A Price Paid Ch. 02

The night was still young enough in the city of Erette that business of all kinds was still being conducted. A fair number of merchants were still selling their wares. The restaurants would be open until later and the taverns would be open until later still, leaving only a few hours before dawn to close, clean, and for the people that made it all work to rest before starting the cycle again before the dinner hour the next day.

And there was the work that was best done at night or could only be done then, as prying eyes were at a minimum and had trouble peering through shadows anyway. The city looked quieter at night if one only bothered looking at the public places, but it was arguably more alive after the sun had set. It was certainly more passionate than in the daytime. In the light of day people were concerned about how they and the things around them were perceived, so they were often more aware of how they spoke and even how they moved.

With the cloak of night, those same people felt more free to be their true selves and let their feelings hold more sway. They could go and see to the passions of their true selves before the mask had to be replaced come dawn. A woman could watch the home of a once-suitor from the shadows to see who came and went. A man could get the liquids and powders he needed that made the horrors of battle go away enough so that his daylight mask was possible at all, and Men like Strannix could conduct much of the business that made him who he was in terms of a businessman and a man.

It also let Lenare Hoben want who she wanted and have them before she had to pretend she wanted someone else. She knew almost as far back as she could remember that her heart only truly fluttered for women. Her first childhood crush was a woman even before she truly knew what a crush was. Lenare only knew that Robyn was smart, and funny, and cute, and those doe eyes made her heart race.

At first, she told herself it was just because they had so much in common, but when she blossomed into womanhood, it could not be denied. There was something lovely in every woman. There was something to draw her to them in every woman. She knew that some of it was the awakening of her body, but, she could admit to herself that part of that might have been the lure of forbidden fruit, and those delectable sweets were certainly forbidden by her profoundly traditionalist family.

There was no room for anything that was not within their expectations. She and her siblings got the message early on simply listening to how they judged their relatives, friends, those in the Great Houses they'd heard rumors about, and even complete strangers that they passed on the street that there was a very narrow road that was acceptable in every fashion and deviating from that even in small ways led to endless scorn and derision.

Even putting themselves back on what their parents considered the right path never quite ended the issue because, for what seemed like forever afterward, there would be a cutting remark said as a joke reminding them how stupid or willful they had been. They had taken to playing the 'What if?' game with their parents, or making up something they claimed to have heard about some unknown other to gauge their responses before entertaining the idea of doing or admitting to having done that thing.

It was very clear early on that their paths were set. Her brothers would begin an apprenticeship in something appropriate, suspend that for a term of military service, then resume it afterwards, at which point they could go on with their lives as they saw fit with proper wives that their parents selected while Lenare and her sister wouldn't bother with the apprenticeship, though they would take the term of service for the benefits it would offer their eventual families, then marry the man chosen for them.

Her sister didn't balk at the plan because it didn't deviate much from her own anyway, though she'd rather have choosen her own husband, but it was easier just to go along. Lenare found that she liked the service. Given what life with her parents was often like, she couldn't say the discipline was completely foreign to her and she liked the people with whom she served, and she liked the purpose. She liked being part of something greater than herself and the respect people gave her when they saw the uniform. And it was a reprieve from the slow death that came with being with someone that she could never want until one of them actually died. She'd hide her desires from him, as she did from her friends.

But that didn't make them go away. Indeed, they clawed at her and whispered to her all the more when she tried to bury them. They rumbled under the surface until she had to set them free, even if just for a time. It was a vicious cycle, but one she'd learned to deal with. She couldn't bring herself to go to a brothel, lest she risk being seen and she couldn't begin to afford a courtesan who would see to her privacy, so she resisted as long as she could until there was nothing more to do but slink out in the dark and look for a woman of the night to sate her needs, something that was happening more and more often as she drew closer to the end of her commitment.

This was what she was doing now, moving down the street, seeking out those women that would meet her eyes and would linger in that unspoken introduction that translated to, 'I'm buying. Are you selling?' While she was careful as a matter of course, she was happy to have the experience of her service because she felt knowing what she knew at least made her safer. Even so, she didn't stray too far from home, though she didn't have to since she was starting from near her family home that her parents strongly suggested that she not move from, that sat not far from a string of lower middle class shops. So, where there was a little money, there were people interested in taking it in legal exchanges and not.

She passed several of those women as she traveled the blocks. She had used all of them at one time or another and had no problem doing so again if she found no one new, but there was, occasionally, someone she hadn't met yet. Sometimes they were part-timers and sometimes there were women trying to gain a foothold in a new neighborhood. They would come for a night or two, gauge their reception from the other women, and would stay or go depending on their welcome. Those women that she knew let their gaze and smile linger a bit as they called her by the name she gave them and she gave them a smile back as she passed by.

Lenare's urges led her to seek out the new and different, so it led her beyond her neighborhood and the next and to the limits of what she considered her familiar paths. She was almost ready to turn back when she saw a woman leaning under a streetlamp, seemingly marking time. There was no way to know for certain until the two ended up face to face, but Lenare's senses tweaked the animal part of her. The woman's pose said 'casual', 'unafraid', and 'whore.' From the bright pink skirt and top that displayed some midriff that she probably fashioned on her own out of a proper dress, as it was more risque an advertisement than most, from her heavy makeup and knowing grin, everything about her was come-hither. Even her small handbag matched the dress. She wanted attention and wasn't afraid to get it

She was almost as tall as Lenare with a smooth, medium brown complexion with gold undertones that seemed so rare and exotic, even for a cosmopolitan center such as this. Her eyes deep brown pools one could be happy to wade in for days and her full lips were painted dark, as were her cheeks and around her eyes. Her hair was long, thick, dark and cascaded over her shoulders in waves. She'd never seen anyone quite like her before. "Hello," Lenare said cheerfully.

"Hello yourself."

"It's nice to meet new people. I'm Lenare. What's your name?" She didn't know why she gave the other woman her true name. There was just something about her that made Lenare feel at ease.

"Mira," she said pleasantly with that smile appearing easily yet again.

She paused, being almost entirely sure of the situation, but almost sure wasn't certain, so her tone was accordingly tentative. "It's warmer than it's been in a while. Is that what brings you out tonight?"

Mira looked to her left and right casually but just as cautiously as Lenare was fished the waters with her words, both of them aware of the first movements of the dance. "It is a nice night, and that certainly makes hospitality work such as mine easier."

Lenare relaxed visibly and her tone lightened, "I haven't seen you here before."

The other smirked. "I usually like walking in the Upper Quarter. So you look for friends in the dark of night often?"

"Sometimes. You never know when the urge to meet new people might strike. Are you all right with meeting girls?" Some weren't, she learned, but it didn't bother her much. All people were people and people had types that attracted them, and some chose not to fake it.

"I'm happy to meet any nice, likable soul that can pay for my time." Mira looked her up and down, seemingly not displeased by the sight before her, "You look like you can afford a pleasant evening."

"How much for a pleasant evening?"

"Five silver, and tips are appreciated. Two silver extra to cover my place if you don't have one."

"That's actually," she began with some amusement, "pretty reasonable."

Mira sighed, but didn't quite lose her smile, "It's late and it's too late to haggle. Anyone that gives me shit over five silver isn't worth my time to begin with."

"Five is great. You said you have a place?"

She tipped her head down the street. "There's a bar a couple of blocks down with some empty rooms built in behind it. They aren't much but they don't smell and they're safer than slipping into some alley." She turned into a bit of a tease. "Unless you're into that."

She shook her head while blushing just a little. "No, I'm not into that. A room will be lovely."

"I didn't think so. Come with."

She walked with Mira as they headed together down the empty street and pondered their meeting. "So, you didn't think I was the type to meet someone in a dark alley. What type do you think I am?"

"Out late at night and looking for the company of a woman like myself. Neat, clean and otherwise sure of yourself, yet you creep up to me as though you're waiting for a cross look as a reason to bolt. That tells me that you don't want to want what you want, so I don't imagine you want to risk being spotted in an alley."

"Does that make me strange though? Do most people want to have time with you in dark, dank alley?"

"You'd be surprised," Mira said, her voice sounding as though she'd collected scores of secrets over the years. "The alley is filthy, and trashy, and only animals would go there and do sexual things. And whores are only fit to fuck in places where animals would fuck." It annoyed her. "They need what we give and pretend that we are beneath them while they sneak to meet us."

Lenare could understand, at least partially. She wished she didn't need as she did, and no doubt many others felt the same, but she never took that resentment out on them. In fact, she was grateful for the fact that these men and women were there for those in need. "Well, I certainly don't think of you that way at all. If you're renting yourself out because you choose to, it's at least honest work."

"Thanks. I think so, too." she said, as she pointed towards the small tavern they were heading for. "Your husband doesn't know you like girls?"

"I'm not married, but no, my family doesn't know." She decided to err on the side of understatement, "They...would not understand."

She snickered and spoke up before Lenare could take it poorly. "That's most of my clientele. I need this or that and my woman won't. My family arranged this wife for me and she doesn't excite me. Or, yes, I need a woman but I can't have one in plain sight so I sneak off to have one. Don't worry, you're in the same boat, one way or another, with many."

They cut across a small open lot and towards lamps that glowed brightly; one over each of the four doors in front of a wooden building that looked, at first glance, like a glorified outhouse. It looked sturdy enough and, as they drew closer Lenare could hear the growling, labored breath of a man in the midst of fucking, with his woman of the evening urging him on.

Mira pulled a silver from between her breasts and put it in the slot of a rusting box that looked like the three others next to each door. The sound of the coin dropping and clicking past gears gave way to a thunk of metal on metal and the hinged flap at the bottom of the box opened revealing a heavy iron key. She took the key, turned it in the door lock and it opened with some protests from the hinges as she grabbed the lamp overhead.

She sat her handbag down on the bar stool nearest the door where she placed the lamp next to it before taking the candle from it and using it to light the lamp hanging from a hook overhead. "There we go," she said with some satisfaction as the room lit enough to see the bed with the corners of the small room still being lost in shadow. Turning to Lenare again, "I trust this is all right?"

It was clean, the floor was wooden, and, while the blanket on the bed was threadbare, it hadn't been chewed through by this or that. And the place didn't smell. It was better than she'd expected. "This is fine. Really."

"Forgive my supposition again, because, honestly, some of the most unassuming people have the most, shall we say, raw, desires, but I assumed that you were just looking for more usual things like kissing, licking, and fingering. Perhaps the usual filthy talk? I'm quite open and have few limitations, but certain things will, of course, cost extra."

Lenare shook her head quickly, "No. I mean, yes, all of those things are lovely. I'm afraid I'm pretty bland when it comes to what I like. My desires have never been particularly...raw. I just want to be with a lovely woman."

Mira spread her arms, "Well, here I am."

There was a lingering and slightly awkward pause before Lenare jumped, "Oh, sorry." She undid two buttons and reached into a small pocket on the inside of the dress to pull coins free. "You would think I wouldn't still be so nervous about such things. It's not as if it's my first time."

Mira was unconcerned. "It's quite all right. It's still a forbidden thing and some people never get past that."

Lenare counted out the coinage. "That was five." She caught herself again. "No, seven; there's the two extra for the room."

"That's right," Mira said with a smooth nod as she watched the coins appear, taking them as soon as they were handed off without quite appearing like she was snatching them. She gave them a quick look, letting them slide over one another in her hand. Whether it be coins sliding, or clinking together in a pouch, she never tired of the sounds of getting paid.

"Thank you." She placed them on the stool next to her handbag and then turned, this time her look was far more flirty, like she was closing in on the only object of desire that she ever had. "Now that that's out of the way, Lenare, why don't we get to the fun part, eh?" Her arms slipped around the soldier's waist and their lips met shortly thereafter.

When they finally did, Lenare whined into Mira's mouth, the urges inside her finally allowed to be unleashed and to begin to to be slaked. Their tongues mingled with growing ferocity, Mira meeting every bit of passion that Lenare could give her. She had to admit that this one was a good kisser. They parted for a moment and Mira bit her lower lip, feeling Lenare caress her, nervous energy making her shiver, Lenare looked down, then back at her, "Am I going too fast?"

She shook her head, "Not at all. You just kiss like you fight it, honey. You do, don't you? You don't want to kiss, love, and fuck women."

There was shame in the look in her eyes and the growing red in her cheeks.

"Don't worry about it, girl. That's not all bad. Sort of makes it better when you finally surrender, doesn't it? Every touch, every kiss ends up being so much more exciting when you hold back every second that you can." Mira pulled Lenare to her again and kissed her deeply, and surrendered in her own way, letting the other unbutton the gold buttons that held the thin, almost gaudy pink together over her chest,

She leaned into it when Lenare teased and played her breasts with fingers and tongue. The light tease of fingertips on her nipples brought them to attention before Lenare sucked and tongued and pulled gently with her teeth. Her words came with a sultry, giggly purr. "That's not half bad, honey. You're making me fucking hungry."

Lenare seemed to like the sound of that and redoubled her efforts. Mira closed her eyes and let herself feel, This usually wasn't her thing, but she had to admit this woman knew how to touch and Mira could feel her own pussy becoming damp at the budding sensations.

She took a handful of hair in her hand and pulled her from the breast, watching her swallow hard and her wide eyes feast on her and her body. "I want that pussy, honey. I want it now. You want that, too, honey? You want a girl's tongue pleasing that pussy? Let's make that happen."

The kissing began again in earnest as the focus switched to getting the young soldier out of her clothes in a flurry of activity, Lenare's excitement leading to some fumbling even as she tried to help, finally managing to wiggle her way out of her dress to the pale orange slip beneath. There was another flurry of kisses and pawing of bodies as Mira pushed Lenare to the bed and climbed atop to join her, kissing her neck and sucking and nibbling her way down, thumb and forefingers of each hand slipping over and under the thin straps of her slip to expose a pair of small breasts only large enough to make a mouthful.

Occasionally Lenare had hoped to have been blessed with larger gifts there, but they had the advantage of being able to be fully consumed if one was so inclined, and Mira certainly seemed inclined, and quite practiced with women. There was a smile in her eyes as she played with each breast in turn and invited her to watch. "How long have you needed this?" she wondered in a whisper, "Days? Weeks? Longer?"

Just about longer than I could stand, she thought with a sigh as the woman she paid continued to play with her breasts as though she owned them in ways that made her skin sing and her pussy drip more than it already had been at the thought of tonight and the sight of Mira on the corner. She caressed the woman's hair and simply allowed herself to feel that mouth and tongue feed her needs and build them at once.

Mira kissed her way down Lenare's breastbone and over her belly, trying different combinations of lip, tongue, and breath to find the best ways to make her belly flutter. So rapt was her attention on that slowly descending head that she didn't notice the flick of the index finger of her left hand as it ran down her thigh. And even if she had noticed it, it wouldn't have occurred to Lenare that it served to open the handbag that sat otherwise innocuously on the stool.

A moment later, a glint of lamp light reflected off the tiny, black, glassy eye of a serpent as it slithered over the edge of the opening. About two fingers long, the body was as black as the eye, save an almost luminescent red at the very tip of every other scale. It slithered down, brushing the coins as it made its way from the stool and dropped almost soundlessly to the floor.

Mira exhaled long and slowly over the wet, delicate pussy before her and couldn't help but be amused at the full body tremble that it caused, "And I haven't even started yet." A quick flick of the tongue, not unlike the serpent slithering ever closer, following not only its instincts, but the thread of magic that existed between it and its owner and drawing closer to her. Mira's fingers grazed the supple inner thighs of each leg, making random trails before she made new ones down the flesh with her tongue before moving upward once again, nearing her target.