Chapter 24: Say My Name

“We should talk,” I said again.

Despite that, I had some trouble coming up with the right words to express the odd, stretching and tightening feeling forming in my stomach.

It wasn’t like I’d never been hit on before. Oh sure, after that whole debacle with Aegis Corp that catapulted me into my villain career, I’d had to block all of my socials. Prior, I’d gotten the same irregular stream of truly cringe dms as any other woman on the internet, but…I’d just never received the attention of someone I…

Actually liked?

Cared about?

Appreciated in any way at all?

Okay, foibles of the internet aside, none of this was helping me quantify the emotions stewing inside me right now. That seemed like a problem.

“Mistress.”

On reflex, I huffed. “You could at least call me Via, if you’re coming onto me.”

“Coming…on?” Rel asked.

“I mean, what else would you call it?” I shook my head. “Approaching someone over the phone, while they’re in a different city no less? It’s not kosher, you know, bad etiquette. And if I said ‘yes’ to your interest, what would we even do? I’m behind enemy lines; it’s not like we could hop over to the coffee shop to a quick date. Not that there’s even a coffee shop, because I’m so busy that I haven’t even had time to invent coffee yet because I’ve been so busy, but here we are, basically worlds apart! It’s like you’re asking me to be your girlfriend from a different school!”

“My lady.” Rel blinked once, eyes slowly shuttering before opening again. “I do not think I understand what you’re trying to say.”

I bit my lip. “It’s just…this is a first, okay?”

Rel’s expression softened as a look of understanding crossed her face. “It is for me as well, Mistress.”

“…Why’d you have to wait until now?” I wasn’t whining. Just because my voice was a little pitchy sometimes didn’t mean I was whining when I asked a perfectly valid and reasonable question. “I wasn’t lying when I said I was so busy right now.”

“That’s true, you’ve been very busy,” Rel replied. She swallowed once, before her expression firmed again. “I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to help more.”

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized that I’d been holding. “Well.” I shrugged my shoulders. The movement was jerky, awkward. “Good. You’ve helped a lot.”

Honestly, I probably would have drowned under the paperwork if not for Rel. The fact that she and Ishanti had built a bureaucracy around me still—ugh, off topic. Focus. “Still,” I said. “You understand why—”

“I understand that I have spent more time speaking with you now than I have in the past month while you still remained in Lady’s Port.” Rel swallowed. “I am sorry for interrupting, my lady, but it needs to be said. You have not had time for anything or anyone until now, when you have left the city.”

I paused for a moment, then ran a hand down my face. “If you’re going to talk back to me like that, you really should be using my name.” It felt so weird having an argument with someone who was bowing and scraping to me. “Fine. I’ve been busy. Maybe even a little too busy, you know, a tad overstretched. But it’s not like I’m less busy right now!”

“Yes you are…Lady Via.”

I groaned. “That’s not better.”

Rel shrugged, tugging on a lock of her brown hair. “I’m sorry, but neither is you putting off this conversation because you have to check projected crop yields again.”

“Did I do that?”

“No,” Rel said, “but I think it says something that you don’t remember, Lady Via.” She met my eyes. “You have spent a great deal of time assessing crop yields.”

“Food is important,” I said.

“Yes, but we cannot spend every minute eating.”

“Well,” I put on a smirk. “You clearly haven’t met some people from back on Earth.”

“Lady Via…please.”

“Fine. Fine; I’ll stay focused.” I sighed. “I don’t…fuck I’m so bad at this. I’m not trying to ignore what you said I just—It’s been a while, okay?”

“Yes.” A smile curled at the edge of Rel’s lips. I found myself looking at it. “You’ve been busy, Lady Via.”

“Exactly.” I let out a breath.

“You’re less busy now though,” Rel continued. “Or do you think you will have a lighter workload when you return to Lady’s Port?”

I shook my head.

Rel sucked on her lower lip. “Also, Lady Via, I could not live with myself if something were to happen.”

I said nothing for a long minute, chewing over what had been said. For once, words failed me.

After I didn’t reply, Rel seemed to slump lower in the mirror. “You…can reject me, My Lady. I know that I am hardly worthy to serve you, let alone—”

I shook my head, an almost convulsive motion.

“…Lady Via?”

I looked back to the mirror. As I’d mentioned once or twice, even if only in my own thoughts, my scruffy little minion had cleaned up into quite a respectable young woman. Her light brown eyes were wide and expressive, looking at me with an expression that sent my heart fluttering in my chest.

No one should be looking at me like that.

“How old even are you?” I hated that my voice came out closer to a whisper.

Rel tilted her head. She did that a lot. I liked the way it made her straight cut bangs list across her cheeks. “This year I will be nineteen summers?” she said, voice questioning.

I pressed a hand against my face. “It matters, okay. Don’t…don’t worry about it.”

Ninteen? How was she turning nineteen? She’d been thin as a stick when I’d picked her up. Granted, she’d shot up a couple inches after I started feeding her and the boys better, but that wasn’t the point.

“I’m just…so busy,” I tried again. “But…”

“You spend so much time focusing on making sure everyone else in Lady’s Port is taken care of,” Rel said. “Would it really be such a crime, to focus on something else for once?”

“If it was a crime, I’d already be on board.”

Rel gave a short giggle. I sucked in my lip at the sound. “You claim that you were some kind of criminal, back on your world. I find it harder and harder to believe, Lady Via.”

“Still with the Lady.” I slapped my cheek once with my free hand. “Are you hitting on me or asking me out for tea?”

“I shall…try to get over it, if it means so much to you?”

“I should hope so.” I nodded once, firming my expression. “I’m not interested in spending time with someone who constantly acts like my inferior, so you’ll have to shape up.”

“Oh…” Rel sagged again, before she took in my expression. “O-oh?”

“I have very high standards,” I said. “Which is why things never work out, but…” I looked off to the side. “It…wouldn’t be a crime, if you called me more often to talk about things.” I felt proud for keeping my voice so steady. “I wouldn’t mind.”

If nothing else, she was right that I had more free time now. How fucked was that? I’d been running myself so ragged I literally had more time to myself on a deep cover mission in a hostile city than I did in the seat of my own power.

What kind of Villain didn’t give herself time to enjoy the fruits of her victory!

“Maybe a change of pace…won’t be so bad after all.”

Rel smiled, eyes crinkling in a way that made me want to smile back. “I promise I won’t disappoint you!”

I huffed, tossing my hair. “You’d better not.” I fixed her with a sharp look. “If I get back and my town is burning down because you spent too long chatting with me…”

“That would never happen.” Rel straightened, meeting my gaze head on. “I know how to delegate my duties, unlike some people.”

“Hey.” I scowled playfully. “Watch it.”

“Of course…” Rel’s smile shifted into something sly. “Anything for you…Via.”

The screen went black, leaving me blinking at my own reflection a second later. “That bitch hung up on me!”

My head snapped up when Electra giggled. It was only then that I realized she’d never left the room after telling me to call Rel back.

I jumped to my feet, pointing a finger at her menacingly. “Not a word out of you!”

“Oh, not from me, no siree bob!” Electra giggled again. “But, Rel, I’m so busy.”

“I said not a word!”

“But Via,” she simpered, “those are your words!”

I growled. Never mind that my conversation with Rel had been enough to boost my Little Misstress class up a whole level. The class was definitely a BDSM reference, but I could never let Electra know that.

Instead, I took a step towards her, floor creaking under me ominously.

El had the temerity to laugh even louder.

“Oh but Via,” she placed a hand against her mouth. “What will Rel think of you laying hands on another woman?”

“You know what they say.” I grabbed her around the arms, power armored gauntlets clamping shut like manacles. “Out with the old.”

“Em?” She started squirming for real when I picked her up. “Empress?!”

“You know,” I said as I took a step towards the window, “people always seem to forget how strong I am in my power armor.”