“He accepted you?” Yierie didn’t look so much surprised as afraid for me. “Did he hurt you?”
“Yes… actually no. I guess I technically hurt myself.”
She clenched her jaws and rolled her fists. “My father has strange ideas about “lessons” if you don’t wish to continue under him, I would completely understand…”
I grabbed Yierie’s flexing digits and pulled her hand to my chest. I still wore the black robes Garaghan had insisted I put on. “Please, I feel like I need to do this. And I think you were right. He’s a fantastic teacher.”
The fires in Yierie’s eyes dimmed and she looked me over. “The robes suit you. I would have doubted it if someone else suggested it. But seeing you in the student’s black…” Her voice trailed off with a flare of the embers in her gaze.
We reached her door and I pulled her back. “Hey, do you think I could use the baths again tonight?”
“Of course, I will teach you the rune key…”
“No, I said that wrong, I meant will you join me in the baths tonight?” After nearly losing Yierie, I felt a need to hold her to me.
“Are you sure?”
I laughed as I rose up onto my tip toes and kissed her. “Maybe it’s weird, but after the lessons with your dad today, I am more certain about us than I have ever been.” Though my words contained the absolute truth, I knew there was something lingering in them I would need to address before too long: I still cared about Malia, I wasn’t sure I would stop caring about her even if Yierie and I became something long term.
We soaked together in the baths and made out like teenagers. Technically, I was a teenager still, though I couldn’t say if my twentieth birthday had passed or not by then. Our intimacy lingered in the same way our bathing did. Though we were both nude, neither of us took our hands lower down than the other’s neck.
I felt like a prude, as if I should have been willing to take our relationship further though it had only blossomed into being a day ago. Yierie didn’t press me and perhaps the lack of pressure on her part slowed my advances. We left the baths glowing from the heat, our heads inclined next to each other.
Yierie tensed as we walked into her bedroom. Four tall elves gathered in her room, each of them adorned in robes or glittering armor. The snide elf who I suspected had argued for killing all of us stood at the front of the four. He spoke in Elven with a sneer toward me. “A Tavaghast roams the skies. We’ve been called up and we need you.”
Yierie hissed at the word. “It is certain?”
“We would not invade your space otherwise.” One of the four elves wore golden scaled armor that reminded me of Alaric’s breastplate. “The Elders have asked for you personally.”
Yierie looked between me and the others. I gave her a gentle shove. “Teach me the runes to fetch Tia and open your door. And I will take care of myself.”
The lead elf narrowed his eyes at me and huffed. I’d spoken in Elven automatically and already given away my secret.
Yierie blushed at me and lowered her voice. “If you are sure?” she leaned closer to me and brought her mouth to my ear. “For you I may refuse.”
I shook my head. “Garaghan wants me at dawn and I have the feeling he will keep me the whole day. Go and do what you need to. I’ll make sure Alaric can watch Tia.”
The jerk male elf scoffed at me. “The Goshaan trains it. Lies.”
Yierie moved with the impossible speed of her father. I expected her to slap him, but a small dirk appeared in her hand as she laid its length against the elf’s neck. “Do not refer to Mahn Kara with such indelicate terms again or it will be blood between us Tobias.” In that instant, I knew without a doubt that Yierie was Garaghan’s daughter.
Tobias swallowed slowly and said, “my apologies, honored guest.” He’d slid his eyes in their sockets to look at me. “I was impolite. I did not realize your relationship to our leader.” He swung his gaze back to Yierie. “And to you my most sincere regrets for my turn of speech. The Tavaghast had us all on edge.”
Yierie flicked her knife away as if her body absorbed it. “Apology accepted.” She took a step away from Tobias, flicked her hands in a series of runes and stars ringed her form as they rose from her feet to the crown of her head. When they fizzled out, they left Yierie wearing a black and silver suit of plate mail, complete with a helmet that gathered her hair into a topknot.
Silver trim gleaming in the light, she turned to me and kissed me deeply, not caring about the others watching us. “To remember me, and to guarantee my return.” Her smile broadened as she twirled away from me. By the time her spin ended, her face lost all of the smoothness of her mirth. Only hard battle lines remained. Addressing her other companions, she said, “let us depart.”
She didn’t look back at me as she left her room, our room. In the moment I suspected that was an elven attitude, not to allow partings to linger. But it left an empty feeling in my chest as I sank onto the bed and tried to sleep.
Slumber eluded me in the night so I wandered the halls of the Crystal Orchid. I considered waking Tia so we could explore together, but that would mess up her sleeping schedule and could interfere with her classes. Alaric was a better option, but I didn’t want to tell him Yierie left with a brief farewell. He probably wouldn’t make fun of me for it, but I didn’t want to press my luck.
Instead, I practiced the walking and posture lessons Garaghan had left me with. I managed to find myself near Alaric’s apartment despite my misgivings. The hallway where he lived looked much like the rest of the upper halls: a mass of kudzu frozen in epoxy. For a moment, I felt like a fly caught in the ship’s slow petrification. I stopped in front of Alaric’s door, shook my head and walked away with speed.
I was focused on my steps and the location of my body in space, so I almost missed his door opening. The tinkling laughter that emerged broke me out of my focus. All three of the same elven women who’d been in his apartment the last time I’d seen Alaric walked out. Their skin was flushed and they looked the way Yierie and I did when we left the baths. Alaric didn’t walk out of his apartment with them, so he didn’t see me. Once his door closed, the three elven women did.
One of them, with shocking blue hair, spotted me and pointed. “If it isn’t Yierie’s little human pet.” She flicked her hand at her two friends and they trotted toward me almost skipping as they came.
“How may I help you?” I swung my arm in a quarter circle from my chin. It was a way of expressing polite welcome, while also indicating that I had other places I needed to be.
“Oh my goodness!” A yellow haired elf flanking the first brought her hands to her cheeks while the green haired third covered her mouth and made cackling noises. “She’s trained it and taught it to speak.”
“Tell me little shadow-pet,” the blue-haired elf leaned forward, “has she taught you the Teva-ley, has she fed you from her own hand?”
I knew the words were insulting, but I didn’t know what lesson she referred to and lacked the cultural context to be offended by being fed. “Did you do the same with my cousin? Do you like his arm?”
I wasn’t sure why I added the second question. But the first had stoked their amusement while the second banked the humor with cold anger. All three of them narrowed their eyes at me. “We are not like you.”
“Of course not, you’re only one of what, three different desperate elven maidens visiting my cousin, right? You’re unique little flowers.” I should have shut my mouth then. I’d clearly scored several points against the rude elven girls. But they’d stoked my own ire. “You’re less than pets to him, just party favors.”
The leader moved a good deal slower than Yierie, and far slower than her father. But she was still too fast for me to stop or dodge. I’d expected a slap, but steel glinted in the omnipresent light of the halls and she slit a line across my cheek.
Blood flowed into my mouth as the haughty elf stood over me. “I should end you here, pathetic beast…”
I didn’t hear what she said next. Garaghan had named the beast lurking in my chest as rage, but he was wrong. Neither fury nor anger really moved me. Fear was my greatest motivator. In that moment I feared I would never see Yierie or Malia again, I feared I would die ignominiously alone in this hallway and the three elven bitches would drop my corpse out of the side of the ship never to be found again.
Fear was all I needed to move myself.
My fingers moved a touch slower than they had when I’d fought Garaghan away from the women I cared for. The elves had a second to try and catch the meaning in my rune cast, which meant they were unprepared for the effects entirely.
A ring of blue light burst out of me like a smoke ring. Where it struck the three elves, it was considerably more substantial than smoke. It blew them off of their feet and back down the hallway past Alaric’s door. I screamed at them as I released the magic curling within my chest, as the blood leaked from my cheek into my mouth.
Once the blue flare ended, I saw that none of the three moved. I dismissed the magic I’d cast at once and started screaming for help.
Doors opened around me and elves streamed into the hallway as I crouched over the three fallen women. Roo responded to my summons through my black robes and sent power into the three of them. None were dead, but two of them hovered at the door of the next life. In the void where my magic worked best, I could see through their forms and knew how close I’d come to killing them.
Pumping magic into the three in an attempt to heal them, I could not detect the spell cast on me from behind and had no way to resist it as I fell unconscious.
“I told you to meet me by dawn, apprentice.” Garaghan’s harsh voice roused me from the blackness. This was different from the void, it was the utterdark of no awareness. It haunted me, as if I knew I only woke by the sufferance of the Elven nation upon this flying ship. “I know you can hear me. Open your eyes.”
I blinked at the bright light as it pierced my eyes. Half expecting the same black metal room I’d found Garaghan in the first time, I was surprised by the intensity of the light. My arms were bound to my sides and my legs clasped in some kind of manacles.
“What happened to the girls?” my voice croaked out as if I’d been gargling broken glass for the last few hours. And a vibrating spike had been shoved between my eyes, so bad was the pain in my skull.
Garaghan resolved into focus as he stood in front of me. His black hair and robes set him apart from the white room I’d been shackled in. “Your first question is after their welfare.” He raised his head back and addressed the ceiling. “I think this is worth the tribunal’s attention.” After a second he dropped his gaze back to me. “The women are well, your care ensured they did not perish.” He leaned closer to me. “Tell me, was that an effort to minimize your own guilt?”
“What do you mean…” When he asked I realized I hadn’t even considered the consequences of attacking the trio of elves. “Oh, no. I just didn’t want them to die.”
“Then why did you attack them?” Garaghan glowered at me with his question. He wasn’t angry, but rather clearly suspicious of my answer.
“She cut me; she had a knife.” I tried to raise my hand to check my cheek, but my arms remained bound.
“Your injury has been treated. They claimed you allowed the cut so that you could activate your power. Is that true?”
I flashed back to the episode with Jeremy and Alaric. Amanda and Pearl knew runes the elves did not, but I doubted the two witches were more sophisticated than the elves and their flying ship. “No, I didn’t let anyone cut me. I didn’t think she would until she pulled the knife. Compared to you, she moved so slowly, how do you do that?”
The pain in the middle of my head subsided and Garaghan’s image cleared. “Let me ask again, did you intentionally provoke those women into attacking you?”
“Absolutely not.” My eyes lost their focus and I dropped into the void realm again. Garaghan and his staff stood before me though I could only see his upper torso with my normal sight. In the void, a large apparatus whirled and clicked about me. It pressed itself against my head; it was the source of my headache, and the slightly drunken sensation that took my normal focus away.
Roo appeared next to me in the void as if bidden to join me. She — how did I know my shawl was feminine — reared up like a cobra and struck at the magical artifice holding my head in place. Garaghan’s form shimmered as he moved aside to watch my shawl strike at the magic holding me in place. Over and over again, Roo drove herself into the magical construct. After a succession of blows, each one drained me of stamina, Roo shattered the object holding my head in place.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Garaghan laughed out loud as my head and torso swung free of the imprisonment. I tried to take a step, but the shackles around my ankles remained. “As expected of my student, good work.” He grabbed my bare shoulders and kept me from flailing onto my face and potentially shattering my ankles. “Perhaps next time you should consider freeing your feet first.” He raised his head again and spoke to the ceiling. “I believe this interview is over, yes?”
The white room around me shimmered and vanished into wisps of multi-colored smoke. Garaghan remained next to me as my feet dropped to the floor. I now stood in a large vine-carved room that matched the hallways of the Crystal Orchid.
A group of wizened elves who wore glowing white robes without any form of adornment sat on benches haphazardly arranged about the room. One of them lowered his arms as the room dissolved and I caught snippets of magic trailing from his fingertips.
He turned to the others and said, “she did not break the enchantment until the very end. I believe the deception block remained in place until then.”
Garaghan cleared his throat. “It was undoubtably in place. What says the council?”
An elf with pure white hair, long enough to tickle his backside stood up with a smooth motion. He was taller than anyone else in the room. His sonorous voice rolled through the room with the ease and texture of warm butter. “The Council would like to hear the account of these events from our guest’s own lips.” He spun his finger anti-clockwise as he looked at the elf who’d been spell casting. “There is no need for deception blocking in this case…” he looked back at me with a gaze that pierced deep into my soul, “…isn’t that right?”
“Um, yes sir?” I spoke and my own gravely voice sounded like the clanking of metal pans compared to the councillor’s orator’s voice.
Garaghan covered his mouth and mumbled to me. “That’s ‘yes, Elder,’”
I cleared my throat. “Yes Elder.”
“Very good child. Let’s hear it.”
“Starting from where, Elder?”
The old man’s eyes glittered as he grinned at me. “Why don’t you start from your transformation and work up to when you woke up here?”
I stammered for moment and nodded at him. A part of me favored the crafty old elf. I’d do what he asked even if he’d been rude about it. But he was relatively pleasant, all things considered. As I started my story a bench appeared next to me as if it grew out of the floor. “The first portal opened at my university, I think a Titan stepped through along with a host of demons…” I started a little earlier than the Elder had asked, but I felt like my first transformation required some context. The only detail I left out was Malia’s nature as a Djinn. I also managed to keep from naming Kain or Reggie in front of the Council. By the time I finally wound down, the Council had offered me juice and returned my black robes to me.
The apparent leader, who’s name I still did not know, addressed me when I finished my tale. “That is quite the story, young lady.” My heart swelled at him, he called me by the proper gender. “It sounds as though you have upheld the bonds of guest-right with us and it was our own who violated them.” He looked at the other councillors and nodded as if he held silent communion with them. “Yierie introduced you to these elves as her guest, did she not?”
“Yes, Elder.” I remembered the proper form of address this time.
“Then the fault lies with our own, I am ashamed to say.” A cane appeared in his hand as he raised it. As the cane appeared, the rest of the elves on the council stood as one. “As a punishment for violating guest-right we require the perpetrators be brought here and subject to Ualno until the offended party’s master declares they have satisfied the terms of their service. As to our guest, you have not yet chosen your terms of service, have you?”
My back shivered as if the old elf had reached out and touched me. “No sir.”
“Then we formally assign you to the stewardship of your master, Garaghan, until Yierie returns from her duty. The three Ualno may not be relieved of their duties until you choose to take your leave or select the form of your service.” He tapped his cane on the ground. “The Council of Elders has spoken, so let it be done.”
All of the other Elders, along with Garaghan echoed his words, “so let it be done.”
Garaghan held his hand out to me and helped me stand. I didn’t need the assistance, but after everything I suspected the gesture related to some elven bit of etiquette I didn’t want to mess up. He bowed to the council and made a full circle from his chin with his finger. I repeated the gesture eyeing him as I did and earning a nod from him for the effort. At least I wasn’t blowing this completely.
We left the chamber and Garaghan fell back against the wall. Though I’d only known him for a day, the gesture looked incredibly out of character. He caught me studying him and clenched his jaw. “I loathe audiences with the Council. They rarely go so well for me or mine. You should consider yourself fortunate.” He continued to eye me and didn’t move from where he leaned. “Did you dissemble in any fashion when you spoke to them?”
“I didn’t lie if that’s what you mean, no.”
He quirked an eyebrow at me and smirked. “Good enough.” He pushed himself away from the wall and held his arm out level to the floor. “If you would, let us return to my studio. Your Ualno will think to check for you there last. They deserve a bit of confusion.”
“What does “Ualno” mean?”
Garaghan chewed on the corner of his lip for a second as he looked at me. “It approximates “servant.” It is something akin to indentureship. They have broken our laws, and so are forced to serve the one they wronged.”
“Serve how?” I worried I’d stepped into some kind of pit trap without realizing it.
“You look as though you bit a piece of rotten fruit.” Garaghan waved me off. “We are not so barbaric as to enforce slavery on our people. The Ualno will clean your chambers, ensure you are fed, perform simple tasks like ferrying messages, and generally avail themselves of you. You may not abuse them, physically or sexually, and you may not order them to violate previous oaths. They are allotted six hours of time away from you each day for slumber, refreshment, and their own pleasure if they so choose.”
“Good. That’s not as bad as I imagined.”
We’d reached Garaghan’s training room but the time he finished explaining the terms of Ualno to me. “Today we will continue to work on your posture and simple movements…” he eyed me up and down. “You have been practicing.”
“How did you know that?”
Garaghan waved my question away like an annoying fly, not that I’d seen a single fly or bothersome insect since I arrived on the ship. “Continue to practice at all times. While we walked through the halls your posture flagged. Do not let yourself lose focus, ever.” He gestured to the distant wall. “Now let us begin walking training. Go.”
I started off without further instruction. Somehow, I knew I owed Garaghan for more than his lessons, he’d helped me during the Council’s tribunal and I would not have fared so well without his assistance.
Several hours after I began, a knock sounded outside the room. Garaghan sniffed the air like a cat and nodded his head toward the door. “It is for you. Go and greet your Ualno.”
I steadied myself and walked as Garaghan taught me. When I opened the door, I started at the sight. All three of the elven women stood at the door wearing next to nothing. Simple brown wraps covered their breasts and loincloths their waists. Each of them had been shorn of every single lock of hair, they didn’t even have eyebrows. I would not have recognized them except for the fact that I’d touched parts of their souls with Roo. “Hello.”
The front woman bowed her head low, tears flowing out of her eyes as she did. “This pathetic soul humbly begs your forgiveness. May this one serve your needs until justice be done.” She raised her eyes and I gasped. Runes covered her cheeks and skin, pale enough to be mistaken at a distance, but clear as day when she stood this close. All three of them wore identical rune marks on their faces.
They didn’t move and I didn’t want to keep standing there while Garaghan waited for me. “What are your names?”
“We are Ualno, we have no names while we serve.” The leader spoke again, as if the others had delegated her to this task as the principle offender and reason for their service.
“That’ll make it hard to address you.” I pointed to the elves in turn, “You are One, she is Two, and she is Three.” I used the English words to make it easier for me to remember. “When is your next period of free time?”
“Not until this evening, master.” One answered for the others. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to stop them from calling me “master,” so I ignored it for now.
“Then please get me and Garaghan some food. I am vegetarian…” I looked back at Garaghan who only nodded at my unspoken question. “Vegetarian food it is. I guess we could use some chilled tea or fruit juice.”
All three of my servants bowed and fled the hallway with haste. “Well done apprentice mine, you handled your Ualno with acceptable decorum.” He tapped his staff against the back of my legs, “but did you remember to stand correctly the whole time?”
I groaned. He’d caught me out right as I relaxed when the three elves scurried off. “Sorry sensei. I’ll do better next time.”
He nodded at me and we resumed my lessons while we waited for the food to arrive. When it did, the three Ualno rolled in a cart full of pastries, fresh fruit and lightly steamed veggies. I had the feeling they’d gone above and beyond, which was confirmed when they produced four giant pitchers from beneath the cart, each of them full of tea, two different fruit juice medleys and a lightly seasoned wine.
One bowed to me, “it is my sincere hope the fare meets with your approval, master.”
“It’s fine, thank you.” I sat down next to Garaghan and ate. Having three women stand with their heads bowed put me off my appetite. “Why don’t you three join us? There’s plenty for all, right?”
Garaghan didn’t sniff or even pause as he stuffed his face, so I didn’t think I’d made a faux pas. But all three Ualno shook their heads. One said, “It would not be proper, master.”
“If I ordered you to eat with me until you were full, would you?”
“Yes master.”
“Then please join us, eat as you will and relax.”
All three women exchanged glances with each other, but quickly complied with my instructions. One paid careful attention to my goblet and the contents of my plate, ready to fill either the moment room appeared. I had to stop her from adding morsels after I started to grow full. The other two hardly moved to serve me, but I suspected that was the result of some pecking order they’d established amongst themselves.
When I’d eaten my fill, I rose with Garaghan still seated and eating. His manners were atrocious compared to the other elves I’d seen eat. All three of the Ualno ate with care and delicacy. But Garaghan ended up with bits of food on his chin and spilled down the front of his black robes. He continued to eat well after I resumed my training, with him shouting instructions at me and using his staff to remotely tap the parts of my body that I’d put out of place.
He finally finished, eating well over three times what I ate, and the three Ualno departed to clean up the area. With a gesture made short and perfunctory from regular practice, Garaghan cleaned his robes and his face.
Following me about the room, he continued to correct my stance and steps when another knock sounded at the door. He rolled his eyes and walked over in my stead. He opened the door and barked at the three Ualno. “While you serve Harriet Yeshe, you are free to enter and leave my chambers as the needs of your station demand. Do you understand?”
The three elves trembled under his glare and looked over at me. “You can consider Garaghan’s orders my own, I guess.” They bowed to me and then to him and scurried into the room and against the wall as if to keep themselves as far away from my sensei as possible. Collected on the side of the wall like statues without their roof to support, the women waited for me to issue a new order.
Scoffing at the intrusion, Garaghan waved at me and I resumed my lessons. Each time I passed the three women, it pained me to see them standing there unmoving, watching me like hungry cats. After an hour, I stopped in front of them and begged off Garaghan’s irritation. “Are the three of you going to just stand there watching me this whole time?” One nodded while Two and Three left their eyes glued to the floor. I looked back at Garaghan and said, “can’t we use their assistance or something? This is distracting.”
Garaghan shrugged. “I suppose you could use a proper mirror.” He eyed the three women and barked. “Who was your last master?”
One stammered out her reply. “Feresien… s… master.”
“Feh.” Garaghan all but spat on his floor. “That’s why you move like birds with clipped wings.” He pointed to a spot on the floor next to me. “All three of you have been watching my instructions of the last hour. Who can produce the best simple gait?” None of them responded as they looked between each other. Garaghan rolled his eyes and pointed back to the same spot. “Go over there and walk as I’ve been instructing.”
For a moment, all three threw themselves away from the wall. But in short order they’d slowed and complied with Garaghan’s instructions. Three set a near perfect pace and walked with a dignified air, as if she’d been holding back her true presence this whole time. Unsurprisingly, Garaghan pointed to her and snapped. “You, Three. Your form is nearly perfect, certainly better than my student’s. I want you to march next to her and model. Do it now!” He clapped at her and the third elf walked ahead with obvious control in her steps as she struggled not to waddle or sway off her feet. “Very good. Now both of you, begin!” The other two Ualno watched for a second and Garaghan swore in Elven. “Are you both sky-blind? Follow their lead, both my student and Three walk with considerably more grace than either of you!”
They failed to match Three’s balance, but they soon fell in behind me and kept up. Watching Three’s stride helped for a little while, but my prurient mind soon found her posterior distracting. Clad in nothing but a loincloth, I could see the curves of her rear end with little to conceal them. All three elves were lovely, as beautiful as runway models. None of them quite matched Yierie’s body, but I appreciated the view of Three.
For the first time since studying with him, the staff struck me and hurt. “Pay attention to the form, student of mine, not the ass.”
None of the Ualno giggled at me, but I caught Three blushing as she looked back at me over her shoulder. “Sorry about that, sensei.”
He shrugged and resumed watching the four of us traipse around his room. Aside from that one correction, I received fewer taps by the end of my lessons than I had at the beginning. I was definitely improving.
Garaghan sent us out of his room for dinner, giving the excuse that he didn’t want to be surrounded for his meal a second time that day. I told the girls to give me the same thing for dinner as for lunch and to bring it to Yierie’s room. When I reached her room, I found the sun already set below the horizon. It surprised me as I thought it was far earlier in the day. I checked on Tia and found her in Yierie’s sister’s room sound asleep.
I asked the Ualno to join me for dinner that night. I wasn’t sure if they could or would refuse my requests, but they sat down next to me at the table where Yierie and I usually took our meals.
“What did you three do before…” Before what, I could not really say. ‘Before I made you my servants?’ That seemed like the wrong thing so I just trailed off.
One had her mouth stuffed with food, so Two took a sip of wine and said, “we were scribes and authors for the Orchid, master.”
“How does a sky… ship? Whatever this place is need a scribe or authors?” I blurted out the question without a scrap of thought behind it, as usual.
One frowned over her food, but Two shrugged. “It could be hard for an outsider to understand, master.”
“Explain it to me like I’m five.” All three of them scowled at me and I sighed. A five-year old elf was probably still attached to the teat. “I mean explain it to me like I am a child. What would you tell an elven child if they asked?”
The other Ualno covered their mouths, but Two said, “we would show them, master.”
“Is there any chance…” I drifted off into my own food and covered my words with a bite full. There was no way they would stop calling me master, so there was no point in asking. Besides, I had a feeling about the form of address. They needed it as much as it annoyed me for its existence.
“We would be happy to show you, master.” Two leaned forward on both hands and pressed her breasts together as if to put them on display for my benefit. I swallowed and tore my gaze away from her chest with some difficulty. It helped to think of Malia and Yierie.
“Fine, but let’s finish eating first and then you can show me around the whole ship tonight. Until you require your own refreshment.” I resumed eating in silence, doing my best to avoid staring at the scantily clad ladies who’d brought me my food. It helped to recall the women I was actually interested in. And to remind myself that One had stabbed me in the cheek and gotten me in considerable potential trouble with the Elder Council.