Tungl Maerborg

Summerset Vale stood tall and lean even though he was some ten inches shorter than Glenna. To her, it didn't matter at all. To her, he was beautiful!

Where her skin was a cool, luminous, moonlight white; his was a warm chestnut. Where her eyes were orbs of an endless night sky, his were a brilliant sapphire blue that gleamed and nearly glowed. And then there was her hair, like her eyes, midnight black and filled with the colorful glinting specs of stars and galaxies and nebulae while Summerset's was a beautiful platinum blonde.

He stood there breathing evenly and smiling brilliantly, exuding strength and confidence. She could feel the power of his aura like heat waves radiating from him, and it immediately made her feel safe. Taking a step forward she fell into his arms and he kissed her!

Oh goddess! He kissed her so deeply…

When she was finally forced to pull away by a desperate need to breathe, she sighed into his mouth as they leaned her foreheads against each other and nuzzled their noses.

"So," She whispered as her orbs tried to focus on his eyes, "I hear that you have been here for quite some time?"

"It took sending your mother gifts for two months before she would even grant father an audience to begin negotiations," He answered as he swiveled his head in a shake though they were still connected, "It was quite amazing really. Your mother is a formidable woman."

"Yes she is," Glenna agreed with a nod that turned into another bout of nuzzling before they kissed some more. When she pulled away, this time she sighed, "Are you going to invite me in? Or, are we going to continue until someone sees us and I get a reputation as a wayward woman?"

Summerset chuckled as he slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her into his room. Once she was inside, he took her hand and led her to a small table looking out a bay window. She waved at a serious looking Janaspi Linx who took the door from Summerset and closed it.

Janaspi had wild short hair and a white furred face and body. Her sharp half-Alfari half-cat face had long, triangular cat ears with silver and turquoise earrings dangling from them that matched her eyes. Starting at her throat, long white belly fur thickly covered her, décolletage, breasts, belly, and lower belly leading to her sex. The rest of her body, arms, legs, buttocks, and back were all covered in slightly shorter fur that was as white as new snow. Her legs were a hybridization that allowed her to walk on clawed cat's paws, and her fingertips were thicker than any normal alfari's allowing for claws to be extended or retracted.

Since the first days of their creation it was quickly determined that they must be owned, and since they were Animals, they shouldn't wear clothing as if they were one of the Prime Races. The Villralfar and Dokkalfar, the Druids and the Hunters; they voted against the betrayal of their own creations, but they were out voted and so they enslaved an entire people!

As a Villralfar, a Druid, Summerset more so than any of his House actively rebelled against the The Council of Primes tyranny. He did his best by giving Janaspi her dignity, but not just her. He gave all of his so-called attendants dignity. First, by allowing her to wear clothing and jewelry as part of her employment.

Beside the earrings in her ears, her jewelry consisted of four silver anklets that jingled as she walked, however Glenna knew from experience that they were enchanted so that with a thought they could be silenced. Janaspi also wore matching bracelets on each arm and silver bicep bands, and lastly, around her neck she wore a silver choker with a white turquoise, also known as moonstones, veined with gold and silver set on each side of her esophagus while a last largest moonstone, nearly two inches in diameter, hung from a chain and rested in the small depression of her clavicle.

Her clothes consisted of a very ornate apron made of silk and leather. Woven leather ties tied behind her neck so that the apron fell down the front of her body. Two more ties below her armpits made sure the apron didn't just bunch up and expose her absolutely voluminous breasts that seemed greatly oversized for her height and frame. The rest of the apron narrowed until it was only eight inches wide and hung down her belly freely until reaching an attached thong. The small piece of triangular fabric covering her sex reduced to a single leather rope roughly three quarters of an inch thick that ended by being braided to a silver ring that fit around the base of her tail. The rest of the apron fell to her knees as a pseudo loincloth.

Second, all of the Animals living in the Valeland were allowed to walk upright and allowed to speak openly as long as they were in the service of their employer. It was also established that Valeheim was the only city of the Valeland. It was where the majority of the Villralfar and Dokkalfar population in the county resided. All Animals residing within the city's walls must abide by the 'Prime law'. However, four generations previously, House Vale established forty Kottrheims, or Cat Villages, for every subspecies of wild cat they owned and traded in. A chieftain and his queen was then appointed to manage the village in House Vale's sted, and as long as quotas were met the Chieftains were allowed to set the rules of the Kottrheim and manage the Animals with autonomy. To show their fidelity, each Chieftain gave a daughter to the heir of House Vale as a mate since no Prime was ever allowed to marry an Animal officially.

Scanning Summerset's bedroom, Glenna saw that he brought seven of his forty mates including Janaspi. Fahlene Caracal, Poma Onca, and Nephele Uncia were laying across a huge bed napping. Urielle Pardalis sat in a chair sideways and read a book. Wyeth Leo was lying across the couch, and Kainda Tigris sat in a chair and table near the window and sipped tea. Each woman had her own jewelry and apron, and each had their own style. But where Kainda, Wyeth, and Fahlene wore the same loincloth style aprons as Janaspi; Poma and Nephele opted to wear nothing at all; and Urielle was the most conservative, wearing an apron that completely wrapped around her waist like a skirt and fell down to her ankles.

As Glenna walked in, all six women jumped up as Urielle called out her name as she hurried over and hugged Glenna.

"It's so good to see you!" Kainda said when it was her turn, "How have you been?"

Glenna pulled back with a chuckle and looked up to meet Kainda's gaze. The other woman stood head and shoulders taller than her, some seven feet in height. Her hair was ink black and glossy, but the rest of her was covered in soft reddish orange fur and black stripes, and she had the most intense hazel blue, green, and golden eyes.

"After my adventures with you all and Summerset, I was commanded to return to my duties at the Temple of the Moon," She answered with a shrug and a grin, "So, you know my duties better than most. That's what I've been doing."

"And a glorious and selfless duty it was too, I'm sure," Kainda purred as she gave Glenna another hug before stepping back.

Wyeth was next, she was also nearly seven feet tall, but built even sturdier than the muscular Kainda. She picked Glenna up in a huge bear hug that buried her face in her voluminous cleavage before she set Glenna back down and patted her shoulders and purred, "We've missed you deeply Moonlight!"

"You mean Nightlight, don't you Wyeth? Was that not your nickname for Glenna," Fahlene chuckled as she walked up.

Wyeth gave a withering glare while Glenna chuckled and turned to hug Fahlene. She had received many nicknames due to her continuous luminescence. Wyeth's nickname for her had been 'Nightlight'.

"What can I say, I decided I like Moonlight more," Wyeth retorted with a shrug, "Besides, absence made the heart grow fonder!"

Where Kainda and Wyeth were head and shoulders taller than Glenna, Fahlene was much shorter standing only four and a half feet tall. She was the shortest and built light and athletic with very little in the bosom. Poma was as tall as Glenna and shapely with a very nice amount of bosom, though not as plentiful. Nephele was roughly in the middle height wise between Poma and Fahlene standing at five feet, she was the only one in equal footing with Summerset. Janaspi was five and half feet tall, Urielle was six feet tall and had a curviness to her body and a weight to her breasts that rivaled Glenna and Janaspi.

"How have you all been? What trouble have you been up to in my absence," Glenna teased while leaving her arm wrapped around Fahlene as she scanned the pleasant faces of her soon-to-be sister-wives.

"Trouble," Summerset quipped with a wave of his hand before taking her hand and pulling her behind him to sit on his lap as he reclined on the couch, "Never may that happen. I have been as innocent as an altar boy!"

"Ha! As if," Janaspi laughed along with the others, "Our Lord finds trouble wherever he goes…"

"Our Lord Anthiehl has even transferred the everyday running of the Valeland into our Lord's hands in an effort to curb his enthusiastic pursuit of trouble," Urielle chuckled.

"Not that it has worked in any measure," Poma giggled.

"Lately," Nephele added as she sat in a chair across Glenna and Summerset, "Our Lord has been making grief for the Druid Council and the Aligned Lordships of Annwyn. It makes us love him all the more, but he has been stirring up trouble by assembling a quorum of Druids and Lords that will back a bill to amend the Prime Rule to give Animals their freedom!"

"Yes," Urielle added with a nod in agreement with Nephele's sentiment, "The Chieftains and Queens of the Kottrheims all love House Vale, Lord Anthiehl, and are quickly becoming staunchly loyal to Summerset as well. Our Lord has us, his loyal mates, to guard him at all times, but we are also concerned that he is quickly making himself a target of the Prime State…"

Summerset waved their concern off with a sigh, "I am playing the game as best I can, but after nearly seven-thousand years. You would think that we Primes would have grown past the need for slavery. It's no longer a problem of population control. It's about power and maintaining the status quo."

"Precisely why you must be more cautious than ever before," Glenna answered with a nod of agreement with the wives, "This ties in well with the news I have."

"Really," Kainda mumbled as she sat down beside Summerset and Glenna.

"Yes," Glenna continued, "I was approached today by the High Priestess Annani'us herself. She wishes to capitalize on our upcoming marriage alliance by having me be her eyes and ears within House Vale. She also wishes me to be a little bird tweeting her council in your ear as if it were my own for your benefit, when the truth is that it would only be for hers and the churches."

"That was to be expected," Summerset said as he tightened his grip on her waist with one hand and squeezed her hand with his other, "No doubt you will be given orders from your mother as well, of the influence she wishes for you to affect on her behalf. This is just the way of Noble society."

"Agreed, but her council came with a non-to-subtle threat that if I can't rein you in then there will be dire consequences," Glenna answered with a nod, "However, you have my vow, my love, that I will bring what House Moonlilly and the church want to you openly. I will never try to manipulate you into doing something or not doing something for their gain. After today, I am a Vale. I am your wife, and we are a team that I will work my hardest to protect and nourish. If I come to you and wish for you to not do something, it will be because I feel it will be harmful to us. If I wish for you to do something, it will be because I believe it will benefit us. I am here to love and support you Summerset Vale, and no one else!"

"Your vow is heard, and witnessed, and accepted," Summerset whispered as he pulled her down for a thoroughly penetrating kiss as the others repeated his acceptance of her vow.

"You as well, my love," Summerset whispered once he pulled away from their kissing, "You have my vow that I will never use you, or your positions as a Priestess or Noble for mine, or House Vale's benefit. From this night onward, you are my wife and we are united no matter what has happened in our past or what may happen in the future. We will face the obstacles this world throws at us together."

"Your vow is heard, and witnessed, and accepted," Glenna whispered as she leaned in for more kissing that soon led to petting and then him pulling at her dress so that he had complete access to her body before picking her up and carrying her to the bed.

Her head felt like she was in a haze. His hands, groping and kneading her breasts had her heart on fire and drumming in her chest. When his hand moved down so that his fingertips gently caressed the soft outer labia between her thighs, it felt like frost sprouted from his touch and covered her body, raising every invisible hair on end. She shuddered as her breath caught, and time felt like it was being strung out as a curious finger parted the folds of her sex!

Fire bloomed in her womb as a sigh escaped her parted lips… and then she panicked!

"Wait," She gasped as his finger delved a little deeper, "Wait!"

He pulled back as he chuckled, "Is everything alright? It certainly seemed to be…"

"Yes… No!" She chuckled at her own inconsistency, "You… It was perfect! It's just you… I… We can't do this yet, no matter how I want to!" She sighed as she sat up and kissed him and exhaled into his mouth and then inhaled his heady musk. He played his finger inside the folds of her vulva and she sighed exultantly before continuing, "Please! I have cleansed and sanctified my body. It is sealed until the marriage ceremony. If we do this now, a curse will be cast upon me that will reverse the coloring of my hair and skin for the rest of my life! And my children will inherit it as well! Please, wait until tonight…"

He chuckled but he did as she requested. Instead he moved his hand up and laid it on her lower belly just above her pubic bone, then situated himself so that he was laying beside her. Resting his head in the palm of his hand, he looked down at her and purred, "This will be your first time making love for love's sake. Most priestesses and nobles marry only for politics and power. No doubt such will be thought of our marriage as well…"

"Let them think what they wish," Glenna answered in a purr, "Our marriage will be influenced by politics and religion, but it will not define it. Our marriage is for love, and that love will define our lives and," she smiled up at him as she placed her hands over his on her belly, "the lives of our children. The fruit of my womb will be conceived out of love, not duty!"

"Life will be different for you and I," He said as he looked into her star-filled midnight eyes, "Are you sure you can handle the slow pace of us country bumpkins?"

"Can you handle the fact that I am a priestess of Seline and not an inexperienced virgin," She asked in a quiet whisper.

"Neither am I," He answered with an unabashed smirk and a glance back at his harem of cat-girls, "I knew what you being a priestess meant the first time I met you, and it didn't stop me from falling in love with you. It sure as hell won't keep me from marrying you now!"

"That is good to hear," She sighed in relief.

Sitting up, she held his hands tight against her belly and declared, "I had better leave and go home and prepare for tonight, or I will wind up giving myself to you despite the curse!"

He chuckled and sat up, "I think you may be right."

Standing up, he turned and presented a hand to Glenna. She took it and he led her back to the door. He stood there for several seconds without opening it and stared into Glenna's black orbs. With a sigh, he smiled, "I'm afraid that if I kiss you, I won't be able to stop and we will find ourselves back on my bed."

"A good problem to have," She answered with a husky purr. Leaning over she clasped the door handle and opened it. Looking back over her shoulder she whispered, "Until tonight my love."

"Beneath Seline's light and within Gaia's embrace," He returned.

——(!)——

With a triumphant smile she swept out of the room and down the hallway. She walked with her head in the clouds all the way home. Tungl Maerborg was a massive estate with a large castle of white walls and spiraling towers. A breeze picked up and she could smell the ocean. Her floating, star-filled hair whipped and whirled, but it always returned to its ebb and glow like that of a black flame. Her bare feet padded on white marble until large iron bound oak doors greeted her.

"Good afternoon my Lady," The House Steward greeted in a neutral tone, "How was your walk from the Temple?"

"It was... invigorating Loh'gan," She retorted as she sauntered passed.

"Ahem," Loh'gan cleared his throat before following and continuing, "Lady Glenna, your mother wishes to see you before you retreat to your rooms."

"Is it really that urgent," She asked with mild annoyance.

"I got the feeling that it was, my Lady," He answered.

"Then lead the way Loh'gan," She answered.

As he led the way she followed him through grand hallways to the grand garden. White marble became lush green grass as she stepped down into the lawn of rolling sculpted hillsides and meticulously kept gardens. They were artfully designed to show off precious flower beds, clipped bushes in a variety of shapes, and large silver trees with thick trunks and tops that reach heights greater than some buildings. Loh'gan led her to a small depression in the landscaping centered between the trees where a small moonpool resided. Behind it stood a large sando made of ebonheart wood with a large crescent moon above it, and before the moonpool was a circular altar with its top carved in the moon's likeness.

Cryst'veyhl Moonlilly sat on a bench and watched the water ripple as flies landed on its surface, scuttled across, and then took flight once again. Across the pool, sitting on the bank of carefully placed stones that acted as the border of the pool, Yul'Anahaen Moonlilly sat with her dress flipped up so that it trailed out behind her. Allowing for her to feel the warmth of the stone beneath her bare bottom while dipping her toes into the cool water.

"Hello grandmother," Glenna greeted with a curtsy to Cryst'veyhl. Turning to Yul'Anahaen who was still staring into the depth of the moonpool, she curtsied once more, "Hello mother."

"Salutations child," Her mother answered from the poolside.

Yul'Anahaen looked very much like her daughter, and Cryst'veyhl was an even older version of them both. At the newly adult age of one-hundred and seventy Glenna had lived only seventeen percent of her possible lifetime, and her appearance was that of a human girl just shy of her twenties. She still retained a softness to her face and body that bespoke her youth.

Yul'Anahaen however was three and a half centuries old and still not quite middle-aged, and her beauty matched her age well with an appearance of a thirty year old human woman. Where Glenna had a softness of youth, Yul'Anahaen's face had slimmed out with age and sharpened with maturity. Her breasts were nearly as large as Glenna's, but the youthful fat on the rest of her body was gone leaving toned muscles, broad hips, and a thickening to her buttocks that bespoke the thirteen children she had birthed in the last one-hundred and seventy years.

Cryst'veyhl, another one-hundred and ninety years older than her eldest daughter, was five-hundred and thirty years old. Nottalfar hair didn't turn white with age like other Prime races or even the other Alfari. However, her hair wax-and-waned above her head like a midnight star-filled sky for seven feet above her head. Upon her forehead sat a moon-tiara of a Grand Priestess, and upon bare shoulders the mantle of House Moonlilly. She was slightly more mature looking than Yul'Anahaen with only the slightest of wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. Otherwise, her bosom was fuller and denser, her waist was a little thicker, and her hips were broader. All in all, she had the appearance of a mature human woman in her late forties or early fifties.

"So where is great grandmother," Glenna asked as she looked around exaggeratedly, "If she were here then we could get whatever this is... over all in one go, right?"

"What do you think this is," Her grandmother asked as she patted the bench beside her, beckoning Glenna to come sit beside her.

"I thought it was going to be another speech on my obligations to my people, my religion, my House, and just what you expected me to do on your behalf within House Vale," Glenna mumbled.

"Yes yes," Yul'Anahaen sighed and waved her hand dismissively, "And yet, if you did not know your obligations to House Moonlilly by now, then we would have failed in your education long ago. No, today we are here to congratulate you, daughter. You must have been truly remarkable on your missionary tour of Annwyn!"

"Yes," Cryst'veyhl continued with a husky chuckle, "House Tunglelvist and House Gaihl both made incredibly strong offers for your hand in marriage to their sons Hurdikihl and Ordwalf, and yet, no matter the offers, House Vale countered quite persistently."

"How did they take being out bid," She asked her grandmother.

"Not well Glenna, not well," Her mother answered instead, "However, this is the nature of things. They must do what is best for their families, and we must do what is best for ours."

"So, mother," Glenna asked, not fooled for a second that this meeting was purely congratulatory, "What is it you will have me for my House once I am married to Summerset?"

"Nothing," Yul'Anahaen answered again, this time looking up from her distractions to gaze piercingly at her daughter, "As I said before, I have secured all I want from them while negotiating your bride price."

"Really? Nothing?" Glenna asked again, her tone obviously disbelieving.

"All I want from you daughter is for you to go and live a long and fruitful life," Yul'Anahaen answered with a warm smile.

"I… I… don't know what to say! Thank you mother!" Glenna gasped in relief, and then giggled before leaning back on the bench and sighing as muscles she hadn't realized had tightened with stress began to relax.

"Your mother's words are true but not completely as altruistic as she would lead you to believe," Cryst'veyhl chuckled as she patted Glenna's thigh, "Though, after seeing your reaction just now, I understand your mother's negotiating everything she wants from the marriage alliance openly from the start."

"Of course! Are you implying that I don't always act in good faith for my family's benefit," Yul'Anahaen asked in mock surprise and insult, "You wound me mother!"

Cryst'veyhl's laughing sounded like clear crystal chimes before she settled down to a chuckle, "It is said a good negotiator knows how to use the carrot or the stick to get the best result. However, a truly masterful negotiator knows when to use them, and to what measure. There were times I thought Yul'Anahaen was going to chase that poor Anthiehl Vale right out of the house and down to the gate, and then at other times I thought she just might invite him to her bed even though his wife was standing right there."

"He is a very fine specimen of his sex," Yul'Anahaen chuckled as she reminisced over the Alfar's broad shoulders, wild platinum hair, piercing golden eyes, and athletically muscled body, "I would be lying if I said that the thought hadn't passed though my mind. He would make an outstanding donor for the next child I make…"

"Mother! Don't be crass," Glenna gasped with a wave of her hand rejecting the thought.

"What," She retorted as if insulted and placed a hand on her breast as if clutching a broken heart, "Do I seem too old now to take a man to my bed? Have I grown ugly, and unable to seduce him? Or, am I so old you think I am uninterested in him or the thought of having children?"

"No, not at all mother," Glenna answered, now defensive, "It's just… Well… Mother you have always struck me as a bit too mercenary. You work and think only of the family… Of our House. I have never seen you make a move that wasn't thoroughly thought out and reasoned. You don't make decisions based on your feelings, and so I wouldn't expect you to change now and do so."

Yul'Anahaen looked back at her pool, but her hand still clutched her breast as she whispered, "You are quite right, daughter. Quite...right… Everything I do is for the furtherance of House Moonlilly. Of course, I could wish that you were a little more mercenary, but still, I am not without heart. I too wish that I could dash off into the wilds with a handsome Alfar and live a wild life of adventure as I danced through the woods under the pale moon's light…"

Glenna's mouth fell open in her surprise. She had never seen her mother so… vulnerable.

Yul'Anahaen finished with a soft sigh before looking into the moonpool's rippling reflections. With a sudden shudder she came out of her reverie and stood up and walked across to take her daughters hands. Pulling Glenna up, she purred, "After tonight House Moonlilly will be aligned with House Vale. We will be their exclusive partner in trafficking and trading Felidae-alfari throughout Folkvangr. They will also use our ships for transporting overseas, and as their partners we shall use our trade contacts in Alfheim, and Vanaheim. The only exception in our exclusive partnership is a pre-existing contract with an Asgardian House that transports their wares throughout Thrudheim and across Atlantis to Asgard in the north and to the lands of Breidablik in the south. This marriage alliance, Glenna, lasts as long as you and Summerset are alive, well, and married…"

"So, what happens should something untold befall me or Summerset," Glenna asked.

"The Villralfar and Dokkalfar both practice a form of levirate and sororate marriage called bloderfingir and brudrgjalda," Cryst'veyhl explained as she examined her fingernails, "Basically, if you die then under the custom of brudrgjalda we must replace you with a near relative. One of your sisters, or even Yul'Anahaen herself should it become necessary. However, should Summerset die unexpectedly, then under their custom of bloderfingir you would have already undergone a ritual where you are wed to the next heir to House Vale."

"Is there another heir?" Glenna asked as her brows furrowed. She couldn't remember meeting any brothers, sisters, or even cousins when she had met Summerset seventy years ago.

"No," Cryst'veyhl answered with a shake of her head, "Their family line is dying out. For the last three generations the women married to their Lords have been having problems carrying their pregnancies to full term. Some of it may be breeding. The Villralfar like many Nottalfar and Ljosalfar nobles have limited their already limited breeding pools by insisting on marriage alliances within classes. Now they are forced to, like so many of us, marry outside their peoples to bring in new blood.

"That seems reasonable," Glenna answered as if it were news to her, but in actuality had known for some time. She and Summerset had talked for many hours on many occasions about the plight befalling not just House Vale but all of the Prime Races.

Her grandmother nodded and continued, "Another reason is believed to be subversion. It is thought that there might be unknown forces actively poisoning the Ladies of House Vale once it becomes known that they are with child. Either way, it is another reason they are seeking an alignment with House Moonlilly. As a Priestess Noble it is well known that I, like my mother and her mother before her, have not married. Our house is a matriarchy and we as priestesses of Seline make sure that the sons and daughters of Moonlilly are clean blooded."

Yul'Anahaen nodded her agreement as she added, "In the same vein, we as priestesses of Seline also specialize in healing and fertility."

Glenna smiled knowingly as she nodded, "And no doubt you used all of their ills and needs to negotiate to our advantage."

"Of course." Yul'Anahaen retorted, her tone implying that it should have been obvious.

"Okay, so, now you know the basics," Yul'Anadaen said, bringing the meeting to a conclusion, "Go on to your room, Glenna. You have many preparations before your wedding tonight beneath Seline's Moon!"

"Yes mother!" Glenna agreed with an excited smile.

With a quick curtsy to her mother and then her grandmother, she hurried away.