Jace sat across the table from Kai in a dark corner of a crowded tavern. The relatively early hour dissuaded most from ordering dinner, but drinks flowed aplenty. Now that the castle gates were closed for the day, all deliveries had ceased, and local businesses could turn their attention to paying customers. The local craftsman released the extra workers necessary to meet the royal family's demands, and now those employees became patrons.
Kai sipped casually at his ale while Jace ignored his. The knight couldn’t drink with his helmet on, so Draya had disguised his appearance to look similar to Jace, with light skin and brown hair. Kai didn’t like the deception but understood its utility. Draya, Gromphy, and Snowy sat at a different table, blending in with the happy hour environment. Jace wanted a more serious conversation with his new party member, and Kai could sense the tension in the air.
“Is there really an assassination plot against the king?” Jace asked after several minutes of silence.
“Yes,” Kai said. “I swear it. Don’t listen to that old man. The queen has infected him, just like . . .”
“He told me you tortured serving girls and stable boys.”
“I . . . I had to . . .” Kai stuttered. “I had to get information. They were lying to me.”
“And what if I had lied to you?” Jace asked. “What if I had made up information to get you to bring me here.”
Kai frowned. “But you didn’t.”
“What if I had?” Jace persisted. “What if I knew about the danger to the king but didn’t know the details? So I guessed or made them up.”
“If you had lied to me,” Kai started slowly, “then I would have assumed you were in on the plot. Why else would you hide the truth from me?”
“You would have taken me here and then turned me in to the authorities,” Jace said for him. “Where I would have been tortured to give information I didn’t know.”
“Then you shouldn’t have lied!” Kai said a little too loudly. “People shouldn’t lie. The world would be a better place if everyone always told the truth.”
“Do you believe that?” Jace asked. “Or is this personal? You were dismissed from the king’s service. How much do you wish to get back into his good graces? Enough to torture innocent people?”
“No one is innocent,” Kai stated with a straight face.
“Perhaps,” Jace admitted, “but not everyone is an assassin. Some people just have secrets they would like to keep.”
“You don’t understand,” Kai said. “Everyone lies . . . all . . . the . . .time!” He spoke in a low growl. “No one in the castle told the truth. The Gilded Swan was no better. The women lied to seduce clients, and the men lied that they loved them. Even Vithium lied to me every day. It has to stop!”
“And you think you’re the one to do it?” Jace asked.
The knight smirked at him. “Your party members do it too,” Kai said, taking a drink to let that comment sink in. “You have not lied to me since we met other than to mask your true appearance.” He looked at his pale arms and frowned. “But your people are not so honest. Especially Esther. When she told you that she. . .”
Jace raised his hand to stop him. “I don’t want to know, and you need to stop worrying about it too. You can’t change the world. Trying to do so prevents you from achieving your true goal.” Jace paused and tried another angle. “Do you know the story of the boy who cried wolf?”
Kai shook his head and glanced over at Draya and Gromphy. Snowy, disguised as a large dog, lay quietly under their table. “Is it about your familiar?”
Jace shook his head and waited for Kai to return to him before continuing. “It is about a boy who looked after sheep and wanted attention, so he called out that a wolf was attacking when it wasn’t. All the men of the village rushed to save him until they found out it was a hoax. And then when a wolf actually did come . . .”
“The men stayed in the village,” Kai finished for him, the parable’s ending obvious. “You think I am a boy seeking attention?”
“No,” Jace said, “I think you are a man who can’t tell the difference between a harmless dog and a vicious wolf. You see danger everywhere. You lost credibility for it, and now that the danger is real, you are unable to fight it.”
Kai said nothing as he sipped his drink.
“I will help you,” Jace said, “but we have to do things my way, and once your position is restored, you need to learn from this and not accuse every stable boy of treason when he is late and can’t think of a better excuse than he slept in.”
Kai nodded.
“Good. Now, I need to know a little more about the land. Hegai labeled me as someone from Jerisalam. Where is that?”
Kai nodded again, understanding the old man’s reasoning. “It is one of the first regions our kingdom defeated when King Azerous’ father began his conquests. Most of the people were killed, but a few survived and were spread throughout the kingdom. They resisted the King the most and were made an example of. They looked like you, with lighter skin and fair hair. Other regions learned that lesson and surrendered quickly. That is until we went up against the Chi Ten Kingdom. They held many lands on the eastern edge of our continent, and the previous king felt vulnerable now that he rivaled them in size.”
Kai took another drink before continuing. “We never fell into complete war, only a few skirmishes along our borders. Eventually, they negotiated a peace, and as part of that arrangement, one of their princesses married the king’s son.”
Jace nodded. “Queen Vashti is from this other kingdom?”
“Yes,” Kai said. “And many of her people moved into the city as well. The Chi people have tried to fit into our society, but it hasn’t been easy. They rely on magic and sorcery more than we do. We are fighters and priests. We serve our gods and work hard. Magic is seen as a shortcut with too many costs.”
Jace understood that the Asian-looking people he saw around the city must be the Chi. It also now made sense why the queen might want to kill the king. It would be a way for her people to take over the kingdom.
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“As a paladin,” Jace said, “you serve a god?”
“I did,” Kai said. “Ever since my banishment, I can not call out to him . . . or her. I can’t remember. That witch of a queen must have put a curse on me!” He slammed the table.
Jace splayed his hands out toward the inquisitor in an attempt to calm him. “I understand. I will help you. But you have to trust me. I will come up with a plan.”
“Is your plan to sit in a tavern and get drunk?” The venom in Kai’s voice and features calmed a bit when he noticed for the first time that Jace hadn’t touched his drink.
“No,” he replied. “But we need to give Esther and Psycho a chance to learn what they can from the palace. Until then, we wait.”
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Esther had been given a stack of clean towels to carry and followed the other women inside the castle. After a short walk through polished stone hallways, they arrived in a large white room with shelves, racks, and hanging clothes. To Esther, it looked like a clothing store, but she soon realized these items weren’t for sale but were the everyday attire for the castle staff. She was directed where to place the towels and then watched as the other women moved to long, flat tables to fold the laundry.
The fallen angel-turned-vampire and escort had never been adequately domesticated, and while she tried to help, the other women mostly laughed at her attempts to fold shirts, pants, and suits. Instead, they gave her the task of hauling away their own dirty robes. Many of them had gotten wet and some muddy, and so before folding and putting away the clean garments, many stripped down to their underclothes.
Esther hauled the discarded robes to another room and then still had free time to watch the women work. They talked incessantly about court gossip, the past meals they had eaten, the bedroom preferences of their king, as well as several other good-looking guards and palace officials they had improperly engaged with.
It reminded Esther too much of her old life, where she had endured a seemingly endless parade of boringly similar characters who all wanted one thing. Recently, her life had been far more interesting as Jace surrounded himself with intellectual companions and went on fascinating missions. She hoped her job in the palace wouldn’t last too long. Esther looked around for Psycho but couldn’t find him. In fact, all the eunuchs were absent.
The laundry process finished in less than an hour, and the women eagerly moved to the next part of their schedule. Persephone never spoke to Esther directly but made enough eye contact with her to let the new recruit know she should follow their lead and not ask too many questions. Esther sensed the humidity in the air before they entered the next chamber and was not surprised to find an extensive room filled with baths. No fewer than six large tubs sat carved into the stone floor, steaming away and brimming with warm water, fragrant soaps, and vitalizing oils. What few clothes the women still wore fell to the tiled walkways, and they quickly immersed themselves in the bubbling luxury.
Esther didn’t feel particularly dirty, but carrying muddy clothes had left their mark. She followed suit, though she vanished her dress into her inventory, not trusting she’d ever see it again if she left it on the floor.
“No,” Persephone called out when Esther moved to join her and another woman in the closest bath. “This one is full. Find another.”
Esther thought the vast basin could hold half a dozen large fighters and certainly wasn’t at capacity with only two slight women, but she decided not to argue. As Esther stood naked before the head woman, the rogue could see even more jealousy in her eyes and decided not to press the point. Looking about, she saw two was the maximum for most of the baths and moved to the smallest pool, which held only one occupant. Esther had noticed the young girl earlier and thought she looked a few years younger than Draya and out of place in this adult atmosphere. “May I join you?” Esther asked.
The girl smiled pleasantly at her, modestly rising just high enough to bow her shoulders forward. “Yes, please. I don’t mind.”
Esther strolled down the steps into the water, letting the warmth massage her legs and back, soothing aching muscles she didn’t know she had. She crouched so the shallow water reached her neck, then stopped and relaxed back into a smooth stone seat underwater. She was the last one of the women to find a bath, and once she was submerged, the eunuchs made their reappearance. They each took measured steps around the slippery surface, collecting the few discarded clothes and disappearing for a short while. Upon returning, they stood at attention next to the bath of their charge, holding towels and robes, their eyes never wavering downward.
It took Esther a minute to find Psycho in the cluster, and when she did, she noticed he now wore the same blue vest and gray pants as the others. She had never seen his muscled torso before, and even in his magically neutered state, a shiver went down her spine. She grabbed a bar of soap to distract herself and began washing.
“If you don’t mind me asking,” the other girl said, “Where are you from? You look. . . well. . . you’re the most exotic person I’ve ever seen.”
The girl seemed a bit giddy at Esther’s presence, like many of the men she had seduced in the past, only the vampire was using none of her mana-based skills. Gracie had spoken to her at length while she had waited in the laundry room and knew about the politics and ethnicities of the kingdom. The operator had advised her on how to answer questions like this. “My name is Esther,” she said. “I’m from Crestfall. It is a country far from here. My uncle is a trader, and he is thinking about settling down in this area. He thought having a family member in the castle would help his business prospects.”
The girl giggled. “How would having a niece be queen help him out?”
Esther ignored the presumptive comment. “And your name is?”
“I’m Nalia.”
Esther grinned at her. “Nice to meet you, Nalia. I have to say, you seem to be the only one here happy to see me.”
She giggled. “The other women don’t like competition, but I don’t mind. I’m not interested in the king anyway.”
As Esther washed her hair, she turned her neck to look at the other baths. One held two Chi women, likely the queen’s handmaidens. The others all held Madrian women native to this kingdom. Esther was the only one with fair skin, and she saw several of the women eyeing her carefully, like hunters scoping out prey.
“Why join the king’s harem if you aren’t interested in the king?” Esther asked, not letting her gaze rest on any one bath for too long.
“His son,” Nalia said. “We met a few months ago when he visited my father’s market. I come from a poor family and would have no chance of socializing with royalty. But in here, I can spend most evenings with him, walking along the castle walls, counting the stars . . .”
“Sleeping with his dad,” Esther interrupted.
Nalia giggled again. “Thankfully, not yet. And with you here, hopefully not ever. I made my motives clear to Persephone when I joined, and she’s coached me well. She taught me all the scents the king doesn’t like, his least favorite colors and hairstyles, and the mannerisms that turn him off. So far, the king hasn’t given me a second look.”
Esther rinsed her hair and smiled. She could imagine Persephone gladly sabotaging any of the women here.
“Is that your man?” Nalia asked, changing the topic.
Esther turned suddenly in the bath to see Psycho and another shorter man standing beside him, each holding a towel and robe. She and Nalia washed in the tub furthest from the entrance, and the two eunuchs had only just arrived after clearing out the discarded undergarments. Esther hadn’t resubmerged when she turned and stood waist-deep in the water, her wet, soapy hair hanging over her shoulders. Psycho was a good boy and kept his eyes high.
“Yes,” Esther replied, not turning toward the girl as she spoke. She kept her eyes on the archer before her, testing his willpower.
“Is he an elf?” Nalia asked. “I’ve never seen an elf before. He is more impressive than what I’ve read. I would have expected him to be short and skinny.”
Esther didn’t reply and instead walked toward Psycho, the water level rising to her knees. “Nal Saikol,” she said, addressing him with his real name to stay in character. “Can you help me? There’s this spot I can’t reach.” Esther turned around and motioned to her lower back with the bar of soap.
“Oh, no, Esther, you mustn’t,” Nalia said, rushing over to her new friend and nearly tackling her back into the water. The girl wasn’t even close to being skilled enough to Grapple with the expert rogue, but Esther let her succeed, enjoying the warmth of the water once more. “They aren’t allowed to touch us,” Nalia continued. “They aren’t even allowed to look at us. Besides, they can’t feel arousal. Flirting with them doesn’t work. Save it for the king.”
Esther turned back around, the water pooling just under her chin as she stared holes into her bodyguard. She thought she detected a slight tremor in his posture, but other than that, he was the perfect eunuch. “Okay, Nalia,” Esther said, proceeding to finish rinsing her hair. “I’ll save it for the king.”