Yamini and Sirrush were still going at it when Solvei left the dining hall.
Pulling the door closed behind her, Solvei grimaced as she caught one final glimpse of the two of them. Both the tiger-woman and the dark-skinned drey (whatever that was) were flushed, the two of them breathing heavily as they stared at each other, faces inches apart. The only thing that made them look away from one another’s eyes was when they glanced down at where their bodies were touching, grunting softly – and not so softly – as they tensed and pressed against each other more.
She pulled the door shut just as they finished, Yamini’s voice crying out an instant before Sirrush’s echoed her, their fun having reached its climax.
I can’t believe that’s their idea of a good time, groused Solvei to herself as she wandered down the luxurious hallway, idly picking at the plate of vegetables she’d taken. Honestly, after everything that’s happened today, arm-wrestling is the last thing any sane person would want to do.
“Give it up, stripes,” came Sirrush’s voice through the door, which wasn’t thick enough to block out the satisfaction in her tone. “You can’t beat me.”
“You cheated!” growled Yamini. “I was winning until you turned your hand all scaley like that!”
“Says the girl who set her hand on fire after we started,” snickered Sirrush. “Too bad for you, I knew to use flame-retardant magic ahead of time.”
“Then I’ll just make it hotter next time! Come on, one more round!”
“You’re on! I wanna hear what new excuses you make after you lose again!”
Which just proves that those two definitely aren’t sane, groaned Solvei as she walked faster, eager to put the renewed sound of feminine grunting behind her.
Walking aimlessly, Solvei glanced at the doors lining the corridor, looking for one that would lead her to a bedroom where she could hopefully get some rest. Just so long as it’s not the one that Spice girl is in, she decided, shuddering as she recalled what Carnelia had told her, both about “succubus demons” in general and Spice in particular. The last thing I want is to meet that Sugar thing she told me about.
Her stomach flip-flopping in revulsion at the idea, she picked a door at random, putting her ear next to it to make sure-
“Oof!”
“Huh?!”
A half-second’s warning was all Solvei got, the smell of water and the sound of footsteps hitting her just before the door opened and a blue-skinned beauty collided with her, sending them both tumbling to the floor.
Solvei just laid there, making no move to get up as she looked at where her lunch was now strewn across the ground. This was it. This was the final insult. She didn’t know if this was some kind of punishment from the Night Mare, or if she’d been cursed by Hrothvitnir, or if her ancestors were spiting her, but this was absolutely the final indignity, and now-
“I’m so sorry! Are you alright?”
“...am I alright?” Slowly looking up, one eye twitching as she got an eyeful of another of Lex’s playthings – Dima, she remembered this one was called – when the near-naked girl bent over and extended a hand toward her, Solvei felt the last of her self-control shatter. “AM I ALRIGHT?!”
She didn’t notice as her howl made Dima recoil, instead forming a gauntlet of black crystal around one hand as she rose to her knees, focusing her wrath on the fallen plate; the latest in a long line of things that had gone wrong.
“NO!!!” she roared, bringing her armored fist down on the porcelain dishware, shattering it into a thousand pieces. But she didn’t stop, instead continuing to pound at the remaining fragments, a new word escaping her with each strike. “I!!! AM!!! NOT!!! ALRIGHT!!!”
More words came pouring out then, and she stopped trying to match them to her strikes, instead creating a matching gauntlet on her other hand and continuing to vent her wrath on what was left of the plate. “My home village, which was attacked by yetis years ago, was just attacked again by a pony who wanted to force himself on me and probably would have if he hadn’t been interrupted by those elves! And they wanted to dig through my mind the same way that Burly guy wanted to do to my body! And when Lex – my oh-so-beloved master who ran away at top speed after we finally became lovers – came back to save the day, he brought an entire collection of tramps with him, all of whom he’d banged while he was gone!”
Barely away of how the temperature was dropping around her, or that the plate had by now been well and truly reduced to dust, Solvei continued to slam her fists against the door, which was crumbling under the assault.
“And even worse is that EVERYONE ELSE IS OKAY WITH IT!!! Nenet seems to want to be friends with Agapay and Branwen and probably all of Lex’s other sluts! Mei Li thinks it’s great that our ‘husband’ has more ‘concubines’ to help with his ‘yin’ deficiency! So much so that she’s volunteering the rest of her family’s vixens for the job! And it’s not like I can say anything after what happened with that Gwyn-woman, since if I did that’d make ME the bad guy!!!”
She punctuated that last part with a two-handed blow to the floor, which by now was sporting a not-so-small crater.
This time, however, Solvei didn’t pick herself up afterwards, instead staying down on all fours as she drew in ragged breaths of air.
“And the worst part is that Lex is off on his own. Again. Leaving me behind. Again. While he faces who knows what kind of danger that I can’t help him with. Again.”
She let out a whimper then, shoulders slumping. “Did you know I lost contact with him for a short time just now? One moment I’m sitting there, listening to Mei Li talking to her aunt in some language I don’t understand – and then start apologizing to me because apparently it’s rude of her to confuse her ‘elder sister’ – and then Lex is telling both of us that he’s going through some sort of ‘dead magic zone’ and that he’ll be out of communication. But it’s okay, because it’ll only last until he leaves it...like that made me feel better, even though he was right.”
Silence reigned then, and Solvei found that her breathing had become ragged, tears pooling in her eyes for some reason. “I hate this. I hate all of this. I’m glad my parents are back, and I’m glad everyone’s alright, and I know that Lex loves me, but I hate how...how...”
“...how nothing seems to make sense anymore, you have no idea what’s going to happen to you or the people you care about, and it’s terrifying how there doesn’t seem to be anything you can do about any of it.”
Sniffling, Solvei looked over at where Dima was crouched down next to her, her expression one of sympathy. “I know how you feel.”
“How could you possibly know how I feel?” muttered Solvei, ignoring that Dima had perfectly described her state of mind. “And cover up, will you?! The last thing I want to see is you flashing your goods everywhere!”
She’d said that last part just to be petulant, almost hoping that the cerulean-skinned girl would get upset and start a fight. But rather than arguing, Dima waved one hand in front of herself. Water followed after it, the clear liquid draping over her in the form of a dress, which immediately began to swirl and foam until it formed whitecaps, the liquid garment rendered opaque enough that her bikini-clad body wasn’t visible beneath it. “Better?”
“...I guess. Still doesn’t mean you understand what I’ve been through.”
The words sounded childish even to her own ears, and Solvei knew that if her grandmother had been there, she would have laid into her.
But Dima simply gave her a sad smile. “One month ago, I was living with Lady Almina and my sisters in the City of Glass. Other than the occasional kidnapping attempt, or Lady Almina trying to run off, things were peaceful. Then Lex summoned her, and she summoned us, and now...”
She waved her hand again, this time to indicate the mansion where they were standing. But while she knew it was meant to be a sympathetic gesture, Solvei still couldn’t find it within herself to commiserate with one of the girls Lex had all but thrown her aside for. “Yeah, because you seem so miserable about being part of whatever orgy he threw.”
It was with a spiteful sense of triumph that she saw the smile fall away from Dima’s lips then, her eyes narrowing. “Our job – my sisters and I – was to keep Lady Almina safe and her virginity intact. Thanks to Lex, we failed on both counts. Now, none of us can go back to the City of Glass – which has been our home for almost a hundred years – ever again, or we’ll be executed for failing so badly. Not to mention that Lady Dima is going to be disinherited and cast out of her father’s house.”
Solvei wanted to say something awful in response to that, to make some cutting remark about how Dima could screw her way out of whatever problem she was facing. But she couldn’t bring herself to do so; not when there was something else in what she’d just heard that she couldn’t ignore. “Are you saying...Lex and this ‘Lady Almina’ person...did they...?”
“Oh, they did,” sighed Dima, her voice bitter. “Did they ever. And there was nothing my sisters or I could do about it.”
Solvei slumped over, feeling dazed. “So it wasn’t just you and those other six girls he brought back?”
Dima snorted. “Are you kidding? Between the retinues that all of those other titans summoned, there were several dozen girls there, and he helped himself to each and every one of us.”
Another long period of silence fell, both of them lost in their thoughts, until Solvei finally spoke at last.
“Did Lex...you said he ‘helped himself’ to all of you. Did he...”
She couldn’t finish the thought, her stomach turning over at the thought of Lex acting like Burly Brawl.
Dima seemed to know what she meant, however. “Did he force himself on us?” She sighed, looking up at the ceiling. “I don’t know-”
“You don’t know?!” Somehow, that answer was worse than if she’d said yes. “How can you not know?!”
“It happened fast, alright?!”
Dima’s answer came with a ferocious scowl. “One minute Lady Almina vanishes, and we’re all panicking, thinking that she’s been called by that Adagio woman again – the last time she did that, Lady Almina came back without some of her aristeia, having cut what we all knew was a very bad deal – and then we were all summoned, and found ourselves with her in a place we’d never seen before, facing not just a stallion of incredible power, but also a half-dozen other titans, all of whom had their own guards with them! He was demanding answers about Adagio, and no one appreciated the abrupt treatment, and next thing I know we were all fighting him and each other and then suddenly things...changed.”
One dainty hand came up then to pinch the bridge of her nose. “I swear, I don’t know how it happened. One minute everyone was trying to kill each other, the next he was using all of us like he owned us...and from what I can tell, no one wanted him to stop. It was like some kind of crazy dream.”
Solvei frowned at that. “A dream,” she murmured, recalling how she’d thought the same thing after her first time with Lex, only to realize that it had actually happened.
Except, now that she thought about it, that was strange. She knew Lex well enough to know that he’d never pounce on a girl while she was sleeping; his code of honor wouldn’t allow it. So then why...?
Misunderstanding Solvei’s lapsing into silence, Dima’s expression softened. “For what it’s worth, I’m not sure if he was completely in control of himself either. There were a lot of succubi there, and I’m pretty sure they were throwing around magic charms. Not to mention that dragon-titan’s breath weapon made everyone lose their clothes, and it might have been some sort of aphrodisiac as well, now that I think about it. Plus, that devil-titan...”
She kept talking, but Solvei wasn’t listening, instead examining what had been going on with Lex that night with a more dispassionate eye. He’d been shocked when she’d woken up; she’d felt that across their link, but she’d assumed it was because of what had happened with Mei Li.
She found herself questioning that assumption now. While he’d clearly not intended to form a soul-bond with the kumiho, that didn’t mean that was the only thing – or person – he’d done without meaning to. If anything, what had happened with Mei Li was evidence that he’d been having some sort of breakdown, which was the only way he’d ever take liberties with her or Nenet while they were sleeping, using them for his own pleasure as if he was some sort of animal...
Or a beast, Solvei realized in a flash of insight.
It hadn’t been difficult to put together what had happened to Lex when they’d left Darkest Night. In the wake of her own merging of two souls into one, it had been easy to see that Lex had undergone the same thing...and given the vicious creature that had been attacking them at the time, she hadn’t needed to ask who he’d merged with.
But while she’d managed to reconcile Solvei and Akna into a single individual, their two souls merging into a single whole, she’d never thought to ask if Lex had done the same with that creature. She’d simply taken it for granted that he’d crushed its will; after all, it was just an animal, and he was Lex Legis. If he’d seemed more vicious after that, it had to have been because of all the stress he was under.
By the time he’d become a titan, he’d seemed to have even that under control. She could still remember how detached he’d seemed at first, almost emotionless in the wake of his transformation. The very idea that he’d still been battling the urges of that beast from the Night Mare’s realm had seemed too preposterous to contemplate.
Now, however, Solvei wasn’t so sure.
Which means that he wasn’t running away because he was ashamed, or because he didn’t want us, groaned Solvei inwardly. It was because he was having trouble controlling himself, and was afraid of what he’d do. And if that was the case...
“...what’s wrong?”
Solvei blinked as she looked at Dima again, suddenly seeing her in a new light.
“Nothing,” she answered after a moment, sitting up. “Listen, I’m sorry about how I acted just now...”
That brought a smile back to Dima’s face. “It’s alright. Like I said, I understand how you feel.”
“Yeah...” It was still awkward to be commiserating with one of the girls Lex had used as an outlet for whatever urges he’d been fighting. For that matter, she wasn’t even sure that was really what had happened, and she didn’t dare ask Lex now; the last thing he needed was to be distracted while he was doing whatever he was doing in Darkest Night. But as soon as he gets back, we’re GOING to have that talk he promised us.
Until then, though, there was nothing to do but to try and make the best of things...which meant acknowledging that she wasn’t the only one dealing with the consequences of Lex’s actions.
“Are your sisters okay?”
This time, Dima’s smile was smaller. “I hope so. Most of them have probably gone back to their families for the time being; the City of Glass is expensive to live in, so none of us are from there originally. Since this place is warded against planar travel, I was going outside to send them a message when I bumped into you.”
“Wait, their families?” Solvei’s brow furrowed. “I thought you said you were sisters?”
Confusion flickered across Dima’s face, followed by comprehension, then amusement. “I didn’t mean that we’re blood relatives, just that we’re like family to each other. We’ve risked our lives together, live in the same quarters, and shared pleasure. ‘Sisters’ is the closest...”
She trailed off, arching a brow as she saw the expression on Solvei’s face. “What?”
Unable to help the way she was grimacing, Solvei surreptitiously put more space between herself and Dima. “‘Shared pleasure’?”
Looking confused by her reaction, Dima nodded. “Of course. Only veela who desired their own sex were eligible to be chosen as Lady Almina’s bodyguards. Otherwise, some enterprising rake could have seduced one of us to get to her...not that that stopped your husband,” she added in a wry voice. “That’s another thing I get to deal with now: having to figure out my preferences all over again.”
Resisting the urge to mutter several choice comments under her breath, Solvei instead opted to focus on something else. “What’s a veela?”
Dima blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“You said that only veela who...you know...could be Lady Almina’s bodyguards. I don’t know what that is.”
Dima’s eyebrows went up. “The elemental dancers? The most graceful race in the Inner Planes? Beings of pure sensuality and elegance, whose movements can entice even the hardest of hearts?”
Solvei shrugged.
That seemed to upset Dima more than anything else that had been said so far, throwing her hands in the air as she let out a groan. “What kind of backwater world is this that its people don’t know about us?! Look, my sisters can wait, I’ll put on a dance for you right now-”
“That’s okay!” blurted Solvei, taking a step back. “I’m good, really!”
Dima gave her a flat look. “Will you calm down? I’m not going to do anything untoward. You’re not my type anyway.”
“I’m...” Pausing as she digested that, Solvei wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or insulted. “I’m sorry, what?”
“I don’t care for fur,” stated Dima bluntly. “Maybe if your coat was thin and water-repellant, like a selkie I once knew, but I can tell just by looking at you that it would soak up the moisture and look all bedraggled. And probably smell like a wet dog, too.”
“Excuse me?!” She had a sudden vision of freezing Dima’s dress solid around her. And then throwing her off the cliffs surrounding Hvitdod’s lair.
“Oh, don’t deny it. Now, come make yourself comfortable” – she pushed open the door behind her, revealing the entrance to the large room with the swimming pool Solvei had seen earlier while touring the mansion – “and I’ll show you why I was one of the ones chosen to guard the daughter of the shah of the City of Glass. He wanted only the best for his little girl, and that meant someone who could not only protect her, but act as a symbol of her status whenever she appeared in public. If I can awe visiting merchants from around the cosmos with how I dance, I can certainly impress you.”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” groaned Solvei as she let herself be led toward the pool.