Eggs, sausage, and a familiar face.

I sighed with satisfaction as I finished the meal, practically moaning at its taste.

“That was delicious.” I said. “I’d say it’s the best meal I’ve ever eaten, but I genuinely can’t remember if it is. Can’t imagine much better.” The meal that Mentis had cooked for me just before we opened the doors was a simple plate of sausages and fried eggs, seasoned to perfection.

“If we had more bovok meat I’d grill you some steaks that would probably make you orgasm.” Mentis replied from behind the bar. “And thanks, it’s good to hear that from someone who ain’t a demon.”

“I have to wonder though, that can’t have been chicken eggs or pork sausage. Or are there chickens and pigs here?”

“What in Obsidia is a chicken?” Mentis cocked an eyebrow. He shook his head. “The eggs are from poulvs and the sausage was made from swog. They’re both commonly ranched animals in Dystopia.”

That was interesting, even the animals here were different. Idly, I wondered if they were technically demons and if they spawned in pits as well. If so, it was a good thing eating wasn’t necessary for the inhabitants of Abyssia because I couldn’t imagine the process couldn’t be sped up at all to satisfy the demand of an ever-growing population.

“Are you finished eating?” Ivy asked, walking up to the bar.

I nodded. “Just finished.”

“Good. We’re about to open, come to the common room with me.”

I followed the purple madam diligently, walking through the double doors into the large, red-curtained room. Everyone was prepared, it seemed. The room contained all of the whores by now, Evangeline and Melandra were lounging on one of the couches chatting with each other. The former was wearing the outfit I had seen her in earlier, while the latter was wearing a white silken robe with fur lining that matched her snowy white hair and complimented her pale skin quite well. The robe, like mine, was worn open but she appeared to have a lacy pair of white panties on as well.

Izlani the pink imp was darting about the room, still naked apart from jewelry and helping Eruka tidy up and make last minute adjustments. Finally, Vixilica was alone on one of the comfortable chairs in front of the fireplace. She had a mirror in her hand and a small box in her lap filled with makeup supplies which she was currently applying. She was wearing A silken black kimono, but it was worn loosely and unfolded around the torso to leave little to the imagination, and it was fully parted in the center of her legs, letting her black penis stand straight out from the gap.

Ivy led me to a raised platform at the back wall opposite the main door. Atop this platform was a single seat, it wasn’t quite wide enough to be considered a couch, but it was certainly wide enough that two normal-sized individuals could comfortably sit in it at the same time as long as they didn’t mind being very close together. And perhaps that was the idea.

“This is typically where I sit and stand.” Ivy explained. “It serves two functions, firstly it gives a good view of the rest of the floor, allowing you to command as you need and keep an eye on how things are going. Secondly, it gives the impression that you are in charge, to those who might be seeking it or who might otherwise confuse you or I with the other whores. I recommend you carry yourself with confidence, more than anything else.”

“Is there any reason a customer would want to talk to us?” I asked.

“Occasionally. Mostly if they have questions or offers. For the most part the whores’ prices are coin-only, though some might have valuables other than coin to trade for their services we might be interested in.”

“What are the whores’ prices?” I asked.

“Well, each whore is permitted to charge their own rates, there are only two rules. Firstly, their price must be at least two gold coins per hour, because they are required to give me two gold coins each hour they spend with a customer. If they wish to keep any coin for themselves, they must charge extra on top of the hourly rate. But, the second rule is that they can’t advertise a price that is more than five gold coins per hour, this is to ensure that business keeps going and we don’t drive too many people away.”

“That makes sense.” I nodded.

“Now the exception to that second rule is tips, but of course that must be a decision made by the customer. In other words, the whores could charge five gold per hour, and the customer could leave a two gold coin tip and that would be fine. The whore just wouldn’t be allowed to charge seven per hour.”

“Right. Just so I have some kind of perspective on this, how much is a mug of ale?” I asked.

“Ah yes, I suppose you wouldn’t have any real idea of how much that is worth, would you? I’ve only just barely explained how our currency works after all. A mug of ale costs a single copper coin. The meal you just ate would run a customer three copper coins. A single day at our inn is one silver coin and two copper coins if they want a locked chest inside the room.”

“So, each hour with the whores is worth at least forty mugs of ale and eight days at the inn.” I summarized. This was also giving me some insight into the worth of bloodstones and shadesteel coins. One single shadesteel coin could buy someone one-thousand mugs of ale. That was an amount of ale I could scarcely fathom.

“You are good at arithmetic, excellent.” Ivy replied, smiling at me slightly. Then she turned to the common room. “Listen up everyone,” all of the employees turned to their madam, “it’s opening time. Let’s show my new apprentice how we operate.”

Everyone gave their own words of confirmations, besides Dekkan who just shrugged and opened the double doors to signify that the bordello section of the Scarlet Tail was open.

“For tonight,” Ivy began, “I just want you to observe. Watch everything. The whores, the customers, me, Dekkan, everyone. Watch what is happening, get used to the flow.”

And so, I did. I was thankful to find that one of the walls contained a clock by which I could track the time as the night passed. The first customer did not arrive until a half an hour into the shift. It was a portly omen man in a top hat who would remove it as he greeted the workers. Evangeline was the first to approach him and offer him a seat and some refreshments, which he was happy to take.

As instructed, I watched all of this take place, Evangeline and the omen spoke for some time before they both nodded and Evangeline walked away, making her way to where Izlani was seated and gesturing for her to take over. When the pink imp girl did so, and took Evangeline’s place beside the man, he suddenly became much more interested in the conversation, and even became a little forward physically.

“Tell me, Silus,” Ivy began suddenly, “what do you think just happened there?”

To me it was obvious, but equally obvious was that Ivy was testing me. “Eva greeted him but either he expressed more interest in Izzy or Eva thought he would be more interested in her, so she got Izzy instead.”

“Excellent.” Ivy nodded. “Each of the whores take turns greeting the customers and then chat with them to learn which of the others they might enjoy the company of. Assuming they didn’t get lucky and it was them from the beginning.”

I nodded, that did seem like a good way of going about it in theory. Still, the portly man had been chatting rather pointlessly for fifteen minutes before the buxom blonde went and got Izlani. Something about that didn’t seem very efficient, but I was struggling to figure out something that might have worked better. I was brainstorming anyway in the back of my mind.

Eventually, the portly man and Izlani went into the hallway that contained the whores’ rooms and disappeared from sight. Over the next hour, more customers came in and each of them went about the same as the first until each of the other whores were occupied. The only serendipitous exception to this process was a woman who was greeted by Vixilica and immediately took to her. It took me a moment to realize the arachna was perfect for her because of her rigid chitinous penis. This made me curious about something.

“How come you don’t have any men as whores?” I asked.

“This establishment is one of four bordellos in the city. Each bordello caters to a different sort of sexual interest so that we don’t get any cutthroat competition going. It was my idea, actually, I would rather cooperate with the other madams and sirs than try to compete with them. So, the short answer is that one of the other three brothels caters to those who are interested in men and there is another that caters to those interested in feminine men.”

“What about the last one?” I asked. “Masculine women?”

Ivy shook her head. “That is an untapped market, I’ve always wanted to get a whore here who fit that description. No, the last brothel has… strange things. The whores there are entirely inhuman in appearance.”

Before long there was a steady flow, and I did my best to pay attention to it. Eventually, Ivy left for a moment to retrieve Eruka from the Inn side, and she came in to help greet the customers. Eruka looked very happy to be doing this and seemed to relish the attention from the customers who were waiting for a particular whore or for an opening. After all, there were brief periods where no whores were on the floor because they were servicing customers all at once, and in these moments Eruka truly shined with some help from Ivy who also went down to socialize with her.

“On occasion you may need to be on the floor yourself, just to speak with the customers and keep them occupied.” Ivy explained after returning. “Not often, only in times like these where we have lots of customers and no workers on the floor.”

I began to notice some patterns among the whores themselves. Though their rates were hourly, many times they would return much sooner than that. Ivy explained that customers are charged for the hour even if they don’t use the whole allotment, which was fair I supposed. Out of all the whores, Melandra spent far and away the most time with her customers, and Izlani spent the least. Evangeline was the most popular and Vixilica was the least. Not a single customer left the building looking disappointed, however.

Eventually, about halfway through the shift, a familiar face came through the door. I recognized her auburn hair, red eyes, and slender frame almost immediately, and when we made eye contact, she grew a wide grin and sauntered up to the platform and the double-seat, which I was currently sitting in.

“Silus!” Korivia said, immediately hopping into my lap and wrapping her arms around my neck. “Look at you, you’re even more gorgeous than when I first met you.” She winked.

“Korivia, I’m glad to see you again.” I returned the smile.

“Ah, I see you two are already acquainted.” Ivy said.

“Hello, Ivy.” Korivia replied and blew a kiss at the violet ifran. “Good to see you again.”

“So, what brings you here?” I asked the succubus, curiously. I noted that she was still sporting the larger breasts I had mentally requested on the cart-ride, however the belt was pushed up around the top of her torso and covering the breasts, just barely, was a loose black cloth hanging from the bottom of the belt.

“I came to see if you were still here, and if not to ask where you went. Also, because I need to get with Mel for some one-on-one time.”

Ivy seemed interested in that, almost surprised. “Silus,” she looked at me, “I’m going to go socialize for a bit. I’ll leave you with Korivia until Melandra returns. She’s with a customer right now.”

Ivy then walked off the platform and onto the floor.

“That was strange.” I said.

“Oh, she’s just worried about me. She knows I only come here and talk to Mel when something crazy is going on in my life. Dunno if you already knew, but Mel kinda doubles as a therapist around here as well as a whore. Her sessions are sexy as well as introspective.”

“Oh, I see. Are you okay?” I asked and looked in her eyes to gauge her reaction.

She blinked and then blushed slightly. “I’m fine don’t you worry. I’m just thinking about doing something a little… spontaneous and want to talk about it to someone so they can either talk me into it or out of it. But it’s nothing too serious I promise.”

She seemed sincere enough, so I nodded. “All right, fair.”

“Now the other reason Ivy left is because she figured you and I would get into some trouble. The question is, was she right?” Korivia wiggled her eyebrows at me.