Page 144

"Espionage of a noble is considered high treason and is punishable by death."

The deer-kin didn't argue, she sat there quietly and gripped her dress.

"What do you think Lilith?" Nathaniel asked.

I was caught off guard and turned to him. "What do you mean?"

He leaned back in his chair and dropped the [Zone of Truth]. He wiped his brow of the sweat that had accumulated there from the exertion of keeping the spell up this entire time and took a steadying breath.

He looked back over at me. "As far as I'm concerned, you brought her to me so I would be fine yielding to your judgement on what to do with her. She committed treason but I'm not against looking the other way under the circumstances, I'm not so cold-hearted. Some would even say that the late Baron died because of his own actions, freeing a slave and letting them get manipulated by one of his enemies. ...That's not a charitable view though and certainly not how I would put it."

I turned to look at my friends. Each of them had conflicted looks on their faces.

"What do you all think?" I asked.

Bella shook her head. "She was forced into it, it's not fair. She shouldn't die for this."

Morrigan was angry, on the verge of yelling. "No. What she did got hundreds killed. She may have been manipulated into it but anything less than execution is spitting in the face of all the people who died because of her." I was a little surprised to hear that kind of venom coming from Morrigan. That's not how I expected her to react at all.

Mimi only responded with a quiet, "I don't know."

Silva sighed. "I agree with Morrigan."

Bella turned to Silva sounding heated, "Even though someone let you live after killing a noble!?" Streams of tears were now coming from Bella's eyes.

Silva looked at Bella sharply, unflinching. "I killed the noble that killed my family and I deserved death for it. But she let armed killers into the castle after spying on them for months. Those cultists then slaughtered lots of innocent people, including the man that saved my life. So yes, I think she should be executed for that."

Torien didn't respond right away and rubbed her face. She was looking away from everyone else but from where I was sitting I could see her drying her tears. She took a breath and then looked at the girl sitting across from her. "...If I were in her position I would have done the same thing. I don't think she should die for trying to protect her family."

"Torien?" Morrigan looked at her sister shocked.

Torien turned away looking guilty. Her fingers gripped her dress just like Matilda's had.

"Hey guys stop arguing..." I awkwardly scratched the base of my horn and looked at the deerfolk woman. She had been watching the conversation intently the entire time, not speaking a word to defend herself. When I looked at her, her eyes met mine and she really did remind me of Bella for a moment.

I sighed and looked back at my friends. "I think we should stay her execution. I don't think this decision should be up to us. Fae should decide."

Matilda let out a small gasp and her eyes widened. "You know my Mistress? Did she escape?"

I turned back to her. "Silva got her out of the city alive and Bella healed her back up. She survived."

The woman broke down sobbing again, her face in her hands.

I shook my head. "I don't know how she'll take this news. She loved you like family Matilda, but because of you, she watched her father die right in front of her. I really don't know what to do, what she would rather do. Lots of people died here because of you and I don't know what the right answer here is."

Nathaniel cleared his throat. "I think I've heard enough. I'll draft a letter and give it to someone I know who can deliver it to Sera Faelyn Morrister and inform her of Matilda's involvement. In the meantime, I'll have Matilda collared as a crime slave and the young Morrister girl can decide if she should be executed once she takes custody of her."

Slavery again. I didn't know if I liked this outcome or not. Was this better than dying for her crimes? Should she have been executed? I don't know.

Another person was in slavery because of me.

Nathaniel nodded to me. "There's a guard by the door that will take you to Jasper, he still wants an account from you before you leave. He will give you your payment for your help afterward. Come back tomorrow and we can talk about that other thing I owe you. Thank you again for your help."

I took one last look at Matilda, she was still crying. The rest of my group didn't look like they were in much better shape, this event really didn't do anything good for our team cohesion. As we left, Torien and Bella walked on the opposite side of Mimi from Morrigan and Silva. It seems like both Bella and Morrigan were still wound up from the argument. Bella still looked like she was on the verge of tears and Morrigan looked angrier than I had ever seen her. I sighed as we walked to the end of the hallway.

Debriefing with Jasper and his guards went by quickly, we were each led to different rooms where we told a scribe our accounts of what we did in the castle. It seemed a little bureaucratic for the situation, especially with how spread thin everything still is outside of the castle, but I suppose they don't have their scribes patrolling the streets. When all of that was said and done our party was paid 7 gold, 2 gold over what Nathaniel had promised us as a bonus for our help. I took another look at Jasper as we were leaving but he still didn't strike me as suspicious... what was Silva seeing that I wasn't?

Our group walked back to the Ruby Vixen quietly. It was sad to see friction between Morrigan and Bella, they had been getting along really well lately and it was frustrating to see both of them get so emotionally charged on opposite sides of an issue. It wasn't like I didn't understand though.

Torien seemed melancholy and Silva seemed grim but at least they didn't look like they still wanted to fight about it. I sighed, this sucks. No one's ire had fallen on me or Mimi, being mostly neutral deflected any of it from us. It was almost worse this way though because it just intensified the differences between the two of them.

Mimi seemed the most sad. I could tell she didn't know what to do in this awkward atmosphere so I slowed down and took her hand. She smiled up at me with a furrowed brow, she was looking more and more natural every day. This situation was new for her and I could tell it gave her anxiety. Mimi was definitely closer to Bella but she considered Morrigan her girlfriend too so watching the two of them fight was hard for her. I was guessing that since she didn't know what to do or say she fell back into the habit of quietly observing.

"Do you think they sell ice cream in this city?" I asked the group.

I got a bunch of confused looks.

I shrugged. "That situation was emotionally draining, I could use something to cheer me up. So, ice cream."

"Ice cream would be nice, I really liked when we had some in Traehall," Morrigan said cautiously.

"Have you ever had ice cream Silva?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No, too expensive. Then later I had less say in the kind of food I got to eat."

"I wonder if Raya would know where some ice cream is. It would be a shame if there wasn't any available because of how the city is right now."

Torien nodded. "The guards are less concentrated at the gate now but it looks like there are still large parts of the city that are deserted. It seems like they're still quite spread thin. I don't think they have the manpower to have any open-air markets running in the city right now, if there is any ice cream, it would probably be in a restaurant or a tavern."

"Is ice cream really that good?" Silva asked. "I heard it was sweet but I never thought much about it."

"It's really good," Morrigan said with a grin. "I never had it until recently but Lilith bought us some to celebrate back in Traehall. I think it's my favorite food now."

I laughed. "Ice cream as a favorite food? Favorite desert maybe but food?"

"It's that good," Morrigan replied with a straight face. The seriousness of the comment made Bella laugh.

"How about you Bella? What's your favorite food?" I asked.

"Hmm, Fish? I used to catch fish in the lake near my farm growing up. I spent a lot of time fishing when I got a break from work. I have fond memories of my family eating the fish I caught before... things got bad."

Silva shrugged. "I went fishing a few times with some of the boys that lived near me growing up but I couldn't eat them. Fish upset my stomach pretty bad and animal meat is even worse. Most of the animals we raised we sold live so none of us needed to do any of the butchering work."

"I'm pretty sure I lived in a city. My best guess right now is that I either drew for a living or worked on... building diagrams to help plan buildings out. Does that make sense?"

Everyone either nodded or shrugged.

"One of the main reasons we're headed to the capital is so that I can get trained in cartography. It seems appropriate to my skill set," I mentioned to Silva.

The Ruby Vixen was in sight now and I already saw a friendly face. Raya turned at just the right time to see us coming and waved out to us. The shorter Sibyl was wearing an incredibly frilly dress and looked a little overdressed compared to the much more relaxed Raya.

I smiled. "Hey Raya, aren't you torturing your girlfriend a bit too much?" I said pointing at Sibyl.

"Girl-" Sibyl looked flustered by my statement and Raya had a snarky grin on her face.

"Mayyybe. It's hard not to with how cute Sibyl turned out. Look at this pretty dress we found, when I gave her a compliment she even decided to wear it out!" Raya held the blushing Sibyl by the shoulders to show her off.

I laughed and patted Raya on the shoulder. "Just don't push her too hard, you wouldn't want to scare the girl off."

"Me? Never," she said with a smile.

I cleared my throat. "Anyway, Raya, do you know where there might be a place that sells ice cream? Preferably one that's still open in all of this chaos?"

"Ice cream? Hmm... I know of one place but I don't know if they're still open. Why? You wanna go? I've never had it but it sounds good, seems kind of expensive for frozen milk though."

"Should we all go? I can probably afford to treat everyone if you lead us there."

Raya turned to Sibyl. "You interested?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I've had some before, it does taste pretty good. I couldn't make it myself because of... supply issues. And none of the girls that could have helped me with that ever gave milk."

It's really weird to think about drinking milk from a person. So I decided not to think about it.

Sibyl blushed. "Um, do you mind if I change into something a bit more casual first?"

Everyone agreed and she ran off to get changed.

Morrigan stepped next to Raya. "So Raya, you really seem to be flirting with Sibyl a lot lately. Did something happen there?"

Raya smiled and looked a bit bashful. "Is it that easy to tell? It's kinda weird right? I always used to think of her as my auntie, she was always there to help me and give me advice but I never had a clue she was into me like that. I moved into the Ruby Vixen as soon as I was old enough for them to take me and Sibyl immediately took me under her wing. I don't know what I would have done if she had confessed to me before but now that she looks so... cute. I can't help but tease and flirt back at her. ...She asked me to be her girlfriend, uh not in the exclusive sense, we're both prostitutes after all and... other stuff obviously, but I told her I would think about it. I played it off as a joke but I know she was serious and I'm not sure what to do..."

Before I could respond I heard Sibyl rushing back through the door. She popped out in a more casual outfit that looked a little baggy on her. It didn't look bad on her but it did make her look like a cute girl trying to be a tomgirl, which only made her look even more adorable.

"I'm back! Thanks for waiting for me!"

The two versions of Sibyl I met are completely night and day from each other.