Page 67 of Stranger's Choice
Surely Auraelie would want their child to have the love and support of both parents, even if she no longer wanted Sebin once she returned to her own people. She wouldn’t deny him the opportunity to know his child, the way her own father had been kept from her.
But Sebin couldn’t press her now. Not when she still feared the Emperor taking her child. He had to focus on ensuring her freedom. Their child’s freedom. Before the Emperor discovered her condition.
Sebin followed thedetailed directions Tjalik had given him in Continental to ensure no one else learned the secret. He walked through alleys, checked to make sure no one was following him, and eventually made it to where he had to rely on magic to take him the final distance to his destination.
He knocked on the brick wall in a careful pattern: two, one, three, two, two. Then he waited. And waited. Every moment standing in that alley ratcheted his nerves higher. He didn’t have time to waste. Not now. Not with Auraelie possibly pregnant and relying on his plan to see her free of the Emperor.
He wouldn’t leave her worried about the fate of their babe for a minute longer than necessary. He needed the Pynthians to reach an agreement. Then he needed them to confront the Emperor before he discovered that his oracle was pregnant. The plan would free Auraelie either way, but the Emperor might dig in his heels more if he knew about the child.
Even if everything fell apart, though, Sebin would not let the Emperor get his hands on that baby. He’d kidnap Auraelie and bring her to safety in Moial before letting that happen. He hoped it wouldn’t come to that. He wasn’t sure if she would ever forgive him if he stole her chance of ever seeing home again and living a normal life where touch didn’t threaten her well-being—without reliance on charms that constantly needed to be replaced.
What felt like ages after he had finished knocking, but was probably no more than a few minutes, the bricks in front of Sebin parted. He walked through the gap, and they closed behind him, sealing him in darkness. He knocked again on the wall in front of him: three, one, one, two.
This time, the wall split open as soon as he finished the last knock. He stepped into a stairway, dimly lit from below. He took the steps two at a time and entered the room Heolin and Tjalik had turned into their base of operations. The two men had taken to planning for the Assembly with fervor, and Sebin was not even sure what they had decided so far.
He hoped they were close to a final plan, but a quick glance around the room showed that neither man was present. Two women and a man, none of whom Sebin recognized, occupied the underground room. Sebin walked forward and looked down at the map spread out on the table between them.
“You must be the foreign prince,” one woman said.
Sebin looked up from the map. “Am I the only person you don’t recognize who might come down here, or did something else give me away? I thought, so long as I didn’t say anything, I could blend in a little better than that.”
She laughed. “You look the same as all the other humans, but you did not spare me so much as a glance before focusing on the map. That is how I knew who you were.”
So, she wasn’t human, and most people paid more attention to her than Sebin had. “Succubus?”
She nodded. “It is strange meeting a man immune to my lure.”
“My cousin thought the same thing when he met an empath unimpressed by his. Now they are happily married.”
The succubus leered at him. “I’m not sure about marriage, but I’d be happy to explore what else is different with a person immune to magic.”
“Sorry, I’m not looking for a lover.”
“Settle down, Dyna.” The other woman said with a roll of her eyes. She turned to Sebin. “What brings you here today,dyela?”
“I wanted to see how close we were to reaching a finalized plan. I’ve got reason to believe we may need to move fast if we want to corner the Emperor and getting his agreement for the Assembly.”
“What’s happened?” the man asked.
Sebin shrugged a single shoulder. “I’d rather not say at present. It is still uncertain, but I want to be prepared just in case.”
The succubus, Dyna, pointed at one section of the map. “This is really the only part causing us problems.”
Sebin looked at where her finger had landed on the map. It was the harbor town where his ship had docked after crossing the Mladin Ocean.
“The only problem is because of your people, Dyna,” the other woman said.
The man leaned in close to Sebin and whispered. “Larena and Dyna have been arguing over this all morning.”
Sebin turned to face the man. “Is Larena the earth sprite who let me in, or was that you?”
“Larena. I’m human, through and through. My name is Dax.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Dax.” Sebin looked back at where the two women continued to argue, talking over each other at such speeds he couldn’t make out the words. “So, what is the problem?”
“Reslin Harbor is the only place the water sprites have a strong presence. The incubi and succubi are there in even greater numbers, though. Larena insists that her people deserve to represent the area, but then the water sprites get nowhere.”
“How many districts do the succubi already have?”
