Edgemoor

She had never been outside the city. There were stories of bandits and highwaymen and worse prowling the untamed roads to the north. The carriage she rode in with Constance, Kylie, and three others made her fears seem foolish. Barrister and several others traveled in the car behind them with the rest of the Queen's company.

As much pleasure as she'd taken in the memories of Constance and Kylie's unintentionally observed nocturnal activities the night before, Emma couldn't bring herself to look at either of them. The mere thought of doing so brought a flush to her cheeks, and her body grew hot.

She'd known things like that happened, of course. She'd witnessed it several times in darkened alleys while searching for somewhere to sleep. None of those times excited her. What Constance and Kiley were doing felt loving, tender, and exciting—not guttural, base, and depraved like the women and men pawing at each other like animals in the city's crevasses.

It felt as if they shared each other's bodies as a way to become one. To love and be loved, and not as a carnal respite from the ugliness around them. Maybe it was that very reason it had excited Emma so much. Maybe it was the thrill of observing while unobserved that had driven her body into a frenzy of need. Either way, she was very aware of each movement and look the two shared and her own intrusion into their most intimate moment.

Desperate to take her mind off the women, one seated beside her, one in the seat directly in front of her, Emma lay her forehead against the cool glass of the vehicle and stared at the land passing outside. Through breaks in the thick, dark trees, Emma caught glimpses of distant farmland. Stone fences divided one plot from another. Smoke drifted lazily from the chimneys of farmhouses, and animals stood eating grass, their heads down, oblivious to the world around them.

As the carriages traveled further north, the snow settled along the road grew deeper. The forest grew sparser as they followed the road north. Eventually, the forest vanished altogether, and the carriages turned off the main road to follow a narrow, winding trail scarcely wider than they were. Forestland had given way to misty grasslands and hills loomed to the north, dark through the rolling fog. The road they followed topped a hill before diving into the wide, empty expanse of the moors.

The snow, which still fell fitfully from the heavy sky, drifted earthward, the blowing wind whipping it into frosty bursts of white settling among the stubborn grasses. Bushes with their heads covered in snowy wreaths stretched unevenly skyward as the wind whistled, audible even through the sounds of muted conversation and the humming of the carriage's gears and wheels.

She was like those animals she'd seen earlier, Emma thought. Despite living her whole life on the edge of society where your wits would need to be sharp to keep you alive, her head had very much been down, and she'd been oblivious to the world outside the slate gray walls of Bastion. She wondered what marvels lay beyond the gently rolling moors.

What would she find if she picked a direction and walked that way as far as she could? In a very real way, she wanted to do just that. To see the world stretched out before her like…well, like Constance's legs before Kylie's ravenous gaze and insistent touch, she supposed. She cast a furtive glance at Kylie seated beside her and blushed fiercely.

I wonder what it's like to feel that connection to someone like her and Kylie felt, Emma wondered, forcing her eyes back to the sparse, snowy world of the moors as they passed by outside the carriage. What would it be like to be touched by someone like that? To have their tongue in her mouth, their warm skin pressed against hers, their fingers in her hair. What would it feel like to be one with someone? To be vulnerable and exposed like Kylie and Constance were.

She felt guilty, of course. She had invaded their most intimate moment. She had seen something she never should have and then crept away to use it as fuel for her own pleasure. She owed them an apology. How did one apologize for something like that, though, she wondered. "I'm sorry I walked in on you two having sex and stood there like a fool only to go back to my own room and bring myself to orgasm thinking about what I'd just seen?" Uh, Emma thought, best not delve into that much detail.

Emma's eyes were growing heavy as she stared out the window at the world cruising past. Each blink seemed to last longer and longer until without even realizing it, her head dipped, and she was asleep.

"Help me," a voice guttural and torn by agony and anguish whispered in the darkness. Emma felt cold, water dripped down the rough stones in the tunnels around her. She was beneath Bastion. She'd gone into the depths once in search of warmth and somewhere to sleep but had quickly fled from the denizens which called the twisted, labyrinthine warrens home. There were monsters living in the streets of Bastion. Animals like the ones who had attacked her in the alley, but they were nothing compared to the drugged-out creatures living below the city.

"Who are you?" Emma asked, looking around her for the source of the voice. The tortured sound came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

"I am you," the voice breathed in the darkness. Something was coming. Something dark and grasping. "Help me," the voice pleaded again.

"How?" Emma began to back away, staring into the darkness, her skin prickling with fear. She was afraid of the voice and whatever hunted her in the darkness in equal measures.

"Use your power," the voice pleaded, sounding like a distant and faint scream of pain.

"I don't know how!" Emma insisted, still backing away from the direction whatever stalked toward her in the unnatural darkness was approaching her.

"Use my power!" a voice directly behind her snarled, grabbing her in the darkness.

Emma jumped, and her eyes flew open wildly as Kylie shook her shoulder. Looking around fearfully, expecting to see the dark tunnels around her, she was relieved when Kylie grabbed her arm reassuringly and gestured out the window. Emma blinked away sleep and glanced outside, her breath catching in her throat. Edgemoor was awe-inspiring, to put it mildly.

The manor sat perched upon the top of a rocky cliff overlooking the lowlands like a bird of prey, its towers jutting skyward like monstrous claws into the afternoon sky, the dark windows staring across the expanse of the land, ever watchful against threats. The turrets and towers and buttresses of Edgemoor were designed to impart an impression upon those who saw it. An impression of a glowering, timeless grandeur.

"She's impressive, huh?" Kylie whispered, leaning over to stare at the manor. Emma nodded dumbly in response. "We'll be there soon enough an' then we can answer some o' yer questions. I know ye've got a ton o' 'em."