Chapter 21
"Sister Naevia, a letter from Princess Yseldra," Sister Juliara said, placing it next to me before departing as swiftly as she had come.
It was noon, and I had been sitting alone upon an old bench in the secluded garden where so few ever wander, clutching the lovely bouquet Her Highness had gifted me. Soon, the rose would wither. I prayed it might wither slowly, for this may be the last gift I ever receive from her.
I gently laid the bouquet beside me and took up the letter, my eyes fixed upon the wax seal bearing the crest of the Valebrinth royal family. The anxiety and sorrow that have haunted me these many days stirred with greater strength. She had never written to me before. Whenever she wished to see me, she came herself. This must be farewell.
Tears pricked at my eyes, but I blinked them away and returned silently to my chamber. I pressed a gentle kiss to one of the white rose petals and placed the bouquet with care upon my side of the vanity. My eyes lingered on the letter a moment longer before I laid it atop the others from my parents and closed the drawer without breaking the seal. I could not bear to read it. So long as I did not, I might keep a little hope, though I know in my heart that such hope is false.
The following day another came. For an entire week her letters came without fail. My hands trembled each time I received them.
This morning I crept toward the temple entrance before the sun rose. I could not sleep so I thought to venture out. The very moment I stepped beyond the nave's great doors, I halted in my tracks.
At the foot of the steps stood the royal carriage of Princess Yseldra, encircled by her guards, some mounted upon their horses. Then she descended down the carriage. My heart leapt to my throat. I stepped back, afraid that she had come to bring our bond to an end.
"Good morning, Naevia," she said as she began to ascend the stone steps. I dared not meet her gaze, my eyes flitting anywhere but her.
"Y-yes," I stammered.
She stopped before me. "You have not been reading my letters, have you? In each, I begged that you send me word in reply."
"I was afraid to open them…"
"And what did you believe they contained?"
"Y-your last words to me," I said, my teeth pressing upon my lower lip.
She sighed softly. "Naevia, they were only to make clear the matter of Nerissea and myself-"
"It is all right. I do not mind," I said quickly.
"You. Truly," she said, her gaze studying my face. I met her eyes, and the longer she held me there, the more I felt my own grow heavy with unshed tears.
"Very well. I shall not press you. Naevia…"
She stepped closer. The way she spoke my name so tenderly stirred hope within me. I look at her closely, searching her face for anything that might keep that hope alive.
"My father's plans will-"
"There is no need," I interrupted. "It shall not come to pass."
I did not wish to waste another breath on anything that was not her.
She exhaled and looked away, and the weight of that small gesture struck me like a blow. It felt as though she had already begun to leave.
"Would you like me to take you, as I did Nerissea? Will you listen to me then?" she finally said.
I nodded swiftly, consumed by longing and fevered want. My body ached to be near her, to be filled by her, to be ruined by her attentions.
She regarded me once more, then drew me into her arms with aching slowness, her head resting upon my shoulder. "Very well," she whispered.
And yet, I could not shake the sense that she did not truly wish to. I bit down on my lower lip, my heart hurting.
"Are you certain that you can bear me?" she asked.
"Yes…"
"I have an urgent appointment this morning, yet I missed you so dearly that I could not help but come. I meant to wake you, but here you are."
My eyes widened. "You missed me?"
"Of course. I am still madly in love with you, Naevia."
At those words, I wanted to weep. She is everything. Oh Ombrithar, I love her. I love her so much.
"My duties will be concluded by six in the evening. I shall come for you at seven."
"Could we meet in the nave at two in the morning instead? All will be sleeping by then."
I knew she would find greater pleasure if we were to do it there.
"I want your first time to be upon a comfortable bed," she countered.
"I wish it to be in the nave, please. I love you, Yseldra."
She lifted her head and placed the softest kiss upon my lips. It lingered not in heat but in grace, and it touched something sacred within me. I felt it deep, past flesh, past breath, into my very soul.
"I shall never tire of hearing that. I love you most, Naevia… I shall meet you at two, in the place you have chosen."
At last she was forced to depart.
I could not keep the smile from my lips. My heart was full to the very brim with joy. When I passed Sister Juliara, she cast me a narrowed glance before turning away to her tasks. Others asked how my spirit had risen so swiftly. I could not tell them the reason, though I longed to share this happiness.
When the clock struck two, I rose and slipped off my undergarments. The temple was shrouded in silence. All souls should have been fast asleep by now. Without my corset, I felt scandalously bare. The thin linen of my habit clung to my skin, and my stiffened peaks showed plainly beneath it.
Step by step, I made my way toward the nave.
Bathed in moonlight before the altar, Princess Yseldra waited. So radiant. So lovely. I approached her and halted right before her. "You are so beautiful, Your Highness," I whispered, the words trembling straight from the deepest corner of my soul.
She drew me into her arms. Her lips found mine, and her fingers began to undo the buttons of my bodice. I moaned into her kiss as my hands moved, tugging down her gown, loosening the laces of her corset with clumsy yearning.
When our breasts were at last freed, her hands found mine, and I gasped softly at her touch. I touched hers in return, my fingers shaking.
I could feel the wetness of my core spill down between my thighs. Saliva glistened upon our chins as our mouths remained desperate, our breathing quick.
I drew down the rest of her gown, and her corset fell with it, while her hands pushed my habit up over my hips and knocked away my veil and coif.
I gripped her hardened length and stroked it rapidly. Her body quivered at my touch. She seized my hands and placed them upon her breasts, where I eagerly squeezed and rolled her hardened peaks between my fingers. She grabbed my backside and drew me closer still, until her length slipped between my thighs. I pressed them together at once, and without the slightest pause, she began to grind her thickness against my wet folds. Each thrust made our bodies shiver. Our moans tangled as the heat between us deepened.
Her lips found my neck. She kissed, then licked, each movement sending sparks down my spine. As our bodies trembled with rising need, she gave a few final thrusts and then lowered us to the ground. She settled between my legs, her knees parted slightly. From somewhere, she retrieved a small vial.
"Olive oil," she murmured, her voice low and breathless. "So it shall pain you less."
She uncorked the vial and poured the oil upon my rear, her fingers following after, pressing it inward with care. I gasped, my body jolting at the sinful pleasure that bloomed within me. She bent low, and her tongue found my pearl. She licked and flickered upon it, drawing sounds from me I could not restrain. My essence soon coated her lips, shining under the moonlight.
She poured more oil and pushed deeper, her fingers circling as her mouth claimed my left fold. She sucked softly, then dragged her tongue along it, gliding until it met the hood of my bud. There she teased me, tracing around it once, twice, before flickering again. I burned for her. I wanted my wetness all over her beautiful face.
My body jolted violently. I bit my lower lip, my eyes rolled, my back arched as I neared the edge. I seized her head, grinding myself against her outstretched tongue. She extended her tongue further, and I pressed it deep into my womanhood, yet it was not enough. My need was too great. I returned to grinding against it, desperate to feel every inch, to drown in the pleasure she gave me. I moved harder, faster, chasing that bliss.
"Eutt!" I cried aloud, as my spill burst from my sex in a sudden rush. My body convulsed, and my mind fled to some distant realm I had never known, a place far too wondrous, far too exalted for this world.
She waited for me to calm, and when I did, she lifted her body and aligned herself to my womanhood. Her crown pressed at my entrance.
I caught her wrist and stopped her.
"Your Highness… I thought-"
"We are, Naevia," she said softly. "But for your first time, I do not wish to be inside you for long."
"B-but-"
"No, sweet one," she said, firm and gentle.
"Your Highness…" My lips quivered. My eyes stung. A terrible thought crept in. Had she grown tired of me?
A moment of silence passed.
"Very well," she said, almost too quietly, turning her gaze away.
She reached for the vial again, poured oil upon her twitching length, and began to smooth it over with long, graceful strokes. I watched as her fingers slid down to coat her shaft. Then she leaned in and kissed me.
As she kissed me, I felt the broad crown of her length press against that place. She began to push. Slowly. I felt myself open to her. Her hands gripped my thighs, spreading them wider as her body pressed further into mine. My legs trembled. My breath became sharp and uneven the moment her tip passed through. She was so thick. I was already damp with sweat, and she too was beginning to glisten.
When my rear clenched tight around her, we both moaned softly into each other's mouths.
She began to move with excruciating care. Pulling out only a little. Pushing in just a bit more. Again. And again. Each time she reached deeper, the pressure made me shiver. It hurt. Oh, Ombrithar, it hurt. It was nothing like the instrument. She was much bigger, after all. But she kept kissing me, and her mouth made me feel pleasure again. Her lips guided me back again and again from the edge of pain.
At last, I could not contain it. A small sob escaped me.
She paused at once. She licked my tears away and kissed me again as she held still inside me, letting me adjust.
When the sobs faded and the pulsing in my rear softened to yearning, she began to move once more, slowly, lovingly.
"Naevia," she murmured, her voice so beautiful, her words echoed faintly in the hollow nave. I looked up at her through the veil of my tears.
"If it hurts, I shall stop."
I clung to her neck, desperate and shaking. "Please do not stop. Please, Your Highness, I beg you, take me. Take all of me."
I could not see her expression. My tears clouded everything. My heart throbbed with dread that she might go, that she might never return again.
"I can bear it. I can take you. I can take you, all of you, as Nerissea does."
I tried to show her. I raised my hips toward her and grasped her backside, pulling her deeper into me, clumsily, blindly, trembling with inexperience. The pain bit sharp, but I did not stop. More tears spilled as I forced my body to open.
Her body allowed mine to move her, though I did so awkwardly, my lip bitten to stifle the sobs that threatened to escape. Though my vision was blurred, I knew she was watching me.
At last, I felt the full weight of her within me, my back pulsing with pain.
She leaned down and kissed me once more, her tongue caressing the place I had bitten in my struggle to remain silent.
"Let us stop," she whispered. "You are in pain."
She began to draw back, but I grasped her waist.
"You have not spent," I said, my voice breaking. "Have I done something wrong?"
"No, you are doing beautifully. But you are hurting."
"I am not hurting," I lied through my tears.
"Naevia…"
"I beg you," I sobbed, clinging to her.
She paused, then slowly rose, her hands firmly on my thighs. And then she began to move.
Her hips rolled, her thrusts slow but deep as she moaned above me. I bit down on my lip again, my fingers clutching the floor.
"You need not be so gentle. Please, Your Highness. Move. Move as you did with Nerissea. I swear I can bear it," I begged.
She quickened her pace, slamming into my body roughly with mounting urgency, her breath growing ragged as the sound of flesh meeting flesh filled the nave. Each thrust stole the air from my lungs. Her soft moans rose into fuller sounds, they echoed sweetly through the sacred hush of the nave.
She gasped after a lengthy amount of time, and with one final, deep thrust, she came. Her warmth flooded into my trembling body, and she withdrew swiftly thereafter. She sank upon the floor, her length still twitching, still releasing, and she began to stroke it rapidly.
Though my limbs ached and my body quivered, I turned and straddled her in reverse, my hands guiding her thick, pulsing length to my rear. With desperation, I lowered myself onto her.
Pain greeted me at once as she moaned of pleasure behind me.
She grasped my hips firmly with one hand and began to thrust upward with abandonment, burying herself deep to the hilt. Her seed continued to spill into me and it leaked with every movement.
I braced myself upon her thighs, trying to remain steady, to accept all she gave me, though I feared I would not last long. In this position, she reached places she had not before. I was stretched so fully I could barely breathe.
When at last her release slowed, I collapsed to one side, and she followed, her body pressing close behind mine. We panted in silence, our skin slick with sweat.
"Will you leave the kingdom with me?" she whispered breathlessly as she withdrew from me.
"Yes," I breathed, the word barely formed.