The Many Lives of Cadence Lee

  I had a few more surprises in the following days. The first, and largest, was that Prince Sut was already married. I have to confess that was a real blow to my determination to live as Princess Hemere, it seems even in my introspection I was naive. What, after all, was I expecting? Father had many wives, concubines, and mistresses. Even if I had been Sut’s first wife, I was unlikely to be his only one. As it was, if we were married, I would be his second wife.

  I was instinctively put off by this, but after I thought about it I realised it was not as much of a big deal as I had initially felt. I wasn’t marrying for love after all, so why would it matter if my husband didn’t give me his full attention? If anything, this was ideal; the more wives there were, the more time I had to myself, right?

  …

  I think that, but I don’t really feel it. I wouldn’t be happy with having to share a husband, even in this situation. I think I can tolerate it, so long as there aren’t too many and I keep a certain emotional distance from Sut. Emotionally, I would need to be able to like the man enough to share a bed with him but not be so in love that I became jealous of the others who did as well.

  I think that I would find this far more intolerable if this wasn’t my third life and there were many more ahead of me supposedly. In that context, I’m not making such a big choice, am I? Except, that if I did only have this life, the threat my siblings pose would essentially mean that I could either choose to be the Prince’s second wife or I could choose to drink poison and end it all.

  In the end, the treaty was finished and my marriage to [First Prince] Sut was announced. It was strange to hear news of my marriage from a [Crier] before I had been told, and it worsened my nerves considerably. Ra’Sharon didn’t have a practice of marriage ceremonies, which I had always found odd, and as a result - as far as the law was concerned - I was now the second wife of Prince Sut. Just like that.

  I had Aj guide me to where Prince Sut’s quarters and found him on a balcony overlooking Sharon’An, with the wind lightly blowing his robes as he stood watching the bustling docks. I wasn’t sure what to say now that I was here, and so simply approached him slowly while trying to work out how to greet him. He turned towards me, and I stopped when he met my eyes.

  “I suppose you have heard the news, Hemere?” He asked, as he walked over to me. I still wasn’t sure what to say, so I simply nodded and he continued, “I must confess, I find Ra’Sharon to be strange in many ways. When we return to Hasa we will have to have a ceremony and a celebration of our marriage.”

  He walked right up to me, reaching his hand out to brush my hair away and trace his fingers down my face to just under my chin so that he could tilt my face up so that I was looking in his eyes. Sut had a sharp face, somewhat softened by his short, curly beard. His hair was long, but above his shoulders, and fell behind his ears, held back by a golden circlet. His dark eyes seemed to search mine as we stood there.

  “I am aware that I am probably not your first choice,” Sut spoke softly. “This is not a match of love - no, it is your fear, my own desire, and your father’s desire for a stable deal. Yet, I hope that you are not unhappy with me.”

  “I am not unhappy,” I almost whispered in my reply. “I also want this treaty to work and I am not opposed to marrying you… As for love, who knows what the future might hold? From what I know of you, I believe I can come to love you as we become closer and I hope that you can come to love me as well.”

  That got me a smile as Sut let his fingers trail down my neck and I shivered despite the heat. Then, suddenly, he pulled me towards him and kissed me. I was surprised, but as Sut held me my confused feelings melted away. There was more to a relationship than just love and marriage. There were feelings and intimacy before that point, and my confusion over the latter parts didn’t need to distract me from the former ones.

  So I closed my eyes and leaned in to the kiss, my arms going over his shoulders and his arms going around my back. He guided us back towards the bed and our lips only parted when my calves touched the bed frame so that he could pull my dress off and toss it to the floor. There Sut paused, allowing his eyes to take me in from head to toe and then back up to my own eyes with a look of hunger on his face. A second later he had swept me off my feet and was gently guiding me down onto the bed.

  “I- Shou- Shouldn’t I take off my,” I try to gasp out as Sut starts to kiss his way down my neck. “My jewelry…? Ah!?”

  He had kissed his way past the nape of my neck and collarbone down to my breasts. When he reached the nipple of my left breast, my thoughts became even more scattered than before. Sut seemed to enjoy causing me to stutter and I could feel his wicked smile against my skin, flicking his tongue over my nipple to make me gasp. Moving from my left breast to my right breast, he paused for only half a second.

  “That would take far too long,” his voice came across as a low growl as he met my eyes from between my breasts. “And I am not a patient enough man to wait that long…”

  “But… I…” I didn’t manage to complete a thought before he began again on my right breast. Sut’s left hand reached up to my other breast and his right hand trailed down my stomach, taking a moment to trace my belly button, before moving down between my legs.

  And he knew what he was doing; stimulating my clitoris before slowly inserting a finger inside me. He had me shuddering under him, panting and moaning. The tingling feelings of pleasure began to build within me as I clung to him. I felt his fingers moving inside me, the fingers on his other hand on my breast and the feeling of his lips on my other breast and I started to breathe faster and faster, my heart pounding in my chest.

  “Su… I…” The intensity of those feelings continued to build, my breaths coming out in short gasps, my muscles tightening. “I- I think…”

  Then the intensity peaked and the sudden release ran through me as every muscle in my body spasmed. Pleasure wracked my body and I couldn’t speak or move or think and I could do nothing but hold on until the end. I collapsed back on the bed panting, a fuzzy feeling of a pleasure warming my body.

  While I was just laying there, limp, Sut stood up. Before I could figure out how to form thoughts and words, Sut began to pull off his robes. He was impressively muscled, more than he would be if he was just a [First Prince], and he had a scar that went from his left shoulder to his right hip as if some great beast had clawed him. As for what was lower down… All I can say is that it seemed… big. It isn’t like I had many points of comparison, but that is just what it seemed to me.

  I did try to sit up; to try and voice a protest of some kind- although I am not sure what I would protest - but my limbs were like jelly and his lips met mine before I could say anything. I suppose I could have stopped him if I really wanted to. Thinking was hard, but I could have ignored the ecstasy that had melted my limbs to liquid and cleared my thoughts if I had tried. I didn’t try.

  Our skin touched as he was on top of me again and I reveled in the feeling. I ran my hands along his scar, feeling the difference in texture where his skin met the scar tissue itself. I was getting excited again, intoxicated and yet nervous. I could feel him against me and the heat of it ratcheted up my apprehension and anticipation.

  I am not sure I would call him gentle. Sut certainly wasn’t rough or uncaring, on the contrary I was able to tell that he was trying his best not to hurt me and to make me feel good. However, that hunger was still in his eyes. A hunger that told me that he was going to take me and that my only choice was to enjoy it.

  Sut entered me slowly, and I bit my lip against the pain. It didn’t hurt nearly as much as I thought it would, although it did hurt at first, but after that was just a feeling of fullness and warmth. He felt big and hot inside me, in a wonderful way. Almost too much, but not quite; right on the edge of what I thought I could possibly handle when his full length was inside me.

  Before I could gather my thoughts, Sut withdrew and thrust back in causing me to gasp and my thoughts to scatter to the winds again. He paused again for a moment, looking me over and making certain he had not hurt me, before beginning again. I gasped and moaned with every thrust as I writhed under him.

  I felt the tingling pleasure build up again, waves of it increasing with every thrust. It wasn’t long before I found release again, but all Sut did was pick up his tempo. I was too sensitive and his every movement sent electric feelings through me; it was too much, and my thoughts went from scattered to blank as I lost myself to the sensations.

  For the third time, that feeling came again. I was so sensitive, the feeling came faster - almost overwhelmingly so - and Sut was also going harder and faster. Our breathing mixed as we moved against each other, my eyes half lidded, clouded with lust. His eyes wide with hunger and victory.

  Finally and suddenly, Sut thrust deep inside me and pulled me close. I felt the pulsing and warmth within me, and that set me off again. I cried out and held on feeling the waves of euphoria and fullness and warmth that dominated my mind. Finally, it ended and I collapsed back on to the bed in exhausted bliss.

  Sut rolled off of me to lay beside me on the bed and I cuddled up to him. Muscled it was, his upper arm was still somewhat softer than putting my head on wood and I was far happier to do so. I slipped my arm across his chest as he lay on his back, resting against him in the afterglow.

  “How was it?” he asked softly, lightly using the arm I was lying on to gently stroke my hair.

  “Amazing,” I responded with a happy sigh. “Almost indescribable, I have never felt anything remotely like it before.”

  It isn’t like I hadn’t been touched or mastrubated before, but both solo activity and the inexperienced and clumsy attempts of my first life failed to compare to this. Even the aftermath was incredible. I felt bliss and contentment that simply filled my entire body.

  I tilted my head up to look at his face, noting that he looked similarly content but also satisfied as he looked back at me. Satisfied wasn’t quite the right word though, it was more like…

  “Don’t you look proud,” I am amused by that, and can’t help but trying to tease him a little. “As amazing as that was, I will expect an even better performance next time.”

  “Is that a challenge?” He is equally amused by my attempt, and his words contain that thrum of a low growl that sends a shiver of excitement down my spine, “because you should be careful, lest I decide to take you up on it.”

  His hand glided down from my hair along my spine to my buttocks, grabbing a cheek as he said those words with a grin on his face. Sut seemed to enjoy the little “eep!” sound I made, but relaxed his grasp and went back to stroking my hair again. I admit, there was a part of me that wanted to take him up on that, but it was the middle of the day and he had already tired me out. My schedule wasn’t exactly full right now, but I did have dinner to attend tonight.

  Instead, I reluctantly turned my thoughts elsewhere. Tracing his scars and feeling the muscle beneath them I asked, “You must have another Class giving you this boundless stamina, a [Soldier] or a [Warrior] type Class? It must have been difficult to obtain considering how combat overlaps with being a [First Prince].”

“Both, actually.” He replied lazily, “I am a [General] and a [Champion]. The effort will be worth it when I ascend to the throne and consolidate my Classes. My father and I have been working towards this goal for a long time now.”

  “Oh! I can help with that,” I thought, recalling my research from four years ago. “When I was younger I did some work into understanding how Classes and Class consolidation worked!”

  I was excited to explain, but in the end all I got was a chuckle. Sut went on to explain that what I had thought of as a breakthrough was well known by anyone who mattered.

  “Usually,” he said. “This kind of knowledge is passed from parent to child in the upper classes. I suppose no one ever brought it up to you because by the time you would have been told, you had already figured it out. That is amazing, to have already understood the mysteries of the System so young.”

  I was disappointed to learn that my knowledge wasn’t as valuable as I thought it was. Father hadn’t confiscated it because it was new knowledge, but rather because I had desired to share it freely with everyone. Personally, I doubted he would have ever explained to me if I hadn’t figured it out for myself, but that is perhaps just my own cynicism talking.

  “Well, regardless, I can’t say I am entirely happy with that idea,” I said, pouting slightly at his amusement at my own disappointment, but then continuing on seriously. “A consolidation with a [Champion] Class… That will put you on the front line of conflict. It puts you at risk.”

  “True, but it also makes me much harder to kill,” he replied. “You don’t need to worry about me, Hem. I have Endurance and Vitality like you have Charisma.

  “Besides, the synergy between the Skills of my Classes give me the ability to turn the [Soldiers] around me into warriors without peer. I might be leading the charge, but the weight of it is in the army behind me.”

  I can’t say I know anything about battlefield tactics, so I cannot really argue with him. In the future, that should be something I make sure to learn though because I imagine it will be useful for me in one life or another. Still, the idea of a [General] leading a charge just seems wrong to me.

  I let my thoughts wander for a while, just relaxing at Sut’s side for a time. Eventually, I heaved a sigh, noting that the angle of the sunlight pouring into the room indicated that it was getting later in the day. We had to get up, despite how much I would rather not.

  “Don’t worry my dear Hem,” Sut said, noting my reluctance and watching my naked body with renewed hunger as I got up to find my dress. “We will have the entire night together as well, and many nights from here on out.”

  Despite the heat, I shivered at his words. Perhaps this would be far better than I had thought

  [Class Consolidation! [Imperial Princess] and [Muse] have Consolidated into [Siren Princess] lvl 15!]

  [You have gained the Skill [In the Eye of the Beholder]!]

  [Your Skill [Inspiring Voice] has upgraded into [Siren’s Song]!]

  [Your Skill [Muse’s Inspiration] has upgraded into [Siren’s Inspiration]!]

  [In the Eye of the Beholder]: If someone finds you attractive they only are able to use two thirds of their effective Willpower against your Skills.

  [Siren’s Song]: Your voice - especially when singing - inspires emotions in your audience depending on what you desire to inspire. Allies listening to your voice will gain boosts to their Endurance and Willpower while enemies who hear your voice may experience hallucinations. This Skill is heavily affected by your Charisma and Magic Stats.

  [Siren’s Inspiration]: You can charge your art with emotion and your art will share that emotion with the audience when experienced. Those who view your art are more likely to have a feeling of awe and friendly viewers may become inspired by your work, boosting their Acuity, Dexterity, Willpower, and Endurance temporarily. Enemies who experience your work may be caught in an illusion or experience hallucinations for a short period of time. The stronger the emotion used to charge this, the greater the effect. This Skill is heavily affected by your Charisma, Willpower, and Magic Stats.