Falling in Love with the King of Beasts

ELIA

Elia's jaw dropped as Candace stepped into the wide, round room before them, walked to its middle, then turned to face her, looking a little bit anxious.

All Elia could do was gape. The house was a tree. She stood inside a tree that wasn't perfectly round, but more oval, and had to be almost fifty feet long and close to forty wide. This ground floor was snug with rugs, a small fireplace with soft chairs set around, a kitchenette on one side, and a table with four chairs next to it. Next to the fireplace, wooden stairs that looked as if they'd been carved out of the tree itself climbed to circle the outside and Elia followed them up, startled to find they climbed to a rectangle hole in what had to be the floor of the next level—as if this entire home had been hollowed out of a living tree.

"Candace, this is amazing!" she said breathlessly.

Candace blinked. "It's just a home, though it is a great location. I was blessed that my parents build it when Wildwood wasn't as big. It is quite desirable now, and makes selling my weaving much easier."

Elia turned around, staring at everything—decorated throughout in lines and fabrics that somehow managed to be abstract, yet give the impression of leaves, branches, and trees. And like the doors, the whole structure of this room looked as if it had grown there, been discovered rather than built.

"How did they do it?" she asked, awed.

Candace looked around, clearly confused by Elia's reaction. "They just… built it?"

Elia gave her a flat look. "I've never seen this thing you can do—making things look like they're a part of the landscape, rather than things!" Even the stones around the fireplace looked like they'd been deposited there by a river, rather than stacked and mortared in place. Elia shook  her head, but since the others were all staring like they weren't quite sure what to say, she just smiled and said, "Candace, I love your home."

"Thank you," Candace said, her cheeks pinking. "And if you'd like some things like this of your own, speak to Reth. Any of the master builders can achieve this for you."

Elia nodded. "I will. Thank you."

Candace ushered them all over to the seats in the dining room and as they settled in, Elia's chest began to burn with frustration again. Now that her distraction was passed, she found herself gritting her teeth.

Why wouldn't anyone have explained to her in detail that females didn't appoint male cohorts? Why had they let her blunder into this? And what was she going to do about it?

Once they'd all taken seats and Candace gave each of them a glass of juice that was sweet and crisp and reminded Elia of orange juice, they all turned to her.

"I wish you'd told me," she said directly to Aymora. "When the women's council explained that my chosen patronage might not be well received, I understood that. But had I known I was committing an even greater blunder…" she dropped her head into her hands. "I just want to get my feet under me! I want the people to—"

"Forgive me, Elia, but your feet… they are underneath the rest of you. Are you having some kind of problem with them?" Candace asked nervously, looking down at her legs.

Elia groaned, "It's just a saying. It means, I feel off-balance. Like… like something might push me over at any moment."

Aymora touched her hand. "I'm sorry, Elia. I never occurred to me that you might… I just hadn't thought. The Lenonine are so possessive and you and Reth seem so close, I just never thought. I will try to anticipate these things to come, but sometimes I don't know the differences between human and Anima, so it can be difficult to anticipate."

Elia nodded. That was fair. "Well, from this point forward, the thing we can all do—all of us—is make a promise: You will tell me every time, right in the moment, if I'm doing something that offends people, or seems strange. And I will promise to listen to you without getting angry. I may… I may still do what I'm doing. I can't know what my decisions will require. But I promise you I want to know if I'm doing things differently, so at least if I'm going to piss people off, I know I'm doing it, okay?"

They all nodded. Candace bit back a smile.

"Now… how do I fix this shitshow?" she cried, dropping her head into her hands. "What are facing here? I've already named Gahrye—and I did it for a reason. He's good. He helps me understand other people. And he can scent things… but—you're saying it's going to cause problems with Reth? Why didn't he tell me that?!"

Gahrye swallowed hard. "I'm guessing he was a little focused on… claiming you?" he said, and blushed.

Elia wasn't sure she'd ever seen a grown Anima blush. Of course, she blushed too. If someone didn't say something both their heads were going to explode from the rush of blood.

Aymora cleared her throat and Elia thanked whatever God Reth believed in that she started to speak. "The damage, so to speak, is done, Elia. Now it's time, I think, to make the most of what you have. There will be… complications. And definitely some concern among the people. But hopefully everyone will eventually become used to it. It isn't that it's never happened before. But generally, the primary advisor isn't… different. Only because they are expected to follow you into every situation with discretion and… well…"

"If you're naked, and your husband is possessive, it's kind of difficult for Gahrye," Candace said bluntly.

Elia choked on her juice. "Why would Gahrye need to be there when I'm naked?"

Gahrye dropped his head into his hands.

"Perhaps you are in childbirth? Or ill? Or… there are any number of rituals and ceremonies—"

"WHAT?!" Elia gaped at Aymora. "You have naked ceremonies? What for?"

"Everything," they all said at the same time.

Elia dropped back in her chair and covered her face in her hands.

What had she gotten herself into?