Echoes of the Seven Ch. 21-30

Author's Note:

I would have published this at the same time as the previous bundle, however Literotica wouldn't let me do that until the previous set were fully published. Forgive the delay, and I hope you enjoy. =)

Chapter 21: Meet the Roommate (18+)

Eris had to admit, Alchemy seemed incredibly useful for the applications of everyday life, especially when made by someone who was ninth level. Bailey had pretty much everything Eris could want in the washroom cupboards. From a skin moisturizer that left her entire arm feeling soft and smooth after a single dab of cream, to a dense, foamy sponge that perfectly dried her hair with one swipe, Eris was already in love. Bailey gave a little pat on Eris's butt as she walked past and out of the washroom.

"I'm going to assume you'd like me to wear clothes when your friends come over?"

"Please?"

Eris followed behind. As Bailey went towards her closet to get changed, Eris did the same with her satchel. It was only a few moments until both girls were dressed; Eris in a pair of pajama pants and yet another of Jaxie's old shirts, and Bailey in the same crop-top and short-shorts she had on yesterday. After a few moments of Bailey sitting at her desk and jotting things down in a notebook, she piped up.

"Oh, you might wanna change the sign on the door. It'd probably be a bit awkward for you and your friends if someone comes in for a quickie."

"Already did," Eris blushed. At that exact moment, a rhythmic knock rapped on the door and Jaxie's voice piped up.

"I like the sign, but I think we're being expected."

Eris anxiously opened the door and let both Alex and Jaxie in. They were cleaned up nicely. Jaxie even had her hair down to hang around her waist.

"Hi, I'm Bailey. Nice to meet you!"

She walked forward with a bounce in her step that made her... assets... jiggle pleasantly. Eris could see Jaxie's lip curl in an amused grin.

"Jaxie, Eris's girlfriend. This is Alex, Eris's other girlfriend."

She extended a hand forward for a shake, but Bailey rolled her eyes. "Handshakes are too formal. C'mere."

Jaxie sent a smile Eris's way that made the redhead blush when Bailey stepped right up and pulled Jaxie in for a hug.

"Fuck, you're tall."

"Yeah, I get that a lot," Jaxie chuckled and took a healthy eyeful of the blonde's cleavage when Bailey pulled back and moved to hug Alex. "We've heard a lot about you."

"I'm sure you have," Bailey stepped back and giggled. "And I can assure you that every bit of it is true."

"I find that hard to believe," Alex said. Jaxie laughed.

"Yeah, you didn't really hide one of your chambermaids under your dress during that banquet dinner for your seventeenth birthday, did you?"

Eris's eyes widened. Bailey smiled. "Two of them, actually. They swapped out when the desserts started being served."

"Huh," Jaxie nodded. "What about when you were deployed on a mission three months ago in Crystal Spires? Did you actually have a threesome with the mayor's son?"

Bailey laughed. "How do you know about that?"

"Because my roommate was the third person in that threesome."

"Becky?" Bailey's entire face lit up. "She's one of my best customers! How's she doing?"

Eris and Alex looked awkwardly at each other as the other two girls chatted.

"Oh, she's great. She lent us one of those birth control potions of yours last night when the three of us fucked on her bed."

Eris coughed and turned away. Bailey cocked her head with a grin. "I like you."

"Thanks. So you're okay with us making out and feeling each other up in here?"

"Oh, you could do a lot worse and I wouldn't bat an eye. So you both are Eris's girlfriends?"

The redhead was blushing as she stepped over to her bed and sat down. Alex looked like she wanted to say something, but gave up and let the words die in her throat. Jaxie took over at that point so Bailey wasn't left hanging.

"Well, Eris and I are all official with us being girlfriends. Her and Alex are crazy about each other but are being all awkward about it, so now they're stuck in a friends-with-benefits sorta deal."

Bailey nodded and started walking back to her desk while the Artificer and the Knight both turned increasing shades of red. "Oof, that's rough. The hardest part of any poly relationship is the beginning. Unfortunately, there isn't anything special to make it easier. You've just gotta brute force it and see if it's still working after a few weeks."

"You certainly know your stuff."

Bailey sat down and reopened her notebook. "Well, I officially appointed myself as Eris's casual sex teacher, so I'd certainly hope that I know my stuff."

"Oh, really?" Jaxie wore a wide grin and looked over at Eris. She couldn't meet the Berserker's gaze. "A casual sex teacher?"

"I- uhh... asked for some help?" Eris tried.

"Yeah, she doesn't want to be so awkward about intimacy, so she asked the queen of casual sex for tips on how to keep things casual." Bailey spoke nonchalantly.

"How sweet." Jaxie sat down beside Eris and wrapped an arm over her shoulders. Bailey tilted her head.

"I do have to apologise, though. I didn't realise Eris was in an established relationship when I got all handsy in the shower."

If Eris tucked her chin into her chest any more, she'd be upside-down. Jaxie laughed.

"Nobody needs to apologise for anything. Eris and I are in an open relationship. We can do whatever we want with whoever we want, whenever we want, and however we want."

"Whyever we want," Bailey added. Jaxie laughed.

"Exactly. In fact, I'd be honoured if you two had sex tonight after Alex and I leave."

Eris, Alex, and Bailey all looked over at that and voiced their opinions simultaneously.

"Huh?"

"W-what?"

"Sounds like fun!"

Eris wasn't sure how to feel. One one hand, the idea of the older, curvaceous Bailey spectating their three-way makeout session made Eris's heart shudder like a chain about to snap. On the other hand...

Well, Eris couldn't quite come up with a downside yet but she was trying.

Bailey remained at her desk, idly working away at her notes and formulae but occasionally looking over. As awkward as Eris and Alex were about having an outside observer, Jaxie ensured that the momentum kept going forward. Her lips traded places and hands traded breasts while Eris kept awkwardly staring at Bailey out of the corner of her eye. The bushy-haired blonde was wearing a stupid grin the entire time. When they locked eyes, Bailey mouthed two silent words.

Step three.

While sitting on Jaxie's lap and trying to focus on making out, Eris let her mind shift back to twenty-or-so minutes ago. Of course, the thought of a naked, soapy shower with Bailey made her face grow hot. However, the blonde's words managed to cut through that image.

"Step three is being comfortable with people. None of the other steps matter if you can't relax around the people you're doing it with."

"How, uhh... how do I relax?"

"By seeing people as friends instead of strangers."

Eris risked a glance over at Alex, who was obviously trying to force herself to be comfortable; red-faced and distractedly kneading Jaxie's breasts. Then a glance forward, to Jaxie. Her eyes had been closed when making out, but the sense of tension probably made her open them to examine the situation. Now, they held a raised eyebrow and a touch of concern.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Jaxie pulled away from the kiss with a frown.

Eris finally shifted her gaze to Bailey, who's grin was fading at the awkward mood. The blonde gave a shrug, then tilted her eyes back to the notebook in front of her. It's only as big a deal as you make it out to be, you know?

"Screw it."

Eris ignored the heat in her chest when she reached down and roughly yanked off her oversized shirt to leave her upper half bare. She ignored the way that Jaxie grinned while Alex looked on with wide eyes. She ignored the twang of humility in her heart when she grabbed both sides of Alex's face and slammed their lips together. She also ignored the little part in her brain that kept saying 'no'. She didn't want to have to worry anymore. Eris wanted, just once, to finally understand what it would be like to act first and think later. To worry later.

Alex even said earlier that she liked what was happening between them, despite the fact it was weird. Sure, it was made even more weird by the fact that they were now making out in front of a person that Jaxie and Alex had known for two minutes, but Eris didn't want to care anymore. She didn't want to be afraid anymore.

Eris never broke her forceful lip-lock with the surprised Alex even when she grabbed both of Jaxie's hands and placed them on her revealed breasts. Then, Eris leaned out of Jaxie's lap, pulling the tall girl with her. That made both of them advance on Alex, forcing the Knight down onto her back while Eris knelt overtop of her. One hand slipped underneath Alex's shirt and bra to roughly cup at a tit while the other had shoved underneath her waistband and massaged a flaccid shaft.

"Yes, that's it." Jaxie leaned over Eris, hugging her from behind with fingers groping titflesh and lips whispering in her ear. "Enjoy it."

Eris forced herself not to withdraw, especially when the soft skin of Alex's cock rapidly hardened under the sudden attention. She liked holding it. She hated that she liked it, but she took every bit of willpower she had to shove that hate aside. Eris briefly took her hand out of Alex's pants and used it to yank the Knight's shirt up and completely over her breasts. Alex gave a yelp of surprise and twitched when Eris's mouth moved from Alex's lips to a nipple.

It was hard and rubbery as Eris latched on. While her hand returned to where it emerged from Alex's underwear, Eris focused on licking and sucking at the chest in front of her. The hand not on Alex's cock went from left tit to right and back again, swapping to whichever didn't have Eris's mouth present. She kneaded. She squeezed. She pinched, rubbed, rolled, and groped. She explored every pore of the skin on Alex's chest with her fingers while Jaxie did the same to Eris's.

Meanwhile, the hand in Alex's pants was doing no small amount of work there. Eris rubbed a thumb over her thick tip before wrapping fingers around her shaft and giving a pump. She slid all the way down to the base until fingers met pelvis, but kept going. Eris dragged her fingernails down and around the fleshy sack holding Alex's dangly bits. Then, she stopped going down.

Eris used her fingers to cradle Alex's testicles, even rubbing them with her thumb and feeling the way they rolled around in the loose skin. She didn't stay for long though. Eris slid her hand back up slowly, going along the entire length of Alex's cock until she returned to the tip that now had a very prominent leak of precum.

As much as Eris let her saliva lubricate the work she was performing on Alex's chest, she let the Knight's dribbling juices moisten her hand down below while she worked her way back down to the testicles. Alex was letting out little moans, now. Hands were clutching at the back of Eris's head and pulling her further into Alex's chest while she gently teethed a nipple.

One of Jaxie's hands started sliding down Eris's stomach, and all she could do was give a little buck of her hips as if to say "Move faster". Jaxie obliged, letting her fingers slip under a waistband and meet Eris's moistened sex. Eris kept massaging Alex's dick and balls while Jaxie got to work, not even caring about the way Alex was throbbing against her palm.

Eris pulled her head up and twisted it over her shoulder. Thankfully, Jaxie got the message and let their lips connect while she eased a lone middle finger into Eris's tunnel. At the same time, her index and ring finger split to slide along either side of Eris's labia, making a sensation of tingles from both inside and out of her folds.

Alex was grunting while Eris kneaded a tit and played with her throbbing dick. She wasn't even aware that Alex was already cumming- the syrupy warmth of a premature finish coating her hand was little more than an afterthought as Eris took an aggressive stance in the duel of her and Jaxie's tongues. She only became aware of the ongoing cum pumps shortly after starting to grind into Jaxie's fingers. That made her stop the ball massage, wrap her fingers in an underhand grip around Alex's shaft, and start jerking vigorously to milk as much as she could.

Sticky warmth sprayed into her wrist and poured all over her fingers, assisting to lubricate the ongoing movements causing a mess inside of Alex's pajama pants. Meanwhile, Jaxie was circling her thumb around and over Eris's clit, sending jolts of pleasure through the redhead's system. She twisted in place partway, keeping her jerking hand firmly affixed to Alex's dick, but moving the hand tweaking a nipple from Alex's chest to Jaxie's. Eris wasted no time in yanking Jaxie's shirt up and clamping a hand over a breast.

The difference between the chests of both girls was amusing. Alex's boobs were small but extremely perky, whereas Jaxie's were large and incredibly soft. Cute versus sexy. Petite versus pillowy. Both were perfect in their own ways and Eris couldn't get enough of either. She only had so many hands.

Eris squeezed the generous skin and rocked her hips back and forth in time with the movement of Jaxie's wrist. Meanwhile, a cum-slicked hand kept stroking Alex's length while Eris herself felt the tingles of pleasure continue to grow in her abdomen. It was gasps, groans, heat, and pulses. It was fluttering eyelids, curling toes, quivering hips and shaky breaths. It was incredible as Eris throttled towards her peak under Jaxie's ministrations, but it was also far too quick- she wanted it to last. That was little more than a distant wish.

Eris came apart as she shuddered on Jaxie's fingers. Her stroking of Alex faltered as much as the kiss Eris shared with her girlfriend. All she could do was press her forehead into Jaxie's and pant heavily into her face while her core spasmed. Jaxie kept her fingers moving; squeezing and massaging one breast after the other while the ones down below kept a moderate pace. A middle finger dipping deep into her honeypot while her labia was stroked and clit so deliciously played with- Eris could only shake and moan.

When she finally started to come down from her high, Jaxie's movements slowed to an eventual halt. Eris opened her eyes to see Jaxie smiling at her. Then, the Berserker pressed their lips together once more for a number of seconds before withdrawing her hands. Eris did the same. The hand up Jaxie's shirt was no issue. The one from Alex's pants, however...

It slid free with a slimy noise and several sticky strands of cum that extended from the tips of Eris's fingers before finally succumbing to gravity. Alex's dark grey pajama pants had a large and noticeable bulge, along with an even larger and even more noticeable stain that darkened the fabric with a wet texture.

"Sorry," Eris said as she shifted to sit back on the bed and held her cum-covered hand out in front of her. At that moment, the sound of slow clapping from the other side of the room took the attention of all three girls.

"A little on the short side, but a very nice show either way." Bailey stood and walked over towards her nightstand. "I'm proud of your initiative, Eris. Nice job taking charge."

Eris blushed and ducked her head away while Alex awkwardly pulled her shirt down. Bailey laughed.

"Don't worry about the cum, I've got a sponge that'll suck that stuff up like a... well, like me."

After a moment of searching, Bailey must have found what she was looking for. She tossed it across the room towards the girls and Jaxie caught it effortlessly. She looked at the solidified foamy texture, gave an appreciative shrug, then passed it to the other girls. Bailey wasn't lying. In just a few passes, Eris's hand was as clean as it was before the event. After a bit of awkward scrubbing with Alex shoving the sponge down her pants, even the dark stain in the fabric of her pants was completely gone and the sponge looked no worse for wear. Eris couldn't help her curiosity and sent an Inspect outwards.

Cum Sponge

Durability: 91%

A very well-crafted alchemical sponge. Designed exclusively to absorb ejaculatory fluids. Created by Bailey Geriege. Made from...

There was a long list of various chemicals and reagents that Eris recognized... kind of, but the only one that stood out to her was 'Ejaculatory fluid from Bailey Geriege and Earl Perry'. Eris tried not to let it show on her face. After all, she shouldn't be able to look at it and figure out that the sponge was made, at least in part, from cum.

Eris could understand some of the logic behind it- if something magical was designed to interact with exactly one type of substance, that substance would logically be required in the crafting. It still didn't change the fact that she just used the damn thing and it was made from Bailey's lady-cum, and from this guy 'Earl'. Eris had no idea who it was, but that was going to be a given.

It was obvious that Bailey sold several sexual products in her shop, and if some of them required... special substances... from other people, they probably had no issue in helping her out. By the gods, some of Bailey's 'recreational activities' probably served a secondary purpose to stock up on those kinds of reagents. It didn't matter right now, since Jaxie stood from the bed, slowly and purposefully pulled her shirt back down to cover her breasts, then put her hands on her hips.

"Well, Alex and I should probably get going. Thanks for letting us have some fun in your room, Princess."

"Not a problem," Bailey smiled. "You two are welcome anytime, either for Eris or for me."

Alex blushed, but managed to stammer. "To talk, right?"

"We could do that, too."

That drew a loud laugh from Jaxie. "I think we'll be taking you up on that offer soon enough."

"Uhh, what?" Alex's eyes widened.

"Don't worry about it," Jaxie said. "Eris gets first dibs, anyway."

As they stepped to the door, Jaxie paused just before they opened it. She turned to face Bailey.

"As Eris's sex teacher, would you mind teaching Eris how to eat pussy? She's never done it before and it seems like a nice skill to have."

Eris stared intensely at the floor- all the faux confidence she managed to muster during the moment having completely vanished. Bailey giggled.

"It would be my pleasure. Literally."

Jaxie smiled as she and Alex stepped out the door. "Oh, she also likes kissing, she really likes being called a 'good girl', and feel free to use some of those toys in your closet to give her a good time. Bye!"

Chapter 22: Teacher's Pet (18+)

"Shh... it's okay. It's okay..."

Bailey's hands gently patted Eris's bare back as the still-topless redhead sobbed gently into Bailey's shoulder. The poofy blonde had wasted no time in sliding up right beside Eris when she started crying on the edge of the bed after Jaxie and Alex left. Thankfully, Bailey didn't seem to be making a big deal out of it. She did exactly what Eris needed, which was to stay mostly silent and serve as a comfortable shoulder to cry on. It was multiple quiet minutes before Bailey finally muttered something other than a comforting whisper.

"Wanna tell me what's wrong?"

"I- I don't know..." Eris choked. She felt Bailey nod.

"And that tells me everything I need."

Eris pulled away for a moment to look up into Bailey's soft blue eyes. "Huh?" Bailey smiled sweetly.

"I'm gonna make some assumptions here, and I want you to tell me when I get something wrong, okay?"

"... Okay?" Eris sniffled.

"Alright," Bailey took both of Eris's hands in hers.

"You enjoy your schedules. You're a perfectionist. You don't like it when things don't line up properly, and you really don't like it when things change. You want to make everybody happy, but you hate feeling like a burden to others. You and the tall glass of hotness made things official recently, and you're excited but scared at the prospect of an open relationship. You enjoy being with Alex but you keep feeling like you're cheating on Jaxie and you don't like how scary sex stuff is. Between that and the Syndicate, everything is changing all at once in a way that you have no idea how to deal with. You're overwhelmed, you're anxious, and you're trying to adapt to an entirely new way of living when you've never had to change anything this big in your life before."

Bailey raised an eyebrow. "Does that sound about right?"

All Eris could do was stare with wide, wet eyes before giving a slow nod. Bailey smiled.

"Don't worry about crying. Crying is great! It literally releases chemicals in the brain that are designed to make you feel good. Plus, there's nothing wrong with being an emotional person. If everything gets a little bit overwhelming, nobody's going to judge you if you need a quick cry to get your head back on straight."

Eris sniffled. "I just wish I wasn't so nervous all the time. I can't stop myself from panicking..."

Bailey laughed. "Alright, I'm gonna do something and I don't want you to think too much about it, okay? I want you to enjoy it for what it is, instead of thinking about what it means for your relationship with Jaxie and Alex."

"Huh?" Eris raised an eyebrow. The other quickly raised to meet it when Bailey let go of Eris's hands, gently held her cheeks, closed her eyes, and then pulled their faces together. Eris felt her brain go white.

Bailey was kissing her.

She was kissing Bailey.

She was-

"Nope," Bailey mumbled into Eris's lips. "Don't think. Just do."

With that, Bailey slowly extended her hands forward so that her arms were lightly crossed around the back of Eris's neck. Eris was busy trying not to hyperventilate. Well, at first. Oddly, it actually became easier to manage the longer that Bailey held them there like that. This wasn't some open-mouthed makeout like Eris had started to become accustomed to with Jaxie and Alex- it was a sweet, soft, simple connection of their lips with minimal movement. Her lips were just as soft as the rest of the body that Eris washed about a half hour earlier. Eventually, Eris closed her eyes and found her hands instinctively starting to linger on Bailey's waist. When that happened, the blonde pulled her face back a half inch so that their lips separated and both of their eyes opened to stare at each other. Bailey grinned.

"Now, I want you to tell me the truth. Did you like that?"

Eris paused with a burning face before she could barely manage an embarrassed nod. The blonde's eyes twinkled.

"Good, you just passed your next lesson- being honest to yourself. If you lied and said no, that would have meant a whole lot more work."

Eris didn't speak. All she could do was stare into Bailey's eyes waiting for whatever instructions would come next. It was easy to walk when someone was pulling her along. Bailey eventually gave a smiling sigh.

"Let me tell you something before this goes any further, so you don't have to start freaking out about it, okay?"

"... What?"

"I'm not in love with you," Bailey said flatly. "And that's because sex and love are two completely different things. Most of the time, they travel together because that's kinda how things are. That doesn't mean it isn't possible to have love without sex, and sex without love."

"Uhh..." Eris faltered. Bailey rolled her eyes, planted a quick kiss on Eris's lips, then pulled away once more.

"I'm going to take off my clothes, and then since your girlfriend asked so nicely, you're going to eat my pussy while I tell you how to do it right."

Eris's eyes went wide. Before she could say anything, Bailey pressed a third kiss and then seamlessly continued speaking.

"After that, I'm going to make sure you cum real nice, and then we'll have naked cuddles until we fall asleep together. None of it will mean anything more than fun and a bit of stress relief between roommates, and then tomorrow you're going to go back to your girlfriends that you'll still love just as much as you do now. Understand?"

Eris's mouth bobbed a few times without words. Bailey let out a humoured sigh, grabbed the hem of her shirt, then pulled it up and off over her head. As expected, her larger chest flopped out with an extremely distracting jiggle.

"Do you understand?" She repeated herself, as if having her tits out wouldn't cause more of a distraction. Somehow, Eris gulped and gave a red-faced yet excited nod. Bailey grinned then pulled Eris in for a fourth and final kiss.

"Good girl."

The warmth in Eris's chest persisted as the pair adjusted their clothing and positions on the bed. That was to say- removing the rest of it then having Bailey sit on the edge with one leg pulled up and to the side so that her sex was laid bare for the world to see. Eris, who was kneeling on a pillow set upon the carpet beside the bed, was barely a foot away and staring with wide eyes at the neatly-trimmed patch of blonde-ish fuzz serving as the centerpiece of Bailey's pelvis. Something about it also made Eris's eyes instinctively travel just a teeny bit lower and gaze upon the princess's folds.

Despite the context of what it was, and how much this particular set of flaps had been through, Bailey's pussy actually looked... well, the only word Eris could think of to describe it was 'cute'. Like a flower just barely beginning to blossom, with only a tiny bit of her petals peeking out from the opening.

"Alright, now I'm going to assume that tall, dark and busty has eaten you out a few times, so you should have a bit of an idea of what feels good and what doesn't."

Eris blushed- well... more than she already had been. "Yeah?"

"Then you should already know that it's not a race. Sometimes you and your partner want a real quick tongue-fuck, like if your pressed for time, but in most cases you want to take it slow. At least for a pussy, their pleasure is more about the journey than the destination, you feel me?"

"Uhh..."

"Eh, you'll get it. Just start off with some licking and work your way up from there."

To say Eris was tentative as she leaned forward was an understatement. Her mind was racing faster than a cross-continental train as the distance between her face and Bailey's pussy lessened. As she got even closer, she could even smell it. Most of it was the flowery scent of the soap/shampoo alchemical combination, but there was a teeny twinge of distinction underneath that. Like a musk, but sweeter. Tangy, almost. It only made one of the bigger thoughts rolling around in Eris's head more prevalent.

I haven't even fingered anyone yet, and now I'm going to eat out my roommate.

Eris paused for a moment before placing a light, awkward drag of her tongue on the front of Bailey's slit. To her surprise, Bailey tasted like- well... flesh. There might have been a hint of that sweet tang, but it could just have easily been the scent playing tricks on Eris's tongue. She took a few more hesitant licks before Bailey piped up.

"There ya' go. Feel free to put a bit more pressure- it won't bite and your partner will like it. You don't have to keep your hands by your side, either. Put them on my thighs. Even that little bit of extra contact goes a long way."

Eris obediently did as she was told. Gods, Bailey's skin was so soft under Eris's fingers and her tongue was squishing the blonde's folds apart just a touch with every pass. Each lick meant that Eris's tongue was dipping about a quarter inch beyond Bailey's threshold as she went from the bottom to the top.

"Mmm, good girl. Just think of what felt good whenever Jaxie was down there and do the same thing to me. Each girl likes things a little bit different but a good handle on the basics will set you up for life."

Eris looked up into Bailey's eyes, which was a debilitating sight from in between her legs. She quickly blushed and looked back down, prompting a giggle from the blonde before Eris let out a tiny breath and moved back forward.

What did Jaxie do that Eris had liked? At any other point, for any other topic, it would have been easy to remember. For this? The idea of Jaxie's previous administrations left Eris so flustered that the only thing that came to mind was 'tongue in hole'. Very helpful.

Either way, it gave her a place to start. Instead of going for another pressured lick on the front of Bailey's slit, Eris planted her lips firmly towards the top of the pretty pussy before her. At the same time, she opened her jaw and let her tongue slide forward. She didn't stop when she came in contact with the seam of Bailey's flower, instead continuing to push and easing her tongue into the gap.

The miniscule hint of a tang that may or may not have actually been there became a legitimate flavour as Eris's tastebuds fully entered the princess. It was sweet and a tiny bit metallic, but by no means unpleasant. Not only that, the warmth squeezing down around her tongue was a different version of pleasant in itself. Like Bailey was giving Eris's mouth a hug, as oddly innocent of an analogy as that was. Bailey cooed from above her.

"Good, good. Now pretend you're a dog."

That made Eris pause. Thankfully, she didn't have to pull away so that she could speak and ask 'what?', since she heard Bailey immediately clarify.

"When a dog drinks water, they use their tongue like a spoon. Curl your tongue and act like you're scooping out my pussy. It's simple, but it works surprisingly well."

Eris didn't really have much of an option to do anything otherwise, so she obliged. To the best of her ability, she formed her tongue into a miniature shovel and started digging towards Bailey's depths, getting more of that sweet taste with every scoop. When she started doing that, Eris felt one of Bailey's hands gently slide fingers along the back of her head and ever-so-slightly tug her further forward. She could also hear a content sigh pass Bailey's lips. Her upper ones, not the lower pair currently occupied.

"Mmm, that's a damn good start. Twist your tongue around a bit to hit some different angles. Yeah, just like that. Oohh, yeah. Just like that..."

At this point, the hesitancy was gone and long since replaced with fascination. Slurping Bailey's pussy was genuinely interesting, and exploring all the little nooks and crannies that were within reach of Eris's probing tongue was almost like a game. The fact that she could feel the blonde shifting slightly with pleasure under each movement was a lovely little ribbon on top.

Eris didn't even realise she had moved her hands until they were no longer resting on Bailey's thighs, but now firmly looped around them and using them like handholds to pull herself further into Bailey's sex. At the same time, slender fingers snaked through Eris's scarlet hair to ensure a good grip. Not like she was planning on leaving, though. Eris was too invested in wiggling and writhing her tongue to suck out every bit of pleasure she could from the bushy-haired blonde. It didn't matter that fuzzy pubes were tickling her nose- if anything that added to the sensations.

"Something... something else you can do-" Bailey's voice was audibly catching a bit; that made Eris's face heat with pride. "-You can... form a seal with your lips and apply some suction to the clit. O-or you can use your fingers for it, or switch to fingering the pussy and licking the clit... a-anything works, really."

There were lots of very intriguing options laid out. Which one to choose? Eris really didn't want to stop dipping her tongue deep into Bailey's core. It was far too interesting, too sexy, and she tasted too good to even consider removing a tongue from the honeypot.

Ultimately, that left Eris releasing Bailey's thigh with her left hand and curling it around towards the top of Bailey's pussy. It had been lubricated both by Eris's spit and the blonde's natural secretions, meaning that Eris's index and middle finger slid easily along the surface of the little pink nub begging for attention. Immediately, that send a shudder through Bailey's body that Eris could taste. She couldn't help a lustful smile from crawling ear to ear at the low moan coming from above her head.

"Oohhh, that's good... keep going. If something's working... w-working well, don't- don't change things up. Just keep doing exactly what you're doing and she'll- oh fuck- she'll never complain."

That was all the encouragement Eris needed. Frankly, she had no idea how long she spent there, slurping and sucking out as much of Bailey's insides as she could reach while eagerly massaging the ultra-sensitive clit. Eris couldn't care less how much time had passed- it was too fun. Listening to Bailey's increasing moans? Feeling the fingers tighten in her hair? Feeling the twitches in Bailey's legs happen more and more often?

Absolutely incredible.

The knowledge that she was pulling out that pleasure was beyond describing. Eris had only ever been on the receiving end of this kind of thing- except for when she had sucked Alex yesterday. This was still different from that for two reasons. One, Bailey was lasting a fair amount longer than Alex. Two, Bailey also hadn't been Eris's best friend for years. This was, for all intents and purposes, a random stranger that Eris was now pulling towards orgasm and that thought sent a heat flushing through her chest that she couldn't begin to describe.

"Oh, oh fuck- gods, you're good at this. Haaah, nngh- keep going. Please, pleasekeepgoing..."

Bailey probably wouldn't have been able to stop Eris from continuing, especially not when Bailey's climax was starting to rear its lovely head. The leg that had been hanging off of the bed had long since wrapped around Eris and started digging a heel into her back, and the fingers in her hair had tightened to the point that it almost hurt. When the heavy breathing, errant moans and shuddering twitches finally culminated, it was nothing short of beautiful.

Eris could feel Bailey's carnal tunnel rippling around her still-moving tongue while a low squeal eased from Bailey's throat. It squeezed down on the oral muscle hard, as if trying to keep Eris from using it like a shovel, but Eris fought against the constriction. That extra pressure forcing itself onto Eris's tongue only seemed to add to Bailey's pleasure. The only terrible part about the situation was that Eris wasn't in a position to properly look up and watch Bailey cum. All she could do was bury her face further into the blonde's pelvis and squeeze a few fingers between them to keep bearing down on Bailey's clit.

When Bailey finally eased down from her high and gently pulled Eris's face away, Eris could see that the princess's face and chest were bright red. The smile on Bailey's face was indescribable.

"Wow. You are a natural at this."

Eris felt her face grow warm with pride. She idly wiped her mouth and chin of the wetness gathered there and scooched back on the floor while Bailey slowly stood. Eris was delighted to see that Bailey was unsteady on her legs.

"Frankly, I don't think I'll have to teach you all that much. It's like you were born to eat pussy."

That last sentence suddenly made Eris realise that she had just been proud of her ability to be a whore. The warmth in her chest seemed to grow both hotter and colder at that realization, and she could only stammer. "I- I... errr, uhh-"

Bailey laughed, leaned down, and firmly kissed Eris right on the lips. It wasn't a quick kiss either, but a drawn-out connection that lasted long enough for Eris's hesitations to soften. After a long while, she pulled back with a grin.

"How big is Alex's cock?"

That made Eris blink. "Uhh... huh?"

Bailey stepped away and walked towards her closet, leaving Eris kneeling on the floor.

"If I'm going to fuck you with a dildo, I wanna make sure it's the same size as your second girlfriend's dick. So I ask again, how much meat is she packing?"

Chapter 23: Bailey's Turn (18+)

When Eris stood up and walked over to the closet, she was greeted by a sight that made her throat dry.

In total, it appeared that Bailey owned about two sets of clothing; the pair dangling from a single hanger in the closet and the pair haphazardly tossed to the floor. Both sets seemed equally... carefree in nature, meaning that they probably had a combined amount of material equal to one normal outfit of clothing. It wasn't the clothes (or lack thereof) that captured her attention, though.

The vast majority of the closet was taken up by miniature shelves that were stacked on top of each other in an attempt to maximise storage out of the small space. Every single one of the bottom shelves were stuffed completely and utterly full with books. Some of them seemed to be official textbooks or manuals, but they were outnumbered fifty-to-one with plain-looking leather bound tomes that had Bailey's messy writing on the spines indicating that they were notebooks. There had to be at least three hundred jammed into the shelves, and Eris still supposed that would have been underestimating the guess.

Glancing over some of the spines, Eris could see notebooks marked in a variety of ways. Some were labelled after specific materials, such as Nidroxida V6, Durma V14, and others, while different notebooks were labelled along the lines of Healing Formulae V3, Monster Fluid Catalysts V9, and similarly fascinating things. Eris tried not to stare at what was stored in the neat-but-still-cluttered upper shelves as she reached in and grabbed a random notebook marked as 'Herbal Reagents V5'. Thumbing through some of the pages, Eris saw each one was stuffed full of weights, ratios, diagrams, preparation instructions, and more.

"My gods..." Eris muttered. Bailey chuckled and wrapped an arm around Eris's shoulders.

"Behold my library of shame," she said, leaning her head against Eris's.

"This is... this isn't shame! This is incredible!" Eris spat incredulously.

"Nah, that's just because you picked one of the only good notebooks in there. About ninety percent of all of this crap are failed experiments and formulae that didn't amount to anything worthwhile. I've tried damn near every combination of catalysts and reagents, in every possible ratio, in every alchemical base, in every conceivable brewing temperature. Every fifth volume of a series is just a consolidated version of everything that actually worked in the last four books."

"Amazing. How long did this take you?"

"Since I started at Marrix and a little bit before that," Bailey shrugged.

"Why?"

"Someone's gotta do it," she said. "Nobody will ever know if a weird combination makes something useful unless it's tried."

Eris was speechless. She had dozens upon dozens of notebooks back in Kelshiir, but this was on a completely different level. Those were all diagrams of things Eris knew would work, interspaced with a few errant theories of future items. All of this? This was years of 'What If' questions put into practice all to lay out the groundwork for what would and wouldn't function. Bailey plucked the notebook from Eris's hands and searched the shelves for a moment before replacing it with a more official-looking-and-very-thick tome. Eris had to hold it with both hands to make the weight easier to manage.

The Alchemical Contributions of Bailey J. Geriege.

"The Syndicate sifted through all the research I gave them and consolidated the important bits three months ago to make this. I've discovered a few more things since then, but definitely not enough for them to make a sequel."

"Incredible..." Looking up, Eris could see that Bailey was blushing a bit with pride.

"Eh, most of that is just different ways I've found of making concoctions that already exist, or adjusting their effects in odd results. There's only a few completely original discoveries in there."

"Like what?"

Bailey thought for a moment. "Hmm, did you know that mixing one gram of balar root for every eight grams of hydra blood and cold boiling it in a base of silvered milk causes a creature's stomach acid to become so potent they'll start to dissolve from the inside?"

"That's... disturbing."

Bailey shrugged. "Makes for a pretty decent poison, and someone can scoop up the acid still left in the corpse to use later so it's basically two concoctions in one."

That did make Eris tilt her head in acknowledgement. "Fair enough. Anything else?"

Bailey shrugged. "That book only has a few others. The Syndicate decided that most of my other discoveries weren't worth publishing."

"That sucks," Eris said. Bailey chuckled.

"Not really, since I went and published them myself."

"What?"

Bailey grinned, took the official tome from Eris and put it back on the shelf. Then, she grabbed a different book, just as large, and passed it over. That was followed by a second one, and then a third. Eris had to suddenly shift her posture to heft the weight, while staring wide-eyed at the titles as they were placed into her hands.

Alchemist's Wet Dream: BJ's Encyclopedia of Sexual Concoctions and Alchemical Pleasures. They were labelled 'Volume One, Two, and Three' respectively.

Eris let out a soft "Oh...." Bailey gave a loud laugh.

"As far as I know, I pretty much discovered the entire concept of sex alchemy. Turns out, it was a really big box once I started to look inside."

"BJ?"

Bailey smiled. "It stands for Blowjob, but it's also my first two initials- Bailey Jade. Either way, it's pretty fuckin' funny to have a book about sex written by someone named BJ."

As if drawn by the shift in conversation, Eris's eyes drifted up to the shelves above waist level. Organized by size, shape, and presumably even texture, Eris's chest grew warm at the sight of dozens of odd-looking objects with the subtextual knowledge of what they were.

Many were obviously phallic in nature, some so unsettlingly realistic that Eris wondered if Bailey chopped off someone's lower extremities in a state of permanent erection. Others were wooden, but most were some kind of rubber in wildly different colours, just as many wildly different sizes, and some had additional bumps, ridges, corkscrews, or divets. That was just the dildos, too. There were objects hung up on the wall and laid out on the shelves that Eris had no immediate idea of what they were used for- at least until Bailey followed Eris's eyes and spoke.

"I see you're looking at my collection. I've got dildos of pretty much every size you could want, fleshlights, butt plugs, nipple clamps, ropes, chains, harnesses, some manacles, some whips, and a few other things. While I sell most of my alchemical stock, I do keep some potions on that shelf up there for personal use if I feel like something special. Speaking of which..."

Bailey reached up past the assortment of toys, which made her bare breasts wobble pleasantly in the process, and thumbed through the concoctions before grabbing a palm-sized vial with a clear liquid. Then, she turned to Eris and motioned with her hand towards the shelf with the dildos. There had to be over twenty of them.

"Well, pick whichever one you want. Like I suggested, I wouldn't go with one any bigger than Alex."

Eris blushed and looked over the many different options. The sizes ranged from normal to downright obscene. Wagering a guess, Eris could assume the smaller end of the shelf stood at around four inches in length- with a healthy assortment of ridges and nubs along the shafts. At the other side of the shelf were absolute monsters of rubber that were either as long as Eris's arm or as thick... or both. Those made Eris shudder.

"H-how... huh?!" Eris stared aghast at the flexible truncheons likely weighing down the shelf, to which Bailey chuckled.

"With practice and some special potions. Now hurry up, cutie. Pick a dick."

Eris settled her eyes towards the middle of the shelf and awkwardly reached out to grab a phallus. Aside from the colour of this one being dark blue, it looked astonishingly similar to Alex's equipment. Perhaps three quarters of an inch shorter, but it looked to have a close enough girth to match the Knight. Bailey raised an eyebrow.

"I said no bigger than Alex- that's eight long and six around. I wanna make you cum, not cry."

Eris blushed and looked down at the dildo to double check. "Umm, this one's actually a little smaller."

Bailey paused for a moment with an amused expression, then gave an impressed nod. "Good for her. Alrighty then!" She plucked the dildo from Eris's hand and strolled back over to the bed. "Lie down, cutie."

Eris gulped and followed the nude blonde's orders, setting herself down on the bed and looking up at Bailey who sat down beside one knee. She held up the vial she took from the shelf.

"This is a lubricant that also has a low-grade aphrodisiac in it. All it'll do is help get you warm and loose so that you can really enjoy whatever you do next. It'll last about a half hour and fully evaporate after that with no lasting effects. You can Inspect it if you want."

Eris did, and everything was exactly as Bailey said in the description. Curiously, she cast her eyes over to the dildo in Bailey's other hand and Inspected it.

Rubber Dildo

Durability: 100%

A very well-made dildo imbued with a minor ability to recover from damage. Created by Bailey Geriege. Made from latex, acetic acid, blue dye, yellow-striped lizard extract...

Additional effect: Rubber Repair

When damaged, the Rubber Dildo regains 1% missing Durability for every hour it spends soaking in boiling water.

No Pleasure-boosting effects. No enchantments that shared the sensations. Only something that made the rubber able to regenerate itself which was impressive, but not something that Eris hadn't heard of before. In other words, this specialised dildo made by someone nine times Eris's level lacked the two distinct features that Eris applied accidentally.

Bailey uncorked the vial and poured a little bit out onto the dildo, after which she recorked and it down on the nightstand. Then, she generously lathered up the intimidating size of the toy with the clear liquid. When she was done, both the rubber and her hand were glistening with a sheen. She then held her slicked-up hand out with the dildo in her other and clicked her tongue a few times. "Come on, spread them legs."

Eris felt like her face would catch fire when she shakily let her thighs part. Bailey grinned and swung a leg over, followed by the other. Now she was fully sitting in between Eris's thighs and slowly lowered her lubricated hand.

"Don't worry about anything," Bailey said. "Just lie back and let me do all the work."

Eris couldn't help but gasp when Bailey's fingers met her sex. She was ashamed that she was already wet, but eating Bailey out had been extremely debilitating for her composure. The quick talk about the notebooks helped, although choosing a dildo had stripped all that progress away to leave Eris far too hot and bothered. Bailey didn't seem to mind.

She let her soft, slick fingers slide down the length of Eris's slit a few times. Already, Eris could feel the difference of the lubricant. It felt so much smoother than normal, and there was a tingling warmth that felt like she was taking a hot bath, but only dipping her pelvis into the water. Immediately, Eris felt like she was dripping. She could only assume that it was the aphrodisiac and she let out a shuddering; "Oh my..."

Bailey grinned. "Now be a good girl and take it for me."

"Huh- oooohhh..."

Eris was cut off by the presence of a rubbery substance insistently pressing forward into her folds. The moan she let out was strangled in her throat by the fact that Bailey didn't tease with the tip- once the dildo made contact she slid it with purpose all the way forward until the dildo's faux balls pressed firmly into the crack of Eris's ass. That alone surprised Eris enough that her knuckles turned white through their grip of the bedsheets.

In one gentle movement she suddenly had over half a foot of thick rubber stuffed to the hilt inside of her and there was no strain whatsoever. Not like with Alex, where there had been a little bit of a twinge just barely on the edge of pleasure when she had been pushing in. This time, it was a near-frictionless sliding of movement that left Eris full of tingling warmth. Despite that, the dildo felt just as large as Alex had. Eris could feel her tunnel stretching to accommodate the material that dragged the magical lube all across her nerves to bathe them in heat.

She could only let out a low groan when Bailey started tugging it out, twisting her wrist as she did so. Fake veins rubbed in the best ways along her walls as the dildo was corkscrewed through the tunnel at the same pace it had been pushed in. Still, that somehow didn't prepare Eris for when Bailey did the exact same thing in reverse, sliding the hefty rubber all the way back in until Bailey's knuckles rubbed against Eris's folds.

Bailey's other hand slid up Eris's thigh, leaving a trail of lube that sent tingles until her fingers finally stopped on Eris's waist. There, Bailey kept her hand as if she were using Eris's hipbone as leverage to better saw the dildo in and out- which she did. In. Out. In. Out.

Bailey only broke the pattern every few thrusts to hold it all the way inside and wiggle the shaft like she was trying to stir a pot. Every time, it made Eris's tongue slide back into her throat and her toes curled. She didn't realise that her eyes were closed until she felt Bailey pull the dildo all the way out and lay it down on the front of her pelvis, to which Eris leaned her head up to look at the grinning blonde.

"Look how far it goes. Such a hungry little pussy."

Eris was barely able to take note of the dildo's head dripping a mixture of lube and her own juices into her belly button before Bailey started dragging it backwards. It left a slick trail along Eris's skin all the way to her pussy where Bailey wasted no time in returning the dildo back to her sawing motions.

The redhead could do nothing more than shove the back of her head into the pillow and bite down on her cheek.

"It's okay- don't worry about being quiet. Make whatever sounds you need to."

"Haaah... nngh. Oh- oh gods!"

With permission to be verbal, Eris didn't bother to hold her tongue. It let her moans eek into the air while her back arched and breathing became ragged under the continuous administrations of Bailey. She was only vaguely aware of the blonde chuckling.

"Oh, you're a fast one. Alright then."

"I- I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

"Sshhh, don't apologize. Just go ahead and cum for me, cutie. Let it all out. It's okay- it's okay."

Eris couldn't help herself. As humiliating as it was to reach her peak with such a small amount of effort, it was somehow even more embarrassing to do that in front of the near-stranger that was Bailey. That, of course, didn't stop her from letting out a throaty cry and attempting to close her thighs in the quivers of her orgasm. Bailey obviously didn't let that happen. Not only was her body in the way to stop Eris from closing her legs, Bailey's hand puppeteering the dildo didn't stop moving. If anything, she twisted it in a way like she was turning it to the ceiling as she thrusted, and Eris nearly saw stars.

Her low cries turned almost into screams as each of Bailey's thrusts deliberately pressed up, into, and past her g-spot. It felt like electricity was jolting through her core, already having been compromised by her orgasm. Eris couldn't breathe. Cumming was already an endeavour, but having that rubbing against something so absurdly sensitive at the same time was an intensity she'd never felt before. If she hadn't been gripping the bedsheets, Eris was sure her fingernails would be gouging into her palms.

The quivers and pulses of pleasure continued to twitch through Eris's abdomen for a long while, drawn out by Bailey's unchanging pace. After the worst/best of it passed, Bailey finally let the dildo stand still while buried in the warmth of Eris's wetness. Eris was gasping for breaths that didn't quite seem to do the job when she suddenly became aware of Bailey completely shifting positions.

In less than a moment, Eris found her side being warmed by Bailey's nudity as the poofy blonde slid up to lie right next to her. Her large breasts were squishing into Eris's shoulder, and one leg looped over Eris's to keep them spread, yet her hand never left the dildo still hilted inside of the redhead. The other applied gentle pressure to Eris's cheek so that the two were staring into each other's eyes from an inch away. Bailey's were bright and playful. Then, she closed the distance and let their lips meet in a sweet but passionate embrace that left Eris's chest fluttering.

"Don't worry," Bailey pulled just far enough away to speak. "I'm gonna make sure that a good girl like you is nice and satisfied."

Bailey pressed her lips back into Eris's while her wrist twisted to tug a few inches of the dildo free. When she slid it back in, it was far slower than before- which had already been a relatively slow pace, all things considered. This was a crawl; a slow, luxurious, delicious stroll as thick rubber was gently eased along the path leading to Eris's deepest regions.

Eris could only let little moans into Bailey's mouth while they kissed. They weren't even really making out- this was sweeter than that despite Eris literally being reamed out by the large dildo. They weren't battling with tongues or biting lips; this was a connection of their mouths that was soft despite the firmness of their pressings. It was something that Eris could use to anchor herself to the world- that and Bailey's incredible body.

Eris's far hand had swung over and held itself on Bailey's cheek to keep their kiss held together in case one of them was stupid and decided to try and pull away. That replaced Bailey's fingers which had since trailed down Eris's neck and landed on a supple breast, which Eris mimicked with her other hand. Just like in the shower, Bailey's chest was unreasonably soft. Eris's fingers squished in deep while the only part that remained rigid was the pink protrusion of a nipple that poked earnestly into Eris's palm.

"You like my boobs?" Bailey asked, pulling her face an inch away from Eris's. Eris could only nod with red cheeks, to which Bailey chuckled.

"Yeah, a lot of people do. Did you know that I was a B-cup before my Gifting?"

"N-no..."

"Mmhmm. The Stream took one look at me and decided that I needed some back problems and an inability to sleep on my stomach."

Eris's core fluttered as Bailey's knuckles wrapped around the dildo's base brushed up against her folds. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" Bailey grinned. "I'll take boob sweat and future scoliosis any day for a rack this nice. Still, I've gotta say that yours are so much better than mine."

Eris blushed and turned her face away, but Bailey nuzzled into her neck.

"Hey, I'm serious! All boobs are great, but the best ones are the ones that fit the body, you know? F-cups are big and squishy, but they don't fit me at all. I'm too short and thin so they look like a couple of droopy watermelons hanging from my chest. Yours?"

Bailey took a deep squeeze followed by a quick pinch of Eris's nipple that made the redhead moan.

"Yours are just the right size. Big enough that you've got some definition, but small enough that they aren't too floppy. I mean, look how perky they are!"

Eris was too busy trying to hide her reddening face, but still took note of Bailey playfully juggling titflesh.

"You're on your back and your girls are pointed at the ceiling. If I lay on my back, these puppies are staring at the walls."

"Stooop!" Eris murmured out a humiliated groan. Even though she wasn't looking, Eris could all but feel the way that Bailey rolled her eyes.

"Fine, fine. If you don't want your roommate telling you how hot you are, I'll just stay quiet while I fuck you."

Eris could only whimper while Bailey gave a long twist of her wrist that made the dildo roll around her insides. Then, it slid back out at a pace just a tiny bit faster than Bailey had been using while they kissed. At the same time, Eris felt a sudden, wet warmth on her chest as Bailey lowered her head and sucked a rigid nipple into her mouth.

All Eris could do was wrap one arm around the girl cuddled into her side as a way to hold onto reality. The other went much lower down and danced along the front of her pelvis. A few brushes against her clit was all it took for Eris to let out a throaty moan. She couldn't care what was happening or who she was doing it with. Right now, all that mattered was the smooth, warm and soft body pressed up into her that was drawing out all sorts of pleasure.

Every time Bailey nibbled on a nipple to pull a gasp from Eris, she also jerked her wrist a fraction of an inch- not much, but enough to cause a shift in the rhythm that made Eris's chest bleed fire. No words were shared between them, and they didn't need to be. A soothing warmth that eased into her core, a large dildo stretching her oh-so-nicely, a very skilled mouth doing lovely things to her chest, and a soft body to cuddle with? The part of Eris's head telling her this was wrong was completely drowned out by the rest all joining in to enjoy what was happening.

Because Bailey kept the same slow pace while Eris massaged her own clit, it meant that the redhead was all but in charge of how quickly she would arrive at the final stop of the train. Because of that, she treated herself with light, indirect touches interspaced just enough to make her toes curl. It meant that the tingling heat was able to build slowly, so, so slowly, and envelop every nerve in her body. Like her figure was wrapped in a fluffy blanket, the warmth was everywhere and inescapable. Primarily, that was due to the fact that Eris wouldn't have wanted to escape even if she had the ability- this sensation was too perfect to ever give up.

After a long, long while, Eris eventually found herself rocking her hips into Bailey's hand with every wrist twist while her own fingers worked with a little more insistence. As incredible as it was to enjoy the warmth, the company, and the pleasure of the journey, Eris had slowly been building to the finish line. Now it was in sight, and it was hard for Eris to lax back in the sheets and lazily cuddle with Bailey when her heart was starting to beat in her chest as if actively trying to remind her that she was still alive. Bailey, thank the gods, must have sensed that Eris was starting to get close, since she removed her mouth from Eris's chest and tilted her face back up so that their lips could connect again.

The pace of Bailey's wrist also increased, but by a hair. It was only noticeable since Bailey had been going so deliciously slow for so long, and it made Eris let out a teeny squeal between the blonde's lips. Much like before, Bailey never stopped when Eris came. She continued her slow, blissful pace while Eris desperately massaged her clit through the trembles and shakes of what was probably the most pleasure she'd experienced from an orgasm. It was one thing to have Jaxie tonguing her to an intense finish within a minute or two, but it was another to be built up over a long while and have that be so gently and expertly released by someone who definitely knew what they were doing.

When Eris finally stopped shuddering, Bailey gingerly removed the dildo and set it off to the side, obviously intending to clean it later. For now, she shushed Eris- which was unneeded since the redhead wasn't planning on saying anything- then gently tugged Eris into her while rolling on her back. That effortlessly altered their position so that Eris ended up lying partially on top of Bailey and using her generous chest as a pillow while their arms moved to wrap around each other. Bailey also used the movement to tug one of the blankets up and over them both.

"Did you like that?"

Eris nodded into Bailey's breasts. The blonde lifted a few fingers to gently play with the scarlet strands right where Eris's hairline met the back of her neck.

"That's a good girl. We've both had a nice cum before bed, and now we're gonna cuddle just like this while we drift off, okay?"

Eris blinked a few times. Shouldn't she be a little more aware of the fact that she was going to sleep with someone other than her girlfriend? Probably, but-

Her thoughts were muddied by a yawn.

-but it was soft, and warm, and Bailey was so comfortable, and Eris was starting to have genuine struggles in keeping her eyes open. The entire day had abruptly caught up to her in the afterglow of an incredible orgasm, with exhaustion that had been waiting around the corner and holding a bat to smack her across the face with. Now the only thing that Eris wanted was to fall asleep in her roommate's gentle, nude embrace. She gave a slow, lazy nod and let her eyes shut. Eris intended to enjoy the soft warmth for a while, straining to hold onto her consciousness for just a little bit longer.

She failed.

When the redhead started softly snoring after just a few moments, Bailey smiled and rubbed a hand gently up and down the girl's bare back.

"Good night, Eris."

Chapter 24: The Syndicate

When the haze of sleep started to clear, Eris's face scrunched through a tired groan. There was knocking at the door. It wasn't soft, but rather a firm and insistent noise that resounded clearly in the silent room. That alone would have been enough to get Eris up and moving, but something else was odd. Her pillow was... weird. Soft on top, yet firm and with structure deeper inside. Very warm, too. It was also... moving?

Eris cracked open an eye only to look up and see a mane of poofy hair starting to shift in the dim light of the room. Immediately, all of last night's escapades suddenly washed into Eris's mind. Alex and Jaxie. Eating Bailey's pussy. Bailey fucking her with the dildo, and then the cuddling...

Eris's face was quickly heating with red when the knock repeated itself before being accompanied by an official-sounding male voice.

"This is Marrix faculty. Open the door."

Eris awkwardly sat up, staring wide-eyed at the naked Bailey she had been laying on. "Err- uhh... one moment!" She called towards the door.

As Eris rolled out of the bed and scrambled to get some clothes from her still-packed satchel, Bailey sat up and stretched like a lazy cat without a care in the world. In fact, she leaned back on her elbows, nudity bared to the world while Eris fumbled her way into a shirt and some pajama pants. When she opened the door, a man in the dark blue uniforms of the Syndicate was standing just outside. Slightly too old to be a student, so definitely as he said- a member of the faculty. His eyes naturally drifted over Eris's shoulder to the extremely naked blonde, but they respectfully went back to focus on the more dressed of the two.

"An emergency assembly for all of Marrix is being held at each sector's auditorium in one hour. Attendance is mandatory."

Eris raised an eyebrow. "What's going on?"

"That will be explained during the assembly. One hour."

"Okay... thank you?"

Eris moved to close the door, but the man held out a hand and halted the action. "You, Eris Kadell, have also been summoned for a meeting regarding your Gifting. I need you to come with me."

Eris's heart went cold in her chest. "What?"

"I am taking you to the Dean's office, post-haste. Put on your shoes and I will escort you there."

Even if Eris was able to take a thousand worries from her head and stuff them in a safe at the bottom of a lake, there were still more than enough left over for Eris's palms to get clammy. She was being summoned about her Gifting? How did the Syndicate find out? Wait, did they find out? There shouldn't have been anything that gave it away- at least, not that Eris could immediately think of. Did Jaxie or Alex tell on her? No, they wouldn't do that behind her back... right?

But what other choice was there? For the Syndicate to single out Eris for this conversation, and then some emergency assembly... they had to know something. The only way for that to happen...

All she could do was stand there and stare at the man for several seconds while Eris tried to choke through feelings of betrayal.

"Miss Kadell, this is not a request. You have been ordered to appear by Professor Kull, and I will take you there by force if we are not on our way within twenty seconds."

Eris stammered, eyes wide and heart in her throat. She wanted to say so many things and ask so many questions, but her voice didn't seem to work. At least, it wasn't saying the words she wanted to say.

"But... I don't have underwear on?"

That seemed to be of little concern to the man. The only thing he waited for was for Eris to quickly pull on a pair of socks and her shoes, then slide her key ring into her pocket. After that, Eris followed anxiously behind the nameless man as they strolled out of the building. Although it was still dark in the dim light of early sunrise- perhaps six in the morning- there was activity. It wasn't the normal buzz of life that Eris would expect from the early-birds at the military school, though.

It was concerned faces painted across students, many of whom who'd obviously been woken up far before their preferred time. Furthermore, there was substantially more security looming around than Eris had seen so far in these last two days. Instead of one or two soldiers standing at posts at either end of the dorm neighborhood, it looked like there were two officially-decorated graduates flanking the doors to every single building. They weren't all that much older than the students themselves, but their official uniforms, the weapons held at their sides, and the all-business expressions on their faces more than made the difference clear.

Eris was led out of the dorm neighbourhood and towards the monorail station. Many people were boarding the one that travelled inwards to the center of the city, since the auditoriums in each sector were in that direction. Instead, Eris and the man stepped onto the one heading outwards- to the offices and other official buildings acting like a ring around the edge of the city.

Both were silent for the short trip, even after getting off the monorail, but that might have been mostly due to the fact that Eris was trying not to hyperventilate. If the Syndicate learned about her, then that means other people would too. Her secret was about to be revealed, and then the entire continent would know, and she would be targeted, and then she'd be captured or worse, and then-

Eris's panicked string of thoughts was cut off by the man swinging open a door in front of her and moving out of the way to let her through. Eris gulped and stepped inside.

The room itself was fairly bland, at least for what Eris thought that a Dean's office would be like. There was a single window off to the side looking over a courtyard that Eris and the man just passed through, a potted plant in one corner, and a corkboard hanging behind the desk. It had dozens of medals, awards, and even a few pictures all pinned up neatly. Other than that, the room was empty aside from the dark-wood desk in the center of the room and a few simple chairs. And, of course, the two people inside.

Professor Keiran Kull sat with his hands clasped on the surface of the desk, looking exactly the same as he did during the orientation. A suit the colour of blue midnight and hair even darker, contrasting sharply against pale skin. Up close, Eris was able to notice other details. A very lean build, hints of silver in the edges of his hairline, a bit of unshaven stubble, and a plain-looking silver wedding band on his left hand.

"Eris Limeen Kadell."

"You wanted to talk to me about... the Gifting?"

"Indeed. Please sit."

Professor Kull gestured to one of the open chairs in front of the desk, but Eris couldn't help letting her gaze drift as she sat down; namely to the intense-looking woman seated beside the Dean. She was much younger than the Dean, maybe mid-twenties instead of late thirties, but no less battle-hardened. She gave off just as much of an intimidating vibe as the Dean of Sector Saez.

Light brown hair was tied back in an efficient bun, though a few strands still dangled free and framed either side of her lightly tanned face. She had a few darker freckles that would have made her look quite cute, if it weren't for her overwhelmingly intense gaze. Eyes the colour of stormclouds were clearly taking in every detail of Eris, scanning her up and down like she was analyzing a threat. Furthermore, Eris's own attention was drawn to the woman's hands that were clasped on the desk in a similar manner to Professor Kull's.

Her right hand only had three fingers. Only her thumb, index, and middle were present- the other two were missing and ended in a magically-healed stump. Additionally, a long, ugly scar travelled down the entire length of her right arm, from the elbow to the gap in between her middle finger and the stump that was her ring finger. If Eris had to take an immediate guess, it looked like something had cleaved the woman's forearm longways during a battle right down the middle and took a few fingers in the process. If that kind of thing happened, the fact that the only 'lasting damage' was two missing fingers showed the incredible ability of healing magic.

"You are not in trouble," Professor Kull began. That, of course, drew Eris's attention away from the intimidating woman and back to the reality of the situation. Despite saying that she wasn't in trouble, it only made her more nervous. If she had been in trouble, then it was more likely that this wasn't about her being an Artificer.

"All we wish from you is to explain in detail the events of your Gifting. Everything you can remember."

Eris remained quiet for a second before letting out a hesitant; "Why?"

Professor Kull's expression remained unchanged, but Eris couldn't quite find it in herself to meet his eyes. At best, she could look at his hands- he was idly twisting the silver band like it was an unconscious response. Eris had seen Mr. Kerrot do the same thing with his own wedding ring when he was lost in thought.

"It has been made clear to the Syndicate that the Gifting no longer seems to be functioning in any capacity. New applicants receive no bond when speaking the oath, and the Waypools seem unable to transport a person's soul through the Stream for the trials. As a result, new applicants have been unable to receive a class or skills."

Eris tried not to freak out. That part hadn't been an assumption. Demeri- or rather, her ghost- really was gone. Eris was the last Gifted. The last line of defense against the Hollow. She tried to pull herself back together. What would a normal person do in this situation? One who didn't already know?

"They aren't working? Like... at all?"

The Dean made no movements, not even a confirming nod.

"Several individuals have attempted to partake in the Gifting over the last few days and all have concluded that the Gifting is no longer an option for the Syndicate."

Eris remained quiet. Professor Kull stared her down.

"You have been summoned because our reports state that you were the last recorded person to partake in a successful Gifting. Because of that, the Syndicate wishes to know every single detail that you can recall about your trials in hopes that there might be some explanation as to why the Giftings so abruptly ceased."

A smidge of relief leaked into Eris's mind. Did this mean that they didn't know about the whole Artificer thing yet? Maybe Eris hadn't been discovered, after all. Seeing her way out, Eris explained everything that happened.

A workshop with prototype wings that needed to be tested. Working extremely late on a commission so she could refuse help from her friends. Then, setting off a chain reaction of untold scale to try and destroy the Hollow after it had already won. The entire time, Professor Kull and the woman listened intently with their unrelenting gazes. Of course, Eris neglected to mention her little trip to that black abyss with the shimmering spirit, the tidbits about her being the last Gifted, an Echo, or an Artificer.

"Was there anything else that happened during your Gifting?" The professor asked. "Anything that might explain why the Giftings stopped working?"

"... Not that I can think of?"

The Professor's eye twitched. Eris couldn't really blame him. The Syndicate's one and only weapon against the Hollow wasn't working anymore, and the last person who used it apparently had no idea why it was broken. Part of Eris really wanted to tell the truth- to lay her cards out on the table. The Syndicate deserved to know- they needed to know. If she had a chance to be the key in destroying the Hollow- no matter how small- that was information that the Syndicate should have.

However, right now, she was sitting behind the near-impenetrable shield of the Syndicate. No other governments or facets of humanity were allowed to interfere with any dealings of the military organization holding back the end of the world. But, if she were to suddenly have a power that let her make things like the Obelisk- something that seemed to rewrite the laws of reality itself, then who's to say that nobody would be at least a little bit interested in getting that power?

Even if the Syndicate was the biggest shield in the world, there was no reason to pick up that shield and test to see if it was enough to keep her safe, when she could just as easily keep herself from being a target in the first place. If anything bad happened to her because she put herself in the way of danger, then that was the Syndicate's one and only chance taken away. Everything resided on Eris's shoulders, so she had to play this as safe as she possibly could.

"That is unfortunate, but the Syndicate thanks you for your information regardless. You are dismissed."

Eris looked inquisitively at the Dean, then the woman beside him, but ultimately bowed her head and stepped out so that the soldier could bring her back to her quarters. When the door clicked shut, the stern woman- Leyla- turned towards the Dean and offered her first words in the entire meeting.

"She's lying."

"Yes," Keiran ran his thumb back over the ring, instantly causing the tingling in his hand to vanish. It had been slowly buzzing throughout the meeting, only ramping up to full strength with the young girl's final words. Keiran removed it, opened the top drawer in the desk, and placed the ring back into the velvet-lined case. When he was done, he grabbed the case for his real wedding ring and slipped it back onto his finger.

"Everything she said was true, but evasive in nature. That last part was a deliberate lie. Something happened during her Gifting. Because of that, she already knew they weren't going to work anymore, and presumably knows why."

"If we know she was lying, why let her leave? She is bound by oath to the Syndicate- by Grihm, she shouldn't have even been able to lie to us!" Leyla looked agitated. Keiran huffed.

"Then you understand why I am hesitant. The oath we all speak disallows us from acting against the betterment of the world. The fact she was able to be dishonest about such a serious issue means she truly believes the best course of action is to keep whatever secret she has to herself."

"Keeping information from the Syndicate is never the best course of action."

"We can't make that assumption," Keiran leaned back in his seat, contemplating. "If Eris knows something we don't, and truly believes the world is safer by not telling us, this becomes far from a simple matter."

Keiran clasped his hands in thought for a moment.

"I'll file a report to Konderlacht explaining the situation. In the meantime, you keep a close eye on Miss Kadell. Don't make yourself known, but find out what you can learn about her and ensure her safety in the meantime. Who is her roommate?"

Leyla shuffled through a few papers before raising a curious eyebrow. "Apparently, it's Miss Geriege."

"Hmmm..." Keiran rubbed his chin. "Interesting. I'll have others keep close tabs on Miss Geriege along with any other individuals that Eris interacts with commonly. If any of them know anything, one will let something slip eventually."

"Are you sure that we can wait for eventually?"

Keiran let out a deep, long sigh.

"I think we'll have to."

Chapter 25: Recon

When Eris returned to the room and stepped inside, Bailey was gone. Instead, she was greeted by the sight of Jaxie and Alex seated on the bed.

"We were woken up for the assembly and wanted to talk beforehand," Alex said.

"Where's Bailey?"

"Princess had to go check up on some 'overnight brews' or something and make sure they were stable before the assembly," Jaxie said. "Apparently you got called to the principal's office?"

Eris nodded. "It's just like we thought. The Gifting isn't working anymore. They figured out I was the last person so they wanted to ask me if anything weird happened during mine."

Jaxie pursed her lips. "You lied to them, didn't you?"

"... Yeah." Eris tucked her head in shame and sat down on the other bed. Jaxie leaned forward and took Eris's hands.

"I'm not going to say that was the smart thing to do, because it wasn't. Hey, look at me."

Eris tilted her gaze up to meet Jaxie's piercing blues. She looked intense like always, but Eris was able to see the softness deep inside.

"The smart thing would be to tell the Syndicate about you so that we can all work together on this problem. There's only so much we can do on our own while hiding the truth. But..."

Jaxie ran her thumbs over Eris's knuckles.

"I understand that you're scared, and I understand why. You're the world's only chance to stop the Hollow, so keeping you safe is the only thing that matters. If that means the Syndicate has to be kept in the dark for a little bit while we try to figure things out, then they'll just have to deal with it."

Eris remained silent. Alex muttered from beside Jaxie. "We were already operating under the assumption that the Gifting wasn't working, so we had a pretty good idea that's what the assembly's going to be about. Looks like we were right."

The Artificer buried her face in her hands. "The Syndicate's been fighting the Hollow for four hundred years with no progress, and now they have to tell everyone that the only weapon they have against annihilation is about to run out."

"Yeah," Jaxie huffed. "The world's neck-deep in Shit Creek and we're about to dunk our heads in the water."

Leyla let her hearing shift through the muffled transition as the conversation ended, becoming distorted and popping her ears before it cleared up again. As always, it made her entire head itch- like she washed her face with fire ants. She sneezed and wiped her nose with a handkerchief before sliding it back into her breast pocket. Additionally, she slipped a small notebook and pen into another pocket- the entire conversation recorded for safekeeping.

"I understand that you're scared, and I understand why. You're the world's only chance to stop the Hollow, so keeping you safe is the only thing that matters. If that means the Syndicate has to be kept in the dark for a little bit while we try to figure things out, then they'll just have to deal with it."

Leyla drummed her fingers over her crossed arms and let her head rest back on the brick wall of the dorm. Jasmine Kerrot and Alexandra Qualley. Both of them came from Kelshiir just like the girl, and this instantly proved that they were in on the entire ordeal. You're the world's only chance to stop the Hollow...

She pursed her lips and thought. Not 'we'. Not 'us'. 'You'. Eris specifically was who Jasmine was referring to. They weren't even talking like it was a matter of information that Eris had. Eris didn't just know something that could change the course of the war- she had something. She was something. Leyla sighed and started walking away from the building towards her next target.

Dorm number eleven. Room twenty-two would be the first one on the backside of the third floor, so all Leyla had to do was cast a quick glance upwards while she walked past and held her thumb over the leather band on her wrist. The curtain was drawn, but that wouldn't matter for what she was doing.

Immediately, Leyla's ears popped, her face felt swollen, her sense of balance was thrown so far out of whack it almost made her stumble, and her entire auditory perception of the world shifted. She kept her eyes on the path ahead of her, walking as straight as she had been until she looped back to stand in the gap between dorms eleven and twelve. Meanwhile, she listened.

She could hear the general commotion of the outside, but it was highly muffled through the window of the room. No shower was running, no steps were being taken, no breathing was breaking the silence. The room was completely empty.

No matter how many times she did this, it was always disorienting at best. To have the entire world around her go silent as she listened somewhere else? She was glad when the surge of discomfort happened again while her sense of hearing returned to it's normal location. Immediately, she began walking back around to the front of the building. In no time, Leyla was through the doors, up the stairs, and outside the door to room twenty-two. It was locked.

A jagged projection of force materialized, hovering in the air just in front of the lock, completely invisible to all except the woman who conjured it. It inserted itself into the keyhole and Leyla went to work. Syndicate locks were fairly high-quality, but that meant almost nothing to Leyla. There was nothing quite like being able to adjust the exact shape and size of her picks at will while she shifted her force projection in the lock.

The first tumbler stuck in the 'open' position, then the second. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth followed shortly after, and the seventh slid into place as the latch unlocked. Leyla opened the door.

Although Leyla placed everything exactly where she found it, every item in the room, every piece of clothing in the closets, and every book stuffed in the duffel bags was examined and Inspected. All of it was perfectly standard. Nothing jumped out to her as notable or incriminating. Neither Alexandra or the second-year roommate of hers, Nadine, had anything of interest. Disappointed but not surprised, Leyla left.

Jasmine's room yielded far more interesting results. Leyla used one hand to hold up the contraption that had been hidden in the duffel bag stuffed in the closet.

Lustful Wooden Dildo

A well-crafted wooden dildo. Imbued with the essence of Lust.

Provides a Minor boost to Pleasure.

Additional effect: Sharing is Caring

If used on another person, the user receives a portion of the recipient's Pleasure.

Additional effect: Matching Set

Only active when the Lustful Wooden Dildo is attached to the matching harness. Any pleasure bestowed from Sharing is Caring is experienced as if the Lustful Wooden Dildo were a real appendage.

Leyla blinked multiple times. What. The. Fuck?

There was too much to unpack there. 'Pleasure' written like it was a stat bonus? 'Imbued with the essence of Lust'? There were two enchantments on it, so it couldn't have been made by anyone lower than seventh level, and it was between two different items which made it even more complex. Was this an item from the Obelisk?

It handed out some real wacky pieces of gear sometimes, so that could be an option. How did Jasmine get her hands on this, though? Nothing even close to this level of complexity would come out from the Obelisk for anyone who wasn't most of the way through their second year, so Jasmine would have to have bought it from someone else. Her roommate, Rebecca? Perhaps, but that didn't explain the odd effects that didn't follow the pattern of anything else Leyla had ever seen.

Leyla pulled a small notebook from her pocket and scribbled down the description as best she could before placing the dildo back where it came from. There wasn't anything else that was noticeably interesting in the room, aside from a stash of birth control potions in the nightstand, but that was far from a common occurrence. In fact, it made Leyla chuckle. Those concoctions of Miss Geriege had a way of ending up anywhere. She'd even seen a few discarded vials stuffed away on the shelves in the library.

Leyla left the room exactly as she found it, then looped back around to dorm seventeen to listen in the room of interest. No noise met her ears, prompting Leyla to climb the stairs. Just like with the other rooms, there was nobody around to notice her sneaking in since they were all heading towards or already at the assembly. Leyla only opted for the rooms of Alexandra and Jasmine first, since she knew they were already absent.

Now that it was empty, Leyla was able to sift through with ease. Of course, the first thing that caught her attention was the doorknob and the lock being present. The exploits of Miss Geriege were infamous, along with the 'freeuse room'. Obviously, the arrival of Eris prompted the reaffixing of the door's security. Not that it remained closed for very long- Leyla was inside in a matter of seconds.

Much to Leyla's disappointment, there was almost nothing of interest in the room. Eris had yet to properly unpack, so almost all of her belongings were still in the duffel bag by the bed. Naturally, Leyla stared in a bit of awe at Miss Geriege's closet. There were notebooks piled almost waist-high, but the rest was filled with a truly obscene assortment of sex toys and other... tools. A curious Inspect made Leyla's eyebrow raise. None of them had any effects even remotely similar to the one hidden in Jasmine's bag. None 'Imbued with the essence of Lust' or giving a bonus to Pleasure. That all but guaranteed that it must have come from the Obelisk.

Or, it was made by someone truly unique. Someone who was 'the world's only chance to stop the Hollow', and someone who lied directly to the faces of both Leyla and Professor Kull to keep a secret.

Leyla narrowed her eyes and left the room. While this assembly was primarily about updating the student body about the state of the war, it opened up a convenient opportunity for Leyla to look for all the information she was instructed to find. That meant nobody was even in eyesight when she marched over to the CDF and picked the lock to Eris's workshop.

Tables full of tools and partially-constructed projects. Shelves lined with materials having been pulled from the basement. Workbenches covered in sawdust, cut leather, and iron plates. The small icebox was filled with individually-bagged portions of oatmeal that were obviously intended to be sold, and absolutely none of it raised any kind of suspicion when Inspected. So, she turned her attention to the notebooks sitting on one of the workbenches.

One was empty, one was completely full, but the one that Leyla immediately went for was the one with only a third of the pages having been written on- recency was usually better for this kind of thing. Leafing through, there were diagrams, instructions, notes, and numbers that Leyla couldn't make any sense of. However, thumbing through to the more recent pages yielded far more interesting results.

Abstract of Eternity (Obelisk???)

Durability: 17%

A monolith that serves as a gateway to distant realms. Created by Balzonest Exxinter, Ymetri Faraday, Nasha Ignes, Phrom Ladana, Rallan Oje, Ihxal Wb'bami and Vojemala Ywer. Made from white marble, the souls of the creators, and a concoction of Zhuul Somnere.

Additional effect: Collusion

Unauthorized individuals may not use the Abstract of Eternity.

Additional effect: Convergence

Authorized individuals may forcibly transport targets through realm connections.

Additional effect: Confinement

Delegated prison realms are one-way only.

Leyla narrowed her eyes and read it over a few more times. The 'Abstract of Eternity'... with 'Obelisk' written beside it in brackets. A gateway to distant realms? That certainly sounded like it could be the Obelisk, but nobody could Inspect the damn thing. Nothing made by any of the old world Artificers could be inspected by anyone.

Anyone, except apparently for this damned redhead.

Leyla gritted her teeth and thumbed through the next few pages until the next thing caught her eye.

A penis.

Or rather, a drawing of one. A crafting diagram with measurements and even a close-up view for a hook where it conjoins with a familiar-looking leather harness and can be secured even through... rough movement. The real kicker were the notes quickly scrawled beside it.

imbued with lust?

pleasure?

sharing pleasure & matching set b/o jaxie?

sex items more powerful b/o connection to lust?????

There was no doubt- this was a diagram and notes about the dildo that Leyla found in Jasmine's room. Did that mean Eris made the thing? She just got her class a few days ago; to make something that had two enchantments on it should have been impossible. Of course, it should also have been impossible to Inspect the Obelisk, but Eris may very well have managed to do that, too.

Leyla wasted no time in pulling out her small notebook and copying everything incriminating into the paper. Word for word, every letter was transcribed and jotted down. Leyla even leafed through the notebook that was completely full, just to see if there was anything notable. There certainly didn't seem to be, so it wasn't long until Leyla was leaving the workshop, locking the door behind her, and swiftly walking back towards the monorail.

Two items- a dildo and a notebook- and overhearing a simple conversation. Still, it provided an abundance of extremely noteworthy information. Leyla pulled up her sleeve just far enough to check her watch- the assembly would be ending soon. Military updates never take long- it was the aftermath that left things a little messy. Still it meant that Professor Kull would be returning to his office posthaste.

Leyla let her fingers rest on the ugly scar travelling down her wrist and paused. Eight months. Eight months and she could still feel it. She could still wiggle her ring finger and pinky. She could still feel her fingers flexing. Following the line running up her palm, her eyes tore the mask off the truth. A fleshy nub of a pinky reaching the first knuckle, and a ring finger that didn't even have enough left to hold its namesake. Leyla sighed and dropped her hands. There were more important things to think about on the short ride back to Professor Kull's office- namely the lying redhead.

Leyla arrived first, standing resolutely outside the Dean's office. It wasn't a long wait. Professor Kull arrived in short order, raising a curious eyebrow at Leyla.

"That was fast, even for you."

"They didn't think anyone would be listening. They also didn't hide their secrets very well. May we speak inside, sir?"

The Dean nodded. A moment later, they were sitting on opposing ends of the desk. Leyla procured her small notebook, carefully removed the pages she marked on, then slid them across the desk in batches.

"This is a conversation I overheard between Eris Kadell, Jasmine Kerrot and Alexandra Qualley in Eris's room. This is the description of an... interesting item that I found hidden in Jasmine's closet. Lastly, this is an item description that I found written in a notebook in Eris's workshop, presumably about the Obelisk."

Professor Kull looked over the pages curiously. He took a glance upwards while reading. "Initial hypothesis?"

Leyla cleared her throat.

"Based on this information alone, I believe that Eris Kadell isn't an Artisan like she claimed."

A moment of silence followed. Professor Kull sighed. "Leyla, please save the dramatic pauses for a children's story."

"Sorry, sir."

"Forgiven. Continue." Leyla swallowed as Professor Kull looked back down at the pages.

"I believe that Eris Kadell is an Artificer."

Chapter 26: Lee (18+)

Leyla's eyes scanned over the floor, carefully watching over everyone walking around the first floor of the CDF. Of course, she needed to be more visually aware of what was going on, since her hearing was otherwise occupied. It was filled with the sound of Eris's movements in her shop as she served out bags of oatmeal.

She could feel the tension in the air following the assembly- anyone would have been able to. Learning that the only reliable weapon the Syndicate had- the Gifting- was gone? It hadn't been a pleasant thought yesterday when Leyla had been informed. Still, that didn't change the job she had to do. It only meant she needed to work harder- to ensure that this would be the last generation of the Syndicate, but not the last generation of the world.

Thank the gods, it seemed to be the same reaction from the student body. At least the students weren't actively rioting and refusing to serve. Granted, that could just have easily been the Oath remaining in effect and preventing them from acting on the idea. There were too many questions right now, but she would rather have the morning be solemn peace than panicked chaos. If having four guards posted on every floor of the crafting facility helped to ensure that peace, so be it.

The 'breakfast rush' didn't last very long. That usually happened. One of the benefits to a military school is that the student body tended to be pretty efficient and scheduled. Lines moved quickly, and soon Leyla could hear Eris sitting down at one of the tables and sorting coins to count her earnings. Of course, Leyla was more interested in the pair of individuals that walked through the front doors of the facility. Her eyes followed them all the way until they reached the counter to Eris's shop.

"Uh, sorry! I'm sold out!" The out-of-sight redhead called.

"Aww, that's a shame. Guess we'll need to go eat somewhere else." The taller girl replied.

"Oh, Jaxie! Alex!"

Alexandra leaned on the counter. "You sold out already?"

"Yeah, but don't worry. I kept a couple bags for you two. C'mon in- I'll close the shutter and give us some privacy."

Leyla had to suppress a smile. Let's see what else they're hiding.

"You made how much?!" Alex coughed through a spoonful of oatmeal. Eris grinned.

"A hundred and twelve moons." She hefted the pouch before setting it back down on the table.

"Damn," Jaxie said. "Nice work."

Eris tried not to blush at the praise. "Did you manage to check the library?"

Alex nodded and pulled a large tome from her satchel. "Translations: Ra'lan to Common."

"Yes!" Eris gave a small cheer and took the tome to immediately start hefting through pages. "Okay, Somnere... Somnere... got it. Somnere means 'Sleep'."

"What about the other part?"

Eris flipped through to the 'Z' section and searched. "Uhhh, Zhuul means..." she clicked her tongue a few times while she looked. "Hmm. Zhuul means 'Forever'."

Jaxie narrowed her eyes and swallowed down another bite. "Okay, so that's one mystery down. The Obelisk was made with something named 'Forever Sleep'. Next mystery- what the fuck is 'Forever Sleep'?"

Both of the other girls shrugged. Alex narrowed her focus to nothing in particular before she spoke hesitantly.

"Didn't it say that the Zhuul Somnere was a concoction or something? Does that mean it might be something related to alchemy?"

A moment of silence passed before Eris raised an eyebrow. "Are you implying that we should ask Bailey about it?"

"I don't know!" Alex spoke quickly, then sunk back into her seat. "I mean, maybe? She is a high level Alchemist. If anyone would know anything about something like this, it would be an Alchemist."

Eris remained quiet for a while. "I'm not sure, that seems risky. If she finds out about this, that's another person we have to worry about spreading the truth before we get a handle on things."

Alex sighed. "A little risk is still probably better than having to sift through all those books trying to find something. Have you seen how big the 'Alchemy' section of the library is? Searching for something like this would probably take days. Plus, you won't have to tell Bailey anything else."

Jaxie tilted her head. "True. You could always just tell Bailey that you read the term 'Zhuul Somnere' in some alchemy book but it didn't say anything about what it was. Speaking of Bailey..."

The knowing grin on Jaxie's face immediately made Eris blush. "She was in the middle of cleaning a dildo when we showed up at the dorm this morning. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

Eris could only look down at her feet. "Are you mad?"

Jaxie scooched her chair closer and wrapped an arm over Eris's shoulders. "Do I look mad?"

"... No?"

Jaxie smiled and pressed her forehead against Eris's. "The only thing I'm upset about is that you haven't already suggested we have a foursome. You're supposed to be the whore that saves the world, remember?"

Eris turned a shade of red as deep as her hair. Jaxie laughed.

"Dammit Eris, you're putting me in a real predicament here."

"H-huh?"

Jaxie brushed their noses together. Eris instinctively tiled her lips forward, but Jaxie pulled hers just out of reach with a sultry smile.

"I'm not allowed to kiss you unless we go all in, or else it would waste all that Desire. And you're being extremely kissable right now."

Eris responded by turning her face away with hot cheeks. That movement was stopped by one of Jaxie's hands gently cupping her chin to turn their faces together. Then, she closed the gap.

Like usual, Eris felt herself melting as soon as her lips connected with Jaxie's. She didn't even realise that she was twisting herself into Jaxie's lap until she was fully seated with both hands clasped to either side of Jaxie's face. From behind her, she could hear Alex shuffling awkwardly. Jaxie responded by chuckling out of the side of Eris's mouth.

"Wanna take this a bit further again?"

Leyla tried really hard to not let her stoic expression break. Even so, she could feel her cheeks getting hot at the sounds of belt buckles being undone and clothes being removed. Were those three seriously going to have sex right now, in the middle of Eris's workshop?

The dilemma was held stout in Leyla's mind. She already got a little bit of information- Eris's roommate didn't know about the secrets. Furthermore, there was absolute confirmation that the 'Abstract of Eternity' was, in fact, the Obelisk, and all three of them knew about it. That also put the off-hand idea that Eris was actually an Artificer in a bit more of a validating light. After all, if someone was able to identify an object made by them when nobody else could, and was making objects far beyond what her level would normally allow, that didn't exactly leave a whole lot of other options for explanation.

Granted, Leyla was far from a scholar, so she couldn't even begin to assume how an Artificer would work. All she was doing was gathering the information and trying to store everything being said in a little place in her mind so that she could hand it over to the people who were actually supposed to figure things out. Wasting Desire? That was some really odd phrasing if it was meant to be a pickup line of sorts, but it had been spoken like there was more information to be had there. Whatever- that was the SRU's problem to figure out what it meant later. Right now, Leyla had a job to do. She had been given explicit permission to invade all privacy when doing one of her investigations, and this was a particularly special instance given the scope of what Eris could mean for the Syndicate.

Her eyes glanced over the closed shutter of the shop. Although she could maintain the effect however long she wanted, across any distance or through any boundaries, the Band of Second Presence needed line of sight to activate. If she ended the effect now, she wouldn't be able to set it up again unless she could see inside the shop. The fact that the shutters were also quite soundproofed only made the issue worse and solidified the solution. She couldn't risk losing out on valuable information just because things were getting a little bit more... intimate.

Leyla swallowed and kept listening, piecing together the voices to the individuals she couldn't see.

"Fuck, both of you are so hot... aww, don't get all shy! Alex, wouldn't you agree that this is such a sexy and fuckable little body?" Jasmine's voice was very seductive.

Silence. Then Jasmine spoke again.

"You like how it feels in your hands, Eris? You like holding Alex's big dick?"

There was a quiet noise of affirmation.

"Well I'm sorry to say it, but you don't get your turn yet."

The comprehensible voice of Jasmine faded away into errant noises of moving positions, bits of pleasure, and some faint sounds that Leyla was easily able to recognize as someone receiving a blowjob. Leyla spent a few moments in quiet comprehension before making her decision. Focusing on the sensor she was holding in position, Leyla rubbed a thumb over the underside of the leather band on her wrist instead of the back. Since the sensor was already active it meant she didn't need line of sight to change the effect.

Immediately, the world around her sharpened into auditory focus as people walked around the CDF, and her face heated up with discomfort. Holding the effect was no problem- it was only the moments when her senses were transported to or from that made it feel like her head was covered in a mask made of bug bites. As quickly as it appeared, the sensation faded along with the sight of everyone nearby. Less than a moment had passed before her hearing had returned to her body and her sight had moved into the room instead.

Her sensor had been placed fairly centered in the room, which meant that Leyla was now staring towards the corner that held a rudimentary bed. All three of the girls were naked, and Leyla couldn't help but admire their bodies. From Jasmine's long hair framing her nudity like a damned painting, to Alexandra's extremely perky breasts rising and falling with every breath, the girls were knockouts. That wasn't even including Eris, who Leyla quickly placed at the top of the podium.

Slender and dainty, but with smooth curves and the kind of natural beauty that almost made her seem to glow. Perfectly proportioned boobs that stayed perky even as she laid on her side and made out with Alexandra while the two girls fondled each other. As for Jasmine, she was lying on her stomach and sucking away at a shaft that made Leyla feel a little self conscious about her own hardness forming in her pants. Alexandra certainly got luckier than most when it came to her biology, it seemed.

Jasmine appeared to be quite multi-talented, since she was slowly bobbing her head around half of Alexandra's dick, using one hand to stroke the remaining portion and using her other to clearly slide fingers in and out of Eris's shaved pussy. It took all of Leyla's concentration to remain focused on the sounds around her, since she was literally blind to what was happening in the main room. Even so, part of her imagined that she could hear the moans that were surely filling the workshop. Eris and Alexandra both looked so adorable, squirming under Jasmine's administrations while fondling the other's breasts, and Jasmine herself looked delighted to watch the show the two other girls were putting on.

The only terrible part was that when Jasmine pulled up and off Alexandra's spit-slicked cock, Leyla couldn't hear the words she said. She couldn't even properly try to read the tall girl's lips, since they were partially obscured by the dick covering a large section of her face. All Leyla could see was Alexandra briefly pulling away from her kiss with Eris to look down at the girl between her legs and say a single word. There was nothing preventing her from getting a clear view, so Leyla could clearly make out; Please?

Jasmine returned to work, sucking in several inches of Alexandra's length. Leyla couldn't help but wonder what it felt like, trying really hard not to make her own adjustments of her crotch too obvious. All the while, she could only watch the girl's passion while time ticked by. It wasn't long at all until some of the movement changed- Alexandra was bucking her hips and twisting her face in a sign of climax.

When that happened, Eris and Jasmine both pulled away from their respective actions- Jasmine so that she could stroke Alexandra with both hands and encourage the futa to finish all over her face, and Eris so that she could watch with wide eyes. Leyla gazed on in horny fascination, staring as Alexandra silently fired streams of sticky seed over Jasmine's nose, mouth and cheeks.

When the long cumshot finally ended, Jasmine was all cummy smiles as she crawled up the bed. One hand remained on Alexandra's still-hard member, idly stroking as Jasmine got into a position from which she could lean over Alexandra and connect her face to Eris's. That sent a fluster through Leyla's chest that made it extremely hard to focus on listening to the actions of the main room. Two very attractive, very naked girls making out with each other while one had a face covered in cum? It was like her own semesters here all over again.

Furthermore, Jasmine occasionally twisted her face enough to start passionately kissing Alexandra. At one point, the tall girl seemed to mumble something that Leyla once again wasn't able to decipher, to which Eris's eyes went wide. The redhead gave a single shy nod, then slowly brought her face closer to where Alexandra and Jasmine were engaged. Leyla could only watch with a full-masted erection tucked underneath her waistband to hide it while Eris proceeded to lick the cum from Jasmine's face while the other two girls continued to make out.

Leyla could also see that Jasmine never ceased her stroking of Alexandra's cock, ensuring that it remained perfectly rigid and ready during what was obviously an intermission of some kind. After a minute or two of kissing and cum-licking, Leyla stared on as more movement happened. Jasmine stayed roughly where she was and continued kissing Alexandra, but Eris did most of the moving this time. She sat up and swung a leg over so that she was straddling the futa, making it clear what was about to happen. Leyla straightened her posture and ignored the growing arousal as Jasmine's hand lined up Alexandra's cock to the awaiting hole.

Leyla had to remind herself- she was just doing her job and keeping an eye on Eris, just in case they happened to give more information or the redhead was ever in danger. Nothing more than that... right?

Leyla could only hope that Professor Kull wasn't judging her too harshly. After all, she had to report everything. A little bit of valuable information in the morning followed by a shameless threesome, then a bit more information at lunchtime when the trio met up, and then shockingly little after Eris closed the shop. They ate and then returned to their respective rooms to clean up. Of course, Leyla was also obligated to describe how when the three met back up once again in Eris's workshop, Jasmine had brought the magical strap-on and took turns with Alexandra to have intercourse with Eris during the second threesome of the day. Leyla then had to describe how after the three returned to their rooms, Eris received a hands-on lesson from Bailey about how to properly finger the g-spot while licking a clit before the two settled down to spoon each other to sleep. That made Leyla's face hotter than if she had stuck it in a wood stove. She was grateful when the somehow-still-stoic man dismissed her so she could rest for the following day's watch.

Leyla let the front door to her house close quietly behind her, careful to make as little noise as possible while she took off her shoes and placed them on the rack. She crept through the darkened kitchen, pulling her hair out of the tight bun it had been in and letting it settle back down her shoulders in a way that was far more comfortable. When the bedroom door opened, Leyla stripped to her underclothes silently as to not disturb the shape in the bed. She made sure to unstrap the leather holster around her waist and carefully pull out the perfect sphere held within before placing it on a little stand on the dresser.

The Leviathan's Veil may not have had the brutish appearance of a weapon like an axe or a sword, but wands, staves- and in this case- orbs certainly held a mysticism about them. The fact that this fist-sized sphere looked like it was made completely out of water trapped in an ever-swirling whirlpool yet had the texture of glass only made it more pretty to look at. It was actually a shame- while magical items pulled from the Obelisk were generally more powerful than most things that a Syndicate crafter could make, there was zero control whatsoever of what the Obelisk decided to hand out. It all came down to the power of the Obelisk versus the reliability of crafters that could make whatever they wanted. That meant the chances of Leyla ever getting another item as powerful yet perfectly suited to her were... well, it wasn't going to happen.

Although a hot shower would have been very nice if for nothing more than the sensation to help her relax, Leyla opted for the faster and much quieter option of grabbing the faintly glowing yellow runestone sitting on the dresser beside the Leviathan's Veil. She held it about an inch from the front of her chin before lowering it slowly in a line down her torso. While she did, Leyla could feel the bits of sweat on her skin and in her clothes vanish due to the effects of the Cleansing Stone.

Leyla placed it back on the shelf alongside her orb and the Band of Second Presence and ever-so-slowly slid under her side of the covers. Silk sheets were so soft against her skin while she settled quietly into place behind the other figure in the bed.

"You're home late," Addy mumbled. Leyla nuzzled into a neckful of soft black hair and wrapped her arms around a warm body.

"Didn't I tell you yesterday that it would be a long day because of the announcement?"

"Are you making an excuse?" Addy's lips curled into a grin. Leyla kissed her cheek.

"Not at all. I'm sorry, sweetie."

"That's better."

Addy shifted backwards into Leyla's embrace, causing the stiff bulge in her underwear to accidentally press up into her wife's bottom. The Lieutenant almost swore while Addy tensed up curiously.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Just ignore it," Leyla mumbled into Addy's shoulder. "I'm trying to."

Addy twisted over just enough to lay on her back and lock her soft brown eyes onto Leyla's. Her smile was infectious. "Aww, is someone a little bit excited?"

"Not tonight. You need to sleep."

"Oh? That means you got this at work. Naughty, naughty..."

"What makes you think this isn't for you?" Leyla asked. Addy chuckled and let their lips connect in a short and sweet embrace before pulling away with an amused eyebrow.

"Because you're only guilty about a boner when they're for someone else."

Shit.

"May I ask who got you all hot and bothered, or is that classified?" Addy asked with a grin. Leyla sighed and tightened their embrace.

"Let's just say I'm being assigned to watch over someone important for the foreseeable future."

"Is she a cutie patootie that's making my big strong military lady all flustered?"

Leyla rolled her eyes. "I had to watch her have two different threesomes and a hookup."

That made Addy recoil with a growing smile. "Oh you had a day."

"And now I'd like a night," Leyla gave Addy a quick kiss. "So let's just go to sleep, okay hun?"

To Leyla's dismay (and a little bit of excitement), Addy pouted. "But how bad of a spouse would I be if I let my wife go to bed with all this discomfort-" Addy reached a hand down and cupped Leyla's bulge with soft fingers. "-when I could help her relieve some of that pent-up stress?"

Why do I have to try and be the voice of reason? Leyla rolled her eyes and let a hint of an over-exaggerated scolding enter her inflection.

"Adeline Sasha Elmas, I'd love to, but we can't." Leyla let her left hand linger atop the front of Addy's baggy shirt, one that they bought specifically to accommodate the woman's swelling stomach. "You need to-"

Addy's grip on Leyla's womanhood hardened almost as much as her stare. "Lee, I'm pregnant, not broken. I've been horny and hormonal all damn day and I really need some loving here. If you tell me I need to sleep one more fucking time, I'm gonna cut your dick off and use it by myself, got it?"

Leyla gulped, opting not to speak in case it cost her a price nobody with a penis was ever willing to pay. Addy's expression softened along with her grip, and her other hand walked a pair of digits up Leyla's front, right up between the brunette's breasts. She could see the glint of a small diamond on Addy's finger despite the near-darkness of the room, and Leyla tried not to feel too guilty when she looked at her own hand. A simple silver band with a bit of engraving- a perfect replica of the one she used to have. Even though Addy had stated so many times that she didn't care about Leyla losing the ring, it never made the guilt completely vanish.

Though, it certainly helped when Addy bit her lip with a grin and a twinkle in her eye in the exact way that Leyla had always been weak to. It was the same damn look that made her get knocked up and the little vixen knew it.

"Now, you're going to help me get undressed, you'll show me that studly body of yours, and then I'll make sure to help you relieve all that thick, creamy stress you've got backed up, okay?"

Leyla felt the last of her barriers break like glass under a hammer. She twisted herself overtop the other woman so that she was kneeling over her. With both hands on either of Addy's cheeks, she gave a long but gentle kiss, sweetly making out with her wife before eventually pulling her lips a half-inch away.

"I love you so much."

"I love you too," Addy chuckled. "But right now I need a little bit less of the woman I love and a little bit more of the woman that'll fuck me through the bed."

Leyla looked down at the swollen stomach of her wife between them, prompting Addy to do the same. When their gazes flicked back together, Addy gave a humoured shrug.

"Gently, of course."

Chapter 27: Meet the Team

Three Days Later

Eris nodded. "I have enough."

"You're sure?" Alex was rebuttoning her shirt, which had the sad effect of hiding her bra-clad chest from view. Eris was sitting on the stool in nothing but her panties, looking inwards.

"Yeah. Spending my points the last few days proved that Desire's Reap needs two hundred and fifty points to reach level three. If I've been doing my math right, the current total in the skill is two-thirty-three. I only need seventeen more points and we just got thirty-one."

Jaxie grinned while pulling her tank top over her head. "Alright then, let's blow the top and see what's next. My bet's Oral."

Eris managed to avoid blushing at that comment while she funnelled points until goosebumps rose on her skin. A shiver of warmth, and then it was over. Eris cleared her throat.

"Desire's Reap. Passive, Level three. Engage in sexual acts with others to collect Desire. Desire is collected in the following ways; Kissing, Groping, and Oral. Additional Desire is collected based on the arousal of the active participant(s). Current Desire is fourteen."

"Called it..." Jaxie held up a hand toward Alex, who shyly gave it a high-five. Meanwhile, Eris let the remainder of her points leak into the same skill and winced.

"Okay, that's not happening anytime soon."

"A lot?" Alex asked. Eris nodded.

"Oh yeah. Levelling from two to three was ten times the cost of levelling from one to two, and it certainly feels like absolutely nothing happened with fourteen points. This upgrade could very well be over two thousand points if that ten-times rule is a recurring pattern."

"Well, you're about to get a couple more members of your harem, so this new upgrade should mean you start getting some chunky profits pretty soon." Jaxie smiled. Eris coughed up the sip of water she tried to take, then glared at her girlfriend.

"Jaxie! I'm not going to have sex with everyone I meet!"

"What?" She lifted her hands in a question. "That's literally the optimal way for you to become stronger. If you like sex and it advances your progression, why not go for it?"

"Jaxie," Eris glared. "Please."

She huffed. "Fine."

With that happy interaction, the three girls were free to continue their morning preparations. For Eris, that preparation ultimately came down to watching the oven while simultaneously scolding Jaxie whenever the Berserker started to play with tools or random workshop materials out of boredom. Eris intentionally kept the shop closed so she didn't have to worry about serving breakfast while dealing with her other engagements. The first of those engagements ended up knocking on the door about twenty minutes after the three girls finished getting re-dressed.

"Hello Jasmine. Hello Alexandra. Hello Eris."

Eris had almost forgotten Nima's flatness in her speech, along with the way that her brown eyes were boring holes into Eris's when she greeted them. Still, Eris managed to present a smile. "Hi, Nima. I'll serve breakfast when the others show up. It shouldn't be long."

"That's fine." Nima walked in, took a seat at the table Eris set up as a counter/eating space, then proceeded to... sit silently. No attempt at conversation- just staring at Eris while the redhead stood awkwardly. Eris had to turn away from the rainbow-haired girl but she could still feel her gaze drilling holes through her back. Jaxie and Alex made no attempt to help, since they didn't try to start a conversation. Eris was grateful when another knock happened on the door about two minutes later and two more girls walked in. The first extended a hand towards Eris, which the redhead accepted.

"You must be Claire," Eris said.

She raised a quizzical eyebrow. "What gave you that impression?" Eris moved over to a notebook on the counter beside the woodstove.

"Jaxie and Alex gave me initial rundowns of who you are and what you can do. It's easier to make gear for you when I know what your strengths and weaknesses are." She flipped a page. "Party member option number one; Nima Odelia Gargrave. Spellblade. Strength, Dexterity, and Mind are always equal, can conjure a replica of one weapon being held and mentally control it up to forty feet away. Uses mana. Melee physical Striker with magical ranged capability. Weapon of choice is a spear and shield."

She looked back at the girl in front of her and kept reading. "Party member option number two; Claire Beline Massato. Evoker focused entirely on electric magic. Lightning bolt, can retaliate with electricity when melee attacked, can spend additional mana when casting to cause spells to arc to nearby targets. Uses mana. Ranged magical Striker with AoE capability. Weapon of choice is a staff."

"Well, what specifically told you it was me?"

Eris shrugged. "I wrote 'tall' beside your name in brackets when Jaxie and Alex described you."

Claire nodded, her long brown hair bobbing with the movement. "Fair enough."

When she backed away to make space for the last person, Eris took a cursory glance over the brunette. Shorter than Jaxie by maybe two inches, so she was probably hovering right near six feet tall. Unlike Jaxie, Claire didn't have the musculature or the athletic build that set her apart as a warrior. Claire was lithe in her frame and so thin she could probably take a few shifts as a scarecrow and nobody would tell the difference.

She was dressed in a long-sleeved button-up blouse the colour of cream, and a pair of bright red shorts that ended shortly above her knees. Her hair was neatly brushed and pulled into an efficient-looking ponytail that was a few shades darker than blonde. Her skin, however, was substantially pale like she'd spent most of her life indoors and contrasted sharply against eyes that seemed damn near multicoloured. Eris wasn't quite able to tell if they were green or blue.

Of course, the last girl in the room was a sight, too. She was grinning while she walked up, while also turning her gaze to Jaxie.

"Did you fuckin' pick me to join your team because I look like your girlfriend? I can't tell if that's adorable or just sad."

Eris... couldn't deny the claim. Barely scratching five feet tall, green eyes, pale skin, orange freckles, and a slender build that was obscenely close to matching. All in all, the only differences came down to the girl's hair being a more traditional shade of ginger whereas Eris's was bright like it was dyed, and the girl having a noticeably smaller chest. And, of course, their comparative outfit choice. While Eris was dressed in long sleeves, jeans and shoes, the girl was wearing a forest-green tank top, grey pajama pants, and yellow flip-flops. Either she just got out of bed, or she simply didn't care one bit about looking official.

What caught Eris's eye, however, were the wisps of smoke. It was clinging to her ankles like the bottoms of her pajamas were smoldering, but it wasn't wafting upwards like regular smoke. Instead, it sort of followed her, moving like she was the center of gravity and then hovering when she stood still. Eris blinked and turned her attention back to the notebook.

"Uhh... party member option number three; Meghan Pegguani Leghume. Shaman. Single-target health regeneration spell, single target poison spell, and controls a spectral wolf to distract or damage in combat. Uses mana. Support-oriented with ranged magical damage capability. Weapon of choice is an orb."

She smirked. "Meggy Peggy Leggy, here to keep these idiots alive. So you're the one who's gonna be making our stuff?"

Eris nodded. "Yeah. I'll be working very closely with Jaxie and Alex and whoever ends up being in their party. They've already informed me that when the Obelisk is open to new students tomorrow, the five of you are going in for a test run to see how well you work with each other. If you mesh well and stay, then you'll get my services. If not, you'll pay for them like everyone else."

Sitting at the end of the table, Nima piped up. "I don't believe many parties have a dedicated crafter so closely attached to the team. This could be a very beneficial opportunity for everyone involved."

"How so?" Claire raised an eyebrow. Nima turned to her and Eris saw Claire flinch at that weird stare Nima tended to do.

"As a party, we would be receiving tremendous discounts on a majority of our equipment, allowing us to save our money and purchase specific items from other crafters that would otherwise be out of our budget but tremendously useful. As a crafter, Eris would be receiving first claim to any materials we pull from the Obelisk for no cost. It means less money needs to be spent on resources for our own equipment, and higher prices that Eris can offer for what she sells to others. Furthermore, having a crafter that fully understands the intricacies of how the party functions with each other and a rough idea of all our skills allows creative interpretation as to the most effective design of our equipment."

Everyone in the room blinked, except for Nima. She turned her eyes to Eris. "You said you were waiting for the others before you served breakfast. Has that time not come?"

"Err- uhh... yeah." Eris awkwardly turned around, grabbed oven mitts, and pulled the dish out of the oven where it was being kept warm. A minute later, all six girls were sitting around the counter and eating portions of an egg-and-potato casserole- Jaxie, Alex and Eris on one side and the three other party members on the other. Of course, it didn't take long for someone to break the silence. That someone was Claire.

"So... you're Jaxie's girlfriend?"

Eris began to nod. Then, naturally, Jaxie decided to clear up whatever confusion there may have been by stirring up even more.

"She's also Alex's girlfriend."

The Knight blushed into her plate while the rest of the girls looked between the Knight and the 'Artisan'.

"Uhh, what?" Meghan raised an eyebrow. Jaxie grinned.

"Oh, don't worry. Alex is my girlfriend, too."

As if to prove her point, Jaxie leaned over, grabbed Alex's chin and twisted their faces together for a surprise kiss. Then, while Alex was still reeling, Jaxie turned and did the exact same thing with Eris on the other side of her. The other girls were silent while Eris and Alex blushed. Nima spoke flatly.

"A polyamorous relationship doesn't conform to very many societal standards. In most cases, having more than one active partner dictates the individuals involved as being whorish or unsure of their romantic desires."

Eris blinked while Meghan coughed. "Little bit over the line, Rainbow."

Nima blinked. "I wasn't intending for the statement to be offensive, merely a factual and informative tidbit about the public perceptions of such a relationship. If I upset any of you, I apologize, and I would like to state that I have no personal opinion on the dichotomy of your relationship against the traditions of general society." Then she turned her gaze to Meghan.

"Furthermore, I have asked you on multiple occasions for you not to address me by a nickname. If you are speaking to me, please refer to me by my name so that I know for certain you are talking with the intention of me as the receiver."

"Who else in this room could possibly be 'Rainbow'?" Meghan asked with a raised eyebrow. Nima's expression remained unchanged.

"Anyone, based on how far the nickname is stretched. For example, it could have been a humourous title for Jasmine based on the premise that she wears little other than black, and would therefore be a nickname employed by irony."

"Then how did you know I was referring to you?" Meghan grinned. Nima, again, stared blankly.

"Because I was the previous person to speak and from that, could deduce that the comment was likely made in regard to my statement."

"So in a situation like this, where the intention of someone referring to you is clear, there's no need to use a nickname, right?"

"It still adds a measure of stress, and it wasn't clear. It was a measured assumption based on the context that happened to work out in this instance."

"What if it was just you and I in the room? Then it would be perfectly clear that I'm only talking to you."

"Even in that instance, I would prefer to be called by my real name instead of a nickname."

"Alright, but what if we meet someone else named Nima?"

While the two girls proceeded to go back and forth in a series of questions that Meghan imishly intended to try and annoy Nima, only for the colourful-haired girl to respond with zero inflection of emotion, Claire leaned over the table towards Eris and gave a low whisper.

"For what it's worth, I think you three make a very cute couple."

Eris was nervous as she sat at her desk. It had seemed too weird a topic to ask about whenever her and Bailey were... in a lesson... but now was the perfect opportunity. They may have been naked since they just finished showering (which Bailey had a debilitating insistency that they did together), but it was still too early to go to bed. That left Eris at her desk, working out the details of a commission for a recurve bow that some girl had ordered while Bailey was lying on her stomach in her bed, nose buried in an alchemical tome that seemed to be all about the various applications of basilisk venom.

"Do you know what Zhuul Somnere is?"

Eris found herself blurting it out unceremoniously before she could lose her nerve and panic. Of course, the outcome of a sudden, unexpected question about something so seemingly random made her wince inside. She turned around slowly to see Bailey glancing up from her book with a raised eyebrow.

"I hope you don't plan on trying to make it, because I think you'd get disappointed."

That piqued Eris's attention. She forced herself to speak.

"Err... no. I read the term somewhere but it didn't say what it was, and it's been driving me crazy. I just want to know what it is."

"Ah, gotcha." Bailey twisted herself into a seated position, cross-legged on the bed which was made very debilitating by her casual nudity. Eris had to keep her eyes trained on Bailey's face.

"The short of it, it's a toxin from some of the old stories and legends. It's like a tranquilizer that was so strong it could put a deity into a coma."

"Wait, really?"

Bailey shrugged. "It's been a while since I read up on this stuff, so I'll probably get a few details wrong but I'll give it my best shot." She cleared her throat. "So you know how all the magic in the world, and all the gods and stuff comes from the Stream, right?"

"The universal force of power beyond our perception of reality, yeah."

"And you know how the Stream is described as an endless universe of ocean divided into two conflicting whirlpools pulling all energy in two directions?"

"Grohl, the Whirlpool of Life, and Grihm, the Maelstrom of Death."

Bailey smiled. "Cool. Then you also probably know that when the Seven came to power, their divine essence was split by the two sides of the Stream. So you have the Seven; The Arbiter, the Zenith, the Primordial, the Cardinal, the Sovereign, the Warden, and the Oculus. But each of them is divided into two halves, each drawing power from and embodying one side of the Stream. The Zenith has Kiara the Harbinger for Grohl and Vinteus the Martyr for Grihm, just as an example, but they're kind of like split personalities for the same godly figure. Still, they're two seperate deities bound together in the same soul, or something like that."

"Yeah, this is pretty basic knowledge. We don't need to recap."

Bailey scoffed. "Oh, well aren't you little Miss Smartass? All this crap is old history, and you'd be surprised by how many people in this school don't give a shit about stuff that was important four centuries ago. Just because you're taught how to divide fractions in school doesn't mean you'll remember it in a few years, or even the next day. If it isn't immediately important, people tend to leave information behind. I'm just making sure that you know all the deets, so try to learn a bit of patience, cutiepie. Let Mama Bailey get to her point."

"... Sorry."

"No worries," She grinned and adjusted her sitting position. "Mizzari the Relict, goddess of love and the Grihm half of the Warden. Zhuul Somnere began when some guy whose name I can't fuckin' remember for the life of me prayed to her and wished for his true love to feel the same way and fall in love with him. I think the girl's name was something like Admiri, or maybe Adimine? I don't know, something with an 'Ad' and then a couple of 'I's. I'm just gonna go with Admiri for now. Anyway, Mizzari granted the wish, and the two fell in love with the condition that Admiri would love him for the rest of his life. Well, turns out the girl was already in a relationship with someone else, and the dude was furious. I mean, someone getting divine intervention to steal your girl? That's gotta fuckin' suck."

Bailey idly played with a strand of her hair.

"Anyway, this dude that got cheated on prayed to Mizzari to help him kill the other guy, since the love was only stated to last until the end of his life. If the other dude killed him, the spell would break and the girl would love the first guy again. Wait, did that make sense? Screw it, let's call the first guy Bill and the one who got cheated on Jeff, that way it's clear. Admiri's dating Jeff, and Bill comes along with Mizzari's help to steal Admiri. Jeff gets real angry and prays to Mizzari to help him kill Bill. So Mizzari, who's also the goddess of poison, gave Jeff something called the Heartblood Rose. It's a flower that's considered to be the most poisonous thing in existence, and could only ever be given directly by Mizzari if someone's true and only intention is to destroy a love between others. One petal dipped into a drink could kill anyone on the planet. So, Jeff put the petal in Bill's drink when Bill and Admiri were going to go on a picnic."

"Did Bill die?"

"Nope." Bailey shook her head, which also made her bare breasts jiggle. Curse her nudity.

"Jeff thought that he poisoned Bill's drink, but he accidentally poisoned Admiri's. Anyway, she died like, right there. Jeff was completely horrified by what he did and swallowed the entire flower to kill himself so he could be with Admiri again. Of course, even in the afterlife she was still charmed to be in love with Bill until he died, and he hadn't, so her and Jeff never ended up together again. That only left Bill with a dead girlfriend."

"I'm guessing he wasn't happy?" Eris asked. Bailey clicked her tongue.

"Not one bit. Dude was pissed. Turns out, he was also a physician and was skilled at mixing medicines. He ended up finding the stem of the Heartblood Rose, and then refined it into a purified version that was even more toxic. He put one drop in a pond and it killed an entire ecosystem that relied on that pond as a water source."

"What did he do with it?"

"Nothing. Bill continued his life. Found someone else, fell in love, and kept the poison hidden. Then, on the day of his wedding, he prayed to the Relict to officiate the marriage in person, which was already kind of a weird move since Talas, the other half of the Warden, is the one all about marriage and shit. Still, she showed up, and then the guy shot her in the leg with a bolt covered in the poison. Turns out, he faked his love and faked his marriage all to get petty revenge on the goddess who he felt wronged him."

Bailey lied back on the bed, her poofy hair splayed out like a lion's mane. "Anyway, Mizzari fell into a coma and Bill kept her prisoner, he ended up becoming a king or something because of it, yaddah yaddah, bullshit happens. Well, the other deities are all trying to cure Mizzari to wake her up, but nothing's working. The dude made an incurable poison and out of desperation, Mizzari's girlfriend Alda, the Grihm half of the Sovereign, literally pulled Bill directly into Grihm and imprisoned him to suffer until he finally decided to give up the cure."

"Did he?"

"If the legends are true, that's a big fat nope. Mizzari stayed comatose until all the deities died during the Sundering, and that's why the poison earned its name of Zhuul Somnere. Forever Sleep. The only one who can make the ingredients is dead, and the only one who knows how to brew the poison or how to cure it is trapped for eternity in never-ending torment in a dimension made of magical death water."

Eris was quiet for several moments. "Wow- that's... something."

"Yeah, it's kind of like the origin story of the whole 'love tale with a tragic ending' trope. Real bummer shit, you know?"

In the moment of silence that followed, a knock sounded on the door. Bailey rolled her eyes, stood up, and walked over to answer the door. Eris was so distracted by both the story and the fact that Bailey was answering the door completely nude that she didn't realise she, too, was naked until the door was already swinging open. All Eris could do was lean forward into the desk to try and hide her breasts while covering what else she could with her hands.

In the doorway were two figures in obvious sleepwear, one much taller than the other. Both were female, and the shorter one grinned while looking up and down Bailey's bare body. Eris's own eyes widened when the shorter girl spoke.

"We were told that this room is where to go when you want to have a good time."

Bailey smiled. "Depends on what you're into, but I can guarantee that I'll have fun. Come on in, I haven't actually had any proper visitors this week. Wait-" Bailey turned over her shoulder to look at Eris. "-You're okay with this, right?"

Eris could only blink in response. Her eyes locked with both of the girls in the doorway, who raised curious eyebrows in response. They exclaimed simultaneously; "Eris?"

The naked redhead gently raised a hand after making sure everything was still hidden, then offered a small wave.

"Hi Meghan. Hi Claire."

After some very awkward introductions with Eris continuing to hide herself in the desk the entire time, Bailey let out a simple;

"Ah."

Claire coughed into her hand. "When Jaxie told us about here, she didn't mention that you two were roommates."

"So it would seem..." Eris muttered, immediately figuring out what was happening. "What exactly did Jaxie tell you?"

Meghan paused. "That the princess in room 1760 and her roommate would be more than happy to fuck if we asked nicely..."

Eris let out a sigh. "Of course she did."

A few tense moments passed before Eris cleared her throat and looked at Claire and Meghan.

"Alright let me clear up some confusion. Jaxie, Alex and I are in a polyamorous relationship, but it's also an open one. We are intending to bring it to a point where any of us can do whatever we want with whoever we want, but it takes a bit of time to build up to that point. Jaxie is obviously taking it upon herself to try and get me to hook up with every single damned person in this school, and that certainly includes whoever happens to be in the party if this little stunt is any indication. Does that help clear things up?"

Both girls looked at each other, then back at Eris. Claire raised an eyebrow. "Is this why Jaxie asked us if we were lesbians when we started talking about forming a party?"

Eris lowered her face into one hand. It was many moments before she spoke.

"You three do whatever you want. I'm going to bed." She tried not to let her nudity bother her when she stood and quickly moved to slide under her blankets while facing away from the door. She heard Meghan awkwardly mumble while backing away.

"You know what? Maybe we should go."

"Agreed," Claire said.

Eris heard the sign on the door being switched to the 'Go the Fuck Away!' one and Bailey closed it softly. The blonde quietly sighed, then padded across the carpet before Eris felt the bed shift as Bailey sat down.

"I think I've got a pretty good idea, but do you want to tell me why you're upset?"

Eris scrunched her face, gritted her teeth, then huffed and turned over to look at the blonde sitting on the side of the bed.

"I like the sex. I want to like it even more. It's fun and I really, really want to keep doing it, but it scares the crap out of me. I actually want to be like you, to be honest. You're so confident and carefree about all this sex stuff, and I want to be able to get to that point."

Plus, I thought, I need to be like you since if I'm going to become strong enough to save the world.

"It's just... I feel so useless about all of this. I love Jaxie, but she's done absolutely everything for me. She set Alex and I up. She set you and I up. And now she's trying to set me up with the rest of the party. I mean, you heard what they said. Jaxie even asked them about their sexuality when questioning them for the party! Her priority wasn't finding people to make a good team- it was finding more people for me to hook up with."

"You want to put in your own effort, and not have it be handed to you." Bailey summed.

"I don't know... maybe?" Eris sighed. "It's just so frustrating. She's so much better at this than me, so why do I have to be the whore?"

Bailey raised a quizzical eyebrow. "You don't have to be anything. What makes you think you have to become a whore?"

Eris blinked a few times. Alarm bells went off in her head, and every function immediately started backpedaling. "No- no! I meant it like 'Argh! Why do I have to be lactose intolerant but addicted to cheese?!'. Why do I have to be such a whore but so damn nervous about everything?"

Bailey's eyes narrowed, but she eventually sighed. "Either way, it all comes down to you feeling inadequate at what you want to do, since you've needed someone else to help you at every point. You need a confidence boost in your ability to be slutty, and thankfully there's a really easy way to do that."

"How?"

"Simple. You get yourself laid."

Eris's thoughts fizzled. "Uhh, what?" Bailey smiled and laid down beside her, resting herself on one elbow. Her other hand poked Eris's chest.

"You want to be a whore? Don't make other people tell you how to do that. You go get dressed and you find the next notch on your belt by yourself. Then, I want you to go and bring back proof to Jaxie so you can show both her and yourself that you are more than capable of being a slut without her walking you through it."

After a moment of silence, Bailey chuckled. "You think I'm kidding? Sweetcheeks, this is the next lesson from your casual sex teacher! Get up, get dressed, and go get in someone's pants because I'm officially kicking you out of the room until tomorrow."

"Wait, really?"

"Yep."

"But..." Eris faltered a few times before she could find words. "But how do I-"

"Nope!" Bailey laughed and pushed Eris out of the bed, sending the redhead tumbling to the floor. When she scrambled back up to look at the blonde, Bailey had moved close enough that their noses were almost touching.

"If I tell you how to get this done, it won't solve the problem. You need to show yourself that you can find a fuck without people helping you along, and without needing to rely on existing relationships."

"Huh?"

Bailey leaned in and planted a kiss on the tip of Eris's nose, making the redhead go cross-eyed.

"Cutiepie, I'm officially challenging you to go have sex with someone you've never met before."

Chapter 28: Concerns

Bailey waggled a few fingers with a smile at Eris as the redhead- now dressed- sheepishly left the room with a small and shy smile. When the door clicked closed to leave her alone, Bailey let her lips curl down into a frown. Several moments of silence passed in the room while she contemplated.

"It's just so frustrating. She's so much better at this than me, so why do I have to be the whore?"

That's what Eris said, and that awkward fumble when Bailey called her out solidified that something else was going on under the surface. Bailey sighed.

"Fuck."

The blonde waltzed over to her closet and started getting dressed. Relationships and what people did in them were none of her business, nor did she make a point to judge people, but something felt... off here. She fully believed that Eris enjoyed the sexy parts of life and wanted to be more comfortable with it, but she was clearly and obviously being pushed to take leaps when she hadn't even learned to walk. With something like this, going fast was a very good way to end up with some deep cuts. That could still be managed... probably... but not if Eris wasn't even the one making the decisions. Bailey pursed her lips and rifled through her desk before grabbing an unmarked vial filled with a milky vapour, slid it into her pocket, then walked out the door.

Only a handful of minutes after Eris left on her solo challenge to find someone to sleep with, Bailey was waltzing through the courtyard, into one of the other dorms, up a few flights of stairs, and knocking on the door to room 1347. A few moments passed along with the sounds of some ruffling sheets, but eventually the door opened.

"Bailey?"

"Hey Becky, is Jaxie here?"

The black-haired girl in pajamas twisted out of the way to let Bailey see into the dim room and make eye contact with a Berserker sitting up in her bed. She was wearing a tank top and a very confused expression. "What's up?"

"Get up and get dressed. We're going for a walk."

Jaxie cocked an eyebrow with a smirk. "Oh? Do I get to try the princess now?"

At any other point, Bailey would have laughed and made some remark along the lines of 'If you want to stop on the way back, sure!' Instead, she kept her face flat and her voice even more so.

"No, you don't. We need to talk about Eris."

There was a twinge in Jaxie's eyes- was that fear? Perhaps, but at the very least some form of anxiety and concern. It didn't take long for the panty-clad Jaxie to pull on a pair of jeans and her shoes, and it took even less time to walk outside. Bailey took note of the way that Jaxie was following her in silence, obviously wary of what this conversation would entail. Anyone else would be asking questions- it seemed like Jaxie already had some assumption in her mind and was staying quiet out of fear.

Very interesting, and certainly unexpected.

Regardless, when Bailey led Jaxie in the cramped alley between dorms twelve and thirteen, she turned on the Berserker.

"Why are you pressuring Eris so much into becoming a whore?"

Jaxie blinked a few times. "Huh?"

"Setting her up with Alex, using a pussy-eating lesson as an excuse to get us to hook up, and sending your party mates to our dorm to have sex with her and I? After ensuring during your screening process that your party members would be lesbians and therefore eligible for a sexual relationship with Eris, of course. Why are you going to such extremes to make Eris have sex with so many people?"

Oddly enough, Jaxie's expression seemed to shift from tempered anxiety, to confusion, and then to a bit of relief. Why was she relieved? Was she afraid that this conversation was going to be about something else?

What else could she have been so afraid of Bailey talking to her about?

"Because we both agreed that we wanted an open relationship, and I'm her wingwoman. Gotta give her some support, you know?" Jaxie smirked. Bailey frowned.

"There's a difference between being her wingwoman and being her pimp. You aren't supporting anything- you're whoring her out like a cheap hooker."

That made Jaxie's eye twitch. "Excuse me?"

"I couldn't care less how you want to shape your relationship, or how many people you want to bring into it, but you can't be forcing it onto Eris. After you sent your party members up to our room for some get-to-know-you sex- which didn't happen, by the way, Eris was almost crying."

"... What?" Jaxie had a visible pause. Bailey reached up and pressed a finger into Jaxie's chest, hard enough to make the Berserker step back and bump into the wall.

"She met those two for the very first time today, and you sent them to our room to have sex with her? As far as I know, she made no inclinations or invitations for you to do so, nor did she probably express any interest in having that sort of engagement with them. You-" Bailey poked harder. "- forced that decision onto her, with no regard to her own concerns or wants."

"Hey- I saw the way she was looking at them this morning. She was absolutely checking them out."

"That may be so, but you had no right to do what you did. If you see that there is some interest, a proper wingwoman will gently nudge them in the same direction to help and see if they mesh well. You didn't nudge- you shoved them together over nothing more than a couple of looks."

Jaxie's eyes narrowed, a clear sign of annoyance. "Eris was never going to build up the nerve on her own. She needs the shove."

Bailey scoffed. "Did you even imagine if the three of them wouldn't fall for your grand scheme and fuck each other? Did you ever stop to think about how awkward that would make their involvement in your party for the future? No. You didn't. You only saw the outcome where more people join your 'Everyone-fucks-Eris' club, with no consequences on how your actions might affect her."

Jaxie stepped forward this time, forcing Bailey against the wall while looking down at her. Still, Bailey didn't let her expression waver despite the tall girl staring with no small level of anger in her eyes.

"You're the whore with a body count so high you could fill a town with everyone you've fucked. What makes you get to tell me that helping Eris get some ass is such a bad thing?"

"Because it was my own choice," Bailey said. "I chose to be a whore and pursued it of my own volition. You aren't giving Eris that choice. She was so upset by what you did, because she's tired of you doing everything for her. Not only does it make her feel awful and inadequate in her own ability to 'get some ass', but It's putting so much pressure and stress on her that she's close to a breaking point- I can tell. You aren't helping her at all. You're turning her into your bitch."

A large hand slammed against the brick wall beside Bailey's head, making her blink instinctively. Jaxie looked downright pissed. Furthermore, Bailey could see the influence of Berserker power in her anger. They may have gotten an artificial form of the emotion in combat, but the real deal was just as effective of a power boost. Jaxie's eyes were starting to go bloodshot, with shrunken irises and even smaller pupils. Out of the corner of Bailey's eye, she could see goosebumps forming on Jaxie's arm from the magical power and she was trembling under a more intense form of anger than any non-Berserker could ever experience in a lifetime. Good. Bailey let her own hand move ever-so-slowly towards her pocket while Jaxie growled.

"If you ever call Eris a bitch again, I'll shove my foot so far up your ass I can clean my toenails with your toothpaste, you got it?"

"Yeah, I do," Bailey said. "But I first wanted to say that I'm sorry for this."

"Sorry for- aghh!"

Jaxie was cut off and stumbled away with a coughing choke as Bailey shoved the vial that had been hidden in her pocket right up into Jaxie's face, popping open the stopper with her thumb. She turned her own face away, closed her eyes and exhaled sharply to help ensure that as little of the milky vapour hissing out from the vial got into her own system. Jaxie might have had fast reactions from being so amped-up in her anger, but she couldn't have been expecting this and she got all of it right in her face.

The cloud that poofed out of the vial dissipated into the air in a matter of seconds, but that meant nothing for Jaxie who fell back into the wall, retching the magical smoke that refused to leave her lungs. Bailey stepped forward.

"I'm also sorry for provoking you, but I needed to get you angry. It makes your blood flow faster, makes your breathing heavier, all that stuff. It makes toxins work a lot more effectively."

Jaxie's eyes went wide, but she was too occupied with her coughing to speak. Bailey slowly stepped forward. "Don't worry, I didn't poison you. Well, technically I did, but it's not a dangerous one. That was called Infallible Fog, and all it's going to do is make you a lot more suggestible for the next few minutes."

Already, pretty much every hint of Jaxie's anger had vanished and she was starting to look dazed. Bailey softened her voice. "Why don't you sit down, okay? I don't want you falling over and hurting yourself."

Jaxie gave a slow, almost drunken nod and sort of slumped down onto the cobblestones with her back against the wall. Bailey nodded and followed suit. That was a fast reaction, a lot more than Bailey expected.

"There we go, that's better. First and foremost, I just want you to be perfectly clear that I bear no ill will towards you, I chose to do this purely out of concern for Eris's well-being, okay?"

Another slow nod.

"Alright. It's fine if Eris wants to be a whore, but pushing her into it so forcefully is really hurting her self-esteem and putting a lot of pressure on her. When I talked to her about it, she was upset that you were so much better at all of this than her, and she asked why she had to be the whore. Hey- hey, look at me."

Jaxie's eyes started to drift to the wall behind Bailey, so the blonde leaned forward and snapped her fingers. Immediately, Jaxie's extremely-dilated eyes went back to the Alchemist, who's own narrowed in concern. Bailey had grabbed a low-powered version of the concoction because she knew that Jaxie was still only first level. Even so, this kind of reaction was... intense. It made people loopy, maybe a bit giggly, a lot looser in their personalities, and extremely suggestible. It wouldn't make them this distant unless she took one scaled up for a higher-level individual. The only time otherwise that someone would have such an intense reaction to a concoction was-

Oh, Bailey thought. Right. Berserker.

Getting Jaxie angry had been part of the plan to let the vapour seep into her bloodstream faster and enter her brain, since it would increase her heart rate, her heaviness in breathing, everything. The more worked up the body gets, the faster a toxin functions since it can spread through the body quicker.

Berserkers relied on their anger- artificial or otherwise- to make them more powerful. The more amped up they became, the harder their bodies worked until it reached points far beyond what anyone else could withstand. Body temperatures reaching almost a hundred and ten degrees? Heart rates exceeding two hundred beats per minute? Those kinds of things would kill anyone else, but for a Berserker it was a sign of how much power their bodies were giving them.

Of course, having a heart pound four times a second meant that pretty much any toxin would hit them extremely fast and extremely hard. The only upside was that they shook off the effects faster than pretty much anyone, but that was a hard upside to see when Jaxie looked like she was barely conscious.

"Jaxie, what does Eris mean to you?"

Despite the lack of motor control, Jaxie gave a soft smile as her eyes drifted blankly.

"She's everything. I can't even say... I can't say how much I love her 'cause I don't know what I wouldn't do for her. She's like- like a part of me, you know? I'm just a couple pieces of bread, but Ell's the peanut butter and jelly on the inside. Oh, do you have any peanut butter jelly sandwiches? I kinda want some peanut-butter-fuckin'-jelly-"

"Jaxie!" Bailey snapped her fingers again, causing the loopy brunette to focus on her once more. Well, at least Jaxie loved Eris, so that means the tension between them wasn't anything too untoward. Probably. Jaxie wouldn't knowingly and willingly put Eris under such stress if she loved her as much as she said she did- and Bailey had yet to meet anyone that could manage to purposefully lie through Infallible Fog. She sighed.

"Why are you trying to put so much effort into making Eris a whore? I know she wants to, so it's fine in the long term, but you're making it happen way too quickly. Something like this needs time to get into it properly or Eris could get hurt by it. Why are you trying to rush her into this so much, and so soon?"

"Because..." The brunette began, trailed off, then started again. "Beeee- because... 'cus she needs to get stronger."

Bailey's brow furrowed in confusion. "Because she needs to get stronger? That doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah it does. She- she needs to become a slut in order to save the world."

Bailey blinked several times. "I'm sorry, what?"

Jaxie leaned her head back against the wall and yawned.

"Is- it's because... Ell's an Artificer- an Arty-Ar-Army... Artifisher of Lust and-" She giggled through a drunken grin while lowering her voice. "-and fuckin' makes her stronger."

What?

Bailey leaned back against the wall with wide eyes, trying to comprehend that tidbit of information. Given her loopiness, Jaxie could have been spouting nonsense, but that wouldn't have been possible. Under the effects of Infallible Fog, even in the state that Jaxie was, a person wouldn't even be able to comprehend saying anything other than the complete truth when asked a question. In fact, Jaxie seemed to completely ignore that Bailey's gaze had grown distant and kept mumbling sentences that barely made sense, but still conveyed the point.

"Yeah, and it's not just fuckin'... fuck- it's... it's fuckin' not one person fuck is 'cause the cooldown, right? She can't just fuck a lot, she needs to- she- she... fuck a people lot. More people, more fuck, more people- I mean... more power. More moth. Moth- mooothhhh..."

Bailey was only idly aware of Jaxie staring cross-eyed at an insect that had landed on her nose. Eris was an Artificer? Wow, that was not what she expected to learn out of this conversation.

She was expecting some kind of domineering, where Jaxie got pleasure out of being Eris's pimp and setting her up with anyone she chose. Something that would be relatively innocent (though certainly kinky) in the open relationship that Eris and Jaxie were obviously forming, but could be harmful when pushed too hard and too quickly on someone so timid like Eris.

The last thing she expected was to learn that Eris was one of the Mythic classes from before the Sundering, and that she apparently needed to have sex to become more powerful. Did this have something to do with the Gifting not working anymore? Probably, especially since Eris revealed after her little visit to the Dean's office that she'd been called there because she was apparently the last person to be Gifted. Originally, Bailey thought that it was just because the magic or whatever finally gave out, and Eris happened to be the last person it serviced. Now, it was obvious that it ended because Eris became a Mythic class.

A faint buzzing noise caught Bailey's attention, who refocused her gaze back on Jaxie. Her eyes were closed, mouth was slightly open, and the moth was still clinging onto her nose as the Berserker softly snored. Bailey leaned forward and shooed the insect before Jaxie accidentally inhaled it and settled back against the wall. At least this gave her a few minutes to think things over while the toxin worked its way out of Jaxie's system.

Then, she could wake up a sober Jaxie and they could have a real conversation.

Chapter 29: Challenge

Eris wrung her hands together. The cool night air was sending a chill over her skin, but she wasn't entirely sure whether the goosebumps were caused by the temperature or the knowledge of what she was setting out to do. It didn't matter that the thought excited her far more than she was willing to admit- doing this kind of thing was venturing into territory that Eris hadn't even considered yet.

Having sex with Jaxie was one thing. Having sex with Alex was another. Having sex with Bailey was definitely leaning in a funky direction, but actively seeking out someone completely random just to prove that she didn't need help to be a slut? Eris's cheeks were burning as she stepped inside dorm building number one, then knocked on the first door on the left- room 0101.

A moment of muffled shuffling passed before the door opened and a shirtless boy with tired eyes looked curiously at Eris. A moment of tense silence passed before Eris gulped.

"Err- wrong room. Sorry."

He shrugged, said nothing, and closed the door with a soft 'click'. Eris sighed and tried to ease her racing heart. Immediately, a problem presented itself- she would have to knock on doors until a girl opened it, and that wasn't even accounting for the chance that the girl in question would be interested. Either a lesbian female or a straight futa would give Eris her perfect opportunity, but even then, she'd have to have a roommate willing to let everything happen. Overall, chances were low.

This challenge to have sex with a random person certainly wasn't being made any easier by the time. A little after ten in the evening, the night before the Obelisk opened to all the new first-year students? There was more than a high chance that if Eris didn't manage to find a partner in the next half-hour or so, she wouldn't find one at all. Eris gulped and shifted to the next door down. It opened shortly after she knocked, revealing a blonde girl with an expression that was a little bit curious, but mostly annoyed.

"Uh, hi. I- umm... you're really pretty, and I was wondering if you would like to... you know? With me?"

The girl blinked multiple times, slowly and judgmentally.

"I have a boyfriend. Boy friend."

"I- err... sorry for bothering you." Eris turned and walked away before the girl even closed the door. When it shut, Eris was leaning her forehead against the wall of the hallway. She spent several moments in silent contemplation.

I can do this. There's no problem with this. It's just a bit of casual fun- nothing more than stress relief. Stop being such a baby!

Of course, everyone is going to see you as a slut, and you will be the second most judged person in the school right behind Bailey.

Get it together, Eris! Eventually, everyone's going to have to know that you're an Artificer of Lust, and you'll need to be the most publicly whorish person on the planet in order to do your job and help get rid of the Hollow. Whether or not you like it doesn't matter. You have a job to do, and no job is worth doing if you aren't going to do it properly. Screw everyone else, and screw what people think about you. Get. This. Done.

When the door to room 0103 opened after Eris's knock, she was greeted by a shorter-but-still-taller-than-Eris girl with long black hair that was still wet from a recent shower. Eris took a quick look over her features. Pale skin, a light pattern of freckles across her cheeks, soft and tired-looking eyes the colour of dark coffee, and a facial shape that was a bit more angular showing heritage from the southern regions of Kelopa. Overall, quite attractive, and more than pleasing enough to the eye considering Eris's goals for this interaction. Her oversized sleepwear all but completely hid her body from Eris's appraisal, but the odds of finding a person who wasn't in perfect shape in the Syndicate's military school would have been similar to finding a whale with legs and a penchant for reciting limericks. Eris forced the growing anxieties rising in her throat to recede and allow room for seduction.

... Nothing.

"Hello?" The girl raised an eyebrow at Eris, who scrambled internally. Over the girl's shoulder, she could see another figure sitting up in one of the beds. This too was a girl, but this one's hair was short and the same shade of chestnut brown as her eyes. Rounder in her cheeks like she hadn't completely outgrown her baby fat, but by no means did that make her unattractive.

Do something. Literally anything. Don't just stand there. Wait, what are you doing-?

Eris felt her cheeks turning a shade of scarlet as her hands went to the hem of her shirt, grabbed tight, and lifted until her knuckles were rubbing her cheeks. Most of her face was covered, but her eyes could peek over her shirt and watch as both the girl in the doorway and the one sitting in the bed stared with wide eyes at the redhead flashing her bare breasts. After a few seconds of silence, Eris let her shirt drop while the girl in the doorway grinned.

"Well hello to you too. To what do we owe the pleasure?"

Eris coughed, nearly choking on her apprehensions. It took every measure to shackle them down, nudge her way past the girl and into the room, then stare at both girls who looked on curiously at the random person who flashed them, then walked inside uninvited. She hesitated for only a moment before Eris grabbed her shirt again and lifted- this time taking it all the way off. It was joined on the ground by Eris's shoes as she kicked them free, followed shortly by her pants until Eris was completely naked in the middle of a stranger's room. She fought the blush rising on her face, then made direct eye contact with both of the girls- one after the other- before letting an embarrassed smile form on her face.

"So, which one of you wants me first?"

Shortly Before

Yenni dragged the comb through wet knots, gritting her teeth as she worked to straighten the mess atop her head before patting down the strands with a towel held in her other hand. Black hair eventually gave way, letting it be at least pseudo-dried before she pulled on a baggy sweatshirt and pants of an identical quality. The rest of the dorm wasn't cold per-sae, but it still made a shiver run down her moistened skin when compared to the deep humidity of a post-shower washroom. She tossed a glance to Amber, who was sitting against the headboard of her bed with a book clutched in her fingers.

"Did you reach a stopping point, or do you want the light on a little bit longer?"

Amber glanced up, huffed disgruntledly, then slid her bookmark in between the pages and set the book on the nightstand. Yenni rolled her eyes. "Alright, I guess that gives me my answer. On the plus side, I don't need to ask if you're still mad at me."

As the room went dim and shadowed from Yenni pressing her thumb into the rune on the wall, she heard Amber's voice coming from the silhouette in the other bed as Yenni started to climb into her own bed.

"Of course I'm still mad! Are you kidding me?"

"Hey, you never know."

Amber's silhouette rolled over to look in Yenni's direction. "I was mad at you for the entire time we waited at the station. I was still mad during the hour-long monorail ride back from the capital. What makes you possibly think that I decided everything was okay in the fifteen minutes you spent showering?"

"I dunno, maybe you had a change of heart."

Though Yenni couldn't see much of Amber's expression, the sheer annoyance on the brunette's face was somehow still the clearest thing in the room.

"A change of heart? You dumped a bottle of ketchup all over my boyfriend."

"Ex- boyfriend," Yenni corrected. "And I only did it because he dumped you right in the middle of the restaurant."

"That doesn't make it an appropriate response!"

"The old lady in the corner wouldn't say so. She started cheering."

Amber let out a loud, angry sigh. "Can you please shut up? For once, please."

"Are you sure? If I stop giving you a reason to be mad at me, you might realise that you're actually mad at yourself."

"Mad at myself? What kind of bullshit is that?"

"Well, since you asked so nicely..."

Yenni stood up, walked back over towards the door and pressed the rune lightly. Immediately, the room illuminated from the crystals in the ceiling. Not full power- just enough to give everything a soft, candlelit feel. Amber groaned and rolled over to face away from Yenni who returned to her seat in her bed.

"Simple. You're not upset with me."

"I'm definitely upset with you," came the muffled reply as Amber buried her face into her pillow. Yenni shook her head.

"Nope. You're upset because every single relationship you've had with a guy ends up dead on arrival. All of them say the exact same thing- that it didn't feel like you were putting in the effort. You're mad because you know they're right, and that the reason your relationships don't last is because of you."

Amber glared angrily over her shoulder. "Is this supposed to make me feel better?"

"Actually, yeah."

She rolled her eyes and returned to looking away. "I'm begging you- please, shut the fuck up."

Yenni let out a sigh. "Maybe the reason you find it so hard to connect with a guy is because you aren't as gay as you think you are."

A moment of silence passed. After several seconds, Amber rolled over with a death-stare. "Excuse me?" Yenni held up her hands defensively.

"Hey, just spitting ideas here. You've been hard-gay since you were a kid, right? You've only ever tried playing on the boy's team. Well, if you've only ever been with guys, then you don't actually know for sure if you're gay. Like only eating strawberry ice cream and saying it's your favourite without ever trying other flavours."

"You can't be serious..."

Yenni chuckled. "All I'm saying is that maybe you could try hooking up with another futa. It doesn't even have to be anything serious- just a one-night-stand or something. Fuck, maybe even just a kiss. Give it a shot and see if there's even a chance that you're bisexual. Even if you aren't, it could give you the confidence to know that you really are just into guys and you'll try harder in your relationships."

"You're a bitch."

"Hey, they're the ones that said you weren't putting in effort, not me. Give this a shot and you might just find what you've been looking for to give you that little kick in the ass and get your butt moving."

Amber remained wordless for a while before letting out a quiet; "Not with you." Yenni chuckled.

"Did I mention myself? I mean, I'll extend the offer if you want to take it, but that's up to you."

The brunette's eyes quickly scanned over Yenni- but not quite fast enough to keep the black-haired girl from noticing. Amber frowned, huffed, then rolled onto her back while pressing her face into her palms.

"I don't know, okay! Like sure- you're objectively attractive. But we've been roommates and party members for two years. If we do this, it'll make things way too weird."

Yenni leaned back on her hands. "Like I said, we don't have to if you don't want to. Tomorrow, why don't you go find a futa and see if you two don't hit it off? After that, you can probably go for a female and make sure you figure everything out. You might even be tri-sexual. Have you ever looked at a female in that kind of way before?"

"... I don't know. Maybe?"

"Well, that's something you can check. Maybe you can go and head over to the freeuse room to try out some straight sex and see if it's your style. Actually, if you're lucky, she might have an open-minded futa over and you can have a threesome. See both other sides at once kind of thing, you know?"

Amber pulled her hands from her face and looked at Yenni with anxious eyes. "Ugh, this is so weird!"

"If it helps, I've got whiskey in my closet. A shot or two might calm the nerves if you try to get a hookup tomorrow."

At that, a knock on the door sounded through the room. Yenni raised a brow and turned to look at the closed door. She glanced at Amber, shrugged, then stood to answer. Meanwhile, Amber focused her attention on the ceiling.

"Hello?" Yenni asked to silence. After several seconds without a response, Amber furrowed her brow and sat up to look at who could possibly have been knocking this late. A girl with an extremely anxious expression and red cheeks wearing a casual shirt and jeans was standing there, but her hair caught the most attention. It was short, barely hanging to her ears, and so bright red that it had to have been dyed. Amber could only look quizzically at her for about two seconds before the girl suddenly grabbed her shirt and yanked it to her nose. She wasn't wearing a bra- a fact made evident by the perfectly rounded breasts pointing into the room and the twinkling in emerald-green eyes peeking over the hem of her shirt.

Amber stared with a dry mouth until the girl eventually lowered her shirt back into position. She heard Yenni chuckle.

"Well hello to you too. To what do we owe the pleasure?"

The girl didn't respond, instead staring at both of them with a red face. Then, surprisingly, she moved forward. She nudged her way past Yenni in the door, walked directly into the middle of the room, and to Amber's jaw-dropping surprise, started stripping. Nary a moment passed before the only thing she had on were socks. Amber could see every inch of the short girl- a fiery scalp, smooth stomach, slightly wider hips, pelvic stubble of a growing bush, and long, lithe legs without a single imperfection that Amber could find. Objectively, she was one of the most attractive females that Amber had ever seen, and she found her eyes wandering far more than they should be. She liked guys! Why was Amber staring at this random girl's boobs?

The random girl in question then gave an anxious smile, awkwardly wrung her hands together, looked at both Yenni and Amber, then gave a weak;

"So, which one of you wants me first?"

Amber could only look over at Yenni with wide eyes as the black-haired girl moved to sit beside her. As if sensing the question, Yenni laughed.

"Before you ask, no. I didn't set this up. That's a pretty creepy coincidence though."

The unnamed girl paused. "W-what?"

"Oh, nothing for you to worry about. Amber here was right in the middle of considering the option of switching sides for a day, if you understand what I mean."

Amber coughed. "That's not- I... It was a hypothetical conversation!"

Yenni chuckled and wrapped an arm over Amber's shoulders. "It doesn't have to be. I mean, the opportunity to give it a shot literally just walked in our dorm, stripped naked, and asked us 'Who's first?' I think that's a pretty damn good chance to test the waters. Wait-" She turned to the redhead.

"This isn't some kind of joke, right? You're actually trying to fuck?"

The redhead gave an embarrassed, smiling nod. Yenni furrowed her brow. "Who sent you? Was it Arlin? I bet he got a kick out of the thought."

"No- nobody sent me. I'm just... here for me."

That made both girls raise their eyebrows, but Amber was the one who spoke. "You're asking us to have sex with you... because you want to? Why us? We have no idea who you are."

The girl hesitated. "I was knocking on random doors."

After an awkward silence, Yenni let out a loud laugh. "Well then. You were thinking about trying a different side and one of those sides is knocking on doors and looking for sex. I think the universe is trying to tell you something."

Amber glared. "I thought I was going to try with a futa, first."

A moment passed before Yenni gave a shrug. "I'm here too. Unless that's still too weird, of course."

The naked girl stared confusedly between the two other girls, obviously trying to resist covering her own nudity in the quiet. Eventually, Amber let out a loud sigh, stood, and walked over to Yenni's closet. A moment of searching led to the retrieval of a bottle with yellowed-brown liquid that burned the throat as she uncorked it and took several large swigs. She let the bottle hang down at her side, then stared at the other two girls in the room with a sigh.

"Fuck it."

Chapter 30: Challenge II (18+)

Introductions were kept exceptionally brief. That meant Eris wasn't left as the only naked one for long as the two twenty-year-olds stripped down. Eris also couldn't help but notice that when Yenni got nude, Amber took a long look up and down her roommate, chugged down another portion of what was obviously alcohol, and then stripped herself.

Eris couldn't complain. Both of them were lovely sights- different as they were.

If Eris had to take an assumption of their classes, Yenni was almost definitely some kind of caster. Her form consisted of smoother skin with slender muscles. There was still an athleticism that was matched with every single person that became Gifted and worked for the Syndicate, but she wasn't quite built like a warrior. Amber, on the other hand, had the physicality of a person that relied on physical attacks over magic. Defined muscles, strong limbs, and abs that Eris could probably hammer metal on. A little more slender than Jaxie and Alex, and likely leaning in the direction of a Dexterity-based class rather than a Strength-based one, but highly athletic nonetheless.

As Eris was able to surmise from the brief conversation, both girls were futas. To Eris's disappointment (and surprise that she was disappointed by such a thing), Yenni wasn't close to boasting Alex's size. Perhaps six inches, proportionally thick, and just as pale like she was. Amber's, on the other hand, was still fairly limp. Despite that, she did appear to be packing more than Yenni when taking into account of how much it was likely to grow. Neither had any particular reason to be disappointed with their equipment, especially since they both had lovely other features.

Yenni's breasts were a little bit larger than Amber's, but the brunette still had a delicious handful with puffy pink nipples noticeably bigger than the tiny brown ones atop Yenni's bust. Neither of them had an exceptionally large butt, though Yenni's did look delightfully squeezable whereas Amber's looked muscular enough to hold a squat for hours without faltering. Both girls were sexy, and both seemed equally hesitant to make the first move. Yenni was probably waiting for Amber to initiate, since she was the one testing new waters. Meanwhile, the brunette was probably too busy coming to terms with everything to even consider acting first.

That meant it was up to Eris. She swallowed her anxieties, let out a breath, then stepped up to Amber who stared with wide eyes down at her.

"May I kiss you?"

"... Okay..."

Just that one word was enough for Eris's nose to tingle at the whiff of the five-or-six shots-worth of alcohol that Amber threw back. She wasn't sure how to feel about that. If Amber was that nervous about this, who's to say that she was doing this because she wanted to try it, or because she felt pressured? Eris looked up into brown eyes.

"We don't have to do this if you aren't comfortable with it. We can stop any-mmp!"

Eris was cut off by Amber grabbing her cheeks and pressing her face down into the redhead's. Whether on instinct or on purpose she wasn't sure, but Eris let her own hands rest on Amber's waist. She kept her eyes closed until Amber finally pulled a few inches away. There, looking up at the brunette, Eris found her hands moving. She grabbed Amber's wrists and lowered her hands from cheeks to chest, incentivising the girl to fondle her breasts. Then, she lowered her own hands to wrap fingers around Amber's prize as well as the sack underneath. It was hot and quickly hardening, which was a distinctly good sign. If Amber was getting erect, it meant that she had to have been at least somewhat aroused at the prospect of experimenting with other genders.

While Amber's strong hands kneaded and massaged Eris's chest, the redhead gently stroked Amber to rigidness. She couldn't help but smile seeing the way that Amber was staring at her tits while she played with them. Meanwhile, Eris could look down between them at Amber's hardness and give a nod of respect. Now that she was fully erect, Eris could confirm that although Amber wasn't quite as endowed as Alex, she was still noticeably above average. Maybe seven inches with a girth that felt pleasant in Eris's fingers. Meanwhile, her other fingers gently cupped and rolled the dangling bag of flesh hanging underneath.

Another presence caught Eris's attention. Yenni had stepped up to Amber and hugged her from behind. While Yenni pushed herself into Amber's back, her hands started rubbing and squeezing the brunette's slightly-smaller boobs. Yenni was a bit shorter than Amber, but Eris could see that she braced on tiptoes to whisper in the girl's ear.

"Don't worry. We're gonna make you feel real good."

Unprompted, Eris let her own knees bend to lower herself. A moment later, she was sitting on the balls of her feet and staring eye-level at Amber's womanhood. Excitement fluttered through her chest. She was really going to do this. She was going to suck a girl's dick and be a slut under her own accord. Jaxie had no say whatsoever in this. This was Eris's accomplishment alone.

Eris was smiling when she wrapped fingers around the base and gently kissed the tip. Then another. Then a little lick, and then she let her lips part. Eris's jaw opened wide to allow Amber's cockhead to slide into her mouth. Unsurprisingly, it tasted almost exactly the same as Alex's. Trying to discern the two from the taste of their dicks alone would have been like trying to do the same thing by licking their arms. Flesh tasted like flesh, and that was it.

The main difference between Amber and Alex came down entirely to size. Eris had blown Alex three times over the last six days. Amber really wasn't that much thinner than Alex in the grand scheme of things, but it was enough to notice. Eris went further, letting an inch, then another, and then another inside. When Amber was pressing up against the entrance to Eris's throat, she halted but didn't stop. She pulled back, letting inch after inch of the slicked-up cock slide free from her lips until only half the head remained. Almost instinctively, Eris brought the hand wrapped around the base back so that she could gather the moisture on her fingers and use it as lube to stroke what she couldn't reach with her mouth. Then, she went down again.

Eris let her cheeks cave in a bit from suction, putting everything she's learned with Alex to use in this moment. Meanwhile, her eyes flicked upwards to a sight that made her chest flutter. Amber's torso was twisted just slightly and Yenni had stepped a little off to the side. That let the two of them make out with each other and grope the other's breasts while Eris shamelessly went down on Amber.

Eris smiled and continued her work. As whorish as it was to admit, Eris felt a sense of giddy excitement from the act. She liked doing this. It was fun to make other people feel good in this way, and it made her proud to know that she was doing a good job every time Amber let out a little moan into Yenni's mouth.

"I'll admit, I've wondered a few times what this would be like," Yenni grinned in between kisses. The black-haired girl's hand went down and wrapped fingers around the base of the cock that Eris was exploring her mouth with. Eris pulled herself off when Yenni started stroking.

"I always thought it was a crime that you had something like this and never thought about sharing with your best friend."

Amber remained quiet. Yenni waggled the brunette's dick and even tapped it on Eris's lips a few times.

"But tonight, everything's being left at the door. We're just gonna have fun however we want, and then you'll figure out where you stand tomorrow. Tonight's ours to enjoy, and we're gonna do that with this hot little slut on her knees for you."

Eris blushed, but she could see that Amber did, too. The brunette paused for only a second before giving a nod, and then Yenni looked down at Eris to make eye contact.

"Sorry to cut your turn short, but I've been waiting a while for my chance. Scootch."

At that, Yenni lowered herself to the floor and guided Eris to move so that she was the one kneeling in front of her friend and Eris was off to the side. Eris saw little more than a quick wink be fired upwards at Amber before Yenni wrapped her lips around Amber's cock. To her credit, Yenni wasted no time. She also had a lot more experience with this than Eris, as made evident by the way that she kept going further and further until the entirety of Amber's womanhood was hidden in her throat. Eris's eyes went wide and Amber let out an audible groan. It was a number of seconds where Yenni had her head tilted upwards to straighten her throat with the dick lodged inside. The entire time, her eyes were twinkling with pride- a sight that didn't go away even when she started to gag and was forced to pull off.

"Oh, fuck- I've been looking forward to that." Yenni gasped. Without any further words, she dove right back down and started bobbing. That left Eris as the third wheel, watching as Yenni fucked her own throat using Amber's dick. Eris could see Yenni's own member sticking out from her lap, throbbing and even drooling a little bit from excitement. Eris wasn't entirely sure what she was doing until she found herself leaning over.

Yenni's precum was salty but not at all unpleasant as Eris's lips parted to lower her head and take Yenni inside. The black-haired girl let out a sound of affirmation but otherwise continued her administrations. That let Eris do as she pleased, adjusting her position until she was laying on the carpeted floor and braced on her elbows to have better access to Yenni's member.

It was noticeably smaller than Amber, letting Eris take most of it before she felt pressure in her throat. An experimental push made her windpipe convulse and forced her to back off just a touch. A second one had the exact same result while also making her eyes start to water.

Damn, how did Yenni do that? Maybe I ask Bailey for a deepthroating lesson...

Eris pushed the prospect aside for now and focused on doing what she could do in this moment. That meant one of her hands joined the action and stroked in time with her lips to ensure that saliva and pressure was being spread over all of Yenni's length as she bobbed. Meanwhile, she twisted her grip while she jerked, since Alex seemed to enjoy it whenever Eris did that.

Eris jumped a little bit when she felt one of Yenni's hands reach over and rest on her butt. The black-haired girl started kneading and squeezing ass-flesh, even giving a few light slaps that sent shivers shooting up Eris's spine. The redhead couldn't help but give a groan into Yenni's dick when slender fingers started sliding down the crack of her ass. A twinge of nervous excitement made Eris shudder when Yenni toyed around with her anus- tracing fingers over the wrinkled ring. There was no incentive for entry, just a little bit of pressure and attention to the hole that Eris had yet to explore. She wasn't entirely sure whether she was upset or grateful that the fingers continued down their path and curled around to massage the front of her pussy.

That was where they stayed for a while. Eris wasn't sure how long she spent laying in Yenni's lap and sucking her off while Yenni buried Amber in her throat, but Eris was sure about one thing- it was hot and sending all the right tingles. That was only adding to the innate pleasure of having her pussy be idly played with by the girl actively deepthroating her roommate. The situation only changed when Amber's breathing from above them started to shift. Immediately, Eris knew what was going to happen even before Amber announced it.

"Fuck, I'm gonna cum..."

If anything, that only seemed to spur on Yenni's movements even more. In fact, Eris could feel her cock twitch with excitement and arousal as Yenni picked up the pace and abused her own throat on her friend's cock. It didn't last much longer until Amber started to groan. Surprisingly, Yenni didn't stop moving. She continued the manual throat-fucking even as Amber presumably emptied herself. Alex always stayed still when she came- like it was too sensitive to keep moving, or like her muscles were simply locking up on instinct. With Yenni controlling the movement, that made the latter a non-issue. Yenni probably sucked the soul out of her friend in that moment, and Eris was merely a spectator with a dick in her mouth.

When Yenni pulled off with a wet 'POP' and a few gasping breaths, she also gently tugged Eris up. Eris could see that Amber looked to be having trouble standing while she staggered back to sit on the edge of the bed. Her cock was glistening with saliva- freshly polished by the wet confines of Yenni's throat. Meanwhile, the black-haired girl smiled.

"Now wasn't that fun?"

Amber nodded. "You're... you're real good at that."

"Damned right." She held up a few fingers- the ones that had been toying with Eris's pussy. They were glistening. "Now, our lovely little lady here is awfully worked up. Wouldn't you say it's time that she gets her turn?"

Eris gulped as both girls turned their attention onto her, then steeled herself. No. Stop being afraid of this. This is what you are now- get over it.

The redhead dropped her face back down into Yenni's lap and returned her lips to their position around the black-haired girl's cock. At that, Yenni laughed and stroked the side of Eris's head.

"Oh, okay then. If you really want to keep up with that, we've gotta make sure you're getting some fun, too."

Eris popped off a second time, looked at both girls, and blushingly let out a smile. A handful of moments later, Eris was kneeling on the carpet with her thighs spread, just in front of one bed. Yenni was sitting on the edge with her erect member sticking a number of inches into the air. Meanwhile, Amber was lying down on the ground with her brown hair splayed out in a fan over the pillow placed down underneath her with an anxious expression on her face.

Lying down... directly underneath Eris.

The brunette could absolutely see everything down there, but that was going to change in a moment. Eris gathered her courage, then gently lowered her hips until she was hovering with her pussy pressed down into Amber's mouth. The contact alone was enough to send tingles all the way up her spine, and that was before Amber gave a soft and flat lick.

"Ooohh..."

Eris mumbled and placed her hands on Yenni's knees for support. The black-haired girl laughed.

"Don't worry about trying to hold yourself up- she's a Gladiator. Sit on her face and start sucking, darling."

Eris's face went red. Oh, what had she gotten herself into?