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Lessons of Dynasty Part 1: Abecedarian	By : JohnDoe Category: +A through F > Exalted RPG Views: 470 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: White Wolf, Exalted and Exalted 3rd Edition are all trademarks of White Wolf Publishing AB, and official characters, names, places and text are copyrighted by White Wolf. I do not own Exalted and I'm not making money from this fiction.

Chapter List
- 10
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- 12
Chapter 10 – No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Udi wakes up in the morning in Reya’s arms. Her stirring wakes Reya who smiles dreamily at her.

“Morning beautiful,” Reya says sleepily, as she tries to pull Udi in for a closer hug.

Udi pushes her way up to a sitting position and perches on the edge of the bed. Her body aches, but in a good away.

Reya sits behind her and gently rubs the knots in her shoulders. She lays a tender kiss on Udi’s back.

“What’s the matter, babe? Was I too hard on you last night? You looked like you were into it…” Reya smiles devilishly, “You need me to kiss you better – just show me where it hurts.”

Udi stands up angrily and furiously starts to dress for physical education and martial arts training. “I don’t need anything!”

Reya stares with a dreamy smile at Udi as she angry dresses, “Yes, you do. You need me to hurt you and I need to hurt you. That’s what makes us such a great pair: two halves of the same heart.”

“I don’t need anything!” Udi shouts directly in Reya’s face.

Reya sighs and puts her hands in the air, “Alright, alright: you don’t need anything. You’re beautiful when you’re mad though.”

Udi finishes dressing and sits on her bed with her head in her hands, “Reya, why am I like this?”

Reya slips out of bed and kisses her softly on the cheek, “Fierce? Beautiful? Intelligent? You are perfect the way you are… and… I love you…” When Udi doesn’t say anything back, Reya keeps rambling, “She says nude, to the fully dressed Dynast… Who just angrily shouted in her face… Feeling a little vulnerable here…”

“Then get dressed, Reya; we’re going to be late for class.”

Reya slow blinks and resists the urge to go into full bitch mode, “Okay… okay.” She starts to dress, “You know you could have any girl in class, so I understand if this rings kinda hollow, but if you wanted me to help you to seduce someone, so you could ‘get even’ or whatever, I’d be fine with that.”

Udi looks up at her curiously.

“I don’t care who else you sleep with, Udi, just as long as it’s my bed you’re sleeping in at night. I mean, sooner or later we’re going to have to get married, right?”

“And we’re going to live together and make our husbands live in the opposite end of the house?”

“Exactly,” Reya grins, “You know you’re the only girl for me – I thought I made that clear last night – but if it’ll make you feel better and show you how sorry I am,” She bows deep at the waist, “I am at your service, Miss Ludila.”

Udi puts on her best voice, “Well, Miss Danireya, your proposal is intriguing to say the least. There is just one, slight problem.”

“Which is?” Reya grins.

“I already have the best girl in class,” Udi grins back, “Although…”

“It doesn’t have to be a girl. I know you find Riven more attractive, and I also know you’ll find it funnier to sleep with Kinesi. I think it’s funniest if you sleep with Riven and we make Ro sleep with Padar, and I blue-balls Kinesi for the entire year.”

Udi links arms with Reya as they head down to their first lesson, “What about someone not in our class?”

Reya feels a cold pit start to form in her stomach, but effortlessly keeps cool, “Oh really? Older student caught your eye? A teacher?” She waggles her eyebrows playfully.

Don’t be him. Sextus Jylis don’t be him. Anyone but him.

Udi dips her head demurely, “Well… he’s caught me eye, as such…”

He. Crap. Could still be someone else.

“In fact, he’s really not my type…”

Could still be someone else. Please, sweet Venus, be someone else.

“But you’re right, it does ring kinda hollow if you ‘help’ me sleep with someone I could just seduce on my own…”

Oh crap. This is bad.

“And the fact that he turned you down and called you a ‘child’?” Udi tsks, “It’s gotta be Cynis Ganan.”

Fuck.

Reya giggles light-heartedly, “Want. Take. Have. This is going to be fun!”

Sweet Mela. Kill me now.

****

Morning exercises go as they usually go, under the watchful eye of Mistress Hironi. Harite blushes considerably more than usual, but otherwise shows no reluctance in going through the hands-on exercises. An uneventful breakfast follows then on to the next lesson. Udi tries flashing the teacher throughout first-period history, but Ganan quickly shuts her down, threatening an extension to detention.

Nothing out of the ordinary happens until after class.

****

Reya, Udi, and Rowena are heading to their corner of the library, as is their custom, when Darknife steps out to block their path.

“Oh, look Reya, it’s tall dark and stoner. Move or I’ll move you.” Udi glares menacingly.

“You move me, and you won’t ever be pretty again.” Darknife flicks her wrist and a beautiful, but deadly, butterfly-knife, flickers out into her hand. The dark iron of the blade plays macabre tricks with the light. Before the girls can study it closely, Darknife collapses the blade and palms it quietly. She pointedly ignores Udi, and addresses Reya, “Besides, I didn’t come here to fight; I came here to thank you.”

“For what, exactly?” Reya asks, eyes narrowing as she folds her arms across her chest. Rowena mimics her.

Darknife smiles playfully, “I asked you to do one thing: stay away from Tepet Versi. And you’ve been doing that beautifully. It’s like she doesn’t exist to you. And then she comes to you yesterday with an urgent matter and you not only kick her to the curb, but you hide Harite under the table to keep her from Versi for me. That’s dedication. Above and beyond the call of duty.”

Udi snaps quickly, “We were busy and didn’t want to be bothered – it had nothing to do with you!”

“I mean… I could see you were busy. That was quite the show,” She leans conspiratorially to Reya, “I didn’t know you were a chubby chaser,” She gives Udi a quick once over, “Though… I kinda see it I guess.”

“I’m going to knock your teeth down your throat!” Udi growls.

Darknife throws up her hands in mock surrender, “As I said, I’m not here to fight. I’m here to thank you. I know you’re still pissed about the big fight you had with your girlfriend last night, but no need to displace that anger on me!”

Reya yawns lazily, and puts a restraining hand on Udi’s shoulder, “You’re coming to a point?”

Darknife stands straight, and straightens her blouse, looking the picture of a smart professional, businesswoman, “That’s right. The three of you – for your own entirely selfish reasons and quite ignorantly – did me a solid. So, to repay you, you each get a freebie. One. Each. This is a one-off, we’re not friends, you pay for the next one. And…” Darknife looks as if she’s performing a singularly unpleasant task, “Thank you.”

Reya uncrosses her arms and gives the slightest of nods, “If that’s all,” she says as she turns and starts to walk away. Ro practically has to drag Udi away, and Udi sticks out her tongue at Darknife as she leaves.

“One more thing – come individually. It’s a business, not a gangbang, girls.”

****

“What the hell does that even mean?” Udi spits, “One what? What does she even have that we would want?” She mimes taking a toke from a spliff.

“The first time we talked, she demonstrated knew the details of our lives. This time she demonstrated knowledge of our intimate affairs. It’s thus not a stretch to intimate that Darknife is positioning herself as an information broker and is offering us information on our enemies.”

Ro looks puzzled, “But… we… don’t h-have any enemies?”

Reya gives Ro a side, smirk, “Oh, you precious little button: everyone in the school is our enemy. That’s the entire point of making friends. Speaking of friends – where’s Puppy?”

“I’m here! I’m here!” Harite bounds up to the trio holding a fresh plate of cookies, “I’m sorry I’m late, I just needed to get your gift.”

“Cookies again?” Reya says with obvious ire.

Udi is… more direct in expressing her displeasure, ripping the plate from Harite’s hand and tossing it like a frisbee as far as she can throw it. Harite winces as the plate it’s the ground and shatters. “Read the room! Reya ate half a cookie yesterday and I don’t weigh a million pounds! Fuck off, and come back with something worthwhile.”

Harite runs out of the library without a word, trying not to cry.

Udi shakes her head, “Huh, she’s not coming back tonight.”

Ro speaks quietly and carefully, “You’d do better with Hari if you give specific instructions. You should have told her what you wanted her to tribute.”

“She can’t be as dense as she is fat,” Udi snaps back, “You’d know what to gift us!” She looks at Ro’s blank look, and sighs heavily, “Sweet treats are nice as a treat. Not every day. How about a nice object de art? A fashionable accessory, like set of lacquered combs? Clothing: nice shoes, pretty dresses? A poetry reading – if it’s just the four of us and isn’t too cringe-worthy? A nice weapon? Sorcerous reagents? A rare text that we can’t just check out the library? Gods, Ro, a healthy snack – something that’s not cookies two days in a row?”

“Money,” Reya suggests as she lays out the books they need for study.

Udi clarifies, “For the truly unimaginative. No cash shit and bits are just insulting. An obol is an appropriate gift.”

The obol is the smallest jade coin the Realm mints – about equal to a year’s pay for a peasant, not that peasants were allowed to handle mystic jade – a not insignificant expense, between a week and a month’s pocket money for most of the students of the Heptagram (though those receiving an adult Dynast’s full stipend to their own discretion, rather to the family trusts, received about fifty-times that sum).

Ro’s careful not to answer back in a way that will get her into trouble, “If Hari had access to that kind of money, she’d actually be as fat as you joke about her being.”

Udi snicker’s cruelly, “That was a good one, Ro! You’re catching on.”

“Do we look like we need money?” Reya raises an eyebrow, “The gifting of Jade is symbolic. It’s about the transfer of mystic power. What the hell am I going to buy on the Isle of Voices that I couldn’t already afford, else charge to the good credit of my house?”

“You want a token of submission,” Ro restates, “It doesn’t have to be valuable, as such, but it has to be something that’s either useful to you that enriches you to have it… or valuable to Hari, I mean Puppy, which makes her poorer for losing it.”

Udi eyes Ro suspiciously, “You really are catching on.”

Reya makes a fifty-fifty gesture, “You’re passing etiquette class, Ro, and I refuse to believe you never studied this in primary school. One doesn’t state when one can allude.” The unspoken clause being ‘to one’s misdeeds’. “Otherwise, a crude but accurate summation.” Reya meets Ro’s eye and fixes her in her gaze, “Well done.”

Ro feels her heart skip a beat. She doesn’t want to look away but she physically can’t hold Reya’s freezing stare. She looks down at her books. “Thank you, mistress.” She tries to concentrate on the work before her, but the words seem to swim on the page, “Should I go call in my favour with Darknife?” She blurts out suddenly.

“No, stupid!” Udi snaps, “We lost nearly a full day of study yesterday and detention is coming up quick. We need your big, stupid brain here. And besides, we’ll tell you what your favour is going to be.”

“I was thinking about it,” Ro says quickly, “And wouldn’t it be better if you didn’t? Darknife supposedly trades in information, right? So, if you tell her you want to know something, she’ll know what’s important to you and use it to manipulate you. But if I go first, now, before she’s had a chance to prepare, we can find out how reliable her information is. And if I ask about something personal to me, that can’t blow back on the two of you, but if you make me ask something for Reya, then Darknife gets more information about mistress?” Ro plays with her fingers nervously.

Udi stops to process all of that, not completely trusting Ro’s reasoning, but unable to quite blow a hole through it.

Reya speaks before Udi can put her foot in it, “It’s also not completely irrelevant that Ro specifically moved to block Versi’s view of Puppy. That’s not passive: it’s an active action to help Darknife. By any reasonable person’s standard, I’d say you’ve both earned the right to ask for whatever you want without my interference.” The unstated statement being ‘and I don’t want to provoke Darknife by taking advantage of her offer’.

“So… I can go?” Ro asks hopefully.

Reya shrugs and shoos her away with the back of her hand, “Make sure you get Puppy up-to-speed on what’s expected of her by tomorrow. And I want a preliminary report on what Darknife’s information gathering abilities are like: I need to know how useful her information is to you.”

Ro nods and hurries off out of sight.

Udi raises an eyebrow, “She’s going to betray us, isn’t she?”

Reya smiles, “There’s no weapon Darknife can give her that will put Rowena on even terms with us. It’ll be fun. Besides, I needed to get rid of her.”

“Is that so, smooth operator?”

“Get your mind out the gutter! Darknife is spying on us. Probably right now – we’ve gotten far to cosy in our little routine. I need you to go talk to the boys – find out what they know about Darknife.”

Udi makes a disgusted face, “Eww, boys.”

Reya lays a hand on top of hers, “But on the other hand?”

Udi grins, “Ooo, boys? To be clear… you want to know what they know and where they stand. You don’t want to move against Darknife and you don’t want the boys to do anything rash. But I can achieve this any way I want?”

Reya looks deep into Udi’s eyes, “Any. Way. You want.”

Udi smiles from ear-to-ear, “In that case, I have a couple of ideas!” She skips to her feet, “Don’t wait up!”

****

Rowena knocks shyly on Darknife’s door.

“Come in Ro!” Comes her call from inside the room.

It’s a triple room, larger than Ro and Hari’s by half again. Darknife’s roommates, Versi and Evede, are no-where to be seen. The room is dark, and smells smoky. Ro regards Darknife sitting in the gloam.

“Let’s make this quick little girl, I don’t want to waste too much of my time on you.” Darknife produces two bundles of paper – one thick, one thin. “From the moment I made my offer, you’ve been thinking about what to ask, but only on your way over here did you decide, or think you decided, on what you want.”

Ro opens her mouth to speak, but Darknife cuts her off.

“Really, this will all go much faster if you let me speak. You want to ask me how you can get out from under Reya. But that’s not a valid question: you get to ask one, specific, thing.”

Ro looks crestfallen.

“Which brings us to envelope one,” Darknife picks up the larger package, “It answers one, specific question: ‘What’s the worse thing Mnemon Danireya’s ever done?’ Doesn’t tell you how to use it, you’ll have to work that out for yourself. But, uh, with what’s in here, even you could handle that.

“Of course, the point of this exercise is that I’m supposed to be making nice with Reya. So, I’d really prefer if you pick option two. Fortunately, that’s the thing you want more so… here you go.”

She holds out the slim envelope and waggles it invitingly.

Ro looks at the slim envelope, “And what’s this supposed to be?”

Darknife rolls her eyes, exaggeratedly, “If we’re going to do business in the future, you’re really better served by assuming I know everything and I don’t make mistakes.”

Ro’s throat goes try, “This is… whether professor-”

“Instructor Cynis Ganan’s marital status. I give singular answers, but comprehensive ones. You’re not buying a yes/no answer… and what I discovered here, I found very interesting. It answers a personal curiosity I had, so you get a two-fer. Lucky girl.”

Ro swallows hard, “These two things are not of equal value.”

Darknife smiles evilly, “Of course not. You want to know about teacher much more than you want to fight Reya. But it’s a free and fair choice. You can have either. No pressure.”

Ro’s eyes flicker back and forth between the options. At last she gives a smile of her own, “I’ll take the Reya dossier. Worst things she’s done.”

Darknife’s eyes narrow as she hands over the thick envelope, “I honestly didn’t think you had it in you. Good for you. I wash my hands of this, may the best woman win.”

Ro grins in manic triumph, “Oh, I don’t. But thanks for the two-fer.”

Darknife raises a quizzical eye.

“Oh, go on then,” Ro says, “You’ve given me a freebie, I might as well return the favour. You told me what I want to know, Instructor Ganan isn’t married. If he was, there’d be absolutely nothing in that envelope that would interest you. The only thing that would interest you is the reason why he’s not married – why he walks with that cane. And I admit, I’m curious, but I don’t need to know that – I would have taken a yes/no answer over Reya’s dirty laundry. But as I can have both, I’ll have both.”

“Clever girl,” Darknife drums her fingers on the thin envelope, “Well if you need my services in the future, you know where to find me.”

Rowena keeps her cool as she walks out of the room. Then as soon as she closes the door behind her, she bursts out into a run. Running as if her life depended on it, clutching the envelope to her chest.
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Lessons of Dynasty Part 1: Abecedarian