§
After telling Lucy to close the connection, I looked up at Genette, still standing by.
“Do you have any questions?”
My unflappable Lady’s Maid merely stated, “I have always known that Your Grace is extraordinary, so I only have one.”
I smiled and asked, “What is it?”
“Are you in fact your own great-grandmother, Your Grace? Her Grace the previous duchess adopted her mother’s child, and her mother is Princess Deharè, so…”
To Genette, the previous duchess was Sasara, not Deharè, and of course we had recently ‘revealed’ Sasara to have been the fairborn daughter of Deharè as people long suspected, and therefore actually my older sister.
“If Princess Deharè is the granddaughter of my first life, then naturally I’m the great-granddaughter,” I stated while suppressing a chuckle. “It isn’t that strange, My Lady. You might also be the reincarnation of an ancestor.”
With that claim, I neatly fit my situation into the Dorian religion which Genette sort-of followed. Dorians believe that one’s ancestors watch over the family from Heaven until they no longer dwell in living memory, after which they eventually choose rebirth, and they often choose their own bloodline.
She rubbed her nose, her mouth quirking sideways. “I’m sure they were all scoundrels, so I hope not.”
I chuckled, then told her to pretend that my pregnancy was getting the better of me, so I would be retiring for the remainder of the day. And of course, to let my husband and Mir know I was actually fine, and would be busy with magic, so don’t disturb me.
“Please promise you’re not going to strain yourself, Your Grace,” was her prim response.
“I’m doing this from bed, with my eyes closed, specifically so that it isn’t a strain, My Lady.”
“I’ll have Syl stand by, in case you have need of anything.”
She totally didn’t trust me, and was having Syl keep an eye on me, wasn’t she?
I smiled. “Of course. Thank you, Genette.”
Ever since the duchy council gave her a title rather than allow me to have a commoner for a lady’s maid, I’ve been struggling to remember to call her ‘Lady Genette’. And often failing, like I just did. Although I don’t think she cares.
While Genette dismissed the rest, leaving just a couple chambermaids to finish cleaning the other rooms of my suite, Syl helped me change into the comfy Dorian yukata which I like so much better than the lingerie that Mireia, just like Mother, is always determined to make me wear. Once I was dressed for bed, she followed me into the bedchamber, closing the door behind her.
After she folded back the covers and I slipped in, her eyes grew mischievous.
“I know why Lady Genette posted me here, but if you don’t like me watching you, you can always tell her you got a little thirsty.”
Ah. I knew that look. One of my Servants was angling to feed me. And while Syl is older than Genette, she’s one of my father’s attractive abductees who received the blood bond when she was way too young. Her apparent age is still only the early twenties and she needs no effort at all to make herself look tasty.
Right now, I had no need to feed, but it was certainly coming up Syl’s turn to feed me again. So I just gave her an amiable smile and said, “Not yet.”
In response, she gave me a playful disappointed pout that was wholly inappropriate for a maid.
Over the last two months, I had long since completed the conversion of my father’s female Servants. I still had roughly a dozen male servants to deal with, and for the moment I hesitated to explain to my husband what I needed to do in order to accomplish that.
Although Senhion allowed male Servants to help her get her fangs ready, I was not ready to go there as Tiana. So I would bring in Dana or another refugee from the Velvet Retreat and have her prepare me in front of him. At the current time, I couldn’t imagine explaining that to Rod though.
But thinking about my life as Senhion at that moment caused me to remember something I had yet to try as Tiana. Something very suitable to the moment, where I was with a willing girl and about to perform magic, after all.
I avoid thinking about it before, because it bothers the old Tiana in me. After all, she was always mistaken for a succubus. Even most of her fellow royal knights would assume she was one, before they learned she was the daughter of Egon Pendor.
Succubi, amazons, satori, ogres, as well as certain mermaid-like monsters of the sea all harvest their mortal mana via a manner other than vampirism, but they, too, are descendants of Elders and their ability comes from their ancestors.
Ogres actually can feed like vampires but they create a blood bond nearly every time, and sometimes accidentally kill the mortal. Since they aren’t naturally evil, they avoid blood-feeding if at all possible. It’s just not safe for them. But fortunately, they have a much lower requirement for mortal mana, and they have other ways to get it. They can sustain their mana needs through the consumption of the magic flora and beasts that they farm.
But for the other non-vampire Elder descendants, the only mana-harvesting power they inherited was the ability to capture the burst of mana that humans and other mortals lose during climax.
In reality, they can also rely on ogre-farmed foods, and they can use magic tools which mortals charge for them, but these are expensive alternatives, so of course they try to get their mana through sex.
And fortunately, unlike Elders, they can absorb the mana they capture into their bloodstream. Elders can only gather and circulate it in their pathways for immediate use. Having it protects the mortal mana in their bloodstream from erosion during magic use, so Senhion would often make love with one of her Servants just prior to performing some especially complex magic or embarking on a particularly long flight.
As these lewd thoughts and memories left me teetering on the edge of asking Syl to feed me that way, just because I wanted to try it, I stopped myself with the realization that I share my bed most nights with a pair of oversexed teens who regularly give me the opportunity to try it out.
But I stared at Syl speculatively for just a bit too long while thinking about it, prompting her to give me a coquettish smile. “Are you sure, Your Grace?”
“I really do have work to do, Miss Syl,” I assured her. But I added, “You can feed me once I’m done.”
I closed my eyes and prepared myself for letting my mind go elsewhere, while unable to entirely ignore the fact that Syl had taken my promise as permission and was shedding her clothing. While she joined me under the covers, I managed to keep my attention on the task at hand.
Slipping into the back of Sirth’s mind instantly caught her up on what I needed and caught me up on what they were doing. Naturally, I had a rough idea already, but once I arrived, I had the details.
Sirth and Shindzha usually roam the woods together, hunting the rebel raiding parties seeking monsters to enslave. The practice continues despite the work of Alwain and the Sylph Lords, but now in the regions west of our Highlander allies. While their envoys seek to recruit the leaders in those areas, Sirth and Shindzha go in anyhow, conducting long range patrols to sniff the enemy out.
But at the moment, they had a simpler goal, lunch for Shindzha. As I arrived, she was quietly chanting under her breath, while pouring Demonic magic into her hand from within while gathering Wind from without.
Which is how I immediately began learning a perfectly useless spell, at least for me, since Demonic mana is impossible for me. My mind drank it up anyway, proof that my Elder brain still retained its inborn thirst for learning magic.
As I watched her cast a Demonic Magic version of [Wind Scythe], attempting to fell a horned rabbit, Sirth asked me, <Why don’t you take over here, Yer Grace? I can mind yer effigy in Narses in the meantime.>
Instantly suspicious, I retorted, <You have designs on my maid, right?>
Meanwhile, Shindzha’s quarry staggered, but turned, preparing to defend itself with its innate skill [Lighting Bolt].. But Shindzha’s spell was loaded with repeat shots, and the next one decapitated the little monster before it could let loose.
She laughed, then admitted, <I might. Do I hafta restrict myself to feedin’ on her?>
Stupidly, I had misgivings in both directions, both to replying with a no and to replying with a yes. It’s the Elder blood bond that makes Syl and the other maids attracted to me. Should I accept responsibility for making them feel that way and fulfill their desires, or should I feel a duty to not take advantage of them? They are not feeling coerced or pressured to play with me. Their feelings for me are valid and real. But they are still artificial, and they are my fault.
<Yer never gonna have any fun with any girl fer the rest of yer long life if you keep thinkin’ that way,> Sirth grumped while we watched Shindzha devour the little monster’s blood, prior to gutting it. It’s not in any way an attractive sight.
<Just feed on her,> I answered.
<And if she wants to ‘return the favor’?>
Although I still had misgivings, I begrudged, <Fine.>
Those misgivings being that I knew full well how long Sirth planned to let the foreplay go on. She has quite an appetite for pretty girls.
“Shindzha,” I called softly and, once she looked up from her work, transformed the [Blood Effigy] image from Sirth to my own. Or rather, Senhion’s non-pregnant image.
“Mistress,” she responded, looking like she was about to stand up.
“Finish your work,” I told her preemptively, while holding up my hand to stop her from rising.
She went back to her work, quickly cleaning and skinning the animal. An adventurer would hang on to the horn, which could fetch a decent price, or at least enough to pay a night’s lodging, so she had been giving them to Sirth, who now had a pretty nice little collection of them in her [Mustard Seed] bag disguised as a belt-wallet.
I wore the same outfit, so when she handed it and the pelt to me, I simply slipped them in. The horn needed cleaning and the pelt needed tanning, but no time would pass in the bag while they waited to be retrieved. Eventually, I would turn them over to someone to deal with, and give the proceeds to my Servant.
As she proceeded from prepping to building a fire to roast the meat, I considered Shindzha’s horns. Over the last two months, Fan Li’s efforts at reversing Shindzha’s demonization had reduced them from fully curled ram’s horns to little nubbins like a lamb whose horns had just started growing. With luck, one of the fairies would be able to disguise her further with some illusion magic and a little hair-styling work without the horns getting in the way.
Her peculiar coloration, like the most horrible case of jaundice possible, had a more difficult cause to address. It came from the demonic biology literally possessing her body. Rather than being a hybrid of demon and human, she was more of a chimera, with her body made up of clonal cells from her mother’s and father’s separate bodies. But this wasn’t a case of some organs being from her mother and others being from her father. Rather, the mixture was accomplished at the individual cell level, making my goal of liberating her from her demonic half horrifically difficult.
After she finished dining, I had her strip, then materialized Water from my hand to clean her, which sent her into giggles for some reason. But frankly, she needed a bath after months in the woods. I ignored the flirtatious glances as I scrubbed her, then dried her with Wind and had her dress once more.
“Are we preparing for something, Mistress?” she asked at last.
“We are,” I confirmed. “We’re flying to Oseri. You’ll be helping my friends there.”
