To someone he already knows... kind of.

4th Venardae, the 29th day of the month of Semens (Sem), the 3672nd year of Salvation's Landing

It was only after a moment that he was out the door and into the office that Reglin realized that he was still dressed in nothing but his smallclothes. He had been so distracted with watching the interaction of the auras that he had lost almost all semblance of his condition. Not a good practice for someone in the martial profession, he admonished himself. But the large man was already out of the bedchambers and looking at Tabitha standing some ten feet away who looked back at him with an amused smirk, “Seems you’ve forgot something… or more correctly, somethings…”

His childhood crush turned lover stood next to Oliyah, who had her head down as she was crocheting. With Tabitha’s words, she lifted her eyes up and looked at Reglin. Her responses seemed to be gaining in vehemence. This time her eyes did a roll that surpassed any that even an exasperated sibling of his could have conjured in his youth. It was accompanied by a very vocal ‘Ugh’. She looked up to Tabitha then. “Really? Why is he here? You know how I feel…”

Giving the handmaiden a solemn nod, Tabitha spoke in a measured tone, “I know… I know. But I do so for a reason, my dear. Please trust me. Have I ever done you wrong yet?”

Reglin could not mask a look of utter bewilderment. So much so that he was struck silent. The artifact holder thought that it might be best for it to remain that way until he was called upon.

Earning herself her own eyeroll from Oliyah, the plain looking woman spoke, “No… But I have a feeling that the first time might be happening real soon here. Why did you have to bring out this brainless buffoon who somehow has managed all the girls in this Gods forsaken palace to lose any modicum of reason.” Now Reglin was game for any kind of good-natured ribbing, but there were more than subtle notes of feeling in that. And that caused a scowl to surface on the guard’s face. A face he had not felt a need to use at all recently. Seeing his face, the handmaiden showed no sign of caring, “Awww… did someone get their little feelings hurt? Because someone isn’t fawning over any woman’s nightdream made flesh?” She lowered her head suddenly, shaking it.

“Enough! You can cease with the venom this instant, girl!” Tabitha spoke in a harsher tone than Reglin could remember her using in some time. It caused Oliyah’s head to jerk up to look at the Magistricia, eyes bulging and mouth agape. But the arcanist gave her no time to respond, “If you are going to act like a child, I will treat you as such.” That caused the dour girl to clap her mouth shut, but her eyes narrowed as her own scowl grew. “Pout all you want. I can’t make you act like a grown woman, I suppose. But I will have you be civil. Reglin is a good man. And you do yourself a great disservice by counting him a buffoon. And question my judgement at taking him on as my pupil all those years ago…”

Seeming to be thoroughly admonished, Oliyah’s scowl had all but disappeared by the end of Tabitha’s diatribe. Her cheeks were reddened in shame when she glanced at Reglin. The young guard squinted as he looked back, stepping further into the office and toward the two women, “I have to ask… What did I ever do to you to warrant this vitriol? I don’t recall ever slighting in some fashion. But if I did, tell me… please…” That last word took a bit for him to say. Normally civility was not a problem for Reglin, but he found himself short on patience for seemingly unjustified spite.

“Pssh!” Oliyah rolled her eyes again. “You didn’t ‘do’ anything… You just are. And it’s annoying.” At that, her scowl had returned, though less intense than it had been.

Reglin looked at her solely, trying to block out the coruscating colors coming from Tabitha who stood next to the handmaiden. In isolation, he saw a small representation of affection in those sky blue streamers that reached out to him. And with them were skinny tendrils of vibrant green, the color of late spring grass. ‘So she has an inking of interest in looking at me at least’ he thought, “You speak harshly, but you do not mean it as you do, I know that…”

The handmaiden’s eyes narrowed as she looked him in the eyes, “Oh, I mean it… You annoy me… But I do not hate you, no. You just bring me endless irritation when you are around.”

Tabitha had chosen to pull back and let the two of them work things out as adults should be able to do. Yet, she spoke then, “Either you can tell him, or I will. I mean for it to be shared this evening.” That brought about those shocked eyes from Oliyah once more. “I think that you can be of a substantial aid in the days to come… If you can overcome your self-pity, that is.”

Choosing silence once more, Reglin waited. Sighing once again, it seemed a very common sound from her, Oliyah spoke quietly. It caused Reglin to step forward as she said, “You hurt my eyes, that’s all… Like I said, nothing you do or did. Just who you are.”

“Not good enough… Last chance or I do it…” Was all Tabitha said as she crossed her arms below her bosom, causing her to lift her sizeable tits up Reglin could not help but notice in his periphery.

“Gah! Okay!...” the younger woman gathered herself for a few moments before proceeding, “You are some sort of lodestone. I seem a maelstrom of colors swirling about you… And every time I see you, the more obnoxiously pronounced it gets.”

He got it now, he thought, from her choice of words, “Ahh! You read auras as well?” He couldn’t help but smile. But that smile was stillborn as her look froze him in his place. Reglin unconsciously swallowed nervously. This woman was somehow quite unnerving when she wanted to be.

Her voice matched the wintry look in her eyes, each word an icicle lancing him, “I-do not-read-auras…” a deep breath came and she closed her eyes, trying to alter her disposition, “It’s all I see…” Those four words came out as barely audible, and she drew silent.

Tabitha turned to look at Reglin, then glancing back to Oliyah, she said to maiden, “May I? I may have been a bit belligerent in my demand a moment ago. If you do not want me to, I will not…”

The sullen woman looked up at the Magistricia, then to Reglin. She shook her head, “No… go ahead. I know he’s a decent guy… Yelena’s talked about him enough…” She gave a shrug and spoke in a **** tone, “Sorry. I know you’re not a buffoon.” And with that, she went silent to allow Tabitha to tell her story.

Tabitha reached down and stroked Oliyah’s plain brown hair, “Oliyah is… special. How we have to orient ourselves to be able to see the flows of mana comes naturally to her. But it comes at the cost. Unlike us, she cannot let it slip away. She is constantly seeing the vivid colors all around everyone she encounters.” Oliyah did not reject the soft affection from the honey-blonde beauty but kept her eyes down and stayed silent.

Not sure of what to do, Reglin took a few steps closer. He did notice Oliyah pull back every so slightly at his approach, so he came to a stop and folded his hands in front of him, trying to gain a bit of modesty as his teacher continued.

Giving a wan smile to the back of the maiden’s head, Tabby looked to her lover, “I found her in a small town a few days’ boat ride to the north on the Mule’s coast. She was a child of no more than eight when I first met her. Her parents pleaded with anyone who would listen, offering her as hired help. Anyone to take her off their hands. When I saw her and how she reacted to those around her, I investigated… I will proudly state that I was one of the few people that Oliyah did not respond with fright to.”

The older woman’s gentle stroking of the younger’s hair filled Reglin with visions of Tabitha as a mother. The thought filled him with both joy and sadness. For one, she was so caring and nurturing. But, for the second, Reglin wondered if she could never have a child of her own, given her magically altered age.

“After my inquiries proved to me that this child was indeed a true anomaly. I had to interject myself. I had no place for her at that time, sadly… I gave her parents a stipend of money and told them to buy or build a home away from the crowd of the town. And they did so. For almost a decade, her mother and father hid away with their only child. I send a member of the guard every fortnight to inspect Oliyah’s well-being and to give them the stipend that they lived off of.” Tabitha’s voice was soft and caring as she told the story of Oliyah.

To his surprise, Oliyah picked up the story. Perhaps she wanted to exclude or include something she thought Tabitha might miss. “It was easy enough for a while. He didn’t want for anything thanks to our benefactor here.” She spoke just as quietly as Tabitha had, “My mother taught be all kinds of needlework and I would work at it, so I didn’t have to look at my parents too often… To watch the darker mana wrap itself around my father. He had taken to the drink as a way to cope with having the crazy girl as a daughter…” She paused, closed her eyes, and swallowed. A wound that still smarted, it seemed.

After a moment of harsh recollection, Oliyah pushed forward, “When my mother would challenge him on his drinking, he would turn and leave. Back to the tavern. Until one day he was gone… Never came back. That week’s stipend I found out, never arrived. He must have taken it from the guard while waiting outside our home. The guard didn’t come to check on me that visit. Da must’ve put him at ease and sent him on his way.”

Her breathing came a bit shallower and a bit more rapid. Her eyes stared off into nothing as Tabitha put her other hand on Oliyah’s shoulder, looking as if she were bracing the woman that Reglin had thought was overly average. Seeing her in such a **** state made his heart want to reach out and give her more comfort.

The voice remained quiet as Oliyah proceeded with her tale, “The guard came the next week to find out that my Da had left us. This guard was sympathetic to our situation. He gave us our allotment that Tabitha so generously provided for us and the next week he brought us double… And from then on, he was the one to come check on us. And for the life of me, I wish I could remember his face… But all I can see is shadows behind a helm. And of course, the pattern of mana he exuded… It wasn’t until much later that I found out that Tabitha had not sent double. But that the second portion had come from the guard himself…” Reglin had to check himself mentally, reminding him that this was the woman who spoke as many words as he could count on both hands before now. Shaking his head a tad, he was having a hard time reconciling the two women in his mind.

“I rarely left our little house that we were able to put up out in the woods. My mother would go to the village for supplies every so often, taking a mule-driven cart…” The solemness of Oliyah’s mood was palpable. Reglin could feel sorrow, though it was an oppressive dread of what was to come in her words, for besides her father leaving, the story was not so uncommon. “On one of her days to visit town, she didn’t return. When evening fell and there was still no sign of her, I grew panicked. I grabbed what I needed and headed out to the small cartpath that we had that led to town.” The heartache in her voice had dropped away to be replaced by a monotonous tone, as if she were reading the words off of a scroll in front of her.

“It was about a mile in that I saw it… her. She was tossed into the bushes, face down. There was no sign of the cart and when I unconsciously went to turn her over, I saw that her face was horribly discolored. Around her neck was a thin cord that bit into the flesh.” Her eyes blinked very slowly, the eyes underneath the closed lids moved about, “I ran home, frightened, and locked myself in. I cursed my cowardice, but I had been sheltered and my coping skills were abysmal.” Oliyah gave a grimace of a smirk, “Truth to tell, they really aren’t much better now…” The handmaiden squeezed her eyes shut tight and a single violent convulsion of a sob escaped, but that was all. However, she did not continue anymore.

Reglin found his eyes filled with tears, but none ran for the time being. It was Tabitha’s turn to pick up the story once more, “We found out about this on the next welfare check. It took quite a time for the guard to convince her to open the door for him. And with him being far from a loquacious man, it was quite trying for him.”

Oliyah gave a wry snort of a laugh that held no humor in it, her eyes glassed over with her own tears unwept. Closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose, Reglin tried his hand at clearing his eyes and being somewhat successful at it. Tabitha pushed forward, telling of how Oliyah was fostered by a more or less friendly innkeeper for a few more years. Oliyah stayed in her room most of the time apparently.

She spoke of how she eventually felt a pang of need to take the mana seer in herself. And so she set up a deal with the King. Oliyah needed to be away from large crowds and Yelena was a good match with her aloof nature. The goal was to try and assimilate Oliyah into society now that she was a woman, though somewhat socially stunted. And to this point, the goal remained elusive.

“But I think that can change… Reglin has a knack for certain things, my dear. I think it is past time for us to stop coddling you. I know you have seen tragedy, but it is time to move forward.” He words may have seemed harsh, but Tabitha delivered them with caring. The royal advisor looked at Reglin, “I would like you and Yelena to continue your aiding one another. And I would like you to accompany them…” the last sentence being addressed to Oliyah with a pat of the maiden’s head.

Providing the faintest of nods, a bit of snark returned, “Those certain things are not just getting girls to drool, I assume?” She rolled her eyes up and gave a half-smile, “I suppose if I am to try and get past my mana-seeing, he would be a good subject…”

Giving a derisive snort, Tabitha said, “Something like that… I more think that both you and the Princess could use some catching up with social graces. Especially you, love… But we have been away too long. The girls may have drained my bottles dry in our absence.” She gave Oliyah one last supportive pat on the back.

Reglin looked at the handmaiden, not sure just what to say, “I’m sorry Oliyah. I’m sorry you had to go through all that. If I can be of any help sometime, please, let me know how…” He paused. He didn’t want to make a fool of himself sometime coming, so he asked, “May I ask… who else knows this whole story? I don’t want to blurt out anything. I thought Yelena might, but you can never tell…”

Oliyah took a deeper breath. “She knows a good deal of it, yes… She’s a lovely girl. Just don’t tell her I said that. I’ve cultivated a bit of a reputation I have to live up to.” Her sardonic smile was nice to see in Reglin’s mind. He nodded at her answer.

“Come on. Let us head back in. I could use another glass, my dears…” Tabitha started toward the door to her bedchambers, carrying her now empty wine glass.

Oliyah looked less enthusiastic about this prospect, but got up and followed, her visage taking on its usual dour expression. Reglin could only smile at the transformation, knowing that there was much more about her now made it easier to mentally allow her the space needed. He brought up the rear, and from the vantage point made note of Oliyah’s own rear. Perhaps it was not so average after all? The momentary thought made him chide himself as debauched and entered the bedchamber…

~This is knowledge for the Reader~

The Affection Multiplier

~Mana: 308 (+23) 331~

~Mana Channels: ~Labiae Passionii (Lips of Passion) free, ~ Corpu Vigorii (Vigorous Body) 100, ~ Uirtau Proelium (Martial Prowess) 100, ~Mensu Lucidae (Bright Mind) 100, ~ Tactu Beatae (Blissful Touch) 100, ~Plurem Amatrixae Normalii (The Normalcy of Many Loves) 500, ~Corpu Libidaem (Lustful Body) 100, ~Corpu Spectabilum (Intimidating Body) 100, ~Mentulae Potencii (Potent Cock) 150, ~Limbu Infinitum (Endless Loins) 100, ~Voluptae Gustatum (Delightful Flavor, Gratify the Appetite), ~Figurae Cultura (Shaping Culture), ~Vulgum Venerae (The Love of the Masses), ~Corpu Vigorii Magii (A More Vigorous Body) 400

~Lovers~ A: 200 E: 200 L: 200
~Tabitha~ Affectionae: 100 Erosii: 100 Libidae: 100 (Effective 76)
~Asha~ A: 100 E: 100 L: 100 (Effective 74)

~Royal Polivander House~ A: 74 (+2) E: 16 L: 29 (+5) 34
~Princess Katya~ A: -52
~Princess Yelena~ A: 100 E: 14 (+2) 16 L: 29 (+5) 34
~Princess Cirsha~ A: 18

~Nobles~ A: 87 E:6 L: 44
~Lady Wilmyna~ A: 58 E: 6 L: 38
~Lady Falina~ A: 16
~Lady Vidala~ A: 13 L: 6

~Royal and Noble maidens~ A: 157 (+8) 165 E: 5 L: 81 (+8) 89
~Maiden Caterina~ A: 18 E: 1 L: 2
~Maiden Gwynfuir~ A: 15
~Maiden Erynna~ A: 5
~Maiden Oliyah~ A: 16 (+8) 24 L: 2 (+8) 10
~Maiden Iridia~ A: 4
~Maiden Freighla~ A: 65 E:4 L: 54
~Maiden Deela~ A: 12
~Maid Camilla~ A: 22 L: 23

~Day watch~ A: 238 E: 3
~Grahm~ A: 40
~Lim~ A: 62 E: 3
~Boll~ A: 40
~Halpern~ A: 29
~Nimit~ A: 22
~Gamil~ A: 9
~Magnurs~ A: 12
~Canith~ A: 12
~Yohan~ A: 9
~Sebestin~ A: 3
~Yorick~ A: 4

~Evening watch~ A: 22
~Thedin~ A:10
~Vorn~ A: 12

~Night watch~ A: 6

~Palace Staff~ A: 55 L: 6
~Lina~ A: 48 L: 6
~Govren~ A: 7