Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Kaias couldn’t keep his eyes off of Ol-via. She waved her hands as she spoke. Her delicate fingers danced in the air. There was a slight pink color to her nails, a color that none of the other humans had. He wondered if there was a significance to that or if it was just personal decoration.
The women of Vrex had a similar experience.
Some of the higher class liked to paint patterns of the animals or plants on their bone crowns or knuckle spurs.
The lower-class women depicted identical art pieces, but not in the same vibrant colors.
Colored paint was expensive because the dyes used to make it were costly.
As a result, the choice of decorating oneself was reserved for special occasions.
If Ol-via was Vrex, the nail paint would symbolize that she knew what was going to happen. The corner of his mouth ticked up in a slight smirk.
“I agree with your choice,” the High Sister commented, breaking his attention. “I was going to suggest Ol-via to you after the feast.”
“What makes her so special?” Kaias asked.
“I just like her,” she shrugged, “what I think doesn’t matter with your decisions. I have always been just a guide in your life.”
“Since birth.” He looked at the woman he loved as if she were his grandmother.
The High Sister smiled softly and nodded. “And I will continue to be your guide until my death.”
“Well, then,” Kaias nodded to the humans, “what makes Ol-via someone you would suggest?”
“She cares about the people.”
Kaias snorted. He couldn’t imagine an alien caring about his people.
Not in the way he or the Sisterhood did.
For him, even the lowest Vrexian was precious.
Without their hands or backs, buildings wouldn’t have been built.
He wouldn’t have clothes or food on his table.
As powerful as he was, he understood that the real power was the people working under him.
No alien would equate their people as their own. It just didn’t work that way. Even as he stood watching the intriguing human female, he could not say she had an equal in his world. They were just too different.
“She does.” The High Sister said emphatically.
“I cannot believe that,” Kaias shook his head, “if we were in their world, I could not see them as equal or valuable. They aren’t Vrex. They are something else, built by other gods who didn’t care for their offspring to survive. What god would allow their children to be so delicate?”
He lifted a fist, showing his knuckle spurs. “Do you see how unprotected they are? I could easily rip them apart with just these.”
“And because you don’t mean you’re a true leader.” The High Sister commented.
Kaias paused. His mind worked out the words she wasn’t saying. Everything the High Sister said had a hidden message behind it. It aggravated him as a child, and to this day, he sometimes doesn’t get what she was saying.
Kaias slowly worked through what little he did know about the humans.
The number of humans had to be comparable to the number of insects in his world.
Those numbers needed leadership, and with leadership came power struggles or war.
He imagined the humans fighting. Their wars would be dainty with just their hands, so they had weapons.
His eyes scanned their bodies. None of them carried anything that appeared to be dangerous. One could conceal a dagger, but a sword would be readily noticeable. Were humans a peaceful civilization?
“They have no weapons,” he noted.
The High Sister nodded. “They don’t carry them within the temple. They understand that this space is sacred, and they treat it accordingly. There are places like that on Earth, and they promised to keep that practice. But they do have weapons.”
“I’ve never seen Bri-ahn with a sword.”
“And you wouldn’t.”
Kaias narrowed his eyes on her. “They don’t use swords?”
“Ol-via explained to me that there used to be swords, but nowadays they are ritualistic or collectibles.” The High Sister said. “They could still be used as weapons, but they are not used in their wars as much as they were in the past.”
“What do they use?”
“That, I do not know,” she shook her head, “but when Bri-ahn and Ol-via leave to meet with Ambassador Cainai, Bri-ahn wears a strange sheath.”
She separated her hands, showing the dimensions of something almost hand-length.
“The item is about this big,” she added.
Kaias frowned. “That is a small weapon. There's no way it could protect them.”
The High Sister shrugged. She glanced at the humans. Kaias followed her line of sight. Bri-ahn had calmed down, but was still upset about the coming Heart Binding. The human male looked at Ol-via and quickly looked away. There was a hint of something that Kaias wondered was attraction.
“What is Bri-ahn’s relationship with Ol-via?” Kaias asked.
“I would have told you if there was one.”
Kaias sighed. “I know that, Aema. He just seems . . . comfortable around her.”
“They are the same species.” The High Sister said. “They have spent over a year together traveling and being here. Of course, they would be comfortable together.”
“Mmm,” he hummed noncommittally.
Kaias watched as Bri-ahn’s hand grazed Ol-via’s arm. The male leaned close to her face, whispering something to her. What were they saying? His curiosity was piqued. There were secrets between them, secrets he had to know. So much of the human race was a mystery.
“This is good for us,” Kaias whispered.
“It is good for you,” the High Sister said.
He didn’t want to correct her. She was an older woman who believed in the fairy tales whispered by the lower classes at night.
They believed in the healing gifts of bound hearts.
Kaias was a pragmatist. His Heart Binding was a good decision, one that would benefit the world and could foster something greater.
There was nothing else to it.
Ol-via smiled stiffly at Bri-ahn, and the man turned his back. She raised a fist up, displaying a single finger in the air. The other human female giggled behind a hand and nudged Ol-via. Her dark eyes landed on Kaias, and she whispered something to Ol-via.
He cocked his head to the side as Ol-via’s face grew pink and then red.
She quickly lowered her hand and turned to the other woman.
Slowly, he walked over to them. Ol-via turned to look at him; her face was no longer red, but her eyes darted like a scared deer.
Kaias felt his heart jump in disappointment at no longer seeing that shade. Something was endearing to the look.
“Lord Kaias,” Ol-via bowed her head in respect, “this is Eun-Ji. She is the one who made the feast happen.”
Kaias glanced at the other woman. She was different from Ol-via; thinner and with a round face.
Her eyes were smaller in comparison to Ol-via and her dark black hair was pinned back.
Her bow to him was well practiced and fluid.
It was as if she were raised in a similar way.
Ol-via and Bri-ahn had a stiffness to their bows, as if the action of respecting others would break down their own independence.
But Eun-Ji’s bow was strong. She understood.
It made him proud that she was the one to make the feast. If her attention to detail in the feast was anything like her bow, Eun-Ji was welcomed in his home.
“Thank you,” Kaias said, nodding his head to show his own respect. “You bow better than Ol-via and Bri-ahn.”
Ol-via repeated his words in the human language they shared. Eun-ji smirked and nodded. She said something to Ol-via. Ol-via sighed and turned back to Kaias.
“She thanks you for the compliment,” Ol-via explained. “Her mother and father taught her proper manners.”
Kaias smirked. “She teases you.”
“My country has different customs,” Ol-via said. “We do not bow to anyone. Bowing symbolizes that someone has power over us.”
“No one rules over you?”
“We have laws everyone is supposed to follow,” Ol-via commented.
He found it interesting that she said “supposed”. It was just another observation to add to the mysteries of Earth.
“There is much I would like to learn,” he admitted to her. Ol-via’s eyes widened, and her lips parted just enough for him to see her tongue press against the back of her teeth. “From both of you.”
Ol-via closed her mouth again—a slight pink rose from her neck.
He found himself wondering where else that pink went when he made her feel whatever it was she felt.
Eun-Ji spoke, breaking the silence between them. Ol-via turned her ear slightly toward her and nodded. She looked at Kaias and sighed.
“She is excited to see what a Heart Binding looks like,” Ol-via said. She leaned towards him, looking paler than before. “It’s not like the story, right? We aren’t cutting into our chests, are we? Because that would kill me.”
Kaias laughed. The question was unexpected.
Ol-via and Eun-Ji’s eyes widened as they watched.
“Forgive me,” Kaias coughed out, getting himself reentered, “taking out our hearts would kill us too.”
Ol-via sighed in relief. She spoke to Eun-Ji quickly and turned back to him. Eun-Ji laughed and said something to her, reddening Ol-via again.
“What did she say?”
“It's nothing,” Ol-via said quickly, shaking her head.
Kaias hummed. He found himself wanting to be a part of their group. It was clear that Eun-Ji liked teasing Ol-via, and if it made her skin redden, he wanted to join in. An idea crossed his mind.
He leaned in close. A soft and sweet aroma wafted from her body. It reminded him of the small cakes the palace cooks made for special occasions. He wondered where that smell came from and whether they could manufacture it the way humans had.
His eyes wandered to Ol-via’s and he smirked.
Slowly, he raised a hand and brushed the back of it along her cheek, down to her collarbone.
The tiny hairs on her body shivered and stood.
Pink darkened and rose in her body. Ol-via’s lips opened slightly, and a small gasp of air was released.
It was anticipation and pleasure that made his cock jump.
“I’ll get it out of you eventually,” he promised in a low rolling voice.
Ol-via closed her mouth and inhaled slowly. Her shoulders rolled back as her body became calm and still.
“Perhaps you should learn my language, instead.”
The defiance she had earlier returned. Kaias looked at her, unsure of what he was feeling.
There was always a power struggle between the sexes in Vrex, but the women fawning over him held an underlying motive.
It was to get ahead, to gain power, or to usurp the power from under him.
Each female held a dark plan that made him cautious in choosing a mate.
For all intents and purposes, Ol-via had nothing to gain in their union past her safety.
“We'll have our first lesson now,” Ol-via smiled, “say it after me, Oh-liv-e-ah.”
Kaias narrowed his eyes, but played her game. He repeated the sounds, feeling them in his mouth. It was her name, the proper way of saying it. Has no one attempted to say it correctly? A tinge of shame and embarrassment filled the spectrum of emotions.
He repeated her name over and over again until the sounds merged into one word and he could grasp it.
“Olivia,” he whispered.
Olivia smiled and nodded. “Thank you.”
Her face grew red again, and she looked away. It was fascinating how her body changed in response to her emotions, like the rare gems deep within the palace’s vaults. Kaias looked down at her body. He wondered how similar her anatomy was to a Vrex woman. Were her sensitive spots the same as theirs?
“Olivia,” he repeated, taking the time to feel how his tongue rolled with her name.
If he lowered his head between her legs, would he find the most tender and sensitive flesh? Would there be lips to kiss thoroughly and a bundle of nerves he could lavish over? His cock trembled at the thoughts running through his mind.
Kaias wanted to find out and to practice her name on those nerves. Practice made perfect, and he was liking the way her name rolled with his tongue. He wanted her to appreciate her name for that as well.
“You've perfected it,” Olivia murmured.
“No,” Kaias disagreed, “but I'd like to.”
“Well,” Olivia coughed. Her face took on a deeper shade of red. “I think we'll work on Brian's name next.”
Kaias narrowed his eyes. He lowered his hand from her collarbone and straightened himself. He didn't want to learn Bri-ahn's name correctly. The man wasn't worth that energy.
“No,” Kaias said, leaving no room for continued conversation about it. “We will do the ceremony now.”
He looked to the High Sister, “If you would do us the honor, Aema?”
The woman clasped her hands over her chest and bowed her head. “Let us begin.”