The Dog That Bit You

After a time spent together in King's Reach, the cousins find their feelings for each other changing.

24.

Epilogue:   The Dog That Bit You

 

The political situation in King’s Reach took longer than a month for Nolen to stabilize.    Although loath to admit it at first, he was extremely glad Arianelle had accompanied him.    Though she was a dyed-in-the-wool tomboy, she had the amazing ability to turn herself into a gracious princess.     All of the formal occasions were handled with her guidance.     It was late autumn before all of the ducal business had been concluded and Nolen could think about returning to Westmark to resume his training.    

At the annual Autumn banquet for the nobles and servants of the ducal court, he looked at all the contented faces and was pleased that all was well.     As he danced with Aria at the banquet, he thought about what she had said to him three months before,  about coming with him.

She’d been right - her constant presence had popped the bubble of infatuation that he had for her.     He no longer just saw her as a beautiful young woman.   

She was smart, witty, extremely charming and had an uncanny ability to know what he was thinking.    He was no longer  infatuated with her at all.   

Now he was totally, irreversibly, eternally in love with her.   

The realization did not worry him or cause any conflict in his heart.    Instead he was at peace with it.    He had no doubt that she would always be near him.     He never said anything about it to her.   He didn’t have to.   

Two weeks after they had returned to King’s Reach, they had begun sharing dreams.    Not just a few, once in a while, but entire nights of dreams.    It was Aleiryid, the elven mating of souls and it had been so powerful, wonderful and complete that neither one had even mentioned the experience to each other the next day.   

Around everyone else, they just went on about business like any two cousins would.     But each night in their separate beds, they would come together in spirit in a way that never ceased to amaze him.     He knew everything she thought and she knew everything he did.    There was no need to cheapen the experience the next day by talking about something so wonderful.

As a result of the Aleiryid, he recovered very quickly from the grief of his parent’s death.    He had found his soulmate.   

No-one at the ducal court suspected a thing.    They were properly affectionate to each other and slept in separate rooms.    Not even the gossips in the ducal court could find any evidence for anything other than a normal closeness between cousins.

“We’ll take the next airship back to Westmark,”   He told her as they danced, “I’m sure everyone will want to see how things transpired.”

Arianelle nodded, “You know they’ll ask about your problem.”

Nolen smiled, “There is no problem now; I’m cured.”

“Well, that isn’t exactly true, you know.”

“Isn’t it?   I look at you in a completely different way now.    Our relationship is closer, but it isn’t physical, really.”

“That’s just because I haven’t begun to need anything like that yet.”

“It may be that neither one of us has those sort of feelings for each other ever again.”

Arianelle arched her eyebrows and smiled. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that.”

Surprised, he looked at her questioningly. “Oh, has something changed?”

“I feel that a new season is coming.   It is just something I sense.    There is nothing I can put my finger on right now, but I feel a change slowly coming over me.”

“What sort of change?”

“Let’s just say that we had better have a long talk with grandpa and grandma… and my parents… and make certain that there are no restrictions on cousins marrying.”

“Oh…” Nolen said, suddenly very nervous around her.   

“Relax,” She said, “let’s just see what happens.    Let me try an experiment.”    She stopped dancing suddenly, leaned in and kissed him on the lips.

Nolen felt his lips tingle and was aware of gasps of surprise around him, but it didn’t stop him from kissing her back.

Finally Arianelle broke the kiss and looked up at him with her eyes glowing. “There!   Yes, that did seem rather pleasant to me.    We’ll definitely have to talk to our grandparents before the court gossips spread the word of what they just saw.”

“Well, let’s give them some more to talk about… in case they missed it.”    Taking her chin in his hands, he leaned in and kissed her, amused and terrified of what they had set into motion.

The End

Reviews

[Elina]

"He no longer was infatuated with her..." Maybe "He was no longer..."
"...they had began sharing dreams." Instead "...they had begun..."

[Eddie Davis]

Thanks, Elina, for all of your reviews.