My Servant System

When we entered the giant walls surrounding the marble palace, the scenery changed almost instantly; gone was the golden brown sandstone brick, gone were the dusty roads, gone were the dozens upon hundreds of people...

In their place, polished white marble and colored terracotta gave the area color and life, while the brick road was swept clean and spotless; the plants around us gave the dry area some more life, but the absence of people around this road was a stark contrast to what we had seen moments before.

That wasn't to say there was completely no one inside the palace walls, but compared to before... it was almost a ghost town; a clean, beautiful, but empty palace that had no real soul to it, what with the lack of living, breathing people inhabiting its walls.

In the distance, I could see the lavish gardens that Anput had told us about, the various trees and shrubs a vibrant, healthy green that felt out of place inside this sandy expanse, and I could hear the clashing of blades and shouting of warriors in the distance, which only grew louder the closer we got to the main palace.

The palace itself was of interesting design; the walls and structure of its 'main' building was simply various rectangles that were placed around to create an interlocked building, with arches built going up those rectangles to give the design depth.

The same terracotta used out here was used on the walls for vibrancy, and gold was used between each terracotta tile to add even more beauty to this marble structure, while above, atop the rectangular framework, spheres adorning the tops of those main structures and giving this entire palace a unique design.

Coming to a stop in front of the palace, we were greeted with the giant doors opening up to reveal a large assembly of servants, warriors, nobles and more, all of whom strode out onto the road to approach the carriage with smiles and reverence on their faces.

The Death Jackals instantly formed a ring around us once more, uncaring of the crowd and doing their job even now, with one of them opening the door and allowing us out of the carriage for the first time... well, since the gatehouse, but that barely counted.

As soon as we stepped out, the instant raising in temperature simply because the sun was now shining straight onto our skin and not onto the carriage made me shudder, the heat already causing me to sweat somewhat and giving me a slight feeling of dread about what was going to happen going forwards...

If it was this hot just standing beneath the sun, what the hell was it going to feel like when we began to actual move around and started doing literally anything at all?

Though I do know that the clothes we were wearing were not doing us any favors at all, and that was part of the reason that I was so excited to go shopping for new clothes here, especially since I had an agreement with Anput that we could get some more revealing and spicy clothing to have some fun in, which I think we were both looking forwards to quite a bit.

And if the sights I had seen on the way to the palace from the gatehouse was anything to go by, I think I was going to very much enjoy the clothes I had to wear and the clothes that the others were going to wear; seeing what we were going to be in was rather... titillating for me, but the most important thing here wasn't sex...

Though I wouldn't complain if we just took an entire day to indulge, or if we were going to have spontaneous and incredible sex wherever and whenever we wanted, I wasn't going to complain.

No, the most important thing about this trip was making sure Anput recovered from whatever had troubled her with the surprise meddling of Cali, and after that it was just ensuring that Anput had the most amount of fun and got to spend as much time with her family as she could before we went back to the Empire.

That was something that still worried me to this day, and I was hoping that I might learn what had caused her such great distress back then, but unless it came up naturally I wasn't going to push the issue whatsoever.

Now that we were out of the carriage, I couldn't help myself as I stretched out my legs and back whilst keeping myself relatively 'still', since we had a rather large gathering of people around us, and coming down the steps now was the Sultana and Lady Kio, the two heads of the Sultanate walking hand in hand to greet their daughter.

The quiet clamoring of the servants and nobility around us was merely background noise as we all stepped forwards and bowed to the veiled Jackalkin, her tall, lithe figure exuding a sharp, cold aura reminiscent of a blade.

Beside her, the short, olive skinned Dogkin sauntered about confidently as she looked around the assembled people with a smirk, before her eyes landed on us - specifically me - causing her smirk to widen as she raised her free hand and ordered "Stand down. Farah, go inform Layla that Anput has returned. I suspect the rest of my pups will be curious to see their eldest sibling~!"

One of the Death Jackal's nodded and disappeared quickly, rushing into the palace in a silent blur, leaving the rest to fall to a single knee as they looked towards their leader, who just waved her hand dismissively.

Without any additional words, the rest of the Death Jackals disappeared as well, and a palpable wave of relief washed over our observers as they finally found it easier to breathe now that all of the deadly warriors were gone.

"Anput..."

The raspy voice of the Sultana made my mate shiver slightly, but it was clearly something positive since her lips were curled in a wide, happy grin and her tail was swishing from side to side; the moment that the Sultana raised her hand and simply curled her fingers a few times to beckon her daughter forwards, Anput leapt into her embrace and nuzzled against her muscular chest.

Lady Kio leaned down and gave Anput a kiss between her ears before looking towards me, her smirk fading slightly as she shook her head and muttered "I still can't believe a daughter of mine would willingly mark a Zara bitch..."

Despite the words being rather demeaning, the woman herself was staring at me with slight respect and acceptance, though I had a feeling she was going to remain stubborn for the rest of her life and never admit that I was a good choice for Anput.

"I heard Julie finally moved from being Chordeva and Ria's 'personal maid' to being their marked woman? About damn time..."

Rolling her eyes, Lady Kio released Anput and glanced back at the palace, before turning towards Jahi and Leone as she scrutinized the two of them, mainly Jahi as she looked the Demoness up and down before nodding, which only earned a soft grunt from the Sultana as she simply muttered "Kio..."

"What? Her personality might be just as rotten as her Mom's, but we both know her genes are top of the line! Talk about some impeccable blood!"

"Kio... she is more than just some genetics, you know?"

Gently untangling herself from Anput's embrace, the Sultana let out a soft sigh as she muttered "Besides, now is not the time nor the place to discuss something like that, Kio. We are in the presence of outsiders..."

"Fine, fine... Come, let's head inside. It's been a long time, Anput... a long, long time..."

Lady Kio smiled at her daughter before peeking at the Sultana, who was studying the visages of everyone outside before she turned to look at us, the tall, dark skinned warrior looming over us not only in stature, but also in presence.

Almost as tall as Jahi, she felt larger than life as she looked us up and down, studying our appearances and committing us to memory before striding confidently back into the palace, gesturing for the others to come inside as well.

That confidence and ease with which she walked was rarely seen, and it was the reason that she seemed so gigantic and imposing despite not even being as tall as the Empress, nor as tall as Mom.

"It has... What's happened since then? Besides... well, the obvious."

Snickering at her daughter's question, Lady Kio tilted her head and asked "Besides me having a litter of pups in your absence? Not much... well, I say not much, but your Mom has been trying to convince me that she needs another woman, and at this point..."

Glaring at the Sultana, who just shrugged and said "I simply brought up the idea, Kio.", the Dogkin sighed before saying "I might just let her since I think I'm pregnant again, and if that's the case I really don't feel like having to deal with the whims of your Mom yet again..."

That made the tall ruler of the sands stop mid stride, her black ears twitching a few times while her veiled face turned towards Lady Kio, who just kept walking and humming to herself besides Anput, who was also struggling to comprehend what she just heard.

I also noticed instantly that Lady Kio's tail was slowly swaying side to side, whilst her body language spoke of amusement, leading me to believe that the Dogkin was more cunning than she let others believe with her brash and straightforwards way of speaking.

Either way... that was a rather surprising piece of news to start the visit on, and it made me smile wryly at how similar the Sultanate was to the Empire; the grandeur I expected from a government body ruling over a gigantic swathe of land filled with powerful people was instead replaced by simple warmth and emotions, the individuals responsible for these governments and lands seeming far too 'human' for what I had expected.

But it was that 'humanness' that made me believe they were excellent rulers because of that; they were 'the Empress' and 'the Sultana' not just in title, but in soul as well; as an individual, that title was synonymous with them, and that allowed them to hold this un replicable swagger that I had never witnessed before in my previous world.