That remains to be seen

Sebastien spent the rest of the day feeling quite torn about quite a number of things as he worked hard to appear as serene as possible and to have himself come across to Allura as being completely undisturbed by her apparent lack of inhibitions, the increasingly frustrated knight even hoping that a band of nomads would appear to challenge them over their intrusion on their territory.

No nomads materialized, and nor was Sebastien convinced that it would a good thing to attempt to pull William aside and let the young man know that Allura would never permit the relationship between them to transform into anything where she wasn’t in complete control all of the time, essentially reducing the youngster into little more than an elaborate toy. For one thing, Sebastien guessed that William had spent enough time in Allura’s castle to already be firmly placed under the Enchantress’s spell, and secondly, he had quickly proven himself pretty apt at throwing glowering looks at Sebastien and sounding rather sullen whenever he attempted to talk to him.

It wasn’t that Sebastien didn’t feel a twinge of sympathy for the young man, realizing that if he wasn’t along then William would have Allura all for himself, but it made him wonder how he could possibly be Allura’s champion if every man that was recruited by them would be envious of the attention that she offered him. It would be a perverse twist of fate if he’d be kept from having his **** on Dahalag and saving Anyra by some unwashed, lovestruck barbarian stabbing him in the back and then slitting his throat in an attempt to take his place at Allura’s side.

Supper then was an absurd affair, marked by Allura alternating between being high-spirited and conversant and impishly and silently happy about the awkward silence and nervous shifting with which her two companions responded to her, though in William’s case it wasn’t so much a matter of trying to hold back her advances, as the young coachman seemed positively elated whenever she addressed him, but a question of his elation at holding her attention being sabotaged by how his nerves stopped him from ever managing to get out more than a couple of words at once, and never without him stumbling and stuttering along as he uttered them.

After supper, which had consisted of a meal more pleasant than the hardtack and similar that Sebastien had sustained himself on during his journey to Allura’s castle, he managed to engage William in a conversation that lasted long enough to determine that the two of them should share guard duties, with Sebastien taking the first shift and William then relieving him.

As he had climbed up the slope to get into a position from which he’d be able to observe the lake as well as the surrounding plains, and where he could wander back and forth to cover as much ground as possible, Sebastien had been happy about getting far enough away from Allura that she now appeared as nothing more than a miniature figurine that was too small for any details to be made out, his cock slowly softening for what felt like the first time that day as he once more tried to think neither of the Enchantress nor of his wife, the former because he’d quite like to go a few hours without the confusion and frustration that she caused him to feel and the latter since he didn’t consider himself up to facing the strong sense of guilt and shame at having betrayed her.

Instead, as he’d often done on those occasions when his fellow knights and the common soldiers serving under him had sought out the services of whores, Sebastien engrossed himself with thoughts of strategy, more specifically how he was to use the nomads in case of them joining his cause, with him still being enough of a knight that he couldn’t bring himself to tricking them into laying down their lives in what was essentially a diversion, to be followed by the new ruler, and here Sebastien once more avoided to think of Allura directly, betraying what few of them remained by deciding that the plains were to remain part of the kingdom.

Night had descended over the plains and the lanterns on the coach down by the lake had been placed on the ground around it and been lit as Sebastien turned his thoughts towards what other allies there might be to be gained in the struggle against Dahalag. Not counting the king’s external enemies, Sebastien knew that the old pervert was enough of an despot to have ensured that quite a few of his vassals had good reason to despise him, with Sebastien caring little about the fact that an alliance with any of them would make the ensuing power-struggle after he’d run his sword through Dahalag’s body, preferably stabbing him between the legs and pushing on until the tip of it popped out between his shoulder blades, more complicated and protracted.

Spending a good deal of time trying to think of what he’d learned about various noblemen and their respective issues with Dahalag since he’d found himself an enemy of the king, Sebastien eventually noticed that one of the lanterns previously mounted on the coach was now being carried up the slope, and he’d guessed that its carrier was none other than William, who didn’t appear to be particularly adept at moving across ground during night-time, the young man cursing and groaning whenever he wasn’t busy stumbling over some piece of ground or another, making it easy for Sebastien to keep track of him as he moved to meet him.

“You might want to kill that bloody lantern,” Sebastien offered William a piece of good-natured advice once the lantern was close enough to have completely ruined his night vision.

A terse “Right,” was what William’s reply consisted of.

“I wasn’t expecting you to come up here like this,” Sebastien went on, finding it increasingly annoying to have to deal with William’s unrelenting reticence.

“Allura wakened me,” William explained as Sebastien noted that the coachman had brought along an axe for his guard duty, “and told me it was time to take your place.”

“Good,” Sebastien chose not to make any quips about the axe looking a little blunt if William was intending to use it to take his place, “just remember that if anything attacks you, just make a lot of noise. Scream at the top of your lungs as you swing that thing, and I’ll show up as fast as I can.”

“I’ll try,” William formed his mouth into a thin, slightly nervous, smile.

“Good,” Sebastien had reassured enough young, untried recruits in his days not to tell William that that was all that he expected of him or something along those lines, instead turning his attention towards the source of the strained relationship that existed between the two men, “and where’s Allura?”

“She’s in the coach. It’s equipped so that she can sleep in it,” William decided to say ‘she’ instead of ‘you’ in the hopes that that might reduce the risk of Sebastien getting any funny ideas.

“Alright, good,” Sebastien was aware that the more luxurious coaches, and Allura’s certainly was that, even if it was painted with gold and ludicrously ornamented, was equipped with an extra stretch of padded seat so that their innards could be transformed into what essentially was one large bed in which its passengers were able to spend the night in more comfort than what was to be had from sleeping on the ground, just as long as you remembered the low ceiling if you woke up in the middle of the night feeling **** for a pee.

“I’m sorry about having **** you all the way up here in the middle of the night,” Sebastien went on to say as the two men adapted their eyes to the darkness that had embraced them after William had put out the lantern.

“It’s alright,” Sebastien could make out William’s head bobbing up and down as he nodded in response to his comment, “I guess it’s better this way.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because of…” William stopped to think for a moment, “well, you can see farther from up here, and if you hear something moving you don’t have to climb up the slope to see what it is.”

“I’d say that’s about right,” Sebastien nodded, “I’ll head off to bed now.”

“Right,” William mimicked Sebastien’s nodding, but didn’t say anything more than that.

As he reached the coach, Sebastien could see that the majority of Allura’s luggage remained strapped to the back of it, and estimated that the couple of blankets in front of one of its doors marked the spot where William had been sleeping, with the knight now being annoyed with himself for being relieved that the young coachman hadn’t slept next to Allura, and a more cynical part of his brain observing that if that had been the case, then he would probably have heard quite a few lustful cries whilst on guard duty.

Trying to be as silent as possible as he placed his sheathed sword on the ground and stripped out of his armour, Sebastien then was about to set out to find a few more blankets when he stopped dead in his tracks at the sound of movement coming from inside the coach and turned his head towards the nearest door just as it was pushed open and Allura appeared in the soft light provided by the lanterns that were staked out around the coach.

Sebastien’s questions as to how she could possibly have heard him moving about were pushed aside as he found himself utterly enthralled by her appearance, a white sheet wrapped around her curvaceous frame and her hair appearing much too orderly for someone who had just spent several hours sleeping as she nimbly climbed down to stand in front of him, her bare feet sinking into the grass.

“Bastion…” Judging from his surprised expression, Allura decided that it had definitely been a good idea to cast a spell that would awaken her whenever he came within ten feet of the coach, even if it meant that she’d have to go some time before being able to cast another one, “Aren’t you going to join me?”