Content warnin'
-plurality things and problems
-discussion of leg missing
-Discussion of past trauma
“Yeah, Anything.” Jevita says at the same time Kque pulls a heavy blanket over us and murmurs “Of course.”
“We weren’t supposed to merge again so soon. It… it burns a lot of Amwella, our soulfire, and…” We can’t help but bite our lip, a habit burned deep into this flesh. “And we don’t have enough to heal through the separation.”
There is a long pause. Glances down show that Kque is… beginning to piece things together, while Jevita looks a bit more lost.
“Are…” Kque pauses, restarts. “Amwella? That’s… is that the flame inside you? The… the stuff you got from Emarial and… um… Tasii and Yrelia? When you have sex?”
We sigh. “Yes.”
“Wh…” Jevita stumbles over the question, then suddenly jerks over to stare down at us. “Wait. Is that the right question? How do you power the song magic? And… Sex is the answer? It’s Sex magic!?!”
We look at her. Totally surprised by her pivot. How if we’d decided to use that route to seduce her into this she would have either anticipated us, or completely fallen into our arms.
Then we’re laughing. Full on giggling uncontrolled bursts. Such wondrous and silly and pain numbing titters. The flutter of song magic can’t help but wiggle from us as we shiver at the warmth of it. The bigger spirit hasn’t laughed with a lover in so SO many years. It would hurt if it wasn’t such an unexpected thing.
Kque is trying to look worried while Jevita tilts her head in confusion. But both can’t keep little smirks from touching their lips.
“Sorry.” We try to cover our mouth, remembering that Tasii and Yrelia are probably still trying to sleep and heal. “Sorry… Just… Sex magic. Dreamer’s Ti– I… I always knew that it was such a big part of the workings but–”
We snort, almost have to stuff fingers into our mouth until we calm the titters.
“That… that wasn’t the right question?” Jevita looks… well she’d be embarrassed if our laughter wasn’t jerking her lips up.
“No, but… We needed that.” We giggle. “Thank you. Jevita your mind is truly a wondrous thing. Able to juggle the stress of our fuck-up while puzzling out a riddle.”
She can’t help but blush and grin wider at our truths. Has to look away before it overwhelms and spoils.
“What?” Kque is better at stifling her mirth, and looks to Jevita in worry.
Right… She… has a bad history with magic things. We think. Kque seems to help her avoid it.
“Sorry. Just… Gave her a puzzle on real magic.” I take a deep breath, don’t drive off the warm joy. “But… yes. We need more Amwella to weave and fuel the song of healing this mind will need.”
“And if you don’t get it?” A voice murmurs from the doorway.
We all look up to see Tasii standing there, disheveled and weary. But… no wounds. Whole. Memories of her… her anger and disgust and hatred for us break the little spirit.
Solidifies a sudden and horrible plan of self-destruction for itself.
“Tasii!” Kque hisses, all mirth gone. “You’re not supposed to be moving!”
Tasii cracks her neck and shoulders. Kque almost jumps up at the motion, but pauses when the bigger lover raises a hand. “It’s… Honestly it feels like I just got out of one of those Lyttoral hot tubs, after hour long massage, then slept on the best bed along the Paths.” Her eyes lock on us. “Your magic is… fuck it really does work. Thank you.”
We nod as best we can from flat on our back. “Of course.”
She moves like she’s going to enter the room, but… something holds her back. “What will happen if… if you can’t get the Amwella you need?”
Division.
The little spirit roils up and fights. Doesn’t… doesn’t want us to guilt them into this. Sputters that she will face the coming storm alone, rather than twist any of them into giving themselves to us.
“It’ll be…”, We grind our teeth, struggle to push out an answer amidst the struggle. One spirit is bigger, but the little one knows that it can only be pinned. And that every moment of the struggle causes more damage to herself. Frays the edges. Unacceptable. Foolish. But… The little spirit is willing to tear herself apart rather than–
Fine!!! Then… Deep breaths, rejoin.
“We’ll be fine.” We lie.
Literally everyone easily spots it.
“Please be honest.” Tasii huffs.
“This is our fuck up.” We lay our head back, glare up at the ceiling. “We’ll weather the storm.”
“You were literally just asking us for sex.” Kque points out as Tasii does move into the room then, seems to be trying to adjust to keep a view on our face. “So either you're not Ina, and don’t know who she normally goes to for that. Or…”
We wince and turn our head, glare at the wall. Threatened Division keeps us from explaining. From telling her how hurt the little spirit is. How desperately we’d need them even if she was whole and healthy.
Tasii pauses. “Really? She…”
“They.” Jevita whispers.
A pause.
“Sorry, just… It’s… Temporary Osmosis.” Jevita tries to explain, making our heart flutter in warmth. “Not… This is still Ina. She’s not gone or absorbed. Just… two spirits or minds or whatever working together. She knows everything Ina knows because Ina is there with her.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Yeah. Okay.” Tasii sighs, “But… Why? If they’ll be fine, why would shy little Ina ask for sex from two new lovers on such a stressful night?”
Fuck. She got us. We grind our teeth. Half in such joy that our Lovers see through us so easily, and… well The little whimpering spirit is so so small now. But still struggling to hold on to her stubbornness.
“Ina.” One of them presses.
Why not trust them and let each make a choice? The bigger spirit wonders. The little one flails, tries to… to weave thoughts into solid things to… to explain. But it’s too fuzzy. Even full and awake this complex hurt would take time to explain.
There’s shuffling around us.
“Ina.” Tasii almost growls.
Division. Quick and sudden when the little spirit is still trying to weave an explanation together.
“She won’t let us.” The larger spirit bites out. Voice a painful pitch that seems to tear at the air itself. “Past pain.”
Everyone in the room seems to jerk back, and the bigger spirit ends the Division. We pull a hand over our eyes. The bigger spirit coos at the smaller one as it balks at the treachery, pulls it close. Tries to fill wounded voids with Herself to ease suffering and sudden horror.
“That… I think that was just Her.” Jevita whispers. “Not Ina.”
A familiar lover’s hand grips our arm, moves it away from our face and pins it above our head as we offer meek struggles. Then Tasii’s head is hovering over ours. Glaring down into our eyes, sudden hot anger.
“Why?” She growls. “And don’t you dare fucking lie to me again.”
We can’t help but flinch.
“T– Tasii…?” Jevita stammers, “Maybe–”
But something stops her words. We catch a murmur from Kque.
“No.” We recoup our courage. Growl and glare back.
She leans closer. “Is it because this Amwella feeding will hurt me? Or them?”
That worry shocks both spirits, large and small rear up.
“No! Never! Our embrace would never–” We jerk, surprise and horror covering our face at the suggestion. We can’t help but reach up and touch her cheek. “We’d never hurt any of you! Not… not willingly! Never that!”
She nods after a second. “Then why? Why ask them but… but fight so hard to push me away? You know I’m healed. Know it won’t hurt me.”
We clamp our mouth shut.
“Oh!” Kque makes us all jump.
Tasii reluctantly turns to her, a question in her quirked eyebrow.
“Ina.” Kque sighs, blocked from view. “This… This isn’t like…”
A long pause.
“Fuck, if I wasn’t worried that your life was in danger I’d never pressure this.” Kque sighs, “But… Are you… at all… comparing this to… perhaps, where a certain group of people was pressured into sex and felt little choice in the matter? Were coerced into doing it because it was seen as needed?”
Oh how the little spirit whimpers at that. Curls in on herself and tries to make herself small as thoughts are made solid by a lover's words.
We just… wince.
“Ina, this…” Tasii sighs. “Fuck. I’m sorry. But… Fuck. It’s not the same, is it? Do you really not want to–”
“That’s… you have it backwards.” Kque whispers the correction. “She… They are willing. I think.”
Tasii pauses, looking into our eyes as we glance to the side. “Oh…”
We nod, face a twist between anger and sadness and old pains. “We won’t do to you what the temple does. Don’t want to guilt or twist people we care about into giving themselves out of obligation or… worse. We will not give our lovers the false choice that comes with such a request.”
“But you asked them.” She presses.
We tense harder. Big spirit begs the little one to just… be honest. Let us share these burdens with our lovers. They DO have a choice here. And won’t it be a wondrous thing for them to help us!?!
“Tonight was our mistake.” The words catch in our throat, but we push through as understanding between the spirits remains solid. “It was easier to ask. They… they don’t hate us. Were more… neutral. But now we can’t even stand that. It was wrong of us to ask any of you.”
She presses a forehead into ours. “I don’t hate you. Don’t… Fuck. It’s just… I’m not happy about this. About you sharing headspace in the body you always needed.”
The warmth helps sooth our mind, stills the turmoil.
“Ina…” Tasii growls, but in such a loving way. In a way only a lover can. “I just… I was afraid you’d been scooped out and… replaced. Wiped away after so little time to enjoy your new life.”
“It’s not like that.” We whisper. “We just joined when things got bad. Even in dreams we’re not like this.”
She presses close, whispers so softly. “Then please, just… be honest. How bad is this? How much Amwella do you need?”
“It’s not something we can measure with such…” We sigh, weariness letting us know that to stall this out will rob them of the choice they wish to make. “We should have a wellspring of Amwella to burn and use as needed. And… Not including needing to heal Yrelia, or what we spent to stabilize our leg, we’ll need at least two lovers to ensure the mind and soul remain... undamaged.”
“Alright.” Tasii nods, confident of the truth of our words, but tilts her head, “But… What’s wrong with your leg?”
She turns, looking at the heavy quilt.
Right… she hasn’t seen…
“Um… Ina?” She murmurs, sudden tension. “Is…”
“Corpsefucker surprised us.” We hiss. “We almost avoided it entirely. But… We’re paying for our carelessness.”
Tasii can’t take her eyes off the shapes beneath the blanket, a hand pauses as she reaches out. “Corpse… what?”
Jevita coughs. “Um… Apparently She hates Cultivation things. Someone had a powerful gemstone. Rare as fuck if it’s what she described. Um… kinda wish she’d have brought it back. Would be useful and worth… well… a fuckton.”
In the pause I can almost feel Kque turning to fix Jevita with an unapproving look.
“We’d rather not touch rotting remains.” We grumble, supporting her efforts to keep this lover from blighted magics.
“But…” Tasii finally turns back to me. “How bad is your leg? It… is it…?”
“Lost almost everything beneath the knee.” We sigh. “We… We’re going to need to get a… a something to take its place until we can re-grow it. Sorry.”
That get’s two kinds of gasps. One pained one from Tasii, then a couple surprised ones from Jevita and Kque.
“Wait… re-grow!?!” Kque hisses at the same time Jevita begins to ask something.
“Hm…?” We glance between them. See their surprise and confusion and… absolute fucking wonder as if we just stated we planned to drink the entire ocean.
Don’t think Alchemy can… um… do that. Maybe Cultivation can with the body changing? But…
“Oh…” We slump back down into the soft palate. “Yeah. We’ll learn a song for it and begin weaving it as we travel. Will still take… fuck well probably a couple years with the amount of Amwella we gather, at least.”
“Fuck.” Jevita grunts. “That’s… fuck okay.”
Tasii takes a deep breath. “Okay, let’s… let’s focus on what you need tonight.”
We nod.
Tasii looks at the two others. “You two want to just do this all at once or take turns with h– I mean them.”
We twitch at… at the sudden shift. Both at Tasii calling us, them, and her focus on sex. Kque looks at Jevita, quirks an eyebrow.
Jevita chuckles. “It’s been a while since I’ve um… had this many people involved. I’d rather have everyone here.”
Tasii nods, begins to stand. “Yrelia will hate all of us if we don’t wake her.”
“B– but…” We finally stammer. “We–”
“Be right back.” Tasii leans down, places a gentle kiss on our lips. And… well there had been a worry that such an old spirit mingled with a young one would be used to warm lips. Would simply… find them ordinary. But… nope. It fucking melts for a second. Shuddering with… well not embarrassment. But an muddling of desire and love and–
By the time we regain the ability to think she is out the door.
“Ina.” Kque whispers.
We jerk at the sudden voice. But she hasn’t moved, just just looking at us with a serious but… caring expression. “It’s just sex.” A pause, then she continues. “Is there anything we can do to… make this better for you? Are you really okay with Jevita and myself being here?”
We nod. “We… the… upon waking the remaining spirit will confirm the love that she holds for you both. And the budding desires. Would have begun to... try and organize feelings into words within the next week or less.”
She smirks, such a… wonderful thing on a normally very serious and composed face. “But you're still hurt. So we’ll need to be careful.”
We sigh. “Yeah.”
“Would you like help getting your clothes off?”
“Probably—”
There’s a shout, followed by movement from outside. Then a fucking storm in the shape of an angry Yrelia comes barreling into the room.
“Fucking Cunt!” She almost shouts as her eyes lock with ours.