CW:

Talk of SMUT! and of abusive family and cooking good food and mostly soft cuties. ACESO POV!!!! Apologies for the delayed releases. Family medical wiggles and other stuff has put us a touch behind. But we're scootin along now!

And from the second we find Ina’s second lover and pull her into the Waking World to join us, she’s intent to show us how differently she tends to enjoy our gifted day than Kque.

Our quiet and thoughtful lover was happy to enjoy our affections passively. Not… indifferently, at all, but allowed us to gently pull her into a day warmed by our attentions. Only told us of how she knew what we were doing, and the source of our inspired intentions, at night’s end. A flame set to burn low and rise to a blaze at the end before settling into comfortable cinders.

But Tasii… Well, from the way her eye’s spark with her Amwella’s bubbling desires we know we’re in for a day of very aggressive and intentional time with our lover.

“Yes, love.” We purr together, reaching up to tangle fingers through her mess of morning hair to clear it all from her vision. “Always. But especially today.”

She grins to our answer to the question she’d barely decided how to phrase. Then reaches up, tilts us sideways to roll us all bodily so till she’s straddling us. And with the tent's ceiling at her back proceeds to pin us to the pallet she, Yrelia, and Rahdian were sharing, before leaning down to take the first kiss offered today.

And before the sun has risen and anyone could even think to poking their head into this tent; she’s used her wonderful, strong, and very practiced hands to fuck us both silly and also moved to have us do the same with our mouth for her.

A breakfast of soulflame for us to start the day, it seems.

And we’re nothing but delighted to still find her flavors on our lips over the morning glimmer wine and breakfast she insists we let her cook for us. And over the fire and muppling around of our lovers to morning preparations for another day on the Paths, we ask her the questions Kque gifted us.

Small things, at first. Mostly about this new hobby we’d not had time to ask her about.

“It’s… kinda a spite thing for me.” She grins while stirring the mix of fruits she’ll soon stow in little blankets of bread for the meal. “Traveled around enough to know what my lovers and I like, had a big house of ingredients and tools, and Kque willing to help me figure it all out.”

“Yes, but like… what about it do you enjoy?” Ina presses while I listen and prepare the words to my questions. “Kque said you both enjoy different aspects in different ways. Compliment each other in ways say… someone like Yrelia or me might bump cold toes with yours if we'd tried to learn at the same time?”

She replies while starting to shift the gooey sweet mush of fruits into their first rolled up sourish breading. “Kque likes the planning. Coming up with new ideas for meals based on all the places we’ve both been too. Trying to match their flavor before we light any fires. Finds the slower cooking parts really relaxing. Helps her feel better when you or we weren’t finding immediate solutions to problems, I’m pretty sure.”

“And you?”

“I like the things that cook hot and fast and could burn really easily. Will even adjust and change our ingredients when I think it might be better. Isn’t always, but…” Tasii explains while working, even sticking out her tongue to the side as she very carefully avoids dropping even a little bit onto the slush. “I enjoy the mess of it. I like getting things wrong where all that happens is a little bit of burned smell and a meal I gotta start over. No one gets hurt. Our Hosts’ really insistent about us not worrying about waste. Which like… was hard to absorb at first but we’re not on the cold Paths, and food isn’t scarce. So… I took them up on that offer. Even made sure to give them first tests of the better stuff we made.”

“Their investment is well placed. You’ve both gotten really skilled at the Art.” I add as Tasii steps over to gift us our breakfast.

“We really have.” She smirks, not even the least bit modest about her skills. “Lemme hand the rest of this out. Be right back.”

We nod, and don’t even worry about a song of cooling for our still steaming meal. Happy to wait together for her to return. Enjoy first bites with the lover who’s poured so much into learning to craft such a wonderful thing for those she cares about.

I don’t think you or I ever told them how the World Song wiggles when or Kque started doing this. Ina muses.

No. I smile softly, as the memories tumble through the part of our soul at her beck and recollection. It was too subtle, as all new things are. The real blaze comes in times like these. When all else is cold and stiff about her.

Is that normal? My spirit woven lover asks.

Consider that for a moment, reach back to touch old memories…

Hiss when naught but nightmares hiss and growl from those shadows. Huff in annoyance as I fight to settle our Amwella from sparking to pain.

Love. It’s okay. Ina murmurs, and offers gentle concern laced with firm adorations. It just… seems like you. Since the World Song was woven from you. Watching friends and lovers and everyone using the Amwella you gave them to make new things is like… everything. All the good stuff you wanted for us to have.

Yes. I murmur and curl tighter about ourselves against a stiff chilled breeze. It was. Is. I just… Hate being barred from my own memories. My experiences and muses and… and things that could confirm the Weaver knit the World Song out of love. Mayhaps even details or songs to help you and I ensure it becomes that again.

Mhm. And we’ve made so much good progress there! Especially in our Dreams. She agrees as hope and delight and furious excitement titters across our Amwella like lightning tearing through the cloud smothered sky.

But not easily, and not… not alone. Without you I’m barely able to recall recent and gentle things. I sigh.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

But my Challa will not be deterred by my sour mood. Latches onto the sweetness bubbling across us and tugs my thoughts closer. No one should heal alone, love. Can you imagine me alone on the Paths after you found me? Without Yrelia or Tasii or Jevita or Kque or Lule to help? I’d be such a wreck. And no, stop that! She insists into my rising contradictions to her. It doesn’t matter if you're a Goddess or just a girl like me. Healing is hard. Sometimes… sometimes impossible to do alone. So don’t think you're somehow a failure for needing me here. At all. Because… because if you think that then pretty much everyone everywhere is!

Tasii returns in the heartbeats right after. Eyeing us in curiosity.

“I’m… being messy. Reached for a memory I should have known was beyond me to grasp well.” I explain on reflex.

They… aren’t insistent as they were before. To us sharing our silent exchanges aloud. Which worries and confuses me. Should they not be more insistent and forceful of our agreements? Ina insists it’s because they trust me and think I’ve grown. But also… that they mean what they’ve said.

This is my flesh now too. As much as Ina’s, even.

“Ah, yeah. Have a few of those.” Tasii nods like my words don’t imply the threat of rising nightmares and threats to our lovers.

“Oh?” I ask, letting our brow furrow in confusion.

“Yeah. Mostly… about before I met Kque.” She shrugs, takes the first nibble of her cooling breakfast. “Gotta be careful if I want to start picking at those scars. Tends to be like a water pouch with a hole poked through it. Kinda… gotta let it drain out before really trying to patch it well.”

I’m about to point out that the worst she can leak are tears and weepy soulflame, as opposed to Amwella shredding nightmares… but pause. Even before Ina can give me a firm thought of rebuke.

Instead take first bites and think.

Yes, my wounds may be… larger. Even more real in the pains they can cause. But that simply means I’ve no ability to face them well. Weeping in her and Yrelia’s arms those weeks ago while Ina spoke with the Zeridii was…

It hurt. But as my lover returned to share the flesh with me I felt better. More whole.

If the nightmares are both the wound and the rot infecting it, then… How could I clean away the muck and tend to the real damage to my spirit like others can? Other than by… by lashing out at the monsters at every opportunity?

“Kiss for your thoughts.” Tasii asks gently, nudging us.

“Aceso is being really smart and respectful.” Ina assures her when I hesitate. “Thinking through things, and in a good way that makes me really proud. But… I’ll let her share when she wants.”

“She just wants her kiss now.” I murmur with a grin.

“Yes. That too.” She agrees, and turns to lean close to our lover. “So…?”

Tasii giggles quietly before whispering, “You’re adorable together, you know that?”

Then, before we can answer, she grants us our rewarded kiss.

Would have probably tugged us back into a tent for more if the others hadn’t already finished packing them away. But… we have a Path that needs walking and a caravan of allies trailing behind.

“If we make good time, we might reach the city tonight.” Tasii informs us in the seconds after we pull away to finish our wonderful breakfast.

“I um…” We whisper. “Guessing everyone is doing okay? The ones following us? Or… at least are getting help? Maybe staying warm?”

Warmth stolen from the women we’re supposed to be protecting. The curse seems to spit but… not so loudly. Bite is soft and nothing too distracting.

“They are. Redrogal said everyone is already getting an idea of who will wanna keep walking the Paths, and who will want to spend time in one spot. But… that could easily change when they see a city aside from the Academy.” She answers.

“Could be. If they have a touch of Wanderlust in them like we do.” Ina giggles, then pushes us to rise. “So. Let's get our feet walkin. I have so many more questions I was promised would get us wonderful answers.”

** ** **

It was so odd, the feeling that rose up as we spotted the first glimmers of gemstone lights on the horizon. The city glowing against the setting sun like some campfire in the forest.

It was… one of accomplishment. Of growing relief. We think. The approach of a place that could take such a load of stress and responsibility off our shoulders. As once we arrive the caravan will split. Azure Compact members and the Arudian men settling in here to start rebuilding a better life. Either to stay or chart the Paths they’d like to walk.

And from here we turn to leave Arudia. Choose the best routes and such. Find a new carriage and negotiate rates and see how far they’re willing to go. Not that we’re pressed for coin, of course. Delphian and Ophrit have ensured that. But… There are still the preparations and organizing that will take a day or so.

And… of course Tasii’s stories and words weigh on our mind as we grip her hand and watch the city from within the carriage. Yrelia and Rahdian sleeping these final hours away before arrival.

“Kque… probably saved my life too. Her... Our moms helped but… Fuck me, Ina. I needed to get away from the place I called home.” She had started when we gently asked the question our shared lover suggested we ask.

Why that word, home, hurt her so much for us to suggest.

“The idea of home being the people and not the place is… terrifying. Because that’s how my moms kept me and probably still most of my sisters from leaving. Finding their own life. Trapped us in the little village and made sure anyone who thought of leaving to walk the Paths couldn’t without feeling like… I dunno. Like there was a rope about our waist keeping us from staying away for long. Home was the people you’d leave behind. The… the houses that would echo the dead family you abandoned.”

“That’s… fuck. I’m so sorry. That’s horrible. And backwards.” We’d whispered gently over the sound of our feet crunched through the snow.

“Yeah.” She sighs with a nod. “Yeah. Then Kque and her moms arrived to help my older sister with her new kid and… and my moms were already talking of sending me to get their next granddaughter. I’d been fighting it. Was kinda the girl juggling a lot of responsibilities and such as the next oldest without a little one to look after.”

That… made me flinch. So hard Aceso kinda took over our body for a bit. Keep our feet moving and face mostly calm.

But Tasii, of course, noticed.

“Love? I… yeah. Sorry. Didn’t wanna like… Focus on that. I never went. But I knew plenty that did.”

Ina fell apart a bit, only inside and only for a heartbeat but... was like a deftly laid clump of snow down the back of a girl's shirt. The idea that one of Tasii's sisters lay with her and walked away with a child.

Don't wanna think about that. She nearly growled. Please... keep going? Give me different pains to consider.

“It’s fine.” I offered quickly. “Just… bad Pathways to walk thinking about that. But that's not the point of my asking or your answer.”

I could tell she considered pushing me to say more but… nodded. “Okay. Sorry to spark that. The… kinda thing I was getting at was that Kque and her moms were this… perfect loving little family devoted to walking the Paths and helping people. Kinda… said how their family was everywhere and nowhere. Inside their souls and sometimes, if they were lucky, waiting for them at the end of a day’s walk. Kinda… tore me up to hear that. And Kque saw it. Pulled me away and got me talking over the week they stayed. Then… eventually got me to just… up and walk the Paths with her. Didn’t care that I barely had three coins to spare for that new life.”

Can’t help but grin together at that. “Kque really was just… so inspired by her mothers. Wanted to build the same for herself it seems.”

“Oh yeah. She was super honest about that. How she wanted to never walk alone but also didn’t want to stay with her mums. Told me straight out that she’d love for me to be her first Path-bound lover if… if that’s what I wanted.”

Then she looked at us with glimmering moistening eyes and such a smile. “And I really did. More than anything else. Didn’t even hesitate to fall apart and hug her close and… well, beg for her to steal me away. And so she did.”

“And… schemed endlessly and evermore to forever snatch up more girls along the way.” Aceso giggled.

"Right? She's lured everyone she set her heart on to stay as well. Never lost or soul or pulled a girl into our family that wasn't a good fit."

After that… She kinda pulled us into the cart, pinned us between herself and a giggling Yrelia, and fucked us more than a little silly. Then helped us make an executive decision to not try walking after that.