Azure, still sitting in Sammy’s lap and looking pleased to be there, continued on the subject of the two captives, “Lest you think I’m trying to enslave people, I plan to release them from the hold when we’ve exhausted their usefulness. Not that it wouldn’t be preferable to what they deserve for the things they’ve done.”

“I don’t really know the extent-”

“I do because they’ve confessed to me, hmm? Let’s just say they deserve hanging despite their begging for forgiveness under my influence.”

“Oh… I see. Well. Then they will hang.” It gave her a terrible feeling to say that, but she meant it. Azure would not say such a thing lightly.

Azure eyed her silently for a spell, then nodded. “Then again, perhaps I do, as well.”

“For something in this life?”

Azure squinted off in thought. “Hmm… I don’t think so… unless you count stealing a honey cake and bold-faced lying about it to be a hangable offense…”

“Consider yourself forgiven, honey cake thief. I am a goddess, so I think I qualify to dish such pardons out.”

With a big grin, Azure kissed her on the cheek and declared, “The goddess is most generous to spare me! Oh, thank you so!”

“Indeed.” Sammy leaned in with sly eyes and whispered, “But I’m afraid I’ll have to take you as a concubine to work off your debt to society as well as to me.”

Azure’s eyebrows rose. “Oh really?”

“Yes, you see, I know that’s not the worst you’ve done… dread pirate Bluebottom.”

Azure gasped in mock horror. “How could you have known?!”

“Your bottom is renowned through all the lands, pirate! But now… ‘tis I who shall plunder the booty!”

Azure tried to maintain her shocked expression, but she could not from the combination of the words and Samantha’s expression. She released a long snort and then burst out laughing, with Sammy soon joining in.

“You two!” A squeal of delight. Constance. “You’re so adorable together, I swear.”

The faerie dragon girl was floating in the air, heart-shaped eyes gazing at them, a smile splitting her face in two as she ‘supported’ it with two cupped hands, legs curling up from behind her as if the air were a bed she was laying on. She was mostly just Cute with a capital C in appearance but with a hint of something reptilian… and a big dollop of naughty gremlin.

Sammy cleared her throat and studied the Servitor. She bit back any annoyed tone and said evenly, “Well, thanks. Constance. I appreciate it. And, uh, good work. At the manor.” The last she added quickly so it could not be ‘misconstrued’ to mean her ‘service’ to Redberry.

Constance beamed even wider somehow. “Thank yoooou! It was quite a smashing success, and my hot bardic sensation Sebastion did such a fantastic job, too! Anyway. I’ve been meaning to report on information obtained before the shit hit the fan, from my time at the Redberry party.”

“Wait, you were running an intel campaign there?”

The fae being flipped upside down, still grinning, while doing something of an extended shrug. “A spy’s work is never done, Your Majesty! I am always gathering information for the glory of the Order, even while at play. Even while I’m with Redberry, wrapped helplessly in vines while she-”

“Constance!” Sammy admonished with a strangled voice. “Get to the pertinent bits- I mean parts- I mean subjects! The information?!” The imagery didn’t get out of her head, though. Wrapped helplessly in vines?!

“Right — the treefolk do know a higher entity, and a few hints about it being an oak suggest that known-about tree of yours, but they would not tell me the name personally. I got near confirmation that they would help you in some way, though. Just thought I would break the ice a bit there.”

“Huh. Noted. I’ll put it on my gigantic list of things to do long-term. Ha, who am I kidding! Jeeves already has, right? But thanks, Constance. Anything else?”

“I mean, yeah, there’s a list since your subconscious releases things you don’t consider confidential. That’s how we know things! Most things.”

She winked at Sammy, which could’ve meant anything but was probably something horny. “So one thing on the list was mining Red for leveling info now that she has some memory and clarity. She confirmed that most abilities have their own unique scaling pattern, sometimes wild and unpredictable. But she also confirmed that Grant Prayer scaling is mostly uniform unless the bonus is exceptionally narrowly specialized.

“But for most, it is plus 1 at level 1, and plus 1 per 5 full levels after. So Level 6, 11, 16 presumably… and maybe it’ll break from this to cap at plus 5 at level 20, but that’s unknown. Red at 15 has numerous at plus 3.”

“Ah! Good to know. Nice work, Constance.”

Azure, smirking slyly, chimed in. “So did you two make an intimate game of this information gathering?”

Constance gasped and flipped around to ‘sit’ in the air cross-legged, eyes wide with a smile. “How did you know?!”

“It’s what I would’ve done, too.”

Constance’s eyes widened to anime levels, as they darted suddenly between Azure and Samantha, the hamster wheel on the inside no doubt spinning with imaginations.

Yep, she’s filing away some heinous, non-existent perversions! Whatever.

“You’re dismissed, Constance,” Sammy said with a sigh.

Pursing her lips in a self-satisfied expression, Constance nodded and began drifting away. “Oh, and Red also said questions are always fine to filter through Vinewicker if not urgent…”

“Sure…” Sammy watched her go, then turned her gaze upon Azure.

Azure raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Do you have to encourage her?”

“No, but it greatly amuses me.”

“And that’s what counts. Hmmph. You know, I really don’t know how she ended up like she is. And- and- and- that extra stuff. Yeah. That’s definitely not me.”

Expressionless, Azure nodded along. “It’s the actor aspect, motive to understand humanity, and completely independent decision to be a hedonistic sensate. Naturally, it has nothing at all to do with your otherwise minimal lustfulness, nor any subconscious need for a release from maintaining constant control and poise.”

Sammy was in complete agreement. “Exactly! Before you came along, I didn’t flirt or even notice sexual things. I was totally clueless! I certainly wasn’t attracted to every hottie that came around. And I’m definitely not into… you know. Like, what?!” She tittered and shook her head incredulously.

Azure merely nodded along slowly and indulgently with a small, polite smile.

Sammy’s eyes happened to fall upon Azure’s necklace. The locket — a silver oval with a sapphire inset, not obvious that it was a locket at first glance. She chuckled. “Oh hey, I forgot about that! I saw what was inside, you know.”

A smile blossomed on Azure’s lips. “Did you now? And what was it?”

“A symbol. ‘Union of like and like,’ I think. And, more specifically, ‘woman becoming one with woman.’ Entwining intimately.”

“Oh, well, that’s quite a crazy coincidence, isn’t it? I just bought it because it looked cute.”

Sammy rolled her eyes. “Suuuure… You weren’t trying to enchant me or get a little supernatural boost or anything like that.”

“I’m glad we’re aligned in this opinion.”

Sammy’s wan smile faded as she held Azure’s eyes. “I have to admit I made you a promise with that between our hands. ‘Any wish you make, I’ll grant you.’ That I wouldn’t deny you a single thing. That I was yours. If you just came back — if you woke up. And you did.”

Azure held her eyes soberly for a moment with an undercurrent of her pleasure to hear it. Then she took Sammy’s hand, interlacing their fingers. “The promise is entirely fulfilled, Samantha. You are mine, I am yours, and that is all I want or need. My wishing days are over.”

“I’m sure you can come up with something. Come on, give me a wish!”

“Alright, fine… if you insist. The world. Let’s take the world. And build the greatest palace from which to rule it! Fairly, that is. Of course. Rule fairly. Yes. A palace, though — without a doubt!”

Sammy grinned. “Now we’re talkin’! We always had a palace, didn’t we?”

“So it seems. But we’re not quite there, yet, to be able to protect it. If we ever are… we’re terribly behind things for this iteration.”

“Hey, rich people have multiple properties. Our first can be isolated and off the mainland. The Dominion sucks over the water, apparently. Or maybe in the mountains if I ever buddy up with the minotaurs. They suck there too.”

“Love, you’re still talking about further out than tomorrow…”

“Yeah, yeah, I know! But it’s feasible if we’re smart about it, is all. We need a place where we aren’t worried about being clandestine. A place of magical research and development as well as a home. A place where invention rules. Okay, yeah. An island somewhere in these tropics. A summer palace…”

Azure smiled and brushed Sammy’s cheek with a finger. “Feasible indeed. So be it, darling. Another vision on our horizon.”

Sammy leaned her head back as she daydreamed a bit about it. An impregnable island fortress protected by oceanic spirit allies, sea monsters, and a fleet of ships. A palace of crystal, a design homage to the most beautiful construction she’d ever seen, and the beginning of so, so much: Azure/Lovie’s mind. If they were to finally ‘win,’ that was the sort of place that deserved the celebration party.

A great tower top for us to look down. As before, as always.

‘An impulse rarely suppressed,’ the Fortuneteller added with airs of resignation and acceptance. ‘Inevitably, you’ll have the means. We build. We invent. We advance. If simply left to our own devices, none could resist us in the times of acceleration. It is necessary to interrupt us. So He does at his strongest point.’

“Interesting. It’s all making a gamey kind of sense, now. Thanks for the help with the pneuma speech, by the way.”

‘It was your [Pulling], your intent, whether you understood it or not.’

“Hmm. First Material. Can you give any more information on that?”

‘Such distant elements of the past are difficult for us to access and retain beyond shadows. Perhaps it is irrelevant. Another word for what you already have. [Pneuma] is the core cosmic building block. A precursor to matter. Or its original facing before being flipped to another.’

“Can I create Afterlives with it?”

There was a brief pause. ‘Yes. It takes time and novelty for mortals to attune, should be constructed with careful rules, and trying to create a continuous cycle will fail. It will also inevitably attract attention and interest. Be wary.’

With that, the Fortuneteller faded away.

Despite warnings, Sammy couldn’t help but feel an excitement. She could create a heaven! She could keep her Followers even if they got killed. No more losses forever like Theron, like Elias, like Neswyr. People that depended on her to protect them and paid the ultimate price.

I’ve still got a ways to go, though. Might as well curb my enthusiasm.

Sighing, Sammy told Azure, “Alright, time to focus on the now, Blueberry. I’m going back to Caneboro for the longest of overdue meetings. Coming along?”

Azure grinned and nodded. “Who wouldn’t want to meet Estara and Dax? I’ll adopt a human guise until we meet in private, of course. Caneboro is no place for a Naugite, sadly.”

“Ah. Good thinking. Back to the sandy ass beach, then!”