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There was a strange pang in his chest as he stared at the tattered remains of his cloak. It was hardly a cloak, barely a cape. It had been a gift from Irvig and from what little Jace knew about materials it was quite an expensive one, but now there was hardly anything left of it to wear. It had been caught in the explosion of the gredane, along with his wrist crossbow. His fingers gingerly touched the device on his wrist, unsure if it would even function anymore, and hit it under his sleeve. He needed to fix that...it was amazing that his watch had survived, though it had a dent in it's casing. That would need to be fixed as well. He looked down at his own outfit, the front had several dark burn marks, a large gash across the front and was stained with blood. "New clothes..." he muttered at his reflection.

"Yes...you're body may be healed, but your wardrobe is quite done for," Stella said as she came up beside him. He glanced at her in the reflection of the mirror before returning his eyes to himself. "I went and got your briefcase, by the way," she continued, "You had left it at The Hogs Head."

"It's empty," he said rather bluntly, which wasn't technically correct as there were several pieces of blank paper inside it, but they all had a hole in them. It was in worse shape than him and he had moved all the money he had been keeping in it out into his wallet pouch; which had very little money in it now after all his purchases. The sword had been very expensive, but it also felt very comfortable. "We'll stop by the thieves guild, get the rest of my commission, then get me some new clothes."

"Ooooh!" Stella seemed to wiggle with excitement. "We can go see those lovely skunk twins! I collected my commission already, so I want to get a dress!"

"I can get my clothes back," Jersa said with a soft sigh.

"Or another dress~" Stella said with a smirk back at her.

Jersa frowned at her. "What a shame," she began dryly, "And we were getting along so well. Now I have to stab you." He heard Lily giggle from somewhere behind him.

"No stabbing," Jace said as he touched the gash in his vest. It had been his fathers...

"Just a little stabbing?" Jersa asked, but he could see the smirk on her tilted face in mirror.

"Mmm...maybe a little," he conceded before stepping away from the mirror. "I do believe we have imposed on the Patrician enough and should make our exit. He said that he would have my itinerary within a few days." He wanted a bath...he felt disgusting, still caked in blood and mud from the previous day. "Maybe a bath first..."

"You still have a room at the thieves guild. You can take a bath there," Jersa said with a bit of a smile.

"Right. I'll do that," he said as he made his way out of the room, all three of them following after him.

As he came down the hall, he spotted Reynolds, the Patricians...secretary, he guessed. "Ah! Leaving so soon, Lord Foxern?"

Jace nodded. "Correct. Please inform the Patrician that I will be continuing my stay at the thieves guild for the foreseeable future." The mouse nodded slowly as if trying to process what he had just heard. "Thank you."

The mouse seemed to nervously watch them go by, trying to remain out of their way. The more he looked at the mouse, the more Jace was positive that he must be related in some way to Mr. Tompkin, there were just too many similarities. If he had not seen the corpse, he would swear that this mouse was Mr. Tompkin. His thoughts on the subject were immediately interrupted as he exited the palace and saw the annoyed face of a very familiar bulldog coming up towards the palace.

They stared at each other for a solid half minute before Bilt finally spoke, "You're a mess."

"Quite. Thankfully, I look far worse than I feel." That response actually caught Jace off guard, it actually sounded like concern. It dawned on him that he hadn't been staring Jace down in those thirty seconds, he had been studying his appearance.

"You're sure it was a gredane?" he asked as he took a few steps towards him, glancing at the holes in his shirt.

"Extremely sure. I like to think of myself as an artificer, and though I only saw it briefly before it detonated, there is no mistaking for what else it could have been judging by its shape and the sheer damage it caused." He now understood the look on the commander's face; a gredane could level a building if used properly, or improperly for that matter. It was a device that had been designed for mass murder.

Bilt rubbed his temple, sighing quite loudly. "Try and leave one of them alive next time, alright? We need to question them and find out where they got that. In all seven territories, even the manufacturing of gredanes is illegal."

"I will make an attempt." He immediately caught a glare from Bilt. "But you should be more pressing to my companions than to I." The glare snapped back behind him and he could feel Jersa and Stella jump.

"H-hey. You killed two of them..." Jersa muttered.

"No, I killed one. The other blew himself up." He wondered if it would ever really come down on him that he had murdered someone. Even if was in self defense and this city was absolutely nuts, in Auser murder was taken very, very serious. If he hadn't been a mixed, the people who killed his father would have been put to death.

"Right." Slowly the expression softened as it went back to Jace. "You gonna be alright?"

He arched an eyebrow. "Commander Bilt, is that concern?"

Jace was shocked that the bulldog could frown even further. "We have allied with Auser. If the Lord Foxern dies within out city it would be a brutal blow to out side."

A soft chuckle escaped from Jace before he could stifle it. "I'm fine. I'll be fine. I have two- three highly trained individuals with me who greatly value my life."

"Three?" He looked passed Jace. "The assassin Stella, and the thief Jersa."

Jace actually had to turn around to fish Lily out of her hiding spot behind himself and Jersa. "And my daughter, Lily," he said with a rather large smile.

"Ah..." Bilt was looking at the little girl who was trying to both escape from Jace's grasp and hide in the remains of his cloak at the same time. "The young witch." There was a pause. "Your daughter?"

"I adopted her. I have the authority to grant adoptions, legally, as long as all parties are willing. And this includes with myself. Due to our alliance, Has-Haven will also probably acknowledge my claim." He glanced back at Stella and Jersa. "Unfortunately I do not have the power to marry myself to others." Both of the girls turned bright red.

"Yeah, I don't wanna know that," he said as he moved around the group. "Just, don't get yourselves killed. Your contract is worth even more than mine now."

"That is a shame. No diplomatic immunity?" Bilt shook his head as he continued walking. "Shame...but, not unexpected."

~

The walk to the thieves guild was surprisingly uneventful. He had expected something to happen, but everyone just avoided him like he had some sort of disease. It was actually a nice walk and he got to see what the city looked like without many people, as most of them hurriedly walked other ways as he approached. He wondered what rumor it was that made them act like this. Was it because he was Lord Foxern? Did they still think of him as Mr. Ozymandias and word hadn't gotten around about his true identity yet? Was it the contract on his life? Maybe it was something that he hadn't heard yet? But it was still a nice walk.

They found the gates to the thieves guild open, which Jace paid no mind to as he walked across the small courtyard. Compared to the palace this was truly a tiny spot of greenery. Suddenly he realized that Jersa was standing there, with the door open. He glanced behind him at Stella, with Lily standing beside her. When had she gone ahead of them?

He sighed and shook his head. "The rest of your commission is up in the room. Three-hundred and fifty."

"Should be able to get me by for a time...I still have to negotiate with the Patrician about what my guild liaison position pays..." He walked in an odd daze, following the familiar path to his room.

"Probably a lot. It's technically a government position and those always pay good in the city," Jersa said as she lead the way.

"Well, that's hopeful. After all, I have more than myself to look after," he said as he looked back at Lily, who smiled at him. It was something he wanted to get used to. Just the thought of having a daughter made him feel something that he couldn't quite explain, but it made him happy that she was happy.

Jersa walked into the room first, looking around before the rest of them followed them in. "Well, looks clear..."

"Do you think someone would upset the Mistress by murdering me inside the thieves guild?" Jace said as he walked over to the bath, testing the water with his fingers; it was quite hot.

"True...but still. With the amount of money on the table for your death..." She bit onto her thumb as she looked around the room.

"It is a lot," Stella confirmed as she looked around the room as well.

"I'll be fine," he said as he removed his cloak, looking at the bag on the dresser. "That's the rest of my commission?"

"Yeah, I already made sure it was safe before meeting you."

"You're being a bit too cautious, I think," Jace said and all three of them glared at him. He sighed, shaking his head. "This is going to be a bit rough..." He rubbed his face and sighed again.

"How can you be so calm?" Stella asked in quite a concerned tone.

"I'm just...used to it," he said as he gently placed his watch onto the dresser. "I'm a mixed, remember? You think that someone wouldn't kill me just because of that?" He had had to defend himself so many times...but now his opponents were people actually trained to murder, rather than just snobby nobles and their bodyguards.

"It's not like that here, Jace," Jersa said as she came up beside him.

"Oh yeah?" He looked at her, doing his best not to glare. "How many mixed are there in the city right now?"

Her mouth opened but then closed as she realized she had no answer. "Auser is the safest place for mixed, and they're still murdered there. And people get away with it because that's just how things work." He pulled off his vest as he spoke. "I'm pretty good at not letting it get to me."

He turned around and then crouched down, opening his arms and Lily practically ran at him. He closed his eyes and sighed softly as he held her. He always wanted a daughter...but any child he had would come out mixed. "Are you okay, papa?" she said softly.

"I'm more than okay," he said as he gently stroked her hair. "I've always had people watching my back who cared about me. And with the three of you watching my back now...what's there to be worried about?" He couldn't help but smile.

Lily gave him a bit of a squeeze and then quickly skipped away and around the room. He chuckled as he stood back up. "It's nice to see you so happy..." Jersa whispered, quietly enough that Jace figured that she hadn't actually wanted him to hear it.

He turned his smile to her and then looked over at Stella. "If you don't mind, while I take a bath if you all could go and get lunch, that would be fantastic."

Stella sighed, shaking her head. "So we're just going to pretend nothing is wrong?"

"It's not like that," Jace said as he started to undo his shirt. "It's more like, everything is wrong, but if you constantly worry that danger is around every corner, then you're just stressing yourself out." He looked at her. "The truth is, there is danger around every corner. There is always someone coming for your life. You are always surrounded by people who hate and despise you and would like nothing more if you simply disappeared. That's why you can't be bothered by it." He gave them a slight smile.

They all stared at him as he finished taking off his shirt and tossed it onto his vest. "That's why you adapted so quickly to the hunt..." Jersa muttered. "You were expecting it..."

"I was expecting something along the lines, but of course I underestimated them at first and they got the drop on me. I wont be so easily gotten again." It had been a moment when he let his guard down, because of the circumstances of his mother and Mr. Tompkins vouching for them. He would probably make that mistake again...

He could see their faces a bit red as Stella and Jersa looked him over. They were looks that he remembered, Jersa from when he had been in the bath and Stella from when they had shared the night together. "W-well," Stella pat the top of Lily's head. "We'll, head out and go get some lunch," she said almost hurriedly as they turned and walked to the door as he removed his wrist launcher- I really need a name for this- and set it on top of the dresser.

They hadn't even gotten out the door before Stella put her hand up, blocking Jersa. "Wh-what?"

Stella gave her a rather meaningful look and gestured to Jace. "Didn't we say that we're not leaving him alone?"

"Wh- I..." She shifted a bit and then sighed. "Right. Got it." She rubbed her face as Stella closed the door.

Jace arched an eyebrow at her. "Not leaving me alone?" His focus turned back to the bath as he finished disrobing.

"You always get hurt when we're not with you," she said, not turning around. "So we agreed that at least one of us should always be by your side."

"Mmm." He stretched a bit. "Well, that makes- Ah." He had put his foot into the bath and quickly withdrew it, perhaps it was too hot...

She turned around. "What's wr-" her face turned red and she turned away from him again.

That made him laugh. "Oh what, you've seen me naked before."

"Y-yeah but that was... It's different now cus..." She was fidgeting with her fingers.

He slowly moved up behind her and put his arms around her, "Oh yeah?" She jumped, but didn't pull away from him. "Mmm I guess it is different now..." He put his chin on her shoulder.

"It... I was..." He laced his fingers with hers to stop her from fidgeting. "You kissed me so forcefully... It took everything I had to resist staying with you that night..."

"Really?" he said softly, closing his eyes. "That's a shame...I had wanted you to stay...even if it was just to talk longer..."

"Jace..."

"You and Stella are always worrying about me so much... I'm so glad that I met you two." He could feel her grasp onto his hands.

"And...gods I can't think of a life without you..." She leaned back against him. "I feel stupid...falling so hard for someone like this. For my entire life it's all been about trying to get higher, to be better, to get better, to show everyone they were wrong, and now...it's like I've given up on that..."

He smiled softly. "Silly Jersa, you didn't give up on that." She tilted her head so that she could look at him. "You proved that already, didn't you? You're one of the top thieves in the guild, you have skills, friends, and the Lord of a territory that's in love with you." He kissed the corner of her mouth. "I...honestly don't know how much higher anyone could go."

She twisted her upper body around quite suddenly and pressed her mouth firmly against his for a brief moment. It was a quite surprising moment of intense passion and once she broke it she pressed her forehead against his. "You...really love me?"

He was still smiling. "Yes. I love you. I love you, you twisty ferret." For the first time he heard Jersa giggle. "It's still surprising how twisty you are...the first time really surprised me."

"Some of the things you say...I swear." She sighed, shaking her head. "Maybe I should have gone to Auser instead of Has-Haven, if the rest of the people are anything like you."

"They're not. It's not all that great." He closed his eyes. "At least where I've been. My entire life has been studying and going places that I didn't want to go. Weekly snob parties get boring really quick. I always wanted to be more like my father, some scum off the street who did whatever he wanted."

"That's not much fun either, trust me, speaking from experience." He could feel the breath from her mouth against his as she spoke. "I've worked so hard just to live like I wanted to."

"Do you though?" he asked softly, opening his eyes and looking into hers. "Do you live like you want to?"

"Sometimes. But life is a lot of doing stuff we don't want to do."

"Truly..." He pulled his fingers out from their entanglement with hers and she turned her entire body around to face him. The thought of moving away from her crossed his mind, but instead he placed his hands on her lower back. "You make it difficult to pull away," he whispered.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her fingers finding their way into his hair. "It's a good thing that I don't want to let you go then, isn't it?"

"Truly," he said as he smiled. "Although..." It was hard to not notice how she watched his mouth as he spoke.

"Although?" she repeated softly.

"Have you forgotten?" His smile turned into a smirk.

"Forgotten?" she softly repeated his words again.

"I am quite naked and you're pressing yourself against me quite forcefully." It surprised him at how fast her face could turn red. "If we don't part soon...I may get too excited by the situation."

"I-I-I...I...uhm..." She finally looked away from him, staring off to the side. "I...wouldn't mind..."

He swallowed. "Really?"

She nodded her head slightly. "After all...you...did it with Stella already..."

"Ah...yeah..." Now it was his face that was getting red. "I did."

"Do...uhm..." She bit her lower lip, chewing on it a bit. "Do you want me?"

Suddenly his heart was pounding harder than he had ever felt before. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly to him. "Gods...you have no idea." He almost felt as if he was going to start crying. "You're the only thing keeping me sane..."

"Wh- I- What?" She didn't pull away, instead continuing her hold on him. "What are you talking about?"

"My entire life crumbled in an instant... I was lost...scared...fighting for my life harder than I ever thought imaginable. I was beaten beyond anything I thought I could have taken...I have never been so close to death..."

"But you didn't."

"And yet..." He pulled slightly away so that he could look at her. "I...I latched onto you. When I threw myself into the personification of Ozymandias...it...it almost consumed me. I almost let it consume me." He could feel the tightening grip on his hair. "But then you...kept bringing me back. Reminding me who I was. Who I needed to be. Every time I was lost, there you were."

"Of course I was there...I'll always be here for you..." She laughed softly, shaking her head. "Gods you really such are a mess inside that head of yours, aren't you?"

He chuckled. "I really am. It takes too much to keep myself together...I need someone-" She kissed the top of his muzzle. "I need you...I need Stella, and Lily. I don't want to lose any of you."

"You really talk too much, yanno? I..." Her face started to redden again. "I already agreed to be with you forever. You...you can have all of me."

There was a smile on his face as he nodded. "And I'll keep you forever."

She paused for a few seconds. "Gods Jace, you are not making this easy for me..." She bit her lip slightly, staring at him.

"Wh-what do you mean?" He watched as she chewed on her lip.

"I..." She paused as her face turned even redder than before. "I want you to fuck me, dammit!"

He stared at her for a moment, her face was so red he was sure she was going to pass out soon. "My my," he said, unable to help but smirk. "Such a vulgar request."

"D-don't gimme that shit. Just...ugh...you're being all...romantic and shit while naked and I just... I-I can't take it." He could feel her nails pricking into his scalp. "I feel like...if...if you don't fuck me, I'm gonna go crazy. Crazier than you."

"Poor Jersa..." He leaned forward and kissed her neck, which elicited a gasp from her. "I'm sorry. It was not my intent to tease you so much."

"F-fuck... You frustrate me so much I want to stab you," she muttered as his mouth moved along her neck.

"That's not very loving..." He slid his hand down and grasped her behind, causing her to let out a little squeak.

"I...I can stab lovingly. I can-" She closed her eyes as he gave her quite a firm squeeze. "I can...nng..." His hand had slid down the back of her leg and she let out moan, immediately grabbing at her own mouth and holding it closed.

"You're so cute, Jersa," he said with a soft chuckle, unable to stop smirking.

"I'llll...stab you..." She mumbled.

"Lovingly?" his lips brushing against her ear as he whispered.

"Mmngg... So cruel... Are you just going to tease me?" She squirmed slightly in his grasp.

"Maybe," he said as he nibbled gently on her ear, in past experience women tended to enjoy this sort of attention.

"A-ah! I'll...I'll stab you! I really will!" Perhaps Jersa was just too impatient for this sort of thing, at least at the moment.

He laughed as he stepped away. "Alright then, impatient little ferret." Her face scrunched up, apparently 'little' was pushing in the wrong direction. "Unless you're too impatient to move to the bed and would rather be taken up against the wall?"

Again her head looked like it was going to explode from how red she was. "I-I-I...Th-that's! Ah- I..." she stammered as she fiddled with the front of her dress. She was staring at the floor, focusing to not look at him.

His eyes didn't leave her as he sat down on the edge of the bed. "Well? C'mon over here."

She approached him, still fiddling with her dress. "I...it's...we...uhm..." she continued to stammer, trying to form words.

"Jersa, I'm not going to force you," he said as he placed his hand over one of hers. "If you don't think you're ready, there's no shame in that, we can-"

"No!" She grabbed his hand, finally looking at him. "Gods, no, please. Please don't talk me out of it. I want this so badly...I've wanted you so badly from...that moment..."

"That moment?"

"When you..." She chewed on her lip a bit. "When you flew at me in the guild hall. The look on your face...it was so intense and beautiful..." She pulled away, wrapping her arms around herself. "There was no hesitation. You were truly going to kill me if the Mistress hadn't stopped you. I can't remember the last time a man got the drop on me, let alone a man doing it twice. It made my heart beat so fast...but it wasn't just fear. I was excited. You trounced me in Grusk like I was nothing, and you were severely injured...then here in the guild you had me against the wall before I even had a chance to go for my knife..."

"Now who's talking too much," he said with a soft chuckle.

All she did was smile at him before continuing, "Even now...even though you have nothing...there is the feeling in the pit of my stomach that I couldn't kill you even if I wanted to." Her fingers tightened on the dress. "Over fifteen years of training...but against you they amount to nothing. You beat some of Grusk's best hunters...alone...and you nearly killed Collin...one of the most prodigious assassin students, who is the first in ten years to graduate early. It sends shivers down my spine whenever I think about it..."

He swallowed, the only assassin he had had dealings with in that manner was that orange tabby. That was some kind of prodigy assassin? "That was...luck," he said slowly, unsure of it himself now.

"You were trained by Tompkin, who is renowned as one of the best assassin's the school has ever seen since its founding." She had quite the crazed look in her eyes, an odd mixture that Jace had never seen before and had no idea how to pin it down. "Anvil told me you were trained by Sir Cardel." She chewed on her lower lip again, Jace was sure she was going to bite into it too hard at any moment. "You've been groomed to be a monster~" That was more a tone that he recognized: lustful.

He had to take a few deep breaths, it had never dawned on him, like he had only seen pieces of the puzzle but never the completed piece and was only just now getting a glimpse of it. He had never been able to beat Tompkin, though he had never fought the mouse seriously, only really play sparred. He'd never beaten Cardel either. But...of course he would lose to beings of that skill. They were masters of their craft with decades of training. He had no frame of reference for how others were raised, aside from the garbage nobles he was constantly surrounded by. Was his childhood really that way? Was this what his entire life was leading up to? To be some sort of monster unleashed at the enemies of Auser? Was him being sent to Grusk a test run?

His thoughts were immediately interrupted as he saw the dress pool around Jersa's feet. He glanced up, she had even less on than the first time they had met. Her undergarments are far more feminine this time, or at least the lower portion was. On her upper part she wears a simple wrap around her chest. "Do I have you attention now?" she asked softly, still smiling at him.

"Yes," he said with a bit of a chuckle. "Sorry, I was...thinking about my life up until this point."

"And?" She began unwrapping her chest slowly.

"Well, I don't have any regrets right now...especially with the sight in front of me." He placed his hands gently on her hips, which caused her to jump slightly.

"A-ah...well...mnng..." She shifted a bit, obviously not used to being touched in such a way. "I...I thought I told you...to stop teasing me..."

"I'm not teasing, Jersa." He pulled her down onto the bed, causing her to squeak a bit and once again cover her mouth. Then he gently kissed her stomach. His eyes wandered up to her now bare chest; it was practically, entirely and completely flat. It looked more like she had pecks than breasts, which would make sense considering the rest of her physique. She was muscular in a subtle way, tight muscular structure.

She squirmed as he kissed her stomach. "Mnng... Jace...this is teasing..."

"No." He kissed upwards, kissing across her chest. "It's foreplay."

The attention caused her to squirm even more, putting her hands on his head. "Wh-what's the difference?"

"Both are fun...but when teasing stops, there's nothing more. But foreplay..." He planted kisses onto her breast, though it wasn't until he kissed one of her nipples that he finally got her to gasp. "Foreplay comes before sex."

"We're gonna get the bed all filthy~" she moaned softly.

"Maybe I should take my bath first the-"

She suddenly held him tightly against her. "No," she said softly. "Please...no... I've waited long enough... I was patient... Unlike that bat bitch I was patient. I don't care if you're dirty... I don't care if you have a dozen wives... I don't care if you're crazy.. I don't care if you're a monster... I just want to be yours."

He ran his tongue slowly over her chest and felt the massive shiver that ran through her body. "Just a joke, Jersa..." He shifted forward, getting more on top of her as he rubbed his erect member between her legs. "I'm too excited to stop now."

There was suddenly a knocking on the door. "...fucking seriously?"