Alone in the room that waited for Dee’s return, Alea sat on the floor in silence while Dehsah writhed on the bed, grinding cerself against it and moaning as ce relieved a great pressure built up within cer. It took the halfkind an hour to alleviate the arousal, during which Alea tried to shut out her surroundings and meditate but only succeeded in mostly not paying attention.
“I’m sorry about that,” Dehsah said. “I feel terribly rude for ignoring you, but… I don’t have as many visitors as I’m used to. I was expecting Darek to come back sooner, and to stay longer, but he has so many demands on his time now, even when he’s off-shift… I just don’t know what to do with myself, except, you know, the obvious.”
“You could learn self-control,” Alea said.
“That’s a virtue for women,” Dehsah said, waving cer hand dismissively. “Oh! I have letters from Dee… would you like me to read some to you?”
“Does she write often?”
“Constantly,” Dehsah said. “But they arrive in bunches. Three times so far. She’s taken to numbering them so I know the order… the poor dear has lost track of shifts and I can’t make stalactites or stalagmites of their calendar.”
“She hasn’t written to me,” Alea said.
“I’m sure she would if she knew you would like her to,” Dehsah said. “Shall I ask her for you?”
“I told her not to.”
“Oh,” Dehsah said.
“But I thought she might anyway.”
“If you wanted her to, you should have told her so,” Dehsah said. Ce laughed. “What do you think she is, a mindreader?”
“I didn’t want her to,” Alea said. “But I thought she might.”
“I can tell her to,” Dehsah said. “She needs to write more, anyway, in proper script and proper language. Her handwriting and grammar are both becoming atrocious… I grow more embarrassed to have been her tutor with each delivery. But it is interesting to hear about the surface. Did you know that sometimes the ceiling turns to water and caves in on them?”
“I did not.”
“It’s all very fascinating to me,” Dehsah said. “And when she first arrived, they had her quartered with a… I don’t know. Something like an elf but made out of clay.”
“There was a statue in her room?”
“I don’t think I’m explaining it very well,” Dehsah said. “But she says it is her closest friend, on the surface.”
“Friends with a statue,” Alea said. “I suppose she must be very lonely.”
“Actually she says she has more friends than she knows what to do with, without guards accompanying her,” Dehsah said. “And one of them is even a halfkind, or at least a primitive version that the faint ones have managed to create.”
“You know, I think that I heard too much about the surface when Delia Daella announced her intention to go there,” Alea said. “Please keep your letters to yourself… if she has anything to say to me, she can say it when she gets back.”
“If you’re looking for an apology, Little Lizard, I think you just might be able to coax one out of her.”
“I want her to understand what she’s apologizing for, and to mean it,” Alea said. “And do not call me that. I am not a child any more!”
“Of course you aren’t,” Dehsah said. “How many hundred cycles old are you now?”
“Don’t you dare matronize me, you… you ridiculous half-brain!” Alea said.
“Half-brain?” Dehsah repeated, rousing cerself to sit up. “I was the first teacher that dozens of noblewomen of this house had. I taught your Dee to read and write and figure, and I taught her to say her lineage and I taught her the house histories… and I also taught her manners.”
“Well, I am not a noblewoman,” Alea said. “So I am afraid you will have to forgive any lapses in my education.”
“Clever, clever tongue,” Dehsah said, sticking cers out at Alea. “But that excuse will not work on me. I observed you getting quite a decent education in the chapel of this house, if you recall.”
“How could I forget?” Alea said. “It’s how I met Dee… if I thought I caused a stir when I joined the lessons, it was nothing when she was marched in, surrounded by guards, with her own personal healer and a nursemaid at her elbow. Of course, I had no idea at that point how literal that job description still was. I thought you were only swollen with milk for her sister.”
“If anyone thinks tandem nursing a pair of infants is a challenge, I invite them to try it with a fussy toddler and a fussier teen,” Dehsah said, and ce laughed. “And she only got worse when her mother ordered her weaned, though I think it was the matriarch who really made that decision.”
“I had thought that her mother’s wife might have been responsible for it,” Alea said. “Though whoever it was, I think they were right.”
“Oh, it was harmless,” Dehsah said. “She would have grown out of it in her own time, I’m sure… but no, Durilla Degra didn’t oppose Dee’s extended nursing. She was in favor of it.”
“I was not under the impression that they cared for one another, beyond the bonds of duty,” Alea said.
“I think Durilla Degra hoped our Dee would still be latched to my breast when the succession came into question,” Dehsah said. “I don’t know how she hopes for her wife to descend to the throne otherwise… oh, do not look at me with so much shock in your eyes, Alea. The half-brain does pay attention.”
“Matters such as succession should not be any of your concern,” Alea said. “They are for the women of the house to decide.”
“I’m half a woman of the house more than you are.”
“You’ll please note I’m not inserting myself into your house’s affairs,” Alea said. “Or commenting on them. You are going much too far.”
“I reared both heiresses,” Dehsah said. “When Dee has her daughter, I’ll do the same for her. If anyone is qualified to comment on the matter, I think it’s me.”
“I should not be discussing the politics of a house that is not mine,” Alea said. “And you should not be discussing politics at all.”
“Oh, hush, Lizard.”
“Don’t hush me and don’t call me Lizard!” Alea said. “I am only in this situation because of a dangerous erosion of boundaries… I will not sit here and listen to you address me so. I trust Darek will be back before he begins his on-shift?”
“Oh, no, he was going to see the matriarch… she will probably keep him busy right up until his duties begin,” Dehsah said. “Or if she doesn’t, someone will.” Ce beamed with pride. “Our Darek is in great demand lately.”
“You mean he won’t be back until the end of next shift?” Alea asked, not even bothering to correct the inclusive pronoun.
“I mean he almost certainly will not be back any sooner than that,” Dehsah said.
“But he could be back later,” Alea said.
“Much later… as I said, he is in great demand,” Dehsah said. “Well, you know how it is with breeding males.”
“I assure you, I do not.”
“Oh? Well, the more women who express interest in gaining a child from a man, the more attractive he becomes,” Dehsah said. “While soldiers and commoners often use their birth privileges while they’re young, lower-born like to wait until they can find an auspicious pairing… and a man who is beloved of a firstborn daughter of the line, who has a rich vein marked out for himself in the house guard, and who is being called upon by the matriarch? You would think his tool were carved from ebony the way it’s being chased after… and that’s just the women. You know how our Darek has tried to keep himself somewhat aloof from the affections of men?”
“I remember him claiming so, and yet he always seemed to be chasing the young soldiers,” Alea said.
“Do you know anything about men?”
“As with the surface world, I know more than I care to,” Alea said.
“Which is almost nothing at all,” Dehsah said. “Sex with them is a matter of hierarchy. One does not lightly refuse the attentions of one’s social betters. Such affection may be courted, to an extent… but only to an extent, because by giving in too often and too easily, one risks cementing the relative positions. It’s better to flirt with a superior, to tease and coax and touch then it is to take him into one’s mouth or ass, but the rules aren’t as clearly defined as they are for woman love. For instance, almost every squad of cadets undertakes to take advantage of a superior by force, numbers, and subterfuge at some point during their training… very few succeed, but they’re expected to try, and the greater the prize is perceived to be, the bolder their attempts become.”
“I know about the games men play with each other,” Alea said.
“And you should know that Darek’s increased standing in the house and his fashionability as a childgiver make him a more attractive target to those below and above him,” Dehsah said. “He used to visit the training garrison every time he needed his sword sheathed… now he only goes there when house business demands it, and he watches his back carefully. He also tries to avoid being alone with lower officers, and declines the social engagements that he can.”
“It must be such a hardship for him, being pursued by so many suitors,” Alea said.
“You forget that our Darek is primarily a lover of women,” Dehsah said. “The priestesses may count that as a virtue, but it does little to help him in the world of men… and worse is that Durilla Degra has been playing matchmaker, trying to marry him off to the watch commanders and officers of the civic army. Our Dee’s claim to him gives him an excuse to beg off from anything that might signal a commitment, but he’s caught more men’s eyes than a lover of women generally wants to.”
“Why would Durilla Degra want to see our Darek married?” Alea asked.
“Because she can see the trajectory of his career as well as anyone else can,” Dehsah said. “If our Dee marries him… a future captain or a commander as her consort would do much more to help her claim to the throne than I would, ‘black diamond’ or no.”
“Doesn’t she understand that Dee has no ambition for that?”
“Well, I suppose that’s the other reason Dee’s other-mother would like to be rid of him,” Dehsah said. “He has ambition enough for all of us. I think she sees the matter as more of a rivalry between Darek and herself than between her wife and our Dee.”
“You really think too much on this subject, pretty Dehsah,” Alea said, shaking her head.
“Yes, well, it isn’t as though I have much else to do these days,” Dehsah said. “Think, eat, give Darek a place to sheathe his sword when he has time for me, take care of myself when he doesn’t… and on that note,” ce said, looking down at rapidly re-hardening member, “I’m afraid the conversation’s going to get a little bit sparser.”
“Again already?”
“I would get greater relief if I had a partner,” Dehsah said. Ce turned over and began to grind against the bed again. “Excuse me. I’ll try to be brief.”
