Chapter 138: Champion, Chapter 68: Peacefully Deceptive

Aidan

The Realms

Secondday, 2nd week of the 11th month, Age of the Chosen 1

Mid Afternoon

Caellach Macht, Mistvale Highlands

"My Lord Aidan," the scarred and tattooed sailor said, "Captain Eldrid requests the pleasure of your company."

Aidan quirked an eyebrow at the man. "You won't convince me those are the words she used."

The man had the grace to look sheepish. "Ah, no, my Lord."

"If I had to guess, it was something along the lines of," Aidan pitched his voice in an approximation of Eldrid's, "go fetch Lord Aidan for me. If he's not here in fifteen minutes, it's twenty lashes for you!" He grinned. "About right?"

The sailor returned the grin. "Still too polite by far, but you have the idea."

"Alright then, let's be on our way. Aoife, Brighid, are you coming?"

"After last night? Yes, I think we have some things to talk about," Brighid said. Aoife slipped under Aidan's arm. He squeezed her against his side. A faint rumbling purr from her was his reward.

"What's your name?" Aidan asked the sailor.

"Meic, my Lord."

"If it's not betraying a trust, Meic, can I ask how often she does this kind of thing?" Aidan asked as the various bodyguards formed up around them.

"Captain has the same appetites as the rest of us." Meic paused for a moment. "Never seen her be quite this brazen about it, though."

"Yeah, I won a bet against her last night. I think this is a little petty revenge."

The otterkin stumbled. "What? Captain lost a bet?"

"I may have tricked her a little bit," Aidan said with a shrug.

A hard stare slowly shifted to incredulity, then amusement. The Snow-Water Rider threw back his head and crowed his laughter to the sky. "Hahaha, you cheated? Wait until the rest hear this. No wonder Captain is making you come to her."

"To be clear, I didn't cheat. What is it with you people and making accusations like that?" Aidan waved his hand in dismissal. "No, I stayed within the rules. Your Captain just didn't realize we were playing different games."

"That sounds like cheating to me." Meic rolled his shoulders. "No concern of mine as long as the Captain accepts it, though. Lord of the Rivers knows I cheated my way under more than one girl's skirts. As long as she stays happy, none of the crew will have any problem with it."

"That's good to hear." Aidan struggled to keep his amusement from his voice. People who lived in wooden ships shouldn't antagonize fire mages. Not that he would burn the Gleaming Tide to the waterline unless Eldrid became a serious threat to his family's existence.

A few minutes later, the party arrived at Eldrid's temporary storefront. Meic took them inside through the warehouse entrance, then to a small office. The blue-haired Captain sat sprawled sideways in a chair behind a plain desk covered in paperwork. Her silver eyes examined Aidan as he walked into the room.

"Tight quarters," Aidan said as he sat down in the only other chair available. Aoife plopped onto his lap almost the instant his butt hit the seat, then wriggled until her head was tucked under his chin. There wasn't enough space available for Brighid inside the office, so she leaned against the doorway.

"Bigger than on the Tide, believe it or not," Eldrid said. Her eyes flicked over Aoife and Brighid, then back to Aidan. "I expected you to come alone."

Aidan grimaced. "I didn't even think about that, sorry. If you haven't met them yet, these are Brighid, my Soulmate, and Aoife, my..." He trailed off, trying to figure out how to describe their relationship.

"Concubine," Aoife provided.

"Charmed," Eldrid said. "Well, it's not like we didn't have other business to discuss anyway. You'll just have to wait a while longer to cash in on your bet."

Aidan nodded. It was his mistake. He didn't even consider whether Eldrid would prefer to stay incognito. Between his status being an open secret and the way she revealed herself to him, it hadn't occurred to him. At least he hadn't said anything to anyone yet.

"No problem. As you said, I do have some things to discuss with you outside of the bet, and I wanted you to meet Brighid. You and she have some things to discuss as well."

"Works for me." Eldrid's eyes darted to the choker around Brighid's neck, then Aoife's golden collar. "I'm always interested in the company of lovely ladies." Back to Aidan, that teasing smirk forming on her lips. "What topics might you have to discuss with me with your submissive harem on hand?"

Nope, Aidan wasn't touching that. Brighid had that subject in hand if he knew her at all. "Oh, no. Ladies first. My mother raised me right."

A snort from Eldrid showed her opinion on that subject. "Something tells me this wasn't a situation she had in mind. But no matter. I have a proposition for you."

"Oh, I'm flattered, but I couldn't. Brighid is first in my heart, and we have yet to be wed. If you're that interested, you'll have to wait." Aoife gave a firm nod in agreement from her perch in Aidan's lap.

Silver eyes rolled. "Are you going to waste our time with dad jokes, or are we going to get to business?" Eldrid's tone was growing testy.

Yeah, OK, he probably deserved that. This meeting wasn't off to a great start. "Sorry, sorry. Please continue."

"You've already secured my services as a mercenary against the dragon. As part of that deal, you owe me a year's worth of payments. Here's the thing." Eldrid swung her leg off the arm of her chair and leaned forward on her elbows. Aidan didn't fall for the trap this time. He kept his eyes on hers.

"You're building something here. You're trying to unite the tribes." Eldrid paused there as if waiting for a response to her nonexistent question.

"Not quite. I'm not interested in conquest, even through diplomatic means. What I want is to provide a place where everyone can live together. Not stare at each other distrustfully across a border. Not live side-by-side while ignoring each other on a day-to-day basis. Together."

"OK, so you're trying to unite the tribes but don't want to admit it to yourself, that's fine. I can work with that. Let me make you a deal, then, Lord Aidan. I am all for fostering a spirit of cooperation before Gilhardt decides that they can start taking chunks out of us piecemeal. I want in."

Eldrid shuffled through the papers on her desk, then pushed one toward Aidan. "Top page is the contract we agreed to last night. The next one is the one I actually want. Go ahead and read it."

Brighid took a step into the room and leaned down to read over Aidan's shoulder. The contract was written in clear, straightforward terms. Instead of the payments over time, Eldrid's proposal was for Aidan to waive all taxes, tariffs, and fees for her trading company for the next decade. In addition, he would sell her a plot of land on the river bank to use as a permanent trading post and warehouse.

In exchange, Eldrid would provide products to the city at a small, fixed profit margin, contribute some of her men to the city's defense, and act as Aidan's agent in the wider Highlands, all for the same decade-long commitment.

Aidan read through the document three times, then set it down. "Well, they say that great minds think alike and that fools seldom differ. I'm not sure which that makes us, but I had a similar arrangement to offer you. I'll have to run the terms past my Council before I agree, you understand."

Eldrid gave him a sharp-toothed smile and settled back in her chair. "Of course. Not a problem. But we agree in principle?"

"We do, and I'll go one step further. Every tribe that has a permanent presence in Ceallach Macht has a seat on the Council. Technically speaking, it's up to the tribe to determine who their Councillor is. Given that you're the boss of the first group who'll take up residence here, I think we can skip the formalities. Would you like to help me determine the future of the Highlands?"

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"Now," Eldrid said, her smile growing wide, "you're speaking my language. What are the details of the position?"

Aoife

Aoife kept half an ear on the discussion of political duties. She'd process everything she heard later. Right now, she needed to focus on figuring out the merchant's agenda. Aidan was a sweetheart, but he was entirely too trusting. Eldrid might be an otterfolk, but Aoife smelled a rat.

Eldrid was good. Aoife had to give her that much. There were at least three layers to her actions. On the surface, Eldrid was all business. She engaged Aidan on an intellectual level, asking insightful questions and raising valid concerns. She led him from point to point, then ceded the lead to him so gracefully that it took three such maneuvers for Aoife to realize that's what they were.

Below that, she was a seductress, but a subtler one than Aoife expected at first. Eldrid remained leaning back in her chair throughout the conversation, declining to flaunt her most obvious assets. Aoife knew from intense personal experience just how much of a breast man Aidan was, so Eldrid's restraint threw her off at first.

Then she noticed how the woman smiled at Aidan every time he agreed with her or laughed at one of her jokes. The way Eldrid shifted her weight every time Aidan talked for too long, causing the silver pendant nestled in her cleavage to glint. The way her eyes never, never, left Aidan's. Aoife took some mental notes for future use.

Then, buried deep below the mental equal and seductress layers, there was the spy. Eldrid's questions were all, on their individual merits, completely logical and valid. Taken in aggregate and viewed with a dose of hard-won cynicism, however... She was pumping Aidan for information, and he was starting to give away clues to more important things than he likely realized. Time for an intervention.

Aoife wiggled her butt against Aidan's groin to get his attention. His grip around her waist tightened, but he kept talking. With a mental roll of eyes, Aoife circled her tail around Aidan's waist, then entwined it around his own. That did the trick. His hand slid down to her knee, then up under her skirt to rest on her thigh.

Aoife smiled and snuggled back against Aidan. She parted her legs a finger's width, and sure enough, he took the bait. Aoife allowed herself the faintest hint of a purr as her lover's hand slid up and inward. Then, she tilted her head back and whispered in Aidan's ear.

"You're starting to bore Brighid. I think you accomplished what you set out to for now, yeah? So why not find Sunnild and get some training in while Brighid and I talk to your conquest-to-be here. And then once you get back, I'll give you a nice... long... slow massage in the bath?"

Aoife felt something stiff prod against her from beneath. Aidan squeezed her thigh, then said to Eldrid, "I think we've covered everything we need to this afternoon. If you have any other questions, take note of them, and we can discuss them during our next meeting. I have somewhere else I need to be, and Brighid has been waiting patiently for her turn to grill you."

"Of course," Eldrid agreed. "Tomorrow at this same time?"

"I'll be here. Alone, or as alone as my bodyguards will let me be." Said bodyguards were crowding the warehouse's interior to the likely frustration of Eldrid's crew.

"Very well then, it's a date." Eldrid stood up from her chair—leaning forward to expose the entirety of her luscious cleavage in the process—and extended a hand to Aidan. "I look forward to working closely with you in the future."

Aidan shifted his hands on Aoife to grab her by the hips. He stood up, taking her with him, then set her down on her feet and shook Eldrid's hand. "It's been a pleasure."

Aoife waited for Aidan to leave the warehouse before crossing her arms and glaring at Eldrid. "What's your game? You've got Aidan fooled, but not me. Who sent you and what are you looking for? I won't let you hurt him." The outpouring of emotions surprised even herself.

"Aoife—" Brighid started to object, but Aoife shook her head.

"No, Brighid. I acknowledge that you have the lead in most matters, but not this. You don't have the training or experience for this."

"And you do?"

"Yes." Aoife could feel the redhead's dubious stare. She could doubt as much as she wanted so long as she didn't interfere. "Out with it, Eldrid. If it was just the subtle flirting, I would let Brighid take the lead. But no, you spent this entire meeting wrapping Aidan around your finger, and I will know why."

"My, my," Eldrid's smile sharpened. "Aidan does seem to inspire loyalty in his ladies, doesn't he? Come now, is there any reason for us to fight? I assure you that I do not bear any ill intent toward him—despite having cause to. Surely you must have noticed a particular scent in the air when Aidan called you into the tent last night, right, Brighid?"

Brighid shifted her weight. "I did," she confirmed.

"If you are trying to imply that he raped you or molested you—"

Eldrid cut Aoife off. "No, not... quite. We made a bet, which he won. The manner of his winning, however, was several degrees past what the wager required." Eldrid's lips tightened. "To be blunt, he created a link in my mind between my ability to... reach completion, let us say... and himself. Maybe," she tossed her hand through the air, "if I go to the other end of the region and stay there, away from all sight and mention of him. Maybe then I'd be free of him in ten years, twenty. Maybe."

Eldrid shrugged. "But I won't. I admit, he has me hooked. Last night was a transformative experience for me. But I will be damned," her palm slapped the top of the desk, sending papers billowing across the room, "if I bow my head and beg him for release—no offense, Brighid."

"None taken."

"Let's say I accept everything you said as the complete truth," Aoife said. "That still doesn't explain why you asked the questions you did in the order you did. You are looking for information, and you didn't want Aidan to know it."

"Look," Eldrid said, sinking into her chair and leaning forward. Aoife channeled all her anger to keep from glancing down. It wasn't any easier for her to ignore such a mouth-watering sight than it was for Aidan. "You're a smart girl. You caught way more of what was going on than I expected anyone to."

"Stop flattering me and get to the point."

"The point is that I serve another master, the same as you do."

A sudden headache slammed into Aoife's skull. She shook her head, fighting through the pain. "I have no idea what you mean. Aidan is my only master, and even he refuses to command me."

A look of startled confusion passed across Eldrid's face for a full second before she recovered. "I... see," she said. "No one else? Not even, say, a God or Power of the Realms?"

A chill ran down Aoife's spine. Did Eldrid suspect...? She kept her face impassive. "None. And this isn't about me. It's about you. Explain what you mean, or I'll make it my mission to ensure Aidan never gives you the satisfaction you crave from him."

Eldrid frowned and leaned back in her chair. She no longer bore that smug, confident expression. Good.

"Alright," Eldrid said with a sigh. "But you'll both have to swear to keep this a secret from anyone who doesn't already know. For the record, that's me, my first mate, and, soon, Aidan. Nobody else."

"I will not swear an oath that might harm Aidan." Brighid's voice brooked no compromise.

"You can leave if you'd prefer. That's my condition. This is a secret that could kill me and Aidan both."

"I swear," Aoife said. No text box popped up in her vision, not that those had much of an effect on her.

"... I swear, so long as I do not judge the information harmful to Aidan and so long as you tell him within the next day."

Eldrid sagged backward and tapped her head against the wall behind her. "Alright, alright. I planned to tell him today, so whatever. Listen up because I'm not going to repeat myself."

Zurai

Aoife's current status screen:

Yes, this is correct.

Pronunciation Guide (infinitesimal spoiler warning, names only without any details)

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