Death Be Not Proud

by ShinigamiDad

Smoke and Silver

Regel and his charges turned left down a narrow side street and worked their way into a maze of small alleys and dead-ends, stopping finally in front of an ancient, low, stone building. It had an ornately-carved frieze above its broad entry, and a pair of caryatid columns flanking the bronze-bound doors.

Luna stared at the stonework in confusion: “Why is all of this ornamentation scarred and defaced?”

Reaper squinted at a few scarcely-legible runes on one of the columns: “Liz’un…”

“One of the Lost Gods, again?”

“Yeah, one of the Goddesses, if memory serves me.”

Reaper turned a circle and looked at the fragments of old city wall worked into the surrounding, decrepit structures: “This has be the core of the old settlement from millennia ago.”

Luna closed her eyes for a moment and pursed her lips: “This must have been a temple, then.”

“That would stand to reason--re-purposed long ago when the Lost Gods were, well, lost.”

Regel had preceded Luna and Reaper up the cracked steps to the baths’ entrance, and was talking to a tall, bald, big-bellied man with a full, black beard. He turned and beckoned them to join him.

“C’mon, my Lord and Lady--Dux’a here’s waitin’ for you! He’s gots his best baths and best parzailen ready for the both ‘o you!

Dux’a bowed deeply: “Welcome to my humble establishment, honored guests! I hear tell that the Lady is a Princess of the Zaldun; is this so?”

Reaper returned the proprietor's bow: “That is correct. We have had a long and harrowing journey, and have many leagues ahead of us. Your town has been good to us so far, and this establishment comes highly recommended!”

Dux’a chuckled as they passed through the doors into the dark, hazy, scented interior: “Little surprise, since we are the only baths in Rixk’a!”

“How long has this old temple housed baths?”

They passed several screened-off side rooms, and a small dimly-lit antechamber containing a pair of musicians softly playing a lute and recorder.

“In a way, they have always been baths. This was a once a temple to the goddess Liz’un-urd’a-birna, the goddess of pleasure and fertility. The baths were in use then, too, though in more of a ritual sense.”

Luna raised an eyebrow and leaned in toward Reaper’s ear: “Temple prostitutes long ago?”

Reaper nodded: “I would assume so…”

Dux’a turned toward his guests excitedly: “Is that the speech of the Zaldun? I lived as a slave in the southlands for much of my youth, and heard many an exotic dialect, but nothing like that!”

Reaper smiled as Dux’a pulled back a sliding screen to a low, warm chamber, lit by guttering oil lamps: “Yes, this is the sound of Zaldun. The T’zesa understands only a few of our words, though she is a quick study.”

He surreptitiously winked at Luna who suppressed a grin.

Dux’a took them to a shallow marble pool, lined with cracked and patched mosaics of sea life. The perfumed water steamed, and a cauldron stood nearby in a tipping rig, primed to dispense additional hot water as needed.

“Allow me to introduce you to my two finest parzailen! I bought then freed them from bondage some eight years ago, and they have served me faithfully ever since!

Two slender, light-tan-skinned young women with long, sandy-brown hair and hazel eyes stepped around a corner and bowed. They wore simple linen wrappings that clung to their wet, tattooed bodies.

“I am Nahko,” said the first, flashing a shy smile.

“And I am Eska,” said the second in a rich, unfamiliar accent, stepping into the water and gesturing for Luna to join her.

Dux’a turned to Reaper: “Nahko will take you around the corner to a side chamber containing a similar bath pool, so that you may have your respective privacy.”

Reaper furrowed his brow: “What do you think, Luna? I’d feel a bit more comfortable if we weren’t separated.”

Luna stopped removing her robe and looked over her shoulder: “I suspect we are safe here, but I can understand your concern. I had assumed we would share this bath in any event--it is quite capacious!”

Reaper turned to Dux’a and bowed slightly: “As Her Highness’ bodyguard and manservant I must remain at her side at all times. We will share this bath.”

Dux’a eyebrows jumped and he opened his mouth to speak, but Luna cut him off: “Reaper egon'z en!”

Reaper cast his eyes down: “You heard Her Highness: I am to remain. I understand this is not typical here, but mixed-sex bathing is commonplace in Zaldun, particularly among the nobility.”

Dux’a shrugged: “I saw it in the south as well, but it always involved either lovers or eunuchs!”

Reaper kept a blank expression: “I can assure you I am neither.”

Dux’a nodded: “Well, Eska and Nahko will take excellent care of the both of you, and I will send a pitcher of my finest Goal'ur wine shortly. Please enjoy our hospitality!”

He pulled the sliding screens shut as he left the bath chamber, and could be heard shouting for wine as he quickly walked down the corridor.

Luna stepped, naked into the hot, steaming water: “Eunuch or lover: quite the choice! I have not heard of anypony gelded in centuries.”

Reaper tossed his robe across a low bench and slid into the bath, settling on a submerged shelf, wincing at the heat.

“Yeah, ball-chopping is still a thing on this world. I understand Dux’a’s confusion: he doesn’t realize we come from a place where everyone is naked ninety percent of the time!”

Luna settled onto another submerged ledge roughly six feet at a right angle to Reaper’s left, and leaned back against the pool wall as Eska took up a pitcher and poured water through Luna’s dark, tangled hair.

Reaper turned slightly toward Luna as Nahko slipped behind him and began rubbing his neck and shoulders with a piece of soaproot in one hand and a chunk of pumice in the other.

Eska worked soaproot and oils into Luna’s hair as the tension drained from her dark, glistening face: “Ahh...these fingers are a revelation! Would that I could grace the girls at the Ponyville spa with a set!”

Reaper smiled and turned as a servant slipped between the sliding screens and set down a tray containing two goblets and a pitcher, streaked with condensation: “Is that the wine?”

The servant nodded and poured a measure into each cup, handing one each to Luna and Reaper. He moved the tray within reach of Eska, and silently backed from the room, pausing to extinguish one of the lamps near the entrance.

The bath chamber was now barely lit, filled with steam and scented smoke, flickering shadows, and the sound of water poured against skin.

Luna leaned forward and Eska gasped: “What hurt the Lady?”

Reaper opened his eyes and looked up: “We were attacked by a pack of ostal. The T’zesa received that injury protecting her dalzi. I have cleaned and dressed it as best I can, but I am hoping you may be able to improve upon my poor skills.”

Eska nodded: “When she is clean, I can put a thing on the gash that will help.”

Luna took a drink of wine: “I note you have decided to alter the true nature of the encounter somewhat…”

Reaper took a drink as well: “I barely believe that happened myself! Besides, I think we’re strange enough without any embellishment, true or otherwise!”

Reaper closed his eyes and drank deeply as he laid his legs across Nahko’s lap, allowing her to scour and massage his legs and feet.

“You two are clearly not from the north. Dux’a mentioned buying you; where are you from?”

Eska paused in her ministrations: “Dux’a finds us years ago on one of his trips to buy spices and wine and herbs in Goal’ur.”

Nahko nodded as she lifted Reaper’s left leg over her shoulder in order to rub and clean the back of the leg and inside of his thighs: “He takes us from the war. Our mistress lost her place and had to run. Dux’a helped by buying us.”

Reaper slid off Nahko’s lap and rolled over, giving her access to his back: “The war. Eight years ago. Yunada?”

“Yes. We never see him…”

Nahko shuddered: “But his troop burn everything. Everyone.”

“I understand. What do you hear of the war now?”

“Yunada move north up the Zuri. Worry in town the walls may not hold.”

Luna took a long drink of wine and stood, taking Eska’s hand as she guided her guest out of the pool and onto a low padded bench. Eska knelt beside Luna and helped her roll onto her stomach with her long, dark arms folded beneath her chin.

“Do you think Yunada’s troops may reach this place? What will become of our young attendants in such a case?”

Reaper poured more wine: “If the walls don’t hold, he’ll sack the town and--well, Nahko put it best: burn everything. Fire is his signature.”

Luna looked at Reaper and furrowed her brow: “Dreams of fire and smoke…”

Reaper turned away and frowned as he lay back in the water and let Nahko scrub his chest and abdomen with coarse salt and soaproot: “Doesn’t matter. We just need to finish up here in the next day or so and get to Fort Torlek as soon as possible.”

Eska opened a small, brass-bound chest and removed several stone jars and pots. She opened three and began poring various oils and lotions onto Luna’s back, working her hands down from shoulders to buttocks to feet in long, strong strokes. She began to focus on Luna’s neck.

Luna sighed deeply as her eyes drooped shut: “Will we meet Gerrar before reaching Fort Torlek, or deal with him at the point of battle?”

“I don’t know; I hadn’t really thought that far ahead. I figure I can ambush him and tie him up--get him out of the picture, or maybe explain the situation and pay him off.”

Luna arched an eyebrow and peered out from a half-opened eye: “That does not sound especially promising. Do you truly think that you could be bought off?”

“It’s not really me. I am not the same man after all these millennia.”

“Perhaps, but you do share the same essence, the same spirit, yes?”

“At some level, yes.”

“Then how can you both be on Kur, then die and leave Kur? Can there not be but one of you, in the end?”

Eska moved away from Luna a few feet and warmed a small stone jar next to the fire’s glowing, smoky embers, releasing a sweet, spicy aroma. She dipped a finger into the jar and flicked some of the pungent, sticky contents onto the coals.

Reaper stretched out as Nahko held him aloft in the water, kneading his arms and neck, her eyes closed, swaying to the distant strains of the musicians.

“For all I know, Luna, Gerrar may well have ceased to be the moment I stepped through that portal.”

Eska slid back beside the massage bench, and began to work the dark red ointment into the gash across Luna’s shoulders.

Luna bit her lip and shuddered: “But what if he did not? How can we control the situation if Gerrar remains an unknown?”

Reaper glared at the ceiling, barely visible in the smoky dark: “As long as I die at the battle before the gates of Fort Torlek, what difference does it make?”

Luna’s skin suddenly flushed hot and her eyes dilated. Her breathing became shallow and rapid: “But...but the vision. What of th-that? That is not of Fort Torlek.”

Reaper heard the distant screams of battle and sat up suddenly and foundered, pushing Nahko back. He went under the water for a moment and came up sputtering: “Damn the vision! I know where I died!”

He looked at Luna and seemed to see a dark violet flame flickering above her brow. He squinted in confusion as a horn of fine, shimmering silver filigree blossomed from her forehead.

Luna opened her eyes and they too flashed silver for an instant.

Reaper crept forward, low in the water as Nahko settled into his abandoned seat and lay back, panting.

He faced the servant: “Eska! What is that stuff? What did you put on the T’zesa?”

Eska licked her finger and ran it around the rim of the jar before placing the tip delicately between Luna’s lips: “Mets’il. It is good for pain and to heal.”

Reaper looked on in shock as the ghostly outline of silver-grey wings coalesced above Luna’s shoulders like a fog.

He ran his hand heavily over his face in an effort to clear his vision: “By the Gods, no! Mets’il makes zaka look like candy!”

Luna smiled as she hungrily sucked Eska’s finger clean: “But the pain is gone now, Reaper. I have not felt this good since, well, I cannot recall when!”

“I know! We’re all feeling it! You’re projecting some kind of waking dream state!”

Luna grinned as she rolled onto her back and pulled Eska down on top of her. She grabbed the parzaile’s hand and guided it between her own trembling legs as she wrapped her other hand around the back of Eska’s neck and pulled her in for a deep kiss.

Reaper tasted the smoky, spicy residue of mets’il in the back of his throat, and felt a sudden, hot surge of pleasure in the pit of his stomach as Eska’s fingers slid inside Luna. Nahko moaned behind him.

Luna gasped: “I warrant you felt that as well!”

She arched her back as Eska took a dark nipple in between her lips: “I say again: these fingers are a revelation!”

Reaper squeezed his eyes shut in an effort to block out the alluring vision of Eska sliding her fingers deeper into Luna while grinding against her thigh, their mouths locked together.

To no avail: closing his eyes merely layered a fantastical radiance over the scene. He fell backward into Nahko’s waiting arms.

Luna smiled broadly as her eyes flashed silver-white again: “Your turn! If you would deny yourself and me the pleasure of our joined bodies, the least you can do is let me experience it through Nahko!”

Reaper felt Nahko’s hungry mouth against the back of his neck, and her searching hands reaching for his aching member: “The Lady must be Liz’un who is alive again! We should give her honor in the old way!”

Luna laughed as she twined her fingers through Eska’s hair, and began pushing the parzaile’s head down her abdomen: “No more princess for me! I have been reborn a god, it would appear!”

Reaper pried himself away from Nahko and splashed forward blindly to the opposite edge of the pool: “Dammit, Luna, this isn’t you! It’s the drug--it’s reacting with your dream power, spinning it out of control!”

A soft, low voice came from a far corner: “Not entirely out of control…”

Reaper looked around wildly for the voice, but caught only a glimpse of something shiny in the distance. He struggled to get out of the pool when his breath was taken away suddenly, and he flopped onto his back, legs dangling in the water.

His back arched as he felt Eska’s warm mouth press tightly against Luna’s waiting folds. He gasped as he felt her probing tongue.

He crawled past the two entwined bodies, one pale, one dark, both glistening with sweat and oil, until he felt the robe he had cast aside. He clutched it and scrambled on his hands and knees toward the screened entrance.

He looked back one last time to see Luna’s quivering legs crossed over Eska’s back. The phantom horn now glowed a ghostly blue-white, and he glimpsed Nahko shuddering ecstatically in the steaming pool.

Reaper shoved his way through the sliding screen into the passage beyond and heaved himself up against the wall.

He felt a warm breath against his ear: “Leaving so soon, Harbinger?”

“Shit!”

Reaper frantically pulled the robe on and stumbled toward the front of the bathhouse. He ran into Dux’a.

He clutched the large man’s ornately-embroidered vest tightly: “Do not go in there! I will return in a bit to retrieve the T’zesa. Your servants are in no danger, but they will be...occupied for a while!”

Dux’a extracted himself from Reaper’s grasp and glanced over his shoulder: “I do not understand…”

Reaper pulled the big man back around: “You don’t need to understand--” He pressed two flawless, marble-sized diamonds into Dux’a’s palm: “Understand?”

Dux’a furrowed his brow but opened his hand and nodded: “I will leave the T’zesa be until you return. But I cannot be held to this if I hear sounds of distress!”

“Oh, you’re going to hear sounds, I’m sure, but not anger or fear or distress. I assure you the girls will be safe. Just do not go in there!”

Both men turned at the sound of dual, low, full-throated moans coming from the bath pool chamber.

Dux’a bit his lip, looked again at his open palm, and stuffed his hand into his vest pocket: “Very well. Will you now go back to Tal’ar’s?”

“I just need to get outside for a bit to clear my head--too much wine and mets’il…”

“Ah, so Eska broke out her private stash, did she? I have not yet been able to track down her source. I know she is not taking it from me--I have mine under lock and key!”

Reaper awkwardly jammed his feet into the clogs Tal’ar had loaned him and stumbled toward the front doors. Dux’a hurried over and held the door open for him.

Reaper squinted in the bright afternoon light: “I’ll be back shortly--I just have to get my wits about me before I go back in there!”

Dux’a nodded and slowly closed the ancient, scarred door.