Valkyrie sat at the small table in her apartment and stared out over the roofs of the buildings around her to the expanse of the sluggish Shefsby River meandering through its ancient banks beneath the glowering sky.

“Coquettishly shaved, deliciously trimmed, or delightfully hirsute?” Stella asked, prancing from the small bathroom to stand naked, hands on her hips a short distance from the table Valkyrie sat at.

“I don’t care,” Valkyrie muttered, taking a deep draught out of the bottle of whiskey on the table in front of her, eyes locked on the glinting water in the distance. It was always the same, Valkyrie scowled, her mind playing over the events in the alley. She thought she’d get used to it someday. She thought she’d feel the thrill so many of the Inquisitors felt when their prey fell, but she felt nothing but guilt, horror, and self loathing.

That woman had a family. Mother, father, possibly siblings. Maybe she was even a mother herself. “Doing my duty” no longer assuaged the disgust she felt. “It was them or me” no longer let her pretend to be able to wash the blood from her hands. It was supposed to get easier. It was supposed to become simpler. Kill of be killed. Instead, each death weighed more heavily on her than the previous.

Maybe she simply lacked conviction. Everyone in the Corps knew she was not an adherent of the Archon. If not for her sister, she would have long ago left Bastion for anywhere else. Maybe to take some of the money she’d saved and start an inn in Wrensea or Belves or Catoise. It was for that precise reason the Archon had sold her sister to that piece of shit noble in Crowfall.

Valkyrie’s continuing good behavior and subservience assured Nat would stay out of the battery. Her prowess and efficiency assured her sister would stay her sister rather than turn into some broken caricature of herself.

Valkyrie couldn’t be sure but when she was last in Crowfall her sister had seemed off. Skittish. Frightened. Nat wouldn’t say anything, but Valkyrie has her suspicions the Archon had betrayed her. Of course, that in and of itself was nothing new. The Archon’s word couldn’t necessarily be trusted. She was a shameless opportunist who kept her word when it suited her needs. Valkyrie knew her presence served the Archon’s needs and counted on that.

But what if the noble had betrayed the Archon? It seemed unlikely, but people did stupid things when they found something pretty, they wanted to exploit, and Nat was definitely pretty.

Or as was more likely, the Archon felt there was little need to adhere to the deal as struck. Maybe she felt Valkyrie was leashed tightly enough she could let the little Lordling have a bit of sport without strapping Nat into the battery itself. A way to keep the deal in name only, but also buy the noble’s undying loyalty.

Whatever the actual situation was, Valkyrie was quickly running up against the limits of what she could take. Each death pushed her closer to the edge and soon enough something had to break.

“Hello!” Valkyrie caught the movement of Stella’s hand in the corner of her eye and turned to stare at her impassively, her stormy silver eyes passing over the smaller girl’s nudity curiously. “Are you listening to me?”

“No,” Valkyrie replied evenly. “Why are you naked?”

“If you’d been listening, you’d know that I’m trying to decide on my downstairs wallpaper. What do you think? Free the lips? Leave the jungle sultry and full, or some tasteful hedge trimming?” Stella turned from side to side as she spoke to better focus the lamplight on the apex of her thighs.

“I don’t care, and neither should you,” Valkyrie scowled. “Aren’t you and Nat dating? She’s not dead, you know.”

“No,” Stella seemed suddenly crestfallen. “We’re not dating. I…she said ‘no’.”

“Ah, sorry,” Valkyrie muttered.

“It’s fine,” Stella waved her hand dismissively. “She said it wasn’t the time for us and, I guess she’s right. She’s…” Stella trailed off, her shoulders slumping and the playfulness of a moment before suddenly gone. “Anyway! I wasn’t going to go crawling for a fuck or anything. I just wanted to get your opinion on…things, I guess.” Stella shook her head.

Valkyrie recognized the look on the smaller girl’s face well. That same look had been on her own face when she’d been with Astrid. Stella wanted someone, anyone to pay attention to her. Someone to care whether she shaved her pubic hair or not.

“Hmmm,” Valkyrie took another drink of whiskey and leaned back slightly. Stella had a great body. Despite her small stature her breasts were heavy and large with erect pink nipples stretched taut on her creamy skin. Her hips flared seductively to muscular thighs. Her sister was passing on quite the tasty treat if Valkyrie was honest. She certainly saw why Nat was doing so, though, given everything going on. “I say you trim a bit. Not too much.”

“Yes!” Stella grinned. “I thought so, too!” Stella’s grin widened and the look of desperate loneliness was quickly replaced by the more natural look of bratty teasing as she turned back toward the bathroom door.

“Fuck,” Valkyrie growled. “You’re going to have to get dressed and trim later.”

“Hmm?” Stella turned back toward her curiously.

“We’re about to be summoned to the tower,” Valkyrie took another drink of whiskey before standing up, swaying momentarily as the alcohol rushed to her head dizzyingly.

“What do you mean?” Stella’s bratty confidence melted away instantly, replaced by unadulterated fear. “Eep!” She squeaked as the door rattled in its hinges from the sharp knock.

“Get dressed,” Valkyrie said, pulling her jacket over her shoulders. Stella nodded quickly and retreated to the bathroom. The knock cracked against the door again and Valkyrie scowled, stepping across the space quickly and pulling the door open abruptly.

“I am here- “the man began, the smirk on his face instantly infuriating the Condenser.

“Do you have any idea who I am?” Valkyrie snarled and the man blanched. “Wipe that fucking look off your face before I do it for you.”

“B-But I- “he stammered, suddenly caught off balance.

“Shut the fuck up. We’ll go when we’re ready,” Valkyrie’s scowl cowed the man completely.

“Y-Yes ma’am,” he whispered quietly.