Explanations and Elaborations

The silence that followed didn’t last long. Vel’s mind was churning and he barely noticed Catalia getting dressed. He only snapped out of it when she stood in front of him; her arms crossed.

“You’re really Luthor’s daughter?”

He wasn’t sure why he phrased it like that. He could have asked if she was really his father’s daughter, or if she was really his sister. Perhaps, under the circumstances, it seemed the most tactful. But then tact was a strange thing to strive for right after **** someone.

“You’re telling me you didn’t know?”

It took a little while but, eventually, Catalia went from disbelief to amusement at Vel’s not knowing about his father’s bastard.

Interestingly, her earlier ire seemed to have vanished. She was still disrespectful and waspish, but there was a distinct lack of rage. Vel doubted the revelation that he didn’t know she was his half-sister was enough to make her forget him forcing himself on her.

She came from a harsh and merciless world, having been a pirate at least since her mid-teens. In her eyes, his transgression might not have been that bad. It may well not have been the first time something like that happened to her. Oddly, that made him sad. Or, perhaps, she really had momentarily forgotten it.

An unexpected laugh brought his attention back to her.

“So, you had no idea you were fucking your sister?”

That genuinely seemed to amuse her. Fortunately, if she had picked up on the implication of Vel’s earlier question, that at least had been forgotten. He’d not yet need to explain to this sister that he was fucking all their other sisters.

“I was sure you’d know. Hells, some of the things you said…”

She trailed off, and Vel thought he understood what she meant. Several of her statements he now saw in a very different light, the same was no doubt true for her. For exactly opposite reasons though, which he found amusing. She’d thought he knew they shared a parent; he’d had no idea that she knew, or even that they did.

He considered probing her mind to verify the truth of what she was saying, but there was no need. As soon as she’d said it, something had clicked into place. It really should have been obvious to him. Her mind had seemed different, special. And perhaps it was more than just that, but at least in part, it was because it was familiar. She was his sister; he was sure of it.

Her striking deep-blue eyes, another compelling piece of evidence that she was Luthor’s daughter, looked at him again.

“Was he really an abusive ass?”

Vel had wanted to ask her a few questions of his own, but he supposed he could let her go first.

“Yes, he was. I’d go as far as calling him an irredeemable sack of shit.”

She gave him provocative smirk, some of her earlier disdain returning.

“Must have been really bad to make a fancy lordling use such foul language.”

Her brow briefly furrowed.

“You said was. Like he’s not anymore. Is he dead?”

Vel did not get the impression that his new-found sister was stupid or simple, but her lack of education was very apparent in the way she spoke. Her phrasing, her choice of words, her lack of eloquence. She sounded almost like a peasant. Perhaps they could remedy that in time.

“Yes, he’s been dead for a couple of months now. I’d say I was sorry, but that would be a lie.”

She scoffed.

“It doesn’t matter to me. Never knew him and didn’t want to.”

A shrug followed.

“And he never wanted to know me either. Didn’t even want me to be born.”

Before he could ask about that, Catalia beat him to it again.

“Abusive how?”

She was staring straight at him, apparently completely oblivious to how brazen and improper that question was. Surely that was about as private as matters got. Strangely though, this time he didn’t mind. Vel even found he wanted to answer her.

“He decided the moment I was born that I wasn’t good enough, and he never let me forget it for as long as he lived. I wasn’t the only one who had to suffer for it either, he…”

Vel told her almost everything, only holding back some key details. It felt easy, even natural, to open up to her like this. She deserved to know, he thought. Deserved to know what kind of man the father who abandoned her had been.

Catalia paid rapt attention, her expression open and without even a trace of her earlier hostility.

She huffed out a breath after he finished.

“You were right, he was a piece of shit. Guess I really didn’t know what I was running my mouth about.”

There was an almost apologetic quality to her tone, and Vel found himself feeling similarly remorseful.

“No, you were right. I still grew up rich and protected, what he did to you was far worse, I’m sorry.”

And he was. Not for forcing himself on her. He was The Heir, he got to take what he wanted. But he could have handled the preceding conversation better.

She laughed again.

“Sorry for how I grew up, what you said, or for **** me?”

Vel smiled at her and put a distinct edge of threat into his voice.

“The first two. You’ll get no apology for me putting you in your place.”

He’d had no idea how she would react to that but wasn’t overly surprised to see some grudging respect on her face.

“Fair enough, perhaps I had it coming. You’re still a bastard though.”

Vel kept smiling.

“Are you sure? You seemed to be enjoying yourself.”

She smacked his arm, but it was almost… playful?

“Fuck your arse! So what if I did? Just because you have a good cock doesn’t mean you can go sticking it wherever you please!”

Vel nodded in agreement.

“That’s true, I can do that because no one is capable of stopping me.”

She inclined her head, conceding the point.

“Ain’t that the truth.”

She fell silent, and Vel saw an opportunity to finally ask a question of his own.

“On the subject of how you grew up… Well, how did you grow up? And if I may ask, who was your mother?”

She didn’t meet his eyes.

“I’ve… I’ve not really told anyone this story. Not fully, and not in a long time.”

Her eyes met his again.

“Guess it’s my turn to tell, though. And even if I refuse, you’ll just **** it out of me.”

“I have no intention of torturing you.”

His sister chuckled.

“Oh my, how noble.”

Vel waited patiently as she collected herself. Once she started talking, she didn’t stop. It all poured out. Perhaps finally telling someone her story was cathartic. Her tone was even but clearly a bit sad.

She’d been conceived when Lord Luthor apparently **** himself on her mother, who’d worked as a serving girl for House Hothemer. The timing meant it must have happened during the first family visit to Point Conquest that Vel and Adi had been alive for. His father really had been an utter ass. Even if, like Catalia suspected, he hadn’t actually **** her mother. She thought it more likely the tryst had been consensual and that her mother had just lied to make herself sound even more the victim.

“She didn’t want me either and told me as much many times, and lying came as easy to her as breathing.”

Even so, Luthor had still been unfaithful to Rienne. And that right after she’d given him their third and fourth children!

She went on to tell him how her mother had been dismissed from House Hothemer’s service only weeks after the incident, thrown out onto the streets with nothing but the clothes on her back and the illegitimate child in her belly.

Surely Kal would not have gone along with her dismissal had he known. Vel suspected that Lord Luthor had threatened or bribed the steward, who was in charge of hiring and dismissing servants. He said as much to Catalia, but she only shrugged.

“Doesn’t matter much, does it? My mom ended up begging and selling herself on the street, no matter who ordered it. No lord gives a shit about commoners anyway.”

She didn’t sound particularly bitter about that. It was more like resignation.

She didn’t need prompting to continue the story. Catalia and her mother rarely had enough to eat and often couldn’t even keep a roof over their heads. While Catalia didn’t say it, Vel got the impression her mother might have blamed some part of her misfortune on her daughter. She’d certainly been abusive, even violently so, which even Luthor hadn’t been.

“I was 12 when I left for good. No idea what became of her after. Had some rough years at first, but I was on my first pirate ship by 14. First thing I was ever really good at.”

The story seemed to end there, and the two lapsed into an uneasy silence for a bit.

Catalia was first to break it.

“What’s going to happen to me?”

There was the unmistakable tremble of fear in her voice, which was understandable. Pirates were hanged; it was as simple as that. But Vel was certain Kalran knew about Catalia’s parentage, and thus also certain he wouldn’t execute her. And he’d not allow it himself, for that matter. Whatever else she was and however their first meeting had gone, she was blood. She was family.

“You’re safe from harm in my custody-“

She interrupted him with a snort of laughter.

“Says the man who **** me less than an hour ago.”

Vel’s smile returned.

“I thought we agreed you had that coming. Behave yourself from now, and you have nothing to fear.”

She smiled back.

“Who says I fear it? Thought we also agreed I had a good time.”

Vel’s dick twitched in his trousers. He could grow to like this new sister.

“I think we can then also agree that you’re safe in my custody. As for what comes later, I will not let you hang.”

He didn’t feel the need to mention that there likely was no danger of it to begin with.

They kept talking for quite a while, to the point where Vel eventually pulsed to Dina to bring them something to drink and eat.

By the time he left, Vel felt strange. Both good and bad, but the former more than the latter.

Dina sure was in for a story.