“Delighted.”
“Fionna?”
“I wish to mate with you in Chapel. Today. I have decided to remain, if permitted, to carry out tasks that Niona and I have begun. You will need my help, and my conjugal education is yet incomplete.”
“Are you sure? Two sisters powerful, but of unknown origin, married to the same mortal? And sisters? Such scandalous behavior. You will be the talk of your species. Whispers of a marriage well beneath your status and rank.”
“I cannot share warmth and love with status and rank, nor laugh and feels its strength when overcome by the burdens I bear in the world. It does not give me resolve or purpose, nor direction and understanding. It is ephemeral. I choose you.”
“I am honored.”
“Besides, sisters share. And we both love you, though we do not understand why. You are a mess and act like every other mortal male; mercurial at best.”
“Then I shall have to improve my conduct to meet your lofty expectations of proper behavior.”
“Let’s not go overboard. I like you just the way you are; all flaws included. I myself am not perfect?”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
“For an ordinary mortal, you are very cheeky. I shall have to work on you. Perhaps, in your case, the carrot is better than the stick.”
Hecate said, “He likes the stick, I’m told. Don’t be rash.”
Adam said, “And you, little one. What have I to do with you, and you with me?”
“Nothing. You are my Master, and I serve you willingly. I am your ward and will obey you in all your commands, no matter how ill advised or foolish they may be.”
“You have something to say?”
“Only that your treatment of Alana and Hannah was impulsive and ill advised. If they leave, you will only come to regret your anger and intemperate action. You need them and love them. You should talk to them again before they leave and accept with finality the fate you have imposed. I expect they have no desire to leave you, only that they feel you no longer desire them.”
“Everyone knows that’s ridiculous. I have always loved and desired them both. And greatly.”
“Perhaps they think otherwise. Perhaps they believe you longer need or trust them. That you have lost faith in them. Or that they don’t matter to you. Does it matter why they feel that way? No, only that they do. And that you listen to their angry words more than what they feel in their hearts. Don’t be a fool. Go to them. Make amends.”
“When did you grow up, my young Immortal?”
“When I began hanging out with you. You are wise in many matters except those pertaining to yourself. You should try to spend more time understanding your own strengths and weaknesses, and listening to those who love you. Your temper and your pride are your enemies.”
“I am chastened. How can I make this right with you?”
“I’m sure that something will come to mind. But the cost will be high. And you must cease to see me as a child. I will resume my visits to Marie again, and begin with Orsin. You will not object. And I will spend more time with Niona and Fionna as my teachers and mentors.”
Adam asked, “And Cori?”
Niona said, “Cori adores you, and wishes to continue her education here. She has asked to accompany Hecate on her visits to Marie and awaits your approval as her Master.”
“I leave her in your hands, all three of you. But do not rush her. She is young. Now go, all of you. I have meetings to attend, and I am dreadfully late.”
Hecate said, “If they know what’s good for them, they will wait in silence and be grateful they are still alive. I would bring Paulo before them today in chains. Tomorrow we should all meet to decide what our next tasks are. Liara did not postpone your fight and give you more time for no reason. Did she share her desires with you?”
“She did. We shall begin with that in the morning.”
Chapter 17
Adam stood before the assembled crowds in the Great Hall, now filled with thousands of Gens and humans who had attended bloodbath in the Coliseum the day before. Not everyone in attendance the previous day was present for this get together; the most trusted and loyal Gens and humans were excused from attendance.
The Wildmen were absent, except for an honor guard of fifty individuals who Adam requested to remain permanently. Adam gave them permission to inhabit the valley below to feel at home and to not be connected to a social structure that they did not understand and in which they desired not to be included. They lived in the wild on the plains of the Serengeti and did not wish to be civilized; transformation was out of the question. No Wildman had ever sought human form; it was considered culturally unclean and unnatural.
One Wildman would guard a hidden entrance to the City of Light; if Adam needed their counsel, he would go to them.
Occasionally, he would break away from his duties as leader in the City to transform and run with his wild brethren, spending a day or more in the company of those he trusted with his life. He fought, he wrestled and hunted with his favored males and females. They never tired of his company, some swearing he could not have been raised as a human; he was so thoroughly like them.
On occasion, their leader, Nie, would suggest that Adam needed a wild wife who would live on the plains below, make his camp and wait for him patiently on the valley floor. Nie promised a high born and vicious female, who would hunt and care for him in the Wildman fashion. Nie would send for the female he had in mind and, if the Manti agreed, she would arrive quickly. She lived in Africa, as did Nie, and she longed to meet the creature with the red eyes turned eerie blue.
The stories of his prowess, his size, and his beauty were the stuff of legends. When her father returned from his first meeting with Adam, she scattered her suitors and sought only an audience with the Chosen One.
“She will please you and bear your children. She will accept her role. She offers herself and her fidelity, even if your time together will be short. She wishes union, and soon.”
“She has not met me, Nie. How can you be sure she will find me worthy?”
“I am her father. I know her mind. She believes her mate must be high born to merit her devotion and bind herself to only one male.”
“I consent if you agree and desire this mating. Bring your daughter. Tell her if she accepts me, and I her, she will be my only wife from the wild. I will treasure her as befits her station and standing in life.”
“She will arrive within the week. Be prepared for a mating ritual that may be … exhausting and painful. She must be won, and subdued. If she accepts you as her mate, I think she will not kill you. Seven previous potential mates before failed and now repose with their ancestors. I wish you luck.”
“You might have mentioned this earlier, before I gave my consent.”
“What would be the fun in that?”
***
Adam spoke to the previously pro-Paulo crowd who had been brought against their will by Liara to the Coliseum. They had watched as the slaughter began and, when it ended, were frozen in fear that their time was upon them; they would be next. While Adam was well known to co-opt his enemies and bring then into the fold, that process had already been tried with these individuals and rejected by them all. Thus, they were afraid that they would not receive a second, or in some cases, a third chance to switch sides. Worse, there were no shortage of Gens in attendance who were still Paulo loyalists and would never switch sides to the Human. They had seen him in action, but did not consider him Gens, whether or not he was the Manti. That the witch Liara sided with him also did not matter; she was clearly a powerful being, but Creator? Where was the proof? The Gens and the predecessors to the Collective had been around for hundreds of thousands of years; where was the Creator then?
Many had serious doubts. Paulo had led the Collective successfully for decades, had tried to defeat their enemies and reduce the human population in the Great Cull. That he and his brother had failed was of no moment. They had tried. They reasoned that h
ad not the Black Shirt Movement and the Church through Federico Musso intervened, and the Library not fallen to the Human by accident, no doubt Paulo would have been successful in all matters.
They would not abandon him now and would do and say anything to survive another day. When Paulo defeated this impostor and his demon witch, they would dine on human flesh and take swift retribution against the Gens traitors in Paraiso and around the world. The Wildmen would be hunted to extinction, slowly, so as to take advantage of their isolation and lack of organization.
“Thank you all for convening this morning before I send you all back home. I wish to be brief and to the point. I believe that the vast majority of you should be lying on the white sands of the Coliseum dead along with your treacherous brethren who were less fortunate. I recognize that most of you want me dead, and fully expect Paulo to defeat me when we finally meet in single combat. This will not happen, and when it is finally over I will likely hunt each and every one of you down and scatter you, your families, and your clans to the wild open spaces without any protection. In the meantime, I suggest you return home and spread the word that those who side with me will live, and those that don’t will die. The Great Cull you thought would befall the humans of the planet may instead see the utter defeat of the Collective and the entire rotten system of fear and intimidation created by the brother Fortizi. In short, you have chosen the wrong leader, accepted his perversion of the Gens Nation, and terrified the Gens who wanted nothing but peace and tranquility. For this cruelty you have perpetuated willingly on your own kind, I sentence you to banishment. But, until I take Paulo’s head, you may return home.
“If I find that you working against me, plotting on behalf of Paulo, or subverting the work of the Creator to reset the course of all living creatures on the planet, we will come for you and destroy you all without warning.
“To the Gens of the Eighty-One, I have reserved a special place in hell for you. You are traitors and your treachery has gone unpunished for too long. When did you sell out to Paulo? What attempts were you going to make on my life and the lives of my family had I met with you as originally planned? Deception, lies and foul play, these are your names. I will hunt down your Elders and personally take their heads. Go home and regret the day you ever met me; live in constant fear that I will appear out of the forests with an army of Wildmen who will teach you the penalties for disloyalty.
“My loyal subjects think I am being too kind, too generous in allowing you to live. I agree. But dead corpses tell no tales, and I wish you to scatter to the winds and recount to your clans what you have witnessed here in Paraiso. Let your followers know the penalty for treason and remind them of the Prophecy, the Manti, and the Creator. I, and I alone, will unify the three species and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity. Now depart before I change my mind. You will be taken to our airfield and flown to within one hundred miles of your home. You can walk the rest of the way home if you can remember how. Begone!”
***
Tar appeared at Adam’s doorstep one morning, beckoning him to accompany him to meet Nie, who was at the entrance to Paraiso on the valley floor.
“Nie says he has a personage of great importance, a high-born Gens Princess who has travelled far to pay her respects to you. Do you know who she is?”
“I do. At least I think I do. Her name is Niela, and she is Nie’s daughter. About the Princess part, I was unaware. I didn’t think the Gens had royalty.”
“We don’t. Not anymore. But in Africa, deep in the wilds, they still follow old ways. If this female is Niela, she is well-known in fact and fiction. She is rumored to be much desired by all male Gens of the wild; her beauty is great, and her courage undisputed. She is said to be among the most vicious of her kind, and unattainable. Many have tried to tame the beast; none have succeeded.”
“Nie tells me that seven have joined their ancestors upon failing to subdue Niela and that she wishes to mate with me. What do you think of this offer?”
“I think it is better you than me. I am happy with my Lady; we are now speaking of marriage and children. My woman may cook me to death with delicious treats, or make me weak for her touch, but I hope she does not aspire to leave claw marks on my throat.”
“Sounds like a challenge, Tar.”
“I wish you well. I pray you return to us alive and unblemished.”
“Let’s hold out for alive for now.”
***
Nie met Adam, who remained in human form as they journeyed to Nie’s camp to meet Niela. When she first laid eyes up him, Niela seemed less than impressed, even disappointed.
“I see that my appearance in human form offends your eyes. Perhaps more than just your eyes. I am sorry to disappoint. Perhaps your arrogance and ignorance are not worthy of me, Princess. What do you think?”
“I could strike you down like the parasite you are, human. Instead of the flower of Gens manhood I expected, I am confronted by this ugly miscreant? Perhaps you would do better to leave while my father can still protect you, bug.”
“I was just thinking the same thing. It is indeed good news that your father is here to protect you; I can sever that beautiful head from its resting place atop your dainty shoulders in any form. You are incapable of harming me. Now, why don’t you take that frail female form, and return to your mother and little siblings for safety sake. This camp is no place for a child.”
Adam looked at Nie, then turned to walk away. A crowd of Wildmen had witnessed the exchange and gathered to watch the sport. Half believed that the Manti would meet his end that day, such was the confidence they reposed in Niela. The other half knew better and had heard the stories of Adam’s invincibility in human form. The story of the Sari blade wielded by the demoness Niona was now common knowledge; that Adam had wielded it without harm and commanded it to attack him, again without harm, was beyond their comprehension. The Wildmen knew the Sari and feared its supernatural powers. If the Manti commanded it now, Niela was dead.
“Coward,” Niela said. “Do not turn and walk away. You insult me; now you will regret your foolish behavior.”
Adam turned to Nie. “I suggest you restrain your child from intemperate remarks. Were I prone to anger, she might already be dead. What would you have me do?”
“Teach her a lesson. But save her for the ceremony. I am too old to produce another bride for you.”
Niela smiled, thinking her father but jested.
“As you wish, my Lord. I ask you to command me to stop if my ire gets the best of me. Perhaps some of your warriors should stand by.”
“Doubtful. None will want to get close to the Manti if exorcised. She is my daughter, but I too will keep my distance.”
Niela said, “Come bug. Your lesson begins.”
Adam said, “You may attack as you desire, but I request that you refrain from attacking my beautiful face and leave my genitals intact, so I may father your many children without discomfort as I take you.”
“Granted.”
“Then begin, child. Let’s see what you can do.”
Niela lunged immediately to a stationery Adam, the Manti accepting slash after slash, any one of which should have killed the human. She attacked his throat ripping at it with her claws and fangs and knocking Adam to the ground, pouncing on him with vigor. She drew no blood and left no gouge or cut. Niela tried to choke and dismember him, but to no avail. As she began to tire, Adam rose quickly and placed her throat in his vice grip. He pinned her against a large granite boulder, lifting her off her feet, feigning to squeeze the life out of her.
“Nie, I shall not harm her. Just a lesson in humility.”
Niela struggled to break free, but all she could do was try to loosen his grip on her neck. She was paralyzed. The warriors watching were frozen with fear too. If one made any move toward Adam, he would have killed that warrior on the spot.
“Enough of this,” Adam said. “Playtime is over.”
Adam turned to Nie. “How can I expect to take this woma
n as my mate if she has no idea who I am or what my purpose is for all Gens? She is ignorant and intolerant. Have you no other daughters who can think with their heads and not their claws? I have no need of this useless, haughty child.”
“Sadly, I have but one jewel in my crown. This poor example is the best I could do.”
“Killing lesser men to prove your worth is beneath a Princess. Are you sure your real daughter was not kidnapped at birth and this one substituted?”
Niela said, “You are still human, bug. What need have I of you?”
Adam transformed to his Gens form, terrible to behold. He dropped Niela to the ground.
“You speak to your Lord, child. Do so with respect while you still breathe.”
The Manti howled as the warriors and Niela covered their ears, feeling pain and fear in it’s wake. Niela leaped to her feet and ran.
“Really, must I?”
Nie said, “Yes, unfortunately, you must. Please do not break anything. Anything important anyway. I would have you mate with her tonight.”
“In that case, we shall return when we have come to understand each other. It might take some time.”
“I will search for you in a week’s time. Howl if you need to be alone longer.”
***
The Manti and his bride returned three weeks later, both now at peace, with Niela more regal and more haughty than ever.
“Forgive me Nie, but I have given her knowledge and powers. To be my mate requires that she be a willing partner in all that will come. She has agreed that, although she only prefers the life of the wild, she prefers being mated to the Manti even more. I hope you understand the sacrifice she is making to carry out your will.”
“I do. And gladly. You are my Lord and your tasks cannot be completed without the help of those who love you. You have always been one of us; now you are family. I hope one day you will journey with us back to our home. The people of my clan will wish to meet the man who tamed our Princess of Darkness. The young men will flock to your clan.”
Resolution Page 84
