Roderick and Gorlana Pt. 05

"Ha!" Beleros, chortled, "The way these brats hum and haw, almost. Either way, she left instructions for me to give something to you."

Roderick followed him, twisting and turning through old carpeted hallways. He had finally figured out the maze-like corridors of the palace enough to know his way around that monstrous building, but the college was still mostly unfamiliar territory. They finally arrived at the Sage's college office, even larger than the one in the palace that Roderick had first met him in. Beleros stopped in confused irritation at the sight of a student standing at stiff deference near the door.

"Office hours are clearly listed on the door, unless there is some type of-..." he stopped himself just as the student had turned to leave, when he remembered, "Oh! Right, the textbook. We'll have to go to the library for that. Wait here, I have business with the Duke."

Roderick interjected, "Actually I was going to go to the library anyway, there should be a book waiting there that I asked for."

"Ah. Splendid. Come along then."

The nervous student who had seemed ready to tear himself in two about whether to stay or go, finally relaxed with a clear of his throat and nodded, following diligently after Beleros. The three of them wound their way over to the library, Roderick making sure to remember the route better this time. Navigating the Rampart foothills had seemed less confusing some days. The mountains were almost less awe-inspiring than the massive stacks of books and scrolls that he always stopped to gawk at every time he entered the huge room. He caught up to Beleros and the student as they walked straight to the checkout desk.

"Good afternoon, Rollsworth," the Sage addressed the librarian. "How many copies of the Biology and Behaviours of the Humanoid Races, fourth edition do we have in the back?"

The librarian frowned under his glasses as he fingered through a thick wad of paper cards. "Should be at least 3."

The Sage nodded, "Good enough. Fetch a copy would you? And make a special exception for the lending of it under my name for the entire semester to um... this young man here."

"Fenwick, sir," the student reminded him.

"Yes of course," Beleros nodded. "Late fees not to apply until after the final exam."

Rollsworth nodded without comment, then lifted his chin with a smile to Roderick, "And I haven't forgotten about your book neither my good Duke, simply took me a while to find it, and I got it set aside. I'll fetch it as well."

A few minutes later, filled mostly with Beleros driving home the point that if the book was returned with so much as a smudge of dirt or more than a crease of a page, that Fenwick would have to come up with the usual fee for it himself. The student nodded with no hesitancy at all and thanked the professor profusely. He left them, clutching the book protectively with a relieved smile. Roderick gave Beleros a respectful smirk and gratefully accepted his own book from the librarian.

"That was a kind thing to do," Roderick said as they made their way back to his office.

"Yes, well, perhaps certain people with the power to change it could provide better funds so that proper textbooks could be provided to all students regardless of their wealth..."

Roderick nodded, "I'm not sure that applies to me yet, but I'll see what I can do."

The Sage quickly turned his attention to Roderick's book as if to deliberately change the subject, "And what have you got your hands on... Hmm! 'The Psychology of Decisions - logic, reason, emotion and instinct, and the war between man and mind'. A fairly advanced psychology treatise. I didn't think you'd gotten so deeply into that subject."

Roderick shrugged, "It's maybe a bit out of my depth but I figured I'd give it a try. It's a topic I was more interested in."

Beleros gave an interested narrow gaze, "Prepping for the negotiations no doubt. In case you don't finish it before the orcish and human mouths start flapping here, let me break it to you that the main conclusion is that logic and reason rarely win out against emotion and instinct. When you consider ego, honour, fear, pride, and kinship to be among the emotional. It's true even in those of us that strive for pure reason. And yet... things still seem to work out. - That last part is my own editorializing. I simply would caution you not to be too bitter about the revelation as I was. I've since realized that changing our nature isn't possible, or advisable really, but that doesn't mean we can't still work with it."

They entered his office and he lit another lamp, walking through tall piles of books and papers and eventually over to his alchemy shelf. He looked closely and muttered to himself as he scanned through a number of multicoloured vials and finally grabbed one with a hum of satisfaction.

"Here we are," he said. "I am to entrust this to you."

"What is it?" Roderick asked, gingerly taking the large vial and looking at it to see it was powder and not liquid inside.

The Sage eyed him doubtfully, "Scentsfoil. Did she really tell you nothing? Perhaps I beat her to you, it was only just this morning she gave me the news. I must say I am somewhat more optimistic about the success of the treaty if the Queen is this serious about making it work."

Roderick shrugged helplessly, "You'll have to fill me in. Do you mean Queen Gorlana?" Valessa was Queen-Regent in all ways except officially, but no one had yet changed from calling her princess.

"Yes of course. Scentsfoil Roderick... Hmph, I forget you have no formal training as a Sage despite your bookishness. As the name implies, it blocks the sense of smell. Both human and orcish... or any other race as far as we've been able to tell. Applied to the nose it ablates the nasal mucosa in a temporary but complete manner, lasting at least several days, though the speed of its wearing off varies, and taken too strongly or for too long could potentially cause permanent impairment... I digress. The point is that the orcish Queen has agreed to be dosed with it prior to the negotiations, to ease our minds as to her, 'reading our scents' as you are no doubt aware."

Roderick shared none of the Sage's good spirits. "Did Valessa demand this of her?!"

"I... believe it was actually Queen Gorlana's idea, though in their communication the issue of fairness and scent reading was brought up. I understand Valessa had initially wished for most of the negotiations to happen outside, but weather is always difficult to predict, and then there is the issue of privacy."

Roderick nodded, barely feeling more comfortable. He pocketed the vial and sighed.

"You are to deliver it to her when you meet their entourage to escort them through Fringeland."

Roderick bristled, "I wasn't entirely sure I was in fact going to be the one to do that."

Beleros cocked his head, "Well Valessa seemed quite confident you would. In any case, Queen Gorlana was to receive it as soon as she entered Andralia. I suppose if business keeps you here, you can pass it along to whoever else receives the honours."

"I'll... talk to Valessa about it."

"Well I should let you get to it then, you'll have much to prepare to set off soon if you'll be meeting them in time."

Roderick nodded, "Yes. Thanks again Beleros."

"Come by anytime, my friend."

Roderick finally returned his warm smile and set off again. It had faded by the time he had left the hallways though. He was going to have to have another difficult talk with Valessa.

As he found his way back out of the college and on to the palace grounds, his mind weighed him down, now burdened with yet another issue. The day was the perfect fresh sunny spring day, with birds of various specially-bred varieties chirping their songs in the trees, and flowers of even-more-impressive rare colours and shapes lining the path back to the rear palace entrance. As he walked over the short bridge of the long pond separating the two complexes, he thought he should have felt like he was in paradise but his mind was only soothed a touch as he tried to parse the mountain of obligations and problems that the 'Duke of Fringeland' and the 'Prince-to-be' was saddled with.

Fringeland was a mess. Even Valessa admitted as much, and with much less optimism than he was able to muster, suggesting he simply do what was needed to avoid worsening it until a new Duke could be installed after their marriage. He couldn't, though. It was his home, and he knew how much the people there needed things to be better. There was too much that needed to be done, and evidently not the resources to do it, according to Valessa. She insisted that even though other provinces had suffered less than Fringeland, they required more investment, as their potential for resource production was higher and would help Andralia as a whole recover more quickly. He unfortunately had few rebuttals other than that Fringeland was his home and had 'earned' the help of the capital through its sacrifices in the war. None of this had any practical economic advantage however, and he was relegated thus far to accepting her expertise.

Valessa seemed to react with almost patronizing annoyance at how seriously he was taking to his new title. It was true she had bestowed it on him more as a stepping stone to marrying her, to add validity to their betrothal, but that didn't mean he had to treat it as purely symbolic. He already had enough of the nobles treating him secretly, and even sometimes openly, as a meaningless figurehead, inexplicably gifted his station on the whims of a smitten princess, who he didn't deserve either. He was determined to prove them wrong, at least in the eyes of everyone else, even if most of the nobles would likely never stop looking down their nose at him.

Nobles like that fucking Chasdon. As if on cue he saw him exiting the princess' private gardens as he started down the long stone hallway. Roderick knew technically as the head of coinage and one of the seats on the economic council that Chasdon and Valessa had to spend time together. So much though? It grated him every time he had to see the noble's smug chiselled jaw, set high and judgmental, as if chewing distastefully on Roderick's lowborn presence.

Some nobles seemed to take seriously the story of Roderick's lost lineage through Paudraich, the nobleman who might have been his great grandfather Paud. Only some though. Thankfully most either accepted it politely or dismissed it thoughtlessly. He had said truthfully that he knew little of him, to the few that asked. He didn't know if any of them might actually be able to somehow learn the full truth... that if it had actually been Paudraich, then the reason he had abandoned his noble house had been to run off with an orc-woman and live in isolation, raising a family in the foothills of Fringeland... what would become his family.

The fact that he still kept that secret gave him a sense of rebellion as he stared down Chasdon, approaching him in the hallway. If he already thought this derisively of him, he was sure that learning of Roderick's orcish blood would likely made his over-swelled head explode.

Roderick would have been happy to simply nod and walk past, but Chasdon spoke.

"Good afternoon... Duke."

"Good afternoon," Roderick said, ready to leave it at that, but Chasdon stood in front of him with elbows spread wide, and manicured hands on his hips.

"Come to see your princess? Our meeting was thorough, but I'm done with her for now. I've left her in good enough spirits I assure you."

"Oh? So we've been able to supply the coffers with some gold that ISN'T beholden to compound interest from Lansmark?" Roderick asked with a flat stare.

Chasdon's pointed chin wiggled as if ready to spit out Roderick like a piece of unsightly gristle. "No. The specifics of our finances are beyond your skill to appreciate as ever, but as long as you can keep your orcish friends from ruining this treaty, we should be able to see steady growth."

"Oh? I thought you were still vexed at the idea of stopping the war? Needing to keep tight control over means of resource production and the flow of money in order to wrest control over even more lands, or whatever it was."

"Yes, well, even I can't convince everyone of the most effective path to dominance, but there are others, if it is necessary to take them. Again, you can leave that to us, while you're off making sure the brutes don't scour the countryside on their way here."

Roderick had a million things he would've liked to say, but saw Valessa stick her head through the door and give a tiny jolt of surprise at seeing Roderick, then look at Chasdon with concern.

"Good day then sir," Roderick said, stepping around him.

"Maybe you can convince the orcs to take that disgusting animal back across the mountains with them," Chasdon muttered quietly, referring to Valessa's bear.

"Roderick! I thought you would still be over in the college," Valessa called from the doorway.

"I just came from talking to Beleros. It seems we have some things to discuss."

"Hmm, I'm glad you're making some strides to improve your intellect at least," Chasdon said with an arrogant smirk. "Good day then as well."

Roderick glared at the back of his head, slick hair thinning slightly near the top, then turned back to Valessa, who gave a sigh and a glance between the two men. Then led Roderick inside the gardens. Her bear, nearly fully grown, turned away from the entrance as if it had made sure Chasdon left, then nuzzled into Valessa's hip, ignoring Roderick.

"Forget him," she said. "You'll outrank him soon enough. I knew he would bristle at my choice of you as my husband, but I didn't think he would persist with a grudge THIS long. It's almost impressive."

"Honestly I think it's just his natural setting," Roderick said bitterly. "I just happen to be the one garner more of his attention lately."

Valessa shrugged, "He's fairly popular among the higher-ups, and I have to admit we've worked together well enough."

"How?" Roderick asked, not for the first time.

Valessa opened her mouth and hesitated, then changed the subject, "Lets head up to the bedroom. I assume you're here to talk about your upcoming trip? Did Beleros give you the good news."

Roderick sighed, "The... Scentsfoil, yes. Also I hadn't known that my going with the escort party was already decided."

Valessa gave him a flirtatious smirk, "Have you finally grown to love my palace so much you really don't want to leave? Why it has only taken 5 months of complaining, what has caused your sudden change of heart my love?" she asked, tossing her hair back and clutching him in melodramatic mockery as she led him up the stone stairway out of the gardens with a last pet of her lowly-whining bear.

Roderick rolled his eyes at her sarcasm but returned a pecked kiss, grasping her hand and following her, but tried to strike a more serious tone, "I AM growing more comfortable here, believe it or not. I just... have a lot to do, I feel like my time is better spent on other tasks than a simple escort."

She pouted with a sour twist, "You imply your taking of your duties as Duke, ever so seriously. Which, if you insist, would make escorting the first peaceful orcish contingent through Fringeland the TOP priority of one in your station. Besides, if there are important matters in Fringeland you need to address, then do so on your way through. You'll have time to pass through Fortspring both there and back and give whatever orders you need to in person if you must."

They walked through the doors to their quarters and Roderick felt her lithe body drift softly into his arms as her eyes glittered up at him and she slid a hand up his back, with a smile that knew she was winning. Again. He tore his eyes away and began to open his mouth but she persisted.

"Conversely, we both know you're still more of a general than a duke or a prince, so far..." she wiggled into him and raised an eyebrow reminding him of her intent to change that, "...and a general for whom no one else even approaches his knowledge and rapport with the Orthalians, who, despite your insistence, may very much require pacifying along their journey here. Especially if a Rechlinger contingent will be among them."

Roderick shrugged, "They're all Orthalians now. Always were, really. It sounds like she's integrated them effectively. We might learn a thing or two about that if we wish to do similarly and hold on to their Southern Orthalian territories."

"OUR Southern Orthalian- " she stopped her correction and sighed, "All the more reason for you to get a head start in conversing with her then."

He stiffened again against the hot sexual energy of her perfect slender curves melting on to him. "Gorlana and I..."

"Seemed to have a trust, and a respect, despite your circumstances," she said with a reassuring obliviousness.

"I'm just not sure I'm ready to face h-... my captors again," he said giving his fiance a pleading look.

She frowned, "They've said in their communications they not only hold no grudge but in fact hold you in high honour. You've never acted particularly disturbed by your ordeal until the talk of this meeting and the escort party. They didn't torture you. You said they acted with honour. You've faced battles and duels which were far worse in comparison, and won them all bravely, and gone back for more," she said with a furrowed brow but a deep breath and a hardening to her nipples through the blue silk dress against his wide chest.

He ignored his swelling cock and kept a sincere gaze at her nearly successful attempt to hypnotize him into agreement, and simply asked, "Isn't it enough for me to say I'm just not comfortable?"

"Isn't it enough for me to say I need you to? If you have some irrational fear then I would say it's better to face it in a safe environment, and what would be safer than being surrounded by your army and your homeland?"

She kissed him longer with wetter lips and he realized she was slowly walking him backwards, while she smiled and stared at him, seeming to convince him with her eyes as much as her words, and cooed soothingly, "You know I'm right. So stop being so silly and help me to make this all succeed. Okay?"

He hadn't responded yet, when she kissed him again and started rubbing over his swelling cock, whispering with a giggle, "Don't worry. If she somehow kidnaps you again I'll just come rescue you all over again too."

He finally wrapped his arms more strongly around her and kissed her back with more purpose, "You're never going to stop being amused by that are you?"

She smiled wide and led him backwards through the bedroom, "That in the end, my brave protector knight was the one that needed me to heroically rescue him?..." she pushed him on to the bed and slithered on top of him. "...No. I'll never let you live it down."

With that she shoved her tongue in his mouth and moaned as she pressed her light body on top of him.

"Mmm, come on, my darling, let me give you a proper send off," she moaned.

He nodded eagerly, as he gave in. In no time he was giggling along with her as they quickly removed their clothes, her small immaculate curves always taking his breath away when she revealed herself to him. She hungrily groaned seeing his hard veined spire shoot up when she slid his undergarments away and lowered her mouth over it. Her pouty lips twisted in a distasteful but determined expression as she sucked on him, lowering his pants off of his feet and massaging her delicate fingers up his thighs.

Valessa gasped as if not able to handle any more of his cock, and then crawled up his body. Her tender hands and knees digging into his muscles, until she straddled his face and sat down with a delighted musical whimper.

He groaned at the taste of her sopping pussy smothering his face and worked his tongue and lips over her and into her, spurred on by her girlish whining breaths. He worked his fingers on the pale soft flesh of her ass as he pleasured her. He followed her whispered demands diligently, and let her impatiently guiding fingers show him what she wanted. After a few minutes he smiled with increased determination as he felt her narrow hips start to shake. Shortly after, her stifled shuddering breath suddenly let out a high pitched cry and she mashed herself tightly on to his face as she started cumming. She pulled at his hair as he lifted her light frame with his head and his hands controlling her frantically gyrating hips. His drenched face came free as she moaned through the last of her orgasm.