by Rosette Lex
She supposed the king was probably a bit too busy to take her on an actual date, but she was resourceful. She would think of some way to spend time with him.
The next day, Crystal woke in time to eat breakfast with him in the morning. They didn’t speak of much—as it turned out, Gerralt was about as far from being a morning person as possible—but it was a decent start.
From there, she followed him to his meeting with his council, and while she couldn’t speak with him there, she could listen as they all debated what supplies and soldiers needed to go where, which locations were lost causes, and what areas needed to be better fortified.
It was fascinating, in an odd sort of way, though Crystal had always been more oriented towards literature and language, and she suspected that would always be the case.
Next was lunch, and at last Crystal got the chance to actually speak with him.
“You seem very intent on following me all over the place today,” Gerralt commented.
Crystal shrugged. “Do you mind?” she asked, though she was reasonably sure she knew the answer. He was a king, after all. She was pretty sure it wouldn’t be much of a hardship for him to get her to stop.
“I don’t,” he confirmed. “It’s just a bit unusual.”
“I had this glorious idea,” she replied. “’How about I actually get to know you? What a novel concept!’”
He snorted. “Well, it is a bit overdue, perhaps.”
“I don’t know how I got so distracted,” Crystal drawled, “between the kidnapping and the brain tumor.”
For a moment, Gerralt looked almost contrite. But when his mouth parted around what Crystal suspected was an apology, Crystal held up one hand and cut him off.
“Save it,” she replied. “Ancient history.”
Everything was already so complicated. She didn’t know if she wanted to go home or not, but she did know that if he apologized and made it seem like he was willing to take her home, she would take that option purely for the sense of normalcy.
So she was just…making life less complicated and removing the option entirely. Perhaps not the most rational solution, but it was the one she was going with.
If Gerralt found her reaction strange, he didn’t say anything about it. He simply nodded his head once and resumed eating.
Relieved, Crystal resumed eating her lunch. Everything was already complicated enough. She wasn’t really in the mood to add talking about her feelings on top of it. Besides, that seemed more like Mellia’s job.
After lunch, it was almost immediately time for the afternoon break, where the entire castle more or less shut down. Gerralt and Crystal wandered the maze in the courtyard for a time before they came to a halt in the garden with the tent.
After some rather mild coaxing from Crystal, Gerralt shoved his pants down, Crystal hiked her skirt up, and they rather thoroughly enjoyed the break on the couch. With Gerralt leaning over her and Crystal’s legs over his shoulders, the close, hot air felt even hotter, and each breath felt as if it was scorching her lungs, but she could think of nothing to complain about in the way he pressed her back into the couch and pounded into her.
Afterwards, they had to press together tightly in order to both fit. It was a little uncomfortable with the heat, but it was…nice.
With the end of the afternoon rest came more meetings, and Crystal again sat and listened in. If she was apparently going to be queen, she should probably know all of it, anyway.
It didn’t occur to her until halfway through the meeting that the idea of being queen no longer horrified her. Once that realization struck her, she couldn’t help but catch Gerralt’s eye and grin. He offered her a smile in return, his sentence faltering in the middle so mildly that it was hardly even noticeable.
The idea still made her nervous, of course, but for different reasons. She had never really been in charge of anything more intimidating than a bar or a troop or Girl Scouts, after all. But just thinking about it no longer sent her into a despairing spiral of ‘oh God I’m stuck here.’ It was a start, she supposed.
Dinner seemed louder than usual, and when Crystal leaned over to Gerralt and mentioned it, he rolled his eyes in exasperation and pointed towards a different table, where a gaggle of women were laughing and cheering and shouting, Mellia at the center of them.
“Mellia’s wedding guests have begun to arrive,” he explained. “I plan on avoiding them to the best of my abilities.”
“Aww, not much of a partier?” Crystal teased.
“I will party at my own wedding,” he replied, “and none other. Kings do not party.” He sounded far too serious.
“But they do have sex in gardens,” she shot back, grinning over the edge of her wine glass.
Gerralt nearly choked on his own wine and offered her a faintly scandalized look. “We’re not exactly in private here,” he pointed out.
“Neither was the garden.” Crystal smiled innocently.
“It’s not like I’m going to start telling everyone all about it,” she assured him. “I would much rather keep all of the details all to myself.”
Gerralt rolled his eyes. “This is not an appropriate conversation for the dinner table,” he pointed out, but he was fighting back a half-smile.
“You don’t seem to mind,” she replied in a sing-song tone.
He scoffed. “You’re being ridiculous,” he replied. “Too ridiculous to speak with.” He made a show of turning his attention back to his dinner.
Crystal snorted indelicately and picked her wine up again.
It was after dinner that they truly got to spend time together without dozens of other people crowded around or taking up Gerralt’s attention.
“How have your lessons been?” Gerralt wondered, as he led the way into the stables.
“Well enough,” Crystal answered, as she set about leading her steed out of his stall.
Gerralt hummed thoughtfully and pulled himself up into his saddle. “You’ll have to prove it,” he said after a moment, and then took off at a gallop down the nearest trail.
“What—!” Crystal hastily clambered into her saddle, tugged the reins to point her steed down the trail, and then she simply held on as the gelding took off in Gerralt’s wake.
As the trail went on and on and Crystal got accustomed to the motion of the unicorn beneath her, slowly she sat up, until she could see ahead and actually offer the gelding some input, rather than clinging to his neck like a barnacle.
Gradually, one step at a time, they caught up to Gerralt and his stallion. He let them catch up and Crystal knew that—she had seen his stallion in a full gallop before, and she was pretty sure nothing could catch him then—but it made her feel good regardless.
When Crystal had almost caught up, Gerralt’s stallion slowed so they could ride side by side, until the path through the trees finally gave way to sand. Crystal grinned slowly as the ocean came into view, the waves crashing down against the shore. Her gelding sped up to a trot again, pulling ahead. He waded into the water, until he was standing deep enough in the surf that the water was rushing around Crystal’s ankles and she could easily reach down to run a hand through it.
They rode peacefully along the beach for a time, Crystal’s gelding trudging through the water and Gerralt’s stallion looping in circles on the shore to keep from pulling too far ahead.
Eventually, though, something captured Crystal’s attention. There was a light shining in the distance, and as her curiosity got the better of her, Crystal steered her gelding out of the water to aim him towards the light.
“It’s beautiful,” Crystal said, once she could fully see it. Even from a distance it was enormous, towering towards the sky. It was a narrow spire, gleaming like platinum, with a silver crystal that had to be the size of Crystal’s gelding at the top. The crystal glowed brightly, bathing the water and the ground below in silver light.
“It’s a lighthouse,” Crystal realized.
“A light tower,” Gerralt corrected, as his stal
lion came to a stop beside the gelding. “I take it they don’t look like that on Earth.”
“Not even close,” Crystal confirmed.
“We called them lighthouses because they looked like just that; tall houses with a light bulb at the top.”
Gerralt wrinkled his nose. “That doesn’t sound particularly attractive.”
“Some of them were.” Crystal shrugged. “A lot of them were just boring, though.” She looked back up at the tower again, her head tipped back as she admired it. “Does it have a name?” she wondered.
“The Tower of Guidance,” he replied. “For what I imagine are obvious reasons. It’s not the most creative name, perhaps, but it does have a certain sort of dignity to it.”
Crystal laughed quietly and looked over at him. She had to pause to just stare for a moment, at the way the tower’s silver light fell across his face. His eyes seemed to glow like backlit diamonds, and before Crystal was even aware of it, she was reaching over to grab his wrist and pull him closer.
She leaned across the gap between their steeds and kissed him, one hand still wrapped around his wrist and the other holding tight to her saddle.
They parted slowly, and for lack of anything else to say, Crystal smiled crookedly and said, “Hi.”
Gerralt chuckled quietly. “Hi yourself.”
They stood for a few minutes longer in the tower’s light, before at last they turned their steeds back towards the trail. They rode in silence at first, until Crystal grinned and urged her gelding into a gallop. She could hear the hooves of the stallion behind her and she had no doubt he would catch up without an issue, but at least for a moment, she was in the lead.
That night was quiet. Crystal undressed in easy silence and pulled on a sleep shirt. She didn’t bother with a pair of pants before she crawled into bed. Shirtless, Gerralt joined her a few minutes later.
They were tense, at first. Sex was one thing, and they had shared the bed, but they had never slept with each other in the most literal sense. In the end, it was Crystal who shuffled closer to him. She shimmied backwards until her back was pressed to his chest, and if she leaned her head back she could feel his chin against her scalp.
“Today was nice,” she observed eventually, her voice already sleepy and quiet.
Gerralt hummed a quiet agreement against her ear.
“This is nice, too,” she decided after a moment, and she snuggled back against him to make her point.
His laugh was more just a quiet huff of air, followed by another hum of agreement.
After that, Crystal took the hint and stopped talking. Gerralt draped one arm around her waist, and soon enough she heard his breathing even out as he fell asleep.
For a few minutes more, Crystal lied awake, staring into the darkness of the bedroom. At last, though, with moonlight falling across her face, she slept.
Chapter Ten
She didn’t want to leave.
The realization hit Crystal suddenly when she woke up. She was comfortable. She felt safe. Someone loved her. She missed home, certainly, but ‘home’ meant not even being safe just walking down the street if the moon was in the wrong phase.
And she was positive that in this new world she would be able to find enough types of alcohol to get back to making drinks, and at least someone would appreciate it (possibly Kelso; there was a man who needed to relax a bit more often).
She didn’t want to leave. She didn’t want to go back to Earth. She was actually…content.
The sun was just barely coming up, not yet fully shining through the window. Gerralt was still asleep, pressed against Crystal’s back with one arm draped over her and the other curled between his chest and her back. Crystal basked in the feeling for as long as she could, snuggling back against his chest.
The sun was finally reaching the window when Gerralt mumbled, “My hands gone numb,” before he reluctantly began to sit up.
“Morning,” Crystal greeted. She sat up and turned around to face him, sitting on her knees.
“So, as your mate, would that make me a queen?” she asked. It seemed like a conversation that would be easier to have when Gerralt was only half-awake.
He blinked at her sleepily. “Yes?” he said after a moment, confused.
“But I don’t know how to be a queen,” she pointed out.
“I’m a bartender. I didn’t exactly get lessons in how to rule anything rowdier than a bar, and then my job was mostly to supply the means to make people rowdier.”
Gerralt yawned against one hand, his voice slightly muffled when he said, “You would have tutors. To teach you about the kingdom and what your duties would be.” He rubbed at his eyes.
“Besides, you have a good head on your shoulders, and that’s half the battle right there.”
Finally, realization dawned in his eyes, and he sat up straighter. “Wait, are you saying you want to stay?” he asked, nearly tripping over the words.
Crystal nodded slowly. “I think I do,” she admitted. “I mean, there are parts of Earth that I’ll miss, but I’m assuming I could visit it again at some point. Besides, my little town just…doesn’t compare. They’re like night and day, really. Especially with the heat difference.”
Gerralt simply stared at her for a moment, his eyes wide. And then he surged forward to kiss her. They collided so quickly that Crystal squealed and fell back onto the bed, and it seemed as if he wanted to devour her as he pinned her to the bed. The kiss was hard and fast and sloppy, lips sliding together and tongues battling.
The kiss parted slowly, reluctantly, and left Crystal panting. “So,” she managed, voice breathy, “I take it you’re happy.”
“Beyond measure,” he replied.
“I would show you just how happy, but unfortunately there’s a meeting I need to get to.” He kissed her once more, chaste that time, and when he leaned back he said, “We’ll have to worry about a proper coronation and tutors, but that’s for later.”
He pulled away from her and stood up, and Crystal watched him get ready for the day, gather up everything he needed, and leave. She would join him for breakfast (or brunch, rather) after his first meeting, and until then she would get as much extra sleep as she could.
As it turned out, there was no brunch with Gerralt, as Mellia accosted Crystal in the hall and dragged her off to brunch with her and Kelso. She was practically squealing in excitement as she burst out, “Gerralt told me what’s going on!”
Crystal rubbed one ear for show. “I take it you approve?”
Mellia engulfed her in a hug, and then pushed her down into a seat and began rapidly explaining everything that would need to be planned for the coronation to happen as quickly as possible.
“Shouldn’t we be married first?” Crystal asked, baffled.
Mellia waved it off without a thought, but before she could continue with her ramble, Kelso cut in.
“Marriage here is not as it is on Earth,” he stated.
“Finding your mate is the important part. If you have a wedding, it is mostly used as an excuse to have a very large party because you found a mate. Since Gerralt has not exactly kept it a secret that you are his mate, there need not be much more than a public announcement.”
That…made a certain amount of sense. It made Crystal’s life a little less complicated, at least, if she only needed to worry about one imminent celebration.
“That’s good to know,” she replied.
Mellia leapt back into her spiel, and it seemed dizzying, the amount of things that would need to be put together for the coronation. But at the end, she made it much better with a single sentence.
“Of course, I’ll handle as much of it as I can when I’m not busy with my wedding plans.”
Sometimes, Crystal could just kiss her sister-in-law.
It wasn’t until the afternoon rest that Crystal managed to find Gerralt, and they sat in the tent in the garden that Crystal had decided was hers.
“Will you be any easier to actually find when I’m queen?�
�� she asked, partially teasing.
He snorted. “Yes, but only because you’ll be in most of those meetings with me.”
Crystal pouted. “I take it you’re going to want my input during those meetings?” she wondered.
“Not at first,” he replied, and Crystal instantly relaxed slightly. “At first, you’ll simply be there to learn and to gain experience. Eventually, though, I hope to have your contribution.”
“I think I can do that,” she replied slowly.
It was…daunting, knowing how much responsibility would be weighing down on her. But it was also exciting and exhilarating. Maybe that meant that she would be good at it. Maybe she could finally do something more important than just mixing drinks with her life.
The idea was terrifying, like staring out over a cliff and seeing nothing below, but it was amazing, as if she was being told she had wings and she only needed to jump, to take that last big step to use them.
Life was hectic for a little while. Crystal met her tutors—politics, history, language, economics, duty—and while they seemed a bit skeptical, they were all decent enough people. One of them had the ability to simply disappear and reappear on a whim and Crystal found that slightly terrifying, but other than that they seemed like good people.
Mellia, a bouncing ball of energy, helped plan as much of the coronation as she could, but that wasn’t quite as much as she would have liked, or even as much as Crystal would have liked. After all, Mellia had a wedding to finish planning in the next few weeks and a growing crowd of guests to tend to.
That left Crystal to deal with the barrage of florists, caterers, royal consultants, and decorators. She basically had to learn an entirely separate language to pick the flowers, so she wouldn’t accidentally pick a combination of flowers that meant something unpleasant. While it was true that she was excited, the amount of work going into just planning the coronation certainly had her worried.
