Page 56 of The Pleasure Contract

“Oh.”

Glancing at Az, I catch him rolling his eyes at the thing, but before I could ask more – or possibly tease him about it – a young male Xaviann comes bustling over to us.

“Oh my horns, oh my horns, oh my horns,” he mutters to himself under a very wide smile. “Prince Az Xeverrique!” he beams, bowing. “Second Prince of the Northern Principality, Uh… Twelfth Son-” he says the ‘Twelfth’ with a squint, and in a tone that gives away the fact that he wasn’t sure that was the right number.

Az waves him off, ignoring heads that turn to notice him now. “If you’re going to recite my titles, we’ll be here until supper.”

“Very good,” the male says, bowing again and smiling so wide it looks like it hurts. “It is an honor to have you here at the museum today. I’m Lazzy, and on behalf of the museum, I would be delighted to organize your security and tours during your visit.”

“To be honest, I don’t usually bother with security, Lazzy,” Az says, scratching at his chin with the back of his thumb as he looks around, spotting various museum visitors stop to gawk and point at us. “But perhaps today would be a good day to accept your offer.”

“Splendid!” Lazzy says, pressing a button on his wrist comm to project a map in front of him. “Where would you like to start? The hall of warriors? The venom research archives? Or oh! The Royalty Room, perhaps, eh? We have your family tree in there.”

Az rubs at the back of his neck. “Uh, maybe not that room today. Unless,” he turns to me, “my… companion would like to see it.”

Lazzy turns to me excitedly. “The tree is interactive,” he beams, saying the last word with a flourish of his hands. “It’s in a simulator and is an actual tree you can climb! Each branch features a different king or prince you can talk to!”

Az tips his head back and mutters, “Nex take me now,” to himself.

“Oh, really?” I tease. “And would I find a hologram of Az on that simulated family tree, Lazzy?”

Az shoots me a look.

“Oh, of course! And I must say,” he comments, standing back to look Az up and down, “I think we may have overestimated his sense of style with our fashion choices for his museum hologram. We might need to do some tweaks.”

I start to giggle.

Az looks down at himself, dumbfounded. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”

“Oh, nothing,” Lazzy shrugs. “It’s just you’re wearing ceremonial horn caps with casual attire, and this shirt-” he shakes his head, taking in the offending article of clothing.

Az plucks at the front of his shirt. “This was given to me by our favorite sponsor. I thought the color suited me, Lazzy. Are you trying to tell me I can’t pull this off?” His tone is light and amused, accompanied by a teasing smile.

“Just be glad he’s wearing a shirt at all, Lazzy,” I lean in to mock-whisper, to which Lazzy’s eyes brighten.

“We don’t have a shirtless hologram on the royal family tree. You could be the first!”

“Knock yourself out,” Az grins. “Now, if you could be so kind, Lady Lois and I would like to start our tour now. Preferably not in the Royalty Room.”

As we watch Lazzy quickly arrange our security detail over his wrist comm, Az leans down, “Maybe I should let you dress me from now on,” he murmurs in my ear, “since you seem to undress me oh so expertly for such a little thing.”

* * *

The Venom Archive room was pretty fascinating. They even had a section on one female Xaviann whose venom could turn anything she bit and flooded with her active bloodline venom into solid gold. Az had joked that maybe someone with that precise venom should bite his dad so that he’d turn into one of those statues like in the hall. Lazzy had laughed but quickly swallowed the sound behind his hand. There was also a very sad wall of names to commemorate all the Xavianns who had been hunted down by people called ‘venom chasers’ – who seek to kidnap and exploit those who possess particularly sought-after venoms.

Then we moved on to the technology rooms. I’ve got to say, I had thought that part was going to be boring, but the artificial womb exhibit was fascinating. They even had a section dedicated to Senator Glex, and how his family has been furthering this particular technology and also using it to aid an endangered native species on a conservation planet they own – the very same conservation planet that Zann is on right now. Part of the exhibit had a model of a large, egg-shaped artificial womb, dissected so that we could see the young, winged species of alien curled up inside, complete with a tail tucked around himself. The replica even had animatronic lungs, making it look like real breathing as the model lay there with his eyes closed, in the fetal position.

The whole thing was fascinating, and it makes me look forward to Zann’s next video call so I can ask him all about his work.

As long as he doesn’t call while Az and I are getting busy again.

“And this,” Lazzy says, guiding us through to the next room, “is one of our most popular exhibits. Off limits to our younger guests, of course.”

I follow, furrowing my brow. “Why would it be-”

But when I step properly over the threshold, my words peter off into distraction.

The room is ornate in decoration, all polished dark wood floors and decorative wall and ceiling moldings gilt in gold. Dotted here and there on the floor of the room are different kinds of… furniture? They’re accentuated by spotlights, the sources of which are floating above them. The pieces are roped off with deep purple velvet capped in gold, further information floating nearby in the form of glowing projected text. The pieces of furniture themselves are all different combinations of padding, leather straps, control panels, and at one point, I think I spy stirrups.