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Everyone's a Catgirl! Ch. 276: Guilt
🕑 Added 2024-08-27 21:12:50 +0000 UTCRavyn pinched the bridge of her nose, periodically glancing up at Garney. To think that it had been years since she visited this room. She’d left with the intent that she would return on occasion to slowly mend the rift between her and her mother. Now, it seemed the rift was growing wider. Or perhaps certain parts of the rift had just stretched further than she had intended.
Fuck, I don’t want to get up.
“This is hard, Garney,” she said to the tiny rock in the lamp above. Ravyn spun her finger, then pointed at the rock. She felt a cool sensation in her body as the myana left her, triggering the Spell inside the rock. Its faint red light blanketed the room, and she felt some of the weight of the situation leave her shoulders. “I feel like I’m regressing.”
With the covers still over most of her body, she pulled her legs close, clasped her hands, and propped her head between her knees. “Bally says I’m doing great, but I’m not sure if I agree. I feel like I’m losing my fire.” Her eyes wandered up to the stone, then to the dresser against the wall. The room was just as clean as it had been on the day she left it. “Mother’s attendants don’t seem to know what to make of me. I try to fight back whenever Mother insists I stay here. But every time I visit her, I think back to the relationship we used to have.
“What should I do, Garney?”
She yelped when a knock came at her door. “Mistress Ravyn, are you awake?” came a soft voice from the other side. One of the attendants, most likely.
“Y-yes! I’m awake,” she said as heat rose to her cheeks. “What do you want?”
“S-sorry to disturb you, but someone from Lady Yukari’s shop is here to see you. She says it’s urgent.”
Fucking figures.
“Fine! I’m coming! Go away!” Ravyn snapped.
“Yes! As you say, Mistress Ravyn!”
Her footsteps echoed down the hall. Ravyn threw off the covers and hung her legs over the bed’s edge. Turning her head to the left, she took one last look at Garney, then switched to her [Civilian Mode] outfit. She scurried to the bathroom and grabbed the comb resting on the pristine marble sink.
She started to brush her hair, pausing for a moment to question who she was doing this for. Her thoughts wandered, and she stopped halfway.
Goddess above, I feel like a kitten again.
Each morning was spent the same way when she was younger. Brushing her hair, painting her lips, lining her eyes. Part of her didn’t mind it, but there was a careful balance to play when you were the daughter of Emberlynn. It had to speak of grace and beauty, and modesty was an important part of that. Ravyn feared she was falling back into the habit of maintaining that appearance for her mother’s sake.
No. I’m my own person. I’ll do whatever I want.
She combed her hair until it was ‘good enough,’ then marched downstairs to greet whoever awaited her. She offered a flick of her head to acknowledge Tristan and his girls on the way, called Bally over from their table, and then threw open the front door to see a girl dressed in a long silk dress with black clogs on her feet.
“H-hi!” the girl stammered. She was pale as a sheet and at least a head shorter than Ravyn. She bowed deeply at the waist, speaking only once she came back up. “I have a message from Lady Yukari. She says that your outfit adjustments are complete. You can pick up your clothes whenever you like.”
Ravyn frowned. “She didn’t think to have them delivered?”
“She said you might say that, and that you still have to go pick it up.”
“Lazy Yukari, squaaaawk!” Bally cried from the safety of Ravyn’s shoulder.
This bitch. She just wants to laugh in my face, doesn’t she?
“Fine. Tell her I’ll see her in an hour.” Before the timid employee could respond, she slammed the door in her face and marched to the dining room where Tristan and the others were eating, growling the whole way over. Bally leaped from her shoulder, landing at the center of Tristan’s table.
“Total bitch! Squawwwk!”
“That kind of morning, huh?” Tristan asked as Ravyn fell into the seat beside him.
“Mou ii, this place will be the death of me.”
Destiny blinked and motioned over one of the attendants. “Can we get Ravyn’s usual, please?”
The attendant nodded and swiftly exited through the kitchen door.
As Lara opened her mouth, Ravyn raised her hand to silence her. “I don’t want to hear a word. This is not a good morning for anything.”
Lara gaped, then shut her mouth promptly, tapping a finger to her lips as she hummed.
Ravyn leaned back in her chair, folding her arms and crossing one leg over the other. Yanni and Sophia were nowhere to be found. She assumed they were tending to Emberlynn’s care, and that suited her just fine. As she waited, she noticed a collection of stones and jewels of varying colors decorated the space in front of Tristan. The boy was staring at them—no, glaring, more like—with his palm extended toward them.
She blinked and watched Tristan carefully. The myana in the air was growing more chaotic with each second that passed, much of it sweeping over the stones, occasionally seeping into them. Beads of sweat collected on his forehead, and Destiny sat on the other side, dabbing his skin with a towel when they threatened to fall.
“You’re going to wear yourself out if you keep doing it like that,” Ravyn warned.
Tristan let out a big exhale, leaning his elbows onto his knees. “I’m,” he breathed, “open to ideas.”
Ravyn put both feet on the floor and grabbed one of the stones—the sapphire. “A cut like this is going to be difficult for someone of your experience to pour myana into.”
Tristan nodded. “Alia told me as such, but I wanted to give it a try. I hold no naive expectations, I promise you.”
Ravyn hummed and rubbed the stone between her pointer finger and thumb. “Have you been able to pour your myana into any of them?”
“A couple, yeah.” He pointed to the topaz and the impure garnet. “Those two weren’t too difficult, but I can’t get any of the other stones to take my, umm…” He blushed. “My myana.”
Ravyn furrowed her brow. “Mattaku. What are you getting all shy about? There’s nothing silly about this.” She tightened her grip around the stone. Barely a hint of myana within. “It’s okay if you can’t do it in one day. Just don’t focus on more than one at a time, boy.”
Tristan sighed. “I wasn’t trying to, I just—”
“Shhh, listen to me.” She set the stone down and collected the others that could prove difficult for someone with Tristan’s experience. She set them to the side, then pushed the other stones—the topaz, garnet, a type of quartz, and an aquamarine—toward Tristan. “Try those first. What’s your teacher’s name again?”
“Uhh, Alia.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Why?”
“Did she tell you to do that?”
Tristan frowned. “Well, no. But she said I could try if I was feeling comfortable.”
“Mattaku.” A part of her felt guilty for not teaching Tristan this sooner. Manipulating myana was a fairly easy process for most catgirls, but the concept must have felt foreign for someone who had never had to deal with magic before. Finn had told her that such a thing didn’t exist where he came from, and if Tristan was from the same world as Finn, then this was going to be a tough process.
Scooping up a few of the stones she could feel myana from, she stood up, pushed the chair back, and then snatched Tristan’s wrist. “Come with me.”
“W-wait! Where are we going?”
“I’m going to teach you a trick.”
She dragged him to a courtyard situated at the back of the mansion. Statues carved in the likeness of Emberlynn and the women who came before her stood tall, flanking the yard’s exquisitely cut grass and stone pathways. They created a cross at the center, where a striking water fountain featuring Saoirse’s likeness poured water into a basin from a spout in her palms.
Ravyn led him to the fountain, then let go of his wrist. Destiny and Lara appeared at the door soon after, blinking and shrugging. Bally flew between them, eliciting yelps from the maids, and landed on one of Saoirse’s wrists to take a drink.
“What about your breakfast?” Tristan asked.
“Shush, let Ravyn teach you,” she said as she plucked a rough topaz out of her hand. She set the other stones on the fountain’s lip, then clenched her hand over the topaz. Steadying her breath, she searched her mind for a memory where she felt passionate. Memories of Ichi returned, but she swept them away in favor of a memory regarding Shi Island instead. She recollected the moment before breaking Tristan out. She and Matt were hiding behind the bushes. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as the cool sensation of myana flowed through her.
“There,” she whispered, opening her eyes. The myana flowed out of her and into the stone effortlessly. Seconds passed, and the rock began to glow a faint blue between the cracks of her fingers. When she opened her palm, Tristan neared closer in awe.
“That’s so pretty,” he said.
“Thanks. Take it.” She placed the stone in his hand as he opened his palm. Then she turned toward the mountain behind the mansion and pointed. “Pinch it between the fingers of the hand you use when you cast your magic. When you focus on filling the stone with your own myana, you’ll take what’s inside first before refilling it with yours. It’s going to feel weird, but don’t let it alarm you. That’s just the stone doing its job.”
Tristan frowned as he studied the topaz, but then his face lit in a grin. “Ahaaa, I get it. So, I drain your myana from the stone, which refills mine, then pour my myana into it. Rinse and repeat?”
Ravyn’s smile widened. He’ll make a good [Wizard].
“Good boy,” Ravyn said, tousling his hair as she passed him. Bally took flight once more, landing on his master’s shoulder as Destiny and Lara strode through the courtyard, making comments on the numerous benches, statues, and flora. It must have reminded them of Shi Island, as Ravyn recalled many of the yards bore similar appearances when they last visited. “Make me proud!”
“Thanks, Ravyn!” Tristan called back.
“Are you okay?” Bally whispered when the door shut behind them.
“I’m fine,” she lied. “He just reminds me a lot of Finn.”
Bally nodded sagely.
Ravyn sighed. “Let’s go pick up my clothes.”
After Ravyn finished her breakfast, she left the mansion before any of the attendants, Sophia, or her mother could say anything. An errand would help break up her thought process, and she desperately needed some time alone. Of course, that didn’t mean she’d be going anywhere without Bally. He went everywhere with her. He was her rock, the only one who saw her for who she truly was, good and bad.
He whistled from her shoulder as she strode through the streets. Residents, some of whom she recognized, would wave and bow to her on occasion but left her alone for the most part. Seemed most of them were still trying to figure out how they should react to her, or if she could be approached. Ravyn was sure that by now, most of Zhuli’s populace had heard that she was back, and that she assisted in destroying the Defiled that had been snatching up catgirls.
Periodically, she would hear hissed whispers while she passed.
“Why did Emberlynn let this go on for so long?”
“Just how many girls were killed?”
“Did she leave it for her daughter to take care of?”
“Unbelievable.”
She cursed under her breath, afraid that this may happen.
The Defiled’s existence and death had set many of Zhuli’s people on edge. They would need some kind of explanation from Emberlynn or at least from Ravyn. Ravyn knew that the people of Zhuli would likely see their inaction or unwillingness to discuss what happened as an admission of guilt.
Damn it, I hate this game.
Ravyn put the thought away as she entered Yukari’s shop. The blue-haired catgirl met her with a cocked brow and crossed arms.
“You at last arrive,” Yukari said. “I suppose you will be wanting your clothes back.”
“Yes, just give them to me and I’ll be on my way. I got shit to do.”
“Shit to do! Shit to do! Squawwwwk!”
Yukari glared at the bird, and Bally tucked his head beneath his wing. Few things frightened Bally, and it seemed that Yukari was one of them.
“One moment.” Yukari left through a santo door to her left, then appeared minutes later with the clothes. She set them on a counter to Ravyn’s left, then gestured to them. “There you are.”
“Great.” Ravyn moved to collect them, when Yukari refused to move her hand away from the pile. “Did you not hear me before?”
“You may have forgotten, so I’ll remind you. You owe me tea time.”
Damn it. “You also took longer than a day,” Ravyn countered. “I thought you were faster than that.” She tugged at the clothes, and Yukari’s grip tightened. “So let me have my clothes back.”
“Forgive me if I prioritized the orders of those who actually give a damn, and not the musings of a woman who hasn’t been back in years.” She slapped away Ravyn’s hand and snatched up the outfit, setting it behind her counter. “Tea time. Then you can have it back.”
Goodie. I can’t fucking wait.
