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Chapter 33: "The Talk. No, the Other One."

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Yun closed the door behind them and fiddled with the frame. Shae saw a few symbols and lines light up. She wanted to talk but was still overwhelmed. All she got out was a huff.

"So, unspecified emotional effects." Yun asked with a smirk and raised eyebrow as she returned to the young woman's bedside and sat on it. Grabbing her free left hand between both of her own.

Shae squeezed in thanks for the comforting gesture and tried to force a smile. "I... I think that I don't want to see those two again. Definitely not anytime soon."

"That's probably for the best, and should be simple to manage. But, you had quite the blush when I came in. Don't dodge the question."

She looked away from the woman. Mentally reciting, don't stare at her cleavage, to herself wasn't working. Even with Yun's conservative outfit, she still had plenty to show. This is ridiculous, I was never like this on Earth. Even that one time I got a little too personal with my personal trainer. She felt herself flush again.

"Oh?" Yun teased. "What are you thinking about now?"

"Vari~ety." Her voice cracked. She forced a cough. "A-hem, I think it's safe to say my emotions have been elevated by the doctor's drugs."

"Aahh. Elevated. That's it. Yes, I suppose you didn't get quite this flustered by me the other day. I was worried it was the other two."

Shae gave her a sharp glare then had to look away immediately. "Fairy Yun is very attractive. I wasn't expecting her to hold me so close to her heart."

"Oooh, sly wording, and, informative. I appreciate the compliment." She hummed while considering her next words. "Do you need a moment to recover?"

"That would be appreciated."

Yun set her hand down and patted it. Then walked to the other side of the bed. She bent over in a very particular way to recover the legal book that Shae threw on the floor. Then walked back with a noticeable amount of sway in her hips.

Mainly noticeable to Shae who was watching intently. She looked away again as Yun turned to face the bed.

"Please, look, look!" Yun was smiling wide.

"But-"

"Yes, look at my butt, too!"

Shae snorted a laugh.

Yun pushed her towards the right side of the bed and tried to climb on. The bed was too narrow, but that couldn't stop a cultivator, she sat as though there was plenty of room. "I don't know how it was in your past life, Shae, and I won't speak for all women in this world. So I'll say that I like being looked at, appreciated for all the work that goes into my daily routine and the decades of cultivation that has gone towards making me the beautiful Fairy I am today. It's most of the reason I still mind tables at the restaurant."

Shae shifted so she could grab the other woman's right hand with her left, wrapping their arms together. "Some people liked that. In my past life."

"And you? Did you like it? Were you as beautiful in your past as you are adorable now?"

She snorted out another laugh. "I thought I looked nice. I kept fit and dressed well. Hard to compare to the fairies here, though."

"Hehehe. Well, you'll have to learn painting at the sect and send me a self portrait of the old you. I'd love to see it, I bet you were lovely." She leaned over and kissed the top of the young woman's head.

Shae found herself blushing again. At least this time it's just from embarrassment. She glanced over, directly into Yun's cleavage. Mostly. "Not fair, Yun. I'm in an emotionally vulnerable state!" She squirmed away from the attention and got nowhere.

"Oh, if you think this isn't fair, just wait until you get to the sect. Dozens or sometimes hundreds of beautiful fairies all around you, and the men! You do like them too, yes? That's what that variety comment was?"

She groaned and tried to squirm straight down through the bed.

"Well, most will just be cute boys for now, but they will mature into handsome, muscular men. Muscular women too, though not as many. I always thought that was a shame." She sighed.

The young cultivator had almost squirmed down into her blankets but her bound right arm was really restricting further progress. "This is cruel and unusual torture."

Yun snorted a laugh this time. "I suppose I may be taking advantage of the situation. It's good that you're exploring your attraction. Too many kids get scared off by the talk and just repress a lot of their feelings. They won't talk about it much, but you can bet it affects their cultivation."

Shae peeked out from her nest of embarrassment. "Scared by the talk? Do you mean a different talk? Or the sex one?"

"Yes, the sex one."

"And that scares people off of exploration and getting into relationships? This must be a very fire and brimstone type talk. Religious extremists back home would kill for something like that."

"Hehe. Well it sounds like it could be a different talk than the one you are used to. You won't be getting it from me, however. I think they do a seminar at the sect in the first or second term. Hand out pamphlets and have tiny sandwiches."

"Yea, sounds like celibacy brainwashing camp. Do they hand out rings or other jewelry to signify your purity or something?" She emphasized with heavy sarcasm.

Yun made a noise as she rapidly inhaled her breath through clenched teeth. "Well, that would probably be a bad idea. A bit dangerous even."

"O-kay. Now I feel like I should be worried. What's the big deal?"

"Hmm, well maybe I've said too much. You can look it up at the sect, or wait for the seminar. And do wait, Shae. Not just because of the fire and brimstone. Oh, and try not to freak-out about it. I suppose from a mortal's perspective it would be rather absurd."

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"You're teasing me."

"I'm not." Yun looked down at the young woman, stern gaze that said she was deadly serious. The next beat she smiled, "But, it looks like you've gotten over your blushing fit!"

"Mmmhm. I guess." Her face was still scrunched up in confusion.

"Honestly I'm a little regretful I won't be there to see you tear someone's head off about how absurd it is."

"Hey. You don't know that I'll do that, and you just asked me not to freak out over it."

"Well, you did storm off in a rage because of an implied threat to your person."

"That was not why I walked away." She huffed.

"Hehehe, I suppose it wasn't. Now, let's look at your little legal dilemma." She unwound their hands then flopped Tan's large legal book onto both their laps.

The young woman crawled up into a sitting position again while the fairy scanned the table of contents. Shae smiled at how they were sitting, then called out with childish glee, "Yay! Story time with Sis-Linnuan!"

Yun snorted out a laugh without breaking her focus on the book. "It may just put you to sleep." She kept a wide smile that wrinkled the corners of her eyes.

Shae smiled back for a breath or two, then looked down and frowned at the long list of chapter names and subheadings. "Is there an index? Might be faster to search 'reward' or 'bounty' there?"

"Hmm, good point." The older woman shifted the book to the side and lifted the bulk of the pages vertically between them. "You look there, I'll look here."

Shae awkwardly managed the pages with one hand, but quickly found the entry. Then checked a few other places until she had several pointing to the same place. "Try section three-seven, probably the latter half."

"Three-seven did look promising. You flipped around a bit, did something else point there?"

"Yep, contractors and deputies both did."

"Ahh good, let's start there."

Yun quickly flipped to the section and read through it much faster than Shae could. "Good guess. I think I found the problem we are dealing with, though I'll need to cross reference a few sections. We can keep chatting if you'd like."

"Sure!" The young woman began to think of the next topic with a hum.

"Oh, no humming, please. I could never handle humming while I work."

"Ah, speaking of work, then. You seem like you've done this before?"

"Broadly, yes. It's similar to my role at the restaurant."

"Uh, similar to waiting tables?"

"Hah, not that. I guess we haven't talked about it." She looked up from the book to give Shae a sorrowful smile. "Maybe I need to apologize. I've learned so much about you, but shared so little."

She shrugged, and matched the smile. "It's been a weird couple days. Well, a weird couple weeks and months, for me."

"Heh, still. We should talk more. I guess we did plan on sending letters, you can drag my life story out of me then, I guess. Save them for me, though. Will cut down on the work when I need to write a memoir." She chuckled. "So, what I actually do there is manage their books and finances. Tracking the money, in and out."

"Oh! You're an accountant. So, what were you doing at the auction house today? They let you spend their money too? Seems like a conflict of interest."

"Well, someone has to. I just so happen to have contacts at that auction house, so I get to go. Good business in this city is mostly about socializing, and cultivators are good for that because people step more carefully around them." She turned an accusatory raised eyebrow toward Shae. "Most people."

That just made the young woman giggle. "Yeah. I'm kind of a menace sometimes."

"Oh, thank the heavens you can admit it." Yun looked up at the ceiling then returned to the book.

"Heh. So, accountant, eh? And you were at the sect? Were you in the analyst department with Scribe Bai?"

"Scribe Bai. Brother Bai. Junior Bai. Which Bai?"

"There was more than one?"

"It's just a name, there are many."

"Sure, but in the analyst department?"

"Ah, well not as many, but the analyst department isn't technically real. It's the Scribe department, so it's larger than you might expect. What people choose to study there is their own business."

"Oh. Huh. So, you were acting as hostess the other night just for fun?"

"More or less. When I first took the job posted at the sect it was for an account-ant, as you call it." She emphasized the added suffix. "Hmm, I like that title, shorter than accounts manager or the other variants. Anyway, it would be absurd for the restaurant to post a job for a server or other front-of-house staff at any sect. Still, having stronger cultivators on hand is important. So once here, I was asked to try it out, and I liked it."

"Huh, makes sense."

Yun nodded into the book. "As I said, I like being admired, and being stuck in the back office wasn't working for me. As a plus, I am able to help the other servers out by acting as muscle."

"Muscle? Like a bodyguard? I didn't get the impression the restaurant had that problem."

"Usually not, but we do serve cultivators, more on some days. Having someone that can meet their gaze evenly is quite important. There were rarely problems before I arrived, but now that I'm here: we avoid those situations much more easily."

"Hmm, wait. So, how does that answer why you were serving me and Long? Just because you wanted to? Oh! Were you expecting trouble from him?" Shae snickered to herself.

"Heh, mostly because it was already planned as a slow day, and so most of the staff was off duty. I was picked for two reasons, well three if you include being a capable hostess."

"Uhh, because Long is a strong cultivator?"

"Surprisingly, no. He's a regular, and Van's longtime friend, so he gets along with all the staff quite well. First was because I know Jani, family connections have had us meet on several occasions."

"Connections like at the auction house? And plural? You either have a very large family or a very important family."

"-And second was because Master Long briefed us on you."

"Me!" Shae yelped in surprise.

"Yes. He had several concerning sentences about your unpredictable potential, and that you might be rather argumentative, especially against authority."

"That's completely unfounded!" She folded her one good arm across her chest and huffed.

"Mhmm. I'm sure it is, dear."

She huffed again.

Yun remained silent, only reading and flipping pages as she waited.

"Okay, maybe I'm a little argumentative, but he had it coming." Shae glanced over at the book but couldn't follow along with how fast Yun was reading. "What was that first part? About my potential?"

"Apparently the head monk gave a young sword-saint Bai, one of many I'm sure, quite the warning about you. That Bai was somewhat upset by it, he couldn't see what Wise Kwan saw in you."

"Huh? What for? I barely talked to Wise Kwan."

"Some old monsters get ideas in their head and can't let go of them. Maybe he saw a thing or two and fixated on them?"

"Heh heh, okay, that I can understand. Not sure I should mind that Sword Bai didn't see the same. He was about as sharp as dirt."

"Pffft." Yun blew out a laugh and had to turn away from the book with a hand over her mouth. "Shae, I'm trying to concentrate." She continued to laugh to the side, clearly trying and failing to control it.

"Hehe, didn't think it was that funny."

Yun got a clear breath in, "He's a sword cultivator. His qi is sharpness itself."

"Huh. Is that what sword qi is? He tried to explain it to me and kept bungling metaphors and contradicting similes. Most I got out of it was that intent can't actually hurt me if I don't want it to. If sword qi is just that simple, someone should tell him that."

Yun cracked up laughing again. Having to hand the book to Shae so she could turn and sit facing away from the younger woman.

Shae smiled wide while watching her friend crack up uncontrollably. Then leaned back and waited patiently for her to recover.

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