Chapter Eighty-Five: Stella

Though I’d intended to get in and out without being spotted, the shimmer changed things. I still couldn’t help but feel that it was important, yet I’d still come no closer to understanding why. But that left me with a problem. I was currently alone in a hidden room with a mostly naked Elf that was nearly a full head shorter than me. Not exactly a good place to start.

The decision was taken from me when she turned around, humming to herself. It took her a second to realize she was looking at another person, and in that second we both stood still as statues, either unwilling or unable to make the first move. Then she shrieked, jumping half a foot in the air, and lunged for something on her workbench. Before I could even get a word in edgewise, she was hurling a knife at me.

It was a poor throw, but the knife didn’t care. There was a spark, then a flash, then the one knife was now six blades tumbling at me end-over-end. I was surprised enough that a few would have found their mark if the shadows I’d summoned earlier hadn’t leapt into action and swatted the blades out of the air. All but one melted into smoke, and by the time I looked away from the remaining dagger to the Elf she’d scooped up a long pole and was pointing it at me.

“S-stay back!” she yelled. She twisted the haft of the pole in her hands and something resembling a curved blade made from blue and silver flame sputtered to life at the end of the weapon. “I have a vague idea of how to use this and I’m not afraid to figure it out!”

I held my hands up, palms splayed outward. “Easy, I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Yeah?” she challenged. The tip of her fiery spear wobbled. She tucked it under her armpit so she could use one hand to reach over and scoop up a clear spherical gem wrapped in bands of copper. She tossed it to me, but my shadows caught it out of the air. Once I was sure it wasn’t about to explode, I transfered it to my hand. Along the way, the orb seemed to suck up some of my mana, though not enough to be at all threatening. “Say that again.”

I raised a brow. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Vivid blue smoke started to swirl inside the orb. Something about that was surprising to the girl, because both of her brows shot up. She twisted the spear and the flaming head sputtered out of existence. “Oh. Well, then. Um, how did you get in here?”

“The stairs.”

Her brow furrowed. “I set up like a million traps to make sure the Madame couldn’t sneak up on me.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” I said, nodding sagely. “Yeah, I avoided those. Cleverly placed, but I’ve got a lot of experience dealing with dungeon crawling.”

“Huh.” She leaned the polearm against the wall, where it promptly slid down and crashed to the ground with a clatter that didn’t even make her flinch. Then she flipped a latch on her goggles, then pulled out the obsidian colored glass in them. Behind the now-empty frame was a set of bright green eyes flecked with gold. That was as much as I saw before she pulled a violet lens out of her apron and slotted it into place.

She walked straight up to me without even a hint of fear, moving in a speedy circle and examining me from all angles. She poked at my shadows curiously. They shied away from her touch as if unsure how to deal with her. I didn’t move a muscle, worried I’d scare her off if I did.

“Find what you’re looking for?” I asked eventually.

“Not in the slightest. These are cool as shit. Class ability, right? Not items?” she gave me a once over, so close that I could see down the top of her apron to confirm that she was indeed not wearing a single scrap of clothing. “Nope, no items on your person.” She tried to grab a shadow, but it slid from her grasp every time.

“Right. And you are?”

Her face jerked up towards mine. “Hm? Oh, right. Stella. Pleasure. Can I have some of these?” She pointed to my shadows.

“Uh they’re kinda… attached to me.”

She blew out a raspberry. “For now, yeah.”

I fought the urge to take a step back. “You’re an artificer, then?”

“Figured that out all on your own, did you?” She crossed her arms. “Why are you in my shop?”

“Took a wrong turn looking for the bathroom?” I offered halfheartedly. Immediately the smoke in the orb turned a dark red and she cocked a hip. I sighed. “I’m here for the cat.”

She gasped, pressing a hand to her chest. “Not Mr. Whiskers!”

I could feel the rage radiating from Festus.

“Afraid so,” I said, trying to hide my amusement. “Finding you was just a happy accident.” The more I spoke, the more the smoke returned to blue.

Her lips slanted downward. “Mr. Whiskers belongs to you?” Her bottom lip trembled. “What if I bought him from you? I could trade! Anything in here that you see! Except my lie-ball, that’s mine.”

“As tempting of an offer as that is, I’m afraid that won’t be possible. Festus isn’t quite mine, you see.”She screwed up her face. “Festus? Who names a cat Festus.”

Festus himself huffed in response. “Technically I was a dragon when my creator named me.”

With an ear shattering—and frankly, adorable—yelp, Stella dove behind me. “It talked!” She pressed herself into my back, grabbing two fistfuls of my shirt. To make things even odder, my shadows immediately parted for her, closing back up and enveloping her in their protective embrace.

“Yes, he did,” I said, shooting a dirty look at the silver cat. “Festus isn’t a real cat, he’s a familiar. He won’t hurt you either.”

“How can I be sure?” she demanded, glaring at Festus from around my arm. “How am I supposed to test him with my lie-ball, huh Mr. Sexy-Shadow-Man?” She grabbed my arm with a vice-like grip. “How’s he supposed to hold it? Cat’s don’t have thumbs!”

I couldn’t tell if I should laugh or sigh at the griefstruck expression on her face. I held up the ‘lie-ball.’ “Festus won’t hurt you.”

As soon as the smoke returned to blue—with the faintest strings of red inside—she relaxed. What she didn’t do was remove her hand from my arm. “Oh. Alright, if you’re sure.” Then she frowned and squeezed my arm. “Yrena’s tits, you spend a lot of time swinging swords around? I hope the other arm is just as muscular.”

“Uh, you could say that.”

She wrapped both hands around my bicep. “It should be a crime to wrap arms like these in fancy shmancy noble clothes like that.”

I raised a brow. “I think we’re getting off topic here.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.”

Despite the situation at hand, I had to ask. “Mr. Sexy-Shadow-Man?”

She gestured to the shadows that had wrapped around her like a protective shell. “Have you seen yourself?” She made no move to step away from where she was pressed into my back. If anything, she almost nestled in deeper. “You, my tall, dark, and handsome friend are scary in all the right ways.”

“Um, thanks?”

She smiled brilliantly. “You’re welcome.”

“Zaren. My name is Zaren.”

“Ooh,” she cooed. “Cool name. Are your shadows going to let me go or are you planning to hold me up against you all day? I’m not complaining if you are, I’m quite comfortable.”

I frowned. It took a bit of focus to convince my shadows to unfold, allowing Stella to step away. Something she did slowly, and after some hesitation. She trailed her fingers along one of the tendrils when she did. “Is it weird that I find your scary ass shadows oddly comforting?”

“A little,” I admitted. “It’s not a reaction I get a lot, that’s for sure. This whole interaction has been pretty far from standard, if I’m being honest.”

“Thank you!” Then her smile died and she looked over towards Festus. “So, my new best friend is actually a summon?” She let out a breath. “That really blows.” She turned and started back towards the bench, once again turning her completely bare backside towards me. Whether intentional or not, the sway of her hips made it hard to tear my eyes away from it. “You’re taking him, then?”

“My summoner needs him back,” I said slowly.

She braced her hands on the workbench and leaned forward, which was really not helping the situation not-so-slowly developing in my pants. “Uh, Stella? Can I ask why you’re naked?”

“Hm?” She looked down, as if only just realizing her attire situation. Just when I was expecting a freak out, she shrugged. “If I get any magic residue on my clothes, then the Madame finds out about my secret shop. Can’t afford to damage them, so I work in just my homemade apron and gloves. I grew up in a brothel, nudity is kind of a given.”

“Right. That makes complete sense. And would it be possible for you to at least put on some pants while I’m here?” I asked gently.

She looked at me over her shoulder, sucking her bottom lip into her mouth and working her lip ring with her tongue. “Right. I guess you don’t want to see me naked, huh?”

I shot her a dry look. “Stella, that couldn’t be further from the truth. You’re a gorgeous genius and while I’d love nothing more than to have this conversation in the buff, I’ve learned from experience that clothes make talks like this stay a little more on the rails.”

Her lip slipped out from between her teeth and I realized she wasn’t looking at me, but the lie-ball. The smoke inside was completely blue, which made her cheeks turn a vivid red. “Oh, for fu—” I set the orb down on the bench. Next to it was a strip of black cloth with a shimmering silver thread woven through it. I scooped it up.

“Here, just throw this on—what the fuck?”

The second I’d picked it up, one of my shadows surged into the fabric. My darkness merged with the cloak and the garment came alive. It was impossible to tell where the magic began and the cloak ended, giving it a disorienting effect.

An excited squeal was the next sound I heard. “Holy fuck, I knew my cloak would work!” She darted over, spreading the cloak out without taking it from me. “I knew you had a Primal class! Now I know what that color means. Thank you magic-lenses.”

Her words sent me into a light shock. “A Primal class?”

Her brow furrowed. “Yeah. A class where Primal is the main stat? What else would I mean?” Then she looked me up and down. “Muscles like that on a Primal based class? You just got even more interesting.”

I carefully set the cloak down carefully. “Okay then. Fine, how about this.” I summoned the cleanest coat I had in my inventory. “Here.”

Her face went slack. Gingerly, as if she expected me to yank it back at the last minute, she took it. “This is a really nice coat. Vintage, looks like.”

I fought back a laugh. That was, in fact, the coat Allura had put me to sleep in. It was vintage, but only because I’d been given the jacket thirty years ago. “Should be plenty covering.”

She took in with both hands and pressed it to her face. “This is high quality, and you’re just giving it to me? I can’t take this.” Despite her words, the way she clung to the garment suggested she might burst into tears if I tried to take it back.

“Hear me out and we’ll call it even.”

She looked from me to the coat then back to me, then slowly nodded. “Alright,” she said in a small voice. She carefully draped it over a stool, then pulled her apron off before I could so much as avert my eyes. Almost against my will, I clocked the nipple piercings, belly button piercing, stylized tattooed flock of birds that flew up her ribcage, and neatly trimmed patch of hair above the apex of her legs while she took her gloves and goggles off and dropped them on the bench.

With a genuinely happy smile on her face, she threw the jacket around her shoulders. It went down to her knees, and the sleeves were far too long for her. She just pulled it tight, enveloping herself in the black leather. “It’s so warm. It’s like you just took it off.”

I rubbed the back of my head. “Sorry, my storage skill does that. It sort of keeps things in stasis.”She pulled the collar up over her face. “Badass.” Then she frowned and stuck her hand inside. Fingers poked out of a hole at the shoulder and she shot a questioning look at me.

I just shrugged, leaning against the bench behind me. “I got chewed on by some blightwolves. That’s the least damaged jacket I’ve got on me right now, though.”

Her eyes landed on mine. Dark, heavy eyeliner that had previously been protected by the goggles made her dark green and gold eyes sparkle. “What’s the most damaged jacket you’ve got?”

That was an easy one. I pulled the coat I’d been wearing when I’d been skewered by the Valax queen and held it up. In the back as well as in the front where it had been pulled closed was a big jagged hole nearly a foot in diameter.

“Holy shit!” She took it from me then held it up, shaking her head. Then she turned to hold it in front of my chest so it lined up. “You were wearing this when it got all fuckled?”

“Unfortunately,” I replied with a wince. “Luckily, one of my partners is a powerful priestess.”

She let out a whistle, then reached out and touched her fingertips to my abdomen where I’d been speared.  “Damn…” Then her light touch got heavier and she ran her palm down my abdomen, biting her lip. “Damn. You need to hire me to make you a nice suit of armor. I’m thinking leather. Lots and lots of leather.”

Chuckling, I banished the coat back to my storage and gently removed her hand from where it was exploring my stomach. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were stalling.”

She pouted, her trembling bottom lip making an appearance. “Please don’t take my friend. I don’t… I just got used to the idea of having someone to talk to down here. I can’t really trust anyone else with my secret.” She punctuated her request by burying herself even deeper into the coat I’d given her.

Damn. It was harder than it should have been to resist trying to comfort her. I was still fighting the urge to scoop her up and get her as far from here as possible. “Why don’t we take a seat. I’ve got some questions I’d like to ask you.”

“Why?” she asked, suddenly wary.

Because you’ve got some sort of marker on your soul that I don’t understand but believe to be connected to saving the world. No big deal. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be the best way to start this conversation. Instead, I gestured to the room around us. “You’re an incredibly talented artificer. I’m curious as to how you ended up making magic dildos in the basement of a brothel.”

She scoffed. “Please, I graduated from magic dildos when I was seventeen. But I see your point.” She shoved some stuff aside so she could hop up onto the workbench and gestured to one of the stools in the room. I sank down onto it and she sighed. “Madam Reade finds kids who are starving and have nobody else. Gives them a home, some education, and three meals a day. In return, we’re expected to work off our debts when we get our classes.”

She started kicking her legs while her gaze wandered around the room. “You can go into any number of jobs or roles to try and pay off your debt, but there’s one route that promises the fastest payoff.”

“Working upstairs?” I guessed.

“Got it in one. I got lucky, though. Got an artificer class and proved I could be useful at a bench, not on my back. Now, as long as I produce results and give the Madame plenty of one-of-a-kind sexual paraphernalia to put on her shelves, I get to avoid the bedrooms upstairs for my dungeon down here.”

“Then you haven’t…” I let the question hang.

She shot me a small smile. “All of us undergo the training when we’re young, but the gods give us three class choices for a reason. I got a courtesan-adjacent class option both times, but that just isn't the life I want. I know the theory behind how to please a man—and a woman, if need be—but virginities are too valuable a thing to auction off. She'd never risk having us actually fuck until she could make as much money off it as possible. So no, I’ve never been forced to have sex with money.” She looked away. “Not that the Madame hasn’t threatened me with it about a thousand times when I misbehave.”

I nodded, running a hand through my hair. Gold flecked eyes followed the movement closely. "So if you had the choice, you wouldn’t be here.”

She laughed dryly. “Definitely not. This may come as a shock, but I don’t really want a tail plug you can feel and move to be my legacy.”

“Then what do you want your legacy to be?”

She bit her lip, then hopped down. She rooted around in a half open drawer and came out with a vial full of a swirling ice-blue mixture. “C’mere.” I moved behind her and she tossed it onto the ground a few feet away. It exploded, sending jagged shards of ice in all directions.

My shadows reacted immediately, yanking her to my chest and preparing to defend us both. She squeaked in surprise, but didn’t fight me. The shards, rather than going in all directions, were all pulled towards one spot. The apron still hanging on the wall. The shards crashed into the thick fabric. Most shattered, but a few stuck for a moment before falling to the ground.

Stella flashed a triumphant smile at me, then confidently strode out of my shadows. She lifted the apron up to show that the wall underneath was untouched. “Arcanium weave. Someday, when I’m out of here, it’s going to make me rich as fuck. I’ll make so much goddamn money that I can come back, buy this shit place, and pay off everyone’s debts.”

I reached over her shoulder to touch my fingers to the shimmering thread that weaved intricate patterns all throughout the apron. “Arcanium is a metal. You can’t just turn it into thread,” I said with an arched brow.She hummed. “You can when you’re a motherfucking genius. And don’t go asking me how I do it. That’s a trade secret, thank you very much.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” When I looked down at her, she was gazing at the apron with a heavy look in her eyes. A hopelessness I was becoming all too familiar with. “It’s a noble goal,” I said softly.

“But an unrealistic one, I know.” She undid her bun so she could run her fingers through her hair. “I’m just a demi-human. I’ll never own shit, and it’ll be a miracle if I’m ever actually recognized for my creations. I’m lucky to have a roof over my head and food in my belly and I shouldn’t be so arrogant as to ask for more.”

Anger churned in my gut as she spouted off words no doubt said to her dozens of times in her life. I was just beginning to search for the words to try and comfort her when Festus padded over. “Lord Zaren, Rhallani would like me to pass along a message. Both she and Lady Safina have left the Silver Swallow and joined Lady Serena and the others.”

Stella went so still I wasn’t sure she was still breathing. “Thank you, Festus,” I said without taking my eyes off her.

“That wasn’t the message, sir. Lady Serena wishes to pass along that another of the flowers has bloomed. She said you would understand what that meant.”

It took me a moment to figure it out, and when I did I felt like ice cold water had been dumped on my head. One of the buds on Serena’s marker had changed? And right around the time I’d met Stella, who had a shimmering soul? I already didn’t believe in coincidence, and this just cemented things in my head. Stella was important somehow, which made her being imprisoned in one of the possible bases of our enemy a very, very bad thing.

“Tell her I might have an idea of why, but we’ll discuss it later.”

He inclined his head and sat back on his haunches. “They would like to know when to expect you.”Stella was still looking at the apron, but her jaw was locked. It was clear that something had upset her.

“Something tells me it’ll be a while. Have Safina take Rhallani and Noelle back. Even disguised, I’d rather not risk the nonhumans being in the area any longer than necessary.”

He inclined his head, but didn’t respond. Stella’s body language had become stiff and closed off, so I took a step back. She swallowed hard, then looked at me while hugging herself. “I’m guessing ‘Lord’ wasn’t just a nickname?”

Ah, shit. “No,” I said.

She nodded, turning away. “No, of course it isn’t. You’re a Lord.”“I am.”

“One who owns demi-humans.”

I winced. “I don’t have anyone in my service that doesn’t want to be there.”

“Right. I’m sure.” She looked around at the room. “And now you know my dirty little secret. I’m sure the Madame would pay you handsomely to know about it.” She laughed mirthlessly. “I should have guessed your interest in me wasn’t just academic. You should probably know that no amount of gold will pry me out of Madame Reade’s clutches.”

There was a lot to unpack in that defeated statement, but luckily for me I had a pretty good way to start doing just that. I scooped up the lie-ball and held it in front of her face. “If it were up to me, nobody would wear a collar bearing my sigil.” The smoke was blue. “If it were up to me, no demi-humans would be forced to wear collars period.” Blue. “The Accords shouldn’t exist.” Blue. “The only reason I have servants is because wearing my sigil is the best way for me to protect the people I care about from a corrupt system.” There wasn’t even a hint of red in the orb by the time I was done.

She looked up at me with wide eyes. “You care about demi-humans?”

I smiled, moving the lie-ball so she could see both the orb and my face. “Many of the people I care most about in this world are demi-human. Hells, at this rate, most of my harem is demi-human.” Nope, still a fucking crazy sentence to say aloud.

Her eyes were wide as saucers. “H-harem!?”

“Yeah, I’m as surprised as you are that multiple women are willing to put up with my ass.”

A laugh bubbled out of her before she could clamp hand over her mouth. “And all the members want to be there? They don’t mind sharing?”

“If they didn’t want to be there, I wouldn’t so much as lay a hand on them. And with how often they push me to expand the harem, they definitely don’t mind.”

“Oh.” She pulled her hair over her shoulder, absentmindedly twisting it into a braid.

I reached out to still her fingers. “Stella, what did you mean when you said no amount of gold can free you?” I asked softly.

Sucking her lip back between her teeth, she strode over to the box still playing music. She flipped a switch and it went silent, then she opened a compartment in the back and started going through a stack of silver rings. She pulled one out and slotted it in, then flipped the latch again.

As clear as if she was in the room, Madame Reade’s voice came from the box. It lacked the husky tone she no doubt used on clients, but it was definitely her. “Another Patron made me a rather lucrative offer today,” she said, her tone smug. “It’s getting harder and harder to say no, even if the girl is a gold mine.”

I waited for the other end of her conversation to speak, but after a moment of silence her voice returned. “I expect nothing less. I’ve been offered enough to open a whole chain of brothels. Her… ideas are apparently unique enough to catch the attention of half the artificer’s guild. Another one went to the royal quarter to try and pressure me into selling her. I take it I can thank you for the interference?”

Another pause. “One of these days, you’ll have to tell me why I’m watching over the girl so closely. She’s invaluable to be sure, but you couldn’t have known that when you brought her to me. So far, everyone has shown interest only in her work, not in the girl herself.”

“This is a long pause,” Stella said quietly. “I don’t know who she’s talking to. She must be using some kind of magic item to speak with them over a distance, so the listener I planted in her office didn’t pick up their side.”

I wondered how many times she’d listened to this recording. I didn’t have long to wonder though before Madame Reade started speaking again. “Yes, yes, I’ll keep her nice and hidden away. It’s worked out quite well, actually. The other girls have turned on her just as I predicted. A little special treatment goes a long way, it seems. Outside of fate or luck, whoever you’re waiting on to show up won’t even know she’s here.”

When she spoke again, fear laced her tone. “Of course, sir. I’d never dream of it. No, you don’t have anything to fear from me. Yes, I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry, the girl won’t be going anywhere any time soon. Right. It will be done.”

That’s where the recording ended. Wordlessly, Stella returned the ring to the storage compartment. “I just wish,” she said, her voice quavering slightly, “that I knew why. I was young when my parents died. I don’t even remember their faces. What could I have possibly done to end up here?”

Unfortunately, the pieces were starting to fit together. I had an idea of why she was here, and since I was currently holding her lie-ball I couldn’t hide that fact. She clocked my silence almost immediately and took a step back. “You know, don’t you? Why I’m here? Why I lost my freedom when I was just six years old?”

“I have… theories,” I said carefully. The smoke remained mostly blue, but there was some red mixed in. I was really going to have to figure this thing out.

She crossed her arms. “Spill.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Maybe we should take a seat first.” She hopped back up onto her workbench and I sank back onto the stool. I thought about ditching the lie-ball, but in all honesty what I had to tell her was so ridiculous that she wouldn’t believe me otherwise. I briefly questioned how smart it was to bring her into the fold when I’d only just met her, but if I was even close to right then the truth was the least I owed her.“Before I start, I should probably say that I’m well aware of how ridiculous this is all going to sound.”

She leaned forward, no doubt hungry for answers to the questions that had gone unanswered for so long. “I’m listening.”

I let out a breath and closed my eyes. “My name is Zaren Nocht. I’m one of the Seven heroes who freed the kingdom from Zagrith Grimsbane. I was the one who cut his head off. After, I made a deal with a goddess. She put me to sleep for thirty years, and I only just woke up nearly two months ago.”

I cracked an eye open. The orb was pure blue, and her jaw was hanging open. “You broke the lie-ball. You must have. That or you’re crazy.”

I just shrugged. “I did warn you. On my travels, I’ve met a number of people who I believe that goddess put in my path. People that the goddess has helped either with classes or minor levels of divine intervention. The goddess has gone missing, so it’s possible that someone is wise to her schemes. I have no solid proof, but I think you might be one of the people the goddess tried to prepare to aid me in whatever the fuck it is she wants me to do. If someone figured out what she was up to or that you’re connected, it’s possible they’ve locked you away to try and draw out whoever her agent is. Namely, me.”

She leaned back against the wall, her face slack. At some point, a thread of red had entered the sphere. I frowned, trying to figure out where I might have lied, but she beat me to it. “You do have proof. Not ironclad, but you know something. Something that put you on that train of thought. Tell me.”

I swallowed. She could only be talking about the shimmer. “I’m not sure—”

Stella leaned forward, her gaze intense. “This is my entire life we’re talking about. If you know something, tell me.”

I ran a hand over my face. “Well, before I can tell you what I know, you have to understand that my second class gives me some unique abilities. One such ability is that I can see souls.”

“Souls?” She crossed her arms over her chest as if trying to cover up. After watching her flaunt her nudity without a care in the world, it was almost entertaining. “You looked at my soul!?”

I held my hands up. “I… peeked at it, yes. It’s a relatively recent development and I’m still trying to figure it out. I didn’t look close enough to get your life’s story, but I did see an… oddity in your soul.”

She blanched. “An oddity? Am I sick? Am I gonna die? Zaren, I’m too young and smart to die! I haven’t even tackled my bucket list yet!”

“Relax,” I said. “It’s nothing fatal.” Some red smoke appeared in the orb and she started to panic. “As far as I know,” I added quickly, and the red disappeared. “It’s a kind of shimmer, like there’s some aspect of your soul that’s been hidden from anyone with the ability to take a peek. It’s something I haven’t seen outside of my household, and so far everyone I’ve met who has a shimmer has quickly become important to me. I have no idea what it means, just that it’s important.”

Some red filtered into the smoke and I frowned. Stella, though, looked excited. “You do, though. You know what the shimmer means!”

“I definitely don’t,” I protested.

“The lie-ball is never wrong, and it disagrees.” She hopped off and came over to stand next to me, peering at the orb. “The more intense the colors, the more truthful or deceitful you are. When you said you wouldn’t hurt me, it was as pure a blue as I’d ever seen. Not only were you saying you weren’t going to hurt me in that moment, but even down to a subconscious level you would never do anything that would knowingly cause me harm. Because of that, I trust you in a way I’ve never really trusted anyone, despite us being strangers.”

She reached out tentatively, brushing her fingers against the orb. “On some level, you know what he shimmer means. Even if you haven’t put the pieces together, the answer is staring you in the face. Either you’ve overlooked it or you don’t want to acknowledge it, but deep down you know. What makes you think this shimmer is related to your goddess?”

“Before I answer, I should probably ask. Madame Reade doesn’t have any way she can force answers out of you, does she?”

Apparently the thought hadn’t even occurred to her. “Nope. My mind is completely my own. She can threaten me, I guess, but nothing she can do to me is worth giving up all the stuff you’re telling me right now. Fuck her.”

“Right. Well, the goddess left a Marker for one of my partners. She’s a priestess. The Marker is a tattoo of a flowery vine, and if my hunch is right I think each of those flowers represents a different one of my companions. Specifically, the ones whose souls have the same shimmer as yours.”

She gaped. “And another of those flowers bloomed around the same time you met me, who has a shimmering soul. Fuck me sideways. You’re telling me I’ve been making magic sex toys because a goddess took interest in my life? What fucking goddess?” she demanded.

I winced. “Allura.”

That took the wind out of her sails. “‘Family, love, and bonds’ Allura?”

“She’s not a sex godde—uh, I mean, yeah. That’s it exactly.”

Stella just rolled her eyes and hopped back up on the bench once more. “Yeah, I know Allura isn’t a sex goddess. Yrena, Goddess of Lust, has that title. Her domain gets all the horny shit, from the good stuff like making love to the bad stuff like rape. It’s why Allura’s followers get testy when you call her the sex goddess. The only pieces that fall under her purview are the good bits. You know, love making, forging bonds through trust and affection, making families, shit like that.”

Huh. That explained a lot, actually.

Her bare legs started kicking again. “I don’t suppose I get some kind of compensation for her inadvertently ruining my life, do I? I guess gods don’t really care about us mere mortals.”

“Normally, I’d be the first to agree with you, but…” I trailed off. If you’d have told me thirty years ago that I’d be defending a goddess, I’d have hit you in the mouth. “Allura seems to care a bit more than the average deity. A low bar, I know, but it seems to be true. As for compensation, I’d happily give you your own workshop and endless resources if I could, but something tells me it won’t be quite so simple as sneaking you out the back door.”

She grimaced, then pulled one side of my coat away to reveal her body. At first I thought she was simply flashing a pert, pierced breast at me, but then she touched her opposite hand to one of the birds tattooed on her ribs. It was larger than the rest and glowed a slight silver color. A silver swallow.

“Putting her boys and girls in collars would limit the play options,” she said, her tone harsh, “so she opted for a more permanent claim. If I step outside the premises without explicit permission, it’ll take me to the ground in pain until one of her other employees come to collect me. Tracker, claiming mark, and deterrent, all in one.”

Rage boiled in my chest as her words set in. Reade had marked Stella. Branded her. And from the way she spoke about the deterrent part of her mark, I knew she was talking from experience. The darker side of me born from Karn’s experiments and tempered by the war flared up, demanding I go upstairs and remove Madame Reade’s head from her body and free all those under her thumb.

But that wouldn’t protect her in the long term. This city was full of people who wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of a mind like hers for no other reason than her ears were pointed. Getting her away from Reade was only step one, I needed to be able to protect her after. At least until I could get rid of the Accords and give her the power to protect herself. But getting rid of that mark was now priority one for me, and already I had an idea of how to go about it. All I needed was one more level in Soul Smith.

It took well over a minute to fully leash the impulse. By the time I was back in control, I realized Stella was looking at me. Not in fear, but something akin to awe. “You’re angry. Not at me, but… for me.”

I ran my hands through my hair. “Positive coping mechanisms have never exactly been my strong suit. I’m working on it.”

She smiled softly. “I’m not upset. Quite the opposite.” She worried her lip ring with her tongue. “So what happens now? You take Festus and go? Start trying to find a way to force my freedom?”

Almost, but the idea of leaving her here alone, at Madame Reade’s mercy, was unthinkable. Every protective instinct I had screamed that we were not doing that. “I have another idea, actually. I was thinking I’d leave Festus here.”

She perked up. “Seriously?”

At the same time, Festus slumped. “Seriously?” he whined.

I nodded. “Festus can communicate telepathically with Rhallani. I can leave him with you, and if you’re willing, you can be our inside man. Er, woman. It could be dangerous, so if you don’t want to do that I’d understand, but—”

“Fuck that noise, I’m in! Are you going to take her down?”

“That’s the plan. As soon as I heard the rumors about what she was doing to demi-humans I was ready to try and get the brothel out from under her, but now that I know she’s working for our enemy? It just got a whole lot easier to justify.”

“Holy fuck.” She laughed. “Holy fuck. This is happening, isn’t it? And what about me? What’s gonna happen to me when you’re done with her?”

“Whatever you want.” I stood, holding the lie-ball out. “If you want to be a member of my household and help us change the world, you’d be more than welcome. If you wanted to go out on your own, I could help you with that, too. From what I’ve learned about what you’ve been through, it sounds like the least I can do.”

“Right. Right. I’ll do everything I can, of course.” She darted to her bench and started grabbing things. “You’ll want the magicloak, obviously.” She threw it over my shoulders before I could protest. “And I’m sure I can whip up some stuff that suits you, especially if you can get me some resources. Having to get them smuggled in is a massive pain in the ass. Madame Reade still thinks her enchanted tail-plugs have an arcanium core.”

I wanted to protest, but my shadows had already merged with the cloak. When I wrapped it around my body in full, it was hard to see exactly where my body ended. It would be a massive boon in combat, and it would likely work even better than my shadows to obscure my form when sneaking around. “There’s one other thing I’d like to offer, but I want to make it clear that you don’t have to agree.”

She stepped close to adjust the cloak. “You’ve already given me information, a killer jacket, and hope. Any more and I might faint.”

“I have an ability,” I said carefully. Interest flared in her eyes immediately. “I can forge a Link between us. Connect our souls. I get some benefits from it, but the important part is that I’d know the second you were in danger. Even if you weren’t near Festus, I could find you.”

She gaped at me, her hand still on my chest where she’d let it rest after adjusting the magicloak. “A… Link? Like, a permanent connection between our souls? That’s some romance book type shit right there.”

I chuckled. “Indeed. Hence why you’re more than welcome to refuse. And it’s not entirely permanent. I think I’ll have a way to sever it in the very near future, if that’s what you decide you want. Plus…”

“Plus…?”

“Plus, the bonds I form with those who shimmer are different than the ones I form with everyone else.”

“Different how?”

“When I form a Link with someone who doesn’t have the shimmer, it’s like I’m building it from scratch using my own soul as the building blocks. When I do it with someone who shimmers, it’s like I’m building the Link atop some kind of preexisting framework. Something that was already there.”

“You mean,” she said slowly, “like there’s already some kind of connection between our souls, and you’re just strengthening it?”

“When you put it like that, it really does sound like some cheesy thing from a romance novel,” I joked.She went back to working her lip ring. “This connection… It’s the reason they took me, isn’t it? I’m bait for a trap meant for you.”

I put my hand over hers. “I won’t lie, that seems like a pretty likely scenario. But, if it makes you feel any better, I’ve had much scarier people than Madame Reade set traps for me. Each and every one of them came to regret it.”

“And if I get in trouble, you’ll really come for me? You’d risk your life for a demi-human?”

“I’d risk my life for another person,” I corrected softly. “I lived most of my life in a time when the Accords didn’t exist, remember? I don’t share most of the bullshit prejudices that are slung around nowadays.”

Her head bobbed. “I’ll take it. The Link, I mean. It sounds like something that’ll help me sleep a lot better at night.”

Without hesitation, I activated [Forge Link]. After a few seconds pause, she accepted. Like with all the other shimmers, I felt the Link slide into a groove already there. It flared to life, and for a moment I could feel the emotions rolling through her. They were chaotic and all over the place, but at their core was a burning happiness and an abundance of cautious hope.

No sooner had the Link fallen into place than her front slammed into mine. Her arms wrapped around me tightly and she buried her face in my chest. I wrapped my own arms around her, only realizing her coat had parted when I felt her smooth skin under my palms. The magic of the Link settling in crackled between us, but it only made her hold onto me tighter.

“Thank you,” she mumbled into my chest.

I rubbed her back. “You’re very welcome. We’ll figure this out, promise. ‘Till then, Festus has a constant link to Rhallani. Feel free to bother her whenever. I can’t ever get her to sleep, so I’m sure she’ll be reachable pretty much all the time.”

A strangled sound between a sob and a laugh slipped out of her. “When I found Mr. Whiskers—er, Festus, I thought I’d finally found a friend. I didn’t know how right I was, I guess.”

Very conscious of the bare skin beneath my palms, I laughed. “Something tells me you and Rhallani are going to be very good friends.”

She made another unintelligible sound and just relaxed into me. I kept gently stroking her back while my shadows coiled around us both, more than happy to let the moment stretch on as long as she needed. Then [Danger Sense] pinged hard. Valith was in trouble, several floors above my head. The danger only lasted for a moment, then the sense calmed. I waited to get anything else from the skill, but it remained silent.

While I waited for my skill to tell me anything else, Stella remained in my embrace. At this point, she’d leaned into me enough that I was practically holding her up. She made no move to end the embrace, and it went on long enough for me to worry she’d fallen asleep in my arms when a piercing sound rang out, causing her to jump away from me with a curse.

She shed my coat and scooped up some simple clothes, throwing them on haphazardly. “Someone’s coming, gotta go. Just stay here, I’ll be back.”

Frantically straightening the simple dress that hugged her curves, she raced up the stairs. I followed close behind, only halting when she slipped past the secret door and into her main workshop. Darkness fell in the passage when she closed the door behind her, which made it easy for me to overhear her conversation.

“Letty? What are you doing here?” Stella asked.

“Estellise, I didn’t know where else to go,” a woman replied, out of breath and unsteady.

“What happened?”

“I thought she was dead,” Letty started. “I didn’t think I’d ever see her again, but it was her. I know it. The Madame turned everyone against you for a reason. There isn’t anyone else who would help me. Please, I know I haven’t been overly kind to you, but I need your help.”

“Letty, slow down,” Stella said. “Start at the beginning. What happened.”

“Someone from my past, before the Swallow. They caught her snooping in Madame Reade’s office and knocked her out. They say she’s some kind of spy! They’ve locked her up in one of the punishment rooms, and I overheard Madame Reade say her business partners would be here tomorrow to ‘collect’ her. You’ve seen them, Stel. I can’t let those men have her.”

Stella didn’t respond, but she didn’t have to. I had my answer. The sudden surge from [Danger Sense] was Valith getting caught, and now I had to find a way to get her out safely, preferably without playing my hand and putting Stella into danger.

Then I’d have to see about getting eyes on these business partners.