AN: Well this has been a fun commission, it was a little outside my usual experience, but I think I did a respectable job on it. Reviews are welcome of course. Might do a bonus chapter later, but at this point, this story has run its course and is considered to be 'complete'. I'll be back to working on my original piece today, and if you'd like to read 'Scales of Trust' you'll either need to be on my discord, or visit the patron (with an e before the o) slash tellingstories.

...Nazarick…By the Sixth Floor Lake...

Writers, poets, musicians, have made much of the ways of men and women entwined in desirous embrace down through the endless ages, and as Mare began to find when a touch without mana held power unimagined, they did not make such a fuss without good reason.

Zesshi exercised great care in allowing herself to be slowly disrobed, when only her black and white hair hid her from the back, and her sky blue dress tumbled into the shadow darkened grass, she stepped out of it and kicked it away. She kept her back to him, and let his hand touch her, there was nothing sexual about the place he touched, it was just the center space between her shoulder blades, yet she felt the touch of his heterochromatic eyes touch far, far more.

Time felt strange to her, an instant or an eternity, it could have been either and she could not have described the difference. She'd spent several lifetimes of man being unbeatable, having no equals, only to have her invincibility crushed by a child, a child who was now a man grown, and in whom a man's desires were now rising.

The word 'feminine' had never been much used before with her, not even by herself, and there was a time when she would have mocked the very notion, yet now under the eyes of the victor of one hundred and fifty years earlier, she thought that feeling of 'femininity' quite strongly, as the age old spell, that one which required no magical education to cast, fell over them both.

His hand wandered over her back in fascination, just fingertips alone really, but it was a thrilling touch nonetheless.

She turned her face left so that she was looking over her shoulder at him, "Should I turn around?" She asked, invitingly.

He couldn't form words, he only nodded, his elven ears twitched in anticipation, she stepped away from his touch, only by a single pace, but it might as well have been a chasm to him. She turned slowly, and then walked back into his still outstretched hand. It now fell upon her left breast, and his eyes, still fascinated, went wide.

"Is it… not like your books?" She asked with a bemused smile as her hands enfolded that single one that connected them.

"Th-They didn't do this justice…" He whispered out as if possessed.

"I may not be a talking rock…" She whispered in amused return, "but there are two hard little pebbles at least that you might like." She said and moved two of his fingers over her nipples.

From his perspective, she was absolutely right. "We can though, do far, far more than touch." She said, encouragingly. "For that however, you would also have to undress… would you… like me to help you?" She asked gently.

Again he nodded, his ability to form sentences, even stuttered ones, seemed to have vanished. She stepped closer, his arm drew back, allowing her to close, but never broke the connection between his body and her own. Gradually she worked, going slow, pausing every time she sensed hesitation, and proceeding only when she felt him relax in comfort.

Going so slow was a delicious torment that kept the anticipation building, Zesshi wanted to laugh at the urgency of her younger years, so eager, so rushed, this was much better. Allowing time to be taken let the desire grow, and when she pulled off his last shoe and cast it aside, she stood at last to admire the beautiful male specimen that was in front of her. She reached out, her first impulse was to reach for the staff that nature had given him to carry, but sensing this would be to much to soon, she touched his chest and let herself draw out an embrace that brought their lips together and their fingers to more of their gradual exploration of one another. Like some undiscovered country filled with new and hitherto now unknown delicacies, they sampled every spice and gesture, she felt at last the boldness of his hand grow as he reached down and touched her womanhood, she gasped into his ear, but whispered only "More." allowing him to become familiar with her intimately.

He too, was touched and did not flinch from the moment her hand wrapped round his staff and slowly caressed him. "You are beautiful." She whispered.

"I am as my creator made me." He said simply.

"I will tell that also, to your child." She whispered, and kissed her way down the length of his form until she was on her knees.

His eyes went wide, he had some hint of what she was about to do from books, yet he was so overwhelmed he was about to tell her to stop, that is until her lips engulfed him, and the words died on his tongue as he thought, 'OK, shut up Mare, let the lady have her way.'

She was not shy about stoking the fire within the dark elf guardian, and finally it was all he could do to say to her, "L-Lie down."

She obliged, if slowly, laying on her back and opening herself up to the warmth of his embrace, she guided him then, as she had in all other things up to this moment, and his exploration of her body ventured into a new land, that which lay within. Out of the Guardians of Nazarick, there were three heralded as the greatest of Geniuses. Demiurge, Albedo, and Pandora's Actor. Mare, though not the genius of the other three, was intelligent in his own right, and he proved a quick study, learning the rhythm of the oldest dance in nature under the guidance of a most enthusiastic teacher.

When their pleasure boiled over into climax, Mare collapsed atop Zesshi as if exhausted from a fierce battle. Nor was he alone in breathing hard, she did as well, but managed to laugh as he collapsed and said to him, a mere inch from his ear, "I didn't make you work this hard when you defeated me last time."

He blushed and laughed at her joke, "I hope you aren't vanquished now as easily as you were then, because I'm ready to go again." He said enthusiastically.

Her thighs went up and her legs hooked around him, "You'd better be." She winked her white eye and wrapped her arms around him as well.

When morning came, they awoke, they had fallen asleep still entwined like vines around a great tree.

Mare stood up reluctantly, then reached down and helped Zesshi to her feet. "Aura was right about one thing." He said as he walked towards the water of the lake to bathe.

Zesshi raised an eyebrow, "Bringing up your sister while naked with another woman is… a little odd." She critiqued.

He smirked, "Maybe, but relevant this once, something she said to me." He said as he descended deeper into the waters to clean the night's exertions from his skin.

"What's that?" Zesshi said as she entered the water behind him.

"I told her I could always say 'no' and she replied that men as a rule, didn't do that." He said, still holding the smirk as he splashed his face.

"I may have my differences with your sister, but in that, well, she's right. A few years ago some franchises of Vanysa's sandwich shop started popping up in my province, they offer something called 'chips' and they're brought to the table as an appetizer. People just naturally seem to reach for them as long as they're available. I think it is a little like that." Zesshi matched his smirk.

"What do you mean?" Mare asked curiously.

"Just like if chips are there, a person will just take them, if sex is available, a man will have some." She laughed a little at the jest and reached back to bind her hair again.

Mare scratched his head as he thought that over. "I don't know about that…" He said.

"Oh yeah?" Zesshi asked, then approached and reached for him again. He was half way into the act before he realized she was making a point, and by then he didn't care that he was proving her right.

After they were 'finally' cleaned up and dressed, Mare was silent.

"Thinking about something?" Zesshi asked.

"Yes, just, you are still planning on leaving after this conference is over, aren't you?" He asked as he buttoned his shirt.

"Eager to be rid of me, or hoping I'll stay?" She asked, mentally prepared for either answer.

"M-More th-the latter actually." He said with some reluctance at the admission.

She nodded, "Yes, I must, I am still Queen, I have my duties, but you can come see me whenever you want, and… if you'll have me, I'd love to come back here. Just don't make to much of a fuss over either with Aura. It's probably unhealthy for me to make her jealous." Zesshi's expression was warm and relaxed, and it seemed to bring out the same in Mare.

"I just realized something." He said with surprise.

"What?" Zesshi asked.

"We were going to have dinner. We completely forgot!" He rolled his eyes.

"Well I was OK with one long extended dessert." She gave him a salacious smile and as she approached him, she kissed him, more confidently than when they had first touched lips the night before, and he returned it with equal confidence, savoring a meal finer than any prepared by even the world's greatest chefs.

"I'd better go, there is still one more day of negotiations to finish off some final details, and I fully expect both our sisters to grill us without mercy about what happened." Zesshi said with some reluctance.

"Oh, wonderful." Mare said as he picked up his staff as he contemplated Aura waiting at home with folded arms.

"Well, Aorli will probably want lewd details for her own amusement but… I don't envy you Aura's questions." Zesshi said sympathetically.

"Me neither, but I'll live, however for your own wellbeing, well I think I'll skip out on the sendoff when you go home today." Mare said.

"That is probably for the best, but… do come see me in my homeland soon, it is not Nazarick, but it is home to me, and it is beautiful in its own way." Zesshi said hopefully as she extended the invitation.

"Plan on it." Mare said firmly, and then they walked away from the shore the morning breeze blew the cattails on the island in the center back and forth, and dragonflies raced among them again, sometimes alighting on the little stone building there, sometimes landing on a cattail and causing them to sway more, in a strange way, to Zesshi, it looked as if they were waving goodbye.

When the Queen returned to her temporary residence, her half sister was waiting up for her still. "Either you forgot, or it was better than expected. That was what I'd planned to say, but… judging by the way you're walking, the latter is the only possibility." Aorli said with a giggle.

Zesshi didn't even try to deny it, she stretched languorously in front of her sister and said only, "Damn right. I suppose the details will have to wait though, we probably have to be at the meeting soon.

Aorli shook her head, "Lord Ainz sent out word that it was to be delayed by twelve hours today."

Zesshi's eyes went wide, "He didn't…" She said in disbelief.

"He did, he's very wise." Aorli said sagely.

"Then have a servant bring wine, I'll tell you everything, then get some sleep and be ready for later." Zesshi said enthusiastically as Aorli reached for the bell to summon a servant.

When Mare returned to the tree he shared with his sister, she was, just as predicted, sitting in a chair and staring at the door with her arms folded unhappily, a glare seemingly painted permanently on her face.

"Sister?" Mare asked.

"I told you that you wouldn't say no." She said.

"Well you were right about that, and I'm not sorry I didnt." Mare answered as he shut the door behind him.

"What happens now, are you going with her when she leaves?" Aura asked, the anger melting away and a vulnerable expression replaced it. Her left hand formed a fist and her right hand covered it over the fingers, her lips formed a straight line across her face and her eyes were open and locked on him.

"No, I stay here, this is my home, this will always be my home. Just like you will always be my sister." He said and he set the staff aside.

"I… I know part of why she left us." Aura said quietly.

It took Mare a moment to piece together what she meant.

"I kept it from you, I'm sorry, but you should know, it's part of why I've been… this way, over you and 'her'." Aura said tentatively.

Mare was stunned, he couldn't speak, he approached and sat in the wicker chair across from his sister and just looked at her in expectation.

"Peroroncino, her brother, he'd fallen in with a girl, it kept him out of the tomb. I learned this one day while Lady Bukubukuchagama was doing something with me here, I don't understand what she was talking about at the time with that, but she was muttering about her brother and his going away over a girl, she sounded sad. It was after that, that she stopped coming around as often, like it wasn't the same without him, and then… well…" Aura touched the watch on her wrist for reassurance, "you know then. Eventually she stopped coming at all. A girl took her brother away, and that took her away from us… and now you… with a girl…" Aura's eyes welled up with tears.

"I just don't want it to happen to us, if it could happen to the supreme beings, it could happen to anyone… I'm sorry I kept that piece of knowledge from you as long as I did, I should have told you a long time ago, but I didn't see you as a man, just my little sensitive brother who was always nervous. Maybe if I had, well maybe I'd feel differently now, maybe you'd have felt differently last night, but I can't make these choices over again, what is done is done." Aura said with resignation.

Mare knew he should have felt outrage at her concealing such knowledge from him, but at that moment all he could feel was sadness for her, for the burden she'd carried, and regret for the anxiety he had unwittingly and ignorantly made worse, even if it had been due to her choice that it had been made so.

"Sister… Aura... " Mare stood and came close to her, he knelt where she sat, and leaned in to let her arms fall around him. He returned the embrace.

"No matter what, nothing will take me away, like Lord Ainz, I will also stay, and be your brother until the end of time. You'll never lose me, never, no matter what happens with anyone else, ever, I promise you." He said sensitively.

"That's twice you've promised me this, so that's double trust, never break it, or you will break my heart beyond repair." Aura said, and kissed Mare's forehead.

"Some things change, and some things never do, and that is one that never will." Mare said in response.

Mare was true to his word that evening when the last day of negotiations concluded, and he did not appear at the closing ceremony.

It had at least been productive, the two dwarven provinces agreed to provide the supervisory instruction and some of the fine labor work in the red crystal harvesting, while the Sorcerer King provided the undead labor, to the surprise of absolutely no one, while in turn Zesshi's people provided transportation, and a research and processing facility was to be established in the province under Aorli, while the Sorcerer King held control over their general use and distribution through a strict licensing system.

Demiurge's Research division was ecstatic, while Vanysa's Intelligence division was quick to reallocate some of their death sentenced captives to the Research division for that purpose. As always, the efficiency and carefully balanced interests were folded into the machinery of Nazarick's ever rising power to best effect, and everyone came away not only having gained something, but having intertwined their interests in such a way that it was made even more impossible to imagine not being part of the same nation. Predictably, the King of the quagoa asked for a sample of the crystals for his warriors to see what would happen, and this became an immediate priority, which elevated their people in importance.

But all of that was minor to Zesshi, caught up as she was in her own thoughts, Mare's absence the day of her departure weighed a little more heavily on her than she expected, but it wasn't as if she didn't know his thoughts already, so she brushed the petty resentment aside as unworthy, and simply enjoyed the fact that she could miss him a little. He hadn't said he loved her, nor had she said it herself. She had become more than a talking rock at least, and she thought she felt some kindling fondness. Still she kept her expectations restrained, and bade farewell with the other rulers, from her knees before the Throne of Kings. They were all lined up, and one by one as they said their peace, a gate opened and they filed through back to their own homes, scattered about the Sorcerous Empire, traversing hundreds of miles in a single instant.

Finally it was Zesshi's turn, and she felt the red orbs of Ainz Ooal Gown linger on her that much more strongly than they had on any of the others, it was unsurprising, given the circumstances of the previous few days. But she felt that they were not filled with hostility, as Aura's had been. Rather it was a kind of quiet expectation of his own that was growing, she wondered what it was he saw when he raised his skeletal hand and said a few words so quietly that even she, with her sensitive hearing, could not tell what he had uttered. Beside him, she saw the eyes of Albedo and Demiurge expand in unspoken shock.

But then the gate appeared, and she was dismissed without getting to ask her question, she stood, bowed once, and filed through as the others before her, and found herself again in her throne room before her waiting subjects.

A piece of her was regretful about having left Nazarick, or rather, Mare, behind, however it was a small voice within her head and she was able to ignore it well enough, and threw herself into the bustle of the work of ruling a wealthy province. She traded correspondence with Mare over the days immediately after, though work establishing the new resource trade kept her busy, and Mare oversaw the reshaping of land in the colonies, thus they were not able to visit one another again nearly as soon as either had expected they might.

Nonetheless if it ached within either to much, that was not obvious by their correspondence, which often included books being traded back and forth or talk of mundane pleasures and activities, little enough was said that could be compared to fluttering hearts, but it was a pleasant companionship, even with distance. That was no doubt part of why Aura was able to become a little more at ease with her brother's growing familiarity with the half elf Queen, and in turn also why Mare grew more comfortable talking about their correspondence to his sister in turn.

So it was that one bright morning day, some two months after Zesshi had come to Nazarick, that Mare lay in his hammock reading one of Zesshi's letters when he called his sister over. "Aura!" He shouted.

She came outside where he was rocking back and forth beneath the shade of their tree home, "Yeah, what do you want Mare?" She asked casually.

"Turns out Zesshi was right about something too." He said.

She looked at him cockeyed, "What?" She was a trifle confused.

"You will be seeing your family grow. Looks like you're going to be an aunt." Mare said with a toothy smile that might have been taken off his sister's face for the sheer breadth and enthusiasm of it all, and he held the letter out to her.

She snatched it up in disbelief and read it several times, then lowered it slowly and looked at her little brother. "Well there is only one thing to do then, isn't there?" She asked.

"What?" He asked, uncertain of what she meant.

"We need to go to Lord Ainz and request time off to go see to the birth of my niece or nephew, and you've got to take responsibility, little brother." Aura said with a cocky smile on her face and her hands on her hips.

"You're right, let's go see him now, I'm sure he'll want to hear the news first." Mare said as he hopped out of the hammock.

"Race you there." Aura said with a grin.

"You never change, do you, sister?" Mare asked.

"Nope, some things never change." Aura said proudly.

"And some things do." Mare replied, and giving in to his sister once more, they started to run.