6.33 – The Heiress III

6.33 – The Heiress III

Father stared at her.

"I see," he said. "The goddess of sensuality. Fertility. Sex. Her conduit and champion. What makes you believe this?"

Rosalie's face reddened. "She has skills related to ... Ephythithys's aspects."

Father stared at her.

Rosalie chickened out.

She'd been braced to explain things in direct terms. At least, more direct. To at least hint at the truth. And possibly even explain her relationship to Zoey.

But, unfortunately, Rosalie was more of a coward than she'd thought.

"As in, bonding," Rosalie said, clearing her throat and glancing away. "As you've already noticed, she's very ... loyal. One of Ephythithys's aspects is bonds. So that's the manifestation Zoey's class took."

"Intimate bonds, I believe."

Rosalie shrugged. "Friendship counts, I suppose. Trust and being an ally in general. And it's whoever she chooses. Doesn't have to be an established relationship."

"It?" Father repeated. "What do you mean, it?"

"She can select allies to boost. Enormously. Not just in the manner of a typical support class, but also in progression. She can accelerate experience gain. That's how I've reached fourth advancement in such a short amount of time." She felt mildly embarrassed to admit that. Because it meant her prodigious pace—or at least her absurdly prodigious pace, since she'd already been doing quite well before Zoey—was thanks more to a powerful ally than by her own merit.

But Father had never been one to care about that. He valued results. Luck and circumstances were irrelevant. Confirming that, he didn't seem bothered by the reveal. Though that might be more because of his greater interest in the current topic. Of gods and their champions.

"How do you know she's not misrepresenting her class?" Father asked. "There's plenty of absurdly powerful individuals—some even granted their strength as if from nowhere. Hm. Perhaps not plenty. But enough."

Rosalie blinked. For some reason, she hadn't even considered having to explain that to him. Fortunately, she could. "Besides being on the receiving end of it, I read her tabula anima myself. She's not misrepresenting anything."

"You did?"

At the surprise in his voice, Rosalie fought her cheeks from coloring. It was an intimate act, peering into another person's soul. She wondered if she was giving away her relationship to Zoey without meaning to. "When she first arrived, she didn't know how to read her skills. So I had to."

"When she first arrived," Father repeated. "To where? How did you two meet?"

A brief image of being crammed inside a coffin, every inch of their skin touching, hot, sweaty, Zoey humping awkwardly, sliding that thing across Rosalie's stomach, between their bodies, faster and faster until—

Rosalie cleared her throat. "She spawned in the same shard as me. Hence why I was forced into reading her tabula anima, else she remain dead weight. Neither of us had a choice in the matter."

"I see," Father said. "How do you know Ephythithys specifically is involved?"

"Beyond being a plausible explanation for a mythic rune of bonding?"

"Mythic?" Father asked incredulously.

"Along with three other runes?"

"She has four total?"

"And that I trust her, when she confided that in me?" Rosalie asked. "Among all those things, Zoey also led us to a corrupted shard upon the instruction of her patron." Rosalie hadn't doubted her before that, but it was the concrete piece of evidence she could point to. Delta had seen Ephythithys, but Rosalie hadn't.

She'd deal with that reveal later.

She was already delivering enough shocking news.

"They're together, right?" Father asked.

Rosalie twitched. "What?"

"Those two. Romantically."

"Zoey and Delta? Um. Y-Yes. I believe so." Though she didn't think they had actually made it official, yet. The 'girlfriend' talk. Even if it was all but obvious, unofficially.

She didn't know why the question caught her so off guard, enough to stutter in front of Father. Probably because she was hiding her own entanglement with them.

"I assumed." Father didn't seem to care one way or another; it had just been a comment. "And the Sovereign? You just happened to meet?"

"She was simply someone we found," Rosalie confirmed. "In Treyhull. A competent ally."

"Why didn't you return to Mantle immediately with that woman in tow? Why permanently 'bond' these others? I could have selected better choices."

Rosalie winced. That was a good point. "I think you're underestimating them," she said. "Besides, the decision is more Zoey's than mine. It's her class."

Father, again, seemed unimpressed.

Before he could open his mouth, though, Rosalie said: "She isn't yours to use, Father."

His eyebrows went up.

Rosalie felt herself grow suddenly hot. "She isn't yours to use, Father. I understand the asset she represents. That a Guildmaster has an obligation to his people to do what needs to be done. But I tell you all of this sensitive information so that you're informed—not so you can dig your claws into her and use her as your weapon. It's an extension of my trust. I prefer you don't violate it." She'd been warning Zoey against sharing information on her class because she knew a great many people would do exactly that—take advantage of her. Including her father, if not for Rosalie's involvement.

Then, having grown heated at even the possibility of Father using Zoey in that way, Rosalie finished her speech in a way she hadn't entirely intended to.

"It won't happen. She's mine, not yours, Father."

Father paused.

His lips tugged up.

"As long as she's one of ours, you'll hear nothing from me."

Flustered, Rosalie calmed herself.

Father had definitely misinterpreted what that 'mine' had meant.

"I think it's time you start from the beginning," Father said. He blinked, then looked at his spear—as if he'd forgotten something. "Oh," he said, gripping it and lowering it toward her. "And I'd like to see what you learned in the meantime."

Ah.

She supposed she was lucky for catching his attention so thoroughly that he'd forgotten to spar with her during his interrogation. That might have been her saving grace.

But keeping her story straight while dueling? Eluding all the sticky details of Ephy's involvement, or the shards they'd ventured through?

That was going to be a challenge.