It was springtime planning and they were only three weeks into it. She hadn’t been around the Bastion much these days. Long enough to pop in push her hugs and kisses onto Maalik and run off saying “I have to go it’s that time of year!”

Compared to the year before Raine was panicking a lot more. It was something about a big harvest. These were crucial to get right. If they got it wrong there would be a food shortage the year after it. The past few days had left feathers all over Maalik’s bed from Raine’s hair falling out over stress.

When Angela was confronted with it she went to Maalik’s room and pictures up the feathers. “Mmm…” They weren’t dead or molting. “It’s from stress. It’s literally making her hair lose its magic and turning back into feathers.” Looking up at Maalik she clasped her hands together.

“I have a proposal… I want you to go on vacation with her for a week.”

Maalik had noticed the subtle changes in Raine’s scheduling, but at the same time, he was somewhat aware that she would be busier than before. He guessed that it had to do with Terra approaching and the fact that her matron’s sphere was attached to that particular season. He hadn’t really worried for he was too busy with his own paperwork these days. It hadn’t occurred to him how much of a state she was in until he started to notice the lovely, messy feathers she’d leave in his bed after waking. Unsure of what to think of it, Maalik had informed Angela of the predicament and she investigated it herself.

“Makes sense then. She’s been running about with her head cut off the past few days. In fact”, he ceased a moment to cup at his chin. “I think this is one of the few times I’d seen her this busy before. Though this may not be a good ordeal for her.” He picked up one of the feathers and turned to Ang with a look that questioned her seriousness. “You’re joking…I have tons of paperwork to go over from the churches, not to mention training Sergei more on the business back in Kurayo. I doubt Nemesis would simply let me leave, especially for that long.”

“Still, I’ll humor you if you can get him to comply, I suppose. Raine’s probably going to work herself bald at this point.” Probably the prospect of that alone would only increase the rate of her feather loss- if one told her.

Angela crossed her arms at him and then gave a smirk. “You aren’t the only one needed. I will have to find a replacement for Raine as well. She’s been doing the bulk of the field files for me.” The goddess cracked her knuckles and patted Maalik on the head. “Pack your bags and I’ll make him comply.”

Make was a new word for her. She wasn’t sure how Nemesis would respond but the first stop was first. Celeste’s office. There the goddess barged right in and pulled Celeste up. “ANGELA WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

“I need a favor,” Angela smiled at her.

“Absolutely not I’m reading this book.”

“…Well, here’s what I’m going to do if you don’t do it.” And Angela threatened her sister goddess. The color that Celeste had left her face as they left together for Nemesis’s office.

“Is it that bad?” Celeste looked at Angela and she could see the circles under the goddess’s eyes. Yeah, it was that bad. “I’ll wait out here then.” She supposed she could interrupt her daily routines to help Nemesis out.

“Nemesis,” Angela came over and sat on his desk. “My handsome husband. Can Maalik go on vacation for a week? I have a replacement for him all ready to go. Please? Raine is going to kill herself at this rate… If she notices she’s balding… Well… You know how she is.”

Nemesis was tending to his own stacks of paperwork; most of which were business arrangements but he also was keeping track of bits of clues to the Eldritch situation as of late. He'd be damned if he was going to get the jump on him once more. For the past weeks, he had spent whatever time not dedicated towards work or personal life into his studies, but he had learned only a small amount, to his displeasure. 

He was a tad irritable when he peeked up and saw Angela enter before his nose was buried back into work. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, love?", he asked, half expecting her to shove everything off the desk and lay onto it. Unlike Celeste, she was much more requiring…physical contact in their relationship. Not that he'd mind it normally. But instead, she mere sat down and asked for something that made him chuckle out loud. "You surely jest…there's no one that qualifies to do what Maalik does, and he does a lot of work around here. And why is your own avatar balding?" He hadn't the slightest clue on what she was going on about but she barely asked him for things, so this must have been urgent. Still, he was hesitant to lose out on plenty of work done if the substitute wasn't worthy of his standards. 

"So I'll bite. Just who do you have that was willing to take on his workload?", he asked, his brow cocked up as he attempted to figure out what his wife had up her metaphorical sleeve. 

“The work in my temple has quadrupled in the past few weeks. You know how Terra is. Raine has taken on the bulk of the paperwork which is more than what Maalik is doing. It is field reports, seed healthiness, and other things of that like. We’re doing it for all of Canelux this year where normally we only worry about certain places. Raine is stressing herself to the point of balding and she hasn’t noticed yet but you know how she fancies her feathers.”

Angela folded her hands into her lap, “You can come in now.” Celeste came in and she had this look on her face.

“I can do it. I do your paperwork when you aren’t around so I can do Maalik’s… For a whole week.” She rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t like I was doing anything great anyways…” She sounded distant but she was hesitant to explain why. When Nemesis got curious enough she offered up her wrist to him. She wasn’t about to speak it.

Angela just had a shit-eating grin on her face the entire time. There was one way to make Celeste bend to her, and it wasn’t like the vaewolf was doing anything particularly important… Which was another thing Angela had over her.

He did give her a look, but despite speaking against it. Rather than turning this into a sort of pissing contest, Nemesis heard her out while his mind was preparing to see who she had to replace his irreplaceable companion. He stopped working and leaned his head against a hand as his eyes turned towards the door and when it opened, his face dropped slightly. It was Celeste of all people.

He quickly diverted his eyes back to the redhead, knowing that something was entirely wrong with this situation. Celeste did as she desired and surely she wouldn’t have freely agreed with this arrangement. “What do you do?”, he asked Angela first.

“What did she do?”, he reinstated, this time asking Celeste. She didn’t voice the problem but rather presented her wrist to him to which he got up and took hold of her arm. With his fangs, he bit enough to draw some blood and watched the memories flash before him before an annoyed growl echoed from his throat. “Really? You threaten her with that of all things?” Having Sergei was an experience she had been both thankful for and also certain that she wouldn’t want to bear another child again. The nine months of carrying him were something she wanted to avoid; hence her plan to have another sister’s wife take up that rein. He looked towards said woman while shaking his head and releasing Celeste.

“Must that be your go-to… Oh, whatever! Go ahead and take him.” Maalik could overhear the situation unfold and was admitting shocked that he would have to followthrough and go on a relaxing trip with Raine. Hell, he didn’t even know where to take her to do so. He knew next to nothing about vacations, but like everything else, he supposed that she had a plan for that too as he stepped into the room, feeling as defeated as his master right now.

Angela waved her hand, “She twisted my arm into it. She was reading a book and insisted it was more important. I wasn’t going to threaten her.” Celeste mumbled a bit and looked defeated but at the end of it Angela looked pleased.

The goddess turned to Maalik now and clapped her hands. “I have an amazing health spa in Abed. Abed is close with the gods. It’s not in Sularia so you won’t have to deal with Rosenites being all over you… and the Health spa is one of my top-rated facilities. Raine has never been there. It’s absolutely huge too. There are saunas, the beach, the pool, and other things for you both to do. Raine has never been to Abed so treat her well Maalik!”

Angela was tapping her chin, “I have to convince someone to take over for Raine but Simone and Lewis owe me one so I bet they can do it for me. So, pack a bag and if you don’t have anything to wear we can get it for you. Then you can go get Raine from her office.”

–

Inside Raine’s office she was crying over her desk. There were feathers everywhere and the paperwork was piled sky-high. “This is the worst. I just want to go with Maalik. I’m going to go bald at this point.” She was sniffling. She found out this morning how much her feathers were falling out and it wrecked her self-esteem.

Maalik titled his head at her; a spa? He had not once been to such a place, though he was vaguely familiar with its concept. “Believe me, I’m not worried about Rosenites whatsoever”, he waved it off. “He wasn’t like Gabriel (formerly) or Elijah who would swoon over an opportunity to head to Sularia and surely he wouldn’t be that well received. But then again, they were talking about Sularia and he shook his head of the recent assumptions. “Nor have I, so I guess this will be a fantastic experience.” Gods, he didn’t want to travel all the way to Abed, but it was for Raine’s sake so he grumbled a bit and nodded hesitantly. “Please do not stress yourself over the work, ma’am”, he requested of Celeste. “Also, Reaver should be coming soon with the reports. I’ll have him fill you in on them and Sergei does have a meeting with a potential vendor…”

Nemesis waved him off and Maalik sighed and headed off. “Yes, I’ll be retrieving her shortly.”

After he had finished packing, he had gone into Angela’s realm and asked for some of the priestesses that worked with Raine to pack up for the trap while he headed towards her office. Even before the knob was turned, he could hear her crying and already assumed that the truth caught up with her.

Wonderful.

“Raine?”, he pondered as he slipped inside and closed the down behind him. He could see towers of paperwork surrounding her and he went over to pat her head. “Let’s go. Angela’s given you permission to go on a vacation. We are heading to Abed for a week so that you don’t…have to worry any further.”

Angela smiled up at him. “Oh, but Raine would. She is coming off as jealous lately of people. Jealousy doesn’t suit her.”

Celeste nodded, “I’ll be fine. I used to do much paperwork in the past. I suppose now I’m just a simple housewife.” A spoiled housewife.

Raine looked up at Maalik with puffy eyes, “I’m balding.” She was always so proud of her feathers and her hair. She spent such a long time taking care of it and always got compliments on it. She snuggled into him and looked in shock. “Right now? But how will she handle everything? She is barely sleeping as is!”

Then she realized that Angela had a plan and she gingerly took Maalik’s hand. “Okay.” Once they were outside the door she noticed Lewis and Simone making their way to her. Angela worked fast.

“Don’t worry about it Raine… We are going to fill in,” the night phoenix smiled and patted her on the head.

“How did she get you two here though?”

Simone blushed a bit and rubbed her neck, “I’d rather not say. Just know we’re here for you.” Lewis had that same aloof look he normally did as they went into the room. It would be a long week for them.

Melina came up with a pink bag and held it out. “Here you go. Have a fun time on your trip, Raine. Please don’t worry about us!” Melina bowed to her and smiled at Maalik. “Take care of our Avatar on our behalf.”

The next thing they knew they were on an airship and within the next few hours found themselves in Abed. “WHOAAAAA, this is pretty.” Raine was carrying her bag and saw a pretty lady with their sigil. “That must be the person picking us up!”

“Yes, we all know by now. It was Angela who first discovered the reason for it. You’re overstressed about the situation with all this work, Raine. She fears that you’ll go complete bald at this rate.” He wasn’t one that usually pulled punches, but he was trying to be understanding of the situation and not cause her more panic. “Uh, she mentioned that weird couple, I believe. Guess she will get them to do something much like how she has Celeste doing my work.” It was no wonder that his master used to refer to the goddess as a devil when it came to deals. She seemed to perk right up and he led her away from the office in time for her new replacements to show up.

The woman did everything swiftly, he’d give her that, though her tactics were a little questionable.

Up next was Melina who had her belongings ready as well. “She and her head full of hair should be fine”, he replied as he retrieved the bag. “Just don’t let things get too chaotic around here until then.”

Before long, they were out on their way to Abed. He had made a couple of trips here, and so far, he found the atmosphere quite distracting. At least this time, the trip was for pleasure and not business. He looked over towards Raine, who never been there, it seemed. “The city is pretty much one big celebration, day and night. Especially night. Dancing, music, feasts. Many that come here don’t want to leave. Perhaps that’s the trap behind it.” Maalik watched on until they had arrived at the port. From there, he followed the way towards the lady waiting for them, and close by was a carriage. Loading things up, he let Raine and the lady inside first and then himself as the carriage began to move forward. “Your lady moves extremely fast, it’s a bit frightening” It was quite a thing to think of- when Angela put her mind to something, she damn well does everything in her power to make it so.