Olady half expected to see a representative from Yilner waiting for them at the dungeon exit but It was only the grumpy officer from earlier. Honestly, Olady had forgotten about that little issue, and she wasn’t in the mood to play around with the guild anymore. She just returned the woman’s sour look and marched up to the receiving counter where they could sell their four cores and get out of there.

Raksha was right behind her, his own sour look on his face. He had spent the walk back alternating between restating his position that nothing had happened with Ellessea and complaining about the nobles and their unscrupulous ways. She had let him rant, wondering how on earth she was going to clean this up.

The officer trudged alongside them, upset at being ignored.

The trio walked up to the alarmed looking artificer there, a woman hired to calculate the value of the raw beast cores and make appropriate transactions. She didn’t look prepared to handle three angry delvers.

“We’ve got four low grade beast cores.” Olady stated, not bothering to keep her crankiness out of her voice. She gestured to Raksha who quickly opened up his bag and placed the four cores on the counter.

The artificer gave a look for help to the officer, the woman quickly becoming red in the face.

WIth a sigh, Olady turned and faced the officer, leaning back against the counter. “What!?” she spat.

“Well? Tell me what happened!” the officer demanded with a scowl. “Is he going to try to come back?”

Not in a mood to sugar coat it, Olady replied briskly. “I’ve determined that Raksha here is a competent delver with a decade’s worth of experience behind him. Inside the dungeon he handled himself with professionalism and expertise, showing great skill in the work. He is more than capable of handling himself alone, but I have encouraged him to seek a team he can join, if any here are smart enough to have him. I dare say better suited and equipped for delving than me and half of your delvers here.”

The officer’s expressions showed an interesting turn of phases as she talked, going from anger, to incredulity, to astonishment, and back to anger.

“How can that be?” She exploded, “He can’t use any spells! What madness has he dropped on you? This is crazy!”

“Believe it, buster,” Olady stated, taking a little schadenfreude at the scene. “He got all those cores all by himself, slaying no less than ten wood wolves in a little over two hours at no risk to himself. We are splitting the loot because he is a nice young man, not because he actually needed my help.”

The officer looked frozen, at a loss for words, giving bewildered looks to Odaly and Raksha. Raksha, for his part, just stood there with his arms crossed and a small smile on his face.

“So!” Olady said, turning to the artificer, “What’s the value of these cores today?”

Withering a little under the priestess’s stern gaze, the artificer got to work, inspecting the cores, ultimately declaring them worth a silver each, a very good amount for a day of delving, much less a few hours worth. She handed her pair of silvers over to her acolyte, who slipped them into a satchel he was wearing. Racksha elected to keep the cores as they were for some reason, but she chose not to question it. She turned back to the officer who still hadn’t moved away.

“While it isn’t the church's business to interfere with guild work, it is our business that women, and men, are ensured their rights for opportunity and are not unlawfully oppressed. You understand what I am saying?”

“This is madness.” the officer grunted, appearing to not have heard Olay’s words. “The church has no say here.”

“Remember, you brought me into this.” Olady countered, “you reap what you sow. Now I’ve got to go, things are happening.”

Olday moved to the exit, but the officer wasn’t willing to let her have the last word.

“What did he give you to convince you to help him? Have you finally gotten a seed, after all these years? Can your clam even take it anymore? Or did you let it just spill all over your body?”

Olady froze at the cheap and vulgar insults, her blood pressure skyrocking as she whipped around with a death glare at the smug look at the officer’s face.

Before she could say anything, her acolyte kicked the officer in the back of the leg with such vigor she dropped to one knee and howled in pain. The boy then shoved his finger in her face and screamed out, “YOU DARE BESMIRCH OUR HIGH PRIESTESS’S HONOR YOU BLACK EYED TOAD! THIS WHOLE EVENT HAS BEEN RECORDED AND YOUR GUILD WILL RECEIVE AN OFFICIAL REPRIMAND FROM THE CHURCH FOR NEGLIGENCE OF DUTY, SLANDER, AND INCOMPETENCE. I WILL SEE TO IT MYSELF YOU ARE DEMOTED AND FINED IF I HAVE TO VISIT EVERYDAY FOR A YEAR!”

The officer slowly stood up and towered over the boy. “You think you can just-”

“I am more than willing to add assault on the clergy to the list.” the boy spat, not backing down.

The two stared down at each other, but it was the officer who looked away, glancing around the gathered crowd and beating a retreat to her back office.

“Thought so,” the acolyte murmured. He turned back to his priestess, “let’s go, Ma’am, we shouldn’t spend more time with this rabble.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her forward and out the door.

Feeling a little bit like that whole morning might just be a dream, Olady heard Raksha say behind her with an amused tone. “I like you kid, what’s your name?”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The trio made it into the church without getting stopped, Raksha and her acolyte, Pinn, seemingly hitting it off along the way. Both were orphans, naturally, Pinn being taken into the clergy at a young age. Somehow they had gotten to the fact that Pinn was now a eunuch, having been castrated when he got accepted into the clergy. Raksha had apparently not known that all male clergy were eunuchs, the idea appeared to appal him.

“How is that fair?” he almost shouted at them, in the middle of the street. “Why can’t they just take a vow like the women do?”

Olady explained that the measure was actually a protection for them, as it prevented any possibility of getting taken advantage of by women and made it easier for them to keep their vow, not having to deal with the temptation like all the women did. It’s not like they were going to be using it anyway.

For some reason, her words only made him more incensed, so much so he couldn’t seem to speak.

Pinn assured him that he was happy with his position, and proud to be a member of the clergy and didn’t miss his male parts at all. His words didn’t seem to cheer Raksha up as he looked at the acolyte with a pitying gaze.

Olady supposed a man with a background like Raksha was bound to have some odd views on certain things. This was probably just the top of the root.

Olady felt relieved as she made it back without incident and was stepping into her office to start preparing for a response when she noticed a woman already seated in her guest chair. She felt her heart fall as she spied the house insignia on the woman’s shoulder.

House Yilner.

The representative had given her a very polite request for her to meet with the Yilner matriarch at her soonest convenience, and a more demanding one for Raksha to come with her right then. Apparently, she had expected the two of them to be together.

Despite the request, Olady knew there wasn’t any way she could avoid the meeting. Raksha was looking mutinous at the order so Olady quickly intervened before he could cause more trouble, saying that of course she would like to come and offer her consul on any matter the house had on their table.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

As they left the office together, Olady whispered some etiquette instructions to Raksha for the meeting. She hoped he listened, although judging from his offended look she wasn’t sure. Hopefully, he understood that it was in his best interest to comply.

“I’m going to get you out of trouble, but you have got to help me out on this!” she had whispered quickly to the man, before they were out on the street and no longer able to converse openly.

Honestly though, she wasn’t sure how much she could do. She prayed to God that the matriarch was in a reasonable mood today.

The Yilner palace was in fine condition today, like everyday. Tall white walls surrounded the place along with wards to keep out the unworthy. Stoic guards stood at the entrance, their uniforms and armors spotless, an enchanted halberd for each of them. The women gave them professional glares as they passed by, warning them away from any jane-foolery.

Inside the estate was just as pristine, male servants skittered across the halls, carefully avoiding their group. The lush wood flooring was spotless and large open windows littered the hallways, enchantments keeping the elements at bay.

Raksha was impressed at least, judging by the noises he was making. She had to practically drag the fool away from one of the windows, which had a stunning view of the Jade Mountains found near the northern borders of the empire. One thing the nobles had, all nobles in general, was a keen desire to see just how much money they could spend on luxury enchantments. House Yilner was no exception. It vexed her to see so much money wasted and to think of the good it could do in the city. But she supposed, image, to a noble, was vastly more important than the poor in the city.

They were led into a small conference room, overlooking a colorful garden with a fish pond. The representative left the three of them alone there, exiting with a bow but no offer for refreshments. Pinn took a seat dutifully next to her, but Raksha walked around the room, inspecting the vases and paintings and enchantments like a tourist. He even pulled out a little journal and wrote some stuff down.

“Would you sit down, please!?” Olday urged, feeling like she was dealing with a child.

Raksha shot her an annoyed look, but complied with a grumble. “Why put all this out, if they didn’t want us to look at it?

Olday felt lost for words but was saved from responding when the Matriarch burst in before she could reply. She was tall and wide, an imposing figure with immaculate hair and clothes with gems and necklaces everywhere.

Olady’s relief faded quickly.

“What the hell is going on, Olady?!” the woman shouted at her. “What the hell does the church think it's doing?”

“Please, Ma’am,” the priestess replied quickly, “This is just a misunderstanding-”

“A misunderstanding?” the matriarch bellowed. “You preach nonsense about not interfering in politics, but you pushed us into delaying the union anyway under the guise of my son not being of age. But how on earth are you going to try to explain this away, Olady? Which of the other houses have put you up to this?”

Olady grit her teeth and shouted back herself, “That wasn’t politics! You can’t just give your underaged son concubines!”

“Bah,” the matriarch snorted. “If he’s old enough to sprout, he’s old enough to fuck.”

“Additionally,” Olday stressed, ignoring the vulgar language, “I am not in bed with any of the houses and this current problem is an unfortunate misunderstanding. This has nothing to do with politics!”

The matriarch shook her head in disbelief and sat down on one of the expensive sofas. Realizing she had stood up herself sometime, Olady quickly sat back down again.

“You think the other houses are going to see it that way?” the matriarch said with aggression. “This is the great hypocrisy of your church and what you simply fail to understand. Everything is politics.”

Olady didn’t have a good response for that so she stayed silent. Thankfully, the Matriarch seemed to have calmed down, and she didn’t want to open that bottle up again. She felt Rakshaw fidget next to her, but he stayed silent too.

As the minutes stretched on with nobody saying anything, Olady decided to break the ice.

“So, would you like me to explain what happened?”

The Matriarch gave a non-committal wave. “I have already heard the reports from my women, I just needed to hear you say it yourself. My informants said it was a coincidence you are involved, and you were always such a terrible liar. I knew I could read you like a book if I put a little bit of pressure on you.”

“Oh,” she replied, feeling oddly punctured. After a few more moments of silence, she ventured, “I guess we’ll be on our way then.”

“Yeah, no.” the Matriarch countered, “this issue is far from over. I don’t care what really happened, to the other houses it looks like a plot to take the mana spring away from us.”

“I just told you, that’s not what happened!” Olady stated, angrily.

The Matriarch gave her an equally unpleasant look, “And I just told you, I don’t care! I care what it looks like.”

At that declaration, Olady felt a deep disgust fill her.

The Matriarch just laughed at her. “Don’t worry your saggy old butt. Nobody is going to get executed over this” she appeared to taste the next word over her tongue before saying it, “Misunderstanding. I do, however, need to take some steps to secure our investment from further… misunderstandings. My son and the mana spring will be here shortly and I'll be able to make it very clear what will be happening in the future. You understand?”

Scowling Olady nodded. She supposed this was the best she could expect from the old woman.

To Olady’s horror, she heard Raksha speak up from beside her.

“Ellessea, is not an investment. She’s a person.”

If looks could kill, Raksha would have keeled over on the rich blue sofa.

In deliberate, punctuated words, the Matriarch replied, “I have spent a great deal of political and social capital in order to make this deal go through. There had better be a return on my investment or there will be hell to pay.”

Olady thanked God that Raksha stayed silent after that.

The silence continued, until the next person entered the room. It was a boy, his face plastered in white makeup which was currently in style in the capital. Behind him a couple male servants followed him in, keeping the train of his dress from snagging corners. His hair was set up in a long elaborate braid and was filled with pins and enough jewels to make him top heavy. Which was probably why he held onto one of his servant’s hands as he entered.

As he came into the room his eyes bulged as he looked at Raksha. He lifted one delicate hand with a purple nail and pointed at Raksha with all the dignity of a child at the gallows. The boy shrieked out, “This slave is the whore who tried to seduce my woman?”

Unimpressed, Raksah replied with a drawl, “I am not a slave.”

The floozy ignored his words and turned to the Matriarch with an angry scowl. “Mother, just throw the slave into the dungeon and be done with it. Why did you even let him onto our estate?”

The Matriarch just sighed in exasperation. “Sit down, Rylie.”

“But mother!” Rylie whined, “the slave thought he could take Elle from me. Why can’t we just kill her?”

“Rylie, silence!” the Matriarch roared. The boy jumped in shock, tears starting to appear in the corners of his eyes. “Stop displaying your ignorance for us all to see. He’s not a slave anymore, idiot son.”

At her words, one of the manservants leaned down and whispered in the boy’s ear. The glistening tears stayed in the corner of his eyes, and he gave Raksha a withering glare. Raksha nonchalantly tapped his left cheek at him and Rylie turned his nose up with a ‘hmph’, and took a seat on the far side of the room.

Olady could hear Raksha chuckling quietly.

“Still a criminal,” Rylie sneered. “And nothing will take those brands away. I’ll have you tossed back to the slave corps, you whore.”

“Actually,” Raksha replied carelessly. “Now that I am a citizen, that’s not even an option anymore. Citizen’s aren’t put into the slave corps, you’ll have to have me arrested and tried normally.”

“You?! An imperial citizen?!” the brat shot back venomously, “In your dreams!”

Rakcha smirked and sat back on the sofa, “What can I say? I earned it, unlike you who was born with it.”

Rylie gave him another angry look before looking back at his mother. The Matriarch nodded slowly and Rylie gave an angry snort and sat back, looking away from Raksha with his arms crossed.

“Raksha,” Odaly murmured to him, her intestines twisting in her gut. “Please stop upsetting him.”

Raksha gave his own hmph and looked away.

Men….

The Matriarch spoke again, “Your citizenship gives you some protection, boy. But you would be wise to not test the limits, no matter how you got it.”

“Do you know how I earned it?” Raksha asked, a hint of challenge in his voice.

The Matriarch paused at that, considering the man. “No, those records were sealed from me.”

There was a long pause, but “Good.” was all Raksha replied with. Odaly let out the breath she was holding.

Nobody spoke for a while although Rylie looked to want to voice something. A glance from her mother shot him down and he stared sullenly into his hands.

“Ah, the investment cometh.” the Matriarch stated dryly.

A few moments later Ellessea entered the room, guided by a servant. She looked pale, scared and alone.

Seeing Raksha in the room her gaze lifted and she exclaimed, disregarding everybody else, “Raksha! Are you okay?! Did they hurt you?!”

Olady was impressed with Ellesea’s obliviousness to the Matriarch’s grinding teeth.