Sunny and Rachel

If you are reading this, please send me a review Also, I am contemplating toning down or removing the adult content regarding sex and alcohol and would love to know your thoughts on this, pro or con and whether or not you think they add to the characters and story or not. I welcome all feedback, positive, negative, long, short, detailed or high level...every bit helps. And if you have questions, please ask.



         “Isn’t this great?” Sunny yelled as she lashed the spar in place and locked down the wheel. Her long brown hair was tied in twin pony tails that reached almost to her waist and her ebon skin gleamed with the sheen of oil. She loved being out here drinking in the sun’s heat. There wasn’t much in the world like it. She had stripped to nothing as soon as they were out of the harbor and the feeling of freedom was invigorating. As Stardust left the crowded harbor Sunny returned the whistles and cat calls of a few passing fishermen with waves and a smile.

         Stardust plowed through low waves, running upwind under clear skies and an early afternoon sun. Her golden foresail and silvery main glimmered with metallic majesty above the smooth, feminine lines of her sparkling blue hull. Crimson rigging lines sang a melody picked out by the wind, accompanied by the rhythmic slap of waves on wood. It was an ever changing song that reverberated deep within Sunny and her smile was as wide as the sea.

         To the south several fat hulled coastal traders and sleek clippers were moving steadily toward the massive quays of Brecka, while to the north another ragged line of ships were moving into the open sea. The Guild’s wind weavers kept a constant wind blowing in a great circuit that ran from the cliffs of Brecka, across the Sea of Basca to the Straits of Anvor where the sea met the Tennic Ocean and back again several leagues to the south. Imperial schooners patrolled the lanes ensuring that no other mage interfered by weaving the wind.

         Ducking under the spar she made her way forward to where Rachel was sitting with her back against the railing and her ankles tucked under her knees.

         Rachel was dressed in pale turquoise shorts and a matching strapless top, an outfit Sunny had found in a little shop in the outer arc of Brecka. It looked even better on her than Sunny had imagined. Rachel was too self-conscious to run around nude, even out here, and Sunny had stopped trying to get her to do so more than a year ago.

         Sunny grinned thinking back to the first time she had taken Rachel sailing. The girl had worn a wide brimmed straw hat, a loose red blouse with long sleeves and a white ankle length cotton skirt that kept tripping her anytime she tried to move around. Progress was progress as her dad used to say, and Sunny was still working on the woman’s sense of fashion, or more accurately, her lack of any sense of fashion. How someone with royal blood could have such a blind eye for what went with what and when to wear what was beyond comprehension.

         Now I wonder how long it’ll take me to get her to wear a thong and bikini top, she thought wickedly.

         A glowing circle of white light about as big around as a tea cup was hanging unmoving in the air about a foot above Rachel’s crossed legs. It was so thin that it was almost invisible when seen from the side and whatever it was; Rachel had been working on it for an hour or so every day for almost a month now. It had started out as a mere speck of light, but seemed to have grown a tiny bit larger every time Sunny saw it. Rachel refused to answer any questions about it and Sunny had stopped asking even though her curiosity was peeked more than ever.

         It must be something for the war, Sunny thought. Rachel was one of the rarest of the rare among all magi. Her abilities allowed her to weave qi like any mage, but she could also bind it to an object, imbuing the item with any of numerous effects or properties. The process was arduous and intensely time consuming, and sometimes left her crippled with headaches, but in all the known history of magi everywhere, there had been less than fifty people with such abilities and Rachel’s enchantments were in high demand, even more so with the empire increasing its involvement in the war.

         The Guild would have had her locked away in one of their towers to do nothing else if they could, but in Rachel’s veins pumped royal blood, placing her mostly beyond their control. Even so, she spent the greatest part of every day weaving anyway, and it was increasingly difficult to pull her away and into the real world.

         Sunny had insisted, threatened and even tickled her in an effort to get her to agree to come sailing today. She had finally had to remind Rachel of what the day meant and the fact that she had to remind her had made Sunny cry, something she hated doing. This was the third anniversary of the day Rachel had proposed. In her heart she knew it meant as much to Rachel as it did to her, and she knew it was just beyond the woman to even notice what month it was, much less remember what day, but it had still made her cry to know that she had forgotten.

         Still, that was behind them and they had all day to celebrate and Sunny was feeling happy and content.

         Sunny focused her own qi and was, as always, amazed by the aura she could see flowing from Rachel when she was weaving. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of unbelievably delicate threads of qi flowed from and around the woman. Try as she might to follow the flow of any single thread, Sunny always lost track. It was a beautiful thing to watch though, even if it was beyond her.

         Sunny relaxed, glancing over the bow sprit every now and then, but mostly content to lay back, soak up the sun and enjoy the day. She had made sure that Rachel brought no other work with her, had tried to make her leave that thing as well, but the stubborn woman had insisted, saying that it would be ruined if she left it behind.

         The wind was changing slightly and Sunny hopped up, trimmed the main and made an adjustment to the wheel. The boat responded nimbly, cutting smoothly though the waves as the white cliffs of Brecka fell away behind them. A trio of dolphins raced along to port and Sunny nodded a salute to them. Dolphins brought good luck after all, and who couldn’t use good luck.

         She ducked down and stepped into the shade of the cabin and fished a couple of bottles out of the ice and water that filled what would have been a live well if this boat were still used for fishing. The brown bottles clanked as she returned to the deck and moved back to her place opposite her wife. Even now, after having been married for almost two years, her heart still skipped a beat every time she thought of Rachel as her wife. She must have been born under a lucky star indeed to have had such a woman return her love.

         Wiping a tear from the corner of one eye she pressed her thumb against the wire contraption that held the stopper in place and was rewarded with a popping sound as the stopper flipped out of the way. The beer was cold and crisp and carried a pleasant chill as it flowed down her throat and into her belly. She was still holding onto qi, watching as Rachel’s threads flowed and twisted, knotting around each other in patterns too complex to follow. The shining white disk that the threads were flowing into seemed to glow even under the noon sun and as Sunny focused on it she could almost feel…something.

         She couldn’t quite put her finger on the sensation, but it seemed somehow familiar. She didn’t bother trying to figure it out though. She had been watching the thing grow under Rachel’s weaving for weeks now and she had never been able to make sense of that familiarity.

         Sipping beer and soaking up the sun, Sunny traced a finger along the top of her thigh. A thread of woven qi wrapped itself around the tip of the finger, and where it touched her leg the ebon blackness of her skin changed, becoming a deep, warm golden color. She spelled out Rachel’s name and then drew a red heart around it and smiled. Such uses of qi were among the first tricks a budding magus learned and it had been so with her, however, unlike most, she had never stopped experimenting with it.

         She couldn’t hold much qi and so hadn’t been able to train in any but the simplest weavings that every young mage was shown when they first manifested the ability. She had never stopped playing with those though, and could do some really amazing things with the little color changing techniques. Had she had any real artistic talent she might have made a fortune with it, but art wasn’t among her talents.

         She was doodling something else on her other leg when a wicked but silly thought crossed her mind. She spent the next several minutes weaving and tracing around her breasts and along her belly and when she was satisfied she sat back and finished the first beer. She couldn’t wait to see Rachel’s expression when she saw.

         Flipping the top off the second beer she stood and moved back to the wheel, glancing at the huge brass and glass compass mounted on rail in front of the rudder wheel. The compass had been her first anniversary gift. It was almost two feet across and under its glass was a map of the Sea of Basca crafted in such detail that even the smallest island was depicted. A tiny speck of silver and gold represented Stardust and was moving slowly toward a chain of islands, one of which seemed to glimmer. Reaching out with her left hand she turned the glass clockwise and the image zoomed in. About two hours away she thought.

         She guzzled the rest of the second beer as she ducked below. Rachel should be done soon, she was thinking as she folded down a table from a recess in the wall and began pulling food from a dry well that was sunk into the ice well. She sliced some cold roast duck and tomatoes, and tore open a couple of long crusty rolls, slathered the bread with rich spicy mustard and stuffed them with the duck, tomatoes, some tiny silver peppers and then added some thin slivers of white, crumbly cheese. Her belly was rumbling as she put everything away and wrapped their lunch in blue cloth. Snatching two more flippies from the icy well, she made her way back topside.

         Rachel hadn’t moved yet and Sunny stashed lunch in a cubby hole beside the wheel and then returned to her spot, stretching out her legs, flipping the top off her beer. A few high fluffy white clouds drifted in the brilliant blue sky and a flock of birds were soaring landward, their great white wings flapping slowly in unison. The smell of salt water complimented the rich taste of the beer and Sunny was beginning to feel a buzz coming on.

         “I had better slow down,” she said as she took another sip and laughed. 

         The dolphins had grown in number and several now kept pace to either side of Stardust as she raced along, leaving a white wake behind her.

         She had taken Stardust almost six years ago as payment for a job and had spent almost two years restoring her. A new mast and rudder had been the big things, but she had spent hundreds of hours cleaning, sanding and painting the wooden hull and deck and had worked up muscle polishing the brass fittings that now gleamed in the sun. She had been forced to replace every board and fixture in the cabin just to get rid of the smell of fish and fishermen. The little sloop had become both her hobby and her most cherished possession, with the significant exception of the love that Rachel gave her.

         Of course she could have practically anything she wanted now. Rachel was the youngest sister of the emperor and would buy her a small fleet if she asked, had in fact given her a three-masted schooner and a crew to sail her as a birthday present the year they were married. Sunny loved that ship and took her out often, but she would always love Stardust best. There was something about the way she felt when it was just her to do the sailing and the feel of the sea from the deck of the smaller, more agile sloop was far more satisfying.

         “Hey there, you’ve started without me again,” Rachel’s voice teased.

         Sunny had been gazing past the bowsprit but her smile became a grin as she turned to see Rachel standing and stretching.

         “Welcome back, my sweet,” she answered as she held the unopened beer out. “I made us some lunch if you are hungry.” Her own stomach growled at the thought of food and she smiled sheepishly as she stood.

         Rachel took a huge drink from the bottle and foam spewed from her nose as she tried to laugh, her free hand pointing toward Sunny’s chest. She tried to say something but broke into a fit of coughing.

         Glancing down Sunny giggled as she slapped her wife on the back. She had painted her small breasts as eyes, complete with irises and comic blood vessels in the whites, and below that a bulbous nose and rosy cheeks and a mouth pursed to whistle around her bellybutton. A stream of comically illustrated air was escaping from the red lips with her neatly trimmed bush forming a goatee on the chin.

         “I’m glad you like it, just don’t choke to death on me!” she said, laughing and continuing to slap Rachel’s back.

         “You are the weirdest woman in the world you know,” Rachel said as she recovered her breath. She was smiling and pushed herself away to get a better look. “That’s why I married you.”

         “I thought it was my eyes and my fat bottom” Sunny answered, grinning as she stood up straight and put her hands on her hips. She bounced up and down on her toes and grinned as another round of giggles erupted from Rachel as the “eyes” on her chest glanced around wildly.

         “Stop that you tease. I’m thirsty and I can’t swallow with you doing that.”

         “I’ll only stop if you give me a kiss.” Sunny said in a teasing tone, grinning and continuing to bounce up and down.

         Rachel laughed and stepped close, draping her arms around Sunny’s shoulders and pulling her close. Just when their lips brushed together, Rachel suddenly dropped to her knees and passionately kissed the lips Sunny had drawn.

         Sunny squealed as Rachel’s tongue tickled her bellybutton and she tried to pull away but Rachel had her arms locked around her waist. Giggling she twisted, but Rachel wasn’t ready to let her go and she dropped backwards, landing on her back and squealed again as Rachel blew a raspberry of air on her belly.

         The squeals soon turned to moans as Rachel’s tongue and lips moved ever so slowly down and Sunny felt her toes curling as pleasure swept away thought.

         Sometime later they stood together at the aft railing and Rachel wove qi, pulling a thin column of water from the sea which arced up and then sprayed the two of them as they took turns with a bar of scented soap. A rainbow’s arc danced in the water droplets as they washed each other.

         Afterwards they stood, basking in the sun as the wind dried them.

         “I am sorry I forgot,” Rachel said softly as she ran her fingers like combs through Sunny’s long curly hair, which was now blond.

         She had gotten rid of the body art and her skin was now a deep bronze and her eyes a purple the shade of amethyst.

         “You were forgiven hours ago my love.”

         Rachel pulled her close and kissed her gently. “And if you forget next year, I forgive you ahead of time.”

         She pulled back and stared into Rachel’s green eyes and a smile spread across her face. “I love you Rachel Ann, now and forever.”

         “You always know exactly what to say to make my heart flutter. I will love you with all my heart until time itself ends, Sunny May. You are my anchor to the real world and without you I would be lost.”

         “Now, I believe I remember you saying something about lunch?”

         Sunny’s heart quivered in her chest even as her smile widened. “Indeed, My Lady. Follow me this way.” She said as she took Rachel’s hand and led her forward.

         They ate in comfortable silence, seated facing each other with their backs to the railing. When the last bites had been washed down with beer they remained, their legs stretched out so that their feet touched and their toes intertwined.

         Time passed and a speck of land appeared ahead, green and lush with gulls wheeling in the air above it. Sunny disentangled her toes and stood, pulling Rachel up by her outstretched arms.

         “You had better get below and put something on if you don’t want to give the men at the docks a show.” She said teasingly as she walked back to the wheel.

         Rachel glanced down and with a slight blush disappeared into the cabin, her voice calling out behind her, “You get dressed too. I’ll not have men ogling my wife when we get there.”

         “What about the women, can they ogle me?” Sunny asked grinning as she moved and retied the spar. Their speed dropped and the deck became more level.

         “I’ll slap a bitch if they do!” was quickly followed by “Where did you put the bag with my jewelry and makeup?” and then, “Never mind I found it.”

         Sunny laughed and ducked into the small cabin which had been so neat and tidy before, but which now was strewn with clothes and shoes. The two trunks Rachel had brought were sitting with their tops thrown back and half their contents tossed haphazardly across the double bunk and both chairs.

         It was amazing how fast Rachel could create such chaos out of order, but it only made Sunny smile broadly and shake her head.

         She stepped around her wife and cleared a space on the edge of the bunk and sat down. Pulling her own trunk out from under the bunk, she tugged a green and white dress over her head and stood, shaking her hips so that the form fitting dress slid into place. Sitting back down she poked her feet into a pair of golden colored flats and buckled the straps that reached almost to her calf.

         When she looked up Rachel was shaking her head, “Please tell me you are going to put something on under that.” And then she reached out and gently flicked her fingers across one of Sunny’s nipples playfully.

         “If you insist dear,” she replied, pulling a red thong from the pile of clothes on the bed and tugging on. She then pinched her own nipples and stood.

         “How do I look?”

         “You are too wicked” Rachel answered, but Sunny could tell she liked what she saw.

         It took another ten minutes for Rachel to finally ask Sunny to pick her out something suitable after she had held up and rejected every dress. Rachel then pulled the chairs to where they faced each other and using qi instead of makeup, she expertly highlighted Rachel’s eyes and cheeks, colored her lips and smoothed and softened the redness from the sun.

         When she returned topside the island had grown much closer and she unpinned the wheel and steered a course around the northern tip. Several large manor houses were visible now, their red clay tiled roofs and low walled terraces dotting the sides of the two hills that rose up gently on the northern end of the isle.

         As Stardust rounded the point Sunny unlashed the spar, swinging it around and tying it off before turning the rudder toward the pier.

         A few hundred yards beyond the pier a cluster of larger sloops and schooners stood at anchor. The ships included several racing yachts and three imperial schooners of the type that were used to patrol the shipping lanes.

         Sunny quickly moved forward and released a crimson line and folded the foresail as she lowered it.

         The island was a retreat of sorts for members of the great houses, but was usually shunned this time of year due to the heat. Rachel had an estate on the western hill near the summit and Sunny had sent word several weeks ago for the staff to have the place ready for their visit. She scanned the heights but the red tiled roofs all looked alike to her. This was only her second visit to the island. It was like pulling teeth to get Rachel out of the city.

         Judging the wind with expert eyes she unlashed the spar loose and held it so that wind could no longer fill the sail and let their momentum carry them the last hundred yards, making slight adjustments to the wheel as they went. Two men dressed in blue and silver livery caught her tossed lines and pulled Stardust to a halt and tied her off with expert ease.

         Something about what she had just seen tickled her consciousness and it took a moment for her to realize what she had seen but not registered. The two men had moved to stand at attention after lowering a railed gangway.

         They wore royal blue tunics, half-cloaks and breeches piped along the seams with thread of silver. Large blue hats with flat brims folded up on the left side each sported a silvery feather. A silver hilted sword hung off their left hips. Their breeches were tucked into shiny black boots that reached to just below their knees.  Emblazoned over their right breasts was a crimson eagle, rampant on a field of blue.

         Sunny sucked in a breath and kept her face neutral as she nodded her approval toward the men. A pair of elaborate blue and silver coaches stood waiting where the dock met the road, each hitched to a pair of dark red horses. The drivers and several more guards in the same blue and silver livery stood at attention in front of them.

         Ducking into the cabin, she saw that Rachel was hastily trying to stuff clothing back into the trunks, which no longer seemed to be big enough to hold all of the stuff that had been pulled out of them. She stopped and smiled at Sunny when she came down but the smile faltered a bit when she noticed Sunny’s look of puzzlement.

         “What is it?” Rachel asked, returning to the task of stuffing a yellow dress back in the already full trunk.

         “It seems your brother is here, or rather his personal guard is here. They have carriages waiting at the end of the dock.” Sunny related as she pulled Rachel away from the trunk.

         “You surely don’t mean Patrick?” Rachel said hastily, her hands knotting into fists.

         When anyone referred to Rachel’s brother, it was seldom a reference to any of her other eight brothers.  “The last I heard he was still in the capitol.” She unclenched her fists and rubbed her hands on her thighs and then seemed to realize what she was doing and straightened her dress.

         “Maybe he heard we were celebrating and sent something?” Rachel said as she glanced in the mirror. She sounded nervous, but only slightly so.

         “Well, best not keep them waiting too long. Shall we?” Sunny said lightly, trying to ease the mood as she proffered her arm and patted Rachel’s hand as she took it.          She felt a flash of foreboding, but quickly pushed it aside.

         As they stepped back on deck she saw that the two men had been joined by Rachel’s own chief of staff, Jonson, who oversaw the running of her estate here on the island. He was flanked by two young strapping men and a young lady, all dressed in green and black livery. Rachel’s four pointed green star on a field of black was embroidered on the breasts of their tunics.

         “My lady, My lady,” Jonson said, bowing low, first to Rachel and then a bit less to Sunny. “We have everything ready as instructed and will be taking your things to Greenhaven. However, His Excellency, Patrick of House Brecka, the Lord Emperor, has kindly arranged for you to be brought to his palace.”

         “Your Lord Brother has also arranged for a house here in the village to be made available if your Ladyship should desire to freshen up before the journey.” Jonson said formally as he held his arm out to help Rachel down the gangplank.

         “Thank you Jonson. Please extend my thanks to the family, but I will not be needing to intrude on their hospitality. Please make sure they are well compensated.” Rachel’s voice had taken on an air of formality that Sunny rarely heard.

         “As you wish, my lady.” Jonson replied. “And if I may, you both look radiant, and it is indeed good to see the both of you.” He was smiling.

         Rachel smiled back and winked, “I am heartened to see you as well. You have always been my faithful servant.”

         “Your words are too kind, my lady.”

         Turning, Rachel addressed one of the two guards. “Very well captain, please lead the way.”

         “Aye, my lady,” he said as he turned smartly in unison with the other man and slowly marched along the pier to the waiting coaches.

         One of the drivers pulled the door of the lead coach open and the captain helped first Rachel and then Sunny into the richly embellished cabin, snapping the door closed as soon as Sunny was seated beside Rachel.

         As the coach lurched forward Sunny grinned and pulled a decanter from a silver rail across from them and turned up two heavy glass tumblers that were nestled in depressions in a polished wooden rail. She poured a generous double in each. Handing one to Rachel, she tapped hers against it, “One thing you can always count on with your brother, he always has the best taste in whiskey.”

         She sipped the whiskey, admiring the smooth taste and enjoying the heat that immediately filled her belly and chest. She rarely drank whiskey on a hot afternoon, but then again, she rarely met the emperor on a hot afternoon either. She had only seen him a handful of times since their wedding and always at court.

         He had been supportive of Rachel, had even given her away at the wedding, and he had always treated Sunny with nothing but respect. He had bestowed some very rich lands on his little sister and her bride. It had been at his insistence that they had moved the wedding up by six months. Even so, she always felt nervous in his presence and was not looking forward to this unexpected reunion.

         He was thirty one years older than Rachel and had eleven children of his own older than her, and until the year or so before Rachel was to be married, he had never paid her much attention. Their father had died when Rachel was five and he had been crowned emperor. Rachel had been sent to train with the magi at the age of eleven and had not seen him again until, at the age of seventeen, Rachel had decided that she no longer wished to study within the towers of The Guild and it had taken a visit by Patrick to convince the magi to allow her to leave.

         Rachel looked calm on the outside, but she finished her whiskey before Sunny. She shook her head slightly when Sunny offered to pour her another. Something was off here. She had never known Rachel to have any reservations when it came to seeing her brother or any of her family for that matter.

         Finally, as the coach continued to wind its way around the hill she couldn’t stand the silence anymore. Returning her glass to its hole she leaned against Rachel and hugged her, feeling tenseness in her shoulders that hadn’t been there earlier.

         “So, is there something you want to tell me?” Sunny asked, hugging her. “I’ve never known you to be nervous around your brother and something is obviously bothering you.”

         Rachel started to say something, but then shook her head and turned away, looking out the window. She didn’t pull away though and Sunny hugged her more strongly and laid her head on Rachel’s shoulder. The tension in her back and shoulders grew as the horses pulled them along a road than snaked back and forth up the hill, but Rachel didn’t speak until they passed through the heavily guarded gates and the sprawling palace came into sight.

         “I can only guess at what this is about, but there is something I should have told you  a long time ago.” Rachel turned back toward her then and pulled out of the hug, taking Sunny’s hands in hers. “There isn’t time now, but I promise to tell you everything later. Tears had begun to leak from her eyes, but she made no effort to wipe them away.

         Sunny’s heart had skipped a beat at her words and she felt fear crawling in her chest. What did she mean? What was it she should have told me? She didn’t ask though. The carriage had stopped and she could hear the footsteps as someone moved toward the door. She pulled her hands out of Rachel’s and wiped her wife’s tears away, summoning qi to rid those beautiful eyes of redness.

         “Shhh. No more tears. Whatever it is, you can tell me later. Now stop crying, you don’t want to meet your brother with tears flowing down your face.” Sunny’s mind was racing, but she had nothing to go on and absolutely no clue what Rachel was talking about. She just had to get her presentable and wait until later to find out.

         Rachel tried to smile, reaching out and cupping Sunny’s cheek in her hand, but another stream of tears came and she shook her head from side to side and scrubbed them away as the door opened.

         The same captain stood ready to help them down. As Sunny stepped out she grabbed Rachel’s arm and held it as they were escorted through the open doors.