Augur Ch. 10

Grunting with the effort, I dropped the heavy wooden chair I had just finished dragging into the living room onto the carpet, wincing a little internally at the thumping sound that I knew my downstairs neighbors would have heard.

The piece of furniture was something Aubrette had against the window in the bedroom she had somehow crafted in my apartment, warping space to fit an extra room in my previously one bedroom space. I still wasn't sure exactly how her power worked - the couple of days since she arrived had been busy ones. I had wanted to question her about it, but while her Fae connection to the mortal realm would allow her to understand our language vastly faster than any mortal could learn it, this was the first morning her fluency had improved to the point that would even be possible. First, though, I had other matters to attend to.

Cindy and Aubrette, the petite-and-punky Sin Demon and tall auburn haired High Sidhe who had both found themselves bound to a mortal - me - were seated side by side on the couch in the middle of my apartment's living room. The former was wearing a tight t-shirt that fit her like a second skin, and a pair of athletic shorts that rode from her navel to barely the top of her thighs. She had her knees pulled up to her chest, a satisfied smile on her face, and looked relaxed and on top of the world. The latter, Aubrette, was wearing a ruffled skirt and mesh long sleeved shirt, and perched so far forward on the couch that she barely touched the cushion. Her expression betrayed her nerves, with her lips slightly parted and her eyes wide, but I could tell she hadn't settled between fear and hope.

As I finished wrestling the chair into place in the living room it occurred to me that I could have ordered Cindy to do it for me. She was about a full foot shorter than I was, with a slender delicate build, and so much stronger than me it made comparison pointless. I hadn't ever actually put her limits to the test - and felt no particular need to do so - but she was strong. I plopped my now sweaty self into the chair, and resolved to have her be the one to put it back when we were done.

I had moved the chair in so I could face both women while we talked, since the only other seating in my living room was the couch. Only when I folded one of my legs over the other did it occur to me that I had effectively positioned myself on a throne in front of two women who were both subservient to me in some way, and who were positioned on a seat that was low enough to the ground that I was looking down even on Aubrette's more than six foot tall frame.

Doing my best to put that aside, I let my gaze move from one woman to the other for a few moments, before speaking. "Aubrette. Before we talk about anything else, I want to make one thing very clear. I do not intend to send you away or release you for my service, unless that is something you want." The High Sidhe woman, exiled from the realm of Faerie that she had lived in for hundreds of years, required a certain amount of Glamour - her particular flavor of magic - to survive. Presently, she was obtaining that through an oath of fealty to me. While that magical oath persisted and I was her liege lord, I was able to act as a sort of converter for the demonic Sin magic I drew through my bond with Cindy. I wasn't fully familiar with the details of how that all worked, but from what I gathered, Sin was in far more plentiful supply than Glamour in the present era. From their perspectives, Cindy had been summoned into the land of milk and honey, while Aubrette was stranded in a barren desert.

At my words, the auburn haired Sidhe slumped in relief for just a moment, before sitting herself up straight again. I held up a hand before she could reply, forestalling her response so I could continue. "I have no desire to abuse the fact that you are currently dependent on me to survive. If you want, we can start looking into other ways to feed you the Glamour you need, or perhaps see if there is a way we can allow you to return to Faerie, but if you choose to you can also remain in my service and sustain yourself through your current Oath."

She opened her mouth to speak, but I waved her away again so I could finish saying my piece, and she closed her lips once she realized my intent. "I also need to apologize to you for my earlier behavior. What you did in spying on Cindy and myself was not right, but that in no way makes my commands that followed your discovery acceptable. I abused my authority over you without consideration of the consequences, and I am sorry. I will try to do better."

I dipped my head in apology, finally dropping my hand to let her reply. Her speech still wasn't perfectly fluid - a fact made more obvious because her voice was melodious and enchanting - and the words she used were simple, but she was perfectly understandable in her response. "My Lord, I will be forever grateful for your grace. I am a Guest in your house, where you welcomed me even before I could thank you in your own language. It was less than a day before I... I shamed myself and your... your..." Her body shifted a little as she spoke, betraying the otherwise prim appearance she projected by squirming from side to side. It was only thanks to my earlier flash of insight that I realized that her actions were not due to discomfort, but because the admission - and possibly the shame - aroused her. Cindy helpfully supplied the word she was failing to find.

"Hospitality."

Aubrette turned to nod her thanks at the woman beside her, then resumed addressing me, "Your hospitality. You would have the right to take me as a slave for this, but instead you tell me not to worry, that you will still care for me." She managed to hold herself still once more, and her brilliant pale blue eyes sought mine out as she continued, "If you would allow me to remain in your service, I would stay. I will be your Lady, your humble servant, whatever role you would have of me, if you will permit me to keep my sworn Oath."

The look on her face as she regarded me was so nakedly optimistic and full of hope that I melted a little inside, sagging and offering her a gentle smile in return.

It was Cindy who spoke next, her husky voice still a surprise from such a tiny woman, "She's going to keep doing it. Spying on you, I mean. It's part of her nature, and as a native of Faerie she can no more change than I can change mine."

I flicked a quick glance towards the demon as she spoke, noting that her expression was not unhappy. Instead, an amused little smirk rode on her deep purple lips, and she reached one hand out to affectionately shove Aubrette's thigh as she added, "Not that I think she would want to change it if she could."

Turning my gaze back towards the Sidhe, I asked her, "Is this true?"

The redhead dropped her eyes, but nodded, her voice quiet as she confirmed. "I have done this for as long as my magic allowed. Before my exile, I do not think there was an adult in the court I did not watch fucking." I blinked at her sudden vulgarity, before realizing it probably wasn't meant as such, it was just a word she would have encountered more readily. "That is part of why I was exiled and not killed. By our laws, a prisoner who is to be killed has their confession taken and written down all. My confession would have brought shame to most of my court."

That got a barked laugh from me, as I connected the dots to realize she meant most of the Noble Sidhe Aubrette had previously served were fucking around. I looked at Cindy, who still had a knowing smirk on her lips, and commented, "Like humans, but more, indeed." I then turned back to Aubrette. "I don't... I'm not entirely sure what to do about that. If I commanded you, as your Liege, to stop spying on us, would you?"

The question caused Aubrette to freeze, and again it was Cindy who came to her rescue with an explanation. "You might as well command a human woman to stop breathing. Even if she was magically compelled to do so, at some point she would pass out and start breathing again. Aubrette would stop spying for a time, but eventually her nature would override the command and she would find herself doing so anyway. The voyeuristic slut would be so ashamed of herself that she would be dying inside, but you saw what that did to her earlier. She would lose control even faster, and we would wind up right back where we are now."

"Cindy!" I admonished the Sin Demon reflexively, but my attention was diverted to where Aubrette had begun shifting from side to side, her thighs rubbing together again. I sighed audibly and stated rather than asked, "She's right. You can't stop doing it, and ordering you to do so is going to make things better, not worse."

I brought one hand up to tap my lips while I sat in silent though for a moment, then put as much command into my voice as I could. "Aubrette, you are commanded to not spy on anyone outside of my service. If you must watch Cindy and myself... I will permit it." I paused very briefly, and then asked curiously, "Would... would it be better for you, or worse, if you were in the room at the time? If you were watching us from where we could see you, instead of trying - and failing - to use your magic?" Before she could formulate an answer, I tacked on, "And what's with that? How could you not have been discovered sooner in Faerie if you slip into visibility that often?"

Aubrette nodded evenly at my order, before her expression shifted to one of wide-eyed hope at my question. She flushed a deep red, answering the last question first. "I... in Faerie I was not trying to use my gift to maintain the room I was spying on. I was in a different location, and used my gift to watch elsewhere in the castle. Here, trying to push my gift to do two things at once, my control slipped when... when my concentration wavered." Her eyes dipped down at that, but I again noticed that she couldn't hold her hips still at the admission. She resumed speaking a couple seconds later, but kept her eyes downcast. "It would be much better for me. I always hoped to find someone who understood and allowed my... wants, no matter how... naughty they were."

Cindy chimed in with a quick correction, "How Sinful they were."

The High Sidhe lifted her gaze to the demon beside her, nodding, and repeating her words. "No matter how Sinful they were. I can not ask you to allow it, you have already given a... a Sinful, dirty woman more than she has earned."

I had dumped a load of my cum down Cindy's throat less than an hour ago, but something about the way Aubrette made that last statement had me stirring in my pants again. I reflected on what that said about me for a moment, before shaking the thought off and returning to the conversation. "I don't think I'm quite ready to make a decision on that, or on a lot of this, but I'm going to give you two big commands, as your Liege, that I expect you to obey. I should have given these earlier, but you couldn't understand, and I was busy, and... those are excuses. Doesn't matter. Here are the commands."

"First, as your Liege, I command you to tell me when there is something that you need, and are not getting. You can tell me if there is something that you want as well, of course, but you are the first vassal I've had, not to mention the first Fae I've met. I can't be a good liege if I don't understand your needs."

Aubrette sat up straight, the blush slowly fading from her cheeks as she listened to me, before bowing her head solemnly and responding, "My Lord. I will tell you when my needs are not met, as you command. I will be the best vassal I can, and will tell you when I want something, if I think it will help you understand."

I smiled at that, and the auburn haired woman smiled back brightly. Her teeth were a brilliant white, and I was convinced the room literally lit up when she smiled.

"Second, as your Liege, I command you to tell me if you aren't comfortable with any orders you are given, before you obey them."

Cindy made her opinion known again, speaking faster than Aubrette could respond. "Master, that order won't quite work for her. You should amend it."

I paused, raising an eyebrow at the Sin Demon and gesturing for her to go on. She did so, and the smile on her face turned wicked and predatory. "You need to keep in mind how horny being shamed makes the slut. Maybe something like, 'Tell your owner if you aren't ok with an order, unless doing it makes your cunt leak.'"

I rolled my eyes at Cindy's deliberately provocative wording, but when I returned my gaze to the women, I saw that Aubrette was again squirming in place. Moreover, the wide eyed look on her face was full of hope.

Coughing, I nodded and thought of how best to rephrase the order, eventually settling on, "Aubrette, as your Liege, you are instead ordered to tell me if the discomfort from any order I give outweighs the excitement it gives. I will leave it to you to make the call about where exactly that line falls, but I expect you to keep in mind that your Liege does not want an unhappy vassal."

Aubrette's smiled shyly at that, her cheeks still burning red, as she responded, "My Lord, this vassal will tell you when she does not enjoy your orders." Despite being the tallest person in the room, the redhead's voice sounded very small in that moment. Very small, but very, very happy.

********************

I spent the next couple hours getting to know Aubrette. Cindy participated in the conversation sparingly - as she wrapped a blanket around herself, it was obvious she was slipping into her Slothful aspect as the morning went on. That was fine - now that my Sidhe vassal had absorbed enough of our language through whatever mystical bond all Fae apparently possessed, we were able to converse well enough.

I learned that her abilities involved more than just warping space. Instead, she was able to make things real that could be. In a way, it was a mirror to my own power - or perhaps an inversion of it. I could look at a situation and see hints and glimpses of what it could lead to. I couldn't see the outcomes, but some part of the magic I was born with was able to somehow suss out not just possible outcomes, but also how well received they would be. I had wondered for quite some time how that particular judgment call was made, since as far as I knew there wasn't anything about, for example, breaking my arm that made it good or bad to the universe at large. My gift would warn me about it in a way that I instinctively interpreted as 'bad' though, so there was more depth to my Auguries than was immediately obvious.

Aubrette, in turn, was able to pull things into reality that might have been. There was quite a bit of leeway and depth to it as well. Obviously, my apartment was a one-bedroom space, but since it might have, in some alternate world, been built with a second bedroom, she was able to pull that into being. It wouldn't fit in the physical space we had to work with, but her magic was able to accommodate that, fitting a second bedroom into the space without moving anything else.

I paused to question her about the bed and chest she had pulled in, and where they had come from. She explained that she couldn't tell the origin of any items she manifested - so somewhere out there in the world, there was a not unlikely way for me to get a four poster bed 'for real' if I wanted, but she didn't know what those circumstances were.

It made my head spin a little, especially since the Sidhe's vocabulary was still somewhat limited, but I gathered one of her duties in Faerie had been as something of a handyman - or perhaps quartermaster was a better comparison. If the Prince wanted to go hunting, the Master of the Hunt would bring the hounds, the armorer would fetch spears or bows, and Aubrette would accompany them just in case they needed anything else. If the Prince suddenly wanted to take a nap in the woods, it was possible someone packed a blanket, so she was able to provide it. If one of the Prince's friends was nicked by a charging boar, she could have bandages at hand.

Nothing in that context was irreplaceable, but the flexibility and sheer power of her abilities staggered me when I realized their implications. She could have anything to hand at a moment's notice. Well... maybe not anything, but just about anything I might actually want.

The power came with three significant downsides or limitations - one of which she had inadvertently revealed in her indiscreet spying.

First, she needed to spend at least a little concentration to maintain the presence of whatever she brought into the world. My mind immediately went to one of the myths I had read that had to do with 'Fairy gold', connecting that legend to her reality. I could ask her to conjure gold bars, sell them, and deposit the cash, but whoever I sold them to would likely have questions about it a couple days later. When she was mid-orgasm from her voyeuristic masturbation, her mind slipped and reality tried to assert itself.

Second, she spent Glamour to do it. The more unlikely the object or change, the more Glamour it cost her to enchant the world. Apparently something like half the apartments on my floor had two bedrooms, so that took so little attention and power that she could maintain them literally in her sleep. I could hypothetically go out and buy gold, so she could manifest that, but maintaining it for long would be expensive and a strain. If she wanted to manifest something like... an atomic bomb, or the Hope Diamond, she would be reaching so far outside of reality that it would burn through her reserves of Glamour in moments.

Third, while she had learned to manipulate objects and space around herself, she needed to physically be there to do so. I wasn't exactly clear on the distance limitation, but it was larger than my tiny living room, and smaller than the apartment building itself.

Oh, and she couldn't manifest anything able to think. Or maybe it was anything with a soul. That was a tricky distinction to make in Faerie, from what I gathered, so she wasn't exactly sure.

Apparently, over the centuries since she was raised to a Noble Sidhe in Faerie, she had learned to play with the edges of her magic and blur them a little farther than they were 'supposed' to go. When she was spying on me, she was doing that by maintaining one space, but fuzzing the edges of reality just enough to peek through. She could do that more easily in spaces she didn't create, as long as they were physically close to her. If I ever wanted to spy on my neighbors, for example, she could just... do that.

On the one hand, I was awed by her abilities. Compared to my family, Aubrette might as well have been a god. A demigod, at least. She had limits on her power, but they staggered my imagination. On the other hand, I wondered if, after centuries of study, I would be able to stretch my own mortal Gift similarly.

We spent a little time discussing some of the more practical ways we could leverage her abilities in the mortal world. Feeding us actually turned out to be one of the better ones. Eating a conjured apple was just as good as the real thing, provided she kept her focus on maintaining it long enough for digestion to occur. I laughed in delight at that prospect, because the variety of foods we could have at our doorstep was - to Aubrette - staggering, but they were all incredibly likely. As such, maintaining them was no effort for the Fae woman at all.

Free food. Forever. I very nearly kissed the redhead then and there just at the joy of the notion.

The 'sell gold, deposit cash' idea was floated around and discussed. I was firmly against exploiting actual hardworking people, but the notion of finding a predatory business and defrauding them of some of their ill-gotten gains had a certain appeal. I try to be a basically good person, but some creative pilfering from the elite felt more like redressing the scales than taking advantage of a peer. That said, we would have to be extremely careful, and probably more than a little sparing if we chose to go down that route. The last thing I wanted was for any or all of us to wind up on some FBI watchlist. Even being investigated would be a disaster, since it wasn't as though either of the ladies had social security numbers. As soon as a cop started asking either of them for ID, we were screwed.