Xivian tightened the bright blue, silk, scarf around Toofy's neck gently, and stepped back with a timid smile. "I would say that it suits you well, m'lady."
"Toofy is in a bad mood, Xivi. Scarf isn't going to make her feel better about leaving her Arina behind." The catgirl pouted, looking over at the woman still lying still in the bed.
"Lady Castelle will not allow any harm to come to her, and I have been tasked with creating regular correspondence to be sent to you, on her condition, m'lady." Xivian tried to smooth things over.
The catgirl bit her lip, fighting back against her instinct to snarl. It was hardly the handmaiden's fault that she was now an ambassador, and had to serve at the whim of the emperor.
It wasn't her fault that Daen had bitten and scarred Toofy's neck, right below where her collar rested.
Collar with a golden bell now, not a silver one.
She was identified to the public as a free woman, finally removing the title of slave from her name. She was the Lady Twenty Four de Sai, in truth.
The ambassador of his grace, the emperor. Sent to sort out some trifling deal with disappearing gold near the edges of the empire... As far from her Sai as they could send her.
Once her task was complete, she was free to come and go as she pleased. Which probably meant that they expected that she would die before then, and if she survived, that she'd die before she restored Sai's lands to him.
A neko lady, without property, wasn't going to find any respect in the empire. She was going to endure hardship, and be beaten and insulted. Treated as little more than a slave, because no guard would lift a hand to protect her once her ambassadorship was done.
Hell, she didn't even know if her own guards would protect her during her mission. They might well be intending to kill her and toss her in a ditch.
"She will miss waking up the Liz." Toofy managed, "Xivi, too. She only got to play with the Xivi, once. Had to share her too much with her mistress. Wanna play with her all by herself."
The handmaiden flushed in embarrassment, "Thankyou, for ensuring that I did not grow apart from the Lady Castelle, m'lady. The efforts were quite appreciated."
"Lord Castelle was dickhole that Toofy will not miss. She hopes that he doesn't wake up." The neko growled, ignoring just how dangerous it was for her to express that sentiment right now.
The woman smoothed down Toofy's dress, considered her for a bit more, and then nodded to herself. "May your journey be smiled on by the gods, with the sun ever at your back."
"Gods don't care about Toofy, and she doesn't care about them." The cat replied and ruffled the edges of her dress with a smirk.
Then she turned and made a pained look.
The catgirl bent over and kissed at Arina's forehead, a tear falling from her face onto the handmaiden's. "Please... Wake up, for me. Just for me, Arina."
There was no response.
No changes.
She sniffled, wiped her cheeks, and spun on her heel. Marching out of the room and into the hallway. Striding passed the various servants, head held high.
She was a lady of the court. She was an ambassador for the emperor. She was above each and every one of these, and she must act like it if they were to remotely believe it.
A neko, elevated above them all.
She had barely dared to imagine that even this much progress towards her dream would be possible in years. She had accomplished it in months.
The world, it seemed, was entirely underprepared to face off against the determination of one cat who didn't want to be treated like a mewling kitten.
The world she wanted was beginning to bow towards her, and she would trample it beneath her feet.
These were the lies that Toofy tried to tell herself, so that she wouldn't weep for the handmaiden she had to leave behind. Wouldn't fear for the succubus she had to leave behind. Wouldn't break for the man that she had to leave behind.
She would find the gold, for Arina's sake.
She would return it, for Little Saia's sake.
And she would kill the fucker's who stole it, for Sai's sake.
Toofy's golden eyes dimmed to a darker colour.
---
The sun had not risen that morning.
The rough growls and calls emerging from outside the town walls plagued at her sensitive elven ears. Telling her what was out there, in the dark.
"What do you see, mistress?" Kaleid asked.
Trician looked out grimly, seeing what others couldn't. She didn't need light to see. Right now, that left her feeling like her elven blood was more of a curse, than a blessing.
The creatures were unorganised, thrashing about against each other, biting and clawing anything that came too close. That would change, when they smelled it.
When the hunger set in, and those things realised that all that they were craving was just behind a hastily erected wall. Defended by frightened farmers, and a mysterious group led by Tyre.
"You can see them, too." She glanced at the strange man with the green eyes.
He nodded grimly, flecks of gold flashing and swimming in his eyes for a moment. Another oddity she didn't know how to explain or describe.
The elf shrugged, "Well, you seem to understand what is happening, better than I. Why it is happening."
"Not quite why." Tyre said quietly, "I've seen it once before. Once. This kind of mass rising... Sun going out... Something powerful has called out to them. Might not even know it did. No idea if that has to do with you and the gods."
Trician sighed heavily, "Somebody used some kind of forbidden magic. And everything, dead or alive, felt it."
"Pretty much." He shrugged, "At a guess. And I'm guessing that what caused it, is west of us. That's where they're shuffling, looking for a new lich to lead them."
Kaleid, who couldn't see, crouched and spoke in his rumbling voice, "Will they pass us by?"
"Extremely unlikely." Tyre chuckled, "We would have to have the luck of hell itself, for that. Souls smell like food to these fuckers. And what's worse, they aren't mindless. They're instinctual, bestial... But like wolves in that regard."
"Wolf." Kaleid mused, "There it is. That is one of the scents I smell on you, human. You smell like a fucking wolf."
Trician's ears went back as she suddenly realised. She hissed as she crouched, the diamonds embedded not just in her hand, but all the way up her arms, beginning to glow white.
Her slave landed in front of her with a growl, fists at the ready.
She put a hand on the onokentaura's shoulder, "Calm yourself. You cannot fight him. Not a chance. He's one of them, Kal. He's an abomination, crafted by magic that should have stayed buried."
"They call me Shifter." Tyre whispered, looking calmly out at the dark. "You can hate me all you like, princess. I certainly deserve it. But right now... I would say you could use an abomination."
Kaleid growled, "What are you talking about?"
"There was a unit. A small group of warriors." Trician whispered, "Astadia helped them do something... Horrifying. She turned them into weapons, so that the human empire could win a war that could not be won. Genocide to the neko. Massacring other exotics, like the kitsune, your kind. The subjugation of the orcs."
