On His Mane's Secret Service
Chapter 9

The house had been converted to serve as the first ever Argonian embassy - as far as Ra’Jirra knew, anywhere in the world. Though they were expecting a larger contingent of argonians than the three who actually arrived, it still felt cozy when they arrived. Ra’Jirra made herself useful by showing them around the place and how the various fixtures worked. Quill-Weave introduced her companions as Ereel-Na and Kassha-Na, who turned out were actually two of Quill-Weave’s sisters.

At Quill’s insistence, Ra’Jirra stayed behind after the security detail left to stand guard around the house, and the three retired to a main room just inside the front door.

“So, Ra’Jirra,” Quill began as she settled in between her sisters on the deep couch that had been provided, while Ra’Jirra sat to their right in a similar but smaller couch. Ra’Jirra tried to ignore her unusual clothing that left nothing to the imagination, but was finding it difficult to overlook.

“Is it true that you understand Jel?”

“Not well,” she admitted in that language. “It is a difficult language to learn without deep immersion in Argonia. Yet argonians seem to have a knack for learning other languages that we khajiit don’t.”

“We all have our advantages and disadvantages,” said the Histess. “Our tongues are fluent in many things.”

“So I understand. I had a friend who studied your physiology. He was quite impressed, especially by your tongues!”

“False modesty is worse than false bravado,” Quill-Weave nodded, switching back to Ta’agra. “Linguistically we excel. Is it also true that you will be accompanying us at the meeting between your Mane and the Dominion?”

“You are well informed,” Ra’Jirra said. “Yes indeed, I am honored to be one of the Mane’s concubines that will be attending. You may also know I am not… a fan of the Dominion. This is why I was invited, in fact.”

Quill-Weave leaned forward at this. “Indeed, I’m afraid I must agree with you there. The Dominion’s tactics have been less than honorable. Were it up to me I would not be here. But those that I serve suggested that it would be good to come.”

“They seek an alliance between us, you know,” Ra’JIrra said, not sure if this topic was off limits in this circumstance.

“Yes. They see the humans as a threat. They are right, you know.”

Ra’Jirra looked directly at the Histess. “I have seen their… projections. Do you agree with this prediction then? Are we all to be subsumed by the humans?”

Quill-Weave laughed. “In a sense, yes. But the altmer, even with all their magic, are not omniscient. They see a moment in the future, but they cannot see all that passed before that moment. None of us can. Our lifetimes aren’t long enough to see that. It could well be that we will not survive the coming future of the humans. But only the Hist understand these things.”

“Then you side with the Dominion?” Ra’Jirra asked, feeling the fur on her back tighten. She couldn’t help it. As much as she wanted to like this argonian, recalling that they had come at the behest of the Dominion rankled.

“I honestly don’t know, Ra’Jirra. The Hist will let me know when it is time for me to know. However, I did not come for them, Ra’Jirra. I came for you. The Hist would like to commune with you.”

“For me? I really don’t understand. I’m nobody really. I became a concubine recently. Before that I was… well, I was in covert operations - the HMSS. I’m surprised you even knew my name honestly.”

“I know of you, Ra’Jirra. More importantly, the Hist know of you. But it is not for what you have been or done that I come, but for what you will do in the future. You are khajiit-mother, though you don’t know it yet. After you have met the Hist you will understand better. It is for that meeting that I have come, not a pointless alliance against the humans.”

Quill-Weave leaned back then, before continuing, “But you worry so, Ra’Jirra. The burden of this decision is not yours to make. The Mane will make his decision. Yours is just to tell him what you think. That is all.”

Ra’Jirra could see the truth in that, and she nodded.

“Sisters,” Quill-Weave said, turning to her companions. “Will you excuse us? I’d like to talk to the khajit-mother privately.”

Yet it was not the sisters that stood, but Quill-Weave, who beckoned Ra’Jirra to follow her. They climbed the stairs and walked the darkened hallway to the room at the end that Quill-Weave had established as her own private quarters. Within, the Histess lit a single, small candle, then closed the door behind her, laying upon the bed. The candle’s fragrance was odd but somehow comforting.

Ra’Jirra looked around but noticed no other furniture was in the room. In the flickering shadows, Quill-Weave motioned beside her on the bed. Ra’Jirra hesitated, but then succumbed. Something about the argonian had changed in her mind, and she felt suddenly relaxed. She lay beside the Histess as if in a dream, the smell of the candle almost becoming an incense.

“What do you know of the Hist, khajiit-mother?” said the soft voice beside her, as her eyes closed.

“Sentient trees,” she replied drowsily. “Made the argonians…”

“They are not trees,” said Quill-Weave quietly. “Though that is what they appear to be to others. But they have as much in common with trees as we do with lizards, or you with cats. Saying they are ‘sentient trees’ is like saying you are a ‘sentient cat’. Sentience defines the species, not the other way around. But their ‘sentience’ is a different form than ours. We live within the shells that are our bodies, but they… they are one yet many. Trees house them, but they are not the trees themselves. I can feel them, even now. Can you feel them, khajiit-mother?”

“No… I feel only you,” Ra’Jirra said as the argonian snuggled beside her, the odd and unusually large breasts resting heavily upon her own chest. She felt them rise and fall with her deep breathing, and Ra’Jirra found herself breathing in sync.

“Perhaps, somehow, you will be able to feel them,” Quill continued in her deep, quiet voice. “Do you know of Hist sap, Ra’Jirra?”

“Gift of the Hist… without it argonians cannot achieve intelligence.”

“Yes, indeed. We argonians envy all you other species, do you know? Without the Hist and their sap, we are by nature truly nothing more than beasts. Is it any wonder that we regard the Hist as our Creators? They are, in a very real sense, the reason we exist as more than just aquatic reptiles. The Hist have given us more than just our minds too. Our bodies they have shaped over millennia, as we would shape a house-tree. You often call our reverence for the Hist a type of religion, but it is not. A religion requires faith and belief in something unseen. The Hist are not gods, and we fully know this. But they are still that which gives the argonian life and purpose. We are their willing servants, do you see?”

Ra’Jirra opened her eyes and pulled Quill-Weave close. “It must be awful for you,” she said, sympathetically.

“Oh, it’s not so bad. We are not blind servants. We have complete free will, save only that our young must drink of the sap if we are to continue our race. Did you know that, long ago, we had no Hist glands? We didn’t know male from female. But the Hist, in their wisdom, knew that our race was venturing ever farther from them. We needed some way to ensure our offspring would mature properly, even without the Hist’s direct intervention. So they gave us these…”

Quill hefted her Hist glands, and Ra’Jirra noticed that some of the scales had parted, revealing quite mammalian looking teats.

“Now we can give birth anywhere on Nirn without fear that our children will be nothing more than animals. And in their wisdom, the Hist has made them so similar to your own milk glands that we are accepted even more so by the other races. It is a wonderful thing. It would be nice to think that the other races could accept us as equals without simple physical similarity, but it is too much to expect. Yet these serve both purposes admirably. The Hist are wiser than you know.”

“Quill,” Ra’Jirra said, looking up at the reptilian face. “Am I… drugged?”

“Yes, Ra’Jirra. Well, yes and no. The incense can release inhibitions, though it inspires is nothing that wasn’t already being repressed. I would like to give you a gift, Ra’Jirra, but in your misplaced sense of propriety, you wouldn’t accept it. The incense will overcome that. I regret the necessity, but this is important.”

“I’m in love with another, you should know,” Ra’Jirra said, her eyes fascinated by the pendulous orbs as Quill-Weave raised herself up.

“Well, I should certainly hope so!” the argonian said with a laugh. “I certainly can’t impregnate you even if I wanted to! I have no such desire, silly woman. But you khajiits - you have such potential. You have native intelligence that we argonians lack. What heights, then, could the khajiit achieve if you were able to join with the Hist as we can?”

The argonian shifted upwards slightly, then began to lower herself to Ra’Jirra’s open mouth.

“I cannot say, but the Hist know. They have sent me to you, khajiit-mother. You will be the first, not born of the Hist, to taste of the sap. Drink. Accept this gift. I give it to you so that you may know the Hist as we do. Others before you have tried, but the sap is fruitless without the Hist’s approval. You are the first they have allowed.”

Ra’Jirra nursed the sap from the Histess’ breast, hesitantly at first, but then with growing hunger and abandon, before she lapsed into a dream of colors and memories.

———————-

She could not say she spoke with the Hist, as the collective beings were too unlike her own understanding of consciousness to even make sense of the term. But she received understanding that she hadn’t had before, and her mind sorted the communication into a conversation when afterwards when she tried to describe it, though the actual communion was much less coherent.

“You are khajiit-mother. We are the Hist.”

“I am khajiit. I am not a mother.”

“You are khajiit-mother, inhibited by your sense of time that is linear. We sense you are disturbed. Why are you disturbed?”

“The Dominion says we are doomed. They say the khajiit will be annihilated, along with the argonians and the mer. They say only the humans will remain if we do not join together to fight them.”

“All things are doomed, khajiit-mother. All things end. New things begin. Until the end of days, when no new things will begin. You know this.”

She could not respond. It was beyond her conception. Instead she replied factually, “This is why I am disturbed. Will the argonians join to fight the humans?”

“Our children are free to do as they choose. We do not interfere except where required. But do not be disturbed, khajiit-mother. You shall live, and your children shall live, until their time too is at an end. Events shall transpire. Unforeseen events. Time will continue, until it does not.”

“I don’t understand. Is what the Dominion saw true? Will none but the humans remain?”

“It may be. It may not be. Why do you worry so? The future will come and pass, as it always has. But the khajiit will continue, through you, khajiit-mother. As will our children. Others will not. The humans will not. They will remain. Behold…”

What followed, she could not put into words at all. It was as if she had been given the answer, and then it had been taken away from her. She could no longer recall what that answer had been, but she knew it was going to be all right in the end. And, even without knowing the answer, she knew peace in her heart. Whatever the future brought, she had glimpsed it for a moment, and all her answers were given. She could no longer recall those answers, but her mind was clear. There were answers, and that was very reassuring.

She awoke in the arms of the Histess who looked at her curiously.

“You have communed long with the Hist. But you are at peace. I can see it in your eyes, khajiit-mother.”

Ra’Jirra came to her senses and sat up, as if coming out of a daze. She looked at Quill-Weave. The Histess’ breasts were featureless once more, as if she had only dreamed of their change.

“I…” she started. “Did I, um… Your…”

“Yes, khajiit-mother. You fed of my sap, freely given. Do not be alarmed.”

“Alarmed? No. I’m not alarmed, though I’m not sure why I’m not. That’s a pretty weird thing to do, after all. I mean, I’m not even your species! But… I feel better, somehow.”

“Even among your kind, do you not nurse at the breast of your own mother, both male and female?”

“Well, yeah. When we’re infants!”

Quill-Weave smiled. “You were an infant, Ra’Jirra. You are no longer. You have awakened.”

“You’re not going to agree to this alliance, are you?” Ra’Jirra asked.

“I have no right to agree to anything, Ra’Jirra. I don’t speak for any other argonians. The Dominion is foolish if they think I do. I am closer to the Hist than any other of our kind, but I understand them no more than you do, and the other argonians don’t look on me as their leader even if I wanted to. I only tell them what the Hist tells me. But they mean well - for us, and now for your kind as well. Ra’Jirra, you are now of the Hist too. You may speak to them as readily as I. Probably more easily since you were conscious before you met them, unlike myself. What did you get from them? I cannot see what they have shown you. Can you tell me?”

“I’m not sure myself. They are too different. But, somehow, I know it will be alright. No matter what happens here, at the meeting, and in whatever follows. They assured me of that. And I believe them.”

“Good. That is my understanding as well. We, their children, don’t concern ourselves with the future much, Ra’Jirra. We only protect the Hist, and the Hist will protect us. We believe this completely, khajiit-mother. Perhaps you understand how that can be, as we do now?”

“They will. Protect us, I mean… and I think there’s something I need to say at the meeting. It’s not clear yet, even in my mind, but they want me to say something to the altmer, and to the Mane. Even to you.”

Quill-Weave nodded. “You will know when the time is right what to say. You have the Hist within you now.”

Ra’Jirra laughed and stood up. “You make them sound like a parasite. They’re not going to control my mind are they?”

Quill-Weave scoffed, “Ra’Jirra! You have met them. Do they seem as if they want to control you? Surely you know better. What you have within you now is only a means to commune with them, not some sort of mind control.”

“I think so too. I don’t feel any different. But I guess I am, in a way. I’m not worried anymore.”

“Good. You shouldn’t be. But it’s getting late and I expect there are some who are awaiting you that may already be concerned for your safety. Someone awaits outside. A little one who looks like a cat, but is not a cat.”

“DAR!” Ra’Jirra exclaimed, her eyes going wide. “Excuse me, Quill-Weave, I’ve got to go!”