"Man, midnight shift again. Ready for another boring night of front gate duty?" The young Sekhama greeted his partner at the watch house outside the main palace gate.

"What are you complaining about? We get to sit here where there aren't any bullets flying, maybe see a nice car or two, go home in one piece."

"Seriously man? Everyone who took out the Trang'aul yesterday is probably still in the harem! You're telling me you don't want in on that?"

"And they're lucky they came back at all, kid. You got a problem, take it up with the commander. I don't get paid to listen to green wild dogs whine. Besides, looks like the harem is coming to you tonight." The gruff hyena gestured to the palace approach where three figures were walking towards the gate.

"What the fuck man, she's got two kids with her."

"Since when did virgins get choosy? Go deal with it."

"Why do you think she's here?"

"Same reason they all are. Tell her this ain't a fucking charity and if she gets uppity, flash your gun. Man I ain't got time for this shit after all that with Torando."

The wild dog left his grouchy partner in the gatehouse, stepping out onto the road as the automated spotlights fixed on the woman and the two children with her. Her cloak couldn't hide what she was. It looked like she and the children were carrying everything to their name with them. It wasn't much. "I hate this part of the job," the young Sekhama muttered before raising his voice. "Miss I'm sorry, this is a restricted area. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Fear lanced through Savannah's heart as she tried to calm herself. After washing and leaving the Oasis she'd sprinted home and woken her children, constantly repeating the words Keiko had spoken to her. She'd contemplated going to the palace without them first, but the Oro knew where she lived. They knew everything about her. She couldn't risk leaving her children. The whole way to the palace grounds, the shining beacon in the heart of the capitol, she'd been terrified. She constantly checked over her shoulder, convinced something or someone was following her. No one had cut her down in a hail of magicka, but now she had a massive metal gate and two armed men to get past.

"I…I need to see the captain. Idris?" She stumbled, afraid to look too long at the young dog before her. She faintly recalled a couple mnyama boys his age she'd broken in together. It had paid for her next meal at least. His face was still innocent.

"Mama?" Her young son called out.

"Shhh now baby, it's going to be alright," she assured him. "Please sir, I have to see the captain. I have a message from the princess."

The wild dog sighed, looking long at her human-like eyes. They were unsettling with that spotlight on them as they pleaded with him. "Look lady, if I had a credit for every time some urchin claimed to know something about the royal family-"

"The golden light still dawns over Alhamkara!" Savannah gasped. "Please, my babies!"

"What the hell's taking so long, Spot? Just tell her to fuck off!" Bruce's voice came from behind him, the hyena stalking up to survey the situation.

"I tried, Bruce, but she insists it's something about her majesty, started saying some weird line."

"So what is it, girl? You've come to turn yourself in for illegal body modification?" Bruce asked Savannah directly, glaring down at her. "You better start talking. Do I look like a hyena with time for bullshit?"

"The golden light still dawns over Alhamkara," Savannah cried, eyes full of fear as the Sekhama rested his hand on his pistol.

"You see, Bruce? What the hell is she-" The young wild dog stopped short as he looked at his partner's grizzled face.

"Spot, you turn around and don't stop sprinting until you find the Commander. You bring him here now. You understand me?"

"Are you serious?" Spot asked, looking between the woman and his partner.

"Now, private!" Bruce barked, causing Savannah's son to begin crying as Spot tore off for the palace. "Man, fuck this shit," Bruce muttered.

"Jace, you have to be brave for mommy," Savannah's older child insisted, hugging her brother. The hyena looked ready to call it quits then and there.

"I have no idea where you heard that phrase, lady, but you best be hoping you've got something real juicy to tell Octavia. Otherwise you're going somewhere worse than wherever it is you came from," Bruce promised. "Inside the guardhouse, now."

-----

Idris Octavia had had better nights. The princess was still missing. He'd not seen hide nor hair, not even a rumour after he and his men destroyed the Trang'aul. The king was breathing down his neck, the queen was distraught, Torando was being a right prick now that he wasn't threatening war, and worst of all he didn't even have mnyama scum to kill that particular evening. At least it's something to do other than reading stale intel, he thought, following calmly after Spot as the aptly nicknamed wild dog led him from the Sekhama annex of the palace to the front guardhouse, claiming that some street girl had shown up with knowledge of one of the royal family's code phrases.

Stepping inside the small station, he found Bruce in his usual grumpy mood along with a cheetah...he supposed calling her a lady of the night was as generous as he could get, and her two children. The lion stood tall and addressed them.

"You're the one who claims to have information regarding the princess?" He demanded in a level tone.

"Y-yes. My name is Savannah," she replied quietly.

"Tell me what you told them."

"The golden light still dawns over Alhamkara," Savannah complied with shaking voice, kneeling on the floor and holding her children to her. Idris nodded.

"You scanned them, Bruce?"

"Yeah boss, they're clean. Confiscated this credit chit. Girl couldn't have had it legally. Way too much on here," Bruce reported, extending it hesitantly as Idris held out a giant paw. The lion's eyes sent a shudder through him.

"Why do all three of them look traumatized, Bruce? I don't have to remind you that Princess Keiko is missing, do I? I need good intel, not whatever some street girl thinks is going to help keep her children alive!" The captain growled, his mane lending him a far more imposing presence than Bruce could hope to match, to say nothing of the rank differential. The hyena brought his heels together in a salute.

"No excuses, sir."

"Then you stay right here and enjoy the rest of your night, Bruce," Idris ordered quietly. "Spot?"

"Yes sir!"

"Can I ask you to assist me with a bit of...babysitting?" The captain requested, throwing the private a small smile.

The wild dog looked at Savannah's children. They looked back at him. He smiled. They eventually smiled back at him. "Yeah, I think I can do that, sir."

"Good. Savannah, I'd like you to come with me, please. Did he take anything else belonging to you?"

"N-no, sir," Savannah confirmed, standing slowly and not meeting his eyes. "Jace, Keiko, come now," she said quietly, giving the little ones a push as Idris turned and led the way out the back of the guardhouse and into the palace grounds. Savannah looked to the moon and sky as the towering sandstone buildings of the compound came into full view. She'd made it to the other side of the wall. Her bosom swelled with hope. Thank you, Lady Keiko!

"Hey now, I said you have to hold my hand!" Spot said, snatching Jace by the back of his shirt as the little one tried to run off into the palace grounds. The Sekhama didn't blame him. Other than the vehicle path and a few walkways, the entirety of the open space within the walls was filled with fascinations. Fountains carved of roughhewn rock fed ponds of koi and other fish. Trees of all shapes and sizes, tropical and savannah, sheltered colorful birds and chirping tamarins. Parapets, walls, and walkways lined the area, all lit with a combination of bright flood lights, lanterns, and torches.

"Jace, you have to behave or they'll send us away," the little Keiko scolded her brother. Spot's face fell. He wanted to reassure them but their fate was out of his hands. Their mother was a criminal and he was neither judge nor jury, just an executioner. The woman in question walked in front of him, next to the captain. The young Sekhama, from his vantage point, now realized that Savannah's modifications didn't end at her eyes and chest. Without her tail he could see every contour of the woman's rear, even under her cloak. He coughed roughly and refocused on the children attached to his hands.

"So your name is Keiko?" He asked the young cheetah girl. She smiled at him.

"Yep! Just like the princess! Does my mommy really know lady Keiko? She wouldn't say."

Idris smiled sadly and glanced behind him as Spot tried to respond to the innocent curiosity of a child. There was the law to consider, not to mention the woman's blasphemous attempt at imitating the human form, but there was also Keiko. The princess was alive, and had apparently chosen an underground whore to send a message. He was honor bound to listen, and in the event the woman was truthful, to treat her as one of Keiko's own. What in the name of humanity are you up to, my lady?

Savannah looked up as she was escorted into the barracks of the Sekhama, their sigil carved into the stone above the door frame. The interior, contrary to the classical exterior of the palace, was eminently modern in steel and artificial light. Every angle was covered by a camera, and she saw directions to the sleeping quarters, armory, and mess hall on the walls around her. A door on their right slid open. She could see a well-kept office full of weapons, armor, security feeds, terminals, files, and an ebony desk in the center of the organized chaos. The large lion looked down at her. "Will your children be alright alone for an hour or so?"

Savannah nodded and dropped to her knees to address the young ones. "Jace, Keiko, I need to speak with this man alone, alright?"

"Is he going to pay you? The scary landlady came by yesterday." Jace's innocent question rendered Savannah speechless as Spot looked anywhere but at her. Keiko was looking at her mother with sad eyes. Idris didn't seem surprised, however. He took a knee and addressed the young boy.

"Your mother has something very important to tell me, young man. We're just going to talk."

"But...if mommy doesn't get paid then-" Jace began, fear clouding his eyes as his young mind barely scraped the surface of the underbelly of Alhamkara.

"Do you know what I do for a living, young man?" The lion asked kindly.

"No."

"I kill bad people. And sometimes I get to protect innocent people. Spot does too. Tonight he's going to protect you. I will speak to you again. Do you understand?"

"Mommy is a good person," Jace pleaded, looking at the commander's holstered sidearm.

"I know. Will you be a good boy for Spot? He's new and working nights."

"Yes, I can be good," the boy promised.

"Good," the lion smiled, resting a paw gently on the cheetah's shoulder. "Spot, take them to the mess. Get them something to eat and drink. We'll come find you."

"Yes, Captain. Come on you two. Wanna see where I eat?"

Idris watched as Spot led the two children down the hall and around the corner. "Now then, I believe it's time we had a little talk," he said seriously, turning to find the cheetah on the verge of tears. He extended the credit chit to her. "You can't hide the truth from him forever."

"What kind of son wants a whore for a mother?" She whispered, obediently following the captain of the Sekhama into his office and taking a seat in an unremarkable chair. The Captain sat and looked her over critically.

"Take the cloak off," he ordered, watching as Savannah stood and revealed herself, her body clad in a well-worn dress too small for her augmented breasts. "I'm sorry, but you can never be too careful in my line of work. Scanners always miss something. You can't fight what you can't see."

"I assure you I'm only here to deliver Lady Keiko's words," she replied, keeping her eyes on his desk.

"Convince me of that and your son won't have to grow up with a street whore for a mother. We take care of those who serve the crown faithfully. Start at the beginning. What's your name?"

"Savannah."

"Your real name," he demanded, unimpressed.

"...Eina, sir."

"I prefer that," Idris said, at least as kindly as his battle worn voice would allow. "Now then, Eina, why did you amputate your tail and replace your eyes?"

"To earn more money when I…when I sell my body."

"You're aware that this sort of modification for any reason other than a medical need is illegal, correct?"

"Yes."

"And you did it anyway."

"I have two growing children to feed. Even synth meat costs credits," Savannah said more confidently than she felt. The lion across the desk looked like he could literally snap her in two.

"Repeat that phrase for me, please."

"The golden light still dawns over Alhamkara."

"And yet she's nowhere to be seen," he mused, glancing away from her. "Very well, Eina. You have my attention. Where did you encounter the princess?"

"The Oasis, my former place of work. It's an unregistered brothel and nightclub."

"Former?" Idris asked with interest.

"I can't go back there now."

"Why?"

"The Oro will kill me."

"Why? You stiff them for the surgery costs?"

"No. They take my body when they want. She killed one of them in front of me."

The silence that pervaded the office was absolute as Idris narrowed his eyes at her and purred the most threatening purr that Eina had ever heard in her life. A fire burned in his eyes that she'd never seen the like of. "You're saying that Lady Keiko, princess of Alhamkara who disappeared minutes before her wedding, walked into some sex and drug den and killed an Oro on her own?"

"Sir, she wasn't alone. She had help. It was a masked male, probably a mercenary. And it wasn't just an Oro, sir."

"It gets better?" Idris asked, cocking his head as Eina shuddered.

"It was the man who cut my tail. He was there to recoup some of the cost for-"

"Who was he, Eina?" Idris demanded. "I'm the Commander of the Sekhama, not a doctor or a bookie."

"Tennath. Oro's right hand."

"You swear on your life this information is true?" He growled.

"I swear it," Eina affirmed in a panicked voice. "She's a wild dog about my height. She had golden chains on an ear, a navel piercing in the shape of a teardrop with magicite in it, and she had these white sunbursts just below her eyes. She could form magitech weapons from nothing and killed him with a single shot. It fired some sort of round that didn't come out the other side. And it didn't do anything flashy like fire or ice. I've never seen anything like it. The man crippled him first, using a blade. He knew exactly where to cut." Eina gaped at the captain as he suddenly threw his head back and laughed boldly, a loud and rumbling noise that almost turned into a triumphant roar.

"That girl! She runs off and starts nailing mobsters and befriending strippers? I guess she wasn't ready to settle down with our esteemed Lord Torando, eh? There's more, I assume? What happened after the kill?"

Eina collected herself, flabbergasted that the chief of the palace's armed forces didn't seem surprised at all to hear about Keiko in such a manner. "Yes sir. She gave me a message. I used my lens to commit it all to memory."

"Then let's hear it."

"She's...not coming back yet, sir. But she's alive and well from what I've seen. She was unrestrained and had no wounds other than what looked like bandages on her wrists."

"So she was forcefully taken...but you said she was operating freely?" Idris pressed.

"It seemed that way, sir."

"And she used the all clear phrase, too. Damnit Lady Keiko, you could have left us a note. Sending this woman instead?" Idris complained to the ether.

"Shall I read it for you now?" Eina asked, a twinge of hurt in her voice. Idris nodded, privately acknowledging that using a faunum was much more secure than anything digital. "She said she is alive and well. She says that you should prepare to enact any of your anti-mnyama operations at a moment's notice. She says that if you don't have plans made for any particular gang that you should do so. She says she leaves it to your discretion when to act. And she says she's sorry she can't return yet," Eina finished sadly, remembering the princess' smile as she'd tipped her.

"Anything else?"

"Just orders for me, sir." Eina blushed and looked at her lap.

"I'll hear them."

"She told me to...repeat that phrase to one of the serving women of the palace, that I should get myself to a clinic of repute and that…"

Idris leaned back in his chair and cocked a brow as the cheetah fell silent. "And?"

"She said that I should undo my breast enhancement and that upon doing so if I'm in good health I should join the harem if I don't wish to take up a different job. She said her plants needed some water too. I'd hoped the little ones could maybe…" Eina trailed off as Idris began to laugh again, this one a low and subtle chuckle.

"Eina, that was definitely Lady Keiko. Not that I'd have entertained your story without it, but that little tale was more convincing than any passcode. She's right, by the way."

"I'm sorry?"

"Cheetahs look better with smaller tits," he asserted.

"Maybe in your world they do," Eina murmured.

"By my lady's command it's now your world, too. You've done her and me a great service tonight." Idris was ready for Eina's reaction, circling his desk calmly and wrapping an arm around the woman's shoulders as she collapsed to the floor in tears. Keiko had always been a believer in small victories. He was more than willing to credit her this one. "Alright Eina, that's it. It's over now. Let's get this all out before we grab your little ones, hmm?" Eventually her tears ran dry and he helped her to her feet. "Come with me, please. My lady seems to have given me a bit of homework, so to speak. I must turn you over to more capable hands than mine."

"Yours seem quite capable, sir," Eina murmured.

"Perhaps, but they are not tender hands and I sincerely doubt either of us are interested in the sort of evening where I enjoy your body without buying you dinner first. Eina, do you know why I pressed his lordship to permit my men to partake in some of the indulgences offered in the palace harem? Beyond espionage and the usual selfish reasons, of course."

"I don't, sir," she replied, wondering what the harem had to do with anything. He nodded to her.

"Because fighting for your country, or your crown, or even your princess isn't the same thing as fighting to get back to a warm pair of lips and a warmer pair of legs, if you catch my meaning."

"I believe I do, sir." The two of them had come to a stop just before the double doors that led to the galley. Idris pointed through the window to where Spot was trying to coax Jace down from a table and Keiko was politely sipping on a cup of juice.

"He's nineteen. Kid has been itching for a deployment since he earned his first urban combat simulation citation. We live somewhere between the police and the military, Eina. We cannot bring to bear the firepower of our nation's greatest weapons, especially in the densely populated slums, and we do not have the luxury of fighting on the open field. We fight in the worst of both worlds. When various wealthy businessmen, landowners, and celebrities complained about sharing their decadent paradise with my men and the occasional woman, the Queen invited them all to an open casket funeral for one of my soldiers. He leapt on a magicite detonator in the middle of a raid, saved his entire squad. To this day I'm convinced that stunt was actually lady Keiko's idea. She's always had an inappropriate fascination with the harem."

"They couldn't refuse the Queen's offer, could they?" Eina guessed. Octavia bared his teeth in a vicious smile.

"No, they could not. They all got a taste of just how fragile their beautiful lives are, what my men sacrifice to maintain peace and order. Now one regularly sees Sekhama in that place, as well as some of the ladies of the palace they might choose to accompany them, charming little doves the lot of them. I will not tell you who to lay with, Eina, or what to do with the freedom my lady has given you, but that boy couldn't keep his eyes off of you. If Lady Keiko is planning a war, he will find his way to the front."

Eina watched as the wild dog tentatively tried to grab her son around the waist, only to have the little feline slip from his grasp. Soon he was on the table as well with a smile on his face as little Keiko looked at them with smug disinterest. The young mother regarded the captain. "If I can, I will give him something real to return to. He has no one else? Surely..." She trailed off as Idris heaved a deep sigh.

"I would not ask you if he did. You will have my thanks, in that case. For now though I believe we should reign in our boys, yes?" Idris waved his hands and the doors to the mess hall slid open.

Spot froze, caught red handed in the act of behaving like a kid by his Commander. He looked down to see Jace pointing at him. "You little traitor, you started it."

"Mom, the Sekhama gave Jace coffee," Keiko said immediately, though all three of them fell silent as Eina tearful approached her children.

"Oh my babies," she whispered, taking them both into a hug.

"Do we have to go back now? I wanted to keep playing with Mr. Spot," Jace asked. Eina choked back her tears long enough to assure her son.

"The princess and the captain said we can stay, Jace. That means you and Keiko need to be on your best behavior and help with whatever is needed in the palace. Do you understand?"

Spot moved to stand beside Idris, feeling most uncomfortable at intruding on a family moment. He spoke quietly. "Orders, sir?"

"Take them all to the doc, run the caffeine out of that kid's system, you idiot, and then bring them to Lyria. When that's done, make sure your armor is in peak condition and your blades are thirsty."

"Sir?"

"Our Lady has set certain events in motion, Spot. We may be able to land another fish."

The young private was about to reply when a ball of yellow, spotted fluff impacted his leg. "Mr. Spot, mommy says I can stay! Can we go play with the monkeys?"

"Good luck, Spot. You brought this on yourself you know." Idris chuckled as he departed, his head already churning with feints and counters, ways to turn the smallest slip of a single gangster into the domino that would topple his entire organization. "Coffee to a cheetah. What the hell were you thinking?"

"It was the only way to stop him from crying," Spot muttered, reaching down to pick up the excitable boy. He turned to Savannah who was holding her daughter by the hand. "Miss, I have orders to escort you to the infirmary. Would you follow me, please?"

Eina looked up at his young, tender face, hoping when she next saw it he would still look like a boy. She smiled as his gaze held steady on her eyes, not roaming where so many other men were wont to travel. "Please, call me Eina."