I remained silent and thoughtful while we wound our way out of the ruins. The girls all crowded close to me and we kept our eyes open, but with the traps being disabled, everyone felt better able to relax at this point.
We paused for a short time while the three who hadn’t had a chance to look at the summoning diagram under the trapped flagstones studied it, but the girls all seemed in as much of a rush to get back to the surface as I was.
They talked quietly while we moved, with Cariad being the subject of discussion, oddly enough. Kassandra was rambling about wanting to try a close-fitting skirt like Cariad had been wearing, while Shayla was curious about the odd crossbow that the woman had been wielding. Rieka talked about the efficient way the woman had worked with us to get her notes together.
Only Jane was silent, still riding on my back while I led the way out.
We didn’t test the other traps on the way out, just in case the triggers that Kassandra and Jane had tripped to disable the summoning traps didn’t apply to anything outside the tunnel leading up to the major summoning room.
After they had exhausted discussing Cariad, the conversation continued on to the facility as well as questioning why there weren’t any written records down here as well.
“I’m betting that they were kept in the facility above,” Shayla asserted as we worked our way up the stairs, being careful of the marked stairs even though I’d broken the mechanical traps. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another concealed area for storing the manuscripts and notes. It would make sense to keep the laboratory away from such things. I mean, they did it in the other ruins.”
“Shadow Mountain was a lot bigger. But I think you are right, Shayla. We should check around the upper area of ruins. We’ve got a few days left given what we found here,” Rieka replied as we emerged into the buried building once more.
I pulsed my Manipulate Element again out of habit, confirming that nothing had changed and that it didn’t detect anyone else in the ruins.
The girls waited while I closed up the concealed door properly before heading back down the dark hallway. Shayla had conjured one of her light orbs and stuck it to the tip of one of her antennae, which made the source of illumination sway and bob, but it saved the moth woman mana from having to continually conjure lights and spend her mana.
“You ladies should check your coin reserves when we get back to the campsite, see if everything recharged or not, since things were slowing down towards the end there,” I suggested as we walked down the long hallway. Shayla’s more frugal use of her spells again reminded me of it and got me thinking. “Also. Rieka, do you remember if we recovered any platinum coins at Shadow Mountain?”
“You know what? I don’t think we did find any. Which is odd, considering that the holy palladium is so much more powerful. It would make far more sense for it to go from gold to platinum instead.” My princess hummed thoughtfully as she walked, tapping her lip with one long finger.
I noted that, despite her thoughtful pose, Rieka remained vigilant even in this area that we’d already checked and cleared.
Probably wary after having the DSR folks just pop up out of nowhere. I’m used to them doing that, but I bet it startled the girls.
“Perhaps they were used for something else? Both facilities have been researching summoning, and we found evidence of them working on both secondary and primal elements.” Kassandra suggested after a bit of thought.
The dwarf lamia was wriggling along to my left, her spell rod held ready but looking just as thoughtful as Rieka right now. She was chewing on her bottom lip cutely and I had to resist the urge to reach over and pull her lip free of her teeth.
“So they used the silver and gold coins for lower level summons, but the more powerful elements they brute forced it?” Jane suggested from behind me, her breath tickling my bare back.
“Possible,” Kassandra murmured, humming under her voice. “I know when we summoned Liam the first time, we did that. But once we had a link and more information to focus the summon, it got a lot cheaper.”
“That might have been because of the damage to the summoning circle too,” I reminded her. “After all, I wasn’t actually the target of your spell, just the closest thing that it could find with the limiter and protection parts broken. Speaking of, did you ever find out what happened there, Rieka?”
“No,” the princess growled, her irritation making the noise sharper than expected. “Same with those fools who attacked the farmers to set a trap for me. I have suspicions, but nothing concrete.”
Running my mind back over the options and things that we’d encountered over the last few months. The only name that popped up in my mind was one that should have already been at the top of the list.
“Josephine?” I suggested and Rieka sighed explosively, her pointed ears drooping to either side.
“That’s my best guess. She’s never been aggressive to me before, but her people have harassed others around me, and the final actions of her summon at the competition does put her in a suspicious light. But nothing that confirms it.”
“Well, it does kind of make sense. Given everything that we’ve been doing and your classes, you have been pretty busy,” Shayla said to console her, but Rieka just growled again, though fainter this time.
“It doesn’t remove the fact that someone is conspiring against me.”
“Or against me,” Kassandra reminded her friend. “And I know it was Josephine and her lackeys doing that. I don’t know if they had anything to do with the kidnapping plot, but they could just as easily have been targeting me with the damaged summoning circle.”
“That worked out in your favor at least,” I offered, hoping to derail the girls from their dark thoughts. “You ended up with me because of the damaged circle, and I’d like to believe I’m more of a blessing than a punishment.”
To punctuate the statement, I made sure to flex outrageously while I walked. Jane squeaked in surprise and nearly fell off as the motion made my mid-shoulders jostle her, but her tail kept her in place.
“Mmm, do that again,” Kassandra purred happily.
“What? Nearly knock Jane off?” Shayla teased, her antennae wiggling playfully and making the light flicker around us.
“Please don’t!” Jane protested, her slim arms wrapping as far around my chest as she could, clinging as tightly as she had going up the stairs.
I did my best to ignore the soft curves of Jane’s chest and her warmth against my bare back, striking a few more poses for good measure but being more careful this time to not dislodge my passenger. Jane weighed so little that it was easy to forget she was back there.
“Regardless, I turned the information over to my mother and she assigned her people to it. If she can find anything, then she’ll handle it. For now we just need to keep our eyes open and be wary of further plots.”
“So going camping with only one guard in the middle of nowhere is a bad idea then?” I teased before opening up the blocked section of hardened soil to admit light into the ruins once more.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
All four of the girls let out happy sighs as the natural light of the late evening flooded in to embrace them. Rieka leaned over and pressed a kiss to my cheek.
“If my guard was anyone else, then yes. But with my Traveler close at hand, the man who will give me pups one day, I’m safe,” Rieka murmured into my ear before nipping the lobe lightly.
Her words sent a thrill down my spine and made my temporary tail stand on end. Jane eep’d again in surprise as a deep-throated growl of need rumbled up from within me, making my body vibrate underneath her.
It took a moment for me to master the urge to just scoop Rieka up and remind my beautiful princess of how much I wanted that future for her too, but remembering that I needed to keep all four of these women safe gave me a handle to hold on to my arousal.
“Oh, I don’t know what you said, Rieka. But I think Liam liked it,” Kassandra chirped with a wicked giggle. “Come on, let’s get some clean clothes while Liam seals up the entrance and conceals it. We can head back in tomorrow unless Liam’s cute little handler tells us otherwise.”
“Cari’s not my handler, she’s my caseworker. Very different things,” I insisted as we trooped out. I scanned our surroundings before allowing the girls out of the cave, ensuring that nothing had trespassed on our campsite.
While we were in a hollow between hills, this was still more exposed than I was used to having our camps be. I’d gotten spoiled with always camping under thick tree cover after all.
But Kassandra slithered forward and checked her runestones before confirming that nothing had disturbed them, so the girls all delved into Rieka’s dimensional pouch to get out clean clothes and their washing supplies.
I offered to set the tent up to give them privacy, but the girls roundly denied it, insisting that I come with them. Even little Jane voiced her protest to me going far from her at this point.
So I didn’t argue and all five of us headed to the nearby river, finding a route down to the bank to wash. I helped each of the girls with what they were comfortable with, though both Shayla and Jane were blushing furiously from being naked around the others.
Or maybe that was just Kassandra’s teasing offer to let them have some alone time with me.
<><><>
It wasn’t until the following morning that I got word back from Cariad.
Since we hadn’t heard anything positive or negative about going back into the ruins, the girls had allowed themselves to have a lazy morning. This meant that I was wrangled into heater/pillow duty and not allowed to escape the tent.
Jane grabbed preserved food from our supplies and the girls all ate in bed, taking turns to feed me bits and pieces. Kassandra explained it away as allowing me to rest after the exertions of yesterday, and given the haunted look that slipped past her eyes when she said that, I didn’t argue.
Far be it from me to refuse my girls if they want to pamper me, I thought while chewing on a cube of jerky that Shayla had fed me. I’m curious when Jane is going to make her move though. It’s obvious that she’s interested. She spent so long of our bath time yesterday staring at me and blushing.
The mousy scholar was sitting in her familiar spot by my head, carefully slicing a hunk of cheese into small, bite sized portions with a little knife while she talked with Kassandra about what we’d found the previous day. The two were making plans of what they needed to check and record when we were allowed back into the ruins.
As if she could feel my eyes on her, Jane glanced my way with an inquisitive smile. Her cheeks darkened faintly and her large, mouse ears wiggled happily at my gaze.
Not missing a beat in her conversation with Kassandra, Jane picked up a hunk of the cheese between two fingers and offered it to me.
I accepted the bite and playfully nipped at her fingers, getting her to squeak in surprise and smack me lightly on the head.
“Now now, Liam. No eating Jane. If you want to eat someone, I am happy to offer myself,” Kassandra teased, the length of her tail wrapped around my waist currently giving me a gentle squeeze.
“If I wanted to eat you, my lovely Nugget, I’d just pick you up and do so. I know you wouldn’t protest,” I teased right back. But Kassandra was immune to such provocation and just smiled widely down at me.
“Damn straight,” Kassandra said primly, knotting her fingers over her head and stretching her back until it popped. Since she wasn’t wearing anything at the moment, this put her full, freckled breasts on even more obvious display.
“Do you have to do that?” Rieka asked pointedly.
“Do what?” Kassandra asked with a grin wide enough it squeezed her eyes nearly shut.
“Show off your tits so much. I know you like to tease Liam, but you make a girl jealous at times.”
“Look, you know that if you want to trade me and deal with the back pain in my stead then you are welcome to them,” Kassandra playfully shot back, cupping her bosom.
A flicker at the edge of my vision heralded an incoming message, so I was unable to appreciate the friendly argument that ensued a moment later.
Cariad
Hey Liam. So everything is secured from the ruin. Mr. Cerebaton has turned the artifact over to the disposal teams so that will be taken care of in a few days time. They need to study it to see if they can ascertain what it actually is beyond ‘extremely dangerous.’ DSR personnel have already gone back and removed anything incriminating from the facility.
The concealed door had some interesting machinery behind it that your girls might be able to repurpose. It basically was linked to a refinery that would process mana into the air. They may be able to repurpose it to run on crystals instead to speed charging of the metals?
Anyway, once the artifact is properly neutralized, I’ll drop by with a reward for your girls. The System reported that it has already furnished you with an appropriate reward. Let me tell you, that raised more than a few eyebrows over here. Mr. Cerebaton stomped on the suggestions to interrogate you about it, saying that Travelers enjoy the blessings of the System and we are not meant to challenge its decisions.
Anyway, this message is getting excessively long. You are cleared to return and take whatever else you want from the ruins, as are your girls. Send them my best and remind them to look after you, since you suck at doing that yourself. :P
The cute little ‘tongue poking out’ emoji that she attached at the end of the message made me snort in amusement. My emotions towards the sultry and playful daemon were as complex as any of my girls, but I had more worries than just emotions with her, considering the corrosive effect of her bare skin unless I was projecting my own entropic magic.
“What’s up, Liam?” Kassandra demanded, shifting to flop down onto my chest and peer up at me expectantly. Since she was naked from the waist up, this was a rather pleasant experience despite the weight of her chest landing on me.
“Huugeh,” I grunted playfully, pretending to have the air crushed out of me by her weight and Kassandra giggled, wriggling up further to mush my face between her freckled peaks for a moment before she retreated with an expectant look.
“Seriously? Your first instinct after asking him something was to smother him?” Jane snickered, though the mouse kin was still blushing furiously.
“He enjoys it. At this point, I’m sure he does it specifically to provoke that reaction from me,” Kassandra replied with a shrug that sent her curves jiggling before she returned her attention to me once more.
“Just got word back from Cari, we are good to head back inside. She said that the machinery inside the concealed panel might be something that could be reverse engineered to run on crystallized mana. Dunno how that would work, since it would just pump the aligned mana into the air, but maybe if you use an equal number of them?”
My words got the attention of Rieka and Shayla, who’d been lounging on my other side sharing my leg as a pillow. Jane squeaked in excitement, her ears flicking rapidly as she bounced upright, shedding her blankets and revealing her nightclothes which clung to her slender form.
“We should hurry then! I want to have a look at the equipment then. Maybe it’s something we can rig up for the academy! If that could be worked out, then it would be a major discovery!” Jane proclaimed.
With a quick motion, she started stripping off her night things. In her excitement, it was obvious she was entirely unaware of the fact that her small breasts were now bouncing directly above my face. Being a gentleman, I averted my eyes by looking downwards to see Rieka smirking up at me.
I shrugged at her when she quirked an eyebrow. I was aware of Jane’s interest, and I’d seen most of her figure the previous day while we washed. But it was different when she was distracted like this, like she hadn’t consented.
“She’s right though,” I said, poking Kassandra gently in the ribs to make her wiggle and laugh. “Come on, we should all get up and moving. We’ve only got a bit more time before we need to head back to town and the academy. Let’s make the most of it before we turn this place over to the queen.”
That got a round of nods and smiles from the other three girls as they got up, treating me to another view of barely-clad or naked flesh that didn’t make me feel guilty to enjoy.
Just be patient. Jane will decide when and if she is ready, I reminded myself with a smile.
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