Delivered by the Defender (Kindred Tales)

“That is sad,” Selena murmured, though honestly she wondered how much the self-absorbed Emperor could care for anyone besides himself.

“Now then—you’ve soaked a bit—shall I activate the cleansing blooms?” Pashmeena asked.

“Uh…activate them?”

Selena looked at the honeysuckle type flowers that surrounded the rim of the tub. They had large, waxy white blossoms but on closer inspection she saw that they didn’t seem to have any of the long thin things tipped with pollen inside them. What were those called? Pistils? Stamens? Something like that. Anyway, these flowers had a kind of long, red structure in the center of their blossoms instead, which looked almost like a tongue.

“How do you activate them?” she asked.

“Oh, it’s easy, little Mistress—like this.” Pashmeena scooped up some of the water from the bath and sprinkled it over the blossoms nearest to her.

At once, the waxy white blossoms started moving. Not just nodding in the breeze, as they had been earlier but actually moving, Selena saw, with some apprehension. In short order, her anxiety increased because the blossoms were moving towards her.

“Hey!” she exclaimed, when the first bunch of white, waxy blooms reached her arm and latched onto it like a lot of hungry little mouths. “Hey, what are they doing? Are they going to bite me?”

She tried to yank her arm away from the hungry blossoms, but Pashmeena stopped her with a stern look.

“Now, don’t you go hurting those cleansing blooms, my lady!” she scolded. “They’re expensive and delicate, so they are! I tend them every day when I come in to water the tickle grass.”

“But what are they doing to me?” Selena looked at her arm, which was now covered in white blooms, apprehensively.

“Why, cleaning you, of course, little Mistress! Can’t you feel their little tongues a’working?” Pashmeena exclaimed.

As a matter of fact, when she concentrated, Selena could feel it. It felt like a million tiny cat tongues—a light, abrasive sensation that wasn’t painful at all—though it did feel extremely strange.

“The cleansing blooms will get you good and clean from head to foot,” Pashmeena told her. “Just activate them section by section—or all at once, if you like. It depends on how long you want to spend in the bath.”

“Oh, uh, okay.” Selena nodded hesitantly. “Thank you.”

“You’re quite welcome, my lady. Here—I’ll activate a few more for you.”

And before Selena could protest, Pashmeena had sprinkled bath water on a lot more of the cleansing blooms, which came to life and began trailing towards Selena on their long, snaky, green vines.

To distract herself from the weirdness of being licked clean by living flowers, Selena began to talk.

“Um, so this is a beautiful room,” she said. “Is this where all the women that Valen, er, Master Valen, brings home, stay?”

“All the women?” The Ma’shorkan housemaid gave her a frown. “What women would those be, little Mistress?”

“Well, I mean, I just assumed…” Selena coughed. “I mean, he said something about…about blood donors…”

“We don’t talk about the Master’s biting habits,” Pashmeena said primly. “But suffice it to say, he never brings home any of the females he drinks from. In fact, he never brings any females home at all. Which was why I was so surprised when your things came to the house. I’ve never seen the Master take a Dependent Female on—never thought I would, either.” She shook her head sadly. “He just buries himself in his work, does the Master. And never has time for anything else.”

“Is he a workaholic, then? I mean, does he love his work so much he doesn’t want to have anything to do with finding a wife and settling down to have children?” Selena asked, with interest.

“Well, I do think he enjoys his work—he’s certainly very good at it. Whenever any of the nobles gets into trouble, he’s the one they call—knows our laws inside and out, don’t you know.” Pashmeena pursed her lips thoughtfully. “But the Master doesn’t strike me as a man who only loves his work. In fact, I’ve thought for a long time that he’s lonely.”

“Lonely?” Selena’s heart started beating harder. “He, er, told me that he’d made a vow never to call a bride,” she said, hoping she wasn’t revealing too much.

Pashmeena only nodded.

“Oh, aye, that’s not surprising,” she said. “And if he’s made a vow, you can be sure he won’t break it. The Master’s a man of his word, he is.”

“But…why would he make a vow like that in the first place?” Selena probed. “I mean, what do you think made him do it?”

“Well…I don’t know for sure, but it’s my opinion his heart was broke,” Pashmeena remarked. “Though I don’t know by who. But a man as proud as Master Valen is, would decide that females aren’t worth the trouble after that.” She looked at Selena sharply. “Which is why I was so surprised when he brought you home, little Mistress.”