Releasing Roshasha had been put on hold pending Lord Charron's arrival, as well as on the account of her being batshit crazy. Kanae didn't want to deal with something like that, and she certainly didn't want to put her companions through the ringer either. Not that she had the power or know-how to release her anyway. It was a secret between the Grand Eye and the eight Saint Priests.

There was little to do now but to wait on Lord Charron now. Since they had plenty of free time, Arenade had dragged Kanae out to Brighton first thing in the morning.

"Couldn't we have eaten breakfast first? My hunger's acting up because I haven't drained anything yet either… and I'm cold! The sun's barely out, too!" Kanae complained.

"Nope, nope, and nope. Do you know how long it takes to make a dress? Let alone a wedding dress? I'm paying this tailor a premium for a rush order. You need to look perfect. Our wedding needs to be perfect! I won't settle for anything less!" Arenade laid it on thick without so much as giving an inch.

They cruised down a strip with many buildings of the artisanal variety. Brighton only had the best to offer, and it was also where most high elves lived. As such, its architecture had been touched by Ortesian influence. The excessive designs were visible on roof and window mouldings, touched by none other than professionals in their craft to replicate a piece of the empire.

Arenade stopped in front of a modest boutique with a signpost of a needle and a spool of thread. Inside, an elderly high elven woman with sharp cheekbones and thick glasses, graying hair up in a bun, and lips creased in a scowl was dressing a mannequin in an elaborate gown. She peered up when they entered.

"She the one?" the woman asked in a stern and raspy voice.

"This is her, Risa!" Arenade pushed Kanae up to her from behind. "What do you think?"

Kanae gulped under the high elven woman's scrutinizing gaze. Risa had a few golden strands left in her hair. She must be well over a hundred years old.

"Come." Risa motioned Kanae over to a tall, standing mirror.

As soon as Kanae stepped in front of the mirror, Risa multiplied. Four old women began to take her measurements with a measuring tape, and a fifth jotted down the number after every report.

"Exactly how much is this going to run us?" Kanae asked.

"Let's not talk about the price. Just know that Risa here is worth every penny!" Arenade nodded to herself.

Knowing her, this was going to cost a fortune. The entire wedding was going to cost a fortune! Kanae hadn't been in the know because Arenade took charge of everything regarding their wedding. For all she knew, this might even bankrupt the Commonwealth's coffers.

"Alright." Risa dispelled her clones until only the one holding a notepad of Kanae's measurements remained. "This is doable, but I'm running low on thread. Unfortunately, it's the kind of thread not readily available on account of Ortesia cutting off trade with Radevic."

"Oh…" Kanae and Arenade uttered together.

She smirked. "But you're in luck. I'm one of few high elven with the knowledge to craft this sort of thread. I only need the base material. Maybe the two of you can fetch some for me. You both may be royalty, but you're also capable adventurers, yes?"

They thought back to all of their mishaps and shenanigans as of late.

"Y-Yeah!" the two of them hastily replied.

"Good. The material is diamond silk, naturally produced and spun by a species of giant spiders known as 'tharcidia'. You can find them in the forests around Radevic. You won't obtain it by killing them though. Collect their webs with this." Risa handed each of them a spool connected to a wand that resonated with magic.

Just holding them, they knew the spools were enchanted.

She continued, "Hold this up to a web, channel magic into it, and say, 'collect' and they will do the work for you. I only need enough to fill up one spool. Any more than that and it's just a bonus for me."

Kanae and Arenade emerged from the tailoring boutique with a new quest, the first they have done alone together in a while. The two flew across the city, heading straight for the surrounding forest.

"So, this should be a cake walk with your Collar of Domination. You control one, have them spin a web, and we collect. Done deal!" Arenade grinned like they were already finished before leaving the city.

"I'm surprised you're even coming with me when I can do it on my own. I expected you to go back to the mansion or lounge around at Dreizel's," Kanae teased.

"Of course, I have to come with you! I need to make sure you actually collect the diamond silk and not fuck the spiders!" she fired back.

After crossing the threshold of the city walls, they flew a little deeper into the forests before touching down. The last time Kanae was out here was during Gretchen's insurrection, when she escaped with King Turren and Delayn. How time flew.

The forest here wasn't as dense as those up in the Commonwealth, but it was rife with danger all the same. Kanae knew to be careful, but Arenade was as carefree as can be…

"Alrighty! Where are those spiders? Come out and give us your silk, you websacks!" Arenade shouted.

"Can you not draw attention to us?! We only need to find their web!" Kanae exclaimed.

"You worry too much. We're both over level 200. These spiders don't have anything on us. Besides, we defeated the one and only Petyr Stormcloud, and she was a damn monster," she said.

"I defeated Petyr…"

Leave it to Arenade to take credit for what Kanae achieved. Well, it was a team effort to put an end to the war. She deserved some credit.

"Let's just find these spiders and— huh?" Arenade had pushed through a tangle of vines when something at her feet caught her attention. Whatever it was reeled her up to the branches, leaving her swinging upside down. The spool slipped from her hand.

"Behold! The great Arenade, who defeated Petyr Stormcloud, only to be then defeated by a vine trap!" Kanae couldn't contain her laughter.

"Kanae! Get me down from here, or so help me Supreme One, I'm calling off the wedding!" she cried, flailing madly from the branch.

"Can't you just use Holy Armament to give yourself a knife? Cut yourself down, Miss Capable Adventurer!"

Arenade was about to do just that until a wolf-sized spider landed on the branch next to her. The look on her face went from hopeful to terror in a fraction of a second.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH— MMMRPH?!" A mask of webbing muffled Arenade's screams.

The spider proceeded to spin its web all over Arenade until she was cocooned from the neck down, then jumped away with her hanging from a thread connected to its spinnerette.

"Arenade?!" Kanae panicked. She snatched up the fallen spool and flew after them, but the spider was fast.

Its spindly legs vaulted incredible distances, and Kanae was hard pressed to keep pace. Meanwhile, Arenade was hitting her head on every branch the spider landed on. For some reason, the spider stopped. Maybe it was tired, but now was her best chance to catch up. Only a little closer, and she could control it with the Collar of Domination. She torpedoed through the forest only to slam into a springy space between two trees.

"What the…" Kanae flexed both arms, but they were firmly stuck to… a spiderweb.

Sunlight bleeding through the canopy hit the web just right to reveal the glimmering surface. The sticky trap stretched from one tree to the other. That spider must be a tharcidia, and this web was its diamond silk. She channeled magic into the spool in her hand, but a sticky web sealed her mouth shut. Another hissing spider descended into view.

Shit!

The first spider lowered Arenade, who had passed out and had a big bump on the back of her head, onto the web next to Kanae. The second spider spun a cocoon around her body, too. It bound her so tight, she couldn't so much as wriggle a finger. Strangely, the spider left her butt open to a breeze. Weird.

It didn't make any sense until one of the tharcidia climbed on top of her. Kanae saw her reflection in its twenty beady black eyes. However, her own gaze traveled down the underside of its abdomen, where two legs peeled away her underwear. A fleshy, tube-like organ sprung out from its abdomen and fired straight into her pussy.

"Mmm! Mmrrrpphh!" Kanae's eyes rolled back as something… multiple somethings entered her womb until it was bulging. 

The tharcidia backed away to let the other one take its place. This creature had a different organ, a writhing penis that looked like an earthworm. It squirmed around on top of her stomach until it found the entrance.

Shlick! Shlick! Shlick! Shlick! Shlick! Shlick!

"Mmh… Mmmh! Mmmpphh~" Kanae trembled in pleasure as the spider's strange cock scraped the insides of her pussy. She came when hot, thick globules of cum squirted out, making her stomach inflate just a little more.

Too full! Too full! Any more and it's going to burst…

Both tharcidias had just impregnated her. The female deposited its eggs, and the male inseminated them. Seemingly satisfied, both creatures skittered away. Arenade was still unconscious. There had to be something Kanae could do.

The only thing that came to mind was Versatile Womb. Anything born from her were loyal, but would that even work? She technically wasn't the one giving birth, merely just a body for incubation. Worth a try.

Kanae activated Versatile Womb and waited, and waited… She twitched to a tickling sensation in her womb. The bulge on her stomach kicked a little. Dozens of spiders the size of a fingernail crawled out of her pussy. It was creepy, and it felt even weirder at first, but the baby spiderlings looked like cute jumping spiders with their big eyes and small body. She mentally commanded them to chew on the cocoon, and they did. Their tiny mandibles ripped into the diamond silk webbing that was too strong for even her to break. They eventually freed Kanae's hand and mouth.

"Oh, thank god… Collect!" Kanae spoke the magic word, and the cocoons and web unwound into an extremely thin thread that coiled onto the spool.

Arenade went into free fall until Kanae caught her, and they slowly descended to the forest floor.

"What… happened? Why does my head… feel like I got hit by a truck?" Arenade returned to consciousness, but she leaped back upon laying eyes on the spiders all over Kanae. "GAH! Are those the tharcidias?!"

"Don't worry! The adult tharcidia are gone. I gave birth to these." Kanae lifted one up on her palm, which had grown to the size of a fist now.

"You ended up fucking the spider monsters after all!" She pointed accusingly.

"Excuse you. Me and my family of spiders saved you from being a snack. I also got two spools worth of diamond silk. Where's our thanks?"

The adolescent tharcidias on Kanae's shoulders and head raised their forelegs in agreement. Arenade lifted a finger, mouth open, and ready to make a retort. She ultimately pursed her lips and swallowed her pride.

Since they had the diamond silk, their job here was done. Sadly, Kanae couldn't bring what was essentially classified as 'dire beasts' back to Radevic, so she had to let her newborn spiderlings go free. They scattered away to spin their own web in life, and Kanae and Arenade returned to Risa with two spools of diamond silk to show for.

"Goodness. How did you manage to find enough silk for two?" Risa gasped.

"It was a pain in the ass, let me tell you…" Arenade rubbed the side of her head and frowned.

"This is more than enough to make my wedding dress now, right? I'm really curious about what it looks like," Kanae said.

"Heh. You're just going to have to wait and see. Your lover here designed it. I'll send a courier when the gowns are ready. Trust in me and look forward to the finished product." The tailor winked.

On the way back home, Kanae couldn't stop staring at Arenade and wondered how she would look in her wedding dress. The revealing toga she wore could easily pass as one. Kanae always thought she looked beautiful, even when covered in muck and grime from her temporary stint as a homeless chump in Turic.

"You know I can feel your eyes burning into my back," Arenade said when they got to the door of their mansion.

"Eh? Sorry! I was just imagining you in a wedding dress. The only ones I really know are those from Earth. Are, uh… Are the dresses in this world a lot different?" Kanae asked.

"Hehe. Curious, aren't you? But no, they look fairly similar. The custom dresses I ordered from Risa are of Ortesian design. Of course, I gave it a little spin to accommodate you being a succubus. It's going to be the best day of our lives. That also means…" She whirled around with a finger up to Kanae's face. "It's our special day, so don't go screwing it up!"

"I get it, I get it!"

If anything, Arenade's insistence about not messing things up was only going to jinx it. Kanae was hoping to get some sexy time in with her, but the busybody elf had to leave. Something about visiting the orphanage shelters that the Radevic branch of the Eminence of Sin ran in the city.

Left alone to her own devices, Kanae spent the rest of the afternoon picking pieces of silk from the egg sacs out of her vagina. She thought of meeting up with Edina to play some cards until Esta came by with a message from the Grand Eye.

"Apparently, it is an important meeting for the Knights of the Order of Colors. The Grand Eye didn't give me any details. She wanted us present at the basilica first," Esta explained.

"I wonder if it's another mission. Ugh… I hope not. If it's important to the entire order, what about Red and Copper?" Kanae asked.

"I imagine it's only a meeting between the few of us." The Knight of Silver wasn't sure herself either and shrugged.

Kanae and Esta hurried to Aidenhall. Grand Eye Analise was inside the archbishop's office within the Basilica of Saint Rue. William Bellevue and Dalu'luna Mello, the Knight of Azure in-training and Knight of Ivory respectively, were already present.

"I'm glad Silver could find you, Amethyst. How is your day faring?" Analise began with small talk.

"Great so far! But probably not appropriate for me to recount… Anyway, what did you need us for? Calling the Colors together is kind of unprecedented, right?" Kanae asked.

"Indeed, it is." She nodded slowly. "In light of recent events, it has come to my attention that for all of Aidenhall's strength, we are still sorely lacking in manpower. We still haven't recovered from Gretchen Redbaron's rebellion that made known a large number of traitors within ranks. And the two direct attacks from Ortesia forced me to reevaluate what needs to be done. That is where the Knights of the Order of Colors come in. I believe the order can do more with greater resources and its own legion of knights."

"Ana, do you mean to grant us foot soldiers?" Will gasped.

Dalu furrowed her brows. "I'm not sure I follow. Just now, you said we're lacking in manpower. Giving us knights won't add to anything other than shifting hands around."

The Grand Eye raised a hand asking for quiet.

"Come now, I'm not finished yet. No, Aidenhall will not be giving you knights. I want you to recruit at your own discretion. We lack the numbers, but we are not lacking in wealth. Each color will be granted a hall to serve as barracks and headquarters. Aidenhall can provide the income and resources to each hall and its people. You may recruit from outside or within the academy, and you will be their Knight-Commander. In this way, I hope to achieve two things: bolster Radevic's overall military readiness and grant each colored knight greater means to better conduct their missions."

They already liked the sound of that. It was like an order within an order. In fact, Kanae already had in mind the people she wanted to recruit.

"Think you're capable?" Analise looked each of them in the eyes.

"Yes, Grand Eye!" the four of them answered at once.

"Good." She rose from behind the desk. "Allow me to show you to your hall."

"Wait, you have already built the halls?" Esta asked.

"Ortesia's sieges on Aidenhall gave me the chance to make several much-needed renovations to the palace, including a few additions." The Grand Eye glanced over her shoulder and flashed a smile.