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Part Three picks up where Part Two left off. Be advised that if you haven't read Part One and Part Two, the story may be quite difficult to follow.
This is primarily an incest story, but it is also sci-fi/fantasy, and supernatural elements are not incidental to the plot. Additionally, most chapters will feature elements of other categories, particularly group sex and anal.
All characters are over eighteen. All acts are consensual.
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The world was as yet empty but for the land. We were surrounded on all sides by rolling hills, placid lakes, meandering rivers, lightly wooded plains, and, most of all, dense forests. There was not a manmade structure to be seen anywhere.
None, save the stone pavilion I'd created a moment ago, beneath whose arched dome were gathered twelve Orwins. We nibbled at hors d'oeuvres while drinking various alcoholic beverages. Yet one needn't be able to read Libidos to know that we were in a sober mood. If our faces weren't enough of a giveaway, one might also note that we were all more or less fully clothed. There wasn't a bare torso to be found among the men, nor a single woman clad in lingerie. That wasn't exactly typical for us. At least, not when we were in the Homelands.
Each of us had our own reasons for our uncharacteristically somber dispositions. Natalie, Skye, Ismail and Vince had been enjoying quiet lives, away from all the craziness of the Homelands, when their queen informed them that they were no longer welcome in the Third Autumnal Court or any of its properties. Including its echo of the mortal world. They hadn't been imprisoned like the rest of us, but their lives had still been uprooted for no other reason than the fact that they were related to me.
Val seemed keenly aware of the way my own brother and sister stared at me and whispered about me behind my back. Perhaps it was starting to hit home that I wasn't a fairy tale king, and she wasn't a fairy tale princess.
For his part, Josh seemed incapable of smiling so long as his sister was not.
Of everyone there, Todd and Holly came closest to actually enjoying themselves. Or, at least, to convincing the rest of us that they were. But the absence of their children had to be that much harder to forget now that we were in the midst of the Orwin family reunion than it must have been over the past few weeks.
As for myself, Brianna, Mom and Uncle Bobby, there was plenty of tension there. I wasn't sure I would've expected there to be many sincere smiles among the four of us even without politics being thrown into the mix.
And, of course, politics
was
the reason for the get-together.
Thus far, we hadn't gotten past greetings. But no one seemed particularly inclined to engage in small talk, so it was only a matter of time before we broached the subject.
"You know, I always wondered, why were you worried about her?" I whispered to Brianna after a brief and awkward exchange with Skye.
She shrugged. "She's got more of her mother in her than she thinks. But a good deal of your mother too. Even some of mine. Meaning, she's idealistic, but shrewd, stubborn, and afraid of nothing. Might not have much in the way of power, but that's still a dangerous combination."
Afraid of nothing?
"Are we talking about the same Skye?" I asked.
Brianna sighed. "Ask her what her childhood was like sometime. Specifically, how she found out who and what she is."
"I will," I said, "if she ever decides to talk to me for more than five seconds again."
"That might help, yeah," Brianna said.
"Smartass."
"Is that what you like so much about my ass?" my cousin asked, giving her hips a wiggle. "That it's smart?"
I rolled my eyes. "Should've quit while you were ahead. That was lame."
"Huh," she said. "And here I thought lame jokes were your favorite kind. Or is that only if you're the one telling them?"
That smart ass of hers got a playful slap by way of response.
"I'm gonna go talk to this new uncle of ours," Brianna said, noticing that he'd stepped away from my mother. "Why don't you go talk to your mother? Wouldn't do to have her thinking she's an afterthought, would it?"
No, it wouldn't.
I smiled at my cousin's retreating back. That couldn't have been easy for her to say. Then I cleared my throat, stood up straight, and headed towards my mother.
"So it's divide and conquer, then, is it?" Mom asked with a cold smile. She flicked her eyes towards Brianna and Bobby.
I cleared my throat. "Sorry if it seemed like I was being rude earlier."
Perhaps it had seemed that way because I
had
been. I'd only been able to stomach a few minutes of pretending to care about getting to know my uncle before I felt the need to pull Brie away under the pretense of needing to go say hi to Todd and Holly. As everyone kept saying, Bobby did in fact seem quite nice. But I just wasn't ready to deal with him.
My mother frowned. "I'm sorry, dear. I just...." She sighed. "I'm sure it's not easy for you. Seeing me with him. I mean, I can't say I love seeing you with
her
either. But let's just both try to put that aside and start over, okay? It's been too long since we've seen each other. Neither of us wants to start back off this way."
I forced a smile.
Neither of us really wanted to say much about what we'd been through since she left. Inevitably, then, we came back around to the topic du jour.
"So," she said, after a lull in the conversation. "You're really going to step aside? Seriously?" Her voice all but buzzed with excitement.
"Seriously."
"You know, for the longest time, I thought Iva stole you away from me," my mother said. "I realize that's silly," she said holding up her hands in deference to the protest I hadn't even made. "Whatever feelings the two of you might have had for each other, it never went anywhere. I realize that. Part of me almost wishes it had, so maybe you could get it out of your system. Assuming it really is just a crush, the way I'd like to think. But anyway, the point is, I see now that whatever there may or may not have been between the two of you, it was really the throne that split us apart. You might have been tempted by other women, but the reason I felt like your heart no longer belonged to me was because you were more in love with the legacy you thought you were building than you were anything or anyone else." She let that hang there for a moment, then asked, "No?"
"I don't know," I said. "Maybe. Maybe not. I don't want to lie. There was something really powerful between me and Iva. The throne didn't help anything, but it might not be fair to say that was all it was."
"I see," she said.
"I'm sorry."
My mother held up a finger. "Stop right there. You don't get to to do that, Frank. Just say that you're sorry and make everything okay."
"I know."
She planted her hands on her hips and glowered at me. Like she would when I'd come home late as a teenager and she'd think I was lying about whether I'd had anything to drink. "If we're going to repair things, it's going to take time. And you need to know that I'm madly in love with my brother. That doesn't mean there's no room for you in my life, but you can't just expect me to shove him aside."
Fair enough. I felt the same about Brianna.
Not that it would be a good idea to point that out.
Of course, I did anyway.
"Same with me and Brie."
"Hmm. 'Me and Brie.' How cute. It even rhymes."
I reached out to put my hand on her shoulder.
She jerked back. Not sharply, but it sent a pretty strong message all the same. My hand fell back to my side.
Had that been why I'd said it? Precisely because I knew it would upset her?
To make her feel what I felt when she told me that she was
madly
in love with Bobby?
No, I didn't think so. That might have been part of it. But, at the same time, I'd have felt guilty if I hadn't said it. As much as it was disrespectful of my mother's feelings, it would have been doing Brianna an injustice
not
to say it. Like I was ashamed of her. Or trying to give my mother the impression that I was relatively unattached.
"So. What do you say, is it about time we got down to business?" I asked.
My mother studied me silently for a moment, then gave a curt nod.
This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. Our reunion was supposed to be heartfelt, tearful, joyous, and maybe even lusty. I wanted to scream.
Of course, I realized that it was my fault as much as hers. Not that knowing that made it any easier. But I'd already tried apologizing, and look where that had gotten me.
Perhaps I should have pressed the matter. It might not have been fair that I had to, but since when did fair matter when arguing with your mother? If I wanted to put this awkwardness behind us, it was on me to keep trying to convince her to forgive me.
And I would do just that. Eventually.
For now, I raised my voice and asked everyone if they were ready to discuss the matter of who was to be our first ruler. I then opened things up by saying that I thought it would be best if we could settle the matter by consensus rather than succession ritual. Then I added that I had no interest in the throne myself.
At first, my words were met with silence. Then applause. Todd got it started, but Nat and Skye and the twins quickly joined in.
Brianna slipped up beside me and rubbed my back. "I'm sorry, baby."
"It's okay," I said, kissing the top of her head. "You were right, by the way."
"Of course I was," she replied. "But I wasn't going to say anything. You're more than welcome to say my 'I told you so's for me anytime you want, though. Just FYI."
That got a grin out of me.
A quick scan of the crowd confirmed that Val was more upset by the applause than I was. It was one thing that I wasn't going to try to be king again. It was quite another to see how pleased everyone was to hear it. The poor girl.
Why did the look on her face upset me more than the exchange with my mother had?
