Trying to explain to a somewhat hard-headed Tiliquan woman that, no, you aren’t her friend’s prospective mate—even with the help from the friend in question—had proven to be almost impossible.

I say almost, because if I couldn’t convince someone of the truth then I’d have to worry about my future as a Hearth Demigod. I wouldn’t be able to convince everyone of anything, but if it was the truth, then I should at least be capable of that.

The children had been shooed back to their room, unable to listen in on out conversations except for when Tohn spoke, seemingly unable to lower her boisterous tone below a soft bellow. I hadn’t interacted with a female Tiliquan so closely before, only really coming into contact from afar.

Female Tiliquans were, overall, stronger than their male counterparts. Back on Earth, it wasn’t all too odd for that to be the case with lizards, so for it to be the case here was equally as unsurprising. However, the gap might not be as large as it certainly could be for human males and females.

Tek was a good example. While being male, his body was easily equally as impressive as Tohn’s, and I almost had no doubt at all that he was the better fighter between the two.

I hadn’t ever seen the man fight, but it was just a feeling that I got when I was near to him. He was dangerous to any combat senses that I’d slowly produced over the course of my training, and Rethi could only agree, his own senses far more potent than my own in that spectrum. How strong, was a totally different conversation altogether.

“So,” Tohn said warily, “you aren’t courting Lauka?” I sighed at the large woman, shaking my head in the negative.

“No, I’m not. Relationships of any sort,” I emphasised before the woman could yet again bring up the capacity for being ‘sexual companions’, “are rather low on my priority list right now.” Lauka rubbed down the length of her snout in exasperation as Tohn squinted right at me gratuitously.

“Are you too old, or too young? I cannot tell with humans.” She said, actually surprising me for a moment. I guess it’d only make sense that someone from another race would have difficulty identifying what aging looked like in humans, just as I’d probably have trouble telling a young adult from a middle aged Tiliquan.

“Too young, Tohn,” Lauka groaned, “too young for even you.” The large Tiliquan whipped around, turning her squinted gaze to Lauka’s defeated form.

“What do you mean?” She growled back, “I look for their spirit of heart! Their age is not important.”

“Except that everyone you’ve ever slept with is at least five years younger than you.” Lauka responded, deadpan. Tohn snorted, her face morphing slightly into a feral grin.

“It is not my fault that the older ones are shit in bed.”

I blinked heavily, trying to wipe that little tidbit from my mind as best as I could, along with the… graphic emotions Tohn’s mind slyly pointed towards with a little primal glee. I placed a hand between the two of us, reaching over the table towards the powerfully built Tiliquan.

After a moment of questioning glances, she took my remarkably thin hand in her own grip, only the actual span of my hand was comparable, though her own fingers and palm was thicker and broader, filled with a muscular power that was probably hard to produce even on a Tiliquan.

I gently shook the woman’s hand, though Tohn had other plans. She began to increase the pressure on my hand throughout the gently shake, but was bewildered to find that I didn’t even react to the increase in her grip. To a normal person, I have no doubt that the rigid scales on her hands would feel like plates of stone, grinding at their hand in a vice-like grip.

But for me, this was pretty standard. It’d take a metal hammer for me to really feel any pain, or for it to effect my body at all. I’m not the hardiest creature around, I can just regenerate from most injuries to fast that it didn’t really matter.

I let the handshake come to its resolution point, with Tohn trying to subtly increase the pressure even still, trying to get a reaction out of me.

“I’m Maximilian, or Max.” I smiled as I gave the woman’s hand a powerful squeeze, “Nice to meet you.”

Tohn almost jumped from her chair, her eyes widening explosively as she glared at me. That squeeze I’d given her hand may or may not have been far more powerful than anyone with my relatively slight physique would be capable of. I maintained my pleasant smile as I tugged my hand back from the woman’s own powerful grip.

Lauka looked between the two of us, unsure whether she should be preparing to protect her house from being destroyed, but Tohn’s expression devolved into something far scarier to her. Far, far scarier.

Lust.

I wouldn’t have realised that expression if I didn’t have the literal ability to feel both of their emotions. Apparently, at least to Tohn, a physical challenge wasn’t all too different than a request to bed her. Instead of dealing with the viciously grinning Tiliquan, I instead decided to sidestep that entire conversation altogether, forcing a topic change with clear intentions.

“Tohn,” I said, my tone breaking her from her somewhat lusty mindset, “you know of Lauka’s… extra-legal activities, yes?” It was formality, because of course she knew, but the other woman took a moment to school her expression and nodded her head deeply. Her face wasn’t quite as broad as Teks was, and that certainly made him look more impressive, but the sleeker facial structure did a good job of making her look more exacting, or sharper even.

“Sure.” She said, shrugging nonchalantly, “Just about everyone does something a little outside of what the guard and the Officials would like us doing. What’s your point?” I was about to open my mouth to correct her, but Lauka got there before I did.

“He’s talking about Shed, Tohn. Gang work, not petty crime.” Tohn looked at me lengthily, peering down her snout, letting her tongue creep out the side of her mouth and lick over her scales quickly before returning to the mouth. A long, blue tongue.

I’d never gotten a good look at a Tiliquan’s tongue before, usually flicking out of their mouth and back inside within moments when they thought no-one wasn’t looking. A blue tongue, though? That sounded a lot like a native species in Australia, which honestly wasn’t too surprising seeing as the climate out to the west would probably be similar to what you’d find in Australia, back on Earth.

I pushed down the strange nostalgia as I began to feel the wave of sadness that laid beneath, instead choosing to focus on the conversation as Tohn spoke loudly and clearly, though more cognizant of just who might be listening in on our conversation.

“And why would you be needing someone that works for Shed?” She asked, cutting past the few questions I’d have thought would be required, but it seems that Tohn was sharper than she really let herself show. I contemplated my words for a moment. I could certainly go for the moralistic angle, like was more effective on the sappy higher class, or the purely academics that some of the others were more interested in. But when someone lived like this…?

“Because I’m changing things.” I said simply, looking to the Tiliquan woman who I was apparently having to explain this to now, rather than the true subject of the conversation.

“And you think you’re the one who can do it? Unlike the rest who’ve tried?” I tapped the table twice, raising an eyebrow at the woman.

“And how did they try, exactly?” She snorted hard enough that I could feel the rush of air pass over my outstretched hand.

“Kill Shed, kill Kout, take ‘em over and build a gang powerful enough–” I held up a hand, stopping her mid-sentence.

“Yet Haedar Kout and Shed are both still alive and probably doing better than ever, seeing the economic growth that Crossroads’ experiencing.” Twenty percent in three years is ludicrously good odds, hence why Brauhm’s best and brightest are sending out their little envoys to insert their tendrils into more succulent ground.

“But if they did die, someone could do it.” She said, “Someone could take command and organise them into something more powerful.”

I shrugged, letting my neutrality show. Technically she wasn’t wrong. Technically it was feasible. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I could give it a fair crack. But inserting myself as a leader like that was a terrible idea, especially since I can’t stay, not in the long term.

“Sure. It could work, but let’s confer with an expert, shall we?” I turned to look at Lauka, Tohn’s own piercing eyes following shortly after, “Lauka; If Shed were to be assassinated before, say, midnight tonight, what do you think would happen?”

I felt the air in the room go a little colder, even Tohn’s gaze flickering over to me after a moment, observing me after the strangely real proclamation. Lauka’s eyes flickered nervously, swallowing with a spike of anxiety.

“I, uh, I can’t say for sure–” I waved my hand again, shaking my head with it.

“Give me your best estimate, just what your gut goes with.” She stopped, grimacing uncomfortably before nodding slowly.

“Well, depending on who they are and what they want, I think it’d all be various shades of bad.” She struggled with her thoughts for a second, consternation showing starkly on her reptilian features as she starkly contradicted her friend, “If they were human, they’d never be able to keep it together, and if it were a Tiliquan, all the Gek wall runners would leave in an instant.” She shrugged towards Tohn apologetically.

“Wall runners?” I asked. It sounded like a title, but not quite as vaunted as a Shadow Walker or a Peace Bringer was.

“Wall runners are Gek thieves and cutthroats.” Tohn elucidated for me, “Tiliquan criminals find them to be distasteful.” I nodded, inspecting the atmosphere between the two women. Tohn wasn’t particularly happy in being called out like that, but seemed somewhat understanding of Lauka’s analysis. It was a little bitter, though.

“So,” I said, breaking the stale atmosphere, “basically if someone were to kill Shed, the gang would fall apart, unless they were totally unrelated, and even then, they would have to show they had what it took, or be scary enough to command it. What’d really happen then?”

“Shed’s second would take over, Kant.” Lauka looked like she’d almost throw up just thinking of the man, “he’d sell out immediately, probably even worse than Kout, and then we’d be just as fucked. Someone will probably splinter off, but Kant, as Yellow-nail, will crush them with the weight of Shed’s name and resources.” The woman deflated as she continued, her body crumpling in on itself as she voiced her understandings.

Though my own did not.

“Then the only ones who could maintain gang without having it fracture and fall apart would be either someone overwhelmingly powerful, or someone with a crazy high reputation.” She nodded succinctly.

“A Shadow Walker, or something.” Tohn growled, distaste at the name, even if there was a slight respect for the fear the name commanded. I nodded along.

“I have one of those, at least for now,” Tohn whipped around to look at me, eyes wide and dangerous, “however, I think it’d be an… unfortunate decision to make.” Lauka swallows roughly, thin lips quivering with the amazing fear that I’d managed to inspire with just that sentence.

“You have a Shadow Walker?” Tohn intoned deeply, her voice rumbling deeper than even my own was likely to go without really pushing it, “Are you pulling off the lizard’s tail?” Internally I admired the saying, even if I didn’t outwardly react to it. Apparently lizards—the actual lizards, not the humanoid Reptilia—are, or were, a large part of the average Tiliquan’s diet while outside cities like Crossroads. They had a lot of lizard focused analogies.

“Technically an ex-Shadow Walker, but a competent one all the same. It seems that he has a reason to stick with me and my group, even if he despises us, and so I may as well make use of him while he’s around.” I shrugged the rest of Tohn’s burning questions away before turning to Lauka once again.

“So who, exactly, would fit the second category? A reputation that proceeds them enough so that they’d actually be a significant successor to Shed can’t be easy to find.” Shed was a well-known man, after all. If you wanted something kept safe, it was easier to forever hold it as a secret for the rest of your life than it was for Shed to know about it, regardless of the protection you put around it.

“I–” She began, but rubbed at her forehead roughly while she thought, “I honestly couldn’t say. I don’t really know the legends as well as some of the others do. Most of the Gek come from Vahla to the east, and that was like a whole different world to Crossroads. It’s where Shed came from in the first place.” I let the woman think for a moment, racking her brain for any idea of someone who could match Shed’s reputation, and coming up with solid blanks.

But it wasn’t her that came forward with an answer. It was Tohn who spoke first, a reluctant distaste sitting in her mouth even as she considered saying the words.

“I know one who might.” She said, her voice low and quiet, something rare enough that it pulled Lauka’s attention instantaneously, “I remember legends from when I once worked with other Tiliquan brutes, mostly just bodyguard work for Shed’s protected establishments.” She sighed, crossing her arms over her chest even more tightly, pushing against her chest enough that the slight breasts that both Tiliquans and Gek seemed to share in proportion were pronounced enough to distinguish underneath her clothing.

“Tiliquans despise those like Shed, but some are good enough that we cannot help but respect them for their mastery. There was one of us that had lived in Vahla long ago, trying their chances there for a few years before moving back to Crossroads, even before Shed first arrived.” Tohn wiped over the side of her snout, the hand brushing over her scales with a gentle sound.

“They said that they were surprised when Shed took over and built his gang in Crossroads, because he was alone.” My ears peaked at the wording, looking intensely towards the woman for more. “Shed was never alone when he did things in Vahla, he was always with another person, someone just as good, if not better than him. Able to disappear at the drop of a hat, a master thief. Someone who didn’t need to kill to take what they wanted.”

She swallowed heavily before letting her tongue flick from her mouth to lick at the air in a nervous tick.

“He called her Blue-Finger. The only person that ever became close enough to Shed to be called family. And his betrayer. If it was her…” Tohn sighed powerfully, letting herself deflate just as Lauka had, “Then I guess his older sister would be enough to bring him down.”