Month 1 Week 1

The Matriarchy – The Matriarchal Palace

“You give me no choice Daralei.” The Matriarch sighed wearily and futilely tried to rub away the pain between her eyebrows. She should have known her troublesome grandson would have given rise to a daughter that was such a handful.

Unfortunately, the little weasel Vincent had already had his boys club running their rumor mill full tilt weeks before the old woman had gotten wind of it. He must have been planning this ambush for a while and had run damage control beforehand. That was why she needed to have this meeting in the Grand Gallery where members of the council could watch over the conversation. Damn the man.

“I’m going to have to have you detained while the circumstances of this offense are investigated officially by the Magi, to determine if you are indeed part Necromancer.”

Her great-granddaughter spluttered ineloquently as Larel gestured for her guards to take the girl into custody, and Larel could only just suppress her frustrated smile at the girl’s utter astonishment. “But heattacked me!” It was all the poor child could think to say. And the Gods above knew it was the truth, as well as Matriarch Larel did, but there was only so much she could do without revealing the truth about Dara’s heritage to the rest of the Great Houses.

They’d have a civil war on their hands if the other families knew that the Freyan Dynasty had managed to maintain its throne for centuries through the judicious breeding of magic into the line from the Priestess Isles and other lesser beloved sources. Poor Daralei was a product of one of those lesser beloved sources and would burn as a Witch just as surely as if she were a Necromancer if it ever came out.

None of Larel’s own daughters had much of the gift, not like Larel herself. But then Neil had married that young bewitching creature and produced Dara. Larel could still remember the light in his eyes as he had presented his wife to her. A creature of such potent magic that Larel’s imagination had been overwhelmed with visions of the greatness her blood would bring to the Freyan line. With a sigh, the Matriarch once again sadly regretted the fact that the child was automatically removed from the line of succession just because she was not a direct female descendant.

“Yet he is the only one who has sustained any harm.” No matter how much she wanted to, Matriarch knew that she couldn’t show any compassion to her great-granddaughter. When the Magi found her to not be at fault, it couldn’t appear as if the Matriarch had had any hand in it.

Though the girl’s own grandmother, Clarisse should have been there to support her the woman was nowhere to be seen. Larel would have snorted at the uselessness of her own flesh and blood if it were something that a Matriarch could get away with doing without seeming weak. She was glad she had removed Clarisse from the succession. Attricia, Clarisse’ daughter, might be removed soon also if she didn’t divorce that revolutionary civilly disobedient attempted rapist husband of hers.

“You will remain in isolation until a Magi has deemed whether or not these allegations of Nefhilim magic to be true or false. If they are true, the Magi will deal with you accordingly. If they are false, you are to be banished from the lands of the Matriarchy for your crime of twice trying to seduce married men.”

The Matriarchy – Compound of House Feggotti

“But Precious. You know I would never do anything to betray you.” Vincent wheedled in that submissive way that he knew his mistress Covina Feggotti liked. The ignorant bitch was so easy to manipulate. Her hatred of House Freyan ran so deep that the woman reveled in her affair with the husband of a Freyan woman. She thought she had seduced Vincent and was using him to screw over the rivals of House Feggotti when in reality Vincent was using her to bring down all-female power in the Matriarchy. Vincent had big dreams, dreams of a Kingdom, ruled by a King where women served men instead of the other way around.

“She says you attacked her.” Covina harrumphed and turned her back to him but didn’t pull away when he placed his hands on her shoulders and rubbed her upper arms.

“How could I ever want a creature like that when I am blessed with the most beautiful woman in my arms right now.” He brushed a little string of kisses along her neck and up to her ear and he felt Covina relax under his affections. “Besides, you wanted me to befriend her, to find out if the rumors of her treasure are real…” The recalcitrant woman stiffened under his hands as he reminded her of that fact.

“So, you are saying this is my fault?” The snap was back in her voice and this time she did pull away from him.

“I would never say such a thing my daraling.” The ambitious man drew the word out in much the same way he said Daralei’s name. Even if I do believe it to be your fault. “I was just pointing out that you wanted me to befriend her. I tried, but she became enraged with jealousy when I wouldn’t be more than friends with her. I’m afraid that she wouldn’t be willing to share the location of her mother’s treasure with anyone except her lover so unless you wanted to share me with yet another woman…” It was a risky ploy, but Vincent knew that Covina wasn’t going to want to share her toy with any more women than she absolutely had to. Maybe just a little bit more pleading… “Please Daraling.”

“Oh, you’re right.” Covina turned back to him with a smile. “I should have had someone seduce her for the information instead of asking you to try to befriend her. I forgive you for not being able to get the information. And I’m sorry that you were in danger from that horrid creature.” So easy. Trying not to smile too largely, Vincent let himself be folded into his mistress’s embrace, kissing her passionately before pushing her back toward her bed.

“Oh, Daraling. My Daraling”. He cooed over and over between frantic kisses. In a few moments, when he was thrusting between her thighs and Covina was too distracted to notice, he would change the word to Daralei and pretend he was revenge fucking that little twat that rejected him as hard as he possibly could.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” His mistress gasped as he shoved his tongue into her ear. Whatever it was could wait in Vincent’s opinion, but the woman would not be deterred. “We…slow down a bit…we have an opening with the trade houses, there were several outgoing shipments that I was able to divert. We’re making a large profit off our accounting discrepancies with the Freyan bookkeeping alterations. And the trade representatives from the Freeman Sovereignty are looking to speak with House Feggotti directly now.

“Excellent, Daraling.” Vincent’s day had gotten a whole lot better since his testimony before the Matriarch. “Very excellent.”

Inheritance

Twisted Webs