The m, after Natalie and Jordan had gotten showered and dressed into normal clothes—Jordan had joined her in bed after Natalie and Malice were finished—Ana knocked on their bedroom door.

  "Natalie. Jordan," the mage greeted, her brown eyes impassive aone as monotone as always. "Good m."

  "Hey," Jordan said, havihe oo open the door. She looked curiously at the mage, obviously not knowing why she'd chosen to visit. "What's up?"

  "I o speak with Natalie."

  "You do?"

  "You stay, but the topic might be … personal."

  Jordan's eyebrows went up. She ughed. "Don't wanna intrude. I'll leave you two to it. Let me guess. [Divine Invigoration]?"

  "Indeed," Ana said.

  "Don't wring her out too much. We need her for the fights today."

  "Mm," Ana said nonittally.

  Natalie, having been ihroom brushieeth, gave the two of them a fused look. She'd only half heard what they'd said. "Hm?" she asked Jordan past a mouthful of toothpaste.

  Jordan just ughed again. She left, closing the door, leaving Ana alone in the room with her.

  Spitting out toothpaste aing aside her toothbrush, Natalie said, "What's going on?"

  "I o speak to you."

  "About?"

  "A practical matter."

  "Okay … ?"

  Ana sat on the bed. She was in regur clothes, not adventuring gear—so not her revealing mage robes. Just a knee-length skirt and a blouse.

  "Initially, we decided Elizabeth was the best target for [Divine Invigoration]," Ana started.

  So Natalie hadn't misheard that. But [Divine Invigoration] and Ana? What was this about? Jordan apparently knew, or had guessed.

  And, holy, Natalie was getting a sneaking suspi as well.

  "Yeah?" Natalie asked tentatively.

  "But seeing how we're fighting a swarm of lower-level monsters, applying the buff to me is smarter," she finished, with her overt bluntness nor subtlety. Passively stating a fact. "I am, after all, the person most capable of clearing rge amounts of weaker enemies. And that will be especially important today, with us heading out to find their . I didn't mention it yesterday because the skill only be applied once per day."

  Ah.

  Admittedly, Natalie had also sidered this topic. So she wasn't wholly caught off guard.

  But still.

  "Additionally," Ana said, as if she were structuring an academic argument, not propositioning Natalie to cum inside her, "it might be worth [Emp]. The goblins' behavior is clearly aberrant, and I suspect we'll find something dangerous out there. Not just a low-level swarm of monsters."

  That cim was iing enough that Natalie could briefly ighe implications of Ana's request. "Something dangerous? Like what?"

  "I have no clue. But," Ana said, raising her pointer finger. "Goblins don't hoard items and lug them back to their . It simply doesn't happen." She raised a sed finger. "Te knows we're a team rising in prominend would be more likely to assign unusual tasks to us, as a test." A third finger rose. "Your css, along with Malice's appearance, ily suggests something strange is going on with the world."

  "What? You think that's reted?"

  "Perhaps," Ana said. "Perhaps not." Once again, she raised a pointer finger, readying herself to professionally structure her argument. "But I prefer not taking unnecessary risks, as any delver." A sed finger rose. "It's worth testing how powerful an [Empowered] [Divine Invigoration] is, especially when it sts for aire week." A third finger joihe first two. "And stly, the bonus will be useful for the entire duration, not just this quest, since our team is weak against swarms. Sh up that vulnerability isn't a poor idea even in the medium term, regardless that a healer or tank would be the usual target."

  Natalie stared at the girl for a few moments, theually, ughed. She sat dowo Ana. "This is the weirdest way I've had a girl vince me to sleep with her."

  Ana tilted her head. "I'm n to vince you to sleep with me. If you could simply apply the effed move on, that would be much more ve."

  Natalie winced.

  Ana paused, reizing she had said something wrong. "Not that I'm ued," she said. "You merely had the facts incorrect. My primary motivation."

  "Right."

  The two of them sat on the bed in a brief silence.

  "So, uh," Natalie said. "You're n. We really should have our area-of-effect mage buffed for this quest. But … what's the pn to make that happen?" She wi her oardness. Ana teo pull that out of her.

  "However you prefer," Ana replied coolly.

  Another bout of her of them talking. Natalie didn't usually feel awkward around Ana, but it definitely happened sometimes. Often in an endearing or amusing way.

  She ughed again. "What, I'm supposed to just pounce you?" she asked. "Pin you down and ravage you? Just like that? It's a bit much."

  Ana sidered her words. "Actually," she said. "I suppose that brings up something else relevant. Jordan suggested we talk about that one delve of ours."

  "What? What delve?"

  "The one we shared."

  It wasn't like there was much ambiguity there, however nonspecifia had been.

  "Ah."

  "Maybe I wasn't supposed to say Jordan told me to," Ana mused. "Regardless, I do wonder how we're supposed to aow that we're in our own bodies."

  "How we're supposed to act?"

  "I quite eaking trol," Ana said. "But for the record, I'm not averse to some other standard of e, either. If that's what you prefer."

  "Some other standard of e," Natalie repeated.

  Brown eyes searched her face. Something approag a remote sense of amusement appeared, a faint hint of her lips being tugged at. "Now that the roles are un-sed, so to say, you take the lead, if that's what you desire. But, admittedly, there is one problem."

  "There is?"

  "All of those things you were saying. How you were ag, that day. I might be uo imitate it. The … enthusiasm."

  Heat rose rapidly on Natalie's face. 'How she had acted.' Natalie remembered that very well. All of the insanely demeaning things Ana had been saying, then how eagerly Natalie had accepted it.

  "That's because I was on the receiving end," Natalie defended herself, flustered. "I could have you ag like that too, if I wanted."

  "I doubt it," Ana said. "But I would like to see you try."

  From any irl, the words would have been a bratty challenge. But Natalie retty sure A it early. She would like to see Natalie try. She was curious if Natalie could pull it off, Ana knowing that she herself wasn't all that enthusiastid rather, a stoic person by nature.

  It was a very strange sort of fidence, seeing the shirl on the bed o her, looking up at her with impassive, unworried brown eyes. And Natalie didn't have an excuse to rely on, this time. Ana was flustering her despite how she was in her own body, with ne circumstances surrounding them.

  Natalie found herself oddly annoyed by that fact. She growled and pushed Ana over, climbing overtop her. The mage didn't rea the slightest. No widening of her eyes at her sudden advance or faster breathing, as she would have gotten out of anyone else.

  "You're awfully fident firl about to be fucked stupid," Natalie murmured.

  "Am I?" Ana replied, uurbed by the crude words.

  "I could have y out just as easily as you did me. You really think I 't?"

  "I'm undecided oter," Ana said calmly. "The initial impression I got from our first enter was that you're quite … submissive. Easy to dominate. So you must uand my doubts."

  Natalie narrowed her eyes. Was that a smirk on Ana's lips? Or at least, an Ana-smirk. Just barely there, possibly even imagined.

  She ying this up, wasn't she? As part of a game?

  She leaned her face closer to Ana's, straddling the girl's p. Her cock was already swelling up, and Ana could undoubtedly feel it starting to press against her.

  "The idea of a challees you," Ana ented, eyes flig down their bodies, seeing the growing bulge. "Well, I promise I won't fake it for you. Try your hardest. But I don't think you'll do half to me what I did to you, on that delve."

  Oh?

  She wouldn't?

  Natalie would see about that.