Chapter 185

Another woman from the room behind the counter came and took over the desk while Lorriene showed us to our rooms on the second floor. Our rooms were above the kitchen so she jokingly told us not to worry about the noise. The woman's presence really had an interesting effect on Morrigan. She was usually pretty serious and shy out in public but she was like a completely different person around her aunt. It was really cute. She was giggling and laughing and almost hanging off of her like a kid.

The older pantharian was a bit wary of allowing Morrigan to behave that way in front of everyone at first but she soon realized I didn't mind and wasn't going to punish Morrigan for acting that way. She eventually loosened up and started to enjoy Morrigan's enthusiasm, hugging her back and teasing her. Torien looked excited too and even went in for hugs occasionally, which was rather abnormal from the typically aloof cat girl.

It was obvious to me that their aunt was a rather important figure in their life. I didn't know too much about their past... I've been a bit afraid to ask frankly. I'm concerned hearing about their childhood would just rile me up given their history of being slaves since birth so I've been hesitant to even bring up the subject. Neither of them has been forthcoming with their history either so I had just assumed it was better to leave it alone.

Unlike the rooms we had stayed in at the brothel, this building had wooden shuttered windows with thick curtains covering them. Right now the curtains were parted and the shutters were open letting the late afternoon sun in. The weather was just starting to warm for the start of spring so the breeze and the sun felt nice. It wouldn't be very long before the sun went down for the day and I wasn't interested in trying to navigate this city at night. I already felt rather put off by the sights I had seen coming here and I could do without trying to find my way back here through that market.

Bella smiled and looked around the room. "This is a really nice room for a place that's supposedly in the slums."

"Thank you," Lorriene said with a smile. "This inn is in the southern quarter but it's close to the market so the neighborhood isn't as bad as it gets farther south of here. That normally means there's enough customers to keep this place running and in good shape. But right now, there are a lot of problems in the city after those two nobles were murdered and the Tamin church started patrolling the city at the king's request. I've heard some rumors that the young king has gotten more involved in law enforcement recently. That may have been a welcome change if his first act wasn't to put the city guard under the Tamin paladins. I'm sure I don't have to remind you folk that they aren't kind to beastkin and demi-humans like us."

I grimaced. "Unfortunately not. We've had some issues with them in the past but at least becoming demon hunters has eased the pressure. I've already had a few of their demon hunters nod at me as we passed. It was rather surreal."

"Mmm, I suppose that makes sense," Lorriene replied with a curt nod.

"How long have the Tamin church been in control of the city like this?" I asked her.

"Only within the last week. When the news spread of Count Korland being murdered so shortly after Baron Morrister, people assume the king went into a rage... or a panic. There were already heavy patrols of guards going through the city but it wasn't until the Tamin paladins took control that they've been doing things like funneling all of the beastkin into the southern quarter," Lorriene said.

"Have you heard anything about demon summoners in the city?" I asked. "There apparently was a lot of them in Goldenhearth before the incident that led to Baron Morrister's death."

"I'm afraid I haven't heard any rumors about things like that. I don't have any way of knowing about demon summoners ma'am. Those types would probably be hidden in the more secretive parts of the city, not here right next to the market."

"Ah, alright. Thanks for the information nonetheless, you've been really helpful."

She leaned forward in an overly formal bow. "My purpose is to serve ma'am." Her gesture made things incredibly awkward and I didn't really know what to do after her response. The overly formal response confused me though, as if the conversation had turned chilly out of nowhere.

I cleared my throat. "Perhaps you would like some time to catch up with Torien and Morrigan in private? It sounds like the three of you haven't seen each other in a long time. I don't want to intrude on your reunion. Assuming you have the time to spare of course, I wouldn't want you to get in trouble..."

The woman's eyebrows rose a bit in surprise. "Would that be alright? I would like the opportunity to speak with them alone if you would allow it..."

"Not a problem," I replied with a smile. "I'm going to spend some time relaxing up here for the day. I have a lot of errands to run tomorrow so I don't want to stay up that late. The three of you should spend some time together now that you have the chance."

I didn't want to kill everyone's mood but walking through that slave market had taken a toll on me mentally. I didn't think I was up to hanging out and socializing right now. I think it was going to take some amount of convincing from the twins before their aunt trusted me anyway. It was probably better if I let them have some private discussions without me there before I tried to get to know her better.

Morrigan practically crashed into me and pulled me into a hug. "Thanks, Lilith! I'll slip into the room later." I hugged her back and smiled.

"Thanks, Lilith," Torien said. "I'll see you tomorrow morning then? Unless you want to talk later tonight?"

"Nah, it's okay. Just enjoy yourselves. There will be a lot to do tomorrow but it'll be fine as long as we get an early start. The only thing that's set in stone is meeting with the guard captain at the sixth bell. We'll probably be in the capital for a while based on the list of things we have to do."

Quickly doing the math in my head, that means the meeting is around two p.m. since the first bell is at eight a.m. It was kind of confusing converting from my own time system but at least one bell is approximately an hour and the fourth bell is at noon. I have no way to tell for sure but it feels like a bell is roughly an hour. I haven't really had to track bells for time-keeping reasons before and Goldenhearth didn't even have a functioning belltower while we were there so I haven't needed to think about it.

Lorriene smiled and bowed again, albeit less formally. "Thank you, Lilith. I'll make sure not to keep the two of them up too long tonight." The three of them left the room and headed down the stairs hand in hand. It was nice to see Morrigan laugh and smile like that. She always had her excitable moments but I'd never seen her like this.

Silva pointed at the door. "I guess I'll be headed to my room with Cecilia then. Knock if you need anything, or I don't know, do your weird mind magic with her. I think I'll go to bed early. I'm sure the capital is going to be a headache to deal with over the coming week and I'd prefer to be rested for it, especially since I can finally sleep in a real bed."

I laughed. "True enough. See you in the morning Silva."

Once everyone else cleared out of the room, I took Bella and Mimi's hands and led them over to the bed. The two of them intuited my emotions right away. Mimi used her magic to take off my armor, leaving me in my underwear, and the three of us slid under the covers to relax.

Mimi slid into my arms, her soft fur shifted back to her smooth skin as she pulled my arm over her and sandwiched it between her bare breasts. Bella slipped in behind me and pulled me against her, nuzzling lightly into the back of my neck.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Bella asked quietly.

I sighed. "I don't know. Maybe it's a bit stupid to get so worked up over all of that."

Bella lightly traced paths through the fur on my hip. "I don't think so. The sight was pretty shocking for me too actually. I could tell it hit you harder but I'd never seen anything like it either. Actually, I'd never seen so many people in one place, let alone slaves... Everything was already a little overwhelming but just the sheer number of slaves up in the cages was... pretty staggering."

I turned back to look at her, carefully avoiding poking her with my horns. "How do you feel about all of that? I was so preoccupied with my own emotions I didn't even realize..."

She smiled warmly at me before turning me to face back the other way and hugging me from behind. "I'm okay Lilith. ...It's not that I'm used to it exactly... but I'm aware that places like this existed. I'd heard stories. I never experienced any of that myself, you rescued me before I was even trained to be a slave, but I wouldn't have been surprised if I had ended up being one of those people up there." She kissed me on the neck and let the thought sink in.

I squeezed Mimi as Bella held me from behind. Mimi didn't say anything but I felt warm reassurances coming from her too. She would do anything she could to help me and make me feel better. She also felt like I rescued her, pulled her out of an intensely lonely and isolated life where the closest thing she had to family wanted to eat her. She hadn't shared these emotions with me before and they brought tears to my eyes when I felt it.

Walking through that bazaar had made me feel powerless, completely unable to make a difference just from the scale of the problem I was looking at. But maybe instead of focusing on the things I couldn't change, I would focus on the things I could. I would have to move forward one step at a time. Perhaps I could start with the twins' aunt, I don't know her full situation yet but maybe she could come with us too? Maybe I could do something bigger for other people in the future but right now my friends and I were still in danger. Even if the specter of it wasn't looming too closely, the [Dungeon Destroyer] title was a big enough problem we needed to get reassurances from the guild that they would protect us from the consequences of having it. I needed to get my cartography license and do some work for them to get the adventurer's guild and the other people who would take issue with the title off my back. Not to mention all of the demon activity that kept happening around us.

Now that I knew the scale of slavery in Torlimal, the whole thing dwarfed me, maybe when I visited the Great Library I could find out more about the abolitionist movement here. I wasn't sure if I would be able to help but I would feel better if I knew more about the situation than I already did. That's just one more reason to go to the library.

I doubt I would be the first [World Traveler] to go there looking for answers. There was a lot about myself that I didn't know, let alone the rest of this world. I had a crude understanding of local geography and history and that's it. Most of my time has been spent on learning magic and dealing with immediate issues instead. Would they know a way to get my memories back? Or even why I was here in the first place? If anyone could give me those answers it would be Sorsette. I wasn't sure if the goddess just hung out at the library but if there was anywhere I could learn about myself it had to be there, right?"

"It seems like you've calmed down and gotten lost in thought again." I could hear the smile in Bella's words as she leaned against me. "Are you feeling a bit better now?"

I reached back and grabbed one of her hands so that I could interlace my fingers with hers. "I do. Thanks, you two. I think I just needed some time to process everything. I feel like the moment I'm starting to get a handle on things, something else crops up and throws me for another loop."

"I know," Bella cooed. "We've been so busy and the most time away from stress we've had on this trip was when we were traveling from Goldenhearth. The moment we got here we're faced with this. I know you'll figure it out though. I believe in you."

"Thanks, Bella," I said with a smile. I squeezed Mimi and pulled her into a tighter hug. "And thanks, Mimi. You two are always so good to me. I really appreciate the two of you."

I leaned against Mimi and closed my eyes. I felt mentally taxed. Some sleep will do me some good.