Deskbound
Teo is back from the frontier, and very bored.
Teo is back from the frontier, and very bored.
The main character from An Iron Road Running_, here in more tedious circumstances and quite unhappy with it. This was a request for a story following up on what happens to him. Patreon subscribers, you get to tell me what to write and sometimes I even listen! Thanks to Spudz for helping with this, and to my backers for giving me ideas like this._
Released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. Share, modify, and redistribute--as long as it's attributed and noncommercial, anything goes.
"Deskbound," by Rob Baird
Teobas Franklyn had been in the office for only three weeks, and each new day felt more and more like a prison sentence. He'd known that it would, of course. Often, during the steamship passage from Surowa up to Tabisthalia, he'd retired to his cabin, and buried his muzzle in his old coat, so long as it still carried the fragrance of the spices in Dhamishi bazaars.
Inhaling that scent, he'd almost been able to hear the din; if he'd had a tail, it would've been sure to start it wagging. And the bustle in Tabisthalia, when they docked, was nothing like it at all. He hadn't disembarked, as planned: instead, the shepherd took it for the final leg of its journey east to Tinenfirth--past his actual destination, at the very edge of the Empire's eastern border. There the merchants were diverse, at least, and he recognized the sounds of foreign languages intermixed with his native Aernian.
He'd known that the Carregan Transcontinental Railroad office in Marrahurst required his presence, eventually. Even then, he'd sent a cable to advise them of a delay. And instead of taking the express train along the coast, he picked his way along smaller services through the country's interior. Sometimes there were not even trains, and he had to travel by wagon.
He took careful notes. Was that not his job, after all? As a senior engineer for Carregan Transcontinental, surely he was only being diligent in collecting information for the railroad's future expansion. Even if none of it was as exciting as Kamir, or the deep highlands of Dhamishaya, there would be interesting challenges to surmount in building those new lines.
Teo arrived in Marrahurst to find a stack of paperwork for him to review, and an endless series of meetings about all the work that had piled up during his assignment to Dhamishaya. Most of it amounted to requests for his feedback on this or that branch line proposal--or worse, poring over budgets. He kept his eyes open for an excuse to return to the field, at least: a surveying job; a bridge expansion.
The shepherd was too old for wanderlust. That declaration came from his younger brother, Agdar Franklyn, visiting from their family home in the more aristocratic province of Arrenshire. His appearance was unexpected, although Teo indulged the younger dog--the contrast between them was reassuring. "Too old? What does that even mean. I can still walk, can't I?"
"I mean that your attention ought to be elsewhere."
"It is, trust me. Right now, it's on you. I should be attending to my job." The nameplate on the desk identified him as Director of Engineering Operations (Eastern). He pointed to it, and then gestured with an open, resigned palm to a tall stack of folders waiting for his review. "I'm sure you understand that. Thynrald keeps you busy, doesn't he?"
"Yes. And our father isn't exactly... happy with your career."
Teo couldn't possibly have cared less. He grinned, and quirked his fuzzy, folded ears. "He sent you to watch over me?"
"Not exactly. It's not that he doesn't trust you, Teo, it's that... cargal'th, you're thirty-two years old. I've tried to explain that you were being educated, but... every time I do that, he points out that I met Arana before I left for college."
"True, so you did. How is she?"
"Quite well. We're thinking about perhaps buying the property next to the family's estate, since there's a house built already. I would've thought you'd--" Agdar suddenly, fiercely shook his head. "Teo, you're not distracting me from this. Are you getting married, or are you not?"
"When would I have found time for that?"
"Perhaps when you were cavorting around the frontier!"
"I don't see how any of that is our father's concern. I'm not inheriting the business, am I? He gave that to Hælech. I'm making my own name. You should, too, Agdar."
His younger brother sighed. "Will you at least make it in Marrahurst? We don't know where to find you, half the time--when we sent a message to this office, they told us that you were in Dhamishaya, of all places!"
"So I was. Beautiful rivers there, too, particularly in the southwest. An interesting engineering challenge if ever I've seen one. Some of those bridges will be here after your house is gone, if I've done my job right."
"And of a wife? A family? Give me something, Teo, please."
Teo slid one of the desk's drawers open, and peered into its sundry contents for a spell. The medallion, he thought. That will do. Agdar took the pewter token with a puzzled expression. "It's three hundred years old, or so. They told me that in Kamir, where I was offered it at a temple. It's supposed to bring good luck in business."
"Why--"
"You told me to give you something. If you don't need the luck, maybe Hælech can use it."
"You know that's not what I meant." He rolled the medallion back across the table's surface to Teo. "What about dinner tonight? Are you free?"
"I am. Have you been to Chaldan's Iron? Their pies are absolutely fantastic--not to mention the ale. Which might calm you down a bit, Agdar."
"Perhaps something a little more... refined?"
He rolled his eyes. "The Wise Shepherd, then, adjacent the gardens. Known for their lamb, obviously, but they've started a Jarnshire tasting course I can recommend. Or, if they're not available, Silver for Tæn. Do you like driver's cake made with rye, or are you a purist?"
"Rye driver's is fine," Agdar said. "But it's not for me. Our father suggested you might want share it with someone else."
"Someone in particular," Teo guessed, and his brother held up an envelope. He took the letter and set it aside. "Well, I suppose I'll check my schedule. If my meetings don't run late, I might see what can be done."
"You said you were free."
"I was. Here's what you'll do, Dar. Take this..." He scrawled a quick promissory note on Carregan stationary and handed it over. "Give it to the front desk, and tell them Dr. Franklyn, of the Eastern Division, wanted his brother to be treated well during his time here. Let them know what inn you're staying at, too. It's not the Arch, is it? Gods, if it's the Arch I might have to go home just to see if our father truly has lost his mind."
"What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing, if you're a day laborer and you'd like to at least enjoy your prostitute indoors. Listen to what they tell you at the front desk. And send a message back here letting me know where you wind up staying. We should make time for dinner, it's true."
"Tonight, though--"
"We shall see. And I really need to be getting back to work, Dar."
Agdar scowled, but he clearly saw that his older brother's stubbornness would not be overcome. Teo waited until he was alone again, and returned to looking over a blueprint for a handsome bridge someone thought required his blessing. Perhaps this one? Perhaps I should go see this one in person, before I approve construction...
The sketches were reasonable; the materials were not. It would take half as much iron again, at least, if they kept to a standard design--but he already had a better idea. Teo pulled Tetrusci's Handbook down from the bookshelf, blew the dust off it, and turned to the tables of material strength. Now, if we were to reinforce it with Cesh braces, we could get by with using Maidal iron, and that--
The shepherd stopped, and looked back at the sketch.
It was for a siding in Avethmoor, halfway between Tinenfirth and Marrahurst. Barely sixty miles south of Geovia, the largest town in the province. Obviously they would have high-quality iron. The designer wouldn't even have stopped to consider it. Would never face a challenge like reaching the edge of a cliff in the darkest shade of the Dalrath and trying to cross it under enemy fire. Or improvising with Tiurishkan cement in the hills of Ülen Kara. Or...
He closed Tetrusci, and dragged the letter Agdar had given him over. How dare his father! How dare Thynrald presume to know what was best for Teo? How many Franklyns could say they'd even been to Kamir, let alone been fêted by the prince himself for the work the Railroad did? How many had been asked on special invitation to the far edges of the Iron Kingdom because their hard-won expertise was needed for the reconstruction of the Lodestone Sovereign's domain?
None! Poor Agdar had probably felt ill traveling so far from Arrengate.
A gentle knock kept him from further stewing. "Ah, Mr. Franklyn? There's a visitor for you. They're not on the schedule, but they've asked to speak to one Director Teobas Franklyn at his earliest convenience."
"Very well." He did his best to tidy up the desk, although for the most part that was hopeless. His fellow Railroad employees would understand that the papers were part and parcel of doing business.
He could see immediately that the 'visitor' was not anyone from the Railroad. She wore a western-style dress, with a ruffled hem, and though she looked like a Border Collie her necklace was purely Aultlands in affect. The amber pendant looked to be fringed in silver--a traditional homage to the goddess Artem. "Dr. Franklyn, I presume?"
"Yes. You would be..."
"Lisfel Parralan. I have heard much about you, Dr. Franklyn, although I wasn't expecting you to be quite so striking. I would hope that you might spare me some of your time, if it's not too much of an inconvenience. I was told you've traveled quite far."
"From Dhamishaya, yes."
"Terribly far, indeed," the collie said. "I can't imagine making the journey lightly--nor being so distant from home. Welcome back, Dr. Franklyn."
"Mr. Franklyn, or Teobas. Can I help you with something?" He wondered, if she'd heard much about the dog, what his father had told Parralan. "Your accent doesn't sound local. More from the Aultlands, if I'm not mistake."
"You're not. I grew up in Arrenshire. As you did, I believe. Now, as for what you can help me with..." She looked hopefully towards the seat on the other side of his desk. When he nodded, Lisfel took the seat, smoothing her dress down carefully. "I have been trying to find a proper occupation for an Aernian lady. I was a reporter for the Cirthen Journal, you see, but it's terribly déclassé. It was suggested that a longer work might occupy me. Maybe a chronicle of affairs abroad..."
"Such as Dhamishaya, for example?"
She smiled placidly. "For example."
Teo knew the nature of the work before she even had to describe it. Exotic, but never lurid; detailed, but never with anything of interest. The travelogue would serve to confirm the Iron Kingdom's authority over the world, while discouraging any upstart Aernians from the notion of undertaking such travel themselves. It seemed almost a betrayal to share his love of the world beyond their borders for such a purpose. "I'd be happy to help," he said. "At least, to aid with an outline."
Lisfel's handbag held a leatherbound notebook, which she opened to a blank page. "Please, then. Begin wherever you like."
In turn, Teobas selected a few papers from his files, and placed them with reverent importance on the desk. "There. Now, you must understand the critical importance of the operation. This marker indicates the locks at Lake Aji, which were destroyed in the Civil War. Direct impact to trade was estimated at approximately five thousand pounds, per day, with indirect consequences amounting to fifteen percent of upland provincial revenue. A catastrophe, you'll agree."
She had written only a few, short notes. Numbers, Teo thought. "A catastrophe."
"It's actually far worse than it looks from this map. Geological surveys had indicated that the underlying strata were relatively stable, but a report I commissioned upon arrival confirmed significant slippage. It was not possible to determine which of this was new, and which dates from inaccuracies in the previous survey. You'll want to compare these two columns, specifically..."
The collie leaned forward, her eyes darting between them. "Why?"
Perhaps his father had instructed her on the need to overcome any attempts at Teo sabotaging her mission, because Lisfel persevered through his explanation of the new surveys, and of the bridgework required, and the economics of resurfacing the largest road that ran up the western bank of the river Ajirandigarh. "--But, in short, the trusses were salvageable, albeit with care taken to inspect the metallurgical quality of the retaining nuts."
"I have... many questions," the Border Collie allowed. "And I appreciate your time. I know it's getting rather late. Would you mind accompanying me to dinner, perhaps?"
"No, not at all. Although... I made a habit, when I was posted here, of taking my repast at Chaldan's. I'm afraid it's not a particularly... well. The establishment is rather--"
"I know it. I've never dined there, naturally. This is only my third visit to Marrahurst, if you can believe it."
"Ah, yes. If you're aware of their reputation, then--"
The collie smiled brightly. "Then it will be an opportunity for them to make a good first impression on me, wouldn't you say?"
Teo kept his sigh internal, rose, and put on his coat. He held the door for Lisfel, who bowed politely, and followed him outside--they were among the last in the office to have departed, and the warm night outside had already begun to develop the raucous warmth of summer evenings. "What did bring you down on the train, after all, Ms. Parralan?"
"As I said: I'd heard much about you, Teobas. And I'd like to learn much more. To be frank with you, I wasn't expecting so many diagrams and calculations. That was all the impression our southern expanse left on you?"
"I was there for work. The work of an engineer is important, but often dry."
"And yet, you must've seen things..."
He demurred. At Chaldan's, they took a bench outside; the collie echoed his order of the pub's famous meat pies, although she took cider instead of their equally famous dark ale. Both were overdressed for the establishment--he could see them drawing a curious look, every once in a while. "Do you enjoy life in Cirthen?"
"Somewhat and sometimes," the prim woman replied. "It is rather quiet and stately. My reporting job exposed me to whatever excitement there was, and that never amounted to terribly much. Nothing like what you've experienced."
"No, I suppose not."
"Does Marrahurst suit you? It seems like a decent place to raise a family. Cultured... prosperous..."
"It is those things, yes. Marrahurst is..."
"You preferred the frontier," she said, before he could find a sufficiently anodyne adjective to describe life in what had been, until the previous century, merely the largest farming town in a province of farms. "Is that it?"
"Have you been beyond our borders?"
"Never."
Her notebook was closed, and so he let his guard slip. "The gates of the Old Palace in Surowa are decorated with gemstones that tell the Bhiranate's history, ruler after ruler. They're enchanted. Put your paw to them, and you feel the memory that the Bhiran who placed the stone felt should most be their legacy. Thundering battles, grand parades with thousands of wagons, great construction works around distant oases--some of the temples are as old to Tabisthalia as Tabisthalia is to Marrahurst. You'd never see that here. And..."
The arrival of their pies stopped him from saying anything else. Lisfel, though, had been listening. She took a dainty, careful bite, waited until he was occupied with one of his own, and then pounced: "and the Dalrath. That must've been something. It's hard to find details on the Chirel's Tooth Bridge. I might have to take the southern line myself, to see it."
He could not have imagined why his father would've told Lisfel Parralan about the New Jarankyld Line, unless it was to warn her of Teo's more unseemly impulses. The trouble was that her interest did not seem completely affected. And the collie had a pleasant voice, and a comely figure far less sylphlike than the typical high-society girls. And that her eyes kept meeting his, with the faintest smile curling her muzzle.
It would've been terribly easy to give in, just a bit. To enjoy her company--maybe indulge in the tiniest bit of flirtatiousness. He imagined she would respond in kind. He could be a gentleman, and spend the evening with her, and find some other way to denote his unavailability. Perhaps that would be the end of it.
But this was a dangerous assumption. The shepherd swallowed, and took a long sip of ale to wash the bite down. "That project was... trying. I'm proud of the work we did."
"You should be. I've heard you were shot at--cargal'th, Dr. Franklyn, I can't imagine it. The first of us to brave those forests since the city fell, and did you falter? Not for a moment. I bet you didn't in Dhamishaya, either."
"I'd like to think I didn't." And since she knew of his past, already, he saw the opportunity for an exit he'd been given. "I shan't stay in Marrahurst. It's terribly boring. I'd never forgive myself if I died without smelling the spices of a Dominion bazaar again, or seeing the harvest festivals in upland Dhamishaya. This life is one of... plenty. And yet, where the spirit is concerned, utter privation."
"The pie is delicious," she pointed out.
He nodded. "Yes. But it's not enough."
"Where would you go? Back to the south? To the east, perhaps? West?" Lisfel smiled, perhaps a little too toothily. "You can't build a railroad to the Meteors, but once you're there... imagine a bridge between the islands. You'd want to build something like that?"
"I don't know."
"Will you think about it? Answer me tomorrow, perhaps?"
Tomorrow she would be back at work, trying to draw something out of him. Teo no longer knew what, exactly, that was. She had not proven sufficiently bored by his explanation of the engineering work; nor was she sufficiently repulsed by his affection for novelty--and novel places. He listened to her talk about Cirthen, and how the city had changed since her childhood.
Curiously, she didn't talk about the museums, or the symphony orchestra commissioned five years prior by the Duke of Cirth-Arren. Her reporting, she said, focused on the redevelopment of the city's canals. In particular, the gangs that seemed to dominate those neighborhoods--seemed to have the tacit permission of the constables. She ended, pointedly, on the impact of the illicit substances smuggled in to the slums of Cirthen.
"It's a... regrettable consequence of open trading," Teo admitted. "I saw it in Kamir, too. Alcohol? Sahar?"
"That. But also, foreign spices and alchemical implements. Thaumaturgic devices--they disappear into the immigrant quarters. Visiting those was fascinating. It was a completely different world. Perhaps not like the ones you've seen, but definitely not like our own. What do you know of charmcraft?"
"Directly? Not much. We do employ it on the Railroad, now and then." This was not without controversy, and he was wary of revealing much more. "Why? Is it an interest of yours?"
"Many things are! That includes, magic, yes. The story was shaping up to be an interesting one. I would've liked to learn more."
"What happened?"
"In short, it was agreed the work was unbecoming of me. The rest is a rather longer tale, and the evening's run late. You must want to sleep, I suppose."
And so he walked her to her hotel. At the front door, she turned to him and grinned: "I hope you're more amenable tomorrow. I'm going to get what I want from you."
"And what's that?"
"Your story, of course. I have my ways, trust me."
"Do you?"
"Tomorrow, Mr. Franklyn." There was a flicker of something... electric in the collie's eyes. Almost mischievous. Not what he would've expected from someone who met with his father's approval. Indeed, Teo felt more certain than before that he could've asked to prolong the evening, and she might've consented.
But. He was not about to be tied down to Marrahurst, and definitely not about to surrender to his father's whims. The shepherd took the paw she offered, clasped it briefly between his, and nodded. "I shall speak to you then. A pleasant evening to you, miss."
He decided it was best to ignore the glint in her expression. There was work to do, after all, and he had neglected it for the interview. Lisfel Parralan could be dealt with when she reappeared; he would have to take a firmer stance, that was all.
Even arriving at the office just after the dawn gave Teo only a few hours of work before the reporter presented herself again. The dress was different--slightly simpler in form, lighter, and slightly less demure in its neckline--and she'd left the necklace behind. Her eyes, though, glinted with the same gemstone-keen clarity. "Good morning, Mr. Franklyn."
"Good morning, Ms. Parralan."
He answered politely, and demurely; the collie was sharper. She sat opposite him, and flashed a grin. "I was going to ask you: 'where shall we begin?' Instead, I'll tell you where. I think, if you were to be less cagey with me, you'd find we have something to offer one another."
"And what would that be?"
"A commonality of interest. You do a poor job of making yourself seem boring, and an equally poor job of making yourself seem undesirable to me."
Teo supposed, from this revelation, that his father's choice of a prospective mate made sense: within the bounds of social acceptability, alongside a veneer of inquisitiveness that Teo was supposed to find mollifying. He did not: "undesirable--is that so? Interesting choice of words."
The Border Collie reconsidered, her ear flicking. "I meant your ploy to throw me off your scent, when you found out I was a writer. Do you think I want to produce something sensationalist? Or worse: colorless? Maybe my questions are genuine."
Maybe they were, but he intended to keep his answers as simple as possible--what Lisfel had to "offer" him amounted to the approval of a father he had no particular concern for, after all. Still, she continued her interrogation until finally, with a sharp sigh, she fixed him in a piercing glare.
"You know I don't care about the monthly tonnage numbers. What was it like? What drew you to the Dalrath, Mr. Franklyn, where so many of our countrymen never dared to venture."
"It needed a railroad."
"And was it the most challenging task you've faced? No--let me phrase that a different way. I asked you yesterday to tell me where you'd most want to go. I imagine 'most challenging' is really the same. Where would it be? The Dalrath?"
"No. The east. I prefer open spaces to the forest, I'll say that much."
"Kamir?"
"Perhaps."
His assistant knocked, cracking the door open slightly. "Director? Sorry to interrupt, but another visitor. She's promised to make it brief."
"Who is it"
"They said their name was Aureli Calchott, sir."
Truthfully, Teo was happy to hear the name--but it also, he felt, would buy him time to size the collie up freshly. "Really? Goodness, there's a pleasant surprise. Do you mind a short interruption?" he asked Lisfel; the collie seemed to weigh the answer before shaking her head. "Send her in, then."
Aureli was a young ermine--simply attired, with her white fingers ink-stained and her eyes bright and keen. "Terribly sorry," she said, capturing Lisfel and Teo both in the gesture. "I was writing you a letter, but then I heard that you were actually here, and... well, suffice it to say I haven't able to stop thinking about our last encounter. I couldn't bear not to take your offer--so here I am."
"I'm quite happy to see you. When did you arrive?"
"Yesterday. It's been a whirlwind, truly. My father was... furious, as you can imagine."
Teo saw Lisfel's expression become quizzical, and decided to intervene before Aureli could further muddy the waters. "Yes. I understand what it's like to disappoint them. Ah, Miss Calchott, this is Lisfel Parralan, latterly of the Cirthen Journal. Aureli Calchott is, ah..."
"'Latterly' of Shallamer Graw, a farming town in North Seffishire," the ermine finished. She held out her paw. "I'd offer, but..."
Lisfel shook it anyway, despite the ink. "What takes you from the Seffish to Marrahurst?"
"Dr. Franklyn does. I happened to give him directions, and we ended up talking about--well, if you're a reporter, you can imagine how the Railroad is, can't you? All manner of exciting things."
"Exciting?" Lisfel prompted. "What sort of excitement do you mean?"
"Ships, mostly. My father is a carpenter, but when I expressed interest in perhaps becoming a shipwright, he wouldn't hear it. 'Settle down,' you know? Be 'civilized.' Teo told me to ignore them. He offered me an apprenticeship with the Railroad."
"Did he, then."
Franklyn cleared his throat. "Miss Calchott had some interesting ideas about rivercraft design. Without, however, the benefit of formal instruction or material science--for now. I feel lucky we're to gain your talent, Miss Calchott. Will you be here, or in Stanlira?"
"I don't know yet, Dr. Franklyn. They said they're inquiring about whether I should begin here or if there's someone better suited in the Port Offices. The next letter I write you, I'll finish, though. And it'll be from Cobbler Hill." The ermine appeared to realize, all at once, her forthrightness. She coughed. "I do apologize for the interruption. And my excitement."
"You don't need to apologize for either, here," Teo assured her. "If you need any help with textbooks or the bureaucracy, don't hesitate to use my name."
"Thank you. Good luck with your interview, Ms. Parralan," Calchott added hastily, bowed to the pair, and exited his office. She gave a final wave before the door closed, and Teo felt Lisfel's skeptical glare keenly.
"'Teo,' is it? Perhaps you should call me 'Lis,' in that case. Although she seems to know a different version of you. Perhaps one with fewer figures in his head." He didn't answer, although she clearly expected one from him. "Are we back to being difficult, Mr. Franklyn?"
More accurately, he felt she'd learned enough that she'd understand if he sent her away more bluntly. They did not, he was sure, have a 'commonality of interest.' "What did my father tell you about me?"
"Your father?"
Now she was being difficult. It caught the shepherd slightly off-guard. "My father, yes. Thynrald Franklyn."
"That name sounds familiar..." The Border Collie canted her head, eyes narrowed as though she had to search her memory like reading from her notebook. "Yes, I think I heard it from someone else. Back home, perhaps? Or..."
"From someone else?"
"Yes. Ah! Yes, it was on the train from Arrengate--that's where I heard of him. From one of the other passengers."
"Who?"
"I don't quite remember, to be honest, though I wrote it down. She was dreadfully tedious, if you must know. All I really gathered was her skepticism about some meeting she had in Marrahurst with an official of the Carregan Railroad. She made them sound... well, quite unfit for polite society. I offered to investigate."
"Naturally. And being a reporter, that salaciousness was intriguing."
"Former reporter--I told you that. That work was also unfit for polite society. My family had other ideas, and that meant the Cirthen Journal decided I should, as well. Salaciousness isn't my interest, a good story is. You don't find those in Cirthen. To be honest? I don't think you find them in Marrahurst, either, Dr. Franklyn."
"Teo."
"Lis. Who's the girl--Calchott?"
"Your story, perhaps. I found her building model boats on the Shallamer, a tributary of the Seffish. They were... unconventional, but interesting. The man she was with--her intended mate, I think--apologized on her behalf to me for bothering me with her modelmaking. That, that right there irked me."
"Hence the apprenticeship."
"Offered impulsively, I admit. I want to know what she can do with formal training and a master shipbuilder to work under."
"You care about boats? You seemed the landbound type, to me."
"It's true that I prefer solid ground. I don't spend a single minute of my day thinking about ships, Ms. Parralan. Nor do I care, particularly, that Calchott does. I care that she has ideas. The world needs people who see ideas in it more than it needs people who see limitations."
"If I had to guess, you also saw the way options were being closed off to her... something of chains, wearing the guise of decorum. Or expectations. I don't think you care about expectations much. I gleaned that from how you reacted when you thought your father had sent me here."
"I might've been a bit... unhelpful."
"A bit, yes," she teased. "I already told you that you're bad at it."
"Perhaps we could start over," Teo allowed. "If a particular question is on your mind."
"And you'll be more talkative?"
There were other meetings on his schedule; he could choose to reevaluate Lis then, free of the collie's sharp perceptiveness. Her questions couldn't lead to too many problems before then. "Thynrald intended to marry me off, like Calchott's did. You've spared me that, right? Consider me in your debt."
"I will. What bothers your father so much about you that he'd try to compel you to settle down like that?"
"I don't know. Simple concern for the family name, maybe. He'd rather it be in the news for his business, or his youngest son's investment in the vineyards. Are you from the border, Lis? After the Southern Civil War, and the Railroad's participation in it, you must know that Carregan was not exactly a popular name outside the Midlands."
"True. And you were involved with Rescat, weren't you?" Lis smirked at the look the question got her. "I did know of you before the train, a little bit. Society gossip. What was she like?"
Rescat Carregan had helped him put a railroad through the Dalrath. In turn, after the civil war she instigated, he'd cleaned up the worst of the destruction that followed. In between had been other travels--other skirmishes, too. "She's driven," he said of the vixen. "And brilliant. We remain close."
"Your father's approval had nothing to do with it?"
"No. Though I'm sure he saw the opportunity to try taming me again when we parted ways."
"I rather doubt that you're particularly tamable. No more than I am. So let's take that off the table, shall we?" Watching him, intently focused, she flipped her notebook shut. "The truth. You said you'd want to go to Kamiar? Have you considered anywhere else?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you know what calls to me? Kessea."
Once more, his secretary knocked. Teo glanced at the clock on his desk: five minutes past the hour. "Cancel the meeting. And all the others today. I'm not to be disturbed."
"Oh! Yes, sir." Chastened--surprise had lent a sharp edge to Teo's voice, and he'd even forgotten he meant to take the opportunity as a means of escape--the man nodded quickly, and closed the door.
Lis seemed, if anything, amused by the change in his mood. Teo wasn't certain he'd understood her--or that she herself understood what she'd said. "What of Kessea? Why?"
"I'm fascinated by the thought of it. Seeing the desert winds scour the sand from a portal back to the World Before... it might never live up to my imagination, but that must be better than never experiencing it at all. Have you?"
"No." Carregan Transcontinental had conducted some excavations in the ruins of Kessea, although Teo didn't know the outcome. He only had the vaguest sense of the Kessea Complex itself: hundreds of buildings, buried and uncovered at the whim of shifting dunes. "No, I've never been..."
"I've read about strange machines, and ancient writing. Chaos storms, too. I've never seen one."
"You should hope not to. I hope never to."
"I'm not sure you mean that, either. You worked with thaumaturgy--you pioneered a thaumaturgic... cantilever, is that what it's called? I don't understand all the terminology. Anyway, we're not talking about me."
"We are now."
She toyed with the cover of her notebook. "You're the one being interviewed. Perhaps if you're not too busy for dinner, we can discuss it then."
"I don't know that this is an interview anymore. You wanted me to get to know you, right? I have a question, now. What did you come here expecting to find? A story?"
The Border Collie's smile was quirky, and secretive. "At first. I thought I could find something interesting enough for the Cirthen Journal to take me back. Then I became curious about why you were trying to deflect me."
"The woman on the train didn't explain?"
"She only said that she was to meet you. My interest was piqued. I imagined it was at your request, and yet I couldn't quite understand how an eligible young man would make a choice like that. Simple intrigue was the story, at first: a hidden scandal? The need for an heir? I didn't know."
"It's much more boring."
Lis snickered: "And I doubt you're concerned with scandal. You weren't terribly concerned about corrupting that poor young Calchott woman, were you?"
Teo narrowed his eyes. "There was nothing untoward about that."
"There were several untoward things about it," the other dog corrected. "Nothing tawdry, is what you meant. I must admit that, now, my desire for a story has become more complex. A bit of it is simple curiosity. You're not happy here, in this office. Why don't you go elsewhere? Back to the field."
"My work is here."
"You could find a reason to leave. You said you remain close to Rescat Carregan, didn't you?"
"Yes..."
"She certainly seems like the kind of person who would understand your objection to being trapped here."
That was true, although Teo hadn't yet reached the point of asking Rescat for a transfer. "I could. It leaves open the question of where to go. Kessea, I suppose--is that what you're going to tell me?"
"Exactly." With a smirk, Lisfel got to her feet, and padded to his side of the desk. "Open a map, would you? You have plenty of those." Indeed, he had countless maps; he unrolled one charting the Lodestone Meteor's tracks along the coastline, and weighted it down. "There's new work going on in these hills. What do you know about it?"
"Nothing. The Railroad's base camp is fifty miles east, in the Valley of Bones."
"Would you like to know the rumor? They say a new temple's been unearthed, built by whoever was responsible for the structures at Kessea--untouched, maybe since the Fall. I'm sure the Railroad has archaeologists at work there. You are what amounts to the local Aernian authority, after all, aren't you?"
"I suppose you could say that we are, yes." He'd only seen lithographs of Kessea. Old buildings did not spark his interest--the past had never gripped the shepherd as strongly as the future did. At the same time, though, the technology of the World Before clearly outstripped their own. A pristine building might contain a clue to their secrets. "They wouldn't necessarily tell me. It's a different department. Core Operations."
"Oh, 'a different department.' I see." Lis had turned, and was looking at him pointedly. He heard her tail thump, softly, against the desk. "Who runs that one?"
"Rescat Carregan."
"You want to visit the site," he realized.
"I want to visit it, yes. That was my original destination. My family doesn't know, obviously, or they might've tried to stop me from leaving Cirthen. My ticket took me as far as Stanlira. I intended to buy passage on the Meteor, but... when I heard about you from a fellow passenger, I saw... an opportunity."
"You think I can help you?"
"I know you can help me," Lis corrected. "And you will. I'm going one way or the other, Teo--but you want to see it, too. I wasn't sure about that until I met you. I am now."
She kept staring. Her gaze, he reflected, must've made her quite the effective reporter. "The truth is... I could be persuaded."
"I know. What I don't know, not exactly, is what it would take to persuade you."
He thought over the little he knew of Kessea: archaeological papers, and surveys that Rescat had mentioned in passing. Would the scientists have a structural engineer on hand? What might be seen with fresh eyes? "Probably not much," the dog had to admit.
"Really? I expected you to play harder to get."
"We have a commonality of interest." As Lis laughed, he leaned around her to look at the stack of documents waiting his review. He skimmed the titles, looking for anything that mentioned the eastern frontier--seeing, in his peripheral vision, the wag of the collie's tail. It grew faster when he pulled a report free.
"Found something?"
"Perhaps. They're discussing a new spur south of Ülen Kara. I've heard that before, although..." Traditionally the Lodestone Meteor ran along the shores of the White Sea, but this had left the line vulnerable to coastal raiders. That led to a desire to move the tracks inland, which meant new infrastructure would need to be built, and as long as they were doing that, then it only made sense to investigate--
He supposed, belatedly, that the document was not for Lisfel's eyes, and tilted it away. It was too late, though--she'd seen something telling, some subtle twitch of his ear or flicker of interest in his eye. Lis put her paw on his wrist, turning the paper back into view and leaning closer. "Anything promising?"
"I'll need to read it. It's confidential."
The collie had grown quite close to him. When she grinned, and laughed under her breath, he felt its warmth on his nose. "Do you not trust me? And my innocent intentions?"
"You want to go to Kessea. You're hardly innocent."
"As do you," she pointed out. "So what does that make us?" Without giving him a chance to answer, she tilted her head to scan the open page. "They are aware of the new discovery, in that case. How long does it normally take to prepare an expedition of this kind?"
"As I said, it's confi--"
Lis put a finger to his muzzle. "Shh. You already know we're going. How long?" He didn't answer. The Border Collie let his wrist go and turned back to face him. "In my notebook, there are some maps I copied from King Rawlon's College, in Tabisthalia. I think the language is Tiurishkan, but I can't read it. Do you want them?"
"It might be helpful," Teo granted. "Tiurishkan or one of the coastal languages?"
The question drew a smirk. "Maybe that's 'confidential,' too. How are you going to make it worth my while?"
"We'll want to have a supply line secured and a base camp established before bringing the experts in. That will take two to three weeks, depending on which Iron Corps detachment is being called on."
"Reasonably swift, then." She pulled her notebook over, leafed through it, and showed him the neatly traced maps. "Do you understand this?"
That the survey had been conducted by Tiurishkan allies didn't surprise Teo--they indulged in history as a purely academic pursuit. He was looking at diagrams of what looked almost like a fortress: sturdy, regular perimeter walls and buildings within labeled 'sealed,' or something near enough; he only knew Kamiri well enough to translate it with any confidence. "Hakaral gunlet--Ülen Karish. I can't read it all that well, but this line here calls it a 'proposal,' or a 'request.' I wonder if the prince is trying to curry favor with the Lapis Emperor..."
"You'll have to ask Rescat Carregan. Do you think she might come?"
He shook his head. "After everything with the Kamir War, she... she's wary about being seen that far east. If it looks too much like interfering in regional politics, her name is sort of an alarm. If the Railroad requires representation, well... somebody from the Eastern Division should be there. It wouldn't be controversial, and they could spare a director. I have one in mind."
"So do I. I told you we had something to offer one another--it should be an adventure."
Teo wasn't able to tell much from the Tiurishkan maps. This itself excited him, though: it hinted at just how much work there was left to do. He grinned. "And what do you get out of this? Do you think the story will be worth it?"
"I'll find out when it's written. Until then, we have other shared concerns, don't we? The desires of our families to think about..."
"Disappointing them, you mean?" He laughed; despite her Aultlands accent, Lis had the sense of humor more suited to the country's wild eastern borders. "That could be rewarding. At least enjoyable."
"Could it be," she teased, voice flat. "Shall I let you return to work, Teo, or do we have more to discuss?"
"Your interview--isn't that so?"
The collie's smile had a tinge of the predatory about it. "Perhaps I already have almost everything I need to know about that. And you already let me persuade you, too, before we had to resort to other options."
"You thought it might take other options beyond..." he pointed to the map, and the Carregan memo it rested atop. "Letting me think about that?"
She closed the notebook, and leaned down--quite close indeed to the dog. "I had no idea what it might take."
"You had some. Something about getting to know you better..."
"We'll have plenty of time for that," the collie promised, but she hadn't given him any more space and Teo felt increasingly confident that he could guess what other forms her persuasion might've taken. "What?" she asked, in response to his look. "What are you thinking?"
"That you might've intended for this to end in something other than a second dinner," he admitted.
Lis's eyes widened, the blue darkening in feigned shock. "Nothing scandalous, of course. You wouldn't imply otherwise, would you?"
"Because of the purity of your intent? Or because you choose what's written, and therefore what becomes scandalous?" The smile that crept across her muzzle was all the answer Teo needed. "Perhaps we do need to adjourn for the day."
"Well, now I'm not so certain about that." She pushed herself up and onto the edge of his desk, taking a relaxed seat on the respectable oak. And then, with an errant wave of her paw, she brushed one of his pencils to the ground.
He bent over to pick it up and, stretching out her left leg, she nudged it just out of his reach. "What are you doing?"
"Distracting you."
"From?"
She didn't answer. Teo had to slide from his chair, kneeling to recover the pencil. At ground level, next to the soft, dappled fur of the other dog's calf, his nose caught the hint of her scent--subtler than perfume, and unmistakably natural. Lis shifted when he froze, the fabric of the dress billowed, and a good bit of subtlety ebbed.
Any concern for that diminishing, Teo lifted the edge of her dress; she spread her legs, parting the fabric wider until his eye could follow her markings up to where mottled blue-grey turned solid at her thigh. Nothing else broke the color until the creamy white of her crotch.
Which he could only see, he realized, because she was wearing nothing at all beneath the dress. He drew back a bit, and their eyes met. Her head canted. "Something unexpected?" she asked. "I left in a bit of a rush today... I hope I didn't forget anything."
"A suitable appreciation for consequences?"
"Oh, those I think I understand quite well. But..." She gestured for him to get up with her paw. "Why don't you come explain it to me?"
Instead he ducked back down. Beneath her dress, the collie's scent thickened, filling his nose as he nuzzled into her pelt. He worked his way upwards, steadily, until he'd gone far enough that Lis seemed to sense he was no longer merely exploring. Her legs tensed when he reached mid-thigh, and she sucked in a careful breath.
"That isn't quite what I meant..."
He stalled any other protest by closing the rest of the distance. His tongue found bare flesh, a hint of tang greeting him as he tasted her. She gasped, her legs closing, but by that point his muzzle was already within striking range and there was nothing to stop him from lapping at her folds.
After a few seconds she began to tremble with the effort of resisting his touch, and with a breathy moan relaxed, parting wider to let him have his way. Teo growled and nosed at her, laps turning into lengthy strokes of his broad tongue. It wasn't long before no effort was required to slip inside her, and the heady musk of her arousal was his immediate reward.
Lis whimpered, hips lifting in short hitches that turned into shuddering bucks the more his focus narrowed. He worked his tongue over her clit, teasing each new gasp and spasm from the collie until the slick wetness increasingly matting her fur was as much her own as his doing.
"Teo," she moaned, voice tremulous. "Please..."
"Please what?" He slid deeper while he waited for an answer, growling, muzzle pressed to her lips.
"Take me." He kept at it, her taste spreading over his tongue, but his paw was unbuttoning his pants and she must've heard the sound of the fabric because he felt her tail wag. "I... I need you."
With one last lap Teo pulled himself free and got up, letting his pants fall away as he did so. Lis was panting, her eyes lust-hazed and her ears all the back. "I was still explaining," the dog teased.
She shook her head unsteadily. "Now, Teo. Inside me. Now."
He lifted the dress when he stepped forward, bunching it up until it gathered beneath her hips and he could press between her legs. The tip of his cock met warmth--for a moment he marveled both at how hard he'd become and how wet she had, before he was slipping easily inside.
And with that realization he didn't bother to stop himself. He pushed, sinking smoothly into sodden heat. Lis gasped when he entered her, gasped again when his shaft was halfway-buried--then cried out, her eyes shut tight and her paws bunched in fists at the edge of the desk, as he finally hilted deep in her.
"Lis?"
Her muzzle was hanging open. "Cargal'th," she breathed, gasping shallowly until she got control of her lolling tongue. "Again." He swiveled his hips, drawing back a few inches and pumping back in to bury the whole of his length in the quivering collie. "Oh, that's good..."
Reassured, he started to thrust. Slowly at first, gently, but as his cock slid back into snug, gripping heat his own instinctive pleasure began to take control. Gradually as he bucked into the Border Collie her eyes reopened, and her ears perked again, but though their gazes locked her focus was clearly elsewhere.
Her legs wrapped about his hips, taking his quick, firm thrusts with gasping eagerness. Teo leaned forward. Their muzzles bumped, and met. He slipped into her mouth--Liz tensed and drew back, tasting herself on him. Before he could say anything, though, the collie growled and tugged him close by the scruff of his neck, their tongues intertwining as he sought her muzzle again.
Between his angle and the constricted grasp of the dog's thighs Teo had to stay deep, now, trading the length of his strokes for raw strength. He plunged her full eagerly, and as the effort started to meet with resistance he only took her more forcefully--ramming in, driving their hips together.
Until he realized what he was doing and forced himself to an uneasy halt, panting into her muzzle. "We should--think about this."
She squirmed, grinding herself on his swelling knot. "You tieing me?"
"Consequences?"
Lis grinned fangedly. "Not really. Not right now. But we just met--"
"Isn't proper--"
"Not at all."
"What do you want, then?" She relaxed her hold and gave him a nudge. Teo pulled from her, the slick sound amply evidenced by the glistening of his drenched cock. Lis looked at that, and grinned again.
And regained her footing before turning around and bending over the desk. She raised her left leg, putting her knee on the surface to brace herself, lifting her dress up with her tail to bare the inviting, wet lips of her sex. She looked back, tail hiking higher. "Make me yours."
The shepherd guided himself back to her, pushing deep inside the collie bitch--all the way, past the thick bulge at the base of his straining shaft. "Improper," he muttered, taking a second buck against her rump, strong enough that she shuddered all over with it when his knot finally wedged inside.
"Very proper," she countered, moaning when he thrust again, and then gasped. "No--don't pull out. Stay--stay in me." He humped at her steadily, knot stretching her wider, and she nodded her encouragement.
"If I tie with you--"
"Too late," she cut him off. Which it was. Not that it helped matters when she pushed back at him, biting her lower lip as his cock nudged deeper. "Claim me, Teo. Fill me up. Let me have--oh!" He'd clutched her hips in both paws and began to thrust in earnest, her urging taking him beyond the limits of his control.
She squeezed on his knot as it swelled; at last he was locked firmly, his pace rapid and erratic as his tip prodded her deep and his pleasure rose up until he snarled, unable to help himself, and gushed into the dog. For the first half-dozen pulses he bucked hard, forcing their bodies close as he could manage to ensure his seed splashed as deep as he could get it.
As his cum filled her, though, the need lessened. He slowed into shorter, rolling grinds with the last few spurts, leaning increasingly heavily on her until he was, at last, compelled to reach for the desk to steady himself there. Before his legs gave out, he drew her with him into his chair, and she let out a shaky bark at the way it accented the pressure of his buried knot.
"Sorry..."
"I just bet you are." She relaxed, pushing back into his chest. "You're persuaded now?"
"I don't know." He rested his muzzle on her shoulder, tracing the collie's curves with his paws. "What were you persuading me to do, anyway?"
Lis giggled, her own breathing unsteady. "I forgot. I'll think of something beforehand, though."
"Before we get to Kessea?"
She craned her head back until she was looking at him awkwardly, upside-down. "Before I tell you to do it again."
"So... yes?"
That ended with a lick to his nose, and a teasing wriggle of her hips. "Definitely."