<~> Chapter 214I walked through the streets of the Capital with Bel, Mimi, the twins, Raya, and Sibyl at my side. We were kind of a rge group. Silva and Lorrieo make tact with Sophin a up a meeting for me. This would likely be our st ce to get anything done iy so we were taking care of the st of our business before we helped with the sve rebellion. I still had mixed feelings about the situation but I felt itted to this course of a now. Hopefully the Order of Lilith will be helpful as allies here, I'm still not sure of the extent of their influend power yet. So far I only know of them as an anization that sets up assassinations and fights with the Tamin church.

  "The first thing I want to take care of today is a pickup I have to do at Tenna's bcksmith shop. She promised me something good there and I'm excited to receive it. Then we o swing by the Adventurer's Guild tister Sibyl and Raya to our Party. Rather than waiting I want to swing by the cartographer's guild so I finish up the measurihere, and if we have time left over I want to do a little shopping," I told everyone.

  "Silva teically isn't in our Party at the guild either right?" Torien whispered.

  I frowned. "Well... yes, but the situation is odd with her. Until retly it didn't matter much if she joined because of the colr. Now though... it would make seo but she's a little busy right now. It probably won't hurt to get her registered somewhere else instead, like Goldeh if their guild is back up by the time we get there." Not to mention Silva and Torien haven't had their mueeded talk yet.

  "Do bcksmiths normally sell ons fes?" Raya asked curiously.

  "Not usually," Sibyl answered.

  I ughed. "Bel's scepter actually came from a bcksmith. The guy at the ter was just trying to offload it before we got yelled at though."

  Bel gave a wry smile. "We had actally walked into a store that didn't serve beastfolk without realizing it."

  I gnced over at the twins. They were walking in the back to show defereo us even though they weren't wearing sve colrs anymore. It must have felt odd being in the same city when not long ago they were making a point to act more like sves. I was happy Torien spoke up at all uhe circumstahey were wearing their servant's uniforms still so they teically had the same status... even though people treated sve servants differently than free servants in practice.

  When we reached the bcksmith shop it looked... different. Like, closed different. All of the sighat indicated what kind of store it was had been taken down.

  "Are you sure this is the pce?" Sibyl asked looking up and doworefront.

  I nodded. "I'm sure..." I tried the door and luckily it en.

  A familiar demi-beastfolk guy was seated at the ter but all the shelves of ons were bare now. All that was left was empty stands.

  "We're closed!" he started to yell before a look nition came over his face. "Oh, it's you agai me go tell Tenna that you're here." He jumped up from his seat a in the back while ardly looked around at the empty store.

  "Lilith! Gd to see you again. I was hoping you didn't get killed or arrested in that scuffle the other day!" Tenna walked out of the back holding a longsword in a beautiful bck leather sheath.

  Sibyl gasped when Tenna uhed it aed the bde against her wrist to show it off. "How does it look?" Tenna asked.

  "Lilith, is that a mithril sword?" Sibyl asked. The envy in her voice was obvious.

  Tenna raised an eyebrow and g Sibyl. "Are these your friends? They a trustworthy sort?"

  "I trust them with my life," I said before taking the sword from her. It felt light but sturdy. The bde wasn't quite as wide as I had expected and came to aremely sharp point. It looks like it was made for pierg mail. The bde had a simple yet elegant looking crossguard and a decorative pattern on the first third of the bde.

  "That sword is some of my best work. I was really happy to work with the ore yht me, its purity was high and it made the smelting process easy." Tenna looked pleased I was happy with the work.

  I eled a bit of light magic through the bde and drew a small clover in the air using [Light Signal] as a test. The magic took to the bde as if it were aension of my arm. I had used magic through my bde before when I was training with Theo, but the way the magic flowed through this sword felt pletely different.

  Tenna started grinning from ear to ear. "It's good that I found such a good wielder for a sword like that. Not everyone use a sword and magic."

  I sheathed the bde and smiled back at her. "The bde is beautiful, thank you, Tenna."

  Her grin ged to a more mischievous one and I realized immediately I had been caught in some kind of trap. "If you want to show your appreciation, I could use a favor..."

  I sighed. "What do you need?"

  Her grin faltered a little. "I o get out of the capital." She gnced past me at the door and got a little closer. "An old acquaintaniold me that the city is going to turn into a war zone in the few days. He said that the guys who started the riot the other day are going to do another, even bigger one, really soon. They're trying to goad the Tamin bastards into a fight or something. The young King is a moron, things will turn ugly here for beastfolk if another riot happens. People are already on edge, I'm surprised it hasn't happened already. I've already filed the papers to cim the mih the king's clerks but the only way we'll be able to protect our new nd and mine is if I'm in Traehall to protect it myself. I o get out of here and you and your friends should too, riding with you will keep me and my apprentice safe and you guys will get for taking us there."

  I ran my fihrough the fur on my cheek. How much should I reveal? I probably shouldn't reveal anything but this will give us an excuse to leave town. Esc two people to another city would be plenty of cover to leave without suspi. Except that would mean that she would have to know a little bit about what we're doing...

  She noticed my hesitation and narrowed her eyes. "You're not sure... It's not about money, is it? Do you know something about all of this?"

  Damn, this mousegirl was observant.

  Torien cleared her throat and stepped forward. "The situation is even worse than that. I'm a pantharian and my colr fell off two days ago. The only way that would happen is if the King is dead and has no heirs."

  I immediately snapped a [Zone of Silenbsp;up before Torien finished her first senteenna stared back at Torien with a look of utter shock.

  "I would be willing to take you to Traehall but we're w on something that will happen during the riot you heard about. You could wait in our carriage with a few of my friends while we work. We're pnning on leaving before the riot happens and sneaking bato town after. That's the best I do."

  Tenna's eyes met mine and narrowed again. "You guys aren't demon worshippers are you?"

  "No, we're demon hunters, I swear to Sorsette. We io interfere with a demon cult's pns that night. We're not fans of the former young King so we aren't w within the w either. We may not be the best choice as escorts to Traehall," I told her. Everything I told her is teically true, it's safer not to mention that we're intending to attack the sver's guild though.

  She crossed her arms and looked me up and down. ...It was holy a bit ical since she was so much shorter tha I didn't let that show on my face. Finally, she sighed. "I tell there's more that you're not telli my gut is tellihat I trust you. Yht that k of mithril all the way from Traehall without opening it and my cousins said pretty plimentary things about you and your friends too. Will this business you're doihat my apprentid I will be any less safe waiting for you?"

  "I'm... not sure," I answered holy. "We may have to deal with the Tamin churd members of the cult but we probably wouldn't even be able to get to the wagon befetting away from them anyway. You shouldn't be in any more danger by waiting for us to return."

  Tenna sighed. "And who are you leaving us with? Someorong? Like that rabbit demi?"

  "Not her, but we have another person around my level who will be proteg the wagon with her two uunas. Raya and Sibyl here will be there helping protect it as well." I poihe two out.

  She g the two of them but looked dismissive. "Fiwo uunas and someohat tame them will probably be strong enough to protect us from the monsters mug about while we wait for you. After hearing all of this I might be crazy for this job to you but I don't hardly trust anyone in the capital anymore with everything happening. Are we doing this uhe table or we at least go to the adventurer's guild?"

  I cleared my throat. "The uh, the guild would give us good cover for what we're about to do."

  "Right," she said in a deadpan tone. "Lock up, Kino. We're headed for the adventurer's guild," she said to the wolf boy.

  "Yes, ma'am," he replied immediately.

  I released the magic I had going aed the shop and waited for them to lock up. "What's going to happen to your shop?" I asked the woman.

  "I sold it. Finished getting rid of the iory yesterday and was just hanging around today waiting for you to pick up the sword. I'd have kept it if you didn't show up today," she said with a grin. "...but then I'd have had to find anroup leaving for Traehall in the few days who would take both a demi and a beastfolk. Harder than you might think."

  "I believe it," I replied with a sigh.

  I took a moment to strap the new sword around my waist before handing my old oo Mimi who covertly made it disappear under her cloak. Being able to wordlessly indicate what I wahrough the bond was always nice.

  "How much do you trust your friends?" the mousefolk asked me quietly.

  I turo her with a raised eyebrow. "All of them are family. You don't o worry about that."

  "Even the oh the space magic?" she asked.

  I smiled. "Especially the oh the space magic." I pulled Mimi over to me and kissed her on the cheek.

  Tenna snorted. "At least I safely guess how much the Tamin church probably likes you."

  Laughing, I turned back tain. "They certainly do have their issues with me."

  roup which had now swelled to nine people made our way through the city to the adventurer's guild. The streets weren't as dense as the first day we were here, a lot of people weren't hanging out anymore... and I didn't see any of the homeless people panhandliher. After seeing the amount of beggars the first day, that was what struck me as the oddest part.

  We followed Tenna into the adventurer's guild and started milling in line.

  She looked at me with an eyebrow. "Is your entire group going to talk to reception?"

  "Well... Raya and Sibyl still o sign on as party members and Man and Torien were still listed as sves st time we talked to the guild so I wao fix that too..."

  Tenna slumped a little bit and suddenly looked really weary. "Ugh, this is going to take forever. I hate dealing with the guilds."

  I looked over at the other lines and ughed internally. None of this was even half as bad as the DMV, I could tell just from the lihat things were moving without any problems. Poor woman would have to suck it up.

  "I hate paperwork," the mousefolk grumbled to herself.

  Saine

  Hello! Tenna is back! We're pig this side plot back up on our way back to Traehall! I actually really liked the Meena and Twill characters ahem up to e back after inally just creating them for utility all the way ba the first book. It'll be quite a bit of time before those characters e back but Tenna riding with the group will be fun. Thanks for reading!

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