Novel Full Chapter 1978 Hedera, Soup Sayer
Chapter 1978: Chapter 1978 Hedera, Soup Sayer
— Kat —
Kat was about to knock on the door when Lily came to open it. She’d been told to meet up with Hedera, have some food, and brief her on what had happened throughout the day. Steel planned to swing by later, or send a messenger, informing them of exactly what the plan would be. From the way the conversation ended, Kat was willing to bet that they’d be doing the same thing as last night. Tomorrow however, was a different day.
With the door opened Kat stepped inside, closed it and gave Lily a second to transform before wrapping her girlfriend up in a crushing hug. Lily was already quite happy with that… so Kat escalated into a searing kiss with a slightly daring amount of tongue. It was enough to send Lily into a complete daze. Kat sort of wanted to capitalise on that and just carry her girlfriend off to snuggle some more…
But walking past the windows was a bad idea when they were still keeping her exact nature a secret. Something Lily knew as well so it was soon back to Memphis form. Not that Lily minded, she still got snuggles this way. Kat went straight for the kitchen, barrel in Lily’s shadowy hand.
Hedera had originally been cooking something a bit extra to celebrate having a proper kitchen, and this had only ramped up after realising that Kat would probably make it in time and Steel might even pop around. Though the last dinner ’guest’ was mainly included for politeness considering she was using his ingredients.
The barrel thudded as it hit the ground, causing Hedera to glance over her shoulder. She’d already… heard the pair reuniting in the doorway, but the noise meant they wanted her attention. So she simply raised an eyebrow at them. “Barrel full of orbs. I was getting some from odd jobs… but it wasn’t that much. This however, should be enough for a few days. I’ve already filled my bracelet back up, you should do the same,” explained Kat.
Hedera relaxed, and only after seeing that was it even obvious the archer had been so tense in the first place. “Thanks Kat. Lily did say it was being handled after that thief broke in, but I wasn’t quite sure how ’handled’ it was, and then it felt rude to ask and just… yeah this is nice.”
“Ha, it certainly wasn’t that ’handled’ when she mentioned it the first time. So many people in this city aren’t interested in trading for orbs. Because they have a weekly limit, but essentially an infinite amount nobody really stockpiles them. The two jobs I actually managed to do were… well one was fine and the other was a pain,” mentioned Kat.
“Well, tell me about them before you get to the serious stuff. I’m nearly finished with the food,” said Hedera, who paused and first dunked her hand into the barrel. You could see as the orbs rapidly dimmed as she moved her hand around through the orbs. Once her bracelet was mostly full, she went back to what she was doing.
“Well, the second place wasn’t a real issue. They were having a big cleanout and maybe getting some of the appliances replaced. They’re a restaurant with a bit of a stockpile to keep everything running… but obviously it wasn’t running in this case so I was paid with what they had left after moving things.
“The first place though? Had me cleaning out the stables because the son wanted to foist his chores off onto me… and he definitely didn’t have permission to promise me those orbs. In the end I had to get into an argument with the home owner about it, and I wasn’t sure what I’d have done if she didn’t cave. I mean, we really needed those orbs but I didn’t want to cause trouble for Steel either by calling the guards, or having the guards called. Still, I don’t think I’d have backed down,” explained Kat.
“Then where did you get all the orbs?” asked Hedera.
“Ramor has been stockpiling them. Apparently they don’t need them much in his department, but with the seizures from the occasional criminal to act as a slap on the wrist, and the weekly allotment for the station they were piling up,” answered Kat.
Hedera paused in what she was doing, currently mixing together a vinaigrette for the salads. “You don’t think it’s slightly strange that we’ve had regular thefts of orbs and yet he just… has a bunch laying around?” asked Hedera.
Kat shrugged, “Maybe I would’ve thought that if he hadn’t made the announcement with Steel in the room. Plus, I’m sure he didn’t use an illusion to mask what he was saying because Steel both knows about the problem and reacted properly to the information. Not like he was hearing something else.”
Of course, Kat DID have to quickly run through that memory again as she was saying it just in case. She hadn’t thought it was too strange, mostly because Steel was in the room with them and apparently he really trusted Ramor… but yeah she’d probably let that go a bit to easily. Still, with things confirmed it really did seem fine.
“I suppose if Steel was there, at the time, and still didn’t say anything it must not be too weird that Ramor was collecting them then,” admitted Hedera. “I still think I would’ve mentioned it…”
“Things sort of got busy. I suppose now is as good a time to bring it up as any. So… after heading to the station this is what happened…” Kat explained things in full detail, going over everything until she paused at the part where she was inspecting Jen’s body.
*Wait. Ramor didn’t really say anything about what to say to Hedera. In fact, I’m not even sure if I can lie about it if I wanted to? Lily obviously knows…*
[Obviously]
*And no instructions were given for that. So… it’s probably fine?* “Look, I’m not 100% sure I’m supposed to say this but given I’m not sure if I’d get caught with ’lying’ about it not I’m going to go over the full thing…” so Kat did.
“That’s… well it’s something. I’m not sure what to say about it obviously, and I’m also not sure if I should be questioning it either. So it’s… a thing I guess? Though wasn’t that kid you saved actually hurt?” asked Hedera.
“Yeah…” agreed Kat slowly. “Though… hmm… I suppose I wasn’t looking as closely. It’s possible that was Thyme as well. The swap was REALLY good. I only noticed because I was pumping demonic energy through my head and really looking at everything, both for hints and to see if she was even still alive. Might’ve just been an acceptable amount of damage where as getting a building dropped on you isn’t.”
[Not sure any damage on kids is an ’acceptable’ amount.]
*Maybe back home but things are different here. If my kid got jumped by a goblin I certainly wouldn’t want them to freeze up from the pain. It would be perfectly understandable, but VERY dangerous and something that… is proper safest to learn here.*
[I hate that what you said makes sense but I still think it’s an awful thing to do to a kid. Even if they weren’t in any real danger.]
*Real danger is everywhere in a place with real monsters. Then again, it’s also possible that them leaving the town wasn’t planned at all. It’s probably a mix of free form things and not.*
[Alright that’s fair…]
Kat finished up the story, retelling the conversation she had just outside the medical ward before mentioning. “… now, I do really want to contact Weaver. We maybe should’ve done so earlier, and we’re coming up on a deadline we’re probably going to pass. Or was the deadline today?” Kat shook her head. “Regardless of the cities ruling on the matter, I think we should update Weaver on what’s going on.”
“You’ve got no complaints from me. Though we might want to do it like… right now while we’re eating. Or… hmm… would it be safer to just contact her now and hope that we finish the conversation before Steel shows up or would it be best to wait until after he’s gone?” offered Hedera.
Kat winced. “We probably should’ve started with contacting Weaver and perhaps told her what was going on as well, even if she doesn’t need to know in quite that much detail.”
Hedera shrugged. “A bit late now so I guess we delay things until later. Really don’t want to ruin the hard work we’ve done playing along with the government here just because we were having a short conversation.”
Kat sighed but nodded. She agreed with Hedera that it was better safe then sorry. It would be… probably fine to contact her while they were on watch. The only real worry was if they were tasked with watching over Jen instead and there were other people around to hear the conversation but in that case contacting Weaver in the early morning will probably be fine.