Sonnet: The Cities of Steam, Brass, and Aether

Chapter Eleven

Large marble columns held the ceiling aloft above Eldrin, who was currently standing in front of an easel. A stool was laying uselessly on its side from when he had accidentally kicked it over in his haste to get a different angle on the painting.

He looked to the large, ornately decorated bed, giving a smile to the man who was currently laying across it on his stomach. His gaze slowly prowled along the man's beautifully petite, yet still plump, bare ass.

Swiping a few strokes across the canvas, he added strawberry red hair, a trait he had found himself attracted to ever since that fateful encounter. In the thousands of years he has lived, he had never before met a creature as startlingly intelligent; and yet so completely naive, oblivious of the world and innocent to the horrors produced by it.

It was one of the reasons he fell in love with her though; in fact, he probably never would have lived during that war if it hadn't been for her compassion for others. Not just other humans like her, but every living creature she encountered, be it the smallest spider or largest minotaur.

She even decided to help him, instead of delivering his royal head to the human leaders and could've ended the war. He had never witnessed her being or feeling hateful in the few short weeks he had known her.

He continued casually brushing the canvas, with soft and subtle strokes that mirrored the light of the balcony they were currently on. Highlighting the toned muscular physique that he still associated with Violet's lithe and jaguar like body; it was like the body of one who was a regular brawler, not that of somebody who is constantly lifting the heaviest muscles they can.

Eldrin closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, smelling the salty ocean air that was gliding towards him from the nearby coast.

He could hear the squawk of birds as they migrated south for the colder seasons. The shuffling of thousands of feet could be heard down below, moving about their day with work or whatever errands they had.

"Oh El, come back to bed. I'm tired of posing for you, I want to have a dessert with all of this juicy fruit." Sebastian purred from the bed, the lover who he was currently gracing his companionship with; he generally shared a bed with a new lover every few years or so.

He reached towards the large bowl of fruit resting upon the nearby nightstand: apples, grapes, peaches, plums, strawberries, and a plethora more overflowed out of the large wicker bowl.

That habit had changed a bit after meeting Violet, but nearly a decade after meeting her he finally found a new lover.

Sebastian is the six lover to grace his royal bed since the first one was brought into his chambers,

Eldrin opened his eyes and gazed at the rich, warm, brown skin of Sebastian. He hated when he was called El. Of course he really only liked being called by his full name Eldrin, or otherwise the nickname both Violet and his little sister Delilah use, Rin.

Luckily for Sebastian, Eldrin was currently captivated by the young elf's golden and almost buttery skin; like that of a warm dinner roll fresh out of the oven, or perhaps like a caramel candy drop.

His eyes traced hungrily but slowly along his body, almost like he was an intelligent wolf; who was slowly, and carefully calculating which piece of lamb to eat first.

Sebastian tossed around in the giant bed, which was large enough to comfortably fit half a dozen people. He flipped upside down, dropping his arms over the edge of the bed and allowing his strawberry blonde hair to go tumbling over the edge.

Eldrin quickly dabbed some paint upon his brush and changed the bedframe he had been painting into a tall wooden railing; although, he opted out of changing the entire scene into the tower, deciding to leave the room he saw now as the background.