Theo: Blood Angel - Arc Melinda

The diner was elegant, if simple. Monstergirls aren't for crafts much, so it was mostly dwarven mamono carvings, furniture and an elaborate musical stand where human servants and mamono Gandhava, avian mamono with bright feathers, played soft music.

"Wanna?" Pebb munched on pork sausages with mustard.

"I...we don't eat pork, Pebb." Melinda stuttered.

"Religion?"

Melinda shook her head. "Was, now it's custom. Nicean Pact made all of us effectively Lescatians but...eh...don't like the taste. I like alcohol though!" She laughed. "Wine is so good."

Pebb laughed as they shared a glass.

The music went on quietly as they started eating starters, Pebb enjoying the sausages immensely.

When their food came, Melinda tucked in timidly, seeing servants girls.

"Feeling bad? I understand." Pebb bit a sausage, finishing them.

"Yeah."

"You'll be better soon. It's a charity event of Fraterni Libertas..." She popped open some wine, filling both glasses. "Those adventurers and merchants that raise ransom for slaves and captives that want a way out."

They ate civilly, Pebb a bit hesitant about cutlery since they came in all sizes and shapes, but they chatted, ate, and laughed enjoying their food.

Pebb told about her own life as a minotaur calf of a strong minotaur lady, going by the name of Bren. How she grew up, learned fighting, hunted her first man but could not mount him.

"I was too scared and was 17!" She explained. Melinda found herself nearly spilling the wine from laughter as both ate and joked. Melinda told her own past, how she never called a serious place home, and how everything was always like a river.

"I was always dragged down by powers I couldn't stop." Melinda sighed, nursing her wine glass. "Couldn't stop being a refugee, couldn't stop integration, couldn't stop anything. It was never me making decisions." She drank her glass dry and filled another, the crimson juice swirling in generous spurts. "Then I make a choice. Join militant sisters of healing."

Pebb tried to cheer her up: "And you got...education and money. Right?" Melinda bitterly smiled and showed her collar, and swept her hands around.

"You think? First battle and bam. I'm scared to death. At least...I found you all weren't that cruel."

She kept eating quietly.

Pebb felt a twinge in her chest. Slavery of the captured was legal and quite well regulated now, but this series of coincidences got even to the sensations of a dull girl like her. Her face, human as Melinda's, sank a little, her hand scratching a horn on her head out of habit.

"Can your mother move around? Maybe we can arrange-"

Just when she was going to say something, an announcer stepped up suddenly, a succubus singer. Dressed in red silks and a dress one size too tight, she boomed:

"Ladies, Gentlemen and Mamono! Today we have a special occasion for everyone involved, a good cause! Fraterni Caritas has visited us to raise ransom for Lescatian humies who do not want the benevolence of the Reik! But we are nothing if generous!" She was applauded loudly.

She succubus, winking at Melinda, clapped her hands, and human servants brought forth trinkets for sale in forms of jewelry, and donation boxes.

Mamono dropped coins in the boxes, bought jewelry, and kissed human boys and girls for pennies as Melinda and Pebb giggled.

The succubus grinned, and waved her hands. "Now we hold a charity dance! Who will dance for the crowd to collect donations in the form of an exotic dance? Let..."

The light fell on Melinda.

"Wha?"

"This Qadimi lady, what's your name?!" The succubus smiled, approaching her, hips swaying, wings open."

"M-melinda..."

"A BEAUTIFUL NAME FOR A FLOWER! WE ELECT YOU TO DANCE MELINDA! WOULD YOU FREE POOR PEOPLE THROUGH THE POWER OF DANCE?"

Melinda's heart leapt.

"DANCE FOR PEOPLE'S FREEDOM!" People applauded.

Pebb grinned, a glint in her eye "Here is an opportunity for you, brown sugar."

"Dance! Dance! Dance!" The crowd chanted, hands clapping.

Melinda gulped. She was asked for what the monstergirls who wanted to see her perform an exotic dance...And she was melting from shame.

Hesitantly, she was led to the platform where already a drum tune had started, tickling her insides. She didn't know to run or stay...

"Maybe our delicate flower needs a little liquid courage? Have a cup of the Dark Elves' Finest!"

Amongst laughter, music and applause, Melinda found herself drinking the sweet, red, nectar that was given: an expensive glass of wine, downing it from worries.

"Come on!"

The wine had passed way too far into her gullet now...The dizzying feeling of intoxication, the music, light and encouragement finally burst forth from her lips as a sweet laughter.

Melinda stepped forward, and rapped her foot to the Qadimi drumbeat. Now it was on! She would dance! The dusky Qadimi girl threw her foot forward, and gave an abrupt shake of her hips.

Suddenly, applause started to sound like raindrops when Melinda gave way to her inhibitions and started an improvised belly-dance. A flute and series of drums guided her heart to the rythm,the dance's speed and tempo as she felt herself gliding on the drumbeats and tune of the flute, gyrating, shaking and bending her arms in floating, flowing patterns.

Amongst the booze-fueled courage, Melinda started shaking, gyrating and using all she remembered from hazy nights in the desert days.

Something hit her ankle. A coin. The audience started tossing coins. It really was working! She kept dancing, gyrating to the tune as the audience clapped, cheered and kept throwing coins. Soon, two other women joined her:the point of no return when she could not stop.

She kept dancing,imitating the bellydance she saw.

Her hips shook to the tune, and she didn't mind one of the women kept her a close distance as they dance, to rub on her body, to enjoy the music.

So much that she did not even resist her dress being pulled.

Soon she was in her underwear, blushing as she danced. Pebb was watching. She wanted to make her proud. Grinning, she twirled, shaking her hips before her owner as coins rained and the music exploded to a high tempo...

Melinda pulled her head back and let a keening ululation as everyone stood up and started dancing, kissing, shaking, rubbing themselves on their partners. Coins rained to the ground, the donation box as a succubus slapped Melinda's bountiful, black ass, making her jump.

"Pick'em. Might buy you out of yours." She grinned.

Melinda hesitated. Enough silver to pay her out, laying on the floor like snow flakes. But was there a way out of Pebb? She'd be crestfallen, and her mother may not be pleased that she danced like a whore for other monstergirls. Plus...

...This was a charity for those that really wanted to be free.

"I donate them to Fraterni Caritas." She simply spoke, smiling in sweat. Pebb's eyes twinkled. She could lose Melinda if she chose to buy her freedom...and here she was, donating her effort to free others who wanted out!

The succubus' smile and bow surprised her. "You are a kind girl with a good heart. Keep it up that way." She gently nodded, bowed, and collected the coins, giving melinda an ample view of her backside straining the traditional succubus thong. Tomorrow a lot of prisoners would be free to leave, singing Melinda's praises.

She went for her dress, feeling of shame coming back until she threw her over her head and finally got dressed, trying to correct the wrinkles from the succubus' audacious stripping...

As the music died down, and a cool, calm sound of the nearby fountain filled her ears, she sat next to Pebb, pulling her unfinished food around the table, and proceeding to eat with her slowly, tired, sweaty.

She and Pebb were arm in arm, the minotaur girl's face a mask of adoration and joy as she snuggled.

"I love you Melinda." Pebb had blurted out, simply. "We should marry..."

Melinda sighed, blushing, snuggled as they ate and drank wine as the music began, this time the calming tune of a soft flute. After tomorrow, she'd ask for more privileges, maybe freedom. It had to wait until her shift was over. Maybe move what's left of her family, her mother, here for a new life. Maybe a man to marry, children to raise, and a family to reunite, here.

Life was good as they snuggled. Surely her future was brighter than Lescatian military government life.

**

Q: What happened?
A: I was bringing Mistress...I mean my captor her change of clothes and cleaning her guard post when suddenly she called me to guide a human slave to a warehouse...he was the "Theophilos" you mentioned. We...well...

Q: Slept?
A: (glares and nods) Can't even remember why. Maybe brainwashing. I...(breaks down.)

Q: So...let me get this straight. After you...laid with him, you guided him to the warehouse where he used chemicals to knock you out. Afterwards...?
A: My...captor...no...my...friend splashed me with water, and all I could hear is her desperate shouts if I am alright. She then carried me away, and told everything, how that "servant" turned out to be that murderer. Then they said they caught him. Exiled, or so I heard. That day I...(breaks down and cries again)

***INTERVIEW ADJOURNED***

After being betrayed by her first sexual partner, Melinda had broken down.

Her second suicide attempt in which she nearly opened her veins with the cutlery made Pebb sigh and search out the slaver to arrange a ransom.

"She can't handle it. Fuck me, I'm just a minotaur with bricks for brains." She grunted at the dark elf. "And she said she had a mother waiting for her in Lescatie. Just arrange a ransom, alright? She said Lescatie state would ransom prisoners."

The dark elf raised her eyebrows. "Oh? Sell her to me. I can turn her worries into pleasure: aunt always wanted a brown desert girl for domestics."

The minotaur shook her head, bovine ears flapping. "Nah. She has family to go back. And every time she sees monstergirls, she breaks down. Do you know how heavy it is to keep her calm?"

The Dark Elf sneered, laughing:

"She can write back to her family under me, and I have a certified, well-groomed plantation doctor. You minotaur girls are sentimental. Slave trade is legal and she is an adult, no?"

"I treat a slave as living people with families, not toys to stack to places." Pebble grunted. "So NO. Back to family she goes on Lescatian state's ransom dime."

"60/40 of the ransom, earflap."

"Half-and-Half, knife-ear. Anything, ANYTHING happens to her, and I'm killing everyone you love." Her tace took an angry sneer, giving a snort, horns eager to start trouble.

"Easy, bull girl. Deal." The dark elf slaver relented. "I guess I'll keep looking for a cute Maghrebi girl for a slave. Pity, I'd take good care of her."

**

The brick building was situated on a quiet trading post and had extensive entrance gates and no windows. Here, both factions quietly maintained a skeleton garrison for prisoner/population exchanges, silently, lazily standing guards , human of monstergirl watched each other warily as emissaries exchanged prisoners, coins and items, sullenly bound men, women and monstergirls to repatriate after ransoming them.

She wasn't restrained, but her eyes were red from crying. Her former captor, now a friend, and soon to be seperated one hugged her arm sullenly, trying to console her.

"Hey, isn't this what you wanted? The state paid me the ransom and you get to see your family, or whomever you wanted." The minotaur girl tried to keep her spirits up, buying her snacks underway and trying to make small talk. Melinda could only cry at the slightest stimulation and hug the large minotaur girl's arm, sobbing on it like a pillow.

The Minotaur girl could only sigh and pet her head. "Sorry. No harm done. You can always...visit me again I guess." Her strong, angular features showed genuine sorrow under her monstergirl features. "I thought we got...never mind..."

Melinda could only sob.

"That bastard. I'll make him pay, Melly. That I promise." The minotaur girl sighed again, fondling her axe. "I never mistreated you, abused or deprived you. Just...think of that to cheer you up, I guess..." Humans were complicated, human girls the most. The sheer frustration made her snort in anger and strike the ground with her hoofed leg. "But think of the time you spent here."

Her companion, a high ranking succubus girl wearing military uniform and a sword, escorting both girls for safety, nodded. "She tells me you were treated fairly and weren't abused. Perhaps we gained a future friend...who knows?"

The demon girl had golden pupils that glowed with anticipation as she smoothed her uniform. "And you get to be free. Freedwomen have privileges that let them travel our lands unmolested, per Empress Agrat's orders." She acted as friendly as she could to keep the human girl from breaking down, trying to pat the girl on her head with her spade-tail.

"No bad feelings?"

Melinda shrugged tearfully. Sighing, the minotaur girl embraced her, muscular arms rubbing the girl's back. Her warm tears wet her chest.

A shout from an official inside the building called them into action. A table across which two officials sat with a bored expression was overseen by an equally bored looking guard, waved them inside. Identification, registry and stamping went routine, and boring. Both bureaucrats, one middle-aged human woman and an equally bored looking Danuki girl stamped, signed and exchanged papers to register the P.O.W exchange.

"Done. Welcome back...cleric Melinda." The bureaucrat spoke without emotion.

It didn't feel like a welcome to her.

In the distance, Pebb was walking rapidly back for a carriage. Minotaurs didn't cry, at least not in public. She had to hold her tears, careful not to smudge the address she kept, the humble living hut of Melinda's mother.

The succubus officer just bantered with the human guards that lingered, and did not shoo her.

"We treat our slaves very well, you see...I can't see why I can't arrange a visit should you be interested...Kristen, wasn't it? Oh no, nothing would happen without your consent, but see, you look absolutely fit as a waitress at my restaurant...Really? REALLY? Hey, meet me after dusk, and let's talk this over...We'd treat humans much better than Lescatie nowadays...Got an interested brother too?"

**

Q: You blame him?
A: Of course I do! That careless bastard ruined what little peace we had. I was good to monstergirls. Human girls and monster girls started warming up to each other, other prisoners and slaves were free all but in name!... I was trying to fit in and they were learning about us...(sob) that bastard ruined not just me, but many human women! Now no one trusts another at the capital now. Not even monstergirls trust each other after that Theo killed Azaneal, saying an Anubis helped him kill her. I mean...

Q:But you yourself said monstergirls made slaves out of every newcomer man and woman...?
A:But they treated them fairly, and...*sobs* gave them opportunity...to be free...now everyone at the Reik is para...paranoid...no one trusts anyone.

Q:Wait, he killed Azaneal? The black manticore? Our records say she lived for 3000 years and saw the crucifixion of Kenkou of the Cross, and the second prophet Lescat himself...
A:(nods) I saw her body parts blown all over the warehouse. It was horrible. He flicked his hands, mumbled something holding a small blood-written ...sigil. Horrible...

Q:Final question, cleric. Off the records. Did you...have a romantic attraction to Pebb the minotaur girl? Cannot blame you.
A:[REDACTED]

**

Epilogue: Subject released after a few treatments involving holy water bath. Reunited with her mother, Melinda is reported to stay with her widowed mother and write about her ordeals (pre-screened for heresy)

Request to send her back to Pebb is put on hold by council, pending potential peace talks at a [REDACTED] date.

"Poor thing is head over heels for that barbaric monster-girl. Maybe we can just send her for concessions, maybe a spellbook or two." - Imperial Research Collective Council member [REDACTED]

Subject is sadly not pregnant. Theophilos' magic-corrupted blood could be a powerful weapon of mass destruction. Considering using "pretend-captive" infiltrators hired to be impregnated by the Kinslayer "Theo".

We must use every means to suppress the monster-women.

Deus Vult.