The Heartstone Saga by Archibald Bradford (pdf to ebook reader txt) 📗

“Ooooh, right.” She winked meaningfully at the now-scowling instructor as she spoke in a needless whisper; “This is an ‘Empath’ thing.”

Rather than voicing the word, she mouthed it, as if that would help keep it secret.

Theo let out a huff.

“Ginger, remind me to invite you to my next card game. Finish your soup.”

The redhead gave Nameless a knowing nod, then winked again at Theo before taking her seat.

Nameless made to leave with the instructor, but the bemused man shook his head.

“Actually, no. You come along as well Bennett, it’ll be good experience for all of you. And since you know about Armstrong’s ability, you can back him up.”

Ginger all but leapt out of her seat.

“Yes sir!”

Nameless and the guileless redhead followed the instructor out of the mess hall, their food forgotten.

“When I found out what they had you doing I nearly pitched a fit.” Theo explained as they walked down the stairs; “I imagine you will agree with me when I say that your talents are being underused in your present assignment?”

“I do as I’m told, sir.” Nameless replied immediately, having no desire to step on any toes.

“Heh, very diplomatic of you. Regardless, I’m reassigning you along with another cadet- pardon, another third class operative. You know him, Baron Watts.”

Given how the two of them had butted heads while rubbing elbows at the academy, Nameless wasn’t soon to forget him.

“I do sir.”

“Like yourself, he’s a talented young man with good judgment, but he’s still new.”

“I get it sir!” Ginger tossed from right behind them; “Stick three newbies together so they can catch each other’s mistakes! Though Baron probably isn’t going to like that.”

Nameless saw Theo’s cheek twitch at her words, but he didn’t disagree with her.

“Let’s just say that Aegis Watts could benefit from some, shall we say, emotional support?”

Nameless stifled a groan at Theo’s phrasing, thinking that he ought to attend that card game himself.

“I understand.”

Shortly afterwards he led them into a briefing room where they found Baron and his trio of Raiju waiting, the three blue-furred cat girls absently rubbing up against their bond-mate and each other to maintain a charge in their velvety fur.

Theo wasted no time in spelling it out for them.

“We are ridiculously short-staffed, hence why I’m wearing two hats right now. We’ve had to pull half the Aegis away from other assignments. So you three are heading out to one of the auction houses in the city to relieve the moderator there.”

Even Baron couldn’t hide his surprise.

It was an enormous responsibility.

But Theo kept right on going with the briefing.

“Ginger, you might not know when to shut up but you did hit the nail on the head this time.”

Before he could continue, the redhead jumped on him.

“Hey! I know when to shut-up! Oh, wait, no I see what just happened.”

Accustomed to her chattiness after being her instructor at the academy, Theo stayed on track.

“As you surmised you’ll be working closely together to make sure the job is done right, we can’t afford for monster girls to lose faith in the auction houses, or in the Aegis itself for that matter.” He turned to Baron and gave him a look loaded with meaning before he continued; “As you might know, Aegis Armstrong is a rather gifted individual?”

“An Empath.” The young man said with a nod; “Yes sir, I’m aware.”

“Good. It will make it easier for all of you to ensure the best results for the monster girls that will be in your care going forwards.”

Though he felt put out that they were talking about him as if he weren’t even there, Nameless was distracted by the purring Raiju: two of them had peeled themselves off of Baron and were nuzzling against him.

One of the breeds incapable of speech, the feline Raiju were nonetheless attractive, and having the essentially naked girls all over him in front of their bond-mate felt a bit… inappropriate.

But Baron seemed used to it as Theo gave him the specifics of their new assignment, only reaching out to stroke at the girls’ ears to get their attention once the instructor was finished.

By that point a good deal of Nameless’s hair was standing on end from the static charge and Ginger was very obviously trying not to laugh at him.

With the briefing over, they joined up with the Harpy Celeste and headed downstairs to join Nina, Milly, and Erica.

Given that Myrina and the other Saenga Amazons were much less tolerant of kitty’s nap time than Tiana had been, the Katje for one was eager for the chance to do something other than hang out with her bond-sisters and get her ass kicked.

And when Milly heard about what they were doing, she smiled with genuine enthusiasm, as happy as Nameless to be doing something important again.

“Neat, I’ve never been to an auction house!”

Ginger smiled wide at her enthusiasm; the innocent Minotaur just had that effect on people.

But as they left the Bastion’s courtyard and crossed Divinity Square it quickly became a competition between her and her Harpy as to who could be more annoying.

Though still capable of flight, the yellow-skinned and red-haired Harpy was otherwise quite similar to Paul Fletcher’s Cockatrices; her posture was hunched low to the ground on taloned feet and she had brilliantly feathered wings instead of arms.

And as talkative as Ginger was, her scarlet winged partner was worse.

“-gave my stone to the Aegis at one of the houses! That’s how I met my Ginger-Boo!”

How Celeste could be so oblivious to the irritated look on Erica’s face was anybody’s guess, though Milly didn’t seem to mind the chatter as she nodded along politely.

Nina meanwhile lacked the Minotaur’s patience as she took in the blushing redhead.

“Hey Ginger-Boo, does your bird-brain ever shut