by Eric Vall
“You don’t have to tell me if it makes you uncomfortable,” I explained. “I was just--”
“It’s technically called ‘Mental Manipulation,’” Josephine forced out. “Do you know what that means?”
“Is that some sort of… mind control?” I asked.
“I can make people bend to my will with a single thought,” the blonde whispered. “I don’t even have to speak… or look at them, I can simply think it, and they will do it.”
“Really?” I grunted. “It works that way--”
My words were cut off as my right hand moved on its own, jerked out, grabbed one of the empty vials in its palm, and then offered it to the blonde aristocrat. Josephine’s eyebrows raised, she blinked once, and then she shifted her position on the couch until she laid completely flat on her back.
“I-I’m sorry if I’ve offended you,” I murmured, placed the vial on the table, and began working on the concoction again. “I didn’t mean to, I can assure you that my intention was only out of curiosity.”
“I don’t like to use my powers very often,” the blonde admitted. “I’m already wealthy. Also, we already live in a society that forces people… men… to do things they don’t want to do. Why would I activate it unless it’s absolutely necessary? I know a lot of aristocrats that would kill to have a power like mine. Adelia for example, she covets my power and says so every time I see her, but I can’t help but imagine all the awful things she’d do with it.”
“I personally think it’s a fascinating power,” I smiled. “I can understand the way you feel, but… you could look at it in a different light. So many terrible things go on in our society, and you could use your power for some good…”
“Do you think so, Charles?” Josephine asked.
“I know so,” I nodded, stirred all of my ingredients together in a bowl, and then poured a full amount into each of the empty vials. “I’m a man, so I don’t know what it’s like to possess such a power, but I know that a lot of the aristocrats abuse their power… and from what you said last night, you don’t think the same as they do.”
“Ah, so that’s what I spoke to you about last night,” the blonde murmured. “Please don’t tell any of the others, if it were to get out, I could be shunned, stripped of my titles, land, and my mines, and then I’d have nothing. Then what would my mother do? I couldn’t afford her treatments anymore…”
“I promise I won’t,” I uttered. “I have no intention of ratting you out to the other aristocrats. What good would that do me? Yes, I’d be rewarded for finding a harlot, but that’d be it, your life would be ruined, and my reward wouldn’t be worthwhile. Not only that, Josephine, but I like you, and I trust that no one else will hear about this little conversation?”
“Of course not, Charles,” Josephine shook her head. “If I turned you and Daisy in for being harlots, then… I’d no longer have anyone to have such titillating conversations with.”
“Thank you,” I breathed. “For protecting me, and more importantly, Daisy.”
“As you said earlier, there is no reason to thank me,” the blonde finally smiled. “But not only that, I didn’t have to squeeze the secret out of you, you told me yourself… not so good at keeping secrets as you thought, right, Charles?”
I sealed off all three of the bottles, set them down on the coffee table where she could easily reach them, retrieved the ingredients, and then snapped my medical bag closed. Josephine didn’t stand from the couch, but watched me the entire time with those strange cat-like eyes.
“Well, Ms. Josephine,” I sighed. “I’ll be off now.”
“Thank you, Charles,” the blonde breathed. “I’ll have my courier deliver the money once I return to Edenhart, it shouldn’t take more than two or three days. I’ll throw in a little extra for the elixirs, how much do you want for them?”
“No, they’re free of charge,” I grinned. “There’s no need for you to pay me for them. I want you to have them and feel better.”
“That’s nonsense,” the aristocrat chuckled. “I hope you have safe travels to the way station, and I will call upon you soon to set up a time to visit you and Ms. Browning.”
I nodded, waved to her, turned toward the flap, and then lifted it over my head. Daisy was coming around the corner right as I exited the tent, and the brunette flushed red, smiled, and then hurried toward me.
“Are you ready to go?” I asked.
“Yes,” the bear-girl nodded. “I was packing up our things from our tent, and Josephine’s workers already took them to load up into our wagon.”
“Alright,” I nodded, and then dropped my voice into a whisper. “Have you seen Valerie?”
“I’m right here,” another soft voice came from in between Daisy and me.
Daisy jumped, placed a hand over her heart, and then rolled her honey-colored eyes toward the sky.
“Good heavens, Val,” the bear-girl gasped. “Give us a warning next time.”
“Fine, fine,” the cat-girl giggled.
“Where have you been hiding?” I snickered. “Wandering around the camp, and rifling through other people’s belongings, I assume?”
“Oh, you know, I’ve been here and there,” the feline-woman bubbled. “Mainly sticking around Ms. Josephine, I liiiike her so much! I wish I could meet her.”
I glanced back toward the tent I’d just come from, felt heat flash across my feet, and then stared at the spot where I assumed Valerie was standing.
“So, uh, you were…?” I stammered.
“Yuuuup,” Valerie drawled out. “Annnnd, I found something interesting.”
“Is it another naughty book?” Daisy asked.
“No!” the cat-girl protested. “I put that one back, remember?”
“Then what did you find, Val?” I questioned.
“Josephine’s diary, don’t worry, I put it back where I found it,” the feline-woman whispered. “Buuuut, I found out that Ms. Josephine liiiiikes you, Charles. She likes you so, so, so much!”
Chapter Thirteen
“She wants to kiss you! She wants to love you! She wants to make babies with you! Hoo! Hoo! Hooooo!” Valerie crooned all sing-song from the back of the wagon.
We’d left the mines a few hours ago, and now the three of us were on our way to the way station. By my calculations, we were almost there, and I was sure that the courier hadn’t reached it yet. The town where the Browning family lived was a two-day journey if a horse was ridden hard, and the man delivering the letter would have to make a few stops along the way. The way station was the last stop before you’d reach Edenhart, and I knew for sure that the man and his guards would want to rest before he had to stand before the Duchess.
Daisy sat next to me in the driver’s seat, Valerie laid sprawled out across the bed of the wagon, and occasionally petted the metal box underneath our seat. The imp inside of the container squeaked and hissed angrily, but after a while, it barely made any noise each time the blonde touched it.
“I’m so happy!” Valerie sighed. “Josephine loooooveeesss you!”
“Valerie, I seriously doubt that,” I interjected.
“I saw it in her diary!” the cat-girl disagreed. “It was written in her own handwriting, there’s no way that we can shrug it off!”
“But what does it matter if she has feelings for me?” I asked. “She’s an aristocrat, it’s not as if I can act upon it.”
“Even if Valerie hadn’t seen Josephine’s private journal,” Daisy broke in. “I do believe that Ms. Josephine is partial to you, she even admitted it herself when she was inebriated.”
“I understand that, and it is flattering, but both of you are forgetting the most important part,” I breathed. “There’s nothing we can do about it, not the three of us, nor Ms. Josephine. She’s a wealthy, powerful woman in the city of Edenhart, it’s not as if she can go around, telling people that she fancies me. As she told me, if she were to breathe a word of it to anyone else, her titles, land, wealth, and mines would be stripped from
her in an instant.”
“But it’s just so exciting!” Valerie pouted. “Ms. Josephine would be the perfect fit for a new sister.”
“Val,” I grunted. “We’ve already been over this, we cannot make Josephine into a monster-girl unless she wrongs us or does something to put our family into jeopardy.”
“We understand what you mean, Charles,” Daisy agreed, clapped a hand over Valerie’s protesting mouth, and smiled softly. “We will drop the subject, but I would like to point out one last thing… isn’t it fantastic that despite the social structure of your world, the repeated abuse of the male sex, and imprisonment of innocent ‘brute’ lives, Josephine has fought against it, and felt intense, emotional things for those that are frowned upon? I find it to be incredible; she grew up in this world that hates men from birth, and yet, some part of her, deep down inside, looks upon them with admiration, and may I even say… love?”
“I just love her so much!” the feline-woman giggled.
“You haven’t even met her,” I chuckled. “How can you know that you love her?”
“It doesn’t matter if I haven’t met her yet!” the ash-blonde woman protested. “I’ve read her diary, from front to back, I know her inner, deepest thoughts and desires! I’m sure that once we meet each other, we’ll get along famously! I stood in the shadows while Daisy and Josephine talked, and I already know that the two of them are good friends! If only you would give us a chance! Oh, the humanity, Charles! Depriving your first monster-girl the opportunity to have a third sister!”
“Excellent dramatic performance,” I tittered. “But, no, as much as I want to make both of you happy and give you the things you want… that can’t happen yet. Josephine is nothing more than a kind woman who has some interest in me, but other than that… there can be nothing between us.”
“I do have to admit that it is a bit sad,” Daisy sighed. “The two women you’ve used in the experiment either wanted you dead, or wanted you as a servant. We can only use women who are against our mere existence, I do wish we could find someone willing to go along with the experiment…”
“But can you imagine how insane that would be?” I asked. “Imagine explaining it to someone? ‘We need you to get in this compartment in this massive machine, I’ll place a beast within the other compartment, place a small sample of my blood in the middle compartment, and then wham, boom, bang, you’re an entirely new being with a new personality, body, and spirit?’ Can you imagine me saying those exact words to Ms. Josephine? But not only that, what do you think her reaction would be? The poor woman would be horrified… I just know it, and all of those emotions and feelings tied to me would instantly disappear.”
“I guess you’re right, Charles,” Daisy breathed. “We can never know what her reaction would be, but… we can only assume that it wouldn’t be good.”
“Well, since I’m the only one who’s read Josephine’s diary and I’m the one who found her collection of naughty books,” Valerie interjected. “I would like to say, I know her a bit better than the two of you, and I think that she would accept us with open arms. She’s already such a kind person, I bet if you, Daisy, were to reveal that you’re a bear-girl, Ms. Josephine wouldn’t care at all.”
“Yes, Josephine is a kind woman,” I agreed. “But I think you’re pushing it a little too far, as Daisy and I both said before, we can never know what her reaction would be. And just to clarify, Valerie, we’re not going to tell her, not unless something drastic happens.”
“Oh, phooey,” the blonde woman grumbled. “I know you’re trying to protect us, Charles, but I really do believe that she’d protect us and our secret.”
“As much as I love you, Valerie,” I exhaled. “There are certain things in this world that I cannot give you… if Josephine were to disappear, there’d only be more problems for us.”
“Then what’s the difference between us using Delphine?” the cat-girl asked. “Or… plotting to kill the Duchess? They’ll go missing once we do, and then you’ll probably be the suspect. We already saw what happened when you were suspected of killing Delphine, and it’ll probably be much worse once we take down Edony.”
“Josephine isn’t a direct threat,” I repeated. “She hasn’t done anything wrong, in fact, she’s the kindest aristocrat we’ve come into contact with…. We just can’t, Val, and that’s final, do you understand?”
“Yes, Charles,” the feline-woman sighed. “I’m sorry if I upset you, I didn’t mean to be so argumentative… I just love Josephine so, so much.”
“I know, my love,” I nodded. “If I could figure out a way for the two of you to meet without her suspecting something, I would, but your tail and ears pose a problem.”
“I wish I could just wear a bonnet like Daisy,” the ash-blonde woman pouted. “But that still leaves my stupid tail… I can’t hide it under dresses or anything like that, it’s too long.”
“Hey!” Daisy cried. “Don’t call your tail stupid! I love your tail, it’s so sleek, soft, and pretty. I love the way it moves, especially when you get excited.”
“I know…” Valerie murmured. “But I can’t hide it as you can…”
“I love your tail as well,” I stated. “I don’t want to hear you talking bad about yourself, do you understand? You both are very different from each other, but you’re beautiful in your own ways. Yes, I’m sad that you can’t go out into the world as Daisy does, but that doesn’t mean that you aren’t good or worthy.”
“You’re right, Charles,” Valerie cried. “I’m perfect the way that you made me! And my tail and ears won’t make me feel bad about it anymore! I’ll just have to keep reminding myself that before long, the world will be filled with other monster-girls like me, and I won’t have to hide in your laboratory anymore!”
“That’s good, I want you to be confident in your body and self,” I smiled. “Both of you… I may have created you, and thought you were beautiful in your own ways, but I want you to think it, too…”
“We love you so much, Charles,” Daisy breathed, scooted closer, and wrapped her arms around me. “You mean everything to us, and we’d do anything for you, no matter what it was, just ask.”
“Heeey, wait a minute,” Valerie giggled, eyed the two of us, and then flushed a bright pink. “Did something happen? Daisy is never this touchy-feely, even after I told her about our bedroom fun… Charles… Daisy… did you?”
“W-Well,” Daisy stammered. “W-We… well, C-Charles and I…”
I glanced over my shoulder, felt the heat pass over my cheeks, but grinned down at the ash blonde woman. Valerie’s oceanic eyes widened, her mouth dropped open, snapped shut, and then curled up into a wide smile.
“It happened?” the feline-woman squeaked. “It finally happened! I’m so happy! Yes! Daisy, tell me everything! How did it feel? What did you think?”
I chuckled lightly as Valerie reached up to the driver’s seat, grabbed the fabric of Daisy’s dress, and pulled the brunette into the back of the wagon to gossip. I held the reins loosely in my hands, kept my eyes on the road ahead of me, and listened to the excited conversation behind me.
I’d been to the way station a handful of times before, so I was somewhat familiar with the road there, and once I turned onto it, I didn’t need the map. It’d been a beautiful day when we left Josephine’s mines, but as we rode closer to the location, the sky darkened, and in the distance, thunder boomed. I raised my head, studied the gray, bulbous clouds overhead, and then glanced over my shoulder at my two women.
“It looks like it’s going to rain,” I uttered. “If it starts, use one of the tarps to cover your heads.”
“What about you, Charles?” Valerie frowned. “You’re going to get all wet if you don’t cover up.”
“I’ll be alright,” I assured her. “A bit of water won’t hurt.”
The two women grappled with the tarp, lifted it up from behind it, draped it over their shoulders, and then lifted it so that their heads were shielded from the oncoming r
ain. I jumped as fabric was draped over my shoulders, tucked over my head, and I grasped the fabric to peek over into the bed of the wagon. Valerie shifted back into position beside her sister, giggled softly, and then smiled up at me sweetly.
“Just because the water won’t hurt you doesn’t mean we want you getting soaked,” Daisy explained. “You might catch a cold, and then… well… I want you in top physical condition.”
“Thank you,” I murmured, turned back toward the road, and tightened my grip on the reins.
Just as I predicted, the sky opened up with a crackle of lightning, rain poured down in sheets so thick that it obscured the road ahead of us in swatches of gray. I slowed the horses down, lowered the fabric tarp over my head, and squinted my eyes against the spray that hit my face. Thankfully from the familiar trees and landmarks at the sides of the road, I knew we were close to the way station, and if the rain continued once we arrived, we’d have some cover while we switched out the letters.
“How much farther?” Valerie shouted over the noise.
“Just around the bend!” I boomed. “Less than a minute, we should be--whoa!”
I pulled back on the reins at the last second as a black carriage appeared out of the rain in front of us. Curses fell from my lips, I jerked the reins to the left, and then the right as I avoided hitting them straight on. Thankfully, the horses halted right on time, and they came within inches of colliding with the back panel of the all-black wagon.
“Whoa! Whoa!” I shouted down at the beasts, and one of them whinnied angrily, lifted off the ground, and shifted the reins in my hands.
The carriage in front of us carried on as if nothing had happened, not that I could fault them, the rain had blinded me from seeing them on the road. I held tightly to the slick reins, called out to the riled horses, waited until it’d calmed down, and then urged it forward. As the rain began to let up, I spied the way station in the distance, set my sights on it, and hurried our horses toward it.
“Val,” I called over my shoulder. “You know what to do.”
“Yep!” the ash-blonde woman nodded.