Rise and shine
The buttery golden light of dawn streamed in through the open curtain. It danced across Elemiel's eyelids with all the subtle insistence of a nosy neighbor tapping at the door.
The elf groaned and shifted among the satin sheets of her bed, trying to escape the pull of wakefulness, but the sunlight appeared to be hells-bent on dragging her out of slumber.
"Eugh."
Elemiel was many things, but a morning person she was not.
"Gods damn it," she grumbled into her pillow, the recollection of a pleasant dream already fading from her mind like dew evaporating from the leaves of a glade in summer. Something about being sandwiched between two clean-limbed young men, sighing and squirming while tangled among the sheets and their bodies?
She cracked one eyelid open, and saw one such clean-limbed young man sleeping next to her. She turned over and
aha
,
yes
, there was the other one.
Right
.
So it had been less a dream than a memory, really.
Elemiel briefly contemplated pulling a pillow over her head and seeking slumber again, but she knew herself well enough to understand that would be an exercise in futility.
"May as well get up," she mumbled, voice thick with the dregs of sleep.
She swung her legs over the side of the bed, and when her feet touched the carpet, she dug her toes into the thick pile. The carpet had been enchanted to remain warm even on a chilly winter's morning, which, judging from the rime of frost patterning the glass of the windows, this very much was. The carpet had cost Elemiel a pretty penny and a bit of flirting with the Sunlander merchant selling it, but money and charm were two things that the elf had in abundance.
The elven woman got to her feet and padded towards the doors to her bedroom. She passed by a sheer robe draped over the back of a velvet-upholstered chair without a second thought, preferring to remain in her sumptuous nudity. The two men still slumbering in her bed had explored the most intimate places of her body last night with touch and sight and taste, so there wasn't really any use in being shy at this point, was there?
Besides, Elemiel was an elf, and despite living in the lands of Divony for a goodly long while, she still couldn't quite get the hang of the whole 'modesty' thing that humankind seemed to put such stock in.
She pushed open the doors and stepped into her boudoir, where she found breakfast already laid out by some considerate maid. Her servants were well accustomed to her proclivities, and knew that Elemiel was usually quite ravenous after a night spent 'entertaining' guests.
Elemiel rifled through the contents of the breakfast tray, pouring herself a cup of steaming coffee from a silver pot and picking up a flaky pastry slathered in butter and jam.
The elf knew that some Divonian noblewomen preferred to only drink tea and smoke a cigarette when breaking their fasts, all in the name of preserving their girlish figures. Lucky for Elemiel, she was neither truly Divonian, nor a noble. Besides, she'd always found it far more enjoyable to be womanly, rather than girlish.
She munched and sipped while she browsed the broadsheets provided for her to read, catching up on the latest gossip and, more importantly, any news that might be relevant to running the several companies she'd inherited from her late husband. Erik had been an adept businessman, and although she'd met him when she'd still been an adventuring minstrel, Elemiel proved to be a quick study under his tutelage.
Dragonskull raiders are harassing caravans to the south, which will probably drive up the price of Southlander spices,
she mused,
and pestblight has infected the Daemorgrath barley warehouses in the docks. Probably a good idea to hold onto that shipment of beer for a little longer, then sell it when the demand goes through the roof.
Elemiel yawned, bored with doing work so early in the morning. The elven woman tossed aside the newspapers, then noticed a little cream-colored note on the shining platter of the tray. She unfolded it eagerly with her long, graceful fingers.
Meet me in the Watching Room when you've had your fill of both breakfast and those two strapping members of the Leatherworkers Guild lying in your bed. I found out that information you were after.
-Talina
P.S. I don't ask for much, but can you PLEASE try and take the screaming and moaning down a notch? This is an obscenely big house, but I still can't find a bedroom where your damn cat-yowls won't reach when you're really getting into it.
"Excellent," Elemiel murmured, and a grin teased the lovely bow of the elf's lips into a curve.
She dropped the note back on the tray, then rose and crossed back into her bedroom. As diverting as her handsome guests had been last night, she had a meeting with Talina and things to attend to. It was time for the boys to go.
Elemiel stood in the doorway and cleared her throat a few times. When that didn't work, she rolled her eyes and clapped her hands together sharply.
"Boys!" she said loudly, and was rewarded by the sight of the two comely lads blinking the sleep from their eyes and blearily sitting up in the bed.
"It's been a load of fun- several loads actually, if I remember correctly- but it's time you got up and were on your way."
They stared at her like a pair of starving basilisks looking at a wounded ibaux, all but drooling at the sight of her voluptuous nakedness. Being obedient lads, Elemiel saw that indeed
parts
of them began to rise, although not in the way she'd meant when she'd instructed them to 'get up.' A familiar, luxuriant warmth kindled between Elemiel's thighs, but she suppressed it with an effort.
"That's very flattering, but I mean it. I've got things to do, and I'm sure you've got... leather to work or something. Feel free to stop by the kitchens on your way out, and my cooks will fix you a plate."
"Yes mistress," they intoned sullenly, then began to dress.
Mistress?
What on earth had she done to them last night?
Perhaps she should've had a little less Synstrian wine. A paddle and a pair of leather cuffs caught her eye lying among the tangle of sheets, and Elemiel smiled at the sudden recollection. She'd picked up leather workers for a specific reason, after all.
With a few desperate entreaties that she call upon them whenever she felt the need arise, the two men finally left with a last, longing look at the lushness of her shameless elfin dishabille. Elemiel deigned to throw on her robe, figuring that as amusing as it would be to show up to the Watching Room naked, Talina would probably just be irritated.
As Elemiel belted her robe and cinched the knot, she contemplated the events of the night before. The two men had been attractive and diverting, if a little inexperienced, and had made for an extremely pleasant way to pass the evening.
They'd satisfied her well enough, although she'd had to coax them past a few patches of embarrassment. When two men shared a woman in a carnal embrace, it was inevitable that certain things would rub together unexpectedly.
'Friendly fire', as she believed the soldiers called it, was also a distinct possibility, as the young men had discovered.
Reflected in the mirror of her vanity, Elemiel's grin was wolfish. She ran a finger across the heart-shaped beauty mark on her left cheek, then set about the task of arranging the long, silken tresses of her dark, purple-streaked hair, taking it from 'just-got-out-of-bed-after-a-long-night-of-sex' to 'still-had-a-long-night-of-sex-but-hey-at-least-I-ran-a-brush-through-it'.
Indeed, the leather workers had been entertaining, but as Elemiel worried her kraken-bone brush at a particularly stubborn knot, she was forced to admit that the entertainment had mostly been a distraction. As much as it irked her, she suspected that her treacherous, overactive libido had chosen the two attractive (if slightly foolish) men as a stand-in for another.
Asper.
Even with the two of them working in concert, the leather workers hadn't been able to set her blood aflame like Asper DeNallare did. He was infuriating and irreverent, arrogant and self-assured. They'd met when he had technically broken into her house to crash a party she was hosting, earlier that week.
The tines of her brush worked through the knot in her black-and-violet hair. Elemiel rolled her eyes and scolded herself, attempting to derail that particular train of thought. She was mooning over some infuriating man like an elfmaid with a crush on an orc.
Idiot.
She wasn't certain if she meant herself, or Asper.
Asper did have certain redeeming qualities, she was forced to admit. He was confident, and exciting, and clever, in a way she hadn't found in a man since Erik had died. But there were plenty of fish in the Western Sea, and Elemiel knew she could have her pick of them. Men and women were practically banging down her door to- well, bang down her door- and there was no reason to get all worked up about one man with granite-grey eyes and a stupidly charming smile.
Even if said man was annoyingly attractive, with a body toned and sculpted by four years of adventuring in the wilds beyond the Godswall.
And also if said man happened to be a famous knight and the Queen's cousin, returned to the Yvlynes incognito to uncover a plot put into place by his treacherous friend who'd left him for dead in the wilds.
And he'd crashed her party and fucked her six-ways to Solana's sacred slit earlier that week.
And he was the most interesting thing to happen to her since Erik had died.
And-
Oh my gods
