The following morning, Fiametta joined me for breakfast again. Unlike the first breakfast I had here, it was more mana-dense food. It seemed Ippolita was serious about pushing me to my next breakthrough as fast as possible. Afterwards, Filippa came and fetched me for our first lesson in the library. Filippa was wearing her usual maid uniform: a form-fitting dress with slits up the sides to give her legs more range of movement, tall over-the-calf boots with a heel, black stockings, a white mobcap, and some kind of accessory on her face that I’d never seen before.
“You are staring, Signor Wright,” she said. I shook myself from my thoughts.
“I’m sorry. I’ve never seen something like that accessory on your face. What is it?” I asked.
“They are called glasses. These, in particular, are known as cat-eye frames. They are a cosmetic affectation that I’ve taken a liking to. It was one of the many fashion trends we imported from Magacitta.”
“Oh, well, they really accentuate your eyes. They are very becoming.”
“Flattering me will not make me go easy on you today, Signor Wright,” she said sternly, though the right corner of her lip was slightly upturned.
“I didn’t—” I sputtered, but she held up a hand.
“Relax, signore. We will take this as a starting place for the first etiquette lesson. Please, take a seat.” She gestured for me to sit on one of the plush couches.
I walked around to it and sat down. I don’t think I had ever been hugged by furniture before, but this was probably what it felt like. She sat down on the couch opposite me, with a table between us. She reached for the tea set that was already on the table. She brushed her finger over one of the gemstones, a sapphire, and sent mana through it, which caused the teapot to fill with water. Once it was full, she put her index finger over a ruby and channeled mana into it. After a few moments, she removed her finger, then grabbed one of the jars that was on the tray with the rest of the tea set. She fished out the tea leaves and placed them in the teapot.
“In your city—Doranna, I believe?” I nodded. “In Doranna, did you compliment women often?”
“Well, that would depend, I guess. I wasn’t a womanizer, even before Stephanie, but everyone likes compliments.”
Filippa raised a finely manicured eyebrow at me as if I’d said something silly. I leaned back into the couch a bit and stared at the ceiling to collect my thoughts before lowering my gaze to meet her eyes again.
“I was orphaned when I was very young, maybe 6 or 7. The Adventurer’s Guild ran an orphanage for people like me, but it wasn’t particularly good. There were tiers. My parents didn’t have enough in the guild accounts before dying to really merit much better than the lowest tier, so we were fed enough, clothed enough, and given something that could be called a bed if you squinted.“
Filippa kept her face composed, but her eyes revealed a lot while I was talking. There was… not pity, but empathy there—maybe kinship. She moved forward and poured tea into two cups. She handed me one with two hands. I moved to grab it with one hand, but she withdrew it and shook her head.
“You give and accept with both hands. It deserves the gravity of your full sincerity,” she said. I nodded and extended both hands to accept the teacup, then leaned back into the couch. I sniffed the tea and took an initial sip. It was invigorating.
“I shared a room with 25 other boys for about seven years, and then it was off with me. I could either move into a guild bunkhouse and become an indentured adventurer for a couple of years, and then eventually be free, or I could try to get an apprenticeship with someone. I chose the former. As for why all of this matters, I could count on one hand the number of times I was given praise or complimented during my stay at the orphanage. It just didn’t happen. Then I got lucky.”
I took another sip of the tea. It had faint traces of mana, Filippa’s mana. It tingled the tongue, but it also conveyed a measure of her emotions. Acceptance and approval, though I couldn’t tell of what.
“The man who handled my initial orientation and training, Joseph, believed in what he called positive reinforcement. Compliments weren’t free, but he was quick to give them when earned. It felt good. I was suspicious at first, of course. Why wouldn’t I be, but he didn’t have a deceitful bone in his body. He was exactly as he appeared: someone trying to make the world a little brighter. I learned, then, that compliments made me feel good, and I liked feeling good. So if they made me feel good, then surely others would feel the same. It costs me nothing to be polite or even kind, to notice the efforts of others. So, your glasses. I had been meaning to say they looked good on you, but I also didn’t know what they were, and we never had a proper conversation until now.”
She curled the right corner of her lip up slightly again, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. “So compliments are your way of making the world a brighter place?”
“Sure,” I said, shrugging.
“Tell me, signore, how often did you receive compliments from women who weren’t trying to proposition you? Or weren’t after something?”
She must have seen something funny in my expression because she smirked again, and this time it was harder for her to hide it away.
“I see it’s occurred to you now why I responded the way I did.”
“It has. It wasn’t unheard of for a woman to compliment me, but my heart would soar every time it happened, even when I knew it was just lip service,” I said.
“Now magnify that feeling and imagine yourself extremely undersexed and accustomed to having to do very aggressive chasing and courting rituals.”
“Yes, I can definitely see your point. At best, I’m misunderstood as being a flirt. At worst, I’m inviting attention I don’t want.”
“Indeed. Attention that could easily lead to rape,” she said just before taking another sip.
I shook my head in disbelief. “Rape? You can’t—well, I guess you could. But men—well, not necessarily, I guess.”
“Quite so, signore. In fact, if we were not under the roof of her majesty, and if I were a baser woman and attracted to men, or of a mind to get pregnant, I could rape you right here, and you would be powerless to stop me,” she said matter of factly over her tea cup, the way someone might comment on the weather. Then she locked eyes with me, and immense pressure settled on top of me. It became difficult to breathe; it was like having a boulder on my chest. Even though we both stayed seated, the distance between us shrank until I would have sworn I felt her breath on my ear.
“You are but a rabbit in a den of lions, signore,” she whispered. Her voice did things to me; things I felt shame over. Tremors of fear and arousal ran from my ear, down my spine, into my balls, and up my cock. I tried to get my body under control, but the pressure of mana was overwhelming. It was invading me now. I could smell it, taste it. I hated what was happening, but my body craved it. Then, just as quickly as it came, it was gone and replaced instead with a sensation akin to ice cold water being splashed over me. I took deep, sharp breaths. Fear still coursed through me, but the arousal was replaced with rage. I was finally able to clear my vision from whatever haze was left over from Filippa’s mana, and was about to rage at her, but she stood abruptly and knelt on the ground.
“Tante scuse, signor Jack Wright. What I did was vile and a trespass upon your autonomy. However, you need to know what the women are like in this city. If one of the nobles misunderstands the compliments you seem to freely give, then she could take it as an invitation. You are unmarked and as such, those things could be considered an advertisement, and her majesty would have very little she could do to stop it, depending on the circumstances.”
She continued kneeling, eyes on the ground. I pinched my temples with one hand while the other repeatedly clenched and relaxed. Finally, after several seconds, I exhaled deeply.
“You’re forgiven, Filippa. I can’t put into words how angry and humiliated I feel, but I respect that I…” I trailed off and took another sip of tea to further calm myself. “I needed to experience that. Words wouldn’t have been enough. I didn’t understand what could be done to me, and the power gap between me and the average person. Please, return to your seat, Filippa.”
She stood and smoothed out her dress, then sat back down. Her expression was slightly less stern, and I felt like I could still see lingering regret, but ultimately, she was right, and that made me angrier than her actual actions. She took a sip primly, then cleared her throat.
“So, no more compliments. Or at least be very careful with them. What do you know of our peerage?”
“I assume it’s similar to what I’m used to, just different names. Although we didn’t have any princes and princesses, that I’m aware of. My city in particular was part of an empire, with the duke representing the Emperor’s will.”
“An empire? How interesting.” Something flashed across her eyes, but it was too fast for me to make out. “Something like that could never happen here unless someone managed to step into the divine realm, but they may as well ascend at that point.”
“Ascend?” I asked. She waved her hand in front of her face.
“Another time,” she said. “The peerage, though, is of a more pressing import. At the lowest level are the cavaliers, like Dama Fiametta. Then are the baronessas and above them the viscontessa’s. Baronessa’s, while owing fealty to the principessa, also owes fealty to a marchesa or duchessa. Viscontessa’s are slightly different from the rest of the peerage in that they are not hereditary and they do not own land. Sure, they may own a house somewhere, but they typically move to an estate owned by the principessa. If their children do not become nobles themselves, then they will vacate the estate upon the death of the title holder.”
“That seems kind of messy.”
“It could be if the principessa’s rule wasn’t absolute. Inside these walls, nothing can stand against her power. It is true of all principesse in their respective cities.”
“So then, if the viscontessas aren’t hereditary and they don’t own their own estates, what function do they serve?”
“They are almost entirely administrative bureaucrats. There’s a small handful that aren’t, but for the most part, they are the bureaucrats of the city.”
“And the baronessas?”
“Those are mostly overseers. As I said, they owe fealty to a marchesa or duchessa in addition to the principessa. If it is to a marchesa, then they are on the outermost section of the city, and manage a marchesa’s farmland while also supplying women for the marchesa’s women at arms.”
“And what’s above the viscontessas? Marchesas?” I asked.
Filippa waffled her hand in the air. “They are, but contessas are the ones directly above a viscontessa. Strictly speaking, a contessa and marchesa are of the same rank in the peerage, but they differ in location. Each marchesa is in charge of guarding a section of the wall. They are focused on external defences as well as the vast majority of expeditionary endeavors to claim more territory and expand the wall.”
Expanding the wall? My eyes lit up with curiosity at that, but as if reading my mind, Filippa held up her hand.
“We can go over the military and its goals later, for now, let’s get through the peerage.”
I couldn’t help myself and huffed somewhat petulantly. Moving the wall sounded extremely interesting.
“So, as I was saying, marchessas guard the walls, and their baronessas oversee the farmland. The contessas, however, often owe fealty to a duchessa, and if they don’t, then they work closely with one. They are in charge of internal security. Thus, the guards answer to a contessa who then answers to a duchessa. Some contessa’s dabble in other things that interest them as well, but their official function is to be the intermediary between the guards and the principessa and her duchessas.”
“Which brings us to the last rank of the peerage, the duchessas. They are some of the oldest vampire families in the city. They often have many irons in the fire. As I said, they are ultimately in charge of the city’s internal security, but they also finance most external trade as well. In such endeavors, they’ll either work with a marchesa or hire private security for the trade caravans. One of the duchessas has also financed multiple expeditions beyond the wall. She is the descendant of one of her majesty’s oldest friends.”
“That raises an interesting point,” I said. “All of the nobles are vampires, right?”
“Yes, it is a requirement, except for the viscontessas.”
“Right, so how exactly do they pass down running the family? They’re immortal.”
“Ah. It is based, roughly, on the average life span of a Dhampir. Immortality does not suit authority. Living too long can distort the mind and drain someone of their empathy. No, there are laws in place about abdicating from the head of the family every 300-350 years. Exceptions are made from time to time, but that general idea should suffice.”
“So what do they do after abdicating?” I asked.
Filippa shared one of her half-smirks with me again. “Why, they cultivate mana, of course. They may be immortal because they are vampires, but they are not immortal in the way of mages. Well, some are, but you don’t need to concern yourself with the hidden monsters.”
It sounded like I absolutely did need to concern myself with the hidden monsters.
“Don’t worry if this all sounds abstract. We’ll have time to go over things in more detail. This was just a start to get you familiar with the peerage. The expectation is that you always address one of the nobles with their title, barring that Madonna and Messere can work in place of the title, though the title is still best. Duchessa’s, however, are to be addressed as ‘your grace’, the same you address the principessa as ‘your majesty’”.
“Okay, I think I understand. What’s next?”
“Dancing. You don’t look like the type that can sit for long periods of time. “
I blushed slightly and looked away, scratching my cheek. She had me there.
Filippa d'Ippolita