The back dining hall of the Gloomy Horse was a cavernous space carved directly from the bedrock, its high ceiling concealed in gloom despite the numerous Kitlix lanterns hanging from iron chains. A massive stone fireplace dominated one wall, Kitlix-managed flames casting dancing shadows across the ancient stone tables and benches.

Cinder and Vespera huddled near the fire, looking scruffy and very annoyed with life in general.

"Sup guys?" I asked.

"Ey," Vee looked up at me. "Not much. Still warming up after our accidental dungeoneering. Bleh. What have you been up to for the past two hours? Kat sat you needed some time alone?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Just prepping some backup plans."

"For?"

"For everything and everyone," I said. "Sort of an endgame strategy thing."

"I see," Vespera said. The Thunderbird's spirit has been thoroughly defeated by cold water and the even colder tunnel.

Cinder looked at me wearily, her wings wrapped tightly around herself. Her feathers were shifting through troubled dark blues and icy silvers resembling stormy sky.

"Stay here for a bit more," I said. "I have an idea for some... renovations."

"Kay," Vee nodded.

I climbed the tower's winding stairs, emerging onto the highest level. The space was mostly empty except for old tables and dust-covered crates. Perfect.

I dug through Lance's bag until I found what I was looking for - a bricking wand with "Architecture-fix-on-the-go 3000" written on its handle in fading gold letters.

Working quickly, I used Captain's lighter to give myself 700 mana and then wielded the wand to reshape the stone below me, making it a single polished surface without any cracks or holes. The magic flowed easily, the stone responding to my will as if it were clay.

I dismantled the shoddy-looking parts of the back column and a bit of the parapet to provide some walls and carved a basic stone drain pointing outside of the tower. Within about twenty minutes, I had a decent-looking circular hot tub pool about forty inches deep that would easily fit six Omnids in it. It featured a stone seat in it with a view of Undertown.

I plugged the drain with a stone-carved plug, and then added another flat drain closer to the top to let out any extra water, grinning to myself.

Next came the insta-rain stone, another of Lance's tools similar to what the mermaid nurse used to Phase-Shift herself to a more magical state. I threw it upward and activated it. The stone shattered in the air, creating a small rain cloud that began filling the pool with clean, fresh water.

While the pool filled, I pulled the control mechanism out of several of my stolen Skyfall hexasuits and shoved them into the water along with the beast cores.

Once the pool was full and warm, I slipped into it and activated my Quartermaster ID tag, calling up each of my team mates starting with our Slayer.

"Yo Vee," I said into the Voicecast when the Thunderbird's weary-looking face appeared on the magitek holo. "Hot tub on the roof. Join me!"

"We have a hot tub?! Since when?!" Vespera's voice crackled through the holo-projection, her frown turning into a smile.

"Since I installed one," I grinned, zooming out the projection range to display myself inhabiting the tub in swimming trunks. "Rooftop pool party!"

"Oh sheet. Count me in! Come on rainbow, you could use a dip," Vee's face turned towards Cinder.

"What? But..." Cinder protested weakly.

"No buts! Mmm. Okkay, maybe some butts. In the hot tub. Come on!"

"Kat?" I switched the Voicecast to our Knight. "Hot tub's got your name on it!"

"Ehhh. Gonna pass," Katherine's dragon-feline face ignited on the holo. "Going to explore my city, since we're obviously not registering upstairs."

"Oh, so it's your city now?"

"Shush you," she growled, but I could see her trying to hide a smile. "Someone has to scout the area properly via the deep since I know you three idiots are going to want to gawk at and paw at everything later."

"You know me too well," I smiled. "Stay safe, bestie."

She grumbled something under her breath, but her eyes glowed from within with mild amusement before the projection winked out.

"Io? Hot tub?" I called up our Door next.

"Water and moths don't mix well," Io's projection replied, stretching by the fire in a stone alcove. "Besides, this book is getting good. Julie Verne really knows how to write about moon-people."

"Aight, suit yourself," I said, hanging up.

In a few minutes, Vespera burst through the thick wooden door, dragging a protesting Cinder behind her. The Thunderbird's eyes lit up at the sight of the steaming pool.

"Yasss! Just what the doctor ordered!" She exclaimed, already rapidly stripping off her armor.

"Wait!" Cinder yelped, wings flaring with embarrassed pinks as Vee started removing her chainmail. "I don't have any swimming stuff..."

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"Too bad, so sad," Vespera grinned mischievously, pulling off her hexasuit to reveal a chainmail bikini underneath. "More human for me."

"YOU are doing this on purpose!"

"All's fair in love and hot tubs," I commented at her.

Vee winked at Cinder, sliding into the water beside me. "Uhhhh." She breathed out, beak open wide. "That's the stuff. Dis' is now officially my best delving experience ever. GJ Quartermaster, never stop breakin' my expectations."

I smiled at her.

"Mmmm..." Vee purred, leaning against me and glancing deviously at the fretting Quetzi. "So... cozy."

"Oi! Get your sparkly talons off him!" Cinder growled, her feathers shifting through violet-greens.

"No talons, only warm burr," Vespera clicked her beak playfully, snuggling closer.

Cinder's feathers flashed through frustrated reds. She glanced between us and the door several times, clearly torn.

"Fine!" She finally burst out as Vee draped her black and white wing around me, sending sparks raining down on my head. "But turn around! Both of you!"

"Yes ma'am," I grinned, sliding around the tub to face the magical view of gloomy Undertown lit by distant glowing moss, fires and Kitlix lanterns. Vee giggled but did the same.

There was rustling of fabric and armor, then a splash as Cinder entered the water. I turned my head to find Cinder sitting in the tub about a meter away, half-submerged under, her wings wrapped around herself like a shield. Her feathers were shifting through embarrassed pinks, golds, violets and nervous silvers. She glanced between her wings at the door again with a worried expression.

"Relax," I said. "I put up Lance's biggest shield ward over the door. Ain't nobody coming up here without my approval."

"Yeah, relax," Vespera commented, wrapping her left wing round me harder. "It's just us here. No need to be so shy."

"I'd love to relax, but someone's being extra handsy," Cinder growled.

"And?" The Thunderbird yawned.

"There's no 'and'. Ju-just stop fraternizing with our Quartermaster!" the Quetzi hissed. "It's... unprofessional!"

"I never claimed to be the paragon of proper delving procedures," Vee shrugged. "I see a shiny, I take it. Come on Ci, use your words. Tell us how you really feel. No need to dance around it."

"I'm not dancing around anything!" Cinder's feathers flashed through defensively annoyed auburn-reds like an autumn tree. "I just... you can't just... he's..."

"Yeeeees?"

"You're bothering me!" Cinder snapped. "With your... your constant flirting and touching and... and..." The Quetzi drew out.

"And what?" Vespera pressed on mischievously.

"And he's not some shiny thing for you to collect! He's... he's important! To me! And you're just... just playing with him like everything's a joke!" Cinder stammered, opening her wings for a moment to reveal a white sports-bra.

"What's wrong with some playin'?" Vespera walked her steel-clad talons up my shoulder, sending a spark into my cheek that made me twitch.

"I said.. LAY OFF!" Cinder's face stretched out becoming more draconic, her wings ignited with mind-shattering colors, voice laced with magic. I noticed that I slid away from Vee, my body responding to the wing-cast Charmchain order.

"Playing?" Vespera's voice grew serious, her usual playful tone vanishing as she too slid away from me, sparks dancing between feathers. "You think that's what all this is? Just me playing around?"

"Isn't it?" Cinder challenged. "Everything's a game to you! You're always joking, always pretending nothing matters..."

"Some things do matter," the Thunder-girl crossed her arms. "I do joke. I do pretend. Because that's how I cope with the fact that in four months, I'm supposed to marry someone I hate! Someone whom I have to rewrite my brain for, become the perfect Primo-wife for!"

The extra, alien, hard to define colors melted away from Cinder's wings.

"I'm not like you or Io, Cee!" Vespera declared angrily. "I'm always in mild Phase-Shift, ALWAYS keep a tight control of myself through Dreamancy. I don't Phase-Shift into an effin' rainbow-snake constantly like some Quetzis, nor do I constantly dull my predatory desires with interdimensional puff-bliss like some moths!"

Cinder seemed to deflate a little more, snout drawing back in.

"I had perfect control over my feelings... until this damned pinkie showed up," Vespera continued, gesturing at me. "This whack human who just... who makes whack plans to save me for some bloody reason. Who makes me feel like maybe, just maybe, I don't have to unmake myself."

Cinder crossed her arms.

"I care about Lexy," Vee declared. "Just like you do. Except... unlike you, I'm not afraid to admit it!"

The Quetzi frowned.

"I'm not simply afraid!" Cinder protested. "I just... It's... Ughhhh..."

"Stop making it complicated," Vespera stated. "You like him. He likes you. What's so hard about that?"

"Everything!" Cinder's wings flared. "He's... he's human! And he's incredibly dishonest about so many things and he might get arrested and deported when we get back, or my parents might find out that he's here illegally and..."

"And what?" Vespera pressed. "Danger is the spice of life! So what if he's human? So what if he's a cheeky trickster? He lies to protect himself, to survive. To help his friends. Unlike certain ruby dragons we know!"

"That's... that's not the point!" Cinder's feathers danced through frustrated oranges like a living sunset.

"Then state ya point, ya freakin' knob!" Vee splashed water at her friend.

"The point is... everything's changing so fast. He's changing everything. The school, my family, my friends... even me! And I... I don't know if I'm ready for that," Cinder confessed.

"Ready for what?" I interjected. "For having real friends who care about you?"

"Friends?! This spark-harpy isn't behaving like a friend!" Cinder snarled, waving an accusatory clawed hand at the Thunderbird.

"Oh?" Vespera clicked her beak. "And how should a friend behave? Like Em? Controlling everything you do? Making you feel worthless unless you meet her impossible standards of absolute koboldization?"

"That's not..." Cinder started.

"Or maybe like me before?" Vespera continued. "Just going along with whatever Em wanted? Watching you slowly, unknowingly lose yourself to an Outsider Entity and doing fuck-all about it?"

"Stop it," Cinder hissed.

"No," Vespera's gray eyes flashed. "You need to hear this. Real friends tell you the truth, even when it hurts. Real friends support you being yourself, not what they want you to be. Real friends..."

"Real friends don't try to steal each other's humans!" Cinder burst out, her wings flaring with deeper sunset reds and possessive violet-greens.

"I'm not stealing anything," Vespera replied calmly. "I'm investigating him. He's interesting."

"Investigating?!" Cinder sputtered. "Is that what you call draping yourself all over him? Investigating?!"

"Yep," Vespera snapped her talons, sending more sparks into my chest. "The draping has purpose. And I've discovered some very interesting things. Like how his heart rate speeds up when you get close to him. Or how his eyes follow your wings when you move. Or how he's literally planning to build a city called Katsburg just to make Kat happy. To help Io with finding the truth. To help me with my dum thing! It's too kind and wholesome and I don't trust kind and wholesome."

"Too kind?" Cinder blinked. "You think he's TOO kind?"

"Yes!" Vespera threw up her hands, sending sparks flying all over me. "Nobody is this selfless! Nobody just... decides to help everyone around them for no reason! There has to be an angle, a catch, a... something!"

"Actually," I raised my hand. "There is a catch."