Welldark B1 Ch. 06,5

Esther turned her head to see the grey-skinned succubus. Already, she could feel her jaw tense. It was clear that Karona noticed them but only gave them a wink. She appeared busy conversing with other people in the room. Most prominently, a woman who was entirely made of a dark grey, almost black, slime.

Relaxing her jaw, Esther managed to word the next best thing to an apology. "If your preference is to spend the class with Karona, I will not be offended if you decide to do so, Arlethia."

"Nah, I'm good," she assured her and the two of them got a seat close to the front. "You can be a bit harsh, but I already knew that before we got here," Arlethia joked. "We're going to spend like a year together in that house, so we should get used to each other, no?"

"Agreed," Esther felt relieved, but not much of that made it out. She placed her bag on the floor and the tricorne on the table. "I have a question, patient Arlethia."

"Shoot away."

"What, primarily, brought you to this lecture?"

"Interest, for the most part. I figure that there is a bunch of stuff I don't know about this whole harem business yet and given that I'll co-lead one, I should know all about it," Arlethia's answer sounded so easy going that Esther found herself oddly inadequate next to her.

"You speak of this as if it is of barely any consequence," she noted.

"I got used to the idea years ago," the demon shrugged. "I'm from Hell. Dunno where you're from, but monogamous marriage isn't exactly the norm down there. Most demons just fuck around their entire lives. What, you having problems?"

Esther remained quiet and Arlethia waited with a quizzical expression on her face. "I am pondering a truthful answer," the raven-haired lady eventually said, not wanting to seem like she was ignoring her seat-neighbour. However, she couldn't find anything to say. Not before the teacher arrived anyway.

It was another woman. Unsurprising, given the subject matter and statistics of the Dimensional Truth. She was of average height, average beauty and a bit above average broadness. Not to her detriment, her breasts, butt and thighs all grew with the bit of plush she had on her stomach. She wasn't fat or unhealthy by any description, just not as lean and smooth as Esther was. The raven-haired lady knew this to be entirely a matter of preference.

As it was, the black mark around her left ring finger clearly indicated that she was in an Anomalia. Perhaps she was less attractive than many of the young, athletic students around, but that didn't matter. She didn't have to prove that she was gorgeous, having found a partner of her own already. "Welcome," her voice was quite charismatic. Again, not outstanding, but she did as good teachers did and caught the attention of the room. "To Anomalia Management class for Queens. My name is Veliona Lionflower. Refer to me in a casual tone, if you want to, I don't care that much." She took a short pause to look around. "I see that, like every year, this course is well visited."

That was an understatement of the highest order. Every semester brought about 1000 new people to Welldark. About 900 of those were women and of those 900 women, about a third were present. Likely, most first semester students had taken one of these management classes, everyone eager to become a Queen themselves. Not a single man was present, to little surprise. Aside from the rare gay man (most of whom went to more niche Cosmic Univesities catering to their tastes) there was no motivation to visit such a clearly labelled course.

"I'll break the news to you as clearly as is possible: most of you will not become Queens," Veliona stated. "It's a mathematical reality. If we assume Heart and Cross Anomalias average out, then only one in eight of you will become a Queen. Many of you will find yourself in your position before this semester ends. Even if you DON'T become the Queen of whatever Anomalia you find yourself in, I do recommend you stay here.... And I don't just say that because a higher attendance increases my wage."

The joke earned a good amount of laughter and Veliona took the slowly subsiding giggles as an opportunity to take a sip of water. Then she continued, "No, the thing is, even if you aren't the Queen, it can be pretty important to know what your Queen is going through. I'll just assume that you all want to live as part of a healthy Anomalia. Your Queen will appreciate all the help she can get in that endeavour. It can be, I assure you, quite stressful. Having about eight women all surrounding one man can lead to complications that cannot be resolved if the only thing that the members of the Anomalia share is that they love that man. So, listen closely, what you learn here may be the single most important thing for the rest of your social life.

"Now, to address the actual job of a Queen and then talk about the first and primary burden they face, something many of you will have to fight with for at least a year. It all starts with the central issue of almost all Anomalia: they are led by a man."

Once again, that garnered a good number of chuckles, but Veliona was hurried to continue this time. "Now, men are GREAT. I spend most of my free time with one," she held up her Anomalia marking like a wedding ring. "And I love him and I love caring for him and I love that he cares for me in ways other women just can't. All of that said, it doesn't change that men love to, pardon my directness, fuck every female that's even remotely attractive. The problem is that attractiveness doesn't exactly equal compatibility and if we're talking about a woman who is REALLY attractive, men sometimes... ignore their actual brains in favour of their dicks.

"The Queen has to put her foot down if that happens. Don't take this as me saying you need to control your man. The real thing you need to do is talk. Remind him that every real relationship he commits to will, inevitably, become a relationship you and the rest of your Anomalia also has to commit to. Preventing the harem from becoming a dysfunctional mess is your primary task. That means that he cannot have everyone he wants. Sometimes he will be angry. Do not let up just because of that. Sometimes, you will be wrong. It's important to remember that you're fallible too. Be prepared to admit your faults. Your goal is not to model the harem after your desires, it is to make sure the Anomalia is made up of girls that can love each other. Don't be the gatekeeper, be the guardian angel."

So far, Esther was only making notes. None of this struck a real, personal cord with her, because she just couldn't imagine any of this properly. There was this mental block that kept her from visualizing any situation in which Karitas might have another woman. That awful emotion was impacting her thinking again.

"The main thing that makes men fallible is lust, easily mistaken for love. The main thing that makes us women fallible is jealousy." Now Esther perked up, in such a sudden fashion that Arlethia looked over. "Alright. Everyone who thinks they won't have a problem dealing with jealousy, because they come from a culture that's already including harems or because you think you won't have issues anyway, you can leave if you want to."

Esther turned around, not because she was particularly interested, but because she had that illogical idea (and she knew it was illogical) that people would scramble quicker if she observed them. The first out of the door was Karona, and about a quarter of the room soon followed her. Noticeably, Aclysia and Arlethia stayed. Esther knew the former to have grown up in an Anomalia and Arlethia had said her part about Hell's culture earlier.

"Are you certain you wish to stay?" Esther asked the succubus in her smooth voice.

"Mhm, might be good to know for me. Who knows what'll happen, right?" Arlethia grinned, obviously not telling the entire story. Narrowing her eyes, Esther glared at the smaller, red-eyed woman until she gave in. "Okay, okay, I do kind of want to watch you squirm a little bit."

"Your honesty is appreciated, if not the content of your character," Esther retorted. For some reason, Arlethia found that funny. Her giggles stopped when the lecture continued.

"Well, let's hope none of them regret that," Veliona exclaimed and clapped. "Jealousy. Jealousy, jealousy, jealousy... A really complicated emotion. This sounds a bit odd, but women that enter an Anomalia after the Queen have it a lot easier in this regard. This is because the Queen is, usually, the first to be in a relationship with the King and letting someone else in there is often very, very difficult.

"Let's start with the bad news: you cannot beat jealousy. It is not a logical thing you can reason away. You can try, but it won't last you long. That is because jealousy is something fundamentally stronger than reason. It's a fear. A particularly nasty kind of fear that makes you behave like an angry hen protecting her nest against everything that looks like a predator. Why would you take the risk to let your man be snatched away? Every glance at another woman feels like a betrayal of trust. It's primal, it's illogical, it cannot be reasoned away. This does not, however, mean you can't do anything about it."

Esther's pen was still. She was too busy listening to take notes. The description was uncannily on point with her current situation. She absorbed each word of advice like a sponge that had been left to dry in the desert.

"Jealousy stems from two things: uncertainty and low self-esteem. Solve both of these issues and the jealousy will shrink away and go dormant. And I mean dormant. It won't vanish, it won't ever go away, it's like a sleeping beast. Give it reason to wake up and it will. Just like many other things in your life, it's a balancing act.

"Let's talk about self-esteem first. Having low self-esteem doesn't mean you are a self-loathing thing that hides under a blanket. It can also mean that, but fundamentally having low self-esteem in a relationship means that you feel unworthy. It means you're overly aware that you're lacking. You think you're not worth staying with. If you keep thinking you're inadequate, your subconscious will keep telling you that he is going to exchange you for someone who is adequate. The horrible part of this is that I'm telling you to fix something that you can't reason yourself out of by doing something with yourself that you cannot easily reason yourself into. The only way to raise your self-esteem is to keep acting like the person you think your partner would want to be with. And that can be hard. But you have to, otherwise your life won't improve, alright?

"The good news is that your sense of worth can improve tremendously as your certainty grows. To the point where you can stay a bit of a self-deprecating gremlin. Although you should strive to become as good a person as you can be, it's just impossible to become literally perfect. You will have your bad sides and you'll have to compensate elsewhere.

"And that's where acquiring certainty through your partner, your King, is so important. Jealousy has a strong hold because you fear that he will replace you. That's a massive trust issue. If you have those, you need to do one of two things. If it's really early in your relationship, it might be worthwhile to wait. I want you to take that condition really seriously. Do not wait if you have been together for a year. Do wait if you have only known him for a few days or weeks and you're still figuring each other out. People are complicated and you might just read him wrong, early on.

The other is the same thing that you will always hear: talk. For those among you who haven't been in a long term relationship yet: there is nothing more important than raising what is an issue before it becomes a crisis. Just sit them down and talk to them. Depending on who he is, he might do inappropriate jokes or seem to not listen. Don't get angry immediately. There are times when anger is justified, but don't make it your immediate response. Make them understand that it's important. If you achieve that, they will look you in the eye and, if they're worthy of your trust, they will say what you need to hear. With the years, the trust will grow and the jealousy will sleep."

The segment came to an end and Esther fell back against the comfortable leather chair. Seconds passed while she mulled over those words. They did ring true, but she didn't know if she could give what was demanded of her. 'If I want things to be good, I have to,' she told herself. She refused to be haunted by her lack of experience in social manners.

The room, in general, was dead silent. Everyone came to their own realizations about their flaws and what they needed to do, making for a heavy atmosphere.

"Alright, I want you all to think about what I said today," Veliona spoke softly to the room. "Think about the balance you need to achieve. You need to be the voice of reason when your man takes interest in an absolutely vile vixen. You also need to control your jealousy. Next week, we'll get more into the ways you can have important talks with your King. Then we gradually move into multiple functioning models about how to manage your Anomalia. Mostly in terms of time and internal conflicts. Dismissed."

The women in the room started packing their bags. Although Esther did as well, her hands moved much slower than usual.

"Ya doing fine?" Arlethia asked from the side, her tone indicating genuine worry.

The raven-haired lady's hands stopped entirely, as she struggled for words. 'Come on,' she scolded herself. 'I should be the person I ought to be. Continue to excel.' "I want to... apologize," the sounds finally passed her lips. Once that one word was out, it was surprisingly easy. "For continuously sounding deprecating. It is my intent to be truthful, not demeaning."

"...that's so unfair, I can't even make fun of you for being so wholesome..." Arlethia mumbled and then grinned at her. "Alright, let's go eat some ice cream or something."

"That would have a negative impact on my daily calorie intake," Esther denied, but was already taken by the arm. Physically inferior, Arlethia still managed to drag her along somehow. "My schedule..."

"Your schedule can survive a bit of fun," the succubus decided.

_____________________________________________________

Really appreciate all the comments in the previous chapter and the feedback, please keep them coming as it really helps out! and yes I know about the comma in the title, Reason being is that the author is German.