Shen reclined with his arms spread across the back of the bench and breathed easily as he sat in the small waiting room.
He'd arrived at Sweetness's gate at half past the sixth bell, as ordered, and handed his Summons to the guard. She'd led him here.
Quiet place, empty except for him. Couple of benches, two chairs and the yellow-brown sandstone walls. Could have been any place in the Temple, really, if he hadn't been paying attention to geography on the way in.
'Ho-hum,' he thought. 'Why in the nine hells am I here?'
How long had it been since that last incident? What? Two months now since that weird episode where -- so they told him -- he'd almost died?
There had been Talla, then a fuzzy, timeless greyness, and suddenly Yinna riding him. Since then, he'd felt great. Yet here he was, back in the Temple -- somewhere near the hospital if he knew his directions at all.
But if he was here for a check up, why in the evening?
A door, opposite to the one through which he'd entered, cracked open. A woman in a plain, white skirt peeked through and, upon seeing him, opened the door the rest of the way.
"Shen M'han?" she asked.
"Yes, Mistress," he replied, not yet rising to greet her.
"Come in, please."
"Alright," he said with a heavy sigh.
He gathered himself up and sauntered through the doorway. The room behind was darker than that in which he'd been. Thick drapes were drawn against the setting sun and a scant few candles were all the light available.
As his eyes adjusted, he realized the room was empty of furniture save for a single bed. He took this in as he made out the shapes of two girls standing side by side at the other end of the room. The expressions on their faces were -- mystifying. They knew something that put those quirky smiles on their lips and they weren't going to tell him.
The woman in the yellow skirt closed the door behind him.
"We need to test you," she said, quite formally.
"Really," Shen replied, unimpressed.
"Yes," she said. "Do you remember your first attempt at performing an Upgrade?"
A faint twinge of shame came over Shen's face, but it washed away in less than a heart beat.
'That was a long time ago,' he thought. 'You're talking about someone else.'
"Yeah," he answered, letting his voice drawl a bit. "What about it?"
"We may give you another chance," she said. "Do you want it?"
His heart skipped a beat; he had to force it to relax.
Deep breath. That had been Talla's advice, hadn't it?
"Yes," he said, the casual aura he'd been projecting suddenly all but vanished.
"Good," she said. "My companions are Primers."
With a jerk of her head, she indicated the two brown haired girls in white skirts.
"Survive them until seventh bell, and we'll put another bolt in your quiver."
Another chance, that meant.
"Survive them?" Shen asked slowly, raising an eyebrow.
What was that supposed to mean?
The woman in yellow raised both her eyebrows and tilted her head with a downward glance at his shorts.
Oh, wait a second ...
"Didn't the sixth bell just ring?" he asked in amazement.
"Indeed," she replied, her voice dry. "I'm sure they'll be gentle."
With that, she turned on her heel and went out by a door different from the one through which he'd entered.
The two girls approached, smiling fully now.
"So, uh -,"
"Uh?" the slimmer of the two girls answered.
"You're going to spend the next bell -"
"Trying to make you come," the second girl, the one with the larger breasts, replied.
"And I have to, uh, not come?"
"That's right," the girl answered, smiling with an almost sadistic glee.
His mouth forming an 'o', Shen involuntarily stepped backwards.
"Ah," he muttered as he became aware of his situation. "So where you girls from?"
"Within," one said.
"Abundance," said the second. "Wanna see?"
He could already see, in fact. The little top she wore did little to hide the general shape and size of her breasts. She wasn't quite like Talla in that department, but she was still generously endowed.
"Well, Abundance," Shen said, with a breath. "I guess I would."
"Oh," she admonished playfully. "Don't call me that. That's what we call the Sorceress."
"Then just for tonight," he answered, "you two are my very own Sorceresses: Within and Abundance."
They giggled, both glancing at the closed door through which the woman in yellow had passed, making sure his seditious word play hadn't been overheard. From the way their cheeks had flushed, he'd have to take note of the effect of such appellations for future use.
"Okay," Within answered. "But just for tonight, and don't you tell anybody."
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"Do you think he'll last the whole bell, Mistress?"
"Of course not, Jora," Tia answered, not looking up from the documents in front of her. "No one lasts the whole bell."
The woman in yellow twisted her lips. She was new here and hadn't known that.
"So why do we -?"
"To get them to try their hardest," Tia cut her off without looking up. "Men require motivation, impossible goals and such."
Tia paused a moment and looked up thoughtfully, not at her underling but rather just over her head.
