The Morning After

In her demonic form, Zaida fled faster than she would have otherwise been able to. Her enhanced reach and power made quick work of obstacles like walls and fences. However, caution was a necessary consideration too. If she deviated from the darkest and quietest streets, she risked spawning a mob of panicked townsfolk. She hurried along, paying more attention to which route to take rather than where in Merridian she was.

It was not until she vaulted into a garden thick with trees and shrubbery, and lacking even a single candle, that Zaida stopped. There the darkness and foliage would conceal her better than magic. She perked her canine ears up and listened for any indication that someone might suspect her intrusion. Nothing.

The gnoll looked at her arms again. How had this happened? Her disguise had been flawless right up to the moment when...

Zaida searched herself for the thing she had stripped from her head. She was despairing that she had dropped it and left it behind before distinctly remembering that she had not done so. She had felt and seen the article that came from her head, but by the time her hand had fallen to her side, the spectral hat was gone like it had never been there to begin with.

It had to be tied to her disguise, and if it was witchcraft, then surely there was a way to summon it again. It had been expelled with a motion of removal, so perhaps a motion of clothing...

Yes! As Zaida pantomimed putting a headdress on, the piece reappeared between her fingers. She brought it to her head and donned it as one would a cap. When her hands came away, she could feel the sensation return, and after a reversal of her earlier metamorphosis, she stood a human once more; the headpiece again vanished.

"Well isn't that handy?" she mused.

A rustle from the other side of the garden put her on her guard. The moment passed, and she concluded that it must have been some small creature prowling the night.

You can appreciate this discovery later, she thought to herself. Focus on getting back to the barracks for the evening before anything else goes awry.

Zaida's morning was identical to the one prior, up until she met with Tivra and Edie. She rose, bathed, ate, and strolled over to where the duo stood. Edie looked the same as usual, but there was something visibly wrong with Tivra. The tall woman looked like she was ready to keel over. Her eyes fought to even stay mostly open and the hand she held a tablet with kept bobbing.

"Are you alright?" Zaida asked, concerned.

Edie answered on behalf of her associate. She put a hand up to her mouth like she was stopping Tivra from listening in. "Someone was up late with recruiting." She wore a grin that assured Zaida there was nothing severe about the other woman's condition.

"Jealous," Tivra accused.

"As a matter of fact, I am." Edie refused to be cowed by allegations of lustfulness. "But enough about that. Please share what is on our lovely knight's plate for the day."

Tivra took a deep breath then lifted her tablet to her face to make it easier on her eyes. "Firstly... I'll offer you the chance to be on the enlistment team for today." She spoke sluggishly, as though words were heavier in her mouth that day.

"And I'll politely decline," Zaida answered. She had warmed to this lewd game between the knights and the church - if others wanted to get in on it, that was their prerogative - but she still was not eager to participate herself.

"Actually Tivra, I saw that the board was updated. There weren't any open slots for today anyway," Edie said.

"Oh..." Tivra's shoulders sank, disappointed in herself for sharing outdated information. Then her shoulders jumped back up. "No, wait, that's good. We must be getting our numbers up." She nodded approvingly. "As for you," she pointed to Zaida, "We don't have any knightly opportunities for someone as green as you today, which means you get chores."

"Yay!" Edie cheered, looking at Zaida with pretend excitement. The winner of this grand prize, on the other hand, let her chagrin show.

Tivra raised a finger. "Ah-ah-ah, you haven't heard the good part. You'll be on guard duty... in the church school."

Zaida leaned her head to one side, uncertain as to how this revelation was supposed to improve her outlook on the day.

"You know..." Tivra prompted. "Guard duty... in a school. Standing watch... in a place where there is never a threat to anyone... A place where people teach by talking out loud... A place where anyone that happens to be standing around could learn... simply by listening in... because they're not doing anything else-"

"Okay, okay I get it." Zaida raised her hands, pleading Tivra to stop. "You want me to use my watch as an excuse to fill the patches in my education."

"Wow," Tivra breathed. "She got all that just from 'guard duty in the church school'. Our trainees never fail to impress." She wiped a nonexistent tear from her eye.

Edie leaned on her shoulder. "We do good work here, you and I."

Zaida pinched the bridge of her nose irritatedly. "Just tell me where I can find the church school."

"Well, you see, it's a church school..." Edie began.

"Uh-huh," Zaida prompted impatiently.

"So, you know where the church is...?" Tivra added on.

"Okay, thank you so much for your help." The newest knight turned and walked away, her voice bursting with sarcasm.

"Do you want me to draw you a map?" Edie offered, raising her voice to carry over the growing distance between them.

"I am LEAVING THE DINING HALL NOW," Zaida shouted from the corridor.

"COME BACK EVEN BRIGHTER THAN YOU WERE." Tivra used a supportive tone to get one last rib in. "They grow up so fast," she remarked to her companion.

Edie nodded in agreement. There was a moment of silence between them. "So was it a good fuck?"

Tivra put on a face of disbelief. "Oh, it was good, good."