Aki

When we were passing through the dryad's chamber I distracted Lilyth to ensure that she didn't have to look at what was left of her assailant. I could see appreciation in her eyes, so, led by an impulse, I scratched her behind the ear. That made my wife giggle a bit, which brought smiles to all our faces. I offered her my hand and she accepted it, squeezing it gently. I reciprocated.

I really need to go on an actual date with Lilyth. Maybe the two of us can have a romantic picnic at the lakeside? Plus once we get to Ror-Bhyk we can walk around just holding hands? Or maybe the four of us can go to Fal-Mel and watch the ships there? That Denyr place Rennie mentioned also sounds fun. We do need new clothes.

Once we were past that room, instead of letting go Lilyth swung around and embraced me.

‘Thank you, my love,’ she whispered into my ear. ‘Thank you for taking me in, despite… everything.

We then kissed. I felt my tail curl into a question mark, damn traitorous appendage, but Lilyth only smiled at that.

‘I love you,’ she whispered again.

‘I love you too,’ I responded.

We kissed again and then just embraced.

‘I needed that,’ Lilyth said after a while.

‘Should we just take a break?’ Caei asked with a worried expression on her face. ‘I wouldn't blame you one bit for wanting to take a few hours off.’

Lilyth pondered that for a moment and nodded.

‘Yeah, let’s. There should be someplace up ahead where we can stop, I imagine. Then… let’s just look for the exit if we don't find anything interesting… I… I… I… want to go home.’

Lilyth began to sob.

I looked at Caei in surprise. She also looked shocked, but pleased.

There. The impossible. Lilyth actually decided to take care of her own needs.

Caei glanced at me and nodded in approval. I massaged my neck.

Yeah. That was a bit too close of a brush with death. I’m also… good.

Lilyth

I could see the fatigue and pain in everyone's eyes. Dungeons were the absolute worst. Me eating Helrika and my subsequent breakdown probably weren't helping. I was so glad they didn't reject me. If… if… they did… I would probably just end it. Die as myself. Now… I had to work on maintaining my self-control… so… that I wouldn't… hurt them.

‘You are not a monster…’ Aki, likely seeing my apprehension, whispered into my ear and squeezed my hand. ‘I love you, my foxy cuddlebug. Never forget that.’

‘I love you too,’ I whimpered. ‘I love all of you.’

After I collected myself, we continued down the corridor, Caei holding one of my hands, and Aki the other.

They really didn't reject me.

The next room we came upon was an antechamber of sorts, with two doors on each side of it. There was also another corridor entrance present on the other side, but we decided to ignore it for now and go through the side-rooms first.

‘Be on your guard,’ Aki said hoarsely. ‘We don’t know what hides in each of these.’

It pained me to hear the damage her vocal cords sustained.

If only I was faster…

The scene replayed for the umpteenth time in my mind. Diving behind Caei to save her, only to see that another of the bastards was also behind Aki. The despair that bloomed in my heart when Aki limply fell to the ground…

Focus. Focus. Focus.

‘You okay?’ Caei asked apprehensively. ‘You tensed up suddenly.

‘Bad memories attack,’ I replied. ‘I’m fine now…’

‘You sure?’ Rennie asked.

‘I’m not fine fine,’ I admitted. ‘But as okay as I can be given the circumstances.’

‘Which sounds to me as “barely holding on”. Let’s look over these rooms and take a break.’

‘Agreed.’ my Dark Lady said.

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Aki

The best we could guess, the four rooms looked to be Helrika's living space. One of them, covered in wilted plants, we initially thought to be her bedroom, though we were basing that off a large leaf that was on the floor there and which Lilyth guessed to be her bed.

‘Could be a table,’ Caei suggested. ‘Hard to tell in its current state.

‘Doesn’t seem structurally sound enough for that…’ Lilyth muttered. ‘But… we’ll probably never know.

The issue was further confounded when in one of the other rooms we found an actual bed and in another an alchemist’s table.

‘Maybe she grew ingredients there then?’ I suggested.

‘Or ate her meals,’ Caei said. ‘Or both.’

‘Or neither,’ Ren sighed. ‘The answers died with Helrika.’

Then a thoughtful expression crossed her face and she scratched her chin.

‘Don’t take it the wrong way, Lilyth,’ she began carefully,’ and I won’t mind if you get mad at me for this question… but did you… absorb any of Helrika's memories? I am not talking about just the mystery room. She lived here, so there might be some… some clues there.’

Caei sharply inhaled the air.

I was horrified by the suggestion, but… Ren had a point. The idea of Lilyth having her memories…

Please say “no”.

Lilyth simply got sad.

‘My memories got messed with so many times that I… I got some idea of how they work. There was… a mad jumble of something inside of me. Back… back when I just sat there… I purged it. And then purged all the memories of what I saw in that. Sorry.’

‘Don’t be,’ Ren said with sorrow on her face. ‘I think any of us would do the same.’

I nodded.

‘So… you can just make yourself forget?’ Caei asked. ‘Anything?’

There was an unasked question there.

Could Lilyth make herself forget us?

‘No,’ Lilyth shook her head. ‘I may not have a brain, but my… consciousness still forms a cohesive whole. Mess with that too much and I would be effectively lobotomising myself. Those were… surface memories, I guess? I could excise them with no… damage.’

‘I guess that's how you… blacked out.’ I said.

‘Yeah,’ Lilyth nodded. ‘Amnesia is a universal mental self-defence mechanism, I guess.’

The alchemy room was a treasure trove, as we found a primer, which I immediately packed, and multiple mana and health potions there. Caei immediately downed two of the first and forced another into Lilyth.

‘You are our main source of damage,’ she said. ‘We need you on top of your game.’

In the meantime, I drank a healing potion which brought me up to full health, though given how much talking still hurt from time to time and the occasional hoarseness of my voice, some permanent damage was there. This was also supported by the kink in my neck.

‘Those might get better in time,’ Lilyth suggested as she was giving me an utterly divine massage.

‘If magic couldn't do it…’ Caei began, but my foxy cutie stopped her.

‘Never underestimate the body's ability to heal, Caei. It may take some months but an improvement is not out of the question.’

She told us about the issues with her hands and how they took two years to recover.

‘Before all of this happened, I often forgot that the issue was there to begin with.’

‘So you mean I won’t always sound like this?’ I said hoarsely.

‘I don’t know. But you know… you can always put on a sailor’s hat, an eyepatch and you will make an excellent Dread Pirate Aki.’

Caeileera and Ren snorted from laughter, while me, barely containing my own outburst, playfully elbowed Lilyth in her ribs.

‘Parley, me heartey!’ she responded in a mock growl. ‘I meant no offence! I shall walk the plank!’

This had all of us rolling on the floor laughing.

The final room was Helrika’s storage room. Most of the stuff there was of no interest to us, or we were too wary to take it. Some things were of use, however. One thing that immediately caught my eye was the green padded vest we found there. It was thick and woven out of some strange material, which the interface told us was actually plant fibre.

Item: Nymph-woven Vest

Class: Light Armour - Torso

Rarity: Artisan - Rare

Quality: Good

Traits:

* Self-Regeneration - If damaged, this item regains one durability point per hour.

There were also some matching bracelets there. Since Lilyth had her own armour, Caei and Ren were happy to let me have this one, as I was a frontliner.

‘There goes the idea of sexy leather armour,’ my alabaster beauty sighed causing more bursts of laughter.

Caei ended up grabbing a silver magical circlet with a green gem.

Item: Circlet of Life

Class: Jewellery - Magical

Rarity: Coven Made - Very Rare

Quality: Very Good

Durability: 20/20

Traits:

* Boosts the strength and efficiency of Life Arcana spells.

‘Score!’ she hooted.

There wasn’t much in terms of weapons we could take - just an ornate spear that none of us felt like carrying.

‘I wonder why Helrika wasn't wearing that stuff?’ Ren wondered after we were done looting.

‘The spores,’ Lilyth answered immediately. ‘She was surprised it took so much to… handle me.’

‘I would still put the armour on.’

Lilyth shrugged.

‘Helrika got hosed by the same thing that screwed me over in Mer-Cas. Overconfidence.’

‘Never underestimate an enemy?’ Caei sighed. ‘Yeah. That's something we should always keep in mind.’

Truer words were never spoken.