Luther's Pride Part 53 (Alt) (Patreon)

The remainder of the party went without incident, at least no incidents involving Luther. He kept himself on his best behavior with his wives watching over him. Curious whether he was worried about the challenge, several nobles asked him for his thoughts on the matter. He played it as though he were confident, and they walked away believing him to be a prideful fool. 

Meanwhile, he didn’t know whether his confidence was assurance or bravado, founded or unfounded, until he learned more about his challengers. Beyond the brief information he’d gathered from the others, he had nothing to work with. Branan’s son-in-law could be a formidable foe, or a foolish fop, but Luther needed more intelligence. Thus, he asked Jowangshin for a dance. She knew everyone. 

“So, what do you know of the Spencer Union?” Luther asked. “You seemed reluctant.” 

Jo swallowed. “They are four to our six, but they are a mighty four. Benedict is a hydromancer. Wren is an abjurer, like her mother. Kay is an electromancer, which he combines with Benedict’s hydromancy to devastating effect.” She sighed. “And Jane is a talented healer, and one of the foremost fighters I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen them win a challenge before. It was brutal.” 

Luther nodded—two strong offensive mages with complementary talents, plus a strong defensive mage to protect the healer. Overcoming them would require some very creative methods. No doubt they’d expect Criella to attempt to bypass Wren’s shields, and they’d have countermeasures ready.  

“We’ll come up with a winning strategy, I’m sure,” Luther said. 

“I’m sure,” Jo echoed. “But no challenge is without its cost. We may win, only to lose one of us in the fighting.” 

“No,” Luther said. “I’ll not let any of you die. Don’t worry about that.” 

Jo frowned. She was worried, but only because she’d seen them fight before, and hadn’t seen her own union. The Spencers were more practiced working as a true unit, but the Le Fey clan had the advantage in numbers and the advantage of deception. If they thought Luther’s arcanum was conjuration, they were mistaken; if they thought he had no arcanum, even better. 

The dance ended, and Criella took the next dance, though she did not speak to him. They drew eyes, but if anyone whispered comments about them, they did so out of the range of Luther’s above-human hearing.

He danced with each of his wives that night and did his best at small talk with the other nobles, but eventually the partying waned. Dancers toured the gardens or returned to their dining hall seats. Most revelers made their excuses when Luther stopped by, and none of the nobility would let their eligible daughters anywhere near Luther or his clan. The only exception was the Grey family. Holly smiled when he saw her, so he asked her to dance, and she accepted. 

“Are you sure the nobles won’t ostracize you for dancing with me?” Luther asked. 

Holly, the red-headed beauty in a pale green dress, laughed. “Oh, they ostracize me enough anyway. My family has a crude reputation among the nobility for our tattoos. That, and transmutation often lends itself to crude jokes they’d blush to make anywhere outside of their closed chambers.” 

Luther almost chuckled, but turned it into a smile instead. 

“I am surprised you asked me to dance, though,” Holly admitted. “I thought you had no interest in me when you dismissed my family and me from your estate.” 

Luther raised an eyebrow. “Oh, no, please don’t think that,” Luther said. “I merely wished to cease holding you hostage. As Helena said, I invited you to dinner, not a three-day festival of weddings and challenges. I was very much interested in you, but it seemed you had no desire for me.” 

Holly’s smile brightened. “You have my interest, if not my desire, but I am hesitant to offer or suggest marriage when I hardly know you. If I married you for your looks alone, or your wealth, we might be an ill match. So I heeded my parents’ advice and waited.”

“I see,” Luther said, putting the pieces together. Her parents might have more than one reason for suggesting a patient course of action, but he couldn’t hold looking out for their daughter against them. 

“Please don’t think me uninterested if I didn’t propose marriage when we first met,” Holly said. “I realize that your position is precarious, and my father can sometimes be more cautious, but do not think me too timid.” She pressed herself against him as they danced. “I can be bold.” 

“Oh, of course,” Luther said. “Don’t worry. If anything, I find you more sensible than myself, which is a trait I seek in every woman I pursue.” 

Holly laughed at that. “Then I hope you continue your pursuit when you are once more eligible for marriage,” she said. “Do not forget me, Lord Le Fey.” 

“How could I?” Luther asked. “We shall dine and dance again, once the challenge is behind me, I’m sure.” 

Holly curtsied at the end of the dance and returned to her parents. She smiled at him again, and Luther returned to his wives at their table. 

“Well, shall we go?” Helena asked. “We have much to do.” 

“At your convenience,” Luther said. “I am ready to depart when you are.” 

The Le Fey clan rose from their table and made their way through the crowd. They didn’t have to go far to reach the exit and were in the hallway before anyone stopped them. A noble, one of Duke Beaudivere’s spouses, the young woman Luther had seen Emily speaking with before, walked toward them as if she’d somehow been waiting for them to leave. Her gown was simpler than the others, not ostentatious, and she carried a book, hugging it to her stomach as she approached. 

“Please, take this to Emily when you see her,” she said. She offered the book to Helena, who walked in front of the group. “She is still at your estate, is she not?” 

“She is,” Helena answered. “I can take it to her. What is it? A book?” 

“Just so.” The woman smiled. “I’ve known few who read as much as she does, and she tells me you have quite the library, Lord Le Fey?” She looked past Helena to Luther. 

Luther nodded. “My father was a collector and a scholar.” 

“Perhaps I shall visit then, sometime, without my husband, and you can show me your library,” she said. An innocent request, perhaps, though Luther would be dead and burning before he believed innocence or goodwill from the duke or his spouses. 

If it was a play at flirtation, she’d made it clumsily, which is why he suspected it wasn’t. As useful as it might be to have someone inside the duke’s circle feeding him information, making a bedfellow of that woman was a terrible idea. Besides, he couldn’t trust that information wouldn’t flow in both directions. 

“I’m sorry, but do I know your name?” Luther asked. 

“Luther, please, allow me to introduce Callista,” Jowangshin said. “Callista Beaudivere, this is Luther Le Fey.” 

They bowed to each other. 

“Won’t you stay for dessert?” Callista asked. “My husband might have all the manners of a drunken cow and the racial prejudices of a man three generations his elder, but please do not judge everyone in our union as in league with him. I reproached him three times today, though I do not do so in public, for obvious reasons.” 

Luther grinned. If she were being genuine, and wasn’t married to the duke, he might actually like her. “You show more intelligence than hatred, which is certainly preferable, but I’m afraid I must decline. I have business to attend to and must prepare for our upcoming challenge.” 

“It will annoy my husband that you left early. He intends to ask you to regale the nobles with tales of your travels outside the empire,” Callista said. “He planned on using it to embarrass you.” 

“I appreciate the forewarning,” Luther said. “Unfortunately for your husband, I’m a better storyteller than I am a conjurer; I’d gladly regale the crowd with tales of my bravado if I had the time.” 

“And you should know that he’s sent a letter of complaint to the emperor regarding your secret marriage to Criella,” Callista said. “The three days that Spencer offered you were not for your benefit. It’s the duke hedging his bets between killing you with the challenge or executing you for breaking the law.” 

Luther laughed. “Let him complain.” 

Callista blinked. 

“If the duke wishes to persecute us for that, or should he continue to make a case for his harassment of his vassal, I will pursue the matter with the emperor,” Luther said. “Your husband is not the only person with friends.” 

If she’d had more time, she might have offered a rebuttal or continued trying to persuade him. Her eyes flitted to his wives, but they followed his lead, acting confident rather than afraid, as if they had nothing to hide. It was a servant’s mistake, after all, not an illegal wedding.

“Ah, our carriage is here.” He gestured behind Callista as it rolled into view with Criella beside it. He didn’t know when she’d left for it, but he appreciated the foresight. “Farewell, Lady Beaudivere. We shall see you again soon.” 

Callista curtsied, and he returned it with a bow before taking his leave. 

He held the carriage door for his spouses and climbed inside with them. He sat between Eira and Rhosyn now, riding with his face toward the horses as they pulled the carriage along. 

“You owe me dessert,” Helena said. “They had cheesecake.”  

Luther glanced at Rhosyn. 

“What?” Helena asked. “You two need to stop having silent conversations without the rest of us. It’s rude to exclude us. We’re your spouses, too, Rhosyn.” 

Rhosyn nodded. “We weren’t conversing, but perhaps we should. We need to strategize, and to do that, the rest of us need to understand how your arcanum works, Luther.” 

All eyes turned to Luther, and he sighed. “Very well, but perhaps we should wait until we’re home?” 

Jo crossed her arms. “Oh, come on, you can’t leave us in suspense.”

“I’ll admit, I’m curious how your arcanum works, given its unique nature,” Eira said. 

Rhosyn nudged Luther with her elbow when he didn’t answer. 

“I don’t have all the answers,” Luther said, turning his gaze to the carriage window and its opaque darkness. “My arcanum has no documentation since I’m the first known case of it since the legends surrounding Annwyn.” 

“It’s possible it existed before,” Jo said, having considered it. “But without a union, there’s no way to manifest it so the empire would have designated its bearers as deficient. They would’ve gone unmarried, and thus they escaped discovery. Even now, there may be those who bear it and have yet to realize it. Your flaunting of it during a challenge might change many things in this empire, Luther.” 

That was possible, but conjecture. He wondered how the crowd would react to such a display if he switched between arcana during the challenge with the Spencer clan. Disbelief. That would likely be the first and largest reaction. He wondered how long it would take for acceptance to take its place. Or would they land on anger instead and allow their jealousy to drive their fear of him to commit atrocities in the name of preservation because he was ‘different’ from them? 

The nobles might forgo the laws of challenge and kill him if they could. 

“It’s a fair point,” Helena said. “I don’t know that I would have married you if I’d believed you didn’t have one you were hiding. Lucky for you, you did.” 

“Can you explain it to us, husband?” Eira asked. “I’ll admit, I’m curious as well.” 

Luther shrugged. “The arcane laws behind it are unknown to me. I can only report on my experiences, which may be anecdotal and not universal. I do not know if my arcanum functions the way it does because there is some reality behind it, or because my mind projects a reality upon it that makes sense of some greater unknown.” 

“No one’s expecting you to have all the answers, Luther,” Helena assured him. “But can you explain your side of it to us?” 

“We’re curious,” Jo explained. “Or I am, at least.” 

“Yes. Explain what you can,” Criella said. “I’m sure everyone will listen.” 

Luther sighed. “When I use my arcanum, my mind casts itself to a place like a pool of water - a deep well of magic. The pool contains the depths of our united power. Each of us has a channel that connects to this pool, in which magic travels to or from our spirits.” 

“Our spirits?” Jo asked. 

“I can travel along those paths to their source, which hovers in different forms depending on the state of your spirits. When you’re calm, the vapors are calm. If agitated, whether happy, sad, angry, or some other emotion, they change.” 

Luther didn’t know if his explanation made sense to them, but no one asked him for clarification. 

“Then, in my mind, I shift my spirit to match yours and join you. I mingle my spirit with yours, and that allows me to use your arcana,” Luther said. “If we match well, that’s when we feel pleasure from the bond, and I can cast your spells. If you reject me, or if I disrupt your spirit instead of matching with it, it causes pain, and you push me out.” 

The women seemed to accept that. It made logical sense, even if they didn’t understand the exact causality behind the phenomenon. They’d experienced it, so they knew it was true, but that didn’t mean they understood the truth. A clock could tell the time, and they could read its face, but they didn’t know the details of the gears and springs working inside. 

“So what is my spirit like, right now?” Eira asked, curious. 

“Sad,” Luther answered. “Mostly. Yours fluctuates the most. You have a stormy spirit that flickers between grief, sadness, guilt, worry, fear, hatred, love, and a myriad of other emotions so quickly that it is often difficult for me to match you for more than a moment without your focus aiding me.” 

Eira nodded, taking his description into account. 

“Hatred?” Helena asked. 

“I hate a lot of things,” Eira admitted. “Branan for killing my father, my arcanum, myself, Lucas, the duke, my ineffectuality at saving anyone, and the list goes on.” 

“Oh, Eira,” Helena said, shaking her head. “You sound like you need a hug.” 

Eira nodded. She took Luther’s hand and moved his arm, draping it over herself. She cuddled into his side, and he pulled her close. Eira stilled and took a deep breath. 

“What of my spirit?” Criella asked. “You seem adept at matching me.” 

Luther drew a deep breath. “Yes. You maintain significant control over your emotions, so it’s easy for me to empathize with you.” 

“And what do our spirits feel like?” Jo asked. 

“It differs,” Luther answered. “But it’s often pleasurable.” 

“Even when forcing yourself into a negative emotion?” Criella asked. “If Eira is sad, and you make yourself sad to use her ability, does it still feel pleasurable?” 

“Well, yeah,” Luther said, though he was hesitant given his limited experience. 

“Because our spirits are in sync?” Eira asked. 

“I imagine so,” Luther said. 

“Does distance affect your ability?” Helena asked. 

“I imagine not, if it’s tied to our connection as a union,” Rhosyn said. 

“The bond is spiritual, not physical, so it doesn’t weaken over geographical distances so long as the spiritual bond between spouses remains close,” Jo said. She sounded as though she were reciting from a textbook. 

“That makes sense,” Helena said. “We’ll have to work doubly hard to ensure we each maintain a close bond with Luther.”

“Oh, no, a bevy of beautiful wives who want to be close to me-how will I ever find the time and energy?” Luther asked, keeping his voice light and teasing. 

Criella kicked his shin. “This is serious, Luther. Your arcanum will be public knowledge after this challenge. I don’t know whether it will scare people away or bring more challenges to our door, but it will elicit interest, regardless. We need to be ready.” 

“What kind of interest?” Rhosyn asked. “Will we be in trouble?” 

“No,” Eira said. “Not trouble, but Criella is right. People will notice, and I’m sure scholars and even agents of the empire will want to know everything they can about Luther. He’ll become a historical figure.” 

Everyone in the carriage fell silent as it rolled through the surrounding night. The implications were impossible to calculate or foresee, even with Eira’s skills in divination and foresight. Luther supposed he had those same abilities now, though he did not know the spells. There was still much to learn, and he needed to focus on training both his ability and their ability to fight as a unit over the next few days. 

“So, which of us do you currently have the strongest connection to?” Jo asked, as if out of the blue. 

Luther lifted his eyes, and they fell on Criella. She lowered her eyes but said nothing. 

“Criella,” Luther answered. 

“But you love each of us equally, do you not?” Helena asked. 

Luther hesitated, but there was no point in lying. “I can’t confess to loving you as deeply as I love Criella,” Luther said. “We’ve known each other longer, but the connection between our union is strong. I love each of you, and yes, I wish to be closer to each of you, to know you more, in every way.” 

Eira put her hand to her heart, clearly touched by his words. Helena looked between Criella and Luther. Rhosyn appeared mollified but disquieted. Jo stared at Criella as if looking through her. 

“I understand that it’s a colossal task ahead of us,” Luther said. “You’ve left your families and loved ones to join this union, and at substantial risk to yourselves, given my situation. In exchange, I’ve offered you love, romance, and whatever comforts my wealth can provide. We’ve risked that by flaunting our union, and by two of us being demi-human, which invites disfavor and challenges from others.” 

“Your nature is not a sin,” Jo said. “How the duke and others have reacted to it is.”  

“Yes, and it’s not as if your lineage is a matter of your choosing,” Helena said. “Bigots deserve what they receive.” 

“And there are some who call me bigoted for my preferences,” Luther said. 

“Well, that is a misunderstanding. Sexuality isn’t something one can help either,” Eira said. 

“We must simply defeat our enemies until none remain, as is our right,” Rhosyn said.

“As is our right,” the others echoed. 

“Well, we’ll sleep well tonight,” Helena said. “We train in the morning, and I’m not going easy on any of you, especially not you, Luther.” 

Luther grinned. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”