The young girl stretched a little as she set down the letter. It was from her father, she didn’t see him all that often these days. She loved her father and his visits were always nice, but she also had a lot of fun when he wasn’t around. As for her mother, she hadn’t seen her in years.

A moment later the door opened and a familiar figure stepped into the room, along with a young man she had seen outside the window the other day. He’d been abusing some poor woman, a beastkin girl with a slave collar, but that did not make his actions right.

At the moment the bastard man looked a little dazed as he was led in by a dog-eared woman. She was adorable with large fluffy ears and a long mop of brown hair with a light red tinge. The woman was cute, dressed in a rather skimpy top that barely covered her breasts and was paired with some torn shorts. Behind her a long fluffy tail was eagerly waging. Yet only for a moment, this was her sitter and she was a bit of a shapeshifter. That and a predator. Her current shape was one she often wore in public and was the one she always used in front of Dad.

Her sitter’s form shifted a bit, as her lower half morphed into a mass of fluffy tentacles as she tossed her short pants onto the back of a chair. She smiled, “Dear could you get my kitchen ready?”

“Sure, will!” she replied happily as she hopped to her feet. Their home was a modest affair, but the sitter had made an addition with a special kitchen in the basement. One that daddy thankfully wasn’t aware of. The young girl just didn’t want him asking questions and knew he wouldn’t let her do some of the things she did, if he was around more often.

As she opened the hidden door, her sitter noticed the letter, “Oh? A new letter from your dad?”

“Yep. He was telling me all about his recent adventure in Telka.”

“Right, he got sent out by the guild on a training mission with a bunch of idiots. Are they still causing trouble?”

“Seems like it.”

“Well in that case they are likely to keep him busy for a while.”

She nodded, “Very busy if those previous morons were any indication.”

As they dragged her sitter’s latest victim down the stairs, her sitter told her, “I heard something interesting happened at the temple. It’s all over the town. Some princess just appeared in front of the temple gate. All alone too.”

“Oh? Are you interested in the gossip?”

“Well I’ve always wanted to meet a princess and sometimes the gossip is good information.”

“I guess,” she replied as the door sealed behind them. They descended the steps into her sitter’s den. She couldn’t help but smile as she considered the fun that awaited them.

The priest sighed as he walked down the temple path. Last night’s meeting was long and still on his mind. They had reports of a child eating serpent at Union Point and the others wanted to do a big fat nothing about it. They weren’t going to lift a finger or even send a single soldier to deal with it. There were plenty of elites with the level and skill to eliminate one, but the cost of the charms needed to protect against a serpent’s mind powers were not in the budget so they were going to do nothing. He felt sorry for all the poor kids that were going to be eaten because of that.

They weren’t the only ones he felt sorry for, he knew there was a real problem with Atarli in the kingdom, which were well known for their habit of cultivating young girls so they could eat their brains. Worse, he knew a couple were in the capital but the church wasn’t going to bother with them as long as they only attacked girls. In fact there was one here in the temple, he knew it, but wasn’t allowed to say a word or even do anything about it. Sometimes he wondered why he even joined the church, but he knew why. It had been better back then. Part of him wondered what it would take to set things back on course. Make the church a better place, one that actually cared for the people. One that would be willing to halt the rot that was being spread by all these monsters and terrible Abyssals. Likely nothing short of godly fire, but one never knew for sure what the future held.

Reaching a door, he knocked. Only to receive no reply, he sighed. He knew the princess was in here, but the lack of a reply was worrying. Hoping that nothing untoward had happened, he entered the room: unlocking the door and slipping inside in one smooth motion. The front room was empty, the bed was cleanly made and nothing out of place, but he saw a figure out in the sun on the balcony. He drew closer and for a moment paused when he made out the young and rather... naked features of the princess as she reclined in the sunlight. Bright red he turned around, “Sorry I didn’t mean to...”

She giggled, “It’s not that big of a deal. Anyway, what brought you here?”

“Well I was checking in to see how you were doing. Is there a reason you are lying naked on the balcony?”

“Just enjoying the sun. The morning rays are quite energizing.”

“Oh? You part lizard or something? I know that lizard-kin love to sunbathe.”

“Hmm, I guess but I am more closely related to a dragon than a lizard.”

He scoffed, that didn’t seem likely. “Sure, I’ll believe that when the moons don’t rise at night and the sun doesn’t bless the land during the day. Anyway, I do have time and seeing as your guardian isn’t here yet, would you...”

“I was hoping to see the town and a guide would be welcome?”

“Hmm, the town? I guess it might be alright, I’ll have to get a few more guards than I was planning though?”

“Surely it isn’t that dangerous? Besides, I can take care of myself.”

“Perhaps, but your safety is important. Also there has been a number of disappearances in town of late. Some of them are rather high level, the church is most concerned but trying to keep it out of the public eye. A panic is not desirable.”

“Hmm I understand, disappearances you say? That’s concerning.”

“Very, thankfully it seems mostly men are vanishing, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

“I see. Mostly men? Do you have any leads on...”

“It’s nothing for you to worry about, the temple already has a good idea on who is behind it. It’s only a matter of time before they find them,” he sighed, “Although I wish they would take some of the other issues more seriously.”

“What issues?”

“I pray you never have to find out. Now are you dressed, yet. I don’t have all day.”

Xiri stretched a little. Her brain throbbed like it always did after Mistress harvested some of her tissue. She lay there a moment before moving, glancing to the side she noticed her brain was still out. A spike embedded in the vulnerable flesh, keeping it securely in place as it sat in a bowl of darkly colored fluids. She smiled, Mistress often did this to help hydrate her brain tissue after it’d been left out of her skull for a while. Although Xiri knew she usually didn’t start until the tissue was sufficiently dry.

For a moment or two she just looked at her brain sitting in the bowl with the hollow spike keeping it in place. In the past she wouldn’t have even touched her brain while it had been spiked. Nowadays she knew it was okay. Carefully she reached into the bowl and removed her brain. The spike hurt a bit coming out, it always did. Turning her brain over, she placed it down on an empty plate nearby, and secured it. Taking a look at the freshly opened wound for only a moment before she proceeded to pick up the other bowl and pour the fluid in it into the wound in her brain. Just as Mistress would have done before placing it back into her head if she was here right now, but Mistress wasn’t in the room. So she took care of it herself, but left her brain to hang out.

Done with that, she walked away from the bed, and headed into a neighboring room to take care of her morning business, before going off to find Mistress. She knew she had to go work for Princess Milith soon, but the young girl also had a fairly good idea of where Mistress had gone.

It didn’t take her long to find Mistress's conduit in a back room and she passed through. She arrived in a space isolated from the realm, what Mistress referred to as the lab. Not that Mistress did much research these days.

Almost as soon as she entered, she was noticed, “Awake already Xiri?”

She nodded, and showed Mistress her brain.

Her Mistress smiled, “I see you did a good job dosing yourself up. Feeling any effects?”

She shook her head. As Xiri honestly felt normal, but she guessed today’s fluid wasn’t the usual stuff.

Her Mistress proceeded to help her get her brain back into her head, “Well I wasn’t expecting anything, yet. Just tell me if you start feeling weird.”

She nodded, “Experimenting on my brain again?”

“Not exactly, I’m doing something else, but it’s going to have a few side effects.”

“I understand,” said Xiri she knew well enough not to ask what those effects would be or the purpose. Mistress would tell her when she needed to know and not before.

“Before you go hurrying to your new Princess, why don’t you see your mother?”

She blinked, “Oh? Did she come in during the night?”

Mistress nodded and led her into one of the other chambers, where Mistress would examine the pregnant women she brought in, like her mother. Her mom being pregnant was her Mistress’s primary interest in her. 

Inside, she found her mother looking quite dazed as she always was in Mistress’s presence. Mostly to keep her from noticing things she wasn’t meant to know. Xiri walked over, gave her a hug, and then glanced at her naked exposed belly. Mistress had peeled it open to expose the womb and had several devices attached. Xiri didn’t know their purpose, but this wasn’t the first time she had seen something being done to her mother’s swollen womb.

“So how are my future sisters doing?”

The Mistress smiled and stroked the exposed womb, “Wonderfully, I was just getting them ready for a temporary removal.”

Xiri had seen the procedure before. Her sisters had looked so strange, but Mistress said it was normal at that age. “Oh? How long are they going to be out this time?”

“Most of the day, I need to keep them for a special procedure. I’ll send your mother up without them as soon as I have them out. I’ll need her back in the evening to restore them to her womb.”

“Of course, I’ll make sure she is on time then,” said Xiri, not bothering to ask what the procedure was. If it was anything like the last one, they would be bigger when Mistress was ready to put them back in her mother’s womb.

“Well you better get going, no need for you to be late.”

She smiled, nodded and ran to get to her new post. She arrived to find the Princess with the kind priest. The two of them were preparing for a trip on the town.