Conquest Of The Fallen: Dark Dominions

'Prayers should be made for the murderers. The whores. The perverse and the ill-minded. But never petition the Martyr to grant longevity. – Pontus the Eighth, Highfather of the Faithful [Order of Saint Lucille].'

...

THEY WERE RIDING ACROSS silver sky when Rafel posed his first question to Moira after her sudden announcement in the Grand loggia.

"Explain yourself, Agent. What is this news from Flamecrest?"

Moira had played the I'll-explain-on-the-way card after running into Rafel and the girls practically dry-humping in the castle's East Wing. And as Cora, Aya, and himself gathered into the [shuttle wagon] the young Agent had come in with, Rafel had to chain Ravenna down at the castle with the promise of playing her the piano later.

"Moira's voice sounds like there's trouble. I don't think you should come on this one," he'd told her. But it was only after he half-heartedly agreed to play her favorite song in his [Gladorium] at his return that she pouted her lips and quit heckling him.

At that second—an hour ago, he wanted nothing more than to pin her on her knees before him, force-feed those cute, pink lips with his fat cock, until all she could say was breathe saliva down his balls.

"Sir?"

He blinked, hearing Moira's voice.

Cora and Aya sat with the female Agent while he sat on the adjoining leather facing theirs. "I was just about to explain, Sir." Moira said to him. Rafel nodded and smoothly reclined back in the luxury wagon to listen. Moira gave an expanded lecture of all that had transpired with the case since Major Midas Azubuike was found—with his head cut off in his home without mincing words. "Sir, whilst we are yet to find the Major's head, we have made some major developments in the case.

"We collected blood samples from the scene and ran them through [sanguine cards]; you were right: there were two bodies in the room. One is missing, as well as the Major's head. The blood samples are currently with a blood witch coven, trying to trace the remnant mana signatures in the essence. Major Midas was the last son born to a Skyling mom; he does possess diluted fae blood... or did, I guess."

Moira's tea eyes traveled to the tinted windows of the wagon for a while. "His father was Critch: [ram mutant], so that complicates things."

"While we're waiting for results from the [sanguine cards], any info of worth?" Cora really didn't want to believe Moira had interrupted what would have turned out to be a hot foursome for fuck all.

"Ahem—" Moira cleared her throat, blushing hotly, "sorry." She then continued with the main reason for pulling Rafel away from his nubile Empress this early in the morning: "Flamecrest is a regional seat in the west, base for Dragonriders, territory of its [Covenant]," she caught Rafel's leopard gaze, and cleared her throat again, "—as I'm sure you already know, Sir. The homes are vastly spaced for the riders to mount, so it's difficult for the neighbors to hear altercations.

But last week, we received a detailed letter from a certain Lady Ji Huan, House of Silva. Her husband is an Academia with the Force." Moira paused, "she had a lot to say. Long story short, my team filtered the parts of gossip and passive envy that existed between Lady Huan and the subject of her letter..."

"Let me guess," Cora put, "the subject of her letter was the Major's wife."

"Adanna Nnadi." Rafel added.

"Exactamenté!" Moira cheered. The tips of her ears reddened when she briefly groupied-out. Her hazel eyes passed over Aya's generous bust; the sukky only calmly observing her. Moira hurriedly went on, "the letter mentioned a warm summer day of the past year when Lady Huan claimed she was taking a stroll of the orchards by the loch and spied from the branches of a Willow tree the Major's wife and mistress both in close-quarters of each other.

In Lady Huan's words, the little white girl was in Adanna's lap...and they weren't talking."@@novelbin@@

"An affair." Rafel droned.

"Mhmm." Moira nodded. Cora said too, "a lesbian affair."

"MOTIVE!" Aya and Cora said together, surprising each other. Cora went on: "if the wife and mistress were shagging, that's enough motive to off the one hindrance to their romance. But it doesn't answer the question of the second body." Rafel agreed in his deep voice, studying cooly the gorgeous babes opposite him, "yes, love. But it's a start."

The [shuttle wagon] began to descend.

The vision of the sky blurred and the car missed a flying Redtail by its spiny back.

Flamecrest came into view and Rafel detected the flat roof of the House of Iron. The coppery stone of its tower and storks blinking at them. Bluish light of [Cosmo] bathed the flatstone roof as the shuttle wagon landed. Just before they stepped out, Cora volunteered, "I'm guessing the little white girl in Lady Ji Huan's letter is Holly Evergarden." They all smiled but none of them said anything else.

Adanna Nnadi was waiting to receive in the great foyer of the home. Since she was the proprietress of the House, Midas had nothing to offer her in his will that wasn't already hers to begin with. "Lord Israfel," she greeted with a bow, "the worshipped hero of Titans Landing graces me with his presence again." Adanna followed her bow with swift pecks delivered to Cora's and Aya's cheeks. She did not notice Moira. Not out of spite though. Adanna was a big woman.

"Lady Nnadi." Rafel greeted back. His smile back at her reached his eyes. Cora wasn't as courteous.

"You'd never think a man was found in here with his head cut off," she said. Adanna laughed it off. "With what I pay my servants, I hope so." Cora was annoyed; she didn't intend it to be funny. Adanna was now leading them into a vast chamber that could double as a study area, which Rafel guessed was her office when Moira burst into the dialogue without preamble. "How did you know when we'd be here?"

Adanna took the Agent's zealous attitude with light apathy. "Aguiyi," she offered offhandedly. When everybody turned and gave her the look, she let free a deep sigh. "He's my dragon. Gosh! I wonder how y'all close cases sometimes. I have a dragon Familar called Aguiyi. Your shuttle was impossible in the skies."

Moira said nothing else. She allowed Adanna make snide comments as to the incompetence of the C.S.A. Till they reached a place with chairs. Once they were sat, Moira began to fire off her questions.

"Where were you, Lady Nnadi on the eve of Sol's day, summer season, last year?"

Adanna looked put off. "Uh, around here if I'm to guess. How do you expect me to know that? Like you said, LAST YEAR. I already answered all of your questions the last time you were here. To be frank, I only entertain this visit as a courtesy to the Rebel Lord," her warm eyes quickened toward Rafel. She quickened, "do I need an Advocate present?"

Moira didn't look fazed. "You tell me, m'lady, do you?"

Adanna gave a small smile at the ease to which the young Agent had flipped the coin.

"Go on." Adanna relaxed. Stay tuned with My Virtual Library Empire

"Were you having any affair during the Summer of last year? Surely, this you can remember."

It was the first time Rafel had seen Adanna Nnadi, sole heiress of the legendary House of Iron, squirm.

Her beautiful dark skin suddenly took on a sheen of worrisome sweat. Her fingers tapped erratically on the head of the golden Nubian lion statue in her home office space. She asked, "what does my love life twelve months ago have to do with the death of my husband?"

Aya whispered through [psyche bridge] in Rafel's mind. 'Must she answer each question with one of her own? Evasiveness is not a good look.'

Moira was talking: "Not that I need to tell you this, but we've good it on good evidence that—"

"Motive." Cora sharply cut in. "An extra-marital affair provides deadly motive for homicide. You are wasting all of our time, woman. This fine Agent here is being cozy with you. Spare us the need for a Truthfinder, will you?"

Cora's blue eyes burned the short distance to the dark-skinned Lady, and even though Adanna was twice Cora's stature and figure, she still shrank a bit. And she replied finally. "Yes. In the Summer of last year, I was having an affair." Her coffee-black iris looked faraway for the seconds she spoke: "it was a romance for the fairytale, the beginning of our love. And what wonderful love it is.

The best season to fall in love. Summer...with a [Sunling] queen on the throne, nothing could go wrong."

'She's right, Dominus. Giselle ruled the Continent at that time.' Aya whispered in Rafel's mind again.

What Adanna and the others didn't know was that Moira had pulled on her Influence and stablished a [Earth Root] ability that manifested the nature of a truth serum. Before she'd landed on the stone roof, the Agent had potion-ed herself into a living Truth-finder. She let Adanna's words settle a while before asking what she knew everyone was thinking:

"You had this affair with whom?"

Adanna didn't get the chance to reply because a fresh, sweet voice did for her.

"Me," the voice said, "she had the affair with me."

Everyone turned. And standing by the doorway of the spacious home office was the whitest girl in the Continent—and somehow Lady Adanna's lover.

Two words:

Holly Evergarden.

She walked into the room, to Adanna, and gently sat in the Lady's lap.

"Does this answer your question, Agent?" Holly poised the question at Moira. Everyone from Rafel to Aya was speechless.