Ecdysis

Chapter 4. Tricky Talks

“My orders…” I couldn’t help but rub my hands under her gaze, feeling the goosebumps on my skin. Neither my skinsuit, nor my long-sleeved tunic that was hiding it, could stop me from feeling the unnatural chill.

Perhaps it was the murk in me that felt unnerved by the gaze of an angry wermage or just general unease of the position I was in. Nevertheless, I pushed it down. In front of me stood someone, who tried to kill all of us for profit. And almost succeeded in killing Irje.

This wasn’t my penance but hers and I refused to feel guilty for something she caused.

I raised my eyes and looked straight into hers, “What can you do, exactly?”

She watched me silently for a second as we stood alone on a path toward my grounds, only to sigh afterwards.

“So it was not Aikerim Adal but you, I should have paid more attention to. I do commend your talent in dramatic arts, you have made your act quite believable even to my eyes. No wonder she values you so much — how many other wermages had you fooled for her?”

Now that was just plain rude.

“I think you overestimate your worth.” I hit back, making her eyes narrow by a tiny fraction. “You came here on your own accord. And you should be aware by now that Aikerim Adal does not need you — this wasn’t a ploy to capture you but a punishment for your active hindrance in our plans.

“We didn’t need Esca. I don’t need Esca. I started making glass not because it was profitable or that I could take over your craft,” I quietly spoke as I kept watching her veil move with every angry breath she took. The shackles would stop her magically enhanced strength and this was probably the best time to see how far I could push her.

If we were going to be around for an extended amount of time I had to make sure that she wouldn’t snap out in anger and hit with her whole might. Especially around Yeva. Wermages knew of their strength and many of them would resort to it to make their problems disappear. The question was: whether Shahin was one of these or was she smart enough to think about consequences even when she was figuratively pushed into the corner.

“I needed glassware that I could use to boil water on the fire in the pursuit of my alchemy. Something that your wares can not do. So I did what any proper Alchemist should — I made my own. Your snooping around was not something that I enjoyed and I made absolutely sure that you would pay as little attention to me as possible. Not to capture you but to defend myself.”

“Punishment, you say,” She hissed back, “You think I can not see behind your lies? I came here to defend my House, I put these shackles on my wrists myself to ensure the safety of my sisters, and you dare to talk about being the righteous one while putting the lives of three against the lives of many?”

“I am and I will. For it is the actions of your Manor that brought you here.” I spoke back without blinking. “Tell me, how many Alchemists like me Esca employs? Not craftsmen to make beautiful designs but alchemists to make better glass.”

Shahin scoffed, “You being good at something makes you righteous? I have seen children wiser than you, with better arguments.”

Well, for an annoyed snake she was behaving rather amicably. I could see my jabs at her family had an effect on her, but all I got in return was an equally barbed answer. Promising.

“Humour me.”

She looked at me for a moment and shook her head, “Have you not been educated by your Mistress on wermage Servitude? I will serve you but you can not demand anything that belongs to the House of Esca. Including knowledge.”

“A long and winded response for ‘very little or none’,” I rolled my eyes. “That is the evil of Esca. A long time ago you have discovered glass, most likely by setting fire in the dried lake beds-”

Shahin lunged and a rather cold arm covered my mouth shut, “Do not dare to reveal our sssecrets! Or I will reconsider if is better to finish what I sstarted.”

I stood still, quietly watching her for any other action. And then I sighed and pushed her hand away, “This is a deserted road for a reason, we are within the borders of my estate and only these that belong to me are welcome here. Most of which are busy with their tasks elsewhere. Besides, I knew of how you discovered glass as soon as I heard about your climate. If you know how glass works it is as easy to guess as if you brought goods made out of wood and I guessed that trees grew in your lands.

“And I’ve told my Domina about it as soon as I recovered from the attack.” I finished quietly. “You will achieve nothing by killing me or mine but only doom your House further. Unless you are planning to destroy one of the Pillar Manors of Emanai entirely?”

I could hear the grinding of her teeth behind the veil, “Who are you? What do you want?”

I ignored her demands, “With its discovery, you have established an early monopoly on glass and reaped just rewards for your curiosity and ingenuity. But then you fell prey to greed and sloth. Instead of embracing that acquisition of new knowledge — the very thing that made you prosperous, you chose the idle comfort of monopoly. Instead of growing above others, you chose to stagnate in your current position by removing any hints of competition.

“That, in turn, not only slowed the progress of the glass craft but made your position fragile and weak, ready to crumble with just a couple of sentences written on a parchment. I will admit, the knowledge I possess is extremely rare, but even without my kind Esca should have found these new types of glass by themselves centuries ago.”

“Your kind? What are you?” It looked like she picked up on my hints.

“Irrelevant,” I avoided the question once again, She could make her assumptions herself, whether they were correct or otherwise. “What matters are your actions from now on. Do know that all this is because my Domina desires it so. If it was my will, you would have been gone a long time ago. Either permanently or just from Emanai. Yet it is not. So I will abide by her wishes and find a purpose for you. But if you want to be more than an assistant to my wer guard, I suggest you be a bit more eager to do your tasks. So, once again, what can you do, exactly?”

I watched her quietly, observing her emotions and body language. Shahin managed to restrain herself but that wasn’t enough for me to simply shrug her previous actions off. If she wanted my pity or, at least, forgiveness she would have to work on it herself. And then she would need to do the same to my wives.

Shahin had a lot of pride. All wermages did. But she had plenty of skill to hide it when necessary. I wasn’t sure that I could’ve gotten this much of a reaction if she was not out of her element. And even then, all I got from her was minuscule movements of her eyes whenever I called her family incompetent, or when I implied that she would answer not to me but to Viter.

But now my other words had planted a seed of confusion in her mind. I knew exactly what I’d done. Aikerim hoped that I was a daimon, a mother lode of gold that she discovered in the dirt, Albin was excited that I was a daimon, an oddity and curiosity that brought some excitement into his life. I wasn’t, but that didn’t stop me from making Shahin fear that I was a daimon, either a child of one of their gods or a reincarnated hero of the past. Unfortunate enough to be born in the body of a murk yet still having a sharp mind and knowledge one should not possess at birth.

I benefited greatly from it without knowing. And now that I knew the cause, I could use it in my own plans. I just had to make sure that I would never confirm it myself, but allow wermages to jump to the conclusion. They wouldn’t be that far off anyway. Apparently, these mythical daimonas were rather similar to my situation with the only difference being that daimonas were a product of their magic and only occurred within wermage families, while my knowledge was purely ‘artificial’.

Judging from what I could see, she had arrived at the exact opinion I expected her to reach. She threw a quick side glance where the Domina resided and looked back at me. Only to see me silently tapping the golden Gestr on my neck. Both confirming her wild guesses and preemptively informing her about Kiymetl knowing of my status.

Just in case. Lest she would resort to outright insane solutions while standing alone with a ‘daimon’.

A quiet rustle and the wave of movement passed through her tail, slamming the end into the ground. “A hundred thousand gold talents, she said.” Shahin quietly whispered as her shoulders and the rest of her body sagged down.

For the first time since we’ve met, she was at my height.

“I have been an envoy of Esca for more than seventy years. I travelled far and wide to further the reach of my House and I have acquired a vast array of valuable contacts along my travels. Contacts that I could reach with just a pen and a parchment. While they belong to Esca, they could also work with you. As long as my House is compensated justly.” She spoke quietly, her eyes looking straight into mine. The rest of her face — hidden. “Other envoys of my family will arrive in Samat, within a few tendays. Both to be present at the Divine Ritual and to… mediate recent events. I believe you would find their presence less aggravating if my assurances would…satisfy them.”

Well, Shahin was responding rather than fighting, except for the part where she instantly used my only gripe about this situation as some leverage in her favour. Great. Enjoy being saddled with a snake that breathed intrigue, Erf. I couldn't even exhale my breath in any sigh-like fashion, lest she picks up on some other weakness of mine.

I should have demanded more from Aikerim for this bullshit.

“Perhaps, If you manage to convince me that they could offer anything worthwhile to a murk what my Domina would not,” I raised my eyebrow only to notice a familiar line on the cloth.

Unbidden, my hand reached out to the hem of her robe. Shahin stood still without a single breath as I gently twisted it outward, revealing what was hidden underneath.

“…are you-”

“These are the runes of fire,” I idly commented, studying the dull runic script across the hem, “Are you a fire mage yourself?”

She lifted her eyes from my arm on her chest and inhaled sharply, only to sigh and yank the robe out of my hand.

“All lamuras are fire mages from birth.” She huffed while trying to pull robes tighter around her body, “You know the runic script?”

“You are surprised at that?” I asked.

Receiving no answer in return, I moved on, “How hot are your flames?”

“Hot enough to make a wermage scream for mercy. And burn to cinder wer and murk alike.”

There was a surprising amount of ire in her words. Perhaps these runes were their family secret? Kiymetl book had something similar but with slight variations within. But I wanted a more precise answer to that question. “Hot enough to melt steel into liquid?”

“Foolish child. Have you forgotten about the limits of wermage Servitude already? Or the decree of your Domina? To generate that much heat would freeze me on the spot!” Shahin moved closer to my face, “Are you ready to face a wermage that is on a brink of death and knows it?”

“So it moves heat against the gradient, huh. How peculiar. I expected it to generate more heat from the energy of Flow.” I ignored her threats as I contemplated on the new knowledge.

“It appears that you know only of the runic script. Or you would have known that both exist. Or that you can never achieve the similar heat with the flame spells as you would with fire ones.” She pulled back up again, “It makes me wonder how much you really know.”

“I have knowledge that is innately useful to me as a murk.” I glanced toward my estate. “No matter, we shall continue our discussion at a later time. Familiarize yourself with the new glass workshops as you might frequent them in the future.”

I was curious about the fire magic and how it managed to imitate Maxwell’s demon but it could wait for a later time. I grew tired of the constant tension of our conversation, trying to discern her hidden traps and tricks, but probably failing at it miserably. Especially after a prolonged meeting with Aikerim.

My skinsuit had finished growing and was now removable. I also knew that the sauna and the baths were finally ready and should be hot and waiting for my arrival as we spoke. Shahin could wait.

I had many itches I couldn’t scratch for weeks.

“So, you wish for me to conjure flames for your kilns? To use Flow instead of charcoal? Very well, I shall undertake this punishment.” She bowed.

“Punishment, you say?” I turned back, my eyes narrow. “You don’t have to do it then. You won’t mar your esteemed hands, and I can probably set up a room for you to write letters to your contacts. And perform other noble tasks. Far, far away from dirty kilns where I work.”

Shahin froze.

“I can set your rooms with rich carpets and pillows, and send you the slaves carrying fruit baskets daily. For all fifty years, you would be here. And then you could return to your family. Well cared for, and safe.”

A moment of silence passed between us as I stood still, waiting for her to respond.

“Please, let me work at the kilns…” She whispered.

“Better.” I nodded, “Make no mistake. I know that you are much better with words than I am. But I have all the things you desperately want while you have none that I need. We are playing the game of dice where I have all the coins. And all it takes for you to lose is for me to stop playing. Something that I am eager to do every time I see a scar on my wife’s shoulder.

“Do not play games, little snake, unless you are willing to gamble everything. Do what I say, and what both of my wives order you to, obediently, and earn our respect back first. Then we can really talk. Now go.”

XXX

I sat in a spacious wooden bath that smelt fresh with cedar. Gazing silently through the large window arch into the greenery outside. Hot tub with a nice view — this would have been the perfect peak of opulence.

I harrumphed and crossed my hands. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

“I can hear you huffing and puffing all the way from the cold baths.” Yeva laughed nearby.

My frown couldn’t hold my smile as I appreciated yet another view in front of me. The recent weeks in the Kiymetl manor had done great things to Yeva’s body. Proper meals and lack of constant backbreaking labour allowed her body to slowly but finally recover, filling her figure with shapes and curves I couldn’t pull my eyes away from. She was likely to remain lithe, however, at least until nanite injection. But that didn’t make her any less beautiful.

“Well,” Yeva carefully walked over, already showing certain familiarity with the room’s layout, “Aren’t you going to give me your hand?”

“I forgot myself for a moment,” I reached out so she could climb into the bath with me. Her body, still cool from the colder set of baths, pressed against mine. Stealing my warmth, “Cold!”

She giggled and pressed tighter, as the twin nubs poked me in my chest. “I’ve missed the feeling of your skin.”

“I missed yours too. And taking off the skinsuit in general.” I let us settle back into the bath with her sitting in my lap. “If only these idiots haven’t ruined the sacred place!”

“What was wrong with it?” Another voice joined the fray, “It looked pretty well made, and almost exactly as you asked. What is ‘saatana’ by the way?”

“Everything is wrong with it!” I thundered. “Who makes a sauna that large!”

The sun-tanned amazon walked over, shaking her head while carrying the wool hat I dropped near the door to the disgrace. And nothing else. Despite my righteous anger, I could notice Irje had also filled up, except in the different areas than Yeva. Gaining additional muscle mass instead. Besides her assets were rather significant already, any more and they would turn from pleasant yet annoying to support to the constant discomfort and pain in the shoulders.

Note to self — I needed to work on bras and other undergarments. After the bio-printers would take root.

A scar on her shoulder, the reminder of Shahin’s work. She was proud of that one. Apparently having the proof of being attacked by a Collector while still being alive was a really big deal among certain people.

“They found out it was a special room for the master of the estate and made sure it was appropriately significant.”

“Well, they better supply me with artefact stove that can heat up the monstrosity! How am I supposed to get the heat there high enough, now?” I grumbled as my fingers subconsciously traced her well-defined stomach, “Come join us. Heal my broken heart.”

A large cannonball after, and I had to wipe the splashed water from my face.

“Irje!” Yeva shrieked.

“Always wanted to do it.” She commented unrepentantly. “Too many rules and snitches at the public baths.”

“Didn’t you and Yeva visit this place before?”

“Yes, but you weren’t here.” She stuck her tongue out.

I chuckled and pulled her closer, allowing all of us to relax and enjoy the view all while embraced together. Including me as I finally let out the bubbling outrage within myself.

Despite my righteous anger at the barely tepid sauna, this was a great place to relax. We could even bring wine or other drinks as well. Later, perhaps. Or not, lest we waste the days away while looking like prunes.

“So how are you going to deal with the snake?” Yeva quietly murmured.

“Wait and see for now.” I sighed, “Aikerim wants her around and alive, but if she steps out of her bounds I will send her packing away from here. Something that I made crystal clear to her too. At least she seems to understand how unsteady her position right now is, so she should be obedient for now. To all three of us.”

“I preferred if she obediently killed herself.” She mumbled.

“Unfortunately that won’t be good for us.” Irje refuted, “Laws forbid us from killing her.”

“Obviously, these laws were written by wermages like her.”

I sighed and hugged my rather bloodthirsty kitten, “Don’t be so vengeful. Killing her wouldn’t do you any good but make you feel empty afterwards.”

She huffed and pulled in closer, burying her nose in me, “I will think about it.”

“There is another way not to feel empty.” Irje wiggled her eyebrows.

Yep. I expected that.

“Not here.” Yeva groaned, “The water will ruin everything.”

“Well,” Irje stood up, hands akimbo. “To the bed then.”

“Calm yourself,” I grinned, unashamedly ogling her, “You might have enjoyed this bath plenty of times when I wasn’t around but I want to soak a bit longer.”

She glanced sideways, “Fine, let’s go Yev. Let us leave this merman alone.”

Huh. That I did not expect at all.

“Maybe she would like to stay with me,” I ventured.

Yeva giggled, “Maybe later. The smell of fresh wood is too strong right now.”

“We will go and relax in the bed, and if you don’t come soon enough we might fall asleep.” Irje pushed Yeva from my lap into the water and quickly gave me a kiss.

Amid the splashing of the outraged girl, her lips brushed over my ear, “In the meantime, make a decision about Anaise. Now would be a perfect time to think about it. And then come to our estate and to our bed. We will be waiting.”

“Irje!” Yeva sputtered, “Why would you do that!”

“You look cuter when you are angry.” Came an immediate answer.

“Why you.” tiny fists fruitlessly smacked wer flesh, “Unhand me!”

Irje adjusted the fighting weight in her arms as she stepped out of the bath and both quickly disappeared behind the door amid shrieks and giggles. Leaving me alone with my thoughts again.

I wanted to follow them but Irje’s words made me pause. She was right — I was back in the manor and sooner or later I will cross paths with Anaise. I couldn’t ignore the uncomfortable truth any longer. But what could I say? What should I do without abandoning my sadaq? Somehow be her teacher with additional ‘lessons’ on the side, which Irje and Yeva proposed under implication of Aikerim?

I groaned and massaged my temples. The customs of this society were convoluted to the extreme. Her own mother was fine with me educating her daughters in carnal lessons. My own wives agreeing for me to see her so that I can cement my social status. I was used to emotional connections and eagerly built them with those I loved. Yet here the unions had many political and social undertones as well. Undertones that neither of me had any experience with.

Deft fingers slid on my shoulders, gently massaging the stress away.

I groaned in pleasure as they worked on the knots I didn’t realize I had all this time. Definitely Irje, Yeva couldn’t squeeze that hard.

A soft rustle and I felt another touch. A touch of hair, lots of it too.

My eyes popped open and I saw the bright flames of a red tail all over my body. A set of twin emerald eyes watching me from above, silently.

Irje, I am going to spank your ass red when I see you again.

If I survive, that is.