Ritual (continued)
Dongyue knew from what he had read that within minutes he would temporarily relinquish control over his own body, submitting to the call of desire. He had no idea what that meant, but possibly that was what Xiyu was going through at the moment. He looked at her, and his chest throbbed with pain. It had to be the effects of the ritual, he told himself.
The dark nature of the ritual was calling out to Xiyu. Due to her magic, she was already responding to the call of nature atrociously. He watched concernedly how her petite figure trembled in anguish. She moaned crazily, tearing off her clothes from the heat that spread through her body like wildfire. A rock in his heart made him feel unsettled to see her in a disorderly manner.
He had been kept from women all his life and knew nought of the ‘acts between men and women’, as mentioned briefly in the almanac. He fumbled to remove his robes and fell to the ground beside her, staring at her intensely in confusion.
‘The acts of men and women’? What did that mean? He questioned himself cluelessly.
He had taken off his robes because Xiyu had taken off hers, and apart from feeling hot, he did not know what he was supposed to do next. As if knowing what was on his mind Xiyu clambered towards him, whispering to him to kiss her.
She was just submitting to fate, she told herself. She would do what she had to do, but all because it was part of the ritual. Whether or not he remembered after that, it would not affect her. What was love? Were the little feelings and attraction she had for him equivalent to love?
In the end, they were two people from different worlds. Since it had come to this, it did not matter to her that he would be the one to have her first time. Her duty came before those virtues she learned from the tutors who taught her. She just wanted to live and protect the island as much as she could as its owner. She couldn’t die, not when she had not accomplished what she perceived she was born for.
The last he saw was Xiyu using her magic to turn off the lights completely, and then, all hell broke loose. In the darkness, a profound warmth was spreading all over his body, making him pant furiously as she arched her shoulders. She readied herself for the ensuing pain that her mother had told her of when she was a young girl. Lady Peony, who probably wasn’t her mother, had said that one day if she got married, this would be bound to happen.
Only that she wasn’t married, and probably would never. Either out of duty to the people of Muxue or to save her life now, she had to let the ritual happen. The pain that she anticipated never came, and instead, she found herself relishing in the sensual sins of passion, as their bodies finally came together as one.
She hoped that he would not remember a single moment of their union, once he woke up the next morning.
………………………………………………………………..
The Next Morning.
Dongyue cracked open an eye, feeling soreness in his back and the ache of his limbs. Even his head resonated with pain. If he was in Yilong, a small prescription from the physician would have solved this little problem. But instead of the slight headaches that he would have from time to time in Yilong, the exhilarating pain in his head signified it was something bigger and more unusual.
The room he was in was dark, and he scoured his memory in search of the answers to the questions in his head. He vaguely remembered that he had brought Xiyu into the ritual chamber for the purpose of conducting the ritual, but now that he thought of the words he had said, it appeared that his memory had been wiped.
But try as he might, could not remember a word of the ritual verses he had recited. He was in shock when he recalled the events that had happened after the room was in total darkness. A low-pitched moan intrigued his curiosity, and he crawled to the source of the voice. To his absolute surprise, Xiyu was lying in a corner without a stitch on her.
It was not his first time he had seen her bare, but she was dishevelled and in a state of total disarray, compared to the usually neat Xiyu he observed. His instinct was to quickly place some clothes on her to protect her from the cold. But after what had happened last night, he felt nervous and somewhat embarrassed.
She rolled her eyes at him and turned away from him. Her cheeks flushed with shyness upon thinking about what had happened during the ritual. But this was not something she as a woman, should be thinking about, she thought.
But since it had already happened, what was there even to talk about?
“Escort me to my room, Dongyue,” she told him coldly, facing the wall. Her energy and vitality had returned to her after she had woken up, and she dressed hastily. He watched her clothing swish about her as she pulled every knot of her robes in place, and bound her hair in a neat ponytail. She was nevertheless ravishing.
Still facing the wall, she bit down on her lower lip as she sensed the sharp pain in her lower abdomen. Why had she not felt the pain earlier, when she was moaning insanely during the ritual? This was genuinely upsetting to recall, and she hoped he would not mention how lusty she had been. She finished dressing and pulled her sash over her face to hide the redness of her cheeks.
Dongyue took Xiyu in his arms. She did not resist him and allowed him to carry her out of the room. His heart was beating rapidly as he attempted to clear his mind of the naughty thoughts of what had happened in their night of passion, no, the night of the ritual.
“Xiyu,” he found himself muttering as they came to a pause outside her chambers, “are you feeling better now?”
She answered him coldly, “I am back to my former health and won’t die, thanks to you. Your selfless actions are worth their weight in gold. I will make sure you are paid once we get home, Zhan Dongyue.”
He pushed the ice door open and laid her gently on her bed. She stared at him. Indeed as a man, he would not fathom the discomfort she was going through, nor the heaviness in her heart that he had taken her virginity. She would not force him against his will to be responsible.
“Xiyu, I told you before that I would treat you as my wife,” he said firmly, taking his place beside her on the warm bed.
“I told you that I don’t need a husband,” she argued, trying to make herself sound as icy as she used to be with him.
“When we got trapped in the underground levels by the two rogue minions, what did you say?” he uttered crossly. He did not like hearing coldness from her now that she and he were not likely to return to who they were before the soul-bond and the ritual.
“I said then that I need you because you have to stay alive to send me home,” she muttered, not daring to face him. She knew she was lying, but she was too afraid to face him or admit her feelings after what had happened between them. The feelings of desire she had suppressed for so long had surfaced during the ritual, making it obvious to him that she was physically needy. What if he saw her as a cheap woman?
He held her small face in his big paws and turned her to face him.
“Xiyu, if you’re telling the truth, you wouldn’t be afraid to look into my eyes,” he said in an alluring voice, tempting her. She felt the blush of her cheeks and was relieved she still had her veil on. At least, he didn’t have to see her embarrassment. Without asking for her permission, he lifted her veil slightly and kissed her gingerly. His arms coiled around her protectively, providing her with a sense of assurance she did not ever have with anyone in her life.
“Xiyu, you need to embrace your feelings and accept who you are.” She remembered what Minami had said, and closing her eyes, she caved in to her feelings and returned his kisses. She felt almost feverish as their bodies touched, reminding her of the heat of her actions the night before. And to say she didn’t want more after that, was a lie.
After the ritual, there was no way she could resist Zhan Dongyue any longer. She now knew what it was like to have intercourse with him, and her sensualness was even more forceful than in the past. In the sea of silence in the room, he heard her heart thump strongly against his chest and yielded. He broke the kiss gently and whispered to her, “Last night was duty. In the future, I will show you what it means to be loved as a wife.”
She placed her lips on his and kissed him again, this time not allowing him to stop. She wanted him, and whatever she thought in her mind before this, simply didn’t matter anymore.