Chapter 1995: Home Sweet Home

With the last captives safely through, Quinlan crossed after Lucille and Kaelira. Behind Serika, who carried Celia, the other women made their way into the garden before the queen squeezed her abdomen past the gate’s edge.

Sera stayed beside her, healing light moving over the torn shell. The spider shuddered as the bleeding wounds closed, then gingerly put weight on a leg she’d been dragging.

"Better?"

"Yes... First time I... Heal magic."

"Oh?" The blonde beauty’s eyes lit up. "I hope I didn’t disappoint~"

"No... I... Amazed..."

"Hehe! You truly are a good girl, aren’t you?"

"...Yes..."

"Great, I love you already. Try not to step on anybody."

"Okay..."

Quinlan closed the gate behind them.

"DADDY!!"

A green blur came racing across the lawn.

Quinlan caught Rosie under the arms and lifted her into an embrace. Her legs wrapped around his waist while she squeezed his neck, pressing her face against the side of his helmet.

"You’re all covered up!"

At his will, Synchra drew away from his head. Rosie immediately kissed his cheek, then held his face between her hands to inspect him.

"Much better. Did Daddy miss Rosie?"

"Terribly."

"Good."

She hugged him again, holding on while he kissed her hair. Past her shoulder, Quinlan watched the queen lower herself onto the paving to make room for Aurora and her patient.

His daughter followed his gaze.

For a moment, Rosie simply stared.

"Daddy..."

"Yes?"

"Is that Rosie’s present?"

"Yeah. Souvenir from Sarthal. Thought you might like her."

Rosie’s mouth fell open. She looked from the spider to him, then back again, her little hands tightening against his shoulders.

"She’s beautiful!"

The queen drew her head back when the delighted girl reached toward her. Quinlan set Rosie on the grass, and she hurried forward, stopping just beneath the monster’s clustered eyes.

"Hello! Rosie is Rosie Elysiar! What’s your name?"

"Queen..."

"That’s your job."

The spider glanced helplessly at Quinlan.

"She’s asking what to call you," he explained.

"Queen...?"

Rosie considered the answer with great seriousness, one hand resting on the dark shell above the broken fangs.

"Silky. Rosie thinks you should be Silky."

"Sil... ky."

"Yes! Rosie’s beautiful Silky!"

Her arms spread across as much of the spider’s face as she could reach. Beneath that enthusiastic embrace, the queen held perfectly still, staring at Quinlan over his daughter’s head.

He smiled back at her.

"Told you she’d love you."

From beside the terrace, Kitsara made a pained little sound. "She hugged its face..."

"Silky is far too adorable for you to continue this nonsense attitude," Sera spoke up. The healer elf was already in Silky’s camp. "Silky is the cutest."

"Eh?" Blossom gasped.

"Blossom, Rosie, and Silky are the cutest~" Seraphiel corrected her blunder.

"...Traitor," Kitsara scoffed. "Spider monster praises her magic and this bitch is already down on all fours..."

"I can hear you..."

"Good..."

Rosie stepped back to admire those legs, apparently finding them worthy of considerably more appreciation than the foxkin did.

"May Rosie ride you?"

Silky looked at Quinlan again. At his encouraging pat, she lowered her head until the girl could climb onto it.

Tiny feet found the ridges between her eyes. The queen went cross-eyed trying to follow their progress, then stopped moving altogether when Rosie settled astride her head.

"Ohhh! Daddy, look!"

Quinlan folded his arms, enjoying his daughter’s delight. "A magnificent mount for my princess, if I may say so."

"The most magnificent!"

Rosie leaned forward to pat the shell beneath her. Silky felt those small palms moving over the places the man’s lightning had scorched, each touch accompanied by another pleased murmur.

The girl liked her eyes. All of them. She liked how high she could sit, and how Silky’s feet made clicking sounds against the paving.

Silky had braced herself for pulling, kicking, some new painful demand from the creature who belonged to that man. Instead, the child bent down and kissed the top of her head.

"Thank you for carrying Rosie."

"Kuuu..."

The queen tucked her surviving legs closer, lowering her face until the tips of her fangs touched the grass. Above her, Rosie giggled at the sudden descent and hugged the ridge in front of her.

"Shy Silky!"

Quinlan grinned while Sera knelt beside the spider’s wounded leg. Rosie watched her healing light close another split, then noticed the awkward angle at which Silky was holding the limb.

Rosie called roots up from the lawn. They curled beneath the injured leg into a broad cradle, supporting it clear of the paving.

Silky eased her weight onto it, a faint clicking leaving her mouth.

"Rosie... gentle."

"Of course! You’re Rosie’s beautiful mount."

She resumed her pats with immense satisfaction.

...

By the time Aurora had fetched her equipment from her parents’ apothecary through Quinlan’s next gate, the terrace had acquired a workbench, a reclining patient, and a spider whose head served as the princess’s seat.

"I’ll be in my smithy, Quin," Kaelira said, giving him a breathtaking smile before heading inside.

Quinlan closed that gate too and grew a roof of earth over the open work area. Beneath it, Aurora set out her vials while Black Fang waited beside Silky with a collecting dish.

"A drop." Black Fang held the dish beneath Silky’s mouth.

The queen obligingly opened her mouth. Black Fang caught the first drop of venom.

"Enough."

Silky closed her mouth at once.

From atop her head, Rosie watched with the solemn attention of someone supervising important work.

"Good job, Silky!"

"Muu..."

Aurora added a trace of the foreign antivenom ingredient to the sample, watching the reaction through the glass. Black Fang touched the outside of the vial with one finger.

"The venom is breaking down. The magic remains."

"Yes..." Aurora turned toward Sera. "Could you check her again?"

The elf held the patient’s hand while her healing light passed over the old bite. The woman flinched, whispering about silk, although the flesh beneath Sera’s fingers had healed cleanly.

"She still feels trapped."

Silky’s feet scraped against the paving. "Blood... carries. Magic... catches. Keeps... going."

Black Fang leaned closer to Aurora’s vial. "Stop trying to destroy the poison. Break what it set in motion."

"I think I can interrupt it," Aurora murmured. "Sera, keep watching her while I adjust this."

Their heads bent over the workbench together. From his chair beneath the terrace roof, Quinlan watched his alchemist pass a second vial to the assassin, who inspected it before pointing out a change in the first.

Black Fang, Seraphiel, and Aurora were working with a giant spider while his daughter sat on its head, petting it and offering words of sincere encouragement.

He was having a wonderful afternoon.

On a cushioned bench farther down the garden, Serika had settled Celia with her head in her lap. She stroked the sleeping girl’s hair while Kitsara pressed a small injector of Aurora’s sleeping draught against her arm.

"There we go," the foxkin murmured, injecting it into the girl’s veins. "Sweet dreams."

Keeping Celia asleep would stop her from seeing their home and discovering who Adventurer Black really was.

Serika brushed a loose strand off Celia’s cheek, then looked toward the workbench, where Silky was trying to show Black Fang which part of her mouth produced the secretion.

"Probably for the best."

Spotting Lucille accepting a drink from Dorothy, Serika beckoned her over.

"Come sit with us? We can have a chat while they’re busy."

"Gladly, ladies."

Lucille settled beside the two with a contented sigh. Their conversation dropped to an easy murmur while Serika continued stroking Celia’s hair.

Across the lawn, Iris rolled her injured shoulder, testing its movement when Ayame glanced over.

"Next time, perhaps move before the hook goes through you."

"Next time, perhaps tighten a noose around your throat and do the world a giant favor."

"Oh, hissy kitty mode, are we? I could demonstrate how to dodge so even your slow head understands."

Iris’s red eyes turned toward the samurai.

"You could fucking try."

Quinlan pointed toward the far end of the grounds before either drew a weapon. "Away from the glassware, please."

"Gladly~"

Ayame walked off with Iris at her shoulder, both already arguing about who would regret the invitation. Their first clash rang out beyond the garden wall while Anna and Beatrice brought plates onto the terrace, with Clarisse following behind the twins carrying bread and sauce.

"Die, cunt!"

"I’ll teach you some manners finally, bitch!"

"Ah..." Quinlan leaned back, sighing contentedly. "Home sweet home."