Cultivating Plants

Rani-al-Sadina was a very public figure, making appearances all over her city, and certain parts of the whole emirate. Yet when she was in her palace, the one place one would find her was in her bedchamber.

The scribe of commoners stood in front of sturdy wood doors with her heart on her fist. The last time she had been in that room it hadn't been a pleasurable experience. And she doubted this one would be either.

With much solace, Aloe knocked on the door.

"Who is there?" The emir's muted voice came through a few seconds later.

"It is me, Aloe." The scribe responded.

"Aloe?" Rani's confusion could be felt. "I was not expecting you." For you were expecting my maid.

"I apologize for the sudden intrusion," Aloe said even when she was still behind the closed doors. "But there is something I must speak with you."

"I am expecting company soon, you may regret staying." The conversation may have been dulled for other people – talking through such thick doors – but Aloe suspected both of them were brandishing the sense stance.

"The requested company will not come." The scribe of commoners stated diplomatically yet powerfully.

Muffled noise came to Aloe's ears, but it was so faint that she couldn't distinguish the source.

"I see," Rani added after a long wait. "Enter." She ordered taciturnly.

One thing that the scribe had never grown used to, even after months, was opening doors while in a wheelchair. Awkwardly, she fidgeted her body and wheelchair to push herself into the room, more than once needing to jerk the wheelchair forward and backward in quick succession.

Rani sat on a pillowed bench before a dresser, her likeness reflected in a mirror.

"Explain yourself." The emir didn't bother facing the scribe, instead, she continued grooming herself.

"Rani, my liege," Aloe started as any good bootlicker should do, "my maid is not comfortable with the visits you demand from her."

The sultanzade giggled. "Oh, dear Aloe, how many mistakes can you utter in a single sentence?"

"Excuse me?" The commoner reflexively uttered.

The princess stood from the bench and turned to face the wheelchair-bound woman. She dressed in light silks that covered almost nothing, with much jewelry and golden chains hanging around. If there was an image to describe divinity, it was her.

Also vanity.

"Aloe, sweet Aloe…" Rani took a step forward, her body slithering like a snake with the curves of hers. Aloe tried to take a step backward, only to remember her wheelchair. "First of all. Your maid?" She giggled again, accompanied by another step. "Power has tainted your mind too much; you seem to be forgetting who that girl serves. Me."

The emir's eyes shone purple. Her gaze was not dissimilar from her mother's. Aloe tensed at her words but kept herself locked in place.

"Secondly," she took another step, "I demand nothing out of her. It is quite literally her job to please me, and if she does not perform her duties, then I have no need for her. Understood?"

By now, Rani was right in front of her. The sultanzade was already taller than most women, and with Aloe sitting in her wheelchair, she was not looking over her shoulder, but her whole being.

Her aggressiveness gnawed on the scribe's psyche, but if she backed down now, not only would Lulu get truly dismissed, but assaulted before that.

"Rani," the petite woman pleaded, "is a grain of vitality from a nearly reaped servant that important to you?"

The princess squinted and smirked. "No."

The slyness and smugness overflowed her visage. Rani was genuine with her answer, she truly didn't need that vitality, so her negation made it worse than it should.

"It is not about wealth or power, Aloe." Rani put a hand on the scribe's shoulder and slowly circled her wheelchair. Not having a line of sight with the sultanzade scared her. "It is a matter of principles. She is my servant. My maid. My bedwarmer. And my source of vitality. I will reap her if I want, I leave her alone when I please."

It's a lost cause. Aloe realized crestfallen. She will never let her go because of pride, and once she is no longer useful, she will send her away… The scribe gritted her teeth, powerlessness overwhelming her.

Then Rani placed a hand on her other shoulder.

The princess arched downward, the chains in her attire clinging in a metallic cacophony, as she approached the commoner. Aloe felt the weight of the emir on her body, not only did Rani press her hands against her shoulders, but as she closed the proximity between them, she pressed her cleavage onto the backside of her head.

"Now," the emir's soft whisper warmed the scribe's ear, "I can present you with an alternative."

"I…" Aloe gulped down saliva and tried her best to suppress her trembles. "What may that alternative be?"

Rani leaned forward more, her soft body swallowing the scribe. The princess moved a hand from the shoulders to Aloe's neck, caressing it with the tip of her finger. It was getting hard to avoid a reaction from the soft touches, the warm hands, the poisoning charm…

And she went lower.

The princess' purple nails disappeared into the scribe's dress, her digits getting dangerously close to the peaks of her chest.

Yet before Aloe could stop her, Rani interjected with a whisper.

"Substitute her."

Two words.

Two words shattered her completely.

"Cat got your tongue?" It wasn't the taunt that restarted Aloe's brain, but the daring touches of the sultanzade that hadn't stopped since then.

"I…" The scribe tried to utter words, yet none came. She then instead tried to move Rani's hands away but found her own paralyzed.

"Now, I understand that this offer is not balanced for both parties." Rani's words caressed her with the same warmth as she touched. "Asking to substitute a lowly maid for a cultivator of the sultanate, is far from fair."

Aloe should have been angry, she should have defended the way she spoke of Lulu, but she couldn't react. Her mind and body didn't respond to her. It was as if she wasn't present, as if her mind remained somewhere else. Trapped.

"And as the magnanimous ruler that I am, I cannot offer someone an unfair deal where it is only me that reaps the benefits." Her hands reached lower, not as dangerous as before, as Rani focused on the petite scribe's curves – or lack thereof – and her belly button.

By now Aloe was drowning in the debauchery that was Rani-al-Sadina, trapped neck-deep in quicksand. Her mind recalled foul imagery, yet her body didn't convulse in hate. Instead, her body… didn't hate it. The commoner felt as every hair in her body rose at the exploring touches. The single kernel of pleasure she felt redirected all her hate she felt towards the sultanate, the sultanzade, and the sultanah towards herself instead.

How could she enjoy it? That was what Aloe was thinking, though her mind was so clouded that she couldn't put it into words.

"Here is my offer," Rani whispered directly into her earlobe, "I will not touch this maid you call 'yours' and neither will I reap her. In lieu, you will be the one warming my bed, but I will also teach you."

"T-teach me?" There were no thoughts behind the scribe's words, only reflexive repetition as her body trembled at the hands which slowly lowered. She felt if that they reached too low, it would be the end of her.

"Indeed," The princess groomed the commoner's hair with affection. Aloe hadn't noticed until now that only one of her hands was inside her dress. Her thoughts were that sluggish. "You may be a cultivator, but it is clear you have had no training, either martial or with Nurture. I offer to fill those gaps in addition to the aforementioned incentives."

Aloe's mouth hung open words refusing to come out. Only when Rani's nails scratched her hips did the mist in her mind clear a bit.

"I-it is a good offer." She expressed herself aloud but had difficulties thinking if she truly believed that. At what point forbidden knowledge was worth oneself?

"Quite." Rani moved the hand on her hair down the scribe's nape.

If I accept it… It pained Aloe to even consider the offer, but knowing the sultanzade, refusing it could be even worse. Just because she slapped that hand that fed her didn't mean she would never be fed again, but that hand may come back with a whip and with an urge for violence. Lulu can stay with me and not be used anymore, and I'll also gain more insight into Nurture, the price is only…

The scribe froze.

Rani's hand had finally made it down. She could only pray that the moistness of her own skin came from sweat.

"Well?" It wasn't a plead for confirmation that came out of the princess' mouth, but a threat.

A threat of what she may do next.

"Will you reap me?" Aloe did her best to hide her sobs. She wasn't sure if she succeeded.

"No, no." Rani almost seemed offended by the question. "Cultivators do not reap each other." The expression Fatima had used seemed to be more truthful than she had let on, even if their mother hadn't respected it. "The terms of the deal are exactly as I stated. Nothing more, nothing less."

Then… The price was clear to her. Does it matter anymore? When she would continue to be pressed from all sides, when someone else would suffer with no benefit unlike her, when there was now nothing to protect as it had already been stolen… I am already empty.

Aloe didn't cry. Aloe didn't sob. Aloe didn't resist. She just, defeatedly, uttered two words.

"I accept."

The princess instantly removed her hand from the scribe's dress and unlatched herself from her. Slowly, she turned around the wheelchair to face her, and that was when Aloe saw the voracious grin of hers.

"I will cash out on our deal right now then." Rani's arms closed on her, and Aloe hadn't had enough time to regret her decision.