Chapter XVI: A Miscalculation Everyone had been acting increasingly unreasonable. That was the conclusion that Glory had come to over the last two days. First, the crusaders had listened to the words of that fraudulent expert who insisted that the only way to stop the demons from using the Wardstone for their evil ends was to dispel its' divine power. She had tried her hardest to convince them that if she had the time, she could figure something else out, but they had to listen to a man that was likely hysterical. Just another instance of those around her being unable to comprehend or appreciate her brilliance. Xenia couldn't even do it, even after she had showed the stupid little girl things she hadn't even dreamed of before. Speaking of Xenia, she was still mulling over whether her behavior or Majesty's was the most outrageous, though at the moment her assistant held a slight lead. Not only did the ungrateful little runt go behind her back and crawl into Xenia's sheets, but Majesty had done so at a moment where Glory's mood was absolutely foul. And as if that weren't low enough, Majesty had done so after refusing her offer of allowing her to have some fun with Xenia before they parted ways with her. Still though, it was curious to think what precisely Majesty did to get Xenia to share a bed with her. Obviously, Majesty wasn't ugly, even if there were a few things here and there that made her a less than perfect copy, but she was such a gloomy and prickly little thing that she couldn't imagine her being much of a seductress, but somehow she had got Xenia to serve as her little knight. It would all be funny, if it wasn't so infuriating. Though it didn't seem like it was going to matter now. Xenia had volunteered for the crusaders' little suicide mission and Majesty had joined her. After everything that she had done for her, all of the lessons she had tried to impart to Majesty about how the world worked, she tossed that aside so that she could die with some whore. Glory let out a sigh, she was going to need to find a new assistant, one that wouldn't get forget everything she told them the first time a pretty face talked to them. Glory was knocked out of her self-pitying thoughts by the sound of a great commotion. Another annoying thing about the crusaders, in addition to being stupid, they were all so damn loud. Something that made it difficult to think. As the crusaders closed in, she could pick up what she could tell to be cheering. As much as she missed being Zuri from time to time, she had to admit that one of the benefits of this new form was sharper hearing. It seemed that she was wrong and this mission wasn't the suicidal endeavor she had dismissed it as. Which likely meant... It seems that the two of them survived after all. For a moment, she feels relief at the prospect of not having to find and train a new assistant. But there was a more pressing question. How did they survive the Abyssal onslaught and direct exposure to the divine energies in the Wardstone? A sinking feeling formed in the pit of Glory's stomach as she realized that getting the answers would require groveling before the two of them. On second thought, perhaps I should only speak to Xenia. Majesty's a paranoid little thing and even if she believes me, the last thing I want to see is her looking all smug. As Glory started to ponder just how she could catch Xenia alone and what she would say to her, the city of Kenabres began to prepare for celebrations. And for the first time in the last several days, a smile crept across Glory's face as her mind began working. Chapter XVII: A Moment of Peace, Please? Xenia's mind was still trying to process everything that had happened in the last few hours. Somehow a man ripping his own eyes out was the least crazy thing that had happened in that span of time. She had seen visions of things she didn't understand, was filled with a power she understood less, and she had kissed Maj. Twice. That last thing was what had she had been going over in her mind the most. It was good and she honestly didn't know how things would have gone if there weren't other people she had to worry about, but the physical aspect of it was not what occupied the greatest significance for Xenia. That spot went to Maj herself. She was getting very close was the foxgirl and in ways that, if she were truly honest with herself, she hadn't even gotten that close during her time with Glory. And while she found herself wanting to be with Maj more than she had thought she would when she first went out on this venture, she couldn't help but feel pangs of guilt and fear, because Maj had fallen in love with the Xenia in her portraits that was beautiful and good at dancing and whose hand intertwined with hers so wonderfully. She had not fallen in love with the Xenia who seduced and deceived and betrayed in the name of paying off some ancient debt their family owed. That Xenia didn't deserve to have Maj, or anyone else for that matter love her. And Maj probably wouldn't after Xenia told her, but she felt that it was something she had to do regardless. Odds are that Maj would find out who Xenia truly was sooner or later even if Xenia tried her hardest to keep it down. But even more than that, it was the right thing to do, even if it would cause Maj to hate her just after she put all this work into making things right with her. Grandfather never mentioned that being better would be this hard. Making matters even harder for her was the fact that it was nigh impossible to actually tell Maj this, as at the moment, she and the others that had been involved in the raid on the Grey Garrison were being swarmed by hordes of survivors that were significantly harder to repel than the demons were. Xenia had attracted the attention of the masses at the one time she wanted it the least. She scanned through the crowd looking for Maj, who was bewildered at being famous for the first time in her life and probably had even less idea on how to handle it than she did. Xenia would be better able to appreciate how cute it was to see Maj dealing with her new admirers if her head wasn't going a million miles an hour. As for herself, she was being hugged by people on the verge of tears, asked a bunch of questions that were tedious (Were you scared? "Yes, very") or obnoxious (Are you single? "No?") and generally treated like a hero instead of someone in the wrong place at the wrong time who just happened to have a goddess favor her for reasons she couldn't understand. And someone in this huddled mass, Glory made her way over to her. She looked like she had something to say. "Hey. I said some harsh things to you and Majesty two days ago. Traveling through the city took more out of me than I expected and with the way everyone decided that the Wardstone needed to be destroyed, it felt like everyone had turned against me. I'm sorry for attacking the two of you like that and I'm glad to see that the two of you are alive. Do you forgive me?" This was all happening incredibly fast for Xenia, but for Glory to apologize and make an attempt to repair relations was something that boosted her morale. "I do. Yes." Much swifter than Xenia would have preferred, but this was hardly the environment for a heart to heart and Xenia needed to figure out how to get Maj alone so that they could talk. (Xenia spirits Maj away while crusaders get drunk and celebrate their win. She tells Maj about how she's a bad, shitty person and Maj kicks herself over falling in love with Xenia, but gives her one last chance because after the events of the last 16 chapters, she can't help but think that maybe Xenia has a heart. They go to bed with Xenia promising not to abandon Maj and internally swearing not to mess this up.) Chapter XVIII: Xenia's Beautiful, Isn't She? Maj woke up after a sleep that came with no dreams. She was mulling over whether this surprise was a good or bad omen as Xenia opened the door, carrying plates with sausage, buttered bread, eggs, and pastries, as well as some mugs of coffee. A veritable feast for breakfast. And from the pleasant aromas that did more than wake her up, it was clear that today's breakfast was freshly made. "Good Morning! Breakfast should be good, the cooks aren't so tight with food now that the demons are out of the city." Xenia took a knife, cut off a piece of sausage, and placed it in her mouth. Maj held off on eating for a moment. "Speaking of which, what's the plan now, that the demons are defeated and we can leave?" Before tomorrow, she would have hoped to escape the city with Xenia and go as far from Kenabres and the Worldwound as one could get. But now that she had obtained a divine power and been teased with the offer of meeting the mysterious Areelu again and learning more, she knew that if she left, the idea of leaving things unfinished would nag at her. Huh. Was this what it was like for Xenia, when she was pursuing "Zuri"? "I'm going to stay here and fight." Xenia had stopped eating and there was a thoughtful expression on her face. "I can't just walk away from this after seeing how the demons have made people suffer." Xenia chuckled. "I can't believe it, I'm giving up my life of ease and joining the Crusades." "Are you going to swear a vow of chastity and become a good little Iomedaean too?" She teased. "Absolutely not. If I ever say I'm giving up sex, I've either been possessed or magically brainwashed and you should immediately call for an exorcist or something." The two of them had a good laugh for a moment. "But speaking of Iomedaeans and acting oh so proper, I've been told that the Queen of Mendev is going to be visiting the city in a few days to celebrate our victory." Xenia scoffed. "If only Father could see me now. I get to meet a Queen." "Are you going to teach me manners before we meet her?" Xenia laughs again and shrugs. "I think that if you keep from saying anything bratty, she probably won't put you in the stocks." Maj gives her a little shrug with her foot, before the expression on Xenia's face goes a bit serious. "The real problem is that I feel so underdressed. I've been wearing the same clothes for five straight days and I haven't had the chance to take a bath." "I don't think she'll mind if you aren't in your Sunday best, given the situation the city is in. But a warm bath would certainly do wonders, perhaps we could ask for something now that the city's been saved?" It takes the pair a bit of effort given the city's condition, but eventually they're able to find someone willing to lend two of the city's heroes a tub and they're able to take baths. When it's Maj's turn, she sinks as deep as she can into the tub and lets out a sigh of relief that's much deeper than expected. And she lingers in the tub until she feels her fingers begin to prune up. She returns to her and Xenia's room to get changed after drying off. When she got in there, Xenia offered to work on her hair, see how it looked in a few different styles. Surprised at the offer, Maj accepted and spent the afternoon letting the fetchling arrange her hair into all sorts of braids and updos, and ponytails. At some point, Maj could feel that Xenia had stopped working, caught up in some sudden revelation. "I just realized something. My grandfather sold Zuri his tome 50 years ago and her home exploded a few days later." "Yes." "And that was also when you came into existence." "Yes? What of it?" "So that would mean...you're fifty?" Xenia came to that conclusion after a pause, as if it were the answer to a riddle, or a particularly difficult equation. Even though she was facing away and Xenia couldn't see her expression, Maj still gave the type of smile one might give to a child that says something ridiculous. At least she's beautiful. "It's just that you don't seem fifty. You're hot and just so, so..." "I think bratty is the word you're looking for here, no?" Maj's smile changed to an outright smirk. Xenia opened and closed her mouth, as if she was a fish on land that was gasping for air. "I'm sorry Maj. I suppose I called you that a lot, didn't I?" "Please, dancer." She said, dismissively waving a hand at Xenia. "There's worse things I've been fun. Besides, it is fun getting you all riled up. But... do you really think I'm hot?" The playfulness that she had just a second before was gone, replaced by a trepidation that Xenia wouldn't find her good enough. Xenia entered into her field of vision. "You are, yes. Your hair is perfect, you have great skin, and a cute face. Especially when you're blushing." Maj turned her head away, as her face got even redder. Damn her for being able to get me like this. Xenia's hand gently turned Maj to face her. "No need to be embarrassed, I like the way you look." She said, giving Maj a peck on the cheek. "Besides, I need you to face forward while I'm doing your hair." Her hands got to work again, making a braid out of Maj's hair. Having someone look at her and tell her that she was beautiful was everything Maj had ever wanted, even more so with it coming from Xenia. She had would do her best to keep this moment close to her heart. "Don't go treating me like I'm some old crone now that you know my age. Glory's even older than I am. " Xenia chuckled, but now that she said it, it made Maj think about just how long would she live, something that she hadn't had much reason to think about before. She was 50, but scarcely looked older than Xenia and certainly didn't feel like she was old. If she was made from Glory, does that mean she'd live as long as Glory would? "Your hair, I think that you should let it be down like it is right now. It looks better like this." "Oh? Thank you. I'll keep it down then." Xenia gives a warm smile that Maj really wishes was enough to shut up all those voices that said Xenia would eventually tire of her. Paranoia aside, it was enjoyable for Maj to spend the day with Xenia, working on hair and talking. Chapter XIX: All Sorts of Fancy Titles Two days later, the Queen finally arrives. her presence announced by the fanfaring of horns and a herald announcing the arrival of "Her Majesty, Galfrey, the First of Her Name, Queen of Mendev, Leader of the Crusades, Defender of the Faith, and Chosen of Iomedae!" So many fancy titles. A procession of knights and clergymen marched through the city to the cheers of crusaders and citizens alike. In the center of the procession was Queen Galfrey, riding on horseback, surrounded by the high and mighty, and clad in a resplendent armor that Maj supposed was something that only someone absurdly rich could afford. It all felt so off to Maj. A magnificent procession of knights and royals, marching through a city of broken, empty buildings, many of which would never be filled again. Even now, with all the surviving citizens and soldiers out in the streets, the vast majority of the city was empty and silent, a stark contrast to a mere few days ago, when she had entered the city for Armasse and could scarcely stretch her arms without bumping into someone. The more she thought about it, this parade felt like a dance in a graveyard, or a noble inviting all their friends over for a feast during a plague. As Galfrey rode through the city, the people reached towards her, desperately trying to get as close as they could, as if a mere touch from their queen was something divine that could work miracles. Thank the gods. Perhaps they'll be all crazy over the Queen and give me some peace. The procession continues until it arrives at the Defender's Heart, at which point the Queen dismounts and makes towards the tavern. Irabeth moves up to greet her, accompanied by Hulrun and some of the other leaders of the makeshift alliance of knights that fought to defend the city. Galfrey converses with Irabeth and Maj is wondering how much longer she has to stay out when Irabeth walks over to her and the others. "The Queen said that she was interested in dining and speaking with the brave souls who infiltrated the Gray Garrison." "This is quite the honor." Camellia said, beaming. "It would be best if you all spoke as little as possible while in the Queen's presence. Or not at all, actually." She said to Seelah, Maj, Lann, Woljiff, and Wenduag. Lann bowed sarcastically. Wenduag sneered. Seelah flipped Camellia off when she wasn't looking. Woljiff flipped her off while she was looking. Maj simply fell in next to Xenia and walked inside the tavern, which had been prepped as best it could be for the Queen's arrival. The tables had been pushed together in an effort to make a long table that would be seen in a great hall. The inside had been cleaned out to the degree where it almost seemed like this was a normal tavern and not a makeshift shelter for desperate survivors. On the table was all sorts of meats, vegetables, stews, and pastries, all freshly prepared for Galfrey's arrival. The best wine that remained in the city had been brought out for the occasion. Maj remained silent throughout the dinner, though not out of any compliance with Camellia's "advice". She simply wasn't planning on speaking to the Queen anyway. Though now that she sat at the same table as the Queen, she could actually get a look at her. She was beautiful, as one would expect a queen to be; skin free of blemishes, hair made up in some fancy and time-consuming hairdo, perfectly manicured hands, and regal, yet pleasant expression that made it seem like she would not be ready if someone were to suddenly spring up and start drawing a portrait of her. But she also noticed something else. While the Queen seemed to be young, scarcely older than Xenia, there was something in her eyes. The same something that she could see in Glory and Areelu's eyes that betrayed the fact that she was significantly older than she might look. "Your bravery must be commended. Volunteering for a mission where it was more than likely that you wouldn't return, even if it succeeded. That's exactly the sort of bravery the Lady of Valor expects of all of us. Without it, this city would have fallen." Galfrey's smile gives way to a solemn expression as she nods slowly. "It's the sort of bravery that the Fifth Crusade needs." "A Fifth Crusade, my queen?" "Yes. The demons have already struck first by attacking Kenabres and slaying Terendelev. You were able to halt their plans, but they will not stop their advance so easily. We must strike back while they're reeling. Our first objective should be to retake the city of Drezen. For far too long, the demons have called that city their headquarters and kept the Sword of Valor as their trophy. Irabeth, you and your companions have proved yourselves valiantly in the fighting here. I want you to lead the assault on Drezen." "To bolster your forces, I'll leave with you two thousand of my best soldiers, as well as some trusted specialists. The first of which is Sosiel, a cleric of Shelyn, but also an expert in siege tactics, infiltration, scouting, and traps. He also possesses a map of the citadel. Then there is Nurah Dendiwhar, a skilled bard who knows all there is to know about the layout of the land and the city. And last but certainly not least is Captain Olympia Secklendorff, a brave and experienced commander." In response to Galfrey's introductions, three of the guests who accompanied her stand and bow as their names are called out. The first is a tall, handsome man with dark skin and a face that was strong, yet gentle. His hands looked like they had the strength of a warrior's, but she could see from his fingers that he also possessed the dexterity of an artist. The second was a halfling woman whose blonde hair was braided and tied into a ponytail. She had the ever-so-chipper enthusiasm that could only belong to a bard. Maj resolved to spend as little time around Nurah as possible. The third was a young woman that looked like a deity had breathed life into a trophy or a statue of some great hero. As she rose from the table, her head came only a few inches lower than Sosiel's and even in dress blues, she looked strong. Her hair was tied up in a simple bun. "As you march for Drezen, I will see to it that this city is returned to order before marching out with the main host in order to prevent the demons from providing reinforcements to the city. This mission is of the utmost importance. Returning the city to our control would give us a foothold to operate from in the Worldwound and having the Sword of Valor back in our possession after 75 long years would be invaluable to boosting the morale of the Crusade." For a moment, Galfrey seemed to be somewhere else, lost in thoughts of grandeur. It wasn't until some unknown person coughed and earned themselves a death glare from Camellia that the Queen remembered that she was at a table with other people. "My apologies, I got ahead of myself. Think not of these matters and enjoy the dinner." For Maj and everyone else that was at the table, that was a task that was easier said than done. While the mood for the remainder at the dinner was hardly somber, it was certainly not as celebratory as before, now that it was apparent that this was the start of something far bigger than anyone had anticipated. And somehow, Maj felt that this would bring her closer to learning about what Areelu was talking about. After the dinner, Galfrey had dismissed herself, but Sosiel, Nurah, and Olympia remained behind. The others flanked them, asking as many questions as they could in order to learn what they could, but the trio eased them off, telling them that the march to Drezen would be long and there would be plenty of time to learn all there was to learn. The only thing they would learn was a small piece of wisdom that Olympia had to share with them. "Pack some cold weather gear. The abyssal taint of the Worldwound has corrupted the weather as well. It's not just difficult to predict whether it'll be stormy or calm from one day to the next, but there's all sorts of foul, unnatural occurrences as well. The one consistent thing though is that it can get cold this far north of the city, and it won't do anyone any good if your fingers freeze off." As Maj began listening to Olympia's pointers for what to do on the Crusades, she made a mental note to craft up some heatstones for herself and Xenia and keep it secret. She might be a Crusader now, but she wasn't going to provide for them like she was everyone's mom. Chapter XX: A Long, Boring, Shitty March Well, I've gotten myself into a fine mess now, haven't I? I volunteer for a suicide mission and now I'm off to war. Maybe I was better off being a bad person. Xenia opened the door to the room she had called home for the last few days and sat down on her bed with a sigh. She stripped down to her nightclothes and was beginning to pack when Maj came in behind her. "I got out of there right before that bard started singing. I'll have to plant my tent as far from hers as possible." "Your tent? Am I that undesirable of a roommate?" "No, not at all. I just didn't think...I'm just not used to..." Maj's hesitant response was another cloud over Xenia's heart. So much work to get her to believe the things I tell her. Another thing I have only myself to blame. Xenia stops packing and steps towards Maj. "I'd love to share a tent with you." She gestures towards Maj's things. "Would you like me to help you pack?" A small smile formed on Maj's face as she responded. "I would, yes." Packing up for Maj was more of a task than Xenia realized, because while she packed lighter than Glory did in the clothing department, she also packed all sorts of alchemical equipment that Xenia couldn't tell heads from tails of, which required the kitsune to give Xenia directions on how to pack it up right so that she didn't mess anything up. Still, with the two of them working, it wasn't too hard. "Maj, would you like to share the bed tonight? Not in a sexual sense, I simply thought that since it's our last night here, you should have the chance to sleep in a real bed. Since we don't know the next time we'll get the chance." Somehow, with all the leaps of faith Xenia had taken, this one seemed was the biggest. "Yes, that would be nice." Maj gave a small smile and then climbed into bed, facing the center so that her tails hung off the bed. Xenia joined her, laying down at the other side of the bed so that she faced Maj and gave her a kiss before falling asleep. As usual, Maj woke Xenia up, though this time, it was earlier than usual. The suns rays had yet to peer in through the window, so for the moment, she saw the world through a black-and-white lens as her eyes peered through the dark. "Get dressed, quick. They're going to be marching out at dawn and I want to get good supplies before the army sets out." Xenia yawned and brushed the sleep dust from her eyes as she absorbed what Maj said. "The Crusaders will provide all we need, won't they? Go back to bed." She threw a blanket over her face and turned away. Going to war was one thing, but having to wake up at an hour where only the dead were up was more than Xenia felt like tolerating. But it was only a second later until the blanket was pulled off her face. "Yes. We'll have the Crusaders' supplies and whatever camp followers that accompany us. But the Crusaders will likely have some standardized form of supplies and any camp followers that sell us goods will charge through the nose. I'm not going to be caught with my pants down 200 miles from here because the Crusaders don't have the reagents I need. Now get up, get dressed, and let's go." Damn, when did Maj get so bossy? Though for as much as she hated it, Maj was right and at any rate, she knew that the foxgirl would be persistent enough until she folded. Xenia got out of bed and threw something on so that she could follow Maj. Even half-awake, Xenia found it easy to move throughout the tavern without waking anyone up, as if she had some sixth sense that allowed her to avoid stepping on any creaky floorboards. Outside of the tavern, Xenia could feel a slight chill through her jacket that let her know that she would need to get something thicker before heading north. I suppose that Maj was right. Though at this hour, she was hardly inclined to let the little brat know. The two of them were able to find a salesperson in a store with two lit torches outside, apparently having figured that someone in Kenabres would think like Maj and want to get some goods before leaving the city. Xenia buys herself a thicker jacket and some boots that seem more appropriate for marching out in the wild while Maj purchases food and alchemical equipment. As Maj cleans the salesman out of all his alchemical equipment, Xenia's astounded at what actually goes into the reagents Maj uses, how she utilized various minerals, ground up or shaved metals, and various plants that Xenia would never look at twice, let alone view as being useful. "All those materials, that's what goes into your bombs and potions?" Xenia said as the two of them left the store and walked back to the inn. "They are, yes. What did you think I was using?" Maj replies. "I don't know, but I wasn't imagining that you could make all the stuff you make out of everyday ingredients." "Water, 35 liters; carbon, 20 kilograms; ammonia, 4 liters; lime, 1.5 kilograms; phosphorus, 800 grams; salt, 250 grams; saltpeter, 100 grams; sulfur, 80 grams; fluorine, 7.5; iron, 5; silicon, 3 grams; and trace amounts of 15 other elements." Xenia was perplexed as Maj listed off ingredients as easily as one would recite a favorite poem. "These 'everyday ingredients' make up the human body and from an alchemical perspective, the difference between a human, or a fetchling, or a kitsune is negligible. But yes, if you know what you're doing with the ingredients, you can do a lot with them. Sort of like cooking, in a way." Xenia nods along to what Maj has to say, bound by some inexplicable factor that makes it so enjoyable to listen to Maj explain things. "But wait. If all that stuff goes into your potions, how do they all taste so good?" "Various sweeteners. No one would drink them otherwise." The two of them walked back to the Defender's Heart, with neither of them making noise once again as they made their way to the room they had called home for the past few days. Though now that they were in the room, the two of them could hardly sleep, instead checking and double-checking as they packed their things. It was at that particular moment that Xenia found herself regretting that she didn't put more effort into building up her strength, as she now realized that she was going to be carrying all of her possessions on her back, all day, for however many hundreds of miles she had to march until she made it to Drezen. Her thoughts were interrupted by the loud clanging of bells, something that she could only assume meant that it was time for those heading to Drezen to wake up so that they could eat and set out. Xenia suddenly found herself feeling grateful to Maj for waking her up and sparing her from a much less pleasant wake-up call, remembering how startling it was to be suddenly woken up by the gong when she and her group were at Neathholm. Xenia smiles at the memory, before laughing at how she could find that endearing enough to smile over. Heading out the door, Xenia eats a quick breakfast with her group as they get ready to leave. As she eats, Olympia notices her and Maj and greets them. "You two look like you've been up for a bit. Weren't too nervous before the march starts, I hope?" "Oh. No, I was able to sleep well. Maj thought that it would be a good idea to get supplies while we were still in town." "Good on her! Being undersupplied out here in the Worldwound is a real good way to get up shit creek without a paddle. Instincts like those will keep you alive." Olympia points to Maj, with clear approval. Maj for her part is smiling in response to receiving some positive recognition for her ideas, and at this point, Xenia's been awake long enough to appreciate Maj being right. "Anything else we should know?" Maj said, now chiming in with a look that Xenia had grown to recognize as the look she makes when she starts taking mental notes. "Yep. There's really no way to break this to you gently, but we're all in for a long, shitty march, even without factoring in the fun of the Worldwound. Day in and day out we'll be waking up pretty much right at this time and then marching 'til it gets dark. Food is all rationed out. Breakfast and lunch will either be leftovers from the previous night or something else that can be eaten quickly in between marches. Dinner though, is when they bring out the good stuff. Sort of an 'end the day on a good note' type of deal. And there's always people who think that they can sing when they can't." "Ah. Sounds fun." "Hey. You asked." Olympia said, raising her hands defensively. "But if you want my advice, find some people you can bear talking to and sharing a tent with. Nothing forges bonds like going on a campaign for months on end." Xenia couldn't particularly argue there. At the very least, this would give her the opportunity to get close with Maj and finally win her trust. And perhaps she might get to know the others better as well. As she thinks on this, Galfrey and some of her officials exit to address the army. The queen was clad in the fancy armor that she was in during the parade and looked fully awake for this time of the day. Man, what's her morning routine? I need to get some of that. "Soldiers! Today marks the first day of the Fifth Mendevian Crusade! Whether you fought in the fields by my side or here in defense of Kenabres, all of you have been tempered by battle. That tempering has forged you into an army that is ready to free Drezen and return it to the Crusaders for the first time in 75 years!" At the delivery of that, the queen gets a cheer out of the soldiers, despite their tiredness. "Go now and deliver the first of our victories in our fifth and final crusade!" The soldiers cheer again and louder at this, as Galfrey's priests say some prayers over the army that Xenia half-listens to. Whether it was because of the excited soldiers around her or from being stirred by Galfrey's charismatic and confident call that Drezen would be freed and this crusade was going to be the last one, Xenia was excited as she marched out of the gates of Kenabres with the rest of the army. Those high spirits hold up for the morning and the early afternoon as the army marches through the grasslands, though as afternoon goes on and the army doesn't encounter so much as a single quasit while on the march, it becomes harder to keep up that enthusiasm, and by the time the army settles down in the evening, Xenia is tired and ready to get off her feet and in a bed. Xenia thought that she wasn't so visibly tired, but as she and Maj were setting up her tent, the kitsune took a quick look at her and said "I can make an infusion that'll make it easier to carry your gear during the day. It won't make the marching in and of itself less exhausting, but it should at least make things easier on your back." "Is it really that bad?" "You've got me concerned that by the time we get to Drezen you'll be hunched over like an old woman." Xenia sighs deeply, wishing that at some point during her life in Absalom she made any effort to do some strength-building exercises. Or that the mysterious powers she'd been imbued with gave her any. By the time she and Maj get their makeshift bed set up, Xenia almost collapses onto it, not even bothering to change out of her clothes for the night. As she lies there, she hears a chuckling from Maj. "Poor, tired dancer. I'll join you in a second." Said the foxgirl. After a moment, she felt fingers running through her hair and an arm wrapping around her as Maj joined her. And then she felt a further warmth as Maj covered the two of them with her tails. Xenia muttered something that a skilled interpreter might be able to translate as 'Goodnight Maj' before drifting off into a deep and dreamless sleep. Chapter XXI: 🚧👷‍♂️🚧 TestTh

Chapter IX: Tails in the Wind The day went by agonizingly slow for Maj. Try as she might, nothing could distract her from the promise of eating dinner with Xenia later. Her mind couldn't stop giving her visions of being led on, only for Glory to pop out of the shadows and laugh at her for thinking that she could have something beautiful. Or that Xenia truly would notice her and give her a wonderful night, but then go back to only having eyes for Glory the next day, like a child that has to eat an unpleasant tasting vegetable before they're allowed to have sweets. She couldn't decide which of the two was worse. But even more consuming were the small embers of hope burning in her heart, that just maybe Xenia actually wants to have dinner with her and that she can show that she's charming, possibly pretty, and maybe even someone that's worthy of being wanted or at least seen. Years of being Glory's little assistant and people using her for their own aims before forgetting all about her had kept those flames from getting so big that she'd get burned by hope, yet she could never quite put the fire out entirely. She packed up her things and switched into her more compact form so that she could truly go undisturbed. The last thing she wanted right now was to talk to someone, even to a relatively friendly face. Sitting atop some unattended building would do nicely. No one was going to climb up here and from this little vantage point, she'd be able to see when Xenia came back. Though, there was plenty else to be seen from the top. The first thing came an hour before noon. Tieflings with sacks and wheelbarrows, even a cart with horses that had somehow managed to survive this disaster without being butchered by demons or survivors desperate for a meal. Maj could see that each of them carried food, weapons, medicine, and other supplies necessary for the continued survival of Kenabres. At the head of this caravan was a purple-skinned tiefling that even from this distance she could see that the guards at the gates weren't happy to see him. She couldn't quite catch what the guards were saying, but the purple tiefling spoke in a voice loud enough for everyone. "What are we pulling? Nothing, honest! Listen, I'll be the first to admit that we thieflings have caused trouble for Kenabres in the past, but in a time of crisis like this, we've all gotta look deep within ourselves, come together, and let bygones be bygones." Smug satisfaction could be heard in his voice and it was easy for Maj to see why, as the guard's body language betrayed the fact that he was unhappy to let the thieflings into the refugee camp as heroes instead of tossing them all in a cell. She thought of how nice those tieflings must be feeling, seeing those who can't stand them be in desperate need of their aid and unable to deny it. It'd be nice to be in their position, someday. Those supplies arrived just in the nick of time, as throughout the rest of the afternoon, survivors continued to enter the refugee camp, as well as various crusaders that were there to join the battle for Kenabres. Some trickling in by themselves, some marching in their squadrons or what was left of them. She saw priests in brightly colored robes entering the city. Maj couldn't tell what religion they were of, but they were brightly dressed and upon entering the city, they sang a beautiful wordless song in an attempt to comfort the people, so she liked whatever deity they were praying to. Then came knights in red and grey armor, bearing symbols of a flaming lance. Later came knights in blue and silver, marching under the banner of a sword with a shining sun behind it. Behind them came more knights still, wearing white and gold, and marching under a white banner with a golden sword pointing downwards. And finally, there was a smaller group of crusaders led by an aged yet hale man. Their armor was unadorned and bore no special color and they marched under no banner, yet from the way the guards at the gate snapped to attention as they approached, Maj knew that these weren't mercenaries or nameless knights. She hadn't particularly been counting how many crusaders had entered the fortifications over the day, though listening to the various survivors in the city below it was either "enough to retake Kenabres" or "not enough, we're all doomed". In either case, there was only one person she cared about seeing come through that gate and she had yet to do so. And so she remained at her position, waiting for Xenia to return. Like a dog waiting for its master to return. I am as bad as Glory says. It was as the afternoon began to fade into the evening and the sun started to set that she realized she hadn't eaten a thing all day, so focused she was in all of the terrible ways this dinner could go and the sliver of hope that it might go well that she had no appetite for food. It was as she mused this that she saw Xenia, walking with Glory, the others from their little party, and some old man. She could feel that Glory was upset over something, but even if she didn't have that connection, it was all but confirmed when her other half stormed into their tent. Glory had already been unbearable since she woke up, but an angry Glory was not someone Maj wanted to share a tent with. She would need to find somewhere else to sleep. But first, she had to get down from this post, back to where she was earlier today, and then shift back into her regular form and at least give off the appearance that she had been here working. Xenia might humiliate her and then shatter her heart into a thousand tiny pieces, but she would not have the satisfaction of knowing that Maj had been waiting for her like a pet that wants affection from its owner. Not too long after, Xenia returned to Maj. "I hope that you're hungry, I made sure to bring a lot of different stuff for dinner! Those thieflings are absolutely wonderful in providing all this food." She smiled, though there was a hint of that same nervousness from earlier today when she asked. "Come, follow me." Maj's heart was beating out of her chest. She had expected to be led to find the others waiting, ready to laugh at her. But no one else was there, just a meal set up for the two of them with bread (and butter, even), grapes, cheese, fish, a pie of some kind, and a bottle of wine. There were even some candles set up. Not fancy ones, but still. "You really put a lot of work into this, dancer." Though even as 'dancer' left her mouth, there wasn't any of the usual sting in it. This dinner really was the best Xenia could have set up, given the circumstances. "Of course! Did you think that I would serve you stale rations after having you wait all day?" No, just humiliation. Maj took a seat and began to put some fish on her plate, as well as a small piece of pie, which turned out to be raspberry. Though even now, she hardly had an appetite, and mostly took small bites of her fish when she wasn't pushing it around here and there on her plate. There was a tension in the air, something made all the more obvious by Xenia's attempts to make small talk instead of saying anything about why she wanted to have dinner with her tonight. "It wasn't easy to get the thieflings onboard to help us. I had to make Irabeth promise to give them all pardons for their crimes, which really pissed her off. You should've—" "Enough of this!" It was unbearable watching her dance around the obvious, Maj had to do something. "You didn't invite me out for dinner to have small talk with me about city politics. What do you really want to say to me?" Xenia stopped as if someone had cast a spell on her, before a more serious expression fell upon her face that Maj hadn't seen before. She set her food aside and looked directly at Maj. "Since the attack on the city, I have been thinking a lot about myself and who I am and it...has not been pleasant, to say the least." A sigh escapes from Xenia's lips. "I am not the best at thinking of people other than myself. I focus on what I want and ignore other people. Their wants, their struggles, their pains, even when I've caused them. I suppose that you already knew that. I've been ignoring your feelings all this time, have I not?" Xenia's eyes, eyes that Maj had drawn more times than she cared to count were now focused on her, as if she was the only thing in all of creation. It was absolutely unbearable and she turned her eyes towards her food rather than meet Xenia's piercing gaze. "You have, yes. You made me feel like for once, I had finally been seen and was something other than Glory's little assistant. But I was wrong and yes, you hurt me." By the time she's finished speaking, Maj's voice is hardly louder than a whisper. She had been silently carrying that hurt for weeks, but she gave the game away to Xenia without resistance, like she was a prisoner who gave up their secrets after merely being threatened with torture. All because of a soft voice and beautiful eyes. She wondered why out of all the beings in the Worldwound that could serve as her torturer, hers had to be the most beautiful. Her unhappy ponderings would be interrupted by a hand gently lifting up her chin, as if it was a flower the hand's owner was afraid of mishandling. And perhaps its owner was right to be afraid, given the harm she had already caused. "I am sorry, Majesty. I know that I can't undo what I did to you with words or a candlelit dinner, but I truly do regret all the pain I caused you to feel and I would not hold it against you if you hated me." Xenia was still focused on Maj, but the look in her eyes was different. There was a softness and remorse that she hadn't seen from her. Still, it was too good to just accept. She stuck out a hand between her and Xenia, as if she was some danger that she needed to protect herself from. And perhaps she was. "This isn't something you're doing for your conscience is it? Give me a good time tonight so you can go back to Glory guilt-free? Because if it is, you can pack right up. I won't be your toy." "No, Majesty. I truly am sorry about what I did to you. I want to make amends for what I did to you and I want to see you for you. But like I said, if you truly do refuse to forgive me, I would understand." Maj had put up one last wall around her heart, but Xenia kept bashing and bashing against it. What is this? She ignores me all this time and now has a crisis of conscience? This has to be a trick. After all of the years of Glory's mistreatment and others treating her like she was something to be seen and not heard, the idea that Xenia wanted to take a genuine look at her now was too good to be true. And yet, she had to take the leap, as if she was trapped in a burning building and her only salvation was Xenia. Perhaps she would land safely in a pair of welcoming arms, perhaps she would fall. But if she did nothing, she would be burned by these feelings inside her that couldn't be repressed. "Call me Maj. Please. I can't stand being called Majesty." "Okay, I can do that for you. Maj." She said, testing out the word. Maj couldn't explain it. So small a thing, but it felt wonderful hearing that come from Xenia's mouth. "Is there anything else you would like me to know, while we're here tonight?" "Umm, I really like fish." No sooner had the words left her mouth than Maj felt her cheeks growing red at how silly that was. "That's not what you meant, was it?" "No, it's perfect. Now I know where to take you next time." "Next time?" "Yes. I assume that you'll be wanting to do this more than once. I certainly do. Hopefully under happier circumstances." Maj allowed herself to dream, just for a moment in response to Xenia's words. She hadn't had the opportunity to experience much of Absalom's opulence, but there was a little restaurant she enjoyed going to in the rare moments she could get away from Glory. She loved to get the fish and eat it in a nearby park, away from everything. There. I'll take her there and that will be our little thing. "I do, yes." A small smile makes its way onto her face. "What do you like to eat?" "Sweet things." Xenia laughed at a little joke that only she knew. "Fish and sweet things, that's what we'll eat. I have another question for you; that potion you fed me, where did you learn how to make them?" "I picked it up over the years. Alchemy is a lot like cooking, if you think about it. Gather the needed ingredients, mix them together in the right portions, and..." She makes a 'ta-da' gesture with her hands. "I see. Your cooking is very good by the way, I'm sorry for not acknowledging that before." "Thank you. I put a lot of effort into the food I make." An understatement. With her manor destroyed, Glory couldn't afford to eat the way she used to. Unfortunately for Maj, the transformation her other half went through left her tastes (and arrogance) unaffected, which meant that she had to cook meals to Glory's very exacting standards, something that she was of course never thanked for, but Glory made very well sure to let her know when she did something wrong. So to be complimented for her cooking, and by Xenia no less, it was more than welcome. "I have a question for you now, if that's all right." "Of course. Ask away." "When we first got here and the demons attacked, you were ready to get me out of the city. Why?" She hadn't thought about that moment at all over the last two days, but now that she sat here, with Xenia's full attention, she couldn't help but remember that moment and how she commanded it the same way she does now. "It just... came to me naturally. Hell broke loose and the first instinct that popped into my head was to protect you." A silence lingers between them for a good moment before Xenia speaks up again. "I am sorry if that doesn't satisfy your curiosity, but I hope that you don't think that you mattered so little to me that I would simply let you die." She had long ago given up on the idea of mattering to someone else, let alone enough for someone else to try and save her, so all of this leaves her scrambling for something to say. "Well, I can make more than potions, so don't start thinking I'm some damsel that needs you to save her, dancer." It's true, she could make some explosives with alchemy that may prove effective against the demons, though at the current moment, her words felt like more of a way to save face and seem cool. "I look forward to seeing that. Speaking of things I haven't seen, when you go off on your own, what is it that you do?" Maj pulled her tails close to herself. She couldn't give an honest answer this question without mentioning her drawings. Which, she wanted Xenia to see them, but that wouldn't be without its risks. "Part of it is just to be by myself. Not to sound jealous, but...it isn't quite fun being around a couple as a single person." Again, an understatement, considering that her link made her feel everything that Glory felt, but couldn't act on those urges. "But I also like to draw. It's like creating a memory of my very own that I can share with whoever I like." It was best for her to start slow, show Xenia a few other pieces of her work before showing her that. "It's nature drawings and portraits, mainly." Maj offers up a few drawings out of her collection; some sights that she found notable while traveling to Kenabres, the Starstone back at home, that tree in the park that she likes to eat under, and her most recent non-Xenia drawing: the portrait of Lann that she had been working on until Xenia got her all out of sorts this morning. "Don't judge this last one, it's not finished yet." "Very well. I shall save my critiques until it is finished. Which, by the way, I look forward to it being finished." Xenia handed her drawings back with an eager smile. "Your drawings are very good!" A bit of hope entered her heart at hearing Xenia's enthusiastic approval of her work. Perhaps she might like it after all. "I don't mean to sound vain, but you wouldn't happen to have any portraits of me, would you?" Here it was. Maj wasn't skilled with words the same way that Xenia and Glory were, but her drawings could make up for her shortcomings there. Everything hinged on this. "I do, yes. This particular is one that I've put a lot of work into." She handed it to Xenia, her eyes not leaving the fetchling as she wanted to see how she reacted to her most important drawing. It was by far her most detailed work, with Xenia holding a cup of coffee in one hand, her other holding the hand of the viewer, the rest of their body being offscreen. Her head was angled to the left at something else, but her eyes were focused right on the viewer and a smile was on her face. To a casual viewer, it was merely a portrait of Xenia, capturing her beauty on paper. A well done one, to be sure, but the meaning of it just wouldn't be there. But for Maj, it was a memory that she just couldn't get out of her head, no matter how much time had passed or effort she put into doing so. The memory of that one coffee date where for a moment, she thought that Xenia had truly seen her for her and that she might have something special for herself. Meanwhile, the actual Xenia was not smiling at all. Her hand was over her mouth and tears could be seen forming in her eyes as they turned from the picture to Maj. "I...I never knew how much that meant to you, Maj." She said, her voice beginning to break. "You remembered that day perfectly and went through all the effort to make this while I never thought of your feelings once. I don't deserve this." "Damn right you don't." Maj pulled the portrait from Xenia's hand and closed in on Xenia. "All those weeks you never noticed me once, or cared, until today. Now." Here the two of them were, both of their walls fully torn down, nothing separating them but air. Over the past several days, Xenia had been covered in dirt and blood and other unpleasant things, to say nothing of the two times she had come close to dying. Yet it was right now, with tears streaking down her face and the expectation that Maj was going to tell her how horrible was that Xenia looked to be at her most vulnerable, like an injured bird that had been cornered by a fox. Though the only thing that Maj would do was gently wipe the tears from her eyes, before giving her a kiss on the forehead. "You saw me, but I saw you back. Don't disappear on me again, Xenia." Xenia took a few moments to regain her composure, before taking Maj's hands in hers. "I won't Maj, I promise." Chapter X: Frigidity "Xenia, wake up." "Five more minutes." "No, you've been asleep long enough." She didn't have the energy to come up with a retort more sophisticated than a very reluctant groan. "Fine then." Suddenly, Xenia was exposed to a blinding light as the curtains were flung open. Further sleep ceased to be an option as she had to now defend herself against the mid-morning sun. "It's nine-thirty. The others have been waiting for you." "Nine-thirty?!" Yesterday had tired her out more than she thought. "And you allowed me to sleep in?" "The knocking at the door woke me up. I thought that you might as well join me." Maj smirked. "What else might you sleep through, dancer?" "Hey, I spent most of all day yesterday running around Kenabres looking for help and survivors, some of whom were very disagreeable. I have an excuse." She yawns. And perhaps all the emotions from last night's dinner had her beat too. [Color="SkyBlue"][B]"Hmm, I suppose that's fair. You fell asleep almost as soon as your head hit the pillow. Almost thought that you were bored of me."[/B][/Color] [Color="Purple"][B]"You? Boring? Hardly. Especially when you're in that tiny little fox form."[/B][/COLOR] She brings her hands together close, indicating how small she was. [Color="Purple][B]"You were very cute like that."[/B][/Color] It was also very convenient that Maj could assume a smaller form. Xenia had offered to let her spend the night in her room since Glory was in a terrible mood, but she wasn't quite ready to share a bed with her, but she also wanted her to be comfortable sleeping that night. Her ability to make herself more compact allowed Xenia to set up a little space for her using her jacket. Maj smiled in response to that. [Color="SkyBlue"][B]"Thanks for letting me share your room by the way. Glory can get...unpleasant when she's angry."[/B][/Color] That she could. Ever since the library, Glory was in a dark mood that Xenia hadn't seen before. She went from being pleasant in conversation to short and harsh and when they made it back to shelter, she stormed away like she couldn't get away fast enough. [B][Color="Purple"]"Yeah..."[/Color][/B] [B][Color="SkyBlue"]"What got her so upset anyway?"[/Color][/B] [B][Color="Purple"]"It has to do with something we found yesterday. We should join up with the others, they can explain it way better than I can."[/Color][/B] "Hmm, I suppose that's fair. You fell asleep almost as soon as your head hit the pillow. Almost thought that you were bored of me." "You? Boring? Hardly. Especially when you're in that tiny little fox form." She brings her hands together close, indicating how small she was. "You were very cute like that." It was also very convenient that Maj could assume a smaller form. Xenia had offered to let her spend the night in her room since Glory was in a terrible mood, but she wasn't quite ready to share a bed with her, but she also wanted her to be comfortable sleeping that night. Her ability to make herself more compact allowed Xenia to set up a little space for her using her jacket. Maj smiled in response to that. "Thanks for letting me share your room by the way. Glory can get...unpleasant when she's angry." That she could. Ever since the library, Glory was in a dark mood that Xenia hadn't seen before. She went from being pleasant in conversation to short and harsh and when they made it back to shelter, she stormed away like she couldn't get away fast enough. "Yeah..." "What got her so upset anyway?" "It has to do with something we found yesterday. We should join up with the others, they can explain it way better than I can." The two of them exit to a room where the others are seated round a bunch of tables with Irabeth sitting at the makeshift head. She remembers how much of a pain it was to get Hulrun to accept that the half-orc hadn't staged some coup, but was thrust into leadership in the midst of a battle where no one knew who had survived. Fortunately for her and Maj, there were a pair of seats left open between Glory and Seelah. Maj quickly sped towards the one near Seelah, leaving her to sit near Glory, who at the very least seemed to have cooled down enough to rejoin everyone. Glory barely reacted at the sight of the two of them joining the table. Irabeth however, gave the two of them a nod and stood up to speak. [Color="OliveDrab"][B]"Now that everyone is here, we can begin. Our situation has stabilized over the past few days, but the battle for Kenabres isn't over. As you all know by now, Deskari and his generals left the city quickly after their initial attack and the death of Terendelev."[/B][/Color] A silence hangs over the table for a moment after the mention of the fallen dragon, the defenders taking a moment to remember her loss. [Color="purple"][I]You didn't know us, but you saved me and my friends. I hope that you're in a better place than this.[/I][/Color] "Now that everyone is here, we can begin. Our situation has stabilized over the past few days, but the battle for Kenabres isn't over. As you all know by now, Deskari and his generals left the city quickly after their initial attack and the death of Terendelev." A silence hangs over the table for a moment after the mention of the fallen dragon, the defenders taking a moment to remember her loss. You didn't know us, but you saved me and my friends. I hope that you're in a better place than this. "We now know that the initial assault was merely a diversion, intended to draw us away from the Grey Garrison and only realize that it was their true target after the demons had taken it in the midst of all the chaos. During our first attempt to retake it, we found that the demons are attempting to corrupt the Wardstone for their own purposes. For what precisely, we do not know, but it isn't in our best interest to find out. " "And what's your proposed plan for stopping the demons from corrupting the Wardstone?" Said Hulrun, looking at Irabeth with clear disapproval as she sat in a position of authority. "That's the purpose of this meeting, Lord Hulrun. Among those gathered yesterday was Quednys Orlun, a local wizard that managed to recover something that will be crucial for this operation." She holds up a rod with a green orb at the end. "When tapped against a magical item, any magical item, this rod permanently dispels the energies inside, rendering it inert. Our plan is to send in a strike team to infiltrate the Gray Garrison and use this rod to nullify the energies within the Wardstone." Irabeth holds up a hand indicating that she should be heard out before people start voicing their objections, as if she had anticipated that this plan would bring them up. "This is not a decision that I am making lightly. Our enemies have already been sabotaging this wardstone and even if we managed to expel the demons and recover it, we would have no way of being assured that there isn't some lingering corruption. Destroying it deprives our enemies of a weakness that they can use against us." Glory was as non-reactive to that statement as she was yesterday. Xenia remembered that even as Quednys explained why he believed it was necessary to get the rod to the Crusaders, the desperation of the situation did little to make her any less pissed that the Wardstone was going to be destroyed before she had the chance to examine it the way she intended. Hopefully sleeping on the matter has helped her mood about this. She's here at least, that's gotta be a good sign. "And respectfully Commander, how will that strike team be entering the Garrison? Our enemies are focused there. Even the stealthiest of assaults would be suicide." Camellia interjected. "Because our enemies won't be focused there. We'll give them a taste of their own medicine and distract them with an assault on the Gray Garrison. Thanks to our recovery efforts yesterday, we've been able to muster up a force of 600 soldiers after leaving a token force to hold the refugee camp. It's barely half of what we had before the city was attacked, but it's enough to pose a credible threat to the enemy that they will have to engage. Once they are distracted, the strike team will enter and carry out the mission as planned. Irabeth paused before continuing. "I won't lie to any of you, the operation to destroy the Wardstone will not be an easy one. Even though we will be drawing the majority of the enemy's forces away from the Gray Garrison, they won't be so foolish to leave their prize undefended. And even beyond that, we have no idea what will happen once the Wardstone is destroyed. With that in mind, are there any volunteers for this operation?" Xenia sat there in silence. Irabeth had just told everyone how deadly this mission was going to be, absolutely no one would judge her if she kept her hand down and let someone else go out and risk their skin on what might very well be a suicide mission. But the words that her grandfather had left still played in her mind. <<Promise me that you will be better than us, Xenia.>> It was time for her to be brave, for a change. "I'll go." She could hardly believe that she just said that, but it was out there this seemed like a thing that couldn't be taken back. Now she merely hoped that someone else would join her. "I'll go as well." Xenia spun right over to Maj, shocked that the foxgirl was going to put herself right in the thick of it. Maj's only reaction was to amusedly use a hand to push her chin up. Apparently her mouth was agape. One after the other, the rest of her new companions joined in too. Lann, Seelah, Wenduag, Camellia, and Woljif all volunteered for the operation. The old dwarf, whose name seemed to be Staunton, also volunteered. "I'll also come along. Least I can do." She also heard someone mutter how it would be great if he never came back, something that if Staunton heard, he endured without outwardly reacting. Though what stood out as much as Maj volunteering to go was how Glory didn't volunteer to go, opting instead to sit silently and give no reaction as they all volunteered for the mission. Irabeth waited a moment to see if any other volunteers would join in before speaking up. "It's settled then. Tomorrow we march for the Grey Garrison. May Iomedae watch over us all." Irabeth's words are repeated once by the others at the table before they go off in their own directions, Glory included. After politely dismissing herself from the table, Xenia got up after the wizard. "Hey Glory. How are you this morning?" She said, feeling maybe just a bit nervous. "Oh. Good morning." The anger from last night was gone and her voice sounded pleasant, but there was a coldness in Glory's voice that prevented Xenia from feeling truly at ease. "Calmer. It was... regrettable that I lost composure like that in public. Though it looks like you and Majesty had quite a bit of fun last night." Clearly, she had not been so pissed last night that she didn't notice Maj's absence and put two and two together this morning. "I hope she behaved herself. I can't remember the last time she had the chance to do that, it must have been so exciting for her." Xenia felt herself blushing. She realized that it had to look a certain way, her and Maj getting a late start in the morning and emerging from a shared bedroom. I really hope that every crusader in this city doesn't think that Maj and I are a pair of Grade-A sluts. "Oh no, it's nothing like that at all. She just spent the night in there because you were in a bad mood and she wanted to give you space. That would be a bit fast."` "And here I thought you enjoyed fast. Though with how often she undresses you with her eyes, I'm surprised that she's not in one of her moods." It was one thing for Glory to slut-shame her (while conveniently forgetting that she had lusted for her just as much when they met), but all of the insults to Maj got her feeling angry. Those were sincere feelings that had been shared with her, feelings that Xenia had hurt and was genuinely trying to heal, she was not going to idly stand there and let Glory talk about Maj like she was some pervert that just couldn't wait to get her hands on her. "Enough. I don't know if you're still pissed at me because of yesterday or because I had a private dinner with Maj and I don't care. Snipe at me all you want, I probably deserve it. But she doesn't deserve to be dragged into your little feud with me, so leave. Her. Out of it." Xenia found herself getting heated. She had imagined that Glory would patch things up in her dreamily charming way, not sniping at her and catching Maj in the crossfire, and certainly not getting pissed at her. Glory merely shrugged at her. "Very well. I'll leave you two to be having your fun. It doesn't sound particularly likely that you'll be doing so for very long as it is." She left and for a moment Xenia just stood there, stunned at Glory's last barb and how awful she had been. "That didn't go as you had hoped, did it?" Had it been anyone but Maj standing behind her, she would have blown up and given this interloper a not entirely undeserved tongue lashing. But since it was her, she softly asked "How much of that did you catch?" "I caught you getting angry at her, though I can guess what she said to get you in that mood. Thank you for sticking up for me, by the way. No one's ever done that before." Maj gave a small smile that even in her mood, she couldn't help but find endearing. "Of course. You don't deserve to be talked about like that. But what happened to her?" Maj looked at Xenia sympathetically. What she was about to say was not going to be pleasant. "Nothing, she just hadn't shown that side of her to you. That's how she is. When people fawn over her and she wants them, she's nice and enchanting like she was with you. But when she gets tired of them, for whatever reason..." She gestures off in the direction that Glory went. The wizard's behavior was fresh enough to where Xenia didn't need her to finish. "Oh. Stupid me." All those years she had spent obsessing over Zuri Azeria, only to see how cold she was the moment someone was no longer desirable to her. "Hardly. We can't control who we fall for." Even though she had acknowledged Maj's feelings and began working to heal the hurt she had done, Xenia still couldn't help feel a pang of guilt, since she knew that the foxgirl was talking about herself as well. And for another reason. "Is that why you volunteered for the mission? Because you fell for me?" In response to that, the brattier side of Maj reemerged, crossing her arms and denying the allegations Xenia tossed her way. "Tchh. Not every decision I make is with you in mind, dancer. It's like I told you last night, I'm not some damsel in distress. I'm not going to sit in here, helplessly hoping and waiting for you and the big, strong knights to save the day. Besides, I'd rather deal with the demons than Glory right now." "I'm curious about what else you can do now, other than create potions." Maj smiled, with more than a little bit of mischief. "And you'll stay curious about it. Can't go showing all my tricks at once, you'll have to wait and see." Her curiosity was truly peaked now. "I'm looking forward to it. Now shall we get breakfast? All this planning and fighting has made me hungry." "We? Bold of you to assume so quickly that I'm joining." "Are you?" Maj simply stuck out her hand, content with having taunted Xenia. And for as sour as this day had started, Maj was proving to be something of a sweetener. Chapter XI: The Holes in Her Armor The last twelve hours or so had gone well for Maj. Xenia gave her a sincere apology and acknowledged her feelings without mockery. Outside of wistful dreams in private moments, she had never believed that such a thing would actually happen. But standing up for her? Against Glory? Dream felt like too plain a word to describe it. Things were going far too well. There had to be some other shoe that was going to drop. But here she was, hand-in-hand with Xenia, heading to breakfast after having teased her skills. The feel of her hand was far too real for this to be a dream. It was also cold, as if Xenia had ice cubes below the wrist. "Your hands are freezing. Do you stick them in ice water each morning?" "Oh. Uh, I'm sorry. My ancestors, they developed a colder blood after living on the Shadow Plane for however many centuries or millennia. I didn't realize that it made me cold to the touch." "How would you not know?" "Most of the times I hold hands with non-fetchlings, I'm dancing. I imagine that I'm much warmer then, perhaps you can test it out." Maj could hardly believe her ears. "You want to dance? With me?" "I do. Why would I not? You've shown me your drawings, which are beautiful by the way, and you've promised to show me some of your tricks. I feel like I'd be taking advantage of you to not dance with you." A surprise. Xenia really did have a heart after all. "I-I don't even know how to dance." "That's all right. I know a few easy ones we could start with. But you can think upon that during breakfast. I'm starving and I can't dance on an empty stomach." There was nothing for Maj to think about. No matter how much risk there was that she'd trip over her own feet or step on one of her tails and make a fool of herself, she could never refuse an offer like this. Xenia was giving her a chance to partake in her art, of course she was going to accept. Even as she ate breakfast, her mind was focused on having a dance with Xenia and the actual taste of what she ate was an afterthought. She simply wanted to be done with this meal. When they had finished their meal, Xenia extended her hand and beckoned that she follow her. "Come. We can dance in my room. Fewer prying eyes." A mercy. If she was going to make herself look silly dancing, she wanted to do so away from any witnesses that might poke fun at her. Especially Glory. And...somehow it seemed right that this be their little private thing. Though as Maj followed Xenia up to her room and watched her clear out a space to dance, she felt herself getting nervous. They were actually going to do this now. The thought that she would make herself look foolish and Xenia would change her mind about her reared its ugly head. Though when Xenia stood there, feet together and pointed her way, hand outstretched, and smiling eyes looking at her, she couldn't not take the hand outstretched in front of her. "I hope that my hands won't be too cold for you. You can let me know if they warm up as we dance." Maj took her hand, though unlike that fateful day at the cafe, she looked her straight in the eye instead of sinking down. "There's no music. That won't be a problem for you, will it?" "Not at all. This is a very easy dance to keep time for, but if the silence is awkward, I can hum a song for us." She chuckled. "You don't want me to sing, I assure you." "So how does the dance work?" "Ah. So it's very simple. We start by facing each other and I'll step forward and you back. Then I'll step right and you'll do the same, I'll step back, then you'll step towards me, and then we both take a step to the left. We'll essentially be moving in a little box." Xenia held up a finger on her free hand. "There is one little wrinkle though." Maj scanned Xenia's face, which was as flawless as always. Where? You're perfect. "When I take one of my hands away and lift our hands like so, you step back and twirl for me, like you're showing off. Though please don't smack me in the face with your tails." Oh. Not a literal wrinkle. "I think I can do that, yeah. No promises about the tails though." She said, sticking her tongue out playfully. This should be easy. Xenia opted to go with a slow, simple dance instead of something with faster movements akin to the way she fights. Though from the way Maj's heart fluttered, she may as well have been. Here she was, hand in hand with Xenia, fully seizing her attention as they danced. Her voice even sounds melodious while humming. "Do my hands feel warmer now, Maj?" "Mmm?" In truth, Maj had completely forgotten about keeping track how how hot or cold her hands were with how she was so caught up in a moment that seemed like it would be confined to dreams. "Oh, that. Yeah, your hands feel fine." "Good. I want your first dance to be as comfortable as possible." "First?" She could scarcely believe the words that came out of Xenia's mouth. "Oh. I assumed that you wouldn't want to do this just once, so I said first. Perhaps I spoke too quickly." The faint hint of red appeared on Xenia's cheeks, which actually brought Maj some comfort, knowing that she wasn't the only one that could stumble and feel awkward about it. "Not at all. Though I didn't expect you to get so nervous, dancer." Seeing the nervousness gave Maj just a bit of nerve, enough to poke at Xenia while also accepting the unspoken offer of more dances. The fetchling merely chuckled, before removing a hand from her side and lifting the one that still held hers up, signaling that it was time to spin. Maj did her best to pull her tails in as she spun, so that she wouldn't smack Xenia with them. As she turned back to face Xenia, she saw a smile beaming on her partner's face. "You did great! Would you like to keep dancing?" "I would. At least for a few more twirls." "All right then." Maj didn't keep the time, but it was far too short for her liking, even though Xenia would twirl her around another three times before concluding the dance. "You danced very well. Are you sure that you've never done this before?" Xenia feigns skepticism, as if she was interrogating Maj. "Trust me, I haven't. Do you think that Glory ever took me out to any balls?" Xenia chuckles at that, though it's quickly overtaken by concern. "Damn, forgot about her. I ah, don't suppose that you'll be sharing a tent with her any time soon." "No." Maj had never, ever gotten between Glory and her flings before, but she had firsthand experience of how threatening Glory could get when in one of her dark moods and wasn't particularly inclined to be alone with Glory after she had done so. "You can sleep in my room, then. Only fitting, after all, since it's my fault that you can't sleep in there any more." Xenia smiled nervously again, though Maj couldn't understand why for the life of her. She stood up for her so thoughtfully earlier and it wasn't her fault that Glory had a frigid heart. "It's not, but thank you, Xenia." "Of course. Though ah, maybe you might like to sleep in the bed tonight?" Maj only responded by pointing at the corner, as well as her tail and ears, reminding her of her shapeshifting abilities. "I'll be fine. Perhaps after tomorrow, you can work on getting a bigger room instead of getting me to crawl into bed with you." As defiant and bratty as she sounded, the offer to share a bed with Xenia was a tempting one. But that seemed like a step too fast at the moment. "Ah yes. Tomorrow." Xenia's tone made it clear that she wasn't looking forward to that at all. "Are you scared?" "Yes. I would be lying if I were not. I did not expect to be volunteering for the mission. It was sort of a matter of conscience that compelled me to join." "Your conscience seems to be compelling you to do many things lately." "Yes. Almost dying twice has proven to be quite the motivator for self-improvement. Though I wouldn't recommend it." She tried to smile, though Maj could tell that her heart wasn't in it. "I would be lying if I said that a part of me at least wishes I hadn't done that. Being brave feels kinda dumb." Xenia sounded small and scared, with all the confidence that she had worn earlier stripped away. Just a day ago, she wouldn't have imagined that Xenia could be so vulnerable. She had to do something to try and comfort Xenia. "Close your eyes and hold out your hands." The fetchling complied, closing her eyes and putting both hands out in front of her. Maj wasn't sure if this would work, but she was gambling here. In a poof, she transformed into her fox form and leapt up into Xenia's awaiting arms. She didn't have the words, but she had hoped that giving Xenia the chance to pet her in her more compact form would help to ease her dread. A giggle escaped Xenia, she could tell what she was holding from the weight in her hands. Maj closed her eyes and rested expectantly. She felt one of the hands move out from under her and begin petting her on the head, behind the ears, and down the back of the neck. "Thank you, Maj." She sat there on Xenia's lap for as long as the fetchling needed to destress. Chapter XII: Alone. In the Darkness Xenia stared up at the ceiling. Maj had fallen asleep some time ago and she had taken care to place her down in the corner without waking her up. Unfortunately, she had no such luck. The loss of Maj's company had left Xenia with nothing to distract her from her thoughts, in fact, seeing Maj sleeping peacefully and dreamlessly in the corner, unburdened by what awaited tomorrow, only left a sense of guilt that made it harder to sleep. As much as Maj said that she wasn't doing this all because of her, she couldn't help but believe that the foxgirl wouldn't have volunteered to join if she had not. Which ate at her, because the one thing Xenia had tried to do here was keep Maj alive. So here she lay, staring up in bed, as if her eyes could pierce through the ceiling of the Defender's Heart and up to Heaven. It had been years since the last time Xenia had prayed. She couldn't particularly recall the last time she had done so, but in the current moment she felt the need to call upon the divine. "Iomedae." She said, in a whispered voice, careful not to wake Maj. "I have never prayed to you and I have almost certainly done things in my life you would not approve of, but I ask you to hear me now. I am probably not the only person in this city that is speaking to you for the first time tonight, but I am not here to ask you to spare my life tomorrow." She paused. She didn't know if a goddess could be surprised, but she paused anyway. "I ask you to spare Maj. This is not her fight, it was not even her will that she come to this city. She was dragged here on the whims of a selfish and cold woman. It is not fair that she face mortal peril in a fight she didn't choose. Take me instead, if you must. I have already escaped death twice, which is more than I deserve. But let Maj live." She looked at Maj again. Still fast asleep, unaware of Xenia's prayer. It would break her heart if she were to live and I died, but at least she would live. Though it would be a cruelty. I ate with her, I danced with her, I saw her for the first time, and then I die and dash those hopes again. Even when I try to be kind, I am cruel. "Perhaps I should pray to you, Shelyn, and ask that she forgets me and falls for someone more deserving." It would certainly make for a pretty picture if Xenia could wash away all of the bad things she's done by making amends to Maj, but she could already feel that her conscience was not going to let her off that easily. Her thoughts were already involuntarily moving back towards Portia Lutece. A noble girl back in Absalom, who happened to belong to a family that Xenia's needed some dirt on. It was quite easy for her to get the information she needed, Portia was beautiful, but quite dumb, and she was enthralled instantly by charming words and a beautiful face. Now doesn't that sound familiar. Xenia thought. She had lured Portia in with sweet nothings over the course of several weeks, made her thought that she would be the one person in Absalom that would finally win Xenia's heart, and then made her move during one of the balls that her father had thrown. Xenia had played the right notes and fingered the right chords and got Portia to give up all of her family's secrets in a night that had to seem perfect for her. And then the next morning, her father had sprung his trap on the Lutece family. The look on Portia's face after it had all happened, Xenia hadn't given it a single second of thought, but now that she lay awake on what might be her last night on Golarion, she couldn't help but to recall Portia. She couldn't help to recall all of the people that she had manipulated in order to gain some advantage or another for her family. I am disgusting. Like a decaying corpse covered in expensive perfume. She once again looks at Maj, sleeping in the corner, oblivious to how Xenia was peering into the darkness within herself. Forget me when I die and don't mourn me. Give your heart to someone kind and good that deserves to be loved. Xenia didn't want to think about what it was that she deserved. She prayed that Sarenrae would come quickly and end this night. Chapter XIII: Riposte Xenia didn't remember when she had fallen asleep, but she was willing to consider it a win that she had managed to do so, especially since that sleep wasn't accompanied by nightmares. As she awoke, she found that Maj had once again beaten her, the kitsune sitting cross-legged in her true form, working on what she could only guess were alchemical concoctions. "I take it that it isn't too late in the morning." Xenia had meant to be cheeky with that, but it wasn't quite there. "No, it's only six. I was planning on letting you sleep in for another thirty minutes, but since you're awake, you can watch if you like. But don't ask a bunch of questions. Please." Maj's words seemed rude, but she seemed more hyper-focused than anything. Though either way, it spared Xenia from small talk she wasn't quite ready for. And even though Xenia understood nothing of alchemy, it was interesting watching Maj craft, searching through ingredients, picking them out, and mixing them in some strange amalgamation of art and cooking. Most of the concoctions that were created ended up going into Maj's personal bandolier, but she walked up and handed a pair of them to Xenia. One of them had a little picture of a cat on it, the other had an image of a cloud. Xenia raised an eyebrow at Maj. "Don't get me wrong, I love cats as much as the next person, but I don't think that turning into one will help us." "The picture is simply to help identify what spell is being imitated. The cat is for a spell that will make you more dexterous and limber. It should help you when we fight. Similarly, the one with the cloud picture should make you harder to hit. Though don't drink them now, I haven't quite gotten them to be long-lasting yet." "Thank you, Maj. I'll have to repay you for this, somehow." "Tch. Just don't use your head to test how strong the walls are." The two of them left and joined the others. Xenia could only wonder what was going on in Maj's head. She was smart enough to understand what they were walking into, but here she was, being no less bratty than usual. At breakfast, Xenia ate what was in front of her and greeted the rest of her party. Seelah had an unshakeable confidence and a readiness to 'Smack the demons hard for all they did to us.' while Wenduag was just excited for a fight. Lann had an air of resignation about him, cracking self-deprecating jokes like he always did. Camellia was tranquil, but had an excitement in her eyes. Woljif idly twirled his daggers in hand. Staunton was silent and removed from the rest of the squadron until it was time. Though what stood out the most was Glory, or more accurately, the utter lack of her. Xenia saw no sign of her among the soldiers, nor in the crowds that had gathered to offer the various crusaders as they marched for the Gray Garrison. The march through the city was quiet, with no bands of rampaging demons or cultists attacking them on their way. Suddenly, Irabeth held up a hand and stopped the march. "We've arrived." Xenia didn't quite know what she was expecting the Gray Garrison to look like, but it was certainly nothing like what she was actually seeing. Compared to most of the buildings in Kenabres, it was still in good condition, though in terms of design, it was unspectacular. For all the importance that surrounded the Gray Garrison since she arrived to the city, Xenia had expected it to be a castle. Her thoughts were interrupted by Irabeth beginning a speech. "Crusaders of Kenabres! Today we stand ready to re-take our city! To avenge the destruction brought to our city and the murder of Terendelev and of our people! Today we show the demons that we will not go down so easily! For Kenabres! For Iomedae! For Queen Galfrey!" Irabeth's speech boomed through the empty streets, with the crusaders of all orders joining her in shouting out the names of their city, goddess, and queen before charging down towards the Gray Garrison. Emerging forth to meet them was a horde of demons, frenzied and seeking battle. As the two armies clashed, Xenia led her squad down the streets, discreetly avoiding the battle while making their way closer to the Gray Garrison. Curiously, she found that it was scarcely defended, with only a few of the skinny red demons that she had grown accustomed to killing by now in the way. As she entered the Garrison, Maj tapped her on the shoulder. "The cat potion. Drink it now." Xenia complied, uncorking the vial downing it all in one go. The potion tasted of citrus and as it took effect, Xenia could feel herself growing more limber and capable of delicate movements, something she put to the test by twirling her rapier about. "Oh! This will do nicely, thank you Maj." Continuing on, the group arrived outside of what looked like a chapel. They stopped, as they heard voices coming from within. Xenia carefully peered in and saw a naked succubus, standing in front of eight men in tattered crusaders garb. The men were kneeling before the succubus. "Come, my servants" Said the succubus in a suggestive tone that would have been far sexier had Xenia been hearing it a few days ago. "Your goddess is here. Let me hear your worship and your prayers." Her arms were outstretched towards the crusaders, but the look on her face was of someone having too much fun. "Iomedae." One of the men said. "You are the most beautiful out of all the goddesses. Shelyn and Calistria are nothing compared to you. But," The man hesitated after saying this. Whatever he had to say next must have been truly shameful. "...my thoughts about you have been impure and I have defiled myself with lustful actions." He falls further, prostrating himself before his "goddess". "Please, forgive the sins of your servant!" The succubus lifted the prostrated man's head up. "You will be forgiven. But atonement must be paid. If the sight of me inspires sinful urges, then it must be removed so that you can no longer stumble. Put out your eyes." Without question, the worshipper shoved his fingers into his own eye sockets and began to put them out, screaming in agony as he did so. His fellows made no move to stop this mad display of self-maiming, even though the man's suffering was clear. Xenia herself stood transfixed, horrified at the depravity of the scene and morbidly curious at what depths this demon would sink to. After several horrible moments, his eyes came out of his head with a terrible ripping sound, and he held the bloody orbs in his hands and offered them to the succubus. "I accept your sacrifice." She said before crushing them in her hands and proceeding to rub the blood and gore all over her body, as if it was some oil, moaning all the while. In all the grotesquerie of this moment, Xenia couldn't help but recall the tapestry in her room, of a harem of succubi all engaging in salacious acts with each other. After seeing what she saw now, she made an internal vow to have it burned and scatter the ashes in the Inner Sea. This entire affair had Xenia sick to her stomach and seeing the succubus covered in eye matter ruined whatever appeal the creature had. Though in Xenia's disgusted state, she must have gotten careless, as the anger flashed onto the succubus' face and she pointed a gore covered finger in her direction. "My servants! An interloper defiles your worship! Tear her apart!" The remaining seven men charged towards Xenia with bare fists, with mad devotion in their eyes. She danced around their frenzied strikes, focusing on taking down the succubus. From behind, Camellia came to reinforce her, shoving her rapier deep into one of the attackers. "Wait, Camellia! These men are on the same side as us! They don't know what they're doing!" Though even as the words came out of Seelah's mouth, blood come pouring out of the wound where Camellia's rapier had struck and her quarry fell lifeless. Xenia struck true at the succubus, her blade leaving a wound as the cold iron pierced through the demon's supernaturally thick skin. Though even so, the succubus was a stronger creature than Xenia expected and it would take more than that to kill her. And on subsequent blows, Xenia found that the succubus could weave and dance just as well as she could, as strikes that would have ended the fiend all struck air. From over Xenia's head, a vial came flying and landed behind the succubus, exploding in a flash that covered the both of them in holy light, though it was the succubus that screamed, as if she was being burned by a fire or acid. Xenia took advantage of the demon's pain and stabbed her in the throat with her rapier, interrupting the screams. Not content with that, Xenia stabbed over and over until it fell, the blood and gore it was already covered in now mixed with its' own black blood. Looking around the now silent chapel, Xenia could see Camellia covered in blood, panting with exertion. Wenduag and Lann had their bows in their hands, replacing loosed arrows with freshly drawn ones. Seelah stood back, looking saddened and disappointed, while Maj stood just behind her, a vial ready in her hand. Among the fallen bodies was the man that had repented to the succubus. An arrow was in his throat. His eyeless corpse looked up at Xenia with a face frozen in agony and ecstasy. From behind the altar, Xenia could be heard expelling the contents of her guts at how vile this scene had become. Chapter XIV: The Dam Breaks As far as Maj was concerned, her first battle couldn't have gone any better. Her bombs were effective, it turned out that the bombs she had improvised with holy water and cold iron were effective against the demons. And the potion that she had made for Xenia had turned out perfectly, she was significantly more agile than usual. The fight was far quicker and easier than what was occurring now. The sight of the eyeless man had Xenia expelling her breakfast and the fate of his cohorts had Seelah and Camellia going at it with each other. The half-elf was first in after Xenia and fell upon them with her rapier, stabbing at hearts and throats, spilling their blood everywhere. "Those men were on our side. If you had just held them off for a few seconds, they would have been free." "Spare me the outrage. Those men were attacking us, my focus was on stopping them as best I could. Besides, they would have done it themselves if they had learned how that succubus made fools of them. I showed them mercy, now they never have to know." Camellia met Seelah's rage with a poise that Maj found unsettling. In the midst of all the fighting, Xenia emerged from behind the altar, spitting and wiping her mouth. "I don't relish what happened, but we still have a mission to accomplish. Can we save the ethics discussion for later?" "She's right. These debates only serve to slow us down and leave us vulnerable to the demons. We must keep moving." "Never thought I'd heard you agreeing with me, Wenduag." Wenduag scoffed and started onwards, settling the matter. As the rest of them followed behind, Maj rifled through her things and pulled out some leaves. "Here, take some mint. It should help your breath and put a better taste in your mouth." "Thank you. Normally I'd ask for a kiss to give me a better taste in my mouth, but..." Xenia chuckled and made a barfing motion. "Perhaps when this is all done." What did I just say? Xenia laughed again and smiled. "I'll hold you to it." Maj stood there dumbfounded for a second, before following behind. A kiss from Xenia, that was certainly a prize for Maj to fight for if there ever was one. She pulled out a potion with an eye that had the white and red of a target in place of the iris and downed it. It was time for her to pull some tricks of her own. For just a second, Maj's eyes went blurry, before everything became focused, her eyes picking up fine details in the distance. And not a moment too soon, as her eyes could pick up the faint shimmer of light off of a tripwire. She moved up to the front of the line and grabbed Seelah's shoulder, stopping the paladin before she could blindly walk into it. "Stop. There's a trap right there. Xenia, Camellia, are either of you able to disable it?" "I can help" Camellia pulled out some tools and started working at the area Maj had pointed towards. Her hands deftly worked, neutralizing the mechanism responsible for the trap before cutting the string. Maj couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Odd that she'd come across not one, but two noble girls that used thieves' tools and knew how to use a rapier. Camellia even more so. Xenia's family dealt in shadows, of course those skills would be necessary for her. But Camellia? The group continued on, dispatching cultists and weaker demons as they made their way up to the second floor. It looked like it might be easy sailing to go up to the third floor, until they arrived at the corridor before the staircase. Blocking their path were two of the short, fat demons and a towering minotaur that gripped a greataxe that was perhaps only a foot shorter than it was. The minotaur roared, turning red for a moment as it called upon some infernal energy. It primed itself to charge, like a bull that was facing off against a matador. Seelah dug her heels in and raised up her shield, for all the good that would do her. Maj grabbed onto Xenia and pulled her off to the side. No way she was letting her be in the charge path of this demon. Woljif said a few words in Infernal and made some signs with his hand as the demon charged forth. The smell of sulfur filled the air, and suddenly, a glob of something flew through the air, landing in between Seelah and the beast, coating the floor in some shiny liquid. The minotaur charged forth, heedless of the liquid on the floor, its speed working against it as it lost balance, fell with a boom, and slid across the floor, knocking Seelah over with a clanging and clattering reminiscent of pots and pans. The tiefling followed up on the fallen minotaur, jumping on it and repeatedly stabbing into it with his daggers. He continued the assault, even as the minotaur struggled up to its feet and flailed at Woljif. The archers took advantage of the distraction, riddling the beast with arrows. The sustained assault proved too much for the beast, who swayed this way and that before falling to the ground with a booming thud. "Ha-ha! Grease spell worked like a charm! Big guy never saw it coming until he hit the ground. Now normally I save that trick for the city guard, but it works on all types of big idiots." Seelah was much less amused. As she stood up, she placed a glowing hand on herself, easing the pain of her collision. "Next time, you be the one to have a giant bull-demon slam into you and see how funny it is then." She stomped up the stairs, not willing to give Woljif a chance to respond. Maj grabbed Xenia's shoulder very quickly and gestured towards the vial on her belt. "The blur potion, you should drink it now." Xenia pulled it out and looked Maj in the eye. "We're almost out of this horror show. Just a little bit further now, and we'll be free." For a moment, she gave Maj a smile that couldn't quite reach her eyes, before growing solemn again. "I am sorry that you had to get dragged to this horrible place. I promise, when we're out of here, I'll..." "Save me your apologies, dancer. And your promises. Let's just get out of here." Xenia would get Maj's emotions all roiled up if she let her, which was not what she wanted right now. Best to nip it in the bud. The fetchling complied and drank the potion. As they moved up the stairs, Maj could see her potion taking effect, with Xenia being hard to focus on, like text on a page to a person that had been studying from a text for hours and hours without pause. At the top of the staircase lay the chamber where the Wardstone was resting. Protecting the divine stone was an almost feral looking half-elf woman, with an arm that looked almost like that of an insects and a twisted foot. Though despite the deformities, she had no issue wielding a scythe with both hands, nor did she seem any slower. Though any impression that the six of them would have had an easy time dispatching this monstrous woman were dispelled when she muttered some incantation and stuck a hand out towards the group, sending out some dark wave that lacerated them. Woljif collapsed and Seelah fell to a knee, expending more of her divine magic to keep him from dying as she did so. Wenduag scoffed and shot an arrow at Jeslyn that deflected off her armor. Camellia responded with magic sending a dark blast of her own that opened up a bloody wound under the half-elf's armor, though it only made her more savage, as she charged towards them, scythe raised and letting out a scream. Her first strike came down towards Camellia, who deflected it with her buckler, though still grunts in pain off the force of the strike. Meanwhile, the cultist continued her attack, pivoting off the deflection and swinging at Xenia, though her blow went wide, passing harmlessly through the blur. Xenia took advantage of the miss, stabbing twice while the cultist was still off-balance. The first strike displaced the scales of the bone armor protecting her, while the second pierced through for a slight wound. Camellia stabbed with her rapier as well, while Lann stowed his bow and punched her directly in the face. Noticing that her aggression had turned against her, the half-elf stepped back and twirled her scythe around in a defensive array that none of the trio dared step towards, though that proved to be her undoing as Maj drew one of her vials and tossed it at the cultist, exploding as it hit her on the back. Flames began to roll up her body, though the pain hardly stopped her. If anything, her frenzy only increased as she began to burn, swinging her scythe in wild arcs that Xenia, Camellia, and Lann could only dodge, hoping to outlast the fanatic until she burned to death. Maj grimaced. They would almost certainly prevail over the woman, though in the time it would take for her to succumb, the odds were good that she'd get a hit off. She wished that she had thought to prepare one of her entangling bombs. Her concerns for the moment would be allayed by Staunton, who charged forth, knocking away her scythe with his steel shield, before hitting her right in the chest with a blow that caused her armor to cave in on itself. The cultist fell to the floor dead, her body still burning in what now served as her funeral pyre. Though no sooner had she fallen to the floor and Seelah had got Woljif back on his feet then had Minagho arrived at the bottom of the staircase, with red, spear-wielding demons behind her. "Oh no. This is our hour, it will not be stopped by the likes of you." Her eyeless face noted Staunton and for a moment she softened. "Staunton, my sweet, come back to me now. There's no need for you to be swept up with the rest of them, dying a meaningless and agonizing death for their final, failed crusade." The dwarf however, simply spat at his feet, retaining his hardness. "Stow your offer, witch! I'd rather crawl about in the Abyss than be back with you." Minagho darkened. "That can be arranged, my dear." She gestured, and the demons ran up after the party. Maj was reaching for another one of her holy water bombs when she saw the rod coming towards her, tossed by Xenia who was motioning for her to run to the Wardstone. "Go! I'll be right behind you!" She needed no more than that. Maj ran to the Wardstone as fast as she could, paying no heed to the sounds of fighting behind her, only to the stone ahead and Xenia who was close behind, covering her as best she could. As soon as the Wardstone appeared to be within the reach of her arm, she extended the rod towards it, the tip making contact with the stone and causing the divine magics to short and fizzle, before exploding in a radiant light and knocking her and Xenia to the ground. As the whiteness overtook her, Maj could hear a screaming, though whether it was from her, her allies, or her enemies, she could not tell. Though as the light overtakes her, Maj sees not the Boneyard, but a battle, somewhere on the border of Mendev, of a grand army of crusaders standing against a horde of demons, swords and shields clashing against horns, teeth, and claws. At the front of it all, a young, golden-haired woman in resplendent armor holds forth a glowing sword and encourages her soldiers to fight on. The battle continues, with losses from both sides, until suddenly, a bright light overtakes the battlefield, as if the sun itself had come to fight. Crusaders and demons alike stopped fighting and threw up a hand to protect themselves, although for the demons it proved ineffective, as thousands of them were instantly immolated by the holy energy, with thousands more retreating, horribly burned, seeking the safety of the Worldwound they had emerged from. Suddenly, her sight shifts. She is back inside the city, in the district known as the Kite. An angel whose face is entirely obscured by a building stands near a newly-forged Wardstone. He chants forcefully in a pleasant-sounding language that she can't understand and imbues the stone with the same power that Maj guesses she just unleashed. At this moment, she hears the voice of her comrades. Their voices sound distant, as if she's listening to them from underwater and responding to them hardly seems important in comparison to watching what unfolded before her. The scene flashes again. She stands in the middle of some sort of laboratory, with rows of books, machinery that she can't divine the purpose of, and a circle made of arcane sigils. At the center of it, a disheveled woman recites words in a demonic language, before shoving a crystal radiating with dark purple energy into her chest, and falling to her knees in horrible agony as some form of transformation took place within her. Another change. This time, a woman in red shoves a head-sized crystal into the Wardstone, unleashing a chain reaction that destroys cities instantaneously and changes the survivors into hideous mixtures of mortal and demonkind. Was this what we had stopped? As Maj thinks this, she suddenly becomes aware of herself lying on the floor of the Grey Garrison, as if she had woken from a dream. "Hey! You two all right? You got caught up right in the middle of that explosion and you looked out of it" For a moment, she said nothing, still processing what she had seen, though as she fully became aware of her surroundings again, Maj noticed that she was not only uninjured, but she felt better than she ever had. Chapter XV: The Architect Time crawled to a halt for Maj as she felt the power that had been unleashed by the Wardstone. Her senses heightened and she could perceive the make-up of everything that surrounded her; she saw Lann's genetic code, how infernal corruption had mixed its way in there to make him the being that he was, she felt the exact type of stone that the Gray Garrison was made out of, the metal in everyone's swords and armor, and she could even smell the lavender and wine lees that made up Xenia's perfume. Xenia! She whipped her head over to Xenia, looking to see how the fetchling had fared. Maj locked eyes with her long enough for Xenia to give her a knowing wink and leap to her feet with a quickness that she hadn't displayed before. And her senses were just focused enough to catch Xenia as she charged into battle, her body now truly a blur as she moved with supernatural speed. The others however, lacked Maj's heightened senses and could only stand shocked as two of the demons fell, with Minagho being the most surprised of all. Even without eyes, it was evident that Minagho was unable to process the turning of the tides as Xenia looked down at her from atop the stairs, saying nothing, but smiling. Minagho growled. "Insolent whelp! Do you think that will be enough to stop our victory?" She didn't allow a response, pointing a finger up at Xenia and firing a green beam. Xenia quickly hit the deck, the beam harmlessly flying overhead and letting in the sunlight as a portion of the ceiling turned into dust. Minagho growled again and summoned more of the skinny red demons. "Bring me that bitch's heart!" Maj wouldn't give them the chance. She ran forward and threw one of her holy water bombs down at the demons. It glowed as it flew through the air and just like in the vision, it burned the demons away in a bright light. With her other hand, she helped Xenia back up to her feet. Now Minagho's anger and confusion had frozen into fear that made her look like a prey animal. "Staunton, help me! Remember how I've had nothing but love for you, unlike these foolish, hateful crusaders!" Xenia scoffed. "Do you really think that he's dumb enough to fall for that trick?" Though as soon as the words left her mouth, Xenia was knocked back down by a shield bash coming from her blind spot. Maj was shoved aside as Staunton charged down the stairs, stopping just in front of Minagho, protecting her. Despite the betrayal, Maj could only feel a sympathy for Staunton, how in the end, he couldn't help but return to the one that had hurt him the most. "Damn fool!" Xenia cried as she picked herself up the ground. "She doesn't love you, she's using you to escape!" "Maybe she is." Staunton said, resolve building in his voice as he spoke. "But her words are kind and her embrace is gentle. And that's more than any of these crusaders have shown me, even after all I've done to try and redeem myself." Minagho took his hand. She used her other to open some portal. "Come on darling. Let's leave these hateful people." The two of them ran through the portal, going somewhere that no one felt inclined to follow them. "Damn it! We were this close to catching her, until that fool Staunton betrayed us again!" Seelah gives one of the dead demons a kick that would've been painful if it still lived. Wenduag scoffed. "Foolish uplander, returning back to the serpent that first bit him because it has such lovely scales. One would think that the first bite was lesson enough." "Hey, I'm as willing to make toss mud on the literally demon-loving traitor as the next guy, but isn't anyone the least bit curious about what happened a moment ago with the Wardstone blowing up and these two over here?" Lann interjected, gesturing at Xenia and Maj. "Oh gods, how could I have ignored that!" Seelah's anger faded as she ran towards Maj and Xenia, embracing them in a hug that momentarily threatened to cut off Maj's air supply. She huffed and immediately began concocting a plan to spike Seelah's ale with laxatives. "When the Wardstone blew up and you two were caught in it, I thought you two were goners! What happened?" "I'm afraid I couldn't tell you. One moment I'm running behind Maj and some bright light is enveloping me, the next, I'm on the ground and there's just this energy flowing through me that I've never felt before." It was quick, but something in Xenia's eyes made Maj think something wasn't being said. "Do you have any idea, Maj?" "I can't say that I do, I'm afraid. Divine magic isn't something I'm familiar with, especially the sort of thing that was in the Wardstone for all those years." "Perhaps I can be of some assistance in explaining matters." A voice interjected. The source of it came from a woman that somehow none of them had seen in the room. She had horns and wings that made her appear to be a succubus, but outside of that, her features were mostly human, with a distinct lack of claws or a tail, and sandaled feet instead of hooves. Her eyes were human enough, save for red irises that reminded her of what Glory used to have. Solely looking at her face, the woman scarcely appeared to be older than Xenia, but a glance at her eyes hinted of a longer, more eventful life. The only thing that was less than immaculate about the woman's appearance was a scar below her shoulder that glowed with some dark magical energy. Once again, anger overtook Seelah at the appearance of the woman. "Areelu Vorlesh. The architect of the Worldwound." She said the name as if it were a curse. "I'll put you down myself!" Seelah charged forth, sword upraised. Areelu made no attempt to dodge, hardly paying the woman a glance as she ran right through her, sword cutting through nothing but air. "Are we quite finished with that?" She said, in a voice that sounded like an elder disapproving of some foolishness from children. "I have matters far more pressing to attend to than physically appearing before you crusaders, something that you should consider very fortunate. But still, I couldn't ignore the destruction of the Wardstone and what happened afterwards, it's far too interesting a variable." "Simply put, when the Wardstone was destroyed, the divine energies within surged into the two of you like hot metal being poured into a mold, giving their power to the two of you. And like hot metal, you now have the choice to temper that into something new, hone it into something great." She stopped for a moment, her expression not betraying whatever was going on in her mind. Should you live long enough to do so, we will meet again. And I will have more to share with you then. The image of Areelu flickered out of existence, as if it were a candle. Maj continued to think about the woman and all that she said. She had an absolute certainty that she would see her and Xenia again if they proved worthy of it. Something about it was distinct from the hubristic belief Glory had that the universe would somehow make things move in her favor because it was her. And even beyond that, something about Areelu seemed familiar somehow. Maj's train of throught would be derailed by an inquiry from Woljif. "Sooooo, did we win?" "Well, the Worldwound is still open, Minagho is still out there somewhere and Areelu too, and Staunton just turned traitor again. But we stopped the demons plans and Kenabres is safe, so I'll drink to that!" Seelah laughed and gave a hard pat on the back to Maj and Xenia. Drink up. I'll give you something that'll have you on the latrine for a week. She was busy following the others out and calculating how much laxatives she should slip into Seelah's drink when Xenia grabbed her wrist. She stopped, letting the others get ahead. "So, we did it. The gods have smiled upon us, we live to see another day, Kenabres stands victorious." Xenia listed them off as if summarizing a story she had been half-listening to. "How are you feeling about that kiss you mentioned earlier?" "Tchhh." She scoffed, though the sourness in this one was all fake, a step in their own special dance. "I suppose I've gotta do it, don't I? Can't have you going and talking about how I weaseled out of a wager." Xenia smiled at her attempt at pretending to be reluctant, then leaned in for a kiss. Maj met her halfway and for a moment, this was her world. Two days ago, Xenia was dancing with her alone, something that she could scarcely believe would ever happen. But this? Obtaining divine power was now the second most miraculous thing that happened today. The kiss ended after a few moments that felt all too brief. "That kiss was a little long for something that you had to do in order to satisfy a wager." Xenia stepped back, pretending to be smug about Maj's obvious enjoyment. "Don't act so pleased, dancer." She kissed Xenia once more and then a second time, holding both of them for as long as she could. They would have to leave soon before the others noticed their disappearance and the future had its own mysteries that made Maj think this business wasn't over yet, and there was still that matter of Glory to be dealt with, but for now, she had managed to claim something beautiful for herself and all of those things were inconsequential in the face of that.

Chapter I: Descent Maj been dragged to a lot of places by her other half, but she never expected that Glory's obsessions with the strange would take her to Kenabres. Even if they happened to arrive while the city was in the midst of a festival celebrating something or other, Kenabres was hardly the bustling metropolis that she preferred to be in and it was filled to the point of bursting with clerics and paladins. Two groups of people that Glory found to be almost universally dull and preachy. Though Maj figured that company wouldn't be a problem, since she had also come along with the two of them. Ughh! Maj had made sure to set up Glory's tent as far as possible from hers when they set up camp for the night (because of course, her other half would never lower herself by engaging in manual labor), but she could still feel those maddening pangs whenever she called Xenia over to 'warm her tent'. Her other half's latest fling had stuck around for an exceptionally long time and it made it incredibly difficult for her to tell herself that she wasn't envious of Glory. It also prevented her from pushing that day out of her mind. The way she rubbed her thumb over the back of her hand and looked at her... No! That wasn't going to happen. Xenia had already made it plenty clear which half she preferred. You are so much more than anything I could have ever dreamed of. Even now there was still a pang of disappointment in Maj's chest when she thought of that moment and how foolish she was to think that someone might've seen her for her. Maj balled up her hands into fists and let out a deep sigh that went unheard by her traveling partners. Or if the two women did hear it, they disregarded it, as neither of them turned to ask what had her so bothered. At least I should be able to buy some colored pencils while we're here. "...fortunately though, it's currently being used as a museum, which means that I should have some help in finding what I need for once." Maj sighed again in response to Glory's words. After all these years, she knew that her other half never allowed herself to be overheard unless she damn well wished it. And she never, ever said thank you. Not to her, at least. Glory turned her back to Maj and snapped her fingers twice, the way a rich snob snaps at servers at a restaurant. "Come up here and walk with us, Majesty. The last thing I need is you getting lost amidst all this." She rolled her eyes and sped up to join the two ladies, crossing her arms and keeping Glory in between her and Xenia. "Now don't be sulking, Maj. Celebration or no, a strange city is hardly a place you want to be wandering about by yourself." She said, patronizingly. "I'm not gonna get lost around here like some little kid, euggh." Xenia chimed in, with that annoyingly melodious accent of hers. "All right, all right, don't tease her too much. How about you choose where we eat? I don't know about you two, but all this walking around has made me pretty hungry." And there's the mollifying. Can't have Majesty being all gloomy now and ruining our fun with Glory, can we? Her eyes dart around the festivals, scanning carts and food stands for anything that looks like it's good and capable of being eaten on the move. The last thing she wanted was to sit at a table and be ignored while the two of them lust over each other. After a moment, Maj catches a stand where a vendor is selling fried eel. "There." She turns towards Xenia, her golden eyes focusing at the dancer like she's trying to punch a hole through her. "Are you treating as well?" "I can, yes." The three of them headed towards the stand, though Maj could sense the disapproval coming from her other half. Of course this wasn't up to Glory's "refined" tastes. She did her best to shut it out of her mind as she walked up to the vendor and placed her order. "How much for two?" "Nothing, it's free! The city is covering the costs of food and drink for Armasse!" "Oh. How nice." She takes both and starts snacking on the one in her right hand. It's delicious. Easily the best thing Maj has eaten since Glory dragged her here. While it doesn't make her any happier to be here, it makes things a little more bearable. As the three get moving, Maj eats while scanning the area for any stalls that might be selling art supplies. The benefit about traveling to a museum would be that there would, at least theoretically, be supplies for art. And maybe even something worth drawing. Something else, at least. Recently, it seemed like every time she took to draw, the same thing had a way of coming out. "So what do you plan on doing with it?" The subject of those drawings asked. "Surely you aren't planning on just making off with it." Whether that was Glory's plan or not was something that either of them would ever learn, as before she could respond, a deep, monstrous voice came booming from everywhere at once. "Behold, Iomedae, you poor Impostor. Witness the death I sow. Your city will fall to me. Your followers will feed my hunger." From the sky came a monstrous being that had the torso of a human, but the head, wings, and lower body of a locust. In its hands was a giant scythe with a haft made out of the spine of some creature. And as if that wasn't horrifying enough, it was followed by a host of demons that descended upon the city and began killing everything that moved. Some of the paladins and other warriors drew their swords and began to fight back in a desperate attempt to save their city and protect those around them. One of those paladins vanished and suddenly turned into a silver dragon that flew up to combat the giant locust. Maj had no such impulses. At the current moment, the only thing she thought of doing was to run as far from this as she could and hide. Preferably in a small space while assuming her more innocuous form. However, this line of thought was interrupted by a hand grabbing on to her wrist. Her eyes flew up, expecting to see the face of horrible death, only to find Xenia, with fear in those green eyes of hers. "Come on Majesty, we need to get out of here!" This was a surprise, that Xenia would move to try and protect her instead of Glory, though at the moment Maj didn't think to question her motives. She took off with Xenia, though neither of them got far before they heard the death cry of a mortally wounded dragon as the locust-monster scored a terrible hit and rode down to the surface with the plummeting dragon. The ground shook and split as they impacted and both women fell into the rift, with Xenia vainly trying to catch the ledge. Though their mortal peril did not go unnoticed, as the dying dragon stretched a talon out in their direction, weaving some incantation in its final moments. Maj suddenly felt herself falling at a slower and safer speed, as well as Xenia and some of the people around them. Though still, many more had no such luck and fell at more lethal speeds. For a moment, Maj felt fear from her other half as all this was going on, but only for the short time it took for Glory to realize that she was floating down at a safe speed. Then she felt the same sense of assurance that her other half felt when things went her way, as if Fate itself was working to ensure her success. Though given how Maj was currently descending into unknown blackness, she wouldn't particularly mind if Fate got Glory through this one. Chapter II: Darkness Xenia's eyes just peered down as they fell, but even with her ability to see through the dark, she couldn't see where they would land. She had no method of discerning how far down they were going, other than seeing the light of the surface get smaller and smaller. The only thing Xenia could do was draw her rapier with the hand that wasn't currently holding on to Maj. Which now that she thought about it, Xenia wasn't sure what made her do that. It was simply instinctual; when everything started to quite literally go to hell, she became concerned for Maj's safety, just like she had when they first met and they came under attack while sharing a cell. Though that didn't quite explain why she was still holding Maj's hand now, when they were out of danger for the moment and there wasn't a need for it. And she had become aware of that as well, as the bratty foxgirl tore her hand out of Xenia's. "I don't need you holding my hand, ughh." After a few moments, Xenia finally could spot solid ground. There was rubble, but also bioluminescent mushrooms growing down there. And fortunately, she didn't see Glory among the bodies of those who the dragon couldn't save. When she touches down, she tentatively moves forward while calling out into the darkness. "Glory? Majesty and I are unhurt. If you can hear my voice, call back and we'll come find you!" Though instead of Glory, Xenia hears the voice of a pained woman in response. "Lucky you." She rasps. Xenia looks around for the sound of the voice, finding a woman whose left leg was pinned under some rocks. It seemed that she was also saved by the dragon, though its spell didn't apply to falling rocks. She was a human woman, fair-skinned with short dark hair and wearing simple leathers that indicated she was involved with some form of operations around here. "Oh. Hi, my name is Xenia. I'll get you out of there, don't you worry." Meanwhile Maj had got a torch lit up so that she could see. Her eyes were scanning the area, as well as the rubble that kept the unfortunate woman trapped. She took a stick-shaped piece of rubble and shoved it underneath the rocks. "Come over here and help me, dancer. We have leverage in this position, it'll make rescuing this woman much easier than it would be if you tried to lift it." "My name's Anevia, by the way." The woman said, since neither of them asked her. Xenia joined Maj in using the rubble as a fulcrum. Sure enough, with the advantage of leverage, the two of them were able to free Anevia. Though that presented them with a new problem. Xenia wasn't a doctor, but she could tell that Anevia's leg was seriously injured and that she wasn't going anywhere unless she received treatment and rest that she was not going to get down here. Though before anything could be said about it, Maj was gathering more rubble and some fabric material and was working on Anevia's leg. "Dancer, help me hold her still. There's enough material here for me to craft a crude splint. But I won't be able to put it on right if she moves around." Xenia comes over and holds Anevia, trying to be as gentle as possible while doing so. Maj placed some broken wooden planks on either side of her wounded leg, wrapped the fabric around it all to hold it into place, and sealed it with a tightly tied knot. She hands Anevia the piece of wood that she used to gain leverage when freeing her leg. "There. The splint will keep the bones in your leg in place until you can receive some real treatment and you should be able to use that to walk." "Thanks. I don't want to think about what would've happened if you two didn't come along." Meanwhile Xenia was just staring blankly at Maj. Between all the work she did in setting up camp and cooking while they were traveling to Kenabres and now the resourcefulness she displayed in helping Anevia to get sort of mobile, the foxgirl was proving to be more skilled than she initially thought. Much more skilled. "Now you're the one who's staring, dancer." Said foxgirl jibed, apparently noticing her stares. "Come now, Glory is probably getting impatient." Xenia felt her cheeks getting red (as red as they got anyway) in response to getting called out and in front of someone she just met, no less. She started down the underground canyons, rapier and buckler out, going in front of the two women in case there was some danger. The march forth was dreary, to say the least. Being this far below the ground, the only sources of light were Maj's torch and the weak lighting of mushrooms that were growing down here. And the caverns down here had an oppressive sense of sameness, with the monotony of rocks and mushrooms only being broken up by the corpse of some misfortunate soul who plummeted down. As if the universe sensed that things were getting too oppressive, a light could be seen emanating from deeper within the tunnels. Xenia had to put up a hand in front of her eyes as she approached the light, her eyes needing to adjust to it after all this darkness. Though even as the light messed with her vision, she could recognize the voice coming from beyond it anywhere. "There you are. I was just wondering if you were going to make me come looking for you." Glory was mostly joking, though she could hear just a hint of annoyance in the wizard's voice at having to wait so long. "And you made a friend down here." She added, noting Anevia. "Name's Anevia. Anevia Tirabade. I got patched up good by your friends. Xenia and...I don't think I caught your name, actually." She said, awkwardly turning towards Maj. "You'll have to forgive her, socializing just isn't her thing." Glory interjected. "I'm Glory and my reclusive companion is Majesty." Majesty huffed. "Anyway, while I was waiting for you, I explored a little. There are ruins down that way, which seems to indicate that there was some form of civilization down here. I would have explored them, but I had to flee from some oversized centipedes that wanted to make a meal out of me. Somehow their limited intellect foiled my illusions." "I see. Well, I can certainly help you on the centipede front, though what would we go to the ruins for? Is there something you expect to find?" "Not in particular, though would you prefer to wander around these depths blindly or to at least have a destination in mind?" Xenia certainly couldn't argue with that logic. It's not like she had a plan beyond finding Glory. Long term planning wasn't Xenia's strength in the best of times and it certainly wasn't one now that she was in the depths below Kenabres. "Fair point. Lead on." Glory led the way to the ruins that she found, with Xenia close behind, admiring the view. When the oversized centipedes attacked, the pair made quick work of them, Xenia evading their pincers with her dance-like step and retaliating with lethal stabs from her rapier and Glory taking advantage of the distraction to hit them with spells from a distance. "Nice work, as always. The two of us make for a good team." Xenia was internally beaming. She had known Glory for a while now and the wizard didn't hide the attraction she felt for her at all, but somehow every compliment that was sent her way made her feel like she did when she was back in her father's manor and "Zuri Azeria" was complimenting her on how skilled she was in finding her. It was almost enough for her to forget that she was however far underground and had no idea if the apocalypse was going on above her. But only almost. Xenia continued on behind Glory, slowing her place when Glory noted that they were getting closer to the ruins. "What are these? Was there a city built down here?" "Not quite. But after the First Crusade, the city got real big, real fast and a lot of tunnels and sewers got built down here. More than the city would ever use, actually. Though there's rumors and old tales they tell to scare children of people living down here. Outcasts who were effected by the Worldwound's corruption." "The Worldwound?" Majesty sighed. "The rift that connects this plane to the Abyss. It's where all those demons up there come from." Her voice sounded like she was explaining something that should be obvious. And given where they were, it should have been, but matters of magic and planes were something that Xenia simply couldn't wrap her head around. "Shhh. There's people up there. And something else. Approach them quietly." Xenia The four of them moved quietly, trying not to attract their attention before they were able to deduce their intentions. Sticking at a safe distance, Xenia was able to see four beings. Two of them appeared to be human or close enough to it and both of them were women. The first woman was tall and muscular, with dark skin and braided hair. And judging from the armor, sword, and holy symbol that she had, Xenia guessed that she was some sort of paladin. The second woman was shorter and thinner, though the rapier and leather armor she could see gave the impression that she wasn't entirely defenseless. And the clothing that she was wearing under the armor implied that this wearer was a noble like her. But of more interest were the beings that the women were arguing with. "Uplanders haven't come down this way in seventy thousand gongs. What brings you down here? Have you decided that your ancestors didn't push our people down far enough after the First Crusade?" Said one of such beings, in an unpleasant hissing voice. The first of them looked to be a man, though he looked unlike any being Xenia had ever seen before. The left half of him looked like a regular man, with flesh and hair. But the right half was covered in green scales, like a lizards and he had a lizards eye as well. And there was a horn like that of a ram coming out of his flesh half. The second one was a woman that was covered in blue hair or fur, but more striking was the fact that she had eight legs coming out of her back, like those of a spider. And she had something about her that seemed distinctly feline. "I assure you, we did not come down here of our own free will. Retorted the young noblewoman. "Especially if all the natives here are as monstrous as you are." Such strange people living down here. Are the man and the woman some kind of tiefling? "Easy there, Camellia. Let's not be calling anyone monsters when all they've done so far is talk. My name's Seelah, we fell down here from up above when demons attacked the festival." The armored woman said, attempting to step in before things got hostile. She had an easygoing manner of speech, far more easygoing than she would expect from someone that looked like a paladin. "Thank you. I swear, just because we're all deformed and live in a cave, people think that we're gonna eat 'em or something." The lizardman seemed like a casual, friendly sort, quicker to get to joking than fighting and not afraid of engaging in a little bit of self-deprecation. I think that you should go over and greet them, now. These people are strange, but not the type to try and kill us on sight." Xenia hears Glory's voice all of a sudden, as the kitsune used magic to project her whispers into her ear as if she was standing right next to her. She steps up to where she can be seen, sheathes her rapier, and holds up her hands to indicate she's not a threat. "Hello, I hope that I am not intruding on anything important. My name is Xenia Farorë, I fell down here with a few other survivors." The noblewoman—who now on a closer look had the distinct features of a half-elf—chimed in as she got a look at Xenia. "Thank the gods, another person with class. Now I won't be stuck with the rabble down here." Xenia responded with a fake smile she often gave around people she found intolerable. Bitch. "I will allow my friends to introduce themselves." "I'm Glory and this one is Majesty. I wouldn't expect her to talk much." As if on cue, she sighed, though she didn't particularly seem inclined to actually talking and proving her wrong. Glory shrugged and made a face as if to say "See?" "It's a pleasure to meet you." Whether she was lying or not was something that couldn't be determined through the tone of her voice. "Anevia Tirabade." "My name's Lann and this is Wenduag. Not quite as fancy or glorious as some of the names you've got, but it's the name our moms gave us. Now what brings a bunch of uplanders down here? Would've dusted the place off if we knew we'd be having visitors." She gives a genuine laugh, there was something generally enjoyable in the lizardman's humble self-deprecation. "We didn't know we would be coming down here. There was an attack in the city above. Monsters appeared out of nowhere, led by some terrible locust monster. It tore a rift in the earth and we fell. Fortunately, there was a dragon above that cast a spell on us, so that we would at least have a chance to live. "That was Terendelev. For years she was the guardian of Kenabres. And she kept that up until the end." Seelah said solemnly. A solemn look is also on Lann's face as he hears Xenia's tale. "We knew that something was going on up above from what we were hearing, but we had no idea things were that bad. If this is true, then it sounds like the time our elders spoke of has come." "What time?" "Our ancestors were the children of the first crusaders, corrupted by the Worldwound. But we always believed that there would be a day when those on the surface would need us to come fight for them. And from what you're saying, that's today." Lann starts to run deeper into the caves. "I need to tell the Chief!" Glory looked at Xenia, mouthed 'trust me', and began to chase after him. Xenia looked back at the others, shrugged, and ran off after Glory, following her as she so often had. Chapter III: Convenient Alliances As urgent as the matter was, Lann didn't get more than a few dozen feet until he realized that the he was abandoning the uplanders. Anevia's leg made running impossible, with the woman being forced to limp around as it is. Seelah's armor was a significant hindrance to her speed, with the paladin clanking and clanging and ultimately struggling to keep pace with those who weren't wearing steel. And even for those with healthy legs and unburdened bodies, they lacked the knowledge of the caves that Lann had after a lifetime of hunting in them. Ultimately, the mongrelman was forced to slow down and travel at a pace more convenient to the the rest of the group, as well as give a few sheepish apologies for running off. Maj couldn't help but laugh at his awkwardness and how his companion Wenduag scolded him for his thoughtlessness. The journey was treacherous, with the group passing through systems of tunnels that they almost certainly would have gotten lost in if not for Lann. From her position in the back, Maj can see the group fighting off the giant insects that Glory and Xenia fought off earlier, with Lann and Wenduag proving to be capable archers and the other two ladies proving to be capable with swords. Still, by the time they made it to the little island that the mongrel tribe called home, Maj could see that the warriors were exhausted, with Xenia covered in sweat that made her glisten in an absolutely disgusting way and Glory covered in those strange runes that appear when she's expended her magical energy. Lann stretched out his arms to show off his humble home to everyone. "Welcome to Neathholm, everyone. I hope you enjoy your stay here." Though his affable and joking demeanor quickly are replaced by seriousness, as he runs up to a man he calls Chief Sull, an overweight, aging mongrelfolk with one eye completely ruined by cataracts, and the ears, whiskers, and teeth that reminded her of a mouse. Lann shared the news with the chief, who in turn responded in a lisping voice, telling him about how some of the younger members of the tribe felt the disturbance going on and rushed towards the Shield Maze, thinking that the prophesied time had come and rushing towards the surface before the tribe's warriors could follow. The chief begged them to rescue the youths and when they affirmed that they would, Glory of all people jumped in and volunteered, promising to fight alongside them. "Though we'll need a rest first. I've exhausted all my spells for the day and I think that the more martially-inclined among us need some sleep as well." Maj sighed and without even being told to, started to set up the tents. When she was finished, Glory walked up to her and said, "You'll be sharing a tent with me tonight, Majesty." Which Maj had already predicted. Someone would need to scratch away the runes from her skin, after all. Once in the tent, Maj extended her claws and began chipping away at the runes that covered Glory, her other half wincing and gasping as she did so. "All these years and you've never got any gentler when it comes to doing this." Glory nagged. "All these years and you've never learned to tolerate a bit of discomfort." She countered. Her other half had such a flair for the dramatic. In all the times that she had done this for Glory, Maj never drew more than a little bit of blood and certainly never left any scars, yet Glory acted like she was being flayed alive. "I wouldn't have expected you to be so eager in joining the mongrels' cause. How noble of you." Now it was Glory's turn to sigh and shake her head. "After all this time, you still haven't learned a thing. I couldn't care less about Lann, or these mongrels, or whatever prophecy his people are talking about. But, I would like to get out of here and if helping him and the other misfits in their quest gets me there, then I can pretend to care about it." She lectured, as if Maj's distaste for how Glory only saw people as helpers or objects of lust was an issue of education. "Of course, silly me. You've been keeping the dancer around for so long, I had started to think that you might be growing to care for people." "Hah. Is that what's had you gloomier than usual lately? I don't plan on keeping her around for much longer, to be honest. It was thrilling when I heard that she was looking every rock in the city to find me and it's adorable how she's so starstruck with me that paying her just the slightest compliment gets her starry-eyed, but that's starting to lose its luster. Though if you wanted to have some fun with her before I let her go, I'm sure that something can be arranged." "I don't want any of that, eughh." Usually, Maj's protestations about Xenia were paper-thin to the point where she didn't even fool herself. But the thought of Xenia spending time with her because it was something Glory set her up to was genuinely repulsive to her. Maj wanted Xenia to genuinely notice her, to genuinely want to be around her because she thought that she was clever and funny and perhaps even beautiful, something that she no longer dared hope for. She turned over with a huff, ready to just call it a day and go to sleep. "Majesty." "I got all of them, let me sleep." "Majesty!" Glory's voice was a whispered hiss and suddenly Maj felt herself being grabbed, without a hint of gentleness, and flipped over by her other half, who was now looking down on her. "The things I told you don't leave this tent, do you understand?" "Hah. Are you scared of what the others might think if they knew how you really felt?" The only response to Maj's sharp tongue was a tighter grasp from Glory and a dark expression from her other half. "Do. You. Understand?" There was no threat, but the tone of Glory's voice communicated that there would be unpleasant consequences for Maj if she was to speak of what happened here. "Yes, I understand! Now let go, you're hurting me!" And just like that, Glory's grip released and the dark expression on her face dissipated, though Maj found no softness or relief in it. "There. Not so difficult, now was it?" It always unnerved Maj how Glory could go from being threatening and coercive to being casual with such ease. And she couldn't understand how she was the only one who knew how Glory could be. She rubbed her arms in an attempt to soothe the areas where they were squeezed and closed her eyes. At some point, sleep took her. Chapter IV: Rescue Sleep didn't provide the relief that Maj hoped it would. In her dreams, she was back in Kenabres and demons were attacking like they did before. The hideous locust-man was there too, but no dragon was there to stop him from bringing death as he pleased, striking with his scythe and devouring people and buildings like they were wheat. All she could do was run, as far and as fast she could to get away from this monster that was bringing an end to the world. Though no matter how far she ran, she couldn't get away from the destruction and she found that her escape routes were getting cut off as rifts opened up in the earth around her. She turned to find that everything was crumbling around her and she was standing on a piece of ground that was rapidly shrinking in the face of an infinite void. Soon the ground she was standing on crumbled beneath her feet and she found herself falling into the void, until she was suddenly caught by the wrist. Looking up, Maj saw none other but Xenia looking down at her, green eyes focusing directly on her. She woke up with a sigh. Careful not to disturb her other half, Maj snuck out the tent. Thankfully (and amazingly, given that Seelah was a snorer), none of the others were awake yet, which meant that she could prepare some alchemical concoctions in peace. Creating things, be they artistic or alchemical was something that always brought her some amount of peace. And unlike with art, there wasn't a chance that an unnamed fetchling that she was trying not to think about would burst in through this. The concoctions she was making today were nothing fancy, just some simple curative elixirs, but Maj figured that in this sort of situation they'd be what everyone needed the most. Though, she figured that Anevia could use a salve for her leg. And all the mushrooms around here, surely some of them could be used for alchemical or culinary purposes... BWOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Reverberating throughout the cave is the sound of a booming gong. Maj lets out a startled yelp and just barely maintains her grip on the vials, preventing everything from spilling out. Next comes a small cacophony of noise from the other women (and some colorful language from Seelah that Maj wouldn't expect from a Paladin) as they startled awake. Wenduag grinned at their yelps and swears, satisfied that they got one over on the uplanders. "Uhh, sorry ladies." Lann says, as the other women began to emerge from their tents. "There's no sunlight down here, so we've gotta keep time in our own way. I should've given you a heads-up though." "Now I know that we definitely need to get back to the surface." Camellia retorted. The half-elf was quickly getting on Maj's bad side. She might be even more spoiled than Glory. Speaking of whom, her other half quickly shot her a look to remind her of what they discussed last night, before going right to her plaything. After a simple breakfast of trail rations and an hour for Glory to prepare some spells for the day, they get ready to leave with Lann. At least most of them do. "I'd be right out there to lead the charge with you, but with my leg the way it is, I'll just get in your way. I'll stay back here with the others and wait for you to give the go-ahead. You all stay safe, all right?" "Of course." With Anevia waiting back, they could travel just the slightest bit faster through the caverns. After some time, the seven of them come upon a structure that looked out of place in these caves. It looked like an actual building, some sort of hideout or temple. At the front gate there were two statues of a man with the head and hooves of a goat that was holding a glaive. "Baphomet. He's one of the demon lords leading the war. His cultists have been a thorn in our sides for decades, infiltrating the crusaders and striking from within. Those glaives they all carry don't tickle either." "He has servants that aren't demons? Why would anyone fight for a demon lord?" Seelah gives a shrug in response to Maj. "The crusaders have been asking that question for about a hundred years now. Maybe there's some cultists in there that we can ask." And with that Seelah led the group in, forcing the gates open. Maj took her place in the back, behind Glory and Lann. "It's really that much of a mystery to you, uplander?" Wenduag interjected, sneering. "Your ancestors pushed ours down here simply because we had the misfortune of being the children of those exposed to the corruption of the Worldwound. Do you not think that the crusaders create enemies out of those who they deem too strange and monstrous to live?" Seelah had no response to that particular question from Wenduag. The Shield Maze proved to live up to its name, as it twisted and turned. Seelah's prediction of cultists turned out to be true, though they were more interested in cutting them apart than discussing why they made these choices in life. They proved to be more of a challenge than the vermin and lizards they fought yesterday, as they were equipped with glaives, bows, and even magic. There were also plenty of signs that the cultists had been living and operating here, as they found bookshelves with magic scrolls and writings about Baphomet and the philosophy of his followers, sleeping quarters with beds and closets, paintings of a queen in yellow, a lord in blue, a priest in red, and then the yellow queen again, and stocked pantries that they helped themselves liberally from, packing whatever they could fit in their bags and eating some of what they couldn't. Still though, a taste of real food did little to keep Seelah's mood from darkening. "All this time we had cultists living here, literally right under our noses. And we couldn't find 'em until it was too late. Damn it!" "Yes, it's an embarrassment how for all of Lord Hulrun's vigilance about how cultists could be around any corner, none of his witch hunts were able to find the actual cultists under the city." While the two of them bemoaned the crusaders' failures, Xenia was off on the wall, knocking and pressing on it like she's looking for something. "There's no door anywhere, but I can hear something shifting about behind this wall. I'm suspecting that at least part of this wall is movable and that there's a hidden mechanism for moving it. Glory, give me a hand in looking around." Maj, for her part, sat back in a relatively bloodless part of the hall and ate some sardines that the party had won, watching her other half and latest fling work. Eventually, the two of them found a spot behind a picture of Baphomet that they could press down to make the wall move. Despite her general mood, she sat back and had a little laugh at how these cultists of Baphomet had their hideout built like something out of a cheap mystery novel. Though her laughter quickly subsided, as on the other side of the wall, a large creature made entirely out of stone appeared. "It's an Earth Elemental, not a demon!" Glory shouted, quickly identifying the primordial creature. "With all due respect, I fail to see how that distinction matters at the moment!" Camellia replied, drawing her rapier and leaping into battle. Seelah ran behind her, sword and shield at the ready. Meanwhile, Xenia was already occupying the elemental, stabbing it with her rapier, leaping and stepping here in there with precision and grace as if she was dancing along to some music that only she could hear. It was disgusting. The way her body moved like that, the way she seemed to be without a care despite the fact that the slightest misstep could result in her getting killed by this thing. It was captivating, in an awful way. And it seemed to agree with her, as it continued to smash and swat at Xenia, even as the others joined in on the assault and presented themselves as much easier targets. Either this was an exceptionally single-minded creature or she was so annoying that she managed to piss off a creature made out of stone. But either because of a misstep from Xenia or a stroke of luck by the elemental, its stone fist swung right into the dancer, launching her across the room like she was a doll being tossed by a careless child. She slammed into the wall and fell onto the floor with no sound save for the thud her unmoving body made. Both Lann and Seelah cried out her name. Maj stood silently for a moment. No one thought she was capable of making the slightest difference, assuming they thought of her at all. If she stood by and withheld care that might potentially save the fetchling's life, none of them would be the wiser. And she wouldn't constantly be tormented by these feelings, by seeing her be so close yet just out of reach if she were to die. No, she would be even further out of reach, because she's dead. "Majesty, what are you doing? Leave her!" She ran towards her body and knelt down beside her, placing her forefingers on her neck and searching for a pulse. Miraculously, there was still faintest of pulses to be found. To Xenia's salvation, it seemed that her skull was thicker than the walls of the Shield Maze. Maj pulled out one of the curatives that she had made that morning and arched Xenia's head. She popped open the vial and poured its contents down her throat. Chapter V: Escape (Holy shit, how have I been writing this for a month now) The last thing she recalled was being a second too slow when making a leap and suddenly being sent flying into the wall before everything went black. In the few moments where Xenia had thought about how she would die, she always imagined that it would be a crazy, heartbroken ex getting violent revenge or that someone would come after her because she was getting too close to finding Zuri Azeria. Which perhaps made it ironic that she was being saved by someone whose heart she had broken because of her fixation with "Zuri". Suddenly, everything went bright and she could feel something warm and tasting going down her throat. As her vision improved. she saw that it was Maj that was pouring the potion down her throat. Xenia also became aware of a throbbing pain at the back of her head. "You're lucky, dancer. Your skull's thicker than the walls here." She quipped, with a little smirk on her face. "I'm glad that it is. Thank you." She said, completely oblivious. "Though I didn't know that you brewed potions." "Of course you didn't." Now her smirk was gone and she had set Xenia on the ground and motioned to leave until the fetchling grabbed her wrist. "Thank you, Majesty. If it wasn't for you, I would be dead right now." "You tried to save me yesterday when the demons attacked Kenabres. I was just returning the favor." As distant as Maj tried to come off, Xenia couldn't notice how she was looking right at her the whole time. Though her attention was quickly occupied when Seelah and the others started moving over to her. "Thank Iomedae, you're alive!" "Yes, it would be truly tragic if you were to die here, after surviving what happened on the surface." Glory offers a hand to Xenia. "I'm glad that you're still with us in the land of the living." Xenia accepted Glory's aid in standing up, though she couldn't help but think about how slow she was in checking up on her. "I'll lead us this time, but I'm gonna need a light." Glory wordlessly casts a spell causing Seelah's sword to glow. Xenia is silently thankful that Seelah is taking point this time. Almost getting her skull crushed in had her feeling less heroic and daring at the moment. And also cautious that she might have suffered a concussion. "Are you still thinking about what happened to you, uplander?" Wenduag brought Xenia back to the moment with her words. She could hear her sneer as the word uplander came out of her mouth. "Yeah? It's not every day that a giant rock creature almost smashes your skull in." Wenduag scoffed at this. "You uplanders really are soft. Down here life is short and every day is a fight to feed ourselves without becoming food for something else. I'd get killed if I lingered on it as you do." "What should I do then? Forget it entirely?" Xenia retorted, with just the slightest bit of an edge in her voice. "No. Reflect on your shortcoming and let it push you to grow stronger. That is our advantage over you uplanders. My people have been down here for one hundred years and every day was a struggle to survive. It made us strong." Wenduag's advice (if Xenia could call it that) did little to comfort her and painted a cold and brutal picture of existence that seemed little better than a beast's life. But she couldn't disagree with what she said, either. She would hardly describe herself as a warrior or someone who has had to fight to survive. Her life of wealth and pleasure was nothing like that of her grandfather, whose lived a life like that of the mongrels until that fateful day he met Zuri. I would be dead if my life was like his. Or Wenduag's. She silently resolves to get better from this and not require any rescuing from here on out. As the seven of them proceed through the deeper levels of the Shield Maze, the journey is hardly uneventful, though the group doesn't face anything as formidable as the elemental. After clearing several chambers of cultists, they arrive in a chamber with a puzzle. Hanging on the wall there are four crystals, colored red, blue, yellow, and green. "I'm no expert, but I'm willing to bet that these crystals are key to something, something that the cultists probably consider important. Hang on." Xenia takes the time to carefully scan the room, searching for any signs of potential traps and listening for unpleasant monsters that are lurking behind any walls, ready to strike. After finding none, she presses the four crystals in order and is greeted by absolutely nothing. "Had to give it a shot." Then Glory gives it a shot. "Obviously, these colored crystals mean something. I'm guessing that since these are demon cultists, they represent elements of the demons that they valorize. Red for rage, green for corruption, yellow for pestilence, and blue for coldness." The wizard speaks with the utmost confidence in her correctness, which makes it all the more surprising for Xenia when she presses the crystals in that order and once again, absolutely nothing happens. Maj laughs at their stumbling, before walking forward and pressing the yellow, blue, red, crystals before returning to yellow and pressing it one last time. In response to her efforts, some hidden mechanism shifts, and the wall recedes. "How did you know that was the pattern?" "I saw some paintings earlier that were in that sequence. I thought nothing of it now. Funny how some things you overlook turn out to be important." She says, before turning on her heel and entering the now open part of the room. I can't shake the feeling that Majesty is pissed at me. Past the wall, the seven of them found a staircase that just went up as far as she could see. "Wait here. I'll go back to inform the chief and everyone else that we've cleared the Shield Maze and found the way to the surface." Lann's excitement is palpable and as he runs off, it seems like he can't get going fast enough. Some time later, he returns with Anevia and the rest of his tribe. "So this is the way out?" She said, before giving a shrug. "Well, at least there's no climbing involved." Seelah assists Anevia in making her way up the stairs. Once at the top, they find themselves in what looks like some form of ancient waterway, though fortunately for them, there isn't any water. "I feel a breeze coming from this direction. Odds are good that we'll reach the surface if we go that way." The group goes on in the way Camellia indicated, though Anevia has a reminder for them. "Just a heads up, we're going back to a city that was being attacked by demons. I look forward to seeing the sky just as much as anyone here, but we're not exactly home free." As she finished speaking, Xenia noticed what seemed to be equal parts concern and anticipation in the woman's face. "Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Never a dull moment in Kenabres, eh?" Glory joked. Xenia couldn't help but laugh at the kitsune's bit of humor, knowing what lie ahead. Chapter VI: Minagho Following the breeze led the group to an exposed storage room, with a blown out floor serving as a convenient point of entry. It appeared to be well-used, considering that it was stocked with food and even some alcoholic beverages. Seelah looks at the alcohol fondly, before turning away. "Maybe later." Xenia could hear the muffled but unmistakable sound of combat coming from another room, deeper inside. She cautiously moved closer to see what was going on, taking care to not draw attention to herself. Peaking through a door that she had opened just enough to get a look at the action, she could see soldiers in blue and silver fighting against demons that she knew nothing about, other than some of them were grey, squat and pudgy, while others were red, person-sized, and emaciated. Leading the crusaders was a tall half-orc woman in golden armor that was wielding a glowing sword and a battle-worn dwarf male that was wielding a glaive. From what Xenia could tell, the soldiers were handily winning, with the half-orc woman's skill with the sword and leadership abilities giving them an edge over the demons, who clawed and bit and stabbed out with their spears without any plan beyond 'kill everything that isn't them'. She had no idea who any of those people were, but she assumed that the people killing the demons were good, or at least less likely to attempt to kill her and her friends on sight than the demons were. There was a small smile on her face as she snuck back to the rest of the group. "Up ahead, there are some soldiers led by a tall half-orc woman fighting the demons and winning from the looks of it. They might be willing to help us out." At the mention of the half-orc woman, Anevia gets emotional and begins to go in the direction Xenia just came from, limping as fast as her good leg and crutches will allow. The rest of them follow after her, weapons out and make it to the room in time to see the soldiers getting some well-earned rest after dispatching the last demon. The soldiers look up towards the seven of them and for a moment they go for their weapons until the half-orc woman comes rushing towards Anevia. "Nevi!" The half-orc woman embraces Anevia and gives her a passionate, lingering kiss. "I was afraid that I had lost you. Thank Iomedae you're alive." Anevia gives a small laugh before pointing back to the group. "You've got some other people to thank. I wouldn't have made it here without them." At that, the half-orc woman composed herself as much she could and stood in a way that led Xenia to believe she was a member of some sort of martial order.If you're still reading this shit, you need to go and touch grass "Thank you, all of you for bringing my wife back to me. My name is Irabeth Tirabade, Commander of the Eagle Watch of Kenabres." "I'm Xenia Farorë. I will allow my companions to introduce themselves, but could you tell us where we are? We've spent the last day underground after Terendelev saved us from falling to our demise and we only managed to make it back because of the mongrels' generosity." She cringes after saying the word mongrel, then turns to Lann and Wenduag. "I'm sorry, but is there another word that your people go by? One where I don't feel like some stuffy racist for using it?" Wenduag smiles mirthlessly "Look, Lann. The uplander cares about our feelings. Call us neathers, if that eases your conscience." "You're in the Gray Garrison. After the initial assault, the demons concentrated here. It seems that their true target is the Wardstone stored here and that Deskari's strike yesterday was just meant to weaken and distract our defenses." The mention of the Wardstone drew Glory's focus in a way that the rest of the discussion had failed to. "What could they want with the Wardstone?" "The Wardstones are a magical defense placed by the Hand of the Inheritor himself after the Second Crusade. Without their magic keeping the demons in the Worldwound, they would be able to cross into Mendev and the rest of Golarion." "I see. If that's the case, the demons certainly can't be allowed to get their hands on the Wardstone." "No, they can't." With a gesture, Irabeth commands her soldiers to be ready in a few moments. "We're going to continue fighting to re-take the Garrison. You can assist us if you wish or retreat back to the Defender's Heart Tavern. It's been made into a safehouse for refugees." "No way. We didn't fight our way up here just to run and hide while everyone else fights the war." Actually, that's precisely what I was aiming to do. I am hardly a warrior and most certainly not a crusader. But Glory seemed to not be inclined to flee to the shelter of the Defender's Heart and Xenia couldn't bear the thought of letting her down by not being by her side. Maj would also need some protecting and she just knew that the bratty little foxgirl would never let her hear the end of it. So she silently nodded and followed Irabeth and her troops. Though truth be told, there was little for her to do anyway. Irabeth and her troops were more than capable of taking care of the demons and the mortal cultists that fought beside them as they made their way up the Grey Garrison. The most she needed to worry about was the occasional arrow coming her way. Finally, things are going to be easy for us. Though even as the crusaders cut through demons in their advance, the fighting took its toll on them. As they entered the third floor of the Gray Garrison, Irabeth was visibly sweaty and the soldiers grew sluggish in their movements. "The Wardstone is just up ahead." Irabeth said, panting. "Go and take it back from the demons, we'll take it right behind you." "I'll go with them. We Dwarves don't exhaust so easily." Said the Dwarven male, who up until this point had been completely silent, content to be unseen, unheard, and unnoticed by everyone. "Very well then." Glory ran through the door and Xenia was quick to follow. She entered the room to find Glory transfixed, staring at the Wardstone. "It's beyond anything I could have imagined. It truly is divine." "It's so big. How did they fit it in here?" Glory looked at her in annoyance and disappointment. Though before she could say anything, they caught the notice of a demonic woman that had previously been touching and whispering something to the Wardstone. "Ah, it appears that we have guests. And oh, look! Staunton, you've come back to me!" She said in mock friendliness. Staunton's face contorted into an expression that was equally angry and shameful. "Minagho." He said her name as if it were the most obscene word on Golarion. It was easy to see why Staunton had such disdain for Minagho. Whatever attractiveness she may have had was marred by the fact that her face lacked eyes, or even the sockets to hold them, her legs ended in hooves, and that she had a tail like that of a snake. Xenia herself wished that she had never laid eyes on such an unnatural creature. "What are you here for, you witch?" "Now now, is that any way for you to speak to me after all the sweet times we've shared together? I remember when you used to treasure the sight of me and come running into my arms. Do you really not love me any more?" "I am terribly sorry that I must ruin such a romantic reunion between the two of you, but we're here for the Wardstone. Make this easy on yourself and return to the Abyss." Minagho simply laughed at Xenia's response. "Do you really think that you have an advantage over me because there are more of you? You crusaders truly are idiots. I am one of Baphomet's lieutenants and I've been reclaiming this stone for Lord Baphomet. It turns out that the Wardstone isn't so different from dear Staunton after all, it might put up a tough front, but a few sweet words and it'll be in my service. Just as he was." "You witch! I'll tear your rotten tongue out!" Staunton charged towards Minagho, blind fury giving his limbs fresh strength as he swung at her. Though it availed him little, as Minagho evaded his blows with an ease that seemed to amuse her. Xenia attempted to take advantage of Staunton's attacks, ganging up on Minagho and striking from her blind spot while she dodged one of his strikes, sending her blade directly toward the demon's heart. Though even as her blade made contact with Minagho and pierced her flesh, her blade met resistance. Even though she wore no armor and her skin scarcely looked different than that of a human's, Xenia's rapier could scarcely push through, like she was trying to stab tightly packed sand. What should have been a killing blow turned into little more than a flesh wound. From behind her, Glory recited the incantation for a spell, though her magic bounced off her the way a child's pebble bounces off of a suit of mail. A deep fear suddenly overtook Xenia's heart, as if she had been casually taking a swim only to end up in the middle of the sea. All the while Minagho laughed and laughed at their ineffectual onslaught. "Oh, this is proving to be the quite the pathetic little show! But as fun as it is, I have work that needs to be done. So why don't I give you a taste of what the rest of your crusade will be facing?" With one hand, Minagho grabs on to Xenia's rapier and snaps it like a twig, before punching her in the stomach with more force than the fetchling expected. All of the air was knocked out of her and she crumpled to the ground in pain, unaware of whatever Minagho was doing, until some wave of black magic rolled over the room. She lay there writhing in agony. Her entire body felt like the worst sort of poison was running through it, while her head was filled by a cacophony of agonizing, maddened screams that she couldn't tell if they were coming from whatever Minagho did, her comrades, or herself. The only thought on Xenia's mind was on whether she would die from her heart giving out from all this pain or her head exploding. And then for the second time that day, her entire world went dark. Chapter VII: So Much Work To Be Done Xenia found herself in the garden of her family's manor back in Absalom. At the moment she didn't know if she was alive or dead, but the omnipresent haze was enough for her to know that she wasn't conscious. She walked deeper into the garden, wary for any beings that might be here to take her off to an afterlife that she feared might not be pleasant. Though instead, she only found her grandfather, sitting on a bench, looking as if he had been waiting for her. He was as old as she remembered him being, but he was strangely healthier than he was at the end of his life, unburdened by the afflictions that kept him confined to his bed. "<<Grandfather. So I take it that I have died?>>" The old man kindly chuckled and stood up to greet her. "<<No my dear, you are alive, thankfully. But come, give me a hug. It has been too long.>>" "<<Yes, it has.>>" Xenia embraces her grandfather and feels an affection that she hasn't felt since...she couldn't quite remember when, but it had been some time. When the embrace breaks, her grandfather gestures for her to join him in walking through the garden as they used to. "<<You have done much since I passed, Xenia.>>" "<<I have. I managed to find Zuri, sort of.>>" He nods. "<<I have seen, granddaughter. It eases my conscience to see that she still lives. When I had heard of what happened at her manor all those years ago, I knew that it could only have been caused by that damned book.>>" His tone suddenly turns bitter when talking about the book, a far cry from the jovial tone he had when telling her about it when she was a girl all those years ago. "<<You sound so bitter about it, grandfather.>>" He looks at Xenia, softer now, but with regret clear in his eyes. "<<You remember when I told you how the book was an heirloom that had no value, correct?>>" "<<You did, but Glory, err Zuri, told me that it was actually a book owned by a powerful wizard from the Shadow Plane.>>" "<<It was. And for generations, it was our family's responsibility to keep that tome safe. It only became worthless to us after the years had passed and we forgot why we had guarded it.>>" "<<When I sold the tome to your Zuri Azeria, I had abandoned our ancient duty out of desperation. I gave a tome that our family had been guarding for generations to a stranger I knew nothing of for coin, heedless of their intent or the consequences.>>" "<<But it created a better life for your family. For us.>>" "<<Did I? My son became a cold man who treats you more like a tool than a daughter. And you have entered into a dangerous world because of your search for Zuri.>>" He looks out sadly into the distance. "<<I wonder if it would not have been better if I pursued a more humble lot in life. But it will not serve either of us to think of such things.>>" He takes both of Xenia's hands and looks her in the eyes. "<<Promise me that you will be better than us, Xenia. Promise me that you will live so that you won't have any regrets when you're my age.>>" "<<I promise, grandfather. I love you.>>" "<<And I you, my little orchid.>>" Xenia hugged her grandfather for the final time, though as his hands wrapped around her, she felt a pain that sent her out of the garden and into the waking world, where she was now aware that she was lying on a bed somewhere. As she rose up on the bed, she once again felt a pain in her ribs. "Mornin'. The others were wondering when you'd wake up." Xenia turned to see Anevia, sitting on a nearby stool, wearing a proper splint. "Morning. How long have you been watching me sleep?" "Since our healers determined that you would live and focused on other survivors. You're pretty tough, taking a punch from Minagho and not having liquid insides." "I don't particularly feel lucky." Anevia chuckles. "You don't even have any broken ribs. Bruised yes, but not broken. Though speaking of, when you're up an at it, there's a blacksmith outside that's got a new sword for you. You need one anyway to fight the demons." "Fight the demons? I didn't realize that I had been conscripted." Anevia shrugs. "We're all conscripts now. Kenabres is crawling with demons and even the nearest reinforcements won't come until we're dead. The only way any of us are getting out of here is to save ourselves." "F**k." "Yeah, that word's been coming out a few times over the last day." She passes over a plate with two slices of bacon, a biscuit, and an apple. "Here, you've been through a lot. At least have some breakfast. Not much, but it's a feast compared to rations." "So a new sword and a real breakfast. I feel like a queen." As sarcastic as Xenia had attempted to sound, she ate slowly and savored the taste of a meal that she had taken for granted until a few days ago. After finishing her meal, Xenia steels herself and sets out with Anevia's help. Upon entering the rest of the tavern, she's greeted by a scene of pure desperation as she sees crusaders at the bar, trying to bury the horrors of the last two days in drinks and jokes, mentally and physically exhausted clerics taking in precious moments of rest, and traumatized citizens huddled around the loved ones and possessions that they managed to save, trying to stay strong and provide comfort for children, siblings, lovers, and parents. "After the attack settled down, Beth established a camp of sorts here at Defender's Heart, for any crusaders and citizens that managed to survive. Every day we get more people pouring in, trying to help however they can against the demons or to be as safe as anyone can in Kenabres." They continue throughout the tavern, working as best they can to get through the crowds and to the exit, where Anevia leads her to the building the crusaders have been using as a forge. One of the blacksmiths hands Xenia a rapier with the words "May Torag strengthen this blade and Iomedae it's wielder." written in Common and Celestial. "Cold Iron. It should pierce the demons' hides better than steel." Continuing out through the rest of the outdoors reveals that the crusaders have prepared makeshift fortifications in the block around the tavern, with constant sentries. Also in the area, she finds camps containing more refugees still and medics desperately working on injured civilians and crusaders, with screams, cries, moans, and grunts coming from the unfortunates who couldn't get anything for their pains. Xenia just stands there, rapier in hand and taking in all the desperation and misery from the people in front of her. "What can I do to help?" She says after a pause, in a tone that's stony enough to startle Anevia. "Our larger objective is to launch a second strike at the Grey Garrison, but it'll need to be larger this time if we have any hope of succeeding and a lot that needs to be done before we can even think of attacking. Follow me." Anevia leads her back inside and shows her a map of the city. "I've been getting word over the past day about the state of the city. There's rumors of cultists hiding out here and here." She points towards locations titled 'Topaz Solutions' and 'Tower of Estrod' "If there are, they've gotta be flushed out. Can't have them providing support to the Grey Garrison if we launch an attack, or worse yet, attacking here while we're away." "Second, we need more soldiers. We've only got a few dozen soldiers here that are in condition to fight. That's not nearly enough to re-take the Garrison and protect the Defender's Heart. Now I've heard rumors that the Knights of the Flaming Lance still have a presence in the city. I've also heard of there being some Desnan clerics somewhere out there and there's also...Lord Hulrun." Anevia sighs deeply at mentioning him. "Hulrun's a zealot, but he's extraordinarily good at wiping out demons and so are his inquisitors. Having him on our team can only help." The mission report is interrupted when Maj bumps into Xenia, almost spilling over a tray, but the foxgirl proves light on her feet and saves it. "Dancer. You're finally awake." "Likewise." Xenia offers her a smile, the first time she's smiled that day. "I am glad to see that you're all right." "Uh-huh." She says, turning away and giving her a face full of tail. Xenia sighs. "Is she pissed at me or something?" "Yup. Don't need to be in Eagle Watch to see that. Any ideas on what you did?" She thinks back. Maj had always been bratty since the two met, but there was a playfulness in it. That she pushed because she knew that Xenia couldn't help but push back and she enjoyed the pushing. But something changed and Maj became less playful and much more bitter. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she withdrew right around the time that she went on a date with her and Glory... "Oh, f**k." "What?" "I may have taken her out on a double date with Glory and missed her trying to express her feelings for me because I was distracted by Glory." "Oh yeah, f**k is right." "Any suggestions for fixing it?" "Best idea? Apologize. Something from the bottom of your heart. No guarantees that it'll work, but it's the right thing to do. Getting her dinner can't hurt either." "You say that like I can just take her out to a restaurant." "No, but I can tell you that in the basement there's a tiefling named Woljif Jefto that's being held. He's no great danger, more of a pain in the ass to be honest. He's part of a local gang that calls themselves thieflings, I'm sure you can guess what they do. Underworld types have a way of "acquiring" goods and getting them out to the people, I've no doubt that he could help you get everything you need for a good apology dinner." "Thank you. That sounds like it should help a lot." "Well, I'm not doing this just for you. You see everyone here. There's a lot of mouths to be fed and a lot of people that need bandages and medicine. At the current rate, we've got a few days before we're going to have to start making tough decisions and that's not factoring any other survivors that will be heading our way. We're going to need the thieflings and their resources in order to pull through this." "Got it. So much to do. Get rid of cultists, find allies, ally with thieves for resources, and apologize to Majesty. No problem at all!" It was all she could do to not burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of that statement. The first thing Xenia wanted to do was to invite Maj to dinner and plant the seed of having an important talk with her. Then the rest would fall into place. It was easy enough to find Maj, Glory told her that she withdrew off to be by herself, though she was confused why Xenia wanted to find her when she was in one of her moods. And true enough, Maj was working on something when she found her. "Good Morning, Majesty. I'm going to head out into the city, because there is a lot of work to be done, but when I return, I would like to have dinner with you and talk about something. Just you." For a good moment, the only response she received was Maj looking at her with those intense eyes that gave away so very little of what was going on in her mind. She was getting concerned until Maj finally said "Sure. See you then." and went back to what she was doing. "All right. I look forward to it." Though despite her best effort to sound chipper and upbeat, there was a hint of trepidation, as she was still trying to figure out what to say to Maj. Though as she headed back to the tavern to go meet this Woljif and set out on the tasks that Anevia had told her about, she knew that she would have plenty of time to think something up. Chapter VIII: Maj's Morning There were few moments that Maj had enjoyed in her forced expeditions, but just about all of them came when Xenia and her other half were sleeping. Not sleeping with each other in a shared tent, but out in a true sleep, with no sensations coming from her other half. If nothing else, it gave her some peace and blessed silence. Minagho had unwittingly given her some of this during her "fight" with the crusaders at the Wardstone. Her magical attack had hit Xenia, Glory, and all the others, but she just managed to avoid it. Just this once, it actually benefitted Maj to be Glory's assistant, who was expected to stay back and not make a burden of themselves while the heroes did their heroism. And she was no fool. If the rest of her companions couldn't beat Minagho together, she certainly wasn't going to do so alone. So she fell, pretending to succumb to the same agonies that they did, a task made somewhat easier by the fact that the very real pain and distress that Glory experienced at that moment was also something she was aware of, though muted. She didn't stir at all when she had managed to miraculously fool Minagho and she continued to maintain her act all along when the crusaders found her little team and took them back while making their retreat. She ended up being tossed in a tent with Glory, who was still out of it. Xenia ended up being taken inside the tavern. The clerics were most concerned for her survival as she took a direct hit from Minagho and was closest to the effect of whatever it was that she sent at them. It was impossible for her to get close to her in her conventional form, but in her more compact fox form, it was almost effortless for her to find a little crevice where no one would see her and eavesdrop from there. And it was from her little spot that she heard that Xenia was expected to survive, at which point she promptly left. Xenia's face was just as disgustingly symmetrical asleep as it was awake and she couldn't bear to look at it. Maj returned to her tent, hoping to enjoy what peace she had left. Unfortunately, there wasn't much left to be had. Shortly after she returned, Glory began to stir and make little grumbling noises that could only mean that she was slowly but surely regaining consciousness. "Where am I? Why am I in a tent?" There was more annoyance in Glory's voice than pain or concern. "You're in a refugee camp outside the Defender's Heart Tavern." "And you couldn't attempt to get better accommodations than a tent?" "I apologize. The crusaders didn't have a manager I could speak to." "Watch your tone with me." It was almost impressive, the way Glory could ruin a few peaceful hours in mere seconds, simply by being selfish and entitled like she always was. "I'm sorry." She wasn't particularly sorry, but this really wasn't the time for Maj to be getting on Glory's bad side. "And I forgive you. Now, have you been able to find out anything about our situation while you were awake?" "It's hard, since the crusaders don't let me in on meetings and these refugees are mostly hysterical. But generally, the city's on fire, demons are everywhere, and this is the safest place to be in the city. Oh, and Xenia's alive." "Heh. Well, she's certainly the best of a bad situation. But that's just perfect for you, Majesty. You get to keep on pretending that you aren't interested in her." Maj let out a futile scoff and turned away from Glory in response to her taunt. "They're serving food in the tavern. You should get something to eat." With that, she left, going towards some part of the refugee camp where Glory was not. She pulled out a parchment and one of her pencils and began drawing something. Anything that could take her mind off things. But she had no such luck. When she put her pencil to paper, it was that damnable dancer that took shape, in a sleep that was all too peaceful. "Uggh!" Maj bunched the paper up in frustration. Perhaps it would be better if Minagho had knocked her unconscious after all. She pulls out another parchment and sets her mind on what to draw. Clearly putting pencil to paper and allowing something to be birthed naturally would yield unpleasant results. What else to draw? A burning city wasn't exactly the material Maj enjoyed capturing on paper. The flora and fauna of the underground were interesting and she would like to, but without color, she wouldn't quite do them justice. One of her new companions? Perfect. Lann. I'll draw Lann. It should be an interesting challenge to draw someone that's both flesh and scale, getting those textures to mix just right. It should a bust. Action poses can wait for now. It was all coming together in her mind now, the picture of Lann, smirk on his face like he just told some self-deprecating joke or poked fun at something or someone that could stand to be poked at. She began with the simplest part, drawing the general shape of a humanoid body, before drawing a vertical line straight down the middle. Nice and easy. Whoever made Lann was thinking of me. As always, it was slow work once she got into it, but Maj never really minded that. Getting the details right on her art required the devotion of her time and focus, which always helped take her mind off of things she didn't want to think about (except when the subject of her art happened to be the very thing she didn't want to think about, something that had been happening with alarming frequency). Even better was the fact that she went undisturbed while doing so. She expected that none of the crusaders or civilians would pay her mind, given that she was the least of their concerns, but even Glory and Xenia weren't here to bother her. Though once again, fate was tempted, and that very fetchling appeared to interrupt her in the middle of her work. "Good Morning, Majesty. I'm going to head out into the city, because there is a lot of work to be done, but when I return, I would like to have dinner with you and talk about something. Just you." She could scarcely believe her ears. There had to be some trick to it and Maj stared at her, trying to get a read. Something has to be up here. Glory's set her up to this. She just wants to play with me some more because she enjoyed it the first time. Or maybe she just wants to have a taste of both at once before everything ends. Well she won't be having fun at my expense. Not again. Though before Maj could reject this offer like so much trash, she caught something in Xenia. Just a little thing, but to her it was as if she had found the gap in ones armor that left the soft spots exposed or the crack in a wall that would bring the entire thing down. There was just the slightest bit of nervousness in her eyes. Not much, but enough for her to know that she actually cared or at least enough to make her put her wounded little heart at risk one more time. "Sure. See you then." Maj buried her face in her art again. She had looked at Xenia enough and could bear it no longer. "All right. I look forward to it." Though even after Xenia departed, Maj found herself staring uselessly at the drawing of Lann, partially completed. Her focus was broken and all throughout her mind that terrible fetchling danced, trampling over any other thoughts she had in her mind. Fine. She huffed and attempted to think of precisely what point she ended up in this horrible situation. It wasn't when she had saved Xenia's life, she knew that even if Xenia died, she'd continue to think of her and pine over what could have been. And she was already being tormented by the thought of her when Glory left for Kenabres, so nothing would have changed had she tried to stay home. That fateful day, when she had attempted to reach out while having coffee? Potentially, but that was only the moment she had attempted to act on her desires, the seed had already been planted. As much as she looked back, as much as she went through every moment of the last several months, Maj couldn't find the precise moment where Xenia had become something that she wanted for herself. Which was frustrating, because it made her think that perhaps this wasn't something she could stop and that perhaps Glory's bullshit about fate and certain people being destined for certain things was right after all, though in a way she couldn't have imagined. Another thing that Glory had said was now running through her mind. Something that Glory had told her many, many years ago when the excesses of her other half had become something she would no longer tolerate and she had decided to leave rather than tolerate her for another day. Somewhere out in this city, there's a man named Ravus Farorë. Years ago, I had bought a book that he considered a cheap family heirloom, not knowing what it really was. I gave him enough money to make him rich, but if he's smart, he'll realize that the secrets in that book are worth more than the gold I gave him and come looking for me to take it back by force. And don't you think that if they caught you they wouldn't do whatever it took to get to me. That's why you have to stay with me. That man is trouble. That family is trouble. But with me, you're safe from them. It was one of Glory's tricks of course, a clever ploy to make sure that she never got out from under her thumb and also a half-truth. She never left Glory's side for a day, but the Farorës found her regardless. Even so, Maj let out a bitter little laugh, because Glory was right about one thing. That family was trouble for her.

♪♪♪And that is all, that love's about, And we'll recall, when time runs out That it only, took a moment To feel loved, a whole life long♪♪♪   ~22 years ago~ Hanael couldn't recall how long she had been searching the Wastes. She didn't need sleep, her timeless nature kept her from get exhausted the way a normal human would. It was one of the multiple abilities she had that made her perfect for the job. Her incredible speed and ability to corrode a being into non-existence was also useful for the task that the Watchers had given her, but what made her specifically suited out of all the beings on the planet for this very task was her ability to sense Distorter souls. Without any effort, Hanael could recognize any Distorter that came within one mile of her, regardless of face they wore, name they called themselves by, or even what personality they had as they constantly reincarnated. It was her greatest gift and something that she had used over the millennia to help them along to their destinies. It was also her greatest curse. She remembered the lives of her friends, her lovers, the only people in all of history that were truly like her. She remembered how every Distorter she found was taken from her sooner or later, a pain that her thousands of years of life had not dulled in the least. And now she was searching the Earth for Distorters once again, at a time when finding a living human was like finding a needle in a haystack, and Distorters were even rarer than that in the best of times. It was in the middle of this searching the wastes that Hanael had finally sensed a Distorter soul. She could sense their distress, how they were alone and scared. She rushed towards them with all the speed she could muster and what she found broke her heart. A baby in a cradle, with no parents or guardians to be seen. She recognized the soul it belonged to, one of the strongest Distorters and one of her closest friends. He's no more than a few weeks old. Right around the time everything went to hell. Tears began welling up in Hanael's eyes, knowing that one of her kindred had been lost again. Her one and only comfort is that he had sacrificed himself so that some of humanity might survive and keep fighting. Wiping away the tears, Hanael picks up the child and cradles him in her arms. "I wasn't able to save you then, but I've got you now. I'll watch over you, I promise." ~~20 years ago~~ "Nails!" The boy said, pointing his little finger at Hanael and giggling. Somehow, Hanael's name was just too much for little Bran to master. Or perhaps he was saying her name wrong on purpose, as some little game. Either way, she was determined to get him to say her name. "No Bran, my name is Hanael." She corrected gently. "Nails!" Bran repeated, a silly smile on his face. "Hah-Nah-El." She said, enunciating each syllable slowly and moving her mouth in an exaggerated motion that only seemed to make the boy laugh more. "Nails!" Hanael threw her hands up and laughed, utterly defeated by a child not even a thousandth her age. Bran was too stubborn and too adorable to fight with for an extended period of time. "Okay okay, haha. You win. Nails it is. But on one condition!" She says, holding a single finger up. "You've gotta let me call you Brannie, okay?" Hanael says, now bargaining with a child. "Okay!" She holds out her pinky. "Pinky swear?" Bran holds out his pinky, which is barely half the size of Hanael's, and links it with hers. They both laugh, as Hanael then picks Bran up and deposits him on her shoulders. "Nails and Brannie, best friends forever!" She savors this moment, the two of them together, Bran being innocent, too young to have a care in the world. She knows all too well that it won't last, so she wants the child to have as much happiness as he can before the reality of his situation is thrust upon him. ~19 years ago~ "Nails, when are my mommy and daddy coming to take me home?" Hanael had been dreading this day ever since she found Bran in the Wastes. Sooner or later she'd have to explain to him that the Watcher life was his life, that all he'd know was the asceticism and isolation as the Watchers trained him to be a warrior. She'd have to tell him that his family was missing, probably dead, and that he'd never be able to start a family off his own, since things like romance and having children were part of what he'd have to swear away as a Watcher. She'd have to tell him that he wouldn't have anything resembling a normal life, that he'd be cut off from the rest of the world, but that he'd still have to fight and die if it came to it. In a nutshell, Hanael was going to have to give Bran news that would shatter his heart, but she couldn't pass this task off to someone else. She was the one that rescued him and brought him here, it was her responsibility to handle this. Just like it was her responsibility to try and somehow put his heart back together after tearing it apart. "Brannie, I'm sorry, but this is your home. I couldn't find your mommy and daddy." "Where are they? Are they lost?" She took a breath, preparing herself to deliver the hardest bit of news to Bran. "Brannie, the world outside here, where I found you, it's not like it is here. Here, there's magic and strong people that will keep you safe. But outside it's dangerous. There's scary monsters running around that hurt people and they would have hurt you if they found you. If your mommy and daddy were out there, then I'm afraid the monsters got them. I'm sorry Brannie." "Nails...I don't wanna be here any more. I wanna go home!" Bran's voice begins breaking and his little eyes begin to fill with tears. Hanael had known that this was going to happen from the moment she found Bran in the Wastes, but it still tears her apart to see him like this. She opens her arms, beckoning Bran to come in for a hug, the only thing she can do to help him. He runs to her, seeking the comfort of his closest companion, but his hands close in on empty air, as the temporal distortion that normally serves to protect Hanael from her enemies instead cruelly rips her away from Bran as he needs her most. With nothing to grab, Bran loses balance and trips, falling to the floor. He begins to cry as the pain, confusion, and feelings of utter loneliness overtake him. Unable to bear the sight of him like suffering alone, Hanael kneels down and wraps her arms around Bran, holding him as he cries and letting him know that he isn't alone in his sadness. She doesn't know how long he cries, her only focus being on Bran and the distress that she can sense coming from him at a spiritual level, but she holds him until the crying stops. "There's something I want to show to you Brannie. A surprise." She says in a soft voice, offering up a small smile for him. She cleans off his face and leads him to the refectory, holding his small hand in hers. Hanael leads him to the refrigerator she had plugged into the wall, one of the few possessions she owned, and only because of its use in preserving foodstuffs. Although the more stringent Distorters that led the Watchers would hardly approve of the contents that motivated Hanael to bring the refrigerator here in the first place. She opens the door and pulls out a pair of small tubs labeled Ben & Jerry's. Hanael sits them down on a table and opens up the one in front of Bran, placing a spoon inside it. "This is called ice cream, Brannie. It's a special treat from the old world. It wasn't easy for me to do, but I got some, just for us." Bran is mystified by this mysterious treat. He has never seen anything like this before in his short life, but Hanael says it's good, so he takes a spoonful and puts it into his mouth. It's easily the sweetest thing Bran's ever tasted and Hanael can tell. "Now don't eat it too quickly, or else it'll freeze your brain and give you terrible headaches." She puts her hands on the sides of her head and makes a silly expression after saying this. Bran offers up a small giggle in response to her antics. As they enjoy this small moment together, Hanael knows that she cannot go back into the world. Not now while the hurt that was dealt to Bran is still so fresh and he needs a friend. Any Distorter out there has survived for over three years now and can take care of themselves for another week or two. The person who needs me the most is right here. She reaches across the table and takes Bran's hand. "You remember that I told you that we're friends forever, right?" "Yeah." "Well that's still the same no matter where we are, Brannie. You're still my friend if you're right next to me as you are if you were on the other side of the world. Now I'd miss you if that happened, but I wouldn't be alone. Do you know why I wouldn't feel alone?" "Why?" He looks at Hanael, as if she had the most important secret in the world. And maybe she does. "Because you're always in here." She says, pointing over her heart in her chest. "I know that while you're here, whatever you're doing, whatever time it is, you're still my friend and you're thinking of me. And I'm doing the same for you, so you aren't alone either! Isn't that great!" "Yeah!" Bran's eyes lit up and a smile beamed across his face. In his soul, Hanael could sense that a part of him was still in pain, but that there was also hope and a lightness in him after what she had done. ~12 years ago~ For the last few days, Bran had been feeling excited. It was almost his birthday, or at least the day that had been used as one. Since his parents were presumed dead and there was no official record of Bran's birth, the day that Hanael had found him out in the middle of nowhere was used as one instead. And speaking of Hanael, she was the reason Bran was so excited. This was one of the two times during the year where he knew she'd visit, the other time being Christmas. For him, her visits were the closest thing he got to a holiday. They were simple celebrations, with Hanael bringing no more than some tubs of ice cream and her company, but that was all he needed, the affection of a dear friend, something that he didn't get during his training, as he had been kept separate from the other children around his age ever since his Distortion was discovered. Hanael was hiding near the door to the refectory. She could sense Bran on the other side coming closer, feeling how excited he was as his birthday approached and he got closer to meeting her again. A large, mischievous smile formed on her face as she saw him walk through the door and over to the cupboards, completely unaware of her presence. She quickly moved over to him before he could turn around and covered his eyes with her hand. "Surprise Brannie." She said, giggling. "Aww, again!?" Bran and Hanael had developed a little game over the years, where they would try and catch the other by surprise. Unsurprisingly, Hanael had won every single time. "One day it'll be me catching you, Nails." She lets out a little laugh at that. "'One day it'll be me catching you, Nails', he says for the nth time." She says, playfully poking fun at him, before turning him around and giving him a hug. "Ugh, you need to stop growing, soon you'll be taller than me!" At the moment, Bran came up to her shoulders. In a year or two, he would be as tall as she is, if not taller. "No way! I don't wanna be short for the rest of my life!" "Fine, I'll allow it. But you've gotta carry me around whenever I ask, only fair since I did the same for you when you were little." "What?!" "Yup, you gotta do it! Shouldn't be that hard, you've gotta be building muscles from all that training you do, right?" "Yeah!" He pulls down a sleeve and flexes, revealing some muscle. "Nice! Though with those muscles, you'll be strong enough to carry me around in no time. Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have brought ice cream. It might ruin what you've got going."  She holds a finger up to her chin like she's actually thinking about it before making a dismissive gesture. "Nah, just kidding." Hanael walked over to the mini-freezer and pulled out a pair of small ice cream tubs. Bran accepted his and ate, though with a slight nervousness that Hanael could pick up even without her ability to sense the emotions of her fellow Distorters. It was clear to her that something was on his mind, that he was having a hard time spitting out. "There something on your mind, Brannie? You're not digging in the way you usually do and you look like something's bothering you." She focused on the boy and mentally prepared herself for the possibility of having to give him The Talk. "Well um, I was just wondering...the next time you leave here, can I come with you? I know you said that it's dangerous out there Nails but...it's lonely here when you're not around." Bran's voice is small and sad as he speaks, betraying for a moment that despite all the training the Watchers have been putting him through over the years, he's still a lonely boy.    That's all folks. I'm not finishing this, it's too damn sad  

Hilde Varnsdottir                           Map Token  Character Generation Ability Scores: 20 point buy Strength: 14 (+2 Racial) = 16 Dexterity: 14 Constitution: 14  Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 12 Charisma: 13 Race: Human Gender: Female Age: 19 Height: 6'0  Weight: 180 Class: Bloodrager Favored Class: Bloodrager  Favored Class Bonus: +1 HP Traits: Warded by Witchery, Reactionary Skill Ranks:  4 + Int Mod + Skilled = 5 Skills Trained: Climb [1 Rank], Intimidate [1 Rank], Perception [1 Rank], Spellcraft [1 Rank], Survival [1 Rank] Background Skill Ranks: 2 Skills Trained: Linguistics [1 Rank], Knowledge (History) Feats: Iron Will, Extra Rage Bonus Languages: Skald Hit Points: 13/13   Starting Wealth: 130gp  Equipment Starting Items Cost Source Falchion 75gp Ultimate Equipment pg. 18, PRPG Core Rulebook pg. 143   Scale Mail 50gp Ultimate Equipment pg. 9, PRPG Core Rulebook pg. 151   Funds Remaining: 5gp Character Sheet https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2764100 Class Features Bloodline: Draconic (Bronze Dragon) Bloodline Powers: Claws, 1d6 Damage Fast Movement Bloodrage 12 rounds/day BAB +1 Fort: +4 Ref: +2 Will: +3 Backstory Hilde was born as the result of a tryst between Varn Morgenson, an Ulfen Guard, and a barmaid at the Staggering Skald named Eleni Adamos. While there was no rule stating that Varn had to be chaste or that he couldn't raise a family, he was expected to place his loyalty to Prince Stavian first and foremost, as he was among the prince's most elite protectors. Though, fortunately for Varn, Eleni agreed to keep it a secret, that no one would know who the child's father was. The secret would save Varn from being cast out of the Ulfen Guard in disgrace, though the same could not be said of Eleni or the child. Knowing what they would have to go through, Eleni made Varn swear that when he eventually left the Ulfen Guard, he would come to raise their child, using whatever riches he had won to make sure that they wanted for nothing. Varn promised to do right by them, but that would do precious little for Hilde or Eleni during his time in the Ulfen Guard. Eleni continued to work as a barmaid, while also dealing with the stigma of raising a child without a father. Hilde didn't fare any better, being bullied because she didn't know who her father was, and she wasn't helped in the least by her mother only telling her that he had the same color hair as her. After years of being mistreated and stonewalled when it came to learning about her father, Hilde's curiosity led her to a witch that lived alone in the forest outside of the city she lived in. The witch told Hilde that she could learn who her father was, but she would need some of her blood, as that was what held the proof of her lineage. She freely gave it to the witch, taking a knife and slicing it across her palm. As the blood pooled in her bowl, the witch began her ritual, and the both of them saw visions of a strong Ulfen warrior, his white hair tied in a single long braid. But the vision continued, the witch's magic mixing with her blood and showing more than Hilde even knew to ask for, it showed an unnatural snowstorm that spread out in every direction, going farther than either of them could see and containing some dark magic that Hilde couldn't name.  The witch was horrified, wondering how the blood of a mere child could result in all of these visions. Hilde was cast out of the witch's hut and told to never return. She returned to her home and immediately confronted her mother with the knowledge she had gained from the witch's ritual. Eleni was furious about Hilde going behind her back to some strange witch, but couldn't keep her daughter's heritage a secret any longer. She confessed to Hilde that her father was a member of the Ulfen Guard, but couldn't openly claim Hilde, lest he be cast out in disgrace. She told her about the promise and how her father would return with riches once his time in the Ulfen Guard was finished. But she had no explanation for the snowstorm in the vision, other than the fact that Varn's homeland was a cold place. This explanation didn't satisfy Hilde at all and she continued to wonder why she was shown the vision of snow from the north. When Hilde was 10, Varn retired from the Ulfen Guard and as he promised, he came back to provide for Eleni and Hilde, making sure that neither of them would want for anything. But for all of the riches that Varn brought back from him, it didn't change the fact that he was as good as a stranger to his daughter or that she felt an inexplicable pull towards what she saw in her dreams. Varn perceived that this was a natural pull towards her homeland and began training her, teaching her how to fight. Partially it was because he knew no other way to connect with Hilde, but also because molding her into a strong warrior would help her become more like those living in her homeland.  Years passed and Hilde knew who her father was and had become strong in her own right, but the pull towards the north, towards that unnatural storm was still as strong as it ever was. She wondered if she would go to her grave feeling this pull towards a distant land, until she had heard that the village of Heldren in the south was experiencing an unseasonal snow. And without being told, she knew. She knew that this was connected to the vision she saw all those years ago, to the storm in the north that the witch's magic showed her. Hilde set out towards Heldren, to find the storm and confront whatever dark magic lay in it.     Appearance Hilde takes after her father in terms of appearance, with long white hair, pale skin, and a tall frame, standing at an even 6'0". The only thing she inherited from her mother were brown eyes and a small, pointed nose. She typically wears a confident expression on her face, ready to meet challengers, as whatever is waiting for her after years of feeling a mysterious pull after her vision. She has a muscular frame after years of training with her father and wears a set of scale mail with a falchion hanging at her side.    Personality A childhood of being bullied for not knowing who her father was instilled a fiery nature into Hilde, and now as a grown woman she won't take any ill-treatment lying down. However, she also has not tempered her focus on getting what she wants, as she deep down she is still the same girl that sought out a witch to figure out who her father is.  

Xenia approaches Glory, feeling just a bit of trepidation as she comes to her with a personal request. "I have a favor to ask you. It's odd and perhaps a bit silly, but you haven't been freaked out by me so far, so I'm hoping that you'll accommodate me once again. It's about my father. He's the head of our house and I can't simply disappear on this job without telling him, especially since he probably heard of my arrest last night. And I just know how he will react when I tell him that I was hunting for Zuri Azeria when I was arrested." She sighs and looks quite exasperated. "He never shared my curiosity for our family's mysterious benefactor. As I was growing up,he chastised me for chasing what he called a ghost. But if I come home with "Zuri Azeria", then I can prove I wasn't pursuing a ghost. If it is not too much trouble, could you disguise yourself as Zuri one last time and come home with me so that I can prove I'm not insane and I didn't waste my youth pursuing you?" Glory listened to the favor with a smile on her lips, and Majesty idly hovering nearby. "Parents, right?" she interjected with a chuckle at the signs of exasperation Xenia let appear. Eventually, she nodded and shrugged. "I don't mind. It is still me, after all." It took barely a thought to don again Zuri's image, complete with the billowing of those dark red clouds that were apparently the signature of her magic. "Isn't it stifling, to be that beholden to your father that you need to justify your own life to him?" she asked, her new, red eyes fixated upon Xenia's. It still wasn't entirely clear to Xenia what Glory meant when she said that Zuri was still her, but that was one of the reasons she was taking her and Majesty out for coffee later. She lets out a heavy sigh when Glory asks if she feels stifled by her father. "More than you know. My father cares little for anything that won't further his ambitions for the family, my dreams and ambitions included. He is a rather cold man, to be honest." Xenia recalled how her father was the one that gave her the full details of who precisely helped Ravus get to this plane and how he promised his family's loyalty to him in return, which wasn't something Glory ever needed to know. "But I didn't ask you to accompany me so that I could have you be my therapist. Come, it's not too far from here, we can walk and talk." She bids farewell to the men and leads the two women out. "I do not expect this to take long, since my father inherited none of Ravus' social skills. He'll ask me about the arrest, I'll tell him about what happened and tell him how his crazy daughter finally found her nonexistent target, and I was thinking you'll talk a bit about meeting my grandfather and my finding you after all these years and how you just can't seem to escape us Farorës. Does that sound good to you?" Xenia eyes both women, although she focuses more on Glory, since she's the one whose assistance Xenia is seeking. Zuri didn't push the topic further, but she thought that Xenia might not realize her own kind of coldness—it was obvious around Yugure and Trig, and the difference between how she treated them and how she treated her and Majesty was glaring. If her father was worse, then Zuri somewhat regretted agreeing to this, and truly counted on it being as fast as Xenia claimed. "That sounds alright, although I don't recall too much about your grandfather. I've known you longer than him, already." Majesty poked Zuri in the side gently. "Should I change?" To which her other half seemed to pause, considering her answer and Xenia. Xenia has her mouth half-open and is ready to respond to Zuri, saying that she hasn't known her that long, until she recalls that if Ravus knew Zuri in any meaningful way, she wouldn't have spent her entire life pursuing her. "Right. Yes. Well he was kind and warm. He was actually quite desperate, since he came to this plane looking to provide his son with a better life than the one he had. I imagine that's why he was willing to sell his book to you without asking so much as a name." She stops and regards Majesty when she asks if she should change. "Change? No, you look nice in what you're wearing right now. And it's a bit late to go change clothes now that we're almost at the manor." "I don't care that you think I look nice, ugh..." Majesty mumbled, pink on her cheeks. Zuri chuckled. "Maj can turn into... a more innocuous form, if you'd rather," she said, gently stroking her twin's hair, as if to console her from Xenia's impudence in complimenting her looks. "<<It won't make her shut up, however.>>" She added this sentence in Shadowtongue with a joyful smirk— And Majesty jabbed her elbow in her ribs for that. "Don't do that!" Zuri's smirk and her clever comment are enough to get a laugh out of the Fetchling. And she can't help but notice Majesty blushing indignantly after Xenia complimented her appearance. It looks like Majesty and I have something in common. "All right, all right. We won't use Shadowtongue when talking about you." She gives Majesty a friendly smile, trying to calm the flustered foxgirl. Xenia thinks for a moment about Majesty's offer, concluding that if the foxgirl is able to speak in both forms, it doesn't particularly matter which form she's in. "I will say to choose whichever form you feel the most comfortable in." Majesty looked from Xenia to Glory, and she let out the biggest, sharpest frustrated sigh. "Nevermind," she said, stepping against her half and locking her arm with hers, "I don't want to walk around all tiny." She did actually look rather tired. "That settles it," Zuri said, giving Maj a brief caress on the line of her jaw. She welcomed it with a smile, and with eye-contact with Xenia. "Shall we? I'm rather eager to meet your dad, now." Xenia is a little disappointed that Majesty decides not to show her other form, but she merely gives a little shrug at the foxgirl's frustration. "Very well then." And the fetchling can't help but give a laugh when Zuri expresses her eagerness to meet her father. "I wonder if you'll keep that same attitude when you meet him. Come, it's not much further now." Xenia leads the two of them to the gates of a rather stately manor, which two servants open without the young heiress having to give a demand. One of them does however notify her that her father is waiting for her inside. Joy. They enter in to an ornate foyer, with a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The walls are a deep shade of burgundy and hanging on the right side of the room is a portrait of Ravus in his prime, looking as strong as Zuri recalled him looking like he did all those decades ago, although he's a lot more done up than he was when he was just a refugee from the Shadow Plane. Xenia suddenly stops in her tracks as she walks through the foyer. Standing atop the staircase on the other side of the room is her father, a cold-looking man in his early fifties. They weren't kidding when they said he was waiting for me. Xenia bows when she notices him and gives a look back to Zuri and Majesty indicating that they should do the same. <<"Would you mind explaining to me daughter,">> He says, rather sternly in Shadowtongue, <<"why last evening I heard reports that you were arrested near the scene of the library fire?">> His eyes then fall on Zuri and Majesty. <<"As well as who these women are?">> <<"It was a matter of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, Father. I was actually attempting to interrogate one of the culprits responsible, but the city guard was suspicious anyway since I was in the area. They took me in for questioning and I was later able to prove my innocence.">> <<As for my companions,">> Xenia turns back to face Zuri, arm outstretched towards her, and a prideful smile on her face. <<"I will allow them to speak for themselves. I think that this will interest you greatly.">> "Zuri" casually followed Xenia, taking in the sights of her home. Seeing that portrait of Ravus did actually stir some memories of the old man—he was positively giddy back then when she bought the grimoire. Quite the opposite of whatever expression rested on Xenia's father's face. Zuri smiled as her hostess passed on the introductions to her—she took Xenia's outstretched hand, and stepped forward. "<<I am Zuri Azeria. Your daughter here sought me out, quite resourcefully too, to put a face on one of Ravus's stories.>>" She let go of her hand, looking her in the eyes before focusing again on Mr. Farorë. "<<We happened to be together during the 'incident'. She said she was coming back here, so I asked if she could bring me along—>>" She gave a dramatic look around— "<<I was very curious to see what use had my money been put to. This is quite the place.>>" While she went on, Majesty kept her eyes trained on the both of them, alternating between Xenia and Glory, and hardly looking at all towards the former's father. Xenia does her absolute best to keep herself from smiling when "Zuri" calls her resourceful. Yes, Glory was omitting the fact that Xenia was only able to meet her because she allowed it to happen, but it still felt wonderful to hear the woman she had pursued for the majority of her life speak highly of her abilities. She instead focuses on her father, waiting to see what his reaction will be. <<"Ah, Zuri Azeria. My daughter has spoken quite often about you as of late. The identity of our family's mysterious benefactor was a source of endless curiosity that Xenia was quite reluctant to let go of even as she grew into a woman. And it intensified in recent months after my father passed. I had questioned the worthiness of her pursuit, but now that you stand before me in the flesh, I have no choice but to applaud her efforts.">> The Farorë patriarch smiles mirthlessly, as he tries to look supportive in front of a guest that has had such an effect on the fate of his family. Xenia also a smile on her face, but this is real, as she allows herself to feel satisfaction in forcing him to admit that the daughter he called foolish and obsessed was right all along. And she feels a thrill in watching her father's eyes try to follow Zuri's as she scans every inch of the foyer, hoping that his guest judges him favorably when "Zuri" dramatically looks over the hall, as well as his attempts to decipher her motives when she says that the manor is "quite the place" I love her boldness. The moment we leave here, I just know he's going to have the servants go over this entire area to make sure nothing is out of place. Even without the illusions, she knows how to play with the mind. Xenia breaks eye contact with her father, to steal a glance at Glory and let her know how much she is enjoying this performance, but also Majesty, as she attempts to gauge what the foxgirl is feeling at the moment. She must have been messing with me earlier, because now she's able to play the part of a servant, being seen and not heard. "<<She keeps her lips tight, regarding how she found me. I don't make it particularly easy, in large parts thanks to your old book's magic,>>" she said, glancing over at Xenia's Father with a satisfied smirk, touching his daughter's arm, "<<but nonetheless, she sniffed me out.>>" Zuri took one step closer to Xenia, looking at her with a fondness that did not behoove a guest of one noble lady's father—at least not a first time guest. Xenia had briefly touched upon how controlling her father was, and Glory couldn't help herself but toy around, needlessly needling her father, and dropping that little hint about magic. Trying to see if she could break those bonds, simply to better keep Xenia around. Majesty was standing straight, with her hands clasped behind her back, and her tails coiled against her, just like the moments in the library or on the roofs, when she felt threatened. She met Xenia's eyes, but just as soon looked away. Xenia was absolutely ecstatic. Between the fond gaze that Zuri was sharing with her, the contact she had made with her, and the words that were coming out of her mouth, she wanted to dance. But instead, she stood there silently, smile beaming on her face, not at all caring that her father could see her blush. Meanwhile, Xenia's father was going through his own experiences. He was quite shocked to learn that the tome his family had dismissed as a worthless bauble was actually magical and that the person his family had dismissed as a fool was a skilled magic user. And also that his family's benefactor was quite fond of his daughter and not at all afraid to show it. He couldn't stop himself from showing visible surprise on his face. "<<Truly, I don't know what I have done to warrant you saying such wonderful things, but thank you.>>" And for once in her life, Xenia said that with actual humility instead of the feigned variety. "<<But I came home for more than just a social visit. We have been given a mission by the Emperor himself, to investigate the recent string of Kobold attacks. I accepted, but since you are the Lord of this house, it is my duty to notify you of this.>>" <<"Of course. Serve the Emperor well and remember that first and foremost your duty is to bring honor to House Farorë.">> Her father bows to Zuri, before departing up the stairs. When he is gone, Xenia giggles and pulls Zuri into a hug, finally releasing all those positive emotions that she's been feeling. "Thank you. Thank you for coming here, thank you for your kind words, and thank you for giving my father a good shock. You've made me happier than you could ever know." Xenia lets go of Zuri and boops Majesty on the nose with her middle and pointer fingers. "So, shall we go get that coffee now?" "Zuri" watched Xenia and her father's reactions with obvious pleasure, utterly satisfied with herself. She beamed at Xenia's words, and embraced her tenderly, and tightly. When they separated, she touched Xenia's cheek, tracing her fingers alongside the line of her jaw. "I'm sure I can press that happiness even further," she said with absolutely no illusion hiding her meaning. "But of course, coffee first. Let's go!" She turned and started leaving the building without looking back. Majesty uncoiled her tails when Xenia's father departed. She appeared surprised by the sudden hug, and definitely even more so by Xenia's gesture. She took a step back, touching her nose, staring at the fetchling in complete disbelief. Massively conflicting feelings swirled inside her: Glory's lust, Glory's pride, surprise, defensiveness, and jealousy. Jealousy? She hardly ever got jealous of any of Glory's flings, and this was no doubt just another one to add on to the list. She just kept staring at Xenia after Glory left. Xenia's smile grows a bit more mischievous when Zuri makes an unsubtle promise to press her happiness even further. She takes a moment to soak it all in (as well as the sight of Zuri's backside as she moves away) and when Zuri has exited the building, is left with Majesty, staring at her in disbelief. She beckons Majesty to join her in following Zuri towards the coffee shop. Xenia goes to whichever shop Zuri chooses and orders a coffee with extra cream and sugar. "You'd think that someone from the Shadow Plane would prefer their coffee dark, but I prefer the sweeter things in life." She says, winking at Glory and Majesty. "I've actually been meaning to ask you something, Majesty. It's something I've been curious about since we met in the library, but even more so after Glory revealed herself to me. What is your relationship to her? The two of you are so similar in appearance and that leads me to assume your relationship goes deeper than that of a mere mistress and her assistant." Xenia took a sip from her coffee as she awaited Majesty's response. Life had quite the sense of humor, since Glory happened to take her coffee the same way Xenia did, and Majesty—well, she actually took it black. The white fox had been readily silent on the way there, and it was even Glory who ordered her drink, although she smiled most earnestly at the sight of it, and smelled it like it had been years since she last had. Xenia would have noticed fond looks to her from "Zuri". When the Farorë heiress asked her question, Majesty perked up, ears following suit. "Huh? Um..." She grabbed her coffee with both hands, clicking her little claws against the ceramic as she turned her tongue in her mouth, looking for words. She was taken aback by the query, because while she knew, in some fashion, what they were to each other, explaining it was much different. "Well, uh, I'm—" "Sorry." Hearing Glory's voice, Majesty shut down immediately. The human-looking woman switched the cross of her legs, and stared at Xenia, holding her cup with one hand—she had just taken a sip. "Why are you asking her?" The tone was... confounding. Like Xenia truly had asked a servant about their mistress, or as if she had to ask permission before talking to her at all. Xenia found it actually somewhat cute how Majesty was so eager to get a cup of coffee. She liked seeing her smile earnestly and not because she's making a snarky remark. Xenia was paying attention to Maj as she tried to find the words to explain what she was to Glory, which left her slightly startled when the illusionist shut down Majesty with a single word. "My apologies." She said, awkwardly. "I had simply thought that since the question was about Majesty, I would ask her. But since it seems that I have overstepped by doing so, I'll ask you instead. How are you and Majesty connected to one another?" Xenia taps her foot nervously, hoping that she hadn't offended Glory by asking Majesty over her. Glory leaned forward, smirking. She set down her cup, and, looking in Xenia's eyes, started her answer—with Majesty letting out a frustrated sigh. "It is quite the story. Now, you and I have built a certain kind of rapport, right?" she said that running gently her foot against Xenia's under the table. Majesty's gaze flicked from one woman to the other, helplessly blushing. But Glory remained impassible, pushing control on this situation as she always did. "This has to stay between us. I already satisfied your curiosity heavily before, without asking for anything in return. This is much more personal, and so I'd like to offer it to you, in exchange for an indeterminate favor—in the future. Deal?" She asked this, holding out her hand, palm upwards. As usual, she was difficult to read. She appeared in a pleasant mood, but her words sounded heavy, yet they were in such a tranquil, carefree setting that it was hard to not get whiplash from them. Majesty's "here we go again" look certainly did not help matters. Xenia's nervousness melts away as Glory brings up their rapport and runs her foot against hers, reminding Xenia of the interest she had in her. She does however get more serious when Glory asks her to not tell anyone what she's about to share with her. "Of course. I would never betray your trust, Glory. I value what we have and what you have done for me too much to do so." Xenia reaches out to take the hand that Glory offers her. "Deal. I'll help you." Xenia didn't know what Glory wanted from her, but it made her feel valued by Glory, knowing that the illusionist needed her for something. Glory squeezed Xenia's hand, and she smiled, satisfied. But surprisingly, Majesty leaned forward and grabbed Xenia's other hand out of the blue—she had to, for the promise to actually make sense. She was absolutely not looking at the fetchling, simply staring at her coffee. "Deal." Keeping her prey in her sight, Glory reached out to Majesty, stroking her hair. "We are two halves of the same person," she explained, matter-of-factly. The contrast between the two could hardly be any stronger as it was right now, before Xenia's eyes. Glory's laser focus on her, her warm hand completely wrapped around hers, and the sheer confidence she exuded, versus Majesty's downcast gaze, stooped shoulders, and her cold hand offered almost barely as a token. Although, if anything, Glory's gesture was ceremonial, and Majesty's felt more personal, her fingers unwittingly grazing Xenia's skin as she couldn't keep still like her other half. Xenia lets out a slight gasp as Majesty takes her hand. Not out of surprise-although the fetchling certainly did not expect Majesty to take her hand-but because it slightly tickles Xenia when her fingers graze the skin on the back of her hand. But she can't not notice how meek Majesty has been this whole time, from her blushing earlier, to being silent, not even making eye contact when before Majesty stared at her like she was trying to bore a hole through her skull. It's a different side of the girl that had been taunting Xenia non-stop. She's quite adorable like this. For a moment, Xenia contemplates kissing Majesty's hand, but opts for a gesture that she hopes will make her feel more comfortable, so she gently grabs her hand and rubs her thumb across the back of it. But Glory's words work perfectly, catching Xenia hook, line, and sinker. The fetchling's eyes lock on to Glory's focused gaze, hanging on to what she has to say. "How can this be? Did that also come from the incident that happened at your manor?" Xenia doesn't doubt that the two of them are one person, having seen and heard enough from Glory to trust that this seemingly impossible statement is true. "Yes," Glory answered. If she noticed Xenia's brush of Maj's hand, she didn't hint at it. "Which is related to your book, miss Farorë. Opening it ruined my manor." Glory smiled, but it didn't quite reach Zuri's red eyes. She let the words hang in the air, eager to see Xenia's reaction. Xenia steals a glance at Majesty as she sips a coffee and stops herself from speaking. She tries to decipher whether Maj's hesitation is from being silenced by Glory earlier or from some other cause. For a moment, she's tempted to bring this up and ask Glory if Majesty can speak for a moment, but she doesn't want to interrupt Glory. Nor does she want to bring undue attention on Majesty that might cause her to withdraw, since Xenia's honestly surprised that she's being allowed to hold her hand and rub it. When Glory mentions that the manor was destroyed because of her book, Xenia feigns offense at the statement. "My book? Your manor was destroyed decades before I was born. I'm absolutely innocent of what happened on that night, and I'm insulted to hear you say otherwise." She hmphs and turns her head, although it's only for a moment until she peeps one eye open and looks at Glory through the side to if she's amused by the act. Once her moment of joking is over though, a more serious expression falls on her face. "I truly am sorry to hear that our book ended up causing your manor to be destroyed, even if we did not know that would happen or intend for it to happen to you. But that's actually what led me to believe that you were the one that purchased the tome from my grandfather. I was looking up old records from the city library and saw a story about your manor's destruction. It was only a few days after my grandfather sold the tome and something told me that it couldn't be coincidence." A small smile forms as she makes this recollection and it's quite clear that Xenia feels some pride in her hypothesis being correct. "If your memory isn't too fuzzy and the memory isn't too unpleasant for you, what exactly happened with the book?" Glory chuckled at Xenia's feigned indignation. She almost let out a quip about her picking a page from Majesty's book, but rightfully decided this would derail the discussion too far, and not in the good direction. "Clever you," she said, bobbing her head. "I can tell you that Ravus was honest: he told me this book couldn't be opened. It was sealed, with a lock, and it had a key, but he nonetheless was adamant that nothing could lift that cover page at all." Majesty scoffed in the middle of this sentence. "Obviously, he was wrong, or something changed. But in fact," Glory continued, gently prodding the white fox, "this sulking girl here has the best recollection of what happened after I opened the book." Majesty groaned, shooting a dark glance at Glory. "S-Stop that," she started with a mumble, peeling back her hand from Xenia's, and resumed in a clearer voice, looking reluctantly at the fetchling: "I woke up inside the ruins... Unscathed, and no grimoire anywhere, just ashes. There was a hole in the ground, like quicksilver. And inside, her," she pointed at Glory, "I pulled her out, and the hole closed," "See? Pretty unbelievable." Another glare from Majesty. "My theory is that the Shadow Fox," Maj turned her eyes upon Xenia: "The grimoire's owner." "placed a magic trap on his book, and it almost destroyed me. By some happenstance, I was only sundered in two, pleasant and gloomy," she gestured at herself, then Majesty, who rolled her eyes, "again, just a theory, but probably thanks to one of the esoterica I collected. Quicksilver sounds just like Bastian's Bell, it protects at any cost, and I remember a ringing." Glory was obviously confident about her theory, just like she seemed to be about everything, including the stolen book from the library being a cooking manual. The whole thing truly sounded out of fairy tales, to Xenia, but the most surprising, especially since it seemed like Glory herself didn't realize: Majesty was obviously lying. Xenia wishes that Majesty didn't pull her hand back, since she enjoyed making contact with her. Her head is going in a thousand directions though. Part of her is attempting to process the information she's been given, as she has next to no knowledge about magic. But most of her is focused on how Majesty is obviously lying, both to her and Glory, who somehow doesn't notice this. Why is she lying? What is it that she doesn't want her other half to hear? As curious as she is, Xenia knows that Glory will not react well at all if she calls Majesty out in front of her, so she keeps silent and makes eye contact with the foxgirl and gives her a small smile, hopefully letting her know that her secret is safe with her. With a hand now free, Xenia takes another sip of her coffee. "I would be more generous than that. I think that the both of you are pleasant." Her smile grows now as she addresses Glory. "But I think I understand the events of that night. I told you yesterday that my knowledge of magic is virtually non-existent, but from what I understand, a failsafe on the grimoire somehow split you in two and Majesty saved you from drowning in some magical pool." She begins chuckling at something she recalls. "You know it's funny. From the time I was a little girl, I always though that if I could just find this mysterious benefactor, the Antiquary, Zuri Azeria, I'd get the answer to all my questions and everything would become so simple. But now that I'm a woman and I've found you and we're talking..." Xenia shakes her head and makes a dismissive gesture with her free hand. She looks right into "Zuri's" eyes, the same red eyes that looked at her in her dream this morning when Zuri asked "Am I everything you hoped I would be?" And now, Xenia finally responds. "You are so much more than I ever could have dreamed of." Majesty reacted to Xenia's flattery with a scoff, obviously rejecting it. She figured the fetchling was doing whatever she thought would ingratiate her further to Glory, and she didn't believe she harbored a single ounce of sincerity with regards to her. She played the part well, unfortunately, well enough that Maj almost was fooled. This was only entirely reinforced by what came next. You are so much more than I ever could have dreamed of, Majesty repeated in her own mind, spitefully. She drank all that was left of her coffee wholesale, and found only distaste in her mouth. "You say the nicest things." Glory was jubilating inside, and Majesty felt all of it. "Skilled with that tongue, are you?" She pushed her foot again, pressing her undeniable advantage. "I don't think you'll need your own room, tonight." In that moment, both halves were staring at Xenia, but they couldn't have looked more different. Majesty rolled her eyes at Glory's line. She felt nothing she hadn't felt all those other times with Glory's other flings, the lust, the satisfaction of having them precisely where she wanted them. She sighs and stares at the fetchling, knowing where this is going and wanting to get it over with. Glory stares at Xenia through lidded eyes. A confident and satisfied smile is on her face, as every word that came out of the fetchling's mouth confirmed that she was putty in her hands. A few simple lines and another push with her foot, perhaps higher on the leg this time, and she'd be hers. And the wizard is right. Xenia is absolutely entranced by Glory. There was no sign of any magic coming from her, no writing on the skin, but she was under her spell all the same. "No. I don't think that I will." A smile is on Xenia's face and she doesn't even break eye contact with Glory when she uses a free hand to call a server over because they were ready to pay. And while she was too focused on Glory to fully catch what the server was saying, she didn't hear them ask if they at least wanted dessert before they left. Perhaps the server knew that no dessert could offer would satisfy the women as much as they would satisfy each other. One Week Later After those last few days of investigating alongside Glory, and often Xenia, Majesty was looking forward to this day, to get some rest before they actually had to follow through with their leads regarding the kobolds. She was planning to pack Glory's stuff, prepare her alchemical utensils, and even some cleaning in the house—a modicum of things so she could justify spending the latter half of the day sprawled in her bed, alone with her journals and drawings. The rest of the week had been... exhausting, in more ways than one. Walking around, asking this one and that one, waiting, reading while Glory did research in the library. Although she had apparently a heartier constitution than Glory, she was soon brought to her brink every day by the thoroughly aggravating attitude of the other two women. Since the café, Xenia had had only eyes for Glory, and Majesty could hardly bear the pangs of lust from her other half, especially those that overwhelmed her at night. It was unbearable to see her like this. Right now, she was sat on her bed, legs hanging off the side, paper on her lap. She was freshly bathed, and smelled of lavender. She had a plate with some foods on it, that she picked from now and then, between strokes. She had her luminescent white and blue hair tied into a messy bun, and she held a coal pencil. She was, of course, drawing the same person, again. This one she had titled "The Annoying Dancer, number 37" The next week had gone by far too quickly for Xenia. The investigation part wasn't an issue for her, the search in the library was quite productive and she had no trouble at all getting the witnesses to talk and provide her with useful information. What went by too fast were the moments outside of the investigation. Xenia's encounter with Glory after their coffee date proved to be the beginning of something, rather than the end of it, and she found that the two of them could hardly keep their hands off each other after a day of research in which she at least had a difficult time remaining focused when her mind kept wandering to thoughts of Glory. But as much as she devoted her body and mind to Glory, Xenia hadn't been totally consumed by her. Xenia couldn't help but notice that Majesty hadn't talked to her much over the past week, not even to say something bratty like she used to. It made her curious and with the end of the week coming around, she wanted to find out why and she figured the best way to do so would be to speak with Majesty. Alone. So Xenia sidled up to Glory, with just the slightest bit of nervousness in her smile. "Would it make you too jealous if I were to spend the afternoon with Majesty?" A bit of mischief crept into Xenia's smile "And perhaps the evening?" She had hoped that Glory wouldn't get jealous by her spending time with Majesty. It wasn't like Xenia wouldn't spend an entire day in bed with Glory if she wanted to, a thought that now made Xenia hope that Glory became just a little bit jealous at her spending some time with Majesty. "Share you with her? Well, she is a part of me, so technically you wouldn't be running off with someone else, but I can't promise you that I won't get the least bit jealous when you're not in my bed tonight. All the places my mind will wander off to." Glory's smile gave her something of an idea where she'd go. Xenia walked up to Majesty's door and knocked. "Hello? Majesty? Can I come in for a moment?" The foxgirl had been extra reclusive this week, so she didn't want to mess up her efforts to get her to come out of her shell by entering without being welcomed. The knock surprised Majesty, and the voice behind it stopped her heart. She stared at the door, her mouth full of bread. What was Glory putting her up to, now? She could just say 'no', and be done with it, but she didn't to steal a glance at her own drawing to know she kind of, maybe looked forward to talking with her—not she'd admit to that, least of all to Xenia herself. She swallowed, grabbed a pillow, shoved her drawing under it (unwittingly leaving her pencil to roll on the bed covers), and, with one final straightening breath, called out: "Come in," in the most unaffected voice she could muster. A part of Xenia was pleasantly surprised when Majesty allowed her in the room. She walks into the room and spots the plate of food that's been picked at in certain places. I really hope that she didn't fill up on the food here. It wouldn't do if I took her out so that she could watch me eat. She couldn't help but notice the faint scent of lavender as she entered. "Good Morning, Majesty. I haven't spoken to you much over this week, I hope that you've been doing well." She smiles earnestly as she begins, hoping that it'll make Majesty willing to join her. "Would you like to go have lunch with me, since there isn't any investigation work and this is our last day before we report back to Sir Konsar? You can pick the restaurant and I'll treat! Just try not to get anything too expensive..." The first thing Majesty looked at wasn't Xenia, but what or who was behind her—nobody. That surprised her, enough that she almost smiled about it. She only needed one glance at Xenia to lose that desire, what with her pretty pale hair, her stupidly attractive lipstick, and her grossly athletic body. Her internal conflict over the fetchling hardly reached the surface, with the exception of her tails, that she had trouble keeping from sweeping this way and that way. "Mornin'," she offered nonchalantly, with a shrug where she voiced her concern for her wellbeing. She made a face at the suggestion, however, and once again looked at the door. "Uh, w-with you and Glory?" Why the sudden interest? Xenia couldn't help but notice how Majesty's tails swept around despite her seeming nonchalance, as well as how she glanced behind her while asking about Glory. "No. Glory will be staying behind today. It would just be you and me going to eat." She says, pointing at the two of them. She extends a hand towards Majesty as she makes her offer once again. "So, any particular kind of food you'd be in favor of getting for lunch? My treat." Majesty looked at the hand offered, biting her lips in thought for an instant. Those gangly, elegant fingers, crowned each with dark purple, that she knew well enough already to draw by memory, and that had been touching Glory so much—she glanced up into Xenia's eyes, and—she thought she'd sneer, but this reminded her of six days ago, when this very woman extended the same gesture to shield her from their assailants. A feeble light stuttered in her little, caged heart. She took Xenia's hand, rising up from the bed thanks to her. "Alright, but you better behave," she answered, with an insistent look. "There's a small Valorani place that, uh..." That Glory herself didn't know about. "that I like. I want to go there." She hadn't let go of Xenia yet. Xenia's eyes brightened at Majesty taking her hand and accepting her offer. "Valorani it is! And I'll be on my best behavior, I promise." Xenia notices that Majesty continued to hold on to her hand, despite having already risen from bed. She doesn't mention it, since Majesty seems to be comfortable enough to hold hands with her again and she doesn't want to ruin that by calling attention to it, so she instead allows Majesty to decide when she will let go. She heads out of the house and allows Majesty to direct her to the Valorani place that she likes. As Majesty leads the way to the restaurant, Xenia attempts to start a conversation with some small talk. "So, what have you been getting up to this last week? When you're not helping us with research." Majesty didn't linger too long with Xenia's hand: first, she actually noticed herself, and pulled away; second, she needed to put on her shoes if they were to get out. And with her high sandals on, they were out—and absolutely not holding hands. She was expecting to see Glory pop out of nowhere, if only to make a scathing quip, but she was a no show. She led Xenia through small alleys, displaying a rather good knowledge of the city, certainly better than she might have expected. Even though this was intended as a leisurely outing, Majesty was walking briskly, not quite outpacing Xenia, but forcing her to keep up with her stride. "Huh? You've seen me around, or have you really just noticed me today?" She brought the scathe herself. "Potions, cleaning. Crafts when I get some peace. Why, spying?" She got the feeling the question was more about her time in her room, but she willfully answered besides the point, aside from the vague "crafts". Xenia says nothing, but has a clearly guilty look on her face when Majesty responds to her question. Even if Majesty couldn't feel what Glory felt, she had to know from simply using her eyes that Xenia had spent every free moment she had with Glory and that Majesty had fallen to the periphery. She puts her hands up defensively when she is accused of spying. "No, no spying. I was simply curious, since you've been pretty quiet ever since we had coffee six days ago." But still, the kitsune let Xenia in a little, even while delivering scathing remarks, letting her know that she made potions and crafts in her spare time. "Oh, what kind of crafts have you been working on? Artistic? Magical? And would you be willing to show me some time?" Majesty stopped to look at Xenia. Her slitted eyes thinned as she focused on the fetchling, and she scoffed. "It just wasn't me you were listening to. Just typical," she added with a shrug, resuming her fast walk. Despite her overt hostility, at least on this topic, she answered Xenia's question (with a side-eye, visibly to judge whether or not she was just trying to get something out of her, or genuinely asking.) "Glory's got all the magic. You should know, since you've been under her spell even before you met her." She chuckled grimly at her own jab. "I draw, but I can't show you," she added, sucking air in sharply right after, not happy with just how she put it. Xenia realizes from Majesty's jabs and overall severity that it has affected her, being left by the side while she was getting together with Glory. "Wait! Just a moment, please." She holds up a hand, attempting to get Majesty to stop or at least slow down for a moment so that she can speak earnestly. Xenia was in quite the unfamiliar position with Majesty, as all of her charms and seduction proved frustratingly ineffective in getting her to open up. And the dancer wasn't quite accustomed to having to deal with personal issues head-on. "I know that over the past week I have not noticed or spoken to you as much as I should have. I am not going to pretend you are stupid, you and I both know that yes, it is because I have been focused on Glory and my lust for her. I am sorry that I have ignored you these last few days and I hope that you will allow me to try to make it up for you by spending an afternoon with you. Just you. I won't even mention her name." Xenia opts to not mention Majesty's drawings or why she can't show them to her. They're not what matters right now and if Xenia's supposed to see them, Majesty will show her without needing to be asked. "What?!" Majesty's answer to Xenia's pushing for her to wait was very brusque, but she did stop. She crossed her arms over her chest, and cast yet another dark look at the fetchling. She listened, and her expression progressively softened. "Alright," she conceded. She sounded sincere, despite that gratingly melodious voice of hers, or at least, Majesty really wanted to believe it, deep down. "Just me," she repeated, her tone full of disbelief, "how novel." With a meaningful look to Xenia, she started walking again, slower this time. They were almost there. Majesty's response is brief, but it was a sharp contrast to her earlier responses, where she was clearly expressing some hurt and maybe a little bit of bitterness. And it made her wonder if there was a reason she had put up a bratty front when she had first met Xenia. "Me telling you that I want to spend a day with you, just you, no strings attached, that wasn't the first time someone had ever told you that, was it?" There's no judgement in her voice when Xenia says that, if anything, she feels a kind of sadness as she speaks. "Everyone wants something out of me," Maj answered, without looking at Xenia, "although I suppose you already got that something." She didn't actually answer the fetchling's question, but her agreement was implicit. Eventually, she stopped in front of a corner shop, walls painted red. "The Swirling Sea's Star" was written in dark orange letters above the entrance. The tables outside were empty, but they just crossed a couple coming out with a basket that smelled of spicy chicken and sautéd vegetables. "Oh," she said, turning to Xenia and touching her forearm, "we should do that. Take a basket and go eat in the Park." That said, she immediately removed her hand. "I'd rather not be stuck in there with only you to look at." This protestation was paper thin. And there it was. She didn't outright say yes, but Majesty's response was enough for Xenia to know that no one ever hung around Majesty for Majesty before. Is that why she acts like such a brat? To keep people at a distance so that she doesn't get hurt? Xenia had grown pretty familiar with hiding her true self from the world, to not get bogged down by feelings and attachments while she worked to get what she want from others. But she hadn't figured that the people who get used might hide their true selves away for fear of getting hurt. She remains silent until they arrive at the store. She listens to Majesty's instructions, then walks into the store to get something to eat, ordering some fish and boiled rice before following Majesty to the Park. Xenia doesn't quite believe that Majesty didn't want to be looking at only her, at least not from a looks standpoint, since before Majesty stared at Xenia as much as she stared at Glory. And then it hit Xenia that Majesty might not be avoiding looking at her because she doesn't like her looks, but because she had, possibly has, feelings for her. The way she stared at me. The way she couldn't look at me at all six days ago. How she blushed when I complimented her appearance. And she held my hand for such a long time. And suddenly Xenia doesn't have that much of an appetite when they arrive at the park. She was confident that Majesty had feelings for her and Xenia's failure to take her eyes off Glory and address them at all had hurt her and that Majesty wouldn't speak to her, truly speak to her until Xenia had addressed what she did wrong. "Majesty. Six days ago, when we were in town and having coffee, and you held my hand but couldn't look me in the eye, were you hoping that I'd notice you and nothing else? That it would be you I would try to learn all I could about? Did I hurt you by being too distracted to notice how you felt?" In the moment, Majesty did command the same kind of singular focus that her other half had commanded in the past, as the only thing in the world that Xenia cared about right now was whether she had upset Majesty by failing to acknowledge her feelings. Majesty had taken her own fish fried, but otherwise settled mostly on the same meal as Xenia, save for spicier sauce. She actually enjoyed the walk to the Park—Xenia seemed satisfied with her answer, and they walked in silence. She found them a nice spot with a trifecta of trees near a pond, with a great, askew root to serve as a backrest. She was hardly done eating two spoons of her meal when Xenia dropped her bomb. Her ears dropped and she looked up at Xenia. She was so intense. Her piercing, green eyes simply bored a hole into her, and the way she stood there, almost immobile, her legs gathered under her, in position befitting a statue in a museum, and her features, so slack, with none of the tension she put up alongside her very own walls, her pity, full on display —(One instant, Maj almost threw her the bowl she was holding, the urge to deface her, to flee far, far away, to get rid of this damn problem) —but she was just so beautiful when she was looking at her. Her ear somehow dropped even further, and she looked at her food instead. "Yes, you did hurt me." She sighed. When she spoke, it wasn't much higher than a whisper. "I thought... I th—I'm Glory's shadow, always. I'm the help, the "assistant". Nobody sees me, and you—I thought you saw me. Obviously, I was wrong." She added that last part right before shoving a piece of fish in her mouth, chewing on it dejectedly. She loved this place, and she agreed to at least, implicitly, make an effort with Xenia. Maybe she was genuine, maybe she was just going to laugh at her. Either way, that was out. And now Xenia knew why she isn't supposed to show her true feelings and form attachments to the people she is supposed to manipulate, because she feels absolutely terrible about how she's affected Majesty and she wasn't even trying to pull one over on her. Father would call me a fool right now if he saw me feeling bad about hurting Majesty. But **** him. I hurt her, I have to at least try and put her heart back together. She knelt down, so that she could get on eye level with Majesty. Her voice is barely above a whisper as she apologizes to Majesty. "What I did to you was horrible. I made you feel like you were special, like for once, someone saw you as your own person instead of just a part of her and then I dashed those hopes." She looks at the ground, for a moment finding herself unable to look Majesty in the eye as she feels guilt for what she has done and accepts the fact that there might be nothing she can say that will put her heart back together. "I have no right to expect you to forgive me and I wouldn't hold it against you if you hated me for ripping your heart out and ignoring you while you were in pain." I'm sure that so many people hate me and I probably deserve it if I hurt them as bad as I hurt Majesty. "But nonetheless, I truly am sorry for the pain that I caused you to feel." Majesty plucked another piece of fish between Xenia's apologies. She stole a couple of glances at Xenia, but still avoided direct eye contact—thankfully, and surprisingly, it was the same for the fetchling. When she didn't look back up after her words, Maj kept staring at her hunched form. She didn't know what to make of this. Her heart felt like it was being squeezed by a troll's hand, and she felt a blank in her mind, in her tongue, as no answer cropped up. So, she chewed on her fish again. Xenia seemed genuinely sorry, but Maj only wanted to throw her pity back in her face. She had assured her otherwise, but she couldn't keep it out of her mind that this might just be another game. She wanted to seize this moment, maybe show Xenia that she, too, was charming, and sometimes funny, and maybe pretty. But she didn't want to be played like a fiddle, again, like all the other times this happened. But what if Xenia really had a heart? "Did you just—" Speaking up, she surprised herself as she choked on her own words. "Is this lunch just a pity thing? I don't care about your apologies if you're just gonna be back at it tomorrow." She held out a hand, as if trying to keep something away. Her tone was uneven, but she wasn't yelling, or spitting venom again. "You—you did nothing to me, nothing directly, but this? Why do you do this? What are you trying to do? Raise my hopes, and dash them again? Give me one good day with you, so you can appease your conscience? So you can appease me, and get back to her freely? Or are you real...?" She took another trembling breath. Her eyes got watery, but she wiped them mercilessly with the back of her hand. "You're... this is my favorite place in Bastion. I didn't take you here randomly. She doesn't even know this about me! But I won't let you play with me and just discard me. I'm not a toy." This was all a confused mess—but so was she. "No, Majesty. I'm not doing this so that I can say I spent time with you once so that I can go back to pretending you don't exist and have feelings and have a clean conscience." I am not that cruel, at least. "I'm not going to hurt you again by giving you hope and then taking it away again. I'm spending today with you because I want to know you better. I want to get closer to you." She puts a hand on Majesty's, if she lets her. "I really do value the fact that you took me out to see your favorite spots in Bastion. I'm not going to ruin these places for you by playing with your heart. And I won't even tell her about these places and what they mean to you. It'll be just for us." Xenia had finally gotten past Majesty's bratty exterior and found someone whose heart had been carelessly broken on multiple occasions, including by her this week. And yet maybe Majesty was still holding out hope that she could have something with her, with how she took her to her favorite spots in the city. Even if she didn't, Xenia certainly felt responsible for putting her heart back together and making sure that it didn't break again. "I want to get closer to you." Maj listened, her heart beating way too fast for her liking. She saw Xenia make her move, and let it happen. She felt as if her whole body skipped a beat, and willed herself to start breathing again. She was terrified, and it showed in her eyes, but she was also willing, and that showed in her eyes too. Clumsily, she ran her thumb against Xenia's hand. "It'll be just for us." She's playing you, Maj. She wants you both. It's the thrill of twins, or maybe she got a taste for tails. You misunderstand. She wants to be your friend. Nothing more. She's a noble. She lies. Your emotions cloud that, but you know this is all Glory's tricks. But she wanted this. She had no chance trying, but it was better than living on regrets and spite. "Alright," she said softly, her ears perking ever so slightly. "Well, um, for starters, call me Maj." She cleared her throat, making a show of what she was about to say. "Please." Xenia could see how scary this was for Maj, opening up her heart up after it had already been broken once. But still, she had managed to forgive Xenia and try one more time. "All right. Maj it is. Thank you for giving me a chance to make things right." She takes a seat with her knees crossed, still keeping Maj's hand in hers and giving the kitsune a small smile. "So Maj, is there anything else that you want me to know about yourself?" Maj's tails gathered and slinked together against her flank opposite Xenia. She had a nervous, giddy chuckle as the fetchling took her seat, both amused and relieved at the change of mood she brought with her question. Thankfully, that gave her something to think about, instead of just looping crazy about what was happening. "What? I have... I have no idea what to say," she mumbled. Humming as she thought, she allowed herself a little more brushes with her fingers. "My favorite food is, uh, fish," she said, pointing at her abandoned meal with her free hand, "any kind, really..." What are you even saying?! She looked at Xenia, somewhat embarrassed. "Uh, that's probably not what you meant..." It's endearing to Xenia, how Maj nervously chuckles and awkwardly lets her know what her favorite food is. Gods, she's so adorable. Xenia lets out a good-natured laugh in response. "No, no that's okay. Now I know that any time I take you somewhere that isn't here, I should take you to a seafood place. Don't ask me to cook though, I tried it once and was told my food is rather bland". She puts her free hand to her chin and thinks for a moment. "My favorite food is raspberry pie. My grandmother was especially good at making it." She thinks back to something Majesty told her earlier. "Your art, the drawings. How does it make you feel when you're making them? Does it make you happy when you see something beautiful and capture it on paper?" Xenia's laugh reassured Maj. She relaxed her posture, letting out a content sigh—both because of Xenia's reaction, and because she mentioned taking her somewhere else. Well-put words to keep her guard down? Maybe, but right this moment, she didn't care. "Oh, um, I can cook. Maybe for you, some day." To Xenia's look after this, she answered with a shrug: "Who do you think cooks between us?" To her defense, Maj hadn't cooked once since they met, and that was entirely because they were given food by the Empire (and also because she was pissed). A little panic went over her when Xenia mentioned her drawings, however ephemeral. Her actual question made Maj smile wistfully. She bit her lip, nodding. "Yeah, it does," she answered, looking Xenia in the eyes. "They feel like... Memories, feelings, that I make mine, and only mine." Xenia hadn't realized that she had given Maj a look when she offered to make something for her someday, but apparently she had, since Maj had asked who she thought did the cooking. "Yeah. That makes sense, all things considered." Xenia honestly could not picture Glory performing manual labor like cooking a meal. And if she cooks for Glory, I imagine that she must be quite the cook. "It's wonderful how art works that way, isn't it? Making something for yourself and choosing who to share it with. Although I suppose I am not too choosy with who sees my art, since I dance right in front of our enemies." She laughs a little at that. "Would you be willing to show me any of your drawings, when we're finished eating here?" Maj hummed and tilted her head at Xenia. "W-Well, I imagine you have special dances for... not enemies, like..." She turned to look at the view, the lake and the park. "For me, showing people nature scenes feels different than showing them portraits—especially their own. Since I've seen you pull off those aggressive moves," she looked back at her, smirking, "I've been wondering what are your 'portraits', dancer." The fire of her bravado was nothing but embers compared to earlier, or to when they met, but it was still there nonetheless. "Sure, okay, I'll show you some—if you keep being nice to me. Maybe." Her smirk turned into a mischievous smile. "Sure, okay, I'll show you some—if you keep being nice to me. Maybe." And there was bratty Maj again. It's just a little bit, compared to when they first met, but there she was. Xenia chuckles in response to her demands. "Very well. I was going to do that anyway." She thinks about some of her other dances, the ones that are less aggressive and don't make use of her sword. "I have other dances, yes. Ones that are less aggressive than the ones you've seen me do in battle. Would you like me to dance, right here in the park? And would you like to dance with me?" "Um, what?" Maj looked around. She was confused, and it showed. "There's no music," she mumbled before realizing that there was no music either any other time she saw Xenia dance before. She stammered, those embers reduced to nothing but cold ash. "Y-Y-Yeah, sure? I-I'm not a dancer, though..." There was no way she would say no to this, no matter how embarrassed she felt. "There is not. Fortunately, as a noble I have been dancing since the time I was very young, so I can keep time in my head quite easily. But if it makes it feel less odd for you, I can hum something while we dance." Xenia stands to her feet and gently pulls Maj up using the hand that she's still holding. She senses Maj's trepidation as she says she isn't a dancer and decides to go with one of the easier ones she knows, so that Maj can relax and just have a good time dancing with her, without having to worry about learning a bunch of moves on the fly. She puts her free hand on Maj's left shoulder. "And now you are going to do the same. Don't worry about not being a dancer, this is fairly simple to get the handle of and I'll lead you through it. So what you will essentially be doing is mirroring my movements. If I step out with my left foot, you will step out with your right and vice versa. I step forwards, you step backwards and vice versa. The ultimate result should be that we move inside a nice little box." "There is one little wrinkle. Sometimes, I will take my hand off your shoulder, step back, and lift up our hands. When I do so, the only thing you need to do is twirl, like you're trying to show off to the world how you and only you are dancing with me. And also try not to hit me in the face with your tails when you twirl. I suppose that is two things." Maj stood up with Xenia, gently patting down her dress. She enjoyed the prospect of learning something, especially because that meant she could focus on that, and ignore how much she was touching her. She observed Xenia as she spoke, taking in her posture and gestures, nodding along, and trying to mimic her example moves. When came the time to speak about wrinkle(s), she focused more on Xenia directly, her eyes not very discreetly wandering on her dark lips. Wrinkle? she thought, No, she's perfect—... oh. Realizing what she was actually talking about, Maj looked down at herself, and considered her words. She glanced up at the mention of her tails, smiling. "Aw, forbidden to flick you with them?" she said coyly, grabbing a pair of them, shaking them at Xenia. "I can't just tie them together, but I'll try. Promise." Gathering herself (not her tails), she put her hand on Xenia's shoulder, and waited for her to begin, an excited expression in her eyes. Xenia can't help but notice the way Maj focuses on her lips while she speaks, before demurely looking down. Oh my. Unless I'm mistaken, which I don't think I am, she wants me to kiss her. As much as Xenia was focusing on Maj, she couldn't help contrast how different Glory was from her when it came to their attraction, how she was very open about it while Maj hasn't said a word about her appearance and sometimes can't even look at her. A kiss can come later. Now we dance. Xenia begins to lead Majesty in dance. She starts with a step to the left, then forward, right, and back until they're in the starting position, while counting to four. She keeps counting a few times while they dance, until she's sure that Maj has the timing and the footwork down. Once Maj has demonstrated that she's got it, Xenia begins to hum a tune that played during one of the dances at her house. After some dancing with music, Xenia decides that Maj is proficient enough for twirling. "All right Maj, you seem to have the hang of this. I think it's time that I let you show off a little." She removes her hand from Maj's shoulder, steps back, and raises her arm, giving Maj the chance to twirl around. Maj stepped to the right, then backward, then left, then forward. Easy enough, she thought. She kept with Xenia, although she just seemed like she didn't even need to think about the steps or her movement—she was like somebody speaking their mother tongue. It was humbling to behold. She got even more into it with the tune, doing the steps with a smile on her face, mixed with a look of concentration. And then, twirling. Maj was a little surprised, but she played the game: she tried pulling her tails close, and, wanting to impress her dance teacher, she went for a spin, her dress flapping upwards. She wobbled a little, but caught Xenia again. "Was that good?" "Yes, it was good. You're quite the student!" The dance was going perfectly. Maj had become proficient in short order and she could tell that the kitsune was also enjoying herself, especially when she was twirling around. Xenia repeats the cycle twice more, making three little boxes with their footsteps before twirling Maj around. She can tell that Maj is getting better and more confident with each successive twirl. After the third twirl, Xenia holds both of Maj's hands after pulling her back in. "You did excellent! I've never taught anyone how to dance before, but dancing with you has gotten me thinking I've been good at it." She looks at Maj for a moment, marveling at how she went from being hurt and bitter to smiling now that Xenia has made a sincere effort to right her wrong. "Let me give you something else to remember today by." She leans in and gives Maj a kiss. It's not long, only lasting two or three seconds, nor is it overly passionate, but it is enough to let her know that she is a person and it's hopefully enough to show the affection Xenia feels towards Maj. "This is fun!" Maj said after that third twirl. She was just about getting into the groove of this, and she was ready to go for at least a couple more. "Well, I suppose you are a captivating teacher," she answered, indulging Xenia in some light banter, but really, she just wanted to keep dancing with her. Though that crafty fetchling had other plans. That kiss simply took all the wind out of Maj's sails. She didn't react to it, or at least in no ways that were conscious. Her ears folded backwards, and her tails wrapped forward, touching Xenia's legs. But herself, she just stared wide-eyed, after Xenia pulled back. She had her hand stuck in mid-air, about to return to her place on Xenia's shoulder when this happened, and she just looked frozen in place, but with a little dark purple on her lips, and a lot of heat permeating her cheeks. Too fast, I didn't... Her lips trembled, and she brought her fingers up to them. "I didn't... Uh, w-what was that for?" She looked uncertain. She was uncertain. There was a gap between having lunch together, even holding hands, and kissing. A gap she wasn't sure yet she was entirely ready to cross—but now that she was across, it would be difficult to just go back and pretend. Xenia hadn't expected Maj to be so nervous after the kiss. She wasn't expecting Maj to start making out with her in the middle of the park, but she wasn't expecting her to be so nervous either. "What was it for? There were a few reasons for it. First, I couldn't help but notice you looking at my lips while I was giving you instructions. Second, I thought that it would make you happy, since you have feelings for me. And third, I am quite fond of you and think you're beautiful and I wanted you to know that." Now Xenia's a bit uncertain. She's more accustomed to seducing people than romancing them, so things are usually faster paced. Romancing Maj, is that what I'm doing here? One thing at a time. "Was I wrong to do that? Did I go too fast for you?" What Xenia said had Maj scoffing, glaring, and biting her lip, in the same order than that of her three points explanation. She was looking intently at her throughout, not unlike that first time they met at the library, searching for meaning in her eyes, in the small movements of her face, the little upturn of her lips when she enumerated the reasons why she was right to do that, the small frown that overtook her brow then, as otherwise silent thoughts were spoken through her expression. Xenia's impassible, cool mask wasn't on at all—and that was a lifeline Maj could hang on to. "No, no—um, a little," She sighed at her own confusing answer, but then made one step forward. She took Xenia's hand in hers, trailing her dainty fingers over her skin. "Call me naive or anything, but I didn't think you wanted... that." But Maj did, and she took a leap of faith to reach out for the object of desires. She tiptoed up to kiss her again. Xenia's nervousness melts away as Maj responds to her questions and takes her hand again. When Maj tiptoes up to kiss her, she lets it happen. She's quite gentle when she kisses. I like it. Whenever Maj pulls back from the kiss, a smile forms on her face. "I'm glad that you are enjoying all of this." She chuckles at the sight of Maj's lips, how the dark purple lipstick stands out on her pale skin. "It looks like you've got some of my make-up on your face. Do you want to go back to clean up and maybe show me some of your drawings? Or would you rather keep those lipstick stains as something to remember today by?" Maj was still unsure whether this was happening at all, or when Glory was going to appear from behind a tree to laugh at her. Although, right this moment, with Xenia's taste still on her lips, the thought felt incredibly unfair for her. She already said this was genuine, and she danced with her, and kissed her—what more was necessary? With a bashful smile, Maj rubbed her lips briefly, looking at her fingers. Seeing the purple on them, she smiled wider. "Sure, we can go back," she grabbed Xenia's cheeks and kissed her again, "Can I get a couple more twirls first?" Xenia's smile grows as Maj kisses her once again. That's the second time she's gone and kissed me. I think it's safe to say that she's not nervous anymore. She lets out a friendly little laugh as Maj rubs some purple off her lips. "Careful now. If you keep kissing me, there'll be more of my lipstick on your lips than mine. But yes, I can give you a few more twirls before we go back." Xenia resumes dancing with Maj and by the time all is said and done, she's twirled her around five more times. As Xenia dances with Maj and twirls her, she can't help but think about what she's doing with Maj. It's unfamiliar territory for her, spending a private day with someone without the intention of seducing them or some other activity where they're benefitting her, but seeing Maj happy makes Xenia feel a kind of lightness that she hasn't felt when she was younger and Ravus was alive. After the fifth twirl, Xenia stops, still holding Maj's hand in hers. "So did you enjoy our lunch day? Even though we didn't do all that much eating?" As she waits for Maj's response and gets ready to leave, she looks at their arms intertwined, comparing the paleness of their skins. Xenia's question had Maj considering an answer, humming. There was still something quite eerie to it all: Glory's absence, Xenia's closeness, "our" lunch day... She remembered a few hours ago when she was sulking in that room, drawing, and the whiplash between then and now was staggering. Uncertainty was hard to erase: she could hardly understand Xenia's motives, or comprehend that she might want to spend her time with her instead of glorious Glory. The prospect of going back to their temporary home wasn't exactly a happy one. Still, she smiled softly. "Yes, I did, thank you," she answered, tracing her fingers on Xenia's hand. "We can bring back the leftovers..." She let go of Xenia with obvious reluctance, to pack up the basket, and to leave this beautiful place. Xenia helps Maj pack up their meals from today. Even stale, Xenia's planning on eating it simply to eat something different. Once they're all packed and ready, Xenia extends a hand to Maj and if she accepts, she'll gladly walk her down the streets of Bastion until they're home and leads Maj back to her room. She pulls out a cloth from her pocket. "How about I get you cleaned up and then if you like, you can show me a few of your drawings?" Maj didn't expect Xenia to stick with her in the house, much less almost go straight for her room. Some nervousness crept back up, especially since, being so much closer now, she could feel something about Glory, although she tried her hardest to tune it out. I can do it myself, she almost answered, but instead she simply nodded, giving Xenia somewhat conflictual signals, with a sheepish smile and a sharp sigh. All this attention was almost overwhelming. Xenia takes the cloth and starts cleaning the lipstick off Maj's face. She can't help but notice her silence and she's got a suspicion that it's not just because Xenia's got a cloth around her mouth. "Is everything all right, Maj? You've been quiet ever since we headed back from the park." Maj sighed again, and she seemed annoyed at Xenia's question—but the look she gave her was a lot more pained than angry. Her calling her "Maj", and so gently cleaning up her mouth just made her melt. "It's so much," she answered abruptly, grabbing her hand, getting her attention even more directly. "It's hard to put into words I'm not the eloquent one, I'm not..." She took a deep breath, rolling her eyes at being so useless. She squeezed Xenia's hand, her little claws poking out against her skin, and pulled it away from her face, although not letting go. "You haven't looked at me," she started, staring in her green eyes, " a week ago. You haven't, not once. And don't," she raised her other hand, "don't tell me I imagined it. You're— Why— Ugh!" She suddenly turned, leading Xenia further into the small room, to her bed, in fact. She pushed her to sit on the edge, not able to not touch her cheek as she straightened back. "I can't do words, okay? Not about..." She touched her chest, her heart. "And you make it even harder, so how about I show you my-my things, right? That's what you've been asking. Can I?" "Yes," Xenia answered simply. Maj nodded, and stepped just a couple feet away, to a nightstand. A rather drab, terribly boring nightstand, to a notable exception: it was torn in places. Gouges left by claws in the wood. Maj opened the drawer, struggling against a dent the damage had made, but she managed and pulled out a good, thick stack of drawings. She examined the pile, separating it in two after what seemed to be an arbitrary sheet. She came back to Xenia and gave her the smaller part. "There, the rest are unfinished sketches," she said, going back to put them away. The first thing that struck Xenia was that most of them were entirely made in black, without colors. Some of them did have dashes of color, but often only one, or at most two, never detailed coloring. She flipped through mostly scenery, whether nature or manmade, like the interior of a shoddy tavern. She immediately recognized the place in the park where Maj took her, which was a testimony to her skill, even with one color. Towards the end, she found two folded sheets; unfolded, they were a third larger than the others, and they were both busts: one of Trig, and one of Yugure. Trig was holding his glasses in one hand and what appeared to be an approximation of his weapon in the other; altogether, a strange composition, with some details missing on his face. It was the same for Yugure, although she drew him throwing his hair back and smiling. When Xenia looked up, Majesty was standing in front of her. She had briefly caught sight of her going on her knees to grab something under the nightstand: and she was holding a messed up sheet, all balled up. This notwithstanding, she was looking down at Xenia, awaiting her verdict. Xenia initially wanted to see Maj's artwork out of curiosity and a desire to get to know her better, but after the difficulties Maj had in responding when she asked if she was all right, Xenia now wanted to see Maj's work so that she could get the answers that words couldn't provide. She can't help but notice that claw marks on her nightstand, how only Maj could have left those. What was going on in here? She takes a look at the artwork that Maj shows her. It's nice work. Very detailed and recognizable. Only one color though, I should buy her some materials that will allow her to draw in color. That would be a nice surprise for her! Xenia takes more time when looking at the portraits, how Trig had his glasses and that strange weapon of his, as well as Yugure looking handsome and heroic. Just the two of them? And then she catches Maj quickly grabbing something under the nightstand, as if she did not want Xenia to see it. It takes merely a second for her to understand what the second pile of drawings were of. Xenia takes a hand and gently caresses the side of her face. "Your drawings, they're very good! I was able to recognize the spot you took me to earlier this afternoon. And your drawings of Trig and Yugure, very true to them." She softens, although she briefly glances at the balled up sheet in her hands. "The other drawings, the unfinished ones. Are any of those of me?" Xenia can't help but recall how the pile of unfinished drawings was much larger than the pile of finished ones and how only two of the finished ones were portraits. And now she really wondered what Maj was going through in here all the last week. "Thank you," Maj answered, although rather obviously this wasn't about receiving praise. She nodded at her follow-up question, a nod of certainty, as if she awaited this. She sat down. Right against her. "Yes," she said, starting to unfold the crumpled sheet, "they're all portraits of you, Xenia." She made eye contact as she spoke. It was important that she understood—not necessarily the depth of her feelings, she hadn't sounded them, but what feelings meant to her, to someone like her. "This is my best work. Sorry for the state it's in, I..." she trailed off, simply handing over the large sheet. It was indeed Xenia—with more details, a lot of obviously painstaking effort put into it. It was Xenia, holding a cup of coffee in one hand, elbow resting against the table, in the movement of putting the drink down. Her head was angled to the left, but her eyes to the front of the drawing. In her hand, she held somebody else's—the viewer's. She was smiling. "they're all portraits of you, Xenia." Those words hit Xenia like a dagger to her heart. She saw the pile of portraits that Maj had in the pile, how it was larger than the portraits she had been willing to initially show her. All that time spent drawing pictures of me? And I couldn't acknowledge her existence just once? Xenia picks up the portrait that Maj called her best one. The hand that was caressing Maj's face flies back to cover Xenia's mouth, as the fetchling is clearly shocked by what she sees. It's beautiful. So much work put into this, when I couldn't have cared less about her. Unlike the version of her in the portrait, the actual Xenia isn't smiling. Tears well up in her eyes, as she understands how Maj felt about her, to create such a painstakingly accurate portrait based off the memory of something that happened days ago, something where Xenia ultimately ended up blowing Maj off. "Maj, this is beautiful. I...I don't deserve this. You went through all the trouble to make this for you and I let you suffer in silence for a week with a broken heart. I'm sorry." Xenia is barely able to keep her voice from cracking, as she feels incredibly guilty for the way she treated Maj. "Damn right you don't," Maj said, venom on her tongue, "why do you think I threw it away? The Xenia on this," she pointed to the portrait, "didn't come back from the cafe. Until now. Today." Words had failed her, but she had made her choice. Without hesitation, Maj brought her hand up to Xenia's cheek; with the other, she grabbed the portrait, tugged it out of the fetchling's grip, and very unceremoniously flung it away from her lap. Maj took its place, straddling Xenia. She took her other cheek, staring deeply in her eyes. "I don't know why, and that's..." She shrugged, and stroke the side of Xenia's head. "You saw me, but I saw you back. Don't disappear again." Maj pulled her weight on Xenia's shoulder, sending her flat on her back on the mattress, with herself leaning over her, her hands on her wrists. Her eyes could not seem to stay still, moving between her lips and her own eyes, but also everywhere else, partly with the curiosity of an artist, and partly with the eagerness of a lover. "I want you, Xenia." Choice, made. For a moment, it seems like Maj is going to give Xenia what she deserves, calling her out for neglecting her feelings for an entire week. But then Maj puts a hand on her cheek and straddles her. "You saw me, but I saw you back. Don't disappear again." Maj had seen Xenia. The real Xenia, the person that she wants to be but so often can't be because of her family's debt and the work she needs to do in paying that back. "I won't disappear on you again, Maj. I promise." And then Maj does something really unexpected, putting her weight on her and leaving her prone on the bed, with both wrists held secure by Maj's hands. Xenia looks into her eyes and sees how she examines her entire body, but not with the lust that Glory always looked at her with. Maj seemed eager, yes, but more of a romantic eagerness. "I want you, Xenia." And there it is. Maj was finally able to express what she wanted, without any hesitation or fear. "Take me, Maj. And do whatever you want to me." Xenia looks right into Maj's eyes and smiles as she allows her to act on the feelings she's been unable to act on for the last week. For a moment, Maj held her position, sprawled on top of Xenia, pinning her down by the wrists, her tails fanned behind her. She freed one of her hands to deftly undo Xenia's bun, sending the clip tumbling away on the sheets, near the pillows. She ran her fingers under her head, pulling her hair free. She used her other hand to fully spread it on the bed, finally seeing her with her hair untied. She ran her thumb down her cheekbone to her mouth, pulling on her bottom lip, rubbing it absently, as she just looked at her future drawing, helpless under her. "No," she uttered suddenly, lowering her hand to go over Xenia's throat gently, eliciting some goosebumps on her pale skin. "I won't take you... That isn't me." She leaned down, almost bringing her nose against Xenia's. "I want to repeat the steps, and I want you to twirl me again," she said in a haze, her eyes all but overcome with desire, but her heart speaking up nonetheless, "I want us to dance together, Xenia." Her lips are just about against Xenia's, but she's staring. Her big, golden eyes, with their slitted pupil, staring—asking—pleading for an answer. Xenia simply lay still there on the bed, even as Maj removed her hands to let her hair out of its bun and spread it out. She continues to allow Maj to do as she wants, as she runs her hands over her face, examining it at a new angle while she's got her pinned. So it catches her by surprise when Maj stops herself, saying that she doesn't want to take Xenia, she wants to dance together, with her. And the closeness of their two faces indicates that Maj isn't talking about waltzing again. Xenia takes her hands and puts them on the sides of Maj's face, eliminating the remaining closeness and bringing her in for another kiss. "And I want to dance with you, Maj." She gazes deep into her pleading eyes as she answers her. "I want you too. I want to make memories with you that you'll want to capture forever." She kisses Maj again and caresses her face. "Dance with me and make one right now."

Redna Moltenflow Powderarm   Being born in Dogun Hold is a world vastly different from the rest of Golarion. Magic either acts in ways those who would seek to utilize it could not foresee or outright not working entirely. There was little use in relying on the Arcane or the Occult and whatever forces remained in the mana wastes of Primal magic were hardly useable for anyone, more likely to kill you in a violent manifestation than offer any semblance of utility. Instead, the dwarves of the Hold and their neighboring city-state of Alkenstar relied on technological and alchemical innovations. Firearms, bombs, bombards, and siege weapons that could roar fear incarnate into the war-torn land with black powder fuelled bellies. Within Dogun hold there are many Dwarven clans all from a variety of different prestige and skill, amongst these many clans were two particularly bitter rivals: Clan Moltenflow, an antique from the days of the Mana Wastes' beautiful scenery who were experts in Alchemy, capable of producing some of the finest bombs in the hold. Then there were their young and explosive rivals of Clan Powderarm, whose expertise with firearms was beginning to make a name for the eight-generations-long clan. Redna was born into a position of conflict, conceived during a moment of alcohol-induced poor judgment. An Alchemist from clan Moltenflow had bedded a Gunsmith from clan Powderarm. Quite predictably the conception of the child proved to be a catalyst for outright violence, Powderarm claiming the child was to be of their namesake for it was a Powderarm woman who carried the child. Moltenflow demanded custody over the child for they were an older and wisened clan who could bestow upon the young dwarf the traditional ways of her people. In the end, an agreement was settled: The child would practice Alchemy and Blacksmithing both, and whichever she proved to be better at would be the deciding factor on which clan she was to belong. The judge of this was a respected member of the hold whose neutrality was of no doubt.   And so as it were, Redna grew up between two clans, two families who hated each other with fervor. The other children her age mocked and tormented her for being clanless and even the adults who knew better didn't quite look at her the same. Growing up the child of constant rebuke and rejection led to her developing vindictive tendencies, much to the approval of both her clans. A very Dwarven trait as it were. Redna learned all about Alchemy and about blacksmithing with the knowledge of black powder to accompany them both, she learned of the dangers a stray ember posed, of how a bomb was much more than a mere shell of powder. Redna also heard the tales of the destructive power of an evocation wizard, the healing powers of Clerics, and the warnings that came with being in the presence of Primal magics. There was a lot about the world of magic that Redna herself didn't truly understand, but it did fascinate her. Magic might not work within the Hold or even be reliable within the Mana wastes, but the elements of Golarion were not conjured up by wizards nor was the science that gave birth to firearms or alchemy. It was here in this strange little pocket of magical illegitimacy that Redna found herself drawing inspiration from both the Moltenflow and Powderarm clans. An invention so grand that she'd grant them no other option but to accept one another as a necessity to the Hold.   The Alchemically Generated Tempest was what Redna called it, an experimental core that utilized alchemical substances to produce electricity and channel it through a construct's chassis in such a manner that gunpowder armaments could be safely utilized. Redna had developed several different sizes of the AGT, each for a different size of construct: Small, Medium, Large, Huge & Gargantuan. The latter two being used for siege engines and perhaps one day a construct-bombard hybrid machine. Redna had to enlist the help of two other Dwarves in order to source her necessary materials: Anmoc Bouldermight, a miner. Threndut Silkgrip, a merchant. Both Anmoc and Threndut were older than Redna, both knew of her plight though neither knew of her plan to solve it. Anmoc gathered the specific metals that Redna required and what she couldn't source from the mines or the Hold itself, she sourced through Threndut. Redna's invention was discovered by the dynamic duo when one day they were bringing goods requested by her to her place of work. The devices worked to the joy (and surprise) of all three dwarves, for Redna it was an opportunity to finally have a cooperative family life, for Anmoc and Threndut it was an opportunity. The young dwarven inventor had taken the large core to her personal quarters the night before her presentation, wanting to make some last-minute adjustments in order to guarantee the sentry construct operated as intended. All the while Threndut and Anmoc had spent the final year of Redna's preparations piecing together a crew. They escaped with the small and medium AGT units. Leaving behind only the Huge, Gargantuan, and Large units. Redna was stricken with a mix of zealous fury, grief, and hopelessness when she realized what had happened. Nobody else knew of the AGTs save for Redna, Threndut, and Anmoc... But she had to hold off her wanton vengeance to present what she did have.   At first everyone present at the demonstration was furious with Redna for going against the rules, but after she demonstrated the present AGTs and gave an explanation for how they worked, the judge ruled in favor of Redna holding both clans to her name... Save for one slight problem. The Alchemically Generated Tempests couldn't be produced in any capacity useful to the Hold as a whole without the blueprints and research notes to produce them. Redna was furious at the missing paperwork and swore she would do everything in her power to bring back the stolen inventions. What Redna was not expecting, however, was for the elders of both Emberflow and Powderarm to present her with their respective clan pistols on the condition that she took an oath to right this wrong that both her clans had been dealt. The weight of two clans meant that Redna now carried the responsibility of upholding the respect and reputation of each. So with both pistols on her hip, three throwing knives, a shortsword, and her prototype construct, Redna set off into the Mana Wastes. It didn't take long for her to discover the corpse of Anmoc, though with his own clan pistol missing it was hard to tell if this truly was Anmoc or an unfortunate lookalike. A few days later, Redna found the peculiar gate and saw what looked like Threndut and a cart of goods passing through. There was no second thought, no hesitation only the unholstering of both her pistols and a hot pursuit into amnesia and a mystery. A mystery with a magical nature. A nature of which Redna had little expertise.

Gunsmith                                                                     Human Dhampir                                                          Gunslinger The River Kingdoms Eleanor Bouba in the eyes of the many had won the genetic lottery and been born into the few, but with being amongst the few comes problems that the many lack the full comprehension of. Educated by the best teachers money could buy and be seated on the lap of luxury was a fine youth indeed, but being the unwanted twin daughter to a full-blooded vampiric countess was intertwined with problems. Eleanor had inherited the best physical benefits of her mother's genes: luxurious locks of hair, a fine (albeit pale) complexion, a voice simmering with nobility, and an upper body that made the valkyries of modern art green with envy. Though with her brother being the golden boy of her mother, Eleanor found herself often spending time with her very-much mortal Human father. Eleanor's father was an eccentric character who often toiled and tinkered in his workshop, constantly stopping mid-conversation to jot down notes or manically begin piecing something together; An inventor until the day he died. It was through her many years spent assisting her father in his workshop that Eleanor discovered and further developed her love for the emerging technological wonders of firearms and black powder. Through her father, Eleanor had taken an apprenticeship under a far more experienced Gunsmith, though it was required that she wore a blindfold and pretended to be visually impaired when around customers or handling transactions. A requirement set by her mother. In her father's elderly years, Eleanor and her father spent most of their time fishing, in his old age his vision was beginning to fail him and the serenity between the two of them, some fishing rods and the lapping of waters seemed to bring the old man some peace while his fifty-year-old daughter (who barely looked a month past twenty-three) sat with him. Eleanor had grown to hate her mother and twin brother alike - after all, why shouldn't she? Her brother had an immortal parental figure who adored him and detested her, while Eleanor's parental figure was withering and slowly coming to his inevitable end. When Eleanor's father died, she paid for the service out of her own pocket. Neither Eleanor's mother nor even her twin brother attended the funeral. To Eleanor's mother, he had always been a mere handsome trophy to entertain and grant her child. The man failed to provide her with only a son and instead gave her twins, this perceived slight angered her mother, and instead of granting her husband immortality, allowed him to grow old and frail. Eleanor left her Mother and twin behind, abandoning the wealth and fortune her mother had amassed through centuries of work. The only possessions Eleanor took with her were what she had on her when leaving the family manor and the glasses her father had made for her apprenticeship: lenses of glass replaced with that of thin fabric, to obfuscate the tell-tale signs of her dhampir nature. Eleanor's mother was furious at this unauthorized departure and made repeated attempts to hire thugs and beseech her underlings to drag Eleanor back home, though the reasons for this possessiveness wouldn't be made clear to Eleanor until later in life.     Korvosa It took some years of wandering, but eventually, Eleanor found herself in Korvosa and even set herself up with a little shop, though mostly her customers were adventurers or people needing some kind of less fanciful repairs done. The Blackpowdered Pot was the name of Eleanor's workshop, which remained open for several years. Eleanor had never been surrounded by so many people and found herself quite ostracized from the people who she walked past every day, though with her mother sending parties out to bring her back home Eleanor had assumed the alias of Sybille. There were a handful of locals who jokingly referred to her as 'Sybille the Bat' on account of the blindness she pretended to live with. The charade was a tool to help hide her location from the people working for her mother; After all, they would be looking for a half-blood Dhampir, not a blind human girl. During her time spent in Korvosa, Eleanor had heard murmurings of some adventurers in the River Kingdoms who had launched an assault on the estate she once called home and reportedly killed someone of vampiric nature, though whether this was her mother, twin or someone else in the family she had no idea truly. There was very little desire to find out and Eleanor had no intentions of going back, regardless. Eleanor (under the Sybille alias) had made a habit of attending The Three Rings, where she met a lovely tavern-working woman by the name of Sanara. The two women had a friendship and even a little bit of courtship, but nothing serious ever came of the relations between the two. Once King Eodred died and the embers began burning, Eleanor saw the opportunity to remove herself from Korvosa and abandon the alias of Sybille - she'd been Sybille for many years and people would start questioning her youth if she carried on as she were. Under the cover of the night, Sybille gathered the necessary pieces to fake her own death - a body, some fire, her essential gear, and some lensless spectacles. Eleanor left the workshop with a literal explosion of her black powder supply going up in flames.     Roslar's Coffer Eleanor's time spent with Sanara hadn't just been camaraderie sprinkled with carnal hedonism, there had been back and forth conversations about where they grew up (Eleanor had made something up, naturally) and what their lives were like before coming to Korvosa... And Roslar's Coffer sounded like the worst place for a Dhampir to take up residence, but the perfect place for a young, blind handywoman to begin a new chapter of her life. So under the alias of Cerise, she began a new life in Roslar's Coffer, most of her work was restringing crossbows or fixing the odd bit of gadgetry here and there - nothing truly complex. Life was simple, nobody bothered her unless it was working hours and there weren't any complications from her past life in the form of Eleanor or Sybille. Until Sanara came home six years later. Inevitably the question of her identity was brought up and the best response Eleanor could produce was "I'm afraid you must have me mistaken for my mother. The resemblance is uncanny, I know."  

I spoke of ethics in the article, but I lied. At least, to my editor, and my boss... And to the readers. There was more to the website NIGHT SPINNER whipped up. A puzzle of sorts; I imagined she was feeling playful, and that she was testing me, perhaps in a reverse psychology way: that if I persevered and completed her game, she would double down on her surveillance, since I would have proven to her I couldn't leave well enough alone. I can't leave well enough alone.  I cleared her puzzle, and it gave me an email address. I messaged her, and she messaged back with a physical address. Thinking back, it could have been a complete trap by somebody else entirely... I was lucky that it was just the hoops a very secretive young woman needed me to jump through before meeting me. After the intensity of my investigation, finding myself before her made me emotional, and frankly a little giddy. I asked her if I could take a picture. She asked I keep it to myself... And you know what? That naive trust was everything. My journalist's soul yearns to publish this picture, but my heart vowed never to. And the same goes for the interview she offered me. She said she wished to satiate my curiosity, but that in exchange, I couldn't share it. This both hurts immensely, but is also such a treasure. I met NIGHT SPINNER in an abandoned building on the outskirts of Viv. It was on the upper floors, and I didn't know if it was a function of her powers or a manner to point me out the way, but once I started seeing clumps of webs, I knew I was on the right track. When I found her, she was lounging incredibly casually in a spiderweb, reclining in it as if it was a hammock. With the lightning, it was a picturesque scene.  After I snapped a picture of her—she surprised me by pulling down on her mask midway through—she slipped down from her nest. I cannot highlight how strange it is to see her move. First was the fact that she got out of a honestly very sticky-looking spiderweb like she was just getting out of bed, and second, there is simply something alien to the way she moves: a precision, a tempo, a grace that makes you wonder if somebody isn't currently applying VFX to your eyes directly.  I did not remember seeing this from when we met at the One-Eyed Bat, so it was the very first question I asked her. "It's like when you're hyperventilating and you need to focus on your breathing, you know? I concentrate on not weirding out." 'Weirding out' would soon become a recurring phrase with her. I had so many questions, but the strangeness of our meeting overwhelmed me. The next one I asked was about her origins: people had noted she wasn't Caucasian, so I was curious about it. "My grandma came all the way from Russia. Like, the Pacific parts or so. I was born here, though." Her complete lack of a foreign accent was enough to tell me that, but the clarification was appreciated. Next, I questioned her about the website. Why this way to communicate with me? How did she get access to the CCTV? "Well, when I'm not weirding out outside, my job's making websites, actually." I remember vividly that she started pacing at that point, and she walked up a pillar. "It's a good side job for me... I can just stash my laptop somewhere before I need to run out." Now, I said something really idiotic—"Wait, you're a... web developer?" She rappelled down from the ceiling and stared right through me, from her upside-down position—she blew her lips, before letting out a giggle. "Wow. Really? That's your sense of humor?" She shook her head, and just kept going as if I hadn't interrupted her. "You know, I keep breaking my phones. I can't find one that survives being thrown through walls..." Maybe it was the "walls", but it made me think of another question, if this was her hideout, or where she lived. "Neither. You really think I'd meet you at either of those places?" She seemed to guess my next question. "I live alone. Mostly." "Mostly?" She groaned and looked down—up, from my point of view. "It's complicated." "He doesn't know who you are, am I right?" She seemed to hesitate, I remember well the look in her eyes. I thought I used the wrong pronoun, but if so, she didn't correct me, and merely nodded. "Why do you hide?" That was one of the burning questions I had, and couldn't answer in my article. She sighed, and let go of her web thread, flipping back to the ground onto her feet, once again in inhuman motion. I thought she was about to walk to get something, but instead she slung her arm forward, ejecting web from her fingers, and pulled herself forward, diving behind a wall; she came back almost as fast as she went, but with a large bunch of what looked like silk, but hardened. She put it down, and when I got a closer look, I stepped back. This thing appeared to be human skin. NIGHT SPINNER looked back at me, and she was disappointed, or sad, or both. "My freshest molt," she said, gesturing to the cocoon, "should be reason enough. My powers... I'm weird. I don't want to show that. Don't want to see that look," now, she gestured to my face. And dejected, she added, "I can't even find sleep outside of my webs. It's just really ****ing embarrassing." Somehow, the heartfelt cursing got a nervous laugh out of me, and she gave me a half-smile in response. "People will find out eventually. First your teammates, and, well, you're in NEBULA's team. That's the best way to get the most attention." "I'm working on a pic edit to give myself mandibles. Maybe I'll leak it to you." "You don't have mandibles?" It was like the perfect hook, I had to ask. And she obliged, pulling her mask all the way down, revealing her face whole. It wasn't like I truly needed confirmation, but she was indeed the archer girl from the club. "Some of your Spinnerets are gonna be disappointed." "Uh, let's not talk about them..." She put her mask back on, cheeks flushed red. "Actually, how about enough? I've talked a lot." I thanked her—I wasn't going to haggle for more time, and instead I was going to hope my playing into her rules would mean we could meet again later. I said my goodbye to NIGHT SPINNER, and to my biggest surprise, she corrected me: "Vika. Don't look me up." And now, here I am, sitting in front of my computer, with this written, a picture of NIGHT SPINNER's almost revealed face attached, and feeling all too bound by respect for this "weird" young woman to do anything with all of this. I'm conflicted. from Ellen Summer's personal notebook

NIGHT SPINNER, A True Mask More Than A Cape by Ellen Summer Who is NEBULA and STUNNING STING's new teammate? Little is known about NIGHT SPINNER. She is a newcomer on the hero scene of St. Vivian: before she was formally registered under the Vivacious Seven's charter1, she was counted among the free-wheeling vigilantes2 of the streets. That her signing coincides with her joining of city's sweethearts NEBULA and STUNNING STING—yes, the two famous heirs—surely means something happened behind the scenes3. A Rare Breed NS belongs to a now almost extinct kind of capes: those with a secret identity. It's common knowledge that the VS's charter allows a special clause to not disclose one's identity when joining, but in the last decade, it hasn't been used more than a handful of times4. It's simply out of our time that one would try to hide who they are. Why? Two major reasons were pointed out by numerous studies5: 1) Technology makes the endeavor incredibly difficult for people with already complex activities; 2) Fame has become a major component of superdom, and many are now seeking to leave a mark with their name, and not their moniker alone. And so, we can turn the question on its head: why would a young, rising star among superheroes hide herself? She has already made waves in many ways, including her very successful, form-fitting costume6, her incredible acrobatics, her slimy powers7, and, last but not least, the mention of her butt by NEBULA herself8. Who's Behind the Mask? Beyond the obvious about NS, there's a few additional elements, starting with: she's shy. You might think this is the obvious; after all, she hides her identity, right? But many of the previous so-called "true masks" haven't shied away from participating in the larger cape society. For instance, the very reason this article is being written by yours truly is because NS refused an interview. In fact, nobody in our immediate contacts knew how to contact her without going through parallel channels (such as STUNNING STING). It turned out that even her teammates knew very little how to contact her when she wasn't physically present: apparently she didn't have a phone?9 Eventually, we did manage to reach out during an interview given by BOOMBOX, with our topic standing nearby, stuck upside-down to a wall. That's when she refused the interview, and webslung her way away from us.  Isn't that so charming? For once, some work is proving necessary to undress the mysterious new hero. And so, work was done, by yours truly10. Another thing about NS is that she has been seen a few times (on camera11, on top of other times by the report of eye-witnesses) with a bow. Now, capes with bows aren't that rare—the most famous one being of course THE BLOODY FOX, all the way back there in West Haven12—but the only occasional use of this weapon is what piqued my interest. Typical super-archers use their bow for everything, and then some, but NS gave the impression to have happened onto the scenes with a bow; most true masks are the type to leave in the middle of something to jump into their costume, meaning she might be practicing with the bow on her free time. Thus, my first stop was then to look up every archery association in St. Vivian13. A Slippery Eel "Try, lass, you'll never get her!" BOOMBOX had been prompt to make fun of me after NS brushed off the interview offer14. Yet, surprisingly, when I started pulling on the archery thread, I found hits very quickly. Thanks to media, we have a very clear idea of NS's physique, and, with a few well-placed, hidden cameras, I found small hints of a similar woman frequenting the club on Willow Street. One thing I learned at that point: NS really likes wearing hoodies, baseball hats, and face masks. Facial recognition software hate her. Unwilling to rise up suspicion by directly asking about her, I signed up for some courses and, more importantly, access to the club15. I'm pretty sure I actually exchanged words with NS in the locker room. I doubted it at first because she left her locker unlocked—of course, I took a look. As you might think, it was pretty bare, but I found in there something that confirmed my leads: a portable drive, carefully hidden in a nook under the front face of the case. I'm not ashamed to say all of this because I was had. Thoroughly. The drive contained a single file: a hastily put-together website16, titled with my own name. It wasn't a ridiculous biography that tried to pass along a "I know who you are" message, no; I've seen a lot of those before, and they're small fry stuff. This was a bullet-point list of everything I did and everywhere I went the past three days, including CCTV17 screenshots of me. That was all. It takes more than this to scare me, but this was a pretty damnable way to tell me I wouldn't find her at The One-Eyed Bat anymore, or at either of the other clubs, for that matter. I tried, and even though I failed to pick up her trail again, I learned at least another fact: NS is competent at using computers. And for somebody so social-shy, she seems to be keeping an eye on social media, because, even before I said anything about her trap, I received an anonymous message, with only a wink and a spider emoji. Conclusion At Daily Caper, we pride ourselves on our investigative work, but also our ethics. I toed the line heavily (no doubt, I have in fact crossed it), and NS's clever message was a reminder that I needed. If anything, this investigation proved to me, and hopefully just as this article is proving to you, that NIGHT SPINNER is a good egg, if an elusive one. (And yes, Spinnerets18, she looks just as good without her mask as you've all imagined—lucky me for catching that moment!) 1. httpx://superwatch.com/kshf45d1hg — Video of NIGHT SPINNER officially signing the charter. 2. httpx://dai.ly/vigilante-night-spinner — Link to another article on the Daily Caper in which we document the vigilante activity of NIGHT SPINNER. 3. Speculating on this is beyond the scope of this article, but our investigative journalist @LeoMyaaa is on it; follow them to stay updated. 4. One notable "mystery cape" was OWL. He was revealed to be QUEEN COBRA's husband and the father of her son after the incident that had him revoked from the VS. 5. httpx://swift.ly/superheroes-and-identity & httpx://swift.ly/masked-unmasked — Two of the aforementioned studies. 6. If the picture attached to the article is not enough for you, follow this link: httpx://thirsti.ly/ns. Be aware that none of these shots were taken or uploaded with NS's approval, and they are (almost) all meant to highlight her body. 7. httpx://superwatch.com/atry774jq — The most viewed video where NS displays her abilities. 8. httpx://swift.ly/nebula-butt — This happened there. 9. I have since been made aware that she keeps breaking her phones. 10. Editor Note: Ellen's opinion and peculiar wording here is her own. I left this in because she insisted. 11. httpx://swift.ly/ns-bow-bullseye — A fantastic shot of a fantastic shot. 12. THE BLOODY FOX once destroyed a helicopter with a well-placed shot from the ground—I was on it! Lucky to have survived this at all. 13. There are only three: The One-Eyed Bat on Willow Street, Vasili's Target on Hedge Row, and Five Holes In This Apple on Greens Ave. 14. httpx://dai.ly/vid-boombox-lass — My cameraman got a good look of BOOMBOX as she taunted me. Mind my long face. 15. The One-Eyed Bat's staff was amazing. I've never been into archery, but I think I'm going to keep going there. And not because I hope to rekindle my trail... 16. httpx://dai.ly/ellen-three-days — I put it up online, as a memento in a sense. 17. I was stonewalled by the CCTV guys. They seemed adamant no intrusion was found, and even disputed the authenticity of NS's shots. 18. That is what NS's fans are calling themselves as of the time of writing this.  

Kimber Tuffin is... Nebula The Fabulous, The Gorgeous, The Star "Nebula, the fans simply must know: When was it you first appeared onscreen?" "When I was two months old during mum's resignation speech. I caused quite the stir among her fans." "You always were photogenic, weren't you? Now, just how exactly did you get your powers?" "Everybody already knows the question to that answer! The hospital I was born in had almost been hit by an asteroid impact and the cosmic energies graced me with gravitational gifts.   No, it had nothing to do with mum's boobs. I've heard those jokes a thousand times. I get it, they're big." "Astronomically so, some might say... And what about the team you joined recently? Have you any supporters or fans among your peers?" "RIBBITRIBBITRIBBITRIBBITRIBBITRIBBITRIBBITRIBBITRIBBITRIBBITRIBBIT" "Are there any particular rivals or adversaries you've found to be particularly problematic as of late? Any social media stardom rivals?" "Honkhonkhonkhonkhonkhonkhonkityhonk" "Now... I don't want to sound rude or to imply any sort of toxic qualities here, but, why do you care about this team?" "Night Spinner's butt. We work well together! And it means I can help bring the limelight to some of our lesser known heroes." "Now, talking about the team here for a second... Is there anyone you believe may have a chance at surpassing your glamorous rule of social media?" "Boombox, seriously, if they use that power of theirs to pump out some crazy beats in a DJ booth, I don't think I'd stand a chance." "Ah... I suppose that makes sense. Any plans to take on a side kick? Say, a Red Dwarf?" "You know, I don't think you can call Native Americans 'Red' anymore, that's pretty racist, isn't it? And can you still even call them Dwarves? I thought that was like, a hollywood thing?" "I... I didn't mean... Okay, back to the question. Any plans on taking on a sidekick?" "A sidekick? No, I don't do that sort of thing... Oh! But we do have this super adorable lizard person, they'd make for a great mascot for the team!" "Now let's take some time to talk about assets..." "I don't do that line of work anymore, I'm afraid." "I mean a different kind of asset." "Oh." "Now it's no secret that all the Gossip Mags have been going crazy over the new outfit." "It's just the greatest, isn't it?  It's revealing enough to be enticing but conservative enough to be safe to record  with the Stage-Fighting." "The stage fighting?" "Well we aren't going to expect people with cameras to show up to every fight, that would be dangerous. So sometimes when I'm being interviewed we put on a little show or recreation for the audience." "Well that was a rather unexpected insight, I must say. Now let's talk about your audience a little more... Just why is it they adore you so much?" "Well I think the most obvious reason is my stunning beauty. Nobody can argue that I don't have a unique flare." "You don't happen to think it's because you're just like them? They might not all have your superpowers or even your sense of flare, but, your primary demographic is 17 - 22 year olds. A lot of boys and girls looking to find their place in the world, much like yourself." "Sure I guess that could be a part of it. Though I don't know how so many of them can afford to keep buying merchandise and Creatorthon subscriptions. I've been earning a lot of money from their interest in me and my likeness." "And I understand your mom has been quite a vocal endorsement for you, too? After all she was the Milkyway. Everyone remembers that name and face." "You conveniently left out body, too. Eugh, hello years of repressed memories." ""

Aoife Tait Halfling - Arbalist - Returning Descendant "Och aye, well y'see mah great, great, great grandfither liked 'imself a bit'ae the gamblin'..." In Breachhill we see a quaint little town, where a baker once lived who could cure every frown. His bakes were superb his pastries the best, their hungry souls his food left impressed. His name was Colla Tait and ne'er once was he late, for his customers always left him their empty plates. His coin purse heaved from the gold he received, not a customer once left deceived. Colla Tait had a vice, it made him feel nice. In a week he would gamble, twice with the dice. His luck was reliable, truly undeniable. Colla Tait had a vice, it cost him a price. It was through a strange dealer, he met the luck stealer. "I saw you, good sir, a scene you did stir.  You're a connoisseur with the dice you prefer. If you take up my offer, I could fill your coffers. Should your dice roll high, riches I shall supply. If my dice total more, your luck shan't be restored." The dice they did roll, a game out of control. The dealer won twice, Colla Tait had won thrice. The final die was rolled a six to behold. A draw they declared with smiles they shared. "A good game we did play, but the price we must pay. Your luck I shall take, your foolish mistake. This coin will be yours, your fate it ensures." The coin he did sell, his bad luck would swell. His pies did burn and full plates would return, Colla Tait knew the cause for concern. Into the night Colla Tait took a knife, ending the life of one mister McKnight. So Colla Tait fled not right in the head, his coin he would take every night into bed. "Me faimly? Aye I've 'ad a few bruthas'n'sistehrs, about eight of'em. Ah'm the only yin left thae. A bugger that, int it?" Aoife grew up in a family of hunters, relatively isolated from much of the civilized world. Summers were harsh and winters were harder, with many of her siblings dying young from cold, disease, or in a few cases even misadventure. For generations, her family had been this way, no matter how many kids they had or took into the fold, in the end, there was always only one Tait child remaining. Aoife Tait, a typical adventurous child and a devout follower of Chaldira, is headstrong, brash, and sure of herself with a mouth perhaps a little too loud for someone her size. Aoife inherited her great-great-great Grandfather's coin from her mother when she turned twenty as had become the tradition. Every brother and sister she'd had was dead and her father finally accepted the fact that the Tait curse was alive and well. Both of Aoife's parents moved away and left the quaint hovel for Aoife, but the details of her name's curse only continued to be a subject of fascination for the young halfling. The home was nothing fantastic and really it was unfortunate that she'd had so many brothers and sisters otherwise there'd have been enough space to use, heat to keep warm and food to be enjoyed.  It was her first winter alone when Aoife discovered performing sleight-of-hand tricks with her heirloom appeared to have profound effects on the luck of those around her. Many an adventurer may cherish the presence of a halfling amongst their traveling coterie for the good luck they brought, but when flipped, palmed, or used in a performative trick, all those around her experienced was a sudden nose dive of luck. This sparked the curiosity of the brunette who set out on a mission to find out more about her birthright. "It's a good thing ah left haem when ah did, 'cause a week after ah left a wildfyr ate up me 'oose. Ah liked that 'oose." Aofie dedicated the next two years of her life to meeting relatives who had previously held the mystery coin; on one side was a face baring the image of Chaldira, the other the 'face' of Mammon. The coin was made of a strange metal that changed colour depending on the light it was exposed to, green in bright light and purple in darkness. Through numerous reunions and a variety of tall tales she was able to whittle it down to a number of common factors:   Breachhill was involved thanks to an Ancestor of hers, Said Ancestor had gambled away his luck & the luck of his children, The next step in her adventure of mystery was to investigate Breachhill.   So with her goal in mind, Aoife bid her great-grandparents farewell and headed on her way for Breachhill, harmonica in hand and a wooden totem of Chaldira in her pack.

Aunt Hanael Bran's aunt from his mothers side, Hanael was the only one who didn't get caught up in what she called 'the soldier boy bullshit' and instead treated him like a real boy. While his father was strict and treated Bran like a subordinate, Hanael was informal and affectionate and treated her nephew in a way that undermined his father's training. She snuck him treats whenever she could, so that he'd have something pleasant to enjoy, on occasion. When his father was ill, she took him to a festival so that he could have a day where he simply enjoyed himself as a normal boy.  Of course, all of this caused tension with Bran's father, who would have forced Hanael out of Bran's life were it not for the fact that her sister was his wife. Even so, the two of them had no fondness for the other, with Boris seeing Hanael as a coddler and Hanael seeing Boris as a heartless brute, a perception that did not change after Boris wounded Bran. When it came time for Bran to leave for the military, she gave him one last piece of wisdom, that in the military, he'll be free of his father, given the distance between them. Those words have bounced around his head every day since he left and have caused a conflict to form in the young man's heart.

Appearance: Standing at 6'2" and possessing a well-muscled frame, Bran looks every bit the part of an elite soldier. His face, which normally betrays little emotion, positive or negative, would be a handsome one, were it not for the scar that runs down the right side of it. His eyes are a mixture of colors, the left eye being a deep brown like his mother and aunt, while his right eye is a cold blue, like those of his father. Bran's out of uniform clothing is a simple blue tunic and grey trousers, an outfit that like its wearer, tries to simply get the job done without standing out too much. The one accessory that he wears along with it is an armband bearing his family insignia. Personality: As one might expect from the son of a man called "The Unsmiling", Bran rarely displays his emotions outwardly as he's been taught that it is something a soldier doesn't do, however, Bran is not the stone man his father is, at least not yet. He still laughs when an especially funny joke is told and he'll elicit a small smile when experiencing genuine happiness. He becomes notably more enthusiastic when matters of blacksmithing or alchemy are involved, with such subjects being the likeliest method of getting the young man to open up and talk for any extended manner of time. Seeing a unique weapon or a collection of them might even generate some boyish excitement from him, at least for a time. Even harder to suppress are the unpleasant feelings he has when asked about the scar on his face, something he tries to pass of as "a training accident". While he has no talent in either area, he does love to hear the sound of music, as well as watching people dance, as it's a pleasant reminder of the day he shared with his aunt when he was young, as well as something beautiful that he can enjoy. Despite his skill with the sword, he has no pride in his ability, as the scar on his face serves as a reminder of what happened the last time he felt such an emotion. Perhaps paradoxically, Bran hates his father as a result of his emotionless nature, regimented upbringing, and the scar he left him, even as he serves in the military out of obligation to bring honor to his family. And of course, Bran mentions the antipathy he feels for his father to no one.

1. When Bran had completed Separata Fatalis. While he would later be brought low in the harshest of ways, the pride Bran felt that day was very real, as the creation of his sword is so far the crowning achievement of Bran's life, being the result of perseverance and skill in crafting, to say nothing of the joy he saw in his mother's face when she saw what she had done. 2. Shortly after his 10th birthday, when his father became terribly ill and Hanael, his aunt on his mother's side convinced Helaena to let her steal him away for the day and take him to a festival that was going on in town. Hanael was far less strict than Boris or anyone on his side of the family was, something that had caused a fair bit of tension between the two, as Hanael always sought to subtly undermine the soldier training and help Bran be a real boy. Taking Bran to the fair was by far her biggest undermining of the soldier training, as while he was at the festival, Bran did nothing but eat, dance (poorly, but the young Bran still had fun with his aunt), and overall have a carefree day that his father would never learn about.

 Separata Fatalis If the scar on Bran's face is a reminder of his shortcomings and the shame he feels, Separata Fatalis is a reminder of his skill and the brief moment that he had been permitted to feel proud of his abilities. Separata Fatalis is the result of months of work and years of training that Bran went through alongside his mother. Bran had made the weapon as he was about to enter adulthood, something that he thought would coincide with his training being complete, and him no longer needing to be limited to fighting with a wooden sword.  While Bran was unfortunately incorrect in his assumption and failed to account for his father being as hardened as he was, he was ultimately allowed to keep his blade, though it would be another four years until he was deemed skilled enough to wield it, by which point, he felt no pride in his achievement, remembering what had happened the last time he felt that. As Bran left for the military, Separata Fatalis was the only thing he had brought with him, and at this point in his life, it was the only thing that he had honestly done for himself and not the approval of his family.

The Eisenfaust Family Boris Eisenfaust--"The Unsmiling" Even by the standards of the Eisenfausts, Boris was exceptional. The perfect soldier. Unyielding, Fearless, Dutiful. And as some of his comrades who weren't impressed by his stern experience would say, Unsmiling, a moniker that Boris had no problem wearing over the course of his military career. In his prime, Boris was unmatched with a sword and won great honors for his service to Torega. But that wasn't enough for him. Boris didn't want to just win some glory for himself that would fade not long after his death. Boris wanted to continue the legacy of the Eisenfaust family by raising a child that would continue their tradition of service. And so Boris got married and soon after had a son. But the same traits that made him a good soldier made him a father that was distant at best. His unyielding nature made him into more of a commander than a father. His dutiful tendencies caused him to place the honor of his house over any consideration of what his young son might have wanted to with his life instead. His fearless nature prevented him from wondering if he was doing anything wrong when it came to raising his son. And that same unsmiling nature that his comrades despised caused his son to constantly seek his approval and affection. But Bran grew strong and disciplined, so as far as Boris was concerned, he was doing his duty for the family. Although there was a brief moment where Bran grew too proud in his ability, thinking that his training was complete because he was almost a man and because he had made a sword he was not yet strong enough to wield. Boris had quickly corrected that and showed his son that he had yet a ways to go before his training was complete. It left the boy with a scar that he would carry for the rest of his life, but sometimes the harshest lessons were the most important one. It had cost Boris his marriage to Helaena, as she no longer wanted anything to do with him, something that became physically finalized when she divorced him after Bran joined the military. It had destroyed his marriage and left his son hollow, but Boris had ensured that the Eisenfaust legacy was secure for another generation. Which to Boris, mattered more than his actual family did.   Helaena Eisenfaust---"The Iron Matron" Helaena was a well-respected blacksmith that lived in Whitehallow. While she never got rich off of it, she had an excellent reputation in the city for the quality goods she made and her work ethic. It was those traits, in addition to her muscular figure that made Bran's father think that she would make a good wife for him and a good mother for the children he hoped to have. And on her end, Helaena respected the Eisenfausts for their military service. After a period of respectful courtship, Bran's father married Helaena in a modest ceremony. And shortly afterwards, the two of them had a son, Bran. Far from being an idle trophy wife, Helaena took an active role in raising Bran and bringing him up to be a soldier that would carry on the Eisenfaust tradition. While her husband trained him to be strong and to take orders, Helaena instilled in him the value of a good work ethic. To not just do what he was told, but to do it diligently, and most importantly to do it right. But she also taught him that good work deserved its just reward, something that his father never gave him no matter how well he performed in training. When Bran put in an honest day of work and helped her in the forge, she commended him for it and as he grew older, she entrusted him with more duties in the forge, to helping her on projects, and eventually the point where he was allowed to work on his own projects. And when he had finished forging his sword, Helaena was proud of her son for having demonstrated the ability and resolve to work through his failures and complete the task anyway. Her pride would quickly turn to horror when Boris wounded Bran in a training session where they used live blades and to her disgust, gave Bran a rebuke instead of comforting their son or even apologizing for what he had done. Helaena's marriage to Boris turned cold after the fact, as she no longer wanted anything to do with a man that seemed to have hardened himself so much that he treated his own flesh and blood like he was one of his underlings. And by the time Bran left to enlist in the military, Helaena left as well, divorcing the husband that she no longer respected.

Theme Bent, Pressed, Hammered, and Cut The time Bran's father spent in the military taught him many things and instilled in him many values, but it did not give him anything that would make him a good father to the son he would have after his years of esteemed military service were behind him. When Bran was born, his father had already made the decision that he would raise his son to join the Toregan military, like he did, as well as his siblings, parents, and countless other Eisenfausts had throughout the ages.  From an early age, the boy was trained to be a soldier, being taught to march, salute, stand at attention, and most importantly to not talk back when his father spoke to him, treating Bran like more of a subordinate than a son. And at age seven, Bran began to train with a wooden sword, working to become a strong swordsman, not just physically, but also mentally. His father taught him to not fear getting hit with the wooden sword and to not cry in the moments when he slipped up and got hit with the sword.  In addition to learning how to fight, Bran's mother also taught him the ways of crafting and metalwork, how to forge and repair weapons so that he could be a self-sufficient warrior. Bran proved to be a quick student, learning the way of smithing with hardly any trouble, first making tools and implements out of metal, but soon moving on to weapons. At first, they were small things, arrowheads and a dagger. But then he would shoot higher, working to make a sword for himself and by 17, after a few failed attempts, Bran had managed to forge a bastard sword for himself; Separata Fatalis. Bran felt incredibly proud of himself, having successfully created a sword after multiple failed attempts. Perhaps too proud of himself, as Bran declared to his father that he was ready to train with real swords instead of the wooden ones that he had used since the time he was a child. His father obliged him, fighting him steel with steel. And Bran quickly found himself outmatched by his father, who had decided that if Bran felt that he was ready to use a real sword, he was ready for more intense training. Despite the situation he found himself in, Bran didn't back down, wanting to prove to his father that he could handle training with real steel, something that would prove disastrous when Bran's father slipped past his guard and sliced through the right side of his face. Despite the pain Bran was in, his father only offered him a rebuke, telling him that if he was going to use a real sword to fight, he should be prepared to strike down and possibly kill his opponent, since they would be ready to do the same to him. He would recover from the encounter, but was left with a scar on the right side of his face, as well as a lingering sense of shame that prevented him from getting that prideful again.  A few years later, when he turned 22, Bran followed the will of his father and the rest of his family and enlisted in the Toregan military, fully trained and instilled with all the discipline a soldier needed to have, but precious little thought for what he wanted to do outside of winning his family's pride.      

Bran Eisenfaust:Human Fighter Alchemist 2 -Sheet HP: 32/32 Fort: +8 Ref: +7 Will: +4 AC: 20 Speed: 20ft Per: +6 Trained: Acrobatics +5, Athletics +8, Crafting +7, Intimidation +4, Medicine +4, Nature +4, Stealth +4, Survival +4 Lores: Military +7, Warfare +7 Languages: Common, Dwarven, Elven, Goblin, Sylvan Conditions: None Prepared Concoctions 4/4ooc Explorer Points: 1/1

"My little sis. Good kid, smart, stays out of trouble, has her head screwed on right. About fifteen? Sixteen? Kinda lost track, it's hard to celebrate her birthdays when Mom and Dad don't allow me in the house. I can't really be mad at them for that, I'm a shit influence for a little sister. Sometimes I bump into her when I'm walking around the less shitty parts of Korvosa and talk to her a bit, see how she's doing. I'm not dead to her the way I am to Mom and Dad, but I'm also not the big sis that was her hero when she was little, I can see it in her smile, it's not what it used to be. "I don't hope that things will go magically back to the way they were and I can be that hero for Mercy again. If anything, I hope that she never sees me again. I hope that she uses that good brain of hers and gets the f**k out of Korvosa the moment she's old enough to and doesn't get pulled into the whole restoring the family bullshit or anything else that this shithole city has to offer."

Alcine Redfallow N Spirit Instinct Barbarian 1 HP: 22/22 Fort:+7 Ref:+5 Will:+5 AC:18 Speed: 25ft Per: +5 Trained: Acrobatics +5, Athletics +7, Intimidation +4, Medicine +3, Survival +3 Lores: Drugs +3 Languages: Common, Undercommon Conditions: None Rage: No Hero Points:1/1

  At some moments, the nagging from her deceased ancestors gets to be too much for Alcine and she flies into a rage. When this happens, two changes occur: First, Alcine becomes stronger, as she's siphoning some of her ancestors' power to fight, striking with divine and unholy power and hitting incorporeal spirits like they were made of flesh. Second, her appearance makes some slight changes that make her look like she's somewhat noble, or at least respectable. Her hair is combed, straightened, and done up. Her eyes turn a bizarre shade of purple, in fact, the same shade of the energy that covers her weapon. And finally, her skin is cleaned and made up.  Of course, these changes only last while she's in these rages and when she's out of them, she goes right back to being disheveled and messy, as if to strike back at those cosmetic changes.

♪And as the stars watched me descend, I cracked a family tree and chopped off all of the branches♪ "You ghostly pricks weren't speaking to me all the time when I was using." Sheet Name: Alcine Redfallow Ancestry: Versatile Human Class: Spirit Instinct Barbarian Background: Drug Addict (Personal Addiction) Age: 30 Alignment: Neutral Appearance: With long unkempt hair, tattoo covered arms, and a fondness for sleeveless clothing, Alcine doesn't particularly cut the image of a person with noble ancestors. And standing at 5'11 with a muscular frame, she looks more like a laborer or a warrior. Alcine's typical outfit is a sleeveless grey shirt that hugs her muscles and a pair of matching trousers. Her eyes are hazel and she doesn't adorn her face with make-up.  Personality: Alcine might be the embodiment of how far her family has fallen, leading a life of idle hedonism and pugilism, with sex, drugs, and violence being her focus over attempting to restore her family's honor, although the drugs have fallen off after her recent and near-fatal overdose, a change that has left her feeling more irritable and anti-social as she adjusts to living without one of her favorite ways to get away from the realities of her life and her family's current status. Her irritability is also due to the more active reminders of her family's status, the regretful spirits that have latched onto her after her near death experience that pester her endlessly about the woman she needs to be. Her temper has grown as a result of her inability to get rid of these spirits, or even reply to them without sounding insane. Instead, as a means of petty defiance, Alcine refuses to engage in any self-bettering or pursuit of any goal higher than getting revenge on her former dealer. Background: Alcine is the latest scion of House Redfallow, something that is almost meaningless after the decline that house has experienced in the two centuries since the Cousins War. Growing up, she was always told that she would need to make something of herself, to restore her home to its former glory, something that stifled and frustrated her growing up. Why was she responsible for something that happened way before she was born. As a means of rebellion, Alcine acted in a way contrary to a woman of noble standing would, drinking, fighting, and refusing to engage in any pursuit that would mold her into someone great. When she was young, these was treated as a tolerable phase that she would grow out of. When she was older, it was not.  As Alcine grew to be a woman in her twenties and it was clear that she had no intention of engaging in any worthy pursuits, her parents denounced their daughter, outright calling her a failure, something that instead of causing her to try and make something of herself in the hopes of proving them wrong, only drove her further into hedonism. She engaged in multiple flings, with either any woman of the night that she could afford or any woman that she could convince to climb into bed with her. And she no longer just drank, but began to use drugs, with one in particular taking prominence over the rest: Shiver. It was pushed her way by an elderly gangster named Gaedren Lamm, but the 'who' didn't matter to her as much as the 'what'. Shiver made Alcine forget that her life was a dead-end and she was a disappointment to her family. At least for a little while. Every time the high came down, Alcine remembered what her life was like and wanted more. And before she knew it, she was hooked on Shiver, becoming one of many addicts who turned to the substance to escape their dreary existences. Until one day, when Alcine overdosed on Shiver, and almost joined the ranks of those who took too much of the drug and never woke up again. Except Pharasma, or some other force, saw fit to spare Alcine's life and she somehow woke up again in the world of the living. Thoroughly harrowed by coming that close to death, she quit Shiver cold turkey. Though it is the quiet change that stuck with her the most. While on the other side, Alcine was approached by the spirits of her ancestors from generations passed. As opposed to her living family, they didn't disapprove of her, instead desperately pleading for her to not let the Redfallow line like this. To somehow restore the family honor so that they can rest in peace. If Alcine was moved by it, she gave no indication, as she told no one about what she saw. But the spirits of her ancestors still gave her no peace, continuing to make the same pleas, something that only made her more ill-tempered as she was going through withdrawal. And since they were dead, she couldn't get rid of them, nor could she tell them to leave her be without looking like she was insane. So she instead did what she always did, get into fights, have sex, and be a waste. Although she also had a new objective, kill Gaedren Lamm. Eloise was no crusader of justice, she cared little for whatever crimes Lamm committed and the death of one criminal would hardly make Korvosa into a better place, but she almost lost her life because of the drugs he was pushing and now she had to listen to her ancestor's ghosts pleading to her everyday like she's their messiah. She figured that killing him and getting even might provide some catharsis.