Whoops, skipped a scene! Realized I forgot to include a scene in IV-5, and to make room, needed to kick back a passage from that chapter into IV-4. I edited it already to include the passage, but for posterity, it will also be included here. I will delete this page when I upload IV-5 publicly.

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Renner felt her shadow drag itself up her face and slither into her ear.

“Mistress. Your bodyguard is approaching.”

Would it be too difficult to call him Climb?

Renner gave a slight nod, tapping her armrest once as acknowledgement. The thing slipped out of her ear and pushed off, losing itself between the many shafts of the evening sun. Silence hung an instant longer, before the door to her room opened and he stepped through.

“Climb, it’s wonderful to see you.”

More than I could put into words. Please, my darling, linger with me a moment.

He bowed his typical depth, tufts of blond hair catching in the rays of light, before raising himself and making his way over to her. Renner gestured to his typical chair.

“Have a seat.”

“Thank you, Your Highness, but I’m afraid I can’t stay long; I’ve more work to do for the recovery.”

It is a good boy who makes up for his mistress’s excesses, but Climb, we are in a time for excess.

A slight smile grew on Renner’s face, the grievous insult washing off and over her as if it had never been uttered at all. It was as if the entire world had picked itself up and rearranged. Had Climb said those words a day ago, she would have been run through with spikes of possessiveness, an overwhelming desire to wrench him from his duties and make him sit; now, she felt nothing but slight amusement. There was no control over him to wrest, no halcyon fantasy to embitter the moment. There was only Renner, Climb, and the utter certainty that she would have her glory over him.

A little play, then.

“Mm, with the Warrior-Captain, yes? I suppose things are well at hand… Climb, how are the people doing? Those you helped, I mean. My understanding is that you’ve spent the interim hours away from your palace duties.”

Climb squirmed in a way she found pleasurable.

“Y-yes, that’s correct. Everyone was quite thankful to you, Your Highness.”

The way he dragged the preposition… A lie? Pertaining to the latter clause? I suppose the people were less than grateful for the help they received. Not unsurprising that he would make that then, though a little displeasing. Punish him.

“Eh? I understand. Then, I suppose it would be prudent to go and see them.”

“You can’t!”

Climb exploded, before suddenly pulling his body taught. He swallowed, then lowered his head a moment later, words stumbling out of his mouth as fast as he could issue them.

“The search effort is still underway, and while I think your presence would be appreciated, that it would take people away from their duties. I hope you- I hope you understand, Your Highness.”

Oh, Climb, they said awful things to you, didn’t they? Things that tore at your heart; things sent your insides churning. You saw… parents morning their children. Professionals lamenting the deaths of their apprentices. Shattered, hollowed out women whose every friend and acquaintance was ripped from them. Youth coming to grips with lives that would never start - boys your age. Crushing dooms beyond your capacity to know, but not beyond your capacity for guilt. This was one of the worst days of your life. No wonder I am not fit for such a place.

Renner let her smile grow, until her whole face shown with unbidden radiance.

He has sought me, and wishes deeply to rest in my veil. He wishes to doff every armor of his, to curl up next to me, to rage, and to cry. How cruel of them. How cruel of the world. Are not they grateful? It was he who threw himself into danger for him, his mistress who ordered him into it. And yet, they sit and they wail because he could not save those they loved, others he most certainly would have had he the ability. How crushing. How oppressive. He has been driven to me by such things. How delectable.

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With the knowledge she had now gained of the male sex, Renner’s fantasies had finally snapped into relief, the mechanics of reproduction that had eluded her all her life finally caught. A little of that dripped into the moment now, and she found herself mired in a growing thrill. She tempered her smile.

“Of course. No matter, then.”

A degree of relief came over Climb, Renner mesmerized by the ways she could make him dance to her words.

Chardelon, hold yourself back a little longer. Endeavor to make his world just that much worse.

“Now then, Climb, I have something… rather horrible to say. Something important.”

Not only her words but her timbre as well washed over him, Climb closing his eyes and bracing himself for what she had to say.

“The women you and mister Sebas fought to save from the brothel-”

Renner made herself swallow.

“-were murdered.”

Climb made no coherent sound, expression degenerating second after second as he made several failed attempts to speak. After a time, he was able to get out a word.

“How-”

He twitched, stumbling over his words again.

“But how… how could that have happened?”

Renner had no sure knowledge of how the women were killed, only that the matter had been completed but two minutes after her return to Valencia. With the power of her hidden bodyguard, she suspected it to have been the work of what she had accurately termed shadow demons the evening prior. No matter how it had been done, it was an exercise by her masters not merely of power, but of prudence. A need had arisen, and so it had been done, without comment or complaint. For all the many dooms humanity was to be subjected too, they would not even have the mercy of an enemy that sabotaged themselves.

He is invested in them. Need he be so? I suppose yes, but they are not who matter here. As much as I wish to drive him to me, I don’t believe I could bear him lamenting the deaths of other women. Displeasing. What I rehearsed will not work. Force his attentions to what is actually important.

“A mistake, one I believe… I made. Normally, I would leave this sort of work to an adventurer team, and I had intended to, but due to the incursion, none were available; those I had were sent off for the assault. So I had… hired a mercenary band instead.”

Renner gave the thinnest hint of a frown, and shook her head, eyes dancing away from Climb in a facsimile of guilt.

“Th-that’s not true, Your Highness! Renner, this- this isn’t your fault! Gods, it’s the murderers who are to blame!”

Topple him. Make him writhe a little more. Make him obsess.

“No! Not like how you think. Had I been more careful, more prudent and attentive, I would have sent them away that night or the next. I knew our security was torn right-through but I did not extend my thoughts to them. This… this didn’t need to happen. H-had you been there, their murders wouldn't have been attempted. I relied too much on the credibility of the outfit. There must have been a turncoat in the band - the guild thought them an upstanding company.”

Renner batted her eyes, forcing tears to appear in their edges.

“You- you didn’t do anything wrong, Your Highness.”

Indeed. Everything I have done has been for us, Climb. A wonderful assertion.

Renner sprang from her chair, and embraced him. He stumbled a little, losing his words as he tried to account for her movements.

“But, how did knowledge of them-”

She mumbled into his breast, hands groping the backside of his plate. She dearly wished she could do more.

“I haven’t a certainty. We called up every guardsman, gatesman, or otherwise during the disturbance; I’d hazard the enemy sent a runner through then. Gods, I should have sent those women away then.”

“Where were the bodies found?”

Gods, he smells wonderful, doesn’t he?

It was the alluring sort of musk that always seemed to hang over him late in the day. Though she had moved to grant Climb many a luxury beyond his station, it was the reason why she had never done so for perfume. Innumerable scents blended together into something she could not describe in words, the sort of thing that could only be experienced, in those rare moments where she could get close to him.

“Scattered throughout the lower districts, but I… I don’t know any more - couldn’t bear to listen.”

“And, of them?”

Renner’s hands slipped a little low, frustrated as she only felt more of his cuirass. Though his full plate had been a point of pride for her - a culmination of years worth of influence on both him and Lakyus - she now wished she had never ordered its construction at all.

“Hm? Oh, they’ve been given over to He of the Silken Earth. What of it?”

“I… want to examine the wounds, see what I could learn.”

Renner wished to shred his armor, to dig into it with her hands and tear it away. To rip apart his undergarments, and leave him bare.

“Climb, I… I can’t permit that. Those women have lived unwholesome, agonized lives. Let them rest in death.”

Climb’s lips fluttered a little longer, before he closed his eyes and nodded. She wished to force him to the ground and to take him there. To scoop his flesh into her arms. To taste his skin. To bury herself in his scent. To make marks and bites on him. To force herself upon his lips. To learn the joys of his body. For him to do the same to her. For him to take her, and make true all the little dreams of hers. She wished to fuck him. Renner shifted her legs.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Please don’t see this as an inadequacy of yours. If I am to be called blameless, then you certainly… ah, I see we’ve exchanged positions.”

Renner leaned back from her embrace, a smile returning to her reddened face.

“Yes, we have.”

“Forgive me for keeping you. Then, Climb, I yield you to your duties.”