ZEN - Part Two [COMPLETED] [#WATTYS2017]

How All Traumas Should Be Overcome

Chapter 84 - How All Traumas Should Be Overcome

"Hello, sweetie. How're things in the lobby?"

"All set." Zen trudges up the final few stairs into their roof-top lounge, then shuffles over to the arm-chair her wife was seated on and promptly steals the woman's lap. "Got Clara and Darya inside the armory waitin' for 'em. They're gonna get one Hell of a surprise."

"And the look-outs?"

"Jess 'n Mish paired with Retta and Jana-the-Brute."

"Nice. So it's just us up here?"

"And my candidates."

"I thought they were tailing those thugs."

"Yah. But when they come in here, they're gonna block the way back out."

Joanne flashes a wide smile down to her softly-purring kitten, and minutely adjusts the strokes against her mate's ears in order to illicit a new noise of contentment. "This should be fun."

"Hmph. For all 'f five minutes, yeah. Then comes the blood."

"Lots of blood. And, y'know, it's been far too long since I've tortured and killed anyone."

"Not since Shitestad, huh?"

"Pretty much. I'm not counting the Duke, 'cause we barely got to play with him."

"Yeah... he was dead pretty quick."

"Oh! That reminds me! I got a letter from the Duchess yesterday!"

"Huh. How'd it get here?"

"Uh... it... magicked itself."

"Seriously?"

The red-headed healer lightly clears her throat before offering the full story. "Well, no. I might've nipped down to Kileah for a spot of tea with Alyssa."

"When was that?"

"Mid-afternoon."

"Huh. An' where was I?"

"Just starting your second training-session with your scouties."

"'Scouties'?"

"What? Don't like that? I think it's cute."

"They're fearsome, though. Or... they will be."

"So until then they're 'scouties'."

"Meh. Whatever. What'd th' Duchess say?"

"Oh, not much. Just an update on things in the castle, and saying that her eldest daughter had decided on a mate, but her youngest was still hesitating to choose her puppet."

"Puppets, huh."

"As was Marcia's husband, apparently. For all the important decisions."

"Figures. She seemed rather controlling."

"Yup. So, anyways, they're going to be holding a joint ceremony for the girls at some point. It'll be a huge festival."

"Damnit."

"What?"

"They're gonna make my kin work harder."