Elena walked into the hut, returning home after a hard day’s work, clearing out a colony of  Face-Stealing God-Spiders from a certain sect’s underground catacombs.

The first thing she did was step out of the rain-slicker and waders that she’d had to wear for the job and then grabbing a beer from the fridge. The first thing she saw was Billy. Kneeling in front of the bathroom, a holographic projection of figures and untidy scrawl floating at his side.

“Uh, hiya love. Are you about to redo the bathrooms again or something?” said Elena.

“......”

There was no answer save the hiss and scratch of new numbers and letters being drawn onto the wall.

“Will? Hello?  Monde to Will...Do you read me? Will, what are you doing? What is all this?”

“Nh?...No...No redo...Or do you think I should redo it...Would you say that there’s something about the bathroom that brings out ill-feelings?....Anyway, I can redo it afterwards, if you want. Right now, I’m trying to figure out something.” said Billy.

She looked at the figures unable to make head or tails of it. Then she looked up and saw a certain maudlin, slightly mousey individual peeking out from her bedroom like a shadow.

Making a scared animal noise and slamming the door closed once she’d realized she’d been spotted. For whatever reason Elena  found herself having a bad premonition.

“Uh...Actually, I kind of like this bathroom the way it is...I guess….Also, What are you trying to figure out?”

“Nh?...I-...I’m trying to figure out what I did to upset Eddie.” said Billy. Taking notes like a frustrated researcher, who’d reached a dead end. Repeatedly running his fingers through his hair in a rare sign of agitation.

*****

If one walked through the front door or simply looked at it from the outside, the hut was simply just that. A hut. A humble, one floor affair that was just barely big enough for one person to live in. On the inside though, there were hundreds of floors and thousands of rooms.

Some of them created as part of Billy’s hobby, some of them simply created by accident or  on impulse. Spontaneously generating, when there was the slightest need.

At the top of the structure there was a roof, that overlooked, a bright, gray-green, wind-swept land. Edna stood at the railing, leaning down, staring at the world of shades and its ever expanding horizons.

“Ed? Oh...there you are, hon. I tell you, this place is almost too fucking big sometimes.”  said Elena.

“Ed…?”

The girl who sat at the railing didn’t say anything, simply sipping from a bottle of something sugary sweet and mildly alcoholic. While watching the gray sun sink low in the gray sky, revealing a starless night.

“Ed, hon. Say something or I swear I’ll push you off this railing.” said Elena. As she sat down next to her friend.

Edna looked over at Elena, whilst tipping the contents of the bottle into her mouth. She was tempted to keep quiet but knowing Elena there’s was a sixty percent chance that she’d make good on her threat.

“.....Something.”

“Har-Har.” said Elena. Rolling her eyes, and giving the other girl a light push.

“Whoa, what the fuck? I’m pretty sure we’re high up enough that I could actually get hurt, y’know!” said Edna.

“Hmph, No we’re not. And that’s what you get for trying to be a wiseass.” said Elena.

“Tch...Brute.”

For a while neither woman said anything. Simply sitting in silence and watching the night arrive. Elena noticed that the starless night, wasn’t quite so starless anymore.

There two or three twinkling spots hanging above them, and glowing serpentine somethings swam through the clouds.

“So...Billy’s worried about you….He’s trying to figure out what he did to upset you.” said Elena.

“.......”

Edna kept mum, sipping on her wine cooler, while staring out into the night.

“....Ed? What he did he do?”

“....Nothing. He did nothing.” she said. Sighing, as she drained the bottle and then chucked it out into the open air, watching the glass glitter before it fell from her sight. Carried off by the fierce winds and shattering somewhere in the distance.

“Edna-Rae, we both know you wouldn’t be making the face you’re making if it was really nothing. Now tell me what happened.”

*****

Edna wakes up and finds herself buried under a small hill of paperwork...yet again. She totters out of her office and wanders down to the lower floors. Heading to the main kitchen in search of a little pick-me-up, to wake herself up.

As she passes through the halls she hears some sounds that are both familiar and unfamiliar. Rhythmic slapping and soft moans. She assumes that Elena or the other one, just left the scry cube on one of the more risque channels again. Hell it could even been her.

She grabs her little something eat, but heads to the bathroom, before heading back to her office. And that’s when she sees it. Within the bath is a storm of steam and pink colored fragrance. By now she knows that the sounds aren’t coming from the scry cube-television.  

The steam clears and the first thing she sees is a pair of pale white legs wrapped around a gray-brown torso. Held aloft and pinned to the creamy tile of the wall behind her. A woman moans. The room seems to tilt. Her fingers are tangled in his hair.

Edna doesn’t know, and won’t remember if she’s said anything but somehow how they find out she’s there. The  young woman is mortified but, her moans cut into whatever she was about to say.

As for the guy, he turns his neck, a full one hundred and eighty degrees, like an owl, turning to look at her, while the rest of him keeps perfect rhythm.

He says hi and asks her ‘whatsup’, as if, there’s nothing going on. As if he’s not doing what he’s doing. His expression still sweetly blank, as per usual. She just runs. She knows immediately that she can’t deal with, whatever  this is right now. And that’s how she Edna finds herself on the roof.

*****

Elena listened to Edna’s story in silence and then when it was done, she just let that silence lie. Going into her own head and trying to figure out how she felt about what she’d just heard.

“Wow...So he was really giving it to the gloomy chick, huh? Didn’t think she had it in her. Did she at least smile? Or does she wear that same sad kitten expression even while she’s on the brink of climax?”

Edna glared at her friend, brow furrowing.

“This isn’t funny, Ell.”

“En…’Guess not.”

“This is a...big deal...A huge fucking deal, Ell!”

“If you say so…” said Elena. Her tone conciliatory.

“He was fucking that girl! In ‘our’ bathroom. I mean what the hell?….gah!.. I don’t...I don’t even know what to say about  it...It’s just...gah!. Mu, Can I have a sip of your beer?” said Edna. Huffing and pacing, unable to match words to her feelings. Her throat gone dry, from the retelling.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

“Sure?” said Elena. Handing over the can she held.

“Thanks…”

“Don’t mention it.” said Elena. Putting her arm around the other girl’s shoulder and pulling her close.

“Why aren’t you as upset about this as I am? Am I being nuts about this? Or…?” said Edna.

“No, you’re not being nuts. And your feelings about this whole mess are entirely valid.”said Elena.

“But you don’t feel the same way?” said Edna.  Leaning forwards a bit, so she could watch the other girl’s expressions.

“Well….I guess it’s because I’m in a different place with our little William.” said Elena.

“A Different place?” said Edna. Pulling away a little.

“Tell me something, are you more mad that he was with someone else, or that he didn’t tell you first? Or more like it wasn’t ‘you’ first.”

“.....Ngh.”

Edna fell silent, as she retreated into her thoughts. Unhappy with Elena’s question because it pushed her back into the same cyclical line of thoughts she’d been thinking before Elena got to the roof.

Many things changed when the empire fell and the world rebuilt itself. Neither of the Maddoc girl’s had come from a monogamous home, and in fact very few, who weren’t extremely poor did.

With most people having at least one auxiliary relation that was maintained with someone they patronned or were patronned by.

A world that ran by survival of the fittest, was based in pragmatics and utility, in such a world while romantic love could still  exist, marriage and spouse choice quickly stopped being centered around romantic love.

From farmers, to merchants, to king's, marriage was about resource use, resource sharing, and the creation and affirmation of bonds. As well as the creation and strengthening of the bloodlines and the prospects of the families’ future practitioners.

Thus Multi-partner marriages weren’t unusual at all, coming in variations of either one male with multiple females, one female with multiple males, or multiple males and multiple females in the richest party’s prefered distribution.

The relationships that were chosen were based on wealth and power more than anything else.

With no excessive care for gender save those cases where the other family would require heirs before they were satisfied with the deal. Or when the goal of the marriage was the creation of a strong new generation.

“I...I don’t know….But still....” said Edna.

“Still...what?” said Elena.

“He should have known. He should get what kind of relationship we’re in. We need to talk about these things.” said Edna.

“Eddie, hon. We sleep in the same bed with the guy. Smooch his bloody face off. ‘I’ know that I’ve propositioned the guy, at least three hundred and seventy-eight times since I joined back up with you guys….And he ‘still’ sometimes asks if I want him to vet some of the proposals we’ve been getting since we hit the big time. I’m not sure if this is willful ignorance, or if there’s something legitimately up with that, but...I’m pretty sure the boy doesn’t get shit. I’m frankly just a little relieved because I was starting to think we were barking up the wrong tree here, if you know what I mean.”

The girl’s both stared out at the open space of the gray world below, sharing a sigh of mutual grievance.

“Shit….Okay then. Explain. Explain why when he finally decides to- to do that..with someone, he chooses her. Does that mean he’s not into us or…”

“Maybe she asked him. Like a direct request for sex, as a reward for breaking through the eleventh layer. But as a kind of joke, not-joke, that got a tad too real because then he really did it...because he’s still the same fucking kid who dug through trash and manure, all while it was raining, because you lost your favorite charm bracelet and asked him to help you look. When it was really in your pocket all along.”

“Yeah...but...that’d be dumb…And sex isn’t lockets..”said Edna. Feeling a certain  sinking feeling in her stomach.

Somehow certain that, that ‘hypothetical’ wasn’t so hypothetical. Knowing in all likelihood that Elena would have asked either William or Tamra, what happened before coming to speak with her.

“Yeah and our William as brilliant as he usually is...  is kind of dumb when it comes to certain matters. I’ve made three hundred and seventy eight, very descriptive innuendos and overture. And I’ve been gifted with twenty-three trucks, a dozen exemplary but ultimately disappointing back massages, a flock of ducks and a horse, because of it.”

Edna considered Elena’s words and Elena herself had a moment of gloomy epiphany that made her blush as she suddenly realized that her sweet William might have very obscene, very unexpected blindspot.

“Shit….So you’ve been shot down three hundred and seventy-eight times?” said Edna.

“Tch...that’s what you get from this? Do you think I won’t push you off this fucking roof?” said Elena. Nostrils flaring.

“I can fly. Remember?” said Edna.

“….Not if I pluck off those feathers of yours, you can’t.”

Edna had no clue where her feathers had any bearing on her ability to fly, but she still scooted a little bit away from Elena. Aware that she could sometimes be a bit unpredictable.

“Hey-hey, calm down...I thought you were up here to make me feel better, not threaten me.”

“I can do both. You’re not the only one who’s good at multi-tasking, Edna-Rae.” said Elena. Ending her words with an imperious sniff.

There was a lull, where neither woman said anything, then Edna coughed, clearing her throat.

“So uh….how do you think Tamra pulled it off? The guy’s as dense as Maellan Sandstone.”

Elena chuckled sinisterly.

“As far as I could figure, plain, clear statements and use of helpful drawings? It occurs to me that William might be a bit of a... ‘literalist’ when it comes to certain things.”

Edna listened and then she nodded, a muddled expression on her face.

“Huh...I’m kind of pissed at  her right now, but I think she might be a genius” said Edna.

Elena simply grunted and nodded, sipping last of her beer, before crumpling the can on her head and tossing the flattened disk into the gray beyond. Watching it whiz into the distance like a frisby.