The music changed. Dances slowed. Families picked up sleepy children and carried them home. The elders shuffled away, while the new-faces, the revelers, and the dawn long-haulers stayed. All remnants of the feast: the tables, the dishware, and the food had been cleared and replaced with jugs of alcohol rotating through the crowd. This was the moment her tahs would bring Nico home, and even though she’d never witnessed the darkest part of the night, she knew what would happened next.
The bodika.
Most people said that the bodika was truly the moment they felt a part of the Grankull. It was an experience that connected and looped you into the webbing of adulthood.
Touches lingered. Dancers moved closer. Eyes began to circle Nico with hunger and heat. Already, some were growing bold enough to approach her. The handsome ones. The beautiful. The most accomplished. Those proud and arrogant enough to hope She would choose them first.
Across the field, she locked eyes with Suri’s dark ones. She dismissed the more experienced and the politically connected and stopped before the face she had once thought her best friend.
Everyone deserved a second chance.
Nico pressed her mouth to Suri’s lips, and for the first time in her life, allowed herself to really want. She kissed the pretty mounds of Suri’s breasts, kissed the slim dimple at her hips, and kissed her to the ground. Suri’s delicate limbs opened, and Nico consumed her.
A touch to Nico’s hip. Larger. Rougher. She turned to find a handsome face searching for permission. She kissed him in answer. Suri rose, flushed against her, to press Nico between the two bodies. They both doted on her. One by one, bodies joined together, blossoming into a flower made of flesh and writhing limbs.
Nico lost herself in the sweat, the saliva, and the drip between legs. She was connected to everyone all at once. She felt their pleasure flood through her. Moans and breathy groans tensed through her muscles. Her body tightened at the rising sensation, higher and higher, until she overflowed.
A thick fog burst from her lungs.
She shivered, pulsing and throbbing, as she lay in a screen of white. She couldn’t see anything through the magic-dense fog, except for the fact that the partners she began with, weren’t the partners she ended with. The lack of visibility did little to deter the mood. If anything, the groping turned more ethereal and carnal.
Nico slipped away into the dark.
Nico wobbled a little. It had hurt more than she had anticipated. During the health exam, the healers had warned her to prepare herself in the days leading up to the event, but she had been so busy she had forgotten. She probably should have been drunker as well, but she couldn’t afford to completely compromise her defenses. When she reached the Tail, she forced the pain away to some distant shore where she used to place broken bones and bruises under Ava-ta’s tutelage.
Kelin and Zephyr waited under torchlight at the border of the Tents. The moment they spotted her, they burst out laughing.
“What? What’s wrong?” she asked.
“The always immaculate Nicolai looks utterly and obviously fucked,” Kelin teased. “Never thought I’d see the day. Is the bodika all that they say it is?” He had left before it started, nor had he cared much to stay.
“It was certainly interesting,” she said of the drunken orgy. She had enjoyed it, or at least what she had experienced during the short time she was there. She had enjoyed how every touch and sensation had been amplified by her magic. She had also enjoyed the connection. It served as a reminder that the Grankull was more than just an institution. At its core, it was a group of people with very human desires to lose themselves in something greater. She had been a raindrop in an ocean, and she craved to be submerged again. She had no idea what that meant for her kinks and sexual preferences, but she’d muse on it some other time.
“No one saw you leave?” Zephyr confirmed.
“No. I made sure they didn’t,” she said. She washed through her hair and between her legs. It was a quick rinse, but it would have to do for now. She still had a long night ahead of her.
Zephyr handed her some clothes. It was a simple caftan and shroud, the typical uniform of a kuller up to no good in the Tents. They left once she was dressed and ready.
The Tents overflowed with a rowdy pouring. Zephyr and Kelin led the way through the sounds of music and boisterous songs. The banished, the forgotten, and the outcast feasted on deftly stolen plates and pilfered alcohol. As she walked past, Nico filled bowls set out for the rain.
At the very center of the festivities, a tent had been erected only for this night. Zephyr parted the tent flaps. Nico stepped inside and greeted the sight of four individuals glaring at each other from a circle of chairs. They looked a vibration away from drawing their weapons.
The Jackal, the Vulture, the Heron, and the Scorpion.
The Jackal analyzed her behind the spectacle of his glasses. The Vulture, whom rumor had it no one had ever seen their face, sat in a black shroud that shielded everything but deep eyes. The Heron, elected as representative for this meeting, wore a feathered veil to cover their face so effectively that Nico couldn’t identify this Heron among those she had met. Then there was the Scorpion Han, Zara-shi.
It was the first time all four Tent Hans had gathered in one location. The infamous gang leaders all had some sort of blood feud, vendetta, or overlapping business interests with the rest that could rip everything apart. It was a momentous occasion in the history of the Tents.
Zara-shi had stood when Nico entered the tent. Even though she had known Nico since she was a budchild, Zara-shi addressed her with seriousness and gravitas. “We, the Tent Hans, demand to know why you have called us all here tonight?”
Nico sat in the empty chair prepared for her, rounding the sharp edges of the square into a circle. Zephyr and Kelin stood at each of her shoulders.
“As you all know, the Grankull was a tie vote away from another purge. The dragon is dead, but one bad year, or one poor hunting season, and that’s all the justification they will need to try again. The threat of the purge will never be gone, and I refuse to allow the fates of my family, of which I consider some of you, to remain in the hands of this current Council. If we fail to stop them, our lives and the lives of those protected by our campfires are at risk. They might have stripped me of my title, but I am a dragon at heart, and I will not be intimidated. I have declared my intention to run for the Council seat of the Wings, but one seat won’t be enough. We need to do whatever it takes to flip the whole damn thing. I have called you all here tonight to talk of war.”
Zara-shi’s smile stretched the scars on her face.
“Welcome to our fire, Ohan.”