Aftermaths and Alliances

Tess was freaking out.

She had managed to hold it together for long enough to get through the one drink that Penny had demanded before excusing herself and hurrying off to her room to be alone. It had turned out that their rooms were prepared, and could only be accessed through magical portals which led off a small antechamber of The Long Rest. The view outside of her window indicated that she was still in the city—‘Adventuria’ or whatever they had called it—but there was no hint of the somewhat raucous noise of the main tavern room downstairs.

The silence and privacy were a luxury that she somehow felt she didn’t deserve. Tess was obviously younger than everyone else in the party, but she was the one granted her own room, a private haven of peace and quiet on which no one could intrude.

It was exactly what she’d been looking for when she left for school. Growing up, her sister had been a presence in her life for as long as she could remember. As a child, she had loved having a sibling to play with. The coastal village she’d lived in had been small, and with only a small number of other kids even close to their age, having a constant confidant had been nice.

But spending her entire life in the company of the same person had started to chafe, and when she was eighteen with a fifteen year old sister, trying to go on dates had been a nightmare. Her mother’s connection to their shared selkie heritage was strong—stronger than either of her daughters—and she spent hours each day at sea. If Tess and Abby had been willing to join her, that might have been fine, but since her father hadn’t been in the picture since she was an infant, it left Tess responsible for her sibling at a time in her life when she most desperately wanted to get out and discover herself.

University had promised to change that, and allow Tess to figure out who she was… right until Abby had showed up there, too.

Tess sprawled out across the two mattresses the room included. Neither was large, but since she had no roommate, she’d pushed the frames together to give herself the largest bed she ever had, all to herself.

“Time and space to myself. And all it took was getting kidnapped by a magic demon goddess and told that I’m going to be turned into some middle-aged guy’s shapeshifting plaything.”

Tess took a deep breath, and did her best to tune out the strange senses that still danced along her awareness.

Stheno eyed the nymph from across the room. She’d known many of their kind in her long years, and while they were divinities, they were lesser ones, and ultimately mortal. From the looks of this one, though, she was powerful. Lesser dryads tended towards slender figures, but the woman in front of her all but oozed with power.

She could feel it more directly now. She had always had a sense of the divine—not surprising, given her heritage—but it was as if it had been honed. She could feel the influence of the gods directly on the world, could sense the order that they were trying to interpose.

Could push back against it.

Stheno smiled. Though the gorgon’s face contained traces of the cruelty that had been wrought upon it, her smile itself was not only bright—it was positively radiant.

“I’m glad to see you looking like that.” Hazel swayed past the gorgon as she joined her in their shared room. The dryad had wandered off from their impromptu gathering downstairs after the second round of drinks, with the intention of checking out the woods which surrounded much of the castle for several hours. She’d wound up wandering around the city without making it past the walls, and only returned when she felt the magic call her back.

The mostly naked woman’s body was still flush from the exertion of jogging back under it’s imposition, but her expression remained surprisingly content.

“You also seem to be taking being put on display for the world rather well.” Stheno glanced over at her roommate as she arrived and took in her appearance.

Hazel shrugged. The vines that entwined her body rustled gently as they moved, but did little to conceal her figure. Instead they served more as living lingerie that uplifted and shaped her figure into an exaggerated hourglass. The nymph’s bust was large enough that it needed little amplification, and instead it was as though the vines that supported them were offering them out to the world.

“I don’t really see much point in getting upset about it. I don’t think it will do anyone any good. It’s just skin, and the ability didn’t lie—it’s actually quite comfortable, and I like the stronger connection with nature it came with.”

Indeed, the smile on Hazel’s lips was a little more excited than it had been when she’d arrived at Lily’s summon. Where her abduction had failed to excite the nymph, the results of her class assignment clearly did.

Stheno thought back to her musings on the forces of the gods. “I think I know what you mean. There is a sense of purpose inherent to it, yes?”

“Mmm. Something like that. I’m not sure that I’d express it as a purpose exactly. I’ll have to think on it, though, I’m not sure that I can quite describe it.”

“That is a very patient approach to take.”

“I’m not going to try to tell you anything about patience, Stheno, but I’m happy to experience life as it comes to me. Usually. It makes it easy to wait and see.”

“I believe I may need to be more proactive than that. I do not intend to relinquish myself to the curses of the gods, and that means I must seize what power Lily is willing to share.”

Hazel watched her roommate’s expression from across the room with some degree of concern on her face. The gorgon’s proclamation had not been loud, but the half muttered fervor she displayed reminded the nymph of some of the religious protesters who had once tried to shut down her commune. “You doing okay over there, sweetheart?”

Stheno jerked slightly at the question, and turned to focus on Hazel suddenly. Then she shied away on instinct, only to **** herself steady once more. “I’m—yes. Yes, Hazel, thank you. I am doing very okay.”

“H-I’mawake!” Elsie half blurted the words as she sat bolt upright.

She’d fallen asleep on her bed—not because she’d settled down for the night, but because she’d drifted off some time in the last couple of hours. Scattered around her were no fewer than six weighty tomes bound in leather, one now featuring a small stain from where she’d drooled on it.

Her cheek featured a small black smudge where it had rested on the page.

She had been startled awake by the sound of Blue entering through the portal at a run. The transformed harpy was breathing hard, which led Elsie to wonder just what she’d been up to. “Isn’t your class ability supposed to reduce your physical requirements? Does that not help you not get out of breath?”

Blue shook her head. “Helps. Not enough on its own. I tried getting as far out as I could fly. Forests for miles, but there’s some buildings scattered through them.” Her breathing was already starting to slow, and she added a moment later, “Would have been fine, except I didn’t get the warning to return until late. Had to go top speed to catch up.”

“Good thinking to explore. Lily said some of us would be getting quests every day. The better we know the area, the more successful we’ll be completing those.”

Blue shrugged. Her golden eyes darted around the room for a moment. “Seems small. Cramped.”

“Really? It’s bigger than my bedroom back home.”

“Not used to sleeping indoors. Where do I pee? Or wash?”

Elsie gestured over to the doorway that led to their attached bathroom. It, too, was more luxurious than she’d had in her tiny 1-bedroom apartment in Bristol, featuring a tub large enough for both women to use it comfortably in addition to a surprisingly modern looking toilet.

The harpy nodded and began walking that direction. As she did so, she started to unwind the light blue cloth that wrapped around her chest. “New body is good. Will take some getting used to, but I think it will be an improvement.”

Blue left the door to the bathroom open, and her voice drifted back into the bedroom where Elsie was starting to collect and stack the books she’d been reading. “I can’t even imagine. I mean, I got three classes all at once, but at least my body is still my own, you–”

She cut herself off as Blue emerged from the bathroom. The harpy was naked, her tight mix of curves and muscle on full and slightly sweaty display. She glanced around, picked a corner apparently at random, and threw the strip of blue cloth and leather shorts in them, before returning to the bathroom.

“–are clearly more okay with what was done to you then I would be. Fuck.”

“Hm? Oh. Yes. It’s new. Different. Is that not good?”

“I mean—change for change’s sake is- I don’t know that it’s a bad thing inherently, but–”

“You worry too much. Reminds me of my sisters. You should relax. Experience things. It’s good for you.”

“Yeah. I’ll—I guess I don’t have any choice, do I?”

“I’m surprised to see you’re already here.”

Penny’s voice conveyed the astonishment she claimed, but Hwa didn’t buy it. The siren was a good actress, and sounded sincere, but it was obvious to her that the siren was—like her—biding her time. “I did not desire to be **** here by the demon’s chains.”

Speaking the words out loud grated at her. Hwa could feel the invisible bonds the succubus had wrapped around her like an ethereal net that was far more binding than the mere chains which now dangled from her ankles and wrists.

The ‘blessing’ that she’d been given as a warlock was a curse in a thin disguise. If she spoke the truth, her word would be believed. In turn, of course, that meant that if anyone had any reason to doubt her at all, they were going to do so immediately. The merest suggestion that she was being deceptive would be revealed immediately, leaving her with little choice but to add, “I have waited here since we arrived.”

“I don’t think that’s strictly necessary.”

“It is not. I am planning something.”

“Something that will be good for all of us, I’m sure. Don’t worry, you don’t have to tell me, I’m not going to try to twist you around and **** answers out of you. You didn’t ask to be here any more than I did.”

Again, Penny sounded sincere, and the kumiho found herself actually starting to relax. She nodded, slowly. “You are correct. This is not—I will not give myself up easily.”

“Good. Me neither. So, are we going to work together?”

Hwa closed her eyes once more. “Perhaps.”

The statement was technically true—true enough that Penny accepted it at face value, though Hwa wasn’t sure if that was because she didn’t want to start a fight or because she actually believed her.

With the bindings that had been placed on her, Hwa knew that she could not escape alone. She would need help. Allies. The siren was as good as any other.

Penny watched the kumiho in silence for a moment. The fox-spirit was on her knees in the center of the floor of their room, her nine tails spread out in a semicircle behind her as she meditated with her eyes closed. The expression on her face was calm, but the siren didn’t need to be a performer to tell that it was a mask. “We’ll all be better off if we do, but again—I won’t **** the issue. I’m going to bed, and tomorrow I plan to try to learn more about our new master. I’m sure you have no interest in that particular goal, so would you be willing to hear an alternative suggestion?”

“I will hear your words.”

“See if you can get to know the others. You did a good job showing off that you can be a big scary witch, but unless you manage to find a way to slip free of Lily, you’re going to be stuck with us for however long this whole thing takes.”

Hwa cracked an eyelid, and Penny had to suppress a shudder at the black void that lay beneath. Even before the transformation into some kind of bondage-witch, the woman had been scary.

She said nothing, however, and her eye closed a moment later as she returned to her meditation.

“I guess that’s the conversation over. Well, night Hwa.”

The only response she received was silence.

Kevin made it all of five minutes after he finished eating before he started freaking out. Of the three sections of books on the shelves around the desk, the one that was most obviously immediately relevant to his near future was the one that might tell him what the actual rules of the place were. Lily had told him that she’d included the information about previous seasons so he could take inspiration from them, but that didn’t mean it was the only thing they were good for.

The rules of the system floated around the outside of his awareness after Lily had given him his class. He wasn’t sure what was up with the different colors of magic she seemed to be throwing around—the golden light she’d flicked at his forehead when she’d imparted the rules had been absolutely nothing like whatever nightmare shadow-craft she’d used to transform the women in the party.

His own had sparkled with the gold of that first magic, but he didn’t yet have enough information to draw any conclusions from that, so he filed it away and did his best to focus on what was immediately in front of him.

There were rules to this place that weren’t included in the information that they’d given him. Lily had told him that he and his party would need to experiment with their abilities to discover how they worked. In his case, since his ‘House Rule’ ability referenced previous seasons of Harem Hotel, the next step was obvious: he needed to study. The more he understood the rules, the better he’d be able to find the wiggle room his class offered and make sure things went his way.

Kevin reached up, and pulled a book off the shelf. He had reading to do.

Lily leaned back with her feet on her desk and closed her eyes.

I will make this work.

The marker that had been called in to get her to agree to work with the producers of the show was one of the oldest she had issued. In fact, there was only one marker she had ever issued that was older, and that one was unlikely to ever be called in.

Let alone remembered.

Probably.

I hope.

The office she had crafted for herself was not nearly so opulent as the royal chambers she had arranged for the season’s Master. In fact, it was a relatively plain room by high fantasy standards, with only the crystal ball built into the side of her desk that would have seemed out of place in a more mundane setting. The furniture was carved and polished wood, the books on the shelves built into the walls were bound in leather, but apart from the paintings it might have been a highly paid lawyer’s private study.

Granted, the paintings on the wall were a bit more explicit than most attorneys would have been willing to be publicly associated with.

Not that it would stop them from eagerly participating if given the chance to do so without ruining their reputation. Whips and chains and all.

Still, she could work with what she had been given. Participation in the season might not have been Lily’s choice, but the individuals involved seemed pathetically easy to manipulate thus far, especially the fox-spirit.

The proud ones are always my favorite. I wonder what she’ll look like when she breaks.