Adonissian knelt, body frozen and mind racing.

Never in his innumerable operations had his abilities failed him. Disbelief at Hassani's rejection shifted to annoyance. Who cared if this woman trained under the legendary Deai? Kass and her team would fill the Inviolate with arrows or puncture her with spears before she even got that battered old sword halfway from her scabbard if she tried anything.

"I am Inviolate, remember," Hassani said as if reading his thoughts. "Shall I play schoolmarm and repeat the Chant?"

"That would be a delight. I've all but forgotten it." He rose slowly. "A bunch of 'Thou Shalt Nots' ending with something about preserving the Dynasty?"

If she wanted to hold a recital, he could use the time to think. That she'd spotted Kass's men made no real difference, but his employers wanted her dead only if she couldn't be turned. With his near-perfect record thus far, even partial success would look a failure.

"Something like that," she said, stepped back to conveniently place tumbled masonry between her and a few of Kass's men. A collapsed beam now lay between her and another pair. "How about you tell me who you really are and what you want so we can get this over with one way or the other?"

Seduction had failed taking any chance at further deception with it. He sighed and shook his hair from his face, genuinely hurt by her rejection. Disappointment too at losing all hope of seeing the clearly-fit body hiding beneath that Inviolate uniform. "Very well, I'll lay it straight."

"As long as laying straight doesn't lay thick as well," she said dryly. "Unless you need to worship me more with your breath."

Out here, the main complex's unnatural cool faded and the swamp's hot mugginess saturated the air. A quick internal debate ended with leaving his extra layers on. His scent clearly failed to sway her but it might still distract and befuddle. He strummed a soothing tune and took a casual step closer.

Her eyes seemed unfixed and drifting. Was she drunk? Trying to trick him into complacency?

"It would've gone easier for both of us if you went along with it. Easier and more pleasurable both. Still not too late..."

"The delights of marriage armored me thoroughly against such things, I'm afraid. Just thinking about relations with men thus strikes me as neither easy nor pleasurable." She surprised him with her candor. He fought hard against liking her. "Hard and unpleasant seems to be my destiny."

He gambled on matching her candor. "When they assigned me, they did worry you'd be as incorruptible as your reputation promises. I replied that no one born couldn't be corrupted, yet here we are. Perhaps you've never experienced enough of the good life to value it."

"You say 'incorruptible' like a bad word. How do you think I came so far so fast?"

"Competence clearly played a factor. Competence, loyalty even to a husband you clearly hold in no high regard. 'Independent and fair minded' they said, smart, a good judge of character and a nose for sniffing out scandals and dirt... also Pheros it would appear." He smiled ruefully.

"Sorry if my virtues embarrass you," she said, her words belied by a hint of smile. "I think I preferred your thick, romantic nothings to your praise."

He chuckled and composed himself, staying carefully outside sword-reach. Or, at least, what he guessed was sword-reach. "You might think the Stacks are somewhere, but ruffle through the Book's pages and you'd be hard pressed to even notice it. Strength and independence may have served you out near the covers, but when you move towards the spine a rod-straight backbone just makes you a compelling target for anyone looking to break something."

"If that's straight talk, I'm glad we're not reciting poetry over pillows."

He misplucked a string. the discordant note hung in the air. "Fine. My employers are the same as yours: Dynasts, hence the Black Court. Just my part of the Black Court wants you to stop this useless investigation you've been sent on by another part and get some meaningful work done."

"Real work like digging up scandals and corruption among their opponents?"

"If you don't know who you're working for, how do you know you're not already doing the same? At least with my employers you'd actually know who you represented."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"I represent the Dynasty," she repeated stubbornly. "To preserve The Book's stability and uphold the Chant that holds it all together. That, I say, is the Book's spine, not some immortal cabal clutching desperately at their few pages while staring resentfully at all the others they can't leaf through at will."

"You may think you're pure, noble, and courageous," he spat. "But the line weaves fine between innocence, ignorance, and idiocy."

"I know my path, thank you." She walked calmly towards an archway where a pair of Kass's men lurked. "This is it, correct?"

His mouth fell open at her brazen call of his bluff. "Don't make me kill you."

"I won't make you try." She walked on.

Kass's men were hired locals; who knew what would happen if she reached the pair skulking in the shadows? He hated losing, but he hated losing control more. Once battle erupted he became useless.

Their spear points moved.

"Kassenia, call them off!"

A sharp whistle split the air. Hired thugs melted from Hassani's path. She slipped between them with a polite nod.

With Hassani gone, Kass sauntered up, the mercenary a lean bundle of scars and weapons topped with bandanna-wrapped close-shorn brown hair. A short recurve bow dangled negligently in her hand while red-fletched arrows swung in her hip quiver.

"I'm not the only one immune to your charms after all?" she said, her smile vicious. "Maybe she's into women. Next time why don't I approach her while you wait in the cobwebs with the gap-toothed, inbred muck dwellers?"

Said inbred muck dwellers gathered in a sullen group, muttering to themselves at her words and awkwardly handling their loaned weapons.

He eyed them skeptically. "Given the extent of Hassani's supposed training with a sword, I'm not sure they'd have been sufficient to do the job."

"I didn't hire them to do the job, just keep her busy and distracted long enough for me to do it." She unstrung her bow, placed stave in quiver and string in a belt pouch. "Besides, the more she'd have done for during, the less we'd have had to pay after."

"Say that a bit louder and you may have a fight anyway." He shook his head and glanced at the archway Hassani departed through.

"Would be doing this place a favor by stuffing the the whole lot in the bog. Honestly was hoping I'd get to watch you stuff something in an Inviolate instead."

"I'm not in the mood, Kass."

"Neither was she, that's what I'm saying. Loosing the old musky glory?" Her nose wrinkled. "Don't know how or why whatever they did to you works. You smell like an ox in rut to me."

"While you look like you lost a hundred duels to first blood," he countered. "And talk the talk that would earn them."

"Pah, I earned these learning the hard way how not to earn any more. Now the only blood I taste's when I ask for the brothel's red wine discount, if you know what I mean." She held her fingers apart and lapped between them.

He walked away shaking his head. "How did I get partnered up with you again?"

"Because everyone else got so bound up they'd try to rape you every time you went to sleep? You were the one who told me about that last fellow they partnered you with who kept waking you up to..." She tilted her head to mime sleep, then flopped her limp hand against her face repeatedly.

"I don't understand it. I've seduced dozens of married women, and men even, yet she..." He waved his hands. "Enough. Doesn't matter now."

"Agreed. Besides, why's it always about you?" She thrust a finger at him. "You're the one who couldn't fight off a pack of three-legged kittens. And who smells like a goat. A wet goat. A wet goat in heat. A wet goat in heat soaked in-"

"Okay, okay, I get it. Enough, I said. Back to the Inviolate."

Kass grinned wickedly, but dropped it. "Yeah? Back to you screwing up the screwing bit? What now?"

"Now we try a different approach. One I hoped we wouldn't have to recourse to." He began walking away, stripping off his damp outer layer. Everything underneath plastered to him.

"Approach from behind?"

He ignored her.

"You see that braille on her wrist? She rubbed it as she drew away."

Kass followed, their gang of what-passed-for-muscle tagging uncertainly behind. "Husband's name?"

He pursed his lips. "I doubt it. From my read, if we took him out she'd probably track us down just to thank us. No, someone else she actually cares about."

"A kid." Kass nodded and grinned. "We nab her kid."

"Nab her kid," Adonissian echoed, frowning. He hated to resort to such measures. If she simply gave in to him the way everyone else had they could've walked a different path. "We'll have to stop by the Vale Walkers. Get a 'nail for the Stacks."

"Can't you commandeer us a Valeer?"

Adonissian laughed at the absurdity. "That's way, way outside my authority and budget both. Would make things much easier though."

"Easy doesn't pay as well in work as it does in women." Kass grinned, slouched off to deal with their restless, sullen hires.

While Kass disarmed, paid, and dispersed the locals, Adonissian sagged against the wall, rubbing his temples and reflecting darkly on his situation. The man who could seduce anyone rejected for the first time on the most critical assignment ever entrusted to him and his only companion the only person in The All who found him repulsive.

"All done." Kass wandered back, tying a cord around the bundle of crude spears and long, sheathed knives she'd scrounged up for the job. "After you, oh Irresistible One."

She launched into her usual obnoxious, foul-mouthed stories as they made their way back to the main Annalis compound. Pretending to listen, Adonissian fought back the despair and loneliness always looming just out-of-mind.

When he'd volunteered to become a Phero, the bitter irony would never have crossed his mind: the gift that allowed him access to anyone's body meant he could never truly gain anyone's heart. Those in his thrall might not know the difference, but he couldn't not.

"Take care how big you wish," he muttered. "Lest what you gain replace something of far greater value you never knew you wanted."

Kass paused mid-gesture. "What was that?"

"Nothing, continue. Can't wait to hear what happened after you punched him in the cock."

As she launched back in he fell inward, his thoughts spiraling down and down and down.