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Zhenten poured over the trade records by candle light at his cluttered desk. He had no idea how Setiir had managed to get a hold of records from these establishments, and frankly he didn't want to know. Attempting to trace a specific group of hyena slaves as they were bartered throughout the city was a logistical nightmare, but the young sand cat was scarily adept at it. Even so, none of their leads had turned up the hermaphrodite. Rai took it well whenever they updated him on the search, but Zhen could see the disappointment in his eyes. He was losing hope that he'd ever find this slave who captivated him so.

Zhen did not quite understand it, but he would do everything in his power to avoid snuffing out that spark from his prince's eye.

While he sifted through papers, a letter fell in his lap. He looked down at it and sighed. He knew what it was. Somehow he'd almost managed to forget it. He lifted it, lay it open atop his other papers, and read the flowing script - his own handwriting.

Adane,

I miss you. More than ever, somehow, since you passed. No matter how many times I visit the Red Drop it's never enough. It's an expensive proclivity, and not precisely an establishment I prefer to endorse. Some days, though... it's the only way I can restrain myself. My ward reminds me of you, but I'm not as brave as I used to be. Or foolish, such as I was to approach you, at such an age... Even now though, I would not trade the world for my memories of you, however they pain me. Rest well with the spirits, my dearest Adane. I will always remember you.

He knew it didn't feel complete when he first wrote it. He hadn't felt capable of continuing it. Now, though... Yes. The lizard reached for a pen.

An addendum,

Prince Rai has grown so much over the past few months, about the same time you took ill. He's become an incredibly gentle and passionate soul, perhaps even wise. Yet he still has the optimism of youth, and I pray he never loses it. He saw through me in my suffering, and somehow... welcomed me. Gave himself to me as I never imagined. I cannot fathom the wiles of the universe, give me my ward in place of you. You would not be jealous nor wish me to grieve, so I will be grateful for this blessing. This one night with him has freed me from the Red Drop, my crutch. But now it's even more dangerous than being with you was in the early years. I have yet to tell him I was forbidden from even allowing him male slaves... And if the queen finds out I slept with him personally...? I would lose far worse than my career.

But above all else, I am content again. Be at peace, Adane.

Zhenten sighed as he signed the letter, taking his time with his most ornate signature. Lizards did not have tears, but he trembled faintly as he set the quill aside and hugged himself. Yes, he was at peace. But it was still hard saying the final goodbye. At length he drew in a breath, straightened, and rolled the letter into a little tube. He kissed it, and fed it to a candle flame with a silent prayer to send it on its way.

With that said and done, it was about that time. He was glad to escape his cramped office. Time to fetch the girls. He'd been finding Khali and Falia frequented the library together in the late afternoons before summons went out. And that's where he found Khali, at least, hunched over a book, her dark tufted ears perking up and her tail beginning to sway as Zhenten entered. The caracal looked up, setting a loose sheet into the book before closing it. "So who is it tonight? My queen or my prince?"

"Rai, tonight. Do you know where Falia is?" It was becoming the default for the young prince to summon both of them.

"She went back to the room. I'll walk with you there!"

She rose and carefully untangled the train of her skirt from the chair legs. Her dress parted at her navel and beautifully framed a view of her inner thighs and snug panties. Even Zhen could appreciate the alluring attire, if only artistically. He waited for her at the library doorway, and they made for the servants' wing side by side. The passed by the kitchen and the wonderful scents. But as they pulled out of earshot, the feline drew close, practically leaning on the lizard's arm to lower her voice. "So how was Rai being with a boy?"

He missed a step, wrenching away from her and bit his tongue hard. Zhenten straightened and collected himself quickly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Come oooon! Falia told me."

The lizard glanced both ways down the hall and snatched the feline's hand to drag her along on their way. He hissed back at her, "And no one should have told Falia in the first place!"

"We can keep secrets! Rai trusts us."

"And yet the harem is legendary for gossip." Zhen sighed heavily, letting go her hand and settling himself into a more natural walk. Keep calm. "It's not a matter of trust. If that reached the wrong ears... my life would be forfeit."

She blinked at him, falling behind a pace while she processed. "From who?"

The lizard could only offer a shrug. "It breaks... special instructions." He did not care to elaborate in the hall, or anywhere else for that matter.

Khali caught his resistance and held her tongue. Only the queen was really in a position to order such a thing, though. The very same queen who regularly had several of her male slaves make love for her viewing pleasure. She put that mental image out of mind before it touched her nethers; her current outfit would not hide well if she got damp.

It wasn't that the queen had a problem with it. There was something about Rai. That thought consumed the caracal for a moment, but her thoughts kept slipping back to imagining the young gryphon with Zhen. Who topped? Was Rai still a virgin under the tail or...? Damn it. Khali always got like this after reading romance novels.

She'd cooled down a bit by the time they reached the harem quarters. But she'd gotten a hold of herself a little too late, if Falia's double-take at Khali's panties was anything to go off.

The trio arriving at the prince's quarters found the gryphon preening at a full length mirror, wings flexing, a new style of robe allowing him that freedom; it hung off one shoulder with a gold broach. His ears tipped toward the doorway, the only sign he noted their entry already.

"Satisfied with the seamstress, my prince?" Zhenten asked.

"Oh, yes. She's great. Just going to take some getting used to... this." Rai spread his wings to their fullest. "I'm just not used to having them out."

"They look cute." Falia stepped up and ruffled the edge of a wing, the young gryphon starting and drawing them up tightly to his back. The vixen giggled. "Oh, come on. You've had sex in front of over a hundred people. This is nothing."

"Cute." He turned back to the mirror and let them spread naturally to a casual poise. "Guess I'm just going to have to get used to it, either way. Khali?"

"I agree, they are very cute at that size."

Rai sighed. "I meant, are you ready?"

"I know." The caracal grinned. "And yes."

By this point it was practically a routine; Khali joined the young prince on the balcony for the evening meditation. His eyes were immediately drawn between her legs, then up to meet her gaze questioningly. She put on a devious smile and offered a half-bow. Godsrain, when he smiled like that, she just wanted to kiss him all over. But they knelt down to their little ritual. Rai closed his eyes, but Khali did not. Honestly she just wasn't nearly as into this as he was. But Rai said her presence helped him, so...

Craning her head, ears perked, she could almost make out soft chatter between Falia and Zhen. Pleasant talk, from the tone of it. But the spying caracal couldn't make anything out. Slumping down again, she simply watched her prince. If she closed her eyes, she still saw him - honestly she was becoming rather taken with the young prince.

So why hadn't she slept with him yet?

Time and again she'd teased him over the past weeks, but it had never devolved to sex. Khali never quite hit all the right buttons like she imagined at night. Making him want her so badly that he took her. Surely his respectful demeanor would break sooner or later. To hear Falia talk, he wasn't that much of a submissive, was he?

Maybe Khali hadn't been trying that hard. It was fun to keep teasing and pretend it was nubile innocence. It was honestly refreshing to be wanted for something other than her body. Her eyes finally closed, she imagined sharing a slow smile with him...

"Oh, dessication!"

Khali's eyes snapped open, imagined peaceful moment shattered by the prince's frustrated moment. "Er... is everything alright?"

His talons scraped as he rose and leaned against the balustrade. "I'm getting nowhere. It's not working."

The feline rose silently, stepping up behind him. "You're talking about interacting with the spirit world just by meditating. I'd never even heard of people who could do that just by meditating. This is the forte of monks who spend decades in seclusion. You're not going to master it in a few weeks."

"Yes, but... the Hierarch seemed so sure. The way he said it, this should be obvious. Something I can just intuitively do. I wasn't even trying the night I met him!"

She slipped between those wings and wrapped her arms around his chest. The gryphon sighed, grip on the railing loosening somewhat. Coaxing the young prince to lean against her, the caracal nuzzled his ear. "So tell me what it was like again."

"Just a grassy field."

"Come on, Rai. Close your eyes. Relive it. Could you feel the grass?"

He sighed a very neutral sigh. "No. I was above the grass. Just... drifting above a wild plain."

"Keep going," she cooed, brushing along his ear. "Was there a breeze?"

The gryphon's head tipped slowly one way, then the other. "The grass moved like there was, but I couldn't feel it. Couldn't feel anything. I could look about, but I didn't have a body there."

"The breeze," she murmured, sliding fingers downward from his chest. "Could you hear ?"

His ears perked up to phantasmal sound. "Not over the music." Khali prompted, and he continued. "A pair of flutes of some kind. The nagas played them. Hierarch called them daughters."

Fingers snaking lower, Khali was tempted to grope. Rai, so innocent and unsuspecting. She was pretty sure she could get him to... Wait. She straightened, pulling the touch of her breasts away from Rai. "...Were the nagas doing anything else? The daughters who were playing music, I mean."

"They got up and I think... Slithered in a circle? Maybe something like a dance."

"Those devious snakes," Khali chuckled. The prince glanced over his shoulder and found Khali grinning. "It was a calling. They were performing a spirit calling."

"You're saying..." Rai's ears flattened. "...I had help that time."

"Yeah, I bet that's what it was! It's what basically all our religious ceremonies started out as... Rites and rituals to, kinda, be more spiritual?" She bounced in place, jostling Rai's wings. "Do you realize what this means?"

He sighed, unconsciously lifting a hand to brush his earring. "It means this isn't as intuitive as I hoped."

"No, silly." Khali picked up the young gryphon's ears and forced them back upright. "We can do our own calling."

"You can!?" Rai's slouch vanished; he straightened stiffly. His left ear began twitching furiously against her grip. "How soon...? Do we need anything?"

"Calm down, kid." The feline giggled, releasing his ears. "I'll need to do some digging. Rituals have changed over the years. I'll need to find one we can do with a small group of people that hasn't changed too much. There used to be a ton of regular ones at the temple."

"The temple. Should we do it there?"

"I mean, I'd rather not involve my mom. If she knew what you were trying to do..." She shook her head. "I don't see anything good coming of it."

"You'd think, as a high priestess..." The gryphon caught her dubious look and paused. "Okay. Let me ask Set. If we're going to sneak in, he's good at this kind of thing..."

The caracal scoffed. "Gonna be hard to sneak. We're gonna have to make some noise and, you know, music. My mom lives at the temple. She almost never leaves!"

"What about the New Moon feast?"

Her eyes lit up. "Oh.... Oh that would give us time... And it's supposed to be an extra spiritual night! That's gotta give you a good chance, right?"

"I'll have to come up with a good reason to excuse myself." The prince steepled his fingers and rest his beak on his fingertips.

"Hey! You could fake passing out like the first time."

Rai shot her a dirty look. "Don't remind me. But, no, our mothers would both be involved if that happened."

"Oh. Right."

"And it's only a few nights away..." The prince took a deep breath, and the caracal smiled. It was good to see his hope restored.

Rai wandered to the doorway. "...Care to join me and Falia tonight?"

Khali toyed with the idea as she followed behind, but something still said it just wasn't the right time. She gave him a broad smile. "How long do I have to say no before you get impatient?"

He turned, a scaled hand catching her wist and lifting, a little stoop as he pressed his beak to the back of her hand in approximation of a gentle kiss. "All eternity."

* * * * *

Rai smiled patiently, relishing breeze in the leaves and the garden scents, and Falia's lovely figure as she studied the scroll Zhen helpfully provided. Carved into the table between them, a namat board. She'd asked on their walk, and he'd taught her the basics. They had filled perhaps a third of the board - an impressive feat given how long the vixen pondered where to place her next tile. He tried not to take note of which constellations she was paying attention to on the scroll. At last she reached out to make her move and stared at it an inch above the board for an additional moment before letting it touch the board.

The gryphon set his next piece down without hesitation. He'd known his next move since the middle of hers. "You're taking this way too seriously."

"It's a complex game... I'm still new!"

Rai shrugged. His wings moved with his shoulders. "Relax, try things. Instincts come with time."

"That's why you always lose," Setiir's voice called their attention across the garden, "Study the classic strategies." Zhen had returned with the sand cat at the prince's request, and they were just rounding the hedge.

"That way takes work." Rai directed at his vixen lover while the sand cat took a seat. "You're not exactly challenging a master. Well... you weren't before Set showed up." He gestured to an open chair and the cat took up the seat and a red tile.

He regretted the offer immediately; the cat slapped a red stone in the middle of his best hidden constellation. The gryphon waved Zhen to the fourth and final chair. The lizard held up his hands, and Rai shot him a stern look when he tried to sit off on the edge of a garden. Chagrined, Zhen came over and took the chair. He made no move toward a set of tiles, though.

"Intuiting the game inevitably leads to a limited set of recognizable basic strategies." Setiir went on as Falia fingered a tile, pondering. "You learn the strategy, you learn it's counters. In other words... know your enemy."

Rai met his friend's intense gaze full on. If anyone else had delivered that line over a game of namat they would have smirked, smiled, anything. Not Set.

Falia finally set her piece down with a satisfying click. She'd spotted another of Rai's formations. He was left to decide what to salvage and opted to close up one of his low-point loose ends. Click.

"You asked for me, Rai?" Set slapped a piece in the middle of Falia's biggest formation; she made a face.

"Go easy on her, Set."

"She won't learn being coddled."

"Anyone ever tell you you're ruthless?"

"Just pragmatic. But I'm not just to play namat, am I?"

Click. Falia began a new cluster in the middle of an open patch of board. The gryphon set a piece nearby, close enough to start a few different possible constellations with his pieces on the edge of the next nearest clusters. "Next New Moon, I need to get out with Khali. I need to dodge the feast."

"Simple enough. Where are you going?" Click.

What the heck was Set putting a piece way out there for? "The temple. It's the only time we know the high priestess will be out."

"Interesting."

Rai caught himself fondling his earring again and quickly put his hand down. "Khali thinks a ritual will help me reach the spirit world."

The cat tipped his head and studied Rai.

"That explains things." Zhenten cut in. "I was shocked that she didn't want to participate in the dance this month."

Rai withstood the sand cat's lingering gaze. It was rare to see a genuine spark of interest in Set's eye. Bringing up the spirit world had caught him off guard, and Rai could almost watch his nigh-inscrutable mind churn through the new information. At length, he nodded with barely a whisper. "Yes, it does explain some things."

Falia snuck her piece in, moving to box in Set's piece.

The sand cat continued, "Rai. I have something I've been meaning to ask you."

Rai finished making his move - his mind wasn't even half in the game anymore; he knew it was a dumb move. "Sure. What is it?"

Set glanced at the hedges about them, and Rai frowned. It wasn't like him to be hesitant. Or take his attention off the game board and the people. The cat squared his shoulders and turned back to the gryphon. "My people have a tradition... Wilderness survival, a coming-of-age trial. The Proving. My mother wants me to go through it. It's done in pairs."

"Someone... our age, I take it."

He nodded. "You're my first choice."

Rai's feathers ruffled up. Him, really? "Have you thought about Talez? He's way better at those kind of things. Fighting, survival, whatnot."

"I'd rather it be you. If you're willing."

A sense of gravity fell upon the gryphon, and it made him hesitate. He was fondling the earring again. The first time he'd felt this way was with Seva, but that felt appropriate. Now...? Was this truly a crossroads of destiny or was he just imagining things? He cleared his throat. "Ah... When?"

"The morn after the New Moon."

It wouldn't hinder the ritual, then. "Okay, Setiir. I'll go with you."

Zhenten's polite cough drew perked ears and everyone's attention.

Rai broke the silent moment. "Yes, Zhen?"

"As much as I appreciate you wanting to support your friend... You are a prince. This will need the queen's approval."

The gryphon sighed. "I thought you were on my side."

"My hands are tied." He held them out as if to be bound. "I apologize, but this is my job."

"Hey," Falia cut in. "Set. You gonna make a move?"

He turned his gaze on her and dropped a tile right in the middle of her business. Her ears flattened.

* * * * *

Falia pried a confession out of Rai that night; he'd been going easy on her. She seemed somewhat obsessed with namat now, despite her frustrations with it.

Mother was too busy to see him that evening. Nor the morning after. With Zhenten's blessing, Setiir provided his escort to the temple this time, and they discussed the upcoming New Moon. Rai wasn't paying full attention. The cat didn't seem worried about getting him out of the palace. He went on about their route to the temple; which roads to avoid, which were going to be empty. Try as he might, Rai committed very little of it to memory.

The temple would be empty that night, as everyone who might normally be present would be at the feast instead. There was no door to contend with; the central hall was open-air. So it was just a matter of getting Rai out of his obligations.

Set did not elaborate on his plan, and Rai simply had to trust his friend. They parted ways at the temple entryway and Rai veered off to the vestibule, already disrobing. The high priestess, Khali's mother, and a hooded jackal priest sitting to the side with the rune carved staff. There was no ceremony to these visits, and no wasted time. They all had better things to do with their day.

Rai closed his eyes even as he lay down. The flash came quickly, and he was in the void beneath the runic sky and his enormous, color shifting moth 'friend', the incessant mystery. At length, he dropped his gaze to his hands.

With some practice, he'd moved his hands here. A few days ago he'd managed to stand and walk. It had been a good day, relaxed after a pleasant morning meditation. Today there was a pit in Rai's gut and a lot on his mind. He closed his eyes. Just... wait it out. Get on with his day.

No.

No, he wouldn't accept that.

Yesterday was marked with a string of failures, minor though they were. Falia's face weighed on him; seeing her drained of the joy of a simple namat game when she realized how far out of her league she was. He was still mildly annoyed with Set about that. And himself. He'd completely shirked meditation this morning. It was a self set goal, but still. Sheer stubbornness welled up in him, the kind of frustration that made him want to move. And move he did. Balling up his fist and pounding it into the black nothing below. He forced air into his lungs, though there was no need for this spirit body to breathe.

Hissing, chittering, the glow of the moth - a brazen gold at the moment - suffused him. He glanced up. The moth filled his vision, peered in on him with tilted head. I still don't understand who or what you are. But then, I don't know anything about spirits.

Desiccation's Name, Seva... You could have at least given me some clue! His spirit body seemed to feed on his frustration; every feather stood on end, every fiber tense. Scale meant nothing here. So Rai stood, reached up to that runic sky. Not a sky, but a dome. A net. A tiny one at that. The moth blazed red and leapt, suddenly tiny and impossibly far away. Rai thrust his arm between the runes into the beyond. A shriek tore through him--

"Gah!" Clattering.

The prince's eyes shot open to reality. The hooded priest, staff dropped, pressed fingers to his temples. A thick, dark rivulet of blood dropped from his nose. Had Rai struck him? No... No, the jackal's chair was too far away.

"Rai!" Wide, wild feline eyes blocked his view. The caracal, frantic. "Speak. Do you feel this?"

"I- Ow!" The gryphon yelped at the pinch to his arm. "Yes, I feel that, and I feel... fine. What happened?"

She turned to the other priest, peeling back the hood. Rai didn't see much, only that there was blood on the jackal's hands. "Clean up and go lay down," she bade him tersely. The caracal turned back to Rai and practically shoved him off the altar to glare at the webwork of runes. Her fingers hovered over the stone, claws extended. She fumed. "It's unstable. This isn't safe to use. It never was."

Rai staggered. He'd extended his wings automatically but he wasn't used to their balance. As he found his feet with a calming breath, the gryphon stared at the altar. He had no idea something going wrong with the magic could do that to the priest... But the prince wondered, was it truly the runes that were unstable? Or had he done something by reaching beyond the runes?

* * * * *

The instant Zhenten saw the young gryphon, a smile grew across his muzzle, and Rai couldn't help but have his spirits lift a little. He fell in a comfortable lockstep with his lizard caretaker on the way back to the palace and let out a weary sigh. "... I don't know if the high priestess is going to want to use that altar anymore."

"Oh? I'll be sure to keep you posted as to her plans, then."

Rai felt his hand pluck at a feather of his wing, and he snapped it tight against his back. "Hey!" He met Zhen's grin with one of his own, though.

The lizard's hands were quickly back in his customary poise, folded casually in front of him as they walked. "You're carrying them wider, lately. Prouder."

"Am I? I don't think about them too much, unless they're pulling me off balance. It's taken some getting used to." Rai shrugged. His wings shrugged too, he noted. "Not sure how I feel about Falia and Khali calling them cute though."

The lizard glanced over as they walked, appraising the gryphon's figure.

Rai stressed a dramatic, exasperated sigh. "Don't tell me you agree with them."

"I would call them... regal."

His feathers ruffled, face warm. "...I could get used to that."

"In other news, my prince," Zhen switched to a businesslike tone. "Your lessons with Mideus have been postponed at least a day or two. He has business of a personal nature; he sends his apologies for the short notice, but it came up unexpectedly, as I understand it."

"Hopefully nothing too serious."

"On the bright side, this has opened up an opportunity. Your mother is in open council. We can go ask after accompanying Setiir on his Proving. Straightaway, if you like."

Open council. Rai had never even been allowed into those meetings before. Strange to think he was coming for business now. It didn't feel like particularly important business, but nonetheless. The gryphon saw no reason to delay. "Alright, open council it is. No hurry, though." He stepped closer to the lizard, brushing against his arm. "We can take a detour through the gardens if you like."

"That would be enjoyable, but perhaps afterward?"

"Sure. I apparently have nothing for the rest of the day."

It was still a pleasant walk up to the palace. As they ascended the steps of the main entrance, Rai spared a thought for the hooded priest and wondered again if he'd done something... Hopefully he would be okay.

Open council was held in the same great hall as the feasts he was familiar with, but the large main doors were shut. Zhen led the way to one of the side entrances that opened directly on the royal dais. Only Mother's throne was recognizable; the vast room was left in shadow, braziers lighting a much smaller space for the queen to preside over: a smaller table and the cluster of a half-dozen people about it.

Rai had met them all at least in passing at one officious function or another. The hyrax and gazelle he'd forgotten their names. There was the avian Praetor, and Setiir's father too. Beside him, head tilted and ears pert, a feline woman Rai had only ever seen a handful of times - Set's mother Veyra. She dressed in elegant gowns with flowing sleeves - far more modest than any other female he'd ever seen in the palace.

The praetor saw him first. "Prince Rai?" All followed his gaze to the approaching gryphon.

The jackal queen turned, hanging over the arm of her throne. Her tail thumped once behind her. "Oh, if it isn't my fledgling!" Rai weakly protested the ensuing hug, and the kiss to the top of his head.

"What is he doing here?" The hyrax viceroy grumbled.

"I heard Mideus canceled on you." Anu steered him in front of her throne, hands running along his wings. "No harm having him for a while. He might learn a bit about how the nation's run."

Rai's feathers bristled despite himself; anyone touching his wings still felt so weird to him.

"Right," the hyrax huffed. He had a single tooth that stuck out "Because life's too short, and we need to experience all the dry boring meetings we can - start 'em young."

Across from him, a graceful gazelle cooed. "Oh come now, Baxen. Let him spend a while with his mother." Her voice was butter smooth, and bells jangled as she shook her head; each of her horns had golden rings adorned with them. "Honestly, its like you never had a childhood, which is strange since you never grew upward very much..."

The smaller viceroy puffed out his cheeks. "I'm sure he'll be immensely pleased at your low insults, Darahi."

The praetor eyed the pair of them sharply, sighing.

"Actually, mother, I came to ask a question." He turned to face her, sprawled as she was against a corner of her throne. She nodded for him to continue. "Setiir asked me to join his Proving." His eyes were inevitably drawn to the sand cats present. Their expressions could not have been more different; Set's father grimaced, while Veyra looked enormously pleased.

Anu shrugged. "I don't see why not."

Bells jangled as the gazelle reared her head. "I'm not sure I like that idea, actually, Highness."

Baxen muttered something under his breath. "...needlessly dangerous old trials..."

Darahi shot the hyrax a stern look, cleared her throat, and carried on. "I'm just concerned with the implications of the prince engaging in traditions associated with only a single clan... Especially the most extreme clan. Pardon my saying so," she dipped her head toward the sand cats. "No offense, Hariin, Veyra."

"None taken; it's simple fact." Hariin muttered, but shrank low in his seat under the baleful eye of his wife. Setiir had his mother's eyes, for certain.

Rai watched his mother's face harden as she reconsidered.

The hyrax huffed. "I agree with Darahi. Shajaran leadership needs to maintain an unbiased image in the public eye."

"I get that," Rai leveled his gaze with Baxen. Everyone else he would be looking up toward. "But I'll never be part of the leadership. I wasn't born with the gift; I'm not an heir."

The praetor sat forward. "Your actions still reflect on your mother, young Rai. Bear that in mind." He turned to the queen, feathers bristling subtly. "As I recall the Proving takes days, if not weeks. I worry about leaving him without the priestess' care for so long. We all know what could come of that."

Anu gave a pained nod.

"You can't seriously change your mind," Rai asked, already diminishing; he feared he knew the answer.

"Oh, my child. I must."

The gryphon glared at the praetor. "How does it reflect well on my mother if I refuse to help my closest friends?"

Darahi's horn bells rang as she dipped her head. "I know that's not what you want, young Rai. But word of that would never spread."

"This is precisely why I didn't want Setiir to go through the Proving." Hariin hunched and shot a combative glance at Veyra, and swept the table with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, I don't like family business affecting the council. I should have put my foot down from the start. And now-"

He was cut off by an extended claw beneath his jaw. "You'll do no such thing." Veyra's tone was light, even sweet, but deathly serious. "Let's not fight about this again. You'll just embarrass yourself."

The prince rounded back on the throne, staring down his mother. "You're the only one with an actual say in this, aren't you?"

"Rai," the Praetor's voice was surprisingly soft. "Do not let your stubbornness control you."

He had a point - he was letting frustration get to him. It was a disturbingly common trend lately. The gryphon dipped his head and took a deep, measured breath. His eyes shut. For a moment, he was on his balcony, his morning meditation. Calm, centered, controlled.

"...two need counseling?" Darahi, in hushed tone, directed at the sand cats. The prince hadn't even heard her start in his moment of trance.

He met the Praetor's gaze, gave a respectful nod, and turned back to his mother. "I'm going with Setiir... Because I feel it's right. I ask for your blessing, not as a prince, but as your son."

Anger, concern, and affection battled in her expression. She shook her head faintly, her words taut. "Don't do this to me, Rai. I can't ignore what I'm hearing. I can't stop being queen just to let you do whatever you want."

"I understand, but..." The young gryphon spared a glance for the Praetor - beak ajar, taken aback by Rai's calm. That expression brought the prince a sad smirk. He gave a subtle bow to the table of dissenters and turned tail. "...You'll have to lock me up to stop me."

"Rai, don't!" Anu's pained command sounded more like a yelp.

He had no reply for her. A hush followed as he withdrew.

"Godsrain, he reminds me of my brother," the Praetor sighed.

There was a murmur of consent. Then Set's father, "Vey. Vey!"

Rai didn't look back. But when he joined Zhenten just outside the door, he wasn't surprised to find the femme feline emerge behind him. She was smiling. "Setiir chooses well."

He gave a grateful nod.

"You have my blessing, little gryphon." Her hands gripped his head lightly, and she stooped to plant a kiss on his forehead. "Don't let them stop you."

"I won't."

She smiled and moved on down the hall at a determined pace, dress and sleeves flowing, billowing behind her. Rai's eyes fell on Zhen, shifting uncomfortably as he watched her go. "Stopping you... would probably fall to me. And I hope it doesn't come to that."

"I know." He slipped a hand into his lizard caretaker's own. "Don't worry about it." The gryphon took the lead. The gardens called, and he really needed that walk.

* * * * *

It was shocking how much time he had without Mideus' lessons to take up the majority of his day. Getting a break was enormously freeing. The fresh air of the palace gardens did him good. He shared a pleasant lunch with Zhenten. Aside from Setiir coming to consult Zhen briefly, no one sought them out or bothered them. Something had shifted in the way the lizard looked at him since the night they'd lain together. He admired Rai more openly. Like a weight he'd carried all of Rai's life had been lifted.

"I am a bit jealous of Falia." The lizard spoke between bites of fresh, tender fish. "I've been running the queen's harem for years now, and I thought myself beyond jealousy."

They'd found a secluded nook of the garden, this one with a burbling fountain and a canopy of trees from far north - they had white bark and particularly green leaves. The palace garden was maze-like; there were dozens of such tiny wonders to explore. Zhen liked this one because running water made it unlikely they'd be overheard.

"Should I be worried?" Rai asked mostly in jest.

"I think I can contain myself. There's just so much I want to show you... experience with you. If you're willing, of course."

Having watched his mother penetrate Falia's tailhole once, he had an idea what some of it might be. "Then show me." He put on a smile. He was willing to try, at the very least. He still wasn't sure he could match the strength of Zhen's feelings for him... but it was new, different from his simpler relationships with the harem girls, and that made it enticing in a very different way. And he had a lot to learn from his caretaker. "We still have the whole day ahead of us."

"It is a rather rare moment, isn't it?" Zhen leaned back contentedly, though he could only lean back so far sitting on the rim of the fountain. "I suppose I can clear my schedule."

"And maybe spend the night this time?"

The lizard sighed. "Setiir can easily cover a day for me, but I worry about being found."

Rai shrugged at him. He wasn't sure why it concerned Zhen so much.

His face darkened as he picked up on the unspoken question. "There is something I should have told you well before now. I was expressly forbidden from allowing you male slaves. While sleeping with you myself doesn't technically break that..."

The gryphon frowned. Why would that matter? Sounded like the sort of thing mother's advisers would come up with. Just as they had with Set's Proving. "Did they say anything about hermaphrodites?"

"Your hyena fancy?" Zhen smirked. "No, amusingly enough, I think you found quite the loophole."

"Unfortunately the Praetor didn't approve."

"Yes, you've mentioned. If we ever find them, I'll be sure to keep it under wraps."

At length, they parted ways. Zhenten to make his arrangements for the remainder of the day, Rai to his chambers to study - likely Mideus would expect the effort when he returned.

It nagged at him, though. Why should it be important that he not have males? He wasn't even sure he could ask Set. For some reason it hung in the back of his mind. How many times he caught himself in his studies, remembering nothing of the last several paragraphs, thoughts instead mulling on the restriction. Why was he over-thinking it so much? It was probably just a propriety thing; seemed like something the Praetor would impose.

Cloven footfalls entered his chambers. A stallion hauling steaming bucket. The prince held his tongue, smirking. Zhenten clearly had plans. He kept reading - or at least trying for appearances' sake - while the stallion and other servants came and went. At last the lizard himself showed up and dismissed the train of bucketeers.

"Calling a bath for me?" Rai shut his book, smirking. "Getting a little presumptuous, aren't we?"

Zhen moved to the steaming pool, wearing a completely unabashed smirk. He held out his hand. "I didn't think you'd mind."

The gryphon approached, and rather than take the offered hand, pressed his cheek into it while his fingers plucked at Zhenten's robe. "I don't."

The fingers against his cheek slid behind his ear. The prince's eyes half-closed as he leaned into the affectionate touch of scale. Errant clothing fell at their feet as they disrobed one another in no particular hurry, with none of the hesitancy the lizard showed their previous evening together. Hand in hand, Zhen led him down the steps into the water. It was scented with a mellow spice that was familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

Rai stopped on the last step; with the added height he stood nearly as tall as his caretaker, water to their chests. He draped his arms across scaly shoulders. The embrace at this height somehow felt all the more intimate. Zhenten batted away the prince's roaming hands and took up the soap.

Falia had done this for him a time or two. But Falia's hands were much softer. It was a new feeling, smooth scales working into his fur and feathers, starting from the neck and working down. Rai leaned against Zhenten's as-yet dry chest, savoring the woody scent of the lizard and thoroughly enjoying himself. He was fully unsheathed in the water long before the kneading hands worked their way below his waist.

Zhen was thorough and took his time. The young gryphon rested in a blissful stupor. He was, at length, pulled out of it by the crooked finger poised at the base of his tail. He looked up at Zhen's questioning gaze. Sucking in a shallow breath, he gave a slow nod. The initial, gentle push just felt weird.

"Shh," the lizard cooed over him. "Just do your best to relax."

He nodded. Eyes closed again, Rai breathed deeply of Zhen's sharp scent cut by the softer spices wafting from the water. That's where he knew this scent: it was the same as the incense Khali brought for his meditations. Coincidence? Doubtful. It did work to relax him. The scaly finger slid slowly inside him. The gryphon groaned, clenching, both stinging and halting progress. He had to focus on a breathing rhythm and the comforting closeness.

So relaxed, Rai was fully sheathed again by the time the lizard's finger was free to work in his tailhole with any semblance of ease. The gentle digit plowing into him awoke little in the way of enjoyment, and the gryphon held his tongue, pensive. He never actually asked Falia if she'd liked when mother took her there.

He looked up, met the flame of lust and desire in those eyes. Rai smiled, and he must have been convincing, because it only fueled the fire. The lizard's finger withdrew; the gryphon was steered to face away. He allowed himself to be puppeted and posed by his caretakers hands, to kneel on one of the taller steps. Water rained from his chest fur, and his ears tipped to the sloshing behind him. "Do you have any idea," Zhen huffed over him, "how long, how badly I've wanted you like this?"

The prince felt the narrow tip at his back door. Deep breaths. "Show me."

Speared open, Rai's breath caught. The smooth, tapered length slid in much easier than the finger. Deeper too. But he'd been expecting... more, somehow. From the Zhen's husky groan and shuddering, he was at least living up to the lizard's hopes. "Do it," the gryphon whispered, keeping his tone low. "Just like you wanted." It didn't sound as enticing and sultry as he wanted, but it was enough.

Zhen's weight settled over his back, an arm to Rai's left. He felt the other snaking beneath him, down along his belly, toward his sheath. Rai intercepted the hand with his own before his caretaker found him flaccid, interlacing their fingers instead.

"Is this going to be enough for you?" The lizard murmured the question in his ear, barely above the slap of little waves as he began tiny thrusts.

He could feel the tremors of barely-restrained desire. His wings spread wide and dipped into the water as the lizard leaned low. Rai gasped shakily. Like their first time, above all he felt wanted, needed. He craved that feeling; twitching intrusion under his tail was uncomfortable, but... "You're enough for me, Zhen."

Deep, slow thrusts. Rai bit his tongue and dipped his head, nearly submerging his face so the lizard couldn't see the grimace. But he squeezed their interlocked hands and, unconsciously, also clenched his body on the maleness buried inside him. Zhen seemed to like that. The gryphon pushed his discomfort aside, feeding off the lizard's evident need and pushed himself back into a thrust. It sent a shiver up his spine... not entirely unpleasant, actually. But he couldn't muster himself with fervor to match the pace - the steady plowing beneath his tail growing ever more needful. As he was able, Rai pushed to meet Zhen's cock and clenched himself. He was starting to get used to it, at least... his erection was returning slowly.

"Yes, sate yourself." He wasn't sure Zhen heard that one, so low under his breath he whispered it. He sucked in a breath and raised his voice as much as he dared. "D-Do it!"

Zhen growled and leaned heavily on Rai's wings. The arm supporting most of that weight was now digging into the fur and feathers about his chest and neck, possessive. Gasping, the prince wrenched his hand free; he needed both arms. The lizard's pounding was devolving into a frantic rut. His caretaker seemed to like his prompts, though. He shoved his own hips back into the lizard's thrusts. "Faster!"

Fur and feathers stood on end at the feel of seed blooming inside him made his fur and feathers stand on end. A flutter at the realization. He'd just let... no, practically begged Zhenten to cum inside him. And he'd done it. Was still doing it - meek little thrusts accompanying the last few spurts of the lizard's orgasm. There was something satisfying about it... but considering it was forbidden to him specifically, he rather expected... something more.

Zhen's fingers wrapped around him, slid south, but found only a soft sheath. "...Rai?"

He wasn't sure if he felt pleased or sick. He mustered a whisper. "It's okay."

"You didn't..." The water was so still Rai could make out his mortified expression. His erection slipped out, the gryphon's tight confines too tight for it to remain as it softened. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"Stop." The force of Rai's word was stronger than he intended. But with some difficulty, and support from Zhen, he straightened. Strong arms embraced him. He placed a hand on top of the lizard's, interlacing their fingers. "You did exactly what I told you."

"I would have preferred we enjoyed the moment together. Instead I got lost in my fantasy..." His fingers brushed Rai's cheek. "Please, tell me next time if you're not enjoying this."

"I wanted to try, Zhen. I wanted you to show me."

"I am not an experiment."

Rai flinched, pulled away.

Silence fell between them as the prince cleaned himself of their activity. By the time he was satisfied he wasn't going to drip Zhen's leavings when he walked, his caretaker waited outside the bath with a towel. It was hard to meet the lizard's eyes, but he made himself do it - he forced himself to meet the crestfallen gaze, to accept the heavy conviction it left him with. His beak opened, but he could force nothing past the constriction in his throat.

Zhenten draped the towel around Rai, hands resting on his small shoulders. "This was supposed to be special. Mutual."

The gryphon leaned into the lizard and finally managed to croak a question. "Are you angry with me?"

His muzzle pressed against Rai's head. "Come sit."

"You right to be angry. You're right, Zhen, I should-"

He was hushed by a gentle finger on his beak, and arms steering him toward the sitting area by the library. The lizard sat, stretched out, and pulled the prince atop him, cradling the gryphon tightly. There were no words between them. Only touch, the sound of their breathing, the lingering hint of spice from the scented bath.

Was he in the wrong? Wasn't it better that one of them had enjoyed it to the fullest, in the moment? It wasn't Zhen's fault that Rai didn't enjoy the experience he asked for. At some point as they lay resting, whiling away the day in quietude, their hands had clasped, fingers interlaced. No, it wasn't fair to Zhen. It squandered the joy of an irreplaceable moment. He thought back to the innumerable times he'd lain with Falia. Yes, they kept experiencing new things together, but they grew closer for it. Sex, the experience, was a fleeting thing, taken as a goal. A poor substitute for the intimacy it was meant to enrich.

The shadows and shafts of fading light stretched from the balcony far across the chamber as the eve drew on. Rai tipped his head, finally comfortable holding the gaze of his caretaker.

Zhenten spoke first, lifting a hand to the gryphon's cheek. "I could never stay angry with you, Rai."

"I'm sorry." Rai leaned into the touch, brushing aside a tear he hadn't realized was there.

"I am too."

The gryphon intoned an uncertain, wordless query.

"I love you, Rai." A bittersweet smile crept across the lizard's muzzle. "I've always loved you. But I worked so hard to distance myself. Until you opened yourself to me. My eagerness blinded. I forget you're still... young, inexperienced. Neither of us really knows what we are... What we mean to each other." Zhen sighed softly, gathering the prince in his arms and lifting him to a tighter embrace. "I'm not sure I know either."

Rai lifted himself, hands planted on his caretaker's chest. "I know you're important to me. You've always been there for me." In a way, Zhenten meant more to him than his own mother. Was it a kind of love? He wondered, with a painful twang in his chest... Was this anything like loving a father?

The lizard fondled Rai's ear. "No matter what, I want what's best for you. Even if that's less of me."

"Don't say it like that." The ear attempted to fold out of Zhen's scaled fingers as the other ear lay flat. "It sounds like you're going away."

"I'm not going anywhere." He squeezed their still-clasped hands. "I will be here for you, always. That is the most important thing. But perhaps we both need to spend some time thinking on this... On us... and what we want from each other. Then we'll talk more."

The prince nodded somberly. "At least tell me you're staying the night."

"Yes, my Rai. I can do that much."

* * * * *

The old altar. Rai remembered it being excruciating. It was... better, a bit, now that he could properly articulate his wings. Still not exactly comfortable, but far better than it was back then. He wouldn't admit it, though. The high priestess was livid enough at the very mention of her "failed" altar; anything insinuating it hadn't been so important was a risk. He was back to having a larger crowd of chanters. He tried to see if any of them was the jackal who got hurt before, but their hoods were too deep to tell for sure.

Honestly, the old mosaic ceiling wasn't half bad. He really didn't miss the black space with its runic sky.

Mideus, on the other hand, remained absent. Zhenten wouldn't say what happened, but after a couple days, Rai had to wonder. He kept up his studies on his own. It was refreshing to learn at his own pace for a while - but on the downside, he hadn't seen Talez in days. He was starting to worry his friend was deliberately avoiding him.

But inexorably, the New Moon rose. The eve of their planning drew near. And just as his mother rounded the corner to his chambers, she found Rai doubled over a bucket.

"Oh... goodness, Rai, are you alright?"

They'd agreed feigning a simple stomach upset would be the most straightforward option. Rai hadn't precisely expected to feel genuinely sick. There was no act; his stomach felt as if it were tying itself in knots and forcing its contents back the way they came. It never crossed his mind that Setiir would actually poison his lunch; he wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or in awe. On the upside there was no need to rely on the gryphon's performance; the smell from the bucket was unfortunately very real.

"I'll... be alright," he groaned at his mother, "But I don't think I'll be going to the feast..."

"Do you feel a fever at all? Or unusually hot?" Anu knelt over him despite the stench and doted on him, pressing a hand to his face with concern. "Wait one moment,"

She hustled off. Not a minute later, Zhenten appeared with a cup of what appeared to be water, though it frothed slightly. Concern and irritation alike played across his expression as he offered it. "Here, drink."

It wasn't water; there was something bitter in it too. "Are you in on this too?"

"Setiir told me just a moment ago. Don't worry, I plan to have a word with him..."

Rai tipped the cup back until the last dregs finally slid down into his beak. He shuddered and huffed. "Hold off until I decide whether I want to punch him or praise him."

He glanced toward his doorway at the approach of frantic footsteps. Khali rounded the corner. No... he blinked. That was her mother, the caracal high priestess. And she was wearing the ragged sackcloth she wore for her ritual performance. The feline dropped to her knees before the prince and snatched his head, fingering his temples.

Rai blinked blearily. They were trying to get away from the high priestess...

"I sense nothing. It's not errant magic." The caracal rose in a huff, brushing down her front as she rose.

Anu breathed a sigh of relief.

"We haven't had any illnesses in Hightier in the past month, it must be food poisoning..."

The jackaless ground her teeth. "Somebody in the kitchens needs a good flogging. Zhenten, investigate, and be quick about it! Bad enough my fledgling be afflicted, but the feast is being laid out right now. I don't want any guest of the court falling ill."

"Yes, my queen."

Anu spared a moment to brush Rai's cheek. "I have to go. Feel better soon. I'll check on you tonight." And with that, she swept out of the room, priestess hardly step behind.

The gryphon groaned once more, but his stomach was at least beginning to settle. Just as Zhen was bowing out, Setiir arrived.

"I hate you right now, you know that, right?"

"That's why I didn't tell you the plan." The cat snatched up the cup Zhen had brought, noting it was empty. "Good, you should feel fine by the time we get to the temple."

"You mean I have to move?"

"How much time did you say you needed for your ritual?"

Rai took the hint and climbed to his feet to follow the sand cat to the balcony. Jumping the railing, he was not nearly so deft as Set. The pair skirted the gently sloping roof line of the palace overlooking the garden - dark formless shapes of trees and sharp angled hedges, the odd lamp carried by a night watchman at the far side. Set's eyes were far better at night than Rai's, so he stayed close.

The roof of a tool shack adjacent to the servants' quarters got them close enough to the ground for a safe jump, though Rai cursed as the drop jostled his sensitive gut. "Godsrain, Set, I'll take my chances just acting sick next time."

A pair of figures rounded the corner, one in a broad cloak, and the prince instinctively dove for the nearest wall - though it was in fact a hedge that made quite a racket when he tumbled into it. But Set walked right up to them, gesturing at a sack born by one. Familiar, feminine figures. The one with the sack was Falia, Rai realized with a sigh of relief.

"You're certain that's everything you need?" The cat kept his voice low. "If you need me to run you anything else, I need to know now."

"I double-checked everything!" Rai could almost hear the cloaked caracal grin while she said it, but he wished she spoke a little more quietly. "We'll be fine."

The gryphon extricated himself from the noisome foliage and joined the group, shaking leaves from his wings. "You'll be fine. Set poisoned me."

Khali, holding her cloak closed, glanced from the prince to the cat. "Lagrada? Or Vintas' Bane?"

"Lagrada has too distinctive a smell. Always Vintas'."

"True, Lagrada was more of a prank choice."

"Will you stop encouraging him?" Rai groaned.

"You'll be fine, come on." Khali stepped past him, swinging something over the prince's shoulders. "Wings in, now." It was another cloak like hers. As he tucked his wings, she brought up the deep hood and adjusted it. "There. There's only one person in the city with wings like yours, so better keep them covered." He gave her a grateful nod, and she was already bundling hers closed again. Rai did the same.

There was a chill breeze in the streets, but that didn't deter the crowd apparently. There were more people about than during the day! Most of them seemed to be headed in the same direction. He'd seen the city lights from up in the palace this time of eve many times, but never realized it was so... busy. Rai and Khali were a little conspicuous in the cloaks, but Falia was wearing a reasonably presentable robe for a change, and nobody looked twice at them. They followed the flow of people over halfway - they were headed down to Midtier, by the looks of things. And they were all talking. Idle chatter. For perhaps the first time, he honestly couldn't tell the difference between servant and noble. The little fragments of conversations he caught talking over one another were petty small talk. "Where are they all going?" Rai hissed toward Khali's hood.

"New Moon festival, of course!"

"I thought it was..." The words died at Rai's beak. Of course New Moon wasn't just an event for nobility. And of course the whole city didn't celebrate in the palace.

"Oh Rai, you need to experience the Midtier nightlife..." Though he couldn't see far into her hood, the prince was reasonably sure he saw the glint of devilishly grinning teeth. "Tempted to take you down there right now."

"We came here to-"

"Oh, shush, I know. And I'm not dressed for it anyway." She paused Rai, faced him with a mischievous look in her eye. She pulled her cloak open for just an instant, and the gryphon gawked. Delicate, intricate gold chains wrapped her body but concealed nothing. Matching armlets, and mantle of chains over her shoulders, featuring a golden moon at her collarbone. She glanced about, but if anyone else on the street had noticed her flashing, they simply kept their head down and hustled along.

Chuckling, Falia grabbed the stunned prince to get him moving again. They veered aside, away from the stream of people, down a side road that led to the temple.

Set gathered them in a circle briefly. "I'll leave you here. I have other business."

"Okay, thank you!" Falia called after him as he vanished just as quickly back into the crowd.

"Hurry up, I'm getting cold out here." Khali urged them on. The temple doorway was an imposing black maw. With just a few furtive glances to make sure nobody was particularly watching them, the three delved inside.

There was a scrape, a click, and sparks as Falia lit candles with a flint and steel. There was a mischievous fire in the caracal's gaze as she gave Rai a side-eye. "I didn't tell you precisely what kind of calling ritual this is."

"No, you didn't." Rai glanced at Falia. She was grinning. "You know already, don't you?"

Khali smirked and let the cloak fall at her feet. "It's a fertility rite."

Falia dropped something clinking in his arms. Silver chains, matching the design of Khali's gold. Taking the hint, he started pulling off his clothes. The vixen assisted in figuring out the arrangement of chains about his body. It wasn't quite like Khali's set, but framed his chest and wrapped around his thighs in a similar accentuating fashion. He was fully unsheathed long before then. The way Khali watched. He knew. Their eyes met and he knew he would be inside her tonight. The mantle across his shoulders bore a burnished silver sun.

There were still more preparations. Khali spread lotus petals across the altar. Falia filled the silver pitcher from the water skin, and handed the vessel to the prince. "Fill the chalice. She will drink, then you. After that, just mirror her movements." She leaned in closer. "Your mother isn't here to stop you dancing this time..."

"You never did teach me how..." Rai purred in her ear.

"Shh. Learn by doing. Khali's a better teacher anyway."

"Lesson one." The caracal hooked the gryphon's beak and stole his attention by planting a chaste kiss on it. "Don't over-think it. Be passionate."

"For you, certainly."

"Charmer." Khali stepped behind the altar and gestured at the chalice. As Rai stepped up, Falia took the final item from their bag. An ocarina. Taking up a post to one side, she lifted it to her lips. Her first note began just as the caracal lifted the cup with both hands to drink. The prince took it and did likewise. The caracal stepped back with a grin, and the gryphon mirrored the step.

She moved slow so he could follow, step by sensual step to the left in a circle about the altar; Rai kept directly across from her. When she began to truly dance, it was a slow, libidinous, sensual roll of her body, and Rai felt heat throughout his body as he copied her. Arms raising, they worked around the altar the other way. With a subtle wave from the feline to turn about, they moved closer in dancing steps. Then backwards, reversing the very same steps. He quickly picked up the rhythm as they worked round and round, and Falia's tune picked up its pace. Their dance grew faster; not needing to watch her movements so closely, Rai found himself grinning all the more as he fell into the motions. And Khali... she was a creature of such grace. Rai picked up on the cues in the song; in the verse, they moved the same direction, in the chorus they moved counter until they met, and brushed fur to fur. The caracal's body rolling against his lit a fire in him. So close he could smell the spice she favored in her baths, could feel her breath on his neck. And they withdrew again to replay their act faster still to the ever-rising tempo. Their backs touched on the opposite side; they began again the flowing march toward each other, and this time he suspected they would do more than merely brush...

Halfway, he began to feel it. Slowness gripped Rai, the music, and Khali... but her hair still swept with their prior speed. But the instants flowed like honey. It wasn't quite the double-vision of when he met Seva, but the feel was the same. Shadows flashed on the walls faster than the eye could discern, and points of light flitted about the ceiling. There was someone... something more here. Something primal. As Rai and Khali met, bodies twining in their twisting dance, his thigh slipped between hers. Without missing a beat of the flow, he swept her onto the altar and launched himself atop her. Eyes wild, aflame in need he could no longer ignore, he pressed his cock tip into her folds and the slowed perception gave him the chance to savor every exquisite stage, even as he slammed into her sex with savage fervor. Godsrain she was so wet...! His purr of delight sounded more of a possessive growl, and his fingers clutched about her breasts. Every sense was honed. The coarse touch of her fur against his scaled hands and soft furred chest. The convulsion and shiver of her womanhood stroking his cock as he worked within her. Her scent mingled with the lotus. The protracted notes of Falia's tune, and even her claws digging needily into his arm, and the tension in every fiber of her body beneath him as she rolled to meet his thrusts. Rai invaded her muzzle with his beak. The only thing that didn't seem to run slow, he could hardly get enough breath...he had to break away to gasp for it.

He knew he'd found her favorite spot when he felt her tunnel shiver around him. And he hammered it over and over, until her head rolled back and her back arched uncontrollably. Her pleasured cry sounded distant, yet he heard it like a whisper in his ear. At the final, vice-like clench on his penis, the wetness spreading about his sheath... he could hold back no more, and spent himself deep inside her body. Clutching her waist and grinding into her, he rode out a climax that never quite seemed to end, ecstasy crashing through him in waves as he sprayed ropes of seed into her.

Rai's eyes were actually closed when he finally saw it. The other was a realm of blackness. Only starlight and shifting shadows, and a creature prancing about them in black fields. Its form seemed somehow... fluid, ever shifting. It paused behind Falia, cloven feet and long, slender horns... a gazelle, but for the lion's mane, tail, and a gaping maw of razor teeth. The young gryphon met its eyes, those deep silver pools. It raced toward him... when it stopped, he was faced instead with a wolf, but crowned with enormous branching antlers, each point catching the light of the stars. Head tipped, it's mouth opened to speak. The same terrible teeth bared as it spoke. Rai heard nothing, yet it shook him like a crash of thunder.

When he'd been pulled in by Seva's calling he didn't seem to have a body here. But he felt it, now. The gryphon poured his will into moving, grasping for that same place of mind he'd embodied just a few days ago... When he'd moved, stood, reached out. The raw frustration came flooding back with frightful ease, and he felt his other self stir... And the runes became visible. Dessication, no! The very same runes he'd see every morn on the altar, an ephemeral gleaming net. A prison whose walls he'd long refused to see.

The spirit-creature unsheathed rows of teeth in a growl the prince could feel but not hear. It lunged, and he was knocked back into the black space to watch fangs grip the dome of runes and crush. Claws threaded in and tore, rent the net in twain.

Briefly the real world flashed, a concerned caracal's face, but he was rapidly drawn back to the other place. He was falling... a fifty feet or more he dropped into a dark field beneath a moonless sky. Tall grass crunched underfoot, and the only presence he could feel or see was the enormous, pacing figure of the gazelle-lion.

"They will not bind you again."

Rai tilted his head. It was speaking... Aja. He knew some of those words, but not others. But, even the ones he didn't, he could understand its meaning. Also, he could move... with shocking ease. "Bind me?" And who was this creature? This spirit they apparently called?

Laughter, like the yammering of a hyena with the baritone of a wolf's howl. "I am the cycle. The dusk and the dawn. I am the growth and decay. The inception and the hunt. The forest flame. The march of sun and winter, the turn of the page. Gryphons are my own creation. You are my blood, born for freedom. I will not let them bind you."

"But who...?"

"The people of the First Aja."

Rai shook himself. He heard the meaning, but he also heard the echo of the actual words - sh'Aja Rahn. Shajaran.

This creature, flowing from antlered wolf to maned gazelle to gryphon as it circled the room, was the patron spirit of his nation. The source of the blessing of the Anubian throne. The prince's beak hung open. He felt as though he should have something to say, or ask.

"I have already given you all you need. You've already begun to lay a path of your own. I've seen glimpses of what you may yet become... And we are eager to see what you become."

The gryphon raised his wings, took a step, and another. And kept going. Walking was so... simple, now. Was this what the patron meant by binding? The runes? Was this why he was never able to enter the spirit world normally?

The spirit shifted fluidly back to its wolf form and plodded beside him, head dipped, gleaming antlers tilted toward him. "You begin to understand. But you have not yet grasped the depth of the betrayal."

He took a deep breath, reminding himself why he was here. Seva told him to follow the sun at dawn or dusk. The sun was long past set, however.

"You will have your chance soon." But something else had already caught his eye. He faint, pulsating light the grass. He couldn't make it out until he was close enough to stoop and spread the grass. It was the moth, laying motionless. He shot a glare toward the spirit, but it shook its head faintly. "No, rending their spells did not harm her. You did."

His eyes shot wide.

"You overpowered her. She is nearly passed, now."

Rai reached out, brushing the moth's abdomen, and a surprisingly soft layer of fuzz. His hands slid easily under the grass to lift the tiny form to his chest and cradle it. "I'm sorry. I never meant for this."

The wolf shook itself and huffed. "Oh, little one. Your compassion will make the road ahead very difficult for you."

He flared his wings at the spirit. "Well I'm not just going to give it up!"

Its head dipped "I know. That is why I chose you." It stepped away, melting into shadow, and was no more. Rai blinked. Reality crept back into his senses, overlaying the black world of the spirit. He was still inside Khali, still hard, and still felt the last vestige of afterglow. She music had stopped. He had to concentrate in the spirit; he sat, cradling the moth, for whatever comfort he could give his inadvertent victim. Finally releasing that vision completely, he was fully back on the altar, and Falia hovered nearby. "Sorry," Rai muttered. "Was I out long?"

"Hmm? Just took me off guard is all." The caracal grinned. "I know a couple girls who might be able to help with that particular kink... or boys."

The prince blinked. "What do you mean?"

"You just blurted 'bind me' at the end there, after you came." Khali giggled. "And some other things I couldn't make out. You were kinda mumbling."

"Sorry, I got pulled away for a moment. It worked, by the way."

"Pulled away?" The feline's thighs lifted, legs locking around Rai's hips, and she rolled her hips. "Mmm, you're not going anywhere until I say. Falia says you're good for at least two... I won't settle for less than three."

Rai slid his arms around her. No frantic rutting after their ritual dance, no music, no complaints. Just two bodies joined in coitus, and gentle thrusting. "For you, Khali, maybe four."