Well... I'd love to join you two, but another new girl just came in and I want to make sure she settles in nicely." Velt looked to the girl clutching my hand, and smiled a little sadly. "And it looks like Wren here already has a chosen guide." She closed her eyes, smile brightening. "But if either of you need any advice or whatever, feel free to ask anytime... I'm hanging out here cause I like to help people, after all."

"Of course." I looked over to Wren and squeezed her hand gently. "Velt's a good person, you can trust her... she's taken care of me since I moved in here."

Wren nodded a little, and smiled at her. "Thank you, Miss Velt."

Velt waved her hands in front of her, laughing a little uncomfortably. "Ah, we're of the same rank, you don't need to use 'Miss'! ...we're basically all equals here, more or less, Princess Asperia and her orders aside..."

I smiled. "We'll see you soon, Velt."

Wren looked at me curiously as we walked hand in hand towards the cafeteria. "All equals? What does that mean?"

"Well... they each take on certain roles, but it's kind of complete anarchy. Other than serving and obeying Princess Asperia first and foremost, and keeping the harem running smoothly, no one has any specific duties beyond those they choose for themselves. You'll see a bit of it when we get to the dining room... ah, no sex in the dining room, by the way."

"...I don't see how that's supposed to function. How do you have--" Wren suddenly let go of my hand, and grabbed a vase off a little nearby decorative table, and swung it through the air, and it shattered midair, shards of pottery flying everywhere as a knife flying straight at me was redirected off it's path and clanged against a wall.

Two black-cloaked figures which I somehow hadn't seen before were standing in the hall ahead of us, swords drawn. I should have been able to see them, right? Maybe it was some kind of magic.

"I suppose we kill them both, yes?" A feminine voice, from the shorter of the two cloaked people.

"Pity." Also feminine, but deeper, from the taller of the two.

"As if I have that," said the shorter assailant, amused.

"Run, Sasha-- I'll handle them." Wren snaked her ankle around the small decorative table and kicked it up to her hand.

"No, I have a spell for this." Wall. The hall was fairly wide, but if I made the symbol large enough... and there. We were completely cut off. Interestingly, this also cut out the sound... I suppose because it stopped air from travelling.

They approached the wall leisurely weapons still drawn.

"Help!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. Then I grabbed onto Wren's wrist, but she spun her arm around and threw my hand back off of her, shaking her head. "They're nobles, and they're after you. Get somewhere safe, Sasha. I can handle these two until help comes."

Suddenly, a hole opened up in the wall, and through it was two assailants with swords-- ah, Warp? "Why wouldn't they just put it on the wall itself so it's less distance to travel?" I mused, but one of them was already stepping through I was used to having time to think and consider in fights, but everything was happening so fast now.

Wren, perhaps more usefully, stepped forwards to guard the portal they had created, but was quickly driven back by some quick swords thrusts, although she parried by swinging her table and deflecting the blade... and now they were both through, advancing on us slowly, the portal closing behind them.

"Fire!" As I created the symbol, a gout of flame burst into existence, only to flicker against the air-- a weaker Wall spell, judging from the shape. Perhaps I shouldn't have shouted the rune name out loud. I was running through my magical energy quickly with this.

"Weird choice to shout out the rune, but you aren't going to throw my rhythm off," said the shorter one assailant cheerfully.

"Can you make this easier on yourself and surrender, Sasha?" The taller one sounded... regretful, almost. "We might be able to capture you, rather than killing you both."

If I could protect Wren, maybe that was the right choice...?

Wren paused for a moment, hesitating, then suddenly lunged to the side and slammed the table against the taller assailant's weapon arm, smashing it into the wall, and grabbed the sword as it dropped from her hand. She stumbled back, holding her arm.

I had forgotten how fast Wren was. She was always slower than me in my old body, so I hadn't really noticed, since it was just "less slow", but I could just barely track her movements for a moment there.

The shorter assailant stepped forwards to guard her. "Really?" She sounded annoyed, and stepped forwards with an array of precise slashes and stabs with her sword, one after another in a smooth practiced flow from different directions-- each of which was parried in turn in an equally smooth and practiced manner. It almost looked like a dance more than combat. "You're trained in noble sword-fighting," she commented, tilting her masked head to one side. "How'd you pick that up as a fox?"

"How did you," responded Wren, "as someone without a face?" Her voice had the air of nobility even as her fox ears were perked up.

"It's called a mask," said the shorter assailant, testing out another practiced dancing assault before a sudden stab out of tempo.

"It has no sense of fashion," Wren continued archly, parrying each in turn, including the off-tempo stab. "And you have no sense of rhythm."

The assailant laughed at that, continuing to press on the attack. "Oh, I like you, girl. I'd offer to take you as my personal slave, but I prefer them to be alive."

The taller woman got her act back together, and pulled out two daggers-- the first dagger flew at me, but I managed to deflect it with a weak Wall spell which was maybe a bit larger than it needed to be, but I meant to guard against the second-- but that throw was way off, and flew past me.

Behind me I heard a gasp of pain-- looking back, a guard -- judging from the bracelet she was wearing that matched Valentine's, as she was wearing little else besides a ribbon to tie her long red hair behind her -- had taken the knife between her ribs.

"Eyes forwards, Sasha!" commanded Wren, some of her old noble pride back in her voice, and I looked back away from the guard to realize that the taller of our opponents had moved a lot closer, and was wielding a knife now, both of them focused on Wren as they threw practiced strikes at her and she parried again and again, slowly giving ground.

And then I saw Valentine and two other guards coming up behind them, and smiled. "Perhaps," I noted, "It is you two who should surrender. Princess Asperia has often been noted for her situational mercy towards women."

The tall assailant glanced back very briefly. "Valentine and two others, we should go,"

"As long as neither of them can get past Sasha's wall spell, does it really matter?"

Valentine ran up and slammed into the wall spell, which looked painful, like someone running into a hard wall of glass, and she staggered back several steps... but then she just raised her fists and started pummeling against it noiselessly. The other two hesitated for a moment, then ran back the other way.

"...can she break through that with her fists?" questioned the taller assailant.

"If anyone can, it's Valentine. We're losing our advantage regardless, their sword-fox was an unknown factor."

She turned to the wall and another portal opened up, and both ran through it. Wren started to follow them, but caught a dagger in her arm, and staggered back as well as the portal closed.

"Good knife throwing," commented the naked guard as she stepped up beside us, wielding the bloodied knife as her other hand pressed against her wound. I moved towards her, reaching towards her wound, but Wren put a hand on my shoulder. "Probably poisoned, maybe with something esoteric.. We should get an expert."

The guard nodded. "Makes sense. Zince will probably want to hear about this."

I smiled at Valentine through the wall, and she smiled back.

I mimed slithering and fangs, and then two fingers walking over my hand, but she just looked confused-- okay, cross-cultural charades were probably not going to go well, plus Valentine never seemed that tuned into more abstract things. She waved and rushed off.

A few more guards arrived after a moment, falling in line to guard us as we went back towards Princess Asperia's room, where Zince so often presided before.

Sure enough, she was there again, playing with a guard-bracelet around her wrist idly as she stared off into space. She smiled at us all when we arrived. "I'm glad none of you have died yet. Can I see the wounds?"

Wren and the red-ponytailed guard stepped forwards, and Zince looked them over and tasted a bit of their blood. "Not poisoned. No traces of magic, either. From everything I'm hearing, I'm guessing this assassination was opportunistic upon Eve's leaving, rather than something planned carefully in advance. Which means... we probably have at least one traitor in our midst, if not more. We all have to be very careful from here on out, but don't spread word of this to anyone."

I healed the guard first, my hands gently caressing her naked body. Only in the part where she got hurt, of course! But it was like, right under her breast, and felt a bit lewd... heck, she was kinda muscular... and had gotten hurt for my sake.... she was healed, though, and I pulled my hands back, and quickly turned to Wren, taking hold of her arm and healing her too.

"Is Princess Asperia in her room?"

Zince looked to me, and crossed her arms against her chest. "No. She's been alerted, though." ...maybe she was annoyed at me with getting targeted with assassination? Well, more likely, she was annoyed with how I had treated her in comparison with everyone else.

The guardswoman came up and offered Wren her hand, which Wren took hold of and gave a gentle, perfunctory kiss on the back of it.

"Oh. I was going for a handshake, but... okay." The guardswoman was blushing a little. "You're probably the best swordswoman in the harem, I was really impressed with how you moved... I'm Margaret, by the way."

"Wren, a pleasure to meet you. I was a training partner for the young lady I served previously, so I picked a few things up." Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, the fox-girl was glancing around a bit nervously, and moved back to my side.

I took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Thanks for protecting me. I'm sure I would've been kidnapped or worse without you here."

Wren smiled at me with a weird mixture of emotions on her face, and opened her mouth-- only to be interrupted by Valentine wrapping her arms around both of us.

Valentine squeezed us very gently. "I'm so glad you're okay! I was really worried, they must have serious magical power to put up a Wall spell like that."

"...actually, that was my Wall spell. I didn't know they knew Warp."

Valentine kissed the top of my head. "Either way! Is it okay if I hang out with you until Princess Asperia gives us new orders?"

"...wait, um... Valentine? ...the Valentine? The gladiator?" Wren was staring up at her, looking a little starstruck.

Valentine leaned down and kissed her on the brow, causing her to blush furiously. "The exact same! Nice to meet you-- Wren, I hear? I hear you're really skilled, we should spar sometime...or test our bodies against each other in some other way, if you prefer...." Her voice immediately became suggestive, almost half-joking, but I don't think it was entirely a joke.

Wren made a soft incoherent noise.

"...Valentine, they both nearly just died, you don't need to flirt with them right now." Zince was sounding exasperated.

"Life is fleeting," said Valentine stoically. "Flirt while you can."