WILOW-Ch.418: Unexpected Visitor
Water Gardens, Dorne
POV of Domeric Bolton
That night.
When Domeric heard the knock on his door in the night, he was not surprised. After all, there was someone he anticipated and expected to come.
But he was a little surprised when he found Arianne Martell waiting outside in thin clothes that were meant to show off her assets and curves rather than to hide anything from his eyes.
He was a little bit more surprised when she pushed him inside the room and tried to latch her lips to him, but that surprise passed pretty quickly.
Thanks to his superhuman reflexes, he managed to place his hand between their lips, and he then separated her from him with a frown.
"That is enough, Princess Arianne." He said as he fought yet another of her attempts at kissing him.
She pouted at him, but when she noticed that he was not buying her 'innocent girl' act, she frowned. "Why?"
"Why what?" he asked.
"Why are you not returning any of my advances?" She asked, "Do you not… desire me?" she whispered as she slowly removed her clothes to reveal her…
'Dear Merlin, this girl was really horny.' He thought.
He quickly tried to calm himself with Occlumency. He took a deep breath, and Arianne giggled at him.
Deep breaths. In and out. In and out.
"See. I knew that I would get to you sooner or later." She said, then began removing her clothes.
But… Enough was enough.
He put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her attempts to go fully nude in front of him.
"I said that is enough, Princess Arianne." He sighed, "I'm tired of your attempts to seduce me. Please stop while I still have some respect for you."
Arianne frowned. "Do you not like women, Lord Bolton? Or is there something wrong with me?"
Reading her mind told him that the second sentence was said to generate some sympathy from him, so that he would console her that 'nothing was wrong with you' and would use that to seduce him once again.
'Merlin… this girl.'
She was like a younger, not-evil-but-not-entirely-good version of Cersei Lannister.
For a moment, he wondered what he would do if it were Cersei trying to seduce him.
In a scenario where he merely defeated the Red Cloaks sent to attack him instead of killing them, and didn't defeat Jamie in a duel, thus avoiding taking the Valyrian Sword belonging to his family.
He would have fucked her too if he were not in a relationship already. After all, Cersei was a hot woman, too.
The problem was that he was in a relationship with Ygritte, and he was not going to betray Ygritte's trust even if a Princess was trying to seduce him. Or a Queen.
"I do like women. And there is nothing wrong with you." He said, "But I love another, and I am committed to her. I'm not going to break that commitment for a one-night tryst with some other girl."
"But I'm not just some other girl… I'm the Princess Arianne Martell, heir to the Prince of Dorne." She said, her voice holding a bit of edge. "And I get what I want. Always." She finished and reached for him once again, but he caught her hand and stopped her.
"Not this time, Princess. Go try somewhere else." He said.
He could see the frustration building in her mind even as she did her best to try and hide it.
Unfortunately for her, he had enough of her advances for one night, so he took her by her hand and led her out of the room.
He was expecting someone else, and he didn't want to be caught in the room with Arianne and give the wrong impression.
She looked at him in shock and incomprehension before he shut the door in her face.
There was silence for a moment.
Then she screamed in anger and kicked his door a few times.
"I'm Princess Arianne Martell, and I always get what I want. Remember that Lord Bolton." She said, and then he heard her footsteps going away.
Didn't this girl realize that he was an Emperor, even though he allowed them to address him as Lord Bolton for the time being?
He signed and stopped using Occlumency in his mind.
When Professor Severus Snape first started teaching his Occlumency to fight the mind attacks from Voldemort, he had never thought that he would be using this mind art to defend against seduction attempts from the Princess of a medieval Kingdom.
How the heck did his life turn out like this? Merlin.
After some time had passed, he heard someone knocking on his door again. And this time, when he opened the door, he saw the person he was expecting.
Unlike Princess Arianne, Tyene or Luna's clothing was quite conservative, and she wore a black cloak that concealed much of her body and head.
"Luna, please come in," he said. He had no intention of wasting time beating around the bush.
Hearing her name after such a long time seemed to have surprised Luna a little. So, she stood at the door for a while.
Domeric waited patiently during this time, but since she didn't seem to be coming to her senses, he said, "You know that if someone sees you standing at my door, gossip will spread. The Middle Ages aren't much like the times we come from."
Then Luna hesitantly entered the room, and Domeric closed the door behind her.
"You... are you really Harry?" Luna asked.
This was a question Domeric didn't quite know how to answer. But he answered it as accurately as possible.
"Both yes and no," he said.
After his answer, he could see Luna's eyebrows furrowed behind her hood.
"What does that mean?" she asked.
"Before I came into this world, my name was Harry James Potter. The-boy-who-lived. But I'm not the Harry James Potter you know," he said.
"That's not a very clear answer," Luna said.
"I know," he said, and then, with a gesture of his hand, conjured two armchairs and sat in one, gesturing the other armchairs opposite him. "Please sit down. This conversation will take a while."
But Luna was stunned by what she saw, her eyes wide open.
"You can use magic!" Luna exclaimed, a little loudly.
"Shhh... Don't make so much noise, Luna. Never mind, it'll be better if I take precautions," Domeric said, waving his hand again and beginning to cast several spells to protect his room.
In a short time, he had secured the room in such a way that the sounds inside wouldn't be heard from outside, and those approaching would bypass it.
Then he turned to Luna and said, "Yes, I can use magic. Can't you?"
"I can, but when I use magic, it takes me years to regain the power to cast magic again. This world and this body don't seem to function as they did in our old world," Luna said, sitting in the armchair opposite Domeric.
Domeric was pleased to hear this. For a moment, he had thought Luna had completely lost her magic. At this point, he couldn't imagine what Lady Death might have done.
After all, she had sent Luna and Hermione to this world to carry his power. It wouldn't be surprising if she sent them as normal humans.
"Oh... Yes, that was a problem I encountered in the beginning as well. It seems that bodies in this world can use the magic around them instead of generating their own. And magic in this world has been in decline for a long time. That's why many places are devoid of magic, except for those with Heart Trees that can connect via magical ley lines," he explained.
"Heart Trees? Is that why I heard you filled your lands with them? Many people think you did it out of allegiance to the Old Gods," Luna said, pushing her hood back.
Domeric could see her face more clearly now.
"My goal was to be able to cast magic freely. If you were in Dreadfort or Lundenhold right now, you could cast magic all day long without problem. But I don't really need that anymore," he said.
"What do... Never mind, first I want to know what you meant by both being Harry and not being Harry," Luna said.
--------------
Author's Note: You folks can also read up to +65 chapters on my P@treon Page as an early access privilege.
You can also read "+3 Free Chapters" and see some pictures as aFree Member.
www.patreon.com/vanguard_v
P@treon Page Name: V For Vanguard
Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.419: What the Hell?
Ch.420: Message from Lady Death
Ch.421: Essence of Nightshade