Wynter awoke. A pleasant warmth at her back. She cracked open one sleep sealed eye and recognized the plain decorations of her room in the boardinghouse. There was an arm thrown casually over her, the hand splayed between her breasts. The mottled grey fur on the arm, where it wasn’t covered in old and new blood, filth and unmentionable fluids, was a lighter grey than Wynter’s own with a gleam of silver mixed in. Wynter felt her heart beat faster as a scowl set in. That splayed hand that held her so tight had two fingers that didn’t bend right. The gorgeous fur on the arm was thin and dull as fresh gouges competed with old scars. If this single thin and frail arm had wounds like this, what must the rest of her be like… Oh… Stacy!

Memories of last night flooded in. Wynter trembled in barely suppressed rage. She wanted to go back and resurrect the bastard, just to kill him slowly. Then do it all over again until the sun grew dark…

Gently, lifting the arm, Wynter pulled away to stand beside the bed. She was almost afraid to turn and see what had been behind her. Who had been behind her?

It was worse than she had thought, could possibly have thought. Stacy’s face had swollen overnight, one eye closed with a trickle of blood seeping from under the lid. Her lips split and swollen. Scars and fresh claw marks everywhere on a body so thinned from starvation as to be drum tight skin stretch across bones. Even the bones were damaged.

Wynter dashed down the hallway and started the tub running. Getting it warm, but not hot, she found the unscented soaps and clean clothes. Then setting the drain to trickle away to match the low flow of fresh water. Wynter returned and lifting Stacy settled them both into the warm clear water that turned muddy brown as Wynter gently worked away the filth. Only then becoming aware that the unconscious woman seated in front of her was at least a hand taller than Wynter.

Small moans as she pressed a bit too firmly let Wynter know Stacy was awake. Opening her [Empathy] she saw Stacy was all over the place emotionally. This swipe of the soapy hand towel brought comfort and peace, but just a second later a similar swipe brought stark terror.

Remembering helping her Mother with the younger children, Wynter started humming old lullabies, she didn’t know the words, but the tune was what was important. Remembering the Bastard’s Use of Stacy last night, Wynter feared a possible pregnancy. Calming Stacy in advance,

“Shh… Just relax. I won’t hurt you. I just have to clean you, inside. Okay?”

The barest nod of a head without a whisper of sound. Wynter gathered her mana, sending in first across the outside of Stacy, the waves of Shadow gently pushing away any remaining dirt and matted fur. Then gathering a thread on mana Wynter pushed it into Stacy as she had a rusted lock, feeling her way around, even here there were scars and fresh wounds. The shadow poured inside and removed every trace of the Bastard’s filth he had left there. No bastard child, Wynter was glad to see.

Finally, Stacy was as clean as could be. The wounds remained.

“Stacy? Did you ever learn to Reinforce your body, especially to heal?”

“no…” came a whisper that even enhanced senses could barely detect.

Wynter continued humming, but her mind reached in and grabbed her Psionic Energy as she had her Mana. Pushing a thread out at Stacy. Only to have the thread rebound from the surface of Wynter’s own skin. She pushed, then threatened, cajoled, and even begged, but the thread just would only go so far.

Thinning the thread down to the merest whisper of power she coaxed it to her skin and an entire fingernail’s thickness beyond. In her excitement, the thread dissipated. Wynter started again, only to lose control again. At long last, the thread reaches the length of her thumb and held steady waving above her skin.

Excitement filled Wynter as she pressed the thread down to heal Stacy, only to have the thread dissipate.

“Arrgh! Why couldn’t Manual have been about this, not that stupid [Empathy]?”

Feeling Stacy shaking a bit in her arms,

“Oh! You think this is funny, do you? Well, what about this?” and Wynter’s hands danced across ribs and sensitive flesh as she tickled Stacy into a sodden mass, limp in Wynter’s arms.

“Ah! That’s it! It isn’t me and my energy I need to convince to let my healing in, it’s you…”

Psionic energy flowed out of Wynter and the swelling started going down, the fresh wounds faded, but soon Wynter reached the end of her energy. Notifications flashed

“I’ll do more later, Okay?”

A gentle knock came at the door, and even though it had been locked, the door opened.

“Are you two alright? I detected a high…” Faith stopped, aghast at the now clean figure sitting in faintly brown water, every washcloth and hand towel soiled on the floor. “Don’t you two move! I will be right back with clean towels and something to wear.” Scooping up the soiled towels.

Like a force of nature, Faith whirled out of the room.

“That woman has more energy than anyone I have ever even heard of.” Wynter chuckled.

“Don’t you know?” Stacy twisted to look Wynter in the face, “Faith, and the ones like her, they are the House’s Attention, for lack of a better word. The House is alive and acts through Faith. The house I lived in was less energetic, but Temperance ran a nice house.”

“Is every house alive then?”

“Oh, no!” hearing Stacy’s giggle lifted a weight from Wynter, “Only the larger, nicer, well-loved properties awake.”

A plan settled into Wynter, several plans.

=-=-=-=-

Wynter crumpled the property brochure and lobbed it at the abomination.

“Needs minor repairs and some TLC?”

“Well, it does, I guess.” Stacy seemed the optimist here.

“What it needs is to burn down, fall over, and sink into a swamp.” Wynter shook her head. “Let’s run back to that bakery, those pierogis smelled delicious.”

Wynter couldn’t help but notice that as light and happy as Stacy acted, she was seldom more than a single step away from her, and often held Wynter’s hand or arm.

What did Wynter want? She had never really thought of the future until there wasn’t one. Wynter pictured herself, a Beast Hunter, as Mayor, a Colonel, as Sensei to grey-furred children, even as a scholar and teacher to Stacy and her children… What did she really want? And why did Stacy appear in her future images?

Such thoughts… Enough! Right now she had carmelized pastry wrapped around shredded meat, pungent cabbage, and an abundance of onion and paprika. That was enough to worry about.

Stacy stood to drop their plates in the bin to be washed. Wynter watching her walk. She was so pretty now when she got meat on her bones she would be gorgeous indeed. She needed to replace these plain things and get something cute for Stacy. No, no… To distract herself Wynter checked her notifications,

New Skill Learned – Psychic Energy Manipulation

Control of your Psychic energy in and beyond your body

And

New Spell Learned – Psychic Healing

Heal others at 6PP per HP

Other Healing as skill progresses

She was coming along. Opening her stats, the first thing she did was to accept a pending class change,

Titles: Bunker Buster

Name: Wynter

Race: Beastkin – Felidae (Shadowcat)

Age: 18 (March 22nd, 2032)

Traits: Racial – Affinity to Shadows, Racial – Darkvision, Racial – Obligate Carnivore, Racial – Sensitivity to Light, Racial – Natural Weapons, Racial – Natural Armor, Learned – Toughness 1, Acquired – Evasive 1, Learned – Nimble Reflexes 1

Class: Apprentice Martial Artist

HP: 102

MP: 152

PP: 198

SP: 124

AC: 6

Evasion: 16%

Dodge: 26%

STR: 13

VIT: 17

AGI: 20

INT: 18+1

MND: 22

PER: 22

CHR: 6 (18 base)

Luck*: 0

Skills

Small Blades: 2

Hand-to-Hand: 25

::Martial Kick: 17

::Martial Strike: 25

::Martial Throw: 6

Wushu: 4

Ninjutsu: 1

Krav Maga: 2

Armor: 12

Parry: 18

Dance: 18

::Exotic: 16

::Folk: 12

::Martial: 17

Acrobatics: 14

Jump: 11

Climb: 10

Dodge: 15

Evasion: 1

Tracking: 12

Stealth: 24

::Sneak Attack (passive): 13

Survival: 4

Accuracy: 21

Sex: 10

::Foreplay: 9

::Oral: 7

::Anal: 1

::Lesbian: 3

Psionic Arts: 24

::Reinforcements: 24

::External Reinforcements: 5

Psiontist: 14

::Meditation: 13

:: Psychic Energy Manipulation: 3

Shadow: 14

::Shadow Manipulation 12

Inspection – 11

Lore (General) – 5

::Lore (Beastkin) – 3

Professions (0/4)

>none

Spells (4/0/3/0)

>Physical Reinforcement 19 (STR/AGI)

>Vision Reinforcement 16 (PER)

>Health Reinforcement 22 (HP)

>Heal Others 4 (HP)

>Sense Shadows (5MP) 13

>Shadow Step (40MP) 5

>Shadow Armor (1+MP/Sec) 10 (+Armor, +Stealth)

>Shadow Claws (1+MP/sec) 6

Equipment

>Fine Snakeskin Robe

>Platinum Earring of Storage

>Silver Belt of Haste

>Poor Copper Ring of Intelligence

=-=-=-=-