Huge thanks to my editor, LaurieLou for helping get this postable, it was weeks ago, but I ran into formatting errors, and finals yadda. Here we are, finally, I guess one thing that COVID is good for, when your job sucks it’s what makes sure you are off the clock as soon as your shift ends, no extra work from me, and a present of my two weeks’ notice. Not getting hospitalized just so that great grandpa can buy three bags of dirt.

Some reminders that my editor thought would be prudent to include. Magic is present, but is largely eclipsed by technology, and anyone who can really do something with it is a rarity, one out of several hundred thousand. Also, humans share the earth with many other races. Chief among the races that are prevalent for this chapter, the Wechuge. This is a race that originated on the North American continent and is exemplified by Karalinn. Wechuge are usually large, standing from just above six to over eight feet in height, and the easiest way to tell them apart is the presence of a small pair of antlers erupting from the scalp.

Rhod’s excitement was quickly disappearing, replaced with a sense of dread and dark thoughts. Was riding in a plane, 37,000 feet above the ground, with a sibling and liege he barely knew, a good idea? Perhaps it was paranoia, but without Beorthric on the throne, plotting would once again, almost certainly be allowed. If his sister killed him, she could seize his duchy and increase her base, depending on what the crown laws were in Cascadia – something that Rhod realized he didn’t know.

He looked to the right, across Karalinn’s large rack, to see his wife with a matching expression of concern on her face.

Looks like Angela realized something similar. With this level of inexperience… I would be surprised if we aren’t dead by this time next week.

“Actually Karalinn-” Rhod started before the three of them were confronted by a guard in combat gear, her rifle angled towards the ground.

Jesus Christ that’s a big gun, Rhod couldn’t help but think. Rhod knew Allison a bit better than Karalinn, but not by much. All of his father’s wives may have split up childcare duties, but some of them treated the other’s offspring with contempt, and most chose to ignore them except when they were caring for said children. Allison had been one of those.

“Your Royal Highnesses,” she said, interrupting Rhod. “The Empress wishes for an audience with Queen Karalinn, along with the Duke and Duchess of Willamettia.”

“Of course, inform the Empress that I will be there shortly,” Karalinn replied with a small bow before turning to Rhod. “You should go first, little brother, I have a small matter to discuss with the King of Aluetia.”

“Very good your royal majesty,” the guard replied to Karlinn before facing Rhod and Angela fully. “If you’ll follow me, Your Highnesses.”

Angela moved to Rhod’s side as they followed the guard; she was nervous. Meeting the Emperor had been intimidating, but somehow, meeting Rhoderick’s eldest sister was more intimidating. Perhaps it had something to do with her recent ascension.

“Anything I should know about the Empress? Protocols?” she quietly asked Rhod.

“I thought you met my father,” he whispered back.

“I did, but I need to know if she is more of a stickler for protocol.”

“Don’t worry, milady, the Empress disdains protocol,” the guard informed the pair, without casting a glance back at them.

The guard’s words did little to assuage Angela as her heart picked up speed. Don’t panic, don’t panic, Angela thought to herself. The little mantra had been part of what helped her in her transition from college student to CEO and president, a transition that had been made even more difficult when she shifted the business paradigm and demonstrated to her employees that she was more than a pretty face.

Why am I so nervous? Angela pondered. I met Emperor Beorthric, and got married to a Prince, sight unseen, and- Angela froze mid-thought as she felt a hand squeeze hers. She looked to her left and was shocked to see Rhod’s fingers intertwining with hers.

When her eyes locked with Rhod’s, she could see him blush a bit before he quickly released her hand.

“Sorry, guess I overstepped. I just wanted to reassure you that it’ll be fine,” Rhod quickly said.

Angela realized that she must have been frowning, so she smiled. She wordlessly took his hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Thank you,” she whispered to him, feeling genuinely grateful for his reassurance.

“Alright, love birds. We’re here,” the guard said, sparing only a glance over her shoulder before she opened the massive wooden doors to the throne room.

Rhod wasn’t sure how he was suppressing his anxiety. Being summoned could mean anything, from a gift of land, to a demand on his title, or that The Empress wanted to arrest him or Angela away from prying eyes. It could even be that she wanted to arrange a second marriage for either Rhod or Angela, after all, polygamy was expected for nobility.

Dim lights revealed antalya escort a woman on the throne on the far end of the room, but the adornment she wore was enough to distinguish her, even at a distance. In her left hand, she wielded the Scepter of Vigilance. Blown from sand struck by lightning, with embedded precious gemstones that signified each of the old elements: earth, fire, heat, sky, time, and water.

On her head sat the Crown of the Heavens, a crown made of clay with veins of various precious minerals embedded in it, dashing through and around the crown like rivers. It had been the crown of their father, and now it was Allison’s.

“Your Majesty,” Rhod offered as he and Angela knelt before Allison.

“Duke Rhoderick,” Allison replied, her voice sounding gravelly.

“If it pleases your Majesty, they may refer to me merely as Rhod.”

“Oh, thank God!” Allison exclaimed. “Consider the courtesy returned.”

“Angela and I had heard that you didn’t like protocol, but we didn’t know whether to believe it at the time.”

“Oh, you better believe it, kiddo.” Allison laughed. “Though some protocols can be good. Like Prima Noctis. I tried to get Beorthric to take it, but he never did. Looking at you Angela, if I were twenty years younger, I would even let Rhod join in the fun.”

“Wait, First Night is real? Wasn’t that just a joke in my history lessons?” Angela asked.

“No, that’s real. Beorthric never used it, but some of our brothers and sisters have, along with some of our cousins, and Cynewulf.”

“What?” interjected Rhoderick.

“Yep. Anyways, our Saxon cousins have been using it for so long that Saxons think everyone strange for not doing it. And the Malagasy have made it a societal norm. If the king is too busy, the duke will do it, if he is too busy, the count, then the baron, then the head of the household, nearest relative, friend, boss, finally, if no one can do it, a rando off the street.”

“That sounds awful,” Angela said.

“Well, it applies to both the spouse and groom there. But in Navarra, it only applies to the groom,” Allison said with a smile, before pausing. “Alright, alright, enough with discussion on Prima Noctis societal norms. Let’s discuss business.”

“Yes, um… Any chance you can loan me a jet?” Rhod asked uneasily.

“Well, yes, but you’ll have your own in Willametia, just hitch a ride with Karalinn.”

“Uh… Would you laugh if I told you that part of me isn’t sure that she won’t throw us out the door at 37,000 feet?”

“No. She won’t do that. She going to need support to make sure she keeps the throne. So, she will either try to get you to pledge your support to her, or at least non-interference in factionalism. Kelly, Theresa, and Xavier are not going to be happy that she is queen,” Allison informed him.

“How come?” asked Angela.

“Karalinn married her husband, Robert, when she was made a duchess. She had only daughters, and when Robert died about fifteen years ago in a car accident, they our siblings began propositioning Karalinn endlessly regarding her and her daughters. Most of us could take a hint when dropped, but Xavier and company have kept hounding her this entire time. While she could never prove it, Karalinn’s pretty confident that at least one of the three had something to do with Robert’s car accident,” each sensed opportunity. Each of them has come to her with proposals for her or her daughters to marry them or their sons. And she is pretty confident that one of them was behind Robert’s car accident,” Allison explained.

“Now,” Allison continued. “Before we too distracted, security concerns is exactly why I have asked for the two of you. Father left a separate will to his servants, releasing them all from service to the Crown, and asking some of them to seek employment with certain children.”

“Indeed,” boomed a voice behind Rhod, making him jump, and forcing a small scream out of Angela. He quickly spun to face the owner of voice. It was a large black man, easily eight feet in height, bald, clean shaven, with a jovial smile and golden eyes. Rhod only knew one person this big.

“Leofirde! You fucking scared me!” Rhod laughed.

“How are you, Roe?!” The man asked as he embraced Rhod.

“Great! And you? I haven’t seen you in over a year!” Rhod remarked.

“Oh, I took some time off to go visit home. I haven’t been back home for a while, and it has changed so much. So much. It is almost unbelievable. Anyways, I started heading back a few days ago, hoping to catch your wedding. Your father didn’t exactly give me much notice, and I got held by storm over Morrocco,” Leofride explained before pausing and shifting to look at Angela. “And you must be the missus.”

Rhod watched as Leofirde extended a hand to grasp Angela’s in a handshake. Her hand disappeared entirely into Leofirde’s. A realization hit him like a freight train: he hadn’t introduced them.

“Angela, this is Leofirde, a close family friend.”

“And bodyguard, General, and Marshal,” Leofirde added antalya merkez escort with a smile.

“And Leofirde, this is Angela. My wife,” Rhod said warmly, as his gaze met with Angela’s. Rhod’s mind faltered for a moment as he realized how beautiful Angela’s eyes were. He had admired her the blonde’s physical beauty at their wedding, but now that he had seen more than a bit of her personality.

He now knew that his wife was a delightfully witty and extremely intelligent woman. I may not be in love with her yet, but I have no doubt that it will only be a matter of time. Likely a short matter, he reflected as Angela and he wore similar small smiles.

“Now, Rhod, Angela. Father wanted Leofirde to come and work for you, seeing as you have no heir yet,” Allison said, her voice breaking the spell the two seemed to have cast on each other.

“Well, neither does Jayne,” Rhod pointed out.

“Yes, but he has four pregnant wives, and knocked up two whores.”

“Jesus, he moves fast,” Angela remarked.

“Oh, Jayne is just a man whore,” Leofirde commented. “He has like two dozen little bastards running around that Allison can legitimize if he dies without an heir.”

“And the rest of your cohort is pregnant or has already had their first child.”

“Cohort?” Angela asked.

“Oh, pardon me, dear. When there are over six hundred other children, names can be tedious. So, we refer to all born in the same year as a cohort. Makes it easy when your father makes you a minimum of nine new siblings every year. And in my case, the occasional son or daughter every few years.”

“Six-hundre- I knew the royal family was large, but… Rhod, there is no way I’m going to be able to pop out even a fraction of that,” Angela teased.

“Well, one would be a fraction of that,” Rhod countered with a smirk, before turning serioussolemn. “In all seriousness, I wouldn’t expect us to have any if either of us have any reserva-“

“Nope, sorry, Rhod, but you need an heir. At least one kid, that’s my line in the sand,” Allison stated. “You don’t need to have dozens and dozens of kids. I most certainly don’t expect you to have nine kids every year. Just one, in your entire life. Sooner rather later.”

“Nine?! Jesus!”

“That was a slow year for Beorthric. I think that was… Eighty-one?, I think,” Leofirde remarked, evoking a stunned look from Angela. “Some ethnic unrest between the Persians and the Kurds had his attention. But in sSeventy-five, oh, that was a busy year for him. Twenty-seven new princes and princesses were born then.””

“On another note, there is also this matter,” The Empress sighed.

“Heya Rhoddie!” piped up a high-pitched voice in Rhod’s ear.

“Holy fuck!” Rhod shouted as he jumped forward and turned in the air.

“Why you gotta torture the poor lad, Agnes?” Leofirde sighed to the short, raven-haired woman.

“So Rhoddie, I’m looking for work, an-“

“What the fuck? No. Absolutely not, Agnes!”

“Awww, com’on Rhoddie, ju-“

“And don’t call me that!” Turning to Allison, he asked, “Why the fuck aren’t you employing her?”

“She creeps me out.”

“Aaaaalllllieeee.” Anges whined. “Don’t be like that, we can pretend that you don’t want to get in my pants all you like, but you don’t have to be mean about it.”

“Agnes…” sighed Leofirde. “I keep telling you, you can either be the creepy pervert, or the creepy killer. Not both.”

“What? A girl can’t have more than one interest. Bones, muffs, and flaying. The great BMF trinity of life.”

“Am I missing something here?” Angela asked.

“Yeah. Agnes here was my father’s spymaster,” Allison explained. “And completely psychotic. Literally. I once saw her strip naked, climb onto the roof and howl at the moon. Hell, I have seen her flay a man alive, with a butter knife.”

“That’s nothing kiddo, I’ve seen her rip a man’s throat out with her teeth. That said, she is the best, Rhod. And you are going to need a spymaster,” Leofirde added.

“But the North American West is quiet. Nothing for her to do,” Rhod argued.

“Ya got bandits, don’t you? Besides, I was born and raised in Willamettia, and know Cascadia like the back of my hand.” She grinned wickedly.

“Fine! Fine!” Rhod gave in, wishing for Agnes to make herself disappear. “Allison, do you need anything else from us?”

Rhod gently grasped Angela’s hand in emphasis.

“No, no that’s it. Karalinn already talked to my Steward, and your belongings have already been loaded onto her jet. And since Leofirde is with you, you won’t have anything to fear.”

“I hope not everything has been loaded?” Angela inquired. “I was kind of hoping to change out of this.”

“I’ll contact the royal tailor and have him get you both something clean to wear. Just swing by your room and someone will meet you there,” Allison said before taking a deep breath and standing up. “With that, I should send for Karalinn.”

Angela walked beside Rhod as they exited the throne room. She could hear Leofirde and antalya otele gelen escort Agnes chatting away happily behind them. “Well, that was easier than expected,” she said.

“It would appear so. Since Agnes is now coming with us, we might to make sure that any small animals that might be coming with us are secured,” Rhod joked.

“I heard that, Rhoaddie!” squeaked Agnes from behind them.

“Unless you have any objection, Rhod, I’ll take Miss Nutter here and await you and the Duchess’ arrival on the tarmac. Imperial guards have strict orders under the will to not any harm befall anyone until tomorrow at 8 am,” Leofirde offered the couple.

Rhod paused and turned around, Angela quickly following suit. “No, that’s fine Leofirde,” he said. “Thank you.”

“Please, Leofirde, call me Angela,” she added before they walked away.

Angela could feel her heart rate subtly increased as they walked. It was subtle, but itA reminderd her of herthe situation. She was married, to someone that she didn’t love. At least someone she didn’t love, yet. She had promised the now-deceased emperor that she would have a child with her husband before she went back to work. AngelaShe wasn’t sure if honoring a promise to a dead man was necessary, but surprisingly, she found herself wanting to honor it.

She had to admit, her husband was indeed attractive, and intelligent. If he was intimidated by her, he didn’t show it, and if she was being honest… Prince Rhoderick was a bit intimidating himself. She may have been the CEO and president of a billion-dollar company, but he was royalty, descended from Emperor Beorthric, a man that many had hailed as a living god throughout the centuries of his life.

Still, the emperor seemed to think that she and Rhoderick had a lot in common – an idea that Angela had yet to find any fault in. He seemed kind, generous, honest, and gentle. To top off the whole package, he seemed quite keen for monogamy, which was not only intriguing for a man from a family of their reputation, but also exciting considering that Angela had never been keen oninto sharing her significant others.

Gathering up a little courage, Angela turned to Rhod as they were walking towards their temporary quarters.

“So, why don’t we get to know each other a little, since we’ll be walking for a while.”

Rhod turned his head flashed her a smile. “Sounds like a plan, after all, we have a ten minuteten-minute stroll ahead of us. “

“Let’s start off simple. What’s your favorite color?”

“Well, despite what my trace would suggest, it would have to be blue,” Rhod said, tapping a finger on the pink vein on his left cheek. “Yours?”

“Oddly, it’s orange,.” Angela replied, before quickly asking. “I know I asked about it last night, but your ‘Trace’ just seems so strange. It felt hard, when I touched it last night.”

“Well, I should hope so, it is after all, a literal chunk of rock in my body.”

“So it isn’t just a mineral rich organ? It’s actually mineral embedded in your skin?”

“Well, it isn’t embedded, my Trace is more like my own flesh, just rock like. My sister Doris has large scar on one of her legs where some of her Trace was gouged out during an assassination attempt, and my nephew, Howe, has a large deformity in his, from where it deflected a bullet meant for his face. So, they have uses other than a free paternity test.

“Children will always bear the Trace of their parents, and when both parents have a Trace, the kid gets both. You know… March will be a very exciting month, since the first ever third generation inbred will be born, to one of my grand nieces, and nephews. No one’s quite sure what the result will be.” Rhod explained, before allowing silence to permeate the air for a few seconds.

“You have any pets growing up?” Rhod asked.

“Just fish. My uncle was highly allergic to mammal fur, and insects and reptiles scared him. How many pets did you lose to Agnes?” she teasingly asked, remembering his earlier comment.

“Oh, none. But I lost a tarantula when it got out and scared my sister Layla when she was visiting.”

“Layla… Was that who you were calling last night?”

“Yeah, she’s the eldest child of my mother and Beorthric. If they choose to reform us into cadet houses, Layla would be the head of ours,” Rhod before taking a pause. “Anyways, do you want any pets? We could consider them as working up to a child. Eventually.”

Angela had to suppress a giggle as Rhod quickly stammered out the last part, and the part of his ear that she could see quickly turned red.

“That sounds like a good idea. Unfortunately, I promised your father that I would take leave of absence from my company until you produced an heir.” Angela grinned evilly as she took one of Rhod’s hands in hers. “And I am a woman of my word.”

“Beorthric is dead, Angela, nothing is wrong with not honoring a promise to a soon to be cremated corpse.”

“True, but none of my previous boyfriends were even remotely interested in children, and I need a vacation from work; and if I am being honest, I actually would like to have a child of my own,” Angela purred as she stepped in front of Rhod. “Besides, we aren’t going to be starting immediately, we’ll take a few months to learn all about each other. If we don’t fall in love, we can always discuss other solutions.”