When Mordecai returned to their rooms up in the crystal tree, he found a rather interesting surprise awaiting him.

There were two women on the bed, and both of them were his wives, but neither of them appeared to be Kazue. Instead, there were two nigh identical copies of Moriko lying in sultry repose amongst a decorative scattering of pillows.

The two of them watched him with matching smirks. "Can you guess who is the real one, lover?" one of them asked with a purr.

The other one added, "We might even reward a man who can readily tell apart his wives."

"Although," the first one continued, "we might have to express our disappointment in a man who could fail what should be such a simple task."

Mordecai shook his head with amusement.

The two of them had really done an impeccable job. Both of their, um, outfits were new as well as identical, giving no clues there. One of them, he was guessing Moriko, had mingled their auras into a complicated mess to confuse identification that way. He rather had to approve of that, it was much easier and more reliable than mimicking someone else's aura, though mimicking was more useful if you were trying to disguise the act of swapping with someone.

The near-perfect matching of their bodies was a testament to Kazue's growing skills, and he was pretty certain that she was also maintaining a spell to let her mimic Moriko's body language and speech patterns.

Unfortunately for their game, Kazue had missed something. To be fair, it involved one of his senses that most people don't have.

He decided to play along for the moment and said, "Alas, it seems my wives have become corrupted by their fey titles. Playing such tricks upon their loving husband, whatever is a man to do?" He walked toward the bed slowly while he made a show of examining the two of them.

"Hmm," Mordecai murmured with exaggerated thoughtfulness when he leaned over to sniff each of them, nuzzling into each one's neck to make her squirm. "No, no clue there." He was fairly certain that Kazue had done a perfect job even here, but she'd also taken the precaution of having both of them wear a mild perfume that neither one of them had worn before.

After indulging in several minutes of making a show out of examining both of them in minute detail, Mordecai ended with Kazue pinned beneath him. Her defiant expression still mirrored Moriko's perfectly. "You know," he said, "it could be a problem if I got it wrong and got carried away with Kazue, thinking she was Moriko. While my adorable fox loves a bit of rough play, she much prefers 'scary' foreplay that isn't too rough. Just imagine what it would be like if I played with her with the same level of vigor that I use with Moriko."

Kazue lasted a few moments longer while wearing Moriko's 'I dare you' look that was an invitation, but she broke after a few moments of him staring down at her. She shivered as her body language went back to her own, though she didn't change her shape. "How did you figure it out? I think you knew immediately."

"That's simple my love," he replied with a grin. "The two of you have very different stripes."

"Stripes?" Moriko asked with confusion, "What do you mean?"

Mordecai looked at her with a smile. "Exactly what I said. Everyone has stripes. It's just that most people can't see them. I, however, can see them clearly."

"Oh!" Kazue said as she pulled the pieces together with a little help from her other self. "That bluer blue! I didn't think to look at us through my focus!"

"Correct," Mordecai replied. "Now, about that prize for seeing through your clever disguise..."

In the end, he didn't ask anything too arduous from them. Mordecai simply continued the game they'd started. At first, he just had Kazue maintain looking like Moriko while the three of them enjoyed each other. When he felt that part of the game was played out, Moriko accepted a spell from him that transformed her to look like Kazue.

Such spells were difficult to inflict upon the unwilling, but with a willing target, they were only a little more difficult than targeting one's self. Now he had them each do their best to pretend to be the other, which was entertaining by itself, even before accounting for their other activities.

Finally, he had Kazue revert to her normal form so that Mordecai had two little red-headed kitsune to play with and have play with each other.

Once their games were played out, the three of them cleaned up and settled into a bath together.

"You know," Moriko said, "it was rather strange kissing 'myself', even when you had me wearing Kazue's form."

"Well, yes," Kazue said, "it was. But, um, I thought it was a kind of fun game still." She was adorable when she blushed.

Moriko smiled and admitted, "Yeah, it was. Though I don't think the accounts are quite balanced yet." She finished that last statement with a meaningful look at Mordecai.

He laughed and replied, "Fair enough, but Kazue has to master becoming a convincing duplicate of me first. Then you two can dictate the games." Given the fire he saw light in Kazue's eyes, Mordecai was certain he'd successfully provided her with even more motivation to train.

There wasn't a lot to do other than train and play right now. The weather was slowly warming toward spring and there were a few more groups willing to travel as the weather improved, so the dungeon was getting busier but it was all still routine as they continued to gather mana toward their next zone.

Kazue had her theme picked out already. She intended to work with the existing terrain and create a 'mountain forest survival' scenario, complete with the ability to make base camps and such. Spacial compression was more difficult in open terrain, but with the influence of their faerie domain, it was going to be easier for them than for most.

Mordecai had a few entertaining ideas to add to the zone within that theme, but all of that would wait until after the beginning of spring and the new year. Once they had confirmed the weather was trending in the right direction for a normal springtime, they could claim the zone and announce the one-month timeline for people to clear the ocean zone if they wanted to participate in the tournament.

After the tournament, they'd hopefully have the mana to claim one more zone above the earth zone, and after that would be when Mordecai planned to finish his redesigns and finally invest into a fully incarnated avatar.

Which reminded him of another though he'd had.

"Hey loves," he said, "I have a request. I need at least one new outfit for when we head out for our training mission and then to help Deidre's core. There are some specifications that make it a little more difficult than normal. If I was just going for my minimal needs, I could wear short trousers or some variation on a long, sleeveless tunic, but I rather suspect that neither of you want to be seen with me in public like that."

That got their attention and curiosity, and soon they were barraging him with questions.

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"So," Mordecai said, "I've been making some adjustments to my avatar's different forms over time as I've resolved how to make more abilities work in every shape. One of the things I've been able to do is make my skin mildly sensitive to light and shadow, enough to help me see motion even behind me. But that requires bare skin. Similarly, I need the soles of my feet to touch the ground in order to feel faint vibrations. That same type of sense also means I want my arms and legs bare so that my skin and hair can feel every slight change in the wind and air."

Kazue nodded as she took physical and mental notes. This was going to be an interesting challenge. Although seeing her husband run around in near nothing, or maybe even less, might be entertaining in private, she admitted to herself with a small blush, she didn't think it was quite the look for a faerie king in public.

"Alright," she said after trading looks with Moriko, "We'll work on it and see what we can come up with." She was certain, given the glint in Moriko’s eye, that her wife was also interested in scheming together to create some special outfits for Mordecai in addition to the ones he was asking for. Outfits that would be for private entertainment only.

By the next day, she had gathered together a small conspiracy's worth of cohorts, and Mordecai was not invited. If he was going to make a request like this, he had to live with the results they came up with.

Moriko was going to be part of this of course, and Moriko had brought up the idea of ropin in Satsuki with all of her experience. With Satsuki naturally followed Deidre, though she didn't seem particularly interested in adding to the design process.

With this set of peers gathered, Kazue decided that it would be appropriate to get their adoptive daughters involved. She wasn't expecting either Carmilla or Fuyuko to have a lot to add in the way of suggestions, but it seemed a good idea to make sure their daughters didn't find their father's battle outfit too embarrassing.

Satsuki, unsurprisingly, made the first suggestion: Tapping her lip, she said, “I have been to a few places where fighting skirts were worn by men, some on this world, some on others. That might be a good place to start."

She started weaving an illusion to illustrate what she was talking about."Specifically, the one I’m thinking of is made of one continuous piece of somewhat heavy fabric, a blanket, if you will. It is left flat in the front and pleated along the back. That should give him space for whatever tail configuration he has under the skirt."

The kitsune woman couldn't resist a small, predatory smile when she mentioned what would be under Mordecai's skirt, but she continued without missing a beat.

"Once the skirt is fixed in place with a belt, there is still enough fabric to either belt around the body or toss over the back to wear as a cloak; or even a hood. Once that fabric is pinned into place, he should be able to hold minor items in the folds. And, of course, it is bulky enough to somewhat obfuscate his shape as well as be used to ward minor blows."

“That seems rather casual, though. I mean, it’s just a blanket, isn’t it?” Carmilla asked.

“Don’t scorn a well-placed blanket, darling,” Satsuki said with a wink.

Carmilla got a rather thoughtful expression and Kazue decided it was best that she didn't know what the faerie was considering. She just sent a prayer off for whatever poor soul Carmilla roped into 'helping' her.

Kazue quickly moved the conversation on to other ideas, though she and Moriko shared an amused glance at the thought of how their husband would have to contort to put it on properly. Based on the design shown, he'd be rolling around on the floor a lot.

Moriko had the next suggestion. "There are sleeveless designs for lightweight gi, and people are often barefoot when wearing them for training. I'm sure we could make it look dashing as well. Um, the pants are usually ankle length, though they are loose enough for airflow. I'm not sure short pants would work. Maybe some cutouts could be designed for the back? I think that would get most of the effect Mordecai is looking for."

That was an interesting thought and after some discussion with the whole group concerning the possibilities of heavy embroidery with large openings within the pattern and mesh to create holes in the fabric that would allow air and light through to the skin below, they had a small selection of variations on the idea created via dungeon magic. These would only be patterns of course, the final clothing would need to be made from outside materials.

The next idea came from an unexpected place. Deidre looked at Fuyuko, asking “How much do you know of your people?”

“Uh, not much,” Fuyuko answered in surprise, a small frown on her face. “My parents died when our house burned down. I was only eight at the time, so I only knew some stories they told me while they were teaching me their crafts. My, um, new parents gave me a book with even more stories, but that still only tells so much.”

It was sweet watching her stumble and blush over differentiating between her two sets of parents.

“Ah, so they were not clan warriors," Deidre replied."I have seen the traditional outfits of the luponi clan, and they might suit his needs well. After all, they also often have tails to take care with, though you do not. As your father, it might behoove Mordecai to dress so.”

With that, Deidre described a warrior’s skirt while Satsuki gave the description form with illusion magic. This one was made of multiple leaves of heavy fabric overlaying each other like petals, the fabric black and the hem uneven. Over the torso and continuing onto the upper arms was a harness made of a complex series of metal chains, circles, and brooch-sized engraved shields that were both beautiful to look at as well as creating a multitude of places to fasten anything to himself that he might need, from a cloak to pouches and weaponry, and they offered a light amount of armoring.

For footwear, she showed them a strange pair of sandals. The very thin soles had holes in them, specifically placed so that the balls of the feet and the heels would touch the ground, while adding protection to the other parts of the foot as well as transmitting any sensations from the ground up through the sole to those parts that would not normally touch the ground, actually adding to the amount of sensation the wearer would be able to read through their feet.

It was a very fierce looking outfit, showing off well-toned muscle with glints and sparkling metal. But once again, not really the look for a faerie king. Or not a very civilized one, at least. Although, it made for a great mental image of a conquering faerie king, especially one who was looking to conquer... Kazue made herself shut those thoughts off and tucked them away for future story-writing ideas.

Kazue went next and presented her ideas using a little bit of dungeon magic. Utilizing fabric with the open, airy weave of cheese-cloth so that Mordecai could use his senses through the holes in the fabric, Kazue created a puffy shirt.

She then took the idea of the harness from the clan outfit Deidre had described, but instead made it of soft black leather and had it continue slightly further along the upper arms, as a stabilizer for the puffs of the mostly decorative fabric it was attached to and ending as a leather cuff just above the elbow to where the bracers would lay.

The pants were made of the same material as the shirt and stabilized with the same soft leather strips, they ended just above the knee. Sandals were also taken from the clan-warrior outfit, with the straps wrapping around the calves and ending just above the knees, in line with the pants.

Fuyuko suggested running threads of silver and cold iron through the fabric, both to help stiffen it as well as to make it better armor against fey and other creatures sensitive to such. She admitted that the idea came to her because of how she'd almost caused more trouble with her daggers when they held court in Faerie.

“That’s a good idea!” Kazue said excitedly. “I’ll also run some gold through it. It won’t help with any creatures I know of, but it’ll also help stiffen those puffs out to make sure they don’t interfere with Mordecai’s senses while helping me do this.”

Kazue created a motif of the four seasons over the entire outfit.

First, the pants were patterned with a vine motif for summer, the gold threads becoming glinting wood.

Second, a panel of spring flowers bloomed over the chest, with petals of silver and gold interspersed among the delicate hues.

From there, autumn leaves overlay the arms, with glints of sun-dappled gold and dewy silver.

Finally, across the back, surrounding the shield-shaped panel on the front, and as a single stripe going down each arm and leg, was a dark wintry landscape of falling silver snowflakes and golden stars.

Now that was an outfit for a faerie king.

“Well, they’re all so different from each other. I don’t think I can choose.” Moriko said, reviewing the designs.

“They are,” Satsuki agreed. “You know, he doesn’t have to have just one. You never know what the situation will call for, after all.” The group quickly agreed that having all four designs available was a good idea, and the gi could sort of count as multiple outfits as there were a few different coordinating motifs.

Now it was time to enjoy a show. When they had all the dungeon-crafted samples ready, Kazue sent a message to Mordecai letting him know it was time to try on his new wardrobe so that final adjustments could be made before having the outfits crafted properly. Naturally, her core would be 'peeking' when he during his changes and passing on the visuals to Moriko.

This was fun, but it was also a part of the ongoing preparations they were all making to get ready for their training trip and the small war that would follow afterward.

The days continued to pass and spring approached with both painful slowness and terrifying speed. It was difficult to not be able to take the next major step in their plans, but there was so much small stuff to do that it was easy to worry about missing something.

But spring would inevitably come, no matter what any of them felt about it.