“Come Phaedra, your Father is waiting for you.”

  Phaedra blinked at the gnome, her small body still shaking from the cold. She had left her window open, to feel something… anything.

  Her father looked fine, he was always fine. But that day he looked a bit too fine. A smile on his face, his white tunic shone in the bleak sunlight.

  The snow had started and the funeral looked almost festive.

  Her mother had been id to rest and now she had nothing to do but follow her father around as he shook hands and drank wine.

  She was quiet, meek, his favorite. Because she didn’t speak back, because she nodded yes at every question.

  “Oh she will be such a beauty when shes older, that wonderful complexion from her mother.”

  Phaedra gazed up at the man called Rasmond Gold. He was a thin man, in contrast to her father. His fingers long and always in his white gloves that seemed to never get dirty, even when he picked up oily food with them.

  He was her father’s most distant associate but seemed to be at every event. Her mother liked him, because he spoke to her as Cynthia and not the wife of grand merchant Yvon Custin.

  Phaedra thought he looked like a snake.

  Her father ughed heartily. “Taking after me a bit too no?”

  “Oh yes.” Rasmond smiled in serpentine fashion. “A dangerous blend.”

  Her father seemed to glow at the praise. “A compliment quite appreciated.”

  Rasmond nodded and picked a chocote covered corble.

  He ate like the refined gentleman he presented himself to be. And as much as Phaedra did not like his presence… or his face. He helped take her mind off the funeral. If the atmosphere could even be cssified as solemn in the slightest.

  Phaedra didn’t fault any of them for it, her mother hand been dead long before her eyes closed.

  That night Phaedra did not cry, she had cried for this loss a long time ago. What Phaedra didn’t know was that with her eighteenth birthday approaching, she was soon going to have a lot more to cry about.

  Because being a scarce commodity living under the room of a man that made it in life finding and selling rare commodities was a life she could’ve never prepared for.

  Almost losing the first person she had learnt to love after losing her mother was a harrowing experience.

  Almost six years after that funeral she sat on the edge of the rge bed and clutched Isran’s tunic to her chest, the smooth fabric helping her calm her wracking sobs and hiccups.

  Elysi opened the bedroom door and paused, looking hesitant before sighing and entering the room. Calliope was out with her bard friends and Phaedra wondered if she should try that as well.

  It had only been two weeks since Isran was rushed to the temple and although they were told she was stable, she didn’t feel in anyway reassured.

  Elysi sat beside her quietly, and for the first time since they all rushed to the temple Phaedra spoke.

  “My mother was sick.”

  Elysi was quiet, but the subtle way she turned to face Phaedra made her certain the sheepfolk was listening.

  “She was loosing herself little by little everyday, till she couldn’t speak anymore.”

  Phaedra sighed and looked at Elysi’s eyes, red and puffy and closed her eyes, shaking her head.

  “My father never seemed to care and I didn’t think much of it… she was already so far gone, the healers could do nothing… even I had stopped caring. I couldn’t even bring myself to feel guilty for not caring, I had already mourned my loss.”

  Phaedra blinked down at Elysi’s hand against her, it was a bit cold and she couldn’t help herself, she rotated her hand and csped their palms together. Her breath came out shaky.

  “I never left the compound, and when I finally did it was because my father needed a healer for an expedition, then I almost get kidnap and I’m stuck in the dungeons for almost half a month… but gods I would not change it for anything in the world if it means that was how I met Isran.”

  Elysi smiled a bit, “It is a bit weird that we all met her in such bleak circumstances.”

  Phaedra looked up at Elysi from their hands inquisitively.

  “Oh yeah… you don’t know how Isran and I met…” A light blush appeared on the pale woman’s face. She let out a nervous ugh.

  “Gods I’m becoming such a prude.”

  Phaedra couldn’t help but smile a bit at that.

  “My group was attacked, they left me in a ditch with slime and ran off with some of our things… my health was so low by the time Isran found me and well… whores have ways of recovering health.”

  Phaedra blushed. She knew of the skill. Reading a lot on csses in your free time helped a lot with that kind of knowledge.

  Elysi ughed fondly. “Oh Isran was so… strange… at first I believed her memory loss tale but gods was she so oblivious of so much.”

  Phaedra tilted her head. “She was always that out of it?”

  Elysi shook her head a bit. “She had been getting lost in her head a lot more recently, but before she was mostly just… oblivious…”

  The both got quiet after that, their hands still clutching each other.

  “It’s so easy to just… fall in love with her.”

  Phaedra chuckled lightly, “It really is.”

  Elysi looked down at their hands and squeezed a bit. “You should volunteer at the temple… I know you spend all day in here and with… the stress of what happened… I think being around others, making friends will be good for you.”

  Phaedra smile a bit. “You sound like my mom nagging me to make friends.”

  Elysi smiled back sadly. “I care about you Phaedra… and we may not spend enough time to… be really called friends, but we care about the same person and that alone is reason enough for me to want to see you happy.”

  Phaedra swallowed thickly, tears prickling her eyes. “I think I want to be your friend.”

  Elysi huffed a small ugh, tears blurring her eyes as well. “I’d really like that.”

  The following day Phaedra nervously fidgeted with her hands as she stood in front of a junior priest at the temple. He nodded to himself as he filled out her evaluation form and when he was done nodded and looked up at her.

  “Looking very good. It is an honor to have one blessed by Hepitteme offer free help.”

  Phaedra smiled a straightened smile. “The books?”

  The priest nodded a few times. “Oh they are free to the public as well, though you might get some restricted books… tell you what, you can even take them home for more reading.”

  Phaedra started her first job… well adventuring was probably her first job if she was being honest.

  “Hi.”

  Phaedra blinked nervously up at the scantily cd junior priestess. Her generous bosom was fighting the confines of the very tight robes she wore. They had a criss cross style and exposed as much as they could, bordering on full release.

  Phaedra noticed the woman’s hard nipples and almost went red with embarrassment.

  “Uhhh hello.”

  The priestess giggled lightly and stood straighter, her breasts shook as she moved around, with their ck of support they jiggled with each movement the woman made.

  She was also quite beautiful.

  “I hope this isn’t rude or a touchy subject but you’re a friend of Isran’s right?”

  Phaedra blinked and couldn’t help her lifted eyebrow. “I’m her girlfriend.”

  The priestess blinked and a broad smile appeared on her face. “Oh how wonderful, I was under the impression Elysi was with her.”

  “She is.” Phaedra answered simply.

  The priestess hummed and moved from side to side, her breasts following the movement.

  “Oh aren’t you lucky. That prude Elysi, could you convince her to come work in the Sephia quarters, she would love it there… I’m sure she could even bring you along… Isran as well.”

  Phaedra realized in that moment the woman before her wanted to fuck her girlfriend.

  Like she had told Isran before, such advances didn’t bother her much, though she didn’t think Isran would readily agree.

  “I’ll talk to Elysi.”

  The woman cpped, those obscene globes of hers giggled with the movement once more.

  “Tell her it’s Mireya, she’ll know who it is… and I will be praying for Isran.”

  Phaedra nodded. “I will.”

  Phaedra did not end up remembering, and Mireya had not approached her since.

  But almost two months ter, as Isran walked her to the temple for her day of service and Elysi and Calliope tagged along with them she watched the woman walk up to them with two other equally beautiful and voluptuous women and braced herself for the conversation that was about to ensue.