Chapter 36: Psychological Warfare

Roban rose from the floating bed and cast a last self-satisfied view down at the unconscious figure of the naked goddess. Esthera lay, spread out and limp, on drenched clumps of her gauzy veils. Her breathing was slow and deep, and a little smile graced her slightly swollen lips. Roban swaggered down the stairs to the ground, head held high and feeling extraordinarily smug. His feet, unused to this type of movement, made him stumble and he reached the ground rather undignified. When he stood up again he caught sight of Chaos and Athea. He immediately forgot all about his current victory and stared voraciously at the marvelous sight in front of him, in all its naked glory.

That they were as happy to see him too did not show on their faces or in their bearing. They stood, with arms crossed below their breasts, and returned his gaze with puckered brows and wrinkled noses. Roban hardly noticed it, his gaze momentarily too fixated on their prominently displayed figures. He had never seen Chaos in all her splendor, or at least he could not remember it, and presently he realized what a tragedy that was. Athea next to her was a brand new vision too. Strong and tall, with a newly acquired abundance of womanly curves, he felt his mouth water as he watched her.

“It looks like he belatedly realizes what he missed because he was too focused on the mistress of this home,” Athea haughtily remarked.

“Too little too late; you don’t believe he is stupid enough to believe we want him near us now, do you?” Chaos asked just as snootily.

Roban fell on his knees and groaned in abject misery as the vision of his sisters vanished. They were gone, and he could not remember to ever having felt so devastated.

Roban opened his eyes and was greeted by Athea’s brightly smiling face.

“Good morning, brother! That was fun. I have to thank Esthera for a wonderful night. Maybe we can do that again some time.” She gushed looking all chipper.

Roban frowned, not at all feeling chipper.

“Oh come on, we were just teasing you. It was morning already and we had to get up,” she answered his frown and pecked the tip of his nose, before she jumped off his chest and out of the bed. “Don’t feel all grumpy, you had your fun too, I could tell. We just didn’t want to see you running around all boastful and smug today. So we decided a little tempering was needed. Seems we succeeded,” she said grinning at him.

“How very caring of you to worry so much about my mood, and even helping to find an acceptable balance. Acceptable for you that is,” Roban grumbled.

“You better leave if all you want to do this morning is yammering and to annoy me with your paltry display of self-pity,” Athea warned.

Roban grabbed his clothes and left ... sulking.

Nicely done, now he’ll be busy finding the help you prepared for him to nurse his wounded ego, and he won’t go looking for something else.

“Thank you, sadly we would need something like his female twin to keep him occupied for more than a few hours.” Athea laughed.

Roban had just closed the door behind him when Chalissa crossed his path. Her hair was wet and all she wore was a short white tunic. Obviously she had just taken a bath. She walked by wordlessly, but he continued to watch her passing and noticed it was a very short tunic. Suddenly she stopped and raised her hands to rearrange her hair. The hem of her tunic climbed even higher and bared the part of her body he found simply irresistible. He followed her to her room as if in trance, and then inside.

Two hours later he fled her room accompanied by various thrown objects and a string of astonishing sophisticated curses from Chalissa. He was happy Meyra was still passed out or she would probably have joined in. Not that he thought that he had done something wrong. It was just his life’s experience that it was always his fault, whatever IT was. So he was back to feeling sorry for himself when he entered the kitchen for a late breakfast, or a rather early midday meal. As soon as he sat down to eat, Menja came running in and jumped on his lap. Bosko followed just a moment later, but he luckily stayed on the floor. They shared his meal, and his spirits were rising again in this company. When the meal was finished Menja confronted him with a somewhat strange request.

“I need a gold coin and a drop of your blood,” she said, visibly excited.

His eyebrows raised on their own accord upon hearing her request.

“It’s magic!” Menja explained helpfully.

Reasonable presented like that, of course there was no way Roban could decline her request. He took a coin pouch off his belt, and as luck would have it, he found a gold coin in it. He gave it to Menja and watched as she carefully pierced his thumb with a needle and let an oozing drop of blood fall on the center of the gold coin. It was difficult for Roban to keep still throughout the procedure, as he watched the tip of Menja’s tongue sticking out from the corner of her mouth, a clear sign of her utmost concentration. Carefully she placed the coin, with the drop of blood on it, in the center of her palm, and then her sea-green eyes returned to Roban.

“Now you have to cover your ears with your hands and promise you won’t listen to the words I have to say. Please Daddy!”

He counted himself lucky that that was all she wanted. As huge as her pleading eyes looked at that moment, he probably would have promised everything. He watched fascinated, with his ears covered, as Menja talked to the coin in her hand. The gold melted and the drop of blood hardened until it looked like a gem. Then the molten gold first formed a setting for the blood gem, and then a small open ring around it. He found the design a little strange. The ring was too small for a finger and the setting was wrong too, maybe it was an earring. Anyhow, Menja seemed enthused. She gave him a noisy wet kiss, jumped off his lap and stormed away. He was alone and soon he became grumpy again.

Menja’s exuberance had not diminished in the slightest as she rushed into Athea’s chamber.

“Here!” She held out both her hands to Athea. “Can we go and get the puppies now?” She asked a little out of breath.

Athea looked at Menja’s outstretched hands. In one hand she held a small pot made out of glass, containing a semifluid, luminous, whitish substance. On the palm of her other hand Menja displayed a little golden ring with a red gem.

“Ouhm, can you first explain to me what that is, and how to use it,” Athea asked a bit unsure.

“The white stuff in the little pot is a crème. I was running around all day fetching everything Ghania told me to. Some of that stuff I had to fetch was really weird. I think she was teasing me! Anyhow, Ghania says when Aunt Iane rubs that stuff on Jenaya’s tummy she can have baby vampires,” Menja explained a little impatient.

“And the ring?” Athea asked.

“That was much easier, I only needed daddy and then I cast a magic spell! When Jenaya wears the ring she doesn’t need to drink daddy’s blood anymore, because his blood is in the ring,” Menja proclaimed proudly. “Ouh, Ghania says it’s important that the gold ring is pierced through Jenaya’s skin, and the blood gem has to touch Jenaya’s skin too.”

“So it’s an earring,” Athea said more to herself than to Menja.

“Ghania says that Nigulla and Patessa can tell you what it is,” Menja answered anyway.

Athea’s spine instantly straightened and then froze, while her eyes widened to capacity upon hearing Menja’s last remark.

“Can I get my puppies now?” Menja whined, obviously reaching the end of the rope of her patience.

Athea’s eyes shrank to slits as she looked intensely at Menja. “I have the feeling you’re not the only one Ghania is teasing,” Athea voiced suspiciously. “But you did good, Menja. You’ll get your puppies. Come with me, I’ve told one of the Manthakin guards to get what you want.”

They left Athea’s room and on their way she pondered how bad of an influence her brother was to little girls. There was nothing whatsoever even just imaginable to query Athea’s steadfast belief that it was as always Roban’s fault.

The recipient of all that steadfast belief devoted to him sat all alone on an anvil in the smithy he had rented. He held a crystal clear white diamond in his hand. The diamond had the size of the last link of his pinky, and he stared at it deep in thought. Once again he pondered the sad reality that he was not smart enough to make the right decisions, or to withstand the manipulations he was exposed to because of all the women in his life. He could reduce that number easily enough, but that was his old thinking. Killing them was not an option for his new way of thinking, ruefully aware that he also would miss them. But if he could not kill them, what could he do to stop them, he asked himself and not for the first time. He was simply not smart enough, but at least he knew they were smarter than him. If he could not outsmart them, then he had to make them fear to outsmart him. That he could do, he thought, and slowly an evil grin spread across his face. Then his focus returned to the diamond in his hand, and he watched the tiny dark flame dancing in its center.

He went home wondering if todays’ secret pursuer would also set up a trap for him. When he passed the small road that led to the barn and stable, he realized that today no one would try to lure him astray. Disappointed he walked the rest of his way to their home.

It was late afternoon and Athea sat with her personal nemesis and her two maids around a small round table in Iane’s room. The small pot with Ghania’s magic crème in it was placed on the table. The little ring was still in her pocket and she dreaded the moment she had to reveal it.

“So I have to rub this stuff on Jenaya’s belly to cure her infertility?” Iane asked summarizing what Athea had just told them.

“Yes, I guess you have to do it because of your healing abilities,” Athea confirmed.

“You mean my magic hands,” Iane replied, waving playfully with the fingers of said magic hands. “Well, then bring Jenaya to me, I’ll do it. I really like Jenaya and will make sure she’ll enjoy it. So why do you look as if someone hid a pea beneath your mattress?”

Athea instinctively glared at Iane, although, as she thought about it, she found Iane’s referee actually flattering.

“You’re in a rarely joyful mood today, what’s the special occasion?” Athea asked suspiciously.

“My master just told me he has something most enjoyable planned to reward me, for all the unpleasantness I had to endure to save him,” Iane answered smiling brightly.

“So it was you who saved my brother, and all by yourself. I was wondering about that, good that I know now,” Athea said rolling her eyes.

“Details, details, who cares, I deserve my reward.” Iane easily dismissed Athea’s remark.

“In that case what I’ll have to show you next will make your day probably even better.” Athea sighed and placed the little golden ring on the table.

Iane slightly frowned watching the ring, but Nigulla and Patessa noisily gasped.

“What’s that?” Iane asked curiously.

“Well, I have the bad feeling I know what it is, but actually I wanted to ask your opinion on that matter, or rather Patessa’s and Nigulla’s.” Athea answered.

Since Patessa continued to stare at the ring, Iane looked at Nigulla and raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow. Nigulla, the recipient of the silent question, decided to forward it to Patessa and kicked her under the table.

“Outch! It’s a piercing, obviously, and a very precious one. I’ve never seen a gem like it. But I think it’s even more than that. I don’t know, but I can feel it,” Patessa answered rubbing her shin, but her eyes were still fixed on the ring on the table.

Athea sighed. “A piercing, like a nipple piercing?” She asked already fearing the answer.

“NO!” Patessa screeched. “What a waste that would be. A gift like this has to grace the most sensitive place of a lover’s body. Her clit of course,” Patessa rebuffed Athea’s question fervently.

“Patessa is right, the way the gem is set on the ring it is meant to tease and enjoy on your clit. So the piercing has to go through its hood,” the second expert agreed.

“It’s for Jenaya. The gem is actually a drop of my brother’s blood.” A new round of gasps interrupted Athea, and as she watched Iane’s two maidens, they seemed to be starring even more excited at the little ring on the table. They looked like any moment now one of them would snatch the ring and run away with it. “Great, would you two like to explain to Jenaya why she will have to wear it? When she wears it, she won’t be depended to feed from Roban any longer.” Athea finished sighing.

“I’ll do it,” both, Patessa and Nigulla, said at once. With trembling hands they reached out for the little ring lying on the table.

“No, I’ll do it,” Iane said and slapped her hand on the ring before Patessa or Nigulla could grab it.

Athea laughed about the crestfallen expression on the faces of the two young women. Another task successfully completed, she thanked Iane and left.

Then Roban entered the house he was greeted by Menja carrying a puppy dog under each arm, and two more whizzed yipping around her feet. He endured her exalted gushing and watched Bosko lying in a corner as two puppies jumped on him, over him and all around him. The big dog seemed to be as happy as his mistress.

“They are all girl puppies, and Bosko will wed them all when they’re bigger,” Menja expounded happily.

When they grow up, you’ll become the one jumping around for them, Roban thought, foreseeing a sinister future for the poor clueless dog.

He watched all the women at the dinner table laughing and talking to him and each other, inconspicuously. His little sister seemed as happy and relaxed as all of them, so it seemed the conspiracy was smoothly sailing along, Roban surmised. Not that he had any idea what they were plotting, but he did not care about that anyway. It was time to trouble the water, simply out of principle and for his own amusement.

Roban spent the night with Ynerca, her carefree spirit did not feel as suspicious to him, but maybe she was just better at disguising her true intentions. He laughed about himself as he fell asleep. Ynerca was just a delightful horny little minx.

After breakfast the next morning Roban left to visit his smithy and the market again. As soon as he was out of the house, Athea went to Jenaya’s room. She was worried. Jenaya had neither joined last evening’s dinner nor breakfast this morning. Athea entered her room without knocking. She found Jenaya still asleep and it seemed she had a very nice dream. She waited patiently, until Jenaya had climbed down from the pinnacle of her dream, before she shook her awake. Athea’s worries faded when Jenaya partly opened her eyes and greeted her with heavy lidded blue eyes, and a satisfied smile.

“Good morning Athea,” Jenaya yawned and stretched like a lazy cat.

“Good morning Jenaya, you had good night?” Athea asked.

“Weird dreams but a great night nonetheless. Last evening with Iane and her maidens was even better,” Jenaya replied grinning. “Iane told me what you did for me. I can never thank you enough, Athea.”

“Really? Even ... ehm ... the ring didn’t bother you?” Athea asked surprised.

“I guess it should’ve bothered me, but Iane dropped it in my hand before I even knew what it is. I can’t describe the feeling it sent through my body and mind. Love, freedom, security, all shaped into this tiny ring and radiating from it.” Jenaya shook her head remembering and then she blushed. “When Patessa explained to me where to wear the ring I was a little shocked, but the truth is, I would pierce it through my eyeballs to feel what it does to me. Nigulla did it for me while Iane massaged the crème you gave her into my belly. I came so many times, I lost my consciousness twice. I dreamed all night of having babies ... and how to get them.” She laughed a little sheepishly. “That was the best day of my life. I feel simply marvelous. Thank you, Athea.”