To her surprise, Tess hadn’t been prepared for the luxury of the resort they had been given tickets to. She had thought that, since she had become accustomed to staying in the penthouse of the Reshi Suites, she would have some sort of idea of what a luxury resort was like, but she had been painfully wrong.

The main difference was that the Reshi Suites weren’t geared towards luxury. Yes, the penthouse was luxurious, but not in the same way the resort Tess and her wives had been given tickets to was. For one, everything around the suite was better; the resort had all sorts of complementary amenities, from a movie theater to an Arena, it felt like Tess could spend the entire week she was there just in the resort and still not experience everything it had to offer.

The food was exquisite, and if they ever needed anything, the resort had room service that would take care of it for them. Tess had suspected that the impeccable service was partially due to their status as daughters of the world’s most influential man, but Maven had assured her that it wasn’t the case; the resort really did offer this sort of service to everyone. Well, everyone that could afford the stay, anyway. Tess had deliberately avoided finding out how much their week’s stay would cost, because she was sure it would be more than she could imagine.

As amazing as the resort was, they actually ended up spending more time outside of it. It was situated in an absolutely stunning section of nearly untouched wilderness, a mountain range bordering on the ocean. The staff of the resort spent a significant amount of time combing the wilderness, performing upkeep on the trails and hunting monsters, meaning the trails were as close to safe as trails got in the Outlands.

So, the hiking and outdoors activities were something of a novelty. For Maven, it was a novelty because she hadn’t had an opportunity to really experience hiking for fun before, and for Tess and Ellie it was a novelty because it was the first time they had done a casual hike with full benefit of their stats, Skills, various other abilities, and the significant exercise they had been doing while freelancing.

The difference between these hikes and the last time Tess had gone hiking was like night and day. While Gramps had made sure that Tess and Ellie never truly got out of shape, Tess had never been anywhere close to as fit as she was now, and that combined with her stats and plethora of Attributes and Skills made the task absolutely effortless. Even with them chatting most of the time during the hikes, Tess rarely found herself getting out of breath, even when the terrain got rough.

It was nice, just…being in nature and not having to worry about monsters trying to eat her face. When Tess had mentioned that, Maven had assured her that such a thing wasn’t a major concern anywhere except the Outlands, and most cities and villages were kept pretty safe by soldiers or town guards.

Of course, because potentially running into a monster was far more dangerous than potentially running into something like a bear, hiking and camping had never really taken off in the same way they had on Mael. That didn’t mean it was inaccessible, though; all you really needed was a friend or guide that was ten or so levels above the area’s level range to stay with you during the hike and you were fine. In fact, that was supposedly a relatively common, if low-paying, request for freelancers.

This area had monsters that were around ten levels lower than Tess and her wives, so with the added benefit of knowing the resort was regularly sweeping the area and culling monsters, the only consideration they really had to make was to have Tess keep a metaphorical eye on her tremorsense. Even that ended up being unnecessary, though, as they didn’t encounter even a trace of monsters on their hikes.

Aside from the beauty of nature, they had received tickets to a few things, from a visit to a symphonic orchestra that was playing nearby to a theme park that was…also nearby; it seemed that the small town the resort was near had focused itself entirely around tourism, something that was quite convenient for cutting down on travel time for the members of Maelstrom as they went about their honeymoon.

Both the orchestra and the theme park were new experiences for Tess, or, at least, were new experiences for a given value of new experiences. She had been to both on Mael, but the “symphonic music” was almost an entirely different genre compared to the symphonic music from Mael, and the attractions in the theme park were likewise vastly different.

For the orchestra, even though most of the instruments she saw could be roughly compared to an instrument Tess was familiar with, all the small differences added up to give the orchestra a different tone from the orchestras she was used to. Likewise, the genre of music was different; on the program, it was listed as “Ayonic Classical”, and the short information blurb explained that it had originated roughly eight thousand years ago on the plane of Ayon.

The music itself was more akin to dance music than the classical music from Mael, almost exclusively fast-paced and lively, something Tess wouldn’t even blink at were it to be played at a club. According to Maven, at that period of time on Ayon, the trend was to write music that showed off the musicians’ technical skill when played, the rapid beat and significant swings sometimes needing the benefit of high stats and even Skills to fully master. And, though the performance was not quite what Tess had expected, it nonetheless turned out to be quite enjoyable.

As for the theme park, the presence of magic allowed for a significant number of rides and attractions that simply weren’t possible on Mael. As Tess had expected, nearly all the rides used magic in some way or another, and especially common was the use of illusion magic to enhance the ambiance of an attraction. While on them, it felt like they really were in whatever place the attraction was set in. Of course, with that came a caveat; those with decent Magic Defense had to wear a special bracelet that was keyed to the devices in the park, effectively allowing the devices to bypass the user’s Magic Defense so the illusions actually worked.

Of course, for safety reasons, the bracelets could be removed at any time, and no one was obligated to wear one if they didn’t want to, but they wouldn’t receive the full experience of the rides if they didn’t. Seeing as how the gods would likely warn them if there was an issue that needed the bracelets to be taken off, Tess and her wives had no issue wearing the bracelets.

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The experience was both better and worse than Tess had expected. On the one hand, the sheer quality and ingenuity of the rides blew Tess’s mind, but on the other, she just…wasn’t the same as she had been before all of this. The thrill of it, though still present, was diminished by the fact that she had been through similar before, and could replicate many of the more mundane rides on her own.

Still, that was only a minor thing. By and large, she was able to enjoy the theme park as she had in the past, she just had to get herself out of the freelancing mindset that Ava had ingrained into her. Plus, her wives, Maven in particular, were having an absolute blast, which made the whole thing that much better.

Just like with hiking, Maven had never had the opportunity to go out to a theme park before. She eagerly flitted from place to place, trying food from the stalls, excitedly pointing out rides she had read about, and altogether being a bundle of excited joy that brought the mood up like no other.

After a happy week, they packed up and left for Mael, hopped in Ellie’s car, then drove to the nearest airport, an hour or so away. They considered packing some suitcases for the sake of appearances, but then the gods told them that it was fine if people thought it was a little weird that they had no bags, it’d just feed into the supernatural reputation they were trying to build, if anyone even noticed at all.

To Tess’s surprise, Maven had never been on an airplane or any other flying vehicle before. In the wider world, if people needed to get somewhere faster than a hoverer could go, they teleported. On many planes, particularly in the Outlands, the skies were home to their own ecosystem of monsters, ones that didn’t much care for the world below, but fiercely attacked anything higher than half a mile or so off of the ground.

Often those monsters didn’t go higher than level fifty or so, but fighting them was a lot harder than fighting ground monsters. You couldn’t just stop your vehicle, hop out, and fight like you could on the ground, and flying vehicles were often clumsier than grounded vehicles. So, it was just easier to stay out of the skies and go via land or teleportation.

The resort they ended up staying at was, though very nice, lacking in some of the conveniences the last resort had. This was, of course, not the resort intentionally leaving those things out, but instead a result of there being no magic on Mael. But, in the end, those were really just small things, like ordering food from room service taking longer due to the chefs having to actually cook the food, instead of having a stock of hot meals in stasis in a bag somewhere.

The events they had been given tickets for were mostly different as well. The only overlap was an orchestra, but the genre of music was going to be completely different, so it wouldn’t be that similar anyway. Aside from that, they had tickets for a magic show, an acrobatic performance, and a zoo, leaving most of their days filled.

To Tess’s surprise, Maven enjoyed these events as much as, if not more than, the ones they had been to the previous week. She thought the orchestra was great, but the others were the real stars for her; she was fascinated by the wildlife native to Mael, and throughout the entire trip to the zoo was constantly glued to the informational plaques, absorbing the information and excitedly sharing whatever interesting thing she saw, and Tess and Ellie were more than happy to guide her to their favorites.

Tess couldn’t help but be slightly amused during the whole trip to the zoo; not because of how Maven was acting, though it was adorable, but because she knew that, at any time, Maven or herself could stop being human and instantly become an exhibit that would draw more stares than anything else in the zoo.

She was impressed by the magic show, too, especially after the first act. During the first act, she had begun guessing what Skills and spells the magician was using, only to be reminded that it wasn’t real magic, it was all sleight of hand and manual dexterity. The first act also reminded Tess that she needed to turn off her tremorsense; she had become so used to keeping it on that she hadn’t even thought about it when starting the show, and it ruined the first trick, as she was able to easily see what the magician was trying to hide.

A magic show was an act that only existed on Mael, where actual magic wasn’t real. It was an industry that would have to go through significant changes in order to work in the future, but Tess was hopeful that it could. Perhaps having devices onstage that detected the usage of spells and Skills could allow the industry to survive, or…maybe, depending on the audience, that wouldn’t even be necessary, as enough people would be able to tell when actual magic was used for the usage of magic to be infeasible. Still, she had quickly moved beyond that line of thinking; it was an interesting thought, but it was one to be had when she wasn’t enjoying her time with her wives.

Maven was equally impressed with the acrobatic performance, as were Tess and Ellie. It was humbling, in a way; Tess could replicate the act, sure, but not without the assistance of her stats, Attributes, and Skills. This was a display of pure training and skill, people who had trained their bodies to the extreme and spent years mastering their craft. If Tess was forced to attempt this sort of show in the way they were doing it, she’d fall immediately.

The events aside, they spent their time exploring the nearby city and relaxing at the beach the resort was built near. It was a great couple of weeks, and all too soon it had come to an end. So, the three members of Maelstrom regretfully began the trip back to home. And, as they got off of the plane and into Ellie’s car, Tess sent a message in their group chat.

Tess: I imagine you probably already know, but we’ve touched down safely and are about to drive home now. Thanks a bunch for the trip, it was a blast!

Maven: I agree. I had never imagined that a honeymoon could be so fulfilling, so I’m ever so grateful for the opportunity.

Ellie: Gonna start driving so I won’t be reading this until I’m done, but I wanted to chime in and say thanks too

Fortune: You’re sweet, it’s what you three deserve

Death: Yeah, what she said, it’s the least we can do, really

Dungeons: I can only really say “same”

Tess: Anything important come up while we were enjoying ourselves?

Life: Your transgender friend has decided what they wish to do in the immediate future, but otherwise no. They have chosen not to contact you because they did not wish to interrupt your honeymoon, but you should probably reach out to them soon.

Tess: Will do, thanks, Life.

Life: It is simply my job.

That taken care of, Tess sat back and let the car’s movement lull her to sleep. It had been a long day, and a little nap sounded fantastic. The next day she would get back to work, but for now…rest was nice.