Book 2: 16. Office
As Rani walked behind Aaliyah, she couldn’t help to notice the heat. She wasn’t talking about how hot her mother may be or the restless sun above, but actual heat. The half-naked woman quite literally expelled steam as she walked.
How’s she not burning alive? The sultanzade wondered.
The sultanah kept a lot of secrets, so whilst the sultanzade were her children and the heirs of her techniques, only a trickle of the woman’s true understanding reached them. Her most common trick was to give certain pieces of information to a specific sultanzade and then foster competitivity between them, so they kept it to themselves.
That’s what Aaliyah had done with Rani, after all.
Others greedily kept their martial arts or cultivation techniques to themselves, but Rani was different. She had innate talent. And charm is certainly the best ability of them all. Whilst the other sultanzade worked tirelessly to reinforce their bodies or sharpen their minds, Rani had just to exist. Ah, it’s hard to be so beautiful. The princess jiggled in the confines of her mind, her expression an unmoving façade, as the sultanah guided her into her office.
“Huh.” Rani gasped as she rested her hand on the doorframe.
“What?” Aaliyah inquired as she lay on a pillowed sofa, her massive breasts almost cutting Rani’s line of sight with the sultanah’s face.
If I didn’t know she can carry tons of stone with one hand, I would ask myself how her back can even support those hazards.
“No, nothing.” The sultanzade put a hand before her mouth – the long, purple-enameled nails almost clawing into her cheek – and searched for a place to sit. She ended up deciding on a colossal armchair, resemblant to a throne.
Aaliyah kept a lot of different types of seats in her room. Mostly because she liked to collect them, but also for the rather obvious reason as to why she had a bed more expensive than whole houses inside her office.
“No, let out it.” The sultanah lazily commented, her chiseled abs rising up and down. It’s a rare occurrence to see Aaliyah’s unpregnant belly. Rani thought paying more attention than necessary to the woman’s six-pack. Where’s the critter anyway? “Come on, let it out, I don’t have all day.”
You do. But that the sultanzade didn’t voice out. Her position gave her a lot of privileges, but not that many. It was a fine line to walk around.
Rani sighed. “I just thought that it was weird to see this room empty.”
“How so?” Aaliyah asked as if she was clueless, yet her grin told another story.
“You know why.”
“Please, indulge me.” The sultanah lay on her side, facing her daughter, a predatory smile on her visage.
Her eyes shone like powerful amethysts, attracting Rani. A common misconception people in the palace had was that she was immune to Aaliyah’s charm. That was simply not true. Charm didn’t work that way. No one had immunity to Nurture-based charm, you could only be highly resistant like Rani was. That meant that even the great Aaliyah-al-Ydaz was charmable, but even if her resistance was lower than that of Rani’s, the princess’ abilities weren’t as potent as those of the sultanah.
Damned woman. Rani cursed as she broke eye contact.
“As the snake tongues say, no stranger leaves the sultanah’s room unfucked.”
Aaliyah laughed. “I think they are a bit tamer with their language, they use ‘unlaid’ perhaps?”
“No, they are quite explicit about that.”
“Oh well, it isn’t like I hide it.” The woman stretched her arms and body with a somewhat erotic groan, the gesture making the rags she had wearing fall off. “My reputation is but the consequences of my actions.”
“Talking about hiding things, when are you going to put on clothes?” Rani asked, sighing at her mother’s naked body.
From the arena to the office she had only been wearing the ripped dress that Rani had taken from that poor random maid. Her sacrifice had at least saved the sanity of tens of people.
“All to its due time, darling.”
Shivers were sent up Rani’s spine as she heard those words. “Ugh, don’t refer to me like that. I’m cringing.”
“A lot of people would kill at my orders with the faint hope of hearing me call them ‘darling.”
“Yeah, but I’m not those people.” Rani crossed her arms. “And I’m your daughter if you have forgotten that.”
“It’s not like that stops people. Have you seen the royal family of Enia? Those don’t have a family tree, but a family circle. That’s funny.”
“That’s a royal family trying to ‘keep the blood pure’,” Rani gestured the quotes with her fingers, “and not every nince-damned person.”
“And what are exactly we?” Aaliyah stood up from her lying position, her breasts swaying around like discontinuous pendulums. “I see a princess, and I am a queen.”
“Ugh!” The princess put her hand before her mouth. “Stop! I’m going to puke if you continue!”
“Anyways, there isn’t even a problem with my suggestion.” The sultanah dismissed with her hand as she stood up and walked toward the wardrobe. “Oh, right.” And then she tolled a little but loud bell.
Soon enough, maids poured inside the office. Two, to be precise. The women wordlessly opened the wardrobe for the sultanah and started dressing her. Why even bother dressing yourself when you are the most powerful woman in the nation? Rani saw the amusement in Aaliyah’s visage as she looked at the maids. The poor girls dressed the woman with her eyes closed, still wary of the charm of the sultanah.
“I am going to lament this, but why isn’t it a problem?” Rani asked from the comfort of her armchair.
“Well, the only thing wrong with incest is the risk of faulty offspring, but that won’t be a problem if we are both women.”
“Yes, I lament it already.” Rani sighed. “There are a lot of wrong things with that statement.”
“Which? Please, enumerate them.” Aaliyah said with a smile on her face.
The maids, even with their handicaps, finished their job quickly and silently. As they disposed to make their way out of the room, Aaliyah slapped the buttocks of the youngest of the couple of maids – one with surprisingly light hair and skin tone – prompting a surprised yelp from the girl. Blonde? She must be from Loyata. A courtier in search of fame or riches. Probably both.
“You can stay.” The sultanah didn’t give the maid time to respond or react as she yanked her toward her body, her mother’s powerful arms locking the girl in a one-arm embrace as she fondled the maid’s left breast.
Rani rolled her eyes at the lack of decorum of her mother. She’s doing this to piss me off. Just because I mentioned there wasn’t anyone lying in a pool of body fluids in her office.
“What you wanted to tell me then?” Aaliyah asked nonchalantly as if she weren’t ravaging the young maid with her hands. It didn’t help the girl was close to Rani’s age.
The maid lewdly yelped, some muted moans coming out of her mouth, and then Rani noticed she couldn’t see Aaliyah’s other hand. Well, I already know where it is now.
“What do you mean?” The princess asked, not knowing where to look.
“No child of mine talks with me out of their own volition.” The sultanah explained, taking small steps backward as she guided the defenseless girl to the sofa. Rani doubted she could hear them any longer, her head but a pink fantasy. “So that means you want something.”
“One,” Rani started, “you should feel ashamed to feel proud that your children don’t want to talk to you.” Aaliyah scoffed at the lecture, preferring to comfort herself on the maid’s tits. Sometimes I think I’m the only sane one. And the only adult. “And two, not really, truth be told. I just wanted to save everyone from a charm-fueled lust craze and I kind of followed you here.”
“Nah, I don’t buy-“
“Ah~” The maid loudly moaned as she reached her orgasm, interrupting the sultanah. After three pregnant seconds, the girl freed of her daze and – in her post-orgasm clarity – she became aware of what she had just done. “Oh, I am so so s-sorry. Please f-forgive me, my Sultanah!”
The scared girl tried to bow, her golden locks falling with her erratic movements, but Aaliyah still had her grabbed by the bosom. And she wasn’t happy.
“Ah!” The maid whimpered as the sultanah threw her to the floor, her expression of terror only intensifying at the violent gesture. She quickly gathered into a ground-level bow, her forehead on the carpet.
She only needs to be licking her feet to be a dog. Rani derisively thought, even if she felt a shard of empathy toward the girl.
Aaliyah put her bare foot on top of the maid’s head, pushing it slightly and leading it into the floor. The maid whimpered in fear but didn’t have the courage to say another word.
“Today I’m happy.” Aaliyah circled her foot around the girl’s head, putting it under her chin and slightly raising it, forcing the maid to look at her. “Cancel all your plans for tomorrow and the next day. I’m expecting you here at twilight. Come all the way here from your chambers naked. Understood?”
The sultanah’s smile drove more fear into the girl’s heart, but the maid’s expression was of overwhelming gratitude.
“Now out!” As Aaliyah shouted, the maid skittered her way out of the room, falling more than once, and after being unable to walk straight for more than one reason, she crawled the rest of the way out.
The dark-skinned tall and muscled woman sighed.
“What a way of spoiling one’s mood.” She clicked her tongue. “Anyways, you were saying?”
Rani knew better than to continue with the farse and play games with the annoyed sultanah. When she was in this temperamental state the best thing one could do was to be straight to the point and truthful.
“I have found a girl.”
“Oh.” That instantly calmed Aaliyah, her face gaining a roguish smile. Her grin was that of a mother who had heard of her daughter’s crush's existence. “Do tell~”
“Not like that.” The sultanah’s antics and mood swings honestly tired Rani, but she continued, nonetheless. “She has double the vitality of a normal person.”
“Oh!” Aaliyah’s eyes shot wide open, her pupils shaping into stars. “I want to hear all about that!”