While Satsuki followed her guide toward Deidre's suite, she took some time to contemplate her complicated feelings about Mordecai.

Satsuki knew she was, by any reasonable standard, 'obsessed', and she knew that it wasn't healthy. She was also well aware that this particular issue did not fall under any simple, physical aspects of her brain.

There were advantages to traveling between worlds, especially when self-improvement is an eternal goal. Satsuki knew herself very well after visiting places with advanced analytical mental care and taking some time to work with a therapist.

Mind, she was pretty certain that most experienced priests could do the job just as well for most people, but she was also certain that a freshly trained therapist would usually be better than a freshly trained priest for this sort of care. For especially difficult cases, a therapist combined with other mental health experts was going to be better than a priest, given equal levels of experience.

It might be easier to deal with her emotions regarding Mordecai if she could point out some key thing that was the focus of her attraction and obsession. But no, nothing like that seemed to exist. For every aspect of him she could identify, she knew a man or woman who was better.

Mordecai wasn't a dedicated hedonist, he could never be the best possible lover from a technique point of view; though she was painfully curious what new tricks he might have in his current avatar.

There were both men and women who had been more of a challenge to seduce than Mordecai at his most stubborn and business-focused. Well, no one could be more stubborn than him about not cheating, but there were plenty of people who were his equal there.

Which was to say she'd never seduced him when he was in a relationship, excepting the couple of times where she had seduced them both of course. But that wasn't cheating if everyone was involved and on board.

He was a fine technical artist and skilled dancer, but he was not great with more free-form artistic expression. Supposedly. As far as she was concerned, that was a mental block given how creative he could be when it came to designing creatures and dungeon environments. Still, Satsuki had been as much of a 'muse' to great artists as any Faerie Queen had ever been, and Mordecai certainly did not rate as one of this world's greatest artists, let alone among the worlds she had traveled during his sleep.

Warrior, mage, priest; Satsuki had lain with dozens of each who were better than Mordecai had ever been at any one of them or similar skill sets, though the trajectory of his current avatar might change that eventually.

Nor was he the only one that she'd ever fallen in love with. The biggest difference was that she kept coming back to him; with others she had either seen them to their mortal end or had eventually broken up with them and not come back.

The first few times Mordecai had broken up with Satsuki, she had thought it would be the end of it. Her biggest flaw had been an inability to never stray. As open-minded as Mordecai might be about specific arrangements, an 'open' relationship with him had never been in the cards.

That particular flaw she'd gotten better about, and it helped that she'd been able to convince him (or occasionally her, depending on the avatar) to enjoy a third's company for a night or week. In Satsuki's longer-term relationships since Mordecai had been sealed, she'd managed to be faithful in most of those without even that extra aid.

Still, there had been other things to fight about, other buttons to push, ways to press him too hard to do something that she wanted. Satsuki found it very hard to not push him like that; whether he gave in or pushed back even harder she got an extreme thrill out of it.

Thankfully, he could be willfully oblivious. Satsuki was pretty certain that Mordecai had not realized the full reality of her reaction when he'd shoved her back. She felt a little guilty about that as it felt like it was close to making him cheat without him even being aware of it.

The biggest question in her mind now was how she was going to deal with this permanent change in their relationship. For over two thousand years Satsuki had kept a spark of anticipation alive and had been so eager to see him again. Why, she'd even been considering having a second child with him.

Oh, now there was one of the few things Satsuki had serious a complaint about, even if she kept this gripe to herself. Mordecai was the father to her only child, but Mordecai had been significantly less picky about whom he had children with.

Especially when he was male, given how she'd never seen one of his female avatars pregnant. Oh, she was certain he'd done it at least once; if Mordecai had one hedonistic weakness it was in the pursuit of new life experiences. But that particular aspect of him was a bitter taste. Just thinking about it made her angry.

Unfortunately, being angry at Mordecai was one of the things that made her want to pin him to the ground and ravish him until she didn't feel angry anymore. Or get him angry enough to do the same thing to her. So she shelved those thoughts.

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Satsuki also felt a little cheated. She'd been becoming better in the way that might make things work out better between them, and here he was already bound to a pair. For all that he'd had long-term relationships before, Mordecai had never formally and officially married anyone. But here he'd effectively sold himself in an oath that Satsuki knew he would consider binding, especially given their connections. Divorce wasn't really an option when your souls could feel each other.

It was good that everything had worked out, and for his sake, she was genuinely happy that they were happy together. If Mordecai had been bound in an unhappy marriage, well, Satsuki wasn't sure what she'd have done. It was probably best to not explore those thoughts either.

But being happy for his sake didn't mean she couldn't be jealous too. Satsuki wanted to become part of that relationship. Mostly because of Mordecai of course, but Kazue and Moriko were also both interesting on their own.

Self-reflection also meant that Satsuki was aware that she was being sneaky and manipulative and probably just delaying the process of coming to terms with everything. She had slipped the thought of her joining them for at least a little while into each of their minds and was quite willing to see if it came to fruition eventually. It wouldn't be what she originally had in mind, and that soul-bond of theirs made everything trickier.

Mordecai may have hacked into well-established forms of bonds, but the resonance between them had shifted and adapted to match the use it was being put to.

There was no way for Satsuki to accurately duplicate it, at least, not from the outside. Oh, she could make a working duplicate, probably. It just wouldn't be compatible with theirs.

This meant that Mordecai, Moriko, and Kazue would have to be able to do all the work themselves. If they wanted to. Which they were neither capable of nor interested in right now.

It was almost certainly foolishness on Satsuki's part, it wasn't going to help her issues.

Well, she certainly didn't want to fall into the role of the clingy former lover. So it was time for her to wrap up all of her thoughts and feelings on the subject and tuck them away. Satsuki made a promise to herself to not dwell on any of that for the duration of her stay. She might need to recall some details during conversation, but she was going to keep the memories at a distance.

The bunkin guiding Satsuki had guided her through a rather large feast hall, and Satsuki couldn't keep from glancing up. Their core was up there, they were not yet strong enough to hide its presence from her, and that knowledge was another temptation to keep tucked away with everything else.

Her guide took her down a corridor hidden by a hanging tapestry. It was rather a nice touch, keeping the private areas a little more private by the simplicity of hanging a tapestry in front of the hallway. The dungeon certainly didn't need the tapestries for their insulation properties, but they were still pretty and had a nice secondary use here.

When the bunkin knocked on a door, a blond woman wearing a white robe opened the door and glanced between them.

"Hello Deidre," the bunkin said, "this is Satsuki, another guest of Azeria. Satsuki, this is Deidre."

Satsuki inclined her head in greeting with a small bow. "A pleasure to meet you, Deidre. I understand that you are expecting me?"

Deidre returned the gesture before replying, "Yes, somewhat. I was informed that there was someone whom I might be interested in getting to know, but not any details. So I do not know what this is about. But I suppose you should come inside so that we can talk about it." She turned to Satsuki's guide and said, "Thank you for bringing her here."

"My pleasure. Did the food and drink arrive already? Excellent. Someone will be available if you need anything else."

Satsuki followed Deidre into her room, or rather, her suite. It was not a terribly large space, but there was a small kitchen set up and a couple of doors leading to what Satsuki presumed was a bedroom and a bathroom.

There was also a faint smell of smoke and char.

Her glance toward the kitchen and slight wrinkling of her nose had been noticed.

"I have been attempting to learn how to cook, to try to understand people better," Deidre said. "I'm afraid it's not something I've had to do before, so I am not very good at it yet, but it seems important to a lot of people."

"Don't worry about it!" a high-pitched voice piped up, "I can't cook either!"

The dubious encouragement came from a pixie that swooped into view to land on Deidre's shoulder. Satsuki was amused by the creature's fashion sense; those clothes did not belong to this world and were clearly the result of Li's influence upon the dungeon's small fey creatures.

"You must be Payne," Satsuki said, "it's a pleasure to meet you as well. As for the cooking, I can help with that later if you wish. For now, I do believe my purpose is to be a wicked little gossip."

"A, gossip?" Deidre asked.

"Oh yes. You see, I am one of his former lovers and the mother of his daughter Norumi, the kitsune founder of Kuiccihan and Azeria." Satsuki rather enjoyed the looks of surprise on the pair. "Now, why don't we settle in with some food and drink, and I can tell you Mordecai's dirty secrets."

"I don't understand," Deidre replied even as she moved to where the food and drink were laid out on a counter. "Why would Mordecai want you to tell me his secrets?"

"It's simple, though many people don't understand it. To know a person, to truly trust them, you need to know their flaws. I am going to help give you a more rounded perspective on Mordecai. Though it's not my only purpose here." As she spoke, Satsuki followed Deidre to the refreshments, where Deidre served a plate for her before making one for herself.

"What is your other purpose?"

Satsuki smiled gently at Deidre. "Well, I have some experiences that are rather the opposite of some that you've had. Within your limits, I am available for you to talk about any unpleasant experiences you've had. Or if you prefer, I can simply tell you about some of my amorous adventures, to give you a different perspective."

Deidre took a short, sharp breath. "I see," she said as she took a seat. "This is supposed to help me?" Deidre did not look at Satsuki when she asked that. Payne landed on Deidre's shoulder and stroked her hair soothingly.

"Yes, it is dear," Satsuki replied. "You have suffered in a particularly awful way, and for a prolonged time. Even if you intellectually know better, there will be an association built up between the way things are supposed to happen and what has happened to you. I am, hopefully, to be your antidote."

Satsuki settled into her seat before continuing, "But, that requires trust and bonding first, so let me begin by earning that trust and telling you a bit about my dear Mordecai.