All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 86: Good Clean Fun

Bee was just getting back from collecting eggs when Tony finally seemed ready to get up and walk around. Setting aside her basket, she slipped her shoulder under his arm. She half helped and half lifted him up until he was standing unsteadily. After a few tentative steps, she lowered him into a chair as he panted to catch his breath.

"Sorry, seem to be a little out of shape at the moment, need to get some exercise." Tony said with a smile. Bee wasn't really listening as she probed his side with her fingers. "Ah! Five realms your fingers are cold. No, stop that tickles."

"Stop complaining." Bee chastised, swatting his hands away. "It looks like a rib healed slightly wrong."

Bending forward for a closer look, Bee poured her Repair skill into it, and she felt the break realigning itself. From right above her ear, she heard Tony's teeth grinding together.

"Sorry this might hurt a bit." Bee warned too late.

"No, it's fine. Just itches like a million ants crawling under my skin." Tony lied through his clenched teeth as his hands grasped the sides of the chair.

"Just a couple more seconds." Bee coaxed. "Almost there…."

A couple of seconds later, she withdrew her hand. "Okay, take a breath."

Watching his ribs expand, she thought everything looked alright. "How does that feel?"

"A little better. Almost like I can get a lungful again." Tony said after taking a second deep breath. This time when she helped him to his feet, Tony was able to walk all the way around the library with minimal support before needing to rest. While he rested, she cooked a couple of fresh eggs above her alchemy burner.

As they ate, Tony started to look tired, but nonetheless, he pushed through to finish the meal. After a few minutes of silence, Tony raised his head and looked Bee in the eye. "I think I want to bring my family here."

Bee cocked her head at him. "Why?"

It didn't make sense to her. This castle was almost destroyed just a little bit ago. Tony, though, apparently had plenty of reasons. "It's a lot nicer here than at home, for one. Assuming they can use the bedrooms, of course. Also, I think we are going to need more help."

"What about the crop your family is growing? Won't we need that to get through the winter?" Bee asked.

"They should be finishing up harvesting around now. We can bring all the stuff here. Besides, with demons running around, if the mages have abandoned their posts I don't feel like Greg is going to be very safe." Tony elaborated. "Besides, we are going to need the food ourselves. We should have harvested our gardens a while ago. By the time I can get around to it, who knows how much we will get."

Bee was touched. She figured Tony would go back to his family after this ordeal. She had not met many people who would stick around after so much trouble. After nearly dying, Tony really should be more careful. But she did have to admit that he made good points. She was also surprised that no mages had tried to return to the castle. When she first got stuck here, she was certain that rescue would be coming soon. But months later, it never had.

In fact, the only ones to visit the castle were the three adventurers. Honestly, they weren't that good of an experience. Plus, they were so obviously insufficient for the threat posed by the Lieutenant. Why hadn’t the mages even tried to contain it?

Bee set the thought aside and refocused on the issue in front of her. Tony's words about food were slightly concerning. "Tony, I get it, I really do. But you aren't fit to travel yet. In another few days, maybe a week. I would give you more healing aids but much more and they would do more harm than good."

"I can't wait, though.” He scowled down at his clenched fists. “Who knows what's going on in the world? Have you had any news in the last couple months?" Tony asked, starting to get worked up. Bee shook her head. She really had no word from the outside world since the mages left. Tony's family was just as isolated.

"The mages let a cursed Lieutenant free! A Lieutenant! Without even sending an army to fight it. How bad must everything else be out there?" Tony's voice was starting to raise.

Bee was trying to be sympathetic. "Listen, Tony, I know…."

"They’re my family, Bee! We can't just leave them!"

"I know! We won't just leave them. They've survived this long; they can't wait a little longer. I didn't spend every waking second for the past two weeks trying to keep you alive to have you rupture an artery and bleed out on your way home!" Bee shot back. This shut Tony up.

He blinked at her for a couple of seconds before whispering an apology. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound ungrateful."

---

I was glad that the humans had learned to sort things out by themselves. I didn't like having to smack any shins with my grabby arm. I was starting to consider using my spray bottle too, like how I had to train the cat not to knock things off the counter. It was tempting, but it did feel a little insulting.

However, with a few raised words, they could come to an agreement that was good enough for me. Though speaking of the cat... I hadn't been able to get it to come close to me at all last week. The first time I caught sight of it since the battle, I was quite relieved. The thought that it had gotten itself squished had haunted the back of my processor. It was good to see that it had made it through the castle falling down around it without a scratch. That cat was truly impressive.

The relief had worn off though, and I was starting to get slightly offended as it would bolt around the corner whenever it caught sight of me. I just couldn't understand why it was afraid of me all of a sudden. It wasn't like I had done anything mean to it recently. The one time it stayed still was when it was near one of Beatrice's glasses. I had pulled out my spray bottle as a deterrent, but it had looked at me reproachfully before gazing at the destruction all around it.

I sighed internally as I put the nozzle away. It would be hypocritical to scold it while my mess was still fresh around. To my surprise, the cat left the glass alone.

After that strange interaction, the cat seemed less reproachful. It still was skittish around me but returned to its habit of watching me around corners. Oddly enough, I found its presence relaxing. Even when Beatrice was busy nursing Tony back to health, I was never left completely alone.

Still, it was only recently that I found a real way to appease the cat. That was why while Beatrice and Tony were arguing, I was trying to get the cat to leave me alone.

See, a little while back, a moth had flown through one of the holes in the walls. My reaction was instinctive. Even if I could have thought about the consequences of my actions, there would be no way to predict what was about to happen. With a quick check of my combat models, I predicted where the moth was going to be, and with a quick and narrow burst of my sanitation lamp, I shot it out of the sky.

The cat had been watching. Like a mote of dust being whisked from the floor, it launched itself at the little dot my lamp was shining on the far wall. I was forced to shut it off lest the cat cut itself in half by running through the beam. All my use of that mutation had really powered it up. Now if I didn't scale back its power, it would start to drill holes in the stone. Still, it was uber-effective at removing germs.

The second I shut off the light, the cat whipped around in a circle, eyes wide. In an effort to show the cat there was nothing to be afraid of, I turned it on at the lowest possible power and shined it on the ground in front of it. In a flash, the cat pounced at it. Before I had a chance to turn it off, the cat's paws covered where the little circle was. Now it just stared at the little blue light on its paws. It batted at it a few times. I could see its fur start to wither, so I moved it a few feet to the left.

The goal was to let the cat study it so it would evaluate and recognize the threat of my sanitation lamp. I half expected it, but it was still slightly disappointing that the cat wasn't able to figure it out. No, of course it wasn't that smart. Instead of watching the light cautiously like it did everything else, it charged at it and tried to bite it. When that failed, it started to claw at the spot.

Idly I moved it around. The cat followed. Why was this little furry animal afraid of everything, except for the first thing that I found that would actually hurt it?

Ever since then, it would come up to me and paw at me until I shined the light for it to chase for a while. Once the notion that it wanted to chase the light got into its head, there was no deterring it. Eventually, I would give in and let it chase my sanitation lamp for a while. It was just really inconvenient right now in the library when Beatrice and Tony were trying to have a serious conversation.

A slightly too-hard bap hit my upper shell. Giving up, I shined my light for the cat, and she sprinted over to the far wall in pursuit.

---

Bee watched as the orange cat ran over her foot and shoulder-checked the wall so hard that she worried she would have to set a bone. Still, the cat's antics as Void played with it lightened the mood considerably. It was hard to be tense when watching a godly being playing with a cat in such a silly manner.

Even Tony was able to stop worrying about his family for a few minutes and just relax.

Days passed like this. There were moments of tension, but the work to clean up the castle was mostly done. Tony’s health was out of the woods, and there was little to do but worry about things they couldn't control. She even found a deck of cards to pass the time with Tony. Void had seemed interested at first, but once she had explained the rules, the only game it really liked was solitaire.

She shouldn't have been surprised, honestly. Still, the speed at which her master was able to sort the cards into organized piles was frightening. Eventually, they had to stop playing whenever Void was nearby. If it got too close, their shuffles started to somehow put the cards back in perfect order.

That had become a game of itself. Shuffling a deck, placing it on the table near Void, and trying to guess how long before it was back in order. Bee felt slightly bad about playing with her master's power like this, but it didn't even seem to notice.

It was during such a game that the first interesting thing happened in weeks.

Tony was betting that the deck would take more than 5 minutes to sort itself. She said less. Whoever was wrong needed to make breakfast. That's when they heard screaming from the front of the castle.