She entered the bedroom with trepidation and closed the door behind her as she had been ordered. Her head was lowered, and her eyes downcast as if resigned. She was now just a slave who tended the gardens.
‘He’s handsome enough,’ she thought, ‘If that’s what he wants, then I’ll do my best to please him. There are worse ways for a woman’s first time.’
Being in the Ebon was not conducive to having relationships, and although many of her sisters had taken lovers, she had avoided it. ‘Becoming the master’s concubine wasn’t a bad thing,’ she mused.
“Leyla, take off your clothes and get in the tub in the bathroom,” instructed Renier.
“Yes, master. Should I help you with your clothes first?” She asked in what she hoped was a suggestive voice, but in reality came out as quivering uncertainty. ‘I have no experience in these things,’ she thought.
Then she noticed something peculiar. Her master’s face went through a series of contortions, and his cheeks went red like a pomegranate.
“Oh! No Leyla. It isn’t like that,” he said hurriedly in an apologetic tone. “I… I set up a bath with herbs and will teach you a meditation to draw their energy into you. It will repair your Adhikendra and Nadi channels.”
Leyla couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She stood in the middle of the room unmoving, then dropped to her knees, “Master…” but she choked up and couldn’t say anything else.
“It will only allow you to recover your stage three Samvid Nexus, and you’ll never reach further, but I think with time, we can make you a powerful Sangami able to defeat stage four or even stage five…”
Leyla couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She had resigned herself to never being able to weave again. Composing herself as best she could, she said, “Master Renier, I have no way to repay your gifts to me, but I swear you will have my unwavering loyalty,” and she got up, tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘She had cried more with this new master than during all her time with the Ebon,’ she thought as she entered the bathroom and disrobed.
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‘The more I deny it, the worse it will get,’ he thought as the carriage sped toward Ancyra. Whispers and giggles had accompanied his breakfast. It was obvious, they thought, that he had taken Viper as a concubine. Well, it was only one more treatment, and after the cerulean coral pill.
'Hopefully, there won't be any trouble. Viper might not be able to weave, but she was still a trained assassin. Who knew what she would do if they teased her?' he feared.
The next problem was how to deal with Meryem. Last night's foray into the spice shop had yielded nothing. No clues. No back exits or trap doors. He didn’t understand how the person had disappeared. He had, like before, opened his perception to try to find the person, but so far nothing.
As the carriage neared the gate, a patrol of guards was returning from their rounds. Three bodies were draped over the back of horses. “Stop the carriage!” Shouted Renier to the driver.
“Where did you find the bodies?” he asked the patrol leader as he leaped off the carriage before it had even stopped. “Master Orhan, about three kilometers past the gates. They seemed to have been ambushed. Their bodies were left by the side of the road,” answered the sergeant.
Renier did a cursory inspection of the bodies, thanked the sergeant, and continued to the inn.
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“You’re sure that they can’t be traced back to us?” Asked Meryem.
“Sırçalan, the three thieves have been taken care of and the new talisman worked perfectly. I made sure he followed me from the house and put it on at the spice shop. He could no longer follow after that,” reported the man.
“Good! It took a lot of effort to make that quality of talisman. I will go to his estate every morning and hopefully gain his confidence,” she commented. “You can burn the document. It served its purpose.”
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She left the room and went downstairs to wait.
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Skandar drooled. The girl looked to be about eighteen. ‘People have red hair? She actually has red hair and blue eyes,’ he ogled her.
All of a sudden he really wanted to study. “Yes Master Orhan,” he finally answered. “I’m eager to learn. Thank you Dalia Hanim for teaching this humble one.” He saw how Renier’s face spasmed into disbelief. ‘What? He had always wanted to learn!’
“Very well, if it is agreed, I’ll leave the two of you to get acquainted. Skandar, make sure you follow Dalia Hanim’s instructions!” And he turned and left.
“What? Oh… yeah let’s sit,” he said awkwardly, while trying to remember what she had said.
“So, tell me how you and Master Orhan met.”
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“The three perpetrators are dead, but the document has not been found,” informed Halil, “we have searched the warehouse as well as the house they stayed at, but nothing was found. Our belief is that they delivered the document and they were killed.”
“I have not been able to find the man that visited after their interrogation. I searched the spice shop and didn’t find any way he could have escaped. I must have lost him in the crowd, although that seems impossible,” added Renier.
Mustafa Pasha didn’t comment for a few minutes, “there’s nothing to be done. Master Orhan, if you detect the person again, do not hesitate to apprehend him. You have my full authority to act in this matter. Otherwise, close the investigation.”
“Now, on another matter, I was informed that Maharaj Kumar Ranjit Singh Chandra will arrive in two weeks. He wishes to establish trade relations between us and his father's kingdom. Halil, I need you to prepare for the visit. Nothing must happen to the prince while he’s here. Master Orhan, I was hoping you could help entertain the prince. It might be a good opportunity for you in the silk trade.”
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“You’re certain it’s him?”
“Yes, master. We have confirmed that the boy used the name Orhan. Three years ago he disappeared and the Sultan ordered a massive hunt for him. At first, we thought it was because of the murders, but now we know it’s because it’s his cousin.”
“That son of a bitch killed my brother three years ago. I can’t do anything to him directly, but if his uncle happens to find out…”
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This was the third and final night that Viper would come. She was in the water as Renier handed her the Cerulean Coral Pill. ‘Nothing to do but wait,’ he thought as she took it.
“Remember to meditate during the process,” he reminded her.
‘Remember to meditate during the process,’ Ayg reminded him.
Renier popped the pill in his mouth and swallowed. A few seconds after the pill entered his stomach, his body started to get hot. Bubbles began to form as if his stomach acid was boiling. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his mantra and breathing. 'Child, I leave my legacy, my inheritance, to you. Thank you for taking up the mantel of the Echelon. I'm proud of your accomplishments, and I'm sure you'll grow into a great man. If I'd had a son, I wish he would have been like you. Be well,’ whispered Ayg.
Rippling energies coursed through Renier's body, and her words didn't register. His muscles contorted. His limbs stretched and twisted, and he felt on fire. The pain was excruciating, and he let out a deep, throaty scream. The heat increased and spread from his torso to his limbs and then up his neck to his head. His body felt like it was being destroyed and remade, and in a certain sense, it was. He tried to meditate but failed. As more and more of the substance entered his bloodstream, every inch of him burned.
Then, as if that wasn't enough, he felt his bones break, and the impurities within started seeping out of his pores. Anything foreign in his body was being broken down and excreted through his pores.
Near his heart, between his lungs, an egg-shaped gelatinous organ grew.
He screamed!
Seven thick helical channels started to drill themselves out of the oval. Two snaked through each arm to end at the palm of his hands. Another two went through his legs and similarly concluded at the soles of his feet. The fifth one pushed through the back of his neck to finish at his forehead. The next one followed his spine to end at the small of his lower back, and the final one covered his chest to finish right in front of his heart. Each channel ended with a thin, shimmering, hexagonal, crisscrossed membrane just below the skin's surface.
He continued to scream as the energy drilled through his body.
Out of each channel, a myriad of smaller channels, like small blood vessels, started to branch out, covering his whole body.
In between his screams, a tendril of thought entered Renier's consciousness, ‘Ayg!!!’ He looked at the palm of his right hand, and the now familiar tattoo was gone. He tried to visualize the talisman. He could feel it dissipating, the energy leaving his body. ‘He had to do something!’ He tried to absorb the dissipating energy into his newly formed Adhikendra with all his willpower, but it slipped away.
Viper screamed!
The filth was coming out of her pores. Her body was being remade, infused with Mu energy once again. Finally, as the process reached her head, she lost consciousness.
Once again, he wondered if he was too trusting of women. ‘With the oath, it should be fine,’ he thought. He needed someone that could guard the estate against other sangami. The alternative was waiting for Skandar to be ready and after he was in Ombre Island, but he could taste the revenge.
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Her master had told her today was her birthday. She wasn’t sure if it was true - she didn’t have any living family that could confirm it - but celebrated the day as if it was. Celebrated, that is, in her head. No one had ever congratulated her or brought her a present like she had heard other people did, but she reminded herself that it was one more year she survived. Eighteen of them now.
Growing up in the Yendeci didn’t make for a pleasant childhood. They might be scholars, but an orphan like her was never destined for that. She had been, from the very beginning, designed to be a glorified slave. Conditioned and trained to serve her master in all ways. Luckily her master was a woman. Other servants she knew weren’t as lucky.
“Yes, master. I’m now going every day to tutor the child. I’ll do everything I can to get close to Master Orhan,” Meryem informed.
“Do whatever you need to do to get him to trust you. Use your feminine guiles. Hint at sharing his bed. Whatever you need to do, but I want his secrets!”
She had never seen her master be so insistent.
“Yes, master. I will get the secrets,” she answered although in her heart she had no plans to give herself to that ugly man.