Page 14 of Indentured Companion
“Yeah, thanks.” I rub her shoulders, and fuss over her. I cup her cheek to test her warmth, and it’s getting better. “Wow, they stuffed this thing with marshmallows.” We both look at the mug she’s cradling in her hands, and I chuckle at her with a raised brow.
“Don’t pretend you’re not pleased.” I tease her. “You like little sugary treats like this one.”
“Yeah, but you’ll get hyperactive after you feed on me if I have them all.”
“I think I can live with that.” I shrug. “I’ll just do some exercise to work it off. You deserve the treat for being my champion twice in one day.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s me.” She giggles up at me. “Valerie the champion. On a mission to smack the stupid out of bigoted assholes.”
“Miss Stone?” I whisper and smile behind my veil. “Must you be so crass?”
“I’m Merchant Caste. We’re not built dainty and delicate. I’ll call a spade a spade, and an asshole an asshole.” She smirks and lifts her mug to sip her drink. I watch her and she sighs with relief at the taste. She also covers her upper lip with melted marshmallows. “Ah crap.” She swipes a napkin from the saucer her mug arrived on, and wipes at her mouth.
“You’ve missed a bit.” I point to the right corner of her mouth.
“Here?” She tries again, and ends up smearing it, but not wiping it up. I shake my head with a chuckle at her sour pout. “Here?”
“No.” I roll my lilac eyes and take the napkin from her. I fold it over, and make swift work of getting the white gloopy smudge from the corner of her mouth. “There.” I offer it back to her and she nods her thanks to me. Since Xeya hasn’t resumed the interview yet, I take the moment to speak to Valerie about our plans later. “Once done here, and we’ve visited a feeding site, what would you like to do?”
“Give Cassie a call.” She answers right away. “But before that, we could go and see one of those ‘sights’ you were talking about yesterday.”
“Wonderful.” I cup my hands on my lap, now she no longer needs my arms around her for warmth. “The water fountain that surrounds one of the tallest skyscrapers on the starbase isn’t far? Or would you prefer an art gallery?”
“Sure, either is fine, but if I could go shopping for some more shoes, that would be great.”
“What’s wrong with the ones I ordered for you?”
“They aren’t wide enough. Like I said? We Merchant Caste girls aren’t built as ‘dainty’. I have wide feet.”
“Then, we shall go shopping as a priority. If we have time to sight see afterward, then we will make the decision then.” I enjoy the way she smiles. Like she wasn’t expecting me to put her first, and is happy that I have. Of course I will. Valerie is my companion. I want her to be comfortable in every way. There is no rush to see-
“Hang on, is that on?” Valerie suddenly looks embarrassed and points to the table. I turn my head, my headdress fluttering as I do, and see that there is indeed a red light on the recording orb. “You didn’t say you turned the recorder back on?!”
“No you did not.” I narrow my lilac eyes on Xeya, displeased at this deception, and my voice is deeper than I usually allow. The Sacron shrinks into her chair and chuckles nervously.
???
“You gave your consent for me to record you, and I only paused it while the waiter brought our drinks. He hadn’t given consent, after all. I turned it back on as soon as he left.”
“And is there a reason why you didn’t tell us you’d turned it back on?” Valerie snarled, and I place a hand on her shoulder to calm her.
“Yes, actually.” Xeya clears her throat bravely. “Forgive me if you are displeased, but I could tell you were acting naturally together, and wanted to capture that for my report. When my readers hear you two together, and the fact you didn’trealiseyou were being recorded, under the terms of consent-” She covers herself. “-they’ll realise that you’re telling the truth. About Miss Stone being a willing companion, and that you’re taking care of her.” I raise a brow and see the merit in her deception. Valerie however, does not. She folds her arms and glares at Xeya.
“It’s still sneaky.”
“Yes it was, however, we have nothing to be ashamed of, so why don’t we continue the interview to it’s completion?” I take one of Valerie’s hands in both of mine on my lap.
“Right.” Xeya is flustered, knowing she’s walking on thin ice, and clearly agrees to finish the interview.Quickly…“Miss Stone?” I tense. She’s directly addressing Valerie?
“Yes?” Her tone is stern, displeased at the Sacron’s eavesdropping on us.
“My readers and I are all very interested in your opinion about being a feeding companion to a Korvis. What is it like? And arguably even more interestingly, how did you become the Dynast’s feeding companion.” My diamond shaped pupils widen with worry. We didn’t agree on Xeya asking Valerie questions, nor would I have approved the last one. It’s rather personal for her, after all. I look at Miss Stone, curious to see how she’s going to react. I find her looking up at me for a moment, like she’s waiting to see howIwill react. Her hesitation is starting to look like she’s reluctant to answer the question. She is, of course, but Xeya and her readers may fill in the blanks with something far more sordid than the truth. All my hard work will mean for nothing, if she comes as being acquired by nefarious means.
“That is a very persona-”
“It’s okay.” Valerie sat forward and locked her brown eyes on Xeya. “As you are no doubt aware, for a vast variety of reasons, a person of any caste or lack of caste, can sign up for indentured servitude.” Valerie makes a point of moving one of my hands to her lap to cup in both of hers. “My reasons for entering the Indentured Servitude Centre are private, and as you can see from my hesitation, very sensitive in nature. What I want to make clear, is I signed up for indentured servitude before even meeting the Dynast. Then I was told all about him, and what being his feeding companion would mean. Once I agreed, I then met him.” I give her hand a grateful squeeze. She really is on team Korvis after all. Thank the stars.
“Due to the intimate nature of a Korvis and his feeding companion, it was important to me that we met and made sure we would enjoy each other’s company, before agreeing to take her on. We clearly had good chemistry. I could tell right away she and I would get along famously. We signed the contracts and the rest is history.” I skipped over the part where I tested her by feeding on her first.
