I awaken a split moment later, body extended out as immobile as ice but roiling as a volcano within from blazing ecstasy. As promised, Leomi finds herself unable to stop.

She kisses me before I cry out in exultation and tenderly plunges her slender fingers past my petals' slit to penetrate my flower. I arc back with such strength under her thrust that I lift her body up with mine.

I slide my hand down from her neck to her buttocks, snugly following the curve of her spine as I caress her. Lance shivers under my touch and opens her thighs just slightly, almost unconsciously, as she climbs up to bring herself within my reach.

Lance is drenched and she's done all she needs to allow me in, she is ready to be taken so I link my major and ring-finger. I stretch them out and drive them in her wet slit, taking her as I use my index to rub her bud.

Our bodies swirl as we make love and I find myself on my left side, facing her. I use my breast to caress hers, my tit to flick hers, and my hand to penetrate her. She is caressing my ass with her left hand while thrusting her right in me.

I feel complete to have her in me, to see the brilliant smile on her lips, to give her a bright grin of my own. Bliss erupts again in my chest and, as my sight grows hazy, her eyes seem to lose focus as well.

Whence I awaken, I find myself atop of her, licking her sex with the wonderful feeling of a tongue exploring mine. I press my lips on her svelte petals and send my tongue inside her, feeling her supple flesh espouse my mouth.

Lance then nibbles on my tight folds and my mind grows blurry once more under her mean teasing. I awaken to find myself on my stomach with her perfect lithe fingers inside me and a rod in my ass.

I've long lost the sense of time but my anus isn't hurting so, either she just began, or I'm so wet there's plenty to sorely fuck both my openings without causing pain. I bet on the second. I focus entirely on enjoying my domination from behind.

I cry out so as to evacuate my rage, my anger, my self-pity, my every emotion. I fight Lance and she defeats me with ease, allowing me to surrender. I abandon myself to Leomi with a sigh and experience bliss under her assaults, under the rough thrusts of her waist.

“Ugh, ugh, ugh!” I gasp every time her thighs slam into my buttocks, every time she brutally enforces her dominion of me.

In this submission, I find my center and these animalistic considerations lose all meaning, they fade. Only pure physical love remains, untainted by animalistic instincts, societal status, or emotion.

My thoughts extend and I lose it, my perception turns unreliable as an eternity passes in the blink of an eye and I awaken behind Leomi who is kneeling and bent in half over the bed.

My fingers are in her mouth, pulling her head back. I wildly sodomize her with the metal rod attached to my waist. I seize her without pity, I relish my superiority over her, not so she can experience what I have but so I can satisfy myself without concern for her.

There are strengthening constructs affecting half my body's muscles and nourishing ones for the other half who are at rest, definitely those that took the brunt of her assaults when she fucked me from behind.

My anus feels hot and painful but isn't half as sore as the last time she did me. I pull my fingers out of her mouth and slide my hand down her stomach to take her sex as I ravish her anus.

I screw her until she gives up resisting, and then I fuck her some more until she becomes mellow under my thrusts which is when I slow down to very gently push myself and the rod as deep as possible in both her openings at once.

“Iiuhm! Iiuhm! Iiiuuhhmm!” Leomi lets out a long ecstatic moan.

I blink and find myself with a rod in my ass again but facing Lance this time. I'm sitting on her thighs, bent back with my legs wrapped around her waist. Leomi is kneading my breast as her other fingers come in and out of my flower while tinkling inside to play me like a musical instrument.

A felicitous dream passes and I awaken on my side in her arms as she does in mine. We kiss for the thousandth time. I reach down to her flower and gently caress it with my palm. Leomi raises her left leg. I rise to take the invitation and place my sex on hers.

Our petals meet and meld as lips, our buds touch and dance as tongues. We both half-sit so as to move our waists in concert to share a kiss with our dewy flowers as our hands reach and caress the other's breasts.

We become a singular entity in myriad ways this night, we fuck as much as we make love, we screw each other tenderly but also aggressively. Yet, we always reach the peak as equals no matter who begins or ends up on top because the other's bliss is our most cherished blessing.

Dawn perks out the horizon and shines on our bedroom's single glass window. I could have had a dozen orgasms, a hundred, or perhaps a single one that lasted all night long.

My memories are both clear and fractured but, two of the most prevalent involve Leomi's short white hair peeking out from between my thighs and me devouring the delicate, svelte, folds of her sex.

It seems we've both taken every occasion to eat the other's womanhood in a variety of positions and often at the same time. I thank the Lake that we're alone in this cottage out in the countryside because I'm pretty sure our unrestrained whining, moaning, and screaming would have awoken all of Meria otherwise.

We've likely caught up with all the intimacy we missed out on for months, or at least we would have if either of us had a normal libido or a normal need for love but we don't and I still feel the intense desire to become one with Lance beating inside my chest along with my heart.

Yet, parallel to that want, is one to seek Celyz out right now, to cross the Empire and give myself to her. Oddly, I do not experience guilt or consider the thought betrayal. I will later, but at this moment, there is only love in my heart for the two beings whose love keeps me alive.

--- --- ---

Ding, ding. I startle up from the sound of the front door alarms going off downstairs and hurriedly link to the chain of constructs to deactivate it so that the dangerous ones don't go off.

I'm then quite distracted by the warmth surrounding my hand, and the heat on two specific fingers. I feel twitching inside me as Leomi perks up at my side and vaguely remember that we fell asleep while slowly masturbating each other while kissing.

Lance is the first to pull out, surprising me for a moment before she pulls a sword from under the mattress. My fingers slide out of her wet sex as she rises to take a kneeling defensive stance in front of me.

I rise up on my knees as well and reach out between her thighs to penetrate her once more, unwilling to give her up so abruptly. Leomi leans on my arm and passes her left hand behind herself to finger me as well.

“It's unlikely to be an attack, that was the front door.” I whisper, shivering from feeling Lance in me.

“... Indeed, the jay is saying it's Yvonne.” She replies, relaxing.

I seek the jay out but do not find its silver silhouette. The sword-sworn barges in a moment later with the bird atop her head with its beak turned one side and its eyes glimpsing at the other so that it can observe us without seeming like it is.

No smile comes to my lips because Yvonne's appearance is dreadful, her traits are tight, her hair as disheveled, and even her hard leather armor appears ruffled.

Yvonne's expression further drops as she witnesses us, looking crushed. I glare at her for the reaction and barging in, trying to find words to make my best friend understand she should knock.

“Don't be silly.” Leomi gently berates me. “You made me a woman.”

“I made you a woman...” I repeat dazedly.

I blink and realize I subconsciously clenched my hand in her, informing Lance of my raging jealousy. I truly acted silly instead of intelligently reading the circumstances.

I let my imagination run wild and forgot that her traits already showed her distress when she came in, meaning her loss of composure at witnessing us is more related to her soft heart's empathy towards us than my best friend's unrestrained libido.

Which means that tragedy struck. Broth... No, she doesn't know his face so this means this is about Leomi. I freeze as I feel Leomi's fingers clasp inside and outside my womanhood.

She rises, pulling me out of her, and slowly get off the bed while dragging me along by the sex. Lance's no doubt connected the dots. I wrap my arm around her waist to give her my support as the unbelievable dawns on me.

“Sweetie, it's...” Yvonne starts.

Lance interrupts her by raising her other hand. She releases her hold on me and turns to kiss me with desperation. Her sharp traits have twisted in sorrow and wrath. Her gorgeous assured countenance turns dreadful as we separate.

She stomps into a closet and pulls out two hard leather armors with steel bands. Leomi has no wish to hear the news by a third party even if it is Yvonne, she wants to see with her own eyes.

I follow her intention and pull her wardrobe's drawer open to take out one of her uniforms and some simpler warrior's clothes for myself that are of such high quality I wouldn't consider wearing them in another situation.

As I throw them on the bed, Leomi hands me a band of cloth to use as a bra and a fresh pair of knickers, picking similarly comfortable underwear for herself.

The sword-sworn leaves the room and I soon hear her searching the kitchen downstairs. By the time I finish dressing up, Leomi is fully armored and helps me strap my own on to leave as quickly as possible.

I then take out my two other broadswords from the same closet she had the hard leather armors and pick up my longer one from the ground to set it on my back. Face pale, Lance grabs my umbrella and sets it on my half-shoulder before hurrying downstairs.

Yvonne welcomes us with a large plate of bread dipped in milk that we devour while she goes to prepare her ward's mount. I can tell that the silence of it all only puts Leomi under more tension but do not speak because she does not wish to talk at this time.

She takes hold of my hand as we step outside and keeps hold of it as she climbs atop her horse. She does not release it as she helps me up and rides off behind her sword-sworn with one hand on the reins.

We arrive, a half-hour later, at the scene of carnage. There are dead Hospitaliers laying atop breathless rebel soldiers, about four dozen fighters in total and the absence of anyone else here means Yvonne was one of the few survivors who likely left to report the battle.

I estimate that only a handful of Nobles are present from the quality of the armors that accompanied them in death. Two are enclosed in plate armor and only received a singular stab-wound, one on his chest, the other on her flank.

Those are marks of Vikiana's deadly swordswomanship and Leomi chokes at the sight. She almost crushes my hand from emotion as I coldly inspect the battlefield's pale dead lying on the blood-soaked red soil.

The Hospitaliers have received much more grievous wounds than the soldiers who held grudges against me and Leomi but a few have died of having their throats cut or their hearts stabbed.

Clearly the mark of the impostor's shadow, the one who hid behind the fake E.Vil and controlled the cube burning with light blue flames, and likely the only one who knows the barrier construct.

It would be good if he died but that is unlikely considering neither him nor Vikiana seem to be here, meaning he kept to his role as an assassin to the end and the woman is a warrior by trade.

She is an Exemplar in spirit, not a Shade, as proven by how many of the enemy soldiers she took care of and the fact the Hospitaliers won despite being outnumbered. Not to mention that they were likely ambushed and had to wait for reinforcements.

“This way.” Yvonne murmurs.

We follow her east towards the woods which are about ten minutes away on foot. Vikiana likely exhausted herself knowing that her daughter's most dangerous enemies laid hidden so as to draw them out and end them, or at least put an end to their last plot.

We arrive at the edge of the trees. Behind one lies Vikiana's dead body, sitting with her back against a trunk, her wrinkled cheeks are pale white and there is a trail of blood running down the corner of her raised lips.

Leomi grasps at me so as not to fall off her warhorse at the sight. The veteran has a stab wound to the center of her chest. The dagger missed her heart but it was enough to kill her.

She likely died from poison considering the vomit mixed in the blood staining the veteran's hard leather armor, I wouldn't be surprised to find a smaller wound somewhere else on her body.

There is a singular Hospitalier with a wound on his arm and a broken leg sitting against another tree, looking completely out of it. I hop off the horse as soon as Leomi releases me and help her down.

I glance hard at Yvonne who gets the message and hugs Leomi while I use a piece of cloth I find in the horse's luggage to wipe the vomit and blood from Viki's body. The bitter feeling in my belly spreads to my mouth.

Lance approaches slowly, clumsily, and kneels down to take hold of her mother's hand. I inspect the scene. The soldier is likely the only witness of the events leading to, to my, to my mother-in-law's death.

Yvonne made it here later in a rush. There's no weapon on the ground or at her waist, meaning she likely lost it in the battle and didn't even stop to pick it up before rushing to the cottage. The assassin is still in the area.

“Tell, me what, happened.” Lance utters, addressing no one in specific.

“Vikiana's last blow was blocked by a barrier construct, leading to a counter-attack that almost struck her in the heart. We can reasonably assume she dominated the fight and drained her opponent's flow by striking the barrier without letting herself be caught but, eventually, that tactic also depleted her already low stamina and energy reserves leading to her fall.” I explain.

“I could see this, I need no conjectures, jay.” Leomi seethes with a jumping mood as she grasps at the cold hand held within her cool fingers.

“It is as Dame Freepath said.” The Hospitalier murmurs. “Our patrol caught the soldiers hiding in a crevice of the terrain and attacked only to find that there were more than we thought, Dame Vikiana arrived a mere handful of minutes after we sent a distress construct during our retreat. She kept us alive by eliminating the most dangerous until another patrol arrived.”

Lance closes her eyes tight for a moment before opening them and holding her left hand out to me. I hesitate to go hunt the assassin now but decide to wait because Leomi needs me and there may be important information to hear. I drop on one knee on the other side of Viki and take hold of my fiancee's hand.

“As the battle ended, a soldier we all thought dead rose and tried to strike...” The Hospitalier pauses to glance at Yvonne.

“Just as my sword broke, the assassin rose from the dead to strike me. Vikiana blocked the dagger at the last moment with her palm.” The sword-sworn murmurs with a sad and guilty tone. “He used me as bait to weaken her with poison.”

“Dame Vikiana fought the man who ran away from that moment on but another soldier attacked Miss Yvonne like a fury so she couldn't chase after them. I... I followed in the woods but the assassin ambushed me as soon as I ran in. Dame Vikiana heard and arrived just in time to save my life but... but, then... but she...” The man trails off, unable to find the words. “Dame Vikiana injured his dominant arm, badly, but lost in the end.”

“Did you hear them speak? Tell me every detail you noticed.” Leomi demands with her eyes fixed on her mother's face.

“I... The assassin told Dame Vikiana she killed herself by getting in his way but she smiled in response and told him his life is now on a countdown, that he signed his own death warrant.” The Hospitalier relates the events with a downcast tone. “The assassin replied he fears not, he told Dame Vikiana he fears not her daughter. She, she smirked and kept her silence as she breathed her last breath. The man stared at her for a moment and a shiver went through him. He turned to kill me, his eyes were wide, so wide, so dark, but then I heard Miss Yvonne rushing over and the assassin ran.”

Lance closes her eyes. Her chin falls to her chest and she silently weeps. I squeeze her hand and throw a quick glance at Yvonne who nods. She grabs the injured Hospitalier and helps him limp over to her mount.

Leomi sobs without a sound for long minutes and I hold her hand, like an idiot who cannot do more to help than be there. I feel grief for Viki's death, I didn't like her very much but I respected her in spite of her mistakes, in spite of what she did to me, because of her skill, because of her character, because of what she did for us.