Chapter 24

From the Video Blog of Ariel, the First Immortal Whore

I woke to the smell of Jonathan—Jonathan on (and in) me, Jonathan in my bed, and as I turned my head, the smell of Jonathan’s hair. Naturally enough, he was attached to his hair, evenly breathing as he slumbered.

I thought back to last night. I had seduced him. The plan was bold and direct: I walked up to him at the membership desk and said, “Jonathan, you should hire me as your whore.”

“I should?”

“Yes! My initiation was a great experience. I want to say thank you for that. I want to show you how much I enjoyed that. I can’t do that: I don’t have your skill as a whore. But I can share joy and lust as best I can.”

“And you want me to be the client?”

“Yes. I want this to be about making you feel good.”

“I am done with my shift in an hour. Would you like me to find you at First Front?”

“That sounds good.”

Seducing him physically was every bit as enjoyable as I hoped it might be. Even though he agreed to hire me, he was a little nervous, a little worried that I had some lasting trauma from the initiation. Slowly, I showed him how much I enjoyed his company. First, we talked, drawing closer as he became more comfortable. Then our eyes, and later tongues and lips met. Soon enough, our dance moved to a pleasure room.

There, skin to skin, I showed him that all those things he felt from my body at initiation I freely gave. Perhaps with a little magic, he could tune my body to him. I could do the same, as my legs and breasts trailed over his muscular form beneath me. I brought forth his pleasure and our lust. Riding a man after you’ve spent an hour showing him—showing his body—that you desire him, yeah, that’s something wonderful. To feel him inside me as he drew ever closer, to ride my own pleasure again and again, reminding us that I give this with all joy, and to finally spark the explosion of his release? Fuck yes! That’s the kind of thing that makes me proud to be a Whore.

We talked and fucked for another hour. It’s getting late, but I am still enjoying myself. So I suggested he could spend the night. He agreed. We got back to my bed at the training brothel and fell asleep after another round of lust.

And now I am smug. Not only will everyone smell him on me, but they will smell him on my bed. As they walk past my door, they will know that I got him to come home with me. I know I’m sounding a bit like someone who notches the bed post for every sexual conquest they make. And I do kind of feel like he’s a conquest to be proud of. But it’s not the sex that I’m proud of. I am proud that I found someone important in our community and showed them the joy I find in them. From what I can tell Jonathan doesn’t get that enough.

I extract myself from bed. He yawns and rolls over. “Good morning.”

I smile. “I had a wonderful time last night.”

“Madam, so did I. Might I hire you again some day?”

“I would like that.”

He sniffs. “Unless of course you would be available to serve as my bath attendant this morning before I go staff the membership desk.”

“I’ll be happy to bathe you.”

Even though he is the client, his bath becomes more of a training session than service to him. He instructs me in how to bathe him. He talks both about how to excite someone and lets me practice his tips for sucking someone off in the bath. He also talks some about how to be more restrained and formal. “Not like you’ll have much call for that unless you level up the skill lots.”

“What do you mean?” I rub my breasts against him, but he’s not up for another round.

“There is plenty of call for bathing a client before or after. Most clients will not thank you for being restrained. Rich commoners and the nobility might hire a maidservant. Some of those contracts expect restrained behavior, but their skill requirements are high.” I see what he’s talking about in the skill notification.

Notification

New Skill: Handmaid at level Beginner 3. Whether it is a bath, dressing, or preparing for the day, the handmaid is there to perform the task with skill and decorum. Society’s best would be nothing without their handmaids.

You approach this skill as a Whore. While you will eventually learn how to be proper and reserved (at least if that’s what your client really wants), that’s not where you start. For you, being demure might be more about giving a sense of innocence lost when you finally give in. For you, the only boundaries between you and your client will be the ones that you set. And of course each service will be offered with the utmost of care and skill.

Giving Jonathan a bath was surprisingly rewarding. It was intimate in ways I hadn’t expected. There is a closeness in letting someone else care for you; similarly, in offering that care. And then, on top of that to include the lust ... I lick my lips in anticipation of the next time.

After last night, my Seduction skill is at Beginner 6.

Susan and I meet to go to lunch at her family’s inn. Sometimes, like now, it boggles my mind how normal and natural being a whore in Phoenix Rising has become. I notice who Susan’s been sleeping with before I pay attention to how she is dressed. She smells of Nathan and people I assume must be her clients because I do not recognize them. Yes, I can see that she’s wearing a jacket and blouse above a form-fitting skirt and stockings. I just wasn’t paying attention until I caught Nathan’s scent. I thought to myself that it had been a while since I talked to Nathan and then I really focused on her. And took in her clothes the next second.

“I may be a bit under dressed,” I say. I had been imagining the Pig’s clientele, but she would not be completely out of place at First Front’s formal dining room. “Do I have time to change?”

She nods and I stop by my room.

“Have you spent much time at Lawler Inn since you started training?”

“Been back a couple times so’s they remember me. Also, helped out when it was right busy.”

I finish dressing and we are on our way. “Have you worked there?”

“Nay, I’m gonna do my training at the guild. Ain’t thinkin I want to be supervised by ma an talk with her about what I gotta do better.”

“But you are going to work there eventually?”

“Aye, soon enough. It’s what we do.”

“Won’t most of the same embarrassing conversations come up as you talk about clients and that sort of thing working alongside them?”

We walk in silence as she considers. Eventually she shrugs. “Reckon so. I want to have my own confidence—my own ideas. I’m gonna come there as my own Whore, not as someone they’s shaping.”

“I wish you luck.”

Lawler Inn is in the older part of the city. We walk through the temple square. Rather than approaching the keep, we turn down a side street and approach the inn. It looks to be three stories, but smaller than the Whores Guild. The facade is made of a hard wood; I am not skilled enough to identify which one.

The inn fronts on a tap room. Much like the Pig, benches fill the room matched with tables. The tables are not as rough as those at the Pig. The bar is on the right wall rather than the opposite side as it would be at the Pig. While it is not as long as the Pig’s bar, the collection of bottles speaks to a more discerning clientele. A selection of wines joins the ubiquitous ale and cider.

“Ah, Susan. Didn’t know ya’d be around.” The speaker is a woman a couple years older than Susan standing behind the bar. From the family resemblance, I assume she is one of the sisters Susan spoke about the first day in class.

“Aye, Clara, meet my friend an fellow trainee Ariel. She’s wantin to see the place, an so I brought her ‘round.”

“Well met, Ariel.” She takes a closer look. “Didn’t know they trained up immortals as whores.”

Susan sighs. “Didn’t ya listen to a thing I said when I was last here?”

“Guess not. Most of us have been through whore training, ya know.”

I interrupt hoping to defuse the tension. “I’m the first immortal they are training. I made enough of a pain of myself they decided to let me be a whore.”

“Ya liking it?”

“Yes. I’m doing things I never dreamed of, challenging myself every day.”

Clara laughs. “Never thought I’d hear whoring described that way. I guess when most your family’s whores, it comes out different.”

“I reckon it would.”

“So will ya be having lunch?”

“Yes please.”

“We got stew of course, an a meat pie. There’s also lamb.”

“We’ll eat in the dining room,” Susan says.

“Ya think ya’s all fancy now?” She winks. “No that sounds about right if ya’s showing off the place.”

Clara continues. “Well let me do it all proper an show ya back.” Clara ushers us through a door in the opposite wall. The dining room is polished stone. There are tables for groups of two to six. An older woman, probably Susan’s mother, and a young man just out of his teens circulate among the customers. The tap room was sparsely populated at this hour, but there are only a couple of tables free in the dining room. People are not as fancy as at the formal dining room at First Front. I am glad I changed clothes though.

“What’s the stage for?” I ask.

“For acts—music an the like,” Susan says.

We are seated at one of the small tables. Susan’s mother comes by in a few minutes. “Susan, good to see ya. Who’s your friend?”

“Ariel. I told ya about her. The first immortal Whore.”

She nods. “Pleased to meet ya, Ariel. Welcome to our inn. Here to sample the lunch?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I recommend the duck; it’s mighty nice today.”

“Clara didn’t tell us about the duck.”

“The dining room’s got its own menu,” Susan says.

We order.

“How will it work when you are whoring at Lawler Inn?”

“In the dining room, it’s generally discreet. We’d mention pleasure and baths are available (singularly or together) around the time the meal is done.

“If it’s wanted, a guest can take a look at all the whores on offer. Some people’ll go further and hire a companion for dinner and after.”

She draws my attention to her mother, leaving with an older gentleman. She speaks quietly. “She’s leaving with a client. There’s a well-appointed room on this floor as well as the baths.

“In the tap room, it’s a mite more boisterous. Fair bit of groping an the like, but no one’s gonna throw ya down on the table.”

“So sort of like First Front?”

“I guess. I ain’t been there.”

“You’re not stationed at the main guild hall?”

“Nah, they put me in Tanner’s Circle, at the brothel out that way.”

Her brother arrives with her food. “Ah, she’s telling ya half the story about workin here. She’ll be screaming on stage just like all o’us.”

“Robert! It ain’t right eavesdropping on guests!”

I don’t want to encourage his behavior, but I want to know what he’s talking about. Susan is embarrassed, sure, but she’s much more excited. Something about the stage turns her on. I wait until he returns to the kitchen. I speak quietly. “So what about the stage?”

“Well, the dining room ain’t always civilized like. On Tableau Tuesdays an when it gets hired out, things get right lusty.

“I ain’t actually been here for that. I applied as a whore soon as I could after coming adult. But yeah, if a client wanted to throw us down on a table those days, that’d fit right in.

“An as Clara and mom tell, Robert’s right about the stage. There’s a bed and padded bench up there. An that’s where most of the action’s like to be.”

Robert returns with my food. I stop him with a hand on his arm. “So, do you like being on stage?”

He blushes. “Yeah, that’s hot.” He’s turned on but also more afraid than I expect.

My hand runs down his arm, and now our hands are clasped. “Would you take me up there some day? I’ve never been on stage. I’ve had my legs spread open on a table, but never on stage in front of everyone.”

He’s bright red at this point, but no one would have trouble knowing that he’s turned on. “Or better yet. Have you ever fucked a princess? A real princess in the line of succession?”

“No.” His voice squeaks.

“I have a friend. She’s a princess. I bet she’d enjoy it if you took her up there and fucked her ever so hard in front of everyone.”

“Stop seducing my brother,” Susan says. She laughs. “He’s not even a whore. He ain’t likely to have the coin for ya much less Princess Aubrielle.”

He runs away mortified.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t even fully realize I was doing it. I mean I know I was teasing him. I thought that was only fair after he was listening to our conversation. But yeah, I was turning him on, probably even using Seduction. Although can you imagine how turned on Aubrielle would be to be taken up on that stage in front of everyone?”

“Is she an exhibitionist?”

“Oh, hmm, that’s a good question. I was thinking of the commoner thing.”

“Ah. Yeah, that might be enough even if she isn’t normally.”

“I’m really sorry about your brother.”

Susan’s brow furrows in concentration. “I’m tryin to figure why I mind. An for that matter when he got himself up on that stage, cause he sure ain’t a whore.”

We savor the duck while she ponders. Her mother is right: it is excellent. The crispy richness of the meat is complimented by the berry sauce.

We are down to bones by the time she has an answer. “Some of it’s simple like: I ain’t used to thinking of my family that way. I’m gonna need to get over that right quick at least for the other whores. Soon enough, I’m gonna sit there an answer questions from a client trying to choose between us, like I’m helping decide between the stew and the meat pie. That ain’t gonna be easy at first.

“Mostly though, ya was winding Robert up with no hope of him doin a thing ‘bout it. Ya didn’t know he was not a whore. But he really ain’t gonna be able to afford ya.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry about that. From what he said I thought he was. It wasn’t something I explicitly thought about, but if he’d played his cards right, I would have come back and hired him.”

“Yeah, he did, didn’t he? Probably just trying to seem important in front of ya.”

I grin at her. “So, it’d be fine if I go off and seduce Clara, get her all worked up and hire her?”

“Fuck no.” Susan sits up, her posture rigid. “But it should be. Do that if ya want. I need to be okay with that, an I know ya’d help me out.”

I sniff. “And would it be helping you with a shoulder to cry on, or helping because you are horny?”

She chuckles. “Little of both, I reckon. Mind, it’d be ya tweaking me a little that’d have me horny, not my sister.”

“Well, I have no designs on your sister. But it sounds like you need to work through all this.”

“Ya ain’t kidding.”

Around then, Robert comes out of the kitchen to ask if we want dessert. Susan says her mother’s cobbler is excellent.

“I like a good cobbler, so let’s have that,” I say.

Susan stops her brother before he can leave. “Robert, I ain’t teasing, an I guess we’re both grown up enough that we’re gonna have to stop some of the teasing so’s not to hurt. Who’d ya get up on stage with?”