Jump to content
LL Medico Diapers and More Bambino Diapers - ABDL Diaper Store

A Too Late Magical Girl (Completed 02 10 19)


Recommended Posts

    Within the Magical Realm, it was possible to travel great distances in short times. There were the airships that speed people between different regions and even arcane devices that would teleport individuals from one part of the realm to another in but a blink of an eye.
    However the faster the method, the less likely one might pass unnoticed.
    So Kristine had been told.
    Which was why they were taking the Ebony Zephyr, which was a ‘dark ride’ according to Tac.
    Whatever that meant.
    When they had reached a central station, someplace that looked like it was underwater to Kristine, Gwens had left them. Kristine thought she might miss her. Gwens was the only decent Liaison. Tac was Tac, and Gorgeous was fixated on Umon, and only tangentially interested in Kristine’s problems.
    So Gwens concerns and kindness had been welcome, though she often had treated Kristine as if she were a child.
    All things considered, as she walked down a long staircase, at that moment, Kristine would not have minded if Gwens had come along.
    The staircase descended below a floor and Kristine could see the Ebony Zephyr’s platform.
    She came to a stop on the stairs.
    At that moment she had her pacifier in her mouth, so she was invisible to all the people around her. Usually stopping on the stairs like that might have had someone bump into her, even if she was not invisible, but she was also wearing her cloak. People just avoided her without knowing they were doing it.
    “Move your fat, diapered ass before someone accidentally trips into you,” Tac said from Kristine’s shoulder.
    Kristine almost said that her ass was not fat, but as it was diapered, she was pretty sure that would just give Tac an opening for another insult.
    She resumed her descent down the stairs.
    The reason that she had stopped was that seeing the platform allowed her to see the Ebony Zephyr, and the Ebony Zephyr was like nothing she had seen before.
    Well, that was a lie.
    It was a lot like a train, which of course she had seen before.
    The engine was neither the sleek diesel electrics she knew nor even the blocky steam engines of an earlier time. It looked nothing so much like an enormous metal spider. Or at least a spider that had more legs than eight. Many more legs than eight.
    Each of those many jointed legs ended in a wheel. Only some of the wheels were currently on the steel tracks. The rest were lifted into the air.
    It made her wonder of the path they were to travel that would require so many different wheels.
    Then, once she could tear her attention from the engine, there were the cars.
    All in all, they looked like train cars she was used, though there were odd angles that disappeared and new ones appeared as she walked. And down on the platform, she could see some connections were not the simple single link that she knew, but multiple linkages, some not, at that moment, connected.
    And then there were the wheels.
    It was not just a collection of single wheels that rode on the track. Behind each wheel, canted at a slightly different angle were several wheels.
    Like shark’s teeth.
    A new wheel ready to pop into place.
    Again she had to wonder about the tracks they would travel on.
    A dark ride, Tac had said.
    She might have dallied on the platform, just to look at this thing that was almost a train, but then was not. However, Gorgeous walked ahead of her with a no-nonsense stride, and there was no opportunity to simply stand and stare.
    So Kristine, other than pauses, had to follow, with her diaper crinkle and waddle unnoticed by those around her.
    About six cars down Gorgeous entered the train like thing. Kristine followed after her.
    There were six compartments in the car.
    Gorgeous entered the second compartment down from the entrance.
    The space beyond the door was much larger than one-sixth of the car. It was perhaps even larger than the car. Kristine supposed that was why the angles seemed odd and had changed. Kristine was getting used to the fact that structures in the Magical Realm were not constrained by simple three-dimensional geometry.
    “Well, here we are,” Gorgeous said, tossing her small bag to the floor before walking across the room and sitting down in a love seat near the windows.
    Tac jumped down from Kristine’s shoulder, becoming a woman upon her paws, feet, touching the carpeted floor. “Couldn’t even spring for a first class cabin?”
    “I am not spending agency money just so you can have some servants,” Gorgeous told Tac. “This is more than enough.”
    “It’s tho big,” Kristine said as she took off her cloak and let her pacifier fall from her mouth.
    Tac snorted as she lazily dropped into a club chair. She ran her finger across the arm and said, “Nice leather, you shouldn’t sit in these Kristine. In case your diaper leaks.”
    “My diaper ith not going to leak,” Kristine snapped and hated that she just said that.
    Tak smiled and leaned back in the chair.
    Gorgeous just shook her head, looking exhausted, perhaps disgusted.
    Was it Tac, or her, or the both of them that engendered such a look, Kristine wondered.
    Kristine crossed the to the curtains and twitched them to the side, so as not to reveal herself to anyone outside the train. She was surprised, no, she was shocked, so much so she let the curtain drop and took a step back. Maybe she peed a little. What she had seen out the window was not the other side of the train, but the platform she had just left.
    She turned, looked at the cabin door behind her, which she was certain was on the same side as the platform.
    Gorgeous must have guessed the reason for her consternation for she said, “The windows look out at the most interesting side of the train.”
    “Oh,” Kristine said.
    “Not that there is much interesting to see,” Tac got up from the chair. “I’m going to get something to eat. Want me to bring anything back Gorgeous?”
    “Whatever the lunch special is.”
    “What about me?” Kristine asked as Tac reached the door.
    Tac looked back at Kristine, smiled, “You got your magic bag full of your bottles and baby food. Eat that.”
    She left the room before Kristine could reply.
    Kristine gritted her teeth and before she could stop herself stamped her foot hard on the floor.
    “Don’t let her get to you,” Gorgeous said.
    Kristine looked at Gorgeous, still angry, and asked, tone harder than Gorgeous deserved, “And do you keep her from getting to you?”
    Gorgeous frowned, then shrugged her shoulders. “I try.”

    The Ebony Zephyr had left the station, departing so smoothly Kristine was hardly aware they were moving. When she realised that they were in motion, she pulled back the curtains, sat in one of the chairs beside the windows, and looked out.
    The scenery beyond was strange. Uncertain, Kristine thought after several minutes of watching. She saw a forest in the distance but was struck by the sensation that it was not quite a forest, and as a result, might stop being a forest at any moment.
    Only the terrain directly beside the train seemed stable. The ballast and the cess, though she could not see the rails. When she thought that she found herself looking down at the rails and the sleepers and she fell from the chair to the floor.
    He diaper squished under her bottom.
    Tac, who had returned, said, “The windows show you what is most interesting, or sometimes what you want to see. Stupid.”
    Kristine bit back an angry retort, recalling what Gorgeous had said.
    “I thee, thank you,” Kristine said as she stood.
    Her diaper felt heavy, hanging heavy on her slim hips.
    She tried not to waddle as she went to the bathroom where she had Mr Bear help her with a diaper change.
    As she lay on the changing pad Mr Bear had put on the floor Kristine looked at her plushie caretaker. The patchy places on his fur, where his seams had ripped, seemed a little less patchy.
    Hopefully he was healing, or however, it was that plushie golems recovered from damage.
    Back in the sitting room, she returned to her seat. She hated that she paused for a moment, looking down at the leather, worried that she would see a stain on it. She sat and looked out the windows again.
    Once more the strange scenery captured her attention.
    “Most people cannot look at it for so long,” Gorgeous said some indeterminable time later as she came to stand at Kristine’s side.
    Kristine looked away from the windows, noticed Tac was not there, wondered if she had left, decided she did not care. “Why?” she asked.
    “Out there is the primal magic that the Magical Realm came from. Infinite possibility bubbling up to form the world ad the people.”
    Kristine looked back out again, a sense of wonder gripping her.
    “For people from the Mundane Realm, it would be like floating next to one of your stars. As beautiful as it might be it is also destructive and so very bright.”
    “Is it becauthe I am from the Mundane Realm I can look out at it?”
    “It is because you are tied to it.”
    Kristine looked up at Gorgeous.
    “Normal magic would not last in the Mundane Realm. The power of Magical Girls is collected out there, in its most primal form, so chaotic it can even survive in the Mundane Realm.”
    “Collected?”
    “By Liaisons. We go out there and absorb it, incubate it, so we can pass it into Magical Girls.”
    Kristine looked out again. “Does anyone elthe go out there?”
    “Not unless they are suicidal. No, not suicidal. More that they do not want to continue existing as they are. You have to be very powerful, or made to survive out there, to not be changed by that land.”
    “Is that why we are taking thith route?”
    “With all the chaos around us, it is difficult to track anyone, once they are down here.”
    “Tho does anyone put agents on thith twain?”
    “Probably, but I doubt that should concern us.”
    Kristine nodded but said nothing, her attention once again caught by the scenery outside the window.
    She would stare out them until later, when she suddenly rushed to the bathroom, a moment away from filling the seat of her diaper.
    Afterwards, she was careful not to let her attention be so captured by the strange landscapes the Ebony Zephyr travelled through.

    Kristine did not want to stay in the cabin all the time. She did not really enjoy spending time with her travelling companions.
    She wandered the train, with her cloak on and hood up, no one really seeing her. Sometimes she would slip out of the cloak so she could interact with people. It was subtler than being invisible.
    She found the passengers odd. She knew why she and the other two were on the Ebony Zephyr. Why anyone else was, she could not really figure. No one else seemed to care for the view, and almost every window she saw had the curtains drawn, so no one had to look outside. And what Tac had said about the train being the choice of old people seemed true as well.
    While she could not be certain of some of the passengers, the human appearing ones did indeed look old, for the most part.
    Was this what retired people in the Magic Realm did?
    She wanted to ask but did not want to express ignorance that might give her away. And she was not about to ask Tac.
    So she let herself be curious, and watched people, trying to figure it out.
    Watching people, and the fact she went unnoticed most of the time thanks to her cloak, let her pick up on things. Get a feel for what her fellow passengers and the crew were really like.
    It was how she was able to spot the man, or at least man-shaped, attacker when he tried to corner Gorgeous.
    Kristine had spotted him the day before, two days into the trip. He had been in the dining car, which was huge, sitting alone at a table. Kristine, seated at the bar, drinking something that was like coffee, had noticed he was watching Gorgeous.
    As he did not do anything more than watch she discounted it. Gorgeous was an attractive woman and if some man was watching her the most innocent reason was probably the right one.
    However he stuck in her mind, and the next day when she saw him slip from the dining car as if attempting stealth, shortly after Gorgeous had left, she decided to follow.
    She hoped she would not come upon them making out.
    That would be embarrassing.
    Instead, she found them between cars, the man wrapping Gorgeous up in flexible bands dispensed by a flying device that looked like an extra large tape dispenser.
    The bands had gagged Gorgeous, and she could not call out, and her ability to struggle was limited.
    The man said to Gorgeous, “Don’t fight them or you’ll just hurt yourself.”
    Kristine acted quickly. Unseen she rushed up to the man, calling her mace as she did. She smashed the tape device from the air, shattering it as she knocked it to the ground.
    The man drew a long knife, looking around him for the source of the attack.
    Kristine did not want to fight on the train, or near Gorgeous. She grabbed the man by his shoulder.
    He was fast and slashed her across the back of her hand. He cut her, but the wound looked minor.
    Dismissing her mace, she pushed a curtain aside with her now free hand and looked out at the land the train was passing through. Then she teleported the man and herself out of the train.
    They ended up a few feet above a rocky plain. Kristine was ready for it and landed well, calling her mace back as her feet touched down.
    Her opponent was not so lucky, and fell onto his back.
    He was quick though and was back up on his feet. He slashed around himself with the long bladed knife, and spoke something guttural. Green flame erupted along the edge of the blade, dripping and splashing from the steel like gel. Where the green fire hit it hissed and burnt holes into the rock.
    Kristine did not want to be hit by either blade or dripping flame.
    She came around on his inside and slammed her mace into the hand holding the knife.
    He grunted in pain, and the knife fell from his hand.
    It was not anything approaching a fair fight.
    She swept his legs out from under him and then dropped the mace head on his chest. As she had learned with Cassar, the weight of the weapon was a useful tool. Kristine pushed her hood back so he would be able to see her.
    “Who are you?” she demanded.
    The man tried to twist out from under the mace. Kristine let it settle some more. He grunted in pain. “Bounty Hunter. I’m trying to capture that Gorgeous woman,” he said. “Help me and I’ll split my fee with you. I can get you more money than she could be paying you for protection.”
    “Who thent you?”
    “I can’t…”
    Kristine added her own strength and started pushing the weight of the mace against him. He gasped. “Cassar Red. He’s put a contract out on the woman.”
    “He knew she wath on the Zephyr?”
    “No,” he told her. “I spotted her.”
    “Does Cathar know.”
    The man shook his head.
    Kristine asked again, “Does Cathar know?” She shifted the mace, so a smaller surface area was pressing against him, resting on a rib.
    He cried out. “No. I was going to capture Gorgeous and not say anything, wait for the bounty to go up.”
    Kristine let up with the mace and looked around.
    The Ebony Zephyr had continued on, was some distance away.
    She took the mace away from the man and walked away.
    “I’ll leave you here.”
    “Wait! What? You can’t…”
    Kristine teleported back to the train, to the space between cars where Gorgeous had been, not waiting to hear anything else the man might say.
    She found Gorgeous in her canine form, working her way out of the wrappings.
    Kristine helped her, tearing them away.
    “Thank you,” Gorgeous said.
    “That man, he…”
    “Let’s talk about it back in the cabin. Come on.”
    Kristine nodded, took a moment to hide the wrappings and the broken dispenser, then followed after Gorgeous.
    Gorgeous opened the door to the sleeping compartment Tac used. “We need to…” she stopped.
    Kristine heard Tac say, “Close the door or get naked and join us.”
    Gorgeous closed the door. She was blushing as she turned to Kristine. “Tac is entertaining,” she said.
    Kristine sighed. She walked to the door, opened it, and stepped into the compartment.
    Grabbing the woman in bed with Tac Kristine dragged the woman from the bed, shoved her clothing into her arms, and over Tac’s angry outburst she pushed the woman out of the cabin.
    When she turned back, she saw Tac striding out of the sleeping compartment, naked.
    Kristine had never seen Tac without clothing and found herself staring at the woman’s beautiful body, hardly listening to what Tac was saying, which mostly was just insults.
    “Tac, shut up,” Gorgeous told her. “I was just attacked.”
    That seemed to get through to Tac, who ducked into the compartment and came out a short time later, once more dressed. “What the hell happened?”
    Gorgeous told her part of the story. Kristine told hers.
    “Do you think he told you the truth?” Gorgeous asked.
    Kristine nodded. “I think tho. He didn’t tell Cathar.”
    “At least we don’t have to worry about being attacked again. Unless another of Cassar’s agents gets lucky.”
    Kristine nodded.
    “So you just left him out there?” Tac said. “That’s pretty cold.”
    “What?” Kristine asked, then remembered what Gorgeous had told her.
    Tak’s lips settled into a smirk. “Might as well have killed him.”
    “Let it go Tac,” Gorgeous said.
    Kirstine, who had been standing, sat in one of the chairs as if she was a puppet whose strings had been cut.
    Her diaper’s padding was wet.
    She had not even thought about what might happen to that man when she had left him.
    It was not that he might die or be changed so fundamentally that he might as well be dead that bothered Kristine. She had killed a few of the Red Caps, and that War Titan, but those actions had been in the middle of battle, and with no other option. And she had not really even thought about what might happen when she had left the man.
    She stood, walked to the window and pulled back the curtain.
    “I should go and get him.”
    “It’s too late,” Gorgeous said.
    “But…”
    “He’s beyond help,” Tac said. “You must have left him in an unsettled area. It affected you, even after a short time. Idiot.”
    “What? But it does not affect Magical Girls.”
    Tac laughed.
    Kristine turned towards Gorgeous.
    Gorgeous shrugged her shoulders. “It has made you more of a Magical Girl, more powerful, more a Nursery Knight.”
    Kristine ran to the bathroom, to the mirror over the sink.
    For a moment she thought that Tac and Gorgeous had been playing a trick on her, for the face in the mirror was the one she had grown used to.
    But then Kristine noticed the lines of her jaw were softer, her eyes appearing a little larger. There had been hints of adolescent in her face, but those had been smoothed away. Her limbs were a little skinnier, and just maybe she was shorter. And her uniform had bits of lace that had not been there before.
    A far more babyish effect, she thought.
    “Looks at the bright side,” Gorgeous said from the doorway. “You are more powerful now.”
    Kristine turned to look at her. Perhaps another year had been erased, and Gorgeous wanted her to look on the bright side? She almost started crying.
    She swallowed back the tears. “Hopefully when we find Umon I will have a target for this new strength.”

    Tahc had once been a Liaison before she had quit.
    She still had friends and acquaintances in the department, and they liked to gossip.
    Gorgeous ran too tight of a ship for those people to tell her anything confidential, and whatever Gorgeous was doing fell under that category.
    Tahc had to be careful. It would be too easy to ask the wrong question or press a little too hard. If she did that, then her friends and acquaintances might start to wonder why their old friend Tahc had shown up at this time.
    And she could not stay too long, or try to see too many people.
    She had to be precise and careful.
    Stopping by her old office to say hello she ran into Ushima. Tahc suggested they go out for lunch and Ushima agreed.
    Ushima was, in animal form, oxen. She was a large, robust woman, and Tahc had to remind herself that she was not slow and dumb, because it was easy to think that she was just that. And when you let yourself believe that Ushima was an easy mark that was when you became the mark.
    However, she was not a predator like Tahc, and she tended to see those she worked with as part of her herd.
    Over lunch Tahc did most of the talking, telling Ushima what she had been up to. Most of it truthful cause she needed to prime the pump, as it were. Ushima was, in fact, one of the office’s intelligencers and collected rumour and whispers and distilled it to information.
    And as Tahc helped her, by giving Ushima the information she needed, Tahc’s position moved from outside of the herd to the inside of the herd. Tahc felt the change and decided it was time to strike. She made her attack carefully, simply asking, “How is everyone anyways? It has been months since I last had a chance to talk to anyone.”
    Relaxed, Ushima smiled and said. “Well enough. We’ve got some of the Liaisons out in the Mundane World, but things are quiet enough there. Penelope got hurt in a fight with the newest Nightmare Queen but she should recover, and Gwens is taking some recovery time.”
    Target acquired, Tahc thought, but it was important to distract attention from what she did not want Ushima thinking more on. “There is a new Nightmare Queen?”
    “Oh yes,” Ushima said with a smile. “Minor nobility from out beyond the Blood Seas, trying to prove she should inherit. Took off to the Mundane Realm to try to build up a power base. They never learn.”
    “You should be glad, You’d be out of a job if they did.”
    Ushima laughed and raised her glass. “Cheers.”

    Later, after lunch, Tahc went to look at some records. There was no reason why she could not ask to see them, except it would be noticed. So she had to go through a back channel, and pay a lot for confidentiality.
    The next day she had a copy of Gwens' records.
    Any Liaison who had been on Mountain Seven and had met with a War Titan might have been hurt.
    The records, of course, had nothing about any of Gwens recent work. Tahc would not have expected them to.
    She was more interested in what reason that Gorgeous might have had to include Gwens in the hunt for Umon.
    And then, in a list of previous missions, she found it.
    Or at least she thought she did.
    Gwens had been one of the Liaisons on the Nursery Knight Project.
    So that tied it all together.
    Though she still did not know who the possible Magical Girl with Gorgeous was.
    Unless Gwens was there for more than information on Umon’s part in the Nursery Knight project.
    “I’ll be damned,” Tahc said as she got to her feet.
    The Duke of Threes would be interested in this. Very interested if she was right.

  • Like 7
Link to comment
  • 1 month later...
6 hours ago, Sephy said:

Please don't say this story is dead

The writer has a history of taking their time, so I wouldn't say it's dead just yet. However I would really really be sad is it were, but I know how stories go, mine still isn't finished and I am almost finished with it.

Link to comment

I don’t know what happened here. I know I had read much of the story and was sure I had posted comments at least for everything but this last chapter. But nothing is there. According to this, the last time I commented was June. I am still enjoying the story and find it interesting that the more powerful Kristine becomes the more she regressed. She better be careful or she is going to need Mr Bear to carry her around. I am sure I had commented on it before but I also really enjoyed it when Kristine took on the War Titan. I am sure I had left some likes for this to but I don’t see those now either but I did add another one to this last chapter. 

Link to comment

    It took Tahc a few days to get back to the lands of the Duke of Threes. She could not just go straight back to him, not if subtlety was required.
    And even when she returned to his kingdom, it was not as if she could go right into his office. She was an ‘off the books’ asset.
    In the city, she paid the owner of a large inn to fly a bright blue flag over his building and then waited at the arranged meeting place, often in the form of a small, black cat that disappeared in the shadows.
    It was about two days before the Duke of Threes came to the out of the way section of his castle. He paused and asked, “What do you have for me Tahc?”
    Tahc jumped down, flowing from the form of cat to woman between the ledge and the floor. She bowed respectfully. “My Lord, I am sorry that I cannot tell you where Gorgeous is. However, I believe that the sixth Nursery Knight you are seeking is in the Magical Realm.”
    He stared at her for a few seconds without saying anything. She wondered what was going on behind his eyes. He maintained a deadpan look so often when they spoke. The emotions, if they appeared on his face, were schooled to show Tahc what we wanted her to see.
    “And how did you come to that conclusion?”
    “Gorgeous pulled in a Liason named Gwens to help her with something. She, Gwens, was recently wounded. I suspect during the events on Mountain Seven.”
    He did not say anything.
    Tahc continued. “Gwens was one of the Liaisons for the Nursery Knights, for Betty. It is not impossible that Gorgeous just wanted to know more about that project, but it is possible that she brought Gwens along because she, Gorgeous, was dealing with one of the Nursery Knights.”
    “So the Magical Girl with Gorgeous is one of the Nursery Knights?”
    “I believe so.”
    “Which means she may come right to me,” he said, and for a moment Tahc thought she saw something in his eyes. Something not schooled, something he may not have wanted her to see. Desire, lust, hunger. It was gone before she could be certain. “Assuming you are correct.”
    “I believe I am.”
    “I do not think a single Nursery Knight could defeat a War Titan. Pretty things, they are not particularly strong nor bright.”
    It was an unfair assessment, though not an unjustified one. Tahc nodded. “Yes my Lord.”
    “So, you still do not know where Gorgeous is, and you really don’t know who the Magical Girl with Gorgeous is.”
    Tahc nodded. “I am certain that she is travelling with a Nursery Knight my Lord.”
    He smiled. “Well then, if you turn out to be right I will commend you then on your analytical skills.”
    Tahc did not ask what he might do if she were wrong. “Should I continue to seek out Gorgeous?”
    He looked at her for a moment, then shook his head. “I think not. You have not found her yet, I take that is an indication of her skill at travelling unseen. We will wait for her to come here, as it seems certain she must.”
    “Yes my Lord.”
    “Watch those ways in which Gorgeous might try to enter my lands. Inform me immediately of anything important you might learn.”
    She nodded.
    He said nothing else to her and left her.
    Tahc stepped back into the shadows and wondered how Gorgeous might enter the Duke of Threes’ land unseen.

    The Ebony Zephyr was a strange train or train like thing. The stations it stopped at were often out of the way, not really hidden, but more forgotten.
    Except by those that had the desire to ride the train.
    In the lands of the Duke of Threes, the station was found beneath a mountain. A long set of stairs led up from the station into a small forest village at the base of the mountain.
    Kristine, Tac and Gorgeous left the train, a few other passengers disembarking at the same time, a handful boarding.
    Kristine looked around at the darkly elegant station, with walls of polished black stone and checkerboard floor tiles. It was starkly clear and empty.
    There was a small ticket kiosk with a single bench, both looking tiny in the cathedral-like space. This was not a place where people were supposed to spend any time.
    Already the passengers who had disembarked were climbing the stairs, and the Black Zephyr’s engine was beginning to tremble and hum. Surely it would leave soon.
    “Well, we’re here,” Tac said, hands shoved into her pockets as she looked around. “What now great leader?”
    Gorgeous seemed thoughtful. “I suppose we’ll need to head up top, try to keep a low profile, start a search for Umon.”
    “Or we could have Kristine search for him magically,” Tac said.
    “What?” Gorgeous asked as Kristine said, “I can do that?”
    Tac, hands still in pockets answered Kristine, “Probably. Let’s give it a try.”
    “She has access to Clairvoyant magics?” Gorgeous asked.
    Tac only shrugged her shoulders as she took her hands from her pockets. “Okay Kristine, like everything, it is all about visualisation. So, I need you to think about multiple things, assuming you can keep more than two different thoughts together in that small head of yours.”
    “Thut up Tac.”
    Tac smiled as she stepped close to Kristine. “Okay, think about the magical energies all around you leading off to cameras.”
    “Camerath?”
    “Like security cameras. You tune into them and peek through.”
    “Okay,” Kristine said as the idea began to form in her mind.
    "So you look through those cameras and try to find Umon. And you got to let the magic handle things, it’s like,” Tac thought for a few seconds, “software, that does it for you. You’ve heard of that?”
    Kristine blew out an exasperated breath. “Facial recognition thoftware. Of courthe, I know it.”
    “No one likes a smart ass little girl Kristine. So keep those ideas in your head and add this one. You can’t let anyone know you are doing this. So you got to hide as you do this. You can’t let anyone know that you are watching them. That will give away the game.”
    “I underthtand,” Kristine said as the different ideas began to gel in her head.
    “Okay, so you want to find Umon, who is probably being shielded in some way, so you’ll need to look around those shields without disturbing them.”
    Kristine nodded again.
    “Umon is middle management, middle-aged type, all full of himself.”
    “He is probably scared right now, uncertain,” Gorgeous added.
    Tac and Gorgeous followed with a detailed description of the man, sometimes arguing over details. Kristine listened and after about ten minutes said, “Okay, let me try thith.”
    She walked over to the bench and took a seat. Closing her eyes, she let the magic form.
    She spread her hands. “Nurthery Camera Peek a Boo,” she said, felt her cheeks heat up at the words. She added the next part of the spell, “Blanket Fort  Hide Away.” There, she was hidden. “Gentle Chwistmath Pwethent Shake.”
    “This is the baby crap I have to put up with,” Tac said.
    “Shut up Tac,” Gorgeous told her.
    Kristine kept her eyes closed as the multiple magical creations wove together into a single spell.
    She gasped softly, information overload like a stabbing headache. She wet her diaper a little, hardly aware of it.
    Ignoring the sharp pain, Kristine focused on filtering out what she did not need.
    The description of Umon, the fact that he was warded in some manner, that allowed her to start ‘shutting off’ different Nursery Cameras.
    The more she did it, the faster it went.
    The pain receded.
    The condition of her diaper made itself felt.
    She sighed and continued.
    Gently she bypassed the wards she found, not really giving what was behind them much attention unless they were Umon shaped.
    How long she was at it, Kristine was not sure. She heard Tac and Gorgeous talking but had no time to focus on what they were saying.
    She opened her eyes. “I found him,” she said.
    “Really?” Gorgeous asked. She sounded surprised.
    Kristine wondered if she and Tac had been talking about her ability to find Umon.
    “Really,” Kristine said, more bite in her tone that she intended. “He’th in a castle, but he ith protected, like I am theeing his reflection, but through many mirrorth.”
    “Redirect wards, pretty common,” Tac said. “That you can see through them means you can get him.”
    She nodded. “It will take theveral teleports.”
    “Tic Toc,” Tac said. “Faster you grab him faster we leave.”
    Tac was hopeless.
    “She is right,” Gorgeous said. “The longer we stay, the more likely we will be found out.”
    “I underthtand,” Kristine said, trying not to sound angry. She was the one doing all the work.
    No point in arguing. Kristine stood, ignored the crinkling of her diaper, brushed her hands down her skirt, felt the damp diaper beneath her fingers, and then visualised the first point on the path of the redirect wards.
    She teleported.

    After Kristine had left Gorgeous said, “I am amazed that she could scry like that. And see through the wards.”
    “Sure you are.” Tac’s tone was thick with sarcasm.
    “What?”
    “Don’t play dumb with me Gorgeous, I got it figured out.”
    “Got what figured out?”
    Tac stared at her for several seconds and then nearly shouted, “By all the powers. You really are stupid. You don’t know.”
    “Don’t know what?” Gorgeous said with a growl as she stepped up towards Tac.
    Tac took a step back. “Just cool it Gorgeous. I figured you had put this all in motion.”
    “Put what in motion? Your riddles are making me cranky Tac.”
    “Chaos, primal magic, doesn’t follow the rules, but does have an internal logic and consistency.”
    “I am aware,” Gorgeous said in a snippy tone.
    “Well then Miss Aware, what do you think happens if you contract a magical girl and none of the other magical girls, potential or contracted, are around?”
    Gorgeous opened her mouth, to say what she did not know, but she closed it as Tac’s question sunk in. “It would assume, as much as it could, that the other team members were gone.”
    Tac smiled and nodded.
    “Gone, defeated, but either way, the one magical girl…”
    “Would have to be as powerful as the entire team all by herself.”
    “Oh Fuck.”
    “You really didn’t know?” Tac asked. “This really was not your plan all along?”
    She shook her head.
    “Well, aren’t you just lucky. Team class Magical Girl. That’s you in the,” Tac smiled and laughed, “dog house.”
    “This is not funny Tac.”
    “You see, that is where you are wrong. It is funny to me.”
    “You contracted with Kristine.”
    “On your orders.” Tac continued to smile.
    Like the fucking cat that swallowed the canary, Gorgeous thought.
    “When did you know?”
    “Figured it out when Kristine took out that War Titan. I mean, she was pretty damn good and all before that. Figured she was a prodigy, but taking out the Titan was something you’d need a team for. So, stands to reason.”
    “I can’t believe this. And we…”
    “What do you mean we?”
    Gorgeous narrowed her eyes, locked her gaze on Tac. “We,” she said firmly, “dumped her in the primal chaos.”
    Tac did not reply to that.
    “What am I going to do?”
    It was a rhetorical question, but Tac answered, “Get a job in a hostess bar? I mean you’re not my type, but I’m sure someone would find you attractive.”
    Gorgeous sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose as if in pain. “Tac, let me point out that if this goes pear-shaped, you are going to be caught up in it, no matter what, seeing as you did not do your gods and goddess damned job twenty years ago. And even if you are not, a new broom sweeps clean, as they say. If you somehow manage to avoid all that, no one new is going to let you get away with the shit I have let slide.”
    “When you put it that way I suddenly have an opinion on this,” Tac said.
    “Oh? You do, do you? Pray tell, what is it?”
    “That we cover this up. Sell Kristine to the Duke of Threes for money and the Duke’s help in making Umon go away too.”
    Gorgeous stared at Tac for several seconds and then shook her head. “You are evil.”
    “I am self-centred and amoral.”
    “You sound proud of that.”
    “Good. So, how do we sell Kristine? I’m still her kill switch, so I want the lion’s share of whatever we get.”
    “Tac, you are going to shut the hell up. We are not selling Kristine out. We are going to find a way to deal with this within the system, and when it is all done, I’m going to oaky your expense account and pretend you don’t exist for a few decades in the hope that you will drink yourself to death during that time.”
    “Deal!” Tac said happily.

    Elsewhere in the Duke of Threes’ land Umon Derrypiz wandered the private, enclosed garden of the Duke’s castle. Part of the water that came off the mountains was diverted to flow through the glassed-in hall. It was as cold as the water that exited the base, and the air within the garden was frigid.
    Small pine trees grew among frost covered ground, and the hoarfrost on the glass walls gave the light that passed through a glacial feel.
    It was beautiful as it was cold.
    Umon did not care much for the beauty or the cold, but it was often the closest he got to being outside.
    He was not alone in the room.
    There were two ‘assistants’, a man and a woman, who trailed him wherever he went. They were guards, more so to keep him from leaving than to protect him.
    He paused near a glass wall, looking at the opaque, frosted glass.
    Blinking he thought he saw his reflection in the dull frost.
    Then, as if she had stepped from the glass, a small girl appeared in front of him.
    In her pale blue dress, and with her pale skin, he thought she might be an ice nymph. Leave it to the Duke to have something like that in his garden.
    He did not feel any alarm until the girl reached out and grabbed him.
    There was a crinkling sound, and a sour smell, like piss. He felt his stomach twist as he was carried away.

    It was rare that anyone disturbed the Duke of Threes when he was working.
    It did happen when something important happened.
    An invasion, or news of an attempt on his life, that kind of thing warranted such a disturbance.
    A guest slash prisoner being spirited away in the middle of his castle, that rated as well.
    He ordered the guards to begin searching for Umon and then cleared his office.
    The summons he then sent was answered in less than a minute.
    A small cat appeared outside his office, on the window sill.
    He opened the window, and Tahc leapt in, her form changing to that of a slim woman. “My Lord?”
    “Someone grabbed Derrypiz. The guards said it was like she came out of the glass and then pulled Derrypiz in.”
    “Teleportation,” Tahc said. “The Magical Girl.”
    The Duke nodded. “Yes. Of course. Where could she go? Where could she have come from?”
    Tahc looked thoughtful. “If it is a place that she knows, a Magical Girl of average strength can cross thousands of miles, but I don’t think she could have known your castle. She probably had to come here, somewhere close to make the attempt. However, she could be far away now.”
    “She could be, but she isn’t.” He turned and looked out his windows. “If she came here than she came here with Gorgeous, and perhaps others. The Magical Girl would have taken him to them. There will be questions. They will think they are somewhere safe. We have minutes. How did they enter my lands?”
    As he turned his gaze on Tahc, she took a step away, eyes wide, going pale for a moment. She trembled, and her form grew indistinct as if she were about to shift back to her cat form. Then, with a gasp, she said, “The Ebony Zephyr.”
    For a few seconds he did not know what she was talking about, then he remembered.
    “Damn that train,” he hissed.
    “Where is the station?” She asked him.
    “In the mountains, nearly on the other side of my kingdom.” He looked out the windows. “I will have a gate created. You will come with me.”
    He turned and strode from the room, calling for his guards.
    Tahc ran after him.

    Kristine appeared in the nearly deserted station.
    The single station employee in the ticket booth ignored her as she pushed Umon, so he ended up sprawled at Gorgeous’ feet.
    Gorgeous knelt down, looking down at the prostate Umon. “Well, hello there Mr Derrypiz. I think you have a lot to explain about your misuse and misappropriation of the organisation’s resources.”
    Umon pushed himself to his knees or tried to. Tac put a heeled shoe between his shoulder blades and pushed him back to the floor. “Bit miffed about you lying to me, pretending not to know what I was talking about, being rude.”
    “What do you think you are doing,” Umon grunted.
    For a moment Kristine thought he was angry, but she realised he was scared.
    She knelt down beside Gorgeous, trying to pull the short skirt of her dress down so it would cover her diaper.
    It was a pretty fruitless endeavour.
    Gorgeous looked at Tac, still standing on Umon, shook her head, then looked back to the man. “I’ll need you to tell me just how the Duke of Threes has influenced the organisation.”
    Umon stopped struggling to get up. He started making a sound. It took Kristine a moment to realise he was laughing.
    “You idiot. You think the Duke did something you can prove. He has arranged things so he can honestly say he did nothing wrong. It's all been set up, so he was never in any danger.” The laughter was bitter and sounded near tears.
    “Tac, get off him,” Gorgeous said.
    Tac frowned but took her foot from him.
    Umon pushed himself once more to his knees, hunching his shoulders as if expecting another kick.
    “What are you talking about?” Gorgeous demanded.
    Umon knelt there, gaze on the floor. “I didn’t notice, whenever we talked, whatever the communication, he never once acknowledged that what we were doing was wrong. Never used the word bribe, never asked if I was breaking rules. He can state clearly under the influence of a truth spell that he did nothing wrong.” Umon laughed bitterly. “All wordplay, but he will walk away guilty of nothing.”
    “What are you talking about?” Gorgeous demanded.
    “That the Duke of Threes is not stupid. He used me. I thought we were in it together, but I was really just the sacrificial lamb from the start.”
    Gorgeous frowned.
    Kristine shook her head. “That thort of thing would never work in a real court of law.” Her voice was soft, a complaint meant for only her ears. “Can’t we just ask him if he knew it was wrong? Nail him down to a yes or no answer?” That she asked louder.
    Gorgeous looked over at her, an expression of surprise.
    “You don’t get to ask a Duke yes or no answers,” Tac said.
    She said it as if it was the simplest thing in the world.
    “That’s thtupid.”
    “Is this the Nursery Knight?” Umon asked, looking at Kristine.
    “Shut up,” Gorgeous told him. “You are not the one asking questions here.”
    “That is her, in all her infantile glory,” Tac said.
    Gorgeous looked crossly at Tac.
    Tac only smiled with a shrug of her shoulders.
    Umon said, “Give her up to the Duke.”
    “We’re not giving her up.”
    “Not unless there is a suitable economic compensation.”
    “Tac shut up.”
    Kristine was not joining in the conversation. Something else had caught her attention.
    “We’re not alone,” she said.
    Tac became a cat and jumped up onto Kristine’s shoulder. “What?”
    “Coming down the stairth, trying to be quiet I think.”
    “The Duke of Threes' people,” Umon told them. “Give them the girl, make a deal.”
    “Be quiet,” Gorgeous told him, her tone sharper.
    Kristine had her mace in her hand, the huge, rattle shaped weapon ready. “There are a lot of them.”
    “Hey Kristine,” Tac said softly into her ear, “I’ll split any reward with you if you let me hand you over.”
    “Do you ever lithten to yourself?”
    “Not really.”
    “It explainth so much.”
    Umon continued to counsel surrender while Gorgeous kept telling him to stop talking.
    “Big Baby Thilence,” Kristine chanted.
    A pacifier gag suddenly appeared in Umon’s mouth.
    “Thank you,” Gorgeous said.
    “Pervert,” Tac accused.
    “Too bad I can’t gag you,” Kristine said to Tac as she stood ready.
    Looming figures, twice the size of a man, came lumbering down the stairs. They were made bulkier by the heavy armour they wore, and they all carried strange weapons that looked to Kristine like cannons.
    “Ogres,” Gorgeous said.
    “Dangerouth?” Kristine asked.
    “More so than Redcaps, not even close to a War Titan.”
    Kristine nodded.
    The ogres reached the bottom of the stairs, formed out in a line, weapons held out, pointed towards Kristine and the others.
    More soldiers followed the ogres, tall, slim people who marched down the stairs in suits of armour that shone like polished silver, muted in the shadow of the platform.
    They each carried a long, curving sword.
    Among them walked a tall man, dressed in white and gold, carrying a sword likely as long as he was tall. Even at a distance, Kristine got the feeling he was beautiful and powerful. She knew that he was the Duke of Threes.
    The Duke and his honour guard reached the platform, the ogres moved slightly to the side, providing a space for the Duke and those with him.
    The Duke’s voice filled the cathedral-like space when he spoke. “Free your prisoner and surrender to me.”
    Kristine was about to shout an angry denial, but Gorgeous spoke fire, her voice unnaturally loud. “Derrypiz is under arrest for misuse of organisational resources. I am taking him with me.”
    The Duke did not answer for a few seconds. Kristine was not sure, but she felt as if he was staring at her. It was a hungry presence, and it made her shiver slightly. Her diaper felt wet, but she was not sure if they were related.
    She hoped not.
    “Do you have a warrant to that effect?” The Duke called.
    He sounded bored.
    “I don’t need a warrant. I am the Senior Supervisor of Magical Liaisons and have the authority to make an arrest as part of any investigation.”
    “And if I don’t recognise your authority?”
    The ogres shifted their cannons to a ready position.
    “I don’t give a damn what you recognise,” Gorgeous snapped angrily.
    “He’s trying to distract us.” Tac’s soft voice was a tickle in Kristine’s ear.
    Kristine did not ask what and did not look about. A soft whisper, “Nurthery Camera Peek a Boo.”
    Scrying the area around them Kristine sought out any other threat.
    She found them.
    A small group coming up the mismatched tracks behind them.
    Gorgeous and the Duke of Threes continued to argue jurisdiction as the stealth attack closed on them.
    Kristine took a breath, then called out, “What did you do with the other Nurthery Knightth?”
    It was almost as if Gorgeous and the Duke had forgotten that Kristine was there, but Kristine knew that the Duke was only making a pretence.
    He had never forgotten her.
    After a few seconds, the Duke said, “The other girls are my guests and wards, under my care, as you should be as well, my dear Kristine.”
    Kristine bit down on an angry outburst and just said, “I am not interested in being your guetht.”
    “Poor Kristine, don’t you realise your ability to take care of yourself is failing? I accept responsibility for this, though of course, I had no idea that my musings would lead to this. You can lay that at the feet of Umon Derrypiz there.”
    Umon tried, unsuccessfully, to speak around the pacifier gag.
    She supposed the Duke was making a truthful statement. He could not have been one hundred percent sure that Umon would follow through on his ‘musings’.
    Behind them the stealth group crept onto the platform, sticking to the shadows at the edge of the room.
    “Why would you even want thith? The Nurthery Knightth are ridiculous!”
    “I find your helplessness endearing.”
    Kristine felt as if she should be furious, but there was something there that pushed anger down. It was like when a witness was being cross-examined. She knew that with the right question she could catch him in a lie, though as to what he was lying about she did not know.
    But there was no time.
    The stealth group was almost one them.
    Kristine swept out her mace, casting her spell of protection, putting a wall of crib bars between the soldiers and her. Then she spun and brought her mace crashing down on the head of something that looked like a scarecrow covered in oil, its shape uncertain and liquid.
    Gorgeous shouted out in surprise, seeing the new attackers.
    The ogres charged forward and tried to break Kristine’s shield.
    Kristine drove the scarecrow-like creatures around, smashing two more.
    Tac on her shoulder said, “We should…” Then something small flashed by Kristine’s shoulder and carried Tac off to the floor several feet away.
    Kristine drove more of the attackers back with her mace. She looked away from them for a moment to where a ball of hissing and yowling fur resolved itself into two black cats fighting.
    “Tahc,” Gorgeous called out.
    One of the scarecrows was trying to grab Umon.
    Kristine stepped close and pounded the thing into the ground. Standing over Umon, she called to Gorgeous, “Let’s go. There are more of them coming.”
    What was more she felt the Duke of Threes working his own magic against her barrier, working at bringing it down.
    Gorgeous reached into the fighting cats, earning several scratches on her arm for her effort. Yanking Tac free she then kicked the other cat, Tahc apparently, away. Carrying a still yowling Tac close to Kristine, she reached out and put her hand on Kristine’s shoulder.
    Kristine looked across at the Duke of Threes. The hunger had grown. She did not understand the mad desire she felt rolling off him.
    But there was no time to figure it out.
    As the barrier began to fracture and a small army of the scarecrows poured out of the tunnel onto the platform, she teleported away.

    Tahc rubbed at sore ribs from Gorgeous' kick as she limped back towards where the Duke stood, “She can’t have teleported far. We should search…”
    “Are you sure of that?” The Duke asked, interrupting her.
    Tahc blinked at the question. “The Nursery Knights were not that powerful, I would doubt she could jump more than…”
    The Duke interrupted her again. “I am the Regent of this land, my power here is nearly unassailable, and yet I had to work at breaking her barrier.” He paused and looked around, then lowered his voice and said, “And she was not even focusing on maintaining it.”
    Tahc had to think over what the Duke had said twice before she was certain she had heard it clearly.
    “She could not be that powerful. Magical Girls that powerful are almost unheard of.”
    “Then how would you explain that barrier?”
    Tahc chewed at her lip for a moment. “I can’t.”
    The Duke looked around the station platform, the bodies of his slaugh, smashed on the floor, and his ogres who had been useless against the barrier. “I do not think we will find her close, but we will find her.”
    Tahc took a step back, surprised by the vehemence in the Duke’s words.
    “I will have that girl, I must.”
    Tahc held her breath. The Duke’s whisper was not for her, and she did not want to remind him that she stood close, that she had heard him.

    The four of them appeared on the high tower station of the Mountain Seven.
    Gorgeous dropped the still hissing Tac to the ground. Tac looked around, then, after several seconds, began to groom herself as if nothing was the matter.
    Her still fluffed up fur made the nonchalant behaviour a lie.
    Gorgeous knelt down and pulled the pacifier gag out of Umon’s mouth.
    “Where are we?” Umon asked.
    “Mountain Theven,” Kristine said.
    “That’s impossible.” His eyes were wide.
    Kristine ignored him.
    While Gorgeous continued her interrogation of the man, heedless of the people who looked on, Kristine walked to the railing around the platform, looked out at the mountain.
    Why did the Duke want her?
    Tac jumped up onto the rail. Her fur was smooth again, though damp in places from blood.
    “Who is Tahc?”
    “My little sister,” Tac said. “Used to be a Liaison herself. Stupid little bitch quit.” Tac lifted a paw and gave the pads a lick with her raspy tongue.
    “Little sister? And her name is Tahc?”
    “Mom had no imagination,” Tac said.

    Kristine had to rush out of the room or mess her diaper.
    The questioning of Umon had not been really going anywhere, but leaving like that felt so wrong to her.
    As am inspiring lawyer, she would have never left such a session.
    But as a Nursery Knight, her bladder and bowels had different opinions.
    When she came back, a fresh diaper on, she found the room empty.
    “What the hell?” she asked aloud.
    “There you are,” Tac said, coming out of another room further down the hallway. She was holding a tumbler and a bottle of whisky.
    “Where ith Umon?”
    “They took him away,” Tac said as she drank back the contents of her glass.
    “Where? Why?”
    Tac filled the glass from her bottle. “Truth spell, punishment, you know, bout what you’d expect. Well, maybe not you.”
    “But, what about the Duke.”
    Tac knocked back her whisky. “What about him?”
    “Oh, Kristine,” Gorgeous said as she walked out of door different from the one Tac had exited from.
    “Where’th Umon.”
    Gorgeous shook her head. “Sorry, they just showed up.”
    “Who?”
    “Gorgeous’ boss, gonna sweep all this under the rug,” Tac said, pouring herself yet another glass of whisky.
    “They are not going to sweep it all under the rug.” Gorgeous walked to Kristine. “Umon is going to be dealt with for what he did.”
    “What about the Duke of Threeth?”
    Gorgeous did not meet Kristine’s gaze. “He’ll be asked a few questions, under a truth spell of course.”
    Kristine shifted to the side, so she could look up into Gorgeous’ face. “Yeth or no quethtions?”
    Gorgeous swallowed.
    Tac drank again and then asked with a laugh, “What do you think?”
    “I don’t think so,” Gorgeous said. She was flushed, with red in her cheeks.
    “How does thith thtop him from hunting me? How does it punith him?”
    Tac burped.
    “We’ll find another way to deal with him,” Gorgeous assured her.
    Kristine took a step back from Gorgeous. She shook her head.
    “I’m going to have to deal with this mythelf.”
    “What do you mean.”
    “Who cares what she means.”
    “I mean that if you can’t deal with the Duke of Threeth I will.”
    She teleported away leaving Tac and Gorgeous behind.

    Kristine appeared in the enclosed glass garden, where she had captured Umon.
    It was deserted.
    Well, she could change that.
    There were warding alarms all over.
    She had avoided them in teleporting in. Now she reached out and tripped them all.
    Kristine was certain she would not be alone for long.

  • Like 10
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment

Wow so much just happened, not sure about the pacing but this was still a cool chapter. I think Kristine is about to go Super Seian 

Link to comment

This was an awesome new chapter. Seems as though the fight is on and my money is behind Kristine and Gorgeous. I was happy I got a like back to give this morning. I am looking forward to reading more of this. 

Link to comment
  • 2 months later...

Consider this a Halloween treat. :D

I also created a Deviant Art Page, InkuHime, with some new art on it.

 

Here is the next part of the story

 

    The Duke of Threes’ office was designed to project power. In the Mundane World, Kristine had seen a few offices like that, College Deans, CEOs, one or two judges. Everything about the offices seemed to be saying, ‘I am powerful and dangerous.’
    Then there was the Duke himself. Almost beautiful, tall and slim, dangerous and powerful. As she stood in front of his desk, guard behind her, Kristine looked at this man who had upturned her life, at least twice.
    She wanted to be angry, well, she was angry, of course. She wanted to show that anger, to rail against him, to perhaps even pull out her mace and lay about the office. She enjoyed the fantasy for the moment, but buried it immediately and damped down her anger. As a lawyer, she might be passionate, but never overemotional.
    The dangerous man was observing her as she was observing him. Kristine wanted to pull down at the hem of her ridiculously short dress’ skirt, to make sure it covered her diaper. She wanted to, but she did not.
    He spoke first, and Kristine could not be certain if that meant he won or she did.
    “You invaded my castle, abducted a guest and attacked my subjects.”
    Trespassing, maybe breaking and entering, kidnapping, not abduction, and assault with a deadly weapon, perhaps manslaughter. It sounded pretty bad. Kristine wondered if Gorgeous had the Magical World equivalent of a warrant?
    Well, she was not in court, she had not been sworn in, and she was not going to argue her actions. “I’m here to see the other Nursery Knighth,” she said, almost getting it out lisp free.
    He might have looked surprised for a moment.
    Because of what she asked?
    Because she had not reacted to his accusations?
    Or maybe he was not surprised at all.
    “If you had accompanied my agents who came for you in the Mundane World you would have already met them.” His tone was Patronizing.
    Kristine tried not to react, but she felt her fist clenched tight as she answered, “They did not make their intent clear.”
    He nodded after a moment. “Well, you are here now, and I can understand your confusion and I am willing to forgive you your actions.”
    “I am not theeking your forgiveness. I am here to see the Nurthery Knights.”
    Behind her, the guards shifted about, perhaps nervous.
    The Duke did not react, at all.
    A good poker face that showed nothing, Kristine thought, but the very fact he was maintaining such a deadpan look told Kristine she had surprised him.
    It was an advantage if she could find a way to use it.
    The blank countenance was gone, and the Duke of Threes smiled. “Well, you are of course Welcome to meet with the Nursery Knights, you are one, after all, they are like your sisters.”
    And you are supposed to be our daddy?
    She did not voice that question.
    “While you are in my land you will be confined to the Garden I have prepared for people from the Mundane Realm.”
    There was no room for refusal in that statement. It was either accept it or leave.
    “Of courthe,” Kristine replied.
    “Very well.”
    The Duke stood.
    Even before her transformation, the Duke would have towered over her, at least by two heads. He moved with a smoothness that Kristine associated with great cats or high-performance sports cars.
    It was inhuman.
    “Please,” he said in a manner that made it clear it was not a word he often uttered, “come with me.”
    The guards were nervous and uncertain as they parted, letting the Duke pass. Kristine followed after him, having to run to keep up. Behind them, the guards formed up and followed.
    “I will be going down to the Garden,” the Duke told the clerks in the outer office, not slowing to acknowledge them as they all jumped to their feet.
    Kristine had been escorted under armed guard to the office, and then the guards had taken her through what Kristine assumed were servant corridors. The way that the Duke led her was through grand hallways, filled with artwork and light. As they passed people, they would turn and bow their heads to the Duke, calling him, ‘Your Grace.’
    Following as she was, Kristine was the focus for those peoples’ attention. In her rustling diapers, with the slight waddle, she knew she looked ridiculous. Especially in the Duke's wake as he was anything but ridiculous.
    He did not moderate his pace for her but instead stopped so she could catch up.
    It made her feel ridiculous, and like a little girl.
    She assumed he was doing it on purpose but could not discount it was simply an unconscious action by someone who was a master at manipulating people.
    When she caught up to him the sixth time, he did not continue, but stood, a window at his back. “You know Kristine, I don’t want you to think of me as an enemy.”
    She looked up at him. “I’m not thure how I could not.”
    He looked down at her. “I could not know that Derrypiz would take my musings and do something with them.”
    Entirely true, but he would have believed, would have hoped. If she had him on the stand proving his guilt would be a matter of two or three questions demanding 'yes' or 'no' answers.
    She imagined saying to the judge, ‘Permission to treat the Duke as a hostile witness’. She also imagined doing so while in a thick diaper, so the fantasy was ruined.
    Kristine nodded and said nothing.
    “But while I am not at fault, I am responsible, don’t you think?”
    Kristine did not answer right away, considering the Duke's statement. “I think you are right.”
    “That is why I have brought the Nursery Knights here Kristine. They are incapable of taking care of themselves, and would be trapped in a world that would not understand them.”
    “Motht Magical Girlth are living in a world that would not understand them.”
    “And are they happy?”
    Telling, Kristine thought, remembering the night she had met Tac. Magical Parfait on the TV. Kristine remembered calling her a joke. She did not want to answer, but silence would be taken as agreement. “I can’t say.”
    He nodded as if she said exactly what he wanted to hear. “I brought the Nursery Knights here so they could be happy, taken care of, and not looked at as if they were freaks.”
    Freak.
    A strong word.
    But not an unfair way to describe the oversized toddlers that the Nursery Knights were created to be. “Mr Bear could take care of me,” Kristine said.
    “Mr Bear?”
    “My Plushie animal,” Kristine said and regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth.
    The Duke smiled. “Yes, the toy golems. I think you would find out soon enough that the golems are more suited to fighting than taking care of special little girls like the Nursery Knights.”
    Special.
    There was another strong word.
    But she did not believe what the Duke was saying. Mr Bear had changed her, cleaned her, mended her clothing, treated her wounds, and held her. As annoying as Mr Bear’s presence was, Kristine was quite confident in the plushie’s child care skills.
    Maybe the other Knight’s toy golems were not as good at it, but Kristine doubted it.
    The Duke was full of shit.
    An unfortunate train of thought though, as it made her aware that her diaper was probably a little messy.
    The Duke turned and started walking.
    Kristine had to run once more to keep up.
    “I want you to keep in mind that I am looking out for your interests and the interests of the Other Nursery Knights, Kristine. And keep in mind that the magic that has transformed you will continue to do so. You are going to need someone to take care of you.”
    He looked over his shoulder and smiled.
    Kristine ignored the smile, for her attention was on his eyes and the strange hunger within them. What did he want? What was the reason for that hunger?
    “You’ll excuthe me if I would rather it not be you.”
    “I think you’ll change your mind.” He looked away from her.
    He sounded confident.
    Kristine wanted to kick him in the back.
    They reached a steep stairway.
    He offered her his hand.
    She did not bat it away, though she wanted to, but ignored it and started up the stairs.
    The high stairs were difficult for her smaller legs, and she knew the Duke, who followed her, was possibly looking up her short skirt at her diapered bottom.
    Thankfully the stairway was not too long, and she stepped out onto a flat rooftop.
    A strange chariot sat upon the roof, a set of empty traces laid out in front of it. The duke stepped around her and walked over to the chariot. He stepped up on the deck of the carriage. “Come along,” he said.
    After a moment Kristine walked over and stepped up into the chariot beside him.
    Taking up the reins the Duke of Threes made a flicking motion. Three winged tigers formed in the traces and leapt into the sky.
    Kristine grabbed the railing and just managed not to scream.
    Smiling the Duke of Threes directed the team out of the city.
    Kristine looked over the sides of the chariot, at the city that rose up on either side of a valley.
    “Quite the sight is it not?”
    Denying it would be churlish.
    Kristine nodded. “It’th beautiful.”
    “Everything in my land is beautiful Kristine. You would be happy here, I promise.”
    “But I could not leave the garden you made.”
    “I might make an exception.”
    “Don’t bother. I don’t plan on thtaying.”
    He did not answer immediately. “You should at least give it a chance.”
    She did not answer that. No point in arguing it.
    “What does the Mundane World offer you?”
    The question surprised Kristine.
    And no answer came to her immediately. What did it offer her? She could live comfortable enough, make herself useful through magic, but what else?
    “I have not decided yet,” she answered.
    He smiled as if he had suspected such an answer.
    It made her angry, but she said nothing, ignoring him as they flew down the mountainside.
    The stretches of wild forest and bare rock of the mountain were broken by the appearance of buildings and tended gardens, all surrounded by a wall. The Duke of Threes directed the chariot towards the ground, touching down near an open gate.
    He stepped down from the chariot, offered her his hand. She could not decide how to not take the hand without seeming childish, so she let him help her down.
    “This way Kristine,” he said, indicating the open gate.”
    It was on Kristine’s tongue to ask that he call her Miss St. James but she held back, knowing her lisp would make that demand ridiculous.
    Beyond the gate were manicured grounds and elegant buildings in pastel colours.
    It was like something out of a dream, which Kristine supposed was the point.
    Then she saw the ogre.
    Alarm faded as soon as she saw the giant wore a long dress, like some 19th-century maid. A female ogre? Or was that creature no different than the ones that she had fought in the station not that long ago? Perhaps they took off their armour and put on dresses?
    Her attention was drawn away from the ogre, who was walking away, to a woman who stood awaiting the Duke. She wore a dark blue dress, with a blue band around her eyes. She looked pretty, with long, black hair and delicate features.
    She dipped into a low curtsey. “Your Grace.”
    “Colleen, this is Kristine. She is the sixth Nursery Knight.”
    Perhaps she was surprised, it was hard to tell with her eyes covered. “It is as you said, Your Grace.”
    Kristine frowned when the woman said that. As if her actions count be predicted.
    “She is here as a guest,” The Duke said.
    “A guest?”
    “An honoured guest, but a guest none the less. Keep that in mind.”
    “Of course your Grace.”
    Kristine was certain more was being said than she was aware of. She guessed it was the equivalent of ‘keep her on the outside of things’.
    The outside of what was, of course, the question.
    Kristine did not know if it was a question she wanted to ask.
    She shifted from foot to foot for a moment under Colleen’s gaze. She made herself stop. Her diaper felt damp, heavy. She hoped she had not messed it very much.
    “Where are the girls?” the Duke asked.
    “They are in the rose garden, resting up.”
    “Then let us go and introduce Kristine to the Nursery Knights.”
    The Duke sounded quite happy.
    Kristine was not sure what she felt.
    “This way,” Colleen said and set off deeper into the garden.
    For a blindfolded woman, she seemed confident in her steps, leading Kristine and the Duke past buildings, through a small hedge maze, and out into a spacious glade surrounded by roses, with a tall oak in the centre of the clearing.
    There were several of the ogre nannies there, tall and broad-shouldered in their blue dresses.
    The Nursery Knights were seated on small cushions, though one in the lap of an ogre, being bottle fed, and another on her back, having a diaper changed.
    A messy diaper.
    Kristine recalled squatting on a roof, in a messy diaper, bringing herself to orgasm.
    Of course, it was not her, but the magic.
    She hoped.
    Still, a small thrill ran through her as she imagined herself on her back, an ogre holding her legs up as her messy bottom was cleaned.
    It is just the magic, she told herself again, looking away, fixing her attention on the other Nursery Knights.
    They were dressed similarly to how she was. Dresses, with hems high enough that their diapers were visible. In different colours than her blue.
    The Nursery Knights noted the Duke of Threes first. Four of them sprung to their feet and rushed at him. The one having her diaper changed had to be held down by the ogre as a new diaper was taped on.
    The twelve foot tall, muscle-bound nanny looked as if she was being challenged.
    Good to see the other Nursery Knights were strong, Kristine thought.
    Probably explained the choice of a nanny.
    Soon the Duke was surrounded by a group of girls, all crowding around him and begging for attention.
    They all looked a little younger than Kristine currently looked. If you put them in regular clothing and had them walking along a street back in her world, she would probably put a guess of seven or eight, maybe nine to the ages.
    The Duke appeared a gentle, doting uncle type of person, patting them on their heads and having kind words for them all.
    And the Nursery Knights obviously adored him.
    Not just the Knights. The nanny ogres looked on respectfully, and Colleen gazed on the Duke with naked love and lust, so much so Kristine grew slightly uncomfortable being in the presence of that raw emotion.
    “Now girls, quiet down for a moment. I have a guest I want you to meet.”
    Kristine was reminded of the scene from the Sound of Music when the von Trapp family lined up in an orderly manner to meet their new governess.
    The Duke started off by introducing the other Nursery Knights, all of whom who were now regarding Kristine with open curiosity.
    Mandy, with long brown hair held back from her face by a green Alice band the same colour as her dress.
    Betty, with a pixie cut of fine blonde hair that was like a halo around her elfin face. She was dressed in bright red.
    Annie, the tallest (though still a bit shorter than Kristine) with black hair cut tomboy short and wearing bright yellow as her primary colour.
    Fiona, who had been having her diaper changed, with light brown skin and black hair in pigtails, was dressed in a dark blue that was almost purple.
    Vicky, auburn hair, long and braided, dressed in a pale pink that was almost white.
    Once they had all been introduced the Duke of Threes presented Kristine to them.
    “Girls, this is Kristine, she was supposed to be a Nursery Knight and fight the Nightmare King with you. She only recently became a Magical Girl, like you, and she has come looking for you.”
    “Why didn’t ya help us fight the Nightmare King,” Annie demanded.
    “Becauthe my Liaison wath late,” Kristine told Annie.
    “Late?”
    “Drunk apparently.”
    That actually got some giggles from the girls.
    “We didn’t need your help anyways,” Vicky said, standing up straight.
    Kristine could not help but notice the way Vicky’s diaper sagged. She wondered how the girl could look so proud standing there in a sodden diaper.
    “Why did you come looking for us?” Betty asked. Betty had only the slightest of lisps, and that pissed Kristine off a little.
    The answer was that she had needed to find out who one lived as a Magical Girl like a Nursery Knight, but seeing how the girls lived, in this nursery garden, she did not want to voice that.
    “I wanted to make thure you were alright,” she told them.
    “Of course we’re alright,” Mandy said.
    The other Nursery Knights all nodded and agreed. Betty had bent at the knees a little, almost squatting, and Kristine realised she was filling the back of her diaper.
    In front of them all.
    While professing that she was all right.
    Chronologically she had to be in her mid-twenties, and there she was, messing her diaper without thought.
    Kristine felt a shiver that she hoped was fear when she pictured herself in Betty’s place.
    “Now girls,” the Duke said, “Kristine is here as a guest, and I want you to be on your best with guest behaviour with her.”
    “Yes Duke,” the girls chorused.
    Kristine knew there was more to that statement, but she did not know what it was.
    “I will leave you in the company of your fellow Magic Girls and the staff,” the Duke of Threes told Kristine.
    The other Nursery Knights sounded their disappointment that he was leaving.
    “You are of course welcome to leave the garden whenever you want Kristine, but you will leave my lands when you do so. Understood?”
    Kristine nodded. “Understood.”
    He nodded, and then said, “On your best, guest behaviour girls.” Then he left.
    Everyone was silent for a few seconds before questions started.
    “Where were you?”
    “What did you do?”
    “How long have you been a Magical Girl?”
    “Why do you have a lisp?”
    “Do you like tag?”
    “Do you like dolls?”
    And more questions.
    Then Colleen stopped them with, “Girls, be quiet for a moment.”
    They did as told.
    “Kristine just got here and needs a little time to get used to the garden. Now I want you to all run off and play in the orchard and give Kristine some time to herself. There will be plenty of times for questions and games later.”
    “Yes Colleen,” the girls chorused out almost as one.
    They were led away with a series of 'bye byes'. Their nannies directed them from the glade, leaving Kristine with Colleen and another of the ogres.
    “Is there anything you need? Something to eat or drink or a rest?” Colleen asked her.
    “I would like a toilet,” Kristine said, aware of the pressure in her bottom.
    She half expected the woman to say something like ‘you are wearing your toilet’ or ‘just use your diaper like a good little baby’, but all Colleen said was, “Please show her to the bathroom.” She actually made a strange sound before saying that. Kristine assumed the odd noise was the ogre’s name.
    “Of course, come this way,” the ogre said. Her voice was deep and flat, the big teeth in her mouth giving her an odd inflection of speech.
    The ogre led Kristine through the maze, back out towards the gates. The nanny opened the doors in one of the buildings, pointing to a passage and stairway far too narrow for her broad shoulders, and said, “It is at the top of the stairs.”
    The narrow stairway smelt of stale air and piss, the stairs were thick with dust, the walls looked grimy. It was dark, hard to see, no windows. It was like something out a slasher flick.
    At the top of those stairs was a small door. It opened into a windowless closet that turned out to be a bathroom lit by a dim, flickering mage light. It looked like Kristine assumed a toilet on a construction site might look, and smell.
    She was not certain she wanted to put her naked bottom on the seat.
    If there were more room, she might summon Mr Bear to clean the bathroom, though, in all honesty, she felt it would be cruel to make Mr Bear clean such a mess.
    In the end, she removed her very wet and slightly messy diaper and sat down on the seat.
    Gross, she thought.
    There was, to her amazement, toilet paper. A roll of it, the paper looked old. It was a little brittle and not the softest thing with which she had ever wiped herself.
    That done she went through the complicated process of putting on a new diaper. Difficult in the small bathroom.
    As she walked down the stairs, carrying her wrapped up, used diaper, feeling as if there were a layer of grime on her, the ill-fitting diaper loose around her hips, Kristine wondered if it would not be simpler just to mess her diaper freely and change it.
    She supposed it was the point of such an unpleasant toilet.
    Had the other Nursery Knights tried using it when they had first got there, before giving it up and just using their diapers?
    She stepped out of the building, feeling better to be in the bright sun and fresh air. It made her feel as if that coating of grunge evaporated.
    “Let me take that for you,” the ogre said, holding out her hand.
    It took Kristine a moment to realise she was talking about the diaper. She knew she was blushing as she held out the used diaper for the ogre. As the ogre disposed of it, Kristine took a moment to pull up her skirt a little and refasten her diaper.
    She had not taped herself up as well as Mr Bear might, but it no longer felt as if the diaper was going to slide down her narrow hips to her knees.
    The ogre came back, smiled with those large, pointed teeth, and asked, “Would you like to see where the girls live?”
    “Thank you, yeth,” Kristine said, curious.
    There were several buildings there, some redundant, all dedicated to the Nursery Knights. They were all bright and clean, and if there was a faint scent of messy diapers, Kristine did not really notice it over scents of baby powder and soap.
    The Largest building was an airy, two-story structure, all pastel colours. On the second floor, a room that took up nearly half the building was where the Nursery Knight’s slept. There were six cribs, each almost the size of a queen sized bed, with high railings of polished woods.
    Gauzy drapes hung around each crib, and within them were a small collection of toys and blankets. One crib stood empty, the curtains tied back, the mattress bare of sheets.
    “This is your crib,” the ogre said.
    “Thurely there must be a bed or thomething I can sleep in?”
    The ogre shook her head. “No, I am sorry. The Nursery Knights must be in their cribs, for safety, when they sleep. It is a rule.”
    Kristine could leave, the Duke had said as much, but she would have to leave his lands. So if she wished to stay, to find out what was going on, she was going to have to live by the rules here.
    “I underthtand,” Kristine told her.
    “Would you like a nap?”
    Kristine shook her head, wanting to put off sleeping in that crib for as long as possible.
    The Ogre smiled again. “Let me put some sheets on the mattress for later then.”
    Kristine did not seem to have a choice but watch as the ogre made up the crib. She put a rubber sheet on the mattress first, smiling at Kristine as she did it, then what looked like flannel sheets in light blue and yellow. She finished it off by putting a few toys in.
    “You can have your favourite toys in your crib, once you have picked some.”
    Kristine tried to smile even though she felt as if her stomach was turning over.
    The ogre continued to tour, pointing out the room where the Nursery Knights took most of their meals, with large highchairs waiting. She pointed out a few potties, perfect sized for Kristine, near the changing tables. None of the Nursery Knights used them, the ogre informed her, but she was welcome to.
    Kristine wondered if it would be better to continue to use that dirty toilet or if she would prefer the humiliation of using a swan-shaped potty that sat out in the open.
    Finally, she was brought to the orchard. There she found the Nursery Knights laid out on blankets, napping. One of the ogres was changing Fiona’s diaper, holding the girl's legs up as she wiped her messy bottom.
    Fiona looked as she might be asleep.
    Kristine again flashed on an image of herself in Fiona’s position.
    “They will be napping for a while,” the ogre told Kristine. “Would you like a nap as well?”
    It looked peaceful, under those trees, among the brightly clothed nursery knights who slept peacefully.
    “No, I’m fine,” she said.
    There was a bench nearby, too big for her, but she climbed onto it and sat, her legs dangling. How soon after the Nightmare King had been defeated did the Duke of Threes bring the Nursery Knights to his lands? He probably waited until the liaisons had moved on to their next job. And he would have gotten away with it had it not been for Tac’s laziness.
    Kristine almost laughed as she thought that, and she did smile.
    As she sat there, she got a feeling that someone was watching her. She looked around. Colleen appeared to be staring at her, and Kristine felt she could feel that pointed gaze even through the blindfold around the woman's eyes.
    Kristine jumped down from the bench and walked to where Colleen stood. “How long have they been here?” She looked around that the Nursery Knights.
    Colleen did not reply immediately, her gaze seeming to take Kristine in, from her feet to her head. “Close to eighteen years.”
    Kristine almost swore, but she felt as if such language had no place there. “That’s a long time.”
    Colleen shook her head. “It is not, not really.”
    Kristine was about to ask Colleen how long she had been there, but the question died on her tongue. She did not want to know the answer. Instead, she asked, “What about their families?”
    “Their families,” Colleen paused, “they have forgotten about them. And they have all been well compensated.”
    “Forgotten but compensated?” The lawyer in Kristine wanted to understand that. You did not compensate people who did not know they needed to be compensated.
    “It is to make sure things are fair and right. The families might not remember, but the Duke of Threes does.”
    Like he was some kind of Saint, but Kristine doubted it. Something about the man seemed off.
    “What if the Nursery Knights want to leave?”
    “Why would they? The girls are happy here.”
    She sounded so certain, so confident.
    Perhaps she was right.
    “Maybe I’ll convince them to leave.”
    Colleen smiled in a patronising way. “You can try.”
    Her tone was insulting, and Kristine nearly ground her teeth at it and the unvoiced ‘baby girl’ that she believed was implied.
    “You should realise that the Duke of Threes only wants what is best for you. Right now you have a mind full of big girl ideas, but those will fade.”
    Kristine bristled at the term ‘big girl’ being applied to her adult life.
    “And when they fade you’ll need to be taken care of. You are a Magical Girl, and you could really hurt someone when your way of thinking gets simpler. Do you really think you are safe in the Mundane World?”
    “Of course I am thafe.”
    “Safe for other people to be around?”
    What a stupid question, Kristine thought, but after a moment she thought about the fight on the mountain and the man on the train. What sort of damage might she do in the Mundane World if her emotional maturity were to regress even a little? What might happen if she got mad?
    “I see you understand,” Colleen said, apparently taking Kristine’s silence as agreement.
    “I am not a danger to anyone,” Kristine said.
    Colleen gave her a doubtful look. “What if you are and you just do not realise it yet?”
    Again Kristine was at a loss for words.
    “Be very certain before you leave here Kristine. Think about what might happen if you are overestimating your maturity.”
    Colleen walked off to speak to one of the ogre nurses, giving Kristine no opportunity for a rebuttal.
    The question bothered her.
    What if she was dangerous?
    It preyed on her mind, and she was so focused on that she did not notice the other Nursery Knights waking from their naps. It was only when Annie grabbed Kristine's hands did she realise.
    “We’re going for our music lessons,” Annie said with a smile. “Come on.”
    Kristine let Annie lead her along a garden path, just behind the rest of the waddling girls, until they reached a small amphitheatre near the wall.
    There Colleen had the girls take their places on the stage. Kristine took a seat close, watching.
    All five the girls were examining her, in between taking instruction from Colleen. Then, her instructions delivered, she had them sing.
    It was beautiful, their voices, high and pure, weaving around each other with a resonance one usually only heard with siblings. They sang in a strange language that Kristine did not recognise, but it pulled at her.
    Looking at the smiling, singing girls she wished, for a moment, she might be part of that group.
    After a time, perhaps half an hour the Nursery Knights paused. Then Annie opened her mouth as if she was going to start again, but her gaze shifted towards Kristine and she suddenly shut her mouth and an audible ‘click’ of teeth coming together.
    The Nursery Knights looked a little, well, nervous. Colleen clapped her hands. “Good enough girls.”
    The Music lesson ended, and Kristine was certain something was being hidden from her.

    After the music lesson, there was dance, which seemed equal part performance and martial art. Dance led into active running about and roughhousing, with the girls climbing trees and dashing around an area near the gates.
    Then Colleen read the girls a story, an adventure that Kristine found herself interested in spite of herself. Bettie took a seat close to Kristine and whispered that they always heard the best stories.
    Kristine watched as the girls calmed down after all the physical activity while listening to the story.
    Apparently, there was a method to that, as when Colleen closed the book she was reading from she announced it was time for dinner.
    Calmer and obviously hungry the Nursery Knights went obediently to their home and the dining room. There each of the Nursery Knights was picked up by one of the ogre nannies and placed in a highchair.
    Kristine was worried that she would be treated the same and was not quite certain to do if she was, but instead, a place was set for her at a table.
    The food looked like something an elementary student might be served, but the baby bottle set next to the plate and bowl was another matter entirely. The utensils were strange, seeming far too large. Then she saw while the handles were scaled for the ogres the fork tines and spoon bowls were sized for people her size.
    The handles were clumsy in her hands, and it was something of a pain to use them. It would be easier to eat with her hands, or even easier still to let one of the ogres feed her. She did her best to make do with the utensils but ended up a messy eater in spite of herself.
    "Would you like a bib?" Colleen asked, watching as Kristine dabbed another spill from the front of her dress.
    "No, thank you," Kristine said in a tight tone.
    Deciding not to play along with things any longer she grabbed the bottle and tried to twist the top off. However, it turned out the bottle was all one piece, and her action caused the entire thing to shatter, spilling milk all over the place.
    She sat there, with some broken shards of a plastic-like material in her hands, milk all over her and the table in front of her, stunned for a moment.
    If the Colleen or the ogre nannies had snapped at her, had been angry at her, that would have been for the best. If they had called her stupid and told her just to drink from the bottle, she could have easily dealt with that. However, when one of the nannies was at her side, keeling, cleaning up the mess and asking if she was okay, all Kristine could feel was guilty.
    Guilt was not easy to deal with.
    Guilt made her feel like crap, and she desperately wanted to do something so she would not feel like crap.
    She tried telling herself that it was all a setup, and it probably was, but looking at the ogre kneeling there, cleaning things up, it was hard to think that way.
    So when the mess was all cleaned up and a bib placed around her neck, she did not object. When a fresh bottle was put on her table, Kristine picked it up and drank from it, sucking on the nipple.
    It pissed her off.
    The meal was exhausting, and she supposed if she remained there long enough then she might simply let the nannies take over feeding her.
    It looked easier for everyone involved.
    She hoped that she would not be there that long.

    Various activities had kept her busy after dinner, and when Kristine climbed into the crib, she was exhausted.
    “Damn,” she said softly, “this mattress is so soft.” She did not object when one of the nannies pulled the side of the crib up, locking the door into place.
    She almost drifted off to sleep.
    From the sound of things, the rest of the Nursery Knights were already asleep.
    Kristine stood and carefully climbed out of the crib, her thick nighttime diaper making her feel clumsy.
    Gently she lowered herself to the floor, feet touching down silently.
    She was no more than two steps from the crib when one of the ogre nannies was suddenly close. “Did you fall out of your crib?” she asked in a soft tone.
    As that would have been even possible, Kristine thought, but she said, “I need to use the bathroom.”
    “Come on then.”
    Kristine did have to use the bathroom, though it was not an immediate thing. Not quite yet. She had hoped to look around, but apparently, she was being watched.
    By the time they got to the washroom Kristine actually had to use it and climbed the narrow, dirty stairs quickly.
    Once she was finished and back down with the nanny, she decided that she would get some rest, but starting tomorrow, she would do her best to find out what was happening here.
 

  • Like 6
Link to comment

Wow this really makes it hit home just how messed up it is what was done to these girls @InkuHime And how insidious the process is. Why do I get the feeling that duke would squash me even I was piloting a Jaeger....

Link to comment

It sure seemed like it took forever to get this new chapter. I know it was only a month but it seemed much longer. I am glad she finally met up with the other girls and I agree with her, it seems like more is going on than meets the eye.  I will be watching for more so I can find out what’s going on and see how successful she is at getting the other girls in with her. I was glad I could give this chapter a like. 

Link to comment

I am loving it. Though i am waiting to see how ahe handles her fisrt messy diaper there. And waiting to see if the new addition will cause any jealous with Colleen. All of the possible directions you can take this has me on the edge of my seat. Any direction you take it would be fantastic. You have set it up so well that all paths look just as exciting as the rest.

Link to comment
  • 3 weeks later...

    The next part of 'A Too Late Magical Girl'

 

    Kristine’s diaper was soaked when she woke up the next day.
    She declined an offer of a change and instead asked to be taken to the toilet.
    With a kind smile, the ogre led her to the washroom.
    Kristine used the toilet and then put on a new diaper.
    By the time she got back to the nursery, the other girls were having their breakfast.
    “Is there thome place I can wash up?” Kristine asked the ogre. 
    That ogre nanny had large tusks, her defining feature, and it made her sound like she had a mouth full of marbles when she spoke. “Would you like me to give you a bath?” she asked.
    Kristine shook her head. “A shower…”
    “Of course.”
    The shower was sized for ogres, but Kristine could just reach the taps.
    After washing off, she had Mr Bear help her on with a new diaper.
    The ogre was waiting outside of the shower room. She smiled her tusky smile and took Kristine for breakfast.
    She sat by herself, drinking from a bottle and feeding herself as best she could with the too large utensils that made her clumsy.
    The other Nursery Knights had already been at ‘play time’ when Kristine was led into the playroom.
    Mandy was seated at a piano-like instrument that was sized for the ogres, her feet dangling in the air as she played.
    Betty and Fiona were playing with plastic, locking blocks, building complicated structures that looked like a city.
    Annie and Vicky were involved in some board game, and Kristine almost discounted them, interested in what Betty and Fiona were doing, until she noted the game they were playing was chess.
    She stepped closer, expecting to see that they were not really playing the game but just moving the pieces. And in fact, Vicky made a sound like a horse neighing and a ‘clip clop’ of one running as she moved her knight, but the move was valid.
    Annie countered with her pawn, then looked up at Kristine. “Do you want to play?”
    Before Kristine could answer Vicky said, “She can play the loser in five turns.”
    “She can play the loser in four turns.”
    “Girls,” the ogre at Kristine's side said in her gargling marbles voice.
    “Sorry,” they said in unison. 
    “You can play the winner if you want,” Annie said.
    Kristine watched as in four moves like Annie predicted, Annie put Vicky in check.
    “Who do you want to play now?” Annie asked.
    Kristine knew how chess was played, but the two girls played on a level that was beyond her. “I’ll play Vicky,” Kristine said.
    Not that it turned out Vicky was an easy opponent.
    Both Vicky and Annie giggled whenever Kristine made a move.
    In short order, Vicky had her in checkmate.
    “You play like a baby,” Vicky said.
    “Vicky,” the ogre said as if she had to protect Kristine’s feelings.
    “Sorry,” Vicky said.
    “You’ll get better if you practice,” Annie said and reached out to pat Kristine’s hand.
    Kristine looked around at the other Nursery Knights. These girls used their diapers like toddlers, ate in highchairs, drooled around pacifiers, and yet they were not stupid. Humiliatingly immature yes, but far from stupid.
    That made no sense to her.
    She did not have much time to think about it before the Nursery Knights’ next activity. She followed after them as they were ‘herded’ by the nannies and Colleen to another building and a room that looked like a nursery school classroom. There the girls were taught magical theory, though if Kristine had not been a Magical Girl who understood magic, it would have come across as nonsensical lessons with juvenile rhymes and games.
    But it was magical theory.
    What the hell was the Duke of Threes doing?
    Colleen sketched out a map on the board, indicating the nature of magic, with the complicated mathematical formula on the sides. Then she told a story about a ‘silly little bunny’ and the bunny's adventures in the forest. It was all metaphor for the theory, but the Nursery Knights giggled and called out at the appropriate times as the story progressed.
    Once Colleen had it all sketched out she asked, “Now, how should our little bunny get home lest she gets a spanking from her mommy?”
    The Nursery Knights giggled, with perhaps a little nervousness, but Kristine supposed she might be projecting.
    “She should ask Mr Crow to fly her home,” Betty said.
    “And do you think that would work?”
    At the rear of the class, Kristine could only see the back of Betty’s head but wondered if the girl was frowning.
    “Come to the front of the class and show your work.”
    Betty stood, and with a slight, ‘thick diaper’ waddle walked up to the board and began to write out childish numbers, several backwards. Mr Crow represented wind magic, and Kristine could see fairly quickly that it was not the best way to make this journey.
    Betty seemed to be getting the same idea for her chalk stopped, and she said, “I’m sorry Miss Colleen.”
    “That's okay Betty,” and Colleen patted her on the head.
    Kristine cringed slightly, but the crestfallen Betty seemed happy to be treated so and skipped back to her seat.
    The Nursery Knights discussed the question among themselves before finally coming to the consensus that the bunny should tunnel home.
    It was not actually tunnelling, but more akin to Kristine’s teleportation ability; punching holes between ‘here’ and ‘there’ bypassing the intervening space via magic.
    Annie was asked to come up and show the work.
    As they all watched Annie write the equations, Kristine noticed the yellow diaper cover Annie wore suddenly puff out, and then droop down.
    She had messed herself while writing on the board.
    And no one seemed to care.
    Kristine squirmed in her seat, hardly paying attention to the equations, her mind focusing on the mess what would be in Annie’s diaper.
    After being told her work was correct and receiving a pat on her head  Annie waddled back to her chair, and seemingly unaware of the mess, sat down in her seat.
    She made a small sound of surprise and Kristine guessed she was feeling the mess squish beneath her.
    Kristine could not help but moan as she came, her pussy fluttering and warmth spreading out through her stomach.
    “Kristine,” Colleen said.
    Kristine took a deep breath, wondering if she could control herself, wondering it Colleen was about to call her out.
    However, all Colleen said was, “What path do you think the little bunny should take home so as not to get a spanking?”
    What the hell? Bunnies? Spankings? Her head was full of pleasure fog, and it took her a few seconds to remember that this was a class.
    She noted all the Nursery Knights had turned around and were looking at her.
    “You don’t have to be afraid,” Betty said with an encouraging smile. “We won’t laugh at you.”
    Would not laugh at her for getting the answer wrong? For cumming? If she were to mess her own diaper like Annie had?
    She took a deep breath, looked at the board and the equations on it. They were complicated, like physics, but like all her magic, Kristine could visualise what they meant.
    “The bunny thould jump in the river and let it take her home.”
    “The river?” Fiona sounded surprised.
    “But the bunny would drown Kristine,” Mandy told her as if Kristine was somewhat stupid for not seeing that.
    “Little bunny might not drown,” Vicky said, coming to Kristine’s defence as if Kristine needed someone to defend her.
    It is not me always messing my diapers, Kristine thought somewhat angrily.
    “But the bunny would be exhausted from trying to swim and would be too tired to get home after leaving the river,” Mandy told both Vicky and Kristine.
    “No,” Kristine said, and got up from her seat. Her daytime diapers were not as thick as those that the others wore, so she hardly waddled at all. At the front of the class, she picked up the chalk and began to show her work.
    It reminded her a little of attending university, and she had liked university. The intellectual challenge of it all. Though 'intellectual challenge' seemed at odds with the nursery school like settings and the students' dress.
    But the magical theory was challenging.
    “Little bunny would need to cweate a shell, like this, and that would protect it from drowning, and if we do this,” she altered her equations a little, “little bunny could syphon off magic from the river and end up on the bank all refreshed and ready to run the last part home.”
    She stepped back from the board and looked at her work.
    “Excellent Kristine,” Colleen said and patted Kristine on the head.
    Kristine looked up at her, beaming with pride until she recalled that being patted on the head like that was not something she should be proud of, nor did she want this woman’s approval.
    “I guess,” Kristine said, putting the chalk down.
    “I knew you were smart, even if you lost at chess,” Vicky said. A backhanded compliment Kristine was sure.
    She walked back to her seat, suddenly worried she might have messed her diaper while up at the chalkboard, concentrating on the numbers. But no, she had not, and when she took her seat, all she felt was damp padding and not a squishy, warm mess.
    She told herself she was not disappointed.

    The class ended not long after.
    While the other girls had their diapers changed Kristine asked to be escorted to the toilet. Yes, it would be easier just to use her diaper to its fullest, but she was worried what would happen once she went down that road.
    Better the inconvenience and the disgusting toilet than another option, she told herself.
    When she finally got back, the Nursery Knights had moved onto the next activity of the day.
    The day before she had seen the girls at a choral music lesson. This time it was musical instruments.
    Fiona and Betty each sat at their own piano, an ogre nanny perched beside them, coaching them. Vicky had a flute and was working with Colleen. Mandy was playing the violin by herself while nearby Annie was seated on an ogre’s lap as she worked the bow of a cello too large for her.
    “Is there a musical instrument you would like to learn?” the ogre who Kristine suspected was to be her nanny asked.
    Kristine had always wanted to learn to play an instrument but had never had the time.
    She shook her head. “Not right now.”
    “That’s fine,” the ogre said.
    Kristine was almost positive there was an unsaid, ‘there will be plenty of time.’

    At first glance, the activities of the girls were perfectly suitable for the ridiculous overgrown toddlers: Silly and babyish.
    However, once Kristine really looked at them she saw depth in all of them.
    Art projects that were based on magical theory.
    Games of ‘lets pretend’ that actually taught tactics.
    Magical Tag games which were all flash and bang as the girls performed impossible stunts.
    Whatever was happening here, there was more to it than a group of Magical Girls being protected.
    And Kristine knew something was happening when she was not around. Some part of the lesson that stopped when she appeared.
    She was a guest, and there were things guests did not take part in.
    It was annoying, and it made her mad, but she saw no way around it.
    Everyone seemed to be in on the 'guest protocol'.
    Even the other Nursery Knights were pretty cagey about it.
    As her first full day there ended, and Kristine climbed into her crib, no, the crib, not her crib, she was still uncertain about all of this.
    And she was worried the longer she stayed, the less likely she would leave.
    She told herself that nothing would happen like that as she lay down, ignoring the click as one of the ogre nannies pulled up the crib side and locked it. She would just need to work it all out, find out exactly what was happening.
    Then she could leave.
    The lights went out, and everything became grey in the shadows.
    “Kristine.”
    A soft whisper.
    Kristine looked up.
    Vicky was kneeling in her crib, in the dim light from beyond the room she looked so much like a small child.
    “Kristine,” Vicky whispered again.
    “What ith it?” Kristine whispered back.
    “I’m glad you are here. We were always a little sad that we did not have all of the Nursery Knights.”
    Kristine said nothing for a few seconds, then asked, “Was it hard to fight the Nightmare King?”
    Vicky did not answer right away. “Uh uh, not at first,” she said, shaking her head. “Our Plushies helped us.”
    She wondered what she meant by 'not at first', but instead asked, “Which Plushie did you have?” Kristine asked.
    “Mr Puppy.”
    “Mine ith Mr Bear.”
    “Cute,” Vicky said.
    “Do you call for your Pluthies to help you now?”
    “Nuh uh.”
    “Why?”
    “Cause I don’t think they like us anymore.”
    “They don’t like you?”
    “That’s what Colleen says.”
    What did Colleen tell them?
    “I bet you they thtill like you,” Kristine said. She actually did not know if the Plush servants really thought. She did not know if Mr Bear had an opinion about her or anything.
    “Do you think?”
    “Yeth,” Kristine said.
    “I’ll ask the Duke next time he comes,” Vicky said.
    Kristine wanted to tell her not to. To not ask the Duke his opinion about anything.
    She did not though.
    It was like some crazy, magical Stockholm Syndrome. The Nursery Knights respected the Duke, loved him, in some odd way she was still trying to figure out. So speaking against him would achieve nothing.
    “You could always call Mr Puppy and athk him,” Kristine said.
    “Goodnight Kristine,” Vicky said. In the shadow, Kristine saw her lie down in her crib.
    “Goodnight Vicky,” Kristine whispered.
    She rolled onto her back, her nighttime diaper crinkling under her. Was there a reason the Duke did not want the Nursery Knight’s calling the plushie servants? Would there be any value in trying to convince the other girls to call their plushies? Should she make a point of calling Mr Bear?
    She fell asleep considering strategies.

    Her second full day at the garden went much like her first. The Nursery Knights went through their simple-seeming but actually complicated games and classes and past times. She was getting a feel for the girls.
    Mandy must have been the group's healer, her magic had a gentle feeling, and she was patient with Kristine when she explained things. Kristine was a little insulted by that, seeing as Mandy was often in a diaper, which drooped between her legs, as she treated Kristine as the immature one.
    Betty had the sense of a fighter about her, full of excitement and energy, enjoying roughhousing and physical activities. She laughed a lot when running around and when she talked to Kristine she expressed exasperation when she had to explain things. Kristine did not mind as it meant Betty expected her to know these things.
    Annie came across as the leader, though with Colleen and the nannies dictating much of their life there was little for a leader to do. Kristine thought she looked a little lost, that she was watching, waiting for when she was needed. Both sad and hopeful.
    Fiona was a thinker, the one who looked at problems and came up with solutions. She often was a little farther ahead than the rest of the Nursery Knights, but the girls seemed to accept that and her plans without asking questions.
    Vicky was the charismatic member, who smiled her way around problems and who could call you an idiot and you would take it kindly. She was touchy-feely, free with her expressions of affection.
    Kristine did not think she knew the girls well, however, not after so short of a time.
    Her third full day offered a change in the way things had gone.
    When Kristine returned to the main building, having used the far-off toilet, she found all the Nursery Knights missing.
    “Where are all the other girl’th?” she asked, walking towards the table where her breakfast awaited her.
    “Oh, no need to worry,” the nanny told her. “They’ll be back soon.”
    It was not an answer, and it was not supposed to be.
    So there were secrets that they were keeping from her.
    Not a surprise.
    When the Nursery Knights returned Kristine tried asking Mandy where they had been, but Mandy simply smiled and said, “It’s not important.”
    Kristine spent the day wondering if they had been sent off for some kind of training to reinforce their infantile behaviour. She supposed that was something they would not want her to know. At least not until they had their hooks into her.
    On the fourth day, Kristine got a surprise in the form of a black cat who sat on the fence near the washroom.
    “What’s up stupid,” Tac said.
    “Tac, what are you doing here?” Kristine asked.
    “What do you think I’m doing here. You’re my responsibility, and Gorgeous nearly put one of her unattractive shoes up my ass as a reminder.”
    “Am I thupposed to feel sorry for you?”
    “Who is this?” the ogre nanny demanded, walking over to where Kristine spoke with Tac.
    “Back off bitch,” Tac said. “I’m her liaison, and that means where she goes I go.”
    “Eventually,” Kristine said softly.
    Tac either did not hear her or chose to ignore her. “You want to separate a Magical Girl and her official Liaison? Go right ahead. My idiot boss would love a reason to look into this cluster fuck you have going on here.”
    The nanny took a step back.
    Having an ogre showing fear of a cat was comical, but Kristine did not laugh.
    “I wasn’t… I won’t… I need to let Colleen know.”
    She turned and nearly ran off.
    “Ogres. Never met one I wanted to fuck,” Tac said, jumping from the fence onto Kristine’s shoulder. “You smell like piss. More so than usual.”
    “Wow, and for a moment there I almotht thought I missed you.”
    “Of course you missed me. I’m great.”
    “Hath the word ‘great’ been redefined?”
    Tac scratched her across her face.
    “Fuck, ow. What the hell?”
    “Sorry, paw slipped.”
    “What the hell are you doing here?” Kristine asked, lightly dabbing at her face. Her fingers came away with a little blood on them.
    “Figuring things out. Don’t suppose you got off your diapered ass and solved this shit so I can go back to drinking and fucking?”
    “No, I haven’t figured it out.”
    “Too much to hope for,” Tac said with a sigh.
    “I haven’t been thitting around,” Kristine snapped. She started walking off in the direction the ogre had run.
    “Of course you haven’t been shitting around, I assume you’ve been using your diapers.”
    “Oh, sure, make fun of my lithp.”
    “I did.”
    “athhole.”
    Tac laughed.
    “There ith something strange happening here. These girlth are really skilled.”
    “In what, soaking their diapers?”
    That was, in fact, true, but Kristine said, “Lots of thingth. Magic, music, fighting, strategy…”
    “Are you sure it’s not just that you are so pathetic they seem good to you?”
    “I am going to kick you.”
    “Try it,” Tac said, patting the scratches on Kristine’s face with a sheathed claw paw. She then licked her paw pads, probably tasting some of Kristine’s blood.
    Kristine fumed for a few moments before saying, “I know a bunch of Magical Girlth who you are not a liaison for. How about I thuggest to them that they play with the little kitty.”
    “I will kill you in your sleep,” Tac warned.
    Kristine believed she might, but she doubled down and said, “Maybe they will play dweth up with you. Make you a cute little kitty doll.”
    “I will end you,” Tac warned.
    “Just keep it in mind. They are up to thomething.”
    “Well, let’s hope so, or we are wasting my time here.”
    Kristine did not ask about her time know what Tac would say. “What about Umon?”
    “He swears up and down that it was all the Duke’s doing, but the Duke played his word games well. Derrypiz is useless to us.”
    “Damn,” Kristine said.
    “Damn indeed. So Gorgeous wants me to figure out a way to nail the Duke of Threes, or at least figure what he is really attempting. She’s pissed.”
    “She’th not the only one,” Kristine said.
    Kristine was still trying to follow the path, but it was more confusing that she recalled.
    She was starting to think she was lost when she came around a corner and nearly ran into Colleen.
    The blindfolded woman looked down at Kristine, and at Tac.
    “Who is this?” she demanded.
    “This ith Tac,” Kristine said.
    “Name’s Tac bitch,” Tac said at the same time.
    Colleen’s nostrils flared.
    “Outsiders are not allowed here without the Duke of Three’s permission,” Colleen said.
    “I’m not an outsider, I’m Kristine’s liaison, and where she goes I go, so suck it up.”
    Colleen frowned. “I do not think Kristine needs a liaison anymore. She has shown herself quite skilled.”
    “Quite skilled?" Tac sounded incredulous. "She can’t even keep her pants dry.”
    It was Kristine’s turn to frown, but she said nothing.
    “No,” Tac continued. “I am of the opinion that Kristine still needs me. Of course, if you disagree you can talk to my boss. Her name is Gorgeous, and she’s got a real positive opinion of the Duke of Threes.” Tac’s tone was sarcastic. “So I’m sure you’ll get far.”
    Colleen looked angry, but she said, “We shall see, but you will respect the rules here and go nowhere you are told not to.”
    “I’ll go anywhere Kristine does bandage.”
    Colleen, lips pressed into a tight line, turned on her heel. “Come along Kristine.”
    “It’s good to see you piss everyone off equally,” Kristine told Tac.
    “It is all part of my charm.”
    “Charm? Is that what you call it?”
    “You’ll understand when you grow up.”
    Kristine pouted but said nothing.
    Colleen led the way through the garden, the way unfamiliar to Kristine. When she commented on it, Tac said, “Dimensional folding. The space within the walls is pretty vast.”
    “How do I not get lost?”
    
   “Teleport where you want to go, idiot.”
    It was a simple enough answer, and Kristine felt a little stupid for not thinking of it herself.
    They came out of the hedge maze into a park with a gazebo in the centre. Kristine had never seen it before.
    “Hey, a kitty,” Fiona said, the first to notice Tac.
    At her statement the other Nursery Knights looked up from what they were doing, looking at Tac who sat upon Kristine’s shoulder.
    “Congratulations Kristine,” Tac said, “you are no longer the most ridiculously pathetic magical girl I have ever seen.”
    Kristine did not know what to say to that. It was obviously cruel, but at the same time, it was good not to be the most pathetic.
    “Girls,” Colleen called out.
    The Nursery Knights who had been starting towards Kristine, all stopped.
    “That is Kristine’s Liaison. Not a pet and she is not welcome here, though she has to stay.”
    “What a bitch,” Tac said in Kristine’s ear.
    “Why is a Liaison here?” Annie asked.
    She sounded angry, but Kristine thought that could not be right.
    Colleen looked at the Nursery Knight and said, “She claims Kristine still needs her.”
    “That’s stupid,” Annie said, then to Kristine. “You don’t need her. Send her away.”
    Kristine was a little surprised at the demanding tone that Annie used. However she shook off the surprise and said. “No.”
    Annie frowned. “Liaisons are bad.”
    “Tac is, but the others seem okay. At least competent.”
    “I’m gonna scratch you so bad,” Tac said into her ear.
    Annie looked upset. “But… You… It’s…” She threw up her hands and stalked back towards the Gazebo.
    “She’s dull,” Tac commented before she jumped off Kristine’s shoulder and up into the lower branches of a tree.
    Kristine looked up at Tac, then back towards the garden. Mandy had come up to Kristine and placed a hand on Kristine’s face. “You got a cut here.”
    She felt a warm tingling sensation where Mandy touched her.
    It had not really hurt, but the feeling of discomfort faded and disappeared.
    Mandy smiled. “All better.”
    “Thank you,” Kristine said.
    Before Mandy could turn and walk away, Kristine asked, “Why ith Annie tho upset about Liaisons?”
    “Oh,” Mandy said, her tone reluctant. “The Liaisons betrayed us.”
    “Betrayed you?”
    Mandy nodded. “They said we had beaten the Nightmare King and they would leave and we would be okay. But it was not okay, and the Nightmare King was not beaten and he came back and would have hurt us all.” She took a deep breath. “That was when the Duke saved us.”
    Before Kristine could ask about that Colleen was calling for them, and Mandy ran off to join the others. Kristine followed, looking back towards where Tac perched in a tree. Betrayed?
    In the Gazebo she saw the Nursery Knights were gathering around in a circle on the floor, a large number of cards placed face down in front of them.
    She was curious at how the Nursery Knights could have been betrayed, but the game, which was a magical memory matching game, caught her attention and she decided she would ask Tac about it later.
    For now, she was focused on the game.

    Tac was to sleep with Kristine in her crib.
    “I think I’ll stay up here,” Tac said from where she perched upon the railing. “Who knows what has been on that mattress.” Cat shaped Tac said with a tone of disgust.
    “There ith nothing on the mattress, and even if there were the sheets are changed daily. Now get down here so we can talk.”
    Tac sighed and jumped down from the rail onto the mattress. 
    The lights had just been turned out and the other Nursery Knights were likely already asleep. Kristine leaned in close to Tac and asked, “Did the other Liaisonth betray the Nursery Knights?”
    Tac stared at Kristine, her eyes seeming to glow in the dim light of the room. “So there are stupid questions. I always suspected the saying that there were none was wrong.”
    “Jutht answer the question.”
    “Of course they didn’t. Liaisons have their Magical Girls best interests in mind, even if the magical girl in question is an idiot like you.”
    “The Nursery Knightth think that the Liaisons did betray them. That the Nightmare King was not defeated and he attacked them after the Liaisons said it was safe.”
    “You know you are listening to girls who crap themselves as they drool.”
    “They don’t drool, well, not a lot, and I think they believe it. I athked all of them during the day and their stories held together pretty well.”
    “Well, they are wrong. The Nightmare King is dead, the Nursery Knights ended him. If anyone attacked them, it was not the Nightmare King.”
    “Then it was pwobably the Duke of Threes.”
    “That is what I would bet on.”
    Kristine nodded and laid her head down on the pillow. “I just have more questions.”
    Tac jumped back up onto the crib railing. “Figure it out fast, sooner I get out of this place the better.”
 

  • Like 6
Link to comment

At this point, the Nursery Knight's current life doesn't seem too bad. If it wasn't for her determination, I bet Kristine would've fallen completely into the Duke's trap by now. The titillating secrets, the lesson that is being hidden from Kristine and the lie about the Nightmare King, have me wishing there was another part already. Please keep up the good work!

Link to comment

I'm guessing he's training the girls to be his weapons?

That seems to be what this is indicating.

Also I continue to be impressed by Kristine's ability to hold together in the middle of all this insanity. I probably would have completely lost it by now....

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...