Tegeli

This is the start of a mini-sequel for the main story of Inherited Zeal. I hope you enjoy this tiny diversion!

Vesija Aamkena, a magister of Poalin

Ethnolinguistic analysis of Iwunian folklore reveals that our ancestors shunned the impenetrable forests of the hemipolar night. An old rhyme for children too scared to sleep lingered in my mind, as I watched glimmering snow on the floor of a vast arboreal temple outside the sleigh. Bioluminescent coniferous vine, choking the pillars of this sacred space, conjured between themselves sawblade-shadows; the toothy jaws of abominations, which could have reached us before even the eyes of my wife spotted them.

The gentle sway and warmth inside the sleigh had lulled the woman into evidently restful sleep. Though thick, the blanket on her tranquil form could only hope to emphasise the round fells of her feminity. Strands of hair that had escaped the classy bun flowed to a fragile face, and calm breath wheezed between soft but apposite lips. She must have caught a seasonal flu in spite of the immuno-enhancers carefully adjusted for her. I need not worry however. By any standard, Nerutaara was hale and hearty young woman. In fact, her cardiovascular endurance remained spectacular despite her casual training regimen.

The vast eyelids split open to reveal an already alert gaze, which instantly snapped straight towards me. The pupils that tightened into eerie pinpricks before widening into enthralling wells of ink. Her wide mouth squished into a cheeky smile.

The urge to touch her overpowered me. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and pulled the woman close. She didn't smell of inflammation, but her scent did cause certain sort of swelling. Neru is a fruit, incessantly emanating an olfactory invitation to be relished. There in the dim night, her eyes out-shined the stars above awaiting a solar chariots of their conqueror.

My hand sunk into the deceptive softness of her thigh, into the well-developed muscle. Her lips received mine, yet the contact had to be cut short. My flesh shuddered underneath the fibrewool of my coat. Not from any sudden chill, but the encroaching desire that couldn't presently be sated.

I retreated to my side of the bench and asked: "Did you sleep well?"

She brushed a lock off her face and looked outside into the ghost-lighted forest. After a moment she yawned and pressed tight against my shoulder.

"I'm too anxious to get any real rest." Though her voice was high enough to sound adolescent, her usual accent oozed casual elegance; a sly compound of strictly controlled intonation, imperious gravitas and disarmingly demure girlishness. She sighed, leaving me to figure out the source of her woe by myself.

My reasoning arrived at the obvious conclusion only after a couple of specious detours. Last time Neru had met her parents, they had considered her their son. Even though I had seen ––touched–– the evidence, her past remained difficult to truly conceptualise. To me, she had been herself straight from the beginning, even if she had later revealed to have suffered from her own doubts.

In part to help her reaffirm her self-image, but mostly to my selfish gratification, I wrapped my arm around her and clutched a handful of the voluptuous feminity available. She had declined my half-hearted suggestions of reduction treatment, and I could hardly feel disappointed by that. Few women can become as bountifully developed, even with expert enhancements, without at the very least losing the natural habitus of mammaries. The advanced stage of her pregnancy had further augmented the splendid heft.

A long sigh told that the rapacious attention was far from unwelcome. The bestial part of my brain howled to recommit the despoiling that had led to her present condition. I felt guilty, yes, but also unbelievably satisfied that my virility had subjugated her body for our mutual purposes.

I moved my hand to a more chaste position. "I'm certain they will be elated to have you with them after such a long time."

"You are certain?"

"Well... Surely any parents would be eager to meet the daughter they didn't know they had."

"My parents are not just any old couple. This invitation might a trap, to lure us into their grasp."

I caressed her lip and kept any amused chuckle to myself. "There's naught we can do. They'll have us in their clutches soon enough. Unless the sleigh gets lost. Mayhap we should have hired a driver."

"The sleigh shan't err. The scent trail is quite distinct out here. Besides, there is nothing else at the end of this road."

Our path had passed the respite of Jaan civilisation into the increasingly rough countryside. The small canton would have been consumed by sprawling urbanism, were it not for the unforgiving craggy nature of the terrain. A centrally located backwater must have suited the temperament of a Jaan family with such an ancient pedigree.

Speaking of heritages, on that front our journey through the busy countryside had proven peculiar. Though Neru did little to attract attention to herself or her origins, some aspect of her demeanour, unnoticeable to myself, tended to cause a sudden change in the behaviour of the locals. The near-urbane hospitality had chilled into a deep respect coloured by a desire not to have anything to do with the woman. This, on an evidently unarmed woman in simple travelling garments and and with half of her volume consisting of the abdomen.

Nerutaara hadn't shown any reaction to this, and if the bizarre treatment bothered her, she was too engrossed by other worries to show it.

I claimed the woman in my arms by her slender shoulders. She was a dainty flower with thorns deadly enough to end any unwanted picker. In spite of her penchant for the idea that this brute had her at his volition, I lacked any illusions that my aptitudes were enough to subdue a woman of her character. Not that wished to do so: it was an immense privilege she granted me, willingly.

With a restful breath, Neru pressed her head on my shoulder. "What's on your mind, Vesija?"

I let out a chuckle. "You, of course."

She brought my hand to her bump, where her long fingers curled all around my much bigger palm into a choking grip. A gentle shiver travelled up the woman, sending my already elevated heartbeat racing. With my nose right next to her careless coiffure, the feminine scent threatened to overwhelm me in a wave of ungentlemanly rapaciousness.

"I'm so glad to be home after so long an absence", she murmured. "Yet I needed you to dare making the journey. I'm such a coward."

"You, a craven? No..." I rubbed her yielding form. "Few can face what you have seen as undaunted as you did."

"Vesija dear, by now you should know that to Jaan, death is nowhere near the most terrifying fate."

Though she never failed to remind me, I kept wilfully ignoring what she was, despite that essence of hers being exactly why loved her.

Against a backdrop of the starry sky, the sparsely dotted lamplight camouflaged the mound in front of us. The Ekku-clan mansion had crept on us like a hunter laying in wait. It is a typical early regime period Jaan stronghouse, a circular building set on top of a pile of large rocks that are kept in place by the immense roots of the structure. The fortress ––as that it is–– remains as a relic from a blood-soaked era.

Our sleigh ran up the stairs, which led to the gate, with skis drumming on the steps. Neru's compressed the bones of my hand and let out of a tiny gasp, when the sleigh halted at the gate to open it with its proboscis. The extravagant steel doors folded open against a short tunnel into the courtyard. In the middle grows the central tree, a hoary giant of gnarled bark. From its immense root network stems the whole forest surrounding the house for miles. The evergreen canopy stretched above us from wall to wall, and the illumination of the yard was left to glowing pustules on the tree's sides.

"I have never seen one of these", I said, as I helped Neru out of the sleigh. "Not many are left in the world."

Neru frowned at the mighty conifer in the nexus of her heritage and shuddered. "Let's go inside."

The front entry unlocked after a lazy lick of Nerutaara's palm, but to open it I had to push with most of my weight. Slowly, with a reluctant groan the door folded out of our way. Neru grabbed my hand and guided us inside into the sparely lit gloom of an immense foyer. The scent of aged resin saturated the warm air, a sign of a senescent house with enough vigour still to fight off pathogens. Not even my nose smelled a whiff of mould beyond the expected spores of symbiotic shelf fungi.

A swinging lamp appeared from a dark doorway and revealed a woman with a mildly bow-legged gait. She wore a footman's uniform so exaggeratedly ornate that anywhere else it could have been only intended as a parody of the aristocratic extravagance of the old Jaan. However, her acute features, with the sharp nose and narrow upturned eyes, resembled no Jaan I had met.

She made a rapid bow. "Good evening! This humble servant of yours is Keramli, steward of Ekku estate. Feel yourself welcomed!" The woman spoke Jaanish with a metropolitan accent that was impossible to place, but at least confirmed she couldn't possibly be related to Neru.

"Good evening", my wife said. "We are... Nerutaara and Vesija."

"Oh yes! We've been expecting you two."

"I see." Nerutaara examined the gaudy attire of the servant. "So my mother finally gave in to this... hotel suggestion."

Keramli frowned through an uncomfortable smile. "Instead of a 'hotel', we prefer to consider our business the accommodation of paying guests. We offer an authentic slice of the regime era to those wealthy enough to appreciate the experience."

"Doubtlessly the commoners are not made to genuflect to their inherent betters."

"No, madame, there are certain concessions to contemporary mores."

Neru shifted her weight from a foot to another and back again. "Are my parents awake?"

"Well, yes, I suspect so. One can't hunt asleep, not even a Jaan! They won't be here before morning."

"Hunt?" I asked. "Through the night?"

Nerutaara's lips pursed in a smirk. "One can't exactly catch ghost-fauna at daylight."

"Just so." Keramli clapped her hands. "You two must be tired. But before I lead you to your room, do you wish to have any refreshments?"

"We should just get to bed", Neru said.

"Yes." Keramli nodded. "Tomorrow can be nothing save hectic for you two. Now, would you please follow me?"

As wide as the corridors were, the cabinets full of curios and exotic artwork came close to choking the passage. I wanted to ask about the origin of an artefact or two, but the tapestries and carpeting muffled all sound, leading to a stifling silence. In any case, many of the items must have been spoils of long forgotten wars, and not the genteel subject of idle discussion.

Nerutaara walked with dejected posture that wrenched the chords of my heart. A homecoming should be a joyous, or at least a pleasant, occasion. Yet she was tense like a loaded spring. I put my arm on her shoulder, which triggered a reflex in her to press against me.

The steward showed us to a small room that was by no means a luxurious suite. At least it was on the side of the courtyard, so we had a proper window to ourselves. Neru bothered not with any remarks, but sat on the pillowy bed to yawn heartily.

"Very well then", said Keramli. "Breakfast will be done once the mistress and master make their return. Good night."

I bid the steward the same, made sure the door was latched after her and went to sit beside Neru.

"Was this your room?" I asked.

"Oh." She shook her head. "No. Me and my brothers shared a room." A trace of a smile returned to her lips. "Our parents considered it important we understood that Jaan were never above the austere life of the barracks."

"That isn't all that different from how it was in my clan, even if I don't have any siblings."

She fell silent again. Knowing not what else to do, I hugged her. My wife responded by clinging into me, which would have tickled the protective side of masculine vanity, had her wordless distress not been so blatant.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Oh... Nothing." That might have been the end of it, but I had no wish to rush her. Eventually Neru continued: "I struggled so much to harden my nerves, for meeting my parents, yet they aren't even here."

"They'll be here tomorrow." Instantly, I knew that wasn't the right thing to say to get her to sleep.

"Yes. Another night of dread."

I massaged her arm. "They were the ones who invited us. Your parents want you here."

"True, but I can't be sure of their intention, I can I, Vesija?" The woman cradled her abdomen. "I know it's silly, but I still can't shed the notion that I'm on a stage, acting a role. On our way here, the feeling has constantly intensified. Perhaps I'm afraid that my parents need only utter a word to rip away the veil of delusions."

While bedside manner is important to a physician, I am no alienist. It might have been useful for Neru to consult a professional of mental irregularities, but I had never dared to bring up the subject.

"It's not silly to feel insecure", I said. "You've been allowed ––allowed yourself to be–– what you are for merely a year now. These things can't but take time."

"Vesija, that's exactly the problem." She turned to look at me with those effusive wells for eyes. "It's been only a year. What was I before that?"

"Is it inconceivable that, in this peculiar case, being just your own self was difficult enough to comprehend, by no fault of yours?"

Neru's gaze fell, but the grimness in her expression melted away. I leaned in close and brought my hand to her navel. "Considering the circumstances, it is understandable if you experience anxiety. My opinion as a medical professional is that this distress is compounded by your extremely feminine humoural condition."

With a grin, the woman clutched my hand and pressed it against herself. The tension around my heart released. As I moved to kiss the woman, her lips moved away and she presented her neck as a target instead. There, underneath the silky hair, her scent dominated my perception.

"There's one thing", Neru whispered. "Which you might do to help me."

"Anything", I murmured, as I sample the taste of her winter-pale skin, even as one thing only danced on my mind.

"But first..." Neru detached from me. "We forgot our luggage."

The steward was nowhere to be seen, but I could handle our luggage alone with the main trunk trotting after me. My thoughts remained as straightforward as my steps, embarrassingly enough. Fortunately not even the Vad could read my mind that far from the heart of Narshur. Besides, the ancestral presence must have had more pressing matters claiming their attention with the collapse of the Pylon right next to the Jaan frontier.

I froze at the threshold of our room. On the bed, Neru lay curled around her stomach, wheezing softly in her sleep.