Up and Coming 15 – As it so happened

White hair, combed back and so straight, no band was needed to bind the fall. Her skin was pale, seeming to glow even in the artificial light of the corridor. Indeed, such measured, man-made illumination fit her complexion best. Eldred was mesmerised by the curve of her figure, small breasts on a slender torso, a modest beginning that flared into hips that defied the attempts of her long skirt to hide her appeal.

Aclysia stood beside a metal cart loaded with cleaning equipment and fresh sheets. Several other maids and butlers flocked about the corridor, carefully knocking on doors. When Eldred managed to raise his gaze, they immediately locked eyes. Verdant green stole one of his heartbeats.

They were both frozen. Eldred moved first, lightly, pulling his shoulders back. Aclysia moved second, boldly, crossing the distance between them. Slender fingers took hold of his collar, tugging into place what had been carelessly thrown on. Without a word spoken, she did the same for the jacket atop his shirt, putting his suit into proper order.

Pleasant tingles journeyed from the back of his neck all the way down to his toes. He kept a straight face, broken only by a light smile. A scent of vanilla and orange filled his nostrils.

When she was satisfied, Aclysia once more looked at him. It was an almost straight gaze. She was shorter than him, but only by a minor amount – less than 10 centimetres, certainly. Her hand lingered on his collar, giving it one more tug.

She broke the silence. “A successful man must look presentable.”

Eldred tilted his head. “Is that what I am? A successful man?”

“You are here.” Aclysia’s response was as firm as her gaze. “I witnessed your game yesterday. As it so happened, it occurred during my shift change.”

“Is that so? What a fortunate coincidence.”

“Affirmative,” the word was sweetly soft in its delivery. “Similarly, as it so happens,” she let a heavy pause invert the word’s meaning. “I was assigned to this corner of the mansion.”

“Is that so?” Eldred repeated his response. He was just savvy enough to note the difference in tone between those two statements. It seemed he had impressed the maid, certainly enough for her to organise her schedule around. “Can I expect more such… coincidences?”

“They say that Fate bends to great deeds.” A loud noise behind her broke Aclysia out of her continued stare. Another servant had dropped something against the side of the metal cart. It broke the spell that they had been under. With a sigh, she asked her professional question. “Esteemed guest, do you require a change of sheets?”

“Yes.” Eldred had no doubts about sending a potential addition to his harem into a room that must have reeked of all the things he had done to Avari and Nyx. The more he thought about it, the more his forthcoming nature would act as a shield. Easy to scare women unfit for the harem life away if he just wore what he was on his sleeve.

“We seek breakfast,” Nyx added. “Is there a… private place?”

Another gaze was exchanged, this time between his banshee and the elven maid. Eldred could almost physically feel their wavelengths syncing up. “In the western garden, behind an iron gate only leaning closed, there is a seldomly used area for breakfast alone. The selection of food is smaller, but it is certainly private.”

“Thank you for the recommendation,” Nyx stated.

“Sounds great,” Avari agreed. “The first event we want to attend today is in an hour. Eldred is looking into Otherworld Development, so we’ll enjoy the area.”

Aclysia’s lips twitched for a brief moment into something more than the professionally light smile. She subdued the expression as she did a quick curtsy. “Glad to have been of assistance.”

They left the servant to do her duty and, in turn, went to oblige their bodies’ cravings.

Finding the area she talked about proved to be a small issue. The western gardens were large. Randomly roaming around gave them a chance to talk some more though. “You’re welcome, by the way,” Avari drawled.

“For what?” Eldred asked.

“For the horny ghost and I arranging your next date with your maidly… any word I can use instead of love that starts with m?”

“None come to mind,” Nyx remarked.

“When– Oh,” Eldred had not been savvy enough to notice what the two women had done in the moment. “You didn’t actually mean to ask for a place, you wanted to let her know where we would be after her shift is over?”

“Now he’s getting it,” Avari drawled.

“I am a simple man, I would have just told her,” Eldred responded plainly.

“Where is the chase in that? The mystery? The sex appeal?” Avari shook her head with a loud sigh.

“Directness worked with you.”

“Grabbing my horn in the middle of a street and calling me out for being a brat worked for me,” Avari pushed back. “Making a shitload of money worked for me. Being direct just doesn’t bother me as much as it does a lot of women, because time is money.”

Humming, Eldred bent to the wisdom of the women in his life. “Good for me that I have you to rely on.”

“Right?” Avari remarked.

“Any demands you have of me?” he asked.

“Demands?” Nyx wondered. “Not recommendations?”

“No, demands. You’re helping me get what I want. The manner in which I get it is up to you.”

“You’re a great investment,” Avari cooed the greatest compliment she had. “Alright, here are my two demands: don’t bang her before the end of the week and actually point her my way so I can get to know her.”

“Alright,” Eldred grunted, he couldn’t imagine that would be too hard. “Glad we are all on the same page that this is happening.”

“Picking up a trained maid is a lot less controversial than a goblin that we need to de-worm.”

Eldred stopped dead in his trek. His women stopped one step later. “Never.” He put special emphasis on that word. “Never – ever again speak of de-worming Ellie.”

“…Sorry, I shouldn’t talk about my fellow woman that way…” Avari mumbled.

“It’s not that, I know you don’t really mean it.” Eldred made a tossing gesture, then shuddered. “You just don’t know what I have seen in that hospital.”

“…You know, if you want to spare others the same fate, you might want to look into the medicine trade?” Avari suggested. “Lots of companies make their money by finding parasites on other worlds and then exterminating them for local polities.”

“…A thing to consider,” Eldred muttered, then spotted something behind Nyx. “Think that is our iron gate?”

It was a simple thing, black metal bent into the shape of a rounded door, bars running along its length. Ivy had been allowed to take partial hold of the metal, blending the gate into the surrounding hedge.

Eldred gave it a pull. As advertised, it merely leaned against its frame, the lock unturned. Behind it lay a short cobblestone path that sharply turned through a small corridor of half-wild plant life, swallowing the sounds coming from the clearing thereafter. Only explorers and the initiated would have found this place.

It was a small, open space with enough seats and tables for around twenty people. Stone slabs of wildly different sizes had been matched into a square bordering a marble fountain. A statue of a woman in flowing robes stood at its centre, the water emerging from within her sleeves and feeding into two rivulets that fed into the upper of the two pools that made up the fountain.

“Recognise that one, at least?” Avari teased him.

“Aurora,” Eldred gave the answer in a dry tone. In verbal quotation marks, he added, “’Our Lady Fate’.”

“Your Lady Fate maybe,” Avari pushed back. “Gremlins rarely worship her.”

“Neither do I, just the goddess mentioned most frequently as I was growing up.” Eldred led them over to the long table at the edge of the remote area. The selection was, by the standard of luxury, rather basic. Bread, toppings, milk, a selection of cereals, eggs (scrambled and boiled), pancakes and bacon all awaited claiming. As one not settled into luxury yet, Eldred found this beyond satisfying.

He loaded his plate with scrambled egg and bacon, then claimed a nearby table. Avari went with two slices of a dark bread, which she covered thick with butter and slices of salami. They both dug in, Nyx simply existing by their side. Under the table, the three of them were having a small-scale foot war. Mouths may have been full, but they had other means to communicate.

“So…” Eldred swallowed the last bit of bacon. “…Aclysia? What are you two thinking?”

“Thought we were done with the topic?” Avari asked.

“Obviously we are not, she’s not in my harem yet,” Eldred grunted in response. “Or she hasn’t been barred from it yet. I heard your demands on procedure. We didn’t talk about what you think of her yet.” He leaned back. “And don’t say you don’t know her, you saw as much of her as I have.”

“Yeah, so it’s retarded to ask me for an opinion,” Avari responded. “She’s a sexy elf in a maid outfit, that’s a huge plus. Assuming that she’s a fit for the harem personality-wise, I don’t have any real concerns beyond that. Ellie is a girlfailure, I’m not big on chores and Nyx is glued to your horny ass, so having a dedicated housekeeper is good.”

“Any large household demands a servant,” Nyx agreed in her aristocratic tone.

“It’s been almost a month since Ellie joined,” Avari continued. “Plenty of time that she managed to settle in. If you want to expand the harem again, Sir, this is good timing.”

“Just watch out for the usual bad signs,” he reminded himself. “Opportunism and two-facedness.”

“And do not sleep with her before we confirm she can join,” Avari reiterated.

“Honour the control you have over all of this, yeah,” Eldred answered sincerely. Irked as part of him was about having constraints placed on him, this was one he could agree to. Liberating his women from some doubts was a large reward for the small price of discipline. Besides, he wanted to live a horny life, not an utterly debauched one. “Anything you want to add, Nyx?”

“No,” his banshee was as loveable as ever in her quiet certainty.

As he was no longer eating, his hand found its natural resting spot on her thigh. The short pencil skirt covered very little of the white flesh. ‘Perhaps I do have a thing for pale elves,’ he thought to himself. ‘Who doesn’t?’

Eldred leaned back and paid some attention to the others they shared this space with. He only now noticed that the duo of young masters were there, with a different set of quintuplets which was… interesting, to say the least. What were the odds that two sets of identical quintuplets were around them? Either phenomenally low or magically guaranteed.

Beyond them, there were just random faces and the two servants dedicated to keeping the place clean. Since they had time to kill, Eldred decided to pose the question. “Are there ways to guarantee identical quintuplets?”

“Course there are,” Avari grunted back. “This is Iridescia.” She gave the trio her own once-over, not being remotely covert in looking in their direction. “Alchemy can induce the required circumstances for quintuplets easily. Don’t think most people bother with any procedures beyond those that prevent the usual genetic diseases though.” She looked back to Eldred. “Why, do you want to go into the designer baby crowd?”

“Not really, just curious,” Eldred responded.

“Are you one?” Nyx inquired.

Avari was taken aback by the sudden question. “Wow, just coming straight out with it!” she sputtered. “You’re so quiet, I keep forgetting how much you suck at expressing yourself.”

“Apologies?” Nyx sought solace on Eldred’s shoulder, hovering fully off her seat to attach herself to his arm. “Are you?”

“Don’t think so,” Avari responded. “Not a topic that ever came up, but my… progenitor… always struck me as more of a ‘quantity’ approach kind of bastard. Way too proud to let someone mess with the ‘supreme seeds’ he’s sowing too.”

‘I sort of get that,’ Eldred thought. Intuitively, he wanted his offspring to be the genuine product of his own actions, not something scanned and optimised in a lab. It wasn’t a very hard stance though. Given specific situations, he would change his tune.

Avari bent over to the side, grabbing the shoulder bag she carried with her. Since the secretary uniform that her boss demanded paid for its form-fitting shape with a lack of pockets, the gremlin had found alternative means. She pulled out her phone and checked the time. “Alright… so here’s what I’m going to do now: I’ll go find myself some seminar that I can kill some time at.”

“Why?” Eldred asked. Their original plan had been to check out the first day of the Otherworld Development together, then for her to go into the financial side of things while he either stuck to Otherworld Development or found something else.

“So, you have some alone time with Aclysia, duh.” The phone was swiftly put back into the bag, the bag slung over her shoulder. “I don’t want to blabber her out. Use the day to really get to know her, then you can decide whether you’re sticking with the chase.”

“I will endeavour to remain quiet,” Nyx echoed the sentiment. “A task that will be of ease for me.”

“Yeah, yeah, tall and broody,” Avari waved off. “Worst case, I’ll call you, so keep your phone where you can feel it.”

“Alright,” Eldred said, then focused entirely on his gremlin as she walked away. With an ass that fat, how could his eyes be anywhere but in her orbit? Looking back over her shoulder, the gold-eyed gremlin sent him a knowing, smug glance before turning a corner.

[Avari Secretary Outfit AI: https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/d326152ae09c.png ]

Once she was out of view, he instead moved his attention to Nyx. Kissing her was the most natural thing in the world. One turned to many. Few words were spoken.

A perfect way to wait for a maid.