The girls were silent as they led me back to the dorm rooms. Shayla remained clinging to my arm and back the whole way. Kassandra shared a look with Rieka before swapping with my wolfish princess, allowing Rieka to slip her arm into mine.
Jane was entirely oblivious, happily bouncing along ahead of our group while her tail danced and swayed happily as she babbled about how epic the fight was, and how she was confident that I’d do just fine in my next duel. Kassandra slithered up next to the excitable mouse kin and joined in with a smile.
It warmed my heart to see the formerly nervous Jane getting along so well with Kassandra. I knew that there had to be a story there, but I could also tell that Jane didn’t want to talk about it, though she did take pains to overcome her shyness and issues with my dwarf lamia’s presence.
“So, Liam. How are you feeling now that the fights are done for the day?” Rieka’s voice was soft as my wolf princess leaned into my shoulder, laying her head lightly against my deltoid. The fluffy tips of her pointed ears stirred and tickled my cheek lightly until I turned and nuzzled into them gently.
“Fine. The fights were tough but not impossible,” I answered, brushing my lips over the tip of one of those fluffy points.
“I still don’t like that we are asking Liam to fight like this at all,” Shayla huffed, the large moth woman crowding a little closer on my left. I felt a brief stirring of a breeze behind me, and I guessed that had to be her wings flapping in irritation. A moment later, I felt a soft sensation as one of her antennae brushed against my forehead, the delicate organ stroking over my skin gently before retracting.
“I don’t like it either, Shayla,” Rieka admitted. “At this point, the whole competition thing feels… wrong. What does it gain any of us to pit our summoned companions against each other in such a brutal battle? It would make far more sense to have the time spent in sparring matches where the summon can join in. But this is the curriculum of the academy.”
“If this is what Juneau has to offer in its wisdom, I don’t know if I want to learn here,” grumbled the moth woman under her breath, quiet enough that I would have missed it if she wasn’t clinging so close to me that I occasionally felt her soft bust brush against my back.
“Juneau is…” Rieka began to protest before grimacing and sighing. “I don’t know what to say to that. I can’t disagree that it is a rough environment to learn in, and somewhere that I question the worth of on occasion either.”
“There have to be reasons for you to stay here. What made you decide to attend Juneau in the first place?” I interjected, turning to look over my right shoulder at Shayla, who was frowning down at her feet while still clinging to the back of my arm tightly with her right hand.
Her antennae, which I had learned were as much tells of her mood as Rieka’s ears, were curled close to her skull now rather than their normal, airy selves. Which told me she was anxious and worried.
“I came to Juneau to learn about my magic, which is rare in general. But if this is how the school treats its students, I don’t know if I want to take part in this,” Shayla mumbled, not looking up at me but clearly aware of my gaze as she began to blush slightly.
The blush crept down her cheeks, just a faint tinge of pink at the moment. I knew that if I kept staring at her, that blush would work its way down her throat to begin dusting the top curves of her pale breasts where they lay exposed by her loose dress.
“The school is treating its students fine. It’s just being a bit rough with their summoned companions is all,” I interjected gently. “I’m an aberration in that norm. A Traveler is not normally summoned in those rituals after all…”
The sentence trailed off as I thought about the situation that led up to my bonding with Kassandra and Rieka that first night. Sure, I’d gone off a bit on the deep end of the whole white knight thing when the girls had said they needed help and I just promised to help them. But it’d turned out alright in the end, and I’d become a better person with their encouragement. But that wasn’t what had caught my mind.
Events of that night… I thought back, tapping into my vastly improved mental stats to remember what had occurred months ago.
I’d been parked on the side of a highway after having gone out of my way to help a friend who’d blown a tire out in the mountains. On the way back, I’d gotten into an accident that had dinged up my truck. We’d exchanged insurance cards, but I’d never heard anything about the claim or not from my insurance. And I’d gotten a ticket for the accident. I’d been sitting in the truck wondering about my choices in life when that first summon had come through, snatching me up involuntarily.
After cruising through the maelstrom of intervening space, I’d landed in the summoning room of Rue House and scared more than a few of the students there, especially when I’d shown that I wasn’t bound by the confines of the summoning circle.
But that was because the circle was damaged, wasn’t it? I thought, digging a bit at the memory before I found the point where I’d noticed the prised up bit of metal on one corner, a bit that had set the fear response off in the others even worse when I’d pointed it out.
“Rieka, did they ever figure out who damaged the summoning circle that night that you and Kass got me?” I asked gently as Jane and Kassandra led us through the front doors of Rue House and towards the stairs that went upwards to the floors where their rooms were.
“No. I asked Lady Maia about it, but she only ever told me that it’d been repaired and was believed to have been an accident. Why?”
“It just struck me as odd that the section was damaged when you and Kassandra went to use it. Were you and her volunteers at random, or did you know you’d go first?” I turned my gaze back to the platinum blonde on my arm and she hummed thoughtfully, lifting her head from my shoulder to peer at me for a moment before she answered.
“We knew in advance. The instructor wrote up a schedule by drawing lots, but the whole class knew who would go when, so that we knew when to bring the materials we wanted to use for the summoning. You don’t think…”
“That someone damaged the circle intentionally? I do think that, Rieka,” I sighed. “Between the fumbled summoning, the issues with those bandits that attacked that farm to try to lay a trap, then the other group who hit your mother’s caravan? I think something’s going on. You haven’t heard anything from the city guard yet, have you?”
Rieka blinked at me in surprise, her mouth falling open into an O for a moment before her brows knit together and she scowled.
“You are right. I’d forgotten about that part of the whole summoning thing. It worked out just fine, so I just… let it go. I didn’t even let my mother know about it.”
Shayla was glancing between me and Rieka now, her earlier worries overshadowed by what we were saying.
“You should let her know. If they aren’t connected, then all the better. If they are somehow connected to someone trying to do you harm, then she needs to know. There might be some way she can help. I’m less worried about this competition than I am about the other stuff going on in the background that could hurt one of my girls.”
My statement made Rieka blush, and she paused on the stairs, pulling me and Shayla to a stop long enough for my princess to bounce onto her tiptoes and press her lips to mine in a quick kiss.
“I think I will do that, Liam. I had planned to spoil you some in thanks for your hard work dealing with these problems and the competition. I know you’ve been training hard the last several weeks for it and all for something as nebulous as our grades. But I am sure Kassandra will be happy to monopolize you for the night instead.”
Rieka’s voice was low and husky as she whispered that into my ear, but not low enough that Shayla missed it. I could tell from the way the big moth woman tightened her grip on my arm just a bit before relaxing a moment later.
“You’ll just have to catch up on that later then is all, my princess. I love you and would love to spend more time with you.” I murmured into her hair, nuzzling the edge of her ears and nipping the curve of one lightly. This drew a quiet moan of need from Rieka and she shivered against me for a moment before stepping away.
“I will have to do just that, Liam. I’ve put this off for too long, though. Mother needs to be made aware of the possible connection. My only worry is that she might insist on me leaving Juneau for my own protection.”
Shayla’s unladylike snort of derision drew both of our attention to the moth woman, who blushed suddenly at our attention.
“I do not mean to speak ill of the queen….” Shayla began, pausing until I reached back with the arm she was clinging onto to give her thigh a reassuring pat. She smiled at me gently before squaring her shoulders and continuing.
“I was just thinking that if she thought she’d make you safer by taking you away from here, that’d be foolish. The safest place for you to be is near Liam, after all. And while the rest of us are here at Juneau, then he will be here the most often. I know that you can summon him to you at a moment’s notice, but it still would be better to stay close.”
“Fair point,” Rieka chuckled, her ears flicking upward in amusement while her tail fluffed and danced behind her. “I’ll make sure to include that in my message.” She held up a hand when Shayla began to protest. “Not that you said that, Shayla. Just to remind her that my protector has other charges, and thus staying close to them will ensure he is around most often.”
“And I think I made a pretty good impression on your mum when we met last, didn’t I?” I teased gently, getting a scandalized look from Shayla for referring to the queen as ‘your mum,’ while Rieka just grinned at me.
“That you did. The only way you could have done better to impress her would be if you’d had your shirt off,” Rieka husked, leaning in to nuzzle my neck. “You always look so impressive like that. It really gets me going. And you smell so good right now.”
“Did you change your mind about wanting to spoil me, Rieka?” I teased lightly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to squish the wolf woman into my side.
Rieka huffed in irritation and shook her head, leaning back to look up at me.
“No, more's the pity. I need to be responsible for a bit, which makes this harder.” I waggled my eyebrows at Rieka meaningfully and she snorted, slapping my chest. “I was meaning my duty, you dirty man. Kassandra is rubbing off on you.”
“As often as I can!” Kassandra chirped from the top of the stairs. “Are you two going to just strip Liam bare down there on the stairs or do you wanna head back to your room first, Rieka? Not that I mind sharing him with either of our new girls. He’s more man than either you or I can handle, after all.”
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Shayla began to blush furiously but didn’t respond, while Rieka just rolled her eyes and tugged our group into motion.
“If you must know, Kass. I need to write a message to my mother. Liam reminded me of something important that I need to pass along to her. I also need to get ready to light a fire under certain members of the Kintos City Guard, as they have had no information to give me,” Rieka explained once we met up with Kassandra and Jane.
Kassandra’s face fell into a scowl at that, remembering the events in question and the clash with the city guard as well as the commander who had tried to steal credit for our actions. At least, that was my guess as to why her face fell. Since Rieka speaking of them reminded me, I still had a bone to pick with a particular commander.
“That is fair. And knowing how long those messages take to travel, you’d want to get them going as soon as possible. It’s too bad that your mother doesn’t have a summoning pact with Liam. He’d be able to relay information to her immediately with that one power.” Kassandra tapped the side of her head with one finger meaningfully, making her curls fluff and bounce.
“Why doesn’t Liam have a pact with her majesty?” Jane interjected. “It might actually be beneficial and a way to carry secret messages. Just give the sealed message to Liam if you don’t want him to convey it via his power, then have the intended recipient summon him to deliver it.” Jane turned her attention to me, the tufty tip of her tail flicking over her head in excitement. “I know you don’t have a ton of space in your Dimensional Pocket ability yet, Liam. But you could still act as a courier for valuable items if someone really put the thought into it. Hard to intercept confidential communications when the courier is an extra-dimensional entity.”
Rieka paused with her mouth open, staring at the bouncy mouse kin woman as the five of us stood on the landing of the second floor, having only made it a dozen feet before the revelation brought our group to a stop. My princess continued to stare at Jane for a solid ten seconds before her mouth closed with a quiet click.
“That is actually a brilliant idea, Jane,” Rieka said a moment later. “If Liam would be willing to do that, it would allow for a level of secure communication that could not be easily compromised.”
“If he was willing to do it,” Jane tacked on, shooting me a wry smile. “I didn’t mean to offer you up like that, Liam. I just had an idea and wanted to get it out there before I forgot.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t mind playing Pony Express if any of you need me to. Same goes for your mum, Rieka. Within reason, of course. My first duty is to protect you four.” I shot each of the girls a smile, getting one in return with a bit extra from my lovers.
Rieka smiled lovingly at me and squeezed my arm into her breasts. Kassandra blew me a kiss to go with her smile. Jane just smirked and continued to bounce from foot to foot slowly, her excitement keeping her from standing still. Shayla blushed while she smiled, her balled antennae slowly uncurling as she relaxed again.
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘Pony Express’ Liam, but I can guess you mean that you wouldn’t mind being a messenger if needed?”
“Sure, though it’ll take some setting up to do,” I said with a shrug. “Might be best to test it with just your mother at first. I don’t know how many contracts I can have going at once, and that might limit me. Maybe write up the idea for her and send along the summoning information that lets you target me, like you did for Shayla and Jane. If she wants to do it, she’ll be able to summon me to send a reply.”
“If you are okay with it, Liam…” Rieka’s eyes shone with love as she let the sentence trail away. I smiled and nodded to her, getting another loving peck from my wolfish princess before she unwound herself from my arm. “Okay, I’ll go and start preparing the message. If I pay an express courier, they can get it to the capital in a day or two. That’ll let us finish the competition before we have to worry more about this.”
“Sounds good. Don’t stay up too late, love,” I replied.
“Same to you, Liam. Get plenty of rest before the finals tomorrow, okay? I don’t care if you win or lose, but I want you well rested so you don’t make a mistake and get hurt,” Rieka called over her shoulder. I shot her a mock-salute before turning my attention back to the other three women with me.
“Well then, did you ladies have anything you wanted to do tonight?” My question got a wicked grin from Kassandra. My mischievous noodle opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by Jane.
“Kass and I actually needed to get some work done on that report we are writing regarding ancient humans. We’ve… kinda left it to the last minute while helping you get ready for the competition and it's due tomorrow.”
Kassandra’s face fell at Jane’s pronouncement and she swore under her breath.
“Shit! I’d forgotten about that report for our historic class. It’s really due tomorrow?” Jane nodded with a small frown of her own.
“Yeah. I wanted to work on it sooner, but I knew that none of us would be able to think clearly while preparing for the competition. We’ve got a lot we can use from the ruins without revealing where they are, but we still need to get the reports actually written for class.”
Jane’s normally perky tail was now drooping nearly to the ground, the flexible strand bent double and its fluffy tip hanging like a broom’s bristles over the ground. She clearly wasn’t enthused about the report either, but from the resolute look on her face, Jane was determined to keep her grades up.
“I wanted to reward Liam for how well he’s done,” Kassandra whined. Her bottom lip stuck out in the queen of all pouts while my redheaded lover crossed her arms over her stomach and hmph’d in irritation.
“It’s fine, Kass. You need to keep your studies up after all, and I’m not going anywhere,” I reassured her, holding out my now-free right arm to her.
Kassandra’s eyes lit up with joy and she slithered over quickly, using her length to push herself up high enough to snuggle into my side happily.
I never complained when Kassandra wanted to give me some cuddles, and not just because of how her plush form felt against me. She was always so affectionate and open with her love that it was impossible to not be happy having her there with me.
“Sorry Liam,” Jane had a contrite look now, though her tail had perked up some. “I hate to steal Kass away from you like this, but we agreed to work on this report as a group so—”
“Don’t sweat it, Jane,” I interrupted, wrapping my right arm around Kassandra and squeezing her to my side, making the redheaded dwarf lamia eep out a giggle at the sudden pressure. “I’ll just head home and rest, like Rieka insisted. Better to take it easy and recover when I can. The final only has one fight tomorrow, but I need to be on top of my game for it.”
A murmur of noise from my left drew my attention over to Shayla, who’d been silent since Rieka had bounded off. The moth woman was blushing even more furiously, but the hand on the back of my arm was still resting firmly there.
I could feel the occasional brush of her soft skin against my bare arm, since I’d lost my shirt during the fights to a combination of the fire effects, claws, and other close calls.
“What was that, Shayla?” I asked gently of the shy moth woman.
“I…” Shayla began, her head dipping down so that her antennae and her hair hid her face. “I’m not doing anything. You could spend some time with me if you want, Liam.”
Her voice was quiet, almost so quiet I couldn’t hear her, but the hope in Shayla’s voice was obvious and I could feel my heart going out to the shy woman. Shayla had slowly been coming out of her shell over the last few weeks and I’d been getting closer to the woman. The hints had been there of her attraction, between clinging to me and the blushes, that I could tell she was interested. Given her shyness, though, I’d wanted to let her decide the pace.
No guarantees, Liam. She just might want to spend some time sketching me again, I reminded myself.
While I was exercising self-control and urging myself to not get my hopes up, Kassandra had no such reservations.
“Ooooh? Want to score some more private time to reward our Traveler?” Kassandra’s eyebrows bounced up and down like a pair of foxes playing on a trampoline for the first time. “I can’t say I fault you. Liam is just so easy on the eyes, especially after all that hard work he put in for us. I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist him for too much longer, Shayla.”
“Kaaass!” Shayla whined, her blush now dark enough that her face was starting to match colors with Kassandra’s hair in color and it had descended to vanish beneath the bodice of her dress.
“I mean, he just looked so deliciously dangerous out there in the ring, sweat dripping down off his muscles while he dominated the opponents. All for us too,” Kassandra continued to ramble along, the fingers of one hand tracing over my abdominals playfully while her slitted eyes twinkled. I could feel the pressure of one of her hard nipples digging into my side, so I knew she was winding herself up as much as she was winding Shayla up right now.
“He was pretty hot.”
The comment from Jane broke through the tension and all three of us turned to look at the smirking mouse kin woman, who shrugged despite the slight blush on her cheeks that actually flowed up into her large mouse ears where they protruded from her hair.
“What? It is true, you know. And really hot knowing someone that dangerous is only a second away from coming to our help. It’s reassuring,” Jane said with a shrug. “Especially after he made those three back down at the arena. I’d be considering it myself if we didn’t have that report to get to, Kass.”
“Another time, Jane,” Kassandra shot the mouse woman a saucy wink. “Liam is easily able to keep up with all four of us. And you know he’s a perfect gentleman from when we were camping the other day.”
“He may be a gentleman, but I know you are a pervert, Lady Silverscale,” Jane jabbed back with a smirk. “I know you towed him off for a morning rendezvous while the rest of us were sleeping. So dirty to want to do it out in the wilderness like a pair of animals like that.”
Kassandra had a wicked twinkle in her eye when she got ready to respond, but I shut her down with a pinch to the bum. She yelped before slapping me in the chest lightly and turning back to Jane.
“If you want a turn, all you have to do is ask, Jane. Rieka and I have already approved of you both. You just have to get Liam to agree,” Kassandra said without a hint of remorse, making the mouse girl blush even more as her comments had finally chipped through Jane’s resistance.
“Okay you two, you have a project to finish. Stop teasing Shayla so much, Kass,” I gave my serpentine lover another butt-pinch, but gentler this time. She squeaked in surprise before turning her smile on me once more.
“Fiiine. I guess we’ll leave you in Shayla’s capable hands. The mana in the summon should last for the next six hours, Shayla. You know how to send him back if he wears you out before then, right?”
Shayla didn’t respond verbally. She still had her eyes downcast and was blushing hard enough that I swore her pale antennae were about to start changing colors too, but she nodded instead.
“Good! Love you, Liam. Don’t break our magnificent moth girl now.” Kassandra wriggled higher to plant a kiss on my cheek after she finished speaking, then slid free of my arm to land on the ground once more. “Come on, Jane. Let’s get that report done so I don’t have it hanging over me again. I am going to have to be more aware of my homework so that it doesn’t get the chance to steal my Liam time in the future.”
The last part of her sentence was said with such an amusing mixture of annoyance and petulance that both of the other girls began to giggle in response.
“Okay, Kass. Let’s get this done. I have some other… things I wanted to talk to you about, too.” Jane shot me a meaningful glance, her ears folding back shyly against her skull while her fading blush flared.
Kassandra was quick to hook her arm in Jane’s and begin to tow the other woman away.
“I am an open book to you, Miss Carsan. I’ll be happy to give you all the juicy details!” Kassandra said with a happy wiggle that both sent her mane of red curls bouncing and her bottom jiggling under her tight skirt as she slithered away. Jane just laughed, allowing the serpent woman to tow her along.
This left just me and Shayla standing on the landing in awkward silence. A silence I couldn’t allow to linger.
One thing amongst many that my two lovers had given me so far was far more confidence in myself. It’d allowed me to make choices to better myself and grow as a person. So I put that new confidence to work and turned to Shayla. The moth woman continued to cling to my arm with her head bowed, but her antennae were fully extended now, the fluffy stalks reaching out towards me like two little hands.
“Shayla, you know that I’d never do anything to hurt you, right?”
The moth woman nodded once, her antennae bobbing.
“Do you want to just send me home? Kass was teasing more than she should have, so it won’t offend me if you aren’t comfortable—”
“No.”
Her one-word answer cut me off, and I paused to let Shayla speak.
The beautiful winged woman looked up at me finally, her bottomless black eyes shimmering slightly in the light and the blush on her cheeks firmly in place. But her shoulders squared with determination and she took in a slow breath before nodding.
“No, I want you to… spend some time with me. I want to know you, Liam.”
Shayla’s other hand came up to trace my arm lightly before she smoothed her palm out over my chest, tracing the handful of small scars that I had there from the few times I’d gotten into fights back home before I had my powers.
The feeling of her soft hand sent a thrill of pleasure down my spine, and I nodded to her.
“Okay, I’m all yours then, Shayla. Lead the way.”