The next morning, Erik slowly awoke in his own bed. He yawned softly. Next to him, Astrid was still vast asleep, hugging his body, and smiling a little. He groaned and stretched his body, careful not to wake up his wife.
"Good morning, Beautiful. Fancy eting you here," he then said warmly, using his link with Elora. He smiled indulgently at the fairy sitting on his chest, watching him wake up.
"Hello, Handso," she answered, her tone containing a teasing edge. "You know what I've discovered, now that I don't spend almost every night in your soul anymore?"
Using his unoccupied hand, Erik caressed Elora's tiny head of crimson hair. His tone was playful. "Is it that I'm too unbearably handso? Perhaps you're finding it hard to sleep, because you can't stop staring?"
Elora rolled her eyes, even as she enjoyed his touch. "Fat chance. You do know that neither , nor any of my sisters, fell in love with you for your looks, right?"
Erik's eyes imdiately widened in mock offense. "Y— You didn't?!" he cried out, releasing Elora's hair to grab his heart in shock.
A bell-like giggling escaped Elora's lips, her hand covering them elegantly. "No, but I will admit I enjoy watching you sleep."
"Pervert!" Erik imdiately accused, grinning.
Elora stuck out her tongue in defiance, but then decided to get to the point. "Anyway… we need to discuss our next steps. I understand you still have a date with Naeku to get to, but perhaps we should give our proposal to her father, first. If we get him to accept, we'll have a lot of work ahead, and I'd like to get started as soon as possible."
Turning serious as well, Erik frowned thoughtfully. "Are you sure we shouldn't wait until I reach the third rank? It might help to have a little more power behind our argunts."
But his partner imdiately shook her head, determination in her erald eyes. "No way. I agree it would help, but we simply don't have the ti. As it stands right now, you'll likely reach the third rank around the sa ti your mother recovers, which ans you'll be only barely get there before Edda attacks again. We won't have enough ti to negotiate with Ankhur, and initiate our plans."
Wryly, Erik sighed, nodding, "I guess I was hoping I'd be a little faster than that, but I suppose we shouldn't bank on it."
"Exactly," Elora agreed, before grinning and flying off his chest. "Which is why I've already let him know we have a proposal for him! He's waiting for us now!"
Chuckling, Erik carefully extracted himself from Astrid's embrace. "That overconfidence is gonna bite you in the ass one day, my love!"
Elora gasped audibly. "Overconfidence?! Never! I'm simply always right, it's different!"
Erik coughed to suppress a laugh, and then nodded. "Of course, how could I forget?"
His first wife nodded proudly at his obviously correct statent, while he himself kissed Astrid on her forehead, snapped his fingers to put so clothes on, and then left the room with Elora on his shoulder.
It was ti to set the first step to the forming of their empire.
* * *
Soon after, they entered a large, study-like room in Enkare Nkai's palace. Here, Ankhur was sitting behind a desk, dealing with so of the administrative duties that ca with his position, using simple pen and paper. Fortunately, the loss of his non-dominant arm hadn't hindered his ability to do this job.
On the other side of the room was sothing that looked like a hearth, operated by a sigil. Four comfortable chairs were surrounding it, and several beverages were stalled out on a small table. Naeku was patiently ditating on one of the seats.
Since they'd already seen him in his human side, Ankhur didn't bother with traditions. Naeku, on the other hand, still remained in her werepanther form.
The room was warmly decorated, but sowhat sparse. Several book cases littered the walls, and Elora eyed their contents curiously.
Both Naeku and Ankhur looked up from what they were doing. "There you are," Ankhur nodded a polite greeting, putting down his pen. He stood up from his seat, and indicated towards the comfortable chairs. "Let's take a seat."
Ankhur's deanour was polite and respectful, but clearly ant to create so distance. He suspected Erik and Elora were here to discuss matters of the realm, and he wanted to make it clear he wouldn't let their fledgeling personal relationship affect his decisions. That was the least he could do for his people.
Currently, he was already showing them respect and a hint of familiarity, by doing this in his study, rather than the palace's throne room.
Erik nodded at his suggestion, winking first at Naeku in greeting, but then adopting a similar stance to Ankhur, knowing that would have the most effect.
They sat down in the chairs, with Elora enlarging her body again to sit on the chair next to Erik.
"Before we begin,' Ankhur said, panning his gaze between Erik and Elora curiously. "I'd like to know what your relationship is like. Or, more specifically, can one of you speak for the other?"
Essentially, he was asking which one of them was the leader, in a rather diplomatic way. Unfortunately for him, their answer was suprely unconvincing.
"Oh, I'm just the loyal wife, here to support my man," Elora chuckled mysteriously, gently draping her hand over Erik's arm. "He'll be leading the negotiations."
Erik smiled slightly and nodded, "Although you should always assu her words are mine as well." Read new adventures at My Virtual Library Empire
Ankhur's eyebrows twitched, and Naeku rolled her eyes. Neither of them placed any stock in Elora's assurances of just being the loyal wife, and Erik's addition didn't clarify anything.
Still, he knew enough for now, so Ankhur looked at Erik and nodded. "Very well. Your wife sent word you had a proposal for . Can I assu this has to do with the Humanitas Sangh?"
He ntioned the na of his enemy with calm solemnity, but a keen observer could clearly tell the furious storm raging behind his eyes.
"It does," Erik nodded deliberately. "But before we get to that, there's one thing we have to deal with first."
He waved his hand, and suddenly held a covenant stone in his hands. Emma and Emily had used these once before in Norway, to create a covenant without Elora's presence.
Naturally, Elora was here right now, but they'd been successful in obscuring the true origin of the covenant magic so far, and with Elora incapable of entering his soul to channel the magic through him, this was the next best thing.
Erik placed the stone on the table, and explained, "In these discussions, we might bring up so secrets that neither of us want exposed to the outside world. Thus, for all our peace of mind, let's create a covenant, agreeing that nothing we say here will leave these four walls."
Silence fell, and Ankhur turned to look at the stone with a thoughtful frown…
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