Lowland Romance I
Roslyn carefully looks around Caermyr as she gets off of the raft, having finally completing her journey now that she has made it to the capital of the Colryd. Placed at a point where the three largest and longest rivers in the northern lowlands met, it was already something of a focal point in the lowlands even before Queen Eira came to power and turned into a centre of trade.
Born and raised in Greenbay, Caermyr is nothing like what the Arthrynite priestess is used to. Greenbay is the capital of the People with over twenty thousand people there while Caermyr is only a tenth of that size. To Roslyn, the capital of the Colryd and one of the largest settlements in the lowlands looks like one of the minor Arthwyd settlements that she passed through on her journey down Green River.
Greenbay has a seemingly endless amount of buildings made of brick and straw and is organised into many different neighbourhoods that have their own farms and are semi-self sufficient with their own palisades in addition to the outer palisade that surrounds all of Greenbay. It is properly organised and built with the materials and methods of the People.
Caermyr is different. Beyond being significantly small, it is just more primitive in nature. It lacks the brick and stone that the People use it the lowlanders have mud huts. And just by looking at it from the river, Roslyn can tell that the entire settlement is a mess. With buildings and structures scattered about in no clear pattern, it looks like everyone just decided to put up their homes and places of work on a whim with no organisation in place. Given that the Colryd are barbarians, Roslyn wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.
Another thing that stands out to her that the villagers are walking about mostly have stone tools as while there are some copper tools, they are not as universal as the metal tools of the People. The Colryd villagers also look rather undeveloped compared to what members of the People that Roslyn is used to seeing in Greenbay. They are short and weak, lacking the general fitness and health of the People as they look like their growth got stunted. This is especially the case for the women as if it wasn't for having other signs of age such as wrinkles, Roslyn would mistake them for children with their short stature, their childishly flat chests and their generally lacklustre appearance.
Shifting her posture a bit, Roslyn cannot help, but wonder how much she will stand out with her height and mountains amongst these barbarians. While she is a priestess and not a Catclaw, Roslyn isn't worried about being attacked or otherwise physically assaulted thanks to the respected positions that the Arthrynite priestesses hold in Colryd society, the divine magic that she wields and the general fear of the Northern Demons held by the barbarians of the lowlands.
No, Roslyn is more worried about unwanted passes by lowlander men wanting to bed one of the beauties of the north as her own preferences are towards her own gender. That and adjusting to live amongst the uncivilised lowlanders. The Colryd are alright for a bunch of barbarians, but they aren't civilised like the People are. It won't be too bad as Roslyn will be living as part of Queen Eira's court, but she doubts that she will spend too much time here amongst the Colryd.
Roslyn heads towards the longhouse that Queen Eira rules from. Place upon the top the largest hill in Caermyr, it is a hard sight to miss and one that stands out. While Roslyn expects to be staying with the other Arthrynite priestesses, she also knows that she will spending a lot of time in the Queen's long house as part of her new duties.
***
Roslyn settles down in a seat away from the centre of the long hall as the patriarchs of Caermyr mingle with Queen Eira and her court. While the queen has them fighting each other for her attention and a couple of her fellow priestesses are also mingling, Roslyn has decided to stay out of the way.
It has been close to a season since she arrived in Caermyr and Roslyn would happily stay away from all of these boisterous social gatherings if it wasn't for the fact she needs to attend some to avoid being rude. That wouldn't be too bad except Queen Eira holds one almost every day as she picks her partner from the night so Roslyn still ends up regularly attending them as she goes to about one in every five.
She doesn't enjoy, especially given the barbaric nature of the Colryd. While no one has truly tried to force themselves upon her or any other Arthrynite, on more than one occasion, a drunken man has tried to get touchy with her. Thanks to the politics of the situation, Roslyn has had to endure having her bottom grabbed or one of her breasts groped on more than one occasion without punishing the offender in response.
So now, she just attends without partaking as she is technically here and not snubbing the queen with non-attendance, but she also doesn't get involved with the ongoing of the event either. So she sits out away from the main affair and just waits out the evening. She planned to do that tonight before Wyrn decided otherwise.
"Hello Roslyn," says a soft purr of a voice and Roslyn turns around to face Katryn, the youngest of Queen Eira's adult children.
Like her mother, Katryn has the Gift of Urth and is a great beauty by the standards of the evil despite her unnatural nature. While she lacks the muscles of the People thanks to her physical strength being based in magic, Katryn is still tall and curvy with a chest big as those of the royal family. Even her long black hair and sometimes glowing red eyes are something that Roslyn finds attractive in an exotic kind of way.
Charming and adventurous, Katryn is the sort of person that Roslyn would like to be the Evalyn of except she knows for a fact that Katryn doesn't share her preferences in sexual partners. She has watched Katryn leave her mother's parties with male partners for the night on more than one occasion.
While Roslyn could get to know Katryn as a friend, she has generally kept away from the dark beauty out of a desire not to cause herself pain by being so close to the thing that she desires while she is unable to have it. But now Katryn has approached her.
As she looks over at Katryn, Roslyn cannot prevent her eyes from straying. Katryn is beauty and unlike civilised people like Roslyn who cover up their divinely given curves as is proper, Katryn does not. Instead, she wears a skirt around her groin, but otherwise, she wears only jewellery with a silver bracelet with implanted gems on both wrists while a golden necklace with a large white and oval gem, falling down to just above her cleavage, which is uncovered and bare for all to see, including Roslyn's eyes. It was a barbaric way of dressing, but one that Roslyn enjoyed as it let her eyes take in Katryn's attractive looks.
"Hello Katryn," replies Roslyn, forcing her eyes away from Katryn's generous and naked chest up to look the daughter of Queen Eira in the eye, "What can I do for you?"
Katryn gives a sly smile as she leans against the wall of the longhouse and place an arm under her chest, emphasising it and lifting it up a little as while her chest is on part with a member of the royal family, Katryn doesn't have Arthryn to hold her mountains up. Against her will, Roslyn's eyes move back down to her chest for a moment and the smirk on Katryn's face as she looks back up tells Roslyn that Katryn planned for that to happen.
"I was just curious about why you avoid me even through you made it clear that you wish to make love to me," asks Katryn and Roslyn realises that she has not been as discreet as she thought she had.
"I have noticed that unlike myself, your preferences are for men," answers Roslyn, flushing red with embarrassment at being called out like this, "Since you are unattainable for me, I figured not to cause myself pain by being close to something I could not have, but still desired anyway."
"That is a fair way of seeing things," muses Katryn, "However, I have a proposal for you. Part of the Gift of Urth lets those with it drain blood of others to replenish other magical power and heal ourselves in addition to acting an additional form of
sustenance
. While we can drain our target dry, we can also limited ourselves to non-harmful amounts and heal the blood loss that we have inflicted. If you were willing to let me try some of your blood, I would sleep with you in exchange."
"And is there any drawback to this?" inquires Roslyn as while she is sorely tempted by Katryn's offer, she is wary of letting her blood be drunken.
"You would have to trust me not to drink enough to harm you," answers Katryn, "Or maybe not in your case since you have your divine magic and goddesses to protect you. In any case, I would not drain one of your people dry of their blood or otherwise kill one. Your people would try to hunt me down and I do not fancy my chances against the Northern Demons. I would also not throw away my comfortable life as if I was to invoke the fury of your people in such a manner, mother would turn on me in order to keep their favour."
"I see," replies Roslyn, "And while I do trust you, I must still decline. I may long to be your lover, I am not interested in a one night affair. If you want to reach my summit, you will need to climb my mountains first."
"Your mountains eh?" replies Katryn with a sly smile as she gazes at Roslyn's chest, "I am not too familiar with northern slang, but I assume you are referring to those bazongas on your chest. Does climbing them mean physically getting hands on or a metaphor for something else?"
"Metaphor," answers Roslyn firmly, "You will need to make the effort of seducing me and proving your commitment before you can earn the prize of sleeping with me. Or in your case, drinking some of my blood."
"That sounds reasonable," says Katryn, "I did hope that you would hold true to the stereotype of northerners being willing to casually sleep around, but I guess you can't all be like that. I can't say that I don't like the idea of a chase. The best things are ones that you have earned the hard way. Still, there is a slight problem?"
"And what would that be?" asks Roslyn warily.
"As you have noticed, my preferences are towards men rather than women," explains Katryn, "When I offered my body up to you, I planned to use magic increase my lust like Mum does so that I don't get who I sleep with so long as I get lain while the magic is active. But if I am to make a campaign of seduction against you, then a different method is in order. Give me a day or two and I shall begin to climb your mountains Roslyn."
With another deliberate shake of her chest in a successful attempt to draw the involuntary attention of Roslyn down there, Katryn strikes away with a smug smirk on her face, leaving Roslyn to wonder just what she has gotten herself into.
***
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