.
Diara rolled toward me on the other side, seemingly oblivious to the skin contact she created with the move. “I wouldn’t mind giving a massage, Your Highness.”
My danger meter had instantly risen into the red zone. “Umm. I’m actually a strong healer, you know, so anything like sore muscles I can fix for myself.”
That hand kept brushing my arm on Rénin’s side as she also rolled toward me, “Nonsense, it’s hardly as much fun just doing it for yourself like that. Doesn’t it feel somewhat lonely?”
We were talking about a massage, right? RIGHT?
I cleared my throat, “I’m feeling fine, though…?”
There was touching on both sides now.
A fingertip trailed up my arm on Diara’s side. “It would be fun to see who you think is better at it.”
“Or the two of us could just take care of you together, Your Highness.”
Waitaminute! These guys… aren’t competing for me? They’re teaming up on me?
Carefully, I noted, “Listen… you’ve heard that my grandfather gave me to the human kingdom, right? I’m the bride of their prince.”
“Mhm,” Diara agreed, tipping her head a bit closer . “What a dreary thing to do to a sweet young thing like you…”
I cleared my throat again, as I intercepted her hand, which was trying to slip across to my tummy. I noted, “As you know, humans expect their betrothed to stay chaste…”
“Yes, I’ve enjoyed quite a few virgins thanks to that custom,” Rénin answered with a throaty chuckle as her hand slipped onto my breast.
Hiiiiiii!
“Really, I want to remain chaste,” I insisted while removing it. “For the humans, it’s a matter of proper behavior. I am respecting their customs.”
“I know all about that from my father,” Diara confirmed, continuing to caress my upper arm. “The old fool has tried so hard to convince me to ‘behave myself’.”
‘Old fool?’ She sounded awfully proud of her scholarly father during dinner, though…
“Big sis!” a familiar voice called, interrupting the ambush. Skimming across the water exactly like the dragonfly that modeled her wings, Kiki was flying straight at me. Just as I began thinking I needed to duck, her wings and raiment disappeared. She plowed into the water a couple paces from me, closing the remaining distance under the surface, then flipped over and surfaced perfectly placed to lean her back against my chest. There she floated, nestled in the valley with her arms propped on the peaks as convenient armrests.
“Mmmmm!” she declared with satisfaction, smoothing her hair back and wiggling to get into the most comfortable position. “Perfect!”
I sighed and silently thanked the little creature, wondering if she had purposefully come to my rescue. Did she know I wanted to be rescued?
# # #
Fairies love sexily showing themselves off, in scanty raiment or ridiculously skimpy armor or, if they are young and have the excuse of being unable to form a raiment yet, full nudity when they can get away with it.
Vampires prefer to cover themselves as completely as possible, generally in dark, fully-opaque attire. Although no real vampire ever burned to ash due to exposure to the Sun, normal full-blooded ones do sunburn easily.
So I have always been the average between the two, a girl who dresses herself moderately but can tolerate it when her fairy mother forces the issue.
That being said, it was a little surprising to me in the morning when I woke up and realized I had gone to sleep outdoors fully nude, with only the Light mana I had left circulating when I dozed off for warmth. I had been patiently pulling it out of the moonlight shining on me as I rested on one of the convenient flat spots of the beaver lodge.
Yep, right out in the middle of the pond.
I had taken refuge on the lodge to get away from a very persistent Moire, after Diara and Rénin became fixated on each other and finally left me alone. Although, if they did anything, it was after I fell asleep.
That’s right. I had successfully preserved my chastity for another day. It was touch and go there for a while. Moire pounced after the other two let me go, until I escaped her by climbing onto the lodge. She had stayed halfway out of the water next to me while plying me for details on how I ended up coming to Relador, but then she went off to her sleeping place, which was apparently underwater. I had actually planned to put on my dress once my skin and hair were dry, but I fell asleep while gathering moonlight.
Lacking any factor requiring a quick awakening, I was my usual drowsy self for quite a while. I got jolted awake by the sense of a monster nearby, but realized before I even sat up that it was just the beavers headed out to collect food or inspect their various constructions. So, I returned to laying there, enjoying the peace and quiet and my comfortable spot.
I know. My Robert memories inform me that a flat rock does not sound like a comfortable spot to humans. Tiana’s inhuman strength and constitution render mattresses meaningless, though. I only sleep on an expensive mattress at the house because the staff would be scandalized if I didn’t have one.
Being now awake, I finally realized I was nude in broad daylight in the middle of a pond and began getting a bit self-conscious. But it was a fight between keeping my comfortable position and getting up now. Relaxation continued to win.
I spotted Diara and Rénin, asleep on the shore near where we were sitting together earlier. Diara was on the grass, curled up in Rénin’s arms. Rénin’s rump lay on a rock with her legs dangling in the water. She’s half-naiad just like Mother, so it was probably to keep her mana charged.
It was a very peaceful scene.
“Good Morning!” I heard a voice call from a different direction.
A male voice…
Yelping something unintelligible, I sprang for my dress, which was fortunately laying nearby, and used it to cover the important bits. After looking around frantically, with my heart pounding, I finally spotted the owner of the voice.
What does one think of, upon hearing the term, ‘Amazing Hair’? Every strand perfectly in place and every lock trimmed exactly the right length, like a movie star? Or maybe some crazy massive mane, like on an eighties glam rock star? Or perhaps spikes, or a post-apocalyptic purple mohawk?
This man standing on the shore opposite where Diara and Rénin were now sitting up wore french braids that started from the center of his hairline and ran back in two diverging rows sticking tightly to his scalp like skull ridges, then down the back, terminating in a pair of braided tails that hung down to the small of his back. He furthermore had long sidebangs with decorative beads woven into them.
But he was otherwise a scholarly, bespectacled man appearing to be in his late thirties or a bit more, clean-shaven and wearing the sort of magician’s mantle that usually had strong permanent enchantments on it. He was carrying a heavy staff similar to the one Ceria uses. A mage with a scholarly air.
“Miröen!” Diara called out, and took to the air, her butterfly wings and raiment materializing as she rushed across the water to meet him. Behind her, still-nude Rénin rubbed her eyes and stretched.
“Huh?” I heard Kiki ask. When I turned to see her, she was hanging in the air next to my shoulder, her head tipped, looking at him with a pensive scowl and pout and her hand on her chin.
“That guy??” she wondered to herself.
“Kiki! You’re here!” the man called out, beckoning to her. She flew to meet him, leaving me behind, wondering what had been puzzling her.
I tried to listen as he spoke to her, since if I concentrate with my overpowered ears, I can actually hear that far away, but someone was casting something like [Realm of Silence]. I didn’t even hear Kiki’s wingbeats. I did see Diara looking a little miffed that he was looking toward me. I suspect, the way she was acting, that she had a crush on the man.
Rather, as Rénin joined her and Moire’s head poked out of the water, it became rapidly obvious that all three did.
I thought for a moment about what my grandmother had said about fairies and mortal men, but then I remembered she also said those rules didn’t count for half-fairies. I decided not to be concerned for the man’s safety.
Kiki came flying back and said, “Big brother says big sis come talk!”
“Tell him to look the other way so I can dress!” I retorted. I was sitting here hiding my naked body with my tea gown, for heaven’s sake!
He laughed and waved. “Sorry!”
After he turned his back to me, Durandal warned, You be cautious of this one, My Lady!
“What’s wrong?” I whispered back as I shimmied into my tea gown. The guy seemed to have heard me without Kiki delivering my message, so I said it as quietly as I could.
He appears to be a mortal, but he’s using a disguise that feels like Fairy magic, the holy sword told me. And he’s carrying a couple holy treasures.
The magic Mother uses to disguise herself is ‘Fairy magic’, a category similar to Demonic magic or Vampiric magic in the way that it uses the same mana as mortal magic but in ways mortals can’t replicate. According to the angel I called the ‘IT lady’, the reason is that a tiny, unseeable dose of mana that magic users on Huade don’t know about is intermixed with it, guiding it to do things that mortals can’t replicate.
“‘Holy treasures’?” I asked as I pulled my hair out from under the dress.
‘Magic Treasures’ are magic items that nobody can duplicate, because their method is lost, or for some other reason, like an unknown material or a famous owner like Rephale. But what were ‘Holy Treasures’?
I was once regarded as a holy treasure, My Lady, but there are many kinds other than weapons.
“Can you tell me about the ones he carries?”
No, My Lady, he answered, apologetically. Only that, like me, they are magic treasures with a holy origin.
I was still not clear exactly what made Durandal ‘holy’ rather than just ‘magic’, but my grandmother said the ‘First Ones’ told her to create him. But she believed the ‘First Ones’ were beings similar to the HR Manager and the other two angels I had met. If I was going to believe in the HR Manager, I had no reason to doubt the existence of the ‘First Ones’, so it might be that beings of the same nature had ordered the creation of whatever mysteries the visitor was carrying.
I fetched my sword belt and slipped on my shoes, then grew my wings and flew to shore.
