by C. R Corbin
And as much as she hated to admit it, she was beginning to tolerate him.
#
CHAPTER ELEVEN
She would stay here.
She would serve him alone.
There was no way that she could go back to working in the open, not after what had happened with the soldiers. If there was another encounter like that then she would probably die or she would hurt someone and cause dissent amongst his forces.
So she would have to live here with him, to bring him his meals and clean up after his messes instead of attending to the general duties that she had been doing.
She was sleeping now, he had seen how tired she had been after their little "session" and had laid her on his bed. He would inform her once she woke up, for now, he would have to tell servant managers and the other workers.
As well as attend to some harrowing reports of what his brother had been doing.
"We cannot simply ignore this show of aggression by him!" demanded one of his generals. He stared at the report on his desk, apparently, his brother had been poaching soldiers off of him by offering them higher pay and positions. It was mostly a show to anger him, Koigo knew that, but he also knew that if he didn't make some sort of countermeasure that his brother would likely continue doing so for a while.
He shuts his eyes and exhales, making a note to himself to write a note later. This wasn't the kind of thing that demanded his attention, sure there would be some who left but most of the soldiers that followed his lead weren't the kind of men to dissent easily, his approval rating with them was rather high after all.
At best with would be a few.
"We have already received reports of several soldiers leaving and joining his side. Some left without a word and some simply resigned without any further argument." Stated his general.
"How many?" Koigo asks.
"Approximately 150 thus far since this was put out yesterday."
Koigo shook his head, that was basically nothing to worry about. "I'll contact him first thing in the morning. For now, you all should go home, there's no real reason to fret over losing a 100 soldiers to his side."
"But my lord!" protested one of them and he shook his head.
"Goodnight." He stated.
The meeting had been relatively boring, they had gone through the supply shipments, the allocation of benefits to the troops, the programs that they were launching and finally his brother's attempts at showing off. He knew that his generals were desperate for a push back effort against Gulvan but even they had to know that it would result in mutual destruction.
But alas, they wanted their war.
"Something on your mind my lord?" Yaki asked him as he walked out, he directed his guard to walk with him, they were going to head to the courtyard near his quarters for training.
"My brother, as per usual." Koigo muttered, Yaki knew the drill, whenever Koigo was thinking of his brother it usually resulted in a training session.
The king always did want to blow off some steam when it came to him of course.
"Do you think he's going to try something now that you both have consolidated control of the moon?" asked Yaki as they entered the courtyard.
It was this large circular slab of black stone that was laid onto the dirt, around them was basically an overgrown garden that had grown around the edges. There were wild flowers as well as large trees, the area looked well cared for and it was. As soon as they entered Koigo pressed a button on the railing around the area and caused a rack of weapons to emerge from the ground. He grabs a wooden sword and swings it around a few times, twirling it in circles in front of Yaki who grabbed his own weapon.
"He has to, there is no other ambition that he has. But he knows just as well as I do that a direct war isn't going to result in anything but death for everyone. So there's no conceivable way that this can turn out in a manner that is beneficial to him. That's why I think there's probably something more discreet that he is planning to do." Muttered Koigo.
The two men set down the rest of their gear such as their weapons and their armor in the case of Yaki. The king's purple robe flows in the wind and the lower portion of it swayed back and forth with every step that he took, acknowledging his opponent.
"We will be there to protect you my king." Declared Yaki and Koigo nodded before dashing forth and swinging his first strike.
He knew they would.
He was just afraid that they might be hurt in the process of doing so. Maybe he deserved this from his brother but not his people.
He took note of Yaki and his fighting style, the man was constantly in his traditional stance and stuck to the traditional fighting style of Limura which he was a master at. Labored blade strikes, calculated perfectly to ensure maximum accuracy, however when faced with an unorthodox style his attacks became far less effective.
....But only occasionally.
Koigo decided to try something, his own style consisted of countering, anticipating attacks and launching back unorthodox strikes with his own blade after having dodged or blocked the incoming blows. Unfortunately this time the combination that he tried had overstretched him and let him stay in the range of Yaki a bit too long. He saw the blade coming his way and ducked out of the way of it just barely in time, if he had been less sharp then he would have gotten hit. He swings his blade at Yaki once more to strike his leg on the exit and the young guard was unable to dodge in time.
At the end of their session they were both covered in welts, Yaki with more significant ones.
Koigo often wondered why Yaki was chosen to be his guard. And he eventually realized that the man was to be the orthodox counterbalance to his rather wild methods and ideas.
Koigo had prided himself on not sticking to the old methods, on not dedicating himself to the idea of tradition, and of finding new and better ways to get things done for the good of his people. Sometimes he veered off course a bit too much and that was why Yaki was there to be realistic, to guide him when he began to wander.
And it was also the same reason that his brother despised him. The fact that Koigo was the one that devoted himself to changing and Gulvan adored the power and stability that his position had granted him.
They were as different as brothers could be.
Yaki departs for the night, waving goodbye and disappearing into the hallway. Koigo decided to stay a bit longer and train. He opens up the strength training machine and grabs onto the two chains that appeared. He sets the weights and begins to pull on them, grunting with effort as he does.
He had to get stronger, he had to be prepared for whatever Gulvan was planning.
#
CHAPTER TWELVE
She watched from the doorway, her breath ragged and her eyes wide as she watched his muscles tense up with every pull that he gave the machine.
He looked like a man that was truly built for war.
There were many tiny scars across his body, you wouldn't notice it if you looked at him from afar. He sweats profusely in the warm night as he pulls back the chains and you could hear the rattle of it echo through the halls. It sounded like he was pulling a lot based on how he was grunting, she couldn't read what the monitor said but she knew how to judge based just on the effort.
She wanted him to train her.
She wanted to fight.
She wanted to be useful again.
"Koigo." She muttered and he turned around to look at her, he lets the chain pull back and its metal edges rattle against the hole that it had slipped into and he tenses his stance as he glances back at her.
"Yes?" he asks his mate.
"Train me." She muttered and he sighed before shaking his head.
"You're insane."
"I'm not." She muttered as she grabbed one of the wooden sticks from the rack. The damn thing was incredibly heavy for her and he took note of this. He grabbed the stick and put it back on the rack before giving her a small one that was a bit more suited to her, she looked at him sheepishly as thanks.
&
nbsp; "You really are insistent aren't you?" he asked her and she nods, it was late now, they probably should have gone back to sleep for the night but she didn't look like she was going to give up.
She never did look like she wanted to give up in fact.
She tries her best in the ensuing 6 or so duels and each time she lost. He was holding back too, she knew that as well, he wasn't moving, he simply stood in the same spot and blocked her shots or countered her and he had never struck her with his sword either.
And by the end of it she was even more exhausted than she had been and had to be nearly dragged back to the bedroom quarters by Koigo.
"What about my room?" she asked him confusedly and he shook his head.
"Not today." He told her and she chocked it up to him finding it more convenient to drag her to his room, after all it had a bathing room.
But the true nature of what he was doing was revealed to her shortly after.
"What?!" she asked him.
She wasn't necessarily angry at the idea, just more or less shocked that he would propose such a thing.
But she supposed that she should have seen this coming.
"I can't have you encountering anybody that you fought, you're just not capable of holding back." He stated and she was about to protest before she bit her lip and nodded.
She had to agree on that last part.
"But what about Kinu? He's a soldier too!" she declared and Koigo smirked, almost chuckling a bit.
"Does he get provoked nearly as easily?"
"Well....no."
"There's your answer."
She had to admit she was confused as to why he would even need a personal assistant at this point. Would her duties be merely to have sex with him? Because she could put up with that if that was it. Perhaps this wouldn't be that much worse than what she was doing before, and, after all, he seemed like one of the only people around here other than her co-prisoners that was worth a damn.
"Something wrong?" he asks her, expecting another argument but none came.
"No..." she mutters to herself.
After cleaning off the grime that had accumulated during their training she settled down for the night and she was rather shocked to discover that it was in his bed. She thought that she would have a separate set of quarters from him but this was it, that was all.
It didn't stop her blush.
They had tried to lay there and fall asleep but their more passionate sides got the better of them and she soon found herself on top of him with him inside of her. He flips her around and pins her onto the bed and she gasps again as they fucked for what was probably the fourth time or so in two days.
He was insatiable and so was he.
And that was why when she laid there, listening to him chatter on about something mundane and she chattered with him, she began to wonder what was happening to her. Why had she changed so quickly? Had she really gotten along with this man that well?
Had something changed?
#
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
"Oh hello." The young mother says to her as she attended to her daily duties of trimming the personal garden that the King liked to come to.
It was beautiful, even her tomboyish self could admit that.
There were various yellow and white flowers abound as well as a series of blue ones that were all bundled in a circle in the middle of the courtyard. The mother had been standing amongst the flowers with her child in her arms. Saradi never did get the chance to talk to her that much when they had been locked up together.
Now she had been sent here to the gardens to trim the bushes and ensure that everything was where it was supposed to be. As well as pull weeds, again, unfortunately.
She sighed to herself, the last few days of cleaning up his sheets and taking care of the duties around his quarters had been enough. He had told her that if she got done early then he would show her how to use the training room.
And she took him up on that deal.
"Oh hello." Stated Saradi as she looked at the mother, the lady looks back and gives a warm smile. She looked better now, her cheeks weren't as sunken as they were before and her child seemed to be far happier than it had been when they had first met. It actually looked healthy.
She smiled to herself, Koigo had done a good thing when he had agreed to take these people in.
To take her in.
Although she would never admit it to him, he would never let her live it down properly.
And yet Saradi catches herself again, not knowing why her opinion on the king had changed so suddenly from the outright hostility she had displayed. She admitted that she had been wrong to judge him but...she would have never thought forgiveness was this easy when kindness was shown to you, she had never thought that she was capable of it.
"You seem troubled? Want to talk?" asked the woman and Saradi nodded before taking a seat.
The mother runs her fingers along the strands of her baby's hair and Saradi watches with a curiosity and a...longing that had never consumed her mind before. She had never thought of being a mother but upon seeing the mother and her child.
She wanted to know what it felt like.
And she nearly shocked herself to death when she began to think of the child with green skin and horns, and the king sitting beside her.
What the hell was even happening to her at this rate?
"Are you troubled about your move?" she asked Saradi, "Or is it about something else?"
Saradi bit her lip, "How do I put this?" she asks and then slides a strand of hair behind her ear, "It's about this entire thing, I guess. The fact that we're still working for the enemy after all that happened." She states.
The young mother glanced at her for a while before glancing at the ground, swinging her baby back and forth gently as it fell asleep, "You know I do wonder about it too sometimes myself. The war had been going on for so long I just assumed that it would be a certainty for the rest of my life, an ever-present factor."
There was a long pause as the two watched the flowers flow in the breeze that flew through the keep. There was a flying creature with four wings and something of a reptilian head that dove into the pond in front of them before springing out of it, the baby watched with great interest.
"So when I was told that I would have to work under him, I had all of these horrible misconceptions of what it might be. But when I got here...my life improved, strangely enough. I don't know how to describe it." The mother said as she looked up at the trees.
"My husband died in the war, we were married young and he signed up for an enlistment bonus. His commanders and the military itself refused to grant it to me after his death, they withheld it and told me that it would come later. Of course, it never actually did. So I was stuck with nothing to do and by then my entire village had been taken over by the Rialans."
There was a twinge of sadness to her voice and Saradi thought of muttering words of sympathy but she knew that it wasn't going to help tremendously much.
"And then the strangest thing happened. My life got better than it had ever been. The servant managers even told me that my child will be able to attend school, apparently the king had dreams of integrating both humans and Rialans and that was the first step, our children." She said as she looked down at the child and gave it a peck on the forehead, it merely giggled and cooed at its mother.
"So...I don't see him as an enemy anymore. He helped me, he treated me with kindness, I don't care what any general says. Kindness goes a long way you know." The mother remarked.
"Kindness goes a long way." Muttered Saradi, she ruminated on the words, what it meant to be kind and if what the king had been doing met the description for such a thing.
She had been harsh to him, that much had been clear.
"So if you're angry at them then...I don't know. I certainly can't tell you how to live, the two of us have lived drastically different lives from one another and you did fight for our people. I can't tell you what to do. Just
try not to let it eat away at you. That's all." She speaks softly.
Saradi laughs, "Yeah I've been letting it eat away at me for a while now, I didn't really know what to do until now. So thanks."
The lady smiles, "No problem." She states.
The two sit there a while longer until Saradi remembered that she had a job to do, they continue to talk while Saradi pulls the weeds and trims the flowers. They spoke of ordinary things, the food that they had at the palace, the changes that have occurred to their lives since their move here. They never did touch on a topic that was as heavy and dense as the first one that they had chosen. It felt...refreshing, Saradi hadn't been able to speak to another human woman for quite a while.
And the similarity in perspective was nice.
"They're not treating you badly are they?" Saradi asks with her eyes narrowed, her words referencing Domon and occasionally Kinu when he would grow bored and tag along on one of Domon's schemes. The mother only laughs.
"No, they've been very nice." She states as she gets to her feet, "It's been nice chatting with you, I should get back to work as well or else they'll probably come looking for me soon."
"They make you work?" asked Saradi incredulously and the mother shrugged.
"It's only sewing, work that I can do in one place, that sort of thing, it gives me plenty of time to raise the child and I think they only give me any work to appease me."
She begins to walk away and Saradi calls after her, "My name's Saradi!"
The mother nods as she waves goodbye along with the child, "Nura."
#
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Training had remained the same each day upon her starting the regime.
He would take her into the chambers after her duties were completed and allow her to use the target practice and teach her some basic combat forms with the small wooden sword that she was using. She was a bit less graceful than he would have expected, she was more fury than serenity, and each time that they sparred he found himself chiding her for putting too much force into her blows, she would simply tire herself out that way. If she was going to fight head-on with a Rialan then she would have to rely on speed and agility, not the brute strength that she was attempting to fight with.
