Chapter 122: Southern Venture (1)

Jeff stared at the ceiling of the harbormaster's office with aimless brown eyes. His chair in front of the desk felt particularly icy after his morning of waking to the warmth of a woman. A special heat that no fire could replicate. The grey shirt that matched his hair and black pants had some of that warmth, but their texture couldn't compete with last night's living furniture. That feeling clashed with the cold waves and barely lit morning sky in the windows ahead.

The trek up here had been at the summons of Pache last night. He had been expecting another mission out on the winter sea, not the pull into a small bedroom and a night of pleasurable attacks. There the lightning caster sat, washed and ready for a new day, exhausted yet feeling more energetic than he had in months.

A door closed behind him.

Steps reverberated over the wood floor with soft plops. The harbor office was closed in celebration of the new governor and an unofficial send-off for the pirates that had brought the region so much misery. When the brown dress-covered chest of Pache enveloped the back of his head, Jeff looked up and saw the tan woman who had robbed him of sleep. Some words were on her mouth but he felt there was a better use for those thick pink lips.

"Hm?!" The harbormaster exclaimed through her taken mouth, widening her green eyes.

That sweetness stayed for only a second before Jeff withdrew.

"Was that unwanted?" He asked.

The answer came in the form of Pache clinging closer to him before slipping her hands down his shirt to rub his pecks. He enjoyed the feeling but it was slightly undone by the rest of her demeanor. There was tension in her green eyes and that slightly crooked nose flared with heavy breathing.

"Did my performance last night leave anything unsatisfied?" He asked, baring the worst male fears imaginable to her.

"What?" She asked with a raise of her thick black eyebrows.

"You seem…. Discontent."

"Pff!"

She rounded out the huff with a slap on his shoulder. The follow-up motion was her coming around the chair and laying in his lap. His night's conquest sat horizontally over his thighs with her legs going over the edge of the chair while her top was pulled into his. Behind her were the windows overlooking the harbor below but she was what remained of the world in Jeff's gaze.

"Did you mean what you said last night?" Pache asked, clearly trying to keep a passive face. And failing.

"When I kept calling you beautiful?" Jeff responded with a smile at the memory. A moment of glee came to him as he relished inflicting his compliments on the poor woman.

"These ears are so cute with how they stick out of your midnight hair."

She got some red on her cheeks but he wasn't finished.

"Those cheeks are so soft, these lips…. Need a kiss."

Pache wasn't caught off guard this time and met him halfway. They enjoyed each other for a second before she pulled away to rest her temple on his shoulder. No words followed as her midnight locks covered his vision. Jeff said nothing as she lay there producing no sound save the faint shift of cloth with her breathing, adding to her scent that was already on him. When she pulled back, those green eyes had a look of pain though her jaw was set in determination.

"Harold. Would you like to be with me? Not as a husband or sire of children but maybe a lover?"

His hands pulled her closer using her back and bum as handles.

"Could we be…. A bit more? If another man comes sniffing about, I would like the moral clearance to kick him."

"Hah!" Pache's choked snort came out as she looked at him in disbelief. Her jade pools were doubting for a moment before she pulled back and laughed. It was a pure, unrestrained thing that shook her whole body.

"I think my husband will be most perplexed at the new rules, but I suspect he will be just fine with-"

Jeff's upper lip curled and his nose flared, stopping her words dead. A heat came up his neck at the deception. Well, it wasn't a lie if it was never brought up. Still, having his heart played with by a woman already taken dropped a black ball of rage in his stomach.

"I thought you wanted to be together?" He demanded with a note of pain in his voice.

"We can be." She responded, her eyes scouring for where this anger was coming from.

He scoffed in disbelief, scrunching his grey eyebrows together.

"I can't be taking another man's wife out to dinner. Will I be the one accompanying you to the festivals? No. It's…. I will not slink in the shadows like a rat to be with my woman."

He had more than enough of that crap in his last relationship and this time…. She had a husband. Probably a mage husband considering her status as a caster. Such a man would almost certainly object to last night's activities.

"Do I need to worry about him coming for my head?" Jeff demanded with a pucker of his lips.

"Worry?" Pache replied with breathless disbelief.

The delicious thick pink lips trembled. Unshed tears filled those green pools but the flaring of her crooked nose didn't dislodge them onto her smooth cheeks.

"He has no right to complain about my activities. What could he possibly care for a woman he has never touched?"

Jeff drew his head back with furrowed eyebrows.

"It's…. unconsummated?" He asked with skepticism.

"He had me the night of…. But never since then. Word spreads, as it always does. I was considered decent or at the very least passable before our vows. Now everyone thinks I must be some cross of a Beastman and troll before laying so much as an eye on me."

A few tears finally streaked across the tan skin. The raw pain and anguish in her voice lanced through his heart like cold steel yet no balm could be made for either of them. The lightning caster was familiar enough with such things in his dalliance with Annie, who often fussed at length about some failing of her looks or age or any other number of stupid things that women worried about to obstruct how wonderful they were.

Worries about encroaching on another man's marriage faded to nothing. If he was letting his wife's self-esteem get this low, then he had no right to complain when another did the needed emotional labor or performed the physical release. Even if the lack of intimacy was likely exaggerated.

"You saw me last night. Was that a man dealing with something hideous or an arduous labor to just get through the painful task?"

Jeff emphasized the point by pulling her up. His grey hair flowed over her brown dress as he pressed his face between those pillows of joy. Pache snorted but the tears stopped with her rueful smile.

"Quite bold to be so forward with a woman." She chided even as her soft hands scoured through those pearly locks.

"A beautiful woman demands boldness." He flatly refuted as he pulled her further up. Despite being her junior, his bulk still allowed him to lift her with his rise from the seat. There was an uncertain step, but the lightning mage made the needed walk forward. The harbormaster squealed like a giddy girl.

"Ah! Harold!"

Jeff placed her on the desk. His brown eyes flared in anticipation of replaying last night's exercise.

"Harold….Wait." Pache mumbled even as her legs opened to receive him and her chest heaved like she was the one who just lifted another person.

She lay there with Jeff's hands still firmly on her thighs, no words or movement besides the turning gears in the harbormaster's green eyes. Some conclusion came and she rose from the desk even as her butt rested on its corner.

"You do want to be with me?"

"Yes," He answered like he was biting off the word from his tongue for daring to come out so slowly.

Long prose and flowing poetry were a favored pastime in romance, but the lightning mage's frontal cortex was partially turned off as his base instincts were screaming for what her body promised. The harbor master looked at Jeff with a pensive face, her breathing steady as she seemed to weigh something.

"You might benefit from our relationship, yet. There is a venture in my lands that could use your element and prove a source of long-term benefits. We can do some business and some personal around well-disguised meetings. But what of your brother here?" She asked with a puckered lips.

"Our bed would get mighty crowded. My brother might be clo- UGH!"

A fist in the ribs left him breathless.

"That's not what I meant," Pache growled. Those thick lips puckered with a scowl and a suppressed smile. "What about your investment in the Kisspin harvest?"

"My brother can handle it." He replied with a gulp of air.

The harbormaster raised an eyebrow as she leaned against his shoulder.

"And the magical resources you two acquired? Family is important but enormous riches have overcome such ties before. You might come visiting back north to find him and those treasures lost on the wind."

It was a tricky thing, having to accommodate two different people in a single person's head. Such an attempt would only elicit pity from Jeff, as the unfathomable brutality of a thousands of years old quad scion would fall directly on his beloved brother's head. Eli was a good person, by the lightning mage's estimation, but good and 'horrifically cruel beyond words to people who threatened loved ones' could apparently exist in the same body. Something he couldn't explain to her.

"We've both had opportunities to leave the other behind with a hefty payload and didn't. This time will be no different."

The confidence in his voice soothed her. Now it was his turn to ply worry and objections.

"What about the husband? Will he have no concern for having his line supplanted? I assume I can't be around his house even if-"

"He's not around." Pache cut in with a shake of her head, the first shafts of gold light now peaking over the sea to shine on her bowl of black hair.

Jeff blinked. Those brown eyes looked down in confusion even with his hands content on her thighs.

"As in not alive?"

"NO!" Pache couldn't keep her laugh down as she shoved Jeff with a teasing scowl. Her mirth continued for a second before coughing into a free hand. "He's up north."

The harbormaster bit her lip for a moment before resolving herself to the path forward.

"There will be a lot of benefits to being with a queen."

"A…. queen?" Jeff asked like the word was unknown gibberish.

Pache's chin came forward and those green pools got some worry around the sides.

"My husband is King Jeremy. I came to oversee the rebuilding of the northern fleet and secure what could be a vital route for smuggling from the Coalition."

"What?" Jeff asked with a numb feeling barely letting the word out.

"What do you mean, what?" Pache replied with a raised eyebrow and a quivering chin.

Jeff felt unsteady as his eyes went back over last night's conquest. Verness. A queen of great ugliness, infamous for being so brutal on the eyes that King Jeremy refused to bed her. He had remembered the occasional gossip with his brother and the staff. More than one discussion was had about what mismatch of facial symmetry and figure could make the leader of a nation, and a scion, forgo his duty to spread his line through his queen.

A void of silence filled his mind, driving back the winter chill from the few spots in his mind still registering the outside world. Then his eyes intruded with a few tears welling up in Pache's eyes.

"Can you stand to be with the eyesore of the royal family?"

The lightning mage took a deep breath. Well, the outside world could wait. A woman crying was a civilization-ending disaster and he was the only one who could right this wrong. He dipped down with a small smile, taking the upper hem of her dress.

"My eyes have seen a lot, and what was below this was anything but painful. That back scratch at our first kiss was if the gossip mongers are interested in that bit of lore." He said in what felt like a very smooth tone before planting a kiss on her lower jaw.

"This was a rather…. impulsive meeting," Pache admitted before pushing herself off the desk with her night's paramour. "I have another meeting I need to get to that is more planned out. Involving a big announcement coming later. You're free to stay, of course, but it's going to get rather crowded in the next few hours. I've got my family to attend to, however."

Those thick lips did one last tussle with Jeff's before the queen had to vacate her office. The lightning mage stared at the brown dress of her backside as she went through the door for only a moment before he turned back to stare out the window and the endless expanse of waves interspersed with the mast of a large ship.

'Shit.' Jeff yelled in his mind.

The thought that he might have just blown up the big plan hit with the force of a lightning bolt now that soft flesh was no longer beneath his palms. Getting up, he approached the left side of the windows to grip the window pane with white knuckles. No answer to the predicament his loins had put him in presented itself over the field of salty sea spray.

More than anything, the feeling that came through was…. Indignation. Yes, he put the entire plan in peril for his dick, but the entire thing was based on Eli not being able to keep his love in check for a goat woman and an Orc. What right did the quad mage have to be furious at his indiscretion? Several minutes passed where the lightning caster went over what stinging rebuke, what powerful refutation of such appalling hypocrisy he would deliver to the coming storm. Time that was conspicuously spent not figuring out how to remedy the situation.

How this counter would be delivered was very much in question until there was a knock at the door.

"Harold." The unexpectedly masculine voice of Quinton came through. "That plant mage that saved everyone is here insisting on waiting for Pache in her office."

"I don't mind waiting for her return with him," Jeff replied with a good attempt to keep his trepidation out of it.

"Are you okay?" The oak door asked with the voice of the guard.

"Just pondering some of the big changes coming. It's fine." Jeff said with some irritation at his failure to hide fear.

The second attempt was successful despite the aggrieved emotions welling up, with the footsteps of the guard being heard in retreat. A few minutes later, the most important man in existence came through. His grey hair had some moisture from a fresh bath, at least the bits that showed beneath the green hood of his robe. Those equally jade eyes took him in for a second before Eli gave a polite nod. Shutting the door behind him, the quad mage rubbed his pronounced chin before walking to the right side of the windows.

They may have stood on opposite sides of the room, but the spirit connection Jeff sent out was met halfway by Eli's.

'Pache is queen Verness.' The lightning mage blurted out first.

'Damn.' Eli huffed without the expected bite of surprise.

A silent moment passed as Jeff pondered the reaction.

'You already knew?' He asked with a bit lip even as his eyes kept on the window.

'She showed up when I was getting handed the deed to my private city, free of all laws and taxes.'

Those brown eyes went wide as Jeff scoured the waves and tried not to look to his right.

'So you're like a small kingdom in your own right?'

'I am a whip being applied to the backside of the associations that decided endangering the princess was a good idea. Nestel was clear I can't do anything I want, but the shackles of the agreements they have with the mages will stay off my hands. My wrists, however, seem to cry out for bindings and a new pair has been found for me. Did you hear who the new mayor is?'

A quick mental perusing of the local gossip came back empty.

'No. Just that someone is taking over for Palta…. You met Rodring's widow?' Jeff asked with anticipation of hearing of that legendary woman.

'Well, I won't spoil the surprise then. As for Nestel, she isn't the queen we need to discuss.'

There the caster stood, waiting for some verbal battering or tsunami of anger to come through the spirit connection. A second passed. Then several. After hearing nothing but his own nervousness, Eli finally came for him.

'Does she know you know?' The calm question came.

'Yeah. She just told me a bit ago. I'd say you might have come earlier but that warning would have had to come before last night.'

Jeff stole a peek to see the quad mage staring out of the window. He was still save for the tilt of his green-robed head.

'You've done the deed, then.' Eli stated with no particular emotion.

White knuckles accompanied Jeff's bracing for the coming bruising even as he presented his excuse.

'Look, I know I messed up. Only me, her guards, and Verness know of our rendezvous. That and some venture down south she wants me to participate in.'

Jeff tensed like he was preparing for a physical blow, biting his tongue and staring into the churning sea with even greater focus. The prepared verbal spears ready to deliver the devastating countercharge.

'If you told Verness that you weren't interested in continuing the relationship, could you deliver the line with enough conviction to make the decision seem genuine?'

A churning stomach stirred in the lightning caster, the answer coming immediately though it still took a moment before he decided to offer it.

'No.'

'It's one of those weeks then.' The tired words came through in resignation. 'We'll have to make the best we can of it. Try to ask her about developing situations and use Andrew staying behind to inquire about Crasden. We can't pull a miracle mage out of thin air to fix everything again, so getting ahead of any issues that might affect this region will be extremely beneficial. Too dangerous to make the trade, in my opinion, but we can't pull out now.'

'Are you sure?' Jeff asked with some relief as his companion strummed his finger on a window pane.

'Mages are self-serving scum whose behavior can always be justified by selfishness wrapped in a poet's prose.' The reply came with a tone of resignation. 'There's no benefit to walking away from potential connections with the rulers of a nation. If it was because you couldn't stand the possibility of getting known as the shagger of the ugly queen or you weren't interested after a night's play, we could go that route.

But, as you just answered, that lie can't be delivered convincingly. So, let's at least get some good out of this bad. Hell, this might be for the better. Whittling our time away on an island in some peaceful corner is no longer an option and this will give us forewarning of concerning events. As long as you are discrete about the meetings with her.'

'The biggest problem will be the king. I don't know how involved I can be with Pache without drawing his blade to my neck. Husbands aren't typically fond of having another man humping his wife. Magically capable husbands, at least.'

The quad mage leaned against the window with his right arm, saying nothing for a few agonizing seconds.

'Jeremy isn't going to be a problem.' An agonized voice announced in Jeff's mind.

'What do you mean?' He asked with furrowed brown eyebrows.

'Just show some discretion.' Eli put in with a firm tone. 'Don't shag her on the table during dinner or put her on your lap in the middle of the town market. Marriages in monarchies are rarely about love and if you don't do anything to make a fuss at gatherings, you'll be fine.'

The confidence in the quad mage's voice seemed ill-warranted to the young man, yet it and the possibility of continuing his relationship calmed those shaking nerves all the same as Eli continued.

'Of course, revealing that you're helping a mage overthrow the entire natural order of the world, along with his Orc wife no less, isn't a bit of unseemliness that can be brushed aside at mealtime. Be prepared to explain that one day. It will come sooner than you think even if it's later than I'd desire.'

There they stood, no words passing between them as the sound of the crashing waves ambled through the panels of the windows along with the shafts of golden light from a rising sun making its journey above the sea. The lightning caster waited with his spirit connection still in place, hands gripping the window sill despite the bitter winter cold having long since stolen any residual warmth from his skin. Irritation seethed through Jeff's mind all the while until he finally decided to ask the question.

'Don't you have anything to say about me potentially wrecking all of your plans for a woman?'

'Pff.' Eli scoffed back. 'I have a scant few bits of social grace and self-awareness floating around in me somewhere. If you had done it intentionally or through negligence.... Maybe.'

Jeff got a numb feeling of loss as he realized the grand speech would now remain forever unspoken. It was fortunate that another question pulled him away from the anguish of unfulfilled fantasy.

'What happened with the meeting? A lot of people were very interested in what the rough plant scion met the royal family about.'

More silence, though this time Eli stood a bit straighter.

'A lot that is on a need-to-know basis. The most pertinent bits will be made public in time. All done without the royal family who will be leaving soon, including its clandestine member. I came with the excuse of needing to talk with her about the ships. My trip was mostly to try and keep you off her, but that is just another failure of mine.'

A smile worked its way across the caster's face despite his efforts.

'How's Andrew been? The lad has always been a bit more adventurous than most and being stuck in a cold city wasn't something I would have thought agreed with him.'

The creaking of beds and moans on walks in the hallway beckoned from memory, but Jeff managed to keep his thoughts proper.

'He…. Being stuck in the base may have been warmer, but he needs companionship. Non-green-skinned companionship. For the better, I think. He's managed to snag several invites to parties and gotten some connections to mages traveling for resources or stuck here in between trips. Speaking of travel, I will need to get a radio and airship watcher.'

'Good. We'll have eyes and ears on almost every level of the city then. The latter will come in time. Our eye in the sky will be heading out for resupplies and a report on the state of the new ship soon. Which will be accompanying you eventually, probably with Cell acting as a guard'

Silence came between them and this time it was allowed to exist without interruption. The cold of winter nipped at exposed skin yet neither moved or talked for a few minutes until the woman of the hour came in.

"Ah! Tilvor." Pache announced as she came through the door with a billow of her brown dress. Those green eyes flitted between the two men. She seemed stuck on Jeff but those jade pools were reluctantly plucked away to the plant mage. A predicament the lightning mage decided to save her from.

"I'll be at the tavern getting breakfast if anyone needs me." He announced with some brevity. Eli stood still while Pache came toward her desk with an appreciative nod. Jeff made his escape out of the door before shutting it behind him. Some barely legible words were heard from the wooden slab before he headed down the stairs on the left. A simple nod was all he gave the two guards at the bottom of the stairs, with Quinton giving him a knowing smile from between his black beard.

Nothing was said as he moved between a few messenger boys in the hall and out of the main door. Dead air greeted his move onto the street, with barely a whisper of wind anywhere. Looking out over the harbor as he walked along the stone walkway, a question presented itself. What was driving the waves if not the wind? He pondered it for a bit as he approached the food stalls and shops. Putting it down to gales unseen in the distance, the stalls pouring steam from grills and ovens beckoned though it was his regular spot that drew him in.

Skewers of chicken along with some seared vegetables were all brought to the balcony of the Sigard's spout tavern with its second open floor overlooking the ocean. It was a higher class place, with smooth grey tiled floors, fine wooden furniture, and weak beer that attempted some good taste. The last could not be said for the peas and potatoes cooked with the meat. Fresh vegetables were almost nonexistent in the regular diet this far north, leaving the chef to guess at how this weird food that wasn't grain or meat should be cooked.

"OOH!" A woman sitting at the table ahead exclaimed.

Jeff looked up from his chicken to see the patron staring at the slightly cloudy sky. The long wooden shaft of wood with gold shapes that the royal family arrived in was slipping away from the direction of the glass tower. Rumors and casual conversations with those mages who would know revealed that such ships couldn't reach the clouds due to the scarcity of mana that high up, yet it still disappeared into a dot then nothing after a few seconds. The other denizens descended into excited chatter as the last skewer was devoured.

For a few minutes, Jeff sat at his table with nothing but the cold air and crashing of waves off to the right to keep him company. Loneliness in the crowd lasted only a few more minutes before he felt hands rub his shoulders.

"Did you think I ran off?" Pache whispered in his left ear before sitting to his left.

"Meh. I'd have tracked you down all the same." Jeff put in, only considering how much joke was in the words after they had left his mouth.

The queen bit her lower thick lips for a moment, those green eyes filling with joy instead of lust. Which made it all the more surprising when she darted forward and took Jeff in a kiss. A moment of sweet taste came and went, providing an unexpected dessert for the breakfast. Pache pulled back as quickly as she had pushed, looking a bit surprised at her own forwardness.

"Sorry." She offered with a worried stare and a shift of her eyes around to the onlooking patrons. None of which deigned to notice the affectionate display. Nor did they turn to see Jeff's return kiss or react to the soft pop of releasing her lips.

"Not sorry," Jeff replied with a smug grin.

Deep red bloomed in Pache's smooth cheeks. Her hands spoke for her, however. She grasped his side with her right hand while her left went to his thigh.

" I ran out of time earlier, but there is another aspect of your company that could prove mutually profitable. As fun as this is all going to be, I don't want you to spend all your time waiting on my schedule. Your wind element could be quite profitable in a venture with the Fairies. Quinton said you didn't seem too put off around them." She offered with a semi-question at the end.

"They were….very focused on dandruff." He offered to a knowing smile from Pache. "Aside from that? They seemed fine."

"Good. I know of a fairy diplomat who would be interested in a wind mage with such a proactive attitude." Her next words were whispered as she leaned closer. "We're talking about another route of importance like that of Sigard's trail. It isn't likely to succeed, but if a new path for trade can be forged, the wealth to be gained will be steady and considerable."

Jeff had assumed the tavern's namesake was ordained with the title of a local legend but it was apparently well known in the south as well. Of course, not wanting to let her know how little he understood of the central continent lore took precedence over curiosity.

"I hope you're not thinking of getting an airship out of me." Jeff put in with a smile.

"No!" Pache scoffed back even as her body pressed further against his. "The poison coast. If we can develop some air crafts for a ship, we could pass through to save weeks of travel."

"Hmm." Jeff pondered with an interested look. "What would be going through?"

The queen drew back a bit with a bite of her lower lip. She looked uncertain for a moment before sighing.

"Mostly food. Regular food." She put a finger to her lover's lips at the last word. "A very profitable trade, the benefits of which you will be first in line to receive."

He understood the need to emphasize the coin gained. Magical resources were the first and last concern of mages everywhere, though Pache's priorities were pulled in several directions despite her caster status. Asking another mage to work for something that had nothing to do with those coveted treasures was almost always a harder task than the actual work itself.

"We can work out the details after we've made sure it actually works." Jeff offered.

A sigh of relief escaped the queen's pink lips. That fall of her shoulders and look of joy called for another kiss yet a question was still on the lightning mage's tongue.

"Sounds like a good exchange, your majesty. When will…."

Jeff's words died as a rather obvious fact came to him.

"How are we going to get back to the south?" He asked with a low voice.

"By sea." She replied with furrowed black eyebrows.

"Jeremy didn't take you with him?" Jeff asked the woman who clearly wasn't on the airship.

They stared at each other confused for a moment until he heard his words.

"He left his wife to take the dangerous trek over the seas instead of the safe flight home?" Jeff restated.

"Obviously," Pache stated with amusement.

Some heat came under Jeff's collar. He had never met the king before, but in his mind, the man was already the next Ballud the fool with that one word. Pache lifted her left hand from his thigh and ran it across his slight chin.

"Do you have some objection on my behalf?" She asked with warm green eyes and a wide smile.

Jeff scoffed with raised grey eyebrows.

"Over my still warm corpse would my woman take such a dangerous trek, especially when I could have prevented it." He pronounced with steel in his voice, as if daring her to object.

Instead, her smile got a smug curl to it. Pache leaned forward, placing a kiss on his neck before looking into his eyes,

"So, you're from the Coalition." She stated with satisfaction.

Jeff pulled back a bit, unable to keep the surprise off his face.

"They're the only lot who treat women like the more fragile sex. Here, that attitude is a bit more common among the peasants but it is women who run most of everything to do with magic and magic is everything here."

His lips puckered a bit before he relaxed. It wasn't the critical secret and would explain a certain amount of ignorance but it was still something about his true past that he hadn't intended to reveal. At least 'from the Coalition' didn't mean 'son of the president'.

"Oh? Is the King aware of that tradition?" Jeff rebutted with a forced smile.

"Probably more than I am" Pache replied with an almost pitying look. "A man leading the kingdom raised eyebrows at my academy. Gods! That all feels like a lifetime ago."

"You all went to the same academy?" He asked now getting into the talk with keen interest despite the bitter cold of the outdoor terrace starting to creep in. Pache, sensing his curiosity, pushed closer to him and laid her chin on his left shoulder.

"The City Top Academy hosts almost all future leaders. Not just humans either." She offered with a small smile. "I became good friends with the Fairy Queen."

"Still good friends?" Jeff asked. Pache answered with a kiss on his cheek before pushing his arm up and sitting on his lap.

"I've forgotten how fantastic men are at being a chair." She idly mused with a shimmer in those green eyes. Her chest was placed against his even with her legs sticking out to the right while her arms went around his sides. A bowl of black hair was all he could see below him, that and a maid quickly taking the dishes to leave the couple alone.

"Yes, the Fairy Queen. Sharel was a prickly thing at times but she was steadfast and we saved each other's hides at one time or another. Jeremy likewise attended, though he was a year into the place when I arrived."

"How was it?" Jeff idly asked with a stroke of her back. The scent from her was well placed inside his nostrils from last night. That feeling of feminine softness was still all too welcome even with the cold brush of her dress.

"Typical young foolishness. Kissing boys and trying for babies. Getting your heart shattered by the guy you wanted then brushing aside some other man who thought you were meant to be. I must admit it was in the City, so there was always some restaurant or park to visit off the grounds."

"Which City?"

That ball of black hair turned up, a wide smile spreading across her tanned face.

"It's always nice to be proven right." She offered smugly. The moment passed quickly before she coughed and continued.

"Every place with people is called a village, town, city, or something in between. All are called 'the place of such region'. Or if they're big enough they get to be the 'Capital of such and such'. But when someone says 'The City', there is only one place they are referring to.

Along the west coast facing the Lost Lands lays a vast, near-unending expanse of stone buildings with streets between each cutting through the air with arches and supports. The buildings are so thick and tall, people there can live their whole lives without ever having touched the ground. I can remember it as clearly as the first day I saw it.

We arrived in an airship. Harold, you wouldn't believe the sight. So high up you look down on mountains that resemble hills. Yet all I could see was tower after tower. The sheer size of the place, the food and…. I can't do it justice. I never bothered remembering much of its history. It was the labor of some woman who was an ultimate mage but I was more concerned with enjoying the fruits of her toil than the woman herself."

'Spirits, Ultimate mages certainly have similar desires.' Jeff thought to himself, trying to keep his mind on the woman in front of him as he spoke.

"Ah, so royalty does have time to be whimsical. Was the to-be-king as free?"

Pache pursed her lips a bit.

"He was very serious and quite capable. Sadly, the king-to-be became the king-that-could've-been when he tried to make a meal of a plant-element lion in the southern jungles and instead found himself as the prepared course. Jeremy was quite reclusive. A few male friends here and there, but he seemed mostly concerned with his studies. I knew almost nothing of him personally back then, not that I know much now, but the well of rumors said he didn't appear…. Enthused about his new rank."

"Is being royalty that hard?" Jeff asked with a skeptical raise of his grey eyebrow.

"I wouldn't know," Pache replied, a bitter smile creeping over her face as she continued. "Some of it can be guessed, however. Their father was considered a great king. From helping make great strides in the Bloody Plains, to shoring up our territory near the Bodding Kingdom. A mantle of greatness that was to fall on his esteemed older brother. When it instead crashed on his head, many doubted his ability to meet the challenge of the crown.

Those who pondered such things at dinner quickly reigned in their tongues when Nestel announced her betrothal to him. An achievement beyond even that of his father's. Yet skill in bed, no matter how legendary, is not skill in governance and military affairs. Jeremy spent years in this kind of miasma of doubt over his leadership. No great blunder to mark him the next Ballud but not reaching his father's grandness either. Fortunately for his legacy, the recent spat with the Coalition has dispelled much of those doubts."

"I heard about that. Some business about a mage with all four elements." Jeff asked with as much sincere interest as he could muster. The last person he wanted mentally present at the table was Eli, if for no other reason than the ultimate mage already occupied too much of his life.

"Yes." Pache offered with a sad nod. "He nearly had him too. It's all quite complicated, but I can say that the grand prize was almost within reach. It never materialized because the Coalition is run by bumbling idiots, but Jeremy came close to winning an almost impossible challenge. I provided most of the seaside planning, but he had a few good ideas that nearly won us the day."

"Considering the state of things…. I can't see how his position improved." Jeff admitted.

Those green pools rolled back and forth as she considered his words.

"For those in the associations, that he came so close was impressive enough. The rest is for us to clean up."

"How?" He asked.

Those thick lips came up and imparted her sweetness before she pulled back.

"When we're in my private study, such details will be divulged." The queen offered with a mischievous air. "The seas beckon. Tell me, do you have any objections to leaving today? I'd give your brother a warning that things are going to be…. Tumultuous. Not as bad as the pirate attack, but the new governor has some plans coming out. Things that will make regular work rather difficult for a few weeks."

'Do I know who the governor is or what they're doing? Should I know if I do?' Jeff asked himself. The male mind had a hard time making room for anything when soft curves and kissable lips were bouncing about. Keeping the knowledge of two separate lives proved impossible with such an affectionate woman on his lap. Caution won out when he simply accepted her advice with a casual nod.

"Then I will be waiting on the ship. I intend to set off within the hour." Pache announced with a push out of her living chair.

Her warmth had once again seeped into his clothes and her sudden vacancy on his lap left him feeling colder than before. Jeff followed her out of the tavern and out onto the street. Their walk diverged at the big mansion serving as the harbor office while he headed forward through the wall that guarded the mage quarter.

The rich, multi-story houses with glass faces were the same as always with the morning sun already approaching the peak of its life. Between each of the houses stood those weird yellow boxes with three colored circles on one side, now getting cleaned by workers running here and there. The trip up the hill allowed Jeff to ponder how he was going to tell his brother that the next several months had been determined in the course of one morning as he took a left onto the road at the top of the rising ground and made his way down the street leading to his home

A few steps across the road to the other side nearly resulted in a slip on some previously unseen ice, but the trek further down the stone lane brought him up to the house bought on a madman's coin. He would have been able to see the exposed inner room if not for the thick gray sheets covering the glass window serving as the front of the house. The knock on the freezing wood sounded out over a desolate street still waiting for its cleaning.

From the door came a brown-haired man with locks that now went down to the shoulders of his white shirt. Jeff's mind had a moment of indecision as he tried to remember who those brown eyes and strong cheekbones belonged to, but only for a second.

"We need to talk," Jeff said as he came in.

The patchwork of steel squares in the stone walls seemed to shine with malice at this painfully cold temperature. While the golden glow of the fireplace directly ahead added some warmth, winter was still loud in its presence even with the red flames dancing across the room and the leather couches placed in front of the stone hearth. Jeff raised an eyebrow at the new furniture but was too busy leaning to look inside the entrance to the kitchen on the left side of the room. When he went to look up the staircase on the right, an electric buzz ran across his skin.

'We're alone,' Andrew announced in a spirit connection.

Jeff nodded before he took the couch on the right. Some twists in his stomach could be felt even as he motioned for his brother to sit opposite of him.

'What's the news? I heard Eli has got his own little kingdom.' The fire scion asked with a rub of his brown pants before he pulled some stray hair away from those strong cheekbones.

'This is bigger. At least for us.'

Those brown eyebrows shot up. Instead of moving forward, Andrew pulled back and settled into the couch like he was preparing to read a good book.

'What's bigger than the arrival of the royal family and a new territory made by the local legend? The legend we're secretly on the same team as.' Andrew inquired with a cross of his arms.

"Well…. We…. I am now personally involved in the royal family."

Jeff struggled to meet his brother's eyes but the slight lean forward was hard to miss.

'It turns out that Pache is the queen Verness.'

The lightning mage looked to see puckered lips and furrowed brown eyebrows greet the name unknown to his brother.

'The harbormaster.'

Andrew drew back into the couch. He sat there, stunned without a word from his slightly agape mouth. Then the outer edges of his mouth turned upward. A whooping sound suddenly came from upstairs. Jeff turned back and almost got off the couch to see what it was when he put the sound to Gretton, his brother's familiar, having a laughing fit somewhere unseen on the second floor.

When he resumed looking forward, Andrew was properly smiling. His posture on the couch was fully upright, eyes lit up like a small child's when receiving a large gift, and an air of almost inhuman smugness radiated off him. Jeff didn't give him the chance to voice his feelings.

'I will be heading south with her. Before you worry, I talked it over with Eli in her office. He wasn't happy but agreed that it was too late to change course. You'll be staying here to act as an ear in the higher rungs of Crasden society. Pache also mentioned that some internal disruptions are going to be happening soon so get your supplies while you can.'

The fire scion didn't acknowledge a single word. Instead, he slowly leaned his head back into the couch before lifting his hands. They came together to perform a slow clap. The evenly paced smacking of palms only emphasized the face-splitting grin he was sporting.

'Wow.' Andrew exclaimed in the spirit connection as his arms came to rest on his legs. His voice dripped with a pure joy usually associated with toddlers. 'You know, I've had fun with a few women that ended in a real mess. Either the husband wasn't as informed as I thought or they assumed it was a part of a longer-term relationship. But you!'

He emphasized the last word by shooting his hands out towards Jeff.

'You're…. What? Two for two? Your dick is the most destructive weapon to have ever been forged. It just runs right into the most troublesome lay the universe can find. Nothing less than a potentially world-destroying shag will do for you. All this time I thought I was the romantic one. Though, what is romance without stakes and torn feelings?'

Jeff bit his lip as he stared daggers at his brother, who had a finger on the chin to ponder the mystery.

'I will be leaving soon.' The lightning mage spat out with a simmering irritation. 'You think you can handle watching over our investments here and keep bedding your way into proper society?'

'That last bit has already been achieved, for what is more proper than royalty?' Andrew answered with a small smile.

'Fantastic.' Jeff announced with a quick rise from the couch.

He quickly went up the stairs, moving past Gretton, the white ape still flopped on the floor from his joyous exertions. Those needed items of clothes, coins, and a leather jacket were retrieved in a minute and Jeff moved back down the stairs to find Andrew waiting by the door. His time of brotherly prodding had apparently ended with the joy replaced by worry.

"I heard it's pretty hot down there," Andrew said with a small smile.

"It'll probably be better than here for a few minutes." Jeff agreed as he came forward.

"Just make sure to cover yourself. Sunburns set in more quickly than you think." Andrew offered as his brother came within arms reach. Without a word, he moved forward and hugged the lightning mage.

Jeff offered no resistance, forgetting the previous teasing in the typical way of siblings before Andrew pulled back and opened the door.

"Stay safe," Andrew commanded with some worry setting in with the bitter cold of the winter invasion into their abode.

"You too. Remember, get some supplies. I don't know what's happening, but it's going to be rather disruptive."

Andrew only nodded with a nonchalant look. With nothing left to say, Jeff nodded back before walking out the door. Taking a deep breath of that bitter winter air as he stepped onto the sidewalk, the lightning mage had a moment of realization. This was going to be the first time in his life away from family. Even leaving the capital involved his brother tagging along. Now, it would be him alone. He knew this when he agreed and he wasn't regretting the decision, but the moment to leave was still hard to process.

Fortunately, the cleaners working the street were content to let him have his epiphany in peace as they swept around him. With nothing left but his large sack of goods and a leather jacket, Jeff abandoned the freezing mage quarter for warmer seas and the touch of a loving woman. He walked to the left with only a slightly clouded sky above for company until the bend to the right came.

The rest of his trip was spent trying to spot bits of ice while keeping himself from falling down the hill. Thankfully, the caretakers of such an esteemed abode were thorough in removing all obstacles to their betters convenience. The lightning caster finally passed the gate to meander about the front of the harbor office.

A symphony of chatter punctuated the occasional crash of a wave against the stone wall of the pier. With Eli's crafts and Pache's seafaring expertise, the harbor now had a decent force of ships. That didn't stop the workers from constantly hammering and shouting on the left to churn out more. Jeff paid them a bit more attention since seafaring vessels were going to be in his future, but as he was perusing a large hull in the distance, a voice shouted towards him.

"Harold!" A rough male voice rang out.

Jeff turned quickly enough after having committed his new name to heart these past weeks.

Coming out of the office was the second guard to Pache besides Quinton. A burly fellow now done up in leather and a sword at the hip. His sharp chin emphasized toned cheekbones. Those piercing green eyes below bushy brown eyebrows took in the lightning mage playing air caster. Despite the cold breeze pushing around shoulder-length locks of mud, the southerner seemed content in the freezing chill despite the tanned skin marking him of a warmer homeland.

"Hello…." Jeff clumsily offered in greeting.

"Shane. Quinton never speaks at length of family so I shouldn't be surprised he didn't mention me." He stated as the guard came within arm's length.

"Brothers," Jeff stated knowingly.

Some mirth came into those green pools. Neither spoke further, with Shane merely bobbing his head towards the ocean. The mage followed his stride forward, walking along the stone walkway until they came onto a three-story specimen. While its wood was the same oak as all the others, there were slats on the sides to allow a ballistae to shoot out of the the hull. The sleeker hull combined with a white flag above displaying a blade over a blue wave made it clear this hulking mass of wood was more predator than worker.

The guard ushered him up the long plank to the deck in the same silence that they had arrived in. Sailors were still working supplies into place as they crawled about the deck like a swarm of ants. None of which Shane gave him time to take in as he directed him up the stairs to the left towards a door in the center of the raised section of the ship. Going through the oak door, Jeff came into a room of good standing. Not a regal room, but the desk and chair in the center were of good construction as was the bench on the right. The glass panes along the back were without blemish as they showed the big fortress of stone in the harbor beyond.

Not that Jeff was paying much attention to the details.

In front of the window stood Pache, her bowl of black hair touching the neck portion of the grey robe around her. He wasn't certain if she was wearing only bare skin underneath, but the possibility was tantalizingly present.

"Ah," The queen exclaimed with a turn towards her guests.

Jeff stepped forward, placing his sack of goods on the floor. Shane left with a close of the door behind him, leaving the two lovers alone with the prospects of such solitude. The answer as to what Pache was wearing beneath her robe was answered when she dashed toward Jeff. A soft pink nipple was lifted out of the robe, though her lips quickly filled his vision. Her majesty quickly pushed him through a previously unseen door on the left. A mana lamp was flicked on and….

Days passed.

The lightning caster remembered a few things, like the baths in the back of the office and bowls of soups served on a bed with a plush mattress. There had been moments when his sentience had to reemerge to make his lover laugh or talk to her. Besides those spots of full mental engagement, the trip was spent with his senses stewing in animalistic instinct.

At one point, Pache had left to use the latrine, abandoning him to whatever thoughts his lethargic brain could muster. He had a vague memory of having thought her barren bed being a thing of exaggeration, but they had been thoroughly dispelled. When the queen came back and immediately mounted him for more lovemaking, the new uncertainty was whether she meant for him to survive the trip south.

It was on the last day that the queen came into the bedroom to personally deliver the final meal of their voyage. Golden rays from the mana lamp on the wall doused her grey robe and the oak walls in flickering light. The plates were plied with fillets of some fish while the mugs were set to rest on the table beside the bed. Pache quickly dropped her only item of clothing to the floor before handing a plate and mug over to her partner. Jeff took them with minimal interest, his eyes too firmly fixed on the tuft of black hair between the queen's legs to register anything else as she lifted the red blanket to lay next to him.

"How would that be?" Pache asked while leaning down the bed to retrieve her meal.

"Hmm?" He asked with an arduous pull of his gaze away from her breasts sliding across the red fabric.

Her right palm lovingly slammed against his bare shoulder as she fixed the blood-colored blanket over her lower half.

"When the queen speaks, her subjects are supposed to listen." Pache scolded with a small smile across those thick pink lips as she brought the cup up to them.

"I was listening." Jeff denied with a stuck-out chin. "It's just other parts of your body were being louder than your voice."

The queen choked on the weak beer with a cough. Ever the attentive man, he gently placed his plate down and patted her back to help the drink pass. His reward was a slap across the peck.

"And what sound was my womanhood making?" Pache demanded. Those green eyes still had some of the laughter even as her right hand continued the assault.

The lightning mage was quite proud of how he managed to weave his drink away from the flailing royal arm.

"It was more of a visual symphony. A beautiful chorus I'll remember fondly on my death bed."

The queen lost her composure with a full laugh as the assault stopped. Instead, she pulled herself closer to Jeff. Smooth skin and feminine essence poured over him with the press of her bosom into his side. The pleasure wasn't free as Jeff's lap was made into a makeshift table for both plates.

"Gods, I've forgotten how delightfully stupid men can be." Pache cooed with a right arm running along Jeff's shoulders.

She raised the fork from her plate with a piece of white fillet. Jeff decided the first bite of the meal was not to be hers. His grey hair swished with his bob down to filch the bounty of the utensil. The queen made an honest effort to look upset for only a second before preparing the next bite for him.

"I promise, Pache. From now on, you will enjoy a quality of male idiocy other women can only dream of having."

Those green pools rolled with a weight only the feminine sex could achieve. His vow was met with the red sheets being pushed upward and the sensation of a soft leg wrapping around his knees.

"As I was saying before my loins so loudly interrupted." The queen put in with thick sarcasm. "The Faeries are very eager to begin working out some way to make this trade route work. The Beastmen are numerous in the far south, but their ruined bodies are unending founts of disease. Faeries, unlike us, are not susceptible to the plagues of their ships. That has allowed them to act as an intermediary for their trade of iron and copper."

Jeff nodded with mild interest. Pache was rubbing her bare chest against his side but he managed to mentally stay in the conversation.

"Recently, my Fairy friend from long ago sent me a letter saying they had found ways of boiling and sealing the Beastman's food that made it safe to eat even with their inclination for disease. Something I have confirmed to my satisfaction."

"A big deal these days." Jeff agreed with a nod and swig of his mug.

His lover mirrored the head bob as she took a forkful of fish, with the morsel finally reaching her mouth this time.

"So am I going to be in the Fjord hold or in the Fairylands?" He asked gently with a lowering of his cup.

"Both, technically. They have an embassy in our hovel. Since it is by our agreement on their land, you will be in Fairy territory."

Jeff raised a grey eyebrow.

"I thought the Literrean house was the official capital."

"Good luck with that." Pache snorted with a note of derision. "The north of the Fairylands is all Elven territory. That means it's either a weeks-long sail westward toward Sigard's trail through Dragon and Orc territory or going the long way towards the east, which means almost a month of travel for any messages. And then what? Do the metal mages care about the eternally swirling pot that is our hot and muggy lands? What diplomats in the north are well versed in the spats between the Fairies, Orc gangs, and Far Shores?"

The speech ended with a bite of fish that had a bit more force than needed.

"And I will be creating wind crafts for this venture?" The lightning caster asked.

"Something to that effect. Their ambassador, Farave, has all the details for the ship and such. Don't let him try to put on pretensions of being indifferent to the outcome or that this is a favor to us. Opening a channel through the poisonous clouds will be a huge boon to their economy. Anything that allows better access to the East also means they have more opportunities to take on the pirates."

Their meal was taken in with a few minutes of silence and the occasional rub against a receptive thigh. Jeff knew to finish his portions before his lover, who placed her fork down on the empty plate with an ominous clank. He got the last bit of fish down with a hurried swig of beer before Pache unceremoniously plopped her dishes onto the side table. The cup barely escaped his mouth before the woman yanked it and his plate away to join hers.

Without a word, she took his lips with her sweetness and pulled the blanket down to expose their mutual nudity to the warmer southern air. The queen was still mute as she swung onto her paramour's lap, providing another uninterrupted view of the landscape that had stolen his sentience for days. Jeff immediately set about his labor with a kiss and a seizing of her hips. Pache's food could be delayed or come with a less than stellar presentation, but there was no patience or mercy in sating the second hunger. Something a few minuscule bits of broken plates in the corner of the floor beside him attested to.