Chapter 11
Uninvited Houseguests
Vigau, Arielle, Bonaventure
When you have eight people and only one bathtub, compromises have to be made. In this case, it was decided that they would have two shifts of two people each night, meaning you only got to bathe every other night. Gally's Japanese sentiments bristled at this, but this arrangement was a luxury compared to her time in Nylos, where the closest thing she could get to a proper bath was a dip in the Hollow Sea once Mordekai made it not so hollow.
This evening Gally was paired with Purple, who was probably the most agreeable of the girls. Because the bath had to be shared, they adopted the Japanese bathing custom of washing first before getting into the tub. Gally remembered Giger being baffled by the practice after the one time he walked in on her. She would rather not have to be reminded of that experience, though.
Anyway, when it came time to wash Purple's back, Gally found herself being somewhat hesitant due to the long scars that went from her shoulderblade down to her lower ribs.
"What's wrong?" Purple asked.
However, she realized what it was before Gally could say anything.
"Oh, don't worry about those. It doesn't hurt, not really."
"What do you mean 'not really'?" Gally asked.
"Well, it doesn't hurt, but sometimes I get this twitchy feeling. Maybe it's just me remembering and maybe it's because there's magic in it. I haven't asked Miss Kamellia about it."
"When did it happen?"
"A few months ago, what they call the Grimalkin Incident. We were doing a play for our culture festival, 'Witchazel and the Grimalkin'. I was Witchazel, the main character. We'd been fooling around with those pocket grimoires and thought we could mix in a little magic to spice up the play. All we did was light some candles, but then it showed up, a real Grimalkin. It got me, but there were other people who got it worse than me. I was saved by Mr. Duchamp. We all were."
"Mr. Duchamp? You mean Yugo?"
Purple nodded.
"He's Mr. Taus' student, right? He never told us much about Mr. Taus, though."
"The more you know, the less you'll be impressed by him," Gally said.
"Really? The way Mr. Duchamp rescued us from the Grimalkin, he had to learn it somewhere."
As much as Gally would want to deny that any of Yugo's gallantry could be traced back to Giger, she thought back on their time in Nylos. As much as they bickered as usual, he had also been rather protective of her. Was it just because she was a mundane who could not take care of herself? Or was it...?
She shook her head. She refused to let herself go down that road. There was no way. It could not possibly—
"Miss Gally?"
"Hm? Yes? What?" a distracted Gally replied.
"Are you ready to switch places?"
"Oh... Ah, yeah, sure..."
And so they switched and when Purple was done washing Gally's back, they got into the tub. The tub was only big enough for two people if both kept their legs tucked in. Another option would be for one person to sit on the lap of the other, but something like that was well beyond Gally's boundaries for naked fellowship.
By taking the second shift, you did not have a time limit for how long you could soak, but the time it would take for the water to go lukewarm was about the same as the time allotted to the first shift, so the choice was between enjoying the bathwater at its hottest or having more time at lower temperatures.
Gally had heard it said that bathing was like laundry for the mind, but lately in particular, she did not think she wanted the laundry being dragged out. This was not one of those problems you could resolve by working it out in your head. Or at least that was what she thought.
"You miss him, don't you?" Purple said. "Mr. Taus, I mean."
"Wha—? Why would I—? That's not—! No!"
The more vociferous and the less coherent one's objections, the less convincing they sound. Gally might as well have insisted that she did not need to breathe air to live for all the plausibility of her denial.
Purple merely gave her a little smile as she drew her legs in closer to herself.
"I don't have anyone like that," she said, "but for me, I didn't think I'd miss my parents so much, especially my papa. He was a policeman, you see. Always so overbearing. I couldn't stand it. But then he ends up being the one who... the one who..."
Purple sniffed as she fought back the tears. Maybe it was because Gally was older, maybe it was because it had been so long, but she could not muster up too much sadness over her own long-lost family. There was still some chance that they were alive somewhere out there, but if she allowed herself to hope, it would be that much worse if she found out otherwise.
Even as she was admonishing herself not to hope, Gally could not help but try to give some hope to Purple.
"If Mordekai has his way, the people who've been arrested should be set free," she said. "You might have your parents back before you know it."
"Maybe," Purple said, "but even if that does happen, we can't go back to the way things were."
"That's not necessarily a bad thing," Gally replied.
Purple just gave her a look.
"Do you really think things are going to be better, from what you've seen?"
Gally was silent. She knew about Giger's misgivings, sentiments that were echoed by Prissy. There was not much good about the current state of affairs, but there was not much light at the end of the tunnel either. It seemed that Mordekai was being steadily consumed by the Star Seed's power and as much as his successes seemed to hasten that process, the real fear was for what might happen if he faced any serious setbacks.
"The water's starting to get cold," Purple said, interrupting Gally's thoughts. "We'd best be getting out before we catch pneumonia."
That was a good excuse as any to stop dwelling on things to come. They got out of the tub, dried off and changed into their nightclothes, then went to join the others.
"Ah, we were just about to turn in for the evening," Kamellia said when she saw them step into the living room. "Did you two enjoy your bath?"
"It was fine," Gally said.
"Well, that's good," Kamellia said. "It's your night for the couch, Galatea, so enjoy."
Because there was only one proper bed in the cottage, most of the guests had to settle for sleeping on the floor. The couch, where Gally used to sleep before all the new arrivals, became something of a privilege granted on a rotating basis. This evening happened to be Gally's turn in the rotation.
She could probably expect to be joined by Happy. Because Perseus was afraid of the serpentine familiar, he could not spend the night coiled around his mistress as he would like and Gally was about the only passable alternative. He was too shy to impose himself on the girls and the spacey Blue was the only one who seemed to like his python form.
"Alright, get yourselves settled, girls," Kamellia said. "It's time for light's out."
As everyone went to lie down in their places, Kamellia began turning off the lamps, with Perseus clinging to her as usual.
She turned off the lamp in the dining room, her last stop before going upstairs, saying, "Goodnight, girls."
However, as soon as the lamp went out, the whole house was flooded with bright light pouring in through the windows. While everyone was still shielding their eyes, two loud cracks rang out, one from the front and the other from the back. The front door collapsed into the entryway, letting in more of the light from outside.
Gally did not know what possessed her, but rather than scrambling for cover or being frozen in place, she sprang to her feet and spread out her arms to serve as a human shield for the girls against whatever it was that was out there. Something like a heavy bass wave washed over her, shaking her to her core. Her consciousness flickered like an old light bulb and the last thing she saw was dark shapes closing in on her.