Worlds Apart Part 58a
Neisk felt both invigorated and exhausted at the same time. He had relished the time in Finne’s arms. He held on until the Chef had to push him away explaining ‘dinner was not going to fix itself’.
On his way to the guest rooms he opened a channel and told Oriel he was coming. Oriel politely encouraged him to come in without knocking. Neisk did just that and was surprised to see Oriel and Gorlyn on either side of the low table in the middle of the room stacking cards to make a castle. Gorlyn however stopped and turned around quickly. Already on his knees, he bent forward placed his hands on the floor and lowered his head. For a brief moment Neisk caught a guilty look on Gorlyn’s face.
“Forgive me master for not greeting you at the door. I didn’t hear you come in.” Gorlyn’s tone was completely emotionless. The other man must have been concentrating really hard on the card stacking if he didn’t hear Neisk come in.
I think he is going to ask you to punish him next. Oriel’s voice carried through the channel he left open. At least that is what he did with me earlier after bowing like that.
Did you punish him? Neisk asked. Although he knew the answer would be no he still felt anger rising up in him at the thought of someone punishing Gorlyn.
No! Oriel answered. It was the first time since he met the boy that Oriel ever raised his mental voice to him. It made him smile.
Good, tell me all about what brought this on over dinner will you? Neisk asked.
Of course your grace. Oriel answered.
The exchange took less than a minute and all the while Neisk kept his eyes on Gorlyn studying his body language. “You are certainly forgiven Gorlyn. However you do not need it. You need only greet someone at the door if they knock. I already had Oriel’s permission to come inside.”
“As you say, master.” Gorlyn responded. He did not however move from his prostrate position.
“Stand up.” Neisk ordered firmly, realizing Gorlyn was going to stay like that until told otherwise. He was watching Gorlyn get up when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Looking up farther he noticed Oriel standing up as well. He must have sounded more commanding than he meant to.
He found he couldn’t take his eyes off Oriel.
“Oriel you look....” Neisk paused, the correct word escaped him. Grown up? Sophisticated? Mature? He rejected all the words racing in his mind. While Oriel did look all those things there was something more. Finally Neisk realized what it was and blurted it out. “Attractive.”
Oriel blushed bright enough to appear sunburnt. “Thank you, your grace” he responded shyly. “Gorlyn picked out my clothes.”
“Did he?.” Neisk turned to face Gorlyn, who stood with his hands clasped firmly behind him. It was the standard position of a valet waiting to be of service. However instead of the rigid posture Johar and all the others held, Gorlyn’s head was slightly lowered and his shoulders hunched. “You did a wonderful job Gorlyn.” He said gently placing a hand on Gorlyn’s shoulder. Neisk couldn’t help but smile when Gorlyn didn’t flinch at his touch.
“You really like it your grace?” Oriel asked bring Neisk’s focus back to the younger man.
“Yes. Give me a turn and let me see all of it.” Neisk made a twirling motion with his fingers. The boy was so eager for his approval he made a mental note to work more on building Oriel’s self esteem.
Oriel did as told and turned around slowly so Neisk could look at his clothing from all sides. When the boy stopped to face him looking slightly excited Neisk smiled back at him.
“There is just one problem.” Neisk commented grinning at Oriel.
“What problem would that be, your grace?” To his credit Oriel appeared completely serious except the slight twinkle in his eyes.
“I am now completely under dressed to join you for dinner.” Neisk gave a heavy sigh of regret.
“Oh dear would you like me to change, your grace?” Oriel asked and it was hard for Neisk to tell if the boy was still playing along or seriously offering.
“No no this look is just too good to waste. It deserves a night to shine. Even if that night is just dinner with me.” Neisk pretended to muse. “I will tell Finne to expect a short delay and I will go change. You don’t mind waiting a bit longer for dinner do you?”
“Not at all your grace.” Oriel answered.
“It is settled then.” Neisk let his hand fall from Gorlyn’s shoulder. “We will see you at dinner then Oriel. Come Gorlyn let us see if you can do for me what you did for my friend.” Truthfully the last thing Neisk wanted to do was change clothes but he thought perhaps this demonstration would boost the confidence of both Oriel and Gorlyn.
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Gorlyn followed his master full of trepidation. He should have seen the trap. Of course his master wouldn’t send him off to serve someone else until after he had seen to his master. The only reason would be to trap Gorlyn so he could punish him. Trainer Leisa was fond of these traps she would order him to do something that he shouldn’t do, he would of course do it and then get beaten for it. These kinds of traps never made sense to him since she could and often did beat him just for the fun of it. He finally decided that she must have enjoyed watching him fail as much as beating him.
However these kind of traps did not seem like something his master would do. Experience proved that you should never assume to know what a master or mistress would do. His instincts told him the same thing, however those same instincts had changed. Since he met his master they slowly changed to trust whenever his master was involved.
The confusion of conflicting thoughts and emotions started to overwhelm him so he stopped them. He shut out all thoughts and emotions. This wasn’t the time for them anyway. This was the time to submit to what may come. Gorlyn was thankful for the earlier chore of arranging his master’s closet. Having every article of clothing his master owned in his recent memory was a blessing for he hadn’t time to memorize it yet. It made it possible, in the time it took to walk to his master’s suite, to have several outfits planned that would be formal enough to match Oriel-ashe’s as well as complement Oriel-ashe’s in coloring.
When they reached the bedroom his master turned and as soon as Gorlyn had his attention he dropped to standard grovelling position Leisa had taught him. “Forgive me master for failing you.”
“Failing me?” His master asked sounding genuinely confused. “How did you fail me?”
Gorlyn didn’t question if his master was truly confused or playing dumb for some nefarious reason, instead he took the question as an order, his training told him to respond with ‘recite your transgressions’. “I should have seen to your needs before I took care of Oriel-ashe. I should have known you did not want to dress so formally for dinner and dressed Oriel-ashe appropriately.” Then he waited to hear his punishment.
This time the thoughts came despite his attempt to keep them out. Will he take the time now to punish me? Or will he wait until after dinner? Will he give me a small punishment now and then the rest later? If punishing me makes Finne-ashe and Oriel-ashe to wait will they be given the opportunity to punish me as well? If they refuse because the are my ‘friends’ will my master punish me on their behalf later? He knew the answer should be all of the above but he hadn’t a clue what would actually happen so he waited.
“I still do not underst.....wait now I do. Your valet training. Johar trained you to always see to your Lord first before any of his guests, is that right?” His master asked.
Since they left Oriel-ashe’s rooms, Gorlyn had completely forgotten he was supposed to be a valet. Well not completely he did mentally pick out clothing for his master in the Yndsian formal style Johar-ashe had taught him, just not the colors Johar-ashe taught him. However the question was not did he remember his training but did Johar-ashe teach him what his master asked. So perhaps it wasn’t relevant. Either way the answer was the same. “Yes, master.”
“Well you are also my slave are you not?” His master asked.
That was an easy question. “Yes, master.” Gorlyn answered.
“Then does not your training tell you that my orders are first and foremost?” His master asked.
“Yes, master.” It seemed to be all Gorlyn could say. In truth it was all he wanted to say, yes or no questions were the safest.
“Then my ordering you to tend to Oriel is more important than changing my clothing. So you did not fail me there instead you excelled.” His master explained in what had to be his version of a lecture voice, although it felt more comforting than lecturing. “Now as to your second failure, did I tell you how to dress Oriel for dinner?”
“No, master.” Gorlyn answered the question as his brain tried to wrap around his master’s explanation. It was so very logically sound but logic was not something Gorlyn was used to when it came to his failures.
“Did Oriel tell you what to dress him in?” His master asked. There was a slight waver in his master’s voice.
“No, master. He told me to pick something that would please you.” Gorlyn felt himself start to shake. It wasn’t a trap, but a true failure, his master knew what Oriel-ashe had ordered, they spoke in their minds all the time. Gorlyn had chosen to dress Oriel-ashe in formal attire and his master was not pleased to have to change his clothing. His master didn’t want to wear formal attire to dinner and was now going to have to change clothing to save face.
“Now I understand. You think the choice you made for Oriel’s clothing displeased me because I said it was a problem that he was dressed better than me.” His master spoke and Gorlyn was not sure if there was a question addressed to him or if his master was thinking out loud. Since none of it sounded like a question Gorlyn remained silent. After a few small moments of silence his master finally asked him a question. “Did you not hear me when I said you did a wonderful job?”
“I heard you master.” Gorlyn felt his heart sink. This was most definitely the trap. His master had complimented and criticized his work and no matter which one Gorlyn chose to accept he would be wrong.
“I understand now.” His master was quiet for several moments. “Gorlyn you are not in any trouble for anything you have done today and I am not going to punish you. However you and I need to talk about all of this and now is not the time.”
Gorlyn couldn’t think of anything to say and since he was not asked a question he banked on his master not really requiring him to respond. After a few moments of silence his master spoke again.
“Let us make this clothing change a quick one.” His master broke the silence. “You go and pick out something for me to wear and I will strip down to my under clothes. Then you can dress me and we can make our way to dinner.” It was half order, half plan making.
“Yes, master.” Gorlyn answered. The looming dread of what their after dinner talk would be was pushed to the back of Gorlyn’s mind. Instead he put all his attention to choosing just one of the outfits he had planned on the way to his master’s rooms.
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Neisk tried not to think of what he would say to Gorlyn later. He wanted to plan out a good negotiation strategy, it was habit. What he really needed to do was to just listen to Gorlyn and plan his responses as they happened. He did have a compromise for his needs and wants. Instead of planning his future conversation he would do research to prepare. His form of research would be in getting Oriel’s view of the events in Oriel’s room. He opened a channel of communication with Oriel’s mind.
Tell me about what led up to Gorlyn asking you to punish him and how you handled it. Neisk spoke.
Of course, your grace. He asked if he should set out some clothes for me while I was drying off by the shower. Oriel began. He then told the whole story. Mental images came with the story and Neisk was uncertain if they were intentional or not.
And then you two just built a card castle? Neisk asked after Oriel had finished. He had a much better picture now than from Gorlyn’s short answers.
Not at first, your grace. I tried to teach him some card games. Oriel explained. The first few involved betting although we did not actually bet anything but all Gorlyn would do was fold. When I asked him about it he told me he would never presume to claim his hand was better than mine. Oriel gave a mental sigh. Then I played a few non-betting games but I noticed rather quickly he was going out of his way to insure that I won each one. I can tell you it is not fun to win like that.
No I image it is not. Neisk gave a mental chuckle. While they were having a mental conversation they also carried on a senseless verbal conversation. One of several they had memorized and rehearsed so they would not appear to be just sitting and staring at each other. So you settled on building a castle.
Yes, your grace, there is no clear winner and no way for him to act as if he is better than me. It does make us both equals in that we are doing the same things to reach the same goal but I do not think he realized that. Oriel finished.
You did very well. Neisk praised and then a thought occurred to him. I think I will take you with me the next time I visit Nufen.
The Othrian slave trader, your grace? I did not know you had been seeing him. Oriel’s voice had taken on it’s most formal tones.
I have been seeing him during lunch and I have not been putting it in my schedule because I did not want Johar to know. Neisk explained regretting that he had hurt Oriel leaving him out. I was going to tell you about it as soon as he left.
If it is not too impertinent to ask, your grace why would you be seeing a slave trader? Oriel didn’t sound hurt so maybe he was making the change because they were now discussing offical things instead of personal. At least that is what Neisk hoped.
Because Nufen also trains slaves and of all the countries that practice slavery, Othri treats their slaves the best. Nufen has been training me to be a slave owner. I can not delude myself into thinking I will only have to take Gorlyn to Yndsian events and can get away with treating him like a servant. There will be international events in which I will have to treat him like a slave. Neisk explained.
I have done extensive studies of Othrian culture, your grace. Oriel replied trying not to sound bitter.
I was very much hoping you had. I could hardly wait until Johar was gone and I could bring you in on this. Your knowledge will be most helpful and with you it will be much easier to keep these meetings secret. Neisk let his full excitement about having Oriel along come through. It had been horrible to plan and arrange all this without Oriel’s assistance. As much as it pained him to see what had happened to Arnell, having what was left of him in Gorlyn as his valet, Oriel as his secretary and Finne as...well that man wore too many hats....Neisk realized he did have the most amazing support in his life.
These meetings are secret from more than just Johar and myself, your grace? Oriel asked sounding much more interested and not a shred of sorrow or pain.
Yes, if word got out that I needed assistance in learning to handle a slave the King General would expect me to have come to him. I know what his trainers would teach me and I do not want to learn how to do that. Ever. Neisk gave a physical shudder that thankfully coincided with verbal comment from Oriel about winter storms.
I had not thought of that your grace. You really are most brilliant Oriel exclaimed.
Neisk was confident he was back in the boy’s good graces and smiled.
He made a motion to Gorlyn who came and pulled back his chair. He kept the channel open between him and Oriel but he returned to speaking verbally only as he stood. “Since we both appear to be finished with dinner, would you like to join me in my sitting room for tea?”
Oriel waited for Gorlyn to come around and pull back his chair before he stood. “Yes, your grace I would greatly enjoy that.”
“My guest and I will be in the study, Gorlyn. Have Finne make us some tea and bring it to us.” Neisk forced himself to drop his smile. While it was perfectly normal back home to smile at your valet he doubted his Ghyruni servants would understand that.
“Yes, master.” Gorlyn answered. Neisk was glad to notice Gorlyn did not seem the least bit nervous or afraid.