THE DUCHESS;

EVERYBODY'S LOOKING FOR SOMETHING

Duchess was conscious long before her eyes opened. She didn’t need to open them to know things were once again very wrong. There was no chirping in her head despite leaving the barrier between herself and Myna lowered ever since her encounter in… wherever it had been that Myna had become a fairy? It was also brighter and quieter physically than the tent in camp ended up in the mornings. No pots and spoons banging, no conversations or questions about the day’s activities, or demands for more money, more loot, more food more more more. The bed was far more luxurious than any outlaw in Shaman had a right to sleep in, but most distinctly different was the company. The soft breathing from the other side of the bed had been enough of a difference to wake the thief, but the other differences kept her still.

She had been alone when she went to bed the night before. Rare was the night when she wasn’t.

Finally, the Duchess could take it no more. This lying around lazily was lovely break, but it was boring and served no purpose. Her eyes opened to a very different sort of room than any she’d been in, with multiple objects she couldn’t fathom, let alone name. The room was clean and the windows large. Despite the curtains, the bright sunlight slipped through the crevice between wall and fabric. With a slight shift from her stomach to her side and a turn of the head, from the periphery of her vision, the Duchess could make out the company as a woman. She was familiar, too, although the Duchess couldn’t say she had ever spoken to the woman. No, the Duchess knew her by reputation and gossip and occasional path crossing. The pirate lord who had turned from piracy to king’s confidante for love of a man.

The Duchess had found the complete conversion rather distasteful, but having a god wrapped around your finger, she supposed, did have enough perks to perhaps pretend to switch sides. Still, the identity of her bedmate was enough to tell Duchess exactly what was happening. A life spent in Shaman didn’t go by without hearing about the endeavors encountered by those who attempted Omniety and succeeded. Tales of living a short time within an original, having divinity and power at the tips of your fingers. It was widely known among anyone living outside of a rock or tree which god had turned the Warbird into a caged songbird.

Still, songbirds could bite and scratch (Myna had proven that a time or two before) and the Duchess doubted having a lover possessed would endear her to the former pirate. It wasn’t going to be easy with no knowledge of the intimate details of their relationship, but she’d have to make due.

For now, the Duchess sat up and headed into an adjoining room, one with a lot of smooth stonework and an oddly shaped chair with a bowl of water inside of it. Although it was very unlike the outhouses of Shaman, it was similar enough that the Duchess had the gist of what went where and, with a rather curious lift of the eyebrow, went to town. Having never had the anatomy of a god, aim was not precisely something the Duchess had mastered by the time she finished, but rather than deal with the aftermath, she again found her curiosity controlling her thoughts and actions. The metal flag had to have a purpose.

The Duchess leapt back, her heart racing and staring at the liquid swirling around the bowl and disappearing. Magic existed and she shouldn’t have been surprised that a god would have magic toilets, but it seemed odd that the magic would make such an odd noise and work like a riptide. When the current stopped and the water returned, clear and clean, the Duchess turned away, back toward the bed and the now woken woman looking at her.