Compromising Situation

Syndi's parents find their daughter in a very embarrassing place.

35.

Compromising Situation

 

“That’s odd, I am sure I locked this,”  Muld said in alarm as he found the guild building’s main door unlocked.

A look to the king and queen was all that was needed and they nodded.    Quietly he pushed open the door and the three of them crept inside with the silence that was common to elven folk.

They glanced around the room, but Muld did not see anything out of place or disturbed.

“It may be alright, I might have just forgotten,”  He whispered to Eiolmoel and Synthaeia, “But I keep the guild's money upstairs in my apartment, so until we’re sure there are no thieves, let’s tread softly."

They agreed and so up the stairs they went.

 

***

 

Syndi’s sensitive elven ears heard movement and she sat up excitedly.     He was back!    But how did she want him to see her?   She wanted him to see the gown that Alleania had given to her.    So she flung the sheet away from her and reclined on her side, resting on her elbow as she eagerly watched the door.

 

***

The sound of someone moving around in his bedroom brought Muld up short of opening the door.  Gesturing to the king and queen, he pointed at the door and they nodded.    Eiolmoel pushed Synthaeia behind him and pulled a small dagger from a hidden sheath in his tunic.   Another nod at Muld told the Practical Magician he was ready to confront the intruder.

Muld held up his hand with three fingers up, then counted down silently, swinging the door open quickly on the count of one.   The three of them charged inside, prepared to confront thieves or perhaps pirates.

Sprawled out seductively on his bed was Syndi, her eyes wide in horrified surprise.

“Syndi!”  Muld, Eiolmoel and Synthaeia all exclaimed together.

 

***

 

He sat at the bottom of the stairs in the dark, rubbing the back of his neck and longing to go hide in a dark, remote cave somewhere.

They were up there talking to her - thankfully not shouting or fighting- but he knew that soon her father would come down the stairs and discuss things with him.

What in the world had happened?    Was she there to try to generate more Qi for some sort of big test that Alleania had for her the next day?   It just didn’t make sense.   She said one thing the day before and the following day…

He could see her laying there in his mind, wearing an incredibly sexy negligee, in his bed, apparently waiting on him.    He had only a moment of the image before all hell broke loose.   Syndi screaming in fright, her mother shouting, her dad also shouting.    He’d fled the room after a look from Eiolmoel and had sat here for almost thirty minutes waiting to hear about Syndi’s fate as well as his own.

What could they do to her, really?    Force her to return home?   Have Muld arrested for… what?    He hadn’t done anything and was as stunned as they were.   But he suspected they wouldn’t believe his innocence.

Life couldn’t get any worse.

He heard his bedroom door open and someone coming down the stairs, pausing for a moment upon seeing him sitting there, then continuing on down.

Her father, no doubt.

He looked up just as in time to see Queen Synthaeia step down to the floor, smooth her dress and then sit down next to him on the step.

To his utter amazement, she wasn’t ready to explode, wasn’t frowning or scowling at all.    She had a somewhat lost, almost helpless look on her face.    The queen looked almost like a girl herself at that moment and was remarkably beautiful without her pride messing up her face.    

She was trembling slightly and had been crying, for her blue eyes were swollen and red.    Synthaeia smiled weakly at him, took a lingering breath and said, “I’ve lived 1,227 years, Muld… it is a long, long time for anyone but us elves.    Until the ‘Burning Tree’ dream announced to all of us that we elves would no longer age past adulthood, I prided myself on maintaining my looks.”

“You have achieved that, Your Majesty,”  He replied softly.

“Thank you, Muld,” She said with another sigh, “In spite of how I might look; I feel very old inside right now.   My youngest daughter has grown up suddenly and is now a woman.    It is a sobering feeling, Muld, to have your youngest child reach maturity.”

“She is still young, Your Majesty.”

“Yes she is, Muld, quite young.     When her older sister Eioldth was her age, we had not separated from the Faesidhe yet.    Eioldth had not yet eaten of the Faesidhe tree.    She lived over 600 years before she met Haroldris and I was strongly against this, as he was a human.    I had such plans for her, Muld!   She was to marry an elven nobleman’s son and have a spectacular wedding in our new home in the north.”

“But I guess that didn’t happen?”

“She lusted for him and him for her and she was with child before we knew what was happening.    It was a terrible time, not only for her father and me, but for Eioldth and Haroldris.    All of my plans for her were spoiled.    She had a very simple wedding, for she was marrying a human and was pregnant with his child.”

“Syndi told me that you had trouble accepting her sister’s children.”   Muld expected her to be offended at this, but Synthaeia nodded gravely.

“I did - to my great shame, Muld.    They were Half-Elves and I couldn’t accept them.    At the time of Edwarren’s birth, Elves still aged and Half-Elves aged even faster.   You might not believe this, Muld, but I was too heartbroken at the thought of my grandchildren aging faster than I would, and so I distanced myself from them.”

“Now you regret it.”

“Yes, it plagues me, Muld.     When my granddaughter died, I grieved, but I was too proud to console my daughter.    When Edwarren died, twenty two years later, again I didn’t console Eioldth, though I knew her husband by then was old and dying as well.”

“Then Queen Eioldth died last year.”

Synthaeia closed her eyes and nodded, “Yes, and I could never tell her how many mistakes that I regretted.    Muld, when Eioldth began going down a path that I couldn’t control, I began to look to Syndi as a chance to set things right again.    She would be the perfect daughter, marrying a nobleman’s son, with a grand wedding.”

Muld laughed softly, “Then she met me.”

“Oh, how I hated you, Muld!   It was as if you were put into my daughter’s path to punish me for my arrogance with Eioldth by frustrating my hopes and dreams for Syndi.”

Muld nodded reflectively, “So, what can I do to try to rectify the grief and frustration that I’ve caused you, Queen Synthaeia?”

“What can you do?”   The queen laughed as if the question was rather ridiculous, “Why, you nor Syndi have any choice!”

“We haven’t done anything physical yet, Your Majesty.”

Synthaeia looked at him in amazement, and then something occurred to her which changed her look from amazement to surprise.   She touched his arm and asked, “Muld - you don’t really know what is happening to you and Syndi, do you?”

“Yeah, I know, Your Majesty - its Aleiryid… right?”

“Yes, but you don’t really know what that is, do you?”

“It is the joining of souls.”

“Yes, but it is a uniting of bodies and minds as well.”

“Syndi thought that it might be possible that it doesn’t progress beyond a spiritual level of joining.”

Synthaeia laughed, “Syndi doesn’t understand it any better than you do, Muld!    Sadly, no one in her family has experienced it.    But that doesn’t mean that her father and I don’t understand it.    Tell me something - did you know your parents?”

Muld shook his head.    

Synthaeia reached into the folds of her robes and pulled out a familiar brooch.   “Syndi told me to give this to you when I spoke to you.    I understand that it is a soul-brooch, Muld, for I have seen several of these over the centuries.    Your mother’s essence is in this and it is your most valuable possession, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is.”  He took it in his hands and felt her presence, which brought a slight smile to his face.

“Syndi has had possession of this brooch for a few days, yet you haven’t missed it or at least it hasn’t bothered you that she had it.”

Muld blinked in surprise, for the queen was right.   He had not even considered it as missing.   Somehow he had known she would have it.

“You see, Muld?    You are already joined with my daughter.    You lacked a mother to teach you about Aleiryid.”

“I never knew either my father or my mother.   I only have this brooch, Your Majesty.   I grew up around mostly humans and halflings, so most elven customs are foreign to me.”

Synthaeia smiled sympathetically and took his hand in a motherly fashion.    “Muld, what has happened to you and Syndi is not something that develops any differently for different elves.   Eventually the same result occurs.   Aleiryid always leads to a physical union… or death, if that union is denied.”

“Death?   Really?   I didn’t know that.”

“I knew that you didn’t.    The dreams are the first sign of an Aleiryid connection, and they usually start in childhood.   But not always.   When they occur later, the timeline is sped up.    The last stage is called in the Faesidhe language, ‘Hypuniua’ which means ‘The dream of union’.   It is a very intense dream of sexual union with your soulmate, and when it occurs, it is a sign that the Aleiryid couple must marry - or at least mate- to complete the joining of souls.    If they don’t come together within a few months time of the Hypuniua, they both will go mad and then die.”

The Queen paused, letting the realization reach him.    For a moment, he wasn’t connecting with what she was telling him, then, like a bolt of lightning it hit him - the dream from earlier that night!

Muld involuntarily stood up on the stair, “Oh my Lord!”

“Sit back down, Muld,”  Queen Synthaeia told him and he plopped down numbly.

“Your Majesty;   I-I… I didn’t know…”

“I know you didn’t.   Aleiryid is sometimes like that - several times that I can remember, a couple experienced Hypuniua when both of them were a bit young for a… adult relationship.    But they had no choice either.”

“Oh… I-I… I don’t know what I can say right now, Your Majesty.    I knew it was a… possibility… that one day we might… you know… but I really thought Syndi wasn’t ready.”

“She’s not ready, Muld, and neither are you.    But now neither one of you has a choice.”

Muld closed his eyes, “Oh, you probably really hate me now, don’t you?   This really messes things up.   I'm too low in social status.”

The queen laughed, not bitterly but out of genuine amusement.   “Muld, you would be very surprised to learn that I have had a change of heart about you.    This is not something that I usually have, for once I make up my mind on someone, I stubbornly stick to that opinion.     But after several arguments about you with my daughter, and - even more importantly- after seeing how valiantly you fought against the pirates threatening our kingdom, I was beginning to look at you differently.”

“Really?”  He asked hopefully.

“Yes, I am being sincere, Muld.    I can’t really count your poisoning as a valiant act because that was merely dumb luck that you took the first dose that prevented the king and I from being fatally poisoned.    But I have watched you around Syndi and you seem to be genuinely in love with her.   That just made me strive harder to break the two of you up.  But when you worked so diligently to have a curse removed from my poor daughter-in-law, and insured the healthy birth of three granddaughters, I was convinced that you were a good man and… a worthy husband of my daughter.”

Muld just looked at her, dumbfounded at what he was hearing.   The queen smiled at his amazement and continued, “We were actually very concerned about your well-being, Muld, for we were fairly certain that Syndi and you were in Aleiryid.    We came here to give you something that would make a betrothal to my daughter easier for me to endure;   a title.”

“A what?”

“A title, Muld.    You’ve earned it, believe me, you’d probably receive this even if you weren’t in a relationship with Syndi.    I don’t want to spoil the surprise, Muld, but in view of the circumstances of tonight, I’ll simply tell you.    The Losasidhe Kingdom is small as Kingdoms go and we don’t have dukedoms, baronies and earldoms.   All of our nobles are simply ‘Lord’ or ‘Lady’ and any noble can sit on the King’s council and give advice and direction to the King.   There are only eight, Muld, and the title passes down to the eldest born child - male or female.    You have been named the 9^th Lord of the Losasidhe, Muld, and it is an incredible thing, for you are the first non-Losasidhe to be given this title.     This wasn’t forced through, either, all eight of the Lords and Ladies voted for you.   It was unanimous.   So my reservations about social status will be removed, Muld.”  

Muld bowed.   “I am greatly honored, Your Majesty, and extremely humbled.”

“Well, this is trivial beside what you are also going to be given, Muld.     Her father and I are giving you our blessing to marry Syndi.”

“Again, I am honored and thankful too, but I haven’t actually asked her, you know.”

“That is somewhat of a moot point now, Muld.    Unless you want to just live carnally with her, you will have to marry her, for soon you’ll be her mate.   It is the way of Aleiryid.”

“That is fine by me, Your Majesty, but I’m afraid that Syndi might feel a bit overwhelmed by all of this.”

“Perhaps, but she obviously is feeling the pull of Aleiryid.   This is why I wanted to speak to you privately.   I have a rather huge favor to ask you.”

“What is it?”

Synthaeia leaned back against the side of the stairs, “Muld, I want Syndi to have a grand wedding.    I want her to have that special day that all women openly or secretly long for.    There are few Losasidhe weddings and fewer still are the royal weddings.    Eioldth’s wedding was painfully muted.”

“I understand, Your Majesty, and a big wedding is fine by me, if it is alright with Syndi.”

“Well, that is the thing, Muld.   She is struggling with Aleiryid, as I am sure you are too.    I’d like both of you to.. ah… refrain… from… ah… coming together… until after the wedding.”

“Oh… well, yeah, that would be best, of course.”  His look revealed his concern, for he remembered the intensity of the dream of earlier.

“The look in your eyes tells me that you doubt your ability - and Syndi’s- to refrain.     It would take about a month for the preparations for a royal wedding to be made, Muld, and I am quite sure that the two of you would… ah… unite… before then.    I am not being judgmental, I am only telling you what I feel.    The attraction is too strong.”

“So how do we prevent it?”

“I won’t try to take Syndi back with us, for I am quite sure she won’t go.     But, there is a way, Muld.    The Faesidhe were a rather passionate people and centuries ago, jealous husbands or worried fathers would sometimes enchant a ring for their wives or children to wear that would dispel sexual desire for a set period of time.    They called it a ‘Chastity ring’.   It was somewhat like a geis set into a ring.   The father or husband would be the controller of the geis, and the wife or child had to willingly agree to be set under the conditions of the spell.    They would slip the ring on and would be unable to take it off for the length of time set in the enchantment.”

“So these ‘Chastity Rings’ would keep them… um… under control… during this time?”

“Oh yes, and it didn’t involve any sort of pain or supervision.   The ring wearer simply would not have any sexual desire during this period of time.”

Muld scratched his chin, “So you want to put one of these on me?”

“Not just you, but on Syndi as well.   For one month, so we can set up a perfect wedding for the both of you.   During the month, you both can function normally and even be around each other constantly, without fear of engaging in… “

“Well, that sounds fine, Your Majesty, but what about the Aleiryid dreams?   You said that we had to… come together or die.”

“A month would not be dangerous, Muld.   Don’t worry,  your well-being now is tied to my daughter’s life, so we won’t try anything that would endanger your life or hers.   If something happens to you, she’ll die and vice-versa.”

“So if we went a month with the rings on, we’d not go crazy or die?”

“No, no; though I wouldn’t want the two of you to wait longer than three months.”

“And we wouldn’t be able to take the rings off?”

“No, and even something drastic like cutting off your finger will not work, for the parameters of the spell would prevent you from doing that.”

“Your Majesty, I would be willing to do this, but what about Syndi?”

“She was not at all thrilled at the idea, but she agreed to try it if you would.”

“So she knows about the whole set-up?   About the importance of the dream, the time-frame and our impending marriage?”

“Yes.”

“And she doesn’t mind marrying me?”

“Muld, in all but ceremony and consummation, you both are already married.”

Muld thought about that a moment.  Perhaps that was why he felt so complete when he was with her.   Maybe that was what marriage was supposed to be, and he -nor Syndi- had simply known it.

“Well, okay then.    But tell me, Your Majesty, what was King Eiolmoel speaking to Syndi about while you were talking to me?”

“He was chanting the enchantment for her Chastity ring.”

“Already?   But how did he know we’d agree?”

Synthaeia smiled, “Muld, my husband is an extremely good judge of character and he knew you both would agree.   He is seldom wrong.    Did you know that he liked you from the first?   When he first met you, he told me later on that Syndi would grow very close to you, though we didn’t know just how close right then.   He likes you, Muld, and is excited about having you join our family.”

“He is a wonderful man, Your Majesty.    I must tell you, that I am extremely glad we had this conversation.    I was afraid you’d never like me, Your Majesty, and I would not want Syndi’s parents to dislike me.”

“Well, you were a challenge to get to know, Muld, but you have this peculiar charm that wins people over into liking you.    I can see now how you’ve been very good for Syndi and I too am pleased to have you join our family.”

The queen held her arms out and Muld hesitantly leaned in and embraced her.     It was a sincere act of acceptance and affection.

After the hug ended, before either one had to say something to ease the awkwardness, the door upstairs opened and Syndi and her father came down the stairs.

Syndi had donned one of Muld’s robes and she held up her hand which had a silver ring on the third finger.

“Your turn,” She said to Muld with a somewhat tired smile.