"Dad, I'm fine."
"I can see that much! Turn around, right now!"
How does he always know? My father made this chainmail for me in his spare time, but every time it got damaged, he knew exactly where it was without taking more than a glance. I turned and I heard a parade of footsteps rush up behind me.
"How do you have that many breaks in the mail, and not have a scratch on you? Your shit is even torn! Liena, do you think you can sew this for K after we eat?" My father asked from behind me.
"K, come one, stop leaving us hanging! Did you or did you not touch the core?" Pike, the youngest of my four brothers said.
"Yes, I touched it, then I woke up outside of the dungeon, fully healed."
"SO YOU DID GET HURT! K, what did I tell you about…"
"They are all dead dad, the entire party was wiped. I was barely able to beat the giant lizard man alone, then I dragged myself into the core room and touched it. After that, a message appeared in front of my face saying I had a system."
I stopped there, they didn't need to know the rest, and I was starting to get uncomfortable being gawked at by everyone in the room. That is, except for Lesha, who was eating furiously. When had that girl eaten last?
My father was about to go on another tirade, but Liena put a hand on his arm when I turned around. Father let out a sigh and then sat down. That was the cue and the rest of my...I was having a hard time calling them idiots, maybe just stupid for now until I was proven otherwise. The five of us had a jaded past, but I should try and listen to Drania, and give them a chance, maybe.
"Your girlfriend has quite the appetite! Are you going to introduce us?" Mike asked with a sly grin.
I had just sat down and barely five seconds after I had the thought. See? That Letcher was already eyeing up Lesha, and I was about to lose it, but then Lesha spoke up for herself. I had to hand it to her for standing up for me, but the way it happened only made it worse.
"I am Lesha, I came to this town to start over and your sister saved me from being raped. Now, I am her servant and I will serve her faithfully until we end our days together!"
Ugh, all five men's eyes nearly fell out of their heads, even Liena, hardly the flappable type, sat slack-jawed. I had a clear shot to the door, but I lived here and Lesha was here. What she said was true, I guess, but the last part is what stripped the eyelids from the men's eyes.
"Then, you are K's girlfriend?" Mike asked.
"Hm, she saved my life, so I would consider her more than a friend, and she is a girl...so then I guess that would make us girlfriends, Right Kiada?"
There was a bird to the south that stuck its head in the sand to hide, and I really wished there was some sand, dirt, or even a boiling pot of frying oil! I could feel my face start to heat, but then I took a deep breath. This couldn't get worse, so I might as well roll with it.
I wasn't sure if she was being serious or if she really thought that a girlfriend was just a girl that was a friend, but I didn't care at this point. I was pissed off and hungry, so I glared around the table and stared down at each person until everyone was absorbed into their meals.
I turned to Lesha and nodded at her with a smile. She gave me a warm smile back, but Pike must have been staring because he spit his food out onto Mort beside him. Mort then smacked Pike and whispered to keep his damn eyes to himself. What happened to these boys? There would have been no end to the torment six months ago, but now, it was like I was looking at different people completely.
I turned back and focused on my food, which was very good. My father could be a hair-brained idiot sometimes, but he was a hard worker and a good cook, something he said that mother loved about him. We didn't talk about mom very much anymore, but it had been over twenty years since she died.
Dad stopped talking about her as much when he started seeing Liena two years ago, but never completely. Liena didn't mind, and I was happy that my father had found someone after all that time. No one deserves to be happy more than my father, the single father of five children that fought like cats and dogs.
Soon, we finished supper, but no one hammered me with questions. Even when I stood up to go to my room and Lesha did the same, no one even batted an eye, but I suspected they were just waiting to hear the sound of my door close to start gossiping about us. That was fine as long as I didn't have to hear about it.
Lesha followed me up the stairs and then into my room. This was about as far as my brain had got with a plan. I guess she could sleep in one of my brother's old rooms, not like they were being used.
"Um, we have a bathroom beside my room, and if you want you can sleep in the room across the hall."
"Can I sleep in here? I can sleep on your floor, it's just that, I feel like I need to be close to you. It's hard to put into words but, I don't want to be away from you, even in another room. I could, but…" Lesha's voice trailed off
"You can't sleep on the floor, you will catch a cold! It might be nice now, but later tonight it will get colder."
"You have a big bed, I could sleep at the end if it wasn't too much trouble…" Lesha let the words hang.
There was a hammer smashing the inside of my head trying to crack my skull to get out, or that's what my heartbeat felt like.
I was a grown woman, but I was still having trouble getting to sleep with Lesha already passed out on her side of the bed. I was curled up with my back to her, staring at my wall. If I wasn't going to sleep, then I wanted some answers.
'You just need to ask me, child, I can only tell you what I am allowed to, but I will not lie to you. I may seem heartless, but it is our nature to be as such. You will learn that you need to be ruthless to defeat the gods.' -Drania.
'Defeat the gods? You think I could get rid of them?'
'This is unbelievably frustrating, but yes, you will. You are so much more than you know, but enough of things that aren't yet. I will explain what you are, as you both you questioned earlier, but refuse to ask me.' -Drania.
'Both of us? So you can talk to us both?'
'Girl, please hold your questions until I am finished, but yes I can contact any of you servants that you are close to. You are a necromancer that uses blood as a medium. You, servants, are bound to you by a blood pact that will have far-reaching abilities that will even allow you to heal and halt death from healing, but you are a long way away from that. Now, questions.' -Drania.
'...What is a necromancer and how can I learn how to heal?'
'Good, Necromancers are the masters of life before and after death. You will learn to raise armies of undead minions to fire for you, Turn to blood mist, and many more things wait for you at the top, but we must start by eliminating the gods before they start causing real problems. To learn these things you will have to find more servants, and they can't just be anyone. We will have to find them or make them come to us.' -Drania.
'My head is swimming! The gods are supposed to help unite us!'
'I can't say more than I have, I am sorry, but heed my words! There is another reason for you to pursue the gods and the dungeons, your servants will need the prizes that they will be awarded and so will you.' -Drania.
'Is there anything else?'
'Plenty, but I can't tell you, yet. We have to work together and you will have to do things that you will find detestable, but over time you will learn to accept who you are.' -Drania.
This was what I asked for but, there was so much. How was I supposed to stop a god? Better, how to stop nine?
'You will need more than just the servant to do think, Kiada. You will need the guilds, and there are four men who might be able to be shaped into fine guild leaders, if you give them a chance and trust them.' -Drania.
'My brothers? Guild Masters? You have to be kidding me, right.'
'Don't be so pigheaded, girl. You will learn over time, but don't let your natural urge to distrust all men get in the way of seeing these for men's true potential. This is important for your success in finding certain servants. This will also be a chance for you to change the life expectancy of adventures.' -Drania.
'I will try, but…'
'Go to sleep, tomorrow you will be going to learn how to summon undead minions.' -Drania.
Suddenly, it was morning, my eyes were closed, but I could hear the birds chirping and the familiar warmth wrapped around me...warmth...arms...around me…Lesha was spooning me with her arms tucked under my breasts. I couldn't move, nor breathe, but at the same time, I didn't want to...move, that is. I let out the breath I was holding, but that caused Lesha to stir, then I was spun into a tangle with my blanket faster than I could react, even with my new speed.
Lesha was on the other side of the room, and her face was burning red, and she was staring at her arms. Now seeing her like this somehow made me feel better. I guess seeing that it was just as weird for her was comforting.
"Kiada, I'm sorry, I…" Lesha tried to say, but I cut her off with a wave after getting an arm free.
"Don't make a big deal about it, I might get the impression that you enjoyed it."
Woah, where the hell did that come from? Did those words just come out of my mouth? Now I could feel my own face burning up. What had just possessed me to blurt that out, and, just to make the matter worse, Lesha looked away from, with her face somehow darkening even to a darker shade of red.
At this point, I was worried that one of us was going to start a fire, but then I heard the floorboard outside my room creak. Any heat in my face drained away instantly, and my face went stone cold. Someone was about to die, or maybe all four someone's.
"If you value your life, I will see you at the table in thirty seconds, and I even see a sideways glance, someone is going to die."
The sound of scrambling feet, down the stairs and muffled laugh was in line to put me into a very bad mood, but then Lesha spoke.
'I didn't not like it, I just...I have never held a woman in that way before...and you are so soft…"
I clamped my hand over her mouth, and put my mouth close to her ear. My heartbeat almost drowned out my whisper as I shook, trying to control my voice.
"I-I enjoyed t-the feeling, but this isn't something I want to talk about here. Drania says we will need my brother to help take over the guilds, and if they heard what you just said to me, I would have to kill them."
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