ARC 7-Cursed Fates-101 (Patreon)

“Please, sit down,” I offer as I drop her hand. “You can tell the others to make themselves comfortable. Are you hungry? Of course you are. What do you eat? Do you drink? Alcohol, I mean. Please tell me you do. The lord of the house has a horrible collection of wine we’ll never make our way through but might be appreciated by a, uh, how do I say this. Virgin tongue?” At least to that of Howie’s brews.

“We eat food. Preferably cooked,” Little Water says, a tension in her voice. Her tail lashes and the crowd behind her moves, shrugging off their cloaks. Do they have a secret tail language? “I will refuse the wine.”

“Can I interest you in something milder? Tea? Juice?”

“Water is fine.”

“Fen.”

Little Water’s gaze follows my succubus as she leaves for the kitchen. “Then you do control these monsters.”

“They didn’t mistreat you, did they?”

“I would never,” Geneva says, humor dripping from her tone.

I don’t believe her for a moment but, as Little Water doesn’t make an accusation, I let the matter drop, motioning for my guest to sit beside me on one of the couches. The way she curls her tail around her waist as she sits is full of grace and somehow charming. Or maybe I’m just determined to see the best of her. “Now, I believe we have much to discuss.”

“Where is my human?”

“Blunt, aren’t you?” I suppose that’s better than talking in riddles. Unfortunately for her, I want to savor this conversation. “I think we better set a few rules of engagement before we exchange words. The first rule.” I raise a finger for emphasis then wag it before her narrowing eyes. “I ask the questions. While my unrivaled hospitality may have led you to believe otherwise, you are an unknown enemy that was caught trying to sneak into my home with hostile intentions. You don’t have the right to ask anything. You should be thanking whatever higher power you believe in that I didn’t execute you on the spot.

“Oh, don’t give me that look.” I chuckle as her glare intensifies. “Or are you going to tell me that you’d treat an enemy with so much courtesy? Go on.”

“…never,” she admits with reluctance.

“Anything else you want to say?”

Her tongue, long and thin, flicks out with a little hiss before retreating behind her tightly pressed lips. “I am humbled by your mercy, Lourianne Tome. Thank you for sparing me and mine. I will answer your questions.”

Oh, that hurt to say. “Call me Lou. And what about your friends?” I gesture to the other estrazi. I doubt I’ll remember all of them, or even one, but I am curious about the estrazi naming conventions. Little Water is certainly unique.

“They are servants. Nameless.”

I blink. “None of the servants have names?”

“In the brood, one’s name is earned. A female’s name is a reflection of her talent. Servants must earn their names with their achievements.”

“Wait. Are you saying all male estrazi are servants?”

“Of course. What else would they be?”

Haha, this is better than I hoped. “I’m surprised you’re interested in Khan with an attitude like that.”

Her tail slaps the cushions of the couch. “My human is nothing like the nameless. They are dull, empty shells. Some of them have talent but they cannot wield it on their own. The best are efficient in completing their tasks but never go beyond them. Khan…” Her eyes are unmistakably wistful as she speaks of him. “He has vision, dreams. He is soft as the scaleless but there is also strength in him. Will. There is also his talent. No, my human is no nameless. He’s special.”

Aw! “Are the two of you lovers?” I ask while leaning forward, unable to contain my excitement.

I don’t know what reaction I expect from her, but it isn’t raw confusion. “Of course not,” she declares with the same tone as one explaining an evident reality to a clueless child.

…eh?

“But…why not?” A thousand questions are bouncing around my mind but that’s the only thing I can force past my disbelief.

“Is this meant to be a joke?”

“No!”

Her tail lashes faster, beating a steady rhythm on the poor cushion absorbing the consequences of her nervous temperament. “What would be the point of mating with a human male? The pairing couldn’t produce any offspring.”

“For pleasure?”

She scoffs. Actually scoffs. “Ridiculous.”

“The idea of sex for pleasure is…ridiculous.”

“My sisters say the act can be pleasurable, but it is an activity done in pursuit of a goal. There’s no need to engage in it frivolously.”

Oh, sweet saints in Paradise. “Let me get this straight. You have never had sex with Khan and you’re not in a romantic relationship.”

Her tongue does the flicking thing again. “No.”

“You’ve never kissed him? Hugged him? Done anything intimate at all?”

“Kiss?”

I cover my mouth with a hand as I struggle to keep in my laughter. “Why in the soul-sucking Abyss did you chase him all this way if you’re not together?” I ask once I can speak. I frankly can’t understand it. And, from the quick glance I steal of Lancecain, standing far enough away to go unnoticed but close enough to hear every word, neither does he.

“My human is the key to the future. He is the son of the human leader in the north. I am the daughter of our leader. Through us, our people can finally have meaningful discourse. Learn from one another. Aid one another. Grow with each other. Aside from that, Khan has a way with the land. Together, we could build a new warren, one that spans the north. A glorious tribute to the majesties.”

“With the two of you…ruling together?”

There is nothing subdued about her next hiss and her tail slaps the cushions with more force. “Rule together with a male?! Are you—" I can only imagine the insults she wants to hurl at me but she remembers the power imbalance between us and reigns herself in. “I am no leader. My…there are many more deserving of such a role before me. But, in some future where I do inherit that position, there is only one ruler of the estrazi. One.”

“…I’m harping on this, but I can’t help it. You’re not attracted to human males? At all? No desire to, er, mate with them? Not even a little bit?”

“No and I don’t have much fondness for pointless endeavors.”

Absolutely incredible. She isn’t tracking down her one true love. She’s hounding a valuable tool. I’m not staring down a love-struck maiden. Oh, no. This is a ruthless political animal. As she said, she is going to be someone or die trying.

I admit, I’m less enthralled with her reasonings, it not being the fairytale I imagined, but it’s still impressive. And there’s the delicious anticipation of her admirers’ reactions. Lancecain’s brows are heavily furrowed and I’m dying to ask him what he’s thinking right now. Khan’s reaction is sure to be amazing. A political animal, that man is not. I don’t know about an estrazi’s feelings about mating for fun or being attracted to people outside their species, but I can’t believe a young man betrays his family, his own race, and volunteers to have his memory wiped, if his account can be believed, for anything other than love. She may think the idea is ridiculous, but I’d bet my last crown he wants to mate with her.

Watching that rejection will be…delicious.

“I suppose that deserves some answers.” That, and I need a little time to think about my next line of questioning, my expectations having been spectacularly subverted. I wave a hand at her. “Go on.”

“Your eyes. Why are they that color?”

“Because I want them to be.”

“…nothing changed them for you?”

“Technically, my succubus changed them for me but under my direction. I’m partial to purple.”

“Why?”

“Why are you so interested?”

There’s that hiss again. “I thought it was my turn to ask questions.”

“I’ve changed my mind. Answer the question.”

“Purple is…a bad omen to my people.”

“There are usually stories behind omens.” A story making her very nervous giving the pounding of her heart.

She is reluctant to talk but with the pressure of my expectation weighing down on her, she opens up. “My people believe in a…being. This being has great power and a bad temperament. Wherever it puts its influence, chaos and destruction inevitably follow. It is said that the agents of this being have a violet gaze.”

Hm? A powerful being with a penchant for chaos? Violet?

…surely not. My divine father is an elemental, a creature from another realm. There’s no way a bunch of lizards holed up in the north for the past five centuries have anything to do with him or me, his violet-gazed daughter.

…right?