Sufferance Ch. 11

If I hadn't interrupted...I didn't know exactly what Wilsira's ultimate goal had been this eve, but she hadn't gotten it and now she was making up new stories to cover it up.

I was letting her because making truths known to the Nobles wasn't part of my function. The Priestess and I still hadn't talked alone, and she was giving me no signs what she thought had happened. She put on a confident mask for all to see and guiding the messy aftermath, controlling the damage as best she could.

"We will still be leaving early in the waking cycle," Wilslirathon told Italunia. "I've been away from the Sanctuary long enough and have further reason not to delay."

"Of course, Priestess."

This was a relief to hear; I could see an end in sight for this. Temporary though it may prove to be before my next assignment, I wanted to return to the cloister and my Sisters. I needed sleep, sex, and and food with far less risk assumed; I needed answers, and a plan from my newest experiences. I could get none of that where I was, and time wore on me much more harshly as a result.

Granted, this would prevent any new opportunity in which to find out Kerse's real desire, his real motivation. Whether I had wasted that opportunity already or simply did not have the knowledge and resources to gain it this time around...I had to know when to cut loose from the battle of wills before I made a fatal mistake.

Sadly, as the Priestess had said repeatedly, and as Auslan even had said to Shyntre...I was still young, and still had a lot to learn.

Nor was it time to let down my guard; now especially did the Priestess have reason to push me in ways she had not yet. She was running out of time to have me at her side, and Kerse's own response to my leaving might see no change, or he could throw a tantrum.

Just a little longer, and we each would return to the center of our own webs.

*****

Fortunately for me, I had never seen Wilsirathon as tired as she was after she left the Matron's audience. The four of us were all in the same room; Shyntre was wide awake, Kerse curled up on the bed with apparent disinterest in any discussion, seeming to want rest, if not sleep. The Priestess folded herself elegantly into one of the more plush fiberstalk chairs with a cup of something spicy and warm sent from the kitchen. She watched me.

"You bypassed the ward."

I tilted my head slightly but decided to let her ask an actual question before speaking.

"Why?"

There we go.

"I did not know whether you were safe, Priestess," I responded. "For a time, I could not find you on the grounds. When I did, I could not reach you, which is against your own orders. What would you have me do?"

Her expression didn't alter much beyond a small frown, and she didn't seem in the mood for mental sparring and social wordplay. She had already done plenty of that with the Matron Italun while running on exhaustion. Dare I think she might actually want to be blunt for one conversation?

Wilisra looked at Kerse then back to me. "After you carried Curgia out, he told me you watched after you had entered but never touched us."

"True," I responded.

If by "us," the Priestess meant herself and Curgia.

"What did you see?"

A good thing for me I was still up for some verbal sidestepping. I did glance at both Kerse and Shyntre pointedly, but Wilsira acknowledged me by waving her hand as if she were bored or impatient. She didn't care what they might hear.

Alright, so be it.

"Yourself and Curgia sitting on the couch in some trance. At one point, she became distressed and started moaning. Then she screamed and threw herself off your lap onto the floor. You became aware, and she began bleeding between her legs."

"Succinct," the Priestess commented, giving me a sardonic look. "Now...what did you *feel*?"

"Divine magic," I shrugged, "filling the room. Only when Curgia screamed had it been disrupted."

"What do you think disrupted it?"

Kerse was still and he wasn't making a sound. Shyntre likewise was trying to make himself smaller in his chair; I think he would have left if he could have. He didn't want to hear this. The only reason I could gather than he was here was simply that he'd been standing outside the door when I'd come through with the Noble, and thus was a witness anyway.

I smiled wryly. Time to drop the burst. "There was another presence in the room for half a moment. I think that was what disrupted it."

Wilsira sat up straighter looking more alert now, and Kerse gave me a fleeting, bewildered look. Shyntre looked intrigued in spite of himself.

"Explain."

At least I could be mostly certain that Kerse had not told her about the oral sex.

"In my training, I have grown to be resilient against mental pushes," I admitted, and I could read the Priestess clearly, confirming what I'd already suspected: she had tried her own mental pushes and was only minimally satisfied with her success.

"Are you," she said flatly, not a question. "A bit early in your training, isn't it?"

I smiled and didn't answer her. "There was another voice in that room. It was like a mental push, although it was just observing."

If I had to guess from Kerse's lack of reaction, I could say he hadn't heard the voice. That was a good thing. The Draegloth could think that I was just spinning a tale to cover up what had actually happened, but in truth I had given her something completely true, as far as my senses could perceive. It was impossible to prove and would draw further attention from Kerse. Much better to feed paranoia and lead with a few red spiders. Besides, I might learn something.

"Telepathy?" Wilsira asked.

I shrugged. "There is more than one way to throw your voice, isn't there? Could have been a magical message."

She shook her head. "You would recognize those even at this point, Sirana. Now give me your real opinion."

I shifted my weight trying to look relaxed as possible. "My opinion is that it was psionic. But only my opinion."

"What did it say?" she asked, taking a casual sip of her cup though her free hand squeezed the arm of her chair more tightly.

"It didn't exactly say anything. It thought. I believe I understood that it considered something happening in that room to be a first, or at least something unusual."

I kept my gaze on her as an unspoken question. The Priestess glanced at Shyntre; only now she wished him gone. Glad I was for that. I could presume that the ritual with Curgia wasn't a routine occurrence at all. She had the choice now to continue questioning me, maybe send him away first.

"You have an idea what was watching?" I asked to distract her from the wizard. Not many times would she be this tired and I would take advantage the same way she'd taken advantage of me.

Yes. There it was, the way her eyes shifted and that change in her breathing. She at least had an idea who it might've been. Neither of the males would have seen it as she faced mostly away from them.

She shook her head. "No, I do not."

"No? That's rather disturbing, isn't it, Priestess?" I asked.

She agreed with a nod. "I may have to ask your Elders to send you to the Sanctuary at a later time. They will not like the breach of security and you may know more than you think. I will be rested and will have researched the proper spell by then. Really, I'm impressed you could sense it, Sirana."

Son of a motherfucking drider! I'd just given her that next move, further reason to ask for me!

I caught Shyntre slowly shaking his head in the background and frowned his way a moment.

*Careful, you, or I'll take out my frustration on your backside...*

I breathed out slowly and nodded. "I may have something for you before then. The Sisterhood is not without its own resources in that regard."

Wilslira's mouth tightened in what was supposed to be a smile. "Well...if that's the case, I would only trust you yourself to bring me that information personally."

"We'll see," I said. "You know I take my orders from the Sisters, Priestess, not you."

She smiled, then, a thoughtful and patient kind of smile which I did not find reassuring in the slightest. "Of course."

Dung, and double dung. The solitary achievement I'd managed against an exhausted Wilsirathon—assuming it was even a good thing—was that she still had no thoughts that Kerse was hiding things from her regarding me, and I still had the bloodstone. But perhaps this had been at the expense of my own future safety. Only an Elder who might actually tell me a damned thing or two could help my situation.

The Priestess slept deeply, and Kerse would do nothing but stand guard while sneaking glances of dislike toward the wizard. Shyntre found a lot of excused to be in the wash room. It was a long wait for the waking hour.

I couldn't wait to get away from this threesome.

******

Auslan wasn't present when we left on the final leg of our journey early the next cycle. It was truly a pity; I would have liked to see his face one more time. He was the only genuine delight I'd experienced on this thorny nest of a journey.

I was glad, however, to be riding a lizard alongside the carriage again. Shyntre could deal with sharing close space with Kerse for once; I'd had more than my share. I stayed out of easy speaking distance of the carriage, glad for the lack of voices as most of what I heard was the clop-scrape of the Uroans' feet and the roll of the wheels.

As when I'd been riding back from House Itlaun, frustrated and aroused after my kiss with the Consort, we passed by the Tower before continuing toward the Palace and the cloister. Shyntre was released from his service first; he remembered to bow to the Priestess and me each in turn, mumbling his formal valedictions before he left gladly, hefting the single pack he'd brought with him from the back of the carriage and walking quickly toward his usual home. He didn't look back.

I was close enough to the carriage for Wilsira to comment. She was vague in her word choice as the driver was still within earshot but I got the message.

"Here I thought I would be doing you a favor bringing him, in case you still didn't know," she said, and sighed. "I knew on first meeting you had figured that out a while ago."

I gave her a look but then smiled. "If you still felt the need for a favor, you could tell me why he bothered to hide in the first place."

The Priestess returned my smile. "Oh...I don't know for certain, but I'd wager he asked your Elder for the right. She commanded him, of course, and he knows what often happens next if the one becomes as you became. He wanted to avoid the consequences of carrying out his orders." She chuckled. "It did not seem to make a difference, did it? You still found him...but you haven't claimed him yet. You are enjoying the hunt?"

I shrugged. "I suppose I am."

"Poor boy," the Priestess said, the amused curve of her mouth visible even in the shadow of her carriage. "He can't help but resist you. If he had taken my advice all those years ago, it may have been that the Sisterhood would not have shown any interest in him and he would have remained a servant to the Sanctuary. As it is now...he is more yours than mine. He's extraordinary with his mouth, and I didn't teach him all that."

"Hm," I said in as flat a tone as I could manage. I knew getting so interested so quickly was a mistake but it was hard not to want more. "What advice was that?"

"Oh," she smiled wider as she leaned back in her seat. "I think I'll let him tell you."

*****

I saw the carriage and its passengers safely to the Sanctuary, and despite all that had happened, Wilirathon did not try for any last-moment bonding or secret-sharing or whatnot. She was formal in her thanks to me and to the Sisterhood, in bidding me safe passage back to my Elders, and very different in her body language now that other Priestesses and their eyes could see her.

Kerse likewise behaved very well; one could almost believe he had gotten his fill of me and, like all the other Draegloth, had finally forgotten the distraction and was again wholly devoted to his mother.

Wouldn't it be somehow better for me if that was the case? Indeed, wasn't I just taking Auslan's word that Kerse's behavior was truly that far outside the norm? Perhaps he was wrong...

Except then I would have to discount D'Shea's misgivings, my own instincts, and everything Kerse had done that seemed without his dam's knowledge. No. The Draegloth was still a dragon-sized pile of trouble ready to bring as much attention from the Priesthood down on me as Shyntre seemed to have drawn from the Sisterhood. And I didn't thank either him or my wandering thoughts for the comparison.

The last bit of information I gleaned before I left was knowing that neither the Priestess nor the Draegloth wanted to demonstrate the bodily familiarity that new sexual partners sometimes expressed. I supposed I could thank them for that.

My thoughts and mind kept going but felt somehow more numb as I made my way back to the Sisterhood's cloister on foot. The lizard mount wasn't from our stables and on foot was how I'd first arrived that time a long five cycles ago. Thank Lolth it hadn't been extended beyond the five, but...

I realized the numbness was having more to do with my lack of sleep for all that time. One rest period, cradled by a warm demonbred, and that was it. I wondered whether D'Shea would demand full reports first, or if I might rest and eat first? Would I ask for one over the other?

I'd gone beneath a rocky surface to reach one of the hidden entrances, only just passing the ward and opening the door when someone grabbed my shoulder and I actually made a startled sound, throwing myself back and drawing a dagger.

"Sirana!" Gaelan scowled at me. "Don't you threaten me!"

Oh, Lolth fuck me sideways... I hadn't seen my roommate since I'd ridden her ass with her own Feldeu and then stole it afterward... I'd known she'd faced some trouble with our Elder, but D'Shea had kept us apart as she gave me that fast training for the Sanctuary and then sent me to Wilsirathon.

I sheathed the dagger and shrugged with a decidedly fatigued slant to my shoulders. "Not my intent, Gaelan. You startled me. What would you expect?"

She wasn't happy to see me—I wouldn't have expected her to be—but she said nothing and took my arm and tried to lead me farther down the hall. I resisted.

"D'Shea's not here yet but I've been put on watch to wait for you," she snapped. "We're going to her quarters. Don't fight and don't talk, understand?"

Given that we still had that agreement for her to be the dominant one in sight of the other Sisters, I acquiesced and soon found myself shoved into D'Shea's quarters for the first time in her absence. Impressively, Gaelan had been able to get in.

So something had changed in my absence.

"Start stripping and give me each piece as you take it off," she ordered.

I quirked one eyebrow but did not move, and she folded her arms.

"Like when you came back from the Hunt for Jael. Everything you have on you is evidence. I've been given instruction to have you prepared and your possessions laid out for when she gets here."

"Oh, you have?" I asked skeptically.

Gaelan nodded once, curtly. "Thanks to you. And no, I no longer have my own Feldeu, nor even one being borrowed, so I won't be able to bang your twat the way I want to, even if that wouldn't be destroying any evidence on your body. I can't touch you, alright? Now strip!"

I muttered a curse under my breath and started removing everything a piece at a time, handing it to her to inspect as I did so. She wasn't in a talkative mood after her outburst, so I just watched her face during this process. Mostly she was angry with me, but my gut told me it was not permanent—I had not just made a deadly enemy. A couple of times, that anger slid into another expression I didn't see very often. It was...offended? No. Insulted...no.

Hurt.

Of course. I'd betrayed her attachment to me...and I even felt some regret for doing so. It had worked in my favor, and though I hadn't planned on it—pure impulse to take her Feldeu—I would probably do it again. However, it remained that she'd paid a price for my success.

This was what I had thought we both understood about the natural order, that I would step on her back one day to climb over her—and she'd known it would happen. She'd known her place.

So why look injured?

Gaelan was distracted and did not seem to glean as much out of my pieces as D'Shea might have, but she blinked at finding the bloodstone in one of my pouches, and her mouth opened a little when she saw Shyntre's pendant around my neck when I revealed naked breasts.

"What...where did you get that?"

I took it off slowly and handed it out to her, the final adornment before I was completely nude. "The wizard from my trials. He gave it to me."

Her face screwed up in confusion. "No...he wouldn't have."

"He did."

"You took it."

I smiled. "Not this time. You know what it is?"

She gave me that vacant look I'd grown to recognize as her throat closed on itself a moment. She couldn't answer me due to the compulsion. She didn't even try.

But now I knew Shyntre and D'Shea definitely knew each other. One of many questions was: How well?

Gaelan put the necklace down with my other items and helped unplait and smooth out my braids so that my hair was loose down my back. Then she took a deep breath as she picked up a small purple jar from D'Shea's shelves. Unscrewing the lid, she dipped her gloved finger into some kind of glittering powder and touched it to her tongue. Letting it dissolve a few seconds in her mouth as she put the jar back, she began looking me over carefully. I watched her warily until she stepped directly behind me and I couldn't see her anymore.

"Look straight ahead," she ordered.

I heard her remove her gloves then felt cool, dry hands on the back of my neck. Slowly they moved lightly over my skin, my back, my shoulders and arms, almost tickling until she touched my breasts and the nipples grew hard. She ignored that and kept going down my ribs, my stomach, my flanks and hips. She inspected my legs and buttocks and feet before she lifted a hand back up to my mouth and nudged her finger inside.

"Umngh," I mumbled and she shushed me as she pressed her index finger onto my tongue.

Gaelan chanted something quietly a few times, and went she removed her finger it shimmered very slightly in iridescent blue. I had no idea what it meant, but she repeated it after moving her hand between my legs with all familiarity, inserting her middle finger into my sex. I sucked in my breath, and her finger again shone a brighter blue when she removed it. Like the first, the color faded within a few seconds.

"What are you—" Though as she moved around behind me again, I already figured.

"Last time, Sirana," she murmured, and I could almost say she sounded aroused.

I arched my back a little and relaxed to make the probing of my netherhole tolerable; for whatever reason, all these probes had been dry—she hadn't so much as licked her finger before pressing it in and used a different one each time.

I glimpsed the same blue color again for a few moments before it faded as Gaelan went over to a table to pour water from a pitcher into a washbowl to cleanse her hands.

"What were you doing, Gaelan?" I asked.

"I told you, preparing you for D'Shea," she said without looking at me.

After a pause, I asked, "Are you a mage?"

Her shoulders tensed then lowered again.

"More a familiar," she said quietly. "You remember how I stayed behind when you went to battle the Illithids?"

"Yes," I said. "Lelinahdara said she needed a conduit with experience."

Her back still to me, Gaelan lifted her wet hand in the air as if volunteering for some mission. "That's me."