CW:

Talk of separating people from abusers. Talk of being used for fertility things.

“Just like that?” Kque asks with a raised eyebrow.

“We sensed no deception within her.” Is our easy reply, “And neither did Tasii.”

Our lover purses her lips but nods. “Okay. We can be ready now, right Jevita?”

The three bearers of the Maktaba, Kque and Tasii’s mothers, alongside Rahdian, agreed to be away from the manor for this meeting. And the best place was out here in the warmed stables with our Big Child and their own hot meal.

“Yeah. Course.” Jevita agrees and rises. Moving to scoop up a bundle of notebooks and parchments and just… lots of things we can’t help but want to read over when given half a chance.

New Cultivation muses for those who’ve yet to meet the Zeridii properly.

“Um…” Rahdian rises and looks between us three while Kque steps over to help Jevita gather things up. Little Zeridii cutie in the tall girl’s arms wobbling in slowly awakening sounds while my long one rests across her shoulders. “So… I’d like to come with you all.”

We kinda jerk to a stop at that. All these well laid out plans being adjusted and reformed to fit this sudden increase in the pace of our motions just… stuttering.

“Rahdian…” We murmur.

But she shakes her head and waves hands in negation as words spill out in a rush. “I looked for you because I needed to figure out Sun Spoken stuff. What it all means. Not just for my Dreamers but… but me. I want to do this. Ever since we were both little girls on that beach playing pretend. And… and these guys are people I actually might be able to help out better than anyone else on the Paths.”

Tilt our head to consider that, “You’ll be exposing yourself to some really dangerous people, Rahdian. Emarial herself is such a stupid cunt when it comes to other Sun Spoken, and that’s not even to mention Veletross and her nonsense.”

“I know. But… Your lovers are putting themselves in danger too. And they don’t even have our magic to keep themselves safe. I… I know I haven’t said it openly but like… I want to be a part of… um…” She takes a deep breath, fights to avoid the moisture bubbling in her eyes. “This family. Travel with you and face everything together. Never be alone and never let any of you all be alone. Um… please?”

Both spirits fubble our steady calm focus at that. Smile and step over to carefully take up a hand of hers. “Okay.”

“I… Yeah?” She whispers, those maybe tears tilting to become dribbling droplets down her cheeks.

“Mhm. Yes. We’d love to have you.”

She sucks in a breath. Tries to scrub the tears away. “Thanks. For… um… That. And everything. And…”

We move forward to carefully, slowly, and so very gently, hug her. Making it easy for her to pull away before we wrap this big amazing girl and our gemstone cuties in such an embrace.

“Thank you for choosing to walk beneath the star’s wonderful gazes with us, dear lover of mine.” We whisper in lilting Arudian.

“I… What?” She stammers while leaning into our hug and enveloping us back.

“Arudian love poems. We’ll share what they all mean along the Paths, even teach you to speak them if you’d like.”

“Yes. Please.” She blubbers and melts into our embrace. Taking to crying for a bit. More so when Kque and Jevita move up to hug this newest addition to our not so little family.

** ** **

“We wanted our entire family to be there for this, right?” We reply to Yrelia’s quirked eyebrow with a grin.

Our First lover’s already guessed all this from the way her eyes dance over our fingers that hold Rahdian's, but her bubbling smirk and quick steps up to pull us both into a hug means so much. Long gemstone cutie bubbling happy noises from where it drapes across our shoulders.

Been doing that for a while now. Rahdian’s too. Just… seeming so happy at something they can’t quite tell us about.

“I’m so very glad to have you with us.” Yrelia says while stepping back. Such a… a playful grin on her lips.

Tasii moves up past her to touch Rahdian’s arm and embrace her next. Murmuring her own words of welcome and comfort while we…

Look past. To the Sun Spoken and Matron eyeing us curiously by the front exit to this home.

We regather up Rahdian’s hand and lead her up to stand before them both, Zigdara moving from where she stood off to the side to stand at our back.

“Emarial of the Sun Spoken, Matron Veletross of the House of Rell, this is Rahdian.” We state. “Sun Spoken, woman of the Paths, and a dear member of our family.”

They both seem to have words bubbling up, But we quickly raise a hand to halt that.

“You will treat her with nothing but respect and kindness.” We state like one would claim it’s snowing outside. “A great deal more than you showed us.”

Veletross only grins at that, almost bowing as she agrees and greets. “Of course, High duenna. It is always a pleasure to encounter a new member of the Sun Spoken Order, Rahdian.”

Emarial swallows whatever she was about to say while her eyes dance between us. Gaze singing her trepidation and worry. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“I… Thanks. Nice to meet you both.” Rahdian replies with as much steady confidence as she can muster.

We sense Emarial’s bubbling desire to press for information but… she only nods.

“Alright.” Tasii says and moves up to our side as she shrugs into her own coat. “Let’s try to get there before everyone’s asleep.”

** ** **

Our hand hesitates just a whisper from the wood. About to knock but…

We can already hear them. The muffled sounds of monsters and parasites and their Keepers behind this door.

Deep breaths. Focus past the curse.

Apparently near the end they’d either realized or been told what our general plan was. How we mean to free the Arudian males into the care of another group and separate them from all their past Keepers and such.

And now all the Keepers have disappeared into the living spaces to seek out the Arudian males.

We were worried at first. That they might… might try something stupid. But upon thinking about it past the curse’s sting it… it’s pretty obvious. And Lady Delphian added the extra understanding.

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Each Arudian Male is assigned a Keeper when they are taken in here. A woman roughly five to ten years older than they are, with years of training that match up to what the Academy needed her to be when a new Odlock Gemstone was found and boy selected.

His everything. Sister, friend, caretaker, and… and very often first real lover.

Which would have set us into even worse rage if not for the understanding that these women are required to give up their own fertility for this. Their role is to be a part of a like… community for them. And how even if they wanted to help their charge escape they couldn’t! There are tracking Glyphs that stop that. They weren’t the people in charge of the Academy’s program. They… They couldn’t change what is expected of these men.

Not like our Sangoma could.

Take another deep breath, rebuild our Hetaera mask, and knock. Loud, but nothing to cause a scare or feel like… threatening.

A few seconds pass and the room beyond quiets a little, and the door opens to reveal an older woman.

“Hello.” We say gently and hopefully gift her a softer smile than the muck inside us would otherwise let us without our training.

Her tear touched eyes widen as she takes us in. Our… Well, Yrelia has made sure we know just how pretty we are. But… also helped us understand how much of a weight this mingling adds to us.

Eye’s brighter and voice tinted with the tone of the Larger Spirit alongside how we just… speak in a way that almost sounds like a song is just behind.

“I... Are you the High Duenna?” She asks carefully, eyes dancing behind us and looking for… well. More. Probably.

But we’re alone. That worried our lovers and Emarial wanted to argue but…

We gave her a very pointed look and informed her that she would remain away or be made to remain away. Then told our Lovers that we wanted to do this. That our Curse wouldn’t push us and we just…

Want to speak with the little pods we’d heard they’d formed in reaction to being pulled away from the Academy quite suddenly without an entire group to scare them. Especially the big imposing figures of Emarial or even Zigdara.

Just us. Small and soft but brimming with magical nonsense that’ll help us explain… Well, we won’t start there unless they ask.

“Yes.” We nod. “May we come in?”

She hesitates, eyes filling with confusion at the we.

“This form is a Sun Spoken and Weaver Shard woven together. Thus… we. But just this vessel. To talk. That’s all.”

“No duenna?” She asks carefully.

“None. Even later.” We nod, then tilt our head. “At least… well Zigdara is technically a duenna but only to us.”

She purses her lips, but steps back to reveal a room that is way too small for the over dozen people in here. About half are women of various ages with more than a few interesting Cultivation changes. Each sitting or standing close to…

A bunch of really pretty monsters. Even more changed of course. But… not in ways that add very much to their overall shapes? No horns or tails or scales or some of the other alterations we thought they’d have. Lots of Glyphs though. All across their skin. Not like Jevita or the other Maktaba holders but close enough to make our spine go a touch cold.

Steady breaths. Not in danger. Just… a bunch of pretty monsters waiting to be moved into places with others kinda like them and no longer being used by lots of others. See? Easy. Everyone’s safer.

The Curse… kinda almost seems to grumble at that. But settles.

Weird.

“Our name is Ina, and… We came to talk to you all about your futures.” We murmur softly to the room as all eyes fall on us.

When we look closer at least all of the women seem to have cried a little. The men are a little less but… some have. Even still are. Others just seem kinda in shock.

“You mean to take them away.” A younger woman asks before we can say anything else. “Free them. Right? Something about… a group of men like them to help?”

She seems… hurting? Looks like she’s been crying for hours. But… hopeful? Almost desperate in those words as she sits next to her monster and grips his hand so tight.

“Mhm. You’ve gotten the main parts. The Azure Compact is the group’s name.” We nod. “All of you, that being the previously fertile males, will be given nearly endless resources and connections to help you adjust and settle well into whatever life you want after today.”

The room goes even quieter as everyone, understandably, focuses on those middle words.

“W– wait.” One of the older women stammers. “Previously fertile!?! What are you going to do to them?”

Ah, worried about some fucked up Gemstone procedure to take that away.

“Nothing. The Zeridii should have already nullified their ability to do that anymore.” We reply simply.

Everyone just… kinda stares. Seems really shocked. But… weirdly some of the little gasps and widening of eyes on the women seem… to be kinda happy? What?

Until one of the monsters whispers into the silence. “The… those weird bugs?”

We tilt our head and give him the softest smile we can. “Yes. There wasn’t any pain right?”

That makes the curse nibble. Poking and scratching at the idea that we would want anything but this little monster to suffer.

He blushes a little, but shakes his head, as do a couple others.

“What bugs? What are you talking about?” Another woman spits. Standing near a monster but not as close as others.

“The Zeridii made them unable to be used like before. No more kids.” We explain evenly. “And this knowledge will be shared far and wide after today. Anyone who might have tried something stupid will hear and know that none of you can get them a child.”

“This doesn’t make any sense.” An older monster curled sitting up on a bed between a woman and another monster sighs loudly while shaking his head. “Why do this?”

“We… Honestly it was the right thing to do. You were all so young and didn’t have better options for getting the Cultivation changes you needed and…” Look past him to the wall while wondering just how much more to say.

“Arudia’s gonna fall apart because of this.” The monster next to him murmurs. “R– right? Without daughters there won’t be people in the future.”

We give him a steady look. One the Little Spirit hopes so much is the kind of thing Tasii does when she’s pushing us into not doubting ourselves. “That’s not your responsibility to worry over. It’s ours. You’ve already given your life up until this day. Now… let Arudia find a better Path on its own.”

“And… What about us Keepers?” The woman who answered the door asks.

We glance over to her, then to every other woman in the room.

“You all need to let them go.” We murmur gently but evenly. “Let them find their own lives among people who weren’t a part of the Academy's work.”

That… makes so many here go pale. Eye’s widening and even outright begin to fall to pieces.

“But…” One of the younger monsters stammers from within his Keeper’s embrace, a man about the Little Spirit’s age. “I… why? They… Why not let them stay with us?”

“We can’t really stop any of you from like… finding each other later.” We relent a little under this boy’s desperate words. “But to start we demand distance. Because… They hurt you.”

Curse stabs us at that. The idea of being more worried for these women who gave their everything to these monsters upsetting it. How we're calling it abuse when they gave safety and companionship and all the changes they could ever dream of.

All while we were kept alone and used and never had someone get close enough to see that. All while these monsters were gifted a woman groomed to serve and attend to their every need.

That thought makes us both jerk to a halt.

Eye’s dance about the room as some of the men try to shout words of argument. Mostly the younger ones though, the oldest seem to wince. But… in understanding.

The women, even the ones who seem less able to get close to their monster, all seem as if I’ve struck them a blow. More than half look down in shame and pain, while only two hold my gaze.

The Bigger Spirit tries to calm the smaller as she begins to tremble under the weight of it all. Sputtering and spitting and hissing. Holding the words of the curse close as a child might a favorite soft toy amidst a storm of pain. Or anger.

Why did Lyttoral not do this?

Give us a Keeper?

Old memories strike like worse blows we’d felt this side of a Dream. Of moments of pain or frustration or anger with the old body, the sex expected, and… and how little the boys there ever tried to know us.

How little our mother, our Sangoma, cared.

Just… used and used and nothing else about us mattered while–

“H– high Duenna?” A worried voice cuts through the muck.

We jerk up to find the room has gone quiet. All eyes still on us but now with titterings of fear.

The Larger Spirit embraces the smaller and comforts her. Don’t think about it. How we looked.

“Sorry. That… we only are trying to say…” We trail off, trying to regather words for this unexpected shift. “We understand. We really do. Your Keepers couldn’t change what was happening, but part of helping required them to participate in what the Academy did to you. Not... We're guessing your Keepers do cherish you, but we can hurt those we care for so easily. And... and time and distance is really important for healing.”

A pause, and our plans fracture and change and adjust as more memories hit.

“Redrogal, the Speaker for the Azure Compact can… can set something up. A way to make sure contact can be re-established in six months to a year’s time if it’s wanted. We can even ensure all Keepers are given resources to ensure they aren’t just… tossed out into the cold winds.” We nearly stammer out.

“That… seems more than reasonable.” The oldest monster here speaks into the quiet.

One other nods, while quite a few others still seem to be consumed with worry at that.

Clinging to the women who’ve given them everything in hopes they’ll come crawling back like some pitiful mewling–

“We’d like to move you all tonight. A group is waiting just outside this wing to help guide things along.” Is our reply to cut off the curse-drenched thoughts. “We’ll lead you there, then head out to speak with the others.”

Just… same thing. Two more times. The smaller spirit sighs. Avoid the curse and avoid old memories and… and focus on the goals. We’ll get better at this.

Simple. Easy.

R- right?