Jun 15, 2026 · 36 min · 6 segments
We're back to Aurduin for this week with Chapter 26, "Intrusion," from the audiobook of The Alchemist and the Eagle. Jao returns home with his prize of Nuya only to realize that he has no idea what to…
Martin BallHost
In fact, now that he had his prize of the strange young woman from across the world, he genuinely didn't know what to do with her.
Once caught, what then? If Zhao were a crude man with desires for base pleasures, The answer would be obvious with a young woman as beautiful and voluptuous as this.
Zhao wasn't a crude man, however, and he had not personally experienced any sexual desire since making the transformation.
There were desires and feelings that perhaps came close to sexual passion, or at least mimicked it in a subversive kind of way, but he had no actual desire to perform a sexual act.
He had been elevated far above such desires, and they were no longer part of his nature.
What else had led him to feel that he had to possess this woman? It couldn't have been mere curiosity or fascination.
For some reason that he could not fully express or explain to himself, he wanted her like nothing else he could imagine.
But why? And now that he had her, whatever was he going to do with her? Ren Zhao did not have the answers to these seemingly simple and basic questions.
Despite her seemingly helpless appearance, as he believed most pregnant women to be, he had heard enough from Commander Chulok not to be deceived by appearances.
She was one of the strange women from the East, and Zhao did not want to take any chances.
Chulok had insisted that these women could move with blinding speed and were deadly accurate.
The one with the knife also seemed to have some power over animals, which he considered that perhaps this one here shared.
He had kept her well sedated so as not to pose any threat to him on the return journey.
Zhao had spent hours gazing at her and examining every detail of her body as Commander Chulok piloted their ship back to the archipelago with Rin Zhao's prize.
He was overcome with obsession, as though he could discover the answer to some unspoken riddle or reveal some carefully guarded secret in her body.
In fact, now that he had his prize of the strange young woman from across the world, he genuinely didn't know what to do with her.
Once caught, what then? If Zhao were a crude man with desires for base pleasures, The answer would be obvious with a young woman as beautiful and voluptuous as this.
Zhao wasn't a crude man, however, and he had not personally experienced any sexual desire since making the transformation.
There were desires and feelings that perhaps came close to sexual passion, or at least mimicked it in a subversive kind of way, but he had no actual desire to perform a sexual act.
He had been elevated far above such desires, and they were no longer part of his nature.
What else had led him to feel that he had to possess this woman? It couldn't have been mere curiosity or fascination.
For some reason that he could not fully express or explain to himself, he wanted her like nothing else he could imagine.
But why? And now that he had her, whatever was he going to do with her? Ren Zhao did not have the answers to these seemingly simple and basic questions.
Despite her seemingly helpless appearance, as he believed most pregnant women to be, he had heard enough from Commander Chulok not to be deceived by appearances.
She was one of the strange women from the East, and Zhao did not want to take any chances.
Chulok had insisted that these women could move with blinding speed and were deadly accurate.
The one with the knife also seemed to have some power over animals, which he considered that perhaps this one here shared.
He had kept her well sedated so as not to pose any threat to him on the return journey.
Zhao had spent hours gazing at her and examining every detail of her body as Commander Chulok piloted their ship back to the archipelago with Rin Zhao's prize.
He was overcome with obsession, as though he could discover the answer to some unspoken riddle or reveal some carefully guarded secret in her body.
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