Shalia was silent for a long while as she digested her mother's words. She had the feeling of things clicking into place, of one who'd had the veil torn from their eyes. Despite being around Greg for an almost complete season, the boy had always remained an enigma to her. At some fundamental level, he'd been a puzzle that she just couldn't solve. Hearing her mom lay it all out, she suddenly realized why that had been. She had been looking at him as if he was just another member of the town looking to rise to the top of this little pond they found themselves in. Now that she had been disabused of that notion, however, everything snapped into focus.
"That's why he's never cared about our stations?" Shalia found herself saying to no one in particular. Roka wasn't in any way disrespectful when in the presence of her father. She, however, had noticed there was none of the deep respect in his eyes that the other townspeople had whenever they interacted with her father. It wasn't that he looked down on her father. It was the exact opposite. He didn't look up to her father. In his mind, the Town-head didn't occupy a higher position relative to him. Shalia could see it clearly now, her father's title to the boy was just that, a title. No different than any other random word that one might ascribe to themselves.
"Oh, he cares. Just not in the way you think," Her mother countered. "Apart from the natural desires of youth, why do you think he so desires me? Why do you think he has no problem with you pursuing Bran? He may not desire the title of Town-head, but his ego is just as big if not bigger than that of the three families. You and I are trophies to him. Marks of his hunt. Every time he entered me, he reveled in the fact that he was taking the Town-head's wife. He allows you to indulge your infatuation with Bran because it drives him wild to think that he's taking another man's future wife! If you and Bran were to become a couple tomorrow, it wouldn't deter him in the least. If anything, he'd fuck you even harder, fill your belly with his seed, and smile as you walked back to your husband. The thrill of taking what's not his, that's the kindling that fuels his lust. And the higher the position of the one he takes the woman from, the bigger the thrill he draws," their mother laid out.
"How do you know all this?" Shalia found herself asking. It wasn't that she doubted anything that her mother had just told her. Shalia herself could remember what the boy had said to her about Bran and herself even as he took her maidenhead. The motivation behind the question was instead born from the fact that, unlike her, her mother had barely spent any time with Roka. And yet, in what little time she had managed to be around him, she seemed to have gained far more insight into Greg than Shalia herself had. She wanted to know how she'd managed this. She wanted to be able to do it as well.
For the first time since she walked into the room, Shalia noticed some hesitation in her mother. In Shalia's mind, the question had been rather innocuous, hence her confusion at the hesitance in her mother. After all that had happened between them and Roka, she didn't think there was much that needed hiding between them. Despite her hesitation, her mother eventually answered. "You already know of the history of the three families, don't you," her mother more said than asked. Still, Shalia nodded in confirmation. His father had already revealed the reason the three families occupied the position that they did. He'd, however, cautioned Shalia from revealing that she knew about it even to the other noble scions who were her friends. Letting one's opponents think that their secrets were still secrets was an advantage that one shouldn't easily give up.
"Well, they aren't the only ones with a magical history," Her mother revealed much to Shalia's shock. "When I was a young girl, much younger than you are right now, my mother would tell me stories of my great-grandmother's great-grandmother. A very powerful mage that was both loved and feared in equal measure by many. Being a bloodline mage, her abilities were passed down through her children. But with each passing generation, unless they actively pursued ways to strengthen their bloodline purity and strength, the abilities passed would just grow weaker and weaker. I am so far removed from that ancestor of mine that to even call myself a bloodline mage would be stretching the meaning of the word beyond any reasonable bounds. However, since I came in contact with the boy, I feel like some long dormant part of me is awakening," She revealed with a small smile, causing Shalia's eyes to grow wide. "It is that part that grants me insight into the boys thinking," She finally answered her.
"W... what bloodline was it?" Shalia found herself stammering the question almost breathlessly.
Her mother smiled at her. "Tell you what, if we survive your father stepping down from power, I'll tell you. Until then, knowing will just place you in undue danger," She diplomatically refused to answer. "For now, you need to get ready. You don't want to be late, do you now?" she said as she turned and left the room with a smile...
***
Repressed.
It was like looking at something that was kept behind a meter-thick slab of glass. That was the feeling Greg got from the DISCERNING ring whenever he looked across the table to the smiling woman seated opposite him. It wasn't that she didn't have any desires, Greg could very faintly sense them. The woman, however, had spent so long suppressing them out of a sense of duty, that she barely even remembered what it was like to have them. The reason for this state of affairs was now seated at the head of the table making small talk about how the winter preparations were coming along. The former Roka's disinterest in the upper echelons of the town made it so that it came as a surprise to Greg to learn that the head of the Valla household was paralyzed from the waist down. How this came to be, he couldn't even begin to guess. It, however, raised his assessment of the man. That the man had managed to take the position of head of his family in this world where strength was paramount, meant that there was more to the man than met the eye. To underestimate the man would be a serious mistake on his part.
This state of affairs, however, meant that Greg had no way of initiating anything with the woman. Despite having every title item that could possibly help the situation, the woman had barely reacted. It had taken a total of three weeks to break through Shalia's resistance solely using his innate title of AROUSING. Greg suspected that even if he used all the relevant title items plus his innate title and charm, it'd take longer than that to break through the barrier the woman had set up around herself.
Still, while the mother was as yet unavailable, the daughter seemed to be doing her best to try and win him over. Every now and then she would flatter her eyes at him, compliment him in a way meant to stroke his ego, or touch his arm from time to time. They'd been devious with the seating arrangements. Niya, his mother, and Shalia sat on one side of the table with Niya in between the two while Greg and Naiya sat on the other side. This way, not only was Naiya closest to him in terms of proximity, but Shalia was also kept as far from him as the seating arrangement would allow.
It would all have been an effective strategy if not for the fact that Greg noticed the carefully hidden resentment in the girl's eyes whenever she looked his way. The DISCERNING ring only reinforced this conclusion as it was completely quiet whenever Greg tried to get a read on her. It wasn't that her lust was muted like that of her mother, it just simply wasn't there. Greg knew that the girl was being forced to try to get close to him, but why that would translate into such an intense amount of resentment, Greg couldn't puzzle out. It wasn't like Greg had been awful to her in any way. As things stood, however, neither his innate title nor his title items would be able to break through the wall of resentment.
With no one to indulge in some fun of a more lascivious nature, the dinner ended up being a more bland affair for Greg. On their part, the Valla family seemed to be playing a long game as they weren't too overt or forceful in their attempts to win him over. They made small talk about the well-being of each other's family, the winter preparations, and his studies under the healer. By the end of it all they had managed to get Greg to agree to go on one pre-winter hunt together with Niya. In any other season, Greg could have easily said that his schedule with the healer wouldn't allow him to be away from the town for the whole day. With the animals migrating, however, a lot of prey animals would be found much closer to the town. They could go out and come back with good prey within an hour or two, twice that if they were unlucky. As such, with no way to object, Greg had agreed to it in the end.
"So, which one of them will you go after first?" Shalia broke the silence that had followed them as they left the Valla compound and moved through the town. When Greg turned to her with a look of incomprehension, Shalia rolled her eyes at him. "Don't act like you didn't spend the whole evening trying to figure out whether Niya or her mother will be your first target," She said with an air of amusement.
