Welsh Rarebit

Waking up and surprised to be looking up at the ceiling of his own room, Caleb shot upright, startled, trying to remember when he had gone ****. Luckily, Amy was there to fill in the blanks. She was still leaning against the wall as she spoke up.

“I brought you to your room after you passed out.” She said plainly, legs tucked against her chest, “After you confronted Mira, you went down fast. Probably adrenaline was the only thing that had been keeping you up.”

Caleb turned to look at Amy, expecting the calm, cool expression that always greeted him; instead, he saw her hunched against the wall, arms wrapped around her legs as if she was trying to make her large form as small as possible. His expression immediately shifted, “Hey, are you alright? You’re not looking so good.”

“What, no thanks? You wake up and tell me I look like shit?” The tone was intended as humorous, but there was no mirth behind it as the oni reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose, “Sorry, just…I think it’s finally getting to me.”

Caleb got up from the chair, crossed over, and sat down next to her, “Its been the longest week known to man, I get you.”

“Ignoring that our weeks are already ten days long-yeah, I get you.” Amy snorted and threw her hands up, “I just thought-” she bit her lower lip, “I thought knowing everything about the island, about Lucian, I thought it would give us a leg up on the situation. Instead, I didn’t see what’s right in front of me.” Amy threw her arm out like swatting at an invisible fly before the limb fell limply to her side. “I saw the board but didn’t piece it together.”

Caleb paused, not entirely sure what she meant, but also deciding the specifics were less important right now, “I also could have ignored Mira and gone to see Eliza. Half the reason I was so mad was knowing this was preventable. We all let Mira take responsibility, and even if we didn’t know what she was going to do…” Caleb shook his head and grit his teeth, “We all are so busy looking out for ourselves, we weren’t looking out for each other.”

Amy narrowed her eyes, “But I knew something was wrong and I could have-”

“We’ll drown if we focus on everything we could have done while we’re here.” Caleb cut her off, his voice remaining calm that hid a tumultuous storm behind it, “If we want to make it through, we just need to do our best and try and…look out for each other without it falling on one person.” The last statement came through gritted teeth like the master wanted to chew through the words.

Giving a half-hearted smirk, Amy’s eyes were sad as she said, “But I’m the grand vizier, right?” The tone was joking, but there was weight behind it that tore at the back of her throat.

Caleb leaned and touched his shoulder to hers, “None of us can do this alone, we have to share the weight-believe you me, I wish I could just shoulder all of this. But every time I try, I fail.”

Amy leaned against Caleb, “You don’t fail.”

“No, I do, but it’s ok…every bad thing that’s happened since we got here, not induced by Lucian, has been because someone thought they could do it all on their own. None of us is clean from that charge. We need to change, stop being individuals, and more like a family.”

“A family that fucks each other? Kinky.” Caleb snorted in response as Amy leaned against him before continuing, “Honestly, the trust is going to be harder than the sex thing. I’ve never had a real family before.”

The master shrugged, “I don’t know what it will look like, but…anything is better than this, right?”

Amy pressed he side of her head against his, “What about Mira, what are you going to do about her?”

“I-if I’m being honest, so much of me wants to just let her burn for what she did. There’s no excusing it. The other part knows that even if there’s no excuse…I don’t think it would have happened if not for putting all the weight on her in this horrible place. She did the act, but I contributed to it happening. It’s my failure too, and if I just let her take the blame and abandon her, it's just as much to conveniently let myself off the hook.” The master shook his head, “So, regardless…I’m going to get her through. Somehow.”

“You just talked about sharing the load, and there you go, taking on more weight again,” Amy smirked.

Caleb lifted his arm and flexed a bicep, “What are these muscles for if not carrying weight?”

Amy responded by lifting her own arm and flexed, “I could fold you like laundry, boy, don’t get ahead of yourself.” Caleb smiled back over and they shared a brief laugh.

Looking around the room, Caleb registered for the first time that Eliza wasn’t here. “Where did the professor go?”

“She’s…processing. In her own way, I think now that the news is out, she’s trying not to be defined by it…” Amy straightened up, “She was very prickly, so I don’t imagine she’s looking to converse, but we’ll keep an eye out.”

Caleb nodded, “Yeah, no one is gonna be left to figure things out on their own anymore.” he shifted his weight and felt something bulging in his pocket, and reached down and pulled out the letter Lucian had delivered, “I almost forgot about this.”

Amy leaned in, “who’s it from?”

“We’ll have to see,” Caleb said, taking his thumb and pulling at the seam with a **** that caused the two medallions inside to jump out and jangle to the floor. Caleb leaned down; there were two of them; one had an eight-pointed star, the other what appeared to be a lion’s head. He exchanged a glance with Amy, who shrugged, not understanding any better than he did as he pulled out the letter and began to read:

Dear Caleb,
Thank you for writing. I know you were pushed into this as much as I was, but it still means something to hear from someone who knows what this is like. You don't need to apologize for venting: if I were in your position, saddled with a Host who wants to prove humanity a worthless group of selfish backstabbers, I'd be saying a lot worse. You're standing up for your harem in a place built to break you. That's not the short end of the stick. That's just strength under duress.
You're right: I've been fortunate. My women... they trust me. That gives us room to make choices, even mistakes, without tearing each other apart. I don't take that lightly. It isn't a reflection of me as a Master, but of their willingness to band together even in a competition that is not designed for cooperative play. What you said about agency struck me. Speaking of which, I don't know when you will receive this, but I would advise you to look into the events between Mira and Eliza. Your erstwhile agent is claiming a role that will only lead to sorrow and heartbreak, and you may be the only one who can stop her. And one more piece of advice: while Lily may have her faults, I highly recommend considering what shape your relationship is to take. There will be one - it's the nature of the Harem Hotel - but you two get to decide its shape and nature. Erin and I had much the same problem, and it took both of us some time and courage to get our heads out of our asses and do something about it.
I can’t change what your Host is, or how much he wants to push you into cruelty, but I can share something I’ve been given. Call it… an old superstition, if you like. Nothing flashy. A token. For good fortune, if you should carry it with you when the lash comes down too hard.
Along with yours, I’m sending another token. This is for your tech prodigy. Will you please pass it on to her quickly?
The tokens are simply Sumerian astrological pieces. Yours looks like a bronze medallion stamped with the symbol of the lion, while hers is a similar bronze medallion stamped with the eight-pointed star. Mundane, old-world stuff. To anyone else, they’re just trinkets. Arabella tells me there is significance to the symbols, something to do with her sister.
Caleb, take care of yourself, and of your women. We can’t control our Hosts, but we can try to deny the worst of them what they want most — broken masters, broken harems. And if worst should come to worst, send me word. I will do what I can to help.
Sincerely,
Andy Cooper

Caleb gave a scornful bark of a laugh, “Of course, Lucian would wait until now to give me this…that fucking bastard.” he reached down and handed the one medallion over to Amy, “Lucky you’re here though. This is for you.”

“That’s Norah’s season, right?” the oni asked as she pocketed the medallion.

“Yeah, the one where they all sing kumbayah and have group therapy sessions while the host pretends to be helping them.” Caleb frowned, “Seems nice.”

Amy frowned and stood up before reaching down to help the master to his feet, “I don’t know about the singing bit, but maybe we could do some therapy sessions.”

“Only if you gamefied it for Maya, don’t see her sitting through it otherwise.” he took her hand and stood up lifting to take another glance at the letter, “He’s right though, I do need to think of how to approach Lily.” realization dawned on his features, “Shit, it’s her date today-fuck, I lost track with everything else going on.”

“Given she saw what happened, I think you can expect her to be a little understanding of the situation. Lily isn’t unreasonable- well, that unreasonable.” Amy valued her newfound friendship with the plant woman, but she wasn’t going to stand there and pretend the woman wasn’t eccentric as all get out.

“I wish I had more time. Last time she gave herself amnesia, I hadn’t even considered what to do with her today.” Caleb ran a hand through his hair.

“Well, what does she like? You’ve already dated her before. You've got to at least know that much.” Amy moved over and sat on the edge of the armchair Caleb had been collapsed in before as she watched the master panic.

“We dated years ago, and I hadn’t seen her since graduation. I don’t know if anything I know is accurate!” Caleb started to pace.

“Ok, maybe it’s not, but it’s better than nothing, right?” Amy said evenly, fighting to keep her voice even. It was more than a little amusing, given everything that had happened, that Caleb could get this worked up over a date.

“She likes plants! And video games! And she was studying biology, she was going to go into pharmaceuticals-she, huh.” Realization dawned on Caleb's features. She had been planning to follow in her parents' footsteps, so why was she currently a VTuber? Shouldn’t she be working as a lab tech somewhere? Wait, she had mentioned working in a gas station too, so it wasn't like vtubing was a side gig. How had he missed something like this? Something so obvious was off right in front of him, and he hadn’t noticed it.

Amy spoke up, interrupting his thinking, “There’s a garden with its own island she seems to enjoy, you could always head off there and just take it by ear.”

“I-um, yeah sure,” Caleb muttered distractedly as he tried to refocus. “Any idea where she might be? I should probably talk to her about what she wants to do.”

The oni shrugged, “We all kind of separated at Noemi’s suggestion, chance to cool off and recover after this morning's confrontation. So unfortunately, the best answer I can give is somewhere in not-Venice.”

Caleb rolled his eyes but nodded, “I suppose it’s not your job to keep track of everyone, so I’ll let it slide.”

“I wouldn’t take that job anyway, your harem is full of whack jobs, it would be easier to herd feral raccoons.” Amy leaned back in the chair and put her hands behind her head.

“Haha, acting like you’re not one of the whack jobs in question,” Caleb smirked

“You won’t hear me refuting it.” Amy smiled back.

Caleb looked at the lion-headed medallion in his head from earlier, along with the letter. He set the letter on the dresser and pocketed the medallion as suddenly a knock came from the door. Caleb shot Amy a quizzical look before walking over. Maybe Lily had come to collect him? He walked over and swung the door open, and was surprised to see Maya there leaning in and grinning.

Not bothering to hide his surprise, Caleb raised an eyebrow, “Maya, I've got to admit, you’re not the one I expected to be here.”

The smile on Maya’s face was replaced by a mock pout, “Really, Caleb, a beautiful woman comes to your door and your response isn’t to bask in her glory and shower her with compliments? It’s to go ‘oh it’s you’, jeeze, truly motherless behaviour”

Caleb gave a face of mock insult but couldn’t hide his smile, “I’ll let that slide as one single parent kid to another. So what’s going on? I don’t have a lot of time to hang out; I actually need to go find Lily.”

Maya lifted a hand to her lips and smirked as she chuckled, “Well then, isn’t it your lucky day? Because the reason I’m here is to announce that you’ve been chosen, Caleb Ward, to join a lovely lady on a date today, who has taken extra care to prepare herself for you. And I didn’t want you to botch the reaction. So it is with great pride that I reveal the new and improved Lily Wright!” With a dramatic flourish and swing of her arms, Maya stepped aside, revealing Lily a few steps behind her, having been hiding in the other woman’s shadow.

She was dressed in the leaf equivalent of a party dress, thin vine straps held the tight dress up despite how the plunging neckline made it hide very little at all. Her green skin gleamed with a thin perspiration, making her nerves visible. She was blushing ear to ear, one hand raised to touch her hair. Her once long wavy hair that had gone down to her back now stopped just short of her shoulders in a bouncing bob that framed her delicate features as she tried to look anywhere but at Caleb.

Her eyes focused briefly on Maya, “Laying it on too thick! It’s just a haircut…” Her gaze slowly traveled over to Caleb, her blush intensifying as her hand pushed her hair up slightly, hiding part of her face, “What do you think?” Her voice was quiet, her eyes focused on his, looking for anything, any sign of judgment.

Instead, Caleb had to consciously work to close his mouth as he found himself staring, licking the inside of his mouth, he finally found his voice, “You look beautiful.”

Blushing more intensely, Lily’s face scrunched up as she called out, “That’s not fair, you can’t just! Just!” She looked over at Maya, who was beaming from ear to ear and giving the double thumbs up. The plant woman sighed and looked away, pouting, “Thank you…”

Caleb walked over and took her hands, “I was just about to go look for you; you beat me to it.”

Still looking away, Lily muttered, “It is my day after all.”

“Amy told me about a garden on the island. Would you like to go there together?” Caleb began guiding her to the elevator, and Lily found herself leaning against his arm.

“Actually, there’s someplace I wanted to go together, if that’s ok?” She looked up to Caleb, who just smiled down at her.

“As long as I’m together with you, I’ll enjoy myself.” The two entered the elevator, leaving Maya and Amy alone upstairs.

Amy got up from the stairs and crossed the threshold, looking over at Maya, who was still beaming where Caleb and Lily had been, “You declared war on Maddy yesterday for possibly loving Caleb, and today you help out Lily? Got to say you got me more than a little confused.”

Maya crossed her arms, “Games are only fun if everyone is playing their best, and there are no rules against helping rivals out if you still win in the end.”

“You’re an odd duck, you know that, right?” Amy shook her head.

Maya frowned, “In what way do I resemble waterfowl?”

“Forget it…” Amy headed toward the elevator, and after a short pause, Maya joined her to head back down to the lobby.