CH86 Thera’s Perspective

“Mom, I’ve been out for a day. Why did you plan this so soon? Hell, how did you plan this so soon?”

“As soon as I was told you completed it I had arrangements made immediately. Never underestimate what money and power can accomplish.”

Thera wanted to crawl in a hole and die. When she woke up in the morning she had been informed that in a ridiculously quick fashion her mother had arranged a ball to celebrate her completion of the trial, apparently wasting disgusting amounts of wealth and likely abusing her political influence to get it set up for the next day.

She couldn’t help but groan. She always hated these social events and it sounded like she’d be stuck in this one for the rest of the day. She hadn’t even been able to see Ben yet and tell him the good news about becoming an earth mage.

Still it was just one day, and it looked like it would make her mother happy. “Fine, let me grab my cloak and I’ll be right down there.”

“No need for that, our enchanter has produced well over a hundred resistance amulets at his current level for our use, and with your brace we should be fine.”

“My charm increased in the trial.” She muttered, not looking at her mother. It was still something she wanted to avoid thinking about and she hated admitting it.

Penelia put a caring hand on her daughter’s cheek. “It’s only a five percent increase love, that’s not much at all.”

“Enough that a resistance amulet won’t be able to handle whatever the arm brace can’t cover though.”

“Everyone attending should be high enough in their respective governments that if they don’t have the willpower to handle whatever little bit of your charm leaks out then they really shouldn’t be in their posts. It will be fine, and I have some guards to keep an eye on things anyway.”

“I don’t know…”

“Tell you what, I’ll hang on to your cloak just in case, but I’d love to see the expression on my beautiful daughter’s face while she’s dressed nicely.” At that her mother stepped out quickly, coming back with a bright white toga.

It did look light and lovely, the sort of traditional clothing she didn’t have much reason to wear outside of Anailia, but enjoyed the few times she did.

And as long as my cloak is nearby and everyone around knows the potential risks it wouldn’t really be that bad, would it?

“Okay, maybe just this once won’t be so bad if everyone knows the risks.” She didn’t have many opportunities to dress up, she wanted to enjoy them when she could.

“Excellent,” Her mother beamed. “Throw that on and we’ll head down to the ballroom right away, can’t leave everyone waiting.”

She quickly dressed herself before following her mother down and entering the ballroom. In an already extravagant home, she always thought it was needless. There was no reason her parents couldn’t host their government events at an outside venue, and given Thera’s disdain for them when she was younger they often did. Nothing good came from prying eyes sneaking out to see the rest of the house where they might accidentally wander into her.

Having said that though, now that she wasn’t hiding herself away in her cloak it was surprisingly nice to see it so full of life. A band playing in the background and tables full of food, guests from various allied races standing around and mingling, and in the center of it all-

What?

“Mother, what exactly did you do?”

“Ah now, there’s the face I wanted to see.” her mother giggled while seeing her daughter’s hands covering her face, not quite managing to hide the golden glow of a blush spreading through her cheeks. “Better go over there, he’s been standing alone for quite a while waiting for you to get ready.”

In the center of everyone was Ben, dressed in a dark green toga and a purple belt wrapping his waist, holding the flower they’d plucked from the trial, and generally having no idea about the significance of anything he was doing. Her mother had definitely tricked him into it, or just as likely gotten one of the maids to do it.

As she got closer his face lit up, and looking like he forgot something for a moment held the flower out to her, which she hesitantly took, not able to meet his eyes from the moment he lifted it towards her. Even knowing she was being set up she couldn’t hide her embarrassment.

Why did she have to do this in front of so many people? What am I saying of course she did it so I’d have to accept, gods I can feel myself blushing so hard I’m probably twinkling in the light this is so embarrassing.

She pulled her eyes from the ground to peek up at him and noticed he looked confused. It seemed like he was about to ask her something when her mother spoke up.

“Hello everyone, welcome to this wonderful occasion! We’re all here to celebrate a completion of the trial. My daughter, proving herself to me and earning my support as she chooses her own path, and Ben, dedicating his work through it with her to his god Myriad, and the first man to have a complete resistance to Thera’s charm. I hope you’ll all join hands in celebrating with me, as well as looking forward to what their future holds!”

She noticed Ben tilt his head during her mother’s little speech as cheers went up, and assumed he was getting the notification that he’d successfully completed an achievement in his god’s name, before looking back to her and smiling, seeming to have no idea what he was supposed to do from here. She leaned up to whisper in his ear to grab them a table in the back, and once he walked off turned to her mother, trying to make her smile look as real as possible for any watching guests while keeping her voice low to hide her anger from everyone around.

“Mother, care to explain what in the infinite hells that was about.”

Irritatingly, her mother just laughed her anger off, placing a gentle hand on her head and saying in a voice that sounded so genuine she had no choice but to believe her, “You know Thera, one of my greatest fears is one day you’ll wake up and realise you’re alone, this is just some insurance against that.”

How was she even supposed to respond to that? She just shook her head and walked to the table Ben found for them.

The moment she sat down, other guests sprinkled around nearby found an excuse to find different seats or to get up. Normally it would have bothered her a bit, seeing as how blatantly obvious their aversion to her was, but she was grateful to have the peace for once.

As she was trying to think about how to explain exactly what happened to Ben, he placed a hand on her forehead.

“You okay Thera? You’re looking pretty flushed. Is the crowd too much for you?”

She gently pulled away from his touch, feeling her face heat up even more, and coughed to clear her throat, trying to pull herself together.

“I’m fine,” She started awkwardly, having no idea how to tell him what just happened and still unable to meet his eyes. “It looks like mom just decided to pull a bit of a prank on you is all.”

“Um, okay, what did she do? Is it the outfit? I’m definitely the only one in the room in these colours.”

“Well, that’s a part of it…” Gods I need to just get this out of the way quickly. “So you just proposed, and I accepted.”

For a solid minute, it looked like his brain stopped working. He just stared at her, processing what she said.

“Um, explain please?”

She sighed, still avoiding his eyes the best he could. “The colours you’re wearing represent Anailia and Tolona, for a succubi or incubi to wear them outside of a marriage ceremony would indicate they are serious about their pursuit or love of an individual. As for handing me the flower, well long ago a couple took the trial together, and upon completing it the incubi handed it to his partner, symbolizing that their love ran deep enough that even Anailia would approve, and they wed shortly after. Since then it’s been a custom for pairs that were romantically involved who took the trial together to propose their marriage with the flower after completing it by having one hand it to the other, expressing their love.”

Old traditions, old stories, both things she never in her wildest dreams thought Ben would need to be warned about. She wasn’t sure how much her uncle educated him on succubi culture, but even he surely didn’t expect to need to warn him about something like this.

“Was that why your mom said that bit about me not being affected by your charm? It did feel a bit out of place.”

She could only nod. “Since before my people arrived on this world, there was always a bit of a taboo about taking advantage of someone who was charmed romantically. Even more so since arriving here and finding so many races who didn’t have resistances that could deal with it. Love is sacred, you shouldn’t manipulate someone into it.”

Ben nodded. “Okay, that tracks, she wanted everyone to know I wasn’t taken in by your charm. One question though, very minor, not really a big deal, just a little curious. Why did you say yes?”

Thera groaned and threw her face into her arms on the table. “Cultural differences. Like I said, love is sacred. If you were to so boldly make a proposal like that to join our lives together, only for me to decline you, it would indicate extremely poor judgment on your part. It isn’t an exaggeration to say you’d never be able to do business in this nation, possibly with a few of our allied nations either. That’s how badly rejecting you would make a fool of you. Mom knows that, and she knew I’d know that so that’s probably why she set things up this way.”

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He let out a low whistle. “Is it really that bad? That sounds a bit on the extreme end, no offence.”

“If it was a different pair in a different venue it probably wouldn’t be so bad. Plenty of people propose in private to be careful, though it’s seen as lacking in conviction for your love so any that do will have a public one later to make it seem more real. As for anyone who gets rejected in public, they’d probably just move. As long as they didn’t run into anyone aware of their rejection they could start a new life, without worrying too much about lasting consequences. You however just very publicly proposed to the queen’s daughter. The entire country’s going to know in a few days.”

She didn’t know what she was expecting from him, but it wasn’t a powerful laughter out of nowhere, and she lifted her head just enough to look at him. “What’s so funny?”

“I mean, your mom got us good. I’d say it’s a little funny.”

“Sure, until you want to actually marry someone and find that no succubi will purchase your work or request your services for leaving the queen’s daughter.”

“There are lots of races in the world,” He told her with a shrug. “I’m sure I’ll manage. Besides, I’m not exactly looking for anyone at the moment.”

She didn’t know how he could be so indifferent about such a thing and put her head back down, before feeling a hand on hers.

“Thank you though.” He told her. “You accepted for my sake right? I appreciate it.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“Cool, I’m going to grab a plate or two of food, want one?”

“Sure, get me whatever looks good.”

“Will do.”