“I am glad my daughter has found such wonderful companions.” The woman said, closing the gap and taking my arm. “I should be more than happy to personally assist you.”

I felt my cheeks become flush as the soft touch of her glove slid down to take my hand. She was warm too, beating away the chill that had settled into me after spending so long working outside earlier.

“That would be great to have a personal hand, but if we are going anywhere can they come too?” I asked.

I hid my nervousness from being alone with the woman. She had an alluring aura about her, and I had to hammer home that this was Rolada’s mother. In some ways it almost made it worse and I had to drift my attention to the tasks the minions had to distract myself.

“I didn’t want to impose by asking such a thing myself. Rolada dear, you and your friend should attend, both for this fine man’s sake but also to relax in the sun.” She said, gently squeezing my arm.

“My name's Josh, I didn’t catch your name.” I said.

“We could go with mother dearest if you want.” She said, smiling beneath her veil. “I more commonly go by Arch Priestess Sliva, but we can drop the formalities, Josh.”

“Mom, stop trying to steal my sort of boyfriend.” Rolada pouted.

The way she said it made me feel like this might have occurred before. Yet the way Rolada smirked at me first, then winked at Lin, made me second guess myself. She might even be in on it to try to embarrass me in front of her own mother.

“Careful Josh, she might be a true demon, she might even suck you dry.” Lin said, sticking out her tongue.

That got me worried and I tried to look at Sliva without being caught. She did a little jump and looked up at me with a raised brow, a second after her character information appeared. I realized what I had done and tried to apologize, only to stand in shock.

Sliva, Fox beast-kin, Level 18 Arch Priestess

“Holy hell.” I breathed.

“Watch the tongue.” Sliva said, flicking me in the cheek. “If you wish to continue to bed my daughter then you have to stay in my good graces.”

Before I could ask how she knew that, she plucked from my shirt a tuft of red hair from Rolada. Sliva seemed quite amused at picking at me and she waltzed around me in a mesmerizing dance, pausing every few steps to tap a painted nail on me.

“Looking for something?” Lin asked.

Sliva nodded and stepped back to survey me from afar. She whispered to the two other women, and when they both agreed with her she looked back at me. In one smooth motion Sliva stepped forwards, snapped a finger, and swished her tail to the side. I immediately stood up at attention and saluted.

Willpower check : Failure!

“What’s going on?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“Making sure when a wise woman gives you instructions you can follow them.” Sliva teased, she released me from the spell and hummed in approval. “Despite the wear to his clothes he's clean, has respect for my power and has clearly fed you two well. I give him my approval, my sweet little fox.”

Rolada clapped with delight and hugged her mom. She then rushed over to tackle and hug me, sending me sprawling onto the ground. I hugged her back and waited for her to let go. When she didn’t, I tried to stand back up while holding her. Her tail was swishing so violently it unbalanced us and I had to get Lin to peel her off of me.

Sliva clasped her hands together, just like Rolada often did, and bowed. She rose and spoke with an inviting tone. “Follow me, my wayward children, to the sunny beach side of my Queen. Perhaps while I aid him in choosing a priestess to take home, you two can get him proper clothing fitting of his station.”

“He is starting to look like a vagabond.” Lin said, lifting my sleeve and poking at the holes.

My work shirt had been through a ton. Being thrown around, with me in it. Magical attacks of all kinds and a rough training in the past few days. On top of it all I had torn at the hem a few times to pluck out threads to cast Rope of Binding in a pinch.

“Can I keep it as a souvenir?” I asked.

Rolada looked at me with a deadpan expression and raised her nose. “I’m going to burn that damn shirt.”

I added a special mission for Drone 1 to make a secret room. A place for me to hide my old Earth things as they got worn out. I added to the request an emphasis on hiding it in a place the crafty little fox and light fingered cat couldn’t reach.

Mission accepted, good luck keeper Josh!

Sliva took me by the arm again and walked us towards the portal, each step bringing us closer and making my core rattle. My magical veins burned slightly as we approached what I could only imagine was powerful magic. The moment we stepped through I felt my senses turn inside out for a brief moment before returning back to normal.

“Easy there, the first time can be a bit scary, but I’m here.” Sliva said, patting my arm and reassuring me in a soothing tone.

I was lowered onto the massive bed of pillows and sunk into their embrace. I held onto my head as my senses were still trying to sort themselves out. A white shape was plopped down beside me as Lin groaned, suffering the same effect.

“It will pass in a second.” Rolada said, sounding chipper as ever.

“Does portal stuff always do this?” I asked.

“As does any teleportation magic, it's why I’ve been hesitant to teach you my flash step spell. With how you have been pushing yourself to train I didn’t want to risk making you sick for a week or more.” Rolada said.

“Hey, why are you not fuzzy headed?” Lin asked.

Rolada shyly shifted from foot to foot until Sliva put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Rolada sighed and flopped down to sit with us.

“I grew up here and trained for some time with my mom. I’ve been using portals to collect tithes and tributes for years, it's almost second nature at this point. Just don’t tell the others please.” Rolada pleaded.

“Hey your secret is safe with us, you are our fun smarty pants and that's all that matters to me.” Lin said.

Lin was the first to recover and rose on her own. She shook her head to clear it and looked good as new. Maybe it was on account of her living here her whole life with magic, or some kind of second wind talent she had up her sleeve. I on the other hand was struggling to tell which way was up.

“I think your friend has his mana lines out of sync. Why don’t you enjoy the market while I do a quick job on fixing him up.” Sliva said, stepping around the girls to inspect me.

“Are you sure Mom?” Rolada asked.

Sliva dropped a small stack of coins into each girl's hands and turned them around to look out the window. I pushed on the pillows to rise enough to catch the sight of the outdoors and felt my jealousy rise again.

Sliva had beachfront property, more than that she had a paradise outside. A Mediterranean style beach wound around a smooth coast with crystal clear water. The sun was shining and the warm breeze blowing in from the window promised the perfect temperature. There were tons of people outside in sundresses or swimwear enjoying their time, but not too many people for there to be crowding. Dozens of small airy stores were in the distance promising an exotic market of goods. It was about the same size of Wyrmbreath, but it smelled far better, and looked more colourful too.

“Have fun Mom, bye Josh.” Rolada said.

“Take care of our boy.” Lin said.

The two of them shed their heavy cloaks and jackets, now only in loose tops and sprinted away to enjoy the sun. Their joy was infectious and I tried to follow them only to flop back into the pillows, disappearing under them.

“Are we across the world or something?” I asked.

Knowledge World : Success!

Avonna is a chain of island nations held under direct control by the daughters of Ishaka. It is known as a pleasant paradise with many services to relax, entertain and heal patrons of the demon goddess. With their strong naval fleet it is a small but powerful nation that stands on its own.

You have travelled approximately 4,000 kilometers in the unit of measurement you are familiar with.

+2 XP gained.

I whistled and thought of the last time I had flown that far. It had been on a trip paid for by a very rich aunt who wanted to get married on a Caribbean beach. That trip was nearly five hours and now I had travelled that distance in a second. Magic was a whole different ball game.

“Now, let’s get you sorted out.” Sliva said. She waved her hands beside me and hummed as she prepared a spell. “Summon pillow golem!”

The pillows hovered around me, pushing together and forming the vague shape of a giant man. I was swept up in its arms and moved into a new room with a long flat table with a hole cut in it. Sliva directed the fluffy titan to put me face down. I felt the world twist and turn but when I was placed down I felt it start to return to normal.

I breathed deeply, finally feeling better and said. “I think I’m going to be fine… Sliva what are you doing!”

Sliva plucked at my cloak with expert precision, undoing the clasp and handing it off to the golem to put on a coat rack. Following it was my shirt that was helplessly tossed into a corner leaving me bare chested. I pushed on the table to rise only to feel Sliva’s soft hands push me back down. She wasn’t being forceful, only putting in enough strength to persuade me to stay.

“Your mana lines are out of sync, the portal messed you up quite badly. I need to massage the lines back in order or next time you try to cast a spell you will instead get a fun surprise.” Sliva said.

“Like what?” I asked cautiously.

“From random spell outcomes or unpredictable side effects to even failing to cast. Worst case, the mana has no way to leave and plainly just makes a way for itself. I have seen casters burn from the inside out after they ignored the plethora of symptoms.” Sliva said, explaining slowly to ensure I understood the weight of the information.

I, for a fact, did not understand the severity as I closed my eyes and felt out for my magic. Static sparked off my fingers and there was a puff of heat behind me. Whatever had happened was like she said, I felt like the magic veins in my arms were touching together in strange ways. It was like when the wires of a battery touched and big sparks flew off them in protest.

I felt Sliva swatting at my backside and when I looked back in confusion I saw she was using a pillow to beat out a fire. As the embers vanished, and Sliva panted from the effort, my pants smouldered.

“I might have to reconsider my statement from before. If you are so keen on parting with this world I can do a quicker, much less painful job.” She said, as she gave my leg a tap.

A second later the old work pants failed, crumbling off my legs and leaving me only in a pair of clean, yet worn boxers. This was worse, much worse.

“Not bad, someone has been working out.” Sliva said, giving my calf a squeeze. “I can massage those too, now quit squirming and let me work.”

Her playful scolding was undercut by her warm attitude. She didn’t seem bothered that I was in my underwear, but to be fair she was barely wearing much herself. I put my head back into the padded headrest trying to ignore that last fact.

“Will this hurt?” I asked.

“Only if you keep squirming. Just relax, this is what priestesses are trained to do. Both because it's calming but also because it really is important to keep the flow of magic unrestrained. I’m amazed Rolada let your mana lines get this bad, it’s almost as bad as that girl's nest of hair on a bad morning.” Sliva said.

I laughed and got another wack to my rump which shut me up. I heard the pillow golem shuffle closer with a tray filled with several items. Sliva wheeled a cart closer and told the golem to fetch us a drink as she started to open containers full of sweet smells. Mint became the most prominent and Sliva started to hum a soothing song.

I let the ambient heat sink into me from the air and felt a strange sensation as Sliva worked an oil into my neck. The mint oil cooled me down, becoming at odds with the heat. Sliva had ditched the gloves using her soft hands to work it into my skin, getting down into the muscles. As she spread her hands and worked down my shoulders I heard her humming changing tone.

I closed my eyes trying to follow along mentally and felt magic in the air. I realized she was using some kind of long drawn out spell on me. The oil was the connecting point to this spell and as she rubbed more into me the greater its effect was. As she worked on my arms, I felt the twisted, dizzying sensation lift as the magical veins were put back into order.

“That’s the worst of it, if I knew any better I would think you have never even meditated once in your life.” Sliva said, laughing to herself. When I didn’t answer she shook my shoulder and asked. “You have been meditating after a hard day of spell training, right?”

I put an elbow on the table and raised my head to look at Sliva. Already I was improving and I sheepishly smiled. “Am I supposed to do that? It wasn’t in my spellbook.”

“Has my little darling forgotten her training? My word, I’m going to have a talk with that young lady.” Sliva huffed, putting her hands on her hips. She tapped me on the nose and pointed at the head rest. “Down.”

I did as she asked and let her continue her work. The slow methodical nature gave way to a more relaxed and gentle touch as she got past my back. From what I could tell I was nearly back to hundred percent and Sliva was simply chasing a few tied ends. When she got to my calves I hissed at the strange cold and hot sensation of the mint oil touching the tired muscles.

“I’ll use something gentler.” Sliva said, wiping her hands and opening a new jar. “I think citrus is in order.”

The softer oil worked its way into my legs and released pent up energy from weeks of constant walking. I had probably done a marathon on the adventuring days and my body was getting ready to throw in the towel. With Sliva's magic touch I felt better than ever, and wondered how much this oil cost. Because I wanted it, and a lot of it.

“I love these shoes, I promise I won’t steal them when I work on the arches of your feet.” Sliva said.

I felt weird having someone touch my feet, but I was already so relaxed my body protested me trying to stop her. My shoes were put on the floor and after the pillow golem brought a wet towel to wipe my feet, Sliva finished the job.

Sliva and the pillow golem helped me rise and step back onto the floor. The warm tiles greeted my feet and I sighed as the sense of bliss filled me. I was feeling better, probably the best I had felt in years, like I had just enjoyed a month long vacation at a resort.

“How much do I tip?” I asked.

Sliva laughed and put a hand on my back, giving me a warm, toothy smile. “Just keep looking out for my daughter’s safety and we can call it even.”

The door to the house opened and my friends called out from the door. Sliva hollered back and the girl’s burst into the room with new outfits. Under their arms were bags filled with new goodies and smiles plastered on their faces. However they did a double take looking between Sliva and me.

Rolada tilted her head to the side and her ears flopped to the side. She asked in a confused tone. “Josh, why are you naked with my mom?”

Oh yeah, this was going to be fun and awkward to explain.