Chapter 192

The four of them caught each other up on their circumstances. It seemed Delta’s predicament had been the only serious problem they’d run into, and that had been solved in short order, thanks to the key Zoey and Maddy had found.

The chastity cage itself they stored away in their inventory. An artifact that reduced a wayfarer’s stats by half was definitely an interesting item—though, admittedly, considering how it had to be equipped, probably more of a novelty than anything. Zoey imagined Fe would love to get her hands on it for study. Sadly, she wouldn’t be headed to Mantle immediately; it might be some time before Zoey saw her again. If ever.

Like Zoey and Maddy, Rosalie and Delta’s bodysuits had been changing color as they progressed through the shard. They had discovered that combat fed the material, but not that lewd activities did the same. Which was fair, since without Zoey there, Rosalie and Delta had hardly needed to take ‘rest-stops’ every handful of encounters.

Their suits were roughly the same shade of gray as her and Maddy’s. As a party of two, Rosalie and Delta had been far more effective in combat, likely progressing far faster than Zoey and Maddy to begin with. But Delta’s mishap with the wall-pussy had slowed their progress down considerably, putting the bulk of the responsibility on Rosalie. Thus, the two teams were in roughly the same position when it came to suit progression.

Like them, Rosalie and Delta didn’t have many ideas about what the changing color of the suits meant. As Zoey and Maddy had concluded, they would simply figure it out when the time arrived.

After the team caught each other up, Rosalie requested a moment to speak to Zoey alone. That, of course, piqued her interest, since Zoey had no idea what they might need to talk about. Delta and Maddy were also obviously interested, but neither were nosy enough to press for details. So Rosalie pulled Zoey to the side, out of earshot of their two teammates.

For a moment, the platinum blonde studied Zoey, chewing her lip with indecision, as if she couldn’t quite force herself to get started. That doubled Zoey’s curiosity. And, admittedly, her concern.

“So?” Zoey prompted. “What is it?”

“I wanted to talk to you about this earlier,” Rosalie said, with a hint of reluctance. “Much earlier, in fact. And I’ve put it off too long. I would’ve told you when Lucinda found us, but I wanted a moment of privacy, which we haven’t had much of, considering everything that’s been happening the past few days.”

“Okay...?” Zoey asked, her concern growing proportionally with Rosalie’s reluctance. She could read it on Rosalie’s face: she was worried about how Zoey would react to whatever her announcement was.

“I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

“You haven’t?”

“Or rather, I’ve been omitting some important details. About...” Rosalie hesitated. “About who I am.”

“Who you are?”

Rosalie shifted from foot to foot, seeming uncomfortable. Her eyes didn’t quite meet Zoey’s. Whatever this was, Zoey could tell it was a big deal to her—which was probably why it had been so delayed in its arrival.

Seeing Rosalie squirm, Zoey couldn’t help herself: she took a step forward and grabbed both of Rosalie’s hands. She got her face in Rosalie’s vision, forcing their eyes to meet.

“Rosie,” Zoey said firmly. “There shouldn’t be anything you’re scared to tell me. It doesn’t matter what it is. We’ll face it together. I’m your girlfriend. That’s how it works.” She squeezed gently on her hands. “And nothing you can say will make me think less of you, if that’s what you’re worried about. You know that, right?”

For a moment, Rosalie met Zoey’s eyes. Then her cheeks colored and she glanced away. The reassurance didn’t seem to completely do the job.

“You shouldn’t say something like that so confidently,” Rosalie murmured. “You don’t even know what it is.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does,” Rosalie insisted, meeting her eyes again. “What if I was about to tell you—oh, I don’t know. That I was a member of the Talanak Clan? That my father was its leader?” She delivered the question like it was some devastating rebuttal.

Instead, Zoey asked, “What’s the Talanak Clan?”

“The—” Abruptly, the wind went out of her sails. Rosalie huffed loudly, annoyed that the point she’d been trying to make had been invalidated by Zoey’s lack of common knowledge. “They’re an infamous tribe of wandering cannibals. They prey on wayfarers between cities.”

“Oh,” Zoey said. “That’s, uh, interesting. Your family is a clan of cannibals?”

“I’m not really—” Rosalie started, then shook her head. “Ugh.”

Zoey, for her part, was just amused at the hypothetical. And pleased that she was breaking Rosalie out of her reluctant demeanor. Better to have her agitated than cagey and worried.

“The point is,” Rosalie emphasized, “you shouldn’t blindly make promises like that. That nothing I could say would change things between us.”

“I can if I mean them.”

“But it could,” Rosalie insisted.

“It couldn’t.”

“It doesn’t matter in the slightest what I’m about to tell you?”

“Only in that you think it matters,” Zoey said. “I won’t invalidate that. But can you say something that’ll make me think of you differently? Not a chance.”

Of course, in reality, there were plenty of things Rosalie could say that would be pretty concerning, and Zoey was laying it on a little thick, but Rosalie needed assurance right now, not pointlessly strict honesty.

Rosalie just huffed again. She studied Zoey, as if trying to think of a good argument against what she was saying—but then, instead, she deflated.

“You promise?” she asked quietly.

“I swear it.”

Rosalie sighed. “Do you remember when we registered at Treyhull’s Guild? I used a fake name.”

“Yeah.” Zoey did remember that. She’d noted it immediately.

“It was for a good reason.”

“I figured.”

“Because people might be looking for me. Or rather, my name would cause me ... us ... problems.”

“I see.”

Rosalie squirmed for a bit longer. “You’ve heard the name d’Celestin by now, haven’t you?”

“A ... few times,” Zoey said.

In the grand scheme of things, Zoey hadn’t been in this world all that long. But there were two names that came up more than any other: the d’Celestin family, and the Harrowgate family. The respective leaders of the Deepshunters and the Striders Highguilds. The two super-polities of this world, led by monstrously powerful wayfarers at their head.