Chapter 44

In one body, I stared down at Cass's wrapped-up body. Her arms and legs had all been broken, and she'd had them set by the Dian Cecht familia, had her limbs forced into casts when she'd failed to remain inert in bed like she obviously should. Afterwards, Julia had brought her back to the Loki familia manor to rest up.

Now, Cass just laid in bed, quiet and still, her beautiful body only lightly covered with a pale white shirt and simple slip of panties. "I'm... okay," she said, her voice soft, as her gaze turned up to meet mine.

"I know." I'm not the sort of person who gets upset very easily. Given that Cass is the woman I loved most in the world, you might think I'd fly into a rage, but I was calm. I had to react to it, had to think about it, had to keep it from happening again, but the emotional content was minimal. Or maybe it was there, and I didn't notice it - I did remember reading something to that effect, back on Earth, about how people who thought they were less emotional were still experiencing the physiological component of the emotion, and it was still impacting their thought processes, they just didn't notice.

Whatever the case, I held Cass's hand as I sat there, my thoughts going over what Julia had told me regarding what happened. Two people had attacked the pair, pretty much out of the blue. They'd been specifically targeted, too, and they were strong enough to fight Cass, but not to wipe the floor with her - that meant, probably high Level Three, maybe low Level Four. One was armed with knives, the other with gauntlets. One of them had tried to kill Julia, stabbing her in the brain, but he hadn't known about her ability to survive literally anything.

It added up to... to what? I might have thought angry Ishtar familia members, but they were both male. Somebody from the Hephaistos familia who was close to Goro? But they'd had every chance to kill Cass - and that thought did provoke a tangible emotion, the knowledge that it was a wafer thin difference between my wife living and dying. This sort of quiet anxiety and unease and need to make sure it didn't happen again.

In my other body, I told Erza, Rei, and Ryu about what had happened back in Orario, and we decided we should turn back. Ryu already wanted to anyway, and Erza was obviously concerned about her friend. We packed up our things that morning and set to it.

* * *

Freya's mood was poor, as she looked out across Orario. She had seen the battle that took place, her Cassandra dueling with the pair of men that her Ottar had selected. He had chosen wisely, the two being just strong enough to match her Cassandra in wits and speed, but it seemed that she had not risen to the occasion. Worse than that, after being so savagely beaten, broken by the pair - it was that disgusting maggot-soul that hefted up her Cassandra to carry her to safety and health. Part of her wished that she had somehow contrived to have herself or Horn near her Cassandra for this moment, to tend to her beloved's wounds, but she knew that would have been impossible. She would have been seen through, completely.

She idly sipped her wine, putting it down and turning her gaze to the mountain that was her Ottar. She knew, with the certainty of a master at this particular game, that he had added in an order to kill the filthy maggot-soul - but she didn't truly know. Only an ironclad suspicion. And she preferred it that way, so she did not ask him. She could hardly have faced her Cassandra, knowing that she had tried to kill her... friend... and... co-wife. Her expression curdled with disgust at the thought that that filthy maggot-soul was so close to hers.

"Is everything well, my goddess?" Ottar asked her. Her fingers trailed along his stomach, and she let out a sigh, turning her gaze up to meet his eyes.

It was not her Ottar's fault that her Cassandra had ultimately broken against that particular obstacle set before her. It was simply a thing that happened. Life was too chaotic for it to be any other way. As the saying went, the race was not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. "Cassandra has failed," she told him. She did not mention the filthy maggot-soul. "Her limbs are broken." She could see the guilt on her Ottar's face. "Do not worry. You chose your weapon well. She simply... made mistakes. It will teach her she is not invincible, perhaps."

"I apologize nonetheless, my goddess," he replied, and she waved him off.

She was in no mood to make love properly - but her Ottar had followed her orders truly and capably. "There is no need for apologies. What there is," she said, kneeling before him, "is a need for gratitude. Your goddess appreciates your long and faithful service," she told him, pulling down his pants, revealing his rapidly-hardening cock. That was the pleasant thing of men - a woman in this circumstance, surprised to see that her lover was now turning things sexual, might take quite some time to reach a similar level of arousal. A man on the other hand, was simply erect with a few breaths on his length.

He hardly moved at all, maintaining his perpetual stoicism as his length throbbed in front of her, her fingers sliding slowly up and down it. He was stoic like that, simply by nature rather than choice. He was no more the sort to gasp and moan wildly during intercourse than he was the sort to breathe fire. That may have disappointed some other woman, but Freya could see his soul. Inside, despite his features, he was an inferno of incandescent desire, his cold steel soul melting to white hot, fraying into orange and yellow at the edges as his lust bloomed.

She opened her mouth wide, inviting, her tongue lolling out like a red carpet laid out before royalty. She would have happily let him irrumate her, if that was what he ever wanted - but it was not. He simply stood there, quiet and still, and she leaned into his length, wrapping her lips around it. Her tongue flashed along the underside of his cock, back and forth, forward and back. All the annoying thoughts of the filthy maggot-soul and her Cassandra's failure vanished at his taste, at the quiet pleasure of pleasing one of the men you love, as she continued to slowly descend down his length.

She could feel the raw pleasure she was inflicting on him play out inside his soul, even as his body itself remained still before her. Tense. Static. But inside, he was delighting, all but moaning in ecstasy already, as her lips at last pressed the whole way down his length, her nostrils drinking in his thick scent as they rested in his curly pubes. She let out a soft sigh around his length, stimulating it still further inside her throat, the automatic response of twitching where it rested in her mouth.

She slid up, then, slowly making her way up, her tongue lashing from side to side until at last she popped off, one hand stroking his newly-slickened cock, his hard length such a warm delight in her hands as she looked up into his eyes. There was nothing but adoration, desire, joy, in his eyes and in his heart, as she gently played with his length. "Ottar, I do like it when you talk," she chided, a gentle thing, a playful smile to her lips. "Please, tell me how good it feels." Then she slurped him right back up, more hungrily and forcefully this time, simply devouring his length in a single swift movement.

He groaned in pleasure, the mere sound of it music to her ears. "It feels, amazing, my goddess," he breathed out, his length twitching in her throat like a quiet little praise to all her movements. Of course, she put all the more into it, in response, her hands stroking along his thighs as her head began to twist from side to side, tongue sashaying across the whole of his sensitive length, tasting him, enjoying him. The salty flavor of him was such a true delight, she could feel her nipples begin to harden, her sex growing wet with arousal as a heat bloomed between her thighs. "You are truly, a goddess of love, to be so talented," he breathed.

Making such a powerful man squirm sent shivers down her spine, but she didn't touch herself. Of course not. This was his moment - later. After he was finished being rewarded. Perhaps she would let him between her legs, or perhaps she would do something else, but for now, she simply wanted to pleasure him and focus on that. She was hardly a selfish woman. One of her hands reached up to fondle his balls, softly playing with it as she stared lovingly into his eyes. She did love him. She loved all her children. She swallowed around his length, every act of pleasing him a physical reminder that she loved him.

"Ah, my goddess," he said. Even with his ordinarily restrained responses, she could see the way he trembled in pleasure, his mouth half-open, his thick precum staining her tongue when she pulled back far enough. It was so pleasant, to simply watch his pleasure play across his face, through his body - and to see it in his soul, as well. The perfect ecstasy of the one you love so happily servicing you was something only she could give her children. No other woman could hope to compare to her, as she began to suck, hard, on his length. "You- it feels so good," he breathed, his hands tightening into fists, powerful hands strong enough to break anything they grasped now rendered useless to do anything but express pleasure, thanks to her skilled mouth.

She slid up his length then paused near his tip, lips stretched wide to absorb his cockhead into her mouth, while her tongue danced along the crown, collecting whatever lay there on her tongue, the sharp flavor of it only serving to intensify her own enjoyment of the situation. Of course, her Ottar's own gasps and twitches, hips bucking a half-inch back and forth as he desperately restrained himself but failed - that was also wondrous, the sensual delight of bringing such a powerful man to the brink, ridding him of the capacity for self control with her mouth.

She began to bob at that point, continuing to slide her tongue all along his length, to taste him. He bit his lip as he struggled to control himself, stiff as a board beneath her ministrations, knowing that his power would be enough to kill her in a moment if he tried, but being so utterly in love that he would not ever do something like that to her. His physical power, his strength, entirely in service to her guiding love.

"I'm going - to come," he gasped out, and she simply nodded around his length, coaxing him onward as she slid back up to his tip and rested there. Her cheeks hollowed, suction working to draw out that orgasm she had worked so very hard to give him. "Ah, my goddess," he breathed, at last finding release in her mouth, groaning in place, shoulders slumping as his length unloaded all that thick, tasty, salty, creamy cum on her tongue.

She made a show of swilling her Ottar's cum on her tongue. The taste was thick and pleasant, as it rested in her mouth, and then she swallowed down every last drop, before quietly putting his cock away. "That was very good, Ottar," she told him, and he smiled at that, more vividly and sincerely than he had in response to her oral ministrations.

"Thank you, my goddess."

She rose to her feet, sitting down - Ottar knelt in front of her and gently massaged her legs, helping her to avoid any of the pains of this mortal body that might have resulted from kneeling on the cool stone. She simply reclined in place and enjoyed herself. Once he was done... yes, she would make proper love to him. She did want to feel something inside her, and his hands on her bare skin and muscle were so skillful she could hardly resist.

Her thoughts went back to the situation with her Cassandra for the moment, as she rested there. Of course, Erza would know about what happened to her Cassandra in short order. Drake would tell her as much, since he now had his soul split in twain, inhabiting two bodies at the same time. Erza would surely want to come back to Orario to protect her friend and... co-wife. She sipped her wine as Ottar continued to massage her. She would just have to trust Allen to perform his appointed task well.

* * *

Fomoire are humanoid monsters that are around eight feet tall, distortedly muscular, with the heads of goats, cloven hooved feet, and fur covering much of their body (though not all, revealing a near-human figure beneath it). Those that live in the world at large organize socially into large 'herds' of a few dozen breeding pairs. They are also about as powerful as a weak Level Five.

Why do I bring this up? Because one such group had been positioned between us and Orario - and when we had tried to sneak around them, we had instead had our routes cut off, forced in exactly the opposite direction of where we had wanted to go. They chased us relentlessly, hooves pounding behind us. I wondered if they were endurance hunters, just because they kept going, and going, and despite being much stronger than us, they failed to actually catch up, keeping at a distance great enough that we couldn't easily counterattack, but not so great we could try to tack around them.

"It would be unwise for us to let them follow us all the way to Rezianal," Ryu said, as she glanced behind her. "We must lose them before we get there."

"I could fly?" One of the Reis suggested. "Turn into a wyvern and carry you guys? And Drake can just do his walk on air thing."

"Ah! But can you carry our things?" Erza asked, glancing over her shoulder at the pile of stuff she was still dragging behind her. The fact that she was still making good speed just spoke to how stupendous her strength was - and the fact that a bunch of fomoire were strong enough to force her to run, showed how strong they were.

"Oh. Nah," the same Rei replied. "We'd have to abandon it."

Erza definitely didn't look enthused by that idea, as we kept up a steady pace. The advantage of the multiplicative effect of a falna was clear, due to the absolutely obscene level of running that we were doing without exhausting ourselves. We'd been running for over an hour by that point, pretty much flat out, but even my relatively modest Level Two Endurance was enough to keep me going, and going...

After two or three straight hours of fleeing fomoire, Ryu spoke. "They've stopped following us," she said, slowing to a halt as she turned to look in the direction they'd been in. "Yes."

One of the Reis turned into a bird, soaring far, far up in the air, making a circular movement a few times before diving back down to Earth. "Yeah. They're still there, but a ways back. Looks like they're just chilling out," she explained.

I was a bit sweaty from the intensity of that long exercise, but no more. Still, it was nice to get a chance to breathe, as we stood together. I was by far the most exhausted, since I was stuck with Level Two stats - Erza looked as beautiful as ever, and Rei had spent a bunch of time as birds perched on Erza's shoulders so she was definitely fine. Now that she was back to human form, she was eyeing me up - I guess "sweaty guy" was hot to her. Couldn't really blame her.

Erza spoke up. "We've made great time!" She declared. "We can't safely go back to Orario, with those fomoire, but I think we're less than an hour out from Rezianal," she said. "Isn't that right, Ryu?"

Ryu paused at that, her expression pensive, as she glanced up at the sky, then towards the direction we'd been running - the fomoire had pretty much pushed us right to Rezianal, our ultimate destination. "...yes. You are probably correct." She took in a deep breath, letting out a long sigh. "I suppose this is something I always had to face."

* * *

I had spent hours at Cass's bedside. We didn't talk or anything - Cass wasn't a talker, and I wasn't much of one either - but I held her hand and thought about what had happened. Someone had tried to kill Julia. They had seriously injured Cass. It was frustrating, I couldn't figure out who. Maybe it was related to Paper Trail? After all, both of Cass's parents were serious fighters who presumably would have pushed their daughter to extremes. Sandra Wu-Sun, AKA Lady Shiva, who was one of the absolute best human martial artists in her setting, and David Cain, who had raised Cass to become the combat machine she had become. That was the best I could come up with, as I racked my brain. Other possibilities included the Nyx familia, the Ikelos familia, the Freya familia... but none of those seemed particularly likely. Maybe the Ikelos familia, but then why target Cass instead of Rei? Why not kill her? The attackers didn't fit the description of any members of the Freya familia - I'd asked Loki. And Nyx seemed to have simply vanished from the city altogether.

"You shouldn't go to Daedalus Street until you're healed," I told Cass, at last. She nodded quietly, but I knew her. "I won't let you."

Her lips curled up into a tiny little smile at how I knew her so well. Then she spoke. "Will it... get worse?"

"Julia can watch over it, while you're out," I reassured her. "Rei too. I'll ask Aisha if she'll help. Heck, I can act as a lure to get anybody who's interested in committing crimes, since I can disguise myself as a beggar or a prostitute and act like I just came into a bunch of money. But I can only do that if I can trust you to stay here until you're healed, Cass."

She stared quietly at me, then up at the ceiling. "Okay," she said, at last. She sounded honest, though I didn't know how far that went.

I gave her hand another squeeze. "I'll have Noriko watch you," I told her, leaning over her to kiss her forehead. There was a cute pink tone to her cheeks as I pulled away, and I decided to follow up with a kiss to her lips a moment later. "I love you, Cass. I love your strong heart, and your firm morals. I love how kind you are. I even love the way you throw yourself into danger without concern." She smiled at that, though I felt my eyes stinging obnoxiously. "But just for a week or two, just until your limbs heal, please - be safe. Then you can go right back to Daedalus Street and protect the people there, alright?"

She nodded. "Are you going... to deal with those men?" She asked me.

I sighed. "I'd like to. But I don't know who they are, or why they attacked you, so I can't know how to find them again."

"Be safe... too," Cass said, giving my hand a squeeze of her own. "You're... kind too. But... you love..." she trailed off, looking for words, which was presumably particularly difficult for her. "You love like... I train," she said, leaving it at that, without any more poetry or explanation.

I understood it, or at least I think I did. I had eight wives, and I'd put lots of time and effort into making sure they were all safe and happy. I threw myself into protecting and caring for them, to the point I basically had no social life outside of them (and Aisha and Loki and maybe a bit of Ais), and now I was going to do the same thing, but with people stronger than me who had tried to murder Julia and who had broken every one of Cass's limbs. "I'll stay safe," I promised her.

I was a fairly rational person. I may have been upset, but I wasn't going to do something stupid out of blind emotion. I couldn't face these guys in a head-to-head.

* * *

Ryu had tried to come up with some sort of excuse to avoid making the rest of the journey to Rezianal. To seeing her goddess again. But the fomoire had blocked her from going back to Orario, but not followed so close that they risked dragging the beasts along with them to the city walls, which would have forced them to make a detour.

She sighed as they came in visual range of the city, her fate sealed - the walls were impressive enough they probably would have kept the fomoire out, in any case. The guards wore brilliant red and yellow plumage to identify themselves, the city colors, and they were separated and asked simple questions about their business and purpose in the city, as if to confirm they all had the same story. She answered honestly:

"I'm here to meet Astraea."

"Oh?" The guard said. His response wasn't disbelieving - more haughty, than anything else. "What makes you think that Astraea will want to talk to you?"

The way he spoke made it obvious what he meant: Astraea was such an important person, she didn't have time for rabble like Ryu. But the unintended double meaning struck deeply. "Nothing. My comrades are the ones who think she will. She will probably turn me away, in the end, and this whole journey will have been for nothing."

The man's demeanor shifted as she spoke. He frowned. "My apologies, ma'am. I wish you the best of luck in meeting her. Do you have any other business?"

"No," she said. "We do have some magic crystals to sell," she noted, "but that isn't why I'm here."

"I see," he agreed, taking a note of that. "Please, within the city, commit no crimes - the Astraea familia protects the common citizens, even from adventurers."

"I know," she said. The blood of all her dead friends spoke to that fact. She sat there, placidly waiting for him to speak again.

"You can go now," he said, after a few long seconds. She went, consulting a map to find where Astraea was, and soon reunited with the rest of the group.

"We're finally going to meet Astraea," Erza said, with excitement. "I cannot wait!"

"You think I can get with her?" Rei asked Ryu.

"Get with her...?" Ryu asked, her brow furrowing.

"You know. Bang her. She's hot, right?"

"She's beautiful," Ryu replied.

"There's literally any other time to act like a horndog, Rei," Drake said, gently patting the girl's head, making her roll her eyes in an exaggerated fashion. "Especially since right now, my attention isn't nearly as split as it normally is."

"Yeah, yeah," Rei muttered. "For real, though. You think I have a shot?"

"A shot...?" Ryu asked.

"A shot to fuck her! Goddamn! Stop being so autistic!"

"Oh." Ryu thought about it. She knew they had often tried to keep Alise from taking advantage of Astraea's generosity. Her lips thinned at those old memories. Once happy memories, now stained with melancholy from the knowledge that they were all dead. "Yes. Perhaps."

"You gotta get her, then, Drake. Goddesses are extra-amazing, right?"

"I've been fucking Loki for months, and she really likes me," he told Rei. "I don't have to get anyone else. I'm happy with what I have."

"You'd be happier with even more!" Rei said. "Seduce her, come on!" Drake seemed unimpressed with Rei's straightforwardness.

"There," Ryu said, pointing to a collection of buildings. They didn't look too different from those around them, really, other than that they seemed thicker and stouter, and the roofs were made of stone instead of wood. The familiar symbol of a sword, plunged into the earth, surrounded by laurels, appeared on various doors in the tiny "neighborhood". It brought back an even more melancholy nostalgia, seeing it again. "You can... speak to her. I'll wait," she said, crossing her arms.

"Ryu," Drake said. His expression was one of dull disapproval, the sort you would give to a child who was trying to lie about stealing cake while their face was covered in icing. "We're here for you to speak to her."

She fidgeted uncomfortably - and Erza noticed the discomfort, responding by wrapping her in a sudden hug, her massive strength easily lifting her up off the ground. "I am certain that Astraea does not hate you," Erza said, with a sincerity that was inviting and easy to listen to. It wouldn't have been that difficult, to go along with what the others told her. Still...

"You can speak to her first. If she does not wish to speak to me, there is no point in me meeting with her," Ryu said, at last.

Rei appeared to decide that was enough arguing for her, because she quickly started to loudly knock on one of the doors. After only a few seconds, it opened, revealing a boyish human youth a few years her junior, short and with cropped brown hair. "What is it?"

"Tell Astraea that Ryu is here to see her," Rei said, simply, her thumb jerking behind her, pointing in Ryu's direction. The man's gaze followed the movement, and Ryu wished to wilt beneath it, to disappear into nothing. The tangle in her heart became a great monster, grasping her and dragging her down into a quiet, solemn darkness. She averted her gaze from his. "If she doesn't want to talk to her, she doesn't have to," Rei added, a contemptuous note to her voice, rolling her eyes, even, as she said it.

"Uh. Alright," he decided on, simply closing the door. Ryu stood there, sure the man would come back to tell her she wasn't wanted, and the group of them would have to make their way back to Orario despite the fomoire - perhaps traveling by boat, she idly considered.

Erza seemed to detect her emotional state, and simply wrapped her in a one-armed hug, tugging her into the other girl's body. As she wound up practically plastered up against Erza, she did feel a certain comfort with the excessively gregarious other girl, a wan smile tracing its way across her lips. "Do not worry, Ryu," Erza said. "Even if she doesn't like you, I will always be your friend."

Ryu felt the heat of embarrassment appear on her cheeks, and simply nodded quietly - and then the door opened, revealing Astraea standing there. Her heart seemed to still in her chest, a chill overtaking her body, being so close to Astraea, the goddess she had once followed, but in the end failed. She swallowed, steeling herself for the sharp words her goddess no doubt had to speak. "Ryu," came Astraea's soft voice. The familiarity of it sent goosebumps across her bare skin, hearing it again, like a return to a bygone era, when Alize and Kaguya and Lyra were still alive. "It's good to see that you are well. Have you been getting my letters?"

Her throat didn't want to cooperate with her. "Yes," she croaked out, her voice warbling.

"I'm glad. I worried they weren't getting to you," Astraea said, with a gentle smile. "I'm happy to see that you're well, and that you've made new friends."

"I- yes," Ryu said, having no more than that to offer in the moment.

"Would you like to come inside? You are technically my strongest familia member, after all." Astraea smiled without a hint of guile in her words, as she said such an obscene line. It was as if the only technicality was that they had not spoken for three years.

"I- how can you- offer someone like me-" Ryu's mouth did not wish to cooperate with her mind, or perhaps it was her mind that was failing to put anything together, instead.

"Because you're my child, and I still love you," Astraea said.

Those words were all that were necessary. It was as if the walls that had been put up when her friends had died, that had been steeled when she had done what she had done, that had hardened when she had laid dying in that alley, that had defined her life for years - had been smashed down in a heartbeat. The emotions that surged to the forefront were such a thick mess that she didn't even know what they were. Tears began to form in her eyes, whether of sorrow or joy, she couldn't say. Her throat felt as if she was choking. Her legs trembled beneath her, as her mouth opened and closed, over and over.

She hardly even noticed as Erza tightened her one-armed hug on her, pulling her slender frame up tighter against her. But she did notice as Astraea's hand reached out, softly patting her head, a maternal smile on her lips - and Ryu simply collapsed to her knees, sobbing, her hands scrambling to grasp her goddess's dress again, not caring for a moment if her tears stained the woman's clothing, her head pushing into Astraea's stomach.

"There, there," Astraea said, her voice soft. "You can let it all out, Ryu. There's no reason to be ashamed. I'm sure it's been very hard for you, all this time." She nodded, on instinct more than anything else, but a moment later she knew it was true. It was hard, having lost everything - but now she had discovered she hadn't. She'd had one thing that she had not lost. Her goddess. Her whole body trembled there, as she ached and sobbed in place.

At some point, she was quietly ushered inside the building, allowed to rest her head in Astraea's lap as her goddess gently ran her fingers through her hair. She just sobbed, letting out three long years of pain and loneliness into her goddess's lap, as gentle fingers coaxingly ran their way through her hair.

* * *

Oliver's ears twitched as he picked up the bag. By the weight of it, it wasn't the fourteen million valis they'd agreed on - it was just four million. But this was Ottar. King. The strongest adventurer in the world. It wasn't worth arguing with him. He gently tucked the coin into his waist. Two million was still plenty.

"Once Batgirl reappears, I will pay another four million if you break all her limbs again," Ottar said, his voice calm and level.

"I'm not sure that she'll go out again," Johann said. "We messed her up pretty bad."

"She will." Ottar said. "The price on Spectre's head remains."

Oliver hesitated. If that was why he hadn't paid the full amount - he guessed that the damage probably ruined the body - then Ottar couldn't complain, right? Finally, he said it. "I killed Spectre. Stabbed her brain, then she blew herself up."

Ottar simply turned his gaze on Oliver, cold eyes seeming to want to pierce through everything he had, and he felt a shiver run up his spine. "She's still alive. Try harder next time," he said, succinctly - and then vanished, like the shadow cast by a flame that had been snuffed out. Oliver felt himself sigh, some of the tension leaving his body.

How the hell could Spectre have survived that? Was it a body double? Some kind of illusion, or copy, or something? He'd felt the knife stab right into the bitch's brain. By a glance at Johann, he was thinking the same thing.