R'sath, Tower of Starlight - Part 2 - A Tour

The remainder of the day of their arrival was rather uneventful, though Dahil's prediction of what her son and daughter would end up doing together was accurate, with Ahsch and his girls fucking late into the night after the family had finished dinner. The following morning saw the trio awakened by Dorin as the attendant allowed himself in after a sleepily-grunted response to his knock. The stared at them for a startled moment, his face swiftly turning red, before he resolutely turned his gaze away from them and made himself busy getting them awake - namely by opening the curtains over the windows and querying if they would like breakfast together, separate, or some combination thereof.

With the trio's answer of 'together,' he bowed and made a quick retreat from the room. Once the door was closed, Mahat turned to her Master, a sly, teasing smirk on her face. "He was quite intrigued by your cock, wasn't he, Master?"

Ahsch frowned sleepily, rubbing bits of gunk from his eyes. "Huh?"

The familiar giggled. "For sure, he took all three of us in, but he seemed rather distracted by your dick specifically," she said.

The Dominant Mage stared blankly at her for a long moment. "I'll take your word for it," he eventually grunted noncommittally. Whether or not his attendant was attracted to him was relatively meaningless, as far as he was concerned. He doubted that Dorin would act on any such feelings, given the servant's professional attitude so far, and worst case scenario, Ahsch could always request a different servant if he made inappropriate advances. His lack of reciprocal attraction towards the other boy didn't mean he had to _do _anything - if Dorin was gay he was gay, and that was that. Nothing had changed between yesterday and today.

The hrafthi eventually managed to shake his twin awake, and the three got dressed, just in time for Dorin and another attendant - a young woman - to arrive, knock, and after waiting for Ahsch to invite them in, entered with a cart of breakfast for the three. As Ariin tore into the food with ferocious abandon and Mahat picked at unnecessary choice bits while gazing playfully at her Master, Ahsch thanked the two attendants, both for himself and on his girls' behalf. With small bows, the two servants left, and the Dominant Mage turned to his own food.

"He definitely likes you," came the tease.

"Mahat," Ahsch warned curtly, giving her a small glare. With another giggle, the familiar put her hands up in surrender before returning to enjoying the taste of breakfast.

After the meal, the three met up with Dahil in the older hrafthi's room. She informed them the she had already asked about Michlas' schedule, and her own attendant had guessed the bodyguard wouldn't be available until at least after lunch. That being the case, she suggested her children take a tour, if only to keep from making too much noise. Grumbling at being called out again, the twins returned to their rooms and summoned the servants by activating the enchantment on the small bells that sat on the desks in their rooms. A few minutes after, Dorin arrived.

Now that he was awake and his attention not otherwise engaged, Ahsch noticed the slight disappointment in his attendant's body language when the hrafthi asked about a tour for himself and his sister (and Mahat). The other boy hid it well, but especially with Enhanced Senses active, the Dominant Mage caught the subtle shifts and the expression in Dorin's eyes.

Thankfully, Mahat kept her teasing to herself.

Shortly after, the three guests were being escorted by Dorin and Ariin's attendant, a canid monster named Salah. The tour began down on the ground floor, a few dozen stories below their guest quarters. While there were several staircases at certain points in the tower's cross-section, most traveled between the many floors of R'sath using the lifts - essentially magically-powered elevators. The lower section of R'sath was dedicated to the royal guard, with all the facilities they would need within a few floors of their barracks or posts. Despite the decidedly vertical nature of the tower, it was an impressively broad structure as well, each floor large enough that Ahsch imagined them as closed-floorplan department stores. Which meant that the few hundred men, women, and monsters which made up the royal guard were able to comfortably live and work with so few floors dedicated to them.

The next grouping of floors was the servants,' and it was also the largest, as it not only housed the kitchens, but also the launderers, the chambermaids, butlers, cleaners, etc. Virtually every servant which worked in R'sath - aside from those of the royal guards - lived in the second grouping, and more than a few of them worked there as well. Above the servants were a handful of floors for receiving most guests, housing meeting rooms and offices. Dorin suggested that any discussions that Ahsch and his family would have with Michlas would likely take place there.

After that they were back on a familiar set of floors for receiving guests who lacked significant status - important commoners, merchants, and lesser nobles. Above them were meeting rooms much like those a few floors lower down, only of higher quality and somewhat larger. Then another set of similarly fancier guest rooms. That pattern repeated twice more, each layer up becoming finer and nicer, for increasingly important guests. It was at that point that the physical tour stopped.

"Above here, access is restricted," Dorin informed the trio, a note of apology in his expression. "It includes mages' laboratories, the royal libraries, the quarters and offices of high officials, as well as numerous royal apartments for the extended royal family. The vaults are also located higher up, as well as the ruling family's suites, and a number of other rooms I, unfortunately, am not familiar with."

Ahsch, Ariin, and Mahat gazed up at the ceiling for a few moments. "How many more floors are there?" Ariin asked.

"At least fifty," Salah said. "We're not exactly sure. And we are currently on the ninety-sixth floor."

Ahsch let out a low, impressed whistle. Sure, there was magic involved, but a structure made mostly of stone and marble that was over 140 floors tall was incredible. The two attendants grinned at the wordless praise. "R'sath is, indeed, a magnificent place," Dorin agreed.

Not long after, the group had returned to the lowest set of guest quarters, and it would soon be time for lunch - a significant amount of walking had burned much of the time between breakfast and noon. After the family had decided on a group meal, Ariin and Ahsch returned to their rooms for the half-hour before the midday meal, the Dominant Mage deciding to write up a list of spell ideas for future development, averse as he was to frustrating himself with the Edge of Glory/Arsenal of Ecstasy combined spell, and stalled by simple overstimulation on the magical senses front.

But the boy had barely settled into the chair with a piece of paper and a magic quill when a knock at the door stopped him before he had even started. It was Dorin again. "If you are amenable to it," he said hesitantly, "Lord Michlas has extended an apology for the delay, as well as an invitation to join him for lunch."

"Oh," Ahsch replied dumbly. "I take it we'd be going elsewhere to join him?"

The attendant nodded. "Y-yes. Lord Michlas, in addition to being her Ladyship Kirasiel Celes' bodyguard, is also a high official of the Kingdom of Starlight - armsmaster of the Star Guard."

"Oh," the hrafthi repeated. "So we'd..." he trailed off, once again caught off guard by somehow knowing people in very high places.