The woman woke up screaming.
She sat up too fast and then froze when she realized her body was fine. She looked down at herself with open disbelief. Her hands touched her face, then her chest and her hips, as if checking each limb one by one would prove the nightmare had been real. Her eyes were back. Her tongue was back. Her arms moved. Her legs moved. Her skin was clean. She was dressed in a simple white nightgown instead of the ruined clothes she remembered.
The whole room was covered in sapphire. The room looked like it had been sealed inside a quiet blue shell. The woman's breathing shook as she stared at the strange glow, then heard a groan from somewhere on the floor.
"I didn't expect a scream as my morning wake-up call."
She turned so fast she nearly lost balance again.
Veneri was sleeping on the floor, using Biolumine's cat form as a pillow. He had one arm draped loosely across the white fur and despite the absurdity of the position he looked completely unfazed. He yawned, sat up a little and blinked the sleep from his eyes. Biolumine groaned too, then shifted back into her Cat Therianthrope form with a stretch once before she rolled her shoulders.
The woman just stared at all of them. Her voice came out small.
"What... happened?"
Veneri pushed himself upright with his hand against the floor and gave her a calm morning nod as if he had merely finished a slightly inconvenient errand.
"Good morning, young lady."
That was when she looked at him properly.
He was still half-asleep. His hair was not messy. His white curls spilled over his shoulders since it was not tied to a ponytail this time. There was something extremely unfair about how good he looked even while yawning. Her cheeks warmed up immediately and she caught herself staring at him for a second too long.
Veneri noticed. His expression went mildly flat.
"You should stop staring at my crotch."
The woman flinched so hard she nearly choked.
"I was not— I wasn't—"
He glared at her. She looked away instantly, mortified.
"I'm sorry."
Biolumine gave a dry little huff, clearly entertained. Veneri stood, stretched his back once and then looked at her. He was still wearing casual sleepwear but on him it somehow looked dignified. He ran a hand through his hair once and sighed.
"I saved your life in an alley last night. You were badly mutilated, so I healed you. You're welcome."
Her eyes widened again.
"You... healed me?"
"Yes."
"I thought I was dead."
"You were close."
Biolumine crossed her arms and looked at the woman.
"You did scream as we expected you to. Thank goodness we sealed the room in advance, otherwise the hotel staff would think we're murderers."
The woman swallowed hard and managed to get her breathing under control. Her hands were still trembling but the panic was giving. She looked at Veneri again, this time with a lot more caution.
"Who are you?"
That was a fair question.
"A traveler."
Biolumine made a short sound that very obviously meant liar, but she didn't argue. The woman looked around the room again, taking in the blue crystal sheen, the cat-therianthrope, and the white-haired man who had apparently rebuilt her body overnight. Her mind was clearly trying to catch up with her waking body. She hugged her arms around herself and looked down.
"I... don't remember much after the alley."
"Good. That's probably for the best."
She nodded faintly, then asked the next obvious question.
"Who did that to me?"
"That's what I want to know."
The woman looked at him in silence for a few seconds. Then, reality finally hit her. She touched her own shoulder, her own thigh, her own wrist and then stared at the smooth white fabric of the nightgown.
"You changed my clothes too?"
"Yes."
Her face went pink with embarrassment again, but this time it wasn't because she was staring.
"Why?"
"Because you were not staying in shredded clothing after I rebuilt your body. I'm not a barbarian."
Biolumine let out the tiniest snort of amusement and turned her head away like she was trying not to laugh. The woman had no answer to that, which was probably the right response. Veneri gave her a minute to settle. People who had just been through something like this needed space. Finally, she took a slow breath and looked at him properly.
"Thank you."
"You're alive. That's the main point."
"You think I'm going to be tracked again?"
"Yes."
"Why would you say that?"
"Because whoever did that to you will notice if you disappear. And if they were willing to do that much damage, then they are not trying to let you go. They'll look for you."
That made the woman go still. It was a cold answer, but not a cruel one. He was just stating the obvious. The woman pressed her lips together and sat a little straighter under the sheet and nightgown.
"So I should run?"
"You should think. Technically, you're awfully calm. I mean, you're in a man's room. Right now, you're alive and intact. That's already better than last night. You're also a stranger who was nearly turned into an anatomical lesson in an alley. Don't make any fast decisions before you know who's hunting you and why."
She looked at him more carefully now, then glanced at Biolumine, then at the room itself.
"Did you really do all this by yourself?"
"No. My companion helped by not being inconvenient."
"I'll have you know I was very helpful."
"You were asleep."
"Well no need to call me out like that."
The woman stared at them for a second, then gave a shaky little laugh she clearly hadn't meant to make. It only lasted a second but it was enough to break the edge of the fear sitting in her chest..He pulled a chair over, sat down, and leaned back a little.
"Now tell me something useful. There's a reason I saved you. Why are you carrying energy in your body?"
Her face changed. She looked at him sharply, then immediately realized he had noticed.
"You could tell?"
"Yes."
"I don't even know what that means."
"Then start with what you do know."
The woman looked down at her hands. Trauma didn't usually vanish just because the body was fixed. The shock of what happened lingered in her mind. She took a while before speaking.
"I don't know how to explain it. I've always felt... different. Tired, mostly. I've been sick sometimes. Then lately, it got worse. I thought it was stress. I'm not supposed to be here. Not by the rules I know."
The woman looked embarrassed again, then frustrated with herself for not having better answers.
"I'm sorry. I don't know more than that."
"That's fine. You're not supposed to have a complete report ready. You were busy being disassembled."
She stared at him. Then, unexpectedly, she laughed again, though this time it came out weaker and more brittle.
"You say that like it's normal."
"For me, it's normal."
That got a real short laugh out of Biolumine this time. The woman looked between them with a little more relief than before. Her shoulders had lowered. Her fingers had stopped shaking. Veneri stood again and walked toward the windows, glancing out over the city while he spoke.
"You're probably hungry."
"What?"
"You've been through a lot. Hunger usually shows up after shock."
She looked down as if only then realizing her body did in fact feel empty in a deep, exhausted way.
"I... guess so."
"Good. Then we'll get breakfast after we figure out whether you're leaving this city or not."
"You'd help me?"
"I already did help you. Also, I feel like doing a good deed for today. You're a stranger, yes. However, that doesn't mean I'm going to leave you sitting in a room after someone tried to butcher you. Just don't mistake that for friendship yet. We're not there yet."
The woman swallowed and nodded.
"Right."
"Good. I'm Veneri and this is Biolumine. Bio, we're going to need food."
Biolumine stretched once and shifted her shoulders.
"So we're acting normal now?"
"She's still recovering."
The woman sat there on the bed, still clearly not fully sure whether this was real, but she looked a little less frightened now. Veneri gave her one last look and smiled at her,
"Take your time. You're safe with me for now. I have no evil intentions. I'm just a traveler who happened to find a mutilated woman on the road."
The woman looked at him with a mix of gratitude and wariness, then glanced at the sapphire-covered room again as if trying to decide whether safe was really the right word.
She didn't trust him but he did save her life. It was better than what she just experienced so she decided to get along with him for now.
-----
They were back in the restaurant after that, sitting at the same table. The shift from horror to food was so abrupt it almost felt disrespectful, but somehow it also felt right. The restaurant was warm, the tea was good and the smell of fresh bread had settled into the air enough to make the atmosphere feel ordinary again.
Veneri sat with that same calm expression he always had, Parasphlen was beside him and Biolumine had chosen a seat. Katrina, meanwhile, was trying very hard not to stare too much because she had already noticed something deeply irritating and unfair.
The three of them were all absurdly good-looking. Veneri intrigued her the most.
His facial features were so feminine that Katrina found herself hesitating on the gender question every time she looked at him. Once he spoke, the lower husky tone gave him away as male, but only a little. The combination felt like it was meant to confuse people on purpose. Even his white robes and the way he sat made him look feminine.
Katrina had barely taken a sip of her tea when Veneri leaned back and looked at her over the table.
"You never told me your name."
"Katrina Zarya, from the Zarya family. Well... former Zarya family. We used to control one of the top five circuses in the Immortal Anchor. My parents were killed by the five circus families. They took everything. The circus, the property, the contracts, even the people. I'm the only survivor of the Zarya Family."
She gave a small, bitter laugh that never quite became one.
"So even if I'm technically from a noble family, there isn't much left of it. I'm sorry. It's not a very exciting story."
Veneri was silent.
For a moment, Katrina thought he might move on or give her the usual polite response people gave when they did not want to talk about dead parents and ruined legacies. Instead, he set his cup down carefully and looked at her.
"Perfect."
"What?"
He repeated it with complete certainty.
"It's perfect."
"My family is dead. My circus is gone. My home is ruined and that's perfect?"
"Making a circus from scratch is the perfect way to lay low. I'm trying to enjoy life. I need a moving merchant troupe. A circus is ideal because people expect movement, storage, performers and travel. Nobody looks too hard at a circus unless it becomes profitable."
Katrina's face shifted slowly from confusion to wariness.
"Technically, you were sent to me by the universe or by bad luck."
Biolumine made a quiet little sound that might have been a laugh. Paran just watched, already seeing where he was going with this. Veneri turned his cup with two fingers.
"I have another deal for you."
Katrina crossed her arms, though she looked more defensive than hostile now.
"I'm listening."
"I'll help you make a circus that lasts for centuries. In return, I'll build my merchant market inside it. You'll get seventy percent of the shares from the products I sell. I'll protect you from harm. Your circus will become profitable again and your family name won't die out in a single generation."
"And what do you get?"
"A circus to lay low."
That made her frown. He elaborated, because apparently he knew she was not going to accept that as a complete answer.
"I get a cover that lets me move resources, recruit people, travel without looking suspicious and sell Archivist Stones without the factions immediately shutting everything down."
"Archivist Stones?"
"Yes."
"You can sell them?"
"Yeah. You'll need to trust me and do whatever I tell you when I ask. If I order something, you follow it. If I tell you to move, you move. If I tell you something is dangerous, you believe me until proven otherwise."
"That makes it sound like I'm the one benefiting."
"You are benefiting. I am too. I have my own goals. Once I start selling my products, the circus will be targeted by factions all across the Immortal Anchor. We'll be in constant danger. I'll protect the circus but you should understand that the danger won't go away. It'll just become manageable. You'll be living with escaping and trouble for two hundred years until the deal ends."
Katrina went still at that.
"Two hundred years?"
"Yes."
"And you expect me to agree to that?"
"You won't be agreeing to me. You'll be agreeing to the survival of your family's name. Technically, I have ways to save you from the five families."
Katrina's fingers tightened around her cup.
"What makes you think I'd trust you?"
"Because I'm a Deity."
She stared at him. She then laughed and scoffed.
"No, you're not."
"That's your response?"
"Yes. That's my response."
"You don't believe me."
"Should I?"
He did not say anything. He just looked at her and sighed.
Katrina instantly found herself standing on a vast meadow beneath a mountain-sized tree with golden fruit hanging from the branches. It was sudden enough to make her gasp. She spun around in shock, seeing nothing but green fields and massive landscapes. She looked up and froze.
Veneri was there too but not as he had been in the restaurant.
He was about three hundred meters tall, looking down at her like a being out of a myth. The sight of him alone made her knees give out. He lifted one finger as if he were about to squash her like a bug. For one second she felt the full meaning of the word Deity in a way no explanation could have given her.
Then she was back in the restaurant.
Biolumine looked mildly annoyed, Paran looked quietly satisfied and Veneri was still sitting there in his chair as though nothing had happened at all. Katrina stared at him.
He looked back.
"Do you believe me now?"
She swallowed hard. Her mouth opened and closed again. Veneri waited. Katrina looked down at her hands, then back at him. When she spoke, her voice was much quieter than before.
"If I agree, I can't back out."
"No. You can't."
"And the circus becomes mine again?"
"Of course. Your family's legacy won't end. That's the point."
The more she thought about it, the more obvious it became that he was right. She had already lost everything. He was offering her a way to rebuild something that could actually survive and he was giving her a share instead of taking the whole thing for himself. That alone made the deal better than anything the five circus families would have ever offered her.
Finally, she gave a small nod.
"I'll do it."
Veneri's expression did not change much.
"Good."
"And just so I'm clear, is this really in my favor?"
"You've already lost a circus. I'm giving you one back, plus protection, profit and survival. So yes. It's in your favor."
Katrina rubbed her face once and shook her head.
"You're a strange Deity."
He picked up his tea again.
"Probably."
Her old life, her new life, and whatever the next two hundred years would become were all somehow being negotiated over breakfast. It was ridiculous. It was also the first real chance she had seen in a long time. She didn't expect to meet a Deity on a random morning and make a life changing deal.