HV-3 Crystal Maiden

There was a little clearing alongside the pond with nothing but soft grass. They had moved away the crew's mess table and little kitchen for the meeting. Vitrea sat at the water's edge. She held her knees to her chest. One hand played at the hem of her borrowed pants. Her borrowed camisole allowed the light to glint and refract off of the blue of her shoulders, but her thick, glossy purple hair covered her face where it rested on her knees. Rewan sat an arms length away, obviously troubled, and Fathema stood a few paces the other way, arms crossed and thoughtful.

"I am Hutanari," Vitrea's head shifted beneath the careless disarray of not-quite-hair.

"Vitrea..." Rewan started, but had nothing to finish with.

"Please, the Captain asked that we refrain from discussion until she returned," she looked from the Yeowoman to the... prisoner? Refugee? To Vitrea, "If you are Hutanari, you know that you will be treated fairly. We even have an arbitress aboard," she added as a comfort.

"I am."

*

Avda related the goings on from the stellar island to Sophine in her quarters. They were plush and comfortably apportioned with a pillow or blanket on every surface that was not dominated by folios, scrolls, and codices of study materials. Soft loops hung like veltety vines around the bed and open space at the center. Sophine in a modest, simple dress was seated on one such pillow at the foot of her desk--itself piled uselessly high with texts actively in use. For Avda, she finally ceased her pacing and dropped onto the edge of the overstuffed bed as she finished her report.

"And so we closely bound my harness to her to keep her within my voidbubble and made it back to the anchor yard and the Hutana Van."

Sophine spanned a long silence. When she spoke it was from between her knees where they were still pulled up against her face, "We thought we knew so much when we left Hutana."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Can't we talk without station?" She pulled back a loose lock of hair from her eye to look up to Avda on the bed.

Avda rested her elbows on her thighs and some of the steel left her rigid, naval frame, but said, "No, Ma'am. Not until we have a plan."

Avda's brow tightened as she saw Sophine's burden redouble.

"Again we must discuss whether to turn back so early in our journey. How the quartermastery would wail if we returned after not-long-enough to have spent even our emergency supplies unless we'd dined like pirates every night."

"They would... question, surely, but if our return is defensible..."

"I know, Captain. I do not question the justness of the Command." She stopped herself and leaned her head back onto the side of the desk, "I wallow in personal lamentation for the privilege of responsibility in so great an endeavor." She looked back to Avda, "We need more information, of course. You will interview her--it." Her words refused to be both sensitive and precise.

"I will. We will."

"And if I play the village Arbitress?" Sophine asked.

"We of the ship are your village, Arbitress. If you will take the time to shepherd even a stubborn navywoman whose only wish is to be a tool of the Command, then you will not risk that same crew lightly." Avda broke the tension with a smile, "And even your penchant for given names might best suit a delicate interview. You may needs correct me."

Sophine smiled and that smile slowly drifted to thoughtful determination before she drew her Meditation Glass from the desk and turned it. Eyes fixed before her as she thought.

After the last grain found the bottom bell, she stroked down her worried hair and then spoke, "I will set down three directives and my criteria." From the floor, her hands easily found a loose strip of paper from one of the texts above her on the desk and a piece of charcoal from between the stonewood floorboards and began to write as she continued, "Your questioning will help me judge those criteria. When I give my judgement, I expect you to take immediate action as befits the running of the ship."

The Arbitress finished her writing, folded it closed, and passed it to the Captain.

When Avda took it, Sophine held her gaze and asked, "Before you read my concerns, let us dissolve what confounders we can: What do you feel about Vitrea?"

"Sympathetic to her plight. Hopeful for what she might mean about other Hutanari in the infinite. Sorority. Sexual attraction for her Hutanarity and her novelty," Avda's brows darted down darkly, "And with all of those I bristle at having my emotions tricked to play into someone else's hand."

"For your sympathy: how will you keep it in check?"

"Set aside my sympathy, because she is either tragic or not and the truth of that is what I must concern myself with."

"For your hope?"

Avda released some pressure with a breath, "Be she for good or ill, finding her out here gives hope. We have Hutanari good and ill on Hutana, too."

"For your sorority?"

"I cannot feel sorority if she is some trickster crystal. I must decide to trust her unprovable words or her obvious form."

"For your manipulated emotions?"

"In either case I might be happy, then. If I discern her for good, then I can rejoice. If I discern her for ill, then my anger is vindicated and I can know that the Arbitresses of the Command will reform or resolve her, and again we benefit."

Sophine nodded, "And for your attraction?"

"I will—" She stopped and looked to Sophine whose eyes were all of her face that was visible above her knees, but those eyes danced with her hidden smile. "If we were quick, then it would be worth it that I might be free of distraction for a time."

"That seems a prudent course, Avda."

The Captain rose from the bed and Sophine offered a hand. Avda pulled her to a kiss, hot with the release of their rigid stations, and cupped the back of her head to hold her fast. Sophine, though, was more focused to the task. Her hands found the scabbard belts' clasp and the sword clattered to the floorboards as her slim hands slid around Avda's waist and plunged under the tight fabric to squeeze the muscled softness of her ass.

In response, Avda's hand found Sophine's full breast, thumb finding the rising point of her nipple beneath the soft fabric. Their tongues exchanged fleeting touches that grew more impassioned between stolen breaths. Avda gasped as Sophine's hand found her cock already turgid before it was loosed from her trousers. Sophine's fingers were hot and firm in their grip around it.

"This blue girl did have you bothered." Sophine smiled breathlessly.

Avda growled and pressed her mouth back to Sophine's. While Sophine stroked and massaged Avda by turns, Avda's hand found the loose ends of the knot of Sophine's panties. At a tug of the free strand, they fell free of her hips to pool around one of her stockinged feet. Sophine's cock, released, spilled out between her legs not quite filled to its full heft. Avda's fingers gripped the root of her and reached back to the sensitive bud between the base of the shaft and the soft parting folds of her pussy.

Sophine pulled back from the kiss, and whispered, "We are awaited, Avi." She pushed down the rigid lever of Avda's cock and let it bounce back up to slap her in the bare midriff, "And I think you're good to go."

Sophine bit at Avda's neck and bounced around in a one-eighty to brace her hands against the laden desk and spread her legs wide. She pitched up on her tip-toes with her bottom pushed out from the angle of her ready posture. She whipped her head to one side to look over her shoulder and send her long hair sweeping around and out of the way.

Avda stepped in close, her cock brushing the soft firmness of Sophine's. Avda's hands slid up from the clean white stockings at Sophine's thighs to the clean white hem of her dress to push it up revealing her pale, soft bottom. Her skin had only just the kiss of dusky earthiness to keep it from looking sickly, but against the darkness of Avda's hands it was exaggerated to an almost cream. Avda felt Sophine's dampness sliding against the top of her shaft as Sophine teasingly worked her hips forward and back over it.

"Task at hand, Captain."

Avda took hold of herself and found the Arbitress's welcoming lips with its head. As Avda slid into the slick heat of her, Sophine leaned closer to the desk, resting her head on an open codex, breathing, "Yes."

Avda drew back slowly eliciting a moan from both of them and took hold of Sophine's hips with a secure grip and guided her thrusts to a satisfying rhythm. Sophine panted into the text under her cheek, the rhythm of captain's hips set the texts to shuddering. As Sophine felt Avda begin to swell and quiver, she bent over Sophine, shortening her long luxurious thrusts into a quicker, shallower tempo. One of Avda's hands took hold of Sophine's lengthy cock and firmly stroked it from the sensitive tip to the thrilling button at its base.

After a few moments of resistance, Sophine felt the swell of climax rising within her and she half squeaked and half gasped as her seed poured out against the back of the desk. When Sophine clenched around Avda with her release, Avda moaned, loathe to pull free. She hazarded a handful of thrusts more, relishing the firm pressure inside the Arbitress.

Just as Avda pulled free of Sophine's pussy, she lurched, splashing hot cum onto Sophine's cock and desk beyond it. Sophine rested her chest onto the codex now too, relaxing as she stroked their cocks between her legs, milking what she could. Avda rested against the curve of her back, panting as she kissed the bare flesh between her shoulder blades just above the dress's neckline.

After a long moment, Sophine straightened and took up a couple of handkerchiefs from the basket and turned, wiping Avda's dick tenderly before draping the handkerchief over the soft, slackening arc of it.

"Get yourself together, Captain," she said with her hands on her hips, her long beautiful cock still weighty and dripping beneath the modest hem of her dress. Avda smirked as the Arbitress wiped herself clean and wrangled her not quite flaccid mass back into the daintily cinched panties. Soon they were both presentable, calm, and undistracted. They kissed chastely as Avda clasped her sword belts around her hips.

Sophine pressed the slip of her directives back into Avda's palm and motioned to the door, "Captain, after you."

*

The Captain and Arbitress arrived after a half hour's debrief. Fathema, Rewan, and Vitrea looked to them as they entered the garden deck. Captain Avda strode to the center of the clearing and Sophine plopped onto the grass by Rewan and near the apparent Hutanari in question.

Rewan sniffed. Did they fuck? She looked to Sophine with a question in her face. The Arbitress smiled simply and nodded. Rewan fumed a bit, but the Arbitress rested a hand on her bare thigh and stroked it with the thumb. Avda began to speak.

"Vitrea Kiu, your compliance is noted and appreciated. Would you submit to questioning?"

The crystal maiden nodded into her knees, but didn't make the Captain's gaze.

Avda twisted her face in consternation. She dropped to a hunker, bringing herself down to Vitrea's level, "Vitrea, where are you from?"

Her voice might have cracked a bit from the tightness of her throat, "Mwanamke Island."

"Where is that found?"

"Northwest of Nchi Island. Two days by oar, one by favorable sail."

"In what domain is Nchi found?"

She seemed surprised out of her stupor, "Ezwen Domain, of course--if I know of middling Nchi, surely I would know of Ezwen!"

"Who is the Hetwoman of Nchi?"

"I... I do not know." She seemed concerned and looked around the garden for a sympathetic face. She landed on Sophine and asked, "Are you from Nchi? Do you know the Hetwoman of Nchi?"

Sophine shook her head, "No, and no, Vitrea."

"Please, Vitrea," Avda reached out to rest a hand on her arm, "We do not seek to entrap you with tricks. Now, if a defector is accused in the midst of the Ezwenari, what happens?"

"She is brought before the nearest Arbitress and there her accusers give statement and evidence, the Arbitress asks after statement and evidence in the defence of the accused, and when she gives her judgement, it is the good will of the people."

"You see, if you trust the judgement of the Arbitresses, then you have nothing to fear. If you are found innocent, you will be welcomed with the good will of the people."

"And if I am found guilty? Guilty of being..." she buried her face in her knees again and hugged them close, "not even Hutanari?"

Avda sighed and Sophine interjected, "Who is the Lady Arbitress of Ezwen?"

Vitrea looked to Sophine, her hair barely showing an eye, "Lady Qanda Greed."

Rewan laughed, but the other three stiffened. Rewan looked among them, confused and declared, "She's not. Even I know this one: She's Lady Malkea Waste. That's easy."

Vitrea looked among them, "What happened to Lady Greed?"

Avda continued, "What did you do on Mwanamke?"

"It's Mwanamke," she looked around obviously, but had to explain: "I fished."

"Shoals or depths?" Avda asked.

"Depths if the weather is particularly fair, Mwanamke has a lagoon that I contest, but the shoals have more experienced fisherwomen. I would just get in their way."

She was a lot like this garden. If you did not look right at her, she felt just like a Hutanari.

Rewan asked: "Do they have Hazards in Mwanamke?"

Under the twilight tones of the glasswood, Vitrea laughed a blubbery kind of guffaw and as she did she dropped her legs into a crossed position, warming, "Hazards come from Mwanamke! But in Mwanamke? If we ever had relics for a Hazard to experiment on, we sold them off a hundred hundred years ago! We do have a nice bare mountain if you need to blow something up, though."

"What's my name, Vitrea?" The Arbitress asked.

She turned and answered unselfconsciously, "Sophine Arbitress, of—" her face dropped, "We weren't introduced."

Sophine dropped her hands to settle over her softly stockinged feet and cocked her head to the side imploringly, "What else do you know about me?"

"Um..." She hesitated, "You're an Arbitress--obviously. You served as an acolyte in Aledyd Atfal. You—" she pointed to the kitchen wheeled into the trees beyond the clearing, "You make breakfast and dinner on the Van. You say you hate having to read so much, but you really love all the interconnectedness of learning. You get bitey when you're aroused." Vitrea laughed, "You think it's weird that an Arb—" She stopped her gleeful recollection and her face dropped into horror, some manner of crystal tears pooling at her eyes, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. You don't know me and I feel like we're—" She stopped and pulled her knees back up to her face. Her back shuddered a bit as she silently sobbed.

"You feel like we're friends," Sophine finished her thought.

Vitrea looked up, weeping freely, "Friends and sisters and lovers and armswomen," she swept her hands around the little assemblage, "and you don't know me at all! I don't know how I did this. I'm sorry, I didn't want to do this. I want to go home."

Sophine smiled at Vitrea and you could hear it when she spoke, "We won't be going home for some time now, but the Hutana Van is pretty roomy. You could make a home here."

Vitrea looked at her through swamped, damp eyes and swathes of hair, disbelieving.

"For the time being," Sophine continued, "You can be our friend and lover and sister and... armswoman?" She looked to the Captain.

Avda straightened and reached out a hand to Vitrea, "As Captain of the Hutana Van, given your enduring presence here, I am forced to impress you into Ezwenari service. Should you decline—"

Vitrea blubbered another laugh, this time dampened into a snort by her tears, and interrupted, "I accept!" She took the Captain's hand and rose, pumping it--a broad smile across her face.

Avda tried to pick up the thread of her impressment, "You will be a Yeowoman in the Naval Command up to the duration of the voyage of the Hutana Van, entitling you to—"

"Sounds great! What's a Yeowoman?" She kept shaking Avda's hand with both of hers, until Rewan took one hand and pulled her away.

"It means we get to share the shit-work! Come on, I know where there's a great berth. I was going to take it, but mine is much more shielded," Rewan explained as she guided Vitrea out of the garden. Watching them go in the half-light you could not tell it was not simply two Hutanari friends idling through a Hutana grove.

Fathema walked to face the Captain and Arbitress as they left.

"To clarify," Fathema said, "Lady Qanda Greed served two hundred years ago."

"Yep, Temi." Sophine stood and brushed a few dewy blades from her dress, "it's pretty late. I'm happy to cook if you're okay with gathering in the dark?"

"That is it?" Fathema asked.

"For now," Sophine nodded.

Fathema looked between Sophine and Avda, and then looked out into the darkened grove, "Not getting any darker. Let me get changed and fetch a lantern and I will find something."

Avda looked to Sophine when they were alone.

"Surely you were not so moved by that display of pathos," Avda asked with some accusation.

"I was. And I imagine you and Fethema and Rewan were too. Whatever she is, that was real. As real as you or I are. I see that we live in one of three truths:

"She is a scared and vulnerable Hutanari, perhaps trapped here for hundreds of years. Perhaps whatever leeched from the crystals into her allowed her to touch our minds. Then we owe her our sorority and protection--so far from Hutana.

"Or the crystal is an awesome power able to take from our minds whatever she will and wield that to manipulate us to perfection. In which case our resistance would only show our wariness, and we would surely succumb to her influences regardless. Thus we ought to buy time by letting this goddess play out whatever pantomime of friendship she intends. Perhaps we might truly sway her; perhaps we could not even tell the difference between the perfect act of friendship and its truth; or perhaps her manipulations will become our will. In any case we are powerless to act on this truth.

"Finally, everything we see in her is the truth of her: That some awesome force created her for this purpose of convincing us of her Hutanari verisimilitude, then we are both bound to offer this tragic woman our sorority like in the first case and we are also powerless to oppose such a power like in the second case.

"Therefore, let us be friends."

"I see," Avda accepted the Arbitress's explanation, but could not shake her concern, "But in the cases of the latter truths, should we not avail ourselves of the chance to cut her down."

Sophine frowned, "If we knew we could, perhaps the magnitude of the risk she poses would merit such action, but," her frown deepened, "we know so little of her. To even attempt to strike her down could result in the worst possible consequences in the first two cases: Cutting down an innocent woman who begged our aid and failing to slay a goddess who could then take her revenge, our lives, and the Hutana Van."

Sophine's eyes moistened, "And even in the third case: If this awesome power lets us cut down its puppet, we do ourselves some small service, lose any understanding of the puppet master, and must cut down a Hutanari created to feel naught but betrayed hope and pain."

Avda nodded long and slow, "Therefore let us be friends."

Sophine went to pull the kitchen back into the clearing, as she said casually, "For now, though, I will record a standing directive: Under no circumstances can we bring her back to Hutana."