Chapter 37: Isekai Life & Elven Kingdom

“There you are, princess! Thank the gods!”

“It’s alright, Sir Haseth, what’s the matter? I was enjoying finally getting to have a little swim...”

The words of elvish faded as I swam back to where I was supposed to be bathing, as silently as I could. Kythaela and I ended up, I don’t know, cuddling I guess? For quite awhile, until we heard the sounds of Haseth calling her name in the distance.

“You really think I’m not going to die?”

“I promise.”

Those were our parting words, although I was a little uneasy about it. It seemed like quite a promise to make, but it also seemed like what the princess needed to hear at that time. I don’t know if it was right for me to take that responsibility ... but, I guess I just had to.

When I spotted by dark pile of clothing on the beach, I swam up and flopped onto by back in the shallows. With the water surrounding all around me, I grabbed my cock and masturbated with a ferocity that, well, men who three different lovers rarely knew.

Can you blame me? “Violate me, use me...” That was like catnip, and fit exactly into my personal fetishes. The princess was not exactly my body type but she was still very attractive. If it wasn’t for the general weirdness of the situation, maybe my behaviour would have been different ... but in order to treat her tomorrow with the kindness that she required, it demanded that right now I think about how good it would feel to have her riding my cock and looking at me with her dark liquid eyes, half-lidded and aroused ... This wasn’t just self-gratification, it was almost like an exorcism for my lust.

When I was finished, I washed off all the semen in the lake, which felt a little like I was violating a sacred place. I felt kind of dirty in general, having to do that, but at least a certain kind of pressure was off. For now.

What exactly did I even get myself into, I wondered?.

When I returned to camp, Kythaela was already wrapped up in blankets and laying with her back to the fire- I guess the cold lake water took it’s toll of her, after all. I nodded to Haseth. “Are you going to wash, now?”

“No point washing in the dark,” he said, “We’ll have to dally in the morning for me and the rest of the women to get cleaned up.”

Huh, I guess that’s right, Yua and Sorrel didn’t wash up either, I guess trying to give Kythaela her space.

I dragged my bedroll over close to the fire, and settled down for the night. As usual, Yua moved her own bedroll closer to mine, not close enough to be considered intimate, but close enough I could roll over, reach and touch her. I guess she was just looking out for her lord.

I thought sleep would prove evasive after all that, but all the travel had left me saddle-sore and weary. It didn’t take long for me to black out.

The next day, I slept late as usual. Because Haseth, Yua and Sorrel didn’t have a chance to bathe, we we’re in a hurry to leave, and for lack of anything better to do Voss ended up making all the preparations himself. When I finally roused myself, it was to a campsite that was already mostly packed up. I expected things to be awkward with Kythaela ... but if she felt anything about the previous night, she made no sign, simply giving me a polite “good morning” and then staring off into space like usual. It was a little surreal, after the previous night.

“Finally we get to join back up with Calliope, huh?” Voss asked as he helps me strap my bedroll in place behind Snacks’ saddle.

“Yeah, I’m a little nervous,” I replied, grateful for the opportunity to distract myself from Princess Kythaela, “It’s been awhile.”

“Really?” he snorted in response, “You’ll do fine. No doubt you’ll already find her-”

“Be careful what you say, Sir Voss,” I interrupted him, “There is a lady present.”

He grimaced. “Still ... what do you think are the chances there will be any single elf-maids around?”

I shrugged. “Pretty good, probably? Only one way to find out.”

“True enough.”

When camp was finally packed up, and all our errant bathers had dried and dressed, we headed up into the forested hills of the Sea of Willows. As Haseth and Kythaela lead us through, our path took us up winding trails, going climbing up the occasional incline, as if this terrain was once a series of carefully cultivated terraces that have since begun to fade into the natural terrain. Clouds of butterflies with wings of rust-brown and yellow danced lazily in the gaps between the trees, and our hoof-beats and the creak of the wagon axles seemed somehow muffled by the trees, highlighting the strangely harmonious song of birds. It really did feel like we were travelling into an enchanted land.

Sorrel sighed wistfully as only teenage girls can. “It’s beautiful ... I had no idea that a land like this was so near my home.”

“It is,” Kythaela responded, “I love this place.”

“These trees were planted at the height of the old empire,” Haseth explained, “And with them, the spells that enhanced the natural beauty of the land. The gates to the core of our kingdom were designed to delight and entrance our citizens.”

“Enjoy it for what it is,” Kythaela finished, “But hold in your hearts this lesson- that even the wicked long to create things of lasting beauty. Judge a society not by their monuments, but by their actions.”

We all fell silent. I was left to contemplate how it must feel to be a relatively “young” mist elf, living in the ruins of a great but terrible empire. No wonder that so many of them wanted to rebuild what they had, no matter how awful it was.

When we reached the apex of the ridge we were climbing, elven warriors with dark green cloaks and hoods seemed to melt out of the shadows to surround us. Their archers had arrows knocked, but not drawn, and their warriors had hands on weapons but did not draw. Their leader approached Haseth and Kythaela, and knelt before his princess. I strained to listen in on their conversation.

The first part of their conversation in elvish seemed to be some kind of formal exchange.

“Your Grace. For you, ever does the way stand open, for that is why the sentinel waits and the watch-fire burns.”

“We who stand in the light give thanks, for the burning wood never grows and the sentinel does not slumber,” Kythaela replied.

Then, they moved to a less formal tone: “You have been missed, Princess. It would be my honour to see you escorted before the Throne of Mist.”

Kythaela gave a wan smile. “As you can see, I have escorts aplenty. The gateway to our home should no go undefended.”

The leader of the guards eyed us warily, and when he saw me watching him, shot me a glare. “Word has come from the High Commander that no humans are to enter the vale. I would assume this applies to gnomes as well, and ... other species.”

Haseth opened his mouth as if to speak, but Kythaela silenced him with a hand on his shoulder. Instead, she spoke for herself. “Has my father given you any commands in that regard, captain?”

The leader of the guards winced, and shook his head, defeated. “No, Your Grace.”

The difference in Kythaela’s bearing as she drew herself up was almost staggering. She straightened her back, tilted her nose up, and looked down at the guard captain imperiously. “Then you will allow my guests to pass unharmed. They have done more to protect my person than any sentinel has in years,” she commanded in a way that put ‘sentinel’ on roughly the same level as ‘pig farmer’, “And I will not allow them to experience any affront to their honour while within my father’s kingdom.”

That was also when I realized that “Sentinel” was a proper noun to the mist elves. It must be another kind of order within the mist elf army, and I idly wondered how they would stack up to the Ravenwatch.

“Your Grace...” the Sentinel captain said, shaking his head, “My men have families. I have a family, a young wife, you know what may-”

“Then honour your family by letting my guests through.”

The captain winced again, by waved his hand and shouted a command. “The guests of Princess Kythaela shall pass!” With extreme reluctance, the other Sentinels stood down and back away, some of them shooting glares at their vacillating commander.

Once we had travelled sufficiently through the foliage that we were out of sight of the checkpoint, Kythaela slumped in her saddle, as if intimidating the Sentinel captain had taken something physically out of her. Haseth reached out a hand to steady her, but after last night, well, I felt a little personal responsibility towards her, so I heeled Snacks forward to catch up to them.

Haseth was whispering something to her that I couldn’t make up, but when I caught up he stopped and gave me a startled look. Kythaela tried to sit up straighter in her saddle. “Theodore,” she said at once, “I apologize for the Sentinels’ rudeness. They should not have advanced like that on my guests and treated you with such hostility.”

“Oh, I don’t care about that,” I replied, “I’m worried about you. That seemed to take a lot out of you.”

“Oh.” It was Kythaela’s turn to look a little surprised. “Ah, I’m sorry, it’s just ... confident is the last thing I feel right now, never mind acting ... royal, or authoritative. There’s...” She bit her lip, looking anxious. “Just ... you don’t have to keep your promise, alright? There ‘s a very good chance that you won’t be able to.”

That was a shock to hear. Did she fear some kind of assassination? “Well, if it’s all the same, Princess, I should like to try anyway. You’ve been through a great deal of hardship, and I’d like to help if I could.”

She gave me a wan smile. “Thank you, Theodore. Perhaps it will be unnecessary.”

I was at a loss or what to say right then, so I just gave her a friendly nod and fell back to my previous position in the marching order. As I slowed Snacks, I could hear Haseth and Kythaela whispering in elvish.

“What promise did he make you, Princess?”

“It is nothing, Haseth.”

Raszil gave me a raised eyebrow as I settled back into place. I could understand why, we had been travelling almost exclusively as two groups who happen to be sharing the same road and same fires for most of the way there, and suddenly I was doting on Kythaela. I just shook my head at him, though. I didn’t want to explain, and there was going to be enough to distract him soon enough.

Abruptly, we came upon a gently curving road paved with some kind of polished blue stones, quartz perhaps. Haseth guided us onto the road, and as we travelled, slowly the endless willow trees gave way to more signs of civilization. Here and there, through the woods, I could see distant buildings made of some kind of sparkling white brick. You’d think the elements would wear away the rock used in the construction and the shininess of the polish would dull, but whatever magic that was used on the Sea of Willows must have also been used on the elves’ constructions.

The buildings slowly grew more and more frequent, until seemingly out of nowhere we were in the downtown of the Mist Elf capital. The road turned around one of the elegant, slope-sided white stone buildings, and suddenly the lane was surrounded by shops, larger homes, and a network of branching blue stone roadways, all of which had been artfully hidden by the trees and foliage. All around us, dark-haired elves went about their daily business, although there were a few gasps and a bit of commotion as the people going about their day realized who we were. After the incident with the Sentinels, I am very sure that their Princess at the head of a small group of humans, a gnome and a dragonborn was scandalous.

As we weaved through the streets of the town, I was struck by how normal it all was. For all the elves liked to put on airs sometimes, and for all that we were surrounded by carefully crafted beauty in the form of the streets, the trees and the buildings, what people were actually doing remained the same. Here a forge rang with the sound of hammers on steel, there was a tavern that filled the air with rancorous singing and the bustling sounds of people drinking and merrymaking together, and there again a white stone stable where a farrier was bent to the task of measuring a horse’s hooves for shoes.