Tales of Alavern 05 (Non-Canon)

"Is something the matter?" she asked softly. Naomi shook her head, squeezing her hand gently to reassure her love that nothing was wrong while she built up the nerve to finally ask the big question she had been putting off.

"Nothing at all." Naomi replied, gazing in Brianna's eyes a moment more before the words finally found their way to her throat, "Brianna, after I am made Queen again...please marry me."

Time itself froze as Brianna took in the words just spoken to her, the only indication of life being the steady rise and fall of her chest as they laid hand-in-hand on the bed. Butterflies did battle with moths inside of Naomi's stomach, but she refused to allow her face to betray that fact. The beating of her heart growing harder inside her chest marked the long seconds as Brianna finally reacted, her eyes slowly growing wide as the full weight of what was just asked finally hit her full force.

"Marry you?" Brianna asked slowly, as if her brain was still trying to break out of the shock, "As in...have a ceremony? Swear our souls?" Naomi nodded, a slight trembling in her hand finally betraying just how worried she was. Brianna fell silent, the proposal bouncing around violently in her head as her eyes stayed wide. Naomi understood, this was not a question asked lightly.

To become married as a Verni was a colossal affair, rarely happening among any Verni and never done lightly. To even consider proposing was a monumental decision, and highly revered among all. There was no going back, no divorce. To make a Verni your wife was to agree to share your entire life with them, to the bitter end. It wasn't anything as trifling as sharing property, or some silly legal status. It was a binding of souls, a complete sharing of your life with another down to sharing the same lovers. It was sacred beyond little else amongst all the Verni.

"You would take me as your wife? But...but what about the others you have taken to bed? What about Cyrus? I thought your affections for him..." Brianna argued, unable to believe that she had truly been proposed to by the woman she loved more she thought herself capable of love.

"I do care deeply for Cyrus. He is a wonderful friend who has earned a large place in my heart and I do still believe that he would make a fantastic lover should we get that chance..." Naomi explained, silently shushing Brianna before prevent Naomi from finishing her thoughts, "But I need you, Brianna. I need you as I need the very air I breathe. You are a part of my soul that I simply cannot live without any longer. It is why I have dedicated myself so solely to you this past month. I need you to know this, with every fiber of your being. I need you to never question how much you mean to me again, even for a single moment."

"Naomi..." Brianna whispered, her voice shaking and heavy with emotion as tears pricked at the edges of her eyes. She thought back to her words, said so effortlessly while she was mad with pleasure and passion. There were no thoughts behind them, no practiced play to make their time in bed more memorable. It was raw, honest emotion. Brianna had begged to be hers forever, had begged Naomi to make her so. This was not a decision made lightly, but for Brianna it was one made without even the smallest scrap of doubt in her mind.

"Yes."

"Yes?" Naomi repeated questioningly, almost disbelieving that she had heard Brianna correctly.

"Yes." Brianna said once again, a smile sparking joyful tears to begin running down her face. Time froze once again, for Naomi this time as excitement built up in her like steam in a kettle until there was no choice but for it to explode out of her. Naomi laughed manically, scooping Brianna into her arms and kissing her face all over. Tears of joy streamed down both of their faces as they rolled back and forth together on the bed.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Naomi screamed, nuzzling against her love feverishly as if to fight against waking from a wonderful dream. Brianna nuzzled back, unable to answer in words what she was feeling then. Their naked joy combining into a storm that left a warm feeling lodged deep inside both their chests as they cuddled together until their tears finally dried.

"This is going to be a very eventful coronation." Brianna finally said when her voice returned.

"You have no idea, my love. Both of my mothers will be in the crowd and the announcements I shall make will spread through our people like a wild blaze." Naomi said, a devilish smile appearing on her face.

"It certainly feels like we are moving towards a better future, doesn't it?" Brianna added, "Hard to believe this all stemmed from the arrival of a man."

"The arrival of a good man." Naomi gently corrected her. "Had he been the sort of uncultured monster we were raised to believe he would be, I doubt he would have stayed alive long enough to be the spark that finally united us."

Brianna nodded her agreement and they both laid together in companionable silence, until their wonderful isolation was broken by a frantic pounding at the door. Grumbling, they untangled themselves and Brianna threw a sheet over her body as she marched towards the door. Whoever had just disturbed the best moment of her life was about the face the full fury of the Royal Captain. She threw open the door with a scowl, looking right into the eyes of one of Megara's understudies as she panted with great exertion.

"Captain...Naomi...it's..." the understudy spoke, struggling to get words out as she heaved for breath and wiped sweat off her brow.

"Spit it out!" Brianna commanded.

"The Head Physic...said you needed to know. A child...has been born from the pool...from a Verni couple." the understudy managed to choke out, leaning against the door frame as she slid down to her knees.

"A child?! From the Mother's Pool?!" Naomi asked, not even bothering to cover herself as she rushed out of bed to confirm she had indeed heard this messenger correctly. The understudy nodded, giving herself a moment to catch her breath further before she elaborated.

"Just a short while ago the King, the Head Physic, and two of our older Verni sisters came out of the Mother's Pool building. The couple were holding a baby girl. News is already spreading throughout the city like wildfire." she said to Brianna and Naomi.

Time froze in the room yet again as the weight of the news settled on the newly-engaged couple. An impossible problem had been solved after decades of failed trial and error. The Verni had driven themselves to near-literal insanity as they simply tried to use the pool again and again in vain. Yet now... Hope had sprung anew and chaos was sure to follow in its wake.

Chapter 3

Megara stood proudly outside of the building containing the Mother's Pool, watching as Nina and Selene fawned over the first Verni female born from the pool's waters in what felt like an entire age to the Verni. The two new mothers had thanked her and Cyrus profusely, even going so far as to hug him and ask him to name their child. He had suggested Phoebe after a moment's consideration and watched with a smile as they turned their full attention and affections towards the newly-christened babe.

"I'm as happy that this crazy idea worked as they were to see that they didn't have a boy together." Cyrus said playfully from beside her as the two new mothers began to walk away.

"They forgot to apologize that time. You know you could punish them for that little show of disrespect." she teased back. Cyrus couldn't help but laugh softly and waved her off.

"Eh, too much work at this point. I'm retiring tomorrow and I'd rather just take the rest of the day off so I can go out on this high note without the chance to screw things up." he replied, draping an arm over her in a friendly manner. "Come on, we should probably go rescue Alexis from Brian now."

The both of them laughed at the memory of Alexis begging after them not to go as she was left alone with a male baby that kept tugging at her hair as his new favorite pastime. It was beyond amusing to see a seasoned warrior guard brought to such a low simply by a happy baby, especially when Brianna had passed by in the hallway and told her to suck it up and follow orders. He admitted to himself that it was a little cruel, but he hadn't been able to find any volunteers and today's experiment was too important. Since he couldn't bring Brian to the Mother's Pool, due to Verni law, he had to order one of the only other women he trusted alone with his son.

"So...let me ask you something." Megara said as the two of them began walking towards the palace, wheeling Megara's measuring device in front of them, "You keep using this word, boy. What precisely does it mean? I have figured out from context that it refers to a male, but why say boy instead of man?"

"It's one of those weird little quirks of how my language developed. Everything got separated and categorized for a multitude of reasons; Gender, wealth, and in this case, age. Boy just refers to a male who's too young to be a 'man'" he explained, even going so far as to use air quotes at the end for emphasis.

"So the word boy refers to a male who is not a man. Am I understanding that correctly?" she asked while cocking her head in that way Cyrus had come to regard as cute.

"Yep. I mean, even the Verni use both girl and woman when speaking about females of different age groups. Right?" he pointed out. Megara considered this for a moment, then eventually nodded when she had to acquiesce his point.

"Perhaps that is true...but I cannot help thinking that maybe it shouldn't be that way for males amongst the Verni." Megara said to him, her face scrunched up in thought as the gears began to turn in her head.

"I don't follow. What do you mean?" Cyrus asked.

"Well, think about it this way. The Verni have been raised nearly from birth to fear and despise men. The word man is virtually synonymous with evil for our people and by your own admission, trying to change that mindset would be virtually impossible." she explained as the idea grew in her head, "But the word boy is foreign to us. It doesn't show up in our records warning us of the evils of men, nor has it been passed down orally."

A smirk formed on her face as she watched Cyrus take in her words, the same gears she was so often accused of expressing showing just as clearly on his own face. Truly, she was happy to have met him. In him, she had found an equal for her inquisitive mind. It was really no wonder she had grown to love him.

"Wait," Cyrus said as everything finally clicked together for him, "You want to spread the word boy as a positive way to refer to males, so Verni can make a separation between an evil male and a good male? Am I understanding this scheme of yours correctly?"

"Scheme?!" she cried in mock indignation, "This is no scheme it is...well, okay I suppose it does seem a bit like cheating." Megara chuckled softly to herself at her admission before continuing on. "Still, you have to admit that the idea has merit."

"Yeah." he admitted after contemplating it a moment, "Brian's birth has taught not just me, but all the Verni that a child matters far more to them than whether it is male or female. Basically everyone in the palace has heard me refer to him as boy at some point or another. Still, it feels like a bit of a long shot."

"Oh, it won't be difficult, especially after today's accomplishment. It will only be time-consuming. A slow introduction of new culture to our people." Megara said, flashing him a wicked smirk. "And don't bother denying it anymore. I heard you. You said 'not just me but all the Verni'. You've finally accepted that you are one of us now."

"I..uh..." Cyrus stuttered as his cheeks grew a little red, "Well...I guess so. Huh, didn't even realize that I'd started thinking that."

"Well I'm glad you've finally come around. That I'm an outsider mentality of yours was getting a little annoying outside of the occasional bedroom adventure." she teased. His blush grew even deeper and she laughed loudly at the blushing king's embarrassment before turning his head and quickly kissing his lips. Cyrus stuttered incoherently, looking around in a slight panic.

"What if somebody saw?!" he whispered hoarsely.

"Let them see. The two of us have solved the single greatest crisis that the Alavern Isles have ever faced. I am entitled to celebrate however I damn well please." she said playfully. This finally elicited a laugh out of him and made his cute blush fade away. He kissed her back just as quickly, but with a bit more passion than hers had held. It was her turn to blush now as the kiss became just intense enough that had to separate after he gently nibbled on her lower lip for a moment. A small heat grew in her belly, followed quickly by an annoyance that they wouldn't be able to find enough privacy anytime soon for her to make him quench it. She growled quietly at him, shooting him a glare that he simply smirked back at.

"Turnabout is fair play, love." he whispered playfully into her ear.

"You had better make this up to me later, you devil." she replied, still glaring as they reached the gates of the palace. The two guards manning the gates looked in confusion upon the two of them for a moment before remembering they had a job to do and opened the gates to allow them entry.

"Just a bit of fun teasing between friends." he explained to the two guards, who took his word for it and shrugged their earlier confusion away. The rest of their walk back towards Megara's quarters to drop off the machine was fairly quiet, with most of the castle staff simply smiling and nodding a quick hello to them. Megara couldn't help but think of just how large a difference it was compared to when Cyrus had first arrived a mere two months ago, even in her own case.

Thanks to how he was, how he spoke to and treated everyone, the sense of dread was completely gone. He was just an ordinary, everyday part of life now. Well, to most people. Obviously it was quite a bit of a different case for herself and, to a lesser extent, the handful of true friends he had made along the way. She, Brianna, Naomi and Alexis had all had their lives profoundly changed by his presence, instead of simply acclimating to it as most Verni did.

Her hand found its way unconsciously to her belly as she and Cyrus continued their travels back to his own room. An altogether different kind of warmth filled her as she let her mind linger on her thoughts. On how she was loved, on how she was a lover, and especially on how she was going to finally become a mother. Cyrus seemed to pick up on how she was feeling, flashing a look of small concern to her only for it to be met by a radiant smile. A brief look of surprised caught on his face before it melted into a matching smile towards her.

They reached his room, slowly opening his door after noticing how quiet it was only to have their earlier romantic mood broken by the rather amusing sight of Alexis in her full guard uniform holding Brian gently in her arms. Cyrus's son was completely conked out, drooling a little bit on Alexis's shoulder as his head laid upon it. Alexis had a look of complete tension on her face as she slowly turned towards Megara and Cyrus, acting like she was holding a live bomb instead of a baby.

"Please take him. I'm afraid he'll start crying again if I put him down." she whispered loudly, fear etched in her eyes. The sight made Cyrus and Megara both break down into a series of snorts and giggles, their want of loud laughter being held back by an enormous show of will. Cyrus moved to gently take Brian from her arms, allowing her to collapse to her knees from relief.

"You don't have to worry, he's like me. Once he's out, he's out." Cyrus explained, gently moving his son into the crib as Megara assisted Alexis in getting back on her traitorous, wobbling legs.

"Perhaps you should allow poor Alexis the rest of the day off. She's been through a harrowing trial." she teased while snickering softly. "Look, she's got drool all over her pretty hair now."

"That's enough." Cyrus chastised softly. He was still grinning and holding back laughter at the ridiculousness of a guard trained to face down death breaking down at having to take care of an infant. "Though if you would like to take the rest of the day off, maybe go get cleaned up and relax a bit, you absolutely can. Thanks again for watching Brian."

"Thank you, your majesty." she said as she let out a breath clearly didn't realize she'd been holding. "So, how did your experiment with the Mother's Pool go?"

"Oh, let me tell you..." Megara began, all too ready to begin a highly-technical lecture about the day's triumph.

Chapter 4

Alexis trudged away from the bath with her hair still wet, still exhausted from taking care of the King's child. Having the stand and sit through Megara's long-winded lecture about the technical features of her machine and all the reasons she believed that mixing the blood of two mothers worked in the first place. Her silent, pleading looks to the King to get him to interrupt her were only met with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. It had taken nearly forty minutes for Megara to finally stop talking long enough for Alexis to excuse herself.

That entire time, she kept worrying about the male child waking up to begin his crying all over again. Dealing with a baby for the first time in her life had been a completely harrowing experience, making a part of her happy that she was never successful in creating her own child back when she was still trying. Young Brian had spent most of the early morning treating her hair as a new toy, switching between yanking it, tangling it up and chewing on it. Every time she took her hair out of his reach, he would give her the absolute saddest expression she had ever seen. She ended up caving in and letting him continue to play with his hair nearly a dozen times before he had begun being too rough.

Thankfully, the King's child eventually fell asleep while she had been holding him. Normally their interactions amounted to her holding him for a few moments as a quick favor to the King or the Head Physic, then returning to her normal duties. While he was asleep, she actually thought he was quite cute and sweet for the first time since meeting him. That happy sensation only managed to last until she had attempted to put him in his crib. Mere moments after she would release her hold on him, he would start whimpering in his sleep. That led to crying himself awake and he wouldn't stop crying until she picked him back up.

He would continue cycling through the steps of falling asleep in her arms, her trying to put him in his crib once asleep, and him bawling until she picked him back up. She had finally given up trying to get young Brian to sleep anywhere except in her arms and had been sitting on the King's bed, holding him for nearly three hours when he and Megara had finally returned and allowed her relief. His offer to take the rest of the day off to recover had been a blessing she had been all too ready to accept.

With her armor slung over her shoulder, she made her way back to the guards' quarters as quickly as her mentally exhausted body would allow her to travel. She needed to relax for the rest of the day if she was going to be capable of resuming her regular duties tomorrow. That meant a nice, long walk through the market, perhaps a bit of lounging on the beach and definitely a stiff drink before she came back to the palace.