By Moonlight Wrought (Bt Moonlight Wrought) (15 page)

         “About what?”

         “What we talked about last night:  you
worshiping with me.”

         “I don’t know.  It sounds pretty weird. 
Pain and that kind of stuff,” Melissa said sleepily as she lay motionless, her
eyes closed.  “I never took much stock in the gods…Daddy would pray to the god
of growing and all that…and I tried praying a few times…but it all seems so
pointless.  You hear of all these miracles and powerful priests doing big
things…but you know, I never saw any of that in Stoneheim.”

         “Well the goddess I worship can be seen
every day.  Pain is a part of life; a big part.  Suffering pain allows one to
overcome it; to live through it to the joyful times.  After pain, happiness is
more exalting.  The more extreme one’s pain, the more extreme one’s pleasure.” 
With that, Fiona pinched Melissa’s neck roughly, but Melissa felt her muscles
become more relaxed and a warm, soothing feeling passed through her.

         “It’s still pretty weird.  I mean, I
don’t like pain and I don’t want to hurt anybody else either.”

         “You don’t have to.  You just need to
understand pain.  Understanding will make you stronger.”

         “You mean, that’s why
you’re
so
confident?” Melissa asked.

         “One of the reasons.  Understanding makes
one confident.  Ignorance breeds fear, Melissa.  Knowledge gives you a sense of
security because you know exactly what you face, and being a warrior, if you
understand pain, a great deal of fear can be assuaged.”

         “What’s that mean?”

         “It means to ease it; to make the fear of
pain not be so bad.  It is as much a study as it is a religion.” 

         “Like those funny robed guys who walk
around chanting?”

         “Monks?” Fiona asked, laughing.  “I don’t
think we have any monks in our religion, but yes, I see your point.  Monks do
generally look deeply at things to try and gain understanding.  We aren’t quite
so ambitious: understanding pain is all we care about.”

         There came a knock on the door, followed
by Donagee’s voice.  “Melissa, there’s someone here to see you,” he said
through the door.

         “Okay,” she yelled out.  She tried to
rise from under Fiona, but the girl’s legs were strong, especially for someone
so thin, and Fiona squeezed them together while tickling Melissa’s ribs. 
Melissa screamed in agony, hating to be tickled, and after a few moments, she
had had enough.  Melissa reached around and grabbed Fiona’s head and pulled it
down.  Her body followed and Melissa rolled on top of her, sitting on Fiona’s
belly and holding her wrists above her head.

         “I don’t know,” she continued the earlier
discussion. “I will see.”

         “You remember back home?  You felt pain
and you wanted to hurt them back,” Fiona said, trying to wriggle free from
Melissa’s grasp.  Melissa let her go, thinking about her past, then rose and donned
on her blouse, having only been wearing a cut-off undershirt for her massage.

         “I said ‘I’ll see,’” Melissa answered
fervently as she tied her pants with a rope belt.  She went to the door and
with one last look, stuck out her tongue at Fiona and ran out the door.

         Dirk had stepped back in slight deference
when the door opened; Donagee was there, well over six-and-a-half feet tall,
though thin of build.  Dirk was admitted then directed to wait in a small room
to the left of the stairs while Donagee went in search of Melissa.  Dirk walked
where requested and gazed around nonchalantly:  the room contained a fireplace,
a few chairs and a couch on which Dirk promptly sat.  Soon, after not too long
a wait, he heard softly running feet on their way down the stairs, and he stood
just in time to see Melissa leap down the last few steps.  Looking around,
Melissa opened her mouth to call out then she turned and saw Dirk.  Her eyes grew
wide and a large smile came over her face as she walked hurriedly to him, stretching
up and giving him a quick, friendly kiss on the cheek.

         “Wow,” she said with her hands on her
hips, standing back to look at him as if they had not seen each other in
years.  “What brings you ‘round here stranger?”  Her eyes sparkled and Dirk
could not help but return her smile, seeing Melissa so delighted.  She stood
there looking at him and after a few moments of his silence she spoke again. 
“Would you like a beer?”

         “Sure.  That would be nice,” he said, his
inspiration no more than the normal docile attitude he had shown her their
entire relationship.  “I like your hair.”

         “Oh this?” she asked, touching her
ponytail, having forgotten it was there, “Fiona just put it up.  It’s nothin’. 
Well, sit down.  Don’t be in a hurry to run off.”  She pushed him; hard.  Dirk
almost fell unintentionally, but let himself make a controlled landing back
onto the couch while Melissa walked through a door at the back of the house
behind the stairs which led to the kitchen.  Dirk, left alone, then noticed a
pretty young face peeking down at him from the stairs.  She grinned, came down
the last few stairs, and walked over intently, sitting down next to Dirk, and
facing him while placing a hand upon his knee.

         “Hi, I’m Dirk,” he said with equal parts
politeness and curiosity.

         “You must be,” the girl answered quietly;
strangely.  “I’m Fiona.”  Dirk took her hand, stroked it a few times and placed
it reservedly in her own lap.  He had noticed during their brief touch that her
hands were soft and slender, like Cinder’s, but stronger, and the short nails
were painted a lustrous, shiny black.  Just then, Melissa came back in and Dirk
rightly turned his attention back to her.

         “What are you doing down here?” Melissa
asked with a touch of jealousy.  Fiona shrugged her reply and slyly put her
hand back on Dirk’s leg.  Melissa introduced the strangers and Dirk shook
Fiona’s hand gently; mannerly.  Without delay, Melissa jumped, butt-first, down
between them, knocking each uncomfortably aside as they pulled their hands out
from under her backside.  She then grinned wickedly at Fiona, presenting a kind
smile when she turned to Dirk.

         “Don’t want to hurt anybody, huh?” Fiona
asked her.

         “I haven’t seen you in days,” Melissa
said to Dirk, studying his handsome face and ignoring Fiona’s badgering.

         “Oh, I’ve been busy,” he said turning
away guiltily.

         “Well, that doesn’t matter.  You’re here
now,” she said happily.

         “He sure is,” Fiona said with an enticing
voice and smile.  Melissa looked at her impatiently.  “Are you mad because I’m
flirting with your boyfriend?” Fiona asked, punctuating the word ‘boyfriend.’ 

         Melissa scoffed, “He’s not my
boyfriend
. 
We’re just friends.”  Then she thought about her answer; why was he not her
‘boyfriend’?  She had lain with him and felt for him more deeply than any other
person in her life.  Dirk seemed to like her, besides.  Why weren’t they more
than lovers?  Fiona would know and Melissa made it a point to remember to ask
her later.

         At the momentary silence offered for
introspection, Dirk looked down the couch at the two dissimilar sisters: 
tanned, healthy skin, blonde hair (Fiona’s was lighter and much shorter), brown
eyes (Melissa’s were dark and soft while Fiona’s were lighter with tiny dark
speckles and a penetrating stare, as if she could read Dirk’s very thoughts).

         “Mel tells me that you’re in security at
Bessemer’s?”  Fiona asked.  Dirk wondered at the name “Mel,” but answered
nonetheless.

         “Yes.”

         “Interested in a job?” she continued. 
“Free housing and food?  Easy work and hours?  Lots of companionship?”  She
raised her brows and Dirk did not know if she meant Melissa or herself in the
department of companionship.

         “No, I like my job,” he said, proud in
the progress he had made at Bessemer’s.  “For as long as I’ll have it.”

         “Do you think you’ll get fired?” Melissa
asked, concerned, wondering if something had gone amiss.

         “No,” Dirk chuckled.  “I just want to do
something else.  I’d like to go adventuring in the Wild.”

         “Oh yeah?” Fiona asked, sounding
particularly intrigued.  “We should all do that,” she plied eagerly.  “Part
time, I mean,” she added, not completely ready to give up her easy life. 

         Dirk was horrified.  He had only ever
imagined going alone or maybe with a group of surly men, out taming the fierce
wilderness.  “Well, I don’t think so.  I’ll probably never go,” he added
quickly, clearing his throat.  Fiona looked at him, studying his face.  Her
intensity made him nervous.

         “That’s not it, not it at all!  You don’t
think
we
can do it,” Fiona said.

         “I didn’t say that,” Dirk lied timidly. 
Melissa sat between them, watching and listening, satisfied without adding her
own thoughts.  Melissa was comfortable at such times when she was allowed to be
quiet, as she naturally was, without being prodded to participate.

         “I bet you’ve never seen a better archer,
and Mel knows life outside the city.  She could find food and water.  I know
the art of healing and ancient lore, too.  That’s pretty damn important if
you’re trying to explore some of the ruins that lie all over this kingdom.” 

         Dirk had never thought about it.  What if
he did get hurt?  He was lucky if he could care for an ingrown nail or stop the
bleeding garnered from an errant knife blade while opening crates, let alone
some weapon-induced wound.  And then there was food to worry about.  How many dried
rations could he carry, and how long could he live on such stale fare?  So Dirk
agreed to at least talk about the possibility for a joint adventure for an hour
or so, and though he then may have been more convinced of their abilities, he
still was not ready, at least not yet, to make any real plans:  that part of
the journey would all be up to Vandelar.  He said good-bye to Fiona and took
Melissa for a few drinks and some private conversation.  After escorting her
back home, Dirk left quickly, and Fiona was waiting downstairs for her friend’s
return.

         “Where’s Dirk?” she asked, running up to
the door.  Melissa hurriedly shut it, jealous of Fiona and not wanting her to
see Dirk again that night.

         “He left,” she said.

         “Where did you go?”  Fiona took Melissa’s
hand and led her upstairs and into Melissa’s room.  Fiona jumped onto the bed,
bouncing up and down excitedly several times like a child, waiting for her
friend to answer.  Melissa undid her ponytail and brushed it out unemotionally
as she sat on the edge of her bed.  “Well?” Fiona pressed.  “Tell me all the
details.”

         “Of what.”

         “Did you do it?”

         “Do what?”

         “Sex,” Fiona blurted.

         “No, and if I had, I wouldn’t tell you
anything.  That’s not why we see each other.”

         “I would,” Fiona said, rolling onto her
back and drawing her knees up to her chest, pulling Melissa back to lie between
them.  Melissa grew angry; the first time Fiona had ever seen her that way. 
She spun and pressed her fist into Fiona’s breastbone, pinning her to the bed,
and raised her other fist as if she were going to punch her in the nose.  Fiona
flinched momentarily then regained her composure.

         Melissa released Fiona and stood up.  It
was none of Fiona’s business.  That’s what Melissa kept telling herself.  But
she wondered why Dirk didn’t seem to want to have sex recently, or at least
press her for it, so that she could deny him.  Should she have not given into
him sexually?  Was she already conquered and no longer a challenge? She
wondered if he didn’t like her any more, but that did not completely convince
her since he did travel the length of the city to visit her that night.  They
had had a nice evening and that was enough for her.  She didn’t really like sex
anyway, or so she told herself.  So it was all the better that Dirk didn’t want
it all the time.  She hoped that maybe in that respect, Dirk was just like
her.  Fiona could read much of Melissa’s distress, even though she did not
mention any of it.  Fiona’s knack for reading people did not come through
magic, but intuition. 

         “I’m sure he likes you.  He just seems
shy,” Fiona said softly.  Melissa wanted to pretend she didn’t know at what
Fiona was hinting, just ignore her, but she needed someone to talk to:  she was
so confused.

         “Why don’t you think he wants to marry
me?” she asked solemnly.

         “Whoa!  You’re going too fast:  country
fast.  There’s no hurry to marry here in the city, Mel.  You don’t need kids to
secure your future or to help you get the crops in.  Here life is secured by
money.  You can
buy
security and food.  People have children for fun, or
love, or who knows what, but it’s not for free labor.  There is no hurry.  If
you hurry, you’ll drive that man off.  He’s born and bred city-folk, Melissa.” 
Melissa had told Fiona everything about Dirk.  He was her favorite subject and
she talked about him almost exclusively.  “Give him a chance.”