Lament of the Traitor King (Complete)

Chapter 34 - Always and Never

The sound of a milkshake machine roaring to life in the back of the restaurant made Netta jump in her seat.

"You alright?" Calliope asked in a tired voice. When Netta assured her that she was, the woman continued with their maligned line of conversation. "If I had known that at least one of our own was involved, I would not have had those Witches see it. We're lucky that Arabella hid her energy signatures that would trace back to us when she did that."

Ash spoke up then, from where he sat in the seat next to Netta with his arms crossed. "Not that her bent for bestiality is hard to miss, I must say."

Goddess above, they're both acting as though what we all witnessed was nothing. Not the death of some innocent girl.

Calliope said, "This is all bad. Very bad stuff." she closed her eyes and took her thick-lensed glasses off, massaging her eyes. "I don't rightly know what any of this might mean - why one of our own would want to kill that poor girl -"

It was then that the waiter who had been hesitant to bring their food approached. "Alright, we got - a cheeseburger," he put that plate in front of Calliope. "-a BLT -" he placed that plate in front of Netta and then turned away, in a hurry to get back to his earlier conversation.

Netta turned to watch the waiter as he walked away, recalling a time when she wore a similar uniform.

Is this better than that life had been for me? Netta watched as the man returned, gossiping with the other workers on the other side of the nearly empty restaurant.

Netta had never fit into either world well, could not recall a truly lasting friendship with a Human.

Except for Wallace.

Netta forced herself to not think of the poor Human man. The only comfort in that respect was that surely by this point the man had cut his losses. He certainly was not the type of person who would go hunting for her. No, he had not loved her, not like -

Calliope returned Netta's attention back to their conversation, saying, "Based on what already happened with the deceased Xi, I think that we can correctly infer that this all involves our Sisters to some great degree." She propped her elbow on the table, holding her chin up.

"What gave you that impression?" Ash asked.

Netta said. "I just want to know why this is happening. Are you sure that you don't know where the rest are?"

Calliope gave her a sad smile before she took a bite of her hamburger. "I'm afraid not," she said, her voice muffled by the bite of food.

Ash turned to Netta, his elbow resting on the table so that he was turned towards her directly.

"Lovely, if she was involved, do you think that she would tell you what she knew?"

As though guessing at Ash's line of accusation, Calliope snapped, "I'm most certainly not involved with whatever this nasty business is. My days of running amok with magic have long passed," she turned to Netta, still finishing chewing her first bite of food. "Which is why it's fallen on you to find out what's happening, exactly how many of us are involved in whatever this madness is."

Netta didn't say anything and didn't look at either of them. Finally, Ash shook her, the feel of his hand on her shoulder bringing back suddenly the inappropriate memory of the night before.

Shaking herself out of her reverie, Netta said, "There's only one place that I know they would be gathering."

Calliope nodded sagely. "The only question is - how do you want to proceed?"