With much on my mind, I make my way back home, curious as to just what Niamh has in store for me and, more importantly, Fox. I asked around for Sue-Zee on my way to the woods, but nobody has seen them around since they sped through town blisteringly fast just after we’d left for Subterfuge apparently. I’ll have to see if I can hopefully catch them tonight or tomorrow…

Regardless of everything going on inside and out of my head, I’m glad to be home, throwing open the door and finding Niamh and Fox seated at the dining table, along with...a third…

“Oh, finally,” they exclaim, their jelly-like lower half stretching out two tendrils the same way one would throw their hands up in a fit. “Your better truth goddess disappears and ooo, oo now you need Thmei’s help, now Thmei is good enough of a truth goddess. And then you make Thmei wait! For what! The girl’s right here, Thmei can do Thmei’s job, but nooooo, make Thmei wait for the wife who isn’t even involved, THEN Thmei can work! UGH!!”

The entire time this odd little thing is going off like…

“No pronouns. Just Thmei,” Niamh says as I point to Thmei inquisitively. 

Well then. The entire time this odd little thing is going off like Thmei is making a callout post on everyone in the room, all I can do is appreciate what a sight Thmei is. Something of a bedsheet ghost looking thing mixed with a slime person, in the sense that Thmei’s body looks to be made of cloth, but moves like jello. I mentioned a lower half before, but...Thmei is all lower half basically. There’s the puddle that Thmei’s cloth pools into, and almost a chest and shoulders before rising up to a neck and head adorned with feathers where ears should be and a long mop of silky black hair. Thmei does have a very pretty eye, but only one, and underneath the cloth-like jelly, I can see an ankh floating around in the center of Thmei.

“What are you doing in my house.”

Finally, Thmei stops talking, looking at me, then gesturing to Niamh angrily with Thmei’s spooky little ghost hands.

“Dearest Thottiest Niamh here called Thmei, Goddess of Truth, to come and...appraise your furry little thingie right here.”

“My girlfriend?”

“Quite so. Glad you’re observant.”

This snot rag is already getting on my nerves.

“Now, as Thmei has been told and can quite clearly see, the thing is suffering from cognitive dissonance to a huge degree.”

Raising an eyebrow at Thmei, then to Niamh, the snake sighs and shrugs.

“Thmei is, indeed, a goddess of truth, though not in the same vein as Yom. Yom is a goddess of shade, Thmei is simply Radiant.”

“S-simply?! Oh! Ohh!! Rue me! Rue me, you pestuous serpent!” Thmei shouts before pulling the ankh out of Thmei’s body and trying to whap Niamh with it, though, she simply holds her wing up between her and the tissue and it thwaps against her feathers harmlessly again and again.

“Yes, Yomboila reveals one’s true self and has a sense for truth in a more...abstract form. Thmei’s is more literal. This goddess can extract intent and meaning from anything with a will of its own, even truths deeper than surface thoughts.”

“Quite so, locust licker!” Thmei says with a final whap to Niamh’s wing, bringing the towel back over to Fox.

“Now, bring your head closer, little thing, Thmei needs look deeper.”

Fox looks at me with an understandable amount of concern, but glancing over at a nodding Niamh, she obeys, leaning in and--

GONG.

“What the fuck?! You gong’d my wife!”

While Fox sees stars, wobbling back and forth in her chair after being whacked in the head with an ankh, Thmei looks to me with a hmph.

“And how else should Thmei do Thmei’s job?”

“Less violently perhaps???”

Thmei tsks and shakes Thmei’s head at me. Oh I’m gonna put this thing in the fuckin’ wash and hang Thmei up to dry.

“Regardless of such trivialities, Thmei is scrying.”

Thmei’s single eye goes blank, clear, and reflective, like a mirror, yet it reflects nothing out of it. The goddess sits there for a moment, enough time for Fox to come back to her senses, before Thmei’s eye returns to normal, and Themi unfortunately begins to speak again.

“Aha, Thmei can see it, Thmei has great wisdom and can see it…”

“For the sake of every thread you’re woven out of, you better hope at least one of those statements is true.”

Thmei ignores my comment, however, clearing Thmei’s throat and absorbing the ankh back into Thmei’s cloth body.

“The things appear to be stuck on a memory of the void. Niamh, dearest sluttiest, you will need to take the things to Thmei’s world and let them face the big void thing alone.”

“...Wait, you can’t really be saying what I think you’re saying?!”

“Hmhmhm~!” goes the snobby snot rag. “Much more keen than other cats Thmei knows. Thmei’s job is done here! Ta-ta, flesh things!”

Just like that, Thmei begins to absorb Thmei’s body into the hole of the ankh inside of Thmei, leaving the golden trinket to clatter atop the table, and us with the knowledge of where Fox has to go.

 

“She has to face Azathoth again…” I mutter, staring through the table, then to Niamh, and Fox after that, nobody in the room too pleased with what we’re hearing. “Th-that can’t be right, right…? NONE of that sounds like a good idea!”

Niamh sighs, leaning back in her chair while Fox peeks over the edge of the table fearfully.

“Looney as Thmei is,” Niamh begins, hands being dragged down her face, “I know we can trust Thmei. Thmei loves being helpful too much to ever mislead us, and having seen Thmei’s work in action, I don’t have a reason to doubt Thmei.”

Elbows on the table and paws to my temples, my face scrunches up in frustration, Niamh in the meantime picking up Thmei’s ankh and stuffing it into her cleavage. A moment later, I feel something nudging at my leg, looking down to find Fox looking up at me with concern. I reach down and pull her into my lap, stroking the fur on her back.

“I’m sorry, Fox...I…I wish I could help somehow…”

The girl shoves her muzzle into the crook between my head and shoulder, making it clear by the way the tension in her body disperses that this, as little as it is, helps. Niamh gives us a moment together before waving a hand to catch my attention.

“Could you bring the poor thing over here for a moment?”

Nodding, I cradle Fox in one arm and pull my chair closer to Niamh’s with the other, the serpent reaching over and feeling over Fox’s scarf with both hands.

“Forgive me, it’s been a long time since I’d last done this.”

Tilting my head at her, my questions only multiply as the snake’s eyes begin to faintly glow, her entire form beginning to shiver like a mirage and the sound of distant winds surround her. Niamh takes a deep breath before the scarf takes on a similar illusory appearance, the sound of howling gales building before being cut off abruptly as though a door had been shut. The serpent woman exhales as all seems to return to normal on the surface.

“Hoo...Kitten, do be a darling and tell Fox that her scarf should allow her to jump between our two worlds. I’m afraid I’ll be out of commission when it comes to fighting for a time, but not too long thankfully.”

Nodding and relaying the information to Fox, I receive a nod in return from both Fox and Niamh, the latter standing up and slithering over to the couch to lay down.

“So you enchanted it? I’d figured it was already an artifact of some kind considering the circumstances we found it.”

“Oh, no no,” she says, waving her hand limply at me as she holds it over her resting form. “It was just a normal scarf. Or, at least, it was when we found it. If I had to imagine, it was either the necklace you found on it that got Fox the way she is, or Yom had left it as a means of accepting her gift, unlocking something in the girl rather than actively changing her.”

“Hmm…”

I get up and lean against the wall next to the couch, glancing out the window with Fox.

“So...the plan is to bring her to wherever Azathoth is, leave her to her own devices, and if all goes well, she can jump right back here afterwards?”

“That’s the idea, darling,” the snake answers, sounding utterly exhausted with her arm draped over her three eyes. “She should even be able to jump straight to you thanks to your phone.”

“Okay...so what happens between step two and three?”

The three of us remain silent, all equally unsure of where to go from there. How could this even help? Her Shadow does look similar to Azathoth, but I figured that was just a coincidence.

“...I think that’s for Fox to figure out when the time comes, love.”

Niamh moves her arm and smiles up at me, somehow able to retain that serpentine confidence with her even now of all times.

“And I think we should trust Fox and her Shadow to do right by each other in that moment. Have some faith in the girls, they’ve made it this far, haven’t they?”

While I’m hesitant to leave Fox with either monstrosity...when it comes to physical danger, her Shadow has come through in protecting her like she said she would. Ugh, I hate that it’s come to this at all, but Niamh is right. I’m sure if anybody understands why it is this way, it’s Fox and her Shadow.

“Yeah...yeah, I know. I doubt you’re in any shape to help her find Azathoth right now, so…”

“Yes, yes, woe is me in such a pitious state~” Niamh wails, pulling out her phone in the same motion she expresses her sarcastic melodramaticism. “Go on. Do what you must before that time comes. I will ask around if the mutt has been spotted anywhere in the meanwhile.”

Smiling down at her, I give the snake’s tail a pat before setting my partner down.

“Thanks, Nia. Get some rest while you’re at it, ‘kay?”

“Oh, my, she does care~”

I whap my tail against hers, hearing her giggle and chuckling back myself as I return to my room with Fox in tow.

 

Fox and I spend some much needed time to ourselves once I’ve changed into something more comfortable, cuddling up with Fox and reading as we lay back in bed together, though, at some point we get up, the fox getting antsy in her need to play. Thankfully, we’re both very well entertained once I tear a blank page out of my sketchbook and crumple it into a ball, using that to play some floor hockey with my partner. The moment I toss it over to Fox and she bats it back at me, I can feel the cat part of my brain activate, swatting the ball of paper back at her, easily amusing the two of us for a good amount of time until I find myself laying on my back, lackadaisically batting the ball back at Fox before noticing how dark it is outside. Eugh. I hate how fast the sun drops around this time of year. Taking that as my cue to start heading out, I stand up, slip on my coat and motion for Fox to come along, passing by a dozing Niamh on the way out.

I feel bad that it’s taken me this long to get to this, especially since I’ve not really been using the light of Yom’s necklace much at all. Ah well. Better late than never, I suppose.

Moseying on into town, I feel a wave of nostalgia overcome me seeing Aspen Town at night, not because I’ve been out here much myself, quite the contrary. It reminds me of those many nights in Railsent, darting out of town in the dark of night and jumping from heist to heist as we had been for so long prior. It was far from the best of times...in fact, it was downright awful most of the time, but it was still a simpler time, just me and Fox, taking on the world in the only way we knew how. Dipping into an alleyway real quick, Fox lands next to me after a swift leap from atop the rooftops, prompting me to bend down and pet her.

“Hey…” I start, using a hushed tone I haven’t needed to speak in for quite some time, “After all of this has blown over and we settle into the new normal...what’dya say we dip out of town for a bit and find a cozy looking manor to ransack?”

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Fox brighten up like this, grinning and nodding enthusiastically, tail swishing and paws bouncing with delight at the proposition.

“I hope y’ain’t planning on replacing me any time soon.”

My fur bristles for a moment before I roll my eyes at the “new” voice, turning to find the very shadows of the alley grinning back at me from his sharp beak.

“Don’t you have anything better to do than follow girls around all day? Don’t tell me the rat sent you again.”

Jay laughs stupidly as he steps out of the depth of the shade, turning and leaning his back against a wall where he’s much more visible.

“Nah, I’m here cuz I wanna be. Sad to say, Liz hasn’t needed me nearly as much as she used to, now that she can send her rats wherever she needs eyes.”

Oh, poor guy. Although…

“You don’t seem too broken up about that.”

“Are you kiddin’ me? Ain’t like that’s my main method of pay. I can scavenge for shit to sell even better like this. Nah, I’ve got more free time than ever these days.”

“Heh. It shows.”

“Sheesh,” the bluejay says, smirking and holding up the ends of his wings defensively, “And here I thought there was something starting to bud between us.”

“Ahh, cut it out, bluebird,” I jeer with a grin. “So what does bring you here, if not the Rat Queen?”

“Ehhh. Maybe I’m just getting used to this place,” he answers, crossing his wings and glancing towards the entrance of the alleyway with a smile. “The Rat Den is a free living space, but this feels like a direct upgrade in a lot of ways.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I wouldn’t mind seeing your ugly mug around these parts a little more often.”

The bird chuckles softly to himself, shaking his head.

“Just as I thought you were starting to harden under all this pressure, you turn out to be as soft as ever.”

“I was holding myself back before,” I say in my defense, catching Fox as she leaps into my arms. “Felt like I had to be meek and shy, lest I stop being a ‘real woman’ or some bullcrap like that. Now, I get to choose when I’m soft and who I’m soft to.”

“Seems like a lot of women would prefer you hard to soft these days, maybe you should give ‘em what they want.”

“Asshole, I’m tryna be soft with you!”

I give Jay a light punch to the shoulder, remembering just how strong I am this time as we laugh at one another.

“Get outta here, birdbrain. You know there’s no other idiot we’d let handle our spoils.”

“As you wish, fur ball! I’ll keep ya to that!”

We each part ways, Jay diving back into the shadows, and me into the light of the streetlamps, tossing Fox back up to the rooftops before making my way to Reed’s to meet Jasper.

 

Fox

 

Perched atop the edge of Reed’s roof, I watch Cat walk into the building and sigh, resigning myself to another lonely moment, eagerly awaiting her return.

What, can’t do anything without her?

I-I absolutely can! Just because I like doing everything with her doesn’t mean I’m completely bound to her. It’s called liking someone, in case you’re not familiar with the concept.

...I like people. Just not her.

Oh yeah? Like who?

The duo. They’re admirable. I’m sure they’d understand my plight could I communicate it.

Your plight? You do know we’re both stuck like this, right?

...You still don’t understand, do you.

I don’t! Why do you have to be so hostile all the time…?

Why do you still demonize me?

I-I’m not, I promise! I’m just…

...Stuck.

I don’t know what to do...I mean, we kind of do now, but...I’m not happy about it.

What would make you happy then? To not have to? To be rid of me without conflict?

Hey, I don’t want you gone…!

But you’d be happier if I weren’t here.

…

Do you see what I mean? You don’t have to hate me for me to feel unwelcome.

...So how do we change that?

What?

If I can make you feel more welcome...then you’ll be less hostile, right?

I can’t guarantee that.

An exhausted sigh escapes my small frame, bringing me to my feet as I begin to skip atop the roofs of Aspen Town, cloaked in the night’s shadow. I think we both have something to work on if that’s the case…

And what do you plan on doing about it?

I’m going to prepare. We are going to prepare. We can’t continue like this with our hearts at odds...we have to do this together. So...let’s approach someone we feel similarly about.

...Oh for the love of god, do NOT bring us to--

It’s not long before my paws are scampering atop the roof of Coyotl’s abode.