Chapter 47 - When They Are Willing: Suspect That They Like It

Chapter 47: Chapter 47 - When They Are Willing: Suspect That They Like It The Goltbred heiress, upon having returned from months of training in another city at the Coiled Serpent Guild main branch - and after a welcome homecoming and important and necessary talk with her wounded fiance - promptly locked herself in her room for three days. She slept long hours, she ate what her personal servant brought to her room, and most importantly she meditated every moment that wasn’t those two things. ’Stupid sexy muscles, stupid sexy muscles, stupid-’ Like any addict, the blame game made the source of the issue someone else’s problem. None of it fell on her own choice to ask the swordswoman if she could rub her stomach before she left that evening. The excuse was because it had been done to her on the couch, so it was ’only fair’. She knew... ’My mind is empty of errant thoughts, my hand has not touched something blessed, my mind is empty of-’ She knew it was a mistake while she was asking! Qat, having found time to visit again on the second day was refused entry by a note on the door that simply stated: - Getting a handle on my emotions, do not disturb. - I love you Qat, but really do not come in. - Seriously, if I see you then *bad* things might... And so a concerned but forbearing swordswoman spent that day playing with Onya and watching the servants as they cleaned and fed the baby while the mother was away. While the concept of having children seemed a little foreign to the Yecine still, she did want to learn enough to be able to help out if it should ever be needed. Though for now it was entirely with thoughts of her small sister-in-law in mind. Watching her grow more and more adept at crawling around the nursery room these weeks made the teenager think of ’progress’ and ’results’. She wasn’t the only one practicing to get better. When Elua exited from her seclusion, she was almost immediately accosted by her mother and pulled into the woman’s study. She waved the letter with the girl’s stamp on it she last received to set the tone and purpose of their conversation. "I think it’s about time you tell me what’s going on. You said you would. I’ve played by your terms since I could tell you were doing something responsible and... sealing away your lust. I have to commend that." The missive was placed open on a desk before the woman tapped it with her index finger. The fact that her daughter was willing and capable of such a course of action said something about her character! The woman wasn’t *entirely* sure what that was, but it made her proud anyway. "But I’m not sure what to say about this. The ritual for those with my Element and those tools for mortal farmers. It seems like you are trying to be helpful... but you never showed so much care for these matters in the past." The one whose motives were being questioned only nodded. Yatrel was correct after all. She’d thought some about how the parent might react or what she might say over this. "Of course, you didn’t show *much* indication that you had learned enough about sigils to do *any* of this before you left. We thought you would study more there - and either like it or hate it." So far it was going as the wavy haired brunette expected. It wasn’t that they had no books on the subject - and it was reasonable of her to claim that she had studied a lot more while working in the libraries. ’But it had to have been a little suspicious. My father just moved quickly from being confused to giving me his support and she followed.’ "We were prepared for you to want to quit. Instead we began receiving official letters only a couple months in about becoming joint partners in developing a small branch of the Coiled Serpent Guild in our city." For this, the girl truly did not know how to respond. "Uhm... what?" Sets of mint eyes gauged each other. It would have been around the time of Qatrand’s visit... and Elua was suspicious of that. Her own attempts to look above average in knowledge without revealing the truth of ’knowing *too* much’ also probably led to this, but the reborn cultivator felt that knowledge about their betrothal spread to someone and they liked the idea of two of the bigger names in her home region being a part of things more permanently. None of the seniors ever mentioned it to her directly, anyway, so she doubted it was one of them. She eventually shook her head. "No one ever mentioned that to me. I’m not particularly interested, so I’ll leave that matter up to you and father. Do you have time to go out? I’ve been inside for a while now and it would... be easier to just show you some things." --- "Your father is going to be upset when he learns about this." The reddish-blonde spoke in an even tone while holding up one of the freshly created brooches that had been appearing randomly at auctions across the continent for a few years. Engaging in the mystery of their origins had never really intrigued her that much, but now that she knew the answer had been in her very home... "I know. I was very delighted when he presented me with something I helped make myself like it was an incredible treasure. It kept me from teasing him all week, if you remember." "I do. He actually thought you were so happy with him that you were ’forgetting your Qat’ when he was near. I of course didn’t think you were forgetting anything, but figured you were trying out being nice." "I do believe I am almost always quite nice, mother?" The woman leveled a look at the girl, whose mouth had just said that while the rest of her- "You’re sitting on your boss’s back who you seemed to have ordered to serve as your chair because of... what was it?" "The simplest way to explain is that he did something uncalled for that he told me about before you arrived." Yatrel had been busy dealing with an acquaintance that was passing by, so Elua took the opportunity to slip in the building first and arrange things with the man. When she voiced his displeasure, he said that he would not get up until he paid for his mistake. He asked for punishment, so she provided some in a form. The leader of the Silver Sky merchant company had made the grand error of suggesting they should make more money off of her two newest items. Selling at cost was just inviting the loss of profit and giving it to others who would buy it for resale! Even when she explained again that she intended to prepare enough stock ahead of time for that to be unlikely... he had the gall to say she had gone crazy. All of that was fine and expected, until he admitted that he had stopped her donation to the local orphanage last month because people had been looking for the source of the mysterious donation lately. Without stopping all the others elsewhere to make it ’look good’! ’I don’t want any of them to be stopped, but it was moronic to imply someone was afraid of being found *here*. Fine. I’ll have to go do something else...’ She crossed her legs and sat up straighter on the human throne, deciding the farce was about over with. She had wanted to humiliate him a bit and recalled a punishment that an acquaintance from a past life had harped on about. That had been the plan, but his spirit told a story. That he wasn’t as humiliated by it as either brunette might wish. "Besides, business isn’t about being nice, is it? Though everyone should do their best to not make enemies." The small girl hopped off of his back and he got to his feet while brushing off his knees. Then he bowed a little towards his own ’secretary’. "Once again, I express my apologies." She knew he was speaking the truth, despite the rest of what he was feeling being unpleasant! None of it had gone according to her half-baked plan... "It’s fine. I’ll just go deliver it now myself.." It wasn’t like the amount given was the same everywhere - nor was it handed to every single orphanage. The ones doing better than others were usually skipped, but not always. The one she was going to make an appearance at was a better one that housed cultivator children without home and family Usually the reason was loss of life from the previous Descent, so the children raised there were always just in time to be angry adults that would fling themselves into the next war. As far as cycles went, it was certainly one of the more self perpetuating ones... especially since a lot of the orphans found comfort in each other and usually ended up with a kid of their own. "Mom can we stop at the bank first? I need to make a different arrangement going forward." In any case, the Goltbred figured that adding her name as the person who had been donating anonymously there in the past was a safe move. There were a lot of available excuses as to why she stayed hidden and why the last monies had been missing. Especially if she framed it as wanting to be the one to deliver and knowing she was coming back from training.