Page 38 of Impaled By His Omega Prince
“It is very kind of Virion to allow me to learn from his son.” Askara peered over Kershai’s bulky arm at the little one who snoozed so comfortably.
Kershai snorted. “I wanted you out of that horrible tension. You can meet Virion when he comes up to feed the little one again in a bit. Alluin is horrible to spend any amount of time with.”
Askara nodded in agreement. The meeting, for what it could have been, went well, but the little one with pale-pink eyes and silvery hair stared back at him. The white sclera amid his dusk skin gave Askara pause. “He’s moonborne, too.”
Kershai nodded. “Virion said they’d not realized it right away, waited for his sclera to turn, but when his eye color came in, his sclera stayed white.”
“And this will be what our little one will look like?”
“You are Virion’s brother, so very likely.” Kershai, with a beta guard, followed them back to their family quarters where Sima, the omega page from earlier, sat on a lounge eating from a plate full of sweetvine honey cookies.
He beamed at them, light-blue crumbles dotting his lips. A cup of pink liquid sat on the edge of the plate.Tallroot milk.Askara tamped down an urge to laugh. The little sun fae was a simple child, after all. All decorum dropped the second treats arrived. “Thank you, Lord Kershai!”
“It is no problem, little page.” Kershai beckoned Askara over to a large ottoman where a few drapes had been laid out with a pile of baby swaddlings. Woolen liners lay stacked next to a light canvas bottom covering that had been inundated with rosin to be waterproof. Askara stared at it with complete loss and watched with wide-eyed curiosity as Kershai gave him his first education in how to tend a child.
***
By the time the child began fussing, ready for more food and for someone more competent at holding him, Virion entered their quarters with a bright smile that lacked the pity that Askara feared he’d hold. “Good afternoon, brother.”
Part of Askara thought he’d never have a chance to hear that word, to meet Virion, Saria, or Seidrik. Virion was the one he’d have more in common with, anyway. As he was blessed by the goddesses as well. In addition, they were of the holy genders—alpha and omega.
“And good afternoon to you, as well…brother.” Heat rose in Askara’s cheeks, and by the twinkle in Virion’s eye, he must have noticed. With a night fae for a partner, he likely knew what to look for.
“I dare say I never thought Father would treat a sibling worse than me, and yet here you are. I remember when Mother was pregnant with you.” Virion opened his arms and pulled Askara into a tight hug, his silvery-white hair brushing the underside of his chin, such a dainty male. Fragile, almost. Nothing like Lumic’s powerful frame.
“I apologize for taking her…” Askara stumbled over his words, unsure of what to say, but Virion only shook his head.
“Vitalis sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t on women who birth. It did not work on her. The goddesses took her, and it was her time.” Virion pulled away and smiled, genuine joy inhis expression. “Enough with sadness, though. I sense you have high thalms. Are you a tinkerer or a thalmsmith?”
Askara pursed his lips. “I was educated in diction and bureaucracy. I am a crafter of word and listener, not anything special.”
“He speaks sweet nothings so well he tamed Lumic,” Kershai announced, and that seemed to amuse Virion greatly.
“I’ve not seen Lumic since we were young, but even then, he was astoundingly stubborn.” Virion strode forward, his poise and posture so reminiscent of Alluin, save for the slight strength to his calloused hands. Askara wondered what work he’d been doing to earn such things.
“I found him remarkably confident and charming.” Askara couldn’t hold back the laugh that bubbled up in his throat. “He certainly gets his way, and I can appreciate that. I follow orders better than I give them, at any rate.”
“Truth!” Kershai laughed and turned his attention back to the baby, who was waving his arms in the air, grabbing for a little toy Kershai had procured from somewhere. A coo of interest piped from him.
An attendant came in a moment later with a tea service to refill their cups. Sima, for his part, seemed to be in heaven with his cookies.
“So, I hear there’s a wedding soon. You’ll excuse me if I don’t sit to witness your consummation.” Virion smiled and Kershai wrinkled his nose.
“I would venture to say they’ve been consummated already.” Kershai stared at Virion pitiably.
“Why would anyone witness th—” Askara blanched.
“It’s a Liaberian thing. They turn a couple’s first time together into a spectator sport.” Kershai shuddered.
“Wait, so you do not consummate publicly? Is Liaberos the only—”
“Yes,” another voice interrupted as Pallosar spoke from the doorway, his tone dry and laced with disgust. “Alluin, why do you persist with the barbarity of that?”
Alluin, for his part, seemed to be chewing on his own tongue. “I do not question tradition. Perhaps it was from a different time where such things were commonplace, or maybe the goddesses declared it so?”
Askara twisted his nose. “Mothers never wanted to see me engaging in coitus with Lumic…”
“If I recall correctly, Lyrica’s family waved the right to the ceremony when you two were wed,” Pallosar said and Alluin blanched.
