Fortune and Fortitude Pt. 06

"Well, it certainly wasn't how I expected this to go. But no, I'm not mad." She tilted her head. "But I'm having a hard time digesting the fact that you can care for two of us at once. That's not a normal interpretation of love."

He shrugged. "Maybe it isn't love. For her, at least."

"Something tells me you don't believe that."

"It's too soon! It can't be love..."

"At least, not yet."

He looked over to her in surprise. "You want me to continue with her?"

Quinn smiled. "Why not? At the very least, you can explore your feelings. If it turns out it's just temporary, fine. And if not..." She hesitated. "That's also fine!"

Jared eyed her suspiciously. "You don't seem totally fine with it."

She laughed, softening Jared's suspicions. "Actually, that's not quite the problem." She bit her lip. "I'm trying to distinguish between my succubus nature and my goal to be a good wife." She turned in her seat to face him fully. "I have a cuckquean fetish."

"A what?" He rolled his eyes. "Let me guess, something to do with sex?"

"You don't even know what a fetish is?" Quinn scoffed in disbelief. "I should've known, but it's still weird."

"Somehow, I don't think I'm the weird one. What's a cup queen?"

Quinn giggled. "Cuckquean. It means... Well, we're almost there. I'll tell you later."

Sure enough, he pulled up outside the gate soon after she finished talking. They had arrived at 7:26. Frankly a bit close.

Quinn linked her arm through his as they approached the door. Jared lifted his hand and knocked twice. A few seconds later, Ria arrived and opened the door. "You know, you don't have to knock. You're a protégé, remember?"

"Right, sorry." Ria shrugged and led them into the dining room, where the other proteges and Miss Senguine were already gathered.

Breakfast was already prepared. Pancakes, eggs, and bacon. It had been a while since Jared had had a truly homecooked meal - actually, he couldn't remember the last time. He and Quinn sat down together, placing him between Ria and Quinn, and her between him and Senguine.

Kiara glanced up at him awkwardly before looking at her plate. He sighed and heaped up some food on his plate, not sparing any expense. Not for the first time, he wondered where the food had come from. Did the proteges cook it? Miss Senguine? Some servants like the driver last night?

Miss Senguine tapped her fork against her glass. It wasn't necessary, since none of them were talking, but it brought attention quickly.

"The schedule for today will be bit different. Ria, for first morning duty, you and Quinn will explain essences to Mr. Bertreck, and on preening duty until lunch.

Ria gave Quinn an uneasy look, but Quinn just smiled at her.

"Kiara and Annika, you will both be on regular duties for the morning. I will speak with Mr. Bertreck before lunch to discuss his growth and plans for development. After lunch, Annika will then meet with him for period testing, while Ria, Quinn, and I are doing self-cooperation training. Kiara, you will be on terra practice. Before dinner, Mr. Bertreck will be on vassal regulation, Annika will be on survivalism, and Kiara will continue with terra. Post dinner, there will be the usual feeding time. Are there any questions?"

Jared blinked. He had understood maybe half of that, much less memorized his schedule. "Um, where do I go for all of that?"

Senguine sighed, but she didn't sound irritated. "Quinn can show you. Has everyone finished eating?"

There were general nods, except from Annika, who continued to stuff her face. "Very well. Annika, when you're finished, you will do dishes before resuming your combat training. Dismissed."

Immediately, the other proteges rose and carried their dishes to the sink. Jared quickly followed suit. They all dispersed to go their separate ways, with Miss Senguine returning to her study, and Kiara leaving for the basement. Quinn took Jared's hand and followed Ria to the back of the house, where he had never been before.

There was a greenhouse attached to the main home, bright light filtering in and heating it nicely. There was a variety of plants, most of which seemed to be flowers, but he saw some tomatoes, cucumbers, and other foodstuffs. Everything was, as usual, immaculate.

Ria sighed and sat down on a nearby thatch mat. Quinn quickly took another and gestured for Jared to sit down on a nearby third. He did so silently.

Ria was dressed in a bright white blouse and skinny jeans, both of which didn't do much to hide her lovely curves. Quinn was dressed in a faint golden T-shirt, with loose jeans. Jared was dressed in a typical black T-shirt that was a bit too tight for his liking, and cargo pants.

Quinn smiled. "So... where should we begin? I don't think he knows the basics, so I guess we cover that?"

Ria nodded apathetically. "Sure."

Jared gave her a strange look, but Quinn cut him off before he could question her strange mood. "Okay, so there are different forms of essences, right? One for each form of matter. Terra," she said, counting off on her fingers, "Pheno, Psyche, and Nouma."

"Those are the shorthand words for each," Ria explained. "Saves some time."

Jared nodded. "Okay... What's the difference between essence and matter?"

"Essence is a single portion of a given type of matter," Quinn said brightly. Just like old times, when she'd try to explain Greek to him. "For example, say your body was considered one type of matter. If I extracted all the water from you, that would be pulling out, let's say, aqua essence. But the rest of you would be left."

Jared shrugged. "Okay. I don't really get it, but I get the general idea."

Quinn glanced to Ria, but she didn't interject, so she continued to explain. "Terra is divided into four categories." She grinned. "You'd never guess what they are."

Jared smiled. "Nope. Give em to me."

"Well, we think Plato might have had some demonic connections or something. Because the four types are Bind, Eat, Flow, and Escape. Earth, Fire, Water, and Air."

"Ah." Jared stared at her blankly. "Wait, so atoms aren't a thing?"

Quinn chuckled. "Of course they are. Atoms make up molecules, which fall into one of the four types." She held up her hands. "I don't really know how it works with classic science."

"And I'm not familiar enough with human science to explain," Ria added drily. "Just use it when you're thinking of demon things."

"Sure. Continue."

Quinn nodded. "Pheno is divided into six essences. Any guesses?"

Jared winced. "Pheno... Phenomena? So like, living things?"

"Right."

"Uh... Warm-blooded?"

Quinn smiled warmly. "Close. I don't remember the technical names, but yeah. Mammal, Reptile, Amphibian, Fish, Bird, and Insect. Or Bug, more accurately."

Jared sighed. "Right. Okay. How is this information useful?"

"We're getting there. Psyche is divided into eight different essences. And I won't make you guess these. External Flow/Understanding Type, Internal Flow/Understanding Type, External Flow/Experience Type, Internal Flow/Experience Type, External Flow/Construct Type, Internal Flow/Construct Type, External Flow/Passion Type, and Internal Flow/Passion Type."

Jared rubbed his face with his hands. "I don't think I'm going to remember all that."

Quinn shrugged. "You don't have to. Just know that everything that thinks has exactly one of these types as their main portion of Psyche."

"Now, for Nouma.... Any guess on how many categories it's split into?"

Jared thought for a moment. Four, six, eight... "Ten?"

"It was a trick question," Ria stated. "It's only two."

Quinn sat back, leaning against one of the wooden beams. "I hope you can guess these two."

Jared thought for a moment. "Male and female?"

Quinn beamed. "Right!"

"Wait, wait, wait," Jared protested, holding up his hands. "I thought male and female were a physical thing."

Ria snorted. "Only as much as the noumena influences the phenomena." She picked a nearby cherry of the bush and popped it into her mouth. "Humans are built around their soul, not vice versa. Whatever their soul is, that's what their body will be."

Jared thought on that for a moment. "What about trans people?"

Ria shrugged. "They don't have a different noumena, if that was your question. Presumably that's something in the psyche."

"Anyway," Quinn interjected. "It brings up an interesting question." She held up a finger. "Animals don't have masculine or feminine essence, since they don't have a noumena. But demons do."

Jared tilted his head. "I thought Miss Senguine said we didn't have souls."

She nodded. "It's apparently a cause of some conflict. Because we can't seem to manipulate or see them in any other way, we just assume we have something taking its place. A different kind of soul, something more attached to the psyche."

"Whatever it is," Ria interrupted, "It's strong. In fact, it severely inhibits shapeshifting - your phenomena always matches your noumena."

"So... You can't change genders by shapeshifting," Jared concluded. "Good to know."

"For us," Quinn explained, "The noumena essence is kind of a big deal. I mean, you feed on feminine essence, and we both feed on masculine. Knowing their traits is very important," she went on, "Such as the fact that they're polar opposites."

Jared nodded. "Like Yin and Yang."

Ria scoffed. "No, bigger. Yin and Yang is black and white. Masculine and feminine essence is like rainbow and gray. It's not 50 - 50. It's 100 - 0. Complete," she emphasized, "Opposites."

"For example," Quinn jumped in, "How they stack. Masculine essence stacks well on itself, and poorly with others. Feminine essence stacks poorly with itself, and well with others."

Jared held up his hands. "Take it back and explain in English."

Ria rolled her eyes. "When you fed off of Quinn the first time, you received much energy. If you did it a second time, it would be less. So on, and so forth. Masculine essence, on the other hand, would only increase the energy output every time."

Jared frowned. "So it's better to stack masculine essence, then?"

"Not necessarily," Quinn pointed out. "Because if you got more masculine essence from a different source, it would collapse in on itself. On the other hand, getting more feminine essence from another source resets the first stack, to a degree."

"So," Jared said slowly, "If you feed on masculine essence, you only want one partner, but if you feed on feminine essence, you want several?"

"Right." Ria smiled. "That's why you need so many vassals. It stacks much higher."

He blinked. "But it means... You only want one."

She glanced away shyly. "Yes."

There as an awkward silence for a few seconds before Quinn broke it. "And there are two components on how you can extract it. The first and most important is proximity." She leaned against Jared. "Creatures with noumena or a similar aspect shed their essence, similar to how a star gives off light. It's just constant."

"With one variation," Ria added. "The more vulnerable they become on the noumenal level, the more they shed."

"Which happens most during sex," Jared finished. "Gotcha."

Quinn nodded and bit her lip. "Because of how it works, there's also no limit to how many can be fed at once, or by how much."

Ria coughed uncomfortably. "In any case, I think we're almost out of time. And I think that explanation suffices so far."

Quinn hesitated. "We're a bit early, but I guess you're right." She squeezed Jared's hand. "You should go visit with Miss Senguine now."

Jared nodded as they all stood. "Right. I guess that information helps to explain some things. We'll talk soon."

Quinn lifted onto her tiptoes to give him a peck on the cheek. "See you soon."

She and Ria left up the stairs, going up another floor as Jared stopped at the door of the study. He knocked twice.

"Come in."

He opened the door to find Senguine reading a book, a pair of spectacles on her nose. She closed it as he entered, setting it and her spectacles on the desk next to her. She gestured for him to have a seat.

He sat down, feeling a strong sense of déjà vu. This was, more or less, where it all started. Two weeks ago? Something like that. Time was starting to blur together.

Senguine was dressed in the same red dress, only adding to his déjà vu. Her red hair was loose, however, taking away from the illusion. She crossed her legs and tapped her finger on her chin. "So, Mr. Bertreck... You single-handedly fought and defeated a pack of dousa. Your description of the battle was not terribly detailed, but you said you summoned fire?"

Jared nodded, unsure of what she was getting at. "Yes."

She gestured with a hand. "Show me."

Jared shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not sure I can do it on command."

"Let's find out."

Jared closed his eye and will flame into his hand, with no result. Last night felt like more of a distant dream, a nightmare that he had somehow gained control over. Not a living, breathing reality. He concentrated but felt nothing.

"Hmm." Miss Senguine tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Try again."

Jared took some deep breaths. His inner flame slowly kindled into a flickering flame. He released a breath and summoned flame.

Senguine's eyes widened as the flame covered the lower half of his forearm. It was white, like the night before, and strangely didn't feel warm at all.

"That's enough." With a thought, Jared extinguished the flame.

She sighed. "So it is true. You've achieved living flame."

"Living?" Jared tilted his head skeptically. "What do you mean?"

Senguine folded her hands in her lap. "Surely you realize that that flame is hardly ordinary. It doesn't spread, nor shed heat. It doesn't need fuel - at least, not an ordinary source." She paused. "It is called the living flame, because that is what it consumes - phenomena. You said that the boar evaporated quickly after coming in contact with it?"

Jared nodded. "So it can't burn objects? Terra, I mean?"

"Correct. That flame is only good for one thing at the moment - killing. And," she added, "It is quite proficient at doing so. With power like that, you have the ability to kill anyone in this house without so much as breaking a sweat."

Jared frowned. "That's... insane."

"It is," she agreed. "I'm quite pleased that it was one of the first gifts you chose to master. The power to take someone's life, especially a fellow demon's, is most valuable. I would've expected you to invest in flight, or inflicting terror."

Jared's mouth dropped open. "I can fly?"

"Not yet." She sat back in her chair. "You used your currently generated power to push into a more advanced skill. Had you not had the power of three fresh vassals at your disposal, I doubt you would have been able to conjure such a flame. It comes at a cost of opportunity, of course - You will need more power to develop further skills."

Jared cocked his head. "No offense, but if I'm pretty much immortal, and I can kill most enemies, what other skills do I really need to develop? We're not in any rush, right?"

Her eyes narrowed. "That is the path that many unfortunate ferronaughts take. You feel unstoppable, invulnerable. Which," she admitted, "You nearly are. But you forget your weakness."

"My vassals."

"Precisely. Being powerful does nothing to prevent an enemy from getting ahold of them." She leaned forward. "If your vassals were caught, they would be either killed or have their bond with you severed. Should that happen, you would lose much of your power on the spot, proportional to the number of vassals slain, increased should their bond be severed before death. You would then be stuck in whatever foolish situation you had gotten yourself into, suddenly powerless and without escape, to be trapped or disposed of as your enemies see fit." She sat back, watching realization dawn on his face. "Many young ferronaughts have fallen prey to their arrogance. Do not fall into that same trap."

Jared thought of that night with Kiara, when she had been captured. That was just one vassal - but a third of his total. If she had died, he might not have even been able to conjure the "living flame." He shuddered, quieting the hurt pride in his chest. He needed to be more careful.

"More skills," Senguine continued, "Allow you to have more flexibility, which is important for avoiding traps or other forms of capture. Strength is important, yes, but mobility and versatility are even more so."

Jared bowed his head. "What skill should I aim to obtain next? And how do I go about doing so?"

She smiled. "That is for you to decide. Now that you have a few vassals at your disposal, the next order of business is getting you proficient in demonic behaviors. We are not all rough and tough - politics reign supreme. But as in any form of politics, strength is at its core. Don't forget that."

Jared thought this through for a moment. "What are my options?"

She shrugged. "Inflicting terror, exerting your will, flight, shapeshifting, chaotic disruption... I'm not privy to all of the powers of a ferronaught, but I know more than most. Which skill is not so important as obtaining additional ones."

Jared sighed. "Can I have some time to think it over? Maybe talk to Quinn about it?"

"Of course." She sat back on her chair. "This will be our last opportunity to talk today. And I take Sundays off. Do you have any further questions for me?"

He took a moment to think. "You said you'd check in with the dousa. Are they keeping their word?"

Miss Senguine smiled. "I spoke to them about doing a little deal for me, and they avoided an answer. Said something about a shift in leadership. I suspect they are, indeed, being loyal."

Jared relaxed, feeling a bit relieved. "Do you think what I did was a good idea?"

She hesitated. "It was... merciful, especially for an insulted ferronaught. On the other hand, buying their loyalty and demonstrating how kind of a master you are, all while not further damaging a potential tool, was a wise move. We will see if they prove useful enough to pay off the damage to your fearsome reputation."

"I have a reputation?" Jared asked, surprised.

"If you didn't before, you will now." Senguine tsked her tongue. "I've heard rumors from a spy in another home that there is a young ferronaught running around. Even knew your name."

Jared winced. Did it have something to do with Natasha? He hoped not.

"If you have no further questions, I do believe lunch has already begun. After, you will meet with Annika and practice fighting. However," she warned, "You would do well to keep your fire well in check. Losing a protégé would not be ideal, especially for a training combat session. Are we clear?"

"Yes, ma'am."

She stood, and they descended the stairs down to lunch together. He wished he could think of more questions to ask her, but none came to mind.

Senguine took the only unoccupied spot next to Quinn, much to Jared's dismay. She raised an eyebrow at his indignant reaction and gestured for him to have a seat across the table. He sat between Annika and Kiara, across from his wife.

A foot touched his and he looked across to see Quinn smiling at him as she blew at her soup. He relaxed and enjoyed the remainder of the meal.

The silence was unnerving. It wasn't awkward, and there was no indication that it was his presence that caused it. He supposed it came from demonic culture - not cooperative, he recalled. It certainly didn't leave much for discussion when everything that you said could be used against you.

Halfway through the meal, they were joined by a presence descending down the stairs. Zoe was dressed in nothing but a large blue T-shirt that hung nearly to her knees, decorated with a shooting star on the front. Her long blonde hair was loose, falling almost to her knees as she rubbed her eyes, apparently having just awoken.