The Assistant's Plight

I couldn’t help but think that the reason I came to this world was because of my status as the undisputed number one fan of the Momma Goddesses.

My amazing memory was both a blessing and a curse.

“Oh! There’s already a world you resonate with! Great! We won’t have to drag you to our world!”

That line from the winged woman—I replayed it in my head every now and again. There were other worlds out there, but I got to go to the one that I still held dear to myself.

How lucky. It really was a fan’s dream come true. And I got to come here because of the three moms.

So, that was definitely a sign. I was brought here because of them, so it was only natural that I make good on my feelings and save them. That was why I was able to come to this world.

But in the back of my head, this was still a game. I was just someone getting to change the worst part of a game I really enjoyed.

But as the days passed, the reality settled further on my shoulders, and I was slowly realizing that I was sinking further into the muck that was this world.

And now, Elsbeth had kissed me.

What a dream come true.

Getting to play the part of a devoted borderline-maniacal fan living out a fantasy was fine and all, and it definitely gave me a giggle and reminds me to greet every day with a smile of appreciation—Sincerely, thank you, Universe and winged lady, for letting me live out a dream.

Shit, I would have preferred Elsbeth just be someone tired with noble living who got wrapped up in a foolish husband’s scheme. Not this mess where she has such an impassioned moment with me.

This—whatever was going on—was cruel.

Maybe I really should just throw caution to the wind and get rid of the City Lord.

“Timmie?”

Elsbeth’s voice brought me back to reality.

She was composed again and standing in front of me. Her dress had been straightened, her scarf retied, her hood ready to be pulled back up. But her face—her face was still of a woman rendered vulnerable.

“I should be going home,” she said quietly.

I stood. “If you want, I can walk you—”

She shook her head. “No. I’ve already done so much... it’s better this way.”

We walked down to the front of the workshop together. Neither of us spoke at first. The lamp above the front desk flickered just a little, catching in the curves of glass beakers and brass tubing. The warm scent of the stew had reached out here—I prayed it soothed her. Elsbeth turned toward me once we reached the front door.

“Thank you,” she said. “For obliging me.”

Her hand reached for the latch, but she didn’t pull it.

Instead, she looked at me again. “And… I’m sorry.”

“No.” My voice was firmer than I expected. I stepped closer. “Don’t apologize for the kiss. I want you.”

Her eyes widened, and something delicate inside her seemed to lift ever so slightly. She stepped away from the door and toward me.

“You… want me?” she asked, voice faint and scared. “Really? You’re not joking?”

“Even if this is messy. Even if it’s something I shouldn’t do. I feel strongly about you, Elsbeth. I’m never going to lie and tell you otherwise. Every second I spend with you, that truth becomes more concrete.”

She covered her mouth, overwhelmed. Her other hand gripped her scarf like it was the only thing anchoring her.

“I… I’ll try to tell you everything. Just not today. I’m still not strong enough,” she whispered.

“I’ll wait,” I said. “But… can I tell you something that might change your opinion of me?”

She looked up at me again, her eyes filled with something close to wonder. “Please.”

I inhaled. It would be cruel not to be honest now. If I really meant to love her, I had to respect the desire that brought me here in the first place, and she had to know it.

“There are three women who’ve claimed my heart,” I said. “And you’re one of them.”

For a moment, I thought I saw her flinch—but then something else happened. Her shoulders relaxed. Something unreadable passed through her expression, and I realized… she was relieved.

“I see,” she whispered, a smile tugging at her lips.

“I don’t want to live with secrets or pretend,” I continued. “In my ideal life… I’d be with all three of you. I’d be seeing this world with the three of you for a really long time. If I could be so lucky, it would be a romantic life… But if I fell short… Then I would settle for just having you three around for a very long time.”

Elsbeth’s hand drifted over her chest. She pressed it lightly there, and her lips trembled into a small smile.

“Okay,” she whispered.

I stepped closer to her.

“Then… can you say it?” I asked her. “Tell me to take you away from your misery.”

She swallowed, eyes wet again.

“Try,” she said, voice cracking, barely audible. “Try to take me away.”

It broke my heart.

“I’m going to try,” I promised. “But I need time. And I might need your help.”

I could see her nodding before I finished.

Inwardly, I was already making a checklist—Elsbeth’s cooperation could open all kinds of doors. If she helped, I could learn more about the City Lord—his habits, his activities, his personality. It would make getting her in front of Mava much easier too.

Knowing in greater detail what Elsbeth was facing was guaranteed to save her.

“Okay,” she said again, softer now.

“But listen—if it ever gets too dangerous, don’t do anything. Don’t take any risks for me. And if there ever comes a time when you feel like you can’t come here…”

She looked like she might stop breathing.

“Don’t worry. I’ll still be here. I’ll wait. You could be gone for five months—I would still wait, and hug you, and do whatever else you want when you walk through my door.

She laughed, a weak, sweet thing, and wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand. “Ugh. Crying again…”

“You cry beautifully if it’s any consolation,” I said.

She laughed again, and then looked at me with quivering lips.

“But… am I… am I worth the effort, Timmie?”

I didn’t hesitate. I stepped forward and took both her hands.

“You—even if you were in your most basic, stripped-down, diminished form—you, Elsbeth, are one of the women who forever changed the course of my life.”

She gasped, and then I leaned in.

We kissed.

It was sweet. No hunger, no desperation—just warmth. All I felt was the warmth that raw hope and a wish could provoke.

When we parted, I looked into her eyes and said it.

“I’ll make you mine.”

She flushed, and then smiled—truly smiled—so wide it squeezed tears from her eyes. She wrapped her arms around me, burying her face in my chest.

“I already am,” she whispered. “Reality just needs to catch up.”

It was perfect.

But then—

Loud bangs came from the door. They were so powerful that they rattled my glassware.

Elsbeth jumped, her hands clutching my coat. “No—no one would’ve followed me—no one…”

She was already backing behind me, panic rising. Her hood was up in a blink. She was shaking.

“Calm down,” I whispered. “I’ll check.”

She didn’t stop trembling, but she nodded, curling behind the counter as I moved slowly to the door. I placed a hand against the latch, heart pounding, undid the locks, and opened it just a crack—

Nothing.

I squinted and leaned my head a little further out to check both ways. Then I looked down.

That’s when I saw it.

“Oh mother fucker!”

“Is everything okay—eek!”

“Yeah, remember that faction thing I told you about earlier in the day?” I held up a slaughtered chicken. “Damned traditionalists and their seemingly endless supply of poultry. They do this like once a month, apparently.”

Then I stepped out and examined my door.

“Damn it! They smeared chicken blood all over!”

Elsbeth came closer, evidently much calmer. She stepped out with her hood up and stood beside me as I stared at my defaced door.

“My word… So this is the life of an alchemist.”

I looked at her with a grin. “Hey, you’re still sort of my assistant. If you can still spare a little bit of time… Do you want to help me with something?”

***

Green pellets soared through open windows like tiny avian missiles.

Moments later, the entire second floor of the alchemists’ workshop let out a series of tortured screams.

"GAH! THE FUMES! WHO LEFT THE WINDOWS OPEN!?"

“IT SMELLS LIKE A CORPSE DUNKED IN FERMENTED ONION PISS!”

The stink bombs had detonated beautifully. A sulfurous fog immediately filled the workshop, curling out of the windows like some foul spirit of mischievous smoke. Several alchemists ran across windows, coughing and gagging, their robes flapping wildly.

From the street, I shouted at them while pelting another handful of pellets.
“Good luck smelling when your shit’s cooked, fuckers!”

A few gasps of realization echoed from inside.

“Wait… was that—”

“It’s Timaeus! That damned ferret-faced bastard!”

I threw another pellet. “I’m handsome now, uggo! Skin care regimen courtesy of the most handsome guard I’ve ever seen!”

“He’s retaliating!” one yelled.

I turned on my heel and bolted. “Good to see you boys!”

Tools and glass clattering echoed from the workshop, along with unmistakable sounds of them hacking up their lungs. They’d be barreling out of their doors soon.

Unfortunately, one person wasn’t keeping up with the situation.

“Timaeus!?”

I looked back. Elsbeth was still standing in the street like a confused cat, clutching the canvas bag of stink bombs to her chest, her expression caught somewhere between horror and awe.

“ASSISTANT!” I yelled, almost skidding into a trash pile. “What are you doing standing there!? Throw the bag and move!”

“Huh?”

“Move, move, move!”

“I—I don’t know if—”

A door slammed open. Two alchemists staggered out, coughing, their goggles fogged and hair frizzed from panic. One of them pointed directly at her.

“Hey! That’s Timaeus’s disfigured assistant! The ugly one! They’re still there!”

“Grab her before she throws—”

Elsbeth shrieked and chucked the whole bag down with surprising power and a squeaky war cry.

“Stop hurting my Timmie!”
It flew right over their heads and straight into their workshop.

A half-second later, boom.

A thick, greasy smoke burst from the door like a bomb of rotted cabbage, sewer gas, and boiling vinegar. The screams that followed were somewhere between agony and a pathetic, mucus-choked chorus.

Elsbeth sprinted—finally—and caught up with me just as another small explosion boomed behind us and sent up a cloud of chemical dust.

I couldn’t help it—I howled.

“Was… was it supposed to explode like that!?” Elsbeth wheezed beside me, keeping up marvelously.

“Not unless you threw it directly into a live vat! You really messed them up now! They’re totally going to retaliate now! I'm screwed!”

“They are?!”

I beamed at her. “That was incredible! Assistant, you have one heck of an arm!”

Elsbeth stared at me in horror.

Then, she laughed. First a breathless giggle, then a wide-eyed, slightly delirious laugh that doubled her over as we ran. I laughed with her, feeling unbelievably light.

We darted through alleyways until we were four streets down, hidden in a narrow corridor between crooked buildings. We leaned against the wall, breathless.

There was soot on Elsbeth’s cloak. Her scarf had come loose. Her eyes still shimmered faintly from crying earlier, but she looked alive now.

“That was crazy,” she said. “And you do that every month?”

“Well… It’s the first time I’ve done it this month.”

She let out another giggle and looked down at her hands.

For a moment, we stood there quietly, catching our breath. The sound of the city settled around us—the creak of shutters, the distant splash of something falling into a puddle, the low rattle of carts being pushed through narrow lanes.

Then Elsbeth spoke quietly. “Would you… walk me?”

I glanced at her.

“You sure?”

She nodded. “Not the whole way. Just to the checkpoint.”

“Checkpoint?”

“You’ll see.”

We slipped back into the alleys, ducking past shanties and old shopfronts, the streets narrower and darker than before. She led the way, quietly, calmly, until we reached a lopsided house squashed between two taller brick buildings.

It was plain, its door warped and patched with iron staples. The roof sagged. There were no lanterns lit in the windows.

“This,” she said, as she stepped up to the door, “is where I need to go.”

I blinked. “This?”

She nodded, already fiddling with the latch. “Thank you for everything today, Timmie.”

She didn’t meet my eyes. But her voice was soft with something more than gratitude. It was intoxicating, and it made parting so much more painful than it had any right to be.

She opened the door.

A familiar voice came out in response.

“Finally, Elsie, I was waiting—ahh.”

There, standing on the other side of that open door, was Ravela.

Her eyes locked with mine, and her hand went to the back of her head. “Aww, fuck.”

Elsbeth hadn’t noticed the face Ravela was wearing. “Oh, Ravela! So you’re the one escorting me tonight? My thanks. Hmm? Is something the matter? I do so apologize for being a tad late. But I swear this is still within the acceptable window.”

Elsbeth stepped into the house and looked at Ravela with a noticeable degree of bewilderment. Ravela, meanwhile, hadn’t moved and was looking down at her feet.

I nodded, and took a step forward. When her head went up, mine went down.

“Timaeus—”

“Ravela! Thank you for taking care of Elsbeth in your own way!” I declared. “I don’t mind!” I continued. “So, don’t feel bad!”

I raised my head so that she could see my grin.

“If… If you didn’t tell me, it’s because you were probably trying to respect Elsbeth’s wishes and because… you were probably in a tough spot too, right?”

Ravela let out a sigh and then smiled. I heard the sound of a relieved sigh leaving her lips.

Her smile widened into a smirk, and she playfully shoved her hand into my face. “Come on, stop that. You’re being too nice.” She applied some more pressure until I stepped back a few steps. “We’ve got to hurry to get Elsbeth to the next checkpoint, alright?”

I nodded. “Got it. Elsbeth, stay safe, okay?”

Elsbeth seemed to swallow the feelings that suddenly built in her and nodded. “I hope to see you again, Timmie.”

Ravela nodded and began to close the door. “And Timaeus, tomorrow, we will go to the depths. Get some rest, okay?”

I saluted her. “Ma’am, yes, ma’am! Thank you for your time and consideration!”

Ravela shared a giggle with Elsbeth. “What a goof of a man.”

The door shut, and many locks clicked. I lingered in the area for a little bit longer before finally walking away and going home.

What an eventful day… It was the sort of day that made me feel like I could actually succeed in the end.