Spoiler
Vael was back, and we didn’t waste even thirty seconds before she had me pinned against the wall, with my limbs wrapped around her hips and shoulders, and our tongues entwined.
“I missed you,” I breathed out between brief interruptions of snogging.
“Longest two days of my life. I need you,” she said, her voice low in a way that gave me tingly feelings all over. “Now.” Her naked desire was doing things for me.
We managed to make our way to the bedroom and closed the door while ditching clothing and undergarments in every direction along the way. She tossed me on the bed, and I bounced with a laugh. I had my own ideas, so I grabbed some pillows and dragged them over, rolling onto my front and stuffing them under my lower abdomen. I waggled my butt at her, and she smacked it a moment later, leaving lines behind from her claws. I bit my lip; she knew exactly what I liked.
A few moments later, she was bent over my back, licking my nape and shoving me against the side of the bed with slow, hard thrusts. This wasn’t going to take long at all. “I’m already on edge,” I panted out to her.
She growled in my ear and bit the side of my neck with her sharp fangs.
“O-oh, oh fuck!” It was good, too good. I couldn’t help myself.
“Need to put another litter in you.” That rumble she did when she was growling was making my toes curl.
“Please, yes, I want more!” I cried out.
Her hand snaked around to my front, and I came undone a second time immediately on the back of the first. I lay there under the hot press of her skin, twitching and blissed out. My eyes drifted over to the nightstand, where I saw the picture of the two of us, and our four brightly-colored rugrats.
[collapse]
***
My eyes shot open, and I sucked in a lungful of air with a gasp. I squeezed my eyes shut and grabbed the sheets, my thighs clenching and shaking on top of a pile of blankets wadded up under my lower half.
I had what felt like the mother of all climaxes, one that just kept rolling on and on and left my extremities twitchy and prickling with pins and needles. After what seemed like a short eternity, I finally came down, panting, sweaty, and with my ears ringing.
What… What the fuck was that!? Fuck almighty, I had wet dreams before, but it’s been years and years, and never… as a woman. Is that what they’re like for other women, too?
I clumsily smacked myself in the face when I went to rub my cheek and let out a low, muffled groan.
It’s been two days. Two entire days, and I’m having kinky sex dreams about Vael. What the actual fuck. I start having sex regularly, and it turns out I’m some kind of pervert.
I smacked my lips and swallowed some stale spit.
Why couldn’t I have a normal person sex dream, anyway? Why’d it have to be so… filthy and gratifying at the same time?
I crawled my ass out of bed reluctantly, even though I was extremely tempted to revisit the imagery while it was still fresh in my mind. I pulled the blanket and dirty sheets off the bed where I’d made a mess of things, then staggered my way into the master bathroom like a zombie to decontaminate.
I stood under the stream of hot water and simply let the heat soak into me. I was feeling sore and like I’d fallen down a flight of stairs this morning, but I didn’t have a bruise or mark on my body where I’d been shot less than a day ago.
My hands lingered on my lower belly after feeling around for any abnormalities, and my mind wandered to the dream.
What would it be like to become pregnant? I’d never really thought about it seriously before, and now… I don’t know if I’m actually capable, but I’d have to assume so. Do I even want kids, with my plans to become a Diver?
It’s not possible to have my own children with Vael. Humans aren’t compatible with either the Sul’vari or the Tokh. Just a perverted, nonsensical fantasy my brain decided to dump on me.
Despite my intentions to be responsible, I did enjoy myself while bathing. I was really wound up today, and the seat in the shower proved very useful for a variety of reasons. I was nearly done with my extra indulgent shower when a very dim bulb went off in the back of my mind. Then a very slow, creeping dread filled me from my toes to the top of my scalp.
I was really loud in bed. And then after that, I was really loud in here for the past ten minutes.
My stomach fell out of my body and plopped into the shower. It waved a white flag.
I’m not home alone.
Rui. Maybe she’s still asleep.
After drying off and getting dressed, I walked out of the master bedroom and into the combined kitchen and living area to see Rui sitting on the couch and drinking one of her bottled prescription shakes.
I was absolutely mortified. She gave me a knowing little grin, but didn’t otherwise comment.
After making some flatbread with cured egg spread, I sat down next to her and broke the ice. “So… how are you feeling this morning. Better, hopefully?”
She smiled at me and nodded. “The second session helped a lot; I feel like I’ve just got some bruising and soreness now around my ribs.”
After I’d mostly refilled my pool yesterday, I’d gone in and hit her ribs with everything I had. As far as I could tell with my senses, they were fully healed and, if anything, better than the ones she hadn’t broken. There had been some more unintended side effects. Several more dots of Chrome Rot that had popped back up from the treatment, but I wanted to continue to remove as much as I could find. If anything, the fact that my mana wasn’t very discriminating with what it was helping to grow made it easier to locate the lingering traces of the disease.
I was fully rested, and my pool was full, so I asked her if she would be okay with further sessions.
“...And I’ll pull out anything that I can sense that regrows.”
She tapped her fingertip on the empty bottle. It smelled pretty foul from where I was sitting; I couldn’t imagine having to drink that for every meal.
“So I don’t want to sound like I’m not appreciative, but…” She glanced over at me, then dropped her eyes down to her lap. “I don’t feel comfortable with stacking up a bunch of debt for the treatment. Not until I can get a bit more credits built up.”
I blinked rapidly.
Wait, is she thinking that I’m billing her?!
“Rui, I– I just want to be clear, like, I’m wanting to help because you’re my friend? And because helping you out is also good for me to work on my own skills and training. I’m not offering with any expectations! If you still don’t want me to try and help, I’ll go back to growing and tinkering with my pepper plant. It just seemed like a real waste of my mana if I could be helping you instead.”
I looked over at her, and her eyes were glistening. She wrapped me in a right side-hug and sniffed. The head of my tail flitted back and forth on the floor in front of me, making some commentary I wasn’t fluent in. I twisted some and hugged her back with a short laugh.
“Okay,” she said after we broke and she’d had a chance to paw at her nose.
“I can’t promise that it won’t suck, or that I’ll be able to have much of an effect, but I want to try, either way.”
She nodded, and I took the chance to finish up my breakfast. I was willing to try and get started on the couch, but she’d made a good counterpoint: “Shouldn’t we use the restroom, or kitchen? And being ready with some cleaning supplies might be a good idea, too.”
We put together some disposable towels, bandages, and household cleaners and reconvened in the spare bathroom. She stripped her top off, and after thoroughly consulting what my senses were telling me, I’d put a few dots on her side with a marker. Rui cleaned the area around each mark with some rubbing alcohol and held up a small resealable kitchen container with some more alcohol in the bottom, pressing it against her side just under the marks.
A few minutes later, there were another half dozen wads of nasty gunk with what looked like trailing branches and roots sitting in three centimeters of alcohol. It was tinted pink from some blood that had dripped in, but I was confident that I’d successfully ripped the crap out of her side. There was probably a much easier, cleaner, and less painful way of doing it, but I batted aside the nagging thoughts. Rui was overjoyed with the fact I was pulling more of that nasty shit out of her body.
It hadn’t taken much out of me to do it, either. After asking permission, I’d run my hands over most of her torso, front and back. I could feel things with a higher level of sensitivity when I had direct contact with my locus points on her like this. I was mostly looking around and trying to take stock of things. I could see and feel the cyberware still in her body. Most of it was connected to her central nervous system and had connection points on her head, temples, and around her ears. I could feel her neural lattice, too, and it was a much more robust and intricate version than what I’d had.
While I was proverbially rooting around in her system, I came across some things that drew my attention. The best way I could describe it was that it felt like some of her organs were riddled with bullet holes and burn marks from some kind of turf-based street war. What I was pretty sure was her liver, heart, and kidneys were in rough shape. Her digestive tract also felt like it was in a similarly damaged state.
“Rui, I can feel some damaged tissue in your abdomen and organs. Do you want me to try and see if I can do anything about it?”
I had my eyes closed and was focusing my attention on my blended, confusing sixth sense.
“Do you think it’s important?” she asked after a momentary pause.
“It feels like it’s important, but I’m just going off intuition here. I can’t really put it into words very well; it’s very… dense and complicated.”
I felt her abdomen twitch and clench under my hand as she sucked in a breath. I wasn’t remotely some paragon of health and fitness, but even to me, she felt thin and delicate, like damp tissue paper.
“Guh, I’m overthinking things. You got rid of a lot of my Rot, and I already feel much better because of it. Yes, please. But only if it’s not a bother or a burden.”
I smiled. “It isn’t. Like I said, it’s helping me improve as I go.”
What followed was a similar exercise of trying to guide my mana to flow to the specific locations I wanted it to go, and trying to push my will into it.
Go here, fix this. Fill in that hole, patch that rough spot. Put a layer of paint over those scorch and soot marks.
I went slowly, and I think it was about half an hour of poking, prodding, and gently nudging my circuit before I was starting to feel the burn and depletion creeping up on me. I ended my session and reviewed my work.
Like with her ribs yesterday, the parts that I’d worked on stood out, because they looked and felt like they were significantly healthier and more capable than the surrounding tissue. I hoped that it wasn’t going to cause issues for her; it would be nice if her body could take advantage of those more solid parts to utilize as scaffolding to build upon. For now, only time would tell.
Rui was lying on a row of folded towels, with her head propped up on a rolled bath towel like a makeshift bed. Her eyes were closed, and her cheeks were flushed. She looked healthier, at least, to my eye. Better color to her skin, a bit more energy peeking through exhaustion and malnutrition.
I wanted to make sure I wasn’t misinterpreting things, so I asked her: “Everything okay? You look fairly flushed.”
She swallowed before answering. “It feels really good when you were doing that last bit. Not like- like getting a massage, I guess, but inside your body. Little cramps or sore spots, but when you work on them, the feeling it leaves behind is great.”
I looked down at her, and I looked through her, to what the visual portion of what my senses were telling me. A heart was steadily beating away in her chest, a golden color among the orange of the surrounding tissue. It was different than it had been before, and dramatically so. It had at least doubled in size, or possibly grown even larger than that. Where it had beat quickly and shallowly before, now it was clenching and contracting with slower, much more powerful beats.
The blood flow was radiating outwards with visible streaks of light with each of the beats. It was a remarkable change, and I wasn’t sure if it was a sign of how poor her health was, or a reflection on me. The other organs I’d been trying to patch up had undergone a similar metamorphosis. It made me wonder if this was the same way life-extension and de-aging procedures in mana medicine worked.
My stomach grumbled and rumbled, interrupting me from my observations and musing.
I was hungry again, even though it had barely been an hour since I’d last eaten. My appetite lately had felt like it was out of control; I was snacking and eating meals throughout the day.
My vision shifted to the masses of gunk sitting in the antiseptic. There was biological activity still taking place; the antiseptic had only penetrated and killed the outer layers of the biofilm. Disposing of it safely meant taking a trip to a local U-Med. I didn’t want to risk contaminating and potentially infecting some poor waste worker with top-tier biohazard materials.
I snapped a lid on the container, then placed it in one of the sealing bags I’d bought for Diving. I helped Rui up and explained my thought process for disposing of the stuff. She offered to come with me, and I didn’t have any issue with her tagging along.
U-Med confirmed the work I’d done had actually taken, and that Rui’s organs were healthier than before. Some, like her heart, had been improved beyond what would be considered an expected norm. She was cleared for solid food, and we celebrated with fairly tame street food. She acted like it was the first time she’d had real food in years, and like it was a near-religious experience.
Riding that high, she dragged me along to visit a vendor hawking beauty supplies on the way home, and within seconds was elbow-deep in bins filled with surplus goods.
I checked my slate while she was rummaging for cosmetics. The first stage of my Diver registration had been accepted and approved by the Civil Defense Authority. It was only one of nearly a dozen requirements before I actually got the license. Bureaucratic overhead was frustrating, but progress was progress. Next up: studying for the first round of exams, which I could take matrix-side.
I pocketed my slate and went to go pry Rui away from the stall before she bought out the entire inventory. We’d no more than gotten back to Vael’s apartment when Rui got a mischievous look on her face and told me she needed someone to experiment on. She shook the bulging trove of loot she’d accumulated at discount prices.
I let out a nervous laugh. It was only fair that I reciprocate and endure, after she’d let me work on her earlier.
She wanted to do girly things that I was hopelessly clueless about, and I was forced to sit and endure having my face tinkered with.
It wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
When she dragged me into the bathroom to see her handiwork in a mirror larger than a compact, it nearly took my breath away. The woman in the mirror only had a light application of cosmetics: eyeliner on the top lid, some bronze-colored eye shadow, a rose-tinted lip balm, and a dusting of blush high on her cheeks.
I didn’t think that something as light-handed and “beginner-friendly” could have such a dramatic effect.
I tried to be objective and clinical about the way I was looking at the woman in the mirror, because I was petrified of voicing what I was feeling in any other way. If I had seen her six months ago, I would have fought the urge to stare, and felt immediately and hopelessly beset by the realization that she was utterly out of my league.
In the past, I’d have looked at this woman and maybe even hated her a little, because of how easy she made it look. Now she was just… me, looking back. I didn’t know if that was a relief, and I realized then that I’d been holding my breath, like I’d break the illusion by moving. I let it out slowly.
Rui seemed to have misinterpreted my silence. “If it’s not something you’re feeling, we can try something different! I tried to get something that would work with your skin tone and your eye color, and those two are both strong features to work around.”
“I um, no, thank you, Rui, really. It looks great on me; I was just having a moment being stuck in my own head.”
She cocked her head slightly, but didn’t press me on it. I wasn’t sure if she was confused, or not quite buying what I was telling her.
I went to answer her when I heard the front door beep in the other room.
We turned and filed out and were met with a tired-looking Vael wearing casual comfort-wear and carrying a heavy duffel bag standing in the main living area. Standing behind and slightly to her side was Lael, who was casting an appraising look around. She was wearing similar clothing to what she’d worn last time I’d seen her, a two-piece outfit that didn’t cover much: a chest wrap and loincloth in some kind of linen-like fabric, held in place with pins.
Vael gave me a smile as soon as we made eye contact, and she set her big, heavy bag down and stepped forward to hug and taste greet me.
We may have indulged a little bit, but it didn’t nearly go to the point that my lurid dreams from the morning had. Lael was immediately next in line, and we also shared an embrace and the company of one another’s mouths for what felt like an extended period of time. I wasn’t going to try and read into that at the moment.
I introduced Rui to both of them, Vael shaking Rui’s hand and hugging her. Lael held Rui by the upper arms and gave her an appraising once-over, then embraced her and went straight for a taste greeting. Rui’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her skull, and her cheeks turned a bright cherry red, but she didn’t try and wrestle Lael off her, which was probably a good thing.
Vael chastised her mother for her lack of manners, and Lael responded with a dismissive snort after parting with Rui. Rui, for her part, didn’t comment or say much on the matter; I had the distinct impression that her brain was still rebooting.
Vael unzipped her duffel partially and pulled out what I was pretty sure was some kind of apple, except it was purple, and large enough that it took two hands to hold it. I had sensed that Vael had some sort of artifacts in her bag; it was laden with dense, heavy mana, and this apple-thing was no exception. It was a strange sensation, because it felt like one weight in my hands, and then it felt entirely different to my senses. What was maybe a kilogram of fruit felt like it was ten times that mass to my sixth sense.
“Eat, it will help you grow,” Lael said in a way that didn’t leave room for argument.
“Should I wash it first, or… does it need to be sliced or peeled?” I glanced between Vael and Lael.
Lael shook her head; Vael shrugged.
Great. That’s very informative.
My tail was extremely interested in the fruit.
We sat down and caught up while I took relatively conservative nibbles at the fruit. It was delicious, with a light, crisp, and tart flavor that I would normally have loved to indulge in. The problem was that every bite I took, it felt like a brick sliding down my throat and hitting my gut like a sledgehammer. It already felt like it was fizzling and making my circuit buzz, and I’d barely put a dent in it.
I’m not sure that eating all of this is a good idea… Maybe I should just have a few more bites and set it aside for later.
Vael had gone on a challenging Dive with Lael accompanying her to see where she stood currently. Vael’s concerns seemed unavoidable at this point; she was more or less going to get dragged back into Diving full-time because of me. I felt bad, and wanted to talk to her about it later, when we had a private moment together.
She’d done a high-tier four Dive with a few people she used to Dive with, and they’d cleared what sounded like a forested hellhole filled with hostile airborne and tree-based monsters constantly attacking from every angle.
No wonder this apple feels the way it does. It’s nearly tier five.
I took another pair of bites when I noticed Lael giving me some side-eye as Rui told Vael what happened with the two of us in more detail. Feeling full, not in terms of stomach capacity, but with my mana sense, I set the apple on a side table next to where I was sitting.
My tail was ‘sniffing’ around the area.
Do not, glutton.
“Is it not to your liking?” Lael asked me in her accented lilt.
“No, it’s delicious; I just think it’s a bit too much for me to eat at once,” I responded carefully. I wasn’t trying to offend her, and the gift was probably worth a lot of money, too.
“It will not harm you; your concern is unwarranted,” Lael replied.
Vael leaned over to her mother and whispered something, but I couldn’t catch what it was. Lael clicked her tongue and rocked her head from side to side, but her eyes were focused on me the entire time.
“My daughter tells me that you have experienced growing pains with previous rich meals. Growth is good; you must progress yourself whenever possible.”
Vael whispered something to her again.
Lael stood up, walked over to where I was sitting, and offered me her hand. I glanced over at Vael, who was rubbing her forehead with a frown, teasing at her lips.
“Come, I have something to discuss with you in private. It will not take long.” I took her hand and stood up. My traitorous tail took the opportunity to snatch the nearly head-sized fruit in its jaws, the teeth on each of its mandibles piercing the flesh of the apple and causing some juice to dribble out.
I tried to get it to put the apple back down, but it wasn’t responding. I was about to wrestle with it when Lael placed her hand on my upper arm.
“Allow your creature to feed; it makes better use of the food,” she told me.
I was torn, because it was hungry, and that was free mana food, but I also didn’t want to suddenly sprout claws or something in the middle of talking to someone. Lael’s brightly-colored eyes felt like they were burning holes into my retinas, and I relaxed my spine. It was probably a waste of time to try and get the fruit away from my tail at this point anyway.
Lael took my hand in hers and led me into the master bedroom, and she closed the door behind us and took a seat on the side of the bed. I sat down next to her. My tail draped itself across part of the mattress, a fat lump bulging in the middle of the thing from where it’d swallowed the apple whole.
I was about to ask Lael what this was all about when she spoke.
“My daughter and I spoke extensively over the past two days, and I would like to extend an offer to you,” she told me, still holding my hand. She was looking down at it, and running the claws of her other hand over the back of mine. It felt good, sending shivers racing up my spine. It wasn’t petting, not exactly; she was too focused, and the tips of her claws too precise.
I realized somewhat belatedly that she was physically tracing out the network of my circuit on the surface of my skin.
Not really knowing what to expect, or where this was going, I offered up a lackluster “Okay?”
Her claws moved from the back of my hand up my arm, to my elbow, where she stopped and turned my arm over to study the other side.
“I love my daughter very much; she is my only child here on Earth,” Lael said after a beat. “And I can tell that she is bonding with you, which troubles me.”
I looked up at her, and our eyes met.
“This creature that shares your body, while it is not quite like the others of its kind, it is not something to be taken lightly.”
I swallowed, then nodded to her slowly.
“You are weak; freshly awoken, and only have taken the first steps on your path. This is normal, as is the desire to become stronger, for most, but especially those who wish to Dive.”
She took her hand from mine and brought it up to touch her claws against my cheek. “I would offer you training. To help you advance. And weaving, as well.”
“Weaving?”
She frowned and said something I didn’t recognize the words for. I shook my head and pulled out my slate with a translation application pulled up, and I handed it to her.
She said (stupid?) and tapped on the screen.
“Ah, grafts.”
Biotech. But why?
She handed me my slate back, and I set it on the bed, then asked her the obvious question.
“Why?”
She wet her lips. “Several reasons. You learn to see a talent after a time, and it is always sad to see it go to waste or be lost for lack of cultivation. Because I want to see my daughter happy, and returned to her path. Other thoughts, too.”
“I don’t want to get into family politics, put myself between you two, or choose sides, but I fail to see how training me will change that?”
Lael shook her head. “You fail to see because of ignorance, but it is not your fault.” She reached back and placed her hand on the top of the base of my tail, which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “It is important that you grow yourself, Kiera. The Soultaker grows inside of you, taking up more of your body. Veris Corporation does not tell you most things. Normally, you would have been lost by now. I feel it is still a possibility. The gap forming between you two presents dangers.”
I went still for a brief moment. “You’re saying that it will take over me?” I studied Lael’s face, which was composed, but not unkind.
“I am saying I fear that it is possible. And that it is better to take action than rely on luck.”
I rubbed my sternum under my bust. The mana from the fruit was causing cramps and sharp twinges in my lower chest. When I looked up, I saw Lael staring at my chest.
“You can feel it, right now, yes?” She asked me.
“I feel cramps from the fruit,” I told her, and she shook her head.
“No, not cramps. Can you not see yourself with your senses?”
“Oh, um, no, not really? I mean, yes, I can, but I don’t see myself as well as I do others. Just the glow of activity, but not specific organs or anything.”
“It is because you are still undeveloped, but here, feel–” She slid her palm up my front until the side of her hand was pressed firmly against the underside of my boobs. “You feel it here?”
I nodded quickly.
“It is growing inside of you. A few weeks ago, when we first met, it had only a small amount inside. Now it covers half your body. It has nearly doubled in size, but it is still not done, not until it is inside every part of you.”
My mouth felt dry. Mallard’s words rang in my mind.
Peak growth and development. Changes to accelerate, not slow.
“I can’t afford it. Not the training, and certainly not the biotech. I don’t feel comfortable going into your debt.”
Lael pulled her hand away and draped her arm over my shoulder instead. Her arm was heavy; it felt as stout as it was muscular. She pulled me in close to her side, and I didn’t put up any resistance. My head came to a rest on her shoulder, and her scent filled my nose. She smelled strongly of what I recognized as the scent of Sul’vari sweat. Thick and heady, rich and musky, with additional layers that registered as fresh ground peppercorn. I’d smelled it before on Vael–more than a few times–but not as strongly. It wasn’t unpleasant, simply distinct.
Her voice was softer, with a warmer tone than before when she spoke. “I think you misunderstand, or make assumptions. This offer is not a loan to be repaid, or a debt to be collected. It is more like an investment in your future. The grafts are not of a meaningful cost for me, and it is unlikely that I will be charged for them at all.”
I wanted to ask why that might be, but there was another question at the forefront of my attention.
“What is the ask then? You must want something. Some strings attached.”
She clicked her tongue a few times. “Hmm, yes, I do. A request or maybe better called a challenge. I will provide training and a selection of grafts. Not too many, as you are not ready yet for some of the more potent and demanding ones. In return, you will represent my house in games, a tournament.”
I tried to pull back a little, but her arm around me was about as yielding as a slab of granite. I looked up at her from an awkwardly close position instead. Teal eyes glowing like twin suns only centimeters from mine.
“I don’t think I’m in any state or condition to be winning a User tournament,” I said a little flatly. My insecurity about my capabilities was making it feel like I was the butt of some elaborate joke.
“Fft! I did not say win, did I? I said represent. Competing alone would be enough, provided I feel that you’re being sincere in your attempt.”
I dropped my eyes to her lap. I could see the definition of the muscles in her thigh where they were almost entirely exposed.
This woman is like one of those historical statues of an idealized figure. But in the flesh.
I thought for an extended stretch of time about what she was saying, and about what she wasn’t saying, too. I felt the need to be straightforward with her and speak my mind, because this was potentially a major deal for me, one way or another.
There might be some cost associated with refusing her offer, or goodwill, or whatever. But I do need the training, and the chance to potentially get a major leg up with some biotech isn’t something to ignore.
“I feel like you’re manipulating me with these games, like there’s more to it than what you’re saying.”
She laughed, low and raspy.
“I am manipulating you, yes. But not in that way. I know a competitive person when I see one. The tournament is motivation, Kiera, because I think you might not take training as seriously as I do without proper goals. But also know that your entry to these games would be on a fair basis. You would not face off against others outside of your relative level.”
“I should also say, my daughter told me that you are working on getting a Dive license. This training would assure you meet the testing requirements, and it would be easier for you to take tests if you were closer to the Spire.”
I blinked rapidly. “Wait, you want me to train… like, with you, at your home?”
She gave me an amused look. “I mean no offense, but I think my time is more valuable than yours, yes? So I would not be travelling here daily; that is not suitable. You would stay in my home, and where I have appropriate places to train. It would also make meeting with your weapon instructor easier.”
Does she mean Imir, or someone else?
I wasn’t sure how I felt about spending an extended period of time on X-1. It wasn’t my home, I didn’t belong there, and I certainly wouldn’t get along well with most of the locals.
“For how long?”
“Hmm. The games start in a little under four months from now. It will be hard, very hard, but I think I can be satisfied by that point.”
That’s a long time… but it does take several months to complete the full licensing procedures. Would Vael be there? I don’t know if I’d want to just disappear for that long without being able to see her.
“I feel like this is a good idea, but I’d want to talk to Vael about it more. Can I have a couple of days to think about it before making any decisions?”
Lael smiled at me, a full, wide grin that displayed her fangs up close and personal. “Of course, but don’t think for too long, because every day that passes is a day that you will have to work to regain.”
My tail slid across the sheets behind me, then squeezed down, eliminating the shape of the apple it had swallowed. I heard and felt it crunch, and the burst of juices was already sending fizzy tingles up the body of my tail and zipping up my spine. More little tweaks and momentary pains radiated in my lower chest.
It was about time that I went back to check in with Veris. I had many more questions for them this time around.
The two of us stood up and headed back into the other room, where coffee was brewing and Vael was preparing some snacks. My stomach gave yet another grumble, already begging for more food.
Yeah, I think it’s time I had another meeting with Director Mallard. I want more than a general overview of what’s going on, and what I should expect. And I need to know more about what they did to modify this thing, and just how confident they are that I’m not going to get body snatched.