Hermine And Vorhoff

Fantastic image and a remarkable story. I am hooked.

Ooh... that took some strength indeed. Did Vorhoff turn out a good king?

lovely Q!

Terrific!

We know who’s boss in that relationship .. wow he really felt it hard handing over his crown and sceptre to that young man .. 😌

With trembling hands, and a mouth shut tight to hide his clenched teeth, Letheos gave Vorhoff the royal sceptre. The fanfare began, and with a level of restraint that should frankly inspire us all, he took the crown off his own head and placed it on the boy.

Hermine took her husband's hand and raised it high into the air. "Prepare the banquet hall, Atroksia!" she called to her maid, a very tall screech owl. "Tonight, we feast!"

She must have noticed the look on Letheos's face. "You will come to the feast," she said. "Won't you, Father?"

He supposed he had no choice, though she spoke ever-so-politely. "Of course, my daughter," he said. "Of course."

"Father," she said, "my sweet and loving father, who cared for me when no one else would, I only pray that I sit my throne with a quarter of the dedication you took to put me upon it. But surely you know, as it is written in law: as my husband, Vorhoff is now entitled to sit the throne next to mine."

"You are the Queen," said Letheos, in a tone of burbling fury. "Can you not change the law?"

"You speak as if changing the law is as simple a matter as changing one's shoes," replied Hermine. She felt overwhelmed, and quite possibly sorrowful, but she spoke firmly. "You have been a King of the utmost grace. I pray that my dear Vorhoff will learn well from your story, and be as much an inspiration as you." She did not speak the next words, which were "this is the part where you hand your crown and sceptre over to a man a third of your age."

Using every muscle in his body to push back his anger, Letheos walked the length of the room, sceptre in hand, and all the people and animals on Hermine's council watched him with uneasy eyes. Orline Undertongue, owner of the Heartlands LSD factory, later admitted that she inspected the King carefully for bulges in his clothes, thinking he may have hidden a dagger with which to cut his son-in-law's throat rather than shaking his hand. "She would have had him killed, of course," Orline said, "but he would have died a king, and that was all he wanted."

But to everyone's surprise, Letheos gave Vorhoff a firm handshake "whose bounce echoed all about the room," wrote royal scribe Fitzroy Genty. He blessed the boy in the name of Dorcha (the goddess of black), Bainne (the goddess of white), and Rua (the goddess of red). He even went so far as to kiss his hand.

Perhaps this gave Hermine the notion that her father did not understand.

"O Father," she said, walking into the throneroom in her great red wedding gown, "O King of Hearts, come and meet the lord my heart has chosen for me."

Letheos leaned his head against the palmette of his throne, curling his fist around the arm stump. He had borne no objection to Vorhoff when he first appeared; it had seemed experimental, or at worst, the passion of two foolish young people. Now, a mere six months after the beginning of their courtship, here they were, lord and lady.