Lyn woke up two hours later in a nice soft bed. Amie was there waiting for her to open her eyes.

“Lyn!” Amie exclaimed with joy, when Lyn woke up, hugging her lover with all her might. Lyn groaned a little under the pressure but dealt with it since she didn’t want to turn Amie away. After some time, Amie let go and began fussing over Lyn to check if there were any other problems.

“Jeez… so frisky when I just woke up.” Lyn joked. “I’m fine, really, just very… tired.” she then sniffed something… “And stinky… can I use a shower?”

Van who had been waiting as well chuckled. “Tell me about it, you're not the only one that wants to use a shower.” Lyn blinked and smiled when she saw Van in the room waiting for her.

Van returned the smile, “glad to see you're doing okay.” he said, just happy that Lyn was up again.

“Define, okay…” Lyn joked as she tried to get out of bed with some help from Amie. Once she was righted and sitting on the edge of the bed she looked back and noticed to her surprise Gloria was also there.

With a small nod, Gloria acknowledged Lyn.

Lyn blinked since this was so out of character that she thought something was wrong. “Umm… am I in trouble or something?” staring at Gloria worriedly.

Amie snorted, and surprisingly, Gloria gave a small smile.

“No Lyn, you're not in trouble. I just wanted to be the first to thank you for risking your life and stopping Saline and her plans.” Gloria smiled gently, then bowed. Which was something normal queens did not do to… well… anyone…

Lyn to say the least, was surprised by the humility that Gloria was showing, and a little weirded out by it too, so changed the subject quickly. “Umm… it’s no problem…” unable to hide some redness showing up on her cheeks. “Er… so… what happened while I was asleep? And how did Elena rally all those people to fight? And how did those imps do that! And-”

“One question at a time!” Amie laughed, hugging her lover to herself. “Let me explain…”

“The red and blue imps were lost until Elena noticed them wandering around during the time she and the other refugees were forced out of the throne room. Thankfully the guards didn’t notice them, and Elena, a little while after, was able to get in touch with them again.” Amie began to explain.

“The green imp then soon met up with them later, supposedly the three have a connection, so they were able to find each other again. They then formed a plan to put a stop to Saline’s plan. Using green’s power, they snuck back into the vents and prepared to stop Saline when the time was right, while Elena convinced some of the people who Van helped upgrade their ranks to fight against Saline and her lies.”

“After you beat Saline, the traitors surrendered and we were able to round them all up. Sadly, we are in the process of moving everything out of the tree.” Amie added sadly. “It seems that the war room wasn’t the only place that Saline vented red knives into, and many more rooms were infected as she tried to smoke us out. The tree is… unsalvageable, especially now because the central control system is destroyed…” referring to the throne.

“I see…” Lyn said, letting it all sink it. “Amie… I’m sorry…” feeling somewhat responsible for all this, if not causing it then not being good enough to stop Saline from destroying the throne and preventing any chance of saving Amie’s home.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about…” Amie said, hugging Lyn closer to her. “You did your best… and what’s most important is that you came back to me…” closing her eyes and just enjoyed the hug and Lyn’s warmth, Lyn also relaxed and fell into the hug, though more for Amie’s sake than her own. Her own feelings of guilt at not being good enough, still floating inside her.

After a while, Amie gave a small sniff and pulled away from the hug. “Ugh… you do smell…”

Lyn looked offended. “You bitch!” and gave a playful slap on her lover’s shoulder, the two chuckling together.

Van also chuckled along, as he watched the two. But couldn’t help but agree, even he smelled a bit, probably from crawling around those vents. He turned to Gloria and asked. “Do you have a shower we could use? I think we all deserve a nice break and some nice hot water.”

Gloria nodded, “you can use the royal bath, it’s normally reserved for me and on rare occasions my daughter. But considering this might be the last time we use it, I don’t see why you and Lyn, or any of your friends couldn’t use it after all they've done for us.”

“Oh, thanks mom!” Amie exclaimed happily, then turned back to Lyn helping her up. “Come on, you’ll love the bath, it’s ridiculously huge!”

The group then followed Gloria towards the throne room, then passed that to the royal chambers until they went a little further and hit the baths. When they entered, Van and Lyn looked on wide-eyed at the huge bathroom in front of them with marble flooring and a huge bath big enough to hold forty people with flower petals floating on the water. Steam floated off the pool of water, and statues spilled in new hot water every second, with a large window-looking screen that displayed beautiful scenes from all over the forest.

“Wow… now this… I don’t know what this is…” Lyn said, at a loss for words. Van nodded in agreement.

Not soon after, Amie helped Lyn out of her clothes and into the bathtub, or perhaps, bath pool being a more accurate description. Van also joined in, he felt a little self-conscious, but felt that would be silly considering how much he has seen of them before. The group then got into the nice hot waters and sighed in relief and enjoyment.

“Gods… this is amazing…” Van said, spreading out his arms to either side of him on the ledge. Lyn couldn’t help but agree and nodded along, Amie giving her a nice back massage as she lazed into the waters.

“I’m glad you like it,” Gloria said, joining in, much to Van’s surprise. “I made sure to tell one of my attendants to notify your friends of where we are so they could join in too.”

Now Van definitely felt a little self-conscious as Gloria, in all her naked glory, sat right next to him and tried to start up a conversation.

“So… Van… how is my daughter? When can I expect grandkids? Are you from some noble background?” Gloria began to ask with a gentle yet professional smile.

“Mom!” Amie complained, turning to her in annoyance. “Don’t ask such things! It’s rude!” feeling oddly defensive, probably because she knew it was mostly about her.

“Come now, can a mother not worry about her daughter's future? I’ve already accepted your relationship with Lyn, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want grandkids.” Gloria said.

Van did his best to pretend like he didn’t exist as the two started to talk and argue over him. He did his best to ignore some of the clearly personal attacks they were throwing at each other. After a while, it came back to Gloria wanting grandkids and Amie trying to explain she just wasn’t ready for it yet.

“Come on Evergreen, you have to do more than that. You also have a duty to at least give one heir…, especially during these trying times, what would you do if something happened to me?” Gloria continued from their argument. “Van seems like enough of a nice young man, even when we were fleeing the spores of the red knives he was checking me out. Such men are hard to come by, and if you can’t take advantage of that you will never be pregnant.”

Van wanted to drown… right now would be preferable…

“Jeez mom, if you want to secure another heir so bad, why not just make another? If ‘Van’” glaring at Van from the side a bit. “Is so interested in you, maybe you should do it with him! Besides… we both know you just want sex by proxy, well… you have my permission! Go fuck each other's brains out!” Amie said somewhat tersely.

Van’s eyes widened, and he looked towards Lyn with a pleading look in his eyes. Lyn noticed that look and gave him a thumbs-up, making him relax as she looked like she was going to talk some sense into the two.

“Okay Gloria, you have my permission to have sex with Van, just make sure you save some for me later, I want a ride before we leave,” Lyn said.

Van never before felt so betrayed.

Amie continued lathering Lyn up with soap for a while until she sighed. “Ya… just make sure you don’t break him…” she then looked towards her mother. “Look… I'm sorry, I'm just not ready for kids yet, I hope you understand...”

Gloria looked at her daughter and also sighed. “I’m also sorry, you're right, we shouldn’t fight over such things. I’m just so worried about our future, I… I plan for you to take over from me one day, maybe even… today… and I just… want to make sure everything's perfect…”

Amie seemed very surprised by that, stopping her work on Lyn completely. “You… want to abdicate?” looking at her mother in complete surprise.

“If that is fine with you of course…” Gloria said.

Amie thought about it for a long time. The bathroom completely going silent. After a while, she nodded and look her mother in the eye. “Alright… I accept.” she then looked downwards towards Lyn. “Lyn… do you mind if…” trying to put what she was going to say into words.

“Of course, I don’t mind!” Lyn said happily. “I know you don’t need to, but if you want, you can marry him. That way we can be married together in a triangle of love and marriage!” she said with a smile.

“Not sure that’s how it works, but okay,” Amie said with an amused smile. “But…” looking again towards Gloria, I still don’t want kids just yet… so if you are able to get one from him, well… I always wanted a little sister…” she admitted.

“Gloria smiled, “don’t worry sweety, I'll give you as many little sisters as you could want. And maybe even teach you a few things about pleasing a man…” she finished with a wink.

Amie chuckled, “sure, let’s see what you’ve got.” in a tone of challenge.

“Umm… don’t I get a say in any of this?” Van asked.

““NO!”” everyone said in unison.

“Don’t worry…” Gloria said, drawing nearer. “I know what I’m doing…”

---sex scene---

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