Meanwhile, At The Haunted Castle

Shar was enjoying a warm cup of her usual morning drink out of her old mug. She still couldn't find where the one Nimue had given her, which said 'world's best host' on it, had gone. She was, of course, aware of any comings or goings within her demesne, though she'd long come to ignore the minions of The Archivist. She couldn't be bothered to take note each time one popped in to measure the water volume of the lake or count her roses. All the mundane numbers he seemed to delight in keeping track of across the seasons. They'd never bothered her, until now.

Nimue was suddenly in her office with her, the nearly naked, blue-skinned Fae holding up a letter. "A messenger from The Archivist just gave me this, saying there had been a clerical error of some sort."

This boded ill, the redhead decided, while taking the folded paper from her lover. Reading the note out loud, "Sorry for the bother, but our records indicated that three of your contestants were being held in other seasons, so we have rectified the matter.' It's signed simply 'The Office of the Archivist." Shar pinched the bridge of her nose. She knew very well none of her contestants had been missing, paid very close attention whenever any of them, usually Tracy, was on another set, in fact.

Reaching out through The Castle, she found that she was missing three now though, and had four new bodies in the waiting area... "Oh for fucks sake!"

"Trouble?" Sharron hardly ever cursed.

"That bird brain just had his minions swap Laura, Candy, and Penny for people from other seasons!" To make matters worse, someone started knocking on her office door. "Come in, Tracy."

The teal-haired cat girl sauntered in like she owned the place, though she was looking a bit nervous. "Hey, boss. So, uh, Penny just vanished, and I'm pretty sure she didn't do it on purpose."

"It's temporary." She muttered under her breath, "It better be..." Standing from her desk, the tall redhead gestured for both women to come with her. "There has been a clerical error. Penny, as well as Candy and Laura, have been swapped with people from other seasons. You might as well come with us since whoever we got in exchange for Penny will be your companion for the interim."

Tracy whistled. "Wait, if Laura's gone, what about today's date? And who? There aren't that many female masters." The cat girl laughed maniacally. "Or did we get Andi or Mary? Cause that would be hilarious!"

"It is someone you know, in fact." But Shar left it at that, let the little minx be curious.

Having scanned the waiting room for herself, Nimue told them. "I'll catch up on the way. They'll need bracelets." And vanished to procure them.

Tracy continued to try to wheedle more information from the tall host on the way there. Master, contestant, and companion were an odd mix to get swapped. And why those three? Better Penny than Kim though, that could have been ugly.

.

Laura blinked both pairs of eyes. She had been somewhere else a moment before. She couldn't quite remember exactly where or what she had been doing, and now she was sitting on a couch in a dark stone room. There wasn't much in the room that she could see, aside from her and the other two women, just the couch and a black wooden coffee table sitting before it.

She gave each of the other women one of her body's attention. Sitting on the couch next to her was a curvy blonde she recognized from the ball. She looked perfectly normal, if voluptuous, aside from the pirate outfit she was wearing. Right down to the hat. The blonde had looked startled for a moment, then shut that down behind a mask of casual interest that reminded her a lot of Marissa. She wasn't that far off from Marissa's looks either, for that matter.

The other woman did not look very normal at all. Apparently of Indian descent, she would easily have stood at ten feet tall if the ceiling had been high enough for her to fully stand. She was crouched in something like a combat stance, just low enough that her wolf-like ears didn't quite brush the stone, a large reptilian tail curled behind the giant woman who was wearing something from a space opera. More Space Trek than Star Battles, she thought.

Laura watched her scan the women on the couch and relax into more of a squat, in what must seem like a really small space to her. She knew what the black-haired woman was seeing, aside from the blonde. Two women with black hair and very blue eyes, apparent twins. She almost laughed at the thought, if things hadn't been so grim.

She could still feel Andy, the rings on her hands, but he felt a million miles away. She was wearing one of Andy's shirts over black jeans and tennis shoes. The shirt had somehow doubled itself when she picked it up to put on, an oddity she tried not to focus on at the time.

"What kind of trick are you trying to pull this time, Lily?" The blonde abruptly demanded of the air as she crossed her arms and leaned back. Laura thought she pulled off looking merely annoyed quite well, but there was an edge of pain to her words.

"I don't know a Lily. My host is Arabella." Laura said in tandem, assuming the blonde was trying to get her host's attention. "But I don't think we're at the HH." Her voice hitched at the end, she couldn't point in the direction she felt Andy in, and she did not like that one bit.

The giant woman settled to the floor, sitting cross-legged. "My host is ELEECE." She coughed at the effort of pronouncing the name in all caps. "My name is Pandi, Pandi Carter-Patel. My season just started, we're only at the first planet. Does stuff like this happen often?"

"First planet?!" Laura and the blonde said in together.

There was something captivating about the blonde's voice that caught Laura's attention, even through her doubled harmonics, and she continued watching her closely with the body that wasn't giving its attention to Pandi. "The HH is just a beach resort, or at least that's what it looks like, no visiting other planets. Seems to get lots of visitors from other seasons, though I've only really met a couple. We aren't at the HH right now though, I'd know. My name is Laura Cooper, by the way."

The blonde nodded to both women, Laura twice. "Penny Sierran. My season is being run like a tabletop adventure, hence the outfit, and there is a castle that Kevin, the season's Master, is staying at, so we're probably at mine. And this farce is not funny, Lily!" She shouted the last at the ceiling. Laura thought the blonde's mask was starting to crack. Pain had clearly favored that shout.

As if in answer to her cry, part of the wall opened up as a hidden door, and air rushed out of the room as three women walked in. Laura did not recognize the towering redhead. The nearly naked, blue-skinned woman, she had seen at the ball but not talked to. But she definitely knew the teal-haired cat girl who skipped in just before the doorway closed again. "You're that catgirl from Shar's season, Tracy! What's going on?"

The engineer looked over from where she had been ogling the giant woman in the corner and grinned widely before rushing forward to catch Laura's bodies in a hug. "Laura! It's great to see you again, though the game was probably a lot longer ago for you than it was for me." She settled down between Laura's bodies on the couch, pressing one into Penny, and leaned back laughing. "So we lost a Laura and gained two."

The tall redhead, whom Laura realized must be Shar, looked pained. "Indeed. Laura, Penny, and Candy are missing. A Laura, Penny, and Pandi found. Welcome to The Haunted Castle, ladies." There was a peal of thunder from outside, and Shar looked annoyed, while the blue-skinned woman filled the room with musical laughter. "There has been a clerical mistake that has apparently resulted in a number of people being swapped between seasons. I could just send you back where you belong, but as long as you are registered here, you would likely just end up being swapped back again. I have someone looking into the error as we speak. She is quite reliable, even if she insists that she is not the cat girl she so clearly is."

"Cat girls are inevitable." Tracy declared from between Laura's bodies.

"Quite. I am Shar, the host of this season. Until we get things straightened out, Laura here will be the season's master with our Laura missing." She quickly turned to look at Penny with a calming gesture. "Worry not, nothing will be **** on you here." Laura saw pain in the blonde's eyes again, but she tersely nodded at Shar, seemingly accepting her words. "In fact, until things are righted, dates will be suspended, as I am sure Laura will appreciate."

Both bodies nodded as they fingered the rings on her hands. There was only one person she intended to date, and he was not here. "Thank you."

Catching some of the subtext, Penny relaxed. This Shar was apparently nothing like Lily. The redhead continued, gesturing towards the blue-haired woman beside her. "This is Nimue. She aids me in running the season. There is also Evelyn, my assistant, who is currently with the others at breakfast. I would ask the three of you to listen to them as if they were me while you are here. For the matter of lodging, Laura will be staying in the master suite, nothing new for you." She exchanged a toothy grin with the twinned ravenette. "Penny will be staying with Tracy here, which is why I brought her along, and needs further explaining." She faced the blonde who glanced at the cat girl, then raised her brow at the tall redhead. "While you are a contestant on your season, our Penny was brought on as a companion by one of Tracy's transformations. Therefore, while you are here, you are considered one contestant. Tracy has promised not to **** this. She has been told what happened on your season recently."

Penny's mask cracked again as she looked down, hugging herself. "I haven't fully unpacked what happened myself. Thank you for giving me space. Lily would not be so kind."

"No, Lilith would not." Shar said with finality, voice cracking like a whip. "Luckily, our Penny most likely has Kevin looking out for her. He is not a bad person. And while she may seem naive, she can handle herself." She smiled at Penny, who smiled back at the kindness. "You will be staying with Tracy and Susan in their room, as Penny was before, but I assure you the beds are quite large." She turned to face the seated giant. "Not so large however, that I will **** Pandi here to try and squeeze into one with Candy's roommate though. No, for your stay, you are welcome to use the orgy pit to sleep in. The large, padded central area is more than big enough to accommodate you. And I assure you it has been thoroughly cleaned."

"They will need these." Nimue held out four silver bracelets that she had obtained on the way to Shar.

Smiling at her lover, the tall redhead took the bracelets, Pandi's quite a bit bigger than the others, and handed them out to the four women.

Laura clasped one on each body, and Pandi put hers on as well, but Penny held up the silver item with suspicion. "Why do we need them?" She asked, still not completely trusting the pale host.

"Protection, the atmosphere here is very thin. Without these, you would not be able to breathe. They will also protect you from any other physical harm while you are my guests here."

Penny remembered the air rushing out of the open doorway and quickly placed the band on her wrist, not at all shocked at the clasp melting away. "Lily just has things cause pleasure instead of pain."

Shar nodded. "A common precaution when there is combat. Now everyone follow me. We're just in time for breakfast, and I can introduce you to everyone."

"Katie, what have you gotten me into this time?" Pandi muttered as she near crawled out of the small room behind the others.

.

Penny was feeling a lot better by the time their walk through the night-dark foliage brought them to the huge dark stone castle. The pale host had not seemed fond of Lily, and that was reassuring. It was also difficult to remain depressed with the constant chatter from the cat girl at her side. To just be a sidekick to someone else, like Hazel's elves, was an odd idea, but also strangely freeing. Here there would be no pressure on her to pursue the master, even if she wasn't off on another season herself currently. That was another oddity, a season with a female master... She closed herself off from thinking about the implications there and just let the short woman's words wash over her. She'd apparently been to quite a lot of different seasons, and watched even more. "And that's when Sally vowed **** for beating her high score, but I figure she just means she's going to try to beat mine. She can't take Ms. Pac-Man that seriously, right?"

She had no idea who this Sally was, but doubted anyone would get that worked up over a video game. "I'm sure you're fine."

"Right? That's what I thought. She was totally chill about me hacking into her season, so what's a high score, right?"

Penny stopped in her tracks, just outside of the massive castle doors that had opened themselves at the redhead's approach, and stared down at the grinning cat girl who was totally oggling her cleavage. "You hacked her season?" That was possible?!

"Sure! Her season's video-game-based, right? So the whole place is wired, and I got the domain address from her broadcast, and she didn't have any kind of firewall at aaaall. Caught me snooping really fast though. locked me out mostly too. Now I just have access to her Switch, but she's got loads of games on it."

That didn't really help Penny at all. If this Sally had caught an outsider that fast, then Kevin and Elise wouldn't have a chance hacking Lily's season. Her season wasn't really tech-based at all anyways. She walked through doors that were easily big enough for the ten-foot-tall woman following behind them. The hallway too, was on a much larger scale than the room they'd first found themselves in.

Shar had stopped at a large silver circle in the floor, like the one they had passed on the path outside. This one was flanked by a set of double doors in one wall and a silvery door on the other. "This is a Moongate, they are about the castle and its grounds as a travel network. Stand on one and think of where you wish to go, and it will take you to the nearest Moongate to it. The bracelets will also guide you if you concentrate on a destination." She pointed to the double doors and the green light above them. "This is the dining hall, breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served here." The pale redhead smiled up at Pandi in the rear. "Eat as much as you like." The giant wolf-eared girl blushed. She'd had an enormous appetite since her transformations. Shar pointed to the silvery door. "This is the game room. Any board, dice, or card game you should care to play can be provided inside."

Laura scuffed at the silvery metal in the floor with one shoe as her other body raised a hand. "Just how big is this castle to need to teleport around?" Arabella didn't have anything like this.

The vampiric host's laughter filled the hall. "I couldn't begin to tell you, and it gets bigger all the time. Not to mention that the floorplan has a bad habit of changing when you aren't looking." Great, I'm in Hogwarts, Laura thought as she sighed. Then the tall woman gestured dramatically at the double doors, causing them to swing wide, exposing a big room with a massive black U-shaped table and a smaller table inside the bend covered in food.

Shar ushered the women into the room as Laura looked around. At the apex of the table was a big throne-like chair with two seats, obviously for her. Did their Laura use that? Andy's throne at the gazebo was bad enough. She did a quick scan of the women already seated. A black-haired woman in an elegant dress sat next to another shrouded in a cloak, and a green-haired dominatrix with long pointed ears. Next to a woman with the largest breasts Laura had ever seen was a pink-haired dog girl that looked an awful lot like Tracy. Looking back at the teal-haired woman, she caught the cat girl smiling at her. "That's my twin yes, we both got snatched, and boy was Laura pissed at that."

"Why would she be mad about twins?"

Tracy grinned up at Laura, who wasn't that much taller than the cat girl. "Because we're her younger sisters." Dropping that bomb, she grabbed the blonde's hand and dragged her towards the center table. "Come on Penny, let's get you something to eat."

Processing that, Laura watched Shar lead Pandi towards a huge chair, clearly built to her scale, at one end of the table next to where a woman in a black leather jacket was seated.

Laura turned to the blue-skinned woman who was still standing near, giving her a serene smile. "You had chairs already set up for us?"

"Sharron had the staff make modifications while setting up breakfast once we knew you were here."

Nodding, Laura went to get her own food. She hadn't eaten yet this morning and had twice the stomachs to feed. The Castle was strange, but she was certain there were much worse seasons she could have ended up on.

.

Anna had wondered what was up with the changes to the seating when she'd come in early to grab food. She'd noted the missing people as everyone else made their way in as well. Tracy was here as early as she often as not, and it wasn't like Candy or Laura to sleep in. Carla and Kim's absence wasn't strange, of course. They spent plenty of meals 'eating in' as they called it. Shar and Nimue coming in with the four strangers and Tracy in tow was the icing on the strange morning cake.

She watched Shar lead the impressively tall woman over to the big chair that had obviously been set up for her, next to where Anna had chosen to sit. The dusky-skinned woman was holding two plates that were overloaded with food. Looking down at her nearly cleared third plate of the morning, she felt some sympathy for the big woman. "Anna, this is Pandi. I would like you to show her around while she is here, as I believe the two of you share certain interests."

"Yeah, sure. What's going on? I thought the big chair was some kind of hint I was going to get bigger when I first saw it."

The pale host smiled at her, shaking her head. "Unexpected guests, and missing people. I will be explaining once everyone is seated."

As Shar walked back towards Nimue, Anna extended a hand to the giant woman. "Anna Rodriguez, mechanic and street racer by trade."

The other woman gave her a very firm shake back. Obviously very strong, but she would be at her size. "Pandi Carter-Patel. I'm a personal trainer, just currently working with some clients out of my local gym after I got fired. Or I was until my friend Katie got me roped into some kinky space adventure."

"Space? Cool. I'll have to show you the castle gym, it's crazy."

Shar cleared her throat, and all eyes were on her. "You may have noticed that we have some guests and some people missing. There has been an error that got Laura, Candy, and Penny swapped out for people from other seasons. Laura." She pointed at the two women sitting on the twin throne-like chairs at the head of the table, who moved in harmony, ducking away from the spotlight. "Penny." Gesturing at the voluptuous blonde sitting between Tracy and Stacy. "And Pandi." With a wave towards the sitting giant. "The error is being worked on, this is only temporary. We will have everyone where they belong soon enough. Until then though, dates will be suspended. Laura has the master suite, Penny will be staying in the Unicorn room with Tracy and Susan, and Pandi will be sleeping in the orgy pit to not **** her to try and fit one of the beds."

"Oh thank fuck!" Came Stacy's cry, and some laughter.

Nodding at the pinkette, Shar continued. "I ask you all to be courteous to our guests while they are here. Evelyn, if you will show Laura the master suite after breakfast, I would appreciate it." The elven woman nodded from her seat, then smiled tentatively at Laura's bodies. "Until then, I will try to expedite fixing the situation. Thank you for your patience." With that, Shar and Nimue were gone.

Pandi blinked at the empty space a moment before turning back to Anna. "They do that a lot?"

"It's way worse when they appear out of thin air, and yes, yes they do."

.

Evelyn took Laura's transformation in stride. She was far from the first contestant the elven woman had seen twinned, or worse. Contestants being shuffled between seasons was a very different matter. It made her think of her own missing contestants with no clue as to what had happened to them. She was quiet, lost in her own worries, until they reached the first floor of the suite, and Laura gasped at the paintings arranged around the empty round room. "Portraits that Misty has been making of the contestants for Laura. The woman in the cloak?" Laura nodded, not looking away from the paintings. They were very good from what little she could tell. She was reminded of some of Liesa's own portraits and the sketches Emi had made of the various women in Andy's harem.

Evelyn waited while Laura's bodies moved about the room, checking each painting out. Before long, both were focused on the green-haired woman again. "What's it like being an assistant host? Arabella doesn't have one, just lots and lots of Mildreds."

Thinking about it for a second, Evelyn shrugged. "It's certainly better than being put on the all-ex-host season I was threatened with. Shar has been quite kind, in fact."

"You were a host first? What happened?"

The elven woman's face fell. "I don't know. They never said why. They just took everything from me. I don't even know what happened to my contestants or my season's master."

Laura grimaced with both bodies. That sounded grim. "Sorry to bring it up."

"It's alright, things are better for me now. Shar rescued me, and after the next challenge, I'm joining Laura's, that's our Laura's, harem." She started up the stairs set into the wall, and Laura followed her. That sounded like Andy, snatching up any strays he found and taking care of them. No wonder he was friends with this Laura.

The living room was really nice, and Laura wasn't sure she'd ever seen a bigger television, but the breakfast nook was tiny. "Not much of a kitchen."

Evelyn looked over at the small space as well. "No. Our Laura is not much of a chef. None of the girls are, come to think of it. The phone here can be used to order anything you want, and it will come in the dumbwaiter here. Or you can always join the others in the dining hall."

Laura did like the idea of being able to hole up in here, but she knew the lack of a real kitchen would drive some of the girls, like Dawn, crazy. She looked through the books in the reading nook, which was nice and cozy. Up another set of stairs, and Laura took in the massive reinforced bed covered in black furs. She ran a hand over the soft furs and kind of hoped she would get to spend the night just to indulge in the warm softness. Only kind of though, the ache of her link to Andy being so far away pulled at her. She ran her thumbs over her wedding rings as Evelyn showed her the massive walk-in shower that took up most of the bathroom.

.

Pandi whistled as she got a look around the enormous room after she straightened up. The halls and rooms of the castle were more than big enough for her to stand, but some of the doorways were a bit of a tight fit.

"I know, right?! This place blew me away the first time I saw it." The wolf-eared woman nodded at Anna. This was indeed a hell of a gym.

Her reptilian tail swayed behind her as she watched the wisps of steam come off the pool. "Is that a heated Olympic-sized pool?"

Anna laughed at the taller woman's look. "Yeah it is, and there are three jacuzzis at this end of it. We got a whole underground grotto full of hot springs, too. Plenty of geothermal heat in this place."

Pandi wished the Labrys had a gym like this one, though how big of a pool could you really get on a spaceship? She'd have to ask Katie if there was something that could be bought when she got back. "I'd love to take a swim or even soak in some hot springs if there are any big enough, but I don't have a swimsuit with me, and there's no way I can borrow something that fits me now."

Rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment, Anna blushed. "We've pretty much stopped wearing them anymore, everyone has seen each other naked by now." Or more, she thought.

It was Pandi's turn to laugh. "Katie stripped down before I even got on the ship, she's incorrigible. I'm shocked she didn't make skin the ship's working uniform."

Shrugging, Anna led her further into the room. "Well, if you're comfortable enough, no one here is going to judge you, but let's check out the machines first. Shar has stuff in here I'd never even heard of before coming here."

Pandi whistled again when she saw the weights Anna had loaded on the bar at the bench press she showed her. Was she really that strong? "That's a lot of iron."

"It's the transformation that made me this tall, makes me really strong as well if I eat like a horse."

No wonder Shar had said they had a lot in common. "Same for me, they really hit me with the size gain, and it feels like I can't eat enough since. The instincts that came with the animal bits don't help."

"Nothing like that for me so far. Bigger tits, healing. Almost got turned green, thank fuck that one failed. We got so many animal girls now, I wouldn't be shocked if something comes up though." Anna shook her head. She'd thought being giant would be enough to avoid that, but maybe not after seeing the Indian woman.

Pandi clasped the leather-clad woman's shoulder in a friendly gesture. "Maybe so many means it's less likely? We hardly have anyone who still looks human on the crew, but I think aliens are part of our theme. Let's check out those hot springs. An underground grotto sounds awesome."

Anna nodded. Maybe she was right. "I'm pretty sure our theme is Goth lesbians. The place is awesome, there are even pools big enough for you to fully submerge in."

"Sweet."

.

Penny found herself swept up in Tracy's orbit, along with both her pink-haired twin and a woman who gave Hazel a run for her money physically. Though Susan was somehow both harder-bodied and bustier at the same time than the dryad. Not a natural holstaur, she'd apparently gotten transformations to get her where she was, much like with Tracy and Stacy's animal attributes. "And it doesn't bother you at all, being a cow girl?"

"It did at first. I thought the changes had made me gross and unappealing. But Tracy showed me better, and things have even improved on their own. After a trap swapped my transformations with Anna's, when we swapped back again, I kept the toned muscles, and an upgrade gave me ox-like strength and stamina. I feel better than ever now."

"You are practically glowing." The siren had to admit.

Stacy snorted. "That's because she's pregnant."

"What?!"

Nodding her head, the teal-haired cat girl looked up at Penny with a grin. "It's true. Laura got a transformation that lets her impregnate women. Susan, Anna, and Candy are all knocked up as of about a week ago."

Penny looked over at the smiling cow girl. "You're pregnant?" Susan nodded. "And you're happy about it?"

"I asked her to do it, then apparently that sparked baby fever in Anna, and of course Candy wanted in on it. She's having twins. All girls, of course."

"Of course." Penny deadpanned. This was a Very different season than her own, obviously. Though she supposed it was possible Kevin had gotten one of the others pregnant by this point. It hadn't come up that she knew of. This had gotten her off track though. "Back to your transformations, they aren't a problem for you?"

"I had one that kept me from looking Laura, or anyone with more VP than me, in the eyes. Had to look at their breasts instead. That was pretty annoying at times, but Nimue let me swap it out when I won the last challenge. Now I have one that lets me copy Carla and Kim's transformations. You haven't met them yet, they didn't come down for breakfast."

"They're like our Bard." Tracy interjected. "Carla's the singer for the band Darkest Dreams, and Kim is the bassist."

Stacy rolled her eyes at her twin. "And Susan has been playing the drums with them, let's get back to complaining about transformations." She looked the siren in the eyes. "Do you have any idea just how much shit they've been heaping on me? I can't wear anything but cheer shit. Grabbing this fucking leash forces me to my knees. I had fake tits until I upgraded them, and that was just the first damned round!"

Penny felt a bit better about the side effects of what Lily had done to her, hearing the pinkette rant. The teal-haired girl grabbed her sister in a hug before looking back at Penny. "Stacy's got more transformations than anyone else here, she got two three-way ties, and isn't happy about most of them. But they aren't all bad. When she goes down on someone, she gets to feel it too."

Stacy and Penny both blushed bright pink as the dog girl clamped a hand over her sister's mouth. "She doesn't need to hear about that!" She hissed. The gagged twin just waggled her teal eyebrows at them suggestively while Susan laughed.

"So not everyone has gotten positive transformations then." Penny continued, trying to ignore the lewd cat girl. "Mostly ours seem based on our class or race, with both beneficial effects and hidden drawbacks."

"Yeah, Shar said something about that." Tracy had broken free by licking her sister's palm. The pinkette now glared at her while wiping her hand on her skirt. "I haven't watched your season yet, but it's on my list. She said you should try to find the Paladin trainer to be less squishy. I don't know about your game system, but bard pally cross class works great in Pathfinder. Get some smiting going on."

Penny thought of a particular someone she would like to smite. "Maybe I will."

"Getting your charisma bonus to saving throws is really strong too. If that's a thing in your system." Tracy seemed more than ready to keep geeking out over the game Penny was stuck in. She'd have to try and remember some of these points to bring up with Kevin, who knew far more about such things than she did. Maybe having something to talk about with him would help.

.

Shar put her phone down and looked over at her lover with a sigh. "Well?" Nimue asked.

"The Archivist didn't know about the swaps and seemed extremely annoyed about the whole affair. Something about collapsing reality states, and I am sure I was not the first host calling to complain. I would bet anything his imps are behind the whole mess."

Nimue tsked. "Of course they are, they pulled Terra from the stacks. We're lucky the whole Archive hasn't imploded yet."

Not even wanting to think of what kind of chaos that would cause, Shar sighed. "She's wasted on that strange season the imps cooked up. And will be lucky if she doesn't end up in the harem herself."

"Hasn't kept you from voting on it." The elder Fae laughed.

"Of course I'm voting on it! Everyone is. How many seasons offer this much engagement? It's a glorious mess that's bound to implode itself, I'm sure. How are our guests doing?"

Moving to the taller woman's lap, Nimue gave Shar a kiss. "They are settling in quite well. I was thinking of having a talk with Laura so she doesn't hide in the suite the whole time she's here. I'm sure she'd kick herself for missing the opportunity to explore, and we have quite a lot in common."

"Your creators abusing you, leading to your deaths?" Shar snarked.

Nimue playfully slapped the other woman's shoulder. "Our loves risked everything to bring us back. How long will they be here, do you think? I would not see her suffer his loss long."

Shar shrugged. "Depends on how big a mess the Archivist is dealing with, there's no telling how badly mixed casts have gotten. However long it takes, I'll just pinch this off as a temporal loop and the season will continue broadcast uninterrupted."

"Could be fun to set something similar up on purpose. Imagine a season versus season challenge."

"No, thank you. We'd probably end up with Lucian's poor crew, getting steamrolled by the girls, so he'd have an excuse to hand out all punishment transformations to them. They're suffering enough as it is."

Nimue settled in close, resting her cheek on the redhead's chest with a sigh. "I suppose you're right, but it would be nice to have Arabella over before it's too late. Sam and Liesa are going to visit soon, at least."

"That will be nice. Two things you should tell Laura while she's here. Emi needs to give Andy the letter Laura wrote to her mother, and when Andy is lost, he should not cross the door, but look for something blue on the way to the palace."

Nimue arched a blue brow at the redhead. "Are you cheating again?"

Shrugging, she replied. "Why have power over time if you aren't going to use it? I'm glad you got to enjoy the ball. "

"Arabella always did throw such wonderful parties."