Partner

I'm about to leave for three or four days and here I am writing about gods instead of sex. I'm wondering if I can leave like a cliff hanger, like I had the last time I went away for like a day or something... but I'm doubting that I'd manage to do it, considering I WANT to do it.

Ah, well.

Read, Review and Enjoy




A month without sex and Mik was going mad. Essuan stopped offering the tea and Mik didn’t bother asking for it. There were times when his cheek hurt to high hell but he tried his best to ignore it. Mari had cameras in every apartment, on all time, night or day. In all the rooms.

All the rooms.

Crazy fucking bitch.

After a day of watching Paw wander the apartment, annoyed and glaring up at the corners of the rooms, Mik dragged the Sidhe out and to the pool. Which had been renovated. Again.

More plants, larger windows. A water slide. Not a large one, but one big enough to be amusing to a three year old, perhaps. The Sidhe thought it was the best thing around. Paw and Mik were the only ones in the pool that day, the usual Sidhe seemingly finding other places to be, other things to do.

Paw glanced around the pool’s large room and sighed.

“Even here no privacy.”

“Annoying, isn’t it?” Mik murmured, tossing his shirt to the side before sliding into the pool, “to always be watched.”

“No wonder people go mad.” Paw dropped his shirt and his shorts at the poolside and eased himself, butt naked, into the water, “Sidhe don’t watch each other constantly, only some times, privacy is given when asked, not earned, and it cannot be revoked just because a new leader comes in.”

“Well. Not much we can do,” Mik muttered, wading away from Paw, “Mari isn’t about to give in to threats and doesn’t care if we’re already in a relationship.”

“She’s not going to break us up?”

“Souse made it very clear that if she tries, he’ll give you every computer in the apartment complex. What exactly did that mean?”

Paw swam past Mik, into the deep end and swung around so that he was floating on his back, “remember when I said I may have slightly manipulated people online?”

“Yes.”

“I found out that Galt was going to separate us. His password was really easy… anyway. I. Sort of. Lowered the military popularity by about ninety percent over night and then blackmailed him into dropping the whole idea.”

“Ninety percent? That’s impossible.”

“Not really. Photoshop and a puppy. Photoshop and a Sidhe. People are really stupid. Obvious to me, but they didn’t realise. So. Military popularity drops and Galt’s job is suddenly on the line. Galt took away the computer after Paw fixed the popularity ratings.”

“Amongst the people, that is a terrible thing to do.”

“Why fight honourably, when they expect you to?” Paw murmured, floating past Mik, “People fight honourably, Sidhe have no concept of that. Strongest man wins. Clever. That’s what we do. Who cares who is stronger? Who out numbers who? Use the brain. Paw is not going to go to Galt and argue until he is blue when Galt will not change mind. Paw will, however, lower military popularity and remove Galt if Galt tries something stupid like separating Mik and Paw against our wills.”

Mik snorted, his eyes following Paw, “so why not just do the same with Mari?”

Paw made a face and gracefully turned on the water, planting his feet on the pool’s floor a few feet away from Mik, “Mari cannot be black mailed. Or if Paw did, Mari would find some way to blackmail Paw back. Illuens are smart.”

“Illuen?”

“Illuen, Rahluen, Tahluen, Deun?” Paw frowned as Mik shook his head, “the high priests of the gods?”

“They have their own last name?”

“Yes, Illuen has been high priest to Illuva since Illuva became a god. Illuva only accepts brightest, most competent people. When businesses look for consultants, they look for the minor branches of the Illuen line. When universities look at applications from students for doctor classes, they accept first Tahluens. Deuns practically run the war and peace business and Rahluens run the porn industry, the prostitution rings, the toy factories. Adult toys, that is. If it’s about sex, Rahluen runs it. If it’s about healing, Tahluen runs it, if it’s about war or peace, Deun runs it, if it’s about conceptualization, plotting, think tanks, idea centers, Illuen runs it. The families are hugely profitable, any person would give their balls to have their daughters and sons marry into the lines.”

“I’ve never heard of them,” Mik muttered, making a sound at the back of his throat.

“Because Deuns are in war and peace and that is the closest Mik has come to them.”

“Wait… I remember something about a Tallen doctor.”

Paw gave Mik a look, “Tallen not same as Tahluen.”

“Okay, so she’s a crazy bitch.”

“Who follows the goddess of the Sidhe. To play with her is to play with the goddess.”

Mik shrugged, “so play with her. She’s not going to kill off all the Sidhe just because of you.”

Paw frowned at Mik, “Paw isn’t afraid of Illuva. She would never raise a hand to hurt a Sidhe. De. On the other hand… would.”

“De is the god of chaos, isn’t he?”

“Yes. Koln follows De, Mari follows Illuva, causes problems. Illuva and De do not get along but are mated none the less. To pick on Illuva is to call forth De’s wrath, to betray De is to bring down Illuva’s wrath. But never have the two religions seen eye to eye. Where De says yes, Illuva says no, where Illuva says up, De says down. They are complete opposites and yet the same.”

Mik ran a wet hand through his hair, looked down at his feet through the water and then back up at Paw, “I really don’t like religion. It’s confusing and doesn’t make sense.”

“What is confusing?”

“If Illuva stands for order, why do people use her name as a synonym for chaos?”

Paw shrugged, “When Illuva becomes chaotic, De becomes calm, and vice versa. They are a balancing act, just as when Rahl-ta became good, Tahl-ra became bad,” Paw saw the look on Mik’s face and sighed, “It happened, okay?”

“I’ll believe you…”

“And most people follow Illuva because she finds order in chaos, therefore if there is chaos in your life, it is not De, but Illuva rearranging her pieces. She is supposed to be the patron god of practically everything but she has only ever declared herself as the patron god of the Sidhe. People put other definitions to her and try to explain her but her being is so extreme, so large, that none could put just one word to her. Even her name, Illuva, is altered by people. Before Illuva she was Illuhlva, meaning one past the moon’s brilliance. Don’t ask on that translation. And before Illuhlva she was Eluhlvua, meaning one with universe, or one with everything. Before that, she was known as Elunea, moon child.”

“So… which is her true name?”

“She answers to all, but can be mastered by none of them. No person can bring her spirit into being because she has hidden her true name from all but her highest priests, the high priest of Illuva, who, upon his deathbed will share the secret with his successor and who will share it with his successor and so on. She has given her true name to one other and that other has never spoken it out loud for fear of cementing her into the mood she is in at that very moment.”

“De. She told her mate what her name was.”

“Right,” Paw smiled at Mik and splashed in the water a bit, “De is like a godfather, a stepfather, a… male influence… on the Sidhe. He protects us because Illuva loves and cherishes us, but he will not hesitate to kill one of us for mocking her.”

“Why is Illuva so popular?”

“Paw told Mik. She stands for all. Rahl-ta stands for sex, something nearly everyone has. But Illuva has stood for death and taxes and life and all those things. She is said to be omnipotent, to be the only god to ever be able to bend, without a doubt, a man’s will to her desires. She bows to Rahl-ta and so the father of the gods is still permitted, oh so graciously, to exist in popular culture. But he does not offer healing miracles as Tahl-ra does, nor is he mated to the goddess, as De is. So he is not as popular. But that does not mean he does not have power.”

“And so Paw won’t blackmail Mari.”

Paw sighed, “Paw is trying to enlighten Mik on religion, but yes, Paw will not blackmail Mari.”

Mik huffed out a breath, “I want to have sex.”

Paw looked startled, “even after what Paw did… Mik still wants to…”

“It’s been over a month, Paw, I’m nearly healed, Essuan’s urging me to ‘exercise’ and even Lillow seems to keep making comments about how we sleep in separate beds. I want both, sex and for us to sleep in the same bed again.”

“Mik forgives Paw?”

“Mik forgave Paw a long time ago. A wise person once told me … how did it go… what happens in the past is in the past, it doesn’t affect the now… no, that’s not right.”

Paw was at Mik’s side in an instant, as if there was not water separating the two of them and wrapped his arms around Mik’s neck tightly. The Sidhe buried his face in Mik’s neck and tightened the embrace.

“Thank you.”


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