Autumn Festival Chapter 4

"I'm sorry! I don't know why I said that. Please - obviously you're more than just my maid!" Quill-Weave pleaded, but the sullen khajiit would not be cajoled.

The two rode on in silence for a good while after that, before finally she spoke.

"No, I'm the one that needs to apologize."

"What?"

"I said I'm the one that needs to apologize. I pushed you too much. Don't worry, I won't wear it."

"You can wear it! I just thought it might be too much."

"It wouldn't be appropriate for me to. You are the Mistress of Evil. It's your dream, not mine. I'll clean up your tower. That's what I'm here for. I'm sorry I wasted your time in the City."

But despite the fact she was talking again, the air was strained between them the rest of the way. Quill felt a constriction in her throat and knew she'd fucked up, but she didn't know how to fix it.

Finally they turned off the main road and rode down the thin path into the darkening forest where the Tower of Doom was hidden. Mooky came out to greet them.

"Oh! Hello miss! She didn't mention you were a khajiit."

The maid shot a look at Quill, then took Mooky's offered hand to step down from the cart.

"No, she wouldn't have," she said, taking her own bags and carrying them into the Tower.

Mooky looked at Quill. "Surly gal, ain't she?"

Quill sighed deeply. "Not normally. I'm afraid I've upset her on the way here."

"Oh? What did you do?"

"Called her my maid, mostly."

"Isn't she?"

"She is," Quill replied as he helped her down.

"What's her name?"

Quill looked at Mooky. "I... don't know," then stepped into the Tower herself, leaving her minion scratching his head and muttering about the incomprehensibility of argonians and khajiits as he gathered her bags.

*********

Mooky left shortly after, leaving Quill and her maid alone after they'd shown the khajiit the layout of the place.

"Goodnight Mooky," the maid said as he left. "Will you be back tomorrow?"

"Oh yes! When the Mistress is in town, I'm back bright and early every morning!"

"Well we'll see you in the morning then."

"Goodnight then, Miss. Goodnight Mistress."

"Goodnight Mooky," Quill-Weave replied as well, standing beside her maid.

"Alright. Now that I know my way around, I'll get started. No time like the present, and I'll start on Mooky's cubby since that's where I'll be sleeping. But tomorrow we really must go into town to get some cleaning supplies. You've got the basics, but I'm not putting my seal of approval on any job less than my best!"

"That's good. Well then, I guess I'll retire to my room at the top. I've got some writing I should get to."

"Yes Ma'am. Go ahead. I'll not disturb you then."

"Um... you can disturb me... if you want to," Quill said hesitantly. "I mean, if you need to."

"Thank you Ma'am. Good night."

Quill took her candle up the winding stairs to her room at the top of the tower. She heard the fluttering of a bat wing or two overhead as she undressed for bed and pulled out her book of notes. However, try as she might, she couldn't concentrate.

Far below she heard the maid working. She put on the updated Evil outfit, but it made no difference. It just wasn't working. So she took it back off and went back to bed, blowing out the lamp.

Sleep came to her surprisingly quickly, though. It had been, after all, quite a long day. But she had fitful dreams and found herself awake later that night with the moon shining into her empty room.
She thought she heard something. A noise downstairs - quiet and muffled, but rhythmic. The stone stairs were immune to creaking, so she crept down them just far enough to be sure what it was she was hearing.

Her maid was crying. Quietly, and the sound of a khajiit crying was somewhat unique, but also obvious.

She crept back up the stairs and got back into her bed. She remembered a night not so long ago when her maid had come to her when she was in a similar state. But this was different, and she knew why. She was the cause this time.

Much later the muffled sobs faded and stopped. Quill-Weave was still lost in thought, staring at her ceiling and watching the moon shadows from the window drift across her floor. She wasn't good at relationships. In fact, she was very, very bad at them. She always had been a loner, ever since she left her family. She'd ventured out of the Marsh on her own. She'd had friends - human friends at that. In fact, it struck her that she'd never really had any argonian friends.

Perhaps the Architect, but that had been a very short-lived relationship - and he had been more of a father-figure. Certainly in no way romantic. Her human friends had been close, though of course they had drifted away and new ones had come into her life. But really just acquaintances. Until Casta, she'd really had no close relationships - which surely was why she had assumed so much, and had been so devastatingly wrong.

And then her maid became... more than a maid. Deep in her heart, Quill knew she'd always liked khajiits. On the surface she might have claimed she'd hired her for her talent for the job - a talent not imagined either - but somewhere deep down she knew it was more than just that. That thrill she still got at the tuft of fur on her chest was pretty undeniable. Casta and her hair had always been fascinating, but she'd always longed to run her fingers through a khajiit's fur.

It didn't hurt that she'd positively radiated purple under the gaze of her gaydar. At least Quill had resisted that urge until after she'd been hired. So she could still try to claim ignorance at the time.

But it appeared now that she'd taken things too far. She'd lain with the khajiit, and now she was paying the price for that. As was her maid. She simply was terrible at relationships. She should have kept things platonic - fantasizing certainly, as she always had about the beautiful abino, but she should have kept it there. She could have spared them both this pain.

She would probably have to let her go. Their relationship was obviously no longer employer/employee. She'd thought she could keep those late-night rendezvous separate from their daytime relationship, but this trip had brought out the obvious impossibility of that. She really should have known better.

Maybe this was for the best, though. Maybe they could go back to a strictly platonic relationship. After the crying was over. She would hate to lose her maid. She really, really liked her. She'd just have to toughen up. Like an imperious Mistress should.

Then why was it so damn hard to do?

********

The next morning Quill-Weave awoke to a rather delicious aroma in the tower. She donned her morning-glory robe and worked her way down the spiral stairs to the main floor.

"Mooky?" she asked, looking around for her minion.

"Oh! Good morning mistress," he said from the table, obviously enjoying a rather large plate of some sort of breakfast.

"Morning Mooky. What's that I smell?"

"Oh, your maid has made us breakfast!"

"Really? I didn't know she cooked. Where is she?"

"Out in the kitchen."

Quill stepped out of the tower to the small separate space where cooking was done.

"Good morning!" she called as brightly as she could.

"Oh! Good morning ma'am! I have breakfast for you!"

"You didn't need to make anything, you know."

The white khajiit turned around and brought two plates out. "Oh, it's my pleasure. Mooky found me some oatmeal, nuts and fruit - and along with the honey you had..."

"Oats? Isn't that for horses?" Quill asked, but took the offered plate anyway.

"Well, yes. But... just try it, okay? I think you'll like it."

Quill couldn't deny the stuff smelled amazing.

They sat beside Mooky and Quill had to admit that the strange looking concoction tasted as good as it smelled.

"I didn't know you cooked!"

"Oh yes. I share a room with three others back home, so I had to learn how. I've officially become the cook somehow. We don't really have much money, so our ingredients you would find... humble. But I manage to keep it varied and just buy whatever is on sale at the market and make it work."

"Well you're certainly welcome here. Mooky usually brings his wife's leftovers for me. She's a good cook too, mind you, but very traditional."

"Well, along with cleaning supplies today, perhaps when we're in the village today I could stock up on a few little things and surprise you? They'd be inexpensive, I promise!"

"I'm sure we could do that. Let me take a bath and get dressed and we'll be on our way."

****

"Wow!" the khajiit said when she'd come back down.

Evil Quill-Weave had finally made her appearance, and the redesigned Evil outfit was impressive to the khajiit maid.

"You wear it even when you just go into the village to shop?"

"Well, it's kind of who I am here. They're used to it by now."

"I see..."

"What?" Quill asked, sensing a question on the khajiit's mind.

"Well... It's just... I don't know how much fear and trepidation you can cause when you come into the market every day buying turnips, you see?"

"Oh. Originally I had Mooky buy all my stuff, but he kept getting it wrong. Finally it seemed silly not to just get it myself."

"Yes, I could see that. But... It's hard to be afraid of a night-time terror that you see buying beans at the market every other day, isn't it?"

"I see your point. But they're very nice people! And very friendly too. Do you know last time I was here one of them sent their daughter over with two big loaves of bread. They'd made too much and thought of me. So sweet."

"Hmmm. Yes, that's sweet all right. How old was their daughter?"

"Oh, probably about ten. I'm not good at guessing human ages though."

The maid looked at Mooky who just smiled and shrugged.

"Well, let's get on our way then. It's getting late in the morning and the market closes up by noon."

They walked out past the cart and down a well worn trail through the woods to the village.