Raksha felt an unexpected warmth in his chest at Ellesea’s words, even if he couldn’t help but grimace at her lack of tact. He wished he could reach over and slap the idiot and tell her to read the room. Rylie’s burning gaze bored into him from across the room, and he felt a little sweat trickling down his back. Ignoring it, he put on a soft smile and replied, “Everything is fine, Ellessea, we are just talking, that’s all.”

Visible relief swept over the girl and, again, Raksha felt the urge to slap some sense into her. He bet everybody in the room was feeling the same.

Taking the seat offered by the servant, the girl sat with what dignity she could muster and looked up expectantly at the Matriarch.

The Matriarch, for her part, seemed to be doing her best impression on sucking on a lemon.

Eventually she spoke, pulling out a sheet paper and plopping it down in front of Ellessea. “Your parents and I had come to an agreement, you remember this right.” At Ellessea’s earnest nodding, she continued, “this fall you were to join our household, becoming Rylie’s... consort. We would also provide training in the mage arts for you as well as some education. Additionally, your mother would be made a citizen, inheritable by your younger sister. This is correct, yes?” Again, Ellessea nodded, wiping her sweaty hands on her pants.

“In return, you were to save yourself for Rylie until you are brought into our house. Correct? A simple task, I think.”

Ellessea’s head bobbed up and down yet again.

The Matriarch stared down at Ellesea and she squirmed under her gaze.

“Then what on earth is this?!” the Matriarch suddenly shouted, pounding on the table that held the document and causing Ellessea to jump a foot in the air.

Ellesea didn’t reply, looking a little shell shocked. After a moment, the Matriarch pressed, “well?”

“I… I can’t read, Ma’am.”

The Matriarch's eyes bulged. “Heavens girl! it's your god damn guild request!”

“O-oh,” Ellesea replied, wringing her hands. “Well, I made it over a year ago.... I … I thought I could… maybe… get a husband from the innerlands… maybe. It was dumb, I know, but, uh, harmless…. at the time….”

The older women glared down at Ellessea some more. “I know all that! I want to know why you didn’t cancel it when your engagement was finalized!”

“We-well, there were only two more months left on it before it expired, and,” she shot Raksha a quick look before returning her attention to the Matriarch. “I-I didn’t think anybody was going to come at that point. It would cost a few copper to cancel, so I didn't bother…”

“A few copper.” the Matriarch repeated in disbelief. “Weren’t you given a monthly stipend of money at the start of this for your use?”

“I- uh, I’ve been using that to pay off the apprenticeship Ellane had started, you know, since she’s going to take over the farm now…”

The matriarch’s steely gaze lingered a few more heartbeats before she leaned back in exasperation. “God, save me from these peasants….”

She looked back at Ellessea, “Well, your idiocy apparently paid off and a man from the capital dropped by last night, holding onto your quest.”

Ellessea nodded, shook her head, then nodded and shook her head all in quick succession. Raksha thought she might make herself sick if she kept that up.

“I mean, no-nothing happened. I told him it was all a mistake. He understood, hadn’t tried to press anything or… anything. He said he had other business here and was mostly curious at the request. And that was that.”

“He spent the night.” the Matriarch said flatly.

“He-he spent it with Raul, in Raul’s room. You’ve met him right? Raul? My brother?” At the Matriarchs nodding, she added, “the city gates were closed already, we couldn’t just kick him out, that would have been inhospitable.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

After another moment of staring, the matriarch continued the interrogation.

“You must have been quite happy when Raksha showed up with the request, right?”

Ellessea’s face did a number of quick phases, from blushing to paling within seconds. Raksha was afraid she might pass out from this, especially when her head whipped around, looking at all of them for a second in the meantime.

She made a few attempts at words, but they came out as only noises.

Eventually she settled on something that sounded like, “nothing happened, I swear, nothing happened.”

The matriarch did not look impressed.

“As I was telling the priestess over here, I. don’t. Care. Do you get it? I don’t care what actually happened! I care that my house is now a laughing stock for the other houses. Apparently, we are a house that can’t control even our consorts from bedding FOREIGN CRIMINAL SLAVES WHORES! AND THE CHURCH WAS ENCOURAGING IT!”

Shaking in anger the Matriarch stood up suddenly, looking around for something to break. She stared at what was surely an expensive vase in the corner for a good three seconds. After taking a few deep breaths, she managed to calm down. Ellessea sat hunched in her sofa, trying to look as small as possible.

Olady, that nice old lady, spoke up. “Angnes, nobody will actually believe that, be reasonable.”

“But they speak it,” the Matriarch said, rounding on the Priestess, “and they whisper it to each other in their circles, undermining me, undermining my house. I lost a lot to make this deal happen on the chance we’ll get some new blood in our house, some mana spring children. Already they whisper of our declining lineage, how we are now forced to dilute it with peasants. What am I supposed to say to them now? When the said peasant prefers the slave whore over my own son?”

“I will honor our agreement.” Ellessea said shakily, but loudly, finding a little courage and standing up. “Nothing happened, I will honor our agreement.” She sounded impressive to Raksha, even the Matriarch looked a little pacified. Then she ruined it by adding quickly, “and, don’t call him a whore"

If Raksha had a face slapping enchantment available to him, he would have activated it, regardless of the consequences.

The Matriarch closed her eyes and looked to draw strength from the heavens. She only opened her eyes a few moments later.

“Here is what is going to happen.” She stated with an unnerving calm. “You,” she added, pointing over at Ellessea “Are moving into my estate full time starting today.”

“And you!” she continued silencing a squawk of protest from Olday, “You are going to support me on this, to make up for your bumbling of this today.”

“Angnes!” Olady rebutted, “you can’t be serious!”

“SILENCE!” she roared. “I’ll make sure she and my son stay separated till he turns sixteen. But she stays in the estate, we’ll start her education and mage training early, so she can’t complain.”

“But her family…”

“Her parents had already agreed, she would already be here if you hadn’t interfered. it's too bad she can’t spend the rest of summer with them, but that’s the consequences of this snafu. Got it? Don’t push me on this, Olady, or I will start pushing back. You owe me this.”

Olady looked to protest once more, but settled for a glower instead. She threw a sympathetic look to Ellessea but remained silent.

Lastly, the Matriarch turned on Raksha and he readied himself whatever she might say. She glared at him for a moment and then said in a deadly tone, “You, you are to stay away. You got it? You may be a citizen, but that won’t protect you if I get serious. Don’t give me a reason to be serious. You get me?”

Part of Raksha wanted to mock or otherwise insult the Matriarch due to the tone of her voice. But his better sense prevailed and he simply said, “I get you.”

Giving one last lingering look to him, the Matriarch turned and addressed the whole crowd. “Out! Out of all now, I am sick of seeing your faces. Ellessea, see my head servant, you’ll be escorted back to your house to grab any belongings you might need.”

Despite her words, the Matriarch left the room first, shouting instructions to her servants, one of which was pushing Ellessea forward. Raksha and her shared one more glance before she was pushed around the corner. The expression on her face was one of resignation and she gave him a small smile before she disappeared.

Raksha felt a pang of loss seeing her go.

Olady had gotten up, and was brushing off her robes. “She’s always had a temper, but honestly, this was the best I could have hoped for, considering everything. I’ll have to work hard to try to push this through, but we should be able to pull it off.” Pinn was next to her, dutifully packing up his own satchel.

Across the room, Rylie had stood up as well, gathering his servants around him. He threw Raksha a sneer when their eyes met. “I won’t forget your face, slave. I don’t care if you think yourself a citizen now, but you’ll always be a slave whore.” With those words, he sauntered out of the room, looking pleased at the results.

With a sigh Raksha stood up and gave Olady look. “It’s only been a day and a half. I hope the rest of the week goes better.”

Olady rewarded him with a soft chuckle.