“How often do they do this?” she asked Vaxxa as they wiped down the floor with an industrial cleaning agent before they moved on to the furniture.
“Not as often as in their younger days,” she replied. “But on occasion they do have play friends over, and when that happens it requires much of the staff, both during as well as cleaning after.”
“But I thought that bonded couples would be, I don’t know, like, really into each other. Sure, there’s swinging, but these two didn’t seem to even really like one another.”
Vaxxa chuckled. “You have seen the master and mistress without clothing.”
“Yeah. One hell of a welcome if you ask me.”
“And did you see any matching runes? Infalas that had grown into the same design?”
“Well, no, I guess.”
Vaxxa nodded her approval. “You paid attention. The mistress likes attentive ones. You’ll do well here.”
“But what about the Infalas? They’re married, right?”
“They are, indeed. But theirs was a union of convenience rather than passion. The mistress was older when they joined. She had longed to meet her destined mate and had amassed quite a fortune living without one, holding off, always hoping to be bonded. But finally she grew to accept it might not happen for her. She was quite bitter from what I have heard, but she realized she was not getting any younger. She selected the vice quaestor for a strategic union, but there is no love. No bond. No Infala.”
“Sounds kind of sad.”
“You would do well not to ever speak a word of this. It is a sensitive subject within these walls and she has a visceral disdain for those who have bonded as she could not. Now, come on, we must get this done and return to our other duties.”
The two women scrubbed and cleaned in silence a few minutes before Maureen sat up and tossed a lube-soaked rag into a bucket. “Vaxxa?”
“Yes?”
“This is a high-tech world, right?”
“Obviously.”
“And the Mondarians are one of the most advanced races on it.”
“Correct. What are you getting at, Maureen?”
“Well, that makes me wonder. What’s with these?” she asked, holding up a towel in her hand. “I mean, this is a super modern city, and it’s chock-full of all of this amazing, advanced technology, but here we are, scrubbing by hand. What’s the deal?”
Vaxxa wiped her brow with the back of her hand, chuckling. “The technology you are talking about is called a wirschen unit, and yes, they are quite fast and efficient at cleaning.”
“So why don’t they have one here?”
“Oh, they do. But Mistress Torvik prefers we do it by hand.”
Maureen stopped working and sat upright. “Hang on. Theyhavea machine for this but shechoosesto make us scrub the floors?”
“And the furniture. And pretty much everything else, yes.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
Vaxxa took a deep breath and set her gaze on her new co-servant. “You’ll learn her quirks soon enough. Suffice it to say, Mistress Torvik enjoys wielding power. Control. And you would be wise to be very cautious who you speak about this with. A few on the staff will repeat anything unflattering to her in hopes of rising in her esteem.”
“Kiss-asses,” Maureen said with a snort. “Yeah, we have ’em on my world too.”
Vaxxa laughed. “I have never heard this expression before, but I like it.”
“I’m full of ’em. Just you wait.”
The two made decent time cleaning the floor by hand, though Maureen couldn’t help but ruminate on Mistress Torvik’s unsavory fascination with exerting her will over others as they scrubbed. At least this degree of messy debauchery was not a daily occurrence, but judging by some of the stains on the furniture, even the lesser festivities could be quite a happening.
