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My Own Worst Enemy 27 - Giving You Context
🕑 Added 2025-08-27 19:14:51 +0000 UTCPredictably, Violet retreats at the first sign of having to actually socialize. Less predictably, instead of Allison, somehow I end up in front.
âYouâre such a baby,â I complain as Talla guides us through the busy city streets. âIf the only time you deal with people is when killing them, youâre going to look like a psychopath.â
âYou are the last person I want to hear that from,â Vi scoffs. âYou are the worst at speaking to people.â
âBetter than you.â
âOh really?â she challenges. âLook Talla in the eye right now and tell her what you think of her hair.â
I glance up at Talla, who meets my gaze with an amused look, then suddenly find the paving stones incredibly fascinating. Actual brick pavement instead of cobblestoneâthatâs gotta be expensive.
âI donât need to prove anything to you,â I mutter.
âWhatâs wrong?â Talla asks, not quite suppressing the amusement in her voice. âIs something wrong with my hair?â
âN-no,â I stammer. âItâs fine.â
âJust fine?â she presses. âOh dear, I guess thatâs what weeks of travel gets me. Iâll have to pay a visit to a stylist.â
My face threatens to spontaneously combust as I try to find my words. âI-I mean itâsâyouâreâIâmâI-I likeââ
âAlright guys, youâve made your point,â Allie cuts in. âYou can stop bullying her.â
âNo, no,â Evelyn says. âPlease continue, Iâm enjoying this.â
âYou guys suck,â I grumble balefully, already plotting my revenge.
âActually, Iâm curious,â Vi says. âTalla, youâve obviously noticed Maggieâs enormous crush on you.â
âVi!â I squeak helplessly.
âIâm sorry, but this could be important,â she insists. âYou donât seem offended, so I have to ask, how does Faâaun culture view same-sex relationships?â
I donât have it in me to look at Talla while she considers the question. I swear to the Goddess, if she says itâs illegal or immoral Iâm burning this whole fucking place to the ground.
âHmm, thatâs sort of an odd way to put it,â she muses. âIt depends on who weâre talking about. Noble daughters are expected to provide heiresses, so we have to get married eventually. But we also have to choose our husbands carefully. At the same time, itâs traditionally a manâs role to initiate courtship.â
âNone of that really answers the question,â Violet points out.
âPatience! Iâm giving you context,â Talla retorts. âSo young women spend a lot of time just waiting around for a man to offer themselves, only to turn them down most of the time. It would be scandalous for them to have a relationship with a man they werenât going to marry, and even more if she were the one to start it. But...â
I manage to tear my eyes off of the pavement just long enough to catch her giving me a sidelong glance.
âWell, some people consider it a moral loophole, but most agree that thereâs nothing wrong with women courting each other for fun or practice. The third empress was even infamous for taking multiple wives, zero husbands, and never having any daughtersâwhich led to one of the messiest successions in imperial history. I had a few girlfriends in college, myself.â
Yes! Yahooey! Weâve got a shot!
âHold on,â Allie interjects.
No! Donât hold on! No holding! Zero brakes! Full steam ahead!
âWhat about men?â she asks.
My thoughts grind to a halt. Oh shit. Leave it to Allison to find the gaps in Tallaâs explanation.
âWell, a man who doesnât marry isnât much of a man,â Talla answers.
Oh fuck. Okay, so sheâs a little sexist. Itâs fixable. We can fix her!
âThatâs a rather rude sentiment to hold, isnât it?â Evelyn cuts in.
Evelyn?! Miss Order, Light, and Purity is defending gay rights?! Am I in bizzaro world?
âSir Draga is unmarried and clanless, but heâs as respectable a man as any Iâve met.â
âYouâre right, sorry,â Talla says. âThatâs not really my opinion, but itâs a common one, and what I was raised to believe. Men should be free to love whoever they wantâeven if itâs a little...â
âA little what?â Eva presses. âNobody is asking you to get involvedâin fact, the men in question would rather prefer it that way.â
Holy shit, sheâs cooking! Itâs the last place I ever expected to find an ally, but hell yeah!
âI know!â Talla huffs defensively. âI shouldnât judge, I justâI donât get it.â
âHold on, you literally just said youâve had girlfriends,â I point outâfinally finding my damn voice.
âThatâs different!â she protests.
âItâs really not,â Allison deadpans.
âBut I think that answers the question nicely,â Vi concludes.
âSorry,â Talla sighs. âI didnât mean to offend anybody. I really donât think thereâs anything wrong with it.â
âBut the prevailing opinion is that men shouldnât have same-sex relationships, right?â Allie says. âAnd that itâs fine for women.â
âWell, maybe not fine, but itâs a socially acceptable vice.â
Vice, huh? Whew, this might be more work than I realized.
âIt may have changed since my time,â Evelyn says, âbut among the lower classes, attitudes are less stringent. I knew many men and women who preferred partners of the same sex.â
âWait, really?â I ask curiously. âWerenât you like...super sheltered? Raised in a cloister and all that?â
âI donât know what sort of mental image you have of my upbringing, but my fellow sisters and I werenât confined to the abbey. We could move freely when we werenât otherwise assigned.â
Well, thatâs what I get for not challenging my own assumptions.
âSo just to be clear,â I murmur quietly, âyour only problem with me is the way I learned magic?â
âNo,â she replies curtly. âI also find your disrespect for the church and penchant for extreme violence despicable.â
Thatâs rich coming from the girl who was ready to have a bunch of kids put up on pikes for trying to mug us.
âBesides, to use your own words, youâre also just kind of a bitch.â
âOnly kind of?â I sigh. I must be slipping.
âWeâre here,â Talla interrupts, gesturing around us. âWelcome to my home!â
I raise my head and blink, taking in the sight of...another street.
âHuh?â I grunt in confusion. âWhich house is yours?â
I was expecting a big mansion or an estate like Maariâs, but as far as I can tell weâre still in the middle of the city. A nicer part of the city, clearlyâthereâs grass, bushes, and even the occasional tree planted as decoration, the traffic is less dense, and everyoneâs well dressed.
âMine?â she asks. âWell, my room is in the central estate, but if you mean my family, thenâall of it. This is the Goa district.â
What the fuck? I know Tallaâs family is rich, but this is forcing me to internally redefine my definition of the word.
âYour family owns an entire district of the city?â Allison asks incredulously.
âStrictly speaking, Clan Baanu owns the entire city,â Talla clarifies. âThis has been our land since before the empire was founded. Thatâs also why Stebaari isnât the nationâs capitalâat least, not anymore.â
Iâm sure Allie will want to know more about that, but I donât really care about history or politics.
âTallaâs back!â a distant voice shouts.
Moments later, weâre swarmed by a demonic horde of evil creatures, surrounding us in an instant and rendering Talla helpless to defend from their assault.
âHey kids! Yes, Iâm home, calm down. Iâm not going anyâow! Graaha, no butting!â
Children. At least a dozen tiny hellspawn crowd around Tallaâeven worse, half again as many split off to go after us!
âWho are you?â one asks.
âWhere are your horns?â another pesters.
A third starts tugging on our skirt. âWhy are your hooves flat?â
âDid your mommy make you shave all your fur?â
âWhy do you have dots?â
âFuck!â
That last one was meâone of the little shits just headbutted me in the shin.
âGraaha! What did I just say?!â Talla scolds it. âKids, Iâve got a special job for you allâa quest that only you can complete!â
The vicious little creatures are briefly tamed by Tallaâs hypnotic voice, but it can only last for so long.
âGo find Lady Kel and inform her that Iâve arrived with a guest,â she orders them. âThe matriarch will want to greet us.â
âOkay!â the group choruses, before scattering like the creepy little insects they are.
âSorry about that,â Talla sighs. âIâm out on mission a lot, so the kids always get excited when I return. Are you okay?â
âIâm fine!â I answer cheerfully. âCute kids. Do you actually shave children that misbehave?â
Talla blinks. âUh, noâthatâs just a threat. I think. Sorry if Iâm wrong, but...Allie?â
She gives me a searching look, and I realize that sheâs probably right.
âYeah, itâs me,â I confirm.
âWhen did you switch?â she asks. âI have my spell active right now, and I usually notice.â
I shrug. âDunno. After the children left, I guess. I donât think Mags likes them much.â
âBug-eyed little freaks,â she mutters quietly.
âI see...â Talla muses. âWell, we should get movingâdespite what I said to the kids, my mother definitely already knows weâre here, and sheâll be annoyed if we keep her waiting.â
âLead the way!â
As Talla leads us down the street, I look around, comparing the Goa district to the other parts of the city. The first thing I notice is the smellâor lack of one. Although Faâaun society is more advanced than I realized, indoor plumbing doesnât seem to have taken off quite yet, and the closest they have to sewers are gutters that the unlucky street sweepers have to keep clean. Either this place has much more diligent sweepers, or theyâve got an actual sewerâpossibly both.
The next thing I notice is white fur. Iâve seen enough people now to confirm that most Faâaun have fur colors that range from a dark chocolate brown to a light tan, with a few russet and tawny shades here and there. Every single person with white fur Iâve met has been a member of Clan Baanu, and while itâs not completely ubiquitous, Iâm seeing a lot more white fur here than anywhere else.
âDoes everyone in your clan have white fur?â I ask.
âNot everyone, no,â Talla replies. âThereâs men who marry in, of course, and boys only get it around half the time, but every daughter of Baanu has our signature fur color. Why?â
âI guess Iâm just wondering if thereâs discrimination based on fur color.â
âNot really,â Talla hedges. âLighter fur colors are usually considered more attractive, if thatâs what you mean.â
âItâs rare, but some lucky few are born with white fur outside of the nobility,â Evie chimes in.
I mean, that sounds a bit like discrimination to me, but I guess itâs not quite what I was worried about.
Our conversation has to end there, because as we come up on the sort of estate I was imagining when Talla said she was taking us to her home, a tall and well-dressed woman emerges to greet us with open arms.
âTalla! My daughter returns!â she exclaims brightly.
The Goa matriarch is dressed in a proper dress, loosely flowing in the style of all Faâaun clothing, but with the kind of full coverage that Iâve only seen on the village elder before. Itâs bleach-white with red and orange accents, and rather than the usual cloak or shawl, she has a long scarf-like garment draped loosely across her arms and shoulders like a cloth serpent.
Otherwise, she just looks like another Tallaâsame eyes, same facial structure, and even the same pattern in the twist of her horns. Her mother is taller, with slightly darker fur and a few more visible wrinkles around the eyes, but otherwise itâs a spitting image.
Talla gives her mother a Faâaun style bow, but the older woman doesnât break stride until she engulfs her daughter in a tight embrace.
âItâs so good to have you home safe again!â she sighs. âWhen are you going to give up on these childish adventures and settle down?â
âWhen Iâm ready, mother,â Talla groans.
âI heard things went poorly this time,â Lady Goa says, her tone growing more somber as she releases Talla from her embrace.
âUgh, already?! How?â
âYou know how cousin Maari likes to talk. She was trying to be subtleâGoddess bless her heartâbut her letter arrived a day before you did and anybody in the know understood its meaning. Lady Gaa is apoplectic. Are you alright, my child?â
Talla scratches at her horns and groans again. âIâm fine, butâoh, godshit, Dragaâs going to get torn apart!â
âLanguage, dear,â Lady Goa scolds her. âYou're picking up bad habits keeping the company of those rangers. Speaking of whichâwhen were you planning on introducing your little friend?â
âRight!â Talla says, smacking her forehead. âMother, this is Maev. Maev, this is Lady Tamara Goa Baanu, matriarch of the Goa family and my mother. Mom, Iâd like to host Maev here as a guest for a while.â
I give the lady my best impression of a Faâaun bow, even if it kinda hurts my neck to do it.
âUh, hello,â I greet her with a small wave. âNice to meet you.â
âHow charming!â Lady Goa says with a smile. âPlease, come in and tell me all about your adventure. Iâm eager to learn how and why my family has ended up hosting a dungeon-borne.â
Comments
TheShadowSlayer_
Oh fuck. I think I have some mild internalized homophobia. Iâve had almost the exact same response Talla did. Oh shit oh fuck. Well, the more you know, I guess?
Misurae
It's cute that Talla is entertaining Maggie's crush a little. I support it. I'm also happy that Eve is speaking up a little more. I wonder if Talla thinks humans are ugly.
Cellinia
Im rooting for you Maggie!!
Kennyevilmonkey
If Maggie gets any thirstier for Talla, we'll need to throw her in the dang river.
