Snooping Around [Claire POV]

The near inaudible clatter of a spider’s mandibles whispered little secrets into Claire’s ear. “Uh-huh… mhm… oh?” she made little noises of surprise and glee. They were only partially to tease the other ladies in the room with her. Mostly, they were for the benefit of the little familiar whispering in her ear. The minds of her Household creatures were basic, all they wanted was her approval. Why not give them exactly that when they did such a good job?

The spider finished its whisperings, then was sent back out. Claire had her ten unlimited-range familiars ferreting around, listening in on what everyone really thought of each other.

Claire walked up to the whiteboard that dominated the wall of the plane’s room. On it, a multitude of photos and notes were connected by strings and magnets. Truly, it was an inspiring web of information. Truly, they were digging up everything about the locals. Truly, only a group as brilliant as them could have done this much within 24 hours of landing.

Broadly speaking, Ternate as a city and as an island was separated into three factions. There were the palace loyalists, the smallest of the factions, then there were the twenty families, aristocrats of entrenched influence, and then there was everyone else.

The ‘everyone else’ faction was currently gaining a lot of steam, courtesy of the sudden influx of Abyssals. However, the palace loyalists had done well with using their cultural force to speak to the new arrivals and integrate them. It was the twenty families, aristocrats that had held their positions by bonding together, that were getting the squeeze. Their insistence on the importance of old blood left them incapable of dealing with this surge of new and powerful talent.

“Isn’t this all shady as fuck?” Eliana asked.

“Affirmative,” Fianna answered. The tiger-eared woman took the rare opportunity to wear her maid uniform. With the blinds drawn and Nightingale’s secluding magic settled over the place, they were certain that they weren’t being observed. “If you want to work with accurate information, you must be shady.”

“Leave the darkness to us.” Claire half-danced up to Eliana, then did a quick twirl to hug the standing woman from behind. “You focus on wielding this ill-gained information for the good of all, yeah?”

“I guess I can do that.” Eliana’s features scrunched up. “I prefer ripping people’s ribcages open, that’s at least honest.”

“Perfect morals are a luxury for people that only dwell on theories,” Layla stated. “If you really want something, you have to be willing to be a bit subversive about it. Otherwise, you leave things up to chance.”

“…Not sure if I want to take ethic lessons from the shirt-thieving-crazy-cunt that is you.”

Layla showed her broadest, most confident smile. “It worked, didn’t it?”

“Because you had collaborators!” Eliana pushed back.

“Which is exactly what you must secure,” Claire opined, her hands roaming over Eliana’s front. Like Fianna, the Lady Sanguine had taken the chance to slip into something more comfortable. The basic set of leather bra and thong barely hid anything. Claire’s index finger circled over the iron ring that kept her top in one piece. “And the best way to do so is to know who thinks what about who.”

Eliana let out a long, resigned sigh. “Yeah… I know that… still feels scummy.”

“Hold onto that feeling,” Nightingale advised. “Ill means are employed because it is necessary, not because it is convenient. Hesitance guides just decisions.”

“Alright… so… with all this shit you learned by being creepy stalkers, what can you tell me?”

“That you are a natural,” Claire cooed into Eliana’s ear. “That you know how to please. That you are adorable.”

Eliana gently jabbed Claire’s stomach with her elbow. “Stop it!”

“She’s telling the truth though,” Layla chimed in. “You’re incredibly popular, especially amongst the women.”

“Who have the ears of their husbands and sons.” Nightingale paced along the length of the whiteboard, taking it all in. “Every influential woman is connected to at least one influential man. Local customs have led to the wives and mothers networking tightly.”

“Many of them hate each other, but they are playing by the kind court culture rules,” Claire added.

“Indeed… and most talked about…” Nightingale stopped by the photo of the sultana, “…is her. Her husband’s position is precarious but he has it and she has enough connections to keep a front from organizing properly against him. This is where you ought to concentrate your efforts. If you can plant an idea into her head and those of a few other key figures, it will propagate through the rest of the social circles of their own.”

Eliana’s sour expression deepened again. “Isn’t that manipulative?”

“All diplomacy is manipulation in the broadest terms,” Nightingale answered. “Even honest words exist to nudge in your desired direction. Attempt not to be perfect, attempt to be good.”

That struck a cord with Eliana. Claire felt the muscles of the short woman’s shoulders relax. “I can do that,” she said, mostly to herself, and nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“Your first day of open court has endeared you deeply,” Claire reported. “My spiders tell me of all the good things the women say to their husbands. You are generous and, as they assure, benevolent.” She stopped for a moment. “My advice for tomorrow is to leverage your good reputation to do something out of the ordinary: ask for a meeting with the sultan.”

The entirety of the first day of open court had been marked by Eliana meeting other women. Local traditions held strong in leaving the affairs of the fairer sex to the fairer sex. This interpretation had consolidated after it became apparent that this truly was just a visit by a learning royal, not some kind of diplomatic outreach by the empire itself.

“Okay… and what would I do at that meeting?” Eliana started.

“You should-“ Layla started.

“Quiet,” Nightingale interrupted softly. “Reflect, Lady Sanguine.”

“Don’t… don’t call me that,” Eliana pleaded. “I might cringe out of my fucking skin. I think that would be bad for the baby… my FUDGING skin! Gah! Why am I such a potty mouth?!”

Claire chuckled, the circling finger becoming part of a flattened hand. “Being profane every day builds habits.”

“You can’t talk about me being profane while you’re squeezing my milk bags.”

“Stimulating your breasts is not profane, it is proper behaviour between two Harmonia.” The vampire maid gave an extra hard squeeze for emphasis. Her other hand pushed beneath Eliana’s bottoms. She wasn’t soaking wet, but there was enough slickness to betray her readiness. A soft sigh left the pretty little psycho as Claire’s middle digit sought the still hooded button, finding it effortlessly. “You were asked to reflect, Lady Sanguine,” Claire whispered. “Be a good girl and think.”

Even spoken by a fellow submissive, the two words immediately surged the heat radiating between the woman’s legs.

Eliana forcefully evened her breathing and shut her eyes. “My goal is to be hecking wholesome,” she muttered to herself. “I want the locals to stop fighting each other. That is just costing them lives and opportunities. Culturally, there isn’t that big of a divide between the Awakened and the Abyssals here. The problem is the twenty families. If they are swept off the board, the current sultan can form a popular government…”

“How could you achieve this in a just manner?” Nightingale spurred on further thoughts.

“…I… mhhhmmm…” Eliana moaned between pleasure and doubt. A whimper followed as Claire withdrew her hand, denying the Lady Sanguine her release. “Most of the ladies that come to open court are from the twenty families. If I can convince them that it’d be both moral and safer for them to willingly let go of their privileges, that’d go a long way. Then…” her eyes opened, wandering over the whiteboard, “…then… simultaneously, I can tell the sultan who among the patriarchs of the families would be his ally in dismantling the old structure. I just need to arm him with enough knowledge that he can do the rest himself. He wants this too.”

“And you do not need to get all of the twenty families onboard,” Claire completed the thought. “Just enough that they know they are too divided to present the kind of front that can stand against change. Four or five should suffice.”

“Tell the sultan what the families like and who would listen,” Layla agreed. “He can sort the rest out himself.”

“I can… d-do… th-AHt!” Eliana’s words layered over the wet shlicks. Swiftly, Claire’s resumed efforts bore the desired fruit. A pinch and twist of Eliana’s nipple pushed the masochist over the edge, leaving her trembling, leaning against the taller woman’s chest. Heavy breaths gradually turned quiet. “I can do that,” she repeated, confidently.

“No time like the present,” Claire whispered and released Eliana. “Go get dressed, Lady Sanguine.”

“Don’t forking call me that, you blood bucket!” she complained and headed for the exit of the room. Their wardrobe was stored three rooms over.

Not normally enough distance to keep the superhuman from hearing them, but with Nightingale’s barrier in place Claire felt confident in turning to the other Harmonia. “Do you think John planned to send her to a place this easy to change?”

“What do you mean?” Layla asked. For all of her intuitive skill at gathering intel, she was still rather poor at reading situations.

Fianna provided the answer, “Ternate is an easily solved puzzle. The person most suitable to enact change is already in charge. Desire for change is pooling at the bottom and enabled from the top. It is only the middle that resists change. Though they are strong enough to create a temporary gridlock, the twenty families will be moved aside one way or another. Situations akin to this are common all throughout history.”

“An outsider need only provide a small push in this arrangement,” Nightingale said. “A swift and easy victory.”

“As for whether or not John knew Eliana would have it easy here…” Fianna crossed her arms just as Claire hugged her from behind. The vampire maid had to cuddle with someone! If they didn’t want to get embraced, they shouldn’t have smelled so good. Fianna had a dangerous aroma of gunpowder to her. “I doubt it. In the first place, this mission was spawned by Undine’s desire, not by Sir’s.”

Claire hummed. She liked to believe in John’s boundless wisdom, but it was difficult to paint him as the schemer in this case. The decision had been too spontaneous and she had never noticed him doing any research on the situation here. “I suppose he trusted Undine. I suppose he trusted us. I suppose he trusted that no one would be stupid enough to harm us.”

“Something along those lines,” Fianna agreed. “What do you make of this, Lyndell?”

The ancient entity had been sitting silently in the corner this entire time, occasionally lifting a hand to turn a page on her e-reader. Even prompted, she remained utterly soundless for a few moments. “My mind produces naught but an ashen darkness, devoid of any inspiration.”

Claire wasn’t sure whether she should giggle or not. On one hand, that had been an unnecessarily elaborate way to say her head was empty. On the other hand, she said it in so forlorn and sincere a manner that it genuinely tugged at the heartstrings. A confounding fusion of girlfailure and primordial threat – that was their Lyndell as she lived and breathed.

“Don’t knock yourself down like that,” Claire decided to smile, “you’re smart.”

“Mhm…” Lyndell hummed and slowly lowered her tablet. “Yet there is nothing for me to say. I have drifted across the information you have gathered, scouring it for any hidden threats or obstacles. The mountain’s peak holds much sway among the locals, but only among the old Abyssals. To the Awakened, the unusual Natural Barrier means as little as the nymph blood that the twenty families claim to have running in their veins. Nothing that could stand in the way of your plan matters. The opposing forces simply do not have the might or will to gather properly.”

“So, you think our plan will work?” Claire summarised.

“Yes.”

“Splendid,” Claire cooed. “How is Undine’s operative doing anyway?”

“He has departed and dropped off the radar, as announced,” Fianna stated.

Eliana returned in that moment, stepping into the room in a loose dress of white and blue. It matched the conservative dress expected of women around here, though Eliana refused to cover her hair. There was being obliging of customs and then there was bowing to an inferior power. “Can someone braid my hair? I’d screw it up with my sausage fingers.”

“Affirmative, Lady Sanguine,” Fianna said.

“Stop! Cease! HALT!” Eliana screamed.

“It’s your title,” the tiger maid said, a teasing purr mixed into the steel of her militaristic tone. “We are your servants on this mission.”

“You are members of the Imperial Choir just like me!”

“And as such we have the right to subordinate ourselves to you as we choose.”

“I hate you!”

“No, you do not.”

Claire giggled gleefully at the little word fight. All of it played out while Fianna parted the empress’ hair into three equal parts, which were then swiftly turned into a braid. The nature of Eliana’s hair let a few strands escape, giving it a charming messiness.

With a smile, a dress and a braid, the Lady Sanguine would change the course of the island’s history.

Claire would make sure of that!