Chương 118: Chapter 114 – The Aftermath

Passion None of this made any sense. She had stopped. The moment Chelsea begged, Passion had gotten off of her. She had not forced anything after that. She had not ignored the words once Chelsea finally said them. She had backed away, confused and terrified, while Chelsea scrambled across the floor and shoved broken rings onto her fingers with shaking hands. So why had Chelsea looked at her that way? Why had Freya appeared as though Passion had done something unforgivable?

Passion sat on her knees beside the bed, still naked except for the towel she had dragged around herself after Freya carried Chelsea away. The fallen servicer remained on the floor where Chelsea's tail had yanked it down. Ivy's robe was twisted under one of its shoulders, and the sight of it made Passion's stomach feel wrong. Chelsea had been enjoying it. Passion knew that. She had seen the way Chelsea reacted to being pinned. She had heard the sound Chelsea made when Passion took control.

Chelsea had told her, more than once, that feeling powerless did something for her. Then everything had changed. The servicer had moved toward the bed. Chelsea's eyes had gone wide. Her tail had done something strange, something fast and clever, and the servicer had hit the floor hard enough to shake the frame. Passion had loosened her hand from Chelsea's mouth out of pure confusion, and Chelsea had started begging. Please get off. Please Passion. Please get off. Passion pressed both hands against her face.

She had gotten off. So why did it still feel as though she had ruined everything? The door opened partway. Three Valkyr looked in and found Passion sitting there on her knees, wrapped in a towel, with the servicer still sprawled across the floor.

"What's going on?" Principle and Duty asked at almost the exact same time.

"I… don't actually know," Passion said.

"I think I did something wrong?" The answer sounded pathetic even to her. Silence filled the doorway.

"Please close the door," Passion said after a moment. Freedom reached for the door.

"W-wait. Freedom, Principle, can you two come in?" Duty looked between them, slightly dejected. She shook her head, and walked away toward her room. Freedom and Principle stepped inside and freedom closed the door carefully behind them while Principle's eyes moved from the bed to the fallen servicer to Passion's face. Passion grabbed her towel tighter around herself.

"What did you do?" Freedom asked hurriedly.

"We watched Freya carry Havoc to her room. It was strange. She was just wearing that weird dragon helmet." Passion leaned forward with her forearms on her knees.

"I tried to engage Havoc. I tried to have sex with her." She looked up.

"I know you two do that type of stuff. What did I do wrong?" Principle looked like she was panicking.

"Wha…why would you think that!?"

"Havoc did a weird mind trick on Freedom where she made her confess it. We've known since she first got here." Freedom gave Principle a grimaced apologetic shrug.

"Sorry," she said.

"We will talk later. What do you want to know?" Principle asked Passion. Passion rubbed at her eyes, trying to force the scene to arrange itself in a way that made sense.

"Well. I don't quite get my issue. Havoc likes to be pinned down and have no control. She told me that. She was enjoying it at first. You should have seen how much she liked it."

"I was here for that one time," Freedom replied.

"Keep going." Principle held up a hand.

"Hold on, actually how can you control her? Her strength far exceeds yours from what I saw on the battlefield."

"One of the secret things. There are times my strength far exceeds hers. So…" Passion paused, her gaze slipping again to the servicer on the floor.

"I had her pinned down. And she was very much enjoying it."

"How do you know she was enjoying it? We heard her crying in the hall," Principle asked.

"She was reacting. A lot. She was moaning. I thought she wanted it. Then I told her servicer to come over and she panicked. I didn't understand at first because I had her mouth held shut, but then her tail knocked the servicer down and I let go. That's when she begged me to get off." Freedom closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the door.

"Oh no. Passion." Passion looked between them.

"What?" Freedom covered her face with both hands.

"Oh you fucking idiot."

"What? I stopped when she asked me to." Principle stared at her, the panic on her face shifting into something colder.

"She could not ask you before that." Passion opened her mouth, then shut it. Freedom lowered her hands.

"You pinned her wrists. You trapped her tail. You held her mouth closed. Then you brought a servicer into it without asking her first."

"But she likes feeling powerless."

"To you," Principle said sharply.

"She trusted you with that. That does not mean every powerless thing you do to her is automatically something she wants." Passion looked down at her hands. The first real crack of understanding moved through her.

"I thought I was helping her." This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"You thought you were doing what you wanted," Principle said. Freedom's voice was quieter, but not kinder.

"And the servicer was wearing Ivy's robe, wasn't it?" Passion looked toward the fallen golem. Neither of them needed her answer. Freedom let out a slow breath.

"You took something that smelled like the person she loves and made it part of what scared her." Passion's stomach dropped.

"I didn't think of that."

"No," Principle said.

"You didn't." Passion gripped the towel until her fingers ached.

"It was supposed to be fun. I confessed. She didn't tell me no or tell me to stop."

"She couldn't tell you no," Freedom said.

"That's the entire problem." Passion flinched. The room felt too small. The bed was still there. The brush was still on the sheets. Chelsea's braid, the dresses, the jewelry, the wine, all of it belonged to a different afternoon now. A better one. One Passion had destroyed because she mistook a reaction for permission and trust for ownership. Principle stood very still.

"Did she look mad?" Passion shook her head slowly.

"No."

"What did she look like?" Passion swallowed.

"Terrified."

"Then stop trying to defend yourself and sit with that," Principle said.

"She was terrified of you." Passion looked away.

"She shared some of those feelings with you," Principle continued.

"Maybe she did. Maybe she would have chosen something with you someday. But you crossed a line before she ever had the chance to choose it. You took away her ability to object and then added someone else to it."

"The servicer didn't actually touch her though," Passion said, though the words sounded weak even as she said them. Freedom's expression tightened.

"Because Chelsea stopped it. Not because you did." Passion had no answer. Passion pressed her hands against her face again.

"I love her." Principle's expression did not soften.

"Then you should have protected the part of her that trusted you." The room fell quiet. For the first time, Passion looked at the whole scene the way Chelsea might have felt it. Not the heat. Not the excitement. Not the reaction that had made Passion think she was right. The wrists pinned. The tail trapped. The hand over the mouth. The servicer crossing the room in Ivy's robe while Chelsea could not say stop. Passion felt sick.

"I don't know how to fix this."

"You might not be able to," Principle said. Freedom pushed away from the door.

"Sorry Passion. We can't really help you. Only you can help you." Principle walked to the door, then stopped with her hand on it.

"Don't tell anyone about me and Freedom." Freedom opened the door. Adriane"I am going to figure this out," Adriane sighed.

"How are you so good at it, Maggie?" The sewing room had become one of the quieter places in the manor. Maggie sat across from her with a half-finished little bear resting in her lap.

"Adriane, I have been sewing since I was six. It's always been a passion. I'm the same age as you." She held up her needle.

"This is my sword." Then she held up a perfect little stuffed bear.

"Instead of slaying the bear I'm making him. That's how you have to look at it."

"Everyone always compares everything to sword fighting for me. It's like they don't think I get other concepts," Adriane said with a laugh. Maggie's eyes sparkled with amusement, but before she could answer, the door opened.

"Miss Adriane," Rachel, the revenant maid said, entering the sewing room.

"You have guests waiting in the downstairs lounge. It seems urgent." Adriane lowered the square of fabric in her hands.

"Thank you Rachel," she replied.

"Let's take a break and go see what guests she's talking about. I swear, if it's Fiona's parents again…" Maggie set the little bear aside with great care before standing. The two women left the sewing room and made their way down the hall at an easy pace. Nothing in Rachel's voice had sounded panicked enough to make Adriane run, and after the last few days, she had learned Fiona had very very loud and demanding parents.

"Hey, have they made a decision on when the next tea social will be?"

"I think the other girls are leaning toward next week," Maggie replied.

"Oh good. I really liked those cakes Helen brought. Any idea where she got them?"

"That shrewd old hag won't tell anyone. She's keeping it a secret so she can be the god of the cakes and let her little cake followers get a taste every now and then."

"You have a very active imagination," Adriane said.

"My mother says the same." Adriane reached the downstairs lounge and pulled open the door expecting, at worst, to find two very loud and vulgar barbarians waiting with some new family disaster. Instead, Freya sat inside. Adriane stopped so abruptly that Maggie nearly bumped into her back.

"Freya?" Adriane asked. Her heart started racing before she understood why. Freya sat facing the side wall, not the door, with a robed figure leaning against her right side. Freya turned and put a finger to her lips before gesturing for them to enter.

"Freya? As in the goddess Freya?" Maggie whispered. Adriane looked to her overdramatic friend and nodded. They entered, and Adriane closed the door behind them. She and Maggie sat on the couch opposite Freya, though Adriane's attention never left the robed figure resting against the goddess's side.

"Adriane," Freya said quietly.

"I hope you are well."

"Why is she here, Freya?" Adriane asked coldly.

"There…" Freya looked down at Chelsea. She removed her helmet.

"There was an incident tonight. This coming off the heels of yesterday where she massacred thousands of people who afterwards she deemed innocents." Adriane's hands tightened against her knees.

"What incident?" Adriane asked coldly again. The question came out controlled, but nothing inside her felt controlled. Freya had taken Chelsea. She had asked for trust, had demanded it in all the ways gods demanded things while pretending there was a choice. Chelsea was supposed to be safer in Valhalla. She was supposed to be trained, protected, and guided. Now Freya sat in Adriane's lounge with Chelsea folded against her.

"Earlier this evening she was nearly sexually assaulted by one of the other Valkyr. It started consensual which is when I stopped paying attention. But then…" Freya sighed.

"I got to her as soon as I could." Maggie gasped and put her hands to her mouth.

"Chelsea…" she whispered. Adriane did not move.

"Have you dealt with the other party or do I need to?" Adriane asked. Her voice stayed quiet, but the rage beneath it was not. Freya had brought Chelsea back broken and trembling, and Adriane was supposed to receive her calmly because that was what the moment required. She could feel the old fury opening in her chest, the same fury that had carried her to end her own father. This time, the danger had come from the people who claimed Chelsea as one of their own.

"That is part of the issue," Freya sighed.

"Let me start by saying I am not trying to victim blame. Please do not think that. Chelsea has certain enjoyments which have been expressed to the other party. This made the other party prevent Chelsea from speaking. It's something she likes. From what I have gathered, she was enjoying it up to a certain point then she very much wasn't. As a defense to what was happening Chelsea switched to…" Freya's head turned toward Maggie, then she said, "Celeste.

Celeste was able to stop what was about to happen, but only barely. To the other party it probably still appeared consensual for longer than it was. As you know though, Chelsea still feels and experiences everything Celeste feels." Maggie was tugging at her ears and digging in them.

"Sound dampening field," Freya explained.

"I figured," Adriane replied. She hated that Freya had a point. She hated it because it did not make the harm smaller. It only made the shape of it messier. Chelsea had walked willingly into something she thought she understood, and another person had carried it past the place where Chelsea could speak. Maybe the other Valkyr had been confused. Maybe she had mistaken panic for pleasure. None of that changed the fact that Chelsea had needed saving.

"Oh, sorry," Maggie whispered.

"My ears were doing something weird." Freya looked back down at Chelsea, and for the first time since Adriane had met her, the goddess looked less ancient than tired.

"Chelsea and I have grown very close and it pains me to see her like this. You know what getting close to this child is like. I am about ready to implode Valhalla and start over and call it Chelsealand or something." Maggie laughed quietly at this. Adriane couldn't. There was already another blade waiting at home, one Freya did not know about. Ivy's brother. The accusation against Chelsea. The way Ivy had looked when she learned enough pieces to begin forming a terrible picture. Chelsea was not ready for that.

Not tonight. Not after being brought back to her mother shaking in a robe and helmet.

"She can't come back here," Adriane said.

"Not in this state."

"Is it because of the elf?" Freya asked.

"It is," Adriane replied.

"Dead?" Freya asked matter-of-factly.

"No," she replied. Freya breathed out a sigh of relief. Chelsea stirred against her.

"Mom?" Chelsea said.

"Mom!?" The sound broke through Adriane in a way nothing else could have.

"Hey Chels," Adriane said. For a heartbeat, Adriane considered using a sleep spell. Chelsea needed rest more than she needed questions. But Chelsea had already seen her. The moment was already here. Chelsea pushed away from Freya and stumbled across the space between them. Adriane rose just enough to catch her, and Chelsea collapsed into her arms with a confused sob that sounded too young for the body she wore.

She crawled into Adriane's lap in the familiar way, curling against her as if the world could be made smaller by hiding there. Adriane wrapped both arms around her daughter and held on. Chelsea kept crying for a while, but the sobs lost their strength quickly. Exhaustion dragged at her harder than grief could hold her up. Within minutes, she had fallen asleep against Adriane's chest, still trembling faintly whenever the room shifted around her. Adriane did not look at Freya. Not yet.

She held Chelsea tighter and stared over the top of her head, one hand pressed carefully against her back. Whatever Valhalla was, whatever Freya meant to Chelsea, whatever duty had been placed on her daughter, none of it mattered in that moment. Chelsea was home. And Adriane was not letting go....... Hey guys! It's Riley. These few chapters have been a bit on the heavy side. I wanted to share a book with you that's a little bit lighter.

I have no idea how I haven't mentioned it in 114 chapters lol Flesh of Gods is one of the most unique, funny, and well written books on RR that is still ongoing. I have been loving it for a while and it just slipped my mind never to mention it until it was its "Shoutout day" Definitely check it out! GOOD stuff!!