After returning to Platshire, the party traveled through the street they had left by. When they returned to the scene of their fight, they found that the area was clean. The body and blood was gone, as was Evie’s vomit. Romulus bent down where he had lifted the rocks from the ground while flexing his power at The Assassin earlier.

Romulus was clearly surprised, “They… The rocks, dirt, everything. It’s like nothing happened here.”

Elena walked to her brother and placed a hand on him, while watching Evie pace about the area. She was searching the area, clearly trying to find any sign of what they’d done. After a few moments, she stop momentarily, place her hands on her hips, mumbled something to herself, then turned to the siblings.

“Well, ‘bout time I hit the ol’ dusty trail…” Evie exclaimed while stretching her arms high into the air. “It’s getting a lil’ late and Iiiii have a date. Have fun you two, take it easy.” She then turned to leave and began to take a step when she felt a pull at her sleeve.

Evie jumped slightly.

“WHAT the…” She turned to see Elena holding onto her sleeve.

Elena was clearly upset. “We’re supposed to be a party, we have a quest now, we stick together.”

Evie brushed the small hand off of her clothing gently enough to not seem rude. “Look, It’s already getting late, the trek back took way longer than we expected, and I have someone waiting for me. So, You two do your thing, and mayyybe we’ll be in touch.”

Evie walked off leaving the siblings behind at the scene of the crime, trying not to seem too hasty as her pace slowly quickened. “Don’t worry, Sis, we’ll find her tomorrow,” Evie heard from behind.

“Fat chance, whatever the fuck happened I want nothing to do with. Whoever fixed up that scene is TOO good.”

Evie made it back to The Cat’s Pride, to find it had been changed to a Cyberpunk Aesthetic, with a large “Club Cat’s Pride” sign out front. Lights could be seen flashing from inside, but no hint of sound was heard while outside. Evie approached as a couple was leaving, laughing and stumbling over each other, clearly under the influence of at least three substances. One held the door out for Evie as she approached. She walked through the doorway to be hit by the sudden, yet gradual wall of sound that smacks you in the face while entering Kiira’s establishment. Evie’s implants then adjusted the sound to better accommodate her ear drums.

It didn’t take long for Evie to find Kiira. A tall Elven woman with bright shining eyes, white hair, and light blue skin. She liked to call that form her “Night Elf” form. What a Night Elf was, she couldn’t be sure of. Kiira had told Evie she was a Tarnan, much like Dudakiis, but Evie had spent plenty of quality time with Kiira to know that she was definitely the superior shape shifter.

Tonight, Kiira was wearing a rich looking black and white suit with glowing blue inlay, white gloves, a leather leaf necklave around her neck, and dark sunglasses barely hiding the literal light coming from her eyes. Evie’d spent plenty of time staring deeply into those eyes, always surprised by the fact that the bright stars she would gaze into would never sting her eyes, despite it being like staring into a soft sun.

She was helping the busy staff prepare and carry drinks and food to the patrons around the club, all while a cyberpunk-themed metal band played on stage. The frontman was a tall man with long dark hair, sunglasses, and a fully cybernetic left arm. For someone who claimed to never be attracted to men, something about this particular one in his tight black tank-top kept Evie’s attention for much longer than expected.

A gentle touch on her right shoulder brought Evie back to her senses. She turned to her right, but nobody was there. She turned to her left, running her nose straight into a long pointed finger.

“BOOP!” Kiira exclaimed.

Evie couldn’t stop herself from chuckling. “Hey, Babe.”

Kiira folded her arms across her chest and looked Evie up and down. “You’ve been fighting again… Good Girl,” she teased. “Now, get out of those dirty clothes. I’ve got a nice little outfit picked out for you, it’s in the dressing room, you’ll love it!”

“Sorry, Ki.” Evie sighed. “Today was interesting to say the least, I think I just need some rest. Are you good with us just holing up in your room tonight?”

Before Evie had even finished her sentence, Kiira was already signaling one of her employees to take her place.

“Of course!” Kiira grabbed Evie’s hand without hesitation, and began leading her away from the party that was filling the building. After climbing the stairs to the second floor, and through the hallways, they arrived at Kiira’s room.

Where all the other rooms had the same plain doors with numbers nailed to them, Kiira’s door was made from the same wood found in the Panbaum forest. Dark with glowing blue inlay. There was no visible way to open the door, which was Kiira’s favorite part.

Kiira let go of Evie’s hand, raised her left hand, and snapped her fingers. The blue inlay of the doors glowed, and they swung open to the cluttered mess that Kiira seemed to prefer living in. A total contrast to the rest of Kiira’s establishment, which was was (almost) always clean and organized.

The bedroom had blue wallpaper with white clouds, and covered in vines with purple and blue flowers. It was a mess of seemingly random objects, decoration, and ancient technology. She’d asked Kiira about some of her things before, most of which were old relics of Human civilization from back before The Arrival. Kiira had always been a sucker for old Human pop-culture. Many of the objects strewn across the floor were seemingly random objects with no real pattern to be seen.

“Junk.”

“When are you going to clean this place?” Evie asked.

Kiira was picking up some belongings and dumped them on a chair. “I have been… Kinda…”

Evie noticed that the vines wrapping around the room were beginning to look a little more overgrown than usual. She heard a snap, and turned to find Kiira dressed in blue and white pajama pants and a black T-shirt with a stylized pirate face on the front. She still wore her leather leaf necklace, no gloves, and she was barefoot, of course.

“Well at least you look the part.” Evie giggled.

“Huh?” was the reply.

Evie spread her arms gesturing to the room around them. “This place always felt like some kind of 2000s teenager’s bedroom like you see in old movies.”

Kiira ignored the comment and gently pushed Evie’s arms down. “So? Anyway, what’s wrong? What happened?”

Evie began to go into full detail about everything she’d gone through since waking up in Camelot, leaving out the whole taking-drugs-from-a-solar-mob-drug-trafficker thing.

Evie had always had great memory, aided by her implants, so it wasn’t very hard to give Kiira the rundown. By the time the story was over, they were naked, laying in bed, Evie’s head on Kiira’s chest, Kiira running her fingers through Evie’s hair.

“I didn’t notice until now, but your door, it’s the same wood as the Panbaum’s,” Evie said pointedly.

Kiira looked away a moment, pursing her lips. “Well I’ve been here since the planet was first settled, of course I’ve had at least SOME contact with the cute neighbors next door.” She chuckled.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone!? This is huge!” Evie sat up quick to look Kiira in the eyes.

“I’ve known since the planet began being colonized. It didn’t take long after the establishment of Platshire for them to come to me, though. We made a deal. I don’t reveal them to the general public until they feel safe enough to do so, and they get to be my secret security in the town. Their payment? Information and my connections. I never expected it to take them THIS long though. No use in hiding it from you, of course. How they knew of your little friend is beyond me.” Kiira was staring past Evie now, thinking deeply on Evie’s day.

Her eye’s finally found Evie’s again, a worried look within them. Kiira put both hands on Evie’s cheeks. “Don’t worry, Momma Ki is on the job!” She teased. Evie sighed.

Kiira kissed her for a long moment on the lips. Evie could feel the butterflies fluttering again. They laid back down to cuddle, and Evie began feeling herself slipping into unconsciousness.

“Get some sleep, Babe,” Kiira whispered, “We can figure it out tomorrow.”

Evie only hummed a note in reply, and was asleep.