Xander and Zilli's First Mistake

Xander wanted to think he didn’t have time to think about the Zilli problem. If he ignored her, maybe eventually she would go away on her own. She could, if desperate enough, request permission to leave her role with the Queen.

But he knew better. No Zindu would pass up the opportunity to work for the Queen. It was dangerous, it was difficult, and it was everything that a member of the Zindu could ever hope for. It was the ultimate client, the chance to do the most for the world.

His presence disrupted that for her. He could tell himself it was his assignment first, and that he couldn’t let the small-minded thoughts of those beneath him slow him down, but he still stayed out of his own room for the whole night. He stayed busy until he had no choice but to rest, then found himself hiding away long enough to get his rest for the night.

In the morning he snuck back to his room, and found Zilli gone, her bed made, and belongings locked up tight. Xander let out a sigh of relief, and cleaned himself for the new day. He didn’t have any new task, but he was sure the princesses wouldn’t give him the luxury of a day off. Besides, he had to show Zilli that she couldn’t slow him down, couldn’t disrupt his progress with the people of the palace.

He catalogued the events of the day before in his journal, before locking it away and moving to the halls. In particular he stayed on the lower levels. He was worried about princess Nuuna, and considering he once saw her walking the bottom floors among the servants, he thought it might be possible to see her there once more, or at least ask about her.

The ladies in the halls were nearly all fair-folk, moving quickly to some place or another. They all had hands filled with towels, pans, or trays. Some could be heard barking commands, letting personal servants know what food to deliver, what linens to grab, where they were needed most.

It was a simple brute force method of service, but Xander respected it. The Zindu were not common maids, and so didn’t have to worry about solving every little inconvenience in the lives of a great many. They served the few, and they served their particular wants and needs. It allowed them to go above and beyond to help, it gave them time to understand what was necessary instead of what was asked for.

“She’s dead, no one to talk.”

Xander’s ears perked up, and he stopped. He was near a cross-section between two halls, and women were passing in each direction. But the words reached him crystal clear. He looked around, trying to find anyone that might look suspicious, but all he saw were different variations of the same maid uniform.

He continued to walk, but focused on the different voices, trying to catch the same tone.

“It will end, because we will make it end.”

Xander dodged a girl running with sheets over her shoulder before turning toward the voice. A maid was with a noble, neither appeared to be Fair-folk, but among the sea of common girls it was easy to overlook them.

They turned a corner, and Xander followed, trying to pick up on what they could be talking about. He still had reasons to believe that the attack on Princess Opel was a staged diversion, meant to throw him off the trail of a real assassin within the palace. But these weren’t Nodru, and that meant if they were involved, then the conspiracy against the royal family was larger than he previously suspected.

He hid just around the corner and watched as they walked toward an office. He pretended to pay attention to the different women walking past the intersection, but instead focused on the body language of the two having their clandestine meeting.

The maid was the one who was talking earlier. Her hair was black, her face a little dour. It was possible she was a Medika. Her serious expression matched her terrible message from earlier. She held herself taller than any maid, and seemed fine delivering her terrible message.

“This isn’t the place for this,” The noble woman with her said, “All I know, is that we can’t rest while there is work to do.” The noble was without a doubt Medika. Unlike her servant partner, the noble had all the marks of the magicks inclined women from the valley of yore.

Xander felt a shiver go up his spine. Just the idea of betraying the Queen of all, it disturbed him to the core. He didn’t have proof yet, but that just meant he needed to dig further.

Zilli’s voice broke his conversation. “What do you think you’re doing?”

He turned to see her approaching from behind him. So that was what he felt. She looked rushed, her stance rigid, and her eyes barely focusing on him.

Xander put up a finger to shush her.

She didn’t move to slow down, but she didn’t miss a chance to chastise him. As she prepared to walk past, he could see she was going to go around the corner right toward his suspects.

“I swear it, if you are trying to cause more trouble, I’ll report you-”

Xander grabbed her by the arm and shushed her again.

He almost missed it over her mindless aggravation. The maid saying, “Step in just a moment, I’ll show it to you.”

The door opened, and while Xander held Zilli, the maid and noble stepped into the room in the hall. The door slid shut behind them.

Zilli forced herself from his grip, and for a moment her face was flush with panic before going back to her usual frustration.

“Keep your hands off of me, I haven’t forgotten you that quickly,” Zilli said as she brushed down her skirt.

He nodded toward the corner and hall beyond. Despite everything, he knew that her skills could be helpful in a situation like this. She was trained as a member of the Zindu, and that meant that even while resistant, she had expertise that made her far more useful than anyone else on the floor when it came to unraveling a dangerous plot.

“What?” She said, leaning around the corner for just a moment to see a closed door, “What do you want? I have important matters to attend to.”

“Is it a client?” Xander said, with genuine interest.

Zilli looked away from him and shuffled from foot to foot, “No, it is none of your business.”

“Then you must help,” He replied, “It could be a matter of the Queen’s safety.”

She looked like she was ready to bolt at any moment. He could feel the nervous tension coming off of her, knotting up inside her, along with something else. She was conflicted, but he couldn’t worry about her small obstructions. He needed her help, this was her chance to prove she was a Zindu first, instead of dedicated to standing in his way.

“If you give me a moment,” She started, looking one way then the other, “I’ll return and help. But for now, you should know a Zindu melds to the motion of others, not their own path.”

She was quoting the book at him again, he replied “That applies to you here as well.”

Zilli opened her mouth to reply, then shut it before flushing with embarrassment.

The door clicked open again, and Xander stood up straight and pretended he was in a deep conversation with Zilli about some business. Not difficult, but important.

The maid and noble were quiet as they left, but they made their way down the hall.

“Come,” Xander said, grabbing Zilli by the wrist and dragging her toward the room the two suspects just left. He tried the door, found it unlocked, and pulled Zilli inside.

It was a dim room, with two beds along each opposite wall. The furnishings, small desks, cabinets, chests, it looked like a room for high level servants. It wasn’t unlike his own room, just with more open space, and set up for four women instead of two Xin.

“To the black jungle with you Xander,” Zilli spat in anger as she escaped his grip again, “Do you refuse to learn? I have no time for your madness.”

Xander turned to her, “Zilli, please. I overheard the two women that walked out of here talking about the Nodru assassin from before you arrived.”

Her face went blank, then stern, “The one you stopped?”

“Yes,” Xander said.

She wrestled with the idea, shifting from foot to foot again, a level of nervous twitching he had never seen in Zilli before. It was unbecoming of a Zindu, for sure.

“Well of course they were, it was a big event,” Zilli said.

Xander started toward the first desk to his left, “They were talking about satisfaction in her death, that it would keep her silent. They were keeping a secret, I need to find out what that maid is hiding in here. She must keep some sort of record of her movements.

Zilli turned toward the door, then back to Xander, “Not if she was intelligent. Either way, this seems like a job better handled by one rather than two.”

Xander cleared his throat as Zilli went to move, “When seeking woken words, one may do the work of many. When seeking written wisdom, every eye is the Zindu’s ally.”

Now Zilli squeezed her fists at her sides, and closed her eyes in frustration. “As if you could… fine then, let's hurry!”

She went to the opposite side of the room, and started at the desks there.

The first desk was just full of small notes, written by different hands. At first he thought his mission was already finished, but as Xander looked them over, he realized they were love letters. The maid had different fans from outside the palace, and was occasionally getting correspondence from each of them.

He closed it up, and moved on to the next one. It was locked, a feature the other desk didn’t have.

“Nothing here,” Zilli said as she moved from the first desk to the second on her side.

Xander opened his vest and pulled out two pins, before starting on picking the lock. He didn’t know how long they had before someone returned. If they were caught, he didn’t know what excuse he would give to get them out. No matter what, it would raise suspicion from the conspiracy.

“N-nothing,” Zilli said, a shiver in her voice as she spoke, “Can we go now?”

“Check the cabinet here,” Xander said as he continued to pick at the simple lock, “almost done here.”

She walked over, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Zilli squeeze her thighs together before she cracked open the cabinet and looked inside. It was tall enough to fit both of them, fully standing. Then again, it held hanging clothing of a Medika and Fairfolk woman, so that wasn’t too shocking.

“Just clothes,” Zilli said in a hushed voice.

There was a click from the desk, and Xander popped it open, “Got it.”

Inside was a small journal, not unlike his own. There were also a few folded up notes, put on simple paper. Nothing looked suspect, everything looked neat.

“Can we go now?” Zilli snapped at him.

He reached out to grab the journal, then heard footsteps at the door. Xander and Zilli looked at each other, then he pointed at the cabinet. He closed the desk, and they rushed to the cabinet before closing themselves inside.

Zilli stood at his side, and Xander got closer to the crack in the cabinet to look out.

“I can’t believe you,” Said the noble woman, walking in ahead of the maid, “All this walk and talk, and you forget it.”

“This isn’t just on me, Gottiva,” The maid replied, “I’ll grab it for you and we can go.”

Next to him, Zilli was shuffling around. It was just enough that he could hear her swishing against the clothing hanging in the cabinet.

He hushed her with a finger, “What are you doing?” He whispered.

She was in a panic, and at first he couldn’t concentrate long enough to figure out why. Her hands were clenched tight, her thighs squeezed in, her eyes shut and head shaking.

“If you must know, I need a pot,” Zilli whispered back.

The thought sank in, and immediately Xander could read the messages he had been receiving. It was so confusing at first, but now he could see it all. Her frustration, her need to be elsewhere, her anger that he would drag her farther from her goal. Now he had her trapped in a closet with possible assassin's between her and where she wanted to be most.

All because he wanted to spy on two women who had yet to show any signs of being dangerous.

The maid was out of view now, but he was able to watch the noble, Gotti, as the maid struggled with something out of view.

“What is taking you?” Gotti said.

The maid replied, “The lock on here is all stuck, weird.”

Zilli’s breathing was getting louder. He looked over long enough to see her squeeze a hand between her legs. She was struggling, and unable to hide it from him. When she looked over at him, her eyes were watering. She was trembling. Then when their gaze met, she looked away from him.

He whispered in her ear, “Hold on, they’ll leave soon.”

Xander believed that. They were here for the journal probably, and then they would go and he could get Zilli out. Not that he wasn’t enjoying her suffering a little for how she treated him. She wanted to act like she was the only adult, the only one in control of herself. Now she couldn’t even control her own body.

Unfortunately, thoughts of Zilli suffering, crying out in her weakened state, her shame, it only tripped up something inside of him. He shook the thought and tried to concentrate on the conversation, but the thoughts were there. He didn’t want to admit it, but they were exciting.

Zilli nudged him in the side, and with tear-filled eyes, whispered at him, “Stop it.”

“There,” The maid said as the drawer thudded open, “Got it.”

“Finally,” the noble said.

He could see the maid again, coming out with small papers in hand. The journal was still in the desk?

“Do you think they’ll be able to pin it on her?” The maid said, “The guard is on alert, after all.”

The noble rolled her eyes, “They are already preparing for war, and like the Queen, they are always prepared to blame a Nodru.”

Almost done.

Xander looked to Zilli, and saw that she was doubled over forward, her head short of the cabinet door. Her arms were shaking, her whole body trembling. She couldn’t keep still anymore, her feet moving up and down, her legs wrapped around each other, her hands tucked tight into her crotch. There was no more unlady-like image you could find. It was like an animal, trained to avoid the punishment and shame of leaking indoors.

“We’re almost clear,” Xander said, reaching out to touch Zilli on the back, “Hold on.”

She shook her head no, and whispered, “I can’t, I can’t.”

If she released while they were still in the room, they would be caught. It was actually imperative that she held back her flood. But he didn’t know how to help with that anymore than reporting what was going on just beyond the cabinet doors.

“Make it count then,” The maid said, “Only so many Nodru wandering the castle, after all.”

The noble woman scoffed, “One less, soon enough. Come on, or we’ll be late.”

Zilli’s every muscle was in rebellion. Her hips were swaying from side to side, every muscle in her face squeezing and contorting, her breath coming in sharp quiet Swip noises. Her hands dug deeper between her legs, trying to find whatever leverage they could.

It was difficult not to watch it like a dance. A celebration of a moment that neither of them could stop. At that point, Xander was unsure there was any way she was going to make it to a chamberpot before she burst, but all she had was desperation and hope.

The two women opened the door, and started out.

Xander whispered, “You’re good,” and touched her shoulder to comfort her.

Zilli let out a sharp gasp of surprise, and then her whole body went stiff. There was a sound, a short splash of water against the cabinet floor.

“Uh…” Zilli shuddered, her lip trembling as a tear went down her cheek, “Oh no…”

The women at the door stopped, their ears perking at the sound.

“What was…” Said the noble, “You hear that?”

Zilli let out a small squeak of shame, and Xander looked down to see a small rivulet of moisture trailing from beneath her skirt, making the journey down her thigh before dripping to the floor with thuds that felt louder than hammer swings.

“Hold on,” Xander whispered, “Just hold the rest.”

Her hips began to sway again, her hands digging for new traction, her arms squeezing. Her rear was poked out, and her chest pushed forward.

Xander couldn’t hide his excitement now, there was no way.

The noble woman took a step back inside the room, and looked around. Medika hearing wasn’t the worst. Not as good as Zindu, but not the worst.

Zilli shivered from head to toe, and another splatter hit the wood floor, followed by louder and more rapid drips. She sniffled, tears pouring down her face.

“I think they’re doing work next door,” the maid said, “Weren’t you worried about being late?’

Gottiva took a step back, but kept watching the cabinet as she did.

A short deluge escaped between Zilli’s fingers, and Xander couldn’t help but turn and watch now. He could see the moment they would happen in her expression. Her frown deepened, her eyes closed tighter, her hips dipped lower, then a cork was released for just a moment between her legs before it was stopped up once more.

“You’re right,” Gottiva said before heading back to the door. They closed it behind them.

“They’re gone,” Xander said, “You can go now.”

Zilli’s voice came out in small whimpers, “I couldn’t stop it, I couldn’t stop.”

She was gasping, crying, her whole body locked up.

Xander was conflicted, scared even. He wanted to help her, but he knew she would hate his solution.

The flow was now just the occasional drip, she was keeping herself contained now. Somehow she was still afraid of releasing in front of him, or maybe just hoping to maintain some last bit of dignity.

Xander took a deep breath, then moved closer to her. She tried to shuffle away, but her feet refused to move, her whole body was twisted over itself beyond believe.

He touched her cheek, and she looked up at him. Her eyes wet, her face a mess. Xander pulled her to a standing position, fought against the last bit of muscle strength she had.

“What, stop,” Zilli sobbed, “please.”

Xander pulled her forward, approached her for a kiss.

Zilli looked so confused. But as he got close, she didn’t fight it, she puckered up. Their lips met, a soft and warm contact, mixed with the moisture of her drying tears.

“Go ahead and let go,” Xander whispered as he pulled her arms from between her thighs.

She struggled, but had nothing left to fight with. Her arms were pulled to her sides as their lips held together, their breath intermingling, and he heard the last of her bladder empty on the wood below.

He let her go and watched, the look of relief that overswept her, her exposed legs twitching as the river rushed between the gap of her thighs and splashed to the floor.

“Ooooh,” She groaned in satisfaction, her eyelids fluttering as she finally found full relief. For a moment he was afraid she would collapse, but she stayed on her feet. Her breath was heavy at the end, her eyes looking anywhere but into his.

Then the stream finally stopped, and Xander couldn’t help but smile, “Feeling better?”

Zilli stood tall again, and for a moment her stance made him take a defensive posture. She looked ready to swing, her face going flush and her eyes going wide.

Then she shoved her way out of the cabinet, and into the room.

“I can’t believe you!” She said, “I absolutely cannot believe you. You monster!”

“Zilli!” Xander said as he came out of the cabinet, looking around to make sure the room was as they left it before he became so focused on her performance.

She was pacing now, “I was almost there before you pulled me aside for this… this… what was this?”

“Zilli!” Xander repeated, going over to the desk he broke into earlier.

“What!?” She snapped.

“We found them out,” He said as he pulled the drawer out, and started to look at the folded notes.

“We did?” She said, “I mean, even if we did. This is not acceptable. You… you ruined my uniform! This is against the way of the Zindu. Plus you took advantage of my situation.”

He examined how it was folded to make sure he could get it back, then started to open the note, “Technically, you ruined your own uniform. Also, you got some on me, so you ruined mine as well. And I did exactly what was required, by the letter and to the book. Do you wish to argue that?”

Zilli looked ready to reply, and then thought better of it. She was the one who had jeopardized the operation, and shamed herself. His little kiss was nothing in comparison, even if it was problematic. “Maybe I do,” She said, but she stopped looking at him as she said it.

“Zilli,” Xander said as he scanned the note.

She huffed, “What, what do you want now?”

He pointed to the mess in the cabinet, “If we’re going to go unnoticed, you’ll need to clean that before you head back to the room.”

Her face flushed, but she managed to build up enough anger to look back at him with indignation.

“This is all your fault, though.” She said, looking like her tears were going to start fresh.

He refolded the note, and then looked her over. Her legs were soaking wet, and a wet spot covered the front of her skirt. If they weren’t careful, any further time around each other would get bad, fast. He was still bundled in his excitement from earlier, and only her full release kept him at bay.

“You’re right,” He said, “I’ll clean. You go clean yourself if you want to come back to my room. Then we can discuss what to do next.”

Zilli looked down at her skirt, and let out a sigh. Then she perked up and asked, “Wait, what are we doing next?”

Xander smiled, “We have to find a Nodru in the castle, so we can stop this conspiracy in its tracks.”

The note would hopefully at least get the guards back on his side. But if there was another Nodru to blame another attack on, he couldn’t make anymore ground until they were found.