V2Ch80-Happy Endings
“Hi Tatiana,” Tybalt said.
“Hello Lord Necromancer,” she replied without taking her eyes off Andric.
“I’ve never been in this situation before, exactly, and I don’t know what I want to say in specific words- ”
“Maybe you should shut up then, and get back to your - your political schemes. Keep your distance from me, at least. I don’t even want to be seen talking to you, Death-Bringer.”
Tybalt didn’t try to hide his surprise at the label.
“Oh, you didn’t know?” the harpy asked coldly. “That’s what people call you behind your back. The ones who aren’t worshipping you, acting like you’re the Death God incarnated or some such nonsense.”
There were bound to be some malcontents. People of no importance, if they would talk openly to someone so close to Andric - who has been so publicly supportive.
The necromancer snorted. “Well, those people sound like cowards. People who spend much more time thinking about me than I do thinking about them, but can’t bring themselves to be up front about it. Sad. And not a bad nickname, honestly. For a war chief.”
She turned and gave him a brief look that might have been grudging respect - but it flashed across her face so quickly that it remained unidentifiable. She faced forward again.
“Good attitude,” she said after a moment. “You’ll never be liked or even accepted by everyone. You clearly do have those who are devoted to you. That ought to be enough. Now, seriously, please get lost. If my friend sees you standing near me, he might start to make assumptions.”
“Your friend, huh?”
“If you have something to say, say it and leave,” Tatiana said with an undercurrent of threat.
I haven’t experienced genuine, open unfriendliness from anyone but her since I encountered the beastfolk. It’s almost refreshing, amid the people plotting to destroy me, to hear from someone who’d rather stab me in the chest than the back.
“Andric is hurting. Maybe you’ll make him feel better.”
“You think dealing with the shit that your announcement stirred up is going to be that simple, necromancer?” Tatiana replied in a withering tone. “He can’t be with the women he pursued for months, planned to be with for years, because you wanted to have them. So, your solution: just throw some other bitch in his lap. Like we’re fucking interchangeable… I don’t know what those two even see in you. As for the solution, you should have waited until your campaign was over, and announced this then. That was the method to prevent this entirely predictable result. I’m not going to try and fix the damage you’ve done, just so that he’ll be more useful to you. Sorry.”
“Oh, so you’re not interested after all, in making Andric feel better or in pursuing him. Sorry, I thought the two of you were pretty close, and something… might happen. Not that you were interchangeable. That he might think you were special.”
He turned to go back to the Eldest, but the harpy spoke again, in a more subdued voice this time.
“Andric knows I’m available.”
“So, he knows you’re interested in him?”
“I have given him every possible hint, short of sneaking into his bed and waiting there naked!” she replied irritably. “Supporting him in public, helping him plan in private, teasing him, getting drunk with him, asking him to walk me home alone on many occasions…” As she continued, her tone grew wistful. “You know, I pretended to get lost with him once, when I knew exactly where we were, just so he could ‘rescue’ me and find our way home. That was fun. But nothing worked. Eventually, I realized he must know. He was just too polite to acknowledge it and humiliate me with a rejection.”
I thought he had to know, too, at first, but I am coming to believe Andric is a bit dense in some ways.
“Have you tried just telling him how you feel?”
“If I’ve made it obvious, more than once, do you really think just stating it out loud would work?”
“Yes. Absolutely yes. You think he’d have to be blind to not notice how you feel, but it’s always the most obvious to the people you’re not trying to show your feelings to. I could tell. Vidalia could tell. But Andric looked oblivious to me. Men and women don’t communicate the same way. So, yes, just fucking tell him. We’re all dense sometimes. Just say how you feel. It would work better on me than any other tactic you might try. At least, if you say that you’re interested, you’ll get a definite answer to whether he feels the same way. Even if he hasn’t been looking at you that way, he might start to. If a beautiful woman tells a man she likes him, that changes things.”
“That… is what I was afraid of.” Her voice softened. “Changing things. I might destroy the closeness we already have, necromancer. Had you considered that, or just how I might ease your temporary difficulties? If I tell him my feelings outright, I lose any option to deny it later. When he eventually finds some girls to marry, would they want me hanging around? Even if I’m just trying to support him as a friend- ”
“Would you want to linger around him forever, anyway? While he’s with some other women?”
“I had already reconciled myself to that,” she said, her voice almost a hiss. “He was pursuing your new fiancees, remember? And I know I’m not an ideal match for him. I’m… no longer a maiden. I had a fiance two years ago - before he was killed by your people. That was when I started to care more about fighting back.”
“Men don’t care as much about that as you might think.”
He thought about adding something to the effect that the Nietians weren’t his people anymore, but that seemed like a useless quibble in that moment.
She quietly scoffed. “In your culture, perhaps. Our men fight for the honor of their women… which means that matters of honor are more important to us. But I guess you’re right about at least one thing. I should make my attempt. At the least, I’ll make him feel better if I give him a laugh.” She gave Tybalt a strange half-smile. “You know, you might regret this, if I actually succeed. I’m not your biggest admirer, and Andric has been a great supporter of yours, even behind the scenes. He is… an incredibly honorable man, not one to take offense at you taking his place of honor in the community. Whereas I know he was the one who deserved to lead us.”
Tybalt couldn’t help but smile at the determination in the harpy’s eyes just before she turned and walked away.
So, hopefully that helps with that situation… If Andric ends up being an enemy, this expedition will be his best chance to take a shot at me, but I don’t think any of the beastfolk could kill me one on one anyway. He dismissed the idea that Tatiana would actually turn Andric against him out of hand. If he was ambitious enough to try and join the plotters against me based on that, he would have already taken action… which I have no evidence to suggest he did.
At least not yet.
***
Andric’s head spun as the twin foxgirls dipped their heads, almost apologetically, and walked away.
I thought I might lose out to him, but… so soon? Victoria’s only known Tybalt for a few weeks. We’ve been close for years!
Victoria had been avoiding spending time alone with him ever since the necromancer started formally courting her. Just a single walk with the two sisters, and then the one he had always thought actually liked him had seemingly lost all interest.
They’d had plans just two days ago, but when he came to the Twinleaf hut, her uncle had said something urgent came up, requiring her immediate attention elsewhere. But the man couldn’t meet Andric’s eyes.
He’d thought maybe he was reading into it too much, but now this. Clearly, Victoria’s mind had already been made up.
It was emasculating, to lose the two women so quickly and with such apparent ease.
At least no one else knew he had suffered this humiliating defeat.
He would recover from this, of course. It was more his ego than his heart that had been invested in the courtship, though the twins were beautiful and Victoria was everything that a wife should be.
Twenty feet away from Andric, Eldest Isak cleared his throat and spoke in a voice loud enough to be heard from all corners of the village and beyond.
“I have two announcements following a closed door Council meeting. First, as most if not all of you will know already, our war chiefs are leading an expedition against the Kingdom, departing at daybreak tomorrow. All able-bodied men under the age of fifty who are not strictly necessary for the harvest are expected to participate. Be at the foot of the mountain, desert-facing side.”
Andric saw people stepping out of huts, into the central path of the village, looking excited - a few cheering, a few exchanging smiles or nervous glances, but the overall mood was positive.
“Second, in a happier piece of news, Lord Tybalt, the necromancer and High Priest of Mudo, announces his engagement to dream seer Vidalia Twinleaf and her sister Victoria Twinleaf, both pillars of our community. The wedding will take place according to beastfolk traditions. Those who are not participating in the campaign are encouraged to participate in the preparations, so that we can hold the wedding after our fighters return victorious.”
Now came the awkward glances at Andric. Some people were definitely still looking at Eldest, as well as at the two foxgirls and the necromancer who had now gathered around him, but others were looking at the other war chief for the fox tribe. There were whispers that he could just barely strain to make out.
“... chose the human?”
“What was wrong with Andric?”
“Look how happy they are…”
That last was entirely true. Vidalia looked almost obscenely happy, her tail smacking against the necromancer’s thigh in a way that felt sexually eager. She lowered her head in front of Tybalt, and Andric’s eyes widened as he realized what was happening. They weren’t just announcing the engagement. Tybalt’s fingers undid the maiden’s braid smoothly. Vidalia shot up excitedly as soon as she felt her hair running loose down her neck, and she planned a hot, wet, open-mouthed kiss on the necromancer’s lips.
There were a few hoots from the onlookers.
Then Vidalia had separated from Tybalt, blushing slightly but keeping a possessive hand clenched around the fabric at his waist. Victoria leaned down in front of Tybalt and exposed her own braid. She wore a small smile of her own, cheeks pink, as she waited for him to undo her braid.
The necromancer bent, put his lips to one of her ears, and whispered something. Victoria quietly laughed. Then Tybalt put his fingers to her braid and began to work.
Andric couldn’t help but let a little hiss of air escape, and a few more eyes darted to him. He made his expression flat - not a smile, he would not pretend he was happy, but he would not let them see him scowl - and wished he could make his face less red. Because that feeling of shame, of inadequacy, was inescapable and obvious.
Victoria’s hair fell down her neck and shoulders as Vidalia’s had, and then she lifted her head, brushed her hair back, rose on tiptoe, and kissed Tybalt on the lips. Their lips parted only slightly, but everyone around could feel the chemistry between the two.
It wasn’t as overtly sexual as Vidalia’s kiss had been, but there was a slow, sensuous quality to it that Andric had come to see in many of Victoria’s movements. It promised more than what it actually presented on the surface.
She pulled back, wearing a shy smile, brushed her hair back, rubbed her neck, and then leaned her head against Tybalt’s shoulder, eyes closed.
That hurt more than anything. That, and the fact that she had laughed at whatever Tybalt said. Andric had taken pride once in being one of the few people who knew Victoria well enough to make her laugh.
Why does she seem so happy, so eager? She was always so calculated with me. So distant. I could have made you happy… What exactly has he done to win your heart?
It was all he could do to keep from crying.
He started to turn away - he wanted to go back into his family’s hut - when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“I should - um, I should go and try to prepare our guys, we’ll be marching out soon, going to fight the Kingd- ”
“That will wait,” Tatiana’s voice replied firmly, cutting him off. “You have all day and all night. Right now, come with me.”
He looked at her.
“I really don’t- ”
The harpy shook her head briskly, and he sighed and stopped talking. Then she took his hand in hers and pulled him. After a moment, he decided not to resist.
I guess she has something to say, too, he thought gloomily. Maybe she’ll announce that she’s not coming with us. Might as well get more bad news today. It will just be me and Tybalt and women throwing themselves at his feet all the way through the desert.
He barely noticed how quickly she tugged him through the village. A familiar face appeared at the edge of his vision, but Tatiana brushed past him with a “Not now, sorry!”
Oh, that was Dad.
“Hey, I think my Dad wanted to talk to me,” Andric managed.
“Later,” the harpy insisted. “I’m not waiting for anyone or anything else now.”
He couldn’t see her face, but she sounded more emotional than he remembered hearing her in a long time.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“No!” she replied instantly.
He let her lead him further and further away.
What’s wrong, Tati? He wanted to ask her, but another part of him just wanted to wallow right now. Maybe she thought that since they were both upset, this would be a good moment to commiserate. He had wanted to be alone, but if she was upset, too, they would be good company for each other.
“We should bring something to drink,” he said as he saw the last hut pass them by.
She gave him a strange look.
“Um, we’re only walking a short distance,” Tatiana said. “And it’s early afternoon. You were just saying you have more to do today. I don’t intend to take up all of your time. No need to get drunk.”
“Right, silly me.”
They walked another minute before the harpy abruptly stopped.
“I guess this space is good enough,” she said.
“Good enough for…?”
She locked eyes with him, and he saw the first hint of nervousness in her. It was a slight quivering in her lower lip, and how she resisted the urge to bite down on it. It was funny how he knew her expressions so well. They had certainly spent a lot of time together.
“Andric, I… I have feelings for you. Romantically. I… I have felt this way for some time. If it was not obvious.”
“If this is a joke, or your idea of making me feel better,” he began.
“Don’t humiliate me by pretending not to understand,” she said, her voice strained, prickly. “If I am not appealing to you, say so outright.”
“You were being serious, then.”
She nodded impatiently.
He swallowed. She looked suddenly very different to him than she had a minute before. Her long, dark hair, plump lips, the elegant curves of her body.
“Tatiana… I think you’re beautiful,” Andric said slowly. “I just hadn’t considered- ”
“Why?” she asked, her voice slightly raspy. “Why not?”
“I thought you were just teasing me, every time. You’ve teased me a lot, for as long as we’ve known each other - except at the very beginning, but you were still grieving then. And I… I had a plan in my mind for who I was going to marry. I was focused on that.”
Maybe a bit foolishly, he thought. Still, I don’t know what I would have done. There were definitely a couple of nights when I looked at you differently, but… you were basically a widow. I didn’t want to be disrespectful.
“So, you… do not find me unappealing?” She took his hands in hers, her long bird-like talons gently tracing his palm, her feathers brushing against the skin of his arms.
“You’re really not teasing me now?” he asked in a weak voice. He didn’t know how to feel. But he knew he wanted her to mean what she was saying. Maybe that told him everything.
Then Andric felt her lips press against his, hot and urgent. He kissed her back, head still spinning but now in an entirely different, happier orbit.
“Sorry if I tasted like fish,” she said. “I ate with my sister just before I flew to the meeting.”
“I… didn’t notice if you did.” He let out a little nervous laugh.
Tatiana brought one hand up to the side of Andric’s head and somehow caressed him gently despite the long claws on each finger.
“Being so oblivious, apparently even to the most obvious hints, I want to be very clear,” she said. “We’ve known each other for a long time. I care for and respect you. I would never mislead you about something like this, certainly not after what just happened. I am not teasing you. Although I will tease you about this for the rest of your natural life, I am not teasing you today. You are brave, good, kind, and strong, and… I would be very fortunate to be your woman.” She swallowed. “If you’ll have me. If you can find it in yourself to accept my sarcasm, occasional mockery… and other defects of character.”
“There’s no one better to drive me crazy,” Andric said, remembering some of the times Tatiana had done just that.
“Is that a yes, or…?”
Andric pulled her into a kiss by way of answer.