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To Dream of Darkness

A story by DoggyStyle57

Chapter 34, Written February 2012

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Chapter 34 - Servants and Familiars

Lord Pennington was rather stunned. Sarina had just clearly stated, in front of her servant girl, not only that he was her real father, but that she would welcome her into her bedroom! He looked nervously at the dark-furred vixen that Sarina had so far introduced only as 'my maid', and said, "Ahhh, Sarina. Do you think it wise to say such things in front of a servant? No matter how much you feel you can trust her, there are some things that..."

Sarina held up her hand, and said, "Perhaps I should explain Ashley's relationship to me, father. I introduced her as my maid, simply because that is how she will act, for the most part, while we are here. But she is no common servant. How old would you say she is?"

"I... well, she looks no older than you were when you came to us, Sarina. Perhaps fourteen? Surely no more than sixteen?" he replied.

"Ashley, tell my father how old you really are, to the best of your ability," Sarina said.

"I have lived for well over seven hundred of your years, Lord Pennington," Ashley replied calmly.

"What? Impossible! No one lives that long! Wait... you're... you're not a vampire, are you? Undead?" Lord Pennington asked, now rather afraid.

"Me? A vampire? Certainly not! May I show him, Mistress? I doubt he would believe me if I just told him," Ashley said.

"By all means. But try not to damage anything, please," Sarina replied.

Ashley stood, and went over to the fireplace, where a cheerful coal fire burned in the hearth basket. She reached her bare hand into the fire, and withdrew a large chunk of burning coal, holding it without it even singing her fur. Then she looked at Lord Pennington and said, "I am not a creature of your world, at all. I am a fire elemental. The hottest fires of this world are harmless to my kind."

She held the piece of red-hot burning coal cupped in her hands, like a child playing with a snowball, and said, "My own fires are not of this world, and cannot be extinguished by conventional means. My fire can consume almost any material of this realm, as easily as I do this..." Her eyes glowed a brilliant green for a moment, and black fire engulfed the burning coal, reducing it to ash and burning to nothing in the blink of an eye.

"That is truly amazing!" Lord Pennington said. "I confess I know nothing to speak of when it comes to magical creatures. I am aware of vampires and werewolves and the like, but I have never heard of an 'elemental'. You look so normal, that I never would have guessed you were anything but a young vixen."

Ashley nodded and said, "This, My Lord, is my natural form." She released the illusion of her vixen maid appearance, and stood there as a creature made entirely of black fire, that seemed to suck all the light from the room, as she calmly regarded him with glowing green eyes that looked like burning pits of copper.

Lord Pennington gasped in shock and stared with wide eyes, as he held up one hand in a useless attempt at defending himself. "Augh! A demon!" he cried.

"That will be sufficient, Ashley. You are frightening him. Father? You know that I am a mage. Ashley is not a demon, though she is a creature from the place we call Hell. She is very much under my control, and bound in service to me as my familiar," Sarina said. "For ten years, she must obey my every command, to the best of her abilities, and she may not in any way betray me. Ashley? What would happen to you, if you failed in your duties to me?"

Ashley resumed her fourteen year old vixen maid form, and said, "I would be consigned to Hell for one hundred years, Mistress, unable to leave that realm."

"And even though you are from the realm we call Hell, this would be disagreeable to you?" Sarina asked.

"Yes. It is much more entertaining and interesting to live in your world," Ashley replied. "If I was to be stuck in Hell, I would be unable to grow in capability or status. I would waste a hundred years of my existence in absolute boredom, stuck doing menial activities for other denizens of my realm. I would also forfeit everything I have gained by agreeing to serve you. In terms that compare to the experiences of your kind, it would be like you serving many long years in solitary confinement, while being required to do the most disgusting tasks imaginable, and while bankrupting you at the same time. Betraying your interests would harm me far more than it could harm you."

"Ashley, this is a direct order," Sarina said. "You are not to do anything that would harm Lord Pennington, or his home, or his servants, unless you must to so to protect and serve me. Provided that doing so does not conflict with your service to me, I want you to protect him from harm, including harm to his reputation, and therefore you will speak to no one else of any 'delicate subjects' that you may overhear us speaking of. Is that clear?"

"Very clear, Mistress," Ashley replied. "I already would keep any of your personal business private, of course. I have no reason to speak to anyone except by your command. I understand that as long as Lord Pennington and his household are not a threat to you, that I must protect them and their secrets. From anyone but you, of course, Mistress. I must always serve your needs first and foremost."

Lord Pennington still seemed very nervous about having a creature of Hell in his home, but was reassured to know that Sarina had the elemental under her control. "I see. Well, ah, this is all quite beyond my understanding, but I will accept that we may trust her to not betray you, or me, I should hope. We will of course not tell Sister Meghan or my servants of her nature! I am quite uneasy with the idea of making deals with creatures from Hell, but I guess that it is something a mage must do, on occasion. I am not so enamored of the church as to trust them more than I trust my own flesh and blood. I will trust your judgment when it comes to magic, Sarina. I fear that I cannot say that I have so high a degree of control or trust for my own three servants. My maid, cook and laundress are good people, and serve me well, but I have no such hold on them as you have over your maid. If we speak freely in front of them about such delicate matters, they might well tell my former wife, or others who could harm me."

"Very well. They do still go to their own homes at night?" Sarina asked. "When it is only you, and I, and Ashley in the mansion, we may do as we wish?"

"Yes, they go home shortly after dinner, as they did when you lived here. With only my own needs, it makes no sense to have night help. Still... Sarina, much as I do want to accept your offer, I would not feel right about, well, enjoying your favors, while the matter of Lord Randall's funeral is still unfinished. When are you expecting his remains to arrive?" Lord Pennington asked.

"As you wish, father. His ashes should arrive within the next two weeks, escorted by a servant who was quite loyal to Lord Randall and me while we lived in Hong Kong. Exactly when he will arrive is difficult to say," Sarina replied. "When I left here to go to Hong Kong, Lord Randall had several business arrangements to make along the way, and it took us four months or more. But I instructed my servant to travel as rapidly as possible, and to seek the aid of the Trading Company that Lord Randall dealt with. He should be returning on the Tea Clippers that bring tea here from the Orient. I also gave him a letter of introduction, explaining in several languages what he was charged to do, and asking those who receive him to give him what aid they can to speed him on his way."

"And yet clearly you were able to get here much more rapidly yourself. More magic, I presume? Why did you not just bring this servant and Lord Randall's remains with you?" Lord Pennington inquired.

"After Lord Randall's death, I had many duties to perform, to settle his estate. I also had personal business that I wanted to conclude while in the Orient. I was not at all certain how long I would be delayed, and I did not wish to delay his funeral, or informing you of his fate any longer than necessary. Also, there was some element of risk in my own travels. I did not want to risk his remains being lost, and his fate being unknown, if my own path led to trouble," Sarina explained.

"That was quite considerate of you, my dear. This... family servant you mentioned, who is escorting his ashes here? Is he also a magical creature?" Lord Pennington asked.

"No. Lu Chen is a half-Chinese, half-American wolf, and in his early twenties in age. He was disowned by the families of both his parents because of his mixed blood. I gather that his mother has died, and his father abandoned him, and returned to America without the boy. He is a decent cook, and served us as cook and house boy. He was so loyal to us that even the threat that he might himself die of the Fever that Lord Randall died of did not cause him to leave our service. When our other two servants abandoned us, Lu Chen remained, loyal to his Lord's last breath, and attending to Lord Randal's final needs as diligently as I did, at great risk to his own life."

"You don't say? He sounds like a most commendable fellow. I should like to thank him for that loyal service to my brother in law, and to you," Lord Pennington said.

"I thought that you might, Father. And I would ask one small favor of you," Sarina said. "When Lu Chen arrives, I would like you to offer him employment in your household. He has been quite loyal, as I said, and his loyalty deserves reward. There is nothing for him in Hong Kong, and he could have a much better life here. I cannot continue to employ him myself, for where I go after I leave this place, only a servant like Ashley may follow me."

"Well, I shall have to meet him and see what he is capable of, but I am sure something can be arranged, my dear. What you have said of him thus far speaks volumes for his worth," Lord Pennington said.

"Very good, then. I would like to introduce Ashley to your servants, as my personal maid. And then I have business to attend to in town, and we will be out until dinner time," Sarina said.

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The maid, cook and laundress were all very sympathetic when they welcomed Miss Sarina back into the household, and heard of the unfortunate demise of her father, Lord Randall. They remembered Sarina fondly, and accepted that the young Mistress would of course not travel without a lady to attend to her needs. As they met Ashley, Sarina subtly altered the servant's minds in one regard, in that she implanted a strong suggestion in their minds to pay no attention to any reflections of Ashley that they might see, or expect to see, and to be at ease in her presence.

Sarina went to her old rooms, and found them clean and orderly, with a replacement for the bed and dresser that she had taken with her to Hong Kong. She unpacked only her clothes, leaving her invaluable spell books and her other possessions on her necklace. Ashley quietly followed her. While she was unpacking, the maid brought fresh linens for the bed, made the bed, and left a fresh scupper of coal for the sitting room fireplace.

Sarina and Ashley next went out in search of Lady Portia, and to tell the innkeeper that they had no further use of the room that had rented at the inn. As it happened, the canine mage was at the inn, having her lunch. They ordered a meal for Sarina, and joined the mage for lunch, filling her in on how the visit went so far.

"Well, I'm relieved to hear he took it so well," Lady Portia said. "He's a nice old gentleman, and I am sure he will appreciate the visit from you. Will you be staying for long after the funeral?"

"Well, I hadn't planned to," Sarina admitted. "But I suppose that my business in the Orient can wait for a little while. When could I start learning more about portals from you? I will probably have a week or two before Lord Randal's ashes arrive, and I may as well use the time constructively."

"We could begin this afternoon, if it suits you. I have no pressing investigations at the moment. What i particular did you wish to learn more on? I recall you mentioning very long range portals?" Lady Portia asked, as she finished off a tasty meat pie, and washed it down with some ale.

"Yes. How to make very long range portals, where each end is known, is one topic. The other was, if you have a fairly accurate map, and if you know where you are, is it possible to make a portal to a place on the map that you haven't been to yet, and cannot see? Say, to someplace five hundred to a thousand nautical miles from where you start?"

"Yes, I can teach you that," Lady Portia replied. "In fact, the two requests are related. The calculations for eliminating most of the error in a very long portal jump are much easier if you have an accurate map of the area, and know where both places are on that map, and their relationship to each other. And in either case, setting the destination end over a long distance, or to a destination that you are uncertain of, requires a trick where you make the far end movable, and make it possible to look through the portal. That way, you see, you can look through the portal before you cross, and can adjust its position so you don't come out in a wall, or in solid rock, or several leagues away from a boat that you hoped to travel to."

"Oh? That sounds fascinating!" Sarina said, with quite an honest and enthusiastic response. "And could that method then also allow you to see a great distance away, and perhaps to cast spells through that portal? Can the far end be seen, before you pass anything through it?"

"Oh, I think I will enjoy teaching you these things!" Portia replied. "You already have a fine grasp of the possibilities!"

They soon finished their meal and took a carriage back to Lord Pennington's mansion, stopping once on the way to secure the rental of a mage's workshop not far from the one that Sarina used to use, and close to her temporary home.

"I shall see you at your new workshop in the morning!" Lady Portia said, as they parted company.

"That went quite well," Sarina said to Ashley, as they walked into the mansion. "I can see now that I did the right thing in returning here, for many reasons."