Adventitious Acquaintance

Author note (edit): I will be taking a short break from my weekly publishing schedule. I am taking the rest of the month to recharge and expand my buffer chapters slightly. I will be back to my regular posting on May 4th.

John tried to avoid looking, hoping that ignoring them would mean they’d change direction or walk past them, but he could see her still approaching them in his peripherals, making him instinctively look over.

She was no taller than Ellie, but her muscles made her bulkier, and it was obvious she wanted to show them off. She wore a hoodie cut just under her chest allowing her dark olive muscle-toned abs to be viewed; the sleeves were also missing allowing her strong biceps to show.

Despite her three-quarter jogging bottoms being loose, they didn’t hide her muscled thighs at all as she strode over.

She had a messy deep red bob with black underneath, which was cut through by the spindly mandible-like horns which followed the curve of her head backwards. Despite her powerful physique and slightly intimidating face, she had a warm smile. The bright amber of her irises stood against the black sclera.

She smiled, softly hummed, and with a light skip closed the distance between the entrance and John’s table. John couldn’t help but think how odd it seemed.

’Another dragon? Or something? She is kinda cute but I’m not super into muscle girls. Plus, can’t we just have like twenty minutes to relax and stuff before something just suddenly happens?’ John thought.

“Hey there, tiger,” the girl said. John raised an eyebrow as the woman wrapped her arms around Robin from behind and she kissed his cheek. “Decided to come see me at work?”

“Hey Flick, and kinda. I was out with some friends for the night to wet their feet in the Abyss, and thought it’d have been nice to come to see you on stage before we ended our night out. Unfortunately, we seem to have gotten here a little late for you,” Robin said, seeming a little bummed at the last part.

“Aw, such a sweetie,” she said, jumping over the couch and straddling Robin’s lap. “Well, lucky me, Pearl mentioned someone specifically wanting to catch my show; I thought I’d pop my head in, and lucky me, my favourite person was sitting in here.”

“Hey, Citrine! What’s going on?” a stern voice came from behind. “Are you trying to lure customers away to make money on the side or something? You know those are Black Diamond’s guests, you have no right to step on her toes.”

The girl clenched her jaw and looked up angrily. “Okay, first off, watch your fucking mouth when you speak to me. Second, if you dare question my integrity again-”

Robin had placed his hands on her shoulders and gently kneaded them; she took a second to relax before looking back at the person, venom still laced in her expression. “You have no right to tell me if I can straddle my boyfriend or not.”

“Boyfriend?” The woman recoiled, looking between Robin and the woman on his lap. She then fixed her eyes on Robin. “Is that true?”

“We didn’t mean to cause any problems, I wanted to catch her show with my friends. Sorry to cause issues,” he answered.

“Don’t apologise, tiger. If anyone should be apologising, it should be her. She is disrupting you and your guests,” the girl said, looking over to John and Ellie and giving a smile. “Sorry about this, it’s great to meet you. I’m Alleon, feel free to call me Alli.” She then looked back at the accusing woman. “You also dared to insinuate that I’d even think of trying to pry customers out of the club. I don’t care who you’re related to, watch your back.”

The woman seemed to get flustered, and looked at John and Ellie to give a half bow. “I’m sorry, I’ll, uhm.”

The woman quickly scurried off, leaving John and Ellie stunned in silence before Elina burst out laughing. “Oh my god, did you see the look on her face? I’m glad someone said something to her, she’s been here for like three days and she’s acting like she runs the place because her uncle is one of the higher-ups. She chewed me out the other day for refusing customers that asked to take me to Lust.”

Alleon hugged Robin before leaning back and looking at Elina. “Yeah, I can’t believe the nerve of her. If it wasn’t for Robin, I might have dragged her by her hair up to Wrath,” she said, her breathing getting heavier; Robin massaged her waist which seemed to get her to take another breather.

“Wanna turn around and let me give you an actual massage? I don’t want you to feel like shit later on, just because of an argument,” Robin suggested.

She nodded before standing and sitting between his legs and the floor facing towards Elina. “My day was shit long before that cunt showed her face…” Alleon mumbled. Robin scooched forward and began to give her a neck and shoulder massage.

“Thanks, and sorry for getting worked up around your friends. I… the thought that someone would think I was spineless enough to try steel business from the club just… it’s not just that, though, it’s the idea that I’d take so little pride in myself or my work that I’d be willing to do that…” she vented.

“You don’t work on Pride for nothing.” Robin laughed. “So hey, I want to introduce you to my friends. This is John, I talked about him with you before, turns out he’s been sheltered from the Abyss and has magic, and this is his girl-... wife, Ellie, I only met her earlier today but I think we’ve hit it off pretty well. She’s a nice girl, and I’m quite proud that John managed to land such a great person.”

Ellie began beaming at the word ‘wife’ and her smile only grew as Robin spoke. “Aw, that’s so sweet, and I’m really glad John has such a great friend like you, too!”

“Oh hey, John, you’re amazing at judging who you should have in a close relationship. I don’t know how you do it, if only everyone could do it as good as you,” John mockingly mumbled, causing both Ellie and Robin to laugh.

“So, these two are new then? I hope you’ve been showing them the ropes, telling them what to and not to do?” Alleon questioned.

Robin let out an awkward laugh. “Well, uh, kinda… There’s quite a lot to tell though,” Robin defended himself.

The horned muscle girl rolled her eyes, looking up at him before she lifted her arms and grabbed his cheeks, forcing his lips to pucker like a duck. “Tiger, I know you don’t interact with the Abyss much, but you should have given them basic info by now,” she said, sighing.

She kept hold of Robin and looked back down towards Elina. “Would you be a dear and give them the run down please?”

Elina nodded sitting up straight. “Okay, so…. Hmmm… Right, the human side of the Abyss is much safer and a little less complex. The main thing to know is not to go running around casting magic and stuff to mundanes because big guilds keep the Abyss and mundane world separate.

“The guilds aren’t all-knowing, so telling mundane friends isn’t going to get you into trouble unless they start running their mouths. The biggest and most important guild keeping the worlds split is the Order.

“The Order primarily protects the mundane, but offers protection to Abyssals both human and not, through a contract. The extension of protection for non-humans is actually pretty recent, but we won’t get into that.”

“So that’s like the Order’s whole deal?” John asked.

“More or less,” Elina said, nodding. “I think they have other agendas too but protecting the divide is the biggest, they’re essentially a police **** within the Abyss. The big thing you should know about them though is that their protection for Abyssals includes a caveat, they’ll request services of you that are within your abilities.

“It’s kinda treated like jury duty, so you can’t talk about it, and unless you have a valid reason for being unable to help, you are contractually obligated to fulfil their request. I hear they do pay generously for your skill levels though. The big problem with the requested services is that they can essentially conscript you if they go to war, which is less than preferable for most.”

“Moira wanted to speak with me, maybe it’s about that then. I’m not sure if I want to go to war for a group I barely know anything about…” John mumbled.

“Moira? You mean the Shield Warden, right? Robin mentioned she was living in your town now. Do you know her on a personal level? I wonder what she could want from you; it’s unlikely she wants to speak with you about signing a writ of protection,” Alleon said.

“Well, we go to the same school. I was basically invisible to her, but we happened to run into each other a couple of times in the last week. I was pulled into a barrier and found Moira ****, I was sure she wouldn’t know it was me if I healed her and ran, but then we kinda ended up in another trap barrier and Moira questioned me,” John rambled, while Ellie nuzzled into him as he spoke.

“Now that you mentioned it, I didn’t see her in school today, not that I was actively searching for her… I’m not in any rush to be interrogated again though…” he mumbled, before turning to Elina. “Is there anything else you can tell me? About the Abyss I mean.”

“Hmm, what else… well, I’d hope that you’ve been warned about mana farmers, they look for anyone they deem as weak. They’ll kidnap you and then either send you to a lab for experimentation or hook you up to their equipment and painfully extract mana from you. I shouldn’t think you would be on their radar with the mana cloaking the two of you use, but do remember that while you seem mundane if you start poking your noses into Abyssal matters, that could be just as risky,” Elina divulged, and began tapping her chin humming while in thought.

“Oh! Is there a way to avoid trap barriers?” John asked.

“Well, I’ll be honest, you shouldn’t be running into them all that often, and speaking bluntly, the only way you can avoid them is if you are able to detect the barrier. They take a lot of skill and a fair amount of time to set up, so they’re usually quite hard to detect, even if you’re looking for them. If you’re strong enough you can break your way out or take control of the barrier, though.”

“I’ve had a ton of questions building up over the past week, so my head’s a bit all over the place, do you mind going back to the Order for a minute? I remember Moira saying they were a religious group, who’s their god?” John asked.

“Goddess,” Elina corrected, “and that would be the Lady or her more common name to the general population Gaia.”

“Oh shit,” John exclaimed. “Sorry, continue.”

“She gave the Wardens of the Order their divine gifts. I don’t know much more. I think she was the first or one of the very first divine, but I’m not entirely sure. Archfae are our gods so I don’t really know much about others. If you want more information about her, I’d say your best bet would be to buy a book about her or ask your Warden since you said you’ll be talking to her at some point anyway. Sorry that I can’t be more helpful,” Elina said, frowning as she finished.

“No, I get it. You’re not an all-knowing encyclopaedia. I am very appreciative that you’re willing to answer my question, I hope you don’t mind my asking,” John said, to which the faerie nodded and smiled.

“Hey, I know I said it earlier, but I’m proud you’re actually asking questions now,” Ellie praised, hugging John tightly and giving him a brief kiss.

“Oh! What about dragons?” John asked. “Do you know any information about them?”

Elina raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. “Well, I actually happen to have a dragon housemate. I’m not a dracologist so I don’t have every bit of info, but I can tell you the basics I know and some fun facts.”

John smiled and nodded. “Anything you can tell me is great.”

“So, dragons are not straightforward, explaining them would be like trying to explain mammals or invertebrates. There are dragons that look like giant lizards that breathe fire, but there are also dragons that look like unicorns.

“The most simple categorization though is dragons and wyrms. Wyrms have long snake-like bodies, while dragons have shorter bodies like lizards or mammals. That might be a terrible description of the two types, but I think you should get what I mean.

“So if I remember correctly, dragons were born in relation to a god, I can’t remember what it was exactly, maybe a god's blood or something? Either way, there are two types of dragon that are closest to the first dragon, those being true drakes, which are what you typically see in mundane movies, they have four legs and a set of wings. Then you have lung wyrms, which I believe are also called Eastern dragons? They have long snake-like bodies with four limbs and they’re able to fly using magic.

“Those are seen as the noble dragons and there are a small sub-group of each of those dragons that are more bestial in intelligence. The two noble dragon classes have lesser dragons under them which are in the same family but have different features. For the drake line, there are wyverns which lack forelimbs and use their wings and back legs in order to walk on the ground, and you also have basilisks which lack wings entirely and can have four or more limbs.

“There are only two types of wyrms that can fly, lung wyrms, which I already mentioned and amphithere which lack arms or legs but fly using one or more sets of wings. Wyrms are mostly flightless though, and like the lung wyrm, they are wingless, but they have no arms or legs and they tend to be more animalistic in intelligence. There are also lyndwyrms which have a set of arms but no legs, and finally, salamanders which have multiple legs.

“There are also several types of dragons that can be categorised as either wyrm or drake, for instance, the hydra, which is a dragon with multiple heads but can be either a drake or a wyrm. Quetzalcoatl is also a type of dragon that you can find both as wyrms and drakes, there are actually several types that are wyvern-like or amphithere-like. Oh, actually even amphithere aren’t completely classified as Wyrms because there are many that can be classified as more drake-like.

“Hmm, so I said I’d include some fun facts too, didn't I? Oh, several lizards in the mundane are actually classified as dragons. I don’t remember most of their names, but there is one that’s called, like, the ‘ouroboros lizard’ that is technically a type of non-magical dragon, they’re adorable, they bite their tail for comfort.

“Oh, to quote Helio: ‘Male dragons are typically sluts who will sleep with anyone or anything willing. Well, so are females, but they will only ever take a single male partner in their entire life.’ I find it quite funny since she works here and calls guys sluts.

“If you want to know more, Helio would probably be better informed than me. Maybe if you come again, she might be working,” Alleon said.

“I think that’s a good start, that’s a lot more information than I knew before. Like, before this week, I’d have thought that drakes were what you called basilisks and I’d have thought basilisks were wyrms, so having all that cleared up is nice,” John said, leaning a little further forward. “Uh, one more thing, what about fae dragons?”

“Fae dragons… Well, you could say that they’re the reason I have no flutter. Not directly, but a lone great faerie is often ostracised. Fae dragons are known in faerie circles to integrate into flutters, and if a flutter doesn’t have a great faerie, they’ll peacefully become titania, but if there is one or more great fairies, they’ll ensure that their rivals are unfit to be Titania one way or another,” Elina explained.

John felt a pit forming in his stomach, thinking about Dahlia. ’Did Lani do something to her? Was that the reason Dahlia had been captured by kobolds?’ he pondered.

“I did learn from Helio that fae dragons aren’t as malicious as your typical faerie might assume, they basically just have a natural instinct to be with fairies, and due to their similarities with great fairies, some become titania and some once they learn that they’re a potential candidate make that their goal, but most would be happy just living in the flutter,” she continued.

John nodded. “Thanks, that’s good to know,” he muttered thinking for a minute, ’I might have to ask Dahlia or Lani about that, most likely Dahlia since she’s at home.’

“Okay, so I think that’s enough random questions, I’d like to get to know more about you,” John said, turning to Alleon. “If you don’t mind me asking… uh, I’m not sure how to ask this in a way that doesn’t sound rude.”

“Succubus, and don’t worry, your question was fine. I appreciate your caution in order to not offend me. Also, don’t worry, what Robin and I do together doesn’t shorten his life or anything like that, it just kills his sex drive for a while,” Alleon informed. She then turned to Robin. “Speaking of sex drive, how about we head back to my place? Today has been less than pleasant, seeing you here was the highlight of my day and I’d love your help to… de-stress.”

Robin gained a little colour to his cheeks and laughed a little awkwardly. “I’d love to but-” he began.

“Hey Robin, you should go with her. Don’t worry about us, I was thinking maybe John and I could end our night at the Seven Circles, I wouldn’t mind dancing,” Ellie said.

“See, they don’t mind, though I would like to meet your friends properly next time. I think my mood might have caused me to be a little rude in our introduction…” Alleon said. “Hey, at the very least Robin and I will walk you back to the Seven Circles.”

“That’d be great, and thank you so much for answering my questions, Elina. It was great to meet you,” John said.

Ellie stood, grabbed John’s hand and walked around to the faerie, before wrapping her arms around Elina and thanking her. She then gave John a silent gesture to tell him to do the same.

As his arms encircled her, she let out a quiet trill giggle, pulling back he could see a deep blush on her face.

Elina and Allion escorted the group to the entrance, at which point Robin paid and everyone bid farewell to Elina.

On the way to the club, the four had some small talk, but in no time at all, they once again stood in front of the Seven Circles. Alleon apologised but rushed her and Robin’s goodbyes before leaving the couple, who turned and walked into the club.

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