Abigail
"What the
fuck,
Yara?!" Nivera screeched, pointing an accusing finger at the goblin in the doorway. "You were supposed to wait until I was done!"
The general clicked her tongue, turning away from her... probably-not-a-maid, to give me and Bailey a once over. "Normally, this is where I'd apologize on Nivera's behalf, if only for the sake of niceties. Seeing as how you're the ones who dragged us all into this mess to begin with, though, I figure you deserve whatever you got. Frankly, if it was up to me, I wouldn't have agreed to this meeting in the first place."
"Why agree, then?" Bailey asked, catching me off guard with the first words she'd spoken since Nivera walked in. She looked about as tense as I'd ever seen her, but weirdly enough, her teeth weren't showing. Her jaw was set, but her lips were pressed thin. And she wasn't growling. I guess I should have been thankful for it, considering who she was talking to, but it was honestly kinda uncomfortable seeing her show so much restraint. And not just with her, but Nivera too. It felt like I was missing something. "Snake insult Queen to anger Maid. General step in to stop Snake. Why?"
Something like
that.
"You noticed, huh?" Yara chuckled. Because apparently Bailey was
right!?
"Know what insults to Queen sound like. Anger. Disgust. Disdain. Snake different. Tone wrong. Sentences fake. Never just accuses - always asks Maid something."
Was
that
why Bailey had kept quiet? When the hell did she get so good at reading people? And how!? She barely even interacted with anyone! Most of the time, she just laid on the ground in her wolf form, with her eyes shut, and... her ears twitching... Okay, yeah, no, forget I asked.
"Heh. Looks like the wolf's seen right through you, 'Snake.' You wanna tell them what's going on, or should I?"
"This wasn't the fucking deal, Yara," Nivera seethed, clenching her fists. And her tail? I'm not really sure if you can "clench" a tail, per se, but the tip of it was curling and uncurling as it slid across the ground next to me.
"I'll take that as a no, then." Yara gave an exaggerated sigh, then shrugged with a smirk. "Well, she'll probably break down and start giving you the information eventually, one way or another, so for now I'll just tell you enough to get the ball rolling. Starting with a proper introduction."
"'Maid' Abigail, 'Wolf' Bailey, it is my distinct displeasure to introduce you to the bitchy snake in the grass known as Nivera-"
I heard something
creak.
I guess Nivera's tail found something to squeeze - the juice cup she'd dropped when Yara walked in.
"-Lingington. General Sallina's niece. And, more importantly-"
A loud
crack
rang out, and a few drops of black juice splattered against my leg.
"-the only other idiot in this entire tower who's ever had the misfortune of considering Devilla a friend."
"
Childhood
friend!" Nivera interjected, while Yara's poor tableware kept on creaking and cracking. It was pretty much nothing but a bundle of splinters at this point. "We haven't spoken in over a decade! And also, I hate her!"
"We're a few months shy of the fifteen year mark, actually," Yara said. She didn't so much as glance at Nivera, which was clearly only worsening the girl's temper, judging by how red her face was getting. Not that I really cared about her emotional well-being, but was it really okay to ignore a girl who's trembling with rage? "And hate's too simple a term for Nivera's idiocy. She'll insult Devilla until she's blue in the face, then curse at anyone who dares to agree. Just think of her as Devilla's estranged, but still weirdly overprotective, sister or something. They're basically family, anyway, so it's fitting enough."
"We are
not
family!" Nivera lifted the tip of her tail up, shaking it at Yara like it was a fist. Or maybe a mace, seeing as how it came with a bundle of pointy wooden bits. "She literally made it illegal to say my name in her presence!"
"And you're
literally
engaged to her cousin. If that doesn't qualify you for family, I don't know what does."
"Hold on a second!" I shouted, wanting to get a word in before Nivera could violently derail the conversation any further. Surprisingly, it actually worked, with both of them going silent - though that actually led to a kinda awkward moment, where I realized I'd shouted before actually thinking through what I wanted to say. I mean, I'd expected Nivera to start smashing and or throwing things, but instead she was lowering her tail back to the carpet, and letting go of the wooden shrapnel. I could see the anger draining out of her in real time, as her shoulders slumped and her fingers uncurled. Though she was still glaring at Yara. Who was ignoring her to stare at me. Who still hadn't actually said anything. "...Devilla has a cousin?"
"What? She didn't tell you?" Nivera asked, finally looking away from Yara and towards me. Not that I was exactly craving acknowledgement from a violent snake girl. Especially not when it came with a smug smirk.
"Don't let Nivera get to you," Yara warned me, shaking her head. "She's just testing you - pissing you off, so she can peel apart your reactions. It's how she deals with everyone. Personally? I'd be more surprised if Devilla
had
told you anything
-
I doubt she even knows Chloe exists."
"Of course she doesn't," Nivera scoffed, looking away from me
and
Yara, in favor of staring down at her tail. Or maybe the spilled juice
next
to her tail, which she was now magically pulling out of the carpet fabric for some goddess forsaken reason, to create a big floating glob of black juice. She couldn't actually be cleaning, could she? "You bloodliners did everything you could to keep her away from the redbloods in her family, didn't you? Treating them like a stain on the great Satanne name."
"Says the bloodliner," Yara retorted, folding her arms and glaring at her. "You can pretend to be a redblood all you want, Nivera, but you can't change what runs through your veins."
The very tip of Nivera's tail tilted back, then whipped forward, in what had to be one of the most childishly dramatic gestures I'd ever seen, as all the juice she'd gathered flew towards Yara. It splattered against something - a wind shield of some sort, I guess? - about half an inch in front of the general, with the droplets flying off to either side of her. Yara didn't so much as flinch. Which was an impressive display of iron-clad nerves, and all that, but...
"Any chance you two can stop it with the private feud for a minute, and actually explain what the fuck is going on? Because as shocking as the whole 'secret cousin' thing is, I'd actually like to move onto the fact that a minor errand is apparently unravelling some sort of fucking conspiracy!?"
"You're the one who asked," Nivera pointed out. Which... Y'know, fair? But it was kinda hard to take her complaint seriously when she was pouting like a sulky child, with her arms crossed, and her head turned to the side.
Her choice to start flinging the cup's splinters against Yara's shield - one at a time - wasn't exactly helping, either.
"And it's not a conspiracy," Yara added, rubbing a few fingers against her half-bowed forehead. "But it
is
complicated. By which I mean you're going to have way too many questions, and I've got enough of a headache already. Nivera can explain it better, anyway."
