<~> Chapter 144"Espionage of a noble is sidered 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 turo him. "What do you mean?"

  He leaned ba his chair and dropped the [Zone of Truth]. He wiped his brow of the sweat that had accumuted there from the exertion of keeping the spell up this eime and took a steadying breath.

  He looked back over at me. "As far as I'm ed, yht her to me so I would be fine yielding to your judgement on what to do with her. She itted treason but I'm not against looking the other way uhe circumstances, I'm not so cold-hearted. Some would even say that the te Baron died because of his own as, freeing a sve aing them get maniputed by one of his enemies. ...That's not a charitable view though aainly not how I would put it."

  I turo look at my friends. Each of them had flicted looks on their faces.

  "What do you all think?" I asked.

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

  Man was angry, on the verge of yelling. "No. What she did got hundreds killed. She may have been maniputed into it but anythihaion 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 ing from Man. 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 Man."

  Bel turo Silva soundied, "Even though someo you live after killing a noble!?" Streams of tears were now ing from Bel's eyes.

  Silva looked at Bel sharply, unfling. "I killed the hat 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 sughtered lots of i people, including the man that saved my life. So yes, I think she should be executed for that."

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

  "Torien?" Man looked at her sister shocked.

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

  "Hey guys stuing..." I awkwardly scratched the base of my horn and looked at the deerfolk woman. She had been watg the versation ily the eime, not speaking a word to defend herself. When I looked at her, her eyes met mine and she really did remind me of Bel 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 Bel healed her back up. She survived."

  The woman broke down sobbing again, her fa 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 deliver it to Sera Faelyn Morrister and inform her of Matilda's involvement. In the meantime, I'll have Matilda colred as a crime sve and the young Morrister girl decide if she should be executed once she takes custody of her."

  Svery again. I didn't know if I liked this oute or not. Was this better than dying for her crimes? Should she have beeed? I don't know.

  Another person was in svery because of me.

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

  I took o look at Matilda, she was still g. 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 Bel walked on the opposite side of Mimi from Man and Silva. It seems like both Bel and Man were still wound up from the argument. Bel still looked like she was on the verge of tears and Man looked ahan 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 ats of what we did in the castle. It seemed a little bureaucratic for the situation, especially with how spread thihing 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 aid 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?

  roup walked back to the Ruby Vixen quietly. It was sad to see fri between Man ahey had beeing along really well tely 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 uand though.

  Torien seemed mencholy and Silva seemed grim but at least they didn't look like they still wao fight about it. I sighed, this sucks. No one's ire had fallen on me or Mimi, being mostly ral deflected any of it from us. It was almost worse this way though because it just intensified the differences betweewo 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 ay. Mimi was definitely closer to Bel but she sidered Man her girlfriend too so watg 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 bato the habit of quietly .

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

  I got a bunch of fused 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," Man said cautiously.

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

  She shook her head. "No, too expehen ter 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 avaible because of how the city is right now."

  Torien nodded. "The guards are less trated at the gate now but it looks like there are still rge parts of the city that are deserted. It seems like they're still quite spread thin. I don't think they have the mao have any open-air markets running iy 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 hought much about it."

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

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

  "It's that good," Man replied with a straight face. The seriousness of the ent made Bel ugh.

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

  "Hmm, Fish? I used to catch fish in the ke 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 couldhem. 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 o 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 pn buildings out. Does that make sense?"

  Everyoher nodded or shrugged.

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

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

  I smiled. "Hey Raya, aren't you t yirlfriend 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 pliment she even decided to wear it out!" Raya held the blushing Sibyl by the shoulders to show her off.

  I ughed 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 pce that sells ice cream? Preferably ohat's still open in all of this chaos?"

  "Ice cream? Hmm... I know of one pce 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 probably afford to treat everyone if you lead us there."

  Raya turo Sibyl. "You ied?"

  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 ge into something a bit more casual first?"

  Everyone agreed and she ran off to get ged.

  Man stepped o Raya. "So Raya, you really seem to be flirting with Sibyl a lot tely. 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 fessed to me before but now that she looks so... cute. I '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 pyed 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, whily made her look even more adorable.

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

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

  Saine

  Hello! The chapter ended on a bit of a lighter o make up for some of the heavier stuff. It was really iing hearing everyohoughts on the previous chapter! I wonder how ued this clusion was, is this resolution signifitly different from what you expected? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Until ime!

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