Chapter 101 The Training Plan

Eight hours later, Evernya awoke to a panicked voice in her head.

“Nya, where are you!” Aya screamed telepathically.

Evernya snapped awake at the sound of her panicked mate, responding immediately, “Calm down, I’m just downstairs.”

“Why isn’t Nya by Aya’s side like Aya was for Nya,” Aya questioned in a hurt tone.

Evernya winced at her mistake, prompting an apology. “I’m sorry. I should have been there when you woke up. Meira fed me, causing me to pass out on the couch down here.”

“Aya understands,” Aya replied with an edge to her tone, despite her response.

Annoyed by her mate’s tone, Evernya put her foot down. “I’m sorry, but we can’t spend every second of our time together.”

The telepathic connection died, causing Evernya’s annoyance to melt away, replaced with worry. “Oh, you are finally awake,” Meira commented upon walking into the room. The sudden appearance of Meira caused Evernya to jump to her feet.

“You are so easy to sneak up on. I didn’t even try this time either. I’m guessing you are having a conversation with Aya?” Meira questioned.

“Yeah, I think she’s mad at me because I wasn’t with her when she woke up like she was for me,” Evernya grumbled, but fidgeting gave away her desire to go check on her mate.

Meira smiled reassuringly as she inputted her thoughts from working with thousands of former slaves. “That’s actually a good sign if you ignore her over attachment to you. She is comfortable enough with you to show her anger instead of blindly following whatever you say.”

Evernya’s ears flattened as she felt anger flow through her mate bond. “Yeah, now I think she is sending angry feelings through our bond on purpose, I probably should go and see her.”

“Probably a good thing to do. I’m going to bed soon. Do you need anything before I do?” Meira asked.

“I think I’m going to test my other ability. Do you have practice weapons anywhere?” Evernya inquired.

“Yeah, I even have a few staves for Aya. I wasn’t sure what type she prefers, so I put basic enchantments on multiple different types.” Meira replied.

With ears perked up in excitement, Evernya inquired, “Where are they?”

“I set up a weapon rack in the gym,” Meira replied as she turned to walk away, only to stop a moment later as she thought of something. “Oh yeah, before I forget, here’s your other stuff now that you have a storage device. I don’t need to keep your stuff for you.” Meira stated before materializing a familiar chest containing her black moons, her folded training suit, her complete outfit for the auction and the weighted balls. Next, she materialized a beautiful oak dresser next to the chest.

Evernya trotted over and stored away the pile of belongings before thanking, “Thank you, I was wondering where that dress went.”

“I claimed it back while I was waiting for Archibald Fleming to finish with you guys.” Meira replied before adding, “While I waited for them to release you I did a bit of shopping to stock the dresser full of clothes and underwear for both you and Aya.”

“Why not just put them in the dresser in my room?” Evernya questioned.

With a goofy smile, Meira revealed, “I already filled that one with more clothes for you two.”

Evernya stared at the elf with suspicion as she questioned, “Wait, why do we have so much clothes?”

“I was stuck in Minea for over a week, so I had a lot of time to shop. A lot of the clothes are for Aya because I wasn’t sure what she likes to wear, so I bought all kinds of things for her to try on.” Meira justified.

Evernya glared daggers into her elf. “You better not play dress-up with her without her consent!”

“She isn’t as easy as you are. Do you know how hard it is to feed six tails through the hole in the back of the dress?” Meira complained, contradicting her goofy smile.

Evernya’s glare intensified a few notches as she accused, “So you already have made her one of your victims!?”

Meira’s face went blank as she said, “I will neither confirm nor deny that I dressed her up in a pretty red dress a few hours ago.”

“That’s it! I am setting up an anti-elf security system in my room and whatever room Aya chooses.” Evernya decided.

Meira’s compose cracked in an instant as she begged with tearful eyes, “Please don’t! I will be good! I just couldn’t resist dressing up such a cute girl at least once.”

“You have a ton of money. Why don’t you just pay models to play dress-up with?” Evernya questioned.

“That’s no fun. Besides, it would be hard to find models as cute as you two. Adult shifters rarely come in such small packages.” Meira replied with a childlike pout.

“So you have a loli shifter fetish?” Evernya questioned with a teasing smile.

With a shameless goofy expression, Meira admitted, “I wouldn’t call it a fetish more like a hobby.”

Surprised by her elf’s not denying her tease, Evernya compromised. “Well, I don’t give consent but maybe Aya will let you once she trusts you more.”

“Aya doesn’t want to play dress up if Nya doesn’t,” Aya announced out of nowhere.

Evernya jumped to her feet and spun around to find Aya timidly standing at the entrance of the living room. When Meira glanced over her shoulder toward where Aya was standing, Aya immediately retreated out of sight.

Evernya’s gaze shifted between her elf and mate before assuring, “It’s okay, you don’t have to hide. Meira won’t hurt you. Well, unless you count her habit of dressing us up.”

Aya poked her head out from the hall with an adamant expression, proclaiming, “She isn’t Nya so Aya can’t trust her.”

“You don’t have to trust her, but at least give her a chance.” Evernya insisted.

Unable to go against her mate’s wishes, Aya relented, “Aya will give her a chance if Nya insists.”

Aya timidly reappeared. She took tentative steps into the room while looking down at her hands clasped in front of her. As she shuffled, all six of her tails were hanging low, almost dragging on the floor. Feeling Aya’s discomfort, Evernya rushed over to her to comfort her. Aya immediately latched onto Evernya’s left arm as soon as Evernya was within reach. Evernya wrapped her tail around Aya’s waist to comfort her trembling mate. Aya returned the favor by wrapping two of her tails around Evernya’s waist. After a few minutes, Aya’s shaking died down, so Evernya gently guided her to the couch.

“Hello Aya, how are you?” Meira asked in a friendly tone.

“Aya, okay,” Aya mumbled while avoiding eye contact.

While brightly smiling Meira offered, “I’m glad, if you ever need any help, don’t be afraid to ask me.”

“Aya understands,” Aya replied a little louder, still avoiding eye contact.

Upon catching her mate’s uncertain expression, Evernya backed Meira. “She’s not kidding. She will do her best to help. We can’t do everything on our own. If it wasn’t for her, I would be dead, or worse, enslaved. Plus, neither of us would live in a nice house like this.”

“Aya knows, but those close to Aya betrayed her. Aya can only trust her mate Nya, no one else.” Aya argued while peeking through her hair at Meira.

Afraid of her mate’s dependence on her, Evernya said, “You can’t hide behind me for everything. In order for you to get that collar off, you need to prove you can function like an adult. The damn Mage’s council locked it until you can reactivate your ID, which means you need to go out in public to the Mage’s council for testing. Not only that, but in a month we will go to college and I may not be in all your classes.”

Aya paled, and her trembling renewed in force. She clamped onto Evernya’s left arm even harder, causing almost audible groaning from the abused bones in Evernya’s arm. Evernya tried to keep the pain from showing on her face as she healed and reinforced her arm.

“What’s wrong?” Meira asked, catching her kitten’s grimace.

“It’s my fault,” Evernya responded through gritted teeth.

“Calm down, you’re going to break my arm!” Evernya shouted telepathically.

Evernya’s shout caused Aya to realize how tightly she clamped onto Evernya’s poor arm, prompting her to loosen her vice grip hold. She was still visibly shaking, but spared her mate’s arm from her death grip.

After letting the throbbing in her arm die down, Evernya continued, “I’m sorry that I scared you, but I won’t sugarcoat things for you even if my poor arm gets crushed. I said we are equals, and I meant it.”

Aya sent a warm feeling through their bond as she apologized, “Aya’s sorry for hurting Nya.”

Evernya tried to copy her mate’s action, sending warm reassuring feelings through as she said, “It’s okay, but we really need to work on your extreme shyness. It’s okay to be shy, but I want you to stand up for yourself.”

“Aya will try but Aya doesn’t know if she can change,” Aya replied with a timid, uncertain voice.

Evernya tightened her tail hug as she assured, “I know you can and I will be with you every step of the way. Just take it one step at a time. I’m not asking you to trust everyone, but please at least give people a chance. I only have a few people I would consider friends, so I am hardly a good example either. You are powerful, probably more powerful than I am, so don’t let others treat you like you are inferior.”

Aya inspected her six tails, causing her shaking to stop. “Thanks to Nya, Aya is no longer the weakest. Aya will try her best to make Nya proud.”

“Someone weak would not survive what you went through.” Evernya asserted with confidence.

“Well, I guess I will go to bed since I don’t think I am needed here. There are multiple smoothies in the fridge if you need one.” Meira announced after yawning.

She stood from her chair to leave but stopped after taking a few steps to make a stack of a dozen thick books appear on the table, along with a small gold ring. “I almost forgot to give you these. They are wilderness survival guides. I want both of you to read them all before I start with the hands-on survival training. I enchanted the ring for Aya so she can read the books since they are in Elvish.”

“What the do you want us to do about magic and physical training?” Evernya inquired.

With a slight pout, Meira replied, “There isn’t much more I could teach you about your magic, and I don’t want to restart physical training until your eating schedule is back to normal. It’s probably better that I leave something for the college to teach you two anyway. I need to catch up on my enchanting work so how about you two use this week for self-study then we will start your survival training.”

“What about Maylin? I can’t smell any fresh scent trails from her. Did she leave?” Evernya questioned.

Meira made an oh ya expression before responding. “No, she is fine. During my stay in Minea, she completed most of my assigned enchanting assignments, so I sent her out into the nearby wilds for material gathering. With our bloodline, she is perfect for gathering materials. Though I think you have her beat in that department, miss undetectable.”

“Probably for the best. I don’t know how she will react to Aya’s presence.” Evernya commented.

“Exactly my thoughts. She is getting better with her racist tendencies, but I think I’ll keep her busy for a while just in case.” Meira agreed.

“Who is Maylin?” Aya inquired.

“Meira’s younger, blood related sister. She is kind of a bitch but I’m sure Meira will keep her in line so don’t worry about her.” Evernya replied, keeping the reply short to avoid triggering her mate.

“Okay, sounds good. I have a few things I want to try anyway.” Evernya replied to Meira’s training plan.

After letting out a loud yawn, Meira teased, “Please don’t create another lawn ornament.”

“I’ll try not to, but I make no promises.” Evernya teased back.

Meira walked out of the room, shaking her head at her kitten’s antics.