"A sparrow carrying a ribbon. The banner is familiar to me." Eudora conjured an illusory image of the banner, the exact one Mira described she'd seen besieging Semiramis.

We weren't seated at the usual meeting place under the gazebo of Eudora's tower. Instead, she came down for the first time in a long while to discuss with us in my home. For the purposes of privacy, I had Gurk and Eileen leave for now. The only one who wasn't in attendance was Belle, who had opted to leave discussions to myself and Mira, while she spent time with her unconscious friend.

"The young, widowed Princess Lisette rules the Principality of Ors. She was supposed to wed King Uldrin under the advice of High Saquin's late emperor to bridge an alliance. It seems circumstances have led to a premature divorce," Eudora continued.

The Principality of Ors. They once swore fealty to the Empire of High Saquin as a vassal state. Without a seat on the council, nor a witch of their own, Ors was jumping into snake-infested waters besieging the heart of Juna.

Why would they put themselves at risk?

"From what I understand, Ors is no member of the Council of Kings and only sought membership through marriage. Maybe the princess wasn't expecting Uldrin to be an old fart?" Miras suggested in jest.

"Do you suppose Princess Lisette is backing the Silver Cross?" I asked.

Eudora made a face as though she couldn't conceive of it happening.

In my mind, it wasn't inconceivable. A small principality wouldn't attack a kingdom the size of Juna without a death wish.

That was unless they had some form of help elsewhere.

"The Silver Cross sounds like a bunch of unhappy civilians-turned insurgents. On the other hand, for them to be numbered in the hundreds demonstrates a long brewing animosity, or other political powers in play," Eudora said.

Which in and of itself was far fetched. King Uldrin was as exceptionally paranoid as he was ambitious. It was why he kept Belle on such a short leash, why he took the initiative in cozying up to Edith to invade Parthun. For him not to have seen a growing insurgency within his own kingdom was uncharacteristic.

Mira and Eudora certainly knew this.

And knowing Eudora after having worked under her, the only possible outcome to where she would send us was obvious.

Mira came to the same conclusion, and we both gave Eudora a knowing look.

"Oh, don't look so smug. Edith must be on edge after you took away her toy. She may likely keep an eye on who our potential allies are. Sending you to Ors is a death knell for you and Princess Lisette." Eudora slurped the rest of her hot chocolate down and sighed with bliss. Seeing her two small hands cup such a large mug was comical in its own way. This feared witch who took the form of a child gorged herself on sugary foods and beverages, unconcerned in the slightest of how she looked. When the cup had gone empty, she demanded, "Seconds!"

"Are you really going to stay in that body? Couldn't we just hunt another basilisk for you?" I asked, pouring Eudora more hot chocolate. She received the refilled drink with glee, bouncing in her seat like an actual child. 

"I rather like this body; it's much more limber," she said.

"You say that as if you were a crone. I recall you had yet to reach your third decade," Mira said.

"Forging a body isn't something that can be done on a whim. I lack a rather—" Eudora held her tongue. Instead, she dismissed our concerns sipping silently of her drink.

We didn't press the issue any further. Not that we could even if we tried.

Eudora suddenly went off on a tangent unrelated to our original topic.

"It's getting chillier by the day. You know what I miss? The bathhouses of High Saquin," she said.

"This is supposed to concern us… why?" Mira asked.

"I want to soak in a grand bath!" Eudora exclaimed, eyes glistening and cup held tight to her chest.

Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure of experiencing High Saquin's bathhouses. The only one that came close was the forged world where I had met Zeke in.

"Soaking in a hot bath does sound nice," I said, then took a sidelong glance at the door leading down to my underground bath. "It's not grand, but I do have a large bath underneath my great hollow."

"You do?" Eudora's eyes lit up. She ran to where I was staring, threw open the door, and then squealed with such joy that it caught us off guard.

Mira winced and raised a brow. "Wait a minute. How dare you speak of High Saquin's bathhouses when you destroyed the empire, you bitch!"

"Excuse me while I avail myself to your hospitality." Her laughter faded to a dull echo as I heard conjured water flood the downstairs bath.

With the intrusion temporarily gone, Mira scooted next to me and rubbed my thigh. Cool feet brushed against mine, and our fingers interlocked in an embrace.

"This is your home. You can kick her out," Mira said.

"After we took residence in her forged world? This is hardly enough to return the favor." I laid my head on Mira's shoulder, and found my free hand stroking her belly. There was an ever so slight bump. I hoped so much that the baby would turn out normal. Cammy was able to discern that there were no abnormalities despite my penis and semen being unnatural growths. Only time would tell now.

Mira lifted my face up by the chin and kissed me. Her lips were tender, not carnivorous like she usually was. Both of us knew that in time, she would be far too incapacitated by pregnancy to do anything. For her to be pregnant was a shot in the foot to our firepower against Edith.

She left the seat for the couch, and patted the cushion next to her. I knew right away she was going for her pipe.

"Should you really be smoking while pregnant?" I asked.

Mira stared hard at her beloved pipe, and through clenched teeth said, "Fine…"

"We're in this together." I put both of our pipes in a lockbox and stowed them away, sealed behind a magic enchantment.

A knock came to the front door. Ceris had news.

"Sheila has arrived. She comes with fifty priestesses!" Ceris exclaimed.

We followed Ceris out of Ellowyn where her bunyips were waiting alongside several orcs and kobolds. Coming up from the abandoned western road that led into a mountain pass was a line of demi-human women— elves, beastfolk, and others I was laying eyes on for the first time. 

Behind them was an enormous carriage, pulled by a dozen brown rhinoceros-like creatures with the mane of a lion and hooves of a horse. It was like witnessing a moving mansion. The priestesses framed a path in front of the carriage up to us, and then out emerged Sheila who rushed down the many steps. She threw her arms over Ceris, who received her with a tongue-deep welcome.

The sight got the residents of Ellowyn, unused to the sight of so many sparsely dressed demi-humans, excited in their own way.

When Sheila had her fill with Ceris, she tried to approach me, but a pillar of ice barred her from coming too close. Mira had her arms crossed and snorted. Sheila, realizing that she wasn't going to get her way, took a few steps back and bowed.

"My fellow priestesses, I have arrived ahead of Gale. She remains in Vessyra amassing our warriors currently numbering in the hundreds. By month's end, thousands. Thanks to Goddess' love, the great tree is flourishing and so are our harvests!" Sheila shouted.

No doubt due in large part to the magic crystals I embedded into the tree. It must be injecting magic into the land via its roots. Those crystals will run dry in time, but hopefully long after we've settled our quarry.

"Gale isn't too eager to see me again, is she?" Mira grinned.

"She… has a hard time sleeping at night. I often hear her utter your name when we lay together," Sheila said, scratching her blushing cheek. The feline ears twitched with excitement, eager to please. "Our disciples are ready and at your disposal. No man or woman can resist their charms."

It slipped my mind that part of our plan to forge alliances was to use sex as a bargaining chip. As outrageous as it seemed, wars had been waged on much less.

"I'll have my orcs and kobolds build lodgings for your priestesses. In the meantime, they are welcomed to make friends with the citizens of Lotherain, but don't push them if they decline. Humans aren't exactly friendly with those who don't look like them," I warned.

"All creatures are weak to pleasure." Sheila winked.

Ceris and Sheila marched their priestesses into the city. A few of the orcs and kobolds followed after them in what was going to turn into a massive orgy, larger than when the witches found a new outlet.

Speaking of witches…

"You're going with them, aren't you?" I asked Alira who was trying to sneak by.

"It's my first time seeing these new races. I wanna see them fuck," Alira said, a trickle of drool slips down her chin.

"Well, don't scare them. They are about as human as you are!" I shouted to her back.

It looked like the witches were going to join, too.

"Is this really the best plan we've got? Bribing humans with sex with a different species to convince them demi-humans aren't bad?" I buried my face into my hands.

"Haha! I think it's wonderful. Let them screw to their hearts' content," Mira said.

"Mistress!"

Eileen and Gurk joined us after the parade had left for the city.

"What the hell is that?" Eileen marveled at the size of the carriage-mansion and grazing beasts of burden.

Mira bent down and pointed Gurk towards the city. 

"You just missed them. A group of females in heat were looking for a stud like you," she said.

"Females? Many females for Gurk?" The goblin sniffed the air and then took off running towards Lotherain.

I frowned at Mira's successful attempts at tempting Gurk into more sex. That goblin was going to put the whole city to shame. It occurred to me he's likely had more sex than anyone from his species ever had.

"By the way, Mistress, I might have created a potion to reverse the effects of your, ahem… phallic growth," Eileen said.