Blood Shaper

Eleniah slipped on the silvery colored bracelet one of Alahna’s servants had handed her along with the clothes she’d just put on and checked her reflection in the full length mirror. Personally she thought she looked pretty good, although she wasn’t enthused about her dress. There wasn’t much she could do with her hair, as short as it was, and she liked to keep both her makeup and her accessories light, so there wasn’t much drawing the eye away from her clothing. The dress was a tight fitting one piece made of silky cloth that clung to her body and emphasize her curves. Not that she had too many of those, endless amounts of training, sparring, and monster killing had long ago honed her body into a sleek and compact bundle of muscle. She did enjoy the way it flowed down her chest and let her show off her figure, though, she was a badass punching machine, that didn’t make her any less of a woman.

The lower half of the dress is what she was really bothered by. It clung to her legs like it did the rest of her body and the bottom of it spread out across the ground like a small puddle. She had to walk smoothly to keep the fabrics from tangling up her stride and that wasn’t something she wanted in clothing. Even as a woman that liked to look good, she’d learned early in her life that the first questions when assessing an outfit was “can I fight in this?” and so far the verdict was a firm maybe. The bottom half wouldn’t be too difficult to rip so she could run without issues, but that would take precious seconds she wouldn’t necessarily be able to spare. She briefly debated wearing the outfit she’d brought with her, but high fashion differed from place to place and if she wore something that was in vogue in another court while Kay wore modern Isle’s standard clothing, they’d stand out. Eleniah had to just suck it up and wear the nice dress her cousin was giving her.

The dress swished around her feet as she stepped back from the mirror and walked over to Alahna, who was lounging on a short couch. “This style is new, to me at least. How long has this type of fashion been the trend?”

Alahna glanced up from her book. “That looks great on you. And, I don’t know, a couple of years? There’s some Outworlder around that’s been introducing various styles of clothing.”

“There’s another Outworlder here?”

“Not here here,” Alahna waved her hand outward with a lazy flick of her wrist, “Somewhere in the Isles.” She leaned her head back and set the book on her chest, “He might actually be attending tonight, I wasn’t paying that much attention. His original Class wasn’t anything too noteworthy and he’s picked up tailoring and fashion design since then. He’s sure to make a lot of money from the rich and influential, but he’s not interesting enough for me to recruit. A few nobles have started acting as his patrons and spreading his designs around.”

“Are we expecting a fight tonight?”

Alahna grinned at her. “The bottom has hidden stitches on the inside, as soon as you try to run it’ll split in the middle for more range of movement. Not part of the original design, but not difficult for some of my people to add.”

“Oh,” Eleniah looked down at the bottom of the dress happily, “Thanks.”

“Of course. To answer the actual question though, I have no idea, so best to be ready for anything. If it weren’t for this shapechanging nonsense happening I’d say probably not, but without knowing what this eldritch enemy wants…” She shrugged.

“Right. I’ll make sure Kay knows.”

“Thank you. Now, on to more important topics.” Alahna set the book aside and swung her legs around to pull herself upright. “How are you going to react when people start making overtures to your king?”

“What do you mean?”

“What are you going to do when nobles, the wealthy, and anyone trying to get a leg up on everyone else start trying to get Kay to accept them, or their daughters, or their relatives, or this employee or some other way they have a connection to them to be his wife or mistress? Or husband, it he’s interested in men.” Alahna gave her cousin a knowing look. “Everyone in a relationship needs to put effort into it, and if you want a relationship with him you need to make that clear. He’s not going to be able to stay single forever.”

“I- You- I- What?” Eleniah spluttered.

Alahna sighed, bowing her head. She looked up with narrowed eyes. “Are you going to try and deny it?”

“I- No.” Eleniah slumped down next to Alahna on the couch. “No I’m not.”

“So what’s the problem? You’re not the most outgoing person ever when it comes to dating or being attracted to someone, but you aren’t usually that shy about it either. Is he in a relationship? Have you already asked and been turned down?”

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“No. There was some mutual attraction and maybe a little flirting between him and a friend of ours, but she decided that she wasn’t interested in being a queen, so that fizzled out.” Eleniah let herself relax and leaned into her younger cousin, remembering days gone by of gossiping and discussing people they had crushes on. Didn’t they have a conversation like this about Alahna’s first husband? “I… I’m his teacher, Alahna, his mentor, even. There’s a power imbalance there. It would be inappropriate-“

“You were his mentor.” Alahna interrupted, “You’re his adviser now. That power imbalance is gone. Actually, it might have reversed the other way. He’s the king who could fire you at any moment.”

Eleniah rolled her eyes. “He can’t fire me if he doesn’t pay me.”

“He doesn’t pay you!?” Alahna quickly sat up and stared, looking horrified. “You do that much work for him and he doesn’t pay you!?”

“Oh, I get paid, Kay just isn’t the one to do it. His Prime Minister and Minister of Finance handle all of that. If he tried to fire me I’d just have Amanda sit him down and read him the riot act. I run his countries main, and only, academy and assist the Minister of Education in my free time. He couldn’t afford to fire me.”

Alahna gave her a look. “That doesn’t sound like a teacher using her power over her student to get what they want. It sounds like a wife who’s telling her husband how things should go. I know for a fact that the only people who could have me sit down in front of the head of my government to receive a lecture are my husbands.” She grabbed Eleniah and pulled her back down against the cushions, resuming their previous positions of leaning against each other. “Let me address the problems I’m betting you think you have.” She held out a hand and started counting on her fingers one by one. “First, power imbalance from being his teacher, addressed.”

“It’s not-“

“Shut up. He’s not your student anymore, you have a much more equitable relationship now. Two, age difference-“

“I’m over two hundred years old and he’s only in his twenties, that’s-“

“That’s nothing compared to the next several hundred years you could have together as long as neither of you are killed. That’s also assuming that neither of you make it to tier six or beyond, which I personally find unlikely.”

“I was an adult for centuries before he was born.”

“So? You didn’t meet him as a child, you weren’t there watching him grow up. If we were considering one of the boys who were in your classes when I was a baby, that would be a problem, because you were a foundational part of their childhood and them growing up. You met Kay when you were both adults, and since he was from a world without magic and no way to tier up, he’d lived roughly the same amount of his lifespan as you had when you met. Him getting a much longer lease on life after that is immaterial.”

“I-“ Eleniah cut herself off with a sigh.

“Look, I know that I haven’t been the best cousin in a long time, but seriously, if you’re interested in him like that, take the chance. If you want to make sure that it’s not some screwed up relationship, talk to him about it. If you never say anything, one day you’ll be sitting there regretting what might have been.”

“That sounds like you have personal experience with that. Let someone slip away?”

“Yeah, you.” Alahna rolled her eyes at Eleniah’s expression. “Not like that. I mean the part where I said I wasn’t the best cousin. I made choices and treated you in a way I shouldn’t have, and by the time I realized the mistakes I’d made and figured out how to apologize you were already gone. I don’t think there’s ever going to be a time where I can just walk down the hallway and find you when I want to see you in a random moment again, and I hate that.”

Eleniah turned her head to look next to her. Alahna was looking away, so she could only make out the side of her face. “Is this the time to have this conversation?”

“Not really, but this is the first time we’ve been able to be alone since you got here, so I have to say the most important part, at least.”

“Which is?”

“I’m sorry. I fucked up. I lied to you and misled you when it wasn’t necessary, and I relied on your loyalty on stressed it over and over again until it broke.”

Eleniah reached up and slowly patted her younger cousin’s head. “You did do that. I’m happy to get to hear you apologize. I won’t say ‘it’s okay’ and I don’t know if I forgive you yet, but while you definitely broke my loyalty to you as a queen, my love for you as my cousin never went anywhere.”

Alahna pushed herself closer and Eleniah pulled her into a hug. They sat there silently for a while, just enjoying being with each other. After some time had passed Alahna pulled away and sat up.

“We definitely are still going to have a long talk about all of it, but we can’t miss the damn dance.” She took a deep breath and her posture changed as she shifted from a woman worried about her relationship with her cousin to a powerful and imposing queen. “Seriously though, talk to him if you want to try something with him. The most important part of any relationship, of any kind not just romantic, is communication.”

“When did you get into a position where you could try and teach me stuff, huh?”

“When I got married and had six children.” She stepped close and kissed Eleniah’s cheek. “You look great. Go knock him dead.”

“We’ll see.” Eleniah checked her dress for wrinkles. “You have anything for me to tell Kay about who’s attending?”

Alahna waved her hand at the door. “Miri said she’d handle it, she took a dossier. Just check with her and you can add your own commentary in.”

“What is up with Miri? When I left she was still a trainee spy, and I have no idea how to react to her.”

“I have a theory, and I’m going to be annoyed if I’m right, but I’ve been wrong about her plans before. Like I said when Kay asked, she’s never been anything but helpful, so just ride with it until she reveals her master plan.” She straightened out her own outfit and headed for the exit. “I have more than just a briefing about who’s annoying and who’s worth talking to before tonight really begins, so I’ll see you at the dance.”

“Alahna?”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

Eleniah’s cousin broke out into the wide smile she remembered from Alahna’s childhood, one she hadn’t seen nearly as often when Alahna had begun her rise to power. “I love you too.”

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