Putting her hand to her face to make an exaggerated thinking face just for “Hmm, snuggling? Is that the same story Sarah is going to tell me?” to leave her lips in a mocking tone. Then she clears the distance between us and says, “I know that wasn’t all, honey. I just want to know what she did.” While batting her eyes, her eye color faded just to give a familiar red glow.

The air became hard to breathe as she hugged me a little and she also stopped waiting for a response because now mumbling “Please tell me did and maybe we can do the same. I don’t want to be left in the dust. I can do everything she can and more.“

Again I find a nervous pit forming in my stomach and I can feel myself sweating. With a deep breath, I tell her, “Please Ava, I don’t want to do this. I don’t know either of you like that and I know it’s the demon at work, so I’m asking you this now to stop and take things slow if you want to pursue a relationship with me.“

She backs off a little bit with a slight look of horror on her face and “You are right. I shouldn’t have overstepped, and I’ll try to be better.” shakily leaves her mouth.

That seemed a little too easy… Welp I guess I should try to nip the other problem in the butt so I say “Can you also share my sentiments with Sarah? She also overstepped a little earlier.“

Ava’s face stiffens suddenly but with a nod she says “Yeah I’ll see what I can do.”

With a sigh, I say “I will appreciate any help since we are all in the same boat when it comes to being stuck with these circumstances. Of course, I have no idea how this affects you on your end.“

I hear, “It’s like your intrusive thoughts get cranked to a cat’s level and all those thoughts are fixated on you.“ behind me and I turn to see Sarah is now in the kitchen. As soon as that leaves Sarah’s mouth, she quickly adds, “I really don’t have anyone to blame besides myself though, since I’m the one who wanted to see you activate the artifact.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

When she said that, I was a little relieved that she didn’t blame me for this, but then I try to comfort her by telling her, “It’s fine. It’s an honest mistake. I don’t think anyone could have guessed this is what would have happened.“

She just weakly nods her head in agreement, then I turn back to Ava and ask, “What’s the plans for tomorrow?”

“Well, we did get you signed up with the Union today, so probably taking you on a Copper Graded request.”

Not knowing anything, I question “Copper Graded?”

Ava answers, “Yeah Copper graded, the Union’s jobs are broken up into three grades. Copper means beginner mercenaries could do it, Silver means advanced mercenaries should do it, and Gold means you probably need a group of advanced mercenaries.”

Sarah interjects, “You forgot about danger ratings, so I’ll elaborate on those. So when looking into requests, each has a letter rating in the order from no danger being F- and a S+ being a natural disaster for that grade.”

Hearing that, I take another gulp of my drink quickly and say, “Both things are good to know, thanks.”

Then I go to take another sip and realize it’s empty, so I go over to the barrel to get more, but I stumble a little. Ava picks up on this and then I find her next to me immediately.

I mutter, “You know what? I think I might be good.” and place my mug on top of the barrel.

Ava puts her arm around me and says, “You know what? I think it might be time for bed for you if you want to have a chance of getting up tomorrow.“

I respond, “Yeah, you’re probably right. There’s something I notice though you only have one bed here, don’t you?“

Sarah jumps in to say, “We could share-” I don’t let her finish as I announce “You two can have the bed. We’ll figure out a more permanent solution when we have money. I do have a question though. What happened to Ava’s bed?”

A sad look washes over Sarah and she barely gets out “Well… When Ava was taken as a slave, I never thought I would see her again, especially if she got bought by someone who works for the empress.“

All I could respond with is, “Oh, sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have asked that.”

The sadness disappears almost immediately, then she says, “It’s fine since she made it back safe and even brought a cute boy with her.“

Not really responding to that last part, I say goodnight to both of them and go lay on the couch. Before I nod off, I can feel someone throw a blanket over me.