Free faerie rift chronicles 01 - faerie rift by jae vogel Page A

.
    The humility in my own thought processes shocked me out of my arrogant rampage. I bowed slightly for ‘Sir Erol’, and let him lead the way inside of the house. The Good Lady Rita spent no time assailing Erol's ears with the latest drama from her family, up to and including some juicy details about her daughter's most recent affair, and the dreams she has been having about her pastor, not all of which have been exactly orthodox.
    Erol listened as dutifully as any therapist.
    I watched as he gave Rita his entire attention, waiting patiently for her to drop subtle hints about the true reason she had decided to call him today. The arrangement between the two was incredible to watch, really. She was using him as a container for every piece of psychic content that she was able to dish out over the course of the first forty minutes we were in the house. She literally did not stop talking once, and Erol was right there with her in attention the entire time.
    When the crucial moment came, my attention snapped back into focus.
    "So, what do you think?"
    "Well, it seems to me like the real question here is not about where the engagement ring is located, but whether or not your daughter is satisfied in her love life."
    "My dear... you do know how to cut to the heart of the matter..."
    "Why don't you lay down for a while and I'll do a reading. We'll see what we can't find out?"
    I smiled.
    The man was a professional, you had to hand it to him.

    * * *
    I held my breath while watching how routine all of this was for the woman. Quite literally, the two of them were falling into what appeared to be just shy of a well rehearsed sexual routine.
    First, Rita led him to the a long, luxurious , leather sofa. Then she lay down in front of him and held her hands out to either side. Knowing exactly what was expected of him, Erol moved along the side, and began a thorough massage of Rita's body.
    The entire situation would have been funny, except for how serious everything was.
    Erol paid absolute attention to the slightest knots and points of tension in Rita's body. During the entire experience, Rita let out low purring noises, while Erol would occasionally mutter something like, "Ah…" or, "Yep. Right there ... You feel that?"
    Of course she would immediately reply with another encouraging groan, at which point they would start all over. This whole experience went on for literally an hour. I stuck around for most of the first part of the experience, but moved on to explore the house during the remainder of the massage.
    Erol was doing his work, and he was right the first time, there was nothing for me to do insofar as help was concerned, at least not with this part of the experience.
    "If he wants to play masseuse to that cougar I don't need to have anything to do with it."
    The incredible thing about the whole massage session is that while Rita was down for the count, nobody else was home in the entire place.
    If I had been a thief, I could have ransacked the place while Rita was purring downstairs in the lounge. The whole experience reminded me of the old plays that came into vogue ever since the new government had been instated back at the Capitol.
    All of these plays featured charlatan mystics and cunning thieves who overthrew cruel dictators, usually by means of some apparatus of wit and good fortune.
    Nothing was said in the plays about sacrifice and expertise; those did not sell tickets in quite the same numbers as the idea that the fates themselves had designated a moral victory over Xan.
    I shook my head and caught myself.
    Keep present , I reminded myself.
    Too much of that line of thinking and I might work myself up into an anxiety attack. Price was too high.
    I didn't see any particular need to inform anyone about my departure, so I chose to walk as carefully as possible up the long carpeted flight of stairs.
    The second floor was composed of a series of libraries, and bedrooms. I could hear the sounds of the massage from