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Marital Arts part 5 - The Court of Strangers

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Being on horseback, galloping against the wind until her eyes teared, that was something which brought back a little bit of the sense of freedom to Titania. She had received Gallant upon her return, a black stallion with a white speck upon his forehead and likewise white socks. He was fallen from Uriel's Ebon and although he was tiny and seemed placid, there was something with the way he exploded into a gallop that hinted at a more feral side of him. Something she recognized from herself as well and hence she felt a certain kind of communion with the stead. A connection which went beyond the usual Elven / Equestrian spiritual contact. They were two of a kind, she and Gallant. They understood each other.

Titania never planned her rideabouts, she just went where her and Gallant's minds took them, usually striving for solitude. This very midmorning found them quite a bit north of the Cloud Palace, almost by the foothills of the Volcano of Elitar and with the sea on her right hand, the smell of salt and pine resin fermenting the warm air. This part of the island was barrow from the constant sweeping of the wind, only grass and sturdy shrubbery grew here and the habitations were few and far between. Thus The Queen became slightly surprised upon rounding a dune and beholding a large, aquamarine tent and a pole with the blue and white banner of the Court fluttering in the breeze. In front of the inclination there were several young people engaged in martial arts training and curiosity won over the wish to be alone, so she steered Gallant over to the gathering of Elves.

Among the youngsters the Queen spotted her granddaughter Princess Aziel, daughter of Ariel. Titania realized again how much the child had changed. She was no longer a cute youngster but a real Elven woman now. From a slender and athletic girl to a gorgeous 6 foot 2 tall woman, 140 pounds and with long wavy and jet black hair - almost iridiscent like the wing of a magpie, the one thing she had inherited from her mother. Her face however, held the stark, mid-European features of Lord Eskiar with olive skin and huge, russet eyes, while retaining her adolescent beauty. The gorgeousness of her young body was at full display. Her strong curvy forms were fit into a skintight lime-coloured body suit which was shining as if it was made of countless miniaturized stars, accentuating her perfect physique.

Aziel's training was vigorously intense. The agile Elf was almost constantly in the air, with only momentary contact with the ground. Her final move could only be described as fascinating: she spun and rolled in the air five times, making her body behave like a wild cyclone and finally landed with a soft thud, extending her arms in a perfect salute. Not unexpectedly was she met with warm applauses from everyone including Titania.

An adorable young boy, about twelve years of age, was bold enough to approach Aziel and ask the question everyone wanted to formulate.
"How… How did you do that?" babbled the lad, with his mouth still wide open, gray eyes in awe beneath a untamed fringe of sand-coloured curls.
"Would you like to be taught the moves, Tarovin?" Her smile was encouraging. Tarovin grinned ear-to-ear and nodded vigorously as Aziel approached him and placed her hands on his shoulders.
"Sure!" The reply rang loud and clear, a young boy's voice yet with the faintest indication of the deepening of approaching manhood.

"Then I'll show you – and whoever else who might wish for it after today's regular classes. It'll only be possible if you give it all - and the big secret."
"Which is?"
"Time and love, Tarovin. Everything you want to do well need these two things."
"I won't forget it Aziel!" Tarovin caught the Princess' hands with a heart filled to the brim with joy, eyes blazing. Aziel squeezed them in return before facing the rest of her class.
"Ready for the most important part?"

Remaining on horseback, Titania watched as her grandchild split the group in pairs of two and two and then directed them to spar against each other while walking around, giving them a hand here or there, a good advice now and then. Aziel had become an admirable teacher over the years - patient, cunning, just and clear in her explanations and Titania felt a certain kind of warmth in her chest when regarding her young relative. She hoped future would let the girl continue to teach, since she was such a natural. Yet with no appointed heir and two older siblings, this young Princess ought to be far enough from the throne to not having to worry.

When the class was over, Aziel sent all the children down to the seaside to bath off the sweat they had worked up and then she came to meet Titania.
"My Queen!" she curtsied in front of the older woman on the horse and Titania felt slightly uncomfortable at the formality in Aziel's tone. Where was the little girl who once had used to crawl up in Titania's lap and request a fairytale? Mayhap that was also what Oberon had been trying to express when he supplicated for her return. That her family, her children and grandchildren, had begun to grow estranged to her.  

"Aziel my dear," Titania smiled. "There's no need for protocol, not between the two of us. That I have been away for such a long time should not matter the slightest. I am still grandma, I hope."
"Yes – grandma," Aziel said and after a moment of vacillation she felt audacity enough to raise her head and look the Queen directly in her eyes.

She was just past forty and she held merely the slightest remembrance of her grandmother, save for that strong, warm embrace and the endless row of fairytales, one more remarkable than the other. But she hadn't been ten years of age when the Queen had left the court and since then that memory had paled considerably – almost until the Queen herself had passed into a fairytale. So when Aziel had learned of Titania's return, she had almost felt uneasy, which was one of the reason she hadn't sought audience with the Queen. That in addition to her workload as a tutor and a teacher. The children – her pupils – took almost all of her time.

"You want me to – show this place?" Aziel asked and the Queen nodded her head.
"That would be a good idea, my child." With a swift swing of arms and legs, Titania dismounted and took her horse by the reins instead, and then Aziel walked with the Queen over to the circular tent with its baldaquin opening facing the sea and beckoning for them to come inside.
"This is The School," the Princess explained as the entered the tent, Titania's eyes adjusting to the darkness to be able to make out a quite improved version of a class room with pulpits standing in semi-circle around a blackboard and surrounding it, several benches filled with all kind of interesting tools and equipment, from easels with art work to chemistry apparatuses.  

"I've changed the concept a bit. Instead of keeping a steady location like a hall in one of the palatial wings, I have repositioned the educational quarters to this tent and then we're moving it around, taking it where it's needed. If we are to have an aquatic biology class we can transfer the tent to the sea-shore and if we are to study farming, we go down to one of the ranches to have a look at cattle, sheep, chickens and greenhouse products."
"And what do you study here? Save for martial arts?"
"Volcanic rock types. We are staying a few days, tomorrow we're starting our ascent up the mountain side. The martial arts are something we do exercises in every day. I consider physical training as important as scholarly disciplines. To be true, the children perform better in the theoretical subjects if they have had some work out first."

Titania could do nothing but agree, this girl was intelligent and well spoken. And she had soon overcome her anxious mode and become more like a regular relative to the Queen. Someone who reasoned openly and earnest about her dreams and desires. Who took pride in what she had achieved and who used these accomplishments as leverage to move on forward, to reach even higher. On top of that she remained relatively untainted by the plotting and scheming of the Court and the green protuberances of envy which were often gushing between its members. Aziel was a real gem in her discipline, and Titania truly hoped it might stay that way.   

That day she managed to make at least one true friend in this court of strangers which had become her home.   

***

"Mother!" A petulant voice rang through the nearly empty garden.
"Uriel, lower your voice! I'm right here." The Queen admonished her son in low, melodious tones, rising gracefully to her feet as she turned around from the bed of roses she was tending and regarded her oldest son, who bore an anxious wrinkle upon his forehead, marring his handsome face. "You must learn to exercise patience."
"I'm a Prince of the Elven High Court. The Head of the Secret Forces. I have no need for such things." He scowled at her, impatient with her calmness, with the fact that she wasn't more concerned with his anxieties. Then again, his mother hadn't been the same since she'd returned from her self-imposed exile.

"That is why you constantly lose in battle and in life," she remonstrated him sharply, stung by the blatant reminder of how she, herself behaved. Her Uriel was too much like how she had been as a young woman. "You fail to think beyond your first or second moves."

Stormy gray eyes clashes with her serene green ones.
"I did not come here for this lecture, mother, especially since I've heard it before. I am here because of the Elves of Ranoyar. Father have threatened to withdraw his protection if they take up arms against the Humans of the Cross, although it stands in their full right to do so after having their society threatened, their magic perimeters compromised. The Assembly voted this very week to help the Ranoyarides, but he overruled them. He won't listen to me or to Chancellor Rubio speaking about the injustice of this act and the old man is in a frazzle over this. I feared Rubio was about to have a heart attack when he heard about the veto. Because overruling the Assembly haven't happened in decades and decades. Nor does father have a right to leave the Ranoyarides high and dry. I am going to need your help in this case, mother."

Titania thought this over, there existed an old agreement between the Elven Nations and that was to not inflict controversies with the Human majority. Their numbers were alarmingly small compared to the ever growing amounts of Humans and the Elves were hoping that if they stayed put behind their magic protections, minded their own business, they would not attract attention from the more belligerent and endeavoring race. Perhaps they might even become forgotten, reduced to but a myth, just as the old Giants and Trolls had become.

Nonetheless it was yet too early to hold anticipation for such a solution. There were many enough Humans who knew about the Elves and who even knew where they dwelt. Particularly among the Humans of the Cross and the Humans of the Crescent, were the Elves seen as an abomination, something to conquer and exterminate. Especially in Western Asia and Northern Africa had it led to genocide of appalling proportions and clearly did the Ranoyarides fear that they were next on the list. So naturally had they come to the other Elven nations and pleaded for help.

"But wasn't it so that they started the aggression by tearing down the Human's temples?" Titania asked patiently.
"That may be true, but they claim that the temples - these churches - were raised upon Sensitive Earthpower Clusters. Causing the Magic Flux to be affected in a dangerous way. Almost as bad as in Rome. This is precarious, no one knows what will happen although signs of spreading Fault Decease have already been noted. So the Elves started to tear the churches down. And thus the infighting started."
"True, but the Avalon Treaty alleges..."
"I don't give iron for the Avalon Treaty in this case, we need to help our Siblings," Uriel emphasized. "It is our duty, Mother. Oberon cannot deny us that responsibility!"

"He is the King. He does what he feels is best for Cloud in this case." It was justice - although not mercy, and Titania wanted to give her son mercy. "But I can solicit for your case. Ask him to reconsider. That is the best I can do. Because I too weep with the Ranoyarides. The Fault Decease is a terrible plague. Worse than anything caused by bacteria or virus, since it is magically induced. And it mutates inside the body."
"Please do it! Please make him change his mind! Cloud will be ready to sail for Ranoyar already tomorrow if Father lifts his veto."  

"I promise nothing, you know your Father as I do. But I will speak to him since you are correct about the injustice of this veto. Furthermore it oversteps the mandate of the Assembly." Thankfully, her voice remained composed, since she knew that any waver would be taken as a sign of fury.
"Thanks." Short. The auburn haired Elf turned on his heels and stalked off down the stone laid walk, shoulders still knit with anger.

Titania watched him leave with a sigh, asking herself why she was doing this. Why had she agreed to appeal to Oberon? Why was she going to attempt any such action when she knew – she knew – that Oberon would not listen to her. Upon matters concerning the Humans and their strange religions he never did, though she knew he relied upon her counsel when it came to other concerns of ruling the nation. She hadn't comprehended how much he valued her output until she realized how he continually sought her out after her return to Cloud.

Brushing off her hands, Titania left her garden and walked into the sombre silence of her apartment. She knew what she had to do and what was at stake. Not only was the future of the Ranoyarides jeopardized but the parliamentary system of Cloud was in peril. The governing power of the elected Assembly. The Constitution granted the King to overrule any decision made by the Assembly, but it was a rarely used implement, even in the hands of Orland, who had only used it twice, both of them during war time. But Oberon had often been tempted, especially during his early years as a King. Back then it had often taken a combined effort of persuasion by her and the Chancellor Rubio or his precursor Alanta to sway Oberon from his intent.

If Oberon vetoed this Assembly decision, it wouldn't just affect their Siblings in Ranoyar but an overruled parliament would lose in authority, become weakened and after that it would be much easier for the King to put in his next veto and then the next, undermining the elected body even further. That was nothing Titania wanted to be a part of. She remembered how it had been in Lusitania during her youth. The Queen Carlenta had almost been a despot, firm in her rule as a matriarch and it was not often one of her decisions had been overridden, even if there had been a Council of Seleighe. Although back then that Council had more or less been but a decoration, even if it was somehow different now, under the rule of the present Queen - Kyrianne. However Titania didn't want anything like that to happen to the Assembly of the Cloud and she was aware that if Oberon was not pulled back, he might well go in that direction.

Hence she had to be Queen now. She had to apply the power her position had given her to do the right thing. To do what her heart and brain and her oldest son asked of her. After so long of just being known as Oberon's wife, she was rediscovering who Titania really was. What she could do with her powers. Her vacation had been about remembering that woman, that Elf who wasn't just Queen by marriage but also because of her desire to make a difference.

***

"I think I know what you mean, Titania." Solemnly Princess Terolia nodded her head. "I'll do my best to help."
"Thank you," it cost Titania to say the words. She was a proud woman and accepting help irked her but she knew she had no other choice. "I just need to hold his attention long enough to ask him to withdraw his veto. Or find another method to handle this."
"But why don't you stop it? It is in your executive power as Queen to do so."

"If Oberon won't do anything, I will." Titania added softly, "I would rather not. These losing battles weary me."
"I understand." Oddly enough, Terolia did. The many battles that had characterized the relationship of the Elven King and Queen had been legendary – and often left the whole court ducking for cover. And cover in the open and airy Royal Palace complex wasn't easy to find.

"Come along!" Terolia led the way through her opulently furnished suite and into a chamber where darkness ruled in spite of the bright sunlight outside. Heavy velvet drapes were hung over all of the windows and the only light came from the four lit candles in the chandelier and the reflections bouncing off all the brass and glass items in the room. An extremely fat old black and gray cat was regarding the newly arrival with a superior look from his place in a high-backed chair. Jam-packed book shelves covered the walls and even more books were spread over tables, stacked on cupboards, in chairs and even in heaps on the floor. And where there weren't books there were scrolls, parchments, pens and quills and a plethora of boxes, bottles and jars no doubt containing all kind of exotic matters, compounds, potions and concoctions.

This was Terolia's sanctuary, it was here she performed her ground breaking research in magic and alchemy and her aim was as ardent as ever her brother Oranon's had been, even if the subject of her choice of vocation was quite a bit more levelheaded than outlandish vehicles.

On one desk, standing next to the yonder wall, was an ongoing experiment of the strangest kind with several test tubes and snaking pipes running helter skelter. Something was boiling slowly over a Bunsen burner and it fizzed silently.

Terolia noted the Queen's gaze and made a face.
"Looks like another failed experiment of mine, but I have yet to give up hope. The military would love a success after all."
"What is it?" Titania asked curiously.
"An invisibility concoction."
"Ah - just the opposite of what I might need today then."
"I suppose so, yes," Terolia grinned. "I believe I have just the thing for you here then. Aphrodisiac, very potent!"

The Princess walked over to a cupboard in dark oak with an impossible amount of small drawers and pulled out one, plucking out a small vial containing a deep blue liquid. She held it up towards the light and nodded placidly.
"This should do, after using it my brother won't be able to resist you."
"I don't want to bed him, I just want him to relent."
"You might do better once he's been sated but it's your choice." Terolia's shrug was casual, critically studying Titania, accepting her answer. "I must say that he'll have trouble resisting you."

Titania nodded, knowing it for the warning it was. Then she accepted the small flask.
"What do I do, drink it?"
"Iron, no! It's a perfume, with the potent matter hidden by the scent of wild roses. Just two drips behind the ears and one where your collarbones meet – and you'll be irresistible, my Queen! He will want you the very moment the flagrance reaches his nostrils and the hormones trigger."

Titania hid a shiver at the memory of Oberon's lovemaking. Her skin flushed and tingled with evoked pleasure. Sensations she ignored, knowing that she couldn't afford to lose sight of what she wished to accomplish. She knew that if she fell into his arms this time, she'd be forever entangled with him. Which was among the last things she wanted right now. Nonetheless, she knew what she had to do – no matter the cost to herself. A cost she knew would be great should Oberon become enticed and decided he wanted her again.

"Thanks, but I think I'll pass on this," she handed the vial back to Terolia. "I'll be able to think much better without being affected by Oberon's desire, and I do need to be level headed when I do this."

Accepting the returned potion, Terolia cleared her troth.
"I wish you luck then, Titania. That'll be the best I can do under these circumstances."
Marital arts.

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A story dealing with some of my favourite Shakespearian Characters in a somewhat different setting.

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Read the rest of the novella here: [link]
© 2012 - 2024 cosmicwind
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