Jata Naira left the quarters of Captain Roy Casas as a part of her Imperial duty but she admitted that it was nice to be in the company of someone who knew her character.
There's no comfort in the presence of a complete stranger like the former Commander.
She steeled her mind as she wandered down the path where the prison was. The guards saw her necklace, so she told them, "Captain Casas knows I'm here. But I will speak to the former Commander now."
They broke the line and even helped her down the ladder into the prison, where it was cold and the stones were thick. Her eyes recognized the familiarity in the smooth glossy stone to open area of al-Busiri's underground housing.
As her hands touched the stone, she shook her head. This was exactly like that area. It wasn't just the land itself that Carolingian took but also their expansive underground housing. She would have to have Elijah traverse the routes and find out if there was a place that they could build a house over. They would still have to rebuild but no longer from scratch.
Of course, that was only if they could find it. She followed the light in the corridors until a line of prison cells appeared. A pale, dirtied hand hung out of the cell. She found him sitting there, crouched over as if he were unconscious, but it was simply the expression of a broken man.
"I figured the Prince, that damned Roy, or even the Prince's whore to appear," Berman struggled as he stood, using the bars to pull himself up. He grinned. "Even the Crown Princess but you? The surprises of the heavens are endless."
"Why did you kill Saavedra?" She said pointedly, her eyes trailed, following Berman's unstable countenance. "Everyone and even the informants said that it was because of the black market dealings. He knew too much. He talked too much. He was too much. I don't think that was it. He was a merchant prior. His policies were good for both Empires. And that's not good for war, is it?"
"And what does it matter what you think?" He snapped and then laughed devolving into coughing soon after. "You and everyone else think they know us but we're the only reason the entire world hasn't fallen to shit. That's why I killed him."
"You see, that's the problem," she said. "Who is this us?"
"Our Empire, one by one by one, was rebuilding the ills of the world but then there were people like the Saavedra who think there is no order," the former Commander spat. "Even worse, he thinks omegas should have the right to inherit land."
The more the man spoke, the less sense he made.
"Saavedra could have had a point in all that," a posh voice said. "What if dynamics were simply a failed structure? Only those at the top deserve that position."
She sighed before tilting her head in the direction outside of Berman's listening range and the Prince followed beside her as she spoke, moving to an area on the other side of the corridor, "You could've questioned him at any point in time but now you decide to do so."
He was wearing the formal clothing of someone from the Carolingian Empire now. Layers of cloth folded and twisted, offering the appearance of water in clothing form. The cloth's dark amber folds fell over his body as if it had been made back in the Empire. Perhaps it had.
"At any point in time," the Prince smiled. "I was not available to."
"But you're available to hold a philosophical discussion, correct?"
"Not today, but," the Prince paused thoughtfully. "Give me a few months."
She gritted her teeth. "I will be married in a few months. There won't be the freedom to do as you're doing."
"Marriage. . . " the Prince said, as if only speaking to himself. "I didn't plan that far."
"What were you going to do with your spouse then?" She scoffed. "Hide them away."
"No, but these things do take time and violence in the royal family waits for no one," He added. "Wouldn't it have been great for you and your omega father if you had time away from the court and those attempts on your life? And then later, when you were old enough, eased into it."
"It's not a luxury we have."
"But, we could," he countered. "I've been traveling around this sprawling space and it's bigger than any garden knot I've ever walked in. But, as of now, no one but you and I know about it."
She sniffed. "You're arrogant enough to presume you founded an open space that was here before you. Did you build it?"
"No."
"Then don't be surprised to know that the al-Busiri family who attended the Ouagadou," she nodded as a flicker of recognition hit the Prince's eyes. "That's the one. Their family has been building these all over these lands. Because, Sir Prince, they've been here for seven recorded generations."
He leaned forward and lowered his voice, "Would they be interested in building a safe place like the one I described?"
"I was of the similar mind. It will take years without foundations, but if there's open land somewhere on their old ancestral plots--"
"Great minds do think alike."
"How about you show me your mapping and I'll introduce you to the one who can build us this refuge?"
"We have ourselves an honest agreement."
Guards, from a distance shouted, "Princess! The Commander is ready!"
"Well," the Prince cleared his throat. "We will have to meet again then."
"This evening," she corrected. "I will be bringing recruits and this builder will be mixed in with the crew."
The Prince grinned and she escaped the prison, hearing the faint whispers of the Prince speaking to someone else behind her.
The Prince's grin dropped.
So, the place wasn't a secret to just him anymore but something in the manner that Jata Naira spoke reminded him of his former weaker self. And that spoke of possibilities.
He imagined a world where two of the three greatest empires were lead by alphas strengthened by the power held in one who could change another's designation.
Following the corridors down where his lab was and Beckett was up and about putting together the sprawling sketches like a map. Wide swaths of the sketches were missing parts but now that he knew it had a high probability of encompassing the ancestral land of the al-Busiri, he could figure out the rest.
"How well is it going?" He said as he flipped open one of the books he bought on land records and territories over the last two hundred years. It was the earliest he was allowed to have it since they hesitated to give him anything recently. Which, in all fairness, would've been like giving your enemy the key to your treasury.
"I think it's still going to take awhile," Beckett complained as he switched out more scribbles with other scribbles. "The area seems large."
"We're going to need that done soon," he said as he continued flipping through the book, not finding al-Busiri in the beginning of the book. "The Princess Jata Naira plans to build a house over one of these."
"Why?"
"To keep her secrets."
Beckett stopped rifling then. "Is that what I am?"
"You can leave if you want," the Prince said before he returned the book to the stack and grabbed another one in the series. "I won't stop you."
"But--?"
"Yes?"
Beckett didn't want to say it but the Prince had an idea.
"You know."
"We'll know when we know," the Prince said and then finally found the page with their ancestral land markings. "Ah, it seems there's three more plots of land that as far as I'm aware of are open land."
"Will you be hiding me in one of those places?"
The Prince was quiet and then said, "It depends on what we know when we know."
"Enzo still isn't speaking to you, is he?"
"He'll come to his senses, soon enough."
"And if not?"
"He'll have to make a choice eventually."
Beckett stared at his nonchalant shrug. He asked, "You already have a plan, don't you?"
"I do. And it even involves your little adopted son, Keaton." The Prince scribbled down the land markers and a general direction of their placement and stood up as he closed the book. And then winced. "The morning oil is burning and there are things to be done," he said as he moved to leave.
"Wait, why are you moving like that," Beckett blocked him and the Prince raised a brow before the soldier groped underneath his robes until finding his cock. It was already hard and obscenely red, dribbling through as the cloth wrapped around the length of it. "You've been walking around like this?"
The Prince breathed out. "Why do you think I started wearing traditional vestments? Anything else and it would be seen, grotesquely."
Lips squeezed over his cock immersing it in wet warmth. Only his hands on the table held him up as the man curled his tongue over and under his cock, sucking him deep in his throat.
He wasn't going to last long before the soldier stood up, spread his legs, and dropped back on his hips.
"Gods," he groaned as the soldier bounced his hip up and down. His release trembled through him, hard and nearly painful. A few seconds later, his cock was already hard again. "This may be the drawback."
"Didn't you say that they used to have heats and ruts? If I had to have a heat, this could be your had to have rut." Beckett turned his head around and said, "Those were your words."
"I can't even think properly to know what you mean, but it sounds right," the Prince said as he closed his eyes and Beckett began bouncing on his cock again. His hands gripped around his waist as he thrusted in again and again with his head leaning forward on his back until he felt his balls rear up, emptying in a sputter. His cock finally softened. "The timing couldn't be worse."
"I could go with you."
The Prince laughed. "To provide me with relief? Absolutely not."
"It could make Enzo jealous."
"He doesn't even like you like that," the Prince snapped. "There's no point."
"Ah, but you have to admit," Beckett said as his fingers traced his cock and it twitched. "You like me a little bit."
"The tiniest of bits."
"Enough."
"You're beginning to aggravate me," the Prince hissed. "We are not friends."
Beckett shrugged. "I'm used to having sex once a day, almost every day. And your cock is thick enough to hit something that helps me cum so--"
The Prince pinched his bridge but his mind was hazy and muffled. This was a bad idea. LIttle brain pieces were clicking in his head but he couldn't figure it out and the other man was being too lax about this. "Fine! Fine. Just--one more time before we leave." His hands grappled the man's chest, twisting him around, as his hole swallowed him again.
When Jata Naira said recruits, he thought she meant a few. Instead, she brought seven new alphas and three omegas willing to be relieving servants after being told what it was repeatedly. One of the omegas wore a full-body covering that the Princess kept holding onto to make sure the omega didn't wander off. One that was neither a recruit nor a relieving servant. He refused to speak to anyone and kept close to the Princess. The Prince figured the omega would be a future concubine in no time.
"This is Elijah al-Busiri," Jata Naira introduced.
The omega was small and lanky. Equal parts pretty and plain with beads that were truly well-crafted. He quirked a brow and the Princess tossed him a dirty look.
A second concubine. My. My.
The Molokhiyya sure work fast.
"I have something that may help you find a plot of land to build on with the necessary foundations," He pulled out the mostly finished map that was put together with string leaving the open, untraveled spaces blank. He handed the folded stack of parchment. "Some of it was marked by me, but Beckett spent an extended amount of time wandering the corridors. If there are any questions of his allegiance, do make note of this."
Akhutenan greeted the recruits with a great welcoming ceremony, during which he officially donned his commander uniform for the first time. Captain Gomez officially retired and his family had come by to join in the celebration before bringing him home, except his youngest. General Orellano was promoted to Captain and Captain Cordero said he would be gone for the season to handle his family business. Captain Boucher, as well, but he was due for a return trip five years ago.
"I haven't seen Lady Casas in years," Beckett said lowly and tilted his head. "You mind if--?"
"Go but--you know," he snapped.
"Yes, your Highness."
The words mocked him but he pursed his lips in silence as the other man rushed off through the crowd.
The boats bringing in official nobility are marvels of invention that could speed through the ocean, shortening the long trip in half or more. Some trips depending on the weather only took two weeks.
As a child, he used to study naval ships with his grandfather.
Akhutenan greets the visitors, recruits, and long-term soldiers, "We currently only have one Commander, if we include me. With little deliberation and more common sense, we promote Captain Roy Casas to the position of Commander!"
The army cheered as his wife and son greeted him. Those words summoned Jata Naira, whose particular attention veered on his son.
"You didn't know he had a son," he said to her. "He's not married."
"He's a foreigner."
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," he pointed out to her. "But I would argue, unlike me who can only have one spouse, rightly so, might I add, you are not limited. Out of all your consorts, one of them should be a foreigner. I wouldn't make them your Crown Prince or Princess, though."
"I wouldn't--" the words must've stunned her as she twisted a glare.
The Prince raised his hand in surrender with a smile. "I mean nothing by it. I'm just saying in the case of. Being that you're not Crown anything, it shouldn't be a problem." and then winced. "Many pardons, I've been having a pressing headache, on and off today, if you don't mind."
She waved him off and he swept through the crowd, luckily, filled with the people of his empire. His garments stood out but not as much as it would've in the bustle of the inner city markets. He leaned against one of the walls outside of sight breathing heavily when a heavy hand grabbed his arm, without looking, he hissed, "Where were you?"
A palm pressed against his forehead and he smacked the hand away but he had the audacity to hold his hand back. He raised his eyes and glared, finding Enzo staring down at him worriedly.
"I was looking for you," Enzo said slowly. "You didn't hear?"
The Prince ignored the stinging pain as his balls and cock rubbed against the fabric. It was like knives on his skin. He retorted, "No, I haven't heard."
"No need to snap at me," Enzo mumbled under his breath before continued on, louder, "Berman broke out."
"Was it--?"
"I don't think so," Enzo cut in. "I know you don't trust or like him but he's been speaking with my sister-in-law and my nephew since he returned. He hasn't left."
It slipped his mind the lie he had told the guards about Beckett's location. He dropped his head against the wall and groaned. HIs mind hadn't been working at all. Why did he let him wander the prison? He knew how angry he was about his father's arrest.
Something like that didn't change overnight.