The Eroturge Ch. 03

A/N: Hello everyone; Imma be real, this story ended up being a lot more plot-heavy than I had initially intended. Next chapter will probably be pretty action-packed, but I'll try to get back to the smut somewhere in there. Also, I'm not super crazy about how this turned out, but I'm about to move cross-country, and I wanted to get this posted before I left.

At any rate, let me know what you think. This story will probably end up being five chapters all-together, after which I want to do more smut-focused one-shots with these characters. I also have a non-fantasy story in the works, so be on the lookout for that.

Enjoy!

--

The Lycaean Aria Music Festival was the biggest event in the music industry, at least within the Expanse, bringing in the most well-known artists from all over the continent. It, along with the Academy, was the driving force behind the city-state's tourism industry, and a guarantee of future success for any up-and-coming musician who played it. As the tradition was to give a spot to only one unestablished group each year, it was literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Needless to say, Lisette was having a difficult time keeping her nerves in check. The largest crowds they had ever played for barely filled out the Academy's auditorium. Now it felt like they were about to play in front of the whole damn Expanse. The only thing keeping her from losing it entirely was knowing that her friends would be in the audience to cheer her on.

"...so you're not coming?"

She was in the dressing room, holding her phone loosely to her ear, her face stone-cold as she heard her dear friend's voice stammer out what sounded like a heartfelt apology over the tinny speaker. Truthfully, she was only half-listening.

"I'm really really really sorry! Something came up with my work, and . . ."

"Something you can't discuss over the phone, I take it?"

"Yeah. Honestly, I wouldn't even know where to begin."

Lisette let out a sigh. "Whatever. Do what you have to do."

There was a pause, during which Lisette's other hand began fiddling with the containers of makeup she had been in the middle of applying. After a while, Evie said, "I really hate this. I was so looking forward to it too."

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure whatever you're doing is more important than some concert."

"Lis, that's not-"

A man poked his head through the door. A brown-haired, light-skinned man wearing a jean-and-blazer combo in the same red and black colors as Lisette's blouse and skirt. His eyes met hers, and he mouthed the word 'meeting.'

"Shit," Lisette muttered into the receiver. "Sorry, I have to go."

"Oh." Lisette could almost picture Evie biting her lip, as though trying to physically stop herself from saying what was truly on her mind. "Okay. Good luck out there. I know you'll do great."

Lisette grimaced. It was the closest thing to a smile she could manage. "Thanks. Good luck to you too."

As she hung up, the man—Elwood—spoke: "Ciel wants to do a quick run-through before the show starts. I think the pressure's getting to him a bit more than he's letting on."

The phone dangled in Lisette's hand as she nodded along to whatever Elwood was saying. She didn't even notice him walking up to her until he had already put a hand on the top of her head, tilting it up so she was looking at him.

"You okay?"

Lisette blinked and nodded her head. "Yeah. Lemme just finish my makeup."

She turned back to the counter as Elwood took the seat next to her and grabbed her brush. "I gotchu. Your hands are shaking like crazy; wouldn't want you to go up there looking like kid who just got into her mom's makeup cabinet."

He started brushing the blush onto her cheeks before she could argue. Instead, she gathered her hands in her lap, still restlessly toying with her phone. "Thanks."

The blush only took a few seconds—it had already been mostly done—so he quickly moved on to eyeliner. "So, who were you talking to?"

Lisette winced at the feeling of the eyeliner pencil scraping against her eyelid. "Evie," she muttered. "Something came up, apparently."

"That's a shame. But, I'm sure she has a good reason."

Lisette let out a sigh, forcing her tensed shoulders to relax as best she could. "Yeah, I know."

El paused in applying the eyeliner as he lowered his head to meet Lisette's eyes. "And you have good reason to be disappointed."

With a half-hearted smile, Lisette shook her head. "It's just always something with her. Even when we're together, it seems like part of her mind is somewhere else."

"Yeah, academics just be like that," he said as he finished off the tips of her eyeliner. Lisette glanced at the side of her face in the mirror with a bemused smile.

"How are you so good at winged eyeliner?"

"My sisters made me practice when I started dating. Told me it would more a much more attractive skill than banging on drums."

"They weren't wrong."

Seconds passed as El started applying a dark gel to her eyebrows. Lisette fidgeted in her chair; she didn't normally do her eyebrows so she wasn't quite used to the feeling.

"Am I being selfish?"

"No," he said after a final touch-up. "You're being a human. With desires and feelings. You'll get used to it eventually."

Finally, Elwood applied a deep, red lipstick. After rolling the thin layer of paste around her lips a bit to get them fully-covered, Lisette asked, "How do I look?"

Elwood packed the makeup away in her bag and looked back at her with the same warm smile he always gave her. "Like a superstar."

--

Evie let out a sigh as she set her phone on the counter, making a mental note to buy the most expensive bouquet of flowers she could find for Lisette tomorrow. Pushing her guilt aside for the moment, she grabbed two small cups from her cabinet and set them on a large serving tray, along with the teapot that had been brewing during her phone call. When she went back out into the living room, carrying the tray in her hands, the strange girl she had met on the roof was sitting on her couch, a blanket wrapped around her still-nude body. Evie set the tray on the coffee table in front of her, and the girl held out a long, thin object, nearly hitting Evie in the face with it.

"What's this?"

It took a moment for Evie to realize what she was asking about. "Oh, that's the remote to the TV."

The girl cocked her head in confusion. Evie took the remote from her and switched on the large, flat-panel TV that was mounted to her wall, to some cheap-looking drama program. The girl's eyes widened; she jumped off the couch and leaned over the coffee table, looking like a child witnessing their first magic trick.

"Woah! T-That picture's moving! How is it doing that?"

Evie started pouring out the tea. "It's just an optical illusion; it's showing a bunch of still images in rapid succession, giving the illusion of movement.

"But then, how is it also making sound?"

"Umm... that's a bit harder to explain." Evie slid one of the teacups across the table. "Why don't you just have a drink?"

"'Kay!"

As the girl took the tea, she plopped back onto the couch, the blanket now loosely wrapped around her like a shawl. Evie made a point not to gawk at her body, though she had a suspicion this girl wouldn't have cared either way. With a sigh, Evie took the other teacup and started blowing on it to cool the steaming liquid. Before she even had a chance to sip it, the new girl had slammed her empty cup on the table.

"Wow, that was delicious! What did you say it was called?"

Evie's eyes darted back and forth between the girl's face and the cup—her cheeks were slightly rosier but other than that she seemed fine.

"Umm, tea?" Evie took a single, hesitant sip, then recoiled in pain—it was absolutely scalding. "How did you drink all of that so quickly?"

The girl's face fell. "Oh, I-I'm sorry, was I supposed to wait?"

Evie shook her head. "No, never mind, it's fine," she said, setting the cup back on the table. "S-So, how are you feeling?"

The girl squirmed in her seat, folding her hands tightly in her lap. "What do you mean?"

Evie had already explained the situation to her, as best she could have—that Corsaea, ostensibly this girl's home, had been gone for centuries and no one knew why or how. Evie had fully expected her to have a meltdown, or to show any sign of emotion, but she hardly seemed fazed by it. "I mean, this whole thing must be a huge shock to you. It would be completely understandable for you to be upset by it."

"Really, Mistress, I'm fine," she said, a smile plastered onto her face. "Could I have some more tea, please?"

Evie stared at the girl; her face showed no other sign of emotion. 'This girl is either an incredible liar, or a complete sociopath,' she thought as she refilled the empty teacup. "Did you not like Corsaea?"

"Of course I did. At least, I think I did. My memories are a bit foggy after being asleep for so long—it's always like that when a familiar is reawakened."

"So what exactly do you remember?"

"Hmm..." The girl pursed her lips as she picked up her tea. "Generally, we retain memories of things that are constant throughout our different incarnations; I've always lived in Corsaea so I remember a lot about the laws and culture—things any Corsaean would know. But again, I've been asleep so long, even a lot of that is fuzzy. And I don't remember anything about my former masters."

"I see." This was the first time Evie had ever heard of any familiar being fully human and sentient; the concept of a familiar having memories, or even being able to fully communicate was completely foreign. Was that something only Eroturgy was able to accomplish? As the girl was taking a sip of her tea, something else occurred to her.

"Do you at least remember your name?"

The girl lurched forward, choking on her tea, and slammed the porcelain cup back on the table. She looked up at Evie, her face turning bright red as though she had just offered to eat her out.

"M-My n-name!?" She clutched the blanket closer to her, for the first time actually making an effort to cover herself.

"Uh... yeah?" Evie said. "I'm sorry, did I say something insensitive?"

The girl was looking at Evie as though she had a tree growing on top of her head. "I just . . . Is that a thing here?"

"What, names?"

"No, giving names to familiars?"

For a moment, the only sound in the room was the muted voices coming from the TV. With a furrowed eyebrow, Evie looked at the girl and said, "I mean, I guess not necessarily, but our familiars are more like animals, not people."

The girl nodded. "Right. So there's no reason for us to have names, right?"

"But... you're not an animal. Right?"

She kept staring at Evie, who suddenly felt that they were talking in completely different languages, even though the girl was clearly speaking the Common tongue—another oddity that demanded an explanation at some point.

"I'm sorry, Mistress. I don't understand what you're saying."

Unsure what else to do, Evie let out a sigh. The definition of personhood was not a concept she felt particularly qualified to deal with, especially at this moment, so she chose to let it go for the time being. "Either way, if you want to live here, you need a name. That's just how things are."

The girl swallowed and quietly acquiesced. "Okay, Mistress. If you say so." She reached out for the teacup again, but before she got to it, she froze. Her eyes perked up, looking wildly all around her as she rose to her feet.

"What now?" Evie asked.

"I don't..." She eventually turned to face the far wall of the kitchen. "That's south, right?"

Evie turned to the wall herself, quickly orienting herself before saying, "Yeah, I think so."

"There's something out there."

"Out where-"

Then she realized. South. She stood up. "Cover yourself back up; we can see the Wall from the roof."

--

The Lycaean City Park was packed—at least, the area that had been earmarked for use in the Aria Music Festival was. The City Planning Commission had roped off an 80 acre stretch of the 800 acre park to hold the stage and audience, but even the rest of the park was filled with people either waiting to get in, or hoping to be able to get a glimpse of the festival from afar. After an hour in the line to get through the ticket gate, Asli was glad that her brother and betrothed were able to get in earlier, even if it was likely to take another hour for her to find them.

In actuality, it only took about ten minutes. They were laid out on a thin blanket towards the center of the viewing area. Asli gingerly stepped around the other groups that were sitting and laying on the grass, raising her hand in the hopes they would see.

"Finally made it through?" Emre asked when she arrived. He practically had to shout over the low rumble of thousands of conversations happening all around them.

As soon as she got to the blanket, she yanked the thin pair of sandals she was wearing off her feet—she had always hated wearing shoes, especially the unwieldy styles of shoes that were common in Lycaea and other Lowland states. They were a far cry from the cloth slippers that were worn in the Westerlinds.

"I'm hear, aren't I?" she muttered as she sat down next to Yasu. Her betrothed was lying on his back, with his hands folded behind is head, dark sunglasses hiding his eyes. He smiled up at her, and she leaned in to return his greeting with a kiss. Emre looked away from her and towards the stage. As infuriating as he brother could be, one thing Asli always appreciated was that he never made things weird whenever she and Yasu acted like a couple around him. He would tease them occasionally but he never got grossed out or overprotective the way some brothers did. Even though he usually treated her like the younger twin, despite the fact that she was fifteen seconds older.

When she lifted her head back up, she looked back at the stage looming over them. "How long until it starts?"

"Just a few minutes, I think."

"Should we send Lis a text to wish her luck?"

"Don't." Emre's tone was clear and firm. "It'll just psych her out."

Asli couldn't help but smile at the way her brother stared at the stage, chewing on his lower lip with a furrowed brow. He was probably just as nervous as Lisette was. She reached across Yasu to grasp onto Emre's shoulder. "She'll be fine, Em."

He let a sigh, shoulders dropping slightly. "Yeah, I know she will."

As she dropped her hand back into her lap, Asli's eyes glanced past Emre. Behind him, through the gaps between the distant rows of buildings and skyscrapers, she could catch glimpses of the hills that lined the southern border of the Expanse, where the Wall was. And to her, it seemed as though there was a strange shadow in the distant skies that hung over Icasia. Then the shadow was gone, just as suddenly as it appeared. She shook her head, thinking that she must have just been getting secondhand nerves from Emre—or would it have been third-hand? Either way, she turned her attention back to where she was. But even as the chatter around her died down and the MC came on-stage to introduce the opening acts, she would occasionally find her eyes wondering back to the distant hills, unsure what she was even expecting to see.

--

It was approaching sunset when they emerged back onto the roof, the once-clear blue sky above them now streaked with shades of orange and pink. A southerly wind swept across them, feeling unseasonably chilly, but maybe that was just Evie's imagination. As the stepped onto the wide expance of concrete, Evie pointed in the distance, towards a thin line of steel-gray that stuck out against the green hills. "There's the Wall."

The girl next to her said nothing as she took a few brief steps towards the Wall, her fingers clutching at the blanket wrapped loosely around her. It fluttered against the breeze like a cape. "So that's . . ." She trailed off, a wistful tone in her quiet voice.

"You okay?" Evie asked, for what felt like the hundredth time that evening.

The girl nodded but said nothing else. Eventually, she looked up towards the slowly darkening sky. "I can feel something approaching. I can't see it though."

"It might be hidden," Evie said. "There's a barrier along the Wall to keep any foreign magic from crossing over."

"And yet, I'm here."

There was a solemnity in her tone that threw Evie off. She rubbed the back of her neck. "Well to be honest, you really shouldn't be."

The wind picked up, gently lifting the girl's amethyst curls an inch off her back. She and Evie both looked back at the Wall, as a dark shadow flickered across the barrier for just an instant and vanished. Evie swallowed the knot that was growing in her throat. The girl turned back to her and said, "Can we go there?"

Her eyes shimmered with determination, even as Evie emphatically shook her head. "It would be way too dangerous. If anyone in the army found out what you were, it would be both of our asses."

"But, Mis—"

She was cut off as a low, magical hum filled the air around them. It was faint, and not even audible as such, but easy enough for them both to detect, like the sound of someone banging a spoon against a piece of sheet metal. It faded after a few seconds, before repeating even louder. They turned their attention back to the Wall. The shadow was back. It was larger this time, and it didn't disappear.

Whatever it was, it was trying to break through.

--

Lisette let out a quiet gasp as she stepped out onto the stage with the rest of the band. A sea of people, crammed together like sardines, spread out before her—it almost seemed as though everyone in the Expanse was there to see them play.

Well, everyone minus one.

She pursed her lips, determined not to think about her petty troubles, as the chatter in the crowd died down and Ciel, a farmboy from the northern Expanse, stepped up to the mic, gently fingering the neck of his bass. Even though Lisette was the guitarist and lead vocalist for most of their set, they still considered Ciel to be the de facto leader. Although Lisette had mostly gotten over her fear of singing in front of crowds, for whatever reason speaking was still a nightmare. Besides, Ciel was way better at motivational speeches, and he had just as much of a hand in songwriting as Lisette did, so it was more than fair to her.

Ciel didn't take much time introducing them; after all, most people in the audience would never have heard of them, so no point in keeping them waiting. Before she knew it, he turned to her and stepped away from the mic. She glanced over her shoulder at Elwood, sitting at an absurdly large drum set. He smiled and flashed a thumbs-up at her. She smiled back, her grip on the neck of her guitar tightening as she realized just how sweaty her palms were. When she got to the microphone, she took a second to wipe her hands on her skirt and, without any further preamble, she gave El a signal behind her back. El raised his drumsticks, and the crowd hushed as they started the first song.

It was a fast-paced song: rhythmic and electric and raw—Lisette's preferred style. As her hands started strumming out the first chord progression, it didn't take long for her lose herself in the music and forget the crowd in front of her. By the time she started singing the first few lines, she no longer cared who was around. With how much they had rehearsed, playing together was almost instinctive. She knew they wouldn't lose each other, so all she had to do was put everything into her hands and her voice.

The lyrics were based on an old folk tale from her village; it was one of her favorite stories growing up, though she was never sure why it resonated with her so strongly. It was the story of a man and a woman who were in love. The woman would give and give and give to the man, but he was selfish and would never give to her in turn. Eventually, she gave so much to him that her body faded away into nothingness. The man was so beset with guilt that he threw himself into the sea, hoping that his spirit would somehow make it back to his lover.