With the matter of the marriage decided, and the First Prince no longer there to facilitate the conversation, a brief silence fell upon the room. I suddenly felt awkward with our seating arrangement. Even if he was to be my marriage partner, to continue sitting on a beast general’s lap seemed a little much. However, I couldn’t think of a way to free myself without causing a fuss.
“So, little human,” Rastari said to me after a pause, “you used to live in one of the eastern border towns?”
I looked up at him and cautiously nodded my head. I hoped he wasn’t planning to continue the line of questioning from earlier. I wasn’t ready to try to face those memories again.
“Did you meet with beastmen often then? Is that why you don’t stink of fear the way the rest of these humans do?” To my relief, he started asking questions that were far easier for me to answer.
I shook my head to say no, then pointed at Andrian and shrugged my shoulders. I was trying to tell him that Andrian was the only one, but I wasn't sure if my meaning would be clear. It had been a long time since I'd tried to communicate with someone.
Did they really smell fear like it was a scent? I wondered if the First Prince smelled afraid.
Rastari seemed to have understood what my gestures were meant to convey, as he nodded his head and continued, “Well I, for one, am delighted by this turn of events. I wasn’t looking forward to marrying some fragile human female who trembles at the mere sight of me.”
He laughed loudly after he said that. It seemed that the tiger general was fond of laughing. If I hadn't known better, I probably would have found his large, dark form and sparkling white fangs to be scary, but I was fairly confident that underneath his imposing exterior was the heart of a good man. Andrian's father had been like that too.
He then asked, “Do you know much about the Beastlands?”
I shook my head again. I had spent a lot of time with Andrian and his father, but they lived a rather isolated existence and I didn't know anything about how the Beastlands worked.
“Well, first off, we don’t have nobles and royals the way you humans do. You get what you earn and there’s no such thing as birthright. Nobody is gonna treat you special just because you’re the son of a duke or the mate of a general. But I don’t get the feeling you that like that sort of thing anyway, do you?”
No, no I wouldn’t like it. After life in my father’s house, I had experienced enough of the so-called nobility for a lifetime. The life of a commoner sounded rather appealing. A new life, similar to the one that was taken from me. A kind marriage partner who I dared to believe would treat me well. It all sounded too good to be true. It was certainly better than someone like me deserved.
“I’ll leave it to Andrian to explain the details, but I wonder," Rastari paused and smiled mischievously, "do you know anything about how mating works?”
“Rastari…” Andrian said nervously, a hint of warning in his tone.
I quickly indicated I didn’t know, curious what Rastari might say that could make Andrian sound like that. Was there something I didn't know?
“You humans choose mates based on what?” Rastari continued, unconcerned by the warning in Andrian’s voice. “Good bloodline? Power? Politics, perhaps? In the Beastlands, we choose our mates based on mutual desire. We usually find the person we’re meant to be with through their scent. We call that scent their pheromones. Under normal circumstances, there’s no arranged marriage. It goes against our instincts to be with someone we didn't choose. But intertribal relations are widely accepted and choosing a mate of the same gender is also fine. If I recall correctly, you humans only allow males and females to join. That was part of the reason your father sent you here, wasn’t it? Because he thought your gender would anger me? Fucking idiot. Anyway, my point is that, to us, the pheromones are what matter. Humans have them too, by the way. You’re not evolved enough to notice them, but you have them and we can smell them.”
Pheromones, huh? So beastmen found their partners by smell. I didn’t know why he thought that was important to tell me. Was he trying to warn me that one day Andrian would find his mate and I would be abandoned?
“Fascinating fact,” Shidah added, “There are actually a lot of beastmen who choose their mates when they’re just cu–”
“I think that's enough,” Andrian cut him off, “I’ll explain it to him later.”
I twisted around to look at him, but his attention was focused on the other two generals. He looked, for lack of a better word, desperate. Like he was pleading with them.
Then I realized what the generals were trying to tell me, and what Andrian was trying to hide. He had probably already found his mate a long time ago and wanted to avoid telling me.
Was it possible that he couldn’t be with his mate anymore because he wanted to help me? I instantly felt both guilty and grateful, but I also felt something else. Something that I couldn’t quite make sense of. Was I disappointed?
Wait, why was I disappointed? Getting out of Vrayna alive and starting over in the Beastlands was more than enough. This was the best outcome I could have ever hoped for. It would just be greedy to expect him to give up his mate for me.
I promised myself that when the time came, I would be happy for him, that I would step aside and support them.
Over the course of the early afternoon, I learned a lot about the Beastlands.
The Beastlands were divided into three regions, and each region was further divided between the different animal tribes. The tribes all shared a common hierarchy; they had a main village run by a council of elders, the head shaman of the village, and a speaker for the people, who all reported to a main governing body for the region.
Before the war, a general’s job wasn’t to wage war, but to stand guard against the monsters of the wildlands. Unlike the human land of Vrayna, where magic was rare, the Beastlands were full of magic. Beyond the Beastlands lay the wildlands, a land of wild magic that bred monsters and creatures beyond the scope of imagination. A general’s job was to hold the border, protect their village, and keep the people safe from the monsters– until Vrayna started a war with them.
Rastari had been a general of the tiger tribe for over ten years, earning the position when he was twenty three years of age. He was a powerful warrior who had been elected general after rallying his village's soldiers against a group of orcs who had killed the former general. From the teasing that came from the other two, I gathered that he enjoyed himself with both women and men of any tribe, letting his nose decide whose bed he would end up in next. He'd been forced into his role in the marriage treaty due to an incident involving a superior's daughter. When they told me I’d dodged a bullet in the partner swap, I couldn’t help but agree.
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Shidah was a general from one of the bear tribes from the north. He’d been a general for over ten years and was a seasoned veteran of many battles against the monsters of the wildlands on the northern border. His mate, a fellow bear, was waiting back home for him with their five cubs. He was stern but gentle, and I imagined he was a good father to his cubs. His appearance was deceptively menacing, as he was soft and serene, and seemingly at peace with everything around him.
Coraggio came from one of the eastern wolf tribes. Like Andrian, he was a new general, having taken over halfway through the war when the previous general was killed in battle. He was the only one of the group who had fought on the front lines against Vrayna. He was more reserved than the other generals, but he was kind to me whenever he did speak. Despite being the only one in the room with human blood on his hands, he somehow seemed like the most harmless of the group. Something told me that was a carefully planned illusion.
But the person I most wanted to hear about remained quiet. I managed to learn that he had become a general only a few moon cycles prior, after the previous lion general decided to retire. He had asked to be included in the marriage treaty contingent, hoping to find his long lost childhood friend, me.
But that was all he would tell me. He seemed reluctant to say anything more than that, so I didn’t get to hear his stories like I did with the others. I had no way of asking, but I thought he might be worried that I’d feel guilty if I knew the truth: that he had to leave his mate behind to find me. I wished he wouldn’t worry and that he would feel comfortable being honest. I could bear to hear the truth. I never expected a love match anyway.
Sometime early in our conversation, servants came in to serve us drinks and lunch. The meal, which seemed to cater to the beastmen's tastes, consisted of large sandwiches filled with hot sliced meat in a peppery gravy and a thick stew filled with vegetables I didn’t recognize. The stew was difficult to eat while sitting on someone’s lap, but I managed to stuff myself regardless.
When the sun started to get lower in the sky, shortly after the third movement of descent, there was a knocking at the door and a collection of Palace servants, led by Lord Erris, entered the room. The beastmen were to follow one group with Lord Erris, who would help them dress and groom themselves, and I was to follow another with the same purpose.
When I tried to get up, Andrian wasn't willing to let me go and hugged me tightly. I wasn’t able to properly protest it myself, but thankfully Rastari stepped in, reminding Andrian that I had to get ready for the banquet if we were to continue with the engagement. He reluctantly let go of my waist.
It would have been a lie to say that I wanted to leave the safety of those warm arms. This whole afternoon had been a rare and precious experience for me. Andrian’s embrace made me feel secure and safe, and I had enjoyed listening to the generals talk.
I wondered if the four beastmen knew what an incredible gift they had given me by treating me with such kindness. It had been so long since I had done something so simple as sitting around a table with friends. I hoped there would be more days like this in the future.
A voice in the back of my mind told me that hope was dangerous and useless, but this small bit of hope felt like my first drink of water after years of being parched. I needed that sip so badly that it didn’t matter if the water might be poisoned.
The Palace servants took me to a dressing room similar to the one Amelie had brought me to earlier. This one, however, was much larger and grander, decorated in white and gold, with glittering gems worked into elaborate designs around the windows. While I stared wide-eyed at the sparkling dressing room, one of the servants, an older woman with grey streaks in her black hair, began organizing the others and barking orders.
Since I had bathed that morning, the first order of business was to fix my “common” looking hair. I was led through a set of shimmering silver curtains into a room with harsh white lighting that made me want to cover my eyes. The walls and floor were all white and silver, further emphasizing the garishness of the lighting.
They sat me in a chair that resembled a stool with armrests, and began cutting off my shaggy hair. They styled it in a manner that they claimed was popular with the younger nobility, with bangs that swept across my forehead and got in the way when I blinked.
A different suit had been chosen for me to wear to the banquet, pale green with only a single center button to hold the jacket closed. The shirt was a dense black with yellow designs along the collar, and there were black pants and a pair of heeled boots for me to wear as well.
Shorn and adorned, I was led to a mirror and was instantly entranced by the image reflected there. The clothes, the hair, and some other subtle touches had transformed me into someone new. I felt like a butterfly that had emerged from its cocoon and discovered that it was no longer a worm. Seeing my self admiration, the servants looked pleased with themselves.
I was ushered back to the same room I’d spent the afternoon in and found the First Prince sitting alone at the table, waiting for me. He too was dressed for the evening, the perfect embodiment of the Royal family, a vision of golden fabric that shimmered and clung to his graceful figure. His golden eyes sparkled more vividly than before, making his suit look like a pale imitation of the real thing.
“Ah, Julien,” he greeted me, using my father’s name for me once again. “First of all, thank you for your cooperation in this matter. I will not forget your loyalty and devotion.”
He gave me a disarming smile before getting down to business. “Of the nobles present tonight, we can count on the support of less than half, so be on your guard when people approach you. So far, the only duchy that has openly supported the treaty is Shelfort in the east. Sharing the largest border with the Beastlands, the eastern lands have been devastated by the war and have opposed it from the beginning. We can count on the Shelfort nobles to be on our side.”
What he said made sense to me so I gave him a brief nod to indicate my understanding. I hadn’t expected things to be so complicated. It all seemed a bit much for my introduction to noble politics.
“Naturally your father is in favor of war,” the First Prince explained, “not just war, but total annihilation. He has publicly declared that the so-called subhumans of the Beastlands are nothing more than animals that must be eradicated for our safety, using the actions of his own men as justification. The western duchy of Lindenfort shares his views. Your stepmother hails from the west, so it’s no surprise that they would side with Ramport on this matter. The wild card is the northern duchy of Misenport. There seems to be some internal turmoil regarding their stance on this. We cannot count on them, nor can we discount them.”
I listened wide-eyed as he explained the mess I had been thrust into the center of. At least there were some, albeit few, who stood on the side of peace.
“I’ll be honest with you,” the First Prince continued, “The majority of this nation is still clamoring for blood, and I don’t have enough allies among the nobility. My brother claims to be acting in my best interests, but there are far too many nobles who would rather see him seated upon the throne. He swears he has no interest in such things, but I no longer feel like I can trust him. My father, the King, has chosen to trust my judgment regarding the peace treaty, not because he actually wants peace with the Beastlands, but to show the ducal houses that he supports me. However, I fear that if I fail in this endeavor, I may lose what little support I have.”
I was surprised to hear of the First Prince’s concerns. It had never occurred to me that someone as powerful as he could feel threatened or weak. Not being able to trust one’s own family was something I understood all too well.
“Part of our goal tonight is to show that the beastmen aren’t the monsters we think they are, and that we really can coexist. Most of the people you encounter tonight will be looking for ways to put pressure on me, possibly by trying to prove we’re forcing you into this. Make sure you never forget that they don’t care about your wellbeing at all, and just want an excuse to make war. They want the resources of the Beastlands, but they refuse to share them. Instead of trade, they advocate force because they don't consider them people. Your father is the perfect example. He assumed that the beastmen were so irrational and animalistic that his spiteful little trick would work.”
I smiled a little as he said that. Hearing the way he spoke about my father, I couldn’t help but want to trust him, if only a little.
“From here on out, I’ll be relying on you and General Rastari to make this work. And… please make it look like you’re happy,” he pleaded to me. “The King could still overrule me if the nobles push hard enough.”
It was as I expected. Actually, it was better than I expected. But there was one thing that concerned me. Had no one told the First Prince that the Beastlands had also changed their marriage partner?
Before I had a chance to worry about it, the beastmen returned with Lord Erris.