Daughter of Treason Ch. 05

"No." It was a reflexive answer, spite born of insecurity, and she regretted it immediately. Beginning before Shino could either take offense or, worse, ask why, she said, "She touched me."

When she did not elaborate further, he prompted, "And?"

"And nothing. She just came up and started groping me."

"You didn't tell her to stop when you saw her reaching for you?"

"I..." She trailed off, but his inquiring stare compelled her to explain, "I was bathing. My eyes were closed while I enjoyed the sensation, and I heard someone walk in the door. I, uh, thought it was you, and didn't want to frighten you away, so I kept my eyes closed. She approached, and started massaging me."

Shino seemed too focused on the story to catch the tells of her half-truths. Still, the truth has a way of coming out. "And that's when she groped you, and you started screaming?"

"I didn't scream! And... um, not quite. That is when she groped me, but I still thought it was you, so..."

She trailed off, and Shino stared at her. "What," he asked, a smile forming on his face, "so I can grope you?" She shot him a look, and he quickly put his hands in the air and amended, "I mean, not, like, right now, but in a more general sense, um..." The look didn't change, and he frantically backpedaled. "So, uh, you screamed. What happened next?"

Kei groaned. "You still haven't figured this out yet?"

He looked like a man standing on a loose log, afraid to move lest he lose his already tenuous footing. "Uh... that's when I knocked on the door?"

"Shino, I told you before that I wanted you to look at me, yes?"

"Uh," he replied, even more unsure now that she refused to let the subject drop, "yeah..."

"And what, in your mind, does that say about what I want you to do?"

"Ehm, look at you?"

"Generalize," she said dryly.

"I, um..." He looked down. "I had hoped it meant you, you know, wanted... me."

She stared at him, eyes wide. "Yes!"

He looked surprised. "You do?"

"Yes!" She leaned back, groaning while her legs slid down to sprawl out in front of her. "Ye gods, you are perhaps the thickest boy I've ever met!"

"Oh." He blinked. "Oh. I... uh... wow."

"And are you going to do anything about it?" She challenged.

"Yes, but, uh, shouldn't we deal with the matter at hand first?" At her uncomprehending look, he elaborated, "The stray."

"Oh." She sighed. She had liked their tangent, but he was right; though she had gathered her wits somewhat, she was still shaken by Miranda's actions. "Yes, I suppose we should."

"Right! Well, we know that she touched you, and you didn't like that. Do we know why she touched you?"

"She said she was trying to 'pleasure' me." She drew her knees back up to her chest, wincing as her wounded arm sent a jolt of pain up through her shoulder at the movement.

Shino misinterpreted the wince as disapproval, prompting him to try, unsuccessfully, to temper his response. "Uh, wow. I, uh, didn't know she, uh, swung that way."

His face, flushed chin to brow, combined with eyes wide as saucers, let Kei translate this with some certainty into the simple statement he had been thinking: 'Hot.' "I'm not certain she does," she said, trying to put an end to that train of thought before it gathered too much momentum.

"Huh? Then why would she...?"

He trailed off, looking at Kei expectantly. This time her pained expression was borne of reluctance to speak. "She called me 'mistress'."

His expression held the expected half-smile of one who is unsure of what they feel, but whose knee-jerk reaction is to be pleased. "Huh." He blinked. "Where did you say you found her, again?"

"The Rat Gang's mansion. She seemed to be one of their harem-girls." She frowned at the thought.

"And now she's one of yours."

Kei's head snapped up. "What?"

"Well, you just took her from there, right?"

"Yes, and set her free!" Her face was flushed with anger, and voice was rising with indignation. Who did Shino think she was, one of those damn slavers, or-

"Does she know that?"

"Of course she does! I mean, how could anyone think I was just looking for a slave after what I..." She trailed off, reflecting on her actions. Barging in, killing the boss, stealing his treasure and then hitting a girl to get her to follow did not, perhaps, strike others as noble or selfless, even if it was just.

Shino read her expression accurately this time. "I think we should go have some words with her."

Kei nodded, standing. The notion that someone, anyone, might think that she would do such things for personal gain lit a fire under her. She began striding purposefully to the door, thinking dark thoughts, when Shino coughed. "Um, Kei? Maybe you should get dressed first? I mean, not that I mind the view, I just figure you'd rather face her wearing more than a glower, eh?"

Blushing, Kei nodded. Her work clothes had been given to Miranda, and her night clothes were, by now, marred with blood and in need of a good wash. For lack of a better option, she put on her only dress. For his part, Shino didn't seem to have any objections, quite to the contrary, if his grin was any indicator. She shot him an enquiring glance, but all he said was, "That's a very nice dress."

Her more proper attire lending her confidence, she proceeded downstairs with Shino in tow to face Miranda. It wasn't a task she relished, but now that she had calmed down, she wanted to set things straight more than she wanted blood.

Miranda, it seemed, had claimed a small, barren corner behind the forge. Though she was wearing a cloak, my cloak thought Kei testily, the rest of the work clothes sat, neatly folded, on the chair Shino had moved downstairs to rest on while he waited. Kei frowned, but didn't comment further as Shino cleared the clothes and lead her to the seat. He made to stand, and noticing that she was about to object, said only, "You've been on your feet all night while I've been sitting; I'll be fine."

She gave him a grateful nod; much as she might like to see him seated, the night was catching up to her, and if the effort of combat and darting from shadow to shadow in back alleys wasn't already arduous enough, dawn was breaking, meaning that Kei had been awake now for almost 24 hours, only contributing to her sense of weariness.

No time for rest, yet. She thought, turning all her attention to Miranda. "Well." The word hung in the air as she tried to come up with some suitably stern reprimand, but Miranda took initiative.

She sat, knees tucked under her, and bent foreword at the waist, bowing deeply in the Miasian style. "I'm sorry, Mistress. I... don't know the ways of a woman, and did not mean to displease you-"

"Stop that." Having Shino at her side was helping Kei enormously in keeping her composure, if only because she didn't want to lose it in front of him. Again, she took a steadying breath. "You seem to be laboring under some... misconceptions. When I infiltrated the mansion you were being held at, I did not come for you. Nor," she said, ignoring the way Miranda's posture drooped, "do I intend to keep you here."

Kei tried to ignore the pang of guilt at Miranda's distressed expression. The taller woman stayed in her submissive posture while confusion and remorse flashed across her face. Finally, she spoke, but her words were not the ones Kei wanted to hear. "Have I displeased you so much, Mistress, that you will sell me?"

Kei gave a growl of frustration which could be easily mistaken for menace. "No. I'm going to set you free."

A pause. "I don't understand, Mistress."

"Oh come on. Think back to when you were a child! What do you remember of that!?"

Though intended as a rhetorical statement, Miranda took it as an imperative query and, after several moments of thought, responded accordingly. "I had," she said slowly, "different duties. I cleaned, and I learned to cook, and the masters would take me less often because they said I was not yet a woman. I-"

She cut herself off when she noticed her mistress' expression. Kei, who had just been trying to make a point, felt sick. "Who were these men?" she asked quietly.

"The guards, Mistress." It was a simple answer, and one Kei carefully committed to memory and aggressive follow-up.

"Yes, well, you won't have to deal with them anymore. You're free." The taller woman's face was blank. "You have no master any more, do you understand?"

"Yes, Mistress." She answered amiably.

"No, damnit! I am not your mistress!"

Another pause. "But if you are not my Mistress, and I have no Master... who is my owner?"

"Nobody! You own yourself!"

A long pause, then, "I don't understand."

Shino put a restraining hand on Kei's shoulder, half to get her attention, and half to keep her from throttling the poor blonde out of sheer frustration. "Kei," he said, motioning over to the far side of the room. She stood gingerly and followed him to the corner which, if not out of earshot, at least afforded the illusion of privacy. Shino spoke delicately, "Maybe we need to rethink our approach."

"There's nothing to rethink. She's free."

"Kei, she doesn't get it. You're not free unless you realize it, right?"

"Hmph. We could just throw her out, that'd get the message through." Shino was staring at her. "What?"

"Do you really think she'd survive out there, on her own?"

"She'll adapt."

"She's lived her whole life as a slave," he said firmly, "and what's that saying about old dogs and new tricks?"

"She's not a dog!" snapped Kei.

He was taken aback for a moment before pressing on. "That's true. But look at her." Kei did, and the blonde remained unmoving from the bowed stance. "Maybe she will adapt, but only if she's protected. I mean, it wouldn't take much, I think, just a stranger speaking sternly to her to make her revert back to... this." He gestured to her again. "And what kind of person, do you think, would speak strongly to her"

"What," asked Kei wearily, "do you propose?"

"Well," he said, looking uncomfortable, "we can't send her packing, like I said, and if we deny her a master, then she still might latch on to some bad stranger..."

Kei blinked. "You want to keep her?"

Shino caught the undertone of jealousy before Kei herself did. "No," he said, putting an end to that notion, "I want you to keep her."

A pause. "You're mad."

Shino shrugged. "I don't see any alternative."

"I don't see any options at all! You want me to keep a slave!"

"De facto, not de jura. Don't think of it as owning, think of it as stewardship; you keep her only until she can keep herself."

"It doesn't matter how I think of it, it's wrong!"
"Oh come on! What about killing?"

Kei bristled. "That's different."

"Oh yeah? What's so different about it?"

I like it.

That thought caught Kei so completely off guard that it took her a moment to even recognize it as her own, and by the time she had pushed it out of her mind, Shino had continued, "It's the purpose, right? By killing some bad men, you prevent more killing."

"Yes," she said shakily, "the purpose." She had spoken more to try to regain her balance than anything, but Shino's rhetoric had already built momentum.

"This is the same thing, just on a smaller scale. Slavery generally causes more pain than freedom, but in this case freeing her would hurt her more than keeping her, right?"

"It doesn't matter," she insisted, mustering her senses, "It's wrong by its very nature. It doesn't matter to what end a wrong is done, it's still wrong."

"Then how do you justify killing?" His tone had changed from that of a persuasive debater to simple curiosity. Had she been calmer, she might have smiled at the way he assumed she already had it all worked out, but for the moment she was too busy trying to generate a response to even notice the change in tone.

"It's different," she asserted again. "I kill bad men. Removing evil from the world is a good thing. Keeping a slave is wrong, no matter who it is."

"Isn't that inconsistent, though? I mean, adultery isn't made okay just because it was with a good person, it's just always bad. What makes killing different, in that it cares who is being-"

"Alright, fine, I'll keep her!" Kei was getting very uncomfortable with this conversation, and so chose to end it. For his part, Shino was surprised and, though Kei didn't notice it, disappointed at her surrender. But she neither gave her herself time to think about it too much nor Shino a chance to continue the argument, instead turning and striding purposefully back to the chair. Or at least she would have, but in her haste, she had forgotten not to swing her arms normally and paid the price when her wound sent another jolt of pain up her arm. She grabbed it with a hiss.

Shino rushed up to offer her a hand, but she shrugged it off and sat heavily in the chair. "Well, you lucked out." She said, deliberately denying Shino a chance to speak. "You may stay." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, working up the courage to say the last bit. She heard Shino shift, perhaps to make sure she was alright, and opened her eyes, staring right at Miranda. "I am your mistress."

Kei was too worked up to stay seated much longer, and beat a retreat back to the second story, leaving Shino with instructions to settle Miranda in. While Shino did his best to comply, Kei did her best to calm down. She tried centering herself but found that every time she tried to process the argument, her mind shied away.

Ultimately, she sought refuge in the repetitive motion of weapon drills; although she was limited to slow and simple moves with her right arm by the wound on her left wrist and side, she would be well served, she reflected drily, to improve her skill with her off hand.

Shino found her like that, rapier bare and extended in a pantomime of a lunge, a focused expression on her face. "Hey." His greeting was cautious, and utterly ignored as Kei waited to finish the round of exercises before she responded with a nod. Her expression unreadable, he hazarded, "Are you alright?"

She simply didn't feel like talking, so she merely nodded. Shino, unaware of this, stammered, "I'm sorry about that. I didn't realize how strongly you felt. If you want, I can ask around, find out if there's someone else who will take care of her somewhere-"

"It's fine." She sheathed the rapier with an audible clack and leaned it against the side of the bed. Her adrenaline gone with her agitation, dispelled by the drills, her fatigue returned in force. "Come," she told him, ending the conversation, "Let us retire."

He blinked. "Uh, okay." The confused look was replaced by a blush and, after her irritated glance, an aborted attempt to look away as she stripped off her dress. "Oh, uh..."

"Join me, if you like," said Kei as she shucked her undergarments and slipped into bed. "But I'm tired, and am going to sleep."

"Oh, um, okay." He stalled, shifting uncomfortably under Kei's gaze until she rolled her eyes and rolled away from him on to her side. Eventually, she heard the rustle of cloth as Shino joined her. Hesitantly, he inched up behind her and wrapped an arm around her. She gave a contented sigh and snuggled up against him. She felt his manhood pressing up against her, but was too tired to care one way or the other, and drifted off to sleep.

<<<<<Malefactum malefactoribus beneficiumque bonis face>>>> >

She awoke with much more consideration of her surroundings. Some time during the night, Shino's hand had migrated upwards to gently cup her breast, and though in sleep he had lost his hardness, the memory of the feel of it was enough to make her smile. Light streamed in through the windows, the rays beating gently down on her head bathing the room in a soft golden glow. The bed felt sublime, and the heat of the elf behind her helped to fight off the chill of the morning. It was not, perhaps, as cold as an Islandportian night, for the sea all around helped regulate the temperature, but the cool air was still enough to encourage her to snuggle back up into her companion. So warm, she thought happily.

The sounds which trickled in from the outside held the friendly chaos of a city awake; a man struggling to get his donkey to move, a wagon rattling over the cobblestones, a mother scolding her children. She lay like that, letting the sensations of life wash over her, drifting in and out of consciousness until she became aware that Shino was awake.

She might have noted the change in breathing pattern, deeper and more regular. She might have, had she been particularly sensitive, noted a change in pulse, or the slight tension in the muscles which comes with consciousness. Instead, what she noticed was his hardening dick.

In her defense, the other signs were subtle, slight changes in normal patterns of life, while this sign was digging uncomfortably into her ass. She squirmed just enough to get it to clear her cheeks and lay nestled in between them in a way which was more comfortable for her and, doubtless, more comfortable for him, too.

She rested like that, content, while Shino slowly began movements of his own. It started with the hands, softly squeezing her breasts, and then spread to the waist as he gently trailed his fingers over them. The feather-light touches quickly hardened her nipples, giving his fingers something to roll gently between them.

The gasp this elicited broke any illusion of unconsciousness which may have existed. Shino froze, but Kei wasn't going to let this opportunity slip away. She wriggled her ass, rubbing up against his erect dick. He groaned and, needing no more encouragement, roughly grabbed her breasts and thrust, sliding his manhood between her cheeks.

She gasped as he pinched her nipples, sending jolts of pleasure through her body. She rolled over, the tinge of pain from her side dulled by the sensations Shino produced in her, and without pausing to giver herself time to think, pressed her mouth against his.

The kiss was not elegant. It was not skilled. But passion can make up for much, and when Shino gave a gasp of surprise, she slipped her tongue inside his mouth by accident at first, but then deliberately exploring once his hand shot up to pull her closer. The kiss deepened, and she ran her tongue experimentally over the inside of his teeth. His reaction was to pull her in, something which only increased her excitement. The sounds of heavy breathing and occasional muffled moan filled the air, and her heart pounded in her ears. 'Thump-thump. Thump-thump.'

'Knock-knock.'

She groaned and spat some choice invective, though it was muffled by Shino's mouth. He pulled back from the kiss, confused at her sudden rigidity, to say nothing of her tone, and said in a worried voice, "Are you okay?"

She hesitated, and briefly entertained the idea of just ignoring it, but had the decision made for her when the knock repeated itself even louder. "Oh." His frown changed in flavor, now showing clearly the disappointment she felt. "I should get that-"

"No." Last time this had happened, the moment had been lost. "You stay right there. I'll go check on it, and be back shortly."

Keeping him in place alone wouldn't preserve the mood, but perhaps the promise of continuation would delay its passing. Shino nodded. "Alright, but..." She thought he would say 'be careful' or something, seeing as how the last time someone had interrupted them, it had necessitated a scorching ray. But instead he just gave a grin full of promise and humor. "Hurry back, huh?"

She smiled and drew him into a kiss which threatened to crumble her will to even answer the knock, but the faceless visitor's insistent- and incessant- rapping brought back her resolve. She rolled out of bed, wincing at the pain in her side. She looked down to find the wound had cracked, threatening to reopen. She also caught a glimpse of, at the foot of the bed, a black-cloaked heap. Great. I'm naked in a room with Miranda. Again. She sighed, keeping a wary eye on the lump to be sure it didn't move, and began pulling on her underwear. At least Shino is here this time.