I stared at her slack-jawed.

“What?” Anaise asked, hiding behind her tail.

“You realize that your mother would kill us?” I managed to croak out, “Or at least me when she finds out about this. And I am not saying that because I think bad about her. In the eyes of Emanai, I am still her property.”

“And what,” She leaned closer, “makes you think that she doesn’t know already?”

Aikerim’s apparent agreement didn’t reassure me much.

“Is that about me being a daimon? I am not one, I just look like one of them.” I kept pushing for more answers.

Anaise pushed her ears flat to her head, A frown on her face. “Are you trying to backtrack on your promise?”

I sighed, “No, Anaise. While I am overwhelmed with the news, I am happy that you chose me. Guilty even, for you to choose me despite my own sadaq. I just don’t want this to accidentally ruin you or your relationship with the rest of your family, at least not while I am a slave of your mother. Or something worse, if others will think of me as a daimon only to find out later that it isn’t true.”

She scoffed as her tail smacked me in the face, “If you think that we would willingly speak about you being a daimon, you aren’t thinking hard enough. Discretion is a powerful tool among the Manors. I would have done this discreetly too, but I am unwilling to risk you picking up yet another stray, only to slip away from my grasp due to their poisonous words.”

“I hope that my sadaq would notice someone, who has no other plans but to poison it from within,” I pointedly reminded her, “And they were the ones who assured me that you would be welcome, despite me not believing you would ever agree to this. If not for them I would have never approached you the way I did either.”

“You don’t need to remind me,” She sighed, “While this is not how I wanted this to happen, it is one of the outcomes I prepared myself for. I wouldn’t have planned for it if I was unwilling to tolerate their presence.”

“Planned for it?” I did not expect to hear that.

She scrunched her nose with a sly smirk, “Oh Erf. I might be young but I am still the Lady of the House. Did you expect that I would leave this to the last moment without thinking it through and through?”

My jaw started to descend again, “And if your mother knows about this, that means she was agreeable to you joining my sadaq all this time?”

Anaise pinched my nose and pulled it slightly, “Of course not, silly. My mother was obviously against it. Until today that is. When you stopped being just a slave and became the slave that owns his personal wermage. A wermage that would be present whenever you will make any public appearance among other wermages and follow me from time to time.”

A chuckle escaped my mouth. Followed by another, and another. I started laughing as my palm met my forehead.

“I fucking knew it! So there was a bigger reason why your mother saddled me with that snake. Plans within plans indeed.”

“But no matter,” I shook my head and faced Anaise fully once again, “Machinations of your mother aside, I want you. And my sadaq welcomes you as well. And I promise to love and cherish you just as much as I cherish them.”

I gently cradled her blushing face with my hands, “You will be part of our sadaq. Not mine, not theirs. Ours. Will you help us build it into greatness?”

Beet-red Anaise pushed my face away with her hands, “You can’t just say that to my face like that! Of course, I will.”

I felt her shiver in my arms, “And bring me a new robe. I am cold!”

“As you wish, dear.”

“Hngh. Say that again.”

“Yes, dear.”

Yeva

Her fingers touched the strings but, instead of playing, she put the instrument away.

She didn’t feel like playing right now.

Irje tried to sound confident, but Yeva could hear the long pauses in her speech, her loud heartbeat when she touched her skin. An awkward laugh for no reason.

Stupid Erf. Why wasn’t he just a little bit less noticeable.

She knew it was partially their fault. They were the ones that pushed him into her arms. But that was how things were done. If one needed safety or benevolence — they should seek out a patron. And when his original patron lashed him they urged him to seek a patron of a different kind.

Erf, however, did everything in his own way.

Instead of a benevolent patron, he had made a lover. Someone who cared about him enough to forgo the social norms and offer him a place in her future sadaq. An unthinkable thing to do by a wermage for a murk. And they never thought about it, until it happened.

It is likely the promises of Domina’s wrath that Anaise didn’t snatch him then and there. That and his own sadaq. Irje was wise enough to understand that she couldn’t hold him herself. But both of them could.

Sadaq-at were unions blessed by the Gods. The glue that held Emanai and its families together. Breaking one apart was frowned upon.

At least in an obvious manner.

Which still left plenty of non-obvious ones. And Anaise definitely knew of them.

But their Erf wasn’t of a stupid kind either. Nor was he greedy for status, stubbornly choosing their side rather than the promises of the Lady of the House. And he was wise enough to see a plot to break apart his sadaq, despite his frequent claims that something of this kind was beyond him.

A slight smile crept up on her face. It was the act such as that that made her confident in him, confident that he would return back to them.

Anaise knew of that as well.

This is why she confronted them well in advance while Erf was away. Demanding another night with him. Another attempt to change his mind.

Both she and Irje were sure that Erf would remain unmoved by her advances. But Anaise was strangely confident in herself as well. And that confidence was unnerving. Yeva was pretty sure that Domina’s daughter won’t resort to underhanded tricks. After all, if she fails she would lose him forever. Yet her heart had been full of worry, for many do unreasonable acts out of passion.

Acts like offering sadaq to a murk slave.

She turned her head sharply, interrupting Irje’s monologue about something unimportant, “They are here.”

“They?” Irje croaked in a suddenly hoarse voice.

“They. This doesn’t mean anything yet.” She shook her head, as she sat straighter. Waiting for that now-familiar creak of a new door.

The sound was almost deafening to her ears.

His smell on her was unmistakable.

“Hey—” Irje started to speak only to be silenced by something hitting her.

A soft sound. Pillow?

“How dare you leave me there, alone!” Erf bellowed across the room, “To be eaten alive by my yet another wife!”

Ah.

Yeva sat a bit more comfortably, listening in to the familiar bickering between these two.

That was… acceptable.

“What do you mean another, you randy dog!” Irje hissed back, “Domina will pluck your balls for that.”

That was… less than acceptable.

“Apparently, my dearest ‘mother-in-law’ had planned all of that in advance. I am not just a mere slave, but a slave that owns a snake! Totally a marriageable material.”

“Erf!” A scandalized shriek. Yeva never heard the Lady of the House sound like that.

“But it’s true!”

“Oh Gods. I see now why Albin Chasya likes you.” Anaise groaned, “You act just like him sometimes!”

“I am sorry,” A loud squeak and Irje’s snicker, “But one could cut the air with a knife here. I had to do something about it. This is already awkward enough as it is to have unresolved stress looming over it.”

Yeva smiled, “These idioms of yours are back again.”

“Now,” Erf gently brushed her cheek and placed a peck on it, only to gently slap Irje on the butt by the sound of it. “Let’s get the introductions out of the way, as you can tell this is Anaise Kiymetl Hilal. A wermage, the Lady of the House, and now — a member of our sadaq.”

XXX

The evening was an eerie affair for all of them. Erf might have rubbed shoulders with wermages on many occasions, but for them, it was the first time to try and talk to one of them as an equal. Even Irje struggled.

She simply chose to sit and observe most of the time.

The Lady didn’t sound angry nor spiteful, but mellow and languid. She didn’t even need her smell to understand why, nor Irje’s remarks about the crooked tail. Erf didn’t just act as a mediator between all of them, he also made sure that Anaise was properly dicked prior to the conversation and satisfied to the brim to smoothen the conversation.

Still, the wermage upbringing was obvious through her tone. And Yeva realized that she felt her upbringing just as well. It took her some effort not to jump to action whenever Anaise commented about something, but she still felt herself tensing with every word.

Erf’s gentle hand didn’t fully help either.

It was a wermage voice. A voice of power and strength. Someone who could kill her with a thought, just like some wermage blinded her before. The fact that she loved the same man didn’t make it easier either. At least Irje had her magic to rely on, to put herself on a more equal status with the Domina-to-be.

“Well then. Irje, can you show Anaise the layout of the main building so that she can choose a room for her liking? I will be meeting with Wrena tomorrow and she could start working on it right away.”

One small mercy that they still had was that Anaise wasn’t particularly keen on sharing the bed with them. She preferred to have her own room for actual sleeping, but Yeva had a feeling that wouldn’t last long either.

“Good idea. I will be right back.” Irje answered as she stretched.

“Oh, you don’t need to rush at all.” Erf suddenly said.

“What do you mean no need to rush?” Irje rumbled menacingly.

Two strong arms wrapped around Yeva and pulled her into his lap. All she could do is squeak from surprise.

“There isn’t just three of us anymore, and some new decorum should be in order. At least for a while. I will try to split my time equally among all three. Anaise had her share already, and now would be Yeva’s time. While you, Irje, will be thoughtfully punished tomorrow.”

She could help but blush, it looked like her disquiet was that obvious.

“Heh, heh. Ah!” Irje stopped herself suddenly, “Let me show you the way, Anaise Hilal?”

“Anaise would be proper.” Wermage replied, “We are together now, are we not? And would that mean my day would be the one after tomorrow? I would like to show you my new rooms by then, although I expect to see you during the days anyway.”

“Absolutely. Have a good night Anaise, Irje.”

After a few more pleasantries both of them left, leaving only her and Erf behind.

She didn’t waste the time and quickly turned around and wrapped herself around his body. Her nose, in the familiar nook on his shoulder.

“I will take these nanites of yours as soon as they will be ready.” She mumbled into his skin.

His hand stroked her head. “And you will have them. But I will not let you go no matter what anyway.”

“I know…” She sighed, “But I don’t want to hide anymore, I don’t want to sit quietly in the corner and hope that no one would notice my presence. I need a more active role in this, both for you and for myself.”

He chuckled, “I have a fear that soon enough all four of us would be extremely busy, but I will make sure that you will have an equal share of tasks in the future, especially as your sight would return.”

She squeezed him tight but didn’t say anything, content to simply lie in his embrace for hours on end. Perhaps having Anaise wouldn’t be too bad.

“Yeva. Did I make the right decision?” Erf suddenly asked.

“Time will tell, love.” She sighed, “Sometimes we have no best decisions to choose from, and sometimes what we think is true isn’t. But I believe it was a good one. Don’t blame yourself for the growth of sadaq — if not her someone else would have forced their way in eventually. But you have chosen to spare the heart of a maiden, the one we were all at fault for. And that is something a man that I love would do.”

Yeva settled in better, “Now hush, and let me enjoy your clean body.”

XXX

The morning was hectic as usual.

I spent my early waking hours running around and juggling the potential bedrooms of my sadaq. Anaise didn’t want a room. She wanted something that would properly showcase her status within the estate. Which meant Irje wanted the same as well, and I would die before I let Yeva be satisfied with leftovers.

So rooms had to be investigated, assessed by their relative ‘prestige’ and given out so that neither of three would feel left out. I was already starting to feel the pressure of handling a large sadaq.

No wonder Aikerim chose to have a mere two husbands.

Then I had to find my family and share with them the most significant gift I had — the trip to the kitchens. Both to let them familiarize the area where they could get the food in the future and to stress to the cooks that they were my family and therefore would be treated with proper respect.

I also haven’t seen the kitchens either.

They weren’t that impressive for now. They were large, yes, but the selection was still lacking and I only had a single wermage in the estate. I also heavily doubted that Anaise would be eager to cast ice daily to have proper fridges and freezers.

So I would have to come back to that at a later time. Right now having warm, freshly-cooked meals would be plenty enough.

At least my family agreed with that. There weren’t any tear-eyes reunions but I could see the glimpse of gratitude where there was only fear and unease before.

Small mercies.

Wrena intercepted me shortly thereafter.

“I’ve built that bathtub merely a day ago!” She roared as I tried to swallow the last morsel of food.

My uncle and mother were nowhere to be found, spooked by the wer's somewhat rightful outrage.

“Really, Wrena?” I rubbed my ears, “Could you speak a bit more quietly? You are scaring everyone off.”

“It is Master Wrena to you, kid! I’ve been working on this estate for days now, as Domina deemed it was more important than looms. And the first thing you do, once you are back, is break my creations!”

“Well they were rather flimsy,” I unapologetically accused her, “Others at the inner courtyard of the manor were much stronger.”

“That is because they have runic carving so that a passing wermage wouldn’t shred them to pieces, especially when their mind is clouded by the passion. Are you a wermage, Erf?”

I looked at her.

“Erf?” There was a hint of wavering in her tone.

“There are three rooms inside the main building.” I ignored her question as I pointed back to my living quarters. “Find Irje she will show you which ones specifically. And tell you how to furnish one of them. Ask Yeva about the other one. And the third…”

“Eh, did a wermage take you in? Was it Miras? But he is sensible enough not to break my stuff.”

I turned back to her, “Make sure that the third room would be similar to the inner rooms of the Lady of the House.”

Wrena gulped, “Anaise Hilal? You were taken by Domina’s daughter herself?”

“Of course not.” I denied, earning a sigh of relief from the wer carpenter in front of me, “I took her in.”

“What!” Wrena choked, “You lie!”

“Ask Domina herself, or be present at the feast that would undoubtedly follow soon.” I shrugged my shoulders and started walking away. “And recommend her someone, I would need a carpenter on a more constant basis from now on.”

“Erf? Wait! I am sorry!” Wrena chased after me, “Look, I will carve the proper runes, I have the templates. I was just surprised that it was broken so quickly! And Anaise is a very strong girl, she would need a full set.”

“I would still need another carpenter. One to build machinery, not furniture.” I kept my pace.

“Machinery? I will do it!” Came a frantic yell.

I stopped and glanced around, “You will?”

Wrena nodded, her ears fully down, “Just tell me what to do. I even made that master screw you have requested before.”

“But what about the looms?” I asked innocently.

“I will teach my apprentice. She knows enough already to be her own master.” She pouted, “Look, I’ve apologized already, what else do you want!”

“Next time, don’t scare my family away. And tell Domina about your decision, I would expect she would approve but some things need to be followed.”

I turned around and continued my walk, at a more leisurely pace as the rapid footsteps disappeared toward the Domina’s residence. I couldn’t stop a grin on my face — I got myself a carpenter and a great one at that.

If only I could get a coppersmith that fast too.

“Erf.” A gruff voice spoke behind me.

I glanced around only to flinch away from a fist flying into my face.

“Hoh,” Sulla murmured as he calmly watched me get up from the ground, “I did not expect that from you.”

“What is thi—” Another fist slammed into my face, sending me back to the ground.

“A good reaction is essential,” He commented, “But if you think that is all you need, then you are a fool.”

He slowly stood above me. Calm, relaxed, confident. “I see you started growing your hair. It looks like Domina had finally agreed to offer you freedom. So show me, young murk — can you defend that freedom?”