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In the Shadow of the Ocean (CasualVelociraptor x PhoenixRising82)

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Alice had gotten poor sleep the previous night after neither of them told the other what had transpired in their private conversations with the Emperor. All that Jareth had been able to get from Alice was a promise to tell him what she was thinking soon, although he could probably surmise that it was about the job he didn’t want her to take and she was taking her time to break it to him delicately. Meanwhile, earlier Jareth seemed more emotional to Alice, although Alice found it best to let him be while he was feeling that way instead of immediately trying to fix it.

Going to bed with unresolved tension, however, had led to a whole host of nightmares, and even her nap on the train had been plagued by visions of the destruction from two days ago; the sorrowful eyes of orphaned children being evacuated to the countryside, which had once been her own when she lived on the streets; and even memories of visits to Stormaway Beach being twisted, haunted by Chloe Rose being sent away after accidentally killing their mother, and of 16-year-old’s Alice’s last words to Edward before sending him away to live with the Church as he sat there in stunned silence.

“You’re useless, broken, weak! You’re an anchor dragging me down, Eddie, and I! Hate you!”

Then Alice woke up as she mentally screamed an apology while Edward’s monstrous form lifted her in the air again, being stroked, kissed, helped up by Jareth. That gave her the strength to stand up in the dress that she’d passed out in. They exited the train followed by helpful Xen 3 units carrying their bags, walked onto the Stormaway Village Station platform, and saw the crowded boardwalk and the view of the ocean intruded upon by airships with glowing advertisements on their sides and gaudy flying hotels.

Alice now frowned, “Well, it appears that this place is certainly all about forgetting what it used to be.” That conjured half remembered games of whalers and krakens, singing songs, or acting out Abigail Woods adventures with her siblings in rough sand dunes, wild waves, untamed forests while their mother lay passed out or drunk on the sand. She’d once longed to go back to that time: before her family’s dissolution, her rape, Operation Trench Fall, Elizabeth, the war, all of it. But her mind once again asserted that without everything else, she would never have Jareth.

And in the meantime, that wasn’t a complete answer to Jareth’s statement and she knew it. Nor was it direct and oblique enough for him to move on. So, Alice sighed and continued, “The past never forgets us. So perhaps we shouldn’t forget, and instead...unburden. Say how we feel but not let it linger. And- release stress.” She said that last part with a wink.

After all, while they did have a lot to talk about that was important for their near term future, they also had to rub the salve on each other’s bare chests before bed. Elizabeth may have done their relationship a favor in wounding their hearts this way, as no matter what shit came their way, they always had to touch each other intimately in this daily ritual, and in a way that did not necessarily lead to sex. Of course, Alice appreciated when it did, but sometimes, such a simple, gentle touch from another who cared about her deeply, not to mention the man who had promised to love her for the rest of her life and raise children together, would allow her to rest her mind a little easier. Trust a little more. Let down her armor for him.

This time, however, she’d also secretly put on a tight, revealing bathing dress under her dress that was guaranteed to drive him crazy. They had resolved to swim far out into the ocean to make sure that no one saw his mer form, so that made Alice wonder if he would love her down during or after they applied the salve together back in their room, or if he would be so turned on as to rip her swimwear off, slam his mer-cock into her (which he hadn’t done in a while, out of what Alice had assured him was unfounded concern about hurting the babies somehow) and have his way with her right there in the ocean, where anyone might see them.

The thought of either or even both scenarios (which, knowing his stamina, was certainly a possibility) happening made Alice’s entrance slick with anticipation.
 
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”No. No we certainly won’t ever forget but....indeed, how about we make new things, happier thoughts to later look back on and remember instead, hmm?”

He offered, with a tilt of his head to peer at her, watching her quietly for a moment before a smile spread across his lips. He pecked a light and gentle kiss against her temple before he turned to their Xen’s and instructed them to take their bags to where they’d be staying. Not before drawing his own swimsuit from one of the bags before the mechanical servants did as he asked.

When he turned back to Alice, he nodded toward the row of tents along the beach. Silly things if you asked him, then again, his kind wasn’t as shy as the full on humans tended to be. There was also the matter of fact that he really didn’t want the entire beach to see Alice, call him possessive but she was his soon to be. The papers had already had an absolute field day with their previous news of the two of them, they’d really love getting pictures of the two of them stripped down, unabashedly naked here on the beach.

If they wanted to just get away, quietly, for a while, prudence would be their best option at the moment. Once he watched her disappear into a tent, he slipped into one next to hers.

Really, they should go back to their room and talk about....everything but he wasn’t quite ready to do just that. His own sleep the previous night had been plagued by shifting images, good and bad. Old and new. Present and past.

Alice’s change during the war on Palaidia. What had preceded the attack on their home. Elizabeth and her hellacious minions. How it all might affect their children. Arguments with his father. Great times with his mother and his sister. His sister presenting an entirely new problem with the hell she’d rained down on his home. Octavia. John. The business. The start of his life on land. The weird and the awkward times over the last, give or take, twenty years. Henry. The Empress. The shock both he and Henry shared just hours prior when Jareth had confirmed his own suspicions, watching Henry sprout a tail as he flailed about in the water that Jareth had pushed him into. Another shock when Henry, despite being manhandled by his own father, offered the elder man the position he had.

With a sigh, he swept his hand along his features, realizing he hadn’t even started to change just yet. Having gotten lost in the flurry of thoughts and emotions. Alice was right, they both needed to release some stress. Maybe they’d have both had some semblance of a decent nights sleep if they’d released their stress last night. They’d been too tired, too lost in their own at that time.

When he emerged, he found Alice waving to him from the waters edge. Beaming, glowing. He let his eyes wander over her frame from a distance. Taking in the bathing suit she wore, the teasing flesh where it peeked out between the strands that held it tied around her frame. The bump that even the obsidian hue of material couldn’t hide from his exploring eyes.

An even deeper desire began to stir within him and though, by the presence of that bump, it was clear he’d already claimed her as his, the “beast” within him wanted to do so again and again, unequivocally proclaiming his stake just a little more solidly. Thoughts of the previous night, of the past several weeks in fact, disappeared as he made his way closer to his bride to be. A sound overhead drew everyone’s attention skyward, everyone but him. He hated those flying death traps anyways and he was far too focused on his woman and sating the desires that were clambering around inside of him to even care at the moment. He dropped the shorts of his suit at the waters edge, scooped her up with a quiet grunt and waded further out into the waters, waking until he was waist deep, pausing just long enough to let the ocean soothe over him and claim what belonged to it as long as he was within its grasp.

Bobbing softly in the water, his tail shifting slowly back and forth to keep them afloat, he slipped the ring from his finger and then the one from hers. He slipped his onto her finger and then returned the wedding band back in place. His ring would still be loose on her finger but the wedding ring would hold in in place enough so that it wouldn’t slip off.

”Trust me?”

He murmured and gave her a moment to answer before he ducked beneath the waters surface and swept her further out, further away from the shore and prying eyes or photos. Holding her so she could see what he always saw, so she could watch the marine life around and below them as they swam by.

As he drew closer to an outcropping of rocks, he turned her around, breaking the surface of the water just before he pressed her gently up against the rocks. Deep brown eyes stared into hers a moment before his lips crashed ravenously against hers. The wild, animalistic part of him driving the human part of him. His hands swept over the small strands of material at her sides, plucking them as if he were contemplating ripping them from her body, never quite doing so though as he ventured further. Below and between them, caressing until he reached the warm center between her thighs. Then would she feel material being ripped apart, the swimsuit she wore loosening as his prehensile cock licked against the flesh of her thighs, seeking the warmth that radiated from her.

Her body, her scent called to his beast and he was all too eager to answer. Unlike their last interspecies coupling, when he’d held back, even at her insistence not to......he did not this time. He filled her with a soft groan against her lips. The length of him forming and fitting to each and every space she had to offer.
 
As soon as Jareth’s magic ring slipped over her engagement ring- the larger band protecting the smaller from slipping off in turn- and he carried with all the force and speed of the ocean to the secluded where they planned to have their tryst, Alice knew what his question would be.

And, more importantly, what her answer would be.

But it wasn’t an answer given with words, even though that was normally the younger detective’s primary love language. Instead, she sealed her response in the water with a gentle stare from her green eyes and the most heartfelt kiss of her life, one that said, “I will love you until the end of time,” one that she hoped would mollify all his fears- and hers- more than a million words ever could.

They both carried a lot of pain and baggage from lives fraught with danger, abuse and loneliness. Because of this, their love would never be effortless; yet, Alice squeezed him to her with all the strength in her arms and legs as he placed her upon her throne and mounted her, because she knew they were the only ones who knew the depths to which a soul could fall, and who could be what the other needed to never descend that far again. And as long as they clung to that, not even the widest war in Emada’s history could ever threaten that. Even if the world ended, and she, him, and their girls were the only four left alive, Mrs. Alice Guthrie-Williams could be finally, truly happy as long as they were okay.

And then, at long last, he entered his rightful place inside her, and Alice and Jareth both shared a guttural cry from deep inside the broken hearts that were finally healing by fusing together, jagged edges and all.

Now she knew why he’d held back. It was slightly painful as his tapered tip pressured her cervix, but Alice almost couldn’t go back to anything else as ten times more dopamine flooded her brain, and one long, drawn out orgasm made her eyes go dark, her primal, chaotic strength that was as much a part of her as her physical body causing her to grip the rocks until they cracked. Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, the skies darkened just like that first night in the outdoor pool and the waves churned.

Perhaps they now realized, although they didn’t have the brainpower to say it, and instead roared it into each other’s ears in the simple language of single minded breeding, that at their truest and most powerful, she was the storm and he the ocean. The storm could destroy with lightning, and the waves could unstoppably crash. But the storm also brought life giving rain, and the ocean was teeming with life. And when their souls made inner psychic music that they both could hear together, like the stormy seas, the agony of these unwitting former enemies transformed into ultimate devotion, of a kind their many enemies could not know or withstand.

Alice’s entire body seized from the force of a climax on top of her previous extended one, the best of her life, and then Jareth gloriously released inside of her, and her tight, greedy body wasted no time absorbing it all. For as much as Jareth would rightfully say that this was an act of him claiming what was his, she also was laying claim to him, the powerful milking motions of her kegels interrogating his most sensitive organ until he surrendered the tribute due to his Queen.

“Not knocking the gifts you got me, but as I said at RAISE, you are the early best birthday present I could have ever asked for, Adamaris,” Alice groaned as their rutting subsided. “I love you with all that I am, Jareth, and I never want to be apart from you for another second.” Both names were true to him, both sides adored by her. “Let’s elope. Marry me tonight. I need to be your wife, like any living thing needs their heart. You are my heart, you bring out the best in me, and I want to be yours. To fill you with life and keep you safe the way you have done for me, always.”

This plea was driven mostly by her own desire, but there was a practical element as well; the logical need to protect their literally and figuratively embryonic family in the event one or both of them died in the war.
 
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Indeed he was laying claim and yet in the same stroke, giving himself wholly, not just in bodily tribute to his Queen but heart, mind and soul. He had never really given into that, all of that, with anyone else in all his years and here he was, surrendering himself completely, to her. To his Alice. Indeed, to his Queen.

The haze of orgasmic bliss lifted as his head tilted as she spoke. Shudders still rippling through him even as a soft, brief chuckle escaped in an airy breath.

”Yeah? Tonight?”

A broad smile curled his lips and had little to do with the physical euphoric feeling, this burrowed much deeper. Into the very core of him as he swept her from the rocks, barely noting the loose ones that crumbled into the waters as he spun her around in the waters depth, his lips locking against hers warmly as he cupped her cheeks in his hands. The kiss was his answer and so much more.

He carried her back to shore and they made their way to their private little cottage. Where he sent one Xen to retrieve a Justice of the Peace and another...for flowers. A small and simple bouquet of delphiniums. Her favorite kind.

He considered having his mother retrieved as well before she could leave for Olseka. Instead, talking to Alice, he told her, with a laugh, they would have to have a ceremony at some point or her mother-in-law would ring his neck and that would be the end of their marriage.

The minutes since they’d arrived back at the cottage seemed to fly by as the arrangements were spontaneously made and the mere few hours that actually passed before the Justice of the Peace arrived seemed like forever. Jareth was ready and waiting, greeting the man out on the porch as Alice was still getting ready herself at the moment. When the two men stepped into the cottage, a wide smile formed as his gaze settled on Alice where she stood waiting for them. Xen swept in and handed her the bouquet he’d retrieved at Jareth’s request, as Jareth himself came to stand beside her, letting his gaze sweep over her lovingly before the Justice cleared his throat, his hands sweeping out to indicate they get on with it.

Nodding, he faced Alice fully, drawing her hands into his. A nervous lick of his lips the only betrayal to his otherwise confident exterior, before he recited the vows he’d been repeating in his head for the last few hours.

"I believe in us, the people we will grow to be and the couple we will be together. With my whole heart, I take you as my wife, acknowledging and accepting your faults and strengths, as you do mine. I promise to be faithful and supportive and to always make our family's love and happiness my priority. I promise to love, honor and cherish you. As long as you promise to....swim in my pool every day for the rest of our lives. I will be yours in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health, in failure and in triumph. I will dream with you, celebrate with you, and walk beside you through whatever our lives may bring. You are my Queen—my love and my life, today and always."
 
Alice kept telling herself, with each passing moment of that magical day when he agreed to finally seal the promise that they'd made to each other that day on the ocean floor before she was likely to die and formally become her husband, that she couldn't possibly fall any more in love this man who'd never left her, who would never stop protecting her while never stopping her from protecting herself, or him. And then he proved her heart's assumptions wrong again and again. He did so every moment, from the way he scooped up her lovestruck body in the wake of the orgasm that washed over them as easily and gracefully as the water lapping at them or the semen sloshing inside her, to the flowers he picked for her, surprised and delighted her.

She was happy to be wrong, for once in her life.

And then, as he was getting the Justice of the Peace, she couldn't help but snoop beside the door of their cottage and notice he was wearing the same suit as the day they met all those months ago. Under more tragic circumstances than she would have liked, perhaps. She had ordered a suit and top hat for the wedding ceremony that, as Jareth had remarked, would need to be done later to please her mother-in-law and (hopefully) reunite her with her long lost siblings if she could find and save them, and knew that Jareth would find it sexy as he'd been eyeing it while they were walking down the boardwalk.

But she thought it would be more meaningful, and perhaps even more attractive to him, if she showed up in the uniform she'd worn upon her first arrival to Palaidia Hall. The jacket was still slightly roughed up from battle, the hat still floppy and ill-fitting, the corset and blouse still tight, the trousers and shoes that were secured with half a dozen buckles on either side flexing from many a rooftop chase yet still well cared for. But the woman underneath those clothes was very different as she approached the porch to marry him, and not just because he'd seen her naked and made love to her on many an occasion, or because her womb would soon swell with their progeny, which even now were pushing against her outfit, even though those things were certainly true.

It was because the Alice that he knew now had warmed, not just to him, but to life and love in general. Because she was not so consumed by fear any more. Because her armor had been let down. Because she was ready for whatever life threw at them. And, most importantly, because she knew he meant every word of his vows to her. Even the dorky reference to the time he'd perved on her while she swam outdoors, for which he received a deserved eyeroll and a chuckle from his fiancee in between joyful tears.

"And do you, Alice Guthrie, take Jareth Williams to be your lawfully wedded husband?" the Justice of the Peace asked with a soft, grandfatherly smile on his face as Jareth finished his oath.

Alice was about to say something, but then gasped as her father, Josiah Guthrie, took a seat on the stoop next to them. The pained smile and the tears that crossed his face as he witnessed his little girl getting married was the only thing that prevented her from screaming at him to get out and never speak to her again after all the abuse he'd laid on her, Chloe Rose, and Edward.

"In my life, I have known great pain, and have longed for nothing but love. Therefore, I do intend to take both Jareth and Adamaris into my heart, with every confidence and without any hesitation whatsoever. From the moment we inadvertently met at the Battle of Sanctuary Trench, our paths have been intertwined in some way or another, and always to the betterment of us both, no matter how much you have tested me, or I you."

(Both emphasized words were intended in part as barbs towards her father, who had inflicted much of the former and not delivered a lot of the latter; it had the intended effect on the weathered whaler, who wept silently at his failures).

"You, sweet Jareth, darling Adamaris, have never been perfect, nor would I demand such, but in all your humanity and mer qualities, have only truly given me devotion like I have never experienced. And so I know I can devote myself in return. I will never escape you, nor would I want to, and whenever I leave, I will always return home, and my heart will always be in your care. You are the greatest mystery of my life sometimes as much as my greatest source of joy, and yet one I will never stop wanting to investigate, because what I have unearthed and will discover along the way delights my soul. And so, I make this pledge now, Adamaris, Jareth, mine," Alice proclaimed, winking as she referred to several occasions he'd said that last word about her.

"I promise to be your lover, your companion, your confidant, and your best friend. Your partner in parenthood. Your ally in this or any other war. Your greatest, littlest detective, craftiest heart thief for hire, and toughest adversary in debate," Alice said, smirking at the mention of his favorite nickname for her. "Your loyal student, ardent proclaimer of our love, and your stoic teacher. Your consolation in disappointment, loss, and frustration. Your accomplice in mischief, comrade in adventure, and fellow explorer of the world and all it has to offer."

"I will wear many hats in our relationship going forward, clearly," Alice self-deprecated her effervescent prose, the one quality that had never changed about her and one she could easily laugh at herself for, but knew he would never tire of. "But the one I will never take off until my dying breath parts me from your side, my most sacred vestment, is equal in all things. All. Things." She knew that last part would be important to him, who had been made to feel lesser by powerful women before.

"And who witnesses this union?" the Justice asked.

"I, Josiah Guthrie, bear witness to the joining of my daughter with this man," George said as he rose to his weak legs and leaned against the railing. "If I had been but an adequate father, I would give her away as is the custom, but I do not have that right. Alice has grown up, without much help from me, into a brilliant, remarkable, strong, courageous woman, and I know her mother Kate would be proud of her if she was alive, that if they could be here today Chloe and Edward would revel in their sister's joy, and that Jareth will give the kind of love and support that her foolish father could not."

"Then by the power vested in me by the Empire of Caledoria, I proclaim you both to be Alice and Jareth Guthrie-Williams. You may seal your bond with a kiss," the Justice said as he lent a shoulder to the crying father and was spurned in an offer of a handkerchief to the bride.

For Alice knew the only way for her to truly dry her tears of joy and agony, anger and elation, was to activate her spring-loaded heels to reach her husband's height, close her eyes, and embrace him with all her strength as they now kissed.
 
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His hands reached to hold her hips as she approached. Thumbs brushing against the faint bump beneath her outfit, an outfit he knew all too well and appreciated. He too had picked out something infinitely different than the simple suit he currently wore but had opted as well to save it for the grander event in the future.

Alice’s gasp drew his attention to the new face in the intimate crowd but his once over was brief and he thought little more than it was a passerby. It wasn’t a throng of photographers and journalists trying to get in on the proceedings, so he wasn’t concerned with the old man being there at the moment. His concern was the woman before him and his attention righted itself to find Alice’s beautiful face peering up at him as her own vows escaped her lips.

He listened with rapt attention, a small smirk creeping along his lips the more she spoke. His heart beating a little faster as well. It wasn’t until the old man spoke up in reply to the witnessing that his smile fell and his gaze averted briefly again from his beautiful bride. A short lived frown tugged at the corners of his lips and his eyes narrowed softly on the old man. Alice shifting beneath his hands grabbed his attention once more however and he had just enough time to duck his head back playfully from her launched kiss, his hands sliding from her hips, around her waist and lifted her up from the porch, clutching her against his frame. He peered up at her, his lips drifting closer to her own.

”You talk too much........”

He murmured softly as their lips collided with a giddy, muffled chuckle vibrating in his throat.

”...a simple yes would have sufficed, Mrs. Williams.”

He chuckled and reveled in the bonding kiss for a few long and languid moments before he gently settled her back onto the porch. There seemed to be a moment of debate dancing across his features before he turned on his heels and in one fluid and calculated motion, clocked the old man square in his nose as he stared on. The man had already admitted at least some of his faults as a father, though it did not absolve him of them, not in the least. Jareth felt there was no need to necessarily add insult to injury and tell the old man that he indeed had no rights and that he should piss off altogether. It was perhaps the thought that he wished his own father would at least make the attempt to admit his own short comings that stopped him from telling the old man off as well. He could at least give Josiah that credit.

Before he could say anything or throw another punch, he turned again on his heels, his entire demeanor shifting, a broad smile cracking as he laid a salacious gaze on his wife. Though the words that escaped him were aimed at the Justice of Peace and ultimately, Josiah somewhat as well.

”Thank you for your service today but now if you will.....”

His hand swept haphazardly toward the porch steps before he scooped Alice up into his arms and started toward the door to their rented abode.

”Unless you plan on seeing this through the consummation as well, but I’m not paying extra for that.”

He quipped cheekily over his shoulder as he carried Alice over the threshold.
 
Alice rolled her eyes with a grin, her favorite teasing response to any of Jareth’s smug seeming (but not really smug) machismo, which others who looked at her might misread as aloofness. It was becoming increasingly clear that the only two people who really knew Alice were herself and her newly minted husband, and vice versa.

So she knew that he wouldn’t be offended when she said:

“You know you love it, Mr. Guthrie.”

Gods, she was even beginning to speak like him: boldly and full of bluster and panache, as opposed to her usual careful consideration and quiet conviction, vetting every word with every cell of her brain.

Perhaps they had chosen the shared surname Guthrie-Williams in order to be able to call each other by either of their family names like this, playfully. Perhaps it was to confer on them both the Guthrie solemnity and the Williams puffery. Perhaps it was to emphasize the equality of both these stubborn, headstrong people. Perhaps it was just that neither of them fully wanted to give up something of themselves.

And then he kissed her again, and she melted in her older lover’s arms while he picked her up without overthinking it. The only gloom that pierced through the sunlight around her heart this day was the punch he landed on her old man. She’d already let him know, without saying so directly, which probably meant that it hadn’t quite gotten through, that Jareth might be too used to throwing his physicality around, in a way that put Alice on guard.

Sure, Josiah had probably deserved it, after years of parenting from the bottom of a bottle and the palm of his hand rather than the core of his heart. But he was still her father. Still his family now, by vow. Would Jareth like it very much if Alice slapped Meredydd? Okay, maybe he would, but what about Caerulia? Also a bad example: she’d started a global war in the middle of a pandemic of feral mutant pyschos that was now being blamed on merfolk. Henry? Well, Alice had heard a scuffle between the two men, and then heard a splash through the thick oaken door to the same pool room.

The only person who he probably wouldn’t let her slap would be Ianassa, but Alice loved her dearly, and couldn’t argue that she was the best of all their parents, nor would want to express that Josiah was even close to Ianassa’s level. She could chalk up a lot of it to just a difference of family bonding styles. Direct confrontation seemed to her to be the Olsekan royal family’s preferred greeting, whereas the Guthries stewed in angry silence until they exploded at each other.

But tonight of all nights, Alice wasn’t going to judge or make assumptions. It was their wedding night after all, the moment she’d dreamed of since she was five (although she never really knew if she wanted to marry a boy or another girl, and that had scared her). In any event, she knew that Jareth’s strength would soon turn his brute musculature to a cocoon of genteel safety for her to truly relax in as they made love while legally joined together for the first time.

Unbeknownst to Alice, Josiah took the Justice aside and asked, “I know she probably wants nothing to do with me, but could you ask Alice if we can meet tomorrow morning? I need to talk with her, before it’s too late.”

“Of course, sir,” Justice Gendizis Hyakolmivo replied with a reassuring shoulder clap as Josiah gave his address on a note.

Meanwhile, back in their cottage, Alice enjoyed Adamaris carrying her over the threshold before setting her on their bed and kissing her with all the tenderness and passion he could muster. She could feel the storm building around her whole being again, and knew that she would lose her mask, lose control in the best way possible, and shower him with unadulterated love.

But by the time Jareth and Alice were both topless, Alice realized that they needed to do something urgently, before they forgot. She begged his pardon a moment to get the whale salve that would prevent Elizabeth’s curse on their hearts from killing them in their sleep. Then she sat before him, salve on her hands, and began rubbing the thick, viscous liquid across his broad pectorals.

“Jareth...I, I know there’s been something on your mind since you talked to the Emperor yesterday. I’ve talked your head off today, my love. So I’ll just listen and be here, however you’re feeling, and whatever you need to say,” Alice said matter-of-factly, before leaning in to kiss him briefly, both to reassure him that she was asking this out of love and not a prying curiosity, and to reassure herself that they would be fine no matter what he divulged.
 
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A broad smile drew across his lips as he pulled back, the taste of her still on his lips.

”Oh baby.......you are correct. I do love what you can do with those lips.”

He teased gently. His grin sweeping broader before a soft chuckle left him and he swept in again to steal another deep kiss from her. He knew that she would know his words encompassed everything. Not just her kisses but most often when she spoke, he could be found paying attention, listening closely as if enraptured by the very sound of her voice and movement of her lips.

He groaned lightly when she begged his pardon, letting her wiggle out from beneath him. His own body flopping to the bed as he turned to watch her, leaning back on his elbows in the center of the mattress.

”I’ve heard that once married, the sex just seems to dry out. I just didn’t expect it to be that quick.”

Again he chuckled, his tone light and jovial. He had no intentions of letting that fire die in either one of them for a long, long time, he hoped. When he saw what she was bringing back to the bed, he straightened, drawing his legs up and in to sit Midvadirian style before her as she settled in.

”Good idea....wouldn’t want either of our hearts to stop at an inopportune time.”

Within the first stroke of her hand across his chest, the salve streaking across his skin, he captured her hand beneath his directly over the strong and steady beat of his heart and looked her dead in the eyes as she leaned in while applying the salve.

”It would put a whole new but accurate meaning on loving you with my whole heart, hmm.”

He leaned forward, releasing her hand and kissing her on the nose as she continued the soft strokes of application.

Her words caught him a little off guard and his demeanor shifted just a bit. A soft smile remained, faintly tugging just at the corner of his lips as he fell quiet for a long moment as she continued the loving ritual across his chest. His eyes quiet and settled solely on Alice before he slid the salve from her hands and set it further up on the bed before moving himself that way as well. Shifting until he was sitting, leaned back against the headboard. His legs spread apart and he patted the bed between them, meaning for her to come and settle there, sitting back up against him just as he was the headboard. Once she was there and leaning back against his stomach and chest, he lifted the salve into his hands and began the ritual of returning the favor, all the while, mulling over in his head how he wanted to approach everything he had to tell her.

She wasn’t wrong, things had been on his mind but it extended further than just yesterday’s talk with the Emperor. With Henry.

He drew in a breath, fingers stroking lovingly against her skin. His palm brushing lightly across the soft swell of her breasts.

”Do you remember, at the fair when Henry announced Emily’s passing? I told you then that Emily and I had been together. What I didn’t tell you and only because I had no proof.....was that upon seeing the rising Emperor that day, I suspected Henry.....is my son.”

He fell quiet a minute, fingers running gently along the tender flesh of her cleavage. His lips brushing fluttering kisses against the soft dip of her shoulder as he stared past her breasts and his hand to the soft swell of her belly where more of his progeny grew every day. A soft sniffle escaped him and he planted a warm kiss against her neck before he resumed speaking.

”Our talk, Henry and I....ended up in argument at first. He...um....he didn’t take kindly to my suspicions. Him and his godforsaken mer-flu crap.”

He grumbled softly and sighed.

”Anyway, I had to prove it.....to him and myself, so I pushed him in the pool. Maybe not one of my finer moments. The poor kid doesn’t know how to swim. Once I helped him and we were sitting at the edge of the pool, finally just talking....he....he offered me the position of Finance Minister.”

Again he went quiet for a beat, once more focusing on the task of administering the salve to his wife’s chest. Slow, soft circular motions. Calming and warm.

”I’m not sure how to feel about that. Not sure if I should accept. For so many reasons.”

His hand went still over her heart, just lingering, letting the soft thud tap out a rhythm against the tips of his fingers.

”I think he offered it, as a way to keep me quiet about his lineage, maybe. Not that I would put the kid in danger like that but I get it, he doesn’t know that. I...haven’t exactly been around to alleviate his fears and teach him properly in that respect.”

His lips pursed lightly as he basically browbeat and admonished himself for his failure as a father, even though he himself had not known either. He also didn’t blame Emily for never telling him.

”I’m considering it though, taking it. I promised I’d change things and that would give me a chance to make a better impact than....than what Jareth Industries has ever done. I....I...”

He stammered softly. The thoughts and words on his lips were currently hard to swallow but he didn’t fear Alice thinking any less of him for them, it was he himself having trouble verbalizing his....his failures.

”I’m afraid I won’t be able to do it though. Not by myself anyways. Paio is missing. My best friend....is gone and if anyone could help me, it’d be him. Even if we barely could keep the Industries afloat, we did it....together. So....I don’t know.”

He finished quietly, his breath sweeping across her skin as he settled his chin lightly against her shoulder. His hands sliding down along her front until they reached her belly. His palms curling lightly against that soft little bump of belly, thumb and fingers forming a heart.

”I want to make a difference, to do good, to be better. For you. For them.”

His final words were whispered tenderly against her ear before he planted a soft, lingering kiss there.
 
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"Your lips are also quite gifted," Alice grinned and winked. That was all she said for a little while because she was trying too hard to suppress guffaws upon his switching between playful teasing and sincere affection, her face hurting from happiness. His easy charm, one of the many reasons she'd been intrigued by him despite her initial distaste, had surfaced again this day. But then she closed her eyes and breathed evenly, calmed by the firm, powerful, yet gentle circular massage of her breasts that the application of the life-saving cream needed. She hoped that he would remember to use his strength for this type of touch more than for restraint, but if he didn't she would be sure to finally talk to him about it.

Only a few minutes after he began, however, Alice's restless mind went quiet as she uncharacteristically chose to just listen to him confessing his troubles, just as she'd asked. All she did apart from sitting pretzel-legged herself in near meditative contemplation was place her hands above his own that rested on her chest, to support him without words. And, yet, when he concluded, placed his hands on her growing bump, and kissed her ear, she couldn't help but rear up on her knees, arch her back (which displayed her dampening slit to him), and coo a little with need for him.

Alice was able to still her heart and loins enough to turn around, sit opposite him, and hug him without a word before joining hands on each other's legs. Their physical urges would be sated soon enough

"You will. I know you will, because I'll be right behind you, helping you every step of the way," Alice said. "To be honest, you're feeling exactly the way I feel about being asked to take on such an awesome responsibility as Supreme Commander of Imperial Armed Forces. But a point in your favor is that at least you do have some experience- albeit with Paio's help, and I hope he's found soon by Octavia and brought home safely- in running a business. How in his right mind did Henry think that I, even with my extensive combat and investigative experience, would possibly know anything about ordering nearly two million young men and women to fight and die for this Empire in a long, bloody campaign? Or the logistics of moving hundreds of thousands of war machines to where they're needed most? Or effectively quarantining this pandemic, whatever it's fucking called, while also preventing hateful oppression of elves, merfolk and other non-humans living here now that Henry has stirred up species hatred?"

She also thought it ironic that he had unwittingly fanned the flames of persecution when he himself was a merman. Would he have still christened the man-made virus the "mer flu" had he known about that? Or would it have fed some sense of self-loathing that she'd always suspected? She kept that speculation to herself for now.

"This makes me think, like you, that Henry- who, I should note, I did suspect might be your son by Emily as well, but said nothing about it because I didn't have proof either- has an ulterior motive for extending the offer to me. Knowing the kind of services I usually provide, my speculation..." Alice started to say, and then sighed, "is that Emily Caldwell was murdered by agents of this unholy alliance between Caerulia, Taron and the Confederation to get her out of the way before the attack on Radiant, and he wants me to investigate that quietly. I was probably going to offer to confirm or disprove whatever the official cause of death was anyway, as I greatly admired her. But I also am inclined to take the Supreme Commander position for one big reason.

"My investigations into the death of Amara, her frequent trips to the port of Halanunja, the origins of this pernicious disease in the blood of merfolk and vampire venom, the company Future Fountains LLC that sold this poison to the public, and Elizabeth's involvement in brainwashing victims of the virus into her so-called 'Family', all lead me to...someone or some ones in the heart of the Ananki Confederation that are the spider at the center of the web. Elizabeth is too blunt and insane for this kind of orchestration, therefore whoever is pulling her strings must be very powerful to have masterminded such a dark, multifaceted, devious plan. It might even go all the way up to the Confederation Council.

“I doubt I can get to the putrid heart of this conspiracy while also looking to find Edward and Chloe Rose and protecting you all by myself. Having the largest standing army in history at my beck and call is the only thing I can think of that can give me the chance to do all that while not needing to be apart from you for too long. For instance, I believe that the center of philter production is in Halanunja. If I’m right, and I take this job, we can seize the city and begin to stem this virus, and travel in style and security aboard...the Sun Cutter.”

Alice winced when she got to that part. Asking him to live on an airship for possibly multiple months out of the remainder of this year would definitely be trying for him.

“But, my love, I know you don’t like it when I just do things that affect us both without consulting you first, so I have. I think I’m inclined to accept the Emperor’s commission, and urge you to accept the challenge as well, as you will not be alone in your endeavor, and I know I will not be either. But if you are completely against it, say nothing more and I will send a rejection letter. You know I will find another way to fix this.”

With that, Alice laid Jareth on his back, crawled on top of him, and kissed him with her crotch pressed into his. Her objective here was only to reassure Adamaris of her devotion to her new husband and her respect for his decision. But if it led to long, hot, hard wedding night sex, then so much the better.
 
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Jareth licked his lips and flashed her one of those charming grins, along with a veiled promise to show her again just how gifted if she waited a little bit longer. Just until they’d finished their talk.

The words flowed from his thoughts to his lips easily enough, for the most part. His hands however never faltered as they worked in tandem with the salve as he rubbed it in accordingly.

When she rose to her knees, his hands slid along her sides and down her hips. A smirk twitching at the corners of his lips as she cooed at him. The tips of his fingers teased against the tender skin along the back of her legs before she turned to face him, his gaze shifting to her own as his hands fell against his own legs and rested there until taken up by her own.

His fingers intertwining with hers and lifted both together, a finger pointed out at her as he tsked and interrupted her words a moment.

”Mm mm. Not behind. Not you. Never behind and we both know it. Always beside.”

He said quietly and then fell silent, letting her speak in turn. When she was done, he straightened slightly, and cleared his throat.

”First....as for Henry’s right mind. He is my son after all....so I imagine he knows well enough that you can certainly handle the task, any task, set before you. Took him a lot less time to realize it than I did, probably.”

He chuckled, flashing a cheeky smile as he shifted his hands in hers and brought her right up to his lips momentarily.

”Just as he knew to come to you, if investigating Emily’s death, is his true motive. At least he got some of my smarts, hmm?”

Shifting in his spot, he cringed a little himself before answering her round about question as to whether she should take the offer Henry had given her.

”I have no overt objections, especially if it will make it easier on you to accomplish what you need to. No objection but one.....”

He sighed softly, a deadpan glance passing the short distance between them as he did.

”....we can travel in style and certainly security in something far better than that....thing.”

He offered a short snort even as she pushed him back against the bed. A soft chuckle rolling off his lips in its place as her lips pressed against his. His hands dancing along her bare skin, resting at her hips, holding her flush against him. Gaze holding hers quietly, though not once did he directly say no, absolutely not. He merely stated he really didn’t want to set foot on that flying death trap but he never said he wouldn’t.
 
“Alright then, I accept your terms, my brave, brave man,” Alice once again teased him about his fear of heights. Wondering if she’d perhaps touched a nerve, she cupped his face, kissed him a few times and said, “It’s okay. I’m sure Henry and I will figure out the appropriate security arrangements. However...now that we’ve properly unburdened like we said we would, those aren’t the arrangements I’m interested in discussing further.” After she emphasized aren’t, Alice said that last part with a wink, followed up by light love nips on Jareth’s neck.

“You are always beside me, it’s true, and I love you for that,” she whispered in his left ear. “But for this, I need you to actually be behind me. Or on top. Whatever you prefer, as long as it goes inside. You should know how by now, I hope,” Alice joked, before falling silent and contemplating her next words for a moment while she snuggled closer to her husband. It still didn’t seem real, since she’d already come close with Taiga and failed to keep him in spectacular fashion, but there it was, and she was so deliriously happy that all her cares and worries, and the chaos of the world outside, didn’t seem to matter.

Well, almost all.

“That goes for...” she now said quietly against his chest, almost as if she was about to hide again when they’d made clear that they never wanted. “Even the place where, um, ‘he’ hurt me all those years ago.” Realizing she wouldn’t be convincing him of much and would be killing the mood by even obliquely referring to her rapist (for he did not deserve to have his name raised), she clarified, “My...ass. That’s how much I trust you, Jareth. I’m giving you everything tonight, on my first night as your wife. As Mrs. Guthrie-Williams.”

Emphasizing that, the newest title, honor and privilege in her life, returned Alice to her giddy mood as happy tears trickled down her face.
 
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”I can’t help it if I’m more of a ‘Feet on the ground.’ kinda guy.”

He chuckled, lips curling at the corners with amusement, even against her peppered kisses as he returned them in kind. Pulling away only to raise a brow gently, a cheeky smirk lingering as he peered at her with a knowing curiosity at her statement concerning arrangements, until her gaze left his and her lips found his neck.

A low rumble vibrated against her lips from his throat, his hands racked over the back of Alice’s head and through her hair. Fingers massaging gently at the back of her neck a moment as she whispered.

”Mmmm, I don’t know.....you may have to show me how.”

He joked in return and chuckled lowly, his hand shifting to sweep lovingly against her hair as she rested against his chest. She’d be able to hear his heart thudding, drum like be, beneath her ear. A symphony of emotion.

The jovial rumble faltered when she mentioned ‘him’. He wasn’t worried about the mention, persay, it was more what she offered. Elated that she trusted him, newly minted husband or not but there was a worry as well.

He offered her a gentle smile, cupping her cheeks in his hands, thumbs brushing against the happy tears. His head dipped forward, his lips pressing a kiss against her nose and then lips.

”Are you absolutely sure?”

A genuine, concern laden question whispering in the space between them. His concern coming forth then, spilling from his lips quietly.

”I want to but I don’t want to accidentally do something wrong or to fast or.....I don’t want to hurt you, in any way.”

He’d voiced a similar concern before, in the pool but this was different. This wasn’t about making love to her in his merform. He was genuinely worried about accident hurting her, grabbing her in a way that might trigger a long ago memory and taint this new journey for both of them. He knew he’d done certain things in the past that had done just that, this though....this was a tender, touchy subject that he didn’t want to screw up, not now. Not ever.
 
“And a ‘tail in the ocean’ guy as well, let’s not forget,” Alice teased. She also chuckled at his joke about her needing to teach him how to be inside her; even if he wasn’t jesting, she’d be glad to teach him all over again. But for the rest of his responses to her, she fell grimly silent, as she felt his concern.

“I...I know I act like I can be absolutely sure about anything, but I’ve always had doubts- about myself, mostly, but often about the people I care about. However, with you, the one thing I never doubt is your conviction, your...your predilection, truly, to care for all the women in your life. Sometimes you don’t realize what your own strength can do”- referring here to the smack on her thigh from their first meeting and the arm grabs that had bothered her in the past- “but you have never hurt me on purpose. Nor would you ever conceivably want to hurt me. I won’t lie...I will feel some discomfort, but it won’t hurt. Just...just be true to yourself and who you are, and you’ll be fine.”

Alice now gulped and wiped her eyes, the inherent emotion behind being this vulnerable right now overwhelming her. This even though she wasn’t upset by his bringing it up or anything that he’d said, she was worried that he would think he had done something wrong. But Alice knew she couldn’t keep this hidden for long or she would risk Jareth being too scared to continue with their fun tonight. Not only that; maybe with the marriage, if she ended up being work.

“Oh, Adamaris...thank you for asking if I was okay. I am. You have no idea how many guys haven’t wanted to ask that simple question, and that shows a lot about you. In any event, I’m absolutely sure that you being the first and only to go in there is what I want out of my wedding night.”

Some part of her was still tickled by the dizzying speed of it all; inside of half a year she’d had sex with him multiple times a week, gotten pregnant by him, and was now begging for him, as her husband, to enter her derriere. But she also realized that sometimes, life was absurd and sometimes you had to be absurd with it to be truly happy.

To make herself unequivocally clear, Alice rolled them over so she was on her back. Her hands limply lying above her head. Her legs pulling his hips forward to urge him to drive forward into his wife. And her sweet lips whispering in his ear, “This doesn’t even begin to plumb the depths of my love for you, my King.”
 
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”Touchè”

He chuckled lightly, a finger patting against the end of her nose playfully before his hand dropped, capturing hers and resting it against his chest. His heart beating a strong and fairly steady rhythm beneath her palm. His right hand slid over her arm, fingers tickling along her side with a gentle caress as he listened quietly.

A small smirk curling at the corners of his lips as his gaze bounced lovingly over her features. In a quiet awe. Little did she know, he supposed, that she was already work and yet, here they were. Husband and Wife. His mother had told him more than once that ”If it wasn’t work, it wasn’t love. If it wasn’t awe-inspiring, it wasn’t love. If you weren’t surprised now and again, it wasn’t love. And if it wasn’t always an adventure, even a little bit of one, it wasn’t love.” Indeed, here they were....because Alice was all of that.

He leaned forward and went to peck a kiss against her lips when she rolled them, a soft grunt of surprise escaped him, followed by a deep chuckle as he steadied himself, one hand pressing lightly against the curve at the small of her back, the other steadied against the mattress with steepled fingers.

He felt the tightening of her legs, pulling him closer. His cock rubbing the length of her slit, teasing against her already dampened lips.

A soft, low rumble of pleasure rattled from deep inside of his chest. His hand slid along the slope of her back and came to rest at the beautiful curve of her upturned ass. His gaze staring hotly at both of her waiting holes. That primal, animal part of him wanted to jerk her back against him, impaling her on his cock as he took her from behind but he teased her a moment more before penetrating the warm, wet folds of her pussy first. Both hands shifting to gently grasp her hips, pulling her back against his thrust forward as he buried himself deep inside of her and then shifting again as he started a slow and steady rhythmic thrust of his own hips. Fingers gripping against the tender flesh of her ass cheeks, massaging easily as his thumbs caressed close to her crack and gently parting her cheeks.

Everything he did was with measured control, his body language conveying (hopefully) that he intended to be as gentle as possible. And after a few more filling thrusts, she’d feel him pull out, his hands relinquishing her from their grasp as he leaned forward, his left palm sinking into the mattress beside her as his lips brushed warmly along her spine, peppering her back and shoulder with kisses before reaching her ear. His right gripped her behind and she’d feel the wet tip of his cock teasing against her asshole, pressing tighter against it as he whispered tenderly in her ear.

”My Queen, if you want me to stop at any time, say so.”

The pressure built softly as he pressed his hips forward a little more, feeling her hole widening gently around him. He concentrated on not letting the carnal beast loose in full, not yet. His lips teased lovingly against the slender column of her neck as he kept his pace slow but steady, allowing her to acclimate as he filled her once more.

His right hand slid over her hip and around, brushing over her belly before coming to rest just below her breasts. A shuttering sigh breathing hotly over her back as his pelvis pressed flush against her ass cheeks.

He was still for a minute before he gripped her and pulled her upright and back to sit against his lap. Hands sweeping over her midsection, cupping over her breasts as he rolled his hips up and against her carefully, a heady groan emitted from him as her tight hole clutched against and enveloped him.

A hand slid further along her chest, fingers curling lightly around her throat, just enough to tip her head back and against his shoulder as he clutched her against him.

”Mine.”

The single word panted hotly from his lips. His fingers teasing over her nipple as he gently thrust his hips up against her ass again. His hand falling away from her throat, settling instead just at her hip for now.
 
Even after all these months, even after just getting married, Alice was bowled over by the way Jareth's heart was beating for her. It was still taking some getting used to, the idea that she was the one and only woman who could make him feel like this, who would ever make one of the most infamous playboys in the world gaze over her as if she was his work of art. It was almost enough to make Mrs. Guthrie-Williams cry some more.

Marriage is about two people who everybody else thinks would drive each other crazy if they got together, doing so anyway, Kate Guthrie had said to little Alice once. Only later did Alice realize that her mother had been only half-joking, but she had always suspected something was amiss with how much her parents fought each other. Despite the fact that perhaps that advice wasn't demonstrating the model of a proper marriage, and Josiah and Kate hadn't done much to prove they should be together either, Alice knew that this had a grain of truth to it; she'd probably act on something unilaterally to get Jareth annoyed with her, and there would be times she knew he would drive her crazy by being overprotective.

And yet, here they were; the jagged and broken pieces of their hearts somehow making a beautiful mosaic of love when put together. Something that was only confirmed by the fact that he (cleverly) lubricated himself with movements in the very same place he'd filled with his children, and also verbally reassured her that she could refuse to continue with anything he was doing at any time. It was something that Alice knew already, and that he'd communicated many times, but his dedication to assuring her equality with actions, rather than just words made her willing to collapse, heels digging into his hips and hands and just take whatever powerful thrusts he would visit upon her slowly opening, still very tight asshole.

Alice gasped as he entered as expected- slowly, with due diligence to not tear- but then moaned at the top of her lungs in surprise and ecstasy, caring not who would possibly hear as she was put upright and fucked in an unexpectedly erotic position. If one had told Alice back in 1892 that now she, while married, pregnant with his twin girls and high out of her mind on sweetgrass, would be willingly letting Jareth Williams in her tight ass, stretched to such delicious fullness by his cock, which now took its time exploring her muscular sphincter that pulled on him insistently, she would have laughed until she had a hard time breathing.

But 1893 would be burned in her memory for defying all expectations, positive and negative, and becoming a strange soup of good times with bad, genesis of life with death, and love with hatred; but one she kept wanting to eat, with him as chef making sure everything was balanced. With that, she reached her arms behind her to sensually play with his hair, looking him dead in his eyes, craned her neck back to kiss him, began gyrating her powerful kegels to impale herself over and over again on his incredible machine, and screamed-

"YOURS! FUUUUUCK!"
 
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Any dark and morbid thoughts of previous days that kept trying to creep through and darken his euphoric state, to try to consume the dedication and love he held in his heart and mind....it all dispelled as soon as Alice’s lips captured his own, as if breathing life into him to dispel everything else that didn’t revolve around her, their children and this moment.

His fingers came to stroke along her neck and jawline as he returned the kiss, deep and loving until she relinquished the kiss as she cried out. A simple, quiet Yes growled from his throat in response, his breath warm against her cheek as his fingers tickled back down over her chest, gently tracing a line of heat along her skin as his hips continued to rock, the rhythm matching her own.

The hand on her hip shifted, sliding along the tender bone of her pelvis, tickling against her bare thigh, exploring the heated flesh that curved and dipped into the hidden recesses between her thighs. Teasing in gentle strokes, drawing her moist heat from her even more. Jareth drew in a deep breath, his eyes fluttering closed as the mix of sweetgrass and her scent, intoxicated him. It drew a deep groan from deep in his chest.

His fingers stroked deeper between her folds, rolling languidly over her clit. Hands, breath, skin, cock....brushing over her, “painting” the canvas of her flesh and being with love, with every deeply throbbing beat of his heart.

His mind soon reached out as well, gently pushing and stroking against her own, wordlessly singing softly to her, beautifully adding another layer of love language to his work of art.
 
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All thoughts of the people she'd killed, that she'd failed to save, all of her failings no longer had power over the deep recesses of Alice Guthrie-Williams' mind for the moment as her husband made love to more than just her ass and pussy with his skilled body, but also every node of her soul with his inner psychic song, his little piece of the Ballad of Creation, which reassured her in a way that she had never felt. Once and for all, all the doubts, that she had been been reckless or impulsive in seeking him out only six months ago were gone.

She was sure now that she was meant to be with him. That they were one, their essences comingling at the boundary of his fiery yet warm Light and her cold but soothing Dark, where Dreams circled Void. And that finally led her, at the peak of her high, to reveal every last syllable of the song of her heart.

The other songs projected by her that he may or may have not heard in his own mind before, and that danced around him again- We Shall Sail Together, Dream a Little Dream of Me, her mother's lullaby, even the somber yet gentle music they made together, among others- were all fondly remembered by her or well practiced on her violin, upon which she had poured her dreams and pain, her joys and sorrow. But they had all been other people's creations, and she had been as much of an instrument of someone else's emotions as the violin was. The powerful walls of her mind, built brick by brick by what felt like decades of betrayals, false or fleeting lovers, and trauma had kept her innermost secrets well hidden until now.

The dreams of every sleeping being in Emada were soon brightened, and nightmares dispelled as The Song of Alice, full of strength and warming fire, beauty and determination, intelligence and compassion, graced the Ballad of Creation for the first time, projecting a wave of love across the world along with his music and theirs. This was an effect not felt since Prince Zaidaan el-Aziz of Midvadir and Princess Thorfinna Klakkrdottir of Caledoria united in undying love 1,043 years ago.

Upon hearing this, Jareth and Adamaris would both know once and for all just who his wife that he had spared in the shadow of the ocean despite the blood on her hands was; that Darkness was an indelible, natural, surreally awe-inspiring part of her, but did not, and never would define or become her, nor drive him to madness and despair, no matter how hard this war got, or what challenges they would face as friends, lovers, spouses, parents.

And then, at the near apex of her pleasure, shadows encircled both their beings in their minds' eyes, while light erupted from their eyes and mouths and her heart beseeched her beloved more than it ever had to cum. To finally, willingly, gladly give it all up for her, to fill the only orifice he hadn't filled with his essence, and to, as a result, stake his final claim to Alice Guthrie, Supreme Commander, World's Greatest Detective, mother of his children, wife, and at last his, as she'd promised so many times before.
 
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He vibrated with pleasure. Much like the first time he’d swam close to the surface, curious and wondering. Watching as the vibrant colors from below and above collided in a rippling and swirling kaleidoscope of pleasures that called and sang to him. The sweetgrass, their music and the sweet scent of his wife leaving him as high as the adrenaline had when he crested the lapping waters.

As their songs and bodies mingled, his grip grew ever tighter on her and still, mindfully tender, even as he gripped her closer. His movements shifting, a more urgent rock of his hips as each breath grew quicker. The hum and growl of pleasure softly rumbling from his throat, mingling with the music of their coupling, against the tender flesh just beneath her ear.

A hand swept up the length of her frame, fingers gently curling around her throat, just beneath her chin. Lingering there a moment before carefully tipping her head to the side and back, against his shoulder as his lips sought the corner of hers before claiming her lips in full in a heated, demanding kiss. Claiming her in every way physically possible in that moment.

He reveled in the feel and taste of his Queen a moment longer before his fingers gripped a little tighter, tipped her head back flush against his shoulder. His lips blazing a heated trail against the taut flesh of her throat until he reached her ear.

”You’re Mine.....”

The growl vibrated against her skin as his teeth grazed the tender lobe of her ear. The sound turning into a low grunt of building pleasure, his breath swept hot and excited against her cheek as another groan escaped him. He pulled her tight against him, his hips slowed and stopped as another breathy groan sang against her ear as he came.

”And I’m yours.”

He murmured, holding her close as breath and lips brushed lightly along her jawline, and as fingers continued to tease her to her own release.
 
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As he vibrated, she vibrated with him, until they were not only on the same wavelength, but became the same wavelength to her perception, even if it didn't make any logical sense. As he climbed to the most powerful orgasm of his life, and she groaned mightily when she approached her new favorite orgasm as well, she realized that that moment on the rocks where they'd mated in the water as many sailors and fisherwomen must have with merfolk unlocked a new, more deeply emotional phase of their relationship, something that when she'd sensed it had compelled her to move up their wedding day.

One beyond wonderful day and two earth shattering sessions of sex would not fix all the fears that Alice had about getting hurt by or failing those she cared about, and Jareth's insecurities and split roots in two worlds would never stop hanging over him. Part of her was also afraid that, if she stepped out of their little room, then the world, burdened now by war in addition to all the other issues that festered within, would close in on them both.

But it was the beginning of a new chapter. One that the shy, caring little bookworm that had been buried deep within her couldn’t wait to read.

Just at the moment of no return for them both, even more wisps of pure light appeared from her hands and caressed him in his mind. Now that she had revealed her true song to the Ballad, her mind's inner light poured forth to her husband, giving him her reassurances that she would always be his beacon, as her Darkness also enveloped them and kept them safe as it had for her for so long, even when she'd rejected it. What she didn't realize until the drugged haze of pleasure had fizzled off of them both, as water boiling off heated dampfsteel, was that Jareth had broken the bed in half with his thrusting, and all she could do now was laugh for nearly a minute, her body still racked by sweetgrass and dopamine, and her breasts bouncing up and down in a manner she knew would arouse him.

"Congratulations on being only the second person to make me break a bed! The first was a vampiress named Sita I met when I was 18 that possesses the same...well, equipment that you do. But you're the last carrier of equipment of any kind that I will ever need, I promise," Alice sighed with a dopey grin, making clear that she would probably only fool around with cisgender women to make sure he felt better. "The thing is, however, that I have been the breaker of many a bed while someone laid back and enjoyed themselves. If I'd known you were strong enough for that, I would've introduced you to that side of me earlier."

Alice flipped Jareth over, pounced on him, and managed in this manner to squeeze another couple hours of immensely pleasurable lovemaking from the honeymoon that they both knew could not really last, breaking the entire bedframe from four more simultaneous orgasms because dammit, if she wasn't going to get a proper week of honeymoon from him, then she’d pack the whole honeymoon into one unforgettable night.

Still, as they both collapsed from exhaustion, she hoped she was wrong and that he would able to take her out on the town, hold onto her tight while she took him up to a floating hotel, maybe even walk (or get up to other mischief) on the beaches at night.

Yes, there was the war, but the enemy appeared to have retreated from Caledorian shores for now, and surely the Emperor would understand their wanting to have some time to let the fact that they were now husband and wife sink in? Apart from that, there were so many threats on the horizon, but what else could possibly bother them now? Alice was always on alert, but hoped nothing would intrude this time.

The next day, well after sunrise, a knock at the door roused Alice from the sleep of the dead that Jareth's relentless mating had put her through. Jareth ended up answering the door in his robe as part of a cheeky effort to embarrass any postman, postwoman or paperfly that appeared at this early hour. But instead, the Justice that had married them yesterday showed up with grave news. Someone had been found dead at their beach cottage, with the murderer also dead on top of them, and there was no one in town who could identify them. However, he had taken a luminograph of the body, which the Justice handed to Jareth to give to Alice, who looked it over while still sitting up naked in bed, gasped, and then rushed to throw on a robe and rinse off in the shower.

"Could you come with me, Jareth?" Alice asked after she finished getting dressed and emerged from the bathroom. "I know it's a lot to ask out of you, after we've already been caught up in the whirlwind these past two days, and I understand completely if you want to stay home, but the body out there is almost certainly...my father's. And if you can, I'll need help to, you know."

Whereas before, when looking at the corpses of so many that she didn't know, like Amara, she could suppress any anger, any sorrow, to cut through the facts and make sense of it all. Now Jareth's incisive love had gouged a deep wound in her heart, tearing off other scars that had protected her in the process, and pain and grief were leaking everywhere now that she was allowing herself to feel again.

The bewildered Justice scrambled to get his mind together when Alice asked for the address, and upon him saying it she said bitterly, "Yep...that’s the location of the cottage we used to rent in my childhood, where I've known him to hide out for the past ten years, like the miserable little coward he is. Between that and the luminograph, the identity of this victim was never in doubt for me. Thus ends Josiah Guthrie. In a rotted, broken down piece of crap, like I thought would happen. But I’d have wagered he’d die at the end of a bottle in a battle with his own liver. Why he had an enemy, or what grudge they had against him, I don’t know yet. But I’m going over there to find out.”
 
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He’d risen not long before the knock on the cabins door. After a moment of staring at the collapsed bed and Alice laying amongst not only excessively rumpled sheets but bits of bed frame as well, he decided to let her sleep a few minutes more as he prepared to order some breakfast in. She’d need an extra boost of energy after all, if he planned on completely decimating what was left of the bed.

He smirked as he turned and grabbed the cup of coffee he’d made for himself. Thinking on what they could do after breakfast and another heavy round of consummating their wedding. His brow furrowing as he glanced from the door and over to his rousing new bride. The furrow shifting ever so slightly as he shrugged into his robe and made a few quick steps to the door.

Cheeky and mildly frustrated at the same time. The breeze that swept in as he flung the door open caused his robe to flutter, giving the offending knocker a good look at what had been interrupted. When he noted who was standing on the other side of the door and the grim look upon the Justice’s features, Jareth cleared his throat and pulled his robe together before allowing the man entry. Taking the luminograph as it was held out toward him.

He gave it a once over, a frown curling the corners of his lips down as he left the Justice standing just inside the open doorway and handed it to Alice. He set his coffee down and as Alice scurried off to get dressed, he too started the process, keeping his back politely to the Justice as he slipped into his trousers.

He had just yesterday been up close and personal with Josiah Guthrie, he’d seen the lines creasing the old man’s features, bottle and age worn, perhaps beyond his years. While he wasn’t absolutely positive at first that’s who that had been in the luminograph, Alice’s reaction more or less confirmed it and he’d already decided he’d accompany her, unless she asked him not to.

However, when she did in fact ask him to go with her, he gave her a tender tip of his head as he merely glanced at her. The answer written in the soft, concerned furrow of his brows and the gentle gaze of his chocolate stare as he straightened the collar of his shirt. Of course he would accompany her.

As Alice received the address she’d asked for, and he reached for his vest, slung over the back of the chair, they’d all hear a loud shriek. The Justice gasped as he jerked to the side as a large black crow swept in through the doorway and past his head, a flap of the crows wings ruffling the older man’s hair and flicking his ear as the obsidian bird made a beeline for Jareth, directly.

Jareth dropped his vest, hands reaching up to grab for the crow as it swooped in, too close for comfort. All he managed to grab however was the rolled up piece of paper the thing had clutched in its claws and shoved in his direction. With a flap of its wings and another screech, the bird turned and flew out the way it had come in, leaving the Justice a little more shaken.

”What the hell….”

Jareth mumbled as he bent to retrieve his vest from the floor at his feet, the paper crumpling in his hand as he stood. He looked at Alice quietly for a moment before opening the scroll up to read it, with her standing beside him and reading as well.

”We have your Mother. Come with us, traitor, or else. And Do Not have anyone follow.

It was signed by General Taron.

It took a moment for the entire letter to fully register. His mind momentarily stuck on the first sentence. He glanced out the window, just past the still flustered Justice of the Peace, taking note of the two guards standing a ways down the beach, waiting and watching to see what decision the Prince would make. He watched the crow light on one of the guards shoulders before he turned watery eyes onto Alice, lips opening in a flustered sigh before he could form actual words.

”I have to go, my Queen. You take care of this situation with your father. I’ll go take care of my mother and Taron. Don’t…..don’t follow. I have no doubts he’d hurt her and you if given even half a chance.”

He set the paper down on the chairs seat before gently cupping Alice’s face between his shaking hands, his lips brushing against hers before claiming them in a deep, demanding kiss. Reluctantly pulling away after a moment, he whispered his love for her before making his way toward the door. Shrugging into his vest, he grabbed his cane from where it rested beside the doorway and stepped out onto the porch.

Taking a deep breath, he set a glare on the figures that waited for him and then started making his way toward them and whatever hell Taron thought he had waiting for him.
 
Even if she hadn't seen the letter in Jareth's hand, the tears welling in his normally very calm and convivial face, as opposed to the seriousness of purpose and yet calm that he'd projected before when accepting her request to help her deal with her father's death, told her that something was very wrong. Words failed her once more, despite whole speeches bubbling inside her heart about how much she loved him and how much she needed to be by his; she instead nodded, accepted the kiss languidly, and was about to stand back and watch him disappear into the waves with those vile eelmen, when...

"Oh, hello, Alice!" Taron exclaimed, neck craning above the rifles of tensed soldiers to sport a toothy, lascivious grin. She might be his mortal enemy, but oh, the things he would've done to that body if he'd been in Jareth's shoes, and perhaps would still do, in front of a dying Jareth...and while that was one reason why he hated him so, he also knew that Jareth had always had good taste in women. "Did you enjoy your honeymoon? He should know how lucky he is, and how surprising it is that he's actually locked someone down." Moments later, Justice of the Peace Hyakolmivo, the very man who had solidified her bond with him, waved at her with a psychotic grin as he showed off a Family tattoo and joined Taron on his side of the negotiations.

"Supreme Commander," one of the soldiers exclaimed as Jareth walked inexorably closer to him. "We have General Taron dead to rights. What are your orders?" Above him, a Goliath loomed, its cannons and chaingun able to shred General Taron and his puny escort in seconds.

"Stand down," Alice exhaled. "You've already kidnapped my mother and my husband. What more could you possibly want from me, you son of a bitch?"

"To talk with you, between honorable military officials- and my congratulations on your promotion. A dutiful wife should be able to say goodbye to her husband, no? I promise it won't count as following me, since I haven't departed your fair shores yet."

"Fine," Alice said, seeing through his charm with a glare. "But if you're lying, you're dead."

When he nodded, Alice crossed the gap between the door and the beach with frightening speed. To counter any possibility that she might use the Darkness in the lacking early morning light, the eelmen shined bright lights in her face and wielded music boxes that disoriented both her eyes and ears. The light, she knew about. Sound, not so much…and so she knew she’d have to look into why this was and how to counter it.

"You better hope you don't so much as give Adamaris a paper cut during his stay in the Sunless Trench, or I will make you regret being born," Alice hissed in the meantime.

"There it is," Taron smirked. "That's why I wanted to talk to you...not the you that's in all the papers. Not the you that you would like to be- detective, hero, wife, mother. The you I saw two nights ago, that cut through my men like butter. What you actually are. What the Empire made you to be. A murderer, no better than Elizabeth. And now that I have seen that fire in your eyes, and know that you've failed again, that you'll never see your husband again, that your children will never know their father, and that one day I will destroy you and make you watch while I take everything from you both?"

"Bold words for an insecure, whiny, self-aggrandizing little shit, who doesn't realize what I'm capable of," Alice huffed, tightening her lungs to keep her otherworldly anger at bay. Perhaps now Jareth would understand just how restrained Alice had been, compared to what she could become if her steel trap of a mind failed her. "You're lucky you have leverage now, because I've defeated pickpockets more effective in battle than you, let alone that ragtag bunch of mindless guppies you called soldiers. And once my army has dismantled the entire Confederacy tree by tree...once Olseka's rightful King is back on the throne, you'll have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and you'll wish I'd put any effort towards ending you while you rot in some stinking trench somewhere. Forgotten by everyone, even the offspring growing inside your lady friend." In this way, she was letting him know she had her sources and ways of leveraging him if he pushed his luck, and as if to underline such, spies from the Imperial Eye materialized and looked at him beneath uncaring, unfeeling masks with black voids where their eyes should be.

This was, perhaps, the price of poking the Empire. The gloves were not off yet, but the fingers were being pulled off, one by one. The Confederate Council knew this would happen, which is why they had struck when they did, hoping to deal a decisive blow, rather than wait another five, ten years and give the humans more time to feed on this world.

Taron's ashen face paled for a second as he decided not to continue to stoke the embers of her anger, lest he put Arawynn at risk, since she was the only thing he'd earned that Jareth hadn't stolen. He also made a mental note to ask if she really was carrying his seed; then he composed himself and pulled two small lumps of flesh out of his pocket- one more covered in boils than the other. "One last thing. Elizabeth wishes to relay her condolences about your father...and brother. But now they're her angels. She said you'd understand what that meant." He knew exactly what he was talking about, but toyed with Alice to throw her off balance as a whale surfaced to take them away.

Jareth was strapped down to the great creature and diving below the water before he could hear anything. But he had seen Alice's eyes well with unimaginable rage, and he would be able to tell, from the heavy footfalls of the Goliath that sent shockwaves through the world and the scramble of activity he was able to see below the warped mirror of the water's surface, that she was almost certainly sending the entire Imperial garrison to hunt down and detain any remaining Family agents in Stormaway Beach while she investigated the circumstances of the double homicide.

"And so you finally see, Jareth," Taron boasted telepathically from atop his saddle on the whale, his proclamations bouncing off the walls of Jareth's mind. "Finally you understand that I am better than you. You had everything in life handed to you with the slightest of ease. You never really worked a day in your life, not when you had Meredydd to keep you out of trouble, Ianassa to baby you, Caerulia to actually make the family proud, Octavia to mother you once you turned your back on us, and Paio and other misguided vagrants to do your dirty work of wholesale slaughtering the whales we owe our very existence to while you sat back and took in the whores. You've even managed to fool Alice into thinking you actually care about her, that you won't drop her and find some hotter, younger tail- perhaps literally, if your past taste in mermaids is anything to believe- once her pussy is no longer tight enough after bearing your mongrels. And so, today, your ill-gotten gains fall all around you. Your company will almost certainly be seized by your bastard child who wears a crown much too big for him and split up, your precious World Rim Railway destroyed by our sea monsters, and Alice will succumb to me, slowly, as I strangle your girls, and fuck new ones into her better than you ever could. Your wife will cry out in pleasure on my dick while you take your last breaths. That- that is what you get for denying me my rightful place in this world, and your sister will soon grant me a place of honor for saving our people from your treachery."
 
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Jareth's steps slowed but his glare didn't waver from Taron, despite the slight turn of his frame as Alice made her way toward him.

The tender slide of his arm around her waist as she drew closer and only when he'd pulled her as close as he could did his attention draw away from Taron and found its way to her instead. His forehead dropping briefly against hers, his free hand rising to brush over her hidden belly bump, fingers lovingly lingering against the warmth of her, as if soaking it in. His nostrils flaring gently as he breathed her in. He knew where he was going and he knew he would need something to keep him grounded, to keep him centered. His eyes closed as Taron spoke, but Jareth focused on his wife and the children growing inside of her, their children.

Taking a deep breath in, he whispered at her ear even as she responded to Taron.

"We will be alright and I will see you again, this side or the other, my Queen."

His lips brushed against her temple as his gaze shifted to the approaching soldiers and he straightened as their hands gripped ahold of him.

He noted the shift in Taron's pallor, the corner of his lips curling briefly before he was pushed ahead, stumbling over the wet sand. His knee nearly giving out on him as he bumped against the whale. With a soft grunt, he offered a silent apology to the creature as he slipped his ring from his finger and tucked it into his pocket before he could be strapped down. Regardless of what he heard or saw, he kept his expression stoic for the most part.

"You know what I see, Taron. A pathetic, albeit misguided, attempt to rectify whatever personal wrongs you think need righted. I see a pathetic man that is no worse and no better than me. I understand that even my bastard progeny is better than you, better than you or your own progeny will ever be. You have underestimated me for as long as I can remember…..my advice to you, old friend……."

There was a brief silence before he continued.

"Don't underestimate my wife. And when it comes to your dick…..it'll be you crying out….in pain as she rips it from your body, laughing."

He went quiet again and this time stayed that way, to Taron at any rate. His sister on the other hand could hear him fuming, even without so much as a word from him.
 
"Leave us."

"Supreme Commander Guthrie, I understand your instructions, but are you sure that's what you want?"

"Leave. Us." Alice Guthrie’s tone deepened as the skies darkened in the evening, and her eyes tensed to keep tears from flushing out. It was quite clear from there that she did not want to be disturbed and was not asking politely.

The victim... Alice tried to keep her eyes dry in the same mental maneuver of thinking of his name only clinically, of rendering his body that had once posed such a threat to her and her safety in anatomical diagrams. Detachment, so strategic and so flawlessly executed, had gotten her through tough times before in her life.

Damn that Jareth, she said with a smile. His loving me has made me a much slower and more emotional detective.

But still an effective one. She narrated aloud, in keeping with her fingers flying on the notepad, "Victim is North Caledorian male about 58, 59 years old. 5 foot 7. 205 pounds, still overweight despite apparent malnutrition due to stored body fat. Cause of death: single drill wound to the abdomen, shredding major vital organs and causing death by rapid blood loss in about 20 seconds. Twenty of the most painful seconds on human record, most likely."

She walked around to record the identity of the killer of one Josiah James Guthrie and a fellow victim here when she accidentally hit her dead father's outstretched hand, and that was all it took to dislodge a letter from him. The high-level summary after reading this letter was that Josiah was sorry that he'd ever sent his children to a government facility to be experimented on because of their temper tantrums as toddlers. And then they had their minds erased after the project was done, and both Josiah and Kate were forbidden from ever talking about it on pain of having their children placed in the foster system. But here in his dead hand was a final confession- to absolve him? Fat chance. He'd committed the unforgivable when had government goons take Chloe Rose away to Edinar Asylum for accidentally killing Kate while Alice wailed for her sister.

At least he admitted his complicity in everything that had gone wrong with her life.

But the one thing that had gone right, the main thing that Alice was sure would be her legacy if she died, cold and alone, on the unforgiving streets of Radiant, just more garbage for the city autosweeper, was giving her brother another chance. She'd thought, At least Edward is safe. I don't care if I live or die. That attitude that helped her do the impossible at such a young age in the Surabamba Rebellion, the darkest stain on her heart since her ill-omened birth.

Now that hope, that Edward would be able to live a life free of worry, was lying dead on top of her father. He'd always wanted to protect her...so it reminded her that she'd failed to protect him. And just who had ripped him from her.

"You have gone too far this time, Elizabeth Jersey! You hear me?!" Alice said. She wiped tears with her bare arm now. "Do you think this is just one of your stupid games?! You sicked my brother, who I told you was off limits, on my father, and they killed each other. You destroyed possibly the last of my family! And, so help me, if Rose is dead too..."

Alice caught her breath for a second, the feeling of powerlessness washing over her and leaving her raw and angry like never before in her life. "Jareth and his family would in all likelihood be my only family too. And I love him like no one I ever have before. So why, oh why did you strike at the heart of me? Haven't you taken enough, you selfish whore?! You took my heart for two years when I was so weak and helpless and...no, no, I can't relive that just yet, with all you've done recently. That would take too long. Anyway, once I find Jareth, once I find my sister, once I knock some sense into that airhead of a sister of his that's on the throne right now, and once I crush every city of this motley Confederation beneath the feet of my armies...then I will find you and make. You. Personally. Suffer!"

"Do you understand what that means, Elizabeth? It means that you'll understand every iota of what you put me through. It means you'll never be able to hide behind childish charm to make me feel sorry for you again. Either you surrender and spend the rest of your life calming down in a padded cell as you promised you would, or I rip you limb from limb!" Some of the crowd assembled were shocked by Alice's dark words. "But I don't want a war. Just give me a reason to end this peacefully. No one else needs to get hurt.

"I know you're drinking buddies with these genocidal Confederate maniacs. You aren't smart enough to engineer this on your own, Elizabeth Jersey. And you certainly have caused chaos before, but this? This could end the entire world, you FUCKING BITCH!

"Here I stand, though! I still stand! And that means you soon won't be!!!" Alice roared at the top of her lungs. "Or maybe you can still be here. And stand in the light of mercy and justice. Just please, please, back off from this cliff that you're thinking of falling down. I can't fall down with you. I won't, okay? I won't, or we'll both be destroyed! Jareth, where are you? Please, I'll do anything. Please be alright! JAREEEEETHHHH!"

"Oh, gods, my heart is breaking," one of the onlookers sighed. "That is the sound of ultimate suffering."

"Alice may have made mistakes, but she's suffered enough. We all have," his buddy said through gritted teeth.

That was when the crowd broke out into song, so great was their depth of feeling at this present moment, with a rendition of a Caledorian working class fight song called The Hanging Tree. The lyrics went like so.

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?
They strung up a man
They say who murdered three
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?
Where dead man called out
For his love to flee
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?
Where I told you to run
So we'd both be free
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?
Wear a necklace of rope
Wear a necklace of hope
Side by side with me
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?
Where I told you to run
So we'd both be free
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?
They strung up a man
They say who murdered three
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?
Where dead man called out
For his love to flee
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree
​
"I needed that, thank you," Alice sighed, content that her people were on her side. "Now, let's go get my husband back!"
 
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His father’s voice sounded far off as he actively tried to ignore him but the old man, stubborn as always, kept babbling on. It had been how long? He glanced at the wall with deep little ticks dug into the surface, counting, keeping track of his time in captivity.

Stuck down here in the Trench for about a month, give or take, with of all people….his father.

Of whom was currently droning on about something or other across the cell they shared.

He supposed that was, currently, the worst of the situation. He had come to terms with Elizabeth coming and having to rub the whale salve onto his chest. Not that he enjoyed it because that woman was the last he wanted anywhere near him but it would keep him alive at the very least, so he tolerated it. He’d instructed his father to sit down and shut the fuck up when she was present and if she tried to engage conversation from either of the men in the cell, they were both silent.

”You know how to work those……land things…….pretty well, huh?

The muttering words broke through Adamaris’ thoughts and he peered up from the dismantled pocket watch at Meridydd.

”Well, yeah, Father…….I’ve lived on land for how long? Built my own business working with these…..land things. Actually made something of myself, believe it or not. Though, in retrospect, I guess I should have fucking stayed because you made the hugest mistake in giving the Kingdom over to Cae. Your precious little daddy’s girl…..who fucked things up far worse than I ever could have.”

Adamaris’ tail twitched when he heard the low rumble of a chuckle slinking closer to the cell. His eyes glanced over the dismantled bits of the octopus watch he was working on, wishing for something more than the simple needle he held clutched between his fingers. Although the thought of shoving the needle into Taron’s eye and into his brain was satisfying in and of itself but it wouldn’t kill him, which would by far be more satisfactory.

”Am I interrupting this familial love fest?”

Taron laughed and tsked as he leaned against the bars, eyes darting between father and son. Oh he enjoyed watching Adamaris squirm having to be in there but being in there with his father made it even better.

Adamaris sat straight, running a hand through his grown and disheveled hair. His lips twisting in a sneer as he scratched his dirty nails through the faintly growing beard.

Taron smirked broadly at the worse for wear looking Adamaris before cocking his head to the soldier behind him. The soldier stepped forward with two trays of food, as did a few others, though the others held weapons as Taron opened the cell’s door. All on alert as the soldier stepped in to give the two prisoners their nightly dinner.

If it weren’t for the fact that he needed the strength if he was going to eventually follow through with his previous threat to kill Taron, he would not have touched a single meal that Taron had brought them. He didn’t trust him but failing to eat anything, he knew would not be prudent. He also knew that if he made a fuss about wanting someone else that he did trust delivering their meals, it would have just fed right into Taron’s ego. Adamaris would be damned if he gave the man that satisfaction.

As usual, Adamaris went back to working on tweeking the watch, for purposes he hadn’t even clued his own father and cellmate in on, blocking out Taron’s barrage of taunts toward the failed Prince.
 
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A few days later, July 13th, 1893- Halanunja

The battlefield intelligence assessment from the ancient, now former General of Joint Operations- Irrespective of your wild theories, m'lady, controlling Halanunja is the best way to destroy most the Confederate Navy in one stroke- twisted in her brain like a knife.

Alice looked down at the battlefield below from the glass-bottomed hangar of the Sun Cutter and sighed, the weight of everything leading up to this moment making her whole body feel leaden as she prepared to put on even more heft in the form of her flight suit, laid over and denser armor than she was used to. One she'd ripped, using much weaker armor, off of a notorious pirate she nearly decided to eviscerate for stealing a valuable Imperial ship. Not to mention, Kate Gordon-Hawkins, top graduate of Elthurscaldy University of Magical Studies and the dark arcane healer of Javelin Squadron, had healed her superficial wounds from that battle. Did she have the strength to fight anymore, she wondered? Should she, with two little ones kicking her bladder with their tails every day? How many of the people manning these aeroplanes, now so tiny, would die in this offensive? And what to make of Koqee, the spindly, shy young thing? A few days ago, she was an ace that nearly knocked her out of the sky, and now was the first goblin in a century to ascend to an elite fighting unit in the Empire.

Then she remembered the reason she had hope- a walking message from Jareth, no doubt, with coordinates contained in the wax etchings that were easily lifted and flattened by wax draft paper, before being translated by her into numbers. Ingenious! And he knew just the right kind of puzzle to make sure his little detective was the only one who figured it out. The purpose of this location had been confirmed by intel gathered by Daniel "Ghost" Ghoslan while flying in-country in June, just before the war on his return from finding love in Wilfarne.

"Are you sure your intel is good?" Octavia asked.

"We can't- he can't afford for it to be incorrect. The elevation below sea level is consistent with other marine geological reports our Marine Scouts are bringing back to us about it, as well as some reports smuggled out or written down by the few escapees. This IS the Sunless Trench. And if it isn't, it's another shitty prison we can liberate and gain a lot of friends."

"Alright, everybody! What are we fighting for? Let's go around!" Koqee yelled. "Me, I'm fighting for the first real crew I've had in a long time. Thank you for having my back."

"I want Princess Nyx Kyron flying beside me once again," Kate sniffed, wiping away tears.

"I want Wilfarne to be at peace, so that I can be beside my beloved Vanya and our child," Daniel said, lips trembling.

"I want to fuck both you AND Jareth for not inviting me to your wedding," Octavia teased Alice with a friendly jab on the arm.

"And...and, I want my goddamn FAMILY BACK!" Alice roared. Then they all got in their planes and set off for Operation Fishhook while the rest of the Air Force bombarded the city (after dropping leaflets to give civilians enough time to evacuate), the Navy handled coastal batteries, mages projecting force fields, and other anti-air and anti-ship cannons after handily dispatching most of the Confederate Navy the day before, and the Army and Marines were mostly dropped off by sea inside of Goliaths stored in armored cargo ships, each a chargeball field's length.

Then there was a secret unit in an underwater Goliath...

*****

Edward, it turned out, had emerged from the floorboards, for death would not have hold of him that day. The amount of philter drugs in his system had mutated him enough to gain a rapid healing capability, nearly identical to that of a full mermaid. Thanks to his body, the Empire finally learned something of this rare, fast-spreading and extremely lethal condition, now no longer called mer flu, but NPV93 (Novel Philter-based or just Philtervirus, discovered 1893), stemming from philters which were banned from sale. An attempt was also made to destroy them in vast quantities using Edward's nose for philters, and most were, but some sellers slunk into the sewers or smuggled them into Alliance nations whose customs enforcement had been obliterated by the Confederates, and created some true horrors once sold in any black markets they could find.

And he was across from another who had become like him, like his sister, a Golem. And inside the muffled walls of the Goliath, as it slowly rumbled the earth below its feet all the way to the edge of the shelf that the Sunless Trench was carved out of, he taught his brother in monstrosity to ROAR.

For, Edward hoped, the boy Emperor's first and only time needing to be able to do this. He might be part-mermaid- less mermaid than his father, Edward could smell (though he knew not how)- but that wasn't enough to compensate for a lack of knowledge of swimming, a skill taught vitally to every child in the Empire.

Just in case they came from the sea.

Well, now Edward and Henry were the "they" you had to worry about emerging from the sea, were the monsters. Once the Goliath blew a hole in the rock with its powerful cannons and flooded the chamber, they wouldn't have long to grab Jareth, and would be fighting a huge influx of water with their grappling hooks to bring themselves back to the gigantic personnel carrier and artillery platform bracing itself against the remaining rock. It was hard to hang on, but Henry knew he had to.

For Grandfather Josiah.

For Grandmother Kate.

For the safety of Grandfather and Grandfather-in-Law Meredydd, and Grandmother Ianassa in turn.

For Adamaris, Henry's father, and bestower of the strength to lead the people of the surface and the ocean.

If only Henry could gaze upon his father's face and say that himself.
 
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