Rhysa opened the vial and sniffed cautiously. The scent relaxed her immediately. It reminded her of…something. She could almost see the wall Lord Hermestus had spoken of after he’d examined her. She followed Elise’s prescription as Elise went through drawers of the vanity and rummaged through the wardrobe. By the time Rhysa finished applying the oil, Elise had some small bowls and towels in hand.
Elise handed the bowls to Rhysa. “The large bottle contains almande oil. It’s a good carrier, and it softens the skin. Those vials on the vanity are oils from various plants. Pick two or three you like the scent of. Put a few drops into a bowl of almande oil. I’ll put these towels by the bed. You can use them to wipe your hands if you get too much oil, or you want to switch scents.”
Rhysa turned to the vanity and started sniffing vials. Some she liked, a few she didn’t care for. One gave her a funny feeling behind her stomach she might like to try—though she had a hunch using it tonight would not be a good idea. She picked out two: one with a scent she could only describe as “languorous”, the other had a spicy scent to it. Five drops of the languorous oil and two drops of the spicy oil went into a bowl of almande oil. She stirred, then sniffed, the mixture. She decided it was too weak, and added another five drops and two drops respectively. “How tired are you?”
“I feel more like my brain’s been hung out to dry. My body isn’t particularly tired. I didn’t know you knew how to mix those.”
Rhysa pondered the bowl of scented almande oil and replied absently. “I don’t. I’m just following some hunches linked by very loose reasoning.” She decided if the body wasn’t tired enough to need waking up, better to keep the spice low so as to only clear and relax the mind. She re-stoppered the vials and set them back in place on the vanity. She turned to face Elise who watched with an eyebrow raised, very curious and quite naked.
“I’ve never seen that combination before. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.” Elise rolled onto her stomach, turning her head to one side.
Rhysa placed the bowl of scented oil near Elise’s head. She dipped a couple of fingers into the oil and coated her hands with the slick liquid. Her skin soaked up most of it, so she applied some more to her hands before putting some on Elise’s broad back.
Now that she had time to look, she saw how muscular Elise’s back really was, she felt the layers of muscle as her hands glided across her friend’s back. She also saw it was going to be physically awkward when it came time to work both sides of the back at the same time.
“Hold on,” said Rhysa, and before Elise could say more than, “Hmm?” Rhysa had straddled Elise’s hips. Elise tensed, and Rhysa sensed something besides surprise, but couldn’t place it. “Relax. I’m only getting a better angle on both sides of your back.” Elise relaxed a little. “That’s better. Now….” Rhysa began pressing into Elise’s back in earnest.
She worked her way methodically down Elise’s body, scooting back an inch at a time. She kept going until she neared the feet. Knowing the end of the bed was just behind her, Rhysa stepped off the bed so she could work on Elise’s feet. “I’m done with the back, do you want me to do the front?”
Elise buried her face in her pillow and Rhysa heard only something that sounded like a cross between a sob and a grunt.
“What?”
Elise turned her head to the side. “Yes, but another time. I’m afraid I might fall asleep.”
“Ah, good. I got the mixture right. We can take this up another day, if you want. You’ll probably fall asleep soon. Don’t fight it. You’ll probably feel better than you have in a long time tomorrow morning.”
“How do you know?”
Rhysa shrugged. “I just do. It may be something buried behind that wall you heard about tonight.”
“Huh. There were several things I didn’t understand tonight.” Elise broke off to yawn. “Like how you can look between 16 and a well developed 14, yet be at least 22.”
Rhysa shrugged. “I don’t know. But the Prince said it, and he appears to believe it.” She put the remainder of the oil she’d mixed on the vanity, then looked at Elise. “You can hardly keep your eyes open. Get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Rhysa lay on her bed staring into the darkness. She was unable to sleep, despite being tired. Her mind refused to let go of what she’d seen and heard. Elise was right, there were many thing that didn’t make sense—age was the least of them. Why would she need to be marked by the House Orbs of House Amonteus and House Hermestus, even though she’d already been marked by the House Orb of House Kasteryn? She thought this would risk exposing the fact she’d been bought with pooled money—something technically illegal. Also, why did the prince want her to use his name? “Hallyk” wasn’t even his formal name, it was almost a nickname.
Fortunately, the underlying basics of her disposition were fairly straightforward. She was to be housed at House Kasteryn, except when tasks or training kept her elsewhere. She would be personally tutored by her three owners. She already knew how to read, write, and figure, so they would be teaching her other skills: House management, heraldry and social graces, magic, and the elements of politics. In addition, each of her owners would train her in their specialty. From Lady Kasteryn, she would learn physical combat as well as the combative magics. From Lord Hermestus, she would learn the healing of the body through mundane means as well as through magical means. From Lord Amonteus, she would learn the various arts of deception and detection; a field he called “covertsy”.
Lord Amonteus’ specialty had surprised Rhysa. Of the three, she hadn’t seen him as the kind of person who could deceive, much less would. “I suppose that’s the point,” she murmured out loud.
There were also few things that did make sense, at least to her—the searing pain in her back when she was marked, for instance. Lord Hermestus’ explanations were a bit technical for her, but the underlying idea was easy enough to understand. It had to do with magic channels. Not only did the orb mark a person with the tattoo, it also recorded the “print” of a person’s magic channels. Apparently everyone’s magic channel left a unique print, like a fingerprint. Most people didn’t have much of a channel to begin with, so only a trickle was necessary to get a print.
Lord Hermestus said that to call her magic channels a “channel” was like calling an erupting volcano a campfire. Nonetheless, he continued to use the channel metaphor. Her channels had been dry for so long, debris had started to clog up the pathway. The orb had to send torrents of magical energy through her in order to gain her print. In the process of doing so, it washed away all the debris. The pain was the debris being washed away. She also gathered the more magic that flowed through the person being marked, the larger the mark. Judging from the pain and the size of her mark, her potential was more than a little scary.
She hardly noticed when sleep claimed her.
Agents of Ellendahl 