Jen opened her eyes groggily, and found herself seated upright in a bed with a nondescript medium sized woman sitting in front of her. Through the fog of just waking up, she looked around, finding Sam, Tamako, and even Slim lying in beds around her, and asked the woman, “What happened? Why aren’t they awake? Are they O.K.?”

Lady Domino learned from Captain Wager that Jenasta was the leader of the group. Lady Domino figured it would be easiest to explain and apologize to her before waking up everyone else. Lady Domino replied, “Mistress Jenasta, I am Lady Domino. Everyone is in perfect health and will be awake soon. What is the last thing you remember?”

“I can heal them! Give me a few minutes.” Jen activated her onboard, and her AI started interacting with Tamako’s and Sam’s AI, even though they were still asleep.

Lady Domino replied, “I need to apologize to you and your friends. You can’t heal them, because they are just asleep. I will wake everyone up in just a moment, and you are all free to take your share of the loot, and go and do whatever you want, but I would like for you to hear me out.”

Jen’s mind was coming out of the fog as she communicated with Tamako’s AI, and learned everything that happened, and demanded, “Wake my friends up right now. I don’t want to hear anything from you until they are O.K.”

Lady Domino sighed at Jenasta’s response, and said, “If that is your wish, just give me a moment.” She noticed Jenasta getting up out of the bed, but Lady Domino allowed it, hoping she could work this out amicably. Lady Domino pointed to the cat first, and asked, “Who’s the cat bonded with? I don’t want to wake him up, and have him immediately try to attack me. I would have to defend myself, and I already need to apologize to all of you, and don’t want to add a dead bonded animal to my debt.”

Jen replied, “Wake him last, I don’t want any injury to come to you either, not yet anyway.”

Lady Domino bit her tongue at the woman’s insolence, but let it go, and simply asked, “Who do you want me to wake first?”

Jenasta nodded, “Make-it Take-it is right next to you. Just wake her up, then move over and wake up Slam.”

Lady Domino took her time with sprinkling several worthless powders and potions on Make-it Take-it, as she explained, “We found some spies in Domino Hill that sold the design plans for the pass-wall to the goblins. When I arrived, I wrongly suspected that you and your friends were part of the planned sabotage of the wall. After we drove off the goblins, you and Slam were still asleep from the goblin’s attack, and I then immediately dosed Make-it Take-it and the cat with a sleep potion as well. Then, while I worked on negating the effect of the Goblin’s sleep potion on all the other defenders, Captain Wager brought me up to date on everything you and your friends did for our City, and the defense of the wall.” After she finished her bare-bones explanation, Lady Domino pulled out the actual antidote to the sleep potion, and poured some onto Make-it Take-it’s lips. She then moved over to wake up Slam.

Jen made sure that she was the first person Tamako would see when her eyes opened. Tamako’s AI brought her up to date on everything very quickly, but she was pissed! Tamako jumped out of her bed, and said, “Let’s get out of here and away from these ungrateful people!”

Jen could sense that Tamako was very upset at being tricked, and she also felt the blame for her and Slim getting knocked out.

Lady Domino replied to Make-it Take-it’s outburst as she worked to wake Slam, “I understand why you feel that way, but I can assure you that we are very grateful for your help. It is my suspicious and untrusting nature, that you should be upset with. The guards and volunteers are all very appreciative of what you’ve done, and are incensed by the way I treated you. I don’t take any of the loot from battles, but allow it all to be split by the guards and volunteers, otherwise I would offer you my share. Instead, I'm asking if there is anything else, within reason, that I can do for you, to make up for the way I treated you.”

As Sam started to wake up, and Lady Domino moved over towards Slim, Jen nodded for Tamako to help Sam, and said, “I can’t speak for the cat. He will most certainly hold a grudge if you can’t think of something significant to offer him.”

Lady Domino nodded, “O.K., after I wake him, can you tell me what he would like?”

Jen activated her bond with Slim and used it to prevent Slim from immediately trying to rip out Lady Domino’s throat. Slim glared at Lady Domino, and then glared at Jen a second later. Jen messaged Slim with her onboard, and after bringing him up to date on everything, said to him, “I’m sorry for holding you back, but I wanted to tell you everything first. Please feel free to do whatever you want to do, but I would prefer it if you didn’t kill her.”

Slim hissed, “You mean you’re not going to stop me from killing her?”

Jen replied, “I’m really, really sorry I used my bond to hold you back from killing her when you first woke up, and I also wish you wouldn’t kill her now, but I acknowledge she wronged you, and all of us too. I’m not going to stop you from doing whatever you think’s reasonable.”

Slim harrumphed, and said, “Find out what she’s offering,” as he waddled over to Lady Domino.

Lady Domino wanted to roll her eyes at the fat cat, as it waddled towards her, and when Jenasta asked her what she had to offer, Lady Domino replied, “He obviously likes to eat. I can give him 100 pounds of the finest meats in the….”

Lady Domino didn’t finish making the offer, as the mana was ripped from her, and her head fell to the ground after being severed from her body by Slim’s claws.

Sam was completely stunned, but shook himself into action, as he quickly activated his evolved luck stat.