A Dragon's Tale Ch. 51

She felt her mouth start watering, even at the idea of dipping a gourmet burger in ketchup. *I'd have to take it, but I would hate you forever for making me eat it slavered with too much ketchup.*

His mental tone had laughter in it as he replied. *That's fair.*

*God, that chai latte is sounding better and better.* Selene yawned. *Pair that with a croissant and that sounds like heaven.*

*Sounds perfect for a breakfast date with some friends.* He agreed.

*Honestly, looking back at it now, I'm not sure I had any actual friends on Earth.* She replied. *I had people that I called friends, and even some that would happily meet me for breakfast, but I've gotten way closer to some of your wives than anyone that I called a friend on Earth. Looking back now and knowing what having real friends is like, they were more study buddies or peers than friends.*

*Fair. I'm not really an expert on friends though; my best friend stole my fiancé and my business.*

*I bet you don't miss them, but I bet you do miss pop tarts.*

*Oh, do I ever.*

They went on like this for some time, talking about everything they missed about Earth and their lives there. Surprisingly, Ethan didn't have a lot to miss besides food, a few comforts, and of course his parents. Oddly, Selene found herself realizing that she didn't have much to miss either.

Strange.

The sun was rising when Selene realized that she hadn't turned the hourglass over and so she didn't know how long her turn had been so far. She shrugged, figuring that it was daytime and she was up anyway so she let the others sleep.

Everyone else got up eventually and a messenger from the palace invited them to breakfast at the castle just like the previous day. That felt like it was months ago with everything that had happened. They all went down and took their seats with the lord's family, though there was an additional woman at the table that Selene didn't recognize. Shara seemed to know her well though.

"You all look unusually tired this morning." The lord's wife observed. "Did you not sleep well?"

*Selene, you're up.* Alana thought to the group chat.

"Ethan was attacked last night." Selene explained, partially so they wouldn't have to reveal their group chat to the family and the newcomer.

"We didn't sleep well because of that, especially since he had to fly for much of the night to ensure his escape." Alana added.

Shara looked at Lyra. "We don't sleep well either when Lucien is in a dangerous situation." Her fellow wife nodded and then Shara looked at Selene. "That would also explain why you are so tired; I presume you help keep him awake with your telepathy?"

"Yup." Selene replied, then yawned.

"He was hurt, but not badly and he's exhausted." Taloni added.

"Is he going back to Dotmier?" Lyra asked.

"He is." Selene nodded.

"Well then, tell him he can crash at our place in Dotmier." The ash blonde suggested. "We don't need it right now and the mayor said he'd keep it open for us for when we return."

"An excellent idea." Shara nodded.

"Thank you so much!" Taloni beamed.

"I'll tell him." Selene volunteered, then relayed the offer to him.

*Oh thank God.* He replied. *Tell them thanks from me. I'm dead on my feet. Err, wings.*

"He says thank you." Selene said aloud.

Taloni looked at Alana. "I really want to see him as soon as I can; he needs healing and I don't think he has enough mana to do it all."

The wood elf frowned and nodded slowly, looking like she was about to speak.

Shara beat her to it. "Then perhaps we could make sail earlier than we had planned? I know you wanted to leave sometime this morning, so everything of ours is already packed for the return journey; perhaps we could leave directly after breakfast?"

"Could we?" The Fey teen asked Alana.

The wood elf looked around at her fellow wives and Selene herself. "Thoughts?"

The Brazilian woman suppressed a smile as she saw the wood elf adopt the exact same leadership style that Ethan used.

"I really like it in Laerten." Beth said to their hosts. "But our husband needs us."

"I agree." Taloni said.

"I as well." Rachel said to the wood elf, though she couldn't stop smiling as she looked at her.

"Make that four." Kendra said.

"Correction, five." Selene added.

"We can be ready to leave within a half hour." Shara said, then nodded to a nearby servant who hurried out of the room.

"Damn, it was really nice having all of you here." Lyra said. "Well, except for the ambush. But other than that."

*Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?* Selene thought to herself.

"Would it be possible for me to accompany you as well?" The woman that Selene didn't recognize asked. "My husband is Kyselius, Lord Kalus's herald, and I do miss him so. He's been in Dotmier for weeks."

"This is Elthia." Shara explained. "She used to be one of my handmaidens."

"Of course you're welcome to come with us." Alana replied.

"Thank you." Elthia said, and she did look grateful. "Hopefully Lord Kalus will be finished soon and then my husband can return home."

"Finished with what?" Selene asked.

"Teaching the miners to defend themselves against orcs." The former handmaiden replied.

Shara nodded. "We have a saying; a man who is given a fish will eat for a day; a man who is taught to fish will eat for a lifetime."

"We have a similar saying where I'm from." Selene replied. She noticed a small smile on Kendra's face and asked her: "What?"

"I've heard that version, but I'm more familiar with a slightly different version." The raven-haired woman replied. "A man who is given fire will be warm for a day; a man who is set on fire will be warm for the rest of his life..."

Everyone stared at her, many a mouth hanging open.

"That's pretty dark." Selene finally pointed out.

Kendra shrugged. "Still funny."

Selene nodded her head in concession, though she almost felt bad for thinking so. She tended to forget how Kendra had grown up and what she'd been through, though obviously the Brazilian woman didn't know exactly what had happened. It was sometimes unsettling to be reminded of that upbringing's effect on her friend.

"Anyway." Alana looked at her fellow wives. "Given everything that's happened over the last twenty-four hours, we'll all be learning to heal each other, except Taloni of course. Our master healer needs no practice."

Tee beamed.

Everyone else groaned.

* * *

Ethan wasn't sure what time it was. Bedtime certainly. It was daytime, though he didn't have a clue what time it was beyond that. Frankly, he didn't care. He blinked his droopy eyelids again, almost overjoyed that Dotmier was coming into view. Earlier he had the presence of mind to click his disguise gem on so he looked like a large eagle, but he wasn't fit for much thinking beyond that.

It took him rather longer than it should have to locate the house that Lord Kalus, Shara, and Lyra had been using from the air. Once he had, he made a beeline towards it. He nearly fumbled the landing and managed to only half-crash outside the house. Thankfully the door was unlocked and he stumbled inside, only just having the presence of mind to close the door behind him.

*Ladies, I'm in Dotmier at the house. Thank them again for me and I'm going to sleep.*

He collapsed onto the nearest piece of furniture that looked halfway soft, which was a couch of some kind. His wives probably responded to what he'd told them, but he was already asleep and didn't hear it.

* * *

Fiona put a bit of extra bounce in her step for Conner who was looking like he was about to cry. The poor kid hadn't taken his nap well and he was getting fussy. Oh well, that was living with a baby. She and Sarah had just finished working and left to find Amy waiting for them just outside the kitchen, and now they were walking back to their room.

The two artistic women were chatting up a storm about painting ideas behind her, mostly refining yesterday's ideas instead of adding new ones. Fiona definitely wasn't opposed to having a room as beautiful as they were planning, but it was starting to sound like a project that would never be finished. Oh well, they were enjoying themselves and that was good enough for her, even if the walls of her room became a perpetual art project.

They reached their door and Fiona opened and stepped through, only to stop short.

"Oof." She stumbled forward slightly as one of the two artistic women behind her bumped into her.

"Oh, I'm sorry Fiona. I didn't mean to..." Sarah trailed off as she also saw what Fiona had seen.

Their room had been ransacked.

It was utter chaos.

All of the trunks were open and the contents were strewn around the room. Amy's paint supplies were similarly scattered around and some of her paints had been opened or the bottles had been broken. Their clothes were thrown about the room and some of them had ended up in puddles of paint.

"What in Illuminar's name..." Fiona breathed.

"Who could've..." Sarah looked around the room as the three of them tried to avoid stepping on anything inside.

From behind them and outside the room, Fiona became aware of two voices heading their way. She inclined her ear

"--and then I heard yelling, things being thrown, and I thought I should get help." A woman's voice was saying.

Fiona turned towards the door as a woman she'd seen around the dorms but didn't know jogged into view with a Narlotten soldier behind her.

A very large Narlotten soldier.

Seriously, he was almost Lord Delmar's size; over six feet and powerfully built. He looked down on them with the kind of expression that Fiona imagined she would be wearing if she'd found Conner playing with something he shouldn't. That was made more intimidating because he was wearing full chainmail armor with his surcoat and a sword at his side. They usually wore that while on duty, but it was quite intimidating regardless.

"What going on here?" The soldier barked in a deep voice.

Amy actually flinched.

Conner started to cry.

Fiona started trying to calm him.

Sarah turned to face the soldier, her dander clearly up. "Our room was ransacked by someone, what does it look like?"

The soldier crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow. "Multiple people heard shouting and yelling from this room mere minutes ago. You are the only ones here." He looked at Conner. "I would've thought you ladies would be more careful with a baby around."

That's when Fiona realized what was happening.

They'd been set up.

Someone had clearly come in to ransack the room recently and then waited until they were returning to report it, making it look like they trashed their own room. It was devious; brilliant, but devious.

"No." Sarah said firmly. "I won't let my friends be hurt by those lies. We didn't ransack the room; someone else did and waited until we got back to tell you. They were lying about us fighting; we'venever fought with each other."

Sarah's tone and body language reminded Fiona of when Sarah had told her about how her father had almost been hurt before her problem had intervened, or how she had attacked the false prophet to save her friend Selene. She had that same fiercely protective look about her, like a mama bear protecting her cubs.

The soldier raised his eyebrow and took a step forward so that he was on the edge of Sarah's personal space, but notquite in it. He almost towered over her as he loomed over her, an expression of deep skepticism on his face.

Sarah scoffed.

She took a step intohis personal space and locked eyes with him, the top of her head not even reaching the man's chin.

"You don't scare me." The innkeeper's daughter with calm, settled resolve. "So instead of trying to intimidate the victims, why don't you find out who did this?"

The soldier blinked and his eyes went slightly wider as he looked at Sarah. Being so large, Fiona guessed that few people had stood up to him like that before, let alone a girl who was less than half his size. Sarah looked utterly relaxed and confident too, if a bit irked.

"Well?" Sarah said after a few seconds when the man hadn't replied. "Are you going to do your job or let someone come into the room where my friends live and ruin their things?"

"Uh?" He seemed slightly taken aback and took a slight step back so Sarah wasn't in his personal space anymore. "Several women said they heard you fighting, and you're the only ones here."

"The paint." Amy said from half behind Sarah. "Look at the paint."

Fiona did while the artistic girl knelt down and gently touched one of the puddles of paint with her finger. There was a film of partially dried paint over the puddle instead of it being wet like fresh paint would be.

"The paint would still be fully wet if this had just happened." Amy said, though again she was still partially hiding behind Sarah and seemed to take strength from the innkeeper's daughter.

The soldier nodded his head in concession and his stern demeanor relaxed somewhat. "That's a good point."

"We just came from the kitchens, as Marge will tell you." Sarah added. "Go and ask her if you don't believe us."

He rounded on the girl who had summoned him. "Care to explain?"

"T-that's, uh, what I heard." She stammered. "M-maybe it was from a different room and I just thought that... that..." Her eyes darted to either side of the hall where the exits were. She almost looked like someone who had been caught with her hand in the sweet roll tin. The soldier narrowed his eyes, clearly not buying her story.

Fiona didn't either.

"Okay." The guard finally said. "But if I hear of anything else like this happening, you'll be the first person I ask about it."

The girl lost a little color in her cheeks and swallowed, but nodded.

He turned back to Fiona, Sarah, and Amy. "Sorry to have bothered you. Do you have any idea who could've done this?"

Fiona considered.

One possible answer was Lady Ekthros, but this didn't seem like her style; it was too sloppy and amateurish. Her next thought was Tia and Mia, the girls who had been harassing Amy for months. From what she'd heard, this was exactly the kind of thing that they might do. Perhaps a bit larger than previous things she'd heard of, but in the same vein.

"I'm having a few suspicions, but I'm not wanting to be accusing anyone without evidence." Fiona said before her two roommates could speak up.

The soldier frowned, but nodded. "I can respect that, but let me know if that changes. It's a lot easier to investigate with suspects."

Fiona got a subtle smile on her face. "Oh, if it's who I'm thinking it is, then I'm thinking you're probably guessing who I'm thinking of."

The man inclined his head in concession. "I'll ask around, but if it's that particular party then I won't get anything from anyone."

"Thank you for trying." Sarah said, notably no longer in 'mama bear' mode now that her friends weren't being threatened.

He asked them a few more questions before leaving, but Fiona got the distinct impression that his investigation wouldn't lead anywhere despite him trying. Once he left, Fiona closed the door and surveyed the damage.

"Well, I'm glad I was being careful." She said as she picked up the portrait of Sean. It had paint on it, but the paint was slowly rolling off the enchanted picture. She'd spent a lot of coin to pay a mage to enchant it to be self-cleaning so she'd always have his portrait, and she considered it silver well spent after this.

"I would hate for you to lose that." Sarah said. "But what about his last letter?"

"Safe and sound." The copper-haired woman said, walking over and moving one of the trunks to reveal the letter underneath. The trunk had iron fittings on the sides, so there was a gap between the wood of the bottom and the floor. "I was being extra careful so I wouldn't be losing it or accidentally hurting it."

"Thank Illuminar for that." Sarah said then looked around. "I guess we should start cleaning this up?"

"I um..." Amy bit her lip as she stood with one arm hanging down and the other arm across her stomach holding the opposite elbow. "I can move out after everything is cleaned up."

"Whatever would you be doing that for?" Fiona asked as she carefully returned the trunk to its original location with the letter under it again.

"This happened because of me." The artistic girl said. "It was Tia and Mia; I know it was."

"Yes, but so what?" Sarah asked.

Fiona smiled; right now she couldn't be prouder of the innkeeper's daughter.

"Oh, I just thought..." She glanced at the two of them. "You don't want me to move out?"

"No." Sarah said at the same time Fiona said: "Not at all."

"Oh." Amy's eyes widened for a bit, then she bit her lip. "Are you sure?"

"We're sure." Fiona said.

"We are." Sarah agreed.

Amy smiled.

* * *

"I am so tired of getting poked." Selene said as she flopped down around the Argo's dinner fire with Ethan's wives and their guests from Laerten. The Argo's crew had spent much of the day practicing healing each other, which of course meant that they needed a wound to heal. Rachel had a special needle with a disc near the tip that prevented the tip from going too deep. They'd all been poked a lot, with the mage sterilizing the needle in between pokings.

"And you got poked a lot less than the rest of us because of all your telepathy training." Alana pointed out.

It was true. Selene had spent half of the day after leaving Laerten training with Octavian and his men learning how to use telepathy in combat better. Everyone kept telling her that she was making great progress, but she still was barely predicting half of the attacks.

"You're one to talk miss bowmaker." Selene replied as she scooped some of Anthiel's stew out of the pot that was suspended over the fire pan, which was suspended over the wooden decking. "Did you finish that travel bow?"

"Almost; I'm close but the timing is frustrating." The wood elf replied, then added with a sly smile. "Besides, I get poked enough when Ethan is here."

Lyra grinned; Shara shook her head with an amused smile. Selene found herself glad that they were eating in shifts -- women first and the men later -- since there were so many people on the Argo.

"Perhaps I should learn to heal with magic." Their newest guest, Elthia, said with a suppressed smile. "I don't mind being... poked."

"Elthia." Shara said reprovingly.

"What your highness?" The former handmaiden said with a playful grin. "Do you have an aversion to being poked?"

Lyra burst out laughing as her fellow wife went slightly red in the cheeks.

"That is not the point." Shara said after a moment. "And that was a most indecorous question."

Elthia addressed everyone except Shara as she replied in a teasing tone, and her grin had grown mischievous. "She always was a prude."

"I am not." Shara replied a bit defensively.

"Oh trust me, she'sdefinitely not a prude." Lyra grinned as Shara went beet red.

Almost everyone laughed.

"I will tell Lucien of this Lyra." Shara warned.

Lyra put on an expression of mock horror. "Oh no, he might spank me." Then she added in a 'whisper' that was quite audible. "Oh, wait;I'm not the one who enjoys that."

Shara's mouth fell open and her eyes went wide.

"I know right!" Beth interjected with a huge smile. "I just love h--" She stopped mid-word as she seemed to realize what she had just admitted about herself. She went as red as Shara and clamped her mouth shut.

Silence fell.

"Well, that escalated quickly." Selene chuckled after several moments of silence, sadly knowing the movie reference would be lost on all of them.

Everyone looked around with embarrassed smiles and the Brazilian couldn't help but smile too; girls really did talk about everything.

"Anyway." Alana spoke up. "I should really work on finishing the travel bow before bed tonight." She glanced at Rachel. "Did you want to help? I'll need to go below decks to use the crank."