Coming clean with Anastasia

You didn't sit just in case there was another attack coming. At the end of the half hour only Anastasia who had paired with Eight and Four who had paired with Six had won. Everyone else was very suddenly frozen in place. You ran over to catch Vatarie but she'd braced herself and remained standing despite the paralysis.

"Some of you did well." Stephanie said walking out into the arena and looking at Asune. "The others can wait here until the paralysis wears off." There was a slight pause from the audience as the friends of those not able to move considered staying. "Unless anyone wants to challenge my decision." That made people quickly decide to either settle in for the wait or leave. Most left. Hard to blame them, standing on a field of paralyzed nobles was a bit overboard on her normal level of intimidation.

"Christopher." Clare whispered nodding at Anastasia. Guess that means you'll be doing this now. Anastasia approached you and looked at Clare and Delilah.

"Christopher I hope you didn't miss my presence too much. You're friend just needed help to settle in." Anastasia said not as amused as her voice suggested.

You looked at Delilah and saw a mixture of embarrassed and devilish smiles from the two of them. "Thank you for helping them. They've never been to such a large city before." You said. looking over at Vatarie you saw Asune approaching her and looking her paralyzed form up and down. Maybe you should delay - a tingling sensation of impatience ran down your spine and you looked over to receive a pointed look from Clare "I was hoping for a moment to talk about something with you in private."

"Of course." Anastasia said sweeping over to you locking an elbow with yours. "Edin please make sure everyone is happy and bring them to my estate when Vatarie is able to move."

Actually with that comment you realised Stephanie had just paralyzed multiple people with an enchanted dagger. That seems like an extraordinarily powerful item to just causally use on students - another tingle ran down your spine. "Clare can you come with." As you say it you feel Anastasia aura get a little turned on.

Clare gets up and takes Anastasia other arm winking at her. "Anything for you Harea." She said kissing your cheek which made Anastasia's attraction flicker a bit brighter. The three of you left with a lot of eyes on you including Delilah who seemed less upset than you expected them to be about you leaving them behind. Clare probably had a chat with them, or Anastasia's day with them settled things down.

You didn't think any more about it as your brain brought up the impending conversation. A lot of tension flooded you as worries about all the ways this could go bad popped into your mind. There were an awful lot of ways this ends badly. In fact a multitude of - another tingle and you looked at Clare giving you an eye roll.

Sighing you did your best to not get into your head as you made your way to the estate. Clare helped by making small talk with Anastasia. Asking about some finer points of noble etiquette that went very far over your head.

Walking Anastasia into her room lead to an immediate bit of awkwardness. Anastasia pulled free of the two of you and walked over to a chair facing the bed with a very red face. "Oh ah, we actually need to talk Ana." You said as Clare walks over to her.

"Not that you aren't just the cutest little cuck a girl could ask for." She patted Anastasia's head and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Christopher you first."

You opened your mouth then choked up in a moment of panic. You had to take a few deep breaths which made Anastasia's turned-on-ness become fearness. "What did my mother do?" She asked you.

"Ok maybe I'll go first." Clare said shaking her head at you. "Ana I'm not a childhood friend of Christopher, I'm a Goddess who brought his consciousness into this world."

Anastasia's expression shifted through a few emotions. "So a Goddess for my Christopher." She bite her lip as she looked between the two of you.

"Yep should have seen that coming." You say with a laugh and shake your head, your worry melting away somewhat. "She's telling the truth Ana. I'm not from this world, in my last life I was in my twenties and got killed by a,"

"Truck." Clare added.

"right, anyway I was brought to this world with a Goddess boost to my power and now, here we are." You trailed off at the end as your worries returned.

Anastasia's face had shifted while you were talking to something a little more serious. "Prove it."

"Can't. Christopher made me a mortal so unless you feel like killing me so he can remake me we're stuck with you either believe or not, but come on it does make sense with Christopher power doesn't it. Along with, just all of this." She waves a hand at you vaguely.

Anastasia looks between the two of you and a long pause stretches out. "Why are you telling me this?" Her aura was suddenly very tightly controlled and she straightened her posture.

"'Cause he is just ridiculously in love with you and didn't want your life together to be based on a lie about who he is. And I'm pretty fond of you as well." Clare said stroking Anastasia hand that didn't pull away.

"Why bring him here?"

"A bet with my sister, who is also here, there are seventeen other people like Christopher out there, she'll pick one and then either Christopher or that person will defeat the other and win." Anastasia's controlled aura gets a bit frazzled at the defeat part. "Don't worry, I really don't want Christopher to get hurt and my sister doesn't like ****."

Anastasia looked at the two of you for another long moment. "Does anyone else know?"

"No, unless sis tattles, which she won't." Clare said holding Anastasia's hand.

"Is Delilah your sister?"

"No, Delilah is way too much fun." Clare said giving Anastasia a kiss and pulling her to her feet. "And before anything else." She walks the Princess to stand in front of you. "Look at him, has learning this changed anything? Does he look any different? Do you feel any different?" She pressed Anastasia's hand against your chest. "Does he feel any different?"

Anastasia's hand ran along your torso feeling your muscles. "No." She said biting her lip and looking into your eyes. "No he's still Christopher." She smiled at you and you leaned over to kiss her lips. She sighed into you and when the kiss broke she looked at Clare. "Don't tell anyone else," she hesitated for a moment, "your holiness?"

Clare smiled and planted a kiss on Anastasia's lips. "Clare is perfect Harea."

"Also Delilah is..." You look at Clare who shakes her head.

"She's complicated and I will tell you later when I have some time to talk with her alone." She stressed alone which implied they hadn't had much time today. "Christopher can you go and meet the others Ana and I need to spend some more time going over the details." She said pulling the Princess away from you.

Anastasia looked a bit disappointed but not too disappointed. "Thank you for telling me." She paused for a moment and looked you up and down. "How old are you?"

"Ah," you did some mental maths in your head.

"Eighteen." Clare said for you. "His mind might be older, but come on, do you really think Christopher is mature enough to be an adult?" She chuckled and Anastasia smiled. "We'll meet you and everyone else in the dinning room."

Anastasia nodded at you and the two went to sit in front of the unlit fire. You walked to the door impressed by how well that seemed to have gone. You looked back as you walked out the door and saw Clare push Anastasia's head down. "You have some worshiping to do first." She said with a wide grin then caught your eye. She looked at Anastasia then up at you and seemed to be weighing the option of inviting you to join.