The bodyguards followed Princess Eniera and her son down the public stairs and out into the lobby, it was never a question in the Princess’ mind where they would go, and she didn’t ask her son. Gottfried mentally suppressed a groan when the royals drew the eyes of every man and woman from noble to common employee. ‘I hate this part.’ He thought, though his mother clearly didn’t.

She waved indulgently as the people went to one knee for the passing royal pair, a smile on her face that seemed familiar to Gottfried in a way he’d never noticed before.

He set that aside for the moment and pretended to smile indulgently as he walked past his kneeling subjects. He tried to quicken his steps a little, but his mother’s hand tensed on his arm. He kept going at her pace until they ventured outside and began to descend the steps. Eniera set her eyes from one bodyguard to the other. “Ride outside the carriage, I want to speak with my son alone.”

She ignored their grunted response, the way in front of the grand hotel was a roundabout with a large cascading fountain in the center that shot water high up into the air from a great stone spout. At first glance, it was simply a large stone carving with a curious choice in lines. It was only when one looked up, craning their neck back, that it became obvious that it was designed to appear to be a fountaining erect male member. The wealthiest elites would pull their carriages around this fountain day after day, some noticing, most not.

Gottfried however, had another matter on his mind. The carriage they approached lacked the indicator of the royal house, no purple to be found, and the young boy to open the door was not someone Gottfried recognized. He had close cropped brown hair and was wearing a crisp black uniform that was broken only by a white triangle from neck to sternum. He bowed and held the door open for the pair, the carriage creaked a little as mother and son entered, and then more when their bodyguards climbed up onto the front and back outside.

The boy closed the door, rushed back up to the carriage driver, hopped onto the far end, and then the dark wooden carriage began to roll again. The interior was a dark velvet with thick stuffing within and a pair of burgundy curtains to be closed over the windows. Gottfried and his mother each shut one side, then she cleared her throat and began. “Fa’Alenshi. He killed your… friends? Is that what they were to you?” Eniera asked.

Gottfried gave a quiet nod. “I feel like they were. Even if…” He stopped, he couldn’t say, ‘even if they were only slaves.’

His mother bent forward and put a hand on his knee, her eyes, the source of nightmares to so many, were wet and full of hurt from her boy’s pain. “I’m not a monster, Gottfried.” She put her free hand over her heart, “I understand, it’s natural to feel close to those you share common dreams, experiences, and everything with. I felt that way about every soldier I ever lost. We slept, ate, trained, traveled, and fought together. Do you think I never felt a loss through all those years?”

Gottfried looked at his mother through new eyes, breathless and still, her touch to his knee, electric. He couldn’t move his lips, nor could he look away. “I did.” Eniera said in a whisper, “That is why… why the thought of losing you hurt so much that nothing but the most brutal revenge, and punishment, would do. If it felt so terrible to lose a soldier, how would it feel to lose my only son?”

“Why now? Why say this to me now, mother?” Gottfried asked, the carriage rattled along on the winding road in the city of Shazen, and Eniera tried to find the words to reach him where no oratory before a crowd or noble would do.

“Because you’re a man now… a man. Against my will… if I could have kept you small forever, I would. But I can’t, and because you’re a man, I have to say things I couldn’t have said to the boy. Even if you’ll always be my child.” Eniera squeezed his knee, a weaker person’s bones would have snapped under the pressure, but to the pair it was nothing but an expression of affection.

“Fa’Alenshi killed your friends in the arena for more reasons than you know. His grudge against us goes back generations in our reckoning. We killed his mentor in a war over two hundred years ago. It was a short fight, barely a skirmish compared to our later conflicts. But it took someone dear from him. It may sound like that was long ago, but elves live a long time and have long memories. They don’t forget a grudge, not easily at least.”

She frowned deeply and leaned close to him, “I’ve learned that the Elf Kingdom has chosen to target you before you have children, the fight in the arena was meant to test the poison they intended to use. Whether he knew the precise plot or not, and I think… not. He intended your death, killing your friends was a provocation, a set up to try to create a second chance at ending your life.”

Gottfried listened to his mother, it sounded almost daft but it fit. “So… what do I do with that information, mother? Say you’re right? What next?”

“They tried to kill my son. So of course we take their country. Not yet, of course, there’s a great deal to do, it may take time to prepare for war, Elven territory is large but not unconquerable. But when the time comes, you can avenge your friends.” Eniera sat up straight and released her hold on her son’s knee, then leaned back against the seat.

Gottfried however, chose to lean forward with his forearms resting on his knees and folded his hands together as if in prayer. “As you command, mother.” He said with quiet resolve, he shut his eyes and, already the fires of war filled his eyes, a vision as if he were beholding the future, identifying the key Elven units and how to defeat them. The sound of horses and the smell of fear were almost present, and while his eyes were closed, his mother smiled with pride.

‘He is our son… he has our gifts… he is unbeatable…’ She wanted to crow with pride as she read the unspoken thoughts of his mind as if they were her own.

“Now about your expenses.” Eniera said, and the way she said it, a memory sprang to his mind.

‘Right… I was maybe six, I’d taken something of hers, broken it, and hidden it under my bed… a sword… that was it. She sounds now just like she did then, ‘Gottfried, tell me about the broken sword… Gottfried, we need to talk about your expenses… yes, definitely the same tone.’ He thought when he compared the two, and then he thought about what those expenses were.

“You’re a strapping young man, in some ways I’m surprised it took you this long to finally take an interest in anything other than playing with swords.” Eniera waved a hand away and then rested it on the thin windowsill of the carriage. She moved aside the curtain for a moment and then closed it just as fast. “I am glad about that, really… but your choice? Could you think of nothing better?”

“Mother!” Gottfried hissed as he turned red with embarrassment.

She gave him a crooked smile, “Don’t give me that, I was young once, and still am by some measures. I know what happens between young men and women.” Her smile faded and her lips pursed for a moment. “But an Abacleonian whore? That’s dangerous.”

“Don’t call her that.” Gottfried hissed, his shame transformed into anger.

“That is what she is. I know all about it… I wasn’t trying to pry at first. At first.” Eniera retorted and began tapping her finger on her knee, “But your bills had to be paid of course, and it was all from there… a little investigation to ensure this wasn’t some insane thief, and the truth was out.”

Gottfried sat stiff as a statue as the carriage rolled around. “Don’t… call her that.” He said again.

Eniera’s eyes hardened, “Don’t forget Gottfried, you are the one who made her that.”

He flinched. “Your conquest, your soldiers, your orders.” She pointed at her son and with iron in her voice she said, “You are the heir to the throne of the Empire, you never get to run from the consequences of your choices. She’s an Abacleonian whore.”

Gottfried stilled, and the boy in him quailed at his mother’s reproach, but the man he had become would not let the matter lie so easily. “She’s also more than that!” He exclaimed with ferocity, he leaned toward his mother, “She isn’t just a whore… I… I…” He tried to find what to say and what words he could give to the Empire’s hammer.

“Love her?” Eniera shook her head. “No, you don’t. Even if you do, you destroyed everything she loved. Do you really think she wouldn’t kill you if she could? For all we know she had a hand in the poisoning attempt. The woman who reported it worked at the White Stag. You’re looking at her with eyes of love because you’re living well. For you the gap is small. But she’s looking across a chasm that I don’t think anyone could leap.”

“Mother, you don’t know what it’s like between us… don’t talk like that.” Gottfried growled out and clenched his fists, laying them at rest over his knees.

“Don’t I? You make love once, maybe a number of times, everything feels new, wonderful, amazing… like the gods have kissed you with sweet wine in their mouths… that is how it always feels… at first.” Eniera replied, and felt her heart ache in her breast.

She clutched her hand into a fist over the beating within, “But that fades. That fire dies. That’s just sex and the bliss that comes with the pleasure given to us by the designers who made us and this world. It is remarkable, but it is not love.”

Gottfried defiantly crossed his arms.

“I don’t care if you spill your seed in the bellies of ten thousand whores… or a hundred thousand peasants… and I wouldn’t be here now warning you except for the danger posed by sleeping with the enemy that you did not kill. You’re embarking into dangerous territory. You could have any of a thousand women just for the asking. Saying who you are would be enough, or saying nothing… just approach with that handsome face.” She chuckled at him as the tension broke with his blush at her praise.

But he returned to seriousness again. “She’s more to me than just a whore… I know what I did. So does she. I don’t believe she despises me, not at all. I don’t know what to call this. I only know that I don’t want to stop.”

The carriage began to roll to a slow halt, and Eniera shook her head, “You’ve got the stubbornness of both your father and of myself… but we’ll see how that holds up after an afternoon here.”

“Here? Where is ‘here’? Mother, where are we?” Gottfried asked and slid the curtain open to look out the window, a massive dome, the only building like it in Shazen, was before his eyes.

“We’re at the city’s Xanadu. Every pleasure of the flesh, every delight, every indulgence will be afforded to you from some of the most skilled courtesans of either sex in any province of the Empire. Go, walk the inner gardens, and when you emerge on the other side… see if you still feel how you say you do about that place between a traitor’s thighs.” Eniera remarked and waved him toward the door.

“You can’t be serious?” Gottfried reared back and looked at her, utterly dumbfounded.

“When was the last time I was any other way? You think your little amusement is somehow ‘chaste’? Any exclusivity with her is bought and paid for, now go, clear your head, and come out a little wiser on the other side.” Eniera propped her head up, “I’m not joining you in there,” she said when he kept looking at her, “go.”

Reluctant still, Gottfried opened the door, and exited the carriage.