Ashtium: City of Sun

ENOCH

I’m not sure why we’re having a family meeting in the library. Usually, such things are held in the courthouse.

Mother sits beside Adler at the long table in the library’s center. Our empirical advisors sit across from them.

“Enoch, have a seat,” Mother tells me.

I listen and watch the Emperor signing leaflets of parchment. Neither of them seems put off by the other.

Have they come to some agreement at last?

“So, what is this all about?”

Adler looks up briefly from the parchment.

“I’m divorcing your mother,” he says as if talking about the weather.

“So this is your compromise?” I mumble in utter shock.

Mother adjusts her bracelets.

“And I am maintaining ownership of this property since it is in my family’s inheritance. We both will still live here, but your father is no longer considered part of our family nor is he allowed here without my permission. I am giving up my title as wife so he can sleep well at night with his whores.”

Adler’s face turns dark purple. If I know my father at all, I doubt he simply is going to hand everything over to me. He’ll find some way to maintain control over me and everything else here. I’ll just become his puppet so long as he lives. This is not how I planned my rise to Emperor to be.

“Femke, you know I am not the same man you married. My interests have changed. I am doing this for our family. For Ashtium’s sake, I’m giving up my title as Emperor!”

That may be true, but I guarantee he won’t completely step out of our empirical affairs.

Chelk, a young advisor mentored by Urdmin, continues showing them where to sign off. Eventually, they complete their agreements and changes of title and the advisor proclaims them seperated.

I feel like I’m dreaming. The moment Chelk shuts up about their divorce, every head in the room turns to me.

***

ENOCH

“Adler said I’d find you here,” I announce while stepping out from behind an unlit sconce. The enocrote is where our empirical guards exercise. Greta turns away from lifting the rock weights with her bare hands. Has no one showed her the chalk to protect her from getting blisters? Her strength is shocking taking into account her tiny stature. “He says you told him you want to be a man. You don’t have to be a man to be my guard.”

She does look more masculine I admit with barely any hair and the body of a toddler, but her body is too frail to be on the ranks of the training soldiers in here. What in Ashta has gotten into her mind? I thought she was dead and now I’ve discovered she’s just been in hiding.

I walk around the stone bench she sits on to make sure she can see me.

“Greta?”

Soft little tufts of her hair fall just above her ears. The rest is trimmed very short so as to remain unmoving.

“It’s Keon,” she says simply while lifting the weight back up and ignoring me.

If any building needs to be expanded in this empire we should definitely start with this one next year. It’s utterly disgusting in here with all this heat and stink.

Greta frowns at my attempt to help her set the weight down.

“Enoch, leave me alone.”

“No! Why? I thought you were dead. What are you thinking dressing up like this?” I ask. “Why didn’t you come tell me you were alive?”

I’m not sure how to go about telling her I’m Emperor right now. It’s probably best to wait until I sort out what has been going on with her first.

Greta covers my mouth with her hand. I step back and cross my arms. Where did the naive little desert girl I used to know go? She looks like she’s ready to murder me now.

Eventually, I manage to get Greta to leave the enocrote with me so we can talk in private.

She follows me through the market and around a few bends until we make it all the way to the palace. At this hour of the night, not many people will be watching and it should be safe for her to come inside.

Once in my room, I lock the door and sit down on my bed beside her with my lantern situated between us.

“Please tell me what is going on, Greta.”

“Urdmin took me to a slavemaster and had me working on your mother’s new temple. Adler found me a few days later and I’ve been training to be your guard since.”

“My guard?” I ask in disbelief. “Okay, nevermind that for the time being. Do you know anything about my parents’ recent divorce? Urdmin is dead so enough about this being a man. You are a girl.”

She looks pleased by my revelation and covers her smile at the mention of their divorce.

“So you did have something to do with it,” I sigh. “Did you know he was going to do this? Do you realize what this means?”

“It was my god’s decision to make. I only offered my thoughts.”

“Greta, please. Stop talking in riddles. Just because Urdmin scared you doesn’t mean you need to become someone else. You are not a man.”

“I want to know a truth now from you,” she says.

Suddenly, she bolts up from the bed and lunges at me. I’m sent onto my back staring up at her as she places her hands on my chest as if to keep me beneath her. Her eyes sparkle with mischief.

“Do you think I’m stunning?” she breathes out while touching my face.

By our city’s standards? No. I can’t tell her that though. She is a beautiful person and for other reasons beyond looks. I wonder why she’s using the word ‘stunning’ though.

Before I can think about an answer to give her, the krexbin starts taking off her tunic as if to let me really see for myself.

A strange wrap is twisted around her chest, but she doesn’t move it any further because I stop her from doing so.

“N-no, what are you doing?” I ask quickly while placing the cloth back over her shoulder.

Her soft legs squeeze around me tighter to keep herself from falling over when I try to sit up. Doesn’t she know what’s she’s doing to me?

I can’t sit up with her on me like this. She definitely has gained not just weight, but her strength and then some. It’s awkward to even begin to think of doing anything romantic, let alone physical, with someone so small.

“No?” she whispers.

“That’s not what I meant. Why don’t you tell me why you are dressed like a boy?”

“The false god told me I am not a woman or man. I want to be called Keon. I want my own life that I get to pick. One where you quit blaming me for things my god has taken care of. Greta is weak and too much trouble. This is my new identity now,” she whisper-yells while finally crawling off of me.

As a man?

She can’t keep jumping around.

She needs to keep a job of some kind. She was only at the hospice for like a week and now she wants to be an empirical guard. What lies has Adler been feeding her?

I want to blame him badly, but Urdmin did the most damage I think. She’s clearly still traumatized from her last encounter with him before Adler finally put an end to the crippled advisee.

Greta grabs my face, catching me off guard. Her plump little lips kiss the corner of my mouth and then the center when I turn my head to face her. Not so timid is she now as she grabs my head and tries to pull me closer so I’ll open my mouth. I don’t really want to do this though when I’m not sure how she’s really taking this news.

Does she even want to kiss me?

It is the man who is supposed to make the first move. Well...that’s what Mother told me.

I’m so stuck in my head, I’m not even registering the fact that she’s still waiting for my reciprocation.

I wrap my arms around her while turning my head away, letting her do what she wants or feels like trying...which isn’t much more than kissing the rest of my face. I know she’s seeing me in a way. Her kisses are slow, but burn with a want that I can’t show yet myself.

Greta huffs when I don’t move to kiss her back. A worried look forms on her face as she rolls off of me.

“Why won’t you open your mouth?” she asks bluntly.

What is she saying?

“Because this isn’t right. I have to be careful how I act around you. My parents think you’re going to be my wife. What were you thinking kissing me like that?”

Her voice is not nearly as confident as her little kiss was, “I like you, Enoch.”

“I’m sorry, but we can’t be together at a time like this.”

Without wasting another word, she hops off my bed and goes to the door.

“I know,” she replies in a steady voice. “But I still care about you and your family.”

“Please, stop messing with my family. I know you convinced Adler to leave my mother. Our empire is going to take a huge hit because I am not ready-”

Greta grabs the door handle. “Your mother is awful!” she retorts. “You will never know the damage she’s put on me or your own father!”

I can hear how angry my own voice turns, “How can you ask me to hate the only parent who looked after me? I could go down to the taverns right now and bed any woman I wanted. I could be just like Adler, Greta. I could use you and make you go crazy like he did to my mother. You know nothing about him so quit trying to fix things! You’ve done more harm than good.”

“My name is Keon,” she cuts back. “And the way you talk about women is quite pathetic. You are just afraid because you’ve lost the power to control me. You are the child here, Enoch. I am the man.”

If only she knew just what power I received today. She wouldn’t call me a child then.

At any rate, I’m not going to let her walk away thinking she is a man. “You are a woman!” I yell.

“Not anymore. I don’t know who would want to be in a place like this if given the choice, but this is me making mine,” she argues stubborn as ever.

In one swift movement, she walks out and slams the door shut.