My lovers welco Little Water to our dining table, from Talia’s calculated hospitality to Kierra’s lazy wave.
But their eyes ask questions as they et my own when the lizard girl isn’t looking. Kierra raises a brow when our gest chugs down her first glass of wine. Alana directs a frown in my direction when Little Water ducks her head to focus on what I’d wager is her first hocooked al in a while. I’ve heard that so people can hold entire conversations with their eyes. We don’t have sothing so useful, but I get a sense of their moods. Curiosity abounds and I’m thankful for the excuse of dinner to avoid the unspoken questions.
For a short ti, long enough to order my thoughts and calm the worst of turbulent emotions. By the ti Geneva serves dessert, I know what I want to say.
Alana’s brows furrow at the sympathy directed toward her. My poor knight. It’s a terrible thing I’m about to place in her hands, but it’s hers to hold. Her brother’s life hangs in the balance. I would hope we could find another way but if he has to face a blade, if a succubus is going to hand her his head, then she deserves the right to choose.
For a mont, I wondered if cowardice lurks behind my decision. It didn’t take long to dismiss the silly thought. I wouldn’t enjoy it but I’d take this weight off her shoulders in a heartbeat. Sothing tells my stoic sweetie won’t allow it.
Little Water licks the bowl containing Geneva’s sweet treat clean before sitting back with lidded eyes. She looks ready to curl up in her chair and fall asleep. A discrete signal summons Earl and he gently coaxes her to her feet, hooking their arms as he half-escorts, half-drags the estrazi to a guest room. The most telling about her state is that she doesn’t have the presence to say the usual goodnight wishes, an unusual thing for the lizard girl’s overwhelming desire to please.
“So?” The rest of the table has the presence of mind to remain seated. Alana turns her chair toward , her patience exhausted though so of her attention remains on the second dessert Geneva places in front of her. I swear, half the reason she’s with is the food. Maybe more than half. “What does she want?”
“Her mate, undoubtedly,” Kierra drawls, curling her legs underneath her. She’s been…I hesitate to call it listless. Since the departure of her parents, she’s slowed down. Nothing bad, just a tendency toward late mornings and afternoon naps. Her usual skin-tingling energy is subdued, surrounding her with a warm aura that tempts to curl up beside her.
Talia, being the dedicated flower she is, has taken to pampering my lazy wife. She stands from her chair and moves behind Kierra, producing a comb. The elf practically purrs in comfort as slim fingers move through her silver hair, the tool following close behind. “Does she question you?”
“No. Didn’t ntion Khan once.” I almost laugh at their disbelief. Almost. “Little Water…she’s a practical girl.”
Alana pauses with her spoon halfway to her mouth. “She’s moving on?”
“That might be too harsh. Maybe…hedging her bets.”
“There shouldn’t be a need to hedge any bets. Geneva is working on him. She’ll fix him.”
Ugh. Did I say anything to give her the wrong impression? I don’t think I did. I hope she’s like , unable to imagine the don failing until the reality is impressed on her.
“I cannot,” the succubus rebuts, saving from the explanation. One pink iris is briefly covered by her wink before she shapes those enticing lips in an appropriately sympathetic pout. “His mind isn’t broken. Imagine a bag turned inside out. It is not as it is ant to be, yet is still functions the sa. Soone unfamiliar with it might not recognize sothing is wrong. This? This is even more insidious. It is flawless from the outside. I cannot see what was done while his mind is whole. To make any further progress and to have a chance at restoring what has been taken, I would need to shatter his mind again and scrutinize the pieces.”
“Dangerous,” Kierra mutters, seeing to the heart of the matter as always.
“mories are strange,” the succubus continues softly, but I feel the amoral mind behind the comforting tone examining us, wondering if there is sothing in this newest trial to exploit. “The mind twists the past. It distorts events, overlaying them with hopes and fears, exaggerates and minimizes details. It is an unreliable narrative but the only thing I can reference when putting him back together.
“You’re a master,” Alana accuses, her dessert forgotten as she crosses her arms. “Are you trying to say this is sothing beyond you?”
“Beyond ? No,” Geneva answers confidently. “I imagine my summoner would also order to put him together as the closest approximation to his truest self, so there would be no trickery.” Well, obviously. “But it would be Khan Jas as I understand him, looking through a glass that changes everything I see.”
The only reason I’m not upset is I’ve already had a while to process this. “That won’t be Khan,” I tell Alana, just in case her heart is trying to deceive her.
“No, it will not,” Geneva adds, doubling down.
“I’m aware,” my agitated knight practically hisses. “What I don’t understand, is how it’s possible for you to be so…outmatched. The person that did this to Khan has done what you’re saying you can’t do and you’ve been studying the ntal affinity for centuries.”
“Who’s to say that the lizards haven’t been studying the mind for thousands of years?” the succubus snaps back, a hint of sarcasm polluting her false compassion. I narrow my eyes and her own drop to the ground. “I am confident in my skill but I am not peerless. They also have far more to work with than .”
“What? It’s the sa mories.”
“The sa mories investigated by a celestial. You can’t begin to understand the advantage that is. They also had the cooperation of the original Khan, who could guide their efforts. We have neither. Even still, the current Khan is not the original Khan. He has been irrevocably changed and to attempt to learn how would undoubtedly change him again.”
“That’s ridiculous. Khan is himself.”
“Is he? Do you know him well enough to judge?”
“Enough!” I snap, stopping before their conversation can descend into an argunt. I mirror our flower in the way I move behind Alana’s chair, my hands alighting on her tense shoulders and working them until she stops seething. anwhile, my eyes find Geneva. I know the one emotion you don’t have to fake is pride but stop. You can play your gas with but they are off limits.
[I apologize, Lou.]
“Geneva, has everything you’ve said been the truth?”
“Yes, my summoner.”
I lean down to whisper next to Alana’s ear. “I know it’s hard to hear.”
She drops her head. I take the opportunity to shift my massage to the back of her neck. “Is there nothing we can do?”
“It’s a real solution. She can’t remake him exactly, but she is a master. A master among masters. It’ll be mostly him. Ninety percent him. Ninety-five. Maybe more.”
“But she’ll fill in what’s missing.”
“She could do so with the best humanity has to offer. Strength. Bravery. Kindness. Capability.”
I can feel her shiver. “Ancestors, that sounds so wrong.”
I hug her around the shoulders and bury my nose in her hair, breathing in sweet soaps that lurk beneath the slls of effort. “I get it. Why I wasn’t looking forward to this conversation. Didn’t think you’d go for it.”
“Then why ntion it?”
“Not to hurt you,” I quickly reassure with a short squeeze. “I know you, but sotis we miss the mark with each other’s hearts, huh? I didn’t think you’d accept it, but maybe you do. It would be Khan. People have made far bigger concessions for a lot less. I wouldn’t bla you.”
She scoffs. “Yeah, you would. You despise the ntal affinity.”
“…okay. I might judge you, a little, but I’d understand.”
She chuckles, the weak sound quickly dying. “Still can’t do it.”
“Alright, Alana. What do you want to do? Because the deal I made with your father…you know Victory better than .”
“If we can’t fix him, he has to die,” she pronounces gravely. “That’s the way it’s been done for hundreds of years.”
“It is.”
We lapse into silence as my poor knight battles the cold demons of her childhood. My fingers continue their work, doing their best to relax her but she holds herself as still as the ice that dominates the north.
Kierra’s voice placid voice is a direct counter to the tension between us. “You will not bind yourself to those silly traditions,” she proclaims with the confidence of the queen, her words a comfort and a command.
We both raise our heads in ti to witness the dawning of her benevolent smile. “Strength is not only a matter of the body. Is your heart strong, star?”
“…you’re right.” I move away as Alana straightens. “But Victory won’t be denied so easily. Father won’t allow him to live compromised. The north will never accept him.”
That’s the sa conclusion I ca to. Now we can get sowhere.
I grin as I drop into her lap, her serious frown dissolving as her eyes drop to my chest.
“Then we keep him out of the north.”
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