Chapter 144: Champion, Chapter 74: Blue Skies and a Battle

Aidan

The Realms

Fifthday, 2nd week of the 11th month, Age of the Chosen 1

Noon

Caellach Macht, Mistvale Highlands

The festival-like atmosphere of the previous night was still present. Dozens of stalls selling food, drinks, and various merchandise surrounded the practice fields. While the Forum had a hundred or so citizens watching the proceedings, there were at least eight times that many milling around waiting for the entertainment to begin.

First on the schedule was a series of mock battles between the various otterkin mercenary units, the remaining Starchaser warriors, and Aidan's passion elementals. The latter were more for the spectacle and to dissuade potential aggression. After all, they wouldn't be part of the plan to attack Karsarrym's lair. It also provided a handy method to judge how the mercs would handle exotic monsters.

The first match pitted Price's men and women against Laughlin's. It gave Aidan a chance to prepare for the later spectacles. Toward that end, he sought out Eldrid. To his complete lack of surprise, he found her near one of the merchants selling alcohol. A crowd of young men—and a heaping handful of young women—surrounded her.

A word to one of his bodyguards sent a pair of them into the mob. For a brief moment, it seemed like the youths might react violently to the intrusion. One of the men, a centaur with hair a touch closer to orange than Brighid's, pawed at the ground and clenched his fists. Then he spotted the phoenix-shaped passion elementals hovering over Aidan's shoulders and thought better of it. A few seconds later, Eldrid emerged from the press of bodies flanked by the two centaur bodyguards.

"My hero," she cooed at Aidan. One gloved hand pressed itself to her sternum—drawing attention to the pale cleavage her raiment displayed rather than covering it up—and the other to her forehead. "I thought they might swallow me whole!"

"Like you weren't reveling in it." Aidan snorted at her theatrics. "If we didn't need to get ready for our demonstration, I would have left you to them. Or maybe 'left them to you' would be more accurate? You're a bit of a maneater, and there were quite a few young men back there who would be lucky to be so devoured."

"Lord Aidan." Eldrid's voice carried none of the jovial teasing it had a moment earlier. "If you're implying that I would have frivolous sex with one or more of those kids," she placed a heavy, displeased emphasis on the word, "because they were drooling over me, it would cast a rather unpleasant light on the way you view me and our relationship." Her silver eyes glinted as she glared up at him. "I might need to re-think our agreement."

A part of him wanted to apologize right away. He'd more or less called Eldrid a slut to her face. The little voice in the back of his head who was the remains of Daniel Stewart from Atlanta was mortified. Back on Earth, he took pains to be conscientious. That wasn't wrong. He knew that. However, he was no longer that person, nor were the circumstances at all similar.

Here in the Realms, Aidan's Skills told him a swift apology would be a mistake. For one thing, Eldrid wasn't quite as offended as she was pretending to be. She wasn't happy about being called out like that, but she was making use of it to provoke the exact response he wanted to make. It would put Aidan on his back foot and give Eldrid social leverage over him.

Aidan formed a privacy bubble around himself and Eldrid. She glanced around at the sudden silence, then turned her head to watch him when he started to speak. "Eldrid, you looked at me like a slab of meat before I'd so much as said a word to you. Then, a couple of hours later, you climbed right up into my lap, shoved my face into your tits, and told me I could touch wherever I liked." He avoided mentioning the dagger in the ribs just in case one of his bodyguards was reading his lips. He didn't want the kind of incident that would cause.

"If you can't take a little ribbing, maybe you're less secure in yourself than I thought." Aidan turned his gaze to Eldrid and put as much confidence into his tone as he could. "Or maybe that's the problem? A lack of ribbing. All you have to do is ask for it, Captain." He let her stew on that for two heartbeats, watching the color rise in her cheeks. She was the one off-balance now, so he could offer an olive branch without losing ground. He'd have to be careful, however. Her gift meant that ordinary platitudes would fall flat.

"That said, I do apologize for giving offense. I only meant to tease." Genuine truth. "You have a way of getting under my skin and provoking strong reactions from me." Strong possessive reactions, which he didn't say. Eldrid would know he wasn't telling the complete truth, but Aidan didn't think it would bother her in this instance.

"Hmm." Eldrid looked up at him with half-lidded eyes. "Apology accepted. I reserve the right to hold this against you at a future point, however."

"You're a woman; I took that for granted." That earned him a smirk. "Speaking of which, please tell me that armor is enchanted."

"What?" Eldrid's eyes widened, and she put a hand to her cheek in mock surprise. "Don't you think I look good in it?"

Aidan snorted. "Eldrid, I've seen body paint that hid more than that outfit, and you don't need to go fishing for compliments about your looks. If I weren't forbidden from touching you, I'd be leading you to a private tent right now instead of the dueling grounds."

"Oh?" A predatory smile spread across midnight blue lips. Eldrid sidled close enough to Aidan that her hip brushed against his thigh with each step. "And what would you do with me once you had me all alone?"

"Let's just say we'd be fighting a very different duel." Aidan summoned a Magic Hand and brushed nonexistent fingers down Eldrid's spine.

Eldrid shivered at the phantom touch and swayed an inch closer. "A shame that we'll be before your adoring public, then. That wouldn't stop me, but I wouldn't want to sully your image any more than I already will when I beat you."

That brought Aidan back to the matter at hand. "Sure, sure. Seriously though, it's not just for show, right? My magic doesn't really have a nonlethal setting."

A finger poked Aidan's side, drawing his attention down to rolling eyes. "Yes, it's enchanted. I place a high value on protection, Lord Aidan. And don't you worry about me. Valmai's Talent is both effective and thorough. So no matter the result of our little spar, we'll both wind up in the exact same condition we started in, as will all our gear."

"It's still weird to think of her as an undefeated duelist."

"Aidan, Valmai would run you through in a heartbeat if she could find any advantage to it. I'm, oh, ninety percent sure she's a hardcore sadist." The thought didn't seem to distress Eldrid any. "It wouldn't surprise me to find out she uses it on her boy toys to make sure they can work the next day."

"Yeah, no thanks." Aidan shuddered at the implications. A little erotic pain—spanking and the like—was one thing. Needing a magical reset after sex was something very different.

"Oh, you sweet, summer child." Eldrid laughed and patted Aidan's thigh. Her hand lingered, stroking.

"Bah. Winter is coming," Aidan responded, taking a half-step to the side to increase the distance between them.

It was no use. Eldrid wrapped her arm around his and pressed herself against him. "Ooh. A fan of the classics? Are you sure you don't have one of those private tents handy? We have a half-hour before we need to be anywhere."

Aidan hid a smile. Trap set and sprung. Aidan followed the subconscious prompts from his Seduction and Domination Skills. He stopped and looked down into Eldrid's glittering silver eyes. Made sure she was looking at him. Letting her see the absolute truth behind his words.

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"All you have to do is remove the shackles, Eldrid." A touch of his fingers to the back of her wrist. "But if you think what passed between us the last time we were alone in a tent is the pinnacle?" Another touch, this time lower, between her waist and hip. "Well, I can take you," the word choice was deliberate and underscored by his hand slipping down and back onto her ass, "to far greater heights. But when," he said, emphasizing the word with soft pressure from his hands rather than a stronger tone, "I do, it's going to take much, much longer than half an hour. And I promise you'll be in no condition to fight off so much as a baby rabbit when I'm done with you."

Eldrid stood transfixed by Aidan's eyes, words, and touch. The dents in the front of her leather shirt grew more pronounced with each syllable he spoke. By the third sentence, Eldrid was shifting her weight from side to side, rubbing her thighs together. Her mouth opened, then closed, then parted to allow her pink tongue to wet her lips. Aidan held her gaze and continued to stroke her through her outfit for several heartbeats longer, then released her, turned, and started walking again.

It took ten seconds before Eldrid scrambled back into place at Aidan's side. "You keep breaking the no-touching rule," she said, trying to regain lost ground.

"You keep letting me."

She didn't have a response to that. Instead, she changed the subject. "Valmai's Talent does have one restriction. There has to be something on the line."

"Oh? I know you haven't forgotten the last time we made a wager." Aidan wasn't going to let her slip off the hook so easily.

"How could I?" There were hints of both arousal and bitter sarcasm in Eldrid's tone. "But the unforgettable part was the resolution of the wager, not what we bet."

"True. What did you have in mind? I set the terms last time, so it seems only fair to cede it to you now."

"Let's set the stakes a little lower this time." Aidan had no problem with that, so he nodded for Eldrid to continue. "If I win, you owe me one massage. No happy ending required. I'd offer the same if I lose, but I'm no good at that kind of thing. Instead, if you win, I'll back off from hunting you down for relief for two weeks."

Aidan's eyebrows climbed towards his hairline. "Are you sure you can hold off for that long?" It was a serious question. It'd only been four days since their first bet, yet she'd already demanded 'relief' three times.

Eldrid flipped her hair over her shoulder. "I'm not going to lose, so it doesn't matter."

"That sounds rather familiar." Aidan let the doubt he felt show in his voice.

"Stuff it." The tone was playful, teasing. She really was confident in her victory. "That was then, this is now. You're not going to use your cheaty magic this time because you don't want to reveal that capability. I've got the advantage against you, water versus fire, and you know it."

"I'm not just fire, you know." Mostly so, okay, but he did have other tricks.

"Sure, sure. I've got more than water, too, so it balances out."

Aidan shrugged. The stakes were low, so it wasn't a big deal. "Okay, if that's how you want it."

"Great. I want the full-service massage, magic hands and all. Your fiancees have been talking you up, you know."

Of course they had. Probably not Aoife, but Aidan wouldn't put it past Brighid to try to seduce—or help him do so—any woman he expressed even a bit of interest in. And Sunnild, bless her heart, was hardly any better when she was horny. That was a pretty constant state for her ever since she confirmed her pregnancy.

"You have to win first," Aidan reminded Eldrid. "You may or may not have the advantage, but I won't make it easy on you."

"Oh, don't worry," she shot back. "I prefer it hard."

Oops, served that one up to her on a silver platter. Better to follow through than concede defeat, though. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with fire? You're liable to get burned."

"Ooh, yeah." Eldrid was on a roll now. "Give it to me hot and heavy, Aidan."

Okay, maybe a tactical retreat was in order. "Save it for the duel." Aidan canceled his sound barrier before Eldrid could riposte yet again. "We're here."

The sounds of an enthusiastic crowd battered at both of them, preventing any further verbal communication. Out on the practice field, Captain Dyfri's mercenaries defended a low 'hill' capped with a waving flag against waves of Starchaser militia. The centaurs swirled around the fortified position, peppering their cu uisce opponents with blunted arrows and charging from unexpected angles. Each charge pushed just a little bit deeper before the centaurs peeled off, never sticking around long enough for the infantry to recover.

Dyfri's troops weren't helpless, however. Low earthen walls sprang up in front of the galloping centaurs, forcing them to jump or swerve to the side. Whoever their mage was, they gave the Starchasers plenty of time to avoid the obstacles, likely to prevent serious injuries. That still meant that someone else had control of their path, however, and arrows and javelins rained down on them from within the mercenaries' lines.

The circling, swirling melee continued for several minutes, with neither side winning a clear advantage. The otterkin mercs took longer and longer to close the gaps in their lines as more of their troops took 'lethal' wounds, but the Starchasers lost speed to an ever-more-complicated obstacle course and bled off trickles of 'wounded' as well.

A horn, one that Aidan recognized, blew, and the centaurs wheeled as one and galloped straight into Dyfri's lines. Aidan winced at the audible crunch when dozens of half-ton and up centaurs collided with braced infantry. There wasn't much that the Snow-Water Riders could do against that kind of momentum but give ground, and so they did. This time, however, not all the Starchasers peeled off. Instead, they retreated in sections, only to return in a full gallop as their fellows backed off.

It was a picture-perfect Total War-style rotating charge, and it devastated the otterkin. Their disciplined shield wall collapsed into individual fighting, and a minute later, a triumphant lupine howl pierced the sounds of fighting as a giant wolf leaped over the defenders, seized the flag, then darted back through the melee into the clear field. An observer signaled the end of the mock battle by sending a lightning bolt booming into the sky. Raucous cheers rose from the onlookers, the loudest coming from the Starchasers as they celebrated the victory.

Aidan put a hand on Eldrid's shoulder to draw her attention, then jerked his chin towards the field. She nodded, and the pair of them walked out of the crowd and into the spotlight.

Zurai

Pronunciation Guide (infinitesimal spoiler warning, names only without any details)

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