home intro one two three four five six seven eight nine 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 appendix
At the door to the North Tower she was stopped by a guard.
"Jackov has a new device. I wish to see it." the Baron said for her.
The guard thought about her statement for a moment, looked at her dressed in her robe, suppressed a leer, and let her by.
"What was the peculiar expression on his face?" Cecila wondered to herself. The Baron chose not to explain.
Cecilia climbed the narrow stairway that circled up the tower. As she reached the first landing, she looked at the door and thought, "This door is new." The Baron's hackles went up immediately, and he stopped Cecilia from walking so quickly that she nearly fell.
"WHAT?" she thought, "How did you do that, and why?" There was great concern in her thoughts. She had not realized how thoroughly the Baron controlled her.
The Baron had Cecila breath deeply a few times -- as if she was out of breath -- to cover the stumble he caused. He ached to get out of her body and look the world over ethereally, but he felt sure he would be discovered if he did.
Instead he thought to Cecila, "If that door is new, it's part of a new guard system. It doesn't know you, yet, so let me talk to it. That way it will learn to think that the 'we' we are now is 'you', and we can approach it in the future.
The Baron walked Cecilia's body up to the door, and stopped to admire it. It was covered with ornate bas-relief consisting mostly of demon- and monster heads. "Aren't you the fancy one!" The baron had Cecilia mutter. Then he had her try the door handle. It did not budge, but one of the faces animated and asked, "How may I help you, My Lady?"
Cecilia started, and the Baron let this motion happen -- she had not thought fully through the implications of the new door, so it surprised her when it talked.
"I am Lady Cecilia, Jackov's sister, you can help me by letting me pass." said the Baron confidently.
The door did not answer immediately; the Baron felt it doing some eldritch "sniffing"; he held his ground. Finally, the door answered, "That I will do, my lady, but Master Jackov asked me to give you a message, first. He says he would like to see you, first, in his chambers at the top."
"All right, I'll go see him. But I left something of mine in the room, here. Will you open so I can get it?" the Baron asked.
"I'm sorry, my lady."
The Baron rolled Cecilia's eyes and had her huff off up the stairs.
"This is not how I would have handled that." thought Cecila with a growl.
"I didn't think it would be." thought the Baron back, "But now the door ward thinks that our combination is you, and that could be very useful over the next few minutes."
There were two more doors, and door wards, on the way to Jackov's chambers at the top of the tower. The Baron took the time to train them both. As they walked up the last staircase the Baron thought, "Your brother is for you to deal with." and he retreated deeply into her.
"Thanks for nothing!" she thought back.
All through the valley, and since the Baron's youth, there were rumors of the strange ways of the Kalnichov families, and the Stienhortzes where the symbols of that strangeness. The door opened at Cecilia's approach and Jackov met her at the doorway.
He pulled her into his arms, slid his arms around her, brought her lips to his, and slid his arms up and down from rump to neck as he kissed her. Cecilia warmed up to him instantly; her back arched has her arms slid under his, and her pelvis was pressing into his as their lips touched. Her breathing quickened at her brother's touch, and the Baron himself was rouging up at the passion she felt from Jackov's embrace. And she thought this man was insufferable? What did she feel when she was in Gregory's arms? He wondered. He was about to think to her, "You Stienhortzes sure live up to your reputation." but then he remembered where he was.
The strangeness did not end there. After a minute of this, Jackov maneuvered her to a wall. There he pulled down straps, and pulled her arms up behind her until they were at her shoulder blades. With unnerving speed he tied her arms behind her, slapped a collar around her neck, and strapped her wrists to the collar -- she was totally in his power. Not just Cecilia, there was a charm on the collar designed to keep the wearer from going out-of-body while the collar was being worn. It would only be with great effort that the Baron could leave Cecilia while she was wearing that collar! Cecilia was quite relaxed.
Finally, Jackov got conversational, "It's been too long since you were here! What can I do for you, my sister?"
The warm glow Cecilia was feeling was genuine, she did not respond quickly. "Rumor has it that you have something new in the tower. I came to see what it is."
"Ah! Then you met my new door. Was it polite? I'm still training it." he said.
"I did!" she said, "Where did you get that?" She sounded like she was asking him about a new, exotic pet, which was just the right tone. Inwardly, the Baron breathed a sigh of relief that he had given Cecilia control. There was no way he could have imitated what they had just been through!
"Well, part of it is my design." said Jackov proudly, "but it's built around new equipment that we've brought in for this siege." and he frowned. "This is so scary, Cecilia! The forces we face out there are so different from anything we've faced before..." Up until now Jackov had not stopped fondling Cecilia. Now he stopped and walked over to a window to look out.
"We've had to make such sacrifices! How could they get to Gregory!" he beat his fist against the window pane.
"I know, dear. It's so terrible. What new equipment have you brought in?"
Jackov looked back at her strangely. "You've never been interested in 'things' in the past. Why are you interested now?"
She walked up beside him and looked out the window, she was pressing lightly against him. "I'm scared, and I want to help." she turned and looked into his eyes.
He looked back... deeply... then laughed. "All right! Let me show you what we have. You'll need some proper clothes. Meet me at the first floor room in ten minutes." He pulled off the straps and collar. Cecila kissed him lightly, then hurried back to her room.
home intro one two three four five six seven eight nine 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 appendix