"

Rellenora made an approving little hum and clapped her hands.

A few taps on a door.

Antonai called out. The breath in his chest had Rellenora flinching.

The muffled voice of a servant outside the room.

Antonai left her. With a treat hanging from her teeth, Rellenora turned her head to watch him push his arms into a robe. He tied a thin cord around his waist and padded over to the door. Ignoring Yban's solemn voice, Rellenora got to her feet. When she saw her husband leave the room, she rushed over to that door and looked down a hallway.

Wait. The servant had said, "Your Majesty, that Majustan is here."

Antonai was following that servant down the hall and to another door. Rellenora felt Yban tap her shoulder.

Feeling a little bold, which made sense considering her status, Rellenora retreated into the room. She forced her treat down her throat, closed the door, turned around, and asked Yban, "Who?"

His hands waved before himself. Then he tried to beckon her to the fur rug.

Rellenora shook her head, her curls nearly floating around herself. Pointing to the door, she said with a louder voice, "Majustan, who?"

Yban bent his fingers and walked over to a table, where Rellenora's slate waited. Rellenora looked over his shoulder as he wrote on it. "It's not my right to tell you, but I think your husband should have told you long ago. I'll ask him to do so later."

***

Quite some years ago, there was a Baron named Vonatello Greia Varesqu.

There were two problems drilling into his brain.

One, he thought that his wife had been having an affair, which meant that his son might not truly be his son.

Two, he wanted the empire.

When the Baron heard of a sneaky Majustan lurking around his estate, always able to avoid capture, he knew that the rumors must be true. There was a Majustan sorcerer about, and he was secretly making contracts with the estate's inhabitants. It made sense. None of the lower servants admitted that they had seen the man, and those lower servants seemed unusually happy, too happy for the Baron's tastes.

Vonatello took it upon himself to carefully patrol the hallways during the night. His efforts were not in vain. He saw an unnatural shadow creak and bend out from behind a bookcase, like a cockroach or a mouse. Then it grew into the size of a tall man. Finally, the blackness faded away and left a white Majustan man behind.

His hand flew out and gripped the Majustan's tail.

"Make a contract with me!!"

He did.

He went into the Baron's bedchamber, put a few lamps and writing materials on a table, and then he introduced himself as, "Wutao."

And, similar to how a lawyer might do, the Majustan started negotiating.

They came to an agreement perhaps an hour later, and Wutao wrote down the details on a long bit of paper. When it was finished, both parties read the contract aloud. Then, instead of signing their names, each man pricked a fingertip and put a bloody print down on the paper. With a dominating, cocky tone, Wutao said aloud, "Between us, the one that breaks this contract will immediately die."

As if it was filled with stars, dots of light glowed from the paper for a moment. Then the paper disappeared into nothing.

These were the terms of the contract.

Wutao said that he could gather a large troop of Majustan soldiers that wanted to immigrate to Zenthia. Vonatello would use this troop to take over the Zenthian empire. Once that was finished, he would have all the soldiers legally recognized as Zenthian citizens.

As for the son, a unique idea was put into motion. If Antonai Varesqu was not the natural son of the Baron, nothing would happen to him. If he was, then a mark would be placed on him and his future descendants, more than a mark, actually. His whole body would change into a Majustan's body. It would happen overnight, while the young man slept. He'd be horribly confused when he woke up, but there was no help for that.

Wutao said he pitied the Baroness. So, in the contract, another rule was put into place. If Antonai Varesqu was the natural son of the Baron, then the Baron would not be allowed to divorce his wife, and he certainly wouldn't be allowed to kill her or even have someone else kill her. She would be his wife until he died.

But after the contract was made, Wutao laughed in the evilest way, and he slammed his hand onto the table. He told the Baron, "You're such an idiot! That boy came from your seed, but your wife has been taking another into her bed! It's me! I've been cuckolding you! My name is not Wutao! I am Weiheng Yu, King of Majusta!"

The sorcerer then slipped back into the shadows, leaving the Baron alone with the result of his choices.

***

On the following morning, Rellenora received a scroll from her husband. It contained all the basic information concerning the King of Majusta, Emperor Vonatello, and Antonai's physical appearance. He also wrote that the Majustan man who was always wanting to see him was that King Weiheng Yu. He was still the lover of the Empress Dowager, and he was oddly fond of her son.

"He wants me to recognize him as a father," he had written, "but I refuse. He is not my father. Were he not a sorcerer king of a great nation, and were it not for my mother's affection, I'd have had him whipped for trespassing here."

It was certainly an odd origin story.

Rellenora didn't know how to describe her feelings on the subject. She did wonder, though, what it was like to wake up with an extra appendage you didn't know how to control and horns on your head. What was it like to wake up with a different skin tone and dark fingernails. What was it like to wake up looking like the man who had been having an affair with your mother.

He probably destroyed everything in his bedroom.

She also wondered why the Empress Dowager was still letting that king into her bedroom and body. Was she really in love? Did Majusta have a queen? That would explain why she didn't marry the man. How often did the king come to visit? Didn't he have things to do in his kingdom? Where did he find the free time? He seemed to know some kind of magic. How did that magic work?

Hmmmm ... King Weiheng Yu could have simply put a magic tattoo on Antonai's knee or something. Why change his entire body? That seemed unnecessarily cruel.

Rellenora wondered if she should go to the Empress Dowager to have a chat.

No ... that would be troublesome.

Besides, Rellenora had never visited the Empress Dowager's Ruby Palace before, and the Empress Dowager had never visited the White Jade Palace. The two women were barely acquaintances. It was almost funny.

Did King Weiheng have any children of his own? He must have wanted heirs for his own throne. If he did have any offspring, they would be adults, wouldn't they?

Well ... maybe one day King Weiheng would leave the Emperor alone.

***

The Royal Adviser, Prince Yban, visited the White Jade Palace on an afternoon thick with gently wafting snow. Chohni peeked through a window as he approached the building. His breath eased out of his mouth in an eerie manner. His gloved hands held his fur-lined cloak tight over his tall form.

The Empress was busy washing ink off her hands, and so, Chohni and all the ladies-in-waiting, hers and the Empress', received the guest in a large room. Soon, though, the Empress entered with her companion, and she played a card game with Prince Yban while everyone else watched. When that game was finished, the Empress, her companion, the Prince, and Chohni all watched the ladies-in-waiting engage in a casual rock-paper-scissors tournament.

At one point, Prince Yban bowed to the Empress and said, "Your Majesty, your honorable husband has given me a strange gift. It's a lovely gemstone that seems to shine brighter in dim rooms instead of sunshine. Would you please humor me in your dimmest room?"

The Empress' buck teeth seemed to stick out even more as she smiled and got to her feet. When Mrs. Donner tried to follow her mistress, the Empress' head moved from right to left, and she held up one of her hands. She said, "Stay."

Chohni was reminded of how one would speak to a pet dog.

Prince Yban kept a few steps behind the Empress as he quit the area with her, leaving his cloak behind.

Some time went on. Chohni remained with Mrs. Donner, watching the other women play silly games. Eventually, though, Chohni wondered what in the world was taking those two people so long. She looked at the man's cloak. It was draped over a chair like a sleeping animal. She pulled the cloak up and told Mrs. Donner that she was going to return it to its owner, since it was likely that he would be returning soon.

Her hair gleaming, her robes sliding against the polished floor, Chohni asked which room the Empress had disappeared into. Then, she quietly walked on to that room.

Her head tilted to one side. Her brown eyes blinked very slowly.

The door was barely, just barely ajar.

And there was a moan, a hiss, and a wet slurp.

One cloak covered hand lightly nudged the door.

"Ah fuck!! Relle!!" Prince Yban's voice?

From the side, Chohni saw the Empress' lips around the thick erection of the Prince, the Emperor's friend, adviser, and lover.

With this image printed onto her eyes, Chohni quietly walked back to the room that the ladies-in-waiting were playing in. She told Mrs. Donner that the Prince was still busy, and she didn't want to bother him.

Prince Yban and the Empress returned to the group after a time. They started a game that involved dice, tokens, and spinning tops. When the dinner hour was nigh, the Emperor visited the White Jade Palace, and he gave his wife a quick hug.

As Chohni sipped at a cup of hot cider, she thought to herself, "I could find a moment alone with the Emperor and tell him what I saw."

But ...

She didn't.

Instead, she decided to ask the Empress for permission to leave Zenthia and return to her homeland.

Her family did express the expected disappointment and even anger with her when she was kneeling before them in Ribenji, but nothing could be done with that. Chohni simply went back to her normal life, wearing her normal yet elegant clothing. Everyone asked for details about her stay in Zenthia, and she gave those details kindly. Chohni would also ask about the affairs in Ribenji.

Nothing too fascinating had happened during her absence, but she did find something a little bit interesting.

A mysterious pirate ship had been seen. Normally, it wouldn't be of much note, but people in several countries were claiming to have seen the ship at roughly the same time. Most reasonable people assumed that they were merely different ships that looked similar.

All of the sightings included a single detail. The large nautical figurehead on the ship was of a Majustan woman, nude and with long hair that formed seemingly impossible spirals, and painted a gleaming white.

The ship was called the Cloud Maiden.

***

A wonderful mixture of tastes and aromas, sweat and skin, hair and perfume, womanly musk.

On this pleasant day, Rellenora was fully available to him, her back on the Emperor's alcove bed, her knees on the edge, her soft feet dangling.

Her belly was like a hill.

The air was so warm. It was spring again, and the good weather did benevolent favors for her complexion. Yban loved how her flesh met his taste buds. He was kneeling down so he could claim one a foot. One of her smaller toes was put between his lips. Giggling! The pretty little woman was giggling, and her foot jerked in his hand. How charming!

He licked at the little digit. Fire hit his balls. Hot and tingling. Then he popped the toe out and kissed it.

She was still giggling! Yban looked up. That belly of hers was trembling.

A very good girl.

The foot was let go. Yban's fingers ran up Rellenora's calves. He kissed her knee, then her thigh, then inwards, right to the mons, right to the blonde pubic hair.

"Ah! Ahhh!" Her breath was hopeful.

Best not to disappoint her. She was a gentle little Empress. Why shouldn't she receive her respects?

One of the most gratifying ways to have a woman bloom was to use the lips and tongue. Yban kissed and lapped at her, tasting the strong heat.

The mattress squeaked with her movements. "Ohhhhhhhhh ... please!!"

He tried not to grin.

His tongue stretched as far as it could into the slick channel between the labia. He loved the almost despairing yips and cries the little woman made. He dragged his tongue out and went for the already protruding clitoris.

After a few more fast licks, she came so hard that her belly quivered and her voice gave out. He adored the way her muscles spasmed against his face.

Hmmm ... Antonai said he would be here soon. What was taking him so long?

But, as if his thoughts were a calling bell, the door opened and closed. He heard Antonai's voice, "Ah, I hope to be forgiven."

A hand on her abdomen, Rellenora put herself into a sitting position. The bliss was fading away from her eyes. Her lower lip was sticking out. She pointed her index finger at Antonai and whined out, "Late! Laaaaaaaate!"

Happy little lines around his eyes, smiling, Antonai waved his hand back and forth as he walked towards the bed. "I'm sorry, Dearheart. I've been very preoccupied."

Just then, right after Antonai finished speaking, there was a knock on the door. Antonai's tail stiffened. His smile turned to an excruciating, awkward expression. A servant spoke from outside the room. "Your Majesty, the Majustan man is here, and he's asking to see you."

As Antonai apologized and left, Yban noticed that Rellenora's face was becoming more and more childish. Her eyes seemed to grow larger. Her mouth pouted. Her nose trembled and sniffed.

Yban couldn't find a fault with her, though.

***

A scroll was sent to the Empress Dowager. It was from the quiet Empress.

"To my honorable mother in law. If it wouldn't be bothersome to you, would you please tell your lover to let my husband be? I know that our kind Emperor doesn't want to be taken away from his duties, and my happiness is one of his most important duties. Perhaps if your lover was the Emperor's father, then I'd be more understanding. However, he is not the Emperor's father. He is an interloper."

"Please don't take offense. I believe we should be grateful to him. If he hadn't arranged his contract with your late husband, then none of us would be in our privileged positions. Still, he has been riling up the Emperor and decreasing his time for me. If this problem continues, then the empire will suffer. A happy emperor with a happy family leads to a happy empire, correct?"

***

On a warm night, the Emperor was still in his office, looking over very complicated paperwork.

And near him, a shadow took form, a shadow that rose and stretched out into a man.

Antonai put his ink brush down and looked at the man with a twitching eyebrow.

When King Weiheng stood before him, there were bruise-like circles under his eyes and his shoulders were drooping.

He didn't even say hello.

All he said was, "You're not my son. I know. I'm sorry."

Antonai's eyes softened. His jaw slacked down.

He had never expected the man to say such a thing to him.

"Still ... if you find that you need something, and I can give it to you ... then don't delay. Ask anything of me."

Antonai's hand rose, the palm facing the king. "That's enough. Go and comfort your lover."

King Weiheng left as silently as he had arrived, but he left behind something. It was a little hanging charm, a silk cord with a wooden pendant shaped like a smiling Majustan infant. Antonai knew it was meant to be a present. The charm represented the hope for a healthy and happy baby.

Antonai chose to let the charm hang from one of the windows of his palace, as a recipient of that charm was meant to do. Then he finished up his paperwork. It didn't matter to him that it was unhealthy to read and write under candlelight. He wanted the work done as soon as possible.

Finally, there was none left. He was free. He applied a bit of perfume and went off to the White Jade Palace.

Rellenora was in her bedchamber, holding up different pieces of jewelry and other shiny things close to firelight, watching the precious materials glow and shimmer. There was a large tray near her, bearing seemingly countless pretty things for her to pick up or discard. Antonai thought that once she gave birth, he would give her a new thing to admire.

***

The Empress gave birth to the Emperor's first child in the first month of summer.

It was a little snow white boy with a jerking tail it didn't know how to control. Little dots were on his brow. They would one day grow into curved horns. He was so tiny and so soft that Rellenora couldn't help herself. Even though she was exhausted, when she first held the child in her arms, she rubbed her thumb against his fingers, his palms, his feet and toes, and his fuzzy bit of dark hair.

Whenever she wanted to look at anything on his face, she had to let her hand hover above his head to she could concentrate on one single part at a time. The other women in the palace gossiped about how she refused to even look at all of her son's face, but Rellenora didn't think it mattered.

What truly mattered was one tragic fact.

She couldn't breastfeed him.

It seemed that no matter what she tried, her body wouldn't produce any breast milk. The Royal Physician assured her that for some women this happened and often for no clear reason.

A wet nurse had been hired in advance, just in case. So, whenever the poor little lad was hungry, Rellenora would hand him off to a plump little woman with pink cheeks.

Rellenora's own cheeks were pink, but from the heat of jealousy. But, she knew that this wasn't the wet nurse's fault. This was simply how life was. It was better for the little prince to get all the milk possible.

The child was named, His Royal Highness, Prince Ermen Geromalo Varesqu. The Emperor loved to show him off. Everyone from Prince Yban, to the Empress Dowager, several higher up servants, and even the now humbled King Weiheng got a chance to hold the baby. The lower servants were often too afraid of accidentally dropping the baby. They tended to politely refuse their Emperor's offer.