A Broken Sword

With two new trial staff members in tow, everyone is eager to take them back to what we're very hopeful will be their forever home.

Cherry and Peri take in the Dewhurstian wonders on our way back, and they both learn very quickly why they're not supposed to stray too far from the bazaar where the Breeding Tribe keeps their tents.

While Peri isn't as much of a coward as Meri she still is easily frightened by every riffraff, diseased gutter skank and wannabe potion brewer we cross paths with. For her part Cherry keeps trying to protect her from these sights and hisses at the criminal elements yet rather than Peri thanking her the blue-haired kitten takes each chance to rub up against me and bury her face in my chest. I'm well aware that she's using it as an excuse to inhale my scent, but... I can't exactly deny her.

Cherry's rather irritated that I keep getting Peri's attention but for her part she's really doing her best to try and not take it personal against me. I know it'll be a rough road towards getting the feisty kitten to fully accept me into her life, but I'm going to do my best. I don't intend on making it easier by making sure she inhales my scent as often as possible, either. I want Cherry to actually grow as a person, not brainwash her.

When Cherry and Peri first set eyes on the Guild's interior it becomes painfully obvious to the both of them why their services are even needed here in the first place.

"Oh... Oh, I see." Peri gulps nervously as she gazes upon the many undusted tables of the entrance hall. She winces at the endless cobwebs and cringes at the spiders.

"Has this place EVER been fucking cleaned, nyaa?!" Cherry is much more blunt on the state of things as she begins to inspect the many holes in the walls all around her. "What about you, Zuzu? Can't you just magic this place clean?"

'I focused on learning spells that actually do interesting things. Regretfully I have not so much as touched my copy of Marthandial Stewitch's '50 Spells to Help Around the House That Will Make Your Husband Appreciate You More' in all the years it's been in my personal library back at my old place.' Zutiria sighs and shrugs, 'I had to go out of my way and learn how to enchant our bed sheets to be self cleaning. That's about as much as I'm good for and as far as my interest will go.'

"I-I thought it was weird how I never noticed anyone washing the sheets!" Meri opens her mouth from sudden realization.

'The promise of no longer sleeping in our collective sexual filth was a very good motivator.'

"Ugh." Cherry rolls her eyes, hoping the Mage could be coerced into helping.

"It's ok, Cherry... I'm... uh... sure we'll manage... nyaa..." Peri says with absolutely no confidence. Then, a question forms in her head. "S-So... you girls really are all his mates then...?" Peri asks as a fierce blush spreads across what I can see of her cheeks.

"It's a long story huh, Boss?" Sam nudges me in the side before walking in.

"We really ought to just make a pamphlet... I mean no disrespect to you Cherry, Peri, but I tire of having to explain the bizarre, cosmic tragedy that is my life to several new people every week." I laugh weakly and sit down on the nearest table, eager to get off of my feet after a long afternoon out.

"And like... how's that supposed to work?" Cherry blushes and crosses her arm. "You're just one human male, surely you can't expect us to believe that... that ALL of your mates are satisfied, nyaa...?!"

Everyone starts laughing at Cherry's naive, uninformed question.

"Oh kitty, kitty, kitty." Sam sighs as her laughter dies down. "You'll see. Details about Boss's huge, inexhaustible dick is in the pamphlet."

Meri contentedly sighs as well, "They sure are..."

The kitty maids share a look of confusion and then with my permission they both set out to explore the dusty, dirtied guild in all its non-glory. They run into Nikita in the kitchen and I hear her greet them, saying, "Good to see you ladies again!"

The Grekkan waves her hand after coming out from the kitchen with some cheese and bread, sitting down on the table across from me. "Heya, Chief." She looks a little exhausted, much less full of energy than I'm used to seeing her.

"Afternoon, Nikita. Meri, Zutiria, would you be so kind as to escort our feline friends around the premises to ensure they don't get lost? I'm worried about what might happen if they tour the place on their own. It's a big building full of plenty of nooks and crannies that two little kitties might lose their way in."

"Sure, Master!"

'I suppose. I need to introduce them to the Little Sir as soon as possible anyways.'

"Sam, you can go work on your meditation. I'm going to have a brief talk with Nikita and then fill out some paperwork. Later on, I need to talk with you, Meri and Zutiria."

"Alright, I guess that's cool and all..." Sam sighs and unstraps her great blade from the back of her armor, placing it upon the wall while heading out back to go and attempt to find something resembling inner peace and tranquility.

Now just Nikita and I remain in the entrance hall and her lack of typical enthusiasm is unsettling. "Rough night or something, Nikita? You aren't looking too impressive."

"Lot of thinkin' and drinkin'." She laughs, looking away from me. "Combination of the Gods right there lemme tell you, Chief. I'm fine, though just... conflicted."

"Want to talk about it?"

"No, not really. It's not in my nature to trust others with my problems. I only told you and the girls about the summary of what happened with my God since it was relevant, but other than that I try to keep the lid on my problems shut tighter than the gates of Hades." Nikita sighs and blushes, scratching the back of her head.

"That's fair enough."

"Opal dropped by. After I got stern talking to from her for drinking and sleeping past two in the afternoon, she left a message for you. Kinda important."

Suddenly I'm a lot more interested in the idle conversation and I lean in. "Oh? I'm listening."

Nikita starts laughing, her high spirits coming back a bit and filling up the room with her typical larger than life presence. "You're adorable. The way your eyes light up whenever someone even mentions her, like a little puppy dog... I swear..."

"It's not the first time a woman has compared me to a dog, and I'm sure it'll be far from the last." I grin playfully at the Grekkan.

"Ain't that the truth. Anyways, Opal's gonna be out of town this week."

"What? What happened? Is she alright?" I grow concerned and start to imagine the various things that could have gone wrong but my fears are quickly put to rest.

"All good. She wanted to tell you in person but didn't want to wait around for you to get back, really wanted to get on her way you know? She took the Warp Stone network to Dawnstead and is going to chat up the local Lord or whatever."

"Wait... really?" She kept saying that it wouldn't make any difference even if I went directly to him... "I guess she changed her mind after last night, then. If she'd have told me I would have gone with, I-"

"You need to be here. You can't just zip up to the provincial capitol during the middle of all this shit, Chief. Pretty sure she's just putting some pressure on Lord Gloomcrest or whatever his name is and if it goes somewhere you'll be in a better position to talk to him yourself eventually."

"...Right, that makes sense. That has to be why she did it." I still would have appreciated a heads up, but she left rather quickly after the team meeting last night. Probably so that she could go prepare for her trip to Dawnstead and take off early today.

Nikita makes an abrupt change of topic and her mood further lifts. "On the other paw, seems like you picked the kitties Opal thought you were gonna."

I think I remember hearing Cherry caused an incident yesterday and that's why she and Peri weren't on the showfloor today. Opalina and Nikita must have seen them yesterday morning. "Well, it's not like I had many options as far as pricing was concerned, but... yes. I probably would have done what I could to secure extra funding if I couldn't afford their adoption fee."

"They're gonna be difficult, Chief."

"I like the both of them and I know it'll be worth it. Oh, that's right. Get this..."

I tell Nikita about the bizarre episode with the Pimp, and she seems just as shocked as I am and I was actually there. "This place is never boring, is it? Hmm. Hope they can actually fend for themselves as well as you think they can... that sounds pretty ugly. They're strong, I'll give em that, but..."

"But?"

"It's nothing. Just fought a lot of Beastfolk in my day... they're weak to underhanded tactics is all I'm saying." She sighs and stands up. "Not that it's any of my problem

"...Right." Nikita smiles although it becomes lost along the way and turns into a distant frown. "I'm gonna head out... I don't even know anymore." She shrugs.

"I won't push you to do so, but do keep in mind I'm here for you if you need to vent about what's on your mind. Goddess knows you've helped me far more than I deserve in the short time I've known you."

"...Ugh," She shakes her head and crosses her arms while standing. "I'm just... fuck it. I'm worried you'll hate me because I won't fight for you if it came down to it. You know how strong I am, yet I stubbornly refuse to help you solve your problems. You have to have some kind of resentment over that, right?"

Was this what she was really so upset about? It's true that in my stray thoughts I've considered it would have been nice to use Nikita to her fullest abilities. She's so strong that she could likely take on the Duke of Dewhurst and all of his men and be back in time for dinner if she really wanted to...

But she doesn't.

I'm not going to ever guilt her about that.

"Nikita, you're a former Divine Champion who used to serve your realm's God of War. If there's a personal reason you refuse to help your friends in their time of need then obviously it's a damn fucking good one. It would be horrible of me to be judgmental of whatever the hell happened in your life that led you to this point."

Nikita stares at me, at first emotionlessly and then with a sad, stewing anger. "...It would be a lot easier if you could just hate me."

"Do you want me to hate you? Because so far you've done a phenomenal job making me feel the opposite"

"...Forget it." Nikita sighs. "I'm probably not gonna sleep here as much as I said. I wanted to, I really did... but... I don't think it would be smart any more. I'll still be over every day and I'll stick to this general area of town, but... yeah. I hope you don't mind."

"It's not like I can force you to sleep in the spare room, Niki. I don't think anyone could force you to do anything you didn't want to."

A small smile lifts up her scarred lips as she turns towards the entrance hall's door, getting ready to leave. "I'll check back in tomorrow."

"Nikita?" I call out to her.

"Hmm?" She responds without turning back to me.

"Whatever made you this way... it's a hell of a story, isn't it?"

"I'd sing it for you, Chief, but I'm fresh out of lyres and I ain't exactly Orpheus. I've always been more comfortable being the subject of songs than actually being the one to sing them." Nikita laughs as she exits the Guild for the day, leaving me with even more to dwell on than I already did.

-Art-