While sleeping on the hard stone floor with only a few blankets as padding had made for a rough night, the sheer adorableness that greeted me when I woke up was worth it.

  I’d taken the opportunity of the changing watches the previous night to wiggle free of my trap, taking the middle shift after Rieka to take over for her and Rieka’s approach had woken me.

  The two of us had silently agreed to let Shayla sleep the whole night through without waking her, as the moth woman had put quite a bit of work into her spells the previous day in maintaining that light spell as long as she did. Add that to the fact that she didn’t stir even once when we shifted, just kept sleeping with a cute little wheezy snore, and we could tell she was tired.

  After I finished my shift, having spent it using my earth magic to build out a rough map in the floor of what I remembered from our last trip and smoothing it out to practice, I woke Kassandra for the last shift.

  My loving little mischief macaroni had initially resisted my attempts to wake her, but a couple of kisses was enough to pull her out of sleep and into my arms.

  Kassandra insisted on making good on retrieving her ‘snack’ just out of sight of the sleeping pile of women by the door. And I’d never tell my girls no to something as simple as a bit of affection.

  Once I’d returned the favor to her, I curled back up in the pile with Shayla tucked into my chest and Rieka tucked into hers. No sooner had I laid down than the moth girl wiggled about and pressed herself into my chest, her folded wings snuggling between us even as her soft bottom rubbed into my crotch.

  Shayla calmed when I kissed the back of her neck lightly and pulled her into me. A moment later, Rieka wiggled into place on Shayla’s other side, still mostly asleep and chasing the warmth of the other woman.

  Jane was once again at the head of the impromptu ‘bed’ and curled up in a little ball to sleep. She didn’t move at all as we got comfortable and fell asleep.

  Waking up was when I discovered the adorableness I had previously mentioned.

  The girls in my arms hadn’t stirred at all, and though I was stiff from laying on my side on the hard stone, I let myself wake up slowly and acclimate to the world without moving, savoring the feeling of Shayla’s soft curves pressed to my chest, and the feeling of Rieka’s hips in my hands where I held her against Shayla on the other side.

  From the slow breathing of the women, I could tell that I was the first one awake. A quiet scratch of something sounded and I carefully angled my head to look at where the noise was coming from.

  Kassandra was curled up at the foot of the bed, her tail lay half-stuffed under the blankets to keep her warm while she made another mark in her notebook with a charcoal pencil. There was a smudge of the drawing medium on her cheek under her right eye, and another smear on top of her nose, darkening the freckles that danced over her fair skin.

  I shifted slightly, about to call out to Kassandra quietly at the beautiful sight when I felt something slide in my hair. A quiet, sleepy mumble sounded in my ear and then something fluffy landed on my face.

  Huffing, I blew at the object to make it move. The fluffy object flicked away a moment later, and I realized what it was.

  Jane’s tail.

  While I was trying to figure out how the mouse kin’s tail ended up on my head, I felt something shift in my hair again. That sleepy mumble came once more before a grip tightened on my head and I glanced upwards to see the underside of Jane’s jaw as she shifted again and pulled my head tighter to her chest.

  “She looks adorable doing that.”

  Kassandra’s soft words drew my attention back to my dwarf lamia, and she was watching me with a loving smile. When I quirked my eyebrow at her questioningly, Kassandra elaborated.

  “Jane is hugging your head from behind like a teddy bear. When you laid back down, she slowly wiggled down to cuddle your head in her sleep. I think she was cold and followed your warmth.”

  “Ah,” I murmured and blinked tiredly. I knew I could probably get back to sleep if I really wanted to, but that also felt like a mistake at this point. I’d gotten enough sleep that I could get back to work, and from how stiff I was, I’d definitely slept long enough that it was time to wake the others.

  “Time?” I asked quietly and Kassandra nodded, her smile growing a bit wider.

  “Time to get up. It’s been a few hours since you laid down.”

  “Got it, gonna have to wake the girls up somehow,” I replied, my voice scratchy from sleep.

  “Dontwannagetupyet,” slurred Jane from above me. Her statement was followed by a sleepy giggle from the moth woman in my arms who—realizing she was caught out as awake—ground her butt into my crotch.

  “I think they are already awake, Liam,” Kassandra teased while wiggling her eyebrows. “You gonna give them breakfast like you did—”

  “And time to get up, yes,” I interrupted Kassandra, making the redheaded troublemaker giggle again.

  <><><>

  “These carvings are fascinating!” Jane cooed as we inspected the entryway to the deeper complex.

  Shayla had created another of her light spells and, at my suggestion, attached it to my left hand, which I’d transformed into one of my scorpion-tail morphs with Shape-Shifting. This allowed her to dig out her sketchbook and the moth woman was busily scribbling away, drafting down everything that she could see in a series of sketches while her antennae bobbled excitedly.

  “Yeah, I wanted to look at them closer before, but with the golems attacking us, it just didn’t seem like a good idea to get distracted back then,” Kassandra replied, slithering up to sit next to the mouse kin woman while the two studied the intricate carvings on the wall and railing.

  The main room that came after the station was at the end of a hallway. It opened up into a two-floor space with halls leading off to either side. The second floor was set up as a balcony overlooking the first, and the back half of the second had collapsed on top of the first, blocking another tunnel that we hadn’t explored the last time we were here.

  Gray stone and metallic accents made up most of the remaining structure down here. Even with it being preserved from the passage of time, paints had decayed and flaked off the walls, falling into pastel piles before fading into smears and dust. The strange overhead lights still worked, responding to verbal cues from me but not the girls. Which made me wonder if they were somehow linked to humans to activate them.

  Which makes me wonder why I, a human from an entirely different world and evolutionary path, is able to trigger whatever overrides are in place if that is true, I thought silently while covering the girls while they studied the large anteroom.

  Then there is that ‘Traveler Override’ that the golems guarding the high value room mentioned before too. I had forgotten about that until we got in here. Way too many questions and not enough answers.

  I couldn’t really fault myself for forgetting, considering the fighting for our lives and the amazing discoveries that we’d made while in here, as well as the fact we’d run into something inimical to life as we knew it.

  Even though I was certain that Cariad and Cerebaton’s teams had found and removed any others like that creature when the DSR had swept the facility, I still didn’t want to take chances.

  “Okay, I’ve got all that I can with sketches,” Shayla said, her antennae fluttering and flicking happily as she carefully flipped to a fresh page in the leather bound folio that held her sketch work. “I’d say we should take these statues with us if we could, but there’s no way to safely transport something that heavy.” Shayla gestured to the handful of intact decorative statues of humans along the walls.

  “We need to leave something of value for the queen and her people to study,” I reminded her, getting a playful pout from Shayla before the moth woman got a thoughtful look.

  “Liam, your earth magic is pretty well controlled at this point. Do you think you could use it to replicate these statues?”

  “Probably,” I replied with a shrug. “I’ve done some statue work back home to sell. It’s mostly very simple stuff though. I’m going to need a lot of practice before I’m anywhere near the level of someone who would really consider themselves accomplished.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Oh really?” Kassandra, clearly smelling an opportunity to tease, slithered around to grin up at me, mischief dancing in her slitted brown eyes behind those glimmering spectacles of hers. “Have you done a statue of one of us yet? I’d be happy to pose for you, my Liam.”

  The dwarf lamia swayed her hips slowly, rocking back and forth alluringly on her serpentine lower half while tangling one hand in her mass of bombshell curls and propping the other on her hip. A twist and a thrust of her torso sent a delicate ripple through her bounteous flesh where it sat proudly on her chest above the support of her underbust corset.

  “Hold that pose, Kass,” Shayla ordered sharply, her black eyes going wide in interest as the charcoal in her hand began to fly over the page in front of her.

  Kassandra choked at first, her eyes bugging in surprise at the assertive demand from the normally shy moth woman, but she composed herself and held her position while Shayla worked.

  My artistic moth was quick, and had a rough sketch in place on her page of Kassandra against the background of the ruins in minutes. I did note that Shayla didn’t bother to block in clothing for Kassandra, simply curving in her bust and hips, then turning her attention to the sultry facial expression and more. I had my suspicions about her plans for that image, given Kassandra’s normally teasing and sexy nature.

  “I think I’ll want a copy of that one if you do a full-sized piece, Shayla,” I said after leaning in to murmur in her ear. “I think I’d like a portrait of each of my girls, whether a normal one or an… artistic interpretation of them.”

  Shayla’s sudden blush confirmed my suspicions and I kissed her on the cheek before leaning away to give her space.

  “I… I mean… If you…” Shayla stuttered before composing herself. “I’d be happy to, Liam. I just have to work them in between my commissions to cover my tuition and supplies.”

  “Oh I fully plan to pay for them, so slot me in whenever,” I said with a grin at Shayla. “I’m sure I can shake loose some of the coin that Kassandra is investing for me.”

  “You don’t have to shake anything loose from me,” Kassandra protested petulantly, crossing her arms over her chest now that Shayla gave her the okay to move.

  “No, you happily shake whatever he wants whenever he wants it, don’t you?” Rieka teased her friend. “Now come on, let's go and inspect the supply area to see if there is anything else the rest of us want. This whole trip is to confirm this area is safe for Liam’s contacts and then we can turn it over to Mother. She’ll then likely send scholars to study it, so we won’t get access again.”

  “What about those other tunnels that led off from the station?” Jane asked, bouncing over to join us as we made our way past the ruined stone golems that we’d fought the last time we were here. There wasn’t even a sign of the undead we’d had to destroy, only the fragments of the combat statues.

  “No idea, but they could lead anywhere. While I want to explore them too, we don’t know where they go or how far they extend. They might be blocked by ancient cave-ins too, so I’m of the opinion we leave that to Mother and her historians,” Rieka said with a shrug. “Also, we have that copper map, so we can go and check out the areas on it too. No telling if those complexes are connected to this one by the rails or not.”

  “Fair point. Now, if you see a pair of stout-looking statues of men in armor with weapons, don’t approach them,” I said the last part to Shayla and Jane. “There was a high-value vault in here that still had guardian golems. While we could destroy them, I’d rather mark them out so that Queen Coldeye can have functional ones studied and so no one stumbles onto them.”

  The two girls nodded in understanding and we headed out.

  I led the group with my stinger-arm and it’s attached light spell over my head. The route to the storage rooms was just an offshoot along the hallway, and it opened up into a long, high-ceilinged room with stacks of ancient supplies piled on either side of the central walkway.

  Jane let out a surprised whistle at the sight that echoed along the hall, bouncing back and forth from the stone walls before hitting the end and rebounding back towards us.

  “Sorry,” Jane said with a wince, ducking her head when the four of us turned to stare at her in surprise. The mouse kin woman grabbed her tail and was rolling the fluffy tip between her hands nervously.

  “It’s fine. Just… be more careful in the future. We don’t know what might be living down here or may have been missed by our last pass, okay? No reason to let them know that we are here, right?” I teased her gently, patting Jane on the head lightly.

  She twitched in surprise at the action and I fought the urge to jerk my hand back and apologize. I knew doing that would just make the moment even more awkward, so I held back.

  Shit, you got too used to rewarding and reassuring Rieka that way, I chastised myself before Jane shifted again and rubbed her head up into my hand once more with a small smile.

  “Okay, I’ll keep it in mind,” Jane said quietly once I reclaimed my hand after reassuring her.

  I filed away her affection for headpats again in my mind before leading the girls down the hall to inspect the various crates of ancient supplies.

  Shayla was able to find and put a name to several useful things, most of them various kinds of metallic or specialized inks. The bottles were glass and sealed tight with either wax or lead, but apparently she’d caught sight of the telltale glimmer of something at the bottom. A quick shake stirred up the separated pigments and revealed what they were. She took as many of them as she could, storing them inside the dimensional pouch that Rieka had to ensure the glass wouldn’t be damaged.

  Jane didn’t find anything that caught her attention, though she repeated several times how astonishing it was that there was so much down here and that it was in such good condition.

  “There has to be some kind of preservative effect here. These bars should be badly corroded or at least should be discolored more,” the mouse woman said in wonder, inspecting a bar of copper that was around the size of her hand and weighed about five pounds.

  I loaded a dozen of those into the girl’s pouch as well, and when asked I explained that I wanted to use them for sculpting. That got some odd looks from Rieka, but she didn’t complain and even offered to look after them for me when I promised to trade them for more sugar cookies. Which of course set off a round of complaints from the other girls who hadn’t had the chance to sneak in on the deal either.

  Thankfully, I had bribes in the form of chocolate croissants stashed away to mollify my girls.

  We made a quick check through the disused barracks that sat opposite of the storage room on that main anteroom, but discovered nothing new in the space. Though it was far more disorganized than when we’d come through the first time, showing evidence of the DSR personnel having searched it.

  Kassandra and Rieka were hesitant to check the upper room again as well, and I couldn’t fault them. It was where we’d found both the summoning circles for different elemental types as well as cages and what looked disturbingly like dissection tables to me.

  Seeing those tables again, especially in the brighter light of Shayla’s spell, brought home more of just how dark this entire environment was. Jane—who had been happily jabbering along about how she was excited to see what sort of mysteries that the ancient humans had been studying—was probably the most disturbed by the sight.

  The little mouse kin woman ended up sliding in between Rieka and I without looking up at either of us, and remained there as we cased the rest of the area. Shayla had hold of my shirt and didn’t let go either, clinging close on the side that I had the light attached to my shifted arm.

  Our brief survey of the surgery and the summoning rooms showed that there were a lot more things missing here. Everything from odd tools that had been on racks that looked like operating equipment, to the diagrams that had been cut into the floor in some of the rooms.

  Anything that referenced the entropic creatures, summoning, or controlling them had been meticulously wiped clean and evidence of its existence had been removed too.

  Even the room where we’d fought the sack-like entropy monster had the floor scraped clean and then leveled to hide the shapes present. Rather than mending the floor, someone had come along and simply melted the stone down another inch or two in there, removing many of the shallower scratches in the process and completely eliminating the summoning pattern.

  “That… was really creepy, maybe even worse the second time,” Kassandra mumbled as we emerged back into the large anteroom.

  “I don’t believe it. How could that be worse the second time through?” Jane shot back, doubt thick in her voice.

  “Before, with the dimmer lights it was easier to just ignore stuff. But those stains on that surgery table…” A full body shiver ran through Kassandra and I shifted to bring my right hand around and cup her cheek lightly.

  Kassandra gave me a haunted smile and nuzzled into the hand anyway.

  “Yeah… I don’t want to think about how much… use that table saw to still have stains on it after all these years,” Rieka said and shivered lightly. She firmed up when Jane leaned into her comfortingly and the mouse kin woman’s tail wound around Rieka’s hips comfortingly.

  “Well, that was hopefully the worst of it. Nothing really changed and we didn’t see anything that might have been missed so far. Just have to clear this out now,” I said with a sigh, gesturing towards the collapsed mezzanine that blocked the lower floor.

  “Well, hop to it, Liam,” Kassandra prodded weakly, her words lacking the normal pep that she had when she was harassing me, but it was clear she was trying to bounce back so I took it with a smile.

  “While you work on that, do you mind if I do some more sketches?” Shayla asked shyly. The moth woman’s sketchbook had been tucked away once we got into the surgery, and I wondered if she was wanting to record what she’d just seen, now that she wasn’t surrounded by the gruesome sights.

  “Sure, just make sure none of you are alone or out of sight of the others. While we did check the place to make sure there aren’t any other threats, it’s possible we missed something,” I insisted and got a nod from Shayla, who promptly hooked Kassandra and dragged the surprised dwarf lamia off.

  There were some furtive whispers between the two and then Kassandra got a wicked smile on her face. A wicked smile that honestly made me worry when she began shooting me devious looks as Shayla continued to murmur. It made her look more like she usually did, but also was concerning.

  “I don’t think I like that look,” I said quietly, which got a snicker from Rieka and a ‘huh?’ from Jane, who remained close to me.

  “Trust me, if Kass wasn’t up to something—especially something salacious or mischievous regarding you Liam—then I’d be really worried,” Rieka laughed before pressing herself to my side. “Now, why don’t you show us how powerful our Traveler is by unburying this long-hidden section of an ancient, forgotten human ruins so we can pillage it properly before telling my mother, the queen, about it so she can have this place studied?”

  I stared at Rieka in awe for several long seconds as she continued to grin up at me, her ears flicking in amusement while her fluffy tail swished behind her.

  “Damn… she’s good,” Jane muttered behind me, and the mouse kin’s words broke me out of my distraction.

  “My life is so weird,” I muttered, turning to the collapsed masonry.

  “But you love it,” Rieka countered in a sunny tone.

  “But I love you, and all my girls,” I said, returning my attention to the wolf-eared princess hanging off my arm and kissing her on the tip of the nose.

  Her tail whipping faster was her only answer.

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