Welcome To Valsa Ch 13

With the subject of the farm settled, the rest of Jev's week focused on getting ready to return home to get his stuff moved. Upon discussion with the ladies and a bit of looking up the availability of flights, it was decided that Sam would fly out on the same flight as him, Cyd would follow alone a few days later, and Dione would stay behind to tend the farm as she wasn't able to stay away from her tree for a prolonged visit. Jev was happy to have the assistance, as there were a lot of things that needed doing.

Sam took on a coordinator role, calling moving services to get quotes, plotting a timeline for their visit, and even allotting some time for sightseeing while they were there. Jev set up the sales, placing adverts for his apartment and car and arranging for viewings while they were there. By the time they got to the day of the flight, several calls had already been received asking to see the place, which wasn't surprising given that his apartment was in a desirable area with easy access to the metro. Cyd needed only to plan her trip, which would bring her to Balisport first, then finish with a visit to Alaria with her sister.

Jev and Sam also booked the return trip for themselves, which needed a bit more paperwork, as Jev was technically a dual citizen but would only be getting the permanent documentation after he returned. He would need to ensure they would allow him back into the country on the papers he already had. Sam covered the flights for them, another significant expense that she seemed to be able to bear without concern, a fact she wouldn't explain other than to say that it was easy to save when she had virtually no expenses. Somewhere along the way, he also had to pick up his new vehicle from the dealership, which almost immediately fell to the wayside due to the hullabaloo surrounding the trip. However, Dione joked about how thankful she was that Jev had given her a nice new cart to drive.

Finally, the day of the trip arrived. Cyd drove them into Severna, and Dione joined to see them off. The weather was dark and rainy, and Jev was very glad that neither of them needed a checked bag since they would have needed to place them into the small red truck's bed for the drive, which would have led to them becoming soaked. However, he still had most of his clothing back in Balisport, and Sam didn't technically wear clothes, so everything they needed to bring fit nicely into carry-on bags. Both Cyd and Dione wished them safe travels, and they left them in the unloading zone and walked into the airport.

Jev was surprised as they walked through the airport how, despite the common magics in Emmarine, boarding a flight wasn't any easier. Everything was just as inconvenient and awkward here as back home, a standardised process of security theatre put in place after a series of hijackings in Mizlahi several years back. After an uncomfortable 40 minutes of undressing, scanning, and vowing that his luggage had never been out of his control, they were through customs and security and waiting at the gate. Meanwhile, Sam seemed to enjoy the novelty of the process and alternated between giddy joy and clinging affection, even though being a shapechanger required even more identity checks. As they sat in the rows of seats at the departure gate, she draped herself over him affectionately as if announcing to the world that he was hers.

"Let's sneak into the bathroom and have a little fun before we have to board."

He smiled at her enthusiasm, even if it began to wear on him.

"Security is looking for anyone being suspicious here. I don't want to give them a reason to come looking for us."

Sam pouted.

"Well, what about that room back there for feeding? I need to be fed!"

Jev sighed.

"That's a breastfeeding room. For mothers? I don't expect we'd be especially welcome there either."

Sam smiled impishly as her prodigious chest grew another two sizes.

"I mean, it doesn't

have

to be a lie..."

He sighed again, more forcefully, hoping she'd sense his growing frustration.

"Ok, first, that's not my fetish, and second, would you get a hold of yourself? We've got something like 16 hours on the plane to get through and it's going to be very long trip if you're going off like a drunken prom date the whole time."

Her chest shrunk to its regular size and she sat back, chastised.

"I'm sorry. I'm just excited! It's my first time going overseas. I'd planned to go a few years back but plans fell through. I've never even been on a plane before and now I'll be taking one across the ocean to a totally different place! Plus, I get to have you all to myself for a few days, which will also be nice."

Jev chuckled. Sam was usually very controlled and kept herself buttoned down, so seeing her positively giddy like this was new. Jev didn't want to burst that bubble but also didn't want to get into trouble, which might jeopardise their flight.

"Alright, well, I can't blame you for that. Just remember that airport security is just looking for an excuse to ruin your trip. Best not to do anything... Strange... that might get their attention."

His words seemed to get the point across to her. He saw disappointment across her face, and she pulled out her phone and began browsing the internet. He sidled up to her and placed a comforting arm around her shoulder as she rested her head against his shoulder.

After waiting an hour, they finally got called up for boarding. They had checked in early and managed to get a window seat, which Sam had been eager for since it would be her first flight. They were among the last called for boarding, giving Jev a decent look at the other passengers as they walked to their seats. The majority seemed Garnacan, or at least from the Eastern continent, though some might have been Enchantments whose appearance weren't always obvious, like concubuses, vampires, or werewolves. Of those who were obviously Emmarian, Elves were the most common, their elegant features and haughty demeanour feeling particularly out of place among those passengers in economy, like finding a rose in the middle of a truck stop. Sam likewise stood out among the Garnacan passengers as she walked to her seat, and Jev couldn't help but chuckle to himself, watching several peoples' heads turn as she passed, only to catch his eye afterwards and turn guiltily away.

There were also several "accommodation seating" aisles towards the middle for passengers who were too large for the standard seats, which were small even to Jev. There were more Emmarians, a few trolls, a minotaur, and one fellow who was either a werewolf planning ahead for his transformation or had paid extra for a slightly larger seat.

They stowed their luggage and took their seats. The plane had two seats on each outer aisle and four in the middle, meaning they were safe from needing to sit with a random seatmate. Sam's broad smile was gone as they buckled in, and she shifted nervously in the seat. Jev leaned over to her.

"You ok?"

She nodded and gave him a slightly wan smile.

"Yeah, it's just not quite what I imagined. Is it always so loud?"

The plane's engines were just on their standby hum, nowhere near as loud as they would get.

"It'll be louder when we're moving, but yeah, that's normal." His hand covered hers supportively. "Thousands of these things fly around the world every day. There's no need to get nervous."

She nodded but didn't reply. The plane eventually disengaged from the jetway and started taxiing to its runway. It drove around the airport for a while, eventually stopping in the middle of the taxiway.

"Why'd we stop?"

"We probably have to cross a runway that's in use, so we need to wait our turn to go."

Sure enough, they started moving again shortly and before long, they were at the end of their runway. Sam's usual purple complexion had nearly drained of colour and looked almost grey. Jev described the plane's actions as it prepared to take off, hoping to relieve any concerns that the new and strange sounds were unexpected. As the engines whirred up to power and the acceleration pressed them into their seats, her hand clenched around his tightly enough to be painful. She closed her eyes tightly as the cabin rumbled and juddered with the imperfections in the runway.

Finally, they were off the ground, and the force of the acceleration was compounded by gravity, pulling them in a new and unusual direction. The plane banked as it climbed, and despite her fear, Sam looked out of the window as Severna sprawled out beneath them before being replaced with the dark blue of the ocean, interrupted occasionally near the horizon by the islands of the Maritan Archipelago. Soon, these disappeared into an impenetrable grey-white as they ascended into the cloud cover and gradually emerged above it, rising into a sunny field of blue with a carpet of grey clouds below them.

With the immediate strangeness of take-off gone and the plane beginning to level out, colour began returning to Sam's face. She looked at him sheepishly.

"I don't think I like airplanes as much as I thought."

He loosened her grip from his hand, flexing it slightly to return circulation to his fingers, but smiled understandingly.

"It's not for everyone. But on the plus side if something did happen at least you can fly away from it."

She looked at him sceptically.

"I have wings. That doesn't mean I can use them while we're travelling at a substantial portion of the speed of sound. I could never fly up here. If I tried extending my wings at this speed they'd probably snap off. Also, my performance during blowjobs may lead you to think otherwise, but I do still need to breathe. Not much oxygen this high up."

Her logic made him pause.

"I suppose I never really thought of that. People with wings don't have any problems with stuff like that in comic books or movies."

She chuckled despite herself.

"Neither are an especially good guide to how things work in reality, master."

As the flight became more routine, Sam seemed to relax, though the occasional jolt of turbulence would inevitably cause her to reach out and grip his knee tightly. However, this disruption was minimal and short-lived. Sam eventually felt comfortable enough to ask Jev to retrieve a book from her carry-on, a thick, soft-cover tome with a rugged, distressed-looking typeface giving the title "Echoes of the Wastes" with a smaller subtitle of "Archaeology's Greatest Discoveries". The cover art depicted a dry-cracked dirt landscape with small, stunted vegetation and massive black stone obelisks tilted to unusual angles emerging from the ground. Several stickers on the book labelled it as being from the Selrington Public Library. He passed her the book.

"A book about the desert, huh? Seems pretty dry reading."

She stared at him scathingly, choosing to ignore the statement rather than encourage him with a response. She opened it to a page marked with an old receipt.

"It's actually pretty interesting, it's about some of the notable expeditions into the Relic Wastes. Most of those people are a special kind of crazy. In the Eastern Continent when you go digging something up and it says there's a curse it's usually pretty safe to go digging anyways. But the Relic Wastes are what remains of the First Emmarian Empire. There was some pretty crazy powerful magic thrown around then, they're the ones who developed the Enchantments. So if a tomb says opening it will curse your bloodline for eternity, well, you can't really rule out that it might be possible. Remember when I was telling you about other demonic forms like Voidwalkers or Reapers? This is where you might catch one of them. Find the wrong room and suddenly you've got a 7

th

century assassin-mage living in your head or something."

Jev pretended to think about that for a while.

"So all I need to do is go out to find one and then I get superpowers? Sounds like a good deal!"

She chuckled.

"I mean, I suppose that's kind of what I did. But there's a reason why people aren't flocking out to the Relic Wastes in droves. As far as I know there's two Voidwalkers 'alive' right now. They're being held with maximum security in secret locations because they're seriously bad people. Voidwalkers finding hosts is like the equivalent of a natural disaster. A lot of people die, whether the host likes it or not. Reapers are a bit more benign, but it's a pretty terrible existence, being forced to exist on the borders of reality, forced to hunt the people who dodge their fate. And Lemures, well... the Enchantment was made as a punishment. Imagine feeling all of the needs of your mortal body but not being able to eat, drink, sleep, have sex... You're just an intangible shadow forced to live like that until you can pass the curse on. There's a reason the only First Empire enchantment that people generally actually want is to be a concubus."

Her descriptions of these sent a shiver up Jev's spine.

"Remind me never to time travel to the First Empire, then."

She closed the book again, showing she was invested in their conversation and not hoping to rush into reading.

"It wasn't all bad. There were some pretty nasty things there, but arguably they had things they could do with magic that we could never hope for. And for being that far back, they had a decent standard of living for most of the common folk, and even a sort of democratic process. You'd probably be quite comfortable if you could get in close with one of the noble houses... Unless one of the other houses figured you were giving them some sort of political upper hand, then they'd probably try to have you assassinated."

"Also I could get in on the ground floor and get one of those first generation Enchantments."

She looked at him with sympathy at that.

"What's it like for you, being surrounded by people like me, Dione and Cyd? We've all got special abilities. Almost every Enchantment takes the things that you can do and adds more to it. You don't get the benefit of any of that. Doesn't that make you feel, I dunno, weak?"

He stopped to reflect on her question.

"Maybe a little bit. I mean, the things that you all can do is amazing. With all of your abilities I almost feel like I'm living in the middle of an Ascendants comic. But I've never really felt 'inferior' next to you guys. If I could choose to pick up an Enchantment, like popping down to Sandwich Baron for a burger, then would I? It'd probably depend what the options are, but yeah, probably. I wouldn't mind being a sexy vampire or something. But even without that I feel special by just being surrounded by it, being a part of it."

She searched his face briefly, but he couldn't say what she hoped to find. Finally, she took his hand and smiled, though it seemed slightly bittersweet to Jev.

"Good. That's good."

She didn't elaborate further, and they fell into whatever approximation of silence the engines' drone afforded. She picked up the book and began to read from her bookmark. Jev pulled up the in-flight entertainment, plugged in a pair of earbuds, and started to watch a movie.

The flight mainly passed uneventfully from there. Jev and Sam tried to sleep, but travelling eastward meant the plane was chasing the sun, and the flight never got completely dark, even with the sixteen-hour flight time. They both dozed slightly, and Sam offered to use her dream abilities to help Jev sleep. However, the unfamiliar location, uncomfortable seating, and regular interruptions from the flight crew and fellow passengers made any attempt to sleep tricky, and they managed only occasional periods where they'd drift off for a few minutes at a time. Between attempts to sleep, Jev was able to catch a few more movies, and Sam finished her book.

At one point, Sam suggested trying to join the Mile High Club, to which Jev suggested she go to the bathroom on the plane to see if she thought they could manage. She left to relieve herself, returning a few minutes later, defeated. She slumped into her seat, pouting and declaring, "Airplanes suck," before going back to her book. He leaned in, whispering to her, "Porn isn't an especially good guide to how things work in reality either."

After what felt like an impossibly long flight, finally, land came into view below them, heralding the end of the trip. As the flight descended, the blue expanse of Lake Ciserla opened beneath them, and the plane angled down. The descent didn't seem to bother Sam quite as much as the take-off, but as the ground approached and the aircraft's speed became evident, she closed the window shade and closed her eyes, once again gripping Jev's knee. The plane touched down hard enough to make Jev's teeth clack, and the engines roared, sending them all forward under the force of the plane braking.

When the plane reached the terminal and came to a stop, Jev stood immediately, enjoying the chance to stretch his legs after the flight and get feeling back into his butt. As always, it seemed to take an unreasonable amount of time to get the doors open so that everyone could deplane, but they were eventually able to retrieve their luggage and exit the plane, and, due to the time zone change, emerge into Balisport only thirty minutes after the time that they left. The passage through customs was quick as they were the only flight coming in. Not needing to pick up luggage from the carousel, they could also get to the taxis before the other passengers. Forty minutes later, they were at Jev's apartment, riding the elevator to the 8

th

floor. He used his key to open the lock, and he and Sam were in.

Jev had always made a point of cleaning his apartment before leaving on a trip; there were a handful of dishes in the sink from the lunch he'd eaten before flying out, but aside from that, the place was clean, if a bit stale from being closed in for two weeks. It was a smaller, one bedroom, one bath, with a small living/dining area and tiny kitchen, but it was generally enough for him. The living room had a sliding door which opened to a small balcony, barely wide enough to place a seat on, but where he'd stashed a small propane grill, which was technically against the building's rules but which significantly improved his options for cooking while also being one of dozens that were apparent among the other balconies. The balcony also looked out over the rooftops of a number of the neighbouring buildings, just barely high enough to get a view over the rest of the city out to the suburbs.

He invited Sam in, who looked it over with an appraising eye from the hallway inside the door.

"No roommates?"

Jev shook his head. For all of their faults, his role within BigBuy was relatively well-paying, and combined with a lucky find of the apartment when he'd moved in a few years back, he'd been able to keep the place as rents skyrocketed. As a result, he didn't think it'd be hard to get someone to assume the lease from him. Sam's smile grew.

"Good. No one to bother us."

She dropped her bag in the entry and hopped up to wrap her legs around Jev's hips, mashing their lips together in a frenzied kiss as he dropped his bag and caught her around her lower back. The door to the apartment swung closed on its own as Jev carried Sam into the bedroom. He'd had a few encounters with women since moving into the place, but for some reason, they tended to return to their place rather than the women coming to Jev's apartment. As such, his bed definitely needed some breaking in. Sam was already naked as he gently tossed her onto the bed. He let her pull off his shirt as he fiddled with removing his shorts, shoes, and underwear.

He'd invested in a nice bed and was looking forward to using it for its intended purpose later, but for now, it had the added side-benefit of elevating Sam to an almost perfect height before him. Jev's clothing was now off, and Sam returned to lying down, this time facing him with her head dangling over the edge of the mattress. Her lips parted, the long tongue extending to welcome him into her mouth. Though he wasn't completely hard yet, the welcoming warmth of her mouth quickly got him there as he slowly slid himself between her lips to her soft, approving vocalisations.