Amelia Thornheart Chapter Twenty-Six: The Moonrain Festival

Announcent

I've set up a discord for Alia Thornheart! The invite link is: I'll be posting maps and updates about the series there! I'm also considering streaming the writing process - see author notes at the bottom!

After having her hair ruffled and cheeks squeezed, Alia was able to recount the tale of events to an annoyed-looking Serena. Her girlfriend’s glare softened when Alia explained Grandmaster Gu’s reaction and the hair ruffling slowly changed into a gentle head massage.

“Mmm…” Alia murmured, “I don’t understand why they got so aggressive so fast. I would have thought trainee officers would be far more composed…”

“Idiot,” Serena replied, running her hands through Alia’s golden hair. She sat Alia down and began to comb through the ruffled ss. “So of it was probably anti-human bias. They’re trainee officers; you know the first thing that gets drilled into your head throughout your ti at the academy?”

“What?”

“To watch out for human spies. That’s the singular lesson that gets repeated constantly throughout the years. Then you turn up in their academy, poking your nose in their training. If you were a spy, think about the information you could get,” Serena explained, slowly teasing out the knots in Alia’s hair, “Counts of how many students had reached red aura, counts and identities of those reaching orange.”

“Oh, that makes sense… but surely they would have seen enough to know both you and the grandmaster were okay with ?”

“Right,” Serena said, “If they had looked at the situation calmly, things might not have escalated. It turned out like it did because you insulted their egos.”

“I did? How?”

“Saying you were getting personal training from the grandmaster after only holding a sword for a few days,” Serena finished combing and began giving her a shoulder massage. “Getting instruction from a grandmaster is an incredible honour, and most students will never have the privilege. It would’ve angered them for you to speak about it so casually…” Serena paused as if in thought, and her hands beca idle. “At least you didn’t call him grandpa in front of them, you idiot.”

“Don’t stop! It feels nice…” Once Serena’s hands had resud massaging her shoulders, Alia asked her if there was anything else that she had done to make the situation worse.

“You implied you could learn red aura in such a short period of ti. Even if it’s true, most of those students have been training for a decade just to build the foundation to get into that academy. Half of them won’t ever reach red. You would have co across as arrogant.”

“There’s sothing else I don’t understand; They seed to respect you as a war hero, but made jokes about keeping your bed warm…” Alia felt Serena’s hands grip her shoulders slightly harder. “It doesn’t add up. Why would they insult you if they respected you?”

Serena took a mont to answer. “It was an insult to you, really. Saying you serve only as a… paramour. To say it to you - another female - is to imply you’ve accepted paynt to engage in acts of homosexuality which most people consider… unnatural.”

“Nothing about how I feel about you feels unnatural!” Alia gritted her teeth. “I hate that word. Our connection is as natural as anyone else’s!” Alia tilted her head backwards to look at Serena. “Do you feel it, too?” she asked.

“Yes,” Serena bent down, giving her a kiss on the forehead and then on the lips, “I do.”

The pair then went downstairs for so food. Alia was getting rather good at using chopsticks now and could neatly construct her little mouthfuls with what she thought was elegance and grace. Serena still pointed out flaws here and there but declared that she was approaching a level of etiquette that she deed passable.

Mister Weng appeared and handed Serena a small box. It ca from the tailor and was Alia’s red festival dress. She wanted to open it right there and then but Serena made her wait until their al was done and they were back in their room.

“It feels so… expensive!” Alia exclaid, lifting the dress out of the box. “Help put it on!” She stripped down to her undergarnts and slipped into the dress. Serena had to help her with a dozen small ties, but it was soon done and Alia gave a twirl to her girlfriend, who couldn’t take her crimson eyes off her spinning body.

“You like in red, I take it?” She asked with a sly smile.

“Obviously, idiot,” Serena approached her and pulled her into an embrace. “It’s so unfair…”

“What?”

“I spent all that ti putting the dress on, and now I just want to rip it off you.”

“Ha!” Alia grinned. Every ti Serena vocalised her desires like this, her heart would leap joyfully. “If you think about it, I’m your present… and you’ll be unwrapping !” She gave her girlfriend a wink and got a blush in response.

Alia glanced at the clock on the wall. “Are the markets still open?”

“Should be, for another hour or so. Why?”

“That’s not much ti! Quick!” Alia started removing the dress, and Serena happily helped her. “There’s sothing I want to get before the festival!” Once she was undressed, she put on a set of casual clothes and headed to the door.

“Don’t follow! It’s a present for the festival!” Alia declared, pointing at Serena who made to follow her.

“Every ti you go sowhere alone, you get into trouble!” Serena huffed, crossing her arms. “If you’re going to buy sothing at the market, I can just get a coffee nearby or sothing.”

“Fine, but no looking! Promise?”

“Promise.”

They donned their rainhats and raincoats and jumped the tram to Central. It was raining more often recently and the wind was stronger than usual.

“It’s the storm season,” Serena explained as her black hair was lifted by a gust of wind. “Soon, they’ll shut down civilian transport for about a month. The storms hitting the continent cause enough turbulence to rip apart a wooden transport.”

“Will it stop us from sailing?”

“No,” Serena said while shaking her head, “The Vengeance can handle all but the most serious storms. However, if the winds are strong enough, the light craft and sails attached to the hull could be ripped off and destroyed.”

As they neared their destination, Serena put an arm around Alia’s waist and hopped off the tram. She couldn’t help but make a squeak of satisfaction. Being manhandled like that excited her in ways she didn’t quite understand. Besides, Serena seed to enjoy manhandling her, so she would do anything she could to encourage the act.

They arrived at the central market, and despite it being late, it was still extrely busy. Everyone seed to want to buy their last-minute festival items, and Alia was no different.

“I’ll be sitting over there,” Serena gestured to a small cafe with outside seating at one edge of the marketplace. “Don’t get into any fights. Don’t Speak any Words. Don’t get yourself arrested. Don-”

“Yes, mother,” Alia rolled her eyes. “Stop worrying! I’ll be back soon. I just want to buy a few things!” She waved bye and vanished into the throng of shoppers. It didn’t take her long to find the kind of stall she wanted and despite the choice being a little less than she would have liked, she spent over a hundred denarii on various items.

She made sure they were wrapped up in a small bag so Serena wouldn’t see what they were before heading back and finding her girlfriend sipping coffee at a table. As she sat down Serena cast a questioning eye towards the bag.

“You’ll find out tomorrow,” Alia said, reaching over and taking a sip of Serena’s coffee. “Coffee this late?” She asked, enjoying the bitter aftertaste.

“I’m a captain,” Serena explained, “We run on coffee much like an airship runs on crystal and aether.” She took the drink back from Alia and took a sip. “I think my tolerance is so high at this point it barely affects my sleep.”

“Of course,” Alia said with a cheeky grin. “Now I’m the one keeping you awake, right?” She was delighted to see a tinge of redness appear on Serena’s face. It wasn’t as much as Serena would have blushed a few days ago. Like with the coffee, her girlfriend was becoming tolerant of her crass jokes.

Alia would need to start stepping up her ga.

“Tsk! We’ll have Aiden with us tomorrow, so we’ll need to keep our hands off each other while he’s with us.” Alia puffed her cheeks out in response, prompting Serena to roll her eyes. Sure, they were supposed to keep their hands off each other in public, but once the pair of them had more than a few bottles of loqua how long would that rule last?

Besides, Aiden didn’t seem like the intolerant type.

“How long is the festival?” Alia asked.

“The official start ti is midday and it finishes at midnight. We’ll be joining the procession a little after lunch but won’t be following it for long. Aiden has a series of pubs he wants to visit as the day goes on. For many, the drinking will go on all night, but I’d rather retire a little after midnight. It wouldn’t do for a captain to get too drunk in public.”

“What about Tos and Dagon?”

“A captain doesn’t drink with their subordinates. I imagine most of the crew will be attending the festival, but it’s a big city. It’s unlikely we’ll bump into any of them.”

“Okay!” Alia said cheerfully. She stole another sip of Serena’s coffee. The demon didn’t seem to mind, but Serena kept stealing glances at Alia’s bag.

“I’m getting worried; what is it?” Serena asked.

“Wait until tomorrow!” Alia hugged the bag close. “You won’t regret it, don’t worry. By the way, are you wearing a dress tomorrow? We ordered a pair of red dresses, but only one was delivered?”

“Right, they’re both for you,” Serena said, nodding. “A spare. I have a black dress for rare occasions. The last ti I wore it was at my graduation party. I had it delivered from the ship to the inn a few days ago.”

“Oh…” Alia played around with the image of Serena in a black dress in her mind. “We’re going to look amazing, aren’t we? Black and red? With a dash of blue…” Alia thought about the blue and red masquerade masks. She couldn’t wait to see Serena wear hers.

The pair finished the coffee before heading back to the inn. It was evening now and the city was winding down. On the tram back Alia could see city guards placing down signs which seed to indicate no-drinking zones as well as directions for public toilets and lost pedestrians. The entire city was preparing for tomorrow.

Once they returned to the inn, Alia lazed around waiting until bedti while Serena ditated with her sword. Bored, she eventually shuffled up to the demon and began massaging her shoulders. Ignoring the complaints she moved to kissing Serena’s neck and as she felt the demon lt into her arms Alia started groping her girlfriend and removing her clothes.

“What are you doing now?” Serena said, her breath getting heavy.

“We won’t be able to touch each other much tomorrow? Half a day is far too long to expect to resist.” Alia turned Serena’s head towards her and gave her a deep kiss on the lips. “I think we should get as much of it out of our system as we can tonight, so tomorrow is bearable.”

“You idiot,” Serena mumbled before picking Alia up and taking her to bed.

That night, they didn’t get much sleep.