FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

To Dream of Darkness

A story by DoggyStyle57

Chapter 24, Written January 2012

===

Chapter 24 - So much to learn

In the morning Sarina arose with the sun. It was pleasantly cool, but windy outside. Without even thinking about it, she thickened her fox fur into a winter pelt that made the cool weather much more comfortable.

The bungalow that her father had apparently purchased for their use was situated about half a mile from the harbor road, on the lower slopes of Victoria Peak. From their second floor balcony she could look out to the North and East, over the immense harbor of Hong Kong. But she couldn't see it very well, because of the rows of buildings closer to the harbor, and downhill from their bungalow.

She went outside, and looked behind the house, at the steep-sided peak above Victoria City. Her eyes glowed as she teleported to its summit, where she could get a better look at her new home.

The wind was fierce on the top of the peak, but the air was cooler, and smelled much fresher. She turned slowly in place, taking it all in, and then looked down at the harbor, now two miles or so distant. She had never seen such a large harbor in her life. It had to be at least four miles long, and almost two miles deep, with entrances on the East and West ends, and the coastline of the mainland forming a fourth side. A wide road went the length of the harbor, and was lined with buildings of as much as four stories in height. More boats than she could count were arrayed along the shore, in some areas she saw many boats were oddly tied to one another in long lines, side to side, so thirty or more lashed together boats formed their own peninsulas jutting out into the water. Apart from those clusters of native boats, she saw European-style docks, with British and Indian ships offloading cargo and passengers, and a few British warships floating in the harbor. There was even an American ship there.

Victoria City clung to the harbor's edge like a coat of moss on a tree trunk, taking advantage of what little flat land the island offered. Most of the rest of what she could see was inhospitable ranges of steep, rocky slopes, and cliffs that plunged into the sea. Sarina wondered for a moment why the English would prefer the lower areas, when it seemed so much nicer up here on the summit. Then she laughed at herself as she realized that anyone who could not teleport would have a hard time indeed getting up and down the mountain's steep sides.

Mages like Sarina were really not all that common. In the land where she was born, she and her parents had been the only real mages she had known of, though her parents had insisted that others with the magical talent did exist, in seclusion. In the town in England where she had lived as Sarina, there had been fewer that thirty five mages of any real power that she had been able to find the names of. Most of them had been like Lady Portia, skilled in some areas, and specializing in what they knew how to do best. They were more like skilled tradesmen than powerful and influential individuals. They might use portals to help offload ships, as Portia had done; or shape stone for sculptures or building supplies; or used their skills to locate magical creatures and potential troublemakers. To Sarina, it seemed such a waste of potential. There was so much that a mage could learn, and so much that they could do. She could never be satisfied with just shaping materials into useful forms. Sarina wanted more. She wanted power, and the ability to ensure that no one could ever again take from her what she claimed as hers.

Smiling, she teleported back to her room in the bungalow. She would learn the ways of these Chinese mages, and perhaps even the secrets of that forbidden island of Japan, which sounded like the place her real mother had come from. Here they also referred to certain kinds of fox folk as Kitsune. She was determined to find out more about what Kitsune were, and therefore more about herself, and her own abilities.

Lord Randall found her an hour later, gazing out from the balcony, staring at the clusters of boats at one end of the harbor. "Good morning Sarina. Did you sleep well?" he asked.

"Yes, though I am getting hungry now, father. There is no food in the kitchen, and no servants to prepare it. I suppose we shall hire some natives to be our servants?" Sarina asked.

"Yes, that will be the first order of business, after we eat. Come along dear. Have you ever eaten congee?" Lord Randall asked.

"No. What is that, father?" Sarina replied, though she could see in his surface thoughts a steaming bowl of something white, with pieces of fish on top. She also got a fleeting image in his mind of herself and Lord Randall mating, when she was fourteen, on the night before they met with Lord and Lady Pennington. He believed it had only been a dream, but he had not forgotten it for the last six years. She knew then that he still lusted for his own daughter's flesh, though he wasn't allowing himself to act on his impulses.

"It's a rice porridge that they eat here for breakfast. Top it with fish or other tasty bits, and it's not half bad. There are at least a dozen shops between here and the harbor that sell it. We'll get a bowl and some tea, and then see about hiring some servants. After that, we need to meet with some of my trading partners," he said, while looking guiltily to one side, as his recurring sexual fantasy came up yet again. On the trip here from England, the erotic dreams had begun again, and he had been rather glad that Sarina had a separate room on the steamships, and separate rooms in their other accommodations. He set the thought aside, and got his coat and hat.

Before they left the bungalow, Sarina stopped Lord Randall in the parlor, and asked, "Father? Have you told anyone here about me yet? About who I am?"

"Not yet, no. As I said, I hoped to take you around and introduce you later today. Why?" Lord Randall asked.

Sarina's eyes glowed briefly as she used her magic to make Lord Randall more open to suggestion, and then she said, "I think you should introduce me as your wife, and not your daughter. No one here would know the difference, and it would give me a higher standing in their society, would it not?"

Lord Randall stopped in mid stride, and stared at Sarina. "I... You can't be serious."

"Oh, but I am. It would not be so remarkable that a prosperous merchant would return to his home country, and then bring back to the Colony a young and attractive wife, is it? It will make you look better, and it will ensure that no one tries to court me for their own. And I do remind you of mother, don't I?" Sarina said, giving just a little more of a mental push to her suggestion. "Besides, living with you here, would I not be serving almost all the functions of a wife anyway? The servants would respect me more, if they thought me your wife."

"I... Sarina, really. Think what you are asking. Would a man like me bring back a young wife, and then have separate bedrooms? We would have to... well, at least appear to..." he stammered.

"Share a bedroom? Be affectionate with each other? I wouldn't mind. And if you are honest with yourself, you know you wouldn't mind either. I can read your surface thoughts, my beloved Edward. I can see that you longed to have me in your bed, even as you left me with Uncle Thomas and Aunt Meghan when I was fourteen. When we are alone, I can be any woman you could ever desire. Even how I looked to you when I was fourteen, like in your fantasies," Sarina said, eyes glowing as she stepped closer. She embraced him and pushed just a bit harder with her magic, adding an illusion that caused him to believe she was in heat, and saying, "Take me, Edward Randall! Claim me as your wife!"

Lord Randall couldn't speak. His hat tumbled to the floor as his daughter unexpectedly embraced him like a lover. He didn't even notice it had fallen from his head. Part of him wanted to decline, but that part was losing the battle rapidly. He sighed, took her hand in hers, and led her back to her bed, saying, "We... never did have a proper honeymoon, did we, my beloved?"

==

Sarina mated passionately with Lord Randall, and as his mind opened to hers with the intimate contact, she devoured every bit of knowledge that he had about Asia, India, and the trade markets for tea and opium. She removed his inhibitions about incest, and even enhanced his desire to rut with his own daughter. She used their union to bind her to him, solely to increase her knowledge and to make him more dependent on her. By the time they were done, Lord Randall was hopelessly in love with Sarina, and more than willing to tell everyone that this girl was his wife, and that they had married while back in England.

Sarina used her magic to alter their travel documents, so their papers read that they were a husband and wife, and not father and daughter. Until they returned to England, where the Penningtons and others would know the truth, no one need be the wiser.

She was actually rather disappointed with Lord Randall's knowledge of Hong Kong and China. He had spent far more time in India, and had only visited Hong Kong on three occasions, all early in the year, and then returning to India before the monsoon rains of spring, and the typhoon storms of late summer and early fall. He had never lived here a full year, and had only been to the mainland once, to a city called Canton. His sole reason for moving here was the prospect of great wealth to be earned in the opium trade, and in buying tea to sell back in England.

She was glad however for what she had learned from Lord Randall this way, since it had saved her from a grave error in her original plans. Before it occurred to her to pose as his wife, Sarina had considered taking the place of a local brothel girl, and working her way up through the better brothels and their customers, until she could raid the minds of a number of highly placed Chinese officials. But here, the whores that served the English and other foreigners were of an indigenous people called the Tanka, who were outcasts that were not even permitted to live on the land. Those clustered of side by side boats in the harbor were their homes, and their brothels. Lord Randall had availed himself of them many times, and he knew there was no 'upward mobility' from their ranks. The Chinese natives would not ever hire a Tanka "salt water girl". There were no whores in Hong Kong that the Chinese officials would deign to get close to. She would have to get to the mainland if she wanted to try that approach. If she wanted to get into the minds of high ranking native Chinese by using the openness of mind that she experienced with sex, she would need to have access to their families, so she could try to impersonate their wives and concubines. But they never brought their wives or concubines to Hong Kong.

Her only other choice would be a more brutal assault on the minds of Chinese natives, which could quite possibly leave her victims insane or dead. She would use whatever tactics worked, but really didn't want to stir up a hue and cry by leaving a series of dead or insane victims strewn across the land.

They had breakfast, hired some local workers to cook, do laundry, and clean the house, and then met with Lord Randal's "Merchant Contacts".

The first group was other English merchants, the captain of the largest British warship in the harbor, and the colonial Governor, a rather short bulldog who seemed very pleased to see a merchant actually bringing their family to the island. "We need more English families here," he insisted, "Good for the colony, and good for land values. Glad to have you both." As had been the case back in England, the British subjects in Hong Kong tended to be an assortment of humans, dogs, foxes and wolves, with a few other species also present, like ferrets.

Sarina found the mayor's surface thoughts intriguing. He really did want to make Hong Kong into a major port, and the pride of the English colonies. He had backed a number of 'social improvements', including a theatre, a polo grounds, and a cricket pitch. He was also planning a "Gentleman's Club" where the merchants and governments officials could socialize with their peers. The male merchants and government officials, that is. The club would be for males only, and elsewhere in Hong Kong colonial society a woman had little function, except as a wife, or a mistress.

When she met with several of the Chinese officials, they were no better, when it came to their opinions of women. They had their place in Chinese society, but always below the men. Sarina realized that if she wanted in depth access to the knowledge of the Chinese mages, she would have to pose as a male. She could certainly do that, with her shape shifting abilities, but she had never attempted to live as a male for any length of time. They would be very unlikely to teach a female any magic. But this also gave her an advantage, in that they did not expect a female to ever be a mage. Among the Chinese natives, there were Humans, but the other Chinese people tended to foxes, ferrets, minks, and felines, with only the occasional dog and wolf among them.

When their last meeting of the day concluded, Sarina went back to the bungalow with her father, and told him some of what she had learned from the surface thoughts of the merchants. She also removed the bed from his bedroom, leaving them with just her bed, and using his bedroom as an office and study for Lord Randall.

As they mated that night, Sarina wondered if she should tell Lord Randall one other disturbing thing that she had found in the thoughts of the Merchants, the Governor, and the Chinese officials. While the harbor was indeed superb, the Chinese did not think it was healthy to remain on the island, and they would only visit for brief periods, and then leave. Only the lowest caste individuals in their society were willing to live and work here. But on the mainland, foreigners were only allowed in certain port cities, and even then in only certain sectors of those cities. So if Sarina wanted to learn the secrets of the Orient, she would need to do it in the form of a Chinese native, and most likely while appearing to be male. She decided to wait a while and see if an opportunity arose for her to visit the mainland with Lord Randall, rather than speaking to him of the possibility that his 'new wife' would need to change genders for a while.