New Beginnings

11. Laura

"So that's basically the whole story. In pocket sized form at least."

Amaya stared at the two of them in silence until eventually letting loose a loud exhale.

"So everything you told me in the last," she looked up at a grandfather clock on the wall. "Half hour, is the short version of why you're in my home. Also the short version of how you stopped an ancient God from destroying the world and the short version of your on and off romance-"

"On, its status is on." Carmilla said.

"With the rude lady who used to be a vampire."

"I overshare. I'm an oversharer, my bad." Laura said.

They were back around the table that had come so close to joining the ever growing ranks of very good memory spots before Amaya and her children had arrived home. Laura sat next to Carmilla and across from Amaya. The Satyr had taken a blanket out of the wicker basket and placed it on the table for the four goat-like Satyr children to lie on. Throughout her long winded and full of mostly pointless digressions story Laura had one hand petting them and the other under the table intertwining with Carmilla's.

"So basically you two are heroes who saved the world, who are now fighting yet more bad guys in an attempt to stop them from getting their hands on some object of great power and now you need my help in order to achieve your heroic goals. Does that sum it up?"

"Well, I don't know about..." Laura stuttered while started turning red.

Before Silas she'd always had the opinion of herself that she tried to do the right thing wherever possible. Though even then the majority of people she interacted with used words like 'crusader' to describe her rather than hero. In fact most seemed either bemused or annoyed at her do-gooder antics.

Then Silas happened. Her entire worldview shattered, her sense of self-righteousness lost, the idea of her being anything like heroic at all now seemed to her ludicrous in the extreme. She had made a mess, her good intentions almost killing literally everyone. Luckily with the help of others she had fixed her mistakes and had gained from her relationship with Carmilla something immeasurable in the process. A kind of happiness she didn't know possible and well beyond her past self's conceptions of what happiness entailed or under what conditions it could be obtained.

It was, as far a she was concerned, Laura Hollis the Lucky not Laura Hollis the Hero.

"I'm not sure if hero is the right word, I mean, we err, well Carmilla here is absolutely a he-"

Wait she doesn't like it when I do that! She remembered with a start and caught herself in time.

"Well, what is important is we are both simply trying to do the right thing here and now" She finished lamely.

She finally noticed Carmilla smiling beside her.

"Cupcake, she was being sarcastic."

Embarrassment coursed through her. What an idiot she could be sometimes. Of course the Satyr was being sarcastic. Because regular people or in this case satyrs, weren't dumb and believed that heroes were something that dropped through portals and into your life at a whim.

"Oh, right yeah of course she was. Heroes here to save the day pfft how dumb."

Amaya gave them both a measured look.

"Look I'm honestly not sure what to make of all you told me. I did notice like everyone else the darkness that overtook the world a few months back. I knew it had to be magic despite what you humans prattled on about. As for the rest, well, the parts that include Corvae and Inanna I can believe, those Sumerian's and their Gods were nutso I tell you. My family used to tell me stories about that soap drama fest. And as for Corvae, I've had dealings with them in the past. Evil, evil people, I would say their hearts are black but that would imply they have any at all. More like cold empty spaces where their souls should be. In fact they're part of the reason why I ended up here."