After a few rooms she asked for something to write with, so I hollered for Jade to fetch some parchment or paper. The nymph came back with a stack of stuff. A modern ballpoint pen, and a clipboard with plenty of paper. Her hands were splattered with the chameleon paint.

“We’re going to need a sealant of some kind,” I said, realizing that she’d made the stuff so that it washed off after the shows. “Here,” I said, pulling a pile of change from my pocket and handing it to her. “Can you figure that out for me?”

“Boy, you’re really running me ragged today,” she said.

“Not as hard as last night,” I quipped. She stared at me with open lust, shook herself free of it then smiled and flapped off. Giving me one last hungry look as she disappeared over the roof of the house.

I was definitely going to need a big bed.

I strode back toward Tisha and gave her the supplies. Over the next few hours we walked the structure and she made notes about locations for ventilation and cabling. Along with manual gear connectors—which they used in place of electronic motors and servos.

I guessed, at least, because Tisha clearly had no idea what any of that would be.

As we walked and talked I told her my goals. How I wanted the whole thing to be filled with redundant controls. I would probably be flying the thing most of the time with my magic, but if we could get it off the ground and mobile on cyclicite power alone, that would be better. That way I’d be fresh wherever we showed up.

“If you can really make all this weightless, then that shouldn’t be hard,” Tisha said. “Back in my homeland I did some work on some elven airships. It’s mostly drag and rudder steerage. Streamlining the hull should be easy work with your abilities.”

We were in the engine room now and she was sketching rapidly with her soft hands, occasionally pulling her hair back over her ears. Often times I’d forgotten that she was even an elf. She barely talked about it.

“Oh?” I asked. Leaving the door open for her to continue.

“Yes,” she sighed. Shaking her head. “I had to leave though. I just didn’t fit in.”

“Because of your powers?” I asked, genuinely confused.

“No. It’s not that. It’s because I—” she stopped and blushed. Then shook her head again, dropping the subject. Tisha came over to me and leafed through the blueprints. It looked like it’d been done by a computer. When she wasn’t writing with a grease pen she was incredibly precise.

“Want to take a look at the engines?” I asked.

“You have some?” she replied, blinking in shock.

“I think some might have survived the blasts. I ripped a few off when I was attacking the first ship.”

“We can take my truck over,” she said. “It’s made for hauling.” I would’ve preferred to drive but decided to let her so she’d be more comfortable. We hopped in her truck, then puttered off to the fields outside Strayton where I’d downed the airships. I gave Jade a wave as we rolled off, and she flapped over, giving me a nod once she heard what I was up to.

After some very bumpy driving we managed to make it to the wreck of the first airship. Tisha steered us around the far right side. Driving over the scorched and blackened wheat fields. It took us fifteen minutes, but we found two of the engines that I’d dropped off.

“Wow,” she whispered as she laid her hands on it. The contraption looked like a miniature jet engine—though it was still huge. It was practically the same size as me, and would stick way off the back of the ship once we had it going. Tisha brought her hand to her chest, breathing deeply as she stared at the heavy machinery. “This is incredible. I never thought I’d get my hands on a piece of hardware this big.”

I smiled innocently, letting the comment pass by.

Tisha hopped up on one of the engines, then let her feet swing from the exhaust side of the huge engine. She looked like something straight out of an old-school pinup magazine. I felt desire well up within me, and I walked up to her with a purpose, unable to hide it any longer.

“Tisha,” I started, leaning against the side of the engine. “I need to tell you something.”

“Oh?” she asked. “Is it about the engines?”

Not exactly the engines.

“No. It’s about you and me,” I said. Letting the thrust of what I was talking about find its way into her mind.

“What about us?” she asked.

I made long steady eye contact with her and accompanied it with a hint of a smile. “Normally I’d take this a bit slow, since you’re shy. I can tell that’s your style—but I’m leading a pretty crazy life, and I’m kind of crazy myself.” She tilted her head and watched me. Her pleasant face softening from its earlier tension. “I’m attracted to you, and I’d like to get to know you better. I think you’re attracted to me too. I’m not wrong, am I?”

Her hand went to her chest again and the other found her curls of blonde hair. “No-no. I mean. Yes, I am, but you’re with…” she trailed off.

“Jade and Evelyn?” I asked.

“Both of them?” she sputtered, the shock clearly visible on her now.

“Yes,” I said. “It’s what I wanted to talk about. I’ve got a particular arrangement going, and I wanted to let you in on it. Help you understand how things would be.” Her face had broken into a tentative smile now. Like the way she had when I first floated the idea of the flying ship. “I want a harem. I mean, I have a harem. It means that I have multiple partners. They’re faithful to me, and I’m faithful to them. We love each other in more ways than one.”

Tisha was grinning broadly now. Her cheeks burning bright red. “Oh?” she squeaked.

“Yes. It’s something I wanted to make happen. I just wanted to let you know that because I’m with Jade and Evelyn, doesn’t mean we can’t… get to know each other. You understand?”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

She nodded rapidly, her hands going down and gripping the edges of the engine. Her legs were swinging back and forth into the exhaust.

“No pressure right now, but I wanted that out in the open. You ready to take these back to the ship? See if we can get them installed?”

“Mhmm. I—yes. That sounds wonderful, Luis. Can you help me down?” She brought her arms out and I walked over to her. Picking Tish up as if she was weightless. Her giggle was wild and loud. Her hands traced down my bare chest and back as I lowered her to the ground.

“I’ll get these stuck to the truck in a few minutes. It’ll take me some time to use my weightlessness spell,” I said, laying my hands on the engine in front of me. I found it odd that Buzzkillington—or BK—hadn’t put together some rockets. Maybe he had and was saving them for something. I shook the thought off and closed my eyes the way I’d seen Jade do. Then I let my magic trickle into the huge engine slowly. Starting with the smaller internal pieces then working my way up to the external housing.

I took slow deep breaths as I went. Not rushing. Tisha waited patiently in silence as I worked. It took me nearly ten minutes, but I found that I wasn’t nearly as exhausted when I was done. I grabbed the giant engine—which must’ve weighed nearly a thousand pounds—and dragged it through the air with one hand like a balloon. Then I magnetically strapped it in the air above the flatbed, orienting it and keeping it in place without having to actually occupy the truck’s bed.

Then I went over and repeated the process with the other engine, finding peace and calm in Tisha’s lack of commentary. There was only the chirping of the birds and the rustle of the fields as background noise as I worked. This time I was able to reach the same objective in less time, and still with very little drain. It felt like a breakthrough.

Almost all of the magic I’d done so far had been under the gun—or the blade, I guess.

Enemies bearing down, with no time to think about form or technique.

It felt relaxing and fulfilling to be able to breathe through everything and take my time.

To my surprise, it was actually fun to work on technique, too. Which I never would’ve guessed.

I snapped the other engine in place over the pickup and looked over at Tisha. She was staring off across the fields, standing with her hands on her hips. Taking deep breaths with a peaceful look in her eyes. She definitely had a different energy than my other ladies. I found it enticing, and wanted to learn more about her.

With the second engine energetically strapped to the pickup I took a look around. “One of the others might’ve survived the crash,” I said.

“Luis,” Tisha gently chided.

“Huh?”

“That’s overkill, hun. If you can do what you just did to your… plane?” she said, working out the word slowly. “You won’t need nearly that much thrust. Most airships run on propellers. Two is plenty,” Tisha said.

“Oh. You’re probably right,” I said, letting out a relaxing breath. “Want to cruise around and salvage? Looks like most of the back-end is intact.” I pointed more toward the crater ahead of us. One of my propeller ninja stars had apparently sliced off a lot of the back-end of the airship, leaving it out of the explosion largely unharmed. It put my hair on edge, thinking that something might’ve survived.

I’d already cleared everything earlier though and nothing had showed up. I’d learned my lesson after Drakku kidnapped Jade last time. The memory of her abduction hit me like a punch, and I reached out instinctively. Pleased to sense Jade and Evelyn’s charms close by. I looked over at Tisha as she stepped toward the truck, and she stared back.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I replied with a small wave. I was so comfortable with her already that I’d thought her charm was missing. I hadn’t even brought her into the harem yet—let alone charmed her up. “Let’s go see what we can find,” I said, flashing a grin at her. She gave the two huge engines a wary look as she got into the hauler, peering at them in the rear-view.

“They gonna snap off a bit of my baby girl?” she asked, slapping the door panel.

“No. I spread the tether across the whole back-end. Distribution should be nice and wide. Maybe drive easy though. Like you have a full haul,” I said.

“All right then,” Tisha said, easing the truck forward.

We spent the next few hours picking through the wreckage of the downed airship. Nothing had survived the fall. Tisha was positively glowing as she picked through everything, pulling out steam piping and control panels. Hucking more gears than I’d ever seen into the flatbed of the truck. From time to time she consulted the stacks of blueprints she’d been putting together. Ticking off different elements within them to show that they’d been accounted for.

“Didn’t we already grab three of these?” I asked, floating an extremely specialized bit of piping into the truck after she’d pointed at it.

“That’s the temperature control rod,” Tisha explained. “We’ve got a primary, and a backup. If it were me on the plane, I’d want a backup for the backup. In case you ever need to make repairs. It’s not like you can head on down to the corner store and get a new one.”

“Shit,” I said. “That’s actually a great idea.”

She didn’t rub it in my face, and instead kept picking through the mess. I pitched away random debris and whatever blocked our path. By the time the truck was getting really full, the sun was directly overhead and we’d both broken out into a sweat. I was surprised to see that despite that, Tisha was barely winded. Moving easily, almost like a dancer. Even across treacherous and teetering stacks of razor-sharp metal.

She was an elf all right.

Just unlike one I’d ever seen.

A glint of something unusual caught my eye so I bent down to take a look. It was a bit of one of the support ribs. Like the one I’d landed on. It had a dull white coating on it that almost looked like cake frosting. It was the same material that had stopped my enchanted blade. I picked it up and hefted the chunk. Feeling it. Almost asking about it, but wondering about something else first.

“Tisha, you said you were out with the elves?” I asked.

“Yep. Uyadell. Name of the lands, as it were,” she said.

“Mind if I ask what drove you out? It must have been something else. I haven’t seen much of the elven culture, but the elves I’ve been around seem pretty special. You most of all.”

She batted her eyelashes at me, absorbing the compliment, but drooping seconds later. “I didn’t fit in there. That’s all,” she said.

“How so?” I asked.

She took her pale arms and waved them up and down at her short and curvy body as if that explained everything. “Just look at me.”

“What? You’re a fucking knock-out,” I said. Not understanding at all.

“I’m fat Luis. I’m a fat elf,” she said. Her eyes watering.

“Oh, no. Is that what they told you?” I asked.

She nodded. Tears streaming down from her big blue eyes. “Come here Tisha,” I said, walking over to her and letting her fall into my arms. “You’re not fat. Goddamn. You’re curvy. There’s a big difference.” I generally didn’t discriminate, but Tisha was nowhere close to what I’d call fat. The fucking elves were a bunch of uptight pricks with eating disorders. “In my dimension women like you are models on sexy magazines.”

“No,” she said, turning away from me. Keeping her eyes on the truck.

“Yes, really. Take my word for it. Was that really the only reason you left?”

“I’m too short too. No one ever really said anything about it—but it was there. You know? They never invited me out to dances. None of the clothes fit me. It was awful. All they wanted from me was my hands to work on machines. Or my magic—which is rare, I guess.”

“You don’t think that’s all I want, do you?” She shook her head, the last of her tears falling from her eyes as she did.

“Fuck those stuck-up sons of bitches,” I said, throwing my hand dismissively. “I think you’re a fucking bombshell, and I know I’m not the only one.” She stared up at me and I felt the tension grow. The heat of the moment where I could’ve gone in and kissed her. We were so damn close to each other. She leaned up and went for it, but I pulled back at the last second.

Then her face went hard. Just barely.

I wanted to explain why I did. That I had to give Jade and Evelyn a heads-up first. It’d been the way I’d set things up. Granted, I could’ve brought Tisha in without asking—it was my damn harem after all—but I didn’t want to be like my old bandmate Gracie Macks. Ignoring the needs of his women just so he could get his dick wet.

Plus it might sound like an excuse. Especially after she’d just told me how many times she’d been rejected because of her body.

“Let’s get going,” Tisha said. “I should be getting ready to go home once we’re done. Need time to do the installs,” she said. The implied because that’s all you want from me was like a punch in the gut.

I almost tried to explain, but thought better of it.

So I got into the truck with her and we drove back to the ship.