Lairu defends her honor

The jostling of her chariot faded into the background of Lairu's consciousness as her daydream took shape.
In her mind's eye a large man had his way with her, and rolled off her, spent. His savage lust for her had awakened her own, and she wasn't finished. She mounted him and gripped his softening member. "No no no, I wasn't done, you great oaf."
The smug self-satisfied grin on the man's face (which man? She didn't care just now) makes her blood boil. "Aw kitten, you'll just have to wait."

Lairu switches her grip to the man's testicles - he has an impressive pair, she decides - and she snarls: "Why? you have a mouth and hands, don't you?"
She imagines his expression changing to shock as she squeezes. "Are you a man? Finish what you start." She remembered the sight, earlier in the day, of Khem's twisted manhood in Aliesh's grip, and the fear in his eyes. Lairu, in her daydream, twisted and pulled and drew a yelp from her man.

"Peace my lady, peace" he now said in her imagination. He was the soldier she had grappled with today, she realised. He had been very sturdy and surprisingly handsome - for a common soldier.

The fantasy appeals. Perhaps, thought Lairu, she could try being forceful in bed sometime.

She is shaken from her reverie as the Arama palace comes into view. Inside, she knows the head of the house, Barengon, and his wife Aure await them. Outside they are recieved by a gaggle of servants directed by Domen, the eldest Arama son.


The Arama palace was an excellent place for a feast. While music and dancing held sway in the main hall, the various lounges tucked away throughout the ground floor gave intimacy for lively gossip and flirtation.
It was beside the doorway to one of these lounges, where she was waiting to fabricate a coincidental meeting with Domen, that Lairu overheard a conversation she had long feared.

"Oh I don't think it's any secret Lairu is a damn whore. I'll be bedding her tonight, no doubt about it."

"You're rather diminishing your boast by calling her a whore, Domen." Laughs a voice she cannot place.

"Not to mention, she is your guest here." Says a familiar voice, sternly.


A rumor of this variety was bound to crop up - Father had warned her of as much when he declared his daughters full heirs. Even with nothing besides resentment as their basis, they would spring up.

Whatever their source, whatever their veracity, this had to be challenged.

"Who will rebuke me for saying the truth of the matter, Emmon? Surely you, of all people have no reason to jump to her defense" Growled Domen.

Domen is right that his only reason for defending Lairu would be general decency. The Emmon of a few years ago likely would challenge Domen for that reason alone, but the fire had gone out of him since his injury.

Lairu's only living male relative was her Father, and he should no longer challenge a young man in his prime.
She could go to her sister Aliesh.
But the last duel Aliesh fought had already brought them trouble. Father was clear they could afford no more enemies, and "winning while female" seemed to have that effect. Fighting the duel herself presented the same problem, besides which she would like to preserve her feminine image.

She couldn't confront him directly, but she could make him a liar and an example, all at once. Lairu stepped back from the doorway, and then ran through it, breathing heavily as if she had just run from a distance.

"Oh, good evening." She looked around the circle and lit up when her eyes met those of Domen. "I've been looking for you, they're playing a game in the courtyard, and I was hoping you could team up with me?"
Lairu smiled hopefully, blinked twice and then looked down and away.

Domen's smug smjle looked almost innocent as he directed it at the other two men. "Please excuse me." Emmon's answering smile was almost a grimace. The third man - Lairu had no name for the face - contained his laughter behind a wide grin.


The rest of the evening she hung on Domen's arm and played the part of the infatuated girl. It wasn't hard - Domen was handsome, and charming when he put his mind to it. Despite the confidence in his earlier boast, Lairu found she was able to fluster him with the right gaze and touch.

She left his side only briefly, to speak to Zemia. "Sister, please find a reason to speak quietly with someone, or several someones if you can manage it, in the courtyard tonight."

The evening drew to a close, and Lairu retired to her room, leaving Domen with a lingering glance. She waited in her room, in a state of partial undress.
She looked around for a likely tool.

The wooden lattice of her window was spanned with several layers of cloth against the night's cold breeze. Lairu removed the cloth, bundling it at the base of the window. She stoked the fire in the hearth hot against the resulting chill.

There was a gentle tap at her door. Lairu opened it and looked bashfully at Domen. He said not a word before he crossed the threshold and closed the door behind him. He turned to Lairu, who had backed away a little and closed her posture to cover herself.
"Let us delay no longer, we shall both have what we want." He said, moving towards her.
"No, no Domen. Heavenly fires, what do you think of me!" Gasped Lairu, not needing to feign her affront at his forwardness.

The contempt he held for her was the trigger of the trap she had set him.
"Enough games, I don't think a thing, I know what kind of girl you are, and I will have you. Forcefully, just how you like it."
Domen moved towards her as she had backed towards the fireplace.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"
Her hand touched the poker leaning against the wall and she twisted her body, bringing the thin bar of heavy iron whistling upwards.

It struck between Domen's legs, eliciting a startled gasp. He began to collapse, disbelief on his face. As he hit the ground, disbelief turned to rage and he surged to his feet.

Lairu dropped low as her right foot stepped out sideways and she pulled her left leg back and away from Domen's grasp. She had a lower position than him, and when she turned her hip the force of his charge carried him into the fireplace. His rear fell atop the burning pile, and he would have rushed to his feet promptly if Lairu had not quickly pressed the point of the poker against his pants, pinning his manhood against the burning wood with all her weight.

All rage was replaced with panic as Domen was torn between the pain of the burning and the pain of the poker's blunt point crushing into his cock. He gripped the poker desperately, but did not have the strength to move it. The pitch and volume of his voice increased with each breath as he began to scream.

Finally, the frozen horror on his face told Lairu he was defeated.

She savored her victory for a second.

Then she dropped the poker and hauled her hostile host from his private hell. His clothes smouldered around his nethers as he thrashed to pull them off. Lairu smelled burnt hair, and saw raw, red skin - Domen would endure blistering for weeks.

Over his frantic whimpers Lairu heard footsteps in the hallway. A moment later, Barengon Aremar stood in the doorway, eyes wide and mouth open. Lairu put on a beleagured face and stammered "H-he tried to force me."

Barengon's darkened expression could mean a number of things, some good, some very bad. Lairu wouldn't find out which just yet, because more steps sounded on the hallway and Zemia pushed past Barengon into the room.

Her concerned gaze flicked from Domen to Lairu.
"Lairu, are you unharmed?"
Concern was still on her face as she approached Lairu.

Emmon's voice came from the doorway: "We all heard everything from the courtyard."

Mid-stride Zemia's expression changed from concern to surprise to amusement and she smiled slyly at Lairu.
Lairu rushed to her and buried her face in Zemia's bony shoulder to hide her own smile. It wasn't hard to mask her traitorous laughter as sobbing, it was halfway there as is. Lairu was flooded with relief from her risky plan succeeding.

It was the next morning that Lairu and her family departed. A smile fragile as glass was plastered across Aure's face as she ordered servants around to provision them. Barengon conversed privately with Father. Something had been broken, the bond with Araman was now tenuous. Lairu could not bring herself to regret anything, she'd done what she had to do, and was already planning her next act.

What Domen had said troubled her. He knew that she liked to be taken forcefully, though he clearly failed to understand what that meant. This could be a twist on a chance rumor that happened to hit home. But it seemed too specific to Lairu. Domen must have been told by someone. Someone Lairu had trusted greatly. Someone who would pay dearly, Lairu resolved.