Phryne

[st_unning]

After finishing up a pleasant chat with Ignis and making his way back to his room, Alcuin flopped down onto the bed and read a bit more of Twilight. It did not get better.

He stared up at the ceiling for a moment, thinking through the day again. Mind turning with possibilities for the spa. And occasionally drifting to remembering his hands on Ignis' skin.

He'd brought a few items of different types with him, intending to investigate further what they were and what they were made out of. He was going to crack this face mask thing. But in the meantime, he found himself getting up and opening the bottle of massage oil to inhale the scent again - vanilla and jasmine. Ignis had seemed to like it.

He closed it again, and then picked up the telephone, dialed the number for Phryne's room.

"Hello, Phryne," he said pleasantly when she picked up. "Are you busy?"

Comments

[st_unning]

Alcuin began to massage her back in earnest as he spoke again after a brief hesitation. "That's very kind of you. It's only that the idea makes me so nervous, and I'm not entirely certain why. I've just never done this before, I suppose. I'm accustomed to... knowing what I'm doing."

[st_illunsmeared]

"Surely you didn't always know," Phryne murmured, body relaxing and tension releasing under his hands. After a moment, she added, "I'd wager Ignis has no more knowledge than you." His service to Noctis had doubtless not left time for courtships.

[st_unning]

Alcuin knew there was a saying about the blind leading the blind, but suspected that would be in very poor taste.

"You're right," he said. "One does have to learn things." He found a tense spot under her shoulder and worked it out. "Like this."

[st_illunsmeared]

"If this is any indication of your ability to learn, you've nothing at all to worry about." She turned her head to offer him a fond smile and to say, in a different, less didactic tone, "You have lovely hands."

[st_unning]

"Thank you," Alcuin said softly, and very nearly found himself adding 'my lady' to the end of that but bit it back just in time. "I think you would like Terre d'Ange."

[st_illunsmeared]

"I believe I would." If her household and Jack were with her. "If it isn't too painful, I would love to hear more about your home and what it was like."

[st_unning]

"It is not painful to remember some things," Alcuin said gently, as he smoothed his hands expertly over her back, down to her waist, briefly at the curve of her hips.

"I have told you about the Night Court," he mused. "Did you notice that they are all named for night-blooming flowers? Adepts of Naamah... as they receive patron gifts, they repay their debts, and as a symbol of this, the flower is limned on their backs. It is called a marque, and when it is complete, they are free of any obligation to their House and may stay or go as they please."

[st_illunsmeared]

"And how does one become an adept?" Because this was not something he'd discussed with her before and it had seemed invasive to ask.

[st_unning]

"There are different ways," Alcuin said. "Children are often sold to houses, or grow up there. But everyone must enter Naamah's service willingly. I did not belong to a house. I... was rescued, I suppose. And I gave myself to Naamah's service, perhaps not entirely for the right reasons, but I was willing."

[st_illunsmeared]

"Children may not become adepts, I hope?" Her tone remained mild, because she didn't believe this world Alcuin had told her of would value children so little that they might be sold into sexual slavery, especially when rape was the highest form of blasphemy.

[st_unning]

"What?" Alcuin's eyes went a little wide. "No, no. Most adepts' virgin nights are their sixteenth birthday, or shortly after." And in Terre d'Ange, this was the age of adulthood.

[st_illunsmeared]

Phryne nodded and reached back with one hand to pat his where it rested on her back. "I was almost certain that was the case, darling, but I've had a recent run in with men who didn't believe as we do."

[st_unning]

"Children cannot consent," said Alcuin quietly. And then, he added just as quiet, a confession, "There are things about my culture that I recognize may still seem troubling from the outside. I can even see some of it myself. How if the story of Anafiel and I were told in one of those paperback novels - it may seem as if I was used."

[st_illunsmeared]

"Do you feel you were used, darling? If not, I'm not inclined to judge." She patted his hand again, and then returned it to her side so she didn't undo the good work he was doing. "But every culture looks peculiar to those on the outside. I'm listening to learn, that is all."

[st_unning]

"I... did not do anything I was not willing to do for love," Alcuin said after a moment, as he found a knot of tension near her shoulder and began to ease it apart. "But he did not know I only did it for him. Not until it was too late."

[st_illunsmeared]

"Mm, I see what you mean about not doing it for the right reasons, but, darling, is not the central precept to love as thou wilt? It seems to me that if you completed your marque for love of Anafiel, you did precisely that."

The knot he'd found beneath her shoulder blade smarted terribly, but she bore it easily under his talented fingers.

"Had Anafiel known, he might have made a different choice for you, and so might you have. But he didn't know, so you loved him the way you could."

[st_unning]

"Thank you, Phryne," Alcuin said. "That is a very nice way to think about it."

After a moment, he raised his hands from her back. "How is that?"

[st_illunsmeared]

Phryne stretched languidly and smiled. "Wonderful. Thank you." Of course, now she would have to move and to lie here lazily seemed like all she wanted in the world.

"I really would love to hear more of D'Angeline culture, though, hmm? Perhaps over a drink or another time?"