stairway made of force walls and collected a few hundred pounds of ice. It
would take a while to melt, but that gave me time to run a pipe down the
central column with an outlet in the second-floor room where Avilla had set up
her kitchen.
She gave me a brilliant smile when I showed her the water tap.
“That’s amazing, Daniel! Did you think of this just for me?”
I shrugged. “It’s a common setup back home. Besides, it’s entirely selfish.
A smart man keeps the cook happy, after all.”
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“Oh, you!” She giggled happily. “Thank you. Um, I told Captain Rain our
guard detail could set up in the room with the door, downstairs. Is that alright?
I was thinking we’d sleep in the room next to the kitchen, here.”
“That’s fine,” I agreed. “I’ve got a little surprise planned for the back
room on the bottom floor, unless you need it for something?”
She shook her head. “No, not really. With no windows it’s too dark in
there for anything but storage, and you said we won’t be here long. That
reminds me, dinner will be ready soon.”
“Alright, let me just finish up here.”
I ran the pipe down another floor, and split it to provide water for a crude
shower and a large bathtub. Drains were easy, since I could just shape the
stone to form small pipes leading outside. They were only a couple of inches
across, but I put in nice thick stone grates just to make sure we wouldn’t get
snake monsters crawling in through them or something. Then I washed my
hands, and headed upstairs for dinner.
It was a pasta dish this time, with a nice cream sauce and side of steamed
vegetables. I wasn’t going to ask how Avilla had managed that with nothing but
a magic hot plate and the utensils in her backpack. Tina went on for a bit about
what an amazing cook Avilla was, while Beri was more subdued.
“My uncle offered to arrange a marriage for me,” she explained when I
asked if something was wrong. “Apparently one of the Baron’s knights is
looking for a young wife, and they know each other. I wasn’t sure what to tell
him.”
“We’ll discuss it,” Avilla put in before I could reply. “He isn’t pushing
for an immediate ceremony, is he?”
Beri shook her head. “No, I explained the situation. But the offer won’t be
good for long. I don’t mean to presume, Miss Avilla.”
“We’ll discuss it,” she repeated. “So, Daniel, I believe you said
something about another surprise? Maybe we could have a look while the girls
clean up here?”
“Sure.”
Whatever Avilla actually wanted to get me alone for, the bath completely
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derailed her train of thought.
“The water’s warm!” She exclaimed, holding a hand under the stream
from the shower. “And, you just turn the knob and wait for the tub to fill? No
carrying buckets of water back and forth? Marry me, Daniel!”
“The tub’s big enough to share,” Cerise observed eagerly. “Start it filling,
and I’ll go fetch towels and a change of clothes.”
“Shower first,” I told her. “The idea is you get clean there, and then you
can soak in the tub for as long as you want.”
“What a wonderful idea,” Avilla enthused. “Alright, we can have our
discussion in the bath. Just close the door when you get back, Cerise, and ask
Tina to make sure no one tries to listen at it. That girl’s too honest to hide
anything.”
“Discussion?” I asked.
“Please. What do you think of the maids so far?”
“Ah. Tina reminds me of a lost puppy, to be honest. Desperate to please,
but doesn’t know what to do. Beri is smarter, which might make her more
useful, but she’s already looking for angles to play.”
“That’s more or less what I thought,” Avilla replied. “I’m not sure about
Beri yet, but I think we should keep Tina. She’s a hard worker, and I think
she’ll be very loyal. A little insecure, but she’ll get over that with time. Is she
pretty enough for your taste?”
I raised an eyebrow. “That’s not exactly a requirement, is it?”
Avilla looked at me blankly for a moment, and shook her head. “Your
land must be a very strange place, Daniel. Do I really need to explain this?”
I sighed, and sat on the edge of the tub. “No, I get it. I just don’t know that
I want to do things that way. Back home it’s actually against the law to hire a
woman because she’s decorative, let alone tell her that sleeping with you is
part of the job.”
“That’s nuts,” Cerise interjected from the doorway. “What, do you have a
really ugly queen who’s trying to get revenge on all the pretty girls?”
She set a bundle of cloth down on the floor, and pulled the door shut with
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a thump. The room was plunged into twilight, lit only by the candle-sized
magic flames I’d set in fixtures on the walls.
“It’s a republic, actually. Everyone over eighteen gets to vote on who
represents their district, and the council of representatives makes all the laws.
There’s also a president who commands the military when we’re at war, but
he’s elected by popular vote too.
“Weird.” Cerise made a face. She slipped her dress off, and stepped into
the shower.
I shrugged. “My ancestors were obsessed with preventing tyranny. It
worked pretty well on that front for the first century or so, though lately it
seems like we’ve just discovered how to create one where no one is in
charge.”
“That’s interesting,” Avilla said. “But how does republican government
lead to oppressing pretty girls?”
“Oppressing? Wow, talk about culture clash. It’s supposed to be about
keeping them from being oppressed, actually. Why should a woman have to
sleep with her boss to get a job?”
“Who else would she want?” Avilla asked seriously. “A woman in that
position obviously doesn’t have a husband to care for her, so who better than
the man who has authority over her?”
“Not to mention that every girl knows a guy who’s fucking you will treat
you better than one who isn’t,” Cerise put in. “There’s nothing like a good
blowjob to make sure the boss is happy with you.”
I shook my head. “Women really think that way here? What if they’ve got
someone they like, or they’re just trying to get by?”
Cerise stepped out of the shower, and Avilla took her place.
“How would that even happen?” The dark-haired witch asked curiously.
“I mean, if you’ve got a husband lined up and something happened to your
family you’d go live with him, right? If you’re a widow or can’t find a husband
you’d probably end up being a whore, or maybe a nanny or a seamstress if
you’re really lucky. The only way a girl could end up working for a guy is if
she’s his servant, and that’s a lifetime deal unless you screw it up.”
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I thought about that for a minute. In a medieval economy there isn’t much
of a job market, and without modern technology most of the jobs that did exist
would involve a lot of heavy manual labor. In a world without affirmative
action laws no one would hire a woman for something like that. Besides, this
was the kind of society where most women went straight from their parent’s
house to their husband’s, and never needed to support themselves.
There were bound to be exceptions, and it would suck to be one of them.