Editing Eternity (Warhammer High) (section)

=== Some Things Never Change ===


Freya Russ nodded to the somewhat overwhelmed-looking Governor before her.  “Well, I should hope so, Governor, but of course it isn’t my decision.”

The pasty little man sighed dramatically.  “Of course, Lady Russ, I wouldn’t wish to impose.”  He sipped at his wine as he scrambled to find a safer topic than Army tithing.  “Really, though,” he said, finally finding one, “I should thank you for being able to make it tonight at all.  The Warp in this region of space is tumultuous, some Overlords are left quite to themselves.  That a Lady Primarch herself would make it all the way out here is an exceptional honor.”

“I felt the need,” Freya said.  “Besides…I’m the active type,” she said cheerfully.  “I can’t stay still too long.”

“Freya?” a voice asked from behind her.  Freya turned from the Governor to see her husband Thangir standing behind her, a wine-filled goblet in hand.  “Here,” he said, passing it to her and setting her empty one aside.

“Thanks,” she said, turning back to the politician.  “So, Governor, if you don’t mind, I think I’d like to do some catching up do with the other guests.”  She smirked as a few familiar faces in the crowd drifted by.  “I haven’t seen some of these guys since high school.”

“Of course, your Highness, my home is yours,” the Governor said, bowing graciously.

Freya nodded and turned, to see her husband of five years making a beeline for the food.  She rolled her eyes and sipped at her drink, ambling over to a cluster of Army officers she remembered meeting on the Fang once, when a statement stopped her.

“You could still burn the dark from a blind man’s eyes, Freya.”  She raised her eyebrows in surprise as the voice registered.

She slowly turned to see a man in a rather opulent black and grey military uniform with purple trim staring at her with a knowing grin.  His broad shoulders had a narrow purple cape draped over one and a gold epaulet over the other, with a small circle of seven platinum stars on his exposed sleeve.  She wasn’t looking at his arms, much, though, because she was staring in shock at his eyes.  Eyes that she had watched from inches away for many years.

“Alex!  Alex Carlin!  I don’t believe it!” she exclaimed, smiling from ear to ear.  “I haven’t seen you in twelve years!”

“It’s been that long, hasn’t it?” Alex asked, spreading his arms wide and drawing Freya into a hug.  A few people nearby made noises of surprise.  “It’s great to see you again, Freya,” he murmured.

She moved to kiss him, but caught herself.  From the sound of his breath, so did he.  They both stepped back, smiling ruefully.  She took the opportunity to look him up and down, taking in his uniform and physique.  “Wow…you landed on your feet,” she said approvingly.  “I’m glad.”

“Me too.  And I stand by my earlier comment,” Alex said slyly.  “And…I understand you’ve since been married?”

“I have,” Freya said, showing off the sparkling diamond on her finger.  “In fact…Thangir is around somewhere,” she said, looking around.

“What is it, Freya?” he asked, stepping from the crowd.

Freya grabbed his hand and brought him over to Alex.  “Thangir, this is Lord Trader Alex Carlin.”

Thangir’s light green eyes narrowed a hair, but he shook Alex’s hand anyway.  The superhuman cords of muscle through his arms and shoulders told a tale about his augmentation by the Emperor, several years before.  Despite that, his grip was direct and un-gauging.  “Lord Carlin,” he said, nodding politely.  He had to have recognized the name.

“Alex, this is my husband, Prince Thangir,” Freya said, finishing the introduction.

To Freya’s surprise, Alex immediately smiled warmly.  “Your Highness,” he said, bowing low as he retrieved his hand.

Thangir blinked, surprised as well.  “Rise,” he said immediately.  “To what do we owe the pleasure?” he said, just to cover his reaction at the unexpected courtesy.

“I wouldn’t miss a chance to attend a gathering such as this,” Alex said, sweeping the room with one hand.  “Besides…I was close.  And I wouldn’t miss a chance to say hello to Freya again, either,” he added, grinning at his former lover.  “You look radiant.”

Freya beamed.  “Thanks.  How long will you be here?”

“All night,” Alex said.  “And the next few days.  The station’s got a few small amenity traders, and they just can’t be very efficient this far from a major forge.  Think I might linger.”

“So…you got out of the crypt and coffin business?” Freya asked meaningfully.

Alex’s reply was a solemn nod.  “And good riddance,” he said coldly.  “The dead should lie.”

Freya winced at the frigid tone in his voice.  It vanished instantly, however, as Alex smiled again.  “At least the crisis we faced…dissolved,” he said.  “I was a real mess, you recall.”

“Yeah,” Freya said wistfully.  “You were falling apart.  I felt awful that it ended the way it did.  I kept wondering if there was anything I could do, but…you know.”

Alex nodded.  “I’m sure you did.  I didn’t doubt for a moment.  And pulling through on my own was…not fun.  But at least we managed to get Mom back on her feet.”

“Did you?” Freya asked.  She nodded happily.  “Good.  She was in a bad way.  I’m really glad you’re happy again,” she said.  She ran a hand over the thick, layered Fenrisian dress shirt she was wearing.  “And…I suspect you’ve not heard the good news?”

“What new…” Alex trailed off.  Her posture, the movement of her hand over her stomach... “Freya…are you pregnant?” he asked quietly.

Freya nodded.

Alex let his eyes slide shut for a long moment, and when they opened, a tear was gathering in each.  “Congratulations,” he said, smiling at her stomach with reverence.  “You…congratulations.  Boy or girl?”

“Too early to tell,” Freya said.  She lowered her voice.  “Nobody knows outside the Family and a few obstetricians, so keep a lid on it until we do the announcement, all right?” she asked.

He nodded once, wiping his eyes.  “Good on you, Freya,” he subvocalized, so quiet even she had to strain to hear it.  Thangir couldn’t have, at that range.  “You’ll do fine.”

Her senses caught the presence of a woman approaching them, from behind Alex…who smelled a lot like he did.  Freya’s eyes widened as that train of thought reached its end.  “Alex, are you here with someone too?” she asked.

Her old flame grinned broadly.  He held his arm out to the woman as she halted at his side.  “I really can’t keep anything from you, can I?”  He gestured to the woman, who was glancing at the others with a clear question in her eyes.  “Freya, Thangir…please, meet my wife, Lady Trader Vanessa Arralim Carlin.  Vanessa,” he said, gesturing to the others.  “Lady Primarch and Blood Princess of Fenris, Freya Russ, and Prince Thangir.”

The young woman’s eyes widened at the heady title, but she bowed slightly.  “A profound honor, your Highnesses,” she said.

Thangir nodded politely, but Freya caught her sudden sense of fear and had none of it.  As Vanessa straightened up, Freya stepped forward and gripped both Carlins in a hug.  “I’m really proud of you,” she whispered in Alex’s ear as she did, offering him a wink his wife missed in her surprise.  As she stepped back, leaving her own husband astonished, the watching party-goers frozen in surprise at the breach of decorum, Alex chuckling in nostalgia, and Vanessa breathless, she grabbed both of Vanessa’s hands and pumped, smiling cheerfully.  “It’s wonderful to meet you, Lady Vanessa,” she said.

Vanessa’s eyes darted to Alex, as if looking for a grounding of reality, but all he did was roll his eyes and pat her shoulder.  “Freya, you just met her,” he said, adopting a tone of indulgence.

Freya sighed and stepped back, bowing in return at last.  “Sorry.”

“N-no problem…your Highness,” Vanessa said.

Thangir overcame his own surprise and bowed slightly as well.  The thick, deep scars on his shoulders, visible under his formal tunic and sleeveless duster, shifted as his muscles tightened.  His mess of dirty blond hair and dark blue eyes were very Fenrisian indeed, as was the elaborate tattoo over his left wrist.

Freya straightened up and skewered Alex with an inquisitive glance.  “So who do I talk to, to get details?” she asked suspiciously.

Alex chuckled.  “Either of us, I’m sure.”

Freya’s eyes lit upon Vanessa’s own, and she blinked under the Primarch’s scrutiny.  “Have a few minutes, Lady Trader?” Freya asked innocently.

Vanessa nodded slowly, following Freya over to the buffet with a look of trepidation.  Alex glanced over at Thangir with a weary smile, and for a moment both men shared the same mental wavelength.


Freya stood next to Vanessa at the end of the buffet, wondering how to phrase her question, then settling on the direct.  “Vanessa…if you don’t mind me asking,” she said coyly.  “Would you humor me with telling how you and Alex met?”

Vanessa nodded, her nerves returning a bit under the Royal gaze.  “Well, his father was an employer of mine for a while.  When Alex took over his father’s business, he shut down several branches.  My branch liquidated,” she said, putting a few pieces of fruit on her plate.  “Alex opened a new branch on Cordeline’s Wake, and I requested a transfer to his office there.  He basically rehired the whole group and transported us over there.  We met at the party to reopen the place, since he felt he had to go in person.  It was…” she smiled to herself.  “It was pretty quick.”

“He’s a passionate man,” Freya said knowingly.  “There’s a lot to love.”  She offered up a smile of her own.  “I’m really happy for you both,” she said quietly.  “Alex was falling apart at the seams when we broke up.  He needed someone to love.”

“He told me that that was one of the darkest parts of his life…but…” Vanessa trailed off, glancing back at where her husband was effortlessly schmoozing up some local nobility.  “He never told me the woman he left behind was a Lady Primarch.”

“I specifically asked him not to, at least at first,” Freya said, surprising Vanessa.  “He was afraid that if he did, he would wind up turning every relationship he ever entered into a competition, whether it was fair to do so or not.”  She flashed a fang-filled grin at Vanessa.  The shorter woman blinked, somewhat unnerved.  “Alex was surprised, but he went along with it.  Ask him about ‘The Road Trip’ now that the metaphorical cat is out of the bag.”

“The…road trip?” Vanessa asked, confused.

“He’ll know what it means,” Freya giggled.

“Very well…” Vanessa said.  The two of them wended their way over to where the drinks were arrayed, and Freya passed up a third wine for a glass of ice water.  “May I ask you something as well?”

Freya shrugged.  “Of course.”

“How…how long, exactly, were you two together?  And how close were you?”

Freya looked her over, and now there actually was a sense of judgment in her gaze that did Vanessa’s courage no favors.  “We met at fourteen.  We were dating by fifteen, and shared a bed from then until twenty two.”  Her frankness was a piece of bait, placed before Vanessa as much to see how she reacted as to answer her question.

Vanessa looked away.  “I see.”

“You sound as if you expected a different answer,” Freya said.

“I did.  I wasn’t expecting such…detail.”  Vanessa looked down into her wine, trying not to say anything else.

The Space Wolf princess sensed her bait being taken.  She softened her tone as the sense she had been searching for appeared.  “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable, Vanessa, but do take it in perspective,” Freya said quietly.  “Alex was utterly demolished when we parted ways, thanks to his father’s death and mother’s illness.  I can see how much he matters to you,” she said.  “And you clearly matter to him.  I can sense that kind of thing.”  She glanced at Alex again.  “Ask him about that, too.”

Alex himself was leaning back against the wall by now, chatting with a few low-tier local politicos.  The deliberately casual air he projected was something he had learned to cultivate; very few things helped slice through a politician’s fragile ego like the sense that he was being outmaneuvered, and he wanted to avoid that.

As he spoke, he saw his wife being gently interrogated by Freya, and he had to grin to himself.  Time, it seemed, changes little.

Thangir walked up behind the politicians to whom he had been speaking, and waited behind them like a thundercloud until Alex met his eyes.  “May we speak for a moment, Lord Trader?” he asked.

Alex levered off of the wall and nodded.  “Certainly.”

The politicians evaporated under Thangir’s presence, until the two men were alone.  “Lord Carlin, I do not know exactly what transpired between you and Freya.  Would you be willing to tell me?” he asked.

Alex shook his head.  “No.  There’s no need, anyway,” he added.  “Freya’s telling Vanessa right now.”

Thangir looked over to where Freya and Vanessa were still in discussion.  “You can hear at that distance?” Thangir asked.

“No, but you can,” Alex pointed out.  Thangir’s eyes shot back to where Alex was standing, calm and unassuming.  An entire volume of conversation occurred between them before Thangir finally relented, his posture easing somewhat.

“Forgive my rudeness, then,” he murmured.  “I suppose that answers my question…if she was willing to share that much.”

“We kept no secrets, your Highness,” Alex said.  “She was all that kept me sane during my darkest day.”  He took a step forward, into the gene-modded warrior’s reach, but not assuming even the vaguest stance of attack.  “Do not interrogate me, Prince Thangir,” he said softly.

Thangir looked down at him, completely expressionless.  After nearly ten full seconds of silence, Thangir nodded, stepping back.  “Very well.”

As the party wound down, Freya paused at the threshold of the ballroom on the space station, her hand held up for a moment’s pause.  Alex, standing nearby in anticipation, walked up to her and immediately adopted a waiting pose.  Freya smiled to herself, her planned speech melting away.  “Alex…it really has been too long.  Send me a message the next time you’re near Terra.  I mean it.”

Alex smiled back, and even under Thangir’s and Vanessa’s eyes, he looked for a moment like he was going to go in for another hug.  He restrained himself, however, and simply bowed slightly.  “I agree.  And…if you see the others…”

“I will, count on it.”  Freya suddenly pawed at one pocket.  “Oooh, wait, hang on,” she said.  She produced a small holo card reader and flipped through some images until she arrived at one specific picture.  “Have you seen this?” she asked, showing it to Alex.

Alex took the card reader, and his clean-shaven face split in a grin.  “Wow…”

“I know!”  Freya leaned over the picture of N’bel, Jake’s and Venus’ five-year-old son, sitting on his father’s knee and beaming at the camera.

“Guess I don’t need to ask how they’re doing,” Alex said.  He shook his head as he handed the reader back to Freya.  “You’re right.  I should drop in on them.  See how the old crowd is doing.”

Freya nodded eagerly, her face flush with the same vigorous optimism that had drawn them together so many years before.  “We’d all love that.”

Vanessa stepped up to Alex’s side, oblivious to the exchange.  “It was a true honor meeting you both, your Highnesses,” she said.

Alex retrieved the reader from Freya and passed it to his wife.  “Here, look at this.”

Vanessa looked over the picture.  “Lady Primarch Venus?” she asked.

“Yeah, and Jake and their son.”  Alex shook his head.  “Man.  I’ll never remember to add the Prince in front, you know?  All I can think of when I think of him is the thing on Nocturne.”

Freya sighed.  “Really?”

“No, I remember you and him kicking my shit in at poker and darts every night all summer, too,” Alex admitted.  “But that’s not as heroic as what I did in the bar,” he sniffed.

Freya laughed.  “Never change, Alex.”

“Don’t plan on it.”  Alex passed the card back and bowed to Thangir.  “Nice meeting you, Prince Thangir.  An honor indeed.”

To his mild surprise, Thangir smiled and extended a hand.  Alex took it and shook.  “You as well, Lord Trader Carlin.”


As they parted ways, Thangir and Freya retired to their vessel, docked on the void platform.  As Freya prepared for sleep, Thangir reclined in the lavish bed, which was by far the most opulent thing in the room, decorated with mammoth furs and padding so thick it could have served as a crash cushion.  Then, on a ship, that could be a wise investment.  As Thangir did so, he thought over the evening’s revelation.  What did Alex mean to her, even after all this time?

Freya slid into bed beside him, and as had become a custom with him, he immediately rolled onto one side to run a broad hand over her flat stomach.  Their son – he would accept no other outcome, in his mind – was still only the size of a blueberry, but it was the thought that counted.  “An interesting evening,” he said quietly, admiring the way her ample curves folded seamlessly into the rock-solid muscle of her stomach and arms.  Even her coming pregnancy hadn’t diminished her pure, animal beauty.

She lay on her side and faced him, though the obstetricians had told her that wouldn’t make a difference for several months.  “It was.”  Her shining green eyes met his and she smiled, content.  “I missed Alex.  He was a great friend.”

“I understand he was far more than that,” Thangir said, somewhat harshly.  But then, his loyalty to Freya had been absolute from the moment she had revealed her true lineage to him, and to learn of her past intimacy felt almost like a declaration of rivalry.

Freya sensed his concern and headed it off.  “He was.  But you know me well, my warrior…would I settle for a man I couldn’t like as a person, as well as being a man?”

“No,” Thangir admitted.  “You would never do that.”

She settled down on the thick pillows and pulled the sheets up to her chin.  “Ask me about him.  I don’t want you to dislike him, or think of him as a foe.”

Thangir went quiet as he thought.  “…Did he ever make you cry?” he asked.

Freya hesitated.  “Only when he left me to care for his dying mother and crippled family business.”

“Did he ever make you wish you didn’t know him?”

“Never.  Not once,” she insisted.

“Did he honor you and remain trustworthy to your hand?” Thangir asked.

Freya nodded, remembering the extent of their confidentiality.  “Always.”

Thangir propped himself up on one elbow.  “Did he look down on your friends of lesser station, and treat them as inferior humans?”

Freya shook her head from the pillow.  “Not that I remember.”

Thangir’s eyes narrowed.  “Did he have a sense of honor?”

The red-haired princess thought back to the maiming Jake had received in the bar on Nocturne.  Alex’s first act had been to sprint to Jake’s side and staunch the bleeding.  Later, he had dismantled his father’s empire of graverobbers even though it cost him billions of credits.  “Unquestionably.”

“Did he respect Father Russ and All Father?” Thangir asked pointedly.

“Deeply.  They didn’t always get along, but he was always respectful,” Freya said.

“Did he make you laugh?”

“All the time,” Freya said.  “Half the Gothic jokes you’ve learned from me came from him,” she added happily.

Thangir nodded.  “Did he please you, satisfy your needs?”

Freya hid a smile.  Before her husband had been upgraded, Alex had been her finest partner in that sense.  “Consistently,” she said instead.

“And did he ever, even once, tell you that he preferred another lass?” Thangir asked bluntly, coming to his point.

“No.”  Freya was adamant.  “He always kept his trust, and I loved him for it.”

“Did he love you back?” Thangir asked.

“He did.”

Freya felt the faintest sense of something warm brush her lips as he leaned over for a kiss.  “Then he is a friend, not a foe.  For…he would do only what I would do,” Thangir said.  He settled back down on the bed and hugged Freya to his chest for a moment, imparting the sense of reassurance that he knew she loved.  She had always been a tactile woman.  “I love you, Freya.  If he did too…I can hardly blame him.”

“My thanks, Thangir,” Freya said softly, feeling her tension fade.  “The happiness in his eyes when he figured out I bear your child…he could not fake that.  When he left me…all he wanted was for both of us to find happiness again.  He found it in Vanessa.  I found it in you, and I am grateful for that.”

Thangir ran his lips over her neck, baring his fangs at the end.  The first time she had felt that, it had startled her, but she had realized it was his new lupine instincts coming to the fore after his upgrade: to place one’s fangs on another’s body and resist the urge to bite was to demonstrate profound trust, and ask for the same.  She returned the gesture with a loving nuzzle of his shoulder, and snuggled down under her furs to sleep.  “Good night, Thangir,” she whispered.  One of the criterion to which she had held him during his abbreviated courtship in the Fang’s many camps had been that she had to feel as safe as she could when she was with him.  As he draped one thick arm over her and held her close, letting her smell and hear him with such unbridled intimacy, she reflected that in that way, Thangir and Alex truly were akin to one another.

Aboard the Corundum Star, docked elsewhere on the station, Alex Carlin went through a similar motion with his own wife.  As he sat on the chair at the bedside, reading a slate, Vanessa perched on the bed and brought up the elephant in the room.  “Lady Freya was pretty…direct,” she said.

“Sure was.”  Alex chuckled.  “Some things never change.”

Vanessa shook her head.  “You met her as a child?”

“Fourteen, fifteen.  Something like that,” Alex said.  He looked up at her.  “She was on the wrestling team at school.  Undefeated, as you can imagine.”

She met his gaze.  “She was pretty open about how intimate you two were.  It surprised me,” she admitted.

“Yeah.  Well, she’s like that,” Alex said.  “Are you surprised by the fact we got intimate, or the fact she told you?” he asked.

“I guess both.  I don’t know, we were always presented with the idea that the Royal Daughters were supposed to be ideals, incorruptible, beyond basic needs.  You know?” Vanessa hedged.

Alex shrugged.  “They weren’t.  Did it make you uncomfortable?"

“I guess it did,” Vanessa said.  She sighed.  “I just didn’t expect a Lady Primarch to be using such brusque language, or to hug us like that.”

“She’s an emotional girl,” Alex said.  “I’m sorry she made you uncomfortable, though.”

Vanessa fidgeted.  “You know, she told me that she told you not to reveal to me that she was your ex.  She said she didn’t want it turn it into a competition.”

“Yeah, that happened.  Do you think she was wrong?”

“No, and I would have asked you if it was true either way,” Vanessa said.  She pushed her hair back over her shoulder and lay down, looking sideways at him from the bed.  “Do you miss her?”

Alex looked up at her from his slate.  “As a friend?”

“In any aspect,” Vanessa said.

“Sure.  All the time.  She and her cousins were very close friends of mine,” Alex said unapologetically.  “As a partner?  Not really.  By the end of our relationship, we could both tell how it was going to end.”

Vanessa looked up at the overhead lights.  “All right.”

“Baby, I’m not gonna lie to you.  But this isn’t going to be a turning point between me and her,” Alex said.  “I’m not about to go running back to her.  She loves Thangir, deeply.  Couldn’t you see she was pregnant?” he asked.

Vanessa jerked her head back to stare at her husband.  “Pregnant?  Her?  She was?”

“Yeah.  Bun in the oven,” Alex said with a half-smile.  “She’s content with what she has, and so am I.  We shouldn’t have completely failed to keep in touch, but all we’re ever going to be from here on out is friends.”

“Oh.”  Vanessa thought over that for a moment.  “You know…I think she was right.”

“How’s that?” Alex asked.

“I think I would interpret this as a competition, if I had known,” Vanessa said.

Alex switched his slate off and set it down on the chair, rising to sit next to Vanessa on the bed.  He slid his fingers through hers and gently squeezed, looking down into her eyes.  “Well…don’t.  Okay?  If it were a race, she would have lost twelve years ago, when we were only staying together so I could have a place to live for long enough to finish my degree, before I could go bury my father.  I don’t regret you at all.  You shouldn’t either.”

Vanessa smiled at last.  “All right.”  Alex flicked the lights off and slid down next to her in the bed.

“You know what you need?” Alex asked softly.

“What?”

“You need a vacation.  Somewhere tropical.”

Vanessa shrugged.  “Sounds fun.  Have a place in mind?” she asked.

Alex grinned in the darkness.  “I might.”