Penumbra

by Dan Ackerman

  Riley scowled. Most peers blew off the drills. Children went because their teachers brought them, but the vast majority of adults had better plans. Arden went every time, though. He would have been a poor example otherwise.

  “The purpose of today’s meeting is to prepare a, uh, a conspectus of sorts for the incoming Council members. It’s been a while since we’ve had an election and there’s a lot of information to pass on. I’d like to make it as smooth as possible.”

  “It might be easier if you hadn’t barred us from running again,” Riley huffed.

  “I don’t want any of you running again. You’re…obstinate, narrow-minded, and uncooperative. You’re trying to make things how they were, but that’s not what we’re doing anymore,” Arden said.

  Weiss tried to insist, “You’re making a mistake, Arden—”

  “Excuse me!” he said.

  Weiss bowed his head. “Your Eminence.”

  “We’re here to work on this conspectus and anyone who says anything unrelated to the Council’s business this day will…will be put on rations for a week.”

  “Rations?” Riley asked.

  Arden nodded. “Mmm. You’ll get what the thralls get to eat. And you can fucking join the vent cleaners, too, if you don’t get your shit together.”

  “You can’t do that.”

  “I can do whatever the fuck I want. I’ve been sitting here for twelve years trying to dance around you idiots to get things done when I’ve been able to just do things the whole time. You all understand that, don’t you? This Council is a farce. Just a…a way for me to delegate things and keep the peerage happy.”

  The Council stared at him.

  “My mother knew that. But I was young and unprepared and…and I was easily led. Not anymore.”

  They kept staring.

  Arden smacked his hand on the table. “Not anymore! Bigley, you first, go. What’s your summary of engineering?”

  Bigley sputtered, nearly dropped his tablet, then started to give a shaky recount of the past decade or so.

  Arden made himself sit up straight. He wanted badly to slouch back into his chair and cross his arms, but he didn’t. He stayed upright and listened keenly as they gave their reports. Most of them had come ill-prepared.

  They broke around lunchtime and Arden reminded them they’d reconvene tomorrow morning, and every morning thereafter, to finish this.

  Rhys moved for the first time when all the Council members had left.

  Arden had forgotten about him. He gestured to a chair.

  Rhys sat.

  “How long have you known?”

  “Your Eminence?”

  “That I’m an idiot.”

  Rhys smiled. “You’re not an idiot.”

  “Then why do I act like one?”

  “Because you’ve been spoiled all your life.”

  Arden sighed. He folded his arms on the table and rested his chin on his arms. “Is that all it is?”

  “The last Autarch never believed she would die, not even while she was dying.”

  “Did you whisper into her ear too?”

  “No, but I’ve listened to you talk about her for a decade.”

  Arden groaned. “Should we have lunch in here? I need to organize my notes.”

  “If you’d like me to join you.”

  “Of course, I do.” Arden tapped out a lunch order on his tablet, then paused to ask, “What do you want?”

  “I’m not picky.”

  Arden stuck out his tongue. “I never realized it, you know, until today. Until I was yelling at them, that they’ve been leading me along like I can’t think on my own. Like I don’t own everything.”

  Rhys remained quiet.

  Arden lifted his head. “You must have figured it out pretty quick.”

  “Your Eminence?”

  “Barely two years into my reign and you’re sneaking up behind me making these little comments,” Arden accused limply.

  Rhys lowered his eyes.

  Arden’s stomach hurt. “Well?”

  “Do you really want me to answer that?”

  “I do now.”

  “You, uh. Do you remember that flu outbreak ten years ago?”

  Arden nodded.

  “We had to scrub everything, the whole station, top to bottom. As soon as we stopped puking, they had us out cleaning. I was wiping down one of the stairwells. It was late, but it was round-the-clock work.”

  Arden straightened up.

  “So I was, you know, wiping down the railings and this fancy-looking boy was sitting on the stairs, head in his hands. I didn’t realize you were crying until I was a few stairs away. You’d been at it for a while ‘cause it was just a few sniffles every now and again.”

  Arden cleared his throat. He didn’t like this story.

  “Anyway, you noticed me and you yelled at me for bothering you. I asked if you needed anything. You said you needed help and I said, ‘What usually helps me is washing my face and a drink of water’ and you just…you stared at me. You asked me for a glass of water, and I walked you back to your room and got you a glass of water and wet a washcloth so you could wash your face and told you to go to bed. And you went to bed.”

  “I don’t remember that.”

  “You were shitfaced. But you…you so badly wanted someone to tell you what to do. You were like a lost kid. So…I kind of. I thought I should give you what you wanted.”

  “Mmm. Out of the goodness of your heart?” Arden asked.

  “Better me than one of them,” Rhys said and slung his eyes towards the other empty Council seats.

  “Then this is some long con?” Arden asked. The stone in his gut grew heavier and colder by the second.

  “I don’t want Eden to fail either. It’s my home.”

  “And sleeping with me?”

  “Not remotely part of the plan.”

  “No?” Arden asked.

  “Like I said, I didn’t even like you at first.”

  Arden took his hand and squeezed it. “I didn’t like you either.”

  Rhys smiled at him.

  A thrall brought in their lunch.

  They ate before they started to review the reports. They spent three or four hours doing what they could with what they’d been given. An awful pain started behind Arden’s eyes, so he called it quits. He retreated to his chambers, skipping dinner and taking shots of Three and Nine.

  They spent a week like that, listening to the Council in the morning, having lunch together, then trying to put things together for the incoming members. They separated in the evenings for some reason or another.

  This evening it was because Arden had agreed to visit Cathie’s ladies’ club. He approached the event with absolute dread, but a thrall served him a saucer of fizzy wine as soon as he walked in the door, so he felt better about it immediately.

  They’d completed the conspectus, pending a few minor revisions, so he felt he deserved to indulge.

  He expected a group of bored, gossipy women of the peerage, which he got. Fifteen women between twenty-six and forty, dressed up for no one but themselves and each other.

  He settled himself into an available armchair and raised an eyebrow. “Ollie?” he asked.

  The young man looked over at him. “That’s me, Your Eminence.”

  Ollie Brown had been years behind Arden in school, but Arden had played ball with Ollie’s older brother.

  “Are you part of Cathie’s club?”

  “When there’s nothing else to do,” Ollie said. “What about you?”

  “Oh, Cathie wants me to impress the importance of charity on you all.”

  Ollie smiled. “Between the two of us, I’m here because I’m desperate to get Tiz to notice me and she thinks it’s so funny of me to show up to a ladies’ club.”

  “That humor’s a little antiquated.”

  “Isn’t it though!” Ollie agreed. “But she has wonderful tits. I saw them once and I’ve been chasing that dragon for three years now.”
<
br />   Arden smiled.

  “Ardi!” Cathie cried when she saw him.

  He rose to meet her.

  She wrapped him up in a hug and started showing him off to all her friends, making introductions.

  She glowed with the attention.

  He found himself talking to Tiz Rivera and catching sour looks from Ollie. He motioned for a thrall to bring him another drink. When he had it, he watched the thrall walk away, then eyed Tiz’s breasts. He didn’t care that they were wonderful, he was sure they were, but he did wonder how much she’d paid for them.

  She noticed him looking and gave him a funny kind of smile. Somewhere between irritated and flattered. Something else, too.

  Calculating, he realized. He immediately wanted to dispel any notions she’d gotten. “Did you know thralls can’t get the right procedures?”

  “What?” she asked.

  “Oh, you know, the ones with gender things to take care of.” He made a vague gesture.

  “And?”

  “I didn’t know. Did you?”

  “No. Why would I, Your Eminence?” she asked cagily.

  “No reason. Just. I thought everyone could get them.”

  “I never had those sorts of issues.”

  “No, but how much did you pay for those?” he asked and nodded towards her breasts.

  She gaped at him, then mumbled a number under her breath.

  It did seem outside of most thralls’ budgets.

  Tiz made an excuse to get away from Arden.

  He finished his drink, picked over the snacks, and made some light chitchat with the other ladies.

  When he felt he’d spent enough time with them, he left without saying goodbye to anyone.

  He planned to curl up in bed and watch a few shows, or maybe a movie. He’d changed into his pajamas and retrieved his tablet from its charging dock when someone knocked on his door.

  He checked it and let Rhys in. He smiled at him. “Miss me?”

  “I actually needed to talk to you about something.”

  “Oh.”

  “Can I?” Rhys held out his hand for Arden’s tablet.

  Arden handed it over, then took it back to look at the page Rhys had pulled up. His account. “And?”

  “I can’t live on that.”

  “Um.” Arden stared at the number. It seemed meager, edging back toward the nothing he’d started with a little while ago. He flicked through a few more pages.

  People rented thralls from Arden and what they paid went either towards a thrall’s rent and provisions or towards their debt. It worked much the same way for Rhys. People paid Arden for his time and the money got funneled automatically towards rent or his personal funds. The system smelled funny, even to Arden, but people had signed up for that when they’d come to Eden.

  Arden noted, “No rations.”

  “Only people with debt get rations,” Rhys reminded. “I don’t qualify anymore.”

  “Mmm.”

  “And the only food for sale is meant for peers.”

  Arden nodded his head. “That is a problem, isn’t it?”

  “I tried to buy tomatoes today and I would have gone back into debt for it.”

  “Hmm. Well. Do you want me to put you back on rations? Or…” He studied Rhys’s face. “Or pay you more?”

  “How about both?” Rhys proposed.

  “I did think you’d say that.” Arden took the tablet over to the couch and did a little digging through the files. “Did you know you’ve never gotten a raise?”

  “I did know that.”

  Arden studied the files a little longer and weighed the options and consequences, near and far. “What I do for you is going to set a precedent for everyone who pays back their debt.”

  “And how likely is that?” Rhys asked archly.

  “I’m just saying, down the road, history will look to you as an example.”

  “So?”

  Arden shrugged. “So, I really hope whoever’s Autarch in four or five generations can afford what I’m about to give you.” He doubled Rhys’s pay, put in a note to figure out a raise schedule later, and gave him access to ration credits again. If Rhys paid back his debt and word got around that he’d lived better beforehand, then no one would ever have the motivation to work off their debt. “The thing with the food, we’ll sort that once we have a new Council settled. Figure out some kind of middle ground on pricing. Is that all you wanted?”

  “A man has got to eat,” Rhys pointed out.

  “I’ve fed you lunch every day this week,” Arden returned.

  “Some of us eat more than once a day.”

  Arden ignored that. “I was going to watch a movie. You could stay.”

  “You seemed pretty sick of me earlier.”

  “That’s just work, though!” Arden assured, a little chagrined that he’d snapped at Rhys earlier. “Outside of work, I’m desperate to see you.”

  “You didn’t call for me.”

  “It felt like you might think it was obligatory.”

  “Isn’t it obligatory for everyone to answer when the Autarch calls?” Rhys asked.

  “Well, yes, but I’m not, you know. I’m trying to make you sleep with me. I just, I had fun. I thought you did, too.”

  “I had fun.”

  “Besides, it’s just a movie.”

  “I’ll stay for a movie,” Rhys agreed.

  Arden grinned and pecked him on the cheek.

  He snuggled up to Rhys as they watched.

  Rhys ended up staying for more than a movie. He agreed to stay for a late dinner, which didn’t surprise Arden given the state of his funds.

  They ate sitting on the floor on opposite sides of the coffee table in Arden’s viewing room.

  Arden, as he ripped apart edamame shells, offered, “If you haven’t got anywhere really pressing to be, I could suck your dick, too, if you’re interested.”

  Rhys pressed the back of his hand to his mouth. He’d just taken a large bite of pasta and had to struggle to chew it.

  “If you’re interested,” Arden repeated.

  “I…Are you sure?”

  Arden nodded.

  “I’m interested.”

  Arden popped a few edamame beans in his mouth. He pulled up his leg and rested his knee on his chin. “You don’t look interested. You look uncomfortable.”

  “I usually am around you.”

  The confession didn’t surprise Arden, but it did hurt. “I super fucking hate that.”

  Rhys chuckled. “Is that the kind of language you learned in your superior education?”

  “Sure fucking is. It’s also where I learned how to give head and I’d like to share the benefit of that superior education with you. Poor unfortunate wretch that you are, we must give alms.” Arden gave Rhys a smile he hoped came off as soft and inviting.

  Rhys pushed a little bit of pasta around his plate. He gestured to it with his fork. “I, uh. Can I heat this up later if I don’t finish it now?”

  Arden tittered. “You can have a whole second plate of pasta if you want. You can have three. We can make you a little to-go box if you’re going to try to feed me that excuse about having to work.”

  “I do have to work!”

  Arden scooted around to the other side of the table. He gave Rhys a nudge towards the couch. “Go ahead.”

  Rhys hesitated.

  Arden gave him another push. “Go on.”

  Rhys pulled himself onto the couch.

  “Stop thinking about your pasta.”

  The other man murmured, “Sorry.”

  “Think about me for once.”

  “I think about you all the time.”

  “No, you think about Eden, and the Autarch, and the man who owned you, and the Council, and the thralls. Think about me.” Arden slid between Rhys’s legs, ran his hands up his thighs, and skimmed a finger under the waistband of his trousers. The rough fabric tickled his finger, a delicious contrast to the softness of Rhys’s skin.

  Rhys
drew in a breath. He stared down at Arden, his dark eyes bright.

  Arden kissed him, slow, but not slow how Rhys kissed slow. Not careful but savoring. He kissed his throat and untied the front of his shirt. He pressed his mouth to Rhys’s chest, his fingers moving down to work at the buttons of his pants.

  Rhys sunk lower into the couch, all sighs and soft, sweet gasps.

  He stayed like that, running his fingers through Arden’s hair when Arden lowered his head.

  He found Rhys ready, straining, and made the eager work of him. Not hurried, no, just attentive and enthusiastic.

  He liked this, Rhys’s fingers in his hair, the taste of him in his mouth, and hopefully, the thought of Arden in Rhys’s mind.

  He pulled back after Rhys had cum. He licked his lips and wiped his mouth.

  Rhys pulled him in for a kiss. Slow, but not careful.

  Arden settled into his arms. “Do you want to stay?”

  “I’ll stay,” Rhys consented. He sounded a little sad, but he kissed the side of Arden’s face and pulled him closer into a hug.

  Arden almost said thank you, but he stopped himself.

  He warmed Rhys’s pasta up and lent him pajamas.

  He felt hazily content, even when Rhys woke him up in the morning to kiss him goodbye.

  “Do you want me to call someone for you?” Rhys asked.

  “No. Didn’t I give you today off?”

  “Day off means I’m not getting paid.”

  Arden stretched. “Okay. I’ll see you soon?”

  “Mmhmm.” Rhys kissed his forehead.

  Arden snuggled into the pillow Rhys had used for about half an hour. When he felt good and ready, he got up and drew himself a bath.

  Once upon a time, he’d done this regularly for himself. He’d sit around in a bubble bath with his hair piled on his head.

  Today he sunk all the way in and scrubbed his scalp. He washed it and then smoothed conditioner through the length of it. He twisted it and sat it on top of his head to let it soak in.

  There’d been a time when he’d taken care of himself a little better. Gotten exercise and the closest thing to fresh air Eden could offer. He hadn’t used so many formulas and he’d eaten more than one full meal a day.

  What had changed?