Gottfried left the carriage behind and made his way toward the grand Xanadu, an archway before him was lined with statues painted in shades of flesh, male and female forms in various postures of copulation lined a pink path of crushed shells that crunched under every step toward a set of great wide marble doors. Carved three dimensionally into the frames was an idealized man, broad shouldered and with a contour down the waist with thick arms, strong thighs, a chiseled jaw and shoulder length hair. His body stood straight and looked out toward those who would come inside. To his left was a woman, carved with supple breasts in symbol of fertility, with shapely hips and hair that billowed and tumbled at her back. The divide in the door was where their hands joined, but before Gottfried could enter, the door opened outward.

A man wearing only a white cloth that wrapped around his waist and over his shoulder held one side of the door open, while a woman similarly clad so that one breast was bared to the eyes, held the other. Each wore long hair and had the faint glow of oil on their flesh where the lights within caught them. They bowed while not letting go of the door, “Welcome to our Xanadu, My Lord, we were told to expect you. Do you require a guide, or will you walk the garden alone?”

“A guide?” Gottfried asked as he took in the scene before him. An explosion of color was arrayed before his eyes, a short way, a mere dozen paces from where he stood, an explosion of greenery obscured all things. Though he could hear the sound of pleasurable moans and the noise of cascading water, and wind somehow rustling the many branches. The greenery were great hedgerows of flowering plants, roses of white, blue, red, violets of brilliant purple, and so the whole of the Xanadu was filled with perfumed scents. The warrior Prince felt his senses becoming overwhelmed, but he maintained his focus, trying hard not to notice the partial nudity beside him.

The young woman, sensing his interest, allowed her door to slowly close and she approached to take his arm. She looked up at him through amber eyes, her half elven ears twitched a little and her little mouth curled into a smile. “Yes, my Lord, each flower represents an experience, a guide can read them more effectively than a first time visitor. If you go alone, you can follow the way the statues point, all paths will eventually lead to the exit. You won’t get lost, but a guide can serve to… enhance the experience, as nobody knows the ways of bliss like we do.”

Gottfried thought that over. “There is…” He cleared his throat, hesitating and looking away as he sought words, so he didn’t see the woman nod at her male companion or the look she traded with him.

“Not to sound rude… but to be frank I have… well there is someone…” He stopped when the woman on his arm put a finger over his lips and looked up at him.

“My Lord, you are a godsheir, isn’t that right?” She asked.

Grateful for something he could easily say, Gottfried spoke, though her soft fingers did not move from his lips, “Yes…”

“Then let us honor you as one.” She said and turned her upward gaze away from Gottfried and over to her companion, at her nod he had left the door and briefly walked away. When he returned he carried a small round silver plate bearing small yellow cakes.

Gottfried’s eye fell to them and his mouth immediately watered. ‘Honeycake?’ He wondered, and the woman on his arm reached out, took one between two delicate fingers and with a seductive smile, she rose up to her tiptoes to hold it to his lips.

“Have a bite, my lord.” She whispered in a deep, throaty voice. “Taste this, and then you feast on heaven.”

He did as she asked, the soft spongy feeling breaded cake practically melted on his tongue, and before the first bite was consumed, his entire body began to relax, his tension melted away. ‘She feels so good… everything…’ He thought, everything became slower, felt better, and when she whispered into his ear before flicking her tongue over the lobe and whispered…

“Come with me…”

He did.

Eniera Jabara waited in the carriage at the far side of the Xanadu. She didn’t leave or ask for anything from anyone, she barely even noticed the passage of time. ‘This should have been his father’s job… not mine. Of course who knows where Cenna is…’ The bitterness she should have felt for the wanderer was simply ‘not’. Instead, a wistful smile came to mind as she thought of that beautiful man, the wild explorer and the greatest warrior she’d ever known. ‘Gottfried is so much like him… if I let the boy… the man… do as he wanted I’m sure he’d be wandering the world in search of adventure right now…’ She let a tiny smirk touch her face, the vigor, the energy, the almost playful love of tests of strength and boyish enthusiasm for every new experience. ‘I’m half my age, or twice my age, depending on what my son is up to at any given time.’

The Hammer and Sword of the Empire actually had to cover her mouth to stop herself from laughing as she amused herself with her own whimsical thoughts and memories. Then she moved the curtain aside and glanced at the exit. ‘He’s taking a lot longer in there than I did, or than Cenna did… or than Cenna ‘and’ I did… I wonder if they gave him opium baked honey cakes…’

She sighed with exasperation, “They probably did…” Eniera thought out loud and crossed her arms in front of her chest, “Oh well. At least he’ll be spent enough that he’ll have a clear head when it comes to his favorite whore. When he realizes he has nothing to say to her and nothing in common when he’s drained of… fluid… he’ll come to his senses.”

Eniera told herself all of that, speaking in the empty carriage to nobody but herself, a tiny fragment of thought made her shift uncomfortably in the soft, expensive seat.

“He’s never snapped at me, or demanded anything of me… or really even gotten angry at me… am I… worried?” Eniera asked herself and raised her eyebrow before moving the burgundy curtain aside to look at the exit again. Each moment he was within was a relief, but it also left her more time to wonder about herself and recent events… and so she filled that time with something else.

Checking out the carriage window… over and over again.

There was no need to look, the groaning noise of the great stone doors caught her ear, prompting Eniera to relax at last until her son rejoined her, planting himself in the opposite seat. His eyes were a little heavy lidded and his lips curled up in a smile that made the fearsome warrior seem almost silly.

“See?” Eniera said with confidence, “Do you miss that whore now?”

“Just… hotel… back to the hotel.” Gottfried replied, dragging his hand down his face and going limp against the backrest.