Chapter 7 Bast Familia

After half a month of bouncing from town to town they had finally reached the home base of the Bast Familia located in the city of Legama near the River Nile. Like a lot of the major cities in the Great Sand Sea it had sprung up around an oasis, the water allowing crops and animals to thrive.

Usually when they returned from a riading mission they would be met with cheers from the towns folk as they marched in with their quarry, however this time they were met with silence. Their goddess had felt when her Familia members were massacred and their soul's connection to the Falna had disappeared.

The silence was an echo of the Bast's displeasure and grief.

They left the leftover slaves in the holding cells, some would be given to allied merchant companies, while others would be sold across town to bolster the workforce.

The young ones, who were the best looking or with good physiques would be inducted into the Familia. The Goddess Bast had been doing this for hundreds of years now, and her Familia had grown to be one of the larger ones, with several Level Two's and a handful of Threes.

Now all the leaders of the Raiding party and the other officers of the Familia were gathered in the meeting room of the Familias Headquarters.

The building was set like a temple with statues of lions surrounded by cats outside the entrance, the audience chamber was large with tall pillars and a throne where Bast would sit.

At this moment however, they were in a back room, a large imported table.

The woman at the head of the table was sitting in a large cushioned chair. She had caramel colored skin, her thin silk was accenting with metal and jewels. Large shapely breasts with a thin waist and wide hips. Her hair was straight black and fell halfway down her back. Her eyes were feline with golden irises and long eyelashes.

"How?" she asked simply.

"W-we're not sure who, but we saw it. Wide scale magic that caused a tree to grow and the leaves fell down onto the raiding team. We think it was some high leveled elf." One of the team leaders said.

"We waited for a day to see if any would show up, but none did. After that we had to leave before Altinian forces closed in on us."

Bast frowned, "I felt their deaths, but I don't know who exactly. Make a list for me so we can properly grieve for them and send the regards to the families."

There was grief on her face, she truly cared for her Familia members, and the fact that so many of them were taken at once tore at her heart.

"Yes Lady Bast," the man said.

"It will take us a long time to recover. How about the slaves sales," Bast asked.

"It went very well, we made sure to keep the best for ourselves. Maybe tomorrow you can review them to have some of them join us."

She nodded.

After the meeting was concluded Raxif stayed behind. Some of the others looked at him questioningly, some of them had noticed his odd behavior over the past few weeks, but he ignored them and waited for the room to clear.

All that was left was Bast and the captain of the Familia, a woman at the peak of Level Three.

"Yes Raxif?" Bast asked.

"My Goddess, I have something that may bring some joy after the loss of so many of our members."

She raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"When my team and I was capturing slaves we came across something unexpected."

"Oh? Did your Skill lead you to it?" Only Raxif's Raid leader, the captain, and the Goddess knew about Raxif's Rare Skill.

"Yes, in fact it reacted so strongly I could barely stand it."

Bast sat up in her chair. "Really? Do you remember the Grimoire that passed through the city a few years back. Was the smell stronger than that?"

"Much more. It came from a boy, at first I thought it was because of his necklace that holds a seed, but later I confirmed it came from the boy himself."

"He looks like a half-elf, but one of my team members is a dog-kin, she told me that she could find no human scent on him."

"So he's just a short eared elf?" The familias captain asked.

Bast said nothing, a light in her eyes shining.

"N-no, when she smelled the boy she could catch the scent of both an elf and a dwarf…"

He let the silence hang in the air for a moment.

"That's not possible," the captain said.

"When we captured him, we caught him along with an elven woman and a dwarven male. The woman has light skin grey hair and light blue eyes. The man has olive skin and wild dark hair. The boy is a blend of the two, a bit short with wild black hair, olive skin and light blue eyes with pointed ears. His features aren't soft enough for a half-elf half-human."

"Where is he, and his parents?" Bast asked, her breath a bit heavy.

"I made sure they weren't sold, both of them are Level One Blessed, though we don't know what Familia yet. The woman, the mother, is a mage. The father was a warrior."

"Tomorrow, at first light, bring the boy and his parents here."

"Yes Goddess."

He saw that some of Bast's grief had been hidden away by the joy of something new, which warmed Raxif's heart. He had been brought in as a slave as a young boy and had been forced to join the Familia, he still had some scars from the cuffs digging into his wrists and some of the slavers whipping him, but over the years he had come to realize that the Goddess and the others in the Familia truly cared for one another despite their cruel ways of taking people in.

…

In the early morning my parents and I were taken to the Headquarters of the Bast Familia. My parents stayed close to me, but I could see the resignation on their faces. There was no doubt now that they knew about me, or at the very least they were trying to confirm it.

According to Ma and Pa Gods could tell when a mortal was lying and were able to discern things that were imperceptible to the mortal eye.

We stepped into the audience chamber, the team that had first captured us boxing us in from both sides.

On the dias was a human woman, tall with a lean frame, but the woman beside her was what drew my eye.

Despite her human features she was without a doubt otherworldly. Beautiful face, large breasts with a thin waist and wide hips, I had no doubt her ass was perfect as well. Her legs were long and she wore sandals accented with gold.

Her golden feline eyes bored into me with interest, and when our eyes met a smile stretched on her face and her tongue danced across her lips.

"I see." she said smiling. "What's your name boy?"

I took a breath then smiled back. "Shouldn't the goddess of cats have cat ears?"

"Wat?"