Sable spoke first as Lyris and I caught our breath. “Wow, good job surviving that, and nicely done with the slingshot. We really need to teach you some spells though.”
I nodded, catching my breath. “It appeared after I saw a purple flash in the forest.”
Sable nodded, looking worried. “Yeah, I saw it register on the sensor network. Not sure what’s happening yet, but at least we can detect it now. Who knows if anything else dangerous is back there, but a manticore is bad enough. I don’t know if we can handle that with our current party composition.”
Sable was speaking my language. Lyris was an archer, Sable was a spellcaster, and I was… well, I didn’t really have a combat specialty yet, but I figured I was somewhere on the “rogue” spectrum at the moment, given my lack of particularly useful spells just yet. My claws could deal some damage and my slingshot was a nice trick, but I had no real combat experience or skills.
“Yeah… that thing’s a monster. It looks like it’d do a lot of damage up close, and it’s even got ranged attacks. We have DPS and support. We need a tank,” I said.
Sable clearly knew what I meant by that and looked deep in thought, considering something.
Lyris was a bit confused, though. While she knew English, we were speaking in concepts she lacked context for.
“Sorry. We need someone like… a heavily armored knight with a shield or something who can keep that thing occupied while the rest of us kill it.”
She nodded in understanding. “Ah, I see. Some of the royal knights on my side who are deployed to handle monsters would likely fit that description.”
That sounded good to me. “Do you think we could ask them for help?”
“...perhaps, though it may take months of negotiation. Sending the royal knights into foreign lands is not done without good reason and diplomatic protocols must be observed.”
Sable looked like she’d made a decision. “Okay, I think we can handle this, but it’ll take some prep time. We don’t really need to get in there immediately, but sooner or later the barrier emitters will need maintenance. In the meantime, Morgan, let’s teach you some spells, and Lyris, do some combat drills with her when you can.”
However, that was a problem for tomorrow, and we were hungry. Sable went to her lab almost immediately, and Lyris didn’t really know how to cook Earth food, so I led the charge by making leftover cockatrice-breast sandwiches. We’d just had a strange Thanksgiving dinner (in May) yesterday, of course, so leftovers were inevitable.
As an experiment, I hesitantly tried using the antique microwave to reheat food. Surprisingly, it worked, and did not explode. Lyris seemed pretty interested in this and insisted on trying it, so I taught her how. She ran her fingers over the buttons as her plate of leftovers reheated, like she was an archaeologist discovering some ancient artifact of power, and in a way I suppose she was.
I took a sandwich and a side of leftover green bean casserole to the lab. Sable looked happy to see it.
“Right on time. Should have known it’d be leftovers. Not that I’m complaining.”
“So what exactly are you working on back here?”
She held up a greenish egg the size of her fist. “Guess what this is?”
“Well we’ve only got one thing in the coop, so… cockatrice egg?”
“Got it in one. Can you tell me its properties?”
“Well their venom is paralytic and looking them in the eyes is paralytic. Could the egg, by chance, be… paralytic?”
“So close! It’s a bit of a sedative. Makes the body and mind sluggish and weak, and even induces sleep if concentrated and enhanced properly.”
“And you plan to use that on the manticore?”
“No. Manticores are fairly clever and have good instincts, actually. I doubt it would eat something poisoned when other options exist. Besides, I’m not solving for the manticore, exactly. I’m preparing to improve our party composition for the future.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Oh, you’ll see. You’re gonna love this. Maybe. But I’ll need a few more eggs, so it’ll have to wait.”
“Are you trying to tranquilize an elephant?”
“Something like that. Now grab that mortar and pestle and help me.”
After helping Sable for a while, I walked back to my room for the evening, wondering if the urge from last night was going to reemerge. The sex had been pretty great, but I hadn’t really had a chance to talk to Lyris about… feelings, and relationships, and stuff. Closing my door, I got out my laptop to check my email for now as a way to procrastinate thinking about it for a bit longer. I didn’t have email notifications turned on for my phone, since I preferred to just sort through my mail all at once instead of letting it interrupt me all day.
Most of it was pretty normal. Some notices about registration for summer semester courses closing soon, a confirmation from the dorm that my checkout was finalized, a digital copy of the receipt from the hunting store, and a reply to my mail chain with mom. Last night I’d told her I wasn’t coming home for the summer, let’s see if she even cares…
Morgan Quinn Owens you will NOT work for the Wards. I will not have my son get involved in their nonsense. You come home this instant, young man, and do NOT sign anything they give you.
Hmm, I’d given her the address of where I was staying and she’d apparently recognized it as belonging to the Ward family. Guess she really was a witch. But what, now she cared and wanted me home? Yeah right. Where did she get off giving me orders, anyway?
For that matter, she’d just kept me in the dark about magic being real for all this time, and now she wanted to keep me from it? I was getting kind of pissed. I wrote back: “Thanks for the advice. It’s a little late for that. I think I’ll stay for now.”
For good measure I attached the selfie of me as a girly, make-up wearing catgirl from the slumber party and hit Send, wanting to get a rise out of her. Later I’d feel really awkward about that and wonder what I was thinking, but for now I was just pissed off.
Temporarily pleased with myself, I stripped down and took a shower. I stayed in for a long while, running hypothetical arguments with mom through my head. When I got out, I walked naked back into my room and found Lyris sitting on the bed waiting for me. Clothed, unfortunately.
A few days ago I would have felt nervous about being naked in front of a girl, but with this girl, at least, I felt I was past that. I toweled off my hair and gave her an awkward smile, continuing to show off my body to her before she spoke. She smirked at this and gave me an appreciative glance, but her mind didn’t seem to be on sex.
“Is everything alright? Your emotions have been all over the place since you retired for the evening.”
Right, sensing emotions over the marriage bond. That was a thing.
“I guess it’s fine. Just having it out with my mom. She doesn’t want me working with the Wards.”
“Did she say why?”
“Not really, it was an email… uh, a kind of electronic letter, so I didn’t get any background out of her.”
“Electronic letters, you say. But could you not also summon her voice and speak directly?”
I winced, not relishing the idea of either calling someone on the phone ever, or trying to explain my current situation to mom.
Before I could properly form a coherent argument for or against that idea, my phone started vibrating on my nightstand. The screen said “Sabrina”. My sister was trying to… video call me? She must have seen the photo.
With a resigned sigh, I slipped on a shirt and accepted the call, and I saw her video feed. She had an amused, mischievous smile on, and as my video feed came through, she got an excited look.
“Oh wow! You really are a catgirl now! Jesus bro, I know college changes people but wow.”
“Very funny. Yeah, I’m a catgirl alright.”
“You even sound cute now. Oh goddess this is so messed up but it’s adorable.”
“Did you call just to make fun of my new look?”
“Oh! No. Though you’re absolutely rocking it. No, I wanted to let you know that mom is just in an absolute rage over here.”
“Is she? Well good. I’m mad at her, she can be mad too.”
“Oh, she’s a little mad at you, sure, but you don’t really know any better. She’s mad at the Ward girl for trying to steal you away. Ah, she just got in her car and drove off.”
I was a little annoyed that mom didn’t seem to think I was worth being angry at, but… “Wait, she’s driving here?”
“Don’t be silly, that’s like a two day drive. She’s just going to the hardware store.”
“The hardware store? While she’s in a rage? What?”
“Yeah, she was going to fly over to where you are but the broom she usually uses had rusted through. She needs to pick up a new one first.”
“She’s gonna fly here on a broomstick? Are you just messing with me because I’m a newb or is that shit a real spell?”
“That is 100% a real spell.”
Shit.
”Could you delay her a few days? Things are kinda… busy over here.”
”Busy huh? What’s going on? And who’s that cutie behind you?”
I looked behind me and noticed that Lyris had moved in behind me to look over my shoulder, curious about the video call. Before I could make up something, she spoke.
”I am Lyris, Morgan’s wife. I look forward to meeting her mother.”
The blood drained from my face at how casually she dropped that bomb. Sabrina’s mouth gaped. I tried to recover the conversation.
”Uhhhh Lyris doesn’t understand our culture, she’s an, uh, exchange student from, uh-“
”Oira Taure”.
That translated to me as ‘Eternal Forest’. No time to ponder that right now though.
”Holy shit bro did you romance a goddamn actual elf? I’m impressed!”
I was kind of shocked that Sabrina casually recognized her as an elf, but then again she was apparently a witch too so I had no idea what counted as common sense anymore. Lyris continued butting in helpfully as I floundered.
”Morgan and I took a marriage bond, but romance was not involved. We are merely having sex at this juncture.”
This conversation was going to kill me, if not now then when my mom heard about it. Sabrina responded before I could run damage control.
”Woooow bro you’re fucking a hot elf chick? And you’re a girl now? So, uh, who’s on top?”
“I am,” Lyris answered confidently, as though there was no room for alternative interpretations.
”Uh, what she means is-“
”I cannot easily lay on my back comfortably due to my wings, so Morgan must lay below me in certain positions. But she seems naturally submissive, so I would likely be on top regardless.”
Oh god, what the fuck, why was she so open about sharing this information? My face was burning like a thousand suns. Sabrina was laughing her ass off on the other end of the video call and wasn’t able to form another embarrassing question before I regained enough composure to speak
”ANYWAY please tell Mom I’ll visit when I can and ask her not to come, this is not a good time, and uh, don’t mention Lyris please okay love you bye!”
I hung up the call and took a deep breath. Moments later, I got a text from Sabrina consisting of a few emoji: female elf, eggplant, cat with heart eyes.
I had no idea if that meant she’d keep it quiet but I wasn’t counting on it. Turning to face Lyris, I looked at her aghast for a moment before she spoke.
”Your sister seems friendly. But more importantly, we should decide what our relationship is going to be before I meet your mother, agreed?”
She was right. At the very least I couldn’t have her indiscriminately announcing that she was my wife. I nodded in agreement, but wasn’t really sure what relationship I wanted with Lyris. She continued.
”So, Morgan, are you interested in pursuing a romantic relationship, or only a physical one?”
I couldn’t tell by her tone of voice, facial expression, or empathic signaling whether she favored one response over the other. I didn’t know what the cultural norms were like on her world or what sort of expectations elves had, but I figured I’d take a chance.
”Well I suppose either would be fine, but I’d prefer a romantic relationship.”
She smiled. Maybe that was the right answer?
”Very well, I concur. Are you currently seeing anyone?”
”Uh, apart from you? No.”
”I see, then I shall be first in your coven.”
I blinked. “My coven?”
”My people are typically monogamous but I am willing to compromise and respect Earth witch traditions in this manner, yes.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. She seemed to pick that up.
”My understanding is that Earth witches tend to have multiple lovers, and they form a polyamorous coven.”
Once again, things that could have been brought to my attention prior to this very moment.
”Uh, I wasn’t aware of that… how does that work?”
”Hmm, we should probably consult Sable.”
I had a bad feeling about this.