Becoming Monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission.
Ashes to Ashes is a guild based in Chicago, from TheNyxianLily's Blood And Chlorophyll tale. Lola comes from a different side story, Nine Lives.
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Chapter 27: On The Edge
When the sun rose, it felt heavy. Like the day itself had a weight that would not be denied. Justin had an entirely different but equally-undeniable weight on him: Abbey. Unlike the night before, she hadn't shifted her size down. Also unlike the night before, she'd managed at some point to roll over on top of him. While Justin suspected the Good Girlfriend Wish had been preventing it in the past, this was one of those situations where the Good Husband Wish might have overridden it. Maybe she'd been cold, or needed support for some reason, but that was academic. He found he couldn't easily move due to her warm, welcome weight. He also found that he needed to move, fairly desperately, due to his right arm falling asleep and his unfortunate possession of biological processes.
Reluctantly extricating himself almost too long. By the time he scrambled to the bathroom he had JUST enough time to use his left hand and get his pajama pants off.
By the time he finished and washed his hands, feeling had thankfully returned. That meant it was time for the next bits of the morning: starting coffee, checking his mana, then grabbing his half-made glass sword and materials to keep working on it for as long as his mana held out. He found it alongside the remaining shards, but with them were two containers of bright blue powder. Cobalt glass pigment.
There was no note with them, but then again there was no need for one. There was only one person who could have possibly known what he was about to go looking for, tracked it down, and purchased it in abundance like that. Abbey had done it again, and Justin had to resist the temptation to run back into their room to wake her up with a huge kiss. Coffee, breakfast, and letting her have the last few minutes of rest would work way better. Then kisses. Either way, he had a few minutes while the coffee percolated to use up some of the mana he had recovered in the last day or two.
Once again out back on the beach, once again sifting an area of sand to get rid of major contaminants. He pulled out what he had, along with the Gold coin he'd managed to earn. The Mana he had wouldn't last long. Best to make it count. He laid out his pieces, planned his moves, grabbed a handful of the purest sand he could find, and dove in. The Gold flowed, the glass adhered like glue. The occasional pinch or sprinkle of sand to get a bit filled in rather than expending more of the precious Gold. A pinch of cobalt and more focus let him push the blue into the blade. Another and it was swirling deeper, standing out against the gold.
Justin blinked twice, a headache starting to form. He'd overdone it a bit, but in his hands were no mere shards of glass. Pommel stone, fluted grip, S-shaped guard, double-edged blade with fullers. He was holding a
katzbalger
, the deep blue glass clear enough to show the threads and panes of gold running through it, the shards clearly once separated yet now together again. Though heavier than he'd expected, the edge was sharp and the construction sturdy.
The sword was completed.
The flowing blue caught the rising sun and seemed to flow like the ocean's waters, it glowed in the reflected light in ways that dared the eye to try to settle on one point. He beheld the work of his hands and could hardly believe it.
"Justin! Breakfast! You okay out here..." Abbey's sudden call jolted him out of his reverie, and he turned around. "Oh! Is it done?"
Justin nodded, walking forward. "I... ah, I think it is. I put an edge on it and everything. Not sure what to do now, I kind of didn't think past this part." He seemed a bit sheepish.
The corner of Abbey's mouth quirked up in a smile. "Well, thankfully I'm here to nudge you on that. Come in, put the sword away in our room, eat breakfast, then I recommend getting to class and showing your grader the project. Let them know you need to bring it to Camp so that you still have it."
He sighed, half in relief at having a direction and half in frustration at how much was left to do. "You're the best, Abs. And sorry I drained a bit more from the pool than I intended."
She shrugged. "Can't complain, given the results. Just make sure you keep making it easy on the house in case one of us needs to use it later. Maybe take a day or two to let the pool regenerate. Now come on, your waffles are getting cold."
Their guests didn't show up before the two of them were done with breakfast, though when they emerged from their room after showering (sword in a long cardboard box that had certainly not been there an hour before) Song was there, sipping blearily on a cup of coffee. "Thanks for putting on enough for everyone. Going to need it today."
Abbey frowned. "What happened?"
"Ghata and I got called in last night. Someone did something stupid and they needed extra hands at the hospital. We've slept maybe an hour."
"Sounds like a bit more than just 'stupid,' one person screwing up doesn't usually mean calling in reinforcements." Abbey sat down at the table with her.
"It does when someone tries to kidnap a Guild Leader, leading to a gunfight in a warehouse in the Docks, someone getting shredded by claws, and a bunch of others taken down by his Strikers. Beat them to a pulp and dropped them on the stairs of the police station with a handwritten note."
Abbey's hand came to her forehead. "Yeah, that tracks for Delvers. Who the heck is dumb enough to try to do that to a Guild Leader of all people?"
Justin shrugged. "Same as anyone else. If they think they can threaten or coerce the guy, he's a target. Looks like they bit off more than they could chew, though."
The guest room door opened, and out stepped a monster. A woman, tall and powerfully-built. One whose fur was red-orange and striped with black, her arms showing significant muscle past her short-sleeved pajama shirt, hands situated backwards on her arms. Her yawn revealed a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth before snapping shut. A Tiger of some kind, one that Justin did not immediately recognize. He understandably reacted sharply and suddenly, moving to interpose himself between Abbey and the threat, drawing the glass sword out of its box and readying himself for an attack. "Abbey, look out!"
The Tigress looked around behind her as Abbey scrambled out of her seat, but then looked down. "Oops. Uh, sorry about that. Nice reaction time, though." The voice was familiar, though the body looked like the exact opposite of who it belonged to. She focused for a moment, then began to shrink. The fur retracted to reveal brown skin, the hands changed direction, the muscles receded. Before long, the pajamas were on a petite Indian woman. Ghata.
"That's a new one." Justin was a bit slow to put away his weapon.
Song's voice from behind him almost made him jump out of his skin. "Take it as a compliment, she only ever wears her natural form in private. Ghata must have gotten really comfortable with this house and you as hosts if she forgot to put her face on."
