Emperor

All sexual contact in this story occurs between persons who are eighteen years old or older.

*****

Two weeks later, Cwen watched from the Palace's inner balconies, as Beatrix and Kella played in the lush gardens below. "Be careful," Cwen yelled with lingering thoughts of safety and survival ever-present in her mind, although her protector, Ryland, was coronated Emperor after killing his father. This had resulted in a speedy end of the human slaughter; Lahoyah's carnage had seemingly been transformed by an influx of food and harmony.

'He's most likely dead,' Cwen thought, her mind constantly thinking of her brother, Alexander. As she walked through the Palace halls, she couldn't forget the blood, the sounds and smells of death.

The now-imperial, blue cloaked, guardian knights were posted along the sacred corridors where orange ones had once stood, Cwen ever-feeling as if their hawkish eyes harbored deadly intent for her and her sisters.

With her fear for her family's safety at the top of her mind, Cwen walked freely to the Royal Apartments to see Ryland. She hadn't seen him since he'd collapsed and had been sequestered by his Bourjonian physicians. Approaching Ryland's apartments, Cwen first saw the usual hoard of Bourjonian blue guards, but then saw that this time Udolf was leaving Ryland's chambers. She hurried and curtsied before Udolf, "My lord, I request an audience with the Kin... my apologies, my lord, the Emperor."

"Princess, you don't have to bend a knee in my presence."

"I hear the Emperor established a new system of governance, a High Council, with you as Chief Councilor, so I must."

"I'm simply the temporary Chief Councilor; I am but a simple servant boy," Udolf said bowing, "it is I, who must bow to you, not you to me."

"I did not thank you, for the kind protection you showed my sisters."

"Princess, I also inflicted great hardship."

"Please my lord, I do not hold any grudges against you or the Emperor. I am as thankful as the Adjani people who are safe and no longer starving."

"You did not come here to praise me."

"I am here to plead with you, to let me have a moment alone with His Imperial Majesty."

"Emperor Ryland has directed me to provide you and your sisters with every courtesy, as I have."

"You have said that before my lord, but with all due respect, after all that has happened, for the sake of my sisters, I need to hear it myself from the lips of the new sovereign Emperor."

"Princess, the Emperor has been governing from his bed under his physicians' counsel. His Imperial Majesty granted you your freedom and preservation of your name and title before his isolation."

"I will get on my knees and beg, if you like. Is that what it will take for me to see the Emperor, my lord?"

Udolf held her shoulders as she began to kneel, in an attempt to prevent it, "You can't do that Princess, stand up, the guards are watching."

"Exactly Udolf, the guards are watching. I'm half afraid to leave my sisters alone, we still share a bed."

"Emperor Ryland has just been given medicine to help continue the healing, which will put him in a deep unbreakable sleep for the next few hours. More importantly, His Imperial Majesty has decreed, through me, that his knights grant you the respect granted to him by God. What more do you need, Princess?"

"Since you mentioned God, I will do the same. I need the Emperor to bind his promise in God's law."

"Marriage?" Udolf choked.

"Yes."

"No," Udolf said, letting the "oh" sound hang in the air.

"The Emperor courted me five years ago, during peace time."

"The Emperor's duties require him to shift priorities. Marriage to you, Princess is unlikely, you overstep."

"His Imperial Majesty needs to consolidate power, win favor from the citizens, my sisters gain security from being his family, and he'll no longer be seen as a conqueror."

"At the moment, the citizens of Adjani seem to view the Emperor as a protector, the conqueror is hung up in the city square. Your sisters have their security, even if their older sister is too frightened to see it."

"Their sister is aware of the nature of man, and the difference between bonds that can be broken and those that can't."

"Princess, in a meeting of the new High Council, His Imperial Majesty officially decreed that ending the still-active war between Bourjon and Casparah, through his marriage to Princess Illimani of Casparah, was his top priority."

"I need to speak to the Emperor immediately, I beg you."

"Hopefully, this will be possible in a few days."

"Why does he avoid me?"

Udolf grabbed Cwen's arm and pulled her to a private corner, "Whatever his reasoning is, he is Emperor and he has a supreme right to this, endowed to him by a just and fair God. If you need more guards to protect you and your sisters, I'll make it so. You have more than Naimak would have provided."

Cwen swallowed her anguish in the face of truth, as she curtsied. "Thank you, my lord" she said, hurrying off, leaving Udolf knowing his every word had been ignored.

*****

Two hours later, Cwen was making her way through a secret internal Palace passageway that had yet to be discovered by the Bourjonian guards. Cwen pushed open the door to Emperor Ryland's Chambers and nearly jumped in shock at the sight in front of her. Ryland was very much deep in sleep as Udolf had stated, but he was tied and bound to the bed, while Alexander stood over him with a dagger inches from his throat.

"Alexander, you're alive!" Cwen uttered with a whispered urgency, as she hastened herself toward him, knocking away the short blade in his hands, hugging him tightly.

"Cwen, you're crushing me," he gasped. She dragged him to the far end of the chamber, near its balcony, before talking.

"Thank God you didn't go to Uncle Gaius, you can't go there. But what is this Alexander, what are you doing?"

"I got out of the city, but before getting too far I came back to try to help; I've been waiting to kill him."

"You should have come to me first; Ryland is a friend to us."

"I decided to avenge Mom and Dad; he killed Mom and Dad. He is no friend to me."

"It's not that simple. His father did that, not him. He killed his father to save us, he's not our enemy; he's a good man."

"It makes no difference, you hate him too remember Cwen, you refused to marry him when father wanted you to, remember?"

"Alexander, I was wrong about him, I made a mistake don't you make the same one." Right then, Ryland started to make rustling sounds; Cwen clutched her brother in her arms once more, before giving him directions to go to a safe house her mother had arranged in the city. She forced him through the passageway, making certain he had left.

Now alone, Cwen tossed the dagger Alexander had brought, over Ryland's private balcony.

Cwen now settled on her goals. She disrobed and climbed atop the sleeping Emperor, who appeared solidly bound to the bed.

She began pulling away his silk garments, attempting to massage his cock to life. "Strengthen yourself for me," she whispered alluringly, begging the penis to become rigid.

Although still asleep, Ryland's royal shaft started to expand and lengthen in her soft, inviting hand. Cwen began applying her fingers atop her virgin pussy, delicately moving along her mound, enticingly encouraging her own easement.

With his cock now sharply rigid, she wasted no time mounting his sword. A slight crimson stain covered his penis head, and a striking pain instantly consumed her, as she attempted to find a comfortable rhythm amongst his girth. Suddenly, his eyes popped open. His cock hardened further, his eyes opened in delight, his lips parted, mouthing: "Ahh," in slight pain, due to Cwen's contact with his still-bruised ribs. Attempting to touch his wound, he quickly realized he had been bound.

Cwen bit her luscious lips as she cautiously self-impaled her painfully tight entrance onto his rock hard, imperial length. Slowly, she began riding his cock tip teasingly, her hands washing over her soft, firm breasts as her eyes fixed on his solid, iron-like chest.

"Release inside me," Cwen said, as she lowered her body closer to him, while gyrating around him, flexing her pussy muscles around his swelling cock.

"Get off," Ryland ordered now fully aware of her intent.

"Breed me with your seed," she screamed, declaring her intent, before pressing her lips to his.

In his moments of awareness, Ryland's eyes and mind overflowed with an uproar of anger. In one heave, Ryland pulled at his binding ropes and he was easily freed. Cwen was immediately filled with fright looking down at the fierce stare of the angry sovereign beneath her.

Ryland's mind filled with a mix of anguish, anger, passion and desire, as his large palms took hold of Cwen's waist, and in a moment of twisted dominance, lifted her up and dropped her back on the bed. Ryland now laid hovering atop Cwen, rapidly hurling his reinvigorated rigidity into her moistening passage.

Cwen closed her eyes, with her hands running along her thigh, stomach and breasts slowly, searching for something to hold onto as she bit her lips, bolts of pain ramming through her. She pushed her soft hands onto Ryland's iron chest and clenched her eyelids and bit down tighter on her lips.

His pace immediately slowed and Cwen opened her eyes, noticing for the first time how blue and invitingly peaceful his eyes were. "Am I hurting you?" He asked urgently.

"No, good—it's good," her lips spoke, leaving a tiny "O" formed on them, as her eyes briefly closed again for a quick second.

Raising her eyelids to free her steel-grey eyes once more, in the moment of exhilarated pleasure his scar meant nothing, she felt at ease and enticed under his solidly muscular, glistening frame. Her hands now freely brushed along his muscled, sweaty arms, moving along his rock-solid chest, then accidentally moving to his bruised ribs, causing him to momentarily wince.

"Sorry, are you—" Cwen began to ask before Ryland sealed her lips with his, as their mouths rocked over each other, swimming in wetness, just as below, Cwen's pussy began to overflow with wetness.

With her lips propped against his ears and her eyes closed, she made a slow, alluringly whispered confession, "You're my... first." The new knowledge provided sent him in a heated spiral as his pace quickened again, his hips drilling forward, his cock rocking into her gripping pink lips without pause or caution.

The nuanced pleasure pacified her pain, as her quivering, moistened vice danced along Ryland's pulsing cock. Her eyes now looked at his facial scar with yearning respect, while her heart opened and vagina dripped. The intense build up in Ryland's loins were now reflected in his limitless strides, his hips slammed into her with animalistic urgency, lacking any restraint.

Cwen's fingers and piercing nails attempted to pull Ryland closer, nearer and deeper, while she kissed him on the lips and touched his scar. Then, she awakened his sobriety by whispering, "Yes... release inside me."

With that said, Ryland sprung up, while suffering through the wakened pain in his side as he broke her entangled embrace. Beginning to stand, he erupted, splattering her belly and breasts with his imperial jelly.

Ryland stepped away from the sprawling bed where Cwen remained, while looking at him, blinking away, processing the rejection. He began to dress, but she was quick to follow and seductively embrace him with her nakedness. "Ryland, take me again. I can feel you want to," she said, feeling his iron-hard manhood.

Looking into her grey eyes, Ryland released his thoughts, "Cwen, your father was my teacher and Edwin was my friend. I loved your mother and Alexander. I'm sorry about what happened to your family, Cwen, I am, I truly am. I will always wear that guilt, but I have responsibilities beyond myself now, another war to end."

"You're going to marry Illimani?"

"I have to, promises have been made, the peace has to be sustained."

"And my sisters?"

Ryland brought his face near to hers as he answered with, "I would never harm Beatrix, Kella or you, there family you're family to me. You should know that by now Cwen!"

Cwen paused as her eyes swelled with tears, "What if Alexander was alive with my sisters? Would he be allowed to play in the gardens and live freely alongside us?"

Ryland's eyes squinted, looking on quizzically; now opening his mouth to answer before closing it again with more pause and thought. The more he thought, the more his ribs pained him. Cwen's stomach entangled unsettlingly as she witnessed the moral struggle occurring in front of her. "I..." Ryland began to say, as a knock came from the door of his bed chambers.

Cwen, still naked, went to hide in the passageway she had originally entered from. She peeked through the cracks, watching Udolf enter the bed chamber.

"Your Imperial Majesty, you're not sleeping?"

"It appears so. Udolf, is it urgent? I would like a few more minutes alone."

"Princess Illimani arrives tomorrow, the wedding will be the day after; our legions and the army of Casparah are both in a state of mutual rest."

"Good, Udolf, thank you. Now give me a moment," vocalized Ryland, while pointing his fingers towards the door.

"One last point, Lady Cybele of the new Province of Sentia is on route for the wedding and to take her promised position of Chief High Councilor. Lord Gaius will also soon be here from Western Adjani to attend the wedding and to take his seat on the High Council, which will cause some trouble between..."

"Problems, it will cause conflict between him and Cwen, I know."

"Sire, Gaius, she hates. No, I meant a problem between you and her; Cwen's in a fairly heated state, she'll blame you for breaking bread with her treasonous uncle."

"Cwen is smart enough to know I wasn't privy to all the evil actions and plotting my father did. She'll also know that Gaius's lands are strategic to a stable country," Ryland said with Cwen's ears in mind.

With that said, Udolf left and Cwen emerged from hiding, naked.

"You're giving my uncle that betrayed my family and country, a reward," Cwen said, storming about as she moved to get dressed.

"When I was fifteen, with your wise father's guidance, I built a grand peace agreement, with the idea of making sacrifice for the greater good at its core. Gaius has significant sway in maintaining stability in a volatile region. The people need security; it's my duty to preserve peace now."

"Is that how you plan to govern, buying loyalty and trading your soul for power? You don't care about me or my family!" Cwen said bitterly.

"If you're speaking of your brother I pray he is alive, I only took so long to answer because I was figuring how to keep him safe from others, like your uncle. I would never harm him."

"If you were really an Emperor, your so called 'imperial decree' would be all that would be needed to grant safety, not secret barters," Cwen fired off as she completed dressing herself.

"Naimak ruled by unilateral fear, is that what you want from me?" Ryland said, moving to exit his bed chambers, while Cwen turned around and prepared to slip out her secret passage in a huff of anger.

Ryland exited his chamber to an awaiting phalanx of guardian knights yelling "Emperor" and slamming there closed fists to their armored chests, while loudly clicking there feet together before proceeding to march around him.

*****

Under the black of night, the illuminating full moon guided Cwen, who was covered by a ratty, hooded cloak. She slipped through the rubble-covered lower end of Lahoyah's still disease-infected southern quarter, reaching a wooden house that shook and swayed with the wind.

She took care to make sure that she wasn't followed, then she slipped through a side door into the house. Upon entry, she was met by pitch-black darkness, frightening silence, and spider webs. She reached into the pockets of her long hooded disguise, her fingers caressing the single pearl-orb and the golden necklace she brought.

"I have the payment," Cwen said aloud in the room that appeared empty. "Nobis Solvendum," Cwen yelled and a few seconds later the sound of fingers snapping was heard, as lanterns lighted brightly all through the room, showcasing row upon row of dust covered books.

"I am Nobis Solvendum and that is not the payment, Princess; it is the key," said a soft-spoken, wrinkled, pale, bald man, who appeared from a distant corner wearing clothing rattier than Cwen's. Behind him was Alexander, who ran toward Cwen, as she tossed the necklace to the old man.

Cwen embraced Alexander while the old man did the same with the bulbous single pearl. "Can I go live with Uncle Gaius now, Cwen?"

"Uncle Gaius is dead," Cwen said, plotting, "so you have to go somewhere else."

"Where?" Alexander asked.

"The wizard will decide," Cwen said, looking at the bald man who was marveling at the pearl-orb necklace that once belonged to Cwen's mother.

The wizard seemed bewitched by the large single-pearl necklace as his fingers swam over it. "This pearl is said to be all that remains of the ancient city of Cataleyah," the wizard admitted.

"What's he going to do with Mom's necklace, Cwen?" asked Alexander.

"This," the man said, tossing the pearl into the air while dashing a vile of white powder unto Alexander. All three people in the room were quickly blinded by a flash of light and deafened by a bang heard through the entire city of Lahoyah. The pearl exploded and a swirling blue vortex opened up from it. Instantly, hands stretched out from the blue vortex grabbing Alexander, pulling him in, kicking and screaming.

Cwen's mouth opened wide in shock, this was the plan, but she hadn't expected it to work, and she definitely didn't expect it to happen so suddenly. Cwen was quickly rattled further by the wizard yelling in panic, "We have to close the window, before it goes from blue to black."

"Is my brother safe Nobis, is my brother safe?" Cwen asked repeatedly, grabbing hold of the wizard and shaking him.

"Yes, of course. He's in the safest place, your mothers' ancestral home, in a distant far off unreachable Elven world. He'll be safe and will return automatically in two cycles, twenty years, but if we don't close this now, the vortex will move to connect with another realm, a dark realm, bringing hell to Earth."

"What do you mean by, my Mother's home?" Cwen asked before her eyes widened as the man went to work, whispering under his breath, tossing powders into the air. But then the vortex went black. A female creature with long black hair, large breasts, as well as horns, wings, and a tail, stepped through the vortex, just before it sealed back up and disappeared. Cwen quickly noticed nestled between the creature's giant breasts, an identical pearl like orb attached to a gold necklace, like the one Nobis had just used to conjure the vortex.

Her purple eyes stared down at Nobis the wizard, who began to grasp a black bottle. "Succubus burn," Nobis said, but before he could open the bottle, the succubus sliced his throat with a snap of her sharp edged tail. He lay on the floor, clutching his gushing neck as he bled out, while Cwen stood screaming.

The succubus smiled at Cwen as she stomped over to her, its demonic hooves echoing as they slammed into the wooden floor. The succubus licked her lips with her long slithering tongue. "Nobis should have known better, you can't send a soul, without paying with a soul. Instead of simply enjoying a full moon, you humans play with magic." With that stated, her tail stretched out towards Cwen. "I took his soul as payment!" The succubus uttered, after which she turned pounced at a cowering Cwen, but was blocked by an invisible force as the pearl orb betwixt her breasts began to shine with an orange glow.