“You two look significantly less inhibited than everyone else we've come across,” Drim mentioned as he and Jaid approached the couple at the checkout counter in the hotel’s lobby.
“Well, err, there’s a reason for that,” Dr. Farian was acting unusually cagey. Normally, he tried to keep candor, being blunt with his patients and hitting them with the hard truth. But now he was clearly avoiding something.
“I’m pregnant,” Andi didn’t share the same reservation and cut to the chase. “The good doctor here insists that I only drink special nutritional drinks that he brews himself, so I never laid hands on any of the spiked drinks.”
“Oh, congratulations!” Jaid clapped her hands at the happy news. “How far along are you?”
“Just about a month,” the teacher answered. “Not really enough for anyone to notice. Though Valen somehow knew before we did, either her instincts or something was up with my blood flow. But her asking was what inspired me to get checked. And I do have a request. Please don’t mention it to Ahvra.”
“If she finds out that we’re having what could possibly be the first Fiend-human hybrid, she’ll want to include us in her gestation trials or some other experiment. It should still be a bit before I start really showing, hopefully after those trials are complete. So that should buy us a bit of time. Though she may still find out anyways.”
“I’m happy for you two,” the king gave his blessing. “And of course we’ll keep the secret. I know when we first got back, Xard originally confused Feyjrusa as your child. It made us curious if it would ever actually happen. And that does explain why you look well, Andi, but not you, Farian.”
“I drink whatever she drinks,” the doctor explained. “And eat, exercise, whatever else she does. That’s our deal. Whatever she goes through, I’ll be right by her side. As her personal physician, it will help ensure that I’m giving her the best guidelines and regiment possible.”
“And as such…” Farian’s face shifted again, looking a bit dour and distraught. “It pains me to say it. But since I’ll be a father soon, I don’t know if I can afford the risk of joining you on your venture, Drim. As much as I’d—”
“You’re going,” Andi stated sternly, cutting off her partner’s trepidation.
“I am?!” the man was taken back by the sudden decision.
“Yes, you are,” the woman repeated herself. “If you didn’t go, and one of them died when you could have saved them, it would eat you alive. I don’t know if you’d ever be able to look at me or our child the same way ever again. And if it comes to blows, though you may not be a fighter, I know you’ve been working on a few tricks.”
“Plus, I know you’d want nothing more than to see an actual so-called god in person.”
“Of course I would!” Farian immediately jumped on the subject. “Fiends, gods, the voice in our heads. It all goes against science and nature! I’ve always struggled to cope with the idea, even with all the evidence. So if I could see a god with my very own eyes-”
Andi shot the pair of Fiends a look, as if telling them this was their opportunity to make a grand escape. Which they certainly took advantage of, fleeing the couple’s… Spat? Rant? Consensual agreement? It was hard to say what the conversation could be called at this point, but Drim and Jaid wanted none of it.
So the two swiftly departed, but not before getting some valuable information from the front desk. Apparently, there had been a floor dedicated to any of the Fiends who’d opted to stay in the resort’s many suites—likely to isolate any potential damage to a single area to ease the cleanup and not risk any areas that were already undergoing renovations.
“Erm, they said the 4th floor, didn’t they?” Jaid attempted to reconfirm as Drim’s floating finger drifted well above the button for their destination.
“We’ll go there soon, but let’s head to the top first,” the king craned his neck skyward. “I have a feeling that’s where she’ll be.”
Drim’s hunch proved correct. Perhaps he could sense her from so far away, or it was part of their shared familial bond. But really, he just knew her all too well. ‘Kada’s Office’ was what the sign had originally read on the highest floor, but the name part had been hastily scribbled out, replaced with ‘Queen Phon Drazah’ scrawled above it.
The inside of the office was actually more well respected. Perhaps since the woman had claimed it as her own, she didn’t want to tarnish the kingdom she’d stolen. And Phon was in a far more dignified state than just about everyone else they’d found. She was leaning back in the cushy and vastly oversized chair with her feet kicked up on the grossly expensive desk.
Phon lifted the brim of her cap just an inch that had been pulled down over her face, getting a glimpse of the intruders. “Hello brother and tag-a-long,” she coarsely greeted them before letting her hat fall back down over her face.
“How are you feeling, Phon?” Drim’s words were imbued with a more loving compassion when dealing with his sister compared to all the others they’d run across so far. Perhaps because no one else would worry so much about her, since she was the kind who refused to ever show weakness to anyone but him.
“Just dandy,” the woman couldn’t sound more sarcastic if she tried as she slid her hat just above her mouth, leaving her eyes still covered. But then she gave a genuine answer to placate his concern. “My skull feels like it’s bobbing along in a pool of jelly. So before you ask, no, I won’t be joining you. I have a good idea of what you two are doing, but I’ll also have to deny my assistance just this once.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Turns out that my two little brain gremlins are mawhging lightweights. So they’re still buzzed, and I assume they will be as long as there’s any of this zjik left in my system. If I try to use them, it feels like my mind is going through a blender. As soon as I discovered your general location and confirmed you were alive, that was good enough for me, and I sent those two to bed.”
“It’s kind of nice actually. With those two completely incapacitated, I’m only seeing with my own eyes for the first time in a very long time. It’s nice to pull back the scale since I’ve gotten so used to gazing down upon the entire world. Right now, the inside of my hat is as much as I want to see at the moment. Don’t waste too much of your time worrying about everyone, Drim. I’m sure they’re fine.”
“And Jaid, keep an eye on him. After that solid punch you threw last night, I know you can handle any annoyances.”
“Wait, did I punch someone?!” the knight asked but didn’t get an answer before Phon was waving her hand, shooing them out of her usurped office.
The pair then went down to the fourth floor as they’d been directed. There was an army of housekeeping staff cleaning up the rooms of the members that had already checked out or departed for elsewhere in the resort. And some of the rooms they walked by looked like an absolute nightmare to clean. But deep in the tidying trenches, Mallea was among them, standing shoulder to shoulder with her fellow service workers.
“Erm, you know you don’t have to do that here, Mallea,” Drim tried to remind her, worried that she might still be under the influence.
“Of course I do,” the butler insisted. “My duty is to clean up after the Fiends For Hire. No matter the mess, wherever it may be. Not to mention that while the staff here may find their efforts adequate for the general public, they do not fit my high standards. As long as I’m here, expect only perfection.”
That was all the more reason to have the group leave as soon as possible. But since she wasn’t really doing anything harmful, the pair chose to leave her be for now and began checking the still occupied rooms. Most Fiendish residents they came across were slumbering peacefully in their beds, so they were left to sleep off their afflictions. But the Fiends did find one member talking in their sleep.
“Xard… caught peeping… women’s locker room. Jaid… fighting with… anorexia. Kada… pads her…” Victori was mumbling rumors in her sleep. They were entirely nonsensical, practically as far removed from reality as they could be. But if her Curse was actually active during that time, she could end up saying something she’d regret, so they shook her awake.
“Erm, I was saying what?” The Kingmaker struggled to process what she was being told until the initial wave of grogginess passed. “Ahhhh, zjik,” after a few moments of scrolling her phone, she realized what she’d done. “Mkay, damage control time.” The woman clearly wasn’t excited for the task, but she got to it anyways. But she still pulled her covers back over her, becoming a lump on the bed, using the screen as her only source of light in the darkness.
“Come in,” a familiar yet tired voice answered when they knocked on the next door. “Is it time for my debut on stage already?” Chorus sat upright in their bed, clearly still a little out of it. But their consciousness snapped to attention when the sheet covering their body began to slip, their eyes watching it fall.
The Quick Changer desperately snagged it, pulling it back over their body so that not an ounce of skin beneath their collar was showing. Their eyes then wandered over to the corner, where a few of their cameras were floating, still recording. “Damn it!” they sprung out of bed, grabbing at the ocular devices and switching them off. “Who knows what they caught as I tossed and turned.”
“And you two!” the producer’s scornful finger found its way over to the pair of Fiends at the entryway, threatening them as it wagged. “If you dare share anything that you might have seen, well, don’t forget that I caught on camera your deliciously embarrassing and shameful display last night. You wouldn’t want that broadcast to the entire world, would you?!”
“Oh… what’s this?” a devilish smirk scrawled across Chorus’ face, having clued into their confused looks. “You don’t remember, do you? Well, I’ll be so kind as to jog your memories. But first…” they vanished out of sight for a second, popping into their magical wardrobe, returning a second later, adorned in a lavish garb. “I had to make myself camera ready.” They then switched a few of the orbs back on. “So that I can record your reactions.”
“Well let’s see. It’s rather a simple tale, really, of young fools giving into their basest impulses and core traits. When you lower someone’s inhibitions, you get a glimpse of who someone really is. Now don’t be too scared, it’s nothing horrible that will change you in the eyes of anyone who saw it—nothing knew that they don’t already know. But they did get a glimpse of how genuinely simple you both are when your masks are down.”
“The lovely lady knight here was so entranced by the buffet that she couldn’t help herself. She didn’t hold back in her gluttonous greed, loading up countless dishes until her hands and arms could hold no more. But as she scurried away with her delectable hoard, she couldn’t find a place to set it down. And since she was overencumbered, the woman couldn’t actually eat any of it. Stuck in a hell of her own making, foiled by her greed!”
“Then of course upon seeing the pitiful creature, our gallant king couldn’t help himself but offer his assistance. It’s hard to say what went through your mind, good sir, but after years of observing you, I think I have a decent guess. You didn’t try to grab a few plates to hold them for her, because you feared she might believe that you were attempting to take them away.”
“So instead, you needed to offer your assistance in another form, presenting yourself as an object to solve her problem. What I don’t get, though, is why you didn’t simply offer your broad back since that would have plenty of room. My best assumption is that you thought it would be too low or slanted for her convenience.”
“It’s wild what you chose as your next course of action, though. In an amazing display of flexibility, you bent over entirely, your head down to your toes. Even gymnasts would seethe with envy. So there you were, skull to the floor, with your butt prominently in the air—an impromptu table made of firm flesh.”
“And the best part? She went for it! Jaid began setting the dishes down one at a time and began gorging herself straight from your tuchus. She ate an entire feast right off your ass, down to the last dish! And when she was done, she even wandered off to get seconds, leaving the stack of dirty plates. Thankfully your trusty pet Pox came and removed the plates for his own meal, freeing you for your bottom feeding obligations.”
“So there you have it. Unless you want the story of the end-table king and the ass-eating knight to be shown in every single household, you’ll keep your mouths shut!”
Drim and Jaid didn’t even deign the threat with a response. It would have been impossible to find the words. The two of them merely nodded and left the room. And then they headed back to the elevator in pure silence, refusing to look one another in the eye, desperately trying to scrub what they’d heard from their minds, or they wouldn’t be able to take the rest of their excursion seriously.