"Ahh." I let out a moan of pleasure as I slip into the overhot tub the next morning. "Who needs a *Jacuzzi* when you can make the water itself massage you."

"Mom says she loves the one you put in her bathroom." Amelia slips in next to me while Apricot and Elle are playing Rune games on the bed. "She really loves how it always stays just the temperature that you want it to, no matter how long she's in the bath for."

"Glad she likes it." I say distractedly as the water rises up and starts working on my neck and shoulders. "Mmm, that is so good."

"How are you doing?" She asks and copies my move to work on her own neck. "You're not nearly as stiff as yesterday."

"Better than I thought I would be." I say enthusiastically and tap my new necklace. "The zinc seems to be picking up speed; it's still slow, but now it's more tortoise slow than snail slow."

"Makes me wish we had brought more than just that flask." Amelia says while examining my arm stump.

"Don't worry, it'll be back as good as new in less than a week." I re-assure her. "But, once we get back home, I'm adding some to our watch bands. And, I'm making all three of us protective enchantments strong enough to stop a dragon." We left almost everything from our inventories back in the Garden to leave room for the heist.

"Yeah." She nods. "I was stupid not to let you make them for us when you did Vivian's. You can't work on your paranoia if you're dead." She shivers despite the heat. "I'm glad you didn't listen to me when you made your little contengency plan. Even though you didn't use it when you should have, you big softie."

"Hey, I'm only soft now because you guys wrang me dry last night." I chuckle. "And, I actually forgot to use them. I was so pissed off that I just wanted to make her hurt."

"I for one am glad you did." Apricot jumps into the tub and would have soaked the room if not for me stopping the splash. "You whipping her ass like it was nothing..." She shivers for an entirely different reason than Amelia did. "So, fucking hot."

"Sorrel's not the only one that's going to whip her ass." Amelia cracks a water whip in mid air.

"Let me say upfront." Elle slips in behind Amelia and wraps her up in her arms. "We are very much looking forward to seeing that, but please don't ever use it on us. A little power play, and light spanking is fine, but I'm not into pain."

"Oh, baby." She taps Elle on the arm to be set free, and pulls me into a tight hug. "I would never hurt you, but I will make that wyrm pay for doing so."

"Let's hope you work out all this agression tonight." I say and brush the wet hair from her face. "I don't want you carrying around a bunch of negative emotions."

"I don't know." She grins evilly. "It might take more than just one night."

""Hahahaha."" Apricot and I crack up while Elle just smiles and shakes her head.

"Alright, let's go get some breakfast." I get up and climb out of the tube after giving Amelia a kiss on the forehead. "I wan't some meat, and I don't feel like cook-" *Ding**Ding**Ding* my phone goes off. "Oh, shit. I knew I was forgetting something yesterday. Hello Baron, sorry for not checking in."

"Is everything alright? Did you find anything out that will help my girls?" Lorelai's voice comes out of the phone before Pepi talks over her.

"Ma'am, I told you they would be fine." He sounds more than a little exasperated. "If you had seen him in action you'd know that nothing short of a dragon could even slow him down."

"Snerk." - "Hah!" - "Bwahahah." We can't help but crack up when he says that.

"Funny you should mention dragons." I say once I catch my breath. "We found a village full of Sirens and Moura, and they are guarded by their great, great, however-many-times great grandmother, a half-dragon."

A series of gasps come out of the phone, and I recognize the voices of Lorelai's kids and Captain Baca.

"There was a minor misunderstanding." Amelia gives me the stink-eye, and Apricot nearly turns blue trying not to laugh. "But, things are fine now, and we will be heading back there after breakfast to deliver a batch of bracelets just like Clara's. Once there, I'm going to examine the women and their progenitor." I don't say anything about the link, just in case it doesn't pan out.

"O-okay." The mother of four squeaks out. "I'll let you go then." There's a fumbling sound, and then I can hear her mutter the word dragon in an awed voice.

"I'll leave you to it then." Pepi says with a smile audible in his voice. "Good luck, and I'll see you when you get back." With that said, he disconnects the call.

"A minor misunderstanding?" Amelia swats the shoulder of my missing arm. "I'll show you a minor misunderstanding." She winds up like she's going to smack me again, only to dart in and kiss the stump. "I love you, you silly little man."

"I love you too, you violent little woman." She puts a faux-affronted look on her face, but it melts away as soon as I kiss her.

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***

*Ding**Ding**Ding* We're just about to eat when my phone goes off again.

"Why'd I have to reinvent the damned telephone?" I grumble and take a bite out of my bacon before answering it. "Morning Marcus, how goes it?"

"Hi Sorrel." He sounds a bit embarrassed to be calling me. "Uhm. You said to call you directly if the belt started glowing red." He is definitley embarrassed and if he drained the charge on the belt already, I can only think of one reason why.

"Heheheh, you dog you. I take it things are going well with Abby, she must really like the light-weight feeling." The Rune induces a field of lower gravity that encompass whatever body is touching it, even if there's more than one. "I've been meaning to build a bounce room with same effect as that belt, just haven't gotten around to it yet." Apricot's eyes light up when I say that.

"Uh..." He draws the word out. "She kinda dumped me already." He sighs. "I went and got a couple... ladies to take my mind of of it, and yeah they rather enjoyed it. The belt was glowing when I woke up."

"Oh. Shit, man. I'm sorry." I cringe at the massive faux pass I just made. "Alright, you should stay seated in case it gives out entirely. I'll call my man and have him send someone over with a charging Gem right away." I didn't think it was likely to happen, but I left one behind with Kyle just in case.

"Thank you." I swear I can feel his blush through the radio waves.

"No, I should have warned you that that would be a problem. And, uh. Sorry again." I hang up and bury my face in my hand while the girls finally let their laughter out. "Oh, that poor man." I can't help but chuckle myself.

"Oh, who cares about him." Apricot says with drill-like intensity. "Where's my bounce room?"

"I'll build it as soon as we get back." I promise. "Now hush, I have to call Kyle."

"Good morning ...Boss." I can hear the struggle in his voice not to call me Sir, or Lord. "How has your trip been so far?"

"Eventful." to say the least. "But, that's not why I'm calling." I give him the run down on Marc's problem and what caused it.

"Oh, that poor man." He has the same reaction I did. "I'll have Bartlett run the gems up to him right away."

"Thank you. Any issues back home I need to be aware of?" I might as well ask while I've got him on the line.

"Nothing serious, but don't be surprised if the army asks you to mend a bunch of broken bones when you get back." He let's slip a quiet laugh. "Everyone loves your motorcycles, but unfortunately they seem to have over-estimated their ability to control the things."

"Well, we're not going to be back for at least a week, so they're going to have to suffer for a bit." I let out a matching laugh. "Alright, if there's nothing else, I'll let you go."

"No, sir. Have a good trip." He disconnects the call.

I finally start to eat my meal when Joceline and the women from the hidden village enter the dining room, fortunately they see that we're still eating and leave us alone until we finish.

"Good morning Kacey." I let Elle take the lead, as most of them still seem a bit leery of men. "You look nervous, is everything okay?"

"Umm. Miss Elle." She says quietly, and without making eye contact. "I still want to help, but do I have to go back? I miss my family so much, and with this bracelet I don't have to be afraid anymore."

"Oh, dear." Elle pulls her into a hug. "You can do whatever you want. That goes for the rest of you as well."

"Nnh. It was nice to see them all again, but a little weird too." One of them speaks up, and the others nod their agreement.

"I especially didn't like the way some of the men looked at us." Another says.

"Yeah, like they were just waiting for the Rune to break down." A third agrees, and the rest mutter in the affirmative along with her.

"Don't worry Kacey." Elle strokes the girl's hair. "The Rune won't break down, they draw from the Nature Mana you produce to power themselves. But, you can have another one if you're worried about something happening to yours."

"Oh! Thank you, thank you, thank you." She hugs Elle tight before fastening the second enchantment around her ankle.

'Smart kid.' I say to myself, sure that she felt the same gazes as the other women. "Alright, dear." Elle continues while holding up a conjured shotglass of Sap. "Since you're staying here, could you drink this now? And, are you willing to give a blood sample?"

"It's not going to hurt, is it?" She takes the glass without issue, but shies away when blood is mentioned.

"We just need a drop, and you won't even feel it."

"Okay." She nods and tastes the Sap before downing it in one go. "It's sweet."

As she's licking her lips, I'm going to work. I can't afford to spare a lot of vitality right now, so I watered down the Sap. Giving her just enough to perform a detailed scan, 'writing' everything into glass as I go. I may have perfect recall, but sometimes it's easier to just look at something.

Right before the last of the Healing Sap fades, I use it to will a drop of blood out of the back of her hand. Using Magic to protect it from coming in contact with the air, I quickly lock it inside the glass.

Just one last thing to do; I activate Truesight and confirm the existence of the thread, noting that it doesn't appear frayed on this end. Lending more credence to my thought that the issue is at least partly caused by Gwynne's inability to accept her parentage.

"All done." Elle holds up a thick glass rectangle with a drop of blood and a hologram of Kacey inside.

"That's it?" The woman who spoke about the mens' stares earlier peers at the results of the scan. "I was afraid... Well, I don't know what I was afraid of, but that certainly wasn't it."

"Oh, that was the easy part." Elle says with a smile. "Now, we have to scan the rest of the villagers, and as many townspeople as will let us. Then we've got to comb through all that data looking for what makes you you, and hopefully find a clue as to what's missing." I'm actually hoping that all this will be completely unnecessary, but even if it is, I'd still like to get good before and after scans of everyone.

"Thank you." Kacey hugs Elle with a tear in her eye. "I hope you can fix us."

"You're not broken." Elle squeezes her tight, and just as she's letting go. Kacey sneaks in a kiss before blushing and running out of the room, leaving me stunned and the girls laughing.

"Looks like someone has a crush on you 'Elle'." Apricot teases me by stressing my Avatar's name.

"Does she know about me... well, being him?" Elle asks Joceline while brushing her fingers against her tingling lips.

"She told us, and I even saw you transform when Gwynne flipped out." One of the women speaks. "But, seeing you and him here together, it's easy to forget. And here, I thought we had interesting sex lives." This gets a laugh out of her fellow villages and an even bigger one when Elle blushes and ducks behind me shyly.

"You really do have too much fun with her." Amelia says so only I can hear.

"Like you don't love watching her reactions." I reply in kind before adressing the group. "Alright let's get you girls home, we can run the scans on the way."

"That's fine." The woman replies, and the others nod their heads. "But, since we're already on the subject, you mentioned something yesterday about a sextoy." The villagers eyes light up when she says this.

"Ooh." Apricot starts bouncing up and down. "Show them the catalog, show them the catalog."

I can only sigh and relent to her demands. "Hey, babe. I think we may need to add a curtained off section to the new shop you want to build."

***