Ch 30 - Serenity part 2

 

I wiggled around, trying to see what we’d landed on, and found that I was pinned to a conjured mattress of the same gold liquid light as the sword had been. Plush and warm and just the right firmness, it might’ve been the most comfortable place I had ever been.

 

If the sword was this soft, I would happily die upon it. 

 

Probably not. It had looked extremely sharp.

 

Evidently, Serenity’s liquid light was extremely versatile. And she must have conjured the mattress FAST! 

 

“Bond me, my lady.” She whispered, her voices becoming smokey and sultry, tickling my ear and sending tingles all over my spine. 

 

Her whole body seized and her halo sizzled angrily as Lorna floated directly through her, leaving a liberal coating of frost, which immediately began steaming off her bronzed skin. 

 

She shook her head vigorously, causing her halo to wobble as it tried to stay directly above her head. 

 

My cock, insatiable minx that she was, responded enthusiastically to all of the naked angel’s wriggling. Her bare pussy was pressed against me and I swelled. Her golden eyes widened.

 

She lifted up and grasped my cock in surprise. 

 

“Uuuuhhhh!” I whined as she roughly squeezed and explored me through my pants. 

 

“Oh!” Serenity exclaimed. “Oh my. You're THAT kind of girl.” 

 

She glanced up at Lucy and Violette. 

 

“She’s big!” 

 

“And virile!” Lucy said proudly. 

 

“And does all her thinking with her big fat girl-cock.” Violette snorted, eying me fondly. 

 

“Time out.” I announced. 

 

Serenity’s eye covered wings flicked out two at a time, from the top pair down to the bottom. 

 

Flap, flap, flap.

 

Confusion, I concluded. 

 

“Time out.” I repeated, shoving at her chest. 

 

Her weight lifted, as her wings pulsed, taking her a foot or so off the bed. 

 

“Before there can be anything between us.” I said. “Anything at all, you and Lorna have got to talk. I get that you guys have a relationship that is bigger and more complicated than I can probably even imagine, being a puny mortal. But you’re here now. Both of you. And if you want to be one of us, you’ve got to find a way to make peace.” 

 

Serenity considered. “But you have to.”  

 

“I don’t, though. Consent, for one.” 

 

“But… We have a contract. I am your Familiar.”

 

I nodded. “True. But not bonded. Not yet.” 

 

“You would leave me unbonded?” Serenity blinked in bewilderment. “I would be all but useless to you?! Unable to grow in strength, and many of my Skills would remain locked?” 

 

I nodded. 

 

“You are not the kind of Summoner that can afford to leave a summon unused.” Serenity argued, a curious light in her myriad thoughtful eyes. 

 

Her thoughtful eyes which I was struggling with all of my heart to meet. I got dizzy. But managed to hold eye contact.

 

“Don’t.” Serenity covered my face, gently, with her hand. Her rough…Strong… hand. Connected to those surprisingly muscly arms. “My gaze is unsafe for your kind.” 

 

Fuck. Don’t pant, Eir.

 

She released my face and I looked down instead. 

 

At her bare, powerful, sunkissed body. Curves. Muscles. Two puffy nipples atop the barest suggestion of titties. The glorious curve of her ribcage melding into her strongly muscled abdomen, to–

 

“Can you put on some clothes, please?” I begged. 

 

“Noooooooo!” Lucy whined immediately. “Bad idea!” 

 

I shot her a look, and found she had also stripped her clothes back off. 

 

“You too, love.” I ordered. 

 

“But I didn’t start a fight?!! I’ve been so good!?” Lucy said, stamping her foot. 

 

“You’re always good.” I agreed. “But you’re so beautiful that you melt my brain, and I really need to think clearly for a minute. Please?” 

 

Lucy made a show of grumbling, but I felt the soul-deep satisfaction radiating from her through our bond. 

 

She and Violette put their clothes back on. Serenity conjured her scandalous white drapes and I stood as the mattress lost cohesion and flowed back into her halo. 

 

Lorna drifted to hover over my shoulders, protectively wrapping her arms over me. It was a bit like wearing an icepack on my shoulders, and it honestly helped clear my head a lot. 

 

I shifted through [spectral waltz] so that I could give Lorna’s hand a little squeeze. 

 

“I can see that this is an impossible situation for you.” I murmured to her only. “If you say she’s out, she’s out.” 

 

I felt a weight of anxiety lift from Lorna. I realized she’d been waiting for me to make it clear that I was on her side. And I was. She meant more to me than any stranger could, even if we needed her. 

 

“Serenity.” I said, “I want things to work out with you. I am grateful that you answered my call.”

 

“And you're soooo pretty.” Lucy chimed in. 

 

“True.” I acknowledged. “You are beyond stunning.”

 

“And we need a front-liner.” Lorna murmured. 

 

I was surprised, but I went with it. “You’re a tank?” 

 

Serenity tilted her head, making her halo go askew. “Is that a Guardian?” 

 

“Yes.” Lorna said grudgingly. 

 

“Then yes.” her voices sang. It seemed that as she relaxed…the range her voices covered was expanding. From deep velvety baritones, all the way up to graceful sopranos–but all distinctly the same voice. Just multiplied across a full chord of tones.

 

I turned to Lorna. She shifted from around my shoulders, crossing her arms behind her back looking surprisingly demure. 

 

“I apologize for allowing my emotions to jeopardize this critical relationship.” Lorna said, inclining her head. 

 

I startled, “No. You do not have to apologize. This is complicated, and it’s better that we deal with it now.” 

 

“We need her.” Lorna whispered. 

 

“I need you.” I said, firmly. “You are my first priority right now. I’m asking if you will try and make peace with Serenity. But if you say it’s impossible, I will stand by you. Got it?” 

 

Lorna leveled a tender gaze on me, floated close, and gave me one of her signature, frosty kisses. She pulled back, but I [spectral waltzed] again to keep her lips on mine for one more second. 

 

She finally broke away, smiling with what I could’ve sworn was a shy little blush. 

 

“I will try.” She promised. 

 

“Serenity?” I asked, turning to the angel. “Are you open to making peace?” 

 

Serenity was studying Lorna and I, then looking between Violette and Lucy and back. She had a nostalgic look on her pristine features. And a hint of longing. 

 

“Let us speak, my old enemy.” She said, at last. 

 

Lorna inclined her head and the two started drifting away from the rest of us. 

 

“Would it help if I…?” I asked Lorna, unsure really what I was offering, but ready to offer anything she should need. 

 

Lorna shook her head. 

 

“We are very old,” she said. “It is past time we grew up."  

 

She and Serenity drifted up over the treetops. Serenity conjured two chairs and a little sunshine table for them to sit in the artificial sky. 

 

“Why thank you.” I heard Lorna say, as they sat. 

 

“Let’s give them some privacy.” I whispered. 

 

“What?!” Violette asked, incredulously. “Let’s eavesdrop! So obvious!” 

 

Lucy and I hauled the protesting fox girl away, receiving many indignant tail whips. 

 

They were gone for over an hour. I tried to turn out the absolute rollercoaster of emotions that surged to me through Lorna’s bond. Some of them, I couldn’t even identify. Others were blown out of human proportion. The human heart was not made for the nostalgia of centuries. I was desperately curious, but I also was coming to terms with the fact that my Familiars had and would have lives outside of their contracts with me. 

 

Even if things went incredibly well in my Wayfinding career, and I got all the life-extending benefits that Levels and maybe even an Ascension or two could offer, my life would ultimately be only a chapter in the long story of their existence. As human as they seemed, and as deep a connection I had with all of them, it was a reminder that they were profoundly different from me. 

 

I squeezed Violette and Lucy close, as we reclined under the shade of a great oak. 

 

“I still think we could’ve listened in, just a little.” Violette grumbled as she nuzzled comfortably into my side, with Lucy spooning her tightly from the other.

 

“What’s something you would enjoy doing, outside of Wayfinding and school?” I asked, running my fingers through her wavy pink hair. 

 

Her fox ears twitched. “What do you mean? What else is there?” 

 

“I see.” I sighed. 

 

“What’s wrong?” Lucy asked, concerned. 

 

“I haven’t done a good enough job taking care of you all.” I answered, thoughtfully. “But I think I am learning better.” 

 

Lucy frowned, “You take very good care of us!”

 

“Yeah. Don’t say stupid shit.” Violette jabbed my side with her sharp little knuckles. 

 

“OOf!” I grunted, tugging her ear to make her stop. “I appreciate you saying that. But really. Be thinking about things that you’d like to do, or see, or sample, for yourself.” 

 

Lucy and Violette both went uncharacteristically quiet and thoughtful for a while. 

 

“Or if you can’t think of anything, we will all go on some dates together, and try things.” I offered. 

 

Both girls pressed eagerly into my side. “DATES?!” they asked in stereo. 

 

I laughed, feeling happy and loved. “Dates.” I affirmed. “I should’ve taken you all on lots of dates by now. But we’ve been kind of…!” 

 

“Everything has been insane since the moment you summoned Lucy.” Violette finished for me. “We know.” 

 

“But yes.” Lucy chipped in. “We would love, love, love to go on dates with you. When we can.” 

 

I grinned. “Nothing could make me happier.” 

 

Serenity’s voice startled me. She and Lorna were perched in the great branches that faded smoothly into the ceiling of the training room. How long they’d been there, I wasn’t sure. 

 

“You were right, about her.” she said, to Lorna, who merely smiled proudly, and nodded, swinging her translucent feet below her branch. 

 

“Something I should know?” I asked.

 

Lorna shook her head. “Just one of the reasons I fell in love with you.” 

 

My pulse quickened and warmth rushed over my entire body. 

 

It took me a second to realize why.

 

It was because Lorna had tacitly informed me that she was in love. Not just… a bond, whatever that really meant. But, in love. 

 

Only Lucy had exchanged those big words with me before. I wasn’t positive that Violette would ever stand for something so vulnerable. Nor were we there yet, though I could feel us getting closer every day. 

 

But Lorna… soft, dignified, regal, elegant Lorna… was in love with me. 

 

I felt a swell of encouragement and celebration from Lucy and let my smile burst out unfiltered. 

 

Serenity drifted down like a descending sun goddess until her toes skimmed the grass. I rose to face her, disentangling myself from Violette and Lucy. 

 

“Were you able to reach an agreement?” I asked nervously. 

 

“There is much history yet to unravel between us.” Serenity said, the music solemn, but hopeful. 

 

“The seeds of our peace are well sown,” Lorna agreed from above. Then, to Serenity, “May they bloom.” 

 

Serenity’s feet hit the grass, followed slowly by her knees. Her great wings swept low over the soil. Her huge molten sword reformed as she arched her fingertips before her. Then, kneeling, she offered me the hilt. 

 

“I offer you my fealty. My shield at your back. My sword at your hand. My wind beneath your wings.” She lowered her eyes and bowed her head. It had the feel of an old song. An old ritual. A spell from before Skills or Classes.

 

Deep within our bond, I felt Lorna prompt me on how I could proceed. How to accept. Or how to reject. 

 

I stepped forward, within the downy white arc of her wings, and touched my finger to the tip of her pommel, desperately hoping I was doing this right.

 

“I am honored to accept you, Serenity.” 

 

I knelt and slipped a finger under Serenity’s chin, and raised her face to mine. 

 

“Arise, my Knight.” I was a little awkward in the formality, but Serenity took it all in stride, sweeping me along in the wake of her assurance. 

 

Together, we rose, Serenity’s wings flaring wide and radiant as her feet left the ground. Then she hovered close, encircling me in her wings, her multitude of eyes kindling brightly, going from gold to a deep amber. 

 

She towered over me, so I had to angle my head back to keep her dizzying eye contact.

 

As I swayed, she tucked her head-wings tight, so that I wasn’t exposed to her impossible eyes.  

 

“Will you accept my Bond, Knight?” I asked, with my breath catching.

 

She smiled, and it was like the sun breaking through a storm. 

 

“Aye, my Lady.” 

 

She leaned down, and our lips met, ever so soft, and gentle. Then slowly her hands found my cheeks, and mine found her waist. We closed the distance between us, and our bodies pressed together. Her breath was as warm as a hearth fire. And her lips were as soft as a candle flame. 

 

Like two stars falling into each other, our souls touched. 

 

I gasped, only vaguely aware of a fourth black diamond branding itself into my arm tattoo. 

 

My fourth bond winked into being.