by Hickory Mack
“If you want to learn more about your ancestry, it can be done. There are any number of people in the house that would be willing to help with that, most with more experience tracking that kind of information down than I possess. Actually, I’m sure Moscow and probably whomever your magic teacher ends up being will be interested as well,” Makkai offered.
“Maybe,” she said noncommittally.
“The offer stays open, it’s your decision to make whenever you’re ready,” he said, drawing her attention to the tree. “That’s interesting.”
Her handprint remained, glowing softly even in full sunlight. The tree was fully healed, and it had grown. Its canopy stretched higher and wider than the day before. Lord Makkai put his hand over her print and closed his eyes for many seconds.
“You did a good job. Every passageway is open and flowing, it looks good in there. Did you intend for it to grow like that?” he asked. She shook her head, resisting the urge to touch the tree. “Well, you’ve left me with eleven to finish instead of twelve. Misguided as your actions were, they’ve saved me some time and energy.” He took her hand and kissed it. Blood rushed to her head so fast she felt lightheaded. His ears and lips twitched together as he fought a smile.
“Can we work on the other four today? We have plenty of time,” Chiori said, trying to deflect his attention from her reaction to his show of affection.
“You would rather do this, than go shower?” he asked, amused.
“Yes, the shower can wait until later. We’re here now,” Chiori answered and Makkai frowned.
“If it’s what you want to do, we may as well, so long as there’s no trouble from you,” he allowed. He sat in a different place, close to the tree furthest out among the remaining four to be worked on. She immediately joined him, holding her hands out eagerly. He took them, rubbing his thumbs over her palms. “We’ll try it differently this time. Let’s both focus on this one tree. If we can get a good amount done today it would be of help to me. Then later we can spend time doing something more enjoyable.”
“Okay,” she agreed, her face relaxing. He drew her in, melding their thoughts together then let his fox magic leach into the ground, seeking out the roots of the tree.
With his attention undivided more of his power was available, but that made it more difficult to mix the right amount of Earth magic in. They worked together, pushing and coaxing and maneuvering the magic, shaping the new tissues and repairing water tubes, sealing it with new bark.
At some point Chiori’s mind wandered back down the root system in search of more Earth magic, and she found it in the ground itself. She brought Makkai’s attention to it, but he refused to take it. She was confused but followed his gentle push back to their work and they bent to the task of healing the tree. Halfway through he sent her a questioning probe and she agreed, their minds cast out together, seizing on the next challenging gouge.
When they finished Lord Makkai pulled back, easing away from their connection, and placing Chiori safely back in her own head. She blinked and stretched, in the same hazy daze as the day before, aware of Lord Makkai doing the same.
“How do you feel? Ready to go again?” Lord Makkai teased, yawning and reminding Chiori he had a full set of considerable fangs tucked away in his mouth.
“No, thanks. Tomorrow?” she yawned as well.
“Maybe not. I don’t want to exhaust you. That’s another done, and it only took us six hours. Two healed in two days, thanks to your help,” Makkai said.
“Six hours,” Chiori echoed, lurching to her feet to stretch her legs and back. She was pretty sure her bottom had fallen permanently asleep. “Is it easier? Are the trees hurting you less?”
He huffed out a breath, “It is.”
“Worth it,” she said, walking over to inspect their work.
“I’ve forgotten to stop and feed you. Milly will disapprove.”
“I’ll be fine. Though, if you don’t mind, that shower sounds better than food about now,” she said.
“Shower time it is. Maybe a nap is in order as well. Fen,” Lord Makkai said and the demon appeared immediately, dipping into his deep bow.
“Yes, my Lord?”
“Have a shower and bath prepared for my Lady. Afterward, dinner,” Lord Makkai instructed. Fen looked at Chiori, she’d yet to change into the clothes he’d brought for her.
“Yes, My Lord.” He popped back into the air.
“Shall we?” he asked and Chiori nodded her acceptance. Makkai pulled her close and shielded her as he’d done before, carrying them through the jump.
They landed in front of the house and once Chiori got her balance back she appreciated for the first time how large it was. She’d never seen a building this large that wasn’t a crumbling remnant of the past, let alone a single house.
“This is your house?” she said quietly, too in awe of the place to raise her voice.
“It’s as much yours as mine now,” Makkai answered, looking at her rather than the house. “Do you like it?”
Chiori didn’t know what to say. The place was overwhelming. Beautiful, yes, but practically a castle. It filled her with anxiety to think of navigating it and wondering how many people must live there made her want to crawl into the ground. Fen saved her, he came out of a side door with Sora, her twin and Asuka in tow. All four bowed in unison.
“Asuka has volunteered to assist you,” he said. “My Lord, Madame Milly is preparing your meals, as you have asked.”
“Good, Fen, thank you,” Lord Makkai took Chiori’s hand and kissed it again, reluctant to let her go. “Soon,” was all he said to her, one word, a promise. She dipped her head to him and he returned it with a smile in his eyes. They separated then, Asuka metaphorically taking Chiori in hand. She looked over her shoulder several times until she couldn’t see him anymore.
They did not enter the house, but walked around it, to the offside. Steam rose over a wall that had no roof, low treetops rose slightly above the line of the wall.
“What is this place?” Chiori asked.
“My favorite part of the whole house. It’s the onsen,” Asuka answered cheerfully. Adding when she saw Chiori’s confusion. “The hot spring, it’s a bath house. It’s not for everyone here, most use one of the two smaller ones. The one you used the day you arrived is for the women, there's a second for the men. When His Lordship is here, this one is off limits to everyone but him and his guests. You’ve been afforded a special honor.”
“Aha. I’m on to your volunteerism,” Chiori laughed along with Asuka.
“I’m okay with that,” Asuka said, taking her shoes off where the ground turned to stone. Chiori did the same, following Asuka into a small building made of weathered bamboo stalks. There were stone benches and towels hung in pairs on the wall. A small space was portioned off with a tapestry showing a mountain stream, split into five panels hanging from the ceiling and falling halfway to the floor.
There were more wooden buckets like she’d seen at the smaller bath house, but there were fewer soap choices here. Chiori pointed it out and Asuka explained that a wider variety of demons used the other one, and some would have negative reactions to certain ingredients in some of the soaps. The soaps here were catered to those allowed to use the space.
“You’ll like this one, I think,” Asuka said, handing her a light pink one with red flowers pressed into the top. She smelled it and her eyes closed, smiling.
“What is it?” she asked and Asuka looked puzzled.
“Rose. Do you not have roses in the nests? Before the wars it was a popular garden bush,” the fae woman said.
“We didn’t have any flowers. I’ve never seen anything that smells like this. I love it though,” Chiori said, sniffing it again.
“I thought you might,” Asuka said, then she started undressing. Chiori gasped and twirled around to face the other way and Asuka laughed. “So shy! This is normal to us, you’ll get used to it. I forgot humans are so hung up on skin. Get undressed and shower. Use the ha
nd cloth to wash yourself, get everything really clean.”
Chiori hugged her arms to her stomach and counted to ten in her head. Pulling off her duster she set it next to Asuka’s neatly folded kimono. She heard the slap of Asuka’s feet going into the shower and hurried to finish undressing. Chiori took the small towel and the rose scented soap, noting that Asuka had left the larger towel behind, and went into the shower.
It was similar to a locker room, multiple showerheads and three discrete drains in the floor. Asuka did not look up when she entered, just continued showering, her hair filled with suds. Chiori looked around for the shampoo and saw a glass bottle with a pump in a little basket near Asuka’s feet. She dipped under the water, angling to face away from Asuka and washed quickly and thoroughly. Asuka pushed the basket over with her foot, and Chiori smiled gratefully.
The fae woman stayed under the water while Chiori finished up so they could exit together, and she stopped Chiori before she could use the towel.
“Just wrap yourself in it, no need to dry off. Come here,” she instructed. “No hair allowed in the bath, it’s a strictly adhered-to rule. May I?”
“I can do it.” Chiori declined, taking the offered tie and putting her hair in a small pile atop her head. Asuka hadn’t touched her, but Chiori’s anxiety had cranked itself up anyway. She followed the fae woman outside, through a set of screens and to the pools.
“Oooooh.”
“Exactly,” Asuka agreed.
The water steamed, even in the summer air, and the pools were surrounded by beautiful plants and bonsai. The pools themselves were gorgeous, small waterfalls were between a pair of them, maybe three feet high, producing a gentle movement in the pools, the lower of which had a stream flowing out of it. It produced a calming, babbling brook sound.
Asuka disrobed, folding her towel and setting it on a stool near the pools, then she walked in with a sigh of satisfaction. Chiori quickly repeated her actions, rushing into the water rather than gliding gracefully. Asuka relaxed against one of the walls, closing her eyes with a blissful expression on her face. Chiori placed herself across from the faerie.
“This is nice, I see why you like it,” she said. They were quiet for a while, relaxing, but Asuka couldn’t help herself.
“There's been a lot of speculation about you, rumors of every sort flying around. Most of them are sordid, a young girl, potentially Lord Makkai’s personal pet. He kissed you out there tonight, and he has Fen hopping around for you. Some think you are the Master’s Mistress, some think you are playing at being unlearned, that you’ve bewitched him. Especially since he took you away and you stayed together for the night. Others think he has taken pity and adopted an abused and broken child he found in the woods.” Asuka smiled ruefully. “I can only assume they’re all wrong, because I have my own theory.”
Chiori smiled, though Asuka’s talk made her feel wary. “And what is that theory?”
“He’s found you useful. Everyone knows you’re the reason he abandoned Yukio the night of the hunt, and that you brought him an entire squadron of hunters. He’s never returned from the forest before he’s finished healing his beloved trees, yet he came for you. Everyone has heard that he came when you called out to him. I’ve been asked to repeat that story more times than I can count. What contract must you have struck?” Asuka looked slightly predatory.
“Is he going to use you to bring more hunters? Is that why you’ve enjoyed such a prominent place by his side? Forgive me for saying, you’ll be pretty enough when you’re more than sunken skin over bones, but he has his choice of any of our flesh. He couldn’t be interested in you for that, he’s had Yukio and Airi and me, for heaven’s sake. No offense intended, like everyone else I’m interested and curious. Word is no new contracts have been signed, the number is posted in the Magisterium’s office, and it hasn’t changed. Which brings about completely different sorts of rumors. Why aren’t you on the contract roster?”
“Your speculation is making me uncomfortable. I don’t know what I’m supposed to tell anyone, so I’d rather not say anything. Lord Makkai did say we will have an introduction, around when my instructors arrive. If he doesn’t say anything, I guess that’s when everyone will know,” Chiori said, realizing that Asuka had not used her name, though Fen certainly knew, and the jealous note in the faerie’s voice was unsettling. If her new name and her bond with Lord Makkai had not been made common knowledge, she would leave it unsaid. Asuka splashed her playfully.
“You tease, you know exactly what it is,” she laughed. Chiori blushed and Asuka smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes.
“I do,” she answered. They soaked for an hour, until their fingers were wrinkled and their muscles were entirely relaxed. It was Sora’s twin that came for them, and by the sour look on her face she didn’t like Chiori any more than her sister did.
“Madame Milly has asked that you be ready for dinner with his Lordship in thirty minutes time, Miss,” the words were delivered with a serene face through clenched teeth. “It will be served in his Lordship’s inner gardens. I will return in twenty minutes to guide you there.”
Asuka stood without hesitation, walking past the child-sized woman as though she weren’t there and began toweling off. Sora’s twin spun on her heels and left, her steps silent on the stone floor. Once she was out of sight Chiori did the same as Asuka, toweling off in a hurry.
“I don’t think Sora and her sister like me very much,” Chiori said, forgetting her modesty in her rush.
“They don’t much like anyone. They’re strong, and they dislike mingling with those they see as below them. That one was Nori. You can tell them apart by-”
“The dimple on her cheek. I saw it, Sora doesn’t have one,” Chiori said and Asuka looked irritated. She hadn’t liked being interrupted, but she played it off as though she were impressed.
“Keep that up. Observe everything. Come, let’s see what they’ve left you to wear to your little dinner party with Lord Makkai, you lucky thing, you.”
Chapter 14
Chiori was delivered to the gardens breathless and flushed. She'd been ready by the time Nori arrived but the shiny black geta sandals she was wearing made her unbalanced and her lush white kimono with large pink and black flowers shortened her stride. Asuka had talked Chiori into letting her put her hair into a quick braid that wrapped around her head like a halo, and added a jade and amber comb with tiny pink sakura blossoms dangling down.
When she was wrapped up in her layers of silk and teetering on her stilted sandals Asuka stepped back and looked her over. Her mouth pressed into a thin line and her eyes glittered with understanding.
“You look wonderful,” she said, in a tight voice before giving Chiori a forced smile and a quick lesson in wearing the shoes. “My people do not have those awful things, they’re to keep your kimono from touching the ground.”
As uncomfortable as she made her feel, Chiori wished Asuka had accompanied her instead of Nori. The small woman abandoned her to make her way across the gardens unaided, wobbly and uncertain on the varied ground textures. When she finally arrived at the Pagoda, Lord Makkai was already seated and he wasn’t alone.
A woman was with him, her long blonde hair pulled back, her lips painted red. She leaned in close, her eyes riveted on Lord Makkai. Her hand was on his arm, a bottle of Sake between them.
Chiori stopped in her tracks, Asuka’s words haunting her. The woman next to him was elegant and beautiful, and sophisticated. Her feet rooted to the ground. What use did he have for her when he was surrounded with women like that? An emaciated, ignorant girl with chaos in place of proper magic. She didn’t want to go over there, to seat herself next to such a woman where it would be so easy to make comparisons in which she’d find herself painfully lacking.
Then her attention shifted to Lord Makkai. His body language was stiff and rigid, his tails moved from side to side, like an impatient cat. Those fuzzy ears she wanted to touch so badly were pointed straight forward, they�
�d lost all their softness. She took a step forward, that frown was back on his face. Makkai pulled his arm away. The woman sat back and Chiori almost sighed with relief.
She frowned deeply. How little it had taken for jealousy to make her doubt herself. It was embarrassing to admit to herself how readily she’d accepted his explanation of a bond between them. How badly she wanted him to be right. She teetered a bit in her sandals and stepped forward. It was true, she was a sad, shabby urchin compared to the woman, but he’d chosen her. She wanted to trust that he would continue choosing her.
As though sensing her presence they looked over at the same time, rising from their seats, the woman dipping into a curtsey. Chiori looked to Makkai and dipped her head in answer, unsure of what kind of response was expected. He met her halfway, offering his hand to help her up the two steps into the Pagoda.
Chiori was relieved to see a table of regular height with what she thought of as normal chairs. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to maneuver in her kimono to sit on the ground as they had at the cabin. Lord Makkai helped her into her seat, pushing it in and making sure she was comfortable.
“Thank you, my Lord,” she said quietly and he squeezed her hand gently.
“You are very welcome,” he answered, taking his seat. “My Lady, this is my long-time friend and companion, Airi. You won’t remember, but she assisted Asuka in your healing. Airi, this is my Chiori.”
“It’s good to finally meet you properly, my Lady. Makkai was just telling me about your adventures in the woods today,” Airi said, leaning forward with a genuine smile. “I’ve never seen him so taken with anyone before.”
“Thank you for healing me,” Chiori said, giving a small smile. She glanced at Makkai and down at her lap. Asuka had mentioned this woman by name, stating Lord Makkai ‘had’ her. And, Airi did not have to call him Lord, to her he was just Makkai.
“I don’t usually deal with the healing around here, but Makkai was insistent. He had his serious face on. He’s decided you’re important,” Airi said with a light laugh.
