Between Two Sisters [Stefanie POV]

Stefanie was nervous.

In the Magus family, she was the odd one. In an entire family of Fateweavers, she alone had become a water mage. Still, she had always considered herself to have done well for herself. She hadn’t stoically drilled down the way Magnus had nor relied on talent like Lee. She hadn’t even relied on her family name. Stefanie had simply turned her modest talent in water magic into a job.

Maintaining the water wards of New Atlantis was no glamorous job, but it needed doing and it paid extremely well. It required a fine hand, reliability and patience. Living in New Atlantis was an exclusive club in the first place. She had come from a rich family, but Stefanie Magus could say with absolute certainty that she had what she had because of her own efforts.

That did not prevent her from being nervous.

Her baby sister was an empress now. Well, she was a marriage away from being an empress but that was a distinction without a difference. ‘Lady of Shifting Dimensions’ they called her. First time she had read the title in a newspaper, she had done a doubletake, then she had checked Lee’s articles from the cheaper information brokers.

Stefanie may have skipped out on the family business, but she understood enough about the laws of Protected Spaces to know that connecting two of them for fast travel was absurdity. Even as the child of Magoi Magus, reading about one’s sibling on the Abyssal equivalent of Wikipedia was weird. Stefanie remembered Lee being the brat that cried when Mom took the handheld from her.

There was plenty of reason to be nervous!

Walking through Ternate was a common experience. She had dressed modestly, loose clothes that didn’t accentuate the figure. Most women around her had their hair covered, but not all and those that didn’t were left alone. Living in Oceania with its hundreds of local customs, tinged by individual circumstances and whatever faith had managed to seep into the locals, had taught her that it was easiest to move within each culture. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, as the saying went.

She approached the local airport. As a local hub of transportation, it was of respectable size, though the aircraft that she saw upon entering the Illusion Barrier still seemed way too large for it. It was less a plane and more a… Stefanie didn’t even have words for it. It was huge.

She gulped, walking despite her nerves.

‘I do hope nothing bad happens here…’ she thought as she approached the staircase. A pair of guards flanked it, both incredibly sexy. Stefanie had a thing for men in uniform and the finely tailored Fusion suit was a dark blue dream. Black trims and the brass-coloured elements of Baelementium rounded out the picture.

Stefanie pushed her scared arousal aside and continued her approach. The two men stayed fixated on her, dark eyes tracing her movement. “I am the sister of Lee Magus,” she introduced herself in an even tone. “May I enter?”

“One moment, please,” one guard said and pulled a phone out. He took a quick photo of Stefanie, then sent a text message. Three seconds later, Lee almost fell down the top of the stairs.

The moment she saw her little sister, all of Stefanie’s nervousness was gone.

Lee hurried down the steps with those same rapid stomps as she always had. She did not trust her feet, keeping her eyes low and her hand gliding over the railing. Then, she leapt down the last seven stairs without thinking about it. As a less physically gifted Abyssal, Stefanie’s shins and knees protested at the mere witnessing of that plunge.

“STEF!” Lee jumped at her sister.

Only once before had Stefanie been hugged by her sister like this. Today was a much better day than their parents’ burial ceremony. The middle child of the Magus family banished the memory of the empty coffin from her mind. She stumbled one step back, caught herself, and hugged Lee back.

“Still the little sister,” Stefanie teased.

“Yeah, yeah, lord it over me,” Lee answered.

Water magic wasn’t the only thing that made her odd among her siblings. Stefanie’s hair wasn’t as straight as that of Lee or Magnus, having a bit of curl to it, and her figure was more developed than Lee’s used to be – though her relationship with the Gamer had led to her catching up in the thigh department.

“I might only have height on you soon,” Stefanie complained playfully as they disentangled. She was half a head taller than Lee. “Let me look at you.” She framed Lee’s face with her hands. “You’re positively glowing!”

“T-thanks?” Lee stammered.

“Ah!” Stefanie couldn’t just keep in her excitement and hugged her little sister tightly. “I am so happy for you! Didn’t think you’d be the first one to have children! At least you waited until you weren’t a teenager anymore!”

“Magnus made the exact same joke.”

Stefanie snorted in amusement, then realized that they were still outdoors. “Are you going to invite me inside?”

“Oh, yeah, come on in!” Lee grinned smugly. “This empress invites you into her humble abode.”

Stefania gave the plane’s length another wandering gaze. “Nothing about this huge tube is humble.”

“That’s what she said,” Lee slurred, then began to hop up the staircase.

They were barely two steps inside when an expected sound graced Stefanie’s ears. “Oooo-o-ooohhh!” The lustful cry warbled with all of the intensity of an orgasm so good it sounded fake. As one who had faked an orgasm a couple of times, Stefanie believed she knew the difference. “YES!” Yeah, no, that was definitely real.

“Guys, I told you my sister is coming!” Lee shouted down the corridor with the same indignation a roommate had for a dirty dish being left in the sink. “At least close the door!”

The moaning came to a halt. A moment later, two naked women stepped out of one of the many rooms connected to this central corridor. Both were drop-dead gorgeous. One was of light-grey skin, her black lips slightly lowered into a permanently saddened expression that remained despite the glisten of female fluids on her lower face. The other was a short brunette with long, brown hair.

“Stefanie Magus!” the brunette suddenly stepped forwards, medium breasts and plump thighs quaking with every rapid step. Before Stefanie knew it, the hazel-eyed woman had grabbed both of her hands. “I love the poem you wrote on the beauty of underwater creatures! I would love to see the corals of New Atlantis some day soon!”

“You, uh… huh?”

“Layla!” Lee gave her fellow brunette a friendly tackle. “Can you maybe not creep out my sister by being a stalker?”

“It’s not stalking! I was just learning about the sister of my co-bred Harmonia!”

“Just because we got knocked up the same night doesn’t mean she’s your relative!”

Stefanie scratched the back of her head. Learning the manner by which a baby had been put into her sister left her quite cold. She had never been as prudish as Magnus. Stefanie was more distracted by just how good Lee herself actually looked. Seeing her next to these two put into perspective how much being with the Gamer had improved Lee’s physical and mental condition in every single way. Stefanie was almost envious of how much of a sheen Lee’s skin had.

No, not almost, she was envious. Her ebon hair and pale skin were both practically sparkling!

“Get out of here!” Lee shoved Layla back into the room she came from.

“I hope you enjoy your stay,” the other woman, Lyndell as Stefanie recalled, muttered quietly. Even her voice had a constant tinge of sadness, mixing harmoniously with the angelic pitch to produce a naturally enticing tone.

“That’s-“ Stefanie started to talk, only for her eyes to snap straight to Lyndell’s ass. It was perfect. Really. It was just… wow. So round and so… wow. Its size and weight were exactly right, creating an underlining crease between cheek and thigh that deepened with every swaying step she took out of view. ‘…I think I like girls now,’ she caught herself thinking. ‘Is it gay when it’s a woman like that?’

The door closed. Stefanie looked to Lee. The youngest of the three siblings stared smugly. “Do you get it now?”

“…Why you love being in this harem?” Stefanie asked. “…Yeah… yeah, I think I get it.”

“Want to join?”

Stefanie laughed, she knew that wasn’t a serious suggestion. “No… no, I don’t think I’d have the energy for that.” She may not have been a prude, but between the scope of the Imperial Choir’s duties and the sheer chaos that the web of sapphic relationship must be… no, Stefanie was too much of a regular person to even try partake in that. She liked parties, but not of this kind.

They continued down the hallway. “Eliana, Gale and Claire are out,” Lee explained. “And the support staff is mostly with them. It’s just the two guards outside.”

“What if anyone attacks?”

“While Lyndell is here?” Lee shook her head. “I mean, there is a chance. All our current enemies have honour though.” She smiled over her shoulder. “If I thought you’d be in danger, I wouldn’t have asked you to meet me, Ss.”

Stefanie smiled back for a moment, then took a glance back herself. “That was the last Lorylim, wasn’t it… she?”

“First, last, neither… it’s complicated.”

They reached a simple yet spacious living room. It was mostly normal. The size of the dinner table and the couch within it suggested an enormous household. Still, the only really odd thing was a super comfortable-looking chair, bolted to the floor in one corner of the room. It was akin to the seats found in dentist’s places, but without all the nightmarish additions.

“The blowjob throne,” Lee answered before Stefanie asked.

“You really worship the guy, don’t you?” she asked. “Not that I’m against ye ol’ fellatio, but I don’t think I would give my man a seat specifically for it.”

“Well… you aren’t super rich and your man wouldn’t have orgasm-juice as cum.”

“Is that rumour true?”

“It’s very true.”

“Lucky you,” Stefanie spoke without a hint of envy and headed for one of the regular chairs around. She trusted that the famous maid squad would have wiped every surface of the room clean after it was used.

“Yeah, I am quite lucky,” Lee agreed and sat down opposite of her sister.

And suddenly the string of exchanges between them came to an end. The silence did not begin awkward. It was a gradual transition, brought about by the prolonged quiet and the uncertain shifting of the youngest Magus.

“Out with it already!” Stefanie demanded.

“Do you… want to come to Fusion?”

The water mage crossed her arms and leaned back. “Why do you ask?”

“You know why,” Lee muttered, before taking a deep breath. “We lost Mom and Dad. If someone kidnapped you to get to me and John…”

Stefanie’s fingers drummed on the tabletop. She wasn’t stupid. She had considered the same problem multiple times before. Being related to a High Fateweaver had already put a small target on her back, but at least the Fateweavers had been a neutral organization. Lee’s sudden ascent had left her in a difficult spot. At times, she resented her sister for it.

Immature thoughts that she stopped like the drumming of her fingers.

“I appreciate that you’re worried about me,” Stefanie said. “But I have lived my life my own way. I’ve gotten where I want to be. I can’t give that up. If that means taking the risk that some nutjobs will come for me, then so be it.”

Lee pressed her lips together. “Are you sure…?”

“I am sure. I have thought about this a lot.” The awkward silence began to flow back in. Stefanie pushed it back with an honest laugh. “If someone does get me, I trust you’ll get me out of it.”

“I’ll do my best… well, I’ll have John do his best.” Lee managed to summon back some of that smug brat energy again. “It’s great to have a man you can just point at problems and then they go away.”

“It is nice,” Stefanie agreed. It had been two years since her last long-term relationship had crumbled. “Don’t brag about it to me too much… any chances you know any well-off young men?”

“I vaguely know a lot of people, though you’d be better off asking Gale,” Lee answered.

“Can I do that?”

“You’re staying for the next two days, right?” Lee’s question was met with a nod. Stefanie had come out all this way by boat, she wasn’t going to leave immediately again. “There’ll be a chance to talk to her no doubt.”

“Good, good… if there is something that might bait me over to Fusion, it’s a hunk in a uniform.” It was a half-joke. Stefanie liked where she was in life, but she was vaguely aware that her party years had to come to an end at some point. She would like to stay in New Atlantis, but for the right man she could be persuaded to move. “Actually, there is something sort of official I wanted to ask you about?”

“Oh? Can I finally repay you for that time you bought that hentai collection for me?”

Stefanie shook her head at that memory. “I think this is a slight bit more serious… is there a global increase in Natural Barriers?”

“…Why do you ask?” Lee’s tone spelled out a confirmation.

“Things have been interesting around New Atlantis recently. Do you know how it operates?”

“Underwater dome erected in a massive Natural Barrier found near the Oceania Leyline,” Lee summarized. “It’s a pretty interesting situation you have there. Other Natural Barriers keep melding with yours, expanding New Atlantis’ borders… but then the laws of Illusion Barrier sizes assert themselves and the outer border shrinks back down to the equilibrium point.” Lee visibly held back a bit of giddiness. “I would love to see how that works in person, but you’re bringing that up for a reason, yeah?”

“There have been more Natural Barriers recently,” Stefanie said. “We also monitor expansion and shrinkage closely and, well… I got a glance at the calculations recently. New Atlantis is expanding.”

“Actively expanding?!” Lee asked in half a panic.

“N-no!” Stefanie stammered swiftly, made nervous by her sister’s reaction. “Just… the shrinkage and the equilibrium point seem to have shifted… would active expansion be bad?”

“Considering that the only thing I met recently that can do active expansion is a cognitohazard, yeah, it would be bad!” Lee evened her breathing. “But if its just more Natural Barriers and the outer perimeter changing, that’s just in line with what’s happening everywhere else. Uhhhh… mhm…”

“Thinking about whether or not something is classified?” Stefanie guessed.

“The nice thing is that I can decide if something is classified or not,” Lee said. “Not like we’ve been shy about something happening… Expect the Natural Barrier frequency to further increase, maybe even for a Kingdom gate to pop up somewhere near you. Aftermath of the Re-Alignment. We don’t know exactly what’ll happen, but it’ll come to a head on or around March 9th.”

“I’ll suggest to prepare for things to my superiors then… Should I tell them where I got it from?”

“You might as well, might endear them to us,” Lee smirked. “I can politick too!”

Stefanie just laughed at that.