Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 169943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 850(@200wpm)___ 680(@250wpm)___ 566(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 850(@200wpm)___ 680(@250wpm)___ 566(@300wpm)
It’s hard to trust again after so long.
But Aspeth’s presence makes this better than most fledgling trainings. After I checked everything thoroughly for spiders, I returned to the tent to find Aspeth still awake. We talked when we should have been resting. Just lay on our sides and discussed everything and nothing. It was…nice. Real nice. Nice to have someone I can talk to and who sees the situation for what it is. Nice to have an equal who isn’t a staggering drunk. I might be Aspeth’s teacher, but it’s clear after a few hours of conversation that she could teach me a lot about Old Prell, and I enjoy her intelligence.
I actually look forward to our next rest period in the tent.
Once the training is done for the night and Magpie is sweaty and pale with fatigue, I tap Aspeth on the shoulder. “Time for bed.”
“Oooooooh,” Lark coos, because she’s ridiculous. At her side, Mereden giggles behind her hand.
“You all need to get some rest,” I tell them sternly. My cock is reacting to the Conquest Moon—and to Aspeth’s nearness—and by the time we get into the tent, I’m rock-hard and aching. Not that I’d rut my soft little wife here in the woods. But bury me, I sure do think about it.
We undress in silence, and then Aspeth lets out a sigh of pleasure, scratching at the chemise she wears under her corset. “Gods, that feels good.”
I grunt, adjusting my cock surreptitiously. “Get some sleep.”
But my wife never listens to anything I say. I can’t decide if I find it amusing or irritating, but I’m leaning toward amusing. She lies atop the blankets again, her nipples poking against the fabric of her chemise, and stifles a yawn as she gazes up at me. “No sleep. This is our get-to-know-each-other time and I plan on taking full advantage of it. What’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever found in the Everbelow?”
Her question makes me chuckle, because of course Aspeth wants to know all about the job. “You mean the most expensive thing? The most powerful?”
She turns on her side and tucks her arm under her head again, gazing at me as I lie down. “No, I mean the most beautiful. Old Prell was full of all kinds of beautiful works, and not just magical ones. I’ve seen drawings of Prellian frescoes that would put modern artists to shame. I’ve read about glorious architecture. I can’t wait to see it all. I was just curious what you’d seen. It doesn’t have to be an artifact.” Her eyes gleam with a dreamy expression. “I wish I could have seen Prell in its height of power. I bet it was splendid.”
“It also fell into the ground at its height of power. You wouldn’t want to be around for that.”
Aspeth bats at my arm, chuckling. “Don’t ruin my dreams.”
I consider her words, lying on my back and gazing up at the ceiling of the tent, a blanket strategically placed over my cock. Her hand remains on my arm, touch lingering, and it’s making my erection remain as hard and aching as ever. “I used to go in the tunnels all the time when I first joined the guild. I do it less now—or rather, I do it for artifacts less now. I end up on more retrieval missions than anything. But I remember that I found a mirror once, and it made me stop in my tracks.”
“A mirror,” she breathes. “How incredible. Was it broken?”
I shake my head. “It was wrapped in fabric in a tunnel, just wedged in some rocks near an old cave-in. Perhaps a thief tried to steal it and decided not to bother and left it behind, but when I found it, there was nothing else around. No ruins, no other artifacts, just that solitary wrapped mirror.” Holding my hands in the air, I try to shape it with my fingers. “It was about the size of a platter, and as clear as day. All around the edges the metal was worked so delicately that it looked like vines covered in flowers, and every flower was a different size and shade. Every leaf, every petal, all of it was made from colored gemstones. A few of them had chipped and cracked but it was still gorgeous.”
“How beautiful. Was it magical?”
“That’s the ironic part.” I chuckle at the memory. “The only thing the mirror did was make your hair seem a dark, rich black in the reflection. Got rid of the grays. And if your hair wasn’t black, it adjusted your reflection. Useless.”
“Someone was sensitive about his hair, then,” Aspeth replies with a soft smile. “How funny that they were a people who imbued magic into everything they owned and we’re a people with no magic at all.”
“That’s because all the mancers went crazy three hundred years ago. Better to not have magic. At least with a magic mirror, you can put the mirror away.”