Ch.8- Telling All
It didn't take long for Brianna to fall asleep. She was plagued by nightmares from past. She awoke early the next morning feeling uneasy and tired. She went downstairs in her night gown with her robe over it. She was already making herself breakfast when the cook came in. He was a short, wiry demon. His skin was gray with dark gray, almost black patches. His big dark eyes had a second set of eyelids. His big nose and pointy chin made a good distraction though. He seemed insulted by the fact that she was cooking in his kitchen.
"What is the meaning of this?!" he snapped in a shrill voice. "Who told you that you could come mess up my kitchen?! How dare you?!" Brianna was not in the mood for this by any means. She finished her food as he ranted and raved. He came over closer and tried to point his finger in her face as he spoke. She whipped around to face him, about to strike him but a hand grabbed her wrist with a balance of gentle and forceful.
"Gino!" came the voice of Yomi. "This is my guest! Be more respectful of her or next time I will let her hit you!" The man quickly coward and backed away bowing.
"Yes, my lord." he groveled. "Sorry, my lord." He exited the kitchen. Brianna yanked her wrist out of his hand.
"Don't touch me like that." she almost growled. She turned back to her food which was on the dullest plate she could find. Most of the dinning plates here were quite lavish to Brianna. With Yomi being a king, she understood it to some extent. She picked up her plate and attempted to walk out. He stood in her way. She glared at him.
"Rough night?" he asked as she picked up her fork and took a small bite of her eggs.
"Rough morning too." she replied annoyed. He took the fork from her hand and took a bite of her food. "How rude of you!" she snapped in disbelief. "Thank you for the reminder that I am beneath you!" she pushed her plate into his hands and walked out. She went out into the garden where she was soon joined by Yomi. He set the plate down on the small table she sat down at. He sat down across from her.
"That's not what I meant by doing that." he stated. "It was only one bite. It's very good." Brianna's arms were crossed, and she refused to even look at him or the food. "I'm sorry." She looked at him sensing his sincerity. "If it makes you feel any better, I didn't sleep very well either. I could hear you mumbling and crying out in your sleep."
"Sorry to have inconvenienced you." she said looking away again.
"It didn't inconvenience me." he said sweetly. He pushed her plate to her a little more. She looked at the plate then him.
"You can have it." she said. "I feel sick to my stomach now." There was a moment of silence between them. "Yesterday I felt like I was free." she said as she looked to the ground. Yomi could feel her emotions churning. "Last night showed me that in many ways I'm not." Before she knew it, she felt herself pulled up from her chair into Yomi's arms. He held her tightly she felt a rush of comfort wash over her.
"You physically made it out of the horrible situation you were in." he whispered in her ear. "Next you have to let your mind catch up. You need to heal from your trauma. This step could take a while so you have to be patient with yourself. Then you forge your own destiny with the power you gained from the pain you went through. I've been through my own horrible situations and look where I'm at now. I'm here to help you like your mother was there to help me."
"Thank you." she said sincerely. He let her go and walked way. She felt herself all aglow from that embrace. After a while, she looked at her food and decided to eat it. When she came back in she took her plate to the kitchen. The staff almost all gasped at her entry. Risha came in grabbing her gently.
"Come along." she said sternly. "You better get dressed." She guided Brianna out and back upstairs. "I altered some more clothes for you." They entered her room and laid out on the bed, which had been made, were two dresses. One was a rich purple and the other was almost an olive green with white lace at the top and sleeve. Brianna touched it with a smile. "I was hoping you'd pick that one." Risha went to work helping Brianna out of her night attire and into her under garments which included a corset. She sighed as she laced it up in the back. "Between us, Lord Yomi seems awfully fond of you, but I think you'd completely have his heart if only he could lay eyes on you." Brianna laughed lightly.
"Me?" she asked amused. "I'm just a forest rat." she replied without thought. Risha whirled her around, shocking Brianna.
"Don't you dare speak of yourself in such a manner!" she snapped. "You are a beautiful, young vixen! I mean, look at you!" She turned her to the mirror. "I know women who would kill to have a body like yours! You have a lovely face! Nice ivory skin! Ample breasts! Good sturdy hips! And look at that bum of yours, dear!" She turned Brianna to the side a bit to see her own rear in the mirror. Brianna was outwardly amused by this but deep down she needed to hear this. For decades she was run down on her image by her brother and Kok-Lir. To hear an outside opinion telling her she was beautiful in such detail made her look at herself differently. Last night she saw herself in the mirror but couldn't comprehend it was truly herself. Today as she looked into the mirror with each stage of preparing for the day she began to see herself, her real self. When Risha was done with brushing her hair for a final time, she came to face Brianna, who sat in a chair before the mirror. She gently took Brianna chin into one of her hands. "You're a vision, despite the scars and what any asshole in the past ever said to you." Brianna smiled at her bashfully.
"I understand." she replied as Risha let go. A knock came at the door. Risha rushed to it. It was Yomi.
"I'm about to go out for a walk around town." he said to Risha. "If Brianna is presentable and willing, I would like her to walk with me." Brianna stood up and approached. Risha opened the door wider.
"I'd like that." said Brianna beaming. Yomi extended his arm to her as she came out of the room. Risha watched as they went.
Out in the town, people moved out of Yomi's way. Most bowed their heads to him. Some stopped whatever they were doing to fully bow as he passed. There were quaint little shops as well as a meat market and produce market. Yomi was talking about the shops as they walked by. She was surprised he knew it by heart so well. They walked down to a restaurant in the middle of town. Someone opened the door for them and bowed their head as Yomi and Brianna entered. Inside was similar preferential treatment. They were led to a private table to the establishment's outdoor dining. It was a beautiful garden area with a koi pond.
"This is a really nice." she said in a bit of a daze. This all felt so surreal. They sat there eating and talking, even laughing. He told her about the old days when he was just a thief with her father and mother. She told him about the happy times of her childhood. It was late afternoon when they were interrupted by a shadow cast over their table. They looked up to see Senju. His arms were crossed, and he didn't look too happy.
"I have been looking for you, Brianna." he said sternly.
"She's been safe with me the whole time." said Yomi. "Why don't you sit down? I was telling her about that time we robbed her great grandparents' tomb." Senju looked at him annoyed.
"I know you're a king in these lands, Yomi, and I will respect you and your laws but you cannot just take Brianna as your own personal Kurama."
"New and improved." joked Yomi. "I feel the way people look at her."
"I'm not kidding, Yomi!" snapped Senju with a raised voice. Brianna stood up. The energy swirled around her.
"You need to stop!" she demanded over him. She stepped closer to him causing him to step back. She stared up into his face. Yomi could sense Senju folding to her. He was terrified of her. "I'm not his! I'm not yours! I'm my own being! I don't need a keeper!" Yomi jumped up as she kept going toward Senju and he kept backing up. "I will never forget how let my brother and that bitch abuse me and manipulate me!" At this point, Senju fell back into the koi pond. "Or how you held me back as Kok-Lir beheaded Joanna before us!" she said as he sat up in the water staring at her. All of a sudden, he was pulled down into the pond as if by the water itself. For a moment, he thrashed in the shallow pond trying desperately to resurface. When he did, he saw Yomi dragging Brianna back from the water's edge. A small crowd had gathered. Senju got out shaking. He looked around at the crowd then back to Yomi and Brianna. He seemed to be trying to keep her distracted from Senju. He knew he was unwelcome and Brianna was going to do as she willed now.
Yomi sat Brianna down in her seat. He could sense the rage and sorrow within her as she stared at the ground. He listened to Senju go before kneeling before her.
"He's gone." he said getting her attention. "Calm down." He knew she was not about to calm down though. Her emotions were about to overtake her. "Come on." he said getting up. He left from coins on the table before pulling her up and leading her out. She held it together as they walked back to the house. Once inside, she went straight up to her room with a trembling lip and chin. Risha noticed and was about to go up the steps after her, but Yomi stopped her. He began to ascend the stairs and entered the room as Brianna laid on the bed crying softly. He laid down next to her and pulled her into his arms. Her crying stopped after a little while.
"Tell me everything." he said softly as he pet her head gently. She looked up into his face unsure. "You're safe with me as are your secrets." She looked away and thought for a moment.
"Kok-Lir would take your surviving soldiers and behead them on the steps of the fort." Brianna admitted. "The last group of soldiers, Joanna was among them. Senju held me back from attacking before she was beheaded. He wanted to take me out of there, but if I did anything he knew for sure we wouldn't be allowed to leave. I attacked Kok-Lir that day because I knew I was never going to be allowed to leave as long as she was alive anyway. She enjoyed torturing me too much."
"Tell me how." he said kindly. Brianna thought back. She opened up and began to tell him everything from the first moment she met Kok-Lir and everything in between. She went into detail on the demeaning things that were said, the gaslighting, the whipping she endured by her brother's hands on Kok-lir's behalf, all up to the point she was put in a cell. That's when Brianna stopped and seemed to not want to go into any more detail about what happen in that cell. Yomi could sense her shame. "She touched you a sexual, didn't she?" he asked. Brianna nodded. "What about that makes you stop talking?"
"Mials refused to discuss about intercourse to me except for to say that I was forbidden from it until he found a proper husband for me, which never happened." she said uncomfortably.
"That was Mials." said Yomi. "You can talk to me about it. What about the experience with Kok-Lir made you ashamed?"
"I was saving myself for that husband I was promised because it was instilled so deeply in me that it was what I had to do." said Brianna a bit emotional. "I gave into that monster for a meal!"
"Sounds more like you gave in to survive." he said to her. There was a long silence between them. He chuckled a little breaking it. She looked at him perplexed. "So, you are a virgin at 89 years old?" She looked a little perturbed by his amusement. "You don't have to wait for a husband. You don't even have to wait for a serious suitor, if you don't want to. Sex is not love and love is not sex, but sex is fun."
"Not my type of fun." she replied. "It's sacred to me."
"Why?" asked Yomi. "Did Mials lie to you about your parents' premarital sex? He was at least halfway to double digits before they married." Brianna was shocked. She was told even by Joanna that her parents were married when they had Mials.
"They all lied to me about that." she said hushedly.
"Your mother and father were exclusive at the point they conceived Mials." admitted Yomi. "I'm pretty sure your father took your mother's virginity, but she was young when she had your brother. I just don't understand how you could hold out so long. Have you ever used a phallic?" Brianna went scarlet and began to fidget.
"Kok-Lir made me use one when she… then she drank my blood." she said uncomfortably. Yomi sat up.
"Makes sense." he said. "I've heard demons who drink blood say it taste sweeter when the one being drained just had a euphoric experience."
"Does using the phallic mean I'm not a virgin anymore?" she asked bashfully. Yomi got up and walked to the door confusing Brianna. He opened it just as Risha was about to knock. "We will be coming down for dinner soon." he said to her.
"Yes, sir." she replied. She seemed to pier in at Brianna, who still looked presentable. She hurried off. Yomi closed the door and came back to Brianna. He reached out his hand and touched her face sweetly.
"To answer that question, I'd have to feel you." he said. "Do you consent?" She was confused but nodded after a second. He laid her down on the bed. Then he lifted her dress. She sat up a little nervously. He gently pushed her back down. "I'll be gentle." he said. He moved her under garments aside. He soon found her lips. Her hair was thin and soft causing Yomi to smile. Brianna looked away as she bit her lower lip. True to his word he touched her gentle, sliding his fingers up and down her lips. He carefully inserted a finger inside of her causing her to gasp. She expected him to continue excavating her private parts until she gave in to him, but to her surprise, he removed his finger after the brief prodding. He pulled the dress back down and stepped back. She sat up for the judgment. "You're still a virgin." he stated. He walked to the door and left.
