Aleris • View topic - Ambitions of a kept woman..or women...

Author: La Sirena
Post Date: Sun Oct 24, 2010 4:17 pm
Post subject: Ambitions of a kept woman..or women...

Life was settling down and with that came plenty of introspection. So much had changed in her life as of late and most of it seemed to happen over night. In one fell swoop the family she’d been trying so hard to build had been wiped out and a new family she’d never anticipated was thriving. She’d lost her brothers and her father but had kept her sisters and had gained a lover and position of power she had never expected. And she still had Hale. That alone had kept her sane over the last few months and when life returned to some semblance of normalcy (as normal as you can get among a bunch of demon hybrids, anyway) she knew she wanted to do something for him. Something for herself, as well.

Prior to the change in her circumstances she had held the position of Editor in Chief of the Aleris Chronicle. She’d been proud of her position there and of the work she had done during her brief reign as their Editor. She’d had ideas for the newspaper but her aspiring career had been cut short by her subsequent apprehension by Stativare, her punishment for the death of a Hell born demon and Conduit; her mother.

Now herself Stativare’s personal Caira (The title of respect afforded a Conduit tied to a member of the Infernal line) she fed him all the energy she absorbed through the marks on her skin, the sin she took from others, and he was stronger for it. He gained power, she gained prestige; it was a win win situation. Plus the sex was outstanding. He wasn’t the only man in her life, though, and it was to the other man with whom she shared her time that her thoughts were turning too more and more as of late.

Hale hated feeling defenseless. She knew that. Ever since the night Stativare had walked in on the two of them in a rather intimate setting and had taken the opportunity to remind Hale who the dominant male in the household was, he had chafed at the fact that he’d been completely helpless in the face of Stativare’s strength. While Hale understood that it would be unlikely that he’d ever be able to match Stativare in strength and power simply by virtue of the fact of who and what he was he no longer wished to be utterly defenseless. He wished to learn to fight, to take care of himself, and Sarine, should the need arise. For that, though, they needed Stativare’s permission.

Intent upon gaining his permission to apply for her old position at the Chronicle and for Hale to enter into martial training she joined Stativare for a private evening, using everything in her arsenal to gain her way. Granted, it wasn’t completely one sided, Stativare could more than give what he got and by the end of their “negotiations” they were both quite…satisfied…with the outcome.

He had a request of his own, however. In return for allowing Sarine to return to her job as Editor in Chief of the Chronicle and for allowing Hale, who was little more than a concubine in Stativare’s eyes, to enter into martial training, he wanted Sarine to give Najia a job at the newspaper, specifically as the gossip columnist. Najia. The one person in their household she actually ~tried~ to avoid and get away from whenever possible. Stativare knew precisely how she felt, too, but nothing was free in their world. It was always something for something; fair exchange was no robbery.

She’d agreed, of course. What she wanted was more important to her than being subjected to Najia and frankly, she wouldn’t have to physically see the little brat all that often. She’d have her own office and could message over her columns rather than turning them in physically. Fine. It was settled. Stativare would get what he wanted and she would get what she wanted and they sealed the deal with a lot more than a simple hand shake, you can bet on that.

The next few days were spent seeing to business. A meeting with the newly reinstated King Alerian resulted in the regaining of her old job at the Chronicle. With keys in hand she’d returned to the nearly abandoned building and had opened up her office, Hale and several servants from Narion in tow as there was definitely cleaning to be done. With the servants set to their tasks she sat at the large desk and planning her course of action. There were changes to be made to the way the Chronicle operated, changes she’d wanted to make before but had never had the chance.

There would be new articles, new sections of the newspaper, fresh reporters and, she hoped, a revived interest in what the Chronicle had to offer the Alerisian citizens. It would be a few weeks before a decent issue was ready for the people and likely it would be a bi-weekly publication as the community within Grand City was still recovering from the nearly devastating civil war. She also had two positions to fill as Najia had already taken up one of them.

There was much to do and less time to do it in but she was determined to publish an announcement about the changes coming to the Chronicle by the end of the week. Failure was not an option!

Salome was back and recovering, Andras dancing attendance upon her in order to keep his sorry ass out of even more trouble. Carese took up a lot of her time, or she took up a lot of Carese’s time, however you viewed it, and of course she fought tooth and nail for as much time with Static as possible. But even with all that, it was not enough to fully occupy the Princess’ time. With nothing that she considered interesting or exciting occurring in her own life it wasn’t unheard of for her to turn her attention to other people’s lives. Whether or not it was any of her business rarely concerned her.

Left to her own devices she most often found herself in front of the Oculus, the Eye of Hell that Static had given her full access to anytime she wished it. As such she was able to spy on whomever she wished whenever she wished. The only way to protect themselves from her far seeing Eye was to place an angelic or holy barrier around their dwelling and hope they were stronger than the power of the Oculus. If she kept what she learned about other people to herself likely on one would have been the wiser or even concerned but unfortunately that was an impossibility for her.

Quite frankly she told anyone who would listen about the things she learned about the denizens of Aleris. While out shopping, while visiting the Siren’s Corner, any activity that brought her into contact with other people would invariably result in her gossiping about the things she’d seen and learned. There is only so much gossip that can be done when one has to rely on running into random people who happen to like a good bit of gossip and inevitably she would become bored. Again.

A pampered princess to her very marrow she loved her life as it was, with the exception of sharing Static with Sarine of course, but she still needed to find ways to fill her day. Beyond that she was determined to find a way to become useful to Static. Sarine was his other woman but Najia was his First, and even with that, she hated knowing that Static got something vital from Sarine. She was his Caira, his energy conduit, and she fed him strength and power from the emotional energy she gathered. Though his First she was well aware of the fact that he got nothing of that sort from her. He’d told her she was a rare breed, that having her was something of a status symbol in Hell, but it wasn’t enough. She needed to know she was vital to him beyond the superior sex she provided.

The question was…how? She could fight, probably better than Static realized thanks to her estranged mother, but she wasn’t a Fighter. She wasn’t one of the troops out there battling it out every day as there were others far more capable than she for that job. Until she figured it out she was left with few other options save spying on people and getting into trouble, which she had absolutely no problem accomplishing. Perhaps that was the motivation for what was going on behind the scenes without her knowledge.

A few weeks prior to Salome’s abduction she had noticed the realm wide advertisement for a new Editor in Chief, which she knew had once upon a time been Sarine’s job. Jokingly she’d stated she might apply for it but Static was quick to point out she had little interest in the actual grind of the job. She was forced to admit she would far prefer the job as the Gossip columnist but they had arrived at their destination then and her attention had turned elsewhere.

How was she to know that Sarine was actively pursuing getting her position back as the Editor in Chief? Ordinarily that wouldn’t affect her at all but along with Sarine’s request to get her job back she also had another request for Static, one that was little more than a personal favor for herself, and Static was never one to give something without getting something in return. The details were between Static and Sarine, naturally, but it was Static alone who told Najia later that evening about their conversation.

Stunned at what he was telling her she could only stare at him a few long moments. Ultimately, though, she was excited by the prospect. There was simply one fly in her ointment.

”I’ll have to work with Sarine though! Not just with her but FOR her!”

She’d been preparing to work herself into a full blown temper tantrum but Static was quite adept at dealing with those and when she found herself picked up and tossed onto the bed she quickly forgot any protests she had. By the end of the night she was more than willing to accept the circumstances set down before her. She wouldn’t start her job right away. Sarine still had to work things out with the King and there were some structural changes being made, but should it all pan out she would be taking over the column, Rumor Has It, at the Chronicle.

Finally all that spying and gossiping would pay off.