His first wife's funeral pyre would not be lit for seven days however. Proper protocol would have to be observed. Belilal balked, thinking of all the hours he would spend in pageantry, receiving regents and whoever else came to pay their respects. He inwardly groaned at the thought of the night to come. Perhaps this girl would not be as forward-pressing as most of his concubines were and he could just slip past his duty without much ado. He vaguely hoped she would at least be pretty as his first wife had not been. She had been ten years his senior and had mostly acted as a mother; he had not exactly feared her but he had at least respected her. Her absence would mostly be missed as the head of house, director of many palace activities. Belial wondered if this new wife would fill this role well, which mattered to a great deal of people, even if it generally bored him to think on it. Taking a long drag on his smoke stick, Belial thought perhaps he should make her first wife, but something told him to wait. He couldn't imagine what, but Belial has learned to trust his intuition and put the notion of first wife from his mind.
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Across Atlantis to the West, another wedding was being prepared for. The Prince and Princess were to be married today after waiting their entire lives to do so. It would happen at dusk and the entire city of Laodicea would be there. Even their Father, who could barely move, came and sat on his throne to watch his youngest children, Hypatia and Satus, come together in holy matrimony. The Royal sibling couple was a few years apart with Princess Hypatia being 20 and Prince Satus being 17. The entire state was in an uproar over a royal wedding because it was so rare, but also because with the wedding would come the sex rites the royals performed at holidays or events, like weddings. Today was both and the hunger in the air was palpable. On the longest day of the year, at noon during the full height of the sun, Prince Satus and Princess Hypatia would perform ritual sex in front of the whole city, in preparation for the people to copulate themselves. As sex was forbidden except on holidays, the people were frothing with anticipation.
The public performance of sex by the Royals was meant as a gratuitous show to stimulate the people. As if they needed more stimulation, thought Hypatia as she inserted her pearl crown into her veil. Anyone who could find someone would be having sex tonight, and in her honor. The idea made her feel squeamish and ill-used. The whole thing made her crazy, really. Satus was an ingrate as far as she was concerned and having public sex with him had to be one of the worst things she could imagine. Hypatia looked at the shadows of her perfume bottles where the sun hit them and saw she had about an hour before she was to marry her brother. She gagged a little and felt her heart start to race. The only reason it hadn't already been was the quiet, private hope she fostered inside, never daring to speak such treachery. She hated her life as a captive in a land controlled and repressed like a clam, but with no pearl. She longed for a different life, one she could not even imagine, but one that had to be better than life as a Princess of the West.
Having been schooled above all others, Hypatia felt peerless. Having personal beauty and access to every ointment and cosmetic she desired, Hypatia felt too clean and fair for the common fishermen she saw in the crowds when, on rare occasion, she faced all her subjects. Nothing excited her and the idea of being naked before all those hungry, plain eyes was too much to bear. Waves of anger and frustration crashed over her as she looked around. None of her keepers were there...did she dare? Could she possibly pull off her ridiculously simple plan? She has spent months thinking of a way out, an escape from her captivity. None had come to her except the simplest, most direct things she could think of: the sea. She could escape by sea. She had the power, she knew the way; or a way, at least. She hoped to swim around the north coast of Atlantis, past the women she somewhat feared and into Sidras, capital city of the kingdom of the East. She knew there was a king there and had vague notions of her royal blood being honored, but, truly, she did not care. As long as she wasn't here, forced into marriage with her brother, the reprobate.
Hypatia's hands scrabbled for normalcy and picked up a brush. She was halfway to brushing her hair before she remembered her veil. She cast down the brush and fell forward with her hands down on her boudoir counter, looking herself in the eye in the mirror. She couldn't stay; anything would be better, anything. She was going to go. Now. She was decided. She didn't even take off her crown but picked up her skirts and ran from the room.
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In the South, land of the wartribe, Bairfinias was also considering flight. He had bagged his share of animal flesh early, as always. Animals seemed to come to him, whether it was the great birds of the sky or the tiny crawling things of the Earth. Bair need only go to their lands and they flocked to him like butterflies to flowers and he relished them all. Today he had taken two rabbits, who had been in the throes of passion when he found them under a log at the edge of the forest. Bair had only watched them at first, thinking how good the natural act looked. Why couldn't the sex in his tribe be more natural? He wished it was less aggressive, less like a battle and more like the mating bunnies, soft and well-fitting. Bair did not want to recall, did not want to remember last night, or most nights. He tried, always to fight them off, to protect his perennially-battered body. He never succeeded. Always he was overtaken, smashed to the ground and mounted for all to see.
Bair hated his life, his small body and his own existence. Strangely, his shame was meant as honor. Most often the man on him was the King Publius. He liked to take down the weakest. More often than not, Publius chose Bair as his nightly conquest, making more than a few men jealous. Sihon, Publius' partner, would seethe and rage for hours after nights Publius slept with Bair and in the shadow he took his revenge. Petty things, annoying things, sometimes even dangerous things Sihon did to Bair. Just yesterday he had tripped Biar and when he fell kicked him five times, then spat in the dust where Bair lay. All was misery. There was also almost no way to vent this frustration as Bair did not enjoy the blood-lust many in the tribe seemed to. Instead Bair would run, run far away everyday. He had plenty of time to since his hunting was so easy. He had recently been creating a map of his known world in his mind. From running along the shoreline Bair knew their forest was surrounded, essentially, by sea. He knew rocks and trees and even winds by heart. His only joy and escape was the time he spent alone in nature, away from his tribe.
Bair thought of the people he knew with no joy. The great ring of fire where the tribe's meat was cooked held no allure for him as it did most of the men who walked about on the coals as if they were cool stone. Bair hated the fire, beside which his endless humiliation was ritualized and consecrated. Bair could think of no reason to live and turned his attention North. To the North West Bair knew lay a vast desert, full of strange dry plants. This was where he would go, seeking death and deliverance. It was only a matter of when...
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To the North, in the valley past the desert, was a different tribe. This land held a community of women. The valley was fertile from a river delta at its North most point. The women who lived here cultivated the land and only took the lives of animals after asking the spirit of the animal for permission. These women revered the Earth and used her bounty to symbolically manipulate energy: they were magic. They tracked the skies and knew that today was the day of most Sun. It was a holiday to the women and their royalty were preparing for pageantry. Queen Lux watched King Romala line her eyes with kohl in the largest tent in the tribe. They would both be in full view for the holiday ritual; Romala leading and Lux assisting. They wore their finest fur, many pearls and gems and their hair had been ritually braided with silver and flowers.
"Could you do my eyes, too, please, love?" Lux asked. Romala looked at her sideways in the large mirror they shared.
"I don't know if I have time. And I like your eyes natural," Romala said and kept applying her own kohl, lengthening her eyes dramatically.
"I guess I'll just rouge my cheeks and lips," Lux said in a small voice.
"You look better that way." Romala said, finishing her eyes and patting crushed pearl into her lips. "Now, do my eyes," Romala demanded. Not finished with her cheeks, one pink and one plain, Lux turned to her mate and picked up her wand. She stood in front of Romala and closed her eyes, calling on her magic. Lux went inside herself and saw in her mind's eye a pool of radiating pink energy. She took some of it up and imagined attaching thin spikes of it to the ends of Romala's eyelashes, effectually lengthening them. She felt the energy channel through her arms and out through her wand, amplified by the crystal attached to the end.
To finish the spell, Lux opened her eyes, touched the crystal tip of her wand to each of Romala's eyes and said, "So mote it be," very quietly. The lashes around Romala's eyes were easily twice their natural length. Romala did not thank Lux, just turned to look at her reflection in her large mirror.
Lux turned to finish applying color to her cheek when Romala said, "Wait, you have to curl them, too! You always forget."
Without comment, Lux abandoned her rouge for the second time and went to curl Romala's unnaturally luscious lashes. Lux took her wand and called on her pink power to heat her wand at the tip and stick to the ends of Romala's eyelashes as they curled around her wand. Lux released the extra-long lashes once they had been curled. "You look ridiculous," Romala said in thanks. "Finish putting on your rouge!" she ordered. Lux obeyed.
When she was done and Romala had finished with her own rouge they both turned to a crystal crown on a nearby table. Romala stood still as Lux placed the crown on Romala's black, braided hair. They avoided looking at each other as Romala settled her crown, grabbed Lux's hand and said, "Let's go."
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Back East, Belial was preparing to meet his new bride. He waited in his receiving room that functioned as his main court and public throne room. Just a few rooms below, his dead wife's body was being rubbed with oil and spice in preparation for the afterlife. The knowledge of her death and all it entailed sat uncomfortably close to his consideration of his second wife. He didn't feel guilty as much as afraid his first wife was not truly dead. It seemed to him that she might walk in at any time and scowl at the proceedings.
Suddenly music started and a procession approached down the hall. All heads turned. Wildly, Belial thought of his mother, though she, too, was dead. He stood from his throne and waited as the girl made her way across the black stone floor. There was collective sigh. She was indeed beautiful. She was pale with dark features and seemed to glow slightly, like some dark moon. There were flowers in her hair and silver at her neck and hands. She wore a long, red dress draped to show off her curves, which were fairly advanced for her age. Two white doves flew on either side of her.
She walked slowly, with her eyes cast down and stopped in front of him, standing before his throne. The young woman knelt. A cleric somewhere began to read aloud the obligations the girl would now have to her husband and king. Belial was not paying attention and instead searched the face of his new bride. Her red lips caught his eye, and her ample bosom did not go unnoticed. She wouldn't look at him, however, and when they kissed, she hardly moved at all.
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Hypatia waited as a group of servants passed. She pressed into the shadow, hardly daring to breathe, edging closer to the end of the wall. If only she could make it, if only she could reach the sea. But even then, could she swim that far before night? She drove the thought from her mind and looked around. The servants passed out of earshot and Hypatia fled back the way they had come. She ran like water, flowing over the bridges and stairs of the palace, seeking the sea. At one point she tripped and fell on her face, but she deftly got back up, flying for freedom. After a few more tense pauses and waiting Hypatia was there. Barely checking who might see, she ran into the waves and felt the change begin.
Hypatia became her seaself. All her life she and her family could change into these sea versions of themselves. It was the privilege of her breeding: only the royals had the power. Hypatia grew up loving the sea and was comfortable in her second skin. Her legs merged into one long muscle with a flat fin at the end. She felt just as at home in the ocean as she did in the air. It was only her great familiarity with the sea and her role in it that gave her the courage to brave such a long, dangerous swim...
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Bairfinias did not remember the exact moment he wanted to die, just like there never seemed to be a single moment when he wanted to live again. All Bair knew was he ended up in the desert. His feet had taken him there without his paying much attention. There also did not seem to be a clear boundary between the grass plains north of his tribe's forest and the desert to the northwest of that. Bair supposed there had been some sort of interlude as he looked around at the sand and rocks and scrubby, dry desert plants. He wondered vaguely how long before the Sun took the life from him, how long before he fell to the sand that was like fire. He thought about the forces involved in his fall and the point at which he would be overtaken. His mind often dwelt in these liminal spaces, in the time involved in probability, in what it took to tip something to a certain point. Bair rested in the indefinable moment of change and revolution. When would he die? It was a matter of many things. Did he have much water inside him? How might the Sun affect him and to what degree? In these immeasurable moments he dwelt as he made his way ever deeper into the desert.
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As the sun set over Atlantis, Lux and Romala came out of their tent to flowers being thrown and voices raised in praise. They walked together through the crowd towards concentric rings of stone circles down by the mouth of a cave. A rushing river flowed from the valley beyond into the cave and its gaping mouth. As they went down the well-worn path to the river, Romala took the lead. The rest of the tribe followed the two women, their King and Queen. They stopped in the inner circle of stones and stood across from each other over a thick alabaster basin sitting on the ground. As the rest of the women filled in the outer circle, Lux and Romala knelt and whispered over the stone basin, asking water to fill the space. From an unseen source water filled the bowl to just below the edge. What came next filled Lux with a kind of dread. Not only was her job unpleasant, it was difficult. The women finished crowding in and Lux and Romala made eye contact over the basin of water. Romala nodded slightly and Lux exhaled. Using the power in her arms, legs and mind Lux lifted the bowl and held it out for Romala and the tribe. Romala's deep voice rang out and the women followed her in song. Arms on fire and mind ablaze, Lux held the water for the entire clan.
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Though Belial lay with his second wife for the first time, his mind was on other things. The girl had proven herself to be appropriately demure and yet completely willing. She was equal parts virgin and experienced lover; at some point Belial wondered if she was indeed a virgin, as he had assumed. She flicked herself about with ease that could have been practiced. He thought of the weeks she must have sat in myrrh and oils preparing for this night. She had been soft, and he had enjoyed his time with her but other matters, other things concerned him. He worried about the prices of grain and centaur slave rebellions and the rising Selbukku rates. He could not split his focus for no one else was taking care of business. All his regents only plied him with gifts, hoping to gain favor. They were almost as useless to him as they were to their own people. All his subjects languished away in debauchery and gambling. Even though he was the king he doubted his ability to change anything. All this occupied his mind as he lay with his new wife, smoking.
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Down the coast, Hypatia was swimming for her life. She was in her natural element but she was losing her race with the Sun. She needed to reach the Eastern city she knew next to nothing about before the Sun set. She could barely stop herself thinking of what would swim up from the deep once the Sun went down. It was hope that drove Hypatia on more than anything else. Hope that in a foreign land someone would save her, understand her, not force her to marry her brother of all people... Her muscles screamed as she swam on, hoping against hope the there would be a way up from the sea to the city on a cliff...
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Bair was in the desert 38 hours before he thought he would die. It happened suddenly that he found himself no longer vertical. He had fallen and was looking at things perpendicularly with his face in the dust. His mind had ceased to charm him hours ago, sometime after he had truly decided to die. Now it sputtered back to life at the anomaly of being horizontal.
Get up! it said. Go on!
Why? he answered back, Why go on?
At this his mind was silent and it was his spirit who said, Because it will kill you. More will kill you, if that is what you truly want. Go on and die. Keep going and end your life, it said. But something was distracting him. Something in his eyes. There was a bright color, a blue goo at the base of a prickly desert plant. Will it kill me? he asked his mind.
Perhaps, it said, but deeper down his spirit whispered: take it, take it, take it...
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After an hour of singing from Romala and the tribe, Lux found herself terribly vexed. She had maintained focus to hold up the stone basin the entire time. The combined voices had rippled the water perfectly because she had held still enough. The rocks had risen at their combined voices and floated through the air to land on the base of what would one day be a pyramid. Lux had done the most work even though the focus had been off her and on Romala. Without her silence and concentration, the ripples would never have shaken the rocks alive, decentralizing their mass and making them weightless.
Even though they never appeared to have strife to the tribe, Lux worried about Romala. Romala was behaving more and more like Lux were somehow less than she. At the stone singing Romala had barely looked at Lux and had not thanked her for performing her rather more difficult role in the ritual. The ways she was "more" than Lux seemed known only to Romala. Maybe Lux did not behave appropriately around the other women, and this was somehow not good enough for Romala. Maybe it was something about how she looked, or what she said. Something had changed, in Romala and in their relationship. The thing was, Lux did not know what to do about it and if she was honest with herself, she doubted there was anything she could do. Romala was more and more on her own path, leaving Lux behind, bewildered and hurt.
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Belial slid out of bed and put on his black silk robe. No sooner had Belial clothed himself than he noticed a second naked woman in his chambers. She had obviously come up from the sea as she was wet and standing in the doorway that lead to his private staircase down to the ocean. He looked at his new wife, lying naked in his bed and turned to this new woman, mentally checking that they were indeed two different women. The mad thought occurred to him that it was his dead wife born anew. His next concern was that these two women would soon notice one another and begin to make raucous, horrible noises. For some reason the questions of who this woman was, why she was in his private chambers and how she got there all escaped him. His suddenly frantic mind could only think to keep the two women quiet...
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Hypatia had found only one stair from the sea, and it had led to the tallest tower. She thanked Boj that it was mid-summer's eve and that the winds on her naked body were warm. She was unable to transition clothes in returning to her land form. The air did chill as the sun set while Hypatia climbed the tall stairs higher and higher. She was glad for the even stone: the stairs were clearly well kept. She tried not to entertain notions of violence upon her arrival. She just hoped her nudity would not offend whoever was there when she got to wherever she was going. She hoped that she could explain to whomever she met that changing into her seaself required the sacrifice of clothing and there was nothing she could do about it. Hypatia simply hoped as she walked into the room she found at the top of the stairs.
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Bair had eaten the lurid goo that resided at the base of one of the dry, prickly plants. He had begun to see colored shapes and felt as if he were indeed the ground he lay upon and that the great cosmos were placing things down on him one at a time. First came a net that enmeshed all his senses, streamlining them to one, inner feel of things. This was overwhelming until the cosmos set calmness and peace down on him and he truly melded with the earth below him. Soon the cosmos would set brightness down on him, but that arrived on the foot of another.
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As Lux prepared for bed that night her dreams were on her mind. Lately, she had been dreaming of the men who lived in the South. She saw their dark-skinned bodies tumble around, fighting each other beside a great fire. They taunted her, or so she thought, for usually these men were only prey. Tomorrow she would pick one and using magic, take his seed. On the second day of the Solstice it was always so. Each woman rode a pine sprig to the camp of the men in the South and harvested seeds to produce new daughters for the clan.
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Belial put his hands out and walked a path somewhere between the two women. He did not want to startle either of them. He could not take hysterics tonight. He thought of speaking but the new addition spoke before he had even taken in a breath.
"Hello, I'm sorry, I..." started the new girl. At her voice his new wife screamed and was up in an instant, breasts flailing, enraged at the surprise of finding another woman in her bridal chambers. Belial threw a blanket at this nude new edition to his chambers and roared at his new wife to stop screaming.
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The other woman in the room was such a surprise to Hypatia she almost cried from fright. She was feeling winded and not a little scared. She caught the silk blanket the robed man threw at her and wrapped it around her shoulders, enveloping her body in shadowy warmth. Soon there was silence and the man, exasperated and barely clothed himself, turned to her and said "Who are you?" The question rang out into the pregnant silence and Hypatia pondered how best to answer him.
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Now Bair had become the sea and he found himself under a woman's feet. She was tall and brown and had red and yellow hair done in braids. When she walked her braids swayed just above her ample backside. He felt her steps and saw her move over him; she became his world, and her feet were like boats on his ocean.
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That night Lux dreamed of the desert. She had never been to the desert though she knew there was one to the south west. In her dream she wondered which way to go because she was looking for something, something small. She was way up high and couldn't seem to get closer to the ground where she knew her treasure lay. Lux woke in the morning unsatisfied and thinking of earth like fire.
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Belial looked at the strange girl, for she was strange. A goldeness radiated from her and her skin seemed to shine. She had white-blonde hair and round, blue eyes. His wife had put on a robe and seemed mutinous, but silent.
"My name is Hypatia. I am a Princess of Laodicea, and I am here to defect...if, if it pleases the king," the young girl said into the persistent silence.
