Wedding on Geminar:
Chapter 1:
Queen of Swan:
"Oh crap!" Kenshi thought to himself as another wave of nausea swept through his body causing his stomach to knot up as he unceremoniously emptied the contents of this morning's breakfast on the forest floor.
Five days had passed since his decisive victory over Lord Babalun and he was still suffering the effects of the Aho sickness that comes with breaking one's operational limit. Kenshi had not concerned himself with the consequences of his actions at the time, realizing as he did that he had no other choice. Now that the battle was over though, his body was letting him know in no uncertain terms that it was wounded and needed to heal.
Unfortunately for Kenshi, one of the symptoms of Aho sickness was the need to vomit and as a result, he was unable to keep up his strength because he could not keep his food down, he could not keep his food down because he was sick, he was sick because his body was not strong enough to heal itself and because of that his body was too weak. Kenshi knew he needed to find something, anything that he could keep down in order to regain his strength or his body would not recover.
Kenshi had spent the first night after the battle in his old room of Empress Lashara's dorm convulsing with nausea. When after a sleepless night of making offerings to the porcelain god he failed to get any better, Kenshi had then gathered his things and moved to the forest and began sleeping on the ground under the shelter of a hastily thrown together lean-to. Kenshi was doing slightly better but still he had not been able to hold down a meal in over five days! He was growing weaker by the hour and knew if he did not find something that would stay in his stomach soon; he ran the risk of starving to death!
It was while he was pondering this circular dilemma that he became aware of the presence of another. Laughing to himself despite his discomfort, Kenshi could not say with any certainty what it was about this encounter that concerned him the most, the fact that the beautiful woman had got in such close proximity before he noticed her, or the fact that she had not even been trying to conceal herself!
"Goddess, you are one hell of a mess!" Kenshi heard her say without preamble.
"And a good morning to you too, Princess Aura," Kenshi replied weakly, his eyes rolling back in his head as he swooned.
000
Unknown to Kenshi, since he had fled after the battle the political situation between all the allied nations had been steadily degrading. Four different political entities had legitimate claims against the nation of Shtrayu. Havoniwa, Shurifon, the Church and the Holy land, however, with their Prime Minister Babalun dead and Empress Lashara Earth de facto deposed, political chaos existed within the borders of the leaderless country. In other words, there was no way to make peace because there was no legitimate legal authority with which any of these adversaries could make treaties!
In and of itself this problem should have been of minor importance. The Church and the Holy land were supposedly neutral, while Havoniwa and Shurifon were governed by wise rulers smart enough to back off and give Shtrayu a chance to sort itself out.
Complicating the matter, however, was the kingdom of Trible. Claiming that although they had not been attacked directly, the belligerent actions of their neighbor to the south had necessitated placing their kingdom on a war footing, resulting in needless hardship to their subjects for which they expected to be duly compensated. Using the current power vacuum in Shtrayu to his advantage, King Trible knew that neither Havoniwa nor Shurifon were in a position to gainsay his upstart actions, as both their armies were exhausted. Neither, he also knew, could the church do anything as their functionality was still fragmented and it was in no position to impose sanctions.
With the skill of a seasoned politician, King Trible had begun allying some of the smaller northern nations to his cause and they in turn had begun recalling their Sacred Mechamasters as their armies began to tool up for war.
Aura knew that more hostilities were in the offing and if something was not done to defuse the situation soon, the girls who had once fought so valiantly side-by-side to restore the Holy land could very well find themselves facing off against each other as adversaries!
Somebody was needed to take charge of the situation to bring order out of this chaos, and the only somebody these armies were willing to follow was currently laying face down in a puddle of his own puke in the middle of the forest!
Aura could sense that Kenshi was closer than he realized to dying. Setting an emergency beacon so that she could find him again, Aura hurried back to the Holy land practice grounds where she had left her Sacred Mechanoid then returned to Kenshi's camp. Scooping Kenshi up in one fluid motion with her mechanical hand, she then hurried off to the only place she knew where he might be saved.
000
When Kenshi woke again, the first thing he noticed was that he was immersed in a comforting warmth. As he slowly became aware of his surroundings Kenshi realized that he was in an open air hot springs and that the soft squishy feeling he felt against his back was not that of a pillow, but instead the ample chest of his savior, Aura Shurifon, who had been tirelessly holding his head out of the water for the last few hours.
"The problem is that your body became over saturated with the poisons caused by the negative Aho that comes from your being in such close proximity to an Aho reactor," Aura explained as she gently held him next to her. "This is the reason you cannot hold your food down right now. All that negative Aho has completely soaked through your entire being and it overwhelms the naturally occurring positive Aho in the foods you eat, turning them into poison that causes you to throw up." Aura explained.
"For Sacred Mechamaster's like us, it is our resistance to these poisoning effects that determines an individual's operational limit. When you exceed that level, your body becomes sick and is forced to purge itself of all the toxins that it generated. You have been pushing yourself hard for the last few weeks, never allowing yourself the time necessary to completely detoxify and your body is starting to rebel as a result. Before we can get your internal chemistry to stabilize, we must first completely cleanse this negative energy from your system!
"Exacerbating this problem is the fact that you did something I have only seen done once before! You forced yourself to exceed your operational limit, subsequently causing these poisons to accumulate in your body far beyond any level that should ever have been expected of it! If I had not found you when I did you surely would have died!" Aura exclaimed.
"That's why I brought you here to Shurifon's Sacred Hot Springs. Positive, that is to say healing, Aho flows naturally from all the springs and rivers in the Ena Ocean. This place is special, because the natural evaporative effect of the warm water concentrates the healing Aho in the water that remains."
"Where is here by the way?" Kenshi asked her, "I explored the forest around the Holy land quite thoroughly while I was working for Lashara and I don't recognize my surroundings at all."
"This is a holy place Kenshi, close to where the border of Shurifon meets the Havoniwan highlands, quite some distance from the school and just below the very top of Ena's draft. Its exact location is kept secret from all but a few of the highest-ranking nobles in Shurifon. The only reason I know about it is my father pulled the same idiot mistake you did and had me bring him here so that he might be healed."
"You're not going to get into any trouble because you brought me here, are you?" Kenshi asked.
Smiling at him warmly Aura answered, "You forget, I'm the daughter of the King, we're good."
"That's a relief." Kenshi sighed, "Okay then, how long do I have to stay in here in order to purge this crap from my system?"
"To be brutally honest, I don't know," Aura frowned. "The best guess I have at the moment is that you remain in here until your head starts to get woozy. Then we will see if you can eat your dinner without puking. If not then we will just repeat the process until you can hold your cookies down. Or you die, whichever comes first."
"Can I ask you another question?"
"Go for it," Aura replied.
"It's not that I'm ungrateful or anything like that but, I'm not in danger anymore so, why are you still in here with me?"
"Because I spent half the morning trying to find you, and when I did you were in such dire straits that I had to break my own operational limits in order to get you here before it was too late!"
"I'm sorry if I sounded ungrateful Princess, I really appreciate you taking all this trouble for me."
"It was no trouble. Besides, I have my own agenda as well." Aura smiled.
Heaving herself out of the water, Aura walked downslope to the cocoon that was her Sacred Mechanoid, retrieved an emergency shelter/tent along with its first aid kit, then proceeded to set up camp for the night. As she erected the tent, she began to explain the situation with Shtrayu.
Retrieving a blanket from her mechanoid's emergency kit along with some supplements she carried to ward off the effects of her own Aho sickness, Aura spread the blanket next to where he lay in the water and gave the some of the herbs to Kenshi for him to swallow.
"These herbs aren't strong enough to get you well, but if you take them before we eat you might be able to get your food to stay down."
"I appreciate it very much, Princess." Kenshi told her gratefully.
Taking some of the herbs for herself, Aura reclined on the soft grass next to where Kenshi lay in the bath and waited for them to take full effect.
"So why did you runaway?" Aura asked idly. "I know that after facing Babalun you couldn't have been afraid of a bunch of marriage hungry women."
"Actually I was terrified," Kenshi admitted, "but that wasn't the reason I ran. I ran because I didn't know what to do next."
"What do you mean?" Aura asked in surprise.
"Princess, keep in mind that I am from another world, I have no insight whatsoever as to Geminar's political realities or which nation owes what to whom. However, I do know that my mere presence here is enough to upset this world's political landscape. This whole mess started with me trying to assassinate Lashara! I shudder to think of what might have happened had I been successful. What if I were to make another mistake? Better for me to divorce myself from the situation and let Geminar sort out its own issues than run the risk of screwing things up even worse!"
"I thought as much," Aura told him, "but you do yourself a great disservice Kenshi. Don't forget you pilot a white Sacred Mechanoid! That tells me and all who've seen you just how pure you're heart really is!"
"Pure heart or not, any weapon can be used to wicked ends if wielded by the wrong user."
"Is that how you view yourself, as a weapon? And here I thought you were a King!"
"A King maybe, but not a wise King, not like your father."
Aura smiled to herself as she thought back to the gentle man she knew as her father whom others feared, and for good reason. Taking a lesson from the old man's playbook, she imparted some of his wisdom to Kenshi. "My father is wise, that much is true, but much of that wisdom comes from his understanding himself, of knowing what he doesn't know and knowing who to trust to find the answers to the questions he can't. Since you admire him so much you should probably consider following his example and seek out someone willing to shoulder some of the burden of your being King."
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning, what you need is somebody you can trust to speak for Swan when you don't know what to say, somebody whose words will be the same as law. In other words, what Swan needs is a Queen!" Aura stated flatly.
"Makes sense," Kenshi agreed with a smile, "and who would you recommend for such an important post?"
Of all the women on Geminar Kenshi had met Aura was most nearly his equal, because of that; he knew that her thinking most likely mirrored his own. Explaining why her next statement came as such a surprise to him when she answered with, "I'm glad you asked because, in my opinion, the best-qualified candidate is… Lithia Po Cheena!"
Choking back his astonishment Kenshi managed to ask, "And how did you come to that conclusion?"
"First off, being the Pope's granddaughter and all she is politically connected. Secondly, she has the experience and is well read on the political realities of this world and its current events. Thirdly, she has proven over the years that she can be a damn good administrator!"
"She is all that you say she is true enough." Kenshi acknowledged, "Unfortunately, as for her being a suitable Queen I find that I must strongly disagree with you here."
"Why is that?" Aura asked him curiously.
"Number one, she is highly opinionated. Number two, she jumps to conclusions without any evidence and number three she is stubborn beyond reason!"
"Other than that what is wrong with her?" Aura asked him with a smile.
"It's her relationship with the Church." Kenshi answered sheepishly, "I'm afraid they will pressure her to sit on the fence when more direct action is required. Remember, it was the Church's penchant for neutrality that allowed the situation with Babalun to degrade to the point where they lost control of their own weapons. Had they been more proactive when Lashara's rule was being threatened then this entire unfortunate affair could have been avoided.
"Also, let us not forget about Lady Lithia's health. She is very fragile and the strain of running a kingdom, even one as small as Swan, could be too much for her to handle! I will need a strong fighter at my side should fighting become necessary. She is a good choice, but by no means the best choice."
"I understand," Aura said with a sigh, "she did burn a number of bridges with that 'wild beast' moniker she hung on you didn't she?
"All right then how about Neizai? She is also a member of the church and would be considered neutral."
"I have very serious issues with Neizai even being on the Swan much less leaving her in charge of the place! From the beginning, she and Ulyte conspired to manipulate me for their own purposes. It really doesn't matter how noble their goals were, or how favorable the outcome. I was never given a choice in the matter! Neizai's consciousness is that of a core crystal, who is to say if she still doesn't have some secret agenda needing to be fulfilled? There is a lack of trust between her and me and there always will be!"
"Goddess you are picky!" Aura exclaimed, "All right then how about Mexiah? Her being a teacher in the Holy land allows her to remain neutral yet still enables her to help guide your kingdom, not to mention all the fringe benefits of having her for a partner in your bedchamber."
"Mexiah's penchant for playing the role of my big sister makes me somewhat squeamish with that idea," Kenshi answered sheepishly, "putting that aside, remember that Mexiah's will is not always her own. We still don't know the mechanism by which Babalun used to control her. I agree with you that there are considerable fringe benefits of having Mexiah as my Queen, but there always remains the possibility that her will could be superseded by that of another."
"My list of candidates is starting to get short here Kenshi. Tell me, do you have someone in mind?" Aura asked testily.
"Actually, I do, but keep going down the list, I'm sure you'll get to her eventually."
"All right then, what about Yukine? She hails from a long line of priestesses and Swan owes her village a debt of gratitude for their having granted you permission to make the Kenshi sword from their sacred monolith."
"I was wondering when you would get to her. Yukine would make the perfect wife, for anybody other than me. She is too submissive and I would worry that she would just passively go along with whatever I wanted rather than stand up to me should I make a wrong decision."
"Wahanly then?"
"With Wahan, she might be more likely to start a war than try to prevent one. If for no other reason than to test out her latest invention!"
"I will not argue with you there," Aura sighed. "Well that does it for all the potentially neutral candidates. If you insist that we continue this exercise in frustration, then you need to start thinking in terms of alliances. If you think this is a wise idea then how about the obvious choice and consider a betrothal to Lashara?"
"I owe Lashara my life. However, a slave cannot buy his freedom with the fruits of the labor performed in his master's field! It would be impossible for me to repay the debt I owe her should I become betrothed to her. Instead, I would become nothing more than her property! Only a free man can freely repay the debt he owes another!"
"You know Kenshi, sometimes you speak with the same wisdom as my father and if it means anything, I didn't think it was a good idea either." Aura smiled at him. "Okay then how about a betrothal to her cousin Maria Nanadan? As they are related by blood, you could use your position as King of Swan to strengthen the alliance between the two nations."
"Do you really think the fact that I was betrothed to her daughter would be enough to keep the Queen Flora away? I seriously doubt I would survive long enough for Maria to come of age!"
"Point well taken, well then getting back to Lashara, how about considering Chiaia for your Queen? She is a strong fighter, highly educated, and has shown on several occasions no compunction at all about speaking her mind with regard to some of your actions. It seems to me that she fulfills all your requirements."
Kenshi sighed, "Chiaia still holds a torch for Dagmyer and she always will. She would make a fitting Queen indeed, but she would hate it!"
"Nonetheless, she would do it if you pressed her."
"Maybe so, but I won't. She deserves her own chance at happiness and I won't deny her that."
"Well damn it Kenshi that's the lot of them!" Aura snapped. "Tell me what would you have us do? No, wait a minute I have an idea. How about you marry all of them in some sort of rotating harem set up! That way you can have a new partner every night! It might not do much for the peace process but you should be happy at least!"
"Aren't you forgetting one candidate?"
"That's all I can think of unless maybe you were seriously considering…maybe…"
Aura paused for a second as she pondered Kenshi's words, at first Kenshi thought that the reddening on her face was from her blush, but as it continued to darken, he realized that it was from rage. Bracing himself, he remained motionless as Aura's open hand struck his face in uncontrolled fury. Again and again, she struck him until she finally managed to contain her anger enough to once again think rationally.
With tears of anger still streaming down her face she screamed at him, "Damn it all Kenshi, I'm your ally not your adversary! There was no reason for you to lead me down the garden path like that! It wasn't because of a sense of false modesty that I kept my name off the list! I know that, at least on paper, you might have considered me a good choice. Don't you realize that if I thought I really was a suitable candidate I would have offered myself first? However, there are reasons, secrets that kept me from offering myself to you. Are you really that naive!"
"Yes Aura, I am, and that's why I need you."
"Look Kenshi, I'll be your wife, I'll even be your senior wife, if that's what you want. Place me high on your councils, make me your Minister of Defense, Secretary of War or whatever if you think you need my advice that badly, but I cannot be your Queen!"
"But you said a Queen is what Swan needs."
"I can't Kenshi, I just… can't. Chose another, any other and I will help guide them from the shadows."
"Not good enough Aura and you know it."
"I'm sorry Kenshi, I really am, but you're asking the impossible of me. Please don't ask me again." She cried.
"Can you at least tell me why?" Kenshi asked curiously.
"Don't ask Kenshi," Aura begged, "please don't ask."
"Well, I certainly put my foot in that one," Kenshi thought to himself.
The subject dropped for tonight, Kenshi remained in the balmy waters of the Hot Springs until he became lightheaded. Climbing out of the water, he joined Aura as she prepared their dinner by campfire light. Silently the two ate their meal then, with the moon on the rise, Aura retired to her tent for the night while Kenshi remained outside wrapped in his blanket.
When Aura woke the next morning, she discovered that Kenshi was gone, him having silently packed up all his things, before hiking off into the highlands sometime the previous evening.