Beryll & Osiris Brackhaus have a new queer sci-fantasy romance out (gay, bi, poly): In Love and War – The First Lotus Knights.

It is the year 1985 ET. House Virasana has fallen, the Lotus Throne stands empty, and a bitter succession war has every noble House at arms. To make things worse, House Tô-Genji and House Medina are locked in a vicious feud over a flood of cheap illicit drugs tearing their worlds apart.

Prince Li Lan Tô-Genji is as far from the fighting as one can be. Third son of the Duke of Qufu, Li Lan is the family scholar – kept behind palace walls to preserve tradition, etiquette, and history. Brilliant, restless, and quietly furious at a life chosen for him, he steals what little freedom he can.

Sir Wilhelm Grebenstein arrives with a delegation seeking the Duke’s support for the Grebenstein claimant to the Lotus Throne. An expert swordfighter and genuine hero, he is not much taken with the dirty business of politics, but rather with the brilliant and resourceful third son of the Duke…

Then, Sir Saïd, a dashing Medina knight, is taken prisoner and exhibited in the castle of Li Lan’s father, awaiting an uncertain fate. Yet Li Lan finds him to be an honourable, passionate warrior and both of them are deeply intrigued by each other.

Saving Saïd would be treason. Leaving him would be complicity. Forced into an impossible choice, Li Lan and Wilhelm help Saïd escape – the three flee together, lighting a fuse that will reshape the Virasana Empire. Hunted across a realm in upheaval, they’ll have to fight for their lives, for their love and the reckless hope of an Empire actually worth fighting for.

A swashbuckling queer throuple romance set in the beloved Virasana Empire universe, this standalone space-opera adventure by award-winning authors Beryll and Osiris Brackhaus blends passion, peril, hope, and humour with just the right amount of heat.

Universal Buy Link

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Excerpt

Wilhelm had his sword pulled and at the intruder’s throat in a heartbeat and before he was even half awake. Of that at least, his father would have been proud.

“Thank God,” Li Lan’s voice said. The prince was sitting at the edge of his bed, looking prim and composed and beautiful, completely ignoring the sword at his throat. “You really should be more alert to intruders in your bedchamber. Any assassin could have killed you in your sleep.”

“What are you doing here?!” Wilhelm’s words came out a weird mix, between a shout and a whisper, and at the same moment, he registered the cool draft against his chest. He dropped his sword like a hot potato and pulled up his blanket instead. Thank God he wasn’t sleeping completely naked like he did on board the Havelland, but had instead kept on his long underpants. It still left him so inappropriately exposed that he was struggling to string together a coherent thought. At least Li Lan appeared to be fully robed, as far as he could tell in the dim light coming in through the window and from beneath the door. Also, the prince didn’t seem overly concerned by Wilhelm’s barely dressed state, which made it more disturbing, considering how self-conscious the Tô-Genji were concerning their modesty.

“I am about to do something very stupid. And … I have come to ask for your help,” Li Lan said, explaining nothing.

Oh, thank God. So this wasn’t some sort of romantic visit after all. And where had that ridiculous thought come from? Li Lan wasn’t an Almaviva princess. Of course he had a reason of grave importance to be here.

“What…?” He started to ask, but stopped himself. He took a moment to take a deep breath and arrange his blanket a little more securely around his chest, trying to force his sleep-addled mind into action. “What are you talking about? What kind of stupid are we talking about?”

Li Lan had a sharp tongue and wit, but so far, he hadn’t struck him as the adventurous type. However, right now, he sounded very much like a young hero, embarking on a valiant but foolhardy quest.

“I will set the Medina prisoner free and try to flee the fortress with him.”

He heard the words, but he had to run them through his mind a couple of times to make sure they were really what Li Lan had said. This was so much worse than anything he could have imagined. The obvious question was ‘Why?’, but before he could ask, Li Lan continued speaking.

“We could try to steal horses and escape into the countryside, but there is no one who would help us and nowhere we could hide, so we would surely be caught sooner or later. We have no way of getting off-planet as neither of us can fly a spaceship. But you can.”

With his mind desperately trying to scramble after Li Lan’s words, it took him several seconds to understand the implication.

“You are asking me to help you?” That was what Li Lan had started with. The enormity crashed down on him like a ton of bricks. This wasn’t a simple, honourable quest to slay a dragon. Helping Li Lan would mean betraying the trust of his father, betraying his House, Li Lan’s House, jeopardising the negotiations of House Grebenstein with House Tô-Genji, sacrificing any future he had.

Looking at Li Lan, he found the graveness of the situation reflected in the other’s face. His words weren’t lightly spoken, and he was only too aware of how much he was asking.

Li Lan lowered his gaze to his hands, which were holding on tightly to the hem of his sleeves. “I am sorry I have to ask this of you, but there is no one else I can ask. I have no other friends.”

His words pierced Wilhelm’s heart as true as a well-aimed arrow. How terrible to be among your own and still utterly alone. “But why? Why do you need to do this?”

“Because my father is a monster more cruel than even I expected. I had hoped he would exchange the Medina for prisoners of our House, or grant him a quick execution. But my father wants to have him tortured to death. He has ordered me to find a justification within our traditions that would allow him to do so, when there is none.” Li Lan was keeping his voice low, but it was roiling with deeply held rage.

Not pain, not suffering. Rage. Primal, incandescent rage, raw and true, utterly unbefitting of a Tô-Genji and yet, so very Li Lan. “It is wrong. I will not do this. I have done so many things I knew were wrong, telling myself I had no other choice, going along with what everyone else was doing. But this? This I won’t do. I must draw a line. I would rather die than become something I will have to hate.”

He was trying to do the right thing. Of the reasons Li Lan had listed, this one was utterly relatable. He was a noble knight of House Grebenstein, after all. The importance of honour and justice had been drummed into his head from the moment he had learned to walk.

But was this a just cause? One worth risking everything for?

“How do you know that Medina doesn’t deserve the death your father decreed?”

“Because we are at war and he is fighting for his House, the same way my brother fights for ours. Because he is funny and kind. Why else would he speak to me as an equal, more so than any of my own family, when by all rights he should have nothing but contempt for an enemy who puts him on display in a cage like a rabid animal?”

“Beg your pardon? You spoke to him?”

Li Lan had the good graces to look flustered. “Yes? Someone had to bring him food that first night. Hospitality demanded it. And … apart from you, he is the only interesting thing that has happened here in years.”

Wilhelm couldn’t help a little chuckle. This sounded much more like the Li Lan he had come to know and like during his stay on Qufu. Not gravely serious, or roiling with barely suppressed rage, but slightly indecent and quietly rebellious.

Encouraged, Li Lan continued. “He laughed at my jokes. Like you do. How can I help my father arrange such a gruesome death for Saïd when we could be friends?”

So this was a just cause.

Which left only one possible answer to Li Lan’s plea, but it took him a second to say the words.

“I will help you.”

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Author Bio

Beryll and Osiris Brackhaus are a couple currently living their happily ever after in the very heart of Germany, under the stern but loving surveillance of their three black cats. Both of them are voracious but picky readers, love telling stories and drinking tea, good food and the occasional violent movie. Together, they write novels of adventure and romance, hoping to share a little of their happiness with their readers.

An artist at heart, Beryll was writing stories even before she knew what letters were. As easily inspired as she is frustrated, her own work is never good enough (in her eyes). A perfectionist both in the best and worst sense of the word and the driving creative force of their duo.

An entertainer and craftsman in his approach to writing, Osiris is the down-to-earth, practical part of the duo. Broadly interested in almost every subject and skill, with a sunny mood and caring personality, he strives to bring the human nature into focus of each of their stories.

Author Website: https://www.brackhaus.com

Character Interview: “Prince Li Lan – Serpent or Saviour?”

Let us begin with the question everyone seems to be asking: are you the saviour of House Tô-Genji, or the serpent that destroyed it? 

I am nothing but a humble scholar, and anyone assuming me to be consequential enough to be either flatters me. *He bashfully hides his face behind his fan for a second.* But this raises an interesting point, I think. Because House Tô-Genji is no longer. Yet its people still live, with their powers and prosperity intact. So — was my House destroyed, or was it saved? 

Answered as a traditional third son of the Duke of Qufu — raised to be a scholar, keeper of tradition, and, by many accounts, a decoration. Is that fair? 

All of us are put into a position in life over which we have no influence. Fairness has nothing to do with it. It is in the way we respect our given position and help others to prosper in theirs that we uphold the pillars of heaven. Hindering others in reaching their potential, or causing suffering where one’s position would allow one to prevent it, would be without honour. And those who abandon honour should not be surprised when the pillars they leaned upon are removed. 

Is that how you personally see the fabled honour of House Tô-Genji? 

I have seen many personal interpretations of ‘honour’ on my travels. Each one different, each one important to its owner. So this is not merely my view of my House’s honour, but my sentiment toward honour as a whole: if one has values, and strives to uphold them even in adversity, then I will call that honourable.

People often describe you as graceful, courteous, even delicate. Do you think they underestimated you? 

How sweet of them. Were these the same people who wondered whether I was saviour or serpent? What an awful lot of opinions about a humble scholar they have never met. 

They are the people who also accuse you of manipulating the recent events from the shadows. Is that accusation unfair? 

All politics is manipulation, some more overt than others. I fail to see an accusation in there. Envy, perhaps, but no accusation. 

Politics is a remarkably unusual occupation for a third son such as you. But you did meet Sir Wilhelm Grebenstein when he visited your home as part of a diplomatic delegation. What was your first impression of him? 

I found him startlingly taller than our people. And blonder. Shirtless far more often than propriety could possibly justify. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and dangerously so. At first, I thought he was a mere barbarian, thoughtless and brash. But then I learned that he genuinely believed in the values he was fighting for. That he had travelled the Empire, and found something to enjoy and respect on every planet. That he was the most honourable and genuinely heroic person I had ever met. 

And your first impression of Sir Saïd Medina? 

*laughs into his fan* Filthy, quite literally. Caged like an animal. Feral and strong and much more dangerous than anyone in my family understood. A human being, for good and ill, with a history and a heart and hopes and fears. That others merely saw a trophy in him, or a problem, or an opportunity to showcase their immeasurable cruelty … I learned a lot from him.

Sir Saïd called you a “devious, brilliant little monster.” Do you object to that description? 

Did he now? How could I ever publicly object to anything my husband said? *smiles coyly into his fan* I might have to inform him, though, that I take some umbrage at the adjective ‘little’, in this particular case. 

Looking back at your grand adventure — would you choose treason again? 

*looks at the interviewer with mild annoyance* I would never betray an honourable person; nor have I ever done so. House Tô-Genji did not survive me. That much is true. But its people did — with their dignity, their prosperity, and their future intact. If some prefer a dead House with an untarnished name to living people under a new one, I can only hope they are never entrusted with anyone’s survival.
As a final point, so there can be no misunderstanding: should anyone ever consider harming my husbands, I invite them to study recent history very carefully. Consider what became of those who mistook courtesy for weakness, or patience for surrender. Then very, very carefully reconsider whose path you are planning to follow. *snaps fan shut pointedly*