When Ashleigh awoke, it was to a woman in the uniform of the city guards murmuring an intation. She was healing Ashleigh from outside her cell. As the orc took stock of her situation, she felt enormous amounts of pain c through her body. It felt like she'd been crushed by a boulder. She groaned as she felt bones in her feet snapping bato pce.

  Despite the severity of her injuries, the healing process only took a few seds. She went from unbearable agony to feeling as fit as ever in a shog amount of time.

  "Gods, why are you a city guard with healing that powerful?" She asked the woman who'd healed her, the both of them rising to their full height again.

  "I'm not a particurly powerful healer, ma'am." The guard responded quietly. "Your health pool only seemed to be missing a few points."

  "Are you an imbecile?" Ashleigh snorted. "I felt like I was about to pass over to the other side. There's no way I was only missing a few points of health."

  "As you say, ma'am." The guard responded, not even trying tue with her before scampering off.

  "Idiot woman." Ashleigh muttered, examining her now-fwless flesh. "She must have healed most of my injuries when I was still out."

  "She didn't." A familiar voice echoed from across the hall. Ashleigh looked up and her eyes narrowed to slits. Sitting in another cell across the hall was the halfling troller who had frozen and theen her until she passed out. "She barely started when you woke up."

  "You just wait until I get out of here, you little bitch. Yoing to pay for what you did to me."

  "I doubt it." Twil respoly. "We have five wito your crimes, along with the pity of the guards who saw us bring you in."

  Ashleigh ughed. "You think this is the first time I've been arrested for this? Even with witnesses, nothing you have is going to stick, whereas they've certainly arrested you because you already fessed to beating me half to death."

  "I suppose we'll see." The mage said, refusing to rise to Ashleigh's bait.

  Ashleigh scoffed and id on the hard bed the cell rovided with. She closed her eyes and opened her menus. She went directly to her messages, where something stopped her heart.

  You have been afflicted with a Curse of Aphrodite!

  You have been afflicted with a Curse of Akeso!

  You have been afflicted with a Curse of Nemesis!

  Ashleigh went to her skills, dread building in her gut.

  Bulwark's Stability

  You are less likely to be moved against your will.ce to resist movement scales with your Fortitude.

  Bulwark's Might

  Increase your strength by 10% of your Fortitude, rounded down.

  Heavy Blows

  Your melee attacks are amplified by 0.01% per point of Fortitude.

  Immovable Object

  You activate this skill to bee immuo damagefor two seds. Once used, ot be used again forthree days. Must be wielding a shield.

  Feat of Subjugation

  You have quered many through your own sexualdomination. For each person you inseminate, yourpenis will grer.

  Font of Fortitude

  Increase your Fortitude by 1 for every 10 foesyou defeat.

  Burst of Defense

  Activate this skill to double your Fortitude fortwo minutes.

  Bulwark's Fortification

  Increase your Fortitude by 20.

  Thorns

  While wearing medium or heavy armor, eake 5% of the damage they inflict upon you.

  Superfluous Stoutness

  If an attack against you fails to deal at least5% of your health, reduce the damagefrom that attack to 0.

  Anti-Magic Shield

  Increase your Resistance by 50% of your Fortitude,rounded down. Must be wielding a shield.

  Heavy Armor Mastery

  While wearing heavy armor, increase your Fortitude by 10%, rounded down. Heavy armorno longer weighs anything while you arewearing it, and it no longer inhibitsyour movements.

  Aphrodite's Disdain

  You have offehe goddess of love by assaulting herbeloved. Your penis has been cursed with impotency.You will no longer be able to reach asm unlessyou are submissive to your partner.

  Akeso's Fury

  Your transgressions against the weak and the ihave drawn Akeso's wrath. Your maximum healthis permaly reduced by 20%. Future ges to yourmaximum health are also subject to this curse.

  Nemesis's Adjudication

  The goddess of vengeand bance hasfound your soul to be g. Your crimeshave brought a reing upon you. Each ofyour stats have had all but 1 point removed fromthem.

  Ashleigh's eyes widened in horror with every word that she read. This 't be real. She thought, frantically switg to her status sheet.

  AshleighColdwaterCss: Bul: 8/8Level: 12MP: 10/10 Strength: 1Ara: 1Finesse: 1Divine: 1Fortitude: 1Resistance: 1Endurance: 1Focus: 1 A wordless howl e and despair tore itself from Ashleigh's throat. Her visio red and she swore vengeance upon Shiloh Sutton in her head. He would pay for making the gods curse her. She didn't care if she had to sy thousands of beasts to be as strong as she was before. She would do it, and then she would kill that little fucktoy for taking her divine cock away.

  Twil watched the behavior of the orc with aloof i. Obviously something was wrong, and she was certain it had something to do with the unusually low amount of mana it had taken to heal her. She doubted she would ever have the answers, so she tried not to dwell on it.

  Instead she thought about her legal defense. A fit of insanity might be her best shot at not serving serious jail time. What Ashleigh had done was reprehensible and unfivable, but it was strictly forbidden for a member of the public to take matters into their own hands the way Twil had do was doubly bad that she was a troller. Most other csses wouldn't have a way t mists to the authorities without beating them into submission. Twil, oher hand, had many different ways she could have, and probably should have, simply disabled the orc with her skills and carried her back to let the courts sort it out.

  Twil shook the thoughts from her head. If she had to spend time in jail, she would do it gdly for the opportunity to beat the daylights out of anyone who thought they could do what that animal had doo her Shiloh.

  ***

  Shiloh thought that the healers in the Guild would have just he right spells to heal him, but magi Glitnir arently more plex thahought. They stripped the b from him and as they worked, they expily what they were doing and why they o do it.

  Acc to the healers, filling up someone's HP was usually enough to reverse the damage that caused the loss of HP, though it wouldn't prevent scarring. In his case, the damage was so severe that just filling his HP would leave him with so many scars that it would leave him with a throat that wasn't wide enough to swallow his food, cheeks that were pulled so tight he wouldn't be able to open his mouth more than halfway, and a rectum and iihat were uo process his waste properly.

  So, they had to have specialists e in that could repair the flesh wounds specifically, as well as a etic healer to help prevent the scars from f, and only when they were finished did the man who'd taken charge of his recovery fill his HP up. By the time they were done, Shiloh felt as if he had never met Ashleigh. He sat up with the man's help, then stood up off the bed, still in the nude.

  "How do you feel?" He asked gently.

  "Perfect!" Shiloh responded giddily. "You guys did a great job."

  "That's good to hear." The man said. "But we'll need you to stay here at least until your bowel movement. We want to make sure there aren't any further issues."

  With that, the healers left him, Ara, and Elnor alone in their room. There were a few chairs against the wall across from the door, two of which were occupied by his lovers, but the only other piece of furniture in there was the strange bed. Shiloh g the bed and saw it in full finally. It truly was floating above the ground, and the mattress it held was a shimmery, insubstantial, light blue. He poked his finger into it, and agai nothing, though his finger was stopped by the untouchable matter that posed the mattress.

  "Weird." Shiloh muttered, then turo Ara and Elnor. Ara still looked furious, but Elnor enly and silently weeping. Shiloh strode over to them and squeezed Ara's hand before ing Elnor in a tight hug. Her voice cracked and, like a television being uhe sobs wrag her frame were suddenly audible.

  "Shh... Shh... It's alright. I'm okay. You saved me again." Shiloh murmured, holding the elf and stroking her back. "I owe you all my life twice over now. I'm going to have to start saving you at some point to keep it even."

  A hicg ugh escaped Elnor's lips between her sobs. "You'd better." She said, sniffing loudly and wipiears away. Shiloh backed up enough to look at her, and she gave him a weak, watery smile before hugging him back. They embraced until she had calmed down, at which point Ara spoke.

  "It was all Twil, really." Shiloh looked over at her as she tinued. "None of us even got a ce to wail on that bitch. Twil froze the entire area, pulled you off of her, then nearly beat her to death with a staff."

  "I heard you say something like that when I woke up." Shiloh said slowly, trying to recall the se in the basement that seemed so long ago. "How did Twil do that much damage to someone solely focused on their own defense?"

  "She wasn't wearing armor, for ohing." Ara responded. "That, bined with Twil's rage, must have been enough to overe the natural defense her Fortitude offered her."

  There was a knock at the door and Shiloh reached for the b, ed himself in it, then called out for whoever it was to ehe door swung open and Beck hurried into the room, a panicked expression on her face. The moment she saw Shiloh standing, unblemished and whole, the paniished and was repced by joy. She ran in and hugged him tightly, her tail swishing bad forth in glee.

  Then, she stiffened and pulled away from him before addressing the room at rge. "Twil's been arrested."

  "What for?" Shiloh demanded.

  "For attag Ashleigh, I would assume." Elnor said evenly. Beodded.

  "But... she was raping me!" Shiloh replied, indignant. "Why would they arrest her for stopping that?"

  "Stopping a rape usually doesn't require literally beating someone half to death. Particurly when a troller is the one giving the beatdown." Ara said dryly. "Don't worry, Shy. Whatever they throw at her won't stick. The w doesn't eople taking justito their own hands, but a grievous offense like rape, especially when itted against a close ally, will often cause the wgivers to look the other way on something like this. Even if they do want to charge her, there are exceptions for crimes of passion as long as nobody ends up permaly maimed or dead."

  "She certainly looked like she could be permaly maimed to me." Beck said darkly as her ears id ft against her head. "If she isn't, we ought to pay her a visit and fix that."

  "Shh." Elnor shushed her. "We don't need anyone overhearing a ent like that and thinking none of us trol ourselves."

  Beck opened her mouth tue, but seemed to thier of it. She instead sat down in the chair between Ara and Elnor and sighed.

  "How long will it be before she get out?" Shiloh asked.

  Elnor thought for a moment before responding. "The wgivers don't usually have such extreme cases. It will likely be escated beyond most other matters, excepting those that are dealing with deaths. It will take perhaps a couple hours for the guards to file a plete report, but there shouldn't be much of a wait after that, if any. I wish none of this had happened, but it's vehat it was early in the m. Twil shouldn't have to stay ht in jail."

  Shiloh sighed in relief. "Good. I don't wao suffer for saving me. we go see her?"

  "After you take a dump." Ara said with all the delicad tact of an enraged bull.

  They spent the half hour talking about nothing until Shiloh finally was able to go, at which point he had to ehe incredibly embarrassing moments of a healer watg his butt quite closely while he defecated. When they had pronouno further issues, they allowed him to leave with instrus to e back if any other problems presehemselves. Shiloh materialized a set of his casual clothes from his iory and threw them on before the four of them rushed to the jail.

  When they arrived, the same man with a scar over one of his eyes rose to greet them. He appraised the group as a whole before speaking. "You must be the rest of Aphrodite's Apostles."

  "How did you-" Shiloh began, but the man waved him off.

  "Twil put it all in her report. You are Shiloh Sutton?"

  "Yes."

  The man nodded. "You are the courts. I had your case expedited, and the wgivers are going to start the trial as soon as you arrive. I wouldn't be surprised if you passed the messenger sent to inform you at the Guild when you left."

  "So Twil isn't here?" Shiloh asked, looking down the hall of cells.

  "No, Miss Reignover and Miss Coldwater were taken under custody to the courts thirty minutes ago." The man said, then pced his hand on Shiloh's shoulder as the four of them turo go. "I am truly sorry for what has happeo you, Shiloh."

  Shiloh nervously thahe man, a him go. The four of them left the jail, and Elnor led them through the streets towards the sed-tallest building iy, right behind the clocktower. The Pace was an imposing structure of turrets and towers, made of marble in the same way that the Guild was.

  "Who lives there?" Shiloh asked as more of the Pace came into view.

  "Viceroy Chambers." Ara responded with a snort. "A real pansy, if you ask me."

  Eln Ara but didn't refute her. "Viceroy Chambers is the ruler of Chattery and the surrounding nds. He is a schor by trade, lending to the impression of him being a 'pansy', as Ara put it."

  "I don't think he's a pansy because he's a schor." Ara objected. "He's a pansy because he won't put down the Scarlet Hands." At a curious gnce from Shiloh, she eborated. "They're a group of bandits who have cimed a territory north of Chattery. Chambers is choosing to iate with them rather than arresting or killing them. Meanwhile, all the people living in that area have been subjected to the predations of the Hands."

  "That seems like a lose-lose situation." Shiloh ented. "If he takes out the Hands, he'd be seen as a butcher, while iating with them makes him a pansy."

  "Nobody would fault him for exterminating vermin." Ara said adamantly. Shiloh chose not to pursue the matter and ged the subject.

  "So are the courts in the Pace?"

  "Yes. The public area of the Pace has courts for matters that don't the royalty. There is another court, the Royal Court, whily those summoned by the Viceroy or his advisors ever attend." Elnor informed him as they ehrough the wide oak doors. There were guards standing at attention oher side of the doors, and there were a few people hurrying to and fro within. As they entered, Elnot dires to the court from one of the guards.

  She led them through the halls of the Patil they arrived before a set of wide, golden doors. There was anuard standing in front of them, and there were many people waiting in the hallway in front of them.

  Elnor approached the guard and gave him their names. He checked a list before opening the door aing them ehe interior of the courtroom was not what Shiloh had expected, and was exactly what he expected at the same time.

  Instead of grand and sweeping like the rest of the Pace, the court was cramped and utilitarian. There were three men and two women in formal bck robes sitting behind a long ter. Ashleigh sat at a desk before the long ter, while another desk a ways off tht sat empty. Behind the desks was a colle of chairs oher side of an aisle, with perhaps about twenty oher side. Twil sat on the right side of this aisle with a guard oher side of her.

  "Shiloh Sutton?" The man in the middle of the five wgivers asked.

  "That's me." Shiloh responded.

  "Please, take your seat." The chief wgiver motioo the empty desk on the right. "The rest of you may sit in the back."

  Elnor, Ara, and Beck each gave Shiloh a hug before scurrying over to sit behind Twil and her guards. Shiloh breathed deeply, walked forward, and sat down without even looking at Ashleigh.

  "Very good, now we may begin."