Feast Of The Gods

Alaric felt Castiel's cock rub against his through the thin layer of flesh dividing them. Together, the three of them were melded, a mass of rampant cravings. Hanne started to come, harder than she ever had before, as the fury of their lovemaking assailed her senses. She felt so full, so decadent, and yet so complete all at the same time. Hannelore let out a scream as she climaxed, her body constricting as she did. Alaric and Castiel were clamped tight by her peak, each feeling nearly unmanned by it. Both men slipped away with her, filling her even more full of their seed, drowing, dizzy in their own euphoria.

**** **** ****

Alaric's eyes were closed, though he talked and smiled, Hanne knew he would soon be asleep. She watched Castiel washing himself in the basin after she had already done so herself.

Castiel slid underneath the sheet with her and pulled her close to his cool, damp body.Hannelore buried her face against his chest. This was how they had slept for the three months Alaric was in Venice. Hanne melted into his embrace. Alaric was completely still beside them.

"If we have a child together, what do you think it will be like?" Castiel asked, softly. Hanne looked up at him in the dim lamp light. Alaric must have found the time to tell him, it should've occured to her when he came inside her, but she had been too caught up to think.

"I don't know, do you think I should start hiring the most unappealing servants in town right away?"

He laughed loudly and Alaric moaned in his sleep.

"Probably. I think our child would be handsome and intelligent. Certainly he will be rich, as the heir to my estate," Castiel explained.

"Castiel, to acknowledge that child would be impossible," she said.

"A man can leave his fortune to his godchild, it's no scandal."

"What if you marry and have other children?" she asked.

"It is likely I will never marry. As you well know, most women could not stand my unconventional life and I am not willing to give up such freedom."

"There would be no way of knowing if the child is yours or not, unless it looks very much like you," said Hanne.

"It does not matter, I would love it anyway," he said, and kissed the top of her head.

"Though it is Alaric's ring I wear, I often forget that you are not my husband as well," she chuckled.

"As do I," Castiel replied, kissing her again.

**** **** ****

Hannelore and Alaric spent three more months with Castiel at the country estate. To the trio of lovers, it was very much like an eden, a dream from which no one wanted to awaken. Hannelore documented all the plants she could find and their uses while Castiel sketched them in a book for her. Alaric painted numerous watercolors of the surrounding landscape and it's animals when he wasn't busy taking the portraits of all the wealthy patrons who sought him out.

Archangelo and Simonetta were frequent guests, though none of their subsequent visits were ever as strange as that first one. The couple seemed completely different, in fact, Hanne and Alaric agreed they appeared to be quite in love. At dinner, Archangelo had only attention for his wife. Alaric didn't seem to mind at all.

Sir Willhelm, Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, stayed on a few days longer, before riding back to Florence. He made great strides to prove to Hannelore that he could please her in bed. Alaric and Castiel played cards every afternoon in the upstairs studio and from Hanne's moans across the hall, they could tell Willhelm had improved considerably.

The following spring, Willhelm returned to Nurnberg with a shockingly young Italian bride named Crescentia. Being that Hanne was one of the very few Italian speaking women in town, the two became great friends, just as their husbands.

The Duseks could have stayed forever. But, Alaric had a house to look after, a family to provide for, apprentices to teach and a country of artists to influence. The Signoria, through Niccolo, had offered Alaric a permanent position as artist for the city. He was offered a large home, a generous yearly stipend and freedom from taxation. Alaric gave it careful consideration, but then declined.

The government in Florence was unstable, subject to tyranny and foreign invasion. Though Alaric felt he had finally achieved the social status and respect he worked so hard for in Florence, it would mean nothing to him if he had to worry over his wife's safety when he was away.

Nurnberg would always be their home, even though it was colder there in winter and he was considered more a skilled laborer than a prince. It was unlikely in Nurnberg he would wake up one morning to find his home occupied by the French Army and that was something which could never be guaranteed in Florence.

Alaric's dream had been to breathe new life into German painting, not to leave Germany forever. Hanne and Alaric would miss Castiel terribly, as they always did when it was time to go back to their lives in Nurnberg, but they would always return to him. Hannelore was less sad about leaving when she noticed Castiel and young Sebastian spending more and more time together.

Goodbyes were said and Hanne and Alaric departed the Valten estate in late September of 1498. They were to spend a week in Venice as the guest of Master Giovanni Bellini before crossing The Alps once again. Alaric had painted another self-portrait as a gift to the elderly master. The portrait had been so lifelike, when Master Giovanni's pet dog saw it, he had barked and wagged his tail, thinking it was Alaric himself.

Giovanni and Hannelore got along wonderfully. Alaric thought the sweet old man was a bit smitten with his Hanne and it amused him a great deal. The master asked Alaric if Hanne might do him the favor of modeling for a portrait. Hannelore agreed to this great honor. Bellini rarely painted portraits, his subjects were usually of a religious nature.

Master Giovanni said he only needed to do preliminary sketches of her and he would paint the portrait later. This came as a great relief to Hanne, for she had not felt well the entire time in Venice. The smells of the city seemed to repulse her like never before and she had strange dreams.

Hanne managed to stand immobile in the sweltering hot studio while the old master sketched her with his arthritic hands. Just as Bellini pronounced the sketches finished, Hannelore swooned.

For Hanne, there was darkness crashing down upon her and the muffled sounds of frantic voices. When she finally came to, Alaric and Giovanni, their faces twisted with concern, were crowded around her.

"Hanne, are you alright? You've fainted," Alaric said. They helped her to sit up slowly. She took the cup of water Giovanni offered.

"I do not faint," she mumbled, while straightening her rumpled, blue velvet gown.

"Are you ill?" Alaric asked.

"Yes and no," she replied, smiling. A light of joy came into his eyes when he made the connection.

Master Bellini slapped Alaric on the back and congratulated them both. Alaric could barely contain his excitement.

"I think in honor of your condition, I shall paint you as The Madonna and when your child comes, Alaric can send me drawings of the infant's face and I will paint the Christ child from those drawings," Master Bellini announced. Everyone agreed it was a wonderful idea and the couple thanked their friend for the tribute. The painting, when finished, would come to be regarded as Bellini's finest Madonna and Child.

When Hannelore went over the pages of her journal, she realized she was nearly three months along in her pregnancy. How the time had drifted by so quickly at the Valten estate. Alaric inquired as to whether she would like to stay in Italy and return to Castiel's home to give birth, instead of embarking on a long journey home. As much as Hanne wanted Castiel present for the birth, she wished to have her family and her cherished servant Katherine about her more than anything.

At the end of March, 1499, after laboring just eight hours, Hannelore gave birth to a son. Everyone remarked on how well the birth had gone. While Hannelore rested, the baby was presented by the servant, Katherine, to Alaric Dusek.

"Meet your son, Sir," Katherine said, handing the swaddled bundle to him. Alaric was no stranger to holding a baby, this man who had once had so many younger siblings.

As he folded back the blanket of the squirming, robust, infant, he beheld the beautiful child. The boy had a golden, curly head of hair and his mother's fine, soft features, but his tiny, regal and slightly upturned nose, was the only subtle clue of his royal, Valten blood. Alaric smiled down at him. Never had he thought he could love so much in his lifetime.

"Johannes Castiel," Alaric announced to the crowd of onlooking family members, who were none the wiser to the child's paternity. Castiel would be with them in two months time, when the roads were passable. He will be most proud, thought Alaric.

Alaric returned the baby to Katherine and went to see his wife. He watched Hannelore sleeping, as lovely as ever, perhaps she had grown even more so with time. She told him once that she would work steadfast to make him happy and at the time kidded her that making him happy was quite impossible. He knew now and was glad, that he had been so very wrong.