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The Emperor had fidgeted, wringing his hands in the silence that followed. He stared near the floor, as if to find the answer to an unsolvable question there. Salas, in the short time that he had known the man, had never seen him so unsure of himself.

A sigh, long and aged. “I’ve lied to you,” said Eldron. “It’s part of the curse I’ve placed on the damn North. I received that curse as a boon from a jinx when I traveled to the Faelands to find one…That single wish was not the only one I received.”

Jovack blinked incredulously, perhaps unbelieving of the information being passed to his own ears, even if it came directly from the Emperor. Everyone knew how Eldron had used a magical wish to curse the northern kingdom. They had not known about the additional wishes. “What you mean to say is, you had other wishes?” the statesman clarified. He blinked once more, his eyes slicing over to Salas. “And you asked the jinx for the perfect palace bed bird?” When Eldron did not deny the claim, the man barked out a laugh and soon, Eldron was joining in, the men nearly bent over in their amusement.

“I knew you were one to think with your cock, old man, but to waste a fae’s greatest gift on a whore is a bit much!” Jovack went on.

Eldron filled two goblets with wine, chortling. Knowing that neither cup was for him, Salas rolled his eyes at the foolishness and decided his painting needed more detail. His ears were perked as he created brown clouds on his canvas.

“Then you are naive to the pleasures of life, friend,” said Eldron, “for what greater entertainment than sexual pleasure? Besides, Salas has his...assets.”

Jovack’s amusement was thick in his voice. “The color of his cock should pinken to the hue of his hair when he’s aroused, or I would return him to the jinx. For he can’t paint to save his life, if that’s the asset you’re alluding to.”

Salas’ hand stilled in front of the canvas.

“His cock does what it’s supposed to,” the Emperor said dryly. “He doesn’t age.”

“Doesn’t age?!” Another pause. “Hmm. Yes, I can see why that would be appealing: a bird maintaining their youth through time. He looks young, say nineteen, twenty? The prime.”

“Yes, yes, it is why I have to keep him locked up here before I decide what to do. When he still appears twenty years of age in thirty years, how am I to explain?”

“Thirty years!” The Emperor’s friend roared with laughter once more. “You think you’ll last to the age of 90! Now that’s ambitious of you, though ambition is one of your strong suits.”

“Of course I will. And by that time, I’ll have to share the secret behind my little bird.”

“You don’t wish to share this now? I mean, it certainly is something to be boastful about. To be honored by a jinx is nothing but praiseworthy.”

“I do not trust the greed in others. I don’t want some foreign dignitary to attempt to swipe him from me. This is especially so when I show you what else he can do. Salas, come here.”

Salas looked over his shoulder to find both men staring at him with a certain gaze he had come to recognize immediately, though did not know enough of the language that he could put a name to it.

Jovack had been grinning, stepping forward. “I knew I was here to help break him in.”

The Emperor pulled away the wrappings of Salas’ skirt.

Afterward, Jovack’s heavy, short breaths were wrapped in absolute bliss as he clung to Salas’ torso, unwilling to let the bird fly off. They were laying on Salas’ crumpled bed, naked and wound in linens and sweat.

“What…” Jovack's lungs did not appear to have capacity for speech. “What is this? Have you drugged me? Where does this...this pleasure come from? I’ve never felt anything like it.”

The Emperor had still been in the room throughout the encounter, acting as voyeur. “Ah, and that is why I would have failed to explain, as the only way to truly understand would be to experience it. The pleasure one experiences by using Salas is...incomparable to laying with anyone else. A heightened pleasure that does not exist elsewhere. I’ve gone as far as nine times with him in one evening and my cock never softened.”

The statesman laughed, pulling Salas towards him and planting a sluggish kiss on his temple and stilling him with graceless hands when Salas tried to sit up to cleanse himself. “It is a blessing and a curse. Another one of his assets given by the jinx?”

“Yes.”

Finally, when Salas was able to rise without being captured up again, he made his way to a side table where cool water pitchers and cleansing cloths were waiting for him. He let the other men continue their conversation without him.

Later, when Jovack had made his leave and Eldron lingered, Salas had voiced a pestering concern that had sat with him ever since he’d been taken to bed. He felt uneasy about what he’d just done, and he wanted to know why.

Eldron had calmly explained that sexual intimacy was nothing to be ashamed about, and the feeling was something he would grow out of. Soon, he would know how to explore another’s body, as well as master his own ‘needs,’ and it would no longer be intimidating.

Salas, at the time, decided to take his word for it. Despite the odd weight of guilt and wrongness he felt after these sexual encounters. It was an easy chore to ignore it, so he did.

Emperor Eldron had been correct in expecting that Salas’ presence would raise questions amongst the court. Salas was kept in his quarters near the gardens for five years, unable to explore the world he desperately wished to see, as he was locked inside. He watched the world move from the viewpoint of the garden window and wondered if enough time should pass, he would turn into one of the stone statues he’d witnessed upon entering the palace for the first time, staring blankly with a marble gaze and undisturbed by the passing of time. Would Eldron carry him out of the room, and prop him up in the Great Hall?

Salas had asked about the statues once, upon one of the man’s nightly visits. “Were the statues once people?”

The Emperor had sighed. “And just when I thought we were making progress, you prove yourself witless.”