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Is It Wrong to Skitter in a Dungeon? Chapter 4
🕑 Added 2024-06-20 17:02:00 +0000 UTCChapter 4: Found Familia
Taylor leaned against the wall of the tavern’s second floor, where Bell had taken her and Hestia. There, he had spoken with a colorful collection of waitresses in skimpy green and white outfits and begged them for a place for Hestia to recover. Bell was apparently quite the lady’s man, as he had quickly gotten permission to let Hestia rest in one of their spare rooms.
Despite their friendliness, Taylor had been wary. All of the women who worked at the Hostess of Fertility – and wasn’t that a misleading name? Taylor had though it was a brothel, or something like a hostess club from Japan – had hummed, to varying levels. The huge proprietress, Mama Mia, was the loudest person her swarm had encountered so far. Even the grey-haired girl, Syr, who seemed smitten by Bell, possessed a fuzzy buzzing sound, but one that sounded closer in tune to Hestia’s, for some reason.
Nobody had tried to start anything, despite the shock of having a Crystal Mantis appear on the street outside, so Taylor had ordered the monster to crouch down and hide in a nearby alleyway. And even though it seemed safe, Taylor wasn’t going to stay idle and had her swarm quietly observing everything within the tavern, and around it.
“How is she?” Taylor asked, turning to look at Bell as he stepped out of Hestia’s room.
“Gah!” he exclaimed, jumping a bit in shock. “Oh, sorry, Taylor!”
“Still a bit weird to hear me speak?” she guessed, and the white-haired boy nodded.
“Yes! I mean, you have a lovely voice, but I kinda thought you were mute, even with Hestia helping you recover.”
“Well, it seems all I needed in order to remember how to speak was running headfirst into danger,” Taylor chuckled self-deprecatingly. That didn’t seem to deter Bell, though, as he bounced on his feet excitedly.
“It was amazing! You were so fast, I almost couldn’t keep up with you!” he said. “And then when Hestia and I were in danger, you came in riding a monster! It was like one of gramp’s stories!”
Taylor leaned back slightly, unsettled by the shining look in Bell’s eyes. She wasn’t used to be looked at with respect and admiration. Fear and disgust, certainly. Even when she’d worked as a Ward, most people didn’t see her or her powers as something worthy of awe.
It was… nice, she supposed, though she was glad her swarm could hide her emotions. Otherwise she’d be blushing and stammering.
“Thank you, Bell,” Taylor said, giving him a nod. He just kept grinning that boyish smile of his.
‘Now I see why he’s charmed so many women,’ she thought to herself in amusement.
“Hey there, Bell!” the chirpy voice of a waitress named Syr called out as she ascended the stairs. She was carrying a tray with a bowl of porridge on it. She was a strange one, with her hum an curious duel-toned song. There was a soft rustling, like silk blowing in the breeze, that was overlaid and muffling the ringing of wedding bells.
“Oh, hey, Syr! Is that for Lady Hestia?” Bell inquired, and she nodded.
“Yup! It’s nice and warm, too!” Syr informed him. She then shot a glance at Taylor, an unreadable expression flickering across her face as she did so. “Is this your other Familia member you’ve mentioned before?”
“Oh, so Bell’s been talking about me?” Taylor asked. She tried to make it sound casual and teasing, but it came out stilted and accusatory, and she cringed a bit. Nobody seemed to notice or care, though, taking her query at face value.
“He mentioned how he rescued you from the Dungeon and was nursing you back to health,” Syr said, a pleasant smile returning to her face. Bell blushed and rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed by the praise.
‘I didn’t think there was anybody more socially awkward than myself,’ Taylor mused as she watched her ‘Familia member’ stammer.
‘I really need to go over what Hestia’s told me about this place,’ Taylor thought to herself after a moment. She knew the twin-tailed girl had been talking to her throughout her time as a near-vegetable, but a lot of what had been said was indistinct. A week’s worth of conversations would have to be carefully examined and dissected for information. Surely Hestia mentioned something about ‘Familias’ at some point. They sounded a lot like a gang, though. But maybe that was the Brocktonite in her talking.
Thinking about her former home and the devastation that had likely visited it during Scion’s rampage and then again during her fight with the golden false-god brought forth a pang of bitter sorrow not even her swarm could swallow.
She’d mourn the loss of Earth Bet and her old life later. For now, she had other things to do and focus on.
A few minutes later, Hestia walked out of the room, looking tired but smiling happily when she saw Bell and Taylor.
“Are you feeling better?” Taylor inquired, and the little girl nodded.
“Yup!” she said. “Let’s go home.”
Taylor felt a tiny smile creep onto her face despite it all. This place wasn’t her home… but it could be. She had a new chance at life, after all.
“Also!” Hestia suddenly exclaimed, pointing a finger at Taylor. “We are going to have a long talk missy about running off into danger and adopting monsters!”
“Yes, mom,” Taylor said. It was half teasing, half subconscious reaction to being scolded, and Hestia’s face turned red as she fumed in embarrassment.
Bell laughed, though, and that brought ‘Lady Hestia’s’ wrath down upon him, her tiny fists beating his chest. It was cute, and incredibly different from her own recollections of time in the Undersiders.
Yes, this ‘Orario’ place just might be what she needed, in the end.
&&&*&&&
“Sooo… bugs, huh? How long have you been able to do that?” Bell asked, breaking the awkward silence that had permeated their little basement den after returning to the church.
Things had been fine at first, but after getting home, nobody had been sure how to start the conversation.
“I think… a little over two years, now,” Taylor said, thinking it over. The Locker Incident had been in January of 2011, and then the end of the world had been in June of 2013. Yeah, that was it, two years. Hard to believe so much had happened in that time frame.
“That’s neat! Were you an adventurer before?” Bell asked.
“Ah, no, I was… a hero,” Taylor said, omitting quite a few other details. From the way Hestia shot her a sad look, she clearly knew what had been left out.
Having somebody rummage around in her head felt… Taylor wasn’t sure. Angry? Disturbed? Ashamed? It was an invasion of privacy on par with that of the worst Masters of Earth Bet, but Taylor also knew that it was the only reason she was coherent and able to think properly again. She decided to just ignore her feelings and deal with them later. Yeah, putting it off seemed like a good idea.
The fact that Hestia had come clean about the whole thing was the only reason Taylor hadn’t immediately left.
“That’s so cool!” Bell exclaimed, seemingly missing the brief interaction between the two women. “What can you do with your bugs?”
“I can tell them what to do,” Taylor said simply, then gave a demonstration by causing several spiders to crawl onto the table and do a little dance. Hestia paled. Bell clapped.
“And I guess it works on certain monsters, too,” Hestia mumbled, clearly thinking about the Crystal Mantis squatting in the ruins of the church above their heads.
“I wonder if it would work on Killer Ants and Purple Moths,” Bell wondered thoughtfully, and that made Taylor intrigued.
“What are those?” she asked curiously.
“Insectoid monsters from the Dungeon,” Hestia explained. “From floors that Bell shouldn’t be venturing onto this early. Isn’t that right, Bell?”
“Y-yes, of course, Lady Hestia!” Bell stammered nervously. Taylor tilted her head. Had she just seen ominous flames radiating from Hestia’s eyes?
“Miss Taylor!” Bell began, wisely deciding to change topics. “Which Familia were you in before this one?”
“I wasn’t,” Taylor replied.
“Wait, do you mean your ability to control bugs isn’t a Skill?” Bell asked, surprised.
“Going by context, I’m going to assume a ‘Skill’ has something to do with being in a Familia?” Taylor inquired. When Bell nodded, she shook her head.
“That’s right. My ability to control insects, arthropods, and basically anything with too many or too few legs is entirely my own,” Taylor said. There was a note of pride in her voice as she said so.
“How?” Bell asked in disbelief.
Suddenly feeling nervous, Taylor glanced over at Hestia, wondering what to do. The tiny girl just reached out and patted Taylor’s hand.
“It’s okay,” Hestia said. “You don’t have to tell anyone if you don’t want to.”
“Don’t you already know?” Taylor asked, and Hestia shrugged.
“The broad strokes,” she admitted. “I cannot… it’s hard to explain. Putting your mind together was not like reading a book or watching a play, it was… putting together pieces of a shattered vase and hoping that you did it right despite not knowing what it is. I saw the surface, and moments that defined who you are, but beyond that… well, context, was a bit lacking.”
Taylor nodded slowly. For some reason, she believed her. It was cute how adult Hestia was trying to seem. And in the meantime, she began to think on her choice.
Keeping secrets never worked out. Taylor knew that intimately from her own past experiences. So she began to tell the two of them what had led to her appearing in front of Bell a week ago.
“I was born in a place called Brockton Bay…”
She told them everything. Some of it was heavily censored, and a few details were omitted, but not much. From Lung, to the Undersiders, to Leviathan, Echidna, all the way up to Golden Morning and the end of the world at Scion’s hand, as well as her desperate gamble to defeat him, Taylor held nothing back.
By the end of it, Bell and Hestia were hugging her tightly, bawling their eyes out. Taylor awkwardly patted them on the backs, trying to calm them down, but to no available. In the end, she had to let them cry. And when they’d finished, both of them had determination in their eyes.
“You’re amazing, Miss Taylor,” Bell said firmly. “And you’re from another world! That’s so cool! You’re like an alien!”
“Thank you, Bell,” Taylor replied softly. Even if the word ‘alien’ made her think about Scion’s origins.
“I swear, if I ever meet any of those… those jerks, I’ll kick them as hard as I can! I mean it!” Hestia declared, glaring angrily up at Taylor, but it was anger not directed at the teen, but rather at everyone of Earth Bet who’d been the cause of her misfortunes.
Taylor just smiled a little. ‘Even her threats are cute,’ she couldn’t help but think to herself.
“Let’s talk about something a bit more cheerful?” Hestia said, wiping a stray tear away a moment later. “Like updating your Falna!”
She turned to Bell. “Take off your shirt and lie down on the couch!”
“Should I be here for this?” Taylor asked, and Hestia and Bell blushed like tomatoes.
“Not like that!” Hestia shrieked. “A person’s Falna goes on their back! That’s all there is to it!”
“Of course it is,” Taylor said with a slow nod. Hestia growled and stomped over to the bedroom while Bell awkwardly lifted his shirt before lying facedown on the couch.
When Hestia returned, she had a needle and some paper in hand, and then straddled the white-haired boy’s back. Before Taylor could make any more joking insinuations, Hestia pricked her thumb and the humming around her intensified dramatically, causing the young parahuman to watch intently.
‘A blood-based Trump ability?’ Taylor wondered as she watched the tiny drop of blood land on Bell’s back, causing a loud chiming sound to ring out that only her insects could perceive.
Black ink seemed to manifest on Bell’s skin, seemingly appearing from nothing, and Hestia took one of the sheets of paper – another headache for trying to figure out the apparent tech-level of the city and world – and placed it on the writing. The paper glowed and when Hestia lifted it, the writing on his back had been copied onto the surface.
“Huh,” Taylor muttered, listening to the hum fade to normal levels. Yet Bell’s had grown louder. Not by much, but it was noticeable to her swarm, which operated on much smaller scales than humans tended to deal with.
“Not bad, Bell! You’ve grown!” Hestia cheered, letting Bell sit up and look at the paper.
“Whoa! I’ve never seen my stats grow so much at once before!” he exclaimed.
“Stats?” Taylor inquired. She looked over Bell’s shoulder with a spider, and noticed two things. First was that she could read whatever the language was that this place used. Second, that the whole thing looked like it was a stat sheet from an RPG. The former she assumed was due to Hestia somehow, likely from when she’d been repairing her mind. The latter though made less sense.
“So, it’s like a video game?” Taylor asked with a frown. ‘Thank God Uber and Leet aren’t here. They’d either destroy the city or be running it in a month.’
“A game?” Hestia asked, confused.
“Yeah. In my world, we had games where you played as heroic characters with stats not unlike what the Falna seems to describe. It was all imaginary, of course. But stuff like Levels, Power, Agility, Magic… all of that is pretty standard fare for games,” Taylor admitted.
“Huh, weird,” Hestia mumbled. “I guess that means I don’t have to explain everything, then.”
“No, please do, I could be missing information,” Taylor said quickly. “You know what they say about assumptions. They make an ass out of you and me.”
Bell snorted while Hestia tittered, before nodding. “Alright, then! Why don’t I update your Falna first, and then I can go over it with you?”
Taylor nodded, and lay down on the couch after Bell vacated it. She did not take her shirt off, though, merely lifted it slightly. Hestia clambered on, and Taylor felt her skin crawling as the droplet of blood touched her skin.
“Oh, wow!” Hestia gasped a moment later. Taylor frowned. Was that a good ‘wow,’ or a bad one?
She soon got her answer when Hestia all but thrust the paper into her face so she could read it.
TAYLOR HEBERT
LEVEL 1
POWER – I 0 → I 5
ENDURANCE – I 0 → I 10
DEXTERITY – I → I 10
AGILITY – I 0 → I 5
MAGIC – I 0 → I 40
SKILL
Queen of Escalation: Grants dominion over all invertebrates. Gain Excelia through dominated beings. Immunity to foreign mental effects, charms, and illusions. Limit Breaker.
‘That Skill… has the Falna translated my power somehow?’ Taylor wondered, eyes looking over it. She noticed that there was something smudged beneath it. A second skill? She sent a searching look to Hestia, who saw where she’d been looking and mouthed, ‘Later!’
Taylor didn’t like it, but Hestia seemed willing to speak to about it somewhere else so Bell couldn’t overhear, so she nodded and tapped the sheet of paper.
“Can you tell me what this means?” she asked.
“Yes!” Hestia said cheerfully. “So, levels! All Adventurers start off at Level 1! You level up by gaining Excelia and performing heroic deeds! Upon reaching at least D-rank in a single stat, you’re eligible to level up. Assuming you’ve done something really cool to impress the gods up in Tenkai, of course!”
“What’s the highest level achievable?” Taylor inquired, ignoring the idea that getting stronger was reliant on impressing non-existent deities.
“Nobody knows,” Hestia admitted. “The highest level anyone has ever reached is 9. But right now, the strongest person in Orario is Level 7. That would be the King, Ottar of the Freya Familia. And I recently heard Finn of Loki Familia got to Level 7 as well on their most recent expedition. But beyond that, nobody else in Orario or the rest of the world is as strong as them!”
“Interesting,” Taylor muttered. “So more of a Western RPG system than an Eastern one, then?”
Hestia had no idea what she meant by that, and continued the explanation. “A Level 1 Adventurer is much more powerful than an ordinary person. At least twice as strong with all of their stats in the ‘I’ range. And a Level Up increases strength almost exponentially, so a Level 2 is more than twice as strong as a Level 1, and a Level 3 would be able to eliminate a dozen Level 1’s in an instant without breaking a sweat!”
Taylor was impressed, and that encouraged the girl to keep going. “Now! The stats! You probably already guessed it, but Power measures a person’s physical strength, Endurance their stamina, durability, and ability to heal, Dexterity a person’s reflexes and hand-eye coordination, Agility their overall speed, and Magic determines how much Magical Power you have and how much you can use it to influence a spell’s effect!”
“Why would Agility be it’s own stat?” Taylor wondered. “A person’s speed should be a measure of their physical strength combined with stamina. Or, if you’re really leaning into the whole RPG thing, then an individual’s speed and agility should also be rolled into Dexterity, since somebody with fast hands or fingers is considered to be ‘dexterous.’”
Hestia opened her mouth to reply, but then frowned, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Bell had a perplexed look as well, as if he’d only just realized it himself.
“Uh, never mind all that!” Hestia spluttered after a moment. “Th-that doesn’t matter! That’s just how things work, okay?!”
“Okay,” Taylor said with an amused bob of her head.
“Uh, where was I? Ah! Stats! So, you see that letter and number?” Hestia asked. When Taylor nodded, she went on. “That is the stat ranking. Nobody is entirely sure what the numbers mean exactly. Some think it’s a percentage increase, others a different measure of improvement. But they go from I to A, with S as the highest rank. The numerical value goes from zero to 999. I-rank stats go from zero to 99. And when you Level Up, the stats reset, but the actual values remain. So somebody with, say, 500 points in Power when they level up with still have 500 Power, but stat sheets just start recording their new Excelia gains from zero.”
“I see. Why bother with the letters, then, if you have the numbers to show you how strong you are?” Taylor inquired.
Hestia’s jaw opened, then closed. Again, she had no answer.
“Next are Spells! Every person has three slots of unique magical abilities! The spells of an adventurer are special, though! They are engraved into a person’s mind and soul, so unlike normal people, who have to memorize long incantations, prepare complex rituals, and sacrifice expensive catalysts like Magic Stones to cast spells, adventurers can cast them nigh instantly with the only cost being Mind, which depletes with each use, and if used up, can cause a person to pass out! So it’s dangerous to use spells willy-nilly!” Hestia informed her, pretending like nothing was wrong.
“But somebody can only learn three this way,” Taylor mused. “I imagine then that a spell to go into a Spell Slot has to be chosen carefully, then? How does one obtain them?”
“Well, the main way is through Grimoires, which are special tomes that when read put the knowledge of the spell they contain straight into your head! Most Grimoires are random, though, and provide a single spell. Buying a Grimoire for a specific spell is possible, but very expensive, though!” Hestia warned. “The only other way is through Leveling Up. It’s rarer, but the spell with be one that matches your ability and personality as an adventurer.”
“Skills are next, and are a measure of a person’s very soul and desires, brought forth to the fore. If a person is virtuous, they might gain a Skill that reflects it. The reverse is also true. And it’s very rare for a Level 1 adventurer to have one,” the twin-tailed girl informed Taylor.
“And my bug control power seems to have become a Skill, or is at least registered as one,” Taylor noted.
“Right. No idea why. But the Falna considers it a part of you, for good or ill,” Hestia said. “Lastly are Development Abilities. You won’t be dealing with them until you get to Level 2, but once you do, and every Level Up afterwards, you get access to an ability that aides you. Take Abnormal Resistance, for instance. It grants a resistance to things like poison, disease, and the like. Or Hunter, which makes you better at hunting monsters, increases the drop rate for monster parts and boosts Excelia gain when killing large numbers of the same type of monster over a period of time. Every Ability also has stats tied to them, from I to S.”
“Now those sound useful,” Taylor noted. “Only one per Level Up, though. So again, you have to choose wisely.”
“Mm-hmm!” Hestia nodded, twin-tails bouncing wildly. “Any questions?”
“What exactly does it mean to be a Familia?” Taylor asked.
“Um, well, that requires a bit of history,” Hestia claimed. “See, long ago the gods descended from Tenkai because they were bored, but also because the Dungeon was on the verge of destroying the world…”
What followed was a tale as bizarre to Taylor as hers was to Bell and Hestia. Gods? Actual gods? And they were all deities from Earth Bet’s mythology who decided to play around as mortals while also giving people superpowers in order to contain a monstrous pit that spewed unholy monsters that hated all life!
She wanted to deny it all as madness or a flight of fancy, but Taylor couldn’t shake the feeling that Hestia was telling the truth, and she was the genuine Goddess of the Hearth as she claimed.
‘This Familia thing is a lot like a Master-Trump power,’ Taylor thought to herself, trying to focus on the parts that made sense to her and not on the potential revelation regarding divinities being real.
“How well do these 'gods' treat people?” Taylor inquired, finally speaking.
“Some gods… most, sadly, only see mortals as sources of entertainment,” Hestia admitted, looking down in shame. “Even in these limited forms of ours down here on Genkai, we are immortal, untouched by time. As such, gods will use mortals as a way to alleviate boredom. This could be in the form of challenging other gods for influence, to being more… cruel and dismissive.”
“And Falnas tie us to you?” Taylor asked sharply. “Are we slaves, then?”
“NO!” Hestia exclaimed, shaking her head with a hurt expression. “You are not slaves! You have your own free will! If you wanted, you could leave and never come! I wouldn’t stop you! I’d even remove your Falna if you want! I would never force you to stay or do anything you didn’t want!”
“How can I trust that to be the truth?” Taylor asked, eyes narrowed.
“M-miss Taylor, Lady Hestia isn’t lying,” Bell spoke up.
“No, it’s fine, Bell, I-I understand her concerns,” Hestia said, shivering a bit as she fought to control her tears. “Most people won’t want to leave a Familia because it has too many advantages. Yes, some gods might make leaving… difficult, and a Falna can only be removed or updated by the god who placed it, but for the most part, doing that is seen as a very bad thing for a god to do, and they would get shunned. But please believe me when I say that that I only gave you a Falna because I feared there was no other choice to save your life.”
“And you had to do this to me in order to save my life?” Taylor asked softly.
“To save your mind, really,” Hestia confirmed with a sad nod. “Your wounds could be healed with potions, but my friend, Miach, said your memories were a bit more delicate. Even the whole ‘mess with your memory’ thing I did was supposedly risky and untested.”
“I suppose he’ll be glad to know his hypothesis was sound,” Taylor mused.
“I think he’d be happier to know you’re alright,” Hestia replied. Taylor wasn’t as sure, but merely nodded.
“Now what?” Taylor asked after a moment of silence.
“What do you mean?” Hestia inquired with a tilt of her head.
“Do you want me to venture into the Dungeon with Bell? Or would I just be a liability with my arm?” Taylor wondered, waving her stump a bit.
“That’s up to you,” Hestia stated firmly. “Do whatever you want. Not all Familia explore the Dungeon. Some do other things. Demeter runs several farms outside the city, Hephestus makes weapons and armor for adventurers, Miach makes potions and medicine, and even Ares runs the nation of Rakia.”
“That’s certainly… eccentric,” Taylor said slowly. Ares, God of War, being in charge of a country? That didn’t sound like a good thing for anybody.
“I think you could be a great adventurer, Miss Taylor!” Bell spoke up. “You can control monsters! And if you make enough money, you could buy a new arm, just like Naaza!”
“You have prosthetics technology?” Taylor asked incredulously. ‘Again, what is up with the inconsistent technology basis of this world?’
“Dian Cecht’s Familia is famous for their Silver Limbs, which are magical prostheses,” Hestia confirmed. “Though they are outrageously expensive, and since they are artificial limbs, they cannot grow in strength to keep up with an adventurer. Beyond 2nd Level, Silver Limbs are generally more of a hinderance than anything else.”
“Hmm, still, something to think about,” Taylor muttered. “What about silk? Is that worth anything?”
“Silk? It’s pretty expensive. It only comes from merchants from the Far East,” Hestia mused. “I think Take mentioned it goes for a couple thousand valis per yard.”
Bell blinked, stunned by the number, before suddenly exclaiming, “AH! Miss Taylor, you can make the spiders give you as much silk as you want!”
“That’s right,” Taylor confirmed. “In fact… wait a moment.”
A minute later, the Hestia let out a shriek as several dozen spiders suddenly entered the room, carrying with them the half-finished clothes that Taylor had been working on the past week.
“I originally started making these when I realized I needed more clothes,” the parahuman admitted as Bell stared at the spiders as they set up a makeshift loom right there in the corner of the basement. “How much would genuine spider-spun silk garments go for?”
“U-uh, ten thousand valis, easy,” Hestia stammered, eyes wide.
“I’m afraid I don’t know how much that is,” Taylor gently reminded her.
“Well, a potion that is of the lowest rank costs about 500 valis,” Bell helpfully supplied. “Jagamarukun, um, those potato puffs Hestia sells, go for about 30 valis, each. A meal at the Hostess of Fertility is generally 300 valis, and that’s at the upper end of price for restaurant food. I make around one thousand valis a day when I go into the Dungeon hunting nothing but goblins.”
‘Hmm, so one valis is around one cent, give or take,’ Taylor mused thoughtfully. ‘I bet some things are cheaper or more expensive than others based on scarcity and lack of industrialization. So a sock or some undergarments made of silk could make a tidy profit if I could get enough spiders.’
Taylor resolved to do that tomorrow. But first… “I wish to visit this ‘Dungeon’ before I make any decisions. I wish to see what it is, and to experience what life as an adventurer is like.”
“Oh! That’ll be amazing, Miss Taylor! I bet we could go all the way to the tenth floor with that Crystal Mantis at our side!” Bell exclaimed.
The parahuman simply hummed, before glancing at Hestia. “My old outfit is a bit battered but should be fine for a quick trip. And I recall that I had a knife with me,” Taylor said.
“I, um, I gave it to Hephestus,” Hestia admitted sheepishly. “But only to see if she could repair it! But the good news is she said she’d give it back when she was done looking it over! And I got Bell’s knife out of it for cheap, too!”
Taylor’s unimpressed glare made the tiny goddess cringe and throw herself at Taylor’s feet for mercy.
“That is some impressive groveling,” Taylor couldn’t help but say. Upon hearing that, Hestia grinned up at her like it was something to be proud of.
The sound of Bell’s stomach rumbling broke the stare down and reminded them that they hadn’t eaten anything since the festival. Taylor huffed in amusement before getting off the couch.
“I’ll make grilled cheese sandwiches,” she said, and Bell and Hestia perked up.
She still had a lot of questions, but they could come later. For now, dinner.
Comments
Darkarma
Hephaestus unlocks nanotech weaponry. Hopefully she didn't lose any fingers in the process
