A fact that I learned a while back about myself was that—with the level my stats were at currently—I could endure quite a bit of discomfort if it came to it. I didn’t enjoy said discomfort, but I could endure it.

  Like ignoring a sunburn.

  But rather than something as mild as a sunburn, it might be a stab or slashing wound, frostbite, or even a broken bone.

  Suffocation was just another discomfort that I could ignore as well, as long as I could get at least a modicum of air every minute or so, I was fine. To the point that I could even sleep through it mostly. Which was good, given how I tended to wake up when spending time on Cortha.

  We’d spent the night at the inn situated inside the way-station’s walls, and simply shared a room like we normally would share a tent while camping.

  I’d offered to sleep on the narrow couch in the room, or even on the floor so that the girls could have the more comfortable bed, but all four of them had refused. So I’d ended up in a pile of limbs, soft curves, and fuzzy appendages.

  When I woke up, I found Shayla draped over my chest for once, her fuzzy antennae cupping my face like a pair of gentle hands while she nuzzled under my chin. Her wings were draped to either side, acting as covers for the girls snuggled in there.

  Kassandra was on my left, but her tail was wrapped around my arm while she used my thigh as a pillow instead of my shoulder for once, the muscled appendage squeezing and kneading in her sleep as she dozed. Opposite Kassandra was Rieka, but the exhausted wolfish princess was snuggled into my side in a more normal position, with her back to me and wrapped around my arm like it was a body pillow, using my shoulder for her pillow.

  A little squeeze around my neck brought my half-asleep mind back to what had woken me and I rolled my eyes to look, but couldn’t see past Shayla’s antennae. A tickle on the back of my neck followed by a quiet mumble, and then something squeezing the top of my head this time clued me in on where Jane was.

  The little mouse kin girl had developed this habit of cuddling my head in her sleep, her little body wrapping around my head for warmth. The gentle squeeze I could feel around my neck had to be her tail, but with both my arms restrained, I had no way of confirming this suspicion.

  Well, whatever, I thought, shifting slightly and making the girls stir and cling to me in their own ways. This is comfortable and I’ll do something if she squeezes me too tightly. It’s not like Jane can put as much strength in her tail as Kass could.

  With that thought, I let myself doze for another few hours until the sun finally crested the horizon to tickle us all awake through the open window.

  Shayla was the first, and I knew it because her antennae, which had been just pressed softly to my face before, began to stir and stroke over my cheeks slowly. Then her wings began to pump in a gentle rhythm, a habit she had that helped get her blood flowing in the morning.

  Because of the action of her wings and their previous positioning as impromptu blankets on a couple of mostly naked noblewomen, Rieka and Kassandra were the next to wake up with grumbles and groans of protest. Most of the grumbling came from Kassandra, who tried to burrow into my side further for warmth. The groaning was more my princess’ doing since she was a bit sore from our previous evening’s activities.

  “Time to get up, ladies,” I said quietly, using the arms that the two protesting girls had trapped to hug or tickle them as needed, while blowing gently on the base of Shayla’s antennae.

  The moth girl stiffened with a quiet moan at that sensation and her hands on my chest began to knead and scratch at my bare skin lightly.

  “None of that now, Shayla,” I chuckled, pressing a kiss to the top of her head when the moth woman gave a sad whine. “Maybe tonight if you can talk Kass into sharing.”

  “Nooo, mine!” Kassandra whined in response, her tail tightening on my arm.

  “Then you need to get up, Nugget. We have to get on the road soon so we can make it to the next waystation, where we’ll hike out and start looking for that site. The sooner we get on the road, the sooner you have your turn.” I punctuated the verbal bribe with a twiddle of my fingers, which managed to catch and tweak one of Kassandra’s bare nipples, making her squeak in surprise.

  “Up, I’m up…” Shayla said, finally leaning up right with a cute yawn before she started rubbing at one of her depthless, black eyes with a hand. Her antennae finally released my face, stretching out like little arms as she yawned before balling back up like they were kittens going back to sleep.

  “Shayla, can you check if they left the wash water by the door?” I asked, and the moth woman nodded sleepily, slipping down off of me and toddling towards the door.

  Like my other lovers, Shayla had been quick to learn the little things she could do to spoil me. It’s the only reason I could think of why the shy but curvy woman would come to bed in nothing but a pair of string underwear and no bra, or be willing to walk about brazenly after how reserved she’d been.

  While Shayla retrieved the wash water, I urged my pair of arm-clingers upright, with Rieka assisting me in tickling Kassandra enough to get the dwarf-lamia to release my arm.

  When Shayla returned with the steaming vase of water, Kassandra immediately slithered over to get her share while it was still as warm as possible.

  With my arms free, I reached up to prod at my headgear. Jane made quiet nyum nyum noises in my ear, her tight little body wrapping around my head just a bit more firmly until I found the muscled cord of her tail and gave it a gentle tug.

  Jane went from mostly asleep to wide awake in about half a second and she gave a cute little yip before scrambling away from me when she realized how close she’d clung in the night.

  Unfortunately, she must not have noticed her tail.

  The scrambling flight of the little woman ended after only inches and thankfully before she got much momentum up. My neck still gave a satisfying pop when she hit the end of her ‘rope’ and jerked my head to one side.

  “OhmygodLiamIamsosorry!” Jane said in a high-pitched rush, tugging on her tail as the rebellious limb refused to release me so easily.

  “It’s—ack—fine, Jane,” I tried to reassure her between jerks while the other girls giggled furiously around the small table to one side of the bed. Jane wasn’t listening though, as her embarrassment was obviously too high for anything other than frantic resolutions at the moment.

  <><><>

  “I am so sorry about this morning, Liam,” Jane said for the dozenth time already.

  “I said it is fine, Jane. It’s not the first time someone’s tried to choke me in my sleep and you did no real harm,” I reassured her again, lightly stroking the hair between her rounded mouse ears.

  It was testament to how bad Jane felt that she didn’t even protest the casual contact. The mouse kin woman normally shied away from casual touch in the past—or found it embarrassing, I wasn’t sure which—but bore up under what I hoped was my reassuring caresses. She’d seemed to enjoy them in the past before anxiety got the better of her, just not as much as Rieka did.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Still, that was unacceptable and forward of me,” Jane mumbled, her rounded ears wilting again.

  “Are you going to explain what you mean by that this time?” I teased gently, but Jane didn’t elaborate.

  I could tell from the heat radiating off her large ears that she was blushing furiously, even though I couldn’t see her face. So I let it drop. Instead, I turned my attention to Rieka, who sat across from me in the rattling carriage with a soft smile on her face while she watched me try and reassure the still-mortified mouse girl.

  “So, Rieka,” I began when my princess met my eyes. “What’s the plan again? I figure we should go over it at least one more time before we arrive. The coachman said we’d make it to the next stop in the late afternoon. Are we going to take another coach further out into the hills, or go by foot?”

  While we’d talked over the plan several times, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to refresh everyone’s memories since this was an official mission from the queen. Also, my quest from the System hadn’t triggered yet, and I was hoping that this official rehash would trip it.

  “Sure,” Rieka replied sweetly, her black-tipped wolf ears twitching animatedly as she tilted her head while smiling at me. The fluffy mass of her tail was currently draped over her lap while she idly finger-combed the fur there.

  “Do we have to?” Kassandra groaned, her head falling back to thump into the wall of the carriage theatrically while the diffuse light from outside glimmered on her spectacles. “I swear, we planned everything to death previously.”

  “It doesn’t hurt to discuss it again,” Shayla said with a shrug, looking up from the magnifying glass I’d given her the previous day. It was a simple, hand-held one made of glass and metal with a plastic handle. She’d been studying how it could affect light and focus it like her magic, but clearly welcomed the distraction.

  “Fine, but I want cookies,” Kassandra insisted with a pout.

  I rolled my eyes and shifted the hand that had been resting on Shayla’s thigh. A gesture brought a small package of sugar cookies out of my Dimensional Pocket, and the plastic tray was snatched out of my fingers instantly.

  “Discuss away!” The dwarf lamia chirped happily while peeling open the plastic to reveal the yellow and blue frosted cookies.

  The discussion didn’t actually start until the cookies had been distributed to each of the girls, with them carefully breaking the extras up so that they each got an equal share and the munching commenced.

  I, of course, did not get any of them.

  “So,” Rieka said, a smear of blue frosting on her upper lip. “We will arrive in Stonebrook late today. We have the option of taking rooms in town, or proceeding out of town to start heading to our destination. I already have enough supplies in my dimensional bag for several weeks out, but we are expected to return to Stonebrook within a week, and no more than ten days. This is because of the two day trip out and back as my mother’s pass only covers us for two weeks.”

  “I’m still not sure I like missing that many classes,” Jane mumbled around her mouthful of yellow sugar cookie, a small smear of the frosting with a bit of white sprinkle on the tip of her nose.

  “It’ll be fine, Jane. The dean knows that the queen requested our presence and Juneau will accommodate us,” Kassandra said dismissively, nearly spraying crumbs as she spoke.

  While the other three were eating delicately and savoring their treats, Kassandra had crammed the entirety of her first cookie into her mouth and looked like a rather adorable and scaly chipmunk with how puffed out her cheeks were. I wanted to reach across the carriage and squeeze those cheeks as she tried to chew her sweet mouthful, but knew better. If I made her spit out the cookie, she’d be upset.

  “I can’t help but wonder why we are at Juneau anymore,” Shayla said quietly before taking a delicate bite of her cookie.

  The statement from the normally reserved moth woman drew attention from the other three girls and they all turned to stare at her in surprise. I waited to see what their reactions would be, in case I needed to step in, but Rieka huffed through her nose while she chewed and swallowed before speaking.

  “I understand what you mean, Shayla. The last few weeks have been refreshing with the trips we’ve been taking. Between the bounty we got from that set of ruins even in just our last trip, it’s not as if we have a need for the money at the moment. If we can locate this next set of ruins, then we’ll be even better set up. And that is in spite of the share my mother is claiming for the crown as our sponsor.”

  “But there is so much to learn at Juneau,” Jane protested, though from her tone I gathered she was just as unsure as Shayla was now that the subject had been broached.

  “And we can learn just as much from private tutors or self-study,” Kassandra countered. “I know that it’s also meant as an opportunity for us to network and meet others, but with everything that has gone on lately, I have to wonder if that’s worth it. Rieka is the fourth princess and it’s not like she needs to try and fight for political positions. My parents are hereditary nobility and I can meet people through them as well. You two are probably wealthy enough to simply retire already if you want to from what we discovered, as long as you manage your money well.”

  I caught the grimace on Shayla’s face out of the corner of my eye and stepped into the conversation.

  “Just because you have the funds to retire doesn’t mean you have to, though. Shayla, you said you came to Juneau to study the books they had on light magic, right? And your art is doing really well too already. I’m sure that, if you wanted to, you could support yourself with that while collecting books on the subject. If you wanted to.”

  The moth woman nodded slowly in agreement, her eyes still fixed on her hands. But like usual, her antennae were more honest and the fluffy appendages stretched out to brush against the side of my face in a statement that I could easily understand.

  If I’m not at Juneau, would I still be your partner?

  Since I didn’t have the tray of cookies in that hand anymore, I settled it back on Shayla’s thigh and gave the moth woman a gentle and reassuring squeeze. Shayla leaned into me with a sigh.

  “There is still a lot of research for me though,” Jane protested, taking a rather aggressive bite out of her second cookie and smearing more frosting on her nose by accident. “I want to be a historian, and there is a lot still for me to learn at the academy. Plus, it might be nice to teach one day.”

  I felt something on my elbow and glanced down towards Jane to find that her tail, which normally draped over her lap or across her shoulders while she sat, had wound itself around my elbow. Rather than draw attention to it, I just ignored the fluffy-tipped appendage for now and kept up the reassuring stroking between Jane’s ears.

  “Fair,” Kassandra said with a sigh, leaning back in her seat. “I just can’t help but think that I could do so much more by not having to attend classes.”

  “By ‘so much more,’ you mean Liam, right?” Rieka prodded with a gentle smile, getting a mature response from Kassandra.

  Pulling her tongue back into her mouth, my dwarf lamia pouted at her friend.

  “Like you’d do anything different!”

  “I never denied that,” Rieka countered with a smug smile. “Let’s table that for now. We have a mission from the queen to find this set of human ruins in the veldt between our queendom and the Emirates. Being so close to another nation makes it the one at the largest risk. We need to be subtle about it, so we are pretending to be hunting monsters for a class project. Not something that is done very often, but not impossible.”

  Rieka continued to talk, but I was distracted by the flash around the edges of my vision and scrolling words that appeared.

  Find and claim the ancient human ruins for the Coldeye Queendom before the Emirate of the Red Sun does. Ensure your contracted companions are kept safe.

  Bonus reward if you are able to scout the ruins for illicit research to be secured and/or destroyed on behalf of the Dimensional Security and Repair.

  Reward - 4000 SP

  Bonus Reward - Power Unlock.

  I eyed the bonus reward on the mission warily. The last time I’d gotten a bonus it had simply shown up as a series of question marks as an aside to a minor mission I got from Kassandra. This one outright told me what it was.

  What is more suspicious though, I thought as the burning words faded from view, is the fact that the girls didn’t mention anything about the DSR or the research. That was a secondary thing that Cariad asked me about. Is the System itself intervening directly?

  Yes.

  That single word burning itself across my vision made my stomach fall out my asshole and every hair I had stood on end.

  Cariad had described the System as a sort of extra-dimensional supercomputer that helped the DSR manage and maintain the integrity of the dimensional membranes which kept the different universes separate. She’d said that the DSR didn’t even know exactly how it worked, as it was created by the progenitors of the daemons. They just knew how to work with it, but not how to modify it.

  I’d asked questions of the System before, and it had always spat out very formulaic answers or informational blurbs when it did anything at all. This was the first time that it had volunteered information to an idle thought.

  The idea that the System was monitoring my thoughts even now made the hairs standing on end start to do the Macarena and I felt a surge of bile in my throat.

  Nothing to do about it, I thought, swallowing hard to force the urge to vomit back down. The System has helped me at every turn thus far. I should just trust it. Yeah, this is just the System asking for assistance with something that it knows is important. That’s right. Not creepy at all that a multi-dimensional supercomputer capable of steering travel between universes and rewarding people with phenomenal powers is monitoring me. Trust in the System…

  I half expected the System to pipe in with some snide comment or another gut-wrenching message, but nothing happened as the carriage continued to rattle along the road.

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