Harvis

Adapted from Chronicles of VASH, 8c7d, Page 5218

In Suritania there was a young, handsome green nobleman named Harvis. He was renowned for his sexual conquests, counting many a nobleman's daughter among them. All were surprised when he decided, at nineteen years of age, to marry, and surprised again that his chosen wife was not noble, but an artisan's daughter.

Her name was Ellae, and Harvis had chosen her carefully, for she was meek and submissive by nature, willing to do anything for her handsome husband. Harvis, it seems, had plans...

It is well known by all the world that the God-King VASH helps the infertile. She accepts only one in five women who come to her, but after remaining with her for one to as many as five weeks, they return home almost glowing with sexual energy and quickly conceive. During a woman's time with VASH she is required to wear an all-covering robe and perform menial tasks; at the end of her stay, she submits to a secret ceremony with the God-King and then leaves immediately.

It is also well known that VASH regularly entertains human lovers; for as little as a day or as long as a week, her chosen man remains in her fortress. As time permits she has relations him, usually no more than an hour at a time, for mortal men can rarely handle so much.

This was Harvis' goal: to have VASH, the God-King, as he had so many human women. When an infertile couple comes before VASH it is not uncommon for her to select the husband as her lover at the same time that she accepts the wife as an applicant. The wife must understand this, and as VASH never keeps a man longer than a week, jealousy is a waste of time anyway.

Harvis told Ellae that, since the children born after VASH's ceremony are superior in health and beauty, that they would seek her assistance. For this to work, Harvis did not have relations with his wife for a year, but instructed her to claim before VASH that they had been trying. If Ellae suspected her husband's true goal, she never said so.

When the pair were taken before VASH, Harvis was stunned. She floated into the room, with her four arms outflung and her green metallic skin gleaming, and Harvis for a moment considered fleeing. That would have shown weakness, though, and Harvis feared that more than the God-King, so he remained.

Her only garment was a strip of black cloth, a hand wide, fastened around her left ankle with a large gold clasp. It wound from there around and up her leg, covering her privates in two passes and then winding around behind, between her upper and lower right arms, across her breasts and between her left arms, then over her shoulder and around her right arm, ending at another gold clasp at her right wrist.

Harvis finally found himself looking at VASH's face, framed with her mane of black hair. She had an impish smile on her face, but in her eyes Harvis saw an alien strangeness which made him shiver.

Without speaking, VASH approached Ellae and kissed her on the mouth. A long moment passed. "You are accepted," she said, her voice at once beautiful, warm, and strange. Then she moved to Harvis, grinning as she saw his knees shake, and kissed him. "You will stay with me."

VASH turned and left. Quickly two women in robes approached Ellae, leading her to a changing room to put on the robe. A silver-skinned automaton came and led Harvis to an astoundingly large bedroom. He was instructed to bathe, and left to his own devices.

Later VASH came to him. Harvis was young and strong, but he was barely equal to the task at hand. Afterward, as he lay there exhausted, VASH said to him, "Why did you come here?"

"We could not conceive, as we told your attendants."

"This is not true. I tasted your wife, and now I have known you, and there is no reason you could not have children."

Harvis sputtered, but could not think of anything to say.

"You have used me."

When Harvis woke up he was hanging from chains by his wrists, in a large and well-lit dungeon. Looking around, he saw Ellae to his right, restrained the same way. In a few moments, VASH entered through a large archway, accompanied by an automaton.

"You have both lied to me, and you, Harvis, have used me. It is time for your punishment." VASH took a black rod from the automaton, touching each of the prisoners with it. In a flash of golden light, Harvis and Ellae exchanged bodies.

VASH then kissed the woman who was now Harvis, and at that moment the woman's body became orange. "This is your punishment," said VASH as she snapped an ornate slave collar around the woman's neck. "From now on, your name is Raffa," which means "ashes", "and you shall be installed in a harlotry in Kyris. You have used women as toys, so your fate is to be used as a toy by other men."

Next VASH moved to the man. "Your name is now Ellis. Your punishment will be less harsh: I have deprived you of your husband, and made of you a man. It will be some time before you become accustomed to your new life. If you return to your homeland, remember that you are Harvis to them; I doubt you can behave as he did. Merchants and traders of all lands come here, and I advise you to hire on with one of them as a common laborer."

At that, VASH left the room. The automaton freed them from their bonds, and forcibly escorted Raffa to the nearby port to deliver her to the slaver whom VASH had chosen. Ellis found his own way outside, and was never heard from again.

This is why a person with dangerous ambitions is said to have "too much Harvis" in him, while one who is too timid and follows bad leadership is said to be "like the wife of Harvis" or simply called "Ellis." No one names their children Harvis anymore, though it was once a common name in Suritania.