Chapter Nineteen

Whatever Gwen had been feeling… it was gone now.

Devona went completely rigid, every muscle tensed, and her eyes bulged, stupefied. Not the reaction one would hope for in this case, although Gwen couldn't entirely disagree. The warm, unfamiliar feeling in her gut was replaced with a cold, clammy… "ick" sensation.

The young mesmer pulled away, her lip trembling as the weight of what she had done begun to register, and the mistake it was. Devona remained petrified, though her own lips managed to ask, "What are you doing?"

At that same moment, Gwen whispered in agreement, "What am I doing?"

With her decompression, Gwen also began to absorb the fact that there were spectators, evidenced by the dull thud of what sounded like a person crumpling, and Yue's voice drawling, "Oh, for Lyssa's sake, like you've never seen two girls kiss before."

"Actually, I haven't." Was Aidan's muted reply.

The next response came from Pyre, who contrary to his normal façade, was clearly astonished. "Well… that was not what I was expecting."

The sounds of quiet prayer came from Gwen's left, Mhenlo's entreaty of, "Forgive me Dwayna, for I had impure thoughts…" was cut off by the sound of a foot meeting flesh, and a pained moan of, "Did it have to be the kidney, lovely?"

"Humph!" Was Cynn's grunted reply.

Vekk seemed curious by the exchange, as he asked, "I am assuming this is not normal behavior among humans? Interesting…"

Finally, the prince himself felt to weigh in, but unlike the surprise of everyone else, his voice seemed amused by the display, and his quip reinforced said amusement. "Don't stop now. It was starting to get good."

At that point, retreat seemed like Gwen's only option, and so she did, with little subtlety into the darkness and towards whatever hiding place she could find. Of course, the ruined landscape north of the wall didn't provide many options, but she found one that would be suitable, a cleft in the earth that could shroud her from most sentient beings… or at least she thought.

"While I suspect that particular divot might have proved more than adequate to shroud yourself from prying eyes as a pre-adolescent, I fear you have grown past its cover at this point."

Gwen paused at the sound of the prince's voice, then raised her head, quickly discovering that the cleft was not nearly as large as it had appeared at first glance… in fact, everything above her waist was in plain sight.

"I can't even hide right anymore." The mesmer whimpered.

Coran shook his head, "Especially considering that wandering about alone in this environment is a rather dangerous proposition. We're trying to be covert, and it really doesn't suit that mission to go dashing off blindly."

"Devona must hate me right now." Gwen sobbed, rubbing her nose with her forearm.

The prince lowered himself cross-legged next to the forlorn girl, and tapped his chin with one index finger. "Anger and hate were not in my impression of her mood. I think she's too busy wondering what spawn of Grenth possessed you to be particularly agitated… although I must admit my curiosity in the rationale for your actions myself."

"I… I don't know anymore. I mean, I admired Devona since I was a child, she was always so… everything."

Coran nodded in agreement, "Indeed. I can fully understand that."

"Since this mission started, I kinda felt warm and tingly when she was around. Then Pyre told me not to get involved in this attraction nonsense or whatever he called it. But… I guess he had the right idea, huh?"

Coran shrugged. "Well, what I will say is that such confusion about feelings and especially romantic feelings is hardly unusual. Normally, you'd have your entire adolescent years to sort out these things, but I suspect you were forced to grow up so quickly that you never got the chance."

The prince suddenly turned his head away, off into the ever darkening landscape, and became eerily quiet. Startled by the sudden shift in his demeanor, Gwen tentatively asked, "Your… highness… is something wrong?"

"I'd rather you not call me 'highness', my lady. I haven't exactly had much room to look down on anyone in my life. If you simply cannot bear to refer to me by my given name, 'Headmaster' will suffice."

Gwen gulped… the idea of referring to any member of the royal family with such familiarity was too much for her to swallow, so she grasped at the other option provided. "Very well… Headmaster… what's bothering you?"

The paragon's gloved spear hand dug into the charred earth, "I shouldn't have taken you to task for running away. I've been running away myself for far too long."

"What do you mean?"

"I ran from my father after an argument. I ran from the kingdom, from my responsibilities… from those I loved and cared for. Had I been stronger… had I been more like the man I was supposed to be… I could have avoided all this."

He exhaled sharply, and continued, "Even now, I'm running in a way. I see Devona as well, young Gwen… and I feel the same things. Yet… I can't… I see the hurt in her eyes when she speaks of Ascalon as it once was and when she walks on its current desolation... and I realize that my sins caused that hurt. We're… bonded, and I can't even bring myself to actually marry the girl. Still think you're pathetic?"

Gwen paused, "I'm not sure what I think anymore."

"You'll sort it out."

The mesmer bit her lip, then asked, "Do you think I'm one of… those type of girls?"

The prince seemed amused by Gwen's attempt at tact. "You mean, the girls that like other girls? If I had to make an educated guess, I don't think you are. Once the deed had been done, you looked about as ill as my dear Devona. But, I suppose I can see how you might be confused. After all, Captain Langmar probably…" He paused as he noted Gwen's boggled expression. "Oh come on, surely you're not that naïve. Haven't you wondered why all or next to all of Langmar's confidantes is female? It's fortunate she's such a good officer, because her lack of subtlety might have caused trouble with the more stodgy superiors otherwise."

Gwen suddenly saw her captain's "good luck pats" in a tragically different light…

At that point, his eyelids narrowed in curiosity. "Why would it matter anyway? You are who you are, whatever that turns out to be. There are so many unique traits on this pebble that if we got queasy or antagonized over every deviation from the norm, no one would ever have a moment's peace. Besides, if you think humanity can get strange, you don't even want to know the sort of mischief the Asura get to when they're feeling amorous."

"No… I don't think I do." Gwen replied with a groan. "I… I suppose we should return to camp, huh?"

"It would probably be prudent." The prince answered. Quickly sensing Gwen's reluctance, he added, "Devona is worried about you, not angry. She was going to tear off after you herself until I convinced her that it would be best for someone else to follow at that moment. It takes a lot more than a girl on girl kiss to keep those battle hardened veterans distracted for any length of time, trust me. They're going to be too busy with the task at hand to care."

"I doubt Pyre will…" Gwen grumped.

Coran bit his lower lip, and grabbed something hooked to the belt at his hip. "Well… Guard Kreweman Norrit probably won't like me giving someone else his toy… but…" He handed the device, a small black box with a dial in the center, a long red button on the left side, and two prongs at the top, to Gwen, and said, "Don't fiddle with the settings… but if Pyre gets out of line, just point at his rump, and give the button a push. I suspect that will modify his behavior quite nicely."

After a moment's thought, he also said casually, "And if… the T.A.S.E.R. just happens to go off accidentally and hits poor Norrit at some point after our mission is completed, I certainly wouldn't be able to fault you for such an unfortunate malfunction, right?"

That gift proved to be what finally put a smile on the young woman's face. The coming morning was promising to be a bright one…