Redux: Lineage

I thanked Svea for the tea as she handed it to me, a brief spark being set off in my mind as my fingers brushed against hers during the pass over. She'd included a saucer with the mug itself, lined with a series of different kinds of biscuits ranging from chocolate to ginger nut. I wasn't sure what about this gesture resonated so strongly within me. I was no stranger to kindness from the people I knew, but something about Svea's offering... Svea herself, was different. I watched her for a brief moment, gently dunking a ginger biscuit into her steaming-hot tea. She pulled the snack out, shaking the drips off the soaked confectionery before taking a small bite.

She looked adorable as she ate, like a small squirrel nibbling rather fast on small bites, and I felt rather strange about how content I was to watch her. Knowing when I was giving off creepy vibes, I mimicked her gesture, selecting one of the vanilla-cream biscuits she'd laid out on the plate and gave it a quick dab in the tea. I didn't soak it for nearly as long as Svea did, often preferring them to be hard rather than soggy, and took a bite out of it. The crunch sounded loudly inside my head and the flavour of the biscuit itself was rather delicious, clearly coming from a master-class baker with great skill in their craft.

Hearing a small object fall over behind Svea, my eyes shot up to it, curious as to what it was. It was at this point that I accidentally locked eyes with Svea for a split-second. The dragoness' eyes widened in alarm for a brief moment before rapidly shooting down, focusing on the number of crumbs she had on her dress and the patterns the steam made as it rose above her tea. She... she'd been staring at me. Just like I'd been doing to her. I remained looking at her for a long moment, waiting for her to move again to see if it had just been coincidence. Her eyes eventually rose back to mine, locking for a longer moment, before a faint blush appeared on her face.

"Something wrong?" I asked the much taller woman.

"No, no," she said with an awkward chuckle. "I apologise for staring at you. It's just that... nevermind."

"No, go on," I prompted her. "What were you going to say?"

"I... I was staring at you to make sure that I was using the same mannerisms that you were," she confessed, seeming rather embarrassed at the whole ordeal. "I've only ever sat down and eaten with a human a few times in my life... and I wasn't very good at it those times. I was watching to make sure the techniques I was using were proper for this kind of encounter. I haven't made you feel uncomfortable, have I?"

"Not at all," I said, taking a sip from the tea and enjoying the warm, tasty mouthful. "You were doing fine."

"That's refreshing," Svea said with a gentle, beautiful smile. "I received more than a fair share of sneers and stares when I last ate with your kind. Though I am convinced that was due to my appearance, rather than my etiquette."

"What happened?" I asked, confused as to why she seemed so interesting to me.

"I believe it was a day-wear versus night-wear issue," she said, taking a few more nibbles of her biscuit. "I hadn't perfected my knowledge of human clothing during specific events and times, which I'm afraid I still haven't, and believed I was overdressed for a breakfast event a few years ago."

"Whereabouts?" I asked.

"It was at a public carnival of some sort," she answered, trying to recollect the specifics. "Most of the women were dressed in darker-coloured, simpler clothing while I was dressed in..."

She gestured to herself, wearing the same long-sleeved evening dress she was wearing at present point. The movement of her hands attracted my eyes to a place I felt ashamed for look at: her enormous breasts. She dragged a finger down them, whether intentional or not, which allowed me to rest my eyes on those perfect orbs, each one larger and fuller than my head that settled and rested perfectly in her beautiful dress.

"While the men at the gathering seemed rather pleased with my appearance," she continued, the sound of her voice instantly getting my attention back once more. "The women seemed rather judgemental of me."

"Jealous nobles," I said with a sigh. "Demons can only hope to be as evil as they are."

"I've noticed I'm not a fan of human special occasions," she said with a weary sigh of her own. "Dragons can often be very egotistical, but never to that measure."

"It's a constant pissing contest full of narcissists and users looking to latch on and leech off whoever can get them up another rung in the socialite ladder," I said, shaking my head. "It's a phenomenal place to pick up women, but a horrible place to have to exist in."

"Oh..." Svea said in an almost disappointed manner. "You're... you're one of those types?"

I'd had scoldings from every woman in my family about my whorish ways. I'd even had my dad tell me to calm it down at least three times in my life, but I'd never listened. I was addicted to that kind of lifestyle and didn't ever want to give up my bachelor status and settle down with a woman. I enjoyed the fast and loose life far too much for that. But that single sentence in that single tone made me feel sick to my stomach with guilt and inadequacy. I had no idea what kind of magic Svea was working on me, but merely being around her and having her speak to me made me feel elated, so hearing her seem that disappointed with me as a person made me want to die.

I felt sorry for every woman I'd ever kicked out of bed the next morning, felt bad about every time I'd fantasised about sleeping with a woman, and felt outright disgusted with myself for revealing myself to be such a chauvinistic pig in front of such a perfect woman as Svea. I looked up at her with a remorseful expression, opening my mouth to apologise for everything I'd done in my life before a look of realisation seemed to spread all over her face.

"Damn!" she exclaimed suddenly. "I completely forgot I still had that activated!"

She swiftly tapped a finger on the dragon-claw necklace she was wearing, the piece of jewellery giving off an audible warping sound and glowing briefly before that feeling of remorse washed off me like dirt in the shower. The glowing feeling of pure content vanished and I seemed to return to, despite my lack of awareness of it, my rational mind. I put a hand to my head, suddenly shivering rather violently before trying to shake away the sick feeling I had on me.

"A thousand apologies, Richter," Svea said, getting up and digging a blanket out of a cast-iron chest next to the fireplace.

She set my tea and biscuits aside on the table, my body now feeling as cold as ice all of a sudden, before Svea breathed into her hand for a brief second. She threw a ball of fire onto the fireplace, instantly igniting the logs and soon having a roaring fire as she covered me up with the thick, sheepskin blanket.

"Please don't be alarmed," she said in a calming tone. "The necklace I'm wearing has an enchantment that boosts positive feelings in those around me. I use it to try and secure better trading deals with merchants in the city. They often do sell for lower when they're happier, and I forgot to turn it off when I returned home this morning."

"Why am I s-so cold?" I asked.

"The magic has a warming quality to it as well, due to people feeling happier when comfortable" she answered. "It's a rather advanced spell that has quite a lot of power behind it, altering the way the person it affects feels from pain to temperature. It can also cause a rather negative reaction when it is removed from those exposed to it. Once again, I am extremely sorry, Richter."

"You use it to play merchants?" I asked with a smirk, trying to remain positive despite feeling freezing cold. "Something tells me that you of all people don't need magic to make people feel like giving you things for free."

"And your reason for that is?" she asked, turning around and looking at me.

My eyes once again wandered down to her huge breasts, the enormous flesh orbs being perked up ever further by Svea's arms crossing underneath them.

"I can think of two right off the bat," I said, not dropping either my eyes or my smirk.

Svea then followed my gaze down to her chest, going so far as to gently squeeze them while speaking.

"Your kind does seem to focus on these quite a lot," she commented, kneading her breasts. "Why is that?"

"Evolutionary reasons, I think," I shrugged, snuggling into the warm blanket to try and shake off the cold.

"It's not for stature?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "I always believed it was."

"It's complicated, kind of," I said. "There is an evolutionary reason for why men prefer big breasts and wide hips, and it's because a female with both of those tend to be good at breeding and childcare."

"Oh," Svea said in a shocked tone before nodding along. "Yes, mammals... of course."

"The idea comes from bigger breasts either being easier for a child to feed from due to the round shape making the nipple jut out more when erect or from the idea that a woman will produce more breast-milk due to her size," I explained. "That last one's kind of up in the air, but people lean towards the former. The wide hips thing comes from babies being easier to pass through wider hips more than narrow ones, 'birthing hips' as we call them, and that's where the natural attraction comes from."

"And they became a status symbol because?" she asked.

"Because being attractive is good," I answered. "Having beautiful features and big breasts usually tends to get you more positive attention, be it for more negative reasons on the giving end, but positive attention all the same. The bigger your breasts, the more attractive you're seen as."

"Then..." Svea said, giving another glance down to her 'puppies'. "I'd be seen as very attractive?"

"Yes indeed," I nodded. "Probably why you get a lot of whispers and angry looks when around snotty noble women. They're jealous about how big your breasts are."

"Should... should I make them smaller?" she asked.

"Please don't," I grinned. "They're a very pleasant sight."

"And they'll help me secure better deals, no?"

"Definitely," I nodded. "If you wanna add a layer of sexuality onto that, most older merchants will probably melt."

"Oh," she said, going slightly red in the face again. "I've never been very good at that. My sister's usually the one that seduces people."

"You have a sister?" I asked. "Where is she?"

"Her name is Suomi," Svea explained. "And she still lives back at the Capital with my mother. She's much more, how can I say... active than I am when it comes to that kind of thing."

Give me an hour and a good conversation and I'm positive I can fix that.

"That does bring me to my next question," I said. "Why are you living in a cave-house in the middle of a mountain range?"

"Studies," she answered, sitting back down in her chair.

"Of how well a cave-house works?" I asked.

"No, human studies," she answered with a small smile. "I'm trying to be as close to a human settlement as possible to study and take notes on their activities without drawing too much attention to myself."

"And yet you're constantly taking trips into the city in your human form for food and supplies?" I asked with a confused expression. "Forget that, where are you getting the money from?"

"Alchemy and metal pressing," she answered. "I have a room further back with an alchemy lab in it. I use that to transform hunks of iron into a metal alloy that's nearly identical to the gold coins humans use in this country. I'm actually considered quite rich... apparently."

"So why not use that little illegal operation you're running to buy a mansion in the city and watch all the passersby from a noble's point of view?" I asked.

"Is... is what I'm doing illegal?" she asked in a shocked tone.

"Yeah, what you're doing is forgery," I nodded. "Do dragons not have currency?"

"Not in the same manner you do. We instead trade goods with one another using gemstones. Metals like iron and steel are only given to smiths, so if you can transform worthless metals into useful ones, they don't mind," Svea explained. "I've been committing a crime?"

"You... you look a lot more cut up about that than most dragons would," I stated, looking at her as she seemed to become more and more flustered.

"I... well, uh, I feel that if I'm to live amongst humans and learn their ways, then I must properly abide by their laws and customs," she said, seeming to calm down a little. "I feel awful about this."

"Eh, you'll get used to it," I shrugged. "How about I make you an offer, Svea?"

"O-Okay," she nodded, sounding rather unsure of herself.

"Why don't you move in to the castle in Equestria and live life like a normal human from there?" I explained. "I know we haven't been seeing each other long and moving in might seem like we're rushing things, but I feel like it's a natural step to take at this point in our relationship."

Svea seemed confused by the statement for a brief moment, the gears churning in her head for the longest time before she gave me a rather bemused look.

"Very funny, young man," she said, leaning back in her chair and sighing. "Though you are right... moving into the castle with the ruling party of one of the largest human-populated countries in the world would be a phenomenal research opportunity... surely there's some condition, though?"

"Of course there is," I nodded. "You need to become my wife and bear my children."

"What!?" Svea exclaimed in horror, launching forward with eyes wide in shock.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," I said with a quiet chuckle, finding myself rather amused by her sudden panic. "I need you to tell me and my friends everything we need to know on stopping Heimili."

"I was already planning on doing-" she began.

"Everything, Svea," I said in a stern tone. "I need to know her in and out, every single piece of information about her likes, dislikes, and annoyances. The better I know her, the more chance I have of making her slip up in combat and saving a lot of people a lot of trouble. You do that for us and I’ll make sure you have a warm bed, food, and water to keep you comfortable in Equestria. Are we clear?"

"Yes," she nodded in a solemn tone. "Crystal."