The Sixth School.

Chapter Forty Five: Table With No Guile…

“Fuck!” Greg couldn’t help but mutter even as he rose from his bed. A night of sleep had done nothing to assuage his annoyance at the merchant for becoming his undoing. Just because he’d gotten a supposed mage as his bodyguard, the man had gotten it in his head that he could strong-arm the head of a criminal gang into doing his bidding. The Spider queen hid her features behind a black veil and loose robes whose long sleeves hid even her hands. From her ramrod-straight posture and steely tone of voice, however, Greg could tell that she was a woman who wasn’t easily bent to the whims of others.

The meeting went about as expected. Everyone ended up dead!

Greg managed to kill the woman and the six members of the spider gang that stood guard over her. By the time the last man fell, however, Greg had sustained fatal injuries. Apart from profusely bleeding from a few nasty wounds, Greg also had one of their kukri-like blades sticking out of his gut. Greg would have killed the merchant himself if he wasn’t lying in a puddle of his own blood. When shit had gone down, Greg had prioritized saving his own life and left the man to bear the consequences of the shit he’d stirred. His guts were spilled on the floor as a result of being stabbed several times.

Spitting on the dead merchant’s face, Greg resolved to kill the man immediately on his next dungeon dive. Knowing that there was no way he’d come out of the spider gang den alive, Greg had spent the last moment staggering over to where the spider queen was seated. The woman was still seated upright in her seat. An arrow had sunk between her eyes and come out the back of her skull and into the chair. It was this arrow that kept her dead body from slumping forward. Gritting his teeth, Greg had pulled the blade from his gut. Greg would have been able to simply pull off the veil if not for the arrow that pinned it to her face. Hissing with pain, Greg had forced himself to remain focused even as he reached up and cut away the veil from her face.

Bright blood-red hair, aquamarine blue eyes, a small button nose, and luscious pink lips that seemed to be permanently set in a scowl. Greg was surprised at just how young the woman appeared to be. He had expected to find someone in their late thirties if not early forties at the head of such a gang. The woman, however, seemed to be in her mid-twenties from what Greg could tell. Greg didn’t know what to make of this new bit of info. Whether it would come in handy in the future or not was unknown. He, however, didn’t have long to think about it as he soon thereafter fell over and passed out from blood loss.

Ten minutes after waking up, Greg stepped out of his house. One of the perks of having a magical familiar was that bodily grooming could be done in a little under five minutes. And even that was only because they were going at a sedate pace. If Olivia wanted to, she could have him go through the whole process in under a minute. Standing just outside his house just as she had been for two months was Shalia. Whatever else one could say about the girl, no one could say that the girl wasn’t diligent once given a task.

“Good Morning Roka,” Shalia greeted him with a smile. Over time, the smile on the girl’s face had gone from completely fake to one that was supposed to be but wasn’t. Greg could see in her eyes that the girl was conflicted as to how she should feel about him. On the one hand, she wanted to dislike him. On the other, she was drawn to him like a moth to a flame. And Greg knew why. Even without opening his system, Greg knew that the INTERMEDIATE mission of turning the girl on was already marked as complete. Three weeks. That’s how long it had taken for the AROUSING title to grind down her resistance to nothing. Every time they met from that point onwards, the mission requiring him to turn her on would be marked as complete within the first minute of their meeting.

Greg, however, had to admit that he’d been a bit too simplistic in his expectations of what would happen once one was in the thrall of his title. Greg had expected that once the title had taken effect, the girl would throw herself at him. Now, a month later, if not for the fact that the system alerted him the moment she was turned on, Greg would have thought that the title didn’t work on her. She had done an admirable job of hiding what was going on with her behind a stoic mask of indifference.

“Good morning, Shalia,” Greg greeted with a warm smile, his steps never pausing as he started towards the infirmary. This time, it was Greg who spoke up first as he asked. “When can I expect your mother?” he asked.

“After we return from the infirmary, I will go inform her that she can visit,” Shalia replied calmly. Greg nodded in acknowledgment before going silent and focusing on the path ahead. This would have been the end of their conversation if Shalia hadn’t followed up with a question of her own. “So, what’s your plan?” She asked.

Greg turned to her, his eyes communicating his incomprehension. “Why would I need one?” He asked.

“Because my mother tells my father everything!” The girl replied, a note of exasperation in her voice. Greg would have admonished her for it but he could tell that it was more directed at her mother and not Greg so he let it slide. “If she finds that you haven’t been giving me any work to do, she’ll tell my father and when he finds out he’ll either find something else to punish me with or extend my punishment!” She said.

“Oh, is that all?” Greg asked in a calm tone.

“What do you mean is that all!?” Shalia shot back. “I’m not looking to be punished any further than I already have!”

“Well, the solution is simple, is it not? For this one day, at least while your mother is around, you shall be my servant,” Greg proposed without missing a beat.

Greg had expected any number of reactions from the girl, ranging from simple protestations to actual rage at the idea. What he hadn’t expected was for a blush to spread over her features turning her red as a rose. There was a long silence in which she seemed to be struggling with herself. “O… okay. I’ll… I’ll serve you… but just this once!” The girl stammered and stumbled over her words as she finally came to a decision. There was a weak attempt at the end to act like she was still in control, but Greg could see right through it. Who’d have thought that the stuck-up Shalia had a submissive streak to her? Depending on how he played his cards, the mother and daughter might just end up caught in his web.

They were silent for the rest of the trip to the infirmary. Greg left Shalia waiting at the entrance to the infirmary as he walked inside. Before long, Greg had teleported over to the healer’s secret abode. Unsurprisingly, he found the healer standing behind one of her workstations studying a network of glowing blue lines inside a glass orb. A black quill was floating on its own over a piece of parchment, gliding along as it took down the words that she muttered to herself. Greg was quiet as he watched her work.

Greg didn’t greet the healer out loud, he had already made that mistake once before. The Quill she was using is a tier one item that can’t distinguish which voices to record and which to ignore. If Greg greeted his teacher, his greeting would be recorded among her notes. Not the end of the world, but an annoying inconvenience. There are low-grade tier-two versions of the quill that can distinguish between voices and only respond to one particular voice. There are even tier-three versions that respond to and can write at the speed of thought. Greg had been tempted to get one of these for her, but in the end, hadn’t. The healer wasn’t foolish. Repeatedly saying that ‘my familiar gave it to me', wouldn’t fly with her. It was better to play it safe rather than to unintentionally expose his system.

Luckily for him, the healer didn’t keep him waiting for long. After another minute of taking down notes, She stepped away from the workstation, allowing the quill to sink back into its inkpot. “Good morning Roka,” Came the warm Greeting from her.

Returning her smile, Greg answered “Good morning teacher. Anything interesting in the orb?” he asked glancing at the clear glass orb that now lay inert on the workstation the healer had just stepped away from. Greg had been put through the wringer while learning under the healer. The amount of information he should imbibe and remember, the level of meticulousness expected of him, the amount of both inductive and deductive reasoning he was expected to employ, and above all the exactitude in all his work that he was expected to display in all that he did. It was enough so that someone might be tempted to think that the healer was being overly hard on him. Greg, however, had gotten the chance to watch the healer work. The fact that the woman demanded even more of herself in all these areas made it impossible for him to claim that she was being too hard or expecting too much of him.

The glass orb was part of the meticulousness of the healer’s study. At the end of every day, Greg would be asked to hold it for a minute. A warm feeling would flow from the orb and course through his whole body in three-second pulses. In the first month of doing this, Greg hadn’t been able to tell what it was doing. It was only when his mana pathways slowly began taking shape that he understood what it was for. The healer had not only been monitoring the changes in his body every day, she had been meticulously noting every detail that she could. Every little change that happened was not only recorded but analyzed to a degree that even Greg would never have thought possible. The woman was exacting in her work to an almost OCD level.

“Not much to report really. If we stay the course, you should be the equivalent of a tier one mage in another three to four months,” She replied.

There was a slight pause from the healer and Greg could tell that there was something else that she was debating whether to reveal or not. “What is it?” Greg asked.

“An issue that I did not foresee and I’m unsure how to resolve,” She replied with a glance at the inert glass orb.

“What is it?” Greg repeated his question.

“While your mana pathways are coming along extraordinarily well, I can’t see any signs of a mana core forming within you,” She stated, the fact that she was stumped clear to be seen on her face. “It’s such an obvious issue that I can’t understand how I missed it. Of course, channeling mana through you would cause mana pathways to form as the mana finds the easiest pattern it can follow through your body. How did I miss the fact that it wouldn’t clump up in one place and form a core on its own,” The healer thought out loud, sounding a bit distressed at what she considered to be a serious flaw.

“It’s easy to miss what is at the foot of the mountain when focusing on the peak. Perhaps it’s precisely because it seems so obvious that you failed to notice it. You were so caught up in figuring out all the complicated ways that things could go wrong that you missed a simple one,” He offered, his mind going back to all the flaws that she had noticed in her theory. Over the months of working with the healer, Greg had come to learn that she preferred a straight-up critic over flattery where one was deserved. “However, I don’t necessarily think that this is a flaw,” He went on to add drawing the healer’s curious gaze. “You are not trying to recreate the closed loop mana core and pathways system. This is a new system of magic you’ve created teacher. It’s to be expected that there will be drastic differences between this new system and the old one. For now, let’s just watch how things develop,” He reassured.

The reason Greg wasn’t as bothered by this new development as the healer seemed to be was twofold. The first was the dungeons. One of the rules of the dungeon was that Greg could only carry over innate abilities. For the past one and a half months, after his mana pathways started to take shape, Greg had been able to perform the most rudimentary of magic. That is to say, whatever this new system of magic was, the dungeon seemed to recognize it as a legitimate one capable of both storing and manipulating mana. The other reason was the fact that it was Olivia’s original that had worked on and refined the healer’s idea. Olivia may claim that she doesn’t know much about cores and mana pathways since she’s always been above the nine tiers. Greg, however, didn’t for one-second think that the same was true of her original. Even if she never had one herself, there was no doubt in Greg’s mind that the primordial knew a lot about cores and mana pathways. Chances that she would make the same mistake that the healer did were abysmally low. If she didn’t point out any issues with this approach it's because she too saw it as a working system even with the absence of a mana core.

The healer’s lips pressed together into a thin line as she considered his words. “Perhaps you are right. Let’s at least wait until you are the equivalent of a first-tier mage before we draw any conclusions,” She offered with a sigh before turning in the direction of the sigil. “Let’s begin,” She instructed, already in motion. Both of them moved with purpose, the process already having become routine for them. So much so that before either one of them knew it, Greg was already sitting in the middle of the sigil calmly, his body overflowing with mana that the healer had channeled into it. This time, there were no screams of pain from Greg. He had gone through the process so many times that he’d grown inured to the pain. All in all, the process took about twenty minutes. Five for the talk before they began. Ten for the mana infusion, and five for Greg to allow the initial pain of being pumped full of mana to abate.

Greg opened his eyes to find a stern expression on the healer’s face as she regarded him. “I gave you the coming days off as a means to relax and rejuvenate yourself. Whatever it is you do nightly that leaves you looking so drained, I expect it to stop for the period you have off. Otherwise, there is little point to the break,” She admonished.

Greg had gotten so used and grown numb to the drain the dungeon took on him that he hadn’t even noticed the fatigue he felt from the previous night’s foray into the dungeon. For a second, Greg was tempted to just lie and say he wouldn’t. After so many failures and a month and a half of training, he had finally gotten a strategy that he was almost certain would work. Not to mention his desire to enact some sort of punishment on Sir Joram for fucking up his previous run. To be asked to press pause right as he was on the cusp of victory was frustrating. Olivia, however, reinforced the healer’s point by reminding him.

‘The dungeons aren’t going anywhere, master. And even if you managed to beat it tonight, it’s not like you’d have exhausted everything within the dungeon, you’d just be back at it again tomorrow,’ she pointed out. ‘Besides, I think it’s time you gave your soul a break and allow it to digest the gains it’s made in this period,’ She advised.

‘What gains?” Greg asked, his confusion evident in his mental voice.

‘Think of it in the same way you’d think of a physical exercise routine. You’ve been pushing your soul beyond its limits for the past three months straight without any breaks. While the soul is a lot harder to train than the physical body, it too needs a break every now and then for it to recuperate and digest the gains it’s made in that period. A few day’s break will do you a lot of good,” She relayed.

Greg couldn’t help his elation at the unexpected boon. He had been diving into the dungeon daily. Not just because of the small boons he got with each poor performance or the fact that it gave him an extra fifteen or so hours every day, but also because Greg genuinely enjoyed the challenge. Not to mention that the dungeons allowed Greg to make and learn from mistakes that would have otherwise been fatal in the real world. It hadn’t occurred to Greg that by repeatedly straining his soul with the dives, he was in a sense training it. How much would three months of training grant him? Greg didn’t know but it would be a boon all the same. With a sigh, Greg nodded both to the healer and in acquiescence to the familiar’s advice. “Okay, I’ll take a break,” He agreed.

A smile crossed the healer’s face as she rose to her feet once more. “Good, I’ll see you at midday,” She stated as she moved back towards her workstation…

***

Greg was back inside his room. With a devious smile playing on his lips, he was pulling on the SEXUAL INTENT pants. Arrayed on the bed before him, were all the title items he had. The mask, the pendant, the two bangles, and the three rings. Shalia had gone to inform her mother that she was free to visit now. Greg wasn’t in a hurry. He expected them to take an hour or so. Even in this world without makeup and complicated clothing, women still found a way to take forever to get ready. Greg had also informed his mother and sister of the expected guests. The two were now busy trying to prepare for the guests. His mother was in the kitchen trying to prepare something for the guests meanwhile Tayani, was preparing the room where they’d receive the guests.

‘Any purchases that you think might make this day even more interesting?’ Greg mentally asked Olivia.

‘Plenty,’ came the reply. ‘But for today, just this one item and some advice will suffice,” She stated.

Greg looked at the prompt that appeared before him and couldn’t help but smile devilishly. ‘Subtle yet deadly,” Greg couldn’t help but mentally say.

“Indeed,” The familiar replied. “The advice is concerning the DISCERNING ring. You have been using it only to sense whether someone is turned on or not when it can do so much more…

***

Shalia did her best to sit calmly inside the carriage as it moved towards that damnable boy’s house. It was the height of irony, arriving at his house in such luxury just to be his servant! Shalia couldn’t help but glance down at the beautiful dress that her mother had practically forced her to put on. She never left the house looking bad, but this… this was a step too far! To be dressed like a princess only to go serve a commoner! And yet, Shalia had to press her legs together, afraid that her arousal would cause a large wet spot to form on the back of the dress she had on. For the life of her, Shalia couldn’t explain how it was the boy got his hooks so deep in her.

Looking over to her side, Shalia couldn’t help the slight exasperation she felt with her mother. Shalia knew that it wasn’t her fault, her father wouldn’t let his wife walk and had insisted on having her ferried over in the carriage. All the same, however, the carriage would call attention to the two of them from more people than if they had walked over. Her mother, however, didn’t seem at all bothered. If anything, there was a small smile playing on her lips, her hand idly rubbing circles on her belly as she looked out through the carriage window. Shalia couldn’t shake the feeling that her mother was looking forward to this meeting even more than she was.

Luckily for Shalia, the distance from her home to Roka’s wasn’t that long, and the carriage made it even shorter. The carriage driver, one of her father’s servants, jumped down from the driver’s seat and quickly moved over to her mother’s side of the carriage before pulling the door open for her. After her mother had both feet down on the ground, the man came around to her side and did the same. His father had tried to get them to also have a guard along to ensure their safety. Her mother, however, had rightly pointed out that he was being ridiculous and wouldn’t hear anything of it.

Shalia stepped out to find the boy waiting for them at the door. Looking at him, Shalia had to grit her teeth and take a moment to control herself. Not much had changed about the boy except for the two bangles he had on and a couple of rings on his fingers. And yet, his whole demeanor seemed to have changed. There was a… magnetism to him that wasn’t there before. Shalia had been hoping that she’d be able to suppress her desires and maintain an air of normalcy at least for the duration of this event. Looking at the boy, however, she couldn’t help but despair a bit as she realized that her task just got a whole lot harder.

With grace and confidence that no commoner should have, the boy walked forward first to greet her mother just as the carriage pulled away to be parked by the side of the house. “The Town-head honors me by sending his beautiful rose of a wife,” The boy complimented, his tongue sweet as honey. Had Shalia been in a better state of mind, she would have noticed that the words were flirtatious and not exactly appropriate, not to mention that taking a woman’s hand and kissing the back of it wasn’t something that was done in this town. Shalia, however, was caught up trying to push back down the sudden spike of jealousy that hit her at the attention that was being lavished on her mother. She, however, stood patiently like a lady of her status should, knowing that she would soon be next.

“Please, don’t stand on ceremony, come inside,” The boy continued to warmly welcome her mother, further fueling the bitter spike of jealousy that was eating at her. Not willing to give the boy the satisfaction of seeing how much he affected her, however, Shalia put on a haughty look just as the boy turned in her direction. “Shalia, Mother has prepared some food for our guest. Why don’t you go and get it for us.”

Shalia didn’t believe she would have felt any different in that moment had Roka pulled back and slapped her hard across the face! “What did you say?” With rage and humiliation dancing within her, it was a miracle that she managed to keep from shrieking the words. She, however, didn’t manage to keep the venom out of her words, her dissatisfaction with the situation shining forth.

When Roka turned to face her again, even with the mask in the way, Shalia couldn’t stop herself from feeling like prey caught in the sights of a predator. His eyes didn’t show any anger, it would have been far easier to remain calm if he had. Instead, in the boy’s eyes was a calm authority. A look that said that you had no other choice but to comply with what you were being asked to do, whether you wanted to or not. There was no room for argument! “I told you to go and get the food for your mother and me and serve us,” Roka repeated. Once again, there was no anger in his voice, he didn’t even raise his voice. Despite this, there was no arguing with or gainsaying the authority that flowed forth from his voice. She wanted to rage, she wanted to rebel, to throw his words back at his face and tell him that she wouldn’t do it. And yet, Shalia found herself turning and walking towards the house to do what she’d been instructed to. It’s only once she was in motion that Shalia realized how slick with wetness her thighs had become from her dripping wet pussy…

***

Once they were past the door to the house and there was no longer any risk of the neighbors seeing anything they shouldn’t, Nalia felt the boy place a hand on the small of her back. A thrill coursed through her body in anticipation. Her hand was still clenching and unclenching as she remembered the tendril of pleasure that had coursed through her body when the boy took her hand and placed a kiss on it. She didn’t know what it was about the boy. Why even his mere touch set her body aflame and caused her knees to go weak with desire. As the Town-head’s wife, she knew she should protest, she knew that she should put a stop to this, and yet, despite her better judgment, she found herself leaning into him even as his hand slowly glided lower to grab her ass. On top of her current arousal, Nalia could feel her pussy grow wet at the possessive way the boy was holding her to him. Like a predator marking his territory, she was his and he wasn’t afraid to breach the boundaries of propriety to make it known.

“So,” The boy spoke just as they turned to walk into the same room where the boy had given her multiple orgasms right under the nose of her husband. “How is our child?” He whispered the words into her ears.

Nalia's head which had been leaning on his shoulder shot up to look at him, her shock clear to be seen on her features. Given the fact that a little less than three months had passed since that night, her belly hadn’t even begun to show. Not even her family knew that she had missed the past two flows of blood. Studying the boy’s eyes through the mask, however, she couldn’t find even a hint of doubt in the boy’s eyes. He wasn’t testing her, he was essentially letting her know that he knew. Even without being able to see through the mask, Nalia could almost see the teasing smile playing on the boy’s face. “You knew,” Were the only words her shocked mind could produce.

“That you carry my child,” The boy said, placing his hand over her tummy. “It’s only the first of many,” He went on to say with the confident air of one who wouldn’t be turned away from his desire.

She should have stopped him! She should have admonished him! She should have told him that they were playing in dangerous waters and that everything could come crashing down on them. Her only response, however, was to smile lustfully at him even as he pulled the seat back for her. “You are so bad,” Was all she could mutter in response as she sat down on the proffered chair.

“But I make you feel real good, don’t I?” Nalia could feel chills coursing through her as the boy leaned in close to her ear and whispered the response.

Unable to refute the boy’s words, Nalia could only turn her blushing face away from him.

In so doing, she realized that she had been so focused on Roka that she hadn’t even noticed the three beautiful, bright-amber candles that were set on a small bronze candelabra in the middle of the table. It was still early in the day, and so there wasn’t a lack of light in any sense of the word. And yet, somehow, the candle just added an ambiance to the room that made it feel much more intimate, and… Nalia couldn’t exactly put her finger on it but it felt like any walls that might have been left up within her were slowly being melted away. “These are beautiful candles,” She commented, for the first time her focus turning to something other than the boy. “Where did you get them?” She asked, knowing that no such candles were made anywhere inside the town.

The boy turned and looked at the candles. A mysterious smile was playing on his lips as he regarded them. Almost as if he could see much more in the candles than she could. “I got them from a rather mysterious source,” He at last replied. “The source I got them from claims that, in their presence, your truest self is revealed,” He said with an air of mystery before pulling back his chair and sitting down.

Nalia had been planning to respond but came up short when Roka sat down at the head seat instead of directly across from her. Most people, out of respect and regard for her husband, the Town-head, wouldn’t place themselves over her at the table. This was his house and Roka had every right to sit at the head of the table. But by doing so, while she was seated at a lower position, not only was he not giving her husband any face but he was placing himself as higher than her. Some logical part of Nalia understood that it was ridiculous to expect the man who had impregnated her despite being married to respect her husband. Still, some part of her felt the need to stick up for her husband. “Shouldn’t you show deference to my husband and sit across from me?” She asked.

A derisive snort left the boy that should have annoyed her, instead, it just amused her. “I’m not the one seeking an alliance with your husband, your husband seeks alliance with me!” he said, not bothering to hide the arrogance in his tone of voice.

Nalia couldn’t help but wince slightly at this proclamation. “So you saw through us?” She more stated than asked. It was clear that the boy before her had seen right to the heart of the issue right from the start.

“What? That you were offering your daughter to me on a silver platter?” The words were spoken just as Shalia walked into the room holding a tray with three bowls on it. Despite noting her presence, the boy didn’t hesitate or speak any softer. “I knew,” He said with a shrug, leaning back in his chair like a king on his throne.

Nalia turned to look at her daughter who stood frozen at the doorway with the food tray still in her arms. “Don’t stand there too long dear, the food will get cold,” She called out. Some small part of her realized that she should have been more concerned with her daughter’s emotional state. For some reason, however, she just couldn’t bring herself to care all that much. Unconsciously, she glanced at the candles burning on the table before them. She couldn’t help but wonder if they really did affect people. If so, then what did that say about her? Nalia turned back to the boy unwilling to explore that question further. “Well, if you knew what we were doing, then why is it that you’ve only been having her escort you to the infirmary and back and nothing else?” She asked. For the first time, there was some measure of surprise in the boy’s eyes and Nalia couldn’t help but draw some satisfaction from this small victory. Even Shalia who’d managed to start moving again, once again froze at this revelation. “Just because you don’t see us in the bushes, doesn’t mean we don’t have eyes all over the town Roka,” She stated, unable to hide the satisfaction in her voice. “So, once again I ask, why only just walk with her?” She asked.

“I am a greedy man, my dear. Perhaps I wasn’t satisfied with just one,” The boy replied, his eyes burning into her. Nalia heard a gasp from Shalia and couldn’t help but smile cheekily. Her daughter had finally realized that the boy was flirting with her mother. There was, of course, some risk in this. Nalia, however, was confident she could control the girl and keep anything from reaching her husband.

“Shalia, dear, you’ve frozen up again,” She called out to the girl who was looking between the boy and her almost as if she couldn’t believe what her eyes and ears were reporting. Nalia couldn’t help but notice her daughter’s face go pink and her thighs clamp together even more tightly than she had been in the carriage. What the boy had done to have such a drastic effect on her daughter, Nalia didn’t know. The servant that she had set to monitoring them had reported that they only briefly walked together each day to and from the infirmary. The girl thought that she had been discreet while they’d been in the carriage, but Nalia could see that the girl was aroused plain as day. The boy was flirting with her mother and rather than be angry or jealous on behalf of her father, she was getting turned on even more! Just what had the boy done to her poor girl?

Turning to the boy, Nalia decided to challenge him. “You do realize that you’re trying to seduce the wife of the most powerful man in this town?” she stated.

“That’s impossible,” The boy replied causing a look of confusion to cross her face.

Nalia would have been disappointed if just the mention of her husband was enough to scare the boy off. She, however, couldn’t hear even the slightest hint of fear in the boy’s voice. If anything, his voice was overflowing with confidence, almost to the point of arrogance. “How so?” she questioned.

“I am not married,” The boy replied simply with a shrug uttering what was possibly his most arrogant statement so far. A strangled moan escaped her daughter as she collapsed into her chair, her face flushed and her body trembling slightly. Having been in that same exact position, Nalia knew immediately what was going on with her. And from the amused look in the boy’s eyes, as he looked at her, he did too. Luckily for them, Shalia had managed to set down the three bowls before them before she was drawn into the throes of pleasure.

“What… what have you done to her?” Nalia couldn’t help but ask, unable to believe just how much power the boy seemed to have over her daughter.

“I haven’t done anything,” The boy replied turning to her. He then nodded towards the candles quietly burning on the table. ”She is just discovering her true nature. “It would seem that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” He said with a note of amusement. Nalia wasn’t sure what fruit he was referring to, but she could get the gist of the saying given the context. “Like her mother, your daughter is drawn to strong and capable men. Powerful men who know what they want and aren’t afraid to pursue it. Her pride and arrogance have run rampant because she could find no such man among her peers. But now that she has, however, and in the presence of the candles which allow for no deceit, she has little option but to give in to her true nature,” He spoke calmly with the air of one who was fully in control of the situation.

“At this table where there is no room for guile or deceit, we can finally have the negotiations you tried to engage in at that dinner. Only this time, it will be straightforward, without deceptions or speaking in circles and riddles. Here is the situation. Your family is in danger. Your husband is a powerful man at the moment, but he has no powerful heirs to take over from him once he is too old to go on leading. Now, if that was all, you wouldn’t be in as terrible a situation as you presently are in. Your husband while not that young, isn’t terribly old either. He has several more cycles to live. The only problem is, he’s losing his power, isn’t he?”

There was a gasp from across the table as Shalia, who’d been keeping her forehead on the table, too embarrassed to look up at either one of them, shot up to look at Roka with shock. It was as if the very suggestion that her father, who’d always been the most powerful man that she knew, could be getting weaker was unbelievable to her. The girl looked to her for reassurance. Waiting for her to say that it was a lie. On her part, Nalia felt like she had been plunged into an ice pit. How the boy could possibly know this, Nalia couldn’t puzzle out. Neither the servants nor even their daughter knew what was going on with her husband. It was something only the two of them had discussed in the privacy of their sleeping chambers. The boy’s gaze was piercing and Nalia couldn’t help but feel like his eyes were boring into her very soul and prying loose every little secret she had.

“He may be able to keep up the ruse for a few more cycles, but eventually, it will come to light that he no longer has the strength to defend the position that he holds. And when that day comes and his weakness is revealed, it’ll be like the scent of blood to predators. Your family will be torn to pieces before the day is over if this truth ever comes to light. Feel free to correct me if any part of what I’ve just said is wrong, but that is the position you find yourself in. Unless, of course, you find yourself a strong backer to stand in your corner and protect you from all the arrows that would otherwise be pointed your way!” Which is where I come in,” Greg continued in his analysis.

“Much like my teacher, I am not all that interested in politics. Who holds the reins of power in this little town on the mountain means nothing to me. As such, I won’t lie to you and say that you will remain in power if you ally yourself with me. What I can, however, promise is that should you… convince me of your sincerity, then not a single hair on your pretty little heads will be touched by anyone when you eventually lose power. And I don’t mean to scare you, but we both know that it’s not a matter of if, but when,” He said.

“But I am a married woman! Surely you aren’t asking for me to spread my legs so you can ravage me with that big thing of yours? Should my husband ever find out that anything happened between us, he’ll be the first to try and kill you!” Nalia countered in a sultry tone of voice. Despite her words, it was clear by her tone that she was more teasing him than objecting to what he was proposing. She didn’t even waste energy trying to refute the picture that the boy had painted. They were living on borrowed time, she knew it and more importantly, the boy knew it too. Rather than try to argue the facts, she needed to play to her advantage. The boy wanted her. She could see it in the hungry way his eyes roamed over her body whenever he looked at her. He had already put a baby inside her and yet, he’d said he’d put more in there. Nalia wasn’t a child. She knew that this would never be anything more than a physical affair. For the boy, she was a trophy. He might not admit to it, but he got a perverse pleasure from the fact that he was bedding the Town-head’s wife. Nalia didn’t judge him for it. If anything, it was ammo for her in this negotiation…

***