Kazue was fascinated by the stories Satsuki was telling, though she was surprised to find that she wasn't jealous. After a bit of self-reflection, she was able to figure out that she simply didn't feel threatened by Satsuki. At least, not in that way.

She was confident in Mordecai's love and certain of his dedication; he would not waver and could not be 'stolen'.

That didn't mean that Kazue wasn't a bit envious, she certainly wished she and Moriko could have had some of those adventures with Mordecai instead of Satsuki, but she didn't feel any urge to supplant Satsuki's place in Mordecai's past.

When Satsuki asked about the seals that Mordecai had placed in Deidre's flesh, Kazue's curiosity was stirred. She could never bring herself to ask Mordecai much about them and was very interested in what Satsuki had to say about them.

Deidre left the room and came back after she had changed into a belt-closed robe. This was easier to slip down her shoulders while preserving some modesty.

Satsuki took her time examining the flesh-carved symbols, the tips of her fingers tracing lightly over the scarred edges. Kazue was fairly certain that the touching wasn't needed, but Deidre didn't seem to object.

"Interesting, and clever," Satsuki murmured. "I was wondering how he managed to make these work given the power discrepancy. Mordecai attached three to seven minor sigils to each major one to reinforce and define it more thoroughly. If I were to bind using the same base method, I would not have needed any supporting symbology and fewer major ones as I could supply more power and thus more of my will and intent into each one."

Deidre considered this a moment before saying, "I think I understand. My, mm, opportunities, to delve deeply into magic have been limited, but I do have a question. What you describe seems inefficient, wouldn't it require more mana to craft them the way Mordecai did?"

"Yes," Satsuki replied, "but Mordecai's current pool of mana is ridiculously vast given the relatively small amount of power he can use at a given moment. I might put more power into a single symbol than he can, but he can then spend more energy by overlaying additional runes. In total he spent about five times as much mana as it would cost me, and I would guess about thrice as much time. So for me, it would be inefficient because it would not be more effective. For him, it was more effective and thus not so inefficient."

Her fingers rested a moment longer on the flesh-carved runes before she said, "I might be able to make these unnecessary."

"How so?" Deidre asked in a carefully neutral voice.

"Your circumstances do require you to be bound, but there are many ways of binding." Satsuki smiled at Deidre and said, "Some ways of being bound can even be, mm, fun."

Kazue was suddenly uncertain about what types of binding Satsuki was talking about.

The woman continued on before anyone had a chance to reply. "Fun would be involved with what I have in mind. I can remove Mordecai's bindings on you easily enough, but I will only do so if you agree to my bindings. Only, simple, intellectual consent to being bound won't be enough."

Satsuki's voice lowered and softened as she said, "I need your emotional surrender as well, to ensure that my bindings sink in deep enough without harming you. That sort of submission is generally induced, but I need your active consent to begin, given your circumstances."

Deidre didn't give away her thoughts or feelings immediately and instead asked, in that same neutral voice, "Are you saying that Mordecai is not capable of doing this himself? After all, I am technically his prisoner, and you have no authority."

"Authority? No, that's true, but Mordi does know I am here and his wife is a witness, so I would consider that permission enough. As for the ability, I am fairly certain that with your cooperation and surrender, he could bind you this way, but he won't," Satsuki said.

"Aside from his marital status, he's your captor. He'd consider it inappropriate on many levels." Satsuki's smile was predatory. "I admit, I am not quite so well-behaved, but in this case, I am not your captor, so I am not in a position where you are likely to feel too pressured. So his ethics would be satisfied and I think you would find having your will bound to mine for a few months much easier than having all your powers actively suppressed this way."

She paused at a realization and said, "Though, it means I am making a promise to stay here for several months to watch over you, but that should be fine."

"How is your offer different than what I have been through?" Deidre asked.

"My dear, it's simple. Someone used power to control, abuse, and hurt you by twisting what should have been pleasure and joy into something awful. I intend to use pleasure to make you happy and willing to temporarily give a part of yourself over to me."

Deidre took a deep, controlled breath and then slowly said, "You know that other bindings could win out over yours, yes?"

"Mm, technically true, but if certain people dare come close to you while I am here, it won't be a problem love. If he gets somewhere I can reach him, he won't last. I will not let harm befall Mordecai or his wives and within that limitation, I will act to protect you as well."

"I'm afraid," Deidre admitted.

Satsuki smiled softly and stroked her hair. "I know, and it's okay to be afraid. This has been used as a weapon against you for most of your life. But I can show you something better."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

After a long moment of silence, Deidre practically whispered, "Alright, I will let you try."

Satsuki drew Deidre forward to kiss her lightly on the lips, then pulled back and turned her attention to Payne, who was watching with a stunned, slightly confused expression. "Little one, I don't think you intend this to be part of your relationship with your friend. Perhaps you should go play with your other friends for a while?"

"Ah, right," Payne replied before shaking herself like she was trying to clear sleep fog out of her head. "Yeah, I'll go do that." She took off and began flying toward the door but then hesitated. "You better be good to her. Deidre, you can call on me if you need to. I'll make sure you are okay."

As the pixie left, Satsuki cast a glance toward Kazue's focus. "I think this is as far as you will want to witness as well. Go on, tell dear Mordecai what has happened. I'm sure you will have plenty to talk about."

Kazue fled.

Well, her focus did at least. Once she had pulled far away from the suite, Kazue had to take a moment to calm down. She'd fallen so far into the 'scene' before her that she'd forgotten she was an actual presence there. It was somewhere between watching a play and reading a good book. Being called to directly like that had kicked her out of that mindset and disoriented her.

Once that was done, she contacted Mordecai. Kazue felt a bit annoyed because it felt like doing as she had been bid, but having been told to do something wasn't a good reason to not do it when it was the correct thing to do.

"Hey, Love," Kazue said across their connection, "um, so, Satsuki and Deidre, they are, um, well, were you expecting Satsuki to seduce her? Cause she did and offered to remove your bindings and place her own."

Mordecai sounded slightly amused when he replied, "The first part, yes. Can you think of anyone better suited to treating that sort of trauma? Satsuki will teach her real pleasure, and then teach Deidre how to be the one to give. As for binding Deidre to her personally, I did not consider that, but that could work out better for everyone."

Kazue wasn't as certain about the situation. Satsuki certainly seemed to have the skills to teach Deidre things, but Kazue thought a deep emotional bond would be a better first step before intimacy. But maybe that was just what she would need, it wasn't like Kazue had a lot of experience one way or another.

That thought about experience stirred an idea. In the future, could she create an avatar that was even less aware of her situation than the one Mordecai had made? Should she? If she did, what limits should she give her spouses? What would she want to specifically request? Kazue put those ideas aside for now, there was a long time before that was even possible, and she should probably experience a few avatars before she tried that.

Instead, she focused on Mordecai's work. "How's the zone coming along?"

"We have a way to go," he replied. "The snow and ice are about half melted, but that just means the water is frigid. For the moment I am leaving it as an environmental challenge. I don't want to evolve any inhabitants until the environment is stabilized, so there's no combat challenge yet."

Their wetlands were noticeably chilly as well and there tended to be a draft headed toward the icy 'ocean' from any direction and opening, whether in this zone or in earlier zones. "How did your other experiment go?" Kazue asked. She'd been nervous about this idea, but Mordecai seemed confident.

Mordecai replied, "The water from the dark sea diluted out into the contained area. Its aura diluted with it, leaving that area mixed. Its effects will be a little unpredictable of course, so I think the next test should be to train that section into the new area of the sewers."

That area was still a bit dry too, as it had only received overflow from the wetlands section, and that was also receiving less water than it had before. "Alright, let's do it." If things started getting weird and dangerous down there, at least it would be in the area already marked as more dangerous.

While the earth zone was the most physically complicated floor, logistically their ocean zone had the potential to be the most complicated. While the aerated underwater path was going to be a dedicated combat path, there were going to be options for surface combat, which was going to overlap into areas with non-combat parties.

Kazue was fairly certain that the narrative she had crafted for this section would help blend it all together into an interesting option, but she and Mordecai were going to have to put a lot of work into safeties to make sure that no one got caught up into the combat who didn't want to.

With little to do in the zone for now, Kazue shifted her attention to catch up with her Other Self and Moriko.

They had finished showing their visitor Cliodhna around for now. The tour had taken her up through the faerie side of their territory and then through the gate to the mortal side, where they had shown her the mostly empty trading town and explained the setup.

Cliodhna was considering delving the dungeon herself, though on the non-combat path. She said that while she had more than a little skill with magic, she wasn't skilled or practiced with it in combat. If something needed to die as part of her fulfilling her duties, it generally took no more than a declaration and act of will. She didn't really fight, she just channeled the powers of her lord and lady as needed.

That was vaguely terrifying. While Cliodhna didn't otherwise feel as strong as some of the folk delving the dungeon, Kazue wasn't sure anyone here outside of Satsuki could resist Cliodhna declaring their death.

That wasn't the only worrying thing that Kazue's avatar had uncovered during the tour. They had all assumed the books on the faerie side of the library would duplicate the books on the dungeon's side if they weren't simply nonsense.

But no, life was not that simple for them.

The books and scrolls in this ever-changing library contained knowledge and stories known by a portion of their visitors. While they rarely contained direct bibliographical information, whose knowledge was contained within a given book was often clear, in addition to the person's name being on the cover.

The limitations seemed to be that the visitor had to pass through any portion of their library zone, even the associated sewers, and they had to have less personal power or strength than the library's bosses did. So while her parents did not appear to be involuntary donors to this library, the soldiers from Trionea were.

The three of them needed to set aside some time to debate whether ethics required them to disclose this fact. It wasn't true mind-reading or anything, but it could be seen as a violation of privacy.

Interestingly enough, these materials were not automatically integrated into the dungeon's knowledge. Any given volume needed to have one of the cores focus on it to analyze it. A bit of testing showed that an inhabitant could also read a book or scroll and have that knowledge integrated, so long as they were acting on behalf of the dungeon. If they were perusing for their own entertainment or knowledge, it remained only their knowledge.

Once Kazue saw that their visitor was settled in for now, she turned her attention to that library and began scanning over the titles. Announcing this power was up for debate still, but she was certainly not going to pass up on this opportunity to collect information about Trionea. If she combined all the knowledge she could collect this way, she could pull together some interesting bits of history as well as lore about how things worked plus some bits of genealogy that might not be public knowledge.

While they might trust some particular individuals from Trionea to greater or lesser degrees, as a whole they felt rather on guard about the empire and knowledge is a very valuable weapon.