Qull lived in a flat, it was among the many that encircled the main harbour of the island, built to house travellers stuck in the area until the end of the stormy months. Everything within was mouldy, the wooden floor, the aged wallpapers, the air itself. Maze could not stand it. She had been sprinting ever since she entered the building, rushing up staircases and around corridors, praying the inside of the apartments would be better.
Yet, when she arrived, instead of immediately knocking she took out her compact mirror. As she opened the pocket-sized trinket a spectral full-body mirror popped up by her side.
She was wearing a vespertine style mossy green tunic with red details, a leather obi wrapped high on her waist, loose pants and a nice pair of boots with furred trims and brass buckles. She kept the bandages from the last fight on her arms despite being fully healed, she found it helped her 'wild' aesthetic.
It was an exotic attire, more than usual for an adventurer, but entirely within the expectations of a noble from Aeolia. For foreigners, thinking of such people evoked the image of a prince walking into battle wearing high heels, a powdered wig and flowing silk capes, but there was a great variety in aesthetic within the continental nobility.
For Mazeline Solene de Gevaudan the style was the faux roughness of a border lady, a marquise, who ruled over the purlieu between the human world and the wilderness of spirits and feaxtres. It was a style of perfectly planned messy hairs and a philosophy of being practical where one should and cute where one could.
Feeling pretty enough, the werewolf finally knocked on the door.
"It is unlocked. Come in, Maze."
As soon as she stepped in, Mazeline got to work, judging Qull's home. The living room was almost pleasant, the couch had pillows with pretty patterns, well-cared-for plants kept the room fresh, and she even had a little altar with images of saints and what Maze assumed was Qull’s family.
On the other side, literally and figuratively, the dinner table had been turned into a small arsenal of weapons, the floor was littered with mechanical bits and magazines of the shooting and reading types. Finally, by the chair Qull was sitting on, there were piles upon piles of books.
"Bonjour!" Maze cheerfully waved to her new gal pal. "Planning a terrorist attack, are we?"
Qull merely peeked up from the book she was reading and then sighed at the joke.
Maze kept her playfully smile and continued to explore the hoarder's den.
"So, Qull, where is the puppy?"
"Alana is in my bedroom, changing into new clothes. She arrived earlier; I wanted her to have a proper breakfast."
"Aww~" Maze hummed and jumped to couch. "Did you figure out what her deal is? I didn't want to be any ruder yesterday, so I kept silent about it, but she is a bit of an enigma, no?"
Tilting her head a few times and looking quite unsure, Qull closed her book and turned to Maze with a frown.
"Lived with her grandma, who also home-schooled her. Grandma sent her to a proper magical school then vanished. She adapted poorly to school life, left on her own and lived a few years in the countryside..." Qull’s face tensed up and she pursed her lips, “Then she said she was tricked and absorbed by an ocean spirit, she survived a month like that, the spirit was then poached by illegal fisherman from Izumo, they had no idea what to do with her so they just dropped her at the nearest port, which was Lullaby Island.”
Mazeline looked at Qullqi, and Qullqi looked right back at her. They stayed like that for a long moment, letting the silence speak for itself.
"Mages, huh?" the werewolf said with a forced smirk.
"Mages, indeed." Qull nodded. "At least she is a nice girl, its good that we live in enlightened times where the fisherman didn’t just decide she was some ocean god princess or mermaid"
"Oh absolutely, she is a good girl, she would be a terrible god-queen." with that, Maze felt like changing the topic to something more grounded. "So, uh. About you. Is this your first-time adventuring? The logistics are quite different than what you'd deal with in a mercenary group..."
"Oh. I expected you to mention that. How many weapons do you think I should bring? I wouldn't mind getting rid of a few."
Maze patted her chin with one finger. "I’d say get rid of most of it. Something like one pistol, one rifle and a weapon would be good?"
Qull's eyes went wide, and her floppy ears jumped. "What... I can't walk around naked like that!"
"Don't be dramatic. Also, why swords? Lances are better overall. Especially since your natural spot when in combat will be at the middle, with me on the front and Alana on the back.”
“Lances take too long to get in position, you also have to use both hands.” the mercenary whined, like someone who had already listened this complaint before. What caught Maze’s attention were a few implications in that phrase, it seemed Qull relied on quick switching between a melee weapon and a pistol? It was not invalid, but hard to pull off and not optmial.
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"But really, I don’t think I can go down to two guns. My best weapon is my Asimov Prismatic Blaster, but its ammunition is ultra expensive - in the squad we called it the weapon too dreadful to use - so I'd need at least another pistol, then for long range I need at least one runic sponge to deal with shields, then a talisman bullet to deal elemental damage and at least one to deal with spectral enemies such as..."
Maze rushed to Qull and put a finger over her mouth, shushing the merc. "Stop. Or I will report you for indecent exposure."
It was then that she noticed, among the many weapons in the table, something that stood out.
“Hey, that revolver... It is actual lead and gunpowder, no? A chemical gun. Out-of-Protocol?” Maze questioned.
“Ah... Yes. I have one in case someone tried to start a real fight, or if I fought someone awful.” the dog chimera started avoiding eye contact.
"Chiribaya, no need to look ashamed, the logic is sound... But leave these nasty sorts of businesses to me, okay? You have a bright future ahead. Also, I know how to be discreet about it.”
“Maze...?” Qull tried to interrupt her, but Mazeline was not going to allow it.
“Now I know what you will say. We must share the burdens of such a decision, like the goody two shoes you are, but...”
“Ah. No. It is useful having someone willing to get their hands dirty in my place.” Qull smirked. “My question was if the discreet method is eating people, since you know, werewolf... argh!”
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"Ja-Jan!” Alana twirled as she entered the living room, showing off her new dress. It was solid white except for a couple of verdant green wavy lines, the only thing that had remained from her old outfit was the black choker on her neck "What do you two th... eh!?"
Mazeline smiled at Alana, holding Qullqi down and biting at her ear, the poor merc looking miserable. "Oh! Lana! Sorry for this. Qull was being a little female dog."
“It fits you nicely, Alana.” Qull gave a slight smile, freeing herself and frantically patting her bitten ear.
“Yep! Looking cute, puppy.” Maze smirked, tail wagging.
Trying not to blush too much, the witch giggled at the compliments. She had already gained a better look just from the little pampering Maze and Qull had afforded last night and this morning, the lost scruffy kid look was quickly vanishing.
The werewolf still felt unsure about her reasons and her absurdly odd set of abilities, but she had already adventured with worse people.
“Ladies. Now that we are all here, I must bring up a few things that we need to deal with now if we want this Cerberus thing to work.”
The two dogs nodded at the wolf’s word.
"First, a proper contract. Apart from our Iarapira mission, all we do will have its profits divided in 20% for each of us and 40% added to a shared basic needs pool. Breaking serious laws is reserved for group actions, not lone decisions." she then moved on addressing many more minor rules that were there to solve possible incidents.
At the last one, Maze narrowed her eyes, this would be the most important clause.
"No dating while in the party. Too many groups end up in big messes because a member wants to include their SO in the adventure. I don't care how cute and nice they are, no boys allowed." she then stared straight at the red haired witch "And no girls either, Alana."
The witch's eyes widened, and she almost fell over "Wa... Huh!? Whu... How...?”
"Continuing, we will also need a sponsor. I take Qull knows them, but are you up to date with what that means, pup?"
"Sort of? Its agencies, right? Like my homeland's Great Game or Atlantis’ T.A.C.O."
Maze nodded. “Right. Those are government agencies that act as sponsors of adventurers such as we. But there are many other options. Companies, secret societies, religious orders, knight circles, etcetera.”
Qull leaned forward and held her chin. “Don’t they typically require a lot from you? To take a vow, to do whatever mission they tell you to do, to go in training sessions. Or like how the Tengu does it, where you can only use their sponsored equipment. That would be a deal breaker for me.”
“Only the ones that offer a lot of benefits. The one I think we should join is a simpler one. Their benefits are more in line with discounts and rewards for helping them, but there are no strings attached. Like a group of pals, thousands of pals, maybe more."
Maze took a series of pamphlets out of her pocket and offered them to the duo.
The sponsor was a society named Ennéa, once a group called The Nine Sisters, they had modernized a lot since the 60s. Their focus was on beauty and the arts, especially the more commercial arts. A person joining them had to give them only a few things, such as:
“Exclusive rights over magazine interviews, photos, pictures, portraits, sketches, thematic cup holders, songs, voice recordings, picture books, choose your own adventure books, memoirs, dakimakuras?” Qull read the contract aloud. “What in the abyss is that last one?”
Maze shrugged. “Dunno. Sounds like it comes from Izumo? Must be some sort of erudite local craft."
Beyond that, the contractual responsibilities were extremely lax, they would get small rewards for very much anything they did but gained extra rewards for helping the many artists associated with the society. The only way to get kicked out was by turning into a full slave-master mass murderer, or by engaging in book burnings or any sort of censorship.
A lot of the rewards involved access to libraries, or receiving tools and material kits, rather than ready to use equipment. Maze could see Qull’s eyes growing wider as she read that section, the dog tail wagging furiously and her cheeks flustering. Maze smirked, it almost looked like she was looking at some sort of improper magazine.
“Sounds like fun, even if I don’t understand much of it.” Alana joyfully declared.
“It’s acceptable.” Qull whispered, tail still wagging.
Maze clapped her hands. “Excellent! I will handle the paperwork from here. You two will be quite busy in the next few days, after all."
As she expected, the two dogs looked at the wolf with puzzled expressions.
"To put it simply, you two need to do like the condiment, and catch up.” Maze flashed a forced smile. “I mean, Qull, aren’t you a soldier? What is up with the slimy arms?”
To make her point, she started poking the merc on the arm, Alana joined out of curiosity.
“Hey. Don’t touch me!” Qull barked. “And catch up to what?”
“To me!” Maze proudly answered.
“Huh? Rumi beat you faster than she defeated us.”
This soured Maze’s smile. If Qull was this clueless, and considering Alana seemed very carefree, there was no way they fully understood the gap in power between them and most of the things they were expected to fight.
“Let’s do the following.” Mazeline rose one finger and her expression grew colder, even as the fanged grin stayed put “In two days, at sunset, we will have a spar. Certain lessons can only be properly taught by a closed fist, after all.”
By her tone alone, the dogs tensed up, only Maze’s tail kept wagging.