Everyday Life with Bubbles Ch. 18

The man looked over, but Ruel had bounced over and was already taking one down. She held it by the hilt, and demonstrated a couple fast and light slashes, before spinning it and holding it out, "Isn't it pretty!? The blade isn't just shiny, it sparkles!"

The man's hand closed around the hilt, and then his eyes widened in surprise, "It's... Light. Much lighter than anything else I've used. And it does sparkle... Are those diamonds embedded in the blade?"

"Mmm..." Ruel shook her head, "Diamond wishes it could be. Harder than diamond, but flexible. It is made from diamonds, though. I take 'em, and then put them in a high-energy magic space. No air allowed! Then stretch the sparklies, over and over, into super tiny little threads. Then go stitch and stitch to make the raw ore! Too hard for hammer!"

"Only took three of my best hammers for you to realise it." Cohen said as he crossed his arms.

The stranger raised an eyebrow, "So this is your process, then?"

"Yes!" Ruel's tail went crazy, "I love the sparklies! Isn't it pretty?"

"It's harder than steel, but that can be a problem." Cohen was practical, and tried to point out one of the many downsides. "Swords need to flex, to move with you and the wind. So the process will never produce the very best. But it is still exceptional. But more expensive than anything beneath the gods' graces."

The man hefted the blade again, "How much, for this one?"

"Six thousand gold pieces. And that's selling at-cost." Cohen shook his head. "We can't really sell 'em."

The man looked at Ruel, "You... Invented this process, didn't you? How did you come up with it?"

"All sparklies have... Shapes. The same kind of shapes." Ruel said cautiously, struggling to explain. "Crystals and gems. All the sparkles! They look flat or like stupid rock, but they're not. Twisted up inside. Big trees! Trees and branches, that grow just like the veins in the mines. They're like that, but inside. So... I tried to stretch them... Flat. That's how it comes out."

The man nodded slowly, "Well, my sword that I broke is a family heirloom. So, if possible, I would love for you to repair it. And I'd also love one of these. What kind of downpay on the repair do you need?"

Cohen stared in surprise, "Uh... Half. So... Let's call it four and a half, for the repair. I really can't take less than six for that blade, either."

"I'll have a servant bring it by, tomorrow. It would be tonight, but the funeral." The man handed Ruel the blade back. He turned to Cohen and smiled knowingly, "For your accounting, you may now list Lord Indica as one of your customers."

Ruel's eyes went wide, and her tail crazy, "The ex-prince!? But you smell like the mine! And you're cute! You don't smell like your dad at all! He stinks so bad that I can smell him across -"

"Ruel!" Cohen snapped.

She whined nervously, and tried to clamp her teeth together. The deposed prince, however, just smiled in amusement. He waved at his broken sword, "Any idea how long this will take, then?"

She shuffled over to the ruins, and bent down. Her eye perilously close to the shards, so that she could eye off the tiny cracks and guess where the impurities in the compound metal might lie. Warping it so she could thread them through with the other metal of her process would take some doing.

"Once I start..." Ruel flicked her jaw back and forth nervously, "It'll take me two or three days. Master Cohen, I won't be able to pause. I don't know if the temple will be much happy, healing me that long."

"Healing?" Indica said in surprise.

"No air." Ruel shrugged, picking up a shard and biting the corner delicately, "Actually, microfractures. Usually, that's bad. But it makes my weaving easier. Two days, start to finish."

"And no help for me on anything else." Cohen sighed, "But... Ruel loves her work. We'll get to it, within the next fortnight, m'lord."

"Excellent." He rubbed his hands together. "Servant and escort will bring the gold. If that's not convenient, just send my estate a message with a more appropriate transfer method. Good evening, Cohen. M'lady."

Ruel waved excitedly with both hands as the lord left, and then swept up the wreck of a blade and took it over to her work table.

"Ruel."

She looked over at Cohen, and the blacksmith made a cautious expression, "I know it may be exciting, however, have you ever noticed that I don't like working for the upper folk?"

"Mm." She shrugged, "They have lots of shinies. Which means they don't like letting go of their gold and sparklies, right?"

He nodded, "They also blame you, if things go wrong. We repair this sword, then we might be expected to do all future repairs for free. Or if it breaks and he dies, you might be charged with treason. The uppers are... Dicks."

"Lady Avician is nice." Ruel replied with a smile, "She doesn't drink alcohol, but she drank ginger pop with me, last weekend. She's the one who I sharpened that pretty dagger for!"

Cohen looked over at the silver weapon, "That's a rattan marriage dagger. What did the queen's bodyguard... You know what, I don't want to know. Especially not with the funeral happening, tonight. Just... Try and show some distrust, okay? It'll keep you safer. Not safe, but safer."

"Okay!" Ruel said brightly, thinking that she understood, and then started laying out the pieces of the broken sword. Categorising them by size, microfracture spread, and density.

---

"You're surprisingly quiet, for one not trained as an assassin." The neko, leaning on his spear handle, said.

Kaia's red eyes flashed darkly, "Am I your assassin, cat? Is that what you think that you deserve?"

"He is not certain." Phoenix replied heavily, looking over the balustrade and into the city square, where the pyre was being built. Surrounded by refugees from the war, as well as nearly every soul that had stumbled across her wife's path.

She clenched her fists, claws digging into her palms, "I don't know, either. I have not a single doubt that she'd tell me off for thinking about killing you. She'd tell me it wasn't your fault. That I just want someone to blame... And then she'd tell me it would be fine to blame you, because you're a dick."

"She was... Different." The man mused quietly, "He didn't see it. Not until... Now. She didn't even try to be queen, and yet... This city would not have unified, were it not for her. Fanhalla embraced her, as one of their own. I doubt she can be replaced."

"The empress' soldiers will walk these streets, soon. Humans." Kaia sneered, tail twitching violently.

"Not by his blood." He snarled, "Phoenix may be stupid and old, but he will fight them for every inch. Perhaps that will ease her pain. Watching him die in this racist war. An attempt to purge Toofy from our minds. To forget your Bubbles."

She stepped up beside him, making the decision, and slipped her hand into his. "I absolutely hate you. But I lost breast and... And horn... Escaping from the capital. My wife would not forgive me, if I let it happen here, again. The empire has no claim to Fanhalla, not anymore. The goddess, bitch that she is, said it was Bubbles', and so it will be fucking Bubbles', until the end of days."

"Your Bubbles frightened him." He mused, "So bright. So happy. So full of motherfucking fireballs."

Kaia's tail curled around one of his legs, "Our first kiss came, after falling from a rooftop. My lord attempted to bed her, when she didn't want it. Instead, she chose me as her... First."

"A creature of endless chaos."

The succubus shook her head, "No... Chaos is a thing of the Golden Kitsune. Bubbles was so much more terrifying than that. She was the chosen avatar of the Silver Neko. She was unconditional, unrepentant, love. For all people, everywhere. She was love."

"A damn sight more terrifying." He agreed.

Kaia turned her sad red eyes from the square, to the man, and lightly kissed his cheek. His ears stiffened atop his head, and the hand holding hers, tightened. She smiled despite her heavy heart, "I don't trust you to do right by Bubbles. I will bind you, to this purpose. Protecting her legacy... And then you will receive my backing, to be the city's caretaker. Her heir, after a fashion."

"He has to willingly give his seed to an angry succubus, who wants him dead?"

"Mmm."

He sighed, "This stinks of trap... But she could have attacked him a dozen ways by now. And he expects that without the Kaia's aid, he will die by dragon or bunneko... Does she know where either, lies?"

"They're together. Hunting." Kaia said lightly, "Some of the funeral notices were... Graffitied."

"Gods have mercy." Phoenix shuddered.

The succubus put a finger under his chin and turned his eyes to look into her own. She didn't say anything more, he understood her. What she was demanding of him, and the vengeful rivers of blood she expected him to exact on any who would taint her wife's legacy.

Soft nekan hands moved around her waist, and pulled her up against his flesh. Her head pulled up to this side of his neck. She considered ripping out his throat, before reverting to type and kissing at it softly. Indulging his desire.

She didn't want the intimacy.

The only thing Kaia wanted, was his cum.

---

"Meatmeatmeat!" Ruel yelled excitedly, barely sitting in her chair and banging her fork on the table, as the waitress approached.

The neko's ears went flat, and she gave a little hiss of disgust, as she put down the plate in front of Ruel. "She doesn't know how you can eat that."

Ruel looked up in surprise, half a slab of beef in her mouth, as she tugged at it with the fork and tried to rip a hunk out of it. She spoke around the tough mouthful, "... Why?"

"Ew. You're all so gross." The catgirl recoiled, "Dripping, fatty. No sense of social etiquette. And nothing but... Meat."

Ruel shrugged, successfully biting through and ripping off a chunk. She chewed it excitedly, tasting the juices flood over her tongue. "Only eat meat. Everything else gives me the shits."

"Gross." The neko repeated, and spun on her heel, tail pointed straight up in the air as she stalked away.

Ruel shrugged and went back to tearing into her dinner.

"Been a while since I've seen you eat, and not just drink." One of the men at the bar said, swivelling to look at her.

She growled around her meat warningly, telling him to keep his distance from her dinner. The man was a heavily tattooed miner. Both of his arms hidden beneath artwork, with not a hint of anything shiny. Just boring ink in boring dark colours.

Jessop chuckled and fished in his pocket, before pulling out a cut and polished bright blue stone. Her growling stopped, and he joined her at the table. "I take it, that you've got a little extra coin, then, Ruel?"

"Aqua... Marine." She swallowed and put down her fork, "You feeling cheap?"

He sighed, "Poor. Yeah. I'm kinda broke. Come on... You always want more gemstones for your collection, Ru."

"I've already got sixty-two aquamarine crystals in my sparklies." She shook her head and went back to gnawing excitedly at her meat, "Sowry. Gotsh anything elsh?"

"You know... I don't. Not quite." Jessop frowned, "But I might have something else, that... You might be interested in. It's a long shot. Nothing guaranteed, at all. No blaming me if anything goes wrong. But I... Uh... It started with me hearing a rumour."

She blinked her aquamarine blue eyes, and slurped, "You're acting different. I'm listening."

"It's the kind of thing you couldn't do on your own. You'd need a crew, probably have to give up your apprenticeship. All on a rumour." Jessop emphasised, "But... I heard that an orcish stockade collapsed. Whole place caved in."

Ruel nodded slowly, "That's weird. Their mine collapsed?"

"Apparently..." Jessop took a deep breath and then whispered, "They tunnelled into... The Milky Cove."

Her tail went nuts, smacking loudly against her chair and catching the attention of some of the other patrons.

The Cove was one of those old tales that no one really believed, but Ruel had been obsessed with it as a pup. She knew every single story and myth that anyone had ever told about the Milky Cove.

Jessop held up both his hands quickly, "It's a long shot. You know that. The only thing I know for sure is that the orc stockade did have a cave-in. It could be nothing. It is probably nothing."

"I get it." Ruel nodded, "I can't go after it, either. I just got a really big thing, which is why I get so much meat! I got someone who bought one my swords. They also want me to repair theirs, using my same thing."

Jessop blinked in surprise, "The Ruel-metal stuff? Isn't that like... Godly expensive?"

"Ungodly. Darkgodly." She nodded, "But deep pockets are deep! He even likes how it sparkles! But... You're a friend. And I do wanna know everything about everything about the Cove. So... How unbroke do you want to be?"

He rubbed his chin, and asked hopefully, "Is it worth a gold piece to you?"

"Sure." Ruel stabbed her fork into her meat, and reached down the front of her top, fishing a coin out of her purse. She pulled it out, and flicked it across the table to him.

Then she lifted the fork and tried to tear a huge mouthful off the end of her steak, struggling to tear at the gristle. Her teeth were all fangs, straight and sharp, but even they had problems at times. Which was why her people had evolved to be able to swallow just about anything.

Her throat bulged for a moment as she tossed her head back and swallowed half the steak at once. She felt it hit her stomach, and looked at the one remaining piece of meat in disappointment. It always seemed to disappear, way too quickly.

"This is the first time you've managed to sell off one of your blades, isn't it? That's exciting. Doesn't that make you a real smith?" Jessop asked.

Ruel shrugged, "I guess? I dunno. It's fun being Cohen's apprentice! He makes all kinds of things, all the time. I got to make a warhammer, yesterday! It goes clunk. But it doesn't sparkle. Nothing shiny about it. Just a really, really big chunk of iron. I did get to make it shine really bright whilst I was making it, though."

"And watching a big and muscly guy like Cohen, all day, isn't that bad, either, is it?"

She blinked, looking at him, and then her cheeks went bright red. "Uh... Jessop? I know you're a good friend, and you're trying to make conversation... But I'm not neko. Catgirls might be all about the sex and stuff, but I'm a doggirl."

"Sorry?" He said in confusion, "Doggirls don't talk about dating...?"

She took a deep breath, "It's... A taboo thing. I'll explain, just the once, because I do like you as a friend. We uh... We have a sex cycle. But it isn't like neko who just get crazy horny during theirs. Outside my cycle, I can't actually get excited. Can't. Not don't."

Jessop winced as he started to realise just how badly he'd stepped in it.

Ruel shrugged, "So... Most of the time? I'm asexual. I got no interest, none, not even a little, in boys. Don't wanna kiss you. Don't wanna go home with you. Snuggles? Yeah. I always love snuggles. But I just like snuggling."

He nodded carefully, looking like he wished he'd never asked.

"However... Um... During my cycle?" She winced and remembered the last time it had hit her. "I kinda make a neko look tame. I actually broke my pillow, the first day of my last time. Being in heat is awful. Well, it's actually fun as fuck! But, the regrets, afterwards? Yeah. They bad."

Jessop blinked, looking even more confused, "Broke... Your pillow?"

"Humped it until it popped. Feathers... Everywhere!" Ruel's cheeks went a brighter red, "Not having a boyfriend, during my cycle, is so bad. But I don't want to get pregnant, and in my cycle that's all I want. And expecting a guy to remember that when I'm all over him and begging... That's not fair. So I try and stay single."

"That's... Rough." Jessop winced, "I'm sorry. Guess I'm lucky. I never really thought about that kind of thing. Being human and everything always being a choice... I guess I took it for granted. Moods just come and go. They don't rework my head."

She smiled at him, tail wagging, "Yeah. But I'm okay with it! I have all my shinies. Ooh! I ordered a special, a month ago. I'm picking it up from the market, tomorrow. I finally managed to afford a firestone necklace! A real Fanhallan one!"

"You got a wyvern-crafted firestone necklace? Damn, girl. Sounds like you're finally making some serious money." Jessop was impressed.

She shook her head, "No, not really. But... I don't spend much? I know shinies can be expensive, but I don't need to buy lots of other things. I only eat once a day, and I don't do bathhouses, don't need coal for heating, and all the other stuff you humans need."

"You don't heat your house?" Jessop scratched his head, "It's not like your fur is that heavy. Stuff's so light it's practically invisible."

Ruel grinned at his confusion, "I got blankets! I love all of my blankets! They all smell like me, and I can bite them all I want. But I never get rid of a blanket. I think I've got... Twelve? Maybe fourteen. Lots of blankets, all bundled up on my bed. I like lots of heavy blankets to curl up under."

"Huh. Yeah, I think I'd hate that. I don't even like heavy blankets." Jessop said in surprise. "But I can see how that'd be cheaper. Especially because you live in one of those bigger apartments off the upper quarter, don't you? They'd cost a mint to heat."

Her face fell a little, "Are... Are you jealous? Because you live in the lower quarter? I spend most of my time in the lower, Jessop. I love being close to the mines, and working with metal and magic. I tried to get an apartment, down here. But no one wanted a pup as a tenant. They think we're messy and muddy and other racist shit."

He rubbed one of his arms self-consciously, "Yeesh. I uh... Yeah, I resented you for that. Do you remember how I wouldn't drink with you, a couple months back? That was why. I'm really sorry about that. I was a dick."

"You should come over!" Ruel said brightly, tail wagging excitedly, "You could see my blankets, and my sparklies! But no take. Only look."

Jessop chuckled, "Eh... Glad we had that earlier talk. Most guys would think you just invited them over for something else, Ru. So maybe word it a bit different, in future."

She turned her head sideways, one of her pointed ears twitching through her short black hair. "Huh?"

"Human women would only say a similar thing, if they were... Attempting to bed someone."

Ruel's eyes went wide, "Oh. Oh! I... Yeah. Whoops. I get excited! Should have thought about how that sounded. No. No, I'm not in heat. But, I do really want to show you my shinies. Then you might know what to offer me, instead of aquamarine! I do like aquamarine crystals. Just have too many."

"Sure." He shrugged, "I'm just drinking here, because I don't have anything better to do. Not yet."

She wolfed down her last piece of meat, and stood up quickly. Yelling at, and then throwing a silver coin to the waitress who had served her. The neko made another face and hissed, as if annoyed about something, but Ruel didn't bother to find out what.

She grabbed Jessop's hand and bounded out of the tavern, and started dragging him to the Grand Staircase that wound up the mountain city. The bottom of the stairs led into the mines, where wyverns and salamanders worked in the intense volcanic heat, uncovering the source of most of Fanhalla's wealth.

The incredible and shining firestone. A magical ore that glowed from inside. If you managed to afford a necklace, then wearing one meant you could walk around in a blizzard, naked, and not get frostbite. However, Ruel had recently learned, to her distress, that dragons also liked to eat the gem stones.

Erientyara was the salamander who broke through into the firestone caverns, a few years back. The city had known they were there, but hired the woman. Who was now somehow connected to the new royal family. Something Ruel didn't really get, but she did appreciate that the mine for her favourite stone was in the city.