Last Minute Strategy Meeting

John tugged at the tie around his neck. After all the fighting, exploring and sex in the last few days, going back to dress clothes felt weird, but Vivian insisted he put on his best for the meeting. The suit wasn’t anything special, but it still felt like it was something too expensive for someone like him to be wearing.

As he got used to his new clothing, his mind drifted back to the preparations they did after their little post experiment sex. Of course, thinking about that made John have to adjust his pants, and he quickly turned his mind to events after it. First, once they had rested off their many, many orgasms, Brenda and Senka revealed there had been a slight change to Brenda’s mana during their fun. Whatever had happened didn’t stick around, Brenda’s mana had been the same as when they first scanned her, even remaining at roughly the same amount.

Between the unknown change and seeming stability of the transfer, Estelle had rushed back to her lab to prepare a litany of tests to run, which was likely going to take up her and Brenda’s day. John was just grateful that everything seemed to be stable and safe for Brenda.

With that done, they had turned their focus to preparing for the meeting. Which meant Vivian had produced a number of options and plans, working out just who was going to represent them, what proof they were going to bring and what arguments they were going to use to secure the deal.

In the end, they had come up with the team of him, Vivian and Verida as their representatives. Vivian, of course, was the only one with actual business knowledge, John was needed given how connected his powers were to things and for Observe and Verida as the overall ‘owner’ of the Kingdom and someone with even greater connection to Pruzonia. It did mean that Kiera was needed to mantle the goddess, a task she readily accepted.

‘I just hope they don’t clock onto the fact that we’re technically bringing five people,’ John worried.

‘It’s a bit hard to separate the two of us for any substantial amount of time,’ Senka remarked in an amused tone. ‘I’m sure they won’t be too put out about it.’

‘Maybe we should try to put out the fire beforehand? Let them know about you and Kiera, the circumstances as to why you’re present and give them the opportunity to bring in two more people to keep things even. Is it better to be up front or hope they can’t smell the deception?’

‘That’s a fair point, but I’m sure Vivian would make that decision if it was one we needed to take,’ Senka thought. ‘If Kiera and I keep quiet, for lack of a better term, we should be fine.’

As much as the deception didn’t sit right with John, he couldn’t fault the logic. As far as he knew, detecting Senka while she was unmanifested or Kiera while Verida was acting through her was a difficult task. But that they had met the dwarves after they had a falling out with a merchant trying to rip them off made him hesitant to start things off with a deception, innocent as it could be spun.

‘I think I need to bring this up to Vivian,’ he decided. ‘Being upfront will likely help us in the long run, if these people value integrity as much as they seem to.’

‘Being decisive, hmm?’ Senka hummed. ‘I like it.’

‘Let’s not start anything,’ John cautioned her. ‘Just like I’m sure they’re not keen on lying, I can’t see the dwarves liking us looking like we just rolled out of bed.’

‘I suppose,’ the spirit huffed disappointedly. ‘Though, I’m not sure you’ll be singing the same tune when you see Vivian’s office attire.’

‘You’ve been in my head,’ John shot back. ‘You know I’ve seen those office porn parodies. That’s why I’m trying to hone my mind so I don’t throw Vivian on a desk and ravish her.’

Senka laughed aloud, her voice carrying from where she was with Vivian.

‘You just told her what I said, didn’t you?’ John asked after a moment of silence.

‘She’s very red right now and giving me much the same ‘don’t fill my head with lewd thoughts, we have work to do’ speech as you did,’ the spirit replied smugly.

‘You shouldn’t rile her up. This is a big step for her business idea,’ John remarked.

‘I’m dialing it back,’ Senka relented. ‘I’ve also forwarded your concerns about me and Kiera. Expect a dialog.’

'Suppose that’s my cue to witness Vivian in her full office lady glory,’ John thought with a grin.

‘I hope you’ll survive,’ Senka replied in a bemused tone. ‘I’m not too keen on blinking out of existence, but what a way to go.’

John chuckled as he stepped out into the hallway and went down to the living room, where he was greeted by a still red faced Vivian. And he was not disappointed in her full office attire. It wasn’t vastly different from her normal, somewhat conservative dress style, but the combo of a green silk blouse, black vest, pencil skirt and stockings just tickled some part of his brain that went ‘hot’.

And clearly his appreciation for her look was evident, given how Vivan’s blush grew deeper but her lingering displeasure with Senka faded into a sort of bashful expression.

“That suit looks good on you, John,” the redhead said.

“It’s nothing compared to you,” John replied smoothly. “The green really pops your hair out.”

“Get a room,” Beth jibbed from her spot on the couch.

“They can’t,” Senka remarked with a shit eating grin. “Something about not wanting to give the wrong impression.”

“We don’t want to give the impression that we’re some kind of degenerate collective,” Vivian protested. “Going in smelling of sex, with messed up hair, make-up and clothing does not make us look like stable business partners.”

“We know,” Aeolia chimed in. “Which is why all we’re doing is teasing. You can relax, you know. I’m not sure showing up all robot-like is any better than looking like you just rolled out of bed.”

To prove her point, Aeolia flew over to Vivian and began to massage her shoulders. The redhead let out a moan as Aeolia worked her stiff shoulders into relaxing.

“Damn, it’s worse than I thought,” Aeolia remarked as she moved her fingers. “Maybe a quickie would be good to get rid of this tension?”

“I’d smack you if your fingers weren’t so good,” Vivian groaned. “Guess I am a little nervous about this. And not just because this is the first real break we’ve had. If we fuck this up, Verida’s going to be locked in Pruzonia for longer. It’s not fair to her or Kiera that the only way for her to interact with the wider world requires Kiera not being able to really be with us.”

“I get that you’re tense about that,” Aeolia softly said as she kneaded out Vivian’s stress, “but you don’t need to take it all on by yourself. We’re a team, right?”

“I think ‘team’ is a bit too light of a term for us,” John joked, his remark lightening the mood a bit.

“Harem has a nice ring to it,” Senka added.

“Not sure that gives the right impression,” Vivian said.

“Whatever we call ourselves, we all know what it really means,” Aeolia remarked. “That’s what really matters.”

Vivian began to roll her shoulders, signalling to Aeolia to stop her massage. She turned and quickly kissed the winged woman, a light peck compared to the heavy make outs of the last few days.

“Thanks,” she said softly, gently caressing Aeolia’s cheek. “I needed that. Both the massage and the pep talk.”

“No problem.” Aeolia smiled.

“I hate to bring down the mood, but there is something we need to clear up before we go,” John announced. “Technically, we’re going in with five people. If they’ve got any way of sensing Senka or Kiera, we could be starting off with a negative reputation.”

“I suppose we have been lucky that no one we’ve dealt with either couldn’t detect things like that or didn’t care,” Vivian muttered.

“It’s only been the goblins, right?” Beth queried. “The Order didn’t seem to care about Senka when you guys had the meeting with them.”

“They also knew about me from the fight they intruded on,” Senka interjected. “And they’re operating under the assumption that I’m an elemental, which is not too far off mechanically.”

“Still, the only people we’ve fooled are the goblins, and they didn’t have anyone besides Teri who could detect a hidden person connected to someone in front of them,” Vivian said. “I can’t believe we overlooked the possibility that they could have someone on hand who could sense the unseen.”

“So what do we do? Call them and say, ‘hey, sorry to bother you with a late question, but two of our people are actually a two-for-one deal. Is that going to be okay with you?’” Beth asked.

“I think we’ll be upfront about it when we meet them,” Vivian answered after a moment of thought. “Calling with such short notice, even with good intentions, makes us look wishy-washy.”

“Doesn’t us knocking on their doors with this problem unresolved bring the same issues?” Senka asked.

“Yes, but doing it this way creates a circumstance where we can look like the bigger party by offering a concession of some of the loot, regardless of their reaction,” Vivian said. “Business is about hierarchies and the movement of goods and services. By putting them on the spot and presenting our issue as an honest mistake, we can play the ‘ernest and inexperienced’ card.”

“A bit underhanded, but not overly wrong,” Senka mused. “Nothing ventured, right?”

“We’re already having this at their offices, so we’ve got a little wiggle room when it comes to breaches of decorum like this,” Vivian said before she looked over at John. “But we’ll need to be careful to avoid making any more.”

“I think I can manage to not put my foot in my mouth,” John remarked. “And I’m sure Verida can manage better than me. She held her own against the Order without issue.”

“That she did,” Vivian said.

“And if things start to turn sour, pull the goddess card,” Beth suggested. “Can’t hurt, right?”

“Maybe, but it could make them hesitant to work under a goddess,” Vivian answered. “But that is something we will have to reveal, along with our connection with the Order.”

“Probably will make the whole magically appearing mine a bit easier to swallow,” John said.

Vivian nodded. “Let me play the cards we have when I feel they’re appropriate to be played.”

“Business is your area of expertise. I’m just the guy who gets the loot and reads out what it does,” John joked.

“We’ll probably need to bring at least one of them into the party for that,” Vivian muttered before she pulled out her phone. “Almost time to go.”

Almost on cue, Kiera stumbled into the room, looking a bit flushed, Anita right behind her looking rather bemused.

“Kiera, I thought you were getting ready with Verida back in the clearing. What happened?” Vivian asked, which caused Kiera’s face to go red.

“Verida was in the mood for her own experiment,” Anita answered, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “She thinks she might have been able to lessen the burden on Kiera when they do the combo thing.”

“And how did she test that idea?” Senka asked, a knowing smile growing.

“They spent about five minutes kissing,” Anita said, adopting a look of faux annoyance as she looked over to Kiera. “It wasn’t very fun being left out like that.”

“It wasn’t like we were trying to exclude you,” Kiera frantically explained. “V-Verida thought that the same kind of thing that happened with all of us and Brenda could boost my ability to mantle her. And, um, she was very focused on making sure it stuck.”

“Did it work?” Beth asked.

“Um, I don’t think so,” Kiera admitted. “I kind of wasn’t paying attention.”

The bluenette buried her face into her hands as the embarrassment grew too much for her to bear.

Vivian rubbed her temples. “We are all too horny.”

“Glad you didn’t try to exclude yourself,” Senka said with a grin.

“I will freely admit to being the one that answered Verida’s question with an unorthodox use of my mouth,” Vivian remarked, her cheeks turning just a bit red. Then she turned her attention to Kiera. “Are you and Verida ready?”

Kiera nodded, before she began to mantle Verida. In an instant, Kiera was gone and Verida stood. And promptly began to lose her balance. John quickly lurched towards her, hand grabbing her arm to keep her steady.

John was about to ask if she was okay, but the lack of two of her distinct features stole his voice. Her horns and tail were absent. As if sensing the question on everyone’s mind, the goddess spoke up.

“I figured things would be easier if my more eye-catching parts were hidden while out of a barrier,” she revealed. “Just wasn’t expecting my balance to be so affected by the lack of my tail.”

She motioned for John to let her go and she righted her posture. “I should be fine now. Kiera is lending me her walking experience.”

To show she was fine, she strutted around the room, giving everyone a good look at the attire she had chosen to wear. She had taken a page out of Vivian’s book and had gone for an office look, opting for much the same look, though she had gone with pantyhose instead of stockings and her blouse reflected her fondness for yellow over Vivian’s green.

“Did I get the look right?” she asked after her circuit.

“You look ready for that Nine-to-Five grind,” John answered.

Vivian nodded. “And speaking of time, we’re about out of it. Got everything?”

“Rocks and gems are safely in my inventory,” John replied, summoning one of the gems for a moment before stowing it.

“Right, let’s get going then.”