The Wheel Has Turned Around: Chapter Five: Counseling

Think of the ills from which you are exempt. - Joubert

"There are the obvious reasons why I like him," Rein said smoothly, popping a fig into her mouth and slowly pushing it to the side to chew. Vercition raised and eyebrow and rolled his eyes. Rein wasn't watching. Were it anyone else but Rein's personal physician, she might have had him flogged. But Vercition was the first person to treat her not like a goddess but as a human, and a patient. The friend ship struck fast.
Vercition, for his part, however, was no psychiatric doctor. He was in the field of physical medicine. But women, he supposed - he'd avoided them as much as possible his whole life - were like this; they constantly needed someone to talk to and to "share their feelings," with.
That wasn't quite fair to Rein, and he chided himself. Rein was a fully functional thinking woman- a rarity, which was why Vercition liked her so well.
But why did women need to be so sensitive all the time? In some cases, women actually needed to be stronger than their male counter parts, from what Vercition had observed. A woman who wept and wailed all the time was useless save for two things: marriage and procreation, though the results of such procreation could be a bit disheartening. But it was perfectly true. These were the kind of women - especially if they're family had political ties or she had a good dowry - political men married. That's why men got mistresses.
Ah, mistresses. Now those were the cases when women needed to be stronger than men. A man might be fond of his wife or not, but the one whom he exerted most of his sexual prowess or charm or - in some ways - love onto was always a mistress. A man never came home fuming, stomped around, and had his wife reassure him on how omnipotent he was. The wife would have gone into shock. No, it was the sultry and smooth mistresses that sat patiently and listened to the troubled man, maybe petting his head, or giving him kisses, but always soothing him and telling him how much better he was than anyone else. This had been proven throughout all of history! Albeit that most history was destroyed, but what the doctor remembered was true to this point.
With Kurai, Rein had not even had the privilege of being that weepy sob-by thing that bore his children. She could have put up with the courtesans much better if he'd at least tried to have some progeny with her. Alas, poor thing. Whilst Rein would never really settle for anything less than marriage, she was the sort of person who was a born mistress type. She was that exotic, sultry, smooth sort of woman that everyman coveted but could only shortly own, for that was the role of mistresses.
Everyman, that is, except Vercition. He had no interest in either sex, which allowed him to study it so well. And that is also why Rein put up with him so well.
".And now you're not listening," Rein said with a slight hint of impatience.
"You're right," he said candidly. "I was worlds away. What were you saying?"
"Do you remember the topic?" she tested.
"Yes."
"And it was?"
He flushed slightly, for he really didn't want to discuss the topic, even if he could look at it scientifically. He supposed he'd known Rein that well for that long. He muttered something.
"I can't hear you," she teased.
"You were trying to decide if you'd sleep with Shiro or not," he said angrily.
"Very good," she said smoothly. "To continue: He's handsome to be sure. He's witty, nice to be around, and if I have to sleep with him for the sake of my country, I will!"
"Here, here!"
"But.."
"But?"
"But it still makes me nervous. What do you think I should do?"
Vercition hadn't the faintest idea. "Well, I would suggest sleep with him, simply because I can't see a better alternative. But then, you wouldn't necessarily want him to walk away and you just be left standing there with bastard children or something."
"Exactly!"
"So that leaves only one choice."
"Which is?"
Vercition blinked, as though this should have been obvious. "Why, be yourself, Rein!"
"What?" she asked stupefied. "How will that help? Am I to sleep with him or not?"
"By all means, yes, do, but you've got to be the one who's in control of the situation, otherwise it will never work."
"And how am I to be myself?"
Vercition's eyes twinkled. "Be that goddess you loath to be." And as much as Rein despised being a goddess, she did it very well, and she grinned, for she liked the idea as well. Shiro, the fabled White Stallion of the East, was hailed as a god in some places. It was time that two deities met. Oh, the people would love it, of course. They loved it when different omnipotents collided. As nervous as Rein was, she was quite looking forward to the challenge. That's just the way she was.

.

The only problem Shiro had with horses was that they couldn't talk. Albeit this was probably a good thing, he didn't like it when he needed someone to nod soothingly and tell him the answers to everything without being insufferable about it. Shiro's white stallion seemed to be the only thing like that.
Of course, he couldn't talk.
So Shiro talked instead, and whenever he went into a flurry of emotions and started ranting and raving, and the horse pulled his ears back, nickering and becoming nervous, Shiro would immediately apologize, stroking the soft, smooth, white nose and clucking his tongue and making soothing words. Shiro was doing just such a thing, running his hand down the equine's flawless neck, when he realized that his second in command, and his greatest friend in the entire world was watching him.
Terention had soft, black hair, and eyes the color of sea foam. He was muscular enough for Shiro's use of his tactical head, but was thinly built, none the less. He always smiled, always laughed, never cried - unless it was a lover of his that was involved. He was currently leaning on the door frame of the barn where Shiro had his beloved white horse kept.
"In all the years I've known you," here, Terention had to pause. "How many years have I known you?" he asked.
"Seven," Shiro supplied.
"In all the years I've known you," the black haired beauty continued, "I've never seen you get upset over a woman."
Shiro snorted at him. "Well, at least you'll never be upset over a woman Terention." The young man placed his hand over his breast, feigning hurt.
"You've cut me to the quick, Shiro!"
The general rolled his eyes. "Liar."
"True enough," he admitted with a shrug, walking over and sitting on a hay bale. The young man had been notorious back home in the early years of Shiro's training, for his bisexuality, and the fact it leaned slightly heavier on males. He had as many lovers as a head had hairs, and how he kept them all straight was anybody's guess. Actually, Shiro speculated that was how he lost a few; confusing them for others. Despite all this, he'd never been the least bit interested in Shiro - Shiro was just as glad - for he wasn't his type at all. "Still, she's only a woman."
"Correction," Shiro said, holding up a finger. "She is a queen, not only a woman." Shiro snagged a curry comb from off the rack and entered the white horses' stall to brush him.
"You've had queens for mistresses before, why is this one different?"
"I don't know!" he admitted tersely. "She just is. I feel like I know her; like we've met somewhere before."
"When's the last time you were west?" Terention asked.
"Never," answered Shiro.
"And she east?"
"How should I know?" the dictator snapped.
"So what do you plan to do?"
"Try and ignore her, get my money, and go home."
Home is an empty dream, lost to the night..
Shiro still remembered lines he and others had sung from the past, the long ago past when he'd just been an actor, and nothing more. How wonderfully simple life had been then..
"Shiro, did you hear a word I just said?" Terention shouted at him, gently tapping him on the skull. Shiro shoved him away.
"No, now leave me alone. I want to brush my horse."
Terention gave a hardy laugh. "Why do you need women? You always have your horse."
And while Shiro's beloved white stallion obviously couldn't fill the role a woman had - Shiro's door just didn't swing that way - he had to admit that horses made much more sense to him than women did.

.

"Don't bang your head against the desk, we need that head!" Terention scolded when Shiro had begun to do this when they'd gone to their set of rooms within the palace to think things over. As they had begun to sit and talk, a messenger walked in, informing the Dictator that Her Royal Personage, Queen Rein the First, requested his audience again at her private dinner table. Shiro had groaned and begun to bang his head against the desk.
"Why do the gods torment me?" Shiro wailed into the wood of the desk after the messenger had left. "Do they want me to sleep with her? To rape her for the price of peace?"
"Maybe so," said Terention, who usually was more silly then sensible, but even so, he was speaking the only truly coherent words. "Who are we; we humble mortal men, to defy the gods in such a way?"
"I was hailed as a god, you know," Shiro said, settling into a chair to think. "Naka, Gicar, Leftsa, Simark, even here, Paradia! All hail Shiro, the White Stallion, god of the East!"
Terention raised his goblet of wine to comply with words Shiro hadn't even meant, just spewed off to help him think. "Hail."
"It someone's going to defy the gods, why shouldn't it be me?" he demanded hotly. "I, who have been made one of them, a god in flesh!"
"Because the people would rip you apart, and you know it. People respect those who respect their gods, if I might quote a little Kurai to you."
"Kurai.." Shiro grumbled. "This is his entire fault anyway."
"You didn't have to give him that money. You knew very well the expedition would fail."
"The plan was that he would borrow so much and fail so badly that I could have a good, plausible excuse to annex the West!"
"Well, that didn't work, so think of a new plan, Lord Shiro."
Shiro placed a hand to his temple and began to think, but it didn't work. Obviously, he just had to go to that dinner and try to talk things out with Rein. Maybe he could get a percentage of his money now, and have an excuse to go home and collect the rest later. But everyone would know something was wrong, because that was not like Shiro in the least. He got what was his due, and would fight to the bitter end for it, everyone knew that. He was not going to be turned upside down and loose face over just some woman, Queen of the West or not!

.

"Good evening, Lord Shiro."
Shiro, chastely this time, kissed the queen's hand. "My Lady, it is another unexpected pleasure to be dinning with you again."
Rein looked about ready to say something, when she realized that the servants were dying to know what was going to happen, and sent them scurrying off to do other things. Rein motioned to a chair.
"Please, General, allow me to be candid with you. Sit," she ordered nicely.
"I'd rather stand, if you don't mind," he countered as best he could. She shrugged, and taking a sip of her wine, slid into her own chair across from his at the table.
"Suit yourself. About last night-"
"Last night I did something I'm utterly ashamed of now."
She raised an eyebrow. "You are not an extortionist, then?"
"No, nor a rapist."
"I see."
"I highly doubt you do."
"If sex is what you want, I am more than happy to give it to you."
"I don't," he reassured firmly.
"And what if I do?"
This stunned Shiro completely. He sputtered out words such as "Uhh.."
"I don't think you heard me correctly, General. I asked what if I wanted to sleep with you?"
"Then I'd say you were mad."
She smirked. "It is such a terrible experience?"
"I hope not," he said, shifting his weight on the balls of his feet. "But.. But what if you were to become pregnant?"
"I won't."
"I said if!" he countered agitatedly.
Rein stood, the fabric of her dress waving softly in a slight breeze which came through the window. She walked slowly towards her target, and put her delicate hands on his shoulder. "This is my choice."
"I get a say in it too," he whispered. She just stared at him, her bronze eyes catching the light superbly. Slowly, they kissed, and moved closer towards Rein's large feathered bed, until it was becoming increasingly hard for Shiro to want to say no.
They were pealing each other of jewelry and other inhibitors, managing to wriggle out of more and more clothing. Rein moved behind Shiro to his back to help him remove his shirt. When she finally got it off, she gasped, for painted perfectly on his back, right in between the shoulder blades, all details splendid, was a white stallion.
The white mane flew through the air, each hair delicately painted, it's large brown eyes staring at Rein ferociously, the hooves were black, and the front two reared up menacingly, ready to strike.
"Shiro the White Stallion," Rein whispered.
"Do you like it?" he asked her, surprised. "I got it when I was nineteen and being rebellious. It's the perfect likeness of my own horse."
"You must show him to me sometime."
"Less talk," he said, turning around so that he had her nestled in his grasp. "More touch," he whispered, kissing her delicately.
"I thought you were averse to this?" she teased slyly.
"You have powerful methods of persuasion."

.

The white horse lifted his head at the sound of his master's approach. It snorted and bobbed it's head, sending the silver mane flying into the air. Shiro's hand smoothed over his long nose and whispered "Hush."
The large brown eyes calmed in the way that only Shiro's voice could make them, and his breathing became soft and the horse was gentle in the way that he was only with his beloved master Shiro.
"I guess you don't really like being cooped up like this," Shiro comforted, and privately ached to be on his back riding, flying into the wind. Woman, money, riches; all of these things were nice, but nothing could rival the pleasure Shiro received riding that wild creature, tamed only by his touch. The white horse whinnied and stamped his feet, wanting to be fed and brushed and ridden.
"All in good time, my friend, all in good time," Shiro assured.
"So? How did it go?" Terention asked, leaning against the sill of the barn's door. Shiro looked over his shoulder at his companion.
"I don't kiss and tell, Terention, you ought to know that."
"It's a pity that you don't," the young man pouted. "I'd find you twice as fascinating if you did."
"What, military jargon not enough for you?"
"It all becomes the same after too long."
"Has it been too long for the boy who so desperately wanted to take command?"
"Maybe?" the dark haired beauty said with a shrug. "Would you tell your horse?" he asked, switching back to the other subject.
"If I did, it's only because I know he doesn't tell secrets," the Dictator said slyly.
Terention feigned hurt. "And here I swore you my loyalty and everything!"
Shiro rolled his eyes. "Oh, please, Terention, as if I would even consider telling you what happened!"
"Will you at least tell me if you enjoyed yourself last night?"
"That can mean a great many things, not that I just slept with her."
"Did you?"
"You'll never know."
Exasperated, he sighed. "Well, you can tell me if you had fun or not."
"I did indeed," Shiro finally confirmed, though Terention knew it was too cryptic an answer to provide any real substance.
"You're infuriating!"
"Of course I am, I'm a dictator."
"You don't think you could ever change your mind on that?"
"Sorry, we're both stuck."
"Ah well."
And they just both sort of stood there in that manner for a little while, until finally Shiro got pestered by his eyes boring into his back, imagining whatever it was Terention imagined. The dictator tossed a brush at him and told him to make himself useful and comb the tangles out of the mane of that Chestnut gelding of his before he slit his throat.
Laughing, Terention scuttled away, to the lovely creature he rode and would occasionally think of something as terribly, privately, funny and give short bursts of laughter like a madman, until Shiro, too thought he'd go mad.

.

"Well, Kurai, it's finally happened, and not by you," Rein said smoothly, sipping her goblet of wine as she over-seed the slaves laying the daily sacrifices at the departed "god's" stone feet. Rein lifted an eyebrow at him as though he'd just said something interesting and shook her head.
"I must be mad to miss you in even the slightest," she muttered to herself. She did not put perfectly usable food at his feet because she wished to, but rather to keep herself in good stead with the people.
"You know, for a god, I would have thought you'd have exhibited more sexual prowess. All the other gods do, you know. Of course, you did!..... Just not with me." She took another sip of wine. "And then, you couldn't divorce me for some other 'goddess,' that you would have made love to. No, the people would have your head on a plate in two minutes. I would have cried wolf, only because you hurt my feelings too deeply had you done that."
She looked at her own sandaled feet for a moment, as though they were terribly fascinating. She took another gulp of wine, and looked back up at his stone face - a perfect likeness of that handsome face that had first helped to make life bearable at the Rose, those many years ago. She was surprised to find tears in her eyes. Wiping one away, she asked the question she'd wanted to for years, but now would get no answer for; "Did you love me, Kurai?"
No answer. Of course. Rein knew there wouldn't be. If the slaves did see her crying at the stone feet of her former husband, they would have beamed with pride, for their queen, Rein, was often called the daughter of Atalia, the Serpent Goddess was finally showing her sorrow at the death of her husband. It wasn't completely unfitting for Rein to be named Serpent Goddess, since Rein seemed to be made of such venom when her temper was stoked, as it often had been with Kurai, who had been called the son of Datga, the Stag God. It would seem to the slaves absolutely fitting that this goddess worship and morn her fallen god husband. Of course, they also thought it good she was moving on and protecting the linage by finding another god - Shiro, the White Stallion God from out of the east.
What they didn't know was that Rein was privately cursing him; cursing him for the children she could never have by him, for the coins that were never carved of the Royal family, of the linage she could never leave behind because of him.
Finally, she straightened and glared up at him, spit on his statue - which thank God the servants never saw - and made a promise under her breath. "I might still miss you till the day I die, but remember this: you're the one who lost out. I will find another 'god,' and I will leave my own thumb print in this kingdom! Mark those words, in whatever world you've departed to, Kurai." And, only because tradition dictated it, Rein kissed the stone hand, and sweeping her dress behind her, left.

End Chapter