Chapter 196 – The First Domino

Lilyth

Dainyir looked like I probably looked whenever I was dragged along, kicking and screaming, on after-work beer. Somewhat enjoying himself, but clearly waaaay out of his depth.

We annexed one of the larger booths in the establishment. You know, one of those where men drank alcohol served by pretty girls, before… You know. Since we were a rowdy bunch we must have scared off quite a few customers of the brothel. Still… some of them stayed.

‘Hey, kid!’ some jackass shouted. ‘Why won’t you quit hogging the ladies?! Some of us want a go too.’

The man was disturbingly plain-looking. Not “no wonder he can’t get laid” plain looking. It was more of a… “I wouldn't be able to pick him out of a police line-up” plain looking. Short-cropped brown hair, eyes of indeterminate colour, short stubble and absolutely no distinguishing features.

Still, no matter how weird the man looked, the death glares he got from all of us told him he had a very wrong impression. I may or may not have supplemented mine by channelling Ereshkigal's power for half a second to make the lesson really stick.

‘I’ve never seen someone go from horny to terrified for his life that fast,’ Deirdee remarked. ‘And I actually assassinated people during sex.’

‘Hopefully not while they were inside of you,’ Aki covered her mouth in horror.

‘Nah. I would take care of it… before. There are only a few positions that would let someone with wings access to a person's vital parts, and there are no guarantees you will be able to convince the target to… assume them.’

‘You are an assassin?’ Dainyir asked, looking at her starry-eyed.

He really must feel like he found himself in one of the stories.

‘A magical one even,’ Deirdee smiled at him. ‘Sadly, I lost my wings, but it gained me a few friends, so it is not all that bad.’

‘How did it happen?’ he asked, before realising it may have been inappropriate.

Deirdee didn't mind.

‘I was captured by monsters in a lost underground city, not that far away from here actually. Lilyth, Aki and Caei saved me.’

‘Good thing they were there with you.’

‘They may have been my last assassination target.’

‘What can I say,’ I sighed. ‘We are all a bunch of strays and lost souls here. That and one vengeful spirit.’

And judging by Dainyir's expression we were just joined by another one.

Good. We all need friends.

The night passed without any incidents, which only made us more worried. So we decided to go see Baldie McBaldface in force. Caeileera and Deirdee would be covering us from the roofs, while Sav was using one of the drones to provide overwatch. We were taking no chances, so our “let’s try to reason with a self-important zealot” group now also included Aki and Persephone.

And boy, did the fucko love the sound of his voice. Apparently, he had the lung capacity to match it, too, as we could hear his ceaseless yapping several streets away.

‘You know,’ Persephone sighed. ‘At this point, I wish someone would off this cunt. I have been listening to him rant for WEEKS. Even being trapped in that pillar was better than that. At least it was peacefully quiet.’

‘Wasn’t that bitch over multiarmed bitch with you there?’ Aki asked.

‘Lendaria wasn't much of a talker and spent most of the time in hibernation anyway.’

I added the “most” part to the list of subjects to ask ‘Phone about.

I could see that Dain also had questions, but, wisely, decided to leave it be for now. Poor thing, he was probably still processing what had happened the previous day.

“Met Lilyth” curse claims another soul. RIP.

‘Furball, this is Pinkhair,’ my radio suddenly squawked. ‘Route to the target is clear. Dancer and Hexer report no disturbances.’

‘Terrific news, Pinkhair,’ I replied. ‘On final approach to the fuck… target.’

We decided to use radio callsigns in case someone was listening. I agreed to be Furball on the condition that Sav became Pinkhair. Ren got stuck with Birdie, Aki with Light Bug, and Persephone ended up with Temptress to commemorate how she and I started working together. We didn't have anything for Caei and Deirdee yet so they received temporary callsigns.

‘Roger that, Furball. Pinkhair over and out.’

‘I dread to think what name you have for me,’ Dainyir said.

‘So far nothing, hu… Dain.’

Shit. I almost called him “hubby”.

This was going to be a hard separation.

The plaza was full of people. Most of them were people coming to the clinic for treatment, but there was now a small crowd of maybe forty people surrounding the Inquisitor. Ten of them had twelve-pointed silver star badges attached to their coats and furs identifying them as members of the Temple Dragoon. Their number was both concerning and a subject of much consternation to the Viscount, as initially there were only five of them and nobody from our side of the barricade knew where the fuck they came from. The City Guard haven't seen them enter the city and Baerniel confirmed that Temple Dragoons would rarely travel without any badge of office visible while on official Church business.

The other people around the zealot seemed to just be citizens of Ror-Bhyk who, likely due to decades of inbreeding, supported the cause of “healthcare bad”.

Our side has also grown extra numbers due to the increased City Guard presence supplemented by the Fae that Jillyead promised. I recognised one of them. It was Asha, one of Nyx’s Gale Knights. I met her during one of my visits to the realm of Air. Her formation was not so much guards, a Goddess didn't need them, but official enforcers of Nyx’s will in more serious matters. Basically, for cases that warranted her attention, but weren't serious enough for her to intervene personally, Gale Knights would be dispatched to ensure a peaceful resolution of the matter.

Asha herself was a cambion, a child of fae from two different elements, in her case Fire and Air, though you wouldn't be able to tell it at first glance, due to her almost liquid glowing red skin and hair that was quite literally from fire. Asha’s Air side was mostly visible when she went into low-power mode. Her skin then turned light blue, and her hair turned into a still fiery pixie cut. The only Air Fae “bits” that were always visible were blue eyes with lightning flashes in them and the elf-like pointy ears.

Asha also happened to be Nyx’s daughter.

Yes. It surprised me too, given how aggressively lesbian the goddess was.

Though, as she explained, and hinted before, she had no issue with trans women and taking a D from them, and well… Asha’s father was a shapeshifter. Yup.

At that moment, I was really jealous of the cambion as she was the only person in the plaza unaffected by the cold and proudly displayed her shimmering blue-white scale mail and the golden tabard emblazoned with her own personal sigil - Gale Knights’ tornado over flames.

Truth be told, the Inquisitor also seemed unbothered by it being fucking fifteen below zero, but that chucklefuck was so bereft of common sense, reason and basic human dignity that he might have not even noticed that it was freezing.

I still have no idea what the fuck Wilhum was smoking when he appointed me one of the “ambassadors” to speak with that religious cunt, but he should change his fucking dealer.

‘Halt! Who goes there?’ one of the Temple Dragoons shouted as we began pushing our way through the crowd to reach the loudmouth priest.

He was a man, possibly in his early forties, what I could see of his face from under a hood and thick scarf, prematurely aged, likely by long hours spent outside.

‘Guardswoman Lilyth of the City Guard,’ I replied, citing my provisional title. ‘On official business from the Viscount.’

His piercing orange eyes, likely evidence of Fae heritage, narrowed upon hearing my name.

Interesting.

‘Kihliam of the Temple Dragoons. Well met, Lilyth. Pardon me saying that ma’am, but you don’t look like a member of the City Guard.’

Due to the low temperature, we were all wearing furs and coats so fucko must have been referring to my ginormous and absolutely glorious ears that made it difficult and uncomfortable for me to wear hoods or caps. So I covered what I could with a scarf, and, luckily my orange fur was thick enough, or “fluffy” as Aki put it, to keep most of what was left uncovered warm. One thing that initially disturbed me upon my transformation was that what we assumed for months to be hair was, in fact, just long, soft and silky smooth fur, but now I was happy for it. The winter coat was nice, though I wasn't looking forward to shedding.

Ignoring Kihliam’s racism, I took my letter of commission from the sleeve of my coat and handed it over to him.

He read it, handed it back and said:

‘I’ll ask the Inquisitor if he is willing to see you.’

I was under strict orders not to cause a diplomatic incident unless absolutely necessary, so I just nodded.

Kihliam walked up to Baldie and started explaining who we were in a hushed voice.

‘I know that man,’ I heard Dainyir say softly.

‘You sure?’ I asked, having no idea how he could have recognised anyone under all those layers of warm clothes.

‘A man named Kihliam visited Varlia once. He had the same orange eyes.’

My stomach sank.

Not good.

I heard Ren swear under her breath. Then Dainyir delivered the killing blow.

‘He is a member of the Red Masks.’

I had to control every fibre of my being to stay calm and collected.

Fuck. That's how he knew my name. He knows who we are.

I reached into the pocket of my coat, where I kept my radio, and quickly pressed the transmit button six times, our code for immediate danger.

At the same time, I wanted to listen in on the conversation between Kihliam and the Inquisitor, but it was too late, as the Bald man was already pointing at us and shouting:

‘Behold! The pawns of the demon-loving Viscount came to stop me from speaking the truth.’

Realising things were going south fast, I took off my gloves and released the thumb break on my gun holster. It wouldn't hurt to be ready to kneecap a bitch should a need arise.

‘Sorry, I tried,’ the False Dragoon said upon returning to us, sounding anything but.

‘I don’t think either of you understands,’ Ren said, as more and more of the Inquisitor's followers began turning towards us with unfriendly gazes. ‘We aren't asking to see your boss. We are telling you we will be seeing him.’

Bad idea, hon. A very bad idea.

‘And you are?’

‘Honourable Ren Yamaoka of Mer-Cas.’

‘Oh, I didn't realise we were dealing with the Heroes of Ror-Bhyk,’ Kihliam said loudly enough for people, and the Inquisitor, to hear.

The zealot had no issue weaving that into his rhetoric.

‘See the corrupting influence of the Fae and Demons in action! They even got the great heroes of this land to fulfil their foul bidding! Should we let this stand?’

‘No!’ one of the members of the crowd shouted, and soon the others repeated.

That made me realise that there were possibly Red Masks in the crowd, ready to help channel the fervor of the crowd.

Or are they all Red Masks?

Truth be told, it didn't matter. The crowd began converging on us, pressuring the five of us into a smaller and smaller space.

My mind flashed back to the last time something like that happened. When men were surrounding me. Grabbing. Reaching. Doing things to me. Cold sweat broke on my body and I grew lightheaded.

No.No.No.No.nononononono

I couldn't let that happen again. I wouldn't let that happen again.

I couldn't breathe. I had to get out of there.

Led by pure survival instinct, I went into the [Storm Form], my fur turning into dark clouds with lightning flashing in them, and cast the [Gust of Wind] to push the converging people away.

Greatly amplified by channeling the power of Nyx almost unfiltered, the spell was powerful enough to launch a few of our assailants across the plaza, their bodies shattered and broken.

Pandemonium broke out as dozens of people began to flee. Some of the people wanted to avenge their friends and charged at us, but broke the moment Aki, Ren and Persephone fired spells and magic arrows over their heads. The Dragoons formed a protective wall around the Inquisitor, trying to lead him away and then we heard a single shot. It was quiet, but somehow still audible in the pandemonium. I dove to the ground and immediately looked around to see if any of my friends were hurt. To my great relief they weren’t.

That feeling was cut short, however, when I hear Kihliam shout:

‘The Inquisitor is dead! The fuckers killed the Inquisitor!’

I looked to where the crazy man just stood and sure there he was, lying on the ground with a gaping hole in his skull.