The Ears of the Elves
By Asso
Chapter Twelve
A small interlude, my friends.
Before the saviour shows himself up entirely.
Ah, I apologize.
One should always remember that behind this story there is one other story: "In the Hall of the Mountain King."
The Ears of the Elves
Chapter Twelve
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"Oh no no no no! One must never let himself be dragged along by pride! Never, never, never!"
"Trip?"
"But T'Pol, my joy, does it seem intelligent? This hollow-gourd-Princess has revealed to her self-styled saviour her ultrahigh lineage! This way! Without thinking twice! But do you realize? Possible that the fact that in her there is some dose of you does not teach her anything? "
"Oh… ahem… thanks, but..."
"Oh I know, I know. I have to stop behaving like a child and this is a fable. But it's a fable damnedly true, T'Pol! These things have happened! Maybe not just this way, but they happened! And to this silly princess it's taken less that a second to say to this saviour, who is human, and therefore not exactly a friend; who can not have ended up there by chance, as she, she herself, has thought, and consequently driven evidently by some underlying aim; who is not exactly the spitting image of goodness, even with all his damned savoir-faire, that she… she is… oh good God! In an amen, in the twinkling of an eye, she has told him not only that she is really a Princess of the Elves, but even that she is the Elven Princess to whom all the people of the Elves must bow down!"
"It... it is true, but..."
"Basically she has said to this miscreated saviour Allow me, much esteemed saviour, this is my head. Oh sorry, you're lacking the noose for clenching my neck! No worries. Here it is."
"You... you're right, T'hai'la, but this saviour is... is pretty skilful with words and ways, he is good at this, and then the Princess is scared, shocked even, and ..."
"He is good at this?! Many thanks to you too on my part, my dearest wife! This is a compliment to me, considering that I am him. But also the devil, you know, is pretty good with words and ways and the saviour got the devil in him! Matter of... of lineage, also in his case, just as for me. I know well. And I know equally well what the devil is capable of doing when he's inside you!"
"Trip! Please!"
"I know from direct experience the damned tricks, the... the devilments, the devil is able to do. I've performed lot of them in person!"
"Trip! That's enough!"
Trip fell suddenly silent.
A little shameful, he tried to hold up the blazing gaze with which T'Pol was staring at him.
Damn! Sometimes it occurred to him to think that it would be better she would behave with him with the same cold composure with which she treated all others. No one else except him could realize how violent T'Pol's emotions could be. And that was good. But it was not so good when these emotions were a fit of rage on her part towards him.
And, furthermore, at all justified.
Like now.
Ears down, in that case! Absolutely!
Like now.
"T'... T'Pol... dar... darling..."
Good grief! He hated it when he found himself stammering like that! And with her, in addition! Like a schoolboy. Like a... a... oh damn! Like a child caught out!
He did not know what to say, as she continued to watch him with eyes that didn't give the slightest sign to become less fiery and the fact that she was curled up on his lap was not of any use to mitigate the situation.
And now? Who knows with what words she would assail him!
There! Here the words!
"This is the last time I say it, my dear Husband and Lord. After that, if you do not stop, I will find myself forced to check on you, to my great regret, if indeed the vulcan Nerve Pinch is painless."
Eh no! This not! Okay feeling ashamed of being nabbed like a child, but being treated like a child, this not!
"Hey! Do not exaggerate! I can also be a little boyish in the way I do, but after all I am an adult, to all effects, as you, my dear vulcan 'de facto' wife, know perfectly! I am not a child that you can threaten to chastisement, nor even less a puppet that you can manhandle at your leisure! I am your..."
"My loved, beloved, adored Husband and Lord. That's what you're. Do you want to understand it, or not?"
Trip stood with his mouth vainly open to say the words that he would have never said and with his eyes wide open to watch into T'Pol's eyes, which, without notice, unexpectedly and all at once, had become so sweet that they could melt the heart... the heart of the devil!
And T'Pol gave him no breath, she hammered him. Ruthlessly. And with an infinite tenderness. She closed his still open mouth with hers, stopped any word that could have even the slightest intention of getting out of it by means of her own words, whispered on his lips.
"My T'hai'la, my Ashayam, my Ashal-veh, my K'diwa, my Adun. That's what you're. Do you want to understand it, or not?
T'Pol's lips rubbed themselves gently against the lips of Trip.
"Noodler, stubborn blockhead of a beloved Husband and Lord, do you want to understand it, or not? Do you want to understand once and for all that you are this and nothing but this? Namely my beloved Husband and Lord?"
It was a murmur, a sigh, a breath, a frisson, warm of pure love.
"Do you want to understand once and for all, my beloved Husband and Lord, that the devil has nothing to do with you? That nothing diabolical exists in you? That you've not been, are not and will never be the King - the devil - but exclusively my cherished Adun?"
And then…
Trip, even in the nearly total stoppage of his neural connections at that moment, was nevertheless able to hear well that sound, that music, that celestial chant.
Silvery and bewitching.
Something that might have seemed, that was, a soft laugh, replete with echoes of enchantment.
Which toyed slight on his lips.
A melodious, crystalline, velvety, soft laugh that had the spell of the voice of T'Pol.
The tuneful voice of T'Pol.
Which was laughing. Wholeheartedly. As with him and only with him, she had done other times. But in such a merry way as she had never done.
The harmonious voice of T'Pol.
Which now was speaking. Playfully. As with him and only with him, she had done other times. But in such a jocular way as she had never done.
"No, I'm wrong. Something diabolical exists in you, my Adun. Your diabolical skill as an engineer."
And again. That sound. Gorgeous. Heavenly. That sweet soft laugh that joked, cheerful, on his lips.
With the incantation of the voice of T'Pol.
"No. I'm wrong again, my Adun."
Gently, T'Pol parted her lips from his and lifted her head a little in order to well watch him as she spoke.
And her eyes were bright and mirthful.
"Something else diabolical exists in you, my Adun, something more, much more, diabolical."
T'Pol's lips rested a very slight kiss on the lips of Trip, before opening up for talking again.
"Fiendishly diabolical is the way you, after having the head, and the heart, of this wretched vulcan female, raised in the most strict logic, manage to make it that she can be happy to allow her neck, and her heart, to be tight each day more in the grip of the noose of her... " - And T'Pol said it. She said it. She uttered that magic word. Fervently. As she had never done before. - "... of her love for you."
The wonderful silvery sweet merry soft laugh let itself be heard again for an instant.
"Our Elven Princess is less than a poor twopenny amateur in comparison to your masochistic vulcan 'de facto' wife, my Husband and Lord."
After a few moments - or after an hour? Or after a day? Or after centuries? Who knows? - the cogwheels of Trip's brain managed to revolve again, at least the little it was to him enough to stammer something.
"I ... I ..."
But more, he wasn't able to do, because...
Because…
Yes. It was so. It was a blatant, cheeky, beaming smile the one that lit up T'Pol's face. The more beautiful and radiant of those that he, and he alone, had had the privilege to see.
"Yes, my Husband and Lord?"
It took the effort of a Titan to make sure that he could answer, lost as he was in the bewitching enchantment of that smile.
"I... I... I would love to know…"
But maybe he was wrong. Maybe it was not true. Perhaps T'Pol was not smiling, or at least not so, not in that wonderful, showy, brazen, way.
"What, my Husband and Lord?"
No. There was no doubt. That of T'Pol was a sweet, broad, radiant smile.
"I would love to… I would love to know what... what happens now, between... between..."
"Between the Princess and her saviour?"
It was! It was! Yes! The perfect white crown of her delicious small teeth showed off itself completely, in the most wide and most effulgent of smiles.
"Y... yes."
"So, do we want to continue to read, my Husband and Lord?"
Trip coughed. He tried to strike an attitude. But the persistent smile T'Pol darkened all his faculties.
He had never seen anything more beautiful!
And he could not resist.
"Yes. But, please, T'Pol... "
"My Lord?"
"From time to time, if you can, smile again at me like that!"
T'Pol's eyebrow rose, stern, and stern her face showed itself, of a sudden.
"My Lord, you know well that it is unseemly for Vulcans to smile."
But her eyes kept on smiling, even more than how her mouth had done until an instant before.
She bowed her head graciously and without raising it, she made be heard her voice, soft and low.
"But it would be even more regrettable for a vulcan wife to refuse to fulfil the wishes of her Husband and Lord."
And, having said this, she lifted her head and smiled again at Trip, with a tenuous, soft, sweet smile, so gentle and tender that no one would ever have been able to describe it.
And with that faint smile still arcanely lingering on her lips, she returned to read.
Trip's eyes weren't able to focus immediately on the PADD.
They were too intent on savouring the wonder that was bestowed upon him alone.
The marvellous smile of his T'Pol.
End of Chapter Twelve
TBC
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Did you catch your breath, my friends? Yes?
Very well, because in the next chapter we shall become better acquainted with the saviour.
And I do not know how long yet T'Pol's smile will be able to persist on her lips.
