Chapter 72
'Dear Nerissea,
How do you fare? I trust you have been eating well and tending to your health with due care. Of late, my thoughts have turned to you with increasing frequency, and I find that I miss you.
I have taken residence in Ivoryspire, within the city of Valmoria. It is a place of quiet beauty, and here I have found peace and happiness. I am now employed, and I strive each day to better myself. One day, I hope to possess a mind as refined as your own.
You may not yet be aware, yet Yseldra and I have a daughter together. She is but five years of age, a smaller reflection of Yseldra herself, and I have named her Aelunira. Should you be willing, I would wish to introduce her to you. I believe she would take great joy in your presence.
It has reached me that you now reside within a temple as a nun. I understand the weight you carry, the guilt and sorrow that have led you there. I, too, once bore such burdens. Yet, Nerissea, I have learned to release them, and I entreat you to do the same. Yseldra, you, and I have inflicted enough pain upon one another. I would ask that we begin anew.
Yseldra and the Duchess of Ivoryspire are presently arranging for the construction of portals between Dunverra and this place. When they are complete, I shall take residence within the palace alongside Yseldra and our child.
May I visit you then? Properly, either within your own residence or at the palace, and not within the temple, where I do not believe you belong. It is not a place suited to you. Will you leave?
I await your reply.
Your friend,
Naevia Ashcroft.'
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"I must return to Dunverra in search of Fumiah stones," Yseldra said as she cast a short branch into the distance, and Veevee gave chase at once.
Aelunira was occupied with her tutors, and so Yseldra and I had taken to the pavilion for a breath of fresh air. The residence had been newly painted, and the air within remained somewhat stifling.
Veevee returned and placed the branch before me, his small paws shifting with eager anticipation. "Safe travels," I said as I took it and threw it.
"I shall take Aelunira with me. We will be gone for a year, perhaps less, should I secure the stones with haste."
"Why must you take her… could you not go alone?"
She reached for my face and turned me toward her. "Why do you look so composed?"
"Composed?"
Her brows drew together. "Far too composed. Will you not miss me?"
"I went years without you. I shall manage."
"Will you not at least miss my rather considerable cock?"
I regarded her with a bland look. "You cannot be serious."
Her lips curved with that familiar mischief. "Entirely so."
I rose, intending to take my leave, yet she caught me and drew me back down. "I find myself in need of you," she murmured, her voice low with teasing warmth. "Shall we indulge ourselves, a swift release?"
"Restrain yourself, Yseldra. We have indulged far too often of late. I am quite exhausted."
"How is it that you are weary? Do I not bear the greater share of the effort?"
"As you are so fond of reminding me, your cock is no modest thing. It requires no small measure of strength to receive it."
"I find it most delightful that you now speak the word cock so freely. It arouses me greatly. Shall we fuck?"
"No."
"You must build your stamina. You are far too weak. You ought to possess endurance equal to my own."
"Well, forgive me if I do not spend my days driving my hips about like a madwoman merely to cultivate such stamina."
She laughed at that, pressing herself into my chest and wrapping her arms about my waist. "I cherished the Naevia you once were, yet I find myself far more taken with the woman you have become. You are utterly delightful. That you can speak so plainly without the slightest change in expression amuses me greatly."
I returned the embrace. For all her debauchery, she was mine, after all. "When do you depart?"
"In a week," she replied, her hand straying with familiar boldness to the curve of my buttocks. "I am not taking Aelunira from you. I must bring her only to formally bestow upon her the title of princess, and I would not trust her return without me. Though my men are capable, the journey remains long."
"Very well, Yseldra."
"Oh, I am told you sent a letter to Nerissea."
"I did."
"I am quite jealous. You have never sent such a letter to me."
"You stand before me now, do you not?"
"And yet, you never wrote to me."
"I shall write to you once you have returned to your kingdom."
"You had better," she said with a knowing smile. "Relying upon your drawers alone shall not suffice this time."
I tilted my head back and fixed my gaze upon the ceiling of the pavilion, quietly questioning the course of my life with a woman whose thoughts seemed so often drawn toward indulgence.
Amidst it, a memory surfaced. I recalled the maids once speaking of Yseldra burning toys. Why would she do such a thing? To purchase them only to cast them into flame… what manner of habit was that?
I turned my gaze back to her. "Yseldra, do you still burn toys?"
She stilled, her hands withdrawing from me. In that instant, I understood there was meaning behind it. It had never been a matter of idle amusement. The way she drew herself away spoke volumes. Her shoulders curved inward, her gaze falling.
I gathered her back into my arms with gentle care, resting her head against my shoulder. "If you would rather not speak of it, you need not."
"I burned them," she said, her voice quiet. "In the hope that they might reach my unborn sibling. I am aware it is a foolish notion, yet I could not bear the thought of them being alone in whatever lies beyond…"
Oh, Yseldra…
I drew her closer, my hold tightening as my own heart ached for her.
"In truth," she continued, her voice soft with a grief long endured, "the physicians and alchemists had long since determined that I was incapable of giving a woman a child. I only ensured you took precautions then, so you might know that being with me would bring you no harm. When my mother passed… I was overcome, not only by her loss, but by the loss of the child she carried. That child was meant to carry the royal bloodline forward. Naevia… I was terrified… of being the only one left. That fear clouded my judgment… and I failed to see the truth of the murder before me."
"We were all caught within a cruel circumstance," I whispered, my voice gentle against her ear.
"When I learned of Aelunira… I was filled with a happiness I cannot rightly describe. The alchemists called her a miracle. They examined me again before I came here and confirmed that there would be no other… When Aelunira spoke of wishing for a sister, I only teased you to hide the truth. I am sorry, Naevia… I cannot give you another."
"One is enough," I murmured. "We shall cherish the child we have, and give her a life filled with light."
"By the way. There have been numerous reports of women in Dunverra selling their bodies upon the streets."
She was turning the subject. I did not oppose it. The air between us had grown too heavy, and there was little use in lingering upon sorrow. The past had already taken its due. We must look forward.
"When one is driven to desperation," I replied, "such choices become the only means to secure an income."
At last, her arms wrapped around me once more, her expression softened by a returning smile. "Just so. That is why I intend to establish a new enterprise. They may sell their bodies there under protection, with rules and proper conduct enforced upon all clients. It is a sound idea, is it not?"
"Quite."
"I have decided upon a name. Gee Spot Entertainment."
"Gee Spot?"
"Merely the letter and the word spot. For some reason, that letter impressed itself upon me when I was considering it."
I found myself at a loss. What manner of name was G Spot Entertainment? Yseldra was, by all accounts, a woman of keen intellect, yet such a choice struck me as… peculiar. I could not help but wonder if she had suffered one blow too many to the head over the years.