- Chapter Three: Lotus and Light -

Kree'Ketts impregnating the chilled breath of midnight with chirped gossip, private campsite of the decorated lieutenant and his bitch alight with the final ruddy ghosts of ashen embers that floated south from the maple-liked creek, crystal clouds pendulous and swollen as they coasted over a starless span of midnight velvet, there was suddenly more life to be found outside in nature. Hunted yet hopeful, the strange bushy-faced chinchilla-like creatures that fed primarily on the unwanted remains of spoiled foods were scavenging through the low shrubbery winding up to the epicenter of the clay village, bundles of sought-after fur blindly bumping into one another and the predators that were intelligent enough to lay low. Pitiful as it was heartbreaking, a nursing mother cried out for the liter that had been scattered in the daily ruckus. Mimicking the voices of regional songbirds with eerie precision, a crawling sprawl of harmless-looking gold ivy slithered leafless tendrils stained crimson around the throats of unsuspecting prey; caterpillars and bullet ants devoured the decrepit stalks too frail to fend for themselves, the wails sounding all too human.

Silence following the straightforward proposal a Macuahuitl through the breast, each ticking second of wordless agony a deeper cut, the unguarded heart of Ko'atal tightened in his chest at the lack of overt acceptance; failing to fathom what force in the realms could possibly be preventing Zyanya from falling over herself at the unprecedented opportunity to become his bride, he could only return her blank stare. Registered separately or in tandem, birth and hard work had both earned the adult beings the right to claim high rank - Kotal K'etz had been the ruler of Osh-Tekk, yet that had not kept him from encouraging his son to be all he could be, and though she had deigned to address matters of her home life, only an individual with pull could stand as an ambassador with the ear of the Kahn. Traditional marriage laws dictating that there were no issues with multiple monogamist unions trailing in the past, considering their respective ages in his mind it was an oddity that neither had had a prior engagement, at least to the extent of his knowledge.

Feeling the pulse-rinding stab of realization setting in, not for the first time it occurred to the warrior sun that much and more of his chosen companion's past was legitimized a hairsbreadth less than speculated enigma and half-truths woven for the political landscape. Standoffish to the point of bearing unflattering rumors the Netherrealm had primarily kept to itself, yet that was no guarantee that the Elder Gods had designed the denizens for the truth - Zyanya had kindly remarked to her paramour that that wasn't even her given name, however Ko'atal suddenly had to doubt if even that was honest. Observing the behavior of the succubus with the keenest of eyes, and admittedly handling the creature's feelings most gingerly, he thought he had discovered two of her tells: fibbing, the demoness would either touch her wrist or run her tongue across the back of her teeth, and when giving in to vulnerability, Zya would be prone to brushing her hair back, tapping her elbow, or for the bigger things, looking anywhere but. Confessing that Zyanya was just a code name taken from what her mother would have named her only daughter (if an aunt of sorts was to believed), the pearl-woman had suddenly taken a great interest in the reeds protruding from the dingy swamp water that mercilessly swallowed more than half of the division, her fingers skimming the boiling surface as they wadded. Asked by the General himself to join his lieutenants for a celebratory dinner, her acceptance was pure wrist; Reiko had sought the female's presence before, however after returning from leading her own sortie through an enemy garrison and coming back alone with a vague story, it was whispered amongst the men that the warrior was to be discharged and sent back to the Emperor for punishment.

Clearly her fears had been for naught - if memory served correct, the celebrations the senior staff members were ordered to hold were partially to commemorate the dead, the grand feast beginning with the promotion of a handful of petty officers. Recalling the sweet sensation of relief washing over her trembling countenance as the orders where given to fetch the newest member of the general's council a seat, the Osh-Tekk could smell the lotus tickling his nose as she practically collapsed in the spot made by his side. No doubt she had gathered that that had been no accident, because after the soul had returned to her pale form, she had acted on her own volition and grasped his hand atop the table as the third cask of wine was passed around. Feeling the ghost of her hand in the present, Ko'atal was reminded vividly of the daring midnight swim they had taken in the high lord's private spa the night prior to her promotion, her own disregard for Reiko's express orders coming in the ugly reminder that there was nothing preventing the General from taking advantage of the one woman in the vicinity. Submerged in the watery lotus garden after a short swim through the depths that vanished into a man-made grotto, the succubus had stopped short of where the battle-blooded warrior basked in the full moonlight, hands clasping his knees when she had said, "My body may not entirely be my own, but my heart is another matter... or so I thought."

That was the exact moment he thought she had fallen in love with him.

If that had been the case though, would the statue of the woman he cared so deeply for still be immobile facing the prospect of their future together? Without sounding a winded braggart the Osh-Tekk was of the highest lineage and the purest warrior's blood flowed through his veins, creating a worthy protector and mate, so even as the silence crept onwards and reflections came on at all angles, he could not understand how she could be so terrified to accept. Was there another consort perhaps? No. Returned with a bruised collar and a new set of lacerations there was no hiding what the succubus shared with Reiko, but when a visiting messenger had caught her eye on his return from the palace with news, there had been nothing at all to compel the monster of lust to come clean about what happened while they were separated. Surely if the unwritten action of the battlefield could be confided without prompt or obligation, a relationship of meaning would have come up long before now; unless, a little voice in the back of his mind whispered, she was a better liar than given credit for.

Pondering the impossible in a way that skewered it into a picture that he could learn to accept, assuming there had been someone else hiding beyond the edge of the frame, it might not have been in the way that he was originally thinking - undeniable at best, it was a fact that Kotal K'etz did not trust the wayward demon, nor had he made any sort of secret of his dislike. Could it have been his father preventing the female from the natural course of action?

War dying to a gentle lull for a whole season, the first time Zyanya met K'etz she had delved to a bundle of flesh and nerves prone to pessimistic pacing and frantic fidgeting while waiting for the escorted caravan to arrive at the settlement, each step or involuntary twitch accompanied by muttered reassurances and reminders of every tiny little scrap of information worth citing. Upon being educated of the visit, the hellion's first inclination had been to steer clear of the king so that his son's image was in no way tainted, however at Ko'atal's insistence that the two most important people in his life become acquainted, she had done everything she could possibly think of to brush up on Osh-Tekk culture. Resources hampered by the ongoing conflict, easy as they currently had it, no amount of eye-rolls or groans had prevented the demon asking the most mundane questions pertaining to both the people and the king between scanning through incomplete passages found in dusty antiqued scrolls.

Zyanya had done well to impress Kotal K'etz from the very moment that the entourage had arrived at the campsite, which in hindsight had foolishly led the solar-powered prince to erroneously believe that everything would fall into place and all of the stress would have been for nothing. Alas that couldn't have been farther from the truth - the longer the day wore and the better it went, the less his father trusted her. Improvised just a hair, a traditional Osh-Tekk dinner had been prepared for the three of them with K'etz seated at the far end of the scrubbed wooden slab crafted into a table; chipped bowels of skinned morsels and grilled greens steaming in the center, the host of the gathering occupied the head of the table opposite the visitor of the homestead. By all rights the man guesting his father should have had to look to his right to see his prized hand, which meant the demoness, however in this case as the woman was neither Ko'atal's bride nor a precious business partner, she opted to respectfully leave the spot of deepest regard vacant. Had she only accepted the titles and meaning behind sitting at the Osh-Tekk's side over recognizing the formality of the situation, K'etz might have been less blunt when he flatly declared that the impling was too polished for his taste, each little by-law and ritual acknowledged oozing a practiced pretender. "A worthy mate would be too frightened in her heart to perform to par", he had said.

And suddenly a light went off in his head.