Greywolf - Osiris

"What way?" I can hear the wariness in Wysper's voice matching my own, since I don't trust this woman as far as I could throw Titan. Shite, I can't even pick up Wysper right now, let alone throw her.

Zanzabel gives Wysper a mysterious smile. "I know you think me a spy for Muzen, and I was. However, in truth I am a spy for my lord Osiris. You see, Queen Zenobia had grown suspicious of my loyalty, and asked Osiris to go through my memories the same way Muzen went through yours. He discovered my deception, but instead of having me put to death, he walled off a piece of my mind and placed all the memories of his discovery within them before sending me back to Muzen as a two-faced Janus."

I frown. "Muzen should've noticed something was wrong."

She turns her mysterious smile on me. "Muzen would have, had he not begun relying on Yrg to do the searching for him. Yrg always thought she knew more than she did."

"I'd say she thinks a lot less, now."

Zanzabel shudders. "Seeing Yrg reduced to a puppet... anyway, Osiris always gives me several enchanted crystals to keep with me, which I use to contact him directly. They resemble simple mana stones, but once I break the crystal, the mana released brings up his image, which we will be able to see and hear, as he can see and hear us. I need to give him my report, but I will also explain the situation, and see if knows of a ritual we can perform that might satisfy the barbarians."

My eyes have gone wide. "I think that's a really bad idea." Zanzabel gives me a puzzled look, and I add, "Osiris and Asena hate each other. I mean, Asena was with Alexander the Magnificent when he conquered Aegyptus, and she made all the Celestials kneel before him, including Osiris. Celestials don't forget insults, and when he realizes I'm Asena's son-"

"Greywolf," Castor says, "how's Asena going to react when she discovers you've gone against her orders, and betrothed yourself to the girl she forbade you to save?"

"I'm trying not to think about that. I mean, she'll be a little upset-"

"A little?" Castor snorts. "We'll be lucky if she doesn't break your bones throwing you around, before ripping out Wysper's heart and eating it."

Wysper draws herself up. "I am not afraid to die... at a goddess's hands."

She thinks Asena's a goddess? "Wysper, I didn't survive Muzen just to see my mother kill you instead. Wotan's blood, she's going to be furious enough with me, but if she finds out Osiris is involved..." How can I make them understand? Asena's more likely to snarl than slay, but she hates most other Celestials because of what happened to her.

"Regardless," Castor argues, "having an Aegyptus betrothal agreement will satisfy the Great Khan."

"Then I will contact Osiris." Before I can protest, Zanzabel reaches into a hidden pocket of her dress and pulls out what really does look like a blue mana stone. "We will be speaking in our language until Lord Osiris decides otherwise, so this may take a while." She walks away from us, skirting the pool before stopping close to the opposite side of the room. Her back is to us as she flings the crystal down to the floor.

It smashes in a flare of blue light, revealing the blue image of a lean man wearing robes. He's bald, with a hawk-like face, and clean shaven except for a chin beard like a dark strip going down to his center chest. He looks up from whatever he was doing as Zanzabel kneels and places her forehead on the floor. He speaks to her in a language unlike the Sasnayam tongue, with more hard sounds like Germanic, but with odd, softer sounds as well. They stop speaking, and he makes a slight motion with his hand. Zanzabel rises to her knees and they resume speaking.

Castor lightly grips my shoulder. "While they're jabbering away at each other, let's get you cleaned up." Castor helps me get my trousers and groin protector off, then supports me as I rise from the bed and into the pool. Wysper's eyes go wide as he eases me into the water. Hasn't she ever seen a naked man before? Maybe she hasn't, strange as that seems.

Ah, warm water; that's a lot better. Everything still hurts, but at least my muscles are relaxing a bit as the water flows from one side of the pool to the other. Castor lets me go. "Woman, is there a cloth I can use to wash his wound with?"

"My name is Servant-mistress Pigeon," the small woman replies, "and I will attend to him. You," biting off the word, "will snag the material with those claws." She goes to the dais and pulls on an ornamental knob, opening a hidden drawer. She pulls out a red cloth with black stripes and returns, kneeling on my injured side while Wysper kneels behind my head. I close my eyes as she begins running her fingers through my hair. Then reopen them as Pigeon begins washing out the wound, enduring the pain as I grit my teeth.

Pigeon finishes and I sigh in relief, the small woman rinsing out the cloth in the water as Zanzabel says something in the Sasnayam language. Pigeon responds, then lays the cloth out next to the pool to dry before rising with Wysper. Both of them walk over to where Osiris' image is sitting cross-legged in front of Zanzabel. They bow and then kneel, Osiris asking what sounds like a question and Pigeon responding, before Wysper responds as well.

I know I should be worried, but watching the water change from red to light pink as I listen to Wysper's husky voice without understanding the words, is pleasant. Maybe I'll close my eyes, just for a moment...

Castor's claws press down on my shoulders just enough to jerk me awake. Osiris' image is floating right above the water on the opposite end of the pool, sitting cross-legged with his robes covering his feet. He smiles. "Well met, Greywolf, son of Asena," he says, speaking in the language of the Germanic tribes. "I assume you know the old tongue of the North-land?"

I give him a wary nod. "That was the first tongue I lore-learned at Asena's knee. How can I be of service?"

"By telling me whether we are accursed of each other, or shield-friends."

Remember who you're dealing with. "I have no quarrel with you, Osiris, though Asena may."

Osiris' image chuckles. "Three things I know to be certain: the sun will rise in the East, the Nile will flood, and Asena will hold onto her grudges. Knowing this, I wonder at your boldness in desiring life-oath to the human girl, Wysper."

I rear back in surprise. "Life-oath? This was to be a betrothal."

He shakes his head. "I explained the ancient customs and what they meant, then gave her the oath-choice. Wysper wants, or in truth, needs, to be life-bonded with you."

"But she has no year-lore of me or what I truly am."

"She believes you are a demigod of the north, and that is enough." I open my mouth to protest, but shut it again as he raises his hand. "Open your ears. Muzen crushed her faith without removing the shadows from her mind the Fae of Winter embedded, and even though time will wash those shadows away, she needs to believe you are one, or risk despair strong enough for her to seek death."

"Life-oath means bonding together until death. What if she knows regret over this?"

"Greywolf, by the customs of the North-land tribes and Aegyptus, you are both allowed to live apart with other spouses. Yet I do not believe this will be needed unless politics rears its ugly head. You two are meant to be together."

"I felt heart-longing the first time I saw her," I blurt out without thought.

Osiris' image smiles. "She admits the same. This is good, yet other reasons exist for you to swear her a life-oath." The smile slips away as he sighs. "When Celestials came to shatter spears with the Daemo princes, not all fought. Some established guest-halls, fortified places where warriors could rest, or recover from grievous wounds, and we used the humans we found as servants, raising them higher than they ever could have done alone. In return, they worshiped us as gods."

"And do so still."

He nods. "Which was our sin, dark-shadowed as the heart of my shield-brother, Set. We never took time to see them as people, only objects to be used and toyed with. Too late did the Oldenbloods know their sin, the corruption it caused... and yet could not change our course." Osiris' image points a finger at my chest. "The Oldenbloods are dying, and our dual-natured children are already suffering from the slow loss of mana, but you are different. I know Ghostdog from a long, long, time ago, and he is the only being that could get a child on one of us who was exactly like we are... or at least, exactly like we used to be when we were young."

"At the tent-hall meeting with the Great Khan, a woman with no eyes told him I was Asena reborn, but changed." I scratch my head. "Understanding swept past me. I mean, all children are part of each parent, not just one or the other."

Folding his hands in his lap, Osiris' image shrugs. "Truth, except the Shadowlands was the place of conception. The Grey is strange, and Ghostdog understands much he will not speak of." I give him a sour look and the image chuckles. "Often have I felt the same as you after talking to him." He glances off to the side, as if looking at something I can't see, then back again. "But this is why life-oath to Wysper is so important. Bonding with a human means living as one, understanding as one, loving as one."

He regards me a moment. "Greywolf, we who live in our golden halls must someday answer for our dark-shadowed sin, and I would see you remain unstained. Great burden I place on young shoulders, yet important that life-lesson is understood: we are not gods."

"Asena teaches such lore daily with her actions, yet deep-truth in the words spoken." I glance at Wysper. She's trying to keep her face a stoic mask, yet I can see the shadow of fear behind it. She thinks I'm going to say no... and a part of me wants to do just that.

I'm scared. I'll never admit this to anyone, but bonding with her for life means everything will change. No more guarding caravans and fighting off bandits alongside Asena, no more sharing the warmth of lonely widows or wrestling carnally with slender Daemo...

But it means never again performing carnally in front of hooting merchants and caravan hands, just so Asena can drink herself into next week. It means knowing where I'll be living next week, next month. It means having friends and a place where I belong.

It means finding a home. I smile at Wysper as I say in Greco-Roma, "Papa used to tell me that home's not a place but a person you love, and that if I ever found her, to never let her go. I'll be your home until the end of your life, if you want me."

She's blinking rapidly as the stoic mask cracks... is she crying? "Do you mean that?" I nod, and she leaps to her feet. "Yes," she cries as she rushes over to the pool and kneels to throw her arms around me. "I want-"

Wysper slips and falls into the pool. I grab her before she hits her head on the side as water splashes onto the floor, Castor's laugh almost a wolf's howl as as I wince in pain. But I don't care. She's kissing me open mouthed as we wrap our arms around each other.

Then a voice above us rumbles, "What's going on here?" Wysper and I break apart and look up as Titan strides down the stone stairs, his footfalls echoing off the wall as a look of surprise seizes his face. "Osiris?"

The blue image has already turned around and is floating in his direction. "Titan, it has been a long time. Zanzabel, who was my agent keeping me informed about Muzen's doings, has explained everything that has happened thus far." Titan stops at the bottom of the stairs an arms length away from Osiris' image. "Now, let me explain what you have missed."

They begin speaking together in yet another language... how many tongues does Osiris know? Zanzabel turns away from them and looks at us. "If you wish to consummate your union in the pool, I have an unguent that is not only slippery, but will not wash away in water, and will prevent the conception of a child."

"That part's not a problem," I tell her, "because I'm a Shadow-walker." Why do they all look confused? Idiot, why do you think they do? "Apologies. Shadow-walkers can only conceive a child in the Shadowlands, and Papa warned me to never do that. He said that, if I do, the child won't be born human but will be a monster that can use the Grey."

Castor says, "Do you think he told you the truth?"

I shrug with my arms still around Wysper's slender body. "Asena thought he was lying, but he seemed pretty adamant."

Pigeon frowns as she joins us. "I hope you are right, because Wysper does not need that problem on top of everything else." She makes a disapproving cluck sound. "That beautiful dress is ruined."

Wysper raises her chin as she meets Pigeon's disapproving look with defiance. "Then I shall... remove it."

Zanzabel smiles. "You will be snarled up in it like a kitten in yarn. Come to the edge and let me help you." I let go of Wysper and she wades over, raising her arms as the African woman helps her get the dress off. My eyes go wide as the pool itself as I drink in the sight her slender beauty. I feel myself go hard as a blade, and as Wysper presses her body against mine again she feels it too, for she gasps. Zanzabel laughs. "I have another thought. I shall join you both, bracing Wysper against me so Greywolf will not need to exert so much pressure that his wound reopens."

"It is going to reopen anyway," Pigeon retorts.

"Then let it." I look up at the others, my eyes meeting theirs. "If Wysper has to bleed, then I should bleed with her, and share her pain as well."

Zanzabel raises her eyebrows a moment as her smile turns wry. "If more men felt that way, I might enjoy being with them more."

"Few have gone through what these two children have," Titan rumbles as he and Osiris' image move our way. Osiris takes his former position floating at the other end of the pool as the Ogri drops to one knee beside us. "Because of Asena, I was going to oppose Greywolf doing more than betrothing Wysper, until Osiris told me of rumors several of his trade captains brought with them on the tide. The Kingdom of the Gauls has supposedly invaded the Isle of Britannia."

Wysper gasps. "Invasion? But-"

"The trade captains had no hard evidence," Osiris' image says, "and none of the rumors suggest the Brittani people have been conquered. But under the circumstances, it is important that the two of you are forged into a single unit no one can break, short of death, as Wysper may someday need to return to Britannia."

I give Titan a bewildered look. "I don't understand. Why is it so important?"

"Alliances," he rumbles. "Among the Brittani people, only the noblest of children are the ones sacrificed to make their blood oats, and thus the queen or one of her sisters always conceives a daughter with blood magic and a small amount of life magic as well."

"Queen," Wysper says in a quiet voice.

My eyes go wide again as Titan nods. "Even if the royal family has survived, this alliance between the White Horde and the Brittani is essential for each one's survival."

"I have seen maps of the civilized world," Zanzabel says, "and there are hundreds of leagues between here and the Isle of Britannia."

"Doesn't matter," I reply. "I'm a Shadow-walker, and even walking hundreds of leagues doesn't exhaust you or even seem that long, if I brought say the Chosen to help. But why would the Great Khan agree to an alliance in the first place?"

"Prestige for the kingdom he wants Prince Avitohol to establish," Castor answers. "With you as his Bloodguard, and a princess of the Brittani as his adopted daughter, his shaky hold on becoming heir would suddenly become a lot stronger in the eyes of the People."

"Huh. Do you think Avitohol realizes who Wysper actually is?"

Castor shrugs. "Who knows? But I will say this," his jaws opening in a wolfish grin, "for a kid, he plays a mean game of 'Conquer the World." Seeing my puzzled look, he adds, "It's a game of strategy and tactics."

"Which are the subjects I plan to instruct Wysper in," Titan says, "after she and Greywolf become members of the White Horde."

Wysper gives him the startled look of a deer hearing a twig snap. "Strategy?"

He nods. "And tactics. While I feel certain your family has survived and is being served by wise advisers, it is always best to plan for the worst possible outcome."

Wysper's expression becomes shadowed. "I do not feel... they will welcome me. To lay with a male... is betrayal."

"With a human male, perhaps," Osiris' image says. "However, with the son of the Wolf-mother Asena, everyone, especially Pan, would be overjoyed."

The sun returns to her face as she says, "Do you really think so?"

"I plan to tell him myself when I discover the truth of these rumors, and speak to him of your fate. For now, are you willing to bond with him for the rest of your life, knowing that you or Greywolf may need to live with another spouse and produce children?"

"He will always be first in my heart." My own heart swells up hearing her words, as she takes a deep breath. "However, I will accept whatever Fate weaves into my life. Yes, I am willing."

"You'll always be my Home no matter what," I blurt out. Idiot, that sounds stupid. But she's smiling again in a soft way, so I guess it's alright. "I agree as well." Even though Asena's going to kill me for sure, this time.

Osiris' image looks around at the others. "All of you bear witness that these two have agreed they will take care of each other for life." Everyone either nods or says something in response, and he smiles. "Excellent. In the morning I shall have my scribes write out the agreement in both the language of Aegyptus, and in Greco-Roma, for both of you and the witnesses to sign."

"And then what," Titan rumbles. "Send it with the next caravan north?"

"The agreement will be sent by courier," he replies as his expression grows sly. "Now, I believe the next step is in order?"

"Lord Osiris," Zanzabel says, a small ceramic jar in her hand, "with your permission?" His image makes an inviting motion as it floats off to one side, and she slips off her dress before climbing into the pool with us. She dips her finger in the jar as she says to Wysper, "With your permission?" Wysper nods, and Zanzabel draws out a dab of dark creme before putting her hand under the water.

Wysper sucks in her breath. Zanzabel finishes, then settles against the side of the pool as Wysper turns around and nestles in between her legs. As I wade towards them, Zanzabel says, "Normally, when I am instructing new lovers into the erotic arts, I would ask everyone to leave so they can take their time. However, I can see blood seeping from Greywolf's wound already."

Glancing down, there's a trickle of red coming from my shoulder as Titan adds, "I would overrule you if you asked. This needs to have witnesses, in case Prince Timur claims the bond was not consummated."

"At least there aren't as many spectators as usual." Wysper's eyes widen as I realize what I just said. Shite! "I've, ah, had an interesting life, at least at times."

She smiles. "Someday I want to hear... all about it."

"I'll tell you everything," my hand going to her face. Shite, that hurts. "And I'll make our next times special, I promise."

Wysper clasps my hand with her soft one. "I believe you." Then she reaches down into the water with her other hand and positions me exactly where she wants it to go. "Please?" I kiss her as I thrust hard.

She cries out as my wound reopens, her arms wrapping themselves around me as I press onward. Wotan’s blood, this hurts, this really hurts, my normal self-control gone as I finally have the one I've wanted since the day our eyes met. Too soon, I explode inside her, sagging as my arms give way, and Zanzabel holds me up as Wysper bursts into tears. Fear stabs at me. "Did I hurt you?"

Wysper shakes her head, holding onto me and crying into my shoulder as Osiris says, "The dam is broken and the Nile flows freely. She will never have another mana node grow inside her ever again." Wysper nods in agreement, lifting her head up off my shoulder.

She gasps. "Please, he is bleeding bad." It isn't too bad, is it? Shite, the water's looking pink and it's darkening-

Massive hands pull me out of the water, Wysper gasping as we're pulled apart, and Titan lays me down on the cold stone floor before wrapping a long, thin linen cloth around my shoulder, spiraling it several times before tying it off. People are babbling... is somebody telling me something? I really want to sleep, but maybe I shouldn't... I'll just close my eyes for a moment.

Just for a moment.