Saki

  Her response was to shimmer and say “I was only talking about how much you want to play with Lyran’s toy, and how much Tama wants to play with you both!”

  My eyes shifted purple and Anna instantly jumped off of Tama and fled into a nearby gutter to escape me. Tama frowned in confusion. “Does Saki not want to play with Tama?” She asked. Her ears flattened and she looked at me sadly.

  I quickly shook my head. “It’s not that Tama I swear, Anna was being Anna. I..” Quickly looking around I grabbed Tama by the arm and dragged her over to the side before whispering quietly. “I would love for you to play with me and David and our.. toys.” Just.. don’t go around saying that out loud. It’s not something that anyone should say.”

  “So.. Tama is not supposed to talk about toys? Or not supposed to talk about sharing them?” Tama asked in utter confusion.

  I sighed and after looking behind me said. “Tama, I think it’s time we had a talk about.. mature things. What Anna said was an innuendo. It has a double meaning. Anna was not talking about toys. She was talking about Lyran’s.. private parts.”

  Tama tilted her head slightly and asked “Like private toys?”

  My eye twitched and I tried again. “She meant the stuff under his underwear Tama.”

  “Lyran keeps toys in his underwear?! Why?!” She looked genuinely horrified at the mere thought someone would put toys in a place like that.

  “Tama.. I..” I clenched my teeth as I tried to find the best way to explain it, then an idea hit me and I said “Tama, do you remember when you asked me to tell you what sex was and why you shouldn’t touch people in certain places?”

  Tama nodded seriously. “Saki promised!” She leaned in and looked seriously at me.

  “Well, when Anna said toys, she meant a sex things. Not actual toys.” I said seriously.

  Tama considered that for a moment and asked. “But then why call them toys?”

  “Because it's impolite to say what is actually there in polite society. It’s bad to say out loud in front of people Tama. So people make up words to replace it. Words that sound okay, but aren’t”

  Tama frowned “Why wouldn’t the words be okay?” Her ears were perked up and listening intently.

  “Well, it’s.. it’s hard to explain, but. When two people who like each other get alone, they do.. things. They do sex. And, well, that sex is supposed to be.. um.. private. Because it’s supposed to be private, you aren’t supposed to say what happens outside of the two people.

  But people still find ways of saying it by referencing things about it that seem similar. A man’s.. thing can be considered a toy because a woman plays with it.” By the end my cheeks had flushed red and I was trying to think of how to change this topic.

  “What are you two doing?” Matriarch Talia’s voice came from behind and I felt instant relief. Any amount of paperwork or trouble I was in was preferable to this.

  I twirled around and the Matriarch was watching us with a bemused expression. “I always wondered why you were so close with Tama. Thought Lyran was your type Saki, turns out you swing both ways huh?”

  My face, already red, began to feel very hot. “that is… I mean…” I just sighed and asked “What do you want?”

  Matriarch Talia smirked. She definitely did that on purpose! “I heard there was a certain Foxkin who broke out of a guardhouse and left all the men unconscious.”

  I stared for a moment. How the heck did she already know?! It literally happened less than an hour ago! I quickly recovered before she noticed and looked uninterested. “Oh? Didn’t know the guards in this city were so weak. Unless the escapee was S rank or something.” I trailed off looking at her questioningly, pretending I had no idea.

  “Nya! Tama was..!” Tama started to say. I instantly covered her mouth and whispered. “Lyran needs help getting you fries.”

  Tama’s eyes widened and she vanished. I turned back to the Matriarch and put on a sweet smile. “Where were we?”

  “I believe you were just about to tell me why you got arrested, why the guild healers were called to the scene, and why I have a report over ten pages long that describes and I quote ‘An overly enthusiastic attractive royal bouncy ball with extreme skill and precision.’ right next to ‘A multi-tailed advisor with snark and charm.’”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  I considered her words for a moment before watching her carefully as I asked a simple question. “Do you have more of those tracker hounds by chance?” My tail swayed in the breeze and I waited.

  Talia raised an eyebrow and grabbed me. I was already halfway down the street and panting from running so fast.

  I heard the hound as it was summoned. Turns out she did have more. That was fine, I was prepared this time. I opened the map and quickly found Talia and her stupid hound.

  I marked the hound as hostile and smirked. Was it an abuse of power? Maybe. Would anyone have evidence it was me? Nope!

  A few seconds later I heard Talia call out. “Really Saki? Are you going to play this game? I know you haven’t gotten far.”

  It wasn’t going to help much, I would be caught and the map didn’t actually help me…

  ? Before I could finish that sentence, Tama appeared, french fry in hand and Serenity in the other and instantly cleaved the hound in half.

  She looked at it, then the fry in her hand and a smile crossed her lips. She picked up the hound right as it turned to ash. She looked devastated and vanished again.

  How had she.. what?! I was so lost I stood there stunned. Then I shook my head. It was Tama and the answer was probably stranger than what happened.

  I turned and made another copy and quietly walked down the street. Straight into a man in robes. I had been so busy avoiding Talia, I hadn’t been paying attention in front of me.

  He turned and looked confused for a moment before he suddenly pulled a small orb out of his pocket.

  My eyes widened, I quickly grabbed the orb from his hand before he could use it and threw it on the ground, shattering it. I would not be caught by a void damned demystification orb!

  The mage looked horrified at the shattered orb. “Why?! Who?! I just needed that to find my way home!” He cried out in shock and horror. He was a Badgerkin… I winced as I realized my mistake. I tip-toed around him feeling guilty.

  I made it to the end of the alleyway just as Tama appeared next to me. “Nya! Aunt Talia says she wants to see you! Said she will teach Tama magic. What is magic Saki?”

  I turned to answer, but we were already in the air, then on the ground in front of the guild with a smirking Talia. “You aren’t the only one who can get Tama to do you favors Saki.” She said with a look of amusement on her face.

  “What is magic!” Tama said louder, this time at Talia. She didn’t seem upset, just confused and excited.. classic Tama.

  I turned to Tama. “Magic is the study of the arcane arts. Basically it allows you to use ambient mana in the air to conjure spells and abilities. We can go over Mana as a concept later.” I paused to make sure she was listening before continuing

  “As it currently stands, our cores actually generate trace amounts and our elements use those trace amounts of that type of elemental energy to create what is known as elemental mana. But it does not allow us to absorb mana from the ambiance or convert that mana.”

  I took a deep breath but Talia cut in. “I said I would teach her and I will Saki. I just wanted to talk to you. Despite what you might think, I am not trying to interrogate you.

  Not everything is some major scheme. I need you as the responsible one of your party to actually help me with this. Unless you plan to leave paperwork and report to Tama?”

  I couldn’t help myself, I genuinely recoiled at the thought of Tama filling out paperwork. She didn’t even know how to read and I had to teach her to write her name earlier. I sighed in defeat. “I mean, that’s fair. But you are very imposing and you have to admit dragging me away to ‘talk’ is hardly not suspicious.”

  Talia rolled her eyes. “I am an ex member of the hero’s party, Guild master of this city, and a Grand Matriarch. Let’s not pretend I am some random vagabond kidnapping you.”

  I withered under her words. It was true… I, of course, had multiple come backs. But at its very core, it was quite simple. Did I want the girl who was more impulsive than a Rabbit during mating season to fill out reports, or did I just need to face the bard’s tale.

  “Tama doesn’t understand? Tama has magic?” Tama asked, her ears now flattened and her tail lashing. She was irritated that we were ignoring her it seemed.

  I turned and smiled at Tama as I said “Aunt Talia said she would train you right?”

  I looked over to Talia as she realized with dawning horror what I was about to do. She opened her mouth but Tama was quicker “Nya!”

  I spoke quickly, cutting Talia off “Magic training can be intensive and destructive. You should take her somewhere wide open, maybe the plains to have her teach you!”

  Talia stated “That isn’t terrible, but we…” and she was gone along with Tama. I smirked at her absence. Technically, Talia was right about the whole thing. From now on I will be more mature about this. Honestly, I had been acting kind of off for the last few days. But I would be void if I was just going to let her pull one over on me and not get one in kind.

  Turning, I walked into the guild hall and directly into Tera. “Have you seen Tama?” She asked hopefully. Inwardly my smile widened. “Yea, She just took Matriarch Talia to the outskirts of town, most likely north towards the Grok’s goblin camp to learn magic. I believe she mentioned needing help.”

  I sidestepped and the ever obsessed Royal guard captain dashed out the door, followed by four other royal guardsmen. Two for the price of one!

  Chapter 116: Magic Keys