I just had sex for the first time.
I have existed for over six hundred years. I have lived multiple lifetimes, and yet, in none of them did I ever experience the touch of a woman.
Until today.
I touched every crevice of her body. Traced my hands along every curve. Seen the parts of her no other man has. Heard things from her mouth that none other should. I lost myself in her. In her embrace, her warmth, her pleasure… I thoroughly experienced Isobel Greaves, as she did me.
And now, less than a minute later, I was expected to face her family and ask to buy their goddamn house as if none of that had just happened! How?! Isobel, with her illusion magic, was able to use her powers to appear however she wanted to her family when she returned to the meeting. Me, though? I didn't have any illusion magic to speak of! I had a slightly reddened face, hair matted by sweat, bite marks on my neck that I could only pray were obscured by my shirt, and wrists still red from being constricted in a chair while she went to town on me!
If you couldn't tell, I was kind of panicking. By this point, I was standing by the front door where everyone was waiting. I could hear Lady and Lord Greaves talking outside about where they'd go after the sale potentially closed. Laurence was also speaking on the steps to Lyra, trying to convince her that Isobel wasn't actually going to kill me. She was simply nodding along, likely with the assumption that if Isobel actually managed to somehow kill me, she could simply turn time back and rescue me.
"So… what do I say…?" I mused to no one in particular, leaning on the wall beside the front door.
My options were limited. I didn't necessarily need to be a rocket scientist to surmise that telling them that I actually had just gotten my balls drained by Isobel wasn't going to make me any friends. Barring that suggestion, my options were few.
I could lie, telling them something along the lines of "She managed to back down after some thorough convincing". But I could also tell a version of the truth. We talked about it, bonded as friends, and came to the understanding that the best thing to do for House Greaves was give it up.
In the end, my answer was somewhere in the middle. I didn't want to insinuate that we bonded in any way, because I wasn't sure how her parents or brother would react to the unspoken implication in those words. That being said, they and I knew Isobel well enough to know that she wouldn't just be "reasoned" with. The fact that I was going to walk out the door, though, seemed to me the best way to prove that she indeed could be reasoned with – though I'd just have to do my best to tiptoe around the "how" if that question was raised.
With that, I took a deep, shuddering breath and opened the front door.
Everyone turned to me in surprise as the doors creaked open, taking a second to look me over as if searching for wounds. Surprise quickly turned to shock in everyone except Lyra when they didn't find any.
"Y-you're alive!" Laurence Greaves noted, moving to circle me, giving me a closer examination. "N-not that I had any doubt. Someone as strong as you could never be killed so easily!"
"You don't have to flatter me, Laurence," I said, gently pushing him away from me. I'd had enough purple eyes this close to me for the day. "I already offered to buy, and I'm ready to move forward with the sale."
"And Isobel…?" Lord Greaves asked.
"She's upstairs," I started, stepping down to meet him at the foot of the stairs. "Isobel, as you could imagine, was an inferno. In the end, I told her that holding on to the corpse of House Greaves did more harm to it than if she simply let it go. She agreed, saying that she wanted its legacy to remain powerful, and so decided that selling it while its name is still strong is the best course of action for House Greaves."
Everyone – well, everyone but Lyra – darkened at my words. Had I hit too close to home? Just as I began to speak up to soften the blow, Lord Greaves stopped me with a hand.
"Do not feel shame at your words, adventurer. You are… correct. Running this House into the ground is a slap in the face to the hard work my ancestors put in to run this place." He let out a weak chuckle. "At least if you run it into the ground, our legacy is untouched."
I laughed in turn, brushing off the subtle jab. I had just insulted his entire House. He was owed a bit of retaliation. "Yeah, well, I'll do my best to fill those big shoes."
With that, the five of us made our way back into the House. Lord and Lady Greaves stood at the head of this mini procession with Laurence following closely behind. A few feet away from them, I rejoined Lyra, who looked at me with the conspiratorial eyes of a mischievous child.
"So," she whispered, jabbing me with an elbow. "What actually happened?"
"Hey!" I whispered back, looking around nervously. Nobody ahead of us said anything, but the subtle tilts of their heads told me everything I needed to know: they were eavesdropping. "I already told you what happened!"
Lyra smirked.
"I'm serious!"
Lyra smirked wider. I rolled my eyes, leaning in very close and whispering as quietly as I could.
"I'll… tell you when we're back. I don't want to talk about it here."
"Is it bad?"
"No… It's just… you'll understand later."
Thankfully, we'd made our way back to the Throne Room before Lyra could start pelting me with probing questions. Just like before, the Lord and Lady of the House took their seats at the head of the room, while Laurence stood off to the side, and we stood before the two House Leaders.
They reiterated the same things as before: that we'd be buying an empty house, none of their workers would roll over, and that we'd need to hire our own staff, we'd be starting as a "Fledgling House"–whatever that meant–, and that we would be responsible for sourcing and employing our own "Quintessential Quartet". Again, I had no clue what that meant, but it must've been important considering how much they stressed that particular point. Lyra didn't either, given the blank, "I have no idea what you're talking about" stare and smile she was giving the Lord and Lady. We'd figure it out eventually, I supposed.
"Do you… have any questions?" Lord Greaves asked.
I shared a look with Lyra. She nodded.
"We don't, Lord Greaves. We're ready to make this purchase."
Neither the Lord nor the Lady spoke for a long while. Laurence, who'd been quiet up to this point, looked just about ready to burst with tears. His mother, Lady Greaves, turned to look at him, her own eyes filling with tears as she looked at her son. Wordlessly, she stood to his side, holding him in her arms as the two silently wept. I shared an awkward look with Lyra before turning back to the Lord, who looked similarly pained to his wife and son.
"You'll have to forgive them. This… isn't easy for us, you know."
"Are you serious?" A new, familiar voice called.
My heart sank as I registered it as belonging to Isobel. I turned, every single memory of what we'd done rushing to the forefront of my mind as she made her way to the front of the room.
"I thought you wanted to sell the House? Don't tell me you're getting cold feet now?"