“I still can’t get over how well you handled Valda in the fight the other day!” Kassandra’s cheer was infectious as the dwarf lamia slithered along at my side, grinning happily while she swayed.
“It was just sparring,” I reminded her carefully. “If we’d been in an actual fight, I’m sure there would have been injuries all around. She spent most of Wednesday kicking my butt.”
It was now Friday, two days having passed since my sparring with Valda, and my lovers had decided they wanted a dinner date in town to take a bit of a break from the training. I wasn’t about to decline.
“That’s not what Rieka told me,” Kassandra insisted, leaning forward to shoot the princess in question a smirk.
“That’s because you just wanted to hear about how the fight was when they went all out, Kass,” Rieka said sarcastically, but I saw the amused twinkle in her ice-blue eyes. “You didn’t want to hear about all the boring training.”
“Well yeah, that’s boring!” Kassandra chirped, flipping her mane of red curls over one shoulder negligently, her nose rising to the air.
I chuckled, watching the amusing interplay between these two as they continued to flip comments back and forth. It was always so nice to see the easy camaraderie that my girls had, having been friends for so long.
Maybe even more than friends, I thought when the memory of our little threesome floated through my mind and I remembered just how at ease the two of them were together. I know that some folks think that if it’s two girls together, it’s not cheating, but I do hope they’ll talk to me about it if they decide to get up to something while I’m not here. Healthy communication and all that.
Kassandra’s next question caught me by surprise.
“So, what did you want to talk to the two of us about? Something fun, I hope?” Kassandra had latched onto my left arm, dragging my hand down into her cleavage while she clung to me as we made our way down the road that lay between Juneau and Kintos.
The sudden question, and the track my mind had been racing down previously, caused my thoughts to seize up and my brain to begin to overheat.
“Ah… uh… wha?”
“I think you broke him, Kass. Maybe take his hand out of your tits before you ask him questions?” teased Rieka with a smirk.
“You’d be surprised how eloquent our Liam can be while he’s between my tits,” Kassandra replied with a stuck out tongue to punctuate her statement.
Kassandra’s blatant innuendo and the smirking banter between the two worked together to hit the reset button and remind me that I hadn’t been wondering out loud about if these two might start hooking up without me.
I trust them, I reminded myself. And they know that I don’t judge. I’ll just remind them later, to make sure. Both that I trust them and that we can talk about anything.
Putting aside that thought, I dragged my mind back onto the other subject that had been floating around my thoughts for the last few days, ever since I’d gotten the awards from the System as well as opened up new abilities.
“Yeah, sorry about that. Got distracted by a certain mischief-maker,” I twiddled the fingers of the hand Kassandra had stuffed into her shirt, making the dwarf lamia giggle and then moan playfully.
“Save that for after dinner, Liam!” Kassandra ordered, the heat in her voice adding to the flush on her cheeks to show that she, too, was looking forward to our after-dinner entertainment.
“If you insist, Nugget,” I cupped one of the breasts gently with my hand, getting another quiet squeal from the dwarf lamia.
“Anyway. I had a new power open up the other day, actually several, but I wanted to talk to you two about one of them in particular.”
“Oh?” Rieka’s ears perked up at this. My wolf-eared princess was always interested in learning more about how the System dispensed my powers and what they all could do.
“Yeah. I finished out my current tier of Manipulate Element—the ‘lesser’ rank—and it opened up the moderate one now. But in doing that, there was another option too. Something that caught my attention based on what you two had been saying about Shayla’s magic.”
“Liam! Did you get the ability to use light magic too?!” Kassandra’s cooing and grinding of her breasts into my hand abruptly came to a stop as she tugged me to a halt with the arm she had captive. I turned my attention back to my dwarf lamia to find her staring up at me with an intense gaze and only a faint blush on her freckled cheeks to show her previous teasing still affected her.
“I got the option to access it—” I was cut off by Kassandra’s excited squeal, which was loud enough to send echoes across the countryside as the late afternoon sunlight drenched the waving fields of grass that surrounded the distant shape of Kintos. Before that excited squeal could fade away, she was already talking in a rapid patter of excitement, wiggling back and forth enticingly. The motion sent alluring jiggles through the expanse of exposed, freckled cleavage that had recently entrapped my hand, which drove my brain spiraling off track again.
“Ohmygods! That is so awesome! I heard that Shayla was believed to be a once in a century fluke, and you have access to light magic! That will be so helpful from now on! Wait, you said you have the option. Why haven’t you selected it?”
“Kass, you need to give him a chance to actually answer your questions,” Rieka laughed. “You should be used to Liam breaking the rules at this point. I’m more curious about what you meant by the ‘option’ to select it. That sounded like there was more to it.”
“There was,” I said, turning to my lovely princess with a snort of amusement. “What unlocked was a new entry: Manipulate Element (Primal). It lets me select one of four schools of primal magic to then add that school to the list I can pick from the Manipulate Element (Minor) tier. But it comes with some limitations.”
Now both of my girls were staring at me in shock. Kassandra’s slitted brown eyes were wide behind her spectacles, and the fur on Rieka’s ears and tail had puffed up.
Yeah, I kinda figured this would be their reaction… I mentally sighed and wrapped an arm around Rieka to pull her into moving while using a hand on Kassandra’s back because her shorter height wouldn’t let me do the same for her.
“Before you two freak out again, the Manipulate Element (Primal) opens up access to four schools: light, dark, time, and entropy. But they are mutually exclusive. If I take light, I lose access to dark forever. Same with time and entropy. So I wanted to ask you two what you thought about it, if I should take one or two of them, and which I should take.”
“Liam… this is…” Kassandra breathed in surprise, blinking furiously behind her spectacles. “I don’t even know where to begin. Have you asked your case-wokker?”
I smothered a laugh as she mangled the term. It was clearly one of the ones that didn’t have an equivalent in their language, so I ruffled her hair and corrected her gently.
“It’s ‘case-worker’, love. And no, I wanted to ask you two about your thoughts first, then discuss it with Cariad and Cerebaton. You two are my partners, friends, and my lovers. Your opinions matter the most to me.”
This got a dual ‘aww’ from both girls and they sandwiched me in a hug from either side. A hug that included more than a bit of groping from Kassandra’s side, and some gentle kisses from Rieka’s side.
When we separated and got moving again, the girls began to discuss the merits and negatives of the four options. Primal magic was not something that was well known or studied, so they only had the most basic knowledge of it, and most of what they knew revolved around the first two, so that took us until we reached the gates of the town.
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“Light and dark magic still need a lot of study,” Kassandra said with a sigh. “Shayla was telling me that a lot of the spells she uses are family knowledge, as her great grandfather was a light mage too. Dark… I think the professors said we had a sorcerer that could use dark magic a few decades ago. I remember it coming up in history class, but I wasn’t paying much attention.”
“Oh? What was distracting you at the time?” I teased my lamia, shifting the hand that had rested on her back to stroke the outer edge of her ear, sending a shiver down her back that traveled all the way along her serpentine body.
“Your hard co—”
“Kass!” Rieka interrupted, shooting the redheaded serpent woman a glare as we approached the gate. “Not in public like this. I know that you don’t really care about a lot when Liam is involved, but please?”
“Fiiine,” Kassandra said with mock-annoyance. “If you insist, Princess.”
“She’s asking nicely, Kass,” I reminded my redheaded menace. She smirked up at me with a wink.
“I know, Liam. I just have to keep poking Rieka to ensure she doesn’t get too uptight. It was hard enough getting her to relax the first time.”
Rieka huffed in annoyance and pouted at both of us as we passed the guards at the gate. As the sun was still out, the gates weren’t closed yet. The guards didn’t even stop us, only glancing at the girls to note the badges that marked them as students of Juneau before relaxing again and resuming their posts, propping up the walls.
“I was not that bad,” Rieka grumbled as we followed the cobblestone street deeper into the city.
“You were pretty bad,” giggled Kassandra. “But back to what we were talking about. The decisions are hard. If you pick light, then you can help teach Shayla new spells, but if you pick dark, it covers something that we don’t have access to.”
“What about time and entropy? You ladies haven’t said virtually anything about those two,” I asked, using the hand on Kassandra’s shoulder to guide her to one side so that there was room for the cart I saw approaching to get by without getting close to her.
“That’s because I’ve never really heard of those being practiced,” Rieka said earnestly, her ears perking up again. “It would be fascinating to study. Does the time school actually allow you to manipulate time, traveling back and forth? Or does it let you alter probability? The ‘primal’ elements were thought to only be light and dark, as legends state they were the first things to exist when the gods came into being and then shaped the world,”
“I’m more interested in that entropy one,” Kassandra took the opportunity of me pulling her to one side to snuggle into my hip despite the crowds of villagers that flowed around us. “That was what we saw before, what scared your case-worker.” I smiled at the effort my lover put into making sure she pronounced the word correctly, squeezing her shoulder affectionately before releasing her.
“Yes. From what I understand from my homeworld, entropy is labeled as the ‘end of all things’ or the gradual decline into disorder that will eventually bring about the end of the universe. Basically, energy is slowly but surely fading away from the universe, causing entropy to grow. From what we saw, that thing literally caused organized things, like physical matter, to dissolve into chaos. It wasn’t destroying them.” I shivered at that particular thought, remembering what the daemons had told me their bodies do to convert matter they consumed or touched into energy they could use. “But it was causing them to fall apart and enter a state of disorder where they basically ceased to be functional.”
“That would make for quite the potent weapon. And if time is supposed to be the exclusive counterbalance to entropy, it makes me wonder what that one can do even more…” Rieka’s words sent a chill up my spine and I had to fight the grimace that wanted to form on my face.
“Liam?” A perky voice from my right drew the attention of all three of us. Glancing that direction, I spotted the tufted tip of a tail waiving back and forth at eye level for me, which I followed down to the familiar smiling face of Jane. The mouse kin woman had a stack of books clutched to her chest, trying to stuff them all into a hip pouch while working her way down a set of shallow steps that led up from a basement shop.
“Jane, how are you—woop!” I started to say, waving with a smile as she tried to wave, bag, and scamper up the stairs at the same time. This sort of action inevitably ended up with the energetic mouse woman tripping on a stair and starting to tumble forward into a fall.
I was moving before I really had a chance to think, slipping from between my lovers and throwing myself out to catch her. My right arm stretched out, Shape-Shifting acting on instinct as it added length to the limb and spread my hand out to catch Jane before she slammed face-first into the street. Two of her books landed on the cobblestones, but I would much rather they do that than have her face meet the same fate.
“Jane! Are you okay?” Rieka was the one to speak up as both my girls hurried over to check on their friend. Jane flinched at her words, grimacing as she looked up at Rieka with regret, clearly just now realizing I wasn’t alone.
“I’m sorry, prin… I mean Rieka. I didn’t mean to ignore either of you,” Jane glanced between my two lovers, her tail flicking anxiously as she steadied herself, leaning into my arm for support as I reversed the shift when I finally got within normal reach of the mouse woman.
“It’s fine, Jane. Liam kinda does stand out in a crowd after all,” Kassandra was quick to reassure the smaller woman, scooping her dropped books up from the ground and giving them a quick dusting off before holding them out to Jane. “I mean, he’s just so handsome!”
Kassandra’s words had the mouse woman blushing and ducking her head before sneaking a glance at me. I did my best to just smile reassuringly at her.
“You okay? Didn’t whack your knee or anything?” I asked and Jane nodded quickly, accepting her books back from Kassandra one by one and getting them tucked into the satchel at her side. Rieka stood watch at her back, urging those passersby that were staring at our group to get back about their business with the liberal application of a cool glare.
“Yes. Sorry about that again. I got distracted. I found several new books on wind magic that I just had to get so I can study to keep up with all of you.”
Jane spoke in her normal rapid patter, but the tufty tip of her tail flicked back and forth rapidly. That was a sign of anxiety that I’d noted from the small woman over the last few weeks. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one learning to read our newest companion’s tells, either.
Kassandra smiled at Jane as she handed over the last of the books.
“You are doing just fine keeping up with us, Jane. Don’t you worry about that. Just focus on making sure you don’t burn yourself out, okay? This is a marathon, not a sprint after all. Sure, we have exams coming up, but there is still another term after this one before any of us even finish the apprentice courses.”
“I just don’t want to get left behind again…” the worry was thick in Jane’s tone as she spoke, but she perked up when Rieka laid a hand on her shoulder to reassure her.
“As long as you don’t start slacking off in class, then you have nothing to worry about,” I chipped in as well. “I’ve seen how hard you work and the practice you do when we train together. Keep that up and you’ll do just fine.” I gave the much smaller woman a wink that made her blush only intensify, and Jane ducked her head to look away. Thankfully, the thrashing of her tail stilled, at least.
“So what are you three up to?” Jane asked weakly, clearly trying to change the subject.
“Liam is taking us on a date,” Kassandra said with an impish grin. Jane’s head came up in response to that and she stared at the dwarf lamia in disbelief.
“What?”
“She’s not joking, Jane,” Rieka added gently, patting the mouse kin woman on the shoulder. “We were going to walk the market and then go have dinner. If you want to join us for the first half, you are welcome to tag along.”
“I… I couldn’t! No! I appreciate the offer though,” Jane squeaked, her voice running high in surprise as she dipped her head in a quick bow, bouncing from foot to foot. “I should let you three get back to your evening. I just saw Liam and wanted to say hello, since I figured one of the others was there, too. I hope you three have a great evening!”
Given that Jane looked like she was about to sprint away to escape the awkwardness, I could understand her panic. Unintentionally crashing a date was awkward enough, but with the addition of the fact it was three people, and one of them was a princess, no doubt made it even more awkward.
“It’s fine, Jane,” I said gently, squatting down, so I was on a level with her and not looming over the much smaller woman instead. Kassandra, of course, immediately took advantage of the opportunity to throw her arm around my neck and pull herself against my side. I did my best to ignore the sensation of Kassandra’s breasts squishing into my ribs while I met Jane’s eyes. “You really are welcome if you want to hang out with us for a while. But if you have things to do, I’m not going to impose on you. Your time is your own, and I know that you have a life and passions to pursue besides interacting with me as my summoner.”
The mouse-eared woman’s eyes locked with mine, and she stared silently at me for several long moments before nodding slowly. Her long tail bounced once above her head, almost like a pen dotting a lowercase I, and she smiled a moment later.
“Thank you, Liam. I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe next time? I do have some homework to get done after all, so I need to get back to Juneau.”
“Be careful on the road, Jane. Take one of the carriages, okay?” Rieka said, holding her hand out to Jane. The mouse-eared woman nodded with a small smile at Rieka, accepting the handshake and I saw a sparkle of a coin passing between them.
That is so like my princess, I thought with a small smile. The carriage ride isn’t that expensive, nor is the road that dangerous, but she’d still rather throw around a bit of money to make sure a friend is safe. I was about to offer to escort her back to Juneau myself, but this is a delicate balance between letting Jane do her own thing and making sure we look out for each other.
“Thank you, all of you. I hope you have a pleasant evening.” This time, Jane’s voice was more confident and she dipped a shallow bow to each of us before scampering off.
“She’s just so cute,” Kassandra murmured, watching the other woman leave.
“Down, Kass,” Rieka ordered playfully. “You’ve got Liam to drool over right now, so don’t get distracted.”
“You are right!” Kassandra cheered, and before I could say anything, my dwarf lamia used my squatting position to crawl her way up onto my back, wrapping her thick, scaled body around my waist. Once she was satisfied with her perch, wrapped around me and with her tits pressed firmly into the back of my head, Kassandra let out a cheer, “onward!”
“Not again,” I heard Rieka sigh, though I could see the amused smile on her noble face when I shot a glance her way before rising with my snuggly backpack.