Soul Merger

Rosalina awoke in a very comfortable bed with a very comfortable warm weight on her. That strongly indicated last night had been a success. Unfortunately, her bladder was insistent that she pay for her partying. And that would require getting out of bed. Truly life was unfair.

"Worldly desires trap you again, 'saintess.' A shame," the dragon snickered in her mind.

She ignored the lizard and assessed the situation. The lovely girl on her chest was Akari, and there was no one else in the bedroom. That's right, she'd gone out with Ibaraki and hooked up with some of the bunnygirl hostesses. Which had gone quite well, even if the early portion had been rather expensive. And then Ibaraki had insisted on another round after they'd stumbled back and realized Alissa and Fili had finally hooked up.

Her bladder again reminded her it was time to get out of bed, so she sighed and did her best to carefully slip out from under Akari without waking the woman. And as always she failed.

The catgirl's ears twitched and she rolled off Rosalina before stretching and stealing the remaining covers. "Your turn for breakfast," she muttered as she nestled herself in the remaining warmth. Rosalina snorted. For all the woman's propriety in public Akari could really be spoiled sometimes.

"Well you shouldn't hoard all the bad habits," the dragon sneered.

"A fair point," Rosalina reflected before heading to the washroom.

A few minutes later she was cleaned up and reached the kitchen. Raiel was looking at her with mild disapproval, while Clara was helping Kotori with a word puzzle. The minotaur woman looked up. "I didn't expect to see you up before noon."

"Sadly a dragon merge doesn't free me from human needs," Rosalina said as she started fishing out eggs and tea for breakfast. "Besides, as much as I love being lazy I do need to visit the orphanage soon. I've been too busy keeping up with healing to properly drop by."

Raiel blinked. "Ah, that's right, you had mentioned it before. Um..."

Rosalina started the eggs. "Go ahead and ask. Worst I can say is no. Fili's the one who's technically your boss anyway." Not that any of them were paying too much attention to that. Raiel was the least dangerous of their group by a fair margin.

"I was wondering if we could accompany you," Raiel said. "The furor in the city should have quieted a bit right? And Kotori could use a few people her age to talk to."

The harpy puffed up in annoyance. "I'm not a child, Raiel! I know about all this stuff you're trying to hide from me like 'lotion play' or 'daisy chains.' I mean we escaped from a brothel!" Rosalina noted with mixed concern that the Kotori emulated Alissa and Ibaraki perfectly for the first and second quote. Apparently she had very good hearing.

Of course Raiel turned a bright shade of red and started flailing her arms and wings. "It's not that, and why were you listening in?!"

"Looks like the angel is more childish than her ward in some things," the dragon hissed. He did love poking fun at the other complete souled groups.

Still, Rosalina silently agreed before trying to salvage the situation. "Actually the orphanage in question has a number of older teens, so that's not a terrible idea. Most are starting up their first jobs and considering their first merges. Those that didn't stumble into one accidentally."

"Huh, sounds like a good place to visit then," Clara replied. "If they're okay with having people drop by I'd be willing to join up. We've got free time after all the cash we pulled in after all."

"It'd probably be good to have another person," said Akari as she walked out of Rosalina's room. Her languid air had been replaced by the serene shrine maiden persona, despite the fact that everyone in the room knew where the catgirl had been. "While my presence as a tamer should make it clear Kotori is no threat, having a very large minotaur merge is probably better at making the public relax about monsters in their midst."

Kotori rustled her feathers. "That does sound nice. It would be good to get out."

"Should we ask Alissa and Fili as well?" Rosalina said as she flipped the eggs. It seemed like the polite thing to do. Even if she imagined they were busy being awkward and flirty,

"They left a bit ago," Kotori replied. "Something about getting new sheets and breakfast if I heard them right."

Rosalina smiled. "Oh, that's a good sign. Well we'll let the new couple have some more time alone. They'll probably need at least one or two more awkward conversations anyway. At least now they'll have spent some time getting their thoughts together." And Fili wouldn't be as distracted by Alissa's everything.

"I suppose you were the one who suggested they start with sex?" Raiel asked with a certain amount of judgment.

"Nope, but it was a good idea," Rosalina said as she put the eggs on a plate. "There's no way Fili would take the plunge. Girl has way too many body issues. Only now that she knows it's not a pity date can they talk as equals."

The angel and the dragon both huffed their derision at the idea, but Rosalina didn't budge on that one. "Anyways let's head out after Akari and I finish eating."

It was raining of course, so they grabbed umbrellas, Kotori cursing at the inconvenience of having to use her wing hands. Eventually Clara let the bird girl hide under her own oversized parasol.

Rosalina led the way downtown, then made a turn inland towards the slums. There was no official place for the rundown district the poor were forced to stay in. The shacks and tents of dockworkers and the jobless shifted around day by day. But they congregated here near where part time work was common. And the orphanage sat just inside the area.

It was an open building in one of the stranger pre fall styles, but centuries of occupants had added wooden panels to fill the missing wall bits, and even windows in a few spots. Meanwhile the bottom and top floors had been layered with dirt and plants allowed to grow in order to give the kids somewhere to play.

Right now the bottom floor was mostly younger teens with a couple of the older ones looking after them. Of course as soon as their group started getting closer the kids all focused on them. Rosalina waved in return to some of the more enthusiastic kids. But most of the attention was on the new arrivals.

She carefully sidestepped the wave of kids as they got onto the grounds proper. "Hoarding all the peace and quiet," the dragon thought at her.

"I'm letting them hoard the attention."

The biggest group surrounded Raiel, which seemed to give the woman mixed feelings. "Are you really an angel?" "Yes." "What kind?!" "Just a minor angel, I-" "Can you do any miracles?" "Well-"

Meanwhile Kotori had another crowd which was at a more reasonable distance back. Akari was doing her job pretending to be a more active tamer, but the harpy was preening anyway at all the attention. "She's a real harpy isn't she?" "I am!" "Is she dangerous." "You better believe it." "She's had her soul altered to only slay the evil and unworthy, but she's still a dangerous person like any delver."

Lastly a couple had moved over to Clara. Older kids, looking to see if the woman was a good connection for a possible job. Or a date, guessing from the one guy who was looking her up and down. If she remembered right the guy was too young for Clara to give him the time of day. Oh well, one of the joys of youth was dreaming impossible dreams.

The commotion drew more people to the area, and Rosalina took a step back as Olivia arrived. The middle aged lizardkin woman who ran the orphanage was looking healthy, but worried. She still had her tail, which meant there wasn't a food shortage, but something was obviously not quite right. Rosalina took another step away from the kids so they could discuss problems in something like privacy.

She kept her expression and voice cheery once the woman was close enough for a proper greeting. "Olivia. Still ravishing as ever. My apologies for being so busy recently. I really did miss visiting, but there was a lot of work."

A smile flitted across the woman's face. "Always a charmer, Rosalina. I am glad to see you personally. But we also have a problem we could really use a priestess for."

"What is it?" Rosalina asked. "I hadn't heard of any diseases breaking out."

"It's not that." Olivia lowered her voice. "There's been someone kidnapping children."

Rosalina felt her blood crackle at the news. "Explain."

"We think it started a week ago," Olivia said. "At first it was just some of the gangs losing members. No one really took notice. But then some of our kids vanished, along with the children of some of the dockworkers. People that shouldn't just vanish. And it's not little kids being taken. It's older teens. The ones that should be out looking for jobs and planning their merges."

"Damn." Rosalina immediately saw the problem. "And because it's older kids, no one's looking into it. They're just assuming it's a couple of runaways."

Olivia nodded sadly. "Normally I'd have asked the Crimson Maidens or one of the other church groups for help. But they're all busy either rebuilding or cleaning up the mess that the Outbreak caused. You're the only person left I could think to ask."

Rosalina took the woman's hand. "I'll help you. I promise." She'd be damned if she let something terrorize the streets of her city and strike at the people. They'd find the culprit and end them.

Within her the dragon rumbled in agreement.