I was up earlier than normal this morning. With nothing better to do to pass the time, I waited at my table for Orsa to bring breakfast, letting my mind drift as I stared blankly into the gardens and listened to the birds scream at each other. I felt like I had an edge to myself this morning, which was probably why I was up so early.
Yesterday’s shopping trip had not gotten me out of mana training with Ippolita, not that I wanted it to. However, something seemed to have pissed her off, which meant the training was exhausting. Brutal, even. She had battered me with compulsions and probes into my mind, while I tried to react to the change in her mana and the mana around her in time to pull up the Mental Defense enhancement to block it. I had been particularly successful with this. Eventually, she dismissed me with the promise of talking about the events of the shopping trip, probably about those nobles, as well as details of the fertility ritual—a topic I was happy to have some clarity on.
A knock at my door broke me from my reverie earlier than expected, but it swung open before I had a chance to answer it. Ippolita strode into the room and straight towards my table like I had defaulted on a loan and she was coming to collect, forcefully if necessary. My eyes widened slightly at what she was wearing. Her hair was down and lacked its usual accouterments, and she was wearing a white nightgown with little bats.
Did she just wake up and rush here? Also why bats?
I moved to stand and greet her, but she had closed the distance too quickly. She placed a hand on my shoulder, firmly, rooting me in the chair. Her other hand hovered over the table, and she summoned a bowl of porridge with honey and mixed fruits alongside a stein of quick brew. She paused briefly, then seemed to realize she forgot something. She held her hand out again and summoned a spoon next to the bowl. Satisfied with how she arranged the food in front of me, she turned her gaze on me, and her expression softened.
“Eat. I have much to say, and we don’t have as much time as I would like,” she said.
I scrunched my brows at her words. I didn’t understand why we were pressed for time, but if she said we were, then we were. I nodded, then picked up the spoon and started eating. She released my shoulder and sat in the chair across from me. Ippolita didn’t take meals with me in my room that often, and I suspect it had something to do with the table and chairs being sized for me. Or perhaps they were sized for someone slightly taller than me, since the average dhampir and therianthrope height seemed to be around 6’1. At the same time, a weirdly large number of things in my life here at the palace were sized exactly for me, so it was hard to tell if this was a custom table and chairs or just standard sizing.
Ippolita, however, was a gorgeous 7’10 goddess whose height alone made me blush and have strange new thoughts about women taller than me: thoughts that still brought twinges of guilt. Needless to say, she was too tall for the furniture and had to adjust her legs a certain way in order to sit at the table with me. At least, that’s the reason I told myself for why I could feel her thighs bracketing both of my legs. And the reason one of her legs kept rubbing up and down one of mine was because she was struggling to sit comfortably in a chair too small for her at a table too small for her. Probably.
She leaned forward, placed an elbow on the table, rested her chin on her fist. Her generous cleavage all but spilled out onto the table. My spoon stopped briefly on its journey to my mouth, and I tried to cover up my distraction by adjusting in my seat slightly then resumed my motion with the spoon. A slight quirk of her lips told me she saw through it.
This woman.
I sighed internally. It was too early for this, but it’s harmless, and I don’t hate the attention. As long as it stayed just attention for now.
“First, let me apologize on behalf of my nobles. The way Conte Gaspar della Rosso spoke to you is unacceptable, and I have given the della Rossos an unsubtle reminder that classism isn’t tolerated among the peerage. “
I opened my mouth to speak, but Ippolita raised the hand she wasn’t using to support her head, signaling me to wait.
“Let me finish, carissimo. That behavior might have been acceptable in the sky cities. I suspect classism was commonplace. Down here, however, the nobles, or at least the women nobles since they’re all vampires, need the commoners more than the commoners need them. I could just as easily abolish the peerage and create a system of bureaucracy and civil service to manage the day to day aspects of running the city. The only reason I don’t is because the peerage knows better than to demean commoners. Sure, the occasional brash youth lets their pride get the better of them, but the Contessa is approaching 200, and her husband is 167. They know better.”
That was interesting. Imagining a city without nobility was difficult. The concept felt alien. I swallowed my mouthful of porridge and nodded in understanding.
“Unfortunately, he won’t be the only one to give you attitude. I didn’t think any of the nobles would be bold enough to harass you before you even had a chance to participate in the upcoming ball and fertility festival. I had believed we only needed to be wary of aggressive suitors, but I see now I was mistaken. There is rot growing amidst my nobles and likely in the other cities as well, and I’m sure it is this rot that is arrayed against you, though I cannot even imagine the reason why.”
She must have seen something on my face because she smiled brightly and reached across the table to squeeze my free hand.
“Do not worry, carissimo, I will not let anything harm you. You will likely be challenged to one or multiple duels, or perhaps goaded into challenging them yourself, at the ball. Duels among the male nobles tend to exclusively be with rapiers as it is considered a more manly weapon than the longsword or the saber. As the challenged, it would be your right to choose a weapon, and if you chose a longsword many decry you as brutish, barbaric, or too womanly.” She rolled her eyes as she finished her sentence.
“I don’t think it matters, but if you want to beat them at their own game, then I will cancel your lessons with Filippa, and you will spend the entire day learning to fence with the rapier from Orsa and several others of my guards. The variety of opponents will keep you from learning how to fight one person specifically. All of my guards are knighted, and as such are proficient in multiple weapons including the rapier.”
“So the couple from yesterday, that was Conte Gaspar and Contessa…?”
“Lucrezia dalla Rossa,” she said.
“And Conte Gaspar will be challenging me to a duel at the ball? Over what?” I asked.
“It is unlikely to be him, specifically, as he would be hard pressed to find cause. It would also look badly on him since he’s one step above you in cultivation, though duels within a one step gap do happen. More likely it’ll be the sons of the families or younger husbands.”
“This just seems ridiculous. What grounds could they possibly have to challenge me? I haven’t done anything,” I said, growing exasperated.
“Grounds? They’ll make something up. Some minor slight that everyone will know is just an excuse, but that’s how the majority of duels happen. All for the sake of appearing more manly and desirable as a mate,” she said, and rubbed her bare foot up along the back of my calf slowly, triggering a shiver up my spine. “Or if they’re already married, then they’d be bringing prestige to their wives' houses. Admittedly, in your case, it is also to decrease your value and potentially humiliate you so you’d be more inclined to accept a less favorable marriage contract from one of their allied families.”
“Wait, they… they’re just being used by other families to damage my sense of self worth, all so those families can make me cheaper marriage offers?” I asked, unable to keep the disbelief out of my voice.
“Yes, that is how the games are played. You never act yourself; you get others to act on your behalf to shield your motives, or at least shield your identity.”
“Okay, but why would I even accept any of those offers to begin with? I’ve never met them.”
“And that is why their daughters will attempt to court you at the same time,” she said.
I stared at her blankly for a second, before turning my attention down to my almost empty bowl of porridge.
“And what makes them think I would even be interested after spending two months living with you, your majesty?” Her foot stopped my leg for a brief moment before resuming. I looked back up at her after swallowing another spoonful of porridge. There was a faint blush to her cheeks now. “After all, maybe I just want to become one of your royal guards and live the life of a bachelor, just contributing to these fertility rituals,” I said and winked at her.
Her eyes widened slightly, then she squinted at me.
“You have a lot of cheek this morning, carissimo.”
“Strange thing to say for someone who hasn’t stopped touching me since they sat down, your majesty,” I shot back. Ippolita had enough self awareness to look moderately chastised by my words and looked away briefly while scratching her cheek, but she continued rubbing a foot against one of my legs.
She turned her gaze back to me and said, “Yes, well, speaking of the fertility rituals, that is the second thing we should discuss before Orsa gets here. I need an answer, though, about rapier training.”
“Yes, your majesty. I think that would be best.”
“Excellent. This will of course mean you’ll be running the Mental Acuity enhancement spell all day, save for when you are practicing with me in the evenings. There will be minor side effects.”
My porridge was finished, and I had just brought the mug of quickbrew to my mouth; I drank slowly to buy myself a moment to think. Side effects didn’t sound good, but if she wasn’t advising me against doing it then they wouldn’t be too bad. Probably. “What are the side effects, your majesty?”
“The enhancement doesn’t just allow you to react faster or learn things quicker. It affects everything about the mind, and in your case that includes processing your grief. It may only be several weeks of actual time, but you will have had orders of magnitude more thoughts than normal throughout that time.” She paused for a moment, sighing. “I just don’t want you to be hard on yourself if you think you’re moving on too quickly, tesoro mio. You’ve probably already noticed some effect from the few training sessions you’ve had with Orsa already.”
That made a certain kind of sense, though I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. “Okay. I will try to keep that in mind, your majesty,” I said.
“Good,” she said, and reached across the table again to squeeze my free hand. “There is no right or wrong way to grieve.” She released my hand and leaned back. “For the fertility ritual, I want to put your mind at ease about what is expected of you. You won’t be having sex with anyone.”
“That is good to hear. I…” I trailed off briefly as I tried to put my thoughts in order, but everything was starting to feel like too much: her foot and leg caressing me, touching my hand throughout the morning, the news that I would be over Stephanie’s death in a matter of days instead of months. My breathing was coming faster, but I choked down all of the thoughts threatening to boil over, and finished speaking to Ippolita. “I didn’t, and still don’t, know what to expect, but I had been worried I’d be expected to sleep with multiple women in one night. If it’s not that, then what will I have to do?”
“Ah, well,” Ippolita looked away from me and scratched her cheek. “You’ll need to masturbate while standing on a giant inscribed spell pattern. Naked. And there will be anywhere between five and twelve women standing on the edges of the pattern. Also naked.”
“What?” I asked incredulously.
“Don’t worry, tesoro mio, no one will touch you during this process! I’ll be right there to make sure of it!”
“Your majesty, that’s not really the problem here. I have to be naked in front of strangers and then pleasure myself in front of them? That’s too much.”
“Jack, I won’t force you, but by promising to let houses be there for your turn at the ritual, you can start creating alliances. Alliances you’ll appreciate having at the ball. I know you want some independence, the ability to stand on your own two feet. On the surface, this is how. These rituals are the only reason we’ve been able to continue on as long as we have. The men of the surface take pride in how many women they’re able to impregnate during these rituals, particularly how many sons they can sire.”
“And there’s no way to stand behind a curtain or something for the ritual, your majesty?” I asked.
“No, carissimo. There is not.”
We sat in silence together for a few minutes. My mind was buzzing with various scenes of having to stand before a dozen women, all of us naked, and jerk myself off. What was supposed to happen next? Did my seed spill to the floor? Did the mana absorb it? How did it get to the women? How did it guarantee pregnancies? The most pressing of these questions for me though was why she said five to twelve. I turned from the window that I had been spacing out at, and saw that Ippolita was still focused entirely on me.
“Your majesty, you said five to twelve women. Why five to twelve? What causes the range?”
“The greater the number of women, the lower chance of a guaranteed pregnancy. It depends entirely upon the male and the strength of his seed.”
“I see, and so stronger… seed… means a man could have more women as part of the ritual?”
“That’s correct, carissimo,” she beamed at me.
Desperate to keep myself from being overwhelmed, I leaned forward and rested my head in my hands while propping my elbows up on the table.
“And how many do you think I would be able to guarantee impregnation with?”
“At least twelve, so I would suggest starting with that and increasing the amount as you do more rituals and become more comfortable with them.”
“And if I wanted to do less than twelve?”
“You could,” she said slowly.
“I think, if I do this, for the first one I would only invite the houses that we could form some sort of formal political alliance with.”
“We? Tesoro mio, I’m flattered,” she purred, “but I cannot participate in such things. You would have to go to these noble houses and represent yourself. Of course I’ll send your normal guards, but this is the start of establishing yourself in my city.”
Is that what I want? Do I have to do that? No, I can’t think like that. I shouldn’t take her generosity for granted. Besides, doing this would probably make her proud. It’s the best way I could pay her back for everything.
“Yes, your majesty. Would it be too much to get recommendations on which houses I should start with?”
“Not at all. In fact I would not have it any other way,” she said, and the smile she’d been wearing became more predatory.
“I have already scheduled appointments, starting next week, with two houses. This will of course mean you won’t be able to train those afternoons, but it will still be time well spent,” she said, getting up.
I still had so many more questions to ask, but the revelation that she'd already scheduled appointments for a ritual I hadn’t even agreed to do occupied the entirety of my thinking processes.
“What do you mean already scheduled, your majesty?” I asked; an edge of fear I couldn’t quite suppress mingled with disbelief in my voice.
Ippolita walked to my side of the table, bent down low so that her lips were almost flush against my ear. The neckline of her nightgown gathered below her chest, revealing more of her full breasts and just barely concealing her nipples that I only just now noticed had hardened.
“You were never going to say no to me, tesoro mio.” She whispered in my ear. Her hot breath against my skin sent electricity through my body and fire down my veins. I was hard. I was painfully hard. My pulse had quickened and I was sucked in a deep breath. She smelled like everything and nothing, like paradise and oblivion. I was immediately adrift in a sea of lust, desperate and terrified to take a drink from it. Just as quickly as these feelings came, she straightened up and continued past me for the door, which immediately let my mind clear.
“Orsa will be here soon to collect you for your new training routine,” she said before the door clicked shut behind her.
My pulse was slowly returning to normal, though I still had a bit of a problem in my pants. My thoughts were erratic, and for the first time since I fell to the surface I wondered if her majesty’s hospitality was too good to be true. The worst of these thoughts was that I might actually be okay with that. I had so many questions to ask her, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to ask all of them—maybe none of them. At least I had training all day today. I could lose myself in that. It would help me process whatever this morning was.
Ippolita "just woke up"