[Edited] Chapters 44 & 45 (Patreon)

There are times when I quite enjoy rereading my material and times when I feel like it's degenerated into a rambling mess. These chapters are some of both. What's frustrating is not being able to detangle what you liked from what you didn't. Ah well... 

For those of you who are comparing the new to the old, let me know what you think I've helped with clarity or not.

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Chapter 44 - A Tree of Light

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Lynnria’s gaze roved over my nakedness with abandon, snagging at seemingly random places. My brow. Down to my hands. Then back up to my jawline. Where before there had been nothing but simple hunger, now there was awareness. Knowledge and forethought. Dreams… and fantasy. Just the idea of what the next few minutes might contain was making her breath escape her like a dense fog, and I could see her tongue playing with one of her elongated canines through her parted lips.

“He’s a sight, ain’t he?” Jax whispered as she lightly traced up and down the girl’s arms with the backs of her claws. “Every day, I think there ne’er could be a more beautiful man. Then he gains a Layer, and I see meself wrong. I envy ye, lassie. Well I remember me first time with him. Be times I wish I could make meself forget just so’s I could live it again.”

Lynnria nodded faintly, though whether she heard the red-head was debatable. She seemed entranced.

Jax grinned before shooting me a knowing glance from the corner of her eye. “I be thinking she’s ready, Master.”

I pursed my lips suspiciously. “You didn’t do anything to her, did you?”

“Only a little,” she said as though hurt. But from the way she was beginning to move, twisting and rubbing herself up against Lynnria’s side, I knew she was hardly contrite. If anything, she was getting off on this. “Just to settle her. We all got a first time. ‘Sides, I can nay push what ain’t already there.”

“Yes, I know. But with my aura…” I paused. “Wait. Did you say first—?“

Whatever Jax had been doing, it had not been enough to bewitch the girl completely. Before I could finish, Lynnria’s eyes suddenly cleared, and a strangled mewl of protest burbled out of her throat.

“No! She didn’t. I’ve done it lots of times! I—I mean… m-maybe never with a… with a uh… But I have a tool! At home.”

I stared at her, my left eyebrow slowly creeping upward. Is this girl actually trying to argue that masturbation counts?

“Tool? What kind of tool?” Arx asked with a sudden and slightly too-keen interest. But she quickly turned away, apparently having heard an inaudible reply. It seemed my Faen had jumped heads again. “They do? Why didn’t anybody ever—? Don’t be that way about it, Mia. I can’t be expected to ask about things I’ve never even… Because it sounds fun, that’s why. That’s exactly the kind of thing I was looking for when I came down to laoi territory in the first place!” There was a brief pause, then I saw some of the life visibly drain from her face. “Now? But they were just about to—Hmm, no. I suppose you’re right. Go ahead. Best to get it over with while we have the down time.”

She sighed heavily before starting up a restless pacing about the room. Going from Arx’s slumped shoulders, her random nods, and the drained expression slowly creeping over her features, Mia had decided that now was a perfect time to start in with another of her lengthy skill-up announcements. I pitied her.

Lynnria rubbed her palms down her hips apprehensively. “Maybe we should wait. Don’t we need her for this?”

That sounded reasonable enough to me, but Arx quickly shot us a thumbs up. “She says you’re nut butter. And good to go. Just complete the ritual, and the rest will take care of its—” She looked away, shrugging with feigned innocence. “Because that’s what you said!”

Lynnria grimaced. Her eyes darted about as though searching for an escape, but inevitably, they would catch on me again and hold for a long moment before liberating themselves. And each time they were caught, it seemed to take more effort to tear them away.

Before long, Jax continued her delicate petting and, I had little doubt, her ethically ambiguous soothing efforts. “That’s a way, lassie. Lose yer ownself to it. Let it settle ye. No need to be skittish.”

As she talked, Jax began to loosen random buckles and unfasten buttons.

“Look, Lynnria,” I assured her, talking fast. Jax was going to have the lesser Dolilim completely stripped before long. “I realize this is a bit of a step up from a simple blow job, so if you aren’t ready yet—if this isn’t something you’re comfortable with, that’s perfectly fine. We can wait as long as you like. I’m already very satisfied as it is, so don’t think you need to do anything on my account.”

She shook her head. “No, I want to! It’s just… well, I’m not… I’m not pretty like your mates.”

Jax paused, the corners of her lips tugging down. “I ain’t never heard of no laoi girl what was worried about their looks.”

“What does that have to do with anything? I’m not a laoi,” Lynnria returned with a frown.

“Never mind that, Lynnria,” I said. “You don’t have to be intimidated, either. No one here started out pretty.”

“Aye,” Jax whispered affectionately, her hands beginning to move again. “Me least of all. I were maimed and disfigured when he found me. Pitiful and poor. Me Charisma were like a sad bucket at bottom of a dried well—a one.”

Lynnria looked at her sharply, covering her mouth. “Really?”

“Don’t be so happy as that, girlie,” Jax growled. “I got better.”

“No, it’s just…” She looked at me, firming her resolve. “Okay, then.”

Jax smiled and began preparing to strip the girl in earnest, but once she got to her top, Lynnria stiffened and clutched the leather to herself.

“This stays on!” she said forcefully.

I nodded my understanding, recalling the pocket incident. As a young, athletic type, Lynnria had not exactly been gifted with bounteous bosom, to the point where she felt the need to stuff her bra. It was not something she was proud of, and I only knew about it thanks to a Faenish prank. It was not a thing either of us had mentioned since. “If that makes you more comfortable. But again, you don’t have to feel intimidated.”

Jax sent me a curious glance before focusing on the girl. “Be a fear I ain’t tasted yet,” she murmured absently.

Her petting slowed, as though trying to discover the source of Lynnria’s disquiet through touch alone. It did not take her long to find it. Before I could even think of how I might save the girl from her shame, Jax’s hand paused, hovering near but not quite touching the lesser Dolilim’s breast.

I expected her to admonish the girl for being silly. Neither of my other lilim had been particularly well—or at all—endowed, so it was not like this was unfamiliar territory for any of us. However, to my surprise, Jax backed off.

“The top stays,” she agreed.

Then she met my eyes. The look was brief but full of meaning. She had sensed something. Something that warranted a conversation. But not now. Later. And in private.

I inclined my head, agreeing with both the spoken and the unspoken message. I did not know what she could have discovered that I did not already know, but I trusted her instincts.

Lynnria sagged with relief.

“That’s enough talk, I think,” I said as I came to my feet.

Tired as the metaphor is, it is no less true that most people are a lot like onions, replete with layers and all the rest. The tragedy of it all is that everyone seems to think themselves unique in this. Or worse, they forget that no matter how deeply you peel, an onion is still an onion.

This specific garden vegetable was proving to be quite the little bundle of contradictions. She was cocksure yet uncertain, a warrior from an apparently sorcerous background, and maintained a bearing that screamed of a pampered upbringing. Yet despite such pampering, her sport of choice was as violent as they came.

So it was less surprising than it probably should have been to discover that a person who was so sexually aggressive would also turn out to be a virgin. Though, whether she now acknowledged them or not, her roots as a laoi helped to explain some of that. She acted like a young boy trying to put on a tough face for her more-experienced peers.

And yet, even in this she was proving true to form by showing a sensitivity about her body. Just like a girl.

Or like a human girl, anyway. Alright, maybe not all of them. That would be a bit reductive.

Never mind.

The point is, I did not know what to make of her. But I could at least make certain she was at ease.

“Shall I take the lead?” I asked.

She swallowed. “That isn’t… N-normally the woman does that. Right? But… Well… I—I guess it’d be okay. If you want.”

I caught Jax rolling her eyes from over the girl’s shoulder before she dipped out of sight to peel the leather away from her legs. Lynnria let out a cute, little squeak of surprise, and briefly covered herself before straightening again, feigning a degree of confidence.

She need not have worried. Her legs were easily her best feature, and seeing the lines of hard-won muscle working beneath her soft skin was a treat. And it turned out she was wearing panties after all!

Which… I probably should have expected. But Jax had never owned a pair—boxers do not count—and if Arx had been wearing any prior to stripping herself half-naked in that goblin battle way back when, I had never had the pleasure. Nor could I expect to any time soon. As Dolilim, their preference was commando. At a minimum.

Still, there was something to be said for a nice set of lingerie that spoke to male sensibilities. What that is specifically is hard to pin down. Perhaps the variety? The different designs and colors one might discover? And combined with the unknown and forbidden nature of it all?

Whatever the cause, hers were a simple model, favoring practicality over enticement. They were just a bit of white cloth protecting the sensitive skin beneath from rubbing against her tight leathers, then secured with a pair of strings at her hip-line.

However, if they had ever been intended to protect her modesty, they had failed spectacularly. Lynnria might just have invented a new barroom game—if that sort of thing existed on this world. The wet pantie competition.

Hers were so soaked through, I could see near every contour of the cleft between her legs. I could smell her, too. Now exposed to the air, her aroma had exploded into the room, announcing her presence as clearly as a master of ceremonies.

Or that was how it seemed to me. No one else seemed to react.

Her scent was… smoky. Acrid, in a way.

And familiar. It was still a little unsettling to me how sensitive I was becoming to that sort of thing, but I now realized I had been picking up traces of her intermingling with the others since waking up. From what Mia had told me, it was Life Energy I was sensing, so did that mean Lynnria’s… fluids contained it like the others?

It was possible. I would have to sample her to be certain, but one thing I could say was that Lynnria’s did not call to me quite like the others’ did, nor could I put into words precisely what was so different about it. But I was keenly interested in finding out.

My manhood pulsed back to life at the thought, still sore and aching like the well-used muscle it was. Still, I did not allow my impulses to rule me. Her body might have been more than ready for me to do whatever I liked to her, but her spirit had yet to settle. This needed a delicate touch.

I took a step forward.

“Oh, Hands…” she whimpered. Trembling. Her eyes raking over every inch of me but mostly fixating upon the length beginning to rise from between my legs. Unconsciously, she stumbled back, right into Jax’s arms.

“Easy now, lassie,” she murmured, gently encircling the girl’s biceps with her clawed digits. A low growl rumbled out of her throat, almost like a contented lioness. “Don’t pop afore he even touches ye.”

“I—I…” she gasped, starting to hyperventilate. Her eyes were beginning to shine with unshed tears. “Oh, Hands!”

I let the corner of my mouth tug upward, savoring her near uncontrollable excitement. My second step put me close enough that she had to crane her neck upward to look at me. Her eyes were wide, her breathing uncontrolled and frantic.

Slowly, I began tracing up the side of her with my fingertips. Feeling the slight protrusion at her hip bone, but leaving the cord that secured her panties alone for now. Letting my fingers dance up through the all-but-invisible hair at her wrists, up and over the leather still encasing her arms. Briefly intertwining with Jax’s—her own eyes raking over me like molten suns.

Lynnria had been so patient, waiting for this day to come, but I had feared my lilims’ reaction. So I had been forced to continually push her away. Jax and Arx were so protective of me, there was always the distinct possibility they might simply choke the life out of anyone else who got too close. But somehow, by accepting my influence—accepting that certain something into her own blood—Lynnria had also become a part of me. A part of us. Oh, Jax and Arx were still… dismissive in a way. They did not at all consider Lynnria their own equal. But they tolerated her. Enough to let her have this.

To let me have this.

My finger’s path soon rounded Lynnria’s shoulder. I hesitated there a moment, drawing out the tension. Letting my eyes entangle with hers. Reveling in their liquid pools of anticipation. Without her even noticing, I had cupped the back of her neck, and ever-so-gently pulled her toward me.

The second I did, her panting redoubled, so fast now, I was afraid she might pass out. Every exhale was accompanied by little moans of excitement, as if she were caught somewhere between a cry of exultation and a scream. I could feel them beating against my face. Warm. Excited. Wanting.

Our lips met. Only for the very briefest of moments.

Then she jerked away, contorting and writhing against Jax’s support, but her face told the tale more than her body ever could. She did not cry out nor wail her pleasure. Her wind had locked itself away while she seized.

“Told ye, I did,” my First chided her softly. “Yer head’ll melt afore long, ye keep on like that.”

I chuckled, more entertained than anything. I was beginning to see why Arx had delighted in teasing me so much when we had first met. “It’s alright. Let her enjoy herself.”

“Sorry,” Lynnria gasped after she had regathered some semblance of herself. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

Jax snorted with some derision, then began to guide the girl’s half-limp form toward the bed. “Sorry, nothing. We ain’t done with ye yet. Not til we’ve made a proper woman of ye, least-ways.”

Lynnria landed on the mattress with something close to a sob. “Oh, Hands!”

“You keep saying that,” I said, my fingers lightly circling her knee. Playing with it almost as if it were something else. Something I would rather be touching. “I can stop any time. We can take this slow. Or as fast and hard as you like. But you need to tell me what you want.”

“What I want?” she repeated, her voice near breaking.

I closed my eyes briefly and smiled. “Ask and ye shall receive.”

She stared at me uncertainly for a handful of seconds, still breathing hard enough, you would think she had just sprinted a mile.

“Am—?” She swallowed back the question.

There was an almost rabid fear in her eyes. She quaked with it near as much as from the lust ravaging her body. But she was a brave girl.

“Tell me I’m good enough. I want you tell me I’m good enough. For you.”

Good enough? I considered her for a moment. It would have been a strange request were it not for how dismissively I had treated her when we had first met, but with all we had gone through, my attitude about the girl had evolved a great deal. So much so, I was almost inclined to answer flippantly. And I would have were it not for a sudden glimpse of… something behind her eyes. There was more here than what appeared on the surface. This was no simple insecurity.

No. Her eyes were telling a tale of deep pain. An old wound. Which should not have existed in a face so young.

I glanced at Jax.

She inclined her head in just the same way I had. Whatever this was, it was related to what she had sensed earlier. However, I saw no need to press her. This was not a time for pain or the mending of old wounds. That could come when it needed to.

When she was ready.

“Of course, you are,” I said easily. “You were good enough to survive that maze, weren’t you? You didn’t flinch or cower when we fought back the golem. When we had to run for our lives, you may have faltered, but you got back up. And you kept getting up. Even when you thought you couldn’t. Not everyone has that sort of mettle.”

I paused there a moment. All of that was true and important. But she had asked whether she was good enough for me. If I really wanted to answer the girl, I needed to consider my deeper feelings. I cared for this girl. Quite a lot. And that affection was deepening with our every interaction. The lilim had warned me of that. It was a major part of why they were so protective, but Lynnria was not yet bound. I had no reason to suspect my affections were… irrevocable. Not yet, anyway. But now was not the time to reveal that sort of thing to the girl.

Then a peculiar little memory burbled to the surface, and I knew just what to say.

“No one who cared enough to weep when they thought I was dead could ever be anything less in my book,” I said significantly, in the hope she would read between the lines, but she only glanced away—from all appearances, embarrassed at having been caught out in a moment of weakness.

Arx’s restless pacing about the room halted briefly, and she shot me a mischievous little grin before turning away. “Sorry, go on.”

At least someone picked up on the subtext. I would have to content myself with that for now. Plus, the bit of levity was a breath of fresh air. It felt like things were getting too serious in here.

I hiked a thumb toward her. “Besides, these two would have never let you get so far if they didn’t see at least some potential. So, my answer is yes. You are most assuredly good enough for me, Fatespear Lynnria.”

“Donum Lynnria,” she corrected me fiercely.

“Donum Lynnria,” I agreed, a faint smile on my lips.

Her expression slowly morphed into a mirror of my own, but magnified a thousand times. Intense relief, an almost manic joy, and fierce anticipation warred for supremacy there. All punctuated by the single, shining tear just beginning to roll its way down the side of her cheek.

“Then I want you to prove it,” she said, her voice ragged. “Prove that you’re more than just a pretty face. Show me I’m good enough. I want you to make me a woman. Your woman!”

My cock roared to life fully at those words. Hard and hungry. The aching and soreness melted away, forgotten. It demanded action.

This little virgin had some serious balls to call me out after all that. She wanted proof I was more than just a pretty face, did she? Well, then.

“So be it.”

The words had scarcely left my lips than I heard a gasp escape from Jax. Her knees hit the floor almost instantly, one of her shadow clones nearly coming unstuck from her on the way down. A moment later, Arx came to a stumbling halt, and she had to put her back to the wall to support herself. Lynnria looked at them in confusion before focusing on me once more, wondering. Her eyes began to widen as some inkling of what was about to happen set in.

The Hammer of Glory thrummed through my body. Screaming to be unleashed. Used. Ravaging any and all that crossed my path.

Yet I held still as a statue. I had become good at that, to the point I no longer even needed to think about it. I did not need to move at all, if I did not want to. Everything I did was deliberate.

I simply waited while the duet of aching want filled the room with its melody. Rising in pitch. Calling to me.

“W-well?” Lynnria said finally, still fronting her challenge.

I restrained my smirk. Bravado was the shield of the ignorant, but to rip it away too suddenly would teach her nothing. My right arm lifted with a smooth purpose, graceful as it was slow, and with a calculated gesture, I allowed the third finger on my hand to just graze the skin above her knee.

She jerked as though slashed from a blade fresh from the forge, the move accompanied by a renewed chorus of moans from all sides. I waited until just before she had regained control of herself before striking again. And then again, much sooner than before. This time a long and smooth caress up the side of her thigh.

Her body twisted uncontrollably as unbelievable pleasure mounted within her, rising as I neared her center, and all from nothing more than a simple touch. A brush against her skin. If she had any doubts about the quality of the meal before her, she was being thoroughly disabused of them now.

But we had barely even gotten to the appetizers.

Suddenly impatient, I grabbed her by the hips and dragged her to me, ripping a guttural howl from her lungs. Then I took the drawstring of her panties in hand and, with a quick tug, flung the garment away. There I paused, waiting for her to come back to herself.

One only ever got one first time. I wanted hers to be something she was at least capable of remembering.

I took that handful of seconds to gaze upon my conquest. Her cleft was as swollen as any I had ever seen—a gaping portal, ready for my invasion. Her fluids were already pouring from her in a near continuous stream, and I could see the rhythm of her heartbeat playing out along the contours of her lips. Opening and closing. Letting me see brief glimpses of the pink within.

My mouth began to water in earnest. She hardly needed any more foreplay, but… perhaps one quick taste. Just for curiosity’s sake.

I knelt down, but before I touched her, I switching the Hammer to only bring comfort. Then I smoothly encircled her thighs with my arms. She seemed to sigh into my embrace. The tension that had been mounting within her every muscle gave way, relaxing to the point of bonelessness in my arms.

“Hands preserve me,” she moaned faintly. “I never dreamed it could be feel so wonderful. How are you so good at this?”

Good? I’ve barely even started. Good grief, girl. Everything so far was mostly just me playing around. Then again…

“I get a lot of practice,” I admitted wryly.

If she had thought to say anything else, I would never know. Without any more warning than that, I slapped my tongue against her mound and dragged it with excruciating slowness up and into her, allowing it to dance and wriggle its way through—and pumping every ounce of pleasure I could into her.

Her claws instantly slammed into the mattress where it pierced through the lining and into the fluff beneath. There she held, clutching away as though we were again caught in the reversed-gravity trap. Her back arched in kind, helplessly thrust up and into the air by the force of her own orgasmic spasming. And again, her breathing locked up. Only the occasional choking gasp could be heard from her tortured lungs.

One single lick done, I let her loose and stood.

While I watched her coming down from the sudden maelstrom I had unleashed through her body, I considered the tasting notes of her femininity… strange a thought as that was. Hers was a dry flavor—as in the opposite of sweet—and very unlike my two lilim. Which is not to say it was unpleasant, but it also did not taste like food. More like… sawdust? I nodded as I ran my tongue over the roof of my mouth. There was an earthiness to her. And with just a hint of smoke. Like a mescal, perhaps.

Hmm, another one like alcohol. Though, Jax’s was more like an aged bourbon. Is that a thing with women?

I discarded that thought almost immediately. Arx tasted like fruit and cream, not some high-proof spirit. But then… she had originated from an entirely different kind than Jax and Lynnria.

I expelled a puff of air through my nose. Wouldn’t that be interesting. I would need to expand my sample size to confirm it, but if the different species also trended toward different flavor profiles… well, that would give me some motivation toward maintaining a diverse stable, at least.

Not that I cared over much for thinking of women that way, but who knew what the future might hold?

In any case, Lynnria’s flavor was terribly underdeveloped. If there was any Life in it at all, it was barely detectable. Less even than a spritz of Aperol on the side of a glass. Which was a bit disappointing, but not unexpected. She had only been a lesser Dolilim for a couple of hours and starved out of her mind not fifteen minutes ago. I would need to give her some time before passing judgment.

About then, I felt a touch on my leg and, when I glanced down, I found Jax there. On her hands and knees like a supplicant.

“Take her,” she crooned softly, before running her tongue along the back of my knee. “Slack yer desire. Let me feel it, my master.”

“No!” Arx shouted tremulously. She was holding her hand out toward me like she wanted to approach but seemed too weak to stand. “Make her beg? For me? Please?”

I smiled gently, and for a moment, I stroked the top of Jax’s head, running my fingers along the ridges of her horns. She leaned into my touch while a mask of contented bliss stole over her features. I had never tried channeling directly into these bony protrusions, but she was clearly loving it. And it was not long before she had wrapped her legs around my ankle and began slowly grinding her sex over top of my foot.

Which was kind of weird. But sexy as all hell.

There was a level of practicality to it, as well. Since the Hammer now worked through touch alone, there was no reason the other two could not enjoy it while I was otherwise occupied.

I glanced over at Arx and, with a smile, crooked my finger. Then I dismissed her, confident she would obey. It still rankled me to treat her that way, but I knew she enjoyed it. I might as well give her a treat.

When my eyes returned to Lynnria, I found her watching me dreamily. And more than a little worried.

“Are you ready?” I asked while I traced my fingers along her thighs, soothing her still-quaking body.

She barely managed a nod. “Y-yes.“

“Good enough,” I murmured.

I took my girth in hand. By that point, I was as hard and solid as stone. I was uncertain whether I could be anything less while the Hammer was flowing, but even without it I would have been as stiff as a masthead. How could I not be? I had a gorgeous woman pleasuring herself on my leg. Another dragging herself across the floor just for the opportunity to touch my skin. And still a third spread out before me.

My life had become… well, to be frank, it had become a nightmarish hellscape. But one with certain perks.

Am I good enough, she had asked. What could bring a person like this to even ask a question like that? Why would she need that kind of validation? Where is that doubt coming from? Good enough?

“More than good enough,” I repeated, firmer.

She gasped slightly and fresh tears began to leak down her cheeks. Intuitively, I knew them to be ones of relief. As though, somehow my saying so—now, while she was exposed and wanting—had released and healed the last remnant of her fears.

All I could do was sigh and give my head a bit of a rueful shake. Until she opened up about it, I would have to be patient.

For a moment, I rested my length against her sensitive and near steaming folds. Ever so slowly, I dragged myself back, just watching her face. Delighting in the little twitches of uncontrolled pleasure contorting her brow despite the comfort of my ability. Savoring the growing anticipation mounting on her face.

Then we were aligned. Yet still I teased her. After all, had I not received a request from my Arx? How could I not at least try to fulfill it? Instead, my cock drew little circles about her entrance, forcing an erratic little dance out of her hips as she sought to draw me in.

“P-please?”

Her plaintive cry drew my attention away from my game, and I looked up. That was fast. Yet, her voice had been so thin. With a tremulous little shake to it. She was frightened, I realized. Perhaps of what was to come. Or that I might still deny her. Perhaps, my moment of teasing had been too much for a person in such a fragile emotional state. The realization made me instantly regret my delay. I had not meant anything by it. Certainly not to hurt her.

“Please?” she said again, when I did nothing. And stronger this time. Tears were beginning to stream in earnest from her eyes.

I felt another hand circle my leg, signaling that Arx had just managed her pilgrimage across the floor. “Oh, that tastes wonderful. Thank you, Dearest,” she whispered, one cheek resting against the side of my knee and a dreamy sort of expression over her features.

Well… shit. By satisfying the one, I had unintentionally caused another distress, but that was one of the drawbacks of having so many appetites to fulfill. Arx favored possessiveness, and by extension, I had to assume that meant the surrender that would accompany it. Unless, by making Lynnria beg, I had somehow released the sort of possessiveness Arx craved.

Which was quite possible. Making a woman beg for me to take her was… pretty much the definition of hot.

Oh, whatever. I was in no mood for brooding. Whatever I had done, Arx had enjoyed it, and it was nice to be appreciated.

“You’re welcome,” I said, and as with Jax, I ran a finger over her spiraling horns, drawing a gasping note of pleasure from her. They had grown a little overnight, and their curve had taken on an overall harp-like shape—with their tips just beginning to tilt upward.

She had grown into such an incredibly sexy woman since I had met her. However, dwelling on that was unfair to Lynnria. Emotional as she was, I did not want her to have to beg again.

It was time for the main event.

All through my teasing and play, I had been considering just how I wanted to approach this. I had never been entrusted with crafting a woman’s first time before. From what I had heard, many of them ended up as a disappointment. Either their chosen partner was too inexperienced, too unskilled, or too selfish to make it memorable.

Well. That, at least, was one statistic she would not have to worry about.

“Lynnria,” I said, trying to keep a straight face, “whatever else happens, just remember: keep breathing.”

Her eyes instantly lit with panic. “Wha—?”

Then I was sliding inside of her.

I watched as her face transformed. Not from pleasure, nor even comfort. No, this I had decided was to be a moment of happiness. A celebration. An experience long remembered. Lynnria’s face was one of sheer awe, her eyes and mouth hanging wide. Where once she had wept from fear and anticipation, now she wept freely and unabated, her very soul aflame. The corners of her lips tugged upward, and a ragged sob of joy stole from her lungs as I sank to my base.

There I held for a long handful of seconds, enjoying her expression almost as much as I was enjoying the sensations I was feeling. Lynnria might not have been able to feed properly. Nor did she yet have any trace of horns. But her sex had awakened from the moment of my entry into a tool for extracting as much pleasure from a man as it possibly could.

It squeezed like a vise. It undulated in waves. It teased and taunted. But it could not capture. Not yet anyway.

A moment later, I began my first exodus. In the wake of my manhood, I left a searing pleasure. All three of the not-exactly-women cried out at the sudden change, Lynnria most of all. Her face had transformed again, this time into one of shocked betrayal. I had stolen her happiness away.

But she need not have worried. I would give it back. Again. And again.

Happiness. Then pleasure. In and out. Over and over.

Building. And building.

Lynnria writhed and bucked underneath me as her excitement mounted. Her eyes had gone vacant. Mad with joy and desire. What breaths she could manage came only as desperate gasps.

I had no idea how many times she climaxed. Or indeed, whether she did anything but. However for myself, I had yet to achieve the kind of resistance I might need to withstand a Dolilim for longer than a handful of minutes.

My own end came upon me before I knew it, inevitably stealing up my spine. Somewhere along the way, I lost control of my ability. All that was left was pleasure. Then more pleasure. Then still more.

Right as the tension reached the summit of the knife’s edge, Lynnria began to scream. Jax joined her voice to hers. Then Arx. Together moaning a chorus of ecstasies.

Then I broke. Pulse after pulse. Emptying myself within her.

As the last spasms of release weakened my knees, I all but collapsed atop her. For a moment, I just breathed. Watching her. The light of consciousness seemed to be just hanging on behind her eyes, so I decided to steal what remained of it in a kiss.

This time not to tease. A proper kiss.

The moment I did, the world around me seemed to fall away, and I was surrounded by a vast desert. A barren wasteland. No hills nor mounds marred its surface. Everything was flat to the very edges of the horizon.

But above me, clouds roiled and tumbled, dark and heavy with the coming storm. A fierce wind picked up. Eddies and currents of dirt twirled about my feet. Running faster. And faster. Until it blasted my face, peppering me with sand and grit.

Lightning suddenly flashed before me, blinding me with its brilliance, and a shockwave hit my chest. If I had truly existed within this place, I would have been thrown to the ground. Yet even so, for some seconds all I could see was the spiky afterimage it had burned into my retinas.

Like a tree of light.

Then the rain came. The world began to shake as life bloomed. Streams flowed. Mountains grew…

…And then someone knocked on the door.

=====

Chapter 45 - A Utility Skill

=====

The sudden disturbance set the three of us on alert like a troop of meerkats sighting a hawk. I say three because Lynnria was so blissed-out, she might as well have been enthralled to the heavenly chorus. How could an insignificant tap against the door compete with that?

However, before we could decide what to do about it, a plain white card was slipped under the door. All six of our eyes traced its movement without blinking and, when it stopped, we continued our staring for some seconds. Waiting. But nothing else happened. If anyone was still on the other side of the door, they were either extraordinarily patient or had completed their task and left.

Jax was the first to move. Unwrapping herself from my leg and without bothering to stand, she scurried over to the note. There she paused to sniff at it suspiciously, consequently posing herself somewhere between a downward dog and a push-up.

I… may have taken the opportunity to admire the view. Briefly.

“There be a scent here,” she informed us after a moment. “Familiar-like…”

“Could it be poisoned?” I asked.

Arx shook her head from her perch on my other leg. “Nothing dangerous can invade a safe room.”

“We’ve been in here a while. Maybe someone else wants to use it?” I suggested, half in jest.

“That can’t—” Arx began but quickly reconsidered. “Hmm… normally, that can’t happen. Each Mouth leads to its own separate Dungeon area, so we shouldn’t have anyone else in here unless that giant bird that got you snatched them up.”

“I seen them other people,” Jax reminded us over her shoulder. “Back where I were trapped. Guards from the town.”

“Maybe the flood dragon missed them, and the thunderbird swung by to pick off stragglers,” I hazarded.

That might have been a reasonable assumption under normal circumstances. And it might have even been true for the former citizens of Raialie. But not for us. No, I was quite certain both of those Mouths had been meant to find me specifically. Why else would the Demon Queen have sent me that angry command to stay put back in the stadium… and then politely invited me to dinner?

She’s going to be just as insane as the other two. I just know it.

Arx sighed. “I’m sorry, Master. I’ve never been in the Dungeon with more than a dozen or so people at a time, and then we were all cooperating. I haven’t had to consider a situation where people might need to compete for a safe room.”

“No one knows everything,” I assured her. And that might not even be what was going on. We were just speculating. Turning back to the door, I asked, “What does it smell like?”

Jax picked up the card and stood, still holding the corner to her nose with an expression of deep pondering. “There be no describing it,” she announced finally. “Closest I can figger be aliken to Ahnbe’s mark, but it ain’t Hers. I dunno how I know that, but I do.”

I blinked a few times. The last time we had discussed anything to do with ‘marks’ it had been directly after my quasi-sexual assault at the hands of the Shepherdess. I had dismissed it at the time but, with my newfound ability to differentiate a woman by her aroma…

I swallowed down a batch of particularly mixed feelings. “You’re telling me that card smells like… like Her…”

“Fanny, aye.” She chuckled. “Yer sheathed to the hilt in one right now, Master. What’s to be shamed of?”

I resisted the urge to glance down at the undulating sensations still massaging me and quickly attempted to stand. However, with Arx clutching at my leg and—I discovered—Lynnria’s tail wrapped tightly about the other, that was easier said than done.

“One does not usually expect a smear of feminine discharge upon an item of polite correspondence,” I intoned gravely and with, I hoped, an air of aloof indifference. But I probably looked like an idiot. “Anyway, what does it say?”

The words had scarcely left my mouth before I winced, remembering too late that she could not actually read. However, to my surprise—and apparently Jax’s—she seemed to recognize at least some of the script.

“I ain’t sure,” she informed us, pointing a claw at the card, “but this word here be ‘toilet,’ or I be yer ma.”

Toilet? That seemed… specific. It was the very first Word Jax and I had been awarded, after all.

“Bring it here, Jax,” I said, then glanced down at Arx. “Help me up, would you?”

“Yes, Dearest.”

A few minutes later, the three of us were huddled together on the edge of the bed, puzzling over the bit of stationery. The calligraphy we had found there was absolutely beautiful, but that was about all we could say about it. For the most part, the note had been written in a completely unfamiliar language.

Thanks to Arx, that list was far shorter than it had once been. She was all but fluent in half a dozen and proficient enough in three others that she could usually tease out their basic gists. And since binding her, those proficiencies had transferred to me.

This language she had never seen even in passing. However, that was not to say the letter was completely unintelligible. There were a few lodestones sprinkled about the text, which was the only reason we were still pouring over it. Foremost among these were the salutation and the signature, which were the only items even using a familiar alphabet. Why there should be such a difference them and the main body of the text was not something we had yet puzzled out. However, they read, respectively:

‘To the Triumphal Toilet Troop’ and ‘Xhinn.’

“How alliterative,” I observed dryly.

“Whate’er that means,” Jax retorted. “I nay ken what kinda squint this Demon Queen be, but She’s sending one up the river with this one.”

Arx and I turned to look at her.

“…What?”

I could only sigh. Being known as the Donum Clan was bad enough but, as Xhinn had just so adroitly demonstrated, the depths of my humiliation had veins yet unexplored.

The Toilet Troop? Oh, please don’t let that catch on. To say nothing of how demeaning it was, the name only worked because it was an in-joke. Not only was Toilet the first Word I had ever gotten, immediately after acquiring it, Jax and I had been summarily flushed into a mud puddle. For the second time.

Anyone else that heard it would just think we were a bunch of perverts…

…

As for the rest of the letter, it might as well have been written in Dwarven runes for all the sense I could make of it—save for a few little anomalies. Eleven, to be precise. And that just so happened to correspond to the exact number of Words in our lexicon.

Because of course, that was exactly what those anomalies were.

“I think…” I began, pointing them out, “the only reason this letter was written in this language was so we would notice these.”

Arx nodded slowly, following my logic. “Could be. I doubt they would have been all that obvious otherwise. But that still doesn’t explain much. Why bother forcing all eleven of our Words onto a note at all? Especially when we can’t even read the rest.”

Jax shrugged indifferently. “Just a tait of flirting, seems to me. If yer the type what’s got a stick up yer arse.”

Arx growled low in her throat. “Never mind how you arrived at that little deduction. Why would the Demon Queen want to flirt with the Master?”

“She’s a goddess, ain’t She? Who else’d She wanna flirt with?” my First replied. As if that explained anything. “‘Sides, what womenfolk do ye know of what smears their ownselves on letters fer the fun of it?”

“I would!”

“Only if it were fer the Master.”

“Obviously,” Arx agreed, then grit her teeth in defeat. “‘Snails!”

Well… at least some of that seems reasonable. Once you filtered out the absurd amounts of bias.

Idly, I took a curious whiff of the card, but whatever ability I had recently gained to suss out a woman’s Life Energy content did not seem to work on goddess… secretions. Or if it did, it was going haywire in a way that made no sense at all. She smelled like…

Nothing?

But like… literal nothing. It was as if someone had torn a hole in the universe and asked me to describe its scent. And the only thing that came to mind was ‘what is six times nine?’

…if extraplanar mathematics could be described as ‘wildly arousing.’

Shit… if Xhinn smells like that, what the hell kind of aroma does Ahnbe have? Whatever the answer, the attempt had left me disoriented and lightheaded, forcing me to blink a light coating of tears from my eyes.

“I… suppose we’re going to need a way to translate this,” I murmured after a moment.

I had no idea how many languages existed on this world, but if Earth was any guide, that number would not be small. Human beings alone had managed to come up with several thousand. Hell, we even had well over a hundred language families. If you took all that and multiplied it by the number of species on this planet—itself a complete unknown—how many tongues would you end up with?

Unless it’s more a question of geographical separation and the mobility of the citizenry? I shook the thought away. I was getting carried away again.

Whatever the final answer turned out to be, there were a lot of variables to consider. And I had recently begun to appreciate the value of the more generic, quality-of-life types of skills.

“Seems like it might be a useful ability in the long run.”

Arx nodded sagely. “It’s a requirement for any serious Questing party. The Dungeon is well known for its puzzles.”

“Yeah, I’m getting that…” I agreed wryly. “Unfortunately, I’m fresh out of skill points, or I would buy a translation spell.”

“I got the one still,” Jax said with a sneer. “But it be locked.”

I reached up to stroke one of her horns comfortingly. “It’s alright, Jax. We’ll get you sorted out as soon as we can. What about you, Arx?”

“I have two,” she reported. “But as a Siren, I have no idea what a skill like that might look like.”

“Let’s find out,” I said, then leaned back to poke at Lynnria. “Mia? Are you done in there?”

Our fourth party member had been staring vacantly at the ceiling while we had been talking. I had no idea what was going through her mind—if anything—but from her face, she was still recovering from an encounter of near-religious proportions. It had been a fairly solid ten minutes—at the least—but tears were still flowing freely down her cheeks in a pair of continuous streams, and her skin was blotched from sheer discomfit. We had been trying to give her some space.

At my prodding, she slowly turned until her eyes found me… or something about a thousand miles past me. It was hard to say.

“Do you guys think I went too far?” I asked absently. “It was her first time. Maybe I should have held back a little.”

Arx shrugged. “She wanted to be a big girl, and now she is. Besides she tastes fantastic right now.”

“Y’ain’t wrong,” Jax agreed with a toothy grin. “Ye gave us a feast and more with this one, Master.”

I grunted. Leave it to a pair of empaths to display no empathy whatsoever. “Are you alright, Lynnria?”

She tried to say something that sounded pretty close to, “Djah~!” But that seemed to be all the breath she had in her. She was smiling though. A lot. So I would take that as a good sign.

I smiled back, feeling awkward. “Mia,” I called again. “We want to buy a skill.”

“Maybe she ain’t listening?” Jax suggested.

I had to suppose that was possible. It would not be the first time. The inner workings of our minds and Mia’s relationship with them were cans of worms I increasingly felt best avoided. I had seen glimpses here and there, and that had been plenty, thank you very much. The last thing I needed on my plate was a helping of cross-species symbolic interaction theory.

“You’re sure she’s even in there?” I asked, turning to Arx.

She shrugged uncertainly. “I think so. She said something about needing to make sure the roots were growing along the proper non-resistance pathways.”

“Of course,” I agreed, nodding as if I actually had a clue as to what any of that meant.

“Okay, I’m here…” Mia announced, slightly out-of-breath. “Just give me… one…”

Some sort of popping sound tapped at my eardrum, and my right eyelid fluttered.

“There! Testing, testing… Lynnria? Can you hear me?”

Lynnria choked slightly and closed her eyes.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

My face twisted with bafflement. Never mind whatever the hell Mia had just done, I always had felt a little out to sea when people got overly emotional on me, and watching Lynnria had thrown me overboard. Sure, I might have gone a little heavy on the skill usage, but it was not anything too egregious. I had done way worse to Arx… and Jax had literally died after one of our couplings. Why the waterworks?

“Maybe I should… give her a hug?” I suggested.

“Ah, she’s fine,” Mia said dismissively. “Now, I think I heard something about a skill?”

“Yeah, for Arx,” I replied, stroking Lynnria’s arm. She grabbed my wrist a moment later and held on as if her life depended on it.

Maybe she wants to cuddle? I had heard some women liked that, so I decided to start sending little bursts of comfort into her hand. It seemed to help.

“We need something to translate this note,” Arx explained, waggling the parchment in question in her fingertips.

“I see. Translation skill… Scout sub-type…” Mia repeated amidst the sounds of a pencil scratching out some notes. “Active skill, I’m assuming? A Passive would be cheaper, but hardly anyone is interested in those when it comes to translations.”

Huh… Mia’s being unusually helpful. She must still be in a good mood. I would have to remember that. TLC then skill purchases…

“Why’s that?” Jax asked curiously.

“Cram it, tailless. No one asked—” Mia stopped with a little gasp of horror. “I apologize. Truly. That was… uncalled for.”

My First nodded her understanding, but she was clearly fighting to compose herself. She looked like she had just been slapped. Arx quickly gathered her into her arms and stroked her nails down her sister’s spine. “It’s alright. I’m sure it’ll come in eventually.”

“T’ain’t fair!” the other said with a fragile little hiccough. “E’en Lynnria has one, and she ain’t even a real Dolilim!”

I stared at the two of them for a moment, uncertain whether to be sympathetic or to laugh. We had someone on the verge of an emotional breakdown sitting right beside us, and this was what everyone got upset about?

But perhaps I was too out of the empathic loop to understand the nuances. Jax had not been complaining about it, so it had not been something I was worried about. However, it was clear that this Layer cap business was not doing great things for her state of mind. She had been used to growing with me—both in terms of power and physically. And if I knew anything at all about Dolilim, it was in how much they valued such intimacies.

“Best answer her question, Mia,” I suggested.

She cleared her throat awkwardly. “Uh… yes. Of course. Well, Passives in this category are usually designed to assist in gaining language proficiencies, but the only types with any interest in that tend to be Scholars, Scribes, and the like. Not Questers, in short.”

“No, I think we’re looking for something a little more immediate,” I agreed. “Something like that Magic Tongues spell you suggested once.”

“Bline suggested once,” she corrected me. “But even if I could replicate that spell exactly, it wouldn’t do. You’ll need something for written text.”

“Why not something that works for both writing and speech?”

Mia’s reply was delayed slightly by the sound of a repressed moan. “N-not possible in the Foundation Layers. Too many variables.”

That was a refrain I had heard before. From what I had gathered, each Layer had its own restrictions as to what you could and could not buy, and they usually made a certain amount of sense when you thought about them. Because the skill system in this world was so open-ended, there would be nothing preventing you from buying a city-leveling nuke with your first skill pick without some rules in place.

And it would seem having a… dubiously loyal purveyor of skills in our corner had done little to change that. Sure, she occasionally bent the rules in our favor, but she was also more than capable of spending our points without our permission. I had to suppose it balanced out.

“Okay… and do we want a skill stemming from Class or kind?” Mia continued.

That was a new one on me, and I fell silent to ponder it.

However, I was not the only one to be struck by its oddness. The question tugged just enough at Jax’s curiosity to pull her out of her self-pity, and she sat up, scrubbing at her eyes. “What do ye—” She stopped, remembering what had happened the last time a thoughtless question had passed her lips. “Err… I nay ken the question. Explain the difference.”

Mia sighed. “You didn’t think the ability to convert Status ailments into Life Energy came from being a Tenebrous Warrior, did you?”

“Course not, ye bloody weapon!” Jax replied hotly, perhaps compensating a little. “I were wanting ye to be specific, be all. The difference the skill would take.”

“Oh. Well, that part is somewhat flexible but, generally speaking, it’s a thematic question. Is this something you’ve learned to do with the sorts of abilities your Class deals with, or is it something you’ve learned to do because of the unique way your body behaves?”

Jax made to reply, but the mental hamster-wheel made an abrupt return, leaving her mouth hanging open.

“So…” I hazarded, saving her from her own awkwardness. “You’re saying you couldn’t just give Arx the ability to read all languages. There has to be some sort of flavor attached to it.”

“That is correct, my lord,” she gushed brightly, suddenly a tad breathless. “There is nothing specific about Dolilim that could grant such a supernatural ability directly. That I can think of, anyway. I’ll need to check. And the Siren’s theme seems to be based around vocal entrancement.”

“Meaning if we went the Siren route, the skill would have to do with singing,” Arx said for clarity’s sake.

“Most likely.”

She grunted. “I’d like to avoid that if I can. Singing for everything gets a little annoying.”

Mia made a little noise of agreement. As did Jax, but less subtly. “Now, are there any other requests or restrictions you’d like to make on this skill? Or shall I mock something up?”

We traded blank glances.

“Go ahead, Mia,” I said after a moment.

“My lord,” she agreed then fell silent.

While we waited, I pondered on the nature of this new spin we had been presented. Mia had already explained that skills were just assemblies of Words meant to describe an effect of some kind. So there seemed to be no reason a person needed to be restricted in the abilities they might purchase beyond basic concerns like power-scaling. With such an open-ended system, why do we even need Classes in the first place? Why not just let us pick skills and assemble the tool-kit we deem necessary to run our lives?

And what did a person’s kind have to do with anything? I mean, I got that Dolilim were pretty unique but, with the way Mia had phrased it, you would think all the races had certain quirks they could take advantage of in terms of choosing their skills. And did that mean even I qualified. I was only human, after all… though… maybe not quite human. Not anymore. And I was an alien.

It was an interesting question. Normally, I would have said that humanity’s true power stemmed from our over-developed brains, but that was not even uncommon on this planet. Other than that, the only interesting thing humans had going for them was a penchant for long-distance running and the ability to walk without ever tiring. But I would be damned before I started investing in skills like that—the occasional structural collapse notwithstanding.

I was a wizard, dammit! No matter what technicalities Mia claimed. Wizards did not run!

Although, there might be some potential with this whole dreaming business. All of the other races remembered theirs. And I did not.

Mia seemed to believe this was something that could be cured simply by improving my Intelligence, but I suspected it would not be so simple as that. Dreams—or human dreams anyway—had to do with the divide between the conscious and the subconscious mind.

Do people on this world not have a subconscious?

About then, Mia returned. “Huh. I suppose I’m not all that surprised, but still…”

“Don’t make us ask, Mia,” I prompted.

She cleared her throat. “Apologies, my lord. I know this sort of thing ruffles your sensibilities, else I would not hesitate to mention it. However, it seems as though the Life Energy component within your Dolilim’s vaginal secretions can serve as an extremely flexible magical catalyst.”

My face fell totally flat, and I closed my eyes. I did not know what else I could have expected, but it would have been nice to make a discovery that did not further my swan-dive into depravity.

A ‘flexible magical catalyst,’ huh? Fantastic.

Meaning that if we were to be at all practical about things, the three of them would one day be traipsing about smearing the stuff all over the place.

Fuck me… I had even once theorized about its potential as a healing elixir… at some point. I could not recall exactly when the thought had crossed my mind, but as often as I had sex on the brain, that was not surprising.

The key point was in how much more sense the smear on the Xhynn’s card had just become. It was a perverse little hint about a perverse little method of solving the Demon Queen’s perverse little riddle.

As for the Dolilim, their reactions were a little mixed.

The comment was enough to finally pull Lynnria out of her stupor, and she sat up ramrod straight, an expression of mortified horror on her face. However, she quickly began chewing on one of her claws, her eyes darting about as though connecting the lines in a grand conspiracy of implications.

Jax, meanwhile, was a tad slower on the uptake. Mia’s vocabulary trended toward the decided opposite extreme from her own on the scale of incomprehensibility, so it took her a moment to even realize what she meant. But once she had, she only shrugged. She was a being of Lust by her own admission. What was the big deal?

Then, there was Arx—who greeted the pronouncement with nothing short of approval. And once she got her breath back from laughing, she practically shouted, “I’ll take it!”

*****

The three of us waited in suspense as Arx passed her moistened fingers over the text. Shockingly, it really was as easy as that. No complicated incantations. No delving into her inner psyche. Just a quick dip, a smear, and she was away. I was practically livid with jealousy.

And I was not the only one. Lynnria’s eyes had all but popped out of her head when Arx finished explaining the ability for us, and she had begun pacing about the room, mumbling something about it being ‘too good to be true.’

Arx cleared her throat, then began to read with a bit of a mocking lilt to her voice. It would seem she found the Demon Queen’s prose a tad stuffy. She even made certain to emphasize each of the Words we knew when they came up.

“To the Triumphal Toilet Troop,

I do hope your initial sojourn into my whimsical palace of delights has helped alleviate some degree of cynicism as to my intentions. That little rod of dirt-casting turned out to be quite unexpectedly useful, did it not? How fortunate for you that I decided upon its generation…

For the rest, I really must apologize for concealing the contents of this letter but, one’s nature being what it is, I cannot exactly hand out information on a silver platter. So one must content oneself with this—perhaps—overly florid bit of pretense.

Now that the three of you have lifted the unfortunate poverty of—”

A sharp guffaw erupted from Arx’s mouth, interrupting her recitation, followed shortly by a gasp of shock. Then she fell silent, staring hard at the next sentence. And occasionally at Lynnria.

“What? What is it?” she asked nervously.

Arx took a breath to compose herself. Though it looked like it was a struggle.

“Now that the three of you have lifted the unfortunate poverty of… of moisture from the labia of your third…” Again, she had to stop for a bout of wheezing.

“Quit yer havering, ye dafty,” Jax growled. “I want’s to hear the rest.”

“Sorry, it’s just… the phrasing.” Arx snickered uncontrollably for a second, pointing at Lynnria. “Look at her face!”

I grunted with disapproval. That was a thing I had been deliberately trying to avoid. With limited success. Lynnria was blushing so fiercely, her cheeks had actually started to match her hair.

“The Demon Queen was watching?!” she exclaimed with something of a strangled wheeze.

“We don’t know that for sure,” I said, trying to be reassuring. “It could just be an educated guess.”

“Aye,” Jax agreed. “Ye was howling such, She’d hear ye clear down the hall.”

“Hands preserve…” she moaned in despair.

I sighed. “Keep reading, Arx.”

She nodded, trying her best not to again succumb to the giggles. Somewhat. “N-now that the three of you have lifted the unfortunate—”

“Skip that part!” Lynnria wailed.

Arx began to cackle in earnest, and raised her voice, “—poverty of moisture—“

“Arx!” I barked.

She settled herself instantly, though with a degree of barely-contained mirth. And I noticed a slight parting of her lips, as if she were sampling the flavors in the air.

“—I think it time you venture forth once more. Do please first set your sights upon the door of the unfortunate needler. He would be most relieved to see you.

And be sure to take in a few of the displays along your way. One never knows what one might discover.”

There again, Arx paused. Though this time, her expression faded from laughter to barely contained hostility. “She closes with, ‘Mine before the Eye, Xhinn,’”

“Mine, she says.” Jax snorted. “Told ye.”

“How can you be so calm about this?” Arx asked, her eyes flashing. “He barely survived the last one, and now we’re supposed to… what? Calmly march him to the scaffold?”

Jax took a breath and looked away. “If’n this be what I’s thinking—and this Queen were really the one what were in our heads—She be just as upset as we was to find out about Ahnbe. Nay, I’m thinking there be a scuffle o’er territory afoot.”

I quirked an eyebrow. “And I’m the territory?”

Both Jax and Arx looked at me. “Of course.”

“By the Three,” Lynnria breathed. “You were really telling the truth about all that?”

The two shifted their attention to glare at the younger woman.

“But why?” she said into the silence. “It’s not like he’s strong or anything. I mean… he’s good in bed. Really… really, really… really good. And I suppose he can do some other things… that I’ve never heard of anyone else being able to do.”

“I be thinking ye answered yer own question, lass,” Jax said quietly.

“I might be able to shed some more light on that,” I began.

However, before I could elaborate, Mia continued in my stead. “Let us say that our lord’s ability to distort the dream fabric has not gone unnoticed. All of my once-sisters have expressed… at least a passing interest in this phenomenon. And because it seems to interfere with his ability to retain memories of the events therein, we believe some sort of bargain may have been struck without his—or my—knowledge. Possibly more than once.”

Arx lowered her head into her hands, “Oh, ‘Snails… All of them?”

“Indeed—fuck pipe!”

Then there was a soft click, and I instinctively knew the rest would be for my ears alone.

“Have a care, my lord,” she said quickly. “Your origin within the higher planes is almost certainly a forbidden knowledge. If you speak of it hnn…blast! Speak… speak of it carelessly, you may damage your companion’s minds. I must apologize to you in this. We removed your geas without ever thinking you might hnnngah! Without thinking of… of possible implications.”

There was a lot to unpack there. However, “I may?”

Whatever difficulties she had just been experiencing melted away with a shiver of delight. “Good, you picked up on that. We don’t actually know… more. But you are a being whose origins are beyond their imaginations. Such things should not be trifled with lightly. I’m sure I need not remind you why.”

She was talking about my encounters with the goddesses, I felt certain. It was not at all the same thing, of course. I was about as intimidating as an ant to an anteater. But there was enough of an association to make… some sense out of it—in much the same way as a ‘declassified’ CIA memo made sense. Most of the relevant information had been blacked out.

Which was frustrating for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that I had thought I could finally admit where I had come from with the people I cared most about. It might damage their minds to tell them I was an alien? What kind of crap was that? I could not see how that could even possibly be true…

Though if it were, it would go a long way toward explaining why I had the geas in the first place. From what I knew, a geas was a kind of behavior modification spell—mind fuckery, in short. Mine had been tuned to prevent me from speaking about my status as a former Earth man… or so I had gathered. There might have been more to it, but it was only after its removal that I had been able to admit the fact at all.

Hmm… still don’t know why Bline went ballistic on me back then. And why did She care so much that I knew the name of the world? Is there something special about that information? I could not say. But if a goddess had reacted to me like that, there was no way I was going to take any risks with my companions!

In hindsight, I had to suppose it was a good thing the geas had been there. Otherwise, I would have almost certainly started in with my fish-out-of-water story to anyone and everyone I came across. And true to form, rather than providing me with any explanation or even a casual warning not to talk about it, the powers that be had decided that the best course of action was to screw with my head.

However, I still owed my loved ones as much truth as I could provide them. And going from Mia’s own behavior, forbidden things were only forbidden in so much as that I could not actively say them aloud. There was nothing preventing me from giving hints.

“There might be more to it,” I admitted, standing. “Though I don’t know if Xhinn even knows about it. Ahnbe certainly didn’t.”

“Master,” Jax said quickly, coming to her feet as well, “maybe ye shouldn’t talk about that other business with the lesser about.”

“Other business?” Arx asked.

“Lesser?!”the lesser growled.

Jax looked at Arx significantly—and completely ignored Lynnria. “Aye, ye know. The business? What with… them?”

Arx’s head lifted into a slow nod of understanding. “Oh… right. Them.”

I lifted a hand. I had thought I was pretty solidly in the loop around here, but they had lost me entirely. “Uh… I’m not sure we’re talking about the same thing here.”

“We be,” Jax said confidently. “Ye always get a funny taste about ye when ye start to thinking about… the past.”

I blinked a few times. “Wait… you’re not talking about—“

“Wheesht!” she sounded, silencing me. Again with a significant look at Lynnria.

“Hey! Am I a member of this Clan or not?” Lynnria asked with a degree of justifiable agitation.

“Ye ain’t bound,” Jax explained simply, folding her arms.

“Oh, what? You think your Clan is the only one with secrets? Do you have enemies? Is that it?” she persisted. “That’s not exactly uncommon, you know.”

“Whether we do or not,” Arx said, coming to stand behind Jax, “we at least know you once did.”

Lynnria stiffened slightly. “W-well… so what? I’m a member of this Clan now.”

“And so you’d be willing to share all your old Clan’s secrets?” Arx pressed.

The younger woman hesitated. “I… don’t know. Yet.”

“Exactly,” Arx said with an easy stride around her sister. “You may be a part of this Clan, but you are not bound. We don’t know if we can trust you with the Master’s secrets. Or whether you would betray him to his enemies.”

“You think I could betray him after what I’ve just experienced?” she asked hotly. “I would sooner feed his enemies to a flock of Mina birds!”

Arx smiled toothily. “Good answer.”

“Aye. We’ll make a proper Dolilim out of ye yet, lassie. Maybe once yer horns come in, we’ll tell ye a few things about them what’s after—”

Arx whirled. “Jax!”

“Ah, so he does have enemies,” Lynnria said, folding her arms with self-satisfaction.

“Enemies? What enemies?” Mia asked me privately. “Do you have any idea what they’re talking about?”

“Not a clue,” I admitted under my breath.

I was pretty sure they were dancing around the origin story they had spun together out of clouds and cobwebs. The one about my princedom-in-exile and the jilted lover… or maid… or whoever it was supposed to be that had caused it all. Of course, I knew the real girl behind the tale, but Stevie had about as much in common with the current version of the story as an outhouse with a skyscraper.

Who these enemies were supposed to be was beyond me, though.

“Um… okay, guys?” I began, raising my voice, “Seriously, this is getting a little—“

“Don’t ye worry yer pretty head none, Master,” Jax interrupted with a grin before sidling close. In a whisper, she continued, “We’ll have our revenge on that wench, mark me! One day, she’ll be on her knees before ye. Begging fer it! Maybe, once ye get that new flying spell of yer’n practiced up a bit… eh?”

She winked significantly.

Watcher’s Eye. That’s right. She thinks I come from those floating isles. Is that why she thinks I bought the flying spell?

I took a breath… then let it out again, defeated.

“Fuck it,” I muttered. “Come on, you lot. Seems like we’ve got to find a needler’s door. Whatever that is.”

“Right,” Lynnria said, scurrying to gather up her discarded lower garments.

“Feh. May as well leave that shite,” Jax commented impatiently. “Ye can’t feed proper with it on, ye know.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the other said primly. “Besides, it’s padded leather. I prefer to have at least some protection.”

“Not feeling any emotions yet?” Arx asked.

“No? Why? Should I be?”

“She might need to gain a Layer or two first,” I reminded them.

Jax nodded absently while twirling a claw through her hair. She had fixed the youngest of the trio with a speculative stare. “Suppose yer right. Hard to know what be what without enough er… sampling sizers.”

I had to suppress a grin at that. It was a tad mangled—and Lynnria should almost certainly be excluded as an outlier from any studies we might conduct on Dolilim transitions—but it would seem at least someof my fireside ramblings on the scientific process had seeped into my First’s mind.

While Lynnria struggled with her garments, I glanced at the remains of my own clothing. Jax had been… indelicate in disrobing my unconscious body, so there was hardly anything left of the thin green vest. And nothing at all of the skirt. Even for a loincloth. I sighed with regret. It would seem the next leg of our excursion would be au natural. Again.

I could only bemoan not having had the chance to pick up the adventuring clothes we had purchased before being chased out of town.

“Oh, you bloody…” Lynnria growled with frustration, drawing my attention back.

Her pants had never been designed with a tail in mind, and whatever changes the last Layer had caused within the girl had not helped matters. Her backside had plumped and firmed just enough to turn the already tight leather into something more closely resembling yoga pants, and she had been trying to… appealingly dance her way into them.

“Maybe poke a hole in them?” I suggested, averting my eyes. Then immediately rolling them. She had been naked from the waist down less that five seconds before. What the hell was I getting uptight about?

“With what?” she shot back. “The golem took my dagger with it when it carried Arx’s body into the rockfall.”

“You’ve got claws, don’t you?” the still very much alive and conspicuously well-armed Arx said with nonchalance—drawing an incredulous stare from Jax. And me. Those were the very words Jax had once said to her when she had been acclimating to her new body.

Lynnria glanced at her hands. “Oh, right.”

Twisting her arm behind her waist, she blindly poked a hole into the seam of her trousers. It was swift work. A Dolilim’s claws were nothing to be trifled with. It was a wonder I had thus far remained uninjured—via their claws anyway. There had been other incidents… that I would prefer to forget.

It’s a good thing Lynnria’s vagina isn’t as grabby as Jax’s can be. Woof!

While my lesser was threading her tail through—and recommencing her delightful hopping routine—Arx waved the card toward me. “We don’t need this anymore, do we?”

I shrugged. “All it really said was to find this needler character and be mindful of the displays, right? And Mia would at least give us a hint if there was something we were missing…”

I paused meaningfully, and the Faen picked up the cue without missing a beat. “Of course.”

I nodded, satisfied. “So unless you know of some black market that deals in goddess-touched artifacts—”

“Oh, I’m sure it would be priceless to the right buyer,” she said confidently. Before ripping the card in two. And then progressively smaller bits. “Such a shame that no one else will ever see it.”

I will admit to being a tad stunned in watching her sprinkle the remains of what had—only a moment prior—been described as ‘priceless’ to the floor. Though in hindsight, the idea of selling something that proclaimed me as the property of the Demon Queen herself might have been shortsighted.

However, well before I could think of anything to say, the room itself emitted a low chuckle of amusement. And before our eyes, the fragments of the note began to softly glow. One by one, the dozens of pieces drifted toward each other, folding themselves into various geometric shapes. Then came one final little flutter of light, and there sat a perfect and quite familiar-looking, trilliant-cut gemstone.

A Yellow Key.

“Huh…” Jax said. After a solid minute of us staring at it. “I think this Demon Queen might be nuttier than her Faen.”

The floor replied with a menacing rumble.