17. Stances (Patreon)

The sultry silhouette closed on her slowly, with heavy steps marked by the sound of heels. Do not let yourself be fooled or tempted. Aloe focused her psyche, putting pressure on her ‘toughness’. She’s using an infusion to enthrall you, do not let it happen.

Charm was one of the most unique internal infusions Aloe had seen. Even though it looked like no changes occurred to the woman wavering the so-called stance, the scribe felt her body heat up in desire. It was a physiological reaction, outside of her mental state. But as her body grew used to the temperature and the rising sexual desire, of course, it affected her mental state by making her horny.

But she knew the tricks.

Aloe had experienced what true, raw, and unadulterated horniness was. To lose oneself in desire, to forget what one person was, to not even identify your own body and that of others, just a primal mating instinct remaining.

And this was not it.

Her body ached for it, it wanted to pant and become wet, and even if she couldn’t control most reactions, the bedridden woman didn’t let her body overcome her mind. She peered right at the cultivator’s dark green eyes.

“Quite the hour for a visit. Do you not think, princess Fatima?” Aloe maintained her composure as the sultanzade smiled.

“Well, I did tell you we would follow my schedule.” Fatima pushed her hips to the side with a salacious motion and put a hand on them. “You should be grateful that I am able to tutor you on the very same day of the deal.”

“I am sorry if my words did not carry that message,” the scribe stated politely, “but I am truly beholden by your presence on such short notice.”

The princess smiled, noticing that Aloe’s visage didn’t display that enthusiasm regardless of her structured words.

“I believe that was enough masquerading.” The sultanzade walked forward, each step banging through the room with those heels, and grabbed a chair. Then she sat in front of the bed. “Now, we all hide things. Understandable. Every person does it, but here in Asina Palace, it is commonplace. But you must understand that if we are to do these Nurture lessons, I am going to need to know which stances you can use.”

She’s being sincere… but how much? Maybe it was a dependency, but Aloe couldn’t trust her instincts without the use of ‘acuity’. Slowly, she started to change the infusion, but it would take her too much time to switch it for the answer to seem natural. She had to give her answer soon.

“You got me there,” Aloe admitted to gain a bit more time. “It is no surprise we are hiding things from ourselves.”

“It is not.” Fatima agreed. “Yet I also notice that you are delaying us.”

Aloe sighed, even to the blindest, that had been obvious. And whilst Fatima Asina wasn’t the strongest foe she had faced, she wasn’t either of the weakest. Maybe dimmest, but not that much.

“I accept your terms,” Aloe responded with a visage of sorrowful defeat. “The current stances on my repertoire are…”

“Are which?” Fatima frowned as the scribe suddenly stopped talking.

“Um, well…” For the first time in a long time, Aloe blushed. “I may have just noticed that the terminology between our stances may differ.”

“What do you mean?” The sultanzade crossed her arms, her breasts heaving up and threatening to spill out of her tight dress. Now that her internal infusions had switched, Aloe noticed how translucent the sultanzade’s black dress was. Two protuberances in the chest area were surrounded by a clearly darker moat. To her enhanced eyesight, it was as if the tall and muscular woman was not wearing any fabric in that region.

“I may have different names for the stances, nothing else.” The scribe responded as if just to recover her cool.

“How could that happen?” Surprisingly enough, Aloe couldn’t feel second intentions from that question.

“As I previously stated, I am self-taught, mostly,” she added the last part to obfuscate her knowledge of the vital arts, “therefore I came myself with the names.”

“Should you not have your own name for the concept of stances, then?”

“A valid question,” Aloe nodded in agreement. “I just adapted my vocabulary to suit you better.”

“I see.” Fatima brushed her hair in ponderation. She had long and lustrous locks, unlike Aloe’s short, muted, and unruly hair. “May I inquire on how you called stances?”

“Infusions,” The bedridden woman responded as she didn’t value the name that significant. The only other person that knew of it was already dead, and she wasn't far from there.

“Makes sense,” It was Fatima’s time to nod in return. “Tell me the name of the stances you know and what they do, it shouldn’t be hard to identify them.”

“Alright,” Aloe looked at the ceiling and took a deep breath. “Firstly, I have strength…”

“You are joking.” The sultanzade interjected immediately.

“I am afraid not, princess.” The commoner stated with confusion.

“That IS a stance.” Fatima raised her voice. “Tell me the effects.”

“Ehm… it makes me stronger and emboldens me?” The potency of the woman’s voice made it difficult to speak with certainty.

“Yeah, sounds about right. I guess there are not many words to name that stance with.” The princess sighed, the sheer gesture coming out sultry. “Next one.”

“Then there is toughness.”

“Okay, this one I do not know. Elaborate.”

I WAS going to elaborate, but a certain SOMEONE doesn’t allow me to. Aloe kept her protests to herself.

“Toughness makes my body harder and overall healthier, it also makes pain number.”

“That is the defense stance then.” Fatima nodded and with her head’s gestures implied the scribe to keep going.

“Next one is speed.”

“Makes your body faster and more difficult to control?”

“Yes.” Aloe responded taciturnly.

“The stance has the same name,” Fatima explained.

“I also have charm, but I also know that is the name you use.” The scribe to complete a sentence without getting interrupted.

“Charm, you say?” The sultanzade smiled, her eyes inviting, predatorial.

“Yes, and I would prefer if you abstained from using it on me,” Aloe added with her deadbeat diplomatic voice.

“So you noticed…” The commoner returned her a smile that screamed: How wouldn’t I notice it? Which only exacerbated the woman’s coy smile. “But where is the fun in that, then?”

“Princess Fatima, may I remind you that I am currently bedridden and in a bad state of health? Your… actions are taking a toll on my body.”

“So you are saying my stance is working in you?”

Aloe stopped breathing for a moment, biting her lip in frustration. You are talking with a sultanzade, every sentence is a trap. You cannot let your guard down even if she’s not the worst of them and a business ‘partner’.

“I have experienced stronger charm stances if that is what you meant,” Aloe responded noncommittally, attacking the woman’s inferiority complex.

Fatima limited herself to smiling, but Aloe knew her words had an effect on her. A shift in the brows, a contraction in cheeks, a shallow stop between breaths. Her elevated perception allowed her to perceive micromovements that would go undetected otherwise.

“Very well,” the loosely clothed woman added. “I will contain using charm openly in front of you. And considering you serve Rani, I doubt ever, as you won’t have the need to train it.”

The information was implicit, but it confirmed one of Aloe’s mostly proven doubts. Rani uses charm. A simple yet obvious conclusion, but it was very different to have definitive evidence from a third party.

“Last one is acuity,” Aloe explained, not letting herself show the effects of the sultanzade’s comments on her expressions. “It enhances all my senses.”

“That is the sense stance. I do not know what is more curious, the fact that most share the name, or that you gave them such weird and obfuscated names to some.”

Aloe didn’t react, it was clear that those words were spoken to get a reaction out of her. Whether it was as simple as a blush or something more informative, the scribe didn’t give her the pleasure of seeing her emotions.

“I know you have already stated it, but just to confirm,” Fatima’s eyes turned darker and her expression sharper. “Are those all the stances you know?”

It was clear to Aloe that the sultanzade had substituted her charm for acuity, or sense in her case. The name of the infusions had felt somewhat alien to Aloe, even those that she had named herself, but after the princess criticized them, that was no longer the case. Not only were they accurate names, but they also were part of her.

She’s trying to pry my expressions to see if I’m hiding any more infusions with her enhanced senses. Unfortunately, I have given her every internal infusion that I know of. After all, stances were only like internal infusions and not external ones.

“Yes,” Aloe answered truthfully with a nondescript expression.

The sultanzade thought it for a moment, trying to scry the bedridden woman for answers, and whether she found any or not, she gave up a few seconds later.

“Perfect!” Fatima responded with a warm smile and a clap. Paradoxically enough, now that she had dropped her charm stance, Aloe found the woman more enticing and attractive. Perhaps because the gesture was genuine, instead of the calculated sultry movements, not unlike a lady of the night. “Then let us begin with the lessons.”