Page 197

"Silva, is that still you?" Lorriene asked.

Silva's attention shifted from me over to Lorriene. "Yes, I took the oath and my transformation is the confirmation that Lilith's accepted it."

Lorriene's eyes trailed up and down her body and her face hardened. "Prove it then."

Silva grinned at her. "You have a scar on your inner thigh that you hate. You get pissy anytime someone points it out."

"Ugh, okay fine. No fair." She huffed and her eyes softened as she became more curious. "And this transformation, it made you more powerful? Like the stories say?"

Silva's eyes glanced at me for a moment before she refocused on Lorriene. "I am more powerful, I promise. But that's not my secret to share, it's something that should be kept between my sisters and anyone Lilith herself chooses to talk about it with."

Lorriene's lips pursed but a moment later her face relaxed and let out a breath. "I suppose I'll have to talk with Lilith about it myself down the line." She glanced at me before looking around the room. "For now we'll need to leave this place. It's best if we aren't here in the morning and we already have somewhere better to go. Cecilia, Lilith, you're certain the elves will take us in and protect us? Even the two pantharians that are runaway slaves?" She nodded to the two hooded figures.

Cecilia stood up. "Again, yes. It shouldn't be a problem. We're losing night though, we should go as soon as possible."

Lorriene nodded. "Let's raid the armory first then. Silva, Lilith, follow me."

I looked at Morrigan who still hadn't let go of my hand. "I'll be back soon, you can stay with Bella for now."

She nodded silently and let go of my hand before rubbing her arm awkwardly. "I left my staff and bag upstairs..." She glanced at Bella took the hint and soon the three of them were headed up the stairs with Torien.

"Mimi, come with me," I told her as I followed Silva after Lorriene.

The three of us followed Lorriene and the two staff members down the stairs to the pantry. The two staff members, or Order of Lilith cultists I suppose, worked together to move a shelf away from one of the walls that was hiding a door.

"Armory?" I asked.

Lorriene looked back at me while the two others started opening the secret door. "I mentioned this was a safe house right? Why wouldn't you think we would hide weapons here?"

One of the two that had opened the door lit a lantern on the wall and let the four of us pass through. It was a small room, more like a large closet with a rack of a dozen swords, shields, spears, and daggers lined up. In one corner was a handful of staves that I could tell were enchanted using my [Mana Sense].

"Take anything you want or think would be useful to any of your friends. We're abandoning the rest," Lorriene told us. The two other inn staff members each took a spear and a shield before getting out of our way.

Mimi perked up. "Can I eat anything we don't take?"

Lorriene gave her a strange look. "Why'd you bring this crazy girl with you?"

Mimi turned her head to the side in confusion before turning to me. "Do people think I'm crazy?"

I laughed. "No Mimi, but you have to admit that was a weird thing to say about a bunch of weapons if they don't know you. Most people can't eat things the way you can."

She shrugged. "If you say so."

I turned to Lorriene. "Mimi has spatial magic, she can take or make use of anything we don't need. She can also eat things to make herself stronger."

"Useful," the woman gruffly replied. "If none of your people need any of this, you can have all of it. If someone comes looking through here after we abandon the building it would be better if we didn't leave evidence of a weapons cache."

"Sure," I said. "Mimi, keep a few of each weapon just in case but go ahead and eat everything else you don't have room for. Bring those staves in the corner to me though, they might be useful, everything else is yours. Eat the weapon racks too while you're at it, don't leave any evidence of this place behind," I told her.

Mimi's face lit up and she got to work. As she walked through, several weapons of each type turned to motes of magic and flowed into her. Once she finished with that her shirt disappeared and she started feeding stuff into the giant mouth on her torso.

"Fuck, what the hell?!" Lorriene yelled while backing away.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to her," Silva said with a grin. "She doesn't get to do this very often but it's always fun to watch."

Mimi began to devour everything in the room that wasn't nailed down including the metal and wooden racks and what little furniture was in the small room. When she finished Lorriene was looking a little green. Mimi finished by putting her shirt back on and turning towards her. "Thanks, Auntie Lorriene!" she told her enthusiastically.

I coughed. "Oh yeah, um. Mimi is one of mine and Morrigan's lovers..." I told her. "I guess that kind of makes you our family too..."

She just turned to me with a mildly disgusted look on her face before she turned around. "Uh, no problem kid. Let's get out of here..."

I couldn't help but grin a little at the reply. Lorriene is a really interesting woman. While looking at the back of her head my eyes trailed over the spot on the back of her neck where her collar used to sit, there was a tan line that made the lack of collar pretty obvious.

"Lorriene..." I said quietly. "Morrigan and Torien were pretty... disturbed by their collars being removed. Why are you doing so much better than they are?"

Her hand lightly gripped the doorframe as she stood there. There was a long pause there while we waited for her to say something or keep moving. After a while, she spoke.

"In this kingdom, all pantharian children are taken to a small city north of the capital to be raised and trained. The only way out of it is for a pantharian's master to leave this country while the mother is pregnant. Afterward, the child will still be taken to be collared and trained if they are ever brought back, even as an adult. Any master wealthy enough to buy a pantharian usually isn't willing or interested enough to stop the kingdom from taking the children and would need somewhere outside of the country to leave them even if they did want to keep them. Some people even see it as a benefit of owning a pantharian, not having to worry about figuring out what to do with the children..."

Her sharp nails trailed down the wood as she collected her thoughts. "I wasn't raised in this country as a child... My mother's master had kept me and my sister outside of Torlimal until we were adults but he also maneuvered things so that we could be collared and kept without having to be taken away from our mother or trained with the rest of the pantharians. Unfortunately, my sister got bred by his son and our master wasn't happy about it. He sold the two of us off to a trainer in that city to punish her for it, even though it wasn't even her choice. We were still allowed to visit and spend time with Torien and Morrigan as they grew up but they were raised and trained separately from us. They've been trained as slaves since they were babes so it's not a surprise they wouldn't take it well after they had been told all their lives that they were worthless without a master. The other two are acting like our agent, Kerling, is their master still... I think that's even worse."

Without another word she stepped through the doorway and up the stairs, not leaving room for any further questions. A lump had settled in my throat. That was a lot more information than I thought I would get but it was a valuable glimpse into their past. I was still scared to ask them about their childhood. This confirmed that my fears were founded. Mimi took my hand and I felt waves of comfort and reassurance flow through the bond from her. She didn't say anything but she was there to comfort me.

Silva spoke up from behind me, "Since you've overheard some of my relationship with her anyway, I'll tell you that I've known her for a long time and she doesn't like to talk about the time she spent being 'trained' there. I had thought that it was because she was tortured or something, but now I think it's because of her relationship with her nieces. She had told me about them a few times but other than the fact that she loved and missed them, I didn't know much about them. That's why I was so surprised to find out the twins were related to her."

I frowned. "I was planning on telling everyone else about this later but Sorsette told me that Fortuna, the goddess of luck and fortune, has been pulling my strings from the beginning. There's too many coincidences around me that point to manipulation and this is another for the heap."

"Fortuna huh? I would doubt that if it hadn't come from Sorsette. Fortuna has always been known to stay out of most people's affairs and other than granting boons of luck to people on occasion, all she's known for are her gambling dens. ...I can feel your tension through the bond. What else aren't you telling me about her?" Silva asked.

I sighed. Silva is a succubus now, she's connected to me the same way the others are and we can feel each other's emotions in a way I hadn't before. My relationship with Silva was a little complicated right now and the bond was more revealing than I wanted it to be at the moment.

I decided to tell her through the bond so I turned to face her, -- "Sorsette is sure that Fortuna is one of three gods supporting the Tamin church." --

"Fuck," she whispered.

"Keep it to yourself for now, I haven't had a chance to tell anyone yet and I know it'll turn into a long discussion."

Silva cracked her neck. "Fine. We have other things to do anyway, let's get moving... also hearing your voice inside my head was weird."

The three of us who had been left alone in the armory finally came up the stairs and found everyone had more or less finished getting ready. Sibyl waved us over when she saw us come out from the back room.

"Hey, Lorriene told me to ask Mimi about a sword?"

Without asking Mimi stepped forward and one of the swords she had taken from the rack materialized in her hands. "Here you go! I also have a few shields and spears!"

Sibyl took it and measured the weight in her hands. "Not bad. My current sword is rather old so I'll have to use this for now. Would you mind holding on to my old sword Mimi? It has sentimental value."

"I don't mind, sure," Mimi replied with a smile.

I left them alone and went over to where Morrigan and Torien were sitting next to Bella. They looked geared up and ready to go. Morrigan was holding her clear staff that looked like it was made of glass. Torien was checking her arrows and making sure everything was neatly packed in her bag. They both still looked tense but something about checking their equipment had brought them back to somewhere familiar.

"How are you three doing?" I asked. The two twins flinched when I spoke even though I know they had seen me coming.

"I'm doing... okay? I think," Morrigan said quietly.

Torien nodded. "Better..."

"Good." I wasn't happy they were still acting skittish but at least preparing their weapons and gear had centered them a little bit. I sat next to Morrigan and placed my hand on her leg. I was worried she would shy away from me but instead she rested her shoulder against mine and leaned against me. I wrapped one arm around her waist and kissed her cheek.

"Thank you, Lilith," Morrigan whispered.

"For what?" I asked softly.

"For... everything. There's too much to say right now but mostly... for making me feel wanted still. I... I'm not even entirely sure what it is I'm afraid of, but everything feels so uncertain now..." She started to tear up again so I pulled her against me and kissed her on the forehead.

"It's okay Morrigan... I love you. I won't let you go that easily."

Torien sat next to me and leaned against me from the other side. Her hand played with the crease of my pants. "You meant all that stuff you said right? Partners?"

I wrapped an arm around Torien's waist and held her against me. "Yes. Partners, friends, and family."

A small smile rose on Torien's face. It wasn't a beaming smile but it was something. "Partners, friends, and family. I trust you, Lilith. I don't need a collar to know that you wouldn't abandon us. I believe in you."