“Mia! Mia, we need a spell!” I panted.

If there was one thing I had to have gained in this latest Dungeon foray, it was skill-ups in Running. Not that I had been keeping track—to Mia’s vexation—but I just could not bring myself to care about such mundane skills. So, call it an educated guess.

“‘Snail-biting shit on a stick! Why doesn’t she answer?!”

I glanced at Arx. She looked and sounded furious, but I knew she was simply venting her frustration.

“She got stressed out from all of us triggering her tics. Said she was going to take a nap.”

With a snarl, she swiped her claws through some nearby upholstery which gave up a satisfying puff of feathers.

“But she’s Faen! What does she need with sleep?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know, Arx.”

“This is her entire reason to exist! What good does it do us to have a replacement for Bline if she just… fucks off all the time?!”

I took a final, steadying breath and straightened. “Arx…”

I was not sure what I could say in Mia’s defense… or even if I wanted to. She could be a bit of a headache. But at least with her, I did not feel as if I were some puppet being made to dance for an invisible audience.

And it was not as if any of us had been given a choice.

However, before I could articulate any of that, Jax’s distant shout interrupted us.

“Here it comes!”

Arx quickly shoved me forward. “Go! Go, go, go!”

I groaned but lurched into motion anyway, clutching the hem of my robe to my chest—and exposing myself down to my boots in the process.

“This is never going to work.”

“Less talking. More running!”

Gritting my teeth, I shifted into high gear. I knew from experience that the entry hall would be on us pretty much the instant I got up to top speed, and from there, I would barely have a split second before it was gone again.

Faster… faster…

The doors on my left zipped past me so rapidly, I might as well have been standing still. They looked like cars on a freeway. And here I was, streaking along beside them like a half-naked maniac.

About then, Arx came into my periphery, effortlessly keeping pace with me. There was something in the way she moved. Her knees kicked high. Her pumping arms. The snowfall of hair streaming in the wind. Even the tail held stiffly behind her, steadying and directing her every move. It all came together in a special sort of way that spoke to grace and competent beauty.

And next to me? Well. She might as well have been an Olympic-level sprinter casually jogging beside a red-faced child.

A glowing flash of green swept past.

There goes the lamp! Here goes…

Before I could blink, Arx shoved me as hard as she could toward the spinning wall.

I took one stumbling step…

A gap opened.

A step more.

The stairs flew past.

I dove.

The wall—and the few cushions we had managed to toss in there—slammed into my ribcage, and I ricocheted off…

…and out again.

As I rolled to a stop, clutching my side and sucking wind, Arx skidded up beside me. “Donum! Master! Are you alright?”

“I’ve been better,” I wheezed. Those 12 points in Toughness were certainly proving their worth today.

“Did he …ke it?” Jax called, now even more distant.

Arx turned to look over her shoulder. “No. I told you it’s too fast.”

I could not quite make out all of what Jax said in reply, but it was mostly swearing anyway.

Arx just grimaced, then reached between her thighs. “Here, Master. Eat. You need to heal yourself.”

I did not bother to fight it.

“Is it weird that it tastes better when you’ve been running?” I asked, licking the few remaining drops from my lips.

Not that she was sweating. She was barely even out of breath.

She smiled softly at me. “Is it weird that I want to straddle you right now? Watching you run gets me all worked up.”

“Funny. I was about to say the same thing.”

Her smile broadened, but instead of escalating, she flicked my nose. “Good. If you can flirt, you’re not too injured. But heal yourself anyway. Your pain tastes awful.”

I quirked an eyebrow. And here I thought I wasn’t going to learn anything new today.

My ol’ reliable came easily, and I laid there for a few moments more while the soothing waves of it passed over me, stitching together my battered ribs and the various aches and pains that came with it.

This had turned into quite the aggravating quandary. Whatever mechanism was causing the inner part of the mansion to spin, it was showing no signs of running out of steam. Or even slowing down.

Of course, it was not ‘spinning’ exactly. That was just how my brain was trying to make sense of an infinitely looping hallway. Otherwise, teleportation or some other physics-defying bullshit would have been at play, and there was no sense going down that rabbit hole.

So it was spinning.

In any case, it had quickly become clear that this was one of those scenarios meant to challenge a party by targeting a specific one of its number. Everyone else had enough speed and agility to make the jump. Even Lynnria, though it had taken her quite a few tries to get the timing down.

To put it into D&D terms, I needed a nat 20 to pull this off, and as usual, my luck was standing in line at the soup kitchen.

Shame there’s no such thing as dice-jail for real life.

Just as I was sitting up, I spotted a shock of purple hair approaching from my right, dutifully pushing, tugging, and wiggling every piece of furniture in her path.

“Anything yet?” I called.

Lynnria threw her hands up. “Nothing. No obvious catches or hidden levers. If there is anything in this hallway that’ll stop it, I can’t find it. Maybe there’s a button under one of these tables? Or a chair?”

Arx shook her head in frustration. “It’ll take us weeks to search that much. We must have missed something.”

“We try… …gain?” Jax’s shout was nearly inaudible, she was so far down the way.

The three of us turned our heads. “No!”

“…ta shout. …ink I… …king deaf?!”

Arx slumped dejectedly onto a nearby ottoman, then pulled her tail into her hands. The tip really was just like a second head of hair, wavy curls and all, and it had gotten a bit windswept from the recent action. So she began to pick at the knots.

“It’s really too bad you haven’t grown any extra parts, Dearest,” she mused. “I’m sure you could make it, if you had one of these. They’re so useful for running.”

“Aren’t they?” Lynnria agreed, swinging her own feather duster under my nose. “Especially when you’re changing directions. I can’t imagine trying to make that jump without one.”

I had no idea what she were on about. How was a tail supposed to help one change directions? But as I did not have one, for all I knew, I might as well have been a blind man wondering how green could possibly be relaxing.

So, instead of challenging her on the matter, I opted for deflection.

“You didn’t have one like two days ago,” I said, expelling a puff of air into the violet puffball.

“So you say. As far as I remember, I’ve always had it.”

“Were you ever teased about it?” I asked. I knew it to be an artificial memory, so there were bound to be some cracks in there somewhere.

She frowned pensively. “No… now that you mention it. And I definitely would have been. By my cousins if no one else. They teased me about everything else.”

“There you go.”

Arx released her tail abruptly and stood. “I’m glad for that, at least. I don’t like the idea of people teasing you. Least of all for your tail. It’s lovely.”

Lynnria glanced up with a surprised yet guarded expression. “But… you tease me all the time.”

“I’m allowed,” Arx informed her. “If anyone else gets in your way, you just tell Auntie Arx. I’ll make sure they regret it.”

Lynnria eyed her warily for a few moments. “Are you… flirting with me?”

The question brought Arx up short.

It did me, as well. At first.

However, ‘mating within the Clan’ had been discussed as a Dolilim trait, and it was not like either of her elders had been shy with their offers. So it made a kind of sense…

That said, one did not need to ask when Arx was flirting with you. You knew.

The gray-skinned beauty folded herself at the waist, close but not quite touching Lynnria. Almost like she was sniffing at her.

“Do you want me to be?” she asked finally, her tail slowly waving through the air behind her.

Aaaand here it comes.

Lynnria pulled away slightly. “No…?”

Arx’s eyes narrowed a touch and she leaned in closer, pursuing her. “Are you sure?”

“Yes?” Lynnria swallowed back her rising panic as she edged backward. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because you’re not you, anymore,” Arx breathed huskily, inching closer. “Or not quite. Your body doesn’t behave like it used to. Its wants can be… mysterious. At first. You’ll not know why, but seemingly out of nowhere at all, there will come a sudden flash of heat from between your legs. Aching to be scratched. And you’ll find yourself staring at… strange things.”

She paused a moment, letting her eyes rove about the girl.

“Things that never meant anything to you before. The curve of a hip. The sweep of a shoulder. Wisps of purple hair curling about a delicate ear. The soft flush of your skin… The lust… wafting from your every pore.”

Lynnria glanced at me wide-eyed, obviously seeking help. However, by that point, I was already holding my leg at an angle…so to speak. Besides, I was pretty sure Arx would not go too far.

Pretty sure.

“Mmm~ I can feel it… building in you. It calls to me. Don’t fight it. There’s no need. I’ll make you come. I promise. Until you beg me to stop…”

“That’s…” Lynnria licked lips gone suddenly dry. “That’s not necessary.”

Arx stared intently at her for several long seconds more, a lioness eying a particularly succulent calf. But then she simply straightened.

“As you wish,” she purred with a self-satisfied little grin. “And now you know what’s its like when I flirt.”

Lynnria blanched, looking from her to me and back again. “What? What just happened?”

I flicked a finger at my gloating companion. “I believe that’s called teasing.”

“Oh, no.” Arx shook her head quickly. “I meant every word.”

“Testing the waters, then.”

Lynnria stiffened. “My waters are quite chilly, I can assure you. Positively frigid.”

Arx snorted, but she did not bother to argue. Instead, she merely turned to me. “And I suppose you’re planning to let that go to waste again.”

I met her eyes steadily. Neither of us glanced toward the object of her query, for once mercifully hidden.

Tempting. However…

“I’m rebuilding my stores,” I informed her.

About that point, I caught sight of Jax coming to rejoin us at an unhurried jog.

“This ain’t working, that’s clear,” she called, slowing to a walk. “Maybe, we should switch, Arx. I’m fast enough and stronger’n ye. That away—”

She stumbled abruptly, and her eyes zeroed in on me. “Or is we stopping for lunch first?”

“Not much of one,” Arx informed her dejectedly. “Barely even a snack.”

Jax did not respond at first, instead taking the time to carefully observe both the scene on display and sort through the invisible web of emotions she had just stumbled into.

“I see,” she said finally, eying the cold shoulder Lynnria was still presenting. “We don’t all come to it the same. Ye think I were ready to admit what were what in a day?”

Arx sighed. “No, I know. Irritating as it is.”

“Irritatin’… aye.”

Another beat passed while Jax thought—and occasionally stole glances at the hidden erection I had yet to conquer. It had to have been killing her not to react to it, but for once, she was behaving. Arx too, for that matter.

But then, they could feed just fine from a passing chuckle. Whether they cared to admit it or not, neither one of them actually needed sex. They just preferred it.

The same could not be said for our newest member, hence my need to ‘save up,’ and the source of their irritation.

Slowly, the corner of Jax’s lip began to twitch upward. “Lynnria?”

“Not. Interested,” she proclaimed to the empty air.

Jax only chuckled. “Nay, lass. Ye can untwist yer knickers. Were just wondering if’n ye had a song or two in yer noggin.”

“A song?” Lynnria turned slightly, still cautious. “What kind of song?”

Jax gave an easy shrug. “Oh, ye know. Sommat catchy maybe? What might put a skip in a step? Or just sommat ye liked and wanted to share.”

Lynnria searched our faces briefly, not quite knowing where this was coming from or where it was going. But then, neither did I.

Some kind of camaraderie thing?

“I… I don’t… Well, the only song I really know is the Epic of Farhwellin.”

“That dusty old thing?” Arx suppressed a laugh. “I haven’t heard that one in ages.”

“Ye know the whole of it?” Jax asked with surprise.

“No,” Lynnria admitted. “It takes a day and a half to recite. I only know a few of the battles.”

I perked up. “That sounds pretty cool, actually.”

I had attended a party or two themed around Lord of the Rings marathons. Extended cuts, of course. Not that I had ever finished one. They might have been masterpieces of cinema, but twelve hours of movie was an endurance trial even with good food and company.

But to listen to the whole thing in song form? Yes, please.

“Kind of sounds like the Iliad and the Odyssey. Or Gilgamesh. Couldn’t imagine trying to get through any of those in a sitting, but the first few hours would be a blast.”

Lynnria stared at me curiously, but the other two were at least a bit used to my alien cultural references.

“Aye…” Jax agreed slowly. “Might be a touch longer’n what I were looking fer. What about ye, Arxie-love? Got a personal favorite ye’d like to share?”

“Me?”

The tallest of the three began to scratch at her blouse while casting furtive glances my way.

“It doesn’t have to be your all-time favorite,” I put in, hoping to put her at ease. I had yet to put together the point of this conversation, but it was welcome diversion.

Maybe that is the point.

“Uhm… what’s yours?” she asked.

I pursed my lips. “Hmm… That’s a tough question, actually.”

I did not have a ‘favorite’ per se. Just a collection of well-liked tunes amongst a wider array of those slightly less well-liked and outward from there. So more of a pool of favorites, any one of which could have taken the central spot on a given day.

Just as I was about to offer up a random selection, I caught the look in Jax’s eye, and I suddenly became aware that it was more than a little important that I not answer yet. Critical, in fact.

Though, I had no clue as to why. Or how I knew that.

“You first,” I said instead.

She grimaced and continued to fidget another few moments—appearing as though in genuine distress. “I don’t know if you could call it the best song out there…”

I nodded, encouraging her.

“There was this place I used to frequent as a… well, before. And my uh…” Her face contorted a bit as though struggling to find the words. “I… wasn’t supposed to go there. Got in trouble for it quite a few times, actually.”

She chuckled at some private nostalgia but with a hint of sadness creeping in at the corners of her eyes. She got that way sometimes—usually when the topic of her family came up. However, the process of becoming what she was had sort of carved those people from her mind and replaced them with us, leaving only vague scars behind.

Not for the first time, I wondered if I should pick at them. It seemed to have helped Lynnria to get things out in the open. Whether it would help us or not was another matter.

To know something like that had happened to someone you cared about? Jax had not said anything, but I knew she would be looking for retribution. I knew it, because I felt it as well. Deep down. Suicidal as that impulse might have been.

Fortunately, Lynnria had been reticent to reveal the name of her old Clan. I could not say why. Perhaps out of embarrassment. Or anger. Perhaps she was too sickened by what they had done to sully our ears with it.

Whatever the reason, it had blunted the blade of her hatred, preventing it from infecting us fully. I had little doubt we would learn the truth eventually, but I hoped our vengeful impulses would die down before then.

People did a lot of stupid things when they were angry.

“Anyway,” Arx continued, “the women who worked there used to sing these beautiful little songs from the windows to the people below. I didn’t understand what they were about until much later, but… they sort of call to you. You know?”

“Then, I would very much like to hear one,” I said. “If you can still remember the words.”

She smiled faintly and, after another few seconds of hesitation, took a breath.

What emerged was not the maudlin tavern song I had expected. It had none of the hallmarks of the gruff and unrefined stuff I usually heard from her.

Instead, the tune was high and clear. Shockingly so. Almost a clarion. Dreamlike and pure. Something you might hear from the mouth of a child.

At least in tone and mood.

The lyrics on the other hand…?

From what I could tell, the song was all about a young woman who kept seeing a wild, unkempt man out in the woods. I had to suppose she found him mysterious or attractive. There were a lot of descriptions of his hands and the way his muscles moved beneath his skin.

The second verse was all about trying to tame him, tempting him closer day-by-day with offerings of food, until finally culminating in a night of passion beside a riverbank. Or so I assumed. If not, the songwriter had included a disturbing number of cannibalistic references.

Regardless, it came together beautifully, and I found myself spellbound from the moment my Siren opened her mouth. The hallway whirred along behind her, providing a mesmerizing backdrop to the already hypnotic chant. Pulses of green zipped by. Over and over. Each seeming to flash through the reflecting pools of her eyes.

And when it was over, I simply sat, basking in the serene fog of a heart full from the truly sublime. I wanted that moment to stretch to infinity. Just me. And her.

It was a simple kind of happiness that had nothing to do with lust. A pure love. Silent. Unconditional.

Her eyes shone with it, mirroring my own feelings in infinite regress. Slowly, those iterations began to fall past me, ripples gently washing past while I stood together with her in the dark. Drifting on flotsam in a sea of our own making. Each wave pulled me closer. And closer.

“That were real nice,” Jax said quietly, and we both jerked.

“What?” we said in unison, then glanced at one another, chagrined. “Sorry. You go ahead.”

Lynnria scurried forward, clapping her hands together excitedly. “Ooh, they’re doing it again!”

“No, we’re not.” We folded our arms awkwardly.

And quickly unfolded them in perfect synchronization.

Jax twirled her finger at us suspiciously. “What be this?”

“I don’t know!” we replied with a shrug before sharing a frustrated glance.

“No idea, either.” Lynnria’s eyes shone with eagerness. “But they were doing this for a while during our escape from the maze. It’s almost like they’re one person!”

We shook our heads in quick denial. “It’s not the same. That was like sharing a space between our minds while having two… separate…”

Our explanation stumbled to a halt. It was really freaky to hear your own words echoing out of a second pair of lips. Especially when you yourself did not quite know what you were trying to say.

“…anyway. I can’t sense [his/her] body right now.” We straightened and pointed accusatory fingers at one another. “Ooh! You said [her/his]!”

“One person, be it?” Jax murmured. “Funny. Special-like after that dream…”

I quirked an eyebrow. Whether Arx did as well, I did not notice. However, it was Lynnria who asked the question.

“What sort of dream?”

“Dunno. Flamin’ weirdment, it were. Helped me sort some things, though,” she replied absently. “Were trying to make use of it, but… weren’t expecting this.”

Lynnria began to bounce on her toes excitedly. “Your dream may have lead to unlocking a special Clan ability. Like that Inventory thing we have!”

Jax nodded along. “Could’a done. Dunno what use it be, though.”

“I’m sure we can figure out something.” Lynnria seemed optimistic.

The red-head only grunted. “Right then. First be first.”

Without any other warning, she strode up to me, grabbed my hand, placed it rather firmly on her breast, then yanked me by the collar so as to kiss me to within an inch of my life. When we finally came up for air, she only pulled away just far enough to study my face.

“That sort ye?”

I swallowed, very much aware of the hand she had kept pinned to her chest. And there goes little Donum again. Just when I’d gotten him back to sleep, too.

“Y-yeah,” I began, and thankfully no echo came from Arx. “I’m good. Thank you.”

“What fer?” she replied with a quick glance downward. “Kissing ye be me second favorite thing.”

No need to ask what tops that list.

“Can I try it next?” Lynnria was hopping from foot to foot like a child waiting to go down a water slide.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Lynnria,” I said quickly, having noticed the snarl growing a few inches from my face. “There’s supposed to be an established order to new… uh… well, let’s call it intimacies. And Arx sort of jumped the line.”

“Sorry,” Arx said immediately.

“Nay be sorry, ye clatty bastard. Just show yer First how ye done that.”

She grimaced apologetically. “I’m not sure I can. The only reason it happened in the first place was because of that whole mess after he was forced to revive me.”

“Not keen on repeating that experience,” I added.

However, Lynnria was undeterred. “But surely it has something to do with your ability to read minds.”

Jax glanced back at her briefly, but she addressed me. “Yer reading thoughts when ye couple, now? Not just emotions?”

“Just bits and pieces,” I admitted, still a touch uneasy about the whole thing. “Impressions. Images. That kind of thing.”

There was a moment of silence while she digested that information.

“It could be some sort of nascent ability that’s still developing within his Core,” Arx suggested. “These symptoms we’ve been noticing could simply be its early stages.”

“In my Core, huh? You don’t think Mia had something to do with it?”

“The Faen?” Jax shook her head. “Nay. Seen signs of this long afore she showed up. But I’d bet me left ti—“

She sent Lynnria a contrite glance, who favored her in turn with a half-smile and a bit of a nod.

“…arm… that one’s got her finger in it. ‘We’s all of us Donum.’”

I frowned, not seeing how that was relevant. And even if it had been, there must have been a better way of saying we were all part of the same Clan.

Why does it sound so familiar, though?

There was no ready answer to that question. But from the look on Arx’s face, she was either still mirroring me, or she recognized it, as well. I honestly could not say which I preferred.

All I could do was pinch the bridge of my nose and sigh.

“Well, we’ll just have to ask her when she wakes up,” I said. “We still have a puzzle to solve.”

Arx nodded, then turned toward the spinning hallway. “I still think we’re missing something.”

“You’re probably right,” Lynnria agreed, coming to stand next to her. And consequently shifting the weight of the fanny pack at her waist. “Oh, that’s right. Weren’t we supposed to be looked for a third set of crystals?”

“Now ye mention it, aye,” Jax said with a snap of her fingers. “What color were them supposed to be again?”

“Green,” I replied… just as another green lamp passed us by. “Ah, chebs…”

Jax elbowed sharply me in the ribs.