Aclysia and I moved around in silence. Not the awkward kind of silence, not the terrible kind of silence, but the intimate silence that was harder to create than a flowing conversation. I did not dare interrupt it with words and Aclysia hummed it into a little song. Her head rested on my shoulder, while we followed a random path into the landscape that we had found. Neither of us knew where it would lead. Neither of us cared to check our Ashods. All I made sure of while guiding our steps was to avoid the direction the signs pointed us towards.

‘The Asylum’ they read. It was the building that no one wanted to think too much about. When dealing with the Dimensional Truth, the mind often strained. That was the place where they tried to help those that tore.

We ended up on a path that was so rarely treaded, seedlings poked through the compacted dirt. We were in the forest south of Welldark, the largest piece of woodland in the entire dimension. About three square kilometres in total, if I had to make a rough estimate. Enough forest to be lost in for a few hours or to march through in less than one, if following pre-set paths like we were.

As we advanced, the dirt road became progressively narrower, until we came across a thin wooden board. I wondered about its purpose for a second, then I laughed. “We’re on a dirt biking road,” I declared. “How positively amusing that such a thing even exists out here.”

“Should we perhaps vacate the area?” Aclysia suggested.

“I see neither people using it nor a sign that says no pedestrians allowed,” I responded. “Truthfully speaking, as I am obliged to do, I believe this may have been mothballed.”

“I will ask my parents, next time I eat with them,” Aclysia decided.

Following a spontaneous idea, I grabbed the half elf by her waist and lifted her onto the wooden board. Effortlessly, she balanced, and still took my hand when I offered it to her. Slowly, I walked alongside her, providing security she did not really need. On the other side, she hopped down, revealing for a flash quite a bit of her stocking-clad thighs. I would get to see it all soon enough and so I banished my sexual desires for the time being. Something done surprisingly easily, after what else I had been through today.

The terrain turned erratic further down the path, the difficulty of the challenges increasing and elevation levels varying rapidly. “I’m doubting my dirt bike theory,” I confessed. Before us was a field of wooden platforms. With a lot of fantasy and elegance I could see someone hopping through there on a bike. It was a forced explanation though. “Is it just for runners? Some long forgotten device that has long fallen out of favour?”

“If you wish for an immediate answer, I could…”

“No, it’s fine,” I said and hopped from the starting point to the first platform. “Let’s just enjoy this.” As unused as all of this appeared, the wood was still sturdy.

Aclysia smiled and leapt onto the platform. We could barely share it, which made it that much better. “I have noted that your lengthy diatribes have decreased in frequency.”

“I do make the effort, since most of you don’t appreciate them.” I stepped over to the next platform, this one was definitely too small for the two of us. Aclysia jumped elegantly to the one to my right. “If I were to know how to reform it so I would not be called weird for them I would. Alas, as I stand in this realm, the only undisputed utility of my broad and deep descriptions of my emotional state are in the service of mockery. The scorn, the frustration, the sighs.” I sighed. “Such sadness.”

“Truthfully, I do not mind them as much as I did… but you are using many words to say very little,” Aclysia criticized me.

“And here I thought maids supported their Masters no matter what,” I grumbled playfully.

“Bad maids are mindlessly loyal, bad masters demand mindless loyalty, as my mother likes to say.” Aclysia skipped swiftly over three exceedingly narrow platforms and landed on a nice and broad one. I followed her example, landed next to her, then immediately pulled her into a dance.

Alone, in the middle of the forest, to the song of distant birds, we made rounds on the platform. She settled her head on my shoulder. “Your mother sounds like a very wise woman.”

“She is,” Aclysia hummed. “Although it is amusing that her life lessons nearly led me to stab her.”

“Did she insult me?”

“She did indeed.”

“You shouldn’t stab your mother over a few misgivings.”

“I believe I should consider the possibility of stabbing her.” That she continued to say that in the sweet, diligent voice of hers only added to the craziness of the words. I loved every syllable of it. “We have a long life ahead of us, Karitas… you will prove again and again that I made the right choice, correct?”

“I’m a good man and a good Master – If those things are any different at all.” I kissed the top of her head.

“Can I make a selfish request?” the maid wanted to know.

“You can make any request, but I withhold the promise to fulfil it until I know its contents,” I answered truthfully, regret swinging in my voice.

“Can you tell me something about your past that your secret does not cover?” Aclysia stopped our dance to place a hand on my cheek. “I love you so much,” the sudden confession crossed her lips without a second of hesitation.

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“I love you too,” I responded in kind and raised her left hand to my lips. Gently, I pressed them onto the Anomalia mark. “We know quite well who we are, but you know barely anything of where I came from, is that it?” Aclysia’s head moved up and down, her eyes stayed with mine. “I suppose I can admit that I truly am a Neverborne… and that it is more complicated than that.”

“Would you elaborate?” she requested.

The selfish part of her request was that she knew I hadn’t told Esther about this either. I would, later, or she would ask. Either way, my Queen would have to confront the fact that I had told another Anomalia member something before her. To trust the Master of Magic of the entire university was impersonal, in a way. Omnius had learned my secret by virtue of his status as an authority figure. Esther and Aclysia fulfilled the same role in my life, that of a lover. With how far the lady of my heart had come, I trusted her to deal with this changing paradigm.

“I was born knowing the Dimensional Truth,” I said, after putting the words in order. “Not born in a world that made me aware of it – I was born on Earth – but born knowing it. I had brown hair when I was young, but knew I would not keep it forever. I was born between the big city and the wide land and knew that I would live in neither. The household I was in was a charity project for orphans and impoverished single mothers. Many books were brought to us. Many, many books. Probably because all the libraries were modernizing to files.”

“You knew they would all forget you,” Aclysia whispered when she realized where this was going.

I gave her a wry smile. “I truly did my best to live like the orphans. Not something many young kids do and my mother never let me. She encouraged me to play, brought me food when I asked for none, and scolded me when I made the girls cry. She was a good woman no matter how much I tried to push her away. I wonder sometimes if she knew… or if the love of a parent can be that pure.”

“Would you like to visit her some day?”

I swallowed heavily, “I couldn’t if I wanted. My mother never got to forget me.”

“Oh… Karitas, I’m so sorry, I…” Aclysia shut up when I ran a hand through her hair. We stood there, forehead to forehead.

“It wasn’t a tragedy,” I told her. “Her health took a turn for the worse, quicker than she deserved, slow enough that I could make up for being a terrible son. Still, when she drifted away, I could not accept it. I was 13, I went to Heaven and Hell and found that neither were the afterlives that humans describe them as. Desperate and sad, I attracted the attention of Beelzebub and he made me an offer. Assistance, a new place to live after I had become Neverborne, and in return entertainment in the form of my life until adulthood. It cost both of us little.”

Aclysia did not comment further, just held me tightly. I leaned my head back and blinked the tears away. It always was the memory of her smile that made me the weakest. “You can cry, my Karitas,” my beloved half elf whispered.

“I don’t want to,” I responded with half a laugh in my voice. “She would have scolded me if I got too hung up about her.” Softly, I made Aclysia break the hug. Thumbs brushed over her cheekbones. “She would be proud of me, I can know that much. Not sure what she would think of the harem building, but she’d be happy that I make the effort for all of you.” I laughed. “She was hardly like Esther and yet they would have bonded over nagging me for almost failing.”

“They would be… right to…?” Aclysia attempted an awkward joke. It was her attempt to help take the seriousness out of the situation. I loved her all the more for it and rewarded her with another tender kiss. At the tail end, when things transitioned from loving to passionate, I pinched her round butt. She squeaked, adorable and devoted woman that she was.

With a smile, I leapt the remaining two platforms to the other side. One and two, and she was there with me. The path meandered on for a while without further obstacles and we fell back into intimate silence. It was so easy with her. It was easy with Esther too, but in a different way. The lady of my love and I liked to quip at one another. Aclysia just looked at me and studied the swing of my jawbone. If only she had a mirror, she would have known that hers was so much more interesting.

“Hmm, now that I think of it,” I began a new conversation, the second a topic came to mind, “do you happen to possess a maid uniform already?”

“I have delayed acquisition until the Anomalia deal was sealed and I knew of the preferred design… Esther was kind enough to show me the appropriate folder.”

“I love that woman,” I said and proceeded to bite the inside of my cheek. ‘Don’t ask how sleeping with her was. Not yet. That will only give you an erection.’

We arrived at the top of a hill and gazed down a slope with many steep, deep steps. I did the gentlemanly thing and jumped down each of the steps first, to give her a softer landing when she followed. I would have carried her princess style down the path, had it been wide enough for that to be feasible.

“You do know that you will be obligated by law to change into your maid outfit when you’re at home the second you buy it, yes? Because I will not be denied the delight that is such a sight.” Already, I mapped the Café Served outfit onto her bottom-heavy figure. Delicious, like a ripe pear.

“If it is my Master’s desire, then law it shall be,” Aclysia purred. “Do you want me to change before or after I arrive at home?”

The thought of her walking home in a maid outfit did please me greatly. There were logistical difficulties to her always carrying a full set of clothes with her though. “At home will do.”

“Are toys to be a part of the outfit?” she asked coquettishly.

An earnest question that deserved an earnest answer. “Let’s say no, not on regular days. Although you should continue wearing butt plugs when you’re comfortable. I want you trained for that activity.”

“Affirmative,” Aclysia bowed her head diligently.

The track before us changed and became uneventfully clear soon enough. The parkour part of it was over, it seemed. I still did not quite understand what exactly that had been. In an institution as old as Welldark, quirky things like that just popped up sometimes. Following random paths, as we had before, we eventually arrived back at campus. It felt strange to see the gothic buildings again, even though it had been less than an hour.

“Karitas, I’ve a suggestion after all,” Aclysia told me, while we walked aimlessly around the edge of campus. “How about we head into the city.” I was with her there. “We buy the highest quality steak we can find.” Not sure if Esther would like that, but the occasion justified the idea. “We enter one of my family’s retreats.” If she had the keys, surely that was fine? “And I cook that steak for you.”

“I do love the sound of that. What brought the idea on, if I may ask?”

“You may always ask anything of me, Master,” Aclysia purred.

I was about to ask for her panties, but I already knew that would work. ‘Bless the maids, men do not deserve them, they’re too beautiful.’ “Then tell me what brought on the idea?”

“As housemaid of your Anomalia, my King, it is my obligation to assure your nutritional intake is balanced with your lifestyle in mind. It occurred to me that you will need additional protein tonight.”

I had never heard a wiser statement.