Progress and Invitation

The day after Dorin's enthrallment ceremony saw the whole group - Ahsch, Ariin, Mahat, Dorin, the angels, Avery, and Butler - in the forest, observing the progress on Ahsch's new construction. Not that there was much to see - while materials had been procured and the outline of some of the buildings were being laid in a few spots, most of the work being done was still teams of First and non-Tiered mages using magic to landscape; flattening the ground, digging the foundation out, clearing foliage, etc. Not exactly impressive, but progress nonetheless.

There had been some concern about bringing the angels out into public, but luckily, in another rare moment of initiative, Aena had informed Ahsch that angels could conceal themselves as regular humans, hiding their halos, recoloring their bodies, and removing the aura of gnosis that they exuded. They still couldn't wear normal clothing, but as long as Ahsch could picture (or see and give his intent) an outfit, the angels could cover themselves.

Ahsch was still debating how useful the angels would be. The gnosis was good, and would help tremendously with gathering worshipers, but the limited intelligence - or maybe wisdom - of the divine constructs was frustrating to work with. After a long talk, the Dominant Mage had managed to figure out that over time, angels could form their own personalities and behavioral quirks, becoming some degree of independent, though they would always be reliant on their Creator to direct them. Exactly how long 'over time' would take was up in the air though, as none of Ahsch's three could give a solid answer.

Going off a hunch that it had something to do with their exposure to different experiences, Ahsch had decided to take them along as much as he could, to give them as many opportunities to learn and grow as possible. If they had anything resembling common sense he would've let them loose to explore on their own, but the hrafthi doubted that would end up going very well.

The group watched the construction for a few minutes, and the foreman for the work, a tall, muscular salamander, went over the progress with Ahsch, but with nothing significant going on, they decided to head back to the Capital. The whole time they were out of sight of the city, everyone but the angels were on edge, half-expecting to hear wingbeats as Phashim descended to give more troubling news. Luckily, they saw no sign of the dragon on that outing.

An hour after they had returned to the Odestag suites, Dorin stopped by Ahsch's study to let him know that Avery wanted to see her husband. In her study, they sat in the easy chairs, Avery swirling a glass of rum in one hand. "We - and I say that explicitly including you - have been invited to a royal ball," she said. "Well, the Royal Ball, really, but the annual one is almost the same as every other," she rolled her eyes in amusement.

"Uhh..." Ahsch felt a flush cross his face. "I... can't dance."

"Boo," his wife teased, sticking out her tongue briefly. "But you won't be expected to. The dance is usually brief and there's no requirement for you to join. What you _will _need to participate in - not by rules, but expectation - is the socializing. Now, you weren't raised as a royal (or even a noble), but you still should at least know a little bit about how to speak with other royals during an event like this."

The hrafthi slowly arched an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you're going to teach me."

"Hey, I know the rules! I just think they're stupid most of the time and don't follow them."

"Touche," Ahsch responded dryly.

"Anyways, Butler will be teaching you - he insisted, said I'd just skip all the ones I didn't like or something, as if I'm irresponsible," the smirk on her lips as she took a sip of her drink told Ahsch that his wife probably would have skipped all the 'stupid' rules. Which, knowing her, was probably all but a handful that she could use to annoy everyone else.

"How long do I have?"

"Three weeks. I doubt anyone will expect you to master the art of politicking," she made a gagging face, "but you should still at least know enough to avoid making a fool of yourself."

"But of course, we couldn't have Lord Odestag making a fool of herself," the hrafthi teased.

"Exac- hey!" Avery bristled in mock offense before smirking again and downing the rest of her drink. "Butler said he could work around your schedule, but he wants to do at least an hour every day up to the day of the ball."

Ahsch sighed. "If only there was magic to just... shove knowledge into your brain."

"There is. It usually isn't worth the week-long agony that follows, nor the months of integrating that knowledge with what you already know. Muscle memory is all fucked up, for example." She grimaced. "There's also a not-insignificant chance of just frying a mind with how much information you need and killing someone."

"Noted," the hrafthi shivered.

A day later, as he was working through some books aimed at teaching the new Lord Odestag the basics of managing House holdings, there was a knock at the door. When Dorin entered, Ahsch immediately noticed the embarrassed expression and body language of his servant, and focused on his Heart Sight. There was definitely embarrassment, but also... arousal? And frustration."Dorin? What is it?"

The human cleared his throat, made several false starts, then coughed and cleared his throat again. "You recall how you gave me blanket permission to... satisfy myself?"

Ahsch frowned. "Yes..."

"It... er... it worked. Once." Dorin glanced up and cleared his throat again. "I think you may need to rethink how those orders work."

The hrafthi blinked dumbly for a moment. "Oh."

There was a long moment of painfully awkward silence.

"You... have my permission to..." This time it was Ahsch who cleared his throat. "To climax. Then I think we need to talk."

Relief, gratitude, and more embarrassment flooded Dorin's expression. "I uh... this won't take long," he admitted, before hurrying out the door.

Ahsch slouched back in his seat. If his blanket permission for Dorin wasn't working... then it only made sense that it wasn't working for Kirasiel either. But then why hadn't he heard from the royal brat about it?

_Would _you go to her if your roles were reversed? Mahat pointed out. _You... don't exactly hate her, but Dorin seemed pretty humiliated about that; can you imagine that cunt coming to you to ask you to fix that?_

Point, but she isn't exactly the asking type, more the 'fix this or else' type.

And you hold power over her that I'm sure she's more than a little on-edge about. There was laughter. Heh, 'on edge.'

Rolling his eyes, Ahsch started to think. He couldn't be available any time Kirasiel - or honestly, even Dorin - wanted to cum. It just wasn't practical. But if blanket permission wouldn't work... but why hadn't it worked?

Ahsch pulled up the system description, then glowered at a single word. "Express." He had to give his Thralls "express" permission to orgasm, and some definitions of that flatly excluded blanket permission, only allowing 'for this one explicit instance.' Fucking Phashak, he growled to himself.

Twenty minutes later, the group was in the living room, discussing the new revelation. "I say let her stew in her frustration," Avery said in a tone that left everyone wondering how serious she was. "She's a big girl, she can come ask for help like an adult."

"That's hardly fair to her," Ahsch disagreed. "She didn't ask for any of this - and no, karmic retribution doesn't count - and I don't blame her for keeping it to herself. She has no idea what my angle is in all this, which, let's be honest, even I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing at this point."

"Be that as it may," Ariin said, "you've shown several times now that you're not interested in abusing the power Phashak gave you - you'd think she'd figure it out by now and actually give you at least the benefit of the doubt."

"I don't think she knows how," Ahsch responded. "As far as anyone here is aware, she doesn't have any friends, barely has any allies, and all that probably means she doesn't trust anyone, let alone me, with all my extra bullshit."

"So then what's the plan?" Mahat asked.

"There is no plan unless we figure out a long-term permission avenue," Ahsch sighed, thought for a moment, then smirked at his sister and familiar. "I hope you two are ready for some experimenting.