Marquis

  Year 60 - A Short Visit to Iseris

  --

  Though there may be a slight chill in the air outside of this villa in Iseris, the heat in the bedroom is ever rising. The velvet chair in the corner of the room embraces me while I watch the scene unfolding upon the bed. With one strong hand splayed across Brienne’s lower back and the other wrapped in her pale hair, Brienne’s back arches to meet his thrusts, fingers gripping the silk sheets as she pushes back against him with a breathless whimper.

  I can see her slickness gleaming on Alexios’s length as he withdraws only to then thrust back inside of her, drawing a loud gasp from her soft lips. Gripping the arm of the chair tightly as I spectate, my own arousal answers to the sight before me. Alexios, with the muscles of his back tensing and releasing with each thrust, is lost in sensation… and I am lost in him, longing more than ever to be in Brienne’s place instead.

  Alexios pulls back, one hand remaining on Brienne’s hip, and glances over at me with a smirk that I know is meant to disarm me.

  “Let’s make Marquis jealous,” he tells her. “Moan for me. Louder than you ever have for him, hmm?”

  A strangle cry pours from Brienne as Alexios makes a particularly rough thrust inside of her before seizing her by the shoulders and turning her onto her back. Her pale hair flows wildly across the pillow when she lands with a soft bounce among the silk sheets. Alexios looms over her, though only temporarily to place a gentle kiss on her cheek before descending to push her legs apart. With his shoulders pressing against her inner thighs, arms wrapping around them to grip her lower hips, he buries his face in her folds.

  Gods, the sight of Alexios tracing patterns and circling the sensitive nerves of her sex is intoxicating and it appears Brienne believes so too as her breathy whimpers escalate into pleasure-starved moans. As her hips begin to grind against his tongue, desperate for more, her hands snake down to grip his flowing locks of hair. Completely enthralled, I watch as Alexios dedicates himself to pleasing her.

  Brienne’s back arches off the bed at the expert graces of Alexios’s tongue, her cries sharp as her body begins to tremble through her orgasm. Alexios holds her steady, even as she pulses and thrashes against his wet mouth.

  I am utterly captivated by him.

  With my own arousal burning through me, I rise from the velvet chair and shrug off my heavy silk robe. I stand nude, my own pale form a beautiful contrast to Alexios’s shadowy complexion. Brienne watches me step closer through wide, satisfied eyes, the mattress dipping as I join them on the bed. Pulling Alexios to me, my fingers wrap around the nape of his neck, tasting the intoxicating pleasure of Brienne that Alexios has just offered me. I pull back, only to lean over Brienne and place my lips against hers. Tonight, I want nothing more than to lose myself in the two of them.

  --

  Other than the rush of Myst’rey Falls in the distance, the villa is relatively quiet now. On one side of me lies Brienne, tucked against my arm as she sleeps. Alexios lies on my other side, still awake as typical of him after our shared moments together. I turn my head to find him watching me silently, though his eyes are still filled with the heat and satisfaction of our bodies pressed against each other.

  Alexios has not brought another lover home in ten years. He has not entered someone’s home as their lover either. Not in anger towards me or himself. Not in rebellion against my teachings and not even in boredom during our quieter nights together.

  “Mine,” he whispers, quietly enough that Brienne does not awaken.

  “Yours?” I ask him, smiling before I can stop it. “Is that so?”

  He moves closer, leaning in to kiss me while his hand searches for mine beneath the sheets. I thread our fingers together intuitively. Brienne wakes slowly at the movement, watching us with drowsy eyes before moving closer.

  “Do I get one next?” she purrs.

  I turn to her and capture her lips with mine as Alexios huffs playfully next to us. He slips beneath the sheets, lips already trailing towards my growing arousal. My own hand drifts down Brienne's body, pleased to find that the ample dampness in between her legs is already awaiting me.

  --

  Brienne, still lazily tangled in the bed sheets, slumbers on, while it seems as though Alexios has gone missing. I stand, following the candlelight drifting from the kitchen area. Completely unbothered, Alexios stands entirely nude at the counter, pouring hot water into a small pot.

  “Making tea tonight?” I ask, leaning languidly against the doorway.

  “Seemed like a good idea,” he answers while he keeps is focus on the floral herbs in front of him. “Figured Brienne would like this kind too. Are you staring at me?”

  “Appreciating,” I correct him. “I am simply appreciating.”

  He scoffs teasingly as I slip my arms around him from behind. His skin smells of delicious sex and warmth still hanging on tightly from earlier. I want to taste it. Slowly, my lips move along the side of his neck.

  “Must you leave the warmth of the bed?” I question, pressing another kiss to his neck. “We miss you desperately, Alexios.”

  “I figured you’d follow me in here at some point.”

  I pull him closer to my chest and his hands rest lightly over mine against his waist.

  “I could not afford to miss this view. You tempt me.”

  “I’d like to think so,” he says, laughing as he tilts his head to allow my mouth better access to his throat.

  Gentle footsteps pad down the hall and I turn to find Brienne standing at the doorway, nude body bathing in the moonlight trickling in through the windows.

  “I should have known I’d find Marquis wrapped around you,” she tells Alexios.

  “You saw him ‘wrapped’ around me earlier, remember?” he smirkingly retorts. “Would you like a cup of tea?”

  Brienne laughs brightly, clearly amused by Alexios’s ever so slightly raunchy humor while I am left shaking my head. Though… I cannot help the smile on my face.

  “How kind of you,” she replies, rolling her eyes. “You do realize I can’t compete for his attention when you’re standing in the kitchen looking like that..”

  “You mean naked and smug?” he says, passing her a small teacup.

  Brienne politely takes it and offers him a quaint bow.

  “Perhaps I’ll need to make a more compelling argument.”

  My arms pull Alexios back against my chest as my mouth finds his neck once more. Regretfully, I finally release him, stepping aside as Alexios and Brienne explore the villa’s terrace. I remain inside, watching the careful calmness that has finally fallen between the two of them.

  “In all these years, I never realized how charming you are, Alexios.”

  “I like to think I’m full of surprise,” he teases back.

  “Marquis would say the same.”

  Alexios scoffs, glancing towards me with a smirk on his face.

  “You know he exaggerates.”

  “Yes,” she agrees with a soft laugh. “But not about this.”

  Alexios has always been a magnetic force and now it appears even Brienne has been pulled into his orbit. She leans forward, eyes watching his mouth when he speaks. When their knees brush one another, neither pulls away. He knows exactly how to hold her attention without even truly attempting.

  “You’re very clam these days, you know?” she tells him, chin coming to rest in her hand. “I’m sure Marquis is pleased with that.”

  Alexios chuckles softly and takes a sip of his tea.

  “Perhaps.”

  The moon shifts further across the sky, the gentle, pale light illuminating the waterfall. Eventually, Brienne finishes the last of her tea and stands.

  “Well, I suppose I should explore the mountain of discarded clothes in the bedroom and make myself presentable again,” she says politely as she disappears inside again.

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  Alexios stands near the railing, silently watching the waterfall as she returns to us a few moments later. Her pale hair has been neatly gathered into an elegant roll while her flowing evening gown drifts down her beautiful frame, sweeping the floor as she lightly walks towards us again. I stand beside Alexios, one hand placed firmly around his waist.

  “Spending the night with the two of you is even more entertaining than I remember,” Brienne tells us with a playful sigh. “And thank you for the hospitality.”

  She embraces me first, stepping forward to leave a gentle kiss on my lips. Then, her attention is turned to Alexios.

  “That mouth of yours really is something extraordinary when you aren’t using it for trivial comments towards Marquis,” she says with a laugh.

  “I’ll choose to take that as a compliment,” he responds, stepping forward to kiss her.

  Her arms brace against his shoulders as she lets the kiss linger for longer than it likely should.

  “I’ll see you both again soon,” she calls to us, giving us both one last satisfied look before heading towards the path to the carriage awaiting her.

  The two of us remain standing together on the terrace, silently gazing towards the waterfall in the distance.

  “She likes my mouth,” Alexios suddenly says with a wicked smirk.

  “That much is clear,” I tell him, shaking my head. “You did give her reason, after all.”

  “Are you jealous?”

  “No,” I say truthfully as I lift him into my arms before he can say anything else.

  Alexios huffs out a laugh, sturdy legs wrapping around me almost instinctively now. I lower him onto the couch near the wide windows and for a few fleeting moments, we gaze at one another. All those years of tension and oddly placed affection melting into this. He pulls me towards him with another kiss.

  --

  The path along the side of Myst’rey Falls’ mountain is rather narrow and well-worn, but Alexios and I have found peace in the sound of the waterfall echoing through the trees. Gracefully, he walks beside me with his hands clasped firmly behind his back. It is then, under the pale moonlight, that I remember the sweltering bite marks resting brightly on his neck.

  “Will you allow me to heal those for you?” I ask politely. “The bites, I mean.”

  “Why?” Alexios says, raising an eyebrow. “I want them to be obvious.”

  “You enjoy having them there?”

  “Yes.”

  He stops walking, amused by the sudden attention to his neck.

  “And why is that, Alexios?”

  “Because they’re yours,” he says after a pause. “Besides, you don’t give them to her.”

  “Ah,” I start. “So, this is territorial, I take it?”

  “Maybe,” he says casually as he continues walking. “I don’t mind when you feed from me and I enjoy having the marks. Simple as that.”

  The waterfall grows louder as we continue making our way down the narrow path.

  “What do you want your future to look like?” I ask him openly, taking his hand in mine as we walk.

  “I… I don’t know,” he answers. “I know you probably think that’s a ridiculous answer, but it’s the only one I have.”

  “I do not find it ridiculous, Alexios.”

  He watches the water as it spills down a smooth rock into a dark pool below.

  “Truthfully, I never thought I’d get one,” he finally says, pulling his attention away from the waterfall. “I couldn’t think about decades in the Underdark. I just wanted to survive the day and maybe make it to the next week.”

  “How do you feel now?”

  “Now?” he says with a soft huff. “I guess I’m still trying to figure out what to do. I’ve known you for sixty years and I’m not entirely sure what comes next, I suppose.”

  He raises my hand to his lips as they ghost over my knuckles. The white foam of the waterfall churns as it strikes the pool below.

  “Marquis?” he asks abruptly, breaking the quick silence.

  I turn to him, giving him my full attention as the mist from the waterfall settles lightly on my cloak.

  “Would you ever turn me?”

  “No,” I answer him immediately.

  “What?” he says, sharply turning his head towards me.

  “No,” I repeat in certain.

  There is a change in him almost instantly. The tension in the shoulders. Eyebrows XX as he looks away from me, huffing out his disappointment.

  “You’d never do it?”

  “I said no, Alexios. Where is this coming from?”

  He laughs bitterly, shaking his head and he drops my hand. It falls to my side in defeat.

  “You’ll stay the same,” he starts. “But I just… get to grow old?”

  “Alexios, let us…”

  “You’d do it for Brienne, wouldn’t you?” he demands. “Just like you did for Phaedra.”

  “I would not,” I tell him, exhaling deeply in frustration. “I will not give this to her and I will not give this to you.”

  Alexios glares in my direction, crimson eyes burning even through the mist of the waterfall.

  “Why?” he sharply questions.

  “It is not a gift, Alexios,” I speak quietly, turning back towards the waterfall. “Do you truly believe immortality would solve any lingering problems? It does not.”

  “Easy for you to say,” he mumbles.

  “Alexios, you are a drow,” I tell him firmly. “You have hundreds of years left.”

  “Maybe far less if something goes wrong.”

  “I will not condemn you to this fate,” I speak to him softly now, reaching out to take his hand in mine. “The loneliness. The hunger that never truly goes away. Watching those you love fall.”

  “I’ve already watched people I love fall,” he says. “I watched as the bastards drove their blades deep into Nykky’s chest, Marquis. Do you think I can’t handle it?”

  “I will not do it, Alexios. I will not take your mortality away from you.”

  Alexios looks away from me once again, focusing on the dark water falling instead of me.

  “You’d still refuse even if I begged you?”

  “Yes.”

  “What if I ask a hundred years from now?”

  “I will still refuse,” I answer.

  “What if…”

  “Alexios.”

  He scoffs, yet his fingers tangle with mine all the same.

  “And you tell me I’m the stubborn one,” he jokes dryly.

  “I am merely protecting you,” I speak. “You have something far rarer, do you understand?”

  Alexios continues walking down the narrow path. I follow willingly.

  “Like what?”

  “A life that is ever changing,” I simply say.

  Perhaps that will be enough to quiet him in the meantime. He is not convinced, no. Though he does appear to listen. The narrow path curves as we continue our journey around the waterfall, through stone and wet, heavy moss.

  “We will be leaving Mira Port eventually,” I express.

  Alexios tightens his hand in mine.

  “Will we?”

  “Yes,” I continue. “It appears people are taking notice to the fact that I am not aging. Humans such as I are meant to age. A town can only overlook something like that for so long before it turns into suspicion.”

  He frowns.

  “That makes sense, I suppose. Maybe Mira Port isn’t as discriminatory as you think though.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “Where are we going to go?” he questions as he kicks a loose stone out of his way.

  “There is an old manor on a farm that has been abandoned for quite some time,” I answer. “In the Moving Waters region. The property has come into my ownership recently.”

  “How?” he asks with one eyebrow raised.

  I give him a smirk.

  “It will take time before it is in a more livable condition, but the land is quiet. A necessity if you ask me.”

  Alexios walks a few steps ahead now.

  “A farm, hmm?” he mutters. “Sounds rather domestic, if you ask me. Never saw you as one of those types.”

  “I am full of surprises, Alexios. As are you.”

  Suddenly, he halts and crossed his arms across his chest.

  “Will Brienne visit you?” he briskly questions, tone far sharper than I believe he realizes. It leaves me… bewildered.

  “That is an odd way to ask about someone you were in bed with earlier,” I cautiously note.

  “So?”

  “Now it is as if you resent her existence.”

  “My apologies for not wanting her there,” he mockingly answers, rather flatly.

  “Why?”

  “I just fucking don’t, Marquis.”

  “You seemed more than comfortable repeatedly inviting her to our bed. Now visiting will be a problem?”

  Clearly annoyed with this conversation as much as he is with me, he runs his hands through his hair, irritation spiking rapidly.

  “I don’t want her there,” he repeats. “You invite her everywhere, even here. I wanted to get away with you. Just you.”

  “I am attempting to give you a future you claimed you never expected, yet this is the part that upsets you?”

  The mist thins as Alexios steps forward again, keeping his shoulders tense as ever.

  “I wanted something that’s ours,” he admits quietly. “Not Phaedra. Not Brienne. Just you and I.”

  “The manor would be ours, Alexios,” I confirm, stepping forward to maintain the distance between us now.

  “Then I don’t want her there,” he replies.

  I do not understand why something in him shifted the moment the manor was mentioned. His thoughts, as I try to listen, are… tangled. Uninterpretable.

  “This anger… where is it coming from?” I plead. “Help me understand. You were laughing with her only a mere few hours ago. You share a bed with her, yet the concept of her seeking out our company there is unacceptable to you?”

  “Because you like it!” he shouts as he whirls around to face me. “Because you relax and smile. Because you don’t hover over me when she’s there.”

  “Is this what you truly think of me?” I question as I step forward to meet his glare. “You believe I ask that of you?”

  Alexios scoffs angrily, kicking another rock from the narrow pathway.

  “You didn’t have to,” he reacts. “I don’t mind being in bed with her. I don’t mind fucking her. I just… don’t want her there.”

  Though the anger fades from him eventually, something almost akin to fear rests beneath it.

  “I never asked for you to share your life with anyone,” I explain to him. “I never asked for you to perform for me. I enjoy sharing moments with both of you, but I never require it of you… or Brienne.”

  “Well, this… farm doesn’t seem to be just a moment,” he replies to me after a brief pause.

  “No,” I confirm. “It is not a simple moment. It is a home. A future you admitted earlier that you never believed you would have. Are you afraid, Alexios?”

  “I’m not afraid,” he tells me, shaking his head. “But I don’t want to share whatever our future holds with her. Why is that such a big deal to you?”

  Ah. So, he has indeed turned territorial.

  Perhaps this anger makes sense in Alexios’s mind. In mine, it does not, and neither does this territorial streak that has taken root in him. He stares at the ground, shoulders still taut.

  “If Phaedra wanted you back, would you abandon me there?”

  It seems that it is my turn to glare at Alexios now.

  “Abandon you?” I saw, stupefied.

  “Yes,” he quickly answers. “She is everything to you. You still think about her. I know you do.”

  “While that is accurate,” I say honestly. “I would not simply… leave you there.”

  “You’d choose her,” he bites back, keeping his voice and eyes sharp on me. “You’d finally have her back so why wouldn’t you leave me?”

  With the cruelty in his tone, it is as if the waterfall itself is afraid to breathe now.

  “I love her,” I say calmly. “But that does not mean I would abandon you.”

  He scoffs.

  “Sure,” he mocks. “You say that now. You say that like people don’t just change their minds out of the blue, especially when the woman they’ve loved for centuries shows up again.”

  Hesitantly, I step closer and attempt to take his hand in mine. He jerks away as if I mean to do harm to him.

  “You would not be discarded, Alexios.”

  “We’re supposed to use that farm as a means to start something new, yes?” he speaks.

  “You are not merely a passing lover,” I try to explain to him as my fingers softly trot down the sleeves of his cloak. “I would not bury this in order to preserve what Phaedra and I had.”

  Finally, Alexios reaches for my hand just as the breeze dances through the trees above.

  “Would she hate me?”

  “Never,” I answer truthfully. “She knew of my desire for you then. She would know of it now as well.”

  Fortunately, his shoulders finally fall. It will have to be enough for now. Though Alexios has slowed his steps to fall in line with me again, anger finally burning into a subtle glow instead, he does not speak again. With the Blackwood manor’s abandoned halls and cracked stone lying in neglect for decades, I intend to spend time properly restoring it.

  I watch while Alexios stares out into the open valley now spread before us through the trees. The manor could give him a stable future if I execute this properly. He can exist freely, without the noise of these cities he has grown used to.

  He could… live. Alexios could truly live rather than survive by the Mother’s will alone. It is at this exact moment I decide that once we return to our home in Mira Port, I will begin the preparations. Repairs will be arranged through the best that Delaria has to offer. It will take years to create the vision I see for Alexios, but it will be worth it. I hope he will see the vision as well.

  It is imperative that Alexios believe in the future. It will be my duty to make certain there is somewhere for him to live to see it.