Here, among the Knights and away from the perfumed nobles, I could pick out each of their scents without concentrating. A leananshe carrying the scent of ambrosia, a yuanaga with the scent of the desert sands, a salamander oozing ozone, even a cloud strider smelling of rain. Each of the Holy Knights was trapped like me - in a humanoid form, with barely a shadow of what we once were showing on our cage of flesh. But each of us still had the strength, the magic, and the abilities of our past life.
Each of us strong enough to take out an army of mortals on our own. It was why we were chosen two hundred years ago. The strongest of our peoples, taken to protect the mortals.
Shaking myself out of my thoughts and unclenching my jaw, I turned my eyes back towards the Knights gathered there. Expectant eyes followed my progress as I strode to my chair, grabbing a tankard of ale as I passed the bar’s counter. With a heavy thud, I dropped into my chair and leaned back, my curving horns pressing against the wood of the back of the chair.
I did not take a pull from my tankard, simply held it in one hand. Waiting. Breathing in the scent of my fellows. Feeling tight muscles begin to relax and release their grip.
Finally, a red-faced Esrin returned, shoving a disheveled, brunette pretty boy who brought with him the scent of riverbanks - a selkie - and the heady scent of coupling. Esrin shoved Euri into the building and pulled the heavy doors shut behind him, before finding an empty seat on a bench and putting his head on the table. A few of the Knights around him laughed and nudged him, teasing about the redness of his face.
Euri, on the other hand, laid himself out on a loveseat, not bothering to straighten his clothing and looking very pleased with himself.
A snort erupted from my nostrils, loud enough that it carried across the room. The Knights all stopped their laughter, turning back towards me. Lifting my tankard, I met their eyes once more.
“Knights of the Holy Order,” I began, “a toast to you, for making it through that haughty banquet without killing anyone.” A few chuckles, several knowing grins. “Our dear Emperor has given me hope for some entertainment. What say all of you - to a new war?”
A cheer broke out and the room devolved into celebratory chaos. They didn’t care who we were going to fight - only that we would be fighting. The ale flowed freely and somewhere along the way, one of the Knights snuck prostitutes into the building. One such attempted to flirt with me, until another pulled her away.
“Look, I know I said I’d bring you here, but I told you on the way over - the Captain doesn’t do that. He’s never brought anyone to bed with him.”
Though her words were quiet, even over the roar of the Knights, my sensitive ears picked it up. A scowl darkened my features and I took a long pull from my tankard, draining it.
All mortals seem to care about is sex.
Standing from my chair, I left the empty tankard on the counter for the servant behind the bar. Before he could ask if I wanted a refill, I moved on, heading instead of up the stairs to the living quarters, down into the basement. It wasn’t like a few floors would dampen the noise, considering the main area of the building was open. Better to go down and let the Knights wear themselves out above.
The Knight’s Hall contained three stories of simple design, with a basement and wine cellar beneath. Most of the first floor held the common hall, used for dining, meetings, carousing, and general purposes. The rest of the floor held the servants’ quarters, the kitchen, the laundry, and our armory. Just outside sat our private stables and our own smithy, where we could repair our arms and armor or make new ones. The second and third floors contained the Knight’s living quarters, each of us having our own rooms. With the center of the building open, allowing anyone to see into the common area, sturdy rails kept most accidents from happening.
The basement contained my favorite part of the entire Empire - a natural hot springs bathing area. Stripping out of my formal wear, I washed quickly before sinking into the warmth of the spring. With a groan, I relaxed into the warm embrace, leaning against the stone bench and letting my head drop back, my horns scraping against the stone floor. Breathing deeply, the natural scent of the spring filled my nostrils, cleansing my senses of mortals and their disgusting, bitter scents.
The Spirits, however, seemed to think that leaving me alone wasn’t in their best interest. No scent ever accompanied the Spirits; just a simple touch on my cheek and light, ethereal laughter, accompanied by the caressing presence of a passing breeze. I cracked open an eye briefly to confirm it was them, then let out a sigh and stubbornly closed my eyes again.
“Please leave me alone,” I grumbled out. “At least while I’m bathing. If you must talk to me, do it later.”
More ethereal laughter and I felt the water ripple against my chest. Damn nosy brats.
Lifting my head, I glared pointedly at the semi-solid teal-colored biped crouching in the water up to their chin. Fins on the side of their head twitched, a light dusting of pink on their cheeks, and a glitter of mischief in their too-wide crystalline eyes.
“Really, Norina? What is it this time?”
The voice that came from the creature did not reach my ears - it ghosted across my mind, gentle and patient, lapping at the edges of conscious thought like the rolling waves of the tide. “Emperor wants war?”
“Yes. He’s decided to unite the rest of the continent, then go east,” I said, relenting, knowing the Spirits - especially Norina - were far too persistent in their curiosity to leave me to finish bathing.
“Dark things east.”
“I’m well aware of that, and so is the Emperor. But it’s his decision to throw away the lives of his citizens, and I couldn’t care less about the mortals in this place.”
“Mean.”
Leveling a glare at the Spirit, I pointed at my horns. “Not mortal.”
The Spirit pouted and slipped under the water for a moment before coming back up, this time between my legs and just centimeters from my face. “Mean! Tell Emperor no.”
I swear, Spirits have no sense of personal space.
“How about you tell him yourself? Oh, wait, it completely slipped my mind - Arias can’t see or hear you. How cruel of me to bring it up. So sorry.” With a tilt of my head, I dutifully kept my expression blank, doing my utmost to keep from snarling in their face.
“Mean!” This time, their voice wasn’t gentle and caused the throb in my temples to come back ten-fold. I growled then, my lip curling up.
“Maybe if you didn’t disturb my bath or crawl into my bed at ungodly hours of the night or even respected a bit of my personal space, I wouldn’t be so mean to you,” I countered. “Why don’t you go bother the Oracle? They’re at least still able to hear and see you.”
Norina pulled back a little, looking down at the steaming water almost like a scolded child. “Dying. Need new.”
“Huh. She’s dying, is she? Tragic. I hope that old crone doesn’t haunt me after she’s gone.” The Spirit shoved water at me, back to pouting. “What? At least I don’t hate her, but she’s still a mortal. Do you want me to lie and say it’ll be a tragic loss?”
“No … just … help find new.”
“Me? You want me to find a new Oracle?”
Norina nodded excitedly, their too-wide mouth splitting open to reveal rows upon rows of sharp, pointed teeth.
“That’s a horrible idea, really, I am the worst person for the job,” I told the Spirit, waving my hand in dismissal. “Go ask Esrin, he’d be ecstatic to do your bidding.”
“No! Dragon know. Dragon seek.”
“What do you mean, I know?” Damnit. They weren’t giving up.
“Dragon nose.” Norina pointed at my nose before tapping it once, grinning still. “Dragon scent. Dragon find.”
“You think I can find a new Oracle based on scent alone? What am I, a bloodhound?” I turned away from Norina, only to watch them glide through the water and settle on the bench beside me. At least they weren’t in my lap anymore.
“Dragon seek. Dragon find.”
Persistent brat. “Fine. What scent am I looking for? I can’t just go galavanting across the Empire looking for a new Oracle without any clues.”
Norina shook their head. “New smell… new.”
Helpful. So helpful. “That’s not a scent, and not helpful whatsoever.” I rubbed my temple, my thoughts running a mile a minute as my headache eased. “Hopefully, I’ll find them while uniting the continent. Can you at least tell me in which direction this new Oracle is? Or a name?”
I don’t know why I bothered asking for a name, Spirits don’t deal in names-
“Kirin.”
I stared openly at Norina. “Kirin? Is that… the new Oracle’s name? The new Oracle can’t be an actual kirin because those are extinct… right?”
“Kirin,” they said again. “Dragon seek. Dragon find.”
“Come on, you have got to give me more information-”
Before I could finish, Norina returned to their wispy form and vanished, accompanied by that ethereal, annoying laughter.
Fuck.
Comments (2)
See all