We followed Kharie through the village, passing multiple gawking people the entire time. Both of her brothers had decided to follow behind us, probably to make sure we weren't up to anything.
I was walking in the lead with my ladies and Delphia, with Garreth slung over my right shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Valerie and Serena seemed nervous as they followed us, and I noted that they really hadn't said anything since coming here. Actually, I don't think they spoke at all. Kharie herself was only a few paces ahead of us, and she would occasionally look over her shoulder to make sure we were still following, and maybe to also see if we'd try anything. I... may or may not have noticed that she has a nice ass as her tail swished back and forth with her own nervousness, which of course drew my attention.
We soon arrived at the large structure I had noticed as I surveyed from up top. It was the largest building in the village, and was a lot nicer looking than I would have expected. It was made from a combination of stone and wooden boards, the wooden having a yellowish brown tint to it. There was a stone pathway leading to the front door, with two large windows on either side of the door.
"Nice place." I said, and Kharie turned around to look at me, her expression a bit softer than before.
"It is. My father built it himself when he married my mother. She had wanted a big family, and he built accordingly." She said, her tone fond, yet her eyes sad.
"I'm... sorry for your loss." I said, and her eyes seemed a tad surprised as she meet mine once again.
"How do you..." She asked, then shook her head, "I take it he told you?"
I nodded and gestured to the man I had over my shoulder.
"I learned a lot from him. I learned... too much." I said, anger flashing through my mind again at what they had all done, before I took a breath, and continued, "Truly, I am sorry. I couldn't even imagine losing my mother." I said in a solumn voice.
Kharie had initially frowned at my words, but she must have heard the sincerity in my tone, because she gave me a tiny smile that was honestly adorable.
"If you had acted like this when you first showed up, maybe people would be less upset with you." She said with that small smile, before her face became serious once more, "Still, the fact is that you showed up out of the blue with a group of people, and are dragging along someone I haven't seen in months like he's an animal. And I don't even know any of your names besides this nice lady." She finished, pointing at Delphia, who just smiled.
"Right. Sorry about that. It was a bit heated earlier. My name is Elias." I said, and held out my hand to her.
She studied my hand for a moment, before she hesitantly reached out her own hand. I took her surprisingly soft and delicate hand in my, and held it as I gave a slight bow of my head. When I looked back up, I was amused to see her blushing slightly as I held her hand in mine for a couple more seconds, before releasing it.
"It's... nice to meet you, Elias. I think." She said, coughing as she schooled her features, "You already know my name, so I feel like telling you is pointless." She muttered, and I let out a small laugh.
"I'm Cecilia." Cici said, holding out her hand small hand to the woman.
Kharie took it, and they shook as Cici smiled at the woman.
"A beautiful name for a beautiful woman." Kharie said, making my kitten turn a tad pink in the cheeks.
"Your name is very pretty too." Cici said, pulling the uno reverse card and making Kharie blush once again.
"I'm Clarissa. It's nice to meet you, Kharie." Clarissa said as they also shook hands in greeting.
I looked behind me, and gestured to the girls standing behind us.
"Ladies?" I asked, and they both blinked, before they came a bit closer.
"I'm Serena. It's... nice to meet you." Serena said, although she twiddled her thumbs together rather than going for a handshake.
Kharie nodded, and then look over at Delphia, who continued smiling.
"You two look very alike. Are you sisters?" Kharie asked, and Delphia let out a musical laugh.
"Serena is my daughter, dear. Although, I appreciate you thinking that." Delphia said, making Kharie blink several times as she looked at Serena again, and then back at Delphia.
"My apologies... you just look so young and beautiful that I had assumed..." Kharie replied, making Delphia giggle again as she smiled brightly at the woman.
"I'm definitely not young, but I do try to maintain my body and my appearance. Coming from such a beauty like yourself, that means a lot." Delphia said, making Kharie's face turn red.
"Oh... I mean... well, thank you ma'am." Kharie replied nervously, reminding me of how Clarissa acted sometimes.
"I'm... Valeire. Hello." Valerie said shyly, being incredibly cute as per Valerie standards, making me smile.
"Hello to you two. You are..." Kharie said, her eyebrows rising a bit more, "A Dhampir, yes?"
Valerie nodded once.
"Yes." Valerie said, but before Kharie could ask any further questions, Vikoss's annoying ass butted in.
"Are we going to go in or just stand out here doing nothing?" Vikoss asked with irritation from behind us, making me turn around and glare at the man.
"Look, I apologized already, but I'm getting real sick of your shit already." I said with a growl, and the man's face scrunched up in anger, before his sister piped in.
"Knock it off, Vik. Your attitude won't solve anything. You're just making it worse." She said, before she shot the rest of us a look, and gestured towards their home, "But yes, let's go inside."
Vikoss grumbled a bit more, but he didn't say anything more. Rory said nothing, he just seemed to be staring at everyone intently, which was a bit creepy, not gonna lie. Still, with that being said, we all followed Kharie inside of their home, and it was really nice.
Polished wooden floors marked the inside, a large living space just past the small hallway the marked the entrance. There were 4 couches, 2 large tables, and over a half a dozen chairs. We did not stay there however, as Kharie gestured for us to take a right and curve around the living space towards a hallway just past it on the right. We all followed her, moving past several doors until we stopped at one in particular. Kharie opened the door, and led us into a medium sized room with a large table in the middle with 8 chairs on either side of the table, and one at the front of the table. These people actually had a meeting room in their home.
"Please, sit." Kharie said as she unsurprisingly made her way to the front of the large table.
I made my way inside, and pulled out a random chair near the end of the table, and unceremoniously set Garreth in the chair, where his limbs dangled limply off of the sides.
"Don't get comfortable." I growled at him, before moving on, and making my way towards the front.
I sat down near the front, in the 2nd chair closest to the front while Kharie took her place at the head of the table. She looked at me strangely, like she expected me to sit right next to her, but her question was answered a moment later as Cici took that spot instead, with Clarissa taking the 3rd seat to my right. They both scooted their chairs closer to me, and grabbed a hand each with one of theirs. Kharie seemed to understand after a moment.
"So, they both really are your mates then?" She asked, and I nodded.
"Yes. My wife and fiancé, to be technical." I said, and I didn't have to look at Clarissa to know she was blushing.
"Well... we haven't really made that official... yet... but that's pretty much true." Clarissa muttered, and I squeezed her hand gently.
"Once things settle down, we'll make it official." I assured her, and she leaned her head into my shoulder.
"I'd like to know more about this... humans and Beastkin don't exactly get along the greatest, but that can wait." She said, and looked around at everyone else taking their seats.
Delphia sat on our side next to Clarissa, followed by Serena and Valerie respectively. I actually chuckled at how Valerie turned to Garreth that was next to her, and shot him a death glare. After that, Vikoss and Rory sat closest to their sister on the opposite side of the table, with Vikoss continuing to glare at me. I was going to try to ignore it, as someone like him wasn't really worth my anger, but if he said something stupid shit again, his face is going to become well acquainted with my fist.
"Okay," Kharie began once everyone is seated, "First, before we get into why you are all here, I would at the very least like everyone to introduce themselves properly." She said, which was an easy enough request.
It was mainly for her two brother's sakes, as they hadn't been privy to our conversation. We all introduced ourselves by a first name basis alone, while Vikoss begrudgingly introduced himself, and Rory introduced himself a tad nervously. Once that was out of the way, Kharie spoke again.
"Now that everyone can properly address each other, it's time to get down to business. You said you have information on our brother, and it was bad enough for you to suggest we speak privately. Seeing as how you have Garreth with you, someone who was with my brother when he and his group left, I can assume that you have at least met him. I still am not comfortable with how you are treating him... but you seemed pretty adamant when suggesting he has done wrong, along with our brother Raizen." Kharie said, looking at Garreth and raising an eyebrow, "Why is he not moving? I only see his eyes moving."
"I'm using a skill to control his body basically. He can't do anything unless I let him." I said, which caused her and her brother's eyes to widen slightly at my declaration, but I pushed past that, "And yes, your brother and his group... what they did is flat out evil, and Delphia here is someone who was directly impacted by Raizen and his group's actions."
"Bold of you to make such accusations when my brother isn't even here to defead himself! Where is he anyways?" Vikoss asked, and I sighed, as I knew this would be coming.
I opened my Abyssal Storage, and pulled the amulets out of it that Raizen was wearing. I had his and Jerrion's bodies in there as well, but I wasn't going to pull those out in here. I set the amulet on the table, which still had a little bit of dried blood on it, and slid it towards Kharie. Her eyes darted towards it, as well as her brother's, and their eyes opened a bit wider, and their faces began to drain of color.
Kharie reached out a shakey hand, and picked up the amulet. She studied it closely, her hand trembling as she looked it over.
"This... is Raizen's amulet our mother made for him." She said quietly, her eyes going to mine, and I saw what looked like pleading in them. Despite Raizen deserving what happened and more, I felt for her. Still, I wasn't good at sugarcoating, nor would I.
"Raizen is dead, and I was the one who killed him." I said, and it was almost like all 3 sibling's brains had stuttered out for a few moments, before my words sank in.
Kharie's eyes grew wide, and now looked at me with horror, but also a fierce anger in her eyes. Rory gasped as his whole body began to shake. However, it was Vikoss who acted the most violently, or more accurately, attempted to. He abruptly stood up for his chair, his hands cracking the table as he seemingly was making to lunge at me. I wrapped him in my Abyssal Manipulation, and promptly force him to fall back into her chair, which I also wrapped in my power to keep it from breaking or falling over.
"Sit down." I said with authority, my voice containing enough of my own power to make any further attempts at violence stop in its tracks, "I know what I told you all is hard to hear, so I understand your reactions. However, let us explain before you all start to throw hands."
Vikoss looked like he was trying his damnedest to move, but it was no use. Kharie looked on in shock, her face twisted with so many emotions now that it was hard to read. Rory actually was shaking in his seat, looking at me with fear as I saw moisture gathering in his eyes.
"YOU BASTARD!" Vikoss roared at me, his face twisting in rage, looking like all he wanted to do was kill me, and he proved that thought with his next words, "I'LL KILL YOU! I SWEAR I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"
My own rage flared, and I slammed my fit on the table hard enough that even while holding back, my fist went right through it.
"Your fucking brother tormented Delphia and Serena's entire village." I said, my voice a low growl that caused ripples to form from the force of my voice, "They walked in there, took the place over with brute force, and proceeded to work all of the men to the bone, locked up all of the village children in a building like fucking cattle, and raped all of the women they wanted. Your piece of shit brother took all of the women he liked and forced them to do whatever he wanted while throwing the rest to his men. Do you really want to try and kill me over someone like that?"
My words caused all three of the siblings to pause once again, like their minds had to take extra time to process my words for a longer period. My women became defensive, squeezing in closer to me as their eyes darted to and fro between all three siblings. Serena and Valeire looked like they wanted to be anywhere else, while Delphia actually had a frown on her face. I... probably could have eased into this better, but this guy was really testing my patience. He was not a bad guy, but he had a shit attitude, and I wasn't putting up with it.
"That... that can't be true..." Kharie said after a moment, her voice meek, and almost sounding like she didn't quite believe her own words.
"HE'S LYING!" Vikoss screamed, his voice cracking like a prepubescent teenager from yelling so loud.
"He's... not." Delphia said, and when I turned to look at her, she looked pained, but that did nothing to hide the pointed look she was giving me, "Although his tact is something that needs... a little work."
Despite me not regretting what I said, I did look down. I knew chastisement when I heard it. I was man enough to recognize my own faults, and my own lack of knowledge when it came to dealing with people sometimes. Being bedridden your whole life didn't really do much for your people skills.
"WHY SHOULD WE BELIEVE ANYTHING ANY OF YOU SAY??" Vikoss continued screaming his head off, and I was literally moments away from clamping his mouth shut, when Kharie cut in.
"SHUT THE HELL UP, VIK!" She yelled, somehow louder than him, making my teeth rattle.
I've never seen a man close his mouth that fast before, but he did. He looked stunned by his sister's harsh tone, but he wisely listened to the woman, and I didn't even see a single attempt of him trying to speak again as she turned her gaze to Delphia, and then me.
The look on her face actually caused a slight pain to fill my chest. Her eyes were a tad bloodshot now, tears gathering in her eyes that she refused to let fall. I couldn't even tell which emotion was strongest within her right now, but none of them were good, and all of them hurt to see on this women. She, like the other women in my life, had a vibrant soul, but now it was clouded with darkness caused by the pain she was feeling. We all gave her the time she needed to compose herself, but eventually, she continued speaking.
"I... don't know how I feel about you." She said, looking at me directly, "At first, I was skeptical. Then, we started talking and you were very kind to me..." She said, her eyes hard as she couldn't hold back her tears any longer, "And now I don't know if I should hate you or not... but I also can't just ignore your words. Crimes that severe... if they are true..." She said, her voice cracking as she trailed off.
"I understand, Kharie." I said, my tone a lot gentler towards her, "You have every right to feel the way you do. Your emotions are there for a reason... and Delphia is right. I'm not good with this kind of thing... I sort of just... talk." I said, a bit of regret in my tone.
"Eli means well, Kharie." Cici said in my defense, looking meaningfully at the woman, "He's very blunt, and very to the point. He is direct, and doesn't put up with people's attitudes very well. I know your brother is upset... but yelling like that instead of talking will get us nowhere." Cici said, but then her eyes hardened as she stared unblinkingly at Kharie, "That being said, we all saw what your brother and his men did. It was... horrific. The fact that they didn't kill anyone is a miracle, although for some people, and the looks in those poor girl's eyes, death might have felt like a blessing. I know it's not what you want to hear... he was your brother, after all, but it's the truth."
I'm pretty sure I fell in love all over again. Cici never chided me for who I was, nor did she say anything negative to me. She always helped me see things differently, and was always just there for me, having my back every step of the way. I would treat her like a queen for as long as I lived. Well, of course, that included the next person who chimed in as well.
"We all spent time helping the people clean up, and rebuild what we could once everyone was freed. I spent a lot of time with the children of their village." Clarissa said, her face marred with the pain of the images in her head, "Those poor little ones were starved... skin and bones... barely kept alive by being fed the smallest of scraps. When we say it was tragic, that's putting it lightly."
Kharie and her two brothers stared intently at my two lovers when they spoke, Vikoss actually managing to keep his damn mouth shut without my intervention. None of them spoke as their brains worked to understand and possibly accept what they were hearing. Eventually, it was Kharie who spoke next, and when she did, it wasn't towards any of us, but at Delphia.
"Ma'am..." She said, her voice quiet, yet respectful towards the orange haired fox woman, "You said that you were directly affected by my brother's actions. I don't understand why exactly... but you make me feel... comfortable. Will you tell me what you can... please?"
Delphia nodded, and just as she was about to speak, an unexpected voice cut through the mix.
"I... have a suggestion." Rory said, his voice meek, "I echo my brother's sentiments about the legitimacy of what is being said. It's horrible, yes... but I want to verify that what is being said is the complete truth."
As he said that, he reached into what appeared to be a dimensional storage space, and retrieved a small glass vial. He held up what appeared to be a shimmering blue liquid.
"I should have thought of this earlier, but I was... shocked by what was being said." Rory said, and then looked at Delphia, his eyes failing to meet mine. I think he was genuinely terrified of me, "Ma'am... would you be willing to take this? This is something I learned about quite recently."
Delphia looked at the vial skeptically, as did pretty much everyone else.
"What is it?" Delphia asked, and Rory fidgeted nervously as he answered her.
"It is a truth potion, and once injested, those who drink it that are lower ranked than the person who crafted it will be unable to tell any lies until it wears off."