Chapter Text
There were days Aleksander hated his brother. Quiet, uncharitable days of want and otherness in which his bitterness grew. He hated him for his birthright to Aleksander's fealty and service. To his body. And his seed.
The crown belonged to the oldest, and Daman was the oldest. Aleksander was, and always would be, the king's faithful subject and devoted brother.
It was Aleksander's duty to him and he had grown to hate it. Mostly because he had grown to love her.
When they were children, he loved him fiercely. His older brother was his greatest ally and closest friend. Daman protected him. Later, it was Aleksander who assumed the role of protector.
Though younger, Aleksander had always been stronger. Not only in power, also in mind. Especially after Daman had been broken. Healers could not mend what was irreparable.
Driven by guilt at his wholeness and submission to the crown, Aleksander pledged his allegiance to him. "Whatsoever you need, brother, it is yours. I swear it."
Whatsoever he needed had became too much. Something Daman could never beget. A child.
Those moments with her left him craving more. What man wouldn't desire something so beautiful and pure? So innocent and beguiling? He began to seek out her face before any other, quickening as a youth at the sight of her.
In no wise less fierce for her littleness, the Sun Summoner was chiselling through the war chief's armour, divesting herself of her own, and leaving them both exposed.
He knew it would take, however. Sooner or later. Most likely later. She would be slow to conceive as all powerful females were. His delicious agony would be drawn out.
Eventually, however, she would bear a son. He would go to her until she did. Until he had ensured the bloodline his brother could not, and then he would go to her no longer. He would never again touch her, his brother's wife.
Still, he would serve his brother. Even if he resisted the chains of fealty, hungering for those intimate orchestrations, duty bound and never enough.
Even if she looked at him as she did, pleading and lonely. Love on her lips.
He would do his duty, she would do hers and all would be well.