Ch: 251 Excuse Me, While I Kiss This Guy
Willow felt that ship of fools pass by in the small hours of the night, not just from the delicious magical residue that her trees tasted in the water, output from that strange ‘motor’ of his. The boy and his little family radiated all those subtle frequencies of magical light she craved; so many all crammed in together, they felt delicious!
Even as her little party rolled up the road, headed for town, she could feel them ahead, radiating a warm, pleasant glow. Another source of glorious light approached from the south, following the river, leaving similar… and unique traces in the water.
This new one was familiar, a bright gleaming star in the night, rather than the boy’s roiling inferno of all things at once. Her warm, slow pulsing aura tasted of warm seaside days and the slow swell of deep waters, as something vast moved beneath.
Esperanza’s dim flicker had become something coolly radiant and warmly embracing, since filling her contracts out. With so many new, old and once forgotten things moving, Willow decided she had picked a fine time to begin experimenting with mortal existence.
“Mmm…” She murmured with pleasure. “This will be exciting no matter how things turn out.” She whispered to her already hopelessly confused captive.
“Whom should I hand this young human over to, boys?” She asked as they neared town.
“We could just give him to the guards, but they would have questions you’d probably rather not answer… We should bring him to the temple of Order.” Carlos answered firmly. “Sir Thelonius is probably on duty in the market ward. He’ll know what to do.”
“Perhaps we should tidy him up a little, we don’t want to cause a scene.” Jerry offered with a shrug. “We’ve brought bandits in before. It was an absolute, chaotic mess, until we got Order involved. The civic guard doesn’t handle real criminals often.”
Willow nodded and smiled at her prisoner. “Keep your eyes and mind open, mortal child. If you survive, you might just become something worth talking to. Now sit still while I arrange you…” She began fussing with his rumpled, tattered and dirty clothes, before giving up.
“I need something to make us less… noticeable. Jerry… Can I have your cloak?”
After swiping a light dust cloak from Jerry’s back, she had the prisoner seated on the tailgate with his hood up and herself nestled in his lap. “If you make a fuss, I will simply give you to the gate guards, trussed up like a goose for roasting.” She whispered softly.
They rumbled through the woodcutter’s forest and the community garden, stopping at an inn, just before the bridge into town.
Jerry stabled his horse there, joining Carlos on the driver’s bench for the trip through town.
Carlos handed the reins off to one of his familiars, who clenched them in her teeth delicately and tossed her mane, as if to say, ‘hurry up’. With a grin for his cheeky friend, he dashed inside with a small satchel. “I have a few letters and such for them, be right back.”
They rumbled off to the city gates soon after. “Let me do the talking, lady Willow…” Jerry whispered as they approached the market gate guards.
“Jerry, Carlos… the usual?” He asked when they stopped for inspection. Eyeing the hooded man with a small girl on his lap, riding on the tailgate.
“The usual, and a suspicious character for Order, that’s our next stop.” He replied, jerking his thumb at the man and girl. “She’s a friend from out of town. He’s a mystery.”
“Need an escort?” Olan asked cheerily, ignoring the large number of market goers who were standing closer and listening, seeking fuel for the gossip engine.
“We have him in hand; see you and Firth at the inn later?” The Adventurer smiled confidently, when Olan nodded as they rolled past the guard post. A few gossip hounds seemed prepared to follow them, but the bustle of a trade boat tying up at the dock distracted the market folk from their nosey hobby. The wagon rolled on into the market ward, headed for Tony’s office.
#
“Welcome home, Ranza!” Amy sang with delight, as she blasted into the trader’s skirts like a fast flying songbird returning to her nest. Wilf and Rio followed soon after, nestling in comfortably, leaving her stranded in the foyer, still in her sandals.
She stared longingly at the slippers, just out of reach, while Kermal handled their passengers, explaining the slipper ritual and introducing them to their hostess.
“George, is a traveling priest of Healer, he’s escorting his young ward, Gabbie and her auntie, Mistress Ess of the guild of Whispers.” Kermal bowed and presented the three travelers to a gigantic red haired woman with a wide forehead and scarred, calloused hands. “This is Shai, journeyman smith and our hostess.”
Gabbie stared up at the bluff, muscular giantess; her eyes wide in alarm. This woman towered over her, exuding an aura of vigor, energy and strength that rendered the young empress intimidated in her presence; an awkward and very unfamiliar feeling for the ruler of countless loyal subjects.
She strode toward them, rapidly looming even larger… until she smiled, like the warmth of Esperanza’s stove on a cold morning, or the first rays of the summer sun.
“So pretty…” The empress whispered involuntarily when the woman’s shadow fell over her.
“Be welcome in our home; follow me, I’ll see thee settled an show the way tae the baths.” The towering giantess’ voice was warm and soothing, feeling somehow familiar. Her eyes landed on Gabbie and lingered there, measuring and weighing her in some indefinable way. After a few heartbeats she turned to Esperanza and raised a ginger eyebrow in a silent question. The busty trader nodded and smiled enigmatically.
“I’ll fetch Gary, sister my love; once me new guests be shown tae their quarters.” Shai whispered.
“They have come seeking lady Trelawny… and should meet with her as soon as they may, it is a matter of some urgency, this one gathers.” Ranza murmured softly.
“Fie! Always summat more than simple things…” She sighed. “I’ll send fer Tawny, she be at the palace fer a noble doing.”
With a wave and a quick conversation, a slender, beautiful red haired boy grinned and held out his hands, as if to receive something large from her. With a mysterious, eye watering shimmer of darkness; a strange, wheeled contraption appeared in the young man’s hands.
He straddled the thing and vanished out the garden with a soft metallic clatter and the sound of his wheels on the bridge pavers.
The giantess Shai smiled awkwardly at her new guests, with a special nod and very warm wink at Gabbie for some reason. “I must away tae wrangle yer host, he be down below, working at his crafts. Sister Becky will see thee well taken care of, whilst I prepare fer other matters.”
She waved to a small slim girl, her ebony black hair done up in a snug plait, decorated with colorful beads. Dressed in a riot of red orange and yellow shades, her snug bodice and knee length skirts displayed a modest bosom, bare midriff and smooth slender limbs of deep, shining chocolate.
Her graceful, dance-like movements brought to mind a forest fire, her dark skin and fiery garb evocative of smoke and flickering flames. She had eyes only for Gabbie, ignoring her better dressed elders almost entirely.
“Hi, I’m Becky, sister... Lady Trelawny and the rest should be along shortly. Until then, let’s get you properly unpacked and then into the bath! Gabbie, was it? I can’t wait for you to meet the others!”
She chattered and smiled them along a hall to a well appointed and comfortable chamber at the back. There was a bed, raised on legs and a platform in the northern style, as well as two proper futons in a cupboard. Otherwise, the room was pleasantly spare and elegant, lit by a few colorful paper lanterns. A low table, a pair of folded screens in the corner and a number of cushions for seating were neatly tucked away, among the northern style chairs.
A long legged desk such as the barbarians used had a supply of quills brushes and ink, with a stack of fine northern paper in one corner. A door leading to a small private toilet in the northern style completed the furnishings.
“We’re kinda full up right now, you can arrange yourselves as you wish, feel free to ask for anything you need, or the removal of anything that you don’t…” She said with a smile so warm and open it seemed to make the room brighter.
“Your baggage should be…”
“We have no significant baggage, Becky.” George spoke very carefully, his manner strangely reserved and awkward around this child.
“In that case, let me know what you need and we will do our best to accommodate you.” She made a slight curtsey to the priest and ‘Auntie Ess’, before turning to the empress in sailor’s garb again. “Gabbie, you can bunk with me… if you want. I don’t have much that would fit you…” She ran her eyes up and down the slender, taller girl, as if measuring her, the way her seamstresses and dressing ladies did.
She clasped the empress by the hand and started dragging her off, still chattering and smiling. “We’ll get you properly dressed, Shai has some things that might fit you, until my brother can get you settled…”
‘Auntie’ stirred, as if to follow the pair, only to be restrained by George. “She is as safe here as anywhere, please, give her the space to interact with these strange people.” He murmured. “You see the changes in her, since we took ship… I would see her smile that way at me, someday.”
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“I will be discreet, First Physician.” She bowed and vanished into what few shadows lingered in this strange, pleasant house.
“Be cautious, this house feels… you’re already gone, aren’t you?” George asked an empty room.
#
Upstairs, in a comfortable room decorated in the cluttered, busy northern style, with legged furniture and a bed piled with pillows and soft animal dolls sculpted in cloth and fur smiling at her, the empress was under relentless attack.
“We’ll find some clothes first, then off to bathe… you’re gonna love it here, I just know it!”
The girl kept holding up different articles of northern garb against her, despite the tiny girl’s clothes being obviously too small. “We have similar coloring and build…” She mumbled happily. “Come on, we’ll steal some stuff from my big sister.”
They slipped out of Becky’s small, cozy room of colorful clutter and into a chamber of delights. Gabbie gasped with amazement at the vast pillowy bed of frothy comfort, set properly on the ‘floor’... Save that in this case, it was a smooth expanse of deep green moss, broken by smooth worn stepping stones and giant mushrooms for furniture.
The ceiling perfectly mimicked the late spring sky outside, even down to clouds that almost seemed to move.
“Why was I not placed in this delightful chamber?” Gabbie demanded with a huff, which made Becky giggle… She actually giggled at the empress!
“This is Gary and Shai’s room…” She finally said, once she was finished laughing at the confused, plainclothes monarch. “You do a really convincing butthurt noble impression!” She gasped. “I sleep here most nights, or with the little ones, when we aren’t all piled up in here. It’s kinda a madhouse!”
She giggled and hugged Gabbie close, exuding a warm, breathless excitement and a sense of restrained curiosity that was almost a physical thing.
“I can’t wait to learn everything about you!” She sang from between the empress’ breasts.
“I am curious about your lands as well, Becky.” She answered with a swiftly spreading smile of comfort and ease on her dark, angular face.
Becky scurried off to a cupboard hidden among the mushrooms and standing stones at the edge of the strange room. She bustled about for a few minutes, then emerged with a small pile of clothing, which she tucked away somewhere on her person.
“Bathtime!” She sang excitedly, before snatching the empress’ hand and dragging her away downstairs. They collided gently in the corridor, as Becky came to a sudden stop.
“Tell your auntie to please stop trying to hide and skulk around… that’s going to make Gary uncomfortable.” Becky told Gabbie firmly, while staring directly at a shadowed corner in the hallway. “No one can really hide here, anyway; we will always see you.”
‘Auntie’ stepped out of the shadows and sketched a very shallow bow to the young girl dragging her lifesworn monarch around like a child with a new toy. “I am responsible for her safety, girl.”
“No, in this house, your hosts are responsible for her safety. She’s my sister, I’m her hostess and yours.” The small girl answered tartly. “Sneaking is rude and puts us on edge, for good reasons. I assure you, in this house, you are all safe… so long as you don’t begin any hostilities.”
Spider took a moment to really examine the tiny woman dressing her down in the hallway. Despite her youth and tiny stature, she seemed confident and just as self possessed as Esperanza and the departed giantess. “I think we can trust these strange people, my em… My niece.”
Gabbie noticed Becky’s eyes narrow when ‘auntie’ nearly used her title… She opened her mouth to speak and was hushed by Becky herself, with a gentle finger to her imperial majestie’s lips.
The casual intimacy of the gesture was as shocking as the way she accepted it herself, as a fond admonishment from a trusted and beloved confidante… something the empress had never had before.
“We should all hear your tale together, later. First we have a bath, it’s a family tradition. Come along now.” Becky whispered softly, before collecting George from their room and dragging her off again, headed for a wide, curtained doorway.
The bathing room was well appointed, if utilitarian. Racks and cubbies around two walls provided storage for clothes, there were bins for slippers and dirty laundry, stacks of fluffy green towels that were oddly warm and robes, so many robes in all the shades of green that there ever were.
Becky provided what little guidance was needed to use the shower cubicles and provided lovely fine milled soap and a liquid hair cleansing agent that smelt of fresh citron and exotic spices. The three freshly scrubbed, weary travelers stepped out into fine, soft robes of green that seemed tailored for each of them.
“Oh yes, these baths are fine indeed.” George murmured approvingly. “Very hygienic.”
“Ohh, no!” Becky cried in giddy excitement. “The bath is this way, follow me please.” She led them through another curtained doorway, into a private courtyard filled with a riot of greenery.
Bamboo, jasmine and flowering ginger, dwarf blooming trees and climbing duskmoon vines surrounded a deep, shimmering pool of hot water fifteen yards across and tinted a deep green. The whole thing was fed by a boiling waterfall, gushing from a natural stone face against the house. Steam and the mingled scents of mineral water and herbs filled the courtyard and drifted among the trees in small clouds of vapor.
Becky hung her robe on a hook by the doorway and stood there on the edge, confidently unclothed and beconned them all to slip into the hot, steaming bath together.
Shortly thereafter, the red haired giantess slipped through the curtain with a dancer’s silent grace. She was unselfconsciously nude, as were the three tiny children following her. Esperanza and a tall bland featured man entered right behind them, as the whole group slipped into the water with their guests.
“Ahhh, see? Now we can relax.” She murmured softly, once her odd family was fully immersed. The small slim girl edged up to Gabbie and cuddled close with a sigh. “Welcome home, sister.”
It was true, somehow. Within seconds she had a small boy on each knee and a tiny girl in her lap, all snuggled together and chattering rapid fire nonsense at her.
“I’m Amy, this is Wilf, an that’s Rio, Gary’ being shy. Welcome to the family, Gabbie!”
#
Dannyl walked his bike back with the group of chattering friends he’d been sent to collect. Liam, Tawny Rolf and his two charming ladies, the duke, duchess, a number of discrete guards and Patricia, Tawny’s older sister and priestess of Order and a small gaggle of noble visitors all trooped along in a happy swarm, headed for the low quarters and the inn across the river.
The veils, false mustaches and clerical robes did nothing to conceal their identities, but neither did they care particularly.
Shoppers squeezed aside to let the nobles pass, then often resumed their own business. A few fell in line, following discreetly to feed their habits with sweet, juicy gossip.
Those gossiphounds were disappointed, when the ward at the edge of the garden halted them gently but firmly. Those who pushed in harder, found the resistance increasing, until they relented and backed away.
Dannyl stepped from around the hedge with a smile and wave to the small cluster of enthusiasts still lingering. “We had to tighten security for a while, sorry. Invited guests only, folks.” He swept them a courtly bow, then pulled a set of hidden gates closed, sealing the entry to the garden proper.
The public bath stood outside, in the broad expanse of meadow and yard, but the private baths and garden could only be entered through the shop or gatehouse now.
Ducal guards in plainclothes took posts at those points, pretending to work in the stables, or shop in the storefront. No one was convinced, but likewise, no one cared.
#
When the noble procession showed up, most of the gang was in the common room having an early lunch or late breakfast, along with most of the boat crew and Kermal Singh.
“The guests are in the bath with Shai and the weirdo, they are gonna need some time.” Ivy announced when they arrived. “Help me in the kitchen, Tallum.”
She dragged her giant off with a wink and a grin to begin some culinary mischief.
Tawny sat down at the pianoforte and began warming up while Dannyl and Liam tuned their instruments to her scales. “We may have to wait a little while… Ranza called her ‘little sister’…” Kermal explained carefully.
“Oh…” Tawny murmured in alarm. “This could take a while.”
Two harried looking adults emerged from the bath, wrapped in Gary’s green robes and looking comfortable, from the neck down. Their faces were troubled and bore clear signs of being subjected to an overdose of undiluted Wards.
Ivy and Dannyl took the two in hand and got them seated with the noble visitors, including Emma and Frank. Seated among them was sir Tony, who had been in the workshop below; he came upstairs with Filly and Adele when Gary had been called away by his mate.
“Chocolate will buffer you against the shocks you have yet to endure…”
Ivy whispered, as she pressed mugs of cocoa into their hands with a gentle smile. “How much did they tell you?”
“We read the Wheatford reports when they arrived and studied them extensively on our journey…” First Physician George mumbled softly. The warrior woman beside him said little, remaining silent and watchful in this madhouse of ‘new gods’ and ‘global mind fuckery’.
Tawny gave them a few minutes to relax before beginning the introductions, She started with the duke and duchess of course, ending in order of precedence with sir Tony, as a noble, but unlanded scion of his house.
“...may I present George, First Physician and healer to the empress of LIght herself.” Tawny finished finally. “I gather there is another member of your party still being… introduced?”
“Yes…” George answered awkwardly. “Auntie Ess and I are escorting the… representative of her imperial majesty. That worthy remains ensconced in that remarkable tub… with those… people.”
“Yes, those people are quite a handful…” Duke Belen sighed happily, with his wife nestled in his lap. He rubbed her swollen tummy like a carnival fortuneteller's crystal ball with an abstracted smile on his face.
“Don’t mind my husband, at this point in each of my pregnancies, he’s become a hopelessly besotted fool. The poor dear.”
She snuggled in closer and smiled benignly. “My daughter tells me she has been in correspondence with you for some time, First Physician…”
“Yes, your grace, as a part of a larger group of like minded correspondents… we shared strictly professional and secular matters in a largely anonymous manner…” He paused awkwardly.
“Mother, this is an innovation of mine, with a bit of help from Jennah. The guild of Tailors and Seamstresses is quite a resource…” She smiled indulgently at her mother, who was frowning and sniffing in discomfort at the idea. “...but I digress. We, as a community of young physicians, have been sharing case notes, procedures, formulae and otherwise seeking to advance the lore and art of medicine, through shared correspondence.” Tawny continued playing a variation on ‘Honeysuckle Rose’, as she spoke in time.
“I began sharing what information I had and felt would be easily digestible and provable to my group of…” She shrugged. “Gary calls them ‘pen-pals’, that seems to have stuck.”
“You shared sensitive information… with the tailor’s guild and a group of hinterland ditch wizards and herb witches?” Celeste sputtered in outrage. “Cult secrets? Family arts? What have you compromised, daughter!?”
“I shared information related to hexed regalia and underwear… and my own discoveries, findings and research, as well as that of my boon companions… Mother.” She replied firmly. “My methods for exchanging sensitive communications are… and will remain, occult.” She added with a sniff of her own.
“Pornographer?” Patricia of Order asked in her flat, deadpan voice.
“Pornographer.” Duke Belen replied, just as soberly, before father and daughter exchanged a wink and a secret smile.
“She’s not a pornographer!” Tawny hissed in frustration. “She also deals in poetry!”
“Erotic poetry, almost entirely.” George muttered softly, drawing a furious glare from the young woman at the keyboard.
#
Gabbie remained largely silent as things were explained slowly and carefully… or as slowly and carefully as a bath full of tiny rascals would allow. “...tell her ‘bout how the moon is yer butt!” Amy cheered happily.
“It’s not my butt, Amy…” He frowned at the tiny girl bobbing on Gabbie’s lap. “Ok, it’s not just my butt.”
She stuck her tongue out and jeered at him from her new sister’s embrace. “Is so! Ducky said!”
“Yeah baby…” He answered with a cruel, villainous smile and a soul chilling laugh. “It’s your bottom too, all of your backsides as well, not just mine!”
“Calm down Gary…” Becky muttered in his ear. “She’s new, remember? I think she’s lived a pretty sheltered life.”
“Oh, sorry…” He sat back in the pool and his strange aura of menace and malice drained away, leaving not a trace behind. “I’m a little all over the place. Cultivation issues.”
Becky took up the thread of his wild and insane story. “So when kids like us appear, we’re usually too young to remember much of our old lives.” She said quietly. “I only remember snatches of music and the sound of an ambulance siren… I only know what that is because of this weirdo.” She pointed at the big, brown haired man. “He came here just under a year ago, so he remembers the other world and knows lots of weird stuff.”
“Hey!” He protested lamely and was firmly shushed by the bath at large.
Becky carried on with the tale, working her way through step by step. “We wind up going to the orphanages and from there, when our gifts start getting… frisky, that singles us out for ‘special attention’. Kids like us, we get culled out and sent… someplace we are still unsure of, to a fate nobody would ever want.”
A shiver ran through all three little ones on her lap, as if they were one person getting a chill. “Nobody wants that.” Rio said firmly.
“So that is where I came from? Some other… world?” Gabbie whispered, to which her three little friends nodded as one. “I…I’m an…” She stammered to a stop, trembling. “I’m an orphan?” The shaken young woman asked at last.
“As far as the law and gods are concerned, yes.” Becky replied gently.
“Come on…” The big man, Gary said softly. “Let’s go out with the rest of the family and our friends. Then we can all hear as much as you feel comfortable telling us, all at once.”
Together they all rose and donned their robes, before heading upstairs to dress.
#