Whimsy is a terrible motivation for becoming a guardian. However, I don’t think being whimsical makes me a bad person. That day, on the King’s Road, I did a good thing when I offered those bandits the chance to redeem themselves through serving me. I did a good thing when I brought back the orphaned siblings.

Were there better options? I’d bet there are. It might be arrogant to think as much but I’m sure I’ve changed their lives for the better and set them on a path of potential unlike anyone else could offer. Under Geneva’s guidance, they will grow to be great, greater than even the saints, the heroes of humanity. However, I’m not nearly so confident that they will have the best life they could have.

On that fateful day, I could have taken the siblings to someone with experience raising children. Someone who would have healed their traumatic experiences rather than using them as a whetstone. If the stories told about seers is true, there was a future where my whim was altruistic instead of selfish, and they grew up to be kind people, who married other kind people, and raised loving families.

Or maybe I drop them off somewhere and they experience events that end with them enduring a shitty fate a hundred times worse than anything they faced in the capital. I try not to dwell on the what ifs. They can drive a person mad. Instead, I focus on what I’m doing right.

Rather than thinking about how my hesitance, my insistence on being a good person, endangered my loved ones, I congratulate myself on doing what needed to be done to see them home safely. I’ve made many questionable mistakes in regard to my young servants, but they are happy, healthy, and strong. I also protected them when I could have used them as effective soldiers. The riff-raff that make up the average hunters would have been nothing but moving targets.

But no, I have no intention of turning my wards into killing machines. I may not be the best option but I’m far from the worst. I care.

My heart confirms as much with the wave of relief that floods my mind as I approach a small smattering of trees outside the city and the siblings stand up, perfectly fine. An orange blur darts out from a bush and throws itself at me. I catch the imp feigning excitement, enjoying the act.

The kids’ excitement is very real. They both rush toward me, though Earl contains himself to a dignified stride, the only sign of his feelings his small smile. Anna has no such restraint, racing toward me while trailing golden balls of fluff that hurriedly hop after her.

“Lady Lou!”

I shuffle the imp onto my shoulders and scoop her up, matching her smile with a large grin. “Hey, kid. Didn’t make you wait too long, did I?” She shakes her head and my hand unconsciously hovers over her mop of wild hair, wanting to comb the unruly curls.

“Good evening, my lady.” As I look over my steward, he looks me over in turn. “I’m glad to see that you are unharmed.”

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“Back at you.”

“The rest of the house?”

My grin widens. “Everyone’s back at the estate, waiting for me to bring you home.”

“Thank the saints.”

“Is it over?” the little girl in my arms asks innocently and my smile wilts at the edges.

“I wish it was but not yet.” I give into my urges and comb my fingers through her hair. The flocketts finally catch up and amuse themselves messing with my boots while they squeak for their small guardian to give them attention. “This was never about a fight. I didn’t want to fight anyone. I wanted them to listen so I had to smack them to get their attention. Now, they’re ready to listen and I can handle the important things we came back to do.”

Anna nods seriously. Wait. Did I just teach her something bad?

Eh, it’s fine. She can’t get into any more trouble than anyone else in the family, right?

“Coo!” {Lou, would you like to check on the Hall’s camp before we return?}

The camp, huh. I don’t know. Is there any reason to?

{The mob’s mentality ebbs and flows from one extreme to another. They are lost sheep desperately searching for a shepherd. Much could be done if you choose to intervene.}

Seeing it’s coming from a succubus, I don’t doubt her evaluation. Quest was destroyed. The Teppin family, its official leaders, are being dragged back to their estate that they fled from, and the guilds, the city’s unofficial leaders, have suffered horrible casualties. The only other group the populace might turn to, the Hall, made it clear they don’t want to be involved. There is a gaping hole in the city’s leadership right now. It doesn’t take a master manipulator to look at the situation and see an opportunity. I broke the city. I could rebuild it, in my image.

…nah.

“Let someone else try to sit in the broken chair.”

“Coo.” {Are you sure? Would it not be good to have a place to call your own, completely under your power? Even dragons build nests.}

That does sound wonderful. A whole sprawling city, completely under my family’s, no, my clan’s control. There’d be a whole lot of green for Kierra. Talia would oversee the design. I wonder if each street would have a different theme. Alana could handle public order, dishing out justice, whether that means punishments or rewards. And while she plays hero, Geneva would take care of the dirty work, hunting down traitors and doing all manners of horrifying things to those with the audacity to betray us.

It’d be somewhere we could relax and indulge in all our gifts that don’t relate to excessive violence. Somewhere to explore our growing relationships. Maybe start a family, someday.

I’d love that…but Quest isn’t that place.

{Why?} Bell questions, though she knows the answer. She wants me to admit it, to commit to the answer. Do you think it’s hard? It isn’t. After today, saints, after the last week, nothing is easier and few things more apparent.

“They aren’t worthy.”

The arrogant hunters, the idiotic people, and the Hall that refuses to take a stand. None of them deserve to be under my rule. I give my all to my clan. If this city was their home, I’d do everything in my power to make it the best it could be. No resource would be spared. Everyone would be raised to their full potential. It would be the closest thing to Paradise this world is capable of.

And they don’t deserve it.

“Come on,” I say to the kids as Bell’s laughter echoes in my mind. “Let’s go home. It’ll be a proper dinner for the first time in a while.”

“Have you not been eating properly, my lady? While you are a peerless creature, you are still a living being and will suffer without proper nutrition.”

“No good,” Anna says after I put her down.

Am I supposed to feel happy after being scolded? I can’t help it, they’re too cute. “Yes, yes,” I say while ruffling the little girl’s hair, disrupting her efforts to collect her squeaking fluff balls. Bell, scout ahead for us.

“Coo!” The imp sprints away and the three of us follow at a comfortable pace.