Lament of the Traitor King (Complete)

Chapter 29 - Communication Breakdown

The women waited outside of the kitchen as Netta and Calliope spoke alone. With the door to the cozy room shut, Calliope turned to look at the younger Witch.

Netta tried to pretend that she was interested in finding something in the fridge to eat. She took the brief silence to look in the packed space of the fridge, trying to decide what she should say.

She was saved from finding a way to say what something first when Calliope slammed the fridge door, forcing her to back away from it. Glancing to the right, she found the Witch standing there, her face a grim mask.

"Do you mind to tell me what this one is?"

Netta felt her mouth open. Before she could think of what she was going to say, Ash answered from the opposite side of the room, his face twisted in an insincere smile. "Funny question - I haven't quite got that one decided myself."

Netta closed her eyes, then tried to find some aspect of calm to work from.

Finally, she answered, "Ashwood is an Incubi, remember? We spoke about this-"

Calliope interrupted, saying, "-and you said that It had died from the exertion of cutting the Kinslayer's Curse at its feet." She shook her head disapprovingly. "I only hope that you haven't... copulated with It more than what was necessary." The way that Calliope said "copulate" made it sound to Netta as though the term referred to something foul and ethically corrupt.

For a moment, the way that she said it made Netta think, shamefully, of how her guts felt as though they were twisting in need at the thought of such actions.

Ash spoke up, Its voice a bored drawl. "That depends on what you would want to call neccesary." When Netta turned to look at Ash, she saw the Monster chuckle, rubbing Its thumb along the rightmost bulb of Its nose. "Seeing as how she's my Witch now, I believe that all of this is our personal business." In spite of the supposed good cheer of Its voice, there was a quiet warning to it.

It chilled Netta to hear it, and she had to look away from that flat, bright quality that Its purple eyes had taken on.

Calliope asked Netta what the Monster had said, and before Netta could decide what was best left out, she shared what It said.

When Calliope spoke, her voice rose in annoyance.

"Listen here, creature, you need to be aware of the fact that we - none of us - will abide your attitude once everything is back to normal -" she paused, and Netta saw the way that the older woman's eyes darted over to her before she added, "relatively speaking."

Netta spoke then, thoroughly tired of the both of them. "Can't we worry about this later, possibly? Not that I'm not excited to discuss the future of my intimate life with the either of you, but I think we have other things to worry about."

Calliope blinked, then sighed. "About that - we need to talk about something else as well."

Uh-oh. "What's it about?"

"I've been doing some research - through some of the secret channels. It turns out that we're not the only ones experiencing some... bizarre phenomena."

Ash spoke then, Its voice a sharp cut. "If by "strange phenomena", you mean Witches acting nuts, then I suppose that can be construed as some sort of phenomenon."

Calliope spoke to Netta, saying. "Dear, I don't know how to say this - there've been a string of murders - well, unfortunate accidents that seem to be more than a little bit unfortunate."

Netta stared for a moment at Calliope, staring at her for so long that it seemed as though her face lost its detail. She more felt herself say it than was aware of saying, "What do you mean? To Humans?"