Chapter 9 - Part IX

"Stop."

The sedan, now wielded by 4 very tired but very stoic men, halted at the command.  The men laid their lady down gently while one of them draw back the thick, heavy lilac curtains.  Lady Kreihl dropped two tired feet to the well groomed dirt path that neatly wound through the clustered courtyard of cherry, plum and peach trees that populated the lower bailey of the Tsitul compound.   

Lady Tsitul dismissed her sedan while her head of house, an old maid by the name of Sejae greeted her with a padded robe.  The woman was bent over, old as she was, but she hardly let that get in the way of her duties as she helped her mistress into the robe.  "My lady is out late tonight." she uttered with a smile.

"Yes, mehra" Kreihl smiled back to her old confidant and one time wet-nurse.  "And it will be later still.  See that no one disturbs me.  The magnut are out tonight."

"Ah dear," the old woman sighed, "I do hate when those raccoon dogs get into our fruit stores.  Do take care." and she too departed.

Kreihl was sad to see Sejae go, but the magnut were skittish, and it was a strange notion to include servants in subterfuge.  In another world she would have treasured her old friend's input.

She was going to face this complication with her head held high, but it was never easy dealing with the servants of the empire.  Pho-Boteth wanted too much information and gave too little in return.

In the east the horizon was painted a subversive shade of purple and pink while the minor moon had made a stealth ascent since her visit to the Archne household.  Afterall, it was only once a tide or so that the night was completely devoid of any moon all night.

The lady walked past some of the cherry blossom blooms and was greeted with a satisfyingly sweet breeze.  The plums had all but finished their spectacular displays of pink, purple and white and had since lost their petals, but the cherries were in their full glory.  She rested her arm on a nearby branch and the path at her feet was littered with a rain of soft pink petals.

"Naming us magnut is hardly a new invention."

Lady Tsitul felt her heart stop as she spun around and saw the man she had been waiting for, Lord Vaughn.  She knew, of course, that he was no true lord.  It was likely the empire had bestowed upon the man some great and honored duty that could not be trusted to mere laypeople like herself. 

"It is childish of you people.  But Empress Coth Di understands that children need to be allowed to play from time to time." he condescended to her.

 "Perhaps if you did not growl and whine when you were unhappy we'd have less cause to make the comparison.  But you didn't come here to discuss the finer points of Eirdren slang now did we?  You and yours have put me in quite a bit of trouble now.  My son is to be wed to that husband-killing whore and take on the name Archne."

Vaughn was unable to determine what she was more upset about, the fact that her son's marriage would put him in potentially mortal danger or that a Tsitul son would walk the halls of a hated house. 

"She accepted?  Where is the box?  I told you, you must bring back the box!" though he was typically composed, as a son of Pho-Boteth, he was not immune to his upbringing and he uttered a guttural growl to indicate his displeasure.

"How was I to?  She accepted the gift.  If I had taken it from her then she'd be in her full right to claim betrayal and I might not have left her compound alive!  Are you daft?  Surely you might have expected this eventuality?  And now the Empire's ambition has caught the two of us." Lady Kreihl spit back with frustration.  Empire promises of autonomy were barely worth this relationship.
Vaughn did not hold back as he delivered a swift slap to Kreihl's face.  "Watch your tongue.  You border on treasonous."

Shocked at the physical abuse, the lady kept her composure and glared back at him.  "As ever the House Tsitul serves the Scholar Empress.  I speak only of the short-sightedness of her magnut."
Vaughn thought for a moment.  Nobody was supposed to accept the box.  It was plain and ordinary.  It had been compromised - a fact the Lady Tsitul knew nothing about - but the nature of the compromise was such that whoever opened the box would see an object of secrecy and shame.  It should have elicited rejection.  That was the weakness of the compromise.

"What was the color of the box when you gave it to the Lady Archne?" he demanded.

"What?  I don't know.  It was an oak box right?  Then brown.  I didn't see anything unusual." she replied unsure of what information he was trying to extract.

"Then it did not change" he muttered under his breath, careful to keep his rhetorical question from reaching the ears of the Lady Tsitul herself.

"What did you say?" she huffed impatiently.

"I don't think the Lady Archne is our quarry.  I will have to obtain another box for you to present to the Nogrem Household tomorrow."

"And about him?" Lady Tsitul asked.

Vaughn had nearly forgotten the initial demands Lady Tsitul made when they had first approached her.  "He's resting comfortably at the edge of the city.  Tomorrow he will begin the journey to the University on High and his new life."

Kreihl looked satisfied.  "Then I leave you to your nightly wanderings, magnut.  Good night."
Vaughn bowed and took his leave of her but continued to walk through the fruit gardens of the Tsitul compound contemplating the situation.  The box was supposed to change color at the presence of a nearby gegleth; alive or otherwise.  But rather than a simple hue of blue, it remained the same, and he felt this left him at square one.  Lady Archne had drawn a great deal of attention to herself in the previous tide, with the death of her husband and her reportedly reclusive nature.  She was his best guess as to who might have kidnapped the creature, and now that there was no evidence to incriminate her, he felt at a loss.

"Damn." he sighed, but no sooner had he let out a grunt of unhappiness than he felt a trembling quake at his feet.  The rapidly reddening sky, blushing at the onset of dawn, was now assisted with the tips of huge flames licking at the horizon.  In moments the Lady Tsitul had run back to the fruit garden and found Vaughn, grunting audibly.

"What happened?" she yelled.

"I don't think you have anything to worry about your son.  Go back to bed and prepare yourself an alibi for your peers.  After the flames die down, I am sure your fellow lords might wonder if you had anything to do with the death of Lady Archne."

Chapter 9 - Part VIII

It was all Reiba could do to not sprint back to her quarters in the Wing of the Major Moon.  In the east the Minor Moon began to rise.  It was only once a tide or so, afterall, that a night was truly devoid of it.  In the east the blackness of the night had begun to succumb to a sickly yellow-blue.  The brightest of stars still shone but the others in that part of the sky had been overcome with the mere suggestion of the sun.  Dawn was fast approaching and she'd have to make her decisions quickly.

While she walked, she pawed at the little compromised pill in her pocket; each time flesh hit its smooth surface she had an instant feeling of being somewhere else.  On the roof.  Hidden in an alley way.  Sulking behind lone stands of cosmopolitan oak and ceder.  It was in one of the parks of the Eirdred.

As she approached her wing, she could feel that already the creature was out of the city.  Fast, she marveled.  She clutched the pill a little harder in her fist and let more information seep into her skin.

West.  He travels due west.  This surprised Reiba, who expected her quarry to make its way south, as it had when she first caught him.  She realized then she had always connected those two things in her mind, the art of the b'hei and the creature, as being from the same catalyst and as all the knowledge she held of compromising lay written in the Sandoran tongue, she had always assumed that it was Sandoran in origin.  If she ever saw Laenuc again, she felt confident that compromising crafter would know what the creature was.

I wish I had more time to study this further she thought mournfully as she motioned her servants to open the huge door to her quarters.  Sadly, she had more immediate concerns.  Whatever form of guilt the two nobles were looking for when they visited her, they must have found it when Zaexyl accepted the Tsitul proposal, but she could not help but recollect the look of surprise the Lady Kreihl herself had at the gift.  She seemed as clueless as Reiba had been before she recognized the earring she held.

It had been far too many years since she had tried that first experiment.  As the door servants closed the bulky oak door that separated her wing from the rest of the world, she made haste to her study. She blew out each of the candles that provided her with the light to study and explore the unknown, and slid the paper doors shut.  Every candle save one, that is, so she could see what she was doing.

With no small measure of hesitation, Reiba opened the the Tsitul gift box again and extracted the earring once more.  It was nothing a cube of bronze couldn't buy.  The stones of jade and turquoise that hung lazily from the hook seemed real enough, but highly flawed, sporting cracks and strange cuts.  She recalled from her childhood, youths who would search the midden piles of gemmers for such unpolished scraps.  For her, the couple of meals one could get out of a weeks worth of rock discoveries wasn't worth wading in the combination of food waste, broken pottery and animal feces that often built up in back alleys in between street cleanings.

But the cheapness of the earring also made it a suitable first attempt at using the art of the b'hei.  She blew out the remaining candle which left the room glowing only very softly as a consequence of the lit candles on the other side of the paper walls.  It was dark enough, however.

And the earring performed accordingly.  The glow of the earring looked more like the light of the moon than a candle or the sun itself.  It seemed to reflect luminescence rather than create it.  But there was no doubting that this was her earring.  It had to be.

Reiba had not worn those earrings since she experimented on them.  A quick flick of her wrist brought a match against a sandstone paperweight on her desk and in no time the study was again relit. She sighed, knowing invariably what she had to do next, but first wanting to know how this happened.  Her fist clenched around the earring angrily as she started flipping over the books on her desk.  Papers went flying in an almost celebratory fashion.

She then began tearing apart her study, ejecting books from their shelves, ripping out the drawers of her desk.  She moved to a closet she had kept locked since moving into the Archne compound.  Heri had, of course, asked her what she kept in it, the insatiably curious fellow he was.  She had told him that it was her garments of the night that she would use to surprise him from time to time.  This made him want to see the contents even more but somehow she had convinced him that the allure of seduction is as much the province of what you can't see, as what you can.

She supposed that she wasn't wholly lying.  A corset was among the items in it, along with a necklace, a hair piece, and some older articles of clothing.  Rats had tried to chew at the closet to get closer to the corset, the necklace constricted at the mere touch of her finger and she knew if she wore the hair piece she'd suddenly have bowel movements that mirrored those of the nearest person.  The butterfly affixed on the hairpiece not only looked real though, it acted real.  Its antennae seemed to probe the air for the scent of a mate.  Reiba kept very clear from the hairpiece. 

And of the earrings, both lay silently in a small box, same as the day she had forged their compromise.  There might be half a million of these types of earrings in Eirdred alone, but only hers glowed, as they both did now in the dimmed light of the closet. And now it was hers and this other, one earring.  She opened her left hand but was shocked to see that all she carried now was a lifeless granite rock.

No.  There is no such thing as magic, this is compromised!  But how?  What does it show? Her assault on her study left the Tsitul box unfazed and Reiba replaced the rock within the box.  She pulled a silk cord and had to wait only a few minutes before Vergaihl placed a soft but firm rap on her door.  She met him in the social room.


"Enter." she beckoned and the doors opened for the house master.





"My Lady, the boys are not yet..." he began but was quickly cut off by an impatient mistress.


She passed him the box.  "Do you recognize this?" she asked.


"Yes My Lady, this is the gift box from House Tsitul."


"Open it." she commanded.

Vergaihl did so, but with great hesitation.  It was not the lot of a servant to deal with noble gifts.  He kept glancing back at her then the box, expecting her reproach at any moment.  When he finally looked at what was in the box, he gasped and dropped it like it was a pox laden child.


"What did you see?!" Reiba demanded impatiently.

"I am so sorry," Vergaihl collapsed to his knees, "Please, it was only in fun.  It was only between my family and I.  I am ever your loyal servant..." he cried but Zaexyl was in no mood to hear his protestations. 

"Never mind that.  What is the object in the box?"


The poor man, who was not slight by any means but who nonetheless cowered now, had a look of fear and confusion on his face.

"Tell me exactly what it is.  Spare no details.  Give me context."

"Uh...", he began, lips quivering, "It is a letter to my family.  I've not seen them in so long.  They live in the country and.."

"Stop babbling.  Why are you so afraid of it?"

Every fiber in the elder man's being told him that to repeat the words he had written down was treason.  Yet to not answer a direct command could also be seen as treason.  He looked like a rabbit cornered by the wolf.

"In this letter," he tried, being as delicate as possible, "I explain to my wife that your Ladyship is a very ambitious woman.  That you, my lady, might have had," he searched for the words, "a strained relationship with your husband." he could not make himself confess further.

"You think I killed Heri?  That is what you wrote?" she interrogated the man.  His silence confirmed her suspicions.  "I see.  Now pick up the object in the box and show it to me."

Sure enough at this point it was a letter; its waxy seal of the house master of Archne broken and its pages slightly crumpled.


"Interesting." Lady Archne observed to herself, uncaring if Vergaihl heard her at this point. "What amazing things the b'hei does.  I wonder what weakness this carries."  She paused deep in her thoughts before she remembered that her servant was still there, surely awaiting the wrath and potentially lethal punishment from his mistress.  "You may go now Vergaihl.  Actually, return to your home.  Clearly you have been over worked.  You need a rest.  Return to your home.  Go ahead, collect your wages for the next month.  Do not delay.  And regardless of what you hear, do not come back tonight."

"Thank you, My Lady," was all the man could offer, so confused by the recent turn of events.  He bowed quickly and exited the room, afraid that this was all a trick and the sooner he was on his way, the less time she had to put him in a noose.

It was only a matter of time before whoever was really looking for Reiba would find out who and where she was.  And who looked for her was more than the petty lords who deigned to offer her their second sons.  They understood the art of the b'hei, and they knew of the creature.  Now more than ever, she felt trapped.  The Secondsword would be returning soon enough, and likely with him his cronies.  She'd be painting the walls of the Augur red all over again with the blood she could expect to lose from the impending torture.

 I won't give them the satisfaction, she thought angrily to herself. 

Chapter 9 - Part VII

Lord Shik smiled again, bowed and put the box to his side.  Without a word, Vergaihl came out of his hidden obscurity, knelt to collect the box, rose and walked over to his lady.  At her side, he knelt again, his toes flat as his knees fell to the relatively soft flax woven mat.  He placed the box in front of Lady Zaexyl and awaited her response in this uncomfortable position.  It wasn't rare that his feet would go numb.

The moment she took it out of the box she knew with the surety of her entire being that these two were not here to offer their sons after all.  What they hoped to accomplish, she was unsure, but she was in far more precarious a position than she had previously thought.

"A tad simple," she smiled most generously at Lord Shik, "but I understand the sentiments of your son nonetheless.  I would be pleased to meet him."  Vergaihl returned the box to its owner before disappearing beyond the thick paper walls of the Receiving Room once again.

If Lord Shik were surprised at her willingness to open her home to their family, he did not show it.  Nor did he seem to take offense at her derision.  It was the way of the intended to downplay their gifts, that a suitor might try harder.  A noble wedding would not usually occur until five or six rejections.  By that time, a lord or lady could expect to have their likeness cast in gold.   More would be puzzle had she accepted his offer immediately. Whatever he was thinking, he merely smiled and bowed.

"I suspect my son Gaihgrem offers much the same." intoned Lady Tsitul.  "Although he requested that I not peek into his offering.  It is a son's embarrassment to let his mother know he thinks like a man." she chuckled.  A servant girl waiting by the door quickly placed the unopened box at Lady Tsitul's side and within moments, Vergaihl had it at his own lady's side.

Lady Archne lifted the box and opened it slowly.  What she saw perplexed her, which gave her cause to worry even more than the collar had.  Lord Shik seemed unable to contain himself when she did not immediately respond.  "What is it?  Come now, what has the lad offered you?"

Lady Archne made quick note that even though she had remained silent, Lady Tsitul also bore a glimmer of curiosity in her eyes.  She was not lying.  She did not know its contents.

Carefully, with two fingers, she extracted an extremely common looking, single, long earring made of turquoise and jade, suspended from a hook by small silver chain.  "Is this your son's idea of a joke?" Reiba asked incredulously.   "Does he take me for a merchant?" she accused, referencing the trend for particularly wealthy business men and women to mimic noble ear tattoos by holding their own traditions with single earrings. 

"Ah, my lady, my apologies, I do not know what he meant by this." Kreihl stammered, her age finally beginning to show as lines of worry.  "I am sorry to cause offense, please let me return this and we formally retract our offer."

The two waited for Lady Archne's reply, expecting to be tersely dismissed as tales of the ungracious behavior of House Tsitul reverberated throughout the Dance of Roses for the next couple of months.  It left them more astonished when she did finally speak.

"No.  I accept.  I shall wed your son on the night the Major Moon returns to the skies.  I thank you for your visit this night.  The morning fast approaches.  I believe your families await you."

Lady Zaexyl did not move a muscle, as it was poor form for a host to leave before the guests, but her bewildered peers understood the message.  They bowed slightly from their mats before getting up and exiting the room, each of their retainers close behind.

"Vergaihl!" she called and he appeared to her from the other side of the paper walls.

"My lady."

"Send two boys to follow those two home from a distance.  They are not to return until the see them to their compounds.  I want to know everything they witness before that happens." she ordered.

"Yes my lady."

"I will retire now, see that I am not disturbed until those boys return."

Chapter 9 - Part VI

Lady Kreihl Tsitul was well into her middle years, but age merely seemed to be another ornament in her jewelry box.  Unlike many of her age she did not use strange dyes and spa treatments to keep the color of her hair so white, grey and light blonde intermingled upon her scalp and through her loose bun. Today she was fairly demure, with short gold and onyx earrings and a lightly padded, high necked and long sleeved butter cream tunic, tied high underneath the breast with a stiff sash of brown and a wide flowing gown that reached the floor.  On her chest, just under the collar of the shirt she had pinned a small brooch with her house sigil, the rose, emblazoned.

Lord Hekbel Shik on the other hand could have been making the marriage proposal himself, had Lady Archne not already known himself to be reportedly happily wed with twin youths not yet 15 tides and another on the way.  His close cut brown goatee gave him the appearance of a perpetual smile and shallow dimples did not help in this regard.  He too wore a high necked collar of ocean blue satin edged with a thin gold trim.  His tunic was tied just above the waist with a thin grey belt after which it continued down to his knees.  Underneath the long shirt was a pair of black satin pants.  Like his counterpart, Lady Tsitul, he had since removed his shoes to enter the Receiving Room.

They were both left-eared nobles, leaders of their houses, and both of them lacked a residual right-ear tattoo, indicating that they were in power of their own birthright.  Tsitul, meaning rose had a monochromatic blue outline of petals, a stem and thorns gracing her ear while Shik had a simple outline following the path of his outer ear, making a point at his lobe.  Before they were a house, before the peoples of the Outer Crest took over the labor intensive work on the seas, the Shiks were the kingdom that relied more on the sea and her produce than any other.  A fish hook might seem mundane in this era, but there was a time when people lived or died by it.

They were guests in this house now, so they waited for leave to speak from its ruling Lady, while they kneeled comfortably on amble floor pads.   Zaexyl surveyed the pair.  "Tea and a honey stick" she ordered, "for my brother and sister.  Under the Red, our bonds are never broken."

The house staff were well prepared to receive a fellow Eirdren Lord and had placed an elevated tray of the required comforts before the guests barely after their lady ordered them.  "Under the Red, we are stronger together." they both intoned while all three held up their cups of tea while bending their backs slightly to each other in a bow.  The three drank. and set the cups down.

"How can I help you Lady Tsitul and Lord Shik?  Surely you come with urgent business to have rousted yourselves so late into the night." the Lady Archne asked.

"Ah but now is the best time to speak," smiled Lord Shik, "for both moons abandon us this night.  That is the best time to plan for life's intimate choices."

"My Lady Archne, forgive our boldness, we do not come bearing secrets," Lady Tsitul chided her companion for the night, "We only wish for you to take special consideration of our offers.  Surely you have met with many now who would like to keep your bed a little less lonely and provide you with an heir, but our proposals should be of great interest to you."

"Yes," Lord Shik had regained a more serious visage, "My son is young, but so are you my lady, and he will be a man soon.  He will be a great asset to you, and if you but say the word, he is yours as soon a you wish him.  Johlen is a smart boy and while he is a second son, he has been raised side by side with his twin brother, my heir, and will quickly learn the business of the Archne household."

Zaexyl Archne felt herself relax a little bit.  Tedious though marriage proposals are, they are not dangerous until you turn them down.  Nothing she said tonight would kill her.  It might only kill her in a month, or a tide. Yet it still struck her odd that the two would come tonight rather than tomorrow.  They must really want ties to House Archne, unless... she let that thought drift away not knowing where it led.

"He is eager to be your groom as well.  He was impressed with your ladyship's confident and powerful demeanor at the eulogy of your late husband.  Indeed, he offers a token of his affections should you wish to pursue my offer." Lord Shik called to his groom who knelt silently by the door with the Lady Tsitul's lady-in-waiting.  The servant stood up, and brought over a small box.  He knelt again side by side with his lord, placing the box at Shik's knees before bowing slightly, standing up, and walking backwards, silently, to his prior station.

Lord Shik opened the box and lifted out a thin silver choker necklace that gleamed in the candle light.  Lady Archne held her breath but kept her face as solid as stone.  That was no mere offering of jewelry to a betrothed, she was sure of it.  She had seen a collar that looked too similar to this one on the creature before, as it lay injured, trying to hide in the woods.

But Reiba refused to let herself panic.  If it was nothing more than a necklace, then asking about the trinket could pose no harm, but if it was more than a coincidence, then her very response could damn her to whatever blackmail they were trying to boil her in.

"Many thank to you and your son Lord Shik.  You do him great credit and I will have to think seriously on this matter." Lady Archne forced herself to not even mention the object he offered to her now.  "But as Lady Tsitul too has made the journey, it is only fair to hear her offer as well."

Chapter 9 - Part V

Surely the creature had to be connected to the b'heithel, but to what capacity, Reiba did not know.  She briefly entertained the idea that the creature was once a man, augmented by the art of the b'hei, and while she never ruled out that possibility, it seemed unlikely that human beings could be changed as easily as an object.  The art of the b'hei could not improve an object without first injuring it, and starvation aside, the creature did not seem debilitated at all.

Her imagination took hold at the thought of what grotesque b'hei art would be required to turn a human to look like that creature, and it gave her chills.  That was when she realized the window on the other side of her study was slightly ajar and the cool early summer night was upon them.  Rather than forgo the fresh air, she put on her long padded robe over her grey tunic and changed the rubber boots to much more comfortable sheep skin slippers.

"My lady", came a voice from the other side of the gold-wrought door that separated her suites, the Wing of the Major Moon, from the rest of the compound.  The voice was accompanied by a heavy-handed knock.  It was Vergaihl, the head of house staff, much to her dismay.  The hour was late and she'd prefer to spend the rest of her waking hours watching the progress of the creature.

"I will be with you presently.  I must make myself decent." she replied, pocketing the small pill in the folds of her robe.  She exited the study and closed its papered sliding doors. Traditional Eirdren architecture once relied solely on these flimsy dividers, papered doors, and wooden walls to the outside world.  Expensive compounds might have had a stone foundation, but it was not until the Yibouh had filled in Center City, razed the original Augur, and built a new one out of granite, that it became fashionable among the wealthy to have stone walls around each wing and other buildings as well; such as the dungeon.  In keeping with some form of their native architecture, the paper doors and dividers were retained within each wing to separate sleeping quarters from libraries, privies, studies and social rooms.  (NOTE TO SELF, DRAW OUT MAP OF ARCHNE COMPOUND)

Unlike the receiving room in the main building, the social room was for guests on an invite only basis.  The social room was closest to the main wing entrance and it was the most ornate.  The dividers were beautifully painted with scenes of waterfalls, mountain views, and for this season, summer birds.  They would be replaced when fall arrived.  Soft, plush, slightly elevated red mats lined the walls of the hall and well lacquered, gold inscribed thin oak tables no higher than her thighs awaited friends and relatives who would join for tea and conversation.  Tonight, of course, it was empty, but this was as far as she would let any of her staff, and even then, only by explicit permission.

Vergaihl, a tall, middle-aged man whose blonde hair was slowly turning white without notice, entered the room cautiously.  It was a mark of his familiarity with the household.  As the head of household staff, as his mother had been prior, he knew exactly the amount of deference required before his master likely did.  And he knew at this hour Lady Zaexyl would not be pleased about this intrusion.

Vergaihl wore a high necked green long tunic with the seal of the House of Archne stitched into its breast.  At his waist was a lighter colored stiff green sash cinched the tunic half way and was knotted at his back.  Underneath the tunic he worse plain white trousers.  His shoes, he had ejected prior to entering the wing and his feet were bare.  At the sight of her, he kneeled in order to address her.

"My Lady, two envoys have come to seek your audience." He informed her.

"They can come back tomorrow.  Dawn is not long away." she shot back.  She did not have time for this.

"Yes my lady, although the Lady Tsutil and Lord Shik insist that they are unable to return on the morrow.  Shall I send them your apologies?" he asked.

Reiba understood this as a very polite way to tell her that she risked delivering further offense to her peers if she did not entertain them.  "Very well," she sighed, "Please ready the receiving room for their comforts and I shall be on my way over."  Vergaihl  At best, they too will be demanding I wed their second sons.  Let us hope it is nothing more. She sighed, absently touching the pill in her pocket.  She left for her changing room to prepare to receive the unwanted visitors.

Chapter 9 - Part IV

Since Lord Lot had returned to his lands, the Lady Zaexyl's room had been slowly conquered by her study.  Two weeks ago she forbid even the cleaning staff from entering, lest they too become too curious.  Everything was moving too quickly.  Killing Heri was supposed to be liberating, but instead it had brought on even more to worry about.  Even before the Secondsword Keubroc made his intentions known to her, some of the urban lords, Irolok and Vrok, had begun sending courtship envoys, showing off their wares of second sons.  The Lady Zaexyl Archne managed to offend Lady Tokal, left-ear of her house, when she did not attend the wedding of her second born daughter to the firstborn son of the rural Futsei.

Upon her thick oak desk which commanded a good third of her study, her notes were in disarray while ledgers bookmarked by stolen communiques had colonized most of the drawers.   What she searched for, though, was in a small jewel box on the far edge of the desk.  In it lay the second half of her prototype, another black pill, identical to the one she forced down the throat of the creature.  It glowed softly when she picked it up and for a moment she could feel the presence of the creature.  He'd not yet left the dungeon.  Maybe he didn't realize he could yet.

But she was grateful of the skills she had learned that would track him, wherever he went.  Even more grateful that the communiques she had stolen had been right; the device worked!  Thank you Laenuc, you opened me to this new world.  She mouthed silently to her patron for many years, long before she was ever Lady Zaexyl.

The Sandoran of course had no knowledge that Reiba spent her more lonely nights copying the letters she had pilfered from coat pockets and purses the night before.  Reiba was told that her client was a navy sailor and had to leave for weeks at a time, but she knew her nighttime lover to be what the letters called, b'heithel, and worked it the art of the b'hei.  The Sandoran word for "compromised" she soon learned meant much more than a settlement between two opposing parties.  This was the art of taking the energy and skills of one item and re-purposing them for another.  It is what turned a pill of the creature's blood and copper into a homing beacon.

But who are these b'heithel and what else can be done with this art? were questions that burned into her mind since her initial translations of the Sandoran letters into Eirdren.  That is what she wanted to know, and she was willing to go down that rabbit hole at any cost, for this was true power.

As a high-end courtesan, Reiba was completely comfortable with the idea of trading a part of herself for something greater and she had plunged into her studies zealously.  She stopped when she ran out of money for materials and that was when she got the idea to aim for a higher form of clientele.  Laenuc had long since disappeared and it was also a chance to do her first test run of her new found skills.  She had traded just the smallest part of a bottle of perfume's flowery scent to give it a lust-inducing quality, which she then used on herself in search of suitors.

Since then as Lady Zaexyl she had created many more new items; earrings that glowed in the pure dark but were brittle and fragile, a bodice that changed depending on the size of the wearer, but that attracted rats.  But these were all playthings.  She knew more could be done, and the tracking device was the most difficult and complex thing she had compromised to date.

Chapter 9 - Part III

The creature did not look as emaciated as one might expect someone who did not touch all this food to be, but Reiba had solved that mystery weeks ago.  She caught it licking the floor with its pale purple tongue, eating whatever dirt it could find off of the solid stone.  The food here was not plentiful, however, and it was clearly in poor health.

The creature's blue skin had yellowed and its cheeks were hollow on its human-man-like face.  His pupil-less eyes were now slightly obstructed by his sagging antennae, although upon seeing Reiba, he attempted to push them back upon his long, silvery head of eerie hair with the three fingered primate hands he possessed.

The rest of the creature bore little resemblance to a person however.  His abdomen bore thick, large scales of blue and purple, and his legs and arms were segmented.  He had what appeared to be two knees on each leg, the first similar to a human while the second bent in reverse.  The outside of his knees and elbow joints were protected with short, pointed protrusions and his bare feet were four-toed and clawed.

Large claws jutted out from above his wrists.  When she had first caught him, he had been using the rock hard protrusions to dig easily through clay and earth outside of the Oaken Wood along the coastal highway on her way back from a visit to Lithen Province.  What he was doing there, she had yet to discover, but he was bleeding, and weak from the late summer sun at the time.

In the stone-wrought cell his claws could do less against the granite, but she regularly came herself to file the slow growing appendages to ensure that it was never an option.  As well as to ensure that those claws were never used on herself.

He never spoke a word to her; he never tried to communicate with anyone or anything, though his tongue and jaws seemed to function well enough.  He didn't beg anything of her, or cry out when days ago she forcibly drew that viscous black liquid that she suspected served as his blood.  She had no way of knowing if he understood her words or if he was little more than a stupid humanoid insect. 

"I wish I had more time with you," she relaxed, the tension in her shoulders easing in futility, "but I cannot have our spider-spy seeing you.  Reiba didn't know why, but she did feel genuine regret, like she was losing a dear friend, at the thought of removing him.  This confused her, but her power of purpose let her push this conflicting emotion aside.

The creature grunted as she pulled his unnervingly humanoid face up and forced his weak mouth open.  I haven't had the chance to test this she worried privately, Dagleth, make this work.  I don't have time!  She forced a dark black pill about the size of a quail egg down the creature's throat.

Again the creature grunted and gagged as the object made its way down.  He started coughing but he could not hack it up.  Satisfied, Reiba backed up slowly.  She would never show this beast her back, no matter how weak he was.  As she exited the door she eased it nearly shut, but left a thin sliver open to the rest of the dungeon.  A thin glimpse of freedom.

"Leave the dungeons alone for the night." she told the Captain as she left to return to her quarters.  She suspected he would listen, but even if he didn't, even if he got dangerously curious as her late husband once had, the creature would see to his silence.

Chapter 9 - Part I

Short in stature but thick in muscle, the man before Reiba did not appear intimidated at the new Lady Archne.  His brown hair and flat, slit-like eyes marked him as a robust blooded Sandoran by birth, but his ash-kissed City Enforcer steel breastplate and close cropped spiky hair betrayed his allegiance to the Scholar Empress.  Though he stood at full height, he had to tilt his head up towards the noble to be able to look her in the eye.  This fact pleased Reiba enormously as she sat cross-legged on the raised dais of the Archne receiving room.  But the man's listless brown eyes and thin beige lips indicated no insecurities or offense.

Falling on his right knee and pressing his right fist onto the woven linen mats that covered the floor from wall to wall, Secondsword Keubroc of the Eirdred City Enforcers bowed his head in respect and gave his greetings.

"My Lady, per the treaty held with honor between the Scholar Empress and your great civilization, I am here to offer and submit my services to you.  I shall take up the living quarters you deign to give me and begin my humble submission to you from that day until the day of your wedding, whenever that is to be."

"This is not warranted.  Explain yourself!" Lady Zaexyl shot back, alarmed at this sudden turn of events.  "What is the precedent?  What is reason?  I have done nothing to offend her wisdom, the Scholar Empress."

"It is no insult or offense from you nor her wisdom, but her gift to you in these troubling times.  Your husband is dead, you have no heirs.  Your in-laws are bound to be returning from the White City.  We do not wish to see the proud city of Eirdred or any of her districts in turmoil as nobles are murdered and the people struggle." he recited without emotion.

Lady Zaexyl paused a moment to consider.  She recalled the antiquated rule to have a City Enforcer take on the security concerns of a widowed district noble.  Pho-Boteth had made the charge centuries ago that they would keep the nobles propped up at a time most of the populace was in rebellion over the annexation of Eirdred into the empire.  It had not been used in several generations as Eirdred's zeitgeist had learned to accept their new sovereign, albeit with hidden rebels in some small circles.   Now though, Zaexyl suspected the City Enforcers had more clandestine motives.  She was not going to keep this man out of her house, but she needed time.

"I see.  Well perhaps your help would be welcome then, but my staff and I must prepare for your arrival.  It will take a week for the needed arrangements.  Return to us then." she gave a welcoming smile.

"I think you will find the needs of a solitary military man to not be significant.  The Empire appreciates your dedication, but your preparations need not to extend past Re'lir.  I will return then.  The Six keep theirs with you."

Lady Archne dismissed the man with a wave of her hand and before he had left her courtyard, she summoned the master of household to the room.

Re'lir.  Two days.  That does not give me much time.

"Secondsword Keubroc will be our guest for the coming months.  Prepare the sun-wing for him.  It befits a warrior to see dawn, first of us all.  Call to me Captain Denthil this evening after the dining hour.  I wish to tour my estate and ensure everything is in order beforehand."

The walk through the courtyard to the granite underbelly of her estate was a short one, but Lady Zaexyl Archne was consumed with thoughts of this current crisis.  This recent development had left her in a foul mood. 

It was for such times as these that she longed for a peer with whom she could discuss options.  Lord Thenae Lot had long left her side to attend to the duties of his own holdings, and she did not trust him with this matter in anycase.   Her household staff was also suspect.  There were those who rightly viewed her with suspicion; acknowledging that perhaps she might be the cause of the loss of their lord.  She would need to work on supplanting those people, but she'd need to do it discreetly and gradually.  Now was not the time.

No, this was a dance she needed to do alone, peerless as she was.