Nie, dressed in his loose pajama top on his bed, pulled out the test knot Rahle had given him that morning.
This one isn’t so bad, he thought, turning it over in his hands. The material was something… rubbery but softer – a bit springy. While he’d really only had the one summer fling, he thought it mimicked the feel of a savbahn cock well enough from what he remembered. And the shape – with a tapered tip that went down about three or four inches to the base – and below that, the larger bulb of the false knot before the flared base.
The only thing it was really missing was the heat – he’d been surprised at how burning hot Yelehn’s cock had been when he’d touched it. Though the closest they’d come to penetrative sex was Yelehn pushing the tip of his cock into Nie’s vagina, cumming immediately, and then being so embarrassed they didn’t speak again until the following summer. And by then, the spark that had led to their first fling was gone – amicably so, but gone nonetheless.
Shaking his head at the memory, Nie sighed and set the false knot aside. He’d already set a timer and a small bottle of oil there as well, and picked up the latter.
It had been some time since he’d touched himself – it wasn’t something he had the urge to do often, and the past month had been busy.
So he carefully rubbed a little oil between his fingers before settling back on his cushions and reaching down to stroke his enlarged clit that had grown as a result of eating mahln root throughout his teenaged years. It was common for sevadah men to do so, as it prevented the growth of breasts during puberty and in savbahn promoted horn growth – as those born without a penis often had much shorter horns than those born with.
He no longer needed mahln root, the changes becoming permanent after several years of consumption, but it had been interesting discovering how it affected him compared to savbahn sevadah.
After an absence, it didn’t take long for Nie to work himself up – he was soon thrusting his fingers into his own wet entrance, hips curling up off the mattress. He kept going until he’d come once – normally when he’d stop for the night. However, Nie had discovered instructions under the wrapped false knot, which said to insert after an initial climax, and he trusted instructions from his colleagues in the Intimacy Branch.
Nie took a few moments to catch his breath before sitting up with a groan. He applied more oil to the false knot carefully and, with equal care, positioned it between his legs. Continuing to use the instructions, he slowly lowered himself onto the knot.
Nie’s breath hitched in surprise as it pressed inside of him. It had been over a decade since he’d even attempted to put anything more than his own fingers, and he wasn’t prepared for the sensation of his inner walls being pushed aside. He slowly moved up and down on the shaft, groaning as he carefully worked it deeper.
I can see why it suggested this method, Nie thought, unsure if he’d have been able to force himself to push it in with his hand.
Once he was able to slide down to the base, Nie picked up his pace. The spread stung, but not in an entirely unpleasant way – and Nie worked himself into another climax by rubbing as he bobbed onto the false knot.
As his muscles relaxed again, he forced himself down onto the knot further – biting his lip as the large bulb slid inside. Once the entire thing was inside, he reached over to flip the small hourglass over. He found himself pressing his forehead into the mattress, feeling unpleasantly stuffed.
Ten minutes, he reminded himself, It’s only for ten minutes this time.
As the sand fell, Nie focused on breathing – the false knot feeling less uncomfortable as time passed, but not necessarily good. With how much work getting the smallest style of knot in was, Nie was almost certain he would be taking Intimacy Courses – alone, if Abuin wasn’t comfortable doing so. He’d thought to simply get a range of false knots for himself, but honestly, having someone nearby to offer suggestions to alleviate the pressure he was feeling now sounded like a good idea.
To distract himself, Nie tried to imagine what the real thing would feel like.
After all the massage sessions and recent cuddling, it wasn’t terribly difficult to mentally conjure the Grand Duke’s warmth against his back.
He’d be heavy, Nie thought, closing his eyes, But not too heavy – he’s too aware of his size for that.
Abuin was tall by savbahn standards, at around nine and a half feet – and Nie, at a little over five and a half feet, was, of course, much smaller than even a short savbahn. Despite that, Nie had never seen Abuin’s horns get caught on any door frames, nor had the man come close to bumping into anything while pacing around his study while carrying his betrothed. Then, of course, there was the way he never applied more pressure than needed to urge Nie in a specific direction – all speaking to excellent spatial awareness and control.
Even when he was in a state… Nie thought, still breathing carefully as he remembered it.
The way Abuin’s chest had heaved as he curled over the masseur, his large rough-padded hands clutching Nie’s arms at the shoulder and elbow – he had been warm then, too. Warmer than usual, even… and he’d growled in that low rumble of his…
Nie rubbed his clit hesitantly as he thought about his betrothed, finding his breathing hitching and toes curling as he squeezed around the knot inside him. He wasn’t sure how many minutes over ten he went – as he only blearily looked up at the finished hourglass after working up to a bigger climax than the previous two. One that made the test knot slide out far more easily than it went in and left him feeling boneless and heavy.
I suppose physical compatibility won’t be too much of an issue, Nie thought to himself – tucking the test knot under the mattress before pulling up the covers to go to sleep.
He woke up the next morning far more embarrassed than he’d been the night before and sore as he quickly dressed for morning exercise in the Garden Hall. When the weather was warming, they would exercise in the garden itself – but it was still too cold for that. Nie considered remaining in bed, but that would just give him more time to consider his previous night’s activities.
Nie had never felt the attraction others described – growing up, he thought it was perhaps due to being a human surrounded by savbahn. This idea was dispelled as he came into contact with more humans – mainly merchants – and still did not find them attractive. Well, not in a way that made him want to bed any of them, in any case.
So the idea that imagining the Grand Duke in a sexual context had been, apparently, arousing was… well. He’d certainly have time to work through that in the coming weeks.
Bahr was already working through forms when Nie arrived, and Gahne was nowhere to be seen – perhaps she was taking the morning off, having gone to her first official court event the night before. Nie offered his grandfather a nod before he started stretching, directing his focus into the feel of his muscles as he warmed them up.
When he concentrated enough, he could see how the muscles, tendons, and ligaments shifted in his mind’s eye. It was meditative, picturing the curve of his latissimus dorsi as he reached over his head, the way his trapezius elongated with the motion as his deltoids contracted. He would use this mental trick in his work as a massagist as well – picturing the lay of muscles on his clients rather than himself.
He continued picturing the motion of his muscles as he moved from stretch to stretch, and then into the fifteen forms of Rabahni martial arts – modified for his two-armed stature. The blocking forms – high arm, middle arm, throw, snap, knee; the attack forms – fang, swipe, grab, kick, back kick, pounce; and the counter forms – claw, palm, double kick, roll. It cleared his head, and by the time the morning bell rang to wake the rest of the household, Nie actually had forgotten the previous night.
“They say the Grand Duke is an accomplished duelist,” Bahr sniffed as they both sat to catch their breath before preparing for the day.
“Do they?” Nie replied.
Bahr huffed, “Yes – but he has the same aversion to fighting as you do.”
“Ah,” the human sighed, having wondered where his grandfather was going with that statement.
Although Nie had scoffed at Shasol’s suggestion that he dueled, in reality, his first duel had ended with him accidentally breaking an older noble’s leg and digging out one of their eyes at sixteen. He hadn’t liked the feeling of doing so – in fact, it made him ill. It had simply occurred so fast – the much larger adult man charging him, his body reacting before he’d given his defense a single thought, and then blood and viscera on his hands with his opponent whining on the ground.
After that, he’d decided never to accept another duel unless absolutely necessary – which had fortunately never come to pass. Nie would much rather use his ability to picture the lay of muscles on a person’s body to relieve pain than cause it, even if the man he’d injured insisted it was his own fault for underestimating a smaller, younger opponent.
“Though I don’t suppose he gets many challenges, either,” Bahr went on dryly, “Looks intimidating enough to deter plenty of bite-happy fools…”
Nie snorted, “And there’s his rank.”
“Yes, there’s that,” his grandfather agreed, then grumbled, “Are you really alright with how… physical he is with you?”
“If I weren’t, I wouldn’t allow him to be,” the younger Wahnera replied.
Bahr growled a little, then sighed, “Very well – he is your betrothed, after all…”
“So he is,” Nie sighed as well.
“… it’s still odd,” his grandfather huffed, “I didn’t think you were ever going to… well, since no one really caught your eye, you know.”
“Yes, I know,” Nie agreed with a snort, “I also rather expected to remain an unwed member of the Wahnera house until I died.”
They sat in silence for a few moments after that – the realization that Nie would be physically leaving the estate settling over both of them. It made Nie’s heart pang in his chest – the Wahnera estate was the only home he could remember having. He’d grown up in these halls, shared his triumphs and failures with his family here, and had expected to grow old drinking warmed peach wine on the porch of this very room as the peach blossoms fell to the ground like pink snow.
“We’ll have to get your tree uprooted,” Bahr snorted as if he’d been considering the same thing.
“Yes,” Nie agreed, and it eased the squeeze around his heart a bit, “I think a Wahnera must have married into the Nehma family in the past – the back garden has a Wahnera peach tree as well.”
There was a Wahnera tradition of planting a peach tree seed when a child of the house was born – when the child married out of the family, they took their tree with them as a piece of home. Nie’s tree had been planted when he was officially adopted into the family. Bahr explaining the tradition and naming each family member’s tree in the garden orchard had made the human feel like he belonged more than any piece of paper ever could.
“Yeah?” Bahr said, “I’ll have to check the records. How old did it look?”
“It wasn’t producing fruit anymore,” Nie replied, “So it had to be over two centuries, at least.”
While most peach trees were short-lived, including those in the country estate orchard, the breed they planted at the estate had been carefully cultivated to last much longer. They produced less fruit than their shorter-lived brethren, which made them unsuitable for wide-scale harvesting, but the fruit they did produce was of higher quality. Most would find it difficult to tell a Wahnera peach tree from a regular Rabahni peach tree, but certainly not a member of the family.
They both returned to their quarters to prepare for the day and found Gahne waiting for them at the breakfast table.
“How’s your head?” Nie asked, noting her cup of ginger and lavender tea.
His sister whined in response, taking a sip.
“You were out most of the night,” Bahr observed, “You didn’t get into any fights, did you?”
“No,” Gahne said sullenly, “Though I definitely wanted to… especially that Dahle...”
“Who?” Nie asked.
“The Petty Duke,” his sister sighed, sitting up properly, “Though he did actually ask to escort me, so…”
“What event was this, again?” Bahr asked.
“A higher court salon for tea tasting,” Gahne replied, “The host and older nobles were kind enough, even though they only invited me because of the Grand Duke wanting to marry Nie…”
Nie made a noise of acknowledgment.
“But the other nobles my age were just…” Gahne sighed again, “Petty? Not like Dahle, well – no, actually, very like Dahle. They were clearly all mad I was there and kept making these snide remarks when the older nobles weren’t around to hear. I didn’t want to make a challenge during my very first court outing, but it was really hard not to.”
“What kind of remarks were they making?” Nie asked.
Gahne waved a hand, “Oh, nothing unexpected – that we’re social climbers, Nie’s just marrying for money, I’m going to use the Grand Duke’s influence to form an advantageous marriage, that sort of thing.”
“Should have told them they were right,” Nie smiled, “Or why the Grand Duke proposed in the first place…”
Gahne laughed, then winced and sipped her tea.
Bahr huffed, “Well, I’m proud of you for holding back over such generalist tripe.”
Gahne nodded, “If they’d said anything about the family specifically, I would have broken their teeth – after they accepted my challenge.”
Bahr sighed and shook his head despairingly.
“She gets it from you, Grandfather,” Nie snorted.
“She certainly does,” Ehmra agreed, bringing in that morning’s messages, “Nie, the Nehma Estate sent a letter.”
“Thank you,” the human said, accepting his stack with the Nehma letter on top. It was as large as the previous day’s, but the majority of the envelopes had the tasseled closing string of engagement congratulations.
“Children are meant to do better than their elders!” Bahr replied.
“What’s the letter?” Gahne asked.
“An invitation to midday tea at… the Ginger Cat?” Nie squinted, making sure he’d read that correctly.
“I believe I know who’ll be making your wedding bread,” his grandfather observed, “Not that I disagree with that choice…”
Nie realized he was probably right on that count.
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