Shadowborn

Chapter Twenty-Three: Decisions and Dinner

The twins were still understandably skittish around me, so I’d sent them off with Serena to the baths. She shot me a look over her shoulder that suggested she planned to show me just how grateful she was later. I bade them goodbye and went to check up on the progress of the other two.

I knew I was in for something the second I knocked on the door to our room. Rhallani opened it just enough to stick her head through and smiled wide. “Ren! Perfect timing. We’ve got a surprise for you.”

I arched a brow. I was typically not a fan of those, but it was Rhallani, so how bad could it be? “I’m prepared to be surprised.”

She pulled the door open and stepped aside. When my eyes found Noelle, a soft gasp escaped me. For the first time, she wore clothes that actually fit her. A soft blue tunic that went down to her knees and gray pants underneath. That wasn’t what drew my attention, though. Gone was her uneven, choppy hair. It seemed that Rhallani had cut it short, just long enough to lay down but short enough to hide the damage that had been done to it.

She stood with her hands clasped in front of her and her shoulders set. Her face was as emotionless as always, but her eyes were locked on mine. I smiled at her. “Looking better and better every day.”

She made a happy hum. I was beginning to understand that the sound wasn’t a normal hum, but something akin to a cat’s purr. Different tones meant different things, and I was starting to be able to pick them out. “Would Sir—would you rather my hair were long?” There was a hint of uncertainty in her normally monotone voice.

I walked over to her and put my hand on her shoulder. “You should wear your hair however you like it most. Long or short is fine by me.”

Her hum lowered. She looked down and shifted her weight from foot to foot. “But…would you prefer it long?”
I arched a brow. I leaned in close enough that Rhallani wouldn’t overhear and whispered into her ear, “I think you would look beautiful with long hair, Noelle.”

A shiver went through her body, then she pressed her head into mine. “Me too,” she said. I ruffled her now-short hair, and her happy hum returned with a vengeance.

When I stood, she pressed into my side. “Well, that actually leads me to this.” I pulled out a set of vials that were filled with a forest green liquid. “These are wellness potions. Similar to healing pots, but they work much slower.” I gave them to Noelle, and she held them with her head tilted. “They’re designed to help recover from long illnesses. Your body is already struggling to repair itself from constant injuries and malnutrition, and having to use nutrients to heal those wings will only make that worse.”

She pulled one out and sniffed it curiously. I continued. “This will give your body the extra boost it needs. One a day will help your body recover over the next few weeks. You’ll likely put on some weight, you should notice having much more energy, and—” I ruffled her hair, “—it might even make your hair grow a little faster.”

Her eyes widened. She immediately uncorked one and downed it, then frowned. “It tastes of mint. And something…sweet?”

I laughed. “Just keep in mind that drinking more than one a day won’t increase the effects.”

Rhallani’s hands appeared around my waist. “I was very happy when Scarlet asked me to take care of her hair.” She smiled up at me for a moment longer, then her expression sobered. “How did it go?”
I pulled her in close to give her a peck on the forehead. “We now have two new additions to the family. Twin Kitsune named Ryoko and Tsuki.”

Another shiver went through Noelle. “Are they… like me?”

I wrapped an arm around her as well and she melted into me. “Yes and no. Tsuki, it seems, has gone to great lengths to protect her sister. She’s done a good job of it, so Ryoko hasn’t had nearly as rough a time of it. I want to make sure she doesn’t have to do that anymore.”

Noelle nodded. “Yes.”

“But you’ll meet them soon,” I promised. “Serena’s getting them all cleaned up, then we can have a big family meal. Have you made progress in the class search?”

Rhallani brightened. “Yes! We’ve narrowed it down to a number of different—”

“Spirit Guardian,” Noelle whispered.

I couldn’t help but smile. I thought that sounded like a pretty solid choice. Rhallani seemed surprised, though. “And why that one?” I asked.

She leaned her forehead into my chest. “I don’t want to kill, I want to protect. I want to protect Ryoko and Tsuki. And Rhallani and Serena.” Then, quieter, “and Zaren.”

How could I not squeeze her tightly into my chest after that? Her happy hum returned when I did. “Good. We’ll do our best, but at the very least we can get close. I think a guardian class suits you. Now come on, let’s get some food and meet the twins.”

Rhallani sidled up next to me after we’d left the room and Noelle did the same, though hesitantly. I wrapped an arm around either of them. “Now, we don’t have a lot of wiggle room left with just the one level, but at the very least we can aim for something outside of the berserker tree. First things first, you’ll want to keep in mind why you’re swinging your weapon every time you swing it. If you attack only to destroy, you’ll end up with more destruction classes. If you attack to protect, then it should start to nudge you onto the right track.”

“So then…” Noelle mused, “Ren won’t send me to attack people?”

I squeezed her. “No. You’re my companion and a member of my household now, not a tool or a weapon. I ask that you protect those that I care about and those that you care about. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Her fingers wrapped themselves in the hem of my shirt, and I thought I saw the corners of her mouth twitch upward. “My old masters… they would send me to hurt people. Sometimes kill them, sometimes hurt them enough that others could kill them for levels. Then when I got caught and arrested, they would come in and say I was an escaped servant. Then they’d reclaim me and start over.”

I shifted my arm so I could rub my hand in small circles around her back. “That’s over and done with. Nobody is ever going to make you kill again, least of all me.”

Her grip on my shirt tightened. “Then…in the room…you said, ‘our family.’ Is this one—am I really a part of that?”

“Of course you are,” I said without hesitation. “I haven’t known a blood relation since I was nine years old. The only family I have in this world is the one that I choose, and I would very much like to include you in that family.”

Noelle pulled herself closer to me. “I would like that as well.”

I crushed her into me and she hummed. “Then it’s done. You’re part of it now, no going back.” Her grip loosened, but she rubbed her shoulder against me. “You, Rhallani, Serena, and hopefully now Tsuki and Ryoko. I’ll need someone to watch over them when I’m not around though, think you’ll be up to the task?”

Her face shot up. “Yes.” It was the closest to genuine excitement I think I’d seen from her.

I chuckled, and Rhallani was beaming on my other arm when we walked into the main room of the inn. “Good. Now that’s settled, let’s eat.”

They went and grabbed us a table in the corner of the room big enough for six while I headed for the woman behind the bar. I paid a little extra for a veritable feast. It was a big day for Tsuki and Ryoko, after all. Now that Rhallani had calmed down, I could see something was bothering her.

“Everything alright?” I asked.

She jumped, then looked away. “I was just thinking about the compendium. Some of the stuff I read in there…Some of the ways it recommends to coax out classes are horrible. I can’t stop thinking about…about how he learned it.”

I put my hand on hers. “I know how you feel. I lived it, remember?”

But she just shook her head. She twisted her hand over so we could interlace our fingers. “I can’t imagine what would happen if the wrong person got ahold of the book. As much as the idea makes me sick, a part of me wants to make sure nobody ever does.”

A serving girl set drinks on our table and I sipped thoughfully. After she’d disappeared, I asked, “What if we did exactly that?”

Her hand clenched around mine. “I thought you said that would be like throwing away the sacrifices of your friends?”

“I’m not saying we throw away the information, just the book itself.” I took another long sip of my ale. “I’ve been thinking ever since I told Scarlet here that I’d help her find a new class. What if my own class isn’t the only reason Allura chose me?”

Noelle perked up a bit, but Rhallani only looked more confused. “I don’t follow.”

“I was a part of Karn’s experiments for longer than anyone else but Eliya,” I explained, choosing my words carefully. “I did what I could to mitigate the horrors he committed. I spent a lot of time consoling the other experiments. Learning what he did and helping them puzzle out why he did it. Hell, I was part of more than a few of them against my will. Through all that, I learned a lot about what he did and why he did it.”

I could see the curiosity warring with the horror in her eyes. She wanted to know more, but it hurt her that I’d been through so much. I kept going. “It got to a point where I was able to guess what he was doing with decent accuracy. I couldn’t stop him, but I could at least help prepare the others. Give them an idea of what they were in for so they could at least brace themselves. I learned a lot about how classes function. If I put my mind to it, I could probably recreate most of his successes just from memory.”

The horror was starting to win out, so I put both my hands around hers. “I’d never do that, but maybe I could use what happened to me. What I went through and what I learned because of it. I’d never force a class on someone else, but maybe I could help others towards the classes they want.”

Her look became pensive. I went in for what I figured might be the killing blow. “What do you think about helping me make a new compendium? Take the good from Karn’s book—the skills, the better ways to draw out classes—and leave out the horrific methods he used. Then, when we get to Amesseria, maybe we find willing lower level adventurers and offer them a chance at rare classes. We document our methods and their results, and you can create a book even better than Karn’s without the horror involved.”

Her eyes went wide. Her fingers locked around mine in a vice grip, but for an entirely different reason. “That’s…”

I smiled. “We’ve got time still before we reach Amesseria, and I want to see if I can help Scarlet here,” I ruffled her hair, and she closed her eyes and hummed, “before I go making any grand plans. But if what Rastra told me about adventuring is true, there might be a lot of lower level adventurers willing to jump at a chance like this. If I can find good people, then I can start building a loyal group of strong fighters. I can’t think of a better way to ‘prepare the world’ than that.”

A slow smile spread across her face. “I’ll need a much better name than The Ultimate Compendium on Classes. It’s much too clunky.”

“My thoughts exactly.” That went better than I could have hoped.

She looked up at me through her lashes. “And you won’t just help humans, right?”

I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. “Of course not. I don’t care about race beyond their relationships to classes. Not every race can achieve every class, after all, but I won’t discriminate against anyone who wants to try. I’ll help anybody willing to listen to me.”

She nestled into me and nursed her own drink, but Noelle merely continued to stare towards where the baths were, no doubt waiting for Serena and the twins. Not long after our discussion I heard a sharp intake of breath come from her. Rhallani followed her gaze and I heard a “so cute” escape her lips.

Indeed, the twins looked like different women after a nice bath. The fur on their tails and ears were silky and shiny. Without the grime, I realized that the two were both very attractive with the thin, foxlike chins and narrow noses Kitsune were often known for. There wasn’t a scratch on Tsuki, and I figured if I asked then Serena’s mana pool would be depleted. Not that I was complaining by any means, the only reason I hadn’t asked her to heal them was because I knew she’d do it regardless.

Serena was beaming at me, a twin clinging to either hand. Seems the baths had gone well. They both wore shirts that I assumed belonged to Serena from the way they hung almost to their knees, but they were cinched tight with a belt. When Ryoko saw us, she quickly hid behind Serena. Tsuki, however, looked at Rhallani and Noelle with curiosity.

We all stood. “Ryoko, Tsuki,” I gestured to either of them in turn, “this is Rhallani and Scarlet.”
Rhallani waved, but Noelle walked up to them. The twins both looked to Serena, who nodded encouragingly. They let go of her and walked in a slow circle around Noelle, who looked between them with her normal impassive expression. The twins were still barefoot, so Noelle’s new boots that had about two inch heels put them about at eye level.

Ryoko sniffed. “I’ve never seen a Seraphim like you before.”

Tsuki’s nose wrinkled. “Her smells are all confused.”

Then their ears shot up and they froze. Their tails flicked as they looked to the barmaid who walked by with a tray of steaming food, the drool already starting to drip from their mouths. I chuckled. “Why don’t we all take a seat and we can get to eating. Once we’ve got nice, full bellies, we can talk.

The twins ended up sitting between Serena and Noelle, and I ended up between Serena and Rhallani. Ryoko seemed hesitant until Tsuki started chowing down, then she followed suit with just as much gusto. Serena chided them softly to not eat so fast they made themselves sick, but it wasn’t until I promised them that they wouldn’t be wanting for meals that they slowed down. By the end of the meal, the only one who came close to putting as much food away as them was Noelle.

Once nearly every dish was polished clean, I sat back. Ryoko looked like she might nod off with her tail curled in her lap and her head resting on Serena’s arm. Tsuki’s eyes were just as tired, but she forced herself to remain alert, watching us all warily.

“Well,” I said, bringing everyone’s attention to me, “now that we’re all clean and full, I suppose we should talk.” Ryoko tried to force herself to sit up, but she nestled back into Serena’s arm when the taller woman scratched her ears. “Now that I’m starting to build up an actual household, we should at least be on the same page.”

Tsuki shifted in her seat and Ryoko hugged her tail to her chest, but neither spoke. I had their attention, though. “Rhallani is the proverbial brains of the whole operation. She’s my lead researcher and depending on her second class will probably be helping me in combat. Since Serena is the only other human, treat her as the second in command. When I’m not around, treat her word as mine.”

They both nodded. “Scarlet, here, I’m putting in charge of you two.” I turned to Noelle, whose pupils dilated.

“She’ll be responsible for your safety when I’m not around, so until you two get a little more comfortable I want you to stick around her or Serena. Alright?” They nodded again.

“Now that we have a little money, I want to give each of you an allowance so you aren’t having to rely entirely on me for things you might want or need. I’d like for you to have some kind of role in our household, and I would prefer it be something you enjoy doing. So if you’re willing, I’d like to know what kind of things you excel at.”

“You want to know our classes,” Tsuki said. More of a statement than a question.

I inclined my head. “If you’re willing, then yes. If not, then a general idea of what you’re capable of is fine.”
“I’m an alchemist,” Ryoko offered. Tsuki made a growling nose at her, but Ryoko just clung tighter to Serena and stuck out her tongue. “That’s my class, at least. I don’t have much experience when it comes to real alchemy, but a couple of my skills apply to anything that brews like stews or soups.”

My brows rose. “That would definitely come in handy.” I summoned a pen and grabbed a napkin, then started writing. “How did you end up with that?”

“Ki got the food, I prepared it. Stews were the best way to make the meats not taste like the animals they came from, and I guess making them is close enough to brewing potions. When I got the option I thought I might be able to use it to help make money.”

“If you’re willing, then the household alchemist would be a great way for you to more than earn your keep.” I slid the napkin across. “Do you think you could make this?”

She read it with a frown. “I think so. I’d need the equipment, though.”

I smiled. That was an incredible stroke of fortune indeed. “We can take care of that in the morning.” Then I looked at Tsuki. “And as our alchemist, she’ll be both out of danger and someone well worth protecting. I won’t let anything happen to her.”

That seemed to relax Tsuki a little. “My class is a standard Kitsune class. Trickster Spirit. My skills rely on distraction and misdirection. I used it to keep us alive, but I don’t know how I’ll be able to help you. It doesn’t exactly have a lot of combat application.”

Interesting. It’s true that it’s a relatively weak class, but it had some powerful evolutions. “Then I think for now I’ll have you keep doing what you’re doing. Keep an eye on your sister, and on the others. Come to me if you see or feel anything amiss. Once we’re back in the capital and we’ve got real walls around us, we can reevaluate. How does that sound?”

I could see the hesitant hope in her eyes. “I would like that.” Her ears flicked. “And will you… will we be expected to take care of any other…duties?”

“No,” I said softly, but firmly. “No matter what, I will never ask you to do anything like that. Your body is yours to do with as you like. If you want to be with someone that way, I won’t stop you. If not, then that’s your decision. Myself included.” I ruffled Rhallani’s hair. “You might as well know that Rhallani, Serena, and I have that level of relationship, and something tells me that these two will leave me plenty satisfied.”

The tension left her shoulders entirely. “Thank you. If you’re telling the truth, then I’ll do my best to repay you for giving us this chance.”

I smiled at her. “I’m sure that won’t be an issue.” Then I looked to the others. “Korey wants to stay in town for a few days, so I want to see if there are any jobs we can do. Get some money, levels, and maybe even a rank if we can manage it.”

Tsuki looked alarmed, but I held up a placating hand. “Don’t worry, I plan to leave you with the caravan. They’re kind to demi-humans, and they might owe me a little.”

Rhallani leaned forward. “Garm knows some basic alchemy stuff, and Mihrel could probably teach you about healer salves.”

Tsuki seemed relieved, and Ryoko perked up. “Will I really get to learn alchemy? Actual alchemy?”

“If that’s what you want,” I told her, “then I’m more than happy to help you. I’m sure I’ll get plenty out of it, so you’ll hardly hear any complaints from me.”

She grabbed her sister’s arm excitedly, and even Tsuki’s mouth curved upward. “In that case, I’ll do my best as well. If you need someone who can scout ahead, I can get out of tough situations when the need arises.”

“Good to know. In the morning, all of you can go shopping for clothes, alchemy supplies, and whatever else you need.”

Tsuki’s hand found Ryoko’s. “What will the sleeping arrangements be?” she asked.

“Well, Rhallani and Serena will nearly always be with me,” I gave them both a pointed glare, “but, if the three of you are amenable, I was going to have you share your room with Scarlet.” Just like with Rhallani and Scarlet before, I didn’t want them to spend their first night with us alone.

Noelle stood and walked over between them. They both looked up at her with some uncertainty, then she reached out and put a hand on either head, softly rubbing her hand into the fur around their ears. “Yes,” she said simply.

Ryoko looked like she might keel over at any minute, and Tsuki was fighting against her drooping eyelids with everything she had. “Why don’t you take them upstairs so you can all get some much needed rest?”

She took them both by the hand and nodded to us before heading towards their room, leaving me behind with Rhallani and Serena. “So, thoughts?” I asked.

They both slid around the table so they could lean into me. “I think they’ll fit in great once they get more comfortable,” Serena said.

I wrapped an arm around either girl. “I agree. Finding an alchemist class is an unexpected bonus, too. I figured we’d have to go hunting for one when we hit the capital. She seems excited to learn more about it.”

“Tsuki seemed unsure,” Rhallani pointed out.

And honestly, that fact comforted me. “Tsuki has been looking out for her sister for her entire life. I’d be worried if she wasn’t suspicious of us. We’ll earn her trust eventually, and until then she’s welcome to be as cautious as she feels she needs.”

Rhallani nodded, laying her head on my shoulder. “Zaren,” she said quietly, “earlier when you were talking about helping people get classes they want…”

I ran my fingers through her hair. Then did the same for Serena when she pouted. They both leaned into me. “I may have been nudging you into a potentially powerful class since you mentioned you wanted a combat one. It’ll be up to you if you decide to take it, though.”

She smiled ear to ear. “Were you ever going to tell me?”

“Maybe. I know how much you like figuring things out on your own.”

Rhallani pinched my side, but Serena just laughed. “Well,” Serena said, nuzzling into my neck, “even if you didn’t mean to, you certainly helped me get a class I like very much.”

There was still a kernel of unease in me at that. “You really don’t regret it? Taking a support class as a frontline fighter?”

She just laid her head on my shoulder. “Not in the slightest. Besides, who knows how this class will turn out? You both said my first skill is non-standard, and one of my Lancer skills scales with Divine. Maybe I’ll have better synergy than you think.”

“I certainly hope so.” I placed a kiss at the top of both of their heads, then I took a look around the dining room at the other customers. When I did, I couldn’t help but notice the same thing I’d been seeing around town. “There isn’t a war going on, right?” I asked.

They both frowned at me. “No, though if a Chosen conflict is escalating it could only be a matter of time,” Rhallani told me.

“Then where are all the men?” I did another scan of the room. It was decently busy at this time of night, but just like everywhere I’d been in town the ratio of men to women was one to five at best. In fact, the only male that wasn’t a customer was the burly man behind the bar. “I was still distracted when we were in Listone, but here there seem to be much more of one than the other.”

Serena’s brow furrowed, but Rhallani gasped. “That’s right! You wouldn’t know, but over the last thirty years birth rates have started to skew towards female. I guess things were a bit more even back in your time, but it’s so normal now that I didn’t even consider it.”

I leaned back in my chair. “So couples just started having more girls than boys? Why?”

Rhallani shrugged. “Nobody knows. It wasn’t sudden, either. I can look into it when we get to the capital, but in the years following Grimsbane’s death there were simply fewer males born each year among all the races. With classes to even the odds when it came to strength, there wasn’t too much fuss about it. There have been studies, but no concrete answers. Last I heard, the leading theory is that it relates to some residual magic from whatever Grimsbane was doing when he died.”

My foot tapped the ground. More women than men, huh? If that was true, then some of what Rastra had told me made even more sense. “We’ll definitely want to look into that more,” I told her. “I don’t believe in coincidences on a normal day. We potentially have an outsider god fucking with the world, so that’s doubly true.”

Serena drained the last of her drink. “But what motive could an outsider god possibly have for making the population so skewed? It’s not like women are any weaker than men thanks to the System, after all.”

I inclined my head in agreement. “If it’s the outsider, then we can assume it’s only a part of the play. There’s bound to be more that we haven’t seen yet. Motives we don’t understand. Especially considering we have no idea what the domain of this god could possibly be. If they even have one.”

“Maybe it wants a bigger population,” Rhallani suggested. “More wombs means more babies. One man and ten women can grow the population a lot more than one woman and ten men.”

That was certainly a theory with merit. “Maybe, but even if you’re right the population growth isn’t the end game, it’s a means to an end. No sense conjecturing until we have more information. Any other worldwide developments since I’ve been gone you forgot to mention?”

Serena just shrugged. “I lived in Listone my whole life. My mom was a seamstress and my dad worked on a ranch, so I don’t exactly have the best knowledge of the world now or then.”

Rhallani just turned so that her back was leaning against my side and tapped her chin. “Well, there’s the blight way down to the south. That’s where the blightwolves come from. It’s some kind of magical corruption that attacks the land and the creatures that inhabit it. You already know about the Accords, but you should probably know that most other kingdoms don’t treat demi-humans much better with the exception of the eastern continent. They’re completely reversed, though. Divided demi-human kingdoms that oppress humans almost as bad as Elion treats demi-humans.”

Something about that set off a warning bell in my head. “It didn’t used to be like that,” I noted.

“No, it didn’t. A part of it was refugees fleeing Grimsbane, then it was refugees escaping the Accords. Any demi-humans known for having strong classes in their family fled the continent. Even still, I never understood why they corrected so heavily in the opposite direction.”

I had a few ideas. If a god wanted to take on the entire population, they’d need to do whatever they could to weaken them. Causing discord and strife to the point of setting entire kingdoms at one another’s throats was a good way to make sure your enemy could never mount a full force against you. If that was the case, then it wouldn’t just be politics and public opinion that would oppose me trying to get rid of the Accords. I didn’t tell Rhallani about my suspicions just yet, though. Tearing the Accords apart would be hard enough without going against a literal god in the process.

“One thing at a time.” I gave her a squeeze. “First, we get to the capital. Then we worry about finding a group of good people to surround ourselves with. Then we change the city one person at a time. After that, we can worry about the rest of the world.”

“That’s all,” Serena said with a chuckle. “No big deal, right?”

I tilted her chin up so I could give her a real kiss. Then, when Rhallani lifted her own face without any prompting, I gave her one too. Gods above, these two were already a handful. Rhallani really wanted me to keep adding to the harem? We were agains the wall and the din in the room was loud enough that nobody was even looking our way, so I wrapped one hand around Rhallani’s ass and cupped Serena’s breast with the other. “No big deal.”

Rhallani bit her lip and Serena squirmed when I started kneading them both. “And in the process, I'm sure you’ll find plenty of cute girls to add to our…household.”

I slipped my hand under Rhallani’s waistband so I could touch her directly. “Now that we’ve got a minute, we should really talk about that.”

Serena suppressed a moan when I sunk my fingers into her breast. “About what?”

“Well, like Rhallani said,” I slid a finger down her crack and across her rear entrance and she moaned, “in my time there was a bit more of an even ratio. That meant relationships were, on average, a bit more monogamous. I gather that’s no longer the case these days.”

“Thank the goddess for that,” Serena breathed. I could feel her nipples already starting to poke through her shirt, so I gave one a pinch. She rubbed her body against mine, barely holding in her voice. “Otherwise there wouldn’t be nearly enough of men like you to go around.”

“Mmm, the world wouldn’t be able to handle more men like me. I cause enough chaos on my own.” I brushed my lips against her jaw and my hand quested south and under her waistband from the front, where I ran my fingers over her already drenched lips. “But back to the topic at hand,” I slid a finger in and she had to bite her finger to keep quiet, “While I’m not opposed to adding more girls to our relationship, I want to make sure that: one, they’re the right girls, and two, any girls we do add to the harem are at least agreed upon by… current members.”

Rhallani leaned into me enough to rotate her hips, giving me easier access. I slid into her core from behind with two fingers. “Nnnng, I think that’s fair. You’ve definitely got options. You don’t even have to have a full relationship with most of them. I’m sure any number of girls would love to just be your fuckbuddies.”

I started to slowly slide my fingers in and out of both women and I felt their hands go to my thighs. Serena was on the side where my hardening cock pressed into my thigh, so she started running her hand along its length. Rhallani went southward, cupping my balls. I let out a breath at their ministrations. “Fuckbuddies? Wanting more sister-wives is one thing, but you really just expect me to fuck around?”

I couldn’t help but notice how Rhallani clenched around me at the word sister-wives. “I don’t want you to go around looking for any warm hole you can stick your cock into,” she gave my sac a squeeze, “but if someone came up to you willingly…” She trailed kisses down my neck. “Well that would be completely different. And hot. And who knows? Maybe they’ll want more than just a fucking amazing cock to play with.”

“What happened to keeping it in private?” I asked. I slipped my fingers, now coated in her juices, out and back towards her rear hole where I started tracing slow circles.

She let out a low whine and tilted her hips more. “This is different. Just a good little servant servicing her Patron.” She let go of my balls long enough to undo my belt and slide her hand onto me directly. Serena was only a half-second behind. Soon I had her running her slender, callused fingers up and down my shaft while Rhallani massaged my sac with her own smooth hand.

“I see. In that case,” I slid a finger into her ass and her back straightened. I started working slow circles around Serena’s clit with my other hand. They both twisted and attacked my neck. I pressed my cheek to Serena’s head. “And you’re okay with this, too?”

She nodded. “I…what I have with you, I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but what I have with Rhallani…” I sped my fingers up. “Mmf! What I have with Rhallani is great, too. It’s like she’s the sister I never had, but so much better because we can do… those things. And she’s so good with her fingers… and her tongue… and… and…” Her hand paused and her mouth stopped halfway open. Her breathing started coming in quick gasps until—

“Mmmmmmnngggg!” she came as quietly as she could manage, curling up into my side.

“I’m glad. And I hope that anyone else we add feels the same.” I started working my finger in and out of Rhallani’s ass faster and faster. Her hand fondled me even faster while her other gripped the table. “And no matter what happens, I want clear communication. At all times. If you feel like I’m neglecting you or you have an issue with another girl, you will tell me. I won’t be angry.”

She nodded, and I went back to slowly working two fingers in and out of Serena while I mercilessly attacked Rhallani’s rear. “F-f-f-fuuuck that feels so good,” Rhallani whined, just quiet enough not to be overheard in the low din of the room. “Yes, yes, a thousand times yes, Ren. Whatever you ask. As long as I can have at least a little of you then I don’t care how many girls you get addicted to this cock of yours.”

I placed a kiss to her temple. “You get such a dirty mouth when you’re about to cum, you know that? And all from that cute little asshole of yours. I’m really going to have to see what it can handle one of these days.”
“Oh, please, Ren. Just say the word. I’m yours. All of me. Oh fuck.” She laid her head on the table and lifted her hips to give me a better angle. I slipped a second finger in and she whimpered. “If you keep making me feel this good then I don’t care.” She slipped her free hand into her own pants and started rubbing. “Shit,” she hissed, “I’m gonna cum. In the middle of this room with your fingers in my ass I’m gonna cum!”

She clenched around my finger and let out a muffled cry then, true to her word, she came. It was over a minute before her body stopped spasming. “You know, between this and the bedroll incident, I’m starting to think you might have a bit of an exhibitionist kink.”

She panted happily, and Serena just kept stroking me in my pants. She smiled. “From what I’ve seen just these last few days, I’d think she has more than a few. You’ve found yourself quite the little pervert, Ren.”

I dried my hand on a napkin then went back to gently stroking her hair. “It’s always the nerdy ones.”

Rhallani left her head lying on the table. “I love you so much.”

I kissed the back of her shoulder. “I love you too.”

Serena made an uncertain noise, so I kissed her too. “Don’t feel like you have to say it yet. No rush. We’ve got plenty of time to feel each other out.”

She nuzzled into my neck happily. “I do care for you. A lot. More than I’ve ever cared for anybody before.”
“And that’s more than enough for me. Until I made that deal, I never thought I’d ever get to be this close with anyone. Much less two girls as amazing as you.”

Rhallani pushed herself up off the table and leaned against my other side, resting her head on my shoulder. “You know, I haven’t heard you complain once that you lost thirty years. You seem weirdly okay with it.”

Serena nodded into my neck to say she agreed. I let out a sigh. “I guess I didn’t have much to miss. The closest thing I had to friends were the Seven, and I don’t think any of them but Rolar ever really cared too much for me.”

Serena bit her lip. “What were the Seven really like? Or the Six, I suppose.”

I went back to fondling them while I talked. This time I kneaded one of Rhallani’s breasts and Serena’s butt. They both settled even deeper into me with contented sounds, their hands slowly trailing along my thighs and groin in return.

“Well, Rolar was pretty much everything you expected a chosen to be. Strong, handsome, honorable to a fault. He kept us together when things were bleakest. He could rally any army, make the most inspiring speeches you’ve ever heard, and leave you feeling like you really could make a difference in the world. He always said he saw me for what I could become, not what life had made me. I always told him to stop talking out of his ass, but he was still the only Chosen I ever came across that I didn’t despise.”

“Sandrel was our rogue. He could get in and out of anywhere. He had skills that could make him impossible to detect right up until he stabbed you. That was unfortunate at times since he used those abilities almost exclusively for mischief. The number of times I thought Rolar was about to deck him were numerous to say the least. My skills meant I usually ended up a part of his schemes, sometimes against my will. I trusted him in combat, just never at any other point. He was all about doing the right thing, but what that thing was often got left to interpretation.”

“Bennet was our wizard. A clever little rat of a man who was quick to put himself first, but he was an unparalleled genius. Only he could have figured out half of what Grimsbane was up to just by the residual magic left on his victims. He hated me about as much as I hated him, but there was a level of mutual respect between us. He was good at his job, I was better at mine. Other than that, we just kinda pretended the other didn’t exist.”

“Torren was our muscle. Carnage incarnate, he lived for the fight and had an insane sense of justice. He always said he could smell the sins of my past, though, and promised that once Grimsbane was vanquished he’d see to it that I got what I deserved, be it good or bad. I didn’t really stop in to check with him when I left Amesseria.”

“Then there was Yvonne. Where Bennet was all about clever spells and immaculate casting, Yvonne was a torrent of raw magical power. She wielded nature magic stronger than anyone I’ve ever met, but she was awkward as hell. Rolar pulled me aside one day and assigned me to Yvonne duty, which meant I was in charge of making sure nobody took advantage of her or was too offended by something she might have said offhandedly. She found out and resented me for it all the way until the end, no matter how many times I kept conflicts from occurring because of her.”

“And finally, Iliri was our cleric, and the other chosen in the group. She had a heart of gold and you couldn’t find a kinder person anywhere when it suited her, though she had a bit of a stick up her ass. She was all about redemption and growth, but only on her terms. She never did quite manage to get rid of the air of superiority that she wore like a cloak. Unfortunately I don’t think she could ever get past the darkness in me. She tried her hardest, but you can only do so much when the person you’re trying to help doesn’t want to be helped.”

Serena ran her hand along my chest. “Why didn’t you?”

My first instinct was to dodge the question, but I wanted to build something that had a chance at lasting between the three of us. “I think I just buried one too many people,” I admitted. “Everyone I cared for when I was under Karn died, most of them in front of me. Even after, every time I thought I might care for someone enough to move on, they died too. After a point, it started to feel like anyone who cared for me was punished because of it.”

Rhallani caressed my face. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Maybe it was.” I leaned my head on the wall behind me. At some point my hands had stilled, and I didn’t quite have it in me to get them moving again. “But when you watch someone you care for killed in front of you specifically because they cared for you, it sort of sets the tone.”

They both stiffened at that, and I could feel the question burning on their tongues. I closed my eyes. “Her name was Hannah. She was clever. Often too clever for her own good. She reminds me a lot of you,” I gave Rhallani a squeeze. “She’s the one who taught me how to read. She taught me to read magic, too. How to follow the flow and find the spots best to interrupt it. I was twelve at the time, and she was one of the few friends I made when I was under Karn’s care.”

Serena kept rubbing my chest, and Rhallani put her hand on mine and gave it a squeeze. It helped more than they knew just having them there. “She was the one to figure out what Karn was doing first. How to puzzle it out. But in the end, she was too smart. She learned something that she wasn’t supposed to.”

“What was it?” Rhallani asked.

“No idea. I never got the chance to find out. That wasn’t even the worst of Hannah’s crimes in his eyes. She’d grown to care for me far too much. We were just kids, so it wasn’t anything more than friendship, but given time…” I hadn’t thought about Hannah in years. Not since I’d buried too many other faces to take her place in my nightmares. “And then I did the worst thing I could have possibly done.”

Serena, this time, prodded. “What did you do?”

“I made the mistake of caring right back.” They both tightened their grips. “One day, he called me and the others in. He stood there with Hannah at his side. He ordered us not to move—we had slave collars that could completely override our will—and he killed her. Made it clear that it was my fault. I had to stand there and watch her die. See the light go out of her eyes. Nobody was willing to come near me after that, and I wasn’t going to get anyone else killed.”

They both wrapped their arms around me, but they remained silent. “After, I wasn’t unlike Scarlet when we first met her. Karn had been breaking my body for years, but seeing Hannah die like that broke something inside me. It was a miracle that I got dragged out of that pit.”

“Eliya, right?” Rhallani asked.

Conflicting emotions rolled through me when I heard the name. Happiness. Longing. Rage. Anguish. Guilt. So much guilt. “Yeah. She was another experiment in progress, and she was never afraid of Karn like the others were. She befriended me against my will and dragged me back into the light.”

Rhallani’s head lifted. “Experiment in progress?”

“There were three groups of us. Failed experiments were the ones that Karn couldn’t force into classes like he wanted. They didn’t often last long after they got their classes. Sometimes he’d kill them just to make sure they never told a soul what his experiments entailed. Other times he’d sell them off or force the experiments in progress to kill them for levels or to push them towards whatever classes he was aiming for.”

They tensed, and Serena shuddered. “That’s awful!”

“Yep. But with the collars on us, there was nothing we could do but try and make it quick.” The words tasted like ash in my mouth. It had been Eliya who would tell the others that to try and help them sleep at night. It hadn’t worked very often. “The completed experiments were in a better place, but not by much. Kids he’d successfully bullied into one class or another, but enough was known about the class that he didn’t bother to learn anything else from it. I liked to think he kept them around to show off his successes, but he wasn’t afraid to use them to punish others.”

“Then there were kids like me and Eliya. We got rare classes that little to nothing was known about. It was still hell, and there weren’t many limitations put on what could be done to us by those he entertained, but he made sure any visitors or experiments left us alive. She knew he couldn’t risk killing her, so she pushed the boundaries more than anyone else.”

I let out a long breath. “But even Karn reached the end of his rope eventually.”

“What happened?” Serena asked.

That was one topic I wouldn’t—couldn’t revisit. Not yet. Just thinking about it made my gut wrench. Made my hands feel clammy. It felt like a hot knife was being jammed right into my sternum. “I’m sorry,” I told them. “That’s one story I’m not willing to relive just yet.”

“Oh, please don’t apologize!” Serena said. She sat up so she could take my cheek in one hand and kiss me deeply, then pressed her forehead to mine. “It’s my fault for prying. You’ve already told us so much.”

I ran my hand through her hair and pulled her back into my chest. “No, it’s fine. If it weren’t for you two prompting me, I’m not sure I’d have even gotten that far. Suffice to say that what happened with Eliya was…different than what happened with Hannah. Or anyone else, for that matter. I’d like to tell you one day, but not today.”

Rhallani pulled me in for a kiss of her own. “Of course, Ren. You know we’re more than willing to wait as long as you need. And,” she kissed me again, slow and soft and thoroughly, “I know I don’t need to say it, but I will. You’re not alone anymore. You’ve got us, and we’re lucky to have you.”

I knew that. And yet Hannah’s face still swum in my mind at night. Especially after I’d met Rhallani. It made me wonder what horrible fate was going to befall Rhallani and Serena for having the audacity to care for something like me. I didn’t say that, though. I knew exactly how they’d react. Instead, all I said was, “I know. Already my life in this time is leagues better than my life ever was before, and I have you two to thank for that.”

It was starting to get late. The crowd was starting to thin, and more than one customer and waitress had raised a brow in our direction. “Enough of that, though. What do you to say we take this up to the bedroom and leave all that sad, mopey stuff behind, huh?” Rhallani gave me a look that said she knew exactly what I was doing, but she didn’t fight me on it.

Serena pulled me down for one last kiss before she stood and stretched, drawing the envious eye of a few nearby men and more than a couple of the women when I stood and embraced her from behind. “You can try to hide it all you want, but I know you’re exhausted from how little you slept last night.”

She smiled at me, and Rhallani grabbed my other hand to start pulling me towards the room. I dragged Serena along with me. “I’ve still got more than enough energy for a few before-bed activities,” she argued.
I arched a brow and pointedly looked at the nipples still straining through the fabric of her shirt. “Oh, I’m certain of that.”

She blushed, but she also stuck her chest out more regardless of who was looking. Seems Rhallani wasn’t the only exhibitionist I had on my hands. I let Rhallani drag me into the room, then I let them both strip me of my clothes. After that, I let the bodies of the two women I loved wash away the pain of my past. They did their best to take my mind off the one place I wasn’t willing to go.

It almost worked, too.