Taking his elven wife to a sex-fueled fantasy creature wasn’t how Mason had expected his evening to end. But such was life in the post-apocalypse. And he wasn’t exactly complaining.

How it would go when he arrived he honestly had no idea. The most likely scenario seemed that Thea would help them, that Naya would get in the pool, and then Mason would bang her brains out while Thea crept on them.

That was fine, and certainly nothing he hadn’t seen before. On the other hand, Thea might try and do more than creep. She was known to be a bit…less than truthful, to get what she wanted. And she might try to trick Naya into thinking she just had to be involved.

This…also seemed fine. Mason was probably too horny and not stupid enough to contradict her. His main concern was that the nymph might say no altogether. That Gaia might use the opportunity to ask something more of him, to make some kind of unpleasant demand.

But she did seem to want the elves getting pregnant. So probably she wouldn’t interfere. Except maybe just to make Mason dance to her tune. And if she did, Mason really didn’t want to see that big smile on Naya’s face disappear…

“I’m ready,” Naya said, standing at the bottom of Nassau’s great tree. Ayet nodded and Mason lifted his wife to sit on his forearm, his mother-in-law putting a hand on his shoulder.

“You open a kind of individual portal when you walk the planes, Mason,” she explained. “Taking your bonded animal is one thing. It’s a part of you, much different than another living creature. But I will try to open it wide enough for Naya.”

He nodded, waited for her signal, then stepped into the tree. It should have felt strange, and probably stupid, but it didn’t anymore. It was like he could see through the solid matter into another world. Like he could feel the breeze on his face, could sense the open air waiting to welcome him in. It was always just right there.

Ayet was muttering a spell as his face touched and entered. Natural magic flickered with the unpleasant hint of the arcane, and Mason felt both elven women gripping him as the world transformed.

Light and shadow danced from the endless canopy, and Mason grinned as Naya slowly unburied her face from his chest. She looked around and met his eyes with a big smile.

“We did it!” Then her face dropped as she stared past Mason’s shoulder.

“Yes, we certainly did,” said Ayet, apparently still holding Mason’s arm. “I wasn’t…the magic wouldn’t let me release. And I…I can’t go back. Not without your help.”

“If I take you back,” he said. “Could you try again and not get taken with us?”

Ayet shook her head.

“Your magic…it’s not the same as ours. I thought it was just a single target portal, but it’s more like…a personal portal. You can’t use it without going yourself. And therefore I can’t affect it without being affected in kind.”

Mason nodded, not sure what the hell this scenario looked like. The most logical thing was just to continue, to take both women to Thea and…have Ayet make chitchat with the nymph while Mason banged her daughter nearby.

A little awkward? Yeah. And not ideal, maybe. But such was life.

“I could just take us back,” he said, but Naya shook her head as if panicked.

“We’re family,” she said, obviously understanding at least a little. “There’s no awkwardness. And there’s nothing more important than this. Please, take us to the nymph, husband.”

Mason nodded, about to move before he hesitated.

“We should be careful,” he said, getting an intuitive sense of both understanding and danger now in the fey. “I don’t know what happens if you let go of me, but it might not be good. Especially if we're moving” He turned and picked up Ayet with his other arm, holding both women easily with a forearm under both.

Naya made nothing of it, but Ayet actually flushed and met Mason’s eyes before looking away.

Yeah, he thought, family or no family, it was definitely a little awkward.

He followed the path, and between his Blessing from and Bonding of the white stag, it was actually easy. He even noticed the animal loping along somewhere in the distance, giving him a bored look and possibly one of its ‘idiot’ snorts.

He expected he hadn’t chosen the exactly perfectly most efficient path, or something. But he was still pretty pleased with himself. He hardly even listened to the calling voices, carrying the elves in the almost comically small number of steps until he was staring at the mist-shrouded tree with an easy success.

“And here we are,” he said, listening for Thea’s voice.

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“I don’t see anything, husband.” Naya looked around with such confused, innocent eyes, Mason chuckled.

“Trust me. It’s there. Hold on.”

He stepped into the grove, vanishing between worlds with as much effort as changing terrain, no more difficulty than walking from grass to gravel. He felt Thea sense his presence, a kind of sleepy haze giving way to excitement.

“Welcome back, druid. And what have you brought me? Does my sister fare well?”

Mason ignored her for now and walked to the tree, letting down the elves but keeping them pressed to his chest as he put a hand to the bark.

Here we go, he thought, doing his best not to get nervous or excited, keeping his expectations low. Then he vanished again, and felt the familiar warmth and mist of the nymph grove.

* * *

“It’s beautiful!” Naya said, running forward to inspect flowers and pond fronds, or the many vines running along the floors and walls. Mason decided not to mention he had helped create some of that life. Or how he'd done it.

“Druid.”

Thea’s voice was surprisingly cool. She stepped from her pool, thankfully wearing what for her was downright formal—a skin-tight, green dress. Unfortunately, as she rose from the water properly, Mason could see it only covered one of her very large breasts…

Both Naya and Ayet bowed their heads and touched fingers to their foreheads, and the nymph smiled a little and did the same.

“Honored daughter of Gaia,” Naya said. “We are blessed to be in your presence.”

“The blessing is mine,” said the nymph almost rotely. Then she was coming forward as if to embrace Mason, and in panic he quickly gestured at the elves.

“This is my wife, Naya, and her mother, Ayet. We’ve come to see if you’d let them bathe in your pool.”

Mason had hoped this information might affect Thea’s behavior. Like she might decide a wife was something a bit less open to her overt sexuality. He was, as seemed often the case, mistaken.

Thea first of all looked surprised, and maybe annoyed. Then she came forward and pushed her half exposed chest against his, kissing his cheek like an old lover before taking a deep breath of his scent. She stayed there with her eyes half closed, sighing as she inhaled. Finally she stepped back and swept the elves with her gaze.

“As you wish, druid. But…only if you join us.” She smiled suggestively and walked towards the water, holding out a hand in invitation. “Come, daughters of the moon. This is quite an occasion. Gaia will restore you, despite your matron’s many slights against her.”

Mason was slowly starting to realize there was more going on here. What slights? And who was this matron she was talking about? But Naya was already taking off silk layers and Ayet seemed ready to do the same.

“Not me. I wasn’t…I’m not sure I…” she shrugged. “I only came to help you, daughter.”

Naya took her mother’s hands.

“This is a place of legend, mother. And you are still young. I know you’ll never marry again, but…” she shrugged. “You could become a concubine. Or…who knows what the future will bring? Why not give yourself that chance?”

Ayet looked torn, but eventually started to undress. Mason started working at his suit, but Naya stopped and reached for the buttons on his shirt.

“Please, husband, I should do that.”

Half her silks were down to her waist, the clear outline of her firm breasts pushing against a single layer. Mason looked between her and Ayet, the other elf matching his gaze as she stripped as bare as the first time they’d met.

With no expression, she turned and walked towards the pool as Naya stripped down his pants.

“Oh,” she said, her cool hand running down his stomach, drifting just around him without quite touching. She grinned. “You’re already so ready, husband. I hope it isn’t painful. The silver leaf from the feast…I feared we let you eat too much. But you were just so impressive.”

Mason blinked, wondering now what they’d given him.

“Uh. What exactly is silver leaf?”

Naya frowned, seemingly struggling to look up and meet his eyes.

“A love plant. An aphrodisiac. Do humans not have such things? I thought druids knew every plant by touch, or taste.”

An aphrodisiac? What insanity had possessed them to give him something to make him hornier?

Naya saw the look in his eyes and actually lost a little color.

“I…I assumed…don’t humans do such ceremonies for a new marriage? I thought that’s why you ate so much! With the silver leaf, it couldn’t have tasted very good. Your endurance was a symbol of strength, and virility. I thought you were trying to impress my people.”

Mason took a slow, deep breath, wondering exactly how long it might take to properly kick in. But as he watched Ayet as she disappeared naked into the water, he had a feeling it was already starting. He also had a feeling elven food wouldn’t taste very good in any circumstance, and that he’d missed all subtleties both good and bad.

“Doesn’t matter. Let’s go make use of it. And no, I don’t know plants on touch. Might be an old elven wive’s tale.”

Naya looked confused but let out a breath of relief. Then she grinned and worked down the rest of her silks, quickly naked in all her beautiful, impossibly youthful glory. She took Mason’s hand and led him towards the water, pausing at the edge with a deep breath.

“It feels wonderful,” Ayet said from deeper in, brown eyes half closed as she lay back and floated out towards the center.

Naya squeezed Mason’s hand and stepped in, startling at the feel of the water.

“It tingles,” she said, moving further as Mason followed. Once it moved up past her waist she shivered and looked at him meaningfully. He was guessing it ‘tingled’ everywhere, and he gave her a grin as the water moved up to their chests.

“It has been an age since your kind were in my pool,” Thea said from one edge, dipping her hair to float in the water. “I feared the daughters of the moon had all but perished. Are you from the fey city?”

“We are,” Ayet said, almost carefully.

Thea asked something else, and as the nymph and older elf moved closer together, Naya came to Mason and pressed against him.

“Please, husband, I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. You may have me now. I am ready.”

He could tell that was definitely true. He knew his answer was already ‘yes’, though he still had a few nagging questions…

“Your mother…” he said, trying to figure out how to ask if maybe they should wait until she was at least out of the pool.

“It’s nothing to us, husband,” she said. “Outside the family we are very…conservative. But not inside. We are married, and there is no shame now.”

Mason definitely wasn’t going to push back. Especially with Naya’s slick body pressing against him. Whether it was just his standard, ridiculous lust, or medicinally enhanced ridiculous lust, it really didn’t seem to make much difference.

She smiled and held his hand as he walked her towards the edge of the pool.