“Well, we'll go later. I think I'm here for a couple of days still. I have some work I have to do during the day, but if you want, we can get together and do stuff? I haven't really seen the city at all, this is my third time here, so I should. I've only been to the beach once, and haven't walked the city at all.” He felt silly saying it, but her eyes were warm and she nodded shyly.
“If you want, once you see me in full light, I mean. Everyone looks better in dim light.”
Tor raised his eyebrows.
“Oh… good point, you haven't really seen me yet either. Want to run off and have sex now when we're both good looking? I've been compared to a troll you know. Seriously. Now, I thought it was a little mean, but hey, there were a lot of them saying it at the time…” Stupid Galasian school kids. They made a play about it and everything. To be fair it was a pretty good play, but it still kind of hurt his feelings to think about. Worse, by their traditions, in any future plays or writings, he had to be depicted the same way. No changing it up just to salve his ego or anything.
Worse, the troll him was kind of a jerk.
Before she could answer fireworks started above them.
Ah ha! Someone had activated the device he'd made. Well, leave things on a table with a bunch of drunks and someone was bound to hit the glowing sigils, weren't they? It would be surprising if whoever had didn't wet themselves. At least the effects didn't seem to come directly from the device itself. Instead they seemed to grow out of the air itself way up high in the black night. There were thunderous booms too, a bit before the brilliantly colored streamers crossed the sky. It made it seem more real, he thought. People started to make noises of awe, which turned into cheers as fully a third of the inky black night sky was filled with brilliant purple and gold, the royal colors. Then there was an all green spectacle with twenty randomly placed looking blasts that popped and crackled. For Lairdgren, since that was his house.
Bonita clapped hard.
“Maria didn't mention fireworks! This must have cost a fortune… not that I'm hard up for money, if you’re a male whore… I can pay…” Her voice went soft again, she was looking at him in the bright light from the display.
The snorting laugh that came out was far from dignified. Tor started to answer, but didn't get a chance, since the next phase was coming up already and it kind of stole all the attention. It would start with a flower, a single red rose made of various colored sparkles which got a gasp that was rewarding to say the least. He tapped his shield off again for what was coming, since it would be filtered otherwise and casually took Bonita's right hand in his left, looking at her in the gentle glow. She glanced at him, and smiled happily, her hand tightening around his.
What came made people stand up and cheer with delight, hooting and hollering in drunken abandon. It was a saucy dancing girl, made of sparkles all in red and bright blue. The image moved though, standing, legs flashing as skirts were tossed up. Drumming, fast and driving, came from the sky itself as she skipped and twirled, if you were imaginative and attentive you could see a dark patch as she twirled and her skirt rose, in interesting places. It was actually based on one of the girls he'd seen dancing the time before when he'd come, so it looked pretty realistic. Not perfect, but no one seemed to mind that it wasn't an actual giant dancing woman in realistic colors. He could have done that of course, now that he'd gotten how to make things move, it had just seemed like it might be too scary without giving people something less realistic to look at first.
This was it, he thought, the important part.
It started almost without notice, the sense of a warm breeze hitting the skin, gaining strength and cooling slightly as birds flew into the scene from nowhere the feeling of their wing beats buffeting the crowd. They seemed to appear on a thunderclap, both were green, and had decent realism other than the color and being made of firework sparkles. The drumming was suddenly joined by horns as rain gently fell on skin. Except the world was totally dry. It was just the sensation of it, fed to the brain directly. This died suddenly and was replaced with a low tingle that Tor figured would probably have had him lynched in Two Bends, but might go over with a crowd of rowdy drunks that often turned sex into a public sport. The tingle became pleasure, and in about a minute the pleasure grew so intense that people were shaking a little. Even Bonita who grasped his arm tightly went breathless for a bit. It felt good to him, but not that intense… Were some people just more sensitive than others then?
Good to know. He'd have to build in a way to control the intensity of sensation to Trice’s arm. Just in case she wasn't as jaded that way as he was or something. Then, as the pleasure peeked, the sky exploded in ten different colors, booms loud enough to echo in their chests.
No one moved for a while, ten seconds, more than that.
Then people cheered. It was so overwhelming that Tor nearly slapped his shield again, but didn't because just then Bonita spilled her drink on him clumsily so that it soaked his shirt and part of his lap. She looked worried, but it was a mock thing, not real. She'd done it on purpose? Why?
She started brushing at him wildly, paying most of her attention to his lap, of course most of the bright red drink had gone into his shirt. He almost told her not to worry about it when she pulled him up and over towards the pools, heading towards the stone stairs that would take them up into his temporary house. Checking her thoughts, it was clear she still had no clue who he was… so they were sneaking in? Almost naughty. She wasn't drunk, but she still had to stifle giggle when they got inside and shut the door holding it behind her.
“This way! There have to be rooms, right? Unless wizards don't sleep. I've heard rumors about Master Tor staying up for weeks working. Can you imagine that? This is nicer than I thought it would be… Tor must actually have taste.” Up the second set of stone stairs, hard under his feet, there was a polished cherry wood door with brass fixtures.
She opened it slowly. It was silent, making only the softest wave of air to indicate anything really happened at all.
“Hello? Anyone in here? Hello? Don't blast us please?” She still sounded shy but wasn't acting it any more. No, her actions were almost bold. Breaking into a wizard’s house to do who knew what? Who did that?
They did, apparently.
The light sigil glowed on the wall next to the door, but she didn't try for it, instead she felt around for something soft and found the bed, which wasn't hard to do, since he'd made it huge, just in case a friend came over. That had been the hope at least. And here they were… He'd figured on guilty sex with Sara, taking advantage of the fact that as a spy she'd want to get close to him. Maybe even Sorlee. She worked as a whore, so it wouldn't hurt her emotionally, but it would curl Terlee's totally straight hair a little. Especially if he did some of the things that Petra and Collette had been doing with him.
Bonita wanted sex, and wasn't nearly as practiced as the other women he'd been with about the whole idea. She was sweet, gentle and willing to try almost anything though. So Tor kissed down her stomach, just the finest hint of hair tickled his lips. Then he slowly moved lower. He wasn't an expert at this, but Ursala had said he was doing pretty well in practice and Bonita responded as if pleased. Very much so. After that she wanted to try several other things, all of them fun, but things that didn't push into any new territories for him personally, so he could focus on doing a good job rather than worry that he was doing it right or not hurting her.
What she really wanted though was to be held and told she was pretty, that she had lovely eyes, which she did, even in the near pitch black of the room, and that she was just as good as anyone else. She said all this shyly, but straight out, and with a pure honesty that touched him deep inside.
“As good? Seriously? Better. Anybody doubting that can expect to have an argument from me for sure. You are truly wonderful and brilliant.” He said with confidence. It was easy enough to do, being true.
They fell asleep holding each other with him whispering sweet things to her, which seemed to make her happy. She was cuddly and clung to him like she didn't want to let go. That was all right, he didn't really want to either, so it worked out for both of them, didn't it?
In the morning, sunlight coming through the window, but early still, well before breakfast, he woke. Alone. He felt a little sad at first, wondering if he'd done something wrong. She'd seemed happy enough… Then he saw a pile of coins on the table, near his side of the bed. Two and a half gold. Was she worried about his shirt and pants? This would probably buy ten sets of those or more. Twenty maybe. Plus it was magic clothing anyway, so it would be perfect when he put it back on.
Then, still groggy, he got the idea.
He was a whore.
She'd thought she was paying him to do those things? And apparently Tor had done well enough that she'd paid about five times too much. Maybe ten? That worried him. True, maybe she was paying him to go away and not
