Despite some potential worries of attacks, the journey back to the Mountain Shaker Sect was very calm. A few spirit beasts attacked along the way, but Meng simply dealt with them herself. She landed the first few on the deck then butchered them for parts. This continued until the hold was full of meat and monster parts. After that, they were just sent flying off in another direction. Apparently monster minds were easy to trick until they ranked up.
Lian and Bing were finding that being officially designated sister didn't change much about their relationship. They were acting more or less the same around each other, with the only exception being that Lian was more willing to show Meng affection when she checked up on her daughters.
Meng spent a lot of time meditating when she wasn't dealing with their attackers. Part of this was to restore her qi levels every time they were used, but most of the time Meng spent in meditation was making plans for the future. Meng sat on deck so that she didn't need to move much when they were attacked, and everyone gave her a wide birth where possible.
Kat and Lily spent time snuggling and practicing their new abilities, with Kat focusing on letting her mind adjust to her water state while Lily was practicing her spells, and it was going quite well for Lily… less so for Kat. Kat found best results when simply relaxing and allowing her mind to process everything subconsciously… which worked until Kat tried to direct her focus somewhere or move parts of her 'body'.
Sue… did things that don't need to be mentioned in this recount.
When the ship pulled up to the Mountain Shaker sect, Meng released Bodeir Jr from her illusion and then slapped him in the face with a sack filled with a concentrated sleeping pill she'd made into a powder so that there was no chance of Bodeir Sr mistaking Bodeir Jr's rest as a threat on Meng's part.
Bodeir Sr was of course, there to meet with them, and looked over everything before settling on Kat. "I'm surprised to see you here Kat, I hear there has been some… additional developments regarding your mission,"
"Right well… do you want the full story now or later?" asked Kat. She hadn't yet heard any word of complaint from D.E.M.O.N.S so Kat was fairly sure that delaying her report would be acceptable, but if Bodeir wanted to know now she wasn't going to deny him that.
"Give me the highlights now and then wait at the house you were assigned on your first visit. I'll arrive soon enough to get a full report," said Bodeir, his tone making it clear that despite not technically having the ability to order Kat around anymore, this wasn't a request, it was still an order.
Kat nodded though, perfectly ok with that. "So, highlight time. Meng, who is called Meng is not the Meng who should be in charge of the Holy Icy Wind sect. Turns out she was a spy who has a soft spot for kids and wanted some of her own, so when the organisation she worked for wanted them for some reason she decided to defect, well that and I could see through her illusion.
"Bodeir, Voldar, and the twins, were attuning to artifacts or something, I don't really understand it, but Meng told me her story, I agreed to help out, then we killed the fake Patriarch of the sect, imprisoned an elder in his mind, and killed an assassin that thought he could poison Meng. Then we made our way to the ship and headed here… I think that covers everything?"
"Everything in your final days perhaps, you never mentioned anything that happened earlier in the trip… but for now I suppose that is fine. I'll need to haven a discussion with Meng and decide how to settle them temporarily. It will be the first of many conversations I'm sure… though I can't risk keeping them around long. You've made a lot of work for me you know?" said Bodeir.
"I won't deny that… but would you say that I made the wrong decision?" asked Kat.
Bodeir glared back, "That remains to be seen. I'll meet you in about an hour,"
With that Bodeir strode passed Kat to talk to Hromdir, giving him instructions for moving Bodeir Jr, and then started speaking with Meng. It was clear that Kat had been dismissed, so she turned to Sue and asked, "Are you going to come with us?"
"Probably best I do. I wouldn't want Bodeir Sr to be chasing after me for a report. Especially not if he's willing to walk in on me… and I feel like he is that kind of person. No respect for the arts," said Sue.
"Sure, arts," said Kat with a roll of her eyes before taking off and flying over to the house. Kat made everyone a bit of food to keep them occupied and then relaxed until an hour and a half later when Bodeir Sr showed up. Kat was quickly tasked with explaining what happened while they were out, and she gave a detailed account of everything she was involved in. Sue added in her own comments when it came to the party Bodeir Jr participated in, as well as what she did while Kat was off with Meng, but otherwise Sue was fairly quite.
"Sue, you my leave if you desire to," said Bodeir when the story was finished.
"Um… are you sure?" asked Sue.
Bodeir gave a slight incline of his head, "I am sure. The information you have provided me doesn't need to be investigated so thoroughly, at least not by myself. It has implications sure… but I will not force you to sit through an extended meeting lest you feel the need to… distract me,"
Sue grinned, "Are you sure you don't need a good… distraction?" Sue saw Bodeir's frown but continued, "I can come to… visit after your talk with Kat is done. I heard about what happened to your wife, and I mean no disrespect when I say that… well… she can't take care of you anymore and I can. You're not likely to see me again, and there's no chance of a child. Plus… getting to fuck someone as powerful as you? That's a rare chance for me,"
"No thank you," said Bodeir with a shake of his head.
Sue looked him over one more time before nodding and leaving the room. This left just Kat, as Lily had passed out after lunch and was currently napping. "What were you thinking when you made that deal with Meng? You've told me what happened, and given me A reason for why, but at that moment… what were you thinking?"
Kat sucked in a breath, "Mostly I was confused and unsure. I grew up in an orphanage, and I know that kids can be adopted by lovely parents, and those parents can love, just as much, if not more, than biological ones. It was quite clear to me that Meng would do almost anything for her children… and Bing became an acquaintance during our little chats so I didn't want to destroy that. Especially not her friendship with Sue… who… well… I won't get too much into it, but she's trying to branch out a bit from her favoured hobby.
Bodeir nodded and gestured for Kat to continue. "It was a hard choice. I just didn't know what would be best for well… anyone. Bodeir already wasn't safe, and fighting right next to him wouldn't be good for anyone, yet just leaving Meng to her own devices didn't seem like the best idea either. I knew she'd be perfectly willing to use Bodeir as a hostage if it came down to it… and while I could kill her without coming to too much harm myself… that's not what my contract was about was it?"
"No it was not," agreed Bodeir. "Did you put any consideration into the political aspect of this?"
"Not really," admitted Kat. "It's not that I didn't understand there would be major complications because of this… but more so that I can't understand what those complications even might be. I have no experience with such wide scale political change, or this world in general. I can barely guess at the issues that I've caused and most of those guesses will probably be wrong,"
"I do not blame you for that… truthfully Kat? Even I cannot estimate the fallout from this. Which presents for me a bit of a problem. I don't know how I can best use it, or if I can even turn things to my advantage at all. I do understand, that keeping Bodeir safe for those extra days means you require payment… but I can quite easily ask if you'd accept your payment in the form of granting Meng's family that sanctuary for a month. I likely will not do such a thing… but I could,"
"I understand, and I wouldn't hold it against you," said Kat honestly.
"It's not your acceptance I'm worried about," grumbled Bodeir as he started a new round of questions for Kat.
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