>>5315172>>5315113>>5315110>>5315072>>5315071>>5315070>>5315052>>5315041>>5315039>>5315038>>5315034>>5315030“This was… Not unpleasant,” you admit, by way of careful understatement.
The weight of the implications settles upon your chest, and you sit up, to force it off. Glowie adjusts accordingly.
“But it cannot happen again,” you assert. “I’ve done my duty for our alliance. That is all.”
You expect histrionics, another bout of despair, but instead Glowie just asks:
“Can still hold hands?”
You blink, and with a deep sigh, you say: “Okay, maybe sometimes.”
This (and the voluminous contribution you have made to her future hive) is seemingly all it takes to appease the bug-woman. She snuggles into you, and you allow it, taking the opportunity to set some other, even more important, boundaries:
“Your ‘brood’, your warriors… Your race in general… They are to be allies to the Reptilian cause, understand? Not rivals, not REAPLCEMENTS. Friends, like… Like we are.”
Glowie stares blankly, but then slowly nods.
“If Grandmother says so,” she replies.
Your heart sinks a little, but Glowie clearly recognizes the distress this noncommittal response has caused. She reaches out to gently pat your face, to stroke your hair.
“Grandmother will agree! I’m sure! You are king, yes! She said so!”
You nod. Both you and Glowie will need to wash off—you will never hear the end of this if the Novice smells the scent of your sex on one another. Glowie consents to do the same, though only after doing a headstand and rolling her body a few times to ensure there is no loss of genetic material. After that, though… Well, perhaps it is time to see this ‘Grandmother’ of hers.
You dismiss Glowie from your chamber, and she leaves with almost a skip in her step, swaying and bobbing in a queer dance, as she and her race seems prone to. You wait a moment, collecting your roiling thoughts and complicated emotions. You light a small candle, taken from a human’s home (as with the soap with which you and Glowie scrubbed yourselves). Crossing your legs, settle into place, and extract another scroll from the uncovered library: one bearing an ancient chant intended to invoke communion and beseech the Dark Divines.
“Oh Lords and Ladies of Eternity and Infinity, oh Lords of the Endless Black, oh Ladies of the Deep Flame. It is I, your prince! It is I, your servant! Your first among sons and daughters beseeches you, and I offer up this great tribute—”
You hesitate. Does what you just did… And ‘gave’ Glowie… Count as tribute? Maybe, under the circumstances?
“—in hopes you will hear me, and guide me, and make me a part of your Grand Design!”
