The Setup Set-Up

Once Moira had gone, John was left alone again with his studies, though the second interruption did no better for his focus than the first. Now John found himself adding the perception that others had of him to his pile of concerns.

“I really shouldn’t be surprised. She doesn’t even know about what it was like while I was gone, and the first thing I did when I got back was throw myself into a suicide mission,” John admitted reluctantly. His eyes were turned toward a diagram of an alchemy lab set up for mixing unstable reagents for use in armament oils, checking the notes to see what was so important about its arrangement and the tools within. Beside the book was a large diagram filled with half-erased sketch marks, a mock-up of a setup John was hoping to use for his own alchemy lab, one that would ideally let him make a wide variety of different concoctions without taking up too much space or needing to create any large, expensive equipment.

*“I guess I could lighten up a little around her. I’m still getting used to being casual with her and Kim, especially when we’re preparing for war. And I only show up to train or work on projects most of the time. Maybe I should give Moira a day like everyone else… No, wouldn’t work, she’s too busy to even go on a date. Actually, would Kim want a day? I feel like she’d just pick training, like Sophia...”

“So warm… Myaera wishes Myaster was here. Wanna burn some energy. Want food. Want kittens too. Myaybe Myaera can talk sexy fox lady into dropping that spell of hers for a few days. If we hurry, Myaera could have her kittens right when Mithra’s are almost done growing! Oh, but Myaster is already kinda mad at Vallya… maybe Myaera should find another way. I wish Myaster would stop being so mean and just let Myaera ride his cock until she got a big fat belly like-”

"Good morning, Maera," John thought, smirking at the abrupt silence that fell over the mental connection. A beat passed before Maera's voice returned, this time a bit chastising in its tone.

"Nyaaah, Myaster, you're not supposed to be spying on Myaera's thoughts! Those are for Myaera," Maera complained, huffing even in her mind.

"Sorry Maera, I kept the ring active so you could talk to me as soon as you woke up. I thought you'd like to come to the manor to train today. I just didn't realize your morning thoughts would be so loud... or perverted."

"Like Myaster has any room to talk," Maera thought pointedly. "But yeah! Myaera would love to come play with the nice lady! Just let Myaera go put on her armor and warm up!"

"Take your time, " John said, though he could already hear Maera's thoughts scattering and becoming more energetic as she no doubt darted off to her room. John barely had time to make a few more quick sketches on the layout of his alchemy lab when her voice rang out again in his mind.

"Myaster, I'm ready!"

"Okay. I'm in a library, so try not to be too loud when you pop over."

"What's a-"

Maera warped into the space beside John's table mid-thought. The sudden shift jarred her enough to make her pause, and she spun around excitedly as she reoriented herself and located John.

"Ohhh, so this is a library. Myaera remembers now - that's what dragon lady called that room with all the shelves! This one has a lot more books, though."

John winced a little at Maera's adorable but overly enthusiastic exclamations. There were only two other people in the library besides the Squires stationed there, but John could feel their eyes on him.

"Yes, it is. Can you find your own way to the training yard from here? Just head out that door and turn right. That should get you in the right part of the manor."

"Got it! Oops, I mean... got it, Myaster," Maera whispered the last part and gave John a conspiratorial wink.

John appreciated the modicum of effort, though even that was rather ruined by the clanking of her armor as she bounded out of the library. John was almost envious of the way that Maera could be completely oblivious to the stares of others that followed her out the door – the best he could do was put his head down and busy himself with finishing his blueprint. For all the momentary embarrassment he felt at the disruption, John didn’t even try to stop the grin spreading across his face at the idea of Maera running through the halls, pouncing her way along until she arrived at the training yard to terrorize some trainees.

“Never change, Maera. Not even a little.”

The sun in John’s new world was only about two fingers’ width from the horizon when they finally returned, bathing the empty yard in front of their home in a warm orange haze. Maera mewled happily as they arrived, the sound amusingly muffled as she continued to nuzzle into his chest.

“Thanks for letting Myaera play. Nice lady-”

“What do we call her?” John chided gently, doing his best to fight back a laugh as Maera pulled away from him long enough to give her best pout.

“Myaera isn’t even training right now!” The Neko huffed, blowing a strand of her ivory hair away from her face.

“You’re gonna have to practice or you’ll get in trouble again,” John warned, poking Maera right on her nose. The sassy catgirl made an annoyed mewl and pulled away, scrunching up her face as she shook her head vigorously. “If you get in trouble too many times, you’re not gonna be allowed to train there anymore!”

“Nyaa… Knyight Glenna taught Myaera a lot today,” Maera emphasized, putting on a fearsome scowl as she crossed her arms and flattened out her expression. “Lots of shiny holy spells to play with monsters. Ni- Knyight Glenna says Myaera is really gifted. She said something about being a pure spirit, and a lot of other fancy words, but Myaera didn’t really understand. Oh, and Myaera can heal now, but Myaera isn’t sure if Myaster deserves it anymore since he’s being all strict and mean.”

“I’ll just have to try not to get hurt then, won’t I? Shouldn’t be hard with a big, strong girl like you around!” John gave Maera’s hair a tousle and then lunged forward, wrapping his other arm around the Neko and giving her a tight hug. Maera embraced him back for a moment before remembering she was supposed to be pouting – when she did, she gave a playful hiss, slapped her hand against his chest with just enough **** to make him tense up, then turned and bounded away from him, mewling in exaggerated annoyance as she headed for the front door.

John watched her go, letting the agitated catgirl get all the way inside before he followed behind her. By the time John reached the door, Maera was out of sight – almost. She peeked over the back of the couch, giving him a half-mewl, half-growl as he walked by. John responded with a roll of his eyes as he climbed the stairs, easily able to see her tail sweeping back and forth in a relaxed manner despite her best efforts to put on a scary face.

“Oh no, you look pretty angry, I hope I don’t wake up with my bedposts mildly scratched up,” John teased.

“It’ll be your heckin’ face, nyaa!” Maera threatened, bouncing playfully on the couch as she watched John disappear into the upstairs hallway.

“I thought taking her to see Glenna for most of a day would wear her out, not amp her up. She’s even feistier than usual. I wonder if learning all this magic is affecting her, or if she’s just horny after all that exercise and play fighting...”

John paused as he was about to pass by the entrance to Yvara’s room. He had assumed she was out working in her temple, but he thought he heard something inside as he reached the door. John gave the door three taps and quickly heard quiet, quick sounds of motion within – first a slight bounce of a bed, then hurried shuffling of scaled feet across the floor.

Yvara opened the door with a somewhat cautious look on her face, but once she saw who was knocking, it melted into immediate pleasure. The ruby-scaled dragon-girl gave a quick but practiced bow, never lowering her head quite enough to lose eye contact with John.

“I was not expecting a visitor this late, but I’m glad to see you back, Lord John. What brings you to see me tonight?” Yvara fidgeted a little bit at the last part, and there was a slightly chitinous clinking as she rubbed her arm and scales mingled.

“While I was visiting the Order today, I was able to get a good look at their alchemy texts and do a fair bit of research. They’re the ones with the most knowledge on fighting against necromancy that I know of, so a lot of it was very relevant.”

John pulled out several of the books Moira had allowed him to take as well as the rather rough-looking sketch that he’d made, accompanied by a spare sheet filled with notes he couldn’t fit alongside the drawing. He handed off the sketch to Yvara with one hand while balancing the books with the other, and the cute dragoness’ expression began to change rapidly. The sketch was little more than a cross of a blueprint and a floor plan, mostly blank squares with names of devices and page numbers to reference for their creation. Still, Yvara seemed impressed enough. Surprise and curiosity transitioned quickly to delight and a glimmering, fiery passion.

“This is fairly ambitious for a starting alchemy lab,” Yvara said eventually, her eyes flicking between John and the sketch. “A large room with many, many devices.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t supposed to be. It kept getting bigger every time I saw something else I’d like to make that needed new equipment,” John admitted bashfully. “I understand if some of it is too ambitious, but I wanted your input on it.”

“Well, it certainly is ambitious, but I’m sure that you can bring it to life! Some of these objects are fairly expensive in terms of materials – like this,” Yvara said, pointing to a small desk on one side of the room. “Runic maturation containment plinths are a fairly specialized tool. It’s resource efficient in the long-term to use one, since you save materials by using runes and raw mana to imbue the effect into the substance instead of more raw materials, but it requires more effort and plenty of materials to construct it in the first place.”

“Yeah, the books have a full listing of what you need to make these. I didn’t really bother with a priority system for what equipment gets made first, but some of these are definitely ‘needs’, a lot are just ‘wants’, and some are more wishful thinking and trying to map out the space ahead of time.”

“Well, this is all doable, but I’m not certain why you needed to share this with me?” Yvara fidgeted slightly as she asked; even questioning him in such a basic way seemed to make her uneasy. “N-not that I mind! I enjoy spending time with you. A-and learning your plans too! But I’m not very good at alchemy, I only know how to build the facilities and equipment for crafters, not to do it myself, and your abilities allow you to build as well as I can, don’t they?”

“They do, to some degree,” John agreed. “I can throw up a foundation, four walls, and a ceiling in short order, and the furniture is near instant - but I don’t have the skill and knowledge to craft these things from scratch in a reasonable amount of time. My Building and Crafting and Enchanting are all sort of their own thing, and I’m not even sure if they’ll cover all that is needed to get these things going. Some of these devices are somewhere between all three of them, and anything I can’t make automatically will be really hard for me to do manually. Besides, I’ll be out there training and gathering up the raw materials, so… if you’re okay with it, I was hoping we could make a team effort out of it.”

“Oh, I think I see. You’ll gather the materials, and I’ll put them to work!”

“Exactly.” John gave Yvara a trusting look, holding out his hand for her. “You don’t have to, of course, but if you’re not too-”

“Never too busy for you, Lord John!” Yvara said, gleefully grabbing his hand with both of her own. John felt scales and claws clinging tightly and adoringly to him as she vigorously shook his hand, only seeming to realize her own passion on the third full lash of his limb against his body. Immediately, Yvara tensed visibly, almost shrinking from how tightly wound she suddenly became – and an adorable squeak escaped from her as she pulled her arms away as if stung, using them to futilely try to cover the blush spreading over her cheeks.

“S-sorry, I just felt so proud that you’d want my assistance with something so important! I-I would be glad to help you, Lord John!”

“No need to apologize,” John reassured her. “I’m going to spend the night running through my Crafting and Building abilities to see the base materials needed to at least get the framework up and running, and hopefully I’ll start the timer on the actual lab itself by tomorrow. Once it’s finished we can start constructing any tools we already have the parts for, and I’ll get to work on harvesting the rest of them.”

“We may be limited on what we can make in terms of magical workstations for a while. You mentioned that you had given Aclysia a great deal of your enchanting materials and other assorted items to empower her to talk, so we may be lacking even some basic resources for these stations and tools. But I did have a few materials left in the workshop area you told me I could use – I’ll bring them over as soon as the main building is erected!”

“Wonderful. Thanks, Yvara! If you see Orria, could you tell her to come see me? I want to ask if she recognizes the names of any of these plants, and if she can grow them for me. It would be a lot easier than getting them from dungeons, and it would be a lot less expensive than buying them from the Abyssal Auction or one of the shops in Springfield.”

“I think she’s out working on something near the forest, but I promise I’ll pass it on,” Yvara swore, giving a soft curtsy to John as he stepped toward the door. “Oh! Perhaps you should visit Aclysia and ask if she has any of those materials left? I don’t know exactly what they were, but some of them might be useful, especially if you can refine them.”

“Good idea! With how that session ended up, I don’t think she finished it all… I don’t even remember if she told me she grabbed it all herself, or if she left it behind with Lerianna.” John’s eyes wandered as he struggled for a memory that might not exist, only to flick back to Yvara as he shook away the curiosity. “Nope, not coming to me. I’ll just go ask, faster anyway.”

“Alright. I’ll go down to the workshop and-”

“No, I’m the only one around here who doesn’t need sleep, you get your rest. I only mentioned it tonight because I wanted to make sure you didn’t slip out of the house in the morning before I could tell you,” John warned, pointing his finger at Yvara as he started to venture further down the hall. “Promise me you’ll at least try to sleep.”

“A promise to…” Yvara’s reverent whisper trailed off, then she nodded her head furiously. “Of course! I’ll go right away!”

She shut her door before John could even begin to tell her it didn’t have to be at that exact moment. John hesitated, then waved the worry off.

“Better for her to think it’s an order to sleep than to stay up all night.”

A few paces carried him to Aclysia’s door, and John once again halted when he heard something from inside. His hand instinctively raised to knock, but his knuckles froze a snail’s sprint away from the wood as a voice from within rang out clearly enough for him to make out.

“Ah… Farrah, I think… lower? Yes, a little lower, please. Something there feels wonderful.”

John blinked once, then again, and then stopped counting as his mind swirled over what he’d just heard. Now that he was a little closer, he could hear more than just a little bit of movement. There was the sound of sheets rustling, but now that he was standing so close to the door, he could hear something more – soft, heavy exhales, an occasional wet noise, and even a breathy moan as he continued to stare blankly at the door.

“Well… maybe I am that lucky.”

It was hardly the first time John had stumbled on such a thing. Maera and Mithra were incorrigible, and he only got them somewhat decent about locking the door and activating the soundproofing after he threatened to put an official ban on Caturday and move the kittens – or perhaps the two of them - to another building altogether if they didn’t behave.

That was when they’d started to mess with the enchantments on his room, of course. John still wasn’t sure if they did it out of a thirst for ****, or if the two Nekos just had an irresistible need to make sure that at least one person in the house could be heard having sex. The others rarely forgot the locks these days, even in their most heated moments, but more than once, John had come home to his room to find two or three of his lovers waiting for him. Sometimes they were getting quite carried away while awaiting his arrival...

“Seems the two of them haven’t gotten used to doing anything that requires privacy just yet. I could go in. They might be embarrassed, but… I don’t think it would stop them.”

John’s mind hit him with the thought unprompted, the tempting idea slipping its way past his defenses while he was still processing what he’d heard. The two had both been borderline shameless when it came to sex, and he had little doubts that any embarrassment they might’ve felt would be quickly overcome. He only stopped himself because it felt almost rude to interrupt their time together, even if he was now pretty sure his suspicions had been right the last time. Of course, he didn’t have to barge in, he could always just stay here a while and listen...

“I’ll admit, the Nekos might be onto something about voyeurism…”

John let the thought linger for a moment, savoring the delicious lust of it all. Then he pressed his hand forward gently and activated his Purifier’s Muse ability. He still had Orria’s Nature’s Call copied; he’d yet to have an urgent need for anyone else’s powers, and it was one of the more versatile spells he could copy from anyone save perhaps Vallya.

Manipulating the wood into growing and shaping itself in the right way when he couldn’t see the other side of the door was difficult, but thankfully the two occupants were rather distracted, and John was learning to “feel” the mana in ways that his own spells didn’t really allow him to. After a few seconds of trying, though he couldn’t see it, a small shoot that had sprouted off of the door frame must have gotten into the right position to press the door’s lock down – he heard a click, and then nothing at all as the enchantments were activated and silence reigned once more.

Reforming the wood to its original shape was a much easier, nearly instant process. John only stayed in front of the door for a moment longer before turning back to his room.

“The materials can wait until the morning, if she even has any left. I’m sure Aclysia and Farrah will both be wanting to have a talk soon anyway...”

John grinned at the thought. He was sure Farrah would’ve sensed his emotions outside the door, and even if she missed the dead wood of the door frame suddenly returning to life, hearing the door lock would be enough for her to know they’d been noticed.

“Well, if they do want to come talk with me, they’d better do it quickly. Tomorrow is Orria’s day.” John made his way into his own room and headed for the window, glancing out and off into the distance.