They should have been in bed.

Unlike the previous evening, where they had fought until so late that they were all exhausted and could barely stand, tonight they were clean and full. It was only just after eight, which was too early to go to bed, which gave the women a chance to sit in their commander center and talk.

My own personal hell. Penelope glanced at the door to her room and thought about making an excuse to turn in early, but the monster skin that acted as a door wasn't going to cancel out the noise, nor was it going to stop Circe from barging in and dragging her back out.

That girl needs to learn the meaning of the word boundaries. Penelope grumbled to herself as she leaned against the slanted wall. Patrick had figured out how to slant them just enough that with a fur over it, it resembled a recliner even if she was also sitting on the floor.

"Game time!" Circe flashed an evil grin as she looked at the assembled women. "Who's ready for Truth or Dare?"

"Could you be any more childish?" Riva shook her head. "All that is good for is to use peer pressure to get people to say things that should be kept to themselves or do things that they know they shouldn't."

"It's also a great way to get to know people." Eldri interjected.

"It's as obscene as 'Never Have I Ever.'" Riva huffed. "If you want to know something about someone, then just ask."

"Kind of hard to ask someone out of the blue why they're a stick-in-the-mud." Circe stuck out her tongue.

"When I was your age, we had class, not this brazen disrespect for authority." Riva glared at the younger woman.

"I thought the flappers were big in the twenties." The freckled redhead from Marlow's harvesting group batted her blue eyes.

"Fae-Anna! She's not that old!" The brunette beside her slapped her arm. "She's clearly talking about the sixties! They were all about love and peace and following orders, right?"

"Make fun of the old lady. Ha ha. Very funny." Riva folded her arms in front of her. "I've got kids older than most of you. Should earn me a little bit of respect."

"We're just playing with you; you don't have to be so bent out of shape about it!" Circe grinned. "But while you're talking about how things were before we were born, what was it like riding a dinosaur to school?"

"Yep. That's how you know you're too old to party." Riva stood up and brushed off her hands. "I'm going to find some adult conversation; they're all yours, boss." The black-haired woman gave a two-fingered salute to Frederica, then walked out the door.

"That wasn't very nice." Skylar mumbled under her breath.

"Come on!" Circe giggled as she danced over to the blonde. "We're just unwinding. Come on, dance with me!"

"Hey!" Penelope snapped her fingers. "Circe, you're drunk-tired."

"Ugh, fine." Circe collapsed next to her. "I just want to have some fun after today."

"This is the first chance she's getting to process what her life has become." Jeru stopped the retort Penelope had been about to give. "Most of these people have never had to kill more than a fly, let alone something that can talk back to them. In the heat of the moment, they can go on autopilot, but right now, they've got a chance to think about it, and they're starting to process things in their own way."

Penelope glanced around the room. Only the women who had been leveling had been invited, but all of the ones who'd leveled through using the Demonic Essence and the one from Patrick's group had declined to join.

Ailis Hayes, the brunette sitting next to Fae-Anna Mason, were both part of Marlow's group. The two were 22 and 23 and had become fast friends, bonding over their shared Caster class as well as age.

Raelyn Dixon was sitting away from the group. The 35-year-old brunette was part of Frederica's group, and while she'd agreed to join, she'd brought a bundle of the thin vines and was quietly weaving them together.

Frederica cleared her throat. "I think getting to know each other would be a good thing."

"Do you have any kids?" Circe blurted.

Everyone turned their attention to their leader as the room got quiet.

"Here we go…" Jeru groaned.

Sore subject?

"Very."

"That's…" Frederica turned away and looked up at the ceiling. She shook her head and wiped a tear off of her cheek before she turned around. "Not really."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"How do you not really have a kid?" Fae-Anna wrinkled her freckled nose.

"I had two sons. Carl and Steven. They were twenty-seven and twenty five, but…" She swallowed. "They weren't really mine. My husband paid for the best nannies to raise them, then sent them to boarding school as soon as they were old enough. Outside of photo ops or company dinners, I've never been in the same room with either of my children for more than a few minutes."

Silence hung over the group as they processed what had just been unloaded.

Circe was the first to move, jumping to her feet to wrap her arms around the older woman. "That's horrible! Your ex sounds like a piece of work!"

"He's…" Frederica's shoulders sagged. "He's not my ex."

"Wait!" Eldri raised an eyebrow. "He treated you like that, and you stayed with him?" Her brow furrowed. "And aren't you with Oakley?"

"It wasn't a true marriage." Frederica pulled out of Circe's arms. For the first time, the late-forties woman looked vulnerable, like she was folding in on herself. "Marcus needed a beautiful young woman to hang on his arm, and I was young and thought that money would make up for the lack of affection. For a while, it did, but when I caught him with his secretary, I realized just how empty our marriage was." She wiped a tear from her face. "If I walked away, I got nothing, and if there was a scandal, I would have had to make reparations." She closed her eyes. "I was young and stupid, and when he told me the prenuptial agreement was just standard business practice, I believed him!"

"That's… horrible." Circe moved to give her another hug.

"I don't need your pity!" Frederica's eyes burned as she glared at the younger woman.

Circe took a step back and bit her lip, unsure of what to do.

"Freddy." Penelope slowly stood up. Her body ached and at the same time pleaded with her not to intervene. "It's not pity." She swallowed as she spread her arms and walked towards her friend. "You're in pain, and we want to let you know that you don't have to feel it alone." She crossed the last few steps between them and closed her arms around her friend.

Frederica fell into Penelope's arms as the tears flowed. They slowly sagged to the floor, where Circe joined the hug, then Eldri wrapped her arms around them. Skylar, Ailis, and Fae-Anna joined next, with Raelyn putting down her weaving to add her support as well.

It felt like the world was smothering her, but Penelope refused to budge. She could stomach this much discomfort for her friend.

"Girls…" Frederica hiccuped. "I need to breathe."

They untangled themselves from her and went back to their own seats.

"Well." Frederica wiped her eyes. "That was a good cry."

"How old was he?" Circe raised an eyebrow. "Or was he just that ugly?"

"Circe!" Penelope shook her head. "Even I know that's inappropriate!"

"What?" Circe grinned. "The only reason a dude needs to trap a pretty woman like that is if he's super old or super ugly."

"He was forty-five when we got married." Frederica swallowed.

"That was twenty-eight years ago, which would make him…" Circe counted on her fingers but gave up and turned to Penelope. "Pen?"

"Seventy-three now." Penelope shook her head. "You are way too tired right now."

"Too tired to go to sleep!" Crice grinned. "So I was right! He was way too old for you."

Frederica blushed and looked at her hands in her lap. No one else spoke, waiting for her to say something.

"I grew up poor. We never had anything, and as soon as I was sixteen, my parents kicked me out. When Marcus found me, he gave me everything that I never thought I'd ever have. It made me feel strong and grown up." She wiped away a tear as it fell down her cheek. "All I had to do was play the part of the perfect trophy wife."

"But why?" Circe shivered. "I mean, stuff is nice, but my dad treated me like trash. I could never be with someone like that." She shook her head. "And why hook up with Oakley? Isn't he like half your age?"

"He's…" Frederica sighed. "I don't know. After so many years of being an ornament, I just wanted someone who wanted me for me, not because I was some trophy to be shown off but because they saw me."

"Are you worried about what'll happen if you get, you know…" Circe whistled as she made a rounded motion over her belly.

Frederica covered her mirth with a laugh. "After Steven, Marcus had that taken care of." She shook her head. "Trust me, I don't have to worry about that."

"She has no idea how wrong she is." Jeru shook his head.

The Healing Potions? Penelope thought for a moment. But isn't she too old to have a kid anyway?

"She's already grown back what they cut out." Jeru confirmed. "But the Mantles do more than just give you power; they also extend your lifespan, which will start to de-age you the higher level you get. No one has noticed it yet, because you aren't high enough, but her skin is going to get its elasticity back like she had in her thirties, and by the end of this, her life expectancy is going to be around three hundred."

Which means?

"She'll be able to have kids for another hundred years." Jeru chuckled. "And that twenty-year age gap is going to eventually feel more like a five-year age gap in human years."

Penelope shook her head as the conversation turned from Frederica's past to the potential suitors among the available men. She tuned most of it out, content to let Circe ramble on until the younger women all fell asleep.

"You should turn in." Frederica stood up and glanced around the room. "I'm going to go find Oakley."

"I'm just going to cover them up; then I'll head to my room." Penelope flipped the skin covering her chair back over Circe. The snoring brunette looked peaceful as she curled under the makeshift blanket.

"These are the moments that you hang on to." Jeru looked down at the sleeping women. He looked up at Penelope. "If you ever need to remind yourself of why you fight, this is it right here."

Penelope filed the image away. It didn't make her feel any less like she'd abandoned Ula to the past, but getting to see how peacefully they were all sleeping helped her to feel like she'd at least saved some of them.

She left them sleeping in the common room and headed to her room. As good as it was to see them relax, she couldn't allow herself to feel at peace. There was a lot more fighting to do, and she needed to get some sleep so she could be ready for it in the morning.

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