Chapter 22 : Early Night
The master bedroom that Anton now occupied was in reality five separate rooms combined into one. When entering from the hallway, you would first find yourself in a sitting room of sorts that made a good space for a small library. Beyond this room, through a set of double doors, you would enter into the bedroom proper. And on either side of this room were two archways. The archway to the right when entering the bedroom led to what was essentially a second sitting room that Anton had decided to set up as an office. A set of french doors in this room led to a small outdoor balcony that overlooked the front of the property as well as the main driveway.
The second archway became a sort of short tunnel that ultimately led to the master bathroom. A door less opening midway through this tunnel led to a short pathway that branched off and led to a very large walk-in closet that was complete with triple full-length mirrors and a vanity. A second pathway then led from the closet itself to the bathroom, thus forming a complete circle. At the center of this circle there appeared to be a large room sized, empty hollow created by the walls of the closet, archway and bathroom. And Anton suspected that this cavity within the building itself was more than likely hiding either a panic-room of sorts or possibly even a small vault, and he planned to investigate this further once he found the time.
Having set up a stabilized portal in his new office, Anton had a direct connection to his actual home and was able to easily furnish his current base camp with his own familiar belongings. This included a large, black-colored, king-sized, four poster bed and it's matching bedside lamps and end-tables.
It was on this bed that he now sat with his legs sprawled out comfortably as he continued to read through the same book on dark elves that he had been reading during the earlier part of the day.
Having skipped ahead from where he had been originally, he was currently reading through the section of the book that was dedicated to eyes. And here it explained how rather than utilizing chemical based bio-luminescence like some species, dark elves instead ignited their eyes by aligning tiny, sliver-shaped crystallized proteins in their irises with their auras and achieving a glow by infusing these crystal-like shards with mana. By making the connection to their mana pools via their auras rather than straight through their bodies as was normal, this meant that if a dark elf were cut off from said mana pool by most traditional methods it would still be able to reach it's mana through it's aura and ignite it's eyes, allowing it to still see clearly, even if in total darkness. This also meant that a dark elf could actually control the intensity of the glow in their eyes by controlling the amount of mana that they applied to them.
At no point did the book ever mention the ethereal "sparkling" effect that had appeared in Kianna's eyes. And having never seen or even heard of such a thing before, Anton was left to wonder not only why she would produce such a dazzling display for him, but also how did she achieve this effect and whether or not this was something that she, herself, could even consciously control.
While reading silently over the last twenty odd minutes, Anton had been noticing soft, shuffling sounds coming from the sitting room that was between his bedroom and the hallway. He smiled to himself each time he caught some of the faint noises, as he was fairly confident that the source was an intruding dark elf or two, though he wasn't completely positive about this. It was of course possible for him to be sure, as he could simply reach out his awareness to the collars around each of the dark elves necks and confirm their locations. But using such a method would just take all of the fun out of playing with his little pets. So instead he had decided to wait patiently and continue to listen as the sounds, and their source, slowly moved ever closer to the closed doors that led to his bedroom.
Once Anton felt that the sneaking presence had finally become brave enough to reach the other side of the double doors, he put his plan into motion.
Knowing full well that the elves, including of course the dark elves, had exceptional hearing that was far more acute than what any humans could ever hope to be. As their frequency limits ranged upwards to a little over 70 kHz, while humans topped out at around only 20 kHz, meant that although the elves couldn't quite hear into the upper ultrasonic levels, it was still very likely that the supposed dark elf on the other side of his door could, if focusing hard enough, actually hear his heart beating, even if only faintly. And using his heartbeat as a guide she should be able to detect where in the room he was, or if he moved his position.
Placing a tasseled bookmark between the pages, Anton marked his place in his book before quietly setting it down on his nightstand and placing his open palm against his chest.
Working quickly so as to give the intruder as little time to react as possible, Anton summoned a ball of aura into existence against his chest and using a drop of his mana as a catalyst gave the aura a physical form. Within an instant the aura formed into a type of orange, glowing light-vest that encircled his torso and was similar in appearance to a bulletproof kevlar vest. But rather than smooth across it's surface, like those made of true kevlar, this vest appeared to be made of an egg crate like materiel and had an irregular peak and valley type of shape to it. This shape gave the vest a sound dampening effect that while not completely eliminating the sound of his heart beat, should still nullify it enough that the supposed dark elf would no longer be able to hear it from the other side of a door.
Poised to slide off the side of the bed, Anton went still for a moment as he craned his neck towards the door and listened. He smiled when he heard the shuffling noise move back and forth a bit in what seemed to be a confused manner. Dropping his legs over the side of the bed and rising to a standing position, he quickly but stealthily made his way across the room and stood just in front of the double doors. Going still again, he listened for the faintest sounds of movement and smiled when after only a few seconds he heard the sound of someone stepping right up to the other side of the door. As he watched he noticed the door itself move inwards ever so slightly, as if someone had just leaned themselves against it in an effort to better hear through it.
Reaching outwards, Anton slowly and quietly took hold of the doorknob and grasped it tightly. Smiling again, he then dropped the vest away from his chest and let it melt away into nothing as it fell from his body.
The presence on the other side of the door was still for only a moment before the clear sounds of frantic backwards movements could be heard.
Kianna immediately froze in place as Anton threw open the door and exposed her. The discovered dark elf stood facing the door with her ears pointed straight upwards and her hands raised in an apparent mock surrender. Blinking her large eyes in surprise, she smiled sheepishly as she chuckled apologetically and lowered her ears.
"Uh... hi!" she mumbled as she brought her arms down and clasped her hands together in front of her hips "...Um!"
Still wearing her bathrobe, the dark elf began to shift back and forth nervously as Anton silently grinned down at her.
"...Uh, I was just-!" stammered Kianna before being interrupted as several orange, glowing rings suddenly appeared around her.
The surprised dark elf had no time to react as dozens of thin glowing chains erupted out of the rings and instantly entwined her entire body.
"I, wha!" she cried before being cut off as a orange glowing version of the face-plate gag complete with harness suddenly appeared as well and wrapped itself tightly around her head "Mmph!?"
Kianna tried to struggle for only a moment before making a whimpering sound as the light chains tightened around her. Blinking, she looked up at Anton and gave him a miserable, pleading expression as she laid her ears back submissively in obvious surrender.
"...Oh! Kianna! It's only you!" exclaimed Anton with a broad teasing smile "I'm sorry! You startled me!"
Kianna blinked a few times before her eyes tightened into a tired, annoyed looking glare. Groaning in frustration, she pointed her ears straight back as she began to wiggle in her binds.
"Come on in!" cried Anton as he turned away from her and went back into the room "Make yourself at home!"
Still unable to move in any way, Kianna blinked in confusion before groaning again in frustration and struggling in earnest.
"Sorry about the lack of furniture. I'm still setting things up. And I haven't decided if I want to paint yet or not..." mused Anton as he glanced about at the pale, sandy beige colored walls of the room "I don't hate this color... but I don't love it either..."
Cradling his chin in his hand, Anton made of show of standing in the center of the room and acting as though he were examining the space around him.
