A Life More Ordinary Ch. 05

I hope you are doing well, and wish you all the luck and success in your new venture of menial labor. Though the gears of progress turn ever so slowly, I further hope that we will all be able to visit you soon. Beth will no doubt wish to show her appreciation for your assistance in her elevation, as will I.

I love you, now and always. With warmest regards and deepest admiration,

Rosaria

*****

"Holy shit, the Emperor's dead?!" Abby said. Kay was glad that regicide was the immediate takeaway from the letter.

"I'm not surprised, if he threatened me. I'm also not surprised Rose was the one to do it."

"She sounds... interesting." Leah said.

"She's a high-functioning sociopath and she loves her work, she won't be offended if you prefer to keep her at arm's length." Kay pursed her lips. "She does have a way of making friends, though..."

"She sure does! Orgies for everyone!" Abby said triumphantly. "Goddess, are all Imperials that twisted?" She asked, likely referring to the Howes.

"For the nobility, that's fairly sedate. I forgot all about Beth!" Kay said guiltily. "I knew she'd always land on her feet, but still, Rose was right, her dad was a COMPLETE asshole."

"Need I ask what she meant by 'ladies of larger proportions'?" Leah asked snarkily.

"Pretty sure she meant 'chicks with giant tits'," Abby said, honking her own generous boobs.

"Amongst other things," Kay responded dryly.

"Now that wasn't bad at all!" Leah said. "She forgave you right out of the gate, implied some nasty sex stories, and she and her girlfriend want to jump you at their first opportunity."

"She's just being polite." Kay said.

"Cut that out right now," Leah scolded her, "you are a wonderful person, you have value, and she clearly loves you dearly."

"Okay, gosh." Kay smiled at the rebuke. She picked up Thalia's letter next, breaking the seal and withdrawing its contents. Included with the letter was a perfectly preserved leaf, a deep red flecked with gold.

"Pretty," Leah said as Kay handed it to her.

"She's the archer, right?" Abby asked.

"Yeah. Putting it mildly, but yeah."

*****

Hey,

Astria asked us if we wanted to write you something. It seemed like a nice idea, so here we are. I'm glad you're safe.

I found this leaf outside the capitol. I was surprised it was intact so far from wherever it blew in from. I thought you might like it to remind you of the less horrible places here.

I'm super pissed Rosaria got to that asshole Hadrian before I did. Whole lot of good these sleeve sheathes are for a quick draw, still weren't fast enough. I suppose it worked out, you don't last long with a dagger in the eye. She won't tell us what she said to him as she killed him, maybe she'll tell you.

Vendria was PISSED afterwards. Started shouting about what the hell you were thinking, why you'd do it, how it would've made sense if you were going after Z but that's not what happened and what the fuck. So forth. I had to let her pound my ass for like an hour and a half afterward to get her to calm down. So, you know. It wasn't all bad. She "let" me suck her off afterwards. She'll admit she loves ass-to-mouth someday, then I can do it whenever I fucking want.

I don't know if I can forgive you for leaving yet. Rose said you knew what you were doing, but you're the one that can explain the plans, you're supposed to tell us. It really hurt when you didn't.

Take care. Fuck a lot of hot girls. Maybe suck some hot guys off too, if you get the chance.

I hope you and Z find each other.

I love you, now and always.

Thal

*****

There is was. It cut exactly as deeply as she thought it would, more so coming from Thalia. She was the last one Kay had seen before her flight, the one to send her off with the love of her sisters. Theirs had always been the most pragmatic relationship, but it killed her that she'd still hurt Thalia with her secrets. That she'd hurt all of them.

Kay was soon surrounded by warmth as Abby and Leah hugged her, the girls quietly weeping with her. It helped immeasurably, and Kay leaned into them as she worked through her pain.

"I'm so sorry," Leah whispered. Abby merely kissed Kay on the cheek softly.

"It's alright," Kay replied, returning their embrace. She picked up the remaining letters and joined the girls on the bed, sandwiching between them. She wiped her eyes clear as she regarded the envelopes.

"So..." Abby said, "her and Vendria?"

Kay nodded. "It's more of a shared benefits thing, Vendria likes giving it rough and Thalia likes taking it rough, so it works for them. Didn't know about the ATM thing, though."

"I do not understand the appeal," Leah said, "like, I get how it's a dominance thing, but it seems super gross unless you take your time prepping for it."

Kay shrugged. "One of the 'benefits' of being magically engineered by perverted wizards. We're always clean as a whistle down there, in both sanitary and bacteriological senses."

"Do you like it?" Abby asked.

"Which?"

"Ass-to-mouth."

"I don't think so? Z was never really into giving anal, we were both usually wiped out when she received anal, and the furthest I ever went with Ven was makeouts after a fight."

She wasn't sure if they were distracting her on purpose, but Kay really appreciated their company and conversation for this. From the look on their faces, the girls knew what they were doing.

"Thank you," Kay said, placing a hand on Leah's knee and Abby's thigh.

"Of course," Leah said, "what are sisters for?"

Kay picked up the lion-sealed letter, turning it over in her hands. "Welp, might as well get the shouting over with."

*****

You fucking bitch!

("It does not actually start like that!" Leah gasped as Abby pulled the letter over to look at it. "Yes, it sure does," Abby confirmed.)

What the FUCK were you thinking?! Just going to head over to Ferngill, take up growing vegetables, maybe find a fat wife and have a few parasites and forget all about YOUR FUCKING FAMILY?! I knew you were an arrogant bitch but FUCK. Did you have ANY idea what would happen if you dropped everything and left?

We love you! We trusted you! You could have told us how you felt, what you needed! We would have figured something out! I know we don't agree on... anything, but we're sisters! We're the baddest fucking bitches on the planet! How many times have we bailed each other out in a fight? How many times did we have to spend weeks on some Goddess-forsaken battlefield, soaked from rain and half-frozen, with no one for comfort but each other? Did that mean anything at all to you?

What a colossal fuck-up. Seriously. I knew it was coming, honestly; you were bound to crack before long, and HERE IT IS. Fucking moral crisis comes along and you fuck off to the ass-end of Nowheresville to be a farmer. I should have been the C-in-C from the start, maybe we would have avoided this entire shitshow.

I'm C-in-C now, by the way, and I FUCKING HATE IT. I haven't had a good fight in months, and that was before I got saddled with a desk job. I cannot fathom how your brain didn't turn to mush with all of this paperwork and request handling and paperwork and supply chain reinforcement and PAPERWORK. My hand is constantly cramping up, and not in the good way like after a crank session. I'm so distracted lately, Thalia's been bossing me around in bed and I've been letting her get away with it. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME.

If there's one good thing to come out of this colossal pile, it's that we got to see Hadrian's true colors. I have never seen anyone flip from nice guy to super-villain so quick. What a tremendous asshole. Astria tells him you've abandoned your post, he starts ranting about how that was impossible, how could a Bladesister betray him, why hasn't Astria brought her back yet. He got this crazy look in his eye before he turned to me and said "Congratulations, Vendria, you're being promoted. Take the army and reap a Republic harvest. I want every Republic soldier within 50 miles of Imperial territory dead by week's end. Start with all of the prisoners, I want them executed painfully and publicly. Work with Rosaria to schedule that."

For the first time, I had to convince him to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Goddess, that was the weirdest five minutes of my life. Miss Wreck 'Em All advocating for a 'measured response'. He looks at me like I'm something he stepped in, and then he says, in the coldest voice I have ever heard: "General, you will carry out my orders, or I will send Rosaria to find your sister and bring her head back in a pretty box for encouragement."

The fucking moron. I thought I'd be the one to smash his head like a grape, Thalia had at least five daggers ready, but Rose beat us all to him first, and I'm glad she did, because he suffered. She choked the life out of the ungrateful bastard real slow, and I was close enough to hear what she was saying and it was ICE COLD. "My apologies, but do you really think you're in control here? Allow me to tell you EXACTLY what will happen in the next 60 seconds." She had that crazy psycho killer look on her face, the one that makes me glad I've never pissed her off. WOOF.

So, Astria's the Empress now, which is the best case result of all of this, I guess. She asked me for a status update on the entire army, which is why I'm jockeying a fucking desk right now instead of smashing some heads or railing Thal. I'll be honest, I've been imagining it's your ass I'm destroying, and that helps a little, but it really doesn't because Thal's ass is incredible and deserves to be worshiped properly and I can't do that when I'm pretending to hate-fuck you. In short, you are the worst and I blame you for everything.

I just want you to know something. Once things settle down here, I'm coming for you. There is no place for you to hide. Wherever you may hide away, I SWEAR to you, I will be there.

Love you always, I guess

Ven

*****

Hadrian. Kay couldn't believe how badly she'd misjudged him. It was one thing to threaten her, the sisters could deal with that easily enough, but he wanted genocide and right then. She wondered if she would have answered the call, had Ven actually gone through with summoning the Galaxy Hammer. She was glad she didn't have to answer that question.

Kay certainly wasn't expecting Ven's letter to be so hysterical. She cackled multiple times as she read the invective-laced missive, and she wondered how much was genuine vitriol and how much exaggeration for effect.

When she finished reading, Kay noticed the room had gone deathly quiet. She looked up and saw looks of abject terror on Abby and Leah's faces. Obviously, the humorous qualities were lost on them in all of the death threats.

"Oh, geez, no, she'll be fine," Kay tried to comfort them.

"But she said she's coming to kill you!" Abby said.

"She said she's coming for me, I doubt she'd actually try to kill me. This actually makes me feel a little better about the whole business, it would have been a lot shorter if she were actually angry."

"How do you know that?" Leah asked, her voice conveying concern rather than fear.

Kay indicated the last lines of the letter. "Because we always end our fights this way. I'm just not there to sing the other half of it."

The girls looked at each other, Kay wasn't making any sense at all.

"Les Misérables?" Kay asked, looking for any recognition, "The Confrontation? Javert recognizes Valjean eight years after his escape from prison and comes to take him in?"

"I'm not really into musicals," Abby admitted.

"That's how you make up after a fight?" Abby asked, incredulous.

"It makes sense to us." Kay responded, realizing that it probably only made sense to her and Ven.

"I mean, you all do seem a bit... theatrical," Leah conceded. "But, still, I wouldn't want to be on any side of her, much less her bad side."

"She grows on you," Kay admitted, "but maybe wear earplugs anyway." She held up Astria's letter. "Shall we press on, or do you two need a break?"

"I'm good," Abby said, stifling a yawn.

"Me, too," Leah said, resting her head on Kay's shoulder.

Kay broke the purple owl-sealed envelope.

*****

Dear Kaylia,

When you receive this letter, Emperor Hadrian I, last of his line, will be dead and I will have taken his place upon the Imperial throne. I am the first Empress of Gotoro since the Divine Aurelia, and it is with no small amount of trepidation that I hope to meet the standard our illustrious forebear set. It is the culmination of over three hundred years' planning and execution, and I am happy to see my aims finally come to fruition. I do not expect you will be surprised by this revelation. I leave the puzzling out of my goals and acts over the years, knowing the ultimate result for reference, as an exercise for you, sister. I will be interested to hear your analysis and to point out your missteps, as per usual.

In truth, Emperor Ataraxus was ultimately responsible for delivering the Empire from the destructive path it strode. Had he not continued the Divine Aurelia's progeny initiative, altering it to suit his own ends, we would not have been created, and I would not have been in a position to solve the problems that beset us all. It grieves me to laud so odious a man as the Usurper, but it cannot be helped.

I was gratified at the speed with which your sisters rose to your defense against former emperor Hadrian, and I hope that it will be the last time Rosaria is called upon as Mistress of Assassins. To her credit, she is now responsible for ending the reigns of 7 emperors before they became uncontrollable, but she has always enjoyed her work. She may take on the young Duchess of Thornsbury as a sort of social project in peacetime, of which I fully approve. Goddess knows she could use some help sleeping with the entirety of the nobility; maybe she, and by extension I, will actually get some sleep.

Vendria is as impossible as ever. I've set her the task of supplying me a complete readiness report of our forces afield and in garrison, supply inventories, and prisoner information. That will keep her out of trouble while we begin the slow march to armistice with Ferngill. I expect we will begin repatriating our prisoners by year's end, but there is much to do before we can arrive at any such agreement. In the meantime, Thalia is in direct command of the troops, and you will be gratified to know that they remain as disciplined as ever. It is clear that she has taken a shine to them, dour as she normally is, and I suspect her duties with them will help blunt her anger at you in time.

I have anticipated a request to investigate the possible origins of young master Rasmodius's lineage and can confirm that no such wizard family with that surname was ever recorded upon the rolls of the Imperial College in modern times. The Master of Records is currently scouring the pages of antiquity at my instigation, and I shall report his findings if and when they bear fruit.

Kay, there is so much I want to tell you about the track of our lives. You will eventually realize my involvement in driving you to leave, and likely many other events besides, and such realization will only reinforce the image of a manipulative, imperious, cold-hearted overseer rather than a sister that obsessed with providing the best possible future not just for her sisters, but for the Empire. So you understand if I find your plea for forgiveness as saddening, for there is nothing to forgive. Instead, I humbly but ardently beg your forgiveness for keeping so many things from you, for forcing you into situations that preyed upon your very soul, and for sending away your deepest, truest love for the sake of a people and a nation that will never know or appreciate the sacrifices we have made for them.

I cannot tell you where Zoria is, for it was her wish that I not know. Her 'assignment' was a ruse to allow her to escape the Empire's grasp, as you have. I have always suspected she knew I had arranged for her departure, but she made no sign of it. The letter I have enclosed was written by her three years ago, moments before she boarded the vessel that would carry her to a new life in the Republic. Given her specific talents, she will have blended in so perfectly that finding her would be all but impossible. I hope and pray that your bond proves stronger than her skills and enchantments, and that you are reunited as you were meant to be.

We will visit as soon as propriety and political expedience allow. Please know that you are always in our thoughts and our hearts, and we wish you every success in your new life.

I love you, now and always.

Astria

*****

The letter drifted out of Kay's hands. The revelation that their eldest sister had been manipulating them the entirety of their lives, as well as countless others within the Empire, and that she was responsible not only for her flight, but Zoria's as well, left Kay completely numb. She barely noticed Abby pick up the letter and resume reading it where Kay had left off, and she failed to register the girls' gasps as they too learned of Astria's machinations. Kay tried to rationalize it, see everything as for the good of countless lives in the Empire, but Astria sent Zoria away. She knew it was selfish, but Kay would have preferred Gotoro burn to ash and dust if it meant she could still be with Zoria.

Abby and Leah were floored. Kay held Astria up as the wisest of her sisters, if somewhat inscrutable at times, but the depth of Astria's betrayal far outweighed any crime for which Kay held herself accountable. Abby instantly hated her, while Leah felt only intense dislike, the saving grace being Astria's sincere apology.

They all sat on the bed quietly, waiting for Kay to say something. The silence was interrupted by a soft knock at the door. Kay remained motionless, so Leah volunteered to answer it. She opened the door to see Melvyn in his usual black robes and ridiculous hat.

"Hey, how's things?" he asked cheerfully. He immediately sensed the aura of sadness in the room. "Astria?" he asked, and Leah nodded.

"How did you know?" Abby asked, a hint of venom in her voice.

"Come on, I'll tell you both."

"I'm not leaving Kay alone." Abby said.

"Me neither, it doesn't seem like a good idea," Leah agreed.

"It's alright," Kay said, finally. "You two go with Mel for a while, I just need a little bit."

They both protested, but Kay remained firm. She smiled weakly and promised she would be okay while they were gone. They didn't believe her one bit, but finally relented when Luna, blessed Luna, trotted in to the cabin, hopped up on the bed, and promptly laid her head down in Kay's lap, mewing sympathetically.

"That cat is something else," Melvyn commented, nodding his head towards the outside. The girls followed him out and closed the door quietly behind them.

*****

Maru and Haley scrambled through the door to Haley's room, kissing passionately as they they rushed to disrobe. Their date had been everything they'd hoped for, it was so relaxing and fun to just be out and have dinner and talk. They were happy to be in private, though, and Haley couldn't wait to unleash Maru's massive tits from their confinement. She dove into Maru's deep cleavage, reaching behind to unclasp her bra. Maru sighed as the garment dropped away, revealing her H-cup bounty for Haley. They continued kissing as Maru drew Haley into bed on top of her.

"I love you so much," Haley said, her usual dirty language on hold for the moment. Maru's violet eyes, her auburn hair, her caramel skin; they never failed to take Haley's breath away. "You are so beautiful."

Maru blushed, she was never very good at accepting compliments, especially from her blonde goddess. "So are you," she replied, kissing Haley deeply. "I need to you play with my tits, they've missed you..."