Chapter 27

The tense mood settled, eventually. They couldn’t stew in silence for long. They had plenty to talk about, and Zoey meant that in a practical sense; Rosalie’s interview of Delta had been brief, and their discussions too, because they’d intended on talking strategy on the long trip to the shard entrance.

“I’m sorry,” Delta said. “Topped off? What do you mean she’ll need to be topped off?”

Rosalie glanced at Zoey. “You didn’t tell her?”

“Didn’t come up.”

Rosalie made a ‘go-ahead’ gesture.

Zoey and Delta met eyes. Delta seemed amused, fox ears twitching even as the edges of her lips curled up.

Zoey couldn’t fully prevent the coloring of her cheeks, even if Delta knew the strangeness of Zoey’s class, by this point. “I don’t use mana,” Zoey said. “I use, uh. Lust. It’s like mana, but doesn’t recharge passively, and is only refilled with intimacy.”

“And is more potent,” Rosalie added.

“It is?” Zoey asked.

“Your one-circle ice spike is unnaturally powerful.”

“Really?” Rosalie hadn’t mentioned any such thing to her.

“About twice as strong as a competent first-advancement caster’s would be,” Rosalie said. “The downside is that you exhaust yourself much faster. Enough you could run out in a single fight.”

“Hence the top-offs,” Delta said, nodding. “Sheesh. So, what. Between every fight? That’s a lot of sex.”

“Every fight would be unnecessary,” Rosalie said. Like usual, when she became embarrassed, her voice took a controlled, clipped tone. “But with some frequency, yes. We don’t want her reserving her abilities; she needs to train her runes as much as us.”

“So every few.”

“Five or six, I would guess.”

“Still a lot of sex. We taking turns?”

“It doesn’t need to be sex,” Rosalie said. “Intimacy of any form, with one of her bonded targets.”

“Yeah, but handys’ll get old. What do you usually do? Mouth, or all the way?”

Rosalie started sputtering.

A thought having hit Zoey, and also to save Rosalie, she interjected, “Will having both of you mean a faster recharge?”

Delta and Rosalie looked at her.

Zoey blushed. “Not because—I’m not trying to—”

“Horndog,” Delta grinned. “One isn’t enough? Gotta have us both at the same time?”

“It just seems plausible! Not trying to be weird. Either of you is more than anyone could hope for.”

Delta paused, then blushed. “You can’t say shit like that with such a straight face. What’s wrong with you?”

Rosalie, on her part, had crossed her arms. If Zoey had to guess, it was because Delta had been lumped in under the descriptor of ‘amazing’ along with her.

“I’m just saying, it makes sense,” Zoey said.

Delta considered it for a second, then laughed. “Eh, guess it does. The Maker knows it could fit four hands, so that won’t be a problem. Or two mouths, for fuck’s sake. Five or six of them, really. Guess it’s worth a shot.”

Zoey tried not to linger on the imagery of five or six mouths working up her shaft. Getting hard while hiking through the rugged terrain of the Fractures would be a bit inconvenient.

“As if I would ever engage in—in such activities—with this woman,” Rosalie said.

“Then one is fine,” Zoey said instantly. “The thought just struck me. Everyone’s comfort matters more.”

“Aw,” Delta said. “That’s sweet, and really gross. Seriously, stop saying shit like that.” She wrinkled her nose at Rosalie. “And what happened to professionalism? As if I’m twitching to jump into bed with you. But she’s got a class, and reality needs to be faced. Weren’t you the one whining about that?”

“If it becomes necessary, then I’ll consider it. Her resources are hardly difficult to come by. One of us is plenty. It’ll simply mean more stops—if that’s even how it works.”

Delta shrugged. “Whatever. Prude.”

The conversation devolved into bickering, as it had a few times before.

How are we only an hour in? Would they even make it to the shard in one piece, before Rosalie and Delta started engaging in honor duels?

Forecast ... not promising.

“Loot distribution,” Delta said. “How’s that working?”

“Discretionary. Dump it and split, if there’s issues.”

Delta bobbed her head, as if the words that had escaped Rosalie’s mouth were more than a collection of nonsensical sounds. “Sure. Even?”

“Is always the goal.” Rosalie shrugged. “You’ll find we’re not picky. It’s low-advancement equipment. Who cares?”

“Fill me in?” Zoey asked.

Rosalie glanced her way. “Oh. We’ll use our best discretion, come to an agreement on how items will be split, once the shard is complete. If we can’t—if we refuse to find some terms we all agree on—then we’ll sell everything we’ve collected to a third party and split the coin three ways. Which is less than ideal, but the only fair option when compromise can’t be made.”

Made sense, Zoey guessed. It wasn’t the first time Rosalie and Delta had used lingo Zoey needed to be caught up on. Before, when it’d just been the two of them, Rosalie had been careful in which phrases she used, knowing Zoey had no clue what was going on. Now, having another experienced Wayfarer by her side, the two fell into nearly nonsensical discussions. It was useful for picking up on how things worked, at least. Zoey was getting the barest hang of Wayfarer terminology.

“Speaking of items,” Zoey said. “We using ours, this shard?”

“The...?”

“New ones, yeah.”

Rosalie’s lips pursed. “With such significant benefits, it would be foolish not to.”

“My turn to be filled in, lovebirds. What new items?”

Rosalie’s nose wrinkled at the ‘lovebirds’ statement, but she answered Delta. They two might dislike each other, but they were professionals; enjoying each other’s company was far from a prerequisite to them working as a team. That included these preliminary discussions on how they’d be tackling the shard.

“Last shard was unusual, as we’ve mentioned to you.”

“And you think this one’ll be too.” Delta nodded her head; Zoey and Rosalie had hardly dragged her along without informing her of that risk. “So, what, pervy items? How so?”

She’d picked up on the subtext, so at least they didn’t have to break the general idea to her. Rosalie deferred to Zoey, glancing her way; like usual, Zoey picked up the slack on the more embarrassing parts of their circumstances.

Might as well hurl off the deep end; no reason to tiptoe. Hadn’t Delta been the one to say exactly that: that she hated tiptoeing? Made things easier. “The important ones are a pair of nipple rings, and a set of buttplugs.”

Delta burst out laughing. “No shit.” The reaction tugged a smile to Zoey’s lips; she’d found the situation hilarious when it had emerged, too. “What do they do?”

“Both empower,” Zoey said. “But only on orgasm.” She’d spare the exact details. Only needed to get the general idea across, for now.

Rosalie was shaking her head and pointedly ignoring the conversation.

“You told me this shard might be perverted,” Delta said, “but you didn’t tell me you’d be shoving shit up my ass.”

“Definitely not a requirement. Again, only do what you’re comfortable with.”

“What kind of buffs we talking?”

“Significant,” Rosalie said. “It’s the only reason I remotely considered it.”

“‘Significant’ to her means something serious, I’m taking it,” Delta said, looking at Zoey.

“The artificer we worked with suggested a forty percent boost to...” Zoey had forgotten.

“Vitality, perception, focus, and strength,” Rosalie said.

Delta stumbled a step. “No joke?”

“Considering their oddity,” Rosalie said tightly, “it better produce a worthwhile effect.”

“They have to be worn in tandem, too,” Zoey said. “They’re in matching pairs. Same size. Bigger ones mean better effect.”

“You’ve got multiple sizes?”

“A whole set.”

“Shit, bust those bad boys out. Lemme take a look.”

Zoey did so. They continued to walk and she cracked open the case and showed off the bizarre items to Delta.

Delta withdrew the largest of the plugs—one which flared larger than Zoey’s fist, noticeably larger, big enough to be comical—and stared at it in disbelief. “Dude, even if I wanted to, not a fucking shot. The hell you think I’ve been stuffing back there? My fist? Both of them?”

That kind of implied Delta’d been stuffing things ‘back there’ at all, which sent a little thrill through Zoey. “If I had to guess, that’s why it’s so strong. The smaller ones aren’t as good. It’ll take time to work up to the biggest.”

“You’re trying to work up to this?!” Delta waggled the plug in disbelief.

Zoey blushed. “I mean—um, no, not particularly? But don’t you like, get used to it, over time?”

“Sure, if you’re stretching yourself out daily.” Delta paused. “Do you?”

“I haven’t done much, uh.”

“Backdoor stuff.”

“Backdoor stuff,” Zoey repeated. “But I’m not against it.”

“So you’ll be starting off small.”

“Probably?”

“Well,” Delta said. “You can make a lot of progress using health potions, if you’re willing to be uncomfortable. Want to start? Like, noticeable progress. Enough to matter before we reach the shard.”