JP - The Keep - The Thick Plottens

Bella looked up at Difyr and spelled her question in the air. ‘Will they be okay?’

Difyr shrugged. "I hope so."

Bella sat on the floor and sighed heavily, watching everyone work for a moment. She finally pointed at the box. They needed to get rid of that icky stuff.

Difyr grimaced at the box, not sure of what to do with it. Dumping it down a privy did not seem like a good idea somehow.

Bella glanced around a bit and dug through a few things until she got paper and a pencil. It would do for now. She quickly wrote. ‘Maybe we should keep it until Alex is back? Confront him about it?’

“It might be best. If it’s addictive it can actually be dangerous to stop taking it suddenly.” Difyr studied Bella’s handwriting. “Where did you learn to write?”

‘The human that raised me before I arrived here.’ Bella wrote, looking up at Difyr. She respected the healer and was not angry or miffed with her, so she gladly gave her a straight answer. Bai, however, would have to make it up to her. She just didn’t realize she was the individual in the wrong in that situation.

“What human?” Difyr asked.

‘He’s dead,’ Bella wrote. ‘Died of old age. Wasn’t young when he took me in, apparently.’

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Difyr said. Difyr wondered why Bella was still so wild after having been raised by a human though.

‘We lived in the forest near this huge waterfall,’ Bella continued. ‘It was so fun to run around and just be with him. I hate that he had to die. Why do humans have such short lives?’

“I don’t know. I do what I can to extend them.” Difyr said. Ertzel, the healer before Difyr who had trained her and raised her like a daughter, had been ancient. Difyr still wished Ertzel was around today.

Bella simply nodded and tapped the paper for a moment. She wasn’t sure what else to write and didn’t want to hold up Difyr from her duties, so she took the paper and pencil and put it on top of the box with Alex’s nasty stuff in it. She scribbled out what she’d already written and wrote a warning on it so no one would accidentally try it.

Difyr said bye to Bella, then resumed her rounds.

🎒***
“Oh,” Miyuki said before she could stop herself. “I’m…I’m guessing that didn’t go too well.”

Lek shook his head. “Jack… he gave her flowers every day he had her… But I think she would have said ‘No’ even if I wasn’t stupid enough to bring her flowers. I just scared her even more.”

“Maybe you should just keep giving her space. Give her time…” Miyuki suggested. “And I’m sure if she never comes around there are others.” She did not mention herself because she was technically an outsider, a newcomer. She was already dealing with her own big problem anyway…

“That’s what I’ve been doing. That's all I can do. She’s afraid of me.” Lek slowly opened his eyes, grateful to not see a mouth in the ceiling, or eyes in the walls. The badger had turned into his wash basin. “She’s the only one I’ve ever loved.”

“We all love at some point, but don’t always get it back.” Miyuki said calmly, despite the panic going on in her mind. “Perhaps you should try to get some rest now. I’ll deal with the wash basin for you.”

“I can’t. I’m supposed to be going to the village.” Lek said.

Lek’s door opened, Wulfsen was there. “Lek- what’s going on?”

Miyuki looked at Wulfsen, knowing what this must look like. “A girl…Tria, I believe, was trying to seduce him, I believe. She gave him some kind of hallucinogenic that I gave him some medicine for. He is…rather ill now, but should be well. From what he told me, he is worried the girl was trying to put him in a compromising situation.” She handed Lek another cup of water. “Drink. Stay hydrated.” She instructed. “He needs rest, sir.”

Wulfsen’s eyes widened. “That girl your sister has been teaching how to sew did this?”

Lek nodded, drinking the water.

Wulfsen turned and ran to get his men to seize Tria. He could not just have someone drugging people, especially not if they were planning on taking advantage of them.

Lek groaned. “I can’t believe Tria actually tried to do that.”

Miyuki let out a heavy sigh and gently took the wash basin away, setting it aside. “You should get in bed and rest, Lek. You’re in no shape to go help out with anything. That drug needs to get out of your system.” She explained.

Lek sighed. He stood up and flopped onto his bed on top of the blankets, still wearing his boots. He could feel she was right. He looked at Miyuki. “Thanks, for helping me.”

Miyuki nodded and got him out of his boots. “Sleep well, Lek,” She said with a soft smile, set his boots to the side, and left with the wash basin in hand. It would be easy enough for her to clean it up for him. She had dealt with far worse things.

“You saved me, I owe you one.” Lek said sleepily, passing out.

⛓️***
Demetria was surprisingly easy to find, she was right by the door of the Keep building. She did not put up any resistance when Wulfsen’s men chained her and brought her to the dungeon. Searching her revealed something Wulfsen was not expecting- the girl had wings and a tail.

“What are you?” Wulfsen asked her.

Without her usual cloak, Tria hugged her wings close to herself. Her wings looked large enough to fly with. “Daughter of Molech.”

Wulfsen had heard about ‘children of Molech’ before from Bai. Supposedly Yehudit was one, Bai also claimed that Pinja’s baby (or as it turned out, babies) would also be, and possibly all the babies conceived during the raid.

Wonderful.

Wulfsen sent for Bai immediately, but of course he had already left for the village, something about Alex needing help.

So Wulfsen had Tria locked in a cell and put under guard.

“I’ll tell you everything, please just kill me before they get me.” Tria pleaded.

Wulfsen did not like the sound of that, he also did not know if he could trust anything she said. He had sent men to find Tria’s grandmother but she was nowhere to be found either.