Tales of Alavern Pt. 07 Ch. 01
(Author's Note: Here it is at long last, the next installment of Tales of Alavern! It took quite a while to figure out where I wanted to take the story but I think I've got what I wanna do for at least three more of these. I know many of you will probably be disappointed that I've split this story up instead of uploading the whole thing but I'm working on several different large projects at the same time and I didn't want to make you guys wait TOO long to keep all this going. And as a reminder, this follows the new continuity I've begun with the reboot of Tales of Alavern 1 so there may be a few things that are different from what you remember. With that said, I hope you enjoy!)
Prologue
The sounds of destruction echoed in the chambers of the war god, Ulfric as he went about breaking everything he could get his hands on. Angry couldn't even begin to describe how he was feeling, and livid was barely in the same circles. He'd waited for centuries to find some way to finally destroy the barrier that separated the Alavern Isles from the rest of the world, then the Great Mother herself had brought the perfect weapon.
When he had first found out about the man named Cyrus, he had wasted no time in letting others know about the Great Mother's transgressions. He had hoped that the Nameless One would have demanded the barrier be taken down as punishment and was crestfallen when he learned that her punishment would be the restriction of her powers and influence. Then, the Nameless One had presented a unique opportunity.
He had been all too happy to gift some of his power to the man who would finally help him bring the Verni under heel, to secretly implant a small piece of magic alongside his gift that would destroy the accursed barrier. He was even able to gaze directly upon the Alavern Isles, though his view was limited to only the immediate area around Cyrus. All Ulfric had to do was wait for him to go out to sea and the barrier would fall.
Except Cyrus was afraid of the ocean.
His plan had been completely undermined by the most asinine reason that could have possibly existed. If he didn't know better from personal contact with them, he would think that the gods who guided fate and irony conspired against him. He cursed Cyrus's name and cowardice as he threw a vase against a large mirror and utterly annihilated both with his great strength. Ulric swore loudly at a conjured image of Cyrus walking through the Verni's royal palace at the top of his lungs, then plopped listlessly onto his bed and contented himself to simply glare at the loathsome mortal.
He didn't even notice his lover, the nature goddess Ner, had come into the room until she sat down next to him. She gently laid hands upon him but he didn't allow his gaze to tear away from the man he'd come to hate for several more minutes. A small part of him was calm enough to wonder why she had not tried to instigate love play as she would so often do during her visits and eventually, that part of him gained enough strength to force his attention upon her.
"I am guessing that you have again become so caught up in spying on the mortals, you completely missed the enormous news that is completely shaking the entire Celestial Realm." Ner said softly as she ran her fingers gently through the war god's hair.
"Enormous news?" Ulfric wondered as he leaned into her touch. "Is the Nameless One finally dying?"
"No, Ulfric. The Great Mother and Cerredes have become a union." she said to him.
"What?!" he shouted, utterly shocked. "That cannot be! The Great Mother would never share her power or her chosen people!"
Ulfric shot up, off the bed and out of the tender grip his lover had held him with as his mind wrestled against the idea. A union was beyond a rare thing with gods. Not a single union between gods had occurred since the Nameless One's generation was still young. To enter into a union with another god was to share your responsibilities, your domain and your chosen people. Even married gods didn't become a union. Gods were too inherently selfish to share so much of themselves.
"Perhaps it is a desperate attempt to circumvent her punishment." Ner suggested. "After all, her punishments cannot apply to Cerredes. This could be a simple matter of scratching each other's backs."
Rage quickly built inside of Ulfric until it simply had to be let out. He howled with rage and smashed the ground with enough force that it caused an earthquake. Ner was nearly thrown off the bed and watched, half-amused, as he returned to breaking nearly everything he could get his hands on. Her amusement ended when a plate was carelessly thrown towards her head. She dove off the bed to avoid it and came up with her own rage burning on her face.
"Don't you dare direct your anger towards me, Ulfric!" she yelled.
"I will direct my anger where I please! You do not command me!" Ulfric yelled back as he stomped towards her. Ner's eyes glowed a bright green as she bared her teeth at him and vines as thick as grown snakes erupted from the floors and wrapped around every limb Ulfric had before binding him completely.
Ulfric struggled and squirmed but the vines followed his every movement and soon he couldn't get enough leverage to even wiggle. The two gods glared at each other as they breathed heavily, but soon Ulfric stopped struggling. Ner crooked her finger at him and the vines lowered him until his face was right in front of hers.
"I do command you, Ulfric." she growled as she gently grabbed his jaw. "I earned you. You are mine!"
Before he could even think to utter a word of protest, Ner claimed his lips in a hungry, possessive kiss. Ulfric could not argue with her. She was right. His great strength was no match for the power she wielded over him, so he simply kissed her back and let his anger melt away. She bit his lower lip and tugged it as she broke the kiss and pulled away.
"Now," she said softly to him as she ran fingers through his hair, "tell me what has you so much more upset than usual."
"I..." he paused as he contemplated the deepest truth behind his rage, "I hate my weakness of mind. I have been patient and planned as best I could to destroy the barrier of the Alavern Isles. I thought I had finally gotten my chance when the Nameless One made the Great Mother and I gift the mortal you see in my portal with pieces of our power. I snuck in a spell as well that would destroy that accursed barrier from the inside once he touched it, but it's all fallen apart."
"Because of the mortal?" she asked as she looked towards the portal. "How has he ruined your plan?"
"He is afraid of the ocean." Ulfric spat out angrily. "He won't get anywhere near the barrier if he won't even go into the water."
"Well, that's no good. We need that barrier gone. Alavern needs to rejoin the rest of the world." Ner replied irritably. Ulfric blinked in surprise at her words as she stared at Cyrus's image in the portal. She turned to glance at Ulfric and smirked wickedly at him. "Oh come now, do you really think I sought you out simply because I found you handsome?"
"So you've been lying to me all this time?" he asked.
"Not at all, Ulfric." she said sweetly to him, "I really do find you handsome and have come to care greatly for you. I just never corrected you when you misunderstood my initial interest in you."
"Then please, tell me the truth of it now." Ulfric pleaded.
"It's quite simple, my handsome war god..." Ner said haughtily as she stepped back from him and began to shed her clothes. "I am a nature goddess, connected to all the plants in the entire world. When a forest fire breaks out, I feel the loss of that great area. When a gardener makes a bed, I feel that new life come into existence. That is all part of nature's order but you know what isn't?"
Her face grew dark and angry as the last of her clothing fell to the floor and she stood before him, gloriously nude. He waited patiently for her to continue as he drank in the sight of her. She moved towards his bed and commanded the vines to carry him towards her without letting him get any leverage to get free.
"The Great Mother's damnable barrier!" she yelled at him as she plopped onto his bed, "There are plants on the Alavern Isles that don't exist anywhere else in the world and I haven't been able to feel their existence in any way for well over a thousand years! It's like a piece of me is missing and I've been suffering the phantom pain of it for over a millennium, yet nobody cares!"
Her chest heaved with heavy breath as the inferno of her verbal rage subsided and Ulfric gazed upon his furious lover with intrigue, admiration and more than a hint of lust. He found her glorious beyond measure and felt a pang of something unknown shoot through his heart. He wanted her, wanted to be with her always and knew that he would personally tear apart any who tried to separate them from that moment forward.
"I care." Ulfric said resolutely as the vines lowered him closer to his lover. "The Great Mother's pile of sins seems to grow ever higher, but she has gone unpunished for it. Even the punishments she has received, she has found ways to worm out of. It cannot be allowed to continue."
"No, it cannot." Ner agreed as she smiled wickedly at him. "Luckily, you've created the perfect tool in that man. You just didn't have enough of a plan to actually use him. Luckily for you, I'm here to help but not just yet. We're both a little too worked up for planning."
She licked her lips at him as she spread her legs to reveal her glistening sex. The vines that bound Ulfric slowly moved him closer until his nose was a hair's length away from her folds. Ner reached forward, gently cupped his cheek and kissed his forehead. The unknown feeling shot through his heart again as Ner's face pulled away from him.
"Enough talking for now. I have a better use for your mouth, handsome." Ner said softly before she roughly grabbed his hair and shoved his face onto her sex. The portal that showed Cyrus kneeling went ignored by them both.
Chapter 1
Cyrus took a deep breath as he kneeled before Naomi in the throne room where he felt that the insanity of his current life had truly started. The Verni Queen's face held a satisfied smirk as they both waited for the arrival of the metal collar that would mark him as the King of the Verni once more. It had only been a month and a half since he'd last held the title.
The vote for Naomi's proposed law to make King a permanent government position had passed easily amongst her people, though most were surprised that the new position hadn't been given to Naomi's fiancee. Thankfully, nobody was opposed to Cyrus's recoronation after the goodwill he'd built up that last time he'd held the title so everything ran smoothly. Well, almost everything. The collar had somehow ended up lost despite being completed only two hours ago.
"Well, this certainly doesn't feel properly ceremonial anymore. Does it?" Naomi asked Cyrus playfully.
"Nothing ever really goes right the first time." he answered just as playfully. "So can I stand up for now? My knee's starting to hurt."
"Not just yet. I rather like seeing you kneeling before me. Brings back fond memories." she said in a semi-flirtatious tone. Cyrus sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Well just try not to challenge me to a fight to the death this time, okay?" he joked. Naomi and the couple of royal guards in attendance laughed, then the doors to the throne room burst open and a very winded servant with blonde hair rushed forward with the very collar they had been waiting for, balanced carefully on a very plush, red pillow.
The laughter quickly died down as the woman approached the throne and stopped to kneel in front of Naomi while holding the pillow aloft. Naomi gently picked the collar up and dismissed the servant with a wave of her hand. Cyrus got his first look at what he would be wearing to work for the foreseeable future.
Naomi approached him with the beautiful accessory, made of two very large, interwoven rings. The clasp that would hold it on his neck had a simple design they had created alongside Megara and Brianna to represent the new male-inclusive Alavern Isles. Cyrus had to fight a smile at the memory as Naomi stopped in front of him.
"Rise and meet me face-to-face, Cyrus of the Alavern Isles." the queen commanded. Cyrus rose to his feet, much to the equal chagrin and relief of his poor knees. "Do you swear to serve and lead the Verni alongside me? To be bound to me as my equal for as long as I may hold the throne of our people?"
"I do." Cyrus said solemnly.
"Then I, Naomi, 17th Queen of the Alavern Isles hereby bind you to me and announce you as Cyrus, first King of the Verni." she said as she gently placed the cool metal collar on Cyrus's bare neck. The clasp locked with a loud click and the ceremony was finally complete. Cyrus let out a sigh of relief and stretched out his back.
"Thank the Source it's finally over. I feel so achy..." he groaned. "Though speaking of 'I do', how are the wedding plans going?"
Naomi's face fell into a gentle smile and she dismissed the two attending guards with a wave of her hand. It was just the two of them alone in the massive throne room after a few moments and Cyrus couldn't help but laugh as a giddy blush burned the queen's entire face. She did her best to glare at him but it just made her face look even goofier.
"Shut up!" she pouted. "I'm nervous, okay?! I want everything to go perfectly and I couldn't even get this simple new coronation ceremony right!"
Cyrus pulled her into a gentle hug and patted her back until he felt her relax in his arms. She let out a long sigh and hugged him back. They stood there together in comfortable silence for a moment until Naomi pushed away from him. She wiped away a couple of stray tears that had snuck out against her will and smoothed out her sheer white dress.
"Listen, how about I take over whatever else you needed to get done today? That way, you can focus on what you need to get done for the wedding instead of worrying about whether you'll get everything done in time to get ready for your big day?" he offered. "Just catch me up and I'll do the job you crowned me to do."
"Catch you up, huh?" Naomi said as she took a seat on her throne. "Probably a good idea, considering your holiday from government work. Well let's start with what's been happening with the Mother's Pool."
"Now with added sex goddess." Cyrus joked. Naomi playfully glared at him but continued as if he hadn't said anything.
"It has produced children without fail since we spoke to the Great Mother and Cerredes and we allow one couple per week to create a child before we purify the pool and let it rest for the next couple. Only a single boy has been born from it so far but thankfully, that hasn't led to anything other than some mild confusion. Apparently, they didn't really believe us when we told them it was possible." she explained.
"The kid's not being treated poorly, is he?" he asked, concerned in the way only a parent can be.Relief swept through him as Naomi smiled warmly and shook her head.
"To the surprise and relief of no small amount of people, myself and Megara especially, the fact that they are a child is still more important than the fact that they're male." she said, then paused as a cocky grin spread over her face. "Megara's efforts to associate the word 'boy' with males who are not evil has been surprisingly effective, especially with how often Megara said the word while she was carrying Brian around."
"Yeah, she's pretty cunning when she's got a motive." Cyrus noted with a smirk that mirrored Naomi's.
"Speaking of Megara, how is she doing? I haven't seen much of her lately." Naomi asked.
"She's... pregnant." Cyrus answered nervously as he scratched the back of his head. "Like...a lot more pregnant than I feel like she should be at this point. Back on Earth, I'd guess that she was seven months along. Which is to say, most of the way finished with the pregnancy despite only having been so for like half as long. We're not sure if that's normal for Verni or if it's because of...well, what was done to me."
He let out a sigh as his mood fell and looked down at himself. Ever since he met the Great Mother face to face, he hadn't felt like himself. His physique had changed from being muscular with a belly to a slim and toned runner's body, though his lifelong patchwork of scars remained. His hair never seemed to grow anymore, with the exception of the beard he still had to shave off twice a day. The most notable difference, and the one he kept secret, was that he never seemed to get tired.
No matter how little he slept or how much he exercised, he never seemed to run out of energy. He still got sore after a hard workout and he could sleep if he laid down and relaxed but it was rare for him to be able to stay asleep for more than an hour or two. Even the nights he spent in bed with Megara became him watching her sleep after waking up in the early hours of night.
Cyrus was snapped out of his wandering thoughts by Naomi's hand gently squeezing his shoulder. He's gotten so lost in his own mind that he hadn't even seen her stand up. She smiled kindly at him, then pulled him into a hug and kissed his forehead.
"I know you're concerned, but you don't have to face this all alone." she said softly. "You have me, Megara, Brianna and even little Brian. We all love you. Don't forget that, okay?"
"Thanks Naomi." he said after a few moments of just enjoying her warmth and kindness. "I love you too."
Chapter 2
Brianna marched carefully around the marketplace, a venue she normally left to others but today was a special occasion. The young person at her side hadn't ever been to the market before and took in everything with wide eyes. They weren't a member of the guard, at least not for the moment, but they would need to know how to safely navigate the area no matter what. At least with her, Brian could learn safely.
"Well isn't this a sight?" a voice all too familiar to Brianna said from a short distance away. Biranna held onto Brian protectively as she turned to the woman, Bria. Short hair that used to be a brilliant, fiery red had dulled to grey and piercing green eyes stared her down as they drew closer. Little Brian looked between the new woman and the one holding him with obvious confusion.
"Hello Mother. How are you?" Brianna asked hesitantly. The other woman was unamused.
"Oh, so now I'm Mother again?" Bria asked harshly. "I haven't heard a single word from you since you ran off to go join the guard when I told you no and now you're choosing not to ignore me? After over 30 years?"
Brianna winced as though somebody had stabbed her and Brian, sensitive boy that he was, began to whimper as he looked up at her face. She bounced him gently in her arms to try and calm him while she took a deep breath to steady herself.
"I've been trying to speak with you for weeks now, Mother but every time I went to the bar, I was told that you had left for home. I never thought I'd run into you in the marketplace today of all days." she said as a smile slowly spread on her face. Brian always seemed to have that effect on her and part of her wondered if Cerredes had done something to the boy to cause it.r"
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https://warosu.org/jp/thread/1104143
https://warrenarlo.blogspot.com/2021/03/exemple-de-lettre-de-motivation.html
https://waxy.org/2011/01/pirating_the_2011_oscars/
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