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"Can I help you?" Adira asked while putting on her very best smile as she opened the door to her tavern. At least the best smile she could manage right now, it had been a very long week.

"Ahh, yes please." The human traveller looked as though he was surprised someone had answered the door he'd knocked on. "I'd like two meals, a bed for the evening, transportation through riftwall in the morning and a lockup downstairs for my slave, please." The human was young, bright eyed and fresh faced. Though he wore practical travelling clothes, they were still crisp and couldn't have seen more than a day or two of use since their purchase. He quite clearly had no idea how the world worked, though he had demonstrated that when he'd knocked on the door of an open tavern, which, Adira mused to herself, just wasn't how taverns worked.

Be nice, Addy, be nice, she said to herself and took a deep breath before daring to respond. "My door is always open, so you're welcome to come in. I've a stew boiling and open rooms in the inn behind you, but I don't have separate accommodation for slaves. I offer locks for rooms but the board for the second room is the full rate." Ok that was nice enough. All sorts of people made their way to Adira's tavern, that some of them bought slaves with them was something she'd had to learn to deal with a long time ago, and even provide service for. She did, however, refuse to board Keidran in a cage in the basement as was unfortunately common elsewhere in the empire. A separate room for their slave? Sure, that she could accommodate without any problems. But no she wasn't going to charge less for it, despite everyone asking, because they felt their slave was worth less than them. That it was insulting to her as well was just par for the course with the racists. Some knew and said it anyway, some were just too dumb in their feelings of superiority to notice.

"Ohh no thank you" the human said jovially, as though he'd just been offered a cup of tea past his limit "I don't think he quite needs that. Would it be possible for him to sleep in your stable perhaps?" Looks like dumb today.

Adira didn't have a stable. You could tell this by opening your eyes and looking at the three buildings on the property. One was the Tavern whose door he had knocked on, the other was the separate inn building that had been built a few generations back for people to stay in as traffic through the riftwall increased, the other was a store room. Adira didn't need a stable. The whole point of the Riftwall tavern was the riftwall and horses didn't fit through it.

Keep calm Addy, he'll get himself killed on his own when he forgets how to breathe or something, no need to do it for him. Adira was about to say something calm and collected, possibly even polite, but the human opened his mouth again and proceeded to be even more stupid. "Actually could I just speak to your owner please? Perhaps we can work something out."

Adira wanted to hit him so badly. She had a wooden spoon in her belt that wasn't for cooking and she knew how to use it. If he'd been here three days ago when she'd been in heat he'd already be nursing a bruise or four. No one would care, the guards all liked her and a single rumor to the other taverns about him asking to hire her for the night would seem him sleeping rough.

"I AM the owner, and I suggest you try The Yoeman & Windmill inn further down the road towards Edinmire." Adira's spoon clanked against the tavern's sign as she pointed towards her neighbouring establishment.

The human flinched backwards, possibly because Adira had nearly hit him, with a horrified look on his face. She couldn't tell if he was horrified at how stupid he had been, or at the idea of a Keidran owning a tavern. It was probably the latter but she'd only hit him for that if he was dumb enough to confirm it out loud.

"Oh, oh my. Yes, yes I think that's for the best. Thank you." he stammered out embarrassed, then turned sharply to the side and marched off at a rapid pace. "Miss." he added a few seconds later, as if he only now remembered that The Yoeman & Windmill didn't have a riftwall to the west and the snow leopard he had just insulted did.

Adira had entirely ceased caring about what the human had to say though. Him walking away had revealed the slave standing behind him to be a tall, broad shouldered snow leopard. He was hot and exhausted from travelling because he was carrying what looked like Adira's weight in equipment and bags on his back. He was only wearing pants, probably to keep from overheating in the spring sun, but it had the effect of showing off the well kept fur on his chest marvelously.

Shit. Did that human want to come back? Adira had room for his slave after all. She could share, and at a reduced rate. Free of charge even. How much did he want for the night?

The two cats gawked at each other for a few more moments before they were interrupted by the human "Come along Mavus!" A small spark of magic resonated around the snow leopards neck as the human called out to him. He immediately turned to chase after with a "Yes Master."

Adira's heart sank. Like all Keidran she despised the magical control collars some humans used on their slaves and she felt sick at the idea of him having to wear one.

He glanced over his shoulder at her once he'd caught up, the short silver locks of hair on his head flicking about in the wind, giving her a longfull look before he had to focus on where he was walking. All Adira could do was sigh and stand there watching him walk off into the distance.

"He's cute." someone whispered in her ear. The fur on Adira's tail fluffed out as she jumped in place and spun around. She'd been caught in her own small world and had forgotten there was anyone else in it besides her and that snow leopard. It was just Alexander behind her though, the tall, broad shouldered human that proved himself invaluable every now and then when a customer thought he could push around the small Keidran girl.

Alexander had to lean down to talk into her ear, and as he straightened himself back up Adira barely came up to his chest. "You ok Addy?I didn't mean to make you jump there." he asked warmly.

She wasn't at all ok, not really. Adira was rattled, but she also wanted to put on a brave face since she was trying to convince Alexander and his family that she didn't need looking after quite as much as they thought she did. "Yes, yes I'm fine." she said as she reached around to grab her tail and stroke the fur back down. "Just... just an idiot, actually an idiot this time as well."

'Idiot' was their code for a racist, but not a dangerous one. That one fit both definitions though.

"Are you sure? You don't draw your spoon lightly." Adira looked down at her hand that was indeed holding the spoon. She hadn't realised she'd drawn it in the heat of the moment and her best efforts to not just beat the human around the head. Now she thought about it, an angry snow leopard weilding a spoon must have been quite terrifying to the fool. He'd probably been more scared of her than she was angry at him.

"Yes, I sent him to your father's actually." Alexander was the eldest son of her neighbour and someone she'd grown up with. Sort of. He was eleven years older than her, and as a kitten she'd chased him and his siblings around the long grass fields then curled up on his lap to sleep. Being a tavern keeping family they'd all grown up helping out with running the business, but as they all grew older, hungrier and better at running the place the family had found themselves with more hands than work to do. Adira meanwhile had found herself owning the Eastern Riftwall inn on her own and younger than she'd planned. Alexander helping her out had been a mutually helpful arrangement, even if he would eventually inherit the Yeoman & Windmill.

"Then he'll be fine there. Now don't bother about him any more and come give me a hand with all these drinks." Alexander was right, as ever. What Adira really needed was to get back to work, focus on the now and put Mavus out of her mind.

She resoundingly failed on that last point.

Storms could make the riftwall jittery, it would take longer to recharge between travellers, or could even shut down for minutes or hours at a time to protect its magic. Today though was clear and calm on both sides, after several days of rainy weather over the western tavern, so she and Amelia had plenty of work to do shuffling the queue of people on both sides through.

Each time the riftwall had recharged Adira and her sister would make visual contact through the rift. The two were both fluent in the sign language the taverns had used for centuries that communicated how many people they had waiting, how long the next in line had waited and how many were in it, amongst other things such as expectant weather or other goings on that could happen in a tavern.

The rift-speak did not include any vocabulary for relationship woes or worries over the long term prospects for the family, which was precisely what Adira wanted to talk to her sister about. Looking through the swirling magic at her she was reminded once again that the two sisters were running each other's taverns.

As the sun was beginning to set outside, a slightly drunk traveller that fancied his odds made a go a wooing Aridra; by pointing out that she was the younger, implied prettier, of the two Riftwall sisters. (He quickly retracted the statement and apologised, probably because Alexander made some wordless gesture of threat to his life from where Adira couldn't see.) Amelia was the oldest, and had been born destined to inherit their mothers tavern, this tavern. Adira had been born because her uncle had fallen in love with a human woman, and no matter how much the family loved their adopted child, the riftwall answered only to the blood of the snow leopard line.

Her step-cousin was on the other side of the riftwall right now, doing much the same thing Adira was. Pouring drinks, bringing them to the customers either waiting their turn to travel or staying the night before heading on, and of course collecting tips.

Just not the bit where she ran the riftwall. When their uncle had fallen ill Amelia had been rushed through the riftwall to run it, then when he'd died she'd been forced to stay on and run it because Adira simply hadn't been old enough.

Alexander was forced to step in again to deal with a customer upset at being asked to wait their turn. They were at the head of the line on the eastern side and seemed to have been counting down to that, but Amelia had four more on her side that arrived before him and the taverns considered both sides as a single queue. Thankfully things ended peacefully with him sitting down, albeit grumbling. The problem was that the same arguments from the young, lithe snow leopard hadn't held the same weight as from the seven foot human. It was another reminder that Adira was probably still too young to be running the Riftwall, they just didn't have a choice.

And that really was the problem. Each riftwall tavern needed a Riftwall snow leopard to run it and there were only two Riftwall snow leopards. They had spent long nights growing up talking about that most pressing of family problems; that the two taverns sat on opposite ends of the Human empire neighbouring Wolf and Tiger lands respectively. Finding other snow leopards to continue the family line was difficult.

Adira finally got the upset traveller through the riftwall, and ahead of schedule. Someone on the other side was involved in a rousing conversation and conceded their place for the evening because they couldn't travel on till morning anyway. It took Amelia five flicks of her hands to convey all of that. There were no flicks Adira could make to convey that a male snow leopard had walked up to her door and she'd managed to turn him away. She desperately wanted to jump through herself and talk to her sister about it but doing so would stop anyone else travelling through for nearly a day.

Things had not always been this difficult of course. The sisters would readily tell interested guests the family legends of Riftwalls that spanned across the world, each run by a different member of the same big family. What they didn't tell is that those legends were not only true, but that the current Riftwalls were descended from the junior branch of said family. The main line, and the main tavern, had once stood in snow leopard territory to the north. They never found any surviving relations after the humans conquered the territory, but the destruction of the tavern itself was confirmed. Since then most snow leopards had been slaves, and mostly slaves in their former homeland. Slaves didn't tend to travel very much, and even the few free snow leopards (themselves mostly freed slaves or descendants thereof) tended to stick to the cooler northern climates.

Richmond Alphonse was one such regular customer and friend that she would have shared some of these stories with, on a quiet night over a glass of wine. He'd been travelling through the riftwall for several generations of Adira's family and had made his fortune doing so, acting as a trustworthy middle man for trade between the Wolven Kingdom and Tiger Tribes. Unfortunately today was not such a quiet night and Adira really didn't have time for the conversation he wanted to have. It took her quarter of an hour to hand him off to her sister, who she knew he'd probably spend the rest of the evening trying to talk too.

Ever since the loss of the main tavern, the family frequently had to head north to find mates. Sometimes they came back in love, sometimes they came back pregnant and sometimes they didn't come back at all. The roads north were not always safe even to humans, let alone Keidran. One distant great aunt, thought dead, had travelled for more than two years before falling in love with a shopkeeper, who'd then insisted she stay with him for half a year while he trained his younger brother to take his place. The local postmaster had simply taken the money and not delivered her letters.

Adira sighed. That line had maintained good relations with the northern shop for nearly a hundred years, until long running fertility problems finally killed it three generations ago. Suspicion that interbreeding between the families had been the cause soured relationships permanently. Ever since the two taverns had been run by immediate relations, either parent and child or siblings.

"Addy?" She jumped as Alexander woke her from her thoughts for the second time today. She was holding a mug of beer under the tap and the head had completely settled on it. "Riftwall is open again, let me handle the drinks." he patted her on the shoulder, stroking down some fur that had fluffed up.

Adira made some short confirmatory noise and dashed over to the corridor in the middle of the tavern that housed the riftwall. Her sister was waiting for her and prefaced the work conversation by asking if she was all right. Adira responded with what roughly translated as 'no, not really' but also conveyed that she was safe and there was nothing to worry about. The riftspeak was very matter-of-fact and work focused.

Adira contemplated once again jumping through the riftwall to see her sister. Right now she wanted to apologise again for being too young. Amelia had once planned to travel north to find a mate, even if only for a night. She'd been waiting until Adira had been old enough to take over the western tavern from her. But Adira just hadn't grown up fast enough and took over her sister's tavern before she could leave.

The travelling group just arriving were apparently unaware of the time disparity between the two taverns, discovering that while they had left the west shortly before dusk they had arrived several hours afterwards in the east. Adira was all too happy to check them all in to stay overnight.

Adira returned to the tavern and went back to shuffling people back and forth through the riftwall, mostly forth. With the bad weather the last few days in the west Amelia hadn't had many arrivals so as they finally reached those that had arrived this afternoon it was mostly those on her side of the world.

As the two sisters waved each other a good night, Adira realised that what she wanted to apologise to her sister for wasn't depriving her the opportunity to go in search of a mate. Both her and Alexander had spent hours trying to absolve her of that guilt there. No, Adira wanted to apologize for ruining her sister's chance at having a child and then ruining her own the day it literally knocked on her door.

Going straight past the bar, where a few final patrons were still drinking away the rest of the evening, Adira headed into the kitchen to start on the mountain of dishes the day had built up. She got as far as turning on the water before collapsing over the counter, burying her face in her hands and beginning to cry softly.

Alexander came and found her soon afterward, turned off the water, and scooped her up into a big hug.

A few minutes later, when Adira had calmed down, Alexander finally broke the silence hanging over the kitchen. "You can't buy him Addy. Even if his human will let you, you can't afford it and it isn't right to saddle him with the debt of it."

Adira could afford it. Or, rather, she knew how to get the money for it. The riftwall was the most important communication route for the postal service in the whole kingdom. Without it the empire would need to use expensive magical communication spells to keep in touch with their volatile western border, probably with a network of relays since only the most powerful mages could send a message as far as the riftwall could send someone in an instant. The Human King didn't lightly admit that he needed the sisters and their riftwall, but the sisters had discussed the fact that if they really needed it then they could twist the arm of the postal service into helping as middle men to him. It would just cost them in the long run.

"That's, not it." she said after some internal deliberation. It wasn't that she didn't trust Alexander with the truth, it was just awkward to state. Another Keidran would be easy to talk to, even another keidran raised in human lands, especially one that had just spent a week and a half in heat.

Alexander gently pulled her out of the hug, holding her steady by her shoulders as he looked down on her. "You're not in love with him either Addy." he told her in a firm, albeit loving, tone of voice.

"No, no of course not." Adira said, bringing a paw up to massage her forehead as she tried to think of how to phrase it. If Alexander were at least a woman then maybe he'd have understood some of what she was feeling.

"Alexander, do you have any idea how much trouble my mother went to to have me? Just to find someone?"

Alexander nodded his head slowly "I didn't at the time, but my father did explain to me later why Amelia had to stay with us for a while."

"It took her months, she had to hire guards to protect her while she travelled. And now that there's only two of us and we can't leave, another snow leopard just walks up to the tavern for the first time in three generations and I turned him away." Adira felt the tears coming back as she spoke, it was a summary, and she couldn't get anywhere close to conveying the sense of guilt she felt for passing over the best opportunity the family had seen in decades. "He's going to be back first thing tomorrow, head straight through and that's it. We'll never see him again."

"Then go, now." Alexander said bluntly while Adira gave him a baffled look "He's only down at the windmill, Addy. That idiot couldn't find the Castle Bar if you gave him directions and he's not going all the way back to Edinmire when my father has spare rooms."

Cogs turned in Adira's head as the realisation went around her mind. He probably would only be ten minutes down the road at the Windmill. Alexander's father kept slaves in basement cells but they were warm and dry, and most importantly far from whatever comfortable room the idiot was staying in. "But I can't leave the tavern..." her own sense of duty interrupted her before she could stop it.

"You've closed the riftwall down for the evening and we got everyone through anyway." Alexander was insistent, and had no intention of letting Adira talk herself out of what she wanted "That idiot is going to be the only person that turns up before midday and who cares if we make him late?"

"But there's still..." Adira tried to argue, though Alexander didn't get any further.

"I can watch over this lot and get them to bed once they've had enough. I'll clean out the pot when I'm done and the dishes can wait till tomorrow." The human covered all the major chores before Adira could list them. "Just go."

Adira waited for approximately half a second after running out of things to worry about before jumping up and giving Alexander a lick on the cheek. "Thank you hon, you're amazing."

"Shoo, go find your man." Alexander insisted as the snow leopard darted out the back door of the tavern with a spring in her step, stopping just long enough to grab the lantern off the hook next to the back door.

Adira practically sprinted down the road, the lantern bouncing up and down in her arm as she tried to hold it out in front of her. It was dark, hours past dusk, but she was Keidran. She could see in the dim light of the lantern almost as well as humans could in the day.

By the time she arrived at the neighbouring inn a few minutes later she was panting for breath. The night time jaunt had reminded her that she really didn't do as much running around as she used to, now she had become bound to the riftwall by necessity. The lights outside were still on though and the door was unlocked, so Adira stepped inside without stopping for breath, where she was greeted by the warm, welcoming heat of the the Windmill.

The bar area was empty, save for Alexander's father standing behind the counter, going through all the glasses and cleaning them. "William!" She called out to him as she hurried across the room, leaning on the bar top when she got there and catching her breath between words. "I need to ask a big favour from you."

Adira got as far as that before pausing at the realisation she hadn't planned out how to ask her neighbour if he'd mind her sleeping with one of his guests. One of his guests slaves even, without asking their permission. Without paying either, she hadn't thought to grab her purse before racing out the door.

"One second." William said to her before she'd had time to think, turning around and unlocking the key box behind him on the back side of the bar. When he turned around adira had planned to say something, but he cut her off first and held out a small iron key "Room three on the second floor of the annex, it's down the hall to the left. I put him as far from his human as I could but you don't have the whole building to yourself."

In her haste Adira tried snatching for the key, but William held onto it tightly, "He needs to be back downstairs by first light tomorrow, no exceptions. That fool he's travelling with looks like the early riser type." She was still panting, bus as she nodded in agreement to his terms the human let go.

Adira looked down at the key, contemplating for a few moments exactly what the human meant, before it dawned on her that he'd figured out exactly what she wanted and planned to do before she had herself. She jumped forward, leaned over the bar and gave William a long lick up the side of his cheek. William probably knew what the offer was in Keidran culture, and he probably wouldn't cash in on it, but Adira meant it.

That done and with her opportunity at hand, Adira dashed off down to the annex and up the stairs without another word. Room three was the one furthest down the corridor, and the other rooms on the floor were notably empty. The Yeoman & Windmill was reliant on passing travellers wanting to stay closer to the docks and the riftwall than Edinmire. With the clear weather there hadn't been many such travellers staying overnight, and without a passing trade caravan looking for a warm roof William's inn had plenty of spare rooms.

Adira stopped outside the door for a few moments, fiddling the key over in her paw. She hadn't actually thought of what to do or say now she was here. It did seem to have worked out for her up until now, but felt she ought to at least spend a few moments settling her hair and fur down after the late night run before she unlocked the door.

A single candle flickered away from besides the bed, throwing shadows around the room as the door creaked open. The light was dim, but it was enough for the other snow leopard to read by. Mavus looked startled as Adira let herself in, closing and locking it behind her. A moment later he calmed down when he saw who it was. He briefly glanced away to memorise his page number, then dropped the book down next to the candle and slipped out from under the sheets.

He was naked, though this didn't mean nearly so much to keidran as it did to the humans occupied the rest of the building. His visitor seemed to appreciate it though. "Uhm, good, good evening uhh, miss." He stammered, searching for words. "I'm so sorry, I didn't catch your name."

Adira sauntered over to him, her tail flicking back and forth in anticipation. Mavus clearly had no idea what to do in this situation, so she took the lead, reaching out with a hand to stroke through the long, soft fur on his chest. "Adira." she said softly, standing up on the tips of her toes to gently lick the front of his muzzle.

"That's, very beautiful, miss." Mavus blushed, and took a large gulp of airas he tried to process what to say or how to act. He raised his hands up on either side of Adira, but then suffered a crisis of indecision and left them hovering on either side of her hips. "I'm sorry, I-I don't think I got to formally introduce myself."

"That's fine." Adira spoke gently as she took one of his hands and guided it towards the buttons that held her dress on. He got the message quickly. "We've got all night to get to know each other."

Four months later

The door made a jingling noise as it swung open and Mavus, dressed in smart pants, a white shirt and a waistcoat, stepped into the quiet postal office in the odd hours of the afternoon when few else wanted to use it.

"Ahh there you are Mavus." The human behind the counter immediately stepped away from it and headed down the line of mail in pigeon holes behind him.

"Good afternoon Mister Richmond." the snow leopard replied as he closed the door behind him softly, making another small jingle along the way.

"I could set my watch by when you walk through that door, if your master didn't insist on sending you down in the afternoon." The human spoke as he walked, not even bothering to keep his eye on the keidran in his postal office.

"Thank you sir." Mavus stepped up to the counter, placing the sealed letter down on the counter. "I've been sent to you by my master on his behalf to collect any mail addressed to him or authorised to be collected by him for other members of his household." he began the same speech he gave every time visited the post office, which was perhaps twice or three times per week. "He has provided me with a signed and sealed letter addressed to you, authorising me to act on his behalf, as though he were here, in his stead."

Mavus watched with some confusion though as the postmaster stopped before getting to the pigeon hole where his mail was usually kept. Instead he crouched down to pick up something from behind the counter, then started walking back to the snow leopard. "In it he details that he has ordered and trusts me to obediently collect and return the mail to him as quickly as possible and without damaging it." Mavus felt very confused as the postmaster placed a small wooden box on the counter between them.

Mavus paused for a moment as he looked down at the small box, this wasn't what usually happened when he went to collect the mail, but he supposed he should still carry on as normal. "The letter also promises that he will accept respons....." The snow leopard's speech slowed down and trailed off as he read the postal label on the box.

It was addressed to him.

It wasn't even addressed to his master on his behalf. It actually specified that it was not to be delivered to his master under any circumstances.

Mavus gave the postmaster a wordless look of utter bafflement.

"Go on and finish your spiel, I know he insists you say it every time." The postmaster said, ignoring the very small elephant in the room.

"It's a legal requirement that I do so sir."

"And your master is still the only one in town that cares."

This didn't surprise Mavus, but he also couldn't do anything about it so he went ahead and finished. "He will accept responsibility for any damage or loss that occurs to the mail from the moment it is given to me and asks that you accept my signature for it in his place."

"Good. Now, as you can see there was a lot of mail today, we're still very busy and haven't finished sorting his post. Send him my apologies but you're going to be delayed by half an hour." The postmaster gestured to the quiet mailroom and the small amount of letters and parcels that was already filled away neatly into the pigeonholes behind him.

"Yes sir, so I see." Mavus caught on quickly. The postmaster had told him that the mail wasn't sorted and no evidence Mavus could see to the contrary outweighed the factual statement of a government official like Mr Richmond.

""Fantastic, now open that while you wait." The postmaster gently nudged the small box towards Mavus. It was perhaps a palm high, wide and long, with a hinged top and a seal holding it shut.

Mavus picked it up held it in front of himself to inspect it, the continued contemplating on it for a few moments. "I thought slaves couldn't send or receive mail though sir?"

"Well no, not officially." The postmaster crossed his arms and glanced up and away from the snow leopard "Though most of the service will send something off the books for a small additional fee. That though came by direct inter-service mail, with instructions to carry any and all return mail to a Miss Riftwall of Edinmire orWreathwood."

Edinmire and Wreathwood were on opposite sides of the empire.

Realisation struck Mavus and he sliced an urgent claw through the seal of the package as the postmaster carried on talking "Now I don't know of a Miss Riftwall, But I do know of the riftwall that connects the east and west by magical portal. It happens to be the most important line of communication in the empire and whom we have standing orders to keep the owners of pleased."

Mavus flipped open the lid of the box, grabbing a fingerfulls of the straw used for packing and placing them on the countertop neatly until he revealed the glistening shine of polished metal. A small, plain, silver locket sat in the box. A chain was threaded through the top loop, which was hinged and covered a button, an expensive clockwork mechanism where most jewelers would have used a simple clip.

He lifted the locket out of the box tenderly, dropping the box down and letting the chain spool out before collecting it with his other paw. He glanced up at the equally intrigued human, who was leaning over the counter in suspense, before looking back at the locket and gently clicking the button on the top.

The locket clicked open and the top swung out to the side on its own. Inside were two small locks of hair. One dark black, the other light and silvered like his own. Above both was a small mana crystal with a charm to keep the scents of them both fresh eternally. In between were two names.

Mavus' jaw shuddered as he leaned forward to gently sniff one, then the other. He lingered on the second as a tear formed in one, then both eyes, then began their journey down his face.

"So what does it say?" The human asked, intrigued and excited. He knew what that sort of locket was used for, more or less, but lacked the Keidran sense of smell to know the details.

"It says I have a daughter," Mavus struggled to say as he fought back tears. "and her name is Maeve."