CHAPTER 4

  “While our potions, the woman’s weapon, typify Guild culture, there exists a secondary facet in our history as integrally who we are: our grails. How long before we realized grails also extended physical and intellectual attributes? Had we not intervened, It might have super powered our foes. We learned of, then stole the technology before news broadly dispersed. Poor knock-offs based on even poorer cell cultures exist outside those few harvested specimens. Before its genetic failsafe triggered rapid disintegration. Freezing just as destructive. It’s fate, this organ capable of so much, intimately implanted near our sex. An organ that, when first implanted, sisters who have been pregnant report feeling like they carry again. Why, I wonder? The childless report the strangest sensations, almost protective, leading many to believe our grails more than a precisely grown clump of cells adapted from a placenta. And what of our few males? They report no such thing: minor enhancement of mental and physical faculties, and a dull discomfort described as having had their testicles distantly clapped. Testicles…now there’s a strange bit of genetic eccentricity.”

  -from Pistil Supremus Khadem, House Mycelium, Sepal Diaries, Stack 115

  Rather than sit in their dorm wrapping themselves up in each other’s company, Majaji had lead them into a deserted common sparring room. The place was often empty this hour, and Elyse spent their first few minutes holding back emotion, finding a spread waiting in an alcove lined by dummies a ways off from the entrance so as not to be seen.

  Majaji had Mexican pan and hot chocolate ready. Real hot chocolate. Majaji had made the chocolate herself from dicing the chocolate discs she found in one of the small markets, then heating the milk the way the nearby bakery closest to their grounds instructed.

  It was warm without scalding her tongue, smelled of heavy dairy, earthy cacao, and frothed to a thick consistency with a little grip for dipping. Mexican sweet bread dipped in hot chocolate sponged up a perfect mouthful. It became a soft bite with a pleasant gushing mouth feel in every way that mattered.

  Elyse’s throat warmed all the way down, soothing when you’ve experienced near-death, and worse.

  Being the bad bitch who took it and gave double back, Elyse had tears stinging her eyes, their itch prodding release, and Elyse refusing them as she knew she should. Keep it together. She was a Venin, now. She had done the deed. Finished her task. Ended Esther—

  No! Never that male’s name again. He was unnamed. He is nothing.

  They sat enjoying each other’s company and the celebratory snack in near-silence, besides Elyse noisily slurping, and Majaji giving her side-eye.

  “What now?” Elyse asked behind a mouth full of bread and hot chocolate. She almost choked on it. “I get a party? Or sent back out tomorrow?”

  Majaji smiled, “Is it normal where you come from, chewing and talking in this way?”

  “Only when you’re an emotional mess and can’t cry because you can’t be a ginormous messy baby.” She stopped, looked wide-eyed at Majaji. “Wait, do I look messy!?”

  “As much a mess as one should, after a trial like yours. Still cannot believe someone in the guild tried sabotage with a Flora potion.”

  “Tried sabotaging. Emphasis on try, that dumb bitch. When I find out who, I’ll unname her with a tampon applicator and something jagged in her ass.

  Majaji made a face, “That is…graphic. Especially as you keep getting brown liquid spilling over your chin.”

  Elyse laughed at that, dabbed her face with a napkin as she chewed, considering. Would she go full angry teen whining to Master Childs again? He must know more. Stupid, sure, and unlike her. Even as a child, she never rampaged at adults when she got humiliated.

  So stupid… she scolded herself.

  Around a bite of her own pan soaked in dark ambrosia, Majaji rounded her eyes on Elyse from over her mug, letting silence stretch.

  “I’m not ready,” Elyse said, avoiding her stare.

  Still chewing, Majaji slowly nodded. “In your time,” Elyse thought was what she said. Her English around food in her mouth was almost indiscernible.

  “I thought you don’t eat and talk where you come from,” teased Elyse.

  Majaji studied what remained of her pan. “I am older, therefore I know better already and made a choice. It’s all about choices.”

  The fact was Majaji wasn’t much older than Elyse herself. Two, maybe three years to Elyse’s twenty-four? Majaji only had a doctor’s approximation as she had no one who could tell her when she was born. But the frustrating woman was full of wisdom, restraint, and so much goddamn elegance. All the traits Elyse lacked when she looked at Majaji. The professional and capable Venin every Corolla wanted under her because she was destined for Sepal at least, and might even charm her way into Pistil Supremus of Flora.

  “Uh hmm, you’re doing it again.” Majaji finished her bite.

  Elyse sighed into her cup. “Stop that.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Stop what? I ate this delicious bread. I sacrificed over stove and hellish heat making it. To bring you this feast and leisurely moment where we can pretend you’re ok, talk maybe, and you eventually tell me how incredible I am, and I how beautiful and strong you are, then we will politely deny, dismiss each other’s pleasantries, I will see it as cosmic duality fulfilled, and you a- how do you call it? It had a vulgar label to our relationship and very unnecessarily long.”

  Elyse barked a laugh. “You mean our Zwei Freundescheissen cruzándose sous la luna di sangue, which is still true, if you look at short lives, and how our work bends over our life’s longevity.”

  “Charming. And it meant?”

  “Two friendshits passing under a blood moon,” she said, taking another bite.

  “Yes. That. Charming.” Majaji leaned back, tapping Elyse on her nose playfully.

  Elyse rubbed at the spot. “Ok. You bought this from La Panaderia because you knew it’s my favorite and now you expect an explanation of my evening for you to poke and prod. Shameful.”

  “Maybe, or it is how I take care of your health,” Majaji looked away, mouth twitching.

  “It was a short flight, and the trial was almost a disaster. I’m processing. What if I died?” She leaned in, saying more quietly, “What if he got what he wanted, and I woke up in virtual where he could do what he wanted to me again and again until all that was left of me was a screaming mental break on splayed legs? That’s why I am not ready to talk about it. You feeding me bread and chocolate love is not going to open me up just yet.”

  At the mention of chocolate love, Majaji winked.

  Narrowing eyes, Elyse set her cup down, grabbed for a small fluffy concha, and attempted shoving it into Majaji’s mouth. Elyse lost, of course. Majaji did something with her hands and Elyse lost feeling and grip, then for added measure Majaji then flipped Elyse, who loudly squawked as she was summarily pinned to the mat.

  Also, that pan shoved in her own mouth.

  She took a large bite, chewing loud and wetly up into Majaji’s smiling eyes. “You’re so annoying!”

  “And you’re a savage. But I think I’ll keep you all the same.” Majaji dismounted and took a victory drink from her cup.

  Elyse slowly sat up, chewing. Maybe it was the rough play. Or her sudden drop on the mats. Or her own aquarium glass failings crashed in from an trauma-induced tidal pool. Her hot, silent tears burst and she hung her head, letting them do their thing making hallow plop!…plop!…plop! sounds hitting a triangle of mat between her thighs.

  As naturally as shifting positions, Majaji wordlessly scooted closer and had arms around Elyse, squeezing until her shoulders no longer quaked. Elyse buried her face into the hammock of muscle between Majaji’s shoulder and neck. Majaji’s many thin braids bound up together in an antiquated leather thong, rather than a static or favored micro clips, dangled loosely down her back, and Elyse lost herself in their color and shine. She didn’t have fight in her. She squeezed eyes shut, inhaled strong herbs, woody oud, lotions, a musk she couldn’t place. Smells of comfort; of playing under rosemary and sage as a child. They were scents of home. Majaji was home.

  Elyse might have gone to sleep like that, exhaustion backstabbing her. Another surprise tonight luck had her narrowly avoid, had her own greasy hair not fallen into her face and started irritating her. More luck. She might have slept, and Majaji let her.

  For a time, at least. They were in a common training room at night, but it was still a training room open for all.

  Sitting in warmth, they said so much in their nothing for a time until Elyse’s tears dried up readily as training sweat, her unraveling stalled a little longer. She hated crying. She hated how necessary it was. She hated stupid emotions. She hated. The hate was good, hate wringing her tears from her eyes and angry pain she could use.

  How she wished she ran cold like some other girls. Cold anger Elyse could use, yet she was cursed with a temper and flash floods when moods raked her.

  Squeezing her reassuringly, Majaji gently whispered, “Trials are supposed to be hard. They’re not going to have us kill puppies and kittens to harden us up, but our women’s work requires certain control, and sacrifice.”

  “This woman’s work,” Elyse said, bitterly. “Pushing one death out after another because the world can’t function. And we made it our work. That’s so fucked.”

  “This woman’s work,” agreed Majaji. “Where I am from, we say ‘a woman holds the knife at the sharp end,” and it has never been truer than here, now.” She squeezed the last few tears from Elyse and let go at a perfect moment she just knew when and how Elyse needed to stand again on her own, hardened, that “work” waiting. But keeping hands on her shoulders and her blue eyes boring into her own, Majaji’s look became serious.

  “That’s right! It’s our work, and we balance those knife points in the dark and maintain unassuming positions as keepers and caretakers without anyone knowing better.”

  “You really think people don’t know about what we do? After last night, I find it hard to believe. Isn’t that part of why we’re out here? Because the Guild is coming apart?”

  Majaji lay on her back, gazing through the ceiling at a point only she could see. She glanced up in that way a lot when she was thinking, communing with god, gods, ancestral wisdom, who knew.

  All Elyse saw was a drab ceiling and loose chains.

  Several breaths later, Majaji nodded. “The Guild of Potions is old, Elyse. Ancient. People must know, which is why things are all the more concerning for us. But times, technology, politics, you name it shifts the game, misinformation easy. Makes a labyrinth of our tasks and operations, because who believed all we do? But you’re right about one thing, our Guild is changing, and our work with it. Potions against potions? Venins against Venins? The outside knows because leaks, our central issue at present.”

  She nodded sagely at her own words, tasting them in the open, finding they had a balance she wanted or she had not believed them herself until they were out where she could find sense in their meaning.

  Elyse brushed crumbs from her clothing. “Someone tried killing me in spirit or directly, today,” she said, warmth and sweetness in her belly making her want a nap. “I want to know who the fuck they think they are so I can get my piece.”

  “Peace?” Majaji’s brow furrowed. “I do not think it was a someone. It is someones. Must be multiple actors.”

  “Sure. Right now though, I can’t shake that disgusting male’s hands off my body. I need a shower and a coma. Escort me? I don’t have patience for other sisters asking after details about tonight.”

  Almost as if summoned, peals of scattered laughter preceded a group of two Venins who entered together talking loudly, joking, dropping bags on the floor rather than use one of several cubbies meant for that purpose.

  Elyse sighed at the ceiling. “Of course,” she mumbled.

  They entered the room angled away from Majaji and Elyse, luckily, each girl in identical practice gear and leathers. Elyse saw how they swaggered, their demeanors shouting their House, their presence blaring due caution. These girls wore their hair loose, their training uniform torn and ragged from intense exercise and brutal training, Fang considered as close a Guild warrior class as any, the way Mycelium was their Guild facilitators and diplomats. Scrappers who loved fighting as much as their other base appetites.

  Each also had piercings and decorative scaring across arm or neck or face. Badges of their House and choice potions. Tattoos subtly shifted into nightmarish shapes, a hawk in a dive taking shape on one girl’s arm as she kicked slippers aside and leapt on to the mat.

  Everything about them proudly and openly branded them of House Fang, the potions of reptiles, insects, all species of creature natural and not their preferred kiss.

  This is not what I need right now, Elyse lamented. Fang loved sparring with other Houses. The more hesitant, the more fun for Fang. Elyse had personal experience, and scars she earned from her experience.

  Quietly, she gathered up her slippers. Majaji did similar. Any remnants of their meal could stay there until a maintenance drone picked it up for processing.

  Fang sisters bounced through the room, hopping on toes, tumbling on hands, bending into unnatural shapes. They looked familiar, but when you lived in the same Chapter, everyone did. Houses had kept to themselves, making most sisters outside their House veritable strangers, which had been why Majaji thought a common training room had been perfect to get alone time.

  The seemingly youngest girl scorpioned, failed, fell on her side laughing. They, a team of obnoxiously wild things, had all the airs of a couple gymnasts off duty from a side alley Cirque du Soleil.

  Frustrated, Elyse wished she had her lenses back. Majaji had hers, however, and she shared Elyse’s curiosity, scanned them, in their messing around. She pulled information from their Chapter AI.

  “Talinae and Dendra of House Fang, both new Venins, and young for their raising,” Majaji said, her lenses glowing dully this close to Elyse. “Girl practicing kicks is Talinae. Lazy pretty one is Dendra. They are under a Corolla for service in Salas as protection detail. Salas thinks we’re a strange church doing outreach for poor and foster youth. Not a believable alibi, seeing those two. Unless your protection were recovering addicts from a group home.”

  “You think she’s pretty, huh? Should I work on my pick-me at the frat?” ventured Elyse.

  “Pretty lazy,” Majaji redirected, unamused as she studied Dendra walking her mat and obviously watching something through her lenses, laughing obnoxiously.

  Talinae’s fluorescent green bed head swished and swayed in tune with snapping pants, and form-fitting shirt patched at joints and sensitive striking points by thin darkly-dyed leather. Her companion Dendra, who seemed more comfortable in loose, billowing pants, formal wear of high-collared blouse, vest, and tattoo work climbing any showing skin had not yet started her routine.

  Neither seemed dressed for practice, but then these women were more like backstreet brawlers training in common clothing. They had their purpose, the Guild fashioning them into unique tools not meant for the kind of work Elyse’s own House expected.

  A taller, older woman swept into the room clapping her hands and wholly engrossed in what her girls were doing—or not doing in Dendra’s case.

  “You lazy mule! Dendra! Get your ass warmed up or I swear to God I’ll assign you toilets in every House wing!” she yelled at a panicking Dendra.

  Elyse knew this newcomer at once without lenses cheating for her. A Fang Corolla by her age and dents in her forehead where frowning had marked her.

  Sceles, Elyse thought. Frightening as members of House Fang always seemed to be with airs of brutality about her every movement. This woman was a rock on legs, powerful, dressed dully in swishing linen pants and jerkin. Her hair an alarming red done in a braided updo through which intricate braids had several colorful bandanas reminded Elyse of a pi?ata. Otherwise she had scars, tattoos, subdermal modifications Fangs abused.

  Her visible strength made Elyse wistful, how much she would give for a gift of power this woman of Fang casually exuded through a look. All business.

  This Corolla would have torn him apart in my trial. She imagined. How might she disguise an obvious hit, if not by stealth? She’d forgo a honeypot for a jagged stone and callused joints.

  Secretly, she, too, wished she was given that option. Fang sometimes got it right.

  Majaji leaned in, whispering, “Say nothing. We’ll sneak out after they start. No eye-contact, no sudden sounds. Run silent.”

  Majaji had thought faster than Elyse. Elyse appreciated friendly competition—or not so friendly at times, she admitted—between Houses, but this was a Corolla with two young, excited pups yipping at her ankles. You learned, sometimes painfully, a Corolla held power over all but other Corollas and Sepals.

  Elyse’s next consideration was her trial, and knowledge someone from their Chapter had tried to get her killed. Her blood started simmering, then, thinking a Fang could be her target. Maybe this one.

  Fang continued pushing each other until breaking off into spontaneous sparring Elyse had no hope of following in her current state.

  “Look at those jelly rolls and slop!” Talinae mocked Dendra, smiling viciously. She made a tight feint upending Dendra on the mat.

  She rolled from an exaggerated kick and was up on her feet again. “Sloppy like yer last task with that dealer, bitch? I hear he made ya a deli downstairs when he finally finished. Wondered about that sloppy clapping on our way in!” Dendra peeling into high-pitched laughter while she made obscene flapping motions with her hands between her legs.

  Talinae became a blur kicking off one foot and swinging her other in a sloppy arc at Dendra’s legs, a trip less useful for fighting and more a chance humiliation maneuver.

  Dendra caught her foot, hooked it, pulled Talinae off-balance. They leapt back and forth between counters, swinging well-muscled legs and narrowly toppling each other with brutal cracking into limbs and slapping defensive leathers.

  Elyse couldn’t stop watching, the display beautiful in its dance and control. She narrowly ran into Majaji who kept against their closest wall behind Fang’s session.

  Talinae knocked Dendra down in a rough tumble. No one got hurt falling on mats, maybe a sting or two, but her moves had a whistling ferocity behind them and the cracking of limbs made Elyse wince.

  When it became obvious their blood was worked up and they had devolved to choking and sloppy, angry strikes, Corolla Sceles stepped in.

  “Hold!” she shouted, shook her head at Dendra and Talinae who broke away…and were laughing as they rolled back into ready positions for a second round. Nearly killing each other, to laughing. “You two should dip in each other’s pots already if you keep this up. This isn’t foreplay! Draw blood and get it over.”

  “Gross, not with her,” Dendra said too quickly.

  “Hey! You’d be so lucky, bitch,” Talinae swept a playful kick at Dendra’s face.

  Dendra slapped it away, “She’s not fond of blood, Corolla Sceles. Tal prefers animals to people.”

  “At least animals are loyal and they make sense, unlike yer weird tastes.”

  Dendra shrugged, thrusting into the air, “I’m told I can be an animal if that’s your kink, Tal.”

  “Ghaaa! You’re revolting! I don’t have sex with them! Don’t even enjoy sex.” She stepped in for a grapple Dendra deftly slapped aside and countered. Talinae was prepared, exchanging a series of quick blocks, light-hearted jabs and another attempt at throwing Dendra to the ground.

  “I said hold!” Corolla Sceles yelled.

  She vaulted forward landing a solid kick to Talinae’s mid-section. She must have had strength enhanced augments, because Talinae flew several feet, crashing into a roll.

  Wide-eyed, Dendra posed in a defensive stance, anticipating a kick, yelping when instead her Corolla moved faster than Elyse could follow, grabbed Dendra, lifted her arcing through the air over Corolla Sceles’s back by an arm, and slammed loudly, painfully, down into the mat where she was left groaning and not quite getting up.

  Majaji desperately tugged at Elyse’s sleeve. It was enough a display for them to both be leaving. Now. Majaji motioned at their exit only feet from them. Still behind and outside periphery, it seemed easy enough.

  Fang had floated away in their not-quite-sparring, too occupied to notice a couple Venins—Elyse glowing at the sound of Venin Elyse—making their swift exit. Body and ego both ached watching their casual violence, and all Elyse wanted now was her bed, fluffy pillow, a night’s rest.

  Majaji followed close behind her in equally careful steps. Thank all the gods for her changing shoes before allowing Majaji to bring her here.

  Elyse watched Talinae pull off a grapple Dendra couldn’t maneuver past and found herself being arm-locked, tossed, and slapping on to her back for the second time in minutes with a whoosh of air and a howl of agony.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Majaji, stepping painfully on the backs of Elyse’s feet, jamming and rubbing the length of her tendons.

  She sucked in a breath, gritted teeth against nasty throbbing as Majaji slapped her foot down keeping from toppling forward.

  The noise was graceless, loud, and obvious in a near-empty room. Sound carried sharp and far.

  And Corolla Sceles took notice.

  Majaji stood straight, bowing with a small hand gesture at her forehead as was proper for a Venin to awknowledge a superior, especially of another House.

  “Apologies Corolla Sceles,” Majaji apologized. “We wished not to disturb your session.” Majaji straightened and made her way to the exit, Elyse close behind.

  “Hold there, Venin,” Sceles said.

  Fuuuuuu…

  Elyse stood straight, as did Majaji. Neither was bold enough they ignore commands from a Corolla, theirs or another House. They faced her at attention, waiting.

  Now Dendra and Talinae were interested. They watched, eager. Waiting. Their faces rolling through emotions like they anticipated a feeding.

  Corolla Sceles stepped nearer, her lenses dimly showing specs in them when she was feet away. She was collecting information on herself and Majaji, what she saw there a mystery as Venins didn’t get certain access, for good reason.

  She eyed Majaji, an eyebrow cocking at whatever floated in her vision. She studied Elyse with a keen interest Elyse didn’t enjoy one damn smidgen.

  Dendra pointed at her, “Hey, wait a sec, isn’t that the little flower?” She started chuckling at some private joke.

  Talinae looked at Dendra, back at Elyse. She swiped at air, reading. Something changed in Talinae’s face. Realization. A look that made Elyse grow cold and wary. “Yeah, that’s the one who got away. Told you she would. Little flower princesses in Flora get plucked but always find a way out. Too bad. Bunch of prissy tarts get away with everything.”

  Corolla Sceles raised a silencing hand. Both girls quieted.

  She looked again at Majaji, then stared at Elyse, considering. “Come forward, child. You’re a new Venin. Not elevated in ceremony but a Venin in spirit, if not officially and despite circumstances. Let me look at what your House has wrought.”

  Elyse wished she knew how everyone already knew about her trial. How was it public knowledge? How much of it?

  She obeyed. Embarrassment heating her, an angry fire creeping into her limbs, stomach, face with compounding degrees.

  They know, which means they must be in on it somehow! No other explanation.

  Hesitation died in her. Instead, Elyse wanted harm on these women, especially the little lazy one.

  “Corolla Sceles, please, I must get Elyse back to the dorm,” Majaji pleaded, not rudely, but it bordered. “She had her trial mere hours ago and really must get some rest.”

  Majaji pressed, moving again towards the exit pulling at Elyse’s arm risking insult and insubordination to a Corolla.

  Elyse gently pulled from Majaji’s grip.

  Corolla Sceles’s perfunctory smile tarried on Elyse, who showed she could follow commands, even if her face flushed, and her unseen knuckles were white behind her back.

  “Elyse, newer Venin to House Flora. And you are Majaji, dare say a Venin some time and unable to follow simple commands from a superior sister, regardless what you are fed about being Sepal tracked, if you even know by now…You found your way here from abroad.”

  She swiped a finger through the air, flicking a window only she could see.

  “Elyse, scouted after nasty business with her parents,” she frowned, “Not any way for a young girl’s life to begin. A corporate thug? The stereotypes dominating your life, girl. Sad business, that. What I find interesting, however, is all those notes from Potion Master Childs throughout your file, Venin. A genetic need of his to father young girls, I guess. Or groom them. Never know with males.”

  Elyse dug nails into her wrist until she swore she felt blood welling up under increasing pressure.

  “Anyway, here you are,” Corolla Sceles continued. “Your task unnamed. You kept your life. Strangeness in your Sepal’s reports suggest missing information I hazard involves potions, but completed and congratulations. Our Chapter loses far too many trainees lately and many of us thought your Sepal’s sending you into your trial too early was a mistake, though Fang usually sends our trainees to trial early. Breed differently in Fang.”

  Corolla Sceles crossed her arms. “By right of station, my authority here is absolute. Fang has need of its sisters in Flora. Now. Let’s see that Flora skill pitted against my equally recent Venins in a little spar, as they need someone other than each other for a real test in their ability. If you would,” she said, motioning for Elyse, pointedly excluding Majaji, further on to the mat. “You and one of my Venins? I’d appreciate seeing a fresh Flora Venin in action. Talinae? Dendra? Which of you wants this honor?”

  Dendra stepped forward, cutting off Talinae slower in declaring herself.

  “Me-me- I do- I’ll take it!” Dendra almost leaped, making a show of limbering up.

  Elyse, tired, hurt, abused…she had dealt with too much tonight. She looked Dendra up and down seeing the energy and her excitement for a bit of violence.

  Elyse, however, was also really, really pissed off!

  She hurled herself at Dendra. She will tell me who it was! A soundtrack on repeat in her head.

  Corolla Sceles quickly sidestepped, surprised but allowing sudden chaos in her bout. Elyse heard, but didn’t see Majaji yell at her to wait. Even Talinae backed off, startled.

  Elyse had thrown several jabs, blocked, struck with her heel aiming for Dendra’s midsection in unexpected violence before Dendra had stopped reacting and realized they had started. Surprise and desperation flicked back and forth in the girl’s face, spurning Elyse on in her relentless pursuit.

  Completely on a defensive retreat, Elyse gave no moment she might reset and charge in with renewed purpose. She remained off-balance, on-guard, totally in Elyse’s power moving across the mats.

  “Merde!” Elyse growled, landing a strike into Dendra’s unguarded left upper arm. I’ll find out who, and when I do, I’m going to rip. Out. Her. Throat! “Who was it!” Elyse found herself asking Dendra.

  “Wha-” she began replying, and found Elyse’s hand swinging towards her head, put all of her weight into a painful block, backed away again.

  Somewhere far off at the edges of sound and reason, Majaji called for her again. It didn’t matter. This honeypot was already slingin’.

  Dendra gave several feet more, Elyse growing frustrated she was not landing more strikes and Dendra refusing to give up. She tried a grapple, strong leather and dye fumes in Elyse’s nose above a sour stench. Dendra wrenched free, Elyse chancing a kick Dendra annoyingly swatted.

  Dendra had started frantic, more savage in her reactions. Now she smiled, having found a rhythm.

  She repelled Elyse through a constant cycling of strikes, a surprise sweep barely missed, a series of blocks and strikes ending in a palm strike towards Elyse’s chest just out of reach.

  An attempt to grapple Elyse’s arm and only by offering a juicy ligament Dendra pounced on. Elyse danced out of a vice.

  Her mind leapt to Talinae’s more familiar movements and strategy, what had landed, what had not. Elyse could use them.

  Putting on speed, Elyse collided into Dendra, whirled, to her back, tripped her, and loudly planted the girl’s face into the mat with an audible slap! through the room, hoping she tasted rubber, cleaner, and feet along sound humiliation.

  “Point for Flora,” Corolla Sceles said dryly. “Separate and reset!”

  “Separate and reset?” Elyse asked.

  Corolla Sceles stared at her. “Yes, that’s how it works. Have you never sparred, dear?” said Corolla Sceles seriously. “Were you under the impression this was a single round and done? What good does it honing your ability? Sorting luck from skill? Re-set, start again.”

  Reluctantly, Elyse backed away as a smiling, red-faced Dendra threw her hair back, hopping on toes while shaking out her limbs.

  “What was that you were saying? I didn’t catch it,” asked Dendra.

  “It’s nothing,” Elyse said.

  “Suit yourself. Maybe you’ll remember when I knock your sexy face a little flatter with the floor a few times. Ready?”

  “Rea-”

  Dendra dove at Elyse, smoothly grazed Elyse’s poorly timed strike, Dendra leaping up solidly snapping her knee up hard into Elyse’s stomach.

  Elyse flexed her core, ready, and still the strike hammered into, and through her.

  She retched, all Majaji’s lovingly curated snack came up. She lost control, painting Majaji’s love across mat and Dendra in a waterfall of brown with squishy white chunks.

  Distantly, Elyse was disappointed she got less on Dendra, her left leg spackled.

  “What the fuck!” Dendra screamed, backpedaling away and flicking Elyse’s insides from her leg and feet. “Seriously, fuck you! Eeeewww!!” Dendra screeched.

  “You’ve had worse on you girl!” Talinae shouted. “Get in there!”

  Elyse’s stomach cramped into bubbling knots she struggled fighting down. She looked up in time for Dendra’s next strike, expected the soft give of a crushing knee to the gut. Instead, Dendra did some complicated move Elyse couldn’t see, felt herself lifted, then dropped face-forward closely crushing her nose into mat. She turned her face in time, stars exploding in her vision as her face slammed hard against the mat, its plastic clap! echoing through her head, a rush of wind crushed from her lungs.

  Cold wet slapped between her cheek and mat, and when she tried desperately taking a breath through her nose, smells of sweet bile greeted her right before cold, acidic globs of liquid snorted up her nostrils.

  Her stomach heaved again, mushy chunks burning nasal cavities, her eyes watering, the stuff digging into her cheek.

  Dendra had gotten her payback, after all.

  “Point for Fang,” Corolla Sceles called distantly.

  Dendra’s weight vanished. Elyse rolled away groaning and retching on to her back in pain, head pounding, stomach doing weird somersaults. When she opened her eyes, she blurrily saw Dendra pacing several feet away, an unpredictable animal getting impatient for her meat.

  “A point to Dendra. That was unexpected, Venin,” Sceles said to Elyse. “You didn’t hesitate before, and Dendra fell into it.” She paused, nodding to herself. “I suggest, Majaji, you remain where you are and not interfere with Corolla business. Now, again.”

  Elyse looked, saw Majaji closer with a towel, face a mask of fury and anger she rarely saw in Majaji.

  Majaji threw it at Elyse, stepping back to her original position off the mat. Elyse took it gratefully, toweling pan and hot chocolate slurry from her face, hoping she got chunks out of her hair. Face and hands sticky, stomach nauseated. The longer she stood there, however, the longer she felt distant fire building into a pyre in her chest. Her adrenalin was about to peak, and she would use it!

  Elyse had just risen to her feet, getting the wind back into her lungs. Dendra didn’t bother with pleasantries this time. She leapt in again. Elyse avoiding, weaving from feints. Her evening was spoiled. Her status in question. This little Fang thought she had claims on her.

  Could she? Am I worthy of my role? Elyse found herself thinking. It’s more than looks and a smile. It has to be.

  She needed a win without strings if she had any hope of standing among her Flora sisters without feeling fake. She needed to feel important. She needed to have a purpose by her own talent and ability, not just what was given, but what she built and earned.

  Dendra lifted her foot for a feint, side-stepped, threw an elbow Elyse barely blocked across forearm and bicep. She closed, smiling.

  They locked close together, each woman fighting for an upper-hand. Nearly intimate in how their bodies curled around each other.

  “Must have been luck in your trial,” Dendra murmured. “I don’t see how else you made it through. They must really have screwed up with that potion they gave him,” said Dendra, low enough so only Elyse heard.

  “Who set me up!?” Elyse grunted, redoubling her effort and finding herself equally countered by the smaller woman.

  Corolla Sceles called out something but Elyse didn’t catch the words. She was focused on this girl. Nothing else mattered.

  “Tell you what, you beat me here, and I will give you a hint? Maybe I’ll even tell you where to find them, though it won’t do you much good if you can’t handle me,” She licked her lips. Everything about this girl was suddenly wrong and overwrought with stereotypes Elyse might have barked laughter at had she more energy.

  Elyse got out a single spittle-ridden laugh. “You’re such a Fang stereotype. Do you lick yourself, too? Or do you rely on strangers to make you feel whole?”

  Dendra snarled. They pushed away, her attacks redoubling in frenzied, almost manic attempts.

  Elyse’s adrenalin spiked. Her attention became hyper fixated on the fight before her; the leering girl she had every need to punch in her stupid face. She had a lot of needs. She needed a nap. She needed what this girl knew. Most of all, she needed a win that was all hers; not luck or someone else saving her.

  Agitation made Dendra sloppy. Elyse sensed the moment and seized it, connecting with an elbow into Dendra’s ribs, locking legs and bringing Dendra down hard into the mat before stepping away, realizing Dendra had caught herself and was up again, no longer fake smiling and playful. Elyse spied a Venin in that face; a woman anticipating unnaming.

  “Glad to see you ladies of Flora have thorns amongst the dainty lasses Lainia keep,” Corolla Sceles called, smiling for the first time.

  Dendra balled her fists, ready. This time Elyse was ready for familiar patterns, a sloppy attempt at a cheap shot here, a failed grab there.

  They’re going to laugh at me if I can’t win. I’m so useless, her thoughts wandered.

  Dendra slipped past Elyse’s defenses, locking her arm, and winding her down to the mat to a point she had to either give, or risk twisting her joints to near tearing angles. She chanced leaping up and back, felt the top of her head collide noisily with Dendra’s chin hard enough her teeth clacked! together.

  Dendra gave up her advantage. She shifted her foot, sent the girl tripping backwards, though not down.

  Elyse faced her, saw Dendra had a small smear of blood on her lips. Either she had bit her tongue or the inside of her lip. Either way, first blood belonged to Elyse.

  It was time to finish it! Elyse was hopped up on her adrenalin high ready for their final go. She went in, Dendra reeling, Elyse hungry.

  “Stop!” commanded Corolla Sceles.

  Dendra stopped mid run, skidding to a halt.

  Elyse nearly collided with the girl, throwing herself sideways and barely catching herself before falling. She too went to attention huffing great gulps of air like she had been sprinting. Inside she screamed. Lust unsatisfied. Brought close to and barred finishing.

  Dendra had information and this could not stand!

  Corolla Sceles nodded appreciatively. “Not bad, for a newly minted Venin. Dendra is skilled, but you were not the easy mark I presumed. Makes sense someone attempted sabotaging your trial to remove you from Flora’s corner.”

  “What?...” Elyse started and was cut off when Corolla Sceles signaled to Dendra and Talinae to leave the mats.

  “Take a moment, you two. See to your wounds and have Talinae check you over, Dendra,” said Corolla Sceles. “Water, stretch, wait for me there,” she pointed off at a corner and turned her back on them in case they attempted using their lenses to read Corolla Sceles’s lips.

  Without any malice or hint of bad blood Elyse could detect, both girls bowed, gesturing at their heads in respect, then casually backed off as though this were any other ended practice session. Elyse and Majaji were eventually left standing alone with Corolla Sceles, who eyed them both, smiling wickedly with her eyes.

  “Take some advice from another legacy House and far more sense to these things than yours: start travelling in a pack. Turbulent times are here, and if you want to serve our Guild, I suggest you become more flexible in your loyalties, focus more on survival within our walls, not just outside.”

  At that, she spun to join her stretching Venins.

  “Wait, Corolla Sceles!” Elyse called to her.

  She turned looking agitated, but she waited.

  “My apologies,” Elyse quickly corrected. “Dendra told me she would tell me who was involved with sabotaging my trial. Do you know, then?”

  Sceles’s face soured. “You’re asking a more complicated question than you realize. Master Childs is a very loyal member of the Guild, for a male. It wasn’t him, if that’s your question.”

  She already knew Master Childs an impossibility. She let Corolla Sceles believe her own prejudices.

  Staring significantly at Elyse, Corolla Sceles considered. Hesitating, she took in their room’s walls where no symbol, word, or mural marked their ownership. They were painted a soothing gradient, starting lighter, then turning darker with swirling colors shifting bright fall, then stark whites like seasons.

  Corolla Sceles saw meaning in those patterns. She said, “Our way is changing. Secrets. Deaths. Our maintenance over a world too large for even our influence is rusty and dull. Change must come, my suggestion being accept, and next time be better at your tasks, rather than whine about who is making attempts on your life, Venin. Crying over things will only burden those around you, not stick a knife in whomever pulls your strings.”

  No farewells, she walked away having said what needed be said.

  Rather than putting her at ease—Elyse’s hope, despite one hand hand often full of steamy, fiber-filled hope—Corolla Sceles had turned Elyse’s thoughts towards shadows, and they hunted Elyse. A victim’s response. Fang’s intention, or not, when Elyse should have more control of her life, if not her destiny.

  Majaji placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “We should go. You need sleep, and I can see in your face that you are overthinking again. Also, you smell like vomity stale male and cocoa accents, which has ruined hot chocolate forever. It’s time you showered.”

  Majaji lead her from the room, into familiar halls with their reacting sconces, soft carpet, calming colors purpose-selected for balance and calm.

  Elyse didn’t want balance. She wanted control! She wanted to be Sepal of her own fate. The one waiting in the dark with knife and intent.

  Becoming a Venin was supposed to end confusion and mystery behind her purpose. Smaller tasks leading up to that fucking male should have steeled her for her destiny. Now it was more confusing.

  They strolled amongst other Guild members on their way to late meals, chores, some dressed for training in their own wing training rooms, all scurrying in activity on personal schedules of a big city in miniature so it never felt truly empty in their Chapter. Majaji dropped Elyse off at her small room, squeezed her arms in a tight hug.

  “Twenty minutes. Long enough for showering, change your clothes, and possibly a breath,” said Majaji before leaving for her own room.

  Moments later, Elyse tiredly stripped down under scalding water. She took a pumice to her body, scouring Esther’s touch until her skin glowed red and raw almost to bleeding. It wasn’t enough. She punched the tile when she began reliving that last hour, her mistakes, her carelessness. She could have done things differently, been stronger, faster. Why hadn’t she done this or that as her training instructed?

  She punched her wall again. Soothing pain shot up her arm and she wished the wall was Dendra’s stupid Fang face, piercings lodged deep into her meat.

  Twenty minutes later, Elyse was fresher, still bone tired, still broken, but better. More importantly, she had her spare lenses sitting in their microbial soup. She gratefully inserted them and felt herself whole when her world lit up dark corners, data hovered, a viewscreen anchored on a blank wall appeared when she turned her head. Their Chapter network literally at her fingertips. The world’s information accessible through a word or a swipe.

  Another five minutes, Elyse left her room finding Majaji waiting outside her door, having appeared right on time even while knowing Elyse was forever late. Majaji also appeared freshened up, a clean uniform, her hair adjusted, even small amounts of make-up.

  “Real food?” Elyse asked, hopeful. “Someone knocked my last meal out of me,” she tried smiling, failed.

  Majaji nodded approvingly. They turned towards back towards the commons and stopped.

  Sepal Lainia, agitated in her usual way, stalked their direction, stopping when she noticed them.

  Her face looked grim, her mouth downturned. Not unusual, however she had a harried energy about her. Never a good sign when it was a Sepal letting her emotions slip through Sepal control.

  “Majaji! Elyse! I’m on my way to my office, and you’re coming with me,” Sepal Lainia declared. She continued on her way deeper into Flora’s wing, expecting without looking that both baby quail hurried behind her. “Stupid bloody women taking all my time,” she grumbled, speaking with her hands like she was conducting her temper.

  “Did we miss an appointment, Sepal?” asked Majaji.

  “Hmm? No not you two, the other stupid women I must deal with! I did track your IDs to a common sparring room but neither of you look dressed for it. You, Elyse, should have been resting after your trial!”

  “Apologies, Sepal Lainia,” Majaji said for them both. “We were held up with Corolla Sceles and two of her Venins.”

  Sepal Lainia slowed her long strides, peered down her sharp features at Majaji, setting her jaw. “Was there an issue?”

  “No!...Sepal,” Elyse put in. “Corolla Sceles entertained a match between her Venin and I. It was a draw, I think.”

  Sepal Lainia raised an eyebrow, “You…think? Fops and Jarkmen, girl, one would presume you know whether you won or lost a bout with another Venin.”

  She slowed, looking them both over as if she had missed something in her first pass. Studied them uncomfortably. She looked at Elyse’s hands, frowned, walked up to her and pinched at her arms eliciting a sharp intake from Elyse that Sepal Lainia scowled at. Studying Elyse’s face, reading her, Elyse naked before those deeply violet eyes as if the Sepal could identify threads of all her secret thoughts.

  Or Elyse was paranoid in her pain, exhaustion, and a night with two beatings she neither wanted nor requested of the universe. She craved food and her pillow.

  “Your beds have to wait, I’m afraid,” Sepal Lainia said.

  Elyse’s sniff of surprise got past her careful defense.

  “As you command, Sepal,” Majaji said tiredly.

  “It is what I command, and you will both follow me back to my offices where we have Flora business that cannot wait.” I have snacks and coffee. Good coffee. Not that muddy oily shite they serve you girls in the cafeteria. Tell me what happened, and I may have some biscuits from my personal stash I will willingly share.

  Lainia led them through Flora’s wing until they navigated their small administration wing with its small kitchen, lavatory, Lainia’s suite, and an office space. There were miscellaneous rooms some architect had envisioned Sepals or Corollas using as they visited each other in blissful cooperation.

  Those same rooms had unassembled furniture stored in their packing materials, loose wires, and a look like the air smelled of fresh adhesive when they passed their dark windows.

  Portraits decorated walls. Someone had decided to maintain a floral theme throughout, because it wasn’t enough for everything of their house to have a giant flower stamped on the damn thing. No, it needed to be pumped full of diffused essential oils, have bright color, and utilize thematic décor at every junction.

  What lacked in all that flower imagery was an arching gateway into their wing, one in an inappropriate shape, their comings and goings an immaculate birth and hurried return to the womb.

  “What’s so funny, Venin?” Sepal Lainia asked.

  Elyse hadn’t realized she laughed aloud. “Nothing, Sepal Lainia. Just giddy and needing more sleep.”

  “You’ll have plenty,” she said, her voice severe. “That is, you will have plenty if you do not keep your wits about you, even here. You know too well, arguably better than anyone about current tides.”

  “Is that what this is about, Sepal?” asked Majaji. They had reached Sepal Lainia’s offices.

  Sepal Lainia said nothing. She palmed her DNA lock, latches clicking and doors sliding open on near silent tracks.

  In an earlier life, Elyse had always expected hidden treasures, expensive tech, maybe some really grand antiques in a Sepal’s office.

  She had been disappointed, finding shelves and shelves of books. Always books. No one needed books when you could pull up augmented texts overlaying vision with enhanced contact lenses. It could be dangerous to have your visuals obscured, but physical books were just as distracting.

  And dull, she admitted. Books were dull. And here were hundreds, smelly, taking up all the space Lainia could use for screens, display pieces, literally anything else. Maybe go the gynecological route! Have a big flower like a splayed vulva on the wall right there above the Sepal’s head.

  This time Elyse kept her laughter bottled, but she really needed more sleep. This was getting out-of-hand.

  Sepal Lainia eyed her suspiciously. “Have a seat. And you, Majaji. Master Childs will join us shortly,” adding more quietly, “if he’s done licking wounds and playing with friends.”

  When Elyse confirmed her own confusion with Majaji, neither seemed to understand Lainia’s comment, but also decided it was best left alone by her mood.

  They entered the room, which had a running fountain on a small table encircled with over-stuffed chairs, small glass side tables, an assortment of art—squished between the stupid bookshelves—and an untouched setting for four with something fragrant, and dainty teacups.

  Both Majaji and Elyse had remained standing, not receiving an invitation for a seat. One never assumed a seat without prompting. Lainia hurried towards her desk. She took a seat while tapping at her terminal. Several crystalline slate monitors detected her presence and blinked on. She became fully engrossed in whatever work had come up on her screens.

  One had camera angles.

  From her viewpoint at the monitor’s back, images were reversed, but Elyse thought it looked like two people stabbing at each other in a hall.

  Sepal Lainia noticed Elyse prying. She shut off her monitor, deeply frowning at her while doing it. She tapped away several seconds longer before remembering both women still stood silently at attention.

  “Bloody hell you two, would you sit down, already? I should have no need inviting you two in for a meeting and inviting you to sit. Common sense,” she muttered. “We have a situation. I am looking at sending one of you and possibly Master Childs to take part in what we’re calling a moment of collaboration with another Chapter.” The Sepal took a deep breath. She looked between them, considering. You could feel indecision thick in her turning thoughts, her analysis of a situation they had no knowledge of, yet.

  Elyse felt herself grow less settled, stomach uneasy while Sepal Lainia reclined casually in her mesh office chair.

  “Before Childs finally graces us with his presence,” she started, “why don’t you tell me a little of what happened, and why you, Elyse, have a look like you’ve had the piss taken out of you. Then we’ll talk about a cat, a box, and historical violence when sisters have rallied behind a new House.”

  She didn’t get what Lainia said, but she started anyway, taking a steadying breath. Elyse started with her visit to Master Childs. With luck, he would reach them soon. She decided, Sepal Lainia turning irritable at her recounting, there was no time “soon” enough.

  Things were about to get complicated, if not generally worse.