“W-What?? I definitely spent more than just a second in there, I even healed Sandy a bit just as a quick test!” I say out in shock, my eyes going wide at the implication of what this means. Maybe… Maybe I can get her back faster than we thought? But… do I want to wait until I’m stronger, until I know I can protect her with my life like she did for me, until I try to do that? Or should the priority be just to get her back as soon as possible, which everything in my being screams out for? I bite my lip as my thoughts and emotions rattle around in disarray inside my mind, not really able to come up with the solution that sits well between either option as I feel a firm hand on my shoulders.
I look up to see Akiko staring down at me, her own plush lips cresting downward in a frown at my suddenly frantic state. “We are here for you, Amelia. You need not carry the weight of whatever is burdening you solely on your shoulders. I imagine it is a revelation, or shall I say yet another one, but this time regarding the progress with Sandra?” Ios’ form floats up beside us, adding into the unified front Akiko is presenting me.
I sigh out as my thoughts still bounce and ricochet all over the walls of my skull, letting my shoulders fall as I give a faint nod of my head. In a quiet voice, one with worry and exasperation, I tell them what’s on my mind. “If I can heal her at this new speed thanks to these new stats, then I could probably bring her back way sooner than Ios and I were thinking. Like… I don’t know, today even. But… I keep hesitating on if I want that for her right now, when I’m still too weak to not ensure that she is going to be safe.
I know things are progressing rapidly right now, and that we are safe here, but… But I can’t lose her again. I won’t. And that just makes me frustrated and angry at myself, knowing I can have someone who is so important, who I miss dearly and want to see again so badly, and who is becoming more and more vital to me as a person back in the flesh, in my arms. Right now. And not doing it out of caution and fear. And how she would react to me keeping her in her little soul hospital while I had the means for her to escape the whole time.”
Ios and Akiko listen to my worries, my stream of thoughts that still come out slightly rambling at the end as I feel the sting of tears start to pierce their way into my eyes. I sniff once, raising up the sleeve of the kimono to dry my eyes, but it does feel better to just… talk about it. Like its not as heavy and weighty on me, even if the emotions, the fear, anger, desperation, and slight tinge of hopefulness still wage their bitter war inside of me.
“Aims,” Ios says, her high-pitched voice coming out lower and full of sympathy, “I know that is a hard thought to wrestle with, and trust me, I want Ilya back as soon as we can get her too. But I don’t think healing Sandra is going to be the smooth affair you’re thinking it is.”
I raise my puffy teal eyes up to her holographic ones as she continues, a regretful smile on her lips, “Sandra was hurt deep, to her core. Either by the accident, the transition to living inside of you, or a mixture of both. We won’t likely know until Ilya and Sandra tell us. I’m not trying to freak you out any more than you already are, sweetheart, but getting Sandra to the point she can heal herself passively and talk, let alone getting her a body back, isn’t going to be as simple as you plugging and mortaring the cracks on her shell. I am beyond overjoyed to see that the progress is going to go quicker now, don’t get me wrong! I just want you to know that unless you really skyrocket points into Wisdom and then do nothing but heal her day in and day out, Sandra’s recovery is still likely going to take some time. Time that will get smaller and smaller as you grow stronger.”
I frown, the side of me that was chomping at the bit thinking that having Sandra back was in reach flaring up in anger and denial at Ios’ words, but honestly, she knows more about this stuff than I ever would. As I’m about to fall into a suddenly opening pit of depression at having the option essentially taken away from me, I feel Akiko’s tails wrap me up in her signature fluffy cocoon, her soft and motherly voice smoothly flowing into my ears, “It is so heartwarming to see you constantly be so devoted, Amelia. I have met other soulmates before, but never ones in such extreme circumstance or with the constant thoughtful attention you give one-sidedly for now. Thank you for sharing your woes with us, and while I know not the exact nature of Sandra’s recovery, I will offer that all of what Ios said is correct. Wounded souls are a tricky thing to heal, most taking centuries, if at all, to recover from even light damage in the mortal realms.”
She leans us back a bit in her fluffy shell, holding my slightly damp face with her warm yet cool hands as she continues, her violet eyes peering deep into me with compassion and love, “If you can, I would suggest that you focus not on the painful thought of having Sandra out of reach again, for the time being. Instead, focus that amazingly kind and loving soul and mind to the fact that every step you take forward, every one of those points divested into you, and every night you spend devoting your care and efforts to Sandra is yet more seconds, minutes, and hours taken off of the clock until her return.”
I close my eyes as a few more tears spill out, the warmth in my core flaring up at both her and Ios’ words of comfort as I feel Akiko’s lips press against mine. I nod into the kiss, a small sob of sadness still bleeding out of me before I give in and let her steal away all of my small but still present despair. We stay like that for a bit, soft and calming touches further helping my easing mind settle from the most recent session of processing troubling and complicated information before Akiko breaks off the make out session. I gaze up with half lidded eyes to see her beautiful smile shining down on me, no doubt enjoying how hot and bothered just kissing her makes me, as she asks, “Feeling better, my dear~?”
I nod drunkenly, shivering with pleasure as one of the receding tails drags its tip across my cheek and neck. I hear giggles from both women, somehow I forgot Ios was just kind of… watching this whole time, like some kind of sexy voyeur. Although, she technically watches every time I get down and dirty, and that little factoid both helps and hurts my slight flare of self-consciousness and arousal at the thought. Akiko’s voice snaps me back to the present, the alluring tilt and pitch always music to my ears as she says, “Good, I am always eager to provide that kind of aid for you~. Now then, I don’t believe you gave an answer previously after this most recent batch of news. Did you wish to join the girls and I for dinner, or would you rather focus your efforts for tonight on Sandra?”
I shake my head slightly, trying to throw off the last dregs of lust and focus in on what I want to do. Honestly, I don’t know if I want to be alone right now after such a massive rug pull, unintentional as it was. And having both of them confirm that progress may slow down or not come like I’m thinking it will does put a damper on the side of me that wants to just lock myself in a room and bring Sandra back. I sigh, trying my best not to let those troublesome thoughts reignite the battle in my mind as I finally answer Akiko, “Let’s do dinner. It’ll be nice to see the girls and let my mind get some distance from all the craziness we’ve gone through today.”
Akiko’s smiling face lights up the room as her ears perk up and tails wag behind her furiously. There really is not a better sight for my sore and weary psyche than seeing such an adorable and crushingly cute display~! I giggle faintly and offer my hand for her to take, which she does gladly as she leads us back out to the halls, humming a soft tune as she steps in delight. I let my own smile grow on my face as I watch from slightly behind her, taking in the pure little white furred ball of cheeriness like a thirsty man takes to water.
Sadly, my eyes get their last drink as we are once more before the double doors of the kitchen, a myriad of voices and laughter coming from within that also helps to raise my spirits. Akiko opens up the way for us, and we are greeted by the sight of the others beginning to set the table for dinner, the amber light from the sun cresting past the mountains bathing the small clearing in its golden hue. I smile and wave to everyone, who in turn smile back and greet the both of us with varying nick names and of course the Madam / Mistress combo. I still wonder about that, apparently Sam calls her that because of their relationship, which is the longest one now since whatever happened 100 years ago. Well, if the Sect Leader and Akiko aren’t a thing, which I’m pretty sure they are and Akiko just hasn’t opened up about that yet. Huh… that makes me feel some things…
I’m broken from my thoughts as we walk further in and seat ourselves at the large picnic table, five places – and an empty one for Ios, awww~! – having been set already in anticipation of us coming here. I smile as I’m sat next to Gerra and Jun Li this time, Samantha and Akiko taking the ends while Ios projects herself from the other side and mimes out some holographic food on her empty plate. She really commits to bits, its honestly impressive~! We should probably talk about her getting her body going now, with all the points for the shop I have in the bank. I’m sure she’s more than ready to be corporeal again, I just hope I can survive her trolling as well as her flirting and kindness when she’s a real girl.
I blush slightly as those errant whisps of taunting ideas pass through me, Ios looking over in my direction as the others are distracted with placing the meals onto the plates or pouring drinks. She gives me a questioning eyebrow raise to which I just shake my head and look away, making me almost miss the cheeky smile she grows and then dismisses before I can turn back. Damn, these new senses just from buffing points really are a blessing and a curse sometimes, seeing that knowing smirk fade away tickles me down to my navel, making me clench my legs together slightly as my face reddens more and more. Jesus, Aims, don’t get horny at dinner, c’mon!
I look around and no one seems to have noticed my little unbidden dip into the wild side, a wash of relief coming over me as the last bits of food and side dishes are set on the table for anyone who wants to grab seconds. I use [Appraise] on everything, still not quite getting it to level 7 yet, but as always the buffs and perks from Gerra’s cooking are just astounding. By the end of the meal, I’ll have +15% physical and mental stats, as well as the same to my health and stamina pools. She even broke out the cookies again, so that mental and physical resilience buff will kick in too, nice~! Plus, always love a cookie~!
With everything sorted, we all begin to eat as I try my best to not be an animal at the table yet again. I hear some amused chuckles from everyone at my attempts, mostly because they don’t last longer than the fourth or fifth bite of culinary excellence but, like usual, I’m too enraptured to care by that point. I do pop back up to reality as Akiko and the girls talk about their day, curious about what exactly they all get up to while Akiko and I are locked in a dungeon together… Okay, that flash of horniness is on me for wording it like that.
Jun Li goes over how she tended to the garden and then looked over her own plot of various herbs, vines, and flowers which she used to make a small breakthrough in a new pill she was trying to produce. Some kind of… adaptation on an antidote pill that would work on any poison. That’s pretty amazing if she can get it working! There surely must be hundreds to thousands of different types or variations of poison that people use, given how… prevalent assassins and stuff are, so having something like that in the pocket would be a life saver. Literally. Akiko seems to agree to my internal logic, as she praises the now blushing black haired kitsune, all three of her tails dusting the ground with their rapid movements. She is just too damn cute~!
I smile as I rest my chin on my hand and take in her sweet display, before Samantha chimes in with her own activities. Apparently she is working on a new suit of armor for herself, one that is going to be made of nothing but pure enchanted metal and then taken to the Flowing Pen Branch to enchant further. Still kind of wild that this gal who is nearly my height goes around in full knight armor bashing heads when she throws down, but honestly it’s kind of hot too. I wonder if she ever got to play the knight in shining armor scene for any of the girls~.
I chuckle softly to myself, listening to Akiko move her showering praise over to the curly haired blonde whose reaction is much more subdued, but no less obvious going by the pink line across her cheeks and nose. Always adorable to see that stoic mask break sometimes, but I wonder why she is so walled up to begin with? She mentioned that her customs from her tribe dictated how she acts toward new people, or at least new people in her intimate group, so maybe that’s part of it? I’ll definitely have to ask her when its her turn to teach me stuff. In a nice way, of course.
Gerra’s turn is next, her delightful southern drawl going over how she went into the mountains to pickup some more Bisoonses meat since the feast hit the stockpiles a bit. Turns out, she is quite the hunter as she tracked a herd of them to where they were grazing on a hilly field between some of the peaks from a few miles away and then rushed them. Right, no supermarket around here to get all of this delicious meat from, huh? Well, not like there weren’t people who hunted back on Earth, especially in my neck of the woods, and while most just did it for sport, we did have one neighbor who did it to put food on the table. He’d share some of the stuff that was in danger of going bad if left in the deep freeze any longer with us from time to time, apparently he’d only hunt during the season and then store everything as long as he could to offset the growing price of food. Fucking inflation, sure won’t be missing that…
Hopefully I don’t have to do much of that at first when Gerra gets a hold of me, much like her firm pink tail is doing right now around my waist~. I know I’ll need to go smash some monster or creature heads, but I don’t really know how I’ll react to cutting up one for meat the first few times. Gruesome images and thoughts aside, Gerra talks about how she met Elders Julian and Fei in town on her way back to the estate and that they said things were moving along fine with the Shadow Branch as well as the other punished members now. Yet another thing to ask about sometime, hearing about Akiko going full nuke on someone again makes me nearly shiver in delight~.
Akiko turns to me and shakes me out of my revelry, apparently waiting for me to add in to the conversation with what we found out down in the training rooms. I stumble a bit at the sudden attention, everyone’s eyes moving toward me as the wait for me to speak up, “A-Akiko, Ios, and I went down and trained with ranged stuff today, and we found out that I’m basically even more broken at that than the other stuff. Like, I already have the Mastery quests for each of the ‘categories’ that the system gave for those types of weapons, and we only trained on those for a couple hours each!”
Akiko and Ios look on with pride as all of the girls eyes smile in delight at the news, Jun Li wrapping me up in a hug around my head while Gerra links her arms around my waist. Even Samantha shows me a smile full of respect as she raises her cup toward me and says, “Well done, little pup~. Use every tool to your advantage, as your enemies will do the same to you. Congratulations.” Short, sweet, and to the point, just like she always is. Gotta respect consistency!
Jun Li nuzzles against my head, her own words of encouragement flowing from her bubbling voice, “Absolutely Miss Amelia~! I cannot wait to teach you alchemy and poisons when it is my turn to spend time with you, it shall surely be incredible to witness such monstrous comprehension firsthand~!”
I smile into the pillowy softness that I’m essentially forced into from our positions, a smile brimming across my face from the amazing sensation as I mumble out broken words of thanks. Gerra takes her turn, squeezing my sides as she says, “Same goes to me for spiritual cooking! It’ll be nice to pass down my knowledge to someone who is without a doubt going to be as capable as you, little bird~! Not to mention you just growing stronger in general is a fantastic thing to see!”
Alright, I decide to never miss another dinner with these three again, especially if they do this little end of day pow wow every time~. All I can do is bask in their words and attentions, which does make me a bit uncomfortable underneath, but the warm feelings of acceptance, praise, and the pleasantly tight and constricting feeling of the dual hug – as well as my placement in it~ – easily offset that reluctance. I let out a pleased sigh as I wrap my arms around both Gerra and Jun Li, returning their hugs with my own before they break away and pat me on the head.
I’m nearly hug-drunk by the time the affection stops, my sitting form slightly waving back and forth on the seat from all of the nice and wonderful sensations and emotions flowing through me, before Akiko chuckles off to the side. “We also discovered that with her newfound strength in the Wisdom ability, that she can now traverse, perform actions in, and linger in her soul space at a time dilation. Favoring the time inside, of course. And that she already possesses the ability and capacity to make and hold Intents.”
The girls this time nearly launch out of their seats, even Samantha looks a bit stunned as she glances over to me with wide eyes of surprise. I rub my cheek with a finger as I smile sheepishly in answer to all of their mouth open faces, “Y-yeah… I apparently nearly created an Intent a little over a week ago, while I was healing Sandy. Ios and Akiko eventually agreed that due to the weird circumstances with my soul and the system and everything else, I likely can handle having a lower leveled Intent already. Although we aren’t trying to! I mean, I’m not trying to! I just… well, when it happened last time, I didn’t really have much control over it, but maybe now that my Wisdom is so high, it won’t be a problem?”
Gerra and Jun Li still seem a bit shell-shocked, but Sam recovers first and gives me a dead pan stare. “The fact that you ended that explanation as a question does not inspire confidence, Amelia.” She sighs into her hand, rubbing her temples slightly before looking back up to me between a couple fingers, “If the Mistress and your spirit are in agreement on the matter, then I trust their judgement. Just… be careful, Amelia. Intents are powerful and would draw immense attention to you with how lower ranked you are in cultivation, if it were to be discovered.”
Ios pops in, coming to my defense a bit, “Thank you, Samantha, for your trust in both myself and Akiko. We explained to Amelia at length the dangers and concerns regarding her obtaining an Intent, rest assured. However, like Aims said, she can’t really control if she gets the nascent one she nearly formed or not. For it to even be an option, it must be a concept that is so heavily ingrained in her soul that it would probably do more harm than good if we tried to limit her from getting it. But, it’s nice to see that you care for her~.”
While another blush creeps across Sam’s cute face at being called out by Ios, Jun Li finally shakes off her stupor as she once more wraps me in a hug. A much tighter one this time, I notice. “You are almost frightening to know, Miss Amelia. Make sure you always follow the advice of the Mistress and spirit Ios, I would hate to see something cripple or wound you that could be avoided.” Gerra reaches up and hugs the both of us, my face now sandwiched between glorious softness and the thrumming purr and soft skin of the cat woman’s cheek as she nods vigorously in agreement with everyone. I think I’m nearly in heaven, all I’d need is Akiko’s fluff~. I glance over to see Akiko gazing at us in pure joy as Ios holds her own smirking smile again, while Samantha seems to have calmed down and is also enjoying the show as she sips on some wine.
They both eventually pull back, getting their concerned cuddle time accounted for before Jun Li starts the conversation back up, “Troubling, yet fantastical news aside, I am beyond overjoyed for you in your development in the soul space! Does this mean that you may be able to bring Miss Sandra back sooner than we thought?”
I fight my damn hardest to keep the spike of sorrow from showing on my face, and judging by the instant reaction of the girls, I can tell I was far from successful. I sigh as I stare back up to Jun Li’s face, her ears flattened to the side as her tails droop sadly behind her, her hand coming up to her mouth while her eyes frown down at me. “It’s okay Miss J, it was an honest question. One that I had to fight against myself to answer earlier today. Do I get stronger first? Learn more about the world of Mara and cultivating, making sure that I can absolutely protect Sandra while she does the same growing and training that I did? Or do I do what my heart and soul want, to bring her back as fast as possible and then deal with whatever consequences and trials we might face together, even if it means we aren’t as prepared as we could be if I’d have waited. Would she be upset at me for doing that? Or for not bringing her back first? It wasn’t an easy conversation, at least in my mind.”
I sigh again, noticing that everyone is looking toward me. Gerra’s face full of concern and worry, Sam having a thoughtful and curious look, like she is waiting for my answer to that very question and reserving her judgement until then. Ios and Akiko give softer, but still slightly pained looks as I recount that emotional moment again. “But,” I continue as I turn back to Jun Li, “Sandra is going to need more attention and work than what the new time weirdness will give me, or at least that’s what Ios told me then and Akiko agreed. Sure, I could stay locked in my room for however long it takes, but I will without a doubt heal her faster if I keep getting stronger. As much as it hurts me, knowing that the option is still technically there to take, I need to stay the course and make sure that when she wakes up she is safe, loved, and that I can help her through anything she faces while she acclimates.”
I wipe a few unfelt tears that fell off of my cheeks, looking back up to the ruby eyed kitsune as I give her a hug. I feel her arms wrap around me once again, stroking my hair softly as the familiar weight of Gerra leans into my side. I poke an eye toward Sam, seeing a satisfied and gentle smile on her face, her green eyes shining in approval as the embrace continues on for some time. Eventually we slide apart again, but both a tail from Jun Li and Gerra’s pink one wiggle and settle into place laying against my lap and each other like a warm blanket for me. I smile and pet both of them a few times, giving each of them fair attention before Akiko brings us back to the still half eaten meal with a clink of a fork.
Well, half eaten for them, I already finished all of mine~.
