Marcel has no idea why the pull to her is so great. Why it feels so familiar…
A star is crumbling, barely able to hold together; it fractures and splits into two pieces. Identical pieces break off, made of the same fire and ash they race across the galaxy never to be seen again. But deep in the middle of these hurtling rocks, amongst the char and celestial dust were two atoms. Split at the exact moment the one star became two, these atoms would quiver and long to be from where they came. Hurtling towards the unknown it found itself pulling and pushing to find the other piece. A millennia passed as molecules and specks evolve from light and rubble to become water, soil, air, and then life. Life which multiplied and spread throughout the planets and cosmos until a low-born Vespar girl arrives in Diden on the planet Mau to a snobby Baron named Darioush Jahanbani.
Everyday there was another parcel or package delivered from well wishers and ass-kissers to the Baron of Kassia, Darioush Jahanbani. Floral arrangements and heaps of food and mead were brought to the estate and even exotic birds and animals. All arriving in preparation for the weekend, for his wedding to the Baroness of Diden, Dija. Their union would marry the capital with a state, two houses that hadn't been together since the beginning of the war. Over a hundred years since the last war between Kassians and Vespars. A war that saw the gentlefolk of Vespar turned into indentured servants to the Kassians. Vespar people were committed to their communities and to the joys of life after toiling the fields. They danced and sang and enjoyed the fruits of their labor unlike those of Kassia. Kassian's had learned well from the Vepsar forefathers about agriculture, but they always wanted more. Pillaging and searching Mau for all its natural resources, never content with what they had, always looking for their newest challenge to conquer, to quantify, to identify, and rank. Eventually they conquered the Vespars. A shipment of more Vespar servants were also set to arrive. Darioush could care less about the new help from Vespan.
Aprelya swayed and bobbed about in the coach of the Jamiemen wagon as it went down the cobblestone lane to the baron's large estate. She was next to five others. Four women and a young man who was close in age to her brother. An older woman was talking and trying to give insight to the newer servants.
"When they introduce you to your master you will need to stand at attention, then bow. It's a show of safety, let's them know we aren't there to kill them. They won't broadcast it but we can all help each other out, we can donate our credits if someone falls behind so we can return home quicker!"
She was hopelessly optimistic before turning her attention to Aprelya.
"Is this your first servitude?" the woman named Calla asked Aprelya.
She nodded.
"It's not too difficult, light cleaning, cooking, gardening, and pretending we aren't still showing them how to live," she grinned.
Her Vespar blues eyes glowed with delight.
"How long are the work days?" Aprelya asked.
Her voice made the entire wagon sit up in attention. She sounded like warm gravy running down their spines.
"You're a Siren?!" Calla announced dumbfounded, "Well, they usually have your kind sing for them, you get private quarters. They may even cut your credits down."
The entire wagon stared at Aperyla as the coach opened.
Darioush watched as six new Vespar servants were unloaded from the back of the wagon. He wasn't bothered by their entrance, quite the opposite as he had his major domo to deal with them. Jalil paced slowly in front of them entailing what their duties were in the house and how many credits they would need to buy their freedom. Darioush had all but turned his back on them when he stopped. Something was keeping him there. He didn't understand why until he heard Jalil ask for her name.
"Aprelya," she answered in the voice he knew to be that of a Siren.
Sirens were unique on planet Mau. Only born to those in Vespan they often were called in to sing a blessing over the fields and the harvest. They were asked to sing at births and deaths. Sirens were the pride of songs were beyond angelic. Melodies that spun sound into golden yarn worn for the gods. Their speaking voices were hypnotic and soothing, but their singing voices transcended anything anyone either Kassian or Vespar knew. Kassians searched the world for their rival, and yet it was in simple Vespan that they could not find anything equal to the Siren. Sirens reverence gave birth to myths and rumors around them. Supposedly their sound was tied to their virtue. It was foretold that a siren who gave up their virtue gave up their voice after the act was completed. No one knew for sure as almost all of the Sirens lived in the temple, they were revered everywhere. Often they were summoned to perform for the barons and nobles, they served as somewhat of a symbol of the best the Vespar had to offer.
"A Siren," Jalil stated as he watched her.
She walked over and stood next to the rest of the servants. Jalil felt the eyes of his master on the back of his head.
"Baron Jahanbani, these are the newest servants, this your master," his voice boomed at the end.
The way he said it made all the servants bow their heads. Jalil was pleased with himself but Darioush couldn't stop staring at her. Her long neck and butterfly-winged eyelashes gave peeks of her blue eyes, juxtaposed against her flawless dark skin. She looked like any other Vespar, but something was vexing him, a pull he never felt.
"Dari!" She yelped.
The baron's fiance Dija was giddy and excited to see the exotic animals arriving before turning her sites to the servants.
"Oh they are beautiful, Dari!" she spun around like the princess she was and kissed him on the cheek.
Darioush could barely peel his eyes away from Aprelya long enough to feign excitement for his soon-to-be bride. It was an arranged marriage after all, one that would see him become Baron of the second greatest and most powerful house in Kassia. Dija looked to where he was staring, she furrowed her brow confused. Jalil noticed.
"We have a Siren, Baroness."
Her eyes studied the girl and Darioush who was trying and failing at not staring at her. Aprelya stood, paralyzed with fear. She had never been away from the fields of her tiny village in Vespan. When the Jaimemen came to her door it was either Aprelya or her younger brother Noy. Someone had to be there to help take care of their mother while their father worked the harvest, Noy could do both. She had to sell her labor to make up ten credits her family owed from not producing enough fruit last year. They had never been behind until her mother's accident. Most Vespans got together to help each other as much as possible, hoping to lessen the stranglehold the Kassians had, yet Aprelya's family still fell behind.
Looking around it was clear the baron's wedding was the reason the demand went up. Aprelya lived amongst her family and friends even though every year some well-meaning Vesper was encouraging her to go to the temple, to be shielded from the indebted system they had now. She wanted to live a regular life, she wasn't interested in the temple or being "revered" in society. She had even begun to search for a mate, and after a few awkward dates a farm boy named Egan had called upon her. They were to be wed after the harvest.
Now she stood like chattel to the slaughter.
"We shall have your new birdie chirp for us Dari!"
Aprelya clenched her jaw at the notion. Her eyes darted to the baron who was already staring at her. Thick coal-black circles encased his blue-gray eyes, the contrast was more intense than other Kassians, beautiful even. The rest of the servants she rode with were moved off to the servants house but just as Calla had predicted Aprelya was given her own quarters in the main house. The room was fancier than hers at home and nicer than the one she was sure Egan had planned for them. Aprelya had never seen a real baron, plenty of Kassians, but he was different. It was as if he had on a mask and she just needed to know his true face. She curled up on the soft bed and thought of home, she worried about her brother but mostly her mother. Hopefully through singing she could pay her credits down and maybe some of her wagonmates too and get home quickly like Calla had predicted. She'd been correct so far. The door creaked open. Aprelya sat up and then stood at attention. It was Jalil.
"I tried to knock, but you seem taken with sleep," he said, "Your presence is requested after dinner for the Baron and Baroness, do you know the La Quota Vie?"
She knew it, every child made to live under the Kassian banner was made to know it. It was their national anthem, one forced upon Vespars and recited without enthusiasm. He handed her a scour, and a metal clip of the house's seal, a bronze lightning bolt. A little Vespar girl brought in her dinner. She gladly ate it but she noticed that the fruits and vegetables lacked the crispness, the brightness in flavor that they did at home. The long journey from the fields of Vespan to the grocers of Kassia left no crime unpunished, not even one of flavor. After she ate, Aprelya began dressing for her first performance. She wrapped a ribbon of violet around the bun atop her head. Hesitantly she unwrapped the scour. She'd seen Sirens dressed in scours before but she'd never worn one and had no idea had to put it on. The little servant girl was called back to help her.
"Thank you," Aprelya said to the girl.
The girl stared at her in admiration, her blue eyes glowing.
"Your voice…your voice is beautiful."
Aprelya smiled.
"I've only heard about Sirens, I didn't know they were real."
Aprelya felt sad for this girl, a Vespar kept away from Vespan culture, so she began to hum the song of their people. Her blue eyes lit up, she might've heard it but not like this. The sound of Siren had the ability to make one feel as though they were a part of something magical but bigger than them. Their song connected notes to blood. Especially Vespar blood.
"What is your name, young Vespan?"
"Aleeka," she replied smiling.
Aprelya untied the ribbon in her hair and tore it down the middle before wrapping the shred around Aleeka's bun.
"To remember me by," she said.
Jalil's hand was to the door as he stared hypnotically at the two.
"They will see you now."
Jalil escorted her to a room, low-lit but cold. Even with the lighting Aprelya could see the shiny stone floors and opulent design of the furnishings and comforts. Dija was giggling about not telling Darioush about the entertainment for the evening when Aprelya arrived. Darioush was shocked to see that this was Dija's surprise. If she only knew how enamored he'd been with her earlier. Her long neck, her hair pinned up and those long eyelashes to her vibrant blue eyes. He felt as though he had never seen a Siren or a Vespar in his life when he looked at her. Jalil signaled to her to begin. She couldn't stop feeling his gaze and the intense draw to look at him. She began singing but it was clear that she wasn't singing The La Quota Vie, she sang the Vespar freedom song. A tune that brought most to tears and her audience was no different. Dija sniffled as she brought her hands together to applaud her. Darioush wiped away a tear that betrayed him from his left eye. He hadn't been able to stop looking at her, mesmerized not only by her sound but from feeling a heat so deep inside him he questioned if he was unwell.
"It is decided!" Dija said.
Finally broken from his trance Darioush asked;
"What is?"
"We must have her sing at our wedding and…our honeymoon chamber!"
Darioush could barely contain his feelings over it. He just nodded stiffly as Dija smiled but then her face fell flat. She was trying to guess his mood.
"Beloved, you should really take Hamath."
"Dija you know that I don't care about that," he said.
"Yes, but something troubles you. You have exactly three days before the wedding. It's perfect."
Darioush was shaking his head at her proposition.
"You could have the Siren sing for you, soothe you, and then you can pick one of her songs for our wedding night!"
He looked bored by her idea until she mentioned Aprelya. Hamath was supposed to be an act of solitude for a bridegroom to be for three days. A time for him to put away childish things and become a man. But Hamath had become akin to a bachelor party for nobility. The barons who participated always had to do more, be bigger, and greater than the Hamath they attended before them. Most were spent at the bath houses, drinking and bursting anything that moved. A simplistic ritual of isolation and meditation had turned to a spectator event. Darioush wanted nothing to do with it. It wasn't anything he couldn't do before he was engaged and nothing he wouldn't do even after he was married. Dija, who continued to notice her betrothed's strange glances at the girl, turned her attention to Aprelya.
"Tell me Siren, do the boys in Vespan have Hamath?" Dija asked.
"We celebrate together, as I will with Egan when I return home."
Darioush adjusted in his seat uncomfortably.
"Egan? You are engaged?" he asked, but didn't look at her.
"No temple?" Dija inserted.
"No, I have no pull to the temple. I wish to walk a different path."
Dija clasped her hands together again as she stood and walked over to Aprelya.
"That is absolutely spectacular! Even listening to you speak is a treat, but what a rarity we shall have, a Siren who sings her last song for us before she gives over her virtue!"
Her hands were wrapped around Aprelya's shoulders. Aprelya was now uncomfortable. That mythology had kept her from her first kiss and why all her dates felt like proper disasters. Everyone had been too afraid. She hadn't done anything besides hold hands with Egan. But she didn't want people speculating about it. Least of all these snobs. Least of all him.
"Well I'm going to bed, Dari dear, take Hamath, have some drink for a few days, you can pick which song she will do."
Darioush looked annoyed.
"Do it for me as I have asked for no other wedding gift."
No other gift indeed. The entire estate was overrun with her wedding plans. She walked out and left, leaving Darioush with Aprelya.
"What my bride wants my bride gets. I cannot deny your voice is captivating. I will make Jalil aware of the changes and see you upstairs tomorrow."
"Upstairs?" she questioned.
"Yes, Hamath traditionally is a sole task for the groom, it's isolation, we will stay in my private chambers for three days."
Aprelya was alarmed.
"Can't I just be brought to your room?"
Darioush smiled now. She was nervous.
"Worry not, I couldn't crave anything less and spoiling that voice before my wedding…it is beneath me."
Aprelya scoffed at the offense. Darioush couldn't even look her in the eye when he told the lie. His skin prickled at the idea of being alone with her. Jalil came in right on cue to take her back to her room.
"Jalil, have her things moved to my private chamber, I will begin Hamath there first thing in the morning," he said.
Jalil was almost too stunned to speak. He just nodded and led her back to her suite so she could pack her meager possessions.
Hamath
He wasn't as cruel as she'd heard some of the noble's were and she had no idea if it was because of her abilities or something else. She thought of him all night, his blue eyes piercing through the splashed black around them. His black freckles upon his blue-alabaster skin. He was the first thing she could think of when she woke. Strangely the same was true of him. He was annoyed that his fiance was so apt to understand what he couldn't. He needed to be around the Siren, if anything to figure out what it was about her that he couldn't get free of. After her breakfast, Aprelya was shown to the baron's chambers. The door to the room was a preview to what lay behind it. Heavy and intricately carved in gold it was the perfect lid to what it held. The splendor, the opulence, of Darioush's private chamber. Lush pots of flowers and plants from his garden, large ornate rugs in jewel tones and intricate designs, pillows of luxurious fabrics everywhere as if he would sleep on the floor. She would be staying here with him for the next three days. Aprelya could fit her family's cottage and two others in this place. She was shown around the room, showcasing two bath chambers, two soiling rooms, a large wardrobe, and a monstrous four poster bed near a balcony. She was to sleep on the small bed behind a silk screen divide in the room. The bed was even more luxurious than the one in her private quarters. Jalil led her to a rounded corner which held a sitting area behind it. It was one of three in the room not counting his dining table or the one on his balcony. Darioush sat, casually reading and drinking a cup of tea. He glanced up but for a moment. She was dressed in her scour, displeased but beautiful. Her blue eyes were colder when she was perturbed. He invited her to sit but he let his attention immediately go back to his reading. He had been sneaking peeks of her over his book. Watching her take in her surroundings. He wondered how she'd judged his chambers. He wondered if she liked it. Aprelya sat quietly but she could feel his eyes all over her. No one ever looked at her like that. She didn't know how to respond to it.
"May I ask a question?"
Darioush licked his finger and turned a page from his book, still reading he answered.
"You may."
"Why didn't you want a Hamath?"
He took a sip of his tea and looked at her fully, face to face since she was brought to his room. She was agonizingly beautiful.
"A Hamath is a moment for a young man to grow into a real man. I am Baron of Kassia, I was made a man as soon as I stepped into the title."
One he was made to do when his parents were killed in their wagon returning home when he was barely a young man.
"A man…but not a husband. A wife isn't something you've had before," Aprelya stated.
Darioush scoffed.
"Look around, I have everything I could possibly want, and some things I don't," he said alluding to her company. "I didn't need a Hamath to ready me for responsibility."
Aprelya let the insult roll off her, outwardly he had to pretend that having her there was a favor to his fiance.
"Is that why you look so bored?" she asked.
He was fighting the way her voice sounded. She could read the dry scriptures and make them sound like heaven. Everytime she spoke it danced under his skin. He wanted to play it passive not let the heat he could feel simmering in his loins catch fire.
"Everything loses its appeal after a while, especially if you can have it whenever you want. It's the reason why I agreed to the Hamath at all. I have never been around anything that doesn't lose my interest eventually so three days with you and I can finally be bored of you too."
"Do I appeal to you in other ways?" She asked.
Darioush swallowed nervously. He'd been found out. She smiled, he was nervous.
"You haven't asked me to sing."
Aprelya began to giggle. She didn't mean to but she couldn't help it. Her laugh felt like a diamond-lashing to his skin. Darioush felt foolish and then he felt angry.
"Perhaps I didn't invite you here to sing."
Now Aprelya was nervous, she stopped laughing and looked away hoping the burn in her cheeks wasn't noticeable.
"Perhaps you are correct, placating your bride now must mean you do not need a Hamath."
He was boring a hole so big into the side of her face no amount of flattery could avail it. He wanted to bolt across the table to her. Instead he leaned back and began reading. Aprelya excused herself to a soiling room. Although blessed with the gift of sound she really didn't know very many songs that would be appropriate for Kassians. Her rejection of the temple meant rejecting many of the songs they learned to entertain the nobles. She hummed the freedom tune as she rinsed her hands. She walked around the gigantic room looking closely at his things. She was near his bed when she spotted the strange contraption she'd seen earlier. Jalil had awkwardly glided over what it was. Her snooping hadn't gone unnoticed. Darioush couldn't help but listen to her sounds echoing and undulating throughout his chamber. He was guided to her when she stopped.
"I'd wager a guess that you all burst on a pile of hay," he remarked.
Aprelya began to laugh again, did he really believe that Vespars rodded about in the muck?
"Did I say something humorous?"
"Oh you Kassians, you all had to acquire everything just to understand that it doesn't matter, and even now when you know it, you still keep this way of life."
"Oh? And are we to take on yours? Lazing about, drinking, and singing and putting on plays?"
"Is that how you maintain this? Comparing yourself to us? And still somehow you don't understand joy?"
She was back to laughing again and he was getting exceedingly upset. What was she trying to imply? That Kassian men and women did not take pleasure when they coupled.
"My life has brought me more joy than a peasant, even a Siren peasant, could ever only think of you when there's work to be done."
"Oh yes you seem incredibly happy, but better not hurt yourself trying to understand us master, we don't think of Kassians much at all."
Darioush just stared at her. The heat in his gut was spreading and burning into his veins. He would never let anyone speak to him like this, he didn't know why he was letting her. He also hated that she was calling him master.
"What's to understand Songbird? You farm, you drink, and burst each other and turn around and do it again, well not you."
Now she was mad, this was the second time he had stated that she was undesirable and it cut into her, confused her.
"Why not me?"
Her eyes blazed blue, and Darioush didn't know how much longer he could hold on, especially with talk of coupling, his cheeks burned.
"Obviously you haven't because you still sing like a Siren."
"That is a myth children tell each other in Vespan, I'm shocked with all the knowledge you Kassians have collected you wouldn't know that."
Now she was lying. Hot blood flowed through her skin as she stared at his mouth. No amount of hypnotic sound could keep him from noticing the insult. Darioush swallowed nervously, he leaned in and stared at her. The blue-gray of his eyes intense, and hungry.
"You've tested it with your Egan?"
Aprelya leaned in,
"He makes me sing in ways you will never hear."
A challenge. He couldn't take it anymore. Darioush had fallen off the edge. Their eyes still locked on each other, he grabbed her arm and pulled her into a kiss. She could've fainted it overwhelmed her so. Aprelya's heart began to flutter before he turned toward the strange velvet contraption.
"Take off your scour," Darioush commanded.
Aprelya turned around and slowly began undoing the knot on her shoulder holding the scour together, hoping to backpedal her overplayed hand.
"Shall I be singing in the nude for you and your bride? Helping the baron's rod stiffen to commemorate his wedding night?" She teased, nervously.
Darioush had undone his trousers and was stroking himself when she turned around. Her eyes went wide for a flick of a moment before reigning it in. It would be over her dead body for him to see her shocked by anything he was doing. She quickly turned back around.
"On the gradle," he pointed.
A gradle, a glorified piece of sex furniture. There were different ways a woman could be taken on one, but the most common was from the back. Two large spindles on either side for her to hold onto. A symbol of Kassian mating as it was the spot they would couple with their brides to hopefully produce an heir the night of their wedding. Aprelya didn't know how to be on a gradle, they didn't use them in Vespan. She turned confused as Darioush came behind her and shoved her so she had to bend over the velvet gradle. He placed her hands to wrap around two rods near the top. He used his knee to knock her legs apart. He came behind her, the warmth of chest, his body against her back. The feeling of his stiff rod against her legs. His creamy blue-white fingers rubbed at her clit and he smiled at how wet she was.
"I guess you think of us more than you realize," he said smugly into her ear.
Aprelya's heart was beating out of her chest, it felt good. Goosebumps spread across her skin and she exhaled a light-airy sound. His fingers strummed and slid around her wetness. She'd never been touched there, or anywhere, where would it lead, he couldn't, he wouldn't, he wasn't going to actually-.
"Mmm," he moaned.
He'd moved his hand away. A sharpness penetrated her as a gasp caught in her throat. A foreign fullness swelled within her, one she never knew to be satiated from. He'd thrust into her without much of a warning, her slick and tight entrance gripped around him as his eyes pressed closed, grateful she couldn't see just how difficult it was for him to not come unraveled a mere one stroke in. He took in a shallow breath hoping to keep himself contained. His eyes closed again as he attempted a few more strokes hoping to conquer the feeling of her. She was probably laughing at him. The thought motivated him to perform better. He began a punishing pace, so he could show off. He was rodding away at her, finally getting his bearings. Darioush wrapped his hands around hers.
"Will you not sing for me Songbird?" he said whispering into her ear, "Is my Kassian cock not enough for the Vespar?" he thrusted into her hard again before stopping to admire her shape.
He began to grin, staring at her. Her perfect taught deep-colored skin and pert behind, she radiated, her dark skin reflecting the glow from his own, he let his hands go and hers were white knuckled and still gripped along the gradle's rods. His smile began to fade as he realized she was trembling. A smeared mess of pink and red blotted his thighs, pelvis, and stomach. He looked back up at her hands still squeezing the rods. Horrified, but too late, he realized why she was quiet and backed up quickly. She gasped.
"I must go, put your scour back on."
He rushed out of the room. As soon as Aprelya heard the door close her hands fell from the rods and she collapsed on the gradle. She whimpered into it, slowly she stood up and gave her bottom lip a lick. She tasted blood from where she'd broken the skin. Chapped and sore as if she had gotten an internal papercut she draped her scour over herself and began knotting it. She grabbed a cloth and soaked it in water and wiped herself up. She went over to the bathing chamber and stared at herself in the mirror. Years of looking into hardened glass trying to find her reflection and now she looked again as if she'd magically recognize herself. She did, and yet she didn't. Aprelya touched her reflections then her lips. She took in a breath ready to sing her first note.
"Testing to see if it's true?"
Darioush was standing behind her, he had pants on but he was shirtless as he was wiping his stomach off with a cloth. She stopped and pretended to be rinsing her hands. She stepped out of the chamber and stood at the door, ready to serve. Darioush sighed.
"You should have said something," he grumbled.
"Said what master?" Aprelya asked, staring forward.
"Don't play coy, that was virgin-blood, and don't call me master."
Aprelya smirked at his annoyance. He was still irritated with her but he also felt guilty and somewhat fearful. She glanced over to her right and heard water running.
"I've prepared you a bath with Ebner oil…I've heard it…helps."
He knew it helped. The first barons came to power and popularity by becoming healers with strong elixirs. Their homes were hospitals and all the help and physical adulations came from gratitude. How long since the Kassians had lived that way. He led the way to the second bath chamber. Without hesitation she undid her scour and let it drop to the floor before stepping into the tub. He pretended he wasn't as fixated on her when her long figure disappeared into the hot drink. The oil went to work soothing the bits of torn flesh from her involuntary deflowering. She finally sighed with relief.
"So…you don't know if the myth is true or not."
He had casually glided to the side of the tub and was now sitting on the edge. His fingertips tickled the top of the water. He let drops hang on his fingertips and drip into her bath from the tilt of his hands.
"I find it preposterous, but no… I don't know for sure."
He watched as she kept her eyes on his fingers.
"Does this make you uncomfortable?" he asked.
"I thought it was beneath you," she sneered.
"It was beneath me because I wouldn't dishonor a Siren, but then you said it was a myth. It's a shame because now I have to find another way to make you sing for me," he said with a smug smile.
She did her best to swallow away the panic. The oil was good so why would he want to screw it up with trying that horrid mess from earlier. He watched as her body tensed.
"It's not all like that, -what your dear Egan never showed you there were other ways to burst than a poking?"
His hands were now in the water gliding up her long stems. She didn't know what to say and Darioush knew it. He smirked again.
"Don't bother lying. Egan has never touched you has he? I was the first to burst you, wasn't I?"
"I have felt pain before master, you are not the first."
His hand was all the way up her legs and about to touch her clit again. He leaned over to whisper in her ear before sliding his fingers between the folds of her sex.
"I warned you, do not call me master."
He worked his hand, his fingers, watching her slowly be infected by his touch. He leaned in closer. Her long eyelashes fluttered as she moaned. He'd never heard this sound come from a Siren. It caused ripples throughout the water and then through Darioush. He was hard as a rock watching her. The tone was smoke lingering and then dissipating. It sunk into him as it intensified.
"Burst for me Songbird."
He listened as her sound climbed and then cracked the goblet in front of him. Her comedown felt like a thousand tiny butterfly kisses over her skin. Aprelya felt as though she had just grown wings and then she felt embarrassed. She's never felt that good before and if she had she'd never damaged anything from it. Then fear set in again. Was that the last sound she'd make as a Siren? She never cared about it until now. She averted her eyes from him and quickly got up from her bath and ran into one of the soiling rooms.
She paced, she just needed a moment alone, to know that she could still sing. But she was too frightened to try. Aprelya could hear the baron knocking outside the door.
"We are eating Songbird, come on, come out of there."
Aprelya slowly opened the door. Darioush handed her her scour. She came out and walked toward the table. A lush spread of figs, meats, and Kassian cheeses, with bread and wine was ready to be dug into. Aprelya had no appetite. After a few bites he took alone Darioush could not ignore it.
"I'm sorry," he said.
The words seemed foreign coming from him. Aprelya had been sitting at the table, arms crossed, eyes to the ground. She glanced up at him..
"I shouldn't have-My apologies. If I'd known…I would have been gentler."
Aprelya leaned forward and took a fig from one of the large golden plates.
"You flatter yourself Baron. I told you I have felt pain before. It isn't that. No one has ever been bold enough to try what you did so, thank you, but it isn't you."
Darioush waited for her to continue, she swallowed her fig.
"I thought I was ready to face this, to live on my beliefs, but now that it's happened I'm having second thoughts."
Darioush took a drink of his wine and shook his head.
"You must try and sing, you have to face it."
"I can't bear it, not yet. If I know now then every day till your wedding I will be fearful. I think I need this Hamath more than you."
"Suit yourself."
They continued eating. She tried some of the cheese with her fig. Aprelya couldn't deny her revelry. She was in the world's most powerful man's private chambers drinking and bursting to work off her credits. She gorged herself on figs and strange Kassian cheese. She was guzzling wine when a cramp hit her stomach. She got up and went to the bathroom trying to figure out which end of hers she was going to pay with. She'd been in there since the servants came to remove their lunch.
"Songbird, are you alright?"
"Yes, I need to lie down, I think I had too much wine," she said.
"It was probably the cheese."
Aprelya came out and went to her bed. She was out sleep until the room was dark. When she sat up there was a cup of tea next to her. She went to the soiling room. There wasn't much else she could lose from her body.
"I have a tincture for you when you're ready," Darioush said.
He was sitting across from the soiling room reading.
"You could sit anywhere and you're here."
"I wanted to make sure you were alright."
Aprelya walked over to him as he stood up and handed her a small bottle.
"It'll stave off any more issues with digestion."
"Thank you," she said behind her fluttering eyelashes.
Aprelya went to her bathing chamber and cleaned up. She removed her scour and readied herself for sleep.
"If you like…you may join me."
Slowly she walked over and went to the large four poster bed.
When his door opened in the morning Aprelya awoke in panic. Naked in the bed of the most powerful man in Kassia there had to be some rule against this. But his servants kept their eyes cast down and didn't seem as though they could see her or wanted to.
"Don't worry Songbird, they aren't looking in here, and if they are, they can't see you," Darioush stated with his eyes closed.
Aprelya popped her head out of the side of the curtains that draped on every side of the posts on the bed. They appeared sheer for them, but on the outside they were opaque and dark.
"I've never seen anything like this," she said inspecting the cloth.
"Kassian weavers are truly our best creatives."
Aprelya laid back in bed, still a bit hungover from all the wine. She let her eyes close as she thought about last night when they were in bed.
The night had crept in but neither slept as they lay next to each other.
"I am sorry, I didn't mean for you to have this predicament," he said.
"I told you, don't be. I wanted to, I've always wanted to, you don't need to apologize. At least I know that poking is awful."
Darioush sat up in bed, his gray-blue eyes alarmed.
"It was that bad for you?"
"It was painful, when has that ever been not awful."
Darioush collapsed back into his pillows. His guilt was coming back and it was uncomfortable.
"I meant it when I said it's not all like that," he added.
"Of course not, the tub was lovely."
"No-all bursting, rodding, whatever you want to call it is not like what we did…what I did to you…it-can be good for both of us."
Now Aprelya sat alarmed and turned to him.
"Are you saying I was awful too?"
"No, but I didn't harmonize like you did," he teased.
Now Aprelya felt strange about it.
"Oh."
"You said you've always wanted to try, maybe we'll try something else.
No matter what they couldn't deny the tension still between them. Darioush sat up and Aprelya followed.
"No, stay lying down, I want to try something."
He posted to all fours and laid down near her waist. Aprelya was confused.
"Part your legs Songbird."
She did it slowly as he took his fingers and parted her mound to make room for his tongue. Her eyes closed and she moaned, half by surprise and then pleasure. His tongue felt like an extension to her sex, as if it was made to be there.
"Don't be afraid to put it in your mouth."
At first Aprelya thought he was making a statement about what he was doing to her. When she opened her eyes she looked to her side and realized he was naked from the waist down and hard as a rock. She could put her mouth…on it? So she put her hand out to touch the smooth white-blue shaft and then she put her mouth around. He tasted salty and creamy. It reminded her of a Vespan dessert. He went back to dancing on her clit as his hips gyrated into her mouth. Her spike came quicker than in the tub. Broken notes escaped from her mouth which was filled with Kassian dick. He was still pounding her face, moaning loudly. Goo gushed into her mouth as he slowed his hips down and gripped her thighs as he came undone. He let out a sigh of relief as he flopped on his back.
"Better?" he said.
"Yes…for you?"
"Yes, Songbird, get some sleep."
Aprelya looked for her scour and then went to the soil room. She climbed back into bed with Darioush who was opening his eyes and groaning over the time of his awakening.
"You aren't worried your betrothed would be angry with you for being with me?"
"I don't think Dija would care, it was her idea to have you attend my Hamath. She has to know it's a possibility."
"To sing," she said smiling.
He leaned over to kiss her. A soft touch he'd only done once before deflowering her.
"You've sung," he remarked with a devilish smile.
He could see the worry in her eyes.
"You're still worried you won't have your gift?"
She nodded.
"It would be one way she'd know," Aprelya said.
Darioush pulled her into embrace.
"Worry not, our marriage is one of arrangement like all Kassian nobles, we don't marry for love, she is my friend from childhood and I care for her but it isn't love thus it isn't capable of jealousy. Now your Egan…," he laughed.
"No, Egan would not feel hurt over this, we don't envy in Vespan."
Darioush laughed and then got up to use the soiling room. He rang a bell and in less than five minutes there was tea, fresh fruit, bread, and salted meat on his dining space on the balcony.
Aprelya came out to the balcony and plopped down. Darioush was putting a plate together for her as she poured herself a glass of water. She was pouting as she popped a fursberry into her mouth.
"Speak Songbird," he commanded with a smile.
"My scour is dirty, if this is what I'm to wear to perform at your wedding I will need to wash the blood from it."
Darioush laughed as he sipped his tea and began to take a bite of his food. He stopped to gaze at her.
"There is something I believe would suit you well, but in the meantime I will have a fresh scour delivered."
Aprelya smiled.
"So master, what does the second day of Hamath hold for you?"
He bristled at the title again. Why did she insist on calling him that?
"I've asked you not to call me that," he said sternly.
She didn't get the amusement from it she had before.
"The other servants call you that…I am still a servant here Baron Jahanbani."
He clenched his jaw, stood up, and threw his napkin on the table and abruptly left.
Aprelya sat still and then went to see where he was. The trick curtains that surrounded his four poster bed were pinned in place, he wasn't there. The door to his soiling room was open, his bath chamber was empty, and she had made her way around to two of the three sitting areas in his chamber. She almost believed he had chosen to break his Hamath when she saw him sitting in the mist of some of his luxurious pillows.
"Baron Jaha-."
"Please leave, I wish to take this portion of my Hamath alone."
She nodded and then went to her bed and gathered her things. She got to the door and left his room. She wandered about, lost before the little girl Aleeka saw her. She still had the purple ribbon in her hair.
"Little Vespan, would you show me to my private quarters?"
Aleeka nodded excitedly, still in awe over meeting a real Siren. The estate was massive and it took them nearly ten minutes to make their way across it, back to her room. Everything was as she left it. She wondered what she would do with her stolen time. Aleeka was getting ready to leave when Aprelya stopped her.
"Aleeka, how long have you lived here?"
"My entire life, my parents work in the gardens but I deliver food and drink to everyone."
"You've never been to Vespan? Arrista? Loudon?"
She shook her head no.
"My parents tell me stories of Arrista, where they came from, about the festivals, the music, and the Sirens."
Aleeka told her that there were Vespars who always worked for Barons and other nobles, they had been a part of the war agreement, which made the credits that much worse. Aprelya sat and listened to the young girl for as long as she could but eventually Aleeka had to get back to work. Aprelya went to her bath chamber and soaked, she couldn't stop thinking about Aleeka. She got out of the bath and thought it was best to rest when she heard a knock. She wrapped a cloth around her and answered.
"The baron had a new scour delivered for you, he was surprised to see you had left, as was I," Jalil said.
"He wished to be alone."
"It is Hamath, but the room is vast for a reason. Please, gather your things. I must return you."
She snatched the scour from his hands and shut the door within minutes they were walking the fifteen minutes in awkward silence back to the baron's private chambers.
"Dinner will be served in an hour," Jalil stated, before he shut the heavy door behind her.
Aprelya went back to the space that was her bed and sat there. After about ten minutes the baron was in front of her.
"I did not dismiss you, do not leave without permission again."
"Yes, master," she said with no humor.
His face twisted at the name.
"This will be the last time I tell you to not call me that!"
"Why not?!" Aprelya said, shooting up from her bed, "Are you not the great Baron of Kassia, master of the realm!"
"Go to the gradle. NOW!" he shouted.
Aprelya marched across the bed and towards the gradle. She began to undo her scour but he had pushed her onto it before she could finish. He was pushing the fabric up and undoing the string on his pants. No longer confused on what it would feel like Aprelya braced herself, but nothing happened. She turned and Darioush was sitting on the side of his bed. She pushed the fabric back down. She went to the bed and sat next to him.
"Why does it bother you so?" she asked.
"It doesn't…it never has until you started saying it," he admitted.
Aprelya sat next to him but her face was troubled.
"You don't feel that?" he asked.
She looked confused.
"I guess it's just me…I bet you'll be happy when this is over."
"You speak in riddles," she said.
"You are a riddle…a confusion I will never forget."
She continued to look perplexed but he then leaned in to kiss her. His soft lips against hers, and then his tongue in her mouth. Instinctively she moved her tongue like his. He put his hand in between her legs and began to rub her clit. Clipped harmonies vibrated through him as he pushed her down onto the bed. He pinned her arms over her head and pulled his cock from his already loosened pants. He drove into her and then slowed immediately as he felt her clench around him.
"I won't hurt you Songbird."
He let her arms go and drug his hands up her neck and cupped her jaw planting a soft kiss upon her lips. He moved much slower than the first time. He was still lost in how good she felt but he didn't want her to feel like she did on his gradle. Harmony and sound rippled through her and into him as she moaned. He opened his eyes and stopped kissing her so he could watch her, he smiled. Her eyes were still closed as a cascade of sound flowed from her. He sped up just a little and it was more than enough to push him over the edge. A suppressed agonizing sound left him as he spilled into her.
"I guess you are capable of music too," she teased.
Aprelya had just finished washing her hands when dinner was served. She sat across from Darioush as he cut into his meat. She watched and mimicked him, trying the meal she'd never have before.
"Here," he said.
He had taken something from his pocket and set it on the table. It was another tincture.
"My stomach feels fine, will this meal make me sick too?"
He smiled and shook his head no as he chewed his food.
"I spilled my seed in you earlier. It's to stop offspring."
The 100 year treaty between Kassians and Vespars forbade the act of producing any children together. Aprelya stared oddly at the bottle.
"I will not take that."
"You must, I understand you Vespers believe in the sanctity of life but this doesn't end it, it just keeps it from happening."
She looked at the bottle suspiciously.
"I told you Songbird, I don't want to hurt you."
Everything in his eyes stirred the strange feelings she had of him from the moment they met. She reached over and took the bottle. He instructed her on how much to consume and they finished their dinner somewhat quietly.
"Are you alright Songbird, you've hardly drunk your meade."
"There's a little Vespar girl here, she works for you, and her family, they are from Arrista but she has never seen Vespan, never seen anyone who isn't serving this house, she is cut off from us."
Darioush couldn't understand what she was getting at.
"Is that what's to happen to me? Or are you finally getting bored of me?"
He clenched his jaw. How he had wished he hadn't said that yesterday. Nothing about her was becoming boring to him. He wished his Hamath could go on forever.
"Do you wish to leave me?" he asked.
She didn't although moody and snobby she hadn't quite solved his presence in her mind either. She shook her head no.
"I need to know, for the others…will I have enough credits to leave…or to help those I came with or to allow Aleeka to go home to Vespan?"
He looked troubled again. She began to understand.
"That's why you don't like it when I call you master, it reminds you that this is work…doesn't it."
Work, as if she was one of maidens from the bath houses. Is that what she saw it as? She viewed the baron taking her virtue as work. Maybe he misjudged the whole thing.
"I will retire early tonight, you can sleep in the bed provided for you," he said curtly.
It was just work, she had asked too much and now he was reminding her of her place. She nodded and stood when he did. She went to her bed and laid down until she couldn't anymore. She got up and washed in the bath chamber and then strolled around the gigantic room until she came to his library. She pulled a book down. It was an old Kassian children's book. Inside were pictures of Vespar and Kassian children playing, laughing. The book was incredibly old.
"My mother used to read me stories from that one."
Aprelya almost dropped the book she was so startled.
"All the servants who've been brought in for the wedding will have their credits fulfilled after the ceremony…including you but that's for singing."
She placed the book back onto the wall and began to walk away.
"Did you…did you let me burst you because you thought you had too?"
She shook her head no. She vaguely knew of the laws separating their kind.
"Then why?" he asked, "Why didn't you ask me to stop?"
"I don't know…" she answered.
It wasn't just him. He nodded and went back to his bed. She went to hers but neither could sleep.
In the morning it was the last day of Hamath. They ate breakfast quietly, both snatching glances of the other when they felt it was safe to do so. Aprelya excused herself from the table and began walking about his room again, staring at the paintings, and to a large wall filled with bottles. They were arrayed by color. A bright green emerald colored bottle caught her eye.
"Careful with that," Darioush began as strolled behind her, "That is a paralytic, you'd be completely unmovable and then who knows what I could get up to with you."
Aprelya laughed.
"What things you could get up to, indeed."
His gray-blue eyes looked desperate for her. Hers radiated a blue he'd never seen. He bolted across the room and wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her in.
"Do you feel what you do to me?" he whispered in her ear, "I'd have you now and forever if you'd let me."
Her eyes closed at his breath on her neck, the feeling so consuming she'd let his reckless words pass unquestioned. He gathered the bottom of her scour and then didn't care to be bothered with it, he ripped it down the back. His mouth and tongue were all over neck.
"I fight to not touch you every time I see you," he said as pushed into her.
He wrapped the torn fabric of her scour around one of his hands and placed the other on the space between her neck and shoulder. He slowly pressed himself into her and then couldn't help himself from going quicker. High notes like birds escaped her throat and soon bottles from his shelf began to shatter, popping and exploding as his hips pounding against her. He bit down on her shoulder as he burst into her. He collapsed in place and she onto his lap as her head rested in the crook of his neck. They spent most of the day in bed, copulating and marinating in the sweat of each other.
"Stay here with me Songbird," he said, kissing her hand.
"I can't…you know that," she said.
"Our marriages aren't real…or do you love Egan?"
He swallowed nervously. She shook her no.
"Then stay with him," he pleaded.
"Do you really want to understand? Vespan may be just farms to you but it is legacy for us. We sing and create because we love. We live ours for each other. We don't marry for power, we marry for companionship and community. Our family trees are taller than any others, we are intertwined with one another in ways I am still beginning to understand. The roots of our family trees are fertilized in that love. I don't return to Vespan because I love Egan, I will return because I love everything it means to be a Vespar."
"You would be revered here too, held to a standard you've never been," he said.
"You Kassians…everyone placed above or below, no one wanting to be equal. I don't like how Sirens are sequestered like we are so high and mighty. Our gift is a reminder that something beautiful can come to any Vespan family anywhere at any time. We are born to this, we do not inherit it."
He leaned forward and kissed her. He'd take as much as he could as the hours dwindled away and his Hamath came to a close.
The Wedding
The estate looked as though an explosion of flowers and light had thrown up everywhere. Although it was supposed to be romantic it was garish and indulgent. Aprelya paced in her quarters. She'd returned in the morning. She hadn't even attempted to sing but she was readying herself to accept her fate, in front of all the nobility and barons in Kassia. Aleeka tapped on her door and there was her gown. A mouthwatering gorgeous confection of gold and white with a beautiful headdress. Aleeka helped her into the dress. Aprelya tightened the shredded ribbon on Aleeka's hair.
"Thank you Aleeka."
"Hopefully I'll see you in Arrista," Aleeka said smiling.
Aprelya looked confused.
"The baron is giving my family leave to return home to Arrista to celebrate after the harvest! I will get to see the temple and go to my first festival!"
Aleeka squealed with excitement as Jalil arrived to take Aprelya down. He froze with shock at the sight of her as did all the guests and some older Vespar servants. Dija and Darioush were already seated at the end of the aisle. Dija's eyes went wide at Aprelya's entrance. Their gowns were similar, Dija's red and pink and purple, larger but it was no mistaking Darioush had given Aprelya a Kassian wedding dress. Unknown to her, she glanced at him as his eyes hadn't left her since she entered the room. He took a nervous breath in as she began to sing. Flowing from her was an old lullaby every Kasssian and Vespar knew, one the cultures shared. Her voice has changed but it was richer, more vibrant, with a clarity that could cut glass. A few baroness's wept and a few barons stood in a hypnotic trance. Aprelya's eyes glowed blue as she finished the last note. Everyone was on their feet screaming for another. She looked at Darioush and he nodded with pride for her to do another. She went into the freedom song and a few gasps later everyone was quiet and then crying. Cheers roared throughout the hall and Jalil escorted Apreyla back to her quarters. She ate dinner there and smiled as she knew everyone would return home and Aleeka would finally see Vespan, be among her people. She didn't deny she would miss Darioush but she knew the most powerful man in Kassia would find a way to her. Jalil had come for again, she was to sing in Dija and Darioush's honeymoon chamber, a feat she did not look forward to. She didn't know envy, but this felt like it. No one appeared to be in the room when she was let in, but emerging from behind a silk screen was Dija. She had two goblets as she glided over to Aprelya. The honeymoon chamber was as over the top as the wedding. An overkill of flowery decor and opulence only a Kassian would enjoy.
"That was the most beautiful voice I have ever heard from any Siren, what a loss it will be when your virtue takes it," she said as she handed Aprelya the goblet,"I'm glad it was you, Darioush has been unhappy for some time but it's clear you have turned that around."
Aprelya blushed but she couldn't respond.
"Oh don't be shy, I'm happy he's found you, he clearly cares for you," she said, gesturing to Aprelya's clothes, "You're wearing his mother's wedding dress."
Aprelya's eyes went wide. He had lost his mind! Dija smiled but the joy never made it to her eyes. She raised her goblet to Aprelya.
"To Darioush, the man we love."
Aprelya felt uncomfortable but she took a drink hoping some wine would relax her from the awkward situation. Wine spilled from the side of her lip as she quickly wiped at the drop to keep it from falling on the family heirloom. Dija bent down to give her a cloth. Aprelya smiled as she dabbed her cheek and wiped her finger on the cloth. Green smeared over it. Aprelya stared horrified at the goblet then at Dija.
"Careful with that one, it's a paralytic."
Her skin began tingling from her toes shooting up to her knees and through her spine. She almost dropped the goblet but Dija grabbed it and set it down. She hugged Aprelya to her and dragged her to their bed. Her legs went numb and it was becoming hard to breathe.
"He would have had Jamiemen at your door every week bringing you back here…it is forbidden and I will not let you ruin everything we've built."
Dija's hand went over Aprelya's mouth and nose, Aprelya's eyes went wide. Dija drank her wine as she kept her hand locked over Aprelya's face.
Darioush didn't know it was possible to feel the way he had the last few days. He was now the most powerful man in all of Mau, and he wanted to share it all with Aprelya in any way he could. The way he longed to tell her she was his first too. Everything he knew how to do he'd seen in the bath houses growing up and going with his father. He'd never done them himself and didn't feel the overpowering urge to until he saw her. He would never feel this way again he knew it. He also knew he couldn't couple with Dija in front of her. He was ready to tell Dija that when he entered the room and saw them on the bed. He couldn't move.
"Oh Dija no-."
She downed the rest of her wine.
"-A lucky deal for you considering if a Siren had returned to Vespan without her voice it would put undue pressure on the relations between Kassians and Vespars. I don't even care that the myth isn't true. I was half hoping it was pigshit to knock the holier than thou ideal everyone has with Sirens out once and for all.
His eyes were still fixed to the bed. To her.
"What have you done?"
"You didn't think I knew? I've heard all the rumors from the bathhouses to the tender districts, Baron Jahanbani, the soft, barely bursted. She would've ended us, ended what our families have set for us. I am the Baroness of Diden and Kassia our houses haven't toiled this long for nothing. I will usher in an era that sees the Barons back to their names, back to being healers. I will usher in love."
The blood was dripping from Aprelya's nose as she lay motionless. Darioush stood frozen as Dija rose from the bed and began to walk out, she stopped at him.
"You will see my love, it is for the best."
He stared at her, she hadn't been dead long. He could tell there was still warmth in her cheeks as life flirted around her skin. He knew her eyes would not glow blue anymore. It was the sin of Kassia, knowing that the blue in the eyes from their cousin race lit up with life but drained into milky-gray upon death. He walked out of the room and went to find his major domo.
"But sir, are you sure you want to visit the bath house…it is highly unconventional for one's wedding night."
Darioush did and went to the back where he knew the Baron's visited in complete secrecy. The Croan. A conjurer, a Seer, a relic of the old race who bore the skin of the Kassians but had the glowing eyes of the Vespars. Traits which helped her see the entirety of both races, past, present, and future.
"Sit Baron of Diden and Kassia," she said with a smile through rotted teeth.
Because she was a Seer she knew why he was here. She placed a small bottle of oil on the table.
"You've lost your starsister," she said, gazing at him.
A lone tear went down his cheek.
"What do you know of it, witch?"
"Barren lands, healer hands, dust and sands. In one thousand lifetimes in ten thousand worlds, you will see her again."
He pocketed the strange oil and left. Jalil held the door for him as they arrived at the estate. He went back up to his chambers. She had been left where he had instructed. He walked over to the bed to lay next to her.
"You were wrong, I don't need to have everything to know I didn't have it all, I just needed to have you."
Darioush drank the oil safeguarded in his pocket. It coated and burned on its way down his throat, heating and coiling in his belly as it made him feel drunk, then tired. He closed his eyes and never opened them again.