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I have grown accustomed to the idea that the blood bond makes my Servants a little bit too thirsty. The anti-charm bracelet supposedly helps them counter the effect, but some of them choose to be thirsty anyway. Apparently, it only gives them the option to change their mind.
It seems it’s up to me to encourage them to exercise common sense. They still have to live their lives, and do their jobs, and experience the world separate from me. They do have the will to do so, but I find that the bracelet only stops the addiction that is me from hindering their other desires. And some girls simply do not see their attraction to me as a hindrance.
Like this one! Her fingers had already sought out the tie holding my gown together at the bosom and pulled it loose, and she was going for more!
Considering this randy creature had literally stripped off everything she’d been wearing before climbing into bed, rather than just her gown and petticoats, and was now snuggled up with me completely naked, this was fast becoming an emergency!
“Mireia…” I started as her lips touched my ear and her hand claimed one of my hills. As her fingers started toying with the tip, I reached up and grabbed her hand.
She gave out a throaty giggle, then said, “Rhea is taking over your spell. You can let it go now. I just need to keep skin contact with you as much as possible while she’s using it.”
She snaked her leg around mine, ensuring even more skin contact as our thighs pressed together, while her hand escaped mine and switched sides.
I reluctantly let go of the spell and my perception in that distant place vanished, returning all my attention to the very embarrassing here and now. I opened my eyes and raised a pointed eyebrow at her nudity.
As if she read my mind just like Rhea, she insisted, “It’s to ensure skin contact, My Lady.”
“I don’t actually believe you, you know!” I retorted.
She giggled. “I do apologize, My Lady, but it’s hard to pass up the opportunity. I don’t ever get a chance to see you like this in the daylight!”
‘Like this’ meant my very see-through nightgown that left me practically as naked as she was. It was something Mother designed specifically to decorate a woman’s body without concealing it, rendering things slightly difficult to see while not actually hiding anything. And her clever fingers were rendering that issue moot anyhow, considering she had it half-open now.
“Mir, the maids are in the very next room. They would certainly hear us!”
Her eyes grew slightly contrite, although she pouted teasingly. “Sadly, Rhea is also telling me to behave myself.”
“Thank goodness!”
“But you’re coming to bed with us tonight, My Lady! I insist!”
I sighed, then gave her a defeated smile. I knew in advance she was going to win this, and certainly, I could give no reason to object to the night visits. My reluctance is only because I prefer for her to separately enjoy her times with me and with him. Although I do sometimes allow Rod to touch or kiss me, it is not arousing for me. I’m beginning to believe it never will be. But more importantly, I want him to pay her the attention she deserves.
<The goddess has told me how to take over for you, My Lady,> Lydia noted. <I would probably enjoy that. I only require your assent.>
I could see Lydia’s memories of enjoying her encounters with her patron, so I knew she had considerably more interest in Rod in that manner than I did. I could also see her intrigue at my encounters with other women, something she never tried in life. And her deep fascination with my strange three-way marital relationship. I found myself blushing deeply, as nonsensical as that sounds considering the position I was in at the moment, at the things she wanted to try. I couldn’t help it. She had absolutely no inhibition at all in her interest in my intimacies.
Capturing Mireia’s hand once more and turning toward her, as much to defend the remainder of my nightgown as to face her, I told her, “You should enjoy more nights alone with your lover.”
Rather than accepting defeat, she knitted her fingers with mine and pressed against me to kiss my lips. “I enjoy my nights with both of my lovers, My Lady. I’m your concubine as much as his.”
I sighed again and shook my head. “That’s the blood bond speaking. You need to use your mind technique more.”
She shook her head, quickly and firmly. “My Lady, I’m being completely honest with you. Except for when I feed you or I need the full connection to your magic, I have my technique active at all times. I only turn it off when it’s in the way. These are my honest feelings.”
“Your honest feelings never included being in love with me before the blood bond, Mireia,” I reminded her. “I’m sure you never had any interest in another woman.”
Her lips curled up mischievously. “You’re right. I did that to myself, though. It isn’t the blood bond.”
After a few non-comprehending blinks, I asked, “What do you mean?”
“I wasn’t conscious of doing it, but mutually falling in love with Rod happened due to my Holy magic, you know? You’re aware of that. We explained it to you.”
I’ll be frank, I don’t fully get it. While under hypnotic control by mages of the House of Parna, she had used some alien magic that she brought from another world, which she could cast in a dangerously out-of-control way in ours because there were no limitations on it here. It caused a terrible situation at the Royal School in Copen that led to my arrest and many other consequences. Falling into mutual love with my then-fiancé was part of a complex plan that should have ended in my downfall and probable death, after events followed something she called a ‘story template’.
But my husband’s strong affection for me interfered with the results, and Mireia’s own doubts about the strange progression of events unfolding around her, when she viewed them while not in a trance, worked against the magic. Then, the strange individual named Diurhimath rescued her and broke the spell after I escaped from Parna.
“It caused you two to fall deeply in love,” I answered. “I understand that. But why would that result in you having feelings for me?”
She cuddled closer, then said, “Think about it. If I can do something like that to myself subconsciously, shouldn’t I be able to do it consciously?”
My brow wrinkled while I tried to understand what she was saying.
“It was unfair to you and I hated myself for it,” she said. “I knew how Rod felt about you. He had confessed it clearly to me after you escaped from Parna, when he was out of his mind worrying about you. I didn’t know yet that it was my fault, but I already felt guilty about how torn his heart was between us. So when Diur rescued me and broke the hypnosis on me and made me see the magic I had been casting, that guilt almost crushed me. You cannot imagine how horrible I felt.”
She gave a sad smile, probably reminiscing, then continued, “I asked him how to undo the spell on Rod and me, and he said it couldn’t be done. But if I made myself feel the same love for you as I felt for Rod, I would treasure you both enough to hold him at arm’s length for your sake. I was able to do it, too, until you went and insisted on making me his concubine.”
Her mischievous smirk came back as she watched my reaction.
“That’s probably why I so easily let myself become your Servant, My Lady. Maybe that’s what Diur expected to happen in the first place. And that’s why the way I feel about you has nothing to do with the blood bond.”
“It’s still artificial. Why does that not bother you?” I wondered.
She shrugged and smiled. “Maybe because it’s a lot better than hating myself?”
Abruptly, the impish expression vanished and she seemed to listen to something.
“Rhea called you again?” I guessed.
“Yes,” she stated. “Looks like our little break is over. And apparently, we’re changing tactics again.”
She pushed herself up onto an elbow and looked around. “Kiki, could you come over here? I know you’re in the room.”
A certain cat languidly appeared from behind the drapes and sauntered our direction. After a pause to wind herself up into a jumping pose, she sprang from floor to mattress, then lazily picked her way across the covers. Once she had rubbed against my back and climbed over my shoulder, she finally pushed herself into the valley between us.
Mireia simpered with sparkling eyes at the creature while giving her a scratch behind the head, then bent down and gently bussed her brow.
“Switch to your pixie form, dear. Your big sis needs your help.”
I recognized Rhea’s manner. The goddess was once again speaking through my Servant.
The cat transformed, her fur warping into bare skin as her body shrank to pixie size. Perhaps because Mireia was naked and I was mostly exposed, she didn’t create her customary skimpy raiment. The tiny nude wriggled around to comfortably settle into an acceptable spot, using our bosoms as pillows. Once content with her position, she looked up at me.
“Big Sis need help?” she echoed, eager to please.
“Well,” I looked across at Mireia. “Apparently I do, although someone needs to explain exactly what help that is to me.”
“You need a disguise, but more importantly, you need her knowledge,” Rhea/Mireia asserted. “We shall have Kiki be your guide and your intermediary. She knows the Highlands very well.”
I mulled that over, then asked, “She’s going to go with me? How?”
She twisted her mouth, then noted, “This will be a little difficult to believe. Promise me that you will accept that I am telling you the absolute truth.”
For a moment, I wasn’t sure how to answer. Asking for a promise like that before hearing the information is a little off-putting. But a goddess was making the request…
“Alright,” I promised, despite my apprehension.
She used a single finger to stroke Kiki’s back, which currently didn’t have her dragonfly wings grown, then explained, “This child calls you Big Sis for a reason. She actually is something similar to being your little sister. Ten thousand years ago, at the end of your first lifetime, she split away from your soul to become a separate being. She’s a little fragment of you that never died.”
I stared at her, not comprehending at first. But once the words sank in, I stared at the little creature and pondered whether I could believe it.
She actually does look like me, at least in the face. If she were scaled up to human size, she would have a shape similar to mine. But she has fairy-like hair and eyes, light powdery blue and sparkling sapphire, rather than my vampire black, which gives her a very different appeal.
The incarnation of me from ten thousand years ago had introduced herself to me at one point. She had my face and a similar body, but she had the same hair and eyes. We are practically twins. But of course, the other incarnations looked nothing like me, so looking different apparently didn’t mean anything.
“We are fairly confident Oranos interfered to make Tiana look like her great-grandmother,” Rhea/Mireia noted. “And Kiki’s appearance is largely a product of those back then who were trying to save what they could of the Elders. They made the choice to mold her into a typical pixie. I doubt a pixie with black hair and eyes even exists.”
“So…” I started, then pondered precisely which of several questions I wanted to ask.
“So how are you going to have Kiki come along with you?” she supplied, pushing our question back to my previous question.
“Yes,” I agreed.
“You are going to turn the [Blood Presence] spell over to the goddess entirely, while you ride along with Kiki instead. Doing this will require my manipulation. It borders on too much divine intervention, but I am confident I can do it without violating the entropy limits.”
She looked down at Kiki. “Do you understand, child?”
“Mmmm…” the pixie cogitated, then brightly answered, “Maybe?”
I confess, my faith was not particularly high at that moment. I wasn’t even clear what her proposal would entail.
