Since they were heading into the city Rita decided to take her truck. An old beat up truck very square in shape and with flaking red paint. Rita had checked it to see if it was full of aether fuel, and lucky for her, it was. Rita had to have her seat almost all the way up to the dashboard just to be able to reach the peddles and see out the front window though.
The car started with a bit of a hiccup but soon enough caught its breath and was off on a bumpy start down the old winding road. The truck smelled like burning rubber and fuel despite the many repairs made to it. The seats were torn up. Not to mention there was the horrible noise the old girl made every time Rita put her foot on the breaks. This truck had clearly seen better days.
The three girls were crammed into the front seats with Wonder in the middle to prevent any unwarranted advances by Lapis. They passed through the abandoned gate houses looking over the forests below as they drove. Lapis reached out and fiddled with the radio. First they hit a country station, and Lapis stuck her tongue out in disgust. As she flipped through from rock, to classical, she ended up settling on pop. Rita rolled her eyes at the upbeat song playing filled with sexual messages.
Rita took a right at the fork in the road leading her towards the capital city of Starsera, its white buildings almost shining in the sun. The drive down the mountain went on for what felt like ages with Rita having to constantly look out for pot holes and sharp turns. Finally the dirt road turned into cracked asphalt and the trip became a lot less bumpy.
After a few seconds of another song playing, with an even more upbeat tune and more obvious sexual messages, Wonder leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “This song sounds nice. I haven’t heard it before.”
Lapis giggled. “That’s because it’s the newest song from Princess Starbright.”
Rita cast a quick sideways glance at Lapis. “Really? This… song was made by a princess? As in an official princess?”
Lapis laughed. “Totally! It’s the bestest!”
Wonder cracked open an eye. “Bestest is not a word.”
“It is now!” Lapis cheered.
They passed by a few cottages. These wooden structures had nice new cars, fences surrounding their large properties, a few had swimming pools which were all empty this time of year, and many luxuries that Rita almost envied. Sure Rita was able to spend half her time inside a castle, but inside the castle was mostly the kind of crap she’d been around all her life. Even this truck was in worse condition then her big sister’s, and Rita's sister lived out in the farmlands far to the south.
They chugged along to the front gates of massive white walls of the capital city. The front gates had half a dozen guards out front. Half of the guards were terran, the other half were valkyire with armored wings. Each one of them had long swords at the hip and riffles in their hands. They didn’t stop the incoming traffic, which right then was just Rita and a blue beetle car in front of them. Oddly enough that blue car in front of them looked to be in even worse repair with its doors and hood being mismatched colors and what amounted to giant claw marks down the side of it. Maybe Rita was luckier to have her truck than she'd realized.
The part of the city they entered was filled with three or four story tall buildings, mostly apartments, hotels, and a few offices. All of which were made in varying shades of white stone or white painted wood. The sidewalks were filled with people of all sorts. There were starlings performing simple magic tricks while wearing costumes for small crowds. Valkyire merchants wearing gold jewelry adorned with many gems. Terrans ranging anywhere from obvious servants going to and from their jobs, to wealthy ones wearing the kinds of suits and dresses that made vomit crawl up inside of Rita’s mouth. Sure, Rita wanted a rich house with its own pool, but dressing like a stuck up pig was disgusting, especially considering clothes were meant to get dirty. Looking down at the oil stains covering Rita’s pants and shirt, she knew this was all too true.
The first order of business was for Rita to go straight to a little shop called Gem Seekers. While Wonder and Lapis groaned about going here Rita ignored them and pulled off to the side of the road where she could park. Rita got out and asked, “You two want to come in?”
Wonder had her arms over her chest and puffed out her cheeks. “Mm-mm!”
Lapis giggled a little. “I’ll stay here and listen to the radio. I don’t really find rocks that fun, just the hot girls that like them.”
Rita decided to ignore that second part of that sentence as she shut the door behind her and walked towards the store. On her way Rita passed by a pair of unicorn mares. Each one wore a dress of bright brilliant blue, though one had dark green fur and the other purple. They rolled their eyes as they passed Rita and said, “Can you believe it? That Gold Digger is such a disgrace, playing in rocks all day what does he think he is? A dirty kobold?”
Fire raged inside her heart as she turned to face them but they quickly got lost in the crowd. “Filthy racists.”
Once she got into the store. It was a little old shop with tables full of rocks, gems, and all sorts of ore. Near the front counter there was a glass case holding some of the rarest specimens that could be found, anything from blue sparkling mythril ore, to the nearly impossible to find lavender rock, glowing and sparkling with white light, Sparkling Twitanite. Rita's big sister would love it here.
The unicorn standing behind the counter had dirty gray fur and a mane and tail with varying stripes of silver in it. His beard matched his fur and looked unkept as ever. About the only thing fancy about him was the brown vest he wore which had pockets containing various tools.
There was a bit of a laugh in his voice as he spoke, “Good day to you, Miss Rockford.”
Rita shook her head. “Miss Rockford is my sister. Please, call me Rita. How are things going this week, Goldie.”
His smile faded ever so slightly. “My apologies, Rita. The gem business is becoming harder to work in. You’ve come in for your replacement of Sun Stone if I’m to guess correctly.”
Rita nodded. “Yes, that was my primary focus here.”
He shook his head. “I have not received such a replacement in over a month, two months for Aqua Ice.”
Rita felt her stomach tighten. “Really? It’s become that rare?”
“I’m afraid so. The aether stone shortage is growing worse each year. Ever since the Hive War ended it’s been difficult.”
Rita had to concede to that fact. The Hive War which concluded before she was even born had been so severe that it drained the country’s aether resources massively. This proved to be a serious problem. “Well if I can’t get sun stones from you, how am I supposed to get them? You’re the best aether stone guy in the city.”
“You could join the Tinkerer’s Guild. Or rob some government facility,” he joked.
Rita laughed. “I’d have better luck with the second one. I don’t think I’m going to join any guilds any time soon and if I do, I think I’ll join one that wants to blow stuff up as much as I do!”
He laughed. “Well that’s most certainly true. I apologize for being unable to help you today, you're my best costumer after all.”
Rita turned and started walking to the door. “It’s all good. I’ll find them somehow. You're still my number one stone guy. See ya later, Gold Digger.”
Gold Digger waved his hoof at her. “Take care, Rita.”
Once back in the car Rita drove away from the store allowing Wonder to direct her this time. Rita did her business, now she’d sit through the others fun tasks. She knew that Wonder wanted to go look at pretty dresses, like most girls, but when it came to whatever Lapis wanted to do... shivers went down her spine thinking about what kinds of places Lapis might drag them to.
At an intersection where Rita paused to allow the human traffic, including a blessing of unicorns wearing even fancier dresses then the rich terrans did, to pass by, Wonder stuck her arm out and nearly shouted, “There! We need to go there first! Mistress Mab’s Fanciful Dress Emporium.”
Rita had to push Wonder’s hand down as it was covering half her vision. “That's a mouthful.”
Once the people had all passed by Rita drove to the nearest parking spot by the store, which was half way down the block and pass a construction site where she saw a bunch humanoid creatures anywhere from two and a half feet tall to four feet tall with bright colored scales, droopy ears and wagging tails were all working alongside six foot tall humanoids covered head to toe in fur just as bright and colorful and looking very much like wolves. These were kobolds and wolfkin respectively and they were building what Rita could only assume was another store. It would seem to her that the only times she ever really saw any of the beastkin races in Up Town, it was when they were doing construction. Once they parked, Rita took out the keys and got out. Wonder and Lapis followed suit as Rita walked back towards the store.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
There were so many people crowded on the side walk that the three girls had to push their way through while holding hands. Normally Rita hated physical contact, even hugging was hard for her, but in circumstances like this it was better to keep close then to lose one another. Especially after the past twenty four hours of fighting and danger.
Once they reached the store the three of them burst through the glass doors stumbling onto the deep purple and blue crisscrossed carpet. Inside there was a vast array of dresses, each one looking more complicated then the last. There were dresses for humans, unicorns, and things that Rita couldn't exactly define. Most of these dresses were so beautiful that Rita felt very out of place in here with her oil stained clothing. She couldn't even figure out how to put half of these things on. One of the dresses was basically just a series of black ribbons on a model who was posing with it on. So much smooth flesh was showing that Rita felt uncomfortable. The more she looked at the dresses it clicked in her mind that these weren't model dummies, these were living models.
The air tingled strangely and the scent of lavender and peppermint filled the air. The dim lighting of the walkways got oddly brighter wherever the models stood. A shiver ran through Rita’s spine as she stared at two women who were wearing nearly naked dresses, one pitch black, and the other pure white. The way the two of them held one another made them look more like intimate lovers then like models.
Rita leaned over to Wonder who was grinning like mad and whispered, “What’s wrong with these girls? Are they all slaves or workers? Their hardly even moving.”
Wonder couldn’t help but to giggle. “I assure you, that they are much more impressive than that.”
Lapis reached out with a tentacle arm to touch one of the bare backs of one of the girls. With a quick slap to her tentacle, Rita stopped her. “That’s rude, she’s probably sick of sitting like a mannequin already anyway.”
Lapis tried to smile. “Just once, please?”
Rita shook her head firmly and Lapis dropped her hand with a sigh. The two of them continued to follow Wonder to the front counter where a young woman with hair that was red and blue split right down the middle. She wore a simple yet elegant dress with a matching color to her hair only on opposite sides. She beamed up at Wonder.
Wonder waved. “Hey, Ladybug, how has the potions training been going?”
Ladybug threw her head back and an arm over her eyes in a dramatic feigned faint. “It’s going just so terribly awful! I was so close to making a health potion that didn’t light something on fire, and instead it gave the test subject temporary paralysis!”
Wonder gasped. “Oh no! That’s just awful. Whatever did you do with the poor dear?”
Ladybug stiffened. “The pig was frozen solid until… mom showed up.”
Wonder blinked. “And?”
“And mom fixed the pig… and punished me.”
Wonder raised an eyebrow. “Well you did paralyze the poor dear.”
“Yes but taking away my alchemy lab until I actually read the alchemist hand book is so mean!”
Lapis’s face curled in and twisted as if she had just bit into something bitter. “You didn’t read the Alchemist Hand Book, and your practicing alchemy?”
Ladybug shrugged. “Well I was…”
Lapis’s voice lashed out and cut like a blade. “You irresponsible brat!”
Rita took a step back from Lapis in surprise.
Wonder’s face went pale.
Ladybug stared in shock.
Lapis curled her fist into a ball. “I don’t care how cute you are with your hair, and I don’t care how much I want to see if the carpet matches the drapes! You have just proven you have no respect for alchemy nor life. Testing potions without any knowledge of their effects on living creatures is not only dangerous, it’s cruel and horrible and illegal. I thought I had met true evil last night, but turns out even my darkest enemies have more self respect then something like you!”
Rita stared at Lapis, her heart beating like a race horse, and her arms actually shaking a little bit. The look of outrage across Lapis’s face was new to Rita. Never before had Rita seen Lapis so outraged over something she'd viewed as trivial. Was it possible that Lapis actually had a sense of honor, one that Rita had never even considered?
Lapis spun on her heel and started toward the door. “I refuse to be in a shop run by a woman who can’t respect alchemy or its goals of human aid.”
Wonder was covering her face with her hands trying to hide behind them and whispering to herself. Rita on the other hand could only watch as Lapis stalked to the front door. There was something about the way Lapis carried herself then, the confidence, the pride, the truth of Lapis’s words and action, whatever it was, it was amazing.
One of the still models stepped off the pedestal in front of Lapis, blocking her path. The woman in question was wearing a scantily clad dress of dark blue lined with a white snowflake patter. Her long indigo hair trailed to the small of her back, and the woman’s perfect curves and large breasts had even Rita on the edge of her seat, even if she wasn’t sitting.
Lapis shot a glare up at the woman. “Get out of the way. I’m leaving.”
Wonder reached out and cried. “NO!”
The woman smiled and tilted her nose up in the air. “Oh, such fire from such a cute youth. Normally I might destroy you for accosting my daughter, but I feel that in this one, single, instance you are actually in the right.”
The tip of Lapis’s fingers were already growing slimy. “Glad to see the real owner has some sense. I’m still pissed. I’m still leaving.”
The woman, whom Rita could safety assume was Mistress Mab, stepped aside and with a wave of her arm allowed Lapis to pass. “Oh but of course. An alchemist who is so loyal to her ideals and her code has every right of passage.”
Lapis was about two feet away from the door before a layer of thick ice formed over it sealing her inside. Lapis’s arms swiftly transformed into tentacles as she shot a menacing glare back at Mab. “What do you think you're doing?”
Mab smiled in such a way that it sent a chill throughout the room. “Just making sure that you understand, should you ever think yourself tall enough to challenge me or my own again. Even if I believe you have warrant to do so, as a principle, I cannot allow such a thing to pass. I hope you understand me, darling.”
Lapis growled. “Understood. If one of your own screws up again, you're going to attempt to fight me. Heh, I’d enjoy seeing what you’d feel like in my grasp.” Even though the last part was worded like flirtation, there was only hatred in her voice.
The ice around the door melted into a puddle that swiftly vanished into thin air. Mab’s smile stayed the same, but there was a frozen look in her eyes that Rita could feel like a deadly wind chill. This woman was not to be trifled with, not ever. “I’m glad you understand the risk that comes with swinging your ego about like that.”
Lapis turned and faced the door. “I didn’t say I’d win. Just that I’d grope the hell out of you before I go down.” She pushed the door open and stepped out.
Rita stood there, her insides felt cold and knotted as the door swung close behind her. For her part Mab seemed to calm the blizzard in her eyes quickly enough. She turned and faced Ladybug before snapping her fingers once. The room brightened up and the models that stood around the room all turned into mere mannequins. She walked to the counter, the air growing cold as she passed by Rita.
“Lady,” Mab said in a voice which was calm. “You're lucky that wasn’t an official, your practice of alchemy on animal life is hardly legal here in Starsera and only possible in our home town because of my governess. Please do try and take this situation more seriously, for if not, you may get a far worse punishment then actually having to study your chosen hobby.”
Ladybug lowered her head. “I… I was just talking to my friend.”
Mab looked over and down at Wonder and Rita. “My dear Wonder, I’m terribly sorry that you had to witness such an ugly thing from me. I do try to hold myself and my mentorship up to higher standards than that.”
Wonder nodded stiffly, her face was still pale. “I-I-I understand. Thank you for being so kind on my friend. I apologize for her rudeness earlier.”
Rita couldn’t believe it. “You're humbled.”
Wonder shot a quick and nervous glance over at Rita. “W-whatever could you mean? This is Mistress Glamour Mab, and she deserves all of our respect.”
Rita started laughing. “Oh my gods! You’ve been humbled! I never thought I’d see the day where The Impossible Wonder actually humbled herself to anyone.”
Wonder reached out with a hand and covered Rita’s mouth. “I am merely showing the proper respect to my illusion tutor.”
Mab waved a hand and a blue aura covered Wonder’s hand moving it away from Rita's mouth. “Now, now my precious student. Let your friend be free to speak.”
Rita looked the woman up and down. She was yet another giant, normally an indication of powerful fea genetics. Judging by the woman’s name, plus her ice magic and impressively cold presence, indigo star on her forehead, and the pointed ears, Rita could only really guess at a few options. She was no specialist in history nor genetics, knowing enough to get by and enough to study when needed too. No wings meant she was not an ascended, thank the gods dealing with one ascended enemy was enough of a death sentence already. Pointed ears might indicate direct lineage to the fairies.
Rita took a step back as she was able to put the name and face to a person. The weaker part of her told her to bow before this woman, but the little monster inside of her refused to bow before anyone. “Hello, Mistress Glamour Mab, Lady of New Haven.”
Mab’s smile grew sharp like a knife. “I see you know something of politics at the least.”
“Your linage is said to have some impressive feats of power,” Rita complemented. “The house of Mab, the rulers of the Everfrost, the bearers of Winter’s Wraith. In your case specifically I recall tale of you defeating a Fell Stalker on your own.”
Mab’s smile intensified. It was like Mab’s presence was becoming heavier, every muscle in Rita’s body begged her to bow onto one knee, yet she stood her ground refusing to acknowledge her own weakness. Mab spoke with a voice as soft and cold as freshly fallen snow. “You are quite informed. Yet I find that I do not know your name.”
“I am Rita Rockford,” Rita said pointing a thumb at herself and offering the widest smile she could. “Leader of the Guardian Hearts.”
Mab eyed her carefully. “I’ve heard of that title before. The Guardian Hearts. Where did I hear that before?”
Wonder had her head lowered. “It’s the group of heroes that I’m part of.”
Mab’s presence instantly softened. It was like having a heavy weight lifted off of Rita’s chest as Mab looked down upon Wonder with warm eyes. “Oh my yes, how could I have forgotten. Does this mean?” She looked back at Rita with now much kinder eyes. “Oh my yes, you match the height description. You’re my Wonder’s best friend. Oh Its such a pleasure to meet you.”
Rita shrugged. “It’s kinda nice meeting you as well. Anyway me and Wonder were doing important things in town today.”
Wonder looked up at Rita. “Y-yes.”
Glamour nodded. “Of course. Don’t let me keep you from your duties. Wonder my schedule is far too busy this week to help you, so allow me to make an appointment for your tutelage next week, how does Tuesday fair for you?”
Wonder nodded. “I think that will work.”
“Great!” Mab returned to facing the counter. “I’ll see you Tuesday at twelve pm. Don’t be late dear.”
Wonder nodded. “I won’t. Promise!”
Rita had no problems with leaving the store after that encounter. Facing off against Nightmare was a thousand times easier than even being in the same room as Mab. Whatever kind of monster Mab was, it was the kind that Rita never wanted to be on the wrong side of.
On the outside of the store the pair found Lapis leaning against the wall. Sweat was running down her brow, and she was looking off into the distance. Rita took a spot besides her. “That was scary… even for me.”
Wonder jumped in. “You are so lucky that Glamour was being kind to you. She could have killed you with a single breath!”
Lapis hardly even recognized them with her body language.
Rita followed Lapis’s gaze through the crowd and saw the target across the street. Very beautiful and properly dressed in black pants and jacket, Nightshade. Nightshade was waiting on the corner.
“Well,” Rita said more to herself then to her friends. “Today just got a whole lot more interesting.”