3.17: Reveal upon Reveal – 1

The deep rumble of thunder woke Laira up.

She pressed herself against the warm, lithe body wrapped around her own and breathed deeply. The familiar, comforting scent of her lover filled her lungs.

Carefully moving the long curtain of raven hair away from her face, she tried to rise up, when slender arms slid around her, pulling her in tight.

“Let’s sleep for a while longer,” Reshma mumbled, hooking a long, shapely leg around hers.

“It’s already morning, dearest.”

“Just a little more.”

The air in the room shook as thunder lit up the curtains.

“Ugh,” Reshma mumbled, letting go of her. “Why does God have to agree with you?”

Chuckling, Laira kissed her nose.

The dusky beauty rose up, rubbed her eyes, then cupped Laira’s face and planted a chaste kiss on her lips.

It lingered.

Their eyes met. Lips parted. The dam broke.

As their bodies tried to fuse with each other, Reshma’s hand drifted down Laira’s stomach.

She grabbed it, reluctantly but firmly. “We’ll have all night, and the next.”

Reshma whined, then pushed herself away.

Laira propped herself on her elbow, struggling to keep her eyes from roaming over the beautiful view in front of her. “Tell me what happened in Falkenheim.”

Reshma wet her lips. “It was two young soldiers. They had lost their fathers in the Battle of the Bog. Ambushed Jack in the castle the same day we arrived.”

She found her breath stuck in her throat, even though she already knew that he had recovered. Without him, all her plans would unravel.

They weren’t even married yet, but she had already hitched her wagon to his; the moment she had ordered Hrodric to reform the Royal army as per Jack’s desires. There was no going back from that. The nobles would never forgive her. She and Jack were going to either succeed or fail spectacularly.

“Liru?”

She shook herself awake. “Continue.”

“They managed to stab him, but he recovered quickly. As fit as ever when he left for Chadom.”

“How bad was it?”

Reshma avoided her gaze, and only mumbled, “Bad.”

Her voice hardened. “What did the physician say?”

“That it was deep.”

“Didn’t he take part in the battle of Blackrain himself?”

“Yes.”

Her eyebrows knitted in confusion. “How? A month’s not enough to be battle-ready after an injury like that. Even I know that.”

“He… got lucky, I suppose? The knife mustn’t have cut anything vital.”

Laira didn’t believe a word of that. She narrowed her eyes.

When did she begin hiding things from me?

As she kept staring into those eyes that refused to meet hers, realization dawned upon her.

She lifted Reshma’s chin firmly, forcing her to look at her.

If eyes could blush, that is what they would look like.

“You fell in love with him, didn’t you?”

Reshma averted her gaze for a heartbeat, then surrendered.

“Yes,” she whispered.

Laira was surprised to find that she didn’t feel jealous, at all. Even though every norm of society said she ought to. Instead, the creeping blush on her lover’s face only made her heart beat faster, from happiness and excitement.

I am a true deviant, aren’t I?

She pulled Reshma into herself. The taller woman wrapped her arms around her gingerly.

“I’m happy for you.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” She stared into those mesmerizing eyes. “Just promise you won’t lie to me. I don’t want to doubt your loyalty. Ever.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

She pulled her in for another hug.

They stayed like that for some time, lying in each other’s embrace together, until thunder announced itself again.

Laira sat up on the bed. “Jack… told me something peculiar when I gave him my hand in marriage.”

“What?”

“He said that he met God and was blessed by Him.”

Reshma’s lips quirked upwards.

“So it’s true!” she almost shouted.

She nodded silently.

Laira thought about it.

A man truly blessed by God. No wonder he could recover from fatal wounds. The cardinals should be falling at his feet, but if they ever heard of that claim, the power hungry bastards would denounce him as a heretic, or worse.

With someone blessed by God himself at her side…

Wait, God truly exists??

Not a distant creator the priests preached about. Not a nebulous concept people prayed to before battle, childbirth and harvest, just in case He existed.

No.

A living God. One who spoke, and chose people.

She suddenly felt very small.

Laira looked inward. She wasn’t a secret atheist or anything, but neither had she been particularly pious.

How many times had she attended Church and prayed on her knees just for the sake of appearances? How many sermons had she endured while her thoughts wandered to council meetings?

A flash of lightning painted the room white. Thunder followed.

Am I going to hell for not attending Church everyday, for being with Reshma and being intimate before marriage?

Her heart beat inside her rib cage like a caged animal. She took long breaths to calm herself.

“If he truly exists…” she forced the words out, “then he knows.”

Every lie. Every manipulation. Every compromise. Every desire.

Every night she had spent tangled with the woman beside her.

Heat rushed to her face.

“Oh God.”

She gave words to the fear she thought she had discarded long ago. “What if… what if the priests are right?”

She still remembered kneeling beneath colored glass while an old bishop spoke of unnatural desire, like it was some disease while she knew, even at fourteen, that she was infected with it.

After meeting Jack, she had discovered even more depraved desires. That would definitely land her in hell.

“What if… we’re damned?”

Only silence answered.

Then, warm fingers slipped between hers.

Her eyes focused.

Reshma was watching her with infinite patience.

“I asked myself the same question.”

“You did?”

“Yes. When Jack told me…” she took a deep breath. “I kept thinking about every word of the scriptures. Every warning.”

Laira’s heart threatened to explode.

“But then I remembered something,” Reshma continued. She smiled softly.

“Jack.”

Laira blinked.

“He met God, and yet, he’s not self-righteous. He didn’t tell me to repent or stop loving you. He just tries to do what is right, and keeps helping people.”

A smile tugged at her lips.

“If the God he met would condemn us for loving one another…”

Her fingers tightened around Laira’s.

“…why would He bless a man who loves us both?”

Laira found her breath stuck.

“But the Church—”

“The Church is made of men. Men that you know well.”

She turned towards the direction of the cathedral. She did know those men.

Some of them truly believed they served God’s will and tried their best. Others… were more concerned with power and politics. Men she had negotiated with. Men she had bribed and threatened.

A wave of relief rolled over her. She let out a long breath, while Reshma rubbed her back.

Silence settled between them. A peaceful one. Not even the thunder could break it.

Reshma did.

“There is… more.”

Laira’s eyes widened at the tone.

Fear.

She looked at her lover, who was biting her lip.

“What would make you break your betrothal to Jack?” Reshma asked, staring into her eyes.

“Where is this coming from?”

“Please?”

The look in her eyes said the answer was very important to her.

Laira thought for a while.

“He’d have to be working against Nahnon, or be a truly horrible man. One who kills or tortures innocents for fun and… forces himself on women.”

She sighed, heart sinking in realization.

“No. I might even bend on that last rule. I am that desperate for his help.”

Reshma squeezed her hand. “Relax, Liru. He’s none of those things.”

“So?”

“He’s…” she struggled to say the words out loud.

Laira’s heart began pounding. “What did he do?”

Reshma remained quiet.

She forced the taller woman to face her. “Reshma, what did he do to you?”

“Nothing. He, uh, Jack…”

“Jack what?”

“He is not from this world.”

Her eyebrows knitted together. “What do you mean not from this world?”

“He, uh, the real, no, the original Jack Nobhart died of his wounds from fighting the soldiers pursuing the Cha and sickness at the Bog. Our ‘Jack’ woke up to find himself in the Viscount’s half-dead body. The Cha nursed him back to health.”

Laira’s mind stopped working.

It was Reshma’s turn to look at her with concern. “Liru?”

No words would come out.

“Laira? Are you alright?”

“No, I’m not alright! First you tell me that God is definitely real and now that the man I’m about to wed in a matter of weeks is not from our world! What does that even mean? Some unknown continent?”

“He doesn’t think so.” She touched her cheek. “You look pale, love.”

“Of course I’m pale! There are other worlds. No scriptures mention anything like that! How are you so calm about it?”

Reshma glanced at her, and the look in those eyes drove every thought out of Laira.

“Because I’ve faced something similar, even though much more mundane. I know how it feels to be separated forever from your home,” she said softly, voice choking. “To find yourself in an unknown place. To live under a false identity, scared that someone would find out your secret.”

Laira drew Reshma into herself. “I’m sorry, dearest. I didn’t think about your plight.”

“It’s okay,” she said between sobs. “I’ve found a new home. When I confronted Jack, he said that the character and motivations of a person are all that matter, and that he had revealed them to you. That was enough for me.”

Laira held onto her, even as her head swam from all the revelations.

When they finally separated, she looked at Reshma, her eyes finally dry. “He just told you all this?”

Reshma chuckled.

“His—uh, Jack’s mother began to suspect him, so the idiot took us aside and told us everything.”

“Poor woman. Why would he tell her? Why not just lie?”

“He said he didn’t want to lie to us. That it would destroy him from inside.”

Laira went quiet. “That’s…”

“Wise?”

“Doesn’t sound right for him.”

Reshma chuckled. “Maybe that’s why God chose him. He has just enough wisdom to not abuse his knowledge.”

“Maybe. What… what do you think that makes him? A prophet?”

The dusky woman’s face blanched. “Please don’t say that to him. He’s arrogant enough as it is.”

“But he has been blessed by God!”

“He’s still a man. I know he wouldn’t want to be worshiped.”

“I’ll defer to your judgment. You know him much more intimately than me.”

Reshma’s lips quivered. “Is that jealousy I detected?”

“Shuddup. So, did he tell you anything about the place he is from?” she finally asked.

“A very different place from ours. One with medicine that can cure most diseases and weapons that can rain fire from the sky.”

Her breath stuck in her throat.

Now that she tried to remember, the man hadn’t even tried hard to hide who he was.

The way he talked about the kingdom’s social order, like an outsider judging it. How he was so confident that his reforms would work, as if he could see the future. And all those stupid idioms.

Calling me a potter, of all things.

So he wasn’t an odd, overlooked, late-blooming provincial genius, as she had thought. No. He was merely an other-worldly being.

She would have been alarmed if she didn’t remember him telling her that there was more to him. That he would reveal it to her later.

“Did he ask you to tell me all this?”

“No. He left the decision to me.”

“Why?”

“He didn’t think you would break the betrothal.”

“That’s not really possible anymore. Not unless I want to plunge the kingdom in turmoil.”

She took in a long breath to steady herself.

“That’s how he knows so much,” she whispered to herself before turning to Reshma. “So, he not only possesses knowledge from a different world, but also God’s blessing. Can a man be any more lucky?”

“Don’t forget the love of two, no, three women.”

Laira didn’t love him yet, but she could see herself falling for him.

“As I said, lucky scoundrel.”

She got up, still nude. “Now, tell me everything that happened in Nobhart. In detail,” the Queen commanded, already fearing the reply.

Reshma cringed. “Shouldn’t we—”

“Now.”

Laira sighed.

The morning had just begun, and she already hated being awake.