The trip back to the apartments felt like it took less time than our initial foray to Gianna's shop. Nenny waited as I dropped off the clothes bundle in my apartment. I was surprised to see that my bed had been made in my absence.
"Nenny, someone made my bed."
She smiled, amused at the indignant tone of my voice. There were few things as pointless as making a bed. I never saw the reason to it, it was just going to be slept in and messy anyways. Beside, sheets exposed to the air were cooler and felt better against the skin.
"None of you Stolen are here voluntarily. Expecting you to take care of your rooms would be foolish. So when you leave, caretakers clean up while you're out. They also refill the toiletries and do small repairs."
"I suppose that makes sense," I said. I hadn't really thought about it after all. "So do the maids get nosey and poke through our stuff?"
"Caretakers, not maids. They do not poke through your belongings," she replied. "You will probably not see them at all, so don't worry."
After pausing to show me how to secure the money pouch to the inner waist of my skirt, she led me back down the narrow stair. We headed in the opposite direction of Gianna's shop down the same narrow street. Just a few blocks away from the apartments was the Lounge.
It was a wide two-story building with a small courtyard to the side. The structure was the first I'd seen in the city that actually had windows. They were wide arched windows set with clear glass panes and were opened to the outside. Tables and seats filled the courtyard and the second story of the building had a wide balcony with additional chairs. The roof of the Lounge was covered in bright canvas over even more tables and seating.
The doubled door entrance to the black stone building was propped open with granite statues of smiling lilim. The arms of the statues were wide in a welcoming pose. The interior of the first floor was filled with low stone benches set around wide trellis tables. The tables were arranged around the large square of an open kitchen, complete with grills over bright coals. Wide sweeping stairs led to the second floor on either side of the building.
Nenny waved as she left, leaving me to explore the Lounge on my own as she returned to duty. Immediately I noticed the women. Human women and not one of them had a collar like Gianna. The women sat in small groups of two or three with a few empty tables filling the space between them. Succubi sat near each cluster of women, either singly or in pairs. The lilim kept trying to catch the attention of the women with flirty gestures.
I felt a strong sense of déjà vu as I surveyed the scene. It reminded me of the hotel bar Briselen had found me in, only with the succubi acting the part of the bar girls. That had been a normal Friday night, even though it had only been a day, it felt like a year had passed. Shaking my head, I looked around the area, trying to spot Emmet and Bale.
As I quartered the plaza, looking for the errant blonde and brunette, one of the succubi stood and approached me. She was taller than me, reminding me that I was now a Lilliputian in a land of giants. She had bright red skin and long golden hair. Her head was crowned in short black horns and her wings were dusted with a golden powder. Her bright yellow cat eyes were giving me the once over with a wide speculative smile on her lips.
I recognized the look she was giving me. Being flirted with might be nice but I really wasn't in the mood. I suppose she was reasonably cute, but I just wanted to find Emmet and Bale and possibly have a few drinks. Altering my direction, I headed to the stairs leading to the second floor, hoping she wouldn't try to intercept me.
There was a tingly feeling along my spine, like a whispering surge, and she moved faster, far faster than she should've. She stepped into my path and gave me what she probably thought was a flirty grin. It was too toothy to be cute and a little creepy, but more importantly I
saw
it happen. I could see how she used dark strands of power that flowed out of her to pull her body to the space before me.
Frowning, I circled around a table, keeping it between her and me as I considered what I had just witnessed. It looked pretty simple like she was just tugging herself along a rope for added speed. The amount of magic she used looked negligible to my inexperienced eye. That must've been the same trick Briselen had used on me when I had tried to leave the hotel.
Thinking of what had happened caused my own power to surge within me. The unwelcome reminder of how Briselen had stopped me from leaving, of what she had done to me, irritated me. I felt like using the swell of power to strike at the smiling succubus, to knock her through the wall or something more permanent. This urge to violently lash out with magic was starting to worry me. I couldn't tell if it was normal, a result of stress and the changes to my body, or something darker lurking within me.
I paused after circling the table to consider my craving to visit violence upon her when the succubus did it again. She used her magic to pull herself through the air to intercept me. I suppose it looked impressive as if she was bending distance to her will while casually taking a stroll. It just aggravated me further; I was only there to meet Emmet and Bale.
She was looking down at me, a hand on her hip, with the other running down the front of her tight white dress. It looked like she was trying to guide my eyes to the parts of her body she felt most attractive. I clenched my teeth and stared at the ground behind her.
She cocked her head and as she opened her mouth, I experimented. Throwing out strands of power, just as she had, I pulled. I pictured myself walking while being pulled through the air just as she had done. The power inside me surged and I moved. Only I moved faster and farther than I intended.
The nearest stairs that had been perhaps twenty feet away were suddenly right in front of me. The momentum behind the pull toppled me off balance and I fell, stomach first, into the railing with outstretched arms. The impact knocked the breath out of me and I struggled to avoid bending over in pain. The lilim I had avoided cried out in surprise. Some of the succubi who had been watching stood and looked in my direction in astonishment.
Surreptitiously rubbing at my abdomen, I smiled sweetly at them and went up the stairs. Experiment successful! Mostly. Practice would work out the kinks. Once I was certain none of the lilim in the courtyard could see me, I leaned against the wall and tried to breathe.
My stomach already felt bruised and the impact was going to leave one hell of a mark. But it had worked, I had controlled and used magic just as I intended. Bale and Nenny would be happy I hadn't destroyed anything.
The urge to visit violence upon everything near me was gone but the power was still there, ready to be used. I was able to take small breaths after a few moments though it felt like hours. My mind wandered as I leaned on the wall and clutched my abdomen. Maybe I could use similar strands of power to rappel down hills. Could it support my weight? Maybe I could fly.
I really needed to meet another
catalyst
before attempting that. Mimicking the fate of Icarus, flying too high to the sun or exceeding the possible, would be unpleasant, to say the least. Maybe Bale and Nenny had a point about unauthorized experimentation.
With a hand on the wall to steady myself, I went up the rest of the stairs. Trying to look like I hadn't just nearly knocked myself out, I looked around the second floor. The floor plan mirrored the first level with tables arranged around the square of an open grill and bar. Another pair of stairs led up to the roof on either side of the room.
This level of the Lounge was nearly deserted. There was only a small group of women in the far left corner talking amongst themselves. A few succubi tended the bar and kitchen in the middle of the room and hadn't looked up when I reached the landing. Not seeing Emmet or Bale, I continued up the stairs to the roof.
The canvas covering the roof was propped up on long iron poles. It was a riotous clash of color, made up of many smaller fabrics sewn together. It looked like a gaudy circus tent but it made me smile to finally see color against the dull black of the city.
The bar area was smaller than on the lower floors with more of the area given over to a stage. Instead of wide trellis tables and benches, smaller circular tables with high backed chairs filed the area. Each table had four to five of the sturdy seats arranged around them. There were more women on the roof than the on the first floor and courtyard.
"Tony, over here brah!" called Emmet from a table in the far right corner of the roof.
She was sitting at a table with Bale, two mugs were set on the table before them. Bale smiled when she saw me, I guess she had recovered from my morning tantrum.
"Looking good," Emmet said as I walked over to them.
"You think so?" I asked looking down at my skirt. "It feels weird when I remember I'm wearing women's clothes."
Bale nodded and said with a smile, "You do get used to it, it helps to remember that there aren't any men's clothes available."
Pulling out the chair between them, I sat down and rubbed at my stomach. It was already very tender; the bruise would probably be spectacular.
I glanced around and said, "So this is the Lounge. It looks like a regular beer garden."
"It's okay," Bale said before taking a drink from her cup. "It gets tiresome coming here so often."
"How often do you come here?" I asked.
"Daily. Usually two or three times a day."
"Why so often?"
Bale shrugged while Emmet said, "Brah, there's not much we can do here. It's either come here, the Old Market or sit around the apartments."
"Huh? There's a whole metropolis here, there's gotta be other things to do, other places to visit," I said as I looked between the two.
Emmet leaned back in her chair with a sigh and pulled her cup to her.
Bale shook her head and said, "We're allowed to the Old Market and here. Everything else is off-limits."
I stared at them in disbelief.
Emmet took a sip from her cup and nodded to me. "Yeah brah, they say it's for our safety. It's probably true but it sucks being stuck here."
"That's it? Two places when we're not in the apartment? Like dogs kept in a kennel on a short leash?" I asked incredulously, the magic within me started to surge with my irritation.
"Please calm down!" Bale implored while leaning back, her face draining of color.
"Easy brah," said Emmet soothingly while she lightly placed a hand on mine. "It's not like that. Some of the watch will escort us around when they're free. We can hit up the vendors on the streets and visit some shops. They're just worried someone might steal us again."
Slumping in my chair, I let out an exasperated sigh. I wasn't sure what was worse, the initial kidnapping or the hint that they coddled us for our own good. Tilting my head back against the seat's backrest, I stared up at the colorful canvas covering the roof. It sounded like the Stolen were bored to death with nothing to do until going home.
My eyes drifted to the iron poles holding the fabric roof in place. Part of me wanted to see if I could break them with magic, the other wondered why I wanted to destroy things. Snapping my head forward, I straightened up in the seat and looked at Bale.
"Do they have libraries here?" I asked. They had parchment they must have books too. Surely, we could borrow them and read to pass the time. Maybe I could learn more about how to control my magic or what was done to me.
