Act 1 Epilogue (And a message from the author)

On the northern coast:

As Vel and Glaweder crested the last rise, the city finally came into view. It was a magnificent sight, the rooftops stretching into the distance all the way to the snow-covered peaks behind it. The multiple bustling ports sat upon the frothing sea, ships of all sizes coming and going. By far most impressive was the imposing main castle though. It was sat upon what would have been just a rocky island, essentially an overgrown cliff. But the old Vashkai kings had identified its strategic value as soon as they arrived upon these shores, and there they had built the very first keep in Western Aluv. Or so the old legends said. The name they had given it according to those legends had since become the name of the whole city. Point Conquest, provincial capital of Western Aluv and the main seat of Vel’s uncle, Lord Exarch Kalran Hothemer.

Far to the southwest:

Crossing the Borderlands, that lawless stretch between the lands claimed by the Toranian Empire and the homeland of the elves, was almost certainly the most unsafe part of any journey between those two places. There was no central authority here, every settlement had to both police and protect itself. The threat of bandits was ever-present, and Lethiliie’s mind really should be on her surroundings, her keen senses alert for any sign of threat. And if she couldn’t manage that much, then by rights she should at least be dwelling on her mission. How her talks with the empress had gone, what she would say to her mother, and so on. But try as she might, Lethiliie couldn’t keep her mind from returning to one thing. Velas. He dominated her waking thoughts of late, and more often than not she rose with fading memories of dreams she’d had about him. She couldn’t forget the way he had felt inside her, the overwhelming pleasure she had felt at his thrusts, consensual or not. And more than anything, she couldn’t forget how she had felt about him in the vision, how she would feel about him someday. Such love, she’d not known that was even possible. And her daughter… Lethiliie had to fight the urge to touch her abdomen, it wasn’t a habit she could afford to pick up, lest she arouse suspicion. And then the second vision, the one she had experienced hours after they’d parted. She’d been one of many wives in that one, but she had not minded at all. Had that been real, or just the delusions of her addled mind after a trying day? She thought it was the former, hoped it was, which scared her a bit. Why should she, a princess of the elven royal line, so fervently hope for a future where she was part of a human man’s harem? Not just any human man, The Heir himself, the prime enemy! And yet, she did hope for it, wished for it. She simply could not help it.

In the cold and crushing depths:

Long had it slumbered, its rest undisturbed for centuries, but the songs had come again. It had known they would, ever since that pulse. The rhythm of the old enemy had rippled through this world once again, in a way that it had not for a long time. Even in its deep sleep, it had felt it. And now the little ones sang, seeking to wake it so that it might once again take up its old vigil. It did not want to, it wanted to stay down here on the ocean floor and continue its long rest. But it could not. The gods had created it, given it life and purpose, and that purpose could not be ignored. It had been made to fight in the war, as had the others of its kind. But that war was long over, and it was the last of its kind left in this world. With the departure of the gods its purpose had changed to that of sentinel, and the little ones with the pointy ears now decided when it should return to that duty. If they judged it time, then rise it must.

In the capital of an empire:

Meandros Krokin shouldered his way through the crowd at one of the docks in the imperial capital, the ship he had arrived on beginning the process of unloading behind him. It would have been much faster for him to make his way here from the Lower Heartland on horseback of course, but he’d had some other places to seek out before making his final stop here. The **** of his lord and charge had hit him hard, even though it had not been the kind of **** he could have prevented. Or had it been? The official story was that Lord Luthor’s heart had given out, but Meandros found he couldn’t quite believe it, at least not that it was the whole story. He suspected the boy, how could he not. Luthor had always known that son of his was rotten. Meandros might not say much, but he listened, and he watched. He’d not been blind to how things had changed in the Andros estate in the time leading up to his old friend and lord’s ****. The house had been turning against him, taking the side of the boy. For Luthor to suddenly die, with no one present to contest the version of events that the family presented, didn’t sit right with him. There was more to it. And then all of them fled to Western Aluv, an admission of guilt if Meandros had ever seen one. They could dress it up all they liked, as a visit to family in their time of grief or whatever, but fact was that Luthor had barely been in the ground before they rode off to the north. That didn’t look much like grief to him. It had something to with the boy, something was very wrong with that kid. And so Meandros had gone to seek out old allies, old friends of his and his lord. Some meetings had gone better than others, but the most important one would take place here, in the capital. His best hope for determining the truth of his lord’s fate and, should it prove needed, to avenge him, was here.

Message from the author:

A huge thanks to everyone who was read this far, I hope I have expressed how much I appreciate that people who enjoy my silly not-so-little-anymore smut story often enough by now, but I definitely want to do so again here. It has been a real blast to write it, and seeing people not just enjoy it but actually speculate about the lore and implications of new information has been incredibly rewarding.

Act 1 took me a lot longer to finish than I anticipated, and frankly the story has grown way longer than I ever planned. I wasn’t planning acts at all when I began this thing, thinking I’d wrap it all up in 100 chapters or so. The plan for the story remains much the same, it just taking a lot longer to tell than I thought it would, and I ended up having quite a few new ideas along the way that I really wanted to implement.

We’ve finally gotten this far though, act one is done! What now? I intend to think about what exactly I want to do with act 2 and plan it out a bit more. I do know where and how I want it to end and have planned quite a few things that need to happen along the way, but it is nowhere near as tightly planned out as act 1 was yet. As such, there might be a little delay coming up. I have no clue how long it might be though. It could be anything from days to weeks. Weeks seems pretty unlikely though. As some of you know I am dealing with a long-term injury, and I sadly suffered something of a setback recently, which means I am facing another year of disability leave. One of the silver linings of that is that I will continue to have lots of time to work on the story. But now that I am facing at least another year of this, I have committed to a few things that will eat into that time a bit, so my schedule might slow down a little. Though last time I said that I started writing like I was possessed, so who knows.

Lastly, I want to again say thanks to everyone who reads my story, and especially those of you who take the time to engage with it. And I want to really urge everyone who is considering trying their own hand at writing something to give it a go. I was a bit hesitant at first, but it has been a blast. I’ve been reading stories on this site for well over two years, and there are many great ones, but none were exactly the story that I wanted. Which of course is fine, they weren’t written to be that, and they are great. But I often thought “I wish this story had X” or “I wish Y hadn’t done Z.” Writing Born to Rule has allowed me the write exactly the story I always wished existed, and that has been great. I do realize not everyone has as much free time on their hands as I do and as few ways to spend it, but if you can find the time and energy it is very rewarding. Thanks again guys, see you soon!