Chapter 26: Valentines Private Courtyard
Night had fallen by the time the four women had returned to the duchy estate. Iris who endured hell like battles and training sessions felt that dress shopping was harsher. It was simpler to fight a hundred-thousand-year dragon serpent than deal with a crazed women fighting for the same dress. There wasn't a ton of things to left to do that night, other than be badger by the servants to sleep for tomorrow.
Iris had only returned to the noble realm for a few days, but a significant number of things had occurred. The most important was the one that made her the most nervous was her change in status. Losing her old spinster whose time without a girlfriend equaled her age title, was momentous.
What did it mean to not be single? Idly she had a good idea what couples did, and the sage would be lying if she didn't want to do naughty shameless things with her noble lover. Most importantly, she did not want to screw things up and return to old single spinster status.
Sharing a room had just kind of occurred, and neither wanted to embarrass themselves by bringing it up.
"Lady Lockheed, shall I escort you to your roomP?" Adopting a gentleman demeanor, Valentine felt that Iris seemed to be effective against girls.
"Please good sir, call me Valentine. I would be honored to be escorted." Gently extending her hand, she rewarded her escort with a soft dazzling smile. Iris felt as if the girl shot her in the heart.
If anyone asked latter, Iris did not trip over her own feet on the first step.
As was the case, the two didn't need to make light conversation or say pointless things. They understood each other simply. Iris who could read the maelstrom of her thoughts, and Valentine, who loved the soft quirky martial maid as she was. It worked out as the two walked hand in hand, slightly flushed with goofy grins on their faces.
"We are much to old to act like this aren't we?" Iris asked as the continued down the various hallways.
"Never too old for romance." Despite it being a clichéd line from romance novels, it fit given that both were pass the phase of young or youth.
"It was worth waiting my whole life for you." Iris spoke softly at the noble, as had become common, then blushed like school children. Valentine had been with someone once before, but it was obvious that she never truly let go of the rainbow sage, so things ended before long. Ultimately, she had reached as far in the Dao as she needed to and could not believe just how lucky she was to be with the person she had longed for, fifteen years later.
"Here." Saying nothing more the noble yanked the sage aside, against some statue or column or some sort of obstruction. Too distracted by the shorter girl, Valentine couldn't be bothered to pay attention to what it was. Pulling the sage, she twisted and grabbed her close, unable to wait before pressing her lips to her lovers. Unlike last time when she was ambushed, Iris was ready for her.
How could she keep her dignity as a grand sword saint if she gets pushed around by her junior?
Taking initiative, she pressed hard into the taller girl. They were close enough in height that only a minor adjustment in her neck was needed. Her arms slowly found their way around her the shoulders of the noble. Iris couldn't help but try to gently and forcibly, make the noble submit.
It took no time for the two to spread the pink, red atmosphere to the whole corridor. Valentine, ecstatic at her partners aggressiveness, dug her palms into her back and pushed as close as she could to her partner.
Who was more forceful was quickly lost, both sinking and enjoying the raw desire each other possessed.
Firm but hesitant, Iris gently twined her tongue with Valentine's. Despite the strong desperate desire for each other, Valentine was quick to keep things gentle slow, letting every ounce of love that she had doing her best to express it with her whole body.
Iris could literally feel it, both physically and through her own heart, softly drawing everything into her own self, hoping that the noble felt the same. Iris had never felt so hot in her life, and she had delved into the hottest depths to claim the flame of the dead.
Loud chimes rang through the estate, nine times in this case. It was enough for the sage to break the kiss, but Valentine refused to let her go. Cultivation gave them both an intrinsic understanding of things that were true, and there was something between them that even the great Dao couldn't take. Felling a touch clumsy and flushed to the nines, Iris slowly extradited herself and lead the two in the direction of their room.
It took only a moment of crossing the threshold of their sort of shared room, for lips to lock again. Normal people would have some trouble navigating a room while embracing and kissing at the same time, but they were not normal.
Prodigiously, the two crawled over a chair, shattered the door to the room and ended up in a pile on the soft bed, all without letting their tongues separate. Hands roamed hips and legs, Iris felt the taller girl press a bit on her and let her, unable to resist the silken feel of her skin. One of the few draw backs about the layers of cloth that made up their cultivation outfits, was the layers of cloth.
Impenetrable when two people were wrapped up within each other.
When Valentine clawed at the sage's belt, she brushed her nails into a particularly soft spot. Squirming Iris let out a sharp set of giggles. Surprised, Valentine had never seen the sage lose composer like this before. Gently poking the soft sides, Iris released another set of laughter before attempting to remove herself from the noble.
"I didn't know you were so ticklish." Grinning as she pressed the girl in place.
"I didn't either until now." Catching her breath back she accepted the comfort of the girl on top of her. In the background, another set of chimes rang, ten in this set.
Whatever fierce desire that possessed the two seem to pass, and the same comfortable cotton, that had always been there when they were content together, filled the room with them.
"Can I stay with you tonight?" Embarrassed to look weak and ask, paired with the fuzzy clouds that Valentine had placed in her head, she was unusually meek. Letting the sage up she softly whispered.
"Your always welcome to be with me." After washing up quickly Iris settled under the covers when she was pulled close. Feeling unusually warm and strangely protected, it took moments for the marital warrior to sleep.
"I love you, my sweet Iris." Whispering once again to not wake the sage, before gently kissing her temple, she too didn't take long to sleep blissfully.
!@# !@# !@#
Iris and Valentine may have been incredibly close now, but it had taken far longer than a few seasons to happen. Their forced separation, at the hands of the strange flaming knight left Valentine stranded in the martial realm.
Iris was forced to pretend to be the duchess heir for almost a year, before she recovered her nascent soul, and broke into the martial realm during her tribulations.
When one crossed realms the time was disjointed, not necessarily compressed but one could spend a week in the noble realm and cross several years apart. When Iris returned to the noble realm, the difference in when they separated was several months yet only two weeks had passed in the noble realm. For noble Valentine's part, she had spent years as a sect member of the bladeless sword sect. Chronologically, from the day the noble landed, it had been almost five years.
Prior to the rainbow sage's return, Valentine had become the single most well-known disciple in the entire sect. Her application of the skills and techniques of noble realm bureaucracy became the stuff of legends. Average trip time to the assignment hall, went from 7.87 hours, to under a half. Despite her protest, her portrait drawn in ink on rice paper, had been hung near the entrance.
Every elder in the sect wanted her to come magically solve all their problems concerning anything non martial arts related. It wasn't uncommon for her to be surround when she was out in common areas hoping to syphon a bit of luck.
"I wonder why you never cultivated with the rest of us, but I suppose this make sense." Senior leader lounged on a nearby bench as she watched Valentine cultivate. Ming Ling had posed the statement, watching the complicated array that Valentine had been forced to set up.
Ming Ling was a new inner disciple of their peak, a new marital who was assigned in the interim years had never seen the noble cultivate. For good reason, her initial foundation was well suited to martial cultivation, but her physique was not suited to any non-pure qi.
Hence the massive array set up with filtration talismans, qi purifiers, refining tools and other sundry. Thanks to her fore mentioned, she was more than wealthy enough to afford it and her own private courtyard.
"Its quite the setup, almost unfair in some cases if you ask me." Senior leader spoke up. Pure qi was an ideal for development, but impossible to find and possibly harmful if your roots and foundation didn't line up.
Valentine trapped in her cultivation couldn't answer. It wasn't a hard task in her case, simply complex and demanded focus. It was as usual that she was quiet, as her days had a simple pattern. Mornings were spent with work for what ever hall or pavilion who wanted her expertise. Lunch occurred after a learning session with her peak elder, who viciously refused to let her transfer. After lunch was spent taking and completing assignments from assignment hall. She rounded her day of with private cultivation and a late evening meal.
No wonder Lady Iris took to maid and servant work so easily, having lived such a disciplined life.
"Her speed is fast, four years to form a golden orb." There was some bitterness in seniors voice, her formation happened just last week. At a total time of eight years and four months, she was above average given a decade was normal.
"Both seniors are amazing. I'm just lucky to join." Senior didn't say anything, knowing that peak elder accepted a new young lady in to be a drinking buddy every few years. Having caught on to her tricks, any senior disciple of the peak knew better than to accept.
"How was last weekend?" Senior asked.
"Amazing, Lady Shashi, asked about senior Lockheed wondering when she was going to come back and be romanced again. Since I was your junior, her junior sat and poured drinks all night." Was this the youth of teenagers? How did a night of drinking not leave one a destroyed mess?
"She ended up entertaining someone else at the end, but Brother Big, picked up the slack." Perhaps her innate resilience to alcohol was why the elder picked this girl as a personal disciple.
"Finally finished?" Senior asked Valentine who had begun to stretch to alleviate her stiffness from being still for so long.
"It was much easier when I could just dual cultivate with Master Iris…" It hadn't been intended to be spoken aloud but it caused mixed reactions.
"No wonder we never worked out, that's too hard of an act to follow." Senior said feeling better about the relationship and fling her and the noble had.
"Are you a jezebel?" Ling Ming asked. If she had relations with the ascendent, and relations with Lady Shashi, and even elder sister was in the mix? Even though the word was a different slang, Valentine got the meaning.
"Why would you say that?" Valentine finally asked after endless possibility's ran threw her head.
"Well, you were with senior, and the brothel lady couldn't wait for you to come back to her…and you…you…dual cultivated…with the sage?"
"What's the big deal about dual cultivating?" Out of all the things she wanted to say, that was the one the noble got out. In four years, she had been dragged to the brothel by master a dozen times, its not her fault that there was a misunderstanding with that.
"Its something you do with only really trusted people. Circulation cultivation is sometimes done between friends or trusted companions. Pair cultivation, where each side lets the other cultivate within their own body's is limited to serious lovers and Daoist partners." Senior explained lazily, reminded that the noble lady grew up in a completely different realm.
"You didn't know? Ling Ming asked hesitantly, sister was well known in the sect. How could she not be aware of her reputation.
"It's less intimate to have sex."
In the wake of the blunt statement Valentine was stunned. If the first time had been circular than the few others after would have been paired...
There wasn't any choice. The one night that she had shared with senior leader, had been embarrassing enough, and she had done something several times as shameless with Iris?
All she could do is run in embarrassment.