Special note: I have renamed “Lalhàn” to “Velerè”, pronounced “Vell-air.” It was pointed out to me a while back that the resemblance of “Lalhàn” to “Lhan” was confusing. I also noticed I had a “Lilhàn” a few volumes back. So Tiana’s oldest living sister is now “Velerè”. I will revise this in prior chapters as well.
§
The Tea House was just as usual, but of course, any change to it is unlikely. It has existed in this form for an incalculable length of subjective time, having served as this one’s inner world in life, this one’s mental stability while adrift in the Spirit Realm, disconnected from the land of the living, during Robert’s life, this one’s lifesaver while her successor Incarnation nearly died in a massive entropic backlash, and now, this one’s base of operations.
‘Change’ is perhaps the incorrect term, however. An inner world’s substance is alike that of dreams. No fixed map lan exists in a dream, and in the same fashion, no fixed floor plan exists here. Should the Tea House require more chairs or more tables, or a lawn from martial practice, or a private stall for meditation, they simply become, as if they always were. Once no longer needed, they no longer appear.
This one has an odd relationship with her fellow Incarnations. In a strict sense, based upon the sequence of successive lives, this sage is properly younger than all the rest, except only Robert who became Tiana. The half-fairy predecessor just now arrived at the table, the young, tiny Lhan, is only younger than Daq, Lydia and Senhion herself. Despite this, she views all of us, even myself, as ‘big sisters’ and ‘big brothers’.
The ghostly server attending us, properly an autonomous effigy, sat a cup before her and she gave it a bitter smile.
“I haven’t yet really developed a taste for this stuff,” she admitted.
“Yet you keep drinking it when they serve it to you,” this scholar teased, trying not to show the smile that wanted to appear.
Green tea is as fundamental to Dorian military rations as coffee is to American ones, and is often consumed by fairies and inhabitants of Alwain’s realm. Also, Lhan appears too young for alcohol. While dining alongside Her Grace’s men or Alwain’s people for the last two months, she nearly always received tea as a beverage.
“I don’t want to be impolite,” Lhan muttered while fiddling with the cup. “They’re all older than me, and always so nice to me.”
“Does this scholar not have your gratitude as well?” was the wounded reply she received while this scholar continued to conceal any hint of laughter.
Her eyes sprang up, suddenly regretful and worried. “That’s not… I didn’t…”
The laughter finally bubbled up, as this one raised her sleeve to hide her mouth. The server removed the tea and replaced it with a primitive bamboo drinking cup, a style that should be most familiar to her. She and her fellow slaves made such cups for their own use on the plantation. In it, she would find a beverage made from ginger and fruit peels, the breakfast drink she would have known in life.
“You were teasing me?” she cried out, then pouted, her pretty face scrunching up like the child she properly still is.
“Much better,” this scholar judged. “Your life has been too hard recently, and the beloved little sister we all care about has not been herself. Relax and become Lhan again, child.”
Her brows remained wrinkled as she stared down at her new cup. “I like becoming stronger though.”
“You have become stronger, Lhan. Nothing says you can’t be stronger and still remain the sweet Lhan that we know.”
She raised her eyes to gaze at this one, clearly trying to deduce whether she was still being teased. Even though every word had been perfectly sincere.
“Do you perceive yet why this scholar brought you here?”
“No,” she replied, with a shake of the head. “I was on my way back out from the sim, right? Did I lose my effigy?”
“This one arranged this side excursion for you with Curator. You will complete your journey out of the simulation, once we are finished here.”
While listening, she finally raised the cup to her lips, and then her eyes brightened delightfully as she smelled and tasted the treat this one arranged for her. It was her first taste of the familiar drink since her death, and clearly made her happy. This scholar again had to raise a sleeve to hide the smile.
“Thank you, big… I mean, Senior,” she told me after she swallowed.
“It is a delight, child. And you may say ‘big sister’ if it is more comfortable.”
Her smile remained genuine as she took another sip.
After setting the cup down again, she nodded thoughtfully. “Of course, you want an update, right? Do you not update with the Fan Li inside?”
“We synchronize on a regular basis, which is how this scholar knew to send you in. You will indeed pass over what you learned to this scholar shortly, but the purpose for your visit to the simulation was to receive the update to bring to Her Grace and the rest.”
“If you already know…”
“With that volume of information, it isn’t practical to use this scholar as the medium. The difference in our awarenesses is still too great. You are far more suited.”
The struggle to understand showed quite well in her face.
“Her Grace has an aversion to the act of merging minds. She has a fundamental fear that we will disappear, and we have become something of a psychological crutch for her. She did not internalize enough of what she learned from her trip inside while merged with Lydia, yet now, she must learn even more critical things. You will help her learn them by coaxing her into merging with you and receiving the knowledge from you. This is something not possible for this humble scholar.”
Yes, she did not understand, except that she did understand just enough.
“This ‘merging’ will help her get the knowledge she needs, that’s inside my memories now?”
“Correct,” this scholar nodded. “And right now, we shall perform the same technique you must perform with Her Grace, so that you can learn how and this scholar can receive a partial update of what has happened since our last sync.”
She bit her lower lip slightly, her brow wrinkling. “Sure, but… how do I do it?”
“Really, we simply must take a moment to focus entirely upon each other and let our awarenesses grow into each other. Our respective senses of identity are too great for this to become permanent easily.”
“But that’s easy!”
That was certainly not the expected reaction… nor was her choice to finish the rest of her drink, then stand and circle the table. While this scholar sought to peer into her thoughts for an explanation, to discover only sheer mischief, she held the back of my chair and said, “Let’s pull you away from the table a bit.”
This one did catch, while helping her to slide the chair back, that she planned to sit… in my lap?
And then this one found a pretty girl doing just that, while twisting to face me and draping her arms over my shoulders.
This scholar protested, “It is only necessary to meditate together, or really, just to look at each other closely!”
“So that we are concentrating entirely on each other,” she agreed, then asked with a perfectly guileless smile, “A kiss accomplishes the same thing, right?”
A strange sense of familiarity struck, which was Tiana’s memory of dealing with her fairy acquaintances. Perhaps there was more to Lhan being half-fairy than the rest of us realized.
“It isn’t necessary…”
“It’s not about necessity,” Lhan chided, then giggled. “I saw how you carried on at that party with the Fire Tribe, Miss Oh-So-Dignified Scholar. You didn’t turn down your Spirit Folk trio at all!”
“Miss Lhan…”
“Focus,” she ordered, then her hands pulled my head forward, her lips landed upon mine, and her tongue invaded.
Shock jangled, but then subsided, because her prank indeed included an honest attempt to touch my mind as instructed. This one had to honestly reciprocate, even while she happily explored my mouth.
Her mischievous words followed. <Oberon and Ceria picked the Fire Tribe scenario for her celebration for the whole reason it exists. It’s from the entertainment side of Sky Ocean’s business. It’s an adult entertainment package, and after a little alcohol, you went ahead and enjoyed it the way an adult game was meant to be enjoyed!>
<This scholar suspects more than alcohol involved,> this one complained, as substances had likely been in the food as well. Her warm, lively lips and playful hands were making the unhelpful memories well up, further enhancing the current sensuality. <Miss Lhan, you are not concentrating on the right thing!>
<Yes, I am,> she declared. <All your other memories are hard for us to follow or understand, but your thoughts are no more complicated than any other woman’s, in that situation. We can all enjoy your memory of finally enjoying a little pleasure! Of course, Her Grace tries not to, ’cause it’s embarrassing for her to remember how you were just as willing with the man as with the two women.>
<Miss Lhan, please!>
<Miss Oh-So-Dignified Scholar actually had a foursome!> she giggled.
<Miss Lhan!>
<Now show me how to do this merge thing, Miss Scholar,> she suddenly directed. <We just sort of swallow each other up or something?>
Despite her suddenly serious train of thought, her eager mouth was still locked firmly on mine. One and a half millennia of discipline were crumbling before this youngling’s insistent siege.
<It’s… like that, somewhat, yes.>
<Concentrate,> she directed as her arms tightened into a warm hug. Mouths, minds and bodies blended as time and thought suspended.
§
I tried not to giggle as I finally came out of the sim. Is ‘came out’ the right word? I don’t know where I was, exactly, when I met Fan Li in the Tea House, other than being in the spiritual vessel where it currently exists. And even though it might make sense to think of Her Grace’s spiritual vessel as being inside the napping preggo on the floor next to where I found myself standing now, I understand that’s really not accurate. It’s only anchored in this universe through its connection to our soul. It isn’t technically here.
Well, that’s not exactly a thing I’m an expert about anyway. I crouched next to her to arrange her hair a bit, thinking about how embarrassed she was going to be once she gets my memory of making out with Fan Li. She considers an intimate act between two of her Incarnations a “very perverse kind of masturbation”, and I suppose it’s technically true? Anyway, it’s not like we did anything more than kiss.
I giggled and looked up at Curator, who was patiently waiting for me.
“I’m done here, so I guess I just leave? It feels weird not to say hi to anyone.”
<Technically, you will remain with us, Commander,> she replied, nodding toward Her Grace’s physical body, currently in Lydia’s care.
I nodded. “I guess you’re right. I’m off. Thanks for your help.”
I dissolved the effigy again, returning its substance to Her Grace, then spawned a new effigy from Her Grace’s effigy in Narses, to discover that at that moment, she was enjoying a soak in the tub.
As her mom on Earth would say, when in Rome. I manifested my stage two form naked, since we were in water. And since I just played the same prank on Fan Li, I decided Her Grace might enjoy it, too, so I appeared on her lap with my arm draped over her shoulder.
“Lh… Lhan?” she yelped.
Oh, she had company? A pair of fairies were seated on each side of her, looking at me with curiosity.
“It’s… a second version of you, Innanmi?” the flaxen-haired fairy asked. “You have identical spiritual auras.”
“Indeed,” the silver-haired fairy stated. “She literally came out of her body, just now.”
After rearranging myself to straddle Her Grace’s legs, since her big tummy was rather in the way of sitting on her lap like that, I put my hand on my chest and bowed my head to both of them.
“I should say ‘Ëi onar lâ‘, right? I am named Lhan, but Fairy Falerè granted me the fairy name Hiléa, if that’s easier to pronounce. As you’ve guessed, I’m a previous incarnation of Tiana’s soul.”
The two, whom I now picked up from Her Grace’s memories were her older sisters Velerè and Mitozin, gave me slightly amused smiles and nods of acknowledgment.
I had eighteen years worth of knowledge to deliver, and I figured fairies would never object to my method, so I decided to play the rest of the same prank on Her Grace.
<Please follow my instructions. This is how we do this,> I sent to her, along with the rest in mental image form, as I leaned forward while slipping my arms around her.
“Wha…?” Her Grace yelped, but wasn’t able to finish, since I caught her with her mouth open as I pressed my kiss home.
“She seems fun,” Mitozin concluded, with a merry twinkle in her eyes.
