“I’m fine,” she told him and wondered why she had to say that so often lately.
“One lover gets boring after thirty or forty years,” Rainlily said. “It’s like peanut butter on a spoon, it’s really good, but with chocolate sometimes, it’s even better.”
Tinker knew that elves loved peanut butter as much as they loved Juicy Fruit gum and ice cream. Considering her experience with the gum, she really had to track down a jar of peanut butter.
Stormsong moaned at the suggested of peanut butter and chocolate. She added, “Or peanut butter and strawberry jam on fresh bread.”
“Peanut butter on toast,” Sun Lance held up her hand as if she held a piece of toasted bread by its crust. “Where the bread is crunchy and the peanut butter is all hot and runny.”
“Raisin bread toast.” Tinker modified Sun Lance’s suggestion to her favorite way to eat peanut butter before she became an elf.
“Peanut butter, pretzels, chocolate,” Rainlily listed out, “and that marshmallow fluff all mixed together.”
“Oh that explains Cloudwalker and Moonshadow at the same time,” Stormsong murmured.
“Nyowr,” Rainlily growled with a smile, which was the Elvish version of a cat’s meow.
“Peanut butter on apple slices,” Sun Lance said.
“On a banana,” Tinker said.
“On Skybolt,” Rainlily said knowingly.
“Oh yes, that’s nice,” Stormsong agreed.
Tinker was going to need a scorecard to track the sekasha’s relationships.
“Peanut butter ice cream,” Pony said.
“Peanut butter ice cream!” The females all sighed.
“Unless domi takes another sekasha, though, then her options are limited.” Rainlily pointed out. “There’s Pony, and then there’s Pony.”
“That’s still peanut butter and,” Stormsong thought a moment, before finishing. “Virgin honey.”
Rainlily eyed Pony and smiled. “Definitely virgin honey.”
Pony blushed and looked down.
“And Wolf Who Rules is peanut butter ice cream,” Sun Lance said.
That triggered a chorus of agreement from the females. Tinker had one moment of feeling pleased that she married the prize male and then realization hit her like a two by four to the head. She gasped out in shock.
“Domi?” All four sekasha instantly reacted, moving toward her as they scanned the building for enemies.
“Windwolf! You’ve all slept with him?”
The female warriors exchanged glances.
“Well?” she pressed.
“Yes, domi,” Stormsong said quietly. “But not since he’s met you.”
Was that really supposed to make her feel better? Well, giving it a moment to sink in, yes it did. She knew that Windwolf had to have had lovers before her — she just didn’t expect to be naked in a tub with them at any point. There were two other female sekasha. Tinker supposed they were ex-lovers too. Windwolf’s household number seventy-five — she didn’t even know how many were female, but most of the sizeable kitchen staff was. The possible number staggered her. “Any females from the rest of the household?”
The sekasha blinked at her in surprise.
“No, domi, that wouldn’t be proper.” Was it a good thing or a bad that Stormsong was keeping to Elvish?
“Only the sekasha are naekuna,” Pony explained.
“You’re what?”
“Naekuna.” Pony sat up slightly in the water to point at a tattoo on his hipbone. She blushed and looked away. “We can turn on and off our fertility.”
“It is considered best if a domi and domou chooses among their beholden sekasha for their lovers.” Stormsong had a similar tattoo on her hip. “The security of the household is not compromised and we’re naekuna.”
Tinker had one moment of relief until she realized that she had to interact with the five female sekasha on a daily basis. She stared at Stormsong, Sun Lance, and Rainlily, unsure how to cope with the sudden knowledge that these females had slept with Windwolf. They knew what a good lover he was — probably helped him perfect his technique. What if — as the whole peanut butter conversation had suggested — Windwolf wanted variety? How did one deal with that? The crushing weight of inevitability that you would have to share? With such drop-dead beautiful females no less?
Elves always were so focused on today. You couldn’t get them to talk about the past. Nae hae, too many years to count, it happened long ago, why bother? The future was the future, why stress over it bearing down on you?
Given long enough time, the smallest probability came reality. Sooner or later, you would live through all the possible futures. Nor would the past really be a true indicator of the future as you worked through one unlikely chance to the next.
Did the elves wear blinders just to keep sane?
“Are you all right?” Pony asked.
“Um, let me get back to you about that.”
“Ze domou,” Wraith Arrow was operating at maximum respect now that the Fire Clan had arrived. Or more specifically, since the Wyverns arrived. Wolf found himself wondering if perhaps the sekasha had chosen their king based on his Hands than his clan. “Forest Moss is one of those who traveled to Onihida when the pathway was found. He and the sekasha, Silver Vein in Stone, were the only two that managed to survive their capture by the oni.”
At one time, certain caves and rock formations created Pathways that let a person walk from one world to the next. Anyone without the ability to detect a ley line could search closely for the Pathway, even to the point of stepping in and out of worlds, and never find it. The dangers of traveling to Earth were great. The Pathways themselves came and went like the tides of the ocean, apparently affected by the orbit of the moon. Earth had no magic, leaving the domana powerless and the sekasha without their shields. Still, all the clans sent out domana and their sekasha to barter silk and spices for steel and technology. To circumvent the dangers, the pathways were mapped out carefully, and traders crossed back to the safety of Elfhome as often as possible. In one remote area on Earth, a new pathway was discovered, and eagerly explored.
Unfortunately it was a pathway that led to Onihida. Of the twenty that went on the expedition, only two returned to Elfhome.
Wolf considered what he knew of that doomed expedition, which was very little since it happened before he was born. Unlike humans who seemed to be driven to chronicle out their life and make it public, elves kept such things private. Everything he knew about the oni and Onihida came from questioning his First Hand. He had selected Wraith Arrow and the others for their knowledge of the humans and Earth, not thinking he’d ever need their familiarity with the oni.
“So you’ve met him?” Wolf asked.
Wraith nodded. “They had tortured him, healed him, and then tortured him again. It broke his mind.”
That was two hundred and fifty years ago. Had Forest Moss recovered?
It made Wolf wonder about Tinker and her time with the oni. What had they done to her to change her so much? Wolf felt a wave of sadness and anger. His domi had been so brave, trusting and strong.
Wraith continued his report. “Silver Vein did not look to Forest Moss. The Stone domou had a vanity Hand, which he lost. Last that I had heard, he had not gained another Hand.”