Chapter 45.5

“There might be more to it,” I admitted, standing.  “Though I don’t know if Xhinn even knows about it.  Ahnbe certainly didn’t.”

“Master,” Jax said quickly, coming to her feet as well, “maybe ye shouldn’t talk about that other business with the lesser about.”

“Other business?” Arx asked.

“Lesser?!” the lesser growled.

Jax looked at Arx significantly—and completely ignored Lynnria.  “Aye, ye know.  The business?  What with… them?”

Arx’s head lifted into a slow nod of understanding.  “Oh… right.  Them.”

I lifted a hand.  I had thought I was pretty solidly in the loop around here, but they had lost me.  “Uh… I’m not sure we’re talking about the same thing here.”

“We be,” Jax said confidently.  “Ye always get a funny taste about ye when ye start to thinking about… the past.”

I blinked a few times.  “Wait… you’re not talking about—“

“Wheesht!” she sounded, silencing me.  Again with a significant look at Lynnria.

“Hey!  Am I a member of this Clan or not?” Lynnria asked with a degree of justifiable agitation.

“Ye ain’t bound,” Jax explained simply, folding her arms.

“Oh, what?  You think your Clan is the only one with secrets?  Do you have enemies?  Is that it?” she persisted.  “That’s not exactly uncommon, you know.”

“Whether we do or not,” Arx said, coming to stand behind Jax, “we at least know you once did.”

Lynnria stiffened slightly.  “W-well… so what?  I’m a member of this Clan now.”

“And so you’d be willing to share all your old Clan’s secrets?” Arx pressed.

The younger woman hesitated.  “I… don’t know.  Yet.”

“Exactly,” Arx said with an easy stride around her sister.  “You may be a part of this Clan, but you are not bound.  We don’t know if we can trust you with the Master’s secrets.  Or whether you would betray him to his enemies.”

“You think I could betray him after what I’ve just experienced?” she asked hotly.  “I would sooner feed his enemies to a flock of Mina birds!”

Arx smiled toothily.  “Good answer.”

“Aye.  We’ll make a proper Dolilim out of ye yet, lassie.  Maybe once yer horns come in, we’ll tell ye a few things about them what’s after—”

Arx whirled.  “Jax!”

“Ah, so he does have enemies,” Lynnria said, folding her arms with self-satisfaction.

“Enemies?  What enemies?” Mia asked me privately.  “Do you have any idea what they’re talking about?”

“Not a clue,” I admitted.

I was pretty sure they were dancing around the origin story they had spun together out of clouds and cobwebs.  The one about my princedom-in-exile and the jilted lover… or maid… or whoever it was supposed to be that had caused it all.  Of course, I knew the real girl behind the tale, but Stevie had about as much in common with the current version of the story as an outhouse with a skyscraper.

Who these enemies were supposed to be was beyond me, though.

“Um… okay, guys?  Seriously, this is getting a little—“

“Don’t ye worry yer pretty head none, Master,” Jax interrupted with a grin before sidling close.  In a whisper, she continued, “We’ll have our revenge on that wench, mark me!  One day, she’ll be on her knees before ye.  Begging fer it!  Once ye get that new flying spell of yer’n practiced up a bit… eh?”

She winked significantly.

Watcher’s Eye.  Is that why she thinks I bought that?

I took a breath… then let it out again, defeated.

“Fuck it,” I muttered.  “Come on, you lot.  Seems like we’ve got to find a needler’s door.  Whatever that is.”

“Right,” Lynnria said, scurrying to gather up her discarded lower garments.

“Feh.  May as well leave that shite,” Jax commented impatiently.  “Ye can’t feed proper with it on, ye know.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the other said primly.  “Besides, it’s padded leather.  I prefer to have at least some protection.”

“Not feeling any emotions yet?” Arx asked.

“No?  Why?  Should I be?”

“She might need to gain a Layer or two first,” I reminded them.

Jax nodded absently while twirling a claw through her hair.  She had fixed the youngest of the trio with a speculative stare.  “Suppose yer right.  Hard to know what be what without enough er… sampling sizers.”

I had to suppress a grin at that.  It was a tad mangled—and Lynnria should almost certainly be excluded as an outlier from any studies we might conduct on Dolilim transitions—but it would seem at least some of my fireside ramblings on the scientific process had seeped into my First’s mind.

While Lynnria struggled with her garments, I glanced at the remains of my own clothing.  Jax had been… indelicate in disrobing my unconscious body, so there was hardly anything left of the thin green vest.  And nothing at all of the skirt.  Even for a loincloth.  I sighed with regret.  It would seem the next leg of our excursion would be au natural.  Again.

“Oh, you bloody…” Lynnria growled with frustration.

Her pants had never been designed with a tail in mind, and whatever changes the last Layer had caused within the girl had not helped matters.  Her backside had plumped and firmed just enough to turn the already tight leather into something more closely resembling yoga pants, and she had been trying to… appealingly dance her way into them.

“Maybe poke a hole in them?” I suggested, averting my eyes.  Then immediately rolling them.  She had been naked from the waist down less that five seconds before.  What the hell was I getting uptight about?

“With what?” she shot back.  “The golem took my dagger with it when it carried Arx’s body into the rockfall.”

“You’ve got claws, don’t you?” the still very much alive Arx said nonchalantly—drawing an incredulous stare from Jax.

Lynnria glanced at her hands.  “Oh, right.”

Twisting her arm behind her waist, she blindly poked a hole into the seam of her trousers.  It was swift work.  A Dolilim’s claws were nothing to be trifled with.  It was a wonder I had thus far remained uninjured.

While she was threading her tail through—and recommencing her delightful hopping routine—Arx waved the card toward me.  “We don’t this anymore, do we?”

I shrugged.  “All it really said was to find this needler character and be mindful of the displays, right?  And Mia would at least give us a hint if there was something we were missing…”

I paused meaningfully, and the Faen picked up the cue without missing a beat.  “Of course.”

I nodded, satisfied.  “So unless you know of some black market that deals in goddess-touched artifacts—”

“Oh, I’m sure it would be priceless to the right buyer,” she said confidently.  Before ripping the card in two.  And then progressively smaller bits.  “Such a shame that no one else will ever see it.”

I will admit to being a tad stunned in watching her sprinkle the remains of what had—only a moment prior—been described as ‘priceless’ to the floor.  Though in hindsight, the idea of selling something that proclaimed me as the property of the Demon Queen herself might have been shortsighted.

However, well before I could think of anything to say, the room itself emitted a low chuckle of amusement.  And before our eyes, the fragments of the note began to softly glow.  One by one, the dozens of pieces drifted toward each other, folding themselves into various geometric shapes.  Then came one final little flutter of light, and there sat a perfect and quite familiar-looking, trilliant-cut gemstone.

A Yellow Key.

“Huh…” Jax said.  After a solid minute of us staring at it.  “I think this Demon Queen might be nuttier than her Faen.”

The floor rumbled.