Sunlight awoke the scribe of commoners. She was not mentalized to wake up whilst tangled between silk mantles and bronze extremities. Rani's uncovered chest softly heaved up and down still trapped in a deep sleep. Only now the memories and weight of her actions last night did flow into her.

"Oh…" Aloe sighed; her face pallid in shame. "I cannot believe I…" She didn't allow herself to finish that sentence.

It didn't matter what compelled her to do what she did, what mattered was that she did it and let herself be pushed around by lust. The only disappointment and rage in her body were solely directed at herself.

She waited on the bed, laying still as the naked princess shifted from time to time, her extremities locked by her tranced thoughts.

It didn't take long for an entourage of maids to make their presence into the room. They knocked on the door, but as no one responded, they took the silence as an invitation.

One of the maids gasped as she entered, her gaze locked on the scribe of commoners, but the rest went on their duties without so much of a reaction. It made sense as she looked older than the rest of the servants – which wasn't saying much as the oldest couldn't have more than twenty-five years – and wasn't likely to have been assaulted by the emir yet.

It spoke great length of the wealth of Sadina when Rani had maids dedicated to very small and niche activities like carrying food, opening curtains, and taking clothes out of the wardrobe. One of the girls was already waiting with a comb in hand to groom the sleeping beauty.

Of course, none dared to pester the princess until she woke up. It wasn't like they would let her sleep until she pleased, but it was clear that they were forbidden from waking her until a certain hour struck.

Thanks to the enhanced senses of her acuity – which Aloe had donned well before the maids arrived – the scribe noticed the bells tolling all across Sadina. Even with her acute hearing, they were nothing more than faint whispers in the emir's chamber.

Then, as the naked beauty shifted next to her, Aloe was overcome by a remembrance-induced panic.

My vitality! Her eyes flared wide open, drowsiness fleeing her body. Hastily and clumsily, Aloe reached for her clothes that had somehow fallen from her body and onto the ground during the night. Inside a small pocket in the dress, nearly invisible and undetectable, she reached for a black seed with her fingertips and instantly evolved two of them.

The sudden massive loss of vitality made her head spin, but the scribe had enough maximum vitality to not puke nor collapse by the loss of two adult-worth deposits of vitality.

Aloe pulled her back up to the bed with her dress clutched tightly on her dress. Oh heavens, that was close. A little more and she would have discovered my maximum vitality. The commoner panted heavily, and her eyes laid on the waking princess.

Rani peered at her with an amused expression, completely unaffected by any sleepiness.

"Is there an issue?" Aloe questioned, internally wondering if she had somehow been too slow and the sultanzade had noticed her abnormally big vitality deposit.

"No, none at all," Rani added with a smile. "I am just enjoying your bare and embarrassed self."

Upon hearing those words, the scribe became conscious of her nakedness. Not only she was displaying it to the emir, but also to the many maids observing them.

Aloe blushed brighter than the Blossomflame's flames.

The emir was more than pleased at the scribe's reaction, the woman put a hand before her lips and giggled, showing some decorum even if was floundering her breasts around for everyone to see.

"Girls," Rani clapped her hands once she was done with her amusement, "assist my scribe today too. Her mobility is lacking, and she will need someone to dress her."

Even if Lulu did dress her every day, Aloe didn't need any help at all to put on clothes. Still, she didn't refuse the help. It was embarrassing being naked, and everyone in the room had already seen her, so the best she could do was end her nudity as soon as possible.

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The efficiency of the maids was to be admired as they moved with such optimal movements that could only be born of ceaseless reiteration. They brought buckets full of warm and perfumed water and started wiping both women with soaked towels.

Aloe hadn't noticed that she needed to be clean until now, but once the film of sweat in her body was eradicated, she felt rejuvenated.

The toiletries took enough time for more trays to pour into the room bustling with food, more than enough for the scribe too. Aloe refrained herself from talking during the whole service as neither Rani did. Silence was a beautiful thing.

Not long after, both the emir and the scribe found themselves going to the throne room for today's audience, most maids stayed behind to clean the governor's room whilst she was absent.

The audience followed as usual, and not once did Rani comment on what had happened yesternight. Neither did any of the scribes, for that matter.

It pestered Aloe a bit that no one acknowledged it, but that was her being a hypocrite, for if someone did it, she would either fervently deny it or maintain starch silence on the subject.

Not even when she went back to her office did anyone confront her on the last night, which led Aloe to believe she had hallucinated everything until she pressed Lulu to speak.

"Ehm… well… I thought you wouldn't have liked to talk about it." The fair-skinned girl shyly said.

"I see…" It was no lie that she didn't want to talk about it, but she wanted someone to acknowledge it at least, even if it was a pained gaze. Acting like everything was as normal when it wasn't only pained Aloe more.

Considering it was a common consensus everyone had wordlessly reached, the scribe decided against acknowledging the act herself. The less she thought about Rani's tender and beautiful body, the better.

Days passed by with the typical monotony after that. Food supplies slowly dwindled, assassins kept being silent, and tensions slowly rose. It was slow, but everyone could see that it was happening.

The next week after New Year's Eve, Rani called for Aloe in her bedchamber again. Powerless to refuse, the scribe accepted the summon.

Unlike previous affairs, Aloe was forced to interact with Rani. Not only did the scribe have to please her per their accord, but the sultanzade found much enjoyment in also pleasing her.

Previously there could have been an excuse that their interactions couldn't be considered sex as they were unilateral, but since that day, that was no longer the case. As Aloe was ordered to please her in bed, Rani answered in kind to her caresses.

Aloe wasn't blind to the princess' actions; that much became clear the next time she was summoned. What they had… wasn't simple casual sex, but something far more competitive. Much like the emir had offered, she had trained the scribe in charm, though her methods were… peculiar to say the least.

Instead of explaining the theory and instructing guidelines like Naila, Rani took a more physical approach. During each act, both women wielded charm, and with subtle movements – whether sensual or strictly sexual in nature – Rani corrected Aloe's.

She was being, quite literally, taught through sex.

Aloe abstracted her mind during such lessons, preferring to erase all the pleasure from her mind and just focus on the instruction.

For she knew that if she faltered even once, she might lose herself in the bottomless pit that was Rani-al-Sadina.

The scribe had to think of it as an extension of her classes with Naila because otherwise, her heart wouldn't be able to take it. She kept telling herself that. She was doing it for Lulu and the instruction in Nurture, nothing else, and nothing more. Nothing else, and nothing more.

A couple of days after the last 'lesson', Rani departed from Sadina and went to the capital under the pretense of securing more Blood of the Sultanah to calm the rising tensions. Morals and beliefs didn't matter to people with an empty stomach, so making more fertile lands on the emirate would certainly improve morale.

Now that Aloe was aware of the imperial's Nurture, it was clear how the sultanzade managed to travel this fast between cities when traveling alone. She had heard from her mother how the previous emir, Hassan, traveled from Asina and Sadina on almost a monthly basis and never took more than a few days. The former scribe of commoners also liked to joke that the former emir was that hasty because he feared his sister would take his place.

Her mother had been right on the nail.

Rani only took three days, departure included, to come back to Sadina. Considering the woman's vitality, it wasn't strange as she could likely make the three-day mounted journey in half a day on foot.

The instant the emir came back, her body still covered in sand, she summoned her scribe of commoners straight out of an afternoon audience and took her.

Whatever conversation she had had with the sultanah, it hadn't pleased her, and it showed in the way it domineered Aloe. What scared the petite scribe wasn't how badly she was treated, but how little she cared.

Slowly but surely, with each passing bedding, Aloe was less against it.

And that terrified her.

A few days later, her dread only increased when she received a letter with the imperial seal. This soon already? It always made her heart skip a beat when Lulu brought her one of Fatima's letters, but this occasion was even worse, and not because of Rani's beddings. It had only been two weeks since the sultanzade had sent her last letter demanding more aphrodisiacs when it normally would take a month if not more.

The first line of the letter – salutation notwithstanding – drained the color out of her. It read:

I have yet to receive your package.