Adventure Time [cw]

[Vrai]

Gaze unflinching on the visiting priestess Vrai leaned down. Mouth hovering near Eulalie’s ear. ”If she wants to take over the district put it to the people. A good example of your diplomacy and desire for their happiness. Without getting involved in petty disputes.” His whisper was intended to carry. The final matter for the day sat across the desk. An apprentice yearning for more. Trying to muscle her elderly mentor out of the way. Vrai did not approve of usurpation.
 
He approved far less of underhanded tactics. Like sneaking off to ply Eulalie with gifts. Snide remarks and complaints about the old priestess’s ability. What did she know? This half-child that oozed ambition? Nothing about duty, he suspected. Impatience to be finished with the chit only colored his opinion slightly. The edges of his psyche prickled with anticipation. After several evenings pouring over the blueprints Eulalie had discovered something interesting.

She had not told him what. Vrai couldn’t help wondering if she was enjoying his newfound lack of tranquility. Or at least, having a good time testing the boundaries of his ability to remain more stoic than he felt. Which was like a boy, overeager and itching to be finished with his schoolwork so he could go out and play. Not a familiar feeling, since he had enjoyed his lessons when he had actually been a boy. And not done much playing that didn’t involve entertaining Eulalie. Now, however, he had to fight to present himself as calm. Foot threatening to tap in frustration.

The minute they were finished and the young lady out the door he bent over the side of her desk. Hands on the corners and face flashing a grin. ”Now will you tell me?” Had she gone exploring without him? The aged floor plans they had discovered in the Keep were worth the trip. Already they had found a secret cache of books, hidden behind a false wall in one of the crypts. Nothing very interesting, old journals and the like. There were more, though, he was sure.

And the time spent examining paper and comparing it to every room in the temple was fun. Gave them something to focus on rather than the growing anxiety of what might be happening on Corlay. ‘Very large’ Gabriel’s letter had describe. Unwilling or too stupid to know how to describe a pregnancy in measurements of time.

@dergon

[Eulalie Reneux]

He was not himself. Oh his whispering tickled her ear and his advice was as sound as ever, but he was not himself. Others might have missed it, but Eulalie could feel the tension in his body. Like a taste at the back of her tongue. Undefined, but noted. Rather than upsetting her, Eulalie was amused. Knowing herself as the cause made the change him acceptable. Cruel of her, perhaps, to leave him wondering so, but it delighted her.

He was just so eager.

”I will send one of my priestesses to the district,” Eulalie decided, eyes cool on the apprentice. She knew that hungry gleam in the girl’s eye and did not blame her. Someone always lost for another to win. ”She will speak with the people, and let them decide whose rule they should fall under.” Not what the young woman wanted to hear, but it was better than refusal. She would send a letter ahead of her priestess, and see which lady proved the better schemer. ”You may go. My Second will see you out.”

Door hardly shut before Vrai was upon her. Hands gripping her desk and smile lopsided. Eulalie smirked, leaning back in her chair and folding her hands over her stomach. ”I will not.” She teased him, tone brooking no argument as she stood, tucking her chair away under her desk. ”Mind my paperwork.” She scolded, circling the desk and walking right past Vrai toward the door his shadow and the apprentice had just exited.

”I will show you instead.” Hints in an old journal. Space found in the temple blue prints. Eulalie refused to believe the truth of it. Secrets within secrets. Now she would find out, and end Vrai’s torment as well. ”Come on.” She had gone ahead in the night to find the door. The path convoluted and frustrating. She had spent nearly all the dark hours between dusk and dawn searching.

Now Eulalie could lead him straight to the surprise. Her hair brushing his arm as they walked, smile just barely kept from her lips. They twitched when their hands happened to glance against each other, the rigid distance between them made softer by their visit to the Keep. The taboo broken already by Eulalie when she had held tight to his arm in the night. She had not touched him since. Not like that. But her body flinched from his less often.

The door still unopened. Dust lining the frame. Eulalie had not given in to temptation when she’d found it. She had Vrai had come closer than they had ever imagined. Hands fitting into a bookcase that appeared built into the wall, Eulie pushed, exposing the door behind. ”Tada.” Dark eyes bright as she looked up at him, as if she had brought him a present for his birthday. Eulalie wrapped her hair around her wrist and twisted it over one shoulder.

”Open it. I want to see what is inside.” Her skirts rustling with eager energy. Now it was she who was unsettled. All her calm playfulness bubbling over. She thought she knew, from a private journal she had found in the first cache they had discovered, but she wasn’t sure. And she wanted to find out with Vrai. To see it first with him, so she could see too his reaction and forget about every that was unpleasant in the world.

[Vrai]

She did enjoy it, the wicked girl. Better to have her smirking up at him that way than disappointed in his behavior. Or was she? Pitch warning not to argue with her cool refusal. There was nothing to suggest anything but seriousness in the way she stood, ordering him to turn his eyes to the work on her desk. But there was also not a second where Vrai expected her to be anything less than fair. At least not to him.

He had nearly settled into her chair, frustration staining his cheeks red as it left his body. Mind twisting to turn back to work when he had already given in to play. ”Of course, Lady.” Was the only reply he knew how to give. The paper on top of the short stack was a missive. He glanced over the first line before she snapped his attention back up. Straightening to stand he crossed his arms over his chest. ”I don’t know. I’m very busy minding my Priestess’s paperwork.”

Of course he was too eager to tease for long. Any amount of time, actually. Pace smooth but quick he chased her through the door with probes. Body catching up a second later. Their body language had always been casual with one another, but something in it had been altered by their bed sharing in the Keep. Now his knuckles brushed her wrist as they rounded a corner. Vrai was very good at following without having to fall behind. Reading all the subtle signs that she would turn, slow, or stop without knowing he read them at all.

The room they finally stopped in made his heartbeat a little quicker. Here? They had checked here already but found nothing. Still, it was an exciting room- if you were Vrai. There were shelves lined with books. All glanced over in his time at the Temple, many read from one cover to the other. But books probably meant more books. Hidden things, hidden treasures. That was the real joy in searching. Wondering what you might find. Licking his lips he watched Eulalie with eyebrows high in suspense.

All the lines in his body tensing until he clapped as she pushed an entire bookcase away to show a secret door. Smiling widely he took the first step in. Hot on very cautious probes. Looking for traps. Not every Mother Priestess had been kindly. Some had secrets they would protect with their lives, or pay to protect with the blood others. ”Seems safe.” He crooned, turning back to shine his smile on his lady.

”Yes, alright.” He agreed. Hand on the doorknob he waited a few breaths just to repay her for teasing him in the armory. Winking over his shoulder before he used the opposite one to shift the old door open. It had not been touched in a very long time. Hinges creaking and dust scattering around them. He could sense that the room was a larger one, but there was no light inside.

When Eulalie had cozied in behind him he sent a ball of witchlight up. Hastily turning it down as the small ball reflected into a million and glared into his eyes. ”Hell’s Fire.” He cursed, searching for just the right ratio to brighten the room without blinding them. Once he had he cursed again, under his breath. Soft soled sandals quiet on the glass beneath their feet as he slipped in deeper. ”What in the… Someone sure liked looking at themself.”

He laughed, eyes traveling from floor to ceiling. All covered in mirrors. Every inch. Except for a few inches here and there were the mirrors were carefully cut to allow bars to be fitted into the roof and floor, or along a wall. He reached up to grab one. They were strong, he pulled up on it for a few chin ups. Laughing at the audacity of anyone who needed so many angles to see themselves. ”I… don’t get it.” He admitted, grinning at Eulalie and shaking his head. "Were they whipping people in here?" Was it some sort of torture room? He spread his hands along one of the bars. Another at his feet but he didn't spread his legs, too busy looking up at the bar to see if the metal had been scrapped in any spots by chains. It was not. He wondered if they used leather binds instead. Or if he had the whole room wrong.

[Eulalie Reneux]

”The what are you waiting for?” She urged him, but Vrai was having a little back at her. Eulalie let him, but only just, following right on his heels into the room. Her palms pressing into the back of his shirt without actually pushing him into the darkness. It was absolute, just a spear of greyish light following them into the room. Eulalie hovered at Vrai’s shower, squinting into the dark.

Her Red rushing to check the corners for tricks or traps, scalp tingling in warning. Nothing answered her seeking probes. The room was empty. Dark until it dazzled, Vrai’s witchlight scattering light across several dozen mirrors. Flinching, Eulalie his her face behind his shoulder, eyes watering at the painful brightness. Vrai swore, dampening his craft until the light was mellow. A soft glow bouncing from one mirror to the next.

Rubbing her eyes, Eulalie looked, Vrai abandoning her in the doorway as he explored inward. He made her smile, but she knew secrets that he did not. Understanding about the things she had read making her blush. ”Themselves.” She corrected quietly, following him farther in. Her eyes swept the room, watching the way she and Vrai reflected across the surfaces. Over and over again until they were an infinite pair.

Vrai hanging from the ceiling. Eulalie walking a slow circle around the room. The swirl of her skirts. The roll of his muscles. The floor was sunken, she realized. Clear glass tiles set several inches above the mirrors below. She could see the pale arches of her feet reflected below and above her. Attention drawn by Vrai, Eulalie came near, eyebrows wrinkling as she took in the bars. ”That doesn’t make sense.”

It didn’t. Then she remembered the way Isidore had panted and writhed beneath the lash. Toes pointed, Eulalie kicked Vrai’s leg wide, so that his foot swung over the anchor points in the floor. It spread him like a person about to he whipped. But there was no agony of sinners singing from the stones behind the mirrors. ”Not for punishment.” She looked up at him, tongue tracing her lower lip.

”Come down from there.” Arms twining behind her back, Eulalie turned on her toes, body rising and falling as she put her heels back down. Taking a deep breath, she pointed to the center of the room. ”There used to be cushions in the middle there.” Not many, or they ruined the reflection. ”But mostly they used cushioning craft to keep everyone comfortable. Or not, if they liked.” Shoulder rising, Eulalie peek at him over the slope of bone and flesh, wondering if he understood yet.

Not that she had to look directly at him. Vrai was a thousand places at once. Every angle hers to see.

[Vrai]

Chin tilted up to view the ceiling Vrai’s neck worked in amusement at her correction. Always half attentive, but their discovery was too entertaining not to steal some of that focus away. ”Themselves, then.” He agreed without really grasping the implication.

Grasping at the bars instead. And wondering at their use. Eyes drifting across the swirl of colors their clothes made in the million mirrors. Muscles working to lift his feet from the floor, his shirt rode up and down at the bottom and sleeves. Naval and biceps flashing. He was strong in that way of men who trained to be shields. Arms capable of wielding the whip until muscle peeled from bone and the ultimate cleansing of a soul was achieved. He did not look much like the Hand of Mother Priestess then, though.

More like a boy, or a very well shaved monkey. Fine, pale hairs swept down from his navel and into his pants. Never darkened by the changes that came in late boyhood. Much like his voice which was softer than his height and age implied. ”Why not?” He asked, of his whipping idea. It was a strange place to do it, surely, but from there you could see every bite of the lash across your own back. Nevermind that there was no stain of suffering in the room. Hearthwitches were very clever things.

”What’s in that head of yours?” He asked. Legs spreading at the touch of her foot. Glance moving down his own body to see if he could put together whatever thoughts she was working on. Nothing quite clicked. But as he dropped squarely to the floor again his eyes traveled from his sandals to Eulalie’s much smaller feet. Dancing up and down as she spun. Skirt lifting. Shadows giving way to slips of skin. And not skin.

Mother Night. He tucked his hands behind his back. The knuckle cracking loud in the confined space. He had not seen, he assured himself. And if he had it would not be the first time! Vrai stood over Eulalie on her Virgin Night. Beside the bed then, and several times since. There was no shame in thinking her body beautiful. None.

”How do you know?” He asked, distracted by her descriptions, which only puzzled him more. Why would you need cushions in a room full of mirrors? What could anyone want to- ”Oh.” there was the realisation. In his lap. Mind still caught on the fine, trimmed hairs the thousand reflections had shown him up Eulie’s skirt. Vrai crouched, letting his arms hide the growing hardness along his groin. Looking everywhere and finding no sanctuary. She was everywhere. Peering at him coyly over her shoulder. Eyes dark, as if she dared him to put the thought out loud. ”A room for sex.”

He knew things. He was not stupid. It just didn’t occur to him quite so quickly as it might some. His appreciation for Eulie’s beauty was too simple and pure for that. Despite evidence to the contrary at that very moment. Elbows tucked between his thighs he cupped his face. Hiding both a laugh and a blush. Light Headed with guilt he bounced on his toes. ”I’m so sorry.” No shame in appreciating her body. But plenty for the misbehavior of his own. If he didn’t think about it, he knew it would fade away. But it was very hard, so hard, to think of anything else when the mirror room poured it all right back into his eyesockets.

Would she think he was a fool? Or just be disgusted? He was disgusting. He couldn't even close his eyes. So he just stared at her face instead. Waiting on her laughter, or punishment.

[Eulalie Reneux]

Eulalie could hear the thought settling in his mind. She had the advantage of the journal, a glimpse written in half truths and hints. He had just the room, and Eulalie’s egging. But it settled, falling from head to tongue to air in a flat oh. So uncomfortable with it he bent near to the ground. But there was no escape here. The floor reflected Vrai’s despair like it reflected everything else.

”Yes.” She agreed softly, turning to face him. Worried she was being cruel to him now. Teasing gone too far. ”It was in one of the journals.” She explained. Eulie crossed to him, crouching too so that they were knee to knee. ”So far nothing too scandalous. At least not outright.” She shrugged slender shoulders, her arms a mirror to his, creasing her skirts between her thighs. Eulie touched a bouncing knee.

This close, and she could see what disturbed him. Color rising past his fingertips. A blush hidden and a laugh smothered. Below him and above. To each side and a dozen times over back and forth endlessly. Arousal. Or at least erection. Her thumb swept soothingly over his knee cap. ”Don’t be.” No reflection needed to see the spear that strained against his pants. But it was easier to view it through the infinite images rather than directly.

”I think she is beginning to warm up to her favorite subject, though.” Eulalie was hoping she was right. That prudence would be laid aside in a private journal. So she could read in detail just what they had done here. ”Really its more like an orgy room than a sex room. Even if there are only two people.” They became dozens in the mirror. And then dozens of dozens when you added more bodies. The idea erotic. Eulalie could almost picture it, but the image was hazy due to ignorance.

”So...” Something had to be done to dispel his unease. Eulalie could not have Vrai so uncomfortable in his own skin. There had been enough of that after the mishap with Georgette. She wanted her Hand back. Her friend. Her Vrai. ”How’s your cushioning craft?” She asked him, face serious for a heartbeat before she tossed her hair and laughed. Nipples as hard as his spear at the very idea.

But it was not proper. And Vrai was her hand. A eunuch and a friend. It would not be right for her to use him so. Standing, she held her hand out to him. ”Ready to go?”

[Vrai]

”I can’t believe someone wrote about this. Scandalous or not” He chuckled. Doing his damndest to keep his face covered fully. Equal parts frustrated and amused with himself. Lady helping not at all despite her efforts. Too kind, too generous in her concern. Eulalie met him on the floor and Vrai considered sinking through it. Body twining like an overtightened instrument he pried his hands from his face. Trying to focus on her words, and not the fact that crouching with him gave an entirely different view up her skirts. An indepth one, even, since she was nearer the reflective surface now.

His eyes drifted to floor. To the hidden crease between skin only a shade lighter than her arms and legs. Ass on display now, as she straightened her skirts between her thighs. Covering that place he had watched give and take pleasure. Its desires consuming his Lady from time to time. Tended by anyone but Vrai. A small part of him wondered if it was because they were forbidden to touch… or if it was because she knew he lacked experience. Perhaps even the skill to do what she required.

Made into a boy when it came to sex arts. All of his knowledge theoretic, none of his experience practical. ”What do you think her favorite subject is?” He ventured, grateful to think of anything other than the pleasant ache in his spear. Like a loose tooth. Begging to be wiggled, but he knew it wouldn’t help. It would only prolong the affair.

Which was already being dragged out by wild thoughts. ”Orgy?” He choked out the word with wide eyes that only grew the more she spoke. Two people? Like they were two people? He peeked again, at the spot on the floor that flashed up her skirts. What he expected to find he didn’t know. Tongue tracing his bottom lip he had a wild thought. About how easy she would be to tip over, squatting that way. Tip over and look at properly, not viewed through glass like a picture. Did she know he could see? If she did, was this a test or an invitation? He yanked at his knuckles again but they couldn’t crack a second time. No. Eulalie wouldn’t do that.

Not to Vrai. ”Hmm?” He looked up again full of guilt and anxiety. Never in his life had felt like such a stranger in his own skin. Lips parting he considered the question a hair too seriously. Barely masking his mortification when she broke into a teasing grin. It was too natural, the answer that rose up in his chest. Said in the same jesting litl of voice. ”Well, I wasn’t lying when I said they trained me to do a little of everything. We could find out…” If they were any good.

His cushioning spells, he meant. Probably.

Laugh nervous he bowed his head down into his hands again. Knees drawing together so he could set his elbows on their ends. There was no way he could resist reaching for the fingers that danced in front of his face. Smooth fingertips on his palm before he wrapped his thick ones around her wrist gently. Mouth quirking while he stood, too embarrassed to adjust himself in a room where she could judge him from every angle. ”Actually… I might need a minute before I go marching around the temple.”

Otherwise people would be getting a very unexpected view of Vrai. Chewing his cheek he motioned around the room. "So. What else does she say... about her org-" He smirked and bowed his head with a shake. Couldn't say it again. "Mirror room."

[Eulalie Reneux]

She tsked softly. Could he not guess? Eyes sweeping the room, Eulalie looked at them. Really looked. A room of mirrors, and near its center crouched she and her Hand. The shadow between her thighs caught and reflected back at her a half dozen times. She had not thought. Eulalie never wore anything beneath her clothes. No corset, no binder. No under garments of any sort. Not a slip of silk to cotton between her thighs.

She had donned them for the trip to the Keep and she wore them for her moontime, but that was all since she had begun puberty. Looking away from herself, she focused on Vrai instead. Was that what had done it?

”The sex, of course.” Greedy for power. So full of hunger. She’d had it here, too, the other Mother. Coordinating bodies into acts of pleasure like a general on a battlefield. Making pairs and threesomes or more. All arranged neatly to best please herself. If they enjoyed it or squirmed, so much the better for the lady at the center and her endlessly hungry cunt. A reflection of her gluttonous soul.

”Yes. Orgy.” Eulalie could understand it. She invited Jean Valerie into her room and made him kneel at the side of her bed. A priests tongue to lick her to completion. They had an understanding. She never took his spear, and never complained if he stroked it while savoring her tastes. Sometimes they spoke of things. Theories and scriptures. An understanding. Eulalie half wished him there now, so she could see his tongue wag over her lips. But it was hard to want for another with Vrai writhing before her.

Vrai who would not stop looking. Eulalie could feel heat settling in her stomach. Low and deep until her body began to sweat from it. Who laughed but shook as he did it. Offering her a chance to test his skill. Did they train for everything? Even sex? Some took part. They rose for virgin nights or the pleasure of a priestess. But Eulalie had never used a eunuch to sate her lust. She wanted partners as needy as she was.

So she stood instead, and offered him a hand to join her. Calloused fingers circling her wrist as he stood. ”So I see. We can hide in the book room a while.” She promised, eyeing the line of his spear beneath his pants. And why shouldn’t she since he had looked to well and long at her reflection? ”Come on. There are chairs, and we both know you are skilled with dust.” Eulalie linked her fingers with his and tugged.

The heat would become to much if they stayed here. Too much on display to each other. Away from their reflections, Eulalie let him go. In her empty hand a small volume appeared. ”Oh. Plenty. Want to read it together?” She gestured to a leather couch. Cleaner than the dust behind the bookcase would have implied. This part of the room and hardly used part of the temple, forgotten mostly except by discerning hearth witches who saw to its annual cleaning.

Eulalie was curious to know exactly how the bars worked. And why.

[Vrai]

Again his Lady said the word. No hesitation; completely unabashed. While Vrai made vain attempts to crack his knuckles. They ached at the press of his thumbs on the joints. Did Eulalie have orgys? Vrai could not imagine when she would. They seemed together all of their waking hours. But there was something in the set of her eyes that made him wonder. Perhaps it was just a thing she fantasized about. The scent of her arousal in the Keep at Isidore’s taunting returned to his mind. Or was she aroused now? He couldn’t bring himself to wriggle closer and take a better whiff.

A better look was an entirely different matter, however. Eyes drawn to the spot. Even after he glanced up to see Eulalie watching his watching. Vrai swallowed a nervous knot in his throat. Testing the boundaries of her game carefully. Not confident enough to offer himself blatantly. Open rejection would break him. It was why they had grown so good at dancing quietly around such things.

Eulalie danced now with gentle twists that left him too confused for dejection. His request to stay a bit longer denied. They would go into the book room to hide his indecency. But her eyes traveled his length- that length- with the same cool confidence as she said dirty words like orgy. Knuckles brushing his lips he flinched as it of its own accord. The stroke of her eyes nearly as potent as a touch would be. His hands too unused to feeling the softness of her skin not to have some physical reaction when there was already so much reacting happening in his body.

”Of course, Lady.” He agreed. Following obediently. Their joined hands like a leash he couldn’t dream of fighting. If she had asked him to lick the damn chairs clean he would have. Let him be good for something if he couldn’t be good for everything his lady required. In the next room the air was lighter. Open doorway a reminder that they were in a holy place. The temple a symbol of service to Vrai. Life molded around being Eulalie’s First and Hand. Eunuch. Sex should have not been in his head at all. Not unless she asked it of him.

Otherwise why would they have tried to cut it out of him? Lust bound his Lady to the flesh. Made her one of her people instead of impossibly apart. Being above such things was Vrai’s responsibility. He wanted to uphold that, without this newfound jealousy creeping into his heart. But dammit she made it hard. All of him hard. ”If you want to read it with me.” He answered meekly. ”If you rather read it alone I would understand.”

He would! He would!

”Or with someone else. I could fetch whoever.” Always someone else, his gut told him. Someone that knew what they were doing instead of blushing at her like a child.

[Eulalie Reneux]

So cowed by the very idea. Hand limp in hers, he followed. Wallowing in the room the way a child on the verge of a tantrum might. Behaving, but taciturn. Eulalie narrowed thoughtful eyes at him. Trying to pierce his barriers without applying any craft or pressure. It was unlike him to be so passive. So... unsure.

She pulled the outer closed with her Red, locking it with a hint if craft and warning. They were unlikely to be disturbed, but she would risk no one glancing Vrai this way. Spear hard and vulnerability exposed. Let them wonder from out there, where they could not know the truth or see him made weak by his flesh. The pages fanned in her fingers as she turned. Two steps to a small loveseat.

Eulalie sat, knees lifting, toes pressing into the crease between cushion and armrest. Elbow propped on the back of the seat. Room for him to sit behind and beside her. She opened the journal across her knees and ran her nail down the fold in the pages. ”I did not invite anyone else.” Sighing, Eulalie pulled her elbow down, arm draped over the book. She propped her cheek on her knuckles, swept probes over him.

”Vrai.” Her tone a warning. There would be honesty between them or nothing. No lies or evasions. ”Come sit with me. I won’t touch you.” Twisting in her seat, she crossed her legs over themselves, book closed and pressed into the bow they made. She leaned back, head resting on the back of the seat, wishing for mirrors again, so she could read his whole body without have to turn and look at him.

But turn she did. Eyes traveling across his beloved face. ”I can put the book away. Are you ill at ease?” What made him so uncomfortable? Her? The book? The unusual state of his spear? Eulalie did not know. Couldn’t even say it was an unusual state for his spear. ”This is not work or duty, and I would never ask you to do anything that did not please you just to please me.”

[Vrai]

Vrai pieced information together as it came. Not scolded for his looking. No shame as Eulalie looked back. Yet she shut the door. Making Vrai flush because he didn’t understand anymore. Was it wrong or was it not wrong? Both? Which parts then?

He studied Eulalie. Waiting to be told. But easy in her own nature his priestess lounged in the big chair. Flashing the pages of the book. The closest Vrai had ever felt to being flashed anything intimate by anyone. Her sigh turning his eyes back to her face. In time to stand under the stream of her probes and show there was only confusion and worry beneath his barriers.

”If you wanted to.” He said a little more insistently. Then he could escape. No, he didn’t want to escape. He wanted to free Eulalie. Let her enjoy the erotica in the pages on her thighs. Vrai needed no more encouragement. If she dismissed him now he knew exactly where he would go, and what he would do alone under the blankets in his room.

Shifting his weight at the shift in her voice he sighed some of the doubt off his chest. Never, in all their time together, had Eulalie made an offer she wasn’t satisfied with. If she didn’t want to read the book with Vrai, she would not have told him it existed. That was enough to make him close the space between himself and the seat. Her next words, however, gave him pause.

Calves pressing into the settee Vrai laughed. An unpleasant sound. Face turned away because the bitterness that flashed up in his chest was not at Eulalie. He didn’t know who to blame, either, so like a wave on a seawall it crashed back. Drowning him in a tide of pettiness he was more ashamed of than his cock. ”Of course, Lady.”

Of course she would not touch him. Why? He didn’t even deserve it. Petulant as he felt. 

”I am not uneasy over the book. I just…” He sat. That made turning his head into the hand he propped on the arm of the seat easier. What was he trying to say? What did he even feel? ”I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I feel so frustrated. I can’t even name why.” Everything. Nothing. All that upheaval gutted away in a single swift line. Was that what she thought? ”Don’t be ridiculous!” Vrai complained, turning back to Eulalie with eyebrows low and cheeks hot. ”Anything I can do to please you pleases me.”

Nevermind the weight of all the things he could not do to please her. Nevermind. He was just losing his mind. Brew imbalanced today, perhaps. Miel warned there would be days like that. When his body and the healer’s concoctions were not well met. Breathing deep, down into his stomach he tried to release the swirl of emotions. ”You read, Eulalie. Tell me what your kinky priestess did in her mirror room.”

She didn’t have to touch him, or wish he would touch her either.

[Eulalie Reneux]

Her sweet, confused friend. For a moment Eulalie imagined he did not want to stay. But that seemed so wildly unlikely. He had never once asked to be released from her presence. But. Eulalie chewed the inside of her cheeks. Would he? Even if he wanted or needed a moments peace from her or his work, would he ask? Probably not. It worried her. Reminded of Isidore again, and his accusation that she gave Vrai no room, no chance, to be master of his own life.

Maybe her cousin was right. At the promise not to touch him brought him close. Sitting with laugh very unsuited to him. Watching him twist his body away from hers, Eulalie felt all playfulness and arousal die. She was cruel, to play such games with him, to tease him about things he had no interest in. It was just mechanics. Nature over nurture. What cock would not rise as such blatant exposure to that which it had been designed to spear.

Putting her feelings aside, Eulalie listened. His faced turned into his hands, she could not read his expression past the curve of his ear. Would he lie or evade? He kept things from her, and nothing had ever gone well when he did. Lips pursed, she held the book tight. Felt the tension seep from her body and a smile try and tug her lips upward. ”Vrai.” She said softly. No brothers growing up, no long term lovers. Eulalie had no direct frustrations with the male sex beyond Isidore’s constant need to harass her.

But she understood the frustrations of denied desires very well. ”It is just that.” Fingertips near his thigh. She did not look at it again. Not sure either of them had likes it when she had looked directly at it before. ”Sexual frustration, I would guess. Body longing for release. I am sorry.” Responsible both directly and indirectly for his state. It would have been easy to slide her hand across his thigh and ease it for him, but Eulalie had promised not to touch.

It seemed such a foolish thing to have said now. Vrai’s hot cheeks turned on her as he scolded. How dare she doubt him! Eulie smiled. She never did. Not Vrai’s devotion. Just his happiness. ”But what about pleasing yourself, my friend?” She could give him something. Eulalie would give him anything. Her love for him was unconditional. She just simply wanted him, all of him, for herself. Eulie turned toward him, hand leaving the nearness of his thigh to sweep his hair from his face.

Automatically, she breathed with him. Deeply, into the quiet center that was not so quiet just then. ”Okay.” Looking at her lap, Eulalie opened the book. Heat creeping into her own cheeks. It felt so impersonal this way, not what she had pictures moments before when they’d left the mirror room. Of twining together on the loveseat to giggle over a long dead priestesses sexual conquests. Perhaps this was better. Safer. She glanced at him with looking, and found her place in the book.

”Summertide; the queen who tends the temple grounds has been impregnated. There will be a purge of all healers in the days to come, and long months of waiting to see who the father of this cursed child is. All the males have been summoned for questioning. The air thick with so many warlord princes, even the eunuchs prickle...” Hours spent as children sharing books, and a lifetime of learning how to calm, charm, or rile crowds, gave Eulalie a good cadence for reading aloud.

With Vrai it was easiest. Relaxing at his side without relaxing into it. She worked through the mundane details of the gathering, to her the conclusion was forgone. She knew this priestess now. What it must have done to have so many raiders in one place. Nearly an islands worth of men. Bickering and fight amongst each other until a select few were given another way to ease their tempers.

Captains who could be trusted. Eunuchs who would never share secrets. The lady’s apprentice, too. Eulalie remembered how she had been chosen, and paused to tell Vrai the story. Two. Two young women most suiting to the apprenticeship. A competition of sorts to see who could take a spear the deepest in their throats. ”A bizarre but fitting way for this woman.” What good was a priestess’ ability to suck a cock when faced with an insurrection. Or a queen pregnancy? ”I think she must have been a little mad.” Even Isidore was not so sex crazed.

[Vrai]

Promise in his name. So softly spoken by such familiar lips. Vrai did not have to look at Eulalie to know she had the answer. He could just hear it in the way her body moved. Hovering over his own, a weight he felt without feeling. Leg twitching until it brushed her hand. The warm pleasure at such a little thing made his inside clench. Parts of himself rarely thought of tightening. Balls, and inside places, a thousand muscles that should have forgotten the way to move at all.

”Why?” He mumbled into his hand. ”You’ve done nothing to be sorry for.” Only found a secret place with him. An activity they could both take excitement in. Too much excitement, in his case. ”I’m the sorry one. It doesn’t even make sense, I’ve seen you-” He stopped. Swallowed the words. She knew the ways he had seen her. Much more provocative than a flash of her ass. But she had been on other men’s spears then, his lady finding service in others. Viewing it all through the lens of clinical interest was the only way he could survive it. There only to insure his lady was safe, nothing else.

Thankfully it was a rare test of his spirit. Nearly as rare as he found reason to chide Eulalie. Let her test whatever parts of him she liked, but not his dedication. They were too long together for that. ”I said- your pleasure is my pleasure.” Knew no other, cut from his body or so they had said. Really just tucked so deeply down and drowned in brews he had never wondered. Books, Eulalie’s smile, those pastries with the cinnamon and cream cheese the chef served at breakfast. Those were Vrai’s pleasures.

He could not even remember the last time he had thought to seek another sort. Well, he could, but that had not been of his own volition. And the result too horrific for his mind to turn there now. Not when Eulalie opened the book with a blush to match his own. The pleasant notes of her voice sweet in the air as she started.

Relaxing against the settee he splayed his arm across the back. Listening intently while he stared at Eulalie’s knee. A pregnant queen and the temple filled with warlord princes. Like the eunuchs in her book his skin turned to gooseflesh. Imagining a thousand Isidore’s swarming the place. He could easily picture the worry the priestess’s guards would have suffered.

Even if she was a filthy creature. Up to that point the storytelling had been mild. Just the description of events slowly unfolding. There was a warm buzz of pleasure along Vrai’s spine to hear the darker details relayed in Eulalie’s own words rather than from the book. ”Down their throats.” Each word fell a second from the other dubiously. His eyes widening as he absently brushed his knuckles over the head of his own spear. Mouths were warm and lips were soft. They probably felt nice. But- ”Wonder the man wasn’t afraid of their teeth.”

Young men had talked of such things. Years ago, when Vrai was growing out of lanky limbs and into his muscle. Just before he was cut. Told of warm tongue on sensitive places, and the faces a lover made when they tried to swallow more than their throats could hold. He had daydreamed about it then. But on the day his father challenged his body against his faith the woman had offered. To take him in her mouth first. Shyness had made Vrai hesitant. And the way she quickly changed her mind on seeing him undressed sealed the act behind a wall of shame.

”Sounds like she was lascivious at the very least.” Vrai leaned closer, until their hips touched. Peering at the unread rows of words in the book. If that was how she had chosen her apprentice, how had she chosen her Captains? Or her Eunuchs? He realized only after he had rubbed his palm over the hardness that he had done it at all. Hand jerking away and embarrassment tucked into his shoulder. ”The strain of being Mother Priestess requires relief. I can’t say it is a bad thing for her to have embraced that nature in herself rather than constrain it. Obviously Paon did not suffer for her cunt.”

Hips shifting in the same spot he eyed Eulalie expectantly. Go on, his body begged, tell him more.

[Eulalie Reneux]

His thigh brushed her fingers. Muscle leaping toward her touch instead fo flinching away. It was Eulalie who withdrew, nails biting at his pants before she pulled away. ”Because you are uncomfortable. And frustrated.” Confused and full of wanting he was supposed to be free of. Eulalie wished the could kill the healer again. Not because she wanted Vrai incapable, but because without her mistake he would not be suffering now.

Months of agony avoided for all of them. But it was not possible to go back. Only forward. ”I know.” He had been beside her on her virgin night, and on most nights nights since. Guarding her. Disposing of what she ruined when her lust was greater than her restraint. Inner webs stroked to ruin by her Ebon-grey. It was why she took so few lovers, or even full lovers when she took any. Bed pets to cuddle at night. Priests to lick the heat from her blood.

Life full of temptations and denial.

”I heard you.” But did she believe him? Yes. Too long together. It made her stomach clench and her nipples tighten. How much of her pleasure was his pleasure? Now was not the time to test it. Too much uncertainty and anger. She opened the book instead and gave him what he asked for. Slowly relaxing into the reading. Vrai’s arm behind her. Eulalie sank deep into the leather with him, the story filling the room. Warming the cool, stale air.

Eyes flicking toward him, Eulalie half saw the movement, mostly taken with his expression, and the way he said the words. ”Yes. A mighty challenge for them, I’m sure.” She drew a knee up, tucking her foot beneath her, toes curling under her ass and near his hip. He seemed closer than he’d been before. Surprise in the angle of his eyebrows. ”Teeth are generally not a problem.” Lips tucked over them to protect the sensitive spear. Though Eulalie knew from previous reading some men liked the harsh scrape of teeth.

”The least!” Eulalie laughed. He was closer. She leaned in. Spine aligning with his side. He was tall enough that she could slide her shoulder under his arm. Felt his face brush near her as he tucked it away. Why? Eulalie twisted to look at him. Eyes sweeping upward. Still as hard as a man just brought to arousal. She pitied him, in a small way. Her own body feeling heavy and languid. At least it did not ache.

”You think not?” She marked her place in the book with a finger and thought on it. ”I’m not sure I can agree. If she had spent more time attending to her temple rather than her lust she would likely have never had a pregnant queen on her watch, or the need to call all the males in for scolding.” But to have them all there? The men of Paon were a breed above. Cut if finer, more dangerous cloth than all others.

A terrifying and exciting prospect that made Eulie press closer, arm resting on Vrai’s thigh. Taking a breath, she continued. Those chosen brought to the mirror room. A wrestling match held in the center of the room. Teams chosen and pitted against each other. Aggression expelled for a purpose. Eulalie’s heart raced. Her thigh drawn up over the other, pressing them tight together. Not a scrap of clothing allowed beyond the door.

”It was only a matter of course, given their natures.” Dominance won, and asserted. The leader of the winning team allowed to find release in the Mother Priestess while the men writhed, center stage, a feast for her eyes, and her apprentices. ”They were lovers sometimes, I think.” She shifted closer, body seeking his heat. It was growing harder to read the words in a steady voice. Harder than facing down a mob or fighting to keep her calm with Isidore.

”I’m cold.” She lied. But the tingle along her skin felt like freezing. Grasping his knee, Eulalie pulled until his leg was behind her on the seat. This way the could stretch out together. And she could hide in the warmth created by his legs at either side. Scooting into him, Eulalie curled between his thighs, and set her back to his chest, nestling his spear the the slope of her lower back. ”Ah... where was I...”

[Vrai]

”Certainly not the most practical way to choose.” But Vrai did not want to think about apprentices. Especially not pretty-mouthed ones that took spears in their throats. It made him swallow hard. ”You say that as if it is no great trial at all, though.” He could not imagine having anything the size of his spear in his throat. Or alternately, trying to fit it into a throat. ”But won’t they choke?” While asked less than innocently, considering the topic, Vrai’s question was raw with wonder. And his face raw with blushes.

Did Eulalie speak with practical knowledge or had she read it in the diary?

Wetting his lips Vrai savored her laughter. And the way she fit herself to him so nicely. Only glancing back when he squirmed under his own attention. Drawing her focus to what he had touched. Ironic that she might not have noticed at all otherwise.

”Queens will be queens no matter how diligently they are supervised.” Vrai reminded. Always drawn to defend the title of Mother Priestess, though he would defend Eulalie no matter what she was called. No matter how large or small her role in Paon was. ”Calling them together all at once was rather dramatic though. Unless she only wanted for an excuse to have them gathered. In which case the queen may not have had any choice in her pregnancy.” They could be cruel to that weakest of castes. Willing to turn a blind eye to mistreatment when the lady being mistreated called to the violent nature of men.

A nature which the next leg of the journal detailed. Both Eulalie and Vrai tensing at the telling. Details nicely woven in with inner thoughts as that long forgotten priestess described the dangerous game she played. He could feel Eulalie coiling in anticipation. Echoing the same emotion Vrai strained to catch every word. As eager to hear the winner named as the priestess had been to watch.

How could he not be absolutely invested in that man? Not chosen to serve the lady, but proving he was the only choice. Too bad the book was written only from her perspective. He would have appreciated that man’s view of the moment. It made him throb for such an opportunity. But what would he do beyond beating them all in a fight? Experience too sparse to known if he would please or disappoint. Shivering as her commentary brought him back from daydreams Vrai gasped at straws. ”The Lady and the Captain? Or the apprentices?” Maybe the whole lot.

It was a decent sized room. They could have all been lovers.

”Oh.” Cold. He didn’t know how when he felt so warm. But he started to spin a bit of warming craft anyway. The tendril falling away as Eulalie sought a different warmth. Tugging him into place and laying against his chest. He felt frozen without being cold. Afraid to move until she moved into him. It made him bite his lip. Hip half rocking towards her and a hand cupping her waist. ”Sorry. I’m sorry.” He took a calming breath. Deep into his stomach. The way they always had. Groin aching cheerfully at the weight of their touching.

Mouth brushing her shoulder he tucked his arm under hers to reach around the front and point. ”Here. After he finished, and she’s just started to tell us her plans for the rest.” They had been made to watch. Vrai felt his spear twitch. Tucked to her back, which held it to his body. Chair groaning in the places where he forced his hands to settle. Across the back once more, and down the side. Fingers squeezing the wood instead of his lady. "What happens next?"