Tauli Ch. 02

"For someone who loves words, that shut you up, quick." Len-Kai said with a foreboding curiosity, "How concerned should I be?"

"You should be concerned that the sun tomorrow will still bother to rise. Yet, you aren't, because it is outside of your control. I think this is a situation that's like that, in many regards." The woman answered him carefully, and then smiled at him, "You know, after feeding off your thoughts a bit, it is a real disappointment that you're gay. I'm not going to go and grow a dick for you, I chose to be a woman, but your mind is a thing of wonder. Even whilst thinking about me and what I'm saying, it's still plodding along, trying to work out how to save the orcs. Remembering a lot of the faces you've met, as you're investigating. Wondering how they're coping, with being marginalised. Scared that they might become the replacement for slavery, if they let themselves be exploited."

He nodded cautiously, "Is that why you're still touching me?"

"It was to begin with." She smiled sadly, "Now it's because I really want to fuck you. It's nice to feel your skin, even if you have precisely zero interest in sticking a dick in me."

Len-Kai smiled at her ludicrous frankness, "Weren't you planning to assault our empress?"

"Not anymore." She winced, "Not with... What I remembered. So, I'll do as she wanted. I'll stay here and help you with your research. Just don't be shocked when you wake up in the middle of the night because you can hear me pounding a fist into myself, whilst watching you."

He winced, "Okay. That's... Awkward. And a gross sounding way of presenting it."

"I don't sleep." She smiled at him, "So at least I'm going to wait for you to, before I fantasise about what I can't have. I've also spent pretty much the last... I don't know how long. Since they moved my mothertree underground, starved for sex. So, I am quite desperate for it. Please go to sleep, soon."

Len-Kai could understand why Toofy had worded it the way she had, now.

---

"Mmm." The neko purred happily, wrapping her arms around the blue salamander's waist and kissing at her scaled back, "She's home. How was work, Reeni?"

The gruff woman shrugged her off, sending Salmon plopping onto her butt. "Sent home early. Royal guards everywhere. City in lockdown."

The small neko woman cocked her head, golden eyes sparkling excitedly, "We hunt bad things? Reeni wanna hunt?"

"Not."

Salmon giggled and crept closer, pouncing onto the end of her girlfriends tail and lightly biting it. Not that her teeth had any hope of piercing the scales, whatsoever. "Want it."

The salamander's tail flicked, sending her sprawling. She giggled and looked up, but her face fell. She saw the serious look in her mistress' eyes, and didn't smell any mirth at all. For once, Reenhalla wasn't just denying what she wanted. The two of them weren't going to go hunting, which meant that Salmon wasn't going to get fucked, afterwards.

She felt her bottom lip tremble, "Not upset with her?"

The dragongirl shook her head, voice rumbling, "Not. Never hate the Salmon. Bad thing happened in the city. Very bad."

Salmon held up her arms, and the dragon wrapped her in a tight embrace. Stone-like claws raking through her tangled hair. The salamander was controlling her breathing. The neko could feel the unsteady beat of both the woman's hearts. Panicking.

She kissed lightly at the top of her chest, "Reeni?"

"Empress dead."

The neko screamed, pulling her ears and tucking into as small a ball as she could. Tears flooded her face in terror, and she gasped from in-between Reenhalla's legs, "H-how!? Toofy is... Toofy!"

"Prince, too. Kittens missing." The salamander grunted. "Human take thrown. She say that all cats must... Must rrrr... Some word. Put name on list."

Gold eyes stared up at her pitifully, "They... They hunt the Salmon?"

Her mistress shook her head grimly and growled, "Street cat. They not know her Salmon exist. They come for her... I kill."

"No." Salmon sat up with a pout and poked at the salamander's stomach aggressively, "Reeni protects egg! No fighting. Bad mistress. Salmon can take care of herself. Reeni protects kitten egg!"

The salamander moved uncomfortably as the gelatin egg inside her wobbled and a small fist came punching outwards. The neko snarled, "Not forgive her, if Reeni not protect egg, first."

"I do both." The salamander replied crossly, "I protect. I protect."

Salmon growled, facing off against her girlfriend, hackles rising as her golden eyes ignited. She lightly pressed her claws into the salamander's chest, and leaned her head in until they were touching.

Cold mist spilled out of Reenhalla's jaws, freezing crystals around the threads of Salmon's long hair. The woman's chest grew firmer, and her scales lifted up, noisily flipping back and forth.

"Egg. Comes. First." The neko growled.

The salamander snarled, "I protect what mine. You. Mine. I king."

"Not all king." Salmon sneered, "Both bits. Never transitioned. So she not king, only Salmon's king. The Reeni protects egg. Salmon can take care of herself. The Salmon is not food."

The neko suddenly found herself on her back, pinned to the ground by one hand around her throat. She snarled and kicked, trying to squirm free, when Reenhalla's other hand clamped over her mouth, the salamander looking at a wall, looking through it.

Salmon stopped fighting, and her mistress released her, gesturing towards the back staircase down into the rest of the house that they were squatting in. The salamander couldn't move. The ground would creak beneath her bulk, and she still wore her golden bell around her ankle.

The neko shook her head, silently padding over to the wall and planting her ear up against it. She could hear breathing and muffled talking. Humans, three of them. One of them was a mage, grunting with the exertion of charging up a spell.

Salmon's eyes went wide as she recognised it. She dove at her girlfriend, into her arms and rolling the two of them so that Reenhalla's back was facing the wall. The salamander barely had a chance to curl inwards before the wall disappeared in a spray of stone and flame.

Reenhalla let out a pained scream as the fire scorched her icy body, but held on tight to the neko. She held the catgirl to her chest as she sprung to her feet with a thump that shook the building, before running forward, shoulder lowered as she ploughed through the weaker creatures.

Wings snapped out as they approached the edge of the building, when flames wrapped around them. Salmon could only scream as the two of them fell into the alley below. Her mistress hitting the hard cobblestones and shattering them. Smoke rose up from the salamander, as Reeni coughed weakly, mist pouring out of her as she struggled to her feet.

The neko felt a wave of sadness cross over her.

She pushed her way out of her mistress' arms, "Protect egg."

"I protect!" Reenhalla roared, shaking the entire alley.

Salmon shook her head, and brushed her cheek, "Loves her. Call the kitten, Meira. That the naming. Call her name, when she's born. Promise Salmon, Reeni. Name her, Meira. After old dragonking, and neko name. She will be Reeni's light."

"Salmon." Reenhalla growled, but the neko's eyes were already a wrathful gold, bright and filled with far too much magic. Crackling like bottled lightning. The catgirl shoved the salamander backwards, causing her to crash through a doorway and down the unexpected cellar steps beneath the bakery.

The nekan woman bounced up the walls, flipping lightly to knock one of their pursuers backwards. All three royal guards faced her grimly. The mage raised his hands, "Nothing personal, kitty. Empress' decree."

"Toofy is her empress." Salmon said tiredly, feeling the magic she was channelling beginning to spill over. Sparks crackled in the air and her tangled hair was beginning to lift with the static. She wasn't trying to control it, contain it. In fact, she was counting on the spell failing and rebounding. A wild surge.

"She's gone. My sympathies." One of the spear-wielding men said, with honest emotion. A soldier, doing their duty. One who had served the nekan empress with true loyalty, lost now that she was gone. Only following orders, because they didn't know what else to do.

"Salmon sorry, too. But they danger to her kitten." She nodded sadly, and then she shrugged, spreading her hands as she loosed the overcharged spell, "Boom boom."

---

"I hear that you ordered the purging of all nekos in the capital." The regal figure sitting on the throne spoke slowly, enunciating each of the syllables with exaggerated care.

The nearby lord glanced over at her tiredly, holding a handful of reports, "It's the usual way of doing things. In case Twenty Four escaped, somehow. Such as by using a body double."

"You didn't run it by me, first."

He laughed, "Am I to inform you every time I order the sewers cleaned? Perhaps you would like a report every time the posting of the guards is changed? Every time the kitchen receives a shipment of food?"

"Show respect!" Lady Vanhern yelled at the lord, hands grabbing the edges of her throne, "You will remember my title, father. I am not just here as a figurehead for your own authority. I will not be a puppet! It was my intention to keep Toofy's children close at hand, so we could see when they would decide to strike! Instead you have hidden our two most dangerous enemies. It was stupid!"

He nodded slowly, "I... See."

"Title." She snapped.

He inclined his head, just barely, "Your grace."

She tsk'd in irritation, and waved at his reports, "What of the others? Princess Saia?"

Lord Vanhern pursed his lips, "Reports are conflicting, at the moment. Things are still chaotic, in the city. We met unexpected resistance from what we were under the impression was disorganised rabble. A criminal syndicate who refer to themselves as the Coiner's Guild have dug into a position in the lower quarter. They were evacuating people through the sewer, whilst attacking us with a variety of surprising weaponry, including pistols."

The new empress frowned, "Were?"

"The sewers were partially collapsed, and the air division of the Royal Guards were sent to bombard the fortified position. Reports are currently unclear on the results." He replied calmly, as if her father hadn't ordered a fire-bombing of her own city, and destruction of vital infrastructure, without even a by-your-leave.

He rubbed his chin, "There are unconfirmed reports of a heavily wounded succubus, and an equally wounded neko, defending the criminals. I am trying to determine if there is any truth in it."

She nodded slowly, and tapped her fingernails loudly on the throne, "What of Toofy's favourites? The archivist? Lord Gaarn?"

"Lord Gaarn is being transferred to a more secure prison cell by the Royal Guard." Lord Vanhern answered, sounding exhausted, "The halforc beast killed three of our mages before we stopped him. His hands and feet have been bound, but it appears that our understanding that he had no magic was incorrect. The monster is apparently a practitioner of black magic, specifically, sacrificial magic."

Chanda shuddered at the thought of it, but didn't miss that her father had dropped the honorific, again. "Title. Should he be executed?"

"It would be unwise. He is the sole representative of the orcs in the court. We don't need to give them an excuse to feel subjugated. Replacing him should be a priority. There are three I am looking at."

She felt her crescent-shaped birthmark pulling at her cheek as she tightened her jaw, "Forget the title again, and I'll take a finger. Give me the names and profiles. It should be my decision, not yours."

"No." He replied coldly, and looked at her, "I trained you to look pretty upon the throne. I trained you to know how to play the room, or manipulate the crowd. However, the guards are under my control. The army is mine. Stay in your place, daughter, or you won't make it to your coronation. I may have sculpted you into something useful, but you aren't necessary. Enjoy the perks. I have an empire to run."

With that he snapped his fingers and went back to the reports.

The empress watched in horror as her own bodyguards approached her. One bowed to her, and indicated the door, "Shall we retire, your grace?"

She hesitated, and the other fingered the hilt of his sword. Looking her in the eye without fear, without anger. Simply declaring his intent to end her if she made a nuisance of herself.

Chanda felt her stomach churning, and felt the need to throw up as she realised that the greatest threat to her life was not the Council, it wasn't any of Toofy's loyal followers. Rather, it was her own father.

She stood up, shaking, and was led from the room.

The guards escorted her out of the main wing of the palace, and through the grounds. She tried not to see the red splashed across the loose gravel from where servants fleeing had been struck down. Every member of the palace replaced to ensure Chanda's safety, or so she'd thought.

Every guard, every maid, even the cooks. They were now loyalists to her father. She lived or died by his whim, and that his blood ran through her veins didn't seem to be a concern. She had known her father could be cold, cruel, but... She was his daughter. His wrath at the lord who had hurt her, had been enough for him to side with Toofy.

Except... She doubted that had been about Castelle, now. It had just been an opportunity to move closer to the throne.

She was led into the summer house, and the paper doors slid shut behind her. Left alone, and impotent, in her rooms. A prison made of rich trappings.

Chanda collapsed to her knees and gagged weakly, a tiny acidic burn hitting her tongue, and she coughed out a teaspoon's worth of bile. She swayed, feeling dizzy, and dropped both hands to the reed mats, and tried to get a hold of herself.

Her father might not believe it, but she was still the empress.

"The way out, requires that first you develop your own cadre of loyalists within the guards."

Her eyes jerked up, and she clapped both hands to her mouth in horror. A man, a soldier of some kind, stood in front of her. An enormous gash extended from the base of his neck down to his waist, exposing not just muscle, but broken bone.

The bloodied man's blue eyes were glowing from within, charged with magic. He smiled grimly at her, "Empress. What say you? Shall we help each other to stay alive?"

He was offering her peace... But the implied alternative was that both of them would die, here and now.

"You would... Help me?" She whispered in terror.

He smiled knowingly, "Honestly? I care only about one thing. If you will supply me with a path so I can put my hands around your father's neck and rip the soul from his lifeless corpse. Give me that, and I will give you the empire. But it will take time. Loyalty comes first, in politics."

She nodded slowly, striking a deal with her enemy.

---

Kristen yawned, stretching her arms out of her hammock. Closing the shop early and relaxing was usually something she regretted, but she tended to do it every time Tauli came by. Chaos followed in that one's wake, and she wasn't going to be caught up in it.

She paused, face twisting up in a combination of confusion and revulsion as she felt the weight, and saw the visage, of the ratboy curled up at her feet. The line of the hammock was pulled tight and was creaking dangerously, what with the entire ratata sitting down the end.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing!?"

He yawned and scratched idly at one of his floppy ears, before suddenly disappearing from the room in a burst of speed that left her holding on as the hammock threatened to hit the roof.

The cook cursed him with every single curse that she knew, before staggering free of her bed. She went to the kitchen and grabbed a saucepan, before yelling loudly, "Ready or not, bastard, here I come!"

Kristen crept over slowly to the entrance to the larder. She walked down the couple steps and then tried to be as silent as possible as she headed for the ladder to the basement where she had first run across the man.

The trapdoor was flung open, despite the fact she always kept it padlocked shut. The bronze lock, itself, was lying discarded next to the hole. The spring was visible, as if the object had been simply pried open by someone with incredible strength.

She tsk'd in annoyance, and headed down the ladder into the cold, and surprisingly dark. The single candle she usually kept burning, to let her know if there was a gas buildup, was snuffed.

Kristen walked over, putting the pan down against the wall, before feeling for the flint striker. She fiddled for a moment, flashing white sparks into the blackness, before managing to light the candle.

As soon as she did, there was a small gust of wind, and the candle went out.

The cook immediately felt a cold stir in her loins, and took a deep and calming breath. She re-lit the candle carefully, half-expecting to be confronted with a face in the dark.

Kristen breathed a sigh of relief and turned around. She was being paranoid. She rubbed at her eyes, blinking and trying to adapt to the tiny amount of light in her basement.

The room below the larder was used haphazardly. Parts of it were used for ageing wine and cheese, and other parts for long term storage. However, for the most part, Kristen rarely came down here. Her discovery of the ratboy living here had come weeks after he'd moved in.

The irregular use was reflected in the way the shelves were arranged. If there was something down here, it was easy to hide. Though, she expected the only thing she'd find was a guilty and annoying ratata.

Kristen turned and reached for her pan.

The cook took a terrified step backwards, as she found it wasn't where she'd left it. "Enough games, rat! I... I won't hurt you. Just come out. Right now!"

She saw the edge of a shadow move, and snapped her head sideways. She rolled her jaw and slowly approached a cardboard box. She hadn't been entirely joking, earlier, when she told him to eat one. She'd found him both sleeping, and gnawing on, one when she'd first come down here.

"I'm... Upset. But I'll be more upset, if you don't come out." She said, struggling to make herself speak at a normal volume and not a whisper.

The cook took a couple more tentative steps, "C-come on. You're being... Ridiculo-"

A hand clamped over her mouth from behind, and she was yanked backwards by an arm around her stomach. She found herself staring into the eyes of the rat, in the dark.

He put a hand to his lips, and shook his head left and right slowly.

Kristen turned her head in the direction of the movement she'd seen, as she let the ratata drag her further into the shadows. He pulled her down until they were both crouching, and his tail went around her mouth as he cocked his head, listening.

The man spread his claws, and his shoulders tensed, as he stared into the shadows.

---

"Master! Master!" Millie burst through her doorway, snatching her blanket off the floor from last night and began unceremoniously throwing wooden gadgets and her precious books into the makeshift sack.

The topless and scarred human failed to look up from the book he was reading, "Hmm?"

"Fuck you, Master!" She snarled, shoving her glasses back up her nose, "Get up! They're coming for her! We need to leave!"

Lawrence rolled out of the bookshelf, shadows immediately licking around the edges of the room as his eyes went completely black. "Get behind me, Millie. Now."

She squealed and dove as she heard a fireball streak through the air. Her glasses clattered to the ground. She grabbed for them pathetically, but as she slipped them on, she saw Lawrence standing in front of her, solid and angry. Grasped in one hand was the unstable flames, the spell coiling back and forth as her master refused to allow it to detonate.