After their tense interrogation session, Drake felt drained, and it seemed Nicole did as well. Still, his mental exhaustion also came with relief. Nicole wasn’t actually lazy or irresponsible. She was as devious as they came, and fiercely committed to those she cared for.
She likely didn’t care for him. She also hadn’t murdered him. But after their talk, he trusted her to keep him safe even more now. Because, Lydia, Emily, Olivia, and Valentia all wanted to keep him safe, and Nicole wanted to keep them safe. Also... he doubted Valentia would have sent Nicole to watch over him if she thought Nicole would randomly murder him.
“Let’s start with the pile over here,” Drake said. “Stack the scrolls on the table.”
Nicole simply nodded. She didn’t speak. So they were back to that now.
Once they had cleared out the initial pile of haphazardly piled scrolls, Drake realized why they were all in a corner like this. There was a small tube hidden under the pile, and many more scrolls jammed into it. Once they cleared the pile and had those stacked on the table, he had to pull out several more. He reached deep into the tube to grab the last one.
Once the tube was clear, Drake marveled at what he’d revealed. The tube couldn’t be PVC, but it was still a remarkably smooth, white substance that almost looked like plastic. Moreover, when he put his hand up to it, he felt a faint wind.
He glanced at Nicole and pointed. “What’s that white material?” He half expected a snarky comment on his lack of knowledge or some sort of innuendo.
“Culiaue,” she said.
He’d just gotten a straight answer from her. Progress.
“It’s a hard rock that can only be mixed in Ashwind lands,” Nicole continued, “prized for its light color and durability. It’s also expensive. If this little pipe goes anywhere further than a few dozen paces, we’re looking at a significant investment of coin down here. Of course it also keeps out all moisture, and it is prized for how thin and smooth it can be made.”
So it was basically PVC pipe. Smooth, waterproof pipes leading into the earth intrigued him. This room already reminded him of an old-style bank teller vault. Scrolls go in. Scrolls come out. He already suspected there were more pipes hidden behind the other scroll piles.
Samuel would know. He’d ask the old man when he wasn’t regenerating. For now, the important task was to see if he could make heads or tails of these scrolls. There was no way he could read all these scrolls before he left—there had to be hundreds of the damn things piled up in here—but if Nicole could find the most recent ones, he could at least read those.
He motioned for Nicole to join him and spread out the first pile of scrolls on the table. He spotted numbers immediately, written in varying levels of precision by each small wax seal. He had no idea what the numbers meant. There were seven numbers without breaks.
He glanced at Nicole. “What do these numbers mean?”
She eyed him with now visible amusement. “You can’t read dates?”
“I’ll need to learn. But for now, can you order these scrolls from most recent to least recent? We can’t possibly read all of them, but we should take a look at the most recent letters to see if there’s anything we need to immediately worry about.”
As she casually began to lift scrolls, scan them, and spread them out on the table, she kept her eyes on the table. “You really are from another realm, aren’t you?”
“Sure am.”
“What’s it like there?”
“No magic. No blood pacts. No ferals, no zarovians, and definitely no battle maids. Just a bunch of humans and not enough resources.”
“So you have wars?”
“Plenty of those. They’re a real moneymaker where I come from.”
“What about bathhouses? Horse races? Gambling?”
“Are you just listing your favorite vacation activities?”
“I ask important questions.”
“We have all of those things, but...probably not the way you’re used to them.”
“How so?”
“Take baths. Where I come from, most everyone with a place to live has their own bath or even a shower, which sprays hot water from above. We all have indoor plumbing as well, and much better than you have here. Hell, some of our bathtubs even make bubbles.”
“That is not fair.” Nicole went back to sorting scrolls. “I want a hot personal bath that makes bubbles. Still, no rarities?”
“Not a one. No obedience fetishes, either. I’m glad about that one, personally.”
“So what do you have there? In your magic-free realm with bath bubbles?”
“Ice cream. Pizza. TVs. Video games. Race cars. Space shuttles. We even have computers that can talk to you like a real person. They’ll probably go rogue and kill us some day.”
“I never knew anyone who could say so many words that meant absolutely nothing.” She glanced his way. “So no blood pacts? No manor lords?”
Drake nodded.
“Is your realm some kind of paradise?”
“Oh no, we still have plenty of problems. We just hurt people the old-fashioned way.”
“But without blood pacts, how do you stop people from rebelling against your leaders?”
“That’s handled by crushing everyone down under the weight of whatever government we’ve decided to put together. All in all, it’s not that different than here. We just have different ways of punishing you if you buck the system.”
She nodded as if that made perfect sense. “Do you want to go back?”
This felt like genuine interest. It felt like Nicole was opening up to him, a little. She hadn’t opened a door yet, but she was, at least, talking to him through one.
“No. I made the decision to stay here and serve as this manor’s lord the day I arrived, and I’m sticking to that. I still want to visit Earth again, mainly because my mother and friends are there, but I’m committed to this manor and this life. I’m seeing this through to the end.”
This time, when she frowned at him, she looked more concerned than annoyed. “Why would you wish to stay here and be assassinated? Is it the giant stash of gold in your cellar, the fact that I’m so attractive, or Meryl’s spice rarity?”
“If I’m being honest...” Drake looked away. “I actually feel responsible for you people.”
Nicole offered him a sharp look. “What does that mean? If you’re being honest?”
He had to be more careful about how he spoke to people who didn’t know he could lie. “Just a phrase from Earth.” He paused. “It’s a way to stress how strongly I mean something.”
“Hmm,” she offered. “Interesting.”
Not long after, in silence, she stepped back. “Scrolls sorted.”
Drake picked up the first, broke the seal, and unrolled it. There were only a few sentences written inside, but they made him chuckle.
“It is a joke?” Nicole asked. “I like jokes.”
“Seems Lord Blackmane has a thing going on with one of his blood thralls. The spy says it’s mutual and very salacious. That man must really be hard up for a bed warmer.”
Nicole pursed her lips. “A manor lord can have any bed warmer they wish, but blood thralls are trickier to unwrap. A forbidden treasure. What a naughty lord.”
Drake glanced at her. “So will we be bidding goodbye to Lord Blackmane soon?”
Nicole shrugged. “There are ways to do it safely. You can get away with an awful lot if you both wear the proper protection and are careful about the fluids.” She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Is that something you’d be interested in knowing more about?”
She was right back to pushing him, but he didn’t mind now that he knew a little more about her reasoning. “I do not.”
She nodded in obvious approval. “Smart lord.”
He opened the next letter and frowned at how mundane it seemed. “Three new children born in Ashglaive this past month, two girls and a boy. Where’s that?”
“Blackmane lands not far from here. It’s a nice enough little town. Their rat on a stick is one of the best rats on a stick I’ve ever eaten.”
“Nicole, that does not sound like an endorsement.”
“It is not.”
“So my spies keep up with random childbirths? Is that a secret?”
“It’s information,” Nicole said. “Who wouldn’t say no to free information?”
She was right, of course. When Drake opened the third scroll, he skimmed it twice in increasing disbelief. Then, he chuckled darkly and set it down. He wanted to kick the table.
“What is it?” Nicole asked eagerly. “Is it more unwrapping?”
“Our spy has learned a team of four assassins from the infamous Red Hood Order took a contract to assassinate a target of high importance inside Gloomwood Manor. Their plan is to sneak into the manor and ambush the target during the day, though the spy isn’t sure how they’ll get inside. Our spy suggests we screen our blood thralls for treachery.”
“That’s a good tip,” Nicole said. “You should do that.”
He offered her the scroll. “How many days old is this?”
She glanced at the numbers on the back. “Three.”
“Fuck me sideways,” said Drake. “We really need Samuel back.”
She nodded.
“And you know what? We’re getting Samuel back today.”
“A new brilliant idea?”
“Just an old one. We’re going to force a burnish potion down the old man’s throat before we stick him on a wagon, or cart, or whatever. He’s coming with us to the cabal.”
Nicole nodded in obvious approval. “Given we’re about to ride off into the den of venomous mud vipers also known as Korhaurbauten with no idea what it’s about, we will need him. And you have a number of unread messages. And you can’t read dates.”
“He’ll have a few days to catch up on the road,” Drake said. “I’m going to let you out now. Go get a big backpack from the kitchens, or storeroom, or whatever. We need to pack up every last one of these scrolls and bring them along with us. All of them, even the old ones.”
“Are you ordering me to leave you in here alone, Lord Gloomwood? Lydia and Val will then be very cross with me if I leave you unescorted. I may even be scolded.”
“I think I’ll be all right with a big rock slab between me and any possible danger. Deep in my own cellar. Deep in my own manor. I’ll see if I can start making sense of how you do dates while you’re gone. When you get back, just pound on the wall.”
“And what if I don’t come back? What will you do then?”
“I’ll leave on my own, go find Valentia, and tell her you left me alone in here.”
Nicole gasped. “You are ruthless.”
“You did push me a good long way.” He walked past her, once again dug his letter opener into the barely clotted divot in his thumb, and offered his bloody thumbprint.
Nicole slipped past him and out of the room. Once outside, she stopped and looked back. “One quick question about bed warmers. Do you prefer men, women, or both?”
She really was determined to bait him. “That’s just shockingly personal, but I’ll answer it. I like women. Nothing against guys, but they don’t do a thing for me.”
Nicole nodded thoughtfully. “After I stripped Zuri and cut that fetish out of her, you had a prime opportunity to get a guilt-free look at her phenomenal boobs. You turned away the moment you realized that. Nobody asked. You just did.”
He grimaced at the implication. “Is the bar so low here?”
“For manor lords. Even if you weren’t interested in ogling her for your own personal satisfaction, she’s still property to you. Just a tool to be used and employed however you see fit. There’s no need for a manor lord to care about a tool’s modesty.”
Drake sighed. “I really am sorry you feel that way.”
“I understand why you would be. But still, on balance, at least you’re fun. I like fun.”
Before he could ask her what Nicole meant by that, she vanished into the dark hall.
After their tense interrogation session, Drake felt drained, and it seemed Nicole did as well. Still, his mental exhaustion also came with relief. Nicole wasn’t actually lazy or irresponsible. She was as devious as they came, and fiercely committed to those she cared for.
She likely didn’t care for him. She also hadn’t murdered him. But after their talk, he trusted her to keep him safe even more now. Because, Lydia, Emily, Olivia, and Valentia all wanted to keep him safe, and Nicole wanted to keep them safe. Also... he doubted Valentia would have sent Nicole to watch over him if she thought Nicole would randomly murder him.
“Let’s start with the pile over here,” Drake said. “Stack the scrolls on the table.”
Nicole simply nodded. She didn’t speak. So they were back to that now.
Once they had cleared out the initial pile of haphazardly piled scrolls, Drake realized why they were all in a corner like this. There was a small tube hidden under the pile, and many more scrolls jammed into it. Once they cleared the pile and had those stacked on the table, he had to pull out several more. He reached deep into the tube to grab the last one.
Once the tube was clear, Drake marveled at what he’d revealed. The tube couldn’t be PVC, but it was still a remarkably smooth, white substance that almost looked like plastic. Moreover, when he put his hand up to it, he felt a faint wind.
He glanced at Nicole and pointed. “What’s that white material?” He half expected a snarky comment on his lack of knowledge or some sort of innuendo.
“Culiaue,” she said.
He’d just gotten a straight answer from her. Progress.
“It’s a hard rock that can only be mixed in Ashwind lands,” Nicole continued, “prized for its light color and durability. It’s also expensive. If this little pipe goes anywhere further than a few dozen paces, we’re looking at a significant investment of coin down here. Of course it also keeps out all moisture, and it is prized for how thin and smooth it can be made.”
So it was basically PVC pipe. Smooth, waterproof pipes leading into the earth intrigued him. This room already reminded him of an old-style bank teller vault. Scrolls go in. Scrolls come out. He already suspected there were more pipes hidden behind the other scroll piles.
Samuel would know. He’d ask the old man when he wasn’t regenerating. For now, the important task was to see if he could make heads or tails of these scrolls. There was no way he could read all these scrolls before he left—there had to be hundreds of the damn things piled up in here—but if Nicole could find the most recent ones, he could at least read those.
He motioned for Nicole to join him and spread out the first pile of scrolls on the table. He spotted numbers immediately, written in varying levels of precision by each small wax seal. He had no idea what the numbers meant. There were seven numbers without breaks.
He glanced at Nicole. “What do these numbers mean?”
She eyed him with now visible amusement. “You can’t read dates?”
“I’ll need to learn. But for now, can you order these scrolls from most recent to least recent? We can’t possibly read all of them, but we should take a look at the most recent letters to see if there’s anything we need to immediately worry about.”
As she casually began to lift scrolls, scan them, and spread them out on the table, she kept her eyes on the table. “You really are from another realm, aren’t you?”
“Sure am.”
“What’s it like there?”
“No magic. No blood pacts. No ferals, no zarovians, and definitely no battle maids. Just a bunch of humans and not enough resources.”
“So you have wars?”
“Plenty of those. They’re a real moneymaker where I come from.”
“What about bathhouses? Horse races? Gambling?”
“Are you just listing your favorite vacation activities?”
“I ask important questions.”
“We have all of those things, but...probably not the way you’re used to them.”
“How so?”
“Take baths. Where I come from, most everyone with a place to live has their own bath or even a shower, which sprays hot water from above. We all have indoor plumbing as well, and much better than you have here. Hell, some of our bathtubs even make bubbles.”
“That is not fair.” Nicole went back to sorting scrolls. “I want a hot personal bath that makes bubbles. Still, no rarities?”
“Not a one. No obedience fetishes, either. I’m glad about that one, personally.”
“So what do you have there? In your magic-free realm with bath bubbles?”
“Ice cream. Pizza. TVs. Video games. Race cars. Space shuttles. We even have computers that can talk to you like a real person. They’ll probably go rogue and kill us some day.”
“I never knew anyone who could say so many words that meant absolutely nothing.” She glanced his way. “So no blood pacts? No manor lords?”
Drake nodded.
“Is your realm some kind of paradise?”
“Oh no, we still have plenty of problems. We just hurt people the old-fashioned way.”
“But without blood pacts, how do you stop people from rebelling against your leaders?”
“That’s handled by crushing everyone down under the weight of whatever government we’ve decided to put together. All in all, it’s not that different than here. We just have different ways of punishing you if you buck the system.”
She nodded as if that made perfect sense. “Do you want to go back?”
This felt like genuine interest. It felt like Nicole was opening up to him, a little. She hadn’t opened a door yet, but she was, at least, talking to him through one.
“No. I made the decision to stay here and serve as this manor’s lord the day I arrived, and I’m sticking to that. I still want to visit Earth again, mainly because my mother and friends are there, but I’m committed to this manor and this life. I’m seeing this through to the end.”
This time, when she frowned at him, she looked more concerned than annoyed. “Why would you wish to stay here and be assassinated? Is it the giant stash of gold in your cellar, the fact that I’m so attractive, or Meryl’s spice rarity?”
“If I’m being honest...” Drake looked away. “I actually feel responsible for you people.”
Nicole offered him a sharp look. “What does that mean? If you’re being honest?”
He had to be more careful about how he spoke to people who didn’t know he could lie. “Just a phrase from Earth.” He paused. “It’s a way to stress how strongly I mean something.”
“Hmm,” she offered. “Interesting.”
Not long after, in silence, she stepped back. “Scrolls sorted.”
Drake picked up the first, broke the seal, and unrolled it. There were only a few sentences written inside, but they made him chuckle.
“It is a joke?” Nicole asked. “I like jokes.”
“Seems Lord Blackmane has a thing going on with one of his blood thralls. The spy says it’s mutual and very salacious. That man must really be hard up for a bed warmer.”
Nicole pursed her lips. “A manor lord can have any bed warmer they wish, but blood thralls are trickier to unwrap. A forbidden treasure. What a naughty lord.”
Drake glanced at her. “So will we be bidding goodbye to Lord Blackmane soon?”
Nicole shrugged. “There are ways to do it safely. You can get away with an awful lot if you both wear the proper protection and are careful about the fluids.” She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Is that something you’d be interested in knowing more about?”
She was right back to pushing him, but he didn’t mind now that he knew a little more about her reasoning. “I do not.”
She nodded in obvious approval. “Smart lord.”
He opened the next letter and frowned at how mundane it seemed. “Three new children born in Ashglaive this past month, two girls and a boy. Where’s that?”
“Blackmane lands not far from here. It’s a nice enough little town. Their rat on a stick is one of the best rats on a stick I’ve ever eaten.”
“Nicole, that does not sound like an endorsement.”
“It is not.”
“So my spies keep up with random childbirths? Is that a secret?”
“It’s information,” Nicole said. “Who wouldn’t say no to free information?”
She was right, of course. When Drake opened the third scroll, he skimmed it twice in increasing disbelief. Then, he chuckled darkly and set it down. He wanted to kick the table.
“What is it?” Nicole asked eagerly. “Is it more unwrapping?”
“Our spy has learned a team of four assassins from the infamous Red Hood Order took a contract to assassinate a target of high importance inside Gloomwood Manor. Their plan is to sneak into the manor and ambush the target during the day, though the spy isn’t sure how they’ll get inside. Our spy suggests we screen our blood thralls for treachery.”
“That’s a good tip,” Nicole said. “You should do that.”
He offered her the scroll. “How many days old is this?”
She glanced at the numbers on the back. “Three.”
“Fuck me sideways,” said Drake. “We really need Samuel back.”
She nodded.
“And you know what? We’re getting Samuel back today.”
“A new brilliant idea?”
“Just an old one. We’re going to force a burnish potion down the old man’s throat before we stick him on a wagon, or cart, or whatever. He’s coming with us to the cabal.”
Nicole nodded in obvious approval. “Given we’re about to ride off into the den of venomous mud vipers also known as Korhaurbauten with no idea what it’s about, we will need him. And you have a number of unread messages. And you can’t read dates.”
“He’ll have a few days to catch up on the road,” Drake said. “I’m going to let you out now. Go get a big backpack from the kitchens, or storeroom, or whatever. We need to pack up every last one of these scrolls and bring them along with us. All of them, even the old ones.”
“Are you ordering me to leave you in here alone, Lord Gloomwood? Lydia and Val will then be very cross with me if I leave you unescorted. I may even be scolded.”
“I think I’ll be all right with a big rock slab between me and any possible danger. Deep in my own cellar. Deep in my own manor. I’ll see if I can start making sense of how you do dates while you’re gone. When you get back, just pound on the wall.”
“And what if I don’t come back? What will you do then?”
“I’ll leave on my own, go find Valentia, and tell her you left me alone in here.”
Nicole gasped. “You are ruthless.”
“You did push me a good long way.” He walked past her, once again dug his letter opener into the barely clotted divot in his thumb, and offered his bloody thumbprint.
Nicole slipped past him and out of the room. Once outside, she stopped and looked back. “One quick question about bed warmers. Do you prefer men, women, or both?”
She really was determined to bait him. “That’s just shockingly personal, but I’ll answer it. I like women. Nothing against guys, but they don’t do a thing for me.”
Nicole nodded thoughtfully. “After I stripped Zuri and cut that fetish out of her, you had a prime opportunity to get a guilt-free look at her phenomenal boobs. You turned away the moment you realized that. Nobody asked. You just did.”
He grimaced at the implication. “Is the bar so low here?”
“For manor lords. Even if you weren’t interested in ogling her for your own personal satisfaction, she’s still property to you. Just a tool to be used and employed however you see fit. There’s no need for a manor lord to care about a tool’s modesty.”
Drake sighed. “I really am sorry you feel that way.”
“I understand why you would be. But still, on balance, at least you’re fun. I like fun.”
Before he could ask her what Nicole meant by that, she vanished into the dark hall.
